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The Dick Van Dyke Show: Writing At Its Best
September 27, 2021 September 26, 2021 / thewritelife61
This blog series is "It's My Show," about actors who featured their names in the titles of shows. I've definitely saved the best for last: The Dick Van Dyke Show. During the past five plus years of writing my blog, I have realized that my favorite shows are those that feature amazing writing and concentrate on relationships. This show is no exception.
Photo: thiswastelevision.com
From 1961 till 1966, this show aired on CBS, resulting in 158 episodes. Created by Carl Reiner, it was produced by Calvada Productions. Calvada was named for Carl Reiner, Sheldon Leonard, Dick Van Dyke, and Danny Thomas. The show was filmed at Desilu Studios in front of a live audience. Bill Persky and Sam Denoff wrote 29 of the episodes.
The theme song was written by the great Earle Hagen. (For more on Hagen, you can see my blog from December 10, 2018; Hagen wrote many great theme songs including The Danny Thomas Show, Gomer Pyle, I Spy, The Mod Squad, and most memorably, The Andy Griffith Show.)
The opening of the show had Rob walking into the living room. In one version, he trips over an ottoman, falling on the floor. In the another, he steps around the ottoman. You never knew which opening you would see, a fun element of the show.
I love that this show realized our professional lives are equally important to our personal and family life, and this show not only featured both, but often they meshed together just like all our lives do.
Not only was Rob Petrie's (Dick Van Dyke) work life part of the show, but he was a television writer, which provided even more insights into what we were watching. Rob writes "The Alan Brady Show" with cowriters Sally (Rose Marie) and Buddy (Morey Amsterdam). Mel (Richard Deacon) is star Alan Brady's (Carl Reiner) producer. Buddy and Mel have an ongoing feud, insulting each other on a daily basis. (In real life, Deacon and Amsterdam were good friends and often came up with new insults when they had drinks together after work.) Reiner originally planned on starring in the show and played Petrie in the pilot, but he was persuaded to give the role to another actor by Leonard.
Moore, Van Dyke and Mathews–Photo: wideopencountry.com
Rob's home life consisted of wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), son Ritchie (Larry Mathews), and neighbors/best friends Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert). Paris directed 84 of the show's episodes and would go on to a career as a director later.
Moore, Paris, Guilbert, and Van Dyke
Photo: motionpictures.com
In the pilot, titled "Head of the Family," Barbara Britton played Laura, Gary Morgan played Ritchie, Morty Gunty played Buddy, and Sylvia Miles played Sally. Jack Wakefield played Alan Sturdy who was the star of the tv show.
The characters are very much like people we all know, except maybe a bit funnier. Rob loved his wife and son. He was a big fan of cowboy movies and Laurel and Hardy. He met Laura, a USO dancer, when he was in the Army as a Special Services Sergeant in Camp Crowder, Missouri. His brother Stacey appeared on the show a few times (played by real life brother Jerry Van Dyke). Richie is a typical kid who gets in trouble sometimes but is a good kid, just curious and looking to test his boundaries. Their neighbors Millie and Jerry have a son about Richie's age, and they are their best friends; Jerry is also their dentist.
Moore, Van Dyke–Photo: pinterest.com
The only thing not realistic about his home life is that Rob and Laura have twin beds. Reiner asked the network to allow the couple to sleep in the same bed, but they would not approve it, so like most sitcom married couples, they had separate beds. About the only couples who were able to get around the challenge were the Stephens on Bewitched and Katie and Robbie on My Three Sons. The network also didn't love that Moore wore capri pants but they did end up allowing her to do so.
Rob's coworkers are also endearing characters. Buddy is energetic and sarcastic. He is married to Pickles and shares a lot of jokes about some of the scatterbrained things she does. We know he is in love with Sally, but they never take their relationship anywhere other than friendship. She is often making fun of herself for looking for a man, but we realize she is very lonely. Mel is an excellent producer who puts up with a lot from both Buddy and Alan.
Amsterdam, Deacon, Van Dyke, Marie, Moore–Photo: vulture.com
Van Dyke had to give up Bye, Bye Birdie to star in the show but definitely made the right choice. The role of Laura was a hard one to cast. Sixty actresses auditioned for the character. Moore almost chose not to go, and when she did, she lied about her age, making herself older than she was. Sally Rogers was based on Lucille Kallen who wrote for Your Show of Shows and Selma Diamond who wrote for Caesar's Hour.
After the first season, CBS said they were cancelling the show. Procter & Gamble threatened to remove all its advertising and viewers complained loudly. The network didn't need to worry about ratings in season two; the show was in the top ten by episode three and was popular for the rest of its time on air.
To color or not was a big question during the sixties. Reiner actually considered filming the show in color in the third season until he found out it would add $7000 per episode (the equivalent of about $59,000 today).
Deacon, Moore, Van Dyke, Leonard, Reiner, Paris
Photo: taiwannews.com
I'm not the only one who thought this was an amazing show. The series was nominated for 25 Emmy awards and won 15 of them. Reiner won three times for writing, Van Dyke three times for acting, and Moore twice for leading actress in a comedy role.
Some of my favorite episodes are "Pink Pills and Purple Parents" (season 4) a flashback to when Laura meets Rob's parents. She takes some anti-anxiety medicine Millie gives her. She gets a bit loopy and Rob's mother thinks she has a drinking problem; "The Ghost of a Chantz" (season four) where Rob, Laura, Buddy, and Sally spend the night in what's said to be a haunted cabin. Characters disappear one by one and finally we learn that Mel pranked them to test out a concept for a show called Sneaky Camera; "Coast to Coast Big Mouth" (season five) when Laura reveals on a TV game show that Alan is bald and wears a toupee. Laura bravely goes to the office to apologize; another one about Laura, "The Curious Thing About Women" (season one) when Rob writes a comedy skit about Laura's bad habit of reading his mail. All her friends tease her after it airs, and she tries to deny it, but when a package comes to the house, she opens it and an inflatable raft opens up which she cannot put back; and finally, "That's My Boy" (season 3) when Rob is convinced that the hospital switched their son with another boy born that day. He has to resolve this, and invites the other couple over to discuss the situation. When Rob opens the door, he sees an African American couple, and it gets one of the longest audience laughs than any other sitcom episode.
Moore, Reiner–Photo: nytimes.com
CBS may have wanted to end the show after season one, but they did not want to end it after season five. However, the cast made the decision to quit while they were still producing high-quality shows. I appreciate that they did this. One of the saddest things for me as a viewer is when a show goes on a year or two longer than it should and the quality diminishes greatly.
I just can't think of anything about this show that needed improving. It had a great cast, great writers, likable characters, and a timeless quality. Sixty years after the show began, it is just as funny and easy to watch as it was then. Thank you, Carl Reiner and cast, for knowing how to make a memorable show and when to end it to keep it that way.
Ann Morgan Guilbert, Bye Bye Birdie, Caesar's Hour, Carl Reiner, Danny Thomas, Dick Van Dyke, Earle Hagen, Gary Morgan, Gomer Pyle, Jack Wakefield, Jerry Paris, Jerry Van Dyke, Larry Mathews, Lucille Kallen, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, Morty Gunty, My Three Sons, Rose Marie, Sam Denoff, Selma Diamond, Sheldon Leonard, Sylvia Miles, The Andy Griffith Show, The Danny Thomas Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mod Squad, Your Show of Shows
← It Might be The Drew Carey Show But It's About Everyman
Isabel Randolph, What a Character! →
3 thoughts on "The Dick Van Dyke Show: Writing At Its Best"
Like a show that needs no improving
I haven't seen any of these episodes but it sounds like I need to make some time to do that. That's crazy when you see the success it had that CBS wanted to cancel it after the first season. Knowing when to leave is always tricky with TV shows (and athletes). That has to be one of the toughest decisions to make when you're still doing well.
I think this is still one of the best written shows on television. It is timeless and still very funny.
Geo. Raymond
I loved the Dick Van Dyke show as a kid, but for one character, Buddy. Even as a kid, Amsterdam felt like a concession to the boorish 1950s Friar's club comedy that preceded the era (but had mercifully died out by the time of the Dick Van Dyke show.) It just never appealed to me. Maybe that is why programs like the Milton Berle show are mostly forgotten, while each new generation rediscovers You Bet Your Life and The Honeymooners. Granted, it could be too, that I just did not understand Buddy's treatment of Mel, the same way I was confused by Murray's treatment of the Ted Baxter character on the Mary Tyler Moore show. To my young mind it just seemed cruel. Recently, I recently re-watched a few episodes of both shows, and my feelings remain unchanged. Great shows, two terribly unfunny characters. But, hey, maybe that is just me.


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Q: Reading NaN values from .csv files with decode_csv() I have .csv file with integer values, that can have NA value which represents missing data.
Example file:
-9882,-9585,-9179
-9883,-9587,NA
-9882,-9585,-9179

When trying to read it with
import tensorflow as tf

reader = tf.TextLineReader(skip_header_lines=1)
key, value = reader.read_up_to(filename_queue, 1)
record_defaults = [[0], [0], [0]]
data, ABL_E, ABL_N = tf.decode_csv(value, record_defaults=record_defaults)

It throws following error later on sess.run(_) on the 2nd iteration
InvalidArgumentError (see above for traceback): Field 5 in record 32400 is not a valid int32: NA

Is there a way to interpret string "NA" while reading csv as NaN or similar value in TensorFlow?

A:
I recently ran into the same problem. I solved it by reading the CSV as strings, replacing every occurrence of "NA" with some valid value, then converting it to float
  # Set up reading from CSV files
  filename_queue = tf.train.string_input_producer([filename])
  reader = tf.TextLineReader()
  key, value = reader.read(filename_queue)
  NUM_COLUMNS = XX # Specify number of expected columns

  # Read values as string, set "NA" for missing values.
  record_defaults = [[tf.cast("NA", tf.string)]] * NUM_COLUMNS
  decoded = tf.decode_csv(value, record_defaults=record_defaults, field_delim="\t")
  # Replace every occurrence of "NA" with "-1"
  no_nan = tf.where(tf.equal(decoded,  "NA"), ["-1"]*NUM_COLUMNS, decoded)
  # Convert to float, combine to a single tensor with stack.
  float_row = tf.stack(tf.string_to_number(no_nan, tf.float32))

But long term I plan switching to tfrecords because reading csv is too slow for my needs

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Movies » Kasoor Movie Review
Kasoor Review
Feroz Hassan / fullhyd.com
There are very few moments in a reviewer's career when he sees a director falter all through, mess up his priorities and come up with a cropper of a movie, and still empathize (not sympathize) with the guy. Reviewing Kasoor has brought me one. I share Vikram Bhatt's dilemma in choosing between concentrating on the film's plot and on Lisa Ray. And although my obvious choice should be the former, I cannot help it if it is non-existent.
I am not complaining when I say that the movie looks like an amalgamation of various ad campaigns and music videos that Lisa has done. Oh, but what would one give to get a guy to teach her NOT to smile. When she sleeps she smiles, when she wakes she smiles, when she is shocked she smiles, when she is angry she smiles, when she is puzzled she smiles, when she is crying she smiles... It wouldn't be much to say that she can't laugh. But she has such 'talent' that one finds it hard to recall any other character of the movie and say that it was significant. Hey, but I got a job to do.
I will start with Simran, played by Lisa of course, who is a fledgling corporate attorney in our country where copyright is understood as 'the right to copy'. She is called upon to defend a prominent journalist, Shekhar Saxena (Aftab Shivdasani), who has been accused of murdering his wife, who owned the publication. It turns out that Simran had been a criminal lawyer, but one wrongful case and she was through with it. She gives in, anyway. This part of the screenplay takes about ten minutes and it stays here for the next 90 minutes wherein the only development is that the two fall in love.
At the other end is a cop (Ashutosh Rana) with whom Simran had earlier fallen out and who is now inexplicably obsessed with prosecuting Shekhar. The next half of the movie is spent in the court, and it would be difficult to resist the temptation of guessing who wins. So when Shekhar walks away with her, the director finds that he's exhausted the reel length without even trying to solve the murder, and there isn't anyone to show for it. He starts right at the beginning, only there is no law this time around (that's the twist and you are not supposed to get it here).
It is bad enough that the movie looks like an extended ad, but the Bhatts don't stop at that. For the only scene that qualifies the movie as a thriller, or a movie to begin with, has been brazenly lifted from the so recent What Lies Beneath - quite uninspired in itself.
As for the performances, Aftab didn't have any misgivings of his efforts getting noticed, so he didn't try. That makes the duo one set of mannequins, especially when they are looking through the car's windshield. By the way, there's Ashutosh Rana who is trying to be another Sadashiv Amrapurkar and one Apurva something constantly smoldering the background.
Finally, with all apologies to the quake victims, I have hit upon an idea of a fund to raise money to make Lisa a real lawyer. How one would like to be accused of murder when one knows that she's going to be around! Donate generously!
KASOOR SNAPSHOT
Aftab Shivdasani, Lisa Ray, Apoorva Agnihotri, Divya Dutt, Irfan Khan, Ashutosh Rana
Vikram Bhatt
See Kasoor full details
KASOOR USER REVIEWS
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Aftab Shivdasani, Lisa Ray

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Welcome! I'm Lucy Worsley, by day Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, and by night a writer of history books.
My latest ones are: QUEEN VICTORIA, a new biography of the grand old lady, and for younger readers, a novel about the Tudor court, LADY MARY.
My blog is no more!
Thanks for visiting! Like many blogs mine has fallen into abeyance, actually because these days I have more fun on Facebook or Twitter. Please do join me there!


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Slottsparken Buckingham Palace Garden ligger bakom Buckingham Palace i London och täcker stora delar av det som tidigare var "Goring Great Garden", uppkallade efter Lord Goring, en av de tidigaste boende i ett stort hus på platsen. Parken planlades av Henry Wise och förändrades av William Townsend Aiton på uppdrag av Georg IV.

Parken omfattar 17 hektar i City of Westminster, London och har totalt drygt fyra kilometer av grusgångar. De gränsar till Constitution Hill i norr, Hyde Park Corner i väst, Grosvenor Place i sydväst och till Royal Mews, Queen's Gallery och Buckingham Palace till syd och öst.

Bland träden finns tysklönn, indisk kastanj, silverlönn och en träskcypress. I det sydvästra hörnet finns ett överlevande mullbärsträd från  Jakob I:s odlingar, då han utan framgång försökte föda upp silkesmaskar vid Buckingham Palace. (Det var inte i den nutida parken utan närmare Green Park.)

Det finns en stor 1800-talssjö med en flock flamingor och även den stora Waterloo Vase står sedan 1906 i parken. Det finns ett lusthus, en helikopterplatta och en tennisplan där Björn Borg, John McEnroe och Steffi Graf har spelat. Parken genomsöks regelbundet i jakt på nattfjärilar och besöks ibland av drottningens svanar.

Till skillnad från det näraliggande Royal Parks of London, är Buckingham Palace Gardens vanligtvis inte öppet för allmänheten.  Under augusti och september, då Buckingham Palace är öppet, har besökare tillträde till delar av parken i slutet av rundturen. (En stor souvenirbutik finns under denna tid i ett tält i längs vägen.)

I parken har drottningen sina garden parties. Sedan millennieskiftet har de blivit en samlingspunkt för nationellt firande och allmänheten bjöds in första gången under   Elizabeth II:s guldjubileum.  Drottningen höll två exceptionella fester: Prom at the Palace och Party at the Palace den 1 respektive 3 juni 2002. Parken gjordes om till en enorm utomhusteater för de besökande stjärnorna. Tillsammans med kungafamiljen fanns tusentals gäster på gränsmattorna och tiotusentals på gatorna och i  Royal Parks.  Även BBC direktsände firandet. 25 juni, som en del av drottningens 80 årsfirande hölls Children's Party at the Palace med populära brittiska skådespelare som en hyllning till läskunnighet, drama och fantasi.

Referenser
Brown, Jane, and Christopher Simon Sykes.  The Garden at Buckingham Palace:  An Illustrated History. (London:  Royal Collection, 2004.)
Nash, Roy.  Buckingham Palace:  The Place and the People. (London: Macdonald Futura Publishers, 1980.)

Externa länkar

 Royal Horticultural Society Article about the Gardens
amazon.com DVD listing for edited live recording of Prom at the Palace ISBN B000069B68
amazon.com DVD listing for edited live recording of Party at the Palace ISBN B000069003
photographs from the Royal website of Children's Party at the Palace
Channel4.com - Big Royal Dig
Daily Telegraph article outlining main aims of the Buckingham Palace dig

Buckingham Palace
Parker i London
Parker i engelsk stil
Slottsparker

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Can You Secure A Phoenix Title Loan Without A Job?
Home/Apache Junction, Archive, Uncategorized/Can You Secure A Phoenix Title Loan Without A Job?
Though on an average the repayment for the Phoenix car title loan is 30 days and though most lenders extend the loan term to accommodate their need but charge a fee for every renewal. But if the borrower defaults on payment of the interest and other fees, the lender repossess the vehicle. Usually the trade in value of the car is used by the lenders when they are looking at the amount that a car title loan borrower is to be given. As the risk of non-payment of loan is probable, the lenders want to keep as collateral a car that can be sold quickly in order to recover their cash.
However, consumer advocates say that most of the auto title lenders do not educate the consumer and charge high fees. Some Phoenix car title loan lenders install GPS within the cars making it easier to monitor the cars that are as collateral.
To determine the true value of the Phoenix car online, all lenders refer to the Kelley Blue Book and it allows the lenders and consumers to ascertain the real value of the car that is being put as collateral. It is best not to leave out any details when you are inputting the vehicle details.
You can avail about 25% to 50% of the car's value when you are approved for the loan. The total amount of money that you finally receive depends on the discretion of the lender. None of the lenders take the risk of losing money if you default on the loan but repossess the car and give you 30 days to pay the loan and take back your car. But if the loan and interest is not paid back, the lender has legal authority to sell your car and recover the money.


After spending holidays in various pretty cities around Europe in the last few years, we decided for a change this year and have a "normal" lazy, sunny holidays at the beach.
It sounds almost weird from me, doesn't it? We both haven't been to lazy beach holidays since our teenage years and back then it was pretty boring week or two with our parents, lying at the beach, reading book, getting fried on the sun and most importantly - endless uncomfortable hours in car travelling to get there.
As for the travel - we took a flight from Prague, which departed ONLY totally incredibly early time - something like 6 in the morning or even sooner ?! Which was ugh... I decided to not go to sleep at all, so in the end I was awake for more than 26 hours, which was... ha ha... fun :D but I survived !
We didn't spend the whole week only laying at beach and sunbathing, but we also made some trips around island and one hike on top of the highest mountain with monastery (or what is left of it).
Best thing ever ? Lemons growing everywhere like apples !
Reading the beginning of this post I had a certain image in my head. Then when I read Greece I had a moment "oh yeah, not everyone lives on the East Coast of the United States!" XD I wish I could say my summer vacations were that pretty! And historically significant!


On Friday 1st August, a team of cyclists from architecture and building consultancy practice AHR will set out on a 650-mile cycle tour from Glasgow to London, stopping at each of AHR's eight UK offices.
The tour will arrive in London on Friday the 8th of August and the riders will participate in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey100 on Sunday the 10th, bringing the total distance covered to 750 miles.
The AHR Cycle Tour is being undertaken in aid of Cancer Research UK and is sponsored by URS, Newforma, Enterprise, Waterfront Insurance and Sowersby Brothers Cycles. The team hopes to raise a total of £25,000 to support the charity's vital work to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
The tour is being led by AHR director Malcolm Ellis who was treated for prostate cancer at St James's University Hospital in Leeds in 2010. Inspired by the treatment he received, Malcolm galvanised support from his fellow directors and staff around the practice to bring his idea of 'Le Tour d'AHR' to life.
Malcolm and close friend Paul Coleman will complete the full tour together with AHR staff from each office joining them for various stages, with a total of 50 riders participating over the course of the week.
Malcolm Ellis, Director of AHR and leader of the AHR Cycle Tour, said, "I am very grateful to be taking on this challenge with tremendous support from every office, from friends, family and our sponsors. Sure it's a long way but every pound raised will be put to good use by Cancer Research UK and will make a difference to so many".
Becky Dixon, Cancer Research UK's Local Fundraising Manager, said: "We are absolutely delighted that Malcolm and AHR decided to take on such a huge challenge for Cancer Research UK.
The AHR Cycle Tour will depart from AHR's Glasgow office at noon on Friday, 01 August. The group will ride a short distance to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and from there will set out on the first stage of the tour. The riders will cycle from Glasgow to Leeds, arriving on the afternoon of Sunday, 03 August.
The tour will depart from AHR's Leeds office on Monday, 04 August.
The tour will arrive at AHR's Huddersfield office on Monday, 04 August for a short stop. They will ride along the Tour de France route over the big climb of Holme Moss and will be joined by local MP Jason MCartney, who will also ride the climb.
The tour will arrive at the Manchester Velodrome on Monday, 04 August. The tour will then continue to AHR's Manchester office for a brief stop. From there they will continue their journey towards Shrewsbury.
The tour will arrive at AHR's Shrewsbury office on Tuesday, 05 August. From there they will continue their journey to Birmingham.
The tour will arrive at AHR's Birmingham office on Tuesday, 05 August for a brief stop before continuing to AHR's Bristol office.
The tour will arrive at AHR's Bristol office on Wednesday, 06 August where they will continue their journey towards London.
The team will cycle into London on Friday, 08 August. Their first stop will be Cancer Research UK's Head Office in Islington. From there they will continue to the Lee Valley VeloPark at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The tour will finish when the riders arrive at AHR's London office.


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The Holiday That Should Not Be!
October 15, 2010 by Richard Markosian 5 Comments
Should you feel guilty for celebrating Halloween? It depends on how open-minded you are about ancient rituals for demon placation.
by Jacob Hodgen
Religious leaders have always been quick to throw things out for failing to meet divine standards of excellence.
Whether it's the Apocrypha, R-rated movies, or even Sean Hannity, you never know what will be denounced next by the clergy and cast aside as unclean. Yet somehow, against all odds, one particularly intriguing potential vice has thus far escaped mainstream condemnation: Halloween.
The Haunted Forest in Spanish Fork is one of the many family friendly events thousands of pious Utahn's flock to every year
The Hershey Corporation thanks you in advance for your open-mindedness this year towards demon-appeasement rituals.
In Utah, Halloween is Huge
At Gardner Village in West Jordan, you can bring your kids to "Breakfast with a Witch" and buy tickets to the evening's "Witchapalooza" shopping and musical event.
The Castle of Chaos and Nightmare on 13th in Salt Lake City are two of the top haunted houses in the entire country. Lagoon, the Hogle Zoo, and the Red Butte Gardens also all have spooky events for the kids each year. In Ogden, which banned haunted houses in 2004, you can visit the Eccles Haunted Dinosaur Park or sign up for the Lazarus Maze Interactive Dinner Theater. Go for a haunted train ride on the Heber Creeper, and then take your pets to the "Howl-O-Ween" dog parade in Park City.
Then there are the really scary ones. The Utah State Mental Hospital in Provo had its own haunted house attraction staffed by its own mental patients until 1998. Really. The 113 year-old abandoned hospital in Lehi hosted a haunted house attraction for several years that took patrons through an actual crematorium. Over 4,000 people are estimated to have died in the hospital, and many locals believe it to actually be haunted.
Tracy Kidd owns the House of Chuckles on 3rd South
Tracy Kidd owns the House of Chuckles costume and magic shop on 3rd South in Salt Lake. His store is currently crawling with skeletons, zombies, and every kind of crazy costume you can think of. Halloween is both a hobby and a business for Tracy, who has always been interested in horror films and used to volunteer annually at the haunted house put on by the March of Dimes.
His shop has been outfitting Halloween goers since 1982, and he tells me it's never been controversial. "When I was a kid," he says, "we'd put on our own little haunted houses for church. It wasn't something we ever questioned." Tracy says he thinks it's odd that people who don't watch R-rated movies will have no trouble sending their kids to a haunted houses, but he doesn't blame them. "Halloween is just plain fun," he says. "No one wants to miss out."
The Nightmare on 13th is ranked as one of the best haunted houses in America. Haunted attractions in the United States bring in an estimated $300–500 million each year.
So Utah loves Halloween. What's the big deal? Remember, this is the same state that still refuses to teach sex education in public schools, almost kicked Toby Keith out of the Stadium of Fire for saying "ass," and up until this summer had laws banning children from seeing alcohol poured in restaurants, lest their minds be irrecoverably corrupted.
Consider for a moment that just down the street from BYU in Provo was the popular Scream Asylum attraction that ended in 2009. Though BYU administrators will censor sculptures by Rodin in their art gallery for being "inappropriate," its students would flock to the local haunted house whose television commercial featured actors being tortured.
Though Thanksgiving Point refused to show Brüno on the grounds of its "offensive" content, they have a haunted corn maze for the kids featuring animatronic evil spirits. It is one of numerous haunted corn mazes for kids around the state.
The Demonic History of a Great American Holiday
Halloween has a rich history that dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. The event centered around the notion that the walls separating our world and the spirit realm became thin and that evil spirits had to be warded away, lest they come to prey upon your family.
Learn more about the history of Halloween from The Onion.
The festival was both a celebration of the harvest, and a serious Pagan ritual. Practitioners believed that if they failed to keep evil spirits away, they could be cursed or even killed. Families would slaughter livestock in blood sacrifice and cast the bones into large bonfires, which created a powerful magic spell. Other magic rituals and divination rites were performed to further bless the village.
The custom of wearing costumes and masks was designed to trick evil spirits and scare them away. Turnips were carved to look like demons and were used as part of the demon placation ceremony.
In general, it was good—mostly clean—Pagan fun.
Religion and Halloween
Of course, not many people in Utah perform animal sacrifice or divination for Halloween any more, but there is still quite a bit of controversy among the history savvy. Christianity, by definition, mandates belief in ghosts, demons, and the paranormal.
Michael Zimmer is the director of the Paranormal Investigations Team of Utah, which is a scientific-based group that examines purported claims of supernatural activities. He lives in Ogden and is an expert on local myths related to ghosts and the paranormal.
Michael Zimmer is the Director of the PI-Team of Utah
"For whatever reason," he tells me, "what Halloween has become is so far from the Pagan days, there is no longer any connection for most people. Religious people seem to be trying to de-demonize Halloween. They mock and have fun with it. They try to take away some of the fear and danger associated with it. It always seemed inconsistent to me."
Though Michael has conducted hundreds of paranormal investigations over the last decade, it might surprise you that he's not a big fan of what the holiday has become. "It's just a date for me. What we do has nothing to do with Halloween. There's no 'thinness of the veil'; there's no heightened activity this time of the year. In fact, it negatively affects our work." He says despite Utah's particularly devout demographic, when it comes to the paranormal, many people who claim to be religious base many of their beliefs not on the Bible but from, "less-than-honest shows like 'My Ghost Story' or 'Paranormal State.'"
Hollywood ghosts aside, for believers of the Bible, the menace of spirits is very real and not something to be taken lightly. It recounts numerous stories of hostile encounters with evil spirits, such as when Saul participates in a rather productive séance with the Witch of Endor. Exodus 22:18 issues in no uncertain terms the following bloody fatwā: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
(Utah Stories Halloween Tip) Celebrate the reason for the season by dressing up your kids as a character from a New Testament exorcism scene!
But these aren't merely Bronze Age barbarisms contemporary Christians in Utah can shrug off as "from a different time." The characters in the New Testament were continually engaged in confrontations with the paranormal. In Acts, the Apostles have a showdown with Simon the evil sorcerer, Paul lays the smackdown in Galatians declaring the sin of witchcraft is akin to adultery, and John is sufficiently concerned to make note in Revelations that sorcerers will be cast in a "lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." Of course the believer can't forget that Jesus routinely squared off with possessed people and cast out actual demons. In short, you would never catch the apostles dressing their kids up as witches or ghosts and taking them trick or treating. They would have been executed for it.
You don't have to tell Utah's Jehovah's Witnesses, who seem to have a better grasp of Pagan history than most of their Christian counterparts. Halloween, Christmas, and birthday celebrations, which each have clear Pagan origins, are explicitly banned for all faithful members. Strict Jews and Muslims take a similar view and also abstain from Halloween festivities.
Happy Halloween from Jack Chick. (Click to enlarge)
But it's not real witchcraft, you say—it's just pretend witchcraft! It's just for fun, right? Try telling that to Jack Chick, the best selling graphic artist in history. No one hates Halloween more than Jack Chick. He also hates Dungeon and Dragons and Harry Potter—naturally.
While a few other hard-line Christian groups forbid members from celebrating Halloween, some Evangelical denominations have taken to using the haunted house model as an aggressive tool of conversion. The "Hell House" in Cedar Hill, Texas is one such example.
One of the attractions at Hell House is the "Gay Room" where patrons watch a man die of AIDS. (Click to learn more)
Here, patrons are led through a series of Christian-themed horror scenes, such as a bloody abortion clinic with a screaming teenage girl, and a room where a gay man is dying from AIDS. The Hell House is staffed by volunteers from a local church, and it concludes with a room where patrons are told they too will go to hell if they don't repent right then and there. Customers can then either leave the building or be ushered into a separate area where on-call staff will pray for them and allow them to confess their sins.
Love them or hate them, the Hell House crew might be on to something. In a rather scary way, Halloween is quintessentially Christian.
Mormonism and Witchcraft
Ironically, Mormon leaders have also condemned Dungeons and Dragons and other things, such as heavy metal music, tarot cards, and Ouija Boards as satanic, while simultaneously embracing Halloween. Mormons love it to the extent that many chapels in Utah hold "Trunk-or-treats" to provide a safe trick-or-treating environment for LDS kids. The Friend, New Era, and Ensign magazine have also all featured articles on ideas for fun and safe Halloween activities.
An Mormon family gets ready for a "Trunk or Treat" hosted at an LDS church dressed as a friendly coven of witches. Photo by Kimberly Vardeman
This isn't without some controversy amongst the faithful. Boyd K. Packer of the church's twelve apostles cautioned against anything that might lead people to evil:
"A warning: there is a dark side to spiritual things. In a moment of curiosity or reckless bravado some teenagers have been tempted to toy with Satan worship. Don't you ever do that! Don't associate with those who do! You have no idea of the danger! Leave it alone! And there are other foolish games and activities that are on that dark side. Leave them alone!" (Ensign, May. 1989)
The threat of evil spirits is no joke in Mormon sacred texts, as they continue to paint the Biblical image of a world filled with strange and dangerous entities. Not only does Joseph Smith describe in detail how he was attacked by evil spirits during his first vision, in chapter 129 of the Doctrine and Covenants, he offers a handy guide for the faithful on how to use a simple handshake to determine if the spirit that is visiting them is from God or the Devil.
(Utah Stories Presents: Ask Chernabog) Q: Chernabog, is it okay to trick or treat on the Sabbath this year? A: Only if you dress up as Tony Iommi and hum the main riff from "The Wizard"
Some might think it is paradoxical that members of any Bible believing faith would flock to haunted houses or participate in church-sponsored Halloween activities. However, considering how common demons and evil spirits are in Christian theology, perhaps we should all be wondering why they don't take Halloween and the business of placating evil spirits more seriously than they currently do.
You probably don't have to worry about being executed for trick or treating, but should you feel guilty for celebrating Halloween this year? It depends. How do feel about ancient rituals for demon placation and the literalness of the Bible? Considering how much fun is at stake, though, I bet you don't think too hard. In the epic battle between dogma and candy, well, you know who always prevails in the end.
Halloween is one temptation most Utahns are never able to resist! §
The author is a lifelong Halloween enthusiast. He attends and volunteers at various haunted house attractions every year and is a horror film buff of monstrous proportions. He will take all the demon placation he can get.
What do you think about celebrating Halloween? Tell us in the forum below. No sign in required.
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Culture, Halloween, things to do
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Memorial Day 2017: 'Play it Again, Uncle Sam'
Christopher Kelly
Memorial Day this year calls on all Americans with particular significance. It calls on us to look backward at our past and forward to the many uncertainties and challenges facing our nation overseas. Important anniversaries over the course of the year have served as powerful reminders of that past.
This past April, we commemorated the centennial of the American entry into World War I. President Wilson led us into the "war to end all wars," ending America's traditional isolationism. Over a hundred thousand Americans would be killed in World War I, a war that claimed around 17 million total victims. Wilson conceived of the League of Nations as a means of ending costly and wasteful wars, but the US Senate balked at joining the League. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles then created a twenty-year truce rather than a lasting peace. Appalled by the cost of war and intoxicated by the Roaring Twenties, many Americans retreated back into an isolationist attitude, embracing Charles Lindbergh and the America First movement.
But in 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, plunging the world into the costliest war in human history. Over the course of just under four years, over 16 million American men and women served in some capacity in the war. Today, fewer than a million World War II service vets are still alive.
This year, 2017, is the 75th anniversary of perhaps the most significant year in World War II, for 1942 was essentially the turning point in the war. That year featured Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo and the battles of Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad. Up until 1942, the Axis was victorious on all fronts. After 1942, Axis forces were in full retreat. Where were you in '42?
Seventy-five years ago this year, the classic film Casablanca was released. When asked about his nationality, Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, replied, "I'm a drunkard." But Rick could not remain neutral when confronted with the brutal reality of fascism. The premiere of Casablanca, which won the Academy Awards' Best Picture of the Year in 1942, was rushed forward to capitalize on the American landings in North Africa in Operation Torch. Casablanca helped to explain to skeptical Americans why World War II (especially in Europe) was America's fight.
Americans responded to the call and went overseas to fight in record numbers. Just over 400,000 mostly young Americans would never return from their duties in the Second World War. This Memorial Day, many Americans will visit cemeteries such as Arlington in Virginia, and many more around the nation and the world.
This fall will mark sixteen years that American troops have been engaged in Afghanistan fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban – a war of unprecedented duration. There are soldiers serving in Afghanistan today who were only toddlers when the Twin Towers in New York were struck on September 11, 2001 by hijacked commercial airliners – an event that changed our world. Over two trillion dollars have been spent trying to bring a measure of stability to Afghanistan. Over 2,000 American soldiers have been killed there, and over 20,000 have been wounded.
Even as we commemorate the past, we must consider the many dangers we are confronting today and those that lie ahead. In the Middle East, we must face the challenge posed by ruthless ISIS operatives who have waged a war against the West. The Syrian civil war has claimed well over 300,000 lives and created the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Syria's president Assad has, on at least two occasions, used chemical weapons against his own people. Putin's Russia continues to rearm, supports the Assad dictatorship, and threatens its neighbors, including NATO members in the Baltics. The bluster and posturing of Kim Jong-un are increasingly worrisome as the North Korean dictator attempts to gain the technology to develop intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking our homeland. Our political and military leadership must carefully balance the dangers of action and the dangers of inaction in the "hermit kingdom."
Memorial Day imposes a duty on all Americans to remember the sacrifice of our fallen heroes, and to reflect prayerfully on how we can best steer a course through our dangerous and turbulent world. We are compelled to remember the necessity for American engagement in the world, but also its staggering price in terms of blood and treasure.


Recently I spent several days exploring the absolute beauty of the city of Prague, walking the old streets, attending recitals and concerts in the stunning beauty of historic churches and cathedrals, and enjoying excellent and abundant food! However, what actually moved me to tears and encourages me now to write was the lived experience of 'stumbling' by accident upon thousands of runners participating in the Prague Marathon.
I stopped to watch and simply couldn't tear myself away. Found myself moved to tears and wondered why? I don't run!! Not even to the nearest lamp post! And yet here I was completely absorbed by the energy of it all, watching these runners labouring hard, intent on their next step, aware of their bodies, the noticeable pain on some faces, their heaving chests and sweating bodies, all present in the moment.
I wandered on and found myself at the 32 km mark, hordes of people cheering, yelling, clapping and encouraging the runners – multitudes of languages spoken, but all in the language of enthusiasm, support, caring and encouragement.
And then it struck me! I am feeling so deeply touched by all the caring that surrounds me on all sides. People sending loving, considered encouragement to each other, all at one with the purpose in front of them – to run their best for themselves and for their teams.
Such a spirit of unity and connectedness is deeply moving to be a part of. I stood there for nearly 2 hours and enjoyed every moment of it.
This is Mindful awareness at its best.


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TMCD
Statement on TMCD and the Coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic and the resultant global lockdown has caused serious disruptions to the way we live and organise life. One of its obvious impact has been in the areas of economic production and coordination, the shutdown of travel and economic activities between and within countries has had dire implications on the operations of local, regional and global value chains. With each passing day, we see the effects of these measures on jobs, incomes, food supply and the stability of the global economy.
At TMCD, our researchers continue to analyse the impact of these disruptions on the operations of Global Value Chains (GVCs) on the global economy to enable us make sense of its implications and its policy implications - you can find our recent publications here and here. In addition to knowledge production, we are also working with our partners in China to donate personal protective equipment to frontline workers in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and our partner countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Even though the overall implications of this pandemic on our world is not yet fully apparent, moments like this provide us with the opportunity to reflect on the role of technology, innovation and industrialisation in addressing some of the world's biggest challenges. Whilst our office remains closed till further notice, technology has ensured that TMCD continues to operate under these circumstances. Therefore, if you have any inquiries, please contact our Project coordinator at hui.jiao-rashbrook@qeh.ox.ac.uk or tmcd@qeh.ox.ac.uk.
Please find a list of our publications on the coronavirus pandemic below:
1. Oxford scholar sees COVID-19 pandemic as "wake-up call for collaboration
2. Xinhua Net interviews Prof Xiaolan Fu on the impact of Corona Virus on the Chinese economy
3. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on GVCs and the Chinese economy.
Also see here the statement issued by the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) on the Coronavirus pandemic.


• In a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven, brown chorizo in a little olive oil. Remove from casing and break up or crumble into small bite size pieces. Once browned, set aside. Pour off the fat, wipe pot with paper towel.
• In the same pot, heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add fennel and onion. Cook for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, sauté 3 minutes, stir occasionally, until garlic starts turn golden. Add tomato paste. Turn heat up to high, constantly stir, until paste darkens, about 3 more minutes. You are basically frying the paste to deepen the flavor of the dish. Add white wine and turn heat down to medium high, stir until it mostly evaporates, about 1-2 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes, browned chorizo, and fish sauce and bring to a simmer.
• Once simmering, taste, and add salt and cracked pepper according to your preference. Add fish, simmer for a couple of minutes and then add prawns and mussels. Remember the larger the prawns or mussels or fish pieces the longer they take to cook, so look at all your seafood ingredients and determine which will take the longest to cook and put them in first.
• Finish with a squeeze of a half lemon and sprinkle generously with flat leaf parsley.
Tip: Serve with your favorite crusty bread or cooked beans.


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'I've always felt I am Canadian:' Jihadi Jack hopes to take refuge in Canada
Jack Letts, an accused terrorist, reasons that if he is really a Canadian citizen, the country ought to bring him in
Jack Letts, who is believed to have left the UK to join Islamic State (IS).Facebook
8:00 PM EDT
The Muslim convert nicknamed Jihadi Jack has appealed to Canada to take him after being stripped of his British citizenship — as it emerged that he will escape prosecution there.
Reacting to the decision to revoke his citizenship, Jack Letts, 23, who left Britain to join ISIL in 2014 and is being held by the Kurds in northern Syria, said, "I was expecting something like this, to be honest."
"I've been here for two and a half years and the British Government has not helped me at all. These things have very little meaning to me, to be honest. I don't think British citizenship is a big deal."
Letts, who has previously admitted he was an enemy of Britain and said he would have loved to become an Isil martyr, has dual nationality through his Canadian father, John, 58, and has held a Canadian passport.
Jack Letts hopes Canada will take him in after the U.K. scrapped his citizenship. Postmedia
He told ITV News: "I've always felt I am Canadian, my Dad is Canadian, and I never grew up being accepted as a British person anyway."
"But, in the same way Britain hasn't helped me… Canada has done nothing. I always thought Canada was a better country, I had this illusion.
"I hope Canada does take me from here. I could go there, to prison of course. If I'm really a Canadian citizen, why haven't they taken me by now?"
The decision to revoke Letts's citizenship has placed him at the centre of a diplomatic row. Canada accuses Britain of "offloading" its responsibilities.
John McKay, chairman of Canada's committee on public safety and national security, said yesterday that if Letts came to Canada, he would escape prosecution for joining Isil through a loophole in Canadian law.
"We are between a rock and a hard place. Our legislation works on the assumption — actually stated in legislation — that you have to leave from Canada in order to be prosecuted for a terrorist offence. We are unable to initiate any prosecution," he said.
He described Britain's decision to revoke Letts' citizenship as "gutless".
"This young man, however misguided he is, is entirely a British subject," McKay said.
"He is raised in Britain, he was educated in Britain. Everything about him is British.
"The only formal connection he has with Canada is through his father. Frankly, I don't think it's the way two allies should be treating each other."
I'm not a murderer. I've never tortured anyone. I'm just a person who made a stupid mistake
A spokesman for Ralph Goodale, the Canadian public safety minister said Canada was "disappointed that the UK has taken this unilateral action to offload its responsibilities."
Although he said Canada was aware of some of its citizens who were being held in northern Syria, the spokesman added, "there is no legal obligation to facilitate their return. We will not expose consular officials to undue risk in this dangerous part of the world."
It is expected Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, will raise Letts's case with Boris Johnson at the G7 summit in Biarritz this weekend.
In his interview, Letts maintained he had never killed or enslaved anyone. "I only ever fought the Syrian regime which killed one million people.
"I'm not a murderer. I've never tortured anyone. I'm just a person who made a stupid mistake."
He added that he had given up hope of seeing his father and mother Sally, who were given suspended jail sentences in June for funding his activities, face to face. "Speaking to them on the phone would be great," he said. "I have absolutely no rights. I can't even speak to my mum so how can I speak to a lawyer?"
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For Harry, whose destiny has always been wrapped in this ancient institution, today's uncertain moment seems to have been a rare opportunity
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You're ready to start learning Korean, perhaps you have found some guides to help you, and you're excited about what comes next. Before you dive in, consider these five tips that will make learning Korean easier!
Let's get to know more about Isabela, a Brazilian from Brasilia who lives in Chuncheon in South Korea with her Korean husband.
Despite the unseasonable weather, spring has arrived in Calgary! On the recommendation of my fellow blogger, Jennifer Ma, I dropped by the Calgary Korean Association to check out their Spring Korean Food Market.


Create What You Want To See In The World.
Here at Nicky Bikini we know that sometimes you can't seem to find what you're looking for to accentuate your individual style. We love exercising our creativity & would love to help you bring your ideas to life. Whether it's your birthday, honeymoon, Baecation or you just want to look amazing for a certain event, we want to help you design your ideas.
Special Event within the next 2-3 weeks? Custom Designs in just 3 Simple Steps.
Get inspired! Pull together pictures, articles, social media posts...anything to help show us what you are looking for. Check Out Our Pintrest Inspo board below if you need help.
Speak to us via Whatsapp or even over coffee to confirm the details of your vision so that we can confirm back to you what we can do & the outline design.
Our team will produce your suit within 1.5-2 weeks & have it delivered to your door.


text:
Spinal Cord Injury Zone / News	/ 2012 / April / 28th
Work gets started on spinal cord injury 'cure'
Published: April 28, 2012 | Source: illawarramercury.com.au
Researchers hope a "cure" for serious disabilities could soon be found in a Wollongong laboratory.
A $4.7 million research program launched yesterday could produce a major breakthrough in the treatment of muscle, nerve or spinal cord damage, according to Professor Gordon Wallace.
The program will be based at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus in Fairy Meadow.
An elite team of international researchers and students has been assembled to develop tiny implants with the capacity to trigger the regrowth of damaged nerves and muscles.
Remotely activated electrical stimulation would trigger repair and after that, further stimulation would cause the degradation of the implant should it be deemed no longer needed.
Trials on rats and mice will begin later this year and if it proves successful, the implications could be enormous.
"I think all of us involved in this know the opportunity we've been given comes with the sense of responsibility to deliver to the people who need these advances," Prof Wallace said.
"The implications are huge for people suffering nerve damage, which is usually a result of trauma or an accident.
"It's an exciting and challenging area but we understand we have to do things in the most effective and quickest time possible."
Prof Wallace said a breakthrough could come before the end of the decade.
"It depends very much on the outcome of our animal studies but our target is within a handful of years rather than decades," he said.
"The way the materials research for bionics is set up now, particularly here in Wollongong, is that we have a very rapid turnaround time in terms of designing and realising the next generation of bionic materials."
Researchers will work with UOW's existing bionics team as well as St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.
BEVAN SHIELDS
Prof Wallace
Professor Gordon Wallace
UOW
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International Terminal
Flying Standby to Europe: How Does Standby Work?
Flying standby, non-revenue, space available, or staff travel. However you hear it talked about, it basically means one thing: an airline employee, spouse, parent, or "buddy" traveling on an unconfirmed ticket. That is to say – passengers showing up at the airport with no tickets and hoping to get on a flight with an open seat. In its purest form, flying standby requires pass-riders to have the ultimate in travel flexibility: open dates, open destinations, or sometimes both!
In a lot of ways, flying standby is the ultimate fantasy of travel: just deciding on a whim to go to the airport and catching the next flight out. It's serendipitous travel in its purest form. Flying standby, however, can have its less-than-pleasant side. And if you're not mentally prepared for it, it can be downright terrible. Stuck in Honolulu's airport for two days. Leaving the O'hare three days in a row without getting out. Flying three legs when there are three directs a day. As they say when you're flying standby, "you get what you pay for."
-Every non-rev traveller ever
How Flying Standby Works
Which brings us to this journey. We wanted to visit Athens as a little pre-baby getaway. Sure, we could have flown direct. From O'hare. But where would the fun in that be? Nah, we like a challenge. Not really, flights just started selling out! Our process is generally as follows:
Two Weeks Out: Get together a list of 4-5 places we'd like to visit and keep an eye on the loads.
One Week Out: Realize all but two or three will be too close to chance. Pick a sure-thing back up.
Three Days Out: Things start to even out, so we can pick our #1 and #2, and then have a couple alternate ways to get there.
Night Before: Plan the time we need to leave for the airport, but know we might have to take that 6am.
Travel Day: See that everything is starting to fill up and react accordingly.
Our trip for our babymoon in Athens was no different. Our original intention was to fly from Chicago to Brussels or Frankfurt to Athens. One quick stop in Europe and hop on either Lufthansa or Aegean. The night before, the flight to both BRU and FRA sold a lot of seats! And by the time we woke up in the morning, those simply weren't options.
ORD > EWR > BRU > ATH
Time for an audible. We're headed to Newark! EWR has a ton of other European flights, so we knew that even if we didn't catch the BRU or FRA flight, we could at minimum get to somewhere in Europe and strategize again from there. So luckily, we were able to leave at 11am instead of 6pm and snagged a couple seats to Newark.
Newark's seat situation looked much better for us. Which presents it's own problems! How do you choose which flight to take? Literally a roll of the dice because we had no idea the seat count for the final leg to Athens. Choose wrong and we were stuck in whatever city we picked. After much debate and a couple hours sitting in the United Club, we finally settled on Brussels.
Landing in Brussels, after a day and night, we then have to find out if we're making it to Athens. No idea of the seat situation, we try to find an Aegean desk. Oh. There are none? No one from Aegean? No gate? And the gate agents only work for SwissPort? Crap. More waiting.
This Ought to be Interesting…
After catching a shower with our Priority Pass (man, this is essential when you have no idea how long you might be marooned in a given airport) we went down to the gate that the flight is "normally" departing from. Between the language barrier and no insight to availability, we were flying as blind as we ever have. Luckily, we got an email with boarding passes on a whim and we knew we finally had seats.
The flight, at this point, is going to board any minute. And we don't have a hotel yet. So time to confirm one of the handful we had looked at and hope it's still available!
That's Flying Standby in a Nutshell
This one certainly worked out for us, albeit longer than we'd planned. But at the end of it all, it's normally a super fun experience. For our take, it's really taught us (and our daughter!) flexibility and adaptability.
Sometimes…. It Doesn't Work
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We're Nick, Brittany, and Olivia. And we're so glad you're here and ready to join us on our adventures. Travel is one of our greatest passions and we love exploring new cultures and destinations. Before we became a family of three, we would travel as often as we could. And since adding our energetic daughter to the clan, nothing has changed. Read more.
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National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Names Director
http://dx.doi.org/10.2310/JIM.0b013e318278fd33
Christopher P. Austin Photo Credit: Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI Photo Courtesy NIH
Christopher P. Austin, MD, has been named as director of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) newest center, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Dr. Austin has been serving as director of NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation since the center was launched in December 2011. He succeeds NCATS Acting Director Thomas R. Insel, MD. As Director, Dr. Austin will lead NCATS research initiatives, including the Clinical and Translational Science Awards. The Office of Rare Diseases Research, the NIH's Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) are also among NCATS' programs.
Dr. Austin joined the NIH in 2002 as senior advisor to the director for translational research at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), prior to which his work focused on genome-based discovery of novel targets and drugs at Merck. While at the NHGRI, he began the Knockout Mouse Project and the Molecular Libraries Roadmap Initiative. During his tenure at NIH, he has also served as the director of TRND and the NCGC and as scientific director of the NIH's Center for Translational Therapeutics.
Dr. Austin earned his MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed clinical training in internal medicine and neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in genetics at Harvard.
Texas Medical Center Names President and CEO
Robert Robbins Photo Courtesy Stanford School of Medicine
Robert (Bobby) Robbins, MD, has been named president and CEO of Texas Medical Center (TMC) in Houston. His appointment was effective in November this year. Prior to joining TMC, Dr. Robbins served as a professor and chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University and was director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. He served on the faculty at Stanford since 1993.
A leading cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Robbins …


To celebrate the March 11th Blu-ray and DVD release of The Book Thief, the film adaptation of Markus Zusak's bestselling novel starring Sophie Nelisse and Geoffrey Rush, we're taking a look at some of the best young adult literature that has made the move to the silver screen in recent years.
The mother of all young adult book franchises also became one of the highest-earning movie franchises in history. The films have grossed over $7.7 billion worldwide and launched the careers of young acting phenoms Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe.
America's reigning sweetheart, Jennifer Lawrence, was already an Oscar-nominee before landing the coveted role of Katniss Everdeen in the adaptation of the outrageously popular book trilogy by Suzanne Collins, but the film's success made her an international superstar.
It's hard to imagine a world where teens didn't erupt in fits of excitement at the mere mention of Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner, but before the 2008 adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's tale of supernatural young love hit theaters, both were relatively unknown.
The first two novels in Rick Riordan's series, The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters have been made into highly successful adventure films, blending elements of classical mythology and the modern world. In they process, they introduced the world to superb young leading man Logan Lerman, who also starred in the big screen adaptation of young adult classic The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
All eyes are on the first film from Veronica Roth's popular book series, as it heads to theaters in 2014, with high expectations for it to be the next big teen phenomenon. The film stars young ingénue Shailene Woodley (who previously has starred in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and The Descendants) alongside Oscar-winner Kate Winslet.
See the pages of TheBook Thief come to life when it heads to Blu-ray and DVD on March 11th!
Read my review for the film.
If you live in the US or Canada you may enter to win a bluray copy.
I have not read the book either.
I just finished reading the book and absolutely loved it!
I haven't read the book yet but I really want to.
I have not read the book but I think I will now, before I see the movie.
Nope, haven't read the book but I do want to watch the movie!
I haven't read this book, but I saw the film in the theater and LOVED it.
I have it on my reading list!


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Nelli Roono or Abbi Secraa leads you to the pure enjoyment…!
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Heavy but a good exercise: Abbi Secraa's Breasts…!
Memories, good memories with Abbi Secraa…!
lazinonasunnyafternoon1: Abbi Secraa in a white t-shirt. Pretty sure she's braless but they're so full and perky for their size.
sexysci-fi: I'm determined to fill this island with as many clones of my wife as possible. Once there's no part of the island without a naked her, I'll turn it into my personal retreat.
Abbi Secraa in "Blue swimsuit" pictures now and movie so soon…!
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Abbi Secraa in "Blue swimsuit", amazing nature…!
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New Abbi Secraa HD movie "Outdoor dress & indoor shower" available for your pleasures now…!


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HEARABLE WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
Apple AirPods v AirPods 2: The earbuds go head to head
These are the big differences between new and old AirPods
By Hugh Langley @hughlangley
By Hugh Langley
AirPods were a storm of a success for the company, so naturally it's keeping the momentum going with the AirPods 2. Well, that's what we're calling them; Apple just refers to the refreshed earbuds as the AirPods.
The new model is available to buy right now, but what's actually new here? At first blush they look identical to the previous version of the hearable - so why are there now two models to choose from? Should you even upgrade if you already own a pair of Apple's wireless earbuds?
Read this: Living with the original Apple AirPods
We'll explain all in this guide as we pit the old and the new against one another.
AirPods v AirPods 2: Design and new charging case
Spot the difference. No really, just try. Take a glance at the refreshed AirPods and you'll wonder if anything has changed here at all. Which may surprise you when you consider how divisive the design has been. But while the AirPods may be Marmite for the ears, Cupertino thinks there's enough of you who love them.
One change you will see is the new LED on the front charging case, which indicates the battery life of your earbuds. This is inside the case on the older model.
Talking of that case, you can now choose to buy one that supports wireless charging. If you do, you'll be able to plonk the case on any Qi wireless charger and power it up. With the AirPods, the wireless charging case brings the total price to $199, but for $159 - same price as the original - you can pick up the AirPods 2 with a case that relies on good old fashioned Lightning cable power.
Got a pair of AirPods and just want the wireless charging? Apple's selling that wireless case separately for $79.
AirPods v AirPods 2: Features
The AirPods were pretty light on features, which is why we didn't classify them as a true "hearable". The AirPods 2 take a step forward with Apple's new H1 chip, which now grants you the ability to invoke Siri hands-free.
Read this: Everything you need to know about the Apple Watch
With the first-gen model, you needed to double tap the AirPods to get Siri to listen, but now you can just say aloud "Hey Siri" - and Apple's assistant will perk up. This could be the key differentiator, as we found Siri to be more of a nuisance than useful on the first AirPods, mostly because every time we fumbled with them in our ears we seemed to wake it up. You can still use the double-tap feature if you like, but hopefully we can just leave it off and reduce the number of false wake commands.
Apple says the H1 chip will also make the AirPods faster at making calls and switching between devices, with a 30% reduced latency when used in games, it claims.
So while the AirPods 2 don't add many more features, they should perform better and generally give Apple's earbuds a more polished feel.
AirPods v AirPods 2: Battery life and price
We've already talked about the new charging case, but the improved processor will also have a positive impact on the battery. Although the quoted amount of battery life is still five hours, with 24 additional hours from the charging case, you'll now get 50% more hands-free talk time.
That means you should get up to three hours of talk time with these, compared to the two hours of the first generation. Considering phone calls are a prime AirPods use case for a lot of people, that's going to be a welcome improvement.
When comparing the two on price, as we said, the new AirPods 2 start at the same $159 price as the first model, with the option to pay $40 more for the wireless charging case. If you're someone who already charges your phone wirelessly, this may be worth it - especially if you're holding out for Apple's AirPower charging mat.
AirPods v AirPods 2: The verdict
The verdict doesn't so much come down to AirPods v AirPods 2 - the winner here is clear - as it does the AirPods 2 with wireless charging case versus non-wireless charging case. Because as of right now you can only buy the second-gen model anyway, which costs the exact same as the first unless you opt for the wireless pill box.
However, while the AirPods 2 aren't a huge leap forward, they do add plenty of spit and polish. The new H1 chip makes this a doozy, and means the AirPods 2 are a better Siri communicator.
TAGGEDHearablesApple Watch
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My next class has been announced at the Whole Foods Culinary Center in the Bowery, New York City.
If you want to come, hurry up and register before it's sold out!
Posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 9:00 pm. Last updated on April 21, 2012.
Posted April 19th, 2011 at 3:07 pm | Log in to reply.
I didn't make it this tme. Please have more classes.
Posted February 25th, 2011 at 11:58 am | Log in to reply.
I am very sad that I will miss this class! I am on the waiting list!
Posted February 24th, 2011 at 6:15 am | Log in to reply.
Maangchi if you ever do come to Australia, I would love to attend your cooking class and meet you in person because you are such a nice, fun person.
Posted February 18th, 2011 at 6:57 pm | Log in to reply.
Posted February 18th, 2011 at 10:16 am | Log in to reply.
Posted February 18th, 2011 at 10:54 am | Log in to reply.
haha thanks Maagchi – that is very kind of you to say.
Posted February 17th, 2011 at 9:53 pm | Log in to reply.
I would so love to go! Unfortunately I am not traveling until the end of the year. It will be a great experience for everyone lucky enough to attend.


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Q: String's replaceAll() method and escape characters The line
System.out.println("\\");

prints a single back-slash (\). And
System.out.println("\\\\");

prints double back-slashes (\\). Understood!
But why in the following code:
class ReplaceTest
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String s = "hello.world";
        s = s.replaceAll("\\.", "\\\\");
        System.out.println(s);
    }
}

is the output:
hello\world

instead of
hello\\world

After all, the replaceAll() method is replacing a dot (\\.) with (\\\\).
Can someone please explain this?

A: This is a formatted addendum to my comment
s = s.replaceAll("\\.", Matcher.quoteReplacement("\\"));

IS MORE READABLE AND MEANINGFUL THAN
s = s.replaceAll("\\.", "\\\\\\");

A: If you don't need regex for replacing and just need to replace exact strings, escape regex control characters before replace
String trickyString = "$Ha!I'm tricky|.|";
String safeToUseInReplaceAllString = Pattern.quote(trickyString);

A: When replacing characters using regular expressions, you're allowed to use backreferences, such as \1 to replace a using a grouping within the match.
This, however, means that the backslash is a special character, so if you actually want to use a backslash it needs to be escaped.
Which means it needs to actually be escaped twice when using it in a Java string. (First for the string parser, then for the regex parser.)

A: The javadoc of replaceAll says:

Note that backslashes ( \ ) and dollar signs ($) in the replacement
  string may cause the results to be different than if it were being
  treated as a literal replacement string; see Matcher.replaceAll. Use
  Matcher.quoteReplacement(java.lang.String) to suppress the special
  meaning of these characters, if desired.

A: The backslash is an escape character in Java Strings. e.g. backslash has a predefined meaning in Java. You have to use "\ \" to define a single backslash. If you want to define " \ w" then you must be using "\ \ w" in your regex. If you want to use backslash you as a literal you have to type \ \ \ \ as \ is also a escape character in regular expressions.

A: I believe in this particular case it would be easier to use replace instead of replace all.
Reverend Gonzo Has the correct answer when he talks about escaping the character.
Using replaceAll:
s = s.replaceAll("\\.", "\\\\\\\\");

Using replace:
s = s.replaceAll(".", "\\");

replace just takes a string to match to, not a regular expression.

A: I don't like this implementation of regex. We should be able to escape characters with a single '\' , not '\'. But anyway if you want to get THIS.Out_Of_That you can do:
String prefix = role.replaceFirst("(\\.).*", "");

So you get prefix = THIS;


1. Work Out More I do want to lose my baby weight, but with my changing body shape, I'm not sure what my ideal weight is. To achieve this resolution, I plan to set a goal each month for the number of 30 minute workouts I do each week. In January I'll start with a goal of two. I plan to work my way up to five workouts a week.
2. Save More Money I intend to undergo a number of month-long spending freezes starting with this month. I'll also get back into meal planning and challenging myself to a month-long freezer cleanout and a pantry clean out.
3. Finish a Few Craft Projects I'll set monthly goals to finish certain projects. January I'll start with etching the canisters for by brother and sister-in-law's Christmas present (we celebrate with them in January). I'll also finish my pregnancy scrapbook. I'd love to be able to show that off at C's first birthday party in April.
4. Learn to be Satisfied with my Life I love N and C so much, but there are aspects of my life that I'm not satisfied with. This resolution will require the most baby steps. In January I'll asses what I need to do and sketch my plan of attack.
5. Get More Organized and Manage Time Better I'll start with small tasks to get organized and work my way up to larger projects. By the end of the year, I intend to have an organized life that allows me time to do what I want to do. This month I'll finish organizing my office and restart meal planning.
6. Read More Frequently With the other resolutions underway, I think I can clear about 30 minutes a day to read. It's not a lot, but with some consistent reading time, I can knock out a few more books this year.
Stay tuned as for status updates and new monthly goals at the end of each month. Heck, I'll probably add status updates throughout the month, too.


Minnesota legislators don't need to ask voters to boost transportation funding.
Transportation funding temptation is dangling before the Minnesota Legislature this month — and if the tempters have their way, the bright-but-false promise of a painless increase in money for roads and bridges will be put before November's voters, too. Legislators should steel themselves and spare voters from such temptation.
To be sure, much-needed funding for roads and bridges would be delivered by a constitutional amendment that would permanently divert from the general fund the tax receipts on auto repairs and vehicle leases and rentals, some of which were directed to transportation by statute last year. The total flow would start at $340 million in fiscal year 2020, ramp up to $455 million in 2023 and keep climbing thereafter.
But that transfer would carry a hidden cost. It would come at the expense of education, social services, local governments and the rest of the needs that the general fund meets. It would invite other advocates of popular causes to push for constitutionally dedicated revenue of their own, as education groups have threatened to do. And that in turn would erode the ability of the elected branches of state government to control the public purse one state budget at a time, as the Constitution intends.
The legislators who back the proposed constitutional amendment are aware of those costs. But they deem the price worth paying in order to boost highway funding without imposing a new tax or increasing the taxes already constitutionally earmarked for transportation — the gas tax, license tab fees and motor vehicle sales taxes.
The amendment's chief sponsor, Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, points to the state's well-documented need to increase highway funding and to the advantages of a dependable flow of funds for infrastructure planning and construction. A 2012 Minnesota Department of Transportation analysis found that just maintaining the current condition of Minnesota's state, county and state-subsidized municipal roads in the next two decades will require a $700 million annual boost in existing transportation funds.
We share that concern. But we are also aware that an aging population, federal funding cuts for health care and the economy's increasing demand for educated workers will put considerable pressure on the general fund in coming years.
That's why we favor a tax increase for transportation's sake. We'd look first to the tax that Minnesotans constitutionally dedicated to road costs in 1924 — the gas tax. At 28.6 cents per gallon, Minnesota's gas tax now ranks 25th in the nation, lower than the rates in neighboring Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. The Legislature has not increased it since 2008; that year's 8.5-cent boost came after 20 years of neglect.
Critics of a gas tax increase note that hybrid and electric vehicles are diminishing the tax's potency as a revenue-raiser. They are right. Lawmakers should start planning to eventually replace the gas tax. But their plans ought not involve a backdoor raid on funding for other needed government services.
The amendment's supporters correctly note that all but about $55 million that the amendment would direct to road funding in fiscal 2020 is already assigned there by statute, enacted last year. But statutory spending can be altered every time the Legislature meets. A constitutional dedication cannot. Newman's amendment would lock into the Constitution the priorities set in a year when the state's economy was strong and government revenue ample. Those conditions are sure to change one day. When they do, lawmakers should be free to respond.
Future Minnesotans who look to the general fund for needed services "are just going to have to share it," Newman told an editorial writer last week. On behalf of those future Minnesotans, we plead with legislators to be mindful now of their needs. DFLers on the Senate transportation committee proposed that if the amendment goes to the Nov. 6 ballot, the ballot question should disclose that it "would reduce the support available from the general fund for education, health care and local government aid." That language was rejected on a party-line vote.
We also urge legislators to consider that highways and bridges are not state government's only transportation responsibility. Metro Transit would receive none of the funds that the amendment would dedicate, though Greater Minnesota transit would benefit. That, too, should be made plain if this amendment is put before the voters.
Better, though, would be legislators awakening to the fact that they need not ask the voters to direct more money to transportation. They already have all of the tools they need — the authority, the constitutionally dedicated taxes and the duty — to meet the state's transportation needs themselves.


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John and Scott Williams
Kiona Vineyards
By Leslie Kelly
When John Williams and Jim Holmes took their first trip up to Red Mountain in the early 1970s, there was nothing but hardscrabble landscape. "It was a bunch of sagebrush and jackrabbits. There wasn't even a road, just a Jeep trail," recalled John, who along with his friend and fellow research engineer, Holmes, planted the famous AVA's first vineyard in 1975. "You could stand on top of Red Mountain, looking over at the Horse Heavens and there wasn't a green spot to be seen."
Some 30-plus years later, the area is a patchwork of iconic vineyards, producing highly sought-after fruit. But it took true visionaries to imagine that scenario in the early days.
The Williams family – the first three-generation grape-growing and winemaking dynasty in Washington state – were originally drawn into the industry by an invitation to do viticulture and winemaking trials for Dr. Walter Clore and Washington State University.
"We got a pretty good start there," said John. "But there had been soil samples taken in the 1930s by the Bureau of Reclamation, around the time the Grand Coulee Dam was built."
When they planted the first 10 acres of Cabernet sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay – after digging a 550-foot well "Jim's wife, Patty, used to say they were putting their investments in a hole in the ground," Scott said -- there were only six wineries in the state, and by the time the winery was bonded in 1980, that number had more than doubled.
The first vintage was produced in Jim Holmes' garage, where Scott jokingly described the crew of extended family as "slave labor."
"We used basket presses with ratchets back then, and we'd have to round up kids strong enough to turn them," he said, chuckling at the memory.
Eventually, more vines were planted, with the last lots of the 65-acre vineyard going in the ground in 1995. "We realized it takes a lot of money to plant grapes, and every time we'd go to the bank for a loan, they'd tell us we didn't know anything about growing grapes. We didn't know anything about making wine. It was a real bootstrap operation," John said. "But that also meant that we didn't owe any money."
From the beginning, part of the mission involved dumping wine that wasn't deemed good enough. "There was a lot of bad wine out there in the early days, and putting out an inferior product was death," John said.
Did they dump much?
"We just gave it to Dad's friends, they'll drink anything," Scott joked.
The family dynamics that sometimes caused sparks to fly have mellowed through the years. "Years ago, I worked for my father-in-law, and told him I either had to quit or end up hating him, so I learned from that lesson," John said.
Scott said they've always agreed on the winery's focus, to let the fruit shine in the wines. And when Scott's son, J.J. expressed an interest in coming to work for Kiona, he was encouraged to go in a slightly different direction. He earned a business and marketing degree at Gonzaga, and spent a couple years being mentored by Lorne Jacobson of Kelnan Wine Management before coming to work for the winery full time.
"He came into the office, put his feet up and said, get ready, change is coming," Scott said. "It was really déjà vu all over again."
J.J. raised the winery's profile through social networking and by launching a wine club, featuring limited releases available only to members. The result has been that this value-oriented winery has found new fans and prompted loyal followers to take a fresh look.
"We've had the advantage of not being beholden to anybody, so we can react fairly quickly to quirks in the market," Scott said.
Much of their success could be attributed to what they didn't do, though.
"In those early days, a lot of the early grape growing efforts were sidebars of other operations, growing potatoes or wheat or corn where the agricultural philosophy was maximum inputs and maximum yields. It doesn't work that way with grapes," said Scott. "Out here in the desert, we were kind of forced into moderated deficit irrigation from the start and that worked to our advantage."
Scott and his wife, Vicky, started another vineyard on Red Mountain and eventually sold some of that land to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and the Antinori family for Col Solare. "They had the muscle to get an irrigation project going that we share," Scott said.
One distinction Kiona shares with no other producer is Lemberger King. "We love that grape. It's delicious and it practically makes itself," John said. "It thrives even in extreme cold. We sell more than 3,000 cases of it a year."
Why is the German red so hard to market?
"Because it's called Lemberger," Scott said.
The father, son and, now, grandson are optimistic about the future of this once-barren spot. "After we sold the land that became Col Solare, I remember going onto the Antinori Web site and reading that the family had been making wine for 26 generations. I think that's something to aspire to," Scott said.
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