text:
By Emily Doan
"At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races."
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHouse_gecko_scan.JPG
In Miami, Florida, on the day of August 24th, 1992, my mother and father were expecting their first-born child. A week prior to this day, the city was receiving warnings of a storm that had originated from a tropical wave over the central Atlantic Ocean. Only days later, it had intensified into a category 5 hurricane that would soon become the costliest hurricane in United States history, one of the most devastating storms known as Hurricane Andrew. As a child, I remember listening to my parents reminiscing about their past, about how this one day had changed the future of our family forever. "Tell me the story," I would beg my father over and over again. He always began the same way.
"Your mother and I we're living in a little one-bedroom apartment in Biscayne Bay, close to the water where the storm was most expected. People all around us we're evacuating from their homes and heading inland." He would go on to tell me about their close friends, John and Kim, who were stuck in Indiana at the time and were unable to fly back to their home in Florida due to the increasingly threatening weather conditions. John called my father and suggested he take my mother and grandfather to their house that was located further inland to stay safe. Once they had arrived, my father hurricane proofed the house the best he could, nailing plywood to all of the glass windows. "At midnight the storm came," he would say. He explained to me how the pressure inside a house was different from the pressure outside, and this resulted in what he could only describe as an annihilating explosion. "Everything was chaotic. I took your mother and grandfather into the bathroom where they stayed throughout the night. The noise was frighteningly loud and we could hear glass smashing and things breaking through the walls and windows. There was water pouring in from every crevice and opening. For hours I stood, holding shut a door that was between the living room and kitchen so the rest of the house wouldn't flood. Exhausted, I decided to try and get through the kitchen and into the garage to get tools to nail pieces of plywood over the door. But once I opened the door my jaw dropped. The entire living room was wide open. The roof had blown off. There were no windows, only open holes through the three remaining walls."
For a week they were stuck in the house. There was no water or electricity. When they finally got the chance to return to their apartment in the Bay area, they were overwhelmed by the ruinous condition of their once beautiful neighborhood. "We were completely lost. Everything was unfamiliar. I saw a street pole bent into the ground and got out to look at the sign. It was our street. Your mother and I held each other and cried." My parents had lost everything, a lifetime of pictures and books, their every belonging. They found a place to stay for the remaining weeks not far from their apartment, where my mother soon gave birth to me. My father was working for a company at the time that had just opened up a corporate office in Mesa, Arizona. Once the company found out about my parents situation, left homeless like the 40,000 other families in Florida, they offered him a job there. My mother, father, and I left empty handed, to the place that would become our new home, Arizona.
The other morning I sat on the patio of my rickety little apartment in the college town of Tempe, Arizona, thinking about this story that I was so captivated by as a child. I thought about how my whole life would be in Florida had Hurricane Andrew never hit the coast. My life would have been completely different had I grown up surrounded by and exposed to such contrasting ecosystems from those existing in the Sonoran desert. As I sat daydreaming, a bird landed on the tall cement wall that enclosed my yard and caught my eye. It had a grey backside that darkened into a black tail, but to my surprise, its belly was a bright, radiant yellow. I watched the winged creature perched on my wall, staring cautiously into my yard. I tried to think of the last time I saw a bird that wasn't brown, black, grey, tan, or some variation of the four. Before his pictures were lost to the storm, my father was passionate about photography and my grandfather took a strong interest in bird watching. I remember my father telling me about the beautiful photographs he took of all different bird species when he and his father would go out together with their binoculars and cameras. While I have absolutely no bird watching experience, I was intrigued and wanted to ask my father about the colorful creature. I searched the Internet and found it to be either a Western or Cassin's Kingbird. I hoped to see it again. Perhaps spending my childhood in Florida, around other various types of colorful and more tropical animals, such an animal wouldn't have completely consumed all of my attention. Maybe I would have grown a different understanding for the incredibly diverse types of urban animals and wildlife that I would have encountered on a daily basis. Maybe the little bird, with the bright yellow belly, would have been overlooked.
In addition to possessing an interest in photographing birds, my father has also always been passionate about other species of life. As a child, he instilled in me a sense of appreciation for learning about all forms of non-human beings. He was the person who I shared the deepest connection with and I was always eager to listen to what he had to teach me, or see what he had to show me. We spent most Saturday mornings contently watching Animal Planet, and anytime he found an interesting program or article related to wildlife, he would share it with me, explaining the parts that I wasn't yet old enough to quite understand. He was one of the greatest teachers I've had, partly because we were such similar people. We were both cautious, observant, and patient, always internalizing our complicated perceptions of life, thoughts that stem from our neocortex and mammalian brains. We had an unspoken connection that he used to keep me curious and thoughtful of the world around me.
School furthered my love of learning. It exposed me to new material that I would have never discovered otherwise. When the time came for the public school system to teach us about Darwin's theories, I fell into a fascination. I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could about every living thing. I loved how Darwin's ideas helped me to make sense of the world. One of his quotes in particular always resonated with me. He wrote, "At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races" (Darwin 193). Now in my adulthood, my love for animals has developed from more than just an interest in finding enchanting little bits of information and facts about individual organisms. It has matured into an infatuation for looking more closely at the non-human species co-existing with us here on Earth. It has become a lens for seeing how wildlife and the natural world have shaped our culture and society throughout time, and how it will continue to influence the future of mankind.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/specklet/355147766/
While I now live on my own as a college student, I frequently visit my parent's house. They live in Scottsdale, Arizona in the same house that they first purchased when they arrived from Florida. This place had been my home since I was only a few months old, and it holds all of my most cherished memories. As a little girl, I remember swimming in the pool of our backyard and discovering the delicate, floating bodies of baby geckos that had met an early and unfortunate fate. Scooping them into my hands, I would let the water seep through my pruned fingers until I was able to feel the soft, tiny bumps of skin that covered their teeny frames. I would gently lay them in the rocks that lined our desert-landscaped yard, and watch how the sun shone so strongly on their pale, lemon-gold bodies that their skin glowed effervescently. Carefully turning them from side to side, I would squint my eyes and try to get a glimpse at what could possibly be inside such an infinitesimal, alien-like animal. I still find it hard to imagine that the insides of a species so different can even slightly resemble the systems keeping me alive beneath my own skin.
There was one summer day in particular, I was about 7 or 8 and brought one of the drowned geckos into the garage where my father was working on one of his motorcycles. The History Channel was playing in the background. I showed him the lizard. He was the first to tell me that it was a gecko, a type of lizard that lives in warm climates throughout the world. "The families near the lights outside our doors have been there since you were a baby. Supposedly you can hear their calls at night if you listen closely enough." he said to me. You can click on the link below to hear the sound made by a Mediterranean house gecko. Sound familiar?
Click on the link below to hear the sound of the Mediterranean House Gecko:
http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/h.turcicus.sounds.html
"We've descended from reptiles over millions and millions of years," he informed me. Even today, we still share characteristics with the closet living relatives to dinosaurs. I learned that part of what makes up the human brain is the reptilian brain. This is the most primitive structure that we share with reptiles and birds. It keeps us alive when we're sleeping, regulates our heart and breathing rates when we engage in physical activities, and allows us to breath and digest without constantly thinking about doing so (Deming 177). In her book, Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit, the well respected American poet and essayist, Alison Hawthorne Deming writes, "We are all feral children – beneath the art and invention, beneath the emotion and connection – a reptilian brain, alien and necessary, buried in the mythic and material depths of us all" (177). In a sense, our species is a compilation of those around us. Looking back at this moment and learning from my father about the family of Mediterranean house geckos that are our neighbors, I am left reflecting on our differences and similarities to the animals that live alongside us, and how our lives influence one another. It is our socialness and family ties that give meaning to our lives. My geckos may not share our mammalian brain, but does their reliance on one another give meaning to their lives, too? You can watch the incredible video below of a gecko saving his mate from a near death, and think about this question.
Long before man, the world was undergoing a number of major changes that altered the core composition of our planet. Change has been a constant in the history of all things. Today, I can't help but wonder if I would have had a similar experience with the geckos if my family had remained in Florida, as the Mediterranean house gecko was, in fact, first reported in Key West in 1915 (Bartelt). Would I have discovered them in my backyard and curiously contemplated what connections creatures so different as human and lizard could ever share? As time passed, I began to grow into a completely different person from the little girl I once was. I was faced with the daunting task of growing up, making friends, fitting in, learning how to grow into the best self I could be. Life suddenly became more complicated and the geckos slowly settled into the back of my mind. I have realized that day-by-day my curiosity for the community I've grown up alongside has diminished, and night-after-night I pass by the family of Mediterranean house geckos above the door to my home without so much as a glance in their direction. I've become so accustomed to having them there that as my own life became more complicated throughout middle school, high school, and now college, I never really took the time to find answers to the imaginative questions I once had as a child. Reflecting on our history, however, is a provoking way for thinking about how much we share with even the tiniest living creatures.
Both science and cultural traditions can teach us that geckos and humans have expanded to explore territories that are far from, and immensely different from our homelands. Similar to humans, Mediterranean house geckos have proved themselves as pioneers of the Western frontier. As we set out on voyages to discover the new world, all different forms of life followed, and like us, many of these creatures flourished. As these new landscapes became more familiar, we made our homes and reproduced, generation after generation. Our families grew and establishments were made, and so we continued to spread, making both humankind and the Mediterranean house gecko go down in the books as an "invasive species". Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, explains the term invasive species as introduced organisms that not only survives, but also "gives rise to a new generation, which in turn survives and gives rise to another generation. This is what's known in the invasive species community as "establishment"" (201). While it is impossible to determine for sure the frequency of this event, many established species likely remain in the area where they were introduced, or they often go unnoticed. The third step of this invasion process, which a number of species go on to complete, is spreading to new locations (Kolbert 201). In many places we find ourselves, we find geckos; not only native geckos, but also various types and breeds that, like many human families, have left behind their ancestors in search of a better future. Whether we associate them with good luck or bad, knowing their history can help us to see how inherently intertwined our lives are with the past. They can help to remind us of how far we have come and how.
http://mrg.bz/Zh42fC
Like humans, Mediterranean house geckos have historically proved themselves historically as pioneers of the Western frontier. Conservation of this species is of low priority as its range and population are increasing. They are known for their rapid breeding abilities and strong resistance to pesticides. The Encyclopedia of Life justifies this conservation status by "its wide distribution, tolerance of extensive habitat modification, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category". Much like us, they are always finding new ways to progress. The EOL also explains the invasive species status of the Mediterranean house gecko as a "consequence of having few predators in places where they have been introduced, and also of their tendency to take shelter in the cracks and unseen areas of human homes, for example inside walls. Reliance on human habitation has thus contributed to their proliferation, similar to rodents." The Mediterranean house gecko is a non-migratory species, but is native to the Mediterranean and west Asia. As such successful and rapid colonizers, they have found ways of expanding their distribution with the aid of human activities. The electronic field guide, Gecko Web, refers to the reptiles as "the most successful stowaway of all North American lizards", as they hitch onto boats, trucks, or planes, helping to explain their wide distribution. Such traits have led to steady populations of this reptile all throughout the Southern United States (Bartelt). For many experts, the mystery of how the Old-World species first made its way to the United States remains. One theory surrounding their arrival is that they were stowaways on a ship from the Mediterranean (Bartelt).
One reason the Mediterranean house gecko is so successful in colonizing new places is due to its rapid breeding abilities and strong resistance to pesticides. Such qualities have led to a low conservation status, which the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) justifies by "its wide distribution, tolerance of extensive habitat modification, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category". The EOL also discloses information about the invasive species status of the Mediterranean house gecko as a result of having few predators in the places where they have been introduced, and also because they often go unseen as they tend to take shelter in the cracks and overlooked areas of human residences. Their reliance on human habitation has therefore contributed to their proliferation, like that of rodents. The Mediterranean house gecko is a non-migratory species and they are native to the Mediterranean and west Asia. Yet, as such successful and rapid colonizers, they have found ways of expanding their distribution in many places throughout the world. The electronic field guide, Gecko Web refers to the reptiles as "the most successful stowaway of all North American lizards." They find ways to hitch rides on boats, trucks, and planes, resulting in their wide distribution and presence, from Europe all the way to North America (EOL). There are steady populations of Mediterranean house geckos throughout the Southern United States (Bartelt), from my family's first home in Florida, to my home now in Arizona. While their presence is an indirect effect of human activities, it is also a direct effect of our desires and decisions.
Geckos are highly popular animals in the pet-trade (Bartelt). While I mourn the loss of an intrinsic sense of curiosity that came so naturally to me as a child, I observe this inspiring quality in the children that I help care for as a nanny. Elle, an 8-year-old girl, has had numerous pet rodents, like gerbils, hamsters, and mice. She prefers critters that are a bit more furry and fluffy, like her pet ginuea pig, Sparkles. 5-year-old Will, on the other hand, is saving up for his own first pet – a gecko. Not long ago, he enthusiastically handed me a flyer of basic gecko care information, and at the top of the page there was a picture of what appeared to be a Mediterranean house gecko. Will also exclaimed that he would get crickets as an added bonus to feed his new friend. When I returned home that evening, I turned to Google to briefly research the Mediterranean house gecko as a pet. I came across a number of inquiries from the general public asking if they can be used for pest control purposes. After reading a few discussion forms, I found one woman motivated, like many others, to invest in a house gecko because she's heard that they "are a good method of dealing with roaches", and, she adds, "they're kinda cute". Another comment was from a woman saying that she recently moved states and the amount of insects around her home appeared to be much higher. She explained that she used to have geckos on the walls of her old house and believes that they drastically helped limit pests and other insects. She thought they could now be useful in her new home as well. Bringing in nonnative species, however, can interrupt the balance of the current eco-system.
Commonly overlooked species and their presence, like the gecko's, may not outwardly appear to affect the balance of the eco-systems around our homes, but it is our responsibility as a species sharing this Earth with other forms of non-human life, to understand that each and every living creature plays a valuable role in making the environment, as well as our societies, function in a way that is both healthy and necessary. It is important both culturally and environmentally to appreciate and accept the diversified parts of the world for what they are. In doing so, we are also able to observe and admire how the earth is home to so many different and unique ecosystems. Many of our families may have traveled far from where they began, and we should embrace the diversity of life and see the different and unique regions of our planet's differences as a reminder of the past and an expression of our present and future. Together, humanity and wildlife have traveled incredible distances, each shaping the world into what it is today.
Taking a step back and looking into our past can help put into perspective our place in the world. We can rediscover the ideas surrounding man and the natural world that have played, and still continue to play, an important part in helping us understand every species place in relation to one another. Today, our time is so often consumed in technology, work, school, and family and social obligations. It isn't uncommon to suddenly find yourself feeling disconnected to nature and distanced even from the wildlife just outside your door. Continuing to possess an appreciation for school and my ongoing college education, I found that historical and cultural works of art and tradition offer an enlightening and grounding way of thinking about mankind and our environment. The stories of so many non-human species alongside the stories of mankind have helped to fabricate everything from our constantly crystallizing societies to our unique cultural values around the globe.
Studies in history, philosophy, aesthetics, religion, literature, film, and media, relating to the natural world have been an integral part in forming the societies of today. Further exploring the interconnectedness between culture and the natural world, Deming, writes "As long as we've been human, we've been making art. Or perhaps it is more accurate to place this eagerness to participate in creation at the center of what it is to be the animal we are: as long as we've been making art, we've been human" (8). From the beginning of time, humans have possessed a need for art as an outlet to explore and express our time and place as a society. These forms of art, whether it is through writing or oral storytelling, are a framework for people to share, examine, and question the history of all life that has fashioned the world that presently we live in. Our human cultures are a way for us to braid art, nature, and ideas of what we are, where we are, and where we want to be. Such works provoke us to reflect on ourselves as a species in relation to other species. They call attention to the differences between the human and non-human. They explore the intricate ideas surrounding how we make one another what we are, and how one can never exist without the other.
Some of the most paramount examples of humanity's place in the natural world stem from the stories of native cultures. The Hawaiians, witnesses of the colonizing capabilities of geckos, associate them with luck. The native people of Hawaii have a great respect for these animals, not only because they are a useful form of insect control, but also because they resemble the "mo'o", the Hawaiian guardian spirit that refers to a gleaming black, dragon-like reptile. This spirit often plays a role in their creation legends, and it ranks second to the shark (Hawaiian Life). One article I recently stumbled upon on Hawaiian mythology featured in Maui Magazine, further explains the "mo'o, saying, "Dragons. Lizards. Deities. Whatever word used to invoke them, mo'o rank among Hawaii's most mysterious mythic creatures. They figure into the oldest Hawaiian stories and are a key to a deep, nearly forgotten magic." In many native cultures, lizards are given the same level of importance and influence as animals that today we would likely think of as being notably more charismatic and symbolically powerful, such as a lion or polar bear. The history of human culture has the potential to teach us that all life, no matter how small or unseen, shapes the way we view the world, in turn shaping the actions and decisions we make as well. Recognizing the powerful qualities found all forms of life, not only those of charismatic species, can allow us to continue enriching our culture, while also bringing attention and awareness to the creatures that are a vital part to our diverse eco-systems and understanding of life.
Before I realized that the curiosity and more observant nature I had as a young girl for the wildlife around me was slowly fading, I can recall one night when I was still in high school that reminded me of the riveting roles that animals have played for so many different people. I was knocking on the door of my best friend, Natasha's house. Her parents had moved to America from Pakistan, about twenty-five years ago after they were married. Natasha and I had been inseparable since kindergarten, and her family lived in the same neighborhood as mine. I considered her to be a normal, American teenage girl, no different than myself, but her parents were always foreign to me. They were always speaking to one another in Gujarati, their first language growing up in Pakistan. When they spoke English they had a thick accent and uproariously loud voices – something I dismissed as cultural. Natasha answered the door and her mother yelled at me from the living room to come in quickly so no geckos would sneak in. Recently, they had found a few geckos inside the house and thought they must have been crawling in right through the door. "They sneak in without anyone even noticing. Gross, slimy little things. Galori. They make me think of my mother," Natasha's mother, Spenta said.
"They won't harm you," I told her, used to seeing them each night outside my own doors.
"Yes they will," Spenta replied. "They have harmed my family for generations." She went on to tell me the story of how years ago in Pakistan, her grandmother was sitting on the living room sofa when a lizard scampered over the ceiling. "The nasty thing fell from above onto her and bit her in the chest." About a month later her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer near the spot the lizard had left its mark. A generation later, Spenta's mother also fell ill with the same, grievous sickness. I thought of the day in elementary school when Natasha told me that her mother, too, had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and again when it came back just a few years ago. To this day, lizards represent bad luck for these people, and they believe that these creatures are the reason why the women in their family have been cursed with cancer and forced to undergo such grim and terrifying times. Despite their negative connotation in some cultures, Natasha's mother's story is an example the powerful influences of commonly overlooked animals in native cultures and traditions that make us view the natural world and its inhabitants in a certain way. Whether their presence is a blessing of good luck, or a curse of the bad, cultures from all over the world employ legends, stories, and art that can help us see that we are living in a more than human world.
Lizards in native cultures don't always carry a meaning associated with luck. A Native American tribe known as the Karuk, employs lizards in their stories as symbols to help explain the mysterious origins of the earth. I came across one of their creation legends in the book Spirits of the Earth: A Guide to Native American Nature, Symbols, Stories, and Ceremonies. The author, Bobby Lake-Thom, writes of the tale of a lizard and coyote working together to help make the first babies in the world. The two animals were one day discussing the problems that women were having giving birth and trying to find a solution so that they would not die. The lizard suggests that they should let the baby come out from behind, instead of from her mouth, and says that he will try to help her. The Coyote responds to the lizard in favor of his idea, but says that they should let the first baby be born a female because more good women are needed in the world. The lizard agrees, then says, "but I am going to help make the boy's hands, feet, and penis while it is still in the woman's stomach. And since he will then look like me, I will always make sure he is protected and grows up to be a warrior" (149). Similar to the Hawaiian creation legends, the lizard is bestowed with an important role alongside the charismatic Coyote. In this particular story, the lizard is even viewed as a warrior, vowing to protect the unborn. Also interestingly, we can see from this story that in some native cultures humans were modeled after animals. Throughout all time and until today, we can look to old stories and traditions to understand our place in the natural world.
The association of geckos and lizards with luck and positive creation stories, however, is not found in all cultures, as I have already learned from my visit with Natasha's family, but they can still offer us great insight about ourselves. A chapter from the Kitab As-Salam, The Book on Salutations and Greetings, in the Islamic religion, says, "He who killed a gecko with the first stroke for him are ordained one hundred virtues, and with the second one less than that and with the third one less than that" (Bauer 120). Still today, we are less drawn to reptilian creatures than of more charismatic mammals because we feel so different from them. Lizards often appear portrayed negatively in many poems as well. One amateur poem I came across links our likeness to reptiles in a piece called Reptilia. It reads,
My skin feels like scales
A piano bench
Metronome passing the time
Impatiently
Living like death
Spreading along Petri dishes
And moving forward in octaves
Like a starving gecko
Eating its own tail
To me, this self-expression of art is an example of the common misrepresentations associated with geckos. After all, it is our reptilian brain that is constantly keeping us alive. In addition, it is unlikely that such a successful survivor with a wide variety of prey should be forced to eat its own tail to survive. Yet, it helps us to acknowledge that there is much we don't know about the animals living around us, or even about our own evolutionary past. Aaron M. Bauer, author of Geckos: The Animal Answer Guide, writes on the luck of geckos that varies each year, "In Sri Lanka there is a long tradition of making predications based on the actions of geckos. Even today an annual almanac is published that contains the sections "predictions based on gecko calls" and "predictions based on the body area on which a gecko falls"' (118). These reptiles, no matter what light they are portrayed in, are full of a spiritual power that can still be seen influencing society today. However, we all too often forget to reflect upon the roles that we have given to animals throughout history, roles that help us to make sense of all that exists. Geckos, tiny and commonly unnoticed, have helped humans for a great deal of time to unlock a nearly forgotten magic. This magic, I believe, is a key for looking at our past to see how it has influenced the way we view the world. It can help us adapt a new, positive perspective for understanding the importance of every living being that keeps our planet so balanced. Taking the time to reflect on our cultural history leads to a deeper connection, and a deeper understanding and appreciation for the natural world.
It is through the past that we can gain perspective of what it means to be human in a world that is, and will always be, so inseparably connected to all that is not human. In attaining this sense of perspective, we find ourselves. We become enlightened. We are able to recognize how different life is today than it once way. The past allows us to better understand our place in the present, and we can use this recognition to help us see where are headed in the future. Henry David Thoreau, perhaps one of the world's most famous philosophers and insightful naturalists, once wrote of the West:
The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plough and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.
I believe that not only in wildness is the preservation of the world, but also the perspective that humanity, as stewards of the Earth, must make an effort to realize for the wellbeing of all species. This wildness has become the place where we have settled down to have our families and make our lives. Today, we are often lost in the technological and scientific advancements and social constructions that society has weaved into our everyday lives. Wildness disguises itself in the cracks of our walls and the crevices of our homes, but it is always present, and always nearby. It is in our past that we can recapture a sense of wildness so remarkably pure and powerful, to see ourselves, to see our future.
Having lived apart from my family for a few years now, I am no longer greeted each night by a family Mediterranean house geckos. Each time I visit my mother and father, however, in our home filled with the memories of my childhood, I look forward to their welcoming presence. Though they are now a few generations more recent, I know that this will always be their home, too. From time to time, as I am sitting each morning on the patio of my own, makeshift home that is my college apartment, I'll notice a lizard scamper by and think of my life here in Arizona, the only place that I have been able to call my true home for as long as I can remember. Or perhaps I'll find myself lucky enough to be visited by a colorful little bird that will make me think of my home that could have been in Florida. I try now, to see more through the eyes of my childhood self, to embrace my own personal past and the past of all humankind. Looking back has helped me to see how far my family and I have come, how far humans and non-humans have come, existing side by side and making life, and what it today, possible for one another. The past has made me the reflective, thoughtful, and spiritual person that I like to believe I have grown to be. The past has brought out the wildness around me.
Deity or Gecko?
Play the video below to watch how a Mediterranean house gecko catches its prey!
Bartelt, Amber. "HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS MEDITERRANEAN HOUSE GECKO." Texas Invasives. Texasinvasives.org, 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2014. <http://www.texasinvasives.org/animal_database/detail.php?symbol=17>.
Bauer, Aaron M. Geckos: The Animal Answer Guide. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2013. Print.
Deming, Alison. Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2014. Print.
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1981. Print.
"Gecko or Mo'o." Hawaiian Life. HawaiianLife.com, 15 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
Haupt, Lyanda Lynn. The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild. New York: Little, Brown, 2013. Print.
Johnsen, Keith. "Reptilia." Hello Poetry. Hello Poetry, 6 Mar. 15 Nov 2014.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. New York: Henry Holt, 2014. Print.
Lake-Thom, Bobby. "Reptile and Snake Signs and Omens." Spirits of the Earth: A Guide to Native American Nature Symbols, Stories, and Ceremonies. New York: Penguin Group, 1997. Print.
"Mediterranean House Gecko (Hemidactylus Turcicus)." Encyclopedia of Life. Encyclopedia of Life. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <http://eol.org/pages/456655/overview>.


Recently Samsung launched its new Smartphone Galaxy Grand Duos after the achieving the big success of Galaxy S3. This mobile is suitable according to Indian client, because it is Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) phone with Dual Standby and the demand of dual SIM phone is very high in the Indian market. The price of this product is four hundred US Dollar, and equal to twenty two thousand four hundred in India Rupees. But Kaunsa.com offers online shopping of this gadget as low as Rs. 20999/- with one year of manufacturer warrantee on phone and six month on box accessories.
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos has 5 inch WVGA TFT LCD Capacitive Touchscreen and based upon latest version of Google Android its Jelly Bean v4.1 with TouchWiz 4.0. On other hand it have the latest configuration like 1.2 GHz, Dual Core processor and 1 GB RAM, 8GB of Internal storage, which help to run this very fast and you can access multiply application at same time. Some other specification of this Smartphone 8 Megapixel of primary camera and 2 MP of secondary camera, that you capture your memorable movement in HD quality. Some other specifications are Wi-Fi, GPS, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA+, etc. Logon to Kaunsa.com and grab Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos at affordable price only on this portal.
This entry was posted in Gadgets, Smartphone and tagged Kaunsa.com, Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos. Bookmark the permalink.


Let's go! Launch your project in Las Vegas today!
Start easily and without stress your website developement project in Las Vegas!
There is a flood of agencies in website developement, but only one is the best for you. Sortlist 's skills makes it feasible to dig up the most skilled agency out of all these firms. Finding the matching bureau is from this moment on effortless.
Las Vegas, a flood of advantages to collaborating with a web design company.
We also can spell out a perk with the known witticism: time is money! Why misuse time on an project that your firm does not fully grasp. Keep concentrated on your main business and don't take a chance with the development of a project that your company does not comprehend.
A sizable inventory of solutions is put forward by web design companies, for instance responsive website creation and website design optimalisation. Thus do not hold off anymore and reach out to those agencies through our algorithm, and you will be able to set up your operation quickly.
Consequently, if your firm requires to realize a campaign in responsive website creation, server configuration or even in website design optimalisation, then your firm doesn't have to misuse valuable time searching for a specialist in Las Vegas. Because at Sortlist we will be able to help your firm encounter the right collaborator and your firm will unquestionably realise that a operation in website developement will have a certain significance on your sales.
Are there competent web design companies in Las Vegas?
Every person fathoms that a positive relation is the number one footstep towards a fruitful collaboration. And immediately you are able to quickly have the opportunity to be amazed by a web design company that was picked specially for you. Hence, you can know without a doubt that a partnership with a web design company in Las Vegas will be wonderful.
It is certain, smoking out the right web design company is arduous. Our website is for your company thusly a real opportunity to encounter the optimal company in Las Vegas. Phone Sortlist and we will do every little thing possible to encounter the most skilled firm expert in website developement for you.


If you just purchased an iPhone 3GS running an earlier version of iOS, and you obviously want to set it free, look no further: you have come to the right place. We will show you how to jailbreak iPhone OS 3.0 on the iPhone 3GS in just a few easy steps.
In order to jailbreak iPhone OS 3.0, all you need to is a bit of time to download Redsnow 0.8. While the steps described below are for the iPhone 3GS untethered jailbreak, they are the same for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G and iPod Touch 2G. Also, the steps are the same if you're on a Mac (or even Linux), although we have done jailbreak iPhone 3.0 using Redsnow 0.8 for Windows.
Update your iTunes to the latest version and restart your computer.
Create a new folder on your desktop and name it "jailbreak iPhone OS 3.0" or "jailbreak iPhone 3GS", or just enter your preferred name. You will use this folder to download iPhone 3.0 firmware and Redsnow 0.8, and then unzip the Redsnow folder.
Double-click on Redsnow and look for the iPhone 3.0 firmware you have downloaded in the folder you created above. Redsnow will process the firmware, and eventually you'll see a "successfully identified" message.
After choosing "Next", Redsnow will jump into action and ask you about what you would like to install: Cydia or Icy. We strongly suggest checking "install Cydia" and then clicking "Next".
Now you want to connect the iPhone 3G in recovery mode. To achieve that, you need to unplug it from your PC, turn it off, and wait for a couple seconds. Next, hold the Home button while you plug your iPhone into the charging (USB) cable, and keep doing so until you see the "Connect to iTunes" message.
Now it is time for Redsnow to do its magic: in a few minutes, you will have a jailbroken iPhone 3GS.
You'll see your iPhone reboot and install some stuff. Wait until Redsnow has finished, even though, at some point, the "Done!" message will appear.
It will take some minutes before the iPhone resprings again. Now, it is time to tap "Finish".
Now, you can browse your iPhone's springboard where you'll see the Cydia icon on the second page – or maybe third.
Congratulations! You have successfully jailbroken the iPhone 3GS using Redsnow 0.8.
As always, if you have any questions regarding jailbreak iPhone OS 3.0 on the iPhone 3GS, please let us know in the comments section.


Discussion in 'UPS Discussions' started by therodog, Aug 26, 2005.
Can people remember the days when bulk, like in our building, was sent over the belts? Nobody used to get hurt and now with all the safety stuff and training, people get hurt all time. I was doing bulk train today to cover a part-timer who decided to call in sick. Thats another thing, when i started in 1987, nobody used to call in sick , everybody came to work. Nowdays, with the IM-Generation, there is always 5-10 out a day. Just suxs.
you get what you pay for...back in the 80's, UPS started at like $8-$8.50...and mcdonalds was like $3 an hour...now mcdonalds is like $6.50-$7.20 an hour...but UPS is still the same.
And they keep trying to increase the performance standards. A human can only do so much, then he/she is going to break. Plain and simple.
another thing annoying....cell phone use in the load areas. Part-timers using cell phones when their supposed to be working annoys the •••• out of me.
thero: you sound like you have the work ethic that made UPS what it is today.
Nobody called in when I was PT either. We just all figured unless we were going to die we could make it thru 3-5 hrs. And we knew our fellow workers would help us make it as much as possible. In my first 11 yrs I missed 8 days, and it was 8 days in a row under doc orders. Now its like people call off for ignorant things. So that when people need off for legitimate things, they also call off as they know it cannot be granted. That is something no one likes to do, but it is called survival. Only so many docs, and dentists, optometrists, etc have Saturday hrs. The work ethic of the newer employees isnt what it used to be, and then it seems when they get one who has that ethic and wants to excel, they do not recognize it.
Someone else mentioned it, but you get what you pay for.
In 82 $8.5 plus benefits was a great package.
In 95 it wasn't and it certainly isn't in 2005 either.
The best go elsewhere for better hours (both amount and time of day) and better wages.
UPS gets the dross and also rans now a days and it shows.
Deplorable attendance records where they couldn't earn a pizza in a year for a week with no one late, let alone in attendance.
Remember the old time cards?You had to be a mathematician to correctly transfer the info from the 10 or more pages of handwritten delivery records(with the carbon paper between each one),area serviced,deliveries,pickups, the volume for each,etc onto them .I don`t miss that.
I even remember having to staple 2 together a few times when I did more than 5 areas in a day.Still,I cursed the diad when we first got it,but I`ve grown to appreciate it.
.and we did all of that while wearing long pants in the summer heat. I was also driving a P-600, the UPS equivalent of the Corvair, unsafe at any speed. LOL!
ya, the harder you work, the less you get paid. Thier (UP$) always screwing up paychecks, dont say "hey, good job" anymore, or ever, but if you screw up, woohoooo...now they have all this osha crap at our building, but only because they were forced to do it, they dont care about anything but numbers anymore.
I remember when it all came over the belt-----I remember when we pre-sheeted everything before we left the building---before part timers!! Seems like we attracted a different work ethic when we started using p/t's.
Drivers have always stuck together to get the job done---nobody ever called in sick----times have definitely changed.
I see P/T's with cell phones---I see drivers talking on cell phones......assuming that it is probably business related??
As far as comparing Mc Donalds with UPS pay---Mc D's is a real p/t scenario--no benefits...unless you get free burgers and fries??
Blue Label,P300's,tear off out notices, Fir call tags,real Bomber jackets,PM cash turn in clerks, micro brakes, release numbers, 50 liners, The Big Idea, next day air delivered before noon.
I'm sure there are many I left out.
But what the heck, our minds are mush after all these years.
I used to really enjoy reading the Big Idea. In our area it was full of news about new babies, weddings and a bunch of local news about our local people.
I remember when I got home before 8pm.
Or are you multi-tasking with your internet PDA?
I also remember when the stock would go up after each quarterly meeting, or bi-annual meeting before that.
Mc D's is a real p/t scenario--no benefits...unless you get free burgers and fries??
maybe so...but how many 20 year old's do you know that go to the doctor more than once a year. i've gone years without going to the doctor.
You guys are my hero's.
Don't forget to scan every package too.
I could hardly manage to hang on to my clipboard most of the time.
The T.L.A.where the sup buys brekkie and you get to say what you think.Its the "A" part that never seemed to materialize.
Turning in the IZ barcode labels before we had our handy little digital information acquisition devices.Feeling appreciated...hang on,no that never happened,except for the Dale Jarrett beer glass.
I heard there was an issue with the machines at the Round Rock Texas facility.


text:
Surly Bill
Brewery List
There are a number of different entities to consider, but it is imperative that you properly form your entity and follow corporate formalities.
Sole Proprietorship:
A sole proprietorship is formed by one person going into business. No forms or registration is required to create a sole proprietorship. However, some state or local laws may require some specific types of businesses to acquire permits or licenses (brewery licenses). A sole proprietorship is not a legal entity.
If the business is subject to taxes, the proprietor must obtain a sales tax certificate. If there are additional employees, you will need to obtain a Federal Employer Identification Number. When choosing to name the business, if it is ran under a name other than the sole proprietor's name a statement must be filed indicating that the business is the sole proprietor doing business under a different name.
All profits and losses of a sole proprietorship belong to the owner. Therefore, all profits and losses are taxed at the owner's personal income level. All income and expenses should be reported on the Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040). Then the net income or loss from the business is moved to the business owner's individual Form 1040. A sole proprietor should use a Schedule SE to report net self-employment income (in order to compute Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment tax). In addition, for Minnesota income tax use Form M-1 (individual income tax form).
Management of a sole proprietorship is easy because only one person is the decision maker. However, the sole proprietor is personally liable for all business obligations of the sole proprietorship. Therefore, if the business's assets are not sufficient to satisfy the debts of the business, then the owner's personal assets can be used to satisfy the debt.
General Partnership:
A general partnership is formed by two or more people agreeing to do business together for profit, whether or not the purpose was to create a partnership. A partnership may be formed by a formal or informal oral agreement, or by a written partnership agreement. A partnership agreement governs the relations between and among the partners. If a partnership agreement is silent on an issue, default rules apply. Minnesota default rules are found in Chapter 323A. It is advisable to create a written partnership agreement that sets forth the:
1. The partners' names and addresses;
2. Each partner's rights to management and profits;
3. Nature and duration of the partnership;
4. Conditions for the admission and withdrawal of partners;
5. Provisions that will govern the dissolution of the partnership, as well as any other provisions that the partners wish to add.
A general partnership is taxed on a personal level, similar to a sole proprietorship. This is called flow-through taxation, meaning that all profits and losses flow through the partners and are taxed on a personal level. There is no double taxation, as is the case with corporations, because profits and losses are not taxed at the business level, but only the personal level. To file your taxes as a partnership you use Form 1065. You may also use Schedules K and K-1. Individual partners should use Form 1040 to report distributive share of partnership income, deductions, credits and losses. In addition, in Minnesota, a partnership has to file Form M3 and Form M1 (compute individual income tax).
General partnerships do not have limited liability, meaning that the partners are personally liable for obligations of the partnership. However, a creditor must first exhaust assets of the partnership before going after the partners' assets.
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP):
To form an LLP, some states require the business to first form as a general partnership. After doing so, the partnership may file a registration document with the Secretary of State to become an LLP. Minnesota requires a general partnership to file a Minnesota Limited Liability Partnership Statement of Qualification Form to become an LLP. Other states allow LLPs to be formed without requiring the business start as a general partnership. When choosing to name your LLP, the name must include "Registered Limited Liability Partnership," or "Limited Liability Partnership," or "R.L.L.P.," or "L.L.P.," or "RLLP," or "LLP".
LLPs have limited liability for all partners. Most states allow LLP partners to be shielded from liability for partnership debts and obligations. Other states shield LLP partners from debts that arise out of negligence or wrongful acts of other partners within the LLP, but keep the partners liable for other debts and liabilities. Minnesota shields partners for partnership debts and obligations. The difference between an LLP and a limited liability limited partnership is that an LLP has no limited members, but rather all general members with limited liability.
In Minnesota a LLP must renew its LLP status yearly by filing a limited liability partnership annual renewal form. If an LLP wants to do business in a state outside of the state it was formed in, the LLP has to register as a foreign limited liability partnership with the state it intends to do business in before conducting any business.
Limited Partnership:
A limited partnership contains two types of partners, general partners and limited partners. General partners are the same as if they were partners to a general partnership. The partner is unprotected from personal liability, is responsible for managing the partnership, and shares in the profits and losses of the business. A limited partner has limited liability, meaning the partner's liability is restricted to the amount of their investment in the limited partnership. However, generally, limited partners do not engage in management of the business.
To form a limited partnership, the partners must comply with state statutory requirements because limited partnership are governed by statutory law. Applicable Minnesota Statute is MINN. STAT. § 321. To form a limited partnership you must file a certificate, with each state determining what needs to be included in the certificate. In Minnesota, the certificate must set forth the name of the limited partnership, the address of the business's office, the address of the agent for service of process, the name and address of each general partner, and whether the limited partnership is a limited liability limited partnership. MINN. STAT. §321.0201 State laws may restrict the name a limited partnership may choose to do business as. In Minnesota the name of a limited partnership is governed by Minn. Stat § 321.0108.
A limited partnership does not pay federal income tax. The profits and losses are taxed at the personal level as income or losses for the individual partners, often called flow-through taxation.
Limited Liability Company (LLC):
An LLC is a statutory entity. The entity is formed by filing articles of organization with the secretary of state. An operating agreement, which is entered into by the owners, is also created in order to define provisions that regulate the internal affairs of the business. An LLC may be owned by one person or have many owners and all owners are called members. An LLC has limited liability, meaning that all members are not personally liable for the company's debts, even if they are acting in a management position. If the LLC wants to transact business outside of its state of organization it will need to apply for authority to do business in the foreign states.
Members can decide to manage the company; however, members can also choose to elect managers if they do not want to take part in a management role. An LLC is taxed using flow through taxation, just as a partnership is taxed. This means the LLC does not pay taxes at an entity level, but rather all profits, losses, and other tax items flow through to its members.
Corporation:
A corporation is an entity that is organized under the laws of a particular state, and operates for profit. This is the most complex business entity. Minnesota corporations are governed by statutory law found in MINN STAT § 302A. To form a corporation you must file articles of incorporation with the state. In Minnesota the articles must be filed in the office of the secretary of state. Once the articles of incorporation are filed the corporation's existence begins. Statutory requirements on how to file the articles of incorporation varies between states.
Determining where to incorporate your business is important because the corporation will be governed by the laws of the state it is incorporated within. Normally, corporations incorporate in the state it will be doing business in because if business is conducted outside of the state, the corporation has to qualify as a foreign corporation to do business outside its incorporated state. If the corporation will be doing business in many states, it is common to incorporate in the state where the corporate headquarters is located. Corporations may also be formed in a different state to avoid statutory provisions or take advantage of a state's beneficial statutory provisions. (Delaware is where most publicly-traded corporations are incorporated. These corporations are governed by the Delaware General Corporation Law which is favorable to corporations.
When determining what to name your corporation, most states require the name includes a word that indicates the company is a corporation, such as "corporation", "incorporated", "limited", "company", or an abbreviations of these words that indicate the business is a corporation. MN corporate names are governed by Minn. Stat. section 302A.115. When you decide on a name, the next step is to check with the state department to determine the availability of a name, if available the name may be reserved. It is also advisable to do a trademark search because most states do not check potential names against trademarks. Minnesota Law regarding reserving a corporation name are found in Minn. Stat. section 302A.117.
Corporations are a separate business entity, meaning that a corporation can sue in its own name, own property, enter into contracts, and pay taxes. A corporation is also not affected by the death of a shareholder or upon the transfer of a shareholders ownership interest, but rather has a perpetual existence.
One important benefit of a corporation is that it is liable for its own obligations, limiting shareholder risk to the amount of capital invested in the corporation, often called limited liability.
Corporations generally have a board of directors (BOD). The BOD has control of the management of the corporation and is elected by the shareholders. A shareholder has limited management functions and a shareholders main duty is to elect directors and vote on major transactions. Corporations also have officers, which are agents of the board. Primary officers include the president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. All officers are appointed by the BOD.
When forming a corporation you must file articles of incorporation. States differ on what is required in the document; however, typically the articles must contain at least the corporation's name and address of its registered office, the amount of authorized shares, the name of its registered agents, and the names and addresses of the corporation's incorporators. The articles may also include additional provisions concerning management and regulation of the corporation. Often articles are used to alter default statutory rules. Minnesota requirements for articles of incorporation are found in Minn. Stat. section 302A.111. Minnesota requires the name of the corporation, the address of the registered office and the name of its registered agent, if any, at that address, the total number of shares that the corporation may issue, and the names and addresses of the incorporators.
To finance a corporation there are two main methods, borrowing money and selling shares. A shareholder is someone who holds or owns shares of a corporation's stock and are thereby owners of the corporation, granting them specific rights such as the right to vote on major business decisions and to appoint directors.
A corporation is taxed differently than other entity types. Corporations are taxed both at the entity level and personal level, which is often called double taxation. This means that income is taxed when it is received by the corporation and then taxed again when the income is received by shareholders in the form of a divided, as personal income. A corporation uses a Form 1120 or 1120-A to report income, deductions, and credits. If dividends have been issued, the corporation must send shareholders a Form 1099-DIV. In addition, Minnesota requires a corporation to file a Form M-4.
There is however, an exception to most liability protection called "piercing the corporate veil" where a shareholder or owner may be held personally liable if the person failed to treat the business as a separate entity and used the corporate form to do wrong or injustice. If this occurs a court may disregard the corporation's separate entity status, finding the person individually liable.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each entity, it is best to consult with an attorney before deciding which entity to form.
Trepanier MacGillis Battina P.A.
8000 Flour Exchange Building
310 Fourth Avenue South
T: 612.455.0505

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There is a lot of great skills you get from school/university lectures, no doubt. But on the other hand, for some specific and practical "super powers" you want to acquire or enhance, you have no other choice but teach yourself. The potential reasons are legion. That could happen by mere interest or if you want to deepen your knowledge in one of your subjects. Or maybe for the sake of personal projects, say learning some essential life skill they don't teach you in class. So yes, when college doesn't prepare you for life battles, you have to coach yourself.
Anyway, I am not here to complain about any education system. I am writing this post because I would like to share the best and most useful books I went through, as I have been reading a lot lately. I read on a variety of fields and for each of them I am suggesting the top books (according to my humble opinion).
Getting Things Done (by David Allen): Probably the best book on organisation. It teaches you how to free your mind, how to manage all your "stuff" and how to make efficient choices about your projects.
How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought You Think (by Lion kimbro): As the title suggests, this book is about how to make a complete map of everything you think for as long as you like. If you do the things described in this book, your thoughts will be clearer to you than they have ever been before. You will see things you have never seen before. It may feel like, for the first time in your life, you really have a clear idea of what kind of thoughts are going through your mind.
Learning about marketing is important, even for software developers. Actually, it's important no matter what you want to do in life, whether you want to run a business or work for an existing company. It helps you understand people and deal with them.
Foundations of Marketing (By Jobber and Fahy): That book would be a great way to start off, assuming you don't know anything about marketing. It's easy to understand and it teaches the basic concepts through concrete examples.
Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion (by Robert Cialdini): This book discusses the weapons of influence from a psychological point of view. Among other things, it explains the main factors that cause one person to say yes to another person, as well as real life examples.
Breakthrough Advertising (by Eugene Schwartz): Basically about copywriting (or how to sell with a few written words). What makes this one excellent is, it teaches how to identify the desires of the customers and write headlines and ads that trigger a reaction, as they present solutions to their needs.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich (by Ramit Sethi): Not just another boring finance book. Not only is this book informative, it is fun and includes practical tips that would help you master your finances and possibly make more money.
UX is basically the way users feel about your product or service. It highlights valuable aspects of human-computer interaction. Whatever you build, UX is not a choice. This stuff matters, it affects the success (or failure) of your product. Bad design and bad experience happen.
Mobile Interaction Design (by Matt Jones): this book reveals how mobiles have the potential to be key building blocks in this new digitally augmented world, and how careful innovations in that field could change the world, bringing pleasure and helping businesses.
Press On (by Harold Thimbleby): Provides many ways of thinking clearly about the design of interactive devices and about interaction programming. The emphasis throughout is on making better interfaces.
Simply put, digital arts are computer-aided artistic works. For this selection, I focus on visual arts.
How To Cheat In Photoshop (by Steve Caplin): A goldmine of practical and useful tips, tricks and step-by-step walkthroughs introducing you to the art of creating photo-realistic montages.
Digital Character Painting Using Photoshop (by Don Seegmiller): a complete book on digital illustration and painting. It covers such theoretical topics as how to get ideas and how to get them out so that others may see them. Then it deals with artistic fundamentals that will help you take your ideas to the next step, drawing and painting. Finally, it provides a series of tutorials that show how to handle different issues when you draw and paint.
Networking and Online Games : Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games / Multiplayer Game Programming: those 2 books would teach you the history of online gaming as well as the basic concepts and some technical aspects to be considered.
Developing online games, an insider's guide (by Mulligan and Patrovsky): This one provides insight into designing, developing and managing online games. This is where you learn from the top two online game developers through the real-world successes and mistakes not known to others. There are Case studies from 10+ industry leaders.
Designing Virtual Worlds (by Richard Bartle): while the previous book discusses broadly online games development, this one focus on virtual worlds. This is a book for people who design virtual worlds. Because of this, it's also a book for people who implement, operate, study, or play virtual worlds. Because of this, it's also a book for people interested in entertainment, education, creativity, art, society, culture, philosophy, space, architecture, psychology, identity, language, economics, government, theology, drama, literature, or cognition. Virtual worlds are of the future. If you want to create or understand that future, this is the book for you.
We are getting very specific here. There are lots of technology/programming books out there, but I am going to focus here on what I know best : C#.NET Web development.
ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies (by Ken Cox): if you want to start off quickly and just begin to create your own websites/web apps within days, this is the book to pick. For an immediate immersion in ASP.NET and the Visual Web Developer environment.
Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform (by Andrew Troelsen): Well, now that you have made a few apps, as you move forward and it gets confusing at times, you realise that this .NET Framework is really wide. This is the book that give you an overall view on the technology from the philosophy of .NET through the core C# programming constructs, the advanced C# programming constructs and web and desktop user interfaces, among other things. It even goes through more obscure concepts such as shared assemblies, delegates, late binding, workflow foundation, COM interoperability, etc. In short, a very complete book.
ASP.NET 3.5 Social Network (by Andrew Siemers): after you grab the key concepts and play around with the technology through a few projects, maybe you would want to launch an actual product, something that people could use. The way to go about that is probably to see how experts do it, for instance, how they build discussion boards, membership systems or blogs. Better yet, this book will teach you how to build a complete ASP.NET social network from start to finish.
Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 (by Omar Zabir): This one is definitely the pièce de résistance. This book not only teaches how to build a State-of-the-Art Ajax website using ASP.NET, LINQ, advanced ajax concepts, Windows WorkFlow and other cutting-edge Microsoft technologies; it also shows how to solve real life production challenges such as deployment, hosting, performance optimisation, scalability, caching, security, monitoring, etc.


text:
Young defeats Galvin in race for 24th term
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media
Republican Congressman Don Young at the Egan Center on election night. Young has a large lead over his opponent, independent Alyse Galvin. (Photo by Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media)
Update: 11:47 p.m.
Alaska Congressman Don Young made a triumphant entrance to Election Central in Anchorage just before 11pm.
"It's God's will and the people of Alaska that support me. If they do, we win; if they don't, I don't win," he told the crowd, as supporters waved his yellow campaign signs.
The mood at challenger Alyse Galvin's campaign party was more restrained. She hadn't made a concession speech by 11 p.m., though the writing was on the wall, and aides began setting up a lectern for her to address her supporters.
"I'm grateful," she said earlier in the evening. "We've had an incredible 10 months together."
Young, the most senior member of Congress, grabbed 53 percent of the vote early in the evening and his lead held steady all night, climbing to 54 percent with four-fifths of the precincts had reported.
Galvin, assuming her loss holds, would meet the same fate that has met 20 Democratic nominees before her, stretching back to 1973.
Alaska's lone member of the U.S. House Representatives, Don Young, has a sizable lead over first-time candidate Alyse Galvin.
He had almost 53 percent of the vote to her 47 percent. The votes are from across the state. They include early and absentee ballots, as well as 67 percent of precincts.
Independent U.S. House nominee Alyse Galvin delivers a speech on election night at 49th State Brewing Company in Anchorage. (Photo by Joey Mendolia, Alaska's Energy Desk)
Galvin is the 21st Democratic nominee who has tried to unseat Young since he was first elected in 1973. She's a public education advocate from Anchorage and isn't registered with any political party, but she ran in the Democratic primary and won. She raised a lot of money – almost $1.5 million. Nearly all of it was from individual contributors.
Young, 85, raised a bit more than $1 million, with about 46 percent of that from Political Action Committees. But he has an advantage that's worth more than piles of campaign cash: after 45 years in office, Young has great name recognition. He has been a steadfast advocate of resource development in Alaska.
At a rally in Anchorage on Sunday, he railed against "socialism" and the reach of the federal government, which he says has gone too far into people's personal lives.
Rep. Don Young greeted supporters at a Republican rally Sunday. Photo: Liz Ruskin
"I'm part of the federal government and I'm part of the problem many times, because, very frankly, we've sometimes funded things we should not have funded," he said.
Galvin, 53, was a relative unknown. She traveled the state in an RV, and by air, to introduce herself. She says more than a thousand volunteers helped put the word out by knocking on doors and working the phones. She's told voters she's for keeping health care coverage and protections for people with pre-existing conditions. She's pointed to Young's record and more than 50 votes he took to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Alaska Public Media. She reports from the U.S. Capitol and from Anchorage.
Previous articleAlaska News Nightly: Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018
Next articleAlaska voters strike down 'Stand for Salmon' ballot initiative


text:
Written by Robert Steinadler 23 days ago
Solana explained: What is it and why are transactions so fast?
Solana was maybe one of the most outstanding blockchain technologies in terms of price movement in the year 2021. With over 35.000 % price increase from its all-time low in 2020, Solana is not only one of the top-performing coins, but also in the top 10 according to its market cap. Many smart contract platforms have tried to challenge Ethereum and none have succeeded so far. Solana is not necessarily another "Ethereum killer" because it offers a technology that has its own merits. Still, when it comes down to decentralized finance, Solana has to offer a similar range of products and protocols like Ethereum.
The unique selling point of Solana is its speed and transaction throughput. Apparently, this has caught a lot of attention. Former First Lady Melania Trump and Justin Bieber are offering their NFTs on Solana and Michael "Air" Jordan has announced to start a platform built on Solana to connect athletes and their fans.
But what is really behind the technology and is it going to last despite a few attempts from stars to monetize on the NFT hype?
What is Solana?
Solana is a blockchain that is developed by Solana Labs and was founded in the year 2017. While the company is responsible for its initial development the Solana blockchain itself is open-source. The Solana Foundation watches over the development and is based in Geneva, Switzerland while the company that started Solana is based in San Francisco.
Solana's primary use case is decentralized applications that offer large scalability. The self-declared goal is to onboard 1 billion people in the Solana ecosystem of decentralized apps. Solana is capable to handle a large number of transactions at a minimal cost.
While it can theoretically handle up to 710.000 transactions per second, it still manages to handle 50.000 transactions per second on average in the main net. It is worth mentioning that the software is still considered to be in beta status and that Solana faced an outage after heavy bot traffic in September 2021. Reaching a peak of 400.000 TP/s was too much for the network and it had to shut down for several hours.
The native currency of Solana is the SOL token and the smallest denomination is 1 Lamport which equals 0,000000001 SOL. The smallest unit is named after the computer scientist Leslie Lamport who is known for his work in distributed systems.
Proof of history – A new concept
Unlike Bitcoin, the Solana blockchain is not based on proof of work (PoW) and is also not exactly a classic proof of stake (PoS) blockchain either. It is powered by a mix between proof of stake and a new solution called proof of history (PoH).
Proof of history introduces a cryptographic timestamp that enables every validator in the network to identify the correct order of transactions or events. It allows creating a historical record that proves that an event has happened. In effect, all nodes on the Solana blockchain can agree on the time in the network without the need to communicate and agree with each other on what time it is.
Instead, each validator is required to run its own clock by constantly solving a SHA256-based verifiable delay function. The nodes can agree on the time prior to consensus about the transactions, thus creating an environment that can handle more transactions than any other blockchain technology.
Proof of history is not a consensus mechanism from a technical standpoint, but it is critical to Solana's speed since it allows its proof of stake blockchain to scale better than many other blockchain technologies.
Solana offers staking
Solana offers also the option to create additional income through staking. Stakers have to delegate their SOL tokens in order to gain income through block rewards. This system is very similar to Ethereum 2.0 or Polkadot, where investors are able to take part in staking by delegating their funds.
In effect, Solana staking becomes accessible even to retail investors since they are able to stake small amounts. Staking pools or liquid staking pools will usually offer an annual rate between 4 % and 6 %.
It is notable that common wallets for Solana like Phantom have a built-in staking function allowing users to choose between predefined staking pools and making it very easy, convenient, and intuitive to get into staking.
Solana offers a vast DeFi ecosystem
At the time of writing, the Solana blockchain has a total value locked of approximately 12 billion US-Dollars and an increasing amount of DeFi protocols. These protocols offer a variety of use cases and services, among them lending, trading, and even margin and derivatives trading. With the unmatched transaction speed and the low costs for transactions, many of these applications can offer services that are not possible on other layer-one-solutions or would require them to opt for a second layer.
Some notable protocols are:
Raydium
Solend
Solfarm (formerly known as Tulip)
Please note that those examples are provided only for informational purposes and that none of these protocols are endorsed by LiteBit or our staff. There are a total of 41 protocols active at the time of writing and it is to be expected that this number will increase throughout the year 2022.
Is Solana the "Ethereum killer"?
As soon as a blockchain is offering smart contract capabilities the term "Ethereum killer" is somehow thrown around in the media. This has also been the case with Solana and also many other platforms. There is no direct competition between both technologies but it is true that they both offer DeFi and NFT platforms.
Both have been a factor in the growth of Ethereum. There are a few points that are speaking for Solana and a couple of points that speak against it.
Transaction fees are as low as 0,00025 US-Dollars on average
Transactions are confirmed within a few seconds
Solana handles around 50.000 TP/s compared to Ethereum's 15 TP/s
Solanas network broke down once and is still in beta status
Ethereum has the bigger network in terms of users and protocols
Ethereum 2.0 might eliminate certain advantages that Solana has at this point
At the end of the day, there is no clear winner comparing both technologies. It seems it remains for the market to decide which one is going to win the race if there is any. It is also absolutely possible for both technologies to coexist.
Cryptobroker LiteBit registered with the Dutch National Bank
LiteBit voted the best crypto broker for the second year in a row
These are the steps to verify yourself!
What is Fantom and how is it trying to solve the blockchain trilemma?
The year 2021 has been the year of the layer 1 solutions. More and more smart contract platforms evolved and were aiming to catch market share in decentralized finance and the NFT economy. With the growing user base of blockchain protocols, they have to face obstacles that didn't exist a few years ago. The most pressing problem is the scalability of blockchain technology and there have been several attempts to solve the trilemma between security, scalability, and decentralization.
Cosmos, the internet of blockchains
The universe of Blockchains is still quite compartmentalized. The project which solves the problem of communication between these silos - the interoperability problem - awaits a hefty reward. Cosmos is one of the projects with good prospects. It is a network of independent blockchains that can still communicate. These can be blockchains built on Cosmos but also external blockchains like Bitcoin.
NEAR Protocol –A decentralized cloud computing platform
NEAR is a new blockchain technology that is focused on cloud computing rather than cloud storage. It has a few similarities to older projects but offers a completely new approach on how to use and incentivize the network and shape it so that cloud computing becomes available as a decentralized application that is easily accessible by anybody.


text:
Home > News and Comments > Community Bank Of Loganville Seized By FDIC, Assets Go To Bank Of Essex
Community Bank Of Loganville Seized By FDIC, Assets Go To Bank Of Essex
The Community Bank of Loganville was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation yesterday. See the FDIC notice here.
From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:
The Bank of Essex in Tappahannock, Va., will assume all of the bank's $611 million in total deposits. The failure is Georgia's fourth within the last two years, and the third in the last four months in metro Atlanta. Community Bank, which was founded in 1946, follows the failure of two Alpharetta-based banks, Integrity Bank and Alpha Bank & Trust.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. expects the failure to cost the insurance fund between $200 million and $240 million. Bank of Essex paid a $3.2 million premium to assume the deposits of the failed bank.
The failure of the bank was blamed, at least in part, on the real estate crisis:
"There is no question that the extended difficulty in the broad Metro-Atlanta real-estate market continues to stress area banks that do a lot of business with real-estate developers and builders," Joe Brannen, president and CEO of Georgia Bankers Association, said in a written release. "However, it remains important to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of banks operating in Georgia meet the criteria for being well capitalized by regulators and have adequate reserves on hand to weather the current stresses to the economy.
The Community Bank's branches will reopen Monday as the Bank of Essex. Customers can continue to access their funds Saturday and Sunday via ATMs or writing checks and deposits remain fully insured for up to $250,000.


text:
Beeswax, Bloggers and Barack
Posted by Neil Pedley on August 3rd
This week's new releases include a Latin American double bill on the nature of the fame game, a British one-two centered on the macabre and a global smattering of meditations on love young and old.
Download this in audio form (MP3: 13:04 minutes, 12 MB)
Subscribe to the In Theaters podcast: [XML] [iTunes]
Following on the heels of well-received festival performers "Funny Ha Ha" and "Mutual Appreciation," mumblecore alum Andrew Bujalski delivers another characteristically lo-fi tale of post-grads trying to build lives for themselves. Complete with a who's who of Austin indie film players (including SXSW film fest head Janet Pierson), this Texas-set ramble centers on the unfulfilled lives of twin sisters Lauren and Jeannie (non-pros Maggie and Tilly Hatcher), the former a carefree drifting spirit, the latter a headstrong business owner.
Opens in New York.
Progressive and traditionalist values clash against the barren backdrop of Eastern Turkey with the fate of a young girl in the balance in director Abdullah Oguz's adaptation of Zülfü Livaneli's politically charged novel. Özgü Namal stars as 17-year-old Meryam who, after having been discovered unconscious and assaulted, is sentenced to death in the ancient custom. Murat Han co-stars as Cemal, the conservative but conflicted young man tasked with carrying out her disposal on the road to Istanbul, who's forbidden from returning until the task is complete. In Turkish with subtitles.
Way back in 2006, when the African-American junior senator from Illinois announced his candidacy for president, many people scoffed. Two people who didn't were cinematographer Amy Rice and producer Alicia Sams, who brought the idea of an inside account of this unlikely candidate's campaign to Edward Norton, who ended up serving as the film's producer. Three years and countless hours of footage later, the results were sold for a princely sum (seven figures) just days after Obama's election, an award for the prescience of being there to document every step of Obama's meteoric rise to political stardom virtually from the beginning.
Opens in Los Angeles.
"Cold Souls"
Like something Charlie Kaufman forgot to write, French writer/director Sophie Barthes' feature debut features an aging sad sack (Paul Giamatti, playing a rough version of himself) attempting to remedy a creative block via metaphysical pseudo-science. Driven to distraction by his inability to grasp the soul of the titular role in a production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," Giamatti opts to have his own soul removed, turning to an upscale spiritual cosmetics company specializing in "soul storage."
Opens in New York and Los Angeles.
DocuWeek
DocuWeek, the annual New York and Los Angeles based theatrical exhibition of doc films for purposes of Oscar qualification, continues. Movies opening this week are: "Kimjongilia," a glimpse into North Korea through the testimony of defectors (LA 8/7, NY 8/14); "Rock Prophecies," about photographer Robert M. Knight's quest for the world's greatest undiscovered guitar player (LA 8/7, NY 8/14); "Split Estate," in which Colorado residents fight the federal mandate permitting the energy industry to drill their land (NY, LA 8/7); and "Soundtrack for a Revolution," which charts the role of music in the American civil rights movement (NY, LA 8/7).
"El Tinte De La Fama"
Serving as the Venezuela's entry in the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the most recent Oscars, director Alejandro Bellame Palacios' feature debut is a surrealist plunge into the intoxicating waters of stardom. Pressured by her nagging husband and their dwindling finances, blond beauty Magaly (Elaiza Gil) enters into a televised Marilyn Monroe look-a-like contest. Egged on by fellow participant and transsexual Hector (Miguel Ferrari), who believes he is the reincarnation of the late actress, Magaly's fragile psyche begins to fracture as events in her life begin to oddly mirror those of the real Monroe. In Spanish with subtitles.
Between the ludicrous "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and the incoherent borefest that was "Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen," it's so far not been a banner year for movies based on merchandise, at least critically. Stephen Sommers' contribution to the fold is a live-action version of the flag-waving '80's kids' cartoon/action figure line, with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance — again — and Dennis Quaid, decked out like an uncool dad at Halloween, in the role of General Hawk.
Opens wide.


text:
13 Theories & Creepy Predictions About Donald Trump & Son Barron From Two Different 19th Century Books
Entertainment And News
By Emily Blackwood — Written on Apr 30, 2020
Donald Trump's presidential journey has been one of shock, awe and conspiracy theories. The majority of the rumors surrounding him are just that, rumors. But one recent discovery might have you rethinking all the gossip you once thought was crazy.
President Trump and his son, Barron Trump, are allegedly both featured in two different 19th century books.
Snopes deemed the validity of the books, "Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey," and "1900": or, "The Last President," to be mostly true. The books are in fact real books, both written by Ingersoll Lockwood in the 1890s.
You can read both of the books, which have some seriously strange connections to the Trump family, on Archive.org, and they're both archived by the Library of Congress. Here are the links to "Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey," and "The Last President." Lockwood, who was an American political writer, lawyer, and novelist, wrote another book featuring Baron Trump called "The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulgar," in 1890.
RELATED: 17 Theories And Facts About Hope Hicks Who Is Rumored To be Donald Trump's 28-Year-Old Girlfriend
If you're still trying to wrap your brain around just how Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential race, we've found some details and theories and super weird coincidences found in these books that are making people all across the web ask if Donald Trump and Barron are time travelers.
(Get ready, this gets weird.)
RELATED: 5 Facts And Details About Melania Trump's Rumored Boyfriend Hank Siemers
1. Baron Trump, the character, is a lot like Barron Trump, the real-life son of the president.
They might not look exactly like twinsies in that sketch above — and they spell their names slightly differently — but both are wealthy young men who have similar living arrangements. Baron Trump lives in Castle Trump and Barron Trump grew up in Trump Towers. Coincidence? I think not.
In the book, the character Baron has "a very active brain," and has grown bored of his luxurious lifestyle.
2. Baron Trump goes on an adventure in Russia.
In the book, Baron (remember, not Barron), goes on an adventure Russia to look for an entrance into alternate dimensions that ultimately changes his life. Did Donald send Barron to do his bidding during the campaign? Are we pointing the finger at the wrong adult when we should be pointing it at an 11-year-old?
3. In Russia, Baron is guided by a master named "Don."
While in Russia, little adventurous Baron is guided by Don, a.k.a. "the master of all masters." Not ruling out the theory that Donald may have wrote this himself.
4. "The Last President," begins with an unlikely presidential candidate winning the election.
The story is set in New York City, early November, with the city in a "state of uproar," after an "enormously opposed outsider candidate," is elected president. Sound familiar?
"Police officers shouted through the streets, warning city folk to stay indoors for the night," the book reads. "Mobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years."
5. The book mentions the address where a certain Trump building now stands.
The novel predicts that the "Fifth Avenue Hotel" will be the first target of the mob against the newly elected leader. The address of that hotel, which is written in the book, is the exact address where Trump Story stands.
I don't know about you, but I have some serious goosebumps.
6. People protest the election process.
In the book, after the unpopular president is elected, a resistance is formed and people start protesting what they believe to be an unjust and corrupt election. Again, SOUND FAMILIAR?!
7. There's a Pence reference.
In the book, there is a character named "Lafe Pence" who is the secretary of agriculture. Is that nod from the future to our current vice president, Mike Pence.
8. SOOOO, people think this is more proof that Donald Trump and Barron Trump are time travelers.
Basically, there's a whole group of people in the world that believe the only reason Donald Trump was elected is beacuse he's a time traveler and he did something to figure out how to rig the election and win. And it goes deeper than that.
9. Some theorists believe he was chosen to be elected so he could defeat ISIS.
Apparently people believe there was a man named John Titor who traveled from the year 2036 to 2000 to warn the world of a nuclear war with ISIS. At the time, nobody knew his true identity, but now they think it may have been Trump himself.
According to these theories, Donald has already witnessed the destruction of war and became president in order to stop it.
RELATED: 7 Most Controversial Conspiracy Theories About Princess Diana's Death
10. Trump has a weird connection to Telsa.
These conspiracy theorists also believe that John George Trump, Donald's uncle, looked over famous engineer Nikola Tesla's notes after his death, which included his thoughts on time travel. The National Defence Research Committee actually called Trump, who was an MIT professor, to look into his work in case there was any military application.
Man Encouraged To Dump Fiancée After She Blames His Family For 'Ruining' Their Wedding Plans
Woman Feels 'Scammed' Because Her Husband Of 7 Years Puts On 60 Pounds & She's 'Embarrassed' Of Him
Law Firm Owner Defends Hiring A Legal Assistant Who Will Also Nanny For Female Lawyer Who Often Has To Pick Kids Up Early From School
He spent three days by himself looking into the notes before concluding there was nothing of any significance.
11. Donald spent a lot of time with his uncle before he died.
Before he died in 1985, Donald spent a lot of time with his Uncle John, who would often warn him about nuclear weapons.
"He would tell me, 'There are things that are happening that could be potentially so bad for the world in terms of weaponry." He also said that his uncle "would tell me many years ago about the power of weapons someday, that the destructive force of these weapons would be so massive, that it's going to be a scary world."
12. People believe Steve Bannon is Barron Trump.
These people also believe that Barron Trump is White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, sent back from the future to help his father. Presumably to fight ISIS.
13. And some people now want to turn the books into a movie.
A filmmaker recently made an IndieGoGo campaign to make a fantasy film based on Lockwood's books. Leigh Scott, who's also a Trump supporter, raised over $3,000 of his $100,000 goal to make his film dreams a reality.
Did OJ Simpson's Son Jason Kill Nicole Brown & Ron Goldman?
11 Strict Rules That Elon Musk Makes His Girlfriends & Wives Follow
Justin Bieber Suspected As The Father Of Kourtney Kardashian's Son Reign (Instead Of Scott Disick)
Why Kate Moss Was 'Scared' & 'Couldn't Get Out Of Bed For Weeks' After Working With Mark Wahlberg
"It's simple. Introduce this madness to the general population. Turn Baron Trump into a fantasy icon like Harry Potter, Dorothy Gale or Alice. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be nice if there was a BOY in one of these stories?"
Emily Blackwood is a writer and editor living in California. She covers all things news, pop culture, true crime.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on August 7, 2017 and was updated with the latest information.


text:
Neuss Rheinpark-Center station is in the city of Neuss in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the Neuss Rheinpark Center business park and shopping centre. It is on the Mönchengladbach–Düsseldorf railway and it is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station. The station opened on 29 May 1988 on the new line built with the Hamm railway bridge opened by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company on 24 July 1870.

The station is served by three lines of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn, S 8 (running between Hagen and Mönchengladbach), S 11 (running between Düsseldorf Airport and Bergisch Gladbach) and S 28 (running between Mettmann Stadtwald or Wuppertal and Kaarster See), each operating every 20 minutes during the day.

It is also served by bus route 842, operated by Stadtwerke Neuss at 20-minute intervals, and by bus route 874, operated by Busverkehr Rheinland at 60- to 180-minute intervals.

References

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn stations
S8 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn)
S11 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn)
S28 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn)
Neuss
Buildings and structures in Rhein-Kreis Neuss
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1988

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Party Wall Advice and Property Surveys in Kensington
Older style properties in Central London need specialist advice and that can be provided by our surveyors who have a wide range of experience in dealing with Victorian, Edwardian and other historic buildings.
Detailed building surveys, reports on specific defects, help with renovation and alterations are amongst the services we offer.
We can also provide party wall guidance to building owners and adjoining owners who might be affected by extensive refurbishment or rebuilding including the construction of basements and roof extensions.
Commercial property advice, including on dilapidations, can be provided and schedules of condition prepared prior to the commencement of a lease.
Property Surveys & Valuations
Our team of Chartered Surveyors have many years' experience of inspecting properties in Central London. Whatever the style or type of property you're buying you'll feel more confident armed with one of our survey reports. Call our Central London offices on 020 7979 7740 to discuss which type of survey best suits your needs.
Whether you're thinking of extending your lease or enfranchising the freehold of your building we are at hand to offer the advice you require. We have the necessary experience to accurately value prime Central London properties and enter in to negotiations on your behalf. Call our Central London office today on 020 7979 7740 for advice or a fee proposal.
PARTY WALL ADVICE
Our team of party wall surveyors are on hand to assist whether you're planning additions or alterations to your property that fall within the scope of The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 or you've received a notice informing you of a neighbour's proposed works. We'll guide you through the process and do our best to ensure that neighbourly relations are maintained through what can be a difficult time.
Our team of Chartered Surveyors and Architectural Technicians are able to offer a full range of residential architectural services ranging from initial measured building surveys through design and planning application and finally Building Regulations approval.
We cover all aspects of residential survey work including specific defect reports, snagging lists, the preparation of lease plans and contract administration. We have 4 RICS Registered Valuers on the team offering valuations for a range or purposes including matrimonial proceedings, capital gains and inheritance tax, reinstatement cost and development.
Central and South-West London
From our offices on the heart of Kensington, our team of Chartered Surveyors are on hand to assist with all your Central London property needs. Whether you're proposing to develop your Belgravia townhouse or purchase a flat in Fitzrovia we can provide all the advice you'll require.
Central London houses some of the most beautiful squares in the country. Berkeley Square in Mayfair was constructed in the mid-18th century by the Architect William Kent and is the subject of the famous war time song by Vera Lynn. Belgrave Square in Belgravia was laid out by the property contractor Thomas Cubitt in the 1820s and Cavendish Square, where building works commenced in 1717, links the two main shopping thoroughfares of Oxford Street and Regent Street.
If you prefer something in the more modern style the 3 tower blocks on the Barbican Estate, built in the 1960s may be for you – most of the 42 storeys provide spectacular views across the Capital. Alternatively, there are scores of modern apartment blocks located along the banks of the Thames in the south-west London areas of Fulham, Wandsworth and Putney.
Some of the country's most famous museums and galleries are also located in Central London including the Victoria and Albert Museum in Knightsbridge, the Natural History Museum in Kensington and the Tate Modern which is located in the former Bankside Power Station in Southwark.
Central London has some of the best transport links in the world. You're rarely more than a couple of minutes' walk away from an Underground Station and there are literally hundreds of bus routes passing through. If travelling further afield, London is also the main hub for the overground rail network with HS2, which will cut the travel time to Birmingham and Manchester significantly, due to be operational in 2026.
If you require some advice on a Central London property, please call our surveying team on 020 7979 7740 for some initial advice or send us your request by email.
Vicarage House,
58-60 Kensington Church Street,
Kensington,
W8 4DB
Email: surveyors@carterfielding.co.uk
"I have now been through your report. In my view it was of the highest quality and was incredibly useful. Thank you for all your help, time and diligence"
Ms AG, Soho W1
Kingston Head Office
Leatherhead Office
Kensington Office
From our Kensington office we cover the more central parts of West and South West London including the areas below:
Pimlico SW1
Victoria SW1
Westminster SW1
Chelsea SW3
Bayswater W2
Hammersmith W6
Kensington W8
Maida Vale W9
North Kensington W10
Notting Hill W11
Shepherds Bush W12
West Kensington W14
Clapham SW4
Earl's Court SW5
Fulham SW6
Knightsbridge SW7
Lambeth SW8
Brompton & Chelsea SW10
Battersea SW11
Balham SW12
Tooting SW17
Earlsfield SW18
Wandsworth SW18


Moore continued to be the Chargers' 'go-to' guy on offense in a 59-27 victory versus county rival Kings Mountain. Moore rolled up 261 yards on 13 carries and dented the end zone four times on the night.
Hillman made a big splash in the secondary in the Golden Lions' 52-21 romp past East Rutherford. He intercepted three passes, returning one 50 yards for a score. He also helped out on offense with three receptions for 33 yards.