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A Heaven for Toasters: Chapter 4
Jul 21, 2019 | Free Stuff, My Publications
After relaunching A Heaven for Toasters, complete with new cover, I promised to publish it here in installments. If you'd rather not wait, this is your last chance to get it at $0.99 before the price goes back to $2.99.
Note: You can find a link to all published chapters at the end of this post or read more parts on Wattpad.
What if your perfect man was a robot?
Detective Mika Pensive has a new partner. He's hot. Smart. Funny. And an android.
Set in the near future, A Heaven for Toasters is more than a sci-fi crime adventure with plenty of romance and wit. It's the book that will make you look at your toaster in a whole new way.
CHAPTER 4: Guide
"Which way, again?" I asked, not bothering to hide my irritation.
Leo glanced at the sun. "I believe it's this way."
"We've been going around in circles for the last ten minutes," I complained. "This bench right here… I swear we've been through here before." I let out a frustrated sigh and sat down.
"We haven't actually—" Leo started to say, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand.
"Let's sit down for a second, shall we?"
The bench was in the middle of a courtyard-like opening among the snakelike, narrow streets. Streams of houses surrounded us—each with a small garden at the front. Despite their identical architecture, some had manicured gardens, others unkempt. They were all painted in different colors—some garish, others subdued. I squeezed my eyes to chase away the dull pain between them.
The small square was empty, which suited me fine. We had only seen a handful of residents so far, all clones of the same man: Doctor Morgan, reclusive billionaire and cloning pioneer.
The clones we had seen all differed in age, but I knew they were all born between 2072 and 2099, the year when the Shanghai Convention was signed. A village consisting solely of adults between forty-five and sixty-four was unnerving. I kept expecting to hear children's laughter. Its absence raised my hairs. I was used to having kids of all ages playing around in villages like this.
A sprightly old man approached us, a jovial expression on his wrinkled face. "You two look lost." He opened his arms as if to hug us.
I leaned away. "What is it to you?" I snapped, not bothering to hide my annoyance. I rubbed my temples. My fingers came out wet with sweat. The heat and the humidity were getting to me. That, and the fact the sea was so close by, yet I couldn't see it. I wanted to go full Godzilla on Clonesville and tear through the garish buildings to reach it.
The man approached the bench. "May I?" He sat down beside me without waiting for an answer and rubbed his temples, mimicking my gesture. "Scorcher of a day, isn't it? Then again, most are nowadays."
"And you are?" Leo asked, leaning toward him.
"A guide. And a good guide knows when he's needed."
"We wouldn't have any need for you if my hololens worked," I said with a growl. "What's with this place?"
He straightened his back. "Clonesville has a unique arrangement with its host country," he recited in a stilted voice. "As the world's only place where conscious clones can live in peace, we are not to be surveyed by any electronic means. This includes maps."
"So Doctor Morgan is rich enough to buy his own island," I said with an ill-tempered smirk.
"Just a small part of it," our guide corrected me. "The doctor bought the land surrounding one of the old mansions. He built Clonesville around it to house all his clones."
I followed his finger to a series of tiled rooftops farther up the hill. The building they belonged to peeked with contempt over the plain buildings surrounding us. A tall wall obstructed my view, but I could still make out a white sprawling compound built in a Bauhaus style with slender openings.
I studied the wall separating the rest of Clonesville from the doctor. Sharp barbed wire sat snuggly atop a stone wall, looking positively forbidding. I had no doubt that entering the mansion would be anything but easy.
In sharp contrast, each house on the square was barely big enough for a small family. They were all built the same: low, with a tiled roof, a small front yard and—I assumed—a similarly miniature back one. Even though they all had the same specifications, they each had a distinguishing feature, from ridiculously out-of-place pink flamingos to brightly colored walls. Cats were everywhere. Some were well kept, others obvious strays.
"The Manor," Guide said. "It belonged to one of the famous ship owners of Hydra. When the doctor bought it, it was derelict. But look at it now, huh? The jewel on the island's crown." Uttered by another, his words might have conveyed pride. But now they carried more than a hint of sarcasm.
"Have you ever been inside?" Leo asked.
Guide's face darkened. "Of course."
"Could you take us in?" I asked, curiosity growing in me.
"I haven't been there in years," the man said like he found the mere suggestion distasteful. "And no, I can't."
"But you have been in," I insisted.
"Just because someone's been at the mountaintop doesn't mean he's the right person to guide you there," he snapped. "Anyway, no outsiders have been at the Manor in ages. Way back, the doctor used to throw a little get-together for all his clones on the anniversary of his first successful cloning. The Cinderella Ball, we called it." He scoffed. "To some, he's the fairy godmother. To others, the king."
Leo eyed him with curiosity. "And to you?"
"The cruel stepmother," the man said with a bitter laugh.
I frowned. "Sorry, I don't understand. You said you grew up there. So, were you adopted or does Doctor Morgan allow locals inside?"
"Apart from his jet-setting friends, only clones are let in," he said with just the right kind of sigh to make him look like a teacher who had encountered two particularly dim students. "Even his staff consists entirely of clones. I grew up there but now I'm not even allowed inside. Thank God."
I wondered if his words were the ramblings of an old man who had misplaced a few of his marbles.
Leo leaned toward the man to study him. "All Morgan clones were created after 2072. No offense, but you look too old to be one. Although the resemblance is uncanny."
"Actually, that's not true. Doctor Morgan created his first clone in 2063. In 2072, he perfected the aging process. As for me, I was born in 2063. I'm fifty-seven, even if I look over seventy." The man met my raised eyebrows with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You have the doctor to thank for my looks. I was part of the very first group of clones he created. Back then, he was struggling to artificially age his clones, giving birth to men instead of babies. I'm one of his early experiments. Several of my aging-related genes have been altered. As a result, I look older than I am. Not happy about it, but we all have to play the hand we're dealt when coming to this world, don't we?" He spoke like none of this mattered but there was hidden pain layered in the back of his voice. "Besides, I'm healthy and conscious instead of one of those poor zombies people grow in vats nowadays."
The thought caused my foul mood to return with a vengeance. "That's just wrong," I blurted out.
"It was a different time," our guide said, mistaking my comment as a reference to his own experience. "The Asian Wars were raging. We needed soldiers. And fast. People were willing to turn the blind eye to a lot of things."
"I guess," I muttered, wondering just how messed up in the head Doctor Morgan really was. The brighter the light, the longer the shadow.
I tried to put myself in our guide's shoes. To be an experiment, knowing you owe both your existence and all of its pains to a man's whim… And most of the clones hardly seemed well off. It couldn't have been an easy life. I looked at the man, trying to hide my pity. "And you're a guide," I said. I normally hate stating the obvious, but I had to somehow change the awkward subject.
He beamed me a smile. "Indeed, I am."
"I'll call you Guide, then."
Leo made a gesture in my direction. "This charming lady is Detective Pensive. And I'm Leo."
"Lovely to meet you both," Guide said with a polite nod.
My stomach growled, adding to my general discontent. "We seem to be lost. Can you show us the way out of here?"
Guide stood up. "Are you heading to the exhibition?"
"Old Town," Leo said. "We would have had our zoomer pick us up but reception here seems spotty."
"Like I said, we're a private lot," Guide said, a plastered smile on his face.
"More like paranoid," I grunted as I stood up. "What's with this guy, for example?" I nodded at a man coming our way. His unkempt hair almost covered his face, reminding me of a character from an old series Richard had once shown me—Cousin It. As he passed us, a tangy stench made me turn away, scrunching my nose.
"We seem to be in the middle of several culture wars at the moment," Guide admitted. His demeanor seemed a bit deflated. "This one's a Mumblecrust."
My eyebrows flew upward. "Mumblecrust?"
"A character in a medieval comedy show," Leo explained. "The word signifies a toothless, haggard beggar."
I gaped at him. "So you do know everything."
Leo let out a small laugh. "Only the important stuff," he said with a playful wink.
Guide continued like we had not interrupted him. "Some clones love technology and believe it's their duty to perfect themselves through it, to the point of surgically removing certain offending, malodorous glands. Mumblecrusts, on the other hand, see technology as an affront to their humanity. Sadly enough, even soap is considered too advanced for them." He scrunched his nose in distaste. "Think of them as Luddites on rather stinky steroids, if you wish."
"I thought you guys would all agree with each other," I said as I ducked to follow Guide under a low bridge. It stank of mold and humidity and I increased my pace. "After all, you're each other's clones."
"A common misconception," Guide said, glancing back at me. "We're as diverse a culture as you'll find anywhere in the world." He pointed at two men coming down the road, chatting loudly. One of them had shiny black artificial arms and hands. "See that guy over there? He's a drummer. Cut off both his arms to augment himself. He can now play the drums faster than any human."
"That's terrible," I said with a gasp.
"It's not that different from you plastering a hololens onto your eye," Guide pointed out.
"Of course it is," I protested. "In my case, I'm adding something. In his case, he's removed part of… of himself."
"I'm with Guide," Leo said.
"Of course you are," I shot at him. "You're not human. You probably have a couple of extra limbs lying around as spare parts."
"True," Leo agreed with me. "I'm not human. But neither is Guide, and he agrees with me."
Yeah, but he's a clone. Not quite human, either. I decided against speaking out the words echoing in my throbbing head.
"Anyway, changing yourself is part of the individuation process," Leo continued. "Man's struggle for an identity."
I pursed my lips in thought. Just man's? "What about you? You're probably like any other android. How do you tell yourself apart?"
"I don't know." Two vertical lines cut the space between Leo's eyes, giving him a troubled expression that I found surprisingly endearing. "But don't forget I'm a prototype. It's easy to know your identity when you're literally unique."
"That doesn't really answer my question," I insisted. "After all, aren't we all unique?"
"Your friend is right," Guide told Leo, agreeing with me this time. "Even with our common genes, we're as diverse a culture as you can find anywhere."
"So I've heard," I joked, then turned serious again. "So, clones are all different, just like the rest of us. And just like us, you have to make up ridiculous ways to stress that point."
"They're hardly ridiculous," Leo pointed out. "In a sense, the more identical the individuals, the more important their differences, no matter how small. I can only imagine how hard it must be to find your identity as a clone."
Guide cleared his throat. Unlike me, he seemed unperturbed at the conversation. "To paraphrase the rather poetic Arabic saying, there are as many ways to individuation as the breaths of the sons of men. Anyway, ridiculous or not, we're there."
He took a right and we popped through an opening between two buildings and into a familiar footpath dotted with little yellow flowers. The path to Old Town. I gulped down the iodine sea air like I had been suffocating. The view was just as I remembered it: yellow bursts in rocky fields on the right, waves crashing against sharp rocks on the left, and a stone-paved, winding path separating the two.
"Thank you," Leo said.
Guide discreetly extended his hand and rubbed two fingers together. "It's been a pleasure." He cleared his throat as if the gesture was not suggestive enough. "Though, you know, it's customary to tip your guide."
"I imagined Doctor Morgan would take better care of his clones," I said, more out of curiosity than a desire to save a few credits.
"He allows us to stay on his land for free and provides us with a modest monthly stipend," Guide explained, his hand still extended. "It's always nice to have a little extra, though, isn't it?"
I shook his hand and tapped my temple with my free hand. "Transfer ten credits to Guide here."
The transaction flashed briefly on my hololens before it disappeared from my view.
"Very kind of you," Guide said. He touched his temple. "Transfer contact details." He flashed us a satisfied grin. "If you ever need me again, I'm at your disposal."
"We'll call you," Leo promised. "How will we reach you if you're inside Clonesville, though? I had no signal throughout it."
"The signal dampers only affect outsiders," Guide explained. "I promise you, you'll have no trouble reaching me."
I ignored the conversation as messages started flashing on my hololens. Leo was right; there was no connection in Clonesville. Now that we were outside again, the hololenses reestablished their connection to the Network and downloaded missed messages. "Sixteen messages?" I mumbled. "How can I have sixteen messages?" The last one opened up and a video of a wrecked zoomer filled my view, flames devouring it. I read the caption—an urgent appeal that we contact local authorities. "Oh, God." The words escaped my lips unbidden. "That's…"
Continue reading on Amazon or follow the links below:
Chapter 1: Partners
Chapter 2: Baichis
Chapter 3: Exhibition
Chapter 5: Old Town
Chapter 6: Island
Chapter 7: Hotel
Chapter 8: Dinner
Chapter 9: Hail Mary
Chapter 10: Warehouse
Chapter 11: Sergeant
Chapter 12: Captain
Chapter 13: Eden
Chapter 14: A Near Miss
Chapter 15: Investigation
Chapter 16: Bad News
Chapter 17: Frying Pan
Chapter 18: Fire
Chapter 19: Eds
Chapter 20: Xhristinas
Chapter 21: Cavalry
Chapter 22: Journeys
Chapter 23: Doctor
A Heaven for Toasters, Chapter 4: Guide
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Today, six missionaries fly from Vienna to Moscow and hopefully all six will arrive. There are only two of us here at the gate writing this blog post, so whether or not the other four arrive at their Russian destinations is in the hands of God and various regional airlines of dubious credibility.
But we can't tell you the future; so you're going to have to settle for the past. And what a past we've had! This last week has been an amazing one. All six of us met in Vienna and travelled to Gaming, Austria for a week. We spent our time learning how to teach ESL, learning more of the Russian language, studying culture and cultural norms, and growing closer together as a team in prayer and fun. It was a wonderful time of preparation and we are feeling fired up to continue on to Russia.
We learned some important lessons this past week and can't possibly share all of them here. But the two biggest takeaways we have both involve humility (classic).
1.) Sometimes the Lord calls us to be served instead of to serve. Let me tell you, we were all feeling pretty puffed up and prideful on our way over. He we are: young, brilliant, holy, and devilishly good-looking on our way to do some serious service. But when we got to Gaming, we were met by people who just wanted to serve us. We had professors, religious, and international students who taught us so much, families who were so excited to spend their time and open their homes to us, and others who cooked, cleaned, and prepared every other conceivable thing for us. At first this made some of us feel rather foolish; it felt like we were starting mission with vacation. But as the week progressed, the truth became clear: these people weren't helping us because they were bored or because we were helpless. Instead, they were helping because this was their mission too. The Church is missionary by her very nature; this week made that often-used phrase come alive.
2.) It's not about you. It's so easy (especially in the spiritual life) to focus on yourself. We chase after our own growth in holiness, worry about our own progress, and note our own contributions and failures. It's easy to fall into an oxymoronic (emphasis on moronic) "pious narcissism." Throughout the week, different priests and our other mentors kept reminding us to "Let go of our I." Mission is not about us; it's about the people we are serving and the One we are serving them for. We are instruments of the Lord. We want to get out of the way so that it is Jesus, through us, pouring His mercy upon the people we meet. What a privilege it is when we cooperate and have the opportunity to behold God at work. Of course, it would be lying to insist that we're not going to grow and that a rich spiritual life is not important. However, it's ridiculous to pretend to ourselves that the secret to the conversion of Russia lies in how consoled I felt during my holy hour and not in God's grace and loving providence.
Well, you wanted an inspirational blog post and hopefully you got it! We are about to board our plane in a few minutes, so we must be going. Here is a series of photos to hold you over until next week's post.


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65 Classic Love Quotes
Be inspired by these love quotes.Love - as the Beatles said - is all you need, but sometimes we don't have the right words to say something in exactly the right way... or we're not gifted with the wordsmithery (see how hard this is!?) required?! Luckily, all the hard work has been done for us, by other lovers and writers who were far more gifted than us (thank goodness!) at putting pen to paper... So be inspired by these 65 Love Quotes that will melt the heart and warm the soul! Our collection includes quotes about what love is, being in love and forever love. There are even beautiful quotes that describe and reflect that special feeling of love itself.
So share these love quotations with the one you love, express your affection and appreciation. Tell them how you feel and let these wise words about love say it all for you.
Loving others (or as I like to say sometimes if my spouse is being hard to love) loving on others, does us good and helps make the world a better place, so go on; Share the Love!
Love Is Quotes
"Love is such a simple, beautiful word. If only being in love were that easy! Instead, it is a complicated, ever-changing jumble of feelings and emotions." Jennifer Fox, Pocket Posh 100 Classic Love Poems
"Every person who is deeply devoted to some other person or group can be described as living her purpose through love." Michal Stawicki, Simplify Your Pursuit of Success
To love means loving the unlovable. G. K. Chesterton
"Love is a special gift that you can give over and over again and is completely within your power. How you treat people, how you react when you are upset, how you listen, how you share, these are all ways we can demonstrate love for others." Catherine Pulsifer, Birthday Wishes For A Best Friend
Love is an energy meant to be shared. Troy L Love, A Year of Self Love
"Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good. Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth. It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable." Thomas A Kempis
"Love is, in my view, the major source of joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Michael Caputo, The Fruits of the Holy Spirit
Each act of love is like a crumb of bread for the birds of winter. The offering is cheap to give and invaluable to receive. Greg Henry Quinn
Love is blind, the phrase runs. Nay, I would rather say, love sees as God see, and with infinite wisdom has infinite pardon." Quida
Wandering down these pathways – the wind on your face, the scent of delicate flowers in your nostrils, sharing it with somebody you love – puts all else in life into perspective. Dr Harry Barry, Flagging The Therapy
"There is not as much accomplished without love as there is with it. The presence of love is the greatest method, manner, mode, agent, and tool of change that there is in the universe." Shannon Scott, Regret
"Love, after all, is part work, part play and all about sustaining your commitment to each other over the many years ahead of you." Sarah Riedel, Marriage
Someday we'll be together again. Just you and me. And I will always love you. Belinda Austin, I Will Always Love You
My connection to the presence of love has been my guide, my protector, and my partner in the co-creation of my life. Gabrielle Bernstein, Super Attractor.
True love is without pride. Patrick T Gorman, The Unbroken Home
"And though you cannot touch me, I am the gentle hand of the kind. I am the fingertips that caress your cheek at night. I am the hug of a child. I am love." Author Unknown
Best Love Quotes
"We grow in love by choosing to serve, share, listen, forgive, etc. Love grows as we choose to act in love towards others. Gregory Brown, Philippians: Pursuing Spiritual Maturity
There is no greater gift you can give yourself than to love freely and with your whole heart. Carolyn Robinson, Love Poems Along the Way
Love is not forced, it is a choice. Dr. Dwayne L. Buckingham, Unconditional Love
"Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished." Og Mandino
"Actions speak louder than thoughts - it's what you do when presented with the opportunity that showcase your love, or lack of." Anna Shine, Marriage
Around the corner or on the other side of the world, we share a common goal, a common love. Dr Wilson Jay Tyree, Lost and Found
"By loving our neighbors, we in turn grow to love God." C. P. Fagan, iDoubt: When Faith Falters
"To live a little, you've got to love a whole lot. Love turns the ordinary into the extraordinary." Author Unknown, Life is for Living
"The 'look of love' not only communicates our feeling of love for someone but also reflects our instinct to do whatever it takes to make that person happy." Willard F. Harley, Jr.
"You can show your love for anyone you wish that is close to you as often as you want. These gifts of love can be a little hug, a few soft words spoken, the holding of hands as you walk along the sidewalk, or an endearing and love given, quiet dinner." Catherine Pulsifer, Possible To Give Gifts
"Send a drop of love, And feel a loving embrace.
It feels so good to feel like, you are in the right place."
Julie Hebert, Send A Drop Of Kindness
Deep Love Quotes
Each of us can learn the art of nourishing happiness and love. Everything needs food to live, even love. If we don't know how to nourish our love, it withers. When we feed and support our own happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love. That's why to love means to learn the art of nourishing our happiness. Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Love
When we find ourselves, we are love. We need not make it a practice; we need not practice virtues. Chobo, Melody and Silence
Finding Yourself
Love, I would say, is that capacity which enables him to grasp the other human being in his very uniqueness. Victor E. Frankl, The Will To Meaning
After thirty years of contorting myself to fit inside someone else's idea of love, I finally had a love that fit—custom made for me, by me. Glennon Doyle, Untamed
Even in the midst of total chaos, pain and dysfunction, love is calling us to a higher experience and expression. Iyanla Vanzant, Forgiveness
"Allow yourself love and when you do you will find love in return. Allow yourself to be happy and when you do you will influence others around you." Catherine Pulsifer, Allow Yourself
"Make it clear, you expect loving that takes your breath away. The love you give will be returned to you to your heart's content." Frantz-Earl Robinson, Love to the Heart's Content
Quotes about Love and Life
I once read that having a great relationship isn't about finding the perfect partner; it is about being the perfect partner. Hal Elrod And Others, The Miricle Morning For Couples
Every child has a natural need for love – to be loved and also to express love. This need is wired into their very nature, and they express this desire for love from the very first day they are born. John Adjej, Parenting Your Best
"Hope, as it pertains to love, is a good thing because by hoping for certain things such as an extended future with the one you love is made possible." John Franks, Manifesting Love
An enlightened person will experience feelings of love and oneness on a continuous basis, which is a supremely blissful experience. What's more, people who are enlightened always know what is right and appropriate in any given situation in order to bring happiness and healing to all beings. Tara Springett, The seven golden keys for love, success and happiness
If you truly love someone, you will desire to make the effort to spend quality time with them to get to know them deeper. Robert Woeger
"All humans respond to kindness and warmth the same way, regardless of age. Respect begets respect. Love begets love." Iovana Yao, Parenting: Forgive Me For Yelling At You!
The love and relationship are all about understanding each other and overlooking the different matters, as well as mistakes. Ilene Prat, The Secrets of Forgiveness
The power of love is the energy that supplies all of your needs. A.D Largie, World Wide Love
Motivational Quotes for Kids
"The profound universal experience of love is impossible to define; it can be known only by its manifestations, both secular and divine." Suheil Bushrui, The World's Favorite Love Poems
Love means patience, kindness and being happy when you witness the happiness of others. Jaspinder Grover, Forgiveness
They say that love comes when you're not looking for it. But, I will tell you this. When it DOES come, Be Ready! John Joseph, How To Treat A Woman
When you graduate from "Being In Love" to "Loving Someone" you understand - Love is not about owning, Love is about wanting the best for them, It's about seeing or helping them achieve great heights, with or without you. Wordions
"Falling in love, finding that special soulmate, can make you feel on top of the world with your favorite music playing." Catherine Pulsifer
Every part of life we live is beautiful. Being in love is the new experience and after that marriage and after that children and the list goes on. All of this comes with responsibility and even gives us purpose to live our life. Ena Gautam
"There is a love that many do not perceive and some people just, cannot really believe. This love I talk of can be very impolite yes it's that very special, love at first sight." Robert Worrall, Love Poems from Deep Within the Soul
Short Love Poems
Never forget why you fell in love in the first place and never stop giving your love. Khary Tolliver, This beautiful love
Life is something that really cannot be explained. It got to be experienced! .... most of all 'being in love' is crucial to live life to its fullest potential. Vishwas Chavan
Forever Love Quotes
Loving someone is like caring for a garden, love it too much or too little and it dies, but love it just right and it will live forever." Author Unknown
"The expression of love to another is not reserved for a single day or for a special event or occasion like an anniversary for a birthday. The celebration of love is more about how you live each day with the one you love and care for." Byron Pulsifer
"Build your world around me, and promise to never let me go, and if ever their comes a time it may seem crowded, may we expand so love may grow." Robert Hensel
"Our love feels like a warm, gentle and kind summer breeze. Within our love there is safety and peace." Marie Cornelio, Sacred Elegant Wedding
"Focus on the things that lead to lasting love, like communication and kindness, and stop putting all your attention on qualities that don't matter." John Noel, Finding Mr. Right
"Show your love for your partner by making them feel appreciated and show that you love them fully and don't find them any less attractive than when you first met." Lesley Harriot, How To Have Successful Relationships
"The essence of love is a total commitment to the good of the other but it also embodies graciousness and humility." Michael Hill, The How and Why of Love
"No scale to balance, what's in my heart.
No numbers to measure, nor even to chart.
This love can't be seen, in ounces or in pounds.
For only through time, can it's value be found."
Robert M. Hensel
The most important resource isn't time, or oil, money or gold; it's love. Without this, we may have everything, but life is nothing. Kute Blackson
To define something, Love for example, is a huge subject and is like describing the awesome beauty of a diamond, how can you? Yet if you break it down to describing each facet, you will have a greater feel for what you are describing. Mitchell Freeway, Romantic Poems for Valentine's Day
"I have learned that love takes time to grow... Like a seed that needs nurturing to blossom into a beautiful flower so must love learn to blossom." M. Lee
Tell a family member that you love them and see what happens to the relationship. You'd be surprised how many people take these words for granted and rarely tell those closest to them how they really feel. David Khalil, Principle 7: The Power of Giving
When we embrace love in all dimensions we truly create the magic that is the gift of Christmas; the rebirth of love, forgiveness, peace and unity. Bernadette Dimitrov, The HoHOHo Factor
"Spontaneous and honest love admits errors, hesitations, and human failings; it can be tested and repaired." Nancy Friday, My Mother/My Self
"Mercy, in particular, is an act of love that, in a sense, is not deserved by another. It's a free gift that is given purely from the motivation of love." John Paul Thomas, Lent and Easter Reflections
"Honour a date, celebrate a milestone and wait not a moment longer to make someone, even just one, feel loved and appreciated." Les Norman; Pilar Norman, Never Have A Minute To Call Your Own
Love just happens to be one of those experiences that comes the closest to making us feel content and complete. Lateef Terrell Warnick, Know Thyself
Love. What a small word for such an enormous, expansive, exalted experience! Marci Shimoff; Carol Kline Love For No Reason
Unconditional Love Quotes
Sister Love Quotes
Valentines Poems
We hope you have enjoyed our collection and that they have given you words and thoughts to describe love. Words that you will share with others. Words that you will demonstrate in your life!
More Quotes to Share
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Rose hired as new WHS principal
Board accepts Wood's resignation at meeting
By Kellee Bonnell - [email protected]
New WHS Principal Tracy Rose is excited to work with the students, teachers, and community in his new role. "I've got a lot of plans, I want to keep the community informed and proud of the kids that come out of this school," Rose said.
During Monday night's monthly Washington C.H. City School Board meeting, the board accepted the superintendent's recommendation to hire Tracy Rose as principal of the high school.
During the meeting, the board also accepted Rose's resignation as the high school's assistant principal in order to hire him as principal.
Rose started his career in Hillsboro as a special education teacher from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, Rose then moved to Eastside, where he stayed for one year. Rose then spent one year at Cherry Hill before moving to Washington Middle School. Rose served as the middle school assistant principal beginning with the 2002-2003 school year until he became the assistant principal at the high school in 2011.
"I am very excited, I grew up in Washington Court House, so getting to be the principal of the high school that I graduated from is pretty amazing, " Rose said. "I have had some wonderful mentors and I have worked with some great teachers throughout the years. I hope that I can bring bits and pieces of each of them to this new position. I am very, very excited to work with the staff in this new capacity also. We've had lots of new teachers over the past year and we're gaining a few new teachers to the building this year, too.
"Education has changed an awful lot as well, and I not only want to help students with the changes in testing, but with the life skills they're going to need once they leave and get out into life after high school," Rose continued. "I tell the kids three things every year: 1) love what you do — and I absolutely love what I do; 2) challenge yourself — this is a different role, it requires a different skill-set. I love these challenges and I think that I've been well prepared for them; and 3) change the world — I just hope that I have been practicing what I preach and have made a difference to the kids I am around because I couldn't be happier right now."
Rose is replacing Casey Wood as principal.
"People come and go," Wood said. "I was presented with an opportunity and I had to take it." Wood didn't elaborate on the opportunity he referenced.
The board also accepted $57,524 worth of donations that will go toward the track camp fund, health fair benefits, auditorium restoration, and the Darlene McCaine Education Scholarship. The board also accepted $90,742.04 in funding from the Auditor of State.
The board accepted the resignation of Kelsey Boyer, a Belle Aire teacher and Meghan Homola, a Washington Middle School teacher.
The board also accepted the employment of Megan Butcher, a second grade teacher at Cherry Hill, Sherri Green, a math teacher at Washington Middle School, Victoria Klaiber, a third grade teacher at Belle Aire, Molly Keager, a math teacher at Washington Middle School, Susan Eubanks, an intervention specialist at Washington High School, and Leandra Roble, an intervention specialist at Washington High School.
According to Superintendent Matthew McCorkle, there are still six positions left to be filled before the 2015-2016 school year begins.
The registration dates for students who are new to the Washington C.H. City Schools were announced during Monday night's meeting: Cherry Hill Primary (Grades K-2), located at 720 Oakland Ave., will be on Friday , July 31, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.; Belle Aire Intermediate School (Grades 3-5), located at 1120 High St., will be on Friday, July 31, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.; Washington Middle School (Grades 6-8), located at 500 S. Elm St., will begin Wednesday, Aug. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Washington High School (Grades 9-12), located at 400 S. Elm St., will begin on Thursday, Aug. 6, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The registration dates are only for those students who have moved into the district over the summer or who have not already registered for kindergarten.
All kindergarten students will be screened on July 31 at Cherry Hill Primary School.
https://www.recordherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2015/07/web1_IMG_3771.jpgNew WHS Principal Tracy Rose is excited to work with the students, teachers, and community in his new role. "I've got a lot of plans, I want to keep the community informed and proud of the kids that come out of this school," Rose said.
By Kellee Bonnell
Reach Kellee Bonnell at (740) 313-0355 or on Twitter @newskelleebee.
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Peru, South America & Caribbean, Wanderlust
Rendered Speechless in Machu Picchu
Awesome. Breathtaking. Spectacular. Those words and others came immediately to mind as I caught my first glimpse of Machu Picchu, right before my very eyes.
But after two days of visiting the site, those words seem small and contrived. I still don't know how to describe the feeling of standing among the glorious ruins of this lost Inca city. Located at an elevation of more than 8,000 feet on the side of a mountain in the middle of the cloud forest, I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to live in such a place 550 years ago.
Would any of my children have been selected to serve as noble priests or priestesses, living apart from me and eventually "offered" (that less violent-sounding euphemism for sacrificed) to the gods – poison being the preferred method in order to send the gods an intact and pure body – if lesser offerings like crops, guinea pigs or llamas failed to appease them? Or would my kin and I have been simple common folk or farmers working the agricultural terraces? The population of the city at its height was estimated to be 1,000 people and 20,000-30,000 non-resident day workers. What an enormous amount of effort to build and maintain a town in such an isolated place, especially when it was abandoned for some unknown reason (theories include illness or war) after less than 100 years.
As I contemplated the site, which was shrouded in clouds, I also started to think about the religious architecture in Europe at the same time, when the mid-15th century signified the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. Across the Atlantic Ocean, master builders perfected the construction of towering Gothic cathedrals in reverence of their Catholic god, while the Incas used a much different kind of engineering, to build temples in reverence of their gods. Yet the stark differences in the two civilizations' architectural styles belie the complexity inherent in each.
The European style arguably was more visibly sophisticated. Flying buttresses to support roofs made of stone, stained glass windows, pointed arches, ribbed vaults…the list goes on. But other than the sunlight pouring through the windows, which provided the cathedrals an other-worldly glow, nature really played no role in the architectural choices that were made.
Church of St. Maclou in France, mid-1400s
On the other hand, there's a primitivism to the Inca architecture that I find incredibly fascinating. Their construction methods were deceptively simple – a lot of really heavy stones that miraculously fit together to construct agricultural terraces, and buildings like houses, palaces, temples and storage rooms. But when you think about how, being an illiterate people, books could not have guided them, how gigantic stones were transported across valleys and mountains without any wheeled vehicles (although at Machu Picchu, unlike other sites like Ollantaytambo, they were fortunately able to quarry on-site), and how they integrated their knowledge of nature, such as the position of the sun and moon, altitude and the flow of water, into their architectural designs so that they could properly worship and pay homage to their gods, you can't help but look at Machu Picchu and other Inca sites and feel like they really should have been able to defeat the Spaniards and rule for centuries more.
As I climbed the Inca Trail (they built over 20,000 miles of roads throughout their short-lived empire, which were actually paved with stone) up to Inti Punku (the Sun Gate), which served as the main entrance to the city of Machu Picchu for travelers arriving from Cusco, I also wondered what people living then would have thought when their eyes settled on the site for the first time. Would they have been as impressed as we are today with the effort it must have taken to build this city into the side of a mountain or would they have taken the incredible feat for granted?
This is all to say that Machu Picchu requires more than a few overused adjectives to appreciate in full. At one point during our tour, our excellent guide, Jaime, asked us to stop taking pictures and pause for a couple of minutes to contemplate the uniqueness of our surroundings. As I drowned out the background noise of other tourists, listened to the birds chirping in the trees and the Urubamba River coursing 2,000 feet below, and admired the lush landscape of the mountains cradling the site, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of peace, tranquility and happiness. And an enormous sense of gratitude that I was able to experience first-hand the majesty of this place.
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The Avengers was a spy-fi British television series created in 1961. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) and his assistant John Steed (Patrick Macnee). Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants – the most famous of these being Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and later Tara King (Linda Thorson). Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity. The Avengers ran for six seasons between from 1961 until 1969, and amassed a total of 161 one hour episodes.
The Avengers began with episode "Hot Snow", in which medical doctor Dr David Keel (Hendry) investigates the murder of his fiancée and office receptionist Peggy by a drug ring. A stranger named John Steed, who was investigating the ring, appeared and together they set out to avenge her death in the first two episodes. Afterwards, Steed asked Keel to partner him as needed to solve crimes. Hendry was considered the star of the new series, receiving top billing over Macnee, and Steed did not appear in two episodes.
As the first series of The Avengers progressed, Steed's importance increased, and he carried the final episode solo. While Steed and Keel used wit while discussing crimes and dangers, the series also depicted the interplay—and often tension—between Keel's idealism and Steed's professionalism. As seen in one of the two surviving episodes from the first series, "The Frighteners", Steed also had helpers among the population who provided information, similar to the "Baker Street Irregulars" of Sherlock Holmes.
The other regular in the first series was Carol Wilson (Ingrid Hafner), the nurse and receptionist who replaced the slain Peggy. Carol assisted Keel and Steed in cases, without being part of Steed's inner circle. Hafner had played opposite Hendry as a nurse in his previous show Police Surgeon.
The missing television episodes are currently being re-created for audio by Big Finish Productions under the title of The Avengers – The Lost Episodes and star Julian Wadham as Steed, Anthony Howell as Dr. Keel and Lucy Briggs-Owen as Carol Wilson.
Production of the first series was cut short by a strike. By the time production could begin on the second series, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to star and Steed became the focus of the series, initially working with a rotation of three different partners. Dr Martin King (Jon Rollason) (a rewritten Dr. David Keel) saw action in only three episodes produced from scripts written for the first series. King was intended to be a transitional character between Keel and Steed's two new female partners, but while the Dr. King episodes were shot first, they were shown out of production order in the middle of the season. The character was thereafter quickly and quietly dropped.
Nightclub singer Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) appeared in six episodes. She was a complete "amateur," meaning that she did not have any professional crime-fighting skills as did the two doctors. She was excited to be participating in a "spy" adventure alongside secret agent Steed (although some episodes—"The Removal Men", "The Decapod"—indicate she is not always enthusiastic). Nonetheless, she appears to be attracted to him and their relationship is somewhat similar to that later portrayed between Steed and Tara King. Her episodes featured musical interludes showcasing her singing performances. The character of Venus underwent some revision during her run, adopting more youthful demeanor and dress.
The first episode broadcast in the second series had introduced the partner who would change the show into the format for which it is most remembered. Honor Blackman played Dr Cathy Gale, a self-assured, quick-witted anthropologist who was skilled in judo and had a passion for leather clothes. Widowed during the Mau Mau years in Kenya, she was the "talented amateur" who saw her aid to Steed's cases as a service to her nation. She was said to have been born 5 October 1930 at midnight and raised in Africa. Gale was early-to-mid 30s during her tenure, in contrast to female characters in similar series who tended to be younger.
Gale was unlike any female character seen before on British TV and became a household name. Reportedly, part of her charm was because her earliest appearances were episodes in which dialogue written for Keel was simply transferred to her. Said series script writer Dennis Spooner "there's the famous story of how Honor Blackman played Ian Hendry's part, which is why they stuck her in leather and such—it was so much cheaper than changing the lines!" In "Conspiracy of Silence" she holds her own in a vociferous tactical disagreement with her partner.
Venus Smith did not return for the third series and Cathy Gale became Steed's only regular partner. The series established a level of sexual tension between Steed and Gale, but the writers were not allowed to go beyond flirting and innuendo. Despite this the relationship between Steed and Gale was progressive for 1962–63. In "The Golden Eggs" it is revealed that Gale lived in Steed's flat; her rent according to Steed was to keep the refrigerator well-stocked and to cook for him (she appears to do neither). However, this was said to be a temporary arrangement while Gale looked for a new home, and Steed was sleeping at an hotel.
During the first series there were hints Steed worked for a branch of British Intelligence, and this was expanded in the second series. Steed initially received orders from different superiors, including someone referred to as "Charles," and "One-Ten" (Douglas Muir). By the third series the delivery of Steed's orders was not depicted on screen or explained. In "The Nutshell" the secret organization to which Steed belongs is shown, and it is Gale's first visit to their HQ.
Small references to Steed's background were occasionally made. In series three's "Death of a Batman" it was said that Steed was with I Corps in World War II, and in Munich in 1945. In series four episode "The Hour That Never Was" Steed attends a reunion of his RAF regiment. Since the ties he wears are either cavalry or old school, he apparently had attended a number of leading public schools.
A film version of the series was in its initial planning stages by late 1963 after series three was completed. An early story proposal paired Steed and Gale with a male and female duo of American agents, to make the movie appeal to the American market. Before the project could gain momentum Blackman was cast opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger, requiring her to leave the series.
In 1965 the show was sold to a United States network, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The Avengers became one of the first British series to be aired on prime time U.S. television. The ABC network paid the then-unheard-of sum of $2 million for the first 26 episodes. The average budget for each episode was reportedly £56,000, which was high for the British industry. The fourth series aired in the U.S. from March to December 1966.
Mrs Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) debuted in this series in October 1965. The name of the character derived from a comment by writers, during development, that they wanted a character with "man appeal." Her husband had gone missing while flying over the Amazon. Peel retained the self-assuredness of Gale, combined with superior fighting skills, intelligence, and a contemporary fashion sense.
A prologue was added to the beginning of all the fourth-series episodes for the American transmissions. This was to clarify some initial confusion audiences had regarding the characters and their mission. In the opener, a waiter holding a champagne bottle falls dead onto a human-sized chessboard; a dagger protruding from a target on his back. Steed and Mrs. Peel (dressed in her trademark leather catsuit) walk up to the body as the voiceover explains: "Extraordinary crimes against the people, and the state, have to be avenged by agents extraordinary. Two such people are John Steed, top professional, and his partner Emma Peel, talented amateur. Otherwise known as The Avengers." During this voice-over, Steed pours two drinks from the wine bottle and Mrs Peel replaces her gun in her boot. They clink glasses and depart together. Fade to black and then the opening titles proper begin.
In contrast to the Gale episodes, there is a lighter, comic touch in Steed and Peel's interactions with each other and their reactions to other characters and situations. Earlier series had a harder tone, with the Gale era including some quite serious espionage dramas. This almost completely disappeared as Steed and Peel visibly enjoy topping each other's witticisms. The layer of conflict with Gale—who on occasion openly resented being used by Steed, often without her permission—is absent from Steed's interaction with Peel. Also the sexual tension between Steed and Gale is quite different from the tension between Steed and Peel. In both cases, the exact relationship between the partners is left ambiguous, although they seemed to have carte blanche to visit each other's homes whenever they please, and it is not uncommon for scenes to suggest Steed had spent the night at Gale's or Peel's home, or vice versa. Although nothing "improper" is displayed, the obviously much closer chemistry between Steed and Peel constantly suggests intimacy between the two.
Science fiction and fantasy elements (a style later known as spy-fi) also begin to emerge in stories. The duo encounters killer robots ("The Cybernauts"), telepaths ("Too Many Christmas Trees") and giant alien carnivorous plants ("The Man-Eater of Surrey Green").
In her fourth episode, "Death at Bargain Prices," Mrs Peel takes an undercover job at a department store. Her uniform for promoting space-age toys is an elaborate leather catsuit plus silver boots, sash and welder's gloves. The suit minus the silver accessories becomes her signature outfit which she wore primarily for fight scenes in early episodes and in the titles. Some episodes contain a fetishistic undercurrent. In "A Touch of Brimstone" Mrs Peel dresses in a dominatrix outfit of corset, laced boots and spiked collar to become the "Queen of Sin."
Peel's avant-garde fashions, featuring bold accents and high-contrast geometric patterns, emphasize her youthful, contemporary personality. For the 1965 season, some of her most memorable outfits were designed by John Bates, including graphic black and white Op art mini-coats and accessories, and a silver ensemble comprising a bra bodice, low-slung trousers, and jacket. She represents the modern England of the Sixties – just as Steed, with his vintage style and mannerisms, personifies Edwardian era nostalgia. According to Macnee in his book The Avengers and Me, Rigg disliked wearing leather and insisted on a new line of fabric athletic wear for the fifth series. Alun Hughes, who had designed clothing for Diana Rigg's personal wardrobe, was suggested by the actress to design Emma Peel's "softer" new wardrobe. Pierre Cardin was brought in to design a new wardrobe for Macnee. In America, TV Guide ran a four-page photospread on Rigg's new "Emmapeeler" outfits (10–16 June 1967). Eight tight-fitting jumpsuits in a variety of bright colours were created using the stretch fabric crimplene.
Another memorable feature of the show from this point onwards was its automobiles. Steed's signature cars were vintage 1926–1928 Bentley racing or town cars, including Blower Bentleys and Bentley Speed Sixes (although, uniquely, in "The Thirteenth Hole" he drives a Vauxhall 30-98), while Peel drove a Lotus Elan sports car (convertible) which, like her clothes, emphasized her independence and vitality. During the first Peel series, each episode ended with a short, humorous scene of the duo leaving the scene of their most recent adventure in some unusual vehicle.
After one filmed series (of 26 episodes) in black and white, The Avengers began filming in colour for the fifth series in 1966. It was three years before Britain's ITV network began full colour broadcasting. This series was broadcast in the U.S. from January to May 1967. The American prologue of the previous series was rejigged for the colour episodes. It opened with the caption The Avengers In Color (required by ABC for colour series at that time). This was followed by Steed unwrapping the foil from a champagne bottle and Peel shooting the cork away.
The first 16 episodes of the fifth series begin with Peel receiving a call-to-duty message from Steed: "Mrs Peel, we're needed." Peel was conducting her normal activities when she unexpectedly received a message on a calling card or within a delivered gift, at which point Steed suddenly appeared (usually in her apartment). The messages were delivered by Steed in increasingly bizarre ways as the series progressed: in a newspaper Peel had just bought, or on traffic lights while she was out driving. On one occasion Steed appeared on her television set, interrupting an old science-fiction movie (actually clips from their Year Four episode "The Cybernauts") to call her to work. Another way Steed contacted her was in the beginning of episode 13, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station" when she enters her flat and sees a Meccano Percy the Small Engine going around a circular track with a note on one of the train cars that says "Mrs. Peel" in bold letters, she then walks over to Steed who says, "You're needed."
At the start of "The Hidden Tiger" Peel is redecorating her apartment (wearing a jumpsuit and drinking champagne); she peels off a strip of wallpaper, revealing the words "Mrs Peel" painted on the wall beneath. She turns to see Steed in the apartment removing another strip of wallpaper, revealing "We're needed" painted underneath on another wall. In another instance Emma enters Steed's flat to find he has just fallen down the stairs, and he painfully gasps, "Mrs Peel, you're needed." Often the episode's tag scene returned to the situation of the "Mrs Peel, we're needed" scene. "The Hidden Tiger" returns to the partially redecorated apartment where Steed begins painting a love heart and arrow and the initials of two people on the wall, but paints over the initials when Peel sees his graffito. In "The Superlative Seven" the call to duty and the tag both involve a duck shooting situation where unexpected items fall from the sky after shots are fired.
The series also introduced a comic tag line caption to the episode title, using the format of "Steed [does this], Emma [does that]." For example "The Joker" had the opening caption: "Steed trumps an ace, Emma plays a lone hand." ("The Joker" was to a large extent a re-write of "Don't Look Behind You", a b/w episode with Cathy Gale. A few other later colour episodes were re-writes of b/w episodes.)
The "Mrs Peel, we're needed" scenes and the alternate tag lines were dropped after the first 16 episodes, after a break in production, for financial reasons. They were deemed by the U.K. networks as disposable if The Avengers was to return to ITV screens. (Dave Rogers' book The Avengers Anew lists a set for every Steed/Peel episode except "The Forget-Me-Knot".)
Stories were increasingly characterized by a futuristic, science-fiction bent, with mad scientists and their creations wreaking havoc. The duo dealt with being shrunk to doll size ("Mission… Highly Improbable"), pet cats being electrically altered into ferocious and lethal "miniature tigers" ("The Hidden Tiger"), killer automata ("Return of The Cybernauts"), mind-transferring machines ("Who's Who???"), and invisible foes ("The See-Through Man").
The series parodied its American contemporaries with episodes such as "The Girl From AUNTIE", "Mission… Highly Improbable" and "The Winged Avenger" (spoofing The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible and Batman, respectively). The show still carried the basic format: Steed and his associate were charged with solving the problem in the space of a 50-minute episode, thus preserving the safety of 1960's Britain.
Humour was evident in the names and acronyms of the organizations. For example, in "The Living Dead", two rival groups examine reported ghost sightings: FOG (Friends Of Ghosts) and SMOG (Scientific Measurement Of Ghosts). "The Hidden Tiger" features the Philanthropic Union for Rescue, Relief and Recuperation of Cats—PURRR—led by characters named Cheshire, Manx, and Angora.
The series also occasionally adopted a metafictional tone, coming close to breaking the fourth wall. In the series 5 episode "Something Nasty in the Nursery" Peel directly references the series' storytelling convention of having potentially helpful sources of information killed off just before she or Steed arrive. This then occurs a few minutes later. In the tag scene for the same episode, Steed and Peel tell viewers—indirectly—to tune in next week.
Rigg was initially unhappy with the way she was treated by the show's producers especially when she discovered she was being paid less than the camera man! She demanded a raise, to put her more on a par with her co-star, or she would leave the show. The producers gave in, thanks to the show's great popularity in the US.
At the end of the fifth series in 1967, Rigg left to pursue other projects. This included following Honor Blackman to play a leading role in a James Bond film, in this case On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
When Diana Rigg left the series in October 1967, the British network executives decided that the current series formula, despite resulting in popular success, could not be pursued further. Thus they decided that a "return to realism" was appropriate for the sixth series (1968–69). Brian Clemens and Albert Fennel were replaced by John Bryce, producer of most of the Cathy Gale-era episodes.
Bryce had a difficult situation in hand. He had to find a replacement for Diana Rigg and shoot the first seven episodes of the new series, which were supposed to be shipped to America together with the last eight Emma Peel colour episodes.
Bryce signed his then-girlfriend, 20-year-old newcomer Linda Thorson, as the new female costar and chose the name "Tara King" for her character. Thorson played the role with more innocence in mind and at heart; and unlike the previous partnerships with Cathy and Emma, the writers allowed subtle hints of romance to blossom between Steed and King. King also differed from Steed's previous partners in that she was a fully fledged (albeit initially inexperienced) agent working for Steed's organisation; his previous partners had all been (in the words of the prologue used for American broadcasts of the first Rigg series) talented amateurs. Bryce wanted Tara to be blonde, so Thorson's brown hair was bleached. However the process badly damaged Thorson's hair, so she had to wear wigs for the first third of her episodes, until her own hair grew back. Her natural brown hair was not seen until the episode "All Done with Mirrors".
Production of the first seven episodes of the sixth series began. However financial problems and internal difficulties undermined Bryce's effort. He only managed to complete three episodes: "Invitation to a Killing" (a 90-minute episode introducing Tara King), "The Great, Great Britain Crime" (some of its original footage was reused in the 1969 episode "Homicide and Old Lace") and "Invasion of the Earthmen" (which survived relatively intact except for the scenes in which Tara wears a brown wig.)
After a rough cut screening of these episodes to studio executives, Bryce was fired and Clemens and Fennel were summoned back. At their return, a fourth episode called "The Murderous Connection" was in its second day of production. After revising the script, it was renamed as "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues" and production was resumed. Production of the episode "Split!", a leftover script from the Emma Peel colour series, proceeded. Two completely new episodes were also shot: "Get-A-Way", and "Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers".
Dennis Spooner said of the event that "Brian left The Avengers for about three episodes, someone took over, and when Brian came back, it was in a terrible state. He was faced with doing a rewrite on a film they'd already shot." The episode had a story error where Steed leaves for a destination. The villains then realise this and pursue him – yet arrive there before Steed does. It was fixed by having a character ask Steed 'What took you so long?', to which he replies 'I came the pretty way'. "You can only do that on The Avengers you see. It was just my favourite show to work on."
Clemens and Fennel decided to film a new episode to introduce Tara King. This, the third episode filmed for the sixth series, was titled "The Forget-Me-Knot" and bade farewell to Emma Peel and introduced her successor, a trained but inexperienced agent named Tara King. It would be broadcast as the first episode of the sixth series. Tara debuts in dynamic style: when Steed is called to Headquarters, he is attacked and knocked down by trainee agent King who mistakes him for her training partner.
No farewell scenes for Emma Peel had been shot when Diana Rigg left the series. Rigg was recalled for "The Forget-Me-Knot", through which Emma acts as Steed's partner as usual. Rigg also filmed a farewell scene for Emma which appeared as the tag scene of the episode. It was explained that Emma's husband, Peter Peel, was found alive and rescued, and she left the British secret service to be with him. Emma visits Steed to say goodbye, and while leaving she passes Tara on the stairway giving the advice that "He likes his tea stirred anti-clockwise." Steed looks out the window as a departing Emma enters the Bentley driven by Peter – who from a distance seems to resemble Steed (and was played by Steed's regular stunt-double, wearing a bowler hat and umbrella).
Bryce's original episode introducing Tara, "Invitation to a Killing", was revised as a regular 60-minute episode named "Have Guns Will Haggle". These episodes, together with "Invasion of the Earthmen" and the last eight Peel colour episodes, were shipped to America in February 1968.
For this series the government official who gave Steed his orders was depicted on screen. Mother, introduced in "The Forget-Me-Knot", is a man in a wheelchair. The role was taken by Patrick Newell who had played different roles in two earlier episodes, most recently in series five. Mother's headquarters would shift from place to place, including one episode where his complete office was on the top level of a double-decker bus.
Added later as a regular was Mother's mute Amazonian assistant, Rhonda, played by uncredited actress Rhonda Parker. There was one appearance by an agency official code-named "Father", a blind older woman played by Iris Russell. In one episode, "Killer", Steed is paired with Lady Diana Forbes Blakeney (Jennifer Croxton) while King is on holiday.
Scriptwriter Dennis Spooner later reflected on this series. "When I wrote 'Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers', that was definitely the last series. They were going to make no more, so in that series we went right over the top; we went really weird, because they knew there weren't going to be any more."
Spooner said the series "worked because it became a parody on itself, almost. You can only do that so long." Overall he attributes the success of the show to its light approach. "We spoofed everything, we took Mission: Impossible, Bad Day at Black Rock, High Noon, The Dirty Dozen, The Birds… we took them all. The film buffs used to love it. There were always lines in it that people knew what we were talking about."
Vehicle-wise, Steed continued to drive vintage green Bentleys in the first seven episodes in production. His regular transport for the remainder of the series were two yellow Rolls-Royce cars. Mother also occasionally appeared in silver Rolls-Royces. Tara King drove an AC 428 and a Lotus Europa. Lady Diana Forbes Blakeney drove an MGC Roadster.
The revised series continued to be broadcast in America. The episodes with Linda Thorson as King proved to be highly rated in Europe and the UK. In the United States however, the ABC network that carried the series chose to air it opposite the number one show in the country at the time, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Steed and King could not compete, and the show was cancelled in the US. Without this vital commercial backing, production could not continue in Britain either, and the series ended in May 1969. The final scene of the final episode ("Bizarre") has Steed and King, champagne glasses in hand, accidentally launching themselves into orbit aboard a rocket, as Mother breaks the fourth wall and says to the audience, "They'll be back!" before adding in shock, "They're unchaperoned up there!"
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CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs expect Yu Darvish to go on a minor league rehab assignment, assuming he experiences no setbacks after pitching a simulated game on Tuesday.
President of baseball operations Theo Epstein says the Japanese right-hander is "just about ready for the next step" after throwing about 55 pitches. The Cubs will see how he feels on Wednesday.
Sidelined because of triceps and elbow injuries, Darvish has not pitched since he won at Cincinnati on May 20. He is 1-3 with a 4.95 ERA in eight starts after signing a $126 million, six-year deal with the Cubs in February.


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Scottish Universities Hotbeds of Anti-Jewish Sentiment
This is a cross post by Sam Westrop
A charity ball organized by the University of St. Andrew's Jewish Society, guarded by plain-clothes police officers, was held in secret last week after threats were made against staff at the original venue. The increasing security and secrecy surrounding this annual student event is an illustration of the sentiments aimed at Jewish students in Scotland.
The ball was originally supposed to be held at the Golf Hotel in St. Andrews, a small University town on the east coast of Scotland. After a campaign organized by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a number of threats were directed at the hotel's staff, and a number of violent comments were posted on social media, with one protester writing: "Friday we send them into hell."
The Golf Hotel cancelled the event over "safety concerns." One member of the Jewish student society said that the decision to cancel the event was "pathetic…. They [the Golf Hotel] had no right to violate their part of the contract. The Golf Hotel is scared of them. A victory does not come from bullying people into submission, it comes from engaging people and opening their minds."
Although activists from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign [SPSC] were able to pressure the hotel into cancelling the charity ball, it was held secretly at another location, and raised over three times the amount of money for its nominated charities.
The SPSC offers a free book to all new members: Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People — a book the central argument of which is that the Jewish people, as a single collectivity, do not exist. Last year, the group also protested in support of a student at St. Andrews, Paul Donnachie, who was charged and found guilty ofracially abusing a Jewish student.
In 2006, the SPSC commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day by performing a reading of "Perdition," a play that claims the Holocaust was a joint venture between Zionists and Nazis. In 2009, the group commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day by running an event with Azzam Tamimi, a spokesperson for the terror group Hamas. And in 2010, the group reproduced the winning entry from Iran's offensive Holocaust cartoon competition of 2006.
Senior SPSC member John Wight has previously promoted a website called the "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust." Wight has said: "As soon as the scales fall from the eyes of international Jewry with regard to the racist and fascist ideology that is Zionism, the world will begin to emerge from the iron heel of war and brutality in the Middle East."
Similarly, Edinburgh PSC chair Mike Napier has referenced a number of neo-Nazi websites in an article thatvindicated the murder of eight Jewish students at a religious school in Jerusalem, on the grounds that the school is "the main educational and training centre of the fanatical Israeli settler movement," and that the students are taught to regard Gentiles as cattle and to use Arabs for "medical experiments" and to send "Arabs to the gas chambers."
The "We are all Hana Shalabi Network" also supported the protest against the St. Andrews Jewish Society. This group campaigns in support of Hana Shalabi, a member of the Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad. In 2012, Shalabi visited Tehran as part of a delegation from the Islamic Jihad movement. In front of the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Shalabi spoke of her commitment to "jihad and resistance" and praised the Iranian revolution in 1979 as the "beginning of a new era."
Across Scotland, Jewish students regard the line between anti-Israel activism and anti-Jewish incitement as wearing dangerously thin. Several months ago, a number of Jewish students the University of Edinburghabandoned their courses because of the "toxic atmosphere" on campus.
Moreover, the University of Glasgow is a participant in a European Union-funded program, "Lifelong Learning in Palestine," in which the Islamic University of Gaza is one of the main beneficiaries. The Islamic University of Gaza is the "the brain trust and engine room of Hamas," the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza. In 2008, Hamas was using the University to build explosives and rockets for use against Israeli civilians.
In 2011, security guards had to step in to protect Arab-Israeli diplomat Ishmael Khaldi at the University of Edinburgh, after a student mob surrounded him while screaming "Viva, Viva Palestina."
Increasingly, Jewish students' choice over which university to attend is influenced by the potency of anti-Israel sentiment. The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities has reported a rise in the number of inquiries from parents and potential students in the US and Europe about the safety of Jewish students.
In 2011, the British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, claimed that the image of Universities being "hotbeds of anti-Israel sentiment" was false. University authorities also downplay the extent of the campus extremism. Last month, Baroness Warsi, the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, and Nicola Dandridge, the head of Universities UK, both claimed that the problem of university extremism is greatly exaggerated. The facts, as we have seen, tell a rather different story.
The greatest obstacle to tackling anti-Jewish incitement is the denial that there is any such problem.
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At Pet Supplies Plus, sometimes dogs do the shopping.
"I just want to come out stronger," says Mainstream Boutique franchisee Dawn Johnson.
Bricks & mortar franchises find ways to survive COVID-19
Beth Ewen
Senior editor of Franchise Times
Author instagram
May 22, 2020 Updated Oct 12, 2020
March retail sales slid 8.7 percent. April's sales fell 16.4 percent, the biggest two-month decline on record. May brought better news, albeit tentative, as some states allowed some so-called nonessential retailers to begin reopening.
Here's how five retail franchises, each selling very different products but all reached in the middle of April, were weathering the COVID-19 slide while preparing to come out the other side.
Chris Rowland, CEO of Pet Supplies Plus, began watching the COVID-19 virus in China starting in January. By early February, he was already stocking up with dog food.
"We saw the pantry-loading, we anticipated it the middle or end of January. So, we put a lot more inventory in our stores and our DC, so we didn't have issues," he said, referring to its Seymour, Indiana, distribution center. "We took a calculated risk."
The risk—stocking up on inventory, which takes extra capital, but not knowing if the product would sell—was shared between the franchisor in its distribution center and franchisees in their stores. A typical Pets Supplies Plus store carries five weeks of inventory and that rose by about 20 percent.
"We have a suggested order program in our stores, so we did take the ordering logic up to create larger orders for the franchisees," he said. "They have the ability to adjust them back down if they wanted to. Ninety percent of them" stuck to the larger orders.
Dog food is the biggest category at the retailer and stores were deemed essential businesses. Grooming services make up less than 10 percent of sales and considered non-essential, so those areas were initially closed.
He predicts a "new normal in terms of what it looks like in brick and mortar stores—the masks, the social distancing, the frequent cleaning. We'll have curbside pickup and delivery will be utilized; it might settle down a little bit, but we think a lot of that will stick."
Even the mighty Amazon took a hit in the crisis, he believes. "In our business in particular, I think we gain some customers, because No. 1 we were fortunate in that we anticipated some of this in advance and had the product available so we didn't disappoint anybody. Some of the big online players struggled to get product out, with five- to seven-day delivery times. Ours were same day and the next day."
The last mile
Pearle Vision, the eyewear and eye care franchise, did not experience supply constraints, said Alex Wilkes, general manager. Owners Luxottica and Essilor, after a $53-billion merger in 2018, and other suppliers can move around their sourcing of frames and contact lenses, from China, Italy, North America and South America.
"All over the place," as Wilkes puts it. "Including ourselves, the partners we work with are scaled organizations that have been able to, as needed, select their supply chain from different parts of the globe, where the impact has either passed or is not as aggressive as in other parts."
About 75 to 80 percent of Pearle Vision's 540 stores remained open, Wilkes said, but with limited hours and a focus only on essential eye exams and glasses and lens replacement.
"If you lost or broke your glasses or you are running out of contact lenses, we define that as essential," he said, "because if you don't have access to vision correction, obviously you can't function as a human."
One of the closest interactions between doctor and patient is the examination of the retina, using a hand-held magnifying glass with a light. "We've developed a plastic shield that goes around the lamp to provide an extra degree" of safety, he said.
Pearle Vision is also thinking about "the last mile to the consumer," he said. "One of the things we recognize is that especially contact lens customers aren't necessarily keen to come back to a store if they don't have to," he said. "In record speed we rolled out an e-commerce platform for our franchisees, and they can direct their patient base to their own micro-site," where customers can get their contact lenses.
After the pandemic subsides, he believes, the fact that insurance covers many purchases in the category will bode well. "People who have an insurance benefit, they want to utilize it. When the curtain fully lifts, we're expecting we're going to get some of that business back," he said.
Sourcing supplies stateside
The Spice & Tea Exchange began in the inauspicious month of August 2008, right before financial markets collapsed. "So it's almost reminiscent," said Penny Rehling, COO, of surviving during the COVID-19 crisis. "Although we do have 11 years of experience. We were just young and dumb at that time.
"Our business is an experienced-based business. Our tagline when you come in is, open the jars and smell," she said, but those habits were upended in early March.
On March 13, CEO Amy Freeman and Rehling were at a conference in Utah. "We really took charge immediately. We had an executive team meeting: let's go ahead and outline a few things" about lockdown procedures.
About three weeks prior, "we have the gut and premonition, and immediately go to our suppliers to see what they had in stock stateside, for 3Q and 4Q. We found product, so the good news is, it's not stuck on a boat in China."
In April, 72 of its 80 stores were closed.
She believes business will come back, but in different forms. "Our mission statement is creating and sharing the experience of a more flavorful life. It's the 18th century trading post feel, kind of like the Silk Road," she said, describing about 70-plus custom spice blends that line the walls, and about 50 loose leaf teas. A variety of salts range from a black truffle salt to a Hawaiian red to a bacon salt, "which actually doesn't have bacon in it, but it's pretty amazing."
They also have a chef-to-table series, such as a miso pack with all the ingredients to make a flavorful dish except for the piece of salmon or steak to pick up at the grocery store.
"Will we open the jars and smell again? Probably not. But we might have the shelf-talker" describing the wares.
"It feels like we've all kind of set the reset button," she said, getting back to the core mission of the brand. "Let's call it what it is, it's a moving target. Every day you didn't know what you didn't know."
Then she had to get back to one of the more mundane aspects of supply chain management—breaking down boxes in the storeroom. "I've got to help where I can, too."
Wanting to come out stronger
Dawn Johnson owns two Mainstream Boutique stores in Colorado. "March 17, we made the decision to close the doors to customers," she said. "We did a video for our customers; they came running into the shop at the last minute."
When the Colorado stay-in-place order came March 20, she had to lay off all of her staffers except for one, her full-time manager. "We have worked to take a lot of our stuff online," she said.
LocalGiftCards.com also reached out to her. "They said, your customers can buy gift cards right on Facebook," and setup was seamless. "They offered it to us free of charge, for three months."
Johnson was one of the test sites for a franchise rollout of a new POS system that would integrate with Shopify to allow online sales. About 10 franchisees were piloting it earlier this year.
"We would like to get through a lot of trial and tribulations with it, because there are kinks. My hope is that all of the franchises can get on this."
Her sales were down 87 percent in April, and she was trying everything she could think of to bring in some revenue. "Anything helps keep the lights on," she said.
With her daughter as chief model, they're doing shopping parties via live video. She'll take orders curbside for pickup, as well.
"This is crazy. We have customers who say, Can I stand outside of the glass and can you show me things?"
"I am so thrilled for every sale I get. When people call and say I want a $75 gift card, I start to cry, because that could literally be my internet bill. And then I've already started to think about how am I able to rebuild? How am I going to bring in the right inventory mix?"
She believes her price points will be lower in the future, because people will have less money to spend. She'll also stick with vendors who helped her through and shuck the others.
"There are vendors that have been fantastic partners, beyond what I expected, and I will continue to work with them. This is when it really matters. ... I feel if I operate status quo after this, I won't have grown from this. I just want to come out stronger."
Being essential
About 30 percent of sales at Batteries Plus Bulbs comes from commercial and business-to-business, like batteries for hospital beds and police department equipment.
"We sell hospital batteries in Michigan; we sell forklift batteries for folks who do distribution for Walmart. We sell hearing aid batteries," said Scott Williams, CEO.
"It became very important to look at whether you're essential or not," he said, and Batteries Plus Bulbs came out a winner on that score. "So we have virtually every store open. We are on mostly full hours; in a couple of cases folks have streamlined it, but we've also needed to be there for our commercial customers."
Within 48 hours of COVID-19 lockdown orders, the franchise put in place contact-less curbside delivery. "People are appreciative and kind, and if they see someone's practicing the proper procedures, and helping them on something they view as very essential," they are pleased.
He thought franchise development "would be completely pressured," with folks looking at their 401(k) and seeing the market is down. "What it does help is, folks scrutinize where they might want to get into. They're looking at two things: I now ask the question: are you essential? And then I ask, how do you do, during a difficult time?
The brand has signed a handful of deals with franchisees during this pandemic, "which is shocking, but shocking in a positive way," he said. It's almost like an object lesson in how a business will perform when disaster comes. "What's the tough, downside case study played out in real life?" is what prospective franchisees can learn from the pandemic, and apply it to their franchise selection.
Pets Supplies Plus
Mainstream Boutique
Franchise Times June-july 2020
Well-versed in legal and public policy issues, Beth is quick to dissect a lawsuit or court ruling, and her M&A expertise yields fascinating content for FT's Dealmakers program.
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Tyler Morris Bashlor was born on April 16th 1993 in Springfield Georgia. The six foot right hander was drafted by the New York Mets in the 11th round of the 2013 draft. He attended South Georgia College, where he was a third baseman.
After a friend called and said the Futures League in Connecticut needed a closer, he displayed his fastball, impressed & went back to college becoming a pitcher. The Mets chose him while still in college, he soon started out pitching for the A ball Kingsport Mets.
In 2014 he underwent Tommy John surgery missing that year & the next season as well. In 2016 he played for A ball St. Lucie then got promoted to AA Binghamton going 3-2 with a 3.44 ERA.
In 2017 he had 10 saves while finishing 25 games at St. Lucie then was brought back up to AA Binghamton where he did not allow any runs in 12 games (14.2 innings) notching two more saves. He puts up big strike out numbers with a fastball in the mid nineties, with 84 Ks in just 49.2 innings between the two teams in 2017.
Big Leagues: In 2018 he began the year at Binghamton going 0-3 with 30 Ks in 24 innings, posting a 2.63 ERA. The Mets brought him up to help an ailing bullpen, making his debut on June 25th in a game at Citi Field against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He allowed two runs including a HR in two innings pitched.
He remained with the Mets all season, taking his first losing decision on August 5th, a 10th inning loss to the Atlanta Braves, as Nick Markakis hit the game winning HR.
On August 20th, he took another extra inning loss, this time in the 13th, as a sloppy Mets inning including two errors, a walk & a wild pitch accounted for the game winning run against the SF Giants.
He would finish the year 0-3 making 24 appearances for the Mets, his strikeout numbers declined at the MLB level, as he struck out 25 in 32 innings of work, while walking 12 & posting a 4.22 ERA.
In Spring Training 2019, Bashlor was fighting for a bullpen spot in a crowded pen.


Quang Ninh Province has issued laws on Ha Long Bay safety and administration which can tighten management over aquaculture actions.
Quang Ninh Province has issued laws on Ha Long Bay safety and administration which can tighten management over aquaculture actions. At Origin Vietnam with years experience for organizing cruise trip in Halong Bay. Here is the list of recommendation.
In response to the laws, the province solely permits aquaculture in planned and licensed areas of the bay. In the meantime, aquaculture can be banned at seashores devoted to swimming and people the place tourism actions are held, aside from leisure companies similar for fishing and diving.
The moved adopted an increase within the variety of unlawful houseboats on the bay. That are being partially blamed for a rising air pollution drawback.
In response to the bay administration board, some households had been allotted homes. However, they have returned to reside on their floating house. Different Ha Long bay occupants households that have already got homes on the land and people who usually are not registered as metropolis residents.
These houseboats not solely do aquaculture actions but additionally present unofficial tourism companies similar to promoting seafood merchandise to visitors. Most of them lack licences to do seafood buying and selling.
The newly-issued laws additionally ban numerous actions similar to drawing on caves; exploiting minerals; looking animals; dumping poisonous waste and different actions which badly have an effect on the UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site.
Quang Ninh Province requested Ha Long City to work with native administration companies to carefully supervise the implementation of the regulation.


text:
Q: Why hexadecimal color don't work with utf8 data URL's for SVG I'm wondering why i can't use HEX colors in style when i call an svg from utf8 data url.
When i call it with rgb color it work perfectly fine :
<img src='data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="100" width="100"><defs></defs><circle cx="50" cy="50" r="40" class="roundShape" /></svg>'>

But, if i use HEX color, the svg does not display :
<img src='data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="100" width="100"><defs></defs><circle cx="50" cy="50" r="40" class="roundShape" /></svg>'>

Curiously, in base64 everything work's fine :

Is there a possibility to use HEX color with utf8 data url?

A: You would want to use encodeURIComponent() so there is not a parse issue:

document.getElementById('imgBase64').src = 'data:image/svg+xml;utf8,'+encodeURIComponent('<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="100" width="100"><defs></defs><circle cx="50" cy="50" r="40" class="roundShape" /></svg>');

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Yeah, I saw that paper when it came out (I think it was linked to from BBC). It's pretty neat, especially the aligning of the trees with mtDNA and the fact that it supports two ooA (lineage 1 versus 2, 3, and 4) and plenty back-migration into Africa.
Of course I don't agree with their ages - their timing arguments are circular and rely on mtDNA L3 estimates and the presupposition that ooA was ~70,000 ya. However, if you multiply everything by ~1.6, then the first ooA occurs around ~110,000 ya, and "Europe" (In reality Europe, Americas, and Africa) and East and Central Asia (again, also Africa) split around Toba.


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Home Volcanoes Volcanic eruptions have more effect in summer
Volcanic eruptions have more effect in summer
The team has developed a simulation of the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991. The blue shading represents sulfur dioxide, the white shading represents sulfate aerosols and the orange area represents volcanic ash. Credit: KAUST
Detailed modeling of the effect of volcanic eruptions on the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has shown that the climate response to these events depends on the timing of the eruption and the preceding conditions. The research, led by KAUST researchers Evgeniya Predybaylo and Georgiy Stenchikov, settles a long-standing debate about the role of volcanic eruptions in global climate perturbations.
"The ENSO is a feature of the tropical Pacific Ocean climate, with patterns of temperature, precipitation and wind that oscillate between warmer El Niño and cooler La Niña phases every two to seven years," explains Predybaylo. "Due to the vast size of the tropical Pacific, the ENSO controls the climate in many other parts of the globe and is responsible for droughts, floods, hurricanes, heat waves and other severe weather events. To evaluate these risks, it is essential to have proper projections and predictions of future ENSO behavior."
Climate modeling indicates that the ENSO is very sensitive to external perturbations, such as increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or volcanic eruptions. Even though major volcanic eruptions, like the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991, are known to have caused widespread cooling due to the reflection of solar radiation, such effects have been difficult to prove by modeling.
"There was previously no modeling consensus on how the Pacific Ocean responds to such climatologically large volcanic eruptions, with climate models predicting diverse and often contradictory responses," says Sergey Osipov from the research team.
Because the tropical Pacific climate is itself highly variable, the modeling needs to be performed carefully to separate the eruption-driven ocean response from random variations. This requires a large number of climate simulations using a model that can simulate both the radiative impact of volcanic eruptions and a realistic ENSO cycle. To achieve this, the team collaborated with Andrew Wittenberg from Princeton University, US, to run the CM2.1 climate model using KAUST's supercomputer.
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"After running more than 6,000 climate simulations covering nearly 20,000 model years and analyzing the data," says Predybaylo, "we found that the ENSO response to stratospheric volcanic eruptions strongly depends on the seasonal timing of the eruption and the state of the atmosphere and ocean in the Pacific at the time."
In particular, the research showed that even very large eruptions seem to have little discernible effect on the ENSO in winter or spring, while summer eruptions almost always produce a strong climate response.
"The principles and techniques developed in our study could also be applied to various types of observational data and multimodel studies of future climate change, including the effects of global warming," says Predybaylo.
Evgeniya Predybaylo et al, El Niño/Southern Oscillation response to low-latitude volcanic eruptions depends on ocean pre-conditions and eruption timing, Communications Earth & Environment (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-020-0013-y
Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
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We provide a happy place to learn.
We help give your child the best start in life possible.
At starting points for me we will help your child learn and build confidence at the same time.
We are an early learning education center in Buffalo New York.
We are a small and happy school based in the heart of Buffalo, New York.
We teach ages ranging from 3-12.
Our students are encouraged to learn in new and exciting ways.
Places are limited. We only have places for 100 students.
If you would like to schedule a visit to the hydromax site and you are interested in a placement then we encourage you to do so as soon as possible!
We understand that all children are different and have different needs so we have different ways of teaching but no matter what, we always use the phallosan forte try to make learning fun by involving the children.
We try to provide our children with a good balance of learning and play time.
Even our play time is educational bathmate review though as we want to give your child the best education and help them learn as much as possible.
We are open between 7:30 to 19:00 Monday to Friday. Sometimes we are open Saturdays too.
School doesn't have to be out for summer. At Starting Points For Me we have our very own summer school where your child can get ahead with their learning and have fun too.
We have a growing library of over 3,000 books. If you have any books suitable for the age ranges of 3-12 then feel free to donate them!
"Give your child the best start possible"
The purpose of the Starting Points For Me early learning center is to teach children in a way that is fun and encouraging so that they are better prepared for life beyond.
As of right now Starting Points For Me is fully booked. Buy you can schedule a visit and join our waiting list!
My child has special needs are you able to accomodate?
We can teach and care for a wide range of students. Please contact us to discuss more.
Our prices are very reasonable and we prefer to discuss prices in person so please get in touch.
Are you open for summer?
Yes we have a summer school!
At Starting Points For Me we provide a loving and happy place to learn.
We are a small school based in Buffalo, NY. And it is our goal to give students the best start in life as possible.
"Ever since my son started at SPFM he seems to have really become happier and has made lots of new friends."
"We are so pleased our daughter got in to this school!"