There was a meeting held by the Provincial Government of Papua involving various parties at the provincial level in order to stabilize the price of coffee and Cocoa.
The Chair of the Papua Arabica Speialty Coffee, Mr. Selion Karoba was invited to give his assessment on the current development on prices of both commodities expressed his concern that there has been no government regulations and monitoring in order to assist local Papuan businesses and businessmen in developing their entrepreneurs. So far government only focus on physical construction activities.
With no assistance or protection from the government but KSU Baliem Arabica currently already has some branches in Papua itself, one distributor in Java and one distributor in Australia.
The Chair of the co-op encouraged more participation and active monitoring from the government agencies in order to help local businesses to continue doing business.
We are hopeful that there will be more government monitoring in the future in order to help local businesses grow.


text:
Author: the-history-blogger
History enthusiast, TV Producer and writer from Ireland (on loan to London, however)
American History, Famous Historic Figures, Travel, Travel History, Uncategorized
May 26, 2019 May 30, 2019 by the-history-bloggerLeave a Comment on Historical Summer in New York – Week 1: Top of the Rock
I've just moved to New York and it's the height of summer. So I decided to make it my mission to visit to one new historical site here every week while the weather lasts!. Week 1 wasn't intended to be the subject of a historical attraction post, but I really enjoyed reading about it's construction, so here we are!
So one of the first attractions I visited in NYC was Top of the Rock. I'd already been on the Empire State Building, so now it was time to experience something new. I hadn't bargained that I'd learn a hell of a lot more about the circumstances of the construction of 30 Rock Plaza as part of the process. In fact, if the 1929 Wall Street Crash hadn't happened, it's possible that the iconic building might not exist at all.
For those of you that don't know, Top of the Rock is a building in the Rockefeller Center complex, which has no fewer than 19 commercial buildings. Situated just off the famous 5th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, the complex consists of 14 iconoic Art Deco buildings (and a private street called Rockefeller Plaza). Five more buildings were later added, bringing the total to 19.
Rockefeller Family
And the name? Yep, you guessed it, named after the eminent investor John D. Rockefeller (Jr). In 1928, the site was owned by Columbia University. They leased the land to Rockefeller, envisioning that it would be the site for the new Metropolitan Opera Building. But things didn't go quite according to plan…
The site (which was originally a botanical garden in the early 1800s) was cited from 1926 as a potential place for the new Met Opera Building. In 1928, Benjamin Wistar Morris and Joseph Urban were hired to come up with blueprints for the Opera Building. When it became clear that the Met couldn't fund their plans itself, John D. Rockefeller Jr was recruited as an investor (though his father John D. Sr was not involved). New designers were hired, and Columbia agreed an 87 year lease for the plot to Rockefeller.
The principal architect was Raymond Hood, a student of the Art Deco movement which was gaining pace in the late 1920s. By December 1928, was all-systems-go, but two factors were to trouble the plans…
The first of these factors was the fact that Met was becoming increasingly worried. It didn't think the proposed site for it's new opera house was going to be profitable.
And 10 months later, everything came to a halt with the 1929 stock market crash. A few weeks later, on December 6, 1929, the Met confirmed it could not afford a new opera house afterall. Plans were halted. The era of the Great Depression had begun.
It was a dilemma for Rockefeller, however, who had signed an 87-year lease on the site. He needed to act quickly. Within a month, he had devised new plans to make the site profitable. He entered into talks with Radio Corporation of America, to build a mass-media entertainment complex on the site. Radio City was born.
And thus, building began – well, that was, after a few plans fell by the wayside, mainly due to the public giving negative feedback. Four small retail buildings and a 41-story tower earmarked the beginning of Rockefeller Plaza in 1931. This was despite the fact that Rockefeller initially did not want the Rockefeller family name associated with the commercial project, but was persuaded on the grounds that the name would attract far more tenants.
After more plan changes, the plan for the building that was to become 30 Rockefeller Plaza opened in 1933.
Building the Tower
(Photo from https://www.rockefellercenter.com/blog/2014/03/12/rock-history/)
"Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper" is on the of the most famous photographs ever taken in New York City. It was taken on September 20, 1932, showing The Rock construction workers having their lunch with no regard for Health and Safety! According to the Rockefeller Website, the photo was taken 840-feet above the ground – about the 69th floor, during the final months of construction in 1932. And the website confirms that these men are not actors – they are genuine construction workers. Whether or not the photo was staged is another debate!
The website gives a very accurate description of what this photo represents historically:
"Regardless of the specifics, this image came to represent a specific time in modern New York's history. There's a nod toward the Depression, when workers were happy to have a job (despite the lack of safety harnesses), as well as a strong representation of the exciting period when New York City grew vertically at a rapid rate. A 2012 film called Men at Lunch explores the immigrant backgrounds of the men in the photo, identifying some as Irish and Swedish."
'Men at Lunch' – documentary
In 2010, two Irish brothers happened upon the photo in a pub in Co. Galway. Upon learning that two men from the region were claimed to be in the photograph, the brothers began researching a documentary on the origins of the men, discovering that they were mainly Irish and Swedish. In 2012, their documentary 'Men at Lunch' was released.
So that's how a supposedly panoramic view of the city I'm calling home for the next three months left me realising there is always a much bigger story behind such iconic buildings. Who knows what might be on the Rockefeller Center site today if the 1929 Crash hadn't happened?
I'm setting myself the challenge of visiting 1x new historical scene in New York every week that I'm living here. Follow more of my historical NYC trails on Twitter: @blogger_history.
May 26, 2019 by the-history-bloggerLeave a Comment on A Strange Story From The American Civil War: The Glowing Soldiers!
via A Strange Story From The American Civil War: The Glowing Soldiers!
Anniversaries, London History
Featuredby the-history-blogger2 Comments on The sinking of the Princess Alice: How the worst inland water disaster in the UK influenced the disposal of sewage
The greatest inland water disaster in Britain took place in 1878 with the loss of an estimated 700 lives. Despite over 130 people being rescued, many perished afterwards from the horrific pollution of the river, leading to major changes in practices for waste disposal on the Thames, among improvements to safety on board the country's waters.
SS Princess Alice, formerly PS Bute, was a passenger paddle steamer that sank on 3 September 1878 after a collision with the collier Bywell Castle on the River Thames. She began her career in Scotland, before being sold to the Woolwich Steampacket Company (later known as the London Steampacket Company) and was renamed Princess Alice after Queen Victoria's fourth child.
Under the London Steamboat Company she was captained by William RH Grinstead. A passenger steamer, she carried passengers on a stopping service from Swan Pier (near London Bridge) down to Sheerness, Kent, and back. From 1873-78 she gained a reputation as a safe and reliable steamer, passing Board of Trade inspections and being deemed safe to carry up to 936 passengers. Some of her famous passengers included Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Persia, after which she became known to many locals as "The Shah's boat".
3 September 1878, Princess Alice was travelling in the dark when she collided with the Bywell Castle, breaking into three parts and sinking within four minutes, bringing hundreds of her passengers down with her.
The journey had been billed as a "Moonlight Trip" owing to the time of day. Some of her stops included Rosherville, where passengers often alighted to visit the Rosherville Pleasure Gardens. Departing Rosherville at about 6.30pm on her return to Swan Pier, Princess Alice was believed to be at almost full capacity (without any records or passenger lists, however, this can never be proven).
Between 7:20 pm and 7:40 pm, Princess Alice come within sight of the North Woolwich Pier—where many passengers were to disembark—when Bywell Castle was sighted. Bywell Castle usually carried coal to Africa, but had just been repainted at a dry dock. Travelling down the river, she kept roughly to the middle of the river, except where other craft were in her way.
Around Gallions Reach, Grinstead, travelling up the river against the tide, followed the normal watermen's practice of seeking the slack water on the south side of the river. He altered the ship's course, bringing her into the path of Bywell Castle. The captain of Bywell Castle, Dix, tried to manoeuvre his vessel out of a collision course, and ordered the engines to be put in reverse, but it was too late.
Princess Alice was struck, she split in two and sank within four minutes—her boilers separating from the structure as it sank.
An immediate rescue operation got underway. The crew of Bywell Castle dropped ropes from their deck for the passengers of Princess Alice to climb; they also threw anything that would float into the water for people to hold. Other crew from Bywell Castle launched their lifeboat and rescued 14 people, and crews from boats moored nearby did the same. Nearby boatmen launched vessels to rescue who they could.
But it was a poisoned chalice. Victorian fashion meant that many of the female passengers couldn't stay afloat due to their long, heavy dresses; furthermore many of the passengers were unable to swim. In total, about 130 people were rescued, but several died later from ingesting the water.
It was not possible to know exactly how many people were on board, but with 640 bodies recovered, it is understood to be close to the 700 mark. The search continued long after the vessel had gone under – local watermen were hired for £2 a day to search for bodies, with a minimum price of five shillings a day for those they recovered (although this often led to fights over corpses).
One of those bodies recovered was that of Captain Grinstead, but identifying the corpses was no mean feat. The pollution and sewage meant that the bodies were covered in slime and began to decay much quicker than normal. This fact was to lead to some major improvements in the disposal of Victorian London's waste…
Princess Alice sank at the point where London's sewage pumping stations were. Twice per day, 75 million gallons of raw (untreated) sewage was pumped from nearby stations into the Thames. The water was also polluted by an untreated output from the nearby Beckton Gas Works, and several local gas work. And as if that wasn't enough, a fire nearby earlier that day meant that oil and petroleum had entered the river.
The water was undoubtedly not fit for human survival.
Two inquests were held into the sinking of the Princess Alice, one by the coroner, and another by the Board of Trade.
The coroner concluded that although the Princess Alice was seaworthy at the time of the incident, and within the limits for the number of passengers it should carry. However it concluded that the vessel was no properly manned and did not have adequate life-saving mechanisms on board.
The Board of Trade inquiry decided that the Princess Alice had violated regulations by not passing the Bywell Castle on the port side, and thus the Bywell Castle could not have avoided the collision. Grinstead died in the collision, so the subsequent investigations never established why he made the decisions he did.
In the aftermath of the sinking, changes were made to the release and treatment of sewage, and it was transported to, and released into, the sea. The London Metropolitan Board of Works began to purify sewage, rather than dumping untreated waste into the river. Sludge boats were also commissioned to ship waste for dumping to the North Sea, a practise that continued until 1998.
Additionally, the Marine Police Force—the branch of the Metropolitan Police that had responsibility for policing the Thames—were provided with steam launches, after the rowing boats used up to that point had proved insufficient. The Royal Albert Dock, which opened in 1880, helped to separate heavy goods traffic from smaller boats; this and global adoption of emergency signalling lights on boats both helped avoid future tragedies.
But in a cruel twist of fate, five years after the collision, Bywell Castle sank in the Bay of Biscay with the loss of all 40 crew.
23,000 people donated to a sixpennyfund, a memorial Celtic cross was erected in Woolwich Cemetery in May 1880.
In 2008 a National Lottery grant funded the installation of a memorial plaque at Barking Creek to mark the 130th anniversary of the sinking.
http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/riverpedia/the-princess-alice-disaster
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44800309
American History, Famous Historic Figures, Travel, Travel History, Uncategorized, World History
March 13, 2019 by the-history-blogger1 Comment on Harvard's Glass Flowers and the story of the father and son who made them
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (known as the Glass Flowers) at Harvard Museum of Natural History, and was blown away by its story!
Yep, you read it right – GLASS Flowers. Over 4,300 of them to be exact, and all made by a father-and-son team – Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Over 827 life-size models of glass flowers, as well as over 3,000 models of enlarged parts-of-flowers, representing nearly 800 different species of plants.
But here's the twist – Leopold and Rudolf were not botanists (how's that's possible considering their attention to detail, I'll never know).
This collection is unique, the only known collection of it's kind in the world. Commissioned in 1886 by Professor George Lincoln Goodale, the first director of Harvard's Botanical Museum, the aim of the exhibition was as teaching mechanisms for teaching, botany and also serve as an exhibit it what was the Museum (forerunner of the Harvard Museum of Natural History).
Back to the bit on glass. At first glance, you would never believe these flowers were glass. How could they be? I had to be told before I believed it. Goodale wanted to have a collection of teaching tools that were nothing but the best and of a standard deemed acceptable for Harvard. Up to then, botany was taught using pressed and carefully labelled specimens, which presented problems: pressed plants were 2D and tended to lose their colour. So Goodale wanted to find a method of teaching botany that involved 3D specimens that were durable.
Enter the experts. Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939), were glass artists who lived and worked in Hosterwitz, Germany, near Dresden. They had previously produced several glass marine invertebrates for Harvard. Goodale then had the brainwave to commission his specimens out of glass.
Now for the next challenge – the age-old chestnut of funding. Before sending samples, an advance payment of 200 marks was required. When the Blaschkas sent their sample glass models (which all got damaged at Customs), it was enough still to convince Goodale that he needed to proceed with the commission. So he approached his former student Mary Lee Ware and her mother with the idea. Enchanted by the (damaged) sample models, Mary and her mother agreed to funded the project.
Initially the contract was part-time, but after 3 years, in 1890, the Blaschkas agreed to a new contract. Now they worked full-time on the Harvard glass flowers collection, fully funded by the Wares. The collection still carries the name of its funders today. After the death of Leopold in 1895, Rudolf carried on making the collection up until 1936, amounting to over 4,300 pieces covering over 800 species in immense detail.
The Glass Flowers are now on permanent display in the Harvard Museum of Natural History where they draw nearly 200,000 visitors each year.
American History, Travel, Travel History, Uncategorized, World History
March 6, 2019 May 27, 2019 by the-history-blogger2 Comments on How Shakespeare influenced the introduction of one of America's most widespread bird species
March 6, 1890. The starling is released in Central Park, an invasive species brought over from Europe by a New Yorker named Eugene Scheiffelin. It was a love of Shakespeare that caused this enthusiast to introduce one of America's greatest pests to continent.
When Eugene Schieffelin introduced 60 European starlings into New York's Central Park as part of his ambition to introduce all the birds of Shakespeare to North America, he probably didn't assess the damage liability.
Born in 1827, and the son of a prominent New York lawyer born into one Manhattan's oldest families, Schieffelin was a drug manufacturer and amateur ornithologist with links to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the New York Zoological Society. A Shakespeare enthusiast, he was also a founding member of the American Acclimatization Society, a group that aimed to help exchange plants and animals from one part of the world to another.
Victorian societies such as the American Acclimatization Society were fashionable in the late 1900s, but the scientific effects of introducing a non-native species to an ecosystem were not yet known. But after Schieffelin's death 16 years later in 1906, these effects were to become known.
Indeed, it wasn't the first time Schieffelin had introduced a non-native avian species to the US. 30 years earlier, he sponsored the introduction of the house sparrow to North America. They are now an estimated 540 million house sparrows in North America! And after the initial release of 60 starlings in 1890, Scheiffelin released a further 40 in 1891. He wanted them to stay…and they did.
Initially, the birds stayed within the realms of Central Park. When the first nesting pair were discovered in the eaves of the Museum of Natural History in 1896, people rejoiced. But the starling was soon to become a menace as it spread across the US, up to Alaska, down to Mexico, today numbering an estimated 200 million.
But why such a menace? Well, the introduction of this non-native species has come at the expense of many native birds that compete for nesting holes in trees. They have had a major impact on the US economy and ecosystem, and have even caused human deaths by nesting in aircraft, among other places.
For the Schieffelin, the project was down to two things: a love of Shakespeare, and a love of birds. When he opened that cage on that cold day in 1890, he probably couldn't have estimated the impact his endeavour was to have on the continent.
But as numbers spread, so did novel methods to contain the starlings. In Hartford, Connecticut in 1914, residents tried scaring the birds away by tying teddy bears to the tree starlings were nesting in, and firing rockets through the branches. Over 30 years later, with numbers greater than ever, in 1948 the superintendent of sanitation in Washington, D.C., tried using artificial owls to scare away the birds, and when that didn't work, he put itching powder on the trees to keep them out.
And the starling even made it's way to the White House. The White House tried speakers that emitted owl calls. The famous columns of the House were fitted with electrified wires to discourage starlings from roosting in it.
But nothing worked. Soon they were expanding right across to the West Coast – in their MILLIONS. And they were taking their toll of human life, too. In October4, 1960, a Lockheed Electra plummeted seconds after taking off from Logan Airport in Boston, killing 62 people in what is to date America's worst bird-strike. Some 10,000 starlings had flown straight into the plane, crippling its engines.
Today, from Alaska right down to Mexico, it's believed that there are over 200 million starlings in North America – and it's all down to one man and his love of literature.
What about Schieffelin's endeavour to introduce all the birds of Shakespeare to the US? Well, his attempts to introduce bullfinches, chaffinches, song thrushes, nightingales, and skylarks were not so successful. They didn't have the same staying power as starlings.
On the 100th anniversary of the introduction, the New York Times said Schieffelin's "motives were as romantic as they were ill fated." He probably couldn't have estimated their drastic impact of ecology and human life. But the legacy of his feat is phenomenal.
Throwback Thursday: The Worst Bird Strike in U.S. History: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017/10/05/bird-strike-boston-plane-crash/
100 Years of the Starling: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/01/opinion/100-years-of-the-starling.html
The Invasive Species we can blame on Shakespeare: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-invasive-species-we-can-blame-on-shakespeare-95506437/
Anniversaries, London History, Travel History, Uncategorized, World History
Remembering the Bethnal Green Tube disaster
Featuredby the-history-bloggerLeave a Comment on Remembering the Bethnal Green Tube disaster
The single-biggest loss of life of civilian life in London during WWII happened was not caused by a German bomb – in fact, it happened on a night when not a single bomb fell. It was a human crush which cost the lives of 173 people.
3 March 1943. By now, Londoners were well-accustomed to the air-raid siren. Tragedy had occurred not caused by the bombs themselves – earlier in the war, over 60 people had been killed when a mains pipe burst in Balham, causing people sheltering underground in the Tube station to perish.
At 8.17pm, the air-raid Civil Defence siren sounded, triggering people to run down the blacked-out staircase from the street. The civilians of Bethnal Green were no doubt used to this practise, but on this particular night, a woman and a child fell over three steps from the base and others fell around her, triggering a human crush of nearly 300 people. Of these, 173 lost of their lives, being crushed and asphyxiated in what is thought to have been the largest single loss of civilian life in the UK in the Second World War and the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network. 27 men, 84 women and 62 children.
Cover-Up?
Thanks to wartime censorship, news of the disaster was withheld for 36 hours. The story which was reported by the media was that there had been a direct hit by a German bomb, and the official results of the investigation were not released until after the war had ended in 1946. Meanwhile, rumours circulated of the cause. It was suggested by the Minister of Home Security, Herbert Morrison that a panic had ensued caused by a discharge of anti-aircraft rockets from nearby Victoria Park. There is disagreement over this.
A secret official report showed that Bethan Green Council had warned London Civil Defence, in 1941, that the staircase was a liability and needed a crush barrier to slow down crowds, but was told that would be a waste of money. Damages cases were taken by those who were bereaved, such as Baker vs Bethnal Green Corporation. The Baker lawsuit was followed by other claims, resulting in a total payout of nearly £60,000, the last of which was made in the early 1950s.
Historic Facts about the Bolivian Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni)
February 14, 2019 by the-history-bloggerLeave a Comment on Historic Facts about the Bolivian Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni)
I ticked a long-standing aim off my bucket-list in 2018 – visiting the Bolivian Salt Flat (Salar de Uyuni). It didn't disappoint from a natural perspective! But I was delighted to uncover some bitesize pieces of history about it. Here are some historic facts you will learn while touring the Bolivian Salt Flat:
The Bolivian Salt Flats were formed sometime between 11,500 and 13,400 years ago years ago, the legacy of a prehistoric lake that went dry, leaving behind a desert-like, nearly 11,000-sq.-km. landscape of bright-white flat salt.
Name Origin: Salar means salt flat in Spanish. However Uyuni originates from the Aymara language and means a pen (enclosure). So Salar de Uyuni loosely translated means 'salt flat with enclosures'. It's disputed as to whether or not the enclosures are referring to the various islands on the Salt Flat itself, or animal enclosures at Uyuni town itself.
The Aymarans lived in the region before…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Types of Chemical Reactions There are three main types of chemical reactions: 1. Synthesis Two or more substances combine to form one compound.... types of chemical reactions. It should be used to consolidate learning. It should be used to consolidate learning. Students of secondary age are notoriously critical.
Types of Chemical Reactions There are three main types of chemical reactions: 1. Synthesis Two or more substances combine to form one compound.... Chemists classify reactions in a number of ways: (a) by the type of product, (b) by the types of reactants, (c) by reaction outcome, and (d) by reaction mechanism. Often, a given reaction can be placed in two or even three categories.
Chemists classify reactions in a number of ways: (a) by the type of product, (b) by the types of reactants, (c) by reaction outcome, and (d) by reaction mechanism. Often, a given reaction can be placed in two or even three categories.


Steve McClaren says Matt Smith underlined his importance to QPR by playing a key role in the FA Cup win against Portsmouth.
Millwall were interested in signing the striker on loan during the recent transfer window.
But he stayed at Loftus Road, where he scored one goal and helped set up the other in Rangers' 2-0 victory over Pompey.
"I said at the end of the window that I'm delighted with the squad that I've got," said Rangers manager McClaren.
"We didn't make any signings but we kept players and Matt Smith was one of those we wanted to keep, because he's certainly an impact off the bench but also put in a good performance.
Smith has spoken of his frustration at being overlooked by McClaren, who gave him a starting place on Tuesday night but has mostly used him as a substitute.
"Matt's been very patient. He's not had many opportunities," McClaren said.
"In the last couple of months he's come on, done very well, impacted well and caused opponents problems.


After crashing out of the Champions Trophy 2017 following an embarrassing defeat, South African captain AB De Villiers has insisted that despite the team's poor performance in the tournament, he can lead the team to a World Cup victory in 2019.
"Because I'm a good captain, I can take this team forward. I can take us to win a World Cup, I believe. And I believed the same thing over here in this tournament and the last one, but that's what I believe. I love doing it," he said in the post-match press conference, reports cricket.com.au.
Reflecting on the team's performance in the game against India, the Proteas skipper revealed that although there were major errors in judgments, the team was composed throughout the duration of the game.
"In my mind, that (composure) wasn't the problem. It wasn't a mental thing. We just didn't play well. We were really in a good position there with the batting end early on, and through soft dismissals we lost our way and that was the part for me that hurt the most," he said.
The Proteas' batting order saw a significant fall, which ultimately resulted in India comfortably clinching victory, with 72 balls to spare.
Although South Africa got off to a comfortable start with a projected score of 300, the batting order collapsed with a mere 51 runs being scored with eight wickets down, which ultimately led to India being faced with a target of 191 runs.
Indian team produced a brilliant all-round performance to seal a place in the last four.
With the Proteas' exit from the league, India most likely will be facing Bangladesh in the semi-final.
Other semi-final will be played between England and the winner of match Sri-Lanka – Pakistan match. The final will be played on 18 June.


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FBI NEWS: Commodities Fraud Sentencing
Word of Warning to Investors: Do Your Due Diligence
Self-professed investment professional Pedro Jaramillo was a pro at promoting himself and his financial prowess. Through a slickly produced online video, phony office space on Wall Street, and promises of unrealistic financial returns, this Peruvian national living in New York managed to convince more than two dozen investors to trust him with more than $1.2 million of their hard-earned money.
Jaramillo, however, never invested a dime of their money—instead, he used it to line his own pockets and keep his Ponzi scheme going. Even his claim to be an investment professional was false—he wasn't licensed to do anything remotely connected to financial advising and/or investing.
But, as with most Ponzi scheme operators, Jaramillo eventually ran out of funds to keep his fraud scheme afloat, and two unhappy investors reported their concerns to the FBI. After an intensive investigation by the FBI's New York Field Office—in close coordination with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York—Jaramillo was arrested and charged with commodities fraud in December 2016, pleaded guilty in April 2017, and was sentenced last month to 12 years in federal prison.
Investigators determined that, beginning at least in January 2014 until his arrest, Jaramillo—using his Latin American heritage as a common bond—had been soliciting potential victims mostly from Latin American immigrant communities in the U.S. to invest in commodity futures contracts. He told would-be investors that their money would be invested in short-term commodities contracts with a guaranteed (and unrealistically high) rate of return.
And he established his financial bona fides with potential clients using various methods.
His online video, done in Spanish, opened with flashy depictions of Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. Then, Jaramillo himself made his pitch to potential investors, telling them, "Money is being earned on every transaction. All you have to do is work with a proven winner." He delivered all sorts of promises about how client investments would be handled—including being set up in individually managed and federally protected accounts. Unfortunately for his investors, none of what Jaramillo said in the video was true.
"He was stealing other people's money just to fund his own lifestyle."
Alex Kurgansky, special agent, FBI New York
To further impress potential investors, Jaramillo met with many of them in rented office space on Wall Street, where he touted his prior financial successes and his relationship with a well-known global investment bank. Again, this "relationship" with the bank proved to be non-existent, and he had no prior Wall Street investment successes.
Jaramillo also created and handed out documents with simple charts and graphs that purported to illustrate past successes and his high rates of return. This were yet more false facts he fed to his victims.
The FBI investigation included numerous interviews with the victims of Jaramillo's scheme. Many of these people—including retirees, working professionals, and manual laborers—lost their life savings, retirement money, or homes.
For example, a married couple in their 50s with $110,000—which included retirement funds—gave Jaramillo a total of $100,000 to invest but eventually stopped hearing from him after they made repeated redemption requests. And a 75-year-old woman, hoping to earn enough money to move back to her native Colombia and purchase a small apartment, first gave Jaramillo $25,000 and then another $88,000, which included the $50,000 her children had given her to purchase an apartment after she got nothing back on her initial investment. Again, the woman lost everything.
Their individual background stories differed a bit, but the con Jaramillo perpetrated against his victims generally followed the same pattern. By misrepresenting who he was and what he did, he convinced investors to give him money to invest on their behalf. But instead of investing the money, he used the bulk of it to fund his lavish lifestyle (e.g., flying family and friends to vacation resorts). And the remaining funds went toward paying some of his early investors a small portion of what he owed them—figuring that by doing that, he could buy more time and continue soliciting new investors to keep the scheme going.
According to Alex Kurgansky, the FBI New York case agent who worked the investigation, getting Jaramillo off the streets before he could victimize even more investors was his primary motivation. "He was stealing other people's money just to fund his own lifestyle," said Kurgansky, "and had two of his victims not come forward, he would have continued the cycle for who knows how long and victimized even more people."
Kurgansky, noting that Jaramillo's scheme ran for nearly three years, said he hopes that cases like this one will serve as "a warning to potential investors to do their due diligence before investing, and to recognize the warning signs of fraud early enough to get out of a bad situation." He also thinks cases like this serve as a deterrent to would-be fraudsters, putting them on notice that they will serve some serious prison time if they get caught.
"And ultimately," he added, "cases like this help ensure the integrity of our financial markets so the public will continue to trust in them."
Avoid Becoming a Victim: Do Your Homework Before You Invest
According to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), commodity futures and option markets are high-risk investments. Before you invest, do your homework.
Check out the individual or company you're contemplating doing business with. Ask what state or federal agencies they are regulated by and then verify.
Ask for written materials detailing the investment opportunity, the risk, and the fees and commissions charged.
Beware of limited time offers or high-pressure sales tactics. Be suspicious if they demand an immediate commitment or ask you to expedite payment, regardless of the method (cash, money transfer, credit card, etc.).
Beware of testimonials about an investment professional's performance that can't be verified.
Beware of get-rich-quick schemes. If it sounds too good to be true (i.e., a higher-than-average rate of return or a guaranteed return), it probably is.
Ask what recourse you have if you're not satisfied, and get any warranty or refund provision in writing.
Tips from the CFTC's Avoid Fraud webpage.


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Blog Take a trip to Victoria Falls
Take a trip to Victoria Falls
20 Mar 2020 Victoria Falls
The Victoria Falls is the majestic waterfall in Southern Africa between Zimbabwe and Zambia, it constitutes one of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world. It is known by the locals as "Mosi-oa-Tunya" which means "The smoke that thunders."
The Victoria Falls is 1 708 meters wide, making it the largest curtain of water in the world. It drops between 90m and 107m into the Zambezi Gorge and an average of 550,000 cubic metres of water plummet over the edge every minute.
If you are planning a trip to Victoria Falls, be sure to book in advance for the most unusual, entertaining, dining experience in town.
The Boma – Dinner & Drum Show, is so much more than just a dinner – it's a whole evening of entertainment featuring energetic dance performances, lively songs, story-telling, face painting and an incredible interactive drumming show. It is a celebration of Zimbabwe.
From the moment guests arrive at seven o'clock, they are immersed in the vibrant atmosphere. Tantalising aromas of local dishes and game meat on the barbeque fill the restaurant, which is partially open to the surrounding forest and the night skies. Staff members are warm and hospitable, offering traditional delicacies to guests as they enjoy the warm African evening.
The Boma tells a story about the food and culture of Zimbabwe, about African hospitality and generosity. Share a starter platter of skewered peppered impala, smoked crocodile tail, corn ciabatta and "nyimo" fritters. The Boma is known for its local Zimbabwean delicacies, such as mopane worms, warthog steak and Zambezi bream, as well as beef, pork, chicken and vegetarian dishes, ensuring there is something to suit every palate.
You will be treated to outstanding performances by traditional singers and dancers, and thrilled by a dramatic medicine man who will throw bones for you and tell your fortune. There is also a traditional storyteller who entertains guests with folklore tales. And then the drums are handed out for a grand finale of synchronised drumming – a joyous end to a memorable evening.
But be warned, book early or you will be left out in the cold.
Destinations, Foodie
Discover a Unique Safari Experience at The Elephant Camp
Victoria Falls READ
On Holiday at the Victoria Falls Safari Club


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Destinations > Glasgow
Welcome to Glasgow
Glasgow is a port city on the River Clyde in Scotland's western Lowlands. It's famed for its Victorian and art nouveau architecture, a rich legacy of the city's 18th-20th-century prosperity due to trade and shipbuilding. Today it's a national cultural hub, home to institutions including the Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and National Theatre of Scotland, acclaimed museums and a thriving music scene. google
Duncreggan House
Property Location Located in Dunoon, Duncreggan House is by the sea and close to Holy Loch Marina and Cowal Golf Club. This 4-star bed & breakfast is within the vicinity of Kilcreggan Ferry Terminal and The Queens Hall.Rooms Make yourself at home in..
Elms Way - Donnini Apartments
Property Location With a stay at Elms Way - Donnini Apartments in Ayr, you'll be convenient to Ayr Racecourse and Auld Brig. This 4-star apartment is within close proximity of Ayr
Fraser Suites Glasgow
With a stay at Fraser Suites Glasgow in Glasgow (City Centre Glasgow), you'll be minutes from Merchant City and Glasgow High Court. This 4-star apartment is within close proximity of Italian Centre and Glasgow Police Museum.
Glasgow Lofts
Property Location With a stay at Glasgow Lofts, you'll be centrally located in Glasgow, steps from Glasgow School of Art and minutes from Theatre Royal. This 4-star apartment is
Glasgow Marriott Hotel
Property Location Glasgow Marriott Hotel is centrally located in Glasgow, walking distance from St Vincent Street Church and close to Kings Theatre Glasgow. This 4-star hotel is within close proximity of Arches Theatre and McLellan Galleries.Rooms Make..
Gleddoch Hotel Spa & Golf
Property Location With a stay at Gleddoch Hotel Spa & Golf in Langbank (Renfrewshire), you'll be close to Dumbarton Castle and Denny Tank. This 4-star hotel is within the vicinity of Newark Castle and Auchentoshan Distillery.Rooms Stay in one of 75 guestrooms..
Glynhill Hotel and Leisure Club
Property Location With a stay at Glynhill Hotel and Leisure Club in Renfrew (Renfrewshire), you'll be convenient to St. Mirren Park and Paisley Abbey. This 4-star hotel is within
Golden Jubilee Hotel
Property Location With a stay at Golden Jubilee Hotel in Clydebank (Dalmuir), you'll be close to Auchentoshan Distillery and Xscape Braehead. This 4-star hotel is within the vicinity of Braehead Arena and Braehead Shopping Centre.Rooms Make yourself..
Golf View Guest House
Property Location Located in Prestwick, Golf View Guest House is by the sea and close to Ayr Racecourse and Auld Brig. This 4-star guesthouse is within close proximity of Royal Troon Golf Club and Ayr Town Hall.Rooms Stay in one of 6 guestrooms featuring..
In the heart of Glasgow stands the historic Grand Central Hotel. A much-loved icon in the city, the hotel has undergone a 20 million refurbishment transforming it into one of Glasgow's most superior, conference, banqueting and short break destinations..


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Prepare and deliver meals to parishioners celebrating the arrival of a child, convalescing from an illness, or facing other challenges.
Hand sew and embroider degradable cloth bags for parishioners interred in our Memorial Garden.
Offer healing prayer after Wednesday 5:30 p.m. healing service.
Pray alone daily and together weekly for immediate needs, concerns and requests.
Pray in your home daily for those outside our parish family.
Pray every day from home, praying specifically for the needs of those in our parish family.
Take the Sacraments from the altar to those unable to attend church. Lay Eucharistic Visitors are trained by designated clergy and licensed by the Diocese.
Meet monthly to learn more about the healing love of Christ.
Knit prayer shawls for those who are sick, grieving or recovering from illness.
Assist homebound or ill parishioners with transportation needs in the area.
Offer renewed friendships and hospitality for our homebound parishioners.
Help with this Christ-centered bereavement and grief support program offering an 8-week program twice a year.


I recently saw Ready Player One, which I enjoyed despite a small but significant choice made early on by director Steven Spielberg (no idea if the issue starts in the book). This is not a spoiler for plot but it may spoil your viewing experience. If you want to go in fresh, skip the following paragraph.
Parts of the movie take place inside a shared virtual reality. The first time we see someone log out of this world, she does so by removing her VR helmet. Shortly thereafter, there is a scene where our heroes are ambushed and outnumbered. They scramble to run away because if your avatar gets killed, there are in-game consequences. And as viewers, my wife and I both vocalized in the theatre "just take off your helmets!" Many (most, even) future action scenes could have been resolved by taking their helmet off. This is both a credit to the film for getting us so engaged that we learned through character actions how the world works and the film discrediting itself by not understanding how its own world works.
This illustrates the importance of internal consistency in a story, especially when dramatic tension and immersion hinge on a problem that has been demonstrated to have a simple solution. Every story sets up and follows rules, even if they aren't as transparent as an in RPG. In a Fast And The Furious movie, The Rock make his cast explode by flexing and then go on a mission like there's nothing wrong with it because in that world doctors don't understand that the real cure for broken bones is gumption. Transplant that scene to The Avengers and it ruins the movie.
This isn't about the Pathfinder rules system exclusively. You can play by all of the rules as written and still have consistency issues, and you can play fast and loose with the rules without consistency issues. Here are a few examples to flesh out how.
The most basic example of consistency is the application of the rules. My players know that I am a stickler for handle animal skill checks to get animal companions to obey them. The common arguments against this are: It's not realistic, an animal would defend itself (which is false. The first step of training an animal is called breaking it, and it's convincing the animal to trust its master more than its instincts); It's inconvenient (which it isn't once you get used to it); It's a lot of die rolls (which is true, but I will never understand anyone's desire to not roll dice. I'll get into this in a future article). My reasoning is provided for the benefit of the reason. What's important at my table is that my players know I enforce this rule and build their characters accordingly. What I'm not a stickler for is the fly rules. Then one day I played a PFS scenario with a GM who was a stickler for fly rules. The next session of my Rise of the Runelords campaign, Jeff's wizard flew. I casually remarked "Oh, yeah, you're supposed to make a fly check." But Jeff didn't have any ranks in fly. Even if he did, it is so well known that Jeff rolls poorly, our group called rolling a 1 "Jeffing" and we all got novelty dice with Jeff in place of the 1.
Jeff had built a character that required minimal rolling. Because I never enforced needing to roll to fly, he built his character accordingly. Even if that is the rule, my choosing to suddenly enforce the rule was unfair to him. In retrospect, I should have announced my intention and either let him rebuild his character to meet my new expectations or wait until he gained a level to enforce them.
I used to be fine putting story before mechanics. One memorable occasion, I had a villain flee the room. The party monk pursued, only to find him across an underwater river cutting the bridge between them.
"How?" the monk player asked. He compared the two character's speeds and starting points, and the number of actions it would require to do everything I said this NPC did off-screen. And he was 100% right. I was denying this player access to his one of his class features because I wanted a villain to escape. I retroactively placed the NPC where the rules said he could be and left the monk with super human speed catch him, as he should have.
From then on I paid more mind to the rules implications of story tropes. I lost a few old standbys (an NPC can't give a desperate plea with his dying breath because he's either unconscious and dying or conscious and stable), but I gained the true storytelling potential of tabletop RPGs. Dramatic tension occurs organically through who the characters are and what they can do instead of inorganically at the expense of it.
The typical castle is a tall, stone building contained inside a stone wall with an open courtyard. Why is the court open? Because the tall wall covered virtually all of its defensive needs at that point in technological advancement. In a world where any dragon, moderately trained wizard, and many other threats can circumvent a castle's expensive defenses, those worried about their safety wouldn't stop at a wall. Even if the setting retained a mostly medieval level of technology, necessity is the mother of invention. Rich landowners concerned about safety would find a way to stave off flying attacks. On the flipside, the medieval level of technology is important to the perception of the default Pathfinder setting.
As a GM, you have a decision to make: keep the classic open topped Earth castle that's way too easy to infiltrate in a setting with easy access to flight, or sacrifice visuals for logic? If you go from classic castles to logical castles mid-campaign, will the players be upset that their pile of fly scrolls is now only worth its weight in kindling?
Pathfinder is a balance of simulating reality and storytelling tropes. It's not a perfect balance. Drowning is extremely lethal because it simulates the real dangers of water fairly well. Meanwhile, falling damage does not. A 10th level paladin in heavy armour has a better chance of surviving a 100 foot fall onto solid ground than into water. This is compounded when scientific knowledge that became common knowledge over the last millennium is applied to magic. It can be fun when a player keeps decapitating a hydra until it's heart can't take all of the heads, once.
In a Marvel Super Heroes game, I had the PCs digitized so they could defeat a computerized villain. One of the players suggested making copies of the digital heroes, then quickly overwhelmed the villain with a force of thousands of digital clones. I let it go and the adventure ended very quickly. Looking back, there are a number of ways that I could have countered that tactic, but it would have been futile. That player knew computers better than I did. He could have countered any idea I came up with more quickly than I came up with it, even though the villain I controlled should have been much better at being a computer program than the hero he controlled. He wasn't a problem player so this was a memorable moment, but it would have quickly been problematic if this behaviour continued. At some point, superseding game rules with science rules becomes exploitative of metaknowledge.
A consistent world is a world that players can understand. If your players can't tell if you're going to enforce a rule or throw the rules out for the sake of the story, they can't fully immerse themselves in your game. Even if the game rules are not 100% consistent in some ways, how you GM them should be.


THE HEALTH FAIR THIS WEEKEND SPONSORED BY ADRIAN GARCIA!
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within our community," stated Council Member Adrian Garcia.
WHAT'S GOING ON AT LIFE NIGHTCLUB IN DOWNTOWN HOUSTON!
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MAJOR DRAMA ON MAIN STREET!
The Insite was in downtown Houston when I noticed a sign on the nightclub Life. You've seen pictures of the once up and coming club here on the blog. But all of sudden a month ago the doors closed. No explanation after being open for about two months. But it was clear something was rotten in the cotton from signs posted on the front doors of the downtown spot. The signs read a burglary has been reported at this business to the Houston Police Department. Then the sign indicated the locks on the business have been changed. But this is where it gets really strange. A copy of a civil lawsuit was also posted on the door. It indicates the owner of the building has filed suit against the former management team of the club. Then there is some mention of furniture being taken or missing. It appears it was a business relationship that went very sour. Does anyone know what happened at Life? It was a cool place while it lasted. Such a shame!
THE CITY OF HOUSTON TACKLES VALET PARKING!
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WOULD YOU PAY A FEE TO PARK AT AN EMPTY BUILDING?
About two weeks ago I was dropping off a thank you gift to a friend. She threw a birthday party for me earlier this month. I was in the midtown area and I parked at an unoccupied (above left) building. I was a block away and across the street from a restaurant that was being worked by a valet service. So, while parking at the desolate building I noticed the valet guy. He starts walking nearly two blocks to the area where I parked. I asked what he wanted. He said I would have to pay $5 dollars to park at an abandoned building nearly two blocks away from where he was positioned. I told him there is no way on this earth I'm going to pay a valet for a parking space at an abandoned building where there is no resemblance of security or patrol. He said his manager had the rights to the parking at the unoccupied building. I told him that was suspect and I wasn't going to pay him. He just stood there still looking hungry for the $5 bucks. He then gave me a card and told me to call his boss. I took him up on the offer. I called the number listed on the card and it was a non-working number. He then gives me another cell phone number. I get his manager on the phone who asked who I was and why I was calling. After a 30 second conversation the manager said I didn't have to pay. The whole situation was suspect to me. Why would the public have to pay to park at an empty building with no security? It's a reminder why Houston has begun a major citywide push to monitor and license valet parking services. A new ordinance goes into effect Thursday. It will require valet services to be licensed, insured and get their parking plans approve before they start charging the public for spaces they really shouldn't have to pay for. I ran into a council member who valet workers tried to charge for parking in a zone they did not control. Needless to say, that council member didn't pay. But back to that new ordinance. The owners of the valet companies will also be responsible for their employees actions. If something is stolen out of a vehicle by a worker then the owner is held liable. My hat goes off to Liliana Rambo (pictured), Joe Martin and Ted Bowen and the city of Houston's parking commission. They tackled this issue and got results. Now, if they could only get price caps for all of these lots and valets with baller parking rates!
INSITE EXCLUSIVE: MAYOR BILL WHITE SNAGS ANOTHER NATIONAL HONOR FOR BEING ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S BEST!
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THE AWARDS KEEP COMING FOR HOUSTON'S CEO!
ment at the state and local level.
and a stronger city pension system.
SOMEONE EMAILED ME THIS – IT'S HILARIOUS!
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ONE LSU PLAYER FACES CHARGES WHILE ANOTHER IS CLEARED!
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THE TIGERS WILL HAVE A QUARTERBACK THIS SATURDAY!
Baton Rouge, La. police plan to file charges this afternoon against LSU football player Derrick Odom in connection with a fight he allegedly had last Friday's at The Varsity nightclub near LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
Sources say police will also announce that quarterback Ryan Perrilloux has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with that fight. That could very well mean Perrilloux will be able to take the field Saturday against Alabama. A spokesman for LSU Athetics said he could not confirm or deny what was reported.
FREE XRAY OF CANDY IN HOUSTON TONIGHT!
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For parents of trick-or-treaters in northwest Houston, one area health center will provide peace of mind to parents concerned about contaminated candy.
The Emergency Health Centre at Willowbrook will provide free X-ray screening of candy on Halloween night.
The Centre is located on the 22,000 block of Tomball Parkway between Louetta and Spring Cypress roads.
Young trick-or-treaters will also be rewarded with bags containing glow sticks, face paint, a miniature pumpkin, flashlight batteries, neighborhood maps and safety tips for trick-or-treating.
I DON'T NEED NO STINKING REPORTER!
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DAMON SALES DROPS BY THE INSITE!
If you've been in Houston in the news business or on the news you've likely seen this face. He is Damon Sales. Damon is a photographer at KPRC-TV and is one of those photo-journalists who can do it all by himself. He doesn't need no stinking reporter to get in his way. He has more than 20 years of experience in the television broadcasting industry and knows how it's done. Damon has covered everything from colorful Louisiana politics to Ken Lay and Enron with The Insite. I finally convinced him to drop by and do a shout out to Insite readers. Damon says "whatz uppppp!" Hey Damon, thanks for dropping by The Insite!
P.S. He's an expert at Texas barbecue (he makes his own sauce from scratch) and I taught him what I know about crawfish!
MELISSA NORIEGA TOOTS HER OWN HORN IN POLITICAL LETTER!
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HOW DO YOU THINK SHE'S DOING SO FAR?
After being sworn into City Council on June 27th, Mayor Bill White assigned Melissa Noriega to the following committees. Melissa moved swiftly to make a positive impact on issues that affect Houstonians.
FINALLY, SOMEONE ACTUALLY SAYS WHAT THEY FEEL!
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NOW WHY CAN'T EVERYONE BE TRUTHFUL AND SAY THEY DON'T WANT POOR PEOPLE MOVING INTO THEIR AREA?
I was at city council on Tuesday when a long list of residents complained about an apartment development being built in their community. One after another, I heard the residents use their favorite excuse of traffic problems or school overcrowding. Finally, one man took to the podium and had the same standard lines you hear when middle class or rich people don't want to take a chance on an apartment complex going into their community. Then a council member asked him for a few bullet points on the man's concerns about the complex coming to his neighborhood. He actually said it. He opened his mouth and the words came out. It wasn't traffic or congestion or flooding or schools. He said there weren't enough police in their area to handle the problems they expect from these potential lower income residents. Can you believe it, he actually said it…Now why can't everyone be truthful and say they don't want poor people moving into their middle class neighborhoods. It would make for a great news report. Meanwhile, it caught me a bit off guard because even Mayor White later told a representative from the developer that he wanted to see written rules for tenants who violate the law or misbehave. I wonder if the Mayor asks for the same written rules at apartment complexes in River Oaks too!
DON'T WE HAVE BIGGER CONCERNS IN THIS CITY!
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LOOK AT ALL THE WORK THE CITY OF HOUSTON IS MAKING ME DO!
I won't say too much on this issue but it bothered me while I was at city council Tuesday. There was a woman who came to public session to vent about a city related problem she had. I was getting all ready for a potential story. When I heard what she had to say I'm thinking what in the world. Why would this lady bring this problem to city hall? Aren't there bigger issues in Houston to address.? So what was the problem? The woman was upset because garbage collectors no longer picked up her trash can from the side of her home. The city now collects the garbage can from the front of her home. The woman was livid and said now she has to 'walk all the way' to the front of her house to place her garbage can there to be picked up. Does she live in the Taj Mahal? What in the world….I just couldn't believe she thought this was a big enough issue to take to the council and Mayor. Do you think it is?
PETER BROWN LIVING OFF $23 A DAY: DAY 2!
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BEEF STEW, POTATOES, AND SANDWICHES OFF THE SMALL SALARY!
Houston city council member Peter Brown spent his second day living off of $23 dollars a day. It's part of his experiment to show fellow council members and Mayor Bill White that some city workers are not earning a livable wage. Houston city worker Belinda Rodriguez take home pay after taxes is $23 a day. On Tuesday Brown went shopping with the single mother of 3. She says it's tough living on what many consider the poverty level. Brown wants the city to consider a larger increase for city workers. Currently, the city is considering a 2% increase for its workforce. By the way, Brown purchased beef stew meat and potatoes for his dinner while Rodriguez settled on sandwiches to feed her family for the next couple of days!


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Birth in the 21st century
Alba Mareca
Journalist, La Marea
Volume 29 · Issue 4
A documentary explains what childbirth is through the experiences of five women at a public hospital in Spain
'There are hospital management models for labour and birth that are based on the respect of women in childbirth.' For many women and healthcare professionals, this is not always the case. This quote acts as a backdrop for the interactive documentary 'Birth in the 21st century,' produced by the Valencian cooperative Barret. The web documentary, directed by Claudia Reig Valera and nominated for the World Press Photo Interactive of the Year Award, conveys the stories of five women through the six key moments in their pregnancy: the expectation, the peripartum period, dilation, delivery, postpartum and their return home. Each one has her own experiences and preferences but are all patients at the public hospital in La Plana, Vilarreal, Spain.
Àlex Badia, who is responsible for the interactive format of this documentary, explains that the choice in hospital is critical, that 'it is important that it was a public hospital'. Moreover, the one in La Plana is known for respectful attention. As Badia points out, the hospital has facilities, such as the bathtubs, and 'the delivery room is managed by the midwives, who have implemented an assistance protocol that promotes physiologic birth, the autonomy of the women, minimal intervention and informed consent whenever intervention is necessary.'
Register now to continue reading
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Also, on the day of the wedding, my husband, Aaron, also told me after the wedding what a HUGE help she was to him and the groomsmen! She helped each guy put on their amazingly beautiful boutonnieres. This might not sound like much, but to Aaron, it showed that she wasn't just there to drop off the flowers, she was there to help create a beautiful day and wanted to do her part in making sure everything was perfect. It meant the world that she went the extra mile and more than what we ever expected or paid her to do. She cares so much about the memories and people and it shows in her work.
Lastly, to show how much she cared, when we told her that we would need to take the garden rose out of each bridesmaid bouquets due to budget constraints, she said no problem and our budget went down thankfully! However, on the day of my wedding, the bouquets arrived and all had garden roses in them! I never told you Karen, but that blew me away and blessed me more than you will ever know! You did that out of the goodness of your heart and as a wedding surprise to us, and it was the sweetest thing ever. Karen also said the flower girls would be carrying down paper flowers, however, she even gave my 3 flower girls real flowers too as a surprise! They were SO excited to be like the "Big girls" and these surprises made my wedding that much more special and really blessed us. We had no idea how much we would love our florist and how much the flowers would be something we would look back on and love so much. Choosing the right florist really does matter.
1. How organized is she? Does she have much experience?
2. How creative is she? Can she take my ideas and run with it?
3. What do others say about her? This will determine how seriously she takes making your day special.
To contact Karen Roa of Aleen Floral Design, go to her website http://aleendesign.com/ !
She is amazing and you won't regret having her as your florist! She is based out of Williamsburg, VA but is available for travel. She started as my florist and left as a friend! Happy Wedding planning future brides! :) It is so much fun!


text:
Bomb analysis lab in Kabul hunts for killer clues
The French-run facility is the nerve-centre of NATO efforts to analyse and trace how thousands of homemade bombs made by insurgents are evolving and becoming more sophisticated. (File photo: AFP)
AFP, Kabul Sunday 07 July 2013
In a discreet laboratory in Kabul, a French military officer scans a long list of telephone numbers scrolling down a computer screen. "This is the call that triggered the explosion," he says, pointing.
The French-run facility is the nerve-centre of NATO efforts to analyse and trace how thousands of homemade bombs made by insurgents are evolving and becoming more sophisticated.
The team of 15 forensic specialists puzzle over how the devices are designed and how to prevent them from being detonated -- clues that could also lead back to the rebel bomb-makers themselves.
The IED (improvised explosive device) came to widespread public attention during the Iraq war and has also become the signature guerrilla tactic in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other insurgent groups have fought US-led forces since 2001.
The device typically uses old battlefield ordnance, explosives from mining or agricultural fertiliser, and is detonated by an electronic signal such a telephone call, a manual trigger line or a pressure plate.
Cheap, relatively-easy to make and adaptable, it is the militants' weapon of choice, killing US and Afghan soldiers, government officials, and civilians on a daily basis, often planted in dirt road tracks.
The Multi-National Theatre Exploitation Laboratory is located inside the Kabul airport military complex, a large highly-secure area that is a major base for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Clean, calm and quiet, the laboratory is a far cry from the frontlines where the IEDs are picked up. The devices are investigated in small rooms containing computers, monitors, spectrum analysers and oscilloscopes measuring voltage.
It is here that electronic experts Adjutant Olivier, who gave only his first name in line with French military policy, says he makes hard drives, USB memory sticks, data cards and mobile phones "talk to him".
"You can retrieve calendar items, incoming and outgoing calls, contact lists, text messages, multi-media content and even erased images, videos and files," he said enthusiastically.
He also tracks the frequencies used to detonate IEDs remotely -- a life-or-death calculation as it allows signal jammers to be set correctly and prevent bombs being triggered near ISAF vehicles.
Although the lab specialists employ the latest hi-tech equipment to fight against the IED threat, they face a difficult challenge, with the insurgents constantly re-inventing their fatal designs.
"They adapt, they are clever, they manage to combine techniques. And on the Internet, you will find many of the plans," said the adjutant.
One recent graphic example shows the rebels' ability to come up with deadly new ideas.
"In late February, an American soldier saw an American radio placed on the road," said Lieutenant Colonel Charles, head of the centre.
"The soldier recovered the radio, put it in his vehicle and a few seconds later it exploded, leaving many dead."
With materials for making IEDs freely available, their use is hard to counter.
The devices were responsible for 60 percent of ISAF fatalities in 2009, though the figure fell to 42 percent last year.
"You only need two components -- an oxidizer and a fuel, such as gasoline or motor oil. It is very easy to do," said Captain Julian, a military chemist working in the laboratory.
"This is ammonium nitrate gel," said the captain, pointing to a bottle containing a white jelly recovered after an attack in Kabul.
"It is normally used in quarries instead of dynamite. Everyone knows where it comes from, exactly which company in Pakistan," he said about the substance, which was banned by President Hamid Karzai to try to thwart bomb production.
"But on the border with Pakistan (where the Taliban have bases) the controls are very difficult to enforce."
IEDs come in all shapes and sizes, using plastic water jugs, steel cookers and pipes, and are placed on roads, footpaths and in trees.
Bigger attacks are designed to rip apart even US armoured trucks, while "daisy-chain" links are often used to attack convoys so that one explosion triggers a series of follow-up blasts.
The laboratory in Kabul tries to gather information on the identity of the bomb-makers by carefully gathering fingerprints and DNA traces.
The analysts can even lift prints off tape wrapped around a pressure plate by the insurgents.
The tape is placed in a sealed tank in which glue is heated up until it becomes a vapour. This reacts with residue from fingerprints to make them visible, and they can then be sent to a US forensic centre for checking.
With most of the NATO force about to depart Afghanistan next year, the future of IED analysis is uncertain, but Charles said that the laboratory had proved its worth many times over.
"It has enabled the arrest of... several hundred insurgents," he said. "And kept us up-to-date with new threats."
Kabul army chief: Pakistan could soon end Afghan war
Huge truck bomb plot foiled in Kabul: spy agency
Kabul suicide attack on military target kills at least 16


THE LOVELY OLD CAROLS played and replayed till their effect is like a dentist's drill or a jackhammer, the bathetic banalities of the pulpit and the chilling commercialism of almost everything else, people spending money they can't afford on presents you neither need nor want, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," the plastic tree, the cornball crèche, the Hallmark Virgin. Yet for all our efforts, we've never quite managed to ruin it. That in itself is part of the miracle, a part you can see. Most of the miracle you can't see, or don't.
The young clergyman and his wife do all the things you do on Christmas Eve. They string the lights and hang the ornaments. They supervise the hanging of the stockings. They tuck in the children. They lug the presents down out of hiding and pile them under the tree. Just as they're about to fall exhausted into bed, the husband remembers his neighbor's sheep. The man asked him to feed them for him while he was away, and in the press of other matters that night he forgot all about them. So down the hill he goes through knee-deep snow. He gets two bales of hay from the barn and carries them out to the shed. There's a forty-watt bulb hanging by its cord from the low roof, and he turns it on. The sheep huddle in a corner watching as he snaps the baling twine, shakes the squares of hay apart, and starts scattering it. Then they come bumbling and shoving to get at it with their foolish, mild faces, the puffs of their breath showing in the air. He is reaching to turn off the bulb and leave when suddenly he realizes where he is. The winter darkness. The glimmer of light. The smell of the hay and the sound of the animals eating. Where he is, of course, is the manger.
Christmas itself is by grace. It could never have survived our own blindness and depredations otherwise. It could never have happened otherwise. Perhaps it is the very wildness and strangeness of the grace that has led us to try to tame it. We have tried to make it habitable. We have roofed it in and furnished it. We have reduced it to an occasion we feel at home with, at best a touching and beautiful occasion, at worst a trite and cloying one. But if the Christmas event in itself is indeed—as a matter of cold, hard fact—all it's cracked up to be, then even at best our efforts are misleading.
The Word become flesh. Ultimate Mystery born with a skull you could crush one-handed. Incarnation. It is not tame. It is not touching. It is not beautiful. It is uninhabitable terror. It is unthinkable darkness riven with unbearable light. Agonized laboring led to it, vast upheavals of intergalactic space/time split apart, a wrenching and tearing of the very sinews of reality itself. You can only cover your eyes and shudder before it, before this: "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God . . . who for us and for our salvation," as the Nicene Creed puts it, "came down from heaven."


text:
SciTech and Hyperion enter strategic partnership
Date 19-Feb-2003 0:16:35
Topic: Announcement
From amiga.org
SciTech Software Inc. and Hyperion Entertainment VOF are pleased to announce they have enterered into a strategic partnership which will see SciTech's SNAP(tm) technology integrated into AmigaOS 4.x which is currently under development by Hyperion for PPC based systems.
SciTech SNAP, SciTech's leading edge graphics device support, allows for the rapid development and deployment of embedded solutions across
multiple platforms and currently already supports well over 170 different graphics chipsets including all the latest offerings from industry leaders ATI, nVidia and Matrox.
A full list of supported chipsets can be found here:
http://www.scitechsoft.com/chiplist/os2chiplist.html
"We are very excited about SNAP as it offers us out of the box support for a huge and ever growing number of graphics cards and effectively allows us to redirect resources away from device driver development and cut down on time to market", said Ben Hermans, managing partner of Hyperion. "We are convinced that prospective customers of AmigaOS 4.x will appreciate the high-performance, low footprint graphics card technology that SciTech has developed over many years."
"SciTech shares in the vision of the Amiga platform and is excited to play a key roll in the further development of the original multi-media OS." said, Andrew Bloo, Director of Marketing, SciTech Software Inc. "By adopting SciTech SNAP Graphics as the core graphics architecture for the Amiga OS, Amiga can now offer a level of performance and compatibility equal to that of any mainstream OS".
SciTech and Hyperion are set to broaden their cooperation to encompass 3D graphics support and support for other PPC based operating systems.
About SciTech Software Inc.
SciTech Software Inc. is a leading developer of next generation multi-OS device driver development tools for embedded, industrial and enterprise systems. SciTech Flagship product, SciTech SNAP Graphics,
is a robust display driver solution, with full 2D acceleration on more than 180 graphic chipsets. SciTech SNAP Technology enables hardware
manufactures to cut costs, speed time to market and reduce long-term support issues. Additionally SciTech SNAP provides hardware venders with the ability to explore the emerging embedded markets through a powerful, OS agnostic device driver abstraction layer. Enterprise customers benefit from the SciTech SNAP technology through the unified chip drivers, which allow IT managers to roll out a single display driver across an entire enterprise, drastically reducing associated test matrices and long-term support costs. SciTech also provides leading edge development tools for the embedded and industrial markets. These tools allow developers to quickly add support for new and or emerging OS'es and with the SciTech SNAP architecture instantly gain access to more than180 supported graphic chip sets. Founded in 1994, SciTech Software Inc. is a privately held company, backed by the original investment of its founders and the ongoing sales of its leading edge solutions. SciTech Corporate offices are located in Chico, California.
For more information; please visit:
http://www.scitechsoft.com.
About Hyperion Entertainment VOF
Hyperion Entertainment is a privately held Belgian-German company, founded in March of 1999. The company specialises in 3D graphics and the conversion of top-quality entertainment software from Windows to niche-platforms including Amiga, Linux (x86,PPC) and MacOS (OS 9/X). Hyperion Entertainment has undertaken contract-work in the field of 3D graphics for companies such as Monolith (www.lith.com) and has developed a mature, fast, small foot-print technology to bring 3D graphics to low power digital devices such as PDA's and STB's.
Hyperion is currently working on AmigaOS 4.0, a vastly enhanced PPC native incarnation of the groundbreaking OS introduced by Commodore in
This article comes from AmigaWorld - Amiga Community Portal
https://amigaworld.net
The URL for this story is:
https://amigaworld.net/article.php?storyid=226


Installation Service: Home or Commercial Installation is available at the checkout on selected products. If chosen, a qualified Inspire Fitness engineer will set up your equipment at a time that suits you. (UK Mainland Only) Installation is typically carried out within 10-14 working days of placing your order. All unwanted packaging will be removed from site at time of installation.


There's something ultra-feminine about menswear-inspired women's fashion. The Allen Schwartz Black/White "Gigi" Suspender Pants are bold and uber cool. Featuring a high waist, relaxed fit and removable suspenders, these pants make a stylish statement. Team it with a tank top or a fitted blouse and sparkly sneakers for some pizzazz.


Our darkest roast is not for the cautious. But these rich, glistening beans are a favorite of Peet's roasters.
from carlsbad, CA on 9/29/2018. Drinking Peet's since 2010.
from West hempstead, NY on 10/2/2017. Drinking Peet's since 2011.
from Kingsville, TX on 7/17/2017. Drinking Peet's since Octob.
My second favorite flavor of Peet's coffee!!! Peet's is definitely the best I've ever tasted!!
from Tualatin, OR on 3/27/2017. Drinking Peet's since 2010.
I was a Barnies Coffee and Tea French Roast fanatic for years and years. I moved from Tennessee and searched the world over for a suitable replacement. Enter Petes! Love Pete's and now work for a company that only uses K-Cups. I am thrilled they offer them. The brewed ground is still the BEST, but the K-Cups are super close and the best dark, smooth French Roast K-cup I have found, and I have tried them all!
Very bold tasting French Roast for a coffee that is being brewed in a Keurig machine. It's smooth and has a smoky aroma that makes it a good wake-me-up morning cup of coffee. I drink it black with a teaspoon of raw sugar and it's the perfect cup to a dessert too. I wish they made the Decaf French Roast in the Kcups.


I have a great salsa recipe coming soon for Super Bowl Sunday (not that I'm watching, with the Pats out)…but first I have to share this great vegan recipe for Warm Spinach & Artichoke Dip by Chloe Coscarelli. You all know how much I love Chef Chloe, and she's got another winner here. I devour Spinach & Artichoke Dip, but if you're like me and you have issues with the heavy, cheesy nature of the traditional recipe, I think you'll find this agrees with you a lot more. Watch the video & check out the recipe below!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 1-quart baking dish.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and saute the onions until soft. Add the garlic and red pepper and cook for a few more minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Then, add the spinach.
Let the mixture cook, stirring gently, until the spinach is wilted.
In a food processor, blend the silken tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, basil, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add the artichokes and spinach mixture, and pulse about 15 times. Transfer to your prepared baking dish.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.
Let cool a few minutes, then serve with bread or tortilla chips. Yum!
Before the holidays, I had a brunch & jewelry party for a few of my friends and family. Not wanting to overwhelm people with food, I eventually scaled WAY back from my original menu, just serving some finger foods (chips & salsa, cheese & crackers) for those who get up early and would have already eaten breakfast, plus a mixture of brunch-y favorites for those in the crowd (read: people my age) who showed up HUNGRY. Even though I didn't get to make everything I wanted to, I still had a couple hits, so I'm sharing them with you!
German Apple Pancake topped with a crust of cinnamon sugar. Mmm.
Spray or butter the bottom of a square baking dish.
Cube the English muffins, tearing by hand, and layer half of them in the bottom of the dish.
Layer half the bacon and half the cheese on top of the muffins. Repeat all three layers.
Mix together the eggs, milk, salt & pepper and whisk briefly; pour over the casserole and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour or up to one day.
We like it topped with maple syrup. And, of course, Mark prefers it with Canadian bacon just like at McDonald's, but he admits the veggie stuff tastes almost as good!
If you are making this for the week, it will keep in the fridge for about 5 days. Reheat a square for 1 minute in the microwave and take it to go!
Courtesy of Healthy Slow Cooking.
Let me know if you ever get a chance to try these! Happy Brunching.
The New York Times had a cool article recently about how challenging it can be to "go Vegan" cold turkey. It listed a bunch of tips for easing the transition, broken down by which food type you're trying to replace or replicate, from dairy milk to ground beef to eggs.
NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. Soy milk is great in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.
NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there's no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.
THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of "Chloe's Kitchen," has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn't have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta.
Susan Voisin's Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it's a fungus that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.
BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.
EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network's Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.
Finally, don't try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.
What are your best tips for easing into Vegan eating? And what do you miss the most, or occasionally even crave? I don't eat Vegan all the time, but as a lactose-intolerant vegetarian, I end up finding that some of the most stomach-friendly recipes are vegan, too. Think Avocado Pesto Pasta, or Sweet Potato Soup without the sour cream on top, Creamy Kale Salad, and just about any smoothie made with coconut milk or water instead of dairy (like this one or this one).


Burial used to be the default option for those who passed away in the area, but that is no longer the case at all. Cremation in Bellevue Wa is now every bit as common as burial, and many expect that it will become the standard choice before long. There are good reasons why so many people in the area today prefer cremation for themselves or their loved ones.
The prospect of a person's remains slowly rotting away underground is rarely a pleasant one to consider. By rendering an entire body into ashes in a short period of time, cremation helps foster a gratifying sense of finality. That can matter just as much to someone making future arrangements of their own as to those loved ones who grieve over the passing of a certain person.
Even a relatively simple casket meant for burial can cost thousands of dollars, with some commonly available models costing a number of times more. Add to that the expense associated with interring a body in the ground, and the total price tag of a burial-based funeral can be astonishing. Cremation in Bellevue Wa, by contrast, inevitably ends up being far less expensive, even when keeping costs to a minimum is not necessarily a priority.
It is no secret that many cemeteries in the area have been short on space for a long time. Burial also exacts a toll in terms of putting into the ground various materials that might better have been left out. Many people in the area find cremation to be preferable on this count, as well.
Add to this the fact that planning a cremation and associated services typically proves to be simpler than with burial, and the choice for many becomes even clearer. As a result, more people than ever before are choosing cremation for themselves and their loved ones, and experts expect the trend to continue.


text:
GP Appraisals and Revalidation
Designated body
Booking your appraisal appointment
Appraisal preparation
The appraisal meeting
After the appraisal
How do I revalidate?
Whole practice
Extended practice
Quality improvement activity
Portfolio tools
National publications
Local publications
GP career options
Resuscitation (CPR)
IT problems
Appraisers' page
Appraisal & revalidation Newsletter
Appraisal & revalidation Newsletter (NHS England SSW, July 2018)
Gross negligence manslaughter report
The rapid review report into gross negligence manslaughter was published on 11th June 2018. In a statement to parliament, Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said, "I accept the recommendations in full".
The report is clear and easy to digest.
13th August 2018:
Dr Bawa-Garba wins appeal against GMC (BBC, August 2018) and will be restored to the medical register after her suspension has expired.
Revised version of "Guidance on supporting information for appraisal and revalidation" from the GMC.
"Following feedback from doctors and others we've updated our guidance on what's required for appraisal for revalidation – our Guidance on supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (GMC, March 2018).
We've not changed the information you need to collect and reflect on, but have updated our guidance to try and make it more helpful.
Key improvements include:
More guidance on the balance between the quality and quantity of supporting information needed for appraisal for revalidation so you don't feel pressured to gather too much evidence
Explaining that we do not set either a minimum or a maximum quantity of supporting information that you need to collect
Emphasising that, although you must participate in a whole practice appraisal every year unless there are mitigating circumstances preventing you from doing so (for example if you were on long term sick or on maternity leave), it should be a developmental experience as appraisal and revalidation are not pass or fail exercises
More information about how you should collect feedback from colleagues, including how colleagues should be selected
Reinforcing the importance of doctors who have multiple roles gathering and reflecting on information that covers the whole of their practice.
A new section to provide clearer guidance on our requirements for doctors in training and more direction for doctors who may find collecting certain aspects of supporting information difficult."
Will a reflection be used against me in court?
Written reflective practice in appraisals (NHSE, 15 02 2018) is a letter to provide clarification over the use of written reflective practice in appraisals.
This follows recent (December 2017) high profile discussion of this topic following the tragic death of a young boy, Jack Adcock, and the subsequent legal proceedings against Dr Bawa-Garba.
The Medical Director for NHS England (South South West), Dr Caroline Gamlin issued an email "Key messages arising from the High Court" (NHSE SSW, 13 02 2018) containing Confidentiality of reflections for appraisal guidance (NHSE SSW, 13 02 2018).
13th August 2018:
Improving feedback and reflection
The folk at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have published a paper with the snappy title, "Improving feedback and reflection to improve learning A practical guide for trainees and trainers".
It is clearly aimed at doctors who are in training posts and their trainers, but the pages on "Guidance on reflection" (p.7) and "Guidance on feedback" (p8) are well worth a read.
Insights include,
reflection is a cyclical process
feedback from the trainer [appraiser?] is important
calibration by the trainer [appraiser?] is important
"Without feedback, reflection amounts only to teaching oneself."
[For appraisers] How to view last year's documents
Each year the doctor should send you last year's summary and PDP, but some don't. In my experience most don't.
If you were last year's appraiser it isn't difficult to view last year's documents in the revalidation management system (RMS). Just go to "Acting as Appraiser" then click on "View".
At the top of the page select last year's tab and you should be able to download any documents which are there.
However, if you were NOT their appraiser for last year, that route is blocked, for some mysterious reason.
But it is possible by following the instructions in this PowerPoint presentation:
How to view last year's documents in RMS (Simon Barton, 2019).
One caveat though: if the doctor had his or her revalidation after last year's appraisal this method probably won't work.
NICE podcasts
NICE Podcasts
Free audio library from NICE using discussions with patients and experts to explore medical topics.
You can listen directly from the website, or download the SoundCloud app and listen while driving to work!
Fully-funded Coaching for GPs
Following the earlier success of the national coaching programme, NHS England are offering fully funded one-to-one tailored coaching for GPs.
You will gain three 90-minute confidential sessions by highly experienced and qualified coaches to help you think through where you are and where you want to be in today's challenging and changing environment.
This forward-looking, action-orientated, positive and personal approach will help you identify goals for the next steps that can give you satisfaction and fulfilment, and support you to make them happen.
This programme is open to all GPs and we have 300 places to fill in total for 2017-2018 cohort.
Places are limited on a first-come-first-serve basis by 31 January 2018. Click here to register your interest here.
This coaching is offered to GPs only. We would be grateful if you can help cascade this information to your team. For further questions, please contact our procured provider: admin@beyond-consultants.co.uk
Taking Revalidation Forward
Sir James Pearson conducted a review of revalidation and published his report in January 2017.
The GMC published it's action plan arising from that report in July 2017.
The GMC's programme manager for Taking Revalidation Forward, Helen Arrowsmith says in her blog,
"If you have a suggestion about how to improve appraisal or revalidation processes locally, it's best to speak to your employer or responsible officer.
We would love to hear from you if you have examples of good practice which we can share more widely, or if there's a key area you'd like us to provide advice on in our communications.
To share your views with us, please comment below or email TakingRevalForward@gmc-uk.org."
Local teaching sessions and courses
The Royal College of General Practitioners runs teaching sessions in each locality, many of which are free to members and non-members alike.
Free evening sessions are run in Bristol, Bath, Truro, Plymouth, Exeter and throughout the UK.
They also run minor surgery courses.
See their listing pages which are regularly updated.
Appraisal news and changes to this website.


TrueActivist 2 November 2015: Plastic is everywhere. In fact, the environment is so riddled with it, researchers predict that 99% of all birds on this planet will have plastic in their gut by the year 2050.
As phys.org reports, the housing crisis has become so bad in Nigeria, nearly 16 million units are required to address the shortage. Because crafting traditional homes would be far too expensive for most, locals adopted the idea put forth by two NGOs and are now building plastic...read on.


Coming to grips with (understanding) the thinking of Humberto Maturana has always taken work because it challenges our deepest assumptions about the world, about human beings and, indeed, about "reality" itself. I recently ran across a book compiled from interviews with Maturana by a young professor of journalism and communication science.
It's the most accessible introduction (and more) to his work that I have found. The title is From Being to Doing: The Origins of the Biology of Cognition.
At the beginning of the last century, physicists revolutionised the scientific view of the world. Today biologists are radically transforming our understanding of the processes of life and cognition. Probing the mysteries of the mind, they have been able to prove that, in the act of knowing, the observer and the observed, subject and object, are inextricably enmeshed. The world we live in is not independent from us; we literally bring it forth ourselves. One of the protagonists of this new kind of thinking is the internationally renowned neurobiologist and systems theorist Humberto R. Maturana who was interviewed for several weeks by Bernhard Poerksen, journalist, and communication scientist. In this book, they explore the limits of our cognitive powers, discuss the truth in perception, the biology of love, and give, all in all, an introduction to systemic thinking that is down to earth, imaginative, and rich in anecdote.


Magic Match Adventures takes the addictive Magic Match gameplay and pairs it with a unique simulation where each match you create will not only give you special powers and magic spells, but will help repair the imp villages and restore peace and tranquility across the realm. This fully animated adventure and zany story will come to life before your eyes as you play! Match your way through this adventure and watch as characters survive and thrive in their newly restored Imp World!
Uncover 10 world-class cities in this inventive block-matching puzzler!