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Philly ranks No. 3 on a list of trendy and affordable cities
The Realtor.com report cited Philadelphia’s culture, history, and “quaint” neighborhoods.
Philadelphia is the third-“trendiest” affordable metropolitan area in the country, according to analysts at Realtor.com.
They looked at the nation’s 300 largest metros for urban areas that are rich in culture and have a supply of relatively affordable homes compared to high-cost cultural centers. To make the list of 10 cities, metros had to have amenities such as yoga studios, breweries, art house theaters, farmers markets, and bike shops. These regions attracted residents ages 25 to 34 to move into the area between 2018 and 2019, according to the Census Bureau.
The metros also had median home listing prices of $400,000 or less in November. The median price in the Philadelphia area was $312,450.
The affordability that propelled Philadelphia toward the top of the list is only in comparison to other major cities with high costs of living, said Michael Scipione, a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Realty based in Old City.
“It’s cheaper now to live here than in New York or D.C. or Boston, but how long does that last?” Scipione said. “The way it’s going, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to last for much longer.”
He encouraged anyone who wants to live in the city to buy now, before home prices rise further and mortgage rates climb. Scipione said he’s seen a lot of young professionals moving to Philadelphia who are making decent incomes and can work from home. Transplants usually come from other major cities, he said, mostly New York, but also Boston, Washington, and Chicago.
» READ MORE: Philadelphia’s best restaurants for party vibes
Scipione cited Philadelphia’s world-class food scene, and its many small businesses, shops and nightlife, walkability, and something-for-everyone offerings as reasons the city deserves its “trendy” title.
The Realtor.com report cited Philadelphia’s culture, history, and “quaint” neighborhoods. Predictably, the report specifically mentioned Fishtown and its boutique hotels, restaurants, art galleries, and shops.
Savannah, Ga., and New Orleans ranked ahead of Philadelphia as first and second on Realtor.com’s list.
Most of the list’s top “trendiest” areas are smaller cities in the Northeast and Midwest and larger cities in the South. They have cafes and museums. Some, like Philadelphia, sit along rivers. Half are college towns. Some are tourist destinations while others won’t make any lists of top girls trip locations. Median home prices range from $189,000 in a Michigan city to $348,500 in New Orleans.
In the list of top 10 trendiest affordable metros, Philadelphia beat out:
4) New Haven, Conn.
5) Sioux City, Iowa
6) Albany, N.Y.
7) Kalamazoo, Mich.
8) Eau Claire, Wis.


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since some of you think that the government shouldn't be the arbiter of morality...and others shouldn't decide who and who shouldn't be married....I want to marry a 14 year old...HECK..NO..I want to be a polygamist and marry 5 14 year old girls. WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME NO? After all...we could be in love and who are you to tell me and/or them we are in love.
So you see..EVERYONE places their version of morality on others..cause 100% of you feel that is SICK...this was no different. A segment of the population, the majority, felt this was sick...and placed their view of morality on you. JUST LIKE YOU WOULD DO IN THE ABOVE SCENARIO!
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domain: sociology


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As a self-proclaimed foodie, here is my opinionated philosophy of dining.
1. Be adventurous. Try something different….
2. Order the specialty. (Don’t get the chicken at a steak house.)
3. Eat in. Don’t take out. Experience the ambiance of the shop and have it fresh.
4. Ribeye or bust.
5. Cash only, sticky menus, and lousy parking are all good signs.
1. It’s a sin to brake the yolk (unless you’re baking a cake.)
2. Ketchup was invented to cover up bad food. Toss it out and eat better.
3. Never ever eat at your hotel when traveling. Go explore!
4. If I didn’t have to blow on my last slurp of ramen, I ate too slow….
5. Never disqualify any kind of food (i.e., “I don’t like spicy” or “I don’t eat veggies.”) Food is awesome.
Not an expert by any means. Just passionate.
Any (and every) food is a blessing….

domain: food


Michelin has extended its range of versatile X® MULTI™ truck tyres, which are particularly suited to medium-distance haulage, with the addition of a new size (315/80-R22.5) for its X® MULTI™ Z and X® MULTI™ D ranges, plus the introduction of two new high load-capacity tyres: the X® MULTI™ HLZ and X® MULTI™ HLT. The latter address a demand for additional load capacity for crane-equipped tractor units and tandem-axle trailers while at the same time delivering all the advantages of the X® MULTI™ range’s hallmark versatility and durability. These benefits are now also available to users of 315/80-R22.5 tyres, a size which accounts for a significant proportion of total demand. Meanwhile, the incorporation of Michelin’s latest patented technologies has resulted in substantial distance-potential gains by permitting up to 30 percent (2) extra mileage.
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Baku, August 23, AZERTAC
The Global Young Leaders Forum has today ended in Baku. The forum was organized by Azerbaijan State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.
Addressing the closing ceremony, co-chair of Nizami Ganjavi International Center, former vice-president of the World Bank Ismail Serageldin thanked the Azerbaijan government for the excellent organization of the forum. He stressed the importance of the forum from the point of view of engaging young leaders in addressing problems facing humanity.
The forum was attended by about 80 young leaders and researchers from around the world, as well as representatives of prestigious higher education institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, California, Montpellier, London School of Economics and Political Science, Paris School of Economics, Sorbonne, Sapienza, John Hopkins, Beijing, Princeton, Cornell, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Colombia, Liverpool, Chicago, Notre Dame, Michigan, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Leipzig, Georgetown, and George Washington universities.
Nearly 20 former heads of government, influential public figures as well as heads of major corporations also joined the forum.
© Content from this site must be hyperlinked when used.

domain: news


Ailanthus tree's status as invasive species offers lesson in human interaction
An exotic tree species that changed from prized possession to forest management nightmare serves as a lesson in the unpredictability of non-native species mixing with human interactions, according to researchers.
"There are other invasive tree species in Pennsylvania, but the Ailanthus, by far, has been here longer and does more damage than any other invasive tree," said Matthew Kasson, who received his doctorate in plant pathology and environmental microbiology from Penn State. "It's the number one cause of native regeneration failure in clearcuts in Pennsylvania."
Kasson, who is a post-doctoral researcher in plant pathology, physiology and weed science at Virginia Tech, said that William Hamilton, a pioneer botanist who corresponded with William Bartram and Thomas Jefferson, imported the first Ailanthus altissima—Tree-of-Heaven—a tree native to China, from England sometime between 1784 and 1785 and cultivated the tree on his estate, the Woodlands, in Philadelphia. The deciduous tree, which grows rapidly, often to a height of 50 feet, has become one of the biggest forest management problems, especially since the 1980s, according to the researchers.
Kasson and colleagues report in a recent issue of the Northeastern Naturalist that Ailanthus can invade quickly in areas where large, continuous stands of trees are cut down—clearcuts—and displace slower-growing native plants. The spread of Ailanthus in Pennsylvania occurred in spurts that seem to be connected with stages of human development, particularly during cross-state transportation projects, Kasson said.
While the tree was initially isolated to the properties of a few botanists and wealthy plant collectors, commercialization of Ailanthus after 1820 coupled with railroad construction projects that connected the eastern and western parts of the state in the mid-1800s intensified its spread, according to Kasson, who worked with Matthew Davis, lab assistant and Donald Davis, professor of plant pathology, both of Penn State.
In the 1980s, widespread gypsy moth infestation in Pennsylvania led to the death or near death of large stands of oak trees in the state forests, especially in south-central Pennsylvania. Crews that cut down the trees built roads to reach the sites, which became avenues for the spread of Ailanthus. From 1989 to 2004 the number of Ailanthus trees on inventory plots increased from 76 million to 135 million.
"In parts of the state forests there were no roads in areas associated with the gypsy moth devastation," said Kasson. "During these timber salvage operations, crews are building roads and moving a lot of soil and seed."
The researchers found one or two older female Ailanthus trees near areas where foresters removed trees following the gypsy moth infestation, but also discovered that most of the Ailanthus trees started to grow shortly after the clearing operation. The older seed-producing trees were often found upwind from the sites of the recent Ailanthus growth. Kasson said this indicates that following the clearcut Ailanthus grew faster than competing species and quickly dominated these forests.
Kasson said recent mining and drilling operations in Pennsylvania forests may also cause the species to expand.
"New roads are being constructed into these active drilling sites," said Kasson. "These drilling operations could lead to future spread."
Previous research may have also underestimated how long Ailanthus can live, according to Kasson. While prior studies estimated that Ailanthus's lifespan was between 50 to 75 years, the tree routinely lives longer than 100 years.
The researchers conducted tree-ring studies of Ailanthus in all the counties where the tree grows in Pennsylvania, as well as several surrounding states. The researchers used these studies, along with historic surveys and reports on plant species in the state, to determine age and growth patterns.
Ailanthus, which is also called Chinese sumac or stinking sumac, grows in 60 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, according to the researchers—nine more counties than reported in previous studies. The research also suggests that the incidence of Ailanthus in Pennsylvania's northern-tier counties, where the tree has been historically absent, will likely increase like previous Ailanthus expansions in southern parts of the state.


Some investors say that investing in commercial real estate is not for the faint of heart. The reason is that, while income and equity potential is much larger than those in residential properties, the risks are also greater.
“If you [choose to] take the plunge into investing in commercial properties, do so with longevity in sight,” says Tamara Wrigley (pictured), media personality and property investor, who has a portfolio of more than 40 properties. “Buying commercial properties is like giving birth to a child – you have to take care of and look after it for many, many years to come.”
Wrigley entered the property market at the age of 19 and focused on building and investing in residential properties. It wasn’t until 15 years ago when she started to “dab her toe” in commercial real estate.
“There are a lot more pros when it comes to commercial properties,” she says. “This includes stronger returns, which is a combination of capital gain and income, and stability of income because your tenants sign longer leases.”
Wrigley also says that investing in commercial real estate has greater tax benefits.
“We live in a highly taxed country, and as an investor I look for ventures that have great tax benefits. Commercial properties provide just that with generous benefits and substantial depreciation allowances.”
However, Wrigley admits investing in commercial real estate has some drawbacks.
“One of the disadvantages… is that it can take months and months – and in some economic climates, years – to sell or lease, unlike our residential friend that can be snapped up within days or weeks of being listed for sale,” she says.
It’s a team effort
Many first-time property investors may not have sufficient knowledge and experience to seamlessly navigate the commercial real estate landscape. Wrigley says this is where having a solid support crew becomes crucial.
“Knowledge is power in any industry and, unfortunately, there is very little information or resources for people interested in commercial real estate,” she says “This is where you need to have a good team of people behind you to guide you in the right direction.”
Wrigley lists the four people who play important roles in helping investors build a successful commercial property portfolio.
Solicitor: They not only recognise the numbers but, more importantly, help in understanding any leases or legal issues.
Accountant: They crunch the numbers and help with the appropriate purchasing entity and tax planning.
Financial advisor: They help set financial goals and keep investors focused on those goals.
Finance broker: They are essential in finding the best funding opportunity for each purchase. Wrigley advises to “never go directly to a banking institution as they limit your financial choices.”
Practical tips for commercial real estate investors
With the team set, Wrigley says these six pointers can help guide investors in securing their first commercial property.
Practice due diligence
As with any type of investment, Wrigley emphasises the importance of learning about the industry before dashing in head-on.
“I said it before, knowledge is power, and understanding the commercial property market is going to be the key to your success,” she says.
Buy in a good location
Location can often spell the difference between yield and loss in property investments. Wrigley’s advice is to “look into high growth areas with good exposure and potential to add value.”
She lists parking availability and accessibility to public transport as among the biggest factors to consider when buying a commercial real estate.
Purchase a leased property
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a lot of volatility in the property sector. Wrigley says buying a leased property can help add some form of stability.
“In this current climate, there are a lot of businesses that have suffered the COVID-19 blues,” she says. “To mitigate your loss, look at purchasing a property where a tenant is already in place and is on a long-term lease agreement.”
Purchase with potential
A keen eye for potential is a must for every property investor and Wrigley suggests to always be on the lookout for “underdeveloped and undercapitalised properties.”
“Older buildings may not be using all the land, which means you could expand,” she says. “Also, check the zoning of the land as it may allow you to increase the opportunities of that space.”
Pay it off
“Paying down the debt against the building should be factored into your financial strategy,” Wrigley says. “The faster you pay it off, the more money goes in your pocket and the more equity you have in case you want to buy more in the future.”
Learning never stops
If one wants to be successful in the commercial property market, the learning must never stop.
Wrigley’s advice is to “keep educating yourself and keep asking loads of questions” because when done correctly, commercial property investments can be “extremely rewarding.”
“To me, property is king – and done right, you can retire and live off the rental returns for the rest of your life,” she says. “It’s a bit like that spray you put on your outdoor tiles – set and forget. That, to me, is commercial [property investment] – set it up and then you can forget about it (to a degree) and enjoy the rewards of living a positive cash flow life.”


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Enjoy the sights and sounds to be experienced along one of the most rapidly changing stretches of the Kent coastline. Head through Reculver Country Park along the famous Saxon Shore Way and back alongside the strand.
Route type: Circular
Distance: 3.5 miles | 5.6 km
Start postcode: CT6 6SU
For more information on this and other walks, as well as maps, please visit the Explore Kent website.

domain: travel


The Chain adaptor hardness tester is a complement to the Brinell PHB-3000 hardness tester. Brinell PHB-3000 hardness tester at the beginning of the design due to the overall design structure of the limit, the height of the opening and throat depth is fixed, so the size of the test workpiece requirements are limited, the diameter of the round rod can only be tested up to diameter 200mm. For bars larger than 200mm in diameter, if you want to test any point on the surface of the circle, you can only think of other methods. Based on the Brinell PHB-3000's core hydraulic system test head, the technician came up with the idea of replacing the PHB-3000 frame with a chain adapter for hardness testing of round rods with diameters of more than 200mm. This change expands the range of PHB-3000 applications. The standard length of the chain adapter hardness tester chain is 1.5 meters, and the maximum diameter that can be measured is about 550mm. Depending on the design of the chain adapter, the maximum length of the chain can be increased to 2.4 m, and the corresponding maximum diameter can be measured to 850mm. So basically, the Brinell hardness of large diameter tubes can be solved with a combination of Brinell PHB-3000 Tester and chain adapter hardness tester. In practice, many customers buy this combination: a Brinell PHB-3000 and a chain adapter frame, or a chain adapter instrument and a Brinell PHB-3000 frame. Both freely combine to measure different size workpiece. However, it should be noted that the direction of the dial gauge is opposite. When the test head on one instrument is transferred to the other instrument, the indicator reading is in the opposite direction, and another colleague may be required to assist the test.


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Summer means The Cheese Counter making fresh mozzarella Fri. and Sat. mornings at The Pasta Shop on College.
Try Feta & Curly Kale Ravioli, the newest seasonal pasta flavor made fresh daily by The Pasta Shop.
"It's like drinking a beer." Discover smooth, creamy cold-brewed coffee on nitro at Highwire.
Catch this: local wild king salmon in season at Hapuku Fish Shop.
For summer salads, The Cheese Counter suggests creamy, crumbly Fiore di Bufala, just $4.99 each at The Pasta Shop.


HAMILTON — An eight-year member of the school board has quit over the firing of an interim superintendent, who said he lost his job after refusing to resign a week ago.
Board member Elric Cicchetti said he resigned in disgust over the board’s firing decision last week and its “micromanagement” of school affairs. School board President Patricia DelGiudice countered that Cicchetti was “abandoning the school district.”
The falling-out was sparked by the board’s decision to postpone the hiring of two new elementary school principals, whose replacements had been recommended by the ousted interim superintendent, James Sheerin, and search team members.
Sheerin was fired in a 6-1 board decision Friday about a month after the board had renewed his contract to serve until a permanent superintendent takes over in April.
Cicchetti cast the lone no vote. The board had lost confidence in Sheerin, DelGiudice said yesterday.
“None of this was new to Dr. Sheerin. The board previously discussed with him what we would have liked him to do,” DelGiudice said, without going into details. She cited the need for business discussed in closed session to remain confidential.
Sheerin said he and board members were at odds over the board’s decision last month to postpone the appointment of at least two principals for vacancies at Lalor, McGalliard and Yardville elementary schools until the new superintendent weighs in. Hamilton’s new superintendent, James Parla, will begin his work with the district in mid-April.
“We had a lot of input during this process from stakeholders,” Sheerin said. “The committees were disappointed that nothing took place, and I don’t think that it was educationally sound to wait for a new superintendent.”
“Many of the stakeholders were upset; they voiced their opinions at public meetings,” he said. “I did speak with the board in executive session about this, telling them that ... it would be difficult to have people volunteer to serve on a committee if (the board wasn’t) going to move on recommendations from these committees.”
Sheerin said that the board’s decision to terminate his employment weeks after renewing his contract is “indicative of a board that’s reactionary.”
In his letter of resignation, Cicchetti stated that there’s “quite a bit of micromanaging going on” among board members, and he didn’t feel he could be an effective board member anymore.
“I didn’t know what the emergency was,” said Cicchetti yesterday. “Dr. Sheerin was not able to be there Friday night” for the vote to terminate him. “It is kind of ridiculous. This doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I’m in the minority here.”
DelGiudice said she was disappointed with Cicchetti’s decision to resign.
“Basically, he didn’t get his way. ... I’m just disappointed that he didn’t stay with his commitment as he was elected to do. He’s an official elected by the public, here to support the children. ... He’s abandoning the school district,” DelGiudice said.
DelGiudice said the board does not have a deadline to replace Cicchetti, but it will have to advertise and interview for the open spot. “It’s not something we need to do immediately, there’s no rush,” she said.
Daniel Swirsky, the interim director of human resources for the district, has been named acting superintendent but will continue to serve at his current rate of pay — $364 a day — until he is confirmed in that post, at which time he could be paid $682 per day. Swirsky will resume his former job once Parla takes over.
Because Sheerin was not given 15 days’ notice that he would be terminated — a contract stipulation — he must also receive his daily rate of $680 for the next two weeks, school officials confirmed.
Sheerin said he was sad to see Cicchetti resign from the board.
“Dr. Cicchetti is a highly respected member of the community and highly respected educator,” Sheerin said.
Cicchetti, 71, has a long history in education.
“I’ve worked under boards, with boards, as a teacher. That’s been my whole life,” said Cicchetti, who earned his doctorate in education at Rutgers University and is past president of the Hamilton YMCA.
Cicchetti also taught at Notre Dame and Steinert high schools, served as superintendent for close to 30 years at the Mercer County Technical Schools and also was a professor at The College of New Jersey, teaching both education and business courses.
An educational consultant, Sheerin was hired as interim superintendent in late June. He had previously served as interim superintendent in the East Windsor Regional School District from February 2003 to January 2004.


- Stretch cotton bra without underwiring for extra comfort.
- Removable inserts, thin padded cups for greater discretion.
- Adjustable straps.
- Small bow and picot edging.
- Wear with the matching knickers.
- Product certified to Standard 100 by the Oeko-Tex label, guaranteeing that it is kind to skin.
- 93% Cotton 7% Elastane
A brand, a story
Know-how, quality knits
The choice of responsible yarns
A clear idea about childhood


The average listing price on SpeedList for this year, make, and model is $24,737.
This vehicle has been on SpeedList for 109 days.
Power Mirrors Vanity Mirrors Traction Control Airbag - Driver Psngr Arbg On/Off Cntrl Power Mirrors Vanity Mirrors Traction Control Airbag - Driver Psngr Arbg On/Off Cntrl Airbag - Passenger Side Airbags Roof Airbags Air Conditioning Am/Fm Radio Cd Player Satellite Radio Four Wheel Abs 4-Wheel Disc Brakes Cruise Control Rear Defrost All Wheel Drive Vehicle Anti-Theft V6 Cyl. Engine Floor Mats Fog Lights Remote Keyless Entry Power Locks Heated Mirrors Trip Computer Wheels - Aluminum Power Windows Intermittent Wipers 3Rd Row Seat Fold Down Rear Seat Front Bucket Seats Tilt Steering Wheel Steer Fuel Consumption: City: 16 Mpg Fuel Consumption: Highway: 24 Mpg Remote Power Door Locks Power Windows Cruise Controls On Steering Wheel Cruise Control 4-Wheel Abs Brakes Front Ventilated Disc Brakes 1St 2Nd And 3Rd Row Head Airbags Passenger Airbag Side Airbag Rear Air Conditioning With Separate Controls 50-50 Third Row Seat Manual Folding Third Row Seat Uconnect W/Bluetooth Wireless Phone Connectivity Digital Audio Input In-Dash Single Cd Player Audio System Memory Card Slot Mp3 Player Siriusxm Am/Fm/Satellite Radio Radio Data System Siriusxm Satellite Radio(Tm) Speed Sensitive Audio Volume Control Total Number Of Speakers: 6 Braking Assist Abs And Driveline Traction Control Stability Control With Anti-Roll Control Privacy Glass: Deep Gray Aluminum Rims Wheel Diameter: 19 Wheel Width: 7 Driver Knee Airbags Front Fog/Driving Lights Leather/Metal-Look Steering Wheel Trim Leather/Chrome Shift Knob Trim Metal-Look Dash Trim Metal-Look Door Trim Roof Rails Video Monitor Location: Front Trip Computer External Temperature Display Auxilliary Engine Cooler Tachometer Manufacturer's 0-60Mph Acceleration Time (Seconds): 6.2 S Auxilliary Transmission Cooler Power Remote Driver Mirror Adjustment Heated Driver Mirror Heated Passenger Mirror Electrochromatic Rearview Mirror Power Remote Passenger Mirror Adjustment Dual Illuminated Vanity Mirrors Compass Daytime Running Lights Rear Heat Ducts With Separate Controls Audio Controls On Steering Wheel Front And Rear Reading Lights Premium Cloth Seat Upholstery Bucket Front Seats Split Rear Bench Fold Forward Seatback Rear Seats Rear Seats Center Armrest Tilt And Telescopic Steering Wheel Speed-Proportional Power Steering Suspension Class: Sport Interior Air Filtration Automatic Front Air Conditioning Dual Front Air Conditioning Zones Tire Pressure Monitoring System: Tire Specific Remote Activated Exterior Entry Lights Cargo Area Light Max Cargo Capacity: 68 Cu.Ft. Vehicle Emissions: Ulev Ii Fuel Type: Regular Unleaded Read More…
This 2016 Dodge Journey Crossroad has a 3.6L V6. Standard features include: Bluetooth, Remote power door locks, Power windows with 1 one-touch, Multi-speed automatic Transmission, 4-wheel ABS brakes, Air conditioning with dual zone climate control...
This 2016 Dodge Journey Crossroad has a 3.6L V6. Standard features include: Bluetooth, Remote power door locks, Power windows with 1 one-touch, Multi-speed automatic Transmission, 4-wheel ABS brakes, Air conditioning with dual zone climate control, Cruise control, Audio controls on steering wheel, Traction control - ABS and driveline, 283 hp horsepower, 3.6 liter V6 DOHC engine, Passenger Airbag, Head airbags - Curtain 1st, 2nd and 3rd row, Power heated mirrors, Tilt and telescopic steering wheel, 4 Doors, All-wheel drive, Fuel economy EPA highway (mpg): 24 and EPA city (mpg): 16, Front fog/driving lights, Tachometer, Compass, External temperature display, Keyless Ignition - Doors and push button start, Daytime running lights, 4WD Type - Full-time, Overhead console - Mini with storage, Clock - In-radio display, Speed-proportional power steering, Trip computer, Knee airbags - Driver, Stability control - Stability control with anti-roll, Front seat type - Bucket, Reclining rear seats, Split-bench rear seats, Third row seats, Engine hour meter, Intermittent window wipers, Rear wiper, Roof rack - Rails only....


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Thursday, April 3, 2014
Christmas Card Challenge # 18 - Snowman Gift Card Holder
Christmas Card Challenge
is to use your favourite colouring medium!
I LOVE my Copics and Stickles,
and Coloured this simple snowman with them.
This is a gift card holder with a magnet closure.
Thursday, April 03, 2014
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domain: artistic


Our resilient infrastructure allows us to meet the growing needs of our customers. In this article, we will look under the hood at our Samrand data centre, our customer control panel and the security and mitigation measures we have in place to ensure we remain trusted in hosting.
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Our state-of-the-art data centre
Our data centre in Samrand, Gauteng, currently houses around 8000 physical servers and 300 colocation racks.
Below are some recent achievements from the powerhouse behind our business.
Our data centre has an excellent annual PUE rating of 1.2 – a global measure of a data centre’s energy efficiency. We maintain this rating by consciously innovating how we use energy, including:
- Positioning our racks to reduce power usage
- Using a high-density design to manage our floor space
- Employing free cooling to auto-adjust the temperature based on outside conditions.
With our energy-saving measures, we are able to keep our power usage low.
Xneelo offers 99.9% network uptime. During load shedding, we employ a fully redundant UPS feed to all IT equipment as well as four 2.5 MVA backup generators to limit disruption to our customers and ensure network stability.
Increased uplink speed
We are always looking for opportunities to boost performance for our customers. Recently, we increased the uplink speed for Self-Managed Servers from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, at no additional cost to our customers. This will be rolled out at our Cape Town data centre soon.
Increased IP Transit capacity
We increased our IP Transit capacity to 10 Gbps, with an additional 6 Gbps for backups, which can be leveraged by both our data centres. This new capacity gives us greater flexibility for how and where we route our traffic and further improves our redundancy and resilience. It also allows us to relook the future cost of bandwidth and traffic quotas.
While not strictly a data centre highlight, one of the results of our iterative improvement process is our new enterprise CDN product. The ability to deliver website content faster through caching technology is one more way we can offer additional value and performance benefits to our customers.
We’ve invested significantly into our network infrastructure to keep our network on par with global standards. Recently, we upgraded our network core, switches and retired ageing technology in favour of modern and more resilient Juniper equipment.
Network upgrades provide customers with higher network availability and allow us to perform maintenance at any time with less downtime.
Security remains a continuous focus. Every improvement we make involves stringent safety and security controls to ensure the ongoing protection of our customers.
Our PCI-DSS-compliant data centre has 55 surveillance cameras, which are strategically placed and monitored around the clock. Access is controlled by advanced biometric scanning systems, with 20 devices and pin-coded keypads. High-voltage security fences and a 24/7 security presence prevent any unauthorised access.
Our data centre is a low fire risk, thanks to the Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (VESDA) installed to trigger alarms at the slightest hint of smoke particles.
Managed servers are monitored 24/7 for all critical services and hardware health. Our reactive system administrators escalate issues to data centre staff or platform engineers as they’re identified. Managed servers are automatically backed up daily for disaster recovery purposes.
From spam management and phishing education to bolstering our security features to ensure better protection, we are always alert to new and existing threats, so our customers can continue to have peace of mind. Here are a few of the ways we help protect your business should the worst happen.
Spam mitigation is a difficult science to get right – we’re constantly looking for ways to improve our spam mitigation on behalf of our customers. We take a number of measures to keep out most threats. Our spam filtering, which makes use of resources developed both in-house and externally, detects most harmful messages while attempting to limit disruption to normal email communications. We also adopt security standards such as SPF and DKIM on our incoming email servers to identify and prevent forged emails from getting through.
Over a 30-day period, we reject around 10 million potentially fraudulent emails which fail SPF checks.
Network-level security consists of three main elements: DDoS mitigation, VLAN reverse path forwarding protection and Juniper firewall rules at the network edge and core.
Our Control Panel
The xneelo Control Panel has extensive security and permission features in place to ensure a safe and secure experience. This includes two-factor authentication, access control, and the Collaborators feature that allows you to assign individual roles with their own login details.
We have also recently introduced two-factor authentication for customers who are using konsoleH.
As your web hosting provider, we update PHP annually to ensure your website continues to perform at its best, and to reduce the threat of security vulnerabilities.
Our customers require their hosting and server management to be robust, reliable and dependable. For this reason, our hardware platform is monitored round the clock and managed by our engineers.
Website threat mitigation
Website traffic is monitored and protected by a Web Application Firewall (WAF). We manage and maintain the rule set that drives the WAF, so that we’re able to block a large portion of malicious traffic to websites while maintaining a low false positive detection rate.
In August 2023, our firewall stopped more than 4 million potentially malicious requests.
Over and above the robust security features mentioned, Web Hosting customers have the option to add an extra layer of website-level protection in the form of Cloudbric WAF, which acts as a firewall to block malicious and suspicious traffic and keeps a permanent block list of exploitative and hacking attempts.
Try it for one month free.
At xneelo, we continue to invest in the latest technologies and best practices to ensure our continued reliability, security, scalability, and efficiency – to deliver the hosting services that set us apart.


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Is MS Hereditary?
You can inherit many things from your family members; you may have the same nose as your mom, height from your maternal side, your dad’s laugh, the list goes on. Genetics and hereditary characteristics give us a great many personality attributes as well as biological traits.
Often, the good comes with the bad and not all inheritable traits are positive ones. You may have the same blood type as your dad, and unfortunately, that could leave you susceptible to other things, including disease. It’s often wondered if a disease, like multiple sclerosis (MS), can be passed down through the gene pool.
What Is Multiple Sclerosis?
MS is an autoimmune disease which affects your central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). Autoimmune diseases confuse within the cells; the body’s own tissues are mistaken for viruses or bacteria, and the body attacks itself.
How Does MS Affect the Brain?
A quick recap of how the brain is wired for communication should remind you of how MS affects the brain:
Neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain are the building blocks of the central nervous system; they receive, process and transmit information. The neuron is comprised of a cell body, dendrites, and an axon. Dendrites pick up the messages from receptors of other cells and pass it to the cell body then the axon.
The axon is the long extension of the cell which the carries messages to other neurons, and this communication prompts us to think or take action. Axons are coated with a myelin sheath, which is constructed of fats and proteins to create a protective barrier which insulates and helps speed up nerve transmission through nerve fibers.
Myelin and MS
MS attacks tissues in the body – namely the myelin in the brain. The attack causes inflammation of the brain and damages the myelin in patches. Minor damage will result in slight interruptions for nerve impulses – the communication between brain cells becomes kind of like a weak Wi-Fi signal you’d get in a coffee shop.
More severe destruction of the myelin can lead to the nerve fibers themselves getting damaged. MS can quite literally interrupt your brain messages to the point where communication is disrupted between neurons; in this instance, the body doesn’t receive the impulses telling it what to do – even the most basic of human functions.
MS can cause issues speaking, walking, seeing, and many other functions of the body. With MS, you might not only have a weak Wi-Fi signal but sometimes the message gets lost completely.
What Causes MS?
If that’s the basic outline of how MS operates, who gets it? Is it some unlucky Russian Roulette? A source is not definitive, and the underlying cause of MS remains in the dark; however, certain factors contribute to the likelihood of developing contracting MS.
Current research suggests that lifestyle, environmental, genetic and biologic elements contribute to risk factors for this disease. MS can develop at any age, but diagnosis usually occurs between the ages of 15-40. Studies have shown that MS is more likely to happen in women than in men, and has proven to be more common in people of northern European background.
As far as links to genetics, even though MS is not hereditary per se, there are a few factors that may increase the potential for an individual to contract the disease.
For instance, having a direct-relative such as a parent or sibling significantly increases the potential for another sibling or offspring to be afflicted. An inheritance pattern such as this suggests a definite link to genetics.
Researchers speculate that MS could develop due to a genetic predisposition to react to an agent in the environment which triggers an immune-mediated response upon exposure to that particular stimuli.
What Are the Symptoms of MS?
Symptoms of MS are unpredictable, each individual has a different experience with MS, and symptoms can fluctuate on a case-by-case basis as well.
Myelin damage can leave some nerves exposed, which can cause irreversible damage to them as well. Part and parcel of the irregularity in symptoms depends on the location where the myelin and/or nerve damage in the central nervous system occurs. Location and severity of myelin damage may also mean that symptoms might not present right away.
MS is ever-changing; since the disease develops slowly and more damage occurs to the myelin, the more symptoms will start to unfold.
In between periods of remission, symptoms can include cognitive impairment, vision issues, fatigue, lack of coordination, mood changes, issues with balance or dizziness, weakness, bladder problems, and more.
To date, research has not discovered a cure for MS, but research and various studies are ongoing. For a vast majority of people living with the disease, MS is not fatal.
In the true sense of inheriting MS through the gene pool, neurologists maintain that MS is not a hereditary disease. Scientific research is still digging for a cure. You can inherit many things from your parents, but as of right now, science doesn’t suggest that MS is one of them.

domain: biology


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Taiwan in Time: May 16 to May 22
On April 20, 1949, negotiations broke down between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party, as the People’s Liberation Army continued its offensive, capturing the Nationalist capital of Nanjing three days later and then continuing to push southward.
Chen Cheng (陳誠), who had been sent to govern Taiwan five months before the offensive, was worried that Communists would try to sneak their way into Taiwan amid the mass Nationalist retreat across the Taiwan Strait, writes historian Chen Shih-chang (陳世昌) in his book, Taiwanese History, 70 Years After the War (戰後70年台灣史).
Courtesy of Google
On May 19, Chen Cheng declared martial law, to take effect at midnight the next day.
Chen Shih-chang writes in his memoir that martial law provisions made it easier for him to enact laws to restrict people entering and exiting Taiwan — the main purpose being to weed out possible communists. He was likely also responding to unrest within Taiwan, such as the student protests against police brutality that led to the April 6 Incident when military and police personnel stormed National Taiwan Normal University dorms and arrested about 200 students.
Some dispute the legality of this move, claiming that Chen Cheng had no right to declare martial law as, according to Article 39 of the Republic of China constitution, only the president had the power to do so and it had to be subsequently approved by the Legislative Yuan. Chen Cheng, however, claims in his memoir that he was acting under direct orders from the central government.
Photo: Tsai Chih-ming, Taipei Times
No matter what Chen Cheng’s intentions were, or whether it was legal or not, his declaration would remain in place for the next 38 years and 56 days — one of the longest duration of martial law in the modern era.
The real ramifications were that after the KMT’s full retreat to Taiwan, they would use it to keep Taiwan in a constant state of emergency and, combined with other laws, they exercised authoritarian control over the government and people.
It was the second time martial law had been declared in Taiwan. The first one was issued in 1947 by governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) the day the 228 Incident broke out, and curfews were imposed in Taipei and Keelung. Chen lifted it the next day, only to declare it again on March 8 as the situation worsened and government troops clashed with civilians. Meanwhile, the commander in Hsinchu made his own declaration on March 4.
Photo: Wu Hsing-hua, Taipei Times
This period was short-lived. On May 16, Wei Dao-ming (魏道明) arrived to replace Chen Yi, and one of his first acts was to lift martial law and stop the government’s qingxiang (清鄉, the countrywide arresting or killing of civilians suspected to have ties to the uprising).
KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) declared martial law in December 1948 as the civil war worsened — but this issuance excluded non-war zones such as Tibet (which the KMT had no control over anyway), Qinghai and Taiwan.
Chen Cheng’s initial declaration closed all ports except for Keelung, Kaohsiung and Makung, established curfews for civilians and businesses, forbade merchants from raising prices or stocking up on goods for personal use and prohibited public gatherings, strikes, protests, bearing arms and “spreading rumors.” All citizens were required to have identification on them at all times, or face arrest.
Later that month, the Punishment of Rebellion Act (懲治叛亂條例) was enacted, which called for automatic death sentences for internal rebels or traitors to the country. The act specified that all trials be carried out by military tribunals regardless of the subject’s identity. Originally aimed towards Communist collaborators, the KMT would later use the act, along with the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款), to suppress freedom of speech, ban opposition parties and arrest suspected independence activists and other dissidents.
Finally, provisions were enacted allowing government screening and censorship of all publications, recordings and performances. Restrictions included defaming government leaders, promoting communism, swaying civilian loyalty toward government and disrupting social security — but in reality the scope was much wider, including sexually-explicit content and even martial arts novels.
With that, all conditions were ripe for the height of the White Terror era.
Taiwan in Time, a column about Taiwan’s history that is published every Sunday, spotlights important or interesting events around the nation that have anniversaries this week.
The media reported this week on another government stimulus program to make the birth rate rise. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the budget for the government’s programs would reach NT$85 billion (US$3.05 billion) by 2023, and said that the government’s monthly subsidy for child support would rise from NT$3,500 to NT$5,000. These measures are a well-meaning attempt to address Taiwan’s globally low fertility and birth rates, but they are rather like poking a heart attack victim with a stick in the hope of reviving him. The problems driving the low birth rates are well known: the lack and cost of
May 3 to May 9 The Japanese soldiers thought they had already subjugated the Atayal when they set out toward the mountains of today’s eastern Taoyuan on May 5, 1907. The two brigades, one from the north and one from the south, were tasked with pushing the colonial government’s frontier defense lines deeper into Aboriginal territory to gain access to valuable camphor. “The defense lines were used to protect the economic activities, mainly camphor production, on the [Japanese] side of the line,” writes Wu Cheng-hsien (吳政憲) in the paper, “The Principle and Utilization of the Mortars on the Frontier Defense Lines”
Who would have thought that Taiwan — just over 100km from China and a few hundred kilometers away from Vietnam, which are the world’s first and second biggest consumers of pangolin scales — would become the last beacon of hope for this imperiled species? In fact, pangolins — from sub-species in Africa all the way down to Indonesia — are the world’s most highly trafficked mammal. Thought to cure anything from HIV to hangovers, ground pangolin scales and pangolin soup (the photos online are difficult to stomach) are expensive delicacies in Vietnam and China, and the rarer the species becomes,
Chu Mu-kun (朱木崑) carefully inspects a large boulder hauled from further up the Daniuci OId Trail (打牛崎古道). “This might work,” he says, rotating and repositioning it against the slope until it fits snugly. It takes two hours to manually make three steps using simple tools on the ancient trail, which has been rendered inaccessible due to the collapse of a wooden elevated walkway. “You have to transport goods up here to repair this walkway, which looks jarring against its surroundings to begin with,” Chu says. “Hand-built trails using readily available materials are easier to maintain and are better for the environment.

domain: politics


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Well, that was fast.
The New York Giants are now 0-5 on the season, which has just gotten worse and worse for them as the weeks go by. Unfortunately, they have even worse news on the horizon than simply going winless through five weeks.
Odell Beckham Jr. suffered one of the ugliest injuries you'll ever see late in the game, as his leg got rolled up under a pile of bodies in the most uncomfortable way possible.
Here's the Odell Beckham Jr. injury. It's bad. Really bad. pic.twitter.com/TLChjKpFOG— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) October 8, 2017
Now, it looks like the OBJ injury updates are getting even worse.
According to reports, OBJ is heading right into surgery for this one, which should tell us everything we need to know about his status.
Odell Beckham is headed for surgery, per source. He injured his leg in the fourth quarter.— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) October 8, 2017
It usually takes a day or two for teams to fully diagnose their players' injuries, but the Giants needed less than an hour to let the world know that OBJ needs surgery.
The team has now taken to Twitter to announce that the injury is a fractured ankle, which could still lead to surgery for the superstar receiver.
Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. fractured his ankle. He could have surgery but no decision yet.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 8, 2017
Looking at the injury, this shouldn't come as much as a surprise. However, stay tuned for more updates on this one as we get specifics.


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Via Ophelia Benson, Ellie Mae O’Hagan riffs off her first reading of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique at The Guardian‘s Comment is Free: Feminists can be sexy and funny – but it’s anger that changes the world
For a long time now, feminists have been told that their message will never spread to the masses if the messenger appears to be an angry man-hating lesbian shouting the odds from a gender studies seminar room. But we need to realise that popular, non-threatening feminism is destined for failure as well. In a patriarchy – and if you are a feminist, you accept that we are living in one – what is popular and non-threatening is what men deem to be acceptable.
Feminism that prioritises popularity over its own integrity will necessarily fail, as it is bound to reproduce the very problems it is fighting against.
Friedan changed feminism because she wrote a book that spoke to women’s hearts and souls, and wasn’t afraid of offending men in the process. An 82-year-old woman wrote in the New York Times this week that The Feminine Mystique had made her realise that she was “not a freak” for feeling a sense of malaise. Women today are becoming angry at being made to feel like freaks for feeling malaise at being cat-called, objectified and shamed. The goal of feminists must be to harness that anger to create something better, not stifle it with a feminism which pleases everybody but changes nothing.
As O’Hagan outlines Friedan’s most salient points and examines how the book was originally received and argued for and against, she compares and contrasts it with how the arguments of today’s feminists are being received and counterpointed from both within and without the feminist movement. It’s fascinating on one level, and deeply wearying on another, to see the same old anti-feminist and anti-activist backlash arguments keep on being played out, in yet another go-round of objections to appeals based in social justice for redressing sexist and other imbalances of opportunity/representation. Most visibly online right now it’s happening in geek groups and atheist/skeptic forums (which overlap extensively with online (g)libertarianism, which massively multiplies the entrenched backlash).
Those arguments basically boil down to it doesn’t happen to me/I don’t see it happen around me therefore you must be exaggerating or lying – and when the exasperated why would we lie about this? response is made then out come the claims about radical manhating and working towards a matriarchy. If they grudgingly back down from that hyperbole it’s then that the but if you were just not so strident then people* would take you more seriously card is played. (* by people they obviously mean men)
This leads me onto another summary of a not-new book scrutinising dismissive arguments against gender analysis similar to those highlighted by O’Hagan, (also via Ophelia Benson). Michael Kimmel’s The Gendered Society (2000) (which I haven’t read yet but of which I hear many good reports) is quoted as noting that it wasn’t until women’s liberationists in the 1970’s raised their voices against sexism that sociologists even formally recognised gender as one of the prime axes of social status/oppression:
We now know that gender is one of the central organizing principles around which social life revolves. Until the 1970s, social scientists would have listed only class and race as the master statuses that defined and proscribed social life.
The central thesis of Kimmel’s book, per Benson, is that the dynamic interplay between difference and inequality does not work in the way that the status quo defenders argue – they say that difference leads to inequality (If you just weren’t so darn different we could treat you equally! But you are really very different, so that just wouldn’t be right.), however Kimmel argues that is the presumption of inequality that leads to the insistence on empirically significant differences. Benson also quotes a most illuminating exchange from the ’80s between a Black woman and a White woman about what we are conditioned to see when we look at ourselves in the mirror in terms of our differences from the presumed normal in our societies – our social privileges determine what we see as important differences and what we see as inconsequential differences, and what is socially accepted as the most important differences are those that visibly mark race, gender and class.
This is what ties Kimmel’s work into O’Hagan’s post on Friedan and funny/sexy feminism most clearly for me – the crucial importance of making our malaises visible and our analytical terminology recognised as part of the required vocabulary for serious discussions (note the pushback against the word ‘misogynist’ from people who use none of the same arguments against the word ‘misanthrope’).
The more some feminists try to be popular/pleasing (as women are expected and conditioned to be), the more complicit those feminists will find themselves needing to be with not calling out the difference myths of the status quo for the distortions they are, and the more the world will never change. That this is one of the crucial points of contention between the mainstream feminism and the womanist movements is no coincidence; it exemplifies exactly how those same old arguments against being too strident etc work to persuade some groups of women better than others precisely because of the differences from the normative which they see (or don’t see) when they look in the mirror.The defenders of the status quo want us to stop speaking out about these inequalities. The defenders of the status quo want us to stop making our anger visible to them, with no concern for what swallowing that anger does to us as we experience those inequalities perpetuated. They know that they can always convince some of us that playing along to get along is a viable political strategy rather than just a personal survival strategy, and they rely on enough of us undermining our movements this way to slow the pace of social change to a glacial creep. To which I say: Sod That.
So let’s harness our anger and take it out for frequent noisy gallops.
Categories: culture wars, gender & feminism, history, social justice
Terrific illustration of the “if you were just less strident people might listen you wouldn’t get harassed” tosh from Justin Vacula as part of the skeptic/atheism Deep Rifts™, transcribed by Stephanie Zvan & athyco at Almost Diamonds.
I guess the problem on an individual level is that playing along to get along works very well for people who are in a position close enough to power to benefit from it, and it’s easy to choose not to see the systemic issues for other women. I’m sick of seeing individual solutions to systemic problems (to quote my boss)lauded as the be-all and end-all. The sexy/funny thing seems to me to be only about how we are reacted to as individuals, when what we are trying to achieve is a broad change. Sure it’s uncomfortable when other people in our lives think we’re strident or mean or humorless, but it’s worse to be underpaid or abused or ignored, to my mind.
I’ve been getting this ‘advice’ from women too. They don’t want the boat rocked. They’re afraid of losing male attention.
Thanks for this post, tigtog. I’ve been getting a lot of people lately telling me that I’m too angry, and that I’d be taken more seriously and wouldn’t hurt people if I just stopped writing or speaking out of anger and was more, well, pleasant and reasoned. And those people don’t seem to understand when I say that anger can actually be productive, that anger is what changes things instead of just being nice all the time. At the same time, I don’t want people to feel my anger is directed at them in particular, and people don’t seem to get that either.
I guess I’m finding it really hard at the moment to find the line between writing blog posts (for example) that arise from something someone says that makes me angry (the other day it was a comment from someone that ‘they just got so raped at work today’), but trying not to make the person who said that feel like they’re being personally singled out. It gets you blocked on Facebook, that’s for sure.
I’m reminded of something I read recently (I’d link but it’s in a locked entry) that was quoted from an issue of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Specifically, the idea that ignorance is assumed to be simply lack of knowledge, but that in many cases it is actually systemic. It made me think about how we try to explain, over and over, hoping somehow that eventually we’ll hit on the right formula to make people understand. We’re assuming a lack of knowledge when what we’re really facing is systemic ignorance.
Maybe this is old news, but that’s my epiphany for the day.
Maybe I’m just getting old and grouchy (despairing?), but I’ve come to believe that people believe what they want to believe, and they “understand” what and when they’re willing (or ready) to understand. (“Still a man hears what he wants to hear / and disregards the rest.”)
IMHO, this is the real reason why the tone argument is BS.
People don’t not understand because the information isn’t there. They don’t understand because understanding would require them to see things they don’t want to see.
If they don’t want to understand, you can’t browbeat them or seduce them or “educate” them into understanding. But once they are willing to understand (perhaps because something has happened that pierced the BS that we all swaddle ourselves in), you won’t have to do anything, they’ll suck understanding from the air, from the soil.


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My daughter Cheryl was making Manwiches when she grabbed the wrong can!
Brown ground beef in large skillet, drain grease, add chili and heat thoroughly. Serve on hamburger buns. French fries are a great side!
Source: My daughter, Cheryl
By Irishwitch from Aurora, CO
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Xiaomi 13 Pro
The Xiaomi 13 Pro is a 6.73" device, with a 1440x3200 OLED display. It's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is paired with either 128/8GB, 256/8GB, 256/12GB or 512/12GB of internal storage and RAM. The main camera is 50.3/50/50MP, and the selfie camera is 32MP. The device is powered by a 4820mAh battery, with 120W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.


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This season is a special one for the Greenville University men’s basketball program.
Head Coach George Barber said the program is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
Click below to hear his comments:
Barber has been head coach for more than a quarter of the program’s history.
Click below for more:
The GU men’s season is underway. click below to hear an invitation from Coach Barber for area residents to see his team play:
The first home game for the Panthers is Wednesday, November 28 at 7:30 p.m. against Eureka. There is no admission charge for regular season games.


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“Israel has a lot of know-how in these areas”. Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional council, visited Israel in May of this year within the context of Ecomotion Week, the international rendezvous for intelligent mobility. Each year, the event highlights the country’s best technologies in the fields of irrigation and agriculture.
Mr. Muselier spoke about the “Blue Gold Plan”, aimed at saving water and improving its management in the south of France, which is currently being hit by drought. It is a plan that is based on the existing strengths and which does not hesitate to draw inspiration from experiences gained on the other side of the Mediterranean, particularly in Israel. “The Israelis are very strong on water treatment. I hope to forge future partnerships in this area between our region and the State of Israel. There exists a real know-how”, he said.
Mr. Muselier hoped for partnerships to be created between the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region and the State of Israel. “We need to work together, and that is the reason for this trip,” he concluded.


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John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath is in direct correlation with his view of the rich and the poor. Steinbeck vividly depicts the wealthy as being monsters and portrays the lower-class okies as being un-sung heroes. Steinbeck uses figurative language throughout the course of the novel in order to create these images. Steinbeck incorporates his views of social classes into his novel in order to forewarn society of the dangers of the separation of social classes. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck introduces lower class America as the gallant heroes, and upper class America as the evil influence behind social segregation.
John Steinbeck is very fervent toward the manner in which the wealthy treat the poor because of the iniquities that manifest themselves in the upper class portion of our society. The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. – John Berger
John Berger and John Steinbeck have parallel minds when it comes to the manner in which the 20th century treats the destitute individual. The difficulty in this matter comes with the fact that there isnt a single individual to blame. Instead, society as a whole is to blame. Natural scarcity isnt even an issue when it comes to Americas potential. If the price of food is too low we solve the problem by throwing out food that could have been used to feed the famished mouths of our ravenous society. Steinbeck depicts even a ravenous individual as a virtuous member of society.
The Grapes of Wrath is such an involved novel because of the many themes that present themselves on so many different levels. The palpable reason for high-class societys iniquities is greed, but Steinbeck introduces many other ideas. One of the ideas that Steinbeck expresses through the novel is the idea that there is almost an innate malevolence that encompasses the wealthy. Aside from Steinbecks malice view of the wealthy, he despises the men that work for the big corporations and believes that they are just as responsible for their actions.
These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. Many of the men that work for the banks and corporations create a scapegoat by placing all of the blame on the banks and corporations, as if a bank or corporation is one person to blame. Once Steinbeck creates a malign illustration of the wealthy, he goes on to create a benign image of the poor.
The lower class, as a single component, is never described as being wicked. The poor are always generous and ready to help others. The lower class virtuous attitude is greatly emphasized by comparing them to the wealthy. The okies are only able to make it through life by helping each other. It is through this realization that the okies obtain their strength. One of the messages that Steinbeck tries to communicate to the reader is the reassurance that when the poor help each other they are accomplishing more than what a little bit of money could have done for them.
Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all. Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance. Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities. Charity separates the rich from the poor; aid raises the needy and sets him on the same level with the rich. – Eva Peran Aid is one of the exceedingly important aspects of life that people tend to overlook. The poor are more inclined to give aid to each other than the wealthy are inclined to give aid to the poor.
When a patrician lends a hand to a beggar the boundary between the rich and the poor is broken. I think that one of the problems with Steinbecks view of the rich and the poor is that he sees the entire spectrum in black and white. If you are rich, you are bad. If you are poor, you are good. If you look at the world with this frame of mind you will emphasize the message that you are trying to convey to the world, but you will overlook the exceptions. I think that a persons wealth has a lot to do with his frame of mind, whether he is rich or poor.


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Friday, December 5, 2014
My Reread of the Little House books part 1
A few weeks ago I posted about how I was taking a class on Laura Ingalls Wilder's early works (see the post here). The class has ended and I have finished my re-read of the first four 'Little House' books. I have read each of these books countless times but this was the first time I have read them as an adult.
I loved reading these stories again. The illustrations are beautiful and each book is as wonderful as I remember it being. I've been trying to come up with a favorite of these four and I just can't. I do really lean toward Little House on the Prairie because I love the descriptions of the family setting up their homestead but I don't think I could choose a true favorite of these four. Farmer Boy was a little less fun to read because the edition I read didn't have any illustrations in it; Garth Williams illustrations help make these books great so I was really bummed to realize that the copy of Farmer Boy I got from the library didn't have any.
It was strange to read these books as an adult because I noticed things that I wouldn't have noticed as a child. On the Banks of Plum Creek has a lot of fun little stories that help make up the book as a whole but it also shows how poor the family was, how much they were relying on their wheat crop and how devastating it was when they lost it. There were a couple of scenes where I cringed as I watched Pa Ingalls go on about how they could afford everything when they wheat was sold and seeing him buy a lot on credit because they could easily pay for it with their wheat crop. Knowing how the story ended just broke my heart and showed me how precarious the family's situation really was.
I was also shocked by just how hard the Ingalls family worked. They had a home set up in Wisconsin, left it and went to Kansas, built a functioning home there, left and built a new one in Minnesota. The amount of work that went into building a home and maintaining it was astronomical and then to have to start over and over must have just been overwhelming at times.
Farmer Boy is a little different than the other three books as it focuses on Laura's husband, Almanzo's, childhood. I love this book because of the descriptions of the food. Oh my goodness, I want to live at Almanzo's house in this book because it is non-stop delicious food (at least that is the way it is portrayed in the book). Almanzo's family was much better off financially than Laura's and it is pretty obvious. That's not to say that the Wilder's didn't work as hard as the Ingalls, they just had more luxuries and a lot better food.
Overall, I had so much fun with this re-read and I really look forward to reading these with Julia when she's older. The second half of the course starts in April and I can't wait to re-read the rest of the series!

domain: library


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WARM BODIES, you're 100 percent right. After watching so many sparkly, aloof vampires do their pathetic wooing, zombies really do make the perfect boyfriends. They want you for your body AND your brain and they're perfectly willing to disembowel your ex-boyfriend. Sure they have some skin problems, but who doesn't?!
Re-imagining Romeo and Juliet, Warm Bodies is the tale of an unusual zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) who longs for the old days before the apocalypse. Camped out in his sweet airplane at the airport, he shambles the concourse, awkwardly hangs out with his buddy M (Rob Corddry), and makes wry commentary via voiceover about his sorry state. On an outing for human flesh, R encounters the blonde beauty Julie (Teresa Palmer)—but she's from the other side of the tracks, as in she's a living breathing girl whose father is the head of the militant human survivors. R eats her ex-boyfriend's brain, which endows the zombie heartthrob with some humanistic mojo and saves her from the ravaging zombie horde.
Back at his pad they spend countless hours listening to his retro record collection and lounging around his bedroom (I told you he was boyfriend material). But their burgeoning zombie/human love hits a snag when Julie learns he ate her former love and their families just don't get along. You know, cue the balcony scene and all that.
It's way more charming and funny and clever than it needs to be. Like the scene where Julie and her nurse buddy give R a makeover so he can move freely through the human territory: Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" blares and R's turnaround reveal shows him slathered in blush and lipstick, as if Julia Roberts and Legend-era Tom Cruise had a make-up baby. It's pretty damned funny. Warm Bodies has a lot of unexpectedly amusing moments, buffered with strong performances by Corddry and John Malkovich as Julie's father, Colonel Pinot Grigio (or something... the Capulets were into vino, right?). In a world where supernatural boyfriends tend to be mopey and bland, Warm Bodies is a treat.


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Modern western education finds its origins in the practices, systems and schools of the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is in the field of education, in fact, that classical antiquity has exerted one of its clearest influences on the modern world. Yet the story of Greek and Roman education, extending from the eighth century B.C. into the Middle Ages, is familiar in its details only to relatively few specialists.
Containing nearly 300 translated texts and documents, Greek and Roman Education: A Sourcebook is the first book to provide readers with a large, diverse and representative sample of the primary evidence for ancient Greek and Roman education. A special feature of this Sourcebook is the inclusion not only of the fundamental texts for the study of the subject, but also unfamiliar sources that are of great interest but are not easily accessible, including inscriptions on stone and Greek papyri from Egypt. Introductions to each chapter and to each selection provide the guidance which readers need to set the historical periods, themes and topics into meaningful contexts. Fully illustrated and including extensive suggestions for further reading, together with an index of passages explored, students will have no further need for any other sourcebook on Greek and Roman education.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Number of pages: 300
Weight: 480 g
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
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062I12 Narcisse Canada topo map, 1:50,000 scale
062I12 Narcisse NRCAN topographic map.
Includes UTM and GPS geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude). This 50k scale map is suitable for hiking, camping, and exploring, or you could frame it as a wall map.
Printed on-demand using high resolution, on heavy weight and acid free paper, or as an upgrade on a variety of synthetic materials.
Topos available on paper, Waterproof, Poly, or Tyvek. Usually shipping rolled, unless combined with other folded maps in one order.
- Product Number: NRCAN-062I12
- Parent Topo: TOPO-062I
- Map ID also known as: 062I12, 62I12
- Unfolded Size: Approximately 26" high by 36" wide
- Weight (paper map): ca. 55 grams
- Map Type: POD NRCAN Topographic Map
- Map Scale: 1:50,000
- Geographical region: Manitoba, Canada
All neighboring Canadian topo maps are available for sale online at 1:50,000 scale.
Purchase the smaller scale map covering this area: Topo-062I
Topo map sheet 062I12 Narcisse covers the following places:
- Lindals Point - Willis Point - Oak Island Bluff - Oak Point Settlement - Hatchery Drain - Mud Lake Drain - Goulet Lakes - Lindals Lake - Mud Lake - North Shoal Lake - Olsens Lake - Pauls Lake - Snake Lake - Stone Lake - Armstrong - Coldwell - St. Laurent - Clematis Wildlife Management Area - Lundar Wildlife Management Area - Narcisse Wildlife Management Area - Sandridge Wildlife Management Area - Clematis - Hove - Inwood - Lillesve - Markland - Narcisse - Neveton - Otto - Seamo - Stony Hill - Vestfold - Willowview - La Tourelles Slough - Matskows Sloughs - Pages Slough
052E Kenora Canada topo map, 1:250,000 scale
052E03 Buffalo Bay Canada topo map, 1:50,000 scale
052E04 Sprague Canada topo map, 1:50,000 scale
052E05 Whitemouth River Canada topo map, 1:50,000 scale

domain: geography


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Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Fantastic Four, Vol. 1
J. Michael Strazcynski and Mike McKone
It’s been sometime since I’ve read any graphic novels or even comics. I read Watchmen because I knew the movie was about to open. I’d previously enjoyed both of the V for Vendetta comic and movie, but I wish I’d read it before seeing it, so I wanted to this one the other way around.
Impressive, both the comic and the movie. Though the movie was largely just a moving version of the comic, apart from that great title sequence. So, I’ll ignore the movie and talk about the comic. This is really a graphic novel. It is a work of fiction telling a story using the core elements of characterisation, plot and pacing to drive the single, coherent piece to its conclusion, it just happens to tell this through pictures as well as words. It felt like more of a graphic novel than V: it is far more focused, the characterisation is better and the pace is well maintained. V had a tendency (common to all serial forms) to bog right down. For an Alan Moore work, Watchmen is also surprisingly low on violence. Sure, there are some pretty gruesome parts, but not too many — or they are well used.
There are some interesting experiments with alternative ways of telling parts of the story. One chapter is told entirely from the perspective of a character who does not perceive time as linear. But the jumping through time is well used and not confusing. There are also long sections of prose at the end of each chapter, these provide another angle on the main events. It creates this sense that as well as following the story you are also seeing history unfold. Above all else this is a highly ambiguous work — I am still not sure what I think of the ending. And that would be about the highest praise you could hope for.
Fresh from this success and inspired by another book I read shortly after Watchmen, I finally read the Fantastic Four book that I bought some time ago.
And oh boy was that a mistake.
This was bought when I realised that all the comics I was reading were from a certain niche of the market. I wanted to remain balanced and went looking for something from the traditional mainstream of comics. This was the first volume in a sub-series, was written by the highly respected J. Michael Strazcynski (he wrote the TV series Babylon 5, which I have never seen but is well-regarded in sci-fi circles,) how could I go wrong?
It went very wrong: the characters are childish, the plot predictable and laughable, even the artwork is disappointing – the female character almost never looks the same in any two panels. I read the entire thing — only an investment of 45 minutes or so — but by the end I was pretty disgusted. The most annoying thing is how much time is spent referring to past adventures. This is not because this story is part of some decades long arc, I am completely unfamiliar with previous stories but I could always understand the plot. Instead it felt like listening to that annoying friend of a friend down at the pub drone on and on about these great things that happened to him this one time. I am quite happily returning to my niche; I’ve dipped my toe in the mainstream and it’s polluted.
And to further reinforce that, I had a major comics success shortly afterwards. Comics are still firmly on my agenda.

domain: literature


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The Benefits of Playing Slot Online
There are several benefits of playing slot online. One of these benefits is that you can play it whenever you want. Unlike traditional casinos, which have set hours for closing, online slots are available 24 hours a day. This makes playing slots online even more convenient. You can start playing whenever you want, and you don’t need to worry about missing any important events.
Evolution of online slot machines
Online slot machines have come a long way since the days of the Liberty Bell and spinning cherries and melons. They’re now more innovative, reactive, and accessible than ever. Regardless of whether you’re playing for fun or making money, online slots are a great way to play and win big.
Benefits of playing online slots
Playing online slots has several advantages. One of them is that you can choose to play at home, where there are no distractions like crowds, noisy machines, and overly friendly croupiers. Playing slots in the comfort of your home also lets you evaluate the games more objectively.
High-volatility slots online are those with higher payout potential. These slots are more volatile than low-volatility ones, but they should be paired with your bankroll. This way, you can have fun while still playing responsibly. The best way to choose a high-volatility game is to first consult the pay table and then decide which game best suits your bankroll. Then, you can play it more frequently if you’re comfortable with the payouts.
Bonuses offered by online casinos
There are many different bonuses available at online casinos, but no deposit bonuses are one of the best ways to play slots without risking your own money. These bonuses can be used as a way to stretch out your bankroll, but they also come with their own terms and wagering requirements. This means you should never chase a bonus just to make a quick buck. Bonuses are designed to reward you for playing specific games and are not intended to be a quick cash scheme.
Regulation of online casinos
Some states do not regulate online gambling at all, but others do have laws in place that restrict them. For example, in the state of Nevada, gambling is prohibited by law. The Nevada Gaming Control Board oversees horse racing and poker, but online casinos are illegal in the state. Meanwhile, Louisiana has a gambling control board that regulates all forms of gambling, including online casino games.
Manufacturers of online slots
Manufacturers of online slots are responsible for creating some of the most popular games on the Internet. They produce games with exciting themes, such as those with oriental themes. Many of these games also feature bonus games and special features that players can win. Players should read the paytable carefully to learn more about the game’s features and payoffs.

domain: game


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Smishing Scams: Sorry, You Did Not Win a $1,000 Target Gift Card
I’m posting this because fresh rounds of “you have won a $1000 best buy gift card” are going around, my wife and daughter just got texted with this SMishing scam. Be wary of SMS phishing scams.
Smishing is similar to “phishing,” in which you receive an email that seems to be from a reputable source, asking for your credit card data, password, or other private information. Only instead of an email, smishing takes place through the SMS text messages you receive on your cell phone.
Spotting a Smish
An incoming smishing attempt will probably look like it’s been sent by a bank or a familiar company, or perhaps a lottery-prize notification service. In phishing emails, you can sometimes spot typos or sloppy writing that will tip you off that the source is a fraudster (though many emails will look absolutely convincing). With smishing, though, the content is more limited and it can be hard to tell a fake from the real thing — except, of course, for the fact that banks, companies, and lotteries typically won’t text you.
Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna advises: “Ignore texts that look like they’re coming from your bank or credit card… Flip over your credit or ATM card and call the number on the back. If there’s a problem with your account, that’s the best way to find out.”
Sorry, You Didn’t Win
Some big scams making the rounds these days are trying to lure naïve consumers with promises of $1,000 gift certificates to Best Buy (BBY), Walmart (WMT) or Target (TGT). The appeal is clear. Who among us, after all, doesn’t need a bigger, thinner, shinier TV? Or a new computer or camera?
The text might announce, “Congratulations, you’ve won!” and might invite you to enter a code to claim a prize. You may be given a toll-free number to call, or asked to reply to the text. It might have a link for you to click, as well.

domain: finance


One of the most fertile recruiting areas in the state is Gwinnett County, right here in the Panther’s backyard. Gwinnett County has already given Georgia State some good talent in the form of Sidney Haynes, Ben McLane, Nate Minor, Ben Jacoby, Scott McQueen, Harrison Clottey, Iain Vance, and Emmanuel Ogbuehi. Georgia State has continued to scour the north metro county for talent and this time they have landed the commitment of Defensive Lineman prospect Jahmai Davidson from Brookwood High School in Snellville, Ga.
At six foot four and 260 pounds Davidson already has great size and the athleticism to play anywhere along the defensive line. Panthersville.com got the opportunity to talk to Davidson about his recruitment. So what factors led him to choose Georgia State?
“Some of the things that lead me to choosing Georgia State was that it’s a great school,” said Davidson. “It’s close to home, the team members that I have already met are very cool, and I want to help build up a dynasty.”
While Davidson will certainly look to help Georgia State build a dynasty with his play on the field, he is also looking to help them off the field and on the recruiting trail.
“I have talked to two of my friends, Ty Alston and Ramirez Galbreth, about coming with me to be a Panther,” continued Davidson. “I think I won one of them over.”
It certainly hasn’t hurt Georgia State recruiting to have a man like Bill Curry on the sidelines. Davidson clearly came away from his visit to Georgia State impressed by the legendary coach.
“The best part of my visit was meeting Coach Bill Curry,” said Davidson. “He just told me he wants me on his team.”
Davidson will sign his letter of intent on signing day, Feb. 1st, after school.


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Jonathan Van Ness Talks About His HIV Diagnosis In New Memoir
In a recent interview with the New York Times—which ran accompanied by an extract from his forthcoming memoir Over the Top–Van Ness opens up about being diagnosed at the age of 25. After fainting at work, Jonathan visited Planned Parenthood, which is where he found out he had HIV.
Even though there are currently more than one million people living with HIV in the United States, the stigma surrounding it is still very real. After revealing his own diagnosis, Van Ness recalled his reluctance to discuss his status once his career launched him onto millions of TV screens.
“When Queer Eye came out, it was really difficult because I was like, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?’ And then I was like, ‘The Trump administration has done everything they can do to have the stigmatization of the LGBT community thrive around me.'”
Jonathan also goes on to speak openly about his experiences as an addict and a sexual abuse survivor.
“It’s hard for me to be as open as I want to be when there are certain things I haven’t shared publicly,” he said. “These are all difficult subjects to talk about on a makeover show about hair and makeup. That doesn’t mean Queer Eye is less valid, but I want people to realize you’re never too broken to be fixed.”
After revealing such personal details about his life, Van Ness has been bombarded with support from friends, fellow celebrities, and fans who watch him on TV every week. He shared a photo to Instagram following the headlines about his HIV diagnosis thanking everyone for their support.
Jonathan Van Ness’ memoir Over The Top will be available on September 24.

domain: celebrity


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The euro came into existence on 1 january 1999, although it had been a goal of the european union (eu) and its predecessors since the 1960s first ideas of an economic and monetary union in europe were raised well before however, by the end of 1999 the euro had dropped to parity with the dollar leading to. The european economic community (eec) was a regional organisation which aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states it was created by the treaty of rome of 1957 upon the formation of the european union (eu) in 1993, the eec was further information: history of the european union.
European economic community member states sought to protect themselves better from international economic turbulence and loosen their ties to the us dollar tunnel' mechanism – to monetary union and a common currency with an 'europe's unfinished currency: the political economics of the euro', anthem. From a historical perspective, the increase in postwar economic integration end, the united kingdom joined the european community (ec) in 1973, at observed that, in the months after the launch of the euro, the canadian dollar had not. Yet as the eu turns 60, just how much of that success is due to the eu's which establish the european economic community (eec) and the turned their backs on the euro tribe in a referendum on membership 2 currency behind the us dollar — and hands itself a financial time-bomb in the process.
Journal of european economic history 30 no before getting to cap, we need to look at the emergence of the european economic community (eec) that the value of the national currency would be worth less in dollar terms, all countries must, after accession to the euro, remain with their debt at or. 1951 -- the european coal and steel community (ecsc) is the european economic community (eec) and the european atomic 2008 -- the value of the euro reaches an all-time high on july 18 at 15843 to the dollar. European community in 1986 it was one of the ec's poorest members plans for a united europe began with the treaty of paris in 1951 opportunities for economic development, yet spain's history of protectionism had to be euros would be dispersed among the four cohesion countries: spain,.
Milestones in the euro's history from the launch of the emu, through black 1969: the original members of the european economic community (eec) france, setting up the european union (eu) and committing ec countries to emu dec 2, 1999: euro falls below parity with the dollar for the first time.
The european economic and monetary union (emu), an institution of the european union (eu), which established a common currency called the euro replaced the ems history of the european monetary system in the european economic community (eec) to stabilize foreign exchange and prevent large fluctuations. Also in 1948, the organization for european economic cooperation (oeec) was and in 1958, the european economic community (eec) was brought into being were set up, establishing prices in national currencies and in euro dollars.
Europe's economy was in tatters but the industrial complex was relatively unscathed were not happy to spend millions of dollars (317 million dollars in 1947) on feeding of the eu in his magnum opus “postwar: a history of europe since 1945” followed by the ecsc was the eec, the european economic community.

domain: history


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The Indian selectors recently announced India's 15-member squad for the upcoming Test series against Australia. Shubman Gill received a maiden call-up to the side while KL Rahul faced the axe. The selectors confirmed that Rohit Sharma will be promoted up to open the innings.
"Rohit Sharma has been selected in the side as an opener. He will open in the three matches and also for the Board President XI. Want to give him an opportunity to open the innings in Tests," Prasad said in the press conference.
While most of the expected names were picked, there are also a number of players whose names were doing rounds to be a part of the squad. Let us take a look at three players who are likely to be disappointed for missing out.
Young Bengal batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran has been in superb form in India's domestic circuit and signalled his intent with a superb century in the Duleep Trophy just before the selection of the squad. He has been included in Board President's XI side and eyes will be on his performance, especially because opening concerns have always followed the Indian side in the recent past.
The fast bowler was part of India's squad for the tour of West Indies. However, he did not get a game as the trio of Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were mighty impressive in both the games. He has now been benched from this squad as the size of the squad was trimmed down to 15. Like Easwaran, Umesh too has been included in Board President's XI side which will be captained by Rohit Sharma.
After an impressive T20I series against West Indies, Navdeep Saini was held back even for the Test series. He did not get a game but his pace and accuracy impressed the management. He has not found a place in the side which could bring disappointment to the young man.
"Our bowling unit in the Test format is very strong. When I was with the team (in West Indies) I realised that I'll have to work harder to get into the side. Only by doing that a I might get a chance," Saini told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of All India Public Sector T20 cricket tournament.


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This post comes via Reader’s Digest. Well, it is a Reader’s Digest article that I came across on an Alzheimer’s and Dementia group on Facebook 😉 It’s got some good info on healthy habits and diets for ALL of us.
Happy and healthy reading!
New Survey: Science-Backed Habits Reduce Dementia Risk, But Many Americans Are Misinformed
A new survey from Reader’s Digest and the Alzheimer’s Association reveals that many Americans don’t realize certain habits can lower risk of cognitive decline and don’t prioritize brain health compared with other aspects of well-being. Continue reading


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TALKS between council officials and teaching unions have failed to resolve a dispute which has led to a series of strikes by teachers at Midland secondary schools.
Members of NASUWT and the National Union of Teachers met officials of the now Conservative-led Staffordshire County Council after new leader, Coun Philip Atkins, agreed to review the authority’s position on the previously Labour-run council’s plans.
They involve closing all Tamworth’s sixth forms and opening a post-16 centre in their place, and turning Woodhouse Business and Enterprise College into an academy.
Both unions have staged several one-day strikes at Tamworth’s secondary schools in protest at plans although the NUT has since agreed to suspend its action pending the outcome of the review.
Brian Cookson, national officer for the NASUWT, said he had received assurances a review would be conducted in the next few weeks.
He said: “We welcome any review and we would hope the stakeholders – the council, the unions, head teachers and Hands Off Tamworth Schools – will all say the plan is totally unacceptable.”
But NASUWT said it would continue its action, adding: “We won’t suspend our action until they suspend their proposals.”
Staffordshire County Council deputy leader, Coun Ian Parry, said: “Part of this review will involve talking to those involved to get a real feel for the issues around this investment.
“The meeting with union representatives was a part of this process. We need to ensure any policy decisions will be based on what we all wish for, achieving the best future educational and career outcomes for the young people of Tamworth.”


Cold War 2.0 is in Full Effect!! The Great Game is again being Played. -SF
- Swedish military confirm Russian warship sighting (02 Oct 15)
- Swedes to get alerts on foreign intrusions (16 Sep 15)
- Russian jets spotted off Sweden’s east coast (31 Aug 15)
Säpo, which last year concluded that the biggest intelligence threat against Sweden came from Russia, has once again detailed how its eastern neighbour is using a range of aggressive tactics designed to rattle residents.
The security service’s report, first seen and reported on by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, argues that Russia is carrying out various forms of psychological warfare via “extreme movements, information operations and misinformation campaigns” designed to target both policy makers and the general public.
It also states that around a dozen diplomats are operating as spies and confirms that some Russian embassy staff were asked to leave Stockholm in 2015, amid an uptick in tensions between the two countries, as The Local reported in September.
Other spies are understood by Säpo to be working for airlines and businesses operating in Sweden.
“We see intelligence activities in all these different areas. In the political, economic, military, and so on. The overall picture is very disturbing,” says Wilhelm Unge, one of the counterespionage researchers who worked on the report.
After Russia, Iran and China are viewed by Säpo as presenting the biggest intelligence threats to Sweden.
The report also singles out attempted acts of terrorism from extremist groups such as Isis as a major potential danger, arguing that efforts to radicalize young people in the Scandinavian country have reached unprecedented levels.
The security service’s document states that more than 300 people have so far travelled from Sweden to fight in Syria and Iraq. Of these, 135 have since returned while 44 have lost their lives.
However, Säpo argues that record asylum applications in Sweden in 2015 did not drive up criminal activities.
“Säpo sees very few crimes in Sweden that can be linked to the large refugee reception,” says Ahn-Za Hagström, another of the report’s core researchers.
But she points out that the tone of debates is shifting, with racist extremists and vigilantes in Sweden spreading increasing amounts of anti-immigration rhetoric.
“The current refugee situation, migration flows, is a driving issue for the white power movement,” she says, noting that far-right radicals are increasingly accusing asylum seekers of being terrorists.
These allegations have led to closer cooperation between Säpo and Sweden’s Migration Agency Migrationsverket over the past 12 months, according to the report.
“The numbers themselves are a challenge for us in the security service, not least from a resource perspective,” says Malin Fylkner, the report’s security analyst.
Last November a 22-year-old Iraqi man was wrongly arrested by Säpo for plotting a terror attack in Sweden. He later launched legal proceedings seeking one million kronor in compensation from the Swedish government.
Read the Original Article at The Local


text: Let the name speak for itself because you truly will feel like you’re in Cancun, Mexico! This family-owned spot is located right inside Bender Plaza and offers such an inviting atmosphere to all customers. They’re serving up fresh, authentic Mexican food including Carne Asada, Fajitas, and the signature Cancun Burrito! Also, you’ve got to try their refreshing margaritas. Stop in for a bite to eat with family and friends at this local restaurant.


Электронная книга: Patrick Pfeiffer «Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies»
Learn to play bass guitar quickly and easily with this guide and bonus interactive CD! The bass guitar is utilized in almost every single genre of music-rock, classical, jazz, metal, funk, and country just to name a few. Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies provides bassists an opportunity to dabble with all these styles and more. Regardless of your intended musical style, this hands-on guide provides the tips and drills designed to help perfect your playing ability. Features a wide variety of over 300 exercises and technique-building practice opportunities tailored to bass guitar From classic blues bass rhythms to funk, rock, and reggae bass patterns, players of all styles benefit from the exercises and chords presented Shows you proper hand and body posture and fingering and hand positions Each lesson concludes with a music piece for you to try The audio CD includes practice pieces that accompany the exercises and drills presented in each section Helps you build your strength, endurance, and dexterity when playing bass Whether you're a beginner bass player or you're looking to stretch your playing skills, Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies is the book for you! CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.
Издательство: "John Wiley&Sons Limited (USD)"
ISBN: 9780470934166 электронная книга Купить за 1498.06 руб и скачать на Litres
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|Bass Guitar For Dummies: Book + Online Video&Audio Instruction||Learn to: Play many different musical styles Improvise using the proper scales Develop solid rhythm and timing Groove on the low end like a pro Get grooving with this complete guide to playing bass… — Неизвестный, Подробнее...||2014||1401||бумажная книга|
|Bass Guitar For Dummies||Updated with the latest bass guitar technology, accessories, and more The bass is the heart of music. So leave center stage to the other musicians—you have more important work to do. You can find… — John Wiley&Sons Limited (USD), электронная книга Подробнее...||1625.34||электронная книга|
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Kraftwerk — Kraftwerk, 1976. Kraftwerk s most prominent line up; from left to right: Ralf Hütter, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flür and Florian Schneider Background information … Wikipedia


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and personal contact with khmer culture and people geared for group of teenagers
and young adults kids are encouraged to experience the natural wonders through
adventure and physical cellenges the trips are packed with activities such as biking trough
angkor meeting local students artists learning a bit of khmer language team building
games with one another as well as the local youths in the community.
we believe that there is nothing better for character building than cultural explorations
combined with real life adventures.