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Supernova Bliss
Join us in 2017 as we journey thru Central America
Goodbye Nayarit... Hello Jalisco
January 7th. It was a Saturday. That day, all the planets stationed direct after being in retrograde motion- a good omen and an opportune time for movement. We woke up full of energy and decided it was time to move on. That feeling of attachment and stagnation was suddenly gone and we knew that we needed to align ourselves with this momentum and hit the road again. We scanned the town to say our goodbyes to whatever friends we saw along the way, and then we did it. We left San Pancho! It was an odd alchemy of emotions; there was this feeling of freedom to be back on the path of adventure and discovery but also a sort of sadness to be leaving a place that actually felt like home, a lot of gratitude for the memories and friendships we gained there, all sort of melded together with hope- that one day we would return, that it would stay the way we found it, and that we would be just as surprised and rewarded by the wonder that lay before us out in the unknown. Traveling like this, like nomads, is such a beautiful thing because we are truly so untethered. If we don't like a place, we have the mobility to move on. Yet if we do, we have the unique opportunity to stay and really get to know the culture and feeling of a place. Our curiosity had returned to us and we were eager to experience the rest of Mexico.
We decided to head inland. After five months of traveling south down the Pacific coast, we were kind of "beached out." I know that might sound crazy because, who gets sick of paradise, right? But the heat, the humidity, the itchy mosquito bites, the constant humming of the fan, and the sand everywhere- all the time- in our camper, was feeling a little old. We would miss the delicious fresh seafood but we were excited for a change of scenery.
 And we got our wish! Only a couple hours inland, the landscape had already changed completely. No more were we enveloped in lush green jungle. Suddenly we were greeted with expansive views, rollings hills, citrine prairies, and lapis lazuli skies. The air was dry and crisp. We unpacked our wrinkled long-sleeved shirts and pants from the bottom of our backpacks. We felt like we had entered an alternate universe. Who knew? "I feel like I am in the mid-west," Mark commented. "I had no idea Mexico looked like this." But it does. Completely quaint and ancient and familiar all at the same time. Lots of agriculture, ranching, farmland. Roadside vendors selling produce. Miles and miles of sugarcane stretched out before us. Eventually the hills grew and began to take on the distinct look of shadowy volcanos, and every once in a while, the golden farmland was interrupted by black, hardened lava flow.
After camping out at a gorgeous natural Lake, Lago de Santa Maria del Oro, we decided to continue east to see the ruins of an ancient Mesoamerican civilization, called Ixtlán del Rio, which dates back to 300 bc. There we discovered a shaft tomb containing pottery and human bones. There were clay figurines, and a courtyard with the remains of several alters, ceremonial spaces, and support columns. Some were roped off, but others were accessible to climb on. Joey especially liked climbing them. Besides a few high-school aged locals sitting and drinking sodas a top one of the alters, we basically had the place to ourselves to roam around and picnic at our leisure. I prefer this so much to the massive crowds we will likely encounter when we visit Palenque and other, more well-known sites.
Shortly after Ixtlán, we entered the state of Jalisco. The elevation was increasing and the landscape was still refreshingly remote, offering lovely panoramic views of volcanic mountains and desolate valleys.
Due to the volcanic history of this region, with many areas still active, there are a vast number of hot springs around. We had heard good things about a thermal river nearby. The whole river is thermal, getting hotter the higher up you climb. It was pretty shallow in most areas but small pools were formed with the strategic placement of rocks. We camped here for one night, dipping all afternoon and again the following morning. The landowner was friendly and we chatted with him and his sons for a while, afterward noting how much our Spanish has improved and how nice it is to be able to easily converse with native speakers. A big improvement since our time in Baja, when we mostly sounded like cave-people with only the ability to demand food and inquire the location of the bathroom. Anywho, it felt so nice to be doing some wild camping again, especially cuddled up in our warmest blankets, with hot soup, and a thermal river!
We continued east and the following evening, we camped atop the Volcán de Tequila. Unfortunately, no, tequila did not flow from this picturesque volcano, scattered with enormous chunks of sharp, shiny, endlessly black obsidian. But it did overlook the magical town of Tequila, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and also the birthpace of the ubiquitous liquor. Blue agave plantations were countless and beautiful to behold.
Blue agave has been grown in this region since the pre-hispanic era and has long been used by the indigenous peoples here. After Spanish colonization, the agave was fermented, making what we now know as tequila. This small town is home to 15 of the largest distilleries, including Cuervo, Herradura, and Sauza. We walked around the Sauza distillery gardens and then had a fabulous breakfast at a local cafe, before we decided we better leave this delightful little town before we get into too much trouble with the dangerous elixer.
For two nights we camped beside Lago de Chapala, the largest lake in Mexico. Surrounding the lake was a very modest and traditional little town, lined with small churches and tiendas. We found a little campground that probably hasn't changed much since its creation in the 1980's, with soccer fields and a children's playground that resembled old carnival rides, and we did some bird watching. I love watching the full moon rise over a mountain lake.
The following evening, we visited the artesenal village of Tlaquepaque. In the town square, there was a lunar blessing by an indigenous group to honor the first full moon of the year. We were invited to hear the songs and prayers, and then smudged with the native copal. The prayer circle was a powerful invocation of protection and guidance by the sacred ancestors.
Afterward, there was a traditional performance by a traveling indiginous group from Vera Cruz. One man played the flute while five others climb up this tall pole with ropes in their hands, then they wind the ropes around the pole, finally falling backward attached only by the rope as they unwind like tiny puppets until they each reach the ground. It was fascinating.
This massive and astounding Italian Gothic Cathedral is in the modern and artistic city of Guadalajara. Often, walking around this city, I would totally forget I was in Mexico. It was so clean and innovative, so fashionable, it felt like any other big city in the states, full of international restaurants, rock-n-roll bars, large murals, and gorgeous architecture. Walking down, what appeared to be, the avenue of wedding shops, I was drooling over all of the delicate and feminine bridal gowns.
We had a few errands to run in the city, and lost track of time, under-estimating how dense traffic would be to exit the urban sprawl. The map indicated a large national park north east of Guadalaraja, so we decided to head that direction in search of a camp spot. Little did we know, there is an enormous gorge to the north of the city. We were quickly losing daylight and ended up on this lonely highway with a steep canyon to one side and massive cliffs on the other.
Finally we turned off toward what looked like a small village. Blink your eye and you'd miss it. (We try to avoid driving at night here, as we have been told it is too dangerous, for this is when a lot of drug trafficking takes place, and also, the roads can be shadowy and unpredictable, often with cattle or other animals in the road, or huge potholes... you just never know.) We saw the head lights of a pickup truck approaching us. It looked like a guy about our age, with about a half dozen barking dogs in the bed of his truck, and what appeared to be a child, sitting on the HOOD of his car. Yes, that's exactly what it was- a boy of about six years old, all smiles, going for a bumpy little ride down the cobble-stone mountain side on the hood of his papa's truck... The things you see in Mexico! I wish we had a photo of this!
Anyway, we stopped and talked to this guy, his name was Beto. We asked him if he knew of a place we could camp for the night, and with zero hesitation, he offered for us to camp on his land, giving us precise directions. A few kilometers down the road, past two cattle gates and to the left, we located his property. It was a cactus farm. Very safe and, we realized in the morning, very beautiful. God bless the Mexican people. They are helpful, hospitable, and extremely kind. Check out these awesome views!
From sugar cane to blue agave to cactus farms. We had a great week of overland adventure and as always, are intensely grateful for all of these unforgettable interactions and experiences in our travel. To be able to see the interior of this country, with all of its off-the-beaten path charm, is such a blessing. We feel truly priviledged to be able to do what we are doing. Only three more months on our Mexican visas! Next, we will discover the Pueblas Magicas of Michoacán.
Goodbye Jalisco and thank you, as always, for all the good times, the new friends, and the enchanting views along the way. Adios!!
My experience with Kambo... Shamanic Medicina
In the last days of 2016, in San Pancho, we had an opportunity to participate in an indigenous medicine circle and become aquainted with an Amazonian "plant" medicine called Kambo. I say "plant" medicine because Kambo is often classified under the umbrella term of plant medicines although it actually is not plant-based, rather, it is literally the venomous wax that is secreted from a highly poisonous tree frog. The phyllomedusa bicolor, or giant monkey frog, to be exact. Rather than ingesting it, which can be fatal, it is administered via small burns on the surface of the skin. It has been in use in indigenous cultures of Columbia, Brazil, and Peru for thousands of years. Kambo is used to treat a broad range of illnesses and is also used prevantatively to remove toxins and boost the natural function of the immune system as well as strengthen the senses, reflexes, and endurance of the body, while also invigorating the spirit.
I first learned about Kambo in the summer of 2016, in Utah, from a close friend who told us about this strange and exotic medicine. I remember, at the time, that the phrase "poisonous frog venom," really sounded extreme to me, especially following his description of "burning blisters," and "intense swelling of the face and throat," and a "violent purging." I had never heard of anything quite like this before and like all things completely foreign and new, my first impression was a mixture of frightened and awe-struck. But like all ancient medicines, including Ayahuasca and San Pedro, they say that it will call to you when you are ready to know its mysterious teachings.
It was on November 13th, the night of the supermoon, that I first heard the call. We had been in San Pancho for only a couple of days, and late one night, I was restlessly stirring in bed. Maybe it was the moon, or the high tide of the roaring ocean, or the small gathering of dancing strangers, but I decided to get out of bed and walk to the beach. The air was the perfect temperature, the sky was clear, and in the distance, I could see the flickering amber glow of a bonfire and hear the faint musings of acoustic guitar. I sat down beside this group of ecelctic young people all sharing the warm glow of the flames and the beautiful songs sung in Spanish. This was my introduction to this romantic town and its welcoming people. After enjoying countless songs, laughter with these new friends, and a halo'ed view of the luminous moon, I decided to walk back to where we were camped for the night.
I strolled quietly over the cobble-stone streets when suddenly I heard a few plopping sounds and felt something suspiciously brush against one of my feet, and out from under my long skirt, jumped a big, fat frog! It was enormous, a dark murky algae color with a bumpy back resembling a nice crunchy pickle, and it croaked at me as I knelt down next to it! Now, if you know me, you know that I am a big believer in the spirits of animals, holding the whimsical opinion that when we cross paths with any wild thing, it surely contains a message for us. The frog has been associated with many cultures throughout the ages, and can be symbolic of many different things, ranging from earth magic to life changes to midwifery (and actually, the last time I felt really aligned with the frog spirit was when I was preparing for a homebirth with our son). But this time, the message I was getting was different. My first thought was purification.
Surely, I was in need of a detox, traveling for several months, enjoying many new foods, alcoholic concoctions made from mezcal, and even a few cervezas, which I rarely partake in, coupled with the fact that my yoga routine is out of shape, and we are traveling in a place where there is no regulation for auto emissions, etc etc... My body had been feeling exhausted and heavy from my lack of self-care and I knew it was time for me to do some clearing and return to a moderate level of discipline. Also, in numerology, 2016 is known as the Great Year of Purification, and as it was coming to an end, I knew that there was some energy I did not want to be carrying into the new year. Time for a cleanse!
Then, coincidentally, a few of our friends from home came to visit us in San Pancho in the following weeks and they shared more about their recent endeavors into the cleansing world of Kambo. This time, I was a lot more open to learning about what this exotic frog medicine was all about. I set the intention that I wanted to try it. And, low and behold, only a few days later, I met Andrea.
She was a vibrant and youthful Swiss woman backpacking through Mexico conducting plant medicine ceremonies. She spoke German, French, Spanish, and English. She had studied indigenous medicine for over 35 years, traveling to remote areas of the jungle, studying ceremonial medicina, and now sharing these practices with other Westerners. After many years of conducting Ayahuasca circles, she has now, for about five years, been including Kambo into her practice. I was interested in knowing how these treatments were performed, and had many questions before we embarked on this journey, mostly about her training and the authenticity of her work. She described her education, the setting in which the medicine is administered, and importance of adhering to the strict rituals she had learned in Amazonia. I was curious and excited! I have a deep respect for the practices of the ancients, and, after my experience doing Ayahuasca with two Shipibo shamans, I understand the power of the songs and instruments used in ceremony.
And so, we began what was, for Mark and I, four ceremonies over the course of four weeks, each one progressing in the number and location of points on our bodies. I went first. In my first ceremony, I was initiated using only one point- or burn- in the front of my body, over my solar plexus. Other practitioners may do this diffently, but I liked Andrea's gentle approach, of starting with only one point so that your body is slowly introduced to this potent substance.
We began in a circle with five other participants. Andrea smudged us all with sage and invited us to share in the use of a liquid tobacco, which is inhaled in the nose, to open the ceremony. The tobacco opens the heart and mind to allow the medicine to work at a deeper level. She spoke of it being an instrument of truth, connecting us to Source and allowing open communication of our intentions. The intention is a very important part of this process, as Kambo can be used for many different purposes, it is helpful to voice and focus on your intentions, and this facilitates the medicine in delivering the desired effects. Andrea played the flute, and we were invited to meditate. Then, we went around in the circle, each introducing ourselves, discussing our intentions, and exploring how placing the points on different areas of the body can result in different effects.
For me, I was hoping to achieve a greater sense of balance, to cleanse energetic impurities, and "return to myself," which is a difficult thing to explain, but what I can say is that in the past three years, and even more so, the past six months, I have undergone tremendous changes. And as these changes have aided me in furthering my own personal evolution, I was needing to call back some of my energy, ground and re-claim my own identity. I wanted to work with the chakra points, as these are what I am familiar with as a reiki practitioner and yoga teacher.
Each person had the Kambo administered one by one. Before you begin, you must consume 2 liters of water. Andrea uses a knife to scrape the wax off of a flat piece of wood, which it comes on. She has a number of pieces, packaged in some kind of jungle palm, which she has obtained directly from the Shamans of the Amazon. (The frogs are not harmed in the process of harvesting the wax. Rather, these Shamans wait until after a heavy rain and then they sing the songs of the tree frogs. When the frogs come out of the trees, the Shamans massage their toes, causing the venom to be released. They preserve it by allowing it to harden on these pieces of wood. It is a whitish, waxy substance. This ritual is done with enormous respect for the animals as they are considered to be sacred allies.) After deciding how many points you desire, she molds the wax into the corresponding number of balls. You can see this pictured below
Next, she uses a small stick to make the points. It is lit with a flame, resembling a smoking stick of incense. She quickly makes the burns on the surface of the skin. It is painful but very fast- less discomfort than a misquito bite. The skin from the blister is wiped off, revealing a small white dot on the dermis. This is where the ball of wax will sit atop the skin, quickly entering the body. Within a minute, you can feel the venom flushing through your system. For me, I first noticed a lot of heat. It started near the point and slowly spread all over my body. Then, there was a pulsing sensation. It seemed my heart was throbbing and pulsing rapidly, and soon I could feel this throbbing everywhere- my fingertips, my temples, my chest. My throat felt as though it was swelling, and my head began to "fill" with this swollen, pulsing sensation. Following was a feeling of nausea and a strong need to vomit. I had a bucket in front of me for this reason. The purging is an important part of this process. As the nausea set in, she reminded me to breathe, to be open to these sensations, and try to embrace the discomfort. She burned sage all around me and told me to focus on my intentions.
Then, she took out a drum and began to sing. The drumming is so powerful, it aids in this process of collecting whatever energy no longer serves us, so it can be released with the purge. The songs are ancient and mysterious, in a language I couldn't make out. She used a rattle to really break up this dense, toxic energy. Panema, is what the ancients call it. The dark negativity that clouds the aura. With every purge, I could feel myself getting lighter and going deeper into the sensations of the medicine. And then, after about 10 minutes of sweating and vomiting, I started to feel "complete." There was nothing left to purge away. The discomfort was dissipating, and the nausea subsided. I was instructed to lay on my left side.
In a few minutes, I returned to feeling somewhat "normal." I could stand up, I could talk, I was feeling hungry from fasting all morning. The difference was that I could still feel this venom pumping in my veins. I noticed that all the colors around me were brighter. The sounds of the jungle were more distinct. The leaves on the tree all quivered rhythmically and I felt as though I could sense all of it, every single leaf. On every single tree. It was all connected to me. The breeze tickled against my skin and I felt more alive. I observed these changes throughout the day, and that night, I fell into a very deep sleep. My dreams were intense and vivid. By the next day, the changes were even more intense. I felt amazing! I had boundless energy. My appetite was lessened. My spirits were high. All of my senses seems to be heightened. Food tasted better. Sex felt better (hell yeah!). My feelings and emotions seemed to flow with so much ease and Mark and I felt more connected than ever. I could chase our two-year-old around endlessly and I did it with so much pleasure. I had a lot of gratitude for all the experiences in my life, good and bad, and I could see how everything led me to be the person that I am today, standing exactly where I am. My understanding of my life and my place in the world was so clear. I knew I wanted to do another ceremony and keep unveiling more and more of myelf. So I prepared to do another Kambo session with Andrea.
Mark and I did four ceremonies in all. In each, we did a progressing number of points in different areas of our body. Adding more points definitely ups the intensity of the experience, but each time, I felt I was able to cope a little bit better. It became easier to just surrender and focus on my intention instead of the discomfort. In the second ceremony, I chose to give more support to my root chakra, doing three points over my tailbone. Mark did three points to connect his throat chakra to his heart chakra, allowing him to speak more in a more heart-centered way. For our third ceremony, I did five points connecting all of my lower chakras, and Mark did four points over his solar plexus. And on our last ceremony, we did ear points. Within the ear, every system of the body is represented. I chose three ear points, and two heart points, one over the spiritual heart connecting me to Source and one over the physical heart grounding me. Mark did five points, all in his ears, pictured below. He liked the ears the best!
It has been two weeks since our last ceremony and we are feeling very happy with the results. I have noticed that my anxiety has been pretty much eradicated. I am feeling grounded and vital. Physically, I feel about as healthy as ever. I have a lot of energy and physical endurance. My dreams have been vivid, my cravings for alcohol and tobacco have subsided, my monthly moon cycle has been easier, and I am feeling present and clear. The best part is that many of the benefits of Kambo, like other healing modalities, are experienced in the long term, so I am excited to see what other surprises are in store for me as a result of this medicine. Time will tell.
Why am I sharing this with the world? Well, because many people have never heard of such a thing. Because western medicine doesn't work for everyone, and because Kambo has such a wide range of uses, from infertility, inflamation, arthritis, cancer, malaria, snake bites, etc. It is one of the strongest natural antibiotics and anesthetics in the world. It can help support emotional issues and mental health problems alike and is especially effective at treating fear-based illnesses, like anxiety, paranoia, and phobias. In fact, it is believed that because these frogs have no predators, they also have no fear, and becoming allies with the frog can help conquer fear on any level. With all of this being said, you must use caution with this substance, like any other shamanic healing modality. To find a trusted practitioner, you should reference the International Association of Kambo Practitioners, or IAKP.com
Hope you enjoyed hearing about my experience with Kambo.
Thank you for reading~
Victoria
San Pancho... the vortex
After Mazatlan, we continued south down the coast, making a few stops here and there, until eventually we discovered a tiny Riviera Nayarit gem, known as San Pancho. A town filled with so much do-it-yourself originality, art, culture, and accessibility. There is such a beautiful alchemy of magic in this town that quickly we fell under its spell, and without even realizing it, ended up staying for nine weeks- nine weeks which could have easily been a lifetime, as we considered maybe never leaving. A colorful mix of grassroots local culture, Mexican nationals, indiginous lineage, and conscious international expats makes this place unique to say the least, and a fantastic place for families, with lots of activities to enrich both children and adults alike. We SO enjoyed our time here, getting sucked into the vortex of good vibes, taking in the amazing sunsets, making wonderful friends that we will not soon forget, and feeling how truly wonderful it can be to be embraced by community.
Our introduction to San Pancho of course included watching our first mesmerizing sunset on the beach. Soon we learned that this is one of the towns sweet-but-simple traditions; gathering together at sundown to watch el dia slip dazzlingly into la noche. Every evening, as the sun gets lower in the sky, you begin to see more and more foot traffic as the village's population prepares for this evening ritual. Many small businesses close down and families and friends all congregate together in the sand to watch the massive waves break powerfully on the shore as the sun sets. We loved this tradition and looked forward to it each day.
Often at sunset, we were able to witness the release of baby sea turtles back to the ocean. Since the early 1990's, the conservation efforts in San Pancho have resulted in the collection, incubation, and release of over 1 million previously-endangered sea turtles. Watching them crawl into the sea merely hours after hatching from their eggs is a really special experience, particluarly with a spectacular sunset and a crowd of people cheering.
Another San Pancho original is Circo de los Niños, the circus school for children, that was created by the artistic director of Cirque du Solei. It is a huge state-of-the-art gymnasium with equiptment of all kinds, and a programming specifically designed for children and young adults, to increase their confidence, motor skills, and performance ability. To raise money and interest, the students perform annually in the town's Plaza del Sol before an audience of 800 spectators. We put José into the Saturday morning program for children ages 2-4. It was an energetic mixture of acro yoga, hula hoops, somersaults, trampoline, balance beam, tight rope, aeriel silks, and trapese, plus songs and dances. He loved being able to release some of his boundless energy in this highly physical environment.
We spent a ton of time at Entreamigos. A huge reason San Pancho is so special is because there is a thriving not-for-profit community center that was created by the locals, served mostly by volunteers and funded by private donations. It is a cluster of re-purposed warehouses that provide a wide-range of services, from a children's library, playground, hands-on play area, technology center, recycling center, event center, community garden, indoor soccer field, and thrift store. There was always something interesting happening here, from children's art classes, adult language classes, re-purposing household items, and lots of festivities for the whole family. A lot of these programs are hard-to-come by in Mexico, like recycling, for instance. But the residents here recognize a need for this kind of programming and have created this place from the ground up, with very little but an ambitously minimal grass-roots approach. This, I think, is the real spirit of San Pancho: see what happens when everyone comes together with the resources they have and the commitment to community, resulting in some really progressive, d-i-y magic
If art is your thing, you will find vibrant expressions all over town, from the extensive street art, murals, and installations, often made from recycled and re-purposed materials.
I recieved personal instruction on making dreamcatchers out of locally-sourced jungle vines from one of San Pancho's finest craftsman, Freddie "the dreamcatcher guy." My massive feather collection came to good use and I was also able to re-purpose various random forget-me-nots from our travels.
The town was small enough to walk pretty much anywhere, but borrowing a rickshaw proved to be faster, and more fun! PS: Real men ride tricycles.
Lots of friendly neighbors offered Joey toys to borrow and return. This laidback attitude and warm generosity was much appreciated. He learned how to ride a scooter, a tricycle, and a skateboard in San Pancho, all lent lovingly to him by new friends.
We also befriended a few of the non-human residents of San Pancho.
Celebrating the Mexican Revolution with a festive parade honoring the countries independance.
We sampled nearly all of the diverse local offerings, ranging from the delicious street tacos abound, to the poke bowls at Organik, the Pacific Island cuisine of Lovo, the homemade ice-cream y paletas from Naturals, rich raw cacao truffles from Mexicolate, fancy teas from Darjeeling, maracuya and mezcal libations from Baracuda, and probably more smoothies than we can count. There were many options to satisfy a health foodie or a vegetarian, and a wide range of budgets.
So impressed with this funky little village, we wanted to share it with some friends from back home. We received a very special visit from afar when our friends Jayme and Bryan arrived for ten days of fun. We spent some quality time entertaining the three monkeys (18-month-old twins Seraphina and Persephone and our own 27-month-old Joseph) and also enjoying a taste of home and conjuring up all kinds of bliss with sunsets, beach days, bellydance, raw cacao, live music, market wanderings, jungle trailblazing, and more.
Every week, there is a colorful market with food, live music, and artesanas. We fell in love with this adorable handmade, hand-dyed childrens clothing from Oxaca and Chiapas.
We also had a blast saying adios to 2016...ringing in the New Year with a lantern on the beach.
We had some amazing adventures in this charming little town. We made friends from all over the world and all over Mexico. We couldn't walk down the street without seeing familiar faces and friendly strangers. We shared birthdays and memorable meals, stories and kindred laughter. We felt that we were a part of something here. And no matter where we end up in the world, San Pancho will always be in our hearts.
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Each previous The New Ray Bradbury Review, prepared and edited by the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, examines the impact of Bradbury's writings on American culture and his legacy as one of the master storytellers of his time. The late Ray Bradbury's metaphor-rich imagination led to a prolific and highly influential career spanning seven decades, but it also left a decades-long field of deferred fragmentary fictions and story ideas that would remain unfulfilled creations. For Number 4, William F. Touponce, founding editor emeritus of the Review, has gathered and introduced fascinating examples of story ideas, brief story openings and endings, and extended story openings that will forever remain dreams deferred.
The fragments presented in this issue illustrate Bradbury's progressive stages of creativity during story composition, and to that end some of the physical elements of presentation are preserved in layout. The selections are followed by a list of recent discoveries that supplement the comprehensive checklist of known fragments included in previous editions of the Review. Number 4 concludes with Jonathan Eller's "Fragmentary Futures," a survey of Bradbury's surviving preliminary outlines and projected timetables for future books—tenuous documents that convey a sense of the instability lurking beneath Bradbury's solid and enduring achievements as a masterful teller of tales.
Number 4 of the Review completes the all-archival presentation begun with Number 3, which focused on the thematic range of the surviving fragments. The story openings presented in Number 4 reveal the hidden tension between Bradbury's subconscious inspirations and the stifling effects of his own self-conscious thoughts—the more logical thought patterns that he desperately tried to hold at bay during the few hours it would take him to complete an initial draft. Time and again, rational thought extinguished the initial subconscious upwelling of character and scene, causing him to set these fragments aside for a day that never came.
The New Ray Bradbury Review and the multivolume Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury are the primary publications of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, the major archive of Bradbury's writings located at Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI).
EditorJonathan R. Eller is Chancellor's Professor of English at IUPUI, director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, and editor of The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury (The Kent State University Press). He is the author of Becoming Ray Bradbury and Ray Bradbury Unbound, extensive studies of Bradbury's early and middle career, and coauthor, with William F. Touponce, of Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction (The Kent State University Press, 2004).


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Q: Looking for an easy way to find colors for css I'm looking for an easy way to view colors / choose colors for my CSS styles besides just the generic ones like:
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I find myself using this all of the time for design-related issues, as it also features analogous colors, complementary colors, and other color-scheming tools.
If you want a desktop type solution, I know that ColorPic features a similar desktop-based solution. Hope this helps

A: If you are using Firefox and Firebug, Firepicker could be a lifesaver.

A: How about this: http://html-color-codes.com/
Is this what you mean?

A: Use Photoshop, take a screenshot and select the eyedropper tool click a color on the document color area, then click the swatch in the toolbar to bring up the Color Picker. The hex color is there :P

A: Piknik color picker http://color.aurlien.net/ is very sleek/cool and might be just what you're looking for. Also, if you want to extract a color from a particular webpage, and use firefox, you can install the ColorZilla Firefox add-on. Personally, I use the eye-drop color pickers in ColorZilla in combination with Adobe Photoshop to get hex colors.

A: Try ColorSnapper
Has options for Hex, RGBA and even XCode!
http://colorsnapper.com/

A: With hundreds of thousands or maybe more custom made colors and pallets to choose from as well as the ability to make your own hex's colourlovers is by far the best I've encountered.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Cedar!! Sweet Adorable Boy Waiting to Love You!
Check out some of the recently sold German Shepherd puppies in Tuscarawas Co, Ohio.
The current median price of German Shepherds in Tuscarawas Co is $675.00. This is the price you can expect to pay for the German Shepherd breed without breeding rights. If you require a pup with breeding rights or for show quality with a top pedigree then expect to pay from $3,400 upwards to $7,500 or even more. The average cost for all German Shepherds sold in the Tuscarawas Co area is $900.
We do not allow Tuscarawas Co breeders, adoption centers, rescues or shelters to list German Shepherds for free in Tuscarawas Co. Beware of scams: If you find a breeder in Tuscarawas Co, Ohio or an online advertisement on Craigslist advertising a litter of "puppies for free" or to a "good home for free" then run, do not walk away.
How are German Shepherds priced near the Tuscarawas Co area?


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Tool which can convert web pages from Hanzi to either Pinyin or Zhuyin Fuhao
Are there any tools that can convert an entire webpage from characters into either Pinyin or Zhuyin Fuhao?
Ideally something like Google Translate. So perhaps a website where I enter the URL of the page I want converted. Or a browser extension that allows me to convert whichever page is currently displayed in the tab or window.
I don't mind if it does only pinyin or zhuyin, but one that handles both would be great.
Something like this is handy when you want to focus on learning or practicing words and phrases, comprehension, etc when you don't know all the characters, especially when you don't have any speakers to practice with.
(Yes I know there are all kinds of tools that can pop up the pronunciation of an individual word or character in running text in the browser. Or where you can cut and paste plain text. For the purposes of this question I'm only asking about full-page conversion please.)
pinyin software zhuyin-fuhao websites
hippietrail
hippietrailhippietrail
The resource CW mentions a tool that will convert any body of text as described above and a web browser add-on that will allow you to covert it on any character you hover on – 50-3 Feb 12 '14 at 6:49
@50-3: Really. I just read through it and can't find it. What's its name? As I specifically mentioned, for this question I don't want tools which just convert the character you're hovering over. – hippietrail Feb 12 '14 at 7:00
pin1yin1.com just copy and paste – 50-3 Feb 12 '14 at 7:01
I specifically don't want copy and paste. I want to see the web page just how it was but with the text converted. Just like with Google Translate. I'll make the question more specific. – hippietrail Feb 12 '14 at 7:05
Note: these tools are not 100% correct, it could not handle multi-pronounciation characters, and characters that not in the programming-list. – Jacob Jul 21 '17 at 8:16
On Android you could try the "Pinyin Web Browser" app in the Play Store (free and no ads), or "Cantonese Web Browser" for Sidney Lau / Yale. Both apps print their romanisation with word-groupings, formatted as large as the characters, and cope with on-page changes made by Javascript etc (the two apps also share their bookmarks with each other). But because every line of text ends up being twice as high as the webmaster intended, sites will break if they use too much "pixel-perfect" vertical positioning (which was not part of Tim Berners-Lee's original plan for the web, but too many webmasters do it anyway). The app does contain a couple of kludges for the layout code of sites listed on its start page, but one dev can't fix the entire web so YMMV.
The underlying annotators were trained using a variant of the Yarowsky algorithm and therefore take context into account for things like 差 (chāi or chà) and 为 (wèi or wéi) although it still makes some mistakes. Training data included proprietary documents, so, although the apps are free, the data cannot be fully open-source, and annoyingly CC-CEDICT could not be used because its CC license conflicted with this situation. But there are some limited English definitions available, or the apps will link to Pleco or Hanping if you have either installed (tap on any word to access the popup definitions and Pleco/Hanping button, unless that word is part of a web link, in which case tapping on it just opens the link as normal). The code without the data is Apache-licensed if you want to re-train it on another corpus yourself, but the results are not likely to be as good unless you have access to a better corpus than I do.
There exists code for an iOS version, but the Apple developer programme is incredibly unhelpful (1 they only accept apps compiled on a decent Mac with latest OS, not a few-years-old one, 2 they demand 100 pounds a year to subscribe to the programme, universities can be exempt but individual university members cannot, and 3 I have no idea how much extra they invoice for testing new releases). There are however a couple of established iOS developers who have been given the back-end code, so let's hope they release browsers soon.
As for desktop browsers, I have had some success making "bookmarklets" (like mini browser extensions), but these rely on sending the page to a third-party server to get the pinyin and are therefore not great for privacy unless you can also set up the annotation server on your own machine. Also an increasing number of sites are blocking the use of bookmarklets altogether in their "Content Security Policy" (CSP), so if you want bookmarklets you now need a browser extension to turn off CSP as well (or a proxy that does the job, but then the proxy has to rewrite secure HTTPS into insecure HTTP; an increasing number of sites have user-side scripts that break when this happens). There is however a Windows 10 developer who has the back-end code and is making a Win10 "universal app" for both desktops and mobile devices. In all cases the problem remains of fixing up the sites that are too fussy about layout. (You could work around this by cramming pinyin into the very small existing space between the lines, but the result would not be half as easy to read.)
Silas S. BrownSilas S. Brown
To PinYin
Please use: Chinese version of word or WPS, in word you can see: 用鼠标选中需要注音的文字(拖黑)——格式——中文版式——拼音(Word2003,XP……) for Word2007 or above version, switch to "Home" page and then click this:
xqMogvKWxqMogvKW
WPS looks a little difficult for a beginner at Chinese to use. I can't even tell if it's a website or something to download and install. – hippietrail Feb 12 '14 at 7:25
What about Chinese Word? Maybe you can consider using multpile languages to compare to learn;) – xqMogvKW Feb 12 '14 at 8:33
In my case I don't own and can't afford to buy Chinese Word, but it might be the solution for other people that want to achieve the same goal. – hippietrail Feb 12 '14 at 8:44
Haha……Hope Microsoft or someone publishes a on-line tool;) – xqMogvKW Feb 14 '14 at 2:55
Sorry pal, I don't think such software exist for a simple reason of exponential combination process.
Chinese pronunciation has so many rules. Add on top of that, there are "occasional" special cases which may be frequent in usage. I gave it a minutes and I couldn't see how such a software could be designed to translate Chinese text to sound symbol.
The software will have to focus on character, word, phrase, context, even implication of the phrase into account as all these affect the sound, especially punctuation. I'm sorry to say even we software guys are good at abstracting logic, this is simply too much :(
XephonXephon
Well if you proved the tool I want can't exist you have also proved that Google Translate doesn't exist. I'm not expecting something 100% perfect. These difficulties have been specifically addressed in the field of Natural Language processing. – hippietrail Feb 13 '14 at 14:52
@hippietrail Google Translate can't translate whole page to sound symbols. Grammar and lexical analysis issue has been addressed in NL processing but not sound analysis. I'm not saying translating the page is impossible but figuring out each single character's correct pronunciation is quite more complex. – Xephon Feb 13 '14 at 15:50
For many languages, including languages with ambiguous writing systems and including Chinese, you can click on the Ä icon and you will get a transliteration of everything that was translated. Click on the little speaker icon and it will even speak the translation aloud. All I want is the transliterated text all inline instead of below the text box. – hippietrail Feb 13 '14 at 16:04
@hippietrail I understand what you want. Trust me, I understand how that works in both software and linguistic perspective. What I'm trying to say is that the Pinyin or Zhuyin may change due to context and/or phrases around a given translation unit/point. Punctuations may change the sound as well to reflect different implications especially if the text is a "recording" of conversation. This is merely too much for the software to process in a big chunk. If you give a few sentences, it might be okay. Not so if you give a whole page. – Xephon Feb 13 '14 at 16:09
@Xephon There's thousands of services doing it for inputted text, there's no reason why it wouldn't work for websites. Sure there might be flaws, but that's only natural for a free online translation tool. – Niklas Berglund Feb 13 '14 at 19:35
http://hanyu.iciba.com/pinyin.html and http://www.ifreesite.com/phonetic/
These websites may do the work, but only for plain text.
http://xh.5156edu.com/conversion.html
copy the text that you want to convert and paste it in in the upper box, click on "查拼音" and you'll get the pinyin in the lower box.
MxxxMxxx
As I tried to make clear in the question, "For the purposes of this question I'm only asking about full-page conversion please". Apologies if I failed to make it clear enough. – hippietrail Mar 12 '14 at 6:50
google translate is the best one. copy your words and paste to google translate
Root LoopRoot Loop
As I tried to make clear in the question, "For the purposes of this question I'm only asking about full-page conversion please". Apologies if I failed to make it clear enough. – hippietrail Apr 14 '14 at 6:35
See chinesebrowser.com, the app is available in the playstore.
It does its Chinese analytics in real time, highly accurate and does not impact the web content in any way. This means it's a fully functional web browser and secure.
Characters in traditional/simplified are converted on the fly into your preferred encoding. The pinyin can be Hanyu pinyin or bpmf with numeral options.
You can also save your web page with the pinyin in PDF.
Tan KHTan KH
Several browser extensions now do this. For Chrome try "Convert Chinese to Pinyin (Mand)"
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged pinyin software zhuyin-fuhao websites or ask your own question.
Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese
I Want to Switch Baidu to Pinyin from Simplified
How to convert from hanyu pinyin to IPA?
Why were some letters like Q, X, C, chosen for Pinyin which confuse non-Chinese speakers?
Need an API to convert Pinyin to Simplified Chinese characters
Pinyin chart which links to dictionary
Can the pinyin for 边 be either "biān" or "bian" in general?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Black by Dierks Bentley (@DierksBentley)
Dierks Bentley gets intimate on this new song.
Dierks Bentley has a new album coming out on Friday. The title is Black. The first single has already reached the #1 spot on the radio charts. It is the latest in a long line of number one hits for Dierks. He's become one of the really solid stars in country music over the last dozen plus years.
I'm taking a little risk in saying that the title track for this new album will be the next single. I don't know for sure, but there has been some chatter about it so we'll go with it. And if it's not then we'll have another song of Dierks' to review soon.
Black – Dierks Bentley
The title of this one is obviously pretty vague. So until you play it you're not sure where the lyrics are going to go, but this one takes the turn to the seductive side of life.
This is a pretty intimate love song about two people that kind of make their world entirely black and dark for the day so they can be alone with each other. You know the feeling when you close the shades in the bedroom and even in the dark you and your lover know where to go and what to do.
So the song is pretty passionate and Dierks has had success with songs like this before. The song also has a unique production. It's kind of stripped back, but also has some electric guitar in there almost like those rock ballads from the '80s.
It's a good song. I think people are going to like this one.
Chart Estimate: #3
CML Points: 87/100
Dayne Shuda
Founder of Country Music Life. Follow on Twitter: @dayneshuda Follow on Google+: Dayne Shuda
Filed Under: Dierks Bentley Tagged With: Dierks Bentley, Love, Men, Song


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Hey Look! I'm somewhere!
Too Much Birthday
Eventually, gluttony catches up with you. Today was that day, for me at least. I'm not sure whether I actually got sick, or if my body just decided to revolt against me, but it meant today was a pretty slow day. It wasn't a total loss though, just not as action-packed as might have hoped for our last day in Malaysia.
After flopping around the house for a while this morning, we rallied around 10:00 and got some breakfast at a kopitam, then caught an Uber to the Tropical Spice Garden, on the north side of the island.
The spice garden is an extensive, well-curated and documented collection of plants, including not just spices and herbs but exotic plants from everywhere. We learned that Giant Water Lily pads from the Amazon can support 135 kg of weight…
We wandered the trails, hunting butterflies and periodically checking in with the audio guide. There's a full featured thai restaurant on site, but we just grabbed some "spiced coffee" (coffee with sweetened condensed milk, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg). We also enjoyed a swing in the Giant Swing, and some people-watching – everything from a group of Brits celebrating a birthday to local families enjoying picnics.
Kat decided to take a leaf out of Aunt Deb's book and attempt to photo-document the butterflies at the spice garden. It turns out, butterflies don't like to sit still when there are tourists tromping through the paths. She did manage a few shots of dragonflies but left disheartened that she can't share with you the multitudes of varieties we saw.
After a couple hours, my body was starting to shutdown, so we decided to head home. Unfortunately, there were no Ubers to be found on the north side of the island, so we took the bus. That meant a much longer ride home, and a much more bouncy time. By the end, neither of us was feeling particularly fresh.
I crashed back at home, and Kat went out to find some food and a fizzy drink for us. She returned with some BBQ pork and rice. After a couple more hours of flopping, we popped down to China House to have some coffee, read, and snack. It was very relaxing, and better than being cooped up in the house. Eventually, I felt well enough for a wander. We wound our way through Little India and Chinatown, before ending up at the Esplanade on the shore, where we explored the Transformers Street Art exhibit.
We don't fully understand why this exhibit exists, but it consists of two large transformers (Optimus Prime and Bumblebee), lit up in crazy colors, with somewhat threatening music playing. Along side, there's an exhibit of transformers-themed street art painted on shipping containers.
Winding our way back home, we stopped to share one last dish of noodles (wan tan mee) at a street stall, then home. Now we're packing and getting ready for our 6am trip to the airport. A great trip – we'll collect our thoughts and post a followup at some point. But we'd highly recommend Malaysia to anyone looking for a delicious, eye opening, friendly experience.
Also, here's the finished product from Kat's Batik class yesterday. Awesome!
Author Colin McFaddenPosted on September 3, 2015 3 Comments on Too Much Birthday
Like living in an Eiffel 65 song
We kicked today off in a leisurely fashion, with a stroll to a kopitam (food-stall-and-coffee-place) for chicken and rice and a random noodle dish. Then we went on to our real destination, the "Blue Mansion," a Mansion (now a hotel) built by the one-time richest man in Asia, Cheong Fatt Tze. They only do three tours a day, on account of it mostly being a functioning hotel. The guide was great – well informed and funny, sharing both the history of the family and the design principles of the house.
Amazingly, this mansion, like so many other buildings on Penang, was in total disrepair and near collapse in the late 80s / early 90s, before being saved from destruction and lovingly restored. We've heard story after story like this, and it really feels like Penang just barely dodged a bullet – the government in the 80s apparently saw Penang as a future Hong Kong, and was hellbent on rebuilding to suit that vision.
After the tour, we popped into another cafe on Love Lane (Kat still refuses to go to "The #Selfie Cafe," but this one had a similarly cute name, now forgotten). There's such a strong coffee culture here, both for cheap, traditional "kopi" (very sweet and intense, $0.25 per cup) and more western style hipster cafes (Americanos and the like, ~$2 per drink).
Post-coffee, we split up for a bit – Kat went off to do her Batik lesson (more in a moment) and I wandered up Mcalister Lane for mystery noodles and exploration.
The batik artist, Rozana, received her fine art degree in KL and moved to Penang for her husband's job. She works in many media but has been focusing on batik in recent years. One of her large pieces hangs in the batik museum next to our apartment. She was a very patient teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed the class.
The wax application tool, called a canting, is like a small pot with a spout that is dipped in vat of liquid wax. It was very difficult to control and I made plenty of mistakes, even though she had me practice on paper first. I chose to make my own design – a portrait of our little tail-less gecko that lives in the apartment, a night view of the shops across the street from our house, and a peony, a Chinese symbol of wealth that we've seen around town. It didn't turn out as expected, but new techniques always produce crazy results and I had a lovely time working on it. I won't be able to remove the wax from the fabric until I get home, but hopefully I can frame it as a souvenir after it's done. Rozana took some photos that we'll post after she sends them to me.
After the batik lesson, we had some Ice Kacang (it's.. weird) and then caught an Uber out to Suffolk House. Once again, a near-destruction colonial building that has been restored and now has a restaurant, as well as meeting facilities. The attraction for us was that in the afternoons they serve high tea. We had a tea and a stack of fancy snacks sitting on a terrace overlooking some gardens. It was all very proper. Except for the adorable puppy who followed us down the road trying to hump our legs after tea… that was less proper but still rather amusing.
Our final outing for the day (after a pop into China House) was to a random hawker market where Kat had something that turned out to not be porridge, and I had char hor fun. We're getting a little better at understanding the flow and process of hawker markets, but still a long ways from being experts at ordering. Learning Malay would help, or being able to read Chinese. Or both.
Author Colin McFaddenPosted on September 2, 2015 Leave a comment on Like living in an Eiffel 65 song
Food me once, shame on you…
A while back, a friend of a friend connected us with someone in Penang who does food tours. We'd already booked our first tour at that point but thought it'd be fun to have another take on things, so we arranged a private tour with him. At the time, this seemed like a good idea.
We got up and popped down to China House for a bit, as Morgan was a bit held up. We had some yogurt and coffee – it's quickly becoming a favorite place to hang out and read.
Morgan picked us up around 10, and the tour began. Our first stop was back to the Clan Jetties for fried prawn cakes. The fact that both tours wanted to go here is a good sign it's the place for these. We also had the fried pork rolls that we made at the cooking class (theirs were better).
For this tour, Morgan wanted to take us outside the heart of the city a bit, to his favorite places. So, we don't really know where many of these places are exactly. But the next stop was a roadside Char Kway Teow place. For a while, Morgan ran a food stall that shared a cafe with this place, so he knows them well. The Char Kway Teow was full of more types of seafood than the dishes we've had in the past, and was really nicely spicy. Kat also got to try some hot almond milk, mixed (of course) with sweetened condensed milk. It tasted healthy and not at all bad for you.
We'd filled Morgan in on what we had and hadn't seen in the area already, and he suggested we visit a couple temples while we were outside the city. We visited two Thai Buddhist temples, plus a Burmese Buddhist temple. It was fun to see the different styles – the Thai temples are incredibly bright, vibrant and whimsical, the Burmese site is more muted and narrative.
Cultured up, we went for fish curry at a popular Muslim Indian place. This was a bit like Nasi Kandar, in that it mixed in a bunch of different curries, but also had a variety of vegetables, fish, fried eggs and some chicken. Even more interesting though was the Rasam, a soup. It comes in a drink pitcher that's passed around the restaurant – you just pour some into a plastic cup to drink. It takes a lot like a liquid pakora, spicy and savory and delicious, but also very light. This is one that I'll have to try making at home.
We also got to try a sort of smoked chili pepper that you eat plain. I have no idea how they're made, but it was one of the stranger taste sensations we've experienced. It hits your tongue and reads as unbelievably salty, but the salty flavor quickly turns into a very strong sour flavor. It's a type of taste we definitely don't get in American cuisine – Not necessarily something we loved, but we kept eating them to experience it.
Leaving the restaurant, we stopped to pick up some samosas ("for later") and some local biscuits. Then we went to a small stall in an alley for Kaya toast. Kaya is coconut jam, which is mixed with butter and then spread on either charcoal grilled or steamed white bread (we tried it both ways). It's really delightful – and steamed bread is fun as well. Perfect for making the kaya nice and liquid, without making the bread crumbly.
At the kaya stall, Morgan's friend Brian met us (they both met while working at Dell) to grab some lunch. It was fun to hear both of them talk – they us the local english dialect which ends most words with "la." So, "It's really goodla, do you like itla?"
Not quite finished, we took the car across down for a new kind of roti canai, this time with braised beef and a fried egg, plus a really spicy curry. We were mostly dead at this point, but it was too delicious not to eat. We hung out there for quite a while, chatting about work and the history of the city, cultures and world travel.
Before letting us go, Morgan took us to one last hawker market to pick up some spicy steamed rice packets (in banana leaves) for later. You know, so we wouldn't go hungry.
We chose to walk home, mostly so we wouldn't pass out in his sight. After making it back to the apartment and flopping around in shame for a while, we rallied enough to go for a bit of a stroll. We stopped in to the Georgetown Heritage Center and the Penang Heritage Trust to pick up some maps and pamphlets, then went to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, which is a restored mansion of the style that was popular with the Baba Nyonyas (Malaysian Chinese) at the turn of the century. Kat went a little crazy photo-documenting textures and designs. The mansion includes an extensive jewelry museum – these folks had no shortage of gold and diamonds.
The traditional craft of Nyonya women is intricate beadwork – shoes to be precise. A measure of a woman's worthiness as a wife was the number of shoes and bags she was able to make. The more shoes she had, the more desirable she was as a potential partner. The museum included an entire wing dedicated to intricately beaded bags, pillows and shoes.
After that, we wandered rather aimlessly, stopping for coffee and to check out the ruins of the Runnymede. The makeshift tents on the street were beginning to come alive as the Chinese Buddhists prepared to celebrate another night of the Hungry Ghosts month, which includes nightly fireworks and gatherings. It's a fascinating event. Eventually, we made our way home, having lost all will to carry on. Joyfully.
Author Colin McFaddenPosted on September 1, 2015 1 Comment on Food me once, shame on you…
Grannies and Greeks
Un-Napolievable!
Pompeii and Circumstances
Dodging Mario on the way to a date with some owls
Early Morning Plans: 0, Comfy Bed: 1
Susan McFadden on Grannies and Greeks
Susan McFadden on Un-Napolievable!
Susan McFadden on Pompeii and Circumstances
Deb Marsh on Dodging Mario on the way to a date with some owls
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EC draws up draft proposal for CRS de-regulation
By Stanley.Slaughter / 10 October 2007
The EC has drawn up its draft proposals for the de-regulation of CRSs in Europe.
The document "A proposal for a regulation…on a Code of Conduct for computerised reservation systems" appears to continue to define "parent carriers" as those which "own or effectively control" a CRS as well as an airline.
But the document on one occasion refers to a parent carrier as one which "effectively controls" a CRS, omitting any reference to ownership.
Many in the industry have been concerned that the EC's Directorate General for Transport and Energy (DG Tren), which has drawn up the proposal, was planning to change the definition of parent carrier.
The rumoured change would have altered the definition from an airline which owns and controls a CRS - as in the present Code of Conduct - to one which controlled a CRS.
The concern centred on the fact that Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia together hold a 46.4% stake in Amadeus, one of the leading CRSs in Europe.
The EC draft defines a parent carrier as "any air carrier or rail-transport operator which directly or indirectly, alone or jointly with others, owns or effectively controls a system vendor as well as any air carrier or rail-transport operators which it owns or effectively controls."
It said that there were four options on how CRSs in Europe could be de-regulated. It favours option two which is "partial de-regulation with specific safeguards for parent carriers."
This is the option which is favoured by much of the industry.
The EC document said this option "offers the most favourable outcome in terms of increased competition, safeguards against competitive abuse, neutral, transparent and comprehensive information for consumers and the promotion of inter-modal transport."
It adds that the proposal "keeps in place a number of safeguards against potential competitive abuses, especially in the case of vertical integration between CRSs and transport services providers."
Among the safeguards are "specific rules for parent carriers" aimed at preventing them gaining any advantage because of their holding.
These include rules:
* against discriminating against competing CRSs by refusing to provide them with the same inventory as is made available to their own CRS;
* stopping them directly or indirectly linking the use of any specific CRS with commissions or incentives
* stopping them directly or indirectly requiring the user of any specific CRS by a subscriber to obtain a ticket
The full proposal will now go before the EC Cabinets and then the Commissioners over the next two months.
* see BTE's recruitment site www.businesstraveljobs.com


One more makes four....hmmm, let's make that FIVE!!!: CRAZY WOMAN!
Good news from our agency...they are trying to find out the status of our TA and I'm hoping for news tomorrow....pray friends, pray! I have defiently gotten on the train to crazyville! Distraction is the key! I stayed home yesterday and found myself pacing and anxious and checking the computer for news every 15m and jumping out my skin every time the phone rang hoping it was the agency...today..haircuts, lunch with the kids at Burger King and a play date with the Halls at the Children's Museum and my mind is defiently calmer...plus God sent me a HUGE piece of humble pie..
A dear friend of our who is only 41 and otherwise healthy had a heart attack last night..He and Mike have been friends since they were five and he was best man in our wedding...He is doing very well, and is expected to continue to do so. But to say the least I'm praying for bigger and more important things today and I'm feeling very humbled and very grateful everyone I love the most is healthy....If you would, please remember him in your prayers too.
Fingers crossed for good news tomorrow!
my favorite China adoption chat group has been a positive place..all the families with our paperwork date except us! has received notification that their TA is on the way Monday...it think that's good...let's just hope this leaves enough appt's for January for us all!!!!
Will pray for you for good news tomorrow and also for your friend's complete recovery!
I am praying that everything comes together today!!


Stepping down the aisle and want the maximum emotional impact, with the least environmental one? Consider these folk. They offer wedding gowns of floaty hemp/silk or hemp/tencel blends. Advice on reception catering, with leads to bakers who make such triumphs as organic, vegan, wheat-free tiered cakes, and biscoti, no less! Even tips on organic wine and beer. Ceremony atmosphere notions, like candles of soy, hemp and citronella oils. Plus music suggestions, including links to Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (M.U.S.E.). Sources of organic flowers or dried natural flower arrangements. Ecotravel hints for the honeymoon too. You could say their website is a bouquet of bright ideas for eco-nuptials. I do. ::Organic Weddings [by WM] See also our post on greenkarat wedding rings.


Ireland's Cliffs of Moher on the Wild Atlantic Way in County Clare.
Ireland's Cliffs of Moher, a gem in the crown of the Wild Atlantic Way, continues to be the most visited natural attraction in the country, with its eight kilometer stretch of ragged rock walls clawing 214 meters (702 ft.) above the Atlantic Ocean.
From the cliffs, located near Liscannor in County Clare, an estimated one million visitors annually take in views out to the Aran Islands, north to Galway Bay, and south to Loop Head and the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry.
This image appears in my best-selling book, Magical Irish Countryside, the third volume in my Mystical Moods of Ireland series.
The cliffs are named after the old Fort Moher, which once stood at Hag's Head at the southern end of the cliffs.
A €32 million (roughly $42 million USD) visitor center opened in February 2007 — in keeping with an overall plan to preserve the natural surroundings, the earth-sheltered center is built in to the hillside next to the cliffs.


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Sugarland review: The young and the restless
By John Shand
September 4, 2014 — 3.53pm
ATYP Studio Theatre, September 3
Strong cast: Dubs Yunupingu takes centre stage in the forceful Sugarland. Credit:Tracey Schramm
A potential consequence of writing a play with an upfront purpose, and based on extensive research and workshops, is that it may be true to its intentions, but lose sight of itself as a work of theatre. Sugarland was penned Rachael Coopes with Wayne Blair after they spent time researching the lives of teenagers in Katherine in the Northern Territory. Ultimately emerging from a troubling picture is an affirmative tale of bonding, while a gripping play materialises from deeply flawed beginnings.
The characters are real and raw and hurting. Self-harm is prevalent and takes many guises. Its most disturbing form is a game of choking each other for kicks. The enactment of this by Jimmy (Hunter Page-Lochard) and Erica (Elena Foreman) makes for confronting theatre.
The cast, completed by Narek Arman, Michael Cameron, Dubs Yunupingu and Coopes herself (as a harried social worker), is universally strong, with Foreman notable as the moody Erica. The characters they play are well defined with their brick-wall problems into which they keep running, and are essentially likeable in their humour and resilience. The dialogue rings true, although for all its authenticity the expletive-laden inarticulateness, when combined with some early mumbling in the acting, could wear. The device of a singing contest, however, is adroitly used (highlighting Yunupingu's exquisite voice) and the almost-happy ending is beautifully underplayed.
Sugarland has a warm heart that beats robustly through these characters, and has been empathetically directed by the tag-team of debutant David Page (from Bangarra Dance Theatre) and Fraser Corfield on Jacob Nash's cunningly modular set.
The problem lies with the set-up. The first third of the play is as sluggish as a choked river, as if the writers assume we will be slow to assimilate what we are witnessing. Thankfully these flaws are outweighed by an ability to illuminate how similarities between blacks and whites eclipse differences. This is theatre as a moral force, and is to be commended.
Until September 13


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Plus, we have discovered Emma Forman, a talented singer-songwriter, based in Scotland. She has a large catalogue of music available, most produced in the last year or so. Her work is clearly personal, she bares her soul about love and all the complications that come with desire and passion. We are impressed with Emma and think you will be too. In this edition, you'll hear Not An Angel from Emma's latest album As Strange As Fiction. To hear more from Emma Forman pop on over to Life Elsewhere Music Vol 103.


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Alcoa, United Technologies, Logitech News Today
Today's stocks to watch in the news include Alcoa Corp (AA), United Technologies Corporation (UTX), and Logitech International SA (USA) (:LOGI)
UTX
The Dow 20,000 level is back in focus as futures rise amid another earnings deluge. Among specific equities in the spotlight are aluminum specialist Alcoa Corp (NYSE:AA), Dow component United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), and tech accessories stock Logitech International SA (USA) (NASDAQ:LOGI). Here's a quick look at what's driving AA, UTX, and LOGI.
Alcoa Eyes Record Highs After Earnings
AA -- no longer the harbinger of a new earnings season since the company split last October -- reported a slimmer-than-predicted loss for the fourth quarter, and noted expectations that global aluminum supplies will ease with rising demand, particularly in China. The news earned Alcoa Corp an upgrade to "hold" from "sell" at Deutsche Bank, while Citigroup raised its rating to "buy." The stock is up 2.4% in electronic trading, and could be set to make a run at a fresh record high. At $37.50, AA has added 67% since it began trading post-split roughly three months ago. Further upbeat attention could keep the shares rising, too. At present, two-thirds of covering brokerage firms rate AA a "hold" or worse, while the average 12-month price target sits underfoot, at $33.
Stalling Growth Could Put United Technologies Option Bulls on Edge
While UTX met analysts' estimates for quarterly earnings and revenue, the shares are down 0.6% ahead of the bell. What's more, United Technologies Corporation reiterated its 2017 guidance, citing demand in the aerospace industry, including Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines. The stock has been steadily climbing the charts, adding 30% over the past 12 months, at $111.61, with the 30-day moving average providing solid support in recent months. And options traders appear to be hoping for more gains. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), UTX boasts a 10-week call/put volume ratio of 2.42 -- just 2 percentage points from an annual bullish peak.
Logitech Set to Pop on Record-Setting Revenue
After the company reported its best retail revenue on record, LOGI stock is on pace to add 15.3% at the open, which could put the shares at levels not seen since mid-2008. The firm also reported it has no intention to move current production in China back to the U.S. Logitech International SA (USA) finished Tuesday at $25.63, up more than 50% year-over-year. But it appears short sellers have been betting on a pullback for the outperformer. The nine million shorted shares would take roughly 29 sessions to cover, based on LOGI's average daily volume -- indicating there's plenty of purchasing power on the sidelines that could keep a rally alive.
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text:
The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD)
Hao Jan Liu, Rong Hong Chen, Wei Cheng Wang
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
International Bachelor Degree Program on Energy
An application of hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD) intended to reduce non-regulated emissions, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), is proposed in this study, in association with the emissions from a turbo-charged common-rail direct-injection diesel engine under steady-state operation. Three types of fuel, pure petro-diesel, 20% HRD blended fuel (H20), and 20% biodiesel blended fuel (B20) were tested under various engine loads and engine speeds. According to the emissions analysis, in which the samples were collected and analyzed through the solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) technique adapted with a derivation method, a 20% addition of HRD reduced the emissions of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene, as compared to D100 and B20.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
Published - 2020 Mar 1
10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD)'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Acetaldehyde Engineering & Materials Science
Xylenes Chemical Compounds
Xylene Engineering & Materials Science
Toluene Chemical Compounds
Benzene Chemical Compounds
Formaldehyde Engineering & Materials Science
Diesel engines Engineering & Materials Science
Biofuels Chemical Compounds
Liu, H. J., Chen, R. H., & Wang, W. C. (2020). The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD). Fuel, 263, [116762]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
Liu, Hao Jan ; Chen, Rong Hong ; Wang, Wei Cheng. / The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD). In: Fuel. 2020 ; Vol. 263.
@article{c003bca50c5942ad89695f6a88893e4c,
title = "The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD)",
abstract = "An application of hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD) intended to reduce non-regulated emissions, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), is proposed in this study, in association with the emissions from a turbo-charged common-rail direct-injection diesel engine under steady-state operation. Three types of fuel, pure petro-diesel, 20% HRD blended fuel (H20), and 20% biodiesel blended fuel (B20) were tested under various engine loads and engine speeds. According to the emissions analysis, in which the samples were collected and analyzed through the solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) technique adapted with a derivation method, a 20% addition of HRD reduced the emissions of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene, as compared to D100 and B20.",
author = "Liu, {Hao Jan} and Chen, {Rong Hong} and Wang, {Wei Cheng}",
doi = "10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762",
journal = "Fuel",
Liu, HJ, Chen, RH & Wang, WC 2020, 'The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD)', Fuel, vol. 263, 116762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD). / Liu, Hao Jan; Chen, Rong Hong; Wang, Wei Cheng.
In: Fuel, Vol. 263, 116762, 01.03.2020.
T1 - The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD)
AU - Liu, Hao Jan
AU - Chen, Rong Hong
AU - Wang, Wei Cheng
N2 - An application of hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD) intended to reduce non-regulated emissions, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), is proposed in this study, in association with the emissions from a turbo-charged common-rail direct-injection diesel engine under steady-state operation. Three types of fuel, pure petro-diesel, 20% HRD blended fuel (H20), and 20% biodiesel blended fuel (B20) were tested under various engine loads and engine speeds. According to the emissions analysis, in which the samples were collected and analyzed through the solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) technique adapted with a derivation method, a 20% addition of HRD reduced the emissions of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene, as compared to D100 and B20.
AB - An application of hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD) intended to reduce non-regulated emissions, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), is proposed in this study, in association with the emissions from a turbo-charged common-rail direct-injection diesel engine under steady-state operation. Three types of fuel, pure petro-diesel, 20% HRD blended fuel (H20), and 20% biodiesel blended fuel (B20) were tested under various engine loads and engine speeds. According to the emissions analysis, in which the samples were collected and analyzed through the solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) technique adapted with a derivation method, a 20% addition of HRD reduced the emissions of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and xylene, as compared to D100 and B20.
U2 - 10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
JO - Fuel
JF - Fuel
Liu HJ, Chen RH, Wang WC. The non-regulated emissions from a turbo-charged diesel engine under steady-state operation with hydro-processed renewable diesel (HRD). Fuel. 2020 Mar 1;263. 116762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116762
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Gin & Disco is a new brand that brings together two of the best things in life, ever… Gin and Disco... and it's coming to Manchester!
Saturday 1st December will see the long-awaited Manchester debut of disco brand, Gin & Disco, who will be taking over newly launched Brickworks for an all-day party headlined by the Shapeshifters and Hifi Sean.
This summer, the brand went on their debut mini UK tour which took them to Chester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stoke on Trent with world class DJs supplying the disco, funk and soul sounds.
To make each party a special and unique experience, they all have their own individual Gin & Disco production. With previous headline guest including Greg Wilson, Late Nite Tuff Guy, Todd Terry, Melvo Baptiste, Crazy P and Derek Kaye.
For their first foray into Manchester's Disco hearts, they are taking over the newly launched Brickworks, a subterranean maze of caverns and tunnels, deep in the heart of Manchester's City Centre.


text:
DD_DETAIL_BEGIN_
#	if __cplusplus >= 201103L
template <typename... ContidionsT>
struct Or : FalseType {
};

template <typename ConditionT1_, typename ConditionT2_, typename... ConditionsT_>
struct Or<ConditionT1_, ConditionT2_, ConditionsT_...> : Or<ConditionT1_, Or<ConditionT2_, ConditionsT_...>> {
};

template <typename ConditionT1_, typename ConditionT2_>
struct Or<ConditionT1_, ConditionT2_> : BoolConstant<ConditionT1_::value || ConditionT2_::value> {
};

template <typename ConditionT_>
struct Or<ConditionT_> : BoolConstant<ConditionT_::value> {
};

template <typename... ConditionsT_>
using OrType = typename Or<ConditionsT_...>::Type;
#	else
template <typename ConditionT1_, typename ConditionT2_>
struct Or : BoolConstant<ConditionT1_::value && ConditionT2_::value> {
};
#	endif

DD_DETAIL_END_

DD_BEGIN_
using detail_::Or;
#	if __cplusplus >= 201103L
using detail_::OrType;
#	endif

DD_END_

#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub