My boys love History, Geography and adventure! There are days they exhaust me with their constant need to tell me everything they know about those subjects, honestly. But let's face it- there is much worse knowledge to have and when they can get it by reading amazing books from Carole P. Roman, this mom is happy! We have been blessed to review Carole's books before but for this review we were blessed with the books If You Were Me and Lived In...Peru, If You Were Me and Lived In... Brazil and If You Were Me and Lived In...Scotland from the Carole P. Roman Books and Collections.
Carole recommends her culturally based book for ages 4-9ish, but I would most definitely extend that age range. My son is 10 and at a higher reading level and loves these books and their format. While the reading level and stories may be at that 4-9 age range, the information is most definitely not and can be enjoyed by a much wider target audience.
Traditions, vocabulary, geography, and more are presented in each book and at the end of the story you will find a pronunciation guide that gives not only the pronunciation, but also definition of unfamiliar or location-specific words. Your child will learn the words for "mom"and "dad" in each country, visit famous places, see what foods are popular, and even see what kind of celebrations take place there.
My son, Colby, chose Peru because of its location in South America. Because he was born in Guatemala, he loves learning about nearby countries and seeing people who look similar to him. Although all of the pictures are drawings, they are colorful and the skintones of the local people are realistic. In this 25 page book we learned that the capital of Peru is Lima, that the currency is called Nuevos Soles, and a little about the ancient city Machu Picchu. Colby's favorite part of the book was about the celebration Carnival in which people celebrate in the streets with squirt guns, water balloons, and even buckets of water to pour on people. Go figure!
We chose Brazil for the same reason, it's located in South America. I will tell you though, because the people in Brazil speak Portuguese, the vocabulary in this 26 page book was harder for us to pronounce! Thank goodness for the pronunciation guide, although I am pretty sure we are still messing up a few words. In this book we learned that a country can actually decide to move its capital city, as Brazil has done, as well as about the Amazon Rain Forest and the Brazilian Grand Prix. We decided we would like to try their dessert, called Brigaderos, since it involves butter, milk, sugar and cocoa powder!
This one we asked for in honor of Colby's two older sisters who traveled to Scotland this past summer. It was so fun to read about places they had been able to visit and things they had taken pictures of for us such as the capital of Edinburgh and the famous dish Haggis, made of meat and spices cooked in a sheep's stomach. And yes, my daughters actually ate some!
And did you know that the unicorn is the official animal of Scotland? Who knew?
Whether you enjoy exploring the world from the safety of your own home, or just love finding books you can read together as a family, I have no doubt you will love adding Carole P. Roman Books and Collections to your home. There are many to choose from- have fun!
Yes, I will still be cooking, but this is the last week I will post our menu for the week. Next week I will be rolling out the first of our Menu Masterlists and a Menu and Shopping Printable to help you with your planning. With these tools, I hope menu planning will be made easier and maybe even a bit more enjoyable for you!
What does your Easter meal look like? We will be having ham, mashed potato casserole. green bean casserole. deviled eggs and rolls.
Seriously, that is my story and I am sticking to it. The story, that is, but not the bad habit of not going on dates. THAT I am determined to change.
Quite honestly, the biggest deterrent for our date night is the money. It is not necessarily that we don't have the money to go out, it is that we are Dave Ramsey wannabes and dates fall under the entertainment category. As do meals with our kids, including our almost weekly Sunday meal out with friends. Having a limited amount budgeted means we pick and choose, and honestly kids and friends often trump husband and wife.
Here is where the gift cards part comes in.
Thanks to my mom and her Christmas gift to my hubby, we are using gift cards to go out. It may seem like a little thing to you, but it is BIG for us. Again, not that we couldn't do it otherwise, but just the fact that we feel like we do not have to deprive others to have fun ourselves. It just makes it more fun and less of a guilty pleasure.
I know, I know, it is probably just me but work with me here.
Gifts cards make going out to eat fun.
For naysayers who say gift cards are the lazy mans' gift, don't you listen to them.
They are the bomb diggety!
I haven't gotten the chance to do too many reviews this year that involved fun with the boys, so this Homeschool Review Crew review was a special treat! What makes it more fun is that Super Beads from Zirrly is not just a homeschool product- it is a KID product, and a neat one at that!
Yes, we got to play with the Super Beads 3D Car and Truck kit. I mean, what boy doesn't like cars and trucks?!
So what are Zirrly Super Beads?
Remember the days of ironing a bunch of little beads together to make neat designs on trays? Well, those little beads are actually called Perler Beads, and when put together they can create some fun things. The problem we found in the past was that those projects required the heat of a HOT iron to fuse them together. A hot iron. With a kids' project. See the problem? I am sure that somewhere it seemed like a good idea on paper, but the reality of it was it was dangerous for kids to do alone.
Enter Zirrly Super beads. These are the same concept of design fun, but involve fusing the beads together with WATER. Yes, you read that correctly- WATER! How cool is that? Just spritz the beads once you have them set in place, and wait 20-30 minutes for them to "set" and dry.
Each of the specific projects kits, like the Jungle Animals, Birds and Jewelry Set, come with beads to complete the project (and extras), several work boards and the design(s) templates, a design tools, a spray bottle and a tray to help keep things contained. And instructions, of course. You can also just purchase a bag of 4500 beads of all colors.
Colby, age 10, and I started the Super Beads 3D Car and Truck together. We opened each colored bead packet and put them in the tray for safe keeping.
He then put the design templates behind each tray and laid out the beads.
Once the beads were laid out, he sprayed them with water. Here is one place we struggled a bit. The instructions do not indicate how much or how little water to use. By trial and error he figured that out, but a couple of times had to go back and respray a section to fuse it better.
Once the beads are set properly you simply remove your project from the project boards. For the 3D designs, now the hard part begins. With a series of pegs that you put beads on, you attach the different flat designs together to create the 3D effect. It can be a bit tricky with one set of little hands.
Luckily for us, my 16 was around and intrigued and was able to help sort out a few bits of confusion. Mom stepped away and the boys finished on their own!
Note that we started with the truck, which we did decide was the harder of the two vehicles to put together. Once we did that one, Colby was able to complete the car with minimal help.
One of the neat things about these Super Beads is that they are more flexible than the original Perler beads. When you pull them off the trays they tend to be softer and more pliable and therefore less likely to break, which is a huge advantage when you are dealing with the 3D sets.
Of course, I also love that they are safer to use. The 3D sets are recommended for kids 10 and up because of the complexity, but even at that age I would be hesitant to set a child loose with a hot iron so using this water method is perfect.
Since these types of projects are often used in groups like school clubs or VBS, this allows for an easier and safer set up!
It is also nice that if a bead comes off all you have to do is spray it with water and stick it right back on. Easy fix!
The only con I have for Zurrly Super Beads is the instructions. Like many similar projects, the directions are all pictures. Let's just say this momma struggled with that a bit. I will say however, the boys seemed to understand them better- probably from lots of building experiences that come with pages of pictured instructions. While I do not think this would affect the flat designs, since the 3D sets are a bit more complicated the adult in me would have loved to have seen a few words in the instructions.
Overall, we loved using Zirrly Super Beads and would highly recommend them. Think summer fun, VBS, or even birthday party activities. The possibilities are endless and the choices for sets are plentiful! Have some fun with your kids this summer!
Happy Monday and welcome back to Monday Menu! If all goes according to plan, I will have two more weeks of menus for you before I unveil my Menu Masterlists! I have been busy compiling complete lists of meals for you so that with a quick glace at a category (beef, chicken, pork, soups, etc.) you can very quickly put together a menu plan to suit YOU!
I also hope to be able to share with you a printable of my new Menu/shopping list to help you out with that planning!
Until then, and after a crazy busy Spring Break week, it is back to normal- well, as normal as this house gets.
I have said it before and I will say it again, I do not like lunch hour. Seriously, if I ever sent my kids to public school, it could very well be for the sole reason that I would not have to fix lunch for them.
I really do not mind cooking usually, but there is just something about lunch time that fills this mom's heart with dread. It is tedious, it is redundant, and quick frankly, it is not rewarding in the least. Yes, they do not starve, but no one sings mom's praises for a lunch well made.
I used to stress about lunch. Notice the past tense. No more, my friends. Luckily for us all, my kids have gotten old enough to work some magic in the kitchen by themselves and I have stopped trying to be supermom. I am all about the getting food in their mouths and worrying less about what kind of food specifically. I have come to peace with the fact that they will not suffer ill affects from not so perfect, not so lovely, and maybe even no so nutritious lunches.
There, I said it. Some of my kids' lunches are not the most healthy. They are also not themed and they don't come in cute little divided plates. Gasp, I know!
So WHAT do my kids eat for lunches exactly? To make life easier on me, and them since they usually fix it, I made a list for quick reference that hangs on our fridge. It is not complete, but it gives them some ideas to get started.
Left overs. This is by far their least favorite thing, but the rules are if there are several leftovers in the fridge they must be eaten first. Luckily for them their dad takes his lunch and we often do not have left overs, so you do not have to worry that they suffer often.
Sandwiches- Also not a favorite in our house, but an occasional go to, especially if we are in a hurry. We stopped eating lunch meat many years ago for health concerns, and only in the recent years have begun to have lunch meat around more often. They would both prefer peanut butter and jelly if given a choice anyway.
Mac and Cheese- Homemade or boxed- up to them.
Pizza- I try to keep pizza, big ones and mini ones, in our freezer and do limit them to one a week or otherwise this would be there go to. BOYS! We also make homemade pizzas as well as hamburger bun pizzas.
Soup- Usually chicken rice or chicken noodle using leftover chicken.
Chicken nuggets- Yep, we do.
Taquitoes- Sometimes homemade, but often frozen from a box.
Cheese-steaks- Yes, I occasionally buy the kits for a fun treat.
Hot dogs and chips- This is another food we walked away from years ago. The girls did not miss them at all. The boys thought I was deliberately torturing them, so we have slowly allowed them back into our lives on a limited basis.
Fruit, cheese and meats- OK, admittedly this is one in my dreams. I see parents of young children getting by with this, but I have to tell you when I have tried this in the past I have received looks like, cute, mom, where's the real food.
I am sure there are more, but you get the idea.
In our house we check off the lunch box and move on. Rumbling tummies stop rumbling, mom is happier, and the day goes on! I promise that our breakfasts and dinners are more nutritious and well thought out, but I also promise that now that the lunch stress is off me, I am a happier momma!
Score one for me and one for the kids!
Most of the time I review things that are geared towards homeschooling and the kids. This review is different thanks to Parenting Made Practical! This one is just for parents. And because being Product Manager of the Homeschool Review Crew has its privileges, I received several products this time, two that I want to share with you today- Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think (DVD and book) and Dating, Courting & Choosing a Mate, WHAT WORKS?
For the record and in case you are new to Family, Faith and Fridays, I am the mom of four kiddos: two older kids (college and up) and two boys still at home, ages 16 and 10. I have been parenting with my cute hubby for 24 years now and yet sometimes I feel it is still our first rodeo.
You know what I mean? Just when you think you have it down, someone, or some child, changes the rules. And on top of that, each child is different and often requires an additional set of rules. Or two!
Which takes me to Taming The Lecture Bug. I wasn't going to read this initially, I mean, I am a pro at parenting after all. Ha- NOT! But I have done it for a while now and have my methods down pat.
Including some maybe not so good methods, if I am judging by my recent rants.
I admit it. I am a lecturer. And quite honestly, I am just now realizing the extent of it. This book sat on my desk and stared me down for a week. Each day I would look at the title and think hmmm, that is not for me, I am sure. And then one day after a particularly hard day with my youngest, I decided to pick it up and take a look. Then I did not put it down.
Well, I did put it down after about chapter 4, because I could not read it fast enough for my liking. Instead, I popped in the video for more instant gratification, via an hour of viewing. And then I picked up the book and finished reading throughout that week.
I am a lecturer! Have I mentioned that already?
According to Joey and Carla Link, founders of Parenting Made Practical and authors of Taming the Lecture Bug, we as parents lecture because we do not know what to do. Our kids misbehave, SIN, and we somehow think our amazing words of wisdom are going to change their ways.
Guess what? It doesn't happen. No surprise there, right?
According to the Links, and I totally agree, instead of focusing on the behavior, or the WHAT, we need to focus more on the whys, the REASON behind what has taken place. When we reach the heart and fix the heart issues, often pride or stubbornness, we are more likely to be able to change the behavior.
In the book and again in the video, the Links walk you through better approaches to misbehavior, giving specific scenarios and how they think they should be handled. They even act out a scene with their now grown daughter, Amy. One of the techniques they use and teach is the art of asking questions. "Why did you do that?" "How do you think that made me feel?" and "What could you do differently next time?" are just a few.
First make sure your child's attitude is right! If they are closed minded and have a closed heart, you need to wait. Send them to a quiet spot to regroup and then come back and try again. This drove my youngest crazy but it did work. If nothing else, it diffused the tension or just plain wore him out with multiple trips to the steps to regroup. He may have a hatred of steps by the time he is 18, just saying.
By lecturing, I am taking responsibility of the situation, while still not solving anything. As the Links stated, it is not like the rules are new and unknown. They really do not need to be restated, no matter how eloquent I think I am. They just need to be obeyed.
My son may not love lecturing, but he loved the questions even less. :) At one point he even asked me, "Why do you keep asking me questions?" It almost made me laugh. But it DID make him stop and think about what he was doing and why!
"I don't know" is not an appropriate response. Neither is "maybe", or "sort of" or "probably". When you ask a yes or no question, require a yes or no response. This, too, drove my son batty a few times. If he started to argue or give excuses I would remind him it was a yes or no question. I won't tell you exactly how many times I had to repeat that in a row one day.
Disobedience IS sin. Not a whoops or an uh oh, but a sin and needs to be treated as such. Just by adding the name sin to a behavior added more weight to it in my son's eyes.
I am not responsible for my child's actions, he is. Lecturing takes that ownership away from them, asking questions gives it back to them.
If you are not a book person, watch the DVD! It is perfect for auditory learners and it is fun to see the humor and interaction the Links have. If DVDs are not your thing, read the book instead. The information is pretty much the same in both, although the book does have a few additional examples and each chapter ends with a letter from parents who have learned and used this system with success, which I greatly appreciate! It encouraged me to hear I was not alone in a few of my struggles and that other parents have seen changes, even after years of parenting. Also at the back of the book is a great chart for kids to use for retraining a stubborn heart, that is for them to fill in. We have not used it yet, but I have made copies. Just in case.
It is never too late to start something new and have it work.
As I mentioned, my oldest two are girls, ages 20 and 24. We had pretty strict dating rules when they were in highschool- as in, NO! Times change, people change- you know the drill.
Right now we honestly float in the "we have no idea what we are doing" pool. They are older now and make their own decisions, but quite honestly after walking through a few bad dating experiences with them we have thrown up our hands in defeat.
No, we do not want our kids to casually date every random person that crosses their path, nor do believe that "courting" in the old fashioned sense of the word works either. It's a tough road and one that I dread being on again with our boys.
With each of these stages they encourage asking a lot of questions specific to that stage. (yes, more questions) It's about setting appropriate boundaries and sticking to them.
So let me tell you my 2 biggest takeaways from this workbook and accompanying 2 hour video.
Kids must eventually take ownership of their own relationships. If we are so involved with their relationships and the decisions they make, when do they or will they ever learn to make decisions on their own? Yes, I know one must take age into account here, but I would argue that if you are afraid they are not old enough to make decisions, they are probably not old enough to be in a relationship either!
The second thing that really struck me was the concept of a girl's father becoming THE mentor in her suitor's life. This is a HUGE deal in the courtship community, this idea that you must take a young man your daughter might be interested in and "mold" him and "train" him. While not bashing the courtship model, the Link's shared their opinion that while all of us need and can benefit from mentors, there is NO man that should ever take the place of a young man's father, if he has one in place. When our sons are interested in a relationship with a girl, we do not simply hand over the reins to someone else to guide them. That is a job given to us by God, not to someone else.
I will admit, this is still a muddy pool to me, but one I am at least a little less fearful to swim in. After watching the video myself, I am hoping to now sit down and watch it with my older son and allow him to complete the workbook pages. It is my prayer that it will help facilitate much discussion and maybe help us come up with a more clearly defined plan for our family.
You can find many more Biblical based parent resources from the Links and their Parenting Made Practical website. Next on my list is the one entitled Mom's Notes, with 40 teaching presentations in 5 volumes of parenting advice and training.
Again, it is never to late to learn!
Welcome! Can I just tell you that I am pooped?! Seriously!
On top of that stress our other daughter was returning from her birthday trip and ran into questionable icy roads. That another friend spun off of the day prior. The same ones that Ashton and Salem wrecked on two years ago in the middle of our move.
She is home safely after 6 1/2 hours of white knuckle driving.
All of this to say in case you think my, or any other bloggers' life, is perfect think again. We have stressors just the same as everyone else out there. And sometimes we even decide to share them with the world.
So this week, you get my menu, tailored just for Riley as she claims she hasn't had "real" food in the past 8 weeks, but NO recipe.
If you feel so inclined, feel free to share a recipe with me. This mentally spent momma is going to bed!
However, I was recently home for a break and while I was home I discovered that I was lying to people. Innocently, of course!
You see, someone would ask me about college and before I even thought about it I would shoot off an answer, regardless if it was true or not.
So today I've compiled a list of some lies I've told people about college and some ones that I'm sure other college students have told. Consider it a cheat sheet for talking to the college student in your life. You're welcome!
*Disclaimer: this is mostly tongue in cheek.
As I tweeted once, I felt like I finished last semester with three pennies, 17 bruises, and a complete lack of confidence. By the time you make it through the finals and what not you feel like you've gotten run over by a Mac truck. No joke.
Yes, I know it was pretty fantastic when you visited for Parents' Weekend, but it hasn't been good since then.
This one makes me laugh. Pro tip: don't schedule classes at 8am because if you do you'll want to skip them. Every. Single. Morning.
I'm actually staying up watching Friends on Netflix, but sometimes I study while I do that. College is all about multitasking!
I cried like three days ago because I thought about the Crocodile Hunter for too long.
This may be because I'm majoring in theatre, but the only other department I interact with is the music department and that's just because we share a building.
Which is why I laid on my floor in a blanket burrito and watched The Lion King and ate cereal right out of the box!
Is anyone ever getting enough sleep?!
Yes, I have heard my daughter say several of these things to people, but I can assure you she is not really trying to deceive! It's kind of like that 'ole "How are you?" "I'm great!" response, when really you are not. Sometimes it's just easier to give a simple answer and move on.
Seems college kids are no different.
Except for apparently they do not eat or sleep well, go to the classes you are paying for, or study!
Welcome back to month two of my new series! Wow, let me tell you, when you post what you are going to read to the world, you are more apt to read it.
So yes, I read last month's books! And yes, I enjoyed them.
If you or your child haven't read Counting by 7's, I suggest you do. After all of the comments I got, it seems that I was one of the last of you to read it! Anyway, it is a good read. Just be forewarned that death of parents is a topic and therefore should be handled wisely with sensitive kiddos. I do want my son to read it, but am choosing to save it for a few years for him.
Minimalism is a good read as well. I do NOT agree with everything the authors have to say, but there is some good food for thought in the book. Pick and choose what you take to heart.
And of course, A Shepherd Looks to Psalm 23 is a great read! I knew it would be just based on those who recommended it. You will not look at Psalm 23 the same way after reading it, I assure you!
So what's on the nightstand for this month?
Rain Reign by Ann Miller - I took the recommendation of one of our friends and ordered the book-Well, I ordered another kid's book as well, but I am saving that for April.
Minimalism for Families by Zoe Kim- Before you think I have lost my mind, I bought this at the same time I bought the Minimalist book. Again, a reminder that minimalism is NOT about throwing everything you have away and living with nothing. It is about living with only the things you love and bring you joy.
Taming the Lecture Bug by Joey and Carla Link- This is a book the The Homeschool Review Crew is currently reviewing and it has me intrigued, so I am adding it to my reading list.
That's it for now. I know it is a small list compared to many of you, but I am finding three seems to be the perfect number for me.
Magic Stix Washable Markers- Challenge Accepted!
Sometimes I write reviews because they are just fun! Such is the case this week with my review of the Magic Stix Washable Markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc. You may remember the name from a while back when we had the pleasure of reviewing The Pencil Grip's Thin Stix paints that are non- toxic, fast drying, and NOT MESSY!
I am telling you, I did not think they could outdo themselves after those little gems.
But they have indeed outdone themselves with the Magic Stix Washable Markers.
I mean just the invention of washable markers may be one of the top ten genius inventions for moms of young children. Am I right or what? A long time ago one of my children, whom shall remain nameless but knows who she is, colored herself, yes her WHOLE self, with a green magic marker. It was NOT washable. And she remained green for several days of baths. I needed washable markers then.
The same said child also was known to occasionally paint things she did not have permission to paint, but I digress.
So yes, I love that these new markers are washable!
These things are indeed magic! And to prove it, The Pencil Grip challenges you to the 7 day, no cap challenge. Yep. you read that correctly. They WANT you to leave the cap OFF the markers for 7 days and see what happens.
Spoiler alert- let me tell you what happens.
My 10 year loved beating me to this each morning and then giving us all a report!
You can see for yourself, they do not dry out or change color. At all.
Funny story- I few years ago this would have been an easy challenge. I mean, really, what kids ever get the caps put back on the markers correctly if at all? Mine never could, no matter how how I tried to teach them that lesson. But, well, let's just say, kids do eventually grow up and possibly listen to a thing or two you say, and for once everyone in my family wanted to keep re-capping these markers. The bigger challenge in our house was keeping them un-capped! I had to remind everyone each morning- "Do NOT put the caps on!" And it drove my husband so crazy that each day he asked when we were going to put them away.
us these markers would have held up many more days!
The Magic Stix Washable Markers are odorless and come in 24 vibrant colors. They are housed in a clear plastic carrying case that is easy to slip into a bag for safe travel for all of your art kids who cannot take a break from their creativity. They are perfect for any art project you can imagine and will stand up against those kiddos who cannot seem to find the caps. Anyone?!?
I admit, I do not have little people in my house that color much, but I do have an adult child who still likes to play sometimes, so you can thank her for the lovely picture!
Let's face it, after a busy day at work, coloring can be just what we need!


The feel of the water on your feet and the wind in your air, the smell on the breeze, and all the memories you've made are captured in this wonderful design. Where is your favorite spot to put your toes in the sand?
We mixed one part comfort and one part style to create this simply perfect 8.5 oz. 55% cotton/45% polyester heathered fleece. Unlined hood with matching drawstring and pouch pocket.


Software alone is a painful way to VJ, without something to trigger and control clips and effects. Livid's Tactic hardware had the right idea, with buttons for clips, faders and knobs for layering and effects, and even a built-in LCD — plus a lovely polished-wood case. (No cheap plastic here.) But it also had a steep price.
The revised m2 takes a big price cut and includes new Tactic Pro software, all for US$899. That's about the most impressive bundle I've seen; now I want to get my hands on the controls and see how they feel. Sure, Livid overstates how this replaces hardware. (Check that picture; how exactly does the Tactic fill in for a high-end DV camera?) But this does reduce the barrier to entry, at a price that, for hardware-centric solutions, would only buy you a simple video mixer. And it's nice to see "next-generation" meaning lower prices, too.
Don't miss their updated Union 1.5 software, too, which I know at least a couple of you out there are using. Let us know how it goes. And yes, these are the same people that brought us the Viditar, the Keytar of the VJ world.


text:
Introduced Version House Bill 2085 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2085
(By Delegate
Caputo)
[Introduced January 11, 2012; referred to the
Committee on Political Subdivisions then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §8-15B-1, §8-15B-2, §8-15B-3, §8-15B-4 and §8-15B-5, all relating to meeting and conference rights for members of fire departments employed by political subdivisions; providing for the right of self-organization; allowing designation of an exclusive representative agent; imposing a duty to meet and confer with employees; allowing deduction of employee organization dues and assessments; providing for compulsory arbitration of disputes; listing prohibited acts; allowing hearing before Civil Service Commission; providing judicial review; specifying powers and duties of the Civil Service Commission; and allowing injunctive relief.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated §8-15B-1, §8-15B-2, §8-15B-3, §8-15B-4 and §8-15B-5, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15B. MEETING AND CONFERENCE RIGHTS FOR MEMBERS OF FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
§8-15B-1. Definitions.
As used in this article:
"Commission" means the firemen's Civil Service Commission provided in article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter.
"Employee organization" means any association, organization, federation or council composed of firefighters having as one of its purposes the representation of its members in negotiations with a political subdivision.
"Firefighter" means any person, other than a fire chief, employed as a fireman on a full-time basis by a political subdivision if the person is covered by the civil service provisions of article fifteen of this chapter.
"Political subdivision" means, and is limited to, any municipality within the state.
"Strike" means the failure to report for duty as a result of concerted action with an employee organization, the willful absence from one's position, the stoppage of work or the abstinence, in whole or in part, from the full, faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment or any manner of interference with the operation of any fire department of a political subdivision for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions or compensation or the rights, privileges or obligations of employment.
§8-15B-2. Right to self-organization and exclusive representation; dues.
(a) Firefighters have, and are protected in the exercise of, the right of self-organization to form and join any employee organization, to meet and confer with their employers through representatives of their own choosing on questions of wages, hours and other conditions of employment, except to strike, for the purpose of contracting for rights, free from actual interference, restraint or coercion. An employee organization duly designated to represent the firefighters employed by a political subdivision shall be the exclusive contracting agent for all firefighters so employed. The organization shall act, negotiate agreements and contract for rights for all firefighters and is responsible for representing the interests of all firefighters.
(b) An employee organization claiming to represent a majority of the firefighters of a political subdivision shall be recognized as the exclusive contracting agent by the political subdivision upon the presentation of a petition or other document in which a majority of the firefighters employed by the political subdivision designates the employee organization as their exclusive contracting agent. If a political subdivision has a good faith doubt as to the majority status of the employee organization it shall, within thirty days of the receipt of the petition or document, request its Civil Service Commission to conduct a secret ballot election within thirty days of the receipt of the request. The commission shall certify the results of the election within three days after the election. Following recognition or certification and, upon the written authorization of any firefighter, the political subdivision shall deduct from the payroll of the firefighter the monthly amount of dues or assessments of the employee organization as certified by the secretary of the employee organization and shall deliver the same to the employee organization's treasurer no later than the last day of the month following the deduction.
§8-15B-3. Board of arbitration; duty to meet and confer with employees and arbitrate; procedures.
(a) The political subdivision and the employee organization recognized or certified as the exclusive contracting agent shall contract for all employees' rights. Representatives of the political subdivision and the employee organization shall meet at reasonable times, including meetings appropriately related to the budget making process, and shall confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours and other conditions of employment, or the negotiation of an agreement or any questions arising thereunder, and shall execute a written contract incorporating any agreement reached, and neither party may be compelled to agree to a proposal or make a concession.
(b) If, after a reasonable period of negotiations concerning wages, hours and other conditions of employment, a dispute exists between the political subdivision and the employee organization, or if no agreement has been reached on wages, hours and other conditions of employment sixty days prior to the final date for the setting of the budget of the political subdivision, either party or the parties jointly may request arbitration of the issue or issues in dispute by a board of arbitration. The board of arbitration shall be composed of three persons, one appointed by the political subdivision, one appointed by the employee organization and a third member to be agreed upon by the parties. The members of the board representing the political subdivision and the employee organization shall be named within five days from the date of the request for the appointment of the board. If, after a period of five days from the date of the appointment of the two arbitrators appointed by the political subdivision and the employee organization, the third arbitrator has not been mutually agreed upon, then either arbitrator may request the federal mediation and conciliation service to furnish a list of five members from its list of arbitrators. Within five days after the receipt of the list, the representative of the political subdivision and the employee organization shall each strike two names from the list. The individual whose name remains on the list is the third arbitrator. The third arbitrator is the chairman of the board of arbitration.
(c) The chairman of the board of arbitration shall establish reasonable dates and places of hearing. Any hearings involved shall be conducted in accordance with the rules established for arbitration by the American Arbitration Association. The rules of evidence promulgated by the Supreme Court of Appeals do not apply. The chairman may issue subpoenas and administer oaths. Upon completion of the hearings and within fifteen days, the board of arbitration shall make findings of fact and render a decision. The decision is final and binding upon both parties, except as provided in subsection (d) of this section. The compensation, if any, for the appointed arbitrator will be paid by the political subdivision. The compensation and expenses of the third arbitrator, as well as all stenographic and other expenses incurred by the arbitration board in connection with arbitration proceedings, shall be paid equally by the parties.
(d) Prior to invoking the arbitration procedure provided in this article, the political subdivision and the employee organization shall submit to each other a final settlement offer on all unresolved issues. The arbitration panel is limited, after hearing, to resolving the dispute by adopting, on an issue-by-issue basis, the final offer of either the political subdivision or the employee organization. In making its decision, the panel shall consider the following:
(1) Prior agreements, if any, between the political subdivision and the employee organization;
(2) Comparison of the issues submitted to final offer settlement relative to the employees in the contracting unit involved with those issues related to other public and private employees doing comparable work, giving consideration to factors peculiar to the area and classification involved;
(3) The interests and welfare of the public, the ability of the public employer to finance and administer the issues proposed and the effect of the adjustments on the normal standard of public service;
(4) The lawful authority of the public employer;
(5) Any stipulations of the political subdivision and the employee organization;
(6) Any other factors, not confined to those listed in this section, which are normally or traditionally taken into consideration in the determination of issues submitted to final offer settlement through voluntary conference, mediation, fact-finding or other impasse resolution procedures in public service or in private employment.
(e) Any arbitration decision as well as any written agreement between a political subdivision and an employee organization determining the terms and conditions of employment of firefighters shall contain the following notice:
"It is agreed by the parties that any provision contained herein requiring legislative action to permit its implementation by amendment of law or by providing the additional funds therefor, will not become effective until the appropriate legislative body has given approval."
§8-15B-4. Prohibited acts; hearings.
(a) Political subdivisions are prohibited from:
(1) Interfering with, restraining or coercing firefighters in the exercise of their rights guaranteed by this article;
(2) Dominating or interfering with the formation or administration of any employee organization;
(3) Discharging or otherwise discriminating against a firefighter because he or she has signed or filed any petition, affidavit or complaint or given information or testimony pursuant to this article;
(4) Refusing to meet and confer in good faith with any employee organization which has been recognized or certified as the exclusive contracting agent of the firefighters;
(5) Refusing to discuss grievances with the agent of the firefighters; or
(6) Refusing to abide by a valid arbitration decision.
(b) Employee organizations are prohibited from:
(1) Restraining or coercing a firefighter in the exercise of his or her rights guaranteed under this article;
(2) Causing or attempting to cause a political subdivision to discriminate against a firefighter in violation of subsection (a) of this section;
(3) Refusing to meet and confer in good faith with a political subdivision;
(4) Striking against or withholding their members' services from a political subdivision. Firefighters who are absent from work without permission are presumed to have engaged in a strike unless evidence of illness or other good cause is presented by each firefighter for each absence; or
(c) Any firefighter who engages in a concerted strike against a political subdivision or withholds services from a political subdivision shall be suspended from duty for a period not to exceed six months without pay, and the employee organization to which any striking firefighter belongs shall lose its right for six months to have the monthly amount of dues withheld for all of its members' pay by the employer. The treasurer or chief financial officer of the political subdivision may not issue any warrant or check to any suspended firefighter for the payment of wages which might otherwise be payable during that period, nor may the treasurer or chief financial officer issue any warrant or check for the monthly amount of dues of members of the employee organization to that organization as required by subsection (b), section two of this article.
(d) Any private citizen of a political subdivision against which a prohibited act has been committed may seek a writ of mandamus or any other remedy which is authorized by law to enforce compliance with this subdivision by any treasurer or chief financial officer.
(e) (1) Any firefighter, employee organization or political subdivision which has reasonable cause to believe that a violation of this section has occurred may file a complaint with the commission and serve a copy on each person, employee organization or political subdivision involved.
(2) The commission may make and enter an order dismissing the complaint or may conduct an investigation or hold a hearing on the complaint. The firefighter, employee organization or political subdivision so complained of has the right to file an answer to the complaint, or any amended complaints, within twenty days after the service of the complaint. If a hearing is ordered, the commission shall set the time and place for the hearing, which time and place may be changed by the commission at the request of one of the parties for good cause shown.
(3) The firefighter, employee organization or political subdivision may appear in person or otherwise defend against the complaint. In the discretion of the commission any other person may be allowed to intervene in the proceedings.
(4) The commission is not bound by the rules of evidence promulgated by the Supreme Court of Appeals and the commissioner has the power of subpoena and to administer oaths. A transcript of the testimony taken at any hearing before the commission shall be filed in the office of the commission, and be opened for inspection by either of the parties or their authorized representatives. The commission shall bear the cost of producing the transcript.
(f) (1) If, upon all the testimony and evidence, the commission determines that a prohibited practice has been committed, it shall state its findings of fact in writing and shall issue and cause to be served on the party committing the prohibited practice an order requiring the employee organization or the political subdivision to cease and desist from the prohibited practice. The commission may take any further affirmative action as will comply with the provisions of this section, including, but not limited to, the withdrawal of certification of an employee organization established by or assisted in its establishment by any prohibited practice.
(2) If, upon all the testimony and evidence, the commission determines that a prohibited practice has not been or is not being committed, it shall state its findings of fact and conclusions of law and shall issue an order dismissing the complaint.
(g) If a firefighter, employee organization or political subdivision refuses to comply with an order from the commission and fails to appeal the order as hereinafter provided, the commission shall request the Attorney General of West Virginia to seek injunctive relief in the circuit court of the county where the prohibited act was or is being committed.
§8-15B-5. Judicial review.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this section, any party adversely affected by an order of the commission is entitled to appeal a decision of the commission to circuit court, as provided in article five, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
(b) An action appealing a decision of the commission may only be initiated in the circuit court where the political subdivision is located. The appeal must be filed within ninety days from the date of the entry by the commission of its final order. Upon an appeal being taken and docketed with the clerk of the circuit court, the circuit court shall proceed to hear the appeal upon the original record made before the commission. Any party adversely affected by a decision and final order of the circuit court has the right to petition the Supreme Court of Appeals for a review of the decision of the circuit court, as in other civil cases.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide meetings and conference rights for members of municipal fire departments. The bill also creates duties for the firefighters' Civil Service Commissions.
This article is new; therefore, it has been completely underscored.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On October 15, 2014, Aereo, appeared at a hearing before the U.S. District Court in New York to defend itself against a preliminary injunction filed by broadcasters seeking the court's order to stop Aereo from streaming and publicly performing any copyrighted content over the internet. The hearing follows Aereo's loss before the Supreme Court in June.
On June 25, 2014, the US Supreme Court ruled against Aereo in a high profile dispute. In its 6-3 decision, the Court held that Aereo violated the Transmit Clause defined in the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §10. The Court found that Aereo publicly performed copyrighted works of the petitioners (ie. Disney, CBS, NBC, Fox) by enabling subscribers to watch TV programs over the Internet in exchange for a fee. In the holding, the complexity of the technology used by Aereo while transmitting TV programs over Internet was underlined.
Aereo has warehouses where thousands of mini-antennas, roughly the size of a dime, and other equipment are housed. When subscribers login to Aereo's application, they select the TV channel they want to watch from the catalog. If the program is currently airing, a subscriber can either watch live or record the program for later. If the subscriber chooses to watch the program live, Aereo's servers in the warehouse assigns one of those tiny antennas to the subscriber and tunes in the antenna to the selected TV channel. Aereo's servers then transcodes the over the air TV signal to digital data and saves it in a user specific folder for a couple of seconds before transmitting the program over the Internet. Then, Aereo facilitates the digital delivery of the signals to the subscribers Over-the-Top (OTT) so that subscribers can watch live TV programs. If the subscriber clicks on the "record" after the program starts, Aereo retains a unique copy of the program in its storage servers so that the subscriber can watch programming whenever they choose.
The crucial detail here is that the antenna only serves a single subscriber at any given time and the folder that is used to store the digital data is not shared among users. It is like having your rabbit ear antenna behind your TV on the roof of Aereo's warehouse or moving your local DVR box to the cloud. The broadcast signals owned by the petitioners are transmitted free of charge to any viewer with a TV and antenna. Unlike Aereo cable companies, like Comcast and Time Warner, pay license fees for over the air signals to retransmit broadcasts. Aereo's technology and business model allowed Aereo to keep costs very low in comparison to cable companies. Consequently, Aereo charged subscribers considerably less than cable companies for their service.
On April 1st 2013, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its decision in favor of Aereo stating that Aereo did not infringe the exclusive rights of the content owners enshrined in the Copyright Act. According to the court, the transmissions explained above did not constitute public performance. In its decision, the Second Circuit followed the precedent set in Cablevision where the court held that Cablevision's transmission of DVR-recorded programs were not public performances as they were one-to-one transmissions of a specific program signal.
In the Aereo case, the Second Circuit compared Aereo's service to a viewer's ability to record a program for later viewing using a digital video recorder (DVR). While analyzing the elements of public performance right, the Court stated that Aereo's performance is private not public as it assigns each subscriber an individual tiny antenna at the time the TV program is streamed or recorded and all subscribers performed Aereo's service themselves and individually. Hence, the Second Circuit concluded that Aereo did not perform the copyrighted TV programs publicly under Cablevision because it transmitted unique copies of those programs that were created at the subscribers' requests and transmitted at the same time the programs were airing on television.
After the defeat American Broadcasters Inc. ("ABC") filed petition for a writ of certiorari which was later granted by the US Supreme Court. During oral arguments in April, 2014, Aereo's complex technological basis for its system design was frequently questioned. Indeed Justice Ginsburg's question to Aereo's counsel was whether they came up with this idea of using thousands of mini antennas to avoid any obligation under the Copyright Act. Also, during the oral arguments, Justice Breyer stated that it seemed like Aereo was trying to escape constraints that everyone else was complying with. The Court was trying to distinguish a disruptive technological innovation and a legal invention to circumvent the Copyright regime.
Copyright Act §106 grants copyright holders five exclusive rights: reproduction, adaptation, public distribution, public performance, and public display. Anyone who infringes any of these exclusive rights is liable under the Copyright Act. In the current case, the exclusive right the Supreme Court analyzes is the public performance right. In deciding whether Aereo infringed the exclusive right to publicly perform the petitioners' copyrighted content, the Court addressed the following questions: i) Did Aereo "perform" the copyrighted work? and ii) Did Aereo perform the petitioners' copyrighted works "publicly"?
In order to decide on these questions, first, the Court addressed the legislative history of the statute. The 1960's and 70's witnessed a massive growth in cable television systems that raised several concerns about the impact of the content providers' right of public performance. In response to two Supreme Court decisions, Fortnightly and Teleprompter, Congress amended the Copyright Act to include the CATV (community antenna television) providers' transmission of TV programs to viewers in the framework of public performance right. The Transmit Clause that was enacted in 1976 "makes clear that an entity acts like a CATV system itself performs, even when it simply enhances viewers' ability to receive broadcast television signals". Also, it is clear in the legislative history that unless the performance is to the public, there is no actionable infringement.
Answering the first question, the Court held that Aereo "performed" petitioners' works publicly within the meaning of the Transmit Clause defined above. The Court did not agree with Aereo's assertions that it was merely an equipment provider whose subscribers were no different than people who record over the air TV programs using their own antennae and a DVR. The Court found the argument unpersuasive that it is the subscriber who clicks watch or record. Aereo only provides the equipment for this service. According to the opinion, it is clear in the Transmit Clause that whoever acts as the CATV system performs the programs, even if the system only enables the subscribers to receive television signals. Hence, operating substantially similar to cable companies, Aereo performs the copyrighted TV programs without complying with the obligations of such companies including the payment of compulsory fees.
In addressing the second question of whether Aereo performed the copyrighted works "publicly," the Court held that even if Aereo transmitted from user specific copies, using individually assigned antennas making each transmission available only to one subscriber, these technological tricks do not distinguish Aereo's system from cable systems. Accordingly, "the subscribers to whom Aereo transmits the TV programs constitute "the public" under the Copyright Act because Aereo communicates the same contemporaneously perceptible images and sounds to a large number of people who are unrelated and unknown to each other and who are not possessors or legal owners of the underlying work." Thus, Aereo transmitted the copyrighted works of the petitioners to the public.
"Communicating content from one physical place to another is "at the heart of Internet-based technologies". The Internet consists of computers which "transmit or otherwise communicate" information or in some cases a copyrighted work to a private person or to the public which may sometimes result in infringing an exclusive right of a copyright holder. As it is stated above, private performances do not constitute a violation whereas a public performance might. Drawing the line between what is private and what is public is not always easy. Cloud computing which enables consumers to store content on cloud and then transmit it back depend on the understanding that such transmissions are not regarded as public performances pursuant to the Copyright Act. Hence, interpreting the public performance right very broadly might endanger such services which has become a huge sector worth billions of dollars.
Furthermore, some high tech companies such as Amazon and Dropbox have launched cloud-based storage for consumers' personal use. Even if the Aereo decision assumes that what cloud services offer is playing back copies that consumers already legally acquired, it could be cumbersome for such companies to determine what is legal or what is not legal. The oral arguments showed that the Court was worried about the possible negative effects of the decision on new cloud technologies. In addition, public interest groups, including Center for Democracy and Technology, submitted briefs expressing such concerns and urging the Court not to interpret the Transmit Clause in a manner that would undermine cloud computing and chill the innovation in networked technologies.
Answering those concerns, the majority decision stated that "questions involving cloud computing, [remote storage] DVRs, and other novel issues not before the Court, as to which 'Congress has not plainly marked [the] course,' should await a case in which they are squarely presented." Hence, instead of drawing conclusions that would affect cloud services, the Court sidestepped the issue. In a dissenting opinion written, Justice Scalia said that the Court cannot promise that its ruling will not affect cloud-storage providers and cable-television systems given the imprecision of its result-driven rule.
Another concern is regarding the public's interest in accessing cheap online TV services. As the Court held, Aereo shall be treated as a cable company and therefore comply with the responsibilities of a cable company, including paying license fees to content owners. That means Aereo will not be able to offer such services to consumers for considerably lower fees. According to the Federal Communications Commission, Aereo's service price is less than half the $20.55 average price for a basic pay-TV service and almost one eighth of the $61.63 price for the most popular package. This result might hinder the competition in the industry and delay the decrease in prices.
After the Court found that Aereo's service was "highly similar" to that of a cable system, Aereo has been seeking ways to stay in business in compliance with the Court's decision. First, Aereo asserted in New York District Court that the company is clearly entitled to a compulsory license, which is available to cable companies to carry over-the-air broadcasts under § 111 of the Copyright Act. In the meanwhile Aereo requested the Copyright Office to grant a §111 compulsory license; however it was rejected as the Copyright Office reaffirmed its previous view that Internet retransmissions fall outside of § 111.
On October 15, 2014, the District Court held a hearing and Aereo's counsel presented various arguments on how Aereo could stay in business by paying license fees as a cable operator. Even if the Supreme Court ruled with a focus on only "contemporaneous" viewing and the decision did not reach Aereo's DVR-like features, the court signaled that it would interpret the decision as if all of Aereo's system was illegal.
An ex-parte notice disclosing Aereo's negotiations with FCC has been uploaded on Aereo's website. Aereo demands the regulators to define it as a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD) whose facilities deliver linear channels of video programming such as local, over-the-air broadcast programming. Only time will tell whether Aereo's efforts to follow the Supreme Court's decision will be awarded by the District Court and FCC.


Hurleyburley are supporting 4Ocean to help clean up our precious oceans and coastlines with the 4Ocean bracelet. The bracelet is made from recycled materials; the cord from recycled polyester and the beads from recycled glass.
As well as supporting 4Ocean with these bracelets, we want to give something back, so we are donating 50% of our profits from their sale to a UK based charity who work to create a sustainable future for our seas.
As with many areas of industry, a huge amount of plastic is used in online retail. So, at Hurleyburley we have been looking at ways in which we can help with the huge plastic problem, both within our industry and in our everyday lives.
Our gift boxes and postage boxes are made from recyclable card. We re-use and re-cycle as much as we can, and we are contacting our suppliers to see if they can use less plastic when supplying us with components.
4Ocean is a global movement actively removing rubbish from the ocean and coastlines.
The 4Ocean journey started when 2 young surfers, Alex and Andrew took a trip to to Bali Indonesia. Devastated by the amount of plastic in the ocean, they set out to find out why no one was doing anything about it. One afternoon they witnessed fishermen literally pushing their boat through piles of plastic that had washed up on shore. The two surfers realized that the proliferation of plastic threatened both the ocean environment and the fishermen's livelihood.
They wondered if fishermen could be paid to use their nets to pull plastic from the ocean instead of fish. The 4Ocean bracelet was born to fund this.
Get a reusable water bottle – as a bunch of animal lovers, we like the eco-friendly, stainless steel, animal print bottles from S'ip by S'well https://sipbyswell.com/ an ethical US company, but also available from Amazon UK.
All licenced premises (cafes, bars restaurants, clubs etc) are obliged to give customers free drinking water. 20 new drinking water fountains are also being placed around London to help combat the single use plastic bottle, hopefully this will be rolled out nation-wide.
Refuse plastic straws – we like these straw straws! Made from wheat, the most environmentally friendly straw yet and won't go soggy in your drink.
Don't buy plastic wrapped fruit and veg – as demand decreases, so will production. https://wholegoodsupply.co.uk are an ethical company that will deliver, plastic free, to your door and are also available from Ocado.
Use a refillable fountain pen – Think of all those disposable plastic ball point pens out there. Switch to a re-fillable fountain pen like this one we have at Hurleyburley that will last you a lifetime. It can be personalised with a name or message and comes with a refillable cartridge to be used with bottled ink, so no need for disposable plastic ink cartridges.
Always have a reusable shopping bag or two with you – we love these ones from www.re-uz.co.uk that fold away neatly into your handbag.
Plastic bags recorded on UK beaches have reduced by 22% since the charge was introduced in 2011*. We are making a difference!
A staggering 40 billion plastic hangers are sent to the US every year with clothing imports and 85% of these end up in landfill.
Have your milk delivered and juice delivered in glass bottles – Convenient AND eco-friendly. Just type in your postcode to www.milkandmore.co.uk or www.findmeamilkman.net to see who delivers in your area.
More ways in which we can reduce the amount of single use plastic we use can be found on the Marine Conservation Society website at www.mcsuk.org/plastic-challenge. They are currently running a #goplasticfree in July challenge so take a look and see how you can get involved.


text:
Craig Tendler, M.D.
Dr. Tendler is vice president of oncology clinical development and global medical affairs for Janssen, where he is responsible for creating robust, efficient development plans and data generation activities for all products in the Janssen Oncology portfolio, from proof of concept through registration and lifecycle management, that support regulatory approval and provide access for the benefit of patients. He partners closely with early development, the disease area strongholds, and global clinical operations to design and execute a seamless, end-to-end, oncology clinical research strategy that incorporates compelling science and addresses areas of high unmet medical need.
Dr. Tendler has overseen and coordinated 30 major drug approvals by national regulatory agencies, including 16 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Most recently his team worked in collaboration with the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to secure the expeditious worldwide approvals of IMBRUVICA for CLL, relapsed mantle cell lymphoma, and Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia, as well as ERLEADA® for the treatment of non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and DARZALEX for both frontline and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. He and his team have played a key role in achieving several FDA Breakthrough Designations for ibrutinib and daratumumab, in collaboration with co-development partners Pharmacyclics and Genmab, respectively, and for erdafitinib.
Dr. Tendler serves as adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics/hematology-oncology and on the admissions committee at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He was a research fellow and recipient of a Physician Scientist Training Award at the National Cancer Institute.
He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and graduated from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine with high honors (AOA). He is board certified in pediatrics with a subspecialty in hematology-oncology.


See the light and work with your locations to provide valuable marketing expertise and increase both of your bottom lines at the same time! Especially when it comes to smaller FECs, acting as a "marketing guru" to the location is a great way to ensure they don't go out and buy their own equipment.
In troubleshooting their business arrangement, we find that Tony's annual rent is almost 50% of his gross revenue ($185,000 on laser tag + $15,000, his end, on the games). Maybe Tony has some marketing talent. After all, he is grossing $185,000 in laser tag from 15,000 customer visits ($12 per capita) which is a good start.
Maybe game operator Bill is a marketing guru? Let's see… Bill's games are grossing $1,000/week ($3.30 per capita – 300 players/week) and after his actual prize costs of $200, his share of net revenues is $500 or $17/game. Nah, Bill isn't a marketing guru, at least not in this case, since his labor and parts costs to collect, service and repair the games has got to be more than $17/game.
In this "comedic play," we have an example of two business people who depend on each other and are in the same boat. The only problem is that their boat is sinking! If they team up and "plug the holes" by marketing together, chances are excellent that business will increase for both of them. But why is it so difficult for Tony and Bill to stop complaining about each other's business practices and tear down the wall they have put up between them? Quite often, I find out that they're afraid of trusting each other, learning how the other's business really works, and figuring out what components are missing from their not-too-well-defined business arrangement.
Bill is afraid to convert to a tokens-based operation because he's scared Tony will have all of the cash and that Tony won't like the idea of handing Bill $700 each week while keeping only $300. At collection time, Bill does not "trust" that Tony will have $700 in cash to pay him and he doesn't want to be in a subservient position.
Bill would love to be involved in getting more customers to play the games, but he and Tony both know that if they hand each person, for example, 10 quarters as a part of a party package, most of those quarters will not end up in the games. Who's going to pay for these losses?
Tony knows that if he added a small food component, he could increase revenues. (This is possible even with a small 10' x 10' area using, as an example, a Quik n' Crispy greaseless oven that requires no hood and spending no more than $20,000, including a freezer and soda fountain.) But Tony's afraid of food. And Bill is afraid that if Tony adds food, he'd have to remove at least five of his games and forfeit the best game space in the facility.
A little "restaurant" can make a big difference to your bottom line! Don't let customers leave your location to get a bite to eat. They don't come back! Instead, work with your locations to put in a small food component so that food AND game money isn't left on the table!
When you have an entertainment facility –– it doesn't matter whether it's small or large –– and you don't offer food, or you outsource food to Joe's Pizza up the block for your parties, you're slowly killing your business. You're taking a significant portion of your party profits and you're giving it to the pizza guy, even if you believe he's giving you a great deal. Remember, no matter how much fun your customers are having, when they get hungry and leave –– with money still in their wallets –– they're not coming back to your place after they have eaten. Look at it this way: Your competitors are getting money that should be yours!
Here's another example of something simple we're doing that increases revenue. We're starting to put small-footprint attractions into children's centers. We can create a climbing wall for smaller kids for less than $1,000 and easily make $50,000 a year integrating this attraction with parties.
And I don't stop there. I market that space to a wider audience. I've taken adults and even teens and used that same kids' climbing wall for team building events. I have the adults take their shoes and socks off, tie one hand behind their back, and put a blindfold on them to see how many inches they can get off the ground, making a contest out of it. Even in a children's center, you can rent it out for $10,000-$15,000 for corporate team building.
Again, while it's built for children's activities, it can be so much more! It's been done for many years, but it's just not ever written about. It's like one of the best kept secrets. Few in the industry want to share this kind of stuff, but it's all part of the program our company offers and what we do to help market a location. Ideas like this can increase the bottom line by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For the successful amusement operator of today, operating the games is probably the least significant part of their value to an FEC. The operator's main value is in marketing the FEC, not just placing the games.
The operator has spent most of the last few decades becoming the best at running league programs for pool tables and darts. That is simply a marketing category to bring people into the facility and keep them there longer. These game operators have the basics down, so why don't they go to the next level and become the marketing gurus for their locations and expand their role in that capacity? Your goal is to help the location bring more people through the door and encourage repeat visitation whether it be in a route location or FEC. In a sense, the operator can be a free marketing director for the location, something that most small businesses cannot afford, and both the operator and the location will benefit.
If the operator does this right, he'll bring so much value to the FEC that it simply wouldn't pay for the smaller locations to own their own equipment! They'll be helping market the birthday party programs, the groups, the corporate sales and so on.
That's easy to do and we do that with every one of our locations that permit us to be a part of the program. We have locations that started out making $4,000 a week/$200,000 a year on the games and within a few years of working with the location to help them market the whole facility, the games are doing $1 million and the locations are doing well over $2 million.
This has been accomplished by using a debit card system, generating emails, doing all the marketing around town and cross marketing with many local businesses. It's a whole marketing program, and it's every day.
As a word of caution, I've noticed that some game operators buy the debit card system, keep it to themselves and do pretty much nothing with the information, sometimes not even giving the location access to all of the valuable reports. All this does is build a wall between the two "partners in profit" much like the one between Tony and Bill. The right hand doesn't help the left hand.
When this happens the game operator's focus may be on making the games earn as much as possible, but sometimes at the expense of the whole facility. It's so much easier to work with the FECs and locations to help them make more money and be more successful.
As a business practice, I find it more beneficial to share the cost of a debit card system with the FEC because then both parties have a vested interest in using it for the benefit of the entire FEC. Doing so also frees up an additional $30,000 or so for us to add to the new games budget. That means we can buy more of those expensive games that will generate increased revenue for the FEC from the get-go.
This is a good place to end Part 3 of this series. By the time you read this, I will be getting ready for my three full days and two evenings mentoring Tony and Bill, along with the other five speakers, at Foundations Entertainment University (June 14-16 in Chicago). By the end, they both will receive their "Marketing Guru" degrees! If you'd like to learn more, visit www.foundationsuniversity.com.


text:
<?php

namespace EtoxMicrome\EvidenciaBundle\Controller;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Method;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Route;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Template;
use EtoxMicrome\EvidenciaBundle\Entity\Evidencia;
use EtoxMicrome\EvidenciaBundle\Form\EvidenciaType;
use EtoxMicrome\EvidenciaEntidadBundle\Form\EvidenciaEntidadType;

/**
 * Default controller.
 */
class DefaultController extends Controller
{
    public function showAction($id)
    {
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

        $entity = $em->getRepository('EvidenciaBundle:Evidencia')->find($id);

        if (!$entity) {
            throw $this->createNotFoundException('Unable to find Evidencia entity.');
        }

        $deleteForm = $this->createDeleteForm($id);
        return $this->render('EvidenciaBundle:Default:show.html.twig', array(
            'entity' => $entity,
            'delete_form' => $deleteForm->createView(),
        ));
    }

    /**
     * Displays a form to edit an existing Evidencia entity.
     *
     * @Template()
     */
    public function editAction($id)
    {

        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

        $entity = $em->getRepository('EvidenciaBundle:Evidencia')->find($id);

        if (!$entity) {
            throw $this->createNotFoundException('Unable to find Evidencia entity.');
        }

        $editForm = $this->createForm(new EvidenciaType(), $entity);
        $deleteForm = $this->createDeleteForm($id);

        return array(
            'entity'      => $entity,
            'edit_form'   => $editForm->createView(),
            'delete_form' => $deleteForm->createView(),
        );
    }

    /**
     * Edits an existing Evidencia entity.
     *
     * @Template("EvidenciaBundle:Evidencia:edit.html.twig")
     */
    public function updateAction(Request $request, $id)
    {
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

        $entity = $em->getRepository('EvidenciaBundle:Evidencia')->find($id);

        if (!$entity) {
            throw $this->createNotFoundException('Unable to find Evidencia entity.');
        }

        $deleteForm = $this->createDeleteForm($id);
        $editForm = $this->createForm(new EvidenciaType(), $entity);
        if ($this->getRequest()->getMethod() == 'POST') {
            $editForm->bindRequest($this->getRequest());
            if ($editForm->isValid()) {
                $em->persist($entity);
                $em->flush();
                return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('evidencia_show', array('id' => $id)));
            }
        }

        return array(
            'entity'      => $entity,
            'edit_form'   => $editForm->createView(),
            'delete_form' => $deleteForm->createView(),
        );
    }

    /**
     * Deletes a Evidencia entity.
     *
     * @Route("/{id}", name="evidencia_delete")
     * @Method("DELETE")
     */
    public function deleteAction(Request $request, $id)
    {
        $form = $this->createDeleteForm($id);
        $form->bind($request);

        if ($form->isValid()) {
            $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
            $entity = $em->getRepository('EvidenciaBundle:Evidencia')->find($id);

            if (!$entity) {
                throw $this->createNotFoundException('Unable to find Evidencia entity.');
            }

            $em->remove($entity);
            $em->flush();
        }

        return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('evidencia'));
    }

    /**
     * Creates a form to delete a Evidencia entity by id.
     *
     * @param mixed $id The entity id
     *
     * @return Symfony\Component\Form\Form The form
     */
    private function createDeleteForm($id)
    {
        return $this->createFormBuilder(array('id' => $id))
            ->add('id', 'hidden')
            ->getForm()
        ;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Flying Bella Rosa Ranch - a 26 acre Equestrian Training Facility just 45 minutes south of the Will Rogers Coliseum in Ft Worth. The ranch can be used for Boarding, Training and Showing or as a Private Home with plenty of room for your own horses. 60x160 lighted arena, 80x180 open arena, 12 stall barn, 6 stall barn, hay barn, RV Hook-ups and more. A Trinity Water Well, with 2,500 gallon storage tank, ensures that there is ample water for the herd.
Offered by Jim Brosche of Compass Re Texas, Llc..


The North Carolina Motorsports Foundation (NCMF) is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization committed to support education in North Carolina. Funding for the Foundation's education mission comes from the sale of specialty license plates purchased through the North Carolina DMV. Go to the following link and select NASCAR to order your plate! Buy a tag and support education in North Carolina.


text:
Highlights Deals Release dates Store Supporters only Pokémon Go Arlo, Cliff, Sierra counters Fortnite Klombo and Klomberries PS5 Stock
Don't be put off by Kingdom Come: Deliverance's stiff characters
There's surprising RPG depth underneath.
News by	Robert Purchese, Senior Staff Writer
Historical-not-fantastical medieval role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance has long been in the headlines. Ever since we saw its next-gen mud we followed it, through a Kickstarter campaign and beyond, and now nearly four years later it's finally nearly ready, due 13th February 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But being in the public eye for so long has taken its toll, and the sheen has dulled. Other role-playing games have been and gone in that time, such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the goalposts have moved. What was once so impressive in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is now par for the course.
Czech developer Warhorse has also had to face reality and assess what can and cannot be achieved if it wants to finish a game, so flashy features like mounted combat, for instance, are out, although horse-riding remains. What we see now is the reality of what a new studio on Kickstarter money - and plenty of private investment and now a co-publisher in Deep Silver - has managed to create. No more Kickstarter dreaming of something to blow The Elder Scrolls series out of the water. This journey back down to earth came with a nasty bump recently when Warhorse received flak for ropy facial animations and voice acting in a new story trailer, embedded below.
Which is a shame. It's a shame because, in the flesh, Kingdom Come: Deliverance shows a whole side you cannot see in trailers. You can't see the game's open approach to quests, which effectively rings an area for your attention but otherwise stands back and lets you find your way through it, no magical compass pointing you this way or that. You have to listen for clues about where to go next, and if you don't, you won't find out. Kingdom Come isn't afraid of letting you get lost. It also isn't afraid to withhold information from you in conversations. If you want it, earn it - convince the person you're talking to dish up their secrets.
Taken into account in dialogue are your speech skill, your appearance, strength and "badassness", as the PR puts it. Imagine being covered in blood: that affects your badassness. Reminds me of all the conversations in Dragon Age where you're drenched in blood; in Kingdom Come, poor old Jane the peasant will have chickens if you turn up looking like that. Other skills like First Aid play into dialogue too. I spot a man's injury and offer to sort it because my First Aid skill allows it, and as a result I get the information I want.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance can afford to let you fail because there are always so many other ways to achieve a goal. I play a quest involving a massacre of horses - no, not the Grand National - and all I'm really told is 'go find out what happened'. I could achieve that through talking, cross-checking answers to expose liars, or I could simply stumble upon a broken fence and into a clandestine forest rendezvous instead. It's up to you. Your guiding principle should be your gut, your 'What would I do?' instinct.
This stand-back approach works because Kingdom Come: Deliverance is beautiful, a pleasure to explore. Show me a game with a nicer countryside and I will buy you a mead. What's more, it's historically accurate, a deeply researched recreation of the area Warhorse comes from - Prague, Czech Republic - from centuries ago. Few games have better sense of time and place, and the fastidious eye for historic detail touches everything.
The map, for example, oh the map! It is history meets whimsy, painter meets cartographer. Frumpy forests and cheerful rural villages cleanly, coherently laid out, and where even giant knights decorating the map serve a purpose, cluing you in to, say, a settlement under army control.
The menus are in general a delight and contain surprising role-playing depth within. Equipment consists of many layers in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, as it did in this period of history. There are 20 equipment slots, 20! Six for the body, four for the legs, four for the head, two for jewellery and four for weapons. Layers upon layers you can wear. And you can forget about carrying an army's worth of dead people's armour because in this game you can only carry what a human realistically can - no Hermione's magic storage bag for you.
Mass Effect Andromeda walkthrough and guide
How to complete every main mission and more.
Much has been made of the game's 'as realistic as possible' combat, underpinned by an ambitious physics system where successful hits do not swish through enemies but land with physical force, devastating them if they are not armoured in this area but glancing off them if they are. What I didn't realise was there's a whole skill tree of medieval martial arts to go with this, offering pommel strikes to multi-hit combos and more. Actual combos, naturally - actual moves from historically researched swordplay. But the skills go much wider than swords and combat, and even Speech offers its own set of perks. On and on the menus go, deeper and deeper, the suggestion being endless possibilities for the role you want your character in this game to play.
To me it's this RPG depth and beautiful world that are the stars of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but what jars my experience is the story, and the characters telling it. They are stiff and they do jitter and jank, and the faces struggle to believably say what you're hearing. Warhorse has clearly tried - there are many motion captured sequences - and that is laudable, but I wonder would the money have been better spent widening and deepening the systems and sandbox approach rather than chasing a level of animated storytelling a studio of this size was always going to struggle to reach?
Then again, I have only seen a fraction of a game with around 50 hours of play. Maybe if I'd seen the story from the beginning I'd feel differently; maybe I'll feel differently later on. Whatever the outcome, it's far from a deal breaker, because Kingdom Come: Deliverance will stand unique anyway as an RPG forged against the grain, a Kickstarter rebel. In a world of so many safe me-toos, Kingdom Come: Deliverance should not be overlooked.
More about Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Robert Purchese
Senior Staff Writer	| Clert
Bertie is senior staff writer and Eurogamer's Poland-and-dragons correspondent. He's part of the furniture here, a friendly chair, and reports on all kinds of things, the stranger the better.


text:
CFPB Penalty Muddies Waters for Approval of U.S. Bancorp's MUFC Acquisition
The $37.5 million penalty the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau levied against U.S. Bancorp over fake account allegations is raising questions about the timing of approval for the bank's planned acquisition of MUFG Union Bank NA.
When the companies announced the nearly $8 billion deal in September 2021, they initially expected it to close in the first half of 2022, but now they hope to close it in the second half of the year. Stephens Inc. analyst Terry McEvoy said it is possible the CFPB action could help clear the way for approval, but it could also mean additional time before getting the green light from regulators.
"Last week's CFPB fine, which went back over a decade, could represent a final component of the approval process or open the door for additional actions," McEvoy wrote in an email. "It's tough to say with any confidence."
Information contained on the internet is not subject to Stephens' control or review, and may not be accurate.
For disclosure information, please visit
https://www.stephens.com/investment-disclosures.
Stephens Announces Partnership with Williams Racing
Stephens Private Wealth Management Hires Vice President and Financial Consultant Gavriel S. Berger
Stephens Hires Mike Preston as Head of New Investment Banking Site & Incentives Adivsory


text:
Is Prepaid Rent Recoverable if a Lease Terminates Early?
Posted: June 23rd, 2014
What happens when rent is prepaid under a lease but the lease is purportedly terminated prior to the expiration of the term? The Court of Appeals in Eujoy Realty Corp. v. Wagner Communications, LLC addressed this issue.1
Landlord Eujoy owned a building in Queens with a steel frame structure on the roof for the placement of billboard advertisements. Tenant Van Wagner considered the billboard desirable because of its visibility to passing traffic on the Long Island Expressway. Van Wagner leased the billboard for a 15-year term commencing December 1, 2000 and ending September 30, 2015.
The lease specifically provided for the payment of "annual basic rent" for the period January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007 in the amount of $96,243.00 in advance on January 1, 2007. The lease further provided that "Should this Lease be terminated for any reason prior to the date of its expiration [Van Wagner] shall not be entitled to the return of… any basic rent paid in advance and covering period beyond the date on which the lease is terminated…" The lease, however, provided several exceptions to this clause and allowed the apportionment of rent if the lease terminated due to a fire or casualty, condemnation or the enactment of any law making the billboard illegal. A rider to the lease also afforded Van Wagner the right to terminate the lease if the view of the billboard from the Long Island Expressway was ever "substantially obstruct[ed]" by "the erection of a new building or the increase in height of the building between the location [of the billboard] and the [LIE]."
In early January 2007 Van Wagner sent a check for $96,243.00 to Eujoy for the annual basic rent for the entire year of 2007. The check was dated January 2, 2007; however Van Wagner almost immediately stopped payment on the check claiming that it was "accidentally" and "erroneously" issued. Shortly thereafter, on January 16, 2007, Van Wagner's Executive Vice President wrote a letter to Eujoy's co-owner confirming a conversation with another co-owner advising that Van Wagner had terminated the Lease effective January 8, 2007 pursuant to the Rider and enclosed a check for $2,109.43 representing rent for January 1, 2007 to January 8, 2007.
Eujoy thereafter commenced an action against Van Wagner seeking the balance of the annual basic rent for 2007 in the amount of $94,137.57 and for reasonable legal fees and costs related to Van Wagner's default.
Eujoy quickly moved for summary judgment arguing that "[t]he parties did not stipulate to apportion rent paid in advance and for the period following termination of [the lease] pursuant to [the Lease Rider] and Article 19 of the lease entitled it to its reasonable attorneys' fees and costs." Van Wagner cross moved for summary judgment "based on the lease" or, alternatively, for leave to amend its answer to include an affirmative defense of estoppel.
Van Wagner submitted an affidavit of its Executive Vice President claiming that in 2006 it became apparent that construction would eventually block the visibility of the billboard from the Long Island Expressway thus entitling tenant to invoke the termination clause in the rider and that upon his discussion by telephone with Eujoy's co-owner late in 2006, Van Wagner "agreed [to] keep the advertisements posted, and thus pay rent to [Eujoy] for as long as [Van Wagner] could collect revenues from [its] customer…" The affidavit also stated that because Eujoy "accepted the benefits of [Van Wagner's] extended use of the [billboard] through January 8, 2007 and agreed that the Lease would terminate as of that date…it should not be entitled to collect rent for any subsequent period."
The Supreme Court denied Eujoy's motion and granted Van Wagner's cross motion holding that Eujoy was not entitled to any portion of prepaid rent because Van Wagner "did not pay any such rent because [it] stopped payment on the rent check before [Eujoy] cashed it."
On appeal, the Appellate Division, with two dissents, reversed the Supreme Court's order, granted Eujoy's motion for summary judgment, denied Van Wagner's cross motion in its entirety, and remanded the matter for a determination of attorneys' fees. After final judgment, the Court of Appeals took up the case as of right because of the two Justice dissent and affirmed.
After discussing preservation issues, the Court of Appeals addressed the prepaid rent issue. Initially the Court reminded us of the common law rule that rent "is consideration for the right of use and possession of the leased property that a landlord does not earn until the end of the rental period" unless the parties expressly agree otherwise. The Court stated "when a lease sets a due date for rent, that date is the date on which the tenant's debt accrues" and that "[r]ent paid 'in advance' (i.e. at the beginning of the term) is unrecoverable if the lease is terminated before the completion of the term, unless the language of the lease directs otherwise." The Court repeated long-standing policy of a "strong preference for freedom of contract in the creation of leases, and although it may seem harsh for tenants, the courts assume that the parties have knowingly bargained for the provisions of their agreement. This is especially true in the case of arms-length commercial contracts negotiated by sophisticated and counseled entities. [Citation omitted.] Courts will give effect to the contract's language and the parties must live with the consequences of their agreement. If they are dissatisfied …the time to say so [is] at the bargaining table."
In addressing the lease, the Court noted that the lease described the rent as "annual basic rent," which it cited as confirmation of the parties' agreement and intent that rent be paid in advance in annual installments. The Court continued that the lease explicitly states that the tenant is not entitled to "the return" of any basic rent "paid in advance," even if the lease is terminated prior to the expiration of the rental period unless one of the lease exceptions existed. The Court noted that while tenant never fully pay the rent due January 1, 2007 because it stopped payment of its check, that did not change the lease requirement that the rent became due on January 1, 2007 and under this lease the rent could not be apportioned because the lease did not terminate based on one of the exceptions specifically enumerated in the lease.
The Court determined that Van Wagner "accrued a debt for the annual basic rent under the terms of the lease when it remained in possession of the billboard after January 1, 2007, and there is nothing in the law or the language of the agreement the relieves it of that debt."
Thus, when a tenant agrees to the payment of rent in advance, if it wants the ability to apportion the rent if the lease terminates early, such must be specifically provided for in the lease.
1 22 N.Y.3d 413 (2013)


See me and 90+ artists and traditional craftspeople at Art in the Park, in beautiful and scenic Afton, MN along the St. Croix River. I'll be featuring my artwork, along with greeting cards, home items and jewelry. Food and live music will round out the day.
Saturday, September 24 and Sunday, September 25; from 10 am to 5 pm. At Town Square Park, just off of St. Croix Trail.


Who Protects Freedom Of Speech When It Isn't Profitable To Do So?
Refugees only required to voluntarily 'check in' with State Department after entering U.S.
Sunni Wahhabism vs. Shi'a Islam — Who foments the violence?
Intellihub | So who should the United States align itself with?
Intellihub | Is there really double standards for banning those who engage in hate speech on Facebook?
Intellihub.com | Border-crossers will be given ankle monitors and will be released into the general population until they appear before a judge at an immigration hearing in the near future.
Kimberly Paxton | When a cop has a history of sexual misconduct, one would think he'd either be let go or assigned a responsible partner to babysit him during his duties.
Top Info Post | Private First Class Kimberly Rivera, mother of four children and pregnant with a fifth, was sentenced on April 29 to 14 months imprisonment, which was lowered to 10 months based on a plea agreement.
Mac Slavo | We are likely just 24 hours away from a Grand Jury decision in the officer involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.
If they would feed radioactive oatmeal to little kids, what wouldn't they do?
JG Vibes | As of now over a dozen prisoners are still on hunger strike and being force fed by guards.


This is an exceptional picture of the moon. Because it is made with a solar telescope!
The difficulty lies in the fact that in a solar telescope something like 99,97% of the light of the object you are studying is blocked. Otherwise the camera can burn. This blocking of the light is not a problem when you look at the sun which is a very bright object. The moon is different as it doesn't produce any light. The moon just reflects sunlight.
So, Emil Kraaikamp - the person who made this picture and works at the STCE - used an exposure time of 5 seconds for each picture in a series of 50 contrary to the exposure time in the order of milliseconds for solar pictures. He also had to increase the gain (=brightness magnification) of the camera, resulting in noisy images. In those 5 seconds, things are changing. The moon moves a little bit in the firmament and the telescope is not able to perfectly follow the moon. This makes a big difference and results in a blurry picture.
By stacking 50 of these pictures with the 50 moons on top of each other, Emil was able to avoid most of this blurring and at the same time get rid of the noise.


Phonics Hero - Growing Reading and Spelling Superheroes with Phonics!
Give Your Child the Phonics Advantage!
It's step-by-step, building from sounds to single words and then sentences, with children making daily leaps toward conquering reading and spelling.
Confidence in reading and spelling soars.
Children love it: zero-stress and it feels like a game all the way so they don't even know they're learning.
850 games makes us the world's largest phonics games resource.
*Based on a survey of 115 parent users conducted in October 2017.
What Will Phonics Hero Do for Your Child?
Ready to Give Your Child the Phonics Advantage?
6 Critical Steps Towards Confident Reading and Spelling – Try Some Games!
Your child learns a group of sounds and matches the sound with a letter.
Your child learns to blend (or glue) these sounds together to read unknown words.
Next your child is taught to listen for the sounds in a word and to identify the letter associated with it – spelling!
Tricky words, such as 'the' and 'was' are harder to read, but are essential because they occur so often in children's books and writing.
Next, your child learns to spell these tricky words so they can move onto writing sentences.
We put all these skills together to read sentences and stories; growing your child's confidence for a love of reading!
Phonics Hero was an instrumental tool in helping my daughter read and spell. She is now one of the top spellers in her year.
Phonics Hero has single handedly caught my 5-year old up to peers whom she was trailing!
Phonics Hero is one of the greatest reading tools I have come across.
I have spent years trying to get my son interested in reading; bought numerous apps, books, resources and I can honestly say Phonics Hero is the only one he voluntarily plays and even chooses it over TV time! I am one very happy mum!
Try it free for 7 days. No credit card required.


LABOURERS REQUIRED for work starting 23rd July near Bishops Stortford.
We are looking for two labourers for a school refurbishment project in a village near Stansted Airport.
There is six weeks work here for reliable candidates.
CSCS Cards and full PPE are required.
If you're interested pease call AndersElite on 02077437569 or reply to this advert with your details and we will call you back.


At Beacon Technologies, making our clients happy is our first priority. With no busy signals and our state-of-the-art equipment, you can surf the net, access your e-mail, and much more with ease. We offer Internet access support to you around the clock. Call us whenever you need a helping hand.
Please be sure to read our Acceptable Use Policy and User Agreement.


There can be only one real target.
While Iran has many enemies in the Middle East, none but Israel poses any real military obstacle to Tehran's dreams of hegemony.
With that in mind, Iran's government-controlled Fars news agency reported on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic has tripled its production of missiles.
A top officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guards suggested that former US President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran had enabled this increase by removing strict international oversight of Iranian military activity.
"In the past we had to do a lot of explaining to various bodies for our actions, but it's not like that anymore," said Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Iran has missile capable of striking Israel on the other side of the region.
But far more dangerous is Iran's effort to establish missile bases in neighboring Syria.
With this increased missile production and a firm military foothold in Israel's war-torn neighbor, the Iranian threat to the Jewish state has grown exponentially.