Apple juice is a surprisingly healthy beverage when it's used well. Unfortunately, many people drink the juice because it tastes good and that can cause problems.
For people with diabetes or other sugar issues, especially pregnant women, apple juice contains many sugars that are not part of the healthy diet. Instead, you should have regular apples and stick with water.
Apple juice is good for just about all your health needs, as long as you use it correctly.
First, you want to go with organic apple juice *. Conventional apple production, especially large commercial operations, heavily use pesticides and chemicals. Smaller operations often won't use these chemicals, but they also don't make much juice for sale.
The benefits of organic are that you support a healthier environment and that means better-tasting juices.
In 2007, the European Respiratory Journal reported a study that showed children who drank 200ml (about 7oz) of apple juice per day were less likely to have breathing problems.
Apples also contain a large amount of potassium and a healthy amount of magnesium. Both of these are good for the heart and can promote more energy. These nutrients can also help reduce neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease according to the Journal of Food Sciences March 2008 Issue.
Although apples can help stimulate beta cells in your pancreas to secrete insulin, the high amounts of sugars in the apple juice negates this benefit. So, we encourage you to moderate the juice and seek out apples if you want this benefit.
Apples are also ranked second highest in antioxidant activity. However, most antioxidants are destroyed during the pasteurization process. So, if you want this benefit, find or make raw apple juice or just eat an apple.
Apple cider vinegar is breaking news for just about all conditions. Many studies are being done on this liquid and it is showing up to be a very popular home remedy. In fact, most home journals from the early 1900s include apple cider vinegar or apple vinegar as a home and medicinal staple.
As a daily regimen, just 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar is said to relieve many disease problems. It helps acidify the urine, balance the digestive system, and increase immune support.
Because of all the sugars in the apple juice, it can give you a boost of energy. It's a very healthy and safe drink to give to diabetics during a sugar drop because of the easily absorbed sugars. But for the same reason, it should not be given to children. The sugars are easily absorbed and cause a sudden and large spike in energy.
But, don't worry, apple juice doesn't contain caffeine. The boost is totally natural.
This also means you should not have it before bed. The amount of sugars in the apple juice could keep you awake.
Because of Dr Oz, many people avoided apple juice because of the arsenic.
Yes, apples and apple juice do contain arsenic. The seeds contain minute traces in order to stop animals from eating the core and bird from eating the seeds. This allows the seeds to be spread around and produce new trees.
The amount of arsenic is very small.
One of my friends is highly allergic to arsenic. Enough so that I was able to witness her eat one small apple and see her lips swell. She did not eat the seeds and it was not a serious reaction. It just demonstrates it is possible for the reaction to existing.
If you are allergic or highly sensitive to apples or arsenic, you will want to avoid apple juice. It's just safer. Otherwise, don't worry. There isn't enough arsenic for you to become sick.
So, if you drink enough apple juice and eat enough apples, apple juice can make you sick in other ways. It's a great laxative and can wreak havoc on your sugars. Keep apple juice as a treat, not as a staple.
There are many different types of apple juice out there. Like we said before, stick to the organic varieties. The commercial stuff just isn't up to snuff when it comes to being healthy.
Most apple juice comes in ready to go containers, but it may not be the original juice. It's common practice to concentrate the juice and then rehydrate it. It's the same process used at home when you buy the concentrates *.
Most people avoid concentrates of juices because they have a very thin and watery taste. If you follow the directions and take care with how you incorporate the water, you can have as fine of apple juice as what you get in the boxes.
And, sometime you can find the organic apple juice only in the concentrates. So, good hunting!
This form of juice often is not pure juice. It's adulterated with other juices, extra sugars, and other ingredients.
While mixing with other juices is often delicious, if you are looking for the pure benefits of apple juice, this isn't for you.
Also, most cocktails add in extra sugars. This is something you really don't want. There are plenty of sugars in the apple juice as it is. Adding more sugars can trick your body and taste buds into craving more and more sugar throughout the day.
This is the juice before it is clarified. Cider * is highly sought after, especially in its unpasteurized form. Many people prefer cider because it has a very sharp, distinct taste. It is similar to apple juice, just with more tang.
Pasteurized apple cider can be found in most stores in the fall. But, only in areas where there are abundant apple groves will you find unpasteurized cider. The unpasteurized cider contains bacteria that could cause digestive problems, but it also contains various healthy probiotics.
Hard apple cider is just apple cider that has been left to naturally ferment and produce alcohol. Regular apple juice will not naturally ferment.
The mulling process is one where heat is applied and spices added to the juice. You can also mull cider and wine.
This is also another fall favorite and has many different varieties. The most common mulling spices are cinnamon and allspice. Clove and peppermint are also used.
Mulled juice is a nice treat. It's a pleasant dessert and brings back the feeling of contentment and happiness.
Processing fresh organic apples in a juicer will produce a fresh raw apple juice. It is best to consume the juice, right after it was prepared to enjoy more nutrients and avoid oxidization.
This is a very healthy combo. The carrots provide much vitamin A and it is combined with the vitamin C from the apples. Usually, it is a thicker juice.
It is also very sweet. Carrot and apples have a large number of sugars and can be too much for some people.
Another popular combination. This one is a very good one for helping to clear out the kidneys and bladder.
Just be careful. Most of the commercial juice combos are cocktails, with added sugars, and not pure juices.
Fresh is best, and you don't get much fresher than your own juicer.
It's actually easy to make fresh, organic apple juice at home. The biggest issue is where to keep all the apples in order to make the juice fresh.
It takes about 3 to 6 apples to produce 8oz of juice. If you drink one 8oz glass per day, you'll need about 1 bushel of apples per week. Prices vary depending on the time of year, location, and type of apple. Just know that a bushel of apples will take up about the same space as normal chair in height, width, and length.
In a juicer, it's really easy to get the juice. Just slice the apples, remove the seeds, and put in your juicer.
If you or your juicer filters the pulp then you have juice. This is the clear, amber colored liquid most people know. It does have reduced vitamin and mineral content.
If you keep the pulp in the juice, then technically, this is considered cider, not juice. Cider is the pure, unaltered pressed juice from an apple. It contains fibers, lots of nutrients, and the natural bacterial colonies from the skin. It's why apple cider ferments in 1-2 days producing apple cider vinegar. Cider is definitely healthier than juice.
Filtering the cider at home to make juice does not remove the bacteria. So, you'll want to boil the juice for at least 10 minutes to kill the bacteria. But, you don't need to do that if you make the juice fresh every day. Those bacteria are probiotics that are actually good for our gut.
Here's a really simple recipe for you to make apple juice at home the traditional way.
Skin and core the apples and cut into cubes.
Add to large stock pot with the water. If you need more to cover the apples, add enough to just barely cover them.
Bring apples to a rolling boil and then cook on a medium heat until very soft and breaks apart easily.
Strain juice and apples through a cheesecloth. Allow to drip at least 2 hours.
There are over 1,200 different types of apples across the world. Unfortunately, a standardization of the market has made over 5,000 unique varieties extinct.
And still worse, most people only have access to less than 10 of these varieties! How awful!
And to make matters worse, a GMO apple was just introduced that prevents the flesh from browning. In order to do this, they also greatly reduced the nutritional content, increased the sugars, and destroyed many of the healthy enzymes.
Apples need a cold winter to grow and are available freshest in the fall. Many of the varieties ripen between August and November.
The best juicing apples come from sweeter apples, like the Macintosh. This is the typical apple to make fresh apple cider.
We recommend you taste apples until you find one that you like. Tastes vary so much from person to person, we want to make sure you get the best flavors.
Type of apples desired varies with location. Where I live in the northeast, Macintosh is preferred, but I have a friend from the south that thinks they are disgustingly sweet. Friends from the west prefer tart apples. So, we really can't say which tastes the best.
Also, try combining varieties of apples. A few Macintosh apples mixed with a few Granny Smith Apples produces a sweet and sour effect. This is one of the best combination for pies, according to the bakers in my area.
Once you know your preferred combination, we suggest seeking out local apple trees with unusual apples. Many of them are smaller, tarter apples of a mixed variety. They are often found on old farms or in backyards. These apples can add a delicious spike to your juice.
And do eat the skins. While they can be tough, nearly 90% of all the healthy vitamins and nutrients are in the skin. This is why you want to go organic, organic apples don't have pesticides on the skin.
Many people like the perfect shine on a Red Delicious apple. Unfortunately, this is the rare case where color does not equal nutrition.
All apples are nutritious. Their nutrition is dependent on growth time, pesticide use, and storage time. Within a particular variety, the redder the skin, the more nutrition. A dark red Fuji apple is much more nutritious than a pale red one. But, a pale red Fuji is still more nutritious than a dark red Delicious apple.
This is why you should only patronize local orchards. That way, you know the apples were left to ripen on the trees and you can ask the orchard workers when the trees were sprayed. In my area, there is a local orchard that chooses not to spray at all and has found their crop increasing in size every year. While not organic, they practice the principles.
If you don't live within easy distance of an orchard, go organic and as local as possible. If you get an apple that has to travel across the country or across national borders, it's already old by the time you get it. A 100-mile travel distance equals 1 week of travel time. A Washington state apple traveling to Georgia travels over 4,000 miles, has been traveling over 1 month and was probably picked before it turned red, so it didn't rot on the truck. Then, they used gases and other chemicals to color the apple just so you buy something pretty.
And while we talk about color, apples are far from perfect. They have bumps, divots, and often are lopsided. Older trees and smaller orchards allow trees to grow more naturally and this produces apples that are not picture perfect. Large commercial operations artificially straighten branches, use lots of chemicals, and pick the apples mechanically. They throw away many apples because they are not perfect. Inside, the local, imperfect apples taste better.
Including apple juice in a cleanse can be part of a good mix. It can provide sugars and good taste. However, you have to be careful not to overload yourself on the sugars.
As for just drinking apple juice to cleanse, we do not feel it is a good idea. First, there are too many sugars to be healthy. Also, there is not enough nutrition to sustain a person.
Finally, since apple juice is a good laxative, you could lose too much water and dehydrate yourself.
Just as a note, children who are sick should not have apple juice, especially if they have stopped eating. They dehydrate much faster and react more intensely to the juice. A few sips are OK to help get their sugars back up, but shouldn't be their regular drink.
A 2013 study from the British Medical Journal and republished by the Harvard School of Public Health showed children may love apple juice (it is the #1 preferred fruit) however is can raise your child's risk of diabetes nearly 21%. However, eating the whole fruit actually reduces the risk 23%. That's a 44% total difference just from eating whole foods.
In addition, reports from child psychologists show that children who are frequently exposed to sugary juices and foods develop a preference for these foods and shun whole fruits and vegetables. These children are also the highest risk for obesity and heart disease later in life.
We don't recommend your child drinks apple juice, but we greatly support eating whole apples.
Does Apple Juice Help You Lose Weight?
The juice can help you to lose weight if you use it to replace a higher sugar drink, such as soda. However, there is nothing in the apple juice that will encourage you to lose weight without applying exercise and a healthy diet.
Can Apple Juice Help You Sleep?
Some people do experience a better night sleep with a little bit of apple juice before bed. However, most people will find the sugars in the juice will provide energy and this will keep you up longer.
Used earlier in the day, and with the proper diet, you can achieve a better night sleep than if you had soda.
Does Apple Juice Give You Good or Vivid Dreams?
There is no evidence that apple juice will provide any type of dream. It can be extrapolated that the sugars in the apple juice can cause vivid dreams because of the excess energy in your system that has nowhere else to go. However, the apple juice does not cause any dream that is not already in your mind beforehand.
Does Apple Juice Help with Nausea?
Yes and no. Directly, apple juice will not reduce your stomach's irritation. Apples as a whole food are able to settle the stomach through the large amounts of fibers and acidic flesh. Commercial juices are devoid of fiber and the pH is adjusted to be less acidic.
If you are experiencing vomiting and diarrhea, apple juice can provide a good source of sugars and nutrients that will help your system return to normal. It can also help hydrate you if you thin the juice with at least the same amount of water. If you drink too much juice while experiencing these two symptoms, you risk dehydration from too much sugar and the laxative effect of the juice.
The vinegars of apple juice and apple cider are strong anti-nausea agents. Doctors recommend taking 1 tsp of vinegar in a large glass of water to help settle your stomach. Of course, they also warn if your body truly needs to purge stomach contents, the vinegar will make that happen all the sooner.
Does Apple Juice Help Bowel Movements? Can Apple Juice Help with Constipation? Can Apple Juice Give You Diarrhea?
This is a big yes. Apple juice is a laxative. It will help you go. But, it's not a drug, so don't expect it to make you go right now. It will also provide some of the liquid you may be missing in order to soften the BM and make evacuation easier.
If you aren't constipated, apple juice can have a stronger and faster effect. As a laxative, it can cause you to forcefully and quickly have a bowel movement. Many people experience the gurgling sounds after drinking apple juice that signals the intestine are quickly pushing any and all foods through quickly. This can lead to diarrhea.
It takes more than one glass of juice to cause this in most people, so don't worry too much. We recommend you take not more than 1 glass of apple juice per day. This way, you avoid the trips to the bathroom and you don't risk diabetes with all the sugars.
Does Apple Juice Help UTI?
Directly, no, apple juice does not help UTIs. There is nothing in the juice that is beneficial or detrimental to the kidneys (except the sugars).
What apple juice can help with is the taste of cranberry juice, which is quite tart. Simply mix the two juices and sip.
Apple cider vinegar * is very good at helping many issues. According to Western Journal of Medicine, January 2002, apple cider vinegar helps lower the pH of your urine. This means the bladder and kidneys become a very hostile place for bacteria and your body can naturally flush out the infection. You actually do want your urine to be acidic and processed foods do the opposite.
Can Apple Juice Cause Acid Reflux?
Yes, apple juice can cause acid reflux. This is because your stomach can't handle all the sugary liquids. But, it won't do it alone. You would already need to be predisposed to having acid reflux and be experiencing symptoms.
Apple juice will not cure acid reflux. But, apple cider vinegar is known for helping.
In many, many news stories, especially on social media, apple cider vinegar is shared for helping to reduce and eliminate acid reflux and indigestion.
It works by increasing the acid in the stomach and helping to tonify the lower esophageal sphincter, according to Dr. Barry Marshall. By keeping the acid in the stomach and making sure the acid is in the proper amount for digesting foods, you reduce your acid reflux.
One of the biggest things you do to avoid acid reflux and indigestion is to eat only until you are content, not full.
Can Apple Juice Cause Gas?
Here is another yes and no answer. Although many websites will state apples are one of the highest gas producing foods, they don't explain it is actually the rest of the bad diet reacting to a suddenly healthy food that causes the problems. For people eating a healthy diet, apples do not cause gas.
There is nothing specifically in apple juice that will cause gas. Even the sorbitol, a natural type of sugar alcohol, does not cause gas.
It is the many types of bacteria in the gut of someone with a poor diet that will react to apple juice and produce gas. Fortunately, with a healthier diet, the bad bacteria count goes down to the point where they do not cause enough gas to be noticeable.
The best way to know if you will have gas with apple juice is to try it. And if you do have gas, try changing your diet to one that is healthy and filled with lots of fruits and vegetables. Then, you'll find many issues disappearing.
Can Your Pet Drink Apple Juice?
It is not recommended for any pets to drink apple juice or any juice at all.
Cats, in particular, have poor abilities to digest sugars. If your cat will drink apple juice at all, they gain no benefit and may become sick. Fortunately, cats can sense when a liquid has too much sugar and they avoid it.
Dogs, on the other hand, love sweet foods. They will drink apple juice, but vets do not recommend this. The laxative effect of apple juice works very well on dogs and could create messes and possibly dehydrate your dog in the smallest amounts.
Birds are not recommended to have juice but are able to tolerate some. Tropical birds, like parakeets and parrots, normally feast on fruits. The juice can be tolerated, but since it provides little nutrition besides sugars, it is not a good liquid for birds all the time.
That being said, all of the same reasons for not feeding your pet juice goes for you, too. Juice is a treat, not a drink for all day.
Can You Drink Apple Juice While Pregnant?
Yes, you can drink apple juice while pregnant, so long as your doctor is OK with it. There are a few conditions where the juice can cause problems, but your doctor will cover that.
Apple juice is good for pregnancy. It contains nutrients, healthy sugars and there is lots of vitamin C in apple juice.
You want to use caution with babies. Apple juice can contain too many sugars that could harm your baby. It can also trigger bouts of diarrhea in babies much faster. Follow your pediatrician's recommendation for when you can give your baby apple juice *.
There is a huge difference between Apple Cider vs Apple Juice. Most of it comes from the fact apple juice is strained and filtered, where cider is pure juice and apple bits. There is also a slight taste difference.
You can't make apple cider from apple juice. But you can make apple juice from apple cider. There are more health benefits from apple cider, although unpasteurized cider is not shelf stable and can be hard to find.
You also can't make apple cider vinegar from apple juice, but you can make apple vinegar from apple juice. What's the difference? Very little.
As with apple cider, the vinegar is slightly healthier. But, even I don't worry about that. Fresh, homemade apple vinegar is easy to make and tastes fabulous.
Place all the cores and skins into a large jar with at least 2" of room at the top.
Cover with enough water so that everything is under the water.
Place mother on top of cores.
Cover with a fermentation top or thick paper towel.
Allow to ferment 1-2 weeks . When mixture smells like vinegar, it is done. If the mixture smells rotten or develops mold, discard.
Do not use vinegar for recipes that require a specific percent of acetic acid, such as pickles.
why we cool apple juice after processing????????????????????????????????
You do not have to cool apple juice after you process it if you were going to drink it right away.
The reason we cool it is to retard any bacterial growth that may be within the juice.
Natural apples contain several types of bacteria and yeast that encourage fermentation.
Cooling apple juice puts a stop to the fermentation process.
Absolutely… This article includes most of the vital information about an apple. An apple is rich in vitamins and minerals.It is the best breakfast companion. I would like to add on to juicing method here. Recently, I read about cold pressed fruit juices. They are healthy as the process of juicing keeps the most amount of nutrients intact. So, it is as good as drinking a fresh fruit juice. Also, I came across a brand called Marula that is offering 100% natural fruit juices. seems good. sharing the link here. http://bit.ly/2trHdF8. Hope, it adds some value!
Thanks for sharing the link, Reena!


HIMSS is offering media credentials to journalists who intend to cover the Privacy & Security Forum, which will be held May 11-12 at the Grand Hyatt Union Square.
The criteria provided in the Media Credentials document assume applicants are either full-time journalists or journalism is the applicant's main function at insert name of event. Journalists approved for media credentials are expected to use that access for the purpose of providing journalism on the topics covered during the event.
All media organizations are limited to two (2) credentials per news organization, inclusive of both writers and production crews.
Individuals who do not qualify as accredited media in any of the categories will need to register as a conference attendee, using the main registration site.
Please review the Media Credentials, and submit your request with the corresponding documents to media@himssmedia.com.


text:
Иван Порфирьевич Моторный (1918—1973) — лётчик-ас, гвардии майор Советской Армии, участник Великой Отечественной войны, Герой Советского Союза (1943).

Биография
Иван Моторный родился 29 августа 1918 года в селе Мешково-Погорелово (ныне — Витовский район Николаевской области Украины). После окончания восьми классов школы работал токарем на заводе. Учился в аэроклубе. В 1937 году Моторный был призван на службу в Рабоче-крестьянскую Красную Армию. В 1938 году он окончил Одесскую военную авиационную школу лётчиков. С начала Великой Отечественной войны — на её фронтах.

К началу 1943 года капитан Иван Моторный командовал 512-м истребительным авиаполком (переименован в 53-й гвардейский) 220-й истребительной авиадивизии 16-й воздушной армии Донского фронта. К тому времени он совершил 453 боевых вылетов, принял участие в 117 воздушных боях, сбив 15 вражеских самолётов.

Указом Президиума Верховного Совета СССР «О присвоении звания Героя Советского Союза начальствующему составу Военно-Воздушных сил Красной Армии» от 28 января 1943 года за «образцовое выполнение боевых заданий командования на фронте борьбы с немецкими захватчиками и проявленные при этом отвагу и геройство» капитан Иван Моторный был удостоен высокого звания Героя Советского Союза с вручением ордена Ленина и медали «Золотая Звезда» за номером 695.

К 9 мая 1945 года инспектор-лётчик по технике пилотирования 185-й истребительной авиационной дивизии гвардии майор И. П. Моторный совершил более 600 боевых вылетов, в 130 воздушных боях сбил 17 самолётов врага лично и 9 в группе.

В 1946 году в звании майора Моторный был уволен в запас. Проживал в Риге. В 1947 году работал директором дома отдыха «Рижское взморье», впоследствии –  главный механик на комбинате. Скончался 11 июля 1973 года, похоронен в Риге.

Был награждён двумя орденами Ленина, двумя орденами Красного Знамени, орденами Александра Невского и Отечественной войны 1-й степени, рядом медалей.

Примечания

Литература

 Сталинградская битва. Хроника, факты, люди.: 2 кн. — Москва: ОЛМА-ПРЕСС, 2002.

Лётчики Великой Отечественной войны
Похороненные в Риге

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


An interdisciplinary performance project that digs into Queerness in the Divine.
Nearly 50% with 3 days to go! We can do this!
We've met 25% of our goal! Yes, Community!!
Additional content © Ni'Ja Whitson from the Oba Qween Baba King Baba project.


"Beginner's Luck!" The Easiest Wrapunzel Wrap Tutorial!
Hey! So I felt the need to remake my "Easiest Wrap" tutorial with a little detail about tying and just to show how simple this really is! Enjoy! This is for those of you that have bigger heads, and those that don't want to try the shaper, and novices that need a little reminder of how beautiful simplicity is etc. etc. – Have fun with this one!!
So I decided to not only do a single scarf, but a super simple tie!! Yes, I did some fun pleating at the front, but totally not necessary. Just tied this one at the back, with both ends hanging slightly unevenly. I made sure that when making the knot, that the short end came out on top, then adjusted the knot so to top one kind of fanned over the bottom one. Does that make any sense?? Either way it's beautiful and I feel great!
I also just found out that apparently camera lenses are like glasses, and it's so humid outside that my lens is fogging up! Woa! So that's the reason for all the glow-y photos lately!
Nice outfit for this muggy weather!
With a simple scarf like this, (and yes, I know I'm wearing animal print – totally out of my comfort zone but I make an exception for this tichel!) I was ready to go so fast this morning that I actually had time to put on makeup! Yay!
As usual, colors that I would never put together are now happily getting to know each other thanks to the scarf on my head!
Check out the backstory of the #onescarfchallenge and join! Today I'm wearing my grey Cherry Blossom with a dark red Headband Secret.
All my love to you beautiful women!
What an honor it was to be featured on Penina Taylor's inaugural radio/video show! This was such a fun interview and just the way I like it: raw, deep, meaningful, and pure. It was like talking to a girlfriend from my childhood, except about the real stuff. Enjoy!


Far better than the previous model. The Grand model seats seven. Practical and versatile. Excellent crash test rating.
Potentially heavy tyre wear on Scenics with 17-inch wheels. Blown turbos on diesel models. Patchy build quality. Dashboard failures common. Heater fan motor failures common.
Shock announcement: I'm about to recommend a Renault. I have just spent a week with a Scenic dCi 120 Privilege and, far from finding faults, I enjoyed every minute of it.
One reason was the cheerful, perky, free-revving 120bhp diesel engine (this one had done 8,000 miles). Another was the near perfect 6-speed gearbox.


Update 3:55 p.m. with concerns from a council member.
Around $12 million in new spending is being added to the city of San Diego's nearly $3 billion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Tuesday.
The "May Revise" was brought about by a $7.2 million increase in projected property tax revenue in the fiscal year that begins July 1, and an extra $1.4 million in income expected from hotel room taxes, plus some other new money, according to the mayor's office.
The proposed revisions address a top priority for several City Council members – funding for a program manager who would be in charge of a climate change action plan, which is expected to be approved sometime in the next several months.
Faulconer has proposed spending $200,000 to hire a sustainability program manager, who would oversee the climate change program and other conservation causes being championed by council members, such as a proposal to drastically reduce the use of plastic shopping bags.
Other new expenditures proposed by the mayor include streetlight installation, parks projects, extra support for the San Diego police helicopter, equipment for the fire department and transit plans for Encanto and City Heights.
Councilman David Alvarez expressed disappointment that, in his view, the neighborhoods he represents are not receiving their fair share of project funding.
Alvarez, who lost to Faulconer in the mayoral runoff election three months ago, said he looks forward to working with his City Council colleagues and the mayor to get the project built.
The budget revision also includes some shifting of funds to create a department that focuses on performance and analytics, consolidating the currently decentralized communications staff, and strengthening a fund that pays out legal settlements.
The original spending plan released last month already increases the hours that libraries are open, hikes the amount of officers in police academies, boosts the number of fire academies and provides extra money for infrastructure projects.
The mayor's office is scheduled to formally present the proposed changes at a special City Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. The council is scheduled to approve the budget budget next month.


Drain out old oil, change the filter, and add new oil.
Check and refill brake fluid.
Check tire pressure and tread.
Check and refill clutch/ transmission fluid.
Check and refill gear oil.
Check and refill steering fluid.
Check the battery & clamps.
Check and refill the windshield washer fluid.
Vehicle experts still recommend an oil change service every 3,000 miles for most cars, although certain types of higher-quality synthetic oil can go for many more miles. Ask your mechanic which is the best oil to keep your engine running smoothly. Your auto shop can provide you with oil change coupons to help make them more affordable.
Looking for oil change coupons? Contact our ASE Certified technicians at Kestner Automotive today for more information about the things to check during an oil change and to schedule an appointment. Our auto shop proudly serves residents in Columbia, SC, and the surrounding area.


Reliable Cleaner Near You!Reliable Cleaner Near You!Reliable Cleaner Near You!Reliable Cleaner Near You!
I am self employed with 3 years housekeeping practice. I am reliable, kind, with an eye for a detail. I hardly ever cancel my appointments.I am self employed with 3 years housekeeping practice. I am reliable, kind, with an eye for a detail. I hardly ever cancel my appointments.I am self employed with 3 years housekeeping practice. I am reliable, kind, with an eye for a detail. I hardly ever cancel my appointments.


text:
This Incredible Cylindrical Frank Lloyd Wright Home Just Hit the Market
The Sol Friedman House was one of the first "Usonia Homes" Wright built in Pleasantville, New York.
By Sam Dangremond
Houlihan Lawrence
In 1945, a group of young couples enlisted Frank Lloyd Wright to plan a 100-acre community in Pleasantville, New York that came to be known as Usonia. Wright had complete control over where each of the 47 homes would be placed and chose a circular design "encouraging the flow of the land," and the architect even designed three of the homes himself. Now one of those houses is for sale. Here's a look at the Sol Friedman house, which is on the market for $1.5 million.
The 2,164-square-foot house, also known as "Toyhill," was built in 1948.
The design shares a sensibility with Wright's Guggenheim Museum building, which opened in 1959 after years of planning and construction.
Like Wright's other projects, the home is designed to connect to its surroundings.
The architected used an overlapping circular masonry design that melds the structure with its environment.
Wright designed the oak built-ins and furniture for the house himself.
The red floor matches the one in a Minnesota home Wright designed in 1960 that is also on the market.
A wall of windows provides a connection to the outdoors.
A curving staircase follows the circular theme.
A large stone fireplace is the centerpiece of the living room.
The circular motif continues in the unusual concrete carport, which resembles a flying saucer.
The kitchen has distinctive built-in cabinets.
Here's a closer look.
There are three bedrooms.
Here's one of the bathrooms.
Wright's design for the house shows the cylindrical plan.
For $1.5 million, it could be yours!
Sam Dangremond Contributing Digital Editor Sam Dangremond is a Contributing Digital Editor at Town & Country, where he covers men's style, cocktails, travel, and the social scene.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Treasure Trove in The Netherlands!
Ancient Celtic coin cache found in Netherlands By TOBY STERLING Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press Nov. 13, 2008, 12:22PM (Photo: This hand out image made available by Amsterdam's Free University or VU and the city of Maastricht, Netherlands, Thursday Nov. 13, 2008, shows gold and silver coins. A hobbyist with a metal detector has found a cache of ancient Celtic and Germanic coins in a cornfield in the southern city of Maastricht. The city says the trove of 39 gold and 70 silver coins are dated to the middle of the first century B.C. The hobbyist, Paul Curfs, 47, found several coins this spring and called attention to the find, which eventually led to an archaeological investigation by Amsterdam's Free University. (AP Photo/ VU/Gemeente Maastricht, HO) AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A hobbyist with a metal detector struck both gold and silver when he uncovered an important cache of ancient Celtic coins in a cornfield in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht. "It's exciting, like a little boy's dream," Paul Curfs, 47, said Thursday after the spectacular find was made public. Archaeologists say the trove of 39 gold and 70 silver coins was minted in the middle of the first century B.C. as the future Roman ruler Julius Caesar led a campaign against Celtic tribes in the area. Curfs said he was walking with his detector this spring and was about to go home when he suddenly got a strong signal on his earphones and uncovered the first coin. "It was golden and had a little horse on it — I had no idea what I had found," he said. After posting a photo of the coin on a Web forum, he was told it was a rare find. The following day he went back and found another coin. "It looked totally different — silver, and saucer-shaped," he said. Curfs notified the city of his find, and he and several other hobbyists helped in locating the rest of the coins, in cooperation with archaeologists. Nico Roymans, the archaeologist who led the academic investigation of the find, believes the gold coins in the cache were minted by a tribe called the Eburones that Caesar claimed to have wiped out in 53 B.C. after they conspired with other groups in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones "put up strong resistance to Caesar's journeys of conquest," Roymans said. The silver coins were made by tribes further to the north — possible evidence of cooperation against Caesar, he said. Both coin types have triple spirals on the front, a common Celtic symbol. The two other known caches of Eburones coins have been found in neighboring Belgium and Germany. Maastricht city spokeswoman Carla Wetzels said the value of the coins is not known — their worth is primarily historical. The Belgian cache of similar size was estimated at around 175,000 euros ($220,000). The farmer who owned the land agreed to sell his interest to the city for an undisclosed sum. Curfs, a teacher at a nearby junior college, continues to own the 11 coins he found, but has lent them to the City of Maastricht on a long-term basis. The coins will go on display at the Centre Ceramique museum in Maastricht this weekend. Curfs said he considers his metal detector habit a meditative hobby and not an obsession. "I have advice for anybody hoping to get rich like this," Curfs said. "Forget it."
Labels: treasure trove
With this horrid recession digging in for what looks like a long stay (would not be surprised at all, darlings, to see unemployment reach 10.5% in six-seven months), I have been reading article after article about the big hit that Las Vegas has taken -- tourists aren't visiting! Well, hell, who has the money? This is worrying to me, though, because our Goddesschess partner Isis and, of course, our fabulous friends the Las Vegas Showgirls (Bambi Darlin and Candy Kane), live in Las Vegas. Hotels and casinos have been cutting hours and staff. Tips are way down (dealers in many of the hotels make mininum wage, relying on tips to earn a living wage, the same holds true for housekeeping help and other hotel staff). Building projects have sputtered to a halt; large condos have gone off the board and those underway are being pummeled by worried buyers demanding back their downpayments. Because of the credit freeze, commercial project financing is more scarce than water on the Sun. The Wall Street suits (and criminals - one in the same if you ask me) who run the mega-conglomerates that now own most of Las Vegas and BIG gambling all around the world are actually worried! Of course, they are mostly insulated - suits don't generally lay off other suits - and they inflict the most pain on those far down the economic ladder from where they perch. When I practiced law these types of people were called New York snakes. Gave snakes a bad name. delion and I last visited Las Vegas in November, 2003. We were planning a trip to visit our friends NEXT November (2009). But after being bombarded the past couple of weeks with emails from Travelocity advertising cheap airfares and hotel deals to LV, I spent most of last night checking out hotel room rates and "last minute" airfares to Las Vegas. I started at Travelocity but soon moved to Kayak to check out the airfares, and then direct-shopped the hotels on the Strip to see what rates were being offered. The upshot is that dondelion and I will be headed to Vegas, Baby, for Christmas, arriving on 12/24 and departing on 12/26. We'll visit our friends Isis and Michelle and check out the latest changes since our 2003 visit. At least three major new hotels/resorts have opened up along the Strip since our last visit - plenty to see and do and cram into our short time in LV. We're not gamblers, we may plug some nickles into the slots if we can find nickle slots anywhere on-Strip (the last time we played nickle slots was at the Westward Ho in November, 2003, now torn down and replaced by an expensive mega resort). Unbelievable room rate for a "deluxe" (i.e., standard room with two queen sized beds) obtained at the Imperial Palace of $35 and $39 special online rate a night for the two nights we'll be in town. Also got a decent round trip airfare on AirTran (but I would not consider it "fantastically cheap") although AirTran did charge me $6 extra for each seat for selecting online seat assignments for dondelion and I! RIP OFF! That added $24 to our round trip fare total. Yeah, I'm a cheapskate! Times are tough! Money is tight! You know things must really be tough in LV when the reservations clerk at a giant hotel (Imperial Palace is part of the Harrah's franchise) chats you up like you're a long-lost friend! I do have to say that she was very sweet and friendly, and I enjoyed talking with her a lot. So, I envision dondelion and I sharing a quiet steak and turkey dinner at the Sahara steak house with Isis and Michelle on Christmas day, and driving their neighborhood nuts by going around singing Christmas carols off-key while dressed in shorts (where we're coming from, 50 degrees in LV will feel positively tropical!) Viva Las Vegas, Baby! I just love that city. It energizes me just like New York does.
Labels: Las Vegas
2008 Chess Olympiad
Hola! No posts last night, I was just too tired after spending some time reporting on Round 2 of the Olympiad at Chess Femme News. I just concluded updating Chess Femme News with Round 3 information - on the link above click on November, 2008 and then click on November II for the latest news. There are plenty of photographs available through links at Susan Polgar's blog, there is also lots of photos at Chessdom and Chessbase. I find the level of press coverage on this Olympiad has been - quite frankly - remarkable! I've been writing about the chess Olympiads for years, in current and defunct websites and I've never seen this level of interest before. I have no explanation for it - perhaps something is going on behind the scenes with Susan Polgar (in charge of English-speaking press relations and serving as an Ambassador at Large for the Dresden organizers) pushing for coverage in the international media. In any event, the Associated Press has been publishing stories every day (thus far); press in India always follows events where they're countrymen and women are participating closely (USA papers could take a lesson from the Indian chess coverage); press in the Philippines is eagerly following young GM Wesley So's and their national team's progress. Jamaica has press coverage. So does Indonesia. A young Indonesian female player, Irene Kharisma Sundakar, is a star in her home country and has generated lots of interest in the Olympiad. The UK; Azerjaiban; Armenia; etc.
Labels: 2008 Chess Olympiad
Record Oracles Bones Discovered in China
Dem bones, dem bones... Story from China Daily Record find of oracle bones in Shaanxi By Ma Lie (China Daily)Updated: 2008-11-12 07:10 XI'AN -- Archaeologists in Shaanxi province have unearthed more than 1,100 oracle bone characters, shedding new light on the number of such inscriptions in existence. The find was made at a cluster of tombs in Qishan county that date back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC). Lei Xingshan, head of the dig team, said in Xi'an yesterday: "Prior to our discovery at the Temple of Duke Zhou, less than 1,100 Chinese characters written on pieces of bone and tortoiseshell had ever been found." Members of the team have been unearthing scripts almost every day since the excavation began on Sept 1, and there are now more than 1,100 readable words, which is a new record, he said. Among the finds is the character for "king", which could help archaeologists learn more about the lives of the Zhou kings and the region in which they lived, Lei said. Also, after excavating more than 100 commoners' tombs in the area around the duke's temple, the team has built up a large collection of pottery and bronze ware that will help paint a better picture of the lives of ordinary people during the Western Zhou period, he said. "Coincidentally, we also found several items from the Yangshao period of the neolithic era (5,000-7,000 years ago); the first time such relics have been found near the Temple of Duke Zhou," he said. Zhou Chunmao, a researcher with the Shaanxi archaeology research institute, told China Daily Tuesday that the discovery of the new oracle bone scripts has great significance for the understanding of the formation of the Western Zhou dynasty and the structure of society at that time. Since the first oracle bones were found in 1898, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed more than 100,000 pieces of bone and tortoiseshell inscribed with characters. Archaeologists' interest in the area around the Temple of Duke Zhou was aroused in December 2003, after a team led by Peking University Professor Xu Tianjin found two inscriptions featuring 55 characters there. Prior to the record haul by Lei's team, 760 inscriptions dating from the Western Zhou Dynasty had been found in the area. Duke Zhou was the fourth son of the founding King Wenwang of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and regent to to his nephew King Chengwang.
Divination may be at the root of the earliest forms of "board" games. Chess historians pay scant attention to this aspect of the development of games, seeming to insist that chess is somehow "different" (hint: it's not, darlings). Theory suggests that the earliest "boards" were drawn in the earth with a stick or a finger. The shamans of the Dogon to this day continue to construct complex board-like structures by drawing in the earth in preparation for divination. Another line of thought traces the earliest development of "board" games to the development of agriculture - it is fascinating to see depictions of "fields" and the layout of entire towns along "chessboard" like grids that date back to 8000 years ago.
Labels: oracle bones, origins of chess, origins of games, Shaanxi
Women Gain in Education but Not Power
New study. By REUTERS Published: November 12, 2008 GENEVA (Reuters) — Women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, though their access to education and health care is nearly equal, the World Economic Forum said Wednesday. In its 2008 Global Gender Gap report, the forum, a Swiss research organization, ranked Norway, Finland and Sweden as the countries that have the most equality of the sexes, and Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen as having the least. Using United Nations data, the report found that girls and women around the world had generally reached near-parity with their male peers in literacy, access to education and health and survival. But in terms of economics and politics, including relative access to executive government and corporate posts, the gap between the sexes remains large. The United States ranked 27th, above Russia (42nd), China (57th), Brazil (73rd) and India (113th). But the United States was ranked below Germany (11th), Britain (13th), France (15th), Lesotho (16th), Trinidad and Tobago (19th), South Africa (22nd), Argentina (24th) and Cuba (25th). "The world's women are nearly as educated and as healthy as men, but are nowhere to be found in terms of decision-making," said Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum Middle Eastern and North African countries received the lowest ratings over all. The rankings of Syria, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia declined in 2008. The report said the inequalities in those countries were so large as to put them at an economic disadvantage. [Heh heh, they think their oil will last forever, foolish men.] "A nation's competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its female talent. To maximize its competitiveness and development potential, each country should strive for gender equality."
Labels: discrimination against women
Population Control in the 21st Century
We'll just choke the "excess population" to death with pollution. I mean, who gives a flying rip, right? Report Sees New Pollution Threat By ANDREW JACOBS Published: November 13, 2008 BEIJING — A noxious cocktail of soot, smog and toxic chemicals is blotting out the sun, fouling the lungs of millions of people and altering weather patterns in large parts of Asia, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations. The byproduct of automobiles, slash-and-burn agriculture, cooking on dung or wood fires and coal-fired power plants, these plumes rise over southern Africa, the Amazon basin and North America. But they are most pronounced in Asia, where so-called atmospheric brown clouds are dramatically reducing sunlight in many Chinese cities and leading to decreased crop yields in swaths of rural India, say a team of more than a dozen scientists who have been studying the problem since 2002. "The imperative to act has never been clearer," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, in Beijing, which the report identified as one of the world's most polluted cities, and where the report was released. The brownish haze, sometimes in a layer more than a mile thick and clearly visible from airplanes, stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to the Yellow Sea. In the spring, it sweeps past North and South Korea and Japan. Sometimes the cloud drifts as far east as California. The report identified 13 cities as brown-cloud hot spots, among them Bangkok, Cairo, New Delhi, Tehran and Seoul, South Korea. It was issued on a day when Beijing's own famously polluted skies were unusually clear. On Wednesday, by contrast, the capital was shrouded in a thick, throat-stinging haze that is the byproduct of heavy industry, coal-burning home heaters and the 3.5 million cars that clog the city's roads. Last month, the government reintroduced some of the traffic restrictions that were imposed on Beijing during the Olympics; the rules forced private cars to stay off the road one day a week and sidelined 30 percent of government vehicles on any given day. Over all, officials say the new measures have removed 800,000 cars from the roads. According to the United Nations report, smog blocks from 10 percent to 25 percent of the sunlight that should be reaching the city's streets. The report also singled out the southern city of Guangzhou, where soot and dust have dimmed natural light by 20 percent since the 1970s. In fact, the scientists who worked on the report said the blanket of haze might be temporarily offsetting some warming from the simultaneous buildup of greenhouse gases by reflecting solar energy away from the earth. Greenhouse gases, by contrast, tend to trap the warmth of the sun and lead to a rise in ocean temperatures. Climate scientists say that similar plumes from industrialization of wealthy countries after World War II probably blunted global warming through the 1970s. Pollution laws largely removed that pall. Rain can cleanse the skies, but some of the black grime that falls to earth ends up on the surface of the Himalayan glaciers that are the source of water for billions of people in China, India and Pakistan. As a result, the glaciers that feed into the Yangtze, Ganges, Indus and Yellow Rivers are absorbing more sunlight and melting more rapidly, researchers say. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, these glaciers have shrunk by 5 percent since the 1950s and, at the current rate of retreat, could shrink by an additional 75 percent by 2050. [I fully intend to live this long - I will be 99 years old in 2050]. "We used to think of this brown cloud as a regional problem, but now we realize its impact is much greater," said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, who led the United Nations scientific panel. "When we see the smog one day and not the next, it just means it's blown somewhere else." Although the clouds' overall impact is not entirely understood, Mr. Ramanathan, a professor of climate and ocean sciences at the University of California, San Diego, said they might be affecting precipitation in parts of India and Southeast Asia, where monsoon rainfall has been decreasing in recent decades, and central China, where devastating floods have become more frequent. He said that some studies suggested that the plumes of soot that blot out the sun have led to a 5 percent decline in the growth rate of rice harvests across Asia since the 1960s. For those who breathe the toxic mix, the impact can be deadly. Henning Rodhe, a professor of chemical meteorology at Stockholm University, estimates that 340,000 people in China and India die each year from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that can be traced to the emissions from coal-burning factories, diesel trucks and wood-burning stoves. "The impacts on health alone is a reason to reduce these brown clouds," he said. Andrew C. Revkin contributed reporting from New York.
Labels: air pollution, pollution
$250,000 Chess Program - Out of Business
Ohmygoddess! How low-life can you get - ripping off parents and kids who just want to play chess. Where is the money? Families Duped Out of Money Popular After-School Chess Program Suddenly "Checks Out" November 13, 2008 FREMONT, CA (KGO) -- Parents from as many as three dozen Bay Area schools are wondering tonight if they'll ever get the estimated $250,000 they're owed from an afterschool program. A popular children's chess program has suddenly closed up shop. Know Chess rented space from public and private schools in the East Bay, South Bay and the Peninsula. The closures came without warning. Shubham Mandal of Palo Alto enjoys a game of chess with his dad. The 8-year old is one of an estimated 1,300 Bay Area children enrolled this semester in Know Chess. But the afterschool program suddenly closed down a few weeks ago. "It feels bad because I like chess a lot and they're stopping it," said Mandal. The closure left parents like Michelle Biche disappointed for her child and wondering about a refund of her $204 tuition payment. Her son Owen attends first grade at Delaine Easton in Union City. "I want to get better and beat my dad once," said Michelle's son Owen Biche. "I hope other people see this, and other people get involved. And that this woman doesn't go on and continue to do this because it's just going to disappoint children," said Michelle Biche. The Know Chess' office in Fremont appears closed. A neighbor says he hasn't seen anyone there in a month. Calls and e-mails by parents to Know Chess have gone unreturned. So 7 On Your Side went to owner Angela Hughes' condo in Fremont. There, we found a Know Chess parent also looking for Hughes. We followed her to Hughes front door. Hughes refused to open the door, but later told 7 On Your Side she's been busy responding to e-mails and phone calls and promised refunds in six to eight weeks. "It sounds like she's trying or wants to refund people their money. I'm not sure she knows when that's going to happen, and that's causing the anxiety," said Suzanne Ogawa. Meanwhile back at Delaine Easton, Know Chess is being replaced by a competing program, U.S. Chess Mates. The school district's nonprofit foundation has stepped in to cover the tuition for parents. "It's the right thing to do. Our job as a foundation is to work with the community to provide access to extracurricular, pro-curricular activities," said the president of the New Heaven School Foundation Phillip Crosby. We were the first to break the news to some of the parents. "This is nice. It's nice to see that you know our district cares as much about the kids that they say," said Michelle Biche. The donation covers children at Delain Easton. But the parents of 1,200 other children are still waiting for their refunds. We'll keep you posted. (Copyright ©2008 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Labels: Know Chess, scholastic chess
I've put up a brief report on the chess femmes Round 1 results at Chess Femme News at Goddesschess (find it on the navigation bar). Both American Teams won their respective matches today, hooray. After a quick perusal, it appears that the favorites did what they were advertised to do. I saw that GM Wesley So of the Philippines won his game behind the black pieces against a much higher rated player. The official website is a hopeless mess - I got my news directly from Susan Polgar's blog and chess-results.com. I just do not understand how a website cannot offer current results! I don't want to see "live" games 12 hours after they were held! I want to see the team match-ups and the scores! Is that too much to ask, Dresden organizers? Whatever you have paid your web designer, it's too much!
First Edition of "My 60 Memorable Games" Discovered
I was visiting YouTube tonight and did a search under "chess" when up pops this video, about a fellow's visit to a "dollar" store, where he visits the used books shelves and discovers a nearly pristine first edition of Bobby Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games." I don't know if it is for real or not but it was interesting! He paid $1.00 for the book. Yes, that is One Dollar American. Amazing, absolutely amazing.
Labels: Bobby Fischer
Egyptian Goddess - Who Knew?
Intellectual Property Watch 12 November 2008 Egyptian Goddess Puts Teeth Back In US Industrial Design Rights Posted by William New @ 5:17 pm By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch For the past two decades, industrial design rights have received little respect in the United States. But no longer. The recent court ruling in Egyptian Goddess, Inc v Swisa, Inc has dramatically strengthened industrial design rights in the US, bringing the country's protections for these rights back into line with international standards, according to many experts. Please note: this article is password protected and only available for IP-Watch Subscribers. Well, I'm not a member of IP-Watch Subscribers but I did read the decision simply by clicking on it and voila! There it was in PDF! Ah, it brought back pleasant memories of the days of my own brief writing and oral argument! Of course, the opinion is boring as hell and after having been out of it for over 20 years, it took a bit to track, but I guess once a lawyer, always a lawyer. Damn!
Labels: Egyptian Goddess, Inc.
I'm impressed - AP has actually put out a press release on the opening of the event! Of course, it's only about the men's teams (they euphimistically call them "open" teams now, but we all know they're men's teams, with an occasion chess femme thrown in for a little spice) but it's international press coverage. The Indian press is already putting out articles - here's one from the English-language The Hindu: New format to help India in Chess Olympiad. The Indian women's team is very strong: reigning World Junior girls champion Dronavalli Harika,Tania Sachdev, Swati Ghate, Nisha Mohota and Mary Ann Gomes. The Indian Women's Team finished in 12th place at the Turin Olympiad in 2006. Tonight is the grand opening. GM Susan Polgar was the torch lighter for this Olympiad. Here is a photo from her blog, which I presume was taken by Paul Truong, who is acting as the official photographer for the Olympiad. Truong has taken many of those great photos at SP's blog.
Hola! L'echecs des Femmes November 1st column is now up and running at Chessville. dondelion has posted a brand new Random Round-up (right hand column, scroll down to RR) at Goddesschess, and I've done some updating of October and November news at Chess Femme News. Enjoy! The 2008 Olympiad opens tomorrow in Dresden with play starting 11/13. GM Susan Polgar is acting as a sort of ambassador at large and the English-language news liason with the press and I understand she'll be publishing a daily review in Dresden's largest newspaper and also doing a daily television spot (this is per the Parrot at Chessville).
Labels: chess news
Katherine Neville "The Fire": Another Review
I've lost count! Book - The Fire: A Novel By Elizabeth de Jager Nov 11, 2008, 9:20 GMT Twenty years ago, Katherine Neville's book, The Eight was published to great acclaim. It defied genre - it was a swashbuckling adventure, it had romance, the epic worldwide settings, intricate mysteries, strong female characters and sexy Russian chess masters. I have tried reading The Eight at least once every two years since I first picked it up in high school. If I had to choose a book that changed the way I saw authors and their skill, it would be The Eight. Because of The Eight, I learned to play chess (badly), my love for adventure and mystery novels were born, and importantly my obsession with quest novels - I can't get enough of them. The long wait for the sequel has been worth it. We are introduced, from the very first pages, to Alexandra, Cat and Sasha's daughter. Through Alexandra we take each step forwards to uncovering the mystery surrounding her mother's disappearance. The Game has begun again - pieces of the mysterious and beautiful Montglane Service has reappeared, triggering the start of a new adventure for the various players. The author deftly describes far-flung places as if it is her habit to take weekend jaunts there. She pulls us effortlessly into the past and history comes to life as she uses real events to elaborate on her storyline. Ms. Neville has always excelled in drawing vibrant characters and in The Fire she reprises the roles of many of the characters from The Eight. Favourites are Lily Rad, Alexandra's one-time chess tutor and the other is Ladislaus Nim, Alexandra's uncle, enigmatic recluse and computer genius. Ms. Neville is also one of the best dialogue writers I've ever seen. The dialogue rolls and characters' stories are told in flashbacks that do not detract from the existing urgency in the novel - and that in itself is hard to do! (Read ANY book on writing and you will see that they warn aspiring writers about flashbacks/back stories - they slow the story down, they are boring and should be used sparingly, etc. etc. ) Ms. Neville flies in the face of all of this and comes out trumps. The action is relentless. Intermingled with chess analogies you are taught bits of history, alchemy, the occult, poetry, religion and cooking and you are never bored by any of the characters as they all manage to hold their piece of stage by being plotted and created with a deft hand. If you've not had the chance to read The Eight, but you would like to get stuck into The Fire, do so - although it would be an advantage to have read The Eight, The Fire is very much its own creature and stands alone very nicely. The Fire is a feast - it delves deep into mythology and legend and demands your attention - there are no skipping scenes here, because if you do, you will miss crucial information to help uncover the new players of The Game. The story is multi-layered and it a strong compelling read.
Labels: "The Eight", "The Fire", Katherine Neville
Here is the Indonesian Women's Team: Sebastian Simanjuntak heads the women's team, which consists of Irene Kharisma Sukandar, Evi Lindiawati, Kadek Iin Dwijayanti, Desi Rachmawati and Dewi Citra. Irene Kharisma Sukandar is one to watch. She has been playing against male players in various events in addition to women-only events and has been sharpening her skills. Full article.
Labels: 2008 Chess Olympiad, Irene Kharisma Sukandar
Here is the Azerbaijani Women's Team: Zeynab Mammadyarova, Turkan Mammadyarova, Nargiz Umudova, Narmin Kazimova (the main staff) and Khayala Iskandarova (a reserve player) will perform within the Azerbaijani female combined team. Anar Allahverdiyev is the chief coach of the women's combined team. Full article. I'll be keeping my eye on Narmin Kazimova. She had some sparkling moments at the 2008 European Individual Women's Chess Championship.
Labels: 2008 Chess Olympiad, Narmin Kazimova
Our Lady of Kazan: Another Black Madonna
I read about this Marian icon of Kazan earlier this evening in Katherine Neville's "The Fire." This image is from Wikipedia - see entry below. She is one of the "black" Madonnas - so-called both because of the often dusky color of their skin (in some cases, after cleaning, attributed to the accumulation of generations of soot from candles burnt under the images) and because in many cases they were either excavated from underground ruins or were originally worshipped in underground caverns, perhaps due to Marian persecutions. A famous Black Madonna around these parts is "Our Lady of 'Chestakowa' (spelled phonetically), revered by generations of Polish Catholic immigrants - Milwaukee's south side was originally settled by Polish immigrants and the grand basilica of St. Josephat's on South 6th Street and West Lincoln Avenue stands as a testimony to their dedication to the Roman Catholic Church. There is a Roman Catholic Church on the corner of South 6th Street and West Mitchell Street (don't know the name), with a large mosaic representation of Our Lady of 'Chestakowa' on its south side, just around the corner from the main entranceway stairs. Here is information from Wikipedia on the Black Madonna of Kazan: Our Lady of Kazan, also called Theotokos of Kazan (Russian: Казанская Богоматерь), is a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church. It has been considered a palladium of Russia for centuries. Two major Kazan Cathedrals, in Moscow and in St Petersburg, are consecrated in her name, as are numerous churches throughout the land. Her feast days are July 21 and November 4, (which is also the Day of National Unity). The icon was credited by the Russian commanders - Dmitry Pozharsky and Mikhail Kutuzov - with helping the country to repel the Polish invasion of 1612, the Swedish invasion of 1709, and Napoleon's invasion of 1812. The icon was discovered on July 8, 1579, underground in the city of Kazan, after the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a Marian apparition revealed its location to a little girl, Matrona. The original icon was kept in one of the monasteries in Kazan, whereas its ancient and venerated copies [my emphasis added] have been displayed at the Kazan Cathedral of Moscow, at Yaroslavl, and at St. Petersburg. In the night on June 29, 1904 the icon was stolen from a cathedral in Kazan where it had been kept for centuries. Thieves apparently coveted the icon's golden setting, which featured many jewels of highest value. When several years later Russian police finally apprehended the thieves and recovered the precious setting, they declared that the icon itself had been cut to pieces and burnt. The Orthodox church interpreted the disappearance of the icon as a sign of tragedies that would plague Russia after the Holy Protectress of Russia had been lost. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, there were plenty of theories speculating that the original icon was in fact preserved in St. Petersburg and later sold by the Bolsheviks abroad. Although such theories were not credited by the Russian Orthodox church, one of several reputed originals [this should be - copy] (dated by experts to ca. 1730) was acquired by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima and enshrined in Fátima, Portugal in the 1970s. In 1993, the icon was given to Pope John Paul II, who took it to the Vatican and had it installed in his study, where it was venerated by him for eleven years. In his own words, "...it has found a home with me and has accompanied my daily service to the Church with its motherly gaze."[1] John Paul II wished to visit Moscow or Kazan in order to return the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church. When these efforts were blocked by the Moscow Patriarchate, the icon was presented to the Russian Church unconditionally in August 2004. On August 26, 2004 it was exhibited for veneration on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica and then delivered to Moscow. On the next feast day of the holy icon, July 21, 2005, Patriarch Alexius II and Mintimer Shaymiev, the President of Tatarstan, placed it in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin. The icon is enshrined in the Church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, the site where the original icon of Our Lady of Kazan was found. Plans are underway to make the monastery where the icon was found into an international pilgrimage center. References "Liturgy of the Word in honour of the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan - August 25, 2004". Retrieved on 2008-10-13. External links John Paul delivers Our Lady of Kazan to the russian church, july 18 2005 (English) Rediscovered Holy Treasure. (English) Ikons: Windows into Heaven. (English) The Miraculous Icons—an entry on Our Lady of Kazan at OrthodoxWorld.ru. (English) OrthodoxWiki entry on Our Lady of Kazan.
Labels: black madonna, Isis and the Virgin Mary, Marian icon, Mary, Our Lady of Kazan
Here is the Philippines Women's Team: Catherine Perena Shercila Cua Daisy Rivera Cheradee Chardine Camacho Christy Lamiel Bernale The 60th ranked 2006 Team finished in 23rd place (a very good showing), composed of the following players: Sherrie Joy Lomibao Sherily Cua Beverly Mendoza Catherine Perena Full article.
Labels: 2008 Chess Olympiad, Philippines chess
More Ancient Coins Discovered
Treasure trove! From BBC News Page last updated at 13:59 GMT, Monday, 10 November 2008 700-year-old coins found in field Three 700-year-old coins which were found in a field have been declared treasure by a coroner at Flint. The silver pennies date back to between 1307 and 1314, to the reigns of both Edward I and his son Edward II. Archaeology enthusiast Peter Jones, from Holywell, found a coin in 2006, then returned to the same spot a year later, when the other two were found. The coins were analysed by experts at Cardiff's National Museum of Wales who discovered they were 90% silver. Mr Jones regularly scours a field owned by his friend Ron Davies, for pre-historic items. He said he has found hundreds of old tools, made from flint, some of which dated back thousands of years before Christ. He told the inquest he did not usually use a metal detector and found the first coin in 2006 just "lying on the surface". The following year he took a metal detector to the same spot, and again found two similar coins on the surface. He said: "I just rubbed them with my hand and they came clean." John Gittins, Deputy Coroner for North East Wales, declared the coins treasure under the Treasure Act 1996. He said the coins were now the property of both Mr Davies and Mr Jones, and they were entitled to have them back. The inquest heard there was also interest from the Flintshire County Museum Service to put them on public display. Mr Jones, who is still deciding where the coins should go, said after the hearing: "Back in those days, this would have been a couple of days' wages for a soldier. "Whoever lost them would not have been happy." The inquest was not told where the coins were found, although Mr Jones described it as a "cracking site".
Breathtaking Pearl and Gem Earring Discovered
This was all over the news today - with good reason. This earring is a timeless creation, breathtakingly beautiful. Imagine wearing a pair of these beauties - the hair would have been up-swept or swept away from the face so that the earrings would be clearly visible; they would have dangled against the wearer's jawline. I love pearls - these, of course, are all-natural pearls from a time way before cultured salt and freshwater pearls were invented. I'm not an emerald fan - but these emeralds are not faceted (I believe they did not have the technology back then to facet gemstones like emeralds, sapphires, rubies, diamonds, etc.) and the color reminds me a lot of the semi-precious stone malachite, which has a rich varigated/streaked green color that I find irresistible -- like grass and budding leaves in spring. November 10, 2008 2,000-year-old gold earring found in Jerusalem By SHAWNA OHM – 11 hours ago JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli archeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem's old city, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday. The discovery dates back to the time of Christ, during the Roman period, said Doron Ben-Ami, director of excavation at the site. The piece was found in a Byzantine structure built several centuries after the jeweled earring was made, showing it was likely passed down through generations, he said. The find is luxurious: A large pearl inlaid in gold with two drop pieces, each with an emerald and pearl set in gold. "It must have belonged to someone of the elite in Jerusalem," Ben-Ami said. "Such a precious item, it couldn't be one of just ordinary people." In a statement released Monday, the authority said the piece of jewelry was "astonishingly well-preserved." Finds from the Roman period are rare in Jerusalem, Ben-Ami said, because the city was destroyed by the Roman Empire in the first century A.D. Shimon Gibson, an American archaeologist who was not involved in the dig, said the find was truly amazing, less because of its Roman origins than for its precious nature. "Jewelry is hardly preserved in archaeological context in Jerusalem," he said, because precious metals were often sold or melted down during the many historic takeovers of the city. "It adds to the visual history of Jerusalem," Gibson added, saying it brings attention to the life of women in antiquity. Though Gibson dates the piece slightly later than the antiquities authority, to sometime between the second and fourth centuries A.D., he said its quality and beauty were impressive. Ben-Ami added that he expects more small, luxury items to turn up in future excavations. Earrings similar to this one have been found at archaeological sites throughout Europe, Ben-Ami said, where the Roman Empire also flourished. The authority said the earring to be crafted using a technique similar to that depicted in portraits from Roman-era Egypt. Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Labels: ancient jewelry, pearl, treasure trove
The Bend and Snap
I'm rolling on the floor right now watching "Legally Blonde" - the 2001 movie that I laughed my way over the Atlantic Ocean watching on our flight to Amsterdam a few months after 9/11 in 2001. Elle gave a lesson at the beauty salon on the "bend and snap" maneuvere. Check it out - good for what ails you, darlings! I particularly appreciated the male hairdressers getting into the spirit of the moment...
Review of Katherine Neville's "The Fire"
Another review of "The Fire." I'm a little more than half-way through the book now, savoring a section of a chapter at a time, usually wrapped in an afghan with a glass of wine near by, late at night, when the house is creaking and groaning with noises you never hear during the day. Great read - and, yes, even more complex as far as "puzzle" and working one's way through the symbolism to get to the truth of the matter. Neville is a few years older than I am and may want to retire - can she write a sequel to the sequel? I'm not ready to say goodbye to this "never-ending" game on the global chessboard and the unique insights she brings to her readers! Please, KN, bring us more! 'Fire' more complicated than 'Eight' By OLINE H. COGDILLSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel Published: November 09. 2008 12:01AM Before "The Da Vinci Code," there was Katherine Neville's "The Eight." More than 20 years ago, this ambitious debut by a computer consultant mixed a magical chess set dating back to Charlemagne with mythology, music and math. Set during 1972 and 1790, "The Eight" flitted from New York and Algeria back to the French Revolution. It featured more than 60 characters, many of them historical figures such as Robespierre and Napoleon. With such far-flung settings and a plot that at first blush would seem to be a mess, "The Eight" should not have worked. Yet it became a cult classic, one of the finest, most original examples of historical thrillers, opening the door for novels steeped in mythology, before it all got tangled up with Dan Brown. While Neville has written two other novels, "The Fire" (Ballantine Books, $26) is the long-awaited sequel to "The Eight." Just as ambitious and far-reaching as its predecessor, Neville re-creates her fresh approach to storytelling. In "The Fire," the search for the chess set is now up to Alexandra Solarin, the daughter of "The Eight's" heroine Catherine Velis, and her mother's best friend, Lily Rad. The story smoothly moves from contemporary Colorado, Washington, D.C., Russia and Algeria, then back to the 1800s Rome, the Loire Valley and Morocco. Lord Byron, Keats and Napoleon make cameo appearances. A chess set has never been more exciting than this one created by Neville. Characters and the scenery are vividly portrayed. However, "The Fire" is even more complicated than "The Eight" and it is easy to get lost in the story's various mythologies and myriad of characters. The plot lags in the middle before Neville gets her elaborate chess game back on track. A 20-year wait for a sequel is too long, though "The Fire" nicely wraps up some secrets and twists that were never solved in "The Eight." Readers will want to first learn what "The Eight's" fuss was all about before tackling "The Fire."
Here is a beautiful example of cross-cultural influence on artwork in ancient Persia (Iran) after the Mongol invasion - evidence that Islam did not prohibit the production of images of living beings in art and artifact; indeed, Islamic artists were masters at producing beautiful works of art incorporating elements of eastern and western design, depicting animal and human figures and along with intricately composed geometric patterns. This piece was featured today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website. here are the particulars about the piece: Tile, frieze, ca. 1270–80; Ilkhanid period (1206–1353) Made in Probably Kashan, IranFritware, molded, painted in luster and blue under a transparent glaze; H. 14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm) W: 14 1/4 inl (36.2 cm)Rogers Fund, 1912 (12.49.4) Description This tile, with its bold design of a phoenix soaring on a background of cloud bands and its lotus border, is an excellent example of the Chinese influence on Iranian iconography following the thirteenth-century Mongol conquest. The tile, one of a long frieze with alternating phoenixes and dragons, most likely was once set on the walls of the Ilkhanid summer palace known as Takht-i Suleiman ("The Throne of Solomon") in northwestern Iran, built in the 1270s. Provenance Takht-i Sulaiman, Iran
Labels: Islamic art, phoenix
First Edition of "My 60 Memorable Games" Discovere...


text:
Q: How to detect white pixels in a specified x,y location I have an image that I mask and crop in OpenCV with the given x,y coordinates. I also tried to detect and show the white pixels in said image which works fine now thanks to the help of an answer I got in another Stackoverflow post.
I currently have the following:
import numpy as np
import cv2

img = cv2.imread('Image.jpg')
#img = cv2.imread('Image2.jpg')
#img = cv2.imread('Image3.jpg')

mask = np.zeros(img.shape[:2], np.uint8)

bgdModel = np.zeros((1, 65), np.float64)
fgdModel = np.zeros((1, 65), np.float64)

rect = (1512, 20, 180, 185) # boundary of interest
cv2.grabCut(img, mask, rect, bgdModel, fgdModel, 5, cv2.GC_INIT_WITH_RECT)
mask2 = np.where((mask == 2) | (mask == 0), 0, 1).astype('uint8')
img = img * mask2[:, :, np.newaxis]
cv2.imwrite('Image_mask.jpg', img)

# x,y coordinates for specified "fixed" location
mx = (1510, 22, 110, 185)
x, y, h, w = mx

# Output to files
crop = img[y:y+h, x:x+w]
cv2.imwrite('Image_crop.jpg', crop)

cv2.rectangle(img,(x,y),(x+w,y+h),(0,255,0),2)
cv2.imwrite('Image_cont.jpg', img)

# Detect white pixels from cropped image
img = cv2.imread('Image_crop.jpg')
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img,cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
ret,gray = cv2.threshold(gray, 150,255,0)
gray2 = gray.copy()

cv2.imshow('IMG',gray2)

cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

Output:

Ideally what I want to do now is try and see if the location(20x20 square around object) has white pixels in it and then print something out. How would I go about into doing this.
Would I have to manually select x,y coordinates again based off the crop I got and then detect the white pixels and if so is it possible to do it simultaneously with two different coordinates or is there a more simpler approach?

A: You could sum the values of the pixels inside the square and if the number is above a certain threshold, there are non-black pixels.
If you are absolutely sure the background is dead black, then you can check that the pixel value sum is non-zero to assert there are white pixels in the are you are evaluating.
crop = img[y:y+h, x:x+w]
if crop.sum() > 0:
    print("White pixels detected")

or using numpy:
np.sum(crop)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I spend up to 3 days a week surveying in the field, and the rest of my time looking after my team here in the South West region. I have to make sure everything's done in the right order, satisfying all our client's needs. Every day has its own challenges, for example sorting out work if someone is ill, arranging inspections of plant at short notice to fit in with a client's operations. In addition it is important to keep in contact with the members of the team, ensuring that surveyors are working to their maximum efficiency.
Zurich really does lead the way in engineering surveying. We do everything we can to keep overdue surveys to a minimum, and we're setting the benchmark with our ToughBook computers and onsite reporting. We're showing our commitment by investing in new ToughBooks, 3G communication and in the training of our surveyors.
Customers are becoming more and more demanding. We have to make sure we deliver a good, professional job every time. After all, we're often the only people from Zurich that our clients see. We keep the Zurich name in their mind, and they judge the company on how we deliver.
In this line of work people have to like organising themselves, but can cope with last minute requests by some clients. Of course you need the academic qualifications and the practical experience, but we're looking for people with good interpersonal skills too. If you examine something that needs fixing, you'll need those to liaise with the client to work out the timescales for the repair and to minimise downtime. One thing I would say is that if you're looking for a straight 9 to 5 job in an office, then this isn't for you!