Welcome to the Week 5 edition of SEC Football Predictions. We are in an historic tailspin as predictors for the fine folks here at FBSchedules. There were months when people were emailing me who enjoyed watching college football for the fun of the wager. Now, I have school presidents and athletic directors threatening to harm my family and pets if I predict a win for their program. At any rate, I choose to walk on the silver lining of this black cloud. When my picks are wrong, it means that the games are entertaining and fun. Honestly, I'm having a blast at 23-21. I really don't know how Dan Wolken at USA TODAY could possibly enjoy this season as much as I am. He's something like 58-0 on the year predicting games. Yuck. How much fun could that be? Don't ask me, because I have no idea.
Tennessee has proven you can be a second half team and have success so that's what the plan is for Week 5 through the remainder of the season. Full throttle and all wins.
I haven't received any calls from the FBSchedules front office, so I feel safe in preparing another set of SEC Football Predictions for Week 5. Besides, who would get fired in the middle of the year when the season is just now taking shape…. Oh… wait. Do what? Les Miles did? Wow. Okay. Well, I'll have a box with my stuff in it just in case.
I think this is the week it all turns around. Let's get to the Week 5 edition of SEC Football Predictions and observe the greatest turnaround in the history of the written prediction.
Quick word of wisdom: The Hogs are coming off a tough loss to Texas A&M in a game many (including me) believed would be Arkansas' announcement to the college football world that they are ready to challenge Alabama in the West. Instead, Arkansas needed a yard for a touchdown on fourth down that would have tied the game, but A&M's defense held court. Trevor Knight hit Josh Reynolds two plays later for a 92-yard touchdown with 1:33 left in the third and just like that the Aggies were up by 14.
That drive where A&M stopped Arkansas on fourth down was a 19-play drive that covered 89 yards and 9:55 of game clock. Those are season-defining drives. The catch is they can define your season negatively when you come up with zero points resulting in a 14-point swing in less than a minute.
The Razorbacks get a great opportunity this week to exercise some demons against the alma mater of Steve McNair before welcoming No. 1 Alabama to Fayetteville in a game that can erase the stank that lingers from the A&M debacle. Arkansas lost by 21 to A&M, but they win at least five games if those two teams played ten times.
Long story short, Arkansas may have dropped off everyone's radar for now, but they get a rare chance to make up for it in one week. Stay healthy Saturday and get ready for Alabama… as if that hasn't been what you've been doing since your flight departed from Dallas.
Big game word of wisdom: Vanderbilt ranks near the bottom of nearly every statistical category in the SEC for both offense and defense. Florida was ranked No.1 in nearly every defensive category until about five minutes into the third quarter of Saturday's loss to Tennessee.
Florida should be able to lick their wounds in Nashville this Saturday, but the Gators need to remember one important intangible that traps many an SEC team. The most underrated trap in the SEC is the 11:00 a.m. local time kickoff at Vanderbilt Stadium. Some teams don't wake up until midway through the third quarter (when many Vandy fans begin arriving to the game) and find themselves trailing or clinging to a one-possession lead as a double-digit favorite. The Gators should be okay on Saturday, but they need to be 'ware the Early Kickoff Angel of Death Trap.
A few words of wisdom: Auburn lost to LSU last week until the play was overturned and they ended up winning. Then Les Miles was fired and Ed Orgeron became a head coach in the SEC again.
Quick word of wisdom: Will former Tennessee State Representative Jeremy Durham be in attendance for this game? He's been kicked out of the Tennessee Assembly, the Tennessee-Florida game at Neyland Stadium, and has an opportunity to add a road SEC stadium to his resume this weekend. Sorry, just a little inside joke for us Tennesseans out there.
This game has interesting written all over it. In August we were all pointing to the trip to College Station as the trap game for Tennessee, but Hurricane Trapgame has changed its itinerary and trajectory and will be making landfall a week early in Athens, Georgia. If last Saturday's Georgia-Ole Miss game in Oxford is any indicator, this hurricane will be more like a stiff breeze in Athens. Georgia was beaten from one end of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to the other.
The Bulldogs are ranked 10th in scoring offense (25.2 ppg) and tied with Ole Miss for 12th in scoring defense (30.0 ppg). The Vols are a touchdown better on offense and eight points better on defense. The line for this game is 3.5 in favor of Tennessee. Other than a letdown from Tennessee and a big rebound from Georgia, this line doesn't make much sense. I see Tennessee pulling away late in the game to win by double-digits.
Quick word of wisdom: I can think of just under one reason why South Carolina can make this a game. Texas A&M will score points and John Chavis is finding ways to feature his playmakers on defense. The Aggies are trying to make believers out of people (like me) who think A&M is nothing more than a September Shooting Star that looks great for a fleeting moment only to vanish into the October and November night.
Something is different about this team compared to the 2015 team. With a solid defense to go along with a quarterback who seems to get better and more comfortable in the system each week, A&M could be looking at a top-five matchup with Alabama on October 22 in Tuscaloosa.
Quick word of wisdom: Alabama will use Saturday to officially introduce the nation to the ready-for-primetime players that will take the Tide through the October and November stretch of the season. These players will include true freshman running back Joshua Jacobs and freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts. Jacobs is more than likely not allowed to wear No. 22 for the simple reason that the NCAA would believe he was Mark Ingram and deem him ineligible from playing as a professional athlete.
Kentucky is coming off a win at home against South Carolina and hopes to put up a good fight against the No. 1 team in the country so they can finish the season playing like they were expected to play the first three weeks of the season.
As much as this game fits the description as well as any, Alabama cannot fall into the trap of treating the Wildcats as the final game before a five-week stretch of four games that include road trips to Arkansas, Tennessee, and LSU as well as a home game against Texas A&M sprinkled in there. The last thing Alabama needs is to take Kentucky lightly and extend that four-game stretch into five nasty games.
Alabama may be flat early, but should put together a few efficient scoring drives to salt the game away by late in the third quarter.
Quick word of wisdom: It looks like Ole Miss went ahead and got those two losses out of the way early so they can just look dominating the remainder of the season. That 45-14 beating of Georgia last Saturday in Oxford would have earned them a four year prison sentence and hefty fine in 25 states and U.S territory Puerto Rico.
The Rebels now get an opportunity to get retribution for last year's embarrassing beat-down at the hands of Memphis. Although Memphis is undefeated and scored 77 against Bowling Green last week, I think Ole Miss is comfortable with who they are and should make haste with many teams remaining on the schedule.
Quick word of wisdom: Ed Orgeron, always the interim bridesmaid and never the head coach bride, is once again a "kinda" head coach. He stepped in for Lane Kiffin at USC and went 6-2 in 2013. Orgeron will rent the office of the head coach in Baton Rouge for the remainder of the 2016 season following the swift and shocking firing of Les Miles the day after beating Auburn on a touchdown play with no time remaining in the game losing to Auburn in what may be the wildest ending of any game this season.
I'm torn on this game because I think LSU can win with a pretty good effort, but asking for pretty good after what this team has endured over the last five days seems lofty. Missouri has played better in 2016. Barry Odom's bunch is a few less turnovers away from being a headache for the SEC East again.
LSU is a bad offensive series away from detonating right in front of our own eyes. Based on Orgeron's press conference on Monday, it sounds like it may take one offensive possession for the worst to occur. Orgeron promises to run a spread offense. The one way to send LSU fans into a higher level of hysterics is to run some form of a spread offense and take carries away from Leonard Fournette. Fournette, however, may secretly cheer a new offense that relies much less on him and decreases the tow on his body. Many players are required to prove themselves worthy of the NFL, but Fournette was ready at halftime of the opening game of 2015.
Marcus Lattimore is the most recent and publicized example of what can happen when a running back is forced to stay in college one more season. Rarely is any player ready for the NFL as a player drafted by an NFL team. Even rarer is the player that is ready to step on the NFL field as a college sophomore. Don't be surprised if the Fournette train is slowed down for October and November. If that happens, LSU's train will be completely derailed for 2016.
I can't believe Ed Orgeron is the interim head coach of LSU, this will not last. I think the reason they got rid of Les is if say he would've won the rest of his games, then LSU would've had to keep him. Fans & the University seem to be over it. Just not sure who they are going to replace him with plus what a bad time to get fired, middle of the season. I have Mizz in this one as well, LSU may spiral out of control this year.
I can believe how good Ole Miss really is but have lost two games.
I will take Georgia over Tennessee just because they are playing at home.
I think you're spot on the Les Miles thing.
Bowl under Coach Philip Fulmer, one year after Peyton Manning led UT to the SEC championship in 1997. And UT will continue their success after beating Georgia, Texas A&M, and Alabama, correct Nick Saban? He fears the Volunteers, because during the off-season he has been putting his team through drills working on team speed, but its hard to catch guys that run 4.2 or 4.3 40's and are strong and powerful too, correct Nick? Recall when you were at the bar in Lansing watching a game and hoping one day you would be facing the team in orange? I do! because I was there, Nick. How do I know that? How do II know that Tennessee in your mind is Bama's best and strongest rival and that includes Auburn? In fact, you consider Auburn as an inferior team, and not in the same class as Auburn, correct? You do know Bear Bryant never beat Neyland? Just like you never will? You will not beat butch anymore either Nick, and you know that too? Pressure has gotten to you so much that you take it out on your loved ones(wife, children, grandchildren, etc., ) that all you see when you wake up is BIG ORAMGE OR WHAT SPURRIER REFERRED TO AS A SYNONYM OF ORANGE, YELLOW. BET YOU DID NOT KNOW THAT. DO YOU HAVE ADVANCED MENTAL ATROPHY? concerned about your mental health? I believe you need to have a MRI to check if you have a meningioma to see if it is affecting your mental functioninjg Nick? ould be a sign of early onset possible Alzheimer's, because my Grandfather had it and he died 5 years later after the diagnosis!!! Do you have emotional ups and downs Nick? Do you have depression in the morning? do you have trouble finishing tasks you started? What about differences in communication with friends or loved ones? All orsigns of advanced mental atrophy or signs of dementia or Alzheimer's?
I was one of the people that thought Georgia would win & to my defense it came down to a HAIL MARY which in most cases does not work but congras on the Vols winning. As for magic Nick fearing the Vols. not sure about that since Bama has an 8 game winning streak against them as of right now. It is your opinion that Nick will never beat Tennessee again, not fact. There is a chance that the Vols could beat Bama & A&M but those games have not been played yet & I am not sure what your excuses is going to be if Tennessee losing to Bama. Tennessee is playing not that hot but getting the job done, they seem to be struggling with every team they play this year, that is not taking anything away from them, just saying. You can ask about Nick's mental condition but he knows how to play the media, that may be what your seeing.


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Q: How can I send a fax with my Qt application? I have a Qt application which needs to be able to send faxes. I'm wondering if there are any fax libraries I can make use of. I haven't been able to find an obvious solution, so I would appreciate your help.
The application has to run on windows xp / windows 7.
If I am unclear/you need more information, please let me know.
EDIT
There will be a fax machine. I'm not sure how the fax drivers work, but the application should support every fax machine.

A: Windows has a Fax Service Extended COM API
Complete with code samples.
Configuration
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms692969(v=vs.85).aspx
Sending
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms693482(v=vs.85).aspx

A: I'd make sure your installed fax has a printer driver, that lets you print to it. Then use the QT print API: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5.0/printing.html
I'd try it with the print dialog first, and choose the fax machine manually.
Then check through all the data in QPrinter
To see which one has the fax number. I would hope that it might be the OutPutFileName.

The other way might be to use Microsoft Scripting to send the fax, wrapped in the QtActiveX module

Finally I googled this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms693482(v=vs.85).aspx

Sorry it's not a complete answer. I hope it can point you in the right direction though.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


When psychologists study those sects that predict the end of the world on a certain day, they find the leaders rarely willing to admit they were wrong and their true believers rarely willing to admit they were duped.
Rather, the sect members find some dubious rationalisation. It was our prayers, brothers and sisters, that interceded for this wicked world and persuaded the Good Lord to stay his hand.
Since the day he won the leadership of the opposition on the strength of his willingness to switch from supporting to opposing putting a price on carbon, Tony Abbott has been predicting the carbon tax would wreak devastation on the economy, wrecking industries and destroying jobs.
To be fair, running scare campaigns against new taxes has always been accepted as a legitimate tactic by our ethically challenged political class.
Labor was happy to exploit the fears of the ill-informed in its opportunist opposition to John Howard's ''great big new tax on everything'', the goods and services tax.
The biggest difference is that Abbott's misrepresentations have been so much more successful.
But with the carbon tax taking effect from Sunday, the moment of truth approaches. Soon enough it will become clear that, for consumers and the vast bulk of businesses, the dreaded carbon tax will have an effect much smaller than the GST.
The retail prices of electricity and gas will rise about 9 per cent, but the increases in other prices will be very small.
Whereas the GST increased the consumer price index 2.5 per cent, the carbon tax is expected to raise it just 0.7 per cent.
Whereas the GST is expected to raise revenue of $48 billion in the new financial year, the carbon tax is expected to raise about $4 billion in its first year and about $7 billion in subsequent years.
Julia Gillard and her supporters have been hoping against hope that, as soon as this reality dawns on a fearful public, as soon as the magnitude of the Liberals' hoax is revealed, voters will switch back to Labor in droves.
I don't see it happening. It rests on an unrealistic view of the lack of self-delusion in human nature.
Political parties and their cheerleaders don't like admitting they've been dishonest - even to themselves. And you and I don't like admitting we've allowed ourselves to be conned by unscrupulous politicians and shock jocks.
So we look for rationalisations, no matter how tenuous. And in these the carbon tax abounds. With the GST, the object of the exercise was clear and simple: to raise more revenue. With the carbon tax the object is far from clear to anyone who hasn't done their homework.
For a start, it's clear the object is not to raise revenue, because much of the revenue raised is being returned to households as ''compensation'' in the form of a small cut in income tax for most people and small increases in pensions, allowances and family benefits.
But if the object is simply to discourage people from using emissions-intensive goods and services - which it is - why give back to most people the extra tax they'll be paying?
Because economists believe that to change people's behaviour it's necessary only to change the relative prices they face: to raise the prices of fossil fuels (particularly electricity and gas) relative to all other prices. It's not necessary to leave people out of pocket by keeping the proceeds from the tax you used to bring about the change in relative prices.
You may say you can't see how such a relatively modest rise in the price of electricity could make much difference to households' use of power. That's probably true, though it may encourage people to buy a more energy-efficient model next time they're replacing an appliance.
Actually, the price increase is aimed mainly at big industrial users of energy and, more particularly, the generators of electricity.
If the industrial users can be induced to eliminate wasteful use of power, this will make a difference. And if power companies can be induced to replace their present generators with less emissions-intensive models when the time comes, this will make a big difference. Raising the price of electricity produced by burning fossil fuels helps make the price of power produced from renewable sources more competitive.
But if those objections to the tax don't wash, there are plenty more. One is that the tax of $23 per tonne of carbon dioxide is way too high. I discuss this one in my little video on the website.
Yet another objection is that, since there's nothing an individual country can do to have a significant effect on global emissions of greenhouse gases, in the absence of a binding agreement to act by all the major countries there's no point in us doing anything.
Trouble with that argument is it increases the likelihood of failure. Only if enough countries demonstrate their good faith by getting on with it is effective global action likely to eventuate. We should line up with the good guys, not the bad guys - and we're far from the only good guy.
But if all else fails - if you can't find any other argument to confirm the wisdom of your original conclusion the carbon tax is a terrible thing - just tell yourself that, when the vast majority of scientists specialising in the area warn us continued emissions of greenhouse gases will lead to devastating climate change, they've got it all wrong.


text:
Biography | Discography | News & Media | Recent Projects | Accolades
Exclusive Music | Photo Gallery | Brooks Arthur Songwriter | Home
The OFFICIAL WEBSITE of BROOKS ARTHUR
BROOKS ARTHUR is one of the most respected music producers in the recording and film industries today. From his early days engineering number one hits ("My Boyfriend's Back," "Hang On Sloopy," "Chapel of Love," "Leader of the Pack," and the ground-breaking American debut album of Van Morrison, Blowin' Your Mind, that included the rock classic "Brown-Eyed Girl") (60's), to producing GRAMMY Award-winning work with Janis Ian ("At Seventeen") (70's), being Music Supervisor for the Oscar®-nominated "Glory of Love" from The Karate Kid II (80's), producing the GRAMMY-nominated multi- platinum "The Chanukah Song" (Adam Sandler) (90's), to co-writing and co-producing the animated holiday movie musical, Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights (00's), Brooks Arthur continues to be a vital and influential force in the entertainment industry.
Artists Brooks Has Worked With:
Sir Richard Attenborough
View The Complete List...
brooks@brooksarthur.com
Copyright© Brooks Arthur Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On my last day in Las Vegas after witnessing Antonio Esfandiari's victory in the $1 million Big One for One Drop, I decided to check off one of the items on my sports bettor's bucket list, so I headed down Flamingo Road to The Palms Casino Resort and placed a $10 wager on 13 Major League Baseball games.
Okay, so my bucket list says you need to place a wager on every MLB game on the slate, but it was the Fourth of July, and unfortunately I'd missed the first pitch of two games that were already in progress. I think 13 out of 15 still meets the spirit of the idea, and if I have the chance to do it again, I'll be sure to get my bets in on time.
The Palms recently renovated its sportsbook, bringing in Cantor Gaming to redesign and run the operation. Here are the top-10 things I'll remember from my afternoon at the Palms sportsbook.
If you've never been to a Cantor Gaming sportsbook, you're in for a treat. The Palms sportsbook has dark wagering windows beneath a virtual wall of bright high-definition LED screens that deliver 1,250 square feet of eye candy for the sports bettor. About a third of that space is devoted to horse racing, while the rest is tuned to other sporting events. Obviously it's the job of a sportsbook to provide a feed of any game that people are betting on, but I enjoyed the fact that I could easily see the score, the number of people on base and the number of outs in every game fairly easily.
Part of the design includes 90 very comfortable red chairs that swivel and lean back, which is a good thing, because the screens are elevated and they take up so much space you may need to turn yourself in order to see multiple games. I sat in the same chair for about five hours (with a few bathroom breaks and a quick walk to the food court for lunch) and never felt uncomfortable.
There is also a VIP section roped off for bettors who, unlike me, are willing to lay down a stake of more than $10 a game.
Each chair has a table and touch screen in front of it, and with some coaxing, you can find any of the games you might be betting on by surfing through the TV channels. I say with some coaxing because I had a really hard time getting the screen to register what I was trying to get it to do. I had to hit it with quite a bit of force – an iPad this was not.
I was also disappointed with the content on the touch screens. The TV feed only takes up one-quarter of the real estate on the screen, and the other three-quarters is used to try to entice you to play electronic table games like blackjack and roulette while you're sitting there. There are also constant prods to try the in-game betting, something I wasn't eager to do personally. I just wanted to pick the most competitive game and get the audio feed so I could hear the commentary, but the volume was very low and the video quality wasn't that great, so it was easier to watch the game on the huge screen (even when they were on one of the smaller screens and not one of the featured screens) than it was to watch it on the 19-inch screen in front of my face. I couldn't find any headphone jacks, either, which would have been a nice way to allow people to listen to the game of their choice, rather than being forced to listen to the game that is being featured on the largest screen in the room.
I was interested in seeing the new poker room at the Palms, which moved to a spot between the sportsbook and the Tonic Bar. I was initially a little reticent to see the poker room move. I enjoyed the old location because it was walled in on three sides, effectively separating it from the rest of the casino floor. But the new poker room has half-walls (four-and-a-half or five-feet high) around it, which provides the feeling of separation and integration into the sportsbook. I didn't play any poker while I was there – there are only eight tables and the only games running that afternoon were $2-$4 limit Hold'em and $1-$3 no-limit Hold'em, but they also spread $4-$8 limit Hold'em with a half kill, $1-$2 pot-limit Omaha and even $5-$10 Big O.
This isn't necessarily a Palms sportsbook observation, but rather an observation on my betting for the day. In baseball, I like to pick underdogs. If a team is listed at +150, well, they only have to win 40.1 percent of the time in order to make it a profitable wager. The worst baseball team in the majors as of today (the Houston Astros) has still won more than 35 percent of its games. Obviously I don't only pick underdogs. You have to look at pitching matchups and where the game is taking place, but don't look at baseball bets and think, "The favorite is going to win more often than not, so I should pick the favorite." When a team is listed at -200, do you really think they're going to win more than 2-of-3 in that scenario? If so, then by all means, pick that team. (Incidentally, the best winning percentage in MLB as of this morning is .600 for the New York Yankees.) Otherwise, give the underdog a good look. You won't win as often, but when you do, you'll have a bigger score and you may end up with a bigger bankroll in the end.
I tend to be pretty reserved when I watch games in a sportsbook. Most of that is because I appreciate other people may have a different rooting interest than I do, so I try to keep a pretty cool head and keep my celebrations and cursing to a minimum. But I'm not like all sports bettors. In fact, I was sitting next to a gentleman who was the exact opposite. At first I was a little confused since he seemed to be rooting for both teams, but then I figured out that he'd bet the over on the over/under. Betting the over, he explained, was the best way to bet because you could have a winner by the second inning. He pointed to the Los Angeles Angels vs. Cleveland Indians game, where the Indians led 9-1 after two. He was kicking himself for not betting that game. Everyone's got a system, right? Mine is to pick underdogs, his is to bet the over. To each his own.
However, this guy was living and dying with every pitch. Daniel Murphy takes a pitch for a strike.
"Come on, swing the bat!" he yelled at the screen.
"Swing the goddamn bat, Murphy!"
He takes a ball, then grounds out to the pitcher.
"Goddamn it, Murphy! These guys are just thinking about getting home for Fourth of July barbecues! They're not thinking about guys like me that bet the over!" he exclaimed.
I refrained from telling him that if there was one thing I was certain of, it was that Daniel Murphy of the New York Mets was most certainly not thinking about the guy that bet the over.
While this isn't unique to the Palms (you'll find overly enthusiastic sports bettors at every sportsbook), it did dominate my experience on the Fourth of July.
After about five hours of hearing how little MLB players care about the guys that bet the over, I was ready to do something else. Luckily, Casino City Managing Editor Vin Narayanan showed up and, after seeing the first round of games was over (I went 4-2 – good start to the day!), we decided to head to the movie theater located just a few steps away to watch "Ted" rather than watch the next round of games, which was just getting under way.
One thing that shocked me during my time in the Palms sportsbook was the utter lack of cocktail waitresses. I didn't see one the entire time I was there. I've come to learn that I shouldn't expect much in comps when I'm at a sportsbook, especially when I'm making the paltry $10 minimum bets. But I would have purchased a beer or two. It was the Fourth of July and I was watching baseball, after all. What's more American than having a Budweiser while watching the game? (Actually, make that a Sam Adams, since Anheuser-Busch isn't an American company anymore.) While I could have walked over to the Tonic Bar to get a drink, it was hard to get away when there were six games running that I had active wagers on.
So lesson learned: Next time I bet every baseball game, I'm heading to the LVH 0 Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, where every $20 in bets gets you a free drink.
2. Don't lose your ticket!
Once again, this isn't limited to the Palms, and I have no one to blame but myself, but it did dominate my betting experience on July 4th. With two games left to be completed, I discovered that I was 8-3 on the day and was going to collect my winnings before getting on the red-eye to head home. (Vin was kind enough to offer to cash in any winnings from the last two games, as he would be staying in Las Vegas for two more weeks.) I reached into my wallet to get them all out and found that I'd lost the tickets for my first four wins, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Something close to $80 down the drain. Your ticket is the only way you can prove that you won. And if someone else finds it and cashes it in, it's unlikely that you'll be able to do anything to get your winnings back. If it goes unclaimed, it's like you just handed the sportsbook your money.
I still managed to finish the day down just $13 – not bad considering the four lost winners. But it's still a lesson that I'll never forget. If I had it to do over again, I would have cashed in my first four winners before going to catch "Ted."
The biggest and most pleasant surprise I found at the sportsbook at the Palms is the fact it's a non-smoking area. As a non-smoker, I enjoy the fact that almost every poker room in a casino is non-smoking, and seeing this start to spread to the sportsbook is a welcome development. Walking through the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for the World Series of Poker, you can't help but notice how dank and smoky the Rio's sportsbook is. If that's the type of place you want to watch a game, then I encourage you to go to the Rio or any other sportsbook that allows smoking. Personally, I'd rather be able to breathe while watching the game, and cheer on the team I picked to win without coughing from the second-hand smoke.
Top-10 things I'll remember about the new Palms sportsbook is republished from Online.CasinoCity.com.


text:
Hailey Eisenrich
A few years ago, longtime software developer Tommy Reynolds had a pool installed in his backyard. After stumbling through some miscommunication with his builder during the process, he got to thinking: Could software solve the problem?
"I approached my builder with a concept, and said, 'Hey, if I build you this app, maybe you'll use it," Reynolds explains. "He was very open to it."
By late 2018, Reynolds began developing the app, relying on input from his pool builder and his own experience as a customer. "It was a passion project for me, just kind of a fun thing to work on. But for the builder, it was, 'This is going to change my business,'" he says.
Word got around, and in late 2019, Pentair asked for exclusivity on the product. Reynolds and his team have been perfecting what is now known as the Pentair Pool Builder app ever since.
"Nearly every one of the app's features was conceived or requested by a pool builder," Reynolds says. "They request something, and we ask, 'What does that look like? How do you think that should work?"
These days, jobs often require a plethora of software programs and apps, says Reynolds, "but none of that information is really being shared, and it requires a lot of duplicate entry. So we tried to simplify that," says Reynolds. "We brought it all down into a single application. It makes things a lot easier, and improves the efficiency of the office."
The app starts the process with a sales funnel, a tool that collects and records leads and helps manage the workflow of the sales process, and then, once a project goes from sales to construction, it moves within the app to what Reynolds calls the "big board."
"I noticed that probably 80 to 90% of builders I've interacted with had a whiteboard in their office, where every row was a job and every column was a phase," he says. "I would often ask, 'Why do you use the whiteboard when you have a computer?' And the answer was that it's simple to use, and it works. So we tried to produce a similar thing for the app."
Jobs and phases on the app's big board are organized with a calendar feature. "Builders can filter for a particular phase — let's just say I'm looking to see what excavation work I have scheduled this month. If I see that I only have one job scheduled, I can go ahead and schedule any other jobs that need excavation, because I know I won't be overloading my excavator," Reynolds explains.
The calendar also simplifies rescheduling. "If I have to move something by one or two days, the calendar will shift everything out, and that'll cascade down through all the phases that are dependent upon it."
On top of that, useful marketing tools are baked into the app's functionality. "When someone schedules, starts, or marks a phase complete, it triggers a customizable response," says Reynolds. "Builders can create targeted messaging for customers."
That's all just the tip of the iceberg: the app also enables remote jobsite monitoring, file uploads, customizable draw schedules and more. And new features come online on a regular basis; just recently, an estimating tool was added.
"The estimating tool allows builders to customize and build out projects, estimates and proposals. The idea here is: You have a product catalog, and as you're customizing a pool, you can add things from the catalog to a worksheet. It also computes the total for the customer."
A key objective, Reynolds says, is better management of customer expectations. "People are so excited about getting their pool complete, and it's a long process. Anything builders can do to manage that process and keep them informed goes a long way."
For more information, visit pentair.com/poolbuilder or call (833) 713-1500.
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The Unreal Future of Pool Design
Structure Studios is unveiling its new augmented reality app. What does that mean, and how does it work? We explain the details.


One Letter One Song is a web design, UI/UX and art direction project shared by Aykut Yilmaz on his Behance profile. There is not a lot of information about this project on the page but I assume it's a game about music skills where you have to figure out the title of the song by know the first letter? Am I completely wrong? Anyways the visual design is bold, colorful and in a way a bit unique. The iconography is also beautiful with very thick strokes. There are some new trends in place like the very long shadow on the browse page, and they look quite wonderful. Take a look after the break and let us know what you think.
I have been posting more often about web design. There reason is, of course, I am in the process of redesigning the blog and I need some web design inspiration.
I stumbled across this cool Behance project by Roman Lel, a visual designer & UX designer from Ukraine. He shared an entire web & mobile experience for Boston Taxi.
Concept projects are always a great way to learn and improve your design skills. It gives you the opportunity to try new things, ignore some constraints or really focus on particular areas you think you need to improve.


Note: This page was updated with 2.9.9.17(11) of Project Zomboid in mind. If the page turns out to be outdated please add an outdated Notice banner.
HINWEIS: Diese Seite ist NICHT auf Deutsch und stattdessen auf Englisch. Auf der englischen Seite finden Sie eine neuere Version.
Knox County is an area in southeastern Kentucky, USA where Project Zomboid is set. It takes place within the cities of Muldraugh, West Point, the Valley Station, Dixie and surrounding countryside as well as the soon to be added Louisville, Brandenburg and Fort Knox. Currently the map consists of those towns of Muldraugh, West Point, the Valley Station and Dixie, with a vast but almost completely unfinished world around it. The 0.29.17 version of Mauldraugh is 8 map cells, whereas the entire 0.2.0 version map fit in one cell. The map is heavily inspired by the real towns of Muldraugh and West Point.
Future locations will include Louisville, Brandenburg and Fort Knox along with countless areas of forest, small towns and farms.
Muldraugh has 342 buildings of town and a former population of "3566". 40 of the buildings being the "Special" buildings noted below which usually have more loot, more valuable loot, or are just monuments of the pre-apocalyptic world.
West point in terms of size, is smaller than Muldraugh. However, it has a larger population and a population density than Muldraugh so enemies are clumped in larger packs. The houses are closer to each other as well.
This page was last edited on 9 May 2018, at 17:38.


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Limnephilus microdentatus är en nattsländeart som beskrevs av Martynov 1913. Limnephilus microdentatus ingår i släktet Limnephilus och familjen husmasknattsländor. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Husmasknattsländor
microdentatus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Finding the right car under $500 down in Yucca Valley, CA is just a few simple steps away. Each used vehicle in Yucca Valley listed can be bought with $500 down. Buy a car with 500 dollars down in Yucca Valley and get an auto loan with $500 down at a single convenient Yucca Valley California location. Our Riverside-San Bernardino area used car dealers offer you the best chance to finance a used car in Yucca Valley with a low down payment and a monthly payment that fits within your budget.


text:
Базарчи:

 торговец на базаре.
 Базарчи — имя хана Золотой Орды.

Примечания


Passengers' baggage is collected by robots, they relax in a luxurious waiting area complete with an indoor garden before getting a face scan and swiftly passing through security and immigration - this could be the airport of the future. It's a vision that planners hope will become reality as new technology is rolled out, transforming the exhausting experience of getting stuck in lengthy queues in ageing, overcrowded terminals into something far more pleasant.
Journalists watching an automatic robot vacuum cleaning the floor during a media tour at the newly built Changi airport terminal 4 in Singapore.
The regions "are the two leading pockets of technology growth because they are really competing to be the global hubs for air transportation," Seth Young, director of the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University, told AFP. "If I'm going to fly from New York to Bangalore, do I transfer through Abu Dhabi or Dubai or do I transfer through Hong Kong? That's a huge, huge market."
Robots are appearing at some major hubs, including at Seoul's Incheon airport, where they carry out tasks including cleaning and carrying luggage, while Changi's new terminal will have robotic cleaners complete with butlers' uniforms. Self-service check-in and printing of boarding passes is already common, with many people printing their passes at home or at airport kiosks, and some hubs are now introducing self-service baggage drop points.
Airports are also trying to overhaul their image as dreary places that must be endured in order to get from A to B, to somewhere travellers can enjoy spending time. Changi is building a new terminal complex called Jewel, a 10-storey development filled with shops and restaurants whose centrepiece will be a 40-metre (130-foot) indoor waterfall surrounded by an indoor garden.
The complex will make the airport look more like a shopping mall than a traditional hub, and is aimed at cashing in on transitting passengers. "They are looking at retail, non-aeronautical profits," said Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst from Endau Analytics.
But while hubs in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East surge ahead, airports in the United States and Europe are being left behind. "Europe and the US were the leading aviation markets for the last 75 to 100 years, and it's very difficult to revolutionise your infrastructure when you are on a foundation that is 75 years old," said Young of the Center for Aviation Studies.
Some US and European airports are nevertheless trying to up their game. New York's ageing airports have long been criticised as old-fashioned, cramped and dirty but JFK, the main international hub serving the city, hopes to shed its dire reputation with a proposed $10 billion redevelopment.
Despite the buzz surrounding new technology, there are concerns that rapid innovation could threaten long-held ways of doing business. A report from consultancy Roland Berger warned that airport revenues from retail and parking could fall by between two and four billion dollars due to the new innovations.
Still, the landscape may not transform so quickly as many airports face difficulties in introducing new technology, from resistance to change to availability of financing, said Xavier Aymonod, a transport expert at Roland Berger and lead author of the report. "It's really challenging for airports to launch this digital transformation," he told AFP.


Bring home the sea and the beach with Coastal and Nautical Style Pillows. Decorating tips and shopping sources.
The world of coastal beach pillows and nautical pillows is an ever expanding sea of wonderful designs. So where do you begin when shopping for coastal beach pillows? These four coastal pillow decorating tips, plus shopping sources, will help you navigate and determine your pillow decorating style.
For the most cohesive variety look, use coastal beach pillows from the same line and create a grouping, as seen here with the DL Rhein Pillow Collection.
In this living room, coral pillows of the same flock are spread around.
Two pairs of seashell pillows featuring a different design variation are propped up in a Cozy Beach Cottage Bedroom.
The punch is in the repetition! The same fish pillows are used to create a simple clean look. Featured in one of Alys Beach Houses.
The same pillow as a twosome works wonders in a Turquoise Bedroom.
Mix and match coastal pillows as you see fit, spotted in a Coastal Main Home.
The mix and match pillow decorating idea combines coastal pillows from one flock with other matching pillows. Often, as seen here, you find one pillow tossed in that stands out from the crowd which brings me to the next idea.
A single coastal beach pillow or nautical pillow, like this hooked diver pillow, can be the star of your pillow collection. Seen in a Coastal Summer Cottage by Tracey Rapisardi.
Splurge on one awesome coastal pillow that depicts the sea, or features a Saying. Via Porchlight Interiors.
A coastal pillow dresses up a Restored Telephone Desk.
The right coastal beach pillow adds interest and life to a room. Featured here.
Find a great selection of coastal beach & nautical pillows at affiliated online stores.


At DW Energy Advisors, we are dedicated to providing our customers with friendly service. We value your business. We have made it our mission to provide reliable products and services in our customer-driven approach.
To learn more about DW Energy Advisors, and the products and services we can offer, please call us at 604-465-1822.
Vancouver, Maple Ridge , Kamloops, Kelowna, Golden BC.


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Journal of Multicultural Affairs
Home > Journals > JMA
The purpose of The Journal of Multicultural Affairs (JMA) is to promote cross-disciplinary, multiculturally based work. The field of multicultural affairs is vast, diverse, and includes a variety of disciplines which is the reason that JMA does not focus on a single educational arena.
The Journal of Multicultural Affairs (JMA) adheres to the belief that the multicultural field is not based solely in one area or owned by a single entity. It is vast. It is beautiful. It is dynamic. Work pertaining to multicultural affairs can be found within higher education, K-12, scientific, spiritual, religious, and community enclaves. How is multicultural affairs defined within JMA? JMA defines multicultural affairs as the affairs that affect the many faces of society, disrupts homogeneous thinking, fights for social equity, and seeks social justice. JMA is focused on bridging the gap between all settings and seeks to provide a platform for our audience to share their work in multicultural affairs and to engage in vital multicultural dialogue. We welcome submissions in a variety of platforms: research-based, personal experience, and poetry.
All Issues Vol. 7, Iss. 2 Vol. 7, Iss. 1 Vol. 6, Iss. 2 Vol. 6, Iss. 1 Vol. 5, Iss. 2 Vol. 5, Iss. 1 Vol. 4, Iss. 1 Vol. 3, Iss. 2 Vol. 3, Iss. 1 Vol. 2, Iss. 2 Vol. 2, Iss. 1 Vol. 1, Iss. 2 Vol. 1, Iss. 1


Printable placemats featuring the alphabet in lower and upper case, numbers from 1 to 20 and lines for the child to write their name.
Printable placemats featuring the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase, numbers from 1 to 20 and lines for the child to write their name.
Add your own personalised text to these placemats, designed to sit on the children's table places. Print and laminate for use at mealtimes (ideal for parents and child minders) or to help enforce classroom desk seating plans. Microsoft Word required.
Printable placemats featuring the alphabet in lower and upper case, numbers from 1 to 20 and space for the child's name.
Printable placemats featuring the alphabet in lower and upper case, numbers from 1 to 20, colour words and space for the child's name.
Printable placemats for snack/fruit time featuring the alphabet in lower and upper case, numbers from 1 to 20 and space for the child's name.


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Dave Banks thought his company's mobile-payment push would reach its first milestone of 100,000 users in six, maybe nine months.
In just 30 days, the 600-store Cumberland Farms chain hit its initial user goal, and in subsequent months turned mobile into 10% of its total payment mix (200,000 users). Now the company is pushing digital coupons to reward loyal gasoline customers and motivate them to come in from the gas islands. It's also planning to launch a new program designed specifically for businesses in the very near future.
For retailers in the brick-and-mortar game, success with mobile payment may spark an unprecedented chain reaction, one that could completely remap the supply chain, level iconic brands and usher in yet-unheard-of ways of shopping that will thrill and energize even the most passive consumer.
Just how and when the traditional shopping experience will undergo this seismic shift is unclear. Successes such as Cumberland Farms' occur in fits and starts, with more high-profile mobile wallets from the likes of PayPal, Google and Isis seemingly stalled.
But make no mistake: Major players including credit-card companies, phone carriers and the nation's most influential retailers are leveraging all they have for their piece of this murky pie.
What is certain, as Banks has seen, is that the consumer appetite is there. It's obvious that the average Joe or Jane wishes to use a cellphone to pay for goods, organize loyalty rewards and even initiate a more secure credit transaction. For the retailer, the Holy Grail of shopper insight and customer "stickiness" alone presents the most compelling of motives.
But so much stands in the way.
The major players involved have divergent agendas. Battles rage over ownership of what many call the "secure element," or the piece of the payment transaction that verifies a person's identity. Central to that conflict is the ownership of data and consumer buying history, by any measure the holiest of turf. Retailers, including some of the country's largest names, have even banded together to create their own mobile-wallet solution as a way to hold onto that data.
These battles affect the viability of technologies, pitting near-field communications (NFC) against on-screen barcodes against snapshots of quick-response (QR) codes. And threats of data-breach liability and security mandates lay like cost-punitive land mines at retailers' feet.
Then there's the consumer—by all accounts, both the hot sauce and the wild card.
Now weave in concerns about identity theft in the wake of last fall's Target breach involving 110 million cardholders. It would seem that customers across all channels want more secure ways to pay, especially as their transactions migrate online. Mobile holds such promise.
So what's holding up the mobile-wallet avalanche?
In short, the public wants more than the flash of technology to change its mag-stripe way of life.
Cumberland Farms' success comes amid industry confusion over the many mobile wallets that have emerged. Cumberland actually started out using San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal. After it was launched in March 2012 at 50 Boston-area stores, initial response was good enough that the company extended the offer to all 200 of its stores in Massachusetts after three months.
After evaluating the project, Cumberland came back with an automated clearinghouse (ACH)-based solution, which ties mobile payments to customers' bank accounts. Cumberland Farms partnered with Coconut Creek, Fla.-based National Payment Card to develop an industry-first, fully integrated mobile-payment product based on ACH transfers. The solution bypasses traditional credit-card rails and avoids high interchange fees, with the resulting savings allowing for the much-desired 10-cent discount.
Whether PayPal will factor in down the road remains a question, but Banks believes the company has hit on a winning formula.
To embrace mobile wallets, customers want a sizable discount first—that alluring hook—and convenience second, says Banks. The chain's survey reinforced this message, with two-thirds of mobile-paying customers acknowledging the 10-cent discount hooked them to sign up and use the option, with about a third saying convenient payment method was the top motivation.
Retailers' desire to jump into mobile is palpable, with many initiating loyalty and applications (apps) offering reward points, location finders, pricing information and notifications of in-store specials. Some have followed Cumberland's example and have taken on mobile payment, including Flash Foods, Waycross, Ga.; Maverik, North Salt Lake, Utah; Parker Cos., Savannah, Ga.; and Spinx Cos., Greenville, S.C.
In most of these cases, mobile payment goes hand in hand with passed-along fuel discounts, something that may not continue in the long term, according to Gray Taylor, executive director of NACS' technology arm, the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS), Alexandria, Va.
Though not completely in effect today, victories that accompanied the Durbin Amendment, enacted last year, will eventually level the financial advantages that going through ACH processing provides. However, Taylor says, that doesn't negate the effort, referring to the audience these retailers would have accrued being first movers in their markets.
The cross-channel retailer that has best capitalized mobile to generate affinity and increase brand value is Seattle-based Starbucks, according to Patricia Hewitt, vice president and managing director of consulting services for Mercator Advisory Group, a Boston-based research firm. She authored a study examining the major credit cards and emerging mobile wallets and concluded that the threats to existing iconic brands is considerable.
Today, major credit cards dominate at retail locations, with their logos prominent on registers and store doors. But as mobile wallets aggregate payment brands, these icons become secondary to the larger wallet's identity.
If the mobile-wallet brand succeeds in overtaking the credit card in the minds of consumers, then that emerging brand can use its resources "to incent customers to keep more money in [that mobile] wallet, because it's the funding source," she says.
Merchants may commandeer some of that opportunity, she says, naming Starbucks as a main example. The coffee chain started by leveraging its popular loyalty card, enhancing it with a mobile-payment piece and executing for the customer a consistent, delightful experience, according to those following the retailer's success. Hewitt applauds the astounding volume (more than 11%) of the mobile payments being made at Starbucks locations.
To that point, the concept of brand affinity can extend not only to card logos and retail chains but also to individual products and product lines. Last fall, Northfield, Ill.-based Mondelez International went into the second phase of a program to pair nine of its most recognized brands, such as Oreo and Trident, with high-tech startups in the social media and mobile fields. In this second phase, the companies were to pitch venture capitalists for funding for their proposed projects.
Many in the industry believe it's only a matter of time before product brands engineer social and mobile programs reaching directly to consumers, potentially bypassing the retailers altogether.
Much in the way major online retailer Amazon hurt brick-and-mortar appliance and electronics outlets—essentially turning them into "showrooms" for things that customers inspected on-site but then bought online—c-store retailers may be "tasting rooms" for consumers, which could lead to shoppers ordering products (and getting rewards) directly from the manufacturers, according to Anton Bakker, president of Outsite Networks, Norfolk, Va.
Historically a loyalty solution provider, Outsite has evolved to offer brand-specific apps that have product-location, social-media and loyalty capabilities. He says the landscape may change in as little as 18 months.
Providing CPG companies with shopper history data and gearing up to accept mobile and other up-and-coming forms of payment are ways retailers can avoid irrelevance, Bakker says. His concern is that c-store operators don't see this shift as a real threat.
Mobile phones take the cumbersome paper coupon out of the equation, but discounting alone is not the inherent lure, says Bob Burroughs, senior vice president of product marketing for Sionic Mobile, Atlanta. It's the offer's relevance.
Referencing the importance of customer information and historic purchases, the retailer can customize coupons, corresponding them to the consumer's habits, thereby having a better chance at achieving behavior change.
Advocating a "holistic" view of loyalty, potentially across multiple, non-competing retailers, he says retailers can lure in customers who may not already shop in their stores by simply offering the right incentive.
Solution providers both in the c-store arena and those catering to retailers in general have been developing "business intelligence" solutions for the past few years—to certain degrees of success—using mathematical algorithms and other methods to interpret data. Both retailers and suppliers continue to explore these opportunities, looking for ways to translate data into executable sales-floor strategies.
As those with discounting and loyalty programs can attest, mobile has a reach far beyond payment. Chris Quam, consumer insights manager for General Mills Convenience and Foodservice, Minneapolis, says people with mobile phones inside the c-store are actively making decisions, posting their opinions on social networking sites and leaving a trail of behavioral data that can be extremely useful to retailers.
General Mills has spent considerable time tracking keywords, developing demographic buckets and assessing behavior based on what people post on popular social-media sites, Quam says.
Special deals spike conversations, he says, especially when there's a "hot" giveaway. Another trendy topic is gas. People love falling prices and hate when they have to gas up.
The imminent confusion brought on by mobile payment is forcing companies to change, with many actively choosing to reposition themselves. Duluth, Ga.- based NCR Corp., for example, acquired two companies late last year to help evolve its ATM and mobile-solutions services.
The larger goal is to become more of a turnkey, one-stop provider for financial transactions, be it with ATM functions or mobile payment, says Mark Critchett, director of marketing and strategy in NCR's financial services business.
As suppliers jockey to best position themselves for the new era of mobile, many of the big players—including credit-card companies, phone carriers and mobile wallets—are doing so as well, Taylor of PCATS says.
A pivotal battleground will be in ownership of what he describes as the "secure element" embedded within the phone that will hold an owner's identification. In different emerging business models, the phone carrier, card issuer or bank may ultimately achieve ownership of that part of the transaction. Taylor describes a scenario whereby retailers may have to "buy back" their own data. Fortunately, moves have been made to circumvent the ability for any one company to own that secure element, he says.
The question over data ownership is in part what drove many retailers to form their own mobile-wallet initiative, he says.
While the topic of mobile in the c-store space can spark any number of talking points, the winners will home in on what matters. And by all accounts, central to everything—beyond technology, logistics, even consumer acceptance—will be the brand: what it stands for, what it delivers, how it morphs to stay tenaciously and defiantly relevant.
As Starbucks has shown, the ability for any one brand to gain credit for the mobile experience in the consumers' mind is completely up for grabs, says Hewitt of Mercator. But it's up to the retailer to develop and execute a seamless plan.
"Until the consumer can begin to see value of not pulling out a physical wallet … that's where you'll see inroads," she says.
▶ Card Containers: These products passively store a consumers' payment and loyalty card numbers as a form of backup.
▶ Card and Credential Containers: In addition to holding payment and loyalty card numbers, these products automatically fill in merchant checkout pages with the proper credentials.
▶ Digital Bank Accounts: Used primarily for bill payment and point-to-point payment using smartphones. These accounts typically don't offer mobile shopping abilities.
▶ Mobile Payment Products: These products access a customer's payment account offered by a single merchant or merchant aggregator, such as the PayPal or Starbucks models.
▶ True Mobile Wallets: These provide interactive access to a variety of credit or debit cards for use at the POS.


Quality Unisaw table saw doors and motor covers plus other table saw accessories. Motor covers, doors, dust boots or ports and chip shoots. Everything needed to connect your Unisaw table saw to a dust collector. Heavy duty black ABS for years of service. ABS can be easily painted to match your saw. We also make parts for Powermatic, Rockwell and other brands of table saws.


Commuters using Rome's public transport provider ATAC could see the cost of yearly and monthly bus passes increased by around 10 per cent, according to proposals currently being considered by the city administration.
The measures would mean that from next January the cost of an annual metrebus card would increase from its current €250 to €280 while a monthly card would go from €35 to €38.
The latest proposed price hikes comes as the troubled transport company announced further streamlining and cuts to its services.
In May 2012 the former 75-minute bus and metro ticket which cost €1 was replaced by the current 100-minute ticket costing €1.50.
In August this year ATAC launched a new rechargeable electronic pass for monthly subscriptions, replacing the original paper version.
Over the last several years the company has been plagued by allegations of corruption, nepotism and absenteeism. More recently a number of its drivers have been attacked by commuters, mainly in the suburbs of Rome.


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By Susan Pugh
RICHMOND, Ky. – Edwin Thompson, who in the last five seasons has recruited and coached 11 All-Americans and 24 players who went on to play professional baseball, has been chosen as the new head baseball coach at Eastern Kentucky University, Director of Athletics Steve Lochmueller announced today.
Thompson spent the last three seasons at Georgia State University. He served as the pitching coach for the Panthers in 2013 and 2014 before being promoted to Recruiting Coordinator/Defensive Coordinator before the 2015 season. His 2015 recruiting class is ranked by Perfect Game as one of the top-100 recruiting classes in the country.
"I am extremely excited to welcome Coach Thompson to Eastern Kentucky University and the Colonel Nation," Lochmueller said. "Edwin brings great energy, character and a set of skills that will elevate our vision for EKU baseball while maintaining the NCAA model for the student-athlete experience."
Thompson helped Georgia State to a pair of 30-win seasons in his three years on the staff. The 2013 squad won 35 games, the third most in program history. This past season, the Panthers qualified for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in just their second season in the league. GSU beat Georgia Southern in the first round.
"I want to thank Director of Athletics Steve Lochmueller and the entire search committee for this amazing opportunity to join the Eastern Kentucky University family and the Richmond community," Thompson said. "EKU has a great standard of academic and athletic excellence along with a strong baseball tradition and I am honored to lead the baseball program. I truly respect President Benson's vision for EKU and the athletic department's commitment to fostering success; my goals for the baseball program will support both. I am looking forward to meeting our current baseball players, alumni, and supporters and sharing my excitement about the program."
In addition, under Thompson's guidance the 2015 team ranked in the top-25 in the nation in double plays and improved its fielding percentage by .011 percent to .965. He mentored three first team all-conference selections this past season.
In the classroom, the Panthers posted a team grade-point-average of 3.0 or above each of the last three years with Thompson serving as the program's academic liaison. The team's 3.18 GPA this spring semester was the highest in the last eight years. He also implemented and directed the annual Martin Luther King Jr. free baseball clinic.
In addition to coaching at Georgia State, Thompson has spent the last two years working with USA Baseball. His roles have included evaluating players for the USA 18U National Team and coaching the 17U National Development Program.
"Edwin Thompson is one the top young recruiters in the nation," said Shaun Cole, Director of the USA Baseball 18U National Team Program. "His ability to work with hitters and pitchers makes him a well-rounded head coach. Coach Thompson has a high level of integrity and passion for college baseball. Edwin is a great hire."
Before joining the Georgia State program, Thompson spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons at Duke University as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Following the 2012 campaign, Thompson served as the interim head coach for one month. While working with the Blue Devils, his 2012 recruiting class was recognized by Baseball America as one of the top recruiting classes in the South and rated among the top-35 in the nation by Perfect Game. The group included four future Major League Baseball draft picks.
Thompson worked with a total of 12 players at Duke that would go on to play professional baseball, including current Toronto Blue Jay Marcus Stroman. Stroman, the 22nd pick in the 2012 MLB draft, was the first-ever Duke player chosen in the first round.
Thompson compiled a 37-33 record in two seasons (2009 & 2010) as the head coach at NCAA Division III Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He led the program to a school record 25 wins. Thompson's coaching career began at the University of Maine at Farmington where he served four seasons (2005-08) as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.
The Jay, Maine native played collegiately at Howard University and the University of Maryland before concluding his career at Webber University in Babson Park, Florida where he helped the team to a school record 37 wins and its first-ever regional appearance. He earned a bachelor's of science degree in general business at Webber in 2003.
Thompson played one year for the Bangor Lumberjacks in the independent Northeast League before starting his coaching career. Thompson is married to the former Cameron Warren.
What Others Are Saying About Edwin Thompson …
"I am so happy for coach Edwin Thompson to be named Head Coach at Eastern Kentucky University. EKU has hit a grand slam with this hiring. Coach Thompson is ready in every way to be a great head coach. He is professional, hard working, loyal and a great role model for student-athletes. He will be missed at Georgia State baseball, but I am extremely proud to see him move up the coaching ranks."
Greg Frady, Head Coach, Georgia State University
"Eastern Kentucky has made a tremendous addition to its athletic department and campus as a whole with the hiring of Edwin Thompson as the new head baseball coach. First and foremost, he is a principled, honest man who has a special capacity to teach and lead in an easy going, authentic manner. He will connect with the players, bring in a top flight staff, and work tirelessly to elevate the program on and off the field. His deep national recruiting connections will be essential in helping Eastern Kentucky baseball take a big step forward. Simply put, the program is in the hands of a dedicated and caring individual who will pour his heart and soul into his players and the community. Great hire!"
Sean McNally, Former Head Coach, Duke University, Currently Pittsburgh Pirates Pro Scout
"Eastern Kentucky made a 'world class' hire relative to Edwin Thompson. Edwin will be a great citizen of the university, an outstanding teacher/mentor/coach, a stellar recruiter, and a strong and determined leader that will operate with impeccable integrity. Just a great hire for EKU, for college baseball, and for college athletics generally."
Kevin White, Director of Athletics, Duke University
"I think Eastern Kentucky made a great decision in selecting Edwin Thompson as their next head coach. His passionate, charismatic work ethic and his attention to detail will be something his players will feed off of for their future success. I won't be surprised to see him take Eastern Kentucky to another level very quickly."
Dave Serrano, Head Coach, University of Tennessee
"Eastern Kentucky just hired one of the young bright minds with a high ceiling to run its program. Edwin is a guy of high character and tireless worker that relates well to players, families, professional scouts and anyone he comes in contact with. His open mind to learn and stay humble in the process will continue to be a strong asset as he takes this next step into being a head coach. I have watched his progression since he entered into college coaching as an assistant and feel strongly that overall his future is bright. I wish him and the family at Eastern Kentucky nothing but the best moving forward with its baseball program."
Danny Montgomery, Special Assistant to the GM, Colorado Rockies
"I'm really excited for Edwin to have this opportunity at Eastern Kentucky. I've known him for a long time as a coach and a friend. He is a hard worker, highly motivated and passionate. He will parlay that into something very special at EKU. Edwin really has a knack for recruiting. He's a great people person and has a lot of contacts."
Jack Leggett, American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer and Former Head Coach, Clemson University
Related Items:eastern kentucky baseball, Edwin Thompson
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Kentucky Fans Have Their Own Dating Site


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Competence governance
Decision cultures
Expertise driven conversations
Research Streams
Cloud ecosystems
Indra Sistemas goes global
Indra Sistemas S.A. is a long-established Spanish multinational IT solutions and consultancy provider with activities in the automation, defence and Space industries. It offers data centre consultancy and physical services, bespoke systems and cloud services to large businesses and public organisations.
Data centre consultancy from Indra covers the whole spectrum of services, from specifying requirements to building the data centre and designing its network infrastructure. Physical data centre services are mainly based around the cloud and traditional housing and hosting is being pushed out in favour of cloud-based models.
Indra's flagship service is Flex-IT, an on demand, flexible cloud delivery service based within Indra's own private cloud. It allows businesses to manage their IT applications and infrastructure from anywhere and at any time. This gives businesses enterprise-level infrastructure and management options at a fraction of the price of in-house systems or standard colocation, all served via Indra's high security data centres.
Indra is based in Spain and operates more than 80 offices around the country. It also has presence around the world in 47 countries across the US, Latin America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
It owns four data centres in Spain – San Fernando de Henares, USO Indra Anabel Segura, Telémaco and the company's headquarters in Arroyo de la Vega.
The newer carrier neutral, tier III level data centre at San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) consolidates all of Indra's services across the other three data centres. It was built to state-of-the-art specifications in order to support Indra's cloud expansion strategy and covers an area of over 5000sqm. Uptime is 99.98%, and the centre was awarded ISO27001 for information security. It offers N+1 redundancy over power, network carriers and cooling, two separate power feeds from two substations, diesel generators and the latest intruder detection and fire detection technologies.
Indra's energy and sustainability policy is to invest in technologies that minimise energy use, obtain energy efficiency certifications for its data centres and improve management and systems. Its commitment to sustainability, amongst other things, has kept it on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for 8 years running. Indra also offers advice on sustainability to clients in the energy and other industries through its consulting service.
Funding/business model
Indra Sistema S.A. is a public limited company that is listed on all four main boards of the Spanish stock exchange. It has no one controlling shareholder and the bulk of the shares (54%) are spilt between a range of investment funds, telecoms companies and public investment companies from different countries. It has numerous subsidiaries, many of which were originally acquisitions.
The company is currently undergoing a major business restructure in order to improve efficiency, competitiveness and profit. The move was sparked by a loss of over EUR 92 million in 2014 and further losses in the first quarter of 2015. It currently employs more than 39,000 people globally and over 21,000 in Spain and has a turnover of around EUR 3 billion.
Indra's goal is to become a major multinational IT provider and consultancy. It seeks to capitalise on growing demand for its services whilst at the same time streamlining the business in order to remain competitive through cost-cutting and service efficiencies.
Indra counts some of the world's most important organisations amongst its clients. The European Space Agency (ESA) chose Indra's high security San Fernando de Henares to host the satellite images from Sentinel 2A and sister satellite Sentinel 2B – a contract which lasts until 2020. San Fernando also hosts international energy companies, airlines and major financial institutions.
In 2013 it won a major contract in Malaysia to design and deliver a complete data centre based control centre for a large section of Malaysia's light rail section and in 2014 won the Transport for London contract for a tunnel control centre. Indra is also regularly awarded public contracts and funding for IT infrastructure, research and design services and one of the main awarding bodies is the European Commission.
Major technology partners to Indra's data centre division include BMC, Cisco, Citrix, Microsoft and many more. Its recent partnership with SAP resulted in the first specialised module-based SAP system for the hotel industry – Travel Management Suite.
A major global player with extensive expertise
Indra is a serious global player in the IT consultancy industry, although its data centre services are just a small part of its overall offer.
Indra's move away from physical colocation services is part of its overall expansion strategy. It probably won't appeal to smaller companies and those who prefer traditional data centre set-ups. It is, however, a great choice for larger businesses and organisations that require a more tailored package of services, and who will find themselves in good company amongst an impressive list of fellow clients.
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package com.learning.designpattern.behavioral.command;

public class BuyStock implements Order {

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}

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With millions of the new BMW Minis driving about on today's roads it is worth thinking about your Brakes. When did you last think about your cars stopping ability.
Just think about your brakes, when speeding down the motorway. If you have a soft top Just imagine the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. This is the type of feeling that you get when you are at peace with the world and your Mini Cooper s driving like never before. Feels great, doesn't it? This time, imagine having to slam on the anchors as a car hurtles towards you on the wrong side of the road, then finding out that your cars do not work. Now that would be a bad thing to happen, but if your BMW Mini Brakes were serviced regularly then you would have no problem stopping your Mini and carrying on with your journey.
Over the years and in particularly recent times the cars braking system has been continually up dated and modified. The modern BMW Mini Brakes system has now become extremely dependable,I can remember when years ago cars were always having problems with faulty brakes, in fact the brakes were one of the parts that failed the most, but with modern cars such as the new Minis, the braking systems have been developed by the manufacturers with some of the development coming from motor-sport.
The BMW Mini Brakes system generally consists of disks all round. The front and the rear brakes are usually discs and pads. The brakes are connected by a system of low pressure metal pipes.Hence, from the rear and the front discs and wheels to the "Master cylinder". For this reason, the system also includes the hand stop mechanism or (parking brakes). Consequently, the anti-lock system that most cars have these days.
When you apply the BMW Mini Brakes pedal.Thus, to stop or slow down you car. The pedal operates a plunger that applies pressure.Thus, to the fluid that is in your brake pipes. Of course, then to the master cylinder. The pressure from the pedal is then spread to the other wheels by the master cylinder. It is important that your master cylinder is topped up to the correct level, because it is impossible to stop your car without brake fluid in the cylinder at the correct level.
When you apply the foot pedal to stop your car, the pressure is spread out throughout all of your brake pipe system, and when the pressure is released then the pressure goes back to normal and the brake pads are released so that you can drive your Mini normally. These are some of the reasons that it is important to have your brakes serviced at a reputable Autocentre and by using Unipart approved parts, your car will be safe to drive in all weather conditions and will stop when you want it to stop, not an extra ten feet further on than you wanted to be.
penetrate your brake system. This can be detected on a brake inspection or on the floor where you park your Mini. You will see a small patch of what looks like oil on the floor where you park your car. If you see this, then please have your brakes checked as soon as possible, it could very serious and perhaps lead to a total loss of your brakes.
In Halifax we offer a complete Unipart brake check on all models of car, and we love Minis.
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For a cost effective, space saving choice for heating and cooling in your home, you can't go wrong with a split system.
Split system air-conditioners are a great way to heat or cool a particular room or area.
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The indoor unit draws heat out of the room through to the outdoor unit. Here the cooling system unit removes heat from the gas, turning it into a cold liquid. This cold liquid is then pushed back into the indoor unit where the fan uses it blow cool air back around the room.
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BAPTIST LIFE
Hep A outbreak on decline but health officials remain vigilant
Posted Tuesday, April 23, 2019 3:19 pm
By TOM LATEK, Kentucky Today
FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) - State health officials reported some good news regarding the Hepatitis A outbreak affecting Kentucky, but aren't ready to declare it at an end yet.
There has been a significant decline with 29 cases reported during the period April 7-13, 2019, which is the lowest number in just over a year. Compare that to the period Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2018, when 151 cases were reported.
While the outbreak was identified by the Department for Public Health in November 2017, for the period from August 1, 2017 to April 13, 2019, the latest date for which figures are available, Kentucky has seen a total of 4,543 cases of Hep A, with cases reported in 107 of Kentucky's 120 counties. This has led to 2,199 people being hospitalized and 53 deaths.
Jefferson County, Kentucky's most populous, has had the most cases at 656, which works out to an incident rate 85 per 100,000 population. The highest rate is in Whitley County, where 195 cases translates to 538 per 100,000 population.
Homelessness and/or illicit drug use has been identified as risk factors in 81 percent of the Hepatitis A cases, with no outbreak risk factors in the remaining 19 percent. The majority of the cases have involved those between 20-59 years of age, with the largest spike among those 30-39.
"While cases are declining in a manner consistent with improvement of the outbreak across the state, this is not the time to diminish our efforts," said Barbara Fox, a Cabinet for Health and Family services spokesperson. "We continue to aggressively respond to this outbreak and plan to do so well into the foreseeable future."
She said they are not ready to declare victory.
"The standard way that we declare an outbreak over is to wait two incubation periods past the last outbreak-associated case. For the current Hepatitis A outbreak, that would be 100 days after the last case that we identify in a Kentucky resident who was exposed in Kentucky."
Meanwhile, the E. coli outbreak also continues in Kentucky. Fox says, "We are currently reporting 65 confirmed cases of E. coli O103. We are also aware of eight hospitalizations and are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who are coordinating the investigation and response and providing them with our data."
While the CDC has identified ground beef as the cause of the outbreak, Fox says federal agencies are continuing to gather information on identifying the source of the ground beef. "At this point in time, we have not identified a single restaurant or grocery store within Kentucky that is common to all cases."
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Ky. Little Leaguer powers way to Williamsport for Home Run Derby
New director 'humbled' to carry on tradition of eastern Kentucky center
Former Troy quarterback Sawyer Smith transfers to Kentucky
'Miracles in the works!' mother says of injured toddler
Kentucky community rallies around toddler in critical condition
State finishes fiscal year with nearly $200 million surplus
Black carp starting to show up, bounty offered
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Lawmakers proposing legislation to prohibit sanctuary cities in Ky.
Perspectives More
National Veterans Wheelchair Games bring nation's heroes to Louisville
Beginning Thursday, the city of Louisville will host the 39th National Veterans Wheelchair Games. With 19 competitive events from weightlifting to hand cycling, the games are a rehabilitation competition giving our nation's heroes the chance to engage and build supportive relationships with their fellow veterans.
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Justice Dept. to Open Investigation Into Kenosha Shooting
September 2, 2020 September 2, 2020 0 Comments	Featured
KENOSHA, Wis. — The Justice Department on Wednesday introduced a civil rights investigation into the police capturing of a Black man in Kenosha, Wis., as new particulars emerged within the case, a white teenager who confronted demonstrators was arrested in reference to two deaths, and protests unfold to athletes in three professional sports activities leagues.
Protesters have poured into Kenosha's streets to decry the capturing of Jacob Blake, a Black father who was partially paralyzed after a white officer fired at him in entrance of his kids. The authorities launched new particulars of the case on Wednesday that gave a clearer image of why law enforcement officials confronted Mr. Blake, who they stated had a knife.
Amid the ire over the capturing of Mr. Blake, some in Kenosha have torched buildings, and the authorities have fired tear gasoline in an effort to clear the streets. Counterprotesters have additionally emerged, and gunfire broke out alongside one crowded, darkish road late Tuesday, sending bystanders fleeing into parking tons and screaming in terror.
The violence that broke out got here as demonstrators scuffled with a gaggle of males carrying lengthy weapons who stated they have been defending the realm from looting. The authorities have been investigating whether or not the white teenager who was arrested on Wednesday, recognized as Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was a part of a vigilante group. His social media accounts appeared to present an intense affinity for weapons, legislation enforcement and President Trump. (The Trump campaign said Mr. Rittenhouse "had nothing to do" with the president's re-election effort.)
The fatal shooting followed a tense night of standoffs between the police and demonstrators and escalated a situation that had drawn the attention of Mr. Trump, who is in the third day of the Republican National Convention and has sought to portray Democratic cities as rife with violence and crime.
Protests over the shooting of Mr. Blake also expanded to sports, where the N.B.A. postponed multiple playoff games on Wednesday after the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their matchup with the Orlando Magic. The athletes' protests quickly spread to Major League Baseball, the W.N.B.A., Major League Soccer and the professional tennis tour.
Mr. Rittenhouse was arrested in Antioch, Ill., and faces a charge of first-degree intentional homicide, according to a court document from Lake County, Ill. Antioch is about 30 minutes southwest of Kenosha, just over the Illinois line. Two men, a 26-year-old and a 36-year-old from Kenosha County, were killed, the authorities said, and a third person was injured.
Kenosha has become the latest flashpoint in a summer of unrest that began with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and set off soul searching across the country as well as protests, some of which have turned violent.
Mr. Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he planned to deploy federal law enforcement officials to Kenosha and that Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, had agreed to the help.
"I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!" he wrote on Twitter. He also wrote: "We will NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets,"
Mr. Trump is fighting for support in swing states like Wisconsin, which had surprised many in 2016 by giving him its electoral votes.
Mr. Trump's campaign also issued a statement distancing itself from Mr. Rittenhouse, saying he had "nothing to do with our campaign."
Mr. Evers on Wednesday announced that his office was sending more members of the Wisconsin National Guard to Kenosha — the numbers have grown to 500 from about 125 earlier in the week — as protests have intensified. On Tuesday, Mr. Evers declined federal assistance from the White House, his office said, but additional conversations took place on Wednesday.
It was uncertain what federal assistance Mr. Evers had been offered and details of any federal involvement were uncertain late Wednesday, though an official in Mr. Evers's office indicated that some level of help had been accepted.
"The federal government is planning to assist in facilitating conversations with other state partners and provide F.B.I. support to our state response," Britt Cudaback, Mr. Evers's deputy communications director, said in a written statement.
Officials on Wednesday for the first time identified the Kenosha police officer who fired at Mr. Blake as Rusten Sheskey, who has been with the department for seven years. Officer Sheskey and two other officers who were present at the shooting have been placed on administrative leave as the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigates the case, which officials provided new details of on Wednesday evening.
Officers were responding to a domestic complaint on Sunday afternoon when they attempted to arrest Mr. Blake, state officials said. They used a Taser on Mr. Blake but it failed to stop him, and Officer Sheskey then fired his gun seven times into Mr. Blake's back.
According to state officials, Mr. Blake admitted that he possessed a knife; a knife was later recovered from the driver's-side floorboard of Mr. Blake's car. There were no other weapons in the vehicle.
The Wisconsin attorney general, Josh Kaul, said he could not comment on the role of the knife or whether officers instructed Mr. Blake to drop it before the officer opened fire.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for Mr. Blake's family, said in a statement that Mr. Blake had not posed any threat to police officers on Sunday, and denied that he was carrying a knife. "Jacob did nothing to provoke police," Mr. Crump said. "He was a great father and was only intending to get his children out of a volatile situation."
Michael D. Graveley, the Kenosha County district attorney, said the prosecutor's office would decide whether criminal charges were warranted once the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation completes its inquiry. "I ask for as much patience as our times allow," he said.
Until Wednesday, much of what was known of the shooting was from video footage taken by a neighbor that showed Mr. Blake being shot in the back as he tried to get into his car.
Kenosha officials vowed not to let the violence that has unfolded since Sunday continue. They announced that a curfew, which has been moved up to 7 p.m., would extend through the weekend. "It's something we have to do," Sheriff David Beth said.
On Tuesday night, loosely organized demonstrations had taken place in a shifting, hourslong standoff between the police and protesters. Early in the night, protesters assembled outside a newly erected metal barrier protecting a county courthouse downtown and threw water bottles, rocks and fireworks at officers.
The police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, repeatedly warning the crowd through a bullhorn that they were violating the city curfew of 8 p.m. and risking arrest. The crowd was eventually forced out of the park with tear gas and onto city streets, where the standoff continued.
Many protesters left the area, but others lingered and walked to a gas station several blocks away. There, a group of men with guns stood outside, promising to protect the property and verbally sparring with the arriving protesters. As the night stretched on, the gas station became a tense gathering spot, with bystanders watching from parked cars and people milling around in the street, arguing and occasionally shoving one another.
Police officers had crept closer to the area in armored trucks, urging the people who were still there to go home.
Then, near midnight, shots rang out.
Video footage from the scene of the shooting appears to show Mr. Rittenhouse running and then firing his gun, striking a man in the head. He then flees and is chased by bystanders before tripping, falling to the ground and shooting another man.
"I've had people saying, 'Why don't you deputize citizens?'" Sheriff Beth said. "This is why you don't deputize citizens with guns to protect Kenosha."
The protests of the shooting of Mr. Blake have reverberated far beyond Kenosha: Demonstrators in other cities have chanted his name, and protests in cities like Madison, Wis., have intensified since the police shooting.
In Florida, the N.B.A. postponement was an extraordinary escalation of how players have demonstrated for social causes this season, with numerous athletes speaking out against systemic racism and police brutality.
The boycott was quickly followed by the postponement of two more N.B.A. playoff games scheduled for Wednesday night, and other leagues also took notice: W.N.B.A. players refused to play in their games and two Major League Baseball games were called off because athletes chose not to participate.
"WE DEMAND CHANGE," the Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James wrote on Twitter. "SICK OF IT."
The postponement also affected first-round games between the Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers, and between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets.
Players from the Boston Celtics and the Toronto Raptors said on Wednesday that they were considering boycotting the first game of their series on Thursday night, and that some had raised the possibility of leaving the N.B.A.'s restricted site at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., where the league is playing out its season in quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Julie Bosman reported from Kenosha, and Sarah Mervosh from New York. Marc Stein and Sopan Deb contributed reporting from Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Katie Benner from Washington, and Annie Karni from North Haven, Maine. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
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One terrified writer, one HUGE literary festival, one big mistake?
Over the past year I've been asked to speak at several events, some big, some small, but all have one thing in common – I've said no. I think I can pinpoint exactly when and why my phobia of public speaking started, but knowing that, understanding that, hasn't made it any easier to cope with. On the occasions I've tried, I've ended up in such a state I've not been able to sleep or eat in the weeks preceding and have been physically sick and unable to talk on the day. Shaking, dry mouth, fainting, you name it, I've suffered with it.
Althorp Literary Festival is in its 14th year and when an email dropped into my inbox I assumed it was asking me to buy tickets as I've attended most years as a guest. Instead, it was an invitation to take part in a panel event. I felt equally honoured and disappointed. There's no way I could possibly take part, or could I?
Unusually, I didn't rattle off a polite 'thanks, but no thanks' straight away. Althorp is a very dear place to me. I grew up 10 minutes down the road and have many happy childhood memories of our Sunday afternoon drives through the beautiful grounds after a roast lunch, my parents in the front of the car, me playing eye-spy in the back with my sister, ending with tea and cake and the more I let the memory cover me like a blanket, the more it grew – the urge to say yes. My fingers hovered over the keyboard before I quickly punched out an acceptance. And then I cried. And then I set about finding a solution, painfully aware I wouldn't just be representing myself but also the festival, both my publishers and my agent. No pressure then. My google research resulted in me booking a course of hypnotherapy. I genuinely enjoyed every second of my talk and I've since signed up for various events and I honestly can't wait. Next week I'll be interviewing my hypnotherapist, Carmen, and she'll share her thoughts on why public speaking is such a common phobia and give her tips on giving a great performance and I'll be talking about the things that worked for me. (You can now read that post here).
Today though I want to share my memories of what was an amazing weekend.
There were books everywhere and at my first official signing I had a touch of anxiety I'd scratch the beautiful desk. I didn't, and chatting to readers was one of the highlights of my weekend.
The grounds are absolutely stunning.
And no festival would be complete without a champagne bus. thankfully the sun shone and it became open top.
I met some amazing people, caught up with old friends and made some new, and whether I'm invited back as a speaker or not, I can't wait for next year's event.
Huge thanks to everyone involved in putting together such an amazing festival and leaving me with memories I shall always treasure.


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