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Florian Otto, Cedar, on Revolutionizing the Consumer Financial Experience in Healthcare
In this episode, we meet Florian Otto, Co-Founder and CEO of Cedar. Cedar is a healthcare financial technology platform that enables a better and more transparent financial experience for consumers.
Cedar has raised approximately $350M in total funding to-date, recently closing a $200M Series D financing round led by Tiger Global Management, bringing the company's total valuation to $3.2B. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Thrive Capital and Concord Health Partners also participated in the round. In May 2021, Cedar announced it had acquired OODA Health, a healthcare technology company focused on improving the healthcare administrative experience with payers and providers, for $425 million.
Prior to Cedar, Florian founded a daily deal company in Brazil (ClubeUrbano) that was eventually acquired by Groupon where he became Chief Executive Officer of Groupon Brazil, and was also an executive at Zocdoc where he drove the commercial adoption of the platform. Florian began his business career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company within their healthcare practice. Florian holds a MD, DDS and PhD from the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Florian Otto, Co-Founder and CEO, Cedar
In this episode, Florian and I chat about:
Florian's career journey: from medicine/academia to tech entrepreneurship to leading in healthcare
Why the consumer financial experience in healthcare is historically complex and inefficient
Evolution of Cedar's platform over time — starting with a focus on post-visit billing and expanding to a comprehensive interface between consumers and the healthcare system
Impact Cedar's platform has had on patient satisfaction, collection rates, time to collect, and healthcare costs
The strategic rationale behind the acquisition of OODA Health and the vision for the combined entity moving forward
Florian's words of advice on entrepreneurship, business-building, and company culture
Kannaway review what you need to know
Team Rhino
How owner/operators can get what they need from a deposit alternative
Retail Bum
Retailers Expect Surge In Sales With Lifting Of International Travel Ban
B The Change Week in Review
Techy Khushi
Causes of Industrial Sickness |Reasons for Industrial Sickness |Internal and external causes for…
Manage Cap Table
Lead Investor for Your Business — Equa
Subash CV
How the hospitality industry managed the challenges arising out of the pandemic.
Ahmetbulutah
Jianzhi Education Technology Group Company Limited


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The DNA kits have been received by Ancestry. At first they emailed that 2 had been checked in. Didn't say which ones and I sent 3 at the same time. Finally the 3rd was checked in. I am still excitedly awaiting the results. I wonder how much they will differ. Sam's (Hubby), Carol's (my sister) and mine.
Barbara, wouldn't yours and your sister's be the same? There's probably something I'm not understanding… but how exciting! Do they say how long it takes to analyze? I'd be on tenterhooks now…
I didn't understand either. But it seems that sibs wouldn't be the same just as we have different color hair and eyes the geographical areas we will show as being from will differ, maybe. It seems this is different from determining if two people are child and parent. It will take 6-8 weeks. It has given us something to laugh about and make silly jokes. It's great being two older women together. We probably sound like we did when we were home alone watching TV as preteens and teens.
I like that image of you two getting along like teenagers again… I kept on thinking about that DNA thing and probably came to that same conclusion – that even though you'll have the same ancestry, some traits are passed down and are dominant in one and not in the other, so it will be with which ancestors contributed how much to each sister. It will be fascinating to compare them! 6 to 8 weeks seems like such a long time, but I know it will go by in the blink of an eye.
Happy Easter. I was a bit out of touch as I was in Perth for the weekend. We have Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays so everybody travels. I hope everyone is well?
I will be excited to hear your DNA results Barbara! Although I was reading an article about police agencies trying to access DNA results from Ancestry.com for criminal cases even though it's not the same testing. Might be a story in that.
Speaking of stories…more to come!
"Do you think she knew you worked for Whitmore when she took the job?"
"Probably. She seemed to keep better track of me than I did of her and it would suit her perverse mind to take advantage of my life, to somehow mess it up."
"You think that is what she was doing? Taking revenge on you?"
Marcus shook his head. "No, she was making money. Any negative effect on me was just happy sideline."
"What did she do to make money?"
"She groomed Adam Rockwell, Brendan's right hand man and head of scientific developments. He and Brendan worked closely and quite secretively on new pesticides that were more effective and less toxic, to boost crops in the developing world. One of the compounds they developed was very effective but toxic to humans, a nerve agent. Brendan ordered all of the compound and any records to be destroyed but Adam kept samples. He thought he could improve it, make it less toxic. When Marissa came along and worked her way into Adam's trust he must have told her what he was doing. He was not a bad guy and I am sure he never intended for Marissa to use the situation to her own advantage. She took some of the samples Adam had hidden and found a buyer."
The agent had found its way into some very bad hands. Brendan Whitmore worked it out when he heard about the tragedy in Africa, recognizing the pattern of death from what had happened to their trial animals.
"Marissa disappeared before the Army showed up and the factory had been cleansed. The Army were so thorough they established that a couple of the vacuum flasks used to hold certain types of chemicals was missing from the inventory but that was put down to an auditing issue. Brendan became profoundly depressed, worried that whoever had their hands on the NAX13 would manufacture more of it. Even when there was no evidence that they had, he continued to slump. He couldn't get away from the fact that a compound from his factory had killed children. He loved children."
"But Whitmore never married or had kids of his own?"
Collier shook his head again.
"But you did, have a child I mean," Fox clarified. "You and Marissa."
"My sister raised him. Timothy was a lovely boy, not like his mother at all."
"And she killed him?"
Peg H. in Wisconsin says:
Talk about a cliff-hanger! Well done, Anna!
Phew! At least three new suspects! Hahaha – we're going in the wrong direction, as I don't think we've definitively cleared anyone yet. Yikes! As bugs bunny used to say "The plot sickens!"
Thanks Peg. Nice to see you posting. Hope all is well in Wiscosin as we await A Great Reckoning…the novel and not a judgement per se! Anybody been basting a turkey from the first recipe?
Don't worry Julie, the big reveal is almost upon us. Has to be as I topped 10000 words. Really it was going to be a short story…..
Timothy Kildare, née Collier, was listed as one of two aid workers who died in the NAX13 attack in Africa. Fox had not made the connection immediately and the Army had not figured it out at all. It was only after they had identified Evangeline as Marissa that the police tracked her marriage to Collier and the birth of their son. Timothy had ultimately been adopted by Marcus's sister and her husband, Ralph Kildare. They were lucky the records had been computerized. In the old days the connection would have taken days, if not weeks to uncover.
"Brendan and I discussed at length my fears for Timothy given the known terrorist activity in the region where he was working. When Brendan was convincing Adam that they needed to destroy the NAX13 he actually used Timothy as an example. What if such a chemical was used there, he said. Marissa overhead the discussion and, in her inevitable twisted style she must have got the idea to do exactly what we all feared. Brendan was devastated when he learned what had happened to Timothy," Marcus admitted. "Almost as wretched as I was. We both felt responsible."
Neither Fox nor Collie had to point out that it was hardly their fault that a normal conversation could lead anyone to sell a nerve agent to terrorists. It took a twisted mind to do what Marissa had done and risk her son in the process.
"She was a psychopath," Marcus said, as if he had read their minds. "When Brendan worked out what had happened, he set a plan in motion to find Marissa and take revenge, for all of us. He gave the money to an old friend, he didn't tell me who, to set up Nexus and had private detectives track down Marissa under her new name."
Once they heard all that Marcus had to say, Fox told Collie to release the tour bus after lunch, apart from the six key suspects who were cooling their heels in the lounge room while a search was undertaken of their luggage. A constable had also taken samples of their fingerprints. Marcus was taken to a separate room to wait while Fox and Collie spoke with Frank Hamill. Faced with documentation showing his link to Nexus and the admission by Marcus that the charity was Whitmore's baby, Hamill admitted he knew the man.
"I have known Brendan since University. He called on me at times to help with his business but he soon outgrew the services of my small accounting firm.
Fox peered at Hamill who looked like what he was, a bookish accountant. He was also a key figure in their murder investigation. Frank Hamill had registered Nexus in Switzerland.
"Did you send Ms Purdue the prize letter?"
"Nexus did. It is a real charity. Of course Evangeline hadn't bought a ticket in one of our lotteries but she was happy to take the prize opportunity. When she registered with the tour they sent notification to Nexus, which was normal when the prize was claimed."
"Then you let everyone know it was time to take a holiday?"
"Everyone Inspector? I don't know what you mean. I booked the holiday for my wife and myself."
"You didn't kill Evangeline by yourself."
"I didn't kill anyone. I was with my wife the entire tour apart from bathroom breaks."
From what Fox and Collie discovered that was true, but Hamill had already admitted his involvement through Nexus and his association with Whitmore. While neither connection was illegal, conspiracy to commit murder certainly was.
"If you didn't kill Evangeline why did you have Nexus send her the trip as a prize?"
"Brendan asked me to. When we set up the charity he said that there would be times when I would be given the names of people who deserved a holiday and I should send them a prize voucher. I received Evangeline's name in an email from Brendan's lawyer saying he had been asked to pass it to me."
Oh, it's getting good! 10,000 words – my goodness – maybe it should be a book!
I would need to rewrite it for that but perhaps the first in the Fox and Collie mysteries.
Beautiful autumn weather here with cool nights followed by sunshine and a light breeze. How is spring for those in the north.
New recipe next week. I am tempted to do a reread but I would never finish the writing! Is anyone else rereading? Was it you Cathryne? Any new thoughts or insights?
In some respects it does feel as though the world is heading for a great reckoning.
Anna, how I would love a Fox and Collie series! I think for just dashing this off to amuse us, it's a very good story all round! A nice big edit after you've finished the second of the Cove series would do it, I'm sure…
I am thinking of rereading, but just TNOTB, as I don't really have time for more this summer – I need to reread Emma with an eye to leading a discussion in early August. Rereading brings out so much, though…
I am anxiously awaiting to see what the next recipe will be. I got Louise's newsletter last night and am once again reminded of her amazing strength. I'll miss her doing a full tour, but I certainly understand.
Our winter here has been cold and wet, but so far, the spring has been glorious. We're experiencing our third sunny day in a row with temperatures around 70 degrees, which is my perfect temperature! It feels nice to go out without a jacket and feel the sun on my face for a bit before it becomes too hot and punishing! We actually found we had too much bedding last night for comfortable sleep, so I've taken off the big blanket – I'm sure it will come back before we change to summer sleeping arrangements, but for now, it's nice to have a lighter covering!
I completely missed our crocuses this year, as it was always so dark and gloomy and wet, I didn't feel like going out to look at them… they finish by early February, and then we move into the bluebell stage. Weeds seem to be choking them out, though, so they're not as plentiful as before – too bad, I used to love seeing them. Even our forsythia has finished blooming already, and the hyacinths by the back door, though at least I got to see them whenever I got home from somewhere. I love their scent wafting in the door as you enter. We have the odd daffodil and tulip that will come up next, but they are dying away, too… fewer each year. Ah well – our dogwood trees have come back from a devastating prune a few years ago, so we could get close enough to the house to paint it. They've just started flowering again last year, and I'm hoping they'll be lovely this year, too. Cherry blossoms of our neighbors are all done, but the apple blossoms are yet to come, and the many beautiful magnolia trees in our neighborhood should be blooming soon. I love the spring flowers. Our neighborhood is filled with rhododendrons, too, which are glorious to see! By summer, things calm down a bit and we are not so colorful in every garden, but the spring is beautiful here!
I think I would like to read TNOTB too. I will get to that as soon I am done.
I love the description of the garden and the flowers Julie, thank you. I am lucky to live in an area that is very beautiful in autumn. I love all the colours at the moment and the different feel in the air. It was supposed to be sunny today but it isn't, not cold though.
Now what were Fox and Collie up to…..
Spring and autumn are my favorite times of year. Spring with the new growth, the buds on the trees and the wonderful scents of mown grass and dark earth being turned over for planting – it really feels like a re-awakening. The autumn SHOULD therefore be a more gloomy time, as things are preparing to die off for the winter, but what I have found is that everything, before it dies, gives one last big burst of energy into making something beautiful. Whether it's the glorious colors of the trees, or a late blooming, it seems wonderful to me. Plus the quality of the light that shifts in mid-August in this part of the world. That quality gets me every year, and the first day I see it is bitter-sweet. I know it's a harbinger of the end of the year, yet it's so beautiful on it's own.
Now I see there's a new installment! (I'm so glad we're not getting this story in monthly installments of a magazine – I wouldn't have the patience!
Fox and Collie took a break and went over what they knew. Brendan Whitmore had likely committed suicide with the same agent that had been used by terrorists to murder Timothy Collier and the others in the village in Africa. He would have seen it has poetic justice given his lab had produced the substance.
"It also meant he had access to a sample of NAX13, a portion of which he used on himself and the remainder he saved for the woman who became Evangeline," Fox concluded.
"We still don't know how it was administered or by whom. We can tie Hamill to Nexus and the ticket but nothing else." Toni was frustrated.
"He didn't do it alone but he was involved," Fox insisted. "Someone put the toxin in the water bottle in such a way that it didn't take effect until she was on the bus." He ran a hand through his hair. "I need to talk to Amelia Dinthorpe."
Amelia was both confused and fascinated as Robbie Fox outlined what they had discovered. Evangeline was murdered by a nerve toxin of all things. Replaying the events on the bus in her mind, Amelia was awfully glad she had stuck to cardiac massage and fore sworn mouth to mouth. It was the current thinking in resuscitation and it had saved her from exposure to the deadly agent. She felt the same sense of thrill and chill that struck her when a bullet had parted her hair in the Middle East.
"It wasn't any agent I was familiar with," ventured Amelia.
Fox slid across the paperwork the Army had provided which detailed the characteristics of NAX13 and waited while Amelia read through them. The former doctor sighed.
"In one way it is good to know that she was beyond any saving. I can stop wondering what else I could have done."
"I am seeking your opinion as one with medical knowledge," Fox told her. "How was Evangeline poisoned?"
"Inhalation, ingestion or transdermally….skin contact. They are the traditional means of exposure."
"We found just a trace of NAX13 in Ms Purdue's water bottle so we are going with ingestion. I just can't work out why a toxin that acts almost instantaneously took so long to have an effect."
Amelia pondered the possibilities. She asked to see again the papers showing the chemical properties of the NAX13. While she was reading Collie arrived, having been dispatched by Fox to collect another article from the lab. It had already been swabbed and examined.
"You were correct sir, the lab found a bare trace of NAX13 inside and we have a possible match on the fingerprint," Toni informed her boss as she deposited a plastic evidence bag on the table. Inside was a smooth metallic flask, wider mouthed but similar in appearance to Evangeline's water bottle.
Amelia placed her hand out to examine the object. "May I?"
Fox nodded. "It matched the description of the ones that went missing from a lab at Whetton Hills where the NAX13 was manufactured. We found in a rubbish skip behind the Carrisbrooke Hotel."
"That's a special thermos used for storing samples in liquid nitrogen, like sperm for artificial insemination. They were keeping the toxin frozen for shipment," Amelia mused. "Maybe they thought it was safer that way. The stuff is certainly deadly as a liquid or vapour. Mind you it melts at room temperature according to the specs you gave me so it seems a lot of bother."
Amelia turned the flask over and a curious look passed over her face.
"I have an idea Inspector."
Amelia outlined her thoughts on how the killer might have done the deed.
"But they would need access to Evangeline's room," Amelia finished.
"From what we know, Evangeline was in her room up until the moment she left it to go to the bus," commented Toni Collie. "Certainly no-one saw her at breakfast that morning. One of the hotel porters met her at the room and escorted her down with her bags."
"So it was done the night before, while we were all at the buffet," Amelia thought out loud.
"Who left the dinner before Evangeline?" asked Collie.
"We all left together after Sherry finished giving her usual evening speech outlining the next day's events. Nice girl but she does like the sound of her own voice. I went in the lift up to my room with Evangeline, Therese, Freddie and Julian. We were all on the same floor."
Collie looked thoughtful. "Do you happen to remember who was next to Evangeline?"
"Freddie and Julian. Therese was next to me across the hall. Why?"
"I was just wondering if the rooms connected?"
Amelia nodded. "Sure. It was one of those twin door arrangements so each party would have to undo one door from inside their own rooms. You would need a key to get into Evangeline's room, well one of the credit card thingys they call keys. They don't even have your room number on those cards so it's easy to mix them up."
There was an easier way thought Collie. "Or you could just score an invite to Evangeline's room. She was fairly friendly with the men by all accounts."
"You might look a bit odd turning up to an assignation with a thermos flask in tow," Amelia pointed out.
Fox tapped the table thoughtfully. "This story is one of many moving parts."
For those still with me….the end doth approach!
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4/17/2017 - by: Tiffany Vail - Spirit Calendar
This week's author is Tiffany Vail, Associate Conference Minister for Communications for the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island Conferences.
Scripture: John 20: 24-30 (NRSV)
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.'
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.' Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!'Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.'
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
Reflection:
The adage says 'seeing is believing' and that sure was the case for Thomas. He needed not only to see, but to feel Jesus' wounds, in order to believe in the Resurrection.
Of course, these days, we can't always trust what we see. We live in a time when anyone with a webpage can purport to be reporting the news. We've heard government officials espouse "alternative facts." We know that images we see – on magazine covers, online – may well have been altered.
Seeing isn't believing any longer.
Does that mean we're all doubting Thomases now? On some level we are. We've all grown skeptical. We're weary from trying to sort fact from fiction. We're frustrated at those who would deceive us, and with those who believe them.
But as Christians, there is still something we can believe in. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe," Jesus said.
As Christians, we have chosen to believe that our lives are God's. That there is still room in this world to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. Let there be no doubt of that.
Dear God, forgive us when we doubt you. Help us to have faith in you, even when it is difficult to see you working in our world.
Special Prayer Requests:
The family and friends of Rev. Russell Ayre, retired UCC pastor who served several churches in CT. Ayre died April 10; and
for our nations leaders to push for peaceful resolutions to conflicting interests with other nations.
Continuing Requests:
The people of Syria, where a gas attack on April 4 killed more than 80 people causing an escalation in military responses;
those grieving or suffering after 2 bombings at Christian churches in Egypt on April 9 killed more than 40 and left many others injured;
those grieving or suffering in Stockholm after a truck attack on April 7 killed 4 and injured 15 others;
those grieving or suffering in Colombia where heavy rains last week (March 31) caused severe flooding, killing more the 200 and injuring many more;
those grieving or suffering after a bomb blast in St. Petersburg, Russia, killed at least 10 and injured more than 30 on April 3;
those grieving after a crash in Texas left 13 dead when a bus carrying church members collided with a pickup truck on March 29;
those students and teachers in Japan who were injured or are missing after an avalanche struck while they were skiing on March 27;
those grieving or suffering after a nightclub shooting in Cincinnati left one dead and 15 injured on March 26;
those grieving or suffering after a shooting in Sanford, FL left 1 dead and 5 injured on March 27;
the people of Peru where intense rains are causing flooding and mudslides which have left at least 72 dead and many more isolated and homeless, during the week of March 20;
Rev. Sara Smith, Senior Pastor of United Congregational Church of Bridgeport, who is recovering from an injury;
The members and staff of United Congregational Church of Bridgeport, who are preparing to move from their building to a new location;
Mark Engstrom, member of the CT Conference Board of Directors, and his wife Nina, who are facing health issues;
the community of Conway, MA, and the United Congregational Church, UCC, Conway after a tornado touched down on Feb. 25 causing significant structural damage;
he people of South Sudan where nearly 1 million people are facing famine;
Richard "Ned" Bunell, member of First Congregational Church of Canton Center, who was hospitalized for an illness and is now recovering;
John Polglase, husband of the Rev. Betsey Polglase, Pastor of the Columbia Congregational Church UCC, who has chronic pulmonary disease;
the Rev. Micki Nunn-Miller, who had knee surgery on Jan. 17;
Debi Mastroni Kenyon, Director of Faith Formation at Monroe Congregational Church, who had surgery on Jan. 18;
the members and staff of Thompson Congregational Church after a fire severely damage the building on Dec. 29;
Michael White, former Operations Manager at Silver Lake Conference Center, who was diagnosed with colon cancer;
Juliane Silver, the daughter of the Rev. Jim Silver of Middletown, who is in dire need of a liver transplant. We pray that a donor will come forward giving the gift of life and a portion of their liver to Juliane;
Chacy Eveland, husband of the Rev. Marcia Eveland, pastor of the First Congregational Church UCC of Ansonia, who has been moved to a full-time facility for care of dementia;
the thousands of migrants worldwide who flee from violence and persecution in search of safety;
our ecumenical partners in the Kyung-Ki Presbytery in South Korea;
the Conference's partners working for peace in Colombia amidst violence;
the leaders of this nation, that they may meet the challenges of the day with insight, wisdom, and compassion;
this nation, that it may continue its difficult work to end the practices of racism;
those suffering due to the ongoing financial woes of the nation, be they struggling to meet an unaffordable mortgage, seeking employment, or working to find just resolutions; and
those serving or living in war or conflict zones around the world, or where terrorists have struck.
To be added to the prayer list, please send an email to Drew Page at: drewp@ctucc.org.
Please Remember These Connecticut Conference Churches
In Your Prayers:
Dunbar United Church of Christ
George Manukas - P
Mount Carmel Congregational
Douglas J. House - SP
Susan Owen - AP
Karen Baranski - CE
Spring Glen Church UCC
Jack Davidson - SP
Clare Robert - AP
Barbara Ann Frey - CE
Whitneyville UCC
Hiram L. Brett - DT
Hampton Congregational Church
Virginia Smanik - P


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Japan: The Otaue Festival, Osaka
The rice in Japan is more than a dish. It is a symbol, a ritual that must be respected in all its stages, from planting to harvest. This is why every second Saturday in June – on June 14 this year – the ritual of rice planting is part of a celebration called the Otaue Festival , held at Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine (Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine) in Osaka.
An ancient and beautiful ceremony, in traditional costumes and rituals: the fallow of the rice paddies made with the help of the bulls, the impressive samurai fashion show, dancers, priests, geisha.Read More »Japan: The Otaue Festival, Osaka
Padua: Take part in Night of Art 2013
Knowing Padua from a different perspective through the evening guided tours led by art historians and experts in the area and watches a performance and literary readings. This is Night of Art.
As of July 30, the archaeological areas, the underground and the oldest places of Padua will be the focus of the initiative that will lead visitors to the knowledge of the ancient Venetian through the finds discovered during the centuries from underground.Read More »Padua: Take part in Night of Art 2013
New Year in Rome: the biggest concert of the Roman Forum
Also this year to wait for the arrival of the New Year Rome proposes the free concert of the Roman Forum. Protagonists of the event will close 2012 and open in 2013 in the capital will Pino Daniele, Mario Biondi and J-Ax.
The event will start at 22:00 on 31 December and will continue throughout the night. A few minutes before midnight, the show will be temporarily interrupted to allow the countdown to toast the New Year together at the stroke of midnight, and watch the fireworks. After the concert, the festivities continue with the music of DJ.
For those who prefer to spend New Year's Eve indoors, Rome offers many opportunities: from dinners to theatrical performances, from disco parties with a tradition-bound.Read More »New Year in Rome: the biggest concert of the Roman Forum
Bologna: In november the Cioccoshow, chocolate festival
Bologna is a city of fairs, throughout the year there are many events that occur in the city. In November, Bologna offers a meeting entirely dedicated to gourmands.
Wednesday November 14 is inaugurated, in fact, the eighth edition of Cioccoshow – The Magic of Chocolate, Chocolate Festival, will be open until Sunday the 18th in the center of Bologna. There are planned numerous events, workshops and courses to discover the secrets of chocolate to programs dedicated to children, competitions and tastings to themed tours to discover the hidden corners of the city, its traditions or admire Bologna from different points of view.Read More »Bologna: In november the Cioccoshow, chocolate festival
Raksfisk: The fish festival in Norway
The town of Fagernes, northwest of Oslo, celebrates each year the festival of the fish. It will come to consume 40 tons of salted fish. The festival is one of the most typical and authentic holiday in Norway. Concerts, local food and fun will meet from 1 to 3 November.
The town of Fagernes, in Valdres, about 190 kilometers northwest of Oslo, celebrated every year a festival that honors one of the specialties of the Norwegian cuisine, the rakfisk. It is salted in brine. Generally trout or char are used which are salted and allowed to cure for two to three months to the cold of the ambient temperature.
This dish is very common throughout Norway but in Fagernes is proud to be the indigenous people of this meal.Read More »Raksfisk: The fish festival in Norway
Autumn in Australia: the gastronomic festival Taste of Melbourne
Taste of Melbourne is the autumn event which rallies the best restaurateurs and chefs, who for four days are dedicated to share with the public their skill to celebrate the culinary arts. It's a great event, which this year will be held November 15 to 18.
The stands of local artisan producers, restaurants and show-cooking by famous chefs or emerging talent, will be based at Albert Park, but to get a taste of the true culture of local food (which as is often recommended, you should always check before traveling) you point out the facebook page of the event, where they appear reports of bloggers running around Melbourne in a sort of restaurant safari, and posting photos and addresses of the premises which have particularly appreciated, to keep in mind even if you go over there at any other time. Read More »Autumn in Australia: the gastronomic festival Taste of Melbourne
What to do in Ireland: Some events not to miss
Throughout the year, Ireland offers, in addition to beautiful landscapes, a series of events and initiatives. There's something for all tastes, from festival dedicated to gastronomy to musical events is dedicated to the show, so if you're planning a trip to Ireland, the advice is to inform in advance to select the activities in which to participate.
In Ireland, for example, between late September and early August you can experience the atmosphere of a typical Bavarian Oktoberfest with 'Oktoberfest Dublin 2012'. This year, as has become tradition, between 20 September to 7 October at George's Dock the tents, the marquees, the traditional market, music, gastronomy and authentic Bavarian beer reproduce the authentic atmosphere of the Beer Festival.Read More »What to do in Ireland: Some events not to miss
The Darwin festival in Australia: August 9 to 26
August 1, 2012 November 1, 2012
Darwin in Australia, not only the gateway to a vast and still untouched, territory (sometimes close and accessible, as in the case of Litchfield Park and the Kakadu Park), but also the dynamic capital of a state, the Northern Territory, in rapid economic development, which attracts the young "professionals" from around Australia. And young people, after working hours, they want to have fun.
And in August, there is more opportunity for fun, thanks to the Darwin Festival 2012, held August 9 to 26. Art exhibitions, cabaret, theater, music and dancing, certainly to make live and vibrate the city, but also as a form of integration for the natives. A festival that has been consolidating and expanding over the years, so that this year will be in two. Two are in fact the poles of attractions for all events; the Festival Park, where you will find the remains of the old town hall and George's Green, behind Mindil Beach, the most popular beach in Darwin.Read More »The Darwin festival in Australia: August 9 to 26
What to do in August in Holland: All upcoming events
July 26, 2012 November 1, 2012
The schedule of August in Holland is full of events. There's something for every taste. It will start already on 1 August with the Gay Pride in Amsterdam, at which movies, exhibitions, workshops and attend parties. The event runs until August 5, the salient moment of the Gay Pride will be the Canal Parade.
From August 10 until 19, again in Amsterdam, it is completely different genre with the Canals Festival and the historic city center will become the most beautiful concert hall in Holland, you can attend concerts on floating platforms in the canals, hidden in courtyards, in the historical rooms of the palaces and terraces.Read More »What to do in August in Holland: All upcoming events
The top ten craziest festivals in the world
Today want to tell some of the top ten festivals that feature some very extravagant city in the world.
It can be of various types, from music to local tradition, including masks, costumes and parties decidedly strong colors. Some are very familiar with it, but others are not known by all.
Glastonbury Music Festival:
It celebrates in Pilton, England, for three days in the last weekend of June. One, if not the largest music festival in the world. Last year there were 177,000 attendance and 700 musical performances. All this crazy party after excluding the evening and the general debauchery that goes with it.
Songkran:
It is held anywhere in the Thilandia, especially in Bangkok and Chang Mai. It occurs at about mid-April. It celebrates the Thai New Year, the solar New Year, lasts a week and the people walk down the street, on the ground, and takes the bucketful of water, to symbolize the expulsion of bad luck.Read More »The top ten craziest festivals in the world


A man said that Lindsay Lohan grazed his knee while driving her black Porsche in Hollywood and did not stop.
Police Chief Mark Ro, Los Angeles, said the man was not injured in the incident, which occurred at 12:20 a.m. Wednesday.
The man is an employee of the Hookah Lounge bar. The sergeant said that Lohan was trying to walk around in "U" in a narrow street in front of the local when he was about to hit slightly the order of the individual.
A group of photographers surrounding Lohan's vehicle came when the man came out and told to be careful with your car.
The man told agents that Lohan's sports car grazed a knee and the actress was driving away.
The sergeant said there were no injuries or damage, so he did not prepare any report and he fled.
Lohan's lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
This entry was posted in Celebrities and tagged black porsche, Hollywood, Lindsay Lohan, Los Angeles. Bookmark the permalink.


Departures are from Brechin & Bridge of Dun. Please pay close attention to which station and date you are booking your tickets for. Seats are not allocated on these services.
Open Return Tickets: These allow one open return journey on the day. Take a direct return or break your journey and take a trip to nearby attractions using the FREE classic bus service from Bridge of Dun station.
Ticket classes: Adult, Senior, Child, Infant & Family. Babies under 12 months travel free.
email:enquiries@caledonianrailway.com for help. (please note 01356 622992 only available on the day).


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Kenya Moore on DWTS: Who she is and where you can find her on Instagram
Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 6:22pm ET
By Shawn S. Lealos
Kenya Moore on Dancing with the Stars. Pic credit: @thekenyamoore/Instagram
Dancing with the Stars Season 30 announced their new celebrity dancers on Wednesday morning on Good Morning America.
Kenya Moore was one of the new cast members of the reality competition series.
Here is everything you need to know about Kenya Moore this season on DWTS.
Who is Kenya Moore on Dancing with the Stars Season 30?
One of the new dancers is Kenya Moore.
Kenya Moore is a reality TV star best known for her role on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
However, long before she became a reality TV sensation, Moore was an actress who appeared in Forest Whitaker's 1995 hit movie Waiting to Exhale and the 2003 romantic comedy Deliver Us From Eva. She was also Miss USA in 1993.
However, most people know her from the Real Housewives franchise.
Kenya Moore joined Real Housewives of Atlanta in the fifth season and served as a main cast member in seasons 5 through 10 and then from season 12 on. In Season 11, she was listed only as a friend of the show.
Moore married restaurant owner Marc Daly in 2017. The two had their first child in 2018, Brooklyn Doris. Moore filed for divorce in August 2021.
Peacock announced a new addition to the Real Housewives franchise this year titled The Real Housewives All-Stars, and Kenya Moore is part of that cast along with Teresa Giudice, Melissa Gorga, Cynthia Bailey, Luann de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, and Kyle Richards.
The show takes all the cast to an island in Turks and Caicos, and the show will debut in November 2021.
Moore also appeared on the reality TV series The Celebrity Apprentice 7.
How can you follow Kenya Moore on Instagram?
You can follow Kenya Moore on Instagram at @thekenyamoore.
Moore posted about her joining Dancing with the Stars.
"Yaaaayyyyyy! So excited to join the cast of @dancingabc," she wrote. "This has been a dream of mine for over 20 years! This is for you @thebrooklyndaly and my late grandmother Doris who introduced me to dancing through a community center in Detroit! Dreams do come true."
A post shared by Kenya Moore (@kenya)
Kenya Moore has over 2.1 million Instagram followers. That number will surely help as the votes start to come in after she begins her journey on Dancing with the Stars Season 30.
Dancing With the Stars Season 30 premieres Monday, September 20, at 8/7c on ABC.


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Home / LewRockwell / The Saudi-US Partnership: Evil Begets Evil
The Saudi-US Partnership: Evil Begets Evil
Gary D. Barnett December 7, 2019	LewRockwell
Those who knowingly conspire with evil are evil themselves, and because this truth is irrefutable, hiding behind the false mask of exceptionalism only deepens that evil. Conspiracy to commit evil abounds, but some partnerships seem to have sprung out of the bowels of the nether world. One such union is that of the United States and Saudi Arabia, an alliance based only on greed, murder, and power. Attempting to understand the American psyche concerning its obvious lust for war, and especially its worship of those who prosecute those wars, is difficult beyond reason. But the masses blind indifference toward this heinous and immoral marriage between Saudi Arabia and the United States belies all aspects of common sanity. On the
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Those who knowingly conspire with evil are evil themselves, and because this truth is irrefutable, hiding behind the false mask of exceptionalism only deepens that evil. Conspiracy to commit evil abounds, but some partnerships seem to have sprung out of the bowels of the nether world. One such union is that of the United States and Saudi Arabia, an alliance based only on greed, murder, and power.
Attempting to understand the American psyche concerning its obvious lust for war, and especially its worship of those who prosecute those wars, is difficult beyond reason. But the masses blind indifference toward this heinous and immoral marriage between Saudi Arabia and the United States belies all aspects of common sanity. On the surface, this is an absurd paradox, but considering the "leadership," is it really? It would be difficult to compare the Saudi citizens to American citizens given the stark differences at many levels, but the leadership of these two countries is much more closely aligned, at least considering known agendas in common. Slime does mix well with slime.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, and is run by the House of Saud, which is the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. The King and Prime Minister is Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, but he is incapacitated by dementia and is senile, and not in good health. He appointed his son, Muhammad bin Salman, Crown Prince in 2017, who is now heir-designate to the throne. He rules the country with an iron hand, and holds the positions of deputy prime minister, chairman of the Council of Political and Security Affairs, and the minister of defense. In other words, he controls politics, all security, vast sums of money, and the military. This is the essence of a powerful monarchy.
The situation in Saudi Arabia is very complicated, and many others are involved with what happened before and after the 2017 Saudi Purge that solidified the rise of Muhammad bin Salman. The partnership and love affair between Trump and the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is disturbing in every way, and that relationship includes Zionist Israel as well. This collusion has to do with oil, proxy wars, energy price manipulation, Middle East politics, technocracy planning, vast amounts of money, and future political and geopolitical conspiracy planning and probable war against Iran.
I am mainly concentrating here on the strange bedfellows that are Saudi Arabia and the United States. The Royal Family's net worth is estimated to be 1.7 trillion dollars, and my guess is it is much higher. The U.S. buys oil from the Saudis and the Saudis are buying over $110 billion worth of arms from U.S. companies. The U.S., UK, and the rest of Europe supply 99% of Saudi's weapons, weapons used for murder. 61% of those weapons come from America. These weapons are used against innocent countries, but concentrated in Yemen, where the Saudi's have been murdering civilians in that country for the U.S. since 2015. This proxy war has been a genocide that was purposely orchestrated by the U.S. as an attack against Iranian interests, and is simply meant to stop any Iranian presence in Yemen. In the process it has become the biggest humanitarian disaster in the world, all due to U.S aggressive intervention, with no compassion whatsoever shown toward the innocent people of Yemen.
The Saudi government kills many of its own citizens as well, and is continuing to murder record numbers by public beheadings every year. Mass beheadings are not uncommon after being charged with non-existent crimes, mostly by corrupt state courts. These charges are against anyone speaking out against the government, against non-violent offenders who commit victimless crimes, including drug charges, and a multitude of others. Some of the other non-violent capital crimes include "Apostasy, treason, homosexuality, blasphemy, adultery, sorcery, witchcraft, and waging war on God."
Saudi's human rights record is beyond atrocious, including no free speech, incarceration without due process, limited or no basic freedoms for women and girls, no peaceful demonstrations, or practicing the "wrong" religious rites. Other punishment "includes amputations of hand and feet for robbery, and flogging for lesser crimes such as "sexual deviance" and drunkenness. In the 2000s, it was reported that women were sentenced to lashes for adultery; the women were actually victims of rape, but because they could not prove who the perpetrators were, they were deemed guilty of committing adultery."
This is a major ally of the U.S. It is a murdering arm of American aggression against civilians. It is a recipient of U.S taxpayer aid, and is supplied its weapons by the U.S. and Europe. This is the same country that produced the alleged terrorists that supposedly committed the September 11 attacks, although the true story has never been told.
Saudi Arabia is the worst example of government abuse, of horrendous human rights violations, of misogyny and the brutal treatment of women, of total disrespect for life at every level of man and animal, of insatiable greed, of segregation, of racism, sexism, torture, and murder.
Saudi Arabia is the exact opposite of all that was good about the United States at its founding. Its policies defy morality and the sanctity of life, but the ignorant and indifferent American populace in their total hypocritical blindness says nothing and does nothing to stop the nefarious union of these countries via there beloved elected rulers. The U.S. has become its own enemy, and is now joined with evil. Evil begets evil, and so long as Americans allow this partnership to continue in their name, they are at fault, and responsible for these crimes against humanity. This relationship is not just based on oil, but is based on power and control. It is the essence of depravity, and should be ended without delay.
About Gary D. Barnett
Previous Climate and the Money Trail
Next 'I Was Aware of Everything' – The Man Who Woke Up After 12 Years in a Vegetative State
5. The Issuance of State Paper Money
6. The Burdens of Federal Public Debt
34. The Constitution Takes Effect
Six Saudis Arrested And Questioned After Pensacola Shooting – Three Were Filming Attack


Save your practice over £1 per patient every year!
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Save £££s by improving the way you call/recall patients. Right away.
Are your searches time consuming and complex to run?
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Would someone else in your practice know how to take over the recall should you need to hand to over the work?
Is your recall 'patient-centric', in other words does it recall patients the fewest times necessary and take into account all the registers they're on?
Are your invites informative, thereby telling the patient why they need to come in and also helping the receptionists to make appropriate bookings?
PatientChase considers all of these things seamlessly.
The software gives you a water-tight, methodical and easy to run recall system. We've been helping practices for 10 years and have taken into consideration and adapted all the methods practices use to invite their patients.
It is far more than just a tool for contacting patients. As well as being a multi method communication application (letters, texts and emails), it is a very clever search tool which finds for you which patients need to be contacted and in the fewest times necessary.
It will instantly cross-reference multiple condition patients.
Let PatientChase do all the hard work for you; it automatically personalises the messages to patients and is smart enough to work out all the coding back to EMIS.
You simply pick the conditions you're interested in using the PatientChase Search Builder and the software does the rest.
Quickly Identify call/recall patients by any combination of birth month filters, review codes, QOF targets, investigations not done, immunisations or any user defined LES/DES searches. Also handles flu recall, NHS Health Checks and any other campaigns. All your recall in one place!
Save well over £1 per patient per year – much less admin recall time, less postage, more efficient clinics, better informed patients and receptionists.
Enhances EMIS – A more visual view of your patients needing contact and more automated.
Ensures admin staff have full control of managing the invitations so no patients slip through the net.
Searches are quicker and easier as is training.
Use at any time of year. PatientChase will instantly address you current recall needs.
There's a very good reason why hundreds of practices love using PatientChase and why we've recorded record sales over the last 12 months.
PatientChase helps practices improve efficiency and increase the quality of care provided to patients. PatientChase provides a simple way to identify patients across multiple conditions, calling them in the least number of times and helping to improve surgery access.
PatientChase will significantly simplify and automate all aspects of patient call/recall for your practice.
Instantly cross-references patients on several registers providing you with an easy view of what applies to each patient.
Choose how to contact patients through PatientChase - mail merge personalised letters, send SMS or emails.
Letter and email content is automated and informs the patient (and receptionists) about what they need to come in for.
Coding into EMIS is all worked out for you. Batch codes into EMIS for EACH condition the patient has and cleverly determines whether to insert 1st, 2nd or 3rd 'letter/SMS/email sent' read codes.
10p+VAT per patient for one year (based on your registered population). Price capped at 15,000 patients. Price includes unlimited users, installation, on-going training, regular updates and full support (telephone, online or email). Discounts apply if ordering for more than one year. Discounts available for multiple practice orders.
For further information, please call 0845 4025161, email enquiries@patientchase.com or visit www.patientchase.com.
Love this software, really useful.
A really useful product for rationalising call and recall, with excellent support. On the occasions when I have had any problem (usually caused by other by someone else messing with our systems or me losing the plot) the response has been close to instant with successful resolution. Great service.
PatientChase saves us much time and money. Emailing patients is so much more efficient and patients are now happy to correspond this way. Customer services is super fast and efficient, can't fault the turnover rate.
PatientChase has made a huge difference to our practice. It has enabled us to create a robust call/recall system in order to improve patient care and experience as well as making achieving QOF targets far easier.It allows the user to select single or multiple QOF registers from within PatientChase or the user can import/export searches created in Emis. The simplicity of this product has saved our practice time and money as we no longer have to print out vast lists to ring patients. The staff are happier as it has freed up their time to focus on their already busy workloads. I would definitely recommend this product to any practice who wishes to make their call/recall systems more effective and streamline.
We have been using Patient Chase for the first this year and have found it extremely effective in recalling patients. The facility to text and email patients has reduced postage fees for the practice. Customer support from the company is excellent.
Superb service. This has made our recall service a doddle.
Honestly hands down one of the best and most supportive companies I have had the pleasure of working with. Excellent product, efficient and unrivalled support. Thank you so much for your patience and encouragement.
We have been using Patient Chase for years to handle our recalling. It is particularly excellent at processing large volumes of e-mails.
We have used Patient Chase for years and use it daily - there are many options available and the flexibility to tailor to your practice needs.
Patient Chase respond quickly with help and support if needed.
This is a great tool, it's quick and easy to use and has cut our postage costs and time spent on recalls quite considerably. Patientchase are quick to resolve any issues or queries that I have and happy to listen if you have any ideas that would make using it more helpful. Highly recommend this product.
Patient chase is a very effective tool for streamlining patient recall. It is further enhanced by a very responsive support team.
Patient Chase has been a great addition to the search engine on Emis Web making running searches much more efficient and easy to use, the technical support is also excellent any problems and they are very quick to respond and resolve and queries you may have.
We have worked with the PatientChase team to develop software that allows us to deliver an effective and efficient recall system for 21 general practices in Gateshead, run centrally from offices at CBC. Requests for development and support have always been met in a timely manner. PatientChase software has vastly reduced the amount of admin time required for recall, streamlined the process and supported the delivery of "Year of Care" model in our area.
We find PatientChase incredibly useful for consolidating patient data in a way that our clinical system 'EMIS WEB' is unable to do. The text feature is really user friendly and a much smoother process that other text messaging apps when doing individual texts to patients. All in all it does a great job filling in the gaps that aren't fulfilled by other clinical programmes.
PatientChase has helped to make our recall much more streamlined and therefore quicker, easier and more cost effective. Whenever I have encountered any problems using the software the support team are instantly available and always resolve my issue quickly with full, easy to understand explanations.
We use this software for safe and effective recall for our patients. Response times to requests for technical help are excellent.
Patientchase has helped us to improve processes in practice.
Superb service and Support. The software is actively managed and problems are dealt with quickly by phone, email or dialling in. The recall system allows us to streamline our chronic disease management avoiding multi condition separate recall. We can contact patients effectively by email, letter or text - and it records the contact with appropriate read codes in EMIS. We have used it to promote patient surveys and meet QOF targets.
Patient Chase has made recall so much easier. It is flexible and enables you to work in the way you prefer whilst simplifying at every step. Flu recalls this year have been much more straightforward with Patient Chase managing all the coding. The company are friendly and responsive, not that there are that many problems! They are always interested in improving the system when you have suggestions or development requests. I would not like to work without Patient Chase.
Patient Chase has made my annual review recall process simple and much less time consuming. I have found the software very user friendly and the technical support from them is excellent. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this software!
We are very pleased with Patient Chase and find it extremely helpful with Care Planning. Their support team is superb.


Please help me welcome Rachna, to my blog sharing a little of this great city I live in, Orlando.
The home of Mickey Mouse, Orlando attracts tens of millions tourists every year for its world-class theme parks, white sand beaches, fabulous cruise trips, notable shopping malls and concerts. Universally known as The Theme Park Capital of the World because of Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando is also called "Hollywood East" as there are a number of movie studios. Family vacationers find no better place than Orlando to escape from the boredom of daily hectic schedules and rejuvenate themselves with rock music, reggaeton, hip hop and Latino music concerts after a day at the thrilling rides and spectacular shows of the world's best theme park.
The Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays, and Orlando Cabaret Festival take place during spring, yet Orlando welcomes the lover of art and music in the months from Jan to March too. There are various venues that host concerts regularly, such as House of Blues and Hard Rock Live. Orlando tour without attending a concert in House of Blues or Hard Rock Live is incomplete, especially for music aficionados.
Spring and summer months are the best time to visit Orlando and most of the headlining concerts take place during these months. However, concerts in Orlando take place year round and keep the entertainment live in the city in all the seasons. Both of the venues, Hard Rock Live and House of Blues, offer an exceptionally delightful experience round the year to make sure the tourists have an insight into Orlando's love for music, no matter what time of the year they visit.
The House of Blues located at the Walt Disney World Resort is renowned widely for the intimate performances it hosts; Universal's Hard Rock Live is in itself the best because it enjoys the title Orlando's "Coliseum of Rock." With double capacity and versatility to adapt the seating arrangement as per the acts, Hard Rock Live enjoys more patrons.
Second to none, Hard Rock Live is host to other performances as well besides just music concerts. Performances of top comedians such as Wand Sykes at Hard Rock Live catch the attention of tourists and locals alike. Over the years, it has become a top-notch nighttime hub in Orlando.
House of Blues is fine dining restaurant too that serves lip-smacking American and international cuisine. The Sunday Gospel Brunch at House of Blues is just amazing: buffet of Southern cooking as well as music performances by top gospel groups. Whether you visit the place during day time or at night, rest assured you would get to enjoy the best of gospel, jazz, rock and reggae performances by renowned and up-coming performers.
Author Bio: Rachana is an adept travel writer. She writes travel tips, guides and news. Presently, she is working with CheapOair – Cheap flights.
A Chef of Your Own would like to welcome guest blogger, Kevin Maw from Total Orlando, Editor of Orlando's Premiere Travel Guide.
Linda's remarkable success as Orlando's best personal Chef service connects beautifully with the origin of our Orlando Travel Guide.
After years of visits to Orlando, punctuated with frustrating lunches and dismal dinners, our family vacations swiftly became a little seed for our pet project!
Our passion for great food gradually evolved into our humble but 'almost tasty' Orlando vacation guide that now fills our entire working day (and many evenings)!
We didn't originally set out to spend our vacations in Orlando's finest (and worst) restaurants, but, inadvertently, we quickly amassed a huge catalogue of restaurant reviews that we thought might be fun to share on the Internet.
We felt it only appropriate to add in some detailed theme park information, complete with some really nice photography and then a section of activities 'beyond the parks' and www.totalorlando.com was swiftly born in the Spring of 2012!
Our restaurant section is the most fun and is of the most comprehensive Orlando Restaurant Guides out there as far as we are aware!
Our tech guy; James has made it really easy to pick out the very best restaurants by selecting ratings or cuisine types to find your perfect places to eat.
Our food qualifications are minimal, but our decisions can be trusted we feel.
We are consistent, never accept free meals, we never announce ourselves to the restaurant staff and we only consider the very highest of standards to be worthy of a 5 star rating only!
The most difficult part of any restaurant review is splitting that final decision down. Many great restaurants complain that we only rated them as a 3 star. In our book, a 3 star is a great achievement, as it literally means 'good'.
So many guides have in our opinion gone astray and that is perhaps reflected in our rating system!
Now, if we dare leave the table briefly, and move off to those all-important theme parks, we have also tried as hard to be factual and objective.
With young children in our team, we were often frustrated by expeditions deep into a park just to face being 'split up' unexpectedly as a result of pesky ride height restrictions!
Our Find Your Park tool fixes so many problems for families like ours. Enter your kid's height and all of Central Florida's rides show up in a flash! If you want to narrow that down a little by ride speed or just pick out the shows, again, they appear right in front of you, all of them!
One thing that we have learned as a result of our many trips to Orlando, is that planning and preparation is the key to success, an opinion that is very much shared by Linda as she creates her amazingly tasty dishes!


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Q: Translate Handbrake preset into FFMPEG preset Is there a good way to translate the following Handbrake preset code into a FFMPEG preset? I've not found any reliable sources for how to configure the preset for FFMPEG.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Le jardin japonais Pierre-Baudis de Toulouse est un parc classé jardin remarquable de France se situant au nord du centre-ville de Toulouse en France, dans le quartier Compans-Caffarelli. Ce jardin a été créé en 1981 pour répondre au souhait de Pierre Baudis durant son mandat à la mairie de Toulouse. Il avait apprécié ce type de jardin au cours de voyages, en particulier celui de Dublin. Il porte son nom depuis le  .

Description
Ce parc clos de  fait partie d'un espace vert de  en plein cœur du quartier récent de Compans-Caffarelli. Assez rare dans une ville méridionale telle que Toulouse, ce jardin propose des variétés botaniques de l'Extrême-Orient. Conçu par  le bureau d'étude du service des jardins et des espaces verts comme un lieu de méditation, on y trouve un jardin minéral, un pont en bois rouge typiquement japonais reliant un îlot qui représente allégoriquement le paradis. Il s'inspire des jardins créés à Kyoto entre le  et , correspondant aux époques de Muromachi et d'Edo. Il est isolé du reste du parc grâce à des rideaux de verdure et une colline offrant une certaine intimité. Le jardin est composé d'un jardin sec avec une île Grue, une île Tortue et neuf rochers, d'un lac, d'un pavillon de thé et d'un jardin planté composé d'une cascade sèche, des pas japonais, une lanternes, un pont rouge, une île du Paradis, un mont Fuji et les pierres des trois saints.

On y trouve également un buste de maître Taisen Deshimaru, qui a fondé de nombreux dojos zen en France
dans les années 1970.

Distinctions
En 1993, le jardin a reçu le grand prix national de fleurissement.

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Liens internes
 Jardin japonais de Hasselt

Liens externes
Page de l'office du tourisme de Toulouse sur le jardin japonais
Jardin japonais de Compans Caffarelli sur Parcs et Jardins de France

Parc ou jardin public à Toulouse
Japonais, Jardin
Jardin japonais
Compans-Caffarelli

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Items where Author is "T, MONA TIUR ASIHWATI"
T, MONA TIUR ASIHWATI (2016) OPTIMALISASI HUKUM PIDANA DALAM MENANGGULANGI TINDAK PIDANA PENCEMARAN AIR YANG DILAKUKAN OLEH PERUSAHAAN BATIK DI KAMPOENG BATIK LAWEYAN SOLO. Other thesis, Universitas Sebelas Maret.
This list was generated on Mon Apr 22 14:21:09 2019 WIB.


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The 3 Hot Debuts Authors You *Need* to Read RN
Ilana Lucas · Oct 30, 2016
If you've heard the phrase "beginner's luck" before, you know it's not just for poker; there's something to be said for maturity, but sometimes an artist's first work is a wonder to behold. After all, they've spent their whole lives until publishing preparing for it. That being said, none of the debut authors in this week's book club are complete neophytes: one has a long list of renowned short fiction, one's a richly awarded journalist and one's a historian helping us discover buried literary treasure. So read on for a collection of stories, a compelling coming-of-age tale and an argument for casting the spotlight on some nearly forgotten women. You'll have some beginner's luck yourself if you pick up one of these three new books.
1. We Show What We Have Learned and Other Stories by Clare Beams ($12): Columbia MFA grad Beams has published her short stories in many places, such as Willow Springs, Best American Nonrequired Reading and One Story; a finalist for Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize, she's just published her first complete collection of stories, and what a powerhouse it is. Beams' stories promise to deal with the extraordinary and transformative, at once whimsical and human. Detailed, inventive and emotionally rich, the stories find the strange in the ordinary (and vice versa) and range from the historical to the modern.
In her varied tales, a young woman in London becomes fascinated with her sister's husband during the Great Plague; an elementary school teacher comes apart at the seams before her terrified class: "We would wonder, ever after, what caused it: the force of the bottled-up, forbidden words we were calling forth or the hammering blows of the humiliation we were delivering." Another woman returns to the family vacation spot with her grandmother to prove her worth after a breakup and finds her irrevocably changed by the experience. An architect is altered by an all-encompassing, difficult project; a class of women is altered by their boarding school's standards of beauty.
Beams has been lauded by authors such as Chang-Rae Lee and Joyce Carol Oates, who likens her style to a wickedly feminist collaboration between Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson. Other hallowed names invoked include Margaret Atwood and Stephen King, but Beams is no copycat; with this debut collection, she proves she has a style all her own.
2. Teethmarks on My Tongue by Eileen Battersby ($13): Eileen Battersby, the literary correspondent for the Irish Times, was Ireland's National Critic of the Year in 2012, and has been National Arts Journalist of the Year an impressive four times. She's released two books of criticism and non-fiction, and now her debut novel is poised to take on the world. Other critics are particularly impressed with her singular narrator, Helen Stockton Defoe, who comes of age with deadpan perception and a darkly comic viewpoint.
In Teethmarks on My Tongue, Helen feels separated from most of life's connections; her mother is brutally, shockingly murdered on the street by a gunman, and her father distances himself; she sports a distinctive physical feature that emphasizes her internal differences. Helen exploits her otherwise privileged world and lives a rich interior life, studying arts and sciences and observing the people around her. She hopes to connect with her father, but when he rejects everything she stands for, she rejects his world, in turn, escaping to Europe, where the potential dangers she encounters are ameliorated by a renewed ability to feel.
Now Battersby finds herself in the critical spotlight, and it seems the critic has finely honed her own writing abilities. Kirkus calls Teethmarks, "A perceptive, keenly intelligent bildungsroman, well marbled with dark humor, about inhabiting one's own life, body, and emotions despite upbringing and uncertainty." As her character comes of age, Battersby comes into her own.
3. Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature by Shelley DeWees ($16): "Wild and extraordinary stories often have completely ordinary beginnings, and this one, the story of how I became obsessed with seven British women, is no different." In historian DeWees' debut book, she takes us beyond everyone's favorite 18th-century female British novelist, Jane Austen, to show us how a group of her contemporaries is equally sharp, witty and worthy of our attention. They may not have dozens of movie adaptations, DeWees argues, but it might make sense (and sensibility) if they did. Pulling together historical, biographical and literary information, she expands the encyclopedia of subversive female writers of the era much farther than A to B (Austen to Brontë).
Britain's changing landscape in the Victorian era included the burgeoning publishing industry, which encouraged many women to try their luck at writing. The writers DeWees profiles were not just debut novelists, they began entire fields of literature; among them were the progenitors of modern fantasy and detective novels, and all were successful in their own time. However, like many women's achievements, most of them have been overlooked in modern society. DeWees' portrayal of Charlotte Turner Smith, Helen Maria Williams, Mary Robinson, Catherine Crowe, Sara Coleridge, Dinah Mulock Craik and Mary Elizabeth Braddon is unsparing and unsentimental, but seeks to be as entertaining as the novels it describes.
Laurel Anne Nattress, the editor of Jane Austen Made Me Do It, calls DeWees "the Indiana Jones of literary archeology," and Lyndsey Faye, (author of another book club selection, Jane Steele), says "It's a moving and heartfelt tribute to seven forgotten literary foremothers whose works were widely admired and just as widely consigned to moldering oblivion." You might want to make room on your bookshelf for the works of these seven trailblazers after you're done reading this hot debut, which questions and expands the notion of canon and memory, reducing the old assumptions to just a lot of pride and prejudice.
What first books are your favorites? Tag us in your next fresh read @BritandCo.
(Featured photo via Getty)
Ilana Lucas
Ilana is an English professor, theatre consultant and playwright based in Toronto, Canada. When she's not at the theatre or insisting that literary criticism can be fun, she's singing a cappella or Mozart, occasionally harmonizing with the symphony, or playing "Under Pressure" with her rock handbell group, Pavlov's Dogs.
Book Club, Home News, Home


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Youngsters caught on video feeding CIGARETTES to horse on Banstead farm
The family-owned farm found the incident "just disgusting" and "completely wrong"
Tom PhillipsSocial media editor
A video has emerged of a group of youngsters feeding cigarettes to a horse on a farm near Banstead.
The video, posted on social media app Snapchat, has upset the family who owns the horse and the farmland, as well as others who viewed it.
One of the family members who runs the farm said they are disappointed but not surprised it is happening.
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The family member, who asked for the farm to remain anonymous, said: "It's just disgusting what they have done, completely wrong.
"It's horrible, it makes us not want to be there and with what we are trying to build up.
"We came in and decided to take the farm over again and put a lot of hard work and effort for the whole period of time and run a local business in the meantime."
Increase in animal cruelty in Surrey reported to RSPCA as charity reveals details of horrifying cases, including puppies dumped in bucket
The farm welcomes dog walkers and pedestrians to enjoy the countryside but the family member said people manipulate the situation and target the animals on the farm.
The family member said: "It's disgusting, the kids have smashed up the farm in the past and even threatened those who confront them over it.
"We've had kids bring their staffies to the farm and attack our sheep, there use to be a lot more sheep than there is right now.
"They just want people to come and enjoy the scenery and the countryside as we are running out of this sort of thing."
EducationThe 10 worst performing Surrey state primary schools, according to Real Schools Guide 2020The guide shows how well primaries have performed in terms of teaching, progress and attendance as well as results


A new update is rolling out to NVIDIA SHIELD devices today, and it brings some major improvements. It's not an Oreo update, but that's not exactly vital for Android TV. What you do get is Google Assistant, YouTube 360, and a lot more.
Here's what you can expect from SHIELD Experience v6.0.
Reimagine how you interact with your TV. Ask it questions. Tell it to do things. It's always ready to help.
Say "OK Google" to talk to your Assistant whenever you want.
With the SmartThings Link, SHIELD TV becomes the first streamer to integrate SmartThings hub. This makes it the brain of your connected home. Control hundreds of smart devices around your home with automated routines and voice control. Coming soon.
Finding the latest 4K movies on Vudu is easy with new voice search. The updated Vudu app has also been redesigned with a faster, more responsive user interface.
SHIELD TV is the first streamer to support YouTube 360o video. Transport yourself into the action with 360-degree viewing, new in the redesigned YouTube app.
Dive into a world of discovery, learning, and fun--designed just for kids. It's free, simple to use, and full of family-friendly videos.
Navigate faster with new seek settings and thumbnail preview images. The updated playback engine delivers improved A/V sync and streams 4K video almost instantly.
The latest monthly Android security updates.
The ability to stream DTS-HD Master Audio to older DTS-capable receivers.
The option to power on your TV and receiver using both CEC and IR simultaneously.
New setting for accessories to enable/disable double tap of the volume slider to pause.
SHIELD remote upgrade to firmware v1.15.
SHIELD remote with headphone jack upgrade to firmware v1.16.
SHIELD controller upgrade to firmware v1.14.
We already knew about the Assistant rollout, and the appearance of the SmartThings dongle on Amazon suggested that feature was coming as well. The addition of YouTube 360 and a YouTube Kids app are pleasant surprises, though. The update will be a little north of 300MB when it hits your device, which it should shortly.


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Premier League: Spurs appeal Son red card for tackle on Everton's Gomes
Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min is shown a red card at Premier League - Everton v Tottenham Hotspur. Photograph:( Reuters )
Gomes suffered a fracture-dislocation to his right ankle in the second half of the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
Tottenham Hotspur have appealed the red card shown to striker Son Heung-min for the tackle that led to Everton midfielder Andre Gomes suffering a horrific ankle injury in their Premier League match on Sunday, British media have reported.
Gomes suffered a fracture dislocation to his right ankle in the second half of the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park after landing off balance at speed after the tackle from Son and then colliding with Spurs full-back Serge Aurier.
Portugal international Gomes had surgery on Monday and Everton said afterwards he was expected to make a full recovery.
Referee Martin Atkinson showed Son a red card for his tackle on Gomes and the Premier League said after the match that he had been dismissed for "endangering the safety of a player".
Both the BBC and the Guardian reported that Spurs had appealed to the Football Association asking for the red card to be rescinded.
South Korea international Son, who was in tears in the dressing room after the match, will be banned for Tottenham's next three Premier League matches against Sheffield United, West Ham and Bournemouth if the appeal is unsuccessful.
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Lexxicon's New Album Sets Dancehall Beats to Isolation Anxieties
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Music to dance alone to.
Writer Ayesha Habib
Jamaican Canadian artist Lexxicon's music shape-shifts with each release. Breaking the mould of structured genre, Lexxicon's sound—which melds hip-hop and R&B with reggae and dancehall beats—is an amalgamation of his personality and origins. Rather than being tied to one specific genre, "it's more about the sound and the feeling and what people connect with," says the Toronto-based musician.
Born in Jamaica, and having lived in New York, and Birmingham, England, before settling in Toronto, Lexxicon takes bits and pieces of his past and transforms it into sound and energy. His musical influences include Jamaican dancehall icons like Vybz Kartel and Popcaan, fused with what he calls the "New York confidence."
His latest project, Tropical R&B, which releases August 14, is a continuation of his kaleidoscopic musicality. Featuring R&B-heavy melodies paired with infectiously upbeat dancehall rhythms, it lives up to its name. "The main influence is R&B, but there are underlying tones of patois from Jamaica, a lot of Caribbean and Latin influences all mixed and mashed together with my perspective," he says of the album's sound.
High-tempo and vibrant sonics are contrasted with deeply human lyrics, which allude to quiet moments of introspection inspired by Lexxicon's experience in isolation at the beginning of the pandemic. "There was just a lot happening at the same time," he says of his mental health. The album, which he put together in three weeks with Ontario-based producer Eber, is a response to the loneliness and anxiety of isolation. It's about "looking for paradise, looking for something better, looking for a situation where you don't have all this negativity going on and you can bring some hope and relief," he says.
He details the complex emotions referenced in the song "I Don't Deserve You" as an example. It was inspired by loved ones who supported him through dark times. "[The song is] more for those who have family or friends or even partners that give you that unconditional love and support when you need it. They're there for you, they love you for who you are, all your different aspects, they give you that love everyone wished they had and not everyone gets," he explains. "Sometimes when you receive that, you don't really know how to react to it, especially if it's not something that you've had before. Sometimes you might feel a little undeserving, as if you may not be worthy."
Lexxicon's music makes room for complexity while still bursting with energy. Though a live show with lots of dancing would be the optimal place to engage with the album, the next best place for audiences to listen to Tropical R&B would be in their bedroom "with a set of nice speakers with a bit of bass and do a little one-two-one at home, have a little Caribana in their bed, and I think that will be perfect," laughs the artist.
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The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets is a definitive guide to one of humankind's greatest sources of pleasure. More than just a compendium of pastries, candies, ices, preserves, and confections, this reference work reveals how the human proclivity for sweet has brought richness to our language, our art, and of course, our gastronomy. In nearly 600 entries, beginning with à la mode and ending with the Italian trifle known as zuppa inglese, the book traces sugar's journey from a rare luxury to a ubiquitous commodity. In between, readers will learn about numerous sweeteners (as well-known as agave nectar and as obscure as castoreum, or beaver extract), the evolution of the dessert course, the production of chocolate, and the neurological, psychological, and cultural responses to sweetness. The Companion also delves into the darker side of sugar, from its ties to colonialism and slavery to its addictive qualities.
Two hundred sixty-five experts, from food historians to chemists, restaurateurs to cookbook writers, neuroscientists to pastry chefs, contributed to the book. CHNY members Meryle Evans, Elizabeth Field, Cathy K. Kaufman, Michael Krondl, Nick Malgieri, Marion Nestle, Stephen Schmidt, Laura Shapiro, Andrew F. Smith, William Woys Weaver, Barbara Wheaton, and Anne Willan were among the 265 contributors to the book, which was edited by Darra Goldstein.


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Home Religion Is democracy sacred?
Is democracy sacred?
Voters mark their ballots at a church in Stamford, Conn. AP Photo/Jessica Hill
Anthony D. Baker, Seminary of the Southwest
With millions of votes yet to be counted and the election far from being decided, President Trump falsely claimed victory and called for a halt to vote-counting. His rival, Joe Biden, meanwhile, vowed that every ballot would be counted.
Such moments of political drama could have some of us grasping for religious imagery and language. Indeed, one protester at a post-election rally in Missouri was quoted putting the fight over votes in explicitly sacred terms: "Votes are the host, they are a holy item right."
It echoes the language of politicians themselves. A month before the Nov. 4 election, a Democratic congressman called Trump "a threat to our sacred democracy." And Vice President Mike Pence used explicitly religious language in his speech at the Republican National Convention in August.
This election is "a time of testing," he said. Blending images of the flag over Fort Henry with a biblical passage from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, Pence continued: "So let's run the race marked out for us. Let's fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents… And let's fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and our freedom."
At one level, the use of such religious language makes sense. Nations are, like religions, institutions. Also like religions, they are held together by rituals. A nation coming together to vote may feel a bit like a faith community gathering for worship, especially given that many places of worship double as voting stations.
However, in my research in Christian theology, I have found that the analogy between political and religious activity has important limits.
To understand why, it is worth looking to one of the most influential Christian thinkers on the boundary between the political and the sacred, the 13th-century theologian Thomas Aquinas.
Political virtues
A stained glass window of Thomas Aquinas in St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Central City, Kentucky.
Nheyob via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA
Politics, in Aquinas' reading, is defined as the way humans organize their common pursuit of a good life, a life formed by virtues like courage. If we could all be courageous together, we would be well on our way to being good citizens.
Putting these virtues into practice is challenging, though, and Aquinas says it will involve "some kind of training." Eventually, individuals might live courageously because they want to live in a society where courage is a commonly held to be good.
In the meantime, though, a society needs "training" through laws, proper enforcement and appropriate judicial intervention, so that it can regulate at least a minimal measure of virtue.
Aquinas suspected that some blend of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy was the best path to this common good: Such a state could have a unified voice, a counsel of trusted sages and the voice of the people to hold both accountable.
However, political virtue will always involve the possibility of coercion for those who fail to practice it. Most recently, we see this in the activation of the National Guard to help ensure safe and fair voting procedures throughout the states.
This is appropriate, on Aquinas' terms. When the common good is under threat, "civic virtue comes armed," as American theologian Stanley Hauerwas puts it in his interpretation of Aquinas.
Religious virtues
Though politics relies on virtue, this does not make it religious.
To be religious is, according to an ancient definition Aquinas first finds in the Roman Statesman Cicero, to give special attention, or to "read again": re-legere in Latin. This suggests to Aquinas that religious understanding is acquired through rereading the world, taking in how situations exist "in relation to God."
The virtues and teachings that surround this reorientation are ones that Aquinas calls "sacred teaching." They are "learned through revelation" and "accepted by faith." This does not mean that religion should reject reason, since for Aquinas religious thought uses reason to explore sacred revelations.
The religious learner needs some distance from what theologian Stanley Hauerwas calls the "armed" practices of the political institutions, so that they turn to the world again to see it in sacred ways.
In other words, a state needs a police force so it can protect vulnerable people from failures of virtue. But sacred practices like worship and prayer require the opposite: a freedom from state coercion, so that people can practice religion without that religion being legally enforced.
My research into Reformation-era England offers an example of this. An edict by the queen gave her the authority to prosecute people for not attending Sunday worship. Many found this coercive measure to cast a shadow over the authenticity of that worship itself.
This is not to suggest that the religious and the political ought to be completely isolated realms of life. Aquinas argues that a just society, ordered by laws which ensure that everyone can be given what is due to them, will also allow for the "special honor" that "is due to God as the first principle of all things."
Aquinas thinks then that this second reading – religion – is a necessary component of the common good. A good government will allow for people to pursue the sacred. It it will not, though, confuse its own potentially coercive virtues with those sacred practices.
Sacred truths
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson.
Rembrandt Peale via Wikimedia Commons
When seeking his own high-stakes language to describe the rights that the American colonies were willing to fight for, Founding Father Thomas Jefferson wrote, "we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable." It was Benjamin Franklin's pen that gave the phrase its more economic and agnostic tilt: not sacred, but "self-evident."
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Franklin, Aquinas would have said, hit closer to home, though perhaps for reasons outside the founder's purview. Neither political rituals nor the values they instill are sacred, even if they can hold the space for practices that are.
The counting of votes is a cornerstone of modern democracy and hearing a president call for a halt to the count is a disorienting moment that could leave many scrambling for the right adjective. According to Aquinas, however, "sacred" is not the right one.
Seminary of the Southwest is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.
The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.
Anthony D. Baker, Professor of Systematic Theology, Seminary of the Southwest
seminaries and religious teaching
The Association of Theological Schools
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