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|Trunk Full of Quilts 2016|
However, I ran into trouble. They're all my favourites! I don't think I can fit them all in one post. I tried to think of themes to narrow things down, but that didn't help much. In the end, I passed the buck. I asked my family to choose. Keep in mind that I only gave them 5 minutes each to think of two or three. Still, I figured whatever popped into their minds first is probably what made the biggest impression. I'll list them in chronological order.
|M's House Quilt - 2003|
My son picked this house quilt. It's the second quilt I ever made, all flannel and hand quilted in the ditch of every seam. This one is pre-blog and pre-digital camera. The colors are actually all bright primary colors. What shows up as black here is actually a deep bright green. There is also bright orange, red and royal blue, but you wouldn't know it from this picture! You wouldn't know it from the state the quilt is in now, either, because it has been well used and faded quite a bit. But it was well loved and apparently I'm not allowed to ever dispose of it.
|Wandering Geese - 2012|
My daughter chose Wandering Geese. She claimed this quilt before it was even quilted. This was my 17th quilt and the first pattern I wrote up to sell, and the pattern still sells quite well. The sales might slow a wee bit soon because though my daughter agreed to let it hang in the local quilt shop, she feels that after being there a little more than a year the quilt needs to come home. The pattern will of course still be available online and from my distributors, and any quilt shops that want to carry it. It's just that patterns sell so much better in shops with a sample on the wall!
|Autumn Moons - 2013|
Autumn Moons was my husband's first pick, which surprised me, but I can run with it! I like this one too. It was my 24th quilt and came from my first experience sewing curves. I just started sewing drunkard's path blocks for practice, then figured I needed to do something with them. The quilting was all done on my domestic machine with my trusty walking foot. I released the pattern last fall. This one is also hanging in the local quilt shop right now. If you're passing through Ames, you can see it in person at the Quilting Connection.
|Quilter's Scrapbook - 2013|
Both my husband and daughter chose Quilter's Scrapbook, my 25th quilt. What can I say, it really brightens up the living room on a dreary winter's day! This quilt was my first foray into creating my own paper piecing foundations, because that seemed like the easiest way to make the X blocks for the sashing and cornerstones. As I type this, another possible way just popped into my head. I'll have to explore that later...
|Canada Quilt - 2014|
The Canada Quilt (Quilt #26) got votes from my son and husband. My mother sent me fabric for this one, and it sat for quite a while while I pondered what the best use of it would be. The idea went from graph paper to fabric over the course of a few months, then I hand quilted it over more than a year. You can go here to see closeups of the quilting. This one is still hanging on the wall at home where I pass by it many times a day.
|M's Kaleidoscope - 2016|
Though my 34th finished quilt is dated 2016, the top was finished in 2014. It just took me another year and a half to hand quilt it in fits and starts. My son picked the colors for this one, and got final approval on the design. The quilt lives on his bed and was his first pick as a favourite. I'm planning to write a pattern for this soon. What do you think - queen, twin and throw sizes?
|Lucky Bugger - 2016|
Finally, I had to include Lucky Bugger, made for my dad. I've shown this, my 40th quilt, twice already this year, but it has all those lovely blues in it! I said I couldn't pick a favourite, but all those pretty blues make this one rank pretty high. My blue stash bin is twice as large as any other color's bin, so that tells you how I feels about blue. Besides, an Ocean Waves quilt had been on my quilt bucket list for years and now I've made one, so that's a happy dance quilt!
That concludes my Trunk Full of Quilts show for this year. I'm linking up at Whims and Fancies and heading over to take a peek in other quilters' trunks.


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I complained recently that liberal media outlets, including those in the blogosphere, tend to be almost as narrow-minded in analyzing the Middle East (read: uncritically pro-Israeli) as the mainstream media. In response, blogger Richard Silverstein (no relation) wrote to tell me that I’m being somewhat unfair and that there are plenty of places to look for a more balanced approach to Middle East coverage. He cited the work of writers like Matthew Yglesias (with whom I had noted a small disagreement in my original post), Ezra Klein and Glenn Greenwald. (All good names, to which I would add others such as Laura Rozen and Justin Elliott.)
So I stand corrected, at least in part. Because despite these important exceptions, I still think the general consensus on the Middle East at some of the big liberal blogs–especially those close to the Democratic Party–is hard to distinguish from the general consensus found elsewhere in the mainstream media.
More from Ken Silverstein:
Commentary — November 17, 2015, 6:41 pm
The Clintons’ so-called charitable enterprise has served as a vehicle to launder money and to enrich family friends.
In Havana, the past year has been marked by a parade of bold-faced names from the north — John Kerry reopening the United States Embassy; Andrew Cuomo bringing a delegation of American business leaders; celebrities ranging from Joe Torre, traveling on behalf of Major League Baseball to oversee an exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team, to Jimmy Buffett, said to be considering opening one of his Margaritaville restaurants there. All this culminated with a three-day trip in March by Barack Obama, the first American president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. But to those who know the city well, perhaps nothing said as much about the transformation of political relations between the United States and Cuba that began in December 2014 as a concert in the Tribuna Antiimperialista.
Chances that a Republican man believes that “poor people have hard lives”:
A school in South Korea was planning to deploy a robot to protect students from unwanted seductions.
Nuremberg’s Neues Museum filed a criminal complaint against a 91-year-old woman who completed a crossword puzzle that was in fact a $116,000 piece of avant-garde Danish art.
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“Matt was happy enough to sustain himself on the detritus of a world he saw as careening toward self-destruction, and equally happy to scam a government he despised. 'I’m glad everyone’s so wasteful,' he told me. 'It supports my lifestyle.'”


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By Pini Jason
Apart from the arm-twisting tactics of the sadistic proxies of the thieving oil marketers and the blackmail by the National Union of Electricity Employees, whose years of corruption and incompetence kept us groping in darkness, no debate has arrested the attention of the nation like the issue of state police.
But unfortunately, the debate about the desirability of state police to complement the efforts of the Federal Police is following the familiar road of Nigerian debate: shoot it down even before a debate; if the South is in favour of it, then the North must willy-nilly oppose it; and to scare everybody off the debate, throw in the ultimate dissembler: “it will break up the country”!
The scaremongers never tell us how state police will break up the country, except to dredge up the hackneyed charge that state governors will use the police against their political opponents!
I wonder why people resort to this cheap blackmail every time they want to hold tight to a status quo that works only for them! I know that Nigeria is greatly decelerating and is plagued by institutional fear, but is the country so cheap that the only thing some people can add to a serious debate is that “it will break up the country”?!
And if you thoroughly examine those who parrot this mantra of break up, you will discover that they are those who believe that they cannot coexist in a truly federal Nigeria and their daily activities to keep Nigeria under a stifling central command are seriously gnawing at the thin ligature that binds this country!
In the first place, should it be a Forum of ex-Inspectors General that must recommend to us the type of police that can serve our needs in the 21st century? Not even our chronic national amnesia can make us forget that the tenures of some of these ex-IGPs were some of the worst in the history of this country.
Some of these yesterday men could not manage even a change of uniforms for the Police; some were made to chaff under the collar by Lawrence Anini, the infamous Robin Hood of Benin City; some presided over a Gestapo Police during some of the most deranged dictatorships in this country.
Pray, why did we not invite Tafa Balogun to recommend for us the type of modern police we want? Should it surprise anyone, that what these men are doing is to defend their turf by preserving the status quo?
The case for state police cannot lead to the break up of this country! We must know that there is always a way to do things. The fear being expressed and the argument against state police, when not politically motivated, simply feed on fear of fear itself. We have not asked the question: How can we do it?
It is only when we try to answer this question that we can problematize and interrogate the fears. But some people have deliberately tried to obfuscate the debate and foreclose it with “state police will break up the country”. Truth is, the very problems we are trying to sweep under the carpet are stressing the country to the point of breaking up!
One deliberate misconception in the debate is that state police is a substitute and not complementary to the Federal Police. State Police does not imply abolition of the Federal Police.
The demand is not even to decentralize the existing Nigeria Police. It is also a wrong assumption that the states would just set up police without laid down criteria for recruitment, training and delineated jurisdiction.
I have not heard of any intelligent reason for opposition to state police except the jaded excuse that state governors may misuse it. Does the Federal Government not misuse the Police? In any case, Nigeria has since moved on from the type of politics of the fifties that necessitated the collapsing of regional police into the Federal Police.
Pray, why do people think that it is more important to put politics and politicians above everything else? So once politicians take care of themselves, Nigeria is okay? Why is this fear of abuse by state governors not expressed about state judiciaries? For 50 years we have insisted on a formula that has not worked for us. It will not work even if we insist on it for another 100 years!
Soon after the return of democracy in 1999, the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, led then by Dr Kayode Fayemi, incumbent Governor of Ekiti State, facilitated several workshops on constitutional reform. One of the thorny issues was State Police. Some geo-political zones were in support while others were opposed to it. That was democracy at work. But it did not discourage us.
We now had a reconciliation workshop (indeed a mini-National Conference) in Abuja to address the fears of those opposed to State Police. Resource persons were brought in from countries with similarity to Nigeria and who have state and local police. What emerged was that more geo-political zones signed up for State Police.
What we need to do is to create an inclusive forum to hear those opposed to state police and address their fears. I think such fears can be addressed if we prescribe qualification, set up criteria for recruitment and training, and delineate jurisdictions for state and Federal Police. In trying to devolve power and authority, we must not centralize the concept itself. In other words, the Constitution must provide that any state which so desires and can afford it can establish a state or even local government police. Nothing says all the 36 states must have state police. That will amount to another centralization!
Those who question the ability of states to fund state police are simply playing the ostrich. Today the resources some governors invest in supporting the Nigeria Police commands in their states and yet without getting results, are enough to fund a State Police of 20,000 to 30,000 people, pay them well and kit them adequately.
Twenty to thirty thousand youths out of unemployment queue is itself a great stride in reducing youth crime in any state. The funds going to sponsoring of pilgrimages and thousands of political aids can fund a 10,000 unit state police. Money stolen from the system can fund state police.
In any case, many states currently operate quasi enforcement outfits and vigilante groups that have not been used against political opponents. My point is that we cannot just dismiss the idea of state police based on fear of what is still imaginary abuse. Such abuse, if any, can be addressed. Those who easily jump out to tell us that we are not ripe for anything are themselves not ripe to lead this country. It is unfortunate that such people have been allowed to bestraddle positions of leadership in the past.
A culture of arm-twisting
Reports from many parts of the country in the last one month attest to marked improvement in power supply. I have enjoyed uninterrupted power supply for all of three weeks!
This has not happened in the last 30 years! We have to rally behind the Power Minister, Prof Bath Nnaji and his team to sustain this effort in the face of the nuisance of National Union of Electricity Employees.
For how long shall Nigerians allow a few selfish workers to hold the nation to ransom? It is time to stand up to all those who want to sabotage the transformation of this country.

domain: law


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Hot dogs are a time-honored summer snack for those who've been lounging at the beach or walking around in the heat all day. You may enjoy yours fresh off the barbecue, etched perfectly with charcoal grill marks, during the July 4th holiday. But plenty of eateries deliver hot dogs that take it up a notch, whether lavished with cream cheese or topped with sweet relish. (But please, no ketchup — at least if you're from Chicago.)
Money teamed up with Yelp to find the hottest places for a go-to dog. All the businesses on this list are in the "hot dogs" category on Yelp. "Best" is measured using an algorithm that looks at the number of reviews and star rating for a business; we included only one business per state, in order to ensure geographic diversity.
Here are the 10 best places in the nation to get a hot dog:
1. Chili Man
Charlotte, North Carolina
Chili Man holds the top spot in part due to its charismatic owner, Vic Werany. Regulars describe Werany as a “nut ball,” frequently wearing a Captain America T-shirt to work amid the bankers in downtown Charlotte. Charlotte Magazine named Werany the Charlottean of the Year last year for his help creating a nonprofit to support a neighbor with spina bifida.
Chili Man’s specialty hot dogs include the Naco Dog (part hot dog, part nacho, part taco) — a hot dog with with grilled cheddar cheese, chili and taco sauce. For all dogs, you can choose between beef, bratwurst or tofu dogs — price is $2.50 to $4.50, depending on the meat — and get unlimited toppings.
2. Wild Dogs
Wild Dogs is a traditional diner-style hot dog joint in the small, southeast Arizona town of Benson. Wild Dogs uses Vienna beef hot dogs in creations like the traditional Chicago Dog, which comes with onion, relish, pickle spears, tomato and mustard for $4.99. Wild Dogs also offers the Best Deal meal: a basic hot dog, potato salad, "ranch beans" and a drink for just $4.39.
Wild Dogs also offers plenty of diner staples, including hamburgers starting at $4, hot sandwiches (like the BBQ Beef Brisket, served on a toasted roll for $7.50), and chili cheese baked potatoes for $3.99.
3. International House of Hot Dogs
International House of Hot Dogs puts some special twists on typical wiener-in-bun concoction. Try the Alaskan Breeze, which gets you a Reindeer Polish dog with mayo, salsa and sauteed pineapple for $7.50 — or the Monte Cristo Dog, with strawberry jam and Swiss cheese for $7. Your pescatarian friends can skip the dog and try the Smoked Salmon Quesadilla, which wraps the fish, two types of cheese, and chipotle cream in a flour tortilla for $4.50.
4. Happy Dog Hot Dogs
Santa Cruz, California
This California hot dog cart has a simple offering: You can get a beef dog, Polish sausage, or Corralitos sausage for $4-$7, and then lay on a rich range of condiment choices — including onion, sweet, and deli relish; jalapenos, sriracha and tabasco sauces, and homemade mustards and aiolis. All sausages are locally sourced.
5. Harley's: A Hot Dog Revolution
The creations are endless at Harley’s: A Hot Dog Revolution. Spice lovers can try the N’Orleans dog, with Andouille sausage and sauteed onions for $6.45, or the Death Vader, an “extremely spicy” brat covered with cheddar cheese and bacon for $7.45. Other creations include the $7.95 Toga Dog, which mixes gyro seasoning with the beef dog and includes a drizzle of tzatziki, and the Eddie Spaghetti Dog, which pairs the dog with pasta and serves it on a garlic toasted bun.
6. T-Loc's Sonora Hot Dogs
You’ll find the T-Loc food truck at 5000 Burnet Food Park, one of Austin’s many “food truck trailer parks." The park is BYOB, and kid and dog friendly; it also includes joints like Jewboy Burgers and Budare’s Venezuelan Food.
T-Loc’s offerings include the Sonoran style “con todo” hot dog — a hot dog with “everything,” including mayo, mustard, onions, tomato, beans, and bacon, for $6. Non-meat eaters could also get a veggie dog with vegan mayo for a dollar more.
Middletown, New York
Holydog is a no-frills hot dog joint with a more traditional approach. Try the $3.50 NY “Brooklyn” Dog with mustard, onion sauce and kraut, or the Southwestern Dog with refried beans and chorizo. You can get a make-your-own hot dog with unlimited simple toppings for just $3, but you'll have to add a dollar for special add-ons like bacon, chili or melted cheese.
8. Sweet Dogs
There’s no shortage of options at Sweet Dogs. You can get your dogs either boiled, grilled, or deep fried, and toppings include banana peppers, olives and Mozzarella cheese. For $7.95, you could also choose from one of the specialty dogs named after Miami-area sports teams: There's the Heat, with beef chili and guac, or the Dolphins, with grilled ham, bacon, and pineapple.
9. The Fried Onion
Red Sox fans beware: This New York-style joint will tack $1.25 onto Sox fans’ bills, simply for existing. Some transplanted East Coast favorites include the $6.75 Pastrami Dog with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut, and the $6 Rover with peppers and muenster. The Fried Onion even offers bodega-style pastrami deli sandwiches, like the Moussa with peppers and fried onion, and the Spicy Russian with muenster, for $8.50 each.
10. Lucky Louie's Beer & Wieners
If you consider yourself a competitive eater, Lucky Louie’s Beer & Wieners has your next challenge: the two pound Moby Dick. It stuffs a loaf-sized "bun" with garlic ring bologna, pierogis, Greek sauce, fried eggs, cream cheese, ketchup, hot sauce, and more. The $60 dog comes with a free T-shirt, but if you finish — that's a big "if" — the food is on the house.
On the smaller scale, try one of the many Lucky Louie’s creations, like the Asian Invasion with sweet chili sauce and crunchy rice noodles for $5.50, or the Italian Job, with pepperoni, mozzarella and pizza sauce for $6.50.

domain: food


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Harvey Glick is no stranger to developing banks into stable and profitable enterprises before handing the reins to management at bigger competitors.
Add Insight Bank to that resume.
First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ:FFBC) said Friday it will acquire the one-office Worthington lender for 36.6 million, marking its second deal in Central Ohio this week for the Cincinnati bank.
Long before First Financial came knocking on Insight’s door, Glick had cut his business teeth in the mergers-and-acquisitions arena with State Savings and Prospect banks.
Glick launched his career in 1978 at State Savings, recruited and mentored by CEO Don Shackelford and rising to executive vice president. That bank grew to $2.8 billion in assets before being snapped up in 1998 by Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) for $892 million.
A year later, Glick founded Prospect Bank, built it to $202 million in assets and sold it to Bowling Green-based Sky Financial Group Inc. in 2004 for about $47 million. Sky later was purchased by Columbus-based Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ:HBAN).
Glick found his next project in 2008, when the board of 2-year-old Insight Bank tapped him to grow the de novo lender. Glick built it from $50 million in assets to more than $200 million and with a strong balance sheet, prompting First Financial to come calling.
Selling Insight wasn’t necessarily the goal, said Glick, who also serves on Ohio’s banking commission. First Financial began courting the Worthington company about eight weeks ago and Glick liked what he saw – an institution large enough at $6.3 billion in assets to thrive in a challenging period for banks.
“That was one of driving forces,” he told me. “There’s lots of headwinds and hills to climb,” he said of the low-interest-rate and high-regulatory environment.
Still, he said, Insight won’t lose its appeal as the local guy.
“First Financial acts like a community bank,” he said.
Insight customers stand to benefit from better mobile banking, he said, and access to First Financial’s $2.6 billion wealth management business.
While the 110-branch buyer aims to retain most staff of Insight and First Bexley, those details must be hashed out, Glick said. His bank employs 47 workers.
“We’re looking to retain most of the associates at Insight,” he said. “Part of what we have to do in the next few weeks is go through all processes.”

domain: finance


Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate for December’s Senate special election in Alabama, spearheaded an effort on behalf of a legal group massively funded by billionaire George Soros that sought to fundamentally transform the role of U.S.
Attorneys from one of prosecuting criminals to activists that enact a so-called progressive criminal justice agenda.
Among other things, Jones’ project called on federal prosecutors to reduce or avoid sentences for drug offenders, make decisions about seeking jail time on individual cases based upon federal incarceration levels and use their pulpits to “spread change” and work with outside “community organizations” to root out the “causes of violence.”
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text:
Track topics on Twitter Track topics that are important to you
This trial is conducted in Europe. The aim of this trial is to evaluate the effect of SNAC on cardiac repolarisation in healthy male subjects
Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Investigator), Primary Purpose: Treatment
SNAC, Placebo, Moxifloxacin
Novo Nordisk Investigational Site
Not yet recruiting
Novo Nordisk A/S
Published on BioPortfolio: 2016-09-22T20:53:22-0400
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether different DAV132 dose regimens are safe and effective for capturing fecal residues of moxifloxacin in healthy volunteers.
A Placebo-controlled, Four Way Crossover Study to Investigate the Effect on QT/QTc Interval of a Single Dose of FYU-981, Compared with Placebo, Using Moxifloxacin as a Positive Control, in...
This is a Phase I, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, study to estimate the effects of daily oral dosing of 800 mg pazopanib on electrocardiographic parameters (QTc interval dur...
This is a study designed to ascertain the effect of PF-04447943 on QT interval in healthy adult subjects. This is conducted as part of standard drug development.
The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of supratherapeutic exposures of ALS-008176 on the QT/ corrected QT interval (QTc) interval in healthy participants (Panel 2).
Omarigliptin is a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor being developed as a once-weekly treatment for type 2 diabetes. This double-blind, double-dummy, randomized, 3-period balanced crossover study defini...
Moxifloxacin and rifampicin are all the first line options for treatment of active tuberculosis, which are often combined for the treatment of multi-drug resistance pulmonary tuberculosis in clinic. H...
Enzymatically-synthesized (2R,4R)-monatin has, due to its pure sweet taste, been evaluated for potential use in foods. Non-clinical studies have shown that (2R,4R)-monatin is well tolerated at high di...
The combination of rifapentine and moxifloxacin administered daily with other anti-tuberculosis drugs is highly active in mouse models of tuberculosis chemotherapy. The objective of this phase 2 clini...
Does administration of vilaprisan (VPR) to healthy women for 12 weeks reduce menstrual bleeding?
Misunderstanding among individuals, frequently research subjects, of scientific methods such as randomization and placebo controls.
An effect usually, but not necessarily, beneficial that is attributable to an expectation that the regimen will have an effect, i.e., the effect is due to the power of suggestion.
The Top 100 Pharmaceutical Companies
Top 10 biotech and pharmaceutical companies worldwide based on market value in 2015 2015 ranking of the global top 10 biotech and pharmaceutical companies based on revenue (in billion U.S. dollars) Johnson & Johnson, U.S. 74...

domain: medical


text:
June 22, 2018
There’ll be a new award in The Ration Shed’s already-crowded trophy cabinet after chairperson Aunty Sandra Morgan returned from Cairns recently.
Aunty Sandra and Luella Blair, from the Cherbourg Historical Precinct Group Inc, collected a 2018 Queensland Reconciliation Award (Community) for the association’s very successful annual Reconciliation Fun Run.
The event, which celebrated its fifth outing in May this year, beat three other finalists in the Community category: Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council, Clayfield Childcare Association and Orange Sky Australia.
Aunty Sandra told southburnett.com.au that “reconciliation” was always being spoken about during tours at The Ration Shed so it seemed a natural theme for the association to choose when they started thinking about organising a fun run linking Murgon and Cherbourg in late 2012.
“It is a fundraising event and a fun way to bring the communities together,” she said.
Registrations for the run have steadily increased over the years.
“More people from far away are coming, and professional runners, too,” she said.
A big drawcard for the 2018 event had been adding the extra distance to the run, taking the length of the main event from 7km up to 10km.
The award was presented to Aunty Sandra by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad.
“One of the finalists in another category actually attended the Reconciliation Fun Run,” Aunty Sandra said.
“He came here with his school and said he would definitely be coming back.”
The organisers held a de-briefing meeting recently and have already begun planning the 2019 event and started looking for sponsors.
“It will be bigger and better!” Aunty Sandra promised.
* * *
Opposition Leader and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington congratulated The Ration Shed committee on its success.
“This is fantastic recognition for the amazing work the group do each year to co-ordinate the Reconciliation Fun Run,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“The Reconciliation Fun Run is a project of The Ration Shed committee and many hard-working volunteers.
“It is recognition for their efforts in co-ordinating this increasingly important event for the Cherbourg and Murgon communities and indeed, the entire South Burnett.
“Well done to Ration Shed chairperson Sandra Morgan and her team for their passion and dedication to bringing communities together in the spirit of reconciliation.”
* * *
In other news from The Ration Shed:
- The deck at the rear of the original Ration Shed building has been widened which makes the space more functional for hosting tours or Elders’ reunions
- The renovation of the Boys Dormitory is well underway. The building has been closed – and its displays placed into storage – while it has been restumped and repaired. It will house a dormitory display when it re-opens, as well as its former features. New toilets are expected to be open by NAIDOC Week.
- The historical precinct has gained possession of an old wooden house located nearby in Cherbourg. This is going to be shifted behind the Boys Dormitory to become a “pottery house” for the Barambah Pottery artists to use.
- Planning for a reunion of former Cherbourg Marching Girls is also under way, possibly to coincide with the Golden Oldies reunion on the October long weekend.

domain: news


Frame accurate syncing is essential in multi-machine setups.
Set up a primary timecode source
Learn more about how to Configure timecode (LTC)
Set Multi-machine syncing to "Timecode" in SETUP > Show > Show settings > Base settings
Launch levels on all machines
timecode is available on all machines, by clicking on “Get all timecodes” in
SETUP > Calibration > Syncing
OR in the Status panel
A level needs to be running as the timecode is reported by the engine.
In case Multi-machine syncing is enabled and NO timecode is available:
All messages will still be processed, but they will not be in sync
Go to SETUP > Calibration > Syncing
Check if the input and output delays of all machines are the same
hardware differences might require slightly different delays
Sync an XR wall with a virtual set extension
When working with virtual set extensions, the time between filming the LED screen and displaying the rendered content should ideally be 0. As this is physically not possible we have to
reduce latency for XR machines
mitigate the remaining time difference between XR and set extension using an Set extension delay
Enable Allow decreasing buffer size in the overflow menu on the right
Decrease the delay for
XR machines on
AR machine on
Mitigate remaining time difference
Make sure Allow set extension delay is enabled
Add Set extension delay
switch the reprojection method and disable Tracking extrapolation
adjust the Execution time on the AR machine
Set extension delay
Add a delay to compensate for the time difference between XR and set extension rendering.
Extrapolates tracking to reduce the potential artifacts introduced by the latency compensation, but will not solve the issue on its own.


text:
In the present moment.
A meeting place.
Sycamore awaits the spring.
A time of coming and going.
The rush to return.
A sheltered nook on Harris Avenue.
The shape of change.
A maple limb comes within beaver range above the ice jam.
River meets rock in a time of change.

domain: geography


text:
52 Week Range
As of on the TSX Venture Exchange ∙ Minimum 15 minute delay
Tatmar Ventures Inc. announced that an eight hole, +10,000 foot reverse circulation drill campaign has commenced at Golden Brew located in Lander County, Nevada, USA. To date, gold mineralization at Golden Brew consists of a zone of gold bearing jasperoid measuring 2,500 feet long and up to 200 feet wide, hosted in thin bedded platey Cambrian-aged carbonates. Wherever sampled, the jasperoid is anomalous in all Carlin-type gold deposit pathfinder elements, with gold grades ranging from anomalous to 4 grams/tonne. The zone is exposed on the western slope of the Toiyabe Mountain range and is truncated on the west by a north-south trending range front fault. West of the range front fault is an area of gravel cover where the Company conducted gravity and CSAMT geophysical surveys. These surveys were designed to locate the gold bearing structure within the favourable host rocks at reasonable exploration depths beneath the gravel cover. The geophysical program was successful in locating a potential uplifted carbonate window (horst block) with the potential gold bearing structure extending through it. The current drill program is designed to test a number of structural intersections within a major structural corridor, beneath the gravel cover.
Market News Publishing reported that Tatmar Ventures Inc.'s Megan Cameron-Jones has resigned as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Art McQuade will serve in her place.
Canada Stockwatch reported that Tatmar Ventures Inc. director Gordon P. Leask has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Darryl Cardey who will remain as a director. Megan Cameron-Jones has been appointed to the board of directors, and will also serve as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and corporate secretary.
Quote and financial data from Refinitiv. Fund performance data provided by Lipper. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes.


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Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared on Bridge Alliance.
The polar vortex may have retreated for the winter months ago, but the political polarization within the United States certainly has not. Just as meteorologists provide scientific explanations for our frozen toes, social scientists may have some explanations for our frozen political discourse.
America’s political polarization has already been discussed at length. Some blame idiosyncrasies of our system, included closed primaries, money in politics, and the loss of political party ‘middlemen’ for helping elect the most polarized Congress “since the end of the Reconstruction.” While these explanations are not wholly inaccurate, the Law of Parsimony states that simpler explanations are more likely to be correct than complicated ones.
Recognizing that, perhaps the strongest explanation for why we are sending more polarized representatives to Washington is because we have become more polarized ourselves. The Pew Research Center surveys reveal that the average partisan gap grew from 15 to 36 points between 1994 and 2017. Our opinion gaps are now gulfs across key issues: military, environment, immigration, welfare, and so on.
Besides our opinions on political issues, extreme partisanship is changing how we behave. We are more likely to date someone who shares our political ideologies, less likely to hire someone whose resume indicates partisan activity for an opposing party, and more willing to make purchases from a fellow partisan. A 2018 study shows we are even willing to take a smaller monetary payout following an experiment to ensure a donation is not made to the opposing political party.
Political party affiliation is increasingly held as a group identity, an “us versus them” mentality.
In fact, new research indicates that Americans hold prejudices against different political identities just as strongly as they do against different racial identities. Psychologists Shanto Iyenar of Stanford University and Sean J. Westwood of Princeton University conducted a series of implicit association tests, which measure hidden biases in individuals (you can take example tests here!). In Iyenar and Westwood’s tests, participants were randomly assigned to sort either “Republican” or “Democrat” with negative or positive terms. More specifically, participants were asked to categorize “conservative” or “Republican” with a set of standard positive stimuli (“Wonderful”, “best”, “superb”, “excellent”) and “liberal” or “Democrat” with standard negative stimuli (“terrible”, “awful”, “worst”, “horrible”), or vice versa. The words are shown quickly on screen and participants are encouraged to group categories as quickly and accurately as possible. The time it takes a participant to categorize these groups can reveal hidden biases for or against a particular political group. Participants were also given African American/European American BIATs to determine the difference between partisan and racial biases. The magnitude of implicit partisan preferences based on ideology or political party was actually greater than that based on race, leading the researchers to conclude that “[p]arty polarization exceeds polarization based on race.”
In sum, political beliefs are now social identities, allowing us to believe that our political opinions are good and moral -- meaning that anyone who does not share them is bad and immoral. As a result, these social identities hold even more potential for discord than other group identities because we do not have social or legal norms discouraging discrimination and prejudices based on political affiliations. In fact, we tend to celebrate it, relishing in our political heroes viciously attacking their opponents.
Of course, group identities and prejudices are not new. Social psychologists have studied the topic for years and we are continually learning more about their causes and consequences. In 1986, social psychologists Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, and Sheldon Solomon developed the Terror Management Theory (TMT), inspired by Ernest Becker’s 1973 work, The Denial of Death. Terror Management Theory poses that mortality awareness increases worldview defense and self-esteem protection. In plainer terms, fear and anxiety of the future cause us to cling tightly to what we know and believe; to communities and cultures from which we gain self-esteem.
I don’t know about you, but I find there is plenty to worry about in the future: climate change, a nuclear North Korea, the AI revolution, etc. We are living in a moment of transition and it can be terrifying. Psychologically (and evolutionarily), it makes sense to invest in our belief systems and communities because, at times, it may seem like we have nothing else to fall back on. Over two decades of research and hundreds of experiments support the hypothesis that mortality salience instigates increased self-esteem and worldview defense.
In a 2004 article on the politics of fear, Pyszczynski wrote, “cultural worldviews manage existential terror by providing a meaningingful, orderly, and comforting conception of the world…a set of standards for what is valuable behavior, good and evil.” Morality and political ideologies are tightly wound together; it becomes easy to perceive someone on the other side of the political spectrum as morally wrong. That is when our group identities begin to shape prejudices.
These group prejudices, however, are not insurmountable. Research consistently shows that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. Intergroup contact has been tested with a diverse array of groups: different races and ethnicities, sexualities, and abilities, finding reduced prejudice between groups. Contact with those different than us reduces anxiety and increases empathy; we begin seeing them as people rather than some unknown “other.” Recognizing the growing animosity between political groups, it is high time for us to apply these concepts to political identities and encourage inter-ideological relationships.
That’s exactly what a number of civic groups are already doing -- bringing people together to bridge ideological divides. Better Angels, for instance, has Red/Blue workshops around the country that gather 5-7 conversative-leaning and 5-7 liberal-leaning people to discuss their views and meaningfully learn about others’. American Public Square hosts expert panels to civilly debate controversial issues.
If you aren’t ready for that kind of commitment and can’t bear to sit down and have a chat with your ultra-progressive neighbor or fanatically right-wing cousin, you’re still in luck; indirect contact, such as watching a television show, has been shown to have similar effects as direct contact. This is because we build one-sided relationships with mass media characters through parasocial interaction. Engaging with them as regularly as, if not more than, friends and family, we develop connections to fictional characters not unlike our real-life relationships.
Parasocial Contact theory captures this idea, stating that indirect contact with minority groups through media interactions can reduce prejudices, much like direct contact through friendships. One famous study by communication scholars Edward Schiappa, Peter B. Gregg, and Dean E. Hewes shows that increased exposure to television shows featuring gay men, like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, led to decreased prejudice towards the gay community. Perhaps the solution to rising political polarization is for NBC to air a sitcom about the Conservative Caldwells or Fox to follow the lives of the Progressive Pattersons.
In the meantime, there are a number of civic groups that are facilitating indirect contact. For instance, Bring It to The Table has a documentary and webisode series featuring Americans explaining why they believe in certain issues, allowing viewers to engage with the ‘other’ through the comfort of a screen.
Healthy governance requires the ability to discuss policies in a civilized manner, which means our hostile polarization must decrease. And we may be able to reduce polarization and close the ideological divide by increasing empathy and reducing prejudice. This does not mean convincing each other of anything; we only have to listen and learn to see each other as people and understand how our beliefs are formed. Only when we have accomplished this can we find our common ground and tackle the serious problems facing our country, together.
Kelly is Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Manager at her alma mater, New York University Abu Dhabi. Kelly previously worked for the Bridge Alliance as its Democracy Revitalization Intern. Kelly is passionate about conflict resolution and justice. She has a Lean Left bias.

domain: psychology


Take your vehicle from stock settings to custom tuned. EVO-Tech fuel programmer increases the pony by 15% throughout the entire power curve and improve fuel mileage. This fuel management chip plugs into the ECU through engine sensors to calibrate the most precise tunes. In your awaits a tremendous amount of potential power, just begging to be unleashed. Every Personal Watercraft deserves to perform at its peak. Augment the performance capability potential of your and say goodbye to lean stock programming with the EVO-Tech remapper chip.
This power tuner simply wires inline with the signal wire of the factory Air Temp (IAT) sensor, which is a standalone probe or the part of the integrated Mass Air Flow (MAF, MAP, TMAP, etc.) sensor, and taps into the exhaust exhaust oxygen sensor harness on emission-controlled vehicles. setup needs no expertise, you can conduct a Do-it-Yourself installation as long as you are slightly mechanical and electrical minded. Augment the horsepower potential of your and say goodbye to lean stock programming with the EVO-Tech power tuner in less than an hour. EVO-Tech is a fully adjustable fuel programmer that is available for EFI vehicles. It taps into your 's engine sensors and once connected, it remaps your vehicle's Electronic Engine Management to optimize the Air Fuel Ratio by reprogramming the lean stock fuel injection settings. The EVO-Tech power tuner custom-tunes your power source for a high output ride. With this complete horses enhancement, your performance tuner breaks free from the stock pre-programmed restrictions and unleashes the engine's performance potential potential. This Performance Chip allows you to fine-tune your engine to your particular power needs.
Put an end to the restrictive stock settings with the power of an EVO-Tech fuel controller. Tune your for added HP and torque. It allows you to switch between stock and performance settings quickly and easily. Discover what it’s like to exploit maximum energy. In as few as 30 minutes, Magnum EVO-Tech engine management chip reprograms your ’s fuel trim for the ultimate engine performance potential. This amazing chip enhances your throttle sensitivity, low-end torque and vigor. It’s been proven to allow for increased street performance and better fuel economy.
Some vehicle riders pay more attention to the exterior of their car while others prefer getting more performance capability and efficacy from the engine. The owners in general choose the second option rather than the first one. Feel the aggressive horsepower you have hiding in your 's engine with this performance chip. Unbridling your vehicle’s horsepower potential, this high-tech fuel controller is capable of delivering not only more output, but extra mid-end torque, improved throttle response and economy. Magnum ECM chips are known to deliver unbridled power capability to fuel injected cars. revamp the output potential of your .


The sun might not shine when these do — but that doesn’t mean steet lights can’t be powered by solar.
Lighting Science Group’s new wind and solar powered LED street lights can now be installed in virtually any place in the world — without having to be tied into the electric grid. The PROLIFIC DC Series balances the need to responsibly illuminate roadways while eliminating electrical grid energy consumption and maintenance costs. In fact, Lighting Science PROLIFIC DC LED street lights will soon light up Mexico City’s newly constructed “Viaducto Bicentenario” elevated superhighway, which runs 23 kilometers from Lomas Verdes to Tepotzotlan.
“This is the first elevated superhighway in Mexico that will be illuminated entirely by solar-powered LED streetlights,” noted Alan Barson, CEO of BHP Energy Mexico.
According to Lighting Science, the PROLIFIC Series LED street lights are 50 percent more energy efficient compared with traditional HID street lights. The company also claims that they provide more uniform light distribution, increase light levels, and will save thousands of dollars in energy and maintenance cost over the life of the fixtures.
Much of the savings will come because the PROLIFIC LED technology eliminates re-lamping and re-ballasting of HID street lights and direct line wiring is used in place of starters or capacitors to eliminate traditional maintenance issues. The PROLIFIC DC Series have been engineered to be powered by low voltage direct current electricity produced by solar and wind energy sources providing maximum flexibility for off electrical grid installation.
“With the PROLIFIC DC series, countries around the world now have the freedom to install virtually anywhere environmentally friendly, affordable and energy efficient street lights that have better lighting quality than traditional HID lights,” said Zach Gibler, Chief Executive Officer of Lighting Science Group.
Like this story? Interested in the solar EV/PHEV synergy? Join our Sun Miles™ Cluband start meeting & interacting with other people around the world who want to drive, or already are driving, their cars on sun! Register to join us today!


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In another forehead-slapping stunner of a study, researchers have found that American adults are just as dumb as their kids.
"In math, reading and problem-solving using technology -- all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength -- American adults scored below the international average on a global test ...," the American-Statesman reported. The story came from the AP.
So ... for years and years, tests have shown American students are not up to par when compared to students in other nations.
Were they going to magically improve in all those areas just after turning 21?
The journal Science has pulled off a major sting operation, thanks to writer John Bohannon.
Bohannon put together a blatantly false scientific paper replete with errors and ethical lapses and sent it to 304 open-access "scientific journals" to see if the paper would be reviewed by peers and, if so, whether they would find the mistakes. Of course, he also wanted to see who would publish without so much as a read-through.
See, the business of publishing papers is just that, a very lucrative business. Scientists have to pay to have their papers published, and they do so because they have to publish or they perish.
More than 150 journals accepted the paper for publication. Only 36 noted the flaws in the submission.
One journal accepted the paper and asked for $3,100 to publish it.
What Bohannon found constitutes a stunning indictment of the scientific open-access journal business.
But, what about all those journals in political science, sociology, English, history, medicine, physics, etc., that also make researchers pay to publish?
How many of them are suspect?
Every field needs a John Bohannon.
Unfortunately it's just true that if you give people an opportunity to act badly, they will do so.
News outlets report today that Tom Clancy died last evening.
No cause has been given. He was only 66.
Clancy was probably best known for the novel "The Hunt for Red October," which was made into a nearly undecipherable movie. I mean you had to read the novel to unravel the plot of the film.
Clancy was a world-class writer. I give him that. But, he badly needed a good editor for the most part.
Long before Jonestown, there was the scene around San Francisco that eventually went coast to coast on a bus of many colors.
Tom Wolfe's account of the trips of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, which featured a Kool-Aid laced with LSD or, as it was known, acid, came out in 1968. It was his first and allegedly best attempt at New Journalism.
Somehow I never read the book back then, but I was heavily involved in reading Shakespeare and the Brownings, among dozens of others, in those undergraduate days.
About two weeks ago, someone dropped the paperback version of "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" off here at the library as a donation, intended to go into the Friends of the Wimberley Village Library book sale this weekend.
I confiscated it and started reading, and I'm really kind of embarassed for Ken and the gang. Talk about feeling entitled. Wowee.
Today I saw in the papers that a first edition of the book signed by a bunch of '60s luminaries is to be sold at auction in California.
The story was accompanied by a photo of what I take to be the bus that Kesey and friends took across country to rip a tear in conventional American life.
They can keep the book. I'd like to buy the bus.
Regardless of what the House and Senate do about the national budget, the Affordable Health Care Act is in effect, in part, and becomes fully effective on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
The program, despite what you may hear elsewhere, is just for people who don't have insurance, people who are not on Medicaid or Medicare.
In Texas, that's 33 percent of the population or nearly 5 million.
In Hays County, that's 22 percent of the population.
If you are uninsured or know of someone who is uninsured, we can help here at the Wimberley Village Library. We have information that could be of use. And we know how to access information via the Internet. Just drop by.
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Celine Dion has announced on Monday that she is leaving her Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace after 8 years. Her career’s last show in Las Vegas is scheduled for June 8, 2019.
Dion has performed 1,089 shows since March 2003 and more than 4.5 million fans enjoyed her shows at The Colosseum. She executed 717 shows since 25th March 2003 through 15th December 2007.
The Las Vegas is her 2nd and current residency premiered on March 15, 2011. She expressed her feelings in a statement on Facebook, “I definitely have mixed feelings regarding this final run”. “Las Vegas has become my home and performing at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace has been a major part of my life for the past 2 decades”.
Dion added, “It’s been an amazing experience and I’m so thankful to all my fans. They came to see us throughout the years”. “Every show at the Colosseum throughout this fall, and right up until the final one, will feel very special.”
50-years old singer Celine Dion returned to her residency in March. She canceled her 3-weeks of shows to go through and recover from ear surgery.
Senior Vice President of AEG Presents, John Nelson said in a statement, “Celine Dion has written new rules for a singer in making a remarkable career. She continuously changed herself to be current. Dion has found better in every show as a best singer and performer”.
The co-CEO of Concerts West/AEG Presents, John Meglen said, “Celine took such an instance of trusting. She made a big bet on Las Vegas after decided to perform A New Day. She changed the taste of entertainment in Las Vegas”.

domain: artistic


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San Diego, Riverside Health Centers Integrate Operations, Adopt Managed Care Model
The 12 organizations join a new entity called Integrated Health Partners that provides primary care services to about 500,000 people across 72 locations that largely serve the region’s low-income Medi-Cal population.
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
A Dozen Health Centers To Share Patient Management
Twelve local health centers announced Tuesday that they will integrate their clinical operations across 72 physical locations in San Diego and Riverside counties. The move takes a managed care approach pioneered by the likes of Kaiser Permanente and applies it to organizations that largely serve the region’s low-income Medi-Cal population. (Sisson, 3/1)


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DEA Action Supports NP, PA Prescribing Authority for Opioid Addiction TreatmentJanuary 23rd 2018
A new measure announced by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will expand access to opioid addiction treatment by allowing nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in underserved areas to prescribe and dispense buprenorphine.
FDA Announces Efforts to Ease Provider Access to Clinical Trial InfoJanuary 17th 2018
The FDA has announced new efforts to enhance transparency around drug approval decisions by launching a pilot program aimed at improving health care providers' access to key information related to new drugs, according to a statement.
Study: Pharmacists Often Have Better Knowledge About Penicillin Allergy Compared to Other Health ProfessionalsJune 19th 2017
Pharmacists appear to have a better understanding of penicillin allergies than other health care professionals, according to study that included 276 surveys completed by non-allergist physicians, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists at Rochester Regional Health.
Out-of-Sequence Packaging Forces Manufacturer to Recall Oral ContraceptivesMay 30th 2017
Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc. has issued a nationwide recall of 1 lot of its oral contraceptive tablets Mibelas 24 Fe (norethindrone acetate and ethinyl estradiol chewable tablets and ferrous fumarate) because of out-of-sequence tablet packaging and missing expiration and lot information.


Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi has directed all civil and public servants to report to work on Monday despite the Sit-At-Home order issued by the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra.
This is just as he threatened to seize the licence and operating rights of shops and banks that fail to open for business on Monday in the state.
The governor's Umahi's warning is coming on the heel of IPOB directive for residents and business owners to observe a mandatory Sit-At-Home protest every Monday.
Umahi gave the directive in a statement issued on Sunday by Dr Kenneth Igwe, Secretary to the State Government and Coordinating Commissioner.
According to him, whosoever failed to report to his duty post stands to lose his job.
“Similarly, any shop or bank that failed to open for business on Monday stands the risk of losing the right to operate business or banking operations in the state.
“The general public is by this announcement advised going about their normal businesses without fear.
“Security agencies have been directed to patrol 24 hours in all corners of the state. All concerned are to take note and adhere strictly to this government directive,” Umahi stated.


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Medical Visits: Making Them Easier
How can I make a doctor’s visit easier for my child?
- Schedule an appointment at a time when your youngster won’t be needing a nap.
- Feed your child before the visit so he won’t be hungry.
- Bring a stuffed animal, security blanket, pacifier, or snack with you to keep your child busy in the waiting room. These items may also calm him during the exam.
- To make the physical exam go easier, practice the exam at home. Ask your child to hold still while you look in his ears with a small flashlight. Ask him to open his mouth wide and show you his tongue. Then have him take some deep breaths through an open mouth. Gently press on his tummy while heâ€™s lying down, but donâ€™t tickle him. If he expects to be tickled whenever someone touches his abdomen, it will be difficult for the doctor to examine his abdomen. Also have your child practice being the doctor and examining a stuffed animal.
What if my child is scared of going to the doctor?
If your child is afraid to go to the doctor because of previous shots or procedures, try to help him associate the doctor’s office with more pleasant events.
When you are in the neighborhood, occasionally drop in to say hello to the nurses and doctors. Stay for only a few minutes and encourage your youngster to give hugs to the nurses and doctor. Then give your child a food treat. This approach will gradually help your child look forward to visits.
Be sure no one threatens your child with comments such as, “If you don’t behave, I’ll take you to the doctor.” Threatening children with visits to the doctor or with shots makes the doctor’s job far more difficult.
Written by Barton D. Schmitt, MD, author of â€œMy Child Is Sick,â€ American Academy of Pediatrics Books.
Pediatric Advisor 2015.1 published by RelayHealth.
Last modified: 2010-07-20
Last reviewed: 2014-06-10
This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information is intended to inform and educate and is not a replacement for medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.
Copyright Â©1986-2015 Barton D. Schmitt, MD. All rights reserved.


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The 10th season of The Big Bang Theory was one of its best, which isn't something you get to say often, and the show's comedy is more solid now that it can let the characters reach out into adult life...
Your chance to grab a couple of great films with some special new bonuses is right around the corner.
The latest animated feature with the Dark Knight leaves a lot of its potential on the floor and mixes in some hokey moments with those that opened the door for a great story. It's ultimately a miss, a...
Grab your copy of Girls Season Six right here!
iZombie's 3rd season has been surprisingly strong, and you'll soon be able to bring all the fun home.
It's time to take a ride with the hopelessly lost crew of Voyager again, and the bonuses on this releases are gold.
There's a wild ride headed Batman's way, and Harley fans are in for a treat.
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract is one of the better superhero films to come along in a while, which is saying something. It trips itself up a bit, but it gets bonus points for an ambitious effort.

domain: entertainment


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Aquatic Plant Control
The weed harvester was taken out of the water last week. The city continued to harvest 2-3 days per week throughout the month of August.
The city has budgeted up to $30,000 for the 2009 season. The plan for next season is to treat around 100 acres with herbicide and to continue to harvest other problem areas.
The lake association board is working out a deal with the city to allow the association to operate the harvesters using volunteer labor. As it stands now the association will lease the harvester for a $1.00 a year. The city will be responsible for fuel, maintenance, insurance, hauling weeds from the lake to the compost site and putting the harvester in and out of the lake. Labor is the largest expense of the program. This agreement will allow us to harvest 5-6 times more weeds then were harvested this year. The agreement should be finalized by the end of year. If you are interested in volunteering or know of anyone that would be interested, please contact Blake Roberts firstname.lastname@example.org 651-755-6400.

domain: agronomy


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South Africa now has 1585 cases of coronavirus infections, and nine confirmed deaths, health minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement on Saturday.
53 937 tests have been done.
Gauteng has 693 cases, most of all provinces, followed by the Western Cape with 433 cases and KwaZulu-Natal with 232.
Of the KZN cases, 11 and three deaths are linked to the St Augustine’s Hospital; these are patients, health workers and staff members.
As precautionary measures, the hospital will not admit new patients, and it has closed affected areas.
Patients who have been to the hospital since the beginning of March are requested to contact the KZN department of health.
Tracing is being done for patients and over 150 tests have been done.
The Free State has 85 cases, the North West 11 and Mpumalanga and Limpopo have 18 recorded cases.
The Eastern Cape and Northern Cape have 25 and 7 cases respectively and there are 63 unallocated cases.
-Compiled by Maxine Becket


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If there’s something about Waikiki that sets it apart from other tropical sea destinations, it’s the Waikiki beachboys. Hailing back a century, the beachboy culture has evolved with the changing face of tourism in Hawaii, but the gentlemen in the red shorts still practice the same core values of sharing the sports of surfing, outrigger canoe riding, and aloha with visitors.
After Calvinist missionaries decimated the Hawaiian culture in the 19th century, the sport of surfing, a purely Hawaiian endeavor, was nearly extinguished. It was seen as sinful because of how much skin was shown while surfing. Only a few surfers remained at the end of the century, namely legendary waterman and three-time Olympic gold medalist Duke Kahanamoku and a few of his friends.
As the first wave of wealthy American tourists arrived on steamers in the early decades of the 20th century, these few surfers took it upon themselves to entertain the visitors, teaching them how to surf, ride canoes, and have a good time. In essence, they created a way to earn a living surfing year-round on the beach at Waikiki. These first visitors came to Hawaii for extended stays and were able to develop relationships with the beachboys, who became their tour guides and a bridge to the Hawaiian culture and a different lifestyle. After giving surfing lessons during the day, the beachboys entertained their guests with ukulele, song, and libations at night, a hedonistic lifestyle by all accounts.
The fun was curtailed by WWII, and as travel and tourism have changed since then, so too have the beachboys. With the ease and affordability of flying across the Pacific, a vacation to Waikiki is accessible for so many more people, not just the wealthy elite. Today, with thousands of visitors flocking to the beach daily, the beachboys focus on surfing and outrigger canoe surfing and have shifted roles from entertainers and tour guides to beach services. While only a few of Waikiki’s beachboys can still trace their ties back to the original beachboys, any beachboy can still show you how to have the time of your life in Waikiki’s gentle surf.

domain: history


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The story is of a legendary warrior Bajirao (Ranveer Singh) who dreams of one Hindu nation- Baharatvarsh. He has the valor and the wit to do the same as he is said to have won all the forty battles fought till date.
When Bajirao is planning an attack on Mughals in Delhi during their invasion, he happens to meet Mastani (Deepika Padukone) who seeks his help to save her hometown Bundelkhand. She is brave and dedicated towards her motherland, which impresses Bajirao and he agrees to help her. She is half Muslim being a daughter of King Chhatrasal and his Muslim wife. They soon fall in love with each other and get married accidentally.
Bajirao’s wife, Kashibai (Priyanka Chopra) is waiting for her husband to come back after the battle unaware of the whole incident. Will the family and Hindu community accept Bajirao’s second marriage with half Muslim girl and will Kashibai accept that Mastani shall share her husband the rest of her life.
Bhansali has tried to depict the historical love story in such a gorgeous manner with perfect battle sequence, splendid settings putting the sequence of events in a simple manner that the viewers are enthralled to get the grip of the story.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali has been motivated by Hollywood classics and can narrate an epic tale splendidly, which is very much evident from the gigantic scale of the film.
The plot of the story is more of a love story than an epic battle. The story begins with the appointment of Peshwa Bajirao, who is supposed to be a great warrior. He believes in one Hindu nation and in order to prove it he decides to attack Mughals in Delhi. There he meets Mastaani seeking help from him to save her motherland Bundelkhand. Although, Bajirao is married but still, love blossoms between Mastani and Bajirao. The end of the story is with a question – What shall the religion do, tear us apart or bring us closer? – A beautiful, powerful and frightful end.
The first half of the movie is fabulous as if you are watching an opera but the second half is mesmerizing towards a marvelous end.
In a nutshell, Bajirao Mastaani is a must see movie as it is a gem of cinema weaved with power packed dialogues, splendid performances, melodious music and precise direction.
Ranveer Singh as Peshwa Bajirao Ballal, Deepika Padukone as Mastani, Priyanka Chopra as Kashibai with supporting star cast of Tanvi Azmi as Radhabai Bajirao’s mother, Vaibbhav Tatwawdi as Chimaji Appa, Mahesh Manjrekar as Chattrapati Shahu Maharaj, Milind Soman as Ambaji Panth, Ayush Tandon as Nana Saheb, Raza Murad as Nizam of Deccan, Aditya Pancholi as Panth Pratinidhi, Yateen Karyekar as Krishnaji Bhatt and Benjamin Gilani as Raja Chhatrasaal.
The performances of the lead actors are splendid with Ranveer delivering his career’s best and proving why Bhansali chose him for the character. He has brilliantly picked up the accent of the language and his body language comes out so confidently. Priyanka Chopra has fabulously played the role of Kashibai from an innocent wife to a mature lady after her husband remarries. She literally outperforms others in the film. Deepika’s dialogue delivery and performance is the weakest among the three, although she is the main lead. Her beauty has overpowered her grace in her dance performed on numbers like Mohe Rang do Laal.
The supporting cast is splendid with Tanvi Azmi delivering terrific performance as Bajirao’s mother, Milind Soman giving a wonderful performance whereas others act their parts competently.
BACKGROUND MUSIC: Sanchit Balhara
CHOREOGRAPHERS: Remo DSouza, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ganesh Acharya, Pony Verma, Shampa Gopikishna
COSTUME DESIGNERS: Maxima Basu & Anju Modi
The costumes, as well as the styling of the characters are done majestically.
MUSIC & DIRECTION: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
The film has mesmerizing music choreographed with precision. The background music is wonderful. The outstanding music which is exceptionally enthralling – Deewani Mastani, Pinga and Saajan.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali has exhaustive knowledge of the subject matter, possesses mega budget, has the capability to handle a huge cast & crew and also has the vision to depict a historic epic to life. It is his brilliance in direction that has delivered such an epic romance.
EDITOR: Rajesh G. Pandey – The editing is subtle and crisp.
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sudeep Chatterjee
Excellent cinematography and the artistic vision of Sanjay Leela Bhansali resembles in every visual. Set of Grand Court with huge paintings, chandeliers, courtiers with tilaks and arrows all resemble the ecstatic vision of the director.
PRODUCTION DESIGNERS: The sets designed by the production designers Sriram Kannan Iyengar, Sujeet Subhash Sawant, Saloni Ankush Dhatrak magnificent and a treat for the eyes and the viewers can very well acknowledge the efforts put behind it. The long gone era has been depicted fabulously.
ACTION: Sham Kaushal
The battle sequences have been enacted on the sets and executed magnificently by Sham Kaushal
SCREENPLAY: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mallika Dutt Gharde and Prakash Kapadia
Bhansali has taken utmost care that the film does not deviate from the storyline although the film is 2.40 hrs. long. He has adorned it with star performances and sub-plots that culminate to a fabulous epic love story which is enthralling and pace is just right.
DIALOGUE: Prakash Kapadia
The dialogue writer Prakash Kapadia has immense talent of writing dialogues with poetic touch. Some of them are so powerful that it resonates in your mind and especially when delivered by Ranveer Singh. The dialogues of the conversation between Kashibai and Bajirao or Kashibai and Mastani has been written with brilliant thinking and based on the situation. Splendid Dialogues!happy wheels
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UK's most powerful GPU-accelerated supercomputer deployed
The University of Oxford and a group of top academic institutions in the United Kingdom have deployed the nation's most powerful GPU-accelerated supercomputer.
Dubbed "Emerald," the 84-node computer cluster will allow advanced research across a range of scientific and engineering fields.
“The Emerald supercomputer forms part of the government’s £145-million investment in einfrastructure and will be an invaluable asset to business and universities. It will drive growth and innovation, encourage inward investment in the UK and keep us at the very leading edge of science,” said David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science.
Unveiled at the new Center for Innovation in High Performance Computing (HPC) at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, “Emerald” has 372 Nvidia Tesla M2090 GPUs, delivering more than 114 teraflops of performance.
It was developed to enable scientists and engineers from across the United Kingdom to accelerate computationally intensive research in fields like astrophysics, bioinformatics, chemistry, engineering, genomics, life sciences, nanotechnology, and physics.
The Center for Innovation in High Performance Computing was established by the e-Infrastructure South Consortium, which includes the Universities of Oxford, Bristol, and Southampton and University College London.
It provides the infrastructure for the development of scientific and engineering applications, and will enable the training of HPC scientists and engineers.
"Emerald" and other computing systems were funded as part of a £3.7-million ($5.8-million) grant from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Meanwhile, Nvidia named the University of Oxford a CUDA Center of Excellence for its ongoing work in parallel computing research and education using Nvidia GPUs and the NVIDIA CUDA parallel programming environment.
CUDA is Nvidia's parallel computing environment, which enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of GPUs.
"A world leader in genetics, mathematics, scientific computing, and the physical and life sciences, Oxford joins 18 elite institutions that have demonstrated a unique vision for improving the technology and application of parallel computing, and are empowering academics and scientists
to conduct world-changing research," Nvidia said.
It said Oxford as a CUDA Center of Excellence will utilize equipment and grants provided by Nvidia to support a number of research and academic programs across its mathematics, physical and life sciences divisions, including:
- Astrophysics: real-time pulsar detection application for the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array Project to deploy the world’s most powerful radio telescope
- Bioinformatics: analysis and statistical modeling of whole-genome sequencing data
- Chemistry: molecular dynamics simulations of key DNA nanotechnology mechanisms
“The CUDA Center of Excellence award reflects Oxford’s strength in scientific computing, as well as the success of OeRC in developing and championing new approaches to computing, while working with application specialists across the university to bring these benefits to their research,” said Professor Anne Trefethen, chief information officer at the University of Oxford.
Trefethen added that with Nvidia's support, "we can continue to enhance our undergraduate projects and summer bursaries focused on GPU computing, and develop new programs to reach larger numbers of researchers and students.”
The CUDA Center of Excellence program recognizes, rewards and fosters collaboration with leading institutions at the forefront of parallel computing research. — TJD, GMA News
Talk of the web


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Yeah, McCain bad, but Obama is complicit in an international murder cartel and it's so very immoral and personally damaging and wrong to support anything like that.What I didn't include in that post was one of the rejoinders I offered to the Obama/Hillary people at the time. Aware of their penchant for being anti-racist, I would say, "You know, if Obama had voted to drone-bomb white children in Ohio, instead of little Arabs in Pakistan, then you'd finally react." To that, they'd get a little weird and cagey. You could tell there was something strange there--some recognition on their part that, if Obama combated Crip terrorism by blowing up a black church, rather than combating Muslim terrorism by blowing up an Arab mosque, they would react differently.
But it turns out I was wrong. I was completely, totally wrong. The rape epidemics and mass child sex-slavery rings in western Europe are still an ocean away, so the American dismissal of that could still be written off as due to distance. But my wrongness was not confined merely to distance; it turns out that all the American SWPLs I had challenged have actually proven themselves just as carefree about the brutalization of white American children, not an ocean away, as they were/are about Afghani children. As the invader rape epidemic sweeps the U.S. itself, those people still don't care.
My mistake here was not remembering the Reagan years. When Reagan was building up black gang power in American inner cities by setting up cocaine networks to finance his various secret operations in South America, he encountered situations where the mestizo side of his operation were gang-raping and murdering white Christian nuns. Frighteningly young and unbelievably old, these little girls and Christian seniors, completely European-blooded, were getting broken broom handles and disease-laced cocks shoved up their vaginas by sub-Mayan jungle thugs who pretended to be "anti-communist" in order to be supplied with cash and booze and M-16s and CIA supply-drops. A continent away, if not an ocean, but American conservatives didn't care, anymore than American liberals now care if the same thing is happening to little girls in California. All the SWPLs hated Reagan and Oliver North, but then they voted for Clinton, who--in a precursor to "bomb the Somalis, then invite the Somalis to rape us" fashion, used NAFTA to release Reagan's armed jungle rapists on the women of California.

domain: politics


text: The business hotel Rosenau is a renowned 3-star superior hotel in the district of Oberesslingen/ a comfortable walk from the Old Town. There/ all the sights and attractions can be reached on foot. The hotel contains 57 single and double non-smoking rooms. Multi-bed rooms are available upon request. The sauna and infrared cabin are available to our guests free of charge. Two small conference rooms with conference technology are also available.

domain: travel


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Yesterday was the first time I experienced water in my drysuit. Not that bad… But definitely something I don’t want to experience again anytime soon.
After the first dive, I asked Patrik to check my zipper…. There was a very small gap near the end. So water slowly leaked in and filled my right arm. I think the worst part was my elbow. It got really old and felt liked I had arthritis or something.
The water and coldness really messed with my head. I felt like the soggy sweater was occupying my thoughts instead of the dive (work). Once we finished everything, I couldn’t get out of my drysuit. I usually have a hard time anyways, but then my right arm was hurting and I just couldn’t find the leverage or strength to pull my hands out of the right wrist seals.
Once we got back to the shop I hung my under garment up to dry… But 7 hours later, it still was wet for my morning shift.
So what does it feel like when your suit leaks? Well- the biggest difference is that you feel WET. I felt soggy and painfully cold. When I first started drysuit diving I thought my back was wet. But really that was just the suit compressing. That felt like someone out a cold rock on my back. In comparison, the leak felt like a sharp painful coldness. Now I can explain the difference to customers.
- Double check your own zipper before jumping into the water
- Double check your own zipper before jumping into the water – really!!
- Customers always stress out about getting wet. They aren’t going to die of hypothermia, but if they do get wet, change before the next dive so they don’t become the most miserable person in the world
So it’s been about 2ish weeks into my dive program. Patrik suggested a “fun dive” on my day off. I thought he was crazy. Everyday I’ve been lugging around heavy gear and breaking my back- why would I do that on my day off?
Well, it turned out to be a good idea. We went to Grundarhverfi (north of Reykjavik). It’s a small reef with lots of macro stuff. Lots of hermit crabs, clams, slugs and stuff. I got to try out a 15L steel tank. I quickly realized that it felt like a giant turtle that ate too much. I couldn’t get my trim right and I think I was underweighted. www.divebuddy.com estimated 12kg for a 12L tank. I went with 10kg and a 15L… Should have been ok, right? Oh well- too late now.
If you ever thought about doing a divemaster course or an IDC, I think you really have to be a die hard fan of diving. Do it because you can’t wait to see what the water will show you. If you aren’t in LOVE with diving, this program can really wear you down. I’ve even had days where I wonder if I made the right decision to go on a sabbatical and become a divemaster. Then I open my eyes and take a deep breathe from my regulator and gawk at the life around me. This is amazing. Diving is amazing. Look at that hermit crab fighting with the other crab. Straight Crab gangster. Thug crab life. hooks up. This fun dive reminded me why I wanted to do the divemaster program in the first place.
Cheers to fun diving!!
Yesterday Dive.is sent me on a customer guided tour of Kleifarvatn. Kleifarvatn is the largest fresh water lake in the Reykjavik Pennisula region. The big draw here is the geothermal activity. While diving you can see thermoclines, bubbles coming from the ground, smell and see sulfur deposits and hear the “fizziness.”
The dive site required about a 100-200m walk on the rocks before swimming another 100m to the active geothermal zone. The good news was that Patrik carried everyone’s tank to the dive site- which really saved me from exhaustion. Dive.Is likes to have every new employee, divemaster candidate, or Instructor Development Course (IDC) candidiate have a “customer tour” before they start working. The purpose is to show the newbie how a tour should feel like, and give you the customer perspective. Since I actually paid for a silfra dive last year during my holiday in Iceland, I was given the option to dive here instead. It’s sooooooo nice not to carry or assemble any gear. Just jump right in! Nothing to worry about here. What a treat. This place made me feel like I was on a movie set. No one around. We could be expecting Matt Damon to pop out of nowhere with his Martian outfit on.
I felt a little more relaxed in the open atmosphere compared to the silfra night dive. There were just a couple of times where I struggled with my fin and then lost track of my buoyancy. But I’m here to learn, right? I can’t start the program perfect. (Although I really wish I would be better)
Once the dive was over, this tour also included a trip to Seltun. The area is a small hike around geothermal hill where temperatures beneath the surface reach 200°C. It reminded me of the Hells gate geothermal spa in New Zealand. Unlike NZ, this place is free. Hells gate charges $35 NZD just to tour the area. On top of that, you have to pay more for the spa area. A big bonus over Hells gate is that you can hike up a hill and get really close to all the mud and steaming holes. I suppose if you really want to get that mud, you could dig into at the top and camouflage yourself. I decided to just stay dry and as I was. At the top of the hills we saw a grand view of the different lakes around the area.
This was my favorite part of the day.
For Scuba people: Choose a divemaster program where you get to dive interesting spots!
For Tourists: Come to Iceland, its got Seltun for FREE!
Amazing! Beautiful night dive at þingvellir National Park with Dive.Is staff
Dive Log: 157 days since my last dry suit dive.
Am I really here? Do I really want to become a divemaster in about 2°C water? I’ve been here a few times before. Why is it so cold? Am I being the biggest wimp ever? Are there icicles forming from my nose? The night skies are quickly disappearing from Iceland, so we had to squeeze in a night dive before the summer officially arrives.
“Buoyancy control to Major Tom. Major Tom. Are you there? Ground Control to Major Tom!! Help!”
It took me about 30 minutes to settle in my drysuit and control my buoyancy. I really felt like I could have been a ball in one of those pinball arcade games. Good thing I was in a fissure and didn’t drift off into the lake. I’m totally over exaggerating, but you get the idea.
Once I calmed down, I was able to enjoy the dive for what it was: Beautiful. The water at an angle beautifully reflected the scenery below. There were periods of darkness, then flashes of bright light from the backgrounds as other divers moved about. When I turned on my back, I could see the stars shine through the water.
After the dive, I struggled to get out of my fins. It seems like I just had one stress after another tonight. The 400m walk back to the picnic tables wasn’t as bad as I remembered. But then taking off the drysuit was definitely difficult. I couldn’t do it by myself. By then, it had dropped below freezing. Once I got my drysuit off, it looked like a frozen dead body on the ground. Kinda stiff and just laying there. I should have asked for her to walk herself to the van and put herself away.
As tradition for any silfra dive, we had some nice hot drinks afterwards. I should have enjoyed the moment, but the thoughts and pressure of the divemaster program were weighing me down. Back at the shop, my dive instructor comforted me and gave me the strength/boost I needed to get me out of that “doubt hump.” Thanks instructor!
Takeaway thought of the day: Know that the divemaster program will be very difficult… but that you need to give yourself time to breathe, adjust to the weather, and stop being so hard on yourself.

domain: hobby


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A lot of love has gone into making these kits and best of all, absolutely no prior experience is necessary, as it comes with full instructions (video and written/illustrated).
The Deluxe Kit includes 1kg of air-dry clay, a wooden modelling tool, a paintbrush, a heart-shaped sponge (it may look unassuming, but add water and watch it expand like it’s fallen in love!), an incense stick and a tea-light, six pots of paint (blue, green, red, black, white and yellow). Finally, the kit contains a pot of gloss paint, to give your finished pieces that “freshly glazed” look. An instruction manual contains a step-by-step guide, links to a 'lookbook' and to our specially-curated SkandiHus clay kit playlist. The Deluxe Kit will provide you with 3-4 medium-sized pots. The kit contains air-dry clay. That means when your piece is complete, it doesn’t need to be fired. It can be admired and adored immediately!
5% profit from all purchases at She's Lost Control is donated to Crystal Clear - the social enterprise empowering artisanal mining communities.
Pssst... have you joined our Loyalty Love Club yet? You can earn crystal point rewards to redeem on future purchases! Yay!


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SYDNEY, N.S. — The Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. is making a major expansion in its retail cannabis operations in Cape Breton.
Saying that the move was to address geographical gaps and to better combat the illicit market, Finance and Treasury Board Minister Karen Casey announced in a news release Friday that renovations will begin soon in 14 stores across the province. Some of the new locations are expected to be ready in the fall, with all of the stores completed by the end of the next fiscal year.
In Cape Breton, new cannabis stores will be located Baddeck, Glace Bay, Port Hawkesbury and Sydney Mines. Currently, Sydney River is the only Cape Breton NSLC location selling cannabis products.
Recreational cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, with NSLC opening its first dozen retail outlets that October.
“This was a very tight timeline and it was an industry in which there was no sort of established market, so we needed to be cost-effective with the decisions that we were making,” Beverley Ware, spokesperson for NSLC, said in an interview. “Now that the industry is getting established and we have the second phase of cannabis products have now entered the market, we’re sort of focusing on how we can improve access to cannabis for Nova Scotia, which of course is our mandate.”
She noted that NSLC conducted research that demonstrated that the lack of a legal retail cannabis location in an area contributes to illicit sales.
“Nova Scotians have told us through that research that convenience and access are among the key reasons that they purchase from the NSLC, so it’s extremely important that we improve access to legal cannabis in order make an impact on the illicit market,” Ware said.
Geographic location was a key factor in determining where new locations would go, as well as whether existing stores had the space to accommodate cannabis sales.
The new locations will be the same model currently in use, a store-within-the-store model.
A request for proposals is expected to be issued in April but it’s unclear at this point when work at individual stores will be completed.
"We have said all along that we will move slowly and safely and need to be socially responsible and we are ready to take the next step,” Casey said in the release. “We have recognized that online sales so far have not addressed areas of the province where there was a gap and it is apparent that new customers want the in-store experience. We feel that opening more stores is the most effective way to deal with the illicit market, protect our children and keep communities safe."
The new outlets will range in size from 200 square feet for the smaller stores to 400 square feet for the larger stores.
Customers can also receive home delivery by ordering online through the NSLC cannabis website.


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For sale here is a Bogey Guitars Stratocaster made in the late 80s or early 90s. These were made in Korea as far as I can tell and are regarded to be some of the most well-built foreign made Fender fakes out there. This one even has the dead on Fender headstock, I cannot find evidence that Bogey was ever sued, but they had to be, right? Or at least gotten a cease and desist.
As far as I can tell, all Bogey did was make really good fakes of Fender, Gibson and other recognizable guitar companies. But, they seem to be rare, short lived, and fairly sought after in niche circles.
The body of this guitar is made of Paulownia. That means it is ULTRA light. Whole guitar maybe weighs 5.5lbs and there is no neck dive. Great for long hours on the stage or in the studio.
Functionally, this guitar is great. Everything you want out of a strat. Classic vintage-like strat tone. A super comfortable neck. Low action. No real damage or play-ability issues to speak of. The finish is even still clean and shiny, with only the mildest to-be-expected swirl scratches and not really a ding to speak of. In all honesty, this is one of the best playing little strats I have ever had.
The neck plate is a replacement, and the screw pattern is a dead fit, but the plate is a little skinny, so it looks a little strange. (see pics for full details.)
As always, I cleaned it up, polished the finish, flushed the electronics, changed the strings and set the action as low as I could. This guitar is proudly strung with Stringjoy Custom Guitar Strings, made right here in Nashville, TN.
This guitar has no case or gig bag, but I pack my guitars up tight and insure every package for the full sale amount.
Get that sweet vintage Fender Strat tone without the price tag.


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A Russian oligarch backing a political party to advance his interests is nothing new. The case of Sergei Makhlai, owner of PJSC Togliattiazot, however, is rather unique. Rarely if ever do we see the wealthiest Russians trying to establish a political force abroad.
Togliattiazot, based on the Volga River some 600 miles east of Moscow, is one of the largest ammonia producers in the world. It was built as a joint venture between Armand Hammer’s Occidental Petroleum and Soviet government and commissioned in the late 70s. In 1985, Vladimir Makhlai was appointed the director general of ToAZ. When the USSR collapsed six years later, Makhlai saw what kind of opportunity the changes brought about. With the help of high-ranking and corrupt officials, he managed to get ToAZ privatization going under a procedure designed for small enterprises with less than 200 employees. He then went on to eliminate any potential challenges to his stranglehold over the plant. Workers, who still got some shares under the dubious privatization scheme, were forced to sell or face certain “consequences.” An Irish firm Eurotoaz Limited, which invested as much as $20 million in ToAZ, was unceremoniously scratched from the share registry maintained by one of the Makhlai’s closest allies.
After consolidating his control over ToAZ and its main export pipeline, Transammiak, Makhlai’s priorities soon became plain to see. Makhlai, who spent the better part of his life in relative poverty, loathed the very idea of distributing the profit between shareholders or even paying taxes to the state coffers. He was determined to keep such “losses” to a minimum. To this end, he came up with a profit-siphoning scheme as early as mid-90s. Its core idea was to sell ToAZ product at knockdown price to an affiliated company, which would, in turn, re-sell it at fair market price. That allowed Makhlai to hoard tons of unaccounted cash in Swiss banks at the expense of other shareholders and the state budget’s balance sheet. Makhlai also orchestrated covert asset-stripping schemes. Between 2005 and 2010, ToAZ engaged in a series of hundreds of deals, which seem rather inconspicuous when taken separately. But in sum those deals resulted in ToAZ transferring the ownership of one of his ammonia units and both methanol production facilities to LLC Tomet, controlled by Makhlai’s Swiss partner Andreas Zivy.
The nature of Makhlai’s dealings was no secret to the authorities or the media. But Makhlai utilized his vast financial resources and extensive network of corrupt officials to take down any nascent attempts to hold him accountable. In 2005, he was finally charged with gross embezzlement and large-scale tax evasion. Makhlai fled to London, where he currently resides, and once again enlisted the help of corrupt officials to cover up for him. In 2011, Makhlai was replaced at the helm by his son Sergei who took misappropriations on ToAZ to a whole new level.
Sergei Makhlai moved to the US in 1994 and has been calling shots on ToAZ remotely. He hasn’t been to Russia for more than a decade. At the same time, he owns several US entities engaged in shipping industrial equipment to ToAZ.
In 2012, however, Investigative Committee of Russia opened another embezzlement probe with transfer pricing at its center. Seven years later it would see both Makhlais found guilty of large-scale fraud in 2019 and sentenced to 8.5-9 years of imprisonment in absentia alongside Zivy and other close associates. They were also ordered to pay 87 billion rubles (roughly $1,15bn) in damages to ToAZ and its minority shareholders.
Even before they were convicted, the investigation had posed an immediate challenge to Makhlais: they had to find an alternative cash-siphoning scheme to replace the compromised transfer pricing. By mid-2010s, they largely figured out their next gold seam would be sham contracting.
ToAZ is a big enterprise and there’s always some building and engineering work going around. Some firms, like its longtime contractor MSA Construction and other corrupt organizations recruited by Sergei Makhlai and his lieutenant Mezheedov, get 70-80% advance payment on their orders but rarely if ever do anything. And there’s almost never any project designs, construction documents or any other paper trail left. Under normal circumstances, a scrappy contractor like that would instantly get a boot followed by a lawsuit. But MSA Construction keeps getting new orders that amount to no less than $4 million a year. It’s easy to figure out where those advance payments wind up. They undergo extensive laundering procedures and then being smuggled out of the country via one of the ports in the Russian South.
As elegant and simple as that scheme is, $4 million a year is nowhere near what Makhlais were used to. They decided to give it an “international” touch with the help of Turkey’s Bülent Özdemir, who happened to be the founder and longtime owner of MSA Construction. Under the plan devised by Sergei Makhlai and current ToAZ CEO Dmitry Mezheedov, Özdemir’s Turkish construction company Tarsu AS would seemingly provide a major revamp for the plant’s water treatment system using cutting-edge General Electric technology. The contract amounted to some 40 million euros. The only problem is that Tarsu is just a run-of-the-mill Turkish homebuilder that lacks any expertise or track record in chemical engineering. And most certainly it has nothing to do with water purification on ammonia plants or General Electric technology. For good measure, Tarsu also readily undertook similar projects on Tomet and Transammiak, which, simply put, don’t have any water treatment facilities of their own since they rely exclusively on ToAZ. But such inconsistencies are of little concern to Özdemir. His job is to take the money, process it through Turkish banks and make sure Makhlai gets it minus his cut.
That’s how it’s been for the last several years, and Makhlai is really happy with the Tarsu scheme. That’s why he’s now taking steps to protect his dirty-money conduit in Turkey with no less than a full-scale political party. In 2020, Mehmet Seza Kornoşor, former MSA Construction director and major Turkish developer and landowner, announced the formation of a new political party. It currently goes by the working title of “Proper Right party.” According to a report from Russian media, Sergei Makhlai plans to use some of the dozens of millions of dollars he siphons off ToAZ every year to fund the new party.
Turkey currently has four major pollical parties, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development, and as many minor parties. From the ideological standpoint, the new party will cater to conservative entrepreneurs, but without Justice and Development’s religious strand, making it a de-facto alternative to the ruling party capable of vying for its core voter base. Supporters of the new political force currently have strong presence on the Aegean coastline cities like Bursa and Izmir, and also in Istanbul.
The next parliamentary elections in Turkey are slated for 2023, though, if the history is any indication, many factors could lead to early voting. What’s interesting is that there are also parliamentary elections in Russia this fall. Sergei Makhlai, who’s also wanted as a suspect in bribery, tax fraud and organized crime group cases in Russia, is not entertaining the idea of adding a party of his own to the mix yet, but, as reported by the Russian media, is financing the State Duma campaign of one loyal candidate. That said, his goals in Russia and Turkey are very similar: securing influence with the money stolen from ToAZ and its shareholders to shield his criminal activity from the law systems in several countries.