text:
The Role of the United States in World War I
World War I was when all the nations fought for their survival in the land, in which America also played a considerable role, supported by their armed forces. In 1917, the United States of America declared war on the German Empire three years after World War I.
The US was a massive supplier of money and raw materials in the war. In 1918, the American soldiers arrived as 10,000 men per day at the borders of the Western Front. The U.S. present with over 4 million military men, and nearly 65,000 soldiers suffered losses of all kinds. This incident led to a drastic effect on the U.S. Armed forces. Under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the war brought about substantial opposition to the U.S.
The policy of neutrality
After the war began in 1914, the U.S. proclaimed the neutrality policy, despite the hate against German Empire and the President’s commands. However, Wilson protested against the uncalled marine attacks on the U.S. and warned that the U.S. would not tolerate such unrestricted warfare against American rights and international obligations. This statement contradicted the policy of neutrality. Finally, in 1917, the United States entered into war after unraveling the official commitment to neutrality.
Although the citizens decided to remain neutral, they shifted to the German army after the U.S. entered the war over time. This led to the preparedness movement, which forced them to build solid naval and defensive forces immediately. Many famous faces and names like ex-president Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, and many others were the faces of this movement.
The Preparedness movement
This movement had a realistic philosophy of world affairs. The movement helped the U.S. to empty over 100,000 men in the army, which easily outnumbered the German army. They also called for the UMT – Universal Military Service, forcing everyone who turned 18 or above to take six months of training in the military and then were assigned to different units.
Declaration of World War I
Even though the U.S. urged, in January 1917, Germany resumed their unrestricted submarine warfare. After several incidents, the American Congress finally accepted the war on April 6, 1917. The congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire but took many steps in declaring war against the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, or the Central Powers. Hence, the U.S. remained uninvolved in military campaigns in eastern and central Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and other regions.
Due to the need for more soldiers in the armed forces, in 1917, the U.S. gave citizenship to Puerto Ricans and allowed them to participate in World War I.
American women were not a part of the combat forces but served as personnel and nurses in uniforms. During the world war, many American women also worked in hospitals close to battlefields to treat millions of soldiers and other victims of the war.


Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
Extension of approval of an information collection; comment request.
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request an extension of approval of an information collection associated with the swine health protection program.
We will consider all comments that we receive on or before November 22, 2004.
You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
EDOCKET: Go to http://www.epa.gov/feddocket to submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the official public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically. Once you have entered EDOCKET, click on the “View Open APHIS Dockets” link to locate this document.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send four copies of your comment (an original and three copies) to Docket No. 04-087-1, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. 04-087-1.
E-mail: Address your comment to email@example.com. Your comment must be contained in the body of your message; do not send attached files. Please include your name and address in your message and “Docket No. 04-087-1” on the subject line.
Agency Web site: Go to http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/cominst.html for a form you can use to submit an e-mail comment through the APHIS Web site.
Reading Room: You may read any comments that we receive on this docket in our reading room. The reading room is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
Other Information: You may view APHIS documents published in the Federal Register and related information, including the names of groups and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.Start Further Info
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For information on the swine health protection program, contact Dr. John Korslund, Staff Veterinarian (Swine Health), Eradication and Surveillance Team, National Center for Animal Health Programs, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 43, Riverdale MD 20737; (301) 734-5914. For copies of more detailed information on the information collection, contact Mrs. Celeste Sickles, APHIS' Information Collection Coordinator, at (301) 734-7477.End Further Info End Preamble Start Supplemental Information
Title: Swine Health Protection.
OMB Number: 0579-0065.
Type of Request: Extension of approval of an information collection.
Abstract: The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible for preventing the spread of contagious, infectious, or communicable diseases of livestock or poultry from one State to another and for eradicating such diseases from the United States when feasible.
The Swine Health Protection Act prohibits the feeding of garbage to swine unless the garbage has been treated to kill disease organisms. Untreated garbage is one of the primary media through which numerous infectious and communicable diseases can be transmitted to swine. Therefore, APHIS' regulations promulgated under the Swine Health Protection Act, which are located at 9 CFR part 166, require that before garbage may be fed to swine, it must be treated at a facility holding a valid permit to treat the garbage and must be treated according to the regulations.
APHIS requires certain information in order to license (issue a permit to) a facility to operate and in order to monitor the facility for compliance with the regulations. This information is collected from applications for a license to operate a garbage treatment facility, records of the destination and date of removal of all food waste or garbage from the treatment facility, and food waste reports. With this information, we are able to carefully monitor garbage treatment facilities to ensure that they are meeting our requirements. The information provided by these information collection activities is critical in preventing the interstate spread of various swine diseases and, therefore, plays a vital role in our swine health protection program.
We are asking the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve our use of these information collection activities for an additional 3 years.
The purpose of this notice is to solicit comments from the public (as well as affected agencies) concerning this information collection. These comments will help us:
(1) Evaluate whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Start Printed Page 56992Agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;
(2) Evaluate the accuracy of our estimate of the burden of the information collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
(3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
(4) Minimize the burden of the information collection on those who are to respond, through use, as appropriate, of automated, electronic, mechanical, and other collection technologies, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses.
Estimate of burden: The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1.2359271 hours per response.
Respondents: Owners/operators (licensees) of garbage treatment facilities, State animal health authorities, and herd owners.
Estimated annual number of respondents: 347.
Estimated annual number of responses per respondent: 3.481268.
Estimated annual number of responses: 1,208.
Estimated total annual burden on respondents: 1,493 hours. (Due to averaging, the total annual burden hours may not equal the product of the annual number of responses multiplied by the reporting burden per response.)
All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will also become a matter of public record.Start Signature
Done in Washington, DC, this 16th day of September 2004.
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E4-2345 Filed 9-22-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P


text:
Partially blind to get books with over sized lettersAugust 17th, 2008 - 5:51 pm ICT by IANS
Chandigarh, Aug 17 (IANS) Special books having large-sized letters, free spectacles and magnifying glasses will be provided to partially blind students by the Chandigarh education department, an official said. “We have got the compact discs containing the whole matter of the books from NCERT (national council of educational research and training). Normally there is a font size of 12 or 14 in normal books. But we will print the books after increasing the font size to 48,” S.K. Setia, director of public instructions (education), Chandigarh, told IANS.
This is an initiative of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project of Chandigarh and will cost the education department between Rs.200,000-Rs.300,000. It costs Rs.15 per page amounting to Rs.3,000 to 4,000 per book, said Setia.
“I have also written to NCERT to publish such books separately for special students as no one else is doing this. It will also help to reduce the cost of publication if they publish it in bulk.
“We have conducted a survey among the government school students of Chandigarh. In the survey we have identified 3,000 students who are partially blind or are suffering with very low vision.
“We medically examined them to know the extent of visual impairment. Depending upon the needs, we have distributed spectacles and magnifying glasses to them,” said Setia.
“But still there are many students with severe vision problem who can not read properly. They are 40 in number and we will distribute all their curriculum books in larger fonts, free of cost to them,” said Preet Pal, project coordinator.
Schools will provide lockers to the students where they can keep their books and have to return them back after their final exams, added Preet Pal.
“Even in my school we have identified some students with very low vision. They cannot see the black board clearly in spite of sitting in the first row of the class. Such books will be of great help for both the students and teachers,” said Sunil Kumar, principal, government model senior secondary school, Sector 22.
“This step of the education department will certainly prove handy to bring the students with special needs into the mainstream. Many times they could not do well in studies as nobody pays heed to such problems,” he said.

domain: news


text:
Inland Eastex Inc Manufactures Toothpastes
When you buy a tooth paste it contains a variety of substances that will make your mouth feel clean and fresh. It also helps get rid of stains, stop dental decay, and help improve bad breath.
Certain toothpastes have remineralizing ingredients which strengthen the tooth’s enamel. Some of them can be very abrasive so it’s important to know which one is right for your mouth and teeth.
Fluoride is an anti-cavity as well as minerals that improve oral health. Fluoride can be found in water, soil and even food. It can be added to toothpastes and other water sources for a variety of reasons.
Its most important function is to stop tooth decay by “remineralizing” teeth, helping in securing enamel to places of decay, and also attracting strengthening minerals such as calcium to the site of injury. This process creates a new hard, stronger, and more resistant enamel, called fluorapatite. It’s also more resistant to acids and bacteria.
This is the reason why it is recommended that the American Dental Association recommends brushing with fluoride toothpaste twice per daily. Your dentist could recommend fluoride varnishes and gels for additional security.
Fluoride-infused toothbrushes are offered with a variety of strength, with the majority commercial brands containing at minimum 1,000 parts per million of fluoride (i.e. 0.221% sodium fluoride or 0.76% sodium monofluorophosphate).
It is recommended that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children use a toothpaste with at least 1000ppm fluoride. To minimize swallowing risk, toothpaste should be applied in a thin “smear”, using an extremely small brush. The toothpaste should also be slightly tilted downward to ensure that excess paste does not go through the throat.
Too often, fluoride can result in fluorosis (white streaks on teeth or spots), and even digestive problems in youngsters who’ve consumed huge amount of toothpaste with fluoride. Furthermore, it has been implicated in a number of adverse reactions in humans and animals like the increase of inflammation, altered neurodevelopment and bone loss.
SLS, or sodium lauryl sulfate is an ingredient that can be found in many cleaning and personal product for personal care. SLS may come from natural or petroleum sources, such as coconut oil and palm oil.
SLS is a foaming agent used in toothpastes to help get rid of food particles, plaque and other irritants on your teeth. It also helps make the molecules in the toothpaste more slippery, allowing them to penetrate more deeply into the small spaces between your gums and your teeth.
But, there’s a wide range of non-sLS toothpastes on the market that will still do a good job at removing debris and plaque from your teeth without the use of this chemical. The ones that do not contain SLS will be less likely to cause irritation or discomfort while you brush, in addition to helping keep your breath fresh and clean.
Another concern associated with SLS is that it can irritate your mouth, especially the lip skin and tongue. The skin layer that covers the outside of the mouth may be affected due to SLS, making it more susceptible to infection.
It can also dry out your mouth’s insides that can disrupt your delicate balance of bacteria within your mouth. This can lead to bad breath and other dental issues. The reason dentists advise the use of SLS-free toothpastes.
SLS can cause fluoride to be less effective, which could lead to more tooth decay. Furthermore, SLS can inhibit the effects of whitening in some toothpastes. SLS can cause irritation so ensure you choose a toothpaste made from a safe and gentle alternative such as Quillaja triterpenic saponins and Decyl Glucoside.
Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye (used for soap production) or caustic soda, is an effective cleanser employed in toothpastes in order to neutralize acidity and stop plaque from forming into calculus. It can dry out the mouth, and cause irritation.
Fluoride, commonly found in very low levels in toothpastes , to help strengthen and protect against tooth decay is the most important ingredient. The fluoride is slowly absorbed over time and is the remineralisation agent, which assists in the repair of damaged areas on the surface of the teeth and protect against the tooth from becoming sensitive due to tooth decay.
It’s often combined alongside other ingredients, like hydrated silica, for example, in toothpastes to get rid of superficial stains and plaque. This mild abrasive is gentler on dentine and enamel, and it is also less harmful.
It is also an anti-septic that prevents gum diseases and reduces plaque build-up. It is also a foaming agent which increases the cleansing power of the toothpaste.
To increase the effectiveness of your toothpaste and to keep your teeth strong, there are many fluoride-containing ingredients. In order to protect against cavities, toothpastes for children and adults can contain sodium monofluorophosphate or the stannous fluoride.
Synthetic colors are employed in toothpastes to produce whiteness. They can also serve as flavourings. Synthetic colours are generally safe but some ones, like yellow #5, are associated with hyperactivity in children and anxiety.
Other ingredients to avoid in your toothpaste are sugars like saccharin, sorbitol and parabens. They are all known to interfere with hormones, and they can be absorbed by the body, which can cause issues.
Instead of using these substances instead, try organic alternatives like the xylitol or stevia that can make your toothpaste sweeter. It is a sugar alcohol found naturally in your body, has been found to slow tooth decay as well as stimulate saliva. This can also help lower the levels of bacteria.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
A very popular ingredients used in toothpastes is sodium lauryl, sometimes referred to SLS. You can make it by using synthetic or natural. The result is a foamy and bubbly texture.
It’s a surfactant that decreases the water-oil’s surface tension to aid in bonding and lifting debris like dirt and grease. SLS is also used to foam products, making it simpler for consumers to apply the product all across their mouths.
For toothpaste, SLS is used because it helps to emulsify proteins and fats within tooth pastes. It helps to disperse plaque deposits and prevent the formation of stains on the teeth. SLS also contains antibacterial qualities that help reduce the risk of developing cavities and gingivitis.
This is a detergent that is foamy and assists in making toothpaste work more efficiently. It helps in the elimination of irritations as well as making it easier to wash your teeth and gums, it’s a component that’s used in foaming toothpastes and mouthwashes.
The only downside to making use of SLS is the fact that it may irritate the skin, especially when it’s used for longer periods. This can make it the wrong choice for people who suffer from sensitive skin or suffering from rosacea, which is an inflammation condition that affects the skin which can cause redness, swelling, and itching.
There are concerns over the potential health impacts of SLS and its ability to raise the chance of developing cancer of the oral cavity or throat. These assertions aren’t supported with scientific research, however they have been popularized on the internet.
In the current season, peppermint is the most popular flavor and toothpaste has been making use of it for years. Its unique taste and breath freshening properties of the herb makes it the perfect flavor for toothpaste.
Menthol from peppermint makes peppermint have that cooling, refreshing sensation. Menthol is also used in fighting the bad bacteria.
Apart from the breath-freshening properties, menthol can also stimulate the sense receptors within the mouth and also on your skin, which produces an icy sensation. It’s a good idea to make use of peppermint toothpaste when you wish to keep good gums and teeth, because it may help in preventing cavities through strengthening enamel.
Bob Vogt (Colgate senior flavorist), says that peppermint is a popular choice due to its “slightly sweet taste” and “lingering cooling”. Peppermint can help to mask any off flavors of other ingredients.
In the past, mint oil has been used as a therapeutic and medicinal ingredient and is one of the most popular flavors in toothpaste and mouthwash in the present. There is a reason for this. Mint oil is an readily grown and common plant found across all areas across the world.
The menthol component has antibacterial and antioxidant properties. It’s an excellent option to use in toothpaste due to its pleasant odor. It’s also a great option for children’s toothpaste, as it can help to prevent tooth decay.
If you’re thinking of testing a mint-flavored toothpaste, look for ones that don’t contain fluoride and sodium lauryl sulfate, and triclosan. The toothpastes listed here will provide you with the same advantages as other toothpastes, including whitening and breath-freshening.

domain: medical


text:
About the action taken through this initiative, Amitabh said: "There is a cure for it and we've just had a wonderful meeting with several medical heads of the country and corporate heads where we've discussed many of these issues."
Tata said: "To me, it is more than just a campaign. It's an issue being involved in a national cause. TB has been a silent killer in the country and has assumed proportions that most of us should be extremely concerned about. As a citizen of the country I feel very committed to play my role, however big or small it might be to help in this partnership with the government."

domain: sociology


text:
Der Algorithmus des Manfred Mohr : Texte 1963 – 1979
- Type of publication
- Author / Editor
- Margit Rosen (Ed.)
- Publishing house, place
- Spector, Leipzig
- In 1971, when the painter Manfred Mohr presented his first computer-generated drawings at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, not only art critics were uncertain concerning the consequences the replacement of brush and canvas by computer and plotter might have for contemporary art, or whether this change would be relevant at all. Mohr himself was exploring concepts and models to explain and defend the change of the medium and to record his first experiences.
The selection of texts from the years 1963 to 1979 follow Mohr’s artistic path – from Tachist painting to the production of images by means of algorithms.
- 156 p. : 93 ill. ; 14 x 20 cm
- Organization / Institution
- ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe
2015 – Der Algorithmus des Manfred Mohr – InhaltsverzeichnisTable of content of the publication »Der Algorithmus des Manfred Mohr», edited Margit Rosen (Spector Books, 2015)

domain: library


text:
“You can’t blame the water for finding the hole in the boat…”
Blame is a weight of negativity that holds us captive in the boat of our circumstances. It lends complete control of our thoughts and emotional well being to the very person or thing in which we loathe. It stifles our creativity and our energy but it continues to sink our boat while we passively sit in it talking about our sinking condition. Accepting responsibility for our part in our chronic situations is the beginning of finding solutions. This isn’t to be passive or to say that we haven’t been treated unfairly or in some cases, even abused. It’s actually quite the opposite. It takes courage, character and backbone but we all carry a piece of responsibility in our own recovery process. When we are free from the weight of negativity we have the creativity to think of smarter solutions. If we take our focus off of the uncontrollable amount of water rushing into the boat, and look to the one who created us and wants to guide our steps, we will find the wisdom to address the hole in our boat.

domain: literature


text:
BOSTON – Senator Michael O. Moore (D-Millbury) recently testified in support of legislation that would strengthen protections for persons with disabilities. The Moore-sponsored bill would direct the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) to establish a registry that identifies individuals who have been found to have committed abuse against persons with disabilities.
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, persons with disabilities were victimized in violent crimes at the rate of 2.5 times that of the general population. The bill would require DDS to establish and maintain a registry of former employees who have been terminated or separated from employment as a result of abuse directed toward a person with a disability. The bill resembles protections already enacted in at least 12 other states. Massachusetts currently possesses a similar registry for childcare employees.Senator Moore filed the legislation in response to meeting with Cheryl Chan, an Auburn resident whose developmentally disabled son, Nicky, was physically abused by a caretaker at a day program. While a report was filed by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, there are no procedures currently in place that would ensure the caretaker is prevented from continuing a career within the field.
“I won’t take a back seat when it comes to advocating for greater protections for the disability community,” said Senator Moore. “Establishing a registry will help protect persons with disabilities from falling victim to abusive treatment. There are clear benefits to screening prospective employees who intend to work within the licensed caretaker field and I am hopeful that the Committee will advance this legislation to help protect our most vulnerable residents like Nicky.”
“Nicky’s Law is The Arc’s highest priority legislation for the current legislative session,” said Maura Sullivan, Director of Government Affairs for The Arc of Massachusetts which is advocating for passage of the bill. “We have worked closely with Senator Moore leading up to today’s hearing, and we are hopeful that the bill will be passed this session. There is no doubt that the disability community strongly supports the creation of a registry to track individuals who have been found to abuse persons with disabilities, and ensure they are not hired again by different providers. This legislation will protect the safety and dignity of people with autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The legislation possesses more than 20 co-sponsors and is currently under review by the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities which is co-chaired by Senator Jennifer L. Flanagan (D-Leominster) and Representative Kay Kahn (D-Newton). To continue tracking the status of the bill, S.64, please visit the Legislature’s website, www.malegislature.gov.


text:
Let yourself be lulled by the silence of the Tuscan hills!
Let yourself be lulled by the silence of the Tuscan hills. Our charming rooms are the perfect choice for those who want a complete experience at Arnolfo.
In a unique panoramic setting, the team of Gaetano Trovato will be happy to make your stay in Tuscany unforgettable.
Cost 240.00 Euro per night
(Included: welcome from the Chef, minibar, and breakfast)

domain: travel


The ABL 3000 Disruptor has been subject to a series of formal tests against representative targets, sensitive explosives and pressure measuring systems. These tests ensure a reliable and consistent disruptive performance with complete recoilless operation, minimum collateral damage and maximum operator safety.
The Disruptor’s enhanced capabilities can be unlocked with a simple substitution of the front barrel assembly and use of the correct projectile. This enables the ABL 3000 to operate as a De-Armer capable of firing a range of solid projectiles such as Chisels, Slugs and Forks.
The ABL 3000 is a multi-shot device capable of many firings and requires minimum maintenance. Training may be carried out using the equipment without detriment to its service performance.
The Disruptor is constructed from corrosion resistant stainless steel and aluminium parts. Prior to release each unit is subjected to an overpressure test and flaw detection. This disruptor is also available in Lightweight Version.


I saw a huge ram today that was parked. AS i got closer I noitced it was a 2x4! it was huge! it was on 38's and was just totaly awesome. I looked on it and it had what i could see as fabtech lift and a body lift. not sure what was else on it. totaly made my stock truck dwarf.


text:
Tis the season to be jolly so I’m pulling out a Christmas fav that got flipped into hip-hop records, Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.”
Someone one Wikipedia says…
“Wonderful Christmastime” is a 1979 Christmas song by Paul McCartney…The notable synthesizer riff was played on a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. The song was later added as a bonus track on the 1993 CD reissue of Wings’ Back to the Egg.
De La Soul (via Super Dave West) flipped it for “Simply” from AOI: Bionix:
Black Milk also had his way with it for Melanie Rutherford’s “Simply Having”

domain: entertainment


text:
Martell is aiming to recreate scenes in restaurants in China where it is the alcohol of choice for diners.
To do this, the Pernod Ricard-owned brand has engaged BBH to create a content series called “Martell Curious Restaurant” and features a virtual restaurant. People are encouraged to explore the restaurant using the gyroscope in their mobile phones.
By doing this, they will learn about Martell’s products like Distinction, Cordon Bleu, and Cordon Bleu Extra through stories titled “Unexpected Happiness”, “Decision of Friends” and “The Last Meal”.
The series will tell of how strangers are brought together by pairing the Martell products with food.
For example, “Decision of friends” is a story of how childhood friends nearly fall out when deciding whether to sell a business they built together to a bigger company.
Executive Chairman: Arto Hampartsoumian
Managing Partner: Elvis Li
Chief Creative Officer: Arthur Tsang
Creative Director: Justin Leung, Irisy Wang
Associate Creative Director: Tiexin Li
Account Director: Eric Wu
Project Director: Murial Ho
Senior Account Manager: Yineng Li
Account Executive: Yeha Kim
Associate Planning Director: Tobias Wacker
Agency Executive Producer: Weisian Li
Creative Technology Director: Neil Nand
Film Production house: Pandemic
Director: Laurent King
Production house Producer: Aywei Wong
Digital Production house: RESN

domain: artistic


text:
The best primer on the botanical classification of plant families for foragers that I know of. I am sure there are textbooks that are more complete; I doubt you need them!
Reading Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification (An Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families of North America) by Thomas J. Elpel is simply one of the best ways to learn your plants.
Botany in a Day is a deceptive book. This is not because of the liberty it takes with its title (you clearly cannot learn botany in one day, but some reviewers have actually complained about this as being a cheap trick!) Botany in a Day is deceiving because of how fun it appears to be. Looking like an oversized children’s coloring book, the tome is the size of a sheet of paper in height and width, and over 236 pages. The spine and cover are rather floppy, but sturdy. Flipping through, both colored and black & white plant drawings and diagrams are intermingled amongst the somewhat note-like floral family entries, written with a mixture of prose and outline. Instead of the daunting feel of a hard-covered college textbook, Botany in a Day feels “doable”. You can read it for entertainment. There are plenty of natural breaks in the text, so you can read a bit here and there and easily put it down for the day.
A few pages of acknowledgments and the table of contents is followed by a 36 page debriefing on Botany 101. The case is made at this point for learning plants based on their scientific family, urging the reader to study the different patterns because plants in a given family tend to have similar characteristics and uses. Mr. Elpel takes a moment to plug his other plant products, keeping a conversational tone throughout the writing. He argues, quite convincingly, that if you can identify the plant family based on pattern recognition, then you are well on your way to knowing the individual plant.
Botany in a Day follows a pretty standard botanical key for determining the given family a plant belongs to. Answering the following questions guides users through the book: 1) “what major group does your [plant] specimen belong to [vascular, non-vascular, etc.]?”, 2) “Is your plant a monocot or a dicot?”, and 3) “Is your dicot plant a member of the Aster family?”. If you have made it through the questions without being sent off to another page, then you are then instructed to “Profile your dicot flower and key it out.” The reader is given a list of botanical features (number of petals, leaf configuration, etc.) to compare their plant to, and then a page number to turn to for the complete description.
Part two of Botany in a Day contains monographs, complete with a drawing, for each of the individual plant families, divided into the following plant clades: clubmoss, fern, naked seed, and flowering plants (water lily, magnolia, hornwort, eudicots, and monocots). A description of all of the features of a given family are presented, along with representative members of the family, a list of the genera in the family, and interesting tidbits (including uses and chemistry).
This is where you realize that despite its lighthearted approach, this book is no lightweight. In fact, it is probably one of the best primers on botanical classification that I have ever encountered. It is decidedly not a field guide. You will need to bring something like this, or like this to a real foraging session. However, if you have room in your pack, and time to really sit with the plants, throw this book in and peruse it while you are out in the field. Compare the plants you encounter to the family descriptions. You will be amazed by how much you start to notice. If you can master the material in this book, you are well on your way to being able to correctly identify all of the plants around you.
Check out our 2-part guide on Beginning Foraging !
Note: The Walking Herbalist is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This means that Marc will receive a small commission for each purchase on Amazon that you make after linking to it from this website.
The Walking Herbalist has no affiliation of the authors or the publishers of this book at the time of the writing of this review. We purchased our own copy of this book for our own private use. This review is simply here to help our readers put together their own herbalism library, and other than possible commissions as an Amazon.com affiliate, we receive no compensation for this.


text:
Prawn and pork shumai
( SERVES 20 )
(You can click on ingredients to see more related recipes)
|230 g||Raw prawns, peeled, deveined and chopped|
|180 g||Pork mince|
|4||Garlic cloves, or 5, chopped|
|2||Shiitake mushrooms, or 3, soaked and chopped|
|2 tbsp||Oyster sauce|
|½ tbsp||Soy sauce|
|1 tbsp||Sesame oil|
|¼ tsp||White pepper|
|20||Won ton wrappers|
- Place a medium-sized frying pan or wok over medium heat and add a tablespoon of oil.
- Add chopped onion and fry gently for couple of minutes or until translucent and softened.
- Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Place the onion and all the other filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with your hands.
- Place a tablespoon full of the shumai mixture in the centre of each won ton wrapper.
- Gather the won ton wrapper around the meat and hold gently with your hand so the wrapper will stick to the meat mixture.
- Leave the top of the shumai unsealed.
- Put a frozen pea or piece of finely diced carrot on top of each shumai and place them in a steamer.
- Steam for 8-10 minutes or until cooked through.

domain: food


text:
European Parliament urges armed non-State actors to commit against child recruitment
14 March 2014
On 12 March, following discussions initiated by Geneva Call, the European Parliament unanimously passed a recommendation to the European Council to support the engagement of armed non-State actors on child protection in armed conflict. The recommendation urges the European Commission to encourage the signing of action plans for the protection of children in armed conflict by concerned States and armed non-State actors, and adherence by armed non-State actors to Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment protecting children in armed conflict.
Once again, the European Parliament has highlighted the need for humanitarian engagement of armed non-State actors to achieve better protection of children in armed conflict. The Parliament recommends that relevant bodies of the European Commission:
- (e) engage directly, or indirectly through specialised NGOs and humanitarian organisations, with armed non-state actors on the issue of the protection of girls and boys, with a view to alleviating child suffering in armed conflict and urging armed non-state actors to sign the Deed of Commitment under the Geneva Call for the Protection of Children from the Effects of Armed Conflict;
- (f) support humanitarian organisations that engage in dialogue with armed non-state actors in order to promote respect for international humanitarian norms in armed conflict, in particular the protection of children through political, diplomatic and financial means…”
This recommendation strengthens opportunities to engage armed non-State actors on child protection and brings more support to specialized NGOs such as Geneva Call.
The full text of the recommendation can be found here:

domain: law


text:
Auditors: Oregon state government spending could be more transparent
Oregon’s top operations agency has made efforts to make the state’s pocketbook more transparent in the past two years, but still has work to do to provide more accessible information about how it spends public money, state auditors said Wednesday.
State auditors published a closer look at state budget practices in 2019. Since then, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services has made some of the changes the auditors recommended.
For instance, they now require agencies to document why new positions that aren’t in their initial budgets get created and the funding sources for those jobs. And the agency has been making improvements to its public spending website, auditors said in a brief follow-up report released Wednesday.
But the agency has yet to implement other recommendations — for example, it hasn't analyzed spending patterns to see whether agencies hurry to spend money at the end of the budget cycle. The agency hasn't done that yet because it is waiting until agency spending returns more to normal after expenses incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.
Budgeting, in basic terms, is the state government’s plan for how it will spend the money Oregonians pay in taxes, fees and even playing the lottery.
That money goes to a range of services, from maintaining state parks such as Silver Falls, to finding stable placements for Oregon kids in the foster care system. A transparent budget shows where public money is going.
“Improving transparency can increase fiscal responsibility, generate savings, better inform future budget decisions, and enhance public participation in state government,” auditors wrote in July 2019, when they released their initial findings.
At the time, they recommended the Department of Administrative Services make more than a dozen changes to its practices to help Oregonians more clearly see how their money was spent.
For example, they said a state website ostensibly dedicated to making government spending accessible to anyone with an internet connection was more expensive, yet less functional, than some other states.
The COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for the upcoming two-year budget “made it difficult” for the agency to put some of the 2019 recommendations into action, the follow-up report found.
And the department, which “partially agreed” with two recommendations and declined to take a stance on two others that auditors had made, “made our follow-up work more difficult and limited accountability and transparency” by giving those responses, auditors wrote in their report.
When asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administrative Services provided the agency's response to the initial 2019 report and said the agency "worked with auditors to provide appropriate documentation where requested."
"In general, the auditing process is a collective effort to help improve our systems and services and we welcome that feedback and continue to work towards implementing suitable solutions," said agency spokeswoman Andrea Chiapella.
In Oregon, spending is planned for two years at a time. The next budget cycle will begin July 1, and state lawmakers – the elected leaders who write the state laws – are preparing that budget now.
In taking a closer look at the budget practices of 10 state agencies in 2019, auditors found some of those departments' discretionary spending rose at the end of the two-year budget cycle.
In that 2019 report, state auditors said that the state’s budget policies “promote a misalignment of incentives, where agencies are encouraged to spend all dollars that they would otherwise lose access to at the end of the budget period.”
In a phenomenon known as “use it or lose it,” government agencies sometimes rush to spend all the money they’ve been budgeted before the cycle ends. This is generally done to preempt lawmakers from cutting the next budget, because money left over might make them think the agency doesn’t need as much money the next time around.
But in Oregon, that appears to be an unfounded worry: auditors examined agencies that had money left over at the end of a budget cycle, and they found no examples where lawmakers cut agency-wide funding in the next cycle as a result.
“These resources could otherwise be repurposed to support statewide priorities to the benefit of all agencies,” auditors said at the time.

domain: economics


text:
Certified Wound Ostomy Nurse Jobs in AK
Nurses in the speciality of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing are often referred to as "wounds," ostomies or continent. They provide care for those with severe burns; an opening created after surgery where waste leaves your body- this can be done through either holes made on purpose (ostomy) , leaks caused naturally due stress moments when you lose control over urine flow because there isn't enough pressure inside yourself plus outside forces trying unsuccessfully preventing any more liquid from coming out but not until then blocking off small channels that allow fluid flow around something block.
Unlike ostomy nurses, Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses are responsible for the treatment of patients with wounds and incontinence. They are also responsible for providing care to those who experience urinary incontinence such as accidents due to weakened muscles around that area as well as other conditions like ulcers or bedsores.


text:
February 19, 2019
The Association of Financial Advisers has released a scathing analysis of the Banking Royal Commission’s recommendations on the future of life insurance commissions, arguing that Commissioner Hayne’s risk commission recommendations contain errors, misunderstandings and are based on an ideological bias.
In addition to detailing what he identifies as errors and misunderstandings in the Banking Royal Commission’s final report (and also in its Interim Report), the AFA’s General Manager Policy and Professionalism, Phil Anderson, also asserts in a statement released this week that the ideological determination of the Royal Commission to eliminate all conflicted remuneration has contributed to statements made in the final report that appear to be without justification or evidential support.
Reflecting on the detail of Commissioner Hayne’s risk commissions recommendations, Anderson made a range of observations:
Anderson notes Commissioner Hayne’s discussion on life insurance commissions was brief – just four pages – but that the Commissioner fills one of those four pages with a table of the commissions paid over a period of five years for life insurance advice: “$6.1 Billion is a large number, although this is $1.2 Billion per year and when looked at in terms of the average amount per adviser authorised to provide life insurance advice is only around $65,000 per year,” says Anderson.
He added that the use of the $6.1 Billion figure is deliberate and repeats the opening statement to the Insurance round of the Royal Commission in September 2018. “The AFA challenged this back in our Insurance round submission,” says Anderson. “It is a bit like saying that the total Medicare benefit payments to doctors and medical service providers was $23 Billion in 2017/18. On its own, this total Medicare benefit number has limited relevance to what happens at the individual level.”
Anderson asserts Commissioner Hayne’s final report incorrectly interprets the Life Insurance Framework model, citing language on pages 186 and 187 of the Final Report that includes the following:
“From 1 January 2018, conflicted remuneration includes volume-based benefits given to a licensee or representative in relation to information given on, or dealing in, a life risk insurance product. A monetary benefit relating to a life risk product will not be conflicted remuneration if it is a level commission within the applicable cap and provides a ‘clawback’ arrangement if the policy is cancelled, not continued, or the policy cost is reduced in the first two years of the policy.”
The clear error is in the suggestion that the cap and clawback arrangement applies to level commission business
“The clear error is in the suggestion that the cap and clawback arrangement applies to level commission business. It does not,” says Anderson, who clarifies that the Life Insurance Framework model applies to upfront commission arrangements only.
“We were certainly surprised to see this error, particularly given that the AFA had pointed out the exact same error in our response to the interim report… Unfortunately, this was just one of a number of errors in the interim report that were repeated in the final report.”
Anderson questions Commissioner Hayne’s interpretation of the quantum of life insurance held inside Australia’s superannuation system.
Within the context of underinsurance being used as an argument to retain life insurance commissions, Anderson reflects that Commissioner Hayne is clearly not ‘sold’ on this argument: “His counter argument is that the overwhelming majority of life insurance policies are held through superannuation,” notes Anderson, adding, “He is clearly referring to Group Superannuation arrangements in this section, not appreciating that they only represent a very small number of policies (as individual members do not have their own policy), even if they do represent a large number of members.”
In disputing the proportion of life insurance held inside group super, Anderson notes Commissioner Hayne “…also fails to state that the retail advised product is a much better product (i.e. own occupation, terms and conditions, guaranteed renewable etc. etc.),” and that the Commissioner’s argument “…also fails to take into account the likely consequences of the Government’s Protecting Your Future Package, which KPMG estimated would reduce the level of group super cover by 50%.”
Anderson also argues that Commissioner Hayne’s focus on underinsurance should not be the only measure of importance, that “…surely the amount paid out in claims is even more important in delivering the right outcome for consumers. This should be measured in terms of money in the hands of clients and take into account the leakage that goes to lawyers assisting with insurance claims.”
Questioning the degree of thoroughness undertaken by the Royal Commission in its consideration of the appropriate amounts of life insurance cover held by Australians, Anderson commented:
“The Commissioner accepts that members of group super funds do not have the same level of cover as advised clients, however then he goes on to strangely suggest that he is not convinced that this would leave large numbers of Australians without an appropriate level of life insurance. Clearly the Royal Commission needed to do more work in this space, however we cannot expect them to be experts on everything.”
More Errors and Misunderstandings
Anderson then turns to Commissioner Hayne’s recommendation that if ASIC’s 2021 review of the Life Insurance Framework reforms indicates commission caps do not contribute, or at least not significantly contribute, to addressing underinsurance then ASIC should continue reducing the caps – ultimately to zero:
ASIC …do not have any power to alter the level commission arrangements
“This highlights further errors and misunderstandings,” says Anderson, who outlined:
- Firstly, ASIC only has powers to reduce the commissions on upfront (LIF) business. They do not have any power to alter the level commission arrangements.
- Secondly, a quick check with a few life insurers would no doubt clarify the impact that LIF had in 2018, with a material reduction in new business.
Probably the most alarming issue, according to Anderson, though, is the implication of Commissioner Hayne’s statement that if moving to 60% upfront commission will not have much impact on underinsurance, then going to zero will have a similar impact: “Many financial advisers will find it challenging with a 60% upfront commission rate. If it went to zero, they will simply leave, and leave in droves. We can only imagine what a devastating impact that this would have on the state of underinsurance,” warns Anderson.
Anderson notes Commissioner Hayne concludes that any decision on the future of risk commissions should be based on clear evidence that the harm that would flow from abolishing commissions would outweigh the harm that already flows from allowing this form of conflicted remuneration to continue.
…this ideological determination to eliminate all conflicted remuneration is contributing to statements without justification or evidential support
His response: “We can only wonder what he bases this judgement on. We could easily respond by saying that ASIC Report 413 revealed a 93% pass result for hybrid commissions, which was a higher commission rate than we have now. It seems that this ideological determination to eliminate all conflicted remuneration is contributing to statements without justification or evidential support. There is a much stronger basis to say that there is little harm done to clients as a result of life insurance commissions and that the Royal Commission provided nothing to prove otherwise.”
In a call to advisers and the life insurance sector in general, Anderson concludes his statement by stressing how important it will be for the industry to prepare well in advance of ASIC’s 2021 review of the impact of the Life Insurance Framework reforms “…and that we must clearly articulate the value of retail advised life insurance and the importance of commissions in making quality life insurance available to all Australians.”
Click here to read the full statement released this week by AFA GM Policy and Professionalism, Phil Anderson. Anderson will be outlining his position direct to advisers over the coming fortnight as the AFA conducts its national Connect Tour 2019 Roadshow, which will be visiting all state capitals.
Anderson’s statement this week follows an initial, higher-level AFA release immediately following the publication of Commissioner Hayne’s recommendations (see: AFA Stands Firm on Risk Commissions).

domain: finance


text:
|Duisdale House Hotel in Isle Of Skye|
Isle Ornsay, Isle Of Skye, IV438QW GB
Located in Isle of Skye (Duisdalemore), Duisdale House Hotel is within the region of Skye Serpentarium and Armadale Castle.
- Check-in time: 2 PM
- 17 rooms in hotel
Broadford, Isle Of Skye, IV499AE GB
You'll be centrally located in Isle of Skye with a stay at Dunollie Hotel, minutes from Skye Serpentarium. This hotel is within the region of Raasay House and Am Basteir.
- Check-in time: 3 PM
- Hotel has 6 suites
|Glenarroch Bed & Breakfast - Main St.|
Main St., Isle Of Skye, IV418PH GB
|Kings Arms Hotel - Kyleakin|
Kyleakin, Isle Of Skye, IV418PH GB
Located in Isle of Skye (Kyleakin), Kings Arms Hotel is convenient to Caisteal Maol and Skye Bridge. This hotel is within the region of Glenelg Brochs and Eilean Donan Castle.
|Six Willows Bed & Breakfast in Isle Of Skye|
6 Ferinquarrie, Isle Of Skye, IV558WN GB
- Typically sells for 113.43 - 114.43 GBP
|Toravaig House Hotel|
Knock Bay, Isle Of Skye, IV448RE GB
When you stay at Toravaig House Hotel in Isle of Skye (Teangue), you'll be within the vicinity of Armadale Castle. This hotel is within the region of Loch Hourn and Morar Beach.
- 9 sleeping rooms in hotel
|Tullochard House - Mill Rd.|
Mill Rd., Isle Of Skye, IV558GU GB
Next: See My Isle of Skye Hotels with Pricing >


(NEW YORK) — While the next iPhone (or iPhone 5, as many are calling it) is already rumored to have a larger display and a different design, new rumors suggest the phone will also have Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
NFC chips enable people to send data between two NFC-equipped devices. You can tap a phone to a credit card reader to pay, for instance, or bump two phones together to send photos or video from one to the other.
According to the Apple blog 9to5Mac, data found in code for the next iPhone reveals that the phone will have NFC controllers. To back up its claim, the site points to patents for NFC that have been filed by Apple. It also quotes the chief technology officer of SITA, an air transportation organization, who is convinced NFC is coming to the next iPhone.
Apple showed off the next version of its iPhone and iPad operating system — iOS 6 — earlier this month at its WWDC conference. Included in the software is an app called Passbook, which provides easy access to loyalty cards, including those from Starbucks, Fandango, etc. Many speculate that this app will have NFC capabilities.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S III, which is forecast to be the best selling Android phone this year, has NFC capabilities. Samsung has even released programmable NFC stickers, called TecTiles.
Apple is expected to release the next iPhone in the second half of the year, perhaps in September or October, close to a year after the iPhone 4S was released.
Apple has not said anything publicly about the next version of its iPhone.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio
Matt Egan, CNN
Susie East, CNN
Sara Weber, Deseret News
Jeff Peterson, Deseret News


text:
Egyptian Media To Flotilla Passenger: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
After participating in clashes aboard the Mavi Marmara, Mohammed Beltagy is now taking a beating of his own in the Egyptian media.
Because he talked about it on TV. YNet News explains:
This admission of employing force against IDF soldiers has evoked a media storm among Egyptian columnists, who claim this was a "public relations gift to Israel."
Under the headline "The Muslim Brotherhood's Gift to Israel," columnist Abdullah Kamal criticized Beltagy's admission. "He said that he and those with him on the ship overtook three Israeli commando soldiers who had broken onto the ship and took control of their weapons. He boasted of this without understanding that he is granting Israel a massive, recorded gift that it will gain benefit from in the commission of inquiry it will carry out following the massacre." . . .
The daily newspaper el-Gomhuriah also did not spare the parliament member. "This is dangerous talk that serves Israel."
It's funny to watch state-controlled media toe the line to prevent eyewitnesses from getting in the way of their storyline.
Before we close the chapter on Helen Thomas, I want to address a lingering point.
Helen Thomas' comments were anti-Semitic, not just anti-Israel.
Everybody has national aspirations of living in its own national homeland. Thomas singled out the Jewish people to essentially say Jewish national aspirations are illegitimate. Read carefully:
David Nesenoff: Where should they go? What should they do?
Helen Thomas: They should go home.
DN: Where's home?
HT: Poland. Germany.
DN: You're saying the Jews should go back to Poland and Germany.
HT: And America. And everywhere else.
Thomas didn't endorse a two-state solution recognizing Jewish and Palestinian aspirations. She didn't even plug a one-state solution that -- on paper at least -- would give Jews and Palestinians shared rights in the Holy Land. (More on that point here.)
Unstated but implicit: the future of the Jewish people is anywhere but Israel.
Doesn't sound like she has any room in her world for a Jewish state.
So why single out Israel? After all, as David Bernstein pointed out in a brilliant piece, nobody questions Japan, Greece or Ireland's rights to exist as a distinctly Japanese, Greek and Irish states.
If you've followed my blogging long enough, you may have noticed that I rarely accuse journalists of being anti-Semitic. It's a loaded charge that makes people less receptive to other important points. So I'm not going to call Thomas an anti-Semite. She already announced her retirement. She's history.
However, the view she expressed -- quietly shared by many others -- that the Jews are somehow singled out as unworthy of having legitimate national aspirations isn't just anti-Israel. That is indeed anti-Semitic.
Israel Considers Launching International News Channel
Israel is considering launching an international news channel, according to cabinet minister Yuli Edelstein. The Jerusalem Post writes:
“We could have our own channel, which would at least broadcast on the Internet. We’re not there now, but we are seriously discussing that,” Edelstein said.
The channel would require a combination of state and private funding, he said, adding that his ministry had secured some state funds toward the project.
In a reference to Al-Jazeera, Edelstein said, “Would it be an Al-Judea satellite TV broadcaster? Or would it broadcast online? Would it have a .gov or .com Web address? We still don’t have the answers.”
A blockade is only as strong as its weakest link. Egypt declared the blockade of Gaza a failure and opened the Rafah crossing indefinitely.
Now, ordinary Gazans have a link to the outside world. But don't think political humanitarian aid flotillas sponsored by the likes of Iran or Hezbollah will necessarily bypass Israel. AP writes:
Egypt will not allow in large cargo shipments or construction material because the terminal is designed primarily as a crossing for travelers, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
So what does this mean? Off the top of my head:
Gaza's open to grandstanding politicians and activists willing to travel overland via Egypt. Grip-and-grin solidarity photos with Hamas are valuable in Turkey's domestic political arena. And those images will be bad news for Mahmoud Abbas and the peace process.
The smuggling industry and the income Hamas makes off of tunnel license fees will take a hit now that Palestinians are shopping on the Egyptian side of the border.
Oh yeah, it's a lot harder for people to argue that Israel continues to occupy Gaza by virtue of its control over the borders.
A picture's worth a thousand words, but which words?
That often depends on -- among other factors -- how the image is cropped.
Earlier today, Turkey's largest daily, Hurriyet, published photos of Israeli soldiers briefly captured by "peace activists" aboard the Mavi Marmara. The photos were taken by the activists themselves.
In the lower right corner of one particular image, a knife is clearly seen in the hands of one of the so-called "activists."
Reuters distributed the image to its papers, but not before cropping out the knife -- an important piece of context.
Now why would Reuters do that? In 2006, the news wire won a Dishonest Reporter Award when "fauxtography" became synonymous with Adnan Hajj's doctored images from Beirut during the war. Is it vying for another award?
"People who are not in with Hamas don't see any of the relief goods or the gifts of money," Khadar says. On the sand dune where his house once perched, there is now an emergency shelter. The shelter is made of concrete blocks that Khadar dug from the rubble, and the roof is the canvas of a tent that provided the family with shelter for the first summer after the war. "Hamas supporters get prefabricated housing, furnishings and paid work. We get nothing," Khadar complains.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa says that Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamid bin Jassem announced during the closed June 2 meeting of Arab foreign ministers that Qatar undertakes to fund all expenses of legal and media anti-Israel activity in the international arena aimed at punishing Israel and exposing the scope of its crime against the Gaza flotilla.
The flotilla also managed to change the subject globally. The world has just concluded that Iran may have enough nuclear fuel for two crude nuclear explosive devices. This should be, and until last week was, the No 1 issue on the international agenda. But now everyone is focused on Gaza. From Tehran's point of view, this is gold, delivered free from heaven.
Facts Beyond the Spin: Israel Delivers Massive Aid to Gaza
The Canada-Israel Committee did a fascinating analysis of the humanitarian aid to delivered to Gaza - and what it means in real terms for Gazans. Here's what the CIC concluded:
Over one million tons of humanitarian supplies were delivered by Israel to the people of Gaza in the past 18 months – that’s equal to nearly one ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza.
In the first quarter of 2010 alone (January-March), Israel delivered 94,500 tons of supplies to Gaza. It’s very easy to miss what that actually means for the people of Gaza. The breakdown includes:
40,000 tons of wheat – which is equal to 53 million loaves of bread;
2,760 tons of rice – which equals 69 million servings;
1,987 tons of clothes and footwear – the equivalent weight of 3.6 million pairs of jeans; and
553 tons of milk powder and baby food – equivalent to over 3.1 million days of formula for an average six-month-old baby.
This reflects a long-term effort on the part of Israel to deliver a massive and comprehensive supply of aid to Gaza’s civilians, while restricting the ability of Hamas to import missiles that have been launched at the cities of southern Israel. In 2009 alone:
During the Muslim holy days of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, Israel shipped some 11,000 head of cattle into Gaza – enough to provide 8.8 million meals of beef;
More than 3,000 tons of hypochlorite were delivered by Israel to Gaza for water purification purposes – that’s 60 billion gallons of purified water; and
Israel brought some 4,883 tons of medical equipment and medicine into Gaza – a weight equivalent to over 360,000 260-piece mobile trauma first aid kits.
Looks like Ambassador Michael Oren tips Israel's hand. The IDF apparently has some damning evidence against the Free Gaza movement. He writes in this NY Times op-ed:
What the videos don’t show, however, are several curious aspects Israeli authorities are now investigating. First, about 100 of those detained from the boats were carrying immense sums in their pockets — nearly a million euros in total. Second, Israel discovered spent bullet cartridges on the Mavi Marmara that are of a caliber not used by the Israeli commandos, some of whom suffered gunshot wounds. Also found on the boat were propaganda clips showing passengers “injured” by Israeli forces; these videos, however, were filmed during daylight, hours before the nighttime operation occurred.
Large amounts of cash, bullet cartridges, and phony videos? Sounds like Pallywood on the high seas. I can't wait for the army to release these findings.
The Jerusalem Post also notes other items found on the boat -- in addition to the wheelchairs, toys, and clothes, etc. which Gazans already receive:
Other items that won’t be transferred to Gaza are the weapons and military equipment found aboard the Mavi Marmara. These include knives, clubs, slingshots, bulletproof vests, gas masks and night vision goggles.
What are Palestinian families supposed to do with those?
HonestReporting's social media editor, Alex Margolin, contributes occasional posts on social media issues. He oversees HonestReporting on Facebook.
It is difficult to overstate how much impact the IDF’s videos have had on swaying public opinion on the Flotilla of Violence. Even journalists who assumed the worst about the IDF when they first heard about the incident admitted that the army's footage changed their minds.
Previous IDF videos, often released long after the media finished reporting on an incident, tended to be grainy and difficult to follow. But these videos were different, as Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz put it:
This footage is also far from perfect, but it is conclusive. The clarity with which it shows the commandos coming down onto the deck and being pounced upon and thrashed is sufficient to render the footage nauseating. The clubs and the irons bars rise and fall with sickening force and frequency.
Those images of “peace workers” with batons over their heads as they pound IDF soldiers – reminiscent of Rodney King being beaten by police in Los Angeles – may well develop into iconic images of the battle.
And they may come to represent the truth about organizations such as the IHH, which have ties with Hamas.
We have seen that images have power. The iconic image of Mohammed al-Dura inflamed the whole Palestinian population during the Second Intifada. Photos of Iranian protestor Neda Agha-Soltan lying dead after a clash with police energized the anti-government movement in that country.
Now, the Flotilla of Violence has revealed the true face of the Free Gaza Movement, and the IDF has captured it. It is no longer be possible for the group to claim that it is against the use of violence.
9:35 p.m: I think Jeffrey Goldberg captures the nuances of Israeli feeling about the flotilla clash.
9:16 p.m: CNN's Martin Chance interviews "Capt. R," the Israeli soldier thrown overboard during the Mavi Marmara clash.
9:07 p.m: Somebody please enlighten me. What message is Tony Auth trying to convey?
8:55 p.m: Add the Chicago Tribune to my list of no-nonsense staff-eds from 3:07 p.m:
The more we learn about this incident, though, the more it looks like a setup designed to provoke or embarrass Israel.
6:36 p.m: Turns out one of the "humanitarian activists" released by Israel is the head of Hamas in the Netherlands. Europe News fills in more about Amin Abou Rashed:
"Rashed is the leader of Hamas in the Netherlands," says an intelligence service source. "He appears by an alias, mainly Amin Abou Ibrahim, in several intelligence reports. He worked for the notorious Dutch foundation al-Aksa, which was suspected of collecting funds for the Hamas terror organization. He is also very active in the Palestinian Platform and Human Rights and Solidarity Foundation (PPMS)," says the intelligence agent.
Big yawn. At least she didn't accuse Israel of cloning her passport or stealing her organs . . .
6:20 p.m: I guess Gaza's not in such desparate shape after all. How else to explain the Islamists' ridiculous conditions for deigning to receive the Free Gaza aid? According to Xinhua:
Hamas authorities on Tuesday refused to receive aid and supplies to the Gaza Strip through Israel, stressing that Israel must first free pro-Palestinian campaigners who were onboard an aid flotilla.
Israel can send aid that Gaza flotilla had carried to the coastal enclave "only if the shipments are complete and when Israel release all activists who were onboard the ships, Ziad Al- Zaza, Hamas' Minister of Economy, told Xinhua.
I don't enjoy that Turkish soldiers were killed. But the irony is striking. Rocket attacks are what prompted the Gaza blockade Turkey's taking the lead against. Will Turkey's response to Kurdish terror meet the standards it demands of Israel?
4:52 p.m: My podcast partner, Yarden Frankl, discussed the flotilla, HonestReporting's work, and more on Rusty Mike Radio.
4:39 p.m: Amid the finger-pointing and calls for an investigation, this Baltimore Sun staff-ed raises a point worth pondering:
Even if Israel had successfully stopped these ships without bloodshed, it would not have stopped the attempts to bring supplies to Gaza, and it would have been confronted again and again until something like this happened.
Let me ask you one final question that's been troubling me, as sympathy for those apparently fragile Israeli commandos continues to pour in. If you were on a boat in the Mediterranean and hundreds of the world's most notoriously violent soldiers started falling from the sky, wouldn't you defend yourself? The brave human beings on the Mavi Marmara were acting in self-defence. And because of this many died.
Think about it. What we have here is that so-called peace activists A) squared off with the IDF B) the army gets some sympathy, and C) the peace activists claim they have a right to self-defense against D) terrorist thugs.
I take staff editorials more seriously than commentaries written by columnists or contributors. A staff-ed reflects the consensus views of the editors, sheds light on the editorial staff's thought processes (although sometimes, it only reveals something about whoever got stuck with the task of writing the editorial).
Ideally, a staff-ed carries the most weight on the opinions page. All this is why a lot of the commentaries I've blogged today are specifically staff-eds.
2:28 p.m: Here's new video footage from the Mavi Marmara. How does Free Gaza explain the stun grenade thrown seven seconds into the video?
2:10 p.m: According to the logic of this LA Times staff-ed, Israel's damned if the IDF is too heavy-handed.
And damned if it's not heavy-handed enough either:
In the days ahead, we need to learn what intelligence Israeli officials relied on in planning Operation Sea Breeze, why the operation was carried out in international waters, and what preparations were made for the obvious possibility that the commandos might meet resistance. We need to understand why a military that possesses tear gas and rubber bullets and other crowd-control tools couldn't find a way of defusing the situation short of shooting civilians dead with live ammunition.
The reason the situation came to gunfire was because the IDF didn't board the ship with overwhelming force. Commandos boarded the ship lightly armed because they weren't expecting violence. The problem was that the soldiers made themselves more vulnerable to a well-organized lynch.
If all you expect to encounter are unarmed, passive civilian passengers, why start with tear gas and rubber bullets from the very outset and risk the ire of the LA Times?
12:45 p.m:Michael Ramirez turns the tables on "why do they hate us" question:
12:27 p.m: A discouraging post from Point of No Return about the precarious position of Turkey's Jewish community:
In time-honoured fashion, the good dhimmi Jews of Yemen and Iran - in the wake of the deaths of nine activists on board the Mavi Marmara - are being forced to buy their own security with words condemning Israel. Will Turkey's Jews be next? In the past, Jews have felt under pressure to back Turkey's policy on the Armenian genocide. So far, Prime Minister Erdogan has echoed efforts to protect Turkish Jews from the wrath of the mob. But his rabble-rousing pro-Islamism has already created so much insecurity that 600 Jews were ready to pack their bags for Israel before the incident took place.
12:19 p.m: Before sailing, so-called peace activists anticipated martyrdom, wrote wills. This from Memri's survey of Arab coverage:
At a press conference in Antalya, Turkey, the flotilla organizers asked all the participants to "write their wills." Following the press conference, Kuwaiti Salafist MP Walid Al-Tabtabai reportedly "did not hesitate to write his will, in defiance of the Israeli threats."
The father of Kuwaiti activist Abd Al-Rahman Al-Filkawi told the Kuwaiti Al-Watan daily that his son had told him that the flotilla participants' morale was high, and that they "would sacrifice themselves for the sake of Allah. He added that his son had "told them before embarking that he would be a martyr for the sake of Allah." Likewise, on the various Internet forums, it was reported that the mother of one of the Turkish participants had said that her son had bade her farewell and told her that he was going to lay down his life.
11:46 a.m: It wasn't about the humanitarian aid. This is the kind of development Free Gaza, the IHH and Hamas were looking for:
11:35 a.m: "Peace activists" firing on Israeli soldiers caught on video. I think Turkey needs to launch a credible, comprehensive transparent and vigorous investigation into this ship of sham peace activists.
11:22 a.m: New meaning to dueling spin. I like how cartoonists Arend van Dam and Steve Bell respectively cross swords, er, pens.
11:15 a.m:David Makovsky explains the necessity of Israel's blockade of Gaza.
• Israelis were already told they would be more secure if they stopped occupying Gaza, hence the disengagement. • Israel absorbed 3,335 rockets fired between the disengagement and Operation Cast Lead. • Some rockets fired were Iranian-made Grads and Fajr-3s • Israel no-longer controls the Gaza-Egypt border, where all weapons smuggling takes place. • The UN Security Council never met to discuss the rocket attacks. And forget about policing the Israel-Gaza border: the EU couldn't monitor the Rafah crossing without fleeing from trouble. The key point:
That’s why Israel insisted on a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip: It was the only way to curb the Palestinian rocket attacks on its people.
While critics like to say that Israel retains forms of air and sea control, it ceded the area that counted in the withdrawal and exposed its citizens to rocket attacks. The lessons from that pullout will make a potential withdrawal from the West Bank much harder. There will be those who say, “If you didn’t like the book, why would you see the movie?”
10:50 a.m: A NY Times staff-ed adds its voice to the choir calling for an international investigation.
10:38 a.m:Haaretz picks up on the social media war:
When Queen Noor of Jordan tweeted to her 8,500 followers, "Time for Israelis to choose betwn life in a rogue pariah state defying international &humanitarian law or to commit to a future of peace," Tishby tweeted a rebuttal: "@QueenNoor We are trying! We are really trying! Please tell me what we should do about this [link] we need to do something!" The link was to a video clip showing an attack on Israeli soldiers.
10:09 a.m: If there's any doubt as to the agenda of the flotilla's organizers, the NY Times and the IHH put them to rest:
On Tuesday in a bustling neighborhood in Istanbul, the Turkish organization was celebrating a strange success. “We became famous,” said Omar Faruk, a board member of the group, Insani Yardim Vakfi, known by its Turkish initials, I.H.H. “We are very thankful to the Israeli authorities.”
The IHH and its allies in the International Solidarity Movement preferred publicity and provocation. Shouldn't their primary benchmark for success be the efficient delivery of supplies to Gaza?
9:52 a.m: Totally awesome video of Channel 4's Jon Snow discussing footage of the Mavi Marmara clash with maritime security expert Peter Cook. Cook analyzes what's happened on board and what the soldiers and activists were trying to accomplish.
9:44 a.m: Kids in school - check. Today's groceries purchased and put away - check. Coffee brewed - check. Computer fully operational - check. Let's get busy.
9:49 p.m: More on IHH, the dubious Turkish charity which spearheaded the flotilla. Andrew Bolt nails their modus operandi:
In 2001, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the prominent French counter-terrorism magistrate, testified in the trial of the "Millennium bomber" that IHH had played "an important role" in the plot to blow up Los Angeles airport.
He said the charity was "a type of cover-up" to infiltrate mujahidin into combat, get forged documents and smuggle weapons.
In 2006, the Danish Institute for International Studies reported that Turkish security forces had raided the IHH's Istanbul bureau and found firearms, explosives and bomb-making instructions.
The Turkish investigators concluded this "charity" was sending jihadists to Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan.
8:58 p.m: Australian journalist Paul McGeough, who was aboard one of the boats, plans to fight deportation. The Sydney Morning Herald elaborates:
Israel has begun legal proceedings to deport the journalists and they have 72 hours to lodge a legal challenge.
Israeli officials have offered them the alternative of signing an agreement to waive their legal right to appeal and be deported immediately. If they are deported, both McGeough and Geraghty would face a 10-year ban on re-entering Israel.
Israeli authorities are seeking to deport the pair on the grounds that they tried to enter the blockaded maritime area surrounding Gaza without permission.
It is believed that McGeough advised consular officials of his intention to fight moves to deport him. If McGeough mounts a legal challenge, he could face several weeks in detention.
I don't have any reason to believe McGeough had an agenda in joining the convoy. (Australian Jewish media watchdogs, correct me if I'm wrong.) If he stays in prison fighting the deportation, I could see this getting messy. McGeough's an Irish national -- and the Irish Foreign Ministry's especially shrill about the naval intercept.
8:48 p.m: 124 Arab "activists" to return to their countries of origin via Jordan.
2:13 p.m. My day ain't complete without Stephen Walt's wisdom. Out with it, professor!
This incident will harm our relations with other Middle Eastern countries, lend additional credence to jihadi narratives about the "Zionist-Crusader alliance," and complicate efforts to deal with Iran.
1:25 p.m: The IDF found smoke torches on board the Mavi Marmara.
A smoke torch is a pyrotechnic device creating a smoke cloud in order to conceal something. What humanitarian purpose does this serve Gaza families? Click on the image to enlarge.
1:12 p.m: If this IBN report (via Israel Matzav) is true, any discussion of salvaging Israel-Turkey relations -- or its role as a possible mediator in peace talks -- is simply dead.
Ankara warned that further supply vessels will be sent to Gaza, escorted by the Turkish Navy, a development with unpredictable consequences.
12:58 p.m:Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough and photographer Kate Geraghty declined deportation and are currently in a Beersheba prison while diplomatic officials sort out their status. McGeough was travelling on an Irish passport.
He and Geraghty were aboard the MV Samoud.
12:40 p.m: What has Israel gained from the blockade of Gaza? Here's Dan Ephron's answer, then I'll share mine:
Mostly a public-relations headache.
The Newsweek reporter is correct, but only partly so. If nothing else, containing Hamas also means fewer rockets fired at Israelis like me.
12:26 p.m:CNN raises an important point about the casualties. Israel hasn't released the names of the dead activists, while Free Gaza hasn't offered an exact number of its own.
Information needs to be carefully confirmed before being released, but I hope the numbers get cleared up soon.
But Israel didn’t wait for the ships to reach Israeli territory; launching a military raid in international waters was a disproportionate response. Israel bears responsbility for the loss of life. It is reasonable to inquire whether Israeli soldiers feared for their lives before firing. But the Israeli army, in ordering the raid, had to know that bloodshed was a possible outcome.
If Globe editors were attacked with knives and crowbars, would an inquiry really be necessary to determine if they feared for their lives? Maybe the Globe should watch this video:
What's plain is that the group's nominal purpose, delivering "humanitarian" supplies to Gaza, was secondary to the aim of provoking a confrontation. The flotilla turned down an Israeli offer to unload the six boats and deliver the goods to Gaza by truck; it ignored repeated warnings that it would not be allowed to reach Gaza. Its spokesmen said they would insist on "breaking Israel's siege," as one of them put it.
11:29 a.m: Good grief, Chris McGreal throws everything but the kitchen sink at Israel.
11:24 a.m: Twitter users cried censorship when discussions on the flotilla failed to turn up in search results. In case you missed it, TechCrunch concluded:
So the most likely explanation is that Twitter’s recently updated trending topics algorithm mistakes #gaza and #flotilla for older news unrelated to current events.
An update to the post adds:
. . . it became clear Twitter users had switched to different terms, namely “Gaza flotilla” and #freedomflotilla which are working and trending just fine, so there is clearly no “censorship” going on. As we say, it may well have been down to technical problems with the original hashtags people were using.
11:03 a.m: The Daily Telegraph points a finger at Turkey for yesterday's fiasco:
As the man responsible for Turkish security, Mr Erdogan knows that the government in Jerusalem has to vet goods brought into the Strip. A secular, non-Arab country, Turkey is in a unique position to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians. Its prime minister appears instead to have chosen a more biased role designed to appeal to his domestic Islamic constituency.
10:51 a.m: A staff-ed in The Independent blames disproportionate tactics, but doesn't offer any suggestions on what steps Israel could've taken that would A) be effective and B) meet the editorial staff's self-righteous standards:
Above all, it is Israel's abject failure to devise ways of defending itself other than by overwhelming military force. Faced with mass demonstrations or aid shipments that are cast by their organisers as peaceful, Israel still has no answer beyond a call to arms. It cannot, therefore, be surprised when most of the rest of the world then judges the means to be excessive and disproportionate to the ends.
10:45 a.m: A staff-ed in The Guardian compares the Israeli navy to Somali pirates:
If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a Nato taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast. What happened yesterday in international waters off the coast of Gaza was the work of Israeli commandos, not pirates, and no Nato warships will in fact be heading for Israel. Perhaps they should be.
I'm sure the Somali pirates are still waiting for Turkey to organize a "Free Darfur" aid convoy.


text:
It launched the careers of a generation of British comedy talent and perfected the cringe comedy genre.
As Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's stunning sitcom The Office turns 20, it’s hard to understate the impact it’s had on UK and international telly.
The influential show not only found a huge audience at home, but led to one of the most acclaimed American TV comedies of all time with the US cover version.
But it’s perhaps in the actors’ stunning success that its biggest legacy can be traced.
To mark the anniversary, we try to find out how the cast that brought Wernham Hogg to life have been faring in the years since.
Ricky Gervais (David Brent)
Following the two series and blockbuster Christmas specials, Hollywood beckoned with films like The Man Who Invented Lying, Ghost Town and the Night at the Museum series. He also managed to recruit Hollywood giants to his follow up series Extras, with other TV work including Derek. He revived Brent for his brilliant film version, David Brent: Life on the Road, and has won acclaim for Netflix series After Life. While his contribution to Hollywood with his acerbic Golden Globes presentation will never be forgotten.
Martin Freeman (Tim)
Freeman has become the most box office successful star of the show, enjoying roles in some of the biggest movies of the last two decades.
Playing Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a prelude to enjoying the title role in The Hobbitt trilogy for Peter Jackson, as well as a supporting role in Captain America: Civil War and then Black Panther, cementing his place in the MCU. He’s currently lighting up Sky1 with his role in comedy Breeders, and other roles have included Fargo season one and sidekick duties as Dr Watson in Sherlock.
Lucy Davis (Dawn Tinsley)
British comedy royalty, as the daughter of stand up and telly star Jasper Carrot, Davis has gone on to establish herself as a Hollywood TV star and has enjoyed significant success on the big screen, including Steve Trevor’s assistant Etta in Wonder Woman. In the last five years she has really cemented her career with great turns in the hit comedy Better Things, and most notably with the regular starring gig in Netflix’s mega successful Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as witch with a conscience, Aunt Hilda.
Mackenzie Crook (Gareth Keenan)
Crook became one of the most popular comedy characters in the first Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and appeared in movies like I Want Candy, Muppets Most Wanted and The Adventures of Tintin.
Read more: James Norton on England's 'cinematic' Euros
He recently brought Worzel Gummidge to life in the recent series. Crook also created, wrote, directed and won Baftas for the sensational BBC sitcom The Detectorists, one of the most beloved and acclaimed comedies of the last decade.
Ralph Ineson (Chris Finch)
The gifted actor managed to shed the thuggish stereotype that came with his awful character Finchy, via a string of varied guest roles such as Sherlock and three of the Harry Potter films, and has become a staple of some of the biggest US movies and shows.
He was amazing in The Witch, then had a key support role in Spielberg’s Ready Player One, followed by gigs on the Coens’s Ballad of Buster Scruggs and TV hits like Chernobyl and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
Stephen Merchant (Co-creator and Oggy)
Gervais’s writing partner, Merchant really stepped out as a personality when he starred in the follow up Extras as a useless agent, and has gone on to become a renowned acting talent in his own right. He's done HBO specials and series Hello Ladies, and an amazing list of movie and TV roles including Logan, Jojo Rabbitt, Fighting With my Family (which he also directed), The Simpsons and Modern Family. He worked with Gervais on Life’s Too Short and An Idiot Abroad, and launches his own new sitcom The Offenders later this year.
Patrick Baladi (Neil)
Since starring as dismissive boss Neil, Baladi has enjoyed a string of hit films and series, including Marple, Lewis, Hustle, Death in Paradise, Marcella, Waterloo Road, Stella, and a great run as a dodgy lawyer in Line of Duty.
He’s also recently shared the screen with Freeman as Darren in Breeders.
Rachel Isaac (Trudy)
That defining haircut! For an era defining moment in TV. Befitting a defining character & performance from the mighty #mackenziecrook #20yearsoftheoffice #trudyfinallytriesitonproperly pic.twitter.com/bQtWU6DLF2
— Rachel Isaac (@rachelwynisaac) July 11, 2021
Famed for her brilliant outspoken dialogue, Isaac’s Trudy was one of the most memorable supporting cast. She recently reunited with former Office-mate Freeman for a guest spot in Breeders, and her busy career since, in series like Casualty, Holby City and Ordinary Lies, while she has also acted own stage in Broadway.
In 2013, Isaac helped convict a man who had sexually abused her as a child, and bravely gave up her anonymity to highlight the issue in the media.
Stirling Gallacher (Jennifer)
Best remembered for being able to burst Brent’s bubble, like catching him phoning the talking clock instead of reprimanding a colleague, Gallagher’s Jennifer was the perfect boss for the chilled out entertainer.
— Stirling Gallacher (@wirlygallacher) July 12, 2021
She’s been best known since then as Paula Martin in Corrie, and has also starred in Holby City, Casualty, White Gold, EastEnders, Father Brown, Trollied, Doctors, and Little Britain.
Ewen MacIntosh (Keith)
As sleazy deadpan master of Scotch eggs Keith, Macintosh became one of the best known faces on UK telly.
And he went on to appear in comedies like Little Britain and Miranda, as well as Yorgos Lanthimos’s indie hit film The Lobster - most excitingly he has just teamed up with Gervais again for a part in After Life season three.
Vincent Franklin (Rowan)
One of the best guest roles featured exasperated training officer Rowan, played by acclaimed performer Franklin.
He’s best known for Bodyguard, Happy Valley, Doc Martin, The Office’s cringe descendant Twenty Twelve and The Thick Of It, and most recently shone in the brilliant Gentleman Jack.
Howard Saddler (Oliver)
One year since it was announced and we are celebrating the #CultureRecoveryFund which has enabled us to present some amazing productions #Two @MarcusRomer @joyseabee #HowardSaddler. Thank you @ace_national @ace_southeast @DCMS #HereForCulture We are very grateful! pic.twitter.com/Nm8XY1S38H
— Sheringham Little Theatre (@SheringhamLT) July 5, 2021
Seeing Brent teeter indelicately around issues of race was always as awkward as it gets, and Saddler’s Oliver dealt with the insensitive and inanity was a highlight of the second series.
In addition to distinguished stage work, Saddler’s screen work since The Office has included Holby City and Family Affairs.
David Schaal (Taffy/Glynn)
As awful warehouse worker Taffy aka Glynn, Schaal was the perfectly appalling balance to poor Brent’s wannabe lad. He’s also best known as Jay’s awful dad Terry in The Inbetweeners series and films.
Other roles have included Doctors, Hetty Feather, Veep, Hollyoaks and EastEnders.
Elizabeth Berrington (Anne)
The former Office pregnant mum has been one of the busiest Office cast-mates in recent years, and has just finished a great supporting run in HBO hit The Nevers, as well as Sanditon, Yesterday, Good Omens, Patrick Melrose and Vanity Fair.
Her other notable roles have included Vera Drake, Nanny McPhee, In Bruges, Fred Claus, Poirot, The Street, Waterloo Road, The Syndicate and Camping.
Oliver Chris (Ricky)
As Tim’s winning quiz team-mate in the famous pub battle, Chris’s Ricky was one of the few normal-ish employees to grace The Office.
He’s currently playing Paul in the brilliant Motherland, Freddy in Apple+ series Trying, and was also in the TV version of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
His busy CV also includes Stepping Out, Breathless and Silent Witness as well as the recent movies Emma and Dolittle.
Joel Beckett (Lee)
He’s the worst fiancee in the world in The Office, but Albert Square fans know Joel Beckett as charming hood Jake Moon, cousin of Shane Ritchie’s Alfie Moon in EastEnders.
Gigs since then have included Holby City and a longer run in Casualty, as well as recent movie 6 Days with Jamie Bell and Mark Strong.
Stacey Roca (Rachel)
After playing Tim’s other love interest, Stacey Roca enjoyed great guest runs in a wide range of shows including Doctors, Holby City, Wild at Heart, Strictly Confidential and Waking the Dead.
For the last ten years, she’s been enjoying great success in Hollywood, mainly playing leading FBI man Bill Tench’s traumatised wife Nancy in Mindhunter, as well as shows like Shameless (USA), The Expanse and The Blacklist.
WATCH: Ricky Gervais turns 60


text:
This snow angel bead is featured in Sterling Silver with a 14K Yellow Gold Halo but it is also available in Sterling Silver, 14K white gold, or 14K rose gold
This unique snow angel bead will be there to watch over you when come upon obstacles. There is always an "angel" to help you through.
This custom made bracelet bead fits on the Pandora® Charm Bracelet and Trollbeads Charms
For more information please call one of our jewelry professionals at 435-649-6547
SKU: P-504 Embrace the snow or a memorable winter vacation with this beautiful Sterling Silver and Blue Topaz snowflake pendant. A single .04ctw blue topaz is hand set in a secure 6 prong setting. Blue topaz has become the 2nd...
SKU: C-213 This leaf is featured in Sterling Silver but is also available in 14K yellow gold, 14K rose gold, or 14K white gold An aspen leaf is a symbol which represents determination and overcoming fears and doubts. Many cultures...
This item is featured in Sterling Silver but it is also available in 14K Yellow Gold, 14K white gold or 14K Rose gold There is no feeling in the world like carving down a freshly groomed run after a night...

domain: design


text:
Sugar Hurts Heart Health More Than Salt
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A recent paper suggests that dietary guidelines for treating hypertension and subsequent cardiovascular disease should focus on reducing the amount of added sugars, primarily fructose, consumed by people at risk for heart disease.
The American Heart Association calls a healthy diet and lifestyle "your best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease," especially when it comes to high blood pressure, heart disease’s most detrimental risk factor.
A recent paper featured in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggests that dietary guidelines for treating hypertension and subsequent cardiovascular disease should focus on reducing the amount of added sugars, primarily fructose, consumed by people at risk for heart disease.
"Sugar may be much more meaningfully related to blood pressure than sodium, as suggested by a greater magnitude of effect with dietary manipulation," the study’s research team said in a statement. "Compelling evidence from basic science, population studies, and clinical trials implicates sugars, and particularly the monosaccharide fructose, as playing a major role in the development of hypertension (high blood pressure)."
James DiNicolantonio from the Department of Preventive Cardiology at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City and Sean Lucan from the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx called the dietary approach of cutting salt intake to lower high blood pressure “debatable.” They argue that restricting salt intake leads to a relatively small drop in blood pressure readings. Some research even suggests that between 3 and 6 grams of salt per day is optimal for health, while less than 3 grams of salt can be harmful.
DiNicolantonio and Lucan suggests that dietary guidelines target sugar, high fructose corn syrup in particular. High fructose corn syrup is the most common sweetener used in processed food and drink, such as sugary fruit juice and soda. A diet consisting of daily added sugar intake that adds up to a quarter of total daily calories can triple a person’s heart disease risk compared to people who consume less than 10 percent. Consuming over 74 grams of fructose a day can also lead to a 77 percent higher risk of blood pressure above 160/110 mm Hg.
"Moreover, evidence suggests that sugars in general, and fructose in particular, may contribute to overall cardiovascular risk through a variety of mechanisms. Worldwide, sugar sweetened beverage consumption has been implicated in 180,000 deaths a year," researchers explained.
According to a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 16 percent of children and adolescents’ total caloric intake comes from added sugars. Over 40 percent of calories from added sugar come from sugar-laden beverages, like soda. DiNicolantonio and Lucan noted that naturally occurring sugar found in fruit and vegetables have no harmful effect on our health.
"Just as most dietary sodium does not come from the salt shaker, most dietary sugar does not come from the sugar bowl; reducing consumption of added sugars by limiting processed foods containing it, made by corporations, would be a good place to start," the research team added. "The evidence is clear that even moderate doses of added sugar for short durations may cause substantial harm."


Full Coverage UV Light Sterilization Dual Airflow HEPA Dupont Filter Air Purifier
- SMARTER SENSING: Most traditional purifiers don't know the air quality in the room. This air purifier does, and reacts. Our remote SensorPod will actively monitor the air quality of the room and take action. Placed across the room, SensorPod communicates back to the air purifier so it can automatically adjust its fan speed. This way, you can be certain the entire room is benefiting from cleaner air.
- CAPTURES AND DESTROYS POLLUTANTS: 360-degree DuPont filtration captures pollutants such as allergens, VOC gases and microscopic particles. Ultra-Violet sterilization destroys germs and viruses that can build up on the filter, preventing re-circulation of live germs.
- DUAL AIRFLOW: Pure-direct proprietary technology splits clean air into two air streams, delivering purified air more comfortably and efficiently throughout the room. The result of rigorous testing has proven that bi-directional airflow delivers purified air more effectively throughout a room, and in some cases, has been proven to be up to 24% more efficient.
- DETAILED LED DISPLAY: Air conditions in your home can change rapidly. Information is power our air purifiers give you the power to manage your home's air quality. The color coded LED display will provide the peace of mind from knowing that our air purifier is taking action on your behalf. Our air purifiers were designed with a simple touch controls for all the functions that matter most, including fan speeds, auto-timer, UV mode and filter replacement indicators.
- TOTAL ROOM COVERAGE: Most traditional purifiers can leave rooms with areas of little to no air circulation, or dead zones, by only shooting air either vertically or straight out. Pure-direct proprietary technology uses two separate airflow streams to minimize those dead zones.
Simple is smart. Simple is clear. Simple makes sense. Designing products that work better for you and fit into your lifestyle is of the utmost importance to us. It's what keeps us moving forward.
Package Dimensions: 25.8 x 12.5 x 12.2 inches