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Master the Key: Mike Flynn
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Our next book is a bit of a deviation from our usual type of non-fiction, but it's very, very, very cool. The great Lou Holtz refers to it as a must read, and Mel Robbins calls it "an inspiring story." Then others have said it's a fictional story that leads the readers to truth. It's called Master the Key. Its author is our guest today, Mike Flynn.
Mike Flynn: I am a second-generation entrepreneur, part of a family business that when I was growing up, I swore I would never join. Yet I did, 15 years ago. I've been a financial adviser for the last 15 years, and my book has nothing to do with being a financial adviser or money management, or anything like that.
If you think this is another financial adviser pitching a book, you can stop, because this is not that. This is an outcome of my own journey of reflection. The word reflection, to reflect literally means to bend back time, or direct light or heat onto something.
What I was feeling in myself and seeing in the world was just a need to really gain a mastery over my identity, who I was created to be, so that I could truly have the impact that I wanted to have and that I believed I was capable of having in the world.
I believe that each of us are created and willed into existence by a God who loves us and wants the best for us. Through that, we can do more than we can possibly think, ask for or imagine. We have these experiences in our life that shape us, that mold us, not necessarily in the best ways if we're not taking ownership of it.
Back in 2015, I started out of my own need and my own journey a podcast of my own, called The Impact Entrepreneur Show, where I would interview people and learn from the various impact moments of their life, the stories of their lives and how they used their impact moments to have a game-changing impact in the lives of others.
What I discovered in that was that people who really were having a massively positive impact in the world, they didn't just ask questions—when they experienced adversity and challenges, they didn't just ask the question, "Why is this happening to me?" What they started to do was also ask questions like, "How was this happening for me?"
Through my own journey of reflection, what I've come to understand and believe is that the key to unlocking our potential, to finding meaning into living a life on purpose is actually by mastering our identity. That is the key. Instead of writing another non-fiction book about potential and purpose and performance and all of those things, I decided to teach these principles in a fictional story that will lead readers back to the truth that already dwells in them.
The title of the book is Master the Key. The key being our identity and a story to free our potential, find meaning, and live life on purpose. We can talk more about what that key and what our identity is comprised of, if you would like.
Teaching through Story
Rae Williams: I would love to know a little bit of your journey and what your story is. Because as I understand, it teaches these lessons in a very unique way—stories that are not necessarily based on people, correct?
Mike Flynn: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, every character in any story, fiction or non-fiction, is based on a shred of truth. Each one of these—there's several main characters in the book. The main character is Steve. I'll tell you a little bit more about him in a second. The main mentor is a gentleman that we refer to as The Janitor. For most of the book, you find out what his real name is at the end of the book. I'm not going to spoil that.
Then there is Chas Cho, a guy named Fidel, and another guy named Bill Cooper and some supporting characters along the way who you meet, and all have an influence in the book. Another character named Angelica, who is the Janitor's deceased wife, who plays an important role early in the book.
The character of Steve starts out based on my own story. In order to develop that character, I use my own experience to a certain degree. I extrapolate on it. I embellish it for the story. The bottom line is that when I started out my career as a financial advisor 15 years ago—and Steve in the book is a financial advisor—I was really successful right off the bat. I enjoyed all of the trappings that came with that success, that financial success.
I had checked off all of the boxes. I was married to my childhood sweetheart. I had two beautiful daughters. We had just closed escrow in August of 2007 on our first home and I was just loving life, right? I didn't start out in this business with the idea of being distracted by the money, right?
When I decided to join the family business that I swore I would never join, it was because I wanted to have a significantly positive impact in the lives of others.
I've always had that desire and that passion and that sense that I wanted to do that for people and for the good of the world.
When I looked at different career paths to do that, one of them was the financial services. I saw the impact that my dad had had in the lives of his clients and the community. I said, "You know what? I could do that."
I started out in the career with that altruistic motivation but quickly became overwhelmed by money, right? I mean, the money became a distraction, so to speak. My identity, my sense of self-worth became attached to the outcome of the things that money would get me: house, status, bank account, all of that stuff.
In August of 2007 we closed escrow on our first house. Then in November of that year, November of 2007, I remember that month in particular, because I made $200 that month, okay? The winds in the sails were beginning to change and I didn't quite know what was going on.
I started my career in 2005. By 2008, we were in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
I was still really new in my business. I did not have a tremendous amount of recurring revenue. All of my business was based on new business. I was paralyzed, as were a lot of my clients. I didn't necessarily know how to advise them through this dark time that we were experiencing as a society and as a culture and as a global economy.
Much of my clients' identity and self-worth, as well as my own was attached to money, which is why we're so emotional about it.
My own story, how it comes to play in the book, is that by 2009, I had blown up my health. My health was out of whack, my relationship with my spouse was out of whack. My relationship with God was out of whack, with my family, with my clients, everything was out of whack.
It was a morning in 2009, I was working from home and I can remember this I was sitting at a green desk looking out the window with my two young daughters who were my oldest at that time was two and a half, or three and my youngest was 18 months, something like that. Yes, they're close together.
My youngest was sitting on the floor watching Little Einsteins, I can hear the theme song playing in the background. She was crying, because her sippy cup was over on the stairs and she wanted me to go get it. I did.
I got up from the green desk, looking out the window at the cul-de-sac, I walked over to the stairs, I bent down, and all of a sudden, I was on the floor. At the time, I felt I was having a heart attack or I didn't know what was going on; turns out that I completely had thrown out my back.
Here I am, my wife's gone, she's out of the house at the gym, I don't have my cellphone with me, I'm home alone with my two young daughters, I'm on the floor in excruciating pain, I can't move, I don't know what's going on.
Fortunately, I was able to communicate to my oldest daughter and she brought the house phone over. I couldn't get a hold of my wife. I called my mother and she had to come over and pick up her 250-pound son off of the floor and take him to urgent care, where fortunately they determined I wasn't having a heart attack and I just threw out my back.
That was a wake-up call for me, that I could no longer do things the way that I was doing them. Things had to change. That was where the seed broke through the ground, if you will. It took a lot more nurturing and watering of that seed for it to truly come into a blossom. That really started to blossom in 2015 when I started The Impact Entrepreneur Show, and I continued to tease that out and to explore and to journey and to write and to think and to talk with people and to share my heart with people and my wounds with people. And to speak to therapists and all of these things.
These stories, these elements of our identity started to come to the surface. I began writing this book in January of 2018. Man, it just came out like a flood. I finished the first draft on my birthday of September 19th, 2018. It's been off to the races ever since.
Mastering Adversity
Rae Williams: What is identity and what is the crisis that most people face with their identity that they need to master the key?
Mike Flynn: Can I tell you a story that I think might help? Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
Rae Williams: I have actually. I've been through about six.
Mike Flynn: So I'm from California. I'm from Santa Cruz, California and there was a very large earthquake in 1989.
The story behind that is I was 10-years-old and it's just before 5 p.m. and my mom had just come home from the grocery store. She had all these bags of groceries that we were going to unload, but she had to leave and go pick up my sister from an after-school sports program and she said, "Michael, do not open that bag of Doritos."
I said, "Okay, mom. I won't open that bag of Doritos." As soon as she got back in the car and drove off, I opened that bag of Doritos and no less than one second later, the entire world starts shaking. My good old Irish Catholic guilt says that it's my fault. I opened up this bag of Doritos and God is smiting me, right? This earthquake happened, right?
I ran out. I ran out of the house and I fall on my knees and I start praying the Our Father. I see everybody else is around. The whole world is shaking. My mom is kicking the tires on our van, because she thinks the transmission blew.
I share that story, because we learned recently actually is that when earthquakes can actually instantaneously cause gold to develop deep within the surface.
Many times, in our lives we have these earthquakes, big and small, in our lives that without us really even knowing, create gold deep within our soul. It's up to us to go and excavate it.
In the story Master the Key, the janitor teaches Steve this lesson by taking him down to his wine cellar. In his wine cellar, he has all of these bottles of wine laid out on bookshelves, not wine racks but bookshelves. What he teaches Steve is that each bottle is a manuscript, a story, just like us.
If you think about vines for a minute, have you ever been to a winery or walked through a vineyard before? If you think about this, vines are stretched, they're knotted, they're ugly, they're exposed to all of the elements; sun, wind, rain, cold, fog, rocky soil, clingy soil, they even let weeds grow around it in the offseason. Yet it produces this great fruit, right?
Then the farmer comes and they come along and they pluck that fruit and they crush it and they ferment it and it gets put into a glass. What do we do with that, Rae? We toast each other with it.
All of that adversity ends up in a glass that we toast each other with.
What I teach in the book is that we each possess the ability to go into our own cave and to look at the adversity of our life and discover its fruit and begin to master the key by first, believing that we are worthy of a why.
Pop culture, pop psychology, messages that it's really important for us to find our why, right? I totally agree with that. I totally agree that it's important to find our why, to find our purpose. Before you can find your why, you must believe that you are worthy of one to begin with.
Where We Get Lost
Rae Williams: What happens when people aren't doing this?
Mike Flynn: Well, we ended up doing something that somebody else says we should have done, right? We end up doing something that we think we're passionate about, but not necessarily willing to suffer for. We walk around the world holding someone else's light and not letting our own shine.
A lot of men in particular I think can relate to this, because we have issues around our own fathers, right? We have issues around our parents who love us, most of them anyway love us and want the best for us. Out of fear of failure, they don't allow their kids to blossom into who they were created to be. Not the version that the parents think they should be. This is a great struggle for a lot of men in particular, but women as well.
I've had women who have reached out to me who have read the book and who for the first time, understanding that their gifts, the way that they've been using their gifts might actually just be an expression of what their gifts really are. It's about taking off other people's armor, other people's stories that they've projected on you and stepping into who you were created to be—and it's not a fast process, okay?
This is not an overnight process. This is a process that requires work. It requires you to reflect.
People often say don't spend time reflecting on the past. Don't think about the past. Just move forward on and don't think about the past. Don't think about your mistakes. I actually think that's partially bad advice.
I think there's great power in intentionally directing light and heat onto something and taking the energy from it and using it. I think it's incredibly powerful to do that.
In the book after each of the main parts, there is a section where you get to experience the main character's reflection in a journal entry. Then you the reader actually get to experience the same reflection and response questions that main character had to answer in his journal—a question like, "What parts of my story have I struggled to own and why?"
First Step Toward the Key
Rae Williams: What do you recommend for us as step one on this journey?
Mike Flynn: Step one is making a choice. The most powerful word in the English vocabulary, this is a quote from Lou Holtz, one of my personal heroes. He said, there's 422,000 words in the English vocabulary. One of the most important words among them is the word 'choice', okay? You have to choose.
We all have to choose to begin to believe that we are worthy of a why and to engage in the process of exploring our adversity, our challenges, the lies that we've held on to, the false narratives that we've held on to, the narratives that have not empowered us to become what we are capable of becoming.
We have to begin to engage in that process.
We have to go down into our own caves of our faith, our family, our finances, our fitness and our health, our spiritual life, all of those things; we have to go into each of those caves and choose to begin to master each of them.
Rae Williams: What is something that you would challenge people with?
Mike Flynn: The first thing that is going to be challenging for people is to get silent. Silence is very difficult in the world that we live in today. We have dings and blings and noises and alerts and notifications going off 24/7. We don't spend enough time in silence.
Silence is not only necessary for this work to have the impact in each reader's life, it is also the most beneficial.
One of the reasons why I think that we don't necessarily engage in silence enough is because we're afraid of what we might see when we get there, right? We're afraid of facing some of the dark challenges that we've experienced in our life. What we need to begin to recognize and through the process of reflection in silence, you will recognize that each of us is going to be able to shed light on those dark moments and to take the power from them that they've held over our life. The only way to do that is to become silent. There's great power in it.
The second thing that I would challenge people to do before and after and during while they're reading the book is to go do something physically hard. To do something that's physically challenging. I do CrossFit. I talk about it a lot, okay? Those workouts are incredibly challenging.
What happens, and there's actually scientific data that back this up, that when you do something physically challenging and you overcome it, you come through the other side of that having completed it and you're still alive and you're not injured and your heart is pumping and your brain is firing on all cylinders, you are able to create new things. You've discovered new pathways because you've broken through limiting beliefs.
Getting silent is hard, but going and doing another physically challenging thing is going to be hard, but also incredibly beneficial because it's going to open your mind back to taking control and owning the narrative of your life story, owning your gifts.
You're going to see new things. You're going to discover new questions, and new answers will be revealed to you.
Some of those answers and questions will come from the book, some of them will come from the quiet of your own heart. In order to really get the most out of this book, you're going to have to get silent, and you have to do hard things.
Connect with Mike Flynn
Rae Williams: How can listeners connect with you? I know I am actually going to personally do something physically challenging this week. It's something I've been thinking about. Now that you've said it, I'm convinced, so I'm definitely going to do that.
Mike Flynn: What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Tell me. Tell me.
Rae Williams: I haven't even decided yet. Definitely not CrossFit. Not quite there yet.
Mike Flynn: Well, it doesn't have to be CrossFit. It could be climbing a hard mountain. It could be go do something that you don't think that that's just on the other side of what you think you are capable of doing. It's about building.
Can I just go off on a riff here? It's not necessarily tied to the book, but it has to do with confidence. Everyone wants confidence. In order to have confidence, you have to have something right before that. Do you know what that is? You have to have courage. Do you know what you have to have before you can have courage? You have to have a vision of something that's different.
Right now, you have a vision of something that is making you uncomfortable. This week, maybe today you're going to have the courage to go and put that vision into action. When you come out on the other side of it, maybe you didn't necessarily realize exactly what the vision held, but you did something and you're going to be that much more confident than next time.
All of those things stack on top of each other.
That is part of the story of our lives, it's having a vision, it's moving from vision to courage and from courage to confidence. I'm proud here that you are going to go do something hard and challenging. Maybe it's being quiet as well.
People can connect with me @TheImpactMike on Instagram. That's where I'm hanging out most these days. I'm also on Facebook and Twitter. They can listen to my podcast on – it's called The Impact Entrepreneur Show.It's been around since 2015. I've got hundreds of episodes, including with one of the co-founders of Scribe, the incredible Zach, and many of Scribe's authors as well.
If they want to, they can go to the website theimpactentrepreneur.net and subscribe there as well.
Rae Williams: I do have one quick follow-up question. What would you say to people who are thinking to themselves that the challenges are too small?
Mike Flynn: I think that there is – there are three questions and I include these three questions actually in the book. One of the characters in the book named Fidel, who's a Cuban refugee turned a millionaire real estate investor, who's actually based on an experience I had with a Lyft driver, actually. The character Fidel teaches Steve that when you're facing the question what should do next, or what action to take, there are three questions that you need to explore.
The first question is what is at stake? The second question is why does it matter? The third question is when does it become real?
Whether it's running with your dog, climbing a mountain, having a difficult conversation with a loved one, doing CrossFit, starting a business, stopping a business, those are three powerful questions that you are going to be able to explore. They're going to help crystallize your vision, which will then give you the ability to have courage. The word courage literally means heart, right?
To have courage, to have heart and to step forward into action and coming out on the other side of that, you will be confident.
Let's say using your running example, you go for a run with your dog. Let's say you start out small. If you've never run with your dog before, you should definitely not do it for an hour. Let's start with a block, right? Let's start with a block. You can run with your dog for a block. That is super achievable, okay?
Why that's important? Because you are going to be pulled by something and you need to get comfortable. It's going to feel awkward. You're not going to have necessarily the right cadence and running rhythm and whatever, right?
Over time, maybe you do that for a week, for one week you're going to run for a block with your dog and then walk the rest of the time. Then next week you're going to run two blocks and the week after that you're going to add another half a block, or three blocks. Then maybe at the end of your run, you're going to tie that dog to a tree and you're going to do 20 burpees, right? Or five burpees, or whatever.
I mean, it's about doing hard physical things and showing yourself that you are capable of overcoming all of your limiting beliefs. Actually, I think beginning with your thought life first. That's why I'm saying it's so important to get quiet.
Begin with the internal conversations, the dialogues, the narratives, and mastering those things. You actually vocalized a moment ago, "I'm not a very active person." I think that's a lie. I know you are. I know you are capable of becoming an even more active person. When you do so, it's going to give new life and new blood and new energy to all of your creative projects that you're doing and into your relationships. All of those things.
Listen to more authors on growing into yourself:
The Game of Adversity: Nick DiNardo
Riding Raw: Sue Hollis
Brand Currency: Steve Susi
Forging an Ironclad Brand: Lindsay Pedersen
Get Mike's new book Master the Key on Amazon.
Connect with Mike on The Impact Entrepreneur Show.


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Home / Leicester Tissue Company secures £6 million funding package from HSBC UK to increase its manufacturing capabilities up to 100% at its plant in Thurmaston, UK
Leicester Tissue Company secures £6 million funding package from HSBC UK to increase its manufacturing capabilities up to 100% at its plant in Thurmaston, UK
May 15, 2019 - 09:31
LEICESTER, UK, May 15, 2019 (Press Release) -Leicester Tissue Company (LTC), a toilet and kitchen roll manufacturer, is set to increase its manufacturing capabilities by up to 100 per cent after securing a £6 million funding package from HSBC UK.
The business, which is currently operating at full capacity, is in the process of installing two new production lines that will complete later this year at its new 105,000 sq. ft. plant in Thurmaston, Leicester. The multi-million pound investment will create an extra 50 full-time jobs.
LTC currently produces 20,000 tonnes of tissue per year and supplies to high-profile retailers, including Poundland, Aldi and Wilkinsons. Once the new lines have been implemented, LTC will generate an extra 20,000 tonnes of tissue per year, enabling the business to fulfill new interest from several supermarket brands.
Ayaz Tejani, Managing Director of LTC, said:
"As a manufacturer for some of the UK's leading retail brands, it's important that we regularly invest in new machinery to meet high consumer demands. We have a long-term vision for growth and these plans are currently underway with the installation of the new production lines. We're incredibly grateful to our HSBC UK Relationship Director, Richard Parker, who understood our business and funding requirements. We look forward to working closely with him again as the business grows."
Roger Pratt, Area Director for Corporate Banking in East Midlands, HSBC UK, said:
"HSBC UK is committed to supporting ambitious SMEs with their expansion plans, and LTC is no exception. The tissue market is extremely competitive and due to rising consumer demand, Ayaz and his team have a great opportunity to grow the business. We're excited about the business's potential and we wish them the best for the future."
Established in 2013, LTC has experienced rapid growth. After six years trading, the business has increased its turnover to £20 million and employs 70 people. It prides itself on producing quality paper and with future capacity set to increase, LTC has the foundations to grow the business further. In the next 12 months, LTC hopes its new investment will increase annual turnover by 90 per cent to £38 million.
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StandardAero 10th acquisition since March 2015 - PTS Aviation
Download: Printable PDF Date: 09 Jan 2022 11:56 (UTC) category:
StandardAero has signed a definitive agreement to purchase boutique asset management company PTS Aviation, a worldwide supplier of serviceable aircraft engines, engine components and engine inventory. Founded in 1995, PTS has more than 150 years of combined aviation management experience and significant expertise buying, leasing and selling engines, modules and used serviceable material (USM). PTS is headquartered in Miramar, FL. PTS is a private company and terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal marks StandardAero's tenth acquisition since March 2015. Most recently, the company acquired Signature Aviation's Engine Repair and Overhaul (ERO) business, an engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider that includes well-established brands such as Dallas Airmotive, H+S Aviation and International Governor Services.
"We are excited to put the PTS Aviation team's asset management and trading know-how to work for StandardAero," said Lewis Prebble, President of StandardAero's Airlines & Fleets division. "The knowledge and experience they bring to our portfolio will immediately support our preparation to serve global operators, initially focused on the CFM56, and will accelerate our growth plans for the future."
StandardAero is an OEM authorized independent MRO provider and a GE Designated Fulfillment Center for CFM56-7B engines. The company has been providing CFM56-7B heavy maintenance and overhaul services for airlines worldwide from its 162,000 square foot facility located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada since 2008. The acquisition of PTS Aviation will expand StandardAero's CFM56 engine portfolio of services and allow it to accelerate its capabilities to buy, sell and embody USM into the CFM56-7B and its wider portfolio of engine platforms, thereby enhancing the company's ability to provide customers with highly customizable MRO solutions.
Like StandardAero, PTS Aviation's culture and operating model maintains ISO standards and is focused on continuous improvement, quality and systems compliance. "PTS is a great fit for StandardAero, and we will quickly integrate their strategic capabilities into our commercial aviation division to strengthen our capabilities, services and competitive offerings," concluded Prebble.
With the addition of PTS Aviation, StandardAero now employs nearly 7,000 aviation professionals in over 50 locations across six continents.
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See where Noah Watanabe ranks.
Daniel Lisenbee went from a 4:50 1600 PR in 2016 to a 4:26 in 2017. More of that sort of thing happened across the Discovery Canyon distance roster.
Sam Hitchens left with top honors among Colorado high school runners at Monday's Loveland Liberty 5K. Colorado Track XC file photo by Alan Versaw.


We are sad to say our dear Abbot, Yao Sheng Shakya needs to resign as Abbot for personal reasons. We would like to thank our dear Abbot, Yao Sheng Shakya, for his wonderful years of service to ZATMA.
Thank you! Abbot Yao Sheng. We appreciate all the work you freely gave to spread the Dharma on a global level and wish you well in your continued practice.
In the light of this change, we want to recognize and announce our gratitude to The Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun, created by Chan Master Wei Miao Jy Din Shakya and the Zen mystic and Chan Teacher Ming Zhen Shakya, our old Sun as our 20th anniversary approaches.
At this important time, the board of our order chooses to enter a new phase in the spreading of the Dharma, respecting two essentials: (1) to offer the Chan (Zen) Dharma through the internet media and (2) to recognize the importance of a relationship between those who seek the Dharma and those who offer the Dharma.
We are thus announcing the creation of the Council of the Order, replacing the Abbotship, with a Co-Prior structure of two senior members of the ZATMA clergy, Fǎshī Yao Xin Shakya and Fǎshī Yao Lǎo Yuè Shakya. This change comes in order to better serve the Order and its needs in this modern and demanding age.
Dharma Teacher and founder of our contemplative practice of A Single Thread Sangha, Fǎshī Yao Lǎo Yuè Shakya and Zen Master and founder of Dharma Winds Zen Sangha , Fǎshī Yao Xin Shakya offer both a strong devotion to the Dharma as well as a strong commitment to the work of ZATMA/ZBOHY. Both are two direct students of our Old Sun, Ming Zhen Shakya. They will serve the Council of the Order and the administration of its communication, ordinations and teachings as Co-Priors of the Zen Buddhist Order of HsuYun (zatma.org , old.zatma.org , zbohy.zatma.org).
Please welcome them in their new roles as Co-Priors.


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Gorllewin Gwyllt
(C) Cyffwrdd Gorllewin Gwyllt | Wild West Touch 2012 - 2016
Junior Nationals
Red Kites
Touch Evolution
Referee Courses
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Llanelli Students Selected for Touch World Cup
Four Carmarthenshire students will be substituting the playing fields of Llanelli for the sun-drenched fields of Australia at the Touch World Cup
From left: Rachel Wasserman, Mollie North, Dan Rees and Matt Adams
When Rachel Wasserman, Mollie North, Sophie Rainton and Daniel Rees played in a series of county Touch tournaments organised by sport and leisure officers in 2013, little did they know that they would go onto represent Wales in the sport's premier tournament in Coff's Harbour, New South Wales in April.
All four youngsters attend school or college in Llanelli and were introduced to the game as part of the council's Active Young People programme. They represented their schools prior to being selected to play for West Wales U16s and went on to become part of the Wales Touch Association Elite Academy for developing under 18 players.
Llanelli sport and leisure officer, Matt Adams said:
"I'm absolutely thrilled for all four of them to go and represent Wales in the biggest Touch tournament to date. They'll be playing the very best players in the world and it's particularly pleasing to note that all four pupils started playing Touch in AYP festivals and tournaments that we organised right here in Carmarthenshire."
"Part of the reason that the All Schools Touch Championships has been established is to locate and develop the next generation of talented Touch players. We know that in Carmarthenshire we have some fantastically talented boys and girls, already proven by these four young athletes. Who knows, perhaps this years tournament will unearth more hidden talent who will go on to receive international recognition on the Touch fields in the future."
Touch has been used by the sports and leisure team in Carmarthenshire due to its simple rules and focus on skills, as well as its appeal to both boys and girls – particularly those who may not be attracted to contact rugby. Tournaments held in locations such as Pembrey Country Park and Parc y Scarlets were extremely popular and well attended and a number of pupils identified by these events have become involved in club and regional Touch teams as a result.
Wales are sending four teams out to Coffs Harbour; Men's Open, Women's Open, Mixed Open and Men's 40s and will be buoyed by a large contingent of young players at the tournament with no less than 11 teenage players representing in the open grades.
Touch among young people is becoming increasingly popular and Wales are the current U18s Mixed European Champions. Dan, Sophie and Mollie were all members of the squad that beat England in the final of the inaugural Junior Euros at Swansea University in August 2014. Rachel represented the Women's Open team who narrowly missed out on a gold medal, losing to England WO in the grand final.
One of the victorious U18 team, Sophie Rainton, is now a member of the All Schools Touch Championships organising committee and is keen to put something back into the sport;
"I wanted to be part of the All Schools organising team as I think that there are loads of young people that would really enjoy playing Touch who don't normally get the chance. The All Schools tournament will hopefully increase awareness and popularity of the game in schools."
Tournament registration is now open for #ASTC2015. The tournament takes place at Ysgol Y Strade, Llanelli on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July 2015. Further details and registration are available here
Sophie Rainton leads the Wales team parade at the European Touch Championships in Swansea 2014


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Víctor Manuel Mosquera Chaux (Popayán, 1° de octubre de 1919-Bogotá, 10 de noviembre de 1997) fue un político, periodista y abogado colombiano, militante del Partido Liberal Colombiano.

Fue uno de los cofundadores del diario El Liberal de Popayán. En este medio se destacó en calidad de director y como escritor crítico y serio. Por su labor recibió la tarjeta de periodista. Fue también ministro de justicia en el gobierno Lleras, y gobierno en la presidencia de Pastrana, así como Gobernador del Cauca entre 1959 y 1960.

Ocupó la presidencia de Colombia en calidad de designado en dos ocasiones durante los años 80. Es descendiente del General patriota y cuatro veces Presidente de Colombia Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera.

Biografía
Víctor Manuel Mosquera Chaux nació en Popayán, el 1 de octubre de 1919, en el seno de una familia tradicional caucana.

Fue educado en el colegio de las hermanos maristas en su natal Popayán, y realizó sus estudios secundarios en el Seminario Conciliar de su ciudad. Obtuvo el título de abogado en la Universidad del Cauca donde se graduó en 1940.

Inició su carrera política, al interior del Partido Liberal Colombiano como miembro del directoria departamental del Liberalismo en Cauca en 1936, cuando tenía 17 años. Luego fue elegido concejal de Popayán en 1941 y diputado departamental.

En 1947 fue elegido como Representante a la Cámara por el Cauca y en 1949 estuvo presente en la sesión durante la que fue herido el representante Gustavo Jiménez; trató de auxiliarlo pero el congresista falleció. El Congreso fue cerrado ese año por órdenes del presidente conservador Mariano Ospina Pérez.

Frente Nacional
En 1958 fue elegido Senador de la República y tras ser reelegido en 1962 asumió como Presidente de la corporación, siendo el encargado de posesionar al conservador Guillermo León Valencia como presidente del país.

Mosquera se convirtió en fiel seguidor del líder liberal Alberto Lleras Camargo y durante el segundo gobierno de éste ejerció como Gobernador del Cauca, de 1959 a 1960, y como Ministro de Justicia durante 1960. Desde 1961 fue elegido en varias ocasiones como miembro de la Dirección Nacional Liberal, convirtiéndose en garante de objetividad y ecuanimidad entre las diferentes facciones del Partido.

En 1967 el presidente liberal Carlos Lleras Restrepo nombró a Mosquera como embajador de Colombia ante las Naciones Unidas, en 1967, y luego ante el Reino Unido en 1970. En 1972 rechaza el Ministerio de Gobierno que le ofrece el presidente conservador Misael Pastrana.

En 1978, estando en el Congreso, Mosquera intentó sin éxito la presidencia de la corporación, siendo vencido por el congresista liberal Guillermo Plazas Alcid. También optó por la designación presidencial, cargo con el cual Mosquera podría acceder a la presidencia de Colombia en ausencia del titular, pero de nuevo fue derrotado por el favoritismo que el presidente Julio César Turbay mostró sobre el liberal Gustavo Balcázar Monzón.

Primera designatura (1980-1982)
El 27 de agosto de 1980 el Senado de Colombia eligió a Mosquera como Designado Presidencial para el período 1980-1982, derrotando a Jorge Mario Eastman por 5 votos.

Presidencia (1981)
Llegó a ocupar brevemente la presidencia entre el 3 y el 11 de febrero de 1981, en reemplazo de Turbay, quien solicitó una licencia al Congreso para viajar a Estados Unidos con el fin de someterse a una intervención quirúrgica en Nueva York.

Precandidatura presidencial

Para las elecciones de 1982, Mosquera se postuló para la designación del candidato liberal para lograr la presidencia, pero retiró su postulación para adherirse a la campaña del expresidente Alfonso López Michelsen. De haber logrado la candidatura, Mosquera se hubiese enfrentado con el disidente liberal Luis Carlos Galán, y contra el conservador Belisario Betancur, quien fue elegido presidente.

Pese a su derrota, Mosquera continuó su labor como congresista, cargo desde el cual atacó ferozmente la política de paz que el gobierno Betancur estaba llevando a cabo con las FARC y el M-19.

Segunda designatura (1986)
El 20 de julio de 1986 Mosquera decidió por iniciativa propia dejar el Congreso, donde había permanecido por cerca de 30 años, siendo condecorado por los parlamentarios por su trayectoria. En octubre de 1986, el presidente liberal Virgilio Barco postuló a Mosquera como candidato a la designatura presidencial, siendo apoyada su postulación en el Congreso colombiano. Mosquera recibió un importante respaldo político, y fue elegido para el cargo hasta el 7 de agosto de 1988.

En su calidad de designado, a Mosquera se le ofreció en varias oportunidades tomar la presidencia, por los continuos problemas de salud de Barco, a quien se le diagnosticó Alzheimer en 1988, tras un percance que sufrió en Estados Unidos pero Mosquera se negó, arguyendo que no era ético ni justo aceptar la proposición. Al final Barco terminó su gobierno estando enfermo de Alzheimer y cáncer.

Últimos años

En 1987, siendo aún designado presidencial, el presidente Barco lo nombró como embajador de Colombia ante los Estados Unidos. En su cargo de designado fue reemplazado por el liberal Germán Montoya, al que muchas personas consideraban el verdadero presidente de Colombia, por el agravamiento de los problemas de salud de Barco.

Durante las accidentadas elecciones presidenciales de ése año, el liberalismo vislumbró una postulación de Mosquera para ser candidato a la presidencia, pero el asesinato de Galán en 1989 y el ascenso de César Gaviria como su sucesor dejaron sin fuerza la candidatura de Mosquera y el partido se volcó en apoyo de Gaviria que ganó las elecciones.

Gaviria confirmó a Mosquera al frente de la embajada en 1990, estando en el cargo hasta 1991, siendo reemplazado por el conservador Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, y se retiró definitivamente de la política.

Víctor Mosquera Chaux falleció en Bogotá, el 10 de noviembre de 1997 a los 78 años.

Familia
Víctor era hijo de Manuel José Mosquera Vidal y Rosa Elvira Chaux Navas. El matrimonio tuvo 5 hijos: Víctor Andrés, Manuel Santiago, Clara Cecilia, Alina María y Olga Lucía Mosquera Paz.

Por parte de su padre, Víctor era descendiente de uno de los cuatro matrimonios del expresidente de Colombia Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. Mosquera a su vez era hermano de Joaquín Mosquera (presidente de Colombia en 1830), y de los gemelos Manuel María (educador) y Manuel José Mosquera Arboleda (obispo de la Iglesia Católica colombiana).

Los Mosquera y Arboleda estaban emparentados con la familia Arboleda, a la que pertenecieron también el prócer de la Independencia Antonio Arboleda y Arrachea, y sus sobrinos Julio y Sergio Arboleda, y Cecilia Arboleda, esposa de Jorge Holguín. Jorge y su hermano Carlos fueron presidentes de Colombia y eran sobrinos del también expresidente Manuel María Mallarino.

Matrimonio
Víctor contrajo matrimonio con Cecilia Paz Salazar.

Entre sus sobrinos, familiares y herederos políticos se encuentran los ex Gobernadores Guillermo González Mosquera, Juan José Chaux y el Constituyente Andino por la República de Colombia Alexander Ferms De Medellín.

Referencias

Nacidos en Popayán
Fallecidos en Bogotá
Alumnado de la Universidad del Cauca
Designados Presidenciales de Colombia
Embajadores de Colombia en Estados Unidos
Embajadores de Colombia ante las Naciones Unidas
Embajadores de Colombia en el Reino Unido
Ministros durante la presidencia de Alberto Lleras Camargo
Ministros durante la presidencia de Misael Pastrana
Políticos del Partido Liberal Colombiano
Senadores de Colombia
Familia Mosquera

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Jane Ashby's pleasant life in the city comes to an abrupt end when her father and brother decide to take up gold prospecting and she is forced to relocate with them to a small, remote gold field. And, when one of the settlers takes her off by force to save her from a night in the bush she resents being made prisoner on his farm. Can Jane come to terms with this uncivilised country and become a settler's wife?


Aotearoa was once a land ruled by birds, without a single land mammal. Now, 25 million New Zealand native birds are killed every year by introduced pests and 77 of our remaining bird species are threatened with extinction. The general perception is that this crisis is under control yet even the kiwi bird, our national icon, is decreasing in the wild at 2% every year.
Squawk Squad's kaupapa is to connect and engage kiwis in the protection and growth of our native birds.
Their core product is a unique web-app that allows people to collectively fund sensor-connected traps in aid of sanctuary projects. The person that sponsors the trap receives a live notification every time their traps catches a pest - this provides on-going engagement and a direct measure of the positive environmental impact the person has had. This data also acts as a remote pest activity measure, meaning that conservation projects can become more deliberate as to where they are spending their time and resources. Squawk Squad have already installed three trapping sanctuaries across NZ and a fourth is currently being funded near Wellington.
Off the back of their unique trapping idea, Squawk Squad wondered how best to engage even more New Zealander's to become kaitiaki for our native birdlife. Traditional forms of advertising/marketing felt inauthentic and so instead they launched a wildly successful digital environmental education platform. The idea being that if they could inspire 1000's of young New Zealanders to care for our endangered birdlife, think of the amplification effect that this will have when they start to influence their peers, whanau and community.
So, for the 2nd year running (in September 2018) and with the assistance of major environmental organisations (DOC, Forest & Bird etc), they provided their free Conservation Week Education Package. Through the innovative use of social media, rapid growth marketing and rigorous teacher-tested usability, this package had over 46,000 school students sign up to it. Like never before, they are popularising environmental education in NZ by providing teachers with resources that are easy-to-use, engaging and factually correct.
What does the future hold??
Squawk Squad has big plans to engage and educate the entire nation in saving Aotearoa's native birds. Through rapidly growing their network of sensor-connected trapping systems they will continue to catalyse Aotearoa towards our audacious goal of Predator Free 2050. The digital educational outreach will become bigger and more sustained year round. They are also looking at a way to create NZ's first overall bird biodiversity indicator… but they won't tell us the full details about that for now..!


text:
What Pam & Tommy should omit from the true story
To refrain from taking advantage of an already traumatic situation, there are a few things that Hulus' upcoming miniseries Pam and Tommy would be better not to. This series about robbery and illegal distribution of a home sex band made by Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in the 1990s recently released a busy teaser trailer that continues the conversation about the controversy that has plagued the project since it was announced. Although it stars big names like Lily James, Sebastian Stan and Seth Rogen, and is directed by Me, Tonyas Craig Gillespie, people are already criticizing the series because of the sensitive nature of the subject and the lack of involvement from both the real Anderson and Lee.
TODAY'S SCREEN VIDEO
That's fair point. But given the fact that the show has not been aired yet, it is impossible to know what tone it will take. It is very possible Pam and Tommy could be an offensive, rude and scornful exploitation of a scandal that already did a lot of damage when it happened; or, it could offer a new, more empathetic retelling of history that provides social commentary on the commodization of public life, the misogynistic double standards that are still in place today, or the rapid cultural shifts that accompany the advent of the Internet. Hopefully the series will lean to the last, for this scandalous and career-damaging series of events is only worth resuming if there is anything new and insightful to say about it.
Related: Pam & Tommy: Everything You Need to Know
The true story of Pam and Tommy is often weirder than fiction, and definitely filled with material that would make it great TV. In 1994, Lee allegedly withheld $ 20,000 in salary from an electrician hired to renovate his home in Malibu, Rand Gauthier (who will be played by Seth Rogen), and pointed a gun in his face at him as he tried to collect its tool. In search of revenge, Gauthier planned a robbery to steal a large safe from Pam and Tommy without knowing that there was a very personal bond of the couple inside. When he found out, Gauthier used his connections in the porn industry to distribute the video far and wide, despite desperate and ineffective legal steps by Pam and Tommy. The recordings eventually ended up on the internet, which was still in its infancy, and helped create a well-known consumer culture that paved the way for future stars like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian (who also had her own sex tape).
All of this is public knowledge, and comes largely from Pam and Tommy themselves, who have continued to live very visible lives. In theory, all the upcoming miniseries will do is create a narrative that provides a new interpretation of real events that are very easy to find online. However, these are things that happened less than 30 years ago and hurt real people. In order to justify its own existence as anything other than an offensive exploitation of unfortunate circumstances, Pam and Tommy will have to draw a fine line between what it should portray and what it absolutely should not. Here are some things to avoid in the Hulu series.
Restoration of the sex tape
This seems obvious, but based on Pam and Tommy teaser trailer, it is certainly not given. Needless to say, an intimate video of two married adults having sex, which was distributed without their permission and to their great distress. does not in any way be re-enacted for television. Their privacy has already been deeply violated and need not be further mocked or commodified by a whole new generation.
The crazy story surrounding the release of the sex tape has already been shared by Pam and Tommy in various interviews, memoirs and statements over the years, making it a fair game for public consumption – to some extent. However, earlier Baywatch Star Pamela Anderson in particular has made it clear that she is still unhappy and sad about what happened to the tape and the lack of control and support she suffered throughout the situation. Out of respect for the people whose real experiences are being used as a means of telling an entertaining story, the public recordings that were meant to be private will hopefully not be explicitly revisited on screen by James and Stan.
Related: Why Lily James left Downton Abbey (and why she's not in the movie)
Exploits Pam's trauma
Courtney Love has perhaps been the most prominent of Pam and Tommy's opponents, call the show "so damn scandalous"in a deleted Facebook post. She wrote that the sex tape"ruined my friend Pamela's life. Complete,"and that the series would further cause her"complex trauma."She also wanted shame on actress Lily James for taking the role. [via Vanity Fair] Although Pam has not commented on the series herself, much has been done about a source close to her who says that "Pamela does not intend to watch this god terrible show, absolutely not"to be as it was"one of the most difficult experiences of her life. Getting it muddy up for a TV show is pathetic." [via The Sun]
Especially given Pam's apparent disapproval, Pam and Tommy will have to work very hard not to make her wrong than it already does by simply existing. The whole experience was undoubtedly devastating and traumatic for her, and it's hard (but not impossible) to believe that the series will do her any kind of justice. Although Pam never sees it, the show has the potential to rewrite the degrading and objectifying narrative that was about her in the 1990s in the minds of new viewers. On the other hand, it also has the potential to exploit Pam's trauma for sheer drama and entertainment value. Worse, the miniseries is referred to as a comedy, and it can make fun of the pain she experienced.
However, the teaser trailer suggests that the show will touch on the drastically different reactions that the sex tape got to both Pam and Tommy. While Tommy, who has previously been played on screen by Machine Gun Kelly in the Mötley Crüe movie The Dirt, was cemented as a hedonistic rock'n'roll sex god by legend, Pam was shamed, degraded and humiliated due to gendered double standards and widespread misogyny. The show owes it at least to Pam and all the women like her who have been exposed without their consent to push back against the toxic, sexist ideas that are still widely persistent in popular belief today.
Glamorization of an abusive relationship
In May 1998, Tommy Lee was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading not guilty to a felony charge of spousal violence. Even this was not a private event in the couple's life when Pam told reporters outside the courthouse that she was "proud of Tommy"and "glad he took responsibility for this." [via AP News] One of their two young sons was present during the violent incident and the couple divorced shortly after. It is important to remember that they had a whirlwind romance and an abuse relationship; it would not be truthful to show the former without acknowledging the latter. Pam and Tommy must take care not to glamorize a situation that was far from healthy, with or without the sex tape.
Related: Pam & Tommy Cast: Every Actor Confirmed (and Who They Play)
Unlike Pam, Tommy has expressed approval for Pam and Tommy. When asked about the show recently, Tommy has said that he knows the actor Sebastian Stan and that from what he has told him, it will be a ""really beautiful story." [via ET] What it might mean to come from Tommy Lee is someone's guess, but it seems somewhat worrying that the addict in the relationship has given Pam and Tommy thumb up while the other has not.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether the series will have anything of real significance to offer, or whether it will fall back on raw humor and Hollywood stereotypes. However, Pam and Tommy certainly has the ability to move the lens through which modern audiences see the infamous situation. Ideally, this will be in a positive direction that does not inflict more unnecessary damage.
Next: Pam & Tommy have already ignored a perfect Tommy Lee & Pamela Anderson casting
Jeremy Renner almost rejected the MCU Hawkeye role for funny reasons
Kylie Boersma
(7 articles published)
Kylie lives her life by training for the day when watching TV becomes an Olympic sport. Should that happen, she plans to win. Meanwhile, Kylie lives in LA and has worked on various TV productions. She will continue to do so until someone lets her write and produce her own.
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text:
Calumma crypticum е вид влечуго от семейство Хамелеонови (Chamaeleonidae). Видът не е застрашен от изчезване.

Разпространение и местообитание
Разпространен е в Мадагаскар.

Обитава гористи местности, планини, възвишения и плата.

Описание
Популацията на вида е намаляваща.

Източници

Литература

Мадагаскарски хамелеони
Фауна на Мадагаскар


text:
Cyprus Greece Turkey energy Ukraine Leopard strike
12° Nicosia,
Search archive before 2016
Displaying results 1-30 of 580 matches for query Cabinet.
1. Half a billion euro investment in digital transformation
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/half-a-billion-euro-investment-in-digital-transformation
Over the next five years, a little more than half a billion euros (€512 million) will be set aside for digital transformation. ...
2. Cabinet agrees to implement full-day high school program
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cabinet-agrees-to-implement-full-day-high-school-program
3. Ukraine: Resignations abound amid corruption allegations
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/ukraine-resignations-abound-amid-corruption-allegations
Ukraine's leadership appears to be in disarray, with corruption allegations, resignations of close associates of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the president himself undergoing a wide-ranging reshuffle of his government staff....
4. Averof Neofytou: 'Only those who agree with my positions will serve in my government'
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/averof-neofytou-only-those-who-agree-with-my-positions-can-serve-in-my-government
In an interview with K, DISY presidential candidate and president of DISY Averof Neofytou reiterated his position that if he loses the elections, resulting in a victory for Nikos Christodoulides,...
5. Sex ed to be introduced in schools by September
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/sex-education-to-be-introduced-in-schools-by-september
Sex education will be introduced in an institutionalized and comprehensive manner beginning in September, covering all levels from pre-primary to third high school. ...
6. Cabinet: Nine more citizenships revoked
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cabinet-nine-more-citizenships-revoked
The Council of Ministers today confirmed its previous decision to deprive three investors and six of the dependents of their citizenship status following the expiration of the deadline for objections and the completion of the procedures in the competent committee....
7. Cavusoglu to the US: The stability in Cyprus is eroding
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cavusoglu-to-the-us-the-stability-in-cyprus-is-eroding
The balance in Cyprus and in Greek-Turkish relations has begun to unravel, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who stated that it makes no difference to whom weapons are sold....
8. King Constantine, former king of Greece - His relationship with Makarios and his involvement in Cyprus
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/king-constantine-former-king-of-greece-his-relationship-with-makarios-and-his-involvement-in-cyprus
9. Mixed messages as Cyprus offers boosters to visitors
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/mixed-messages-as-cyprus-offers-boosters-to-visitors
The Republic of Cyprus is offering to vaccinate short-term foreign visitors against the coronavirus, but the government's position on booster shots remained unclear in the wake of recent revelations through the Twitter Files about discussions on natural immunity...
10. PCR tests to be required for passengers arriving from China
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/pcr-tests-to-be-required-for-passengers-arriving-from-china
All passengers arriving to Cyprus from China from 15 January will need to show a negative PCR test performed 48 hours before their departure, the Cabinet decided on Wednesday. It also decided on the central management of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds....
11. Cypriot minister asks Cabinet to toe EU line on China
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cypriot-minister-wants-cabinet-to-toe-eu-line-on-china
Cypriot Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantela says he will ask the Cabinet on Wednesday to approve a new set of pandemic measures that include a 48-hour negative PCR test from all travelers arriving from China...
12. Nikos Christodoulides: Discussing changes to the Guterres framework
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/nikos-christodoulides-discussing-changes-to-the-guterres-framework
"I didn't hear anyone mention Mr. Kasoulides, the foreign minister, after the wreckage in Crans Montana. Nobody could blame him. He was not the most directly involved, nor was he the one who would take the final decisions..." ...
13. How concerned is Cyprus about China?
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/how-concerned-is-cyprus-about-china
Europe has been put on alert by the rapid increase in coronavirus cases in China, following the lifting of the zero covid policy, with member states' health authorities consulting on possible measures to be imposed on Chinese travelers. ...
14. Cypriot expert signals China measures 'in line with EU'
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cypriot-expert-signals-china-measures-in-line-with-eu
Collective measures in line with the EU will be taken to tackle new outbreak of COVID cases in China Dr Petros Karayiannis, member of the scientific advisory committee told the Cyprus News Agency, following a meeting on Monday with the Health Minister...
15. The Belgian wheel is in motion...
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/comment/opinion/the-belgian-wheel-is-in-motion
Many Cypriots live in a state of frustration. How did Belgian authorities respond decisively to the well-known case, while the island's law enforcement took two weeks to visit Syllouris?...
16. Avrupa reports one million residents in the occupied territory
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/avrupa-report-one-million-residents-in-the-occupied-territory
Avrupa cites data from the "Information and Communication Technology Institute" today, indicating that the population of the occupied territories has surpassed one million....
17. Cabinet approves 'vehicle history database'
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/business/cabinet-approves-vehicle-history-database
07/12/2022 | BUSINESS
The Council of Ministers today approved an amendment to the Motor Vehicles and Traffic Movement Regulations that will create a database that will record the history of vehicles involved in accidents....
18. US-Cyprus army cooperation bill heads to the House
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/us-cyprus-army-cooperation-bill-heads-to-the-house
A bill that paves the way for further military cooperation between Cyprus and the Unites States reached the House this week, following months of media hype about the island's intent to help Ukraine with Russian-made missiles, but the specific agreement explicitly excludes weapons systems...
19. Covid vaccinations begin for children aged 6 months to 4 years old
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/covid-vaccinations-begin-for-children-aged-6-months-to-4-years-old
Vaccination centers for babies and infants, from 6 months to 4 years of age, will be operational from Tuesday, November 22, the Ministry of Health has said....
20. 50 products specified in Cyprus' 'Household Basket'
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/business/50-products-specified-in-cyprus-household-basket
The Consumer Protection Service will present its initial proposal for the Household Basket in Cyprus to the stakeholders - the Hypermarkets Association, the Retailers Association, the OEB, and the CEB - at 12 noon on Wednesday. ...
21. Eliades: 'Cyprus a haven for every kind of illegal activity' thanks to government
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/eliades-cyprus-a-haven-for-every-kind-of-illegal-activity-thanks-to-government
The preliminary findings of the report issued by the PEGA investigation committee, the works carried out at the Limassol Municipal Garden, and the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zones between Cyprus and Greece were the subject of press releases issued by presidential candidates on Wednesday....
22. Six day mourning period in honor of Archbishop Chrysostomos II
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/six-day-mourning-period-in-honor-of-archbishop-chrysostomos-ii
The Council of Ministers decided on Monday afternoon to declare a six-day public mourning, from November 7 to November 12, after Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II passed away yesterday morning....
23. 'Cyprus Tomorrow': A plan made by Cypriots for Cypriots
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cyprus-tomorrow-a-plan-made-by-cypriots-for-cypriots
The importance of the "Cyprus - Tomorrow" National Plan was highlighted by Government Spokesperson and Cabinet Ministers, who attended a special promotional event in Nicosia on Saturday....
24. Budget approved for 1,000 charging stations across the island
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/business/budget-approved-for-1-000-charging-stations-across-the-island
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Transport for the installation of 1,000 public charging stations for electric vehicles, with a budget of 3.7 million euros....
25. Turkish praise for Israel-Lebanon deal draws Greek Cypriot response
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/turkish-praise-for-israel-lebanon-deal-draws-greek-cypriot-response
Turkey has welcomed a historic maritime demarcation agreement between Israel and Lebanon that was finalized on Thursday, as Ankara hopes the US-brokered deal could serve as an example for resolving energy disputes on divided Cyprus, drawing reactions from Greek Cypriots...
26. Rishi Sunak to become Britain's next Prime Minister
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/rishi-sunak-is-britain-s-new-prime-minister
Britain's new prime minister is Rishi Sunak. Penny Mordaunt, the only candidate left standing for the Conservative leadership following Boris Johnson's withdrawal yesterday, has also withdrawn from the race, paving the way for Sunak to take over as Prime Minister....
27. Unmarried added as afterthought in paid parental leave bill
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/unmarried-added-as-afterthought-in-paid-parental-leave-bill
Cypriot lawmakers this week criticized a bill on paid parental leave after it emerged that unmarried parents were not included in the legislation scheduled to go into effect before the year is out...
28. Government offers cash for whistleblower's torched cars
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/government-offers-cash-for-whistleblower-s-torched-cars
The transport minister in the Republic of Cyprus has been credited with a Cabinet decision to compensate a state employee, whose family vehicles were torched after he blew the whistle on a car sales scam...
29. Cabinet approves all-day high school in all provinces
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/cabinet-approves-all-day-high-school-in-all-provinces
All-day high schools will be introduced in all provinces of Cyprus beginning with the 2023/24 school year....
30. Cabinet revokes ten passports belonging to investors and their relatives
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/business/cabinet-revokes-ten-passports-belonging-to-investors-and-their-relatives
The Council of Ministers met this morning, led by President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, and decided to begin the process of revoking the citizenship of three investors and seven of their dependents based on an investigation by the Interior Ministry's services....
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This man has an 86% accuracy rate in predicting the future
EU pushing to create a Common European Degree Label
Αlso read


Branko Malić I The language of Game Theory is all pervasive. But is it accurate?
Branko Malić I Posthumanists claim that we are at the threshold of techno utopia. However, it is more likely we could end up suffering a murder by logic.


Looking back now, January was such a weird month. You had, on the one hand, the barely restrained giddiness of the mainstream media proclaiming ultimate success of 5% GDP and an Establishment Survey (and dutiful unemployment rate) that could do nothing wrong. To this view, the economy was a certainty.
Yet, on the other hand, markets around the world were growing very, very cautious and even a touch more than flighty. There was oil, dollars and "inflation" expectations that were just all wrong for the end of the non-recovery. These were, of course, to be papered over by nothing more than buzzwords; "strong dollar", transitory, low oil is great for consumers, etc.
In the middle was the FOMC, gazing longingly and favorably on the heartwarming and even Hollywood ending that seemed to be there. Yet they were still mindful of the very dark turn in the markets. They said "strong dollar" but more than winced at what that might do. Policymakers shook off oil prices in public, but you could almost see their fingers crossed and a steady stream of "Hail Mary's" or praying to whatever god of regression and rational expectations. They believed in the giddiness but yet they didn't.
Inflation has continued to run below the Committee's 2 percent objective, and the recent sizable declines in oil prices will likely hold down overall inflation in the near term. But as the effects of these oil price declines and other transitory factors dissipate and as resource utilization continues to rise, the Committee expects inflation to move gradually back toward its objective. In making this forecast, the Committee is mindful of the recent declines in market-based measures of inflation compensation. At this point, the Committee views these movements as likely to prove transitory, and survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Again, I think they wanted to believe that was true but the nagging and gnawing reality of almost everything else prevented a full embrace. Publicly, they had to straddle between keeping that hope alive, under rational expectations, while privately muttering about how none of this "should" be taking place.
In the months since, the FOMC at various points as well as Yellen herself has been rather more open about those lingering and recessive concerns – especially wages. Wage growth, for all the fluff about economic strength, just never came. I highly doubt that will lead the Fed, as economists, to a wider awakening about what that really means (including that the Establishment Survey and GDP are simply overstating strength amidst unarguable, at least, instability) but it preserved through all the euphoria even to January of a much more than trivial downside.
The risks to the forecast for real GDP growth and inflation were viewed as tilted a little to the downside, reflecting the staff's assessment that neither monetary policy nor fiscal policy was well positioned to help the economy withstand adverse shocks.
That, as I wrote then, was likely the entire focus of this will they/won't they drama. The FOMC is stuck, unable by their own inference of monetarism to proclaim success and withdraw fully but yet mindful that they couldn't actually confirm it.
If the economy were to fall off in the near future, a possibility to which they are very worried that credit markets might be right about, there is little monetary policy can do to render "aid" in that situation. Of course, I don't believe monetary policy is helpful in any sense, and it certainly wasn't much of anything in 2007-09, but that is not what the orthodox textbook declares. If the FOMC is worried about the near-term turning against them, they believe it their sworn duty to interfere – but first they have to reposition everything so that they may do so. Thus QE must end, leading them to at least threaten the end of ZIRP. Preservation of the policy "surprise" is, I believe, the true aim here and has been before even Yellen succeeded Bernanke.
I have written consistently that I never thought they would ever get that far, to actually begin raising rates, but in the minds of "rational expectations" they had to at least plausibly threaten to. To create a recovery, in this twisted view of forced mathematical equalities, means they have to say it over and over and over no matter how imbalanced. That point has only been reinforced in the months since January, as those market-based concerns have proven far more correct than the extrapolations of 5% GDP and 5.5% "unemployment"; that is especially true since early July, as everything has taken another turn toward the dark.
I am more convinced than ever that the FOMC is simply trying to scare a recovery into existence. The June update to the Fed's models for central economic tendencies were, in a word, atrocious. The economy was marked down in almost every facet, and not by a little. The upper boundary on the central tendency for GDP was dropped by 0.7%, all the way to just 2% from 2.7% at the March update. That means, given the current thinking which somehow includes an economy strong enough to consider ending ZIRP (from an orthodox perspective), this year is going to be worse than last year.
Somehow out of all that word salad statement, we are to assume that the Fed is even more convinced that the economy has only gotten better if only because it got worse?
The problem is rational expectations as a workable theory in practice outside of mathematics and models. The more concerned the FOMC gets about the actual downside the more they have to pretend, and stress, that there isn't one.
Whenever I get to discussing "rational expectations theory" the typical response I get is one mostly of disbelief, as in whatever and wherever the theory is applied seems somehow to offend basic common sense and intuitive sensibilities. I don't disagree at all, as I am not one to subscribe to the theory only observing how it fits within the paradigm of monetary economics – you don't have to agree with it but you better understand it so you can better analyze why the Fed does what it does.
Since the math works under these assumptions, economists have set out to define their view of the real world to match the math, which is why it often sounds, essentially, ludicrous.
The Wall Street Journal, as it so often does, bridges today these positions under orthodox assumptions that the economy is still awesome and that FOMC thinking is about some distant problem that is but a trivial concern. Yet, in plain view of this changing behavior for their own part, it simply cannot be either distant or trivial, can it?
As the U.S. economic expansion ages and clouds gather overseas, policy makers worry about recession. Their concern isn't that a downturn is imminent but whether they will have firepower to fight back when one does arrive.
The Journal alludes to Japan and China, still Europe despite the ECB constantly doing all the same things as the Fed, but there is more than a little hint of disingenuousness coiled within the text of the article. The entire point is if the US falls into recession while still encompassed by "emergency" monetary "aid." That would at least suggest, especially with eight years of it already, something far more than a little wrong with the world but also of monetarism itself. They can blame outside and exogenous forces and "shocks" all they want, but in this gaining philosophical exercise of doubt and worry, the central point is that the FOMC delivered, in its mind, beyond its full weight in monetary intervention and still it fell far, far short of conveyance.
This is more than a mere ratchet effect. The Fed gave it all it got and the economy never got back up. Now there are the real and growing prospects of the economy getting hit yet again having never been remotely healed from the last time. For a policymaker that even still believes in monetarism, that has to be terrifying all at once no matter how much in public you declare it to be impossible (especially since, even in the public narrative, impossible has become far less so in the space of just a few months). This is, hopefully, the final decay and descent past fecklessness into the realm of openly realized powerlessness. The list of central banks falling prey to the unwinding eurodollar standard is only growing in 2015, at some point you have to think the Fed will be added.
While the overall tone of the Journal article is meant to reassure and offer comfort that effective commandment and central planning can still be preserved under these "hypothetical" circumstances, the mere fact of its writing instead of more untarnished admiration and commendations about monetary success in the past tense exposes this complete downgrade in the recovery narrative in 2015. Thinking about the next cycle before finishing the last is an enormous transformation, and really, again, a terrifying prospect.
"The world economy is like an ocean liner without lifeboats," economists at HSBC Bankwrote in a recent research note.
The Fed's strategy of keeping interest rates low well into an expansion is intended to help avoid a relapse into recession. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen has described low rates as insurance against another downturn. That is another reason officials intend to move slowly once they begin nudging up rates.
"Intend to move slowly" gets slower with each "dollar" wave and that is the relevant motion of policy and economy quite against all the continued propaganda.


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Did you guys have fun?????
Are you having fun this summer vacation??
But, on cloudy days, I heard the UV rays can still get through, so please be careful!!!!
Risa Deco "Episode 1 Present"
One lucky fan club member will win the one-of-a-kind "business card holder" that Niigaki deco'd by answering the questions below and submitting them to a lottery!
1. What item do you want Niigaki to deco next?
2. What are your thoughts on Risa Deco so far?
For example you can bring it when you're heading off to the office….
The theme was "Cool Beauty"!
I'll be posting a lot of pictures to hopefully heal the body and mind of everyone!
In addition to healing, it'll also be a good way for me to share with you guys how I'm doing.


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The question of who can access your private account on Instagram is slowly tending to 'everyone' with the introduction of new private Instagram viewer tools in the market. Some are free, and some require you to pay a few dollars- or a lot of you want VIP treatment. There are tons of reasons why there is increased interest in viewing private Instagram accounts without being a follower
What does a private Instagram account mean?
Similar to Facebook, some people use social media account to keep in touch with friends and family dotted in different states or countries around the world. That means that they have private accounts and scrutinize new requests, only accepting applications from people they know, acquaintances included.
The same applies to Instagram. There is an allure with private accounts that make people wonder, "What are you hiding from the public?" Before we get to answer that, we have to look at what it means to have a private Instagram account. Instagram has laws of privacy that allows users to make their accounts public or private.
When an account is on private, it means that people who don't follow you cannot view your account without your approval. That approval is usually granted by the holder of the account on whether to allow a follow. They have the option of declining. In such a case it means that only followers can view a person's private account and get to see the photos and stories they post.
If you are worried about whether your account is public or private, take a moment to check your privacy settings. From there you can set it accordingly. People who consider themselves open books or have some or a lot of influence in the public sphere tend to keep their accounts private. However, not everyone thinks that way.
Reasons why people keep their private Instagram, accounts private
Some account owners have found that to get followers, they need to set their account settings as private even though they accept follows from anyone. That sort of approach is apparent when someone sends you an image or video in their direct messages, but there's a disclaimer. You cannot view that content because the account is private. When it happens more than twice, your curiosity gets the best of you, and you send a follow request.
Once accepted you can, of course, view the content, but for the account owner, that means one more follower. Such an approach steadily increases a person's followers. This approach is common with meme accounts; we all love a good meme and don't mind going the extra mile for a laugh or shareable content.
As indicated earlier, for others it is a matter of privacy. They don' want all their business all out in the streets. Their lives are out of prying eyes, including exes, stalkers and potential employers that might judge your work ethics based on the much fun they have. Additionally, others are settling for private accounts because they want the freedom to remove someone from their follow list who they either fell out with or are proving to be bothersome or disrespectful. It puts you in control of who you interact with and who you share your life with.
People who can view private accounts
By now we have established that the Instagram account owner is in charge of who gets to see their photos and stories. Unfortunately, there are ways in which power can get taken out of their hands. It is through what some term as unethical approaches. For them, the end does not indeed justify the means. Others find their need to view private accounts without taking the traditional route justifiable.
One way they do that is through Instagram viewer tools. There are private Instagram viewer apps available in the market, both free and paid, that people use to view private Instagram accounts. Some are trusted (despite the behavior they are promoting), and others are scams that are out to steal their users' personal information. Be wary of accounts that ask you to take servers as that's how they gain access to your personal information. It is worth noting that with all these private Instagram viewer apps, you have to enter your user account.
Pro tip: If you are to use these Instagram viewer tools, create a fake account, so you don't have to stress over your personal information.
Purpose of Instagram viewer tools
Apart from viewing private accounts, there is more that a person can get out of these apps. Can save or even steal someone's photos to create a fake online persona for various reasons. It is not uncommon to hear celebrities or influencers pointing a light on counterfeit accounts impersonating them. It is often that the people behind these accounts are scamming people by asking them to fund non-existent charities or purchase merchandise that doesn't exist.
Moving away from these extreme examples, for others, the reason to view private Instagram accounts is simpler. They are curious about what their kids are posting on social media. Others want to see what their former lovers are up to. The increasing nature of online searches online lets us know that people are currently curious to know what is behind private accounts. Others want access back in once they have been locked out.
Are they worth it?
With these Instagram viewer apps that promise to gain you access to private account are never really free. Even though some claim they are, you'll end up losing something in return. That will either be your privacy or a few dollars when you realized you'd been scammed. An example is when you provide your phone number, and you ended up getting a higher phone bill as a result of signing up for the private account viewer.
The best route is to shoot your shot and send that friend request. If they take too long to accept, you can follow up with a direct message expressing your genuine interest in why they should approve your follow request. In some cases though, it is best to let go of your curiosity.


BGB West Mobile Home Park is located in the Town of Newburgh. This quaint park has 37 home sites tucked away into its own quiet community. BGB West is conveniently located near I-84, New York State Thruway and Stewart Airport.


Sicily offers more than a dozen offshore islands, in 3 different archipelagos, and nearly 1500km of coastline on the Ionian, Tyrrhenian and Mediterranean seas with more than 100 beaches. Sicily has beaches, snorkelling and dive sites for every taste. From white cliffs to black beaches, golden sand dunes to caves, round pebble beaches to majestic mountains that drop straight into the sea. From fine powdery white sand beaches and smooth marble slate-like "beaches" to dramatic black lava formations. From packed party beaches to the completely deserted ones….Sicily has it all. With it's 3 different seas, variating depths and currents, you will get quite a difference in water temperature, but generally, Sicily's waters remain clean and warm throughout the summer and autumn months. While you see keen swimmers from early April to December, you will find the best swimming conditions from June to early October.
Sicily comprises a number of stunning satellite islands and 3 absolutely magic archipelagoes, each with their own individual charm and appearance.
The below info has been borrowed directly from the site isole-sicilia which also has an in-depth information about each island.
The Stagnone Lagoon covers an area of 2,000 hectars between Punta San Teodoro and Capo Lilibeo. It consists of a small archipelago composed of four islands, namely Longa, Scuola, Mozia (or San Pantaleo) and Santa Maria. In 1984, in order to preserve its precious ecosystem, the lagoon was designated as a Natural Reserve.
Mozia, set off Marsala' s Stagnone Bay, was inhabited by the ancient Phoenicians. With its characteristic salt-pans and wind mills, the island is a major goal of tourists. Besides its naturalistic riches, the island is an equally renowned archaeological site, with the Tofet, a place where Phoenicians buried children, and the archaeological museum.
Pantelleria, in the Trapani district, is among Sicilian major tourist destinations. It is well-famous for its dammusi, naturalistic riches and sites, like the Montagna Grande (Grand Mountain), pine woods, the Gibele volcano, the favare and several archaeologic sites, like the Monastero catacombs and the abandoned village of Mueggen.
It is a volcanic island rather closer to the African coast (37 km from Tunis) than Sicily's (47km). The last eruption dates as far back as 9,000 years while sysmic's dates back to the late-1800s. The sole active volcanic activity is due to the so-called Stufe or Bagni Asciutti hot springs and the favare, mini-geysers that puff boiling hot steams. The main one, known as the Favara Grande, stands down the slopes of the Grand Mountain.
The dammuso, from Arabic for 'vaulted structure', is a typical 10th century building with arch openings, stone walls and a dome-shaped roof serving to collect rain. The walls' considerable thickness insulates the rooms, keeping them cool in the hot summer.
Pantelleria boasts remotest origins: relics of lava stone artefacts from the Phoenecian Age are scattered across the Island; among these are the noted Sesi – tombs where the important members of the community were buried, made from lava stone blocks – and the ruins of a pre-historic village.
Visitors may take splendid excursions on horseback along the island naturalistic spots and boating tours of the many bays and bathing spots. The Ballata dei Turchi, the Tracino, the Formaggio are just a few names.
The island is especially beautiful in the spring and autumn when the climate and a slower flow of tourists afford a more relaxing vacation, away from mass tourism.
Ustica, belonging to the Palermo province, has such attractive and renowned natural bays as the Cala Santa Maria, the Bastione Monte Guardia dei Turchi, the Cala del Camposanto, the Punta dell'Omo morto. As much impressive spots are provided by the natural caves of the Grotta Azzurra and the Pastizza. The only village on the island, mainly living on fishing and tourism, and the fine Bourbon tower are other major features of this enchanting place.
Ustica is an oasis of peace and tranquillity, unspoilt by mass tourism, hence affording an extremely relaxing holiday amidst historical and naturalistic attractions. Diving is most recommended.
The island boasts an important history; it was inhabited by the Phoenicians and the Romans, the latter calling it Ustum, meaning "burnt". Since 1986, it has been a marine protected reserve.
The Aeolian Islands, within the Messina province, are situated off Milazzo coast. These seven volcanic islands are a favorite destination for tourists from across the world. Their uncontaminated landscape marked by striking colour contrasts is host to a wide range of wildlife including several kinds of migratory birds and rare sea-gulls.
As other Sicilian archipelagoes, the Aeolian is one of remotest roots, the earliest settlements here going as back away as 4,000 years. It seems that the main Lipari has accommodated some Greek colonies. There is a fine and well-known museum tracing, through a rich display of artefacts, the islands' history starting from the very Paleolithic age when the islands are reckoned to have emerged from the sea. Today, tourism constitutes the islands' main income.
The cone-shaped Alicudi, the farthest island – along with Filicudi – from Milazzo coast, has characteristic lava stone houses and a richest flora mostly composed of prickly pear, caper and broom. It is endowed with some beautiful beaches, crystal-like waters and very interesting architectural sites, such as the churches of the Carmine and St. Bartholomew, the Montagna, being a settlement dating back to the 18th century, and the village of Castello, set on a hill sloping down to the sea.
The neighboring Filicudi is also very attractive. Remnants on the island provide evidence for human presence there since Antiquity: the ruins of a pre-historic village dating back to the Bronze Age and the sites of Rocca Ciauli, the Montagnola, Capo Graziano, Monte Guardia.
Two villages have grown on the island, namely Valdichiesa and Zucco Grande. The wild nature, along with the sea and the beautiful shore, have made the island a favorite destination of summer tourists. Not to miss is the boating tour of the island, enabling visitors to enjoy every natural side of this magic place.
Stromboli, especially renowned for its active volcano, is a popular tourism destination. It is particularly impressive at sunset when its landscape puts on incredibly beautiful colours.
Salina, with its richest flora and its distinctive two-humped profile – consisting of its two peaks Monte dei Porri and Fossa delle Felci, is the second largest of the Aeolian Islands. It derives its name from an old salt mine there located. Today, Salina is a well-famous tourism – notably summer – resort combining historical – the Santuario della Madonna del Terzito and the Santa Marina district with several caves of Saracen origin – naturalistic – the Pollara Bay, the Lupo Valley – and bathing spots.
Vulcano is the southernmost of the Aeolian islands and the closest to the Sicilian mainland.
It results from the fusion of four volcanoes. The main crater, the Cavallo and the Gelso caves, being nicest bathing spots are most attractive.
Lipari is the largest and by far the most popular of the Aeolian islands; the visitors can enjoy numerous attractions, finest sand beaches and the charming town's old centre. The Castle overlooking the sea and housing the Archaeological Museum, the Norman Cathedral, the Greek amphitheatre and a number of villages, such as Canneto, with its nice sand beach, and Acquacalda are worth a visit.
Like other islands in the archipelago, Lipari is one of archaeological interest, with relics ranging in date from the 17th to the 2nd century BC. Outstanding are the most ancient San Calogero Thermes – going as back away as the 17th century BC –, a necropolis with tombs dating from the 5th century BC and the ruins of two sanctuaries dedicated to Demetra and Kore, dating back to around 470 BC. Also worth-seeing are the Monastero di San Bartolomeo restored at the behest of Norman Count Roger, the Rocche Rosse crater, the pumice quarry and the old kaolin mines.
The island of Panarea is especially appreciated by Italian and International VIPs. Outstanding are the Cala Junco green bay and the ruins of a prehistoric village dating back to the Bronze Age.
This beautiful archipelago is made up of the renowned Lampedusa, Lampione and Linosa islands; and belongs to the Agrigento province.
The Islands are at a considerable distance from the mainland, what has helped preserving their primeval environment.
Lampedusa, by far the most famous island in the Archipelago, is home to archaeologic remnants from Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Arab ages. It is endowed with beautiful naturalistic sites; worth-mentioning are the Cala Spugne, the Cala Maluk and the Rabbit island. The island has a richest vegetation and wildlife and unique landscapes. Its geological features are very much alike the Northern coast of Africa. Boating tours of the coast and its finest sand beaches are highly recommended. The Santuario della Madonna di Lampedusa or Porto Salvo, a church whose origin goes back to the Age of the Crusades, is worth-seeing.
Linosa, known as the "black pearl of Sicily" due to its volcanic origin, has uncontaminated environments and sea-beds with plenty of grottoes, caves and wildlife. The island is a paradise for snokelers and divers. Its vegetation is magnificent. The island origins go back to the Roman and Arabian dominations.
Lampione, also known as Scola dei Portolani, is a smallest desert island closest to Lampedusa.
The Egadi Archipelago lies a few miles off Trapani shore and comprises the three main islands of Favignana, Levanzo and Marettimo, plus a a number of tiny islands among which stand Asinelli and Formica, home to remains of a tuna-fishery and a lighthouse.
On Marettimo, there are remains of ancient Roman settlements, namely the grand Grotta del Cammello (Camel Grotto) and the rocky peak of Punta Troia, where lie the ruins of an ancient Aragonese castle. The island is endowed with splendid naturalistic riches, uncontaminated sea-beds, like that by the Cala Bianca, the Bombarda grottoes and several interesting hilly areas like Pizzo Falcone and Pizzo Capraro.
Favignana is the major and the most frequented island of the Archipelago. It has a hilly profile, a rich vegetation, mainly Mediterranean, amazing coastal strips like Cala Rossa, and spots as the Bue Marino grotto, Punta Fanfalo, Cala Grande and others.