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Hunter Biden and Lobbyist Named in IRS Complaint Against National Security Non-Profit Where They Both Served on Board
A Virginia man filed an IRS complaint on Tuesday accusing a left-leaning national security non-profit of violating tax law by failing to disclose a business relationship between two of its board members—Hunter Biden and Sally Painter—and Burisma Holdings.
A copy of the Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint Form (Form 13909) which raises questions about the Truman National Security Project's compliance with the Internal Revenue Code is embedded.
The complaint reads, in part: "Organization did not disclose existence of business relationship via a shared client and coordination with that client."
The 13909 form was submitted to the IRS by Kurt Christensen, a 63-year-old tree farmer who is a former staffer on the Committee on Natural Resources in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"The National Security Project has a duty to review financial relationships among directors and disclose those relationships to the IRS. Biden and Painter served together on the Truman Board (each as Vice Chair) while both were financed by Burisma. During that time, under Biden and Painter's supervision, Truman National Security Project engaged in activities to promote Obama administration efforts toward Ukraine and then conduct political activities against the Trump administration," the complaint states.
Hunter Biden was tapped to sit on the Truman National Security Project's board of directors in 2011, two years into his father's term as vice president under Obama.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Hunter was "at the time, one of just six members of the governing board, where he served alongside the organization's founder and CEO, Rachel Kleinfeld, and a handful of corporate leaders."
As in his other board appointments, Hunter Biden had no obvious qualifications for the position.
In December of 2015, Joe Biden threatened to withhold loan guarantees from Ukraine unless the government fired its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating corruption at Burisma, including his son's lucrative position on the board.
Sally Painter, the chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies, served on the Truman National Security Project's board of directors while she was being paid by Burisma to improve the company's image in the United States. Burisma hired Blue Star Strategies in November of 2015 while Biden was a member of the board.
Furthermore, Hunter Biden reportedly served on the Blue Star Strategies Board of Directors at the same time he was on the Burisma board—while Burisma was paying huge sums of money to Blue Star for its services.
Blue Star Strategies is owned by Painter and Karen Tramontano, two former Clinton administration officials.
Last November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Tramontano used Biden's name in an effort to secure meetings with senior State Department officials, though the paper said it was not clear "whether the younger Mr. Biden knew his name was being used by Blue Star in its contacts with State Department officials on Burisma's behalf in early 2016."
A State Department email dated February 24, 2016 was obtained pursuant to a FOIA request. In the email, a State Department official wrote:
"Karen Tramontano of Blue Star Strategies requested a meeting to discuss with [Under Secretary] Novelli [U.S. government] remarks alleging Burisma (Ukrainian energy company) of corruption. She noted that two high profile U.S. citizens are affiliated with the company (including Hunter Biden as a board member). Tramontano would like to talk with U/S Novelli about getting a better understanding of how the U.S. came to the determination that the company is corrupt. According to Tramontano, there is no evidence of corruption, has been no hearing or process, and evidence to the contrary has not been considered."
As the Truman Project expanded, Democratic national security heavyweights including Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton's foreign policy guru who ran the Department of Policy Planning during her tenure at Foggy Bottom; Matthew Spence, a Defense Department veteran who served as a senior aide to Obama national security adviser Tom Donilon; and Steve Israel, the former Democratic congressman and head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, eventually joined Biden on the board.
According to the Free Beacon, "Truman fellows can now be found throughout the D.C. foreign policy establishment," and left-wing luminaries such as former secretary of state Madeleine Albright; Senators Chris Coons (D.-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D.-Ill.); former undersecretary of defense for policy Michele Flournoy, and Joe Biden's running mate Kamala Harris (D.-Calif.) are board members of its sister organization, the Truman Center for National Policy.
A cached version of the organization's website shows that Biden rose to the position of vice chairman of the board, serving there until at least March of 2019. It is not clear precisely when—or why—Biden stepped down from the board, and the Truman Project did not respond to requests for comment. But during his tenure on the board, according to the New Yorker, he was in and out of drug rehabilitation facilities several times and, in 2014, joined the board of the Ukrainian gas giant Burisma and was discharged from the U.S. Navy after he failed a drug test. He later claimed that cigarettes he had smoked outside a bar may have been, unbeknownst to him, laced with cocaine.
According to the Free Beacon, during Hunter and Painter's time on the board, the Truman Project joined a network of other left-leaning national-security in decrying the Trump administration's foreign policy initiatives and calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign.
Defend American Democracy, which identifies the Truman National Security Project as a "partner organization," ran a national ad urging Americans to "hold the president accountable for abusing his office and risking national security for his own gain."
Biden and Painter served together on the Truman National Security Project board while Blue Star Strategies was working for Burisma.
Because it's a tax-exempt organization, the Truman National Security Project should have filed tax returns indicating that two of its officers had a "business relationship" with each other, the complaint alleges.
According to the Free Beacon, the Truman Project did not. The organization reportedly indicated that its officers had been briefed on their duty to disclose any conflicts of interest and that it was "regularly and consistently" monitoring compliance with the policy.
Photo: (Kris Connor/WireImage)
4 responses to "Hunter Biden and Lobbyist Named in IRS Complaint Against National Security Non-Profit Where They Both Served on Board"
DrD says:
Is there a single foundation associated with a politician, or a politician's family member, that isn't a scam? As a libertarian-leaning conservative, let me suggest that we demand that 'nonprofit' institutions, many of which are very profitable indeed and many of which are also intensely political (and nearly always leftist), should lose their exemption from taxes. This would also take away the recently abused power of the IRS to decide which institutions are really charitable, educational or religious.
Francis E Reidy says:
Hunters poo is all over Washington.
Chris jordan says:
The Bidens are shameless criminals firmly in the Clinton camp and under their thumb completely… total establishment politicians, Washington sellouts, who will continue to sell out their own country if elected
looie bamis says:
Why has he not taken off the ballot or if he is honorable; to go on TV & say he cannot do the job. Let the Supreme Court go work on this case to save our Beloved USA.


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'UCD's MSc in Aviation Finance has more than lived up to expectations'
Date: Mon, Jan 28, 2019
Originally published in The Irish Times
Author: Barry McCall
UCD MSc in aviation finance student Rebecca Yue had a lifelong interest in aviation but poor eyesight prevented her from realising her childhood ambition of becoming a pilot. "I was always deeply interested in aviation and have been lucky to travel extensively throughout my life," she says.
"I wanted to be a pilot, but I am very short-sighted. When I was 18 or 19 there wasn't any really well-established aviation course around, so I went down the route of my other love which was chemistry."
She initially found out about the aviation finance course from her father. "He saw an advertisement for the course,"she recalls. "He had an ex-client who had a course alumnus working for them. My father knew I had an interest in aviation and finance and got in touch with the alumnus and had a chat aboutthe course and prospects."
That contact was very important. "Taking the course was a big risk for me," she explains. "I am a mature student. I'm 31 years of age and being able to get the views of the alumnus was invaluable. He gave me a really good description and overview of the course."
That led to a career U-turn. "When I learned about the course, I knew it was a fantastic opportunity. It came at a time when I was looking for a career change. I had been working as a chemistry teacher in New Zealand. I was working with children from difficult backgrounds. I did a lot of work with young students to help them do something meaningful and keep out of gangs."
She already knew she needed a new challenge and had taken a year off to explore her options. "I was looking at things in finance and did a stint in a bank," she adds. That introduced her to the world of finance and leasing.
She applied for the course and was accepted and arrived in Ireland in August 2018. "The course has more than lived up to expectations," she says. "Having come from such a different area with no business or financial background, I have found it really good. I have had to do much more reading than some other students, of course. The first semester was invaluable in providing me with a lot of financial knowledge I didn't have prior to that. There was some reference to aviation. We did tax and how it is applied to the industry and studied the financial statements of an airline. We also had some great speakers from the large lessors. This gave us a taste of what is to come this semester, which will be much more applied to the aviation industry."
A Google search result brought the UCD course to the attention of Ian Huang. Originally from Shanghai where he had studied for his economics degree, Huang had been working in finance for a number of years when he decided to make the switch to aviation finance. "I was hugely interested in aviation," he recalls. "I googled it and the UCD Smurfit course was the first result displayed. I had been working in Hong Kong for eight years and decided to combine my passion with the experience I had gained in the financial sector."
He says he didn't know the aviation finance sector that well before applying for the course but did some research and found out about Dublin's position in the global industry.
"I came to Ireland in August 2018," he says. "It has been quite exciting. Quite a few industry leaders have come to speak to us on the course. That exposure to them is great. The first semester is more on finance generally and the next will be more focused on aviation. That will help prepare us for jobs.
"The course has lived up to my expectations," he adds. "It is a great way to get to know people in the industry and has been a great experience. I would definitely recommend it to others interested in getting into the industry. There is no better way to do it."
Yue agrees. "I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I'm not going to lie, you have to be prepared to work very hard. It was a bit of a baptism of fire for me. If you are genuinely interested in the area that's not going to be a problem and you'll enjoy it. I would recommend it to others interested in aviation finance. But they should think carefully if they are prepared to put the work in. Being a bit older meant I understood what was involved."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


To start, when born they are about the size of a can of coke. They grow very quickly and for the first three weeks will double their size. They are normally weaned from 6 weeks onwards although you will find some available at any age – age doesn't determine how well they will settle into a home as they are incredibly intelligent.
They stop growing at 3 years old although there will only be a growth of about an inch or so between 1 -3 years old. When adult, generally they are about the size of a large Labrador although it very much relies on their breeding to determine what size they will actually be.
Yes, over feeding will have an effect on their size but more outwards than up – DO NOT UNDER FEED YOUR PIG JUST TO KEEP THEM SMALL! This is cruel and will cause developmental and health problems later in life.
We supply the low protein feed that our pigs are on so you can take away a bag with you to start them off. If local, you could continue with the feed supply for ease.
Pigs are incredibly intelligent animals and naturally toilet train themselves making them a great pet! If you plan to keep your pig/s outdoors, you will need solid and secure fencing. A suitable house or ark is required – filled with straw, blankets or similar as pigs love to bury themselves to keep warm.
They love to play too – so lots of toys is essential! We recommend a strong dog harness, toys & chews. A raised vegetable bed filled with soil or wood chip will encourage digging in just the one spot – you can hide treats within it to keep them occupied for hours!
We can provide everything you need to start up your pig-keeping experience including all items mentioned above, an ark or bespoke house handcrafted uniquely for you, equipment, feed, literature, medicinal items, toys and more!
In order to adopt a piglet, you MUST have a CPH number obtained from the RPA (Rural Payments Agency).
To get your own CPH number, call the RPA on 03000 200 301 and select the option for registering your details. This may take a few weeks so we recommend doing this in advance as without it, a legal movement cannot be completed.
We will always be just the other end of a phone call or email if ever you need help or advice.
Please phone to discuss delivery options available for you.
For more information call 01568 797314 or email us at info@wynnes.co.uk.
Or find us on facebook and you can alternitavley drop us a message on there, https://www.facebook.com/WynnesOfDinmore.


text:
Groups launch challenge of Quebec's secularism bill one day after it becomes law
Posted Jun 17, 2019 8:58 am PDT
Quebec Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Simon Jolin Barrette, left, is congratulated by Quebec Premier Francois Legault after they voted a legislation on secularism, at the National Assembly in Quebec City, Sunday, June 16, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
MONTREAL — A national Muslim organization is joining civil liberties advocates to launch a court challenge of Quebec's secularism law less than 24 hours after the legislation was adopted.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association announced their challenge today. Representatives say they'll unveil their legal strategy at a news conference this afternoon in Montreal.
The Coalition Avenir Quebec government used its majority to push through Bill 21 by a vote of 73 to 35 Sunday night after applying the mechanism of closure to end debate on the bill.
Quebec's new law prohibits public workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols on the job. The law applies to teachers, police officers, judges, prosecutors and others.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims says one of the plaintiffs in the court challenge is a Muslim university student in Quebec who wears a hijab and is studying to work in a field affected by the new law.
Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, who sponsored the bill, told reporters today he is not worried about the court challenge because the legislation invokes the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Constitution. That clause prevents citizens from challenging the law for human rights violations.


American poetry springs up out of all walks of life; its poems are "maternal as well as paternal...stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine," as Walt Whitman wrote, adding "Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion."
Written for high school and undergraduate students, this two-volume encyclopedia covers U.S. poetry from the Colonial era to the present, offering full treatments of hundreds of key poets of the American canon. What sets this reference apart is that it also discusses events, movements, schools, and poetic approaches, placing poets in their social, historical, political, cultural, and critical contexts and showing how their works mirror the eras in which they were written. Readers will learn about surrealism, ekphrastic poetry, pastoral elegy, the Black Mountain poets, and "language" poetry. There are long and rich entries on modernism and postmodernism as well as entries related to the formal and technical dimensions of American poetry.
Particular attention is paid to women poets and poets from various ethnic groups. Poets such as Amiri Baraka, Nathaniel Mackey, Natasha Trethewey, and Tracy Smith are featured. The encyclopedia also contains entries on a wide selection of Latino and Native American poets and substantial coverage of the avant-garde and experimental movements and provides sidebars that illuminate key points.
Jeffrey Gray, PhD, is professor of English at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ.
Mary McAleer Balkun, PhD, is professor of English and chairperson of the English department at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ.
James McCorkle, PhD, teaches in the Africana Studies Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY.


Last month, the Gupta Group revealed its 52-storey mixed-use development The Rosedale On Bloor Condos would be the site of Canada's first Canopy by Hilton, the hoteliers' boutique offshoot. Now, the developer's CEO Steve Gupta has released more details about the partnership.
For the ground floor, which will house separate lobbies for hotel guests and condo residents, granite is the likely finish, said Gupta. Same goes for the second storey's exterior. Above that, the tower — which Page+Steele/IBI Group Architects are designing — will be primarily glass. "It will be a stunning building," Gupta said.
While speaking with BuzzBuzzHome News, Gupta also gave some specifics on the amenities that will be contained within The Rosedale On Bloor. The building will include separate facilities for residents and hotel guests, he said.
Fitness centres complete with cardio equipment, a weight room, and a stretching room will be located at The Rosedale On Bloor. "We have a sitting area where they can sit and chat," he added. "It's like a small fitness club," he said, of the hotel amenity. Likewise, there are separate business centres including communal workspaces and individual workstations with computers.
The building's rooftop terrace will feature a garden and barbecue, and there will be a private gourmet kitchen and dining area for residents as well. "Because units are smaller these days, we are providing these facilities like a resort," said Gupta.
As previously reported, residents and hotel guests will share the 10th-floor pool. Gupta explained that condo residents will only have to pay Canopy by Hilton $10 per month if they wish to use the pool.
Living atop a hotel, residents will benefit from more than the aquatic access. Residents can pay for Canopy by Hilton services, such as room service or having the front desk dial a cab, and dine at the hotel's resto-bar.
In all, The Rosedale On Bloor will feature 476 residential units from floors 11 and up and 188 hotel rooms within the nine-storey mark. Amenities are housed on the 10th floor.
The Rosedale on Bloor is now in the sales phase, with prices starting in the low-$200,000s and units ranging in size from 307 to 871 square feet.
For more information visit www.therosedaleonbloor.com or call 416 928 1313.


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View From the Hotel Window, 9/2/14: Denver
September 2, 2014 John Scalzi
I'm back on the road, and here's what the road looks like today. Not too bad. The hotel room I'm in tonight has a jacuzzi. I feel like I should listen to some smooth jazz or something.
In any event: Denver! Come see me tonight! 7pm at the Tattered Cover Bookstore on Colfax. Here are all the details. Come and (you know this part by now) bring everyone you know. The more the merrier.
Tomorrow: Seattle, at University Bookstore, also at 7pm. Also will be a blast.
The Big Idea: Cherie Priest
September 2, 2014 September 2, 2014 John Scalzi12 Comments
You've heard the nursery rhyme, but do you know the real story behind Lizze Borden? Does anybody? This is the jumping off point for Cherie Priest and her novel Maplecroft, which follows the infamous Borden after the real-life events that made her notorious. Do you dare follow?
CHERIE PRIEST:
Like countless others in the last hundred years, I first heard the name "Lizzie Borden" via the jump-rope rhyme. Everyone knows it: Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her father forty whacks… And so forth. Whether or not she ever killed anyone is still up for grabs; she was acquitted of all charges in 1893, but that's never stopped anyone from speculating about her parents' murders – and once you're canonized on the school playground, your legacy is pretty much set.
So what really happened? God only knows. Either she got away with murder, or she was falsely accused and thrown to the bloodthirsty public by an opportunistic media. Like they still say in journalism, "If it bleeds, it leads."
There was a lot of blood in the Borden house. But that's not The Big Idea.
The Borden murders were far more interesting, complex, and peculiar than is commonly remembered. Left out of the nursery rhyme are allegations of poisoning, an illegitimate son in search of an inheritance, and a crime scene treated like a theme park before the bodies were even cold.
And more, of course. Much, much more.
After Lizzie's trial, she and her older sister inherited the family fortune; but rather than leave the state and start fresh someplace else, they bought a big house on the other side of town. Its name was Maplecroft, and there, they quietly lived out their days.
Except that maybe, they didn't.
A quick google turns up a number of academic texts on the Borden case, as well as a handful of "true crime"-style popular retellings, but my novel Maplecroft isn't about the murders. It's about everything that happened afterward. Sort of.
The truth is, Lizzie never spoke to the press – and very little is concretely known about her life, either before or after the events that made her a household name. Oh, but there was plenty of gossip. Why, you should hear about the shenanigans that went down at Maplecroft: witchcraft! wild parties! lesbianism!
To quote the bard, two out of three ain't bad.
The grand old house definitely saw its share of wild parties, largely at the behest of a young actress named Nance O'Neil. (Her real name was "Gertrude Lamson," but you can hardly blame her for picking something else.) And there's a fair measure of circumstantial evidence to suggest that she and Lizzie had a romantic relationship. There's also plenty to imply that Lizzie's sister Emma didn't like it one bit, and they had a big falling out over it…but what can you do?
In short, the more I learned about Lizzie, the more I felt genuinely sorry for her. If she did kill her father and (step)mother, you have to wonder what drove her to it; and if she was innocent, she surely didn't deserve the ensuing fallout from the media – or from the court of public opinion. So, having become quite comfortable tweaking history for my own nefarious purposes…I thought I'd make her guilty, but give her a damn good motive.
And that was The Big Idea.
I'd been itching to write a gothic horror piece for a while now, and Lizzie Borden collided with that itch, scratched the hell out of it, and gave me a framework for the story I wanted to tell.
Almost every book these days comes with a disclaimer, something like: "This is a work of fiction, and all historical places or people are used fictitiously…" Well, we should probably stick that on the front of this one, rather than inside the cover – because at its core, Maplecroft is about Lizzie Borden fighting Cthulhu with an axe. Or, if you prefer: It's a 19th century epistolary love letter to Dracula, by way of Lovecraft.
This is the story of the aftermath – the aftermath of Lizzie's trial, yes; but it's also about the aftermath of a supernatural tragedy, and a gentle professor's terrible transformation. This is about what happens when you pray to something terrible, and it hears you. It comes looking for you. And it finds you.
So after a fashion, Maplecroft is both an epilogue and a warning. It's fiction, and any real persons are used fictitiously, of course.
But there's truth to be found in the real life strangeness, all the same.
___ _
Maplecroft: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|IndieBound|Powell's
Visit the author's blog. Find her on Twitter and Facebook.


text:
Le mont Citadelle ou La Citadelle est une montagne des îles Kerguelen s'élevant à  d'altitude.

Histoire

Edgar Aubert de la Rüe lui donne son nom lors de son expédition aux Kerguelen en novembre 1952 par le sud. Il écrit : . Il décrit ensuite le mont : .

Notes et références

Liens externes

Sommet dans les Terres australes et antarctiques françaises
Montagne dans l'archipel des Kerguelen
Péninsule Courbet

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Tech Students Build Robotic Hand as Sign Language Learning Tool
Atlanta | Posted: July 22, 2003
Lisa Grovenstein
Contact Lisa Grovenstein
No summary sentence submitted.
Damien Gaudry never took a course in sign language, but that didn't stop him from wanting to build an instructional tool that could lend a hand to children who want to learn. Gaudry and two other Georgia Tech graduate students - Cindy Perreira and Russell Marzette - built an 18-inch tall robotic hand that could eventually sign the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
Damien Gaudry never took a course in sign language, but that didn't stop him from wanting to build an instructional tool that could lend a hand to children who want to learn.
Gaudry and two other Georgia Tech graduate students - Cindy Perreira and Russell Marzette - built an 18-inch tall robotic hand that could eventually sign the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
"We wanted to develop an interactive and fun device to teach children sign language, whether they are hearing impaired or not," Gaudry said. "We thought it would help them to visually see the signs rather than having to look at them in books."
The students worked on the project for two months this year as their final project in a graduate-level introductory course on "mechatronics" - an emerging technique in engineering that deals with the study of integration of familiar mechanical systems and components with new electronic components and intelligence-based software.
Students enrolled in the course, offered in Georgia Tech's School of Mechanical Engineering, must design, build and present a mechatronic innovation that fuses mechanics, electronics and information technology. In the class, students are taught to engineer for complete "smart product" development for the market.
Although the robotic hand project has a long way to go to market, the students have accomplished much so far. During their project presentation to the class in April, the students explained they were able to program the hand to make nine different symbols: the letters "A" to "D," and numbers one to five.
That's no small feat, considering the engineering involved in building a giant hand that signs.
"I think the most difficult part was integrating electrical components and computer-based systems into one mechanical system," said Marzette, one of the three members on the team.
"Getting the electronics to work together properly was a challenge," said Gaudry, who hopes the team can find time to take the project further. "Fifteen stepper motors are built in to control the hand and each motor has its own circuitry."
With fingers made from soldered brass tubing and rods, and strung together by cables connected to a series of small motors, the robotic hand is surprisingly agile. It takes about five seconds to sign a letter.
The hand rests on a microprocessor unit that controls the motion and all the circuitry to power the motors. The unit includes an LCD panel and a series of switches that allows the user to enter the letter or number they would like the hand to display.
Gaudry scrolls through the letters and numbers and selects the letter "C." Once selected, the motors begin to wind up the cables in the fingers, bending the joints until the hand produces the symbol, similar to the way a mechanical puppet might be manipulated. After the letter is signed, rubber bands connected to the back of each finger return the hand to the starting open position.
The team members said they entered the class knowing very little about electronics and microprocessor control, but learned more than they imagined. "The class is time consuming, since you have to put in a lot of your own time outside of the lecture portion," Gaudry said.
The robotic hand is just one interesting invention to come out of the mechatronics courses. Other notable inventions have been the self-playing guitar that actually takes requests, a machine similar to an ATM that dispenses money called the "CA$H-o-MATIC," and the automatic card dealer, a machine that deals cards and plays along with human players.
"The mechatronic engineering techniques used in this project are representative of the approach that's used today to design devices and systems that possess a degree of computer-based intelligence," said Georgia Tech Professor Charles Ume, who teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mechatronics. "We expect to see the integration of mechanics, electronics and computing - mechatronics engineering - increase rapidly in the near future due to consumer demands for smart products and intelligent machines."
Georgia Tech's state-of-the-art Mechatronics Laboratory, which supports these classes, was built with a grant form the U.S. National Science Foundation, a matching fund from Georgia Tech, and financial and equipment support from Siemens.
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Mechatronics Laboratory
Created By: Matthew Nagel
Created On: Jul 28, 2003 - 8:00pm


Ipe wood, also known as Brazilian Walnut wood, is one of the densest naturally occurring hardwoods in the world. It is 3-times denser than cedar wood and are found in South America and parts of Central America. It does not float in water and resists fire much longer than other softwoods.
It is durable and therefore, a popular choice for outdoor decking and siding. It can also be used indoors for flooring, window framing and cabinetry. This wood needs to be kiln-dried to get rid of any moisture to prevent warping or cracking before it is used indoors.
Despite all of its features, Brazilian Ipe wood is hard to work with because of its strength, density, and weight. This also makes it unsuitable for intricate carving. It is also difficult to paint on due to its high oil and tannin content. However, it looks beautiful on its own.
Hardwood Grade: Hardwood is graded based on its appearance. The grading is done based on the number of defects in a board. This is determined by the amount of clear surface area on its poorest looking side. Choose the wood with the highest grade.
Weight and Density: Heavy woods like Brazilian Ipe Wood are identified by their weight and grain pattern. Choose the one that has the best density and suits your budget. Each tree has a unique grain pattern which gives a distinct look to the wooden boards from the same species. The grain pattern also determines the strength of the wood. A piece of lumber with a tighter pattern is stronger than the one with loose grain pattern.
Appearance: Color and texture give personality to wood so choose the one that matches your overall décor.
Sustainable Source: When buying new wood a good approach would be to find out whether the lumber is coming from a sustainable source. The seller must propagate responsible forest management and buy only from sustainable sources.
Price: Exotic varieties of the wood are popular these days. However, it would be wise to buy from a reputed seller who offers a good price. As a rule, always check the market rate of the particular type of wood you are looking at before purchasing it.


AVI to MP4 Conversion Guide - How to Convert AVI to MP4?
Current Page: Home > tutorials > How to Convert AVI to MP4?
AVI, which stands for Audio Video Interleave, is a Container format used by Microsoft's Video for Windows multimedia framework. It is widely used by consumers and even supported by some standalone DVD players. Although still supported in Windows, and suitable for certain formats like DV, it's not a good general purpose container, and even Microsoft uses other containers for their own video formats. MP4 is the official multimedia container for MPEG-4 video and audio. Although such video can be stored in a number of modern containers, including MPEG-2 PS/TS and Matroska, the development of MP4 is important because it gives hobbyists a replacement for the outdated AVI container which became the standard for MPEG-4 ASP (DivX, XviD, 3IVX, etc,...) video.
Download the latest version of AVI to MP4 Converter. Install and run it.
Click the "Start Encode" button to start to convert AVI to MP4.


Designer boutiques, award-winning eateries, bars, health, beauty and offices set within some of Auckland's oldest buildings and newest architecture, Britomart is the place to be from the first meeting of the day to the last whiskey of the night.
Bye bye NZ. Nice selection of food at the Airport after immigration.
Taking a ferry to Davenport.
Domestic and International terminal is probably 15m apart by walking, saw a free shuttle bus going around.
30 minutes bus to city, $34 for returns.
Warehouse is something like Tesco + DIY shop, minus the groceries.


Michelle Duggar (19 Kids and Counting).
I spy with my little eye, a dessert that starts with E.
I spy with my little eye, a forest animal starting with R.
I spy with my little eye, a singer whose first name starts with B.
I spy with my little eye, a musical starting with W.
I spy with my little eye, a dog breed that starts with P.
I spy with my little eye, a flower that starts with M.
I spy with with my little eye, a tropical island country starting with F.
I spy with my little eye, a cartoon character starting with J.
I spy with my little eye, a song that starts with H.
He's A Tramp (Lady and the Tramp).
I spy with my little eye, a part of the brain starting with P.
I spy with my little eye, a medication that starts with A.
I spy with my little eye, an article of clothing, starting with C.
I spy with my little eye, a color starting with M.
I spy with my little eye, a movie starting with D.


This contemporary hip bag is Royce's rendition of a timeless classic.
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During the Wereld van Witte de With festival 2005 we organised the Battle of the Towers.
12 artists from Antwerpen and 12 artists from Rotterdam batteled each other by painting a tower nine meters high during the three days of the festival.
From Antwerpen: Ephameron, Bertlezy, Natalie, Gulp, Gun-T, Herr Wardo, Kolchoz, AF, Mackplakt, Melvin & Serge Beaken.
From Rotterdam: Oles, P.Bloem, Boortorrie, Pinwin, Mr. Smith, Cosh, Thor, Ces53, Dush, Onno, Aniel & Bas.


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2018 Honda HR-V RS she says, he says review
New model brings a touch of attitude to sensible SUV.
Sharper, sexier and better-equipped - that's the general gist of Honda's updated HR-V.
Mid-life changes to Honda's baby SUV are led by the introduction of a new HR-V RS model which promises to be sharper than before.
He says: I get a little itchy when car companies misuse badges. While enthusiasts might be excited by the possibility of a Honda HR-V RS, the reality is that "RS" in Honda-land mostly translates to a cosmetic package intended to spice up mid-range models.
This isn't an RS in the same mould as performance heroes from Ford, Renault, Audi or Porsche - but you get features such as 18-inch alloy wheels, a black body kit and dark chrome elements.
Honda HR-V RS 2018 Review
by David McCowen
Which is the best small SUV?
by Toby Hagon
Full details: Honda HR-V update
by Alex Misoyannis
Do you like the look?
She says: I do like the HR-V's new look - it's stylish and sporty. The darkened chrome adds a touch of sophistication, but I think more consistency is needed, like the bright chrome badges on the rear tailgate. But it's more than just looks for the RS model.
Honda has improved this model's steering response and suspension to make it feel as athletic as it looks. While I haven't driven the previous model, to me this feels really comfortable to drive. The CVT transmission is smooth, and where the engine lacks in grunt, Honda makes up for it in other ways. How do you feel about it, Dave?
He says: I like the way the RS drives, as it certainly does feel more responsive than before while retaining a reasonably supple ride. It's also impressively quiet when cruising on the road - certainly more so than the Mazda CX-3 we tried last week. Honda's latest model uses the same 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine as its predecessor, one which needs a claimed 6.7L/100km to make 105kW and 172Nm outputs. This one drives the front wheels through a CVT automatic transmission. How did you find it?
She says: Yeah, as I said before - the CVT is smooth and felt good crawling in traffic as well as cruising at 110 km/h. However, I think the HR-V could do with some more power as it takes a little while to get moving when you put your foot down and can get pretty noisy as the revs creep up towards 5000 rpm. The smaller engine does equal good fuel economy, so the HR-V has that in its favour and I had it sitting around 7.0L/100km after a few long-weekend drives around town and down the coast. I also expected a digital speedo, and was disappointed it didn't have one - especially during a double demerits period.
He says: The lack of a digital speedo is a huge pain. Another potential hang-up when police are cracking down on smartphone use surrounds the absence of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity which allows you to access key phone features such as music, podcasts or even have text messages read aloud to you - fitted to many rivals, I feel like the absence of this tech makes it more likely for people will handle their phone on the road (even if they know they shouldn't). In any case, Honda's touchscreen is one of the clunkiest nav systems in any new car, feeling laggy, unintuitive, and as though it doesn't belong in a new car. Though little has changed under the bonnet, Honda has improved equipment levels across the range - stuff like autonomous emergency braking and sat nav is standard across the range. But it does win back points for being eminently practical. I'm a big guy, and the HR-V is one of the rare models in this segment which can easily accommodate large adults in the back seat.
She says: I agree, the practicality of the HR-V is brilliant. Honda's Magic seats in the back mean you can lay them completely flat, or have the base folded up against the backrests to fit a flatscreen TV or a pot plant, perhaps. Cargo space is another great thing about the HR-V, which has a 437-litre capacity boot, or 1462 litres of storage with the seats folded flat. It's big on the inside, but small on the outside - easy for parking in tight spaces with plenty of room for storage. Back seat passengers don't get rear air vents, but they do get a 12V socket and plenty of leg room. In terms of tech, I thought the cheap infotainment unit was out of place too, and the climate control buttons were a hassle to get used to. The shiny plastic throughout the dash controls also made me want to keep a microfibre cloth on hand, because of fingerprint build-up.
He says: I don't love the shiny plastic, but it's not a deal-breaker by any means. The HR-V RS is not especially cheap, coming in at $31,990 plus on-road costs. You could get into a much bigger but not-as-generously equipped Honda CR-V for less than that. Either way you go, Honda's five-year warranty and capped-price servicing scheme are handy to have. Could you see this one in your driveway?
She says: I enjoyed the Honda more than last week's Mazda CX-3 and I have to say if I was in the market for a small SUV, the HR-V would be on my list. Before we go, it's worth mentioning Honda's 'LaneWatch' - a camera built into the passenger-side mirror that shows your blind spot on the 7-inch display. I thought it was distracting at first, but it grew on me and it's a neat concept that not many other vehicles get. So, Dave, what was your stand-out feature?
He says: It has to be the packaging. The HR-V really does stand out for its ability to comfortably carry stuff and people without breaking a sweat. It really does stand out as a sensible choice.
- Alexandra Lawrence and David McCowen
2018 Honda HR-V RS pricing and specifications:
Price: From $31,990 plus on-road costs
Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol
Transmission: CVT auto, front-wheel-drive
She says he says
Alexandra and David
Kraftwerk — 04 Oct 2018 15:49
Under powered shapeless box running CVT transmission and it's better than Mazda CX3 , Really Drive !
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Why do teachers give out homework when all it does for many children and their families is cause stress? Does your child's homework cause you both stress every time it must be done? Is your child fighting you when you try to get him do his homework?
You are not alone. �Why do teachers give out homework?� is a question children frequently ask as a way of justifying their refusal. Becoming good at getting your child to do his or her homework means you must have a well thought out answer, one that is more �because you have to�.
Teachers give out homework because there is not enough time in a school day to get everything done and without homework children would lose any chance of a decent job, prosperity etc. This question and other similar questions, (such as �should homework be abolished) or your child asking you for all the answers to homework questions are one way many children avoid their homework � there are many others.
It takes a little time and a change of perspective on your child's part to get them to accept that homework is very important and necessary. I've outlined below three effective methods that will help you help your son or daughter to make the most out of their homework assignments in a positive manner.
Don't make homework into a chore or a job. Children do not respond well to something if it is programmed into their minds that it is something they have to do. Nobody likes to have to do anything, children are no different, if anything they feel the pressure more than adults as often they have yet to learn life skills to help them cope with pressure..
Adults often keep trying what isn't working in spite of overwhelming proof that their methods are failing. If forcing children to do their homework was effective, then why do many resist for their entire school life and why do we have so many discouraged children dropping out of high school. If forcing them worked then we not have so many kids growing up with poor self esteem and not getting the college education that they should.
1. Set up a daily schedule of when your child is to do his or her homework. Do not deviate from this routine. Turn off all distractions such as television, radio and computers (unless they are needed to complete the work) during this time. Your child will complain, but if you stick to it eventually your child will accept doing his homework at a specific time, particularly if his reward is the TV etc.
2. Refrain from supervising him or her too closely. Don't check everything they do or be too overbearing and corrective. Give your child a choice of whether they want your help or not. Also, give them a choice of whether they want you to correct their homework papers or not. After a while, you will find that they will start coming to you for help, asking for advice, wanting you to double check their work. In the end result, sometimes less is more.
3. Listen to what your child has to say. Most homework stress and arguments start at the beginning of the session. If your child starts complaining about beginning an assignment then instead of debating or arguing with them, try listening to them. Empathize with your child and try to find the reason he is not starting. It could easily be that he doesn't understand the question or genuinely doesn't know the answer. Ask him what is wrong and be sincere. He may well ask your opinion on the homework and you must reply constructively and give him some ideas. You may be surprised to find that just asking will release their tension by talking with you he will begin the assigned homework.
John Edmond has a website at www.oneclickbooks.com where he writes on all aspects of self improvement and motivation. John is 50 years old has 4 grown up children and has a degree in Creative Writing. He lives in Manchester in the UK.


Fly from Reynosa to Mexico City for a special Pilgrimage to visit Our Blessed Mother at the Basilica in Mexico City. Other than on heavy days of travel, Mass will be celebrated each day at a very special place important to our faith and history. Join your fellow parishioners and friends as we give thanks for the blessings we have received.
DAY 1 – Saturday, May 4, 2019 – Depart from Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Harlingen, for your transfer to the Reynosa Airport. Today is a very special day for upon the mid morning arrival in Mexico city we visit the Basilica to give thanks to our Blessed Mother for our safe journey. You will have the rest of the day to visit the Hill of Tepeyac, the Sacred Well, the Museum and all the many religious shops beneath the Basilica. In the late afternoon, check in to our hotel in the center of the Pink Zone. Overnight at the Hotel Plaza Florencia or similar in Mexico City.
Deposit: A deposit of $225.00 will reserve your seat.
-Meals as noted – B for breakfast, L for lunch and D for dinner.
-Travel Insurance – you may wish to consider purchasing Travel Insurance as Medicare will not cover you if traveling in a foreign country.


Culture essays seems to be the easiest matter for the students but after they start rambling for the culture essay subject, they get totally confuse for there's a lot on tradition. This one sounds just like the first however this method would solely comprise of the origin or historical past of the topic,like you'll be able to write on the history of capital punishment of your country. Ask a question to the readers: If the finds a question that he looking earlier than then there is no such thing as a cause that he would not learn your essay on dying, for this, simply convert the theme of your essay in a question, for instance, you are writing on the authorized and moral concerns about capital punishment then you'll be able to ask your readers.
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Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge Complex includes Stillwater, Fallon and Anaho Island National Wildlife Refuges. The Complex headquarters are based in Fallon, NV.
Fallon National Wildlife Refuge is managed as part of the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge Complex. A National Wildlife Refuge Complex is an administrative grouping of two or more refuges, wildlife management areas or other refuge conservation areas that are primarily managed from a central office location. Refuges are grouped into a complex structure because they occur in a similar ecological region, such as a watershed or specific habitat type, and have a related purpose and management needs. Typically, a Project Leader or Complex Manager oversees the general management of all refuges within the Complex.
Seasonal workers such as the Youth Conservation Corps, Biological Technicians and student interns round out the Complex cast.
All staff are centrally located at the Stillwater NWR Complex headquarters, located at 1020 New River Parkway, Suite 305 in Fallon, NV 89406. Office hours are Mon - Fri, 8am - 4:30pm. Closed on Federal Holidays. For current refuge information please call 775/423-5128 ext. 232 for recorded updates.


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The Global DeFi Congress by Agora Group on Feb. 10 in Dubai
by Patrizia Marin | Jan 16, 2021 | Investments, Projects
Agora is proud to announce the launch the first and only event focused on DeFi in the MENA region. The Global DeFi Congress will take place on Feb. 10, 2021, in Dubai, with the participation of the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park, the Ministry of...
6th Global Blockchain Congress by Agora Group on Feb. 9 in Dubai
is hosting its 6th Edition, the Global Blockchain Congress on February 9th 2021, Dubai. The 6th edition of the world-renowned flagship Global Blockchain Congress by Agora Group is taking place on February 9th and 10th 2021 in Dubai. The conference boasts an amazing...
UAE enhances its position as global hub for gold trade
by Patrizia Marin | Dec 7, 2020 | Investments
Abu Dhabi: The UAE government is keen to strengthen the non-oil sectors by encouraging innovation, updating legislation and regulatory frameworks, and encouraging sectors with high added value in a way that advances business environment and enhance the country's...
UAE President sets out priorities for future after coronavirus
by Patrizia Marin | Dec 7, 2020 | Challenges, Investments
Sheikh Khalifa hails performance of UAE economy in the face of unprecedented challenges in 2020 The UAE is focusing on developing applications that support remote work in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic while renewable energy, food security, women...
UAE-Israeli businesses are all set once accord is signed
Launch of direct commercial flights between UAE and Israel, now that the historic accord between the countries is a reality. And those flights will be the springboard for UAE – Israel businesses opportunities.
The timing on the direct flights will depend on technicalities around COVID-19, because the air travel pact could be ready for direct flights from mid-October/early November.Saudi Arabia announced that it would allow any flights going to and from the UAE to fly over its territory. Such historic developments would speed up the entire process to launch direct flights between the UAE and Israel.
Some UAE companies are not waiting for the flights to commence. Abu Dhabi based Group42, which is into cloud computing services, became the first to announce that it has set up an office in Israel.
Emirates NBD confirmed an MoU with Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel's largest banks. It should be the first of many more in the financial services industry.
In the construction and building materials supply sectors, the UAE businesses are more than ready for a new market such as Israel, however, companies will have to see the tax regulations before entering the Israeli market.
UAE businesses also could benefit from Israeli investment, especially in real estate as the prices of real estate is four- to five times higher than in the UAE.
Ofir Bar-Noy is part of the newly created Emirates Israel Investment Group. According to him, there are three key sectors where the new partners could generate maximum opportunities:
Cyber security: Israel is home to leading surveillance companies and UAE is a strong base for cyber security, technology and surveillance.
Energy: In the recent past, Israel has become a regional renewable energy leader and has started to develop natural gas. The country has also heavily invested in green energy solutions. As of last year, the country had more than 1.4 gigawatts of solar power capacity, just behind the UAE and Egypt.
Agriculture: Israel is a world leader in agriculture featuring less use of water and despite high heat. Israel has strong research that has been studied and developed over the past 50 years and will help in promoting desert agricultural projects in the UAE.
Thye hospitality sector would gain from the launch of direct flights as well as the transit points the Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports serve as. Hotel industry sources say it's only a question of when such a boost will be felt – a destination like Dubai would score given its short-haul status.
"Being two major economic powerhouses in Middle East, will help to build capabilities across both countries in sectors like healthcare, biotech, digital technology, education, energy, etc. As an healthcare organization born and brought up in UAE, we are looking for exciting partnerships with counterparts in Israel in various areas." said Dr. Azad Moopen, Chairman and Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare.
The UAE business sector needs more innovative ideas to enhance manufacturing and FMGC sector, specifically, on the building materials and infrastructure development sector, there are possibilities for UAE suppliers to reach out to Israeli market.
The UAE suppliers can look for opportunities to export steel manufactured in the UAE. We will explore the options of exporting steel pipes and tubes and pre-painted coils as well as debars to Israel from the UAE. This is because the UAE is strategically linked with proximity to the Arabian Ocean while Israel is strategically linked with Mediterranean Sea.


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We may, at some future date and time, use your address to send you special offers or a newsletter, but that will be the extent of our use of your personal info.


You've seen the designs on the runway and now it's your turn to be the judges. This week you are Heidi Klum, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and LL Cool J.
Kindly email your podcast questions for Suede to Team BPR by 10:30 Eastern.
Don't forget to vote for the BPR Fan Favorite (click - Kenley is currently in the lead) and for the Bravo fan favorite (click).


Every morning for the past seven years, except on Tuesdays, Stella suited up in well-worn sneakers, baggy jersey shorts, and a blue scrub top with her name and the WashCity logo embroidered on the front.
"Hello there!" a young woman rang out on a Sunday morning. She burst through the laundromat's front door, one leg holding it open as she maneuvered inside with a lime-green plastic basket filled with clothes and a grocery bag filled with hangers.
"Well, hey," Stella said, squinting at the woman and wiping down the basin of a washer. Stella could never remember anyone's name. The customers all seemed to look alike, even the ones she knew had been doing their laundry there for years.
"How are things?" the young woman asked.
"You did what?!" The young woman dropped her belongings on the floor in front of a washer and turned around to look at Stella.
"That must be nice!" the young woman said.
Stella shook her head from side to side.
The front chimed. Lately Stella had noticed so many people liked to do their laundry on Sunday morning these days.
"Good morning, Stella!" a man said.
Stella looked up from her folding table at the back of the laundromat.
"Sure do, thanks," he said. The young man pulled his hood off his head. Stella wondered when he last ran a comb through his hair.
For a while it was just Stella, the young man, the young woman, and the soft sounds of the Parkers Creek Road Baptist Church morning sermon coming from Stella's small television in the office. Stella liked to take her folding to the office so she could listen.
By the time Stella finished her folding and the preacher had done the same with his sermon, the laundromat hummed with activity. Stella walked out to her table and began to iron.
On the opposite side of the building, a large man stood before a row of dryers. He was well over six feet tall and seemed just as wide. His smooth, pink face made it hard to determine his age. Wet clothes were piled high in his laundry cart, and he painstakingly selected one piece at a time to toss into a dryer. Stella watched him. He methodically did it with five dryers, going down the line and then returning to the beginning. He was so big that even that short back and forth made his breath a little heavy.
It's going to take him forever to fill up those dryers, Stella thought. She stepped into the office and took a sip of coffee. She returned to her ironing.
A gray-mustached man in his 70s sat in one of the orange plastic chairs bolted to the floor along the laundromat's front windows. He leaned back, his legs crossed at the knee, and he punctuated every other word by tapping his cane on the floor. The cane's rubber tip was worn through, so every time it connected with the tile floor, it made a "click" sound.
The large man at the dryers looked at him, startled. Then he returned his attention to his wet clothes.
A minute later, the older man sat up in his seat, uncrossing his legs. Firmly placing his feet on the floor and pushing his glasses up on his nose, he leaned forward.
Stella's head lifted from her ironing, and her eyes searched around until she found where the question had come from.
"You gotta be at least 600 pounds," the older man said.
The young man's face exploded with pink.
Using all the strength in his cane-wielding right arm, the older man pushed himself into standing position. He stayed near his seat, but his demeanor made it feel as if he was nose to nose with the man at the dryers.
Stella sighed, sat down her iron, and switched it off.
"Sir, can I help you with anything?" she yelled across the room.
"No, honey, I'm finished," he said. He switched his cane to his left hand and picked up a white garbage bag full of clean clothes that had been on the floor near his seat. Slowly, he hobbled toward the front doors, his cane click-click-clicking on the tile until he was out of sight.
Stella sighed again, switching the iron back on. The mega-church in town had a Sunday morning worship service on television, and it was just starting. Stella shut it off. That would be enough for this Sunday.
Why on God's green earth would anyone today enjoy watching a 30-year-old sitcom about four older women's lives in Miami? That's a joke question, of course, because the answer is, "There are infinity reasons why anyone should love The Golden Girls." One particularly good reason is the abundance of pop culture references peppered throughout the seven seasons that aired from 1985 to 1992.
The references to film, music, television, books, celebrities, and more offer learning opportunities for those who weren't around then or are too young to remember anything besides Care Bears and slap bracelets. And for those who rocked it loud and proud during those two decades, here are some humorous flashbacks.
Before Snuggie and ShamWow, there was Amazing Discoveries.
Hosted by Mike Levey, Amazing Discoveries ran from 1989 to 1997 and is said to be the pioneer of "direct response television" (today's Proactive, PedEgg and others). According to Direct Marketing News' 2003 story on Levey's death (he was only 55), the Amazing Discoveries host was once known as "the most watched man on television," and throughout the nearly 100 episodes that aired, many fans tuned in just to see what style of sweater he'd have on.
According to Forbes, in 1992, the year this season of The Golden Girls aired, Trump filed for corporate bankruptcy, the second in what would be four times between 1991 and 2009. In addition, 1992 was the year Trump and wife Ivana divorced after a 15-year marriage. Rough year, Donny. Griffin, on the other hand, was enjoying the success of the two game shows in addition to his own increasing wealth from hotel and gambling business ventures.
*This essay was written well before Donald Trump became president of the United States in 2016.
Oprah Winfrey has always had to deal with the haters.
In season four, Rose was convinced she witnessed a UFO when she was out on the lanai. Dorothy, the sensible one, refuses to believe it and tries to convince Rose that what she saw couldn't have been a UFO.
Ouch. Season four of The Golden Girls aired in late 1988 through mid-1989, and The Oprah Winfrey Show made its debut in 1986, airing for 25 years. Oprah's famous "wagon of fat" episode happened in 1988: for months she starved herself on a liquid diet, and after losing 67 pounds and fitting into size-10 Calvin Klein's, she wheeled a red wagon piled high with fat onto the set to represent what she lost. According to a 2005 USA Today story, she said that's the television stunt she regrets most.
You know actor Raul Julia's face, but you probably don't know his name.
In a season-seven episode, Stan and Dorothy are accused of being slum lords of an apartment building they co-own, and they are forced by a judge to spend the night in one of the bug-infested apartments as punishment. When Dorothy returns home the next morning, Sophia thinks she has escaped illegally and starts planning Dorothy's future on the lam: she can obtain a fake birth certificate, go into hiding, and get plastic surgery. "By tomorrow morning, you can be Raul Julia," Sophia says.
Julia was a Puerto Rican actor who had notable roles on screen and on stage, but for many, he's probably most recognizable for his portrayal of Gomez in the 1991 film The Addams Family. This Golden Girls reference is from the 1992 season, and Julia passed away two years later at the age of 54.
Never forget that at one time, tanning beds were pretty widely accepted.
Sometimes it's hard to believe there was a time when tanning-bed use was generally accepted, but this episode aired in the show's 1986 season, in what could be considered the heyday of the "tanning machine." According to a Huffington Post article, tanning beds were becoming increasingly popular in the early 1980s, and by the 1990s, they were becoming even more popular with teens. It's shameful to admit, but there's a good chance many of us can remember hitting up the tanning salon before prom back in the day.
Don't let whatever happened to Chrissy happen to you.
You know Chef Boyardee, but do you know Mama Celeste?
In season one, Sophia spends an episode striving to upstage and up-cook her arch rival, Mama Celeste, whom she was childhood friends with in Italy. After giving Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy a taste test of her own pizza versus "Mama You-Know-Who's," the girls don't choose Sophia's. "You can't pick pizza, and you can't pick men!" she exclaims.
Televised talent competitions did not begin with American Idol.
Star Search was an awesome show hosted by Ed McMahon that aired from 1983 to 1995. Performers competed in several categories, including singing, dancing, comedy, and spokes model. The show was the first of its kind at the time, and it gave a bazillion current pop culture figures their first exposure to the limelight, including (to name a few) Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Rosie O'Donnell, Drew Carey, Justin Timberlake, Alanis Morissette, and Usher – and they all lost!
Vanna White really did write an autobiography.
In season five, Stan's cousin Magda, a communist from Czechoslovakia, comes to visit. In order to teach her about the American experience, Dorothy recommends Magda read two books: Thomas Paine's Common Sense and Vanna White's autobiography.
"It's just a hell of a book," Dorothy responds.
And indeed, around two years before this Golden Girls episode aired, White authored an autobiography, in 1987, titled Vanna Speaks. The book came four years into her career role as wheel turner on The Wheel of Fortune, and, according to a 1987 Chicago Tribune story, the book was White's response to her growing reputation as a "dumb blond," "real-life Barbie doll," and "Marshmallow Fluff." You keep using your letters, Vanna.
It wasn't always just Sonny and Cher. It used to be Cher and…. a lot of people.
Cher is pretty well known as the other half of "Sonny and Cher," but that relationship (which only lasted for 10 years) is, well, not even the half of it. In 2012, the 67-year-old married her third husband, and in the 1980s, according to The Daily Mail, Cher had at least eight prominent relationships, which included famous musicians, actors, producers, a professional hockey player, and a bagel shop worker.
General Hospital was the reigning queen of daytime soap operas. And once upon a time, there were a bunch of them, so that meant something.
In 1988, you were hard pressed to find someone who didn't watch General Hospital. The show began in 1963, making it the longest-running daytime soap still currently in production. In 2012, it experienced a cancellation scare, but avoided it after the show's plots, twists, turns, and characters were altered to appeal to a younger audience. Interestingly, according to a Los Angeles Times article, the show originally was the soap opera "that brought young people to daytime television" when it first aired more than 50 years ago. In November 1981, an on-screen wedding with characters Laura and Luke gained 30 million viewers, which is still a record for biggest daytime audience.
General Hospital is one of only four daytime soaps still on the air, and, as of 2013, it has remained the top daytime drama for 25 consecutive years.
She leaned across her seat, tapped me on the arm, and pointed to the WWE Live ring in the center of the arena floor.
"If he can crawl over to the edge and touch the rope, he'll be free," my mom whispered excitedly, as a grown man in a mask tried to get his head out from between some other grown man's pretzel-twisted legs. I didn't know which was more fun: the professional wrestling match or my mom's knowledge of it. Who knew beneath that sweet personality and gentle smile there was a woman who got her kicks on body slams, trash talking, and men in tight pants?
Funny thing is, she always has. It's a family tradition: in the 1970s, my mom would travel with her mom and aunts to the big city of Charleston, West Virginia, to see professional wrestling matches when they rolled through town. It was a big to-do for them, and so for her 62nd birthday, I wanted to experience with her what she had so many years ago with her mother and aunts.
The woman was pumped. My dad half-jokingly said he'd be on standby in case she got out of control and had to be escorted out of the arena.
She was well behaved, but she wasn't quiet. Completely unfamiliar with modern wrestlers like Randy Orton and CM Punk, we mostly booed and cheered and shook our fists according to what the crowd did. Sometimes, though, we based our cheers on which wrestler was better looking.
During intermission, she reflected on the wrestlers she saw in the 1970s and 80s: Andre the Giant, The Million Dollar Man. Then, in the 1990s, when Pay-Per-View was something fancy, my mom's family gathered at someone's house to watch a match, everyone chipping in some money and plenty of food to spend an evening with "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Jake "The Snake" Roberts – with his real snake, Mom reminds me! – and so many more.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a resurgence in the popularity of professional wrestling. Who can forget "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and his infernal t-shirts? Every boy in my high school had one.
That night at the arena with my mom, it was easy to suspend disbelief. It was escapism at its best, and I haven't spent such a unique Friday night since. That WWE professional wrestling match was fun. We'd both do it again in a heartbeat, only this time, my mom said she's going to brush up on today's wrestlers, so she'll know at which wrestlers to really direct her screams.
Rack after rack of jeans fills my local Goodwill store, a sea of discarded, heavy denim to wade through in search of a good-enough pair. Shopping makes my arms hurt, as my left one holds try-ons and my right one screeches hangers rhythmically down the line. To the left, away you go – wrong size, weird color, too long.
And boot cut. Mostly, they're all boot cut. On one hand, the sad thrift-store sea of discarded boot-cut jeans is puzzling – what exactly is wrong with that style? It clearly used to get a lot of love. On the other hand, it doesn't matter why they're there en masse because they now present themselves as an opportunity to the forward thinker: buy a bunch and hoard them until the style returns.
And the style, like so many others, will come back, raging and loud, perhaps just as strong as the skinny-leg fad it feels like we've been experiencing for quite some time.
Unaware of it until recently, I've been sort of preparing for this revolution. Folded reverently in a dresser drawer at home is a pair of 2001 Calvin Klein's: dark blue denim, the most flattering back pockets you could imagine, and boot cut. I even remember saving the money to buy them at the mall that summer after high-school graduation. During my first year of college, I rocked them almost every day, and then, as happens sometimes, they started to feel a little too tight. But I kept them; something in the back of my mind whispered, "Just in case." More than a decade later, having toted them from city to city and season to season, they fit again. They look good.
Except, of course, for the legs. Those poor Calvin's seem almost bell-bottomed compared to the straight-leg pants folded on top of them in my dresser drawer. Sorry, Brooke Shields, but something has come between me and my Calvin's.
Depending on whom you ask or what you read, this most-recent skinny-leg jean fad (that is, since the 1980s punk-era fad) has been in mainstream culture since around 2005. Yet it has hit cultural saturation, it seems, in just the past couple of years. It's a level of saturation that makes you grumble "Oh, come on!" when you can't find a pair of jeans that will stretch over a strong, muscled calf you once thought was an asset.
In these moments, I look longingly toward my bedroom, where my 13-year-old Calvin's rest, nestled snugly between newer pairs of denim. A decade from now, I wonder, how many 30-somethings will sort through a sea of consignment skinny jeans, arms aching, and think, "What in the world…?" before pushing them on down the rack.
Maybe, Brooke, I should wiggle back into my Calvin's. Maybe the time for a boot-cut revolution is now.
The decision to backpack around Guatemala was a surprisingly quick one. My best friend and I had batted around the idea of traveling internationally to celebrate turning 30. The intent was real, but the discussions were vague, until one day she received a text from me.
"We should go to Costa Rica" was my suggestion based on a friend's recent trip. "How about Guatemala?" was her suggestion based on a friend's recent trip.
Four months later, I departed from Lexington, Kentucky, and she from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we arrived around the same early afternoon time at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City to begin 10 days of backpacking around the country.
The night before, the question "What have I done?" sprinted through my head.
My 12-year-old L.L. Bean backpack was stuffed with just enough to sustain me. (Once home and unpacked, I proudly realized I had packed two shirts too many.) I registered our trip online with the U.S. Department of State and emailed pictures of my passport and credit card to my most level-headed friend.
Guatemala was my first time traveling abroad.
Exiting Aurora International Airport, I closed my eyes and savored the hot Central American sun on my face and arms, a luxury after a long Kentucky winter. Guatemalan women, men, and children rushed about, many anticipating arrivals and others pushing their wares. Trips to Chinatown in New York City came to mind as I received offers to purchase disposable cell phones, handmade bracelets, and round, gold foil-wrapped pieces of chocolate. Leaving the country nine days later, I'd be searching for them all, eager to share my unspent quetzals, but then those people were nowhere to be found.
We decided early on that this trip wouldn't be held captive by a concrete itinerary, but we did make a list of the places we had to visit. Semuc Champey, a Guatemalan national park, was on that list. And on day six of our journey, after hours of sitting on a bus and miles of standing in the back of a pickup truck crammed with other tourists, we found ourselves there.
Semuc Champey is an isolated, hard-to-reach area located in the Q'eqchi' Maya town of Lanquín. Nestled in the valley of a jungle, turquoise freshwater-filled pools have been etched atop a natural bridge of limestone, under which rushes the Río Cahabón. The pools are full of warm, barely moving water, and visitors spend hours basking in the Eden, sliding down perfectly formed rocks, and jumping from cliffs. Fish swim in the pools, their nibbles on your legs and feet a bit unsettling, actually, until you get used to it.
With my snorkel and mask, I spied fish big and small living their lives, and I wondered if they knew how lucky they were to be there. After I popped up from the water, a young Guatemalan man walked determinedly along the slippery bank toward us.
He pointed to my face and shook his head from side to side.
No molesto were the only words I could decipher, and he pointed to my face again impatiently. My snorkel, I realized, wasn't allowed in the pools. It was a disturbance. I put it away on the bank, hiding it underneath my towel and feeling a little ashamed.
Aside from the pools, the park's other incredible feature is El Mirador, an outlook located 1.7 kilometers (a little more than one mile) through the jungle that overlooks the limestone pools and the Río Cahabón. The only way to reach El Mirador is by hiking a narrow, rocky path that is, in places, nearly vertical.
Less than halfway up the path to El Mirador, my travel mate decided not to continue the climb. Perhaps it was the day's heat; perhaps it was last night's many cans of Gallo, the country's official beer.
My heart sank. We hadn't gone anywhere alone since arriving in the country, and I automatically assumed I'd also be sitting this one out. We stopped at a level, wooden bridge.
She did take a nap. And I went by myself.
Wiping away the sweat stinging my eyes and ignoring the occasional thought of passing out, I continued the mile-high climb up to El Mirador. I rested often and took small sips from my bottle of hot water.
Crawling on my hands and knees up the rocky path alone, the question "What have I done?" sprinted through my head.
When the ground became level again, I started to jog. The outlook was just ahead. I came out from under the forest of trees and into the sun, stepping, almost like it was a stage, onto the small wooden deck with the engravings of lizards and so many Spanish words I didn't know.
The blue-green, crystal-clear ponds unfolded below, and for five minutes, I couldn't stop crying.
Boarding the plane back in Kentucky, everything had seemed so uncertain, so questionable. I was traveling with someone who had been my best friend for more than a decade but we'd lived 1,000 miles apart since graduating high school. We hadn't spent more than three or four days together at a time. And on the other side of the globe, my long-term significant other was on a research trip in South Africa. It was the furthest we'd ever been from each other, and the actual continents separating us were both terrifying and liberating.
None of it mattered now. From that wooden perch high in the jungle, I peered down into the valley at the turquoise pools dotted with tiny humans and those even tinier biting fish. No molesto, I whispered, releasing those fears into the jungle and embracing the peace that came from being completely alone.
Turning my face toward the warm Central American sun, the question "What have I done?" sprinted through my head.
I had found heaven, tucked away in Guatemala.
Van rides have meant something special to me ever since returning from a 10-day backpacking trip in Guatemala where so many of my hours there were spent crisscrossing the country in vans with travelers from around the world. The Israeli grandfather wildly snapping pictures, screaming madly at the radio during a soccer match, being gently scolded by the driver for exiting the van during a very short ferry ride – he's a small piece of my van crew that's such a strong part of my travel experience in Guatemala.
Even pickup trucks played a vital role in traversing the country, particularly in my attempt to successfully complete the last leg of an eight-hour trip from the Tikal ruins to Semuc Champey, a Guatemalan national park located in an isolated, hard-to-reach area near the small town of Lanquín. Nestled in the valley of a jungle, turquoise freshwater-filled pools have been etched atop a natural bridge of limestone, under which rushes the Río Cahabón. It's an Eden, and in order to trek the narrow, bumpy path from Lanquín to El Portal, the hostel at the edge of the park, I stood up in the back of a pick-up truck. My body jostled against a dozen others, gripping the truck bed's side metal bars for dear life (or at least to keep my teeth in my head) as six kilometers (almost four miles) felt like six years.
For me, now, van rides are opportunities. Is there a shuttle involved in this trip? I'm in. Can we take the bus? Yes, we should. Want me to climb in the back of your pick-up truck? Well, let's talk first.
Even the shuttle van at the car mechanic is an adventure waiting to be had with travelers from around the world. One morning, months later, back in Kentucky and at 8 a.m., I hopped into the backseat beside a young woman with long blonde hair. We exchanged good mornings. Her father, gray-headed and likely in his mid-60s, sat up front next to our driver, Kim. Less than a minute later, we picked up another passenger.
"The last time I was in a van," I said as I scooted to the middle seat, "I was in Guatemala. It didn't have such nice seatbelts." The man turned around in his seat, and he was smiling. We began to discuss Guatemala, a country of which he is quite fond.
"Did you go to Chichicastango?" he asked, referring to the well-known market that brings nearly the entire country together for buying and selling handmade goods and homegrown foods. It was, I had to tell him, the one thing on the travel to-do list that went unaccomplished. The market is open Thursdays and Sundays only, and we couldn't sync our travels to make it either day. He said I should visit Oaxaca, Mexico, and this time to make sure and visit the market.
"Where are you originally from?" Driver Kim asked him, after he began to speak and we heard his soft accent.
Originally from Munich, Germany, he lived in Caracas, Venezuela, for several years. Eventually, he ended up in Chicago, where, he tells us, many German immigrants, including his family, landed when they came to America. He currently lives in San Francisco, and his daughter, the lovely wide-eyed blonde who has now moved behind me to make more room – the passengers keep coming, just like in Guatemala! – is doing clinical rotations in physical therapy at a university here.
Before she arrived in Kentucky – she is very fond of horses, she told me, which is why she chose to come here – she lived in Portland, Maine. Driver Kim, we learn, used to live in Portland, Oregon, and for the rest of the trip, I remain confused as to which Portland is being discussed at any time, except for when they're talking about weather.
Portland-in-Maine and her father traveled to Kentucky together. He first drove from San Francisco to Maine, taking ten days to enjoy the more-than-3,000-mile trip across America. The two of them then traveled from Maine to Kentucky. It's no wonder they were at the car mechanic.
We all gave our two cents about the value of the adventures of car travel and segued into high-speed rail daydreaming. All three of my van mates, come to find out, have lived in the San Francisco area of California – "It really is a small world, isn't it?" Portland-in-Maine kept saying – and so they spent some time trading what California cities they've traveled to and from by rail.
"Well, you know, high-speed rail in Europe is how they get around," Portland-in-Maine's father said, and Driver Kim's eyes lit up in the rear view mirror.
"My daughter, the worldly one, lived in Madrid for a year, and she traveled to 14 countries in that one year! Using the train, of course," she said as she turned right into the parking lot of my work. Driver Kim, of course, visited "the worldly one" in Madrid. "I took 1,700 pictures of doors." We all laughed because we knew she probably wasn't exaggerating.
As the van stopped and I got out, I looked at each member of my tiny new van crew. "Thank you so much for the lovely morning." They returned the sentiment, and as I walked away, I turned around and waved at Portland-in-Maine's father. He smiled and eagerly waved back. I will definitely get to the market the next time I travel anywhere.
Ray Garcia moved from San Diego to Ashland, Kentucky, about two years ago. He and his two brothers, Sergio and Ron, own and run a restaurant in town that offers locals a Southern California-Mexican style of cuisine not found in Ashland or, as Ray said he's discovered, in Kentucky.
On a recent rainy Sunday afternoon, I interviewed him for a magazine article about the restaurant and its influence on Ashland. As a native Ashlander whose parents and sister live there (and probably always will), I leave Lexington and head east 120 miles on Interstate 64 about once a month to visit.
With a population of about 22,000, Ashland isn't at all as urban as the urban Appalachian cities of Chattanooga, Asheville, Pittsburgh, and others. It is and always has been, however, a Mecca of sorts for the northeast part of Kentucky, with its two malls, city park, and dining options.
Something Ray said to me during our talk stuck in my head. He said he's noticed that people in Ashland are "down on themselves" and where they live. Young people are eager to leave Ashland for bigger and better places, and some almost apologize to him for Ashland when they learn he's from a much bigger, more cosmopolitan place.
But after living and working in the Ashland area for almost two years, he doesn't see it that way. "What's wrong with this place?" he always asks the naysayers. He said he thinks those in Ashland should feel prouder of where they live.
Ray's a pretty observant guy. For me and my friends, it didn't matter if we were in fifth grade or preparing to graduate from high school: we were eager to leave Ashland and never return. In addition to the usual "it's so boring here" and "there's nothing to do," we latched on to a supposed truth that living in the same town all your life was very, very uncool. This, of course, isn't a supposed truth exclusive to Ashland or even to urban Appalachia as a whole. I do wonder, though, if it's more prevalent here.
The more I thought about Ray's observation, the more I realized two other supposed truths exist when it comes to establishing roots, whether it's in urban Appalachia or Southern California.
Any place is what you make it. Ray and his family are from San Diego, so they grew up in a town very different from Ashland and even the larger urban Appalachian cities. But as we chatted, it was obvious he's happy to be in Ashland. Plus, he works so much, he told me, that it doesn't matter whether he's in San Diego or in Ashland – his focus is on his restaurant and his family.
Often, living in a city is like choosing which college to attend: on some level, they're all very similar, and how you spend your time there is what matters.
It's all relative. I have a friend who grew up in Louisville, went to graduate school in Boston, lived in Charleston, South Carolina, for a while, then moved to Lexington – and thought she'd descended into hell. On the other hand, before moving to Lexington two years ago, I lived in Danville, a Kentucky town of about 16,000. In Lexington, it felt as if a whole new world had opened up.


text:
Švenčionys (; known also by several alternative names) is the town, located  north of Vilnius in Lithuania. It is the capital of the Švenčionys district municipality. , it had population of 4,065 of which about 17% is part of the Polish minority in Lithuania.

Etymology
There are two established hypotheses about the etymology of the Švenčionys name: one that it is the name of the nearby lake Šventas (literally: saint) with the addition of the Lithuanian suffix -onys; another is that it is derived from the personal name, Švenčionis. In other languages the name is rendered as , , , , and .

History

One of the oldest towns in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the settlement was a major center of Nalšia. Grand Duke Vytautas settled Lipka Tatars in the town and built a Catholic church in 1414. The place grew from the 14th to 16th centuries, becoming the site of a local court and monastery. From 1801 the town was part of the Russian Vilna Governorate and grew significantly after completion of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway in 1862, but eventually lost competition to Švenčionėliai, which grew around the train station. At the turn of the 20th century the town had one Greek Orthodox church and one Roman Catholic church.

During the 1812 French invasion of Russia, Napoleon stayed in the town for 12 hours to write orders and receive an envoy from the King of Naples. The town  was one of the main centers of the November Uprising (1830–1831) in Poland and Lithuania against the Russian Empire. During World War I, it was the location of the German Sventiany Offensive.

The city was part of the Second Polish Republic for most of the interwar period. It was a powiat centre in Wilno Voivodeship as Święciany during Polish rule between 1920-1939. It had a significant Jewish population (according to the 1897 Russian census – 52%), but during World War II, under German occupation, the Švenčionys Ghetto was established. It operated from July 1941 to April 1943. At its peak, the ghetto housed some 1,500 prisoners. The Jewish inhabitants were deported and murdered.

On 18 September 1939, Švenčionys was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. The Soviets placed it firstly in part of Vileyka Oblast of the Belorussian SSR in 1939, but then incorporated into the Lithuanian SSR on 25 November 1940. Švenčionys was occupied by the German Army from 27 June 1941 until 7 July 1944 and placed under the administration of the Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland. In 1942 the Lithuanian Security Police murdered several hundreds of Poles in the village. Most of the municipal area remained part of the Lithuanian SSR except the Ashmyany region which was reincorporated into Belarus in 1944.

Notable residents
 Yitzhak Arad (1926–2021), Israeli historian, director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993
 Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983), Rabbi and founder of the Reconstructionist Judaism movement
 Mark Natanson (1850–1919), Russian revolutionary
 Wiktor Thommée (1881–1962), Polish general
 Franciszek Żwirko (1895–1932), Polish aviator
 Menke Katz (1906–1991), Yiddish-language poet
Jacob Samuel Minkin (1885–1962), American rabbi, hospital chaplain, and expert on Hasidism

References

External links

 Official Website

Cities in Lithuania
Cities in Vilnius County
Holocaust locations in Poland
Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania
Švenčionys District Municipality
Sventsyansky Uyezd
Vilnius Voivodeship
Wilno Voivodeship (1926–1939)


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Since 2008, the DDPS Training Course was conducted in a cooperation between the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra/Ghana.
GIZ offers demand-driven, tailor-made and effective services for sustainable development. Through its work, it facilitates change and empowers people to take ownership of their own development. In doing this, GIZ is always guided by the concept of sustainable development, and takes account of political, economic, social and ecological factors. GIZ operates in many fields: economic development and employment promotion; governance and democracy; security, reconstruction, peacebuilding and civil conflict transformation; food security, health and basic education; and environmental protection, resource conservation and climate change mitigation. As part of its services, GIZ also second development workers to partner countries. GIZ operates throughout Germany and in more than 130 countries worldwide. As a federal enterprise, it supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. GIZ is also engaged in international education work around the globe.
Located in Accra, Ghana, KAIPTC is one of three institutions designated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a regional Centre of Excellence for the delivery of research and training support in Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and Peacebuilding. In May 1998, Ghana's Ministry of Defence approved plans for the establishment of an international peacekeeping training institution. This centre was originally envisaged to address reagional peace and security challenges by equipping men and women with skills needed for managing the changing demands of complex and multi-dimensional peacekeeping activities. In 2002, construction began, and in 2003 the first course was run. Today, KAIPTC has become an internationally preferred centre for research, training and education. Since the first course was conducted, KAIPTC has trained more than 8.000 military, police and civilian personnel from over 80 countries.