All the US-only beauty brands we've coveted are slowly making their way across the pond, one by one.
The latest is Milk Makeup, a cooler-than-cool makeup and skincare brand which will be available from Cult Beauty later this month.
Milk is a favourite of YouTubers and Instagram MUAs – and even if you haven't paid much heed to it before, you may just recognise its see-through packaging. The products are practical and super easy to use, and they're cruelty-free, too.
So what should you watch out for? Here are five of their most loved products.
The secret to this volumising fibre mascara? Cannabis oil. The brand claim it makes the formula ultra conditioning, and we're certainly intrigued to say the least.
Some days it's just all about how fast you can get the face on, and this stick can be swiped on lips and cheeks to add a bit of colour on the go. Nice.
They had us at the word 'blur', TBH. This full coverage foundation promises to leave you with a flawless face – and it contains no oil or silicone, which should make it friendly to most skin types.
Back at it again with the blurring products. This right here preps your skin for makeup, leaving a smooth and poreless matte finish.
An eye cream in a stick, this cooling gel will brighten, hydrate and de-puff tired eyes. Ideal for those hungover days.
Milk Makeup comes to Cult Beauty on January 28 – we reckon it's time to introduce a cannabis-infused mascara to our lives.


Beach vacations offer families a chance to kick back and soak up the sun and surf in a beautiful location. A family-friendly atmosphere makes it easy for both adults and kids to get the most out of a trip. With a great mix of attractions, quality accommodations and affordability, these four destinations in different regions of the country provide a perfect escape for families.
Maui is the Hawaiian island that has it all. From breathtaking vistas to volcanoes to high end resorts, visitors will find no shortage of things to see and do. Families can enjoy all of the comforts of home in one of the most beautiful beach locations in the world.
At one time, Fort Lauderdale was not known as a family-friendly vacation destination. Today, it has become a place packed with inviting resorts and attractions that are aimed towards families. Greater Fort Lauderdale offers enjoyment for people of all ages, including museums, watersports, an array of dining options and so much more.
Situated between Malibu and Venice Beach, Santa Monica is an ideal vacation hotspot in California for folks with kids. Featuring 4 miles of soft sand beaches and the iconic Santa Monica Pier, this seaside city provides the perfect blend of relaxation and entertainment. Families can enjoy hours of fun in the sun lounging on the beach and strolling along the Third Street Promenade. Kids will also enjoy taking on the ferris wheel at Pacific Park.
Myrtle Beach has long been known and loved by families for its accommodating atmosphere. A wide variety of hotels, motels, resorts and rentals make it affordable for any budget. Kids and adults are sure to love the miles of beaches and exciting amusements found in this East Coast gem.
Families have many choices when it comes to beach destinations. Planning a trip can take some time, but knowing which options fit the family best makes it much easier to get started. View MiniTime's Best Family Beach Vacations for more travel ideas and inspiration.


A pair of over-spinning propellers is being investigated as the cause of a plane crash that killed 28 people in Papua New Guinea last month.
The PNG Accident Investigation Commission's preliminary report into the October 13 crash near Madang, shows the Airlines PNG Dash 8 went into high speed in the minutes before the crash.
The Sydney Morning Herald says the report said both propellers simultaneously oversped and exceeded their maximum permitted revolutions per minute by in excess of 60 per cent.
Air Crash Investigator Sid O'Toole told reporters it was unusual for both propellers to overspeed at the same time.
Mr O'Toole said the aircraft's propellers will be sent to the USA for analysis, while other parts will be sent to Canada.
He said he expected an update to the report in four months' time.
Australian pilot Bill Spencer, his New Zealand co-pilot Campbell Wagstaff, a crew member and a passenger were the only survivors of the crash.
The airline has resumed flying its Dash 8 fleet after being cleared by PNG's Civil Aviation and Safety Authority last week.
Meanwhile, a proposed merger with national airliner Air Niugini has been scrapped by the PNG government.


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Home Business Aviation Arik returns to Lagos – Freetown route after 18 Months
Arik returns to Lagos – Freetown route after 18 Months
By Isaac Tersoo Agber
Arik Air is set to resume flight operations from Lagos to Freetown, Sierra Leone on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, the airline has reported.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria's air giant suspended flights from Lagos to Freetown in July 2014 due to outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which affected economic activities in some West African nations, including Nigeria.
The decision to resume flight operations to Sierra Leone was prompted after the country was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation in November, 2015, after the desease had claimed over 4,000 lives.
Arik announced the decision to re-commence flight operations on the route through its online customer service platform in a statement signed by the airline's, Public Relations and Communications Manager, Mr Adebanji Ola.
The planned resumed service, he explained, would entail a new schedule with flights from Lagos to Freetown now routed via Accra, Ghana.
According to him, the schedule would be 3 flights every week to be operated on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, using a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation (NG) aircraft configured to carry 20 Business Class and 126 Economy Class passengers.
He added that outbound flights will depart Lagos at 7:20 am and arrive Accra at 7:20 am and that the flight then departs Accra at 8:05 am and arrives in Freetown at 10:30 am.
The inbound flight, he said, leaves Freetown at 11:15 am and arrives Accra at 1:40 pm and that the flight then continues onto Lagos, leaving Accra at 2:25 pm to arrive into Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 4:25 pm, adding that all times are local.
Arik Air made its foray into Freetown in June, 2009 and had operated uninterrupted until July 2014.
Speaking on the planned resumption of flight to Freetown, Arik Air's Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, said, "Arik Air is the dominant carrier in West and Central Africa and air travelers in this region look up to us to fly them to their destinations. We want to assure our loyal customers on the Lagos-Freetown route that we are back to deliver the safe, secure and reliable services that are the hallmark of Arik Air."
Lagos – Freetown route
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Its elegant shape was inspired by ancient Aegean figures and its pleasingly mottled surface made it feel like it had just been dug up from the ground. Yet when it was first sold in the 1970s, this understated vase by the late British potter Hans Coper<www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/sotheby-s-at-large/2016/11/hans-coper-works-in-focus.html> changed hands for just £250. An unloved present, the creation was then kept in an old shoebox by its recipient, who finally decided to offload it last month – and was stunned to see its price soar to £381,000 at auction<www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/mar/14/record-hans-coper-vase-auction>, a figure you might expect for certain Ming dynasty or Picasso vessels.
The world of ceramics was stunned too, but not as much as it might once have been. While it's true that Coper is a key figure in British studio pottery, with works in London's V&A and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art<www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/art>, what this whopping sum – more than double the previous record for a Coper – really reflects is the fact that ceramic art is currently experiencing something of a boom.
Last month's Ceramic Art London<ceramicartlondon.com/>was oversubscribed like never before, with a queue of pottery nuts snaking around Central St Martins College, impatient to bag top contemporary pieces while they could still afford them (prices ranged from £30 to £10,000). The previous weekend, the Barbican's conservatory was transformed into another ceramics fair, this time showcasing 60 artists from theTurning Earth<e2.turningearth.uk/> collective's two London studios. Many of these makers got their starts through taking classes there, while similar urban ceramic-making communities that pool resources and share kilns are flourishing across the country, including Glasgow Ceramics Studio <glasgowceramicstudio.com/> and Clay Studio Manchester<www.claystudio.co.uk/>.
In Cambridge, meanwhile, the Fitzwilliam Museum is celebrating a "spring of ceramics" with two simultaneous shows. The larger one, called Things of Beauty Growing<www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/calendar/whatson/things-beauty-growing-british-studio-pottery>, is a major survey of British studio pottery – a first for the museum, which is responding to what co-curator Helen Ritchie refers to as "a steady rise of interest" in the museum's 20th and 21st-century ceramics stash.
The show combines influential antiques from China, Korea and Japan with the work of 20th and 21st-century potters. These range from Bernard Leach<www.leachpottery.com/history/>(whose famous pottery lives on in St Ives), Coper and his teacher Lucie Rie<www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/25/lucie-rie-modernist-potter-emmanuel-cooper>(who both settled in Britain after fleeing the Nazis), through to Kenyan-bornMagdalene Odundo<magdaleneodundo.com/> (incoming chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts) and Edmund de Waal<www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/dec/19/edmund-de-waal-passion-pots>, best known for his installations of shelves of pale and delicate porcelain vessels, sometimes huddled in conspiratorial groups.
Carl Stimpson's work mixes carefully painted portraits of icons from the worlds of music and film with cartoon imagery and techniques, and classic but obscure advertising logos. So far, so pop-art, but where his work diverges is in his treatment of this classic material – his use of the 'ligne-claire' technique, the imposition and projection of his mash-ups onto suburban and urban walls as fictional murals, a slight twist in some of the lovingly painted portraits.
Having trained initially as a painter – he studied Fine Art at The Arts Institute of Bournemouth (now Arts University College Bournemouth) – the recent addition of screenprinting to his painting techniques has allowed Stimpson to introduce an element of mass-production to his work, producing beautifully varied editions where the flatness of a screenprinted black ink layer contrasts with the softer hand-painted elements.
Stimpson currently lives and works in Hackney.
For a full-on art attack, London has you covered. Below, we've rounded up all the current and upcoming art exhibitions from London's major galleries and brilliant museums<secretldn.com/fab-free-museums-london/>, from Tate Britain and Tate Modern to Somerset House, the V&A and the National Gallery.
Four artists, shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize, will exhibit their work at the Tate Britain.£12.50. More info<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2018>.
This free exhibition in east London pairs scientific curios amassed by the Dutch collector George Loudon with colourful, plant-like ceramic pieces from contemporary artist Salvatore Arancio. Free! Find out more<www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/surreal-science/>.
Shift your perceptions at this new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. A collection of 20 minimal artworks use reflective and translucent materials to distort and disturb the brutalist space – a clever-clever house of mirrors for cultured types. £16.50. Find out more<www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/hayward-gallery-art/space-shifters>.
The V&A investigates sustainability and fashion in this new exhibition, which pairs garments with specimens from the natural world. Groovy. £12. More info<www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/fashioned-from-nature>.
Ian Hislop has curated this exhibition of historical artifacts that each, in their own way, protest, dissent, and stick a middle finger up at the prevailing norms of the day. Ancient graffiti, satirical posters and suffragette coins are among the items on display. £12. Find out more<britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/i_object.aspx>.
This acclaimed installation splices together film clips from thousands of films, each of which happen to depict the time on screen, then cuts them together so they tell the real time. It'll be installed in the public galleries, so it is, blessedly… Free! More info<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/christian-marclay-clock>.
8. Saatchi Gallery: Black Mirror – Art As Social Satire (until Jan 27, 2019) [Black Mirror Exhibition London]Alejandra Prieto, 'Coal Mirror'.
There's no official connection with Charlie Brooker's dystopian Netflix<secretldn.com/new-on-netflix-uk-series-films/> anthology; but nonetheless this exhibition riffs off similar themes of alienation, political discontent and 21st-century angst via satirical works from 25 contemporary artists. Free! More information here<www.saatchigallery.com/artists/black_mirror__art_as_social_satire/>.
'Mantegna and Bellini' compares the work of two Italian artists from the 15th-century Renaissance, who also happened to be related by marriage. From £14. More info<www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/mantegna-and-bellini>.
Suffering! That's the theme behind these 45 paintings from the Spanish Baroque composer, and also the theme behind life, let's face it. £16.50. More info<www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2018/september/ribera-art-of-violence/>.
You and your boo might consider a Sunday Netflix marathon time well-spent, but these artistic couples are distinguished by their creative synergy and acclaimed joint output. In the process, they 'they forged new kinds of art and ways of living, while challenging gender stereotypes', which is something else you probably haven't got around to yet. £16. More info<www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/modern-couples-art-intimacy-and-the-avant-garde>.
This newly produced work from Jesse Darling revisits the legend of St Jerome and the Lion, invoking an ambivalent love story charged with new meanings. Free! Find out more<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/jesse-darling>.
Taking a look behind the scenes of video games from the past ten years, the V&A will be exhibiting concept art, early sketches, prototypes and other artefacts from the development of the games we're all addicted to. £18. More info<www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/videogames#objects>.
150 works from 'pioneer of the Symbolist movement Burne-Jones', including painting, stained glass and tapestry. £19.50. More info<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/edward-burne-jones>.
Festive slugs are currently leaving LED light trails all over Tate Britain, and we're weirdly into it. The illuminated critters are guarding the gallery until February, so you'll catch them no matter how slow you move. Free! More info<secretldn.com/tate-britain-slugs-installation/>.
An endearing and insightful look into the Peanuts cartoons, with original artwork and responses from contemporary artists. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and the whole gang await you at Somerset House.£14. More info here<secretldn.com/good-grief-snoopy-exhibit/>.
A display which curates items from the Museum of London's suffragette archive, commemorating 100 years since women won their fight for the right to vote. Free! More info<www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/whats-on/exhibitions/votes-women>.
Whitechapel Gallery is akin to the spiritual home of Jackson Pollock in the UK, having hosted the London premiere of his work. Sixty years later, Pollock's Summertime 9A has returned – and best of all, it's free. More info<www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/staging-jackson-pollock/>.
The swings<secretldn.com/tate-modern-swings/> are gone, and the Tate Modern's cathedral-like Turbine Hall is now filled with curiosities from Cuban artist Tania Bruguera. A heat-sensitive floor, subsonic sound waves, and a room that makes you cry are some of the delights here, aiming to evoke empathy for our fellow humans.Free! More info<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/hyundai-commission-tania-bruguera>.
PS: Once this exhibit ends, another Hyundai Commission will arrive later in 2019 – October 2nd is the date for your diaries!
The Weimar Republic was a rich source of art, especially in the realm of magic realism (before Garcia Marquez & co took it to the next level). See the best of it at Tate Britain. Free. More info<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/magic-realism>.
Legendary couturier Christian Dior was a noted Anglophile, which is why the V&A Museum are looking into the growth of his fashion house with the odd insight into his relationship with Britain. From £20.More info<www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/dior-designer-of-dreams>.
Acclaimed British photographer Don McCullin has had a storied career, making his name as a war photographer in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and Syria. Those haunting images combine with moody industrial shots and rural landscapes in the Tate's major retrospective. £16. More info<www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/don-mccullin>.
To mark the centenary of Schiele's death and the 30th anniversary of Basquiat's death, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, presents a major comparative showcase of their work. With many pieces never seen before in Europe, this artistic extravaganza (2 Oct 18 – 14 Jan 19) certainly merits a trip to Paris.
Saturday 1st December is Small Business Saturday. This annual government-backed national campaign highlights our wonderful local, small businesses. NFDC town carparks will be free of charge all day. Car parks will also be free of charge on 23 and 24 December to encourage Christmas shoppers to stay local and support the New Forest's many independent businesses, producers and artisans.
We really are fortunate in Lymington to have a great range of small, independent shops who stock a brilliant range of products at highly reasonable prices. Let us all support them in the run up to Christmas!
The ultimate art-retail experience is currently on offer in Serpentine's Sackler Gallery courtesy of Atelier E.B, the collaborative enterprise of artist Lucy McKenzie and designer Beca Lipscombe. For the deeper of pocket the atelier's latest collection of artisan-made, artist-designed togs—which goes under the title Jasperwear and fuses Neo-Classical, Amazonian and Scythian themes—can be ordered from an elegant bespoke showroom. As well as being artfully arranged in a chic display and a facsimile shop window, these multi-referential (and eminently wearable) garments are also set within a wider environment devoted to the history of display in consumer culture, ranging from historic sculptures, archive photographs and classic mannequins made by the designer Adel Rootstein (including one of the singer and actress Elaine Paige). There are also a number of striking artistic collaborations—look out for a tapestry of Marc Camille Chaimowicz made by Elizabeth Radcliffe, Lipscombe's mother. For those on a more limited budget there's also a diffusion range available in the gallery shop for the entire run of the show.


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The National Police Association Is Throwing a Fit Over Prosecutorial Discretion
By Carissa Byrne Hessick and F. Andrew Hessick
Jan 04, 201912:55 PM
Boston police patrol a rally on Aug. 19, 2017, in Boston. Ryan McBride/AFP/Getty Images
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Last month, the National Police Association filed a complaint with the Massachusetts bar against incoming Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins. The DA's purported offense was a promise during the campaign not to prosecute certain crimes—such as being a minor in possession of alcohol or breaking and entering into a vacant property for the purpose of seeking refuge from the cold. The crux of the complaint is that law enforcement should not "turn a blind eye to criminal conduct." But bar disciplinary committees do not deal in policy arguments; they apply ethical rules. Thus, the complaint tries to package its objections to Rollins' promises as violations of particular ethical rules. These claims are absurd. Prosecutors routinely refuse to prosecute crimes, and more of them should make public statements about which crimes they won't prosecute.
As just one example of the complaint's ridiculousness, the NPA asserts that Rollins violated Ethics Rule 3.8(f)(1). That rule forbids prosecutors from making comments outside of a courtroom that would prejudice a particular defendant in a particular case. How a candidate for DA—who is not yet a prosecutor—violates this rule by communicating what her general policies will be if she is elected is a complete mystery.
The NPA's main claim, though, is that Rollins' decision not to prosecute certain types of crimes violates her obligation to protect public safety. There is no ethics rule that requires prosecutors to protect public safety, however. To get around this, the NPA tries to shoehorn this public safety argument into the ethical rule forbidding prosecutors from bringing criminal charges without probable cause. Specifically, it argues that the rule also carries the implicit duty to bring charges whenever there is probable cause to support them.
That argument is also meritless—both as a matter of logic and of ethics. A rule does not imply its inverse, and the ethics rules are written narrowly for a reason. Nonetheless, the argument might sound intuitively appealing as a policy matter. But it's absolutely wrong on that front as well.
Criminal laws are written broadly, and prosecutors have limited resources to prosecute cases. It is both undesirable and impossible for prosecutors to bring charges every time the law is broken. Prosecutors have to make decisions about the types of cases they will charge, and which ones they won't. The law has long recognized that prosecutors have discretion not to charge a suspect despite having probable cause to believe that the suspect committed an offense. And prosecutors routinely exercise this discretion.
The argument is meritless—both as a matter of logic and of ethics
We got a glimpse of that discretion in 2016 when then FBI Director James Comey explained that, even if Hillary Clinton's behavior violated a federal law about mishandling classified information, it did not meet the internal criteria that the Department of Justice used for actually bringing charges in such cases. It is not just the federal government that declines to charge all crimes, of course. Professor John Pfaff has shown that, nationwide, prosecutors file charges in fewer than 60 percent of cases where a suspect is arrested.
Prosecutors often exercise their discretion on a case-by-case basis. But they also make categorical decisions not to enforce criminal laws. Sometimes they do so because they want to spend their limited resources fighting other types of crimes; sometimes they do so because the law simply no longer reflects current social values. Massachusetts is no exception.
Until this past July, Massachusetts outlawed unmarried sex. Needless to say, that law went unenforced. No reasonable person would say that prosecutors across the state acted unethically when they did not attempt to enforce that law.
Some might object that, even if an elected prosecutor has formal non-enforcement policies, she should not announce those policies to the public because it might encourage illegal behavior. For example, one might think that Rollins' statement that she is not going to prosecute minors who possess alcohol will lead to more teenage drinking. Significant research, however, suggests that this sort of reasoning is not borne out in practice.
The possibility of criminal enforcement is not the only, or even the main, reason that people obey the law. They worry about other, noncriminal consequences. Most teenagers who do not drink, for instance, are worried about getting good grades; their relationships with their parents, coaches, or friends; or even preserving their own self-image. They are generally not avoiding alcohol because they are worried about going to jail.
Public non-enforcement announcements also have affirmative benefits. They help ensure that law enforcement does not apply laws in an arbitrary or discriminatory fashion. If non-enforcement policies are made widely known, then defense attorneys and the general public can draw attention to cases where office policy is not being followed. This external scrutiny does not simply encourage prosecutors to obey the decisions of their elected bosses; it also helps to prevent law enforcement from using overly broad or rarely enforced laws as a pretext for racial or other discrimination.
More important, public announcements make prosecutors democratically accountable for their enforcement policies. All prosecutors make decisions not to enforce laws. But most do not publicize those decisions. These unannounced non-enforcement policies hinder the public's ability to make informed voting decisions or to give feedback to elected prosecutors about how they have chosen to use their discretion.
In announcing this list of crimes, Rollins has ensured some measure of legitimacy and accountability for her decisions. Reasonable people can disagree about the particular list of crimes Rollins has chosen not to enforce. But remember, Boston voters elected Rollins after she stated her policy. Voters in other parts of the country also live under similar nonprosecution policies, whether they are announced publicly or not.
The National Police Association hasn't identified an ethical lapse. What it's identified is a public official allowing her constituents to hold her accountable. That is something that we should celebrate, not condemn.
Criminal Justice Law Law Enforcement


A concert of music and readings in commemoration of the battles of the Western Front during the First World War. St Matthew's Anglican Church, Hastings, 17 June 2017.
Two special trans-Tasman concerts commemorating the First World War are being performed in Masterton just before Anzac Day 2017.
A concert of music, visual art, and readings in commemoration of the first Anzac Day. 23 April 2015 at St Matthew's Anglican Church in Hastings.


a teenage boy named william moves to a small town called sunridge. on his first day of school he attracts some unwanted attention from a gang of boys. William must save himself before these boys can carry out their terrible threats, but what happens when the gang won't give up until they have him.


In a political slander, lowlife Illinois Rep. Luis Guetierrez took aim at one of America's great veterans. John Kelly now White House Chief Of Staff took the fire from Guetierrez over the DACA decision by the President.
Most veterans today probably know about John Kelly's service to the country, and what the uniform represents. Certainly Gutierrez should rethink his comments about those who have served the country regardless.
Kelly responded to Gutierrez comments by saying, " As far as the congressman and other irresponsible members of congress are concerned, they have the luxury of saying what they want as they do nothing and have almost no responsibility." This according to Fox News.
And so does General Kelly.


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Q: shouldStartLoadwithRequest not getting called in iPad Pro I have a UIWebView object with the delegate set webView.delegate = self and  UIView <UIWebViewDelegate>
The following delegate call is getting called in all the iOS devices except the new iPad Pro with iOS 9.2.
   - (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView*)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest*)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType

Does anybody knows why is not working with this specific device?

A: Found the problem. The situation was that the server was using a Javascript library called NativeBridge in order to communicate with the iOS app UIWebView and this javascript library is not compatible with the iPad Pro.
Solution was to changed the NativeBridge library for another one more up to date on the server side.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Rodia Studios obviously changed hands since a review 3 years ago!
Get quick answers from Rodia Studios staff and past guests.
"Room 6 gets the BIG thumbs up!"
"The ones on the upper floor have some what of a view."


Crayford focusers have extremely smooth movements and do not require tight tolerances in production. I wanted a focuser for a 70mm refractor I was making with my six-year-old son. This focuser design replaces the ball-bearings with a PTFE tape surface, which makes it much easier to make. The PTFE on the aluminum draw tube is an idea from John Wall (the Crayford inventor).
The main part is a block of hardwood (cherry, from an old crib), 2.75"x2.75"x1" in dimensions. I used my drill press to drill out a 1.5" hole (A) in the middle for the 1.5" outer diameter aluminum focuser tube. I then drilled a second hole, 3/8" in diameter, all the way through from one side to the other (B), so that hole A and hole B would meet and overlap by 1/16". This second hole is for the focusing rod.
I drilled two more holes from one side to meet up with hole B (C and D) for adjustment screws that press on the focusing rod through PTFE pads, and tapped them to fit the adjustment screws simply by forcing a screw into the wood. These PTFE pads (E) are small strips of 1/16" PTFE, bent into a C-shape, with the back of the C facing the adjustment screws.
I purchased an 8" x 1" x 0.0045" strip of self-adhesive PTFE tape (F) on ebay from mousetape.com for about $3 shipped. I stuck a strip along one side of the focusing tube.
I then enlarged the 1.5" hole in the middle slightly. My method of doing this was to use a sanding drum mandrel in my drill press with a somewhat oversized sanding drum (which would stick out on both sides past the work piece), with the work piece resting on another piece of wood with a hole in it, which was on the drill press table. As a result, I could keep the work piece aligned at right angles to the sanding drum while moving it about so as to enlarge the hole. I enlarged the hole until it was about 1.56" in diameter. I then finished the exposed raw wood with Titebond II diluted with water and sanded. I stuck another strip of PTFE tape (G) inside the focuser hole, opposite where the focusing rod will go. Then I put it all together, and it worked just fine.
Eventually, I added knobs. I had some oak circles from using a hole saw on some piece of oak some time ago, and after sanding them (by putting on a bolt and spinning with a drill against a sanding block), I press-fitted them on the focusing rod. If it starts slipping, I'll drill a hole through the rod and knob and put in a screw.
And I added a screw on one end of the focuser tube as a stop, and I added a screw to hold the eyepiece. Because the focuser tube is only 2" long, so as not to compromise the length of movement, we drilled little depressions in the main block for the screws.
I had a bit of trouble with the wooden thread for one of the adjustment screws getting stripped. Treating the hole with CA glue helped, though.
The see-through diagram is not to scale.


Started thinking of redesigning Nice Beach Terrace Wildwood Nj #6 Beach Terrace Motel Wildwood Nj your home? One key suggestion in home makeover is to focus on remodeling that boost both the functionality and valuation on your dwelling as explained by Linda Young.
You can start by giving your yard quality landscape plan. Anyone enjoy looking at Nice Beach Terrace Wildwood Nj #6 Beach Terrace Motel Wildwood Nj flowers, especially in town locations. Cooler air and minimized noise pollution are some supplementary rewards to complement your eye-catching outdoor space.
Kitchen is the soul of a house, thus kitchen renovation is unquestionably good for the money. If you have outdated home appliances, it is best to update them with the new ones that are classified as more energy saving. A pull-out pantry, LED lighting, and more drawers are several in demand kitchen updates.
Even though it is always considerably extravagant for Beach Terrace Wildwood Nj, creating extra living space is a recommended makeover. You can consider setting up a portable garage, a second story, and also a basement.
Home upgrade Nice Beach Terrace Wildwood Nj #6 Beach Terrace Motel Wildwood Nj is a smart decision yet you should choose the right upgrade that gives significant result without making cracks in your pocket.


BoonToon June 4, 2014 February 19, 2019 1 Comment on Want To Know Appealing Raksha Bandhan Regional Names? Read This!
All of us know that Raksha Bandhan is celebrated all over India, and it has different histories and myths in various parts of India.So owing to this Raksha Bandhan has a truckload of local names, by which it is more popularly known to the people of different communities.
The significance of this particular festival also varies from region to region, which is not what you get to see or hear about other festivals.
but this festival has a whole different significance in the southern and the coastal parts of India.
In this blog, we are about to talk about the various local and regional names of Raksha Bandhan.
As already stated above, it has a truckload of names, but we thought of discussing the ones which are really good and would make for a good read. Without wasting any more time let us begin.
At number six is Avani Avittam or Upakarman. As you may have already guessed by reading the name, this name is mainly used in the southern parts of India which include Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Orissa, although in some parts.This day is said to be very important for the Brahmins, as all of them change their holy threads.
Despite the fact that Raksha Bandhan has a lot of regional names, the basic concept of the festival remains the same everywhere.
Nice to know the different names and believes of this festival.I was not aware of it anymore.I only knew that in the past once lady tie rakhi to man for and made him brother to protect her.So since then Indian girls tie rakhi to their brother's for their long life wishes and as guardian for them.I am amazed to know other culture and believes of people like Nariyal Purnima and Avani Avittam or Upakarman has totally different belives for the festival.But its so good that India is filled with so much of traditions.


TrajkovicKeypoint2D implements Trajkovic and Hedley corner detector on organized pooint cloud using intensity information.
It uses first order statistics to find variation of intensities in horizontal or vertical directions.
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References pcl::B, pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::clear(), pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::height, pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::is_dense, pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::push_back(), pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::reserve(), pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::size(), and pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::width.
Referenced by pcl::TrajkovicKeypoint2D< PointInT, PointOutT, IntensityT >::getNumberOfThreads().
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References pcl::TrajkovicKeypoint2D< PointInT, PointOutT, IntensityT >::detectKeypoints(), pcl::TrajkovicKeypoint2D< PointInT, PointOutT, IntensityT >::initCompute(), and pcl::PointCloud< PointT >::points.
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Separating the Art from the Artist Isn't Always Possible
The death of rock and roll producer Phil Spector once again raises discussion about how we deal with art that has become tainted by a disgraced creator.
Dogs Dance Competitively to Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller": Watch
The "International Freestyle Heelwork to Music" competition features dogs and their trainers dancing together.
Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch Sells for $22 Million
The estate had been on the market since 2015.
R.I.P. Bruce Swedien, Grammy-Winning Engineer of Michael Jackson Albums Dead at 86
Swedien also recorded Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughn, and more.
Paris Jackson Releases Debut Solo Single "Let Down": Stream
Michael Jackson's daughter will unveil her debut full-length album, Wilted, on November 13th.
Beastie Boys, Michael Jackson Get SiriusXM Channels
With additional channels dedicated to Queen, Coldplay, Prince, and Bob Marley.
Tiger King's Joe Exotic Says "I'll Be Dead In 2-3 Months"
Imprisoned Netflix celebrity also likens himself to George Floyd in three-page letter.
Madonna Mocked Over George Floyd Tribute Video
The reactions have admittedly been amusing.
Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk and David Cross Lead All-Star Sing-along of Weird Al's "Eat It": Watch
Featuring Bryan Cranston, Jack Black, Patton Oswalt, and the list goes on.


text:
Denmark recover to post first-up win
ICC Europe/CricketEurope
Denmark fought back from a shaky start against the Isle of Man to draw first blood in Group B with a 7-wicket victory at Preston Nomads' Henfield ground on Monday, while in the other morning fixture Belgium held on to post an 11-run win against Germany.
After winning the toss and electing to bat the Manxmen raced to 82 for one in the first twelve overs of their innings, opener Jaco Jansen (43) and Philip Littlejohns (39) putting on 69 for the second wicket before Jansen was caught behind by Fred Klokker off the bowling of Bobby Chawla.
Luke Lacey helped Littlejohns get the total up to 101 before he, too, fell to Chawla for a quick 15, and the Danish leg-spinner went on to claim two more wickets and finish with four for 23.
Lacey's departure was the trigger for a dramatic collapse, with six wickets falling in as many overs with the addition of just 17 runs. No-one else in the Manx side managed to reach double figures, and when Kamran Mahmood taking two wickets with the final two balls of the innings the final score was a disappointing 121.
Klokker began the Danish response with a brisk 21 from 15 deliveries, but then Daniel Hawke dismissed both the keeper and, four balls later, Aftab Ahmed, and Denmark wobbled for a moment at 29 for two.
Carsten Pedersen was batting confidently, however, and he and Kamran Mahmood proceeded to add 60 for the third wicket, putting their side firmly in command.
Arne van den Berg eventually claimed Mahmood's wicket for 22, but then Carsten Pedersen was joined by his brother Michael, and Denmark's most experienced batting pair saw their side safely home with 20 balls to spare. Carsten finished on 47, made from 41 deliveries with five fours and a six, while Michael made 18. Hawke finished with two for 24.
Germany started well against Belgium in the other Group B game, an early run-out, two wickets for Nafees Ahmad and one for Kashif Haider reducing the Belgians to 47 for four. But the innings, and perhaps the outcome of the match, turned on a crucial miss when hard-hitting Shaheryar Butt was on 6.
Butt took full advantage of his escape, smashing a 35-ball 55 which included two fours and five sixes and sharing a partnership of 91 with Manesh Krishnamoorthy. When Butt eventually departed Krishnamoorthy went on to a half-century as well, taking just 31 deliveries over his 52 before he was run out off the final ball of the innings, and Belgium closed on 163 for seven.
Germany were soon in trouble in their turn, and although most of their batsmen got a start none was able to gain the upper hand against a steady Belgian attack. Shahid Muhammad claimed two wickets and Faisal Khaliq three, but the final blow came from Shaival Mehta, who performed a hat-trick as the German side collapsed further to 106 for eight.
Nafees Ahmad and Kashif Haider offered some resistance towards the end, Haider top-scoring with an undefeated 24 from seven deliveries with two fours and two sixes, but the gap was too great and the innings ended on 152 for nine.


So let's talk a little about sampling.
Now if you've been listening to hip-hop - or really mainstream music at all throughout the past twenty years - you're well aware of this practice, taking a piece of music or sound and using it to build a different song, often warping or flipping it into something brand new in the process. But let's take this a step further, because normally when a hip-hop producer samples something, he adds to it with backbeats and a rapper to flow over it - the sample is not the only part of the composition.
Enter plunderphonics, a fantastic word that describes a narrow subgenre of music where the compositions are entirely composed to samples merged and twisted together so that the fragments barely resemble the original piece and come together for a brand new whole. And what's all the more surprising is that there is often so many samples in these compositions that many are often uncleared, which can lead to a legal nightmare and is the big reason why we don't really see many plunderphonic records, or when we do the samples are often innocuous, from out-of-print videos or music from decades past, long forgotten by everyone else. This takes us to The Avalanches, an Australian electronic group who released a plunderphonic record in 2000 called Since I Left You that would become critically acclaimed for its fusion of samples into a cinematic, world-crossing retro-disco experience. Now going back to relisten to this record... yes, for sure it's a very good record that demands a lot of attention, but I wouldn't say I quite loved it - I appreciated the emotive scope and real earnest power, but it does have its moments that drag and you'd like to think that The Avalanches would have a little more ambition in the final product to make more than 'string section disco', to paraphrase Robert Christgau. And yet from that point it has taken sixteen years to follow it with a new album called Wildflower, which was reportedly created to thematically recapture the euphoric feeling of summer roadtrips, mostly pushed through 60s psychedelic pop. Okay, bit of a smaller scale, but I was definitely intrigued - so did The Avalanches manage to deliver?
Okay, to explain my full thoughts around this record, you should all know some context, and that one of my favourite records of all time is Brian Wilson's SMILE, a passion project that many thought he'd never finish but was eventually released in 2004 to rave reviews that deserved beyond all measure. It is a pure pop record, touched with psychedelia and Americana in its conceptual roadtrip across the US but never compromising that childlike, borderline cartoonish optimism that Wilson made mean so much more. I say all of this because Wildflower reminded me a lot of SMILE with every listen, at least on the surface of the goofier textures and moments of raw optimism tempered with a deeper sadness that comes with chasing dreams your heart will never let go. And yet I don't think Wildflower pulls it off - it's definitely on the cusp of that, so close to capturing that magic... but it only gets there in snippets, some transcendent moments that unfortunately render much of the material around it so much retro kitsch. And look, you're not going to find more of an easy audience for that sort of sound than me... but this could have been magical instead of just very good, if only a shade away from pure greatness.
And to explain this, the first thing that needs to be noted is that this isn't a pure plunderphonics record - rap verses were specifically recorded for it from Danny Brown, Biz Markie, Camp Lo, AD.d+, and even MF Doom himself, plus there are added backing vocals from Toro y Moi, Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, Father John Misty, and even Ariel Pink himself - although good luck hearing either of them, as their voices are nearly buried within the swirling melodies and fidelities of this record. But the sample-heavy nature remains here, if anything going older than the retro-disco of Since I Left You to the psychedelic pop of the 60s and early 70s, with a fair few obvious Beatles samples to boot. And look, I admire the hell out of plunderphonics music, where the process and ability to fuse so many disparate elements together to make a new whole elevates the final work... which is why such obvious sampling can feel a bit distracting. Oh, don't get me wrong, the flow on 'Frankie Sinatra' of Danny Brown to MF Doom to a sample from 'My Favourite Things' is a great early highpoint on this record, especially all set against an instrumental interpolated from 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite' by The Beatles - all of that is awesome, but setting the bar that high only places lower points on this record in sharper comparison. Similar thing with the goofy chomps on 'The Noisy Eater' with national treasure Biz Markie, complete with vocal samples from 'Come Together' by The Beatles - it's garish and kooky with the horns, bass drum, beatboxing, bombastic strings, and even a theremin, but that sets a bar for outlandish energy and flair that most of this record struggles to recapture, particularly in the more psychedelic folk tracks. In fact, I'll go against the critical consensus and say that the hip-hop segments were nearly all absolutely great - between Danny Brown's manic energy, Camp Lo's New York swagger, and MF Doom's twisted flow, they helped ground this record in a way it desperately needed.
Now you might wonder why it'd need such grounding - hell, early on the record it can hold the balance between cartoonish flair and deeper pathos pretty effectively, even if I'm not always wild about how the songs can't keep a consistent fidelity of sampling. 'Because I'm Me' has the feel of a forgotten classic of New York hip-hop, and how it breaks into the grimier 'Frankie Sinatra' and the slightly more futuristic disco sparks of 'Subways' impressively grabs the atmosphere, even if the usage of child choruses repeatedly goes right to the line of kitsch. And when the slightly flat synth tone plays against the chimes, flute, and sounds of traffic that fades into the sandy psychedelia of 'If I Was A Folkstar' from Toro y Moi, I was on board. Where this record started to lose itself for me was Jonathan Donahue's crooning over 'Colours', complete with inverted samples, compression, and a LSD-soaked backdrop - not that it was bad, but that I got the feeling it was heading towards the airheaded hippie meandering that tends to be hit-and-miss for me. Sure, 'The Noisy Eater' deflected from that and I dug the spacey flourishes of the title track interlude, but then we have 'Harmony', which quite literally contains a sample from Sesame Street, which with the richer vocal harmonies and sleigh bells manages to just transcend being too saccharine for its own good. And then, right after Paris Pershun's rap verse, this record settles into an extended lull that desperately needs the sort of spark or shift in mood that 'Frontier Psychiatrist' brought to Since I Left You. Sure, I was thrilled to hear Danny Brown again on 'The Wozard of Iz' that goes against glassy fragments, heavy drums and an alien voice displaying magic and demanding surrender, but then the track gets lost in its own compression and a Shondells sample that didn't quite click with the rest of the track. And along with the sandy acoustics and banjo on 'Park Music', the clunky easy listening warbling of 'Sunshine' that got incredibly annoying in a hurry, and the glassy wonkiness of 'Kaleidoscopic Lovers', this album only breaks free of that lull with 'Stepkids', where I might not have liked Jennifer Herrema's vocals or that you could barely hear Warren Ellis' violin, but the lyrics at least tried to bring things back to earth.
And that's something that needs to be highlighted: if you can follow the sound effects, radio snippets and fragments of conversation between the psychedelic meandering, this is a road trip record, from the subways of New York to beaches along the coast, all of which seems to culminate in a spoken word piece from David Berman at the end of the album on 'Saturday Night Inside Out' which seem to imply a long lost reconnection that might be fleeting but inspires so much more... that I wish the music could remotely pay off. Sure, with the liquid guitars and chimes and sandy percussion against the ebbing, stuttering tides of lo-fi melody, it has the mark of an Ariel Pink-esque dramatic climax, and yet it doesn't stick the landing, instead just fading out into a long twenty seconds of silence with nothing to really bring it together. And that kind of undercuts the dramatic impact for me - for as much as there are grounding, more gritty moments, there's an element of wistfulness that only comes through sporadically that this record desperately needs to transcend the kitsch of it all.
So look, please take this review with a grain of salt, because I desperately wanted to love this album. There are points that were always going to hold me back - the seams of the plunderphonics formula tend to bug me, because even despite great transitions the fidelity and compression shifts did get on my nerves - but this album could have transcended that if it had a little more grit and dramatic momentum. And sure, parts of Since I Left You had similar issues in terms of stakes, but you got the feeling the glitz was overshadowing a deeper heartbreak and connection that had real pathos, whereas here it was more ephemeral, and that meant it didn't quite connect as well. As such, while I'm giving this a strong 7/10, I definitely encourage you all to check this out: it's the sort of rare release that definitely deserves a ton of attention and there really are some transcendent moments that I found incredibly enjoyable. And hell, if it took The Avalanches sixteen years to make this, I'd argue it was mostly worth the wait.


Manifested visions reflect the holistic health of the visionary. Herbs can improve health in many ways because their mode of action is holistic, smart, and compatible with life.
In written record, the study of herbs dates back over 5,000 years to the Sumerians who created clay tablets with lists of hundreds of medicinal plants. Chinese Medicine is the second largest medical system in the world based on herbal treatments and acupuncture. Ayurveda is the third largest herbal medical system.
Herbalists treat and prevent disease through the use of whole plants having medicinal properties. Many modern day medicines are derived from whole plants, but only the medicinally active part of the plant is used. As a result, undesirable side effects often accompany the use of modern day pharmaceuticals.


Do you know the old saying "if a customer will step in your shop his dust is your profit"? An aluminum sidewalk sign would help you convince the customers to step in your shop so you can profit from his "dust".
Whether you are running a restaurant, a hotel, a real estate company, a bakery, or any kind of commercial store, you can display your deals inside or outside your facility with an a frame poster frame. Being double sided, the 30 inch x 40 inch sandwich board with headers provide you just enough space to display diversified messages on each side.
Front loading snap open system makes it practical to display and update your graphics. The anti-reflex cover helps protect the 30" x 40" graphics from wear and tear as well as providing a reflection free view. Featuring a silver finish, the sidewalk sign would fit to any design in any environment.
Get this pavement sidewalk sign and enjoy fast delivery at no extra cost!


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Mean Megan Milks
"Being a bitch is spectacular"—memoirist Myriam Gurba confronts a world of sexual abuse.
Mean, by Myriam Gurba, Coffee House Press, 175 pages, $16.95
"Being mean makes us feel alive," Myriam Gurba writes in her new book, the memoir Mean. "It's fun and exciting. Sometimes, it keeps us alive." Rooted in her experience growing up a queer mixed-race Chicana in a world structured by whiteness, straightness, and misogyny, Gurba's particular meanness is confrontational, deliberate, and very, very funny. She goes for the throat, then bats the reader playfully on the head.
Mean follows two volumes of short fiction, most recently, Painting Their Portraits in Winter. Whether working with Mexican folk tales (like La Llorona, the weeping ghost mother, whom Gurba imagines crossing the border into the US in "The Chaperones") or Sylvia Plath (in "The Time I Rewrote the First Two Pages of The Bell Jar from a Melodramatic Chicana Perspective and Named It The Taco Bell Jar"), the warmly irreverent stories in these collections bridge both cultural traditions and fictional modes. Gurba, who has toured with Sister Spit, Michelle Tea's troupe of queer writers, is also known as a dynamite performer, delivering wit and audacity in equal doses.
Mean is pure Gurba: brazen, ballsy, and grinning. But Gurba's first memoir is also poised to be a breakout book—a work that, like Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water, will likely catapult its author out of the small world of experimental-ish short fiction and into a much larger readership. Gurba's memoir fuses realism, fabulism, and formal experimentation with elements of true crime, refashioning the genre into something singularly new. Equal parts vulnerability and provocation, the book is a poem by Judy Grahn performed by Sarah Silverman to the tune of Margaret Cho's "I Wanna Kill My Rapist."
Structured in loosely sequential sections of irregular length—some very short riffs, some longer chapters—Mean begins and ends with the story of Sophia Torres, a young woman who was raped and murdered by the same man who had earlier sexually assaulted Gurba, in the summer after her first year of college. In between, Gurba covers a lot of ground, charting her own coming of age: from growing up "Molack" (Mexican Polack) and becoming aware as a child "that white people are white people and that that's not necessarily a good thing" to dealing with her sister's anorexia in high school and discovering feminist artist Hannah Wilke in college. What stitches all this together is Gurba's burgeoning awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse in the world around her—and her cultivation of meanness as a response to it.
"Being a bitch is spectacular," Gurba asserts, before launching into a discussion of what she calls "the queer art of being mean." Drawing on drag culture as depicted in the film Paris Is Burning, she offers a crash course in shade, a "high art." Gurba's own mean streak shows up most often through broad comedy (broad as in bawdy, and broad as in female-centered) and language play.
Her gleefully crass images arrive with a jolt: cunts are described as "chipmunks"; a running teacher's "breasts dog-paddled in her muumuu." She produces similarly indelicate effects with diction, often cramming her sentences with deliberately clunky language: she and her classmates "Hitler Youthfully" obey the teacher; a stylist "Joan of Arcly" cuts her hair. Popping up absurdly in otherwise taut sentences, these awkwardly formed adverbials call attention to themselves with a smirk. Other word choices produce more unnerving effects. For example, in the very first scene, in the midst of imagining Sophia's rape and murder in lyrical prose, Gurba swaps in the word "corn" for "penis," inserting an uneasy tackiness into an otherwise sober moment: "His slack corn slides out of her." The word choice insists on ugliness. It's wincing and painful. It hurts to read.
If Gurba's sentences can be elegant, they rarely stay that way for long—they're invariably uglified or camped with an abrupt tonal shift. In this way, Gurba's mean streak unsettles not just social but aesthetic propriety. If the dominant mode of literary prose is realism characterized by quiet, meaningful details, Gurba goes for vulgarity and volume. Occasionally her riffs fall flat for me—there are a couple of AIDS jokes that I don't exactly disapprove of but maybe just don't get. This, though, is part of her project too: to trace the limits and effects of bad taste.
In exploring the possibilities of meanness, Gurba distinguishes it from other forms of cruelty. "I'm mean," she writes, "but I'm not so mean that I've ever raped anybody. . . . That's a special kind of mean." Throughout the book, Gurba describes a world shaped by the ubiquity of sexual violence: "Rape is in the air. Rape is in the sky." She grew up near Michael Jackson's Neverland, we learn; her rapist was tried in the same court that Jackson was. A classmate's father is accused of molesting children, including, potentially, the classmate who molested her in junior high. Even Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," she tells us, "was originally a kind of rapey song meant to be sung by a guy." Gurba makes connections between all these instances of abuse.
As she does so, she also captures the heady thrill of adolescence: of ditching school in the company of other (mean) girls, of coming into her own as a baby dyke and young artist at Berkeley. The memoir's middle third sags a bit as it moves through high school and into college with slice-of-life scenes (her friend's youth group, dorm move-in) and some very short sections (a sentence summing up a summer in Mexico, for example) that are entertaining if restlessly lightweight. But when they get supplanted by the shock of assault and its aftermath, of course we want them back.
"Guilt is a ghost," Gurba repeats several times. Hovering over the book's burbling laughter is Sophia's ghost and Gurba's survivor's guilt. The riffs keep coming, but they're laced with injury and rage. Henri Bergson famously described laughter as "a momentary anesthesia of the heart," a coldness that is pure intellect. Gurba's comedy is sometimes that—deploying detachment as a kind of survival strategy. More often her punch lines are punches, and they land.
Megan Milks is the author of Kill Marguerite and Other Stories, winner of the 2015 Devil's Kitchen Reading Award in Fiction and a Lambda Literary Award finalist, as well as three chapbooks, most recently The Feels, an exploration of fan fiction and affect. Milks is fiction editor at The Account, and editor of the books The &NOW Awards 3: The Best Innovative Writing, 2011–2013 and Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives.
"Being a bitch is spectacular"—memoirist Myriam Gurba confronts a world of sexual abuse


The first underwater state park in the United States, Pennekamp covers 70 nautical miles of coral reefs (a small portion of America's only living coral reef), seagrass beds, and mangrove swamps. The park offers swimming, snorkeling, picnicking, camping, fishing, and boat ramp access. Concessions at the park offer glass bottom boat tours, a snorkeling tour, scuba lessons and tours, canoeing, motorboats, and sailboat rental.


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Kennet Side pavement to close for 13 weeks for canal wall repairs
Work starts next week on replacing the retaining wall along a town centre stretch of the Kennet and Avon Canal
Linda Fort
A 75-metre stretch of pavement in Kennet Side will close while the canal retaining wall is replaced (Image: Google Maps)
Work to replace a retaining wall on an important canal-side pedestrian and cycle route into the town centre starts next week.
A 75-metre stretch of the retaining wall at Kennet Side will be replaced in a project starting on Monday, September 21, expected to last 13 weeks.
Starting at its junction with Sidmouth Street in Reading town centre and running eastwards, the project will include the excavation of part of the existing footpath and the construction of a concrete anchor wall directly behind the existing canal retaining wall. The existing canal wall and pedestrian parapet guardrails will be retained, with the footpath reconstructed and resurfaced at the end of the project.
To keep the works to a minimum and to keep the public area safe, the stretch of footpath/cycleway next to the works area will be closed while the repairs take place.
Access over the nearby Gunter's Brook Footbridge will be kept open throughout the works.
Pedestrians will be able to use the nearby pavement on the south side of the road in Kennet Side, which runs parallel with the Kennet. Cyclists will be able to use the existing adjacent carriageway going west, but will have to dismount going east or find an alternative route.
Advance notice boards have gone up in the area and letters will be sent out by Reading Borough Council this week to people living nearby telling them of the works.
Councillor Tony Page, lead member for strategic environment, planning and transport, said: "The Kennetside retaining wall is more than 120-years-old which means this essential work is necessary in stretches in order to maintain a key pedestrian and national cycleway into the heart of Reading. Any inconvenience or disruption the repairs may cause are being kept to a minimum."
Anyone who would like more information can call Sarah Warren on 0118 937 2943 or email bridges@reading.gov.uk.
What is your view? Comment below
Reading Borough Council
Tony Page
Cycling in Reading


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Racism and Targeting in Lawrence – Commissioner Roger Twomey Answers Allegations
"I believe that the only way Willie Lantigua can get political power is to control people who truly don't know what is going on. He constantly stirs the pot of hate for his own political maneuvering. He doesn't really seem to care who he hurts in the process, either." ~Lawrence Licensing Commissioner Roger Twomey.
By: Tom Duggan – June, 2005
"Lawrence Mayor Mike Sullivan recently fired Lawrence Licensing Commissioner Roger Twomey after he conducted an inspection of Adam Cyber Café, a campaign contributor of State Representative Willie Lantigua."
"In order for him to be legally fired, however, the city council had to approve it. The council held two heated and contentious hearings, finally voting five to three not to fire Twomey."
"Representative Lantigua took to the radio airwaves calling Twomey a racist and claimed that he and his contributors were being targeted because of their race."
"The Boston press, the Eagle-Tribune and several local radio stations all approached Commissioner Twomey for an interview. Twomey, however chose to give The Valley Patriot an exclusive."
State Representative Willie Lantigua says you have it out for him. Is that true?
"I do not hold any animosity towards Willie Lantigua at all. I'll tell you why. Going back to 2003, I had requested that Willie go before the legislature to see what he could do about changing some sections of Mass. General Law (Section 140), specifically dealing with food, common victualers and used cars to see if he could increase the fees…and he did. The other legislators went along and they got it passed. So it's not that I have anything at all against Willie Lantigua."
So why was (is) he out to get you?
"This all goes back to the inspection of Cyber Café in July of 2004."
"They were telling people it was OK to drink outside and the license doesn't allow it. Lantigua was having an event with Israel Reyes at the time and they got caught breaking the law."
(see pictures above)
"They were saying, "it's OK to drink outside." So you had a State Representative and a City Councilor who took an oath to uphold the law and here they were breaking it. I think he was just embarrassed that he got caught."
"After that he applied for a one-day permit at Adam Cyber Café. They wanted to have drinking outside the club after being caught the first time. The owners of Cyber Café had not yet come before the commission for the July infraction. And the law says you cannot have two liquor licenses in one spot."
"So we gave them the option to have the one-day license separate from where the Cyber Café is located. We were only asking that they move it down Common Street a little to be in compliance with the law. But they didn't want to do that. They wanted it right in front of Cyber Café and that's against the law. So we denied the application."
Tell me how this most recent incident at Adam Cyber Café happened.
"Well, we got the anonymous tip weeks before we did the inspection. The person who called said that there was a "Primo's Liquor" delivery truck outside Adam Cyber Café. Now, under state law you can only purchase alcohol from a state-licensed distributor. You can't just go to the package store and stock up your club. So, I called Gene (Lawrence Police officer Gene Hatem) and said I wanted to go investigate."
"But Gene was very busy investigating the shooting over at Jubilee. I called him again on the week of the 24th and he said he would call me back the following week and he did. That next Wednesday he said he was available the next night. I agreed, after having to rearrange my schedule, and I met Gene downtown the night we did the inspection."
So what happened when you got there? Lantigua says you embarrassed him during a fundraiser.
"When we got there, there were two people behind the bar and two others whom I assumed were patrons. That was it. There was no function going on when we did the inspection. We were there no more than fifteen minutes. In fact, people who arrived during the inspection didn't even know what was going on."
"When we left, there were about eight people present and there was still no function going on, though it looked like they were setting up for something. If Willie Lantigua hadn't gone to the media to spin his story, there would have been no embarrassment because nobody would have known why we were there or that we were even there at all. He let that cat out of the bag. I wasn't calling the radio and issuing statements; that was Mr. Lantigua."
"Willie was just taking advantage of the situation because he wants to get rid of me over what happened last July when they were allowing people to drink outside in violation of their liquor license."
(Editor's note: Lantigua vowed back in July of 2004 to "get Roger Twomey" in front of a Valley Patriot reporter.)
How many previous violations has Cyber Café had before this last incident?
"They've had a few. I would have to check the files to get you an exact number. Some of them had to do with serving alcohol to minors. They were involved in a sting operation with the Lawrence Police. I really had nothing to do with it."
You say you got a tip from a source who wished to remain anonymous. Why wouldn't you give up the name of who told you that Adam Cyber Café was illegally buying alcohol from Primo's Liquors? Especially when City Attorney Charles Boddy said you were required to do so.
"That's just not true. What Attorney Boddy was talking about at the hearing was: if the informant was working as an agent of the licensing board or the police, then they have to be named. But if they are not, they don't have to be exposed and I will not divulge the source because I gave my word that I wouldn't. I am going to keep my word."
How many times has Willie Lantigua injected himself into local licensing issues and attended the appeals hearings of liquor establishments?
"Well, he came down to speak in favor of Punto Finale at the ABCC level. There were two incidences at Punto Finale, right outside the club. One on a Friday night, the other on a Saturday night. There were shootings, there were knives, there was a huge riot outside. This was in 2004."
"As a matter of fact, the man who owns the funeral home next door still has bullet holes in his house showing where his daughter almost got shot because of what was going on outside Punto Finale. And because this went on two nights in a row, we felt it was a safety issue. So, we gave them a thirty-day suspension."
"They appealed it before the ABCC and Willie Lantigua spoke in favor of Punto Finale. He gave some phony story about some clubs nearby, saying these incidents happened because of the other clubs, which is a bunch of baloney. The ABCC overturned our suspension basically because it didn't take place inside the club's licensed premises. Well, I still disagree with that. We sometimes consider the licensed premises the sidewalk outside the club. Willie Lantigua went against the city and advocated for the club. It was a very serious public safety concern."
Do you think Willie Lantigua was targeting you because you were white?
"The only reason Willie was targeting me was because of the incident at Cyber Café in 2004. I think he was embarrassed. Willie, as everyone knows, doesn't like to be embarrassed."
What do you think about Willie Lantigua's comments on the radio, that you are a racist and you were doing this for racially motivated reasons?
"I believe that the only way Willie Lantigua can get political power is to control people who truly don't know what is going on. He constantly stirs the pot of hate for his own political maneuvering. He doesn't really seem to care who he hurts in the process, either."
"You know, it was very difficult for me to hear people who don't even know me saying that I hate anyone. I have always dealt with people fairly no matter their ethnicity. I think it's important for people to understand that 99 percent of the people I deal with every day in this job are Latino. They are wonderful people. I have a great working relationship with almost all of them. They are so nice and I have never had to deal with this kind of personal attack on my character before. It was really disheartening."
So you have never had any problems with anyone who is Latino?
"The only ones that have ever complained are the ones who think they can break the law and get away with it. But they are few and far between. I will say this about Willie Lantigua as far as his interference on this goes; the best thing that Willie Lantigua can do for his constituents is to tell them to comply with the law, rather than telling them to break the law and appeal it later. He took an oath of office and that kind of behavior is just unacceptable. I wouldn't give special favors to my friends or my family and I certainly am not going to bend the rules for Willie Lantigua. It has nothing to do with race; it has to do with me doing my job and doing it fairly."
Tell me about this meeting that you had in the mayor's office, where you supposedly refused to be in the same room with Willie Lantigua.
"Well, that's another thing that has been distorted. I had to close the La Tambora Restaurant for health reasons and they didn't have a license. The owner was told in 2004 to fix a problem by inspectional services. He ignored that request and was operating illegally because he could not renew his license for the year 2005."
"After the first of the year, I have a list of businesses that have not renewed their licenses and it's my job to visit those establishments. Willie Lantigua somehow got involved and I got a call from the mayor's office. I was asked to explain why this happened. So we had a meeting with Commissioner Ganley (from inspectional services). Myles Burke and Tom Schiavone were also there. Mr. Nunez from La Tambora was present along with Mr. Lantigua."
"I told Representative Lantigua that there was really no need for him to be there. I was polite. This was not to be insulting or anything like that."
"I knew that the building inspector and I had done everything legal and there was nothing at all Mr. Lantigua could do except to advise his friend Mr. Nunez to bring his establishment into compliance with the law. Nobody at that meeting spoke in favor of Willie Lantigua staying for the meeting. If the mayor's aide Myles Burke had requested that he stay, I wouldn't have denied his request. I just didn't see any need for a State Representative with no official authority in the matter to be in on the discussion."
"Willie stood up at the beginning of the meeting and said, 'for the record, Mr. Twomey has asked me not to be present here,' and he left. That was it. Now he is saying that I objected to being in the same room with him, which is utter nonsense. As it happened, the La Tambora issue was settled, the building inspector went out the very next day and the restaurant had everything it needed in place. When the owner came in that day, we renewed his license."
With all this going on with Cyber Café, La Tambora, the meeting in the mayor's office, etc., did it seem like Willie was trying to interfere?
I don't know if he was trying to interfere with the La Tambora incident. There was really nothing that he could do. I'm not even sure why he was there. This was between the city and the business owner. As for Cyber Café, I think he overstepped his bounds by making comments to the owners that it is perfectly OK to go ahead and break the law, and 'we'll settle it later when we go before the licensing commission.' That's what doesn't make sense to me. The same thing with Israel Reyes."
Did Mike Sullivan ever call you into his office to tell you he was firing you? Did he ever speak to you face-to-face and ask you your side of the story?
No. He never did. Not only did he not show up that night of the hearing, he didn't have the courtesy to speak to me personally about it beforehand.
What happens now, if you get a call tomorrow that Adam Cyber Café or any of Willie's other campaign contributors are doing something illegal? Do you feel gun-shy about going back there to do an inspection? I imagine that would be pretty hard after all this.
No. Not at all. Not even a little. I have a job to do and I am going to do it. I can't control what anyone else does. Now I will tell you we have still not resolved the issue at Adam Cyber Café. We took an inventory of their liquor and if they cannot come in to the board with receipts proving they purchased their liquor from a licensed distributor with dates, etc., then the board will have to decide some kind of penalty. I can tell you that they are saying there is a new owner over there, and I'm not sure how that can be when the law clearly states that before a liquor license is sold, it has to be approved by the licensing board.
You know, you can't just go around selling a liquor license, buying liquor from unlicensed package stores and do whatever you want in this city. Liquor establishments have to follow the law like everyone else. When Adam's comes before the board on this last incident I am going to question them about the new ownership issue. Before any transaction takes place on that license, it has to be approved and it hasn't been.
Tom Duggan is president and publisher of The Valley Patriot Newspaper in North Andover, Massachusetts. He is an author, host of the Paying Attention TV/Radio Program, lectures on media bias and police issues, is a former Lawrence School Committeeman, former political director for Mass. Citizens Alliance, and a 1990 Police Survivor. You can email your comments to valleypatriot@aol.com.
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As Canberra booms, country lovers seek refuge in our surrounds
10 April 2019 | Rachel Ziv
A growing number of people are choosing towns offering an enviable balance between city life and country living.
There's no denying Canberra has grown in leaps and bounds over the past two decades, and now boasts its highest ever population and an enviable title of the most liveable city in Australia.
But the evolution of our once small country town does not appeal to everyone, with a growing number of people choosing to find refuge in neighbouring towns offering an enviable balance between city life and country living.
Interest in properties in Canberra's close surrounds – from Sutton to Queanbeyan, Braidwood and Bungendore – has skyrocketed with larger blocks, lower prices, and a short drive to the city all major calling cards.
Ryan Broadhurst, Real Estate Agent from Belle Property Kingston, says demand has been so strong that it has led their team to establish a second location in Queanbeyan where they can provide a dedicated service to these clients.
"Our office in Kingston has been open since 2016, and in the past year we've seen a huge increase in clients coming to us from Queanbeyan and surrounding towns. It made sense for us to open a second location there, simply to offer a better service on the ground to those who want to buy or sell in the area."
Belle Property opened a new office at 112 Monaro Street, Queanbeyan to better serve the local community.
The new Belle Property Queanbeyan office opened this month on Monaro Street in Queanbeyan's main strip. A number of established Queanbeyan agents have opted to move from other agencies to join Belle, citing a great team and premium branding among other perks.
"We pride ourselves on having a great internal culture, and being really involved in the communities we work in," says Ryan. "Aaron Papahatzis and Christine Fowler have both worked extensively in the region and achieved record-breaking prices for sellers. That's also a testament to the current market – it's become the coveted lifestyle to be able to work in Canberra and live on acres of country land."
The Belle Property Queanbeyan team.
Ryan adds that it's been really exciting for the existing Kingston team to be part of the expansion, and be able to bring Belle Property's unique approach to areas traditionally dominated by legacy real estate sales methods.
"We know real estate is changing, and you can't help buyers find the perfect home or sellers sell their home using only what worked 15 years ago. For example, social media is in everyone's hands right now so it's become an important vehicle for effective real estate marketing.
"With that in mind, we have invested in a truly modern approach including utilising a specialist social media company from Sweden to help maximise exposure of the properties we list."
Now having the two offices (Kingston and Queanbeyan), Ryan says clients who list in either also receive exposure across both.
"The idea that you can live 15 minutes from the city – which is a shorter commute than some people who live in Canberra take every day – while living on a large, established property is an opportunity we are very lucky to have in the ACT. And I absolutely look forward to helping more people make that tree change and reap the benefits for themselves and their families."
For more information about Belle Property's new office in Queanbeyan, visit Belle Property or call them on (02) 6103 0341.
This is a sponsored article, though all opinions are the author's own. For more information on paid content, see our sponsored content policy.
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