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Archive for June 8, 2003
Sunday 8 June 2003 – Huasco to Bahia Inglesa
As today was Sunday, breakfast was even later than the previous day, but after the daily packing ritual, we set off for Carrizal Bajo.
As usual, we got lost in the little back streets of Huasco Bajo to find the bridge across the Rio Huasco, but with the help of Benjy's GPS data for the bridge and the assistance of a bemused local citizen, we found the bridge and were pleasantly surprised to find the road in better condition than in 2001. This was something that in general had improved over the last two years. As usual, there is a balance to be struck – natural habitats are destroyed, both by the road being laid and by the quarrying for aggregate to be brought in by truck from elsewhere. Quite often this destruction affects cactus habitats, particularly as the rocky outcrops preferred by cactus roots are an ideal source for road building material. On the plus side, access to known and yet to be explored areas is much easier.
We made our first stop of the day (S0119) as soon as clumps of Copiapoa appeared alongside the road. These were still C. fiedleriana (very similar to C. coquimbana, but with a characteristic chin on the rib between the areoles). We must have 'gotten our eye in' for the small stuff as without any problems we found a number of Eriosyce sp that I take to be E. odieri.
Thanks to the improved road, we made up for our late start and arrived in Carrizal Bajo in good time. The tide was out, too good an opportunity to miss to cross the small quebrada.
In 2001 we had arrived here from the opposite direction, with the sun setting and the tide in. Going back north to Totoral would have meant a long drive over the worst tracks encountered that year, in the dark. Fortunately, our suicidal driver that time – Leo – did not like the idea much and instead drove straight into the water following as best he could remember the sand bank that we had seen there some four weeks earlier. Amazed onlookers, out for a sunset stroll, screamed in fear and amazement at our (successful) attempt. This time, things were a lot easier as we hardly got the tyres wet during the crossing and began to climb the steep track heading north along the coast.
Now that we had passed Carrizal Bajo, we found a mixture of Copiapoa at our next stop (S0120). The last remnants of C. fiedleriana seemed to merge with some small, often single bodied clumps of spines – C. echinata; some large bodied plants with often flattened bodies – C. echinoides; darker bodied forms – C. dura and enough intermediate variability to explain the host of taxa described from this area. The Euphorbia lactiflua and Oxalis gigantea were not in flower or leaf, and the Miqueliopuntia and ceroids had all seen better days, so the rains that appeared to have occurred further south had not been here.
Our next stop (S0121) sums up my idea of cactus heaven – standing up to your knees in huge clumps of Copiapoa, not knowing which way to point the camera first. This is the area where Graham Charles and Ted Anderson were pictured on the covers of their books. Huge clumps of Copiapoa dealbata, mixed in with C. echinoides. Anderson used the name C. malletiana, an older, but poorly described and therefore dubious name, but more recently the name C. dealbata has come back in favour, so that all of us who relabelled our plants when the Cactus Family was published, can reach for our label writers again.
It took several blows on the whistle to get everybody back in the car. We made one more stop (S0122), a bit further north and were glad that we would pass by Carrizal Bajo again on the way back south, at the end of our trip. In addition to the magnificent clumps of C. dealbata we found some dichotomously splitting stems and a good number of crests. When surrounded by such large plants it is easy to ignore 'the small stuff', so not until we started looking for seedlings, to confirm the health of this stand, did we spot 'Thelocephala', probably Eriosyce odieri (subsp. fulva?) and a small, flowering, Eriosyce crispa.
As we drove east from Totoral, we promised ourselves to take a look at the cacti that we raced by in a few weeks time, on the way home. There was no time or interest for stops along Ruta 5 as we pushed on for Caldera and from there to a fantastic modern hotel, Rocas de Bahia, overlooking Bahia Inglesa with Morro Copiapó across the water. Tempting as it was to use the luxurious dining facilities, we had to eat in Caldera, because we had an appointment with Rudolf Schulz and Leo van der Hoeven, who had been touring Copiapoa country since late May, with Ricardo and Ingrid, Peque and Frankie and a number of Chileans whose full names, in the excitement of meeting old friends, I forgot to note – sorry, Karen, Jose, Vincent and others. We had a great evening with the (NOT!) shy and retiring Leo and I catching up on old times in Dutch, while the others did very well communicating in Spenglish, – it has to be said that the language skills of our Chilean friends was far superior to our poor attempts at Spanish.
Plans were made for some explorations north of Caldera the next day and once again it was time to fall into bed (or was it the hotel bar and the free hospitality Pisco Sours?).
« Jun Oct »


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Blue Notes: New Dynamo Coach Nagamura on his time with Sporting KC II
Plus the NWSL's Utah Royals set to return, Sporting Kansas City's roster build status, a possible future Homegrown signing and all the MLS transfer news and rumors.
By Chad C Smith@PlayFor90 Jan 6, 2022, 1:45pm CST
Share All sharing options for: Blue Notes: New Dynamo Coach Nagamura on his time with Sporting KC II
Thad Bell
As had been previously rumored, former Sporting Kansas City II coach Paulo Nagamura, is now the head coach of MLS rival the Houston Dynamo. As a part of his hiring, he's doing the rounds in interviews and I doubt most of you care about the Dynamo, so I went digging for SKC II and Peter Vermes morsels. The best comments I came across were from Jeff Rueter at The Athletic (which, by the way, is being sold to the New York Times for $550 million).
That story is behind the paywall, but The Athletic is always running specials and I actually have five 30-day guest passes I never seem to give out (put your email in the comments and I'll do that today for the first five or DM me on Twitter over @PlayFor90).
So, since you may not be able to view it, here are the highlights with ties to SKC II.
Jeff Rueter: During your four years coaching Sporting Kansas City II, how much freedom did you have to run the team tactically independent from what the MLS first team was doing?
Paulo Nagamura: No, not much ability to be honest with you. I think we had to play the Sporting KC style. I had the ability to sometimes make subs and change a little bit at the end of the game, but for most of the time, we had to keep the philosophy of the club going. It was just a natural part of coaching a second team, and it has to be. The important part is the first team, so we need to give young players playing time, even if we (the second team coaches) didn't want to.
That definitely confirms what we've long thought to be true. It's Peter Vermes' show and the man in charge of Sporting II is executing on that plan. Particularly around tactics and who got playing time. Not surprising, but good confirmation.
JR: Having coached at a USL affiliate for the past few years, are you looking for young players to step up, whether it's from the Dynamo Academy or maybe players who have come in from elsewhere, and have them be able to play crucial roles from the start?
PN: Yeah, absolutely. Look, Houston is a huge city; I mean, the player pool is massive. From what I've heard, the academy here has made some gigantic strides. It's a great source of talent, so we're not gonna overlook those players and are going to give those guys a chance. We're going to assess them, talk to academy directors and the youth academy coaches to make sure that we are assessing them and giving the guys who deserve the opportunity to be at the next level.
This is somewhere the Dynamo have been absolutely abysmal. Sifting through their Homegrown players who are pros shows only Memo Rodriguez being a borderline star and Tyler Deric a semi-regular contributor. Considering Houston is the country's fourth largest city, that's freaking terrible. However, their USL affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Toros, don't have the same arrangement SKC and SKC II have and Naga just said above he at times was forced to play guys he didn't want to play. To a certain extent, if they don't play, they can't get better.
JR: I was watching some footage of how SKC II was playing in 2021 leading up to this interview. Something that really stood out to me was your midfield's movement, the rotation to mark players and cut down passing lanes very quickly and aggressively. A lot of that will come with Kansas City, but do you view your own approach as something of positional play?
PN: I have my idea. I think I have to assess the squad and the players to see if they're able to do that, but yes: it's positional play that is going to be played based on the possession of the ball. Again, it's a combined work and I need to assess the players to see if they can adapt to it. It's a new system, a new style of play. We are going to have to see what's gonna work best for the team.
Nagamura has his work cut out for him as Houston finished dead last in the Western Conference behind both other abysmal Texas teams, FC Dallas and Austin FC.
A Future SKC Homegrown?
Saint Louis University said another one of their players could sign a Homegrown contract after Patrick Weah joined Minnesota United. Fellow TBT writer Mike Kuhn did the work on this one and points out former SKC Academy and SKC II player, Mason Leeth, is on SLU's team (though there is no indication he is who they are referring to). He played right back in two of his three appearances with the second team (randomly he played CF in the dying minutes of another game).
I can't see him signing with the first team unless he's improved drastically (though reports are he's incredibly fast). He could hardly get on the field with the II's. Maybe he'll sign a two and two. Two years with SKC II, two years with SKC deal, like Jake Davis apparently did (full disclosure, I absolutely missed this but Thad pointed it out to me yesterday). SKC are in need of fullbacks.
NWSL Expansion
As a part of the deal that brought the then Utah Royals back to Kansas City (sort of) as the now Kansas City Current, the future owner of Real Salt Lake and the Real Monarchs would be given an opportunity to field a new NWSL team. Our frenemies over at RSL Soapbox have confirmed that the newly announced owners plan to do just that.
The new ownership group, run by David Blitzer, said, "I think the best way to say is that's from our perspective, that's a function of when, not if. We're at day one, but this has been an important item that [co-owner] Ryan [Smith] and I have talked about a lot, and we're very excited to bring in NWSL team back to this marketplace."
The plan is for the 2023 or 2024 season.
Doyle's SKC Roster Build Status
MLSsoccer.com's Matt Doyle does his best to go an inch deep on 28 teams (thanks for that line Thad!), this time with the MLS Western Conference. I get that he can't know everything about all the teams like we can know about the one team we pay attention to, but his take that Andreu Fontas "became a liability in the stretch run" feels harsh considering he gave his DPOY vote to him. As fellow TBT writer Mike Kuhn pointed out to me on Slack, why not stick with SKC is old? That's a narrative that has legs, as Mike pointed out in his deep dive analysis.
Outside of that it feels mostly accurate, though he does say that Gadi Kinda's DP deal can be bought down. I'm not sure that it can if his rumored transfer fee is accurate. Couple that with the amount of years on his deal and his annual salary and it doesn't add up. He was originally announced as a TAM player, but that was when he was on loan. After 2020, when that loan was made into an official transfer, his transfer fee plus salary made him a DP. We'll never officially know his fee, but he's on a three year deal and made over $900k last year. That would only leave about $700,000 per season in pro-rated transfer fees to keep him under DP status. His rumored fee was $3.7 million. That would shatter the $1,612,500 threshold.
This is where some roster transparency in MLS would be nice.
News Round-Up
New Toronto FC signing, Lorenzo Insigne, is set to make $15 million per season. Only six MLS teams, LA Galaxy, Atlanta United, Toronto, Inter Miami, LAFC and New York City FC, had payrolls for their entire roster above that number. Sporting KC had the 8th highest payroll, at just above $14 million.
FC Dallas signed Homegrown Jesus Ferreira to a Designated Player deal paying him about $2 million per season. That feels high and leaves them just one open DP spot (Franco Jara, Ricardo Pepi's former backup, is the other).
Friend of The Blue Testament, Daniel Sperry, is now the main Sporting KC and soccer writer for the Kansas City Star. Former writer Shaun Goodwin moved to Idaho to pursue other journalistic opportunities. Congrats to Daniel! And I'm not sure if I should be sad they didn't offer me the gig, then again, they'd never meet my insane salary demands.
2023 MLS Expansion team St. Louis City SC have hired their first coach.
The Rodolfo Pizarro loan back to CF Monterrey is official from Inter Miami CF.
Ray Gaddis, formerly of the Philadelphia Union, comes out of retirement to play for FC Cincinnati. He's only 31.
Minnesota United signed 21-year-old forward Bongokuhle Hlongwane to a U-22 deal (an explainer on the U-22 initiative).
The Colorado Rapids are at it again with an intra-league trade. They've acquired another Aboubacar, this time center back Aboubacar Keita from the Columbus Crew. It's for $300,000 in GAM with another $150,000 available in incentives. They previously got Lalas Aboubacar from the Crew as well.
The James Sands loan to Rangers is official. It's 18-months with the option to buy.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Big O of 2 separate comparisons vs. comparison with 2 expressions Are these two the same in big O notation?
1:
If False
    do something
If True
    do something

2:
If False or True
    do something

A: Yes.  Recall that big-O notation basically gives you the computation steps up to a constant factor.  If you're counting comparisons, the first code fragment makes 2; the second computes either 1 or 2.  In either case, it's O(1) because k*1 is 1 for any constant k.

A: yes.
In the end, either way you end up doing the thing - and they could also be replaced with simply
    do something.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Q: Are heatshrink tubings toxic for human health (e.g, using them in a "prolongedly-touched" place)? Are heatshrink tubings toxic for human health (e.g, using them in a "prolongedly-touched" place)?

E.g. if I use them for supporting the tip of my phone charger or the tip of a 3.5 mm Audio jack (for strengthening purposes), will there be any long term health hazards (toxicity etc.)? I am worried because I touch those places many times over the course of daily activities.

A: Unlikely. They certainly contain things that aren't per se healthy for consumption (plastic softerning agents etc), but you're not eating them...
Anyway, whether or not an industrial product has health hazards is answered in their manufacturer's safety datasheets, if there's any danger at all.

A: Shouldn't be. Heatshrink tubing is just plastic. Certain plastics just shrink when heated just like the thin clear plastic wrap you see in that wraps tightly around boxes and other packaging. They don't really have to do anything weird to it to make it shrink.
The material used for most heatshrink tubing is polyolefin, in case you are curious. You might like to know there is also food-grade polyolefin heat shrink tubing as well. There is even medical grade polyolefin heat shrink tubing.

A: If you're really concerned, you can get FDA CFR 177.1330 food grade shrink tubing, which is  polyolefin similar to other common types of shrink tubing. Personally, I have zero concern for touching.
There are many other materials available such as PTFE (Teflon), PEEK, PVC. Some of the highest shrink ratio material is PTFE, however it is very expensive.
In general, plastics themselves are seldom harmful, but there have been some harmful additives identified in recent years, in particular some flame-retardant agents. Additives, particularly plasticizers, as well as fillers, can constitute a substantial percentage of certain plastics.

A: Probably fine.  If you're concerned and don't want to get the food-safe stuff, get your tubing from a source reputable enough to also have an MSDS for the specific part number of tubing you're buying.  That should cover prolonged contact.

A: Definitely Toxic . When it is heated fumes come off of it . These fumes are toxic . How do I know this ? I have been in a room where long lengths of large diameter 25mm heatshrink were being heated with a heat gun  . I could see the fumes rising from the heatshrink . It activated the smoke alarm . I was breathing in the fumes . I did not feel well.  I had a sore throat from the fumes as well and I was lightheaded . When I woke up the following morning I had a pain in my lungs. It is not good for you to be breathing these fumes!!  A proper Respirator ( 3M 6000 Series ) are needed  when working with heatshrink . It should be done in sealed room with good air circulation /extraction . Be careful with it!!


Thank you so much James - it was certainly a challenge!
Truly superb, can I ask what your graphics card/s and system are.
This is absolutely gorgeous! It's so beautifully cinematic that I have fallen in love with the brief story told in this image. Utterly amazing!
Thanks Chris - my computer is 7 years old (i7-2600) so it's a struggle to do these images. Card is newer - 1070 but I had to render back, middle and foreground then put them together later. Had to also remove most of the textures to keep the memory low.
Your effort really shows. This is amazing!
Oh that is freaking fantastic! Wow, that must have taken a month to setup, pose, edit, re-do again. Amazing!
Magnificently done! I love the widescreen format, the lighting and the atmospheric effects, the smoke from the chimneys and haze in the distance! You must have put an enormous amount of work in this and it shows!
Amazing image, like about your whole gallery. Pure awesomeness. You don't happen to have a DeviantArt account or something like that where it's easier to follow you?
May I ask why you feel you should not have used those three 'home made' forests?
Thankyou very much xmasrose, brokenmoebius and Kevin :) - Cederien, I'll send a PM.
Best comp ever in gallery! Any cc? Beautiful matte painting in my book! Very inspirational for Daz! Beautiful.
I have all the products you list and its amazing how you combined them.
Congratulations to first place - Finally!
The lighting is so beautiful, I d love to see this image up on one of the big 3 d screens.
This is beautiful, like a painting. Love it!
Mine is nothing in comparison to your art. Well done!
This is truly a masterpiece! To me, it looks like a knight finally coming home after a long war.
Congrats on having this on the Daz banner!
Hey Kibosh just wondering if in your "deep" scenes like this one are you using real distance or are you shrinking some of the models to fit the perspective you've got some of the best worlds I've seen!
torky: On this one I mostly used real distance. The foreground is actually floating a long way (and much higher) from the town which is full size. Then the background forest is pushed even further back but I did reduce the scale of those. A scene I'm working on now though has everything reduced to 40% and some background elements reduced even more because I find that characters which are some distance from the center of the scene render weirdly with black eyes and hair-cap 'stains' etc.. some bug within daz.
Hi Kibosh! Amazing scene, and glad to know we are all in the same boat in regards to our computers having difficulty with creating them. You are so kind in the way you answer all questions. Nice to meet you, you are a very good artist.


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Home » Listicles
Nicolas Cage Birthday Special: From Buying A Haunted Mansion For Writing A Horror Book & Sleeping In A Dracula's Castle – 5 Bizarre Things We Bet You Didn't Know
The actor has spent money on two castles in Europe, a private island in the Bahamas, shrunken pygmy heads, and a pet octopus – this cost him $150,000.
Grinell Jacinto
Nicolas Cage Has Done A Lot Of Bizarre Things Including Being The Owner Of A Haunted Mansion, Staying A Night In Dracula's House & More(Pic credit: Getty Images)
Actor Nicolas Cage turns a year older today. One of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood has impressed us with his performances in films like National Treasure, Ghost Rider, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and more. But did you know, he has made bizarre purchases in the past and does things that can send shivers down your spine?
The actor has spent money on two castles in Europe, a private island in the Bahamas, shrunken pygmy heads, and a pet octopus – this cost him $150,000. Think these are strange? Well, scroll down and take a look at the 5 weirder facts of the actor we came across.
From being the victim in a comic book heist to buying a haunted mansion belonging to a serial killer to write a book and sleeping in Dracula's castle in Romania – check out these facts that will shock as well as give you the chills!
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His Massive Comic Book Collection Was Stolen
Like many of us, Nicolas Cage too is a comic book fan. In fact, he has been the owner of some rare titles including Action Comics #1, the highly sought-after 1939 issue that introduced the world to Superman. He purchased this copy in 1997, but in January 2000, this 1939 issue and many other comics were stolen from his house.
But 11 years later, the comic showed up in a San Fernando Valley storage locker. The 1939 comic was returned to Cage, who sold it later that year for $2.1 million.
He Bought A Dinosaur Skull That Turned Out To Be Stolen Piece
Yes, the actor got fleeced of $276K when he purchased a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull at a 2007 auction. The skull in question turned out to be stolen from Mongolia's Gobi Desert.
The actor was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security in 2014 and agreed to hand it over.
He Has A Pyramid Tomb
Nicolas Cage purchased twin plots and built a pyramid tomb over in 2010 for his future funeral. It's nine feet tall and has a Latin inscription reading 'Omnia Ab Uno', which means 'Everything From One.' The tomb is in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the oldest cemetery in New Orleans.
In fact, in February 2020 he was snapped at the cemetery with a mystery lady. You too can check it out if you take the tours of the city while vacationing.
He Purchased A Most Haunted Mansion Because He Wanted To Write A Horror Novel
Do you want to be a writer? Well, so does Nicolas Cage and that too a horror one. So how do you get inspiration? In his case, purchase a haunted mansion! We aren't joking! Cage had purchased the famous LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans in 2007 for $3.4 million. The place belonged to serial killer Madame Delphine LaLaurie, but the actor lost to foreclosure in 2009.
Talking about the status of his horror book post losing the place, Nicolas once told Vanity Fair, "I didn't get too far with the novel." We would have loved to read it, though.
He Spent A Night In Dracula's Castle
Let's talk about another thing Nicolas Cage has done that is sure to give us nightmares. The actor spent a night in Dracula's castle and admitted it was 'pretty spooky'. His Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-star, Idris Elba, revealed this while promoting the film. Recalling an incident while shooting in Romania Elba noticed Cage appeared tired one day.
On being asked about it, the actor told her, "Yeah man, I went up to Dracula's castle … the ruins up in the mountains, and I stayed the night. I just had to channel the energy, and it was pretty spooky up there."
We would definitely be spooked!
Happy Birthday, Nicolas Cage.
Which bizarre fact of the fact did you not know? Let us know in the comments.
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Pathaan Movie Review By KRK! Self-Proclaimed Critic Compares Shah Rukh Khan...


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Huffington Post Article on DNC Race by Jonathan H. Martin — 2/23/2017
Framingham State University sociologist and Draft Bernie steering committee member explains why progressives need a new party, not a new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
There is No Future for Progressives in the Democratic Party It's Time to Draft Bernie For A New People's Party
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Today the Democratic Party issued a stunning rebuke of its base by picking establishment-enthusiast Tom Perez to lead the DNC over a progressive candidate endorsed by Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Party has now made it perfectly clear that it will not be the vehicle for the political revolution that Sanders ignited…
Tim Black Chats With Nick Braña About How #DraftBernie Movement Can Work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKuFFPT52Es
Jimmy Dore: Former Bernie Official Creates New Progressive Party "Draft Bernie For A Peoples Party".
See all episodes in this series of 4.
Observer Article by Michael Sainato
Former Sanders Staffer Starts Movement to Draft Bernie for People's Party
Yahoo News on 2/10/2017
Supporters Want Bernie Sanders To Start His Own Party
Washington Post Article on New progressive PAC
New Progressive PACs Warn Democrats to Oppose Trump — or Get Primaried
Houston, We Have Liftoff!
Draft Bernie has hit the ground running. We believe that the case for starting a new people's party with Bernie is much stronger than the case for trying to reform the Democrats again. That means that the bar for victory is set at simply spreading the word and striking up a conversation in the movement…
Nick Braña Interviewed by Lee Camp on Redacted Tonight
Nick Braña on the Real Progressives
Join us LIVE tonight with Nick Braña, former National Political Outreach Coordinator for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders 2015/2016 presidential campaign and now founder of the 3rd party Draft Bernie for a People's Party movement.Tonight: 8PM EST and 5PM PSThttps://draftbernie.org Posted by Real Progressives on Friday, February 10, 2017


The Leland Avenue Streetscape project redesigns the "main street" of San Francisco's Visitacion Valley into a vibrant green street. Leland Avenue is San Francisco's first streetscape redesign as part of their Better Streets program. The Leland Avenue project will design street improvements to enhance the street's aesthetic appeal and help to revitalize its commercial businesses, in concert with the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development and others. The new Leland Avenue will strengthen and link new Visitacion Valley greenway system to the Bayshore/3rd Street light rail and future Schlage Lock development.
Transform Leland Avenue into beautiful, vibrant "main street" for Visitacion Valley through the implementation of green/sustainable principles that progressively manage stormwater and provide environmental educational opportunities.
Improve Visitacion Valley's identity, economic viability and appearance through an enhanced streetscape and a more beautiful, safe pedestrian environment.


Moët & Chandon has created three new packages for its Rosé Impérial cuvée to form its 2016 Valentine Collection.
The designs reflect and enlarge on Moët's 'The Now' brand campaign, which celebrates unforgettable moments and friendships.
Each plays in a different way on the word 'osé', which means 'dare' in French.
The Rosé Impérial Daring Gift Box echoes last year's 'Unfurl the Tie' packaging, but adds a bold pink interior together with gold-embossed invitations to 'Live More' and 'Love More'.
The Rosé Impérial Diamond Suit Gift Box clothes the bottle in a pale pink suit.
Finally, the Rosé Impérial Daring Suit Gift Box presents the Champagne in a pink suit with integrated handle.
The design is intended to challenge the gift's recipient to see Valentine's Day through 'rose coloured glasses'.
Each pack contains a 75 cl bottle of Moët's Rosé Impérial NV cuvée and carries a retail price of £39.99.
The Moët & Chandon Impérial Rosé was first released as a Non Vintage Champagne in 1997.
It is a blend of 40-50% Pinot Noir, of which 10% is red wine; 30-40% Meunier; of which 10% is red wine; and 10-20% Chardonnay.


My husband was given some strawberries from a local farmer in Riverview, Florida last week. This farmer was giving away beautiful, ripe strawberries to all his neighbors and friends as he was preparing to plow his fields under with all the strawberries still on the plants. Yes, you read that right. This farmer had chosen to to turn his entire crop of strawberries into dirt – unpicked and unsold.
What sort of culmination of events would cause a farmer to do such a thing? First of all, the state of Florida suffered from one of the wettest, coldest winters on record this past season. Even the usually mild month of March produced several nights of near freezing to freezing temperatures in many Central Florida locations. This very cold winter caused quite a delay in the ripening of the Florida strawberry crop and cost Florida strawberry farmers a significant amount of extra capital in terms of keeping the plants and berries alive and healthy through so many cold nights.
While Florida farmers were struggling with weather issues, California strawberry farmers experienced a smooth transition this season from plant to berry to market. No unusually cold weather delayed berry maturity. As fate would have it, a California bumper crop of cheap strawberries easily filled the gap left by the delayed Florida strawberry crop. The extra costs incurred by Florida strawberry farmers from the cold weather resulted in a price that far exceeded the price for the California berries. Realizing that after paying labor costs to pick the crop, the price for his berries would be roughly twice the price of the California strawberries, this farmer made the extremely painful decision to plow his field under without bothering to even pick the berries. The berries were unsellable so why bother paying to have them picked?
Why didn't this farmer just do a u-pick? U-picks are popular in Florida and certainly he could have reduced his losses for the season by selling directly to a public increasingly aware of the benefits of locally grown produce. Unfortunately for this farmer, the cost of u-pick liability insurance proved cost prohibitive. In the final analysis, plowing the field under made more business sense than even allowing the public to come onto his property and pick the berries for free let alone charge something for the privilege!
Our small, local farmers face an ever changing sea of problems and challenges many of which are beyond their control. If you have the opportunity to support one or more of these brave souls in your community, please do so. A time is coming in this nation's history when the genetic unsustainability of factory farms and mass production will fail on a grand scale. When this time arrives, the safety net of thousands of local farms will prove critical to the survival of the national economy and perhaps even your own family. Get to know your local farmers now. They are folks that you need to know on a first name basis. They are the rock stars of the future.


A volunteer oriented Association of Computer Scientists, Programmers, Engineering and related disciplines.
We are the ACSA, a determined group of computer scientists, communications engineers and associated professionals.
We are the people who make it possible for computers, laptops, personal computers, servers, supercomputers, tablet computers, cellphones, networks, the Internet and communications networks to do their daily jobs. And as a result, those things that rely upon computers can also do their daily job ranging from your iPhone to the computers on board the Mars Rover, to the computer on board a Jet Aircraft that keeps it stable in flight, to the computer you give your Credit Card number to when you check out at Amazon or at your local Restaurant.
Welcome to our Association! Here you will find stories from technology history, advances in technology, publications, business advances and educational materials. Here you will also find human rights efforts, responsible environmental efforts and just plain work being undertaken for the benefits of Humankind.
Please feel free to contribute to us in kind with ideas, proposals, donations and volunteerism. To reach us Click HERE to send us a message.
Our New Website is presently being redeveloped.
To visit our original, circa pre-2010 website, visit us HERE.
To visit ADVANCES MAGAZINE, visit it HERE.


We carry flat and gusseted poly bags in a wide range of sizes. These LDPE bags are open on one end, and can be heat-sealed or closed with a twist tie. Most of our bags are manufactured in the US with 100% renewable energy. A few of the smaller sizes are imported. All meet FDA/USDA requirements for contact with food.


Wilson Sports PH continues to rise as one of the best, in providing quality game balls for different basketball leagues across the country.
With tough competition in the market, Senior Brand Manager, Mr. Errol Elicanal, shared his vision on how they're going to take the basketball scene by storm.
In a renewal of sponsorship with Kings of the Court | STR8 at Toby's Arena in Pasig City, the person behind the wide growth of knowledge about Wilson's mission, knows that they're just scratching the surface of what could be a potential game-changer for this basketball-endearing nation.
Throughout the years, Wilson Sports PH have provided Kings of the Court | STR8, an official game ball that would later evolve into different variants of models, but with only one thing in common: innovation. And to open 2019, they are launching their newest XG game ball, featuring the "Cross Grip Technology", a more durable feature than composite leather, engineered to give basketball players a better grip and control as they shoot or dribble.
"Malaking bagay yung partnership with KOTC | STR8. They're an established brand when it comes to recreational leagues, malaki yung naitulong niya for Wilson basketball, na mas makilala pa." - Errol shared at a lunch interview with the founders of Kings of the Court | STR8, Mr. Cholo Legisma (Founder & President) and Ms. Lianne Gonzalvo (Co-Founder & Vice President).
The vision to reach all basketball enthusiasts is slowly becoming a reality for Wilson Sports PH. Recreational Leagues around the metro, have taken notice of this "new flavor", and made it a part of their mission to provide the best basketball experience. Whether it's an individual, a family, a team, or even an entire league, the brand treats every opportunity to make their game ball known, count.
Errol expressed his gratitude and excitement regarding the brand's achievements and room for growth. "For me, makakita lang ako ng isang player na mayroong hawak na Wilson basketball, it means a lot to me. The work I'm doing, the efforts with KOTC | STR8 and all the other leagues, it's really working and may impact. To see someone own a Wilson basketball, mas lalo akong ginaganahan to make our brand known hindi lang dito sa Metro Manila, but also in other parts of the country, even in Visayas and Mindanao."
Previously, Wilson Sports PH introduced what is now a globally known game ball, for one of the fastest rising outlets in basketball, the 3X3 competition. The "Wave" technology was designed perfectly for the intense and highly-competitive half-court game. To add flavor, the tournament used a basketball that is one size smaller than the game ball used for 5-on5 competitions. In the concluded 2018 FIBA 3x3 World Cup, held at the Philippine Arena from June 8-12, Wilson was the official game ball for the entire tournament.
But the program extends not just for the international stage, but more importantly to the youth; where it all begins. "We've been working so hard to promote 3X3 all over the Philippines, in the youth level (10U and 12U). The preparation for the international level is already ongoing, as the Wilson 3X3 challenge kicked-off its second season. We are nearing the grand launch of the competition for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where it will be played as an official sport for the first time in history, kaya ganun nalang talaga yun effort na binibigay namin to promote the brand, lalo na iyon ang official ball na gagamitin." Errol continued.
The innovation and the mission to make basketball dreams come to life, continues for Errol, Wilson Sports PH, and KOTC | STR8. Together with the young generation of aspiring pinoy basketball players, the path to reaching the ultimate goal, is now made possible, with a brand that is dedicated to help and develop. "For most players, 'yan ang dream nila, to make it sa PBA. This is an open opportunity for them [the players] and Wilson is there with them."
From the professional, corporate, recreational, and youth basketball, Wilson Sports PH have tapped the major markets in basketball. But what's next for the uprising brand? Errol shares one goal he has for this year, which he describes as something that would make the 12-month span, a success. "More 5x5 leagues to tap. That's the challenge. Kasi admittedly, nahuli si Wilson in terms of entering the basketball scene. Before, our major sport was Tennis. But although the brand is in its early years sa market, we are determined to break the notion of having only one quality gameball, be it locally or in the international stage. The UAAP and the NCAA are our next target. Once we enter that stage, I think that will make our year, a success."
Making waves and introducing breakthrough technology for basketball, Wilson Sports PH is just getting started, as a whole year of opportunities and an entire group of regions to reach paves the way for the uprising brand to achieve their goals for this 2019.


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Hard-working Fulham moving in the right direction, insists Stuart Gray
Fulham assistant manager Stuart Gray insists the club are moving in the right direction and praised the players' "outstanding" work rate in their goalless draw with Southampton.
Saints looked to have taken the lead on two occasions, when Shane Long and Theo Walcott both had the ball in the back of the net, only for their efforts to be ruled out for offside after VAR reviews.
The result was the Cottagers' fourth consecutive draw – and second straight shutout at Craven Cottage – but despite the club currently occupying the third relegation spot, Gray believes the team are moving forward.
He said: "We were playing against a very good side today… what they do is they press you and we knew that five or six players would come and close us down.
"It creates players who are brave on the ball and we work the ball out wide and we got the ball into some very good areas so like I say the final piece of the jigsaw is sticking the ball in the net.
"But my glass is always half full and I would say that four games unbeaten is… compared to the start of the season that we had… we're going in the right direction."
Gray added: "The most important thing is the attitude, the application of the players is absolutely spot on. The work rate of the players in the last few games has been outstanding."
Fulham were also without boss Scott Parker, who remains in self-isolation after a member of his household tested positive for coronavirus, but Gray felt the absence of the manager did not affect the performance.
"We did a meeting with the players through the computer, the gaffer spoke to the players at half-time, and then he was on the phone so we were obviously making decisions and when he wanted substitutes made as well," said Gray.
"But the players are well organised and well drilled and they knew what the game plan was and credit to them."
Southampton had previously gone on a seven-match unbeaten run earlier in the season, during which they briefly topped the table, but this result has seen them drop out of the European places.
Having also been relatively fortunate with injuries throughout the first part of the season, Southampton have recently seen a number of players sidelined, including the key figure of Jannik Vestergaard.
Boss Ralph Hasenhuttl believes the Dane's absence affected their overall display at Craven Cottage.
"Jannik (Vestergaard) was one of the most important players in the past, now he plays fantastic games, especially for our game with the ball he was important," Hasenhuttl said.
"But I think Jack (Stephens) was a very good alternative today for us and Ibrahima (Diallo) also showed he was an important player for our team and this was for me maybe the most important message that I've got from the team, that I can definitely sub three players and be competitive with our teams.
"It's not easy to play here, you have seen it in the past, Liverpool nearly lost here… when Liverpool is making a draw here, I think we can also make one."
Norwich v Man City: Premier League Match Preview
Georgia's first Rugby World Cup win | RWC Relived
Ayumu Goromaru: Japan's 2015 hero on RWC 2019
Rob Andrew on his memorable World Cup moments
Jeronimo de la Fuente | Path to success in Argentina


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The man who pulled the Duke of Edinburgh from his crashed car has said it was an "astonishing escape" and the royal is a "very brave man." Roy Warne, 75, was driving with his wife when he witnessed Prince Philip's car accident with another vehicle on Thursday close to the Sandringham Estate. .


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The Surreal World of Lia Barrett
ByMona Teo
in Life, Vision
From shots of sprawling oceans meeting the skies in sun kissed horizons to panoramic landscape of coral gardens to subaquatic oddities that lurk where the sunlight can't reach, we've always thought we've known how life under the surface looked like — until now.
Cutting it real in Little India: Look like a Reservoir Dog for $5
Abstract black-and-white photographs depict beauty in the human body
The man who makes iPads, homes, cars and servant dolls for the dead
The Vinyl Nazi: 'I won't sell to speculative buyers and these hipsters'
Asked to draw animals, 18-year-old hands in bizarre artwork for high-school art exhibit
The Future of Technology and Design
By Darren Wong
Today, we are on the brink of a new technological and design paradigm, where the capabilities of technology and design aesthetics have progressed faster than in any period of human history. These two decades have seen a rapid change and advancement in technology – the rise and fall of compact disc; the substitution of cartridge […]
The Dying Art Of Turntablism
By Mona Teo
in Causes, Life, Sound
For most of us, the turntable is nothing more than a DJ's tool. It's this… thing that plays vinyls, and makes 'scratching' noises that sounds pretty cool when laid over the tracks we've come to know and love. But the humble turntable is more than that. It has a rich history that goes way back […]
Singing For His Studies
By Azmin Zainal
in Life, Sound, Videos
In the first of a two-part series, Contented explores busking – street performance that breathes life into a city – and why it is gaining popularity with buskers and audiences alike in Singapore. Some 20 years ago, busking got a bad rep when laws were flouted by those who performed in non-designated areas. Fortunately, National […]
Packaging Design – When Aesthetics Meet Functionality
In Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, he wrote "Packaging can be theatre, it can create a story", when referring to the beauty of an unboxing experience. Steve Jobs understood that a simple action like that could set the tone for a consumer's relationship with a product. Similarly, the first glance of a product on […]
Raja Ampat: A World Away
in Life, Places
They say you can never truly "get away from it all", but perhaps you've never been to Raja Ampat. In English, 'Raja Ampat' literally translates to 'Four Kings', and the islands get their name from a local mythology about four kings who occupy the four big islands of Salawati, Batanta, Waigeo and Misool. The stunning […]
© 2021 Contented.


Regardless of the type of housing you own, insurance is a requirement for your protection and safety, as well as coverage for your belongings. Mobile home insurance is similar to that of a single family dwelling, with a few unique components.
Galon Insurance Brokers work with the following insurance companies to find the best quote and coverage for you.
Personal liability insurance to a maximum set limit, in case you are found legally at fault for injury to another person or damage to their property.
Replacement cost coverage for your mobile home (if built in 1980 or after), belongings and outbuildings (such as a garage or shed) at today's prices.


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Sleeping Giants' founder unmasked: top ad writer behind boycotts of Breitbart, Ingraham
By Daily Caller News Foundation July 17, 2018 July 17, 2018
David Hogg Laura Ingraham (Images: Twitter, YouTube screen grab)
By Peter Hasson
The founder of Sleeping Giants, a left-wing activist group that has targeted right-wing voices with boycott campaigns, has managed to keep his identity a secret, even as his own group has become a major political player among liberals. Until now.
Sleeping Giants was founded by Matt Rivitz, an award-winning ad copywriter based in San Francisco, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.
The group's original stated goal was to cripple Breitbart, the pro-Trump website whose former chairman, Steve Bannon, worked in the White House as President Donald Trump's chief strategist.
To accomplish that goal, Sleeping Giants has waged an intense campaign to pressure Breitbart's advertisers into pulling their ads from the website. It's worked pretty much as designed.
Breitbart lost 90% of its advertisers over the span of two months in 2017. Sleeping Giants has both maintained its pressure on Breitbart's remaining advertisers and expanded its focus.
Sleeping Giants began pressuring investors in October 2017 in Renaissance Technologies — a successful hedge fund — to pull their investments because the company's CEO, conservative billionaire Robert Mercer, had a financial stake in Breitbart. Less than two weeks later, Mercer sold his stake in Breitbart and stepped down from the hedge fund.
Sleeping Giants also boosted Parkland student David Hogg and Media Matters's boycott of Fox News host Laura Ingraham in March over a tweet she sent about Hogg. Rivitz's group posted the name, position, and email address of a Hulu vice president and encouraged its tens of thousands of followers to email her and demand that the streaming website boycott Ingraham's show.
But even as Sleeping Giants became a major political player — described by The Washington Post as "the mysterious group that's picking Breitbart apart, one tweet at a time" — the person who launched the group managed to remain anonymous.
Rivitz, who did not return repeated requests for comment, took steps to protect his identity, including deleting his personal social media accounts, but he dropped hints about himself in interviews with reporters that led TheDCNF to identify him as the group's founder.
Additionally, members of Rivitz's social and professional circles weren't as cautious on social media about protecting his identity — particularly in November 2016 when Sleeping Giants was still a little-known pet project — and indicated that he was the man behind the group.
A Sleeping Giants spokesman told AdWeek in March 2017 that the group's founder was a man who worked "in marketing."
That same month, the Sleeping Giants' founder gave an interview to a San Francisco-based writer for Mother Jones — who agreed to protect his anonymity — in which he credited a Twitter exchange with IKEA as part of what inspired him to target Breitbart's advertisers.
"Companies have boned up their customer service on Twitter," he said. "I personally was at IKEA once—and this is kind of where the whole thing came from—I was waiting for, like, two hours for some shelves. Whereas on the phone you'll have to wait, I just tweeted at them and literally within two minutes they wrote back, 'Hey, how can we help you?'"
Rivitz has since deleted his account, but internet archives reviewed by TheDCNF show him engaging with the IKEA brand as described, complaining about waiting two hours to pick up a purchase.
Other facts uncovered in TheDCNF's investigation also pointed to Rivitz.
San Francisco marketing executive DeeAnn Budney named Rivitz as Sleeping Giants' founder in a post six days after Sleeping Giants launched.
"Here's another way to put your post-election angst to work! If you want to help out, just go to @slpng_giants on Twitter," she wrote on Nov. 22, 2016. She added "PS: Nice idea, Matt! (Matt Rivitz)." The parenthetical appears to have been a way to tag Rivitz' since-deleted account in the post.
Rivitz's wife, Blythe Lang, "liked" the post applauding her husband for his Sleeping Giants' work.
Minnesota woman Sara Krasny, a Facebook friend of Rivitz's wife, was one of the first Twitter accounts to cheerlead for Sleeping Giants.
She described him as married to a "spa alum" three days after the group's launch.
"Spa" is St. Paul Academy and Summit School, an elite private K-12 school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Krasny is an alum of the school and held a leadership role on the school's alumni fund at the time, archives of the school's website, spa.edu, show.
Rivitz' wife, Blythe Lang, lists her hometown on Facebook as St. Paul, Minnesota and currently follows St. Paul Academy and Summit School. A spokesman for the school told TheDCNF that they couldn't divulge any information about past students without that person's consent.
Before this article, the only known Sleeping Giants member was Britton Taylor, a San Francisco-based ad writer who fundraised for a billboard and has been more open about his work with the group.
Rivitz and Taylor were Facebook friends before Rivitz deleted his personal account, internet archives show.
Seth Nightengale contributed to this report.
Posted in: Media, PoliticsTagged: activism, liberal
Cartoon of the Day: Medal disorder
Helsinki II, 2018: Trump doubles down; media double down; lights literally go out


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How To Write Realistically About Politics and Current Events When the Real World Can Be Stranger Than Fiction
Tips from a political thriller writer on how to keep your writing relevant in a constantly changing world.
July 22, 2020 By Eric Van Lustbader
Via Forge
Yesterday—and, let's be honest, by yesterday I mean about a decade ago—I would read as many publications, news stories, interviews, etc. in order to get a macro view (an overview) of the political/economic/technological state of the world. Reading publications from outside the United States served a vital role in research as these foreign publications like the South China Post, The Guardian, BBC, China Daily, Le Monde Diplomatique, The Exiled (Russia), The Moscow Times, to name just a few. Also, important was reading Foreign Affairs and the Atlantic.
The idea was to gather as much news, use the items like a jigsaw puzzle to try to make sense of the thrust of world news, and then to extrapolate what might happen a year or 18 months in the future. This last was crucial. You have to consider that if you write about that's happening today, it will be out of date by the time your book is published.
In other words, you needed to become a futurist. This methodology allowed me to "predict" the Russian incursions into Ukraine and Syria, using Syria as a feint to turn attention with how entrenched the Russian military was becoming in Ukraine. This is just one example, but there are many others. The point being that I took a top down approach: amass as much up-to-the-minute material as I could, including smaller speculative articles on bleeding edge weapons research from, DARPA and other such under-the-radar organizations both here and abroad. What I stayed away from was op-ed pieces. Anything with a whiff of personal opinion was likely to poison the well of the news I was gathering. From years of this methodology I developed a sixth sense for bullshit, propaganda masquerading as news, and biased "think pieces."
As far back as elementary school, I was taught to get as close to the source as you can in order to find out the truth. Even history books, I found, were often subtly slanted toward the author's bias. That's why, following in the footsteps of my late friend Robert Ludlum, I strived to develop a network of consultants, spending time in Washington, DC, relying on friends, then friends of friends, to gain access to individuals in clandestine agencies. This was both difficult and time-consuming, but as far as I was concerned, it was necessary for my foundational work. From there I, again, extrapolated as to responses to certain threats and also to create my own clandestine bureaus based on fact, but were of my design, my fiction.
That said I'm not a military thriller writer, where every tactic, every piece of equipment, every strategy is straight from the armed forces rule book. Over forty years of writing thrillers I have done my foundational work, which I use as a springboard for creating the characters and situations around which my novels are built.
Today — and let's be honest — nowadays everything in our world moves so fast that tomorrow is unlikely to be anything like today. Today, we are so connected, we have so much information coming at us from all directions it's like being hit full blast with water from a fire hose. Add to that, the news cycle has gone from weeks, to a day. News stories have the life of a mayfly — 24 hours.
As a result, there is too much information coming at you all the time without a moment's let-up. My old top-down macro methodology simply won't work in this environment, so I had to adapt. What did that entail? I'll be honest, it took me a while to figure a new methodology. I can recall when I sat down to write the last two Jason Bourne novels (The Bourne Enigma and The Bourne Initiative) I felt lost. The news cycle was being overrun by so many stories, changing so quickly, I wondered how on earth I was going to stay again of such an onrush. I felt completely overwhelmed. I felt like I could never come up with a story that would be relevant a year or 18 months from now when the books would be published.
The life-blood of thrillers is relevancy; without being able to reflect the modern-day world, you cannot succeed.
This very problem cropped up when Ludlum's original three Bourne novels were bought by Universal. They were written in 1982, 1986, and 1990 respectively. By contrast, the films were released in 2002, 2004, and 2007 using the same names as the novels. But the storylines were completely different. Why? Because the political landscape had radically changed in the interim. What had been relevant in the '80s and 1990 was ancient history by the 2000s and, therefore, of interest to no one. Different plots had to be devised that reflected the political atmosphere of the times.
So. Today. How to succeed in this increasingly crazy world of a 24-hour (or less) news cycle, previously unimaginable outbursts from people in power, a country increasingly split down the middle, a country where, increasingly, there are two separate realities: one science based, one faith based, one humanistic, one praying at the altar of the economy, a country where the disparity between the rich and the poor has never been wider, when the movement toward a post-conservatism has grafted on the uprising for a white America?
The answer, it turns out, is quite simple: turn everything off. In the new silence begin to think about what makes you angry, what frightens you, what you feel is important, and what you think is frivolous. In other words, turn the top-town macro approach on its head. Take a bottoms-up approach to all news. First, filter out everything. Then allow in the smallest bits to see what you find interesting.
As an example, when I first sat down to write The Nemesis Manifesto, I was aware that the great story of the coming years was cyber-warfare, hacking business and government sites, using ransomware to extort money from companies and municipalities. On the surface, it seemed an electrifying topic for a thriller. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would, by necessity, become a novel of numbers, algorithms, and cyber theft. In addition, a hackers life is obsessive and, therefore, one-dimensional. The plot would be dry, the characters no more than avatars of real people. Readers aren't interested in hacking, except for a one minute segment in a film in order to get whatever it is they're looking for out of the place where it's been stashed. Too many explanations of codes, algorithms, and bypassing firewalls would make the eyes cross of any reader of fiction.
So there was a stream of news I shut out. I am basically interested in people, who they are, how they interact, what makes them love one another, what makes them betray one another, and, most crucially, what drives them to kill.
In the end, I hit upon the Russian infiltration of America, using social media. But, still, I felt there was something missing. And that was the rise of neo-Nazism both abroad and here in America, egged on by the current administration. These are the themes that infuse The Nemesis Manifesto, that allow it to come alive, be relevant even in this crazy new world where the ground keeps shifting under our feet.
Because the truth is, the depiction of human beings under enormous stress will always be relevant, and that is the key to successful fiction, whether it be thriller or any other genre.
current eventsEric Van LustbaderForgelife is like a thrillerresearchThe Nemesis Manifesto
Eric Van Lustbader
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER is the author of many New York Times bestselling thrillers, including The Testament, First Daughter, Last Snow, and Blood Trust. Lustbader was chosen by Robert Ludlum's estate to continue the Jason Bourne series. He and his wife live on the South Fork of Long Island. Visit him online at www.ericvanlustbader.com, follow him on Twitter @EVanLustbader, or on Instagram @evlust. His latest book, THE NEMESIS MANIFESTO kicks off an all-new series and is due out July 21, 2020.
Rethinking The American Home Front During World War II
As he strode along at a brisk pace, Giorgio Pisanelli acknowledged the greetings of almost all the people he passed with...


Sausage Month on October, 2019: Feeding a 6 month old sausage rolls?
October, 2019 is Sausage Month 2019. Gift of the Month Clubs Rated #1 Gift of the Month Clubs Best Prices & Free Shipping Today!
While some babies can take solids at this age (my 7 month old son being one of them), sausage is an unhealthy choice and I would think the spices would cause quite a bit of stomach upset as well. However, our parents pretty much fed us whatever back in the day so I don't think it'll cause any serious long term damage.
My son started finger foods at 6 months with Cheerios. If they're making chewing motions and can pick up small things with their hands then they're ready for finger foods. Every baby develops at a different pace so it's important to watch their developmental cues to introduce new things right on time. My son just so happened to be an early bird.
Should a 9 month old eat, sausage?
Actually most of us shouldn't eat sausage with all the fat in it and heavy spices. It probably is very hard for a young child to digest it. Look up online what the proper diet would be for that age.
Properly cooked, it shouldn't give the child worms.
I don't have time to write anymore because he needs a quick walk, but please feel free to e-mail me for loads more personal info, I could blather on for ages about them! Don't listen to the half the people above, everyone can use other names for breeds, the term sausage dog unfamiliar in the US.
Very informative on the long backed fellows!
National Field Trip Month - Air National Guard TAC-P?


Wow! What a wonderful event we had on Sunday 29th April. The Supporters' Dinner and AGM held at the Greenlane Presbyterian Church was jam packed with supporters, prayer warriors, intercessors, Pastors, leaders, elders, donors, young and old, united in one spirit to hear the many testimonies from people whose lives have been impacted and transformed by the power and revelation of who Jesus Christ is. I was truly honoured to take part in this wonderful event and for those who missed this event, don't worry, there is always another opportunity to attend the next Dinner and AGM in 2019.
During the evening we heard a moving testimony from Priya, a new Hindu convert, who spoke from the heart with tears rolling down her cheeks, sharing how she gave up her entire Hindu belief system and religion to embrace Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour and Lord. She was only saved last year, yet she could witness to so many powerful encounters with Jesus that were real and tangible and patently evident as she spoke. While Jesus has not fixed every problem in her life, contrary to prosperity preaching which claims that God will make our lives completely perfect and prosperous and we don't have to carry our cross, Priya told us about her struggles, her brokenness, her problems. Nevertheless, despite it all, we could see the Joy of the Lord and the peace in her face.
We also heard from Reverend Tony Spandow, whose church, St Paul's Presbyterian in Manurewa, has recently completed a six-week Share your Faith training with 23 members of the church. At the end of this EE training, the church held an outreach camp at Hamilton, where 60 people of all ages, young and old, gave their lives to Jesus Christ upon hearing the Gospel message presented using the EE sharing method. Glory to God! What a wonderful testimony; Heaven must be rejoicing.
During the evening, a 10-year old boy, Fred, shared how he was saved through EE's Hope for Kids conducted by the EE Chinese Ministry team under the supervision of Ada Shea. It is wonderful to see the gospel spreading among the Chinese people. We also gave thanks for the NZ Chinese Ministry team who have recently completed EE Classic Training in Vanuatu, where 35 people heard the gospel and 15 people made professions of faith.
Another testimony was given about how a man, who had suffered 40 years of depression from the age of 23, was healed by the power of Jesus and how he no longer depends on medication as he has been completely healed by Jesus Christ and was cleared by a health specialist as fully recovered.
During the evening, I had the pleasure of submitting the EE National Director's report for the past year. By the end of 2017 we had completed 34 national workshops for 263 participants from 81 churches, during which 262 new people were reached with the gospel and 68 made professions of faith. Not only that, local church evangelism resulted in another 260 people making professions of faith. This is without a doubt God's hand upon our ministry, as well as in the commitment and hard of work of EE staff, volunteers and prayer partners responding to the opportunities that God presented to us to equip churches and bring the gospel to those who are yet to hear the good news about our Lord and Saviour.
I am immensely grateful to the Board of EE New Zealand, for the great leadership of our Chairman, Chris Lange, and for friend and mentor Tina Toschi, who did a fabulous job as the Interim Director until I was appointed as National Director in August 2017.
I wish to pay tribute to all the generous donors who continue to support the EENZ Ministry, without whom none of this good work could happen.
We have been blessed by the hard work of 40 volunteer trainers throughout the country, helping and supporting in various workshops and training events; may God continue to prosper and grow this vital work.
There are many to whom special thanks are due, especially our faithful intercessors, particularly those who pray every day for EE, individually and in groups. The on-going support of Greenlane Presbyterian Church is much appreciated for the use of the building for EE events.
My deep appreciation goes to Ilse van Rensburg, our Administrator, who works so hard in supporting all the work of the ministry and keeping the accounts and who now has an expanding role. Much appreciated is also the day-to-day help and assistance of David Kirby in accounting matters and Melanie Malcolm on numerous matters concerning the computer and accounts. The assistance of Marion Henderson and Martin Pennycuick of Vision Consulting Ltd. in the annual checking of our accounts is valued as well.
Our deep thanks goes to every single person who shares in this marvellous partnership in the Gospel. To God be all glory.


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Eric Trump Says He Has Casually Thought The Pressure Put on His Family Was Not Worth The Price Of His Father's Election
Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization, joined Brian Kilmeade to discuss the latest on being targeted by the Congressman Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, why he personally feels the pressure his family has gone through may not be worth the price of his father's election and why re-election means more now than ever.
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX HOST: Joining us now, one of those executives in the Trump Organization who makes all the big decisions, Eric Trump. Eric, welcome to the Brian Kilmeade show.
ERIC TRUMP, AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN: Hey Brian, it's great to be on with you.
KILMEADE: First off, what was it like seeing your name in a list of targets in demand of documents from Congressman Nadler?
TRUMP: Welcome to another Tuesday in our world. It's just a -- it is what it is Brian. I mean, these people are so desperate. I mean, that's what it comes down to. If you can't win what do you do? You obstruct, you try and impeach, you try and harass, you try and distract. I mean, that's all these people know how to do. I mean, they can't win.
My father's poll numbers are the greatest that they've ever been. This country is soaring, our economy is awesome, our military is incredible. I think you're going to talk about in a little while with a gentleman from the Air Force.
I mean, our country is doing so unbelievably well on just about every front and the Democrats have totally lost control. They have no message, they have no rising stars. Their rising star, AOC, has proven to be absolutely insane. The Green New Deal, which is going to cost the U.S. $93 trillion. No airplanes, no cows, no cars, I mean it's just -- they've got no message, they've got no leadership.
Our country's doing awesome, and so what do they do? They go on a witchhunting expedition. They weren't able to find anything with Russia, you know that. I mean, last week the Senate's Intelligence Committee came out and said Richard Burr came out and said, we found absolutely no evidence and we've turned over just about every stone. It looks like Robert Mueller is going to come out and say the exact same thing.
They've pretty much dropped the Russian narrative at this point, even though it's the only narrative that they've been touting for the last two years and all of a sudden it's, let's just go harass anybody who has every made contact with Trump.
Let's send out 81 document discover requests for everything under the sun, let's harass, let's make a spectacle, let's take a convicted felon and put him on the stand and let him lie to entire world. By the way, he perjured himself, Brian, about 12 different times. I'm talking about Michael Cohen, to that whole testimony and ...
KILMEADE: So, Eric, when you got the ...
TRUMP: ... this is the evilness of politics. I mean, this is the evilness of politics. Instead of actually trying to fix healthcare, instead of trying to fix a lot of problems that the country still has, it's let's just distract and disrupt and it hurts the country. I mean, it really, really hurts the country.
KILMEADE: Well Eric, in particular with you guys, you brother, Corey Lewandowski, it's a list of everybody who's been in the news associated with you guys. You're CFO, are you going to get a lawyer, are you going to produce documents that they requested in two weeks?
TRUMP: Yes, we have plenty of lawyers, don't worry about lawyers. And that's -- that's all this is. They're the only people -- the only people who will win, unfortunately, in this whole game are the lawyers and the people who lose are the American people who actually expect their public servants to be working on their behalf and not playing nonsense games all day.
I mean if you look at how incompetent Congress is overall, it's just -- it's incredible, but yes, we're going to fight the hell out of it. And we'll fight where we need and we'll cooperate where we need and -- but the desperation shows. I mean, I think that's the point, Brian. The desperation shows.
KILMEADE: But I just didn't think, Eric, when you stayed back and you became -- and you stayed Vice President with the Trump Organization, you and Don, Jr., that was -- it was supposed to keep you out of this. They brought you into this. So, Nadler brought you into this. I image Schiff is going to bring you into this, somehow the Southern District is going bring you into this. Just as Eric Trump, what is that like?
TRUMP: Yes, listen, we're big boys and girls and I never realized politics was nearly as brutal as it was and but at the same time Brian, we stood on the stage for -- with him.
We probably did something as a family that no family in American history has every done, and we fought, and we fought very hard, and we worked our butts off, and we went off and we won something that everybody was saying was impossible to win against the Clinton powerhouse machine.
And you have a lot of people out there, whether it's kind of mainstream media, who's lashing out over it, a political party who felt that they were entitled to win even though they didn't have a good message and they didn't work that hard.
And -- but -- and you have all of those individuals lashing out and then you have my father who's going in there and he's disrupting the system that has been in place for a very long time, that hasn't worked for the benefit of the American people, in fact, in most cases has worked against the American people.
That's the reason we were loosing all our jobs to every country around our world, that's the reason our military was totally run down, that's the reason our GDP growth was a total joke. We were getting universally screwed by everybody, Brian, and you know that better than anybody. You talk about it all the time.
KILMEADE: Well, I -- I'm a stander by. Listen, nobody's perfect. No president's perfect, no organization's perfect, but the attack that's turned around, any other businessman who doesn't spend his life -- or woman, who doesn't spend his life in politics doesn't deserve to have an autopsy on their previous life if it doesn't effect governing.
One of the things that Adam Schiff said, we have to see if the Russians are laundering money through the Trump Organization now. When does -- where did that come from?
TRUMP: It's such a joke. There's no one who knows this company as well as I do. I mean, it's such a joke. I was watching his A&E biography the other of Trump and they were trying to link to Russia and it's like, I mean, Brian, it is such a joke.
The whole think is such a -- it's just a sham and that's exactly what Robert Mueller is going to come out with. It's -- I mean this whole thing has been an absolute sham. I mean, people are still talking about the dossier. The dossier is -- has been discredited and the people on the left are still ...
KILMEADE: But Eric, I -- listen ...
TRUMP: ... housing (ph) it as it's real, and ...
KILMEADE: ... as people in -- most people in our audience just say, what does that have to do with getting immigration reform? What does that have to do with getting the deficit under $22 trillion? What does that have to do to getting a Democratic leader into Venezuela?
I mean issues that are facing this country, Joe diGenova, a U.S. Attorney, you know him well, former U.S. Attorney for D.C., saw the -- saw all the demands, the 80 plus requests for documents that has Eric Trump's name on it too and says -- this is his advice, cut 11.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JOSEPH DIGENOVA, AMERICAN ATTORNEY: This is a letter to 81 people to produce documents. Everyone should refuse and when they're subpoenaed, they should all take the fifth, because this is a perjury trap. This is not a legitimate investigation, it is a phishing expedition. They are trying to get people up there to make them look bad so they can try and make the president look bad.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KILMEADE: Will you take his advice? I mean does that -- is that something you're considering?
TRUMP: I think he's spot on. I mean, first of all, we have nothing to hide. We have absolutely nothing to hide. In fact, we have a fairly simple company. We build great golf courses and hotels and some of the best of the world, and you've seen many of the properties, and we do an unbelievable job and we're really, really good at what we do.
But I mean, the point -- the point that you're making is, look at last week, how much time was spent on the Michael Cohen think? Right? So, Michael Cohen is a convicted felon, he's going off to jail. He skipped out on what, $4 million, $4 plus million worth of taxes, he committed bank fraud? All of this stuff in his personal life, having nothing to do with Trump.
So, they take this convicted felon who's about to go off to jai, they put him up the stand, he tells lies the entire time.
Then the Republicans, who are really, really smart start asking very basic questions, hey, are you going to use this testimony to try and reduce your prison sentence? Yes I am.
Are you going to use this testimony and possibly go out -- can you ensure us that you're not going to go out and write a book? No, I'm not. I'm not willing to ensure you I'm not going to write a book.
Oh really, you're going to write a book? Are you also going to participate in a movie? Yes, I might participate in a movie.
I mean, this is the biggest crock of -- I mean, I can't even say it Brian, but it is crazy.
KILMEADE: But Eric, I've seen him, you worked with him everyday. Did -- how did you misjudge him so, or did you?
TRUMP: Listen, I think desperate guy who did some really -- and by the way, Brian, they haven't even -- I mean the Republicans were hitting on it the entire time, right? But, all the illegal lobbying, you see all these things, right?
He was illegal lobbying in all these countries around the world, Kazakhstan, all these things, he was trying to do it for AT&T, he was trying to do it for various pharmaceutical companies, and I mean, there are plenty of crimes to charge Michael Cohen for, outside of what he's been charged for and he committed perjury more than I can count.
KILMEADE: So, you just think he's not the -- you just say he got backed into a corner, he's actually a good guy that got backed into a corner when the FBI raided his house or is he not a good guy?
TRUMP: Brian, they were threatening him with -- I mean clearly he's not a good guy and clearly they were threatening him with many years, and clearly they pretty much said to him, hey, you flip, you come do exactly what you do and we're going to bring your prison sentence down to three years or three and a half years. I mean, it's a joke and they didn't change for many of the crimes that are front and center and very obvious.
And quite frankly, they should be charging him for those crimes, but I mean, go back to that -- go back to the amount of time and energy and resources that were wasted with that hearing, right, when they could have been sitting there, they could have been figuring out healthcare in this country, they could have been debating school choice, they could have been taking care of educational problems, they could have been taking care of infrastructure things.
I mean, but yet they sit there all day, they put a convicted felon on the stand for what purpose? Only one purpose, and that's to try to embarrass the President of the United States, right?
I mean, it's only for their own political gain. They don't have a message, they don't have a party. Their candidates are proven to be absolutely crazy, AOC, right?
AOC's own mom came out the other day, as AOC is trying to raise taxes and she just drove Amazon out of our state, so we lost 25,000 high paying jobs in New York State, a state that's bleeding people every single day to other states because taxes are too high, they asked her own mom the other day in an interview, well, why did you move down to Florida. And her mom said, because taxes are too damn high in New York.
I mean, is this -- this is the leadership of the Democratic Party, the Green New Deal, again, is going to cost $93 trillion. We'll bankrupt our nation in about two minutes.
KILMEADE: Eric, I hear what you're saying, and that's -- just from your perspective and you obviously could punt on this question easily, but when you and your dad talk with your family around, do you guys ever look at each other and say, was this worth it? Was it worth it to be -- to have the family dynamics to be put on this type of pressure?
TRUMP: You know what, I can say, no, not with him. Have I thought it in my mind, have I said it casually at dinner with my wife? A hundred percent. The one thing that I can tell you is -- and people, by the way, Brian, I think people realize that, there is not a day that goes by where people don't come up to me on the street and say, hey, thank you for what your families doing.
Like, thank you for the sacrifices you've made. And I used to kind almost roll my eyes at the statement, thank you for the sacrifices. You see sacrifices that people have made for this country and they're unthinkable, right?
I mean, so many people have paid the ultimate sacrifice, but people have -- people come up to us and say that everyday. I think the American public realizes it.
I mean, this was a -- this is a billionaire who gave up an unbelievable life to go get punched on the chin every single day. To get abused, and quite frankly as a family we've done that as well.
At the same time, we're proud Americans; this country has given us absolutely everything. We have the wherewithal to fight, we have a very, very thick skin, I think you know that from knowing me as well as you do personally.
KILMEADE: Oh absolutely. You have not changed one bit, from day one. And do you ever think about how much would re-election mean? Does it mean more now or less now?
TRUMP: You know what, in a certain way, I want to win this thing. This nonsense -- this is the deep (ph) state of work, make no mistake about, right? I mean -- and I'm not even that guy, Brian.
People used stay I'd deep (ph) state and I'd roll my eyes a little bit, right? I'm not that guy. This is absolutely the deep (ph) state of work. I mean, this is our political system. I mean it's so unbelievably incompetent and then you have my father in there who's doing such a phenomenal job, everything is going well in this country. I mean, look at the unemployment numbers, look at the consumer confidence numbers, right? Look at ...
KILMEADE: Wages, blue collar wages.
TRUMP: ... our margins, look at 401ks. I mean, just look at overall happiness and society and so many other things. I mean, every metric of our country, every quantifiable metric of this country is doing incredible, absolutely incredible, and the question I have and my father posed this question a couple days on Twitter and he's absolutely right, I mean, think about even how much better you could if you had another side who actually wanted to fix problems, fix the immigration system, fix the healthcare system, I mean fix so many things? I mean, he's done so much.
KILMEADE: Right.
TRUMP: He's done so much with one side of the equation. I mean, think how much could be accomplished if you actually had people who gave a damn and didn't just care about their political party. And by the way, the American people are really, really smart Brian.
They were told by just about every media outlet other than yours that Trump was a lunatic, that he wasn't to be trusted around nuclear code, that he wasn't this, that he wasn't that, that he wouldn't make a good president, all the reason why.
I mean, everything anybody could ever conjure up, right? And guess what? They elected the man overwhelmingly. You don't think the American public sees through this nonsense, sees though Adam Schiff?
KILMEADE: Thirty states to 20. Eric, I've got to -- I'm up against a hard break, but I really appreciate you joining us. Giving us your perspective, because once again, now, you guys, the whole family is in the eye of the storm and you guys have not changed one bit. Eric Trump, thanks so much.
TRUMP: Thanks so much Brian.
Peter Caterina


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EU countries lift restrictions despite warnings of spread of virus variant
EUROPEAN NATIONS (China Daily/ANN) -- As successful vaccination campaigns allow European nations to gradually lift their COVID-19 restrictions, medical experts and governments are warning that a cautious approach is essential with some saying the relaxations are coming too soon.
Infection and death rates have halved since last month in the European Union's biggest nations, such as Italy, Spain, Germany and France, but hospitals continue to face pressure, reported the Financial Times.
People enjoy the scenery from a viewing platform in Rome, Italy, May 15, 2021. --Photo Xinhua
Those nations are now steadily easing social restrictions, but health advisors and some government officials warn the virus is far from being defeated and that vaccination campaigns need more time before curbs can be relaxed further.
Statistics from Our World in Data, referenced by the FT, say 30 percent of the EU population has received one dose of a vaccine, but scientists remain concerned the level of protection is too low.
The FT quoted Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, who said the virus must first be reduced to a "low ebb" before a full summer tourist season could be considered across the continent.
"We need to get to lower levels if we don't want to restart the problems again too quickly," he said. "If some places get stuck on a moderate to high plateau, the summer and autumn will be very complicated."
In the United Kingdom, the rate of inoculation in the population is higher, with nearly 20 million people, or one-third of the adult population, having had both jabs of their vaccine. Another 17 million have had one dose, according to the BBC.
The Press Association reported that British travel companies are seeing a surge in demand for trips to Portugal, after the government put the country on its so-called "green-list" for travel.
The spread of variants of COVID-19 mean Britons are being urged to stay away from countries on the government's so-called "amber-list "such as Spain, Italy, France and Greece, reported The Times.
Despite lifting a ban on leisure travel outside the UK, the government has said people should "not be travelling to amber or red countries". Speaking on Times Radio, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned against visiting those countries because of the risk posed by the mutant novel coronavirus strains.
European governments and travel agents are urging anyone making a trip in Europe to be "fully vaccinated", which is regarded as traveling at least two weeks after the final dose of vaccine has been administered, Forbes reported.
John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the UK government's vaccine task force, warned against European travel as large parts of the continent were "largely unvaccinated".
He told Times Radio: "We aren't at the peak of this thing globally at all yet."
(Latest Update May 19, 2021)
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OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 10, 2018 – The Oklahoma City Thunder will hold its annual media day on Monday, Sept. 24 at Chesapeake Energy Arena prior to the start of of U.S. Cellular Thunder Training Camp, the team announced today.
All Thunder players and Head Coach Billy Donovan will be available for interviews and photo availability from 12:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. A live broadcast of Media Day will be available via okcthunder.com and the Thunder Mobile App. It will feature Michael Cage, Lesley McCaslin and the rest of the Thunder broadcast team.
U.S. Cellular Thunder Training Camp will be held at the INTEGRIS Thunder Development Center beginning Tuesday, Sept. 25.