text:
Kareem Hunt on trade talk following Browns win: 'I'm down for whatever'
Published: Nov 01, 2022 at 01:58 AM
Nick Shook
Around The NFL Writer
CLEVELAND -- Fresh off a triumphant prime-time win over a division rival, Kareem Hunt methodically dressed at his locker Monday night. When the time came to speak, Hunt turned and revealed a Joker mask on his face, complete with movable eyebrows and mouth.
The joke was on the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 8 after Hunt helped Cleveland to a victory. It's anything but a laughing matter between Hunt and the Browns.
Hunt has been a frequent figure in trade talks as the league's deadline of Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET nears. He's made it clear he's not happy with his role with the Browns, and with less than 24 hours left to find a suitor for Hunt, the running back's stance hasn't changed.
"I mean, I'm down for whatever, man," Hunt said after Cleveland's 32-13 win over Cincinnati. "I'm a football player and this is a business. So I'm ready to do whatever they decide with me. That's either go somewhere else or here, anything it don't matter. I love the game of football."
Once seen and utilized as a perfect complement to star runner Nick Chubb, Hunt has since seen his usage decrease, and his importance diminish. As the Browns have waded through the first eight weeks of the season without a consistent offensive identity, Hunt has been lost in the shuffle. Gone are the days when the Browns would hammer opposing defenses with a healthy helping of Chubb and Hunt. Instead, Chubb has only received 20-plus carries in three games (all victories), while Hunt has drifted into the background.
2022 NFL season, Week 8: What We Learned from Browns win over Bengals on Monday night
NFL Power Rankings, Week 9: Seahawks leapfrog Giants into top 10; Bengals and Raiders plummet
Myles Garrett, Browns D 'starting to' turn a corner after smothering Bengals
Browns WR Amari Cooper blasts his intercepted pass on trick play: 'It was an abomination'
Joe Burrow: Missing Ja'Marr Chase 'no excuse' for poor offensive performance in loss to Browns
Hunt saw the future months ago, requesting a trade during training camp. The Browns flatly denied his request, and Hunt has since remained a good employee, showing up for work and giving his full effort while likely wondering when he might again receive substantial opportunities.
Monday night was a productive one for Hunt, perhaps his best showing of the season. The running back and local product carried the ball 11 times for 42 yards and caught four passes for 30 yards, posting his second-best total of scrimmage yards in a game this season. It was a glimpse of the past, a time in which Chubb and Hunt powered the Browns to wins with a relentless attack; against the Bengals, they combined to account for 176 scrimmage yards.
Still, when asked if he felt head coach Kevin Stefanski's staff made it a priority to get Hunt more involved against Cincinnati, Hunt appeared apathetic.
"I mean, I guess so," he said. "We won."
The victory sent Browns fans home happy, but in Cleveland's locker room, the tone was more subdued, especially at Hunt's stall. Statistically, it was positive send-off for Hunt. However, there was no escaping the fact he'd likely be happier elsewhere.
"I mean, you know I'm from the city of Cleveland so (chuckles) I guess I'm happy we won," Hunt said. "So yes, that's the right way to go out."
Hunt made it clear his displeasure has nothing to do with his teammates, whom he said Monday night he loves. He and Chubb share a demonstrated friendship that has allowed their one-two punch to thrive in years past. But be it Cleveland's four-game losing streak (snapped Monday night), or Hunt's diminished role, it just isn't enough for him anymore.
Even more importantly, nothing has changed nearly enough to make Hunt reconsider his request, on which he said he hasn't received an update from the Browns front office.
"I have no idea, I have no idea. I don't talk to them about that," Hunt said. "Like I said, I just come in and work man. If something happens, I guess it happens. I'm always going to show up to work, they know that."
Like Hunt, Stefanski didn't offer much insight on the matter after the game.
"As you can imagine, I don't get into those things," Stefanski said. "He fights like crazy. He's a great part of this team. These guys just, whatever's in front of them, they're fighting like crazy."
Hunt showed up to work Monday night. He very well could have a new place of employment by Tuesday afternoon.


With an increasing call for a new economic system, the circular economy has gained more attention. The circular economy aims to address our unsustainable path by decoupling "economic development from finite resource consumption," according to a 2015 report published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The transition toward this new economic model brings up a number of technical, financial and institutional challenges, as well as a particular political and ethical obstacle that is in need of greater consideration: how can the livelihoods of informal waste pickers – the 20-million-strong "green army" that has played a crucial role in recycling chains – be integrated appropriately into this new system?
Profile of WIEGO Co-Founder and Senior Advisor Marty Chen by the Rockefeller Foundation as part of their Transformational Change Leadership series for International Women's Day 2018.


text:
Pakistan: Taliban Gunmen Storm College, Killing 9
HeadlineDec 01, 2017
In Pakistan, at least nine people were killed today after gunmen disguised as women in burqas stormed an agricultural college in the northern city of Peshawar, opening fire on students and workers. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, which also left 36 people injured.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
Our Daily Digest brings Democracy Now! to your inbox each morning.
Must provide valid email.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Conflict, Time, Photography, an exhibition which opened in November at Tate Modern, looks at over 150 years of conflict around the world, since the invention of photography. It could have been one of those shows that organizes the photos according to themes, geographical area or chronology. The curator, however, orchestrated the exhibition according to the length of time that elapsed between the conflict and the moment the photographs were taken.
The first room in the show, "Moments Later", contains thus images taken almost straight after a disaster occurred. The most compelling example of it is the mushroom cloud photographed 20 minutes after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Toshio Fukada was then a 17-year-old student. He always carried a camera with him and took the images from his window, 2.7 km from the hypocenter.
As you walk through the exhibition rooms, the duration between image and event grows into days, weeks, months, years and decades.
Chloe Dewe Mathews, Vebranden-Molen, West-Vlaanderen, 2013.
The last gallery shows the series i found most moving. Almost 100 years after the start of WWI, Chloe Dewe Mathews photographed some of the exact spots where British, French and Belgian soldiers were executed for cowardice and desertion between 1914 and 1918. The photos of Shot at Dawn were also taken at approximately the same time of year the men were killed.
The quiet landscapes evoke incidents which memory has been suppressed for decades. Although there is no visible trace of what happened in these locations, the photographer managed to convey the sadness and anxiety these young men must have experienced in those early mornings.
I've seen countless books and exhibitions of images taken by photojournalists reporting from the battle fields. Some of the images were truly frightful and depressing. Yet, frequent exposure to war photography have almost numbed my feelings. I go from one image to the next one and, at best, only a fleeting memory of what i've just seen remains. Conflict, Time, Photography revitalized a sense of horror and dismay that war images (should) provoke. By forcing me to reflect on the impact that conflicts have on people, culture and places over time, this show will haunt me for years to come.
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin have a couple of works in the exhibition. One of them is People In Trouble Laughing Pushed To The Ground which uses fragments of images of Belfast Exposed, a collection of images taken by professional photo-journalists and 'civilian' photographers who documented life under the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Whenever someone selected an image in the archive for use, it was market by a red, yellow or blue sticker. Broomberg and Chanarin enlarged and reprinted the area beneath the dots, revealing puzzling, romantic, amusing or brutal fragments of life under the Troubles.
70 years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, Luc Delahaye photographed the forensic exhumation of a mass grave containing the bodies of Republican fighters executed during the Spanish civil war.
In October 2012, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg had the opportunity to photograph the former USSR nuclear weapons test site near the city of Kurchatov in Kazakhstan. The photographs depict the pitiful remnants of a megalomaniacal arms race.
Nick Waplington captured drawings and words left on the walls by the prisoners of a war camp in South Wales where the low and mid level SS where kept before being sent to Nuremburg for trail.
Sophie Ristelhueber traveled to Kuwait months after the end of the First Gulf War to record the physical traces of the conflict. The aerial and ground-level photos depict bombed out terrains, mangled machinery, still-burning oil fields, tank tracks and other "scars" left on the landscape.
Stephen Shore met Ukrainian holocaust survivors in their houses. There are a few portraits but most of the images detail their belongings. From baby pink plastic radio to ordinary kitchen corners.
In the months after the end of the first world war, architect Pierre Anthony-Thouret documented the destruction of the city of Reims.
1. Nukic, Nezir, 1928 (exact birth date unknown). Forester and road builder. Zivinice, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2. Mehic, Zumra, 09 Dec. 1950. Homemaker. Kladanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
3. Mehic, Bajazit, 16 Sept. 1972 – 11 July 1995. Mortal remains, International Commission on Missing Persons, Podrinje Identification Project. Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In one of the pieces of the series A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I – XVIII , Taryn Simon looked for the survivors of the Srebrenica massacre and built up their family trees. Most of the photos show women and children. Missing members are represented by blanks or by dental fragments found in mass graves.
I'll end with a photo that hangs in one of the rooms titled Moments After. Don McCullin's portrait of a shell shocked marine was taken just minutes after he had been engaged in a bloody battle in Vietnam.
Conflict, Time, Photography is at Tate Modern until 15 March 2015.
Posted in art in London, photography. Bookmark the permalink.


Are we--are we in Owl's House?
I think so, because we were just going to have tea, and we hadn't had it.
Oh! Well, did Owl always have a letter-box in his ceiling?
I can't see. I'm face downwards under something, and that, Piglet, is a very bad position for looking at ceilings.
Perhaps he's changed it, just for a change.
Pooh, did you do that?
I think it was the wind. I think your house has blown down.
Oh, is that it? I thought it was Pooh.


The American creative-writing community comes together every year for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. This year's conference, held in Los Angeles from March 31 through April 2, featured far-reaching conversations about diversity, inclusion, access, race, and racism that have been simmering and, more recently, boiling. While the vibe at the conference was mostly positive, a great deal of anger was also expressed. Writers are attempting to address these issues, by protesting, advocating new programming, and developing caucuses within AWP.
Perhaps the most notable evidence of, and response to, the mounting frustrations was the AWP keynote delivered by poet Claudia Rankine, whose 2014 collection, Citizen, brought attention to the myriad ways racism is expressed in everyday situations and made Rankine a public intellectual. The speech, which AWP will publish in its entirety in the fall issue of its Writer's Chronicle magazine, is an indictment of institutionalized racism within the creative-writing community.
Rankine said that even some writing programs with a diverse student body "have successfully tokenized a person of color, objectified, exploited, and disregarded her all at once." As an example, she cited a letter she received from an anonymous African-American student "who was thinking of leaving his or her program because they were told that certain life experiences are said to belong to sociology and not to poetry, and that to write beyond the imagination's notion of normality is to write political poetry, sociology, identity politics poetry, protest poetry—many labels, but none of them poetry. For in order for poetry to be poetry, white readers must find it relatable, and only then can it transcend its unrelatable colored writer." According to Rankine, simply admitting people of color into creative-writing programs doesn't solve the deeper problems.
Rigoberto González, poet and faculty member at Rutgers University–Newark, agrees and looks toward steps his program and others might take.
Most AWP events are selected by a subcommittee through an application process, and though conference subcommittees have worked to create schedules with diversity-focused panels, not everyone is confident the members are using the right criteria.
In addition to panels and readings, AWP also solicits proposals for caucuses, which, according to the AWP submission guidelines, "should be made up of a specific demographic group that shares academic, literary, and professional development concerns." An AWP caucus is a way to establish an annual gathering, and a kind of mini-organization with AWP, for a group that wants to represent its interests and to amplify its voice within the larger creative-writing community.
There is currently a Latino caucus, a women's caucus, an LGBTQ caucus, and others. AWP 2016 saw the establishment of a disability caucus, which seeks to address longstanding complaints about accessibility at the conferences and to foster more disability-related programming, and an Asian-American caucus.
This year also saw the first Asian-American Caucus at AWP. Ken Chen, who was involved with its establishment, said, "AWP helped us create a wonderful community space for Asian-American writers of color to gather." But he has reservations about AWP's caucus system as a whole. "The organization also vetoed my petition to create a social justice caucus," he said, "which is ironic, since the idea of 'Asian-American identity' came out of the Asian-American movement," a social justice groundswell that originated in San Francisco in the late 1960s.
Obviously, the issues around race and accessibility within the creative-writing community are broad and not limited to those described here, nor to just the AWP conference. As Teresi said, change happens slowly over time. And as González and others said, the conversations going on now represent progress and also lay the groundwork for action that needs to be taken within academic institutions, within AWP, and by individuals. The anger and progress of the last year serve as reminders of how much work remains to make the creative writing community truly inclusive.
Below, more on the subject of M.F.A. programs.
Correction: This article was modified to reflect that the disability caucus was established before the online petition over accessibility, not because of it.


I was half way through "Devotion Time" and I'd just read that day's assigned bible passage to my cabin of campers. I was about to read off the bullet points of What the passage teaches us when a camper interrupted to tell me that my shoes were "whack". I don't know what it was about this quaint slang that drove me into a state of anger and shame, but the next minute I was alone in the staff cabin and knocking the Windows 98 screen out of its reverie. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for but I knew I had to find a community that was not entirely at odds with everything I valued.
Kyrill and his "whack" shoes at Catholic camp in the US.
I don't know how I found the Camp Quest UK site. The site had one white page with a little tent in the middle and, if I remember correctly, an animated gif of a fire. But more importantly it also had a values statement and an application form for new staff to join this as yet non-existent organisation with three weeks before the deadline. I researched more about Camp Quest and I knew I'd found my purpose.
Don't tell anyone, but for the rest of that summer, during "Devotion Time", I mixed the bible passages with short stories by Asimov, Vonnegut and Carter and let the campers discuss what they thought it was all about.
Ten months later I met my first crew of similar-minded young renegades at our first camp in Somerset. It is still truly remarkable to me that we the few who learn the names of stars, cry at "Matilda" and disrupt small talk with our strange questions should have found such a home in Camp Quest. Be it archery, singing or debate, everything is better when you do it with people who listen to the world. The members of this community, both young and less-young, invigorate, stimulate and yearly fill me with new wonder and new hope. As our very first campers become our camp leaders, I hope that we may remain a beacon to lost travellers forever.
Kyrill is an English teacher in London, and has been a part of Camp Quest UK every year since our first camp in 2009. He is very close to completing a novel.
It's hard to put into words what Camp Quest means to me, and how it's changed me as a person (it has changed me – there's no doubt about that). I've been every year since it came to the UK in 2009, and now at 19 I'm more than proud to be a volunteer.
I suppose finding myself in an accepting environment with people like me was a huge change. Growing up I often struggled, like most children and teenagers, to fit in, but never did I feel more self-assured and open than when I was at Camp Quest. I love how, unlike any other event I've been part of, Camp Quest pushed me to question and learn topics that might often be considered "too complicated" for children to understand or even have views on. I was fed up with the idea that because I was 12 (or 13 or 14 – it goes on!) I wasn't old enough to form my own opinion.
Questioning what I was taught was looked down upon elsewhere – but not at Camp Quest. And now I've reached the age where my opinions are given more weight, I'm actually able to reason and question, unlike so many people who were never given the platform when they were younger.
But whilst the discussions and the activities are great, what I find really defines Camp Quest is the people. I met one of my closest friends at Camp Quest, who I'm certain I will keep in touch with for the rest of my life. Before I met her, my writing had only been for myself. I soon found myself sharing my work with her; her encouragement drove me to write my first novel at 15 (a whopping 140,000 words). That level of motivation is practically alien to me, and I doubt I would have found it at any place other than Camp Quest. It somehow attracts clear-minded, kind, accepting people from all around the country. I felt no need to act like I was someone else or pretend I didn't care about certain issues; for what was possibly the first time, all of me was accepted in a group setting. So for that I'd like to thank Camp Quest, and wish it a fortunate 2016!


text:
Archive for QARY
Posted in Classic Sci-Fi, Mystical Experience, Unknown with tags arthur c clarke, artificial intelligence, bowman, danny, HAL, light tunnel, monolith, projection, QARY, sophie, stanley kubrick, TMA-1 on November 23, 2012 by javedbabar
QARY's production of The Time Machine was voted a top ten show by Arcadia's critics. They said it rang true, and the time travel sequences had exceeded even Sophie's expectations. Danny and the technical team had done an amazing job.
It was incredible to think that just eighteen months ago this had been an abandoned quarry. Now there was a world famous multimedia show here. No visitor to Arcadia's west coast would miss it.
Danny had wanted to produce 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than The Time Machine, but when outvoted, he had accepted gracefully, and given 100% to the new show. Maybe he was right in a sense, thought Sophie; not that 2001 was better than The Time Machine, but in saying that it would make a good show in its own right. They needed something spectacular to kick off the third season. They could look at it now. She mentioned this to the crew.
"Really! You want to do Two Thousand and One! That's fantastic!" said Danny. "I can't wait to get working on the light tunnel sequence. That will be awesome!"
One of the new girls said, "Sorry, I am not familiar with Two Thousand and One. What is it?"
"It is a confusing story," said Sophie. "There are bits I don't understand myself. Danny, could you please explain it in a user-friendly way?"
"Sure, the film was a collaboration between the director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke. They played around with the idea for years before settling on the final version. It consists of four parts, each driven by a black monolith that appears mysteriously."
"What do you mean by monolith?" asked the new girl. "A big stone like at Stonehenge?"
"Kind of, but in the film it's more like a flat panel. The first part is about the dawn of man. A monolith inspires an ape to use a bone as a tool and then as a weapon, which sets him apart from other animals. The second part is about Tycho-Magnetic Anomaly One, TMA-1, a monolith found buried on the moon. The third part is a voyage to Jupiter, following a radio signal sent by TMA-1, in a ship controlled by a powerful computer named HAL, who takes over the ship, kills most of the crew, but is eventually switched off. The fourth part is the best part, where the only surviving astronaut, Bowman, is pulled into a tunnel of coloured light. He sees himself as a dying man, and then as a child in a ball of light, gazing at the world."
The new girl looked dazed. "You want us to cover all of that in a one hour show?"
It sounds crazy, thought Sophie, but manageable. They'd produced epic myths like Gilgamesh and Beowulf, and cosmic texts like Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching. 2001 was no more difficult than those.
Danny had some ideas. "We can save cash by painting some old doors black; they will make great monoliths. I can rent a special lens to make blinking eye footage, which will save on film rights. The QARY computer can double as HAL; it's just a matter of programming some audio files."
The team produced a show true to the film. It had minimal dialogue and explanations. The imagery was ambiguous and open-ended. It was cryptic and enigmatic.
Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. The light tunnel sequence was amazing. Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. The audience was destabilized and then disorientated. Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. Things got weirder and weirder. Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. It felt like they were actually moving. Blink. Flash. Blink. Flash. People began to sway and fall. Many were sick and shrieking.
Danny tried in vain to control the QARY computer. Sophie pulled rank and threw the mains switch. Everything went dark, and then a dark shape appeared from the darkness. She hoped this was one of Danny's special effects.
Posted in Classic Sci-Fi, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags danny, Eloi, evolution, HG Wells, inventor, marxism, Morlocks, QARY, social degeneration, sophie, time machine, time travel on November 22, 2012 by javedbabar
"The Time Machine has an underground theme," said a member of the production crew, "and we could have some fun with special effects. It would be like Doctor Who in 4D! It gets my vote for next month's show."
"What about 2001: A Space Odyssey?" said Danny. "We could really make something of that last bit, with the crazy colours and blinking eye."
Sophie was proud of the QARY project's success. Converting the old quarry into a venue for multimedia shows had been her baby. She was looking for a show to complete the second season; the short list comprised The Time Machine, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984.
The latter two had been discounted. Fahrenheit 451 because its flames would be too disturbing underground, and 1984 because its world of tiny apartments, two-way screens, media brainwash and endless wars, already existed. People may as well stay at home.
Sophie said, "Okay, who wants Time Machine?" Some hands rose. "Two Thousand and One?" A few less. "The Time Machine wins. So as we discussed, there are three main journeys. The first is the table top model disappearing in front of the inventor's dinner guests. It's a minor plot point but we could beef it up. The second journey is the one to 802,701 A.D., where he meets the Eloi and Morlocks. That's the main part of the story. The third journey is the one thirty million years into the future, where he sees a dying earth and menacing red crablike creatures, and black blobs with tentacles."
Danny said, "Will we have use of the third chamber for the show?"
"Good question. The renovation of the third chamber is almost complete, but we have unresolved health and safety issues, in particular black mould. Hey, maybe we could use that to bring the black blobs to life." The production crew chuckled.
Danny had been difficult initially, but was now her most helpful crew member. Even though his favourite idea hadn't been chosen, he was right back to 100% commitment on the idea that had. He said, "We could use the two main chambers to create Eloi and Morlock worlds. That would give them scale and depth. The inventor's home is only there for framing than story. We could create it in the entrance area, or even by narration alone."
Sophie thought, yes, that would work. The thrust of the story is the ultimate result of modern industrial relations. Bosses and workers became distinct classes of people with little in common, something Wells was very worried about.
The best way to show this would be to create two different worlds. Sophie directed the crew to focus on this separation in a modern context. She told them to create opulent and restless worlds.
The Eloi world was very bright. There were small communities of happy elfin people in large futuristic buildings. They performed no work, just spent their lives at ease, laughing and playing, whilst consuming a healthy, fruitarian diet.
The Morlock world was dense and dark. The noise of grinding machinery was everywhere as evidence of their constant industry. Stocky, brutish people moved around in a threatening manner, awaiting their chance to catch and eat you.
On opening night Sophie noticed something disturbing. Unlike previous shows, people were not moving between the chambers. Professional people reclined in the Eloi area, while unskilled workers and their families walked around the Morlock world. It seemed the process of social degeneration was underway.
Posted in Global Travel, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags crimson rooster, danny, end time, fenrir wolf, midgard serpent, multimedia, poetic edda, QARY, sophie, sound and light show, valhalla, yggdrasil on November 21, 2012 by javedbabar
Danny said, "I am sorry I was being difficult before. You know what you are doing here. You are doing a good job."
"Thanks for saying that," said Sophie, "but what was your issue, exactly? I was never really sure." She had an inkling, but wanted to hear it from him.
"Well, I had the same idea four years ago. I mean, converting the old quarry into a multimedia venue. When I visited Egypt I saw the Pyramids of Giza's sound and light show, and thought something like that could work here too. I told the village CEO but she wouldn't listen, and then hey presto – someone has the bright idea to turn the old quarry into a multimedia venue. I thought you had stolen my idea, and taken all the credit, and was really mad. I hoped you would fail, and you almost did when it flooded, but now I accept that you developed this idea independently. I submit."
He bowed and then continued dropping, as if to the floor. Was he really going to prostrate himself? Normally Sophie would have let him continue – why not? – but after his confession, she felt he had fallen enough. It was time to raise him.
She said, "Look, I have made many mistakes too. Each show is a new show, and I'm learning continuously, but the process is becoming familiar, and I have a talented and reliable team. Thanks for all your help to date, Danny."
He was itching to ask something, she could tell. He said, "What about the current show? Are you happy with how it's turned out?"
Ragnarok had been a strange choice, granted. A cataclysmic story compiled from the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda of Iceland. Her father had been a captain in the merchant navy, and told her Norse myths as bedtime stories whenever she stayed with him. He had left her mother when Sophie was five, for "another woman in another port," her mother told her years later.
"Yes I am happy," said Sophie. "But I hope things don't turn out like that in reality, or if they do, then not in our lifetimes."
The show was sold out. People came to QARY whatever the story. It was on the itinerary of every visitor to the west coast of Arcadia, as something not to be missed.
Ragnarok's series of future events, and great battles foretold, were made for multimedia. The occurrence of natural disasters, destruction and submersion of the world, and its resurfacing and repopulation by two human survivors, gave her technicians a chance to show off.
They put a live rooster in each room, whose every movement was tracked, triggering sounds and visuals. The Crimson Rooster in the forest caused Yggdrasil, the world tree, to shudder and groan. The Golden Rooster in Valhalla made the Eagle shriek. The Soot-Red Rooster in Hel made the Midgard Serpent writhe. The Hound growled before the Cave. The Giant strode from the east. The Ship broke free and set sail westwards. Odin was swallowed by the wolf Fenrir.
Ragna means "ruling powers".
Rock means both "the end" and "renewal".
Ragnarok is thus an ending and a beginning.
Danny said, "What if it really happened, and we were the only two humans left?"
Ah! So that's it, thought Sophie. He likes me; he's coming on to me. She said, "Well then you would be a very lucky guy, as that is the only way I would ever consider dating you."
Posted in Conceptual Art, Global Travel, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags bloom, danny, dublin, holy family, joyce, molly, odysseus, projection, QARY, sophie, stream of consciousness on November 20, 2012 by javedbabar
"We have a dramatic issue here," said Sophie. "How do we chronicle the passage of Leopold Bloom during an ordinary day in Dublin, and establish the parallels with Odysseus's journey across the Mediterranean to Greece?"
She had seen a production of Ulysses in the New City, where Bloom wore a baby goldfish costume and swam alongside Odysseus' ship. At first she had giggled continuously, but then become grumpy. It was great to be creative but not ridiculous.
When she had later questioned the director, he said, "Did you know that Joyce first encountered Odysseus in a children's book called The Adventures of Ulysses?" Sophie knew that Ulysses was the Roman name for Odysseus, in the same way that they called Poseidon, Neptune, and Aphrodite, Venus. "He later wrote an essay at school called My Favourite Hero. That is why I wanted to portray him as a youngster."
"And why a goldfish?"
"The publication of Ulysses attracted great controversy and scrutiny. Joyce was tried for obscenity, and there were protracted textual wars. It was as if his characters were contained in a goldfish bowl, being watched constantly. That was also the manner in which Joyce dissected the city of Dublin. You see the…" His eyes jerked towards Molly, emerging sans make up from backstage. "Oh darling! You were so fabulous! Mwah! Mwah!"
Sophie agreed that Molly had been fabulous, in the way that only a naked rainbow dolphin could be.
The production team at QARY, the old quarry now used to stage multimedia shows, said nothing at first. Maybe they were unfamiliar with the text. But after a while Danny said, "Couldn't we do the whole thing as a stream-of-consciousness piece? I know it is heavily structured, but maybe we can find some anchor points to demarcate flow."
Sophie stared at Danny. He was usually the troublemaker in the team, the jester and trickster, but here he was producing constructive ideas. She said, "It sounds like you know the work well."
He blushed and said, "Well, not really. I studied it at high school. It was a choice of that or Dante's Divine Comedy. Joyce seemed the easier option."
The production team suggested other ideas.
"Dress Bloom as Odysseuss. As he walks through Dublin he is transformed into a Centurion, Britannia, a Knight of the Round Table, and a Celtic warrior."
"Set the whole thing on a ship with the characters as crew members."
"Make it a huge feast with each chapter as a different course."
The best suggestion was to use each of the three chambers for different parallel characters – Bloom-Odysseus, Molly-Penelope, and Stephen-Telemachus.
When the production opened, Sophie saw that this structure worked well. The audience wandered between the chambers continuously, integrating the three persons of this holy family, the archetypal father, mother and son.
In other shows the audience had mainly stayed put, lined up along walls and gathered in corners. This had annoyed The Authority as they couldn't keep an eye on them there. The more people that moved between rooms, the better CCTV could track them.
Odysseus was watched by the gods of Olympus. The citizens of Lucerne had The Authority's Security Officers.
Posted in Global Travel, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags arjuna, danny, dharma, krishna, kurukshetra, moral, multimedia, myth, QARY, quarry, sophie, war on November 19, 2012 by javedbabar
"Why can't we do proper stories?" said Danny. He was still unhappy about Tao Te Ching being forced upon him last month.
Maybe his mind is totally rational, thought Sophie, and this stuff is too wacky for him. But there was more to it than that.
He said, "It's another piece of religious propaganda. Myths I am okay with, as nobody treats them seriously. People think of them as meaningful stories, but don't insist they are the word of God. I don't believe in supernatural agencies, full stop."
He is becoming more troublesome, thought Sophie. I could fire him but he's such a great technician. I would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.
"Going back to your original point, Danny, this is a proper story. The Bhagavad Gita is part of one of the greatest stories ever told, the Mahabharata, which is ten times longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. The Gita is its essence."
There were regular battles between Danny and Sophie. She liked working with people who brought positive energy to tasks. Danny's endless negativity was tiresome and it affected other crew members. To pull off multimedia spectaculars at QARY, the converted old quarry, she needed a tight team. There was no room for cowards and traitors.
Sophie wasn't against conflict. It was a way of sizing up opposing views, integrating, and hopefully transcending them, to a higher form of thought. Could she do that with Danny? He would need convincing. It was her leadership test.
She said, "Gandhi called the Gita his spiritual dictionary. Within it he sought the answer to every difficult question, and its teachings inspired the Indian independence movement. Do you practice yoga? You don't? Okay, what about other people? Ah, most of you do. The Gita contains the essence of yoga; it details Karma, the yoga of action, Bhakti, the yoga of love, and Jnana, the yoga of knowledge, and promotes a positive philosophy of life."
Danny was grinning, so Sophie asked, "What's up?"
"I thought you would try to overwhelm us with stuff like this, so I did my own research. The whole story is about a war. The prince, Arjuna, is caught up in a huge battle; his brothers are on one side, and his cousins, uncles, teachers and friends are on the other. He doesn't want to fight at all, he wants to make peace, and if he can't do that, he would rather die than kill others.
"But his charioteer, Krishna, tells him to fight. He says it is his duty to fight. He has to do the best he can, regardless of outcome. And the Gita speaks highly of the caste system, and about women as lowly. Why do you want us to promote these ideas?"
Sophie was furious. Danny was trying to derail her project. She said, "I am sure you know it is symbolic. Sure, a war analogy is problematic. It can be misinterpreted, but it can also be used to show the ethical and moral struggles of life." She decided to cut short her sermon and practice Karma Yoga instead.
They ran through the production's practical aspects and then discussed the climax, where Krishna reveals that he is the ultimate cause of all material and spiritual existence, and his cosmic form, Visvarupa, is unleashed, a theophany facing every direction.
Sophie said, "So we will need one thousand projectors to emit the radiance of a thousand suns, and one thousand mirrors to contain all beings in material existence. Danny you are in charge of procuring those."
"But I won't be able to get so many so quickly."
Sophie gave him a hard look and said, "Well just do the best you can. That's the message of the Gita."
Posted in Global Travel, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags contradictions, danny, doing by not doing, inspiration, joint, koan, multimedia, mystical, QARY, quarry, sophie, Tao on November 18, 2012 by javedbabar
"This is ridiculous," said Danny. "Can you please make up your mind which comes first, Tao Ching or Te Ching?"
"Well, that is what we are discussing," said Sophie. "It could be either."
"Isn't the name of the work Tao Te Ching? It has eighty-one chapters in a particular order, so why don't we stick with that?"
The rest of the production crew looked at each other in general agreement, but also at Danny, annoyed. He didn't know how to endear himself to people. Sophie was much better at that.
She said, "Because there is a school of thought that the first thirty seven chapters, Tao Ching, and the next forty four chapters, Te Ching, were reversed in the original text. The original may work better for dramatic purposes. I want to hear everyone's thoughts on this before scheduling the show."
Tao Te Ching had been an unpopular choice from the beginning. It lacked the narrative structure of previous productions such as Osiris, Beowulf or Gilgamesh. It was a mystical work full of contradictions.
Sophie envisioned the show as an experiential rather than narrative production, and had in truth, forced it upon them. The QARY project was her baby. It was she who had initiated the conversion of the old quarry into a venue for multimedia productions. She would call the shots.
Danny persisted in being difficult. He said, "Look, it's easy to do. I know how to do it. We are trying to create the essential, unfathomable process of the universe. Something dreamy and mysterious, strange and illuminating. It's the feeling you get when you're stoned. All we have to do is re-create that."
The production crew sniggered and ribbed each other. Sophie wanted to smile but kept a straight face. "Thank you for that, Danny. Why don't you bring a joint for everyone to the next meeting? One, two, three…ten, eleven, twelve. That's twelve joints, okay?"
Danny said, "Okay," weakly, and Sophie forgot all about it.
At the next meeting, Danny looked pleased with himself. He opened a golden silk pouch embroidered with a dragon, and produced twelve joints. Everyone cheered.
Sophie had given up smoking four years ago but still indulged in herbs. Once everyone had a joint in hand, she said, "First I will recap, and then let's brainstorm."
She reminded them that Tao Te Ching is filled with short deliberate statements and intentional contradictions. Memorable phrases are delivered, and readers forced to create their own reconciliations of the supposed contradictions.
Poets, painters, warriors and gardeners had used it as a source of inspiration for millennia. It had political advice for kings, and practical wisdom for regular people. It had a long textual history and a limitless variety of interpretations. What could the production team glean from the work? They examined a few phrases together.
"The Tao that can be told, is not the Eternal Tao."
"Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding."
"If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial."
"The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done."
"That doesn't make any sense," said Danny. "I am not doing this production."
Sophie smiled and said, "You have a choice to make Danny. There is doing by doing, which is effective work; there is doing by not doing, which means avoiding mistakes; there is not doing by doing, which means correcting errors. There is also not doing by not doing, which is unemployment. Which do you prefer?"
Posted in Conceptual Art, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags camelot, compassion, grail, green, percival, projection, QARY, quarry, sophie, the question, villian, witch hunt on November 17, 2012 by javedbabar
Sophie didn't want to return to work after the flood. A hundred people had died at the old quarry at an event that she had produced. It was doubly bad because as well as Lucerne Valley's Chief Producer she was also its Crisis Manager.
How could this have happened on her watch?
She had asked herself that question a hundred times, and always came to the same conclusion – because she had been overruled by her CEO. Knowing this had caused her to have a nervous breakdown, but what could she do against the instant, modern, social media spin machine?
The Authority had put their weight behind her boss and Sophie was made out to be the villain. It was said that despite the Flood Alert, she had permitted the Gilgamesh multimedia show to continue. It was highly irresponsible to have five hundred people underground whilst there was active flood risk. Sophie's denials were in vain, and she was suspended with immediate effect. The local paper's headline was "Soph-ictitious!"
A month later the official story changed. Sophie was now portrayed as a hero. They said that never for a moment did she forget her duty as Crisis Manager. She had managed to manually override systems and save the lives of four hundred people. She was reinstated on a higher pay scale. The paper now read "Soph-antastic!"
Sophie wished that she'd never had the idea of using the quarry, now branded QARY, for multimedia productions. The Authority had invested heavily in the project, and this commercial juggernaut was now unstoppable. Production meetings had continued in her absence for the next scheduled production, the earliest version of the Grail quest, that of Percival. Most of the preparations were complete, but she had always been the hub of operations and they needed her on site. That explained her reinstatement.
Sophie asked to meet her CEO, who was, for some reason, wearing big sunglasses indoors. She must have been on the martinis last night. Sophie said, "The script is okay, but I need to change the set projections." She was wary of this woman now and wanted to keep the meeting brief.
Her boss said, "Go on, I am listening."
"We should establish a green theme throughout the show. From the forest where Percival is raised by his mother, far away from knightly culture, to his arrival at Camelot and defeat of the Green Knight and taking of his armour, to his meeting the Fisher King at a pool in the woods, the colour green is essential. Even when he witnesses the strange procession in the castle, the Grail gives off a greenish glow."
Her boss took off her sunglasses. She had two shiners, both fresh and green.
Should Sophie ask her about them? She decided not to. This woman had screwed her over royally. Who cared about her bloody eyes.
Sophie continued, "And when the castle disappears, Percival finds himself again in the forest. When he gets a second chance to see the Grail, he asks the question, and…"
Sophie stopped suddenly. Of course, the question. Percival had been instructed at Camelot that it was wrong to talk too much, and not to ask personal questions. He was taught to be a man of culture rather than one of nature. So he hadn't asked the question in his heart; he hadn't asked the Fisher King about the cause of his pain, and the suffering that cursed his kingdom.
Was Sophie making the same mistake?
She asked her CEO, "What happened to your eyes? Are you okay?"
Her boss began to cry. She told Sophie that she had been beaten by her drunken husband. She said he did it "now and then". This time he was annoyed by her screaming during nightmares. She had suffered from them since being told to lie about the hundred people dying in the flood. They hadn't really. It was all a stunt to reduce demand for QARY productions. The Authority wanted to change it into a corporate venue. She was so sorry for making Sophie look like a villain, she'd had no choice.
Sophie was stunned. By asking the question, she had discovered the answer that she needed to hear. She hadn't killed anyone.
Posted in Conceptual Art, Mystical Experience, World Myths with tags addiction, beowulf, cave, dragon, gold, grendel, heorot, monster, projection, QARY, quarry, sophie on November 15, 2012 by javedbabar
Osiris was a commercial success, though not a romantic one. Things ended badly for Isis, who lost her beloved husband Osiris, and for Sophie, whose love interest Ahmad disappeared. Maybe the shows at QARY were too real, thought Sophie, and affecting material reality. What a crazy thought.
As the next production Sophie selected Beowulf, which also had an underworld theme. To be precise it was an underwater cave, but that was near enough.
"I've seen monsters here," said Albert, the quarry's last manager before mining operations ceased. "There were days when you couldn't bear to go in for fear of what lurked in the shadows. You tasted the dust, darkness made you see things, and rocks made you hear things. The quarry seemed alive to us and sometimes when we went too far, she punished us. Many good men were lost over the years, about one every season. They were our sacrifices to the mine. I'm glad you've brought the quarry back to life, but you better be careful with her."
They gathered for a pre-production meeting. Sophie said, "Okay, we've pretty much decided on layout. We'll make the first chamber Heorot, the mead hall, the second chamber Grendel's mother's lair, and the third chamber the Dragon's cave." Everyone nodded. "Instead of a linear narrative, this time we're trying something less structured." They nodded again. "Each chamber has a monster which can move between the stages, so raising the drama."
This was their fourth production together, and the team had gelled. They had a good understanding of each other's preferences, relative weaknesses and strengths.
Within four weeks the production was ready to go. The first three nights were sold out in advance. QARY had become a big money spinner for Lucerne.
The first chamber was stunning. Its bare rock walls, floors, ceiling and pillars were filled with projections. They seemed covered by rich tapestries and paintings, and hung with swords, shields and armour. The gems on the weapons glittered like stars.
Feasting Dane warriors were slaughtered by gruesome Grendel. He crushed their skulls and ribs and feasted on their brains and hearts. Brave Geats came from across the waters to help them; their King, Beowulf, killed the monster by ripping off his arm.
The second chamber used mood lighting only. It was the underwater lair of Grendel's mother, who had continued to slaughter warriors as revenge for her son's death. The epic battle between her and Beowulf caused splashes of red to multiply till they filled the whole chamber.
The third chamber also used mood lighting. After Beowulf's victory in Denmark, he had returned to Geatland and ruled for fifty years. One day a dragon guarding a hoard of gold was awoken, and laid waste the land. Beowulf's final heroic act was to rid his kingdom of this cruel dragon, and whilst doing so he was injured and died.
During the performance, groups of people hid in chambers and moved around. There was indeed no separation between mythic and historical, and real and imagined events. These people were fighting modern monsters – drugs, alcohol, glue, lust, greed, anger and many other addictions. The dark corners of QARY were the perfect place to indulge them all.


An Oregon program honors the state's oldest farms in continuous operation, including two farms that have been tilled for 150 years.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon program honored the state's oldest farms in continuous operation at a ceremony Saturday, including two farms that have been tilled for 150 years.
The awards reported on by the Capital Press also include a dozen farming operations that are a century old from all over the state, from populous Multnomah County to rural areas in Umatilla and Wasco counties.
Mullen Farms is one of two sesquicentennial farms designated this year by the Oregon Century Farm and Ranch Program.
Founded in 1852, seven years before Oregon became a state, a farm in Saint Paul, Ore., is continuing to build on its legacy as a family operation.
"We are definitely a family farm," said Jerry Mullen, great-great-grandson of one of the farm's founders, Patrick Mullen.
Through the years, it has been important to every generation to keep the farm going and in the family, Mullen said. He never knew his dad, who died when Mullen was two years old, but Mullen spent a lot of time with his grandfather, Charles S. Mullen Sr., who taught him about the farm.
On the property is a house where Mullen's grandfather was born and lived for 101 years.
"It was important to my granddad especially that we kept the farm together," Mullen said.
Mullen recalled growing up on the farm mentioning how they had their own pigs, dairy and granary.
"I grew up with all that to self-sustain and then grow enough to make some cash," Mullen said.
"We are doing everything we can do at this point to make sure it is a viable farm going forward," he said.
The other sesquicentennial farm honored this year is the Robinson Stillwell Taggart Farm in Dayton. It was founded in 1844 when Benjamin and Elizabeth Robinson came to the Oregon territory on a wagon train.
"(The farm) has been a source of pride for our family for generations," said John Taggart, the current owner of the farm.
The farm is leased to a couple who Taggart says he is close to and trusts. Taggart lives in Eastern Oregon and wants to keep the farm because of its history.
— J.G. Kuenzi Farm, H.M.K., began in 1917 after the founder traded a smaller farm in Mt. Pleasant for the 217-acre farm near Silverton. The farm has grown different types of berries over the years, as well as grass seed, hogs and clover.
— Watts Ranch in Klamath County was founded in 1910 when its founders, Jim and Jack Watts, moved to Oregon from Utah. The family runs cattle and grows hay.
— Brown Farm, in Morrow County, goes back to 1912 when Chris P. Brown, an immigrant from Denmark, purchased 350 acres to grow wheat. His grandson and his grandson's wife, Chris E. and Kathy Brown, currently run the operation.
— Wilsonview Dairy Inc. was founded in 1918 in Tillamook County by the Josi family, which immigrated from Switzerland and began a dairy in a lease-to-buy arrangement.
— Henry W. Jones Farm in Yamhill County has been operated by four generations of the Jones family. They have grown many crops including clover, wheat, oats and silage corn. Today, the farm is run by Steve Jones, the great-grandson of the original founder, Henry W. Jones, who purchased the farm in 1918.
— Howard-Allstott Ranch in Umatilla County was founded by William Howard in 1884, when the homestead claim was approved. The ranch was eventually passed down throughout the generations to Richard and Dorothy Howard Allstott, the great-granddaughter of the founder.
— The Rockwell-Doherty farm was founded in 1906 by Seth and Sarah Rockwell in Umatilla County. The farm has seen many different uses through the years, including fruit orchards, raising horses and growing irrigated wheat, pasture grass and alfalfa. Richard Doherty now runs it for the family.
— Tilla-Bay Farms in Tillamook County began when Fred and Gotfried Josi purchased the land in 1918. In the beginning, the dairy operation consisted of 24 milk cows. Today the dairy is operated by the founder's granddaughter, Terry Mizee and her husband, Bart, along with their son, Kurt Mizee.
— DeLano Farms in Clackamas County was founded by Hatsil DeLano in 1916 as a nearly 57-acre plot and today has grown to 216 acres. Over the years the farm has shifted from dairy and vegetable production in the early years to cattle and hay production and added a horse barn and arena. Karen DeLano now runs the horse barn and Renata Squier raises cattle and hay.
— Sandoz farm was founded in 1880 in Wasco County by three brothers, Alphonse, Arnold and Charles Sandoz. They grew root vegetables, fruit trees and grapes. Ted, Charles Lee and Mary Sandoz are the third generation and operate a farmstand where they sell USDA beef and pork along with fruit, vegetables and other products.
— Beitel Farm was established in 1915 by Alois and Cecilia Beitel in Marion County. Currently, the farm grows grass seed is being passed on from John J. and Debbie Beitel to the next generation, John R. Beitel. In the early days, the farm was typical of many farms during the time with chickens, sheep, cows and pigs.
— Tideman Johnson Farm goes back to 1880 when Tideman and Olava Johnson settled 60 acres in Multnomah County. At one point part of the farm was donated to the city of Portland as a park. The original farmland still owned by the family is around 8 acres. However, the family continues to farm the land in cooperation with several organizations.
The Oregon Century Farm and Ranch Program is administered by the Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation for Education.


Browse, search and watch Yao Ming audio, videos and more at KFH Radio.
Golic & Jason Fitz talked about baseball changing pace of play. Plus, Bobby Marks on NBA teams in the luxury tax and what's to come from it.
The guys talk about the Cavs recent struggles and then break down the possibility of a big change in the NCAA transfer rules and more.
Greeny & Golic discussed the Celtics winning the NBA Draft Lottery while the Lakers received the second pick and the Warriors crushing the Spurs, Plus David Ortiz.


Are you a contractor or a house builder? We want to help you, help your clients create some amazing living spaces!
Here at The Tile People we have been importing tiles from around the world for over 15 years. We have built some strong relationships with Factories and agents which in turn allows us to offer a huge range of tiles in all shapes and sizes. From mosaics to huge 1m x 3m Porcelain pannels and everything in between.
Yes we do boast a large showroom open to all members of the trade and the public, but we want to offer more than that. We understand the importance of a great service when choosing wall and floor tiles. Whats more is we want to help our customers help their customers create beautiful living spaces with our tiles.
By bringing a selection of our tiles to site we feel its a great way for you the contractor and the end user to choose tiles and have any questions answered there and then by our professional staff.
Why choose The Tile People for your projects?
You will receive a highly professional service from a family run business that is well established with the capability of supplying tiles for any type of project, Big or Small. We have a large warehouse space with the ability to hold thousands of meters in stock.
Visit our new Site for tons of information on projects, new technology and much more.


Waste is not something we want to think about every day, but managing waste and protecting our precious natural resources have long-term environmental consequences that cannot be ignored.
Reducing wasteful actions starts with you - even small changes go a long way to improving the environment.
The Recycling, Trash & Energy page was created to help Cathedral City residents and businesses live a GREENER life. Use this page to learn more about recycling events, reuse, energy and water conservation programs.
Participate in just one program and you will make an impact.


text:
Updated 1 Jan 2018
What you think I did all that just so I can say it's not a thing? well, ha. its a thing and its coming to a theaters near you (on your computer on Scratch... and its a game) also just don't mess with anything like the picture, the name and this description. Add official stuff to the group and I, Swang Johnson, (EveryWorld) make the decisions of who's in.
Ha lol it was all a lie ECKS DEE
Bob's World


text:
20 days in France, United Kingdom & Amsterdam Itinerary
Created using Inspirock Europe tour itinerary planner
Start: Dunedin, New Zealand
Dunedin (DUD) — Edinburgh (EDI)
32h via AKL, ORD(flight time: 29h)
Dunedin (DUD) — Glasgow (GLA)
31h via AKL, YVR, KEF
Glasgow (GLA) — Glasgow, Cathedral Street
Glasgow, Cathedral Street — Edinburgh
Dunedin — Queenstown (ZQN)
Queenstown (ZQN) — Edinburgh (EDI)
31h via BNE, DXB
Edinburgh (EDI) — London Heathrow (LHR)
Edinburgh (EDI) — Birmingham (BHX)
Birmingham (BHX) — Birmingham International
Birmingham International — London
London Heathrow (LHR) — Paris CDG (CDG)
4h 15min non-stop(flight time: 1h 10min)
London — Folkestone
Folkestone — Calais-Fréthun
Calais-Fréthun — Paris
Train: 3h
Paris Orly (ORY) — Marseille (MRS)
Marseille (MRS) — Marseille Saint-Charles
Marseille Saint-Charles — Avignon
Marseille (MRS) — Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)
Marseille (MRS) — Eindhoven (EIN)
1h 50min non-stop
Eindhoven (EIN) — Eindhoven
Eindhoven — Amsterdam
Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) — Dunedin (DUD)
32h via ORD, AKL(flight time: 29h)
Amsterdam — Brussels (BRU)
Brussels (BRU) — Dunedin (DUD)
29h via ORD, AKL
Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) — Christchurch (CHC)
28h via HKG
Christchurch (CHC) — Dunedin
End: Dunedin, New Zealand
Read more about France
Read more about United Kingdom
World Heritage-listed Edinburgh combines ancient and modern in a uniquely Scottish atmosphere.
You'll discover tucked-away gems like Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Calton Hill. Scottish National Gallery and National Museum of Scotland will appeal to museum buffs. Step out of Edinburgh to go to Roslin and see Rosslyn Chapel, which is approximately 30 minutes away. Next up on the itinerary: explore the historical opulence of Edinburgh Castle, brush up on your knowledge of spirits at The Scotch Whisky Experience, get to know the fascinating history of Edinburgh Old Town, and take in the architecture and atmosphere at St Giles' Cathedral.
For where to stay, reviews, and other tourist information, read our Edinburgh tour itinerary website .
Dunedin, New Zealand to Edinburgh is an approximately 32-hour flight. You can also do a combination of flight and train; or do a combination of bus, flight, and train. The time zone difference when traveling from Dunedin to Edinburgh is minus 12 hours. In June in Edinburgh, expect temperatures between 20°C during the day and 10°C at night. Cap off your sightseeing on the 13th (Thu) early enough to travel to London.
Things to do in Edinburgh
Historic Sites Museums Parks
Find places to stay Jun 11 — 13:
10:00am, Wed Jun 12
10:00am, Tue Jun 11
Greyfriars Kirk
1:00pm, Wed Jun 12
On the 14th (Fri), contemplate in the serene atmosphere at Westminster Abbey, then learn more about the world around you at Natural History Museum, and then admire the masterpieces at The British Museum. Get ready for a full day of sightseeing on the next day: don't miss a visit to Tower of London, then explore the world behind art at National Gallery, and then don't miss a visit to Buckingham Palace.
To find where to stay, ratings, reviews, and other tourist information, you can read our London trip website .
You can fly from Edinburgh to London in 3.5 hours. Other options are to do a combination of flight and train; or drive. In June, daytime highs in London are 23°C, while nighttime lows are 13°C. Wrap up your sightseeing on the 15th (Sat) to allow time to take a train to Paris.
10:00am, Fri Jun 14
1:00pm, Sat Jun 15
12:00pm, Fri Jun 14
Your inner history buff will appreciate Champs-Elysees and Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre. Get some cultural insight at Montmartre and Musee d'Orsay. There's much more to do: admire the striking features of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, contemplate the long history of Eiffel Tower, head off the coast to Île de la Cité, and appreciate the history behind Arc de Triomphe.
For reviews, traveler tips, more things to do, and more tourist information, refer to the Paris trip planner .
Traveling by train from London to Paris takes 2.5 hours. Alternatively, you can fly; or drive. Due to the time zone difference, you'll lose 1 hour traveling from London to Paris. Traveling from London in June, you will find days in Paris are somewhat warmer (27°C), and nights are about the same (15°C). Wrap up your sightseeing on the 18th (Tue) early enough to take a train to Avignon.
10:00am, Sun Jun 16
4:00pm, Sun Jun 16
3:00pm, Tue Jun 18
City of Popes
An ancient town center surrounded by medieval ramparts, Avignon is a major city of Provence and a Mediterranean city in the Vaucluse department on the left bank of the Rhône River.
Appreciate the collections at Carrieres des Lumieres and Caverne du Pont d'Arc. Grand Site de l'Aven d'Orgnac and Chateau des Baux de Provence are good opportunities to explore the local culture. Get out of town with these interesting Avignon side-trips: Clos de L'Abbe Dubois (in Saint-Remeze), Amphitheatre (les Arenes) (in Arles) and Site Archeologique de Glanum (in Saint-Remy-de-Provence). The adventure continues: contemplate the long history of Roman Theatre of Orange, do a tasting at Domaine Albin Jacumin, step into the grandiose world of Palais des Papes, and brush up on your knowledge of spirits at Distillerie A. Blachere.
To see other places to visit, photos, ratings, and other tourist information, refer to the Avignon trip itinerary tool .
Traveling by train from Paris to Avignon takes 3 hours. Alternatively, you can do a combination of flight and train; or drive. Traveling from Paris in June, you will find days in Avignon are a bit warmer (33°C), and nights are about the same (18°C). Cap off your sightseeing on the 21st (Fri) early enough to catch the train to Marseille.
Things to do in Avignon
Historic Sites Nature Parks
Les Baux de Provence, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Site Archeologique de Glanum, Roman Theatre of Orange, Clos de L'Abbe Dubois
Amphitheatre (les Arenes)
10:30am, Thu Jun 20
Carrieres des Lumieres
12:00pm, Thu Jun 20
Grand Site de l'Aven d'Orgnac
Gateway to Provence
The 2013 European "Capital of Culture," Marseille is the largest port city on the breezy Mediterranean coast and the second largest city in France.
Let the collections at Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations and Site Memorial du Camp des Milles capture your imagination. Your cultural itinerary includes sights like Paroisse Cathédrale Saint Sauveur Aix-en-Provence and Paul Cezanne's Studio. Explore the numerous day-trip ideas around Marseille: Aix-en-Provence (Granet Museum, Hotel de Caumont - Art Centre, & more) and Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume). It doesn't end there: take in the spiritual surroundings of Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde.
To find out how to plan a trip to Marseille, use our trip itinerary maker.
Traveling by train from Avignon to Marseille takes an hour. Alternatively, you can drive; or take a bus. In June, daily temperatures in Marseille can reach 33°C, while at night they dip to 20°C. Finish your sightseeing early on the 24th (Mon) to allow enough time to travel to Amsterdam.
Things to do in Marseille
Aix-en-Provence, Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine
Hotel de Caumont - Art Centre
Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations
11:00am, Mon Jun 24
Site Memorial du Camp des Milles
Venice of the North
Known as one of the greatest small cities in the world, Amsterdam charms visitors with its cool and cozy atmosphere.
Museum-lovers will get to explore Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House. Get some cultural insight at Van Gogh Museum and Museum Het Rembrandthuis (Rembrandt House). There's lots more to do: examine the collection at Zaanse Schans, have fun and explore at NEMO Science Museum, take a stroll through The Jordaan, and sample the tasty concoctions at Heineken Experience.
To find photos, ratings, reviews, and more tourist information, refer to the Amsterdam trip itinerary planner .
Traveling by flight from Marseille to Amsterdam takes 5 hours. Alternatively, you can do a combination of flight and train; or drive. Plan for slightly colder temperatures traveling from Marseille in June, with highs in Amsterdam at 23°C and lows at 13°C. Finish your sightseeing early on the 27th (Thu) so you can travel back home.
Museums Historic Sites Childrens Museums
12:30pm, Tue Jun 25
24 days in Europe BY A USER FROM BRAZIL April, outdoors, romantic, historic sites, slow & easy, hidden gems PREFERENCES: April, outdoors, romantic, historic sites ATTRACTION STYLE: Hidden gems PACE: Slow & easy 21 days in Paris BY A USER FROM INDIA February, outdoors, relaxing, romantic, beaches, museums, shopping, popular sights PREFERENCES: February, outdoors, relaxing, romantic, beaches, museums, shopping ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Medium 24 days in Italy, Paris & Zermatt BY A USER FROM BRAZIL April, culture, outdoors, romantic, museums, fast-paced, popular sights PREFERENCES: April, culture, outdoors, romantic, museums ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Fast-paced 21 days in Europe BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES August, teens, kids, slow & easy, popular & hidden gems PREFERENCES: August, teens, kids ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular & hidden gems PACE: Slow & easy 22 days in United States & Paris BY A USER FROM AUSTRALIA December, outdoors, relaxing, romantic, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, popular sights PREFERENCES: December, outdoors, relaxing, romantic, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Medium 22 days in Europe & Mexico BY A USER FROM MEXICO July, culture, outdoors, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, wildlife, popular sights PREFERENCES: July, culture, outdoors, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, wildlife ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Medium 24 days in Europe BY A USER FROM AUSTRALIA August, slow & easy, hidden gems PREFERENCES: August ATTRACTION STYLE: Hidden gems PACE: Slow & easy 21 days in Amsterdam BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES April, culture, outdoors, relaxing, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, slow & easy, popular sights PREFERENCES: April, culture, outdoors, relaxing, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Slow & easy 22 days in Amsterdam BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES April, culture, outdoors, relaxing, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, slow & easy, popular sights PREFERENCES: April, culture, outdoors, relaxing, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Slow & easy 22 days in Europe BY A USER FROM HONG KONG July, kids, popular sights PREFERENCES: July, kids ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular sights PACE: Medium 23 days in Europe BY A USER FROM SAUDI ARABIA May, culture, outdoors, relaxing, romantic, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, wildlife, popular & hidden gems PREFERENCES: May, culture, outdoors, relaxing, romantic, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, wildlife ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular & hidden gems PACE: Medium 23 days in Europe BY A USER FROM SAUDI ARABIA May, kids, culture, relaxing, romantic, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, wildlife, popular & hidden gems PREFERENCES: May, kids, culture, relaxing, romantic, beaches, historic sites, museums, shopping, wildlife ATTRACTION STYLE: Popular & hidden gems PACE: Medium
The Best Cultural Activities in Paris
The Best Shopping in Paris


The woman is meeting her date soon. She feels excited and apprehensive of what the night will hold. Then the bell rings on the expected time and it pleases her because he kept his word about the time. A good start she thinks! Then she opened the door and he said: "You look lovely" and hand her her favourite flowers, tulips. She looks up and said shyly :"Do you really mean it?" Made with acrylics on good quality canvas, varnished and sides will be painted black. Sent off with an authenticity certificate. A colourful painting that hopefully make you smile. Thanks for viewing.


Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), which is responsible for online train ticket bookings in the country, has finally released its official Android application on Google Play, called 'IRCTC Connect'.
There are already quite a few third-party IRCTC apps available for Android, but they don't offer the full functionality that's available on IRCTC's website. The official IRCTC Connect App can now be downloaded for free from Google Play India, and is about 12MB in size. The app is compatible with devices running Android 4.1 and above.
The travellers will be able to search and book Indian rail tickets, check out their existing reservations or cancel them, and get upcoming journey alerts in the IRCTC Connect application.
According to IRCTC, the app uses the existing IRCTC website login credentials to work and also allows the users to create new account directly within the app. In addition, the IRCTC Connect retains the passenger details for the recently booked train tickets, so that the travellers don't have to enter their details again and again.
Back in August, IRCTC launched its official ticket booking app for BlackBerry 10 smartphone users. The IRCTC app was available for download on BlackBerry World under the Navigation & Travel section, and was a 5MB download.


text:
Oxford Win The 2014 Newton Woman's Boat Race
Oxford Blue Boat completes a hat-trick of victories as The Newton Women's Boat Race bids a fond farewell to Henley home.
On a bright but slightly blustery day at Henley, the two Blue Boats for The 2014 Newton Women's Boat Race took to the water for the culmination of seven months of hard work with plenty of confidence, having both shown good speed in pre-Race fixtures against top Women's Club opposition.
As well as the age-old Oxford and Cambridge rivalry, there was an even more acute desire to win the 2014 Race, as this was the final Newton Women's Boat Race that will take place in Henley with the planned move to the Tideway next year. With the current standing between the crews, 40 wins to Cambridge versus 27 to Oxford, it was the Dark Blues that went into the Race with the momentum, having won five of the last six Races, and looking to complete a hat-trick of victories.
On the stakeboats, it was a heavier and entirely British outfit from Cambridge that lined up on the Berkshire station (having won the toss) against a more internationally experienced outfit from the Dark Blues on Bucks. Umpire Judith Packer's flagged dropped and both crews powered off the start at over 40 strokes per minute.
Having settled to their race rhythm, there was not much in it for the first 500m, Oxford sitting about half a length up as Cambridge President and cox Esther Momcilovic looked to put her crew in the best water. However, as they neared the Dark Blue crowds gathered at Upper Thames RC, the Oxford crew took the initiative, their strong rhythm paying dividends, and powered out to over a length.
From there, despite warnings for both crews from Umpire Judith Packer, the composure and fluency in the Dark Blue crew saw them take what was to prove an unassailable lead as they approached the halfway marker. The Cambridge crew refused to back down, and tenaciously put in push after push in an attempt to get back on terms. Unfortunately for them though, the extra speed in the Oxford crew saw them continue to stretch their advantage, eventually winning by a margin of four lengths in a time of 5 minutes and 50 seconds – just six seconds outside The Women's Boat Race record.
Earlier in the day, The Reserve Women's Boat Race between Osiris from Oxford and Blondie from Cambridge was a much closer and more heated affair. Osiris took an early lead off the start, which they had extended to two thirds of a length just before the halfway mark, but their Blondie rivals would not be shaken. As the two crews entered the final 500m there was just half a length in it, with Osiris being warned to move back on to the Berkshire station. With a series of clashes as the two crews raced for the line, it was Osiris who managed to hold on, to win by half a length in a time of 6 minutes and 1.5 seconds.
In the Lightweight Women's Race, the 30th anniversary of the contest, it was the Cambridge crew who had the better of the starts, moving out to two thirds of a length lead. The Oxford Lightweight Women maintained their form though, and started to move back on the Light Blues as they approached Remenham Club. Having powered back to level, the Dark Blues seized the momentum and continued to power through, eventually winning by a margin of three and a half lengths in a time of 6 minutes and 8 seconds – completing their own hat-trick of victories in the Lightweight Women's Boat Race.
The final Race of the day, taking place after The Newton Women's Boat Race, saw the Lightweight Men take to the water. This time, Cambridge seized the Race from the very first stroke – a lightning quick start saw them take a length's lead within the first 250m of the Race. From there, they never looked back, and continued to dominate for the length of the course, winning by a margin of three and a half lengths in a time of 5 minutes 30 seconds.
A fantastic day of racing was topped off by the trophy presentation, which saw the brand new Women's Boat Race trophy awarded for the first time ever to Oxford, and the Dark Blues lift the Victor Ludorum of the Henley Boat Races.
The 2015 Newton Women's Boat Race will take place on the Championship Course from Putney to Mortlake on 11th April, the same day as The 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Race.


text:
"The Weight Of The Badge" on National First Responders Day
"The Weight Of The Badge" on National First Responders Day
Thursday (October 28th) is National First Responders Day and George Strait's song, "The Weight Of The Badge," is even more relevant on this day.
"It's gonna be a long one another graveyard shift
As he says goodbye to his wife and kids
He spends his life just like his dad's
Driving away under the weight of the badge
He's seen it all in his fifteen years
Watching our backs, facing our fears
Lord knows it ain't no easy task
Keeping us safe under the weight of the badge
He swore that oath to protect and serve
Pours his heart and soul into both those words
Lays his life on the line
The line he walks is razor fine
Tempered strength is always tough
But he ain't gonna buckle
Under the weight of the badge"
The country superstar wrote the song with his son, Bubba, and frequent collaborator Dean Dillon, after an encounter with an officer and Strait's grandson Harvey during the ceremony honoring the singer with the Texan of the Year Award.
"'The Weight of the Badge,' the idea for that song came about when I got the Texan of the Year award," George recalls. "Me and Bubba, Tamara and Harvey, everybody Norma, and even Jilliann, I think were there, and I had security you know I had an officer who was talking to Harvey and letting him play with his badge and hold it and pinning it on his shirt. And I just got to thinking about that because it really wasn't that heavy until you put it on it and then it means, it really gets heavy. So, that was one of those things I thought was a real important message especially these days and times. I love the way it turned out."
George is expected to release a video for the song on Thursday.
Related Topics:Bubba StraitDean DillonGeorge StraitHarvyNational First Responders DayTexan Of The Year AwardThe Weight Of The BadgeVideo
George Strait, The Official Music Video For "The Weight Of The Badge"
LiveXLive Partners With Big Machine Label Group For LiveXLive Presents With Carly Pearce
COLE SWINDELL STAYS AT NO. 1 FOR FOURTH CONSECUTIVE WEEK WITH "SHE HAD ME AT HEADS CAROLINA"
ASPIRING COUNTRY ARTIST EMILY MILLER RELEASES VIDEO COVER OF "THE TRUTH"