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Many pets are suited to an outdoor lifestyle. Whether it’s a place to go to explore for short periods of time or it’s the place they call home, make your yard a pet paradise.
The size of your back yard doesn’t really matter as its more about what you do with your pet when you spend time with them. A pet sees their owner as the most important thing in their world, and they love to be around their owner as much as possible. Unfortunately, life gets in the way and it isn’t always possible to be constantly by your pet’s side. The challenge is to make sure that they have a safe and fun place to be when you are not around.
1. Space to run and play
Dogs and cats love to run about, so offer them as much space as you have available. Grass is the best option to cover the majority of the space as it is soft underfoot and is visually appealing. Some properties have an open lawn which is great for up and back sprinting. If you have the space, you may be able to create a garden corridor up the sides of the house to link the front and back garden, giving your pet the opportunity to do full laps around the house.
While small furry friends, such as guinea pigs and rabbits are generally housed in hutches, they love the opportunity to run around on the lawn in a pen. The lawn also makes for a great snack and these little mowers can help you out with keeping the lawn short. It’s a win-win for both of you!
2. Provide Fresh Water
After all of that running around, your pet is sure to be thirsty. Pets should always have access to a bowl of water and owners must ensure that it’s always fresh and re-filled regularly. Some pet owners choose to make a water feature in their garden that pets can have access to a constant water source. Examples of pet friendly water features include, a water fountain that is constantly bubbling or a slow dripping tap. Beware of ponds though, as just like a young child, an inquisitive puppy or kitten can fall in and get into trouble. Pond water often sits still and has very little movement, so is prone to developing algae which can also be a health hazard to pets if consumed.
3. Provide shelter
Adequate shelter is a must for your pets if they are going to be spending time outside. Shelter such as a dog kennel or rabbit hutch will not only provide protection from the weather but will also act as a safe and comfortable place to rest. Giving your pet access to the garage or covered patio will allow them more room to move, while keeping sheltered. This is a nice option, particularly when it’s wet weather.
4. Fenced and secure
No one wants to lose their beloved pet, so a secure space is a must. A well fenced property not only keeps dogs contained it also gives the option to create dog free areas which can be great if you have small children around or want to do some pet free entertaining.
Unfortunately, fencing probably won’t keep your cat contained to the yard. If you want to create a safe outdoor space for your cat, a cat enclosure could be the solution.
5. Outdoor toileting
If you are lucky, you may be able to train your pet to do their business in a certain area of the yard. A fence can be used to separate this spot from the rest of the yard.
Cats are very particular about their bathroom habits and prefer to have a private place to do their business. Ideally, this space is covered with loose dirt of leaf litter that they can cover their waste with. For dogs, a space covered with pebbles or artificial grass will create an easy clean area. Male dogs love to mark their territory, so a wooden stake in the ground can become the marking post.
Female dogs however, like to go in the middle of an open space, such as the lawn and unfortunately this can result in light coloured patches known as urine burn. This occurs because their urine has a high nitrogen content. While nitrogen is a fertiliser, applying too much will result in burn. There are a few things you can try to minimise the burn effect on your lawn.
– Encourage your dog to drink more to dilute the nitrogen in their urine.
– Keep an eye on how much meat they eat as lots of meat can mean extra nitrogen.
– Water the lawn more to dilute the urine.
6. Protect your precious plants
If you have a section of the garden that you don’t want destroyed by your pets, its best to fence it off. Vegie patches can be especially appealing to dogs and cats and are likely to be trampled or have the produce damaged or eaten. Raised garden beds are another option that may be helpful in keeping your plants out of harm’s way.
When it comes to protecting your plants and using pesticides, you should opt for non-toxic options just in case your pet happens to come into contact with them.
Slugs and snails are notorious pests in the garden, but avoid using snail bait as it is highly toxic to pets. Instead you could try picking them up and putting them in the bin or you could sprinkle coffee grounds around the garden bed. Coffee grounds are quiet good at deterring slugs and snails and they are bitter enough that dogs won’t eat them.
7. Toxin free plants
Some plants may appear beautiful but can be poisonous to pets if consumed. When placing your rabbit or guinea pig enclosure in the backyard, be sure that it is positioned away from any potentially harmful plants, this includes their fallen leaves. Bulbs are also a concern, as they are round like a ball, so are quiet appealing to dogs and can be very toxic.
Many cats and dogs enjoy a little nibble or sometimes a destructive chew on plants of the garden, so if you are re-planting your garden be sure to check the US created pet’s poisons list for advice on potentially hazardous plants.
8. Provide distractions in your pet paradise
While outdoor time can be great for dogs and cats, they can become destructive if there isn’t enough around to keep them occupied. Naturally, dogs love to dig holes in the yard and cats love to scratch whatever they can get their claws on.
Keep your dog entertained with engaging, interactive toys such as balls and chew toys. Cats can be kept busy with toys that encourage their natural instincts and trees to climb and bark to scratch on.
If you are planning a garden renovation keep you pets in mind to make your yard the ultimate pet paradise that is a safe and fun place to be.

domain: pet


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July 12, 2023
Sensitivity and extraordinary tone-coloration… In all three opening works, Mr. Namoradze was almost spiritually sensitive. Not that he eschewed the fireworks when necessary. But his was not a Chopin‑ish decorousness. More a delight in translucent color… A genius for Russian music… Delight, accomplishment and sensory mastery.
June 7, 2023
The already world-famous Nicolas Namoradze’s piano etudes gave a stellar impression: well-formed and inspired piano studies which reflect the inspiration of György Ligeti.
ÉLET ÉS IRODALOM
June 2, 2023
Nicolas Namoradze premiered Lukas Ligeti’s piece besides works by György Ligeti as well as his own two etudes, with an airy fluidity and a convincing technique. From observing their collaboration in Lukas Ligeti’s duo piece, they seemed to me like long-time chamber music partners.
May 5, 2023
What Mr. Namoradze achieved in his rendition of the famous Andante, probably one of most famous themes in Rachmaninov orchestral output, was creating an authentic, idiomatic, and natural sounding score that seemed created for the piano by composer himself. In his version, our transcriber permitted—at least some of us!—to forget the origins of the material and created a large canvas poem for the piano in an authentic style and idiom. The melodies flew easily and the arabesques and filigree passages weaved through the pages in unforced, natural way. Pianistically, it was playing in a grand manner and one that was, perhaps consciously, modeled on the composer himself or perhaps his greatest interpreter, Vladimir Horowitz, minus the eccentricities of the grand wizard of the piano. In his approach to piano playing, Namoradze possesses that slightly capricious, free manner of playing that ideally suited the vocal melodic lines that faithfully imitate the orchestral instruments. With no apparent effort he was able to create an infinite variety of colors and shades of dynamics, from the most delicate to thunderous, but never banging. And what’s even more important was the singing quality of his sound, which was also refined, subtle, selective in all registers of the piano and dynamic spectrum. That Rachmaninov’s score sounded authentic under his fingers didn’t surprise me all that much, as I still harbored in my memory a fearsome, supremely commanding and authoritative performance of Rachmaninov’s First Sonata that Namoradze presented a few seasons back.
SOUTH FLORIDA CLASSICAL REVIEW
March 6, 2023
Namoradze’s dynamic palette was varied and well-judged without allowing the sonority to become harsh… Namoradze’s leisurely paced reading ran the gamut from soft lightness to bold thrusts, his sense of the score’s deep romanticism strongly imprinted… The lustrous melodies were dressed up in the Russian brand of pianistic lyricism with flourishes and variants discreetly added. With a sensitive touch, Namoradze drew a rounded sound from the Steinway… Namoradze reveled in the entire range of both the piano’s coloration and percussive effects… Namoradze is clearly an impressive young musician with a rock-solid technique.
November 1, 2022
What proves beguiling here lies in Namoradze’s sense of touch, easily suggestive of the magical dynamics achieved by former greats, like Benno Moiseiwitsch, in Schumann’s music… Namoradze juxtaposes lightness of heart with the presence of emotional, even polyphonic, frenzy, as in the fourth section, marked Einfach und zart, whose agitations arise from a simple, child-like parlando. For sheer velocity, the Sehr lebhaft section has few rivals.
October 30, 2022
In the performance of all these works, Namoradze played with the kind of nuance, ease, and refinement that the Honens family has come to expect of him, a type of musical searching and exploration found only in the playing of the most intelligent of pianists. And to cap it off, Namoradze concluded his program with Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, a rarely played, barnstorming work composed about the same time as the Second Symphony, whose transcriptions of the second movement was heard earlier in the concert – yet more refractions.
LA SCENA MUSICALE
Paul E. Robinson
October 26, 2022
Namoradze played the sonata as well as I can imagine it being played. Namoradze is extraordinarily undemonstrative at the keyboard; he never seems to be exerting himself. But close your eyes and you will hear an artist with an amazing command of dynamics from almost inaudible – as at the beginning of his ‘Georgian Song’ piece – to hair-raisingly loud as in the last movement of Rachmaninov’s Sonata No. 1.
SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN
July 29, 2022
The delicate touch and rhythmic variety in Namoradze’s solos were especially noteworthy. The final allegretto had a genuinely playful quality, with the fast piano runs played “like oil,” as Mozart always hoped for.
LUDWIG VAN TORONTO
July 9, 2022
The big item was Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 1, a 35-minute tour de force that is unaccountably absent from the standard repertoire. Possibly its sheer difficulty constitutes an obstacle, although Namoradze, 29, the winner of the 2018 Honens Competition in Calgary, proved to be equipped with the technical wherewithal… He articulated all the swirls and torrents without losing the romantic thread of the argument or sacrificing a heroic feeling of momentum. Colours were vivid, as they were in Alexina Louie’s I leap through the sky with stars… There was ballast at the end of the recital in the form of a substantial encore, Scriabin’s Sonata No. 4, delivered with otherworldly delicacy as well as force.
INTERNATIONAL PIANO MAGAZINE
March 3, 2022
Ravishingly beautiful… Namoradze’s playing has a crystalline purity, and his art, which follows in Ligeti’s footsteps, feels like an esoteric extension of Ligeti’s art. Meanwhile the Schumann pieces are a delight.
February 12, 2022
Stravinsky formed the focus of Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Festival Hall visit, a pair of remarkable concerts exploring his output early and late… Nicolas Namoradze, was ideally laconic and debonair, weighty yet exquisite, and exactingly precise in tone and touch.
February 19, 2022
In the Capriccio Fischer was joined by the young Georgian pianist Nicolas Namoradze, who showed just as keen an understanding of Stravinsky’s blend of wit, balletic grace and stifled expressivity. He made the ball-room roulades and scales and odd little mechanical basses soft and tender rather than brittle, while Fischer urged the solo string quartet and plangent cor anglais to seize the odd moments of lyrical warmth.
INTERNATIONAL PIANO MAGAZINE
November 25, 2021
His beautifully considered programme, delivered at Kapelle Gstaad, showcased his skills in Baroque music (the First French Suite and two Contrapuncti from Die Kunst der Fuge), late Romantic repertoire (a Bach/Busoni chorale and Liszt’s virtuoso Totentanz) and six of his own Etudes… It was a nice idea to bring Mephistophelean excess to a chapel; and how superbly Namoradze projected the “Dies Irae” in the bass. A superb sense of grotesquerie, brilliant glissandos and huge aggregations of sound confirmed the stature of this reading… His intellect, coupled with a superb, fearless technique and great inner musicality, makes for an intriguing mix.
June 16, 2021
A dazzling technique at the service of a very sure poetic instinct, a youthful exuberance that morphs, when necessary, into a tender reverie, an extreme precision capable of bringing out details in the most dizzying accelerations, a brilliant and sonorous timbre that can round off in portamento singing for lyrical effusions: the pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze stands out as the ideal performer of this elegant music to the point of dandyism, with the grace, humor, naturalness and restraint of an authentic gentleman.
February 2, 2021
It’s early days, but I’ve already earmarked this young Georgian pianist’s dazzling debut disc as a potential Recording of the Year: his sheer technical brilliance will make you catch your breath time and again, but he’s also a born story-teller, bringing Andersen’s Metal Pig and Tin Soldier to life with an abundance of charm, wit and warmth. Despite their rather utilitarian titles, the twelve Op 46 studies are scarcely less characterful in his hands, the alla marcia exercise ‘for the glissando’ a particular delight.
February 2, 2021
Namoradze captures the magic and romance of these miniature masterpieces [Fragments from Hans Andersen] to perfection … [he] relishes the insouciant romanticism and exuberant virtuosity of the Concert Study No 1 in G Flat; but this almost feels like a warm-up for the Lisztian (Mephistophelian?) Concert Study No 2 in F. Both are tremendous fun to listen to, and no doubt to play—providing you’re equipped with a technique such as the present performer’s!
February 1, 2021
It’s easy to agree with Emanuel Ax’s comment that Namoradze, a true Renaissance man, is “set to become one of the truly important artists of his generation.”
January 25, 2021
Had Nicolas Namoradze not just provided this evidence, one would doubt there’s anyone in the world who could actually play such a piece without being buried by the avalanche of notes. But Namoradze not only succeeds in taming the turmoil at the piano. He plays Bowen’s Second Concert Study with razor-sharp precision, irresistible panache and just the right pinch of irony that is needed to take this exalted music seriously—and yet not too seriously.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
January 21, 2021
This delightful disc is a treasure chest of lesser-known works given beautifully attentive performances from the acclaimed young pianist Nicolas Namoradze… Namoradze once more brings total technical assurance alongside exuberance and an unshowy sense of integrity to these fiendish pieces.
January 3, 2021
A terrific pianist (Georgian by nationality, b1992) with all the colouristic and stylistic attributes one could wish for allied to a formidable technique, the kind of musician whose artistry is like a compelling novel where you can hardly wait for what comes next … performances that lovers of high-octane pianism will want to snap up … superbly recorded and performed with such distinction, this release must be an early Awards nominee.
INTERNATIONAL PIANO MAGAZINE
April 25, 2020
I’m not often lost for words, but Nicolas Namoradze’s recital almost defeated me. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing: he’d won the Honens competition, and this gig was his reward, but winning a comp is no guarantee of greatness. Yet from the opening phrase of Scriabin’s ‘Black Mass’ sonata he had me hooked: those notes had honeyed grace, and the rest of the work unfolded in an opalescent glow, every bar being touched with beauty. I’ve never heard this puzzling work make such persuasive sense.
Namoradze then segued into Bach, with the Ninth Sinfonia followed by the sixth Partita whose Toccata led majestically on to six lovingly-characterised movements; the closing Gigue, which turns itself upside down and inside out, came with an exultant craziness which was never less than technically immaculate.
The programme for the second half didn’t sound auspicious: York Bowen’s Twelve Studies Opus 46, followed by six Etudes by a certain Mr Namoradze. Bowen is now all but forgotten, but his studies, written in 1919, are a fascinating blend of Romanticism and modernist experimentation. In this player’s hands they were riveting, each one being brought out like rabbit from a conjuror’s hat and allowed to run (very fast) wherever it liked. And if the virtuosity was dazzling, Namoradze’s own studies, which seemed like a continuation of Bowen’s, were doubly so. Finally five Scriabin encores delivered with a seraphic smile: through a slightly-open door we could see him literally jumping up and down with excitement in the backstage moments between coming back on and astonishing us. Come back and astonish us some more.
BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER
March 2, 2020
Alchemist Nicolas Namoradze brought his lab of chromatic arts to the filled-to-capacity Calderwood Hall on Sunday, wearing his transmuting intentions on his lab apron sleeve… He enunciated and voiced to perfection, conveying a strongly felt concept, albeit not always a familiar one… Namoradze’s own Etudes evoked Ligeti’s Etudes, though much lighter in mood throughout. Engaging and brilliant, with names from Major Scales to Double Notes, they ironically suggested the theme of having fun during inevitable long practice sessions. But they also served as ample vehicles to demonstrate the composer’s wit along with digital prowess.
February 29, 2020
Nicolas Namoradze’s London debut was a clear sign that he will have a very impressive career. The program itself was capacious and varied, presenting four contrasting composers and focusing on the particular connections found between them… Nicolas Namoradze is a musician with remarkable values. There is such power and conviction in his playing that one can hardly believe his age — one hears a multifaceted, wise master at one with the instrument. We hear so many young pianists, especially in London, and many of them are very talented and undoubtedly impressive — but the depth and sophistication that Namoradze displays is truly exceptional, earning him a special reputation among the new generation of musicians.
December 11, 2019
“I discovered an amazing, unconventional personality — 27-year-old pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze, who has something to say to the world… In Scriabin’s F Sharp Major Sonata, the pianist’s super-sensual musicality seemed to find its Grail… Namoradze feels everything in his own way, whether it’s desire, impulse, passion, intimacy — and with a sense of proportion in everything. Nicolas Namoradze is not just a poet of the piano, he is its artist. He displays no visible effort, an ease of imagination, harmony of proportions, perfect balance, impeccability and originality in tone. Each phrase seems to be crafted and considered, yet at the same time breathes with true vitality. They seem familiar (it is tempting to draw an analogy with Sofronitsky, the best performer of Scriabin, in my opinion) yet also surprising and unexpected, with unique tempi, pauses and contrasts of sonority. He possesses a sophisticated and rich palette of sound shades — what myriad colors in one pianissimo, sometimes brooding, sometimes windy, sometimes careless, sometimes wise — supplemented by an inquisitiveness and strength of mind, and this spirituality is transmitted to the audience. Namoradze can achieve all of this with this fingers, without having to resort to acting with faces or body movements.
After the Scriabin, Namoradze played his own Etudes I-VI — and this, believe me, is an alternative universe, mobile, like a breathing Solaris, almost magical, with whimsical, unpredictable behavior… Namoradze’s sharp mind gives birth to things that hard to play, but which are charmingly simple in their complexity. Everything is not as it seems, starting with a system that seems tonal, and ending with sonorous tricks in the spirit of Escher’s paintings.”
CLASSICAL VOICE AMERICA
September 17, 2019
“Namoradze, a rising young Georgian pianist and composer, was similarly eloquent in the Schumann concerto. Lingering over Schumann’s tender, singing melodies, shading each phrase with precisely chosen color, he drew us into an intimate universe. In its virtuoso flights, his sparkling runs and chords flashed by like quicksilver.”
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
September 16, 2019
“Namoradze captured all of these elements in a charismatic performance that ranged from running passages played in shimmering whispers to bold emphatic declarations. This was a captivating delivery of an exquisite piece of music.”
September 6, 2019
“Namoradze is not your conventional competition virtuoso. As it concerns virtuosity, however, Namoradze yields nothing to overtly flashier pianists, as was evident in his stunning encore of the well-known D-sharp minor Etude by Scriabin that concluded his program.
Fundamentally, however, Namoradze wears his enormous technique lightly. He sits quietly, with mostly just his fingers in evidence. His playing is effortless to a degree that can hardly be imagined, and the focus of his performance is entirely upon musical values. And here the range of his imagination in the shaping of line, control of texture, and fleetness in execution takes one’s breath away… It was quasi-mystical experience, in which the sound of the instrument, poetic ideas, textures and musical figures were combined in a unique synthesis.
Namoradze took his audience into his own special musical place, one that certainly involved technical execution, but where the aural center was always on melody and where texture and shape intertwine… Namoradze performed two Scriabin works as encores, happily for me two of my favorite pieces, the early C-sharp minor etude and the equally famous D-sharp minor etudes previously mentioned. Both were the last word in how this music might be played, and served as capstone pieces in a concert as impressive as any I have recently heard and which brought the audience to its feet in its enthusiastic admiration.”
ONGAKU NO TOMO
July 18, 2019
“The selection of pieces by Namoradze, himself a composer, was intriguing… His etudes are brilliantly composed, and I was fascinated by how he incorporated typical elements of etudes with harmonic transformation. The recital program was nicely selected, as if one travels from the Romantic to Impressionism to the modern period… Listening with much interest and pleasure, I was impressed by his technique and wide range of expression… It was a recital full of delight and mysteries, which ended almost like a reincarnation.”
July 7, 2019
“Nicolas Namoradze sparkled on the piano… The spotless performance earned great applause… The grand ovation led to four encores that brought the concert to a close by transporting the mood into one of romantic lyricism.”
February 21, 2019
“He is a pianist who proved that, once in a while, the distinguished members of the jury make a good choice and select a winner who plays like a true artist; who impresses not with pyrotechnics but rather with keen intelligence, a rich tonal palette and refinement… It was a most auspicious debut by an artist representing that rare breed, a thinking virtuoso. There are young pianists whom I like or admire very much for their strictly pianistic accomplishments. Nicolas Namoradze deserves not only admiration but a deeply felt respect.”
February 15, 2019
“Only in his 20s, the New York-based pianist is a deep investigator of musical resonances over the centuries, an emphasis he touched on in our recent interview. His choice to flow directly from the Scriabin into Bach’s Sinfonia No. 9 in F minor brilliantly illuminated the kind of continuity a perceptive mind can find… Namoradze has fully grasped the intellectual heft of these pieces too. Thanks in large part to the Honens prize, he has a busy concertizing and recording schedule. All indications are that his multiple gifts have well prepared him.”
NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
February 11, 2019
“Nicolas Namoradze is a pianist with a lot to say. And he likes to say it softly. The top-prize winner of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Alberta, made an impressive New York recital debut Sunday night at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with an unconventional program of (in this order) Scriabin, Bach, Schumann, and his own compositions. Like all recital programs, this one offered plenty of opportunities to play loud, and the 26-year-old native of the Republic of Georgia rose to them handsomely, without ever losing his cool demeanor on the piano bench. But the moments that linger long in the memory are the pianissimos. Long stretches of pianissimo, layered, multicolored, deep in thought or swirling like a spring breeze. Pianissimos dense with possibility, and pianissimos that just are.”
NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG
October 25, 2018
“[Nicolas Namoradze] was the most unique of the finalists. In his solo recital, the experienced competitor even played his own compositions. He commanded Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds Op. 16 with unbelievable precision and small inflections that made one sit up and take notice. The chamber music program was followed by a reading of the 2nd Piano Concerto by Brahms, performed with a thoroughly compelling restlessness. One would want to pay to hear him even for just the sheer inexhaustible abundance of colors that Namoradze elicits from the piano.” Translated from German
September 11, 2018
“It is frequently the case that there can be a measure of controversy surrounding these events when the audience and jury don’t see eye to eye. But this was not the case here. As with the two previous winners of the competition, Namoradze is not the conventional competition pianist, but his individuality was evident from the outset. While he certainly has the virtuosity to spare, he gained the top spot through his remarkable clarity of execution, refinement and variety of tone, and his uncanny ability to make even the most ordinary passagework sound meaningful and distinctive…
The first prize went to Namoradze, someone who might be called a pianist’s pianist. The refinement of his playing was of international standard, and everywhere his interpretative skills commanded attention and admiration. This was noticeably the case in his fine account of Schumann’s difficult Humoresque and perhaps even more in the performance of his own etudes — a daring thing to program.”
September 10, 2018
“In the Brahms Concerto No. 2, Namoradze – also a soundtrack producer and composer – voiced the mellow rhetoric in long-breathed lines, and consistently built textures from the ground up. He addressed technical challenges, such as the notorious ‘double octaves’ in the second movement, with relative ease. It was a terrific match of performer and repertoire, and Namoradze appeared relaxed throughout, which was no small achievement..”
THE WHOLE NOTE
September 10, 2018
“[Namoradze’s] rendition of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 (one of the longest and most demanding in the repertoire) was etched in long lines and executed with an apparent ease that in the moment erased thoughts of this work’s reputation as a beast to be tamed. Not so for Namoradze, who looked and sounded as comfortable playing this work as he had been with three of his own virtuosic Etudes in the Semifinals.”
September 7, 2018
“For the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Nicolas Namoradze chose a warmer-voiced Steinway. This factor surely helped bring forth the grandeur and sweep of the opening Allegro non troppo, accompanied by equal expansiveness from the orchestra. He seized the essence of the second movement (Allegro appassionato) from its first seconds, and ably expressed the many subtleties of the slow movement. The tight and sensitive partnership between pianist and conductor were once again evident in the concluding movement. And once again the audience gave vociferous approval… Definitely a talent to watch and listen for.”

domain: artistic


I wrote a test application, made an EXE file then ran it
on another computer to test. It did not run at first because the computer did not have a file called MSVBVM60.DLL
so I found that file on the machine that I originally developed the test app on and copied to the same directory I
found it in on the other machine c:\windows\system\. Question is...is that file normally resident on all PC's or does that DLL file have to be distributed w/ the app. If it
does, does have to always reside in the C:\windows\system directory or can it just reside w/ the app's EXE file as on
Want empowering updates? You're in the right place! Discover new features in ScreenConnect 6.0, based on partner feedback, to keep you business operating smoothly and optimally (the way it should be). Explore all of the extras and enhancements for yourself!
In a recent article (http://www.experts-exchange.com/A_7811-A-Better-Concatenate-Function.html) for the Excel community, I showed an improved version of the Excel Concatenate() function. While writing that article I realized that no o…
Get people started with the process of using Access VBA to control Excel using automation, Microsoft Access can control other applications. An example is the ability to programmatically talk to Excel. Using automation, an Access application can laun…
This lesson covers basic error handling code in Microsoft Excel using VBA. This is the first lesson in a 3-part series that uses code to loop through an Excel spreadsheet in VBA and then fix errors, taking advantage of error handling code.


text:
Educators from around the country share their favorite educational apps.
open education resources
For many Americans, going to college has been the next natural step after graduating from high school. A college degree has served not just as a status symbol, but also proof that graduates have mastered a subject and can put the knowledge they’ve acquired in school to practice. But the value of a college degree […]
As of today, there are more than 2,700 videos on the Khan Academy site. All of them have been created by Salman Khan himself, with the exception of those produced by the SmartHistory team who Khan hired a few months ago. Over the course of a few short years, Khan has accumulated a vast library […]
Flickr:FontFont Open education sites exemplify how technology is democratizing education. These sites allow both learners and teachers to create their own curriculum, whether it’s used in or out of the classroom. Here’s a comprehensive list of open education sites MindShift has covered. As always, we love to hear about sites that aren’t included in the […]
Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Media (which organizes the annual Maker Faire), O’Reilly Media (publisher of all those great “Missing Manuals”) heralds the virtues of the open web and the history of open-source information in this talk at Open Educational Resources 2011 talk last month. “The most important educational resource is the student,” he says.
Through a series of slideshow presentations, HippoCampus covers a wide range of subject areas, from the Civil War to biopsychology. By Sara Bernard For students seeking study guides and educators needing specific content, here’s another robust online resource: HippoCampus, a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE), provides multimedia homework and study […]
Flickr: FontFont By Sara Bernard As the open source movement in education grows, so do the number of nonprofits, foundations, and collaborative sites that support it (and vice versa). The following is not an exhaustive list by any means. Stay tuned for more posts on open source textbooks and curricula in the coming weeks. Open […]

domain: library


text:
Abstract wall art original green blue - Gail M Austin Art
Large format original painting in acrylic, charcoal and gesso on heavy tan paper. Linear and abstract, there are many images within the painting.
size and details
- 53 height x 35 wide
- UNFRAMED on heavy tan paper
- Acrylic, gesso, and charcoal
- Can be framed or hung with thumbtacks on large wall
- Artist signature at the bottom right corner of the painting
- Contact Gail for more photos and any additional information and or additional photos: email@example.com or text message (720)232-7112
- Ships free in US safely in a sturdy shipping tubevia USPS from Palisade Colorado
Imaginative large format original painting in acrylic, charcoal and gesso on heavy tan paper 53 height x 35 wide.


WASHINGTON – On the eve of President Barack Obama’s planned health care summit, Democratic lawmakers are increasingly confident that they can resurrect their sweeping overhaul legislation after weeks of uncertainty about whether they could overcome the unified opposition of Republicans.
Democratic leaders, who have struggled to find a way to unify their own ranks, have settled on a strategy to avoid a Republican filibuster by convincing wary House Democrats to pass unchanged the health care bill approved by the Senate last year and send it directly to Obama for his signature.
At the same time, Democrats in the Senate are rallying behind the use of a bare-knuckle legislative procedure known as budget reconciliation to push through a separate package of health care measures to satisfy liberal Democrats in the House.
That package – which would require a simple majority and would not be subject to a GOP filibuster – combined with the overhaul bill, would result in a bundle of legislation close to the blueprint outlined by the president Monday.
“I’m more interested in the package than the process,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a former critic of using reconciliation, said Tuesday at the Capitol.
Senate leaders now believe they have the 51 votes necessary to pass the reconciliation package.
On the other side of the Democratic ideological spectrum, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus who has bitterly criticized the Senate health bill, expressed optimism that Democrats were nearing a breakthrough. “I think we are on our way,” she said.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., another liberal who criticized the Senate bill and the president’s leadership after Republican Scott Brown’s victory last month in the Massachusetts Senate race cost the Democrats their filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority, credited Obama with turning the tide by posting his blueprint on the Internet Monday.
“With his action yesterday, he shook us out of our post-Brown stupor and we’re back to legislating,” Weiner said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., still must find 218 votes to advance the Senate health care legislation, a task that has only grown harder with the death and departure of several Democratic lawmakers in recent days. Some House Democrats also continue to express concerns about details of the emerging legislative strategy.
Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, a conservative Democrat who has pushed for tough restrictions on federal funding for abortion, expressed concern Tuesday that the Obama’s proposal does not include sufficient safeguards.
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are keeping up their criticism of the president’s plans.
“We just don’t care for this bill and neither do the American people,” said Virginia Rep Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican. “And it’s time for us, it’s time really for this president and the majority in this Congress to start listening to the American people.”
Obama has said he would review Republican suggestions to amend Democratic health care legislation at his planned summit Thursday. But few believe that a bipartisan compromise is likely.


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A man who is a father spent 12 years forcing his children to have sex with him, his wife, ex-wife and the family dog. Christopher Sena has been sentenced to 341 years in jail.
Christopher Sena, 52, was sentenced to court on Tuesday after he sexually abused 8 immediate family members and close relatives. He didn’t just abuse them, he filmed the abuse. Christopher Sena, Las Vegas was Bisexual. He made his victims, both male and female, have sex with him, their mother and stepmother while being filmed. He was convicted of 95 sex crimes.
Christopher Sena’s sexual abuse went on for over a decade was until is was uncovered in September 2014 during a SWAT raid at Sena’s trailer in Nellis Air Force Base. Officials obtained video footage of the abuses.
While Sena was handed 60 life terms on Tuesday, he’s estranged wife Deborah Sena, 53, and his first ex-wife Terrie Sena, 48, were handed life sentences before Tuesday’s hearing. Both women took plea deals which saw them handed a single life sentence for allowing the abuse to go on, and will be eligible for parole in 10 years.

domain: news


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ONE DAY AT A TIME star BONNIE FRANKLIN has died at 69.
Her family announced that Bonnie’s passing was due to complications from pancreatic cancer.
Bonnie Gail Franklin was born in Santa Monica on Jan. 6, 1944.
Franklin was a multifaceted performer and working in both comedic and dramatic roles and performing in nightclubs.
By the 1970s, Franklin was a theater vet who had earned a Tony nom for her perf on Broadway in “Applause” when she was offered a role by groundbreaking TV producer Norman Lear.
“One Day at a Time” told the story of Ann Romano, a divorced woman in her 30s raising two teenagers (Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) and building a new life for herself in her hometown of Indianapolis.
Bonnie was nominated for an Emmy in 1982 and twice nominated for Golden Globes for her realistic portrayal of Romano.
In 1980, she married TV/film film producer Marvin Minoff, whom she had met lensing “Portrait of a Rebel,” a TV movie about Margaret Sanger.
In 2011, she was reunited with her One Day at a Time costar Valerie’s on “Hot inCleveland” playing the mother of Bertinelli's character's boyfriend.
Fly with the angels, Bonnie.

domain: entertainment


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Fundraising pyjama days and painting spots at Chatteris nursery for Children in Need
PUBLISHED: 10:50 19 November 2018 | UPDATED: 10:50 19 November 2018
A week of fundraising from pyjama days to a teddy bears picnic took place at a Chatteris nursery in aid of Children in Need.
Around £168 was raised by Clarence House to help disadvantaged young people across the UK.
The week started with a pyjama day, then on Tuesday there was a teddy bears picnic and Wednesday was favourite costume day.
On Thursday there was a cake sale and on Friday a ‘wear your spots’ to nursery day.
Children and staff spent time creating Pudsey’s with paint and tubes.
A Pudsey cake was donated by Nita Kennerly at Sweet Retreat, which raffle tickets were sold for.
Charlotte Walton, manager, said: “The children and staff have had a lovely week, talking about coloured spots on Pudsey, their favourite bears and who they are going to share their cakes with.
“Not only have we raised money, we have used this as an opportunity to further our children’s learning.”
The nursery will also be hosting a festive family fundraiser on December 16 to raise money for St Barnabas Hospice.
If any companies would like to donate raffle prizes, the nursery would be grateful.
If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Cambs Times. Click the link in the orange box above for details.


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Bon Appétit Blog Envy Bake-Off! If you love bacon, chocolate and booze, you'll love this chocolate ganache drizzled, bourbon soaked, bacon and chocolate chunk studded bread pudding, too...
Start with the good stuff...delicious challah, uncured center cut bacon, high quality dark chocolate and bourbon and you're well on your way to dessert deliciousness. Here's the recipe...
Bourbon and Bacon Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding
12 strips uncured center cut bacon
2 tablespoons bacon grease (reserved from the bacon)
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup 1% milk
3 tablespoons bourbon
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup granualated sugar
4 oz high quality semi sweet chocolate chunks
1 loaf challah bread (approximately 12 oz), ripped into approximately 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces
4 oz of heavy whipping cream
4 oz of bittersweet chocolate (over 70% or greater)
1.) Fry six strips of bacon over low heat until they are softened and slightly crispy. Remove from pan and transfer to a plate with paper towels to absorb excess grease. Once bacon is cool, cut into small dice and set aside. Pour off grease from pan into a measuring cup and reserve two tablespoons.
2.) Melt the two tablespoons of butter in the two tablespoons of bacon grease. In a large bowl, whisk together the bacon grease and butter with vanilla and cinnamon, set aside.
3.) In a medium saucepan over low heat combine whipping cream and milk with bourbon. Whisk in granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the light brown sugar then add in bacon grease mixture whisking continually. Once the ingredients are well combined, set aside to cool.
4.) In a large bowl whisk together eggs. While whisking continually, slowly add in 1 tablespoon of the cream mixture at a time to temper the eggs until the eggs and cream mixture are completely incorporated.
5.) Butter a 9 x 13 inch dish with 1/2 a tablespoon of butter. In a large bowl, toss the torn challah pieces with diced bacon and chocolate chunks. Transfer to the baking dish ensuring that the bacon and chocolate are mixed throughout then pour cream mixture over the bread mixture. With a spatula press the bread down to ensure that all the pieces absorb the liquid. Transfer the bread pudding to the refrigerator and chill for at least one hour to allow the bread to absorb the liquid. Periodically press the mixture with a spatula so the top layer soaks in more of the liquid.
6.) While bread pudding is soaking fry the remaining six strips of bacon and sprinkle with one tablespoon of light brown sugar. When bacon begins to crisp flip it to the other side and sprinkle the other tablespoon of light brown sugar over the bacon. Once bacon is cooked and crispy on both sides transfer to a plate to cool. When cooled, dice bacon in small pieces.,
7.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Tightly cover pudding with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes remove the cover and check for doneness using a cake tester. Then bake uncovered for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
8.) While the bread pudding is cooling prepare the chocolate ganache. Chop the chocolate into very small pieces and put in a medium bowl. Warm the cream until it's bubbling slightly then pour over the chopped chocolate whisking briskly until well combined.
9.) Drizzle bread pudding with chocolate ganache and sprinkle with candied bacon bits.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and additional chocolate ganache drizzled on top.
Speaking of voting...you can show your support for chocolate, bacon, booze and the lovely ladies of Blondie & Brownie by voting for this recipe in the Bon Appétit Blog Envy Bake-Off. Here's the deal,click here and cast your vote for the tastiest dessert in a number of categories. The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen will bake the top scoring dessert in each category and select an overall winner. The winner will receive a trip for two to New York City and dinner with Bon Appétit Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild and Restaurant Editor Andrew Knowlton. The finalists are chosen by audience votes, we need your help and votes for a chance to win. Our recipe should be up on the site sometime today. Please vote B&B!

domain: food


Flower-like NiCo2S4 nanosheets with high electrochemical performance for sodium-ion batteries
NiCo2S4, sodium-ion batteries, anode materials, sodium storage mechanism, pseudocapacitance
A three-dimensional flower-like NiCo2S4 formed by two-dimensional nanosheets is synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method and utilized as the anode for sodium-ion batteries. Studies have shown that materials can achieve the best performance under the ether-based electrolyte system with voltage ranging from 0.3 to 3 V, which could effectively avoid the dissolution of polysulfides and over-discharge of the material. Here, sodium storage mechanism and charge compensation behaviors of this ternary metal sulfide are comprehensively investigated by ex situ X-ray diffraction. Moreover, ex situ Raman spectra, ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy measurements are used to related tests for the first time. Additionally, quantitative kinetic analysis unravels that sodium storage partially depends on the pseudocapacitance mechanism, resulting in good specific capacity and excellent rate performance. The initial discharge capacity is as high as 748 mAh·g−1 at a current density of 0.1 A·g−1 with the initial coulomb efficiency of 94%, and the capacity can still maintain at 580 mAh·g−1 with the Coulomb efficiency close to 100% after following 50 cycles. Moreover, by the long cycle test at a high current density of 2 A·g−1, the capacity can still reach at 376 mAh·g−1 after over 500 cycles.
Tsinghua University Press
Yongqiang Miao,Xiaosen Zhao,Xin Wang,Chenhui Ma,Lu Cheng,Gang Chen,Huijuan Yue,Lei Wang,Dong Zhang, Flower-like NiCo2S4 nanosheets with high electrochemical performance for sodium-ion batteries. NanoRes.2020, 13(11): 3041–3047


The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC) elected new board officers for 2023 at its meeting on December 12, 2022. The leadership reflects the Council’s wide geographic reach, with leaders hailing from Manatee County, City of Largo, and City of Dunedin.
Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh is the new chair of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council board. Largo Mayor Woody Brown is vice-chair and City of Dunedin Commissioner Maureen “Moe” Freaney is secretary and treasurer. City of St. Petersburg Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard is immediate past-chair.
Vanessa Baugh, chair
A Manatee County Commissioner since 2012, Vanessa Baugh has been involved with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council since 2019. She is chair of the Council’s Covid-19 Recovery Task Force created to assist local governments in recovery and CARES Act funding. She is a member of the board of Manatee Port Authority.
Woody Brown, vice chair
Largo Mayor Woody Brown was first elected as Largo Commissioner in 2007, then Mayor in 2014. He has been involved with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council since 2012, and he previously served as chair of the Council in 2016. He currently serves as vice chair of the Council’s Agency on Bay Management, which is focused on the protection and management of the Tampa Bay estuary.
Commissioner Maureen “Moe” Freaney, secretary/treasurer
City of Dunedin Commissioner Moe Freaney has served Dunedin for more than three years as a City Commissioner. She has more than 31 years of professional public experience in Dunedin and Pinellas County.
Brandi Gabbard, past chair
St. Petersburg City Council vice-chair Brandi Gabbard has been involved with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council since 2018. A St. Petersburg City Council member since 2017, she is part of the steering committee for the TBRPC Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition, and she served as Chair of the Board of the Pinellas Realtor® Organization in 2014.


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If you are into history, this is the place you should go. Basically, The fort was built as as a protection for the state of Kedah and its capital, Alor Star. The fort was built in 1771 during Sultan Muhammad Jiwa’s reign and was completed...More
About 3-4 acres land plot located beside the Kuala Kedah (river) mouth. One single wooden house sits in the middle of the land, completely rebuilt as the original house was destroyed. It now serves as a museum showcasing from the late 1800s. There is also...More
We arrived here after drizzle.... it was so cozy here. Beside the wooden house at middle of the field..... you will found quite number of rusty canon here. the Fort is located right opposite the terminal ferry to Langkawi at Kuala Kedah. A great place...More
A heritage fortress that is historically important to Malaysia, in respect of the Thai, Portuguese, British and more recently the Japanese occupation of Kedah during war time.
It is in some ways very similar to Fort Cornwallis in Penang; in it's fortification and architectural style....More
a must visit to feel the fort at its best with cannons all around for a good picture or selfie. it also faces the sea and mangroove swamps, and also museum of kuala kedah is also situated there telling you all the stories which the...More

domain: history


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London's low life celebrated at lit festival in East End libraries
THERE S a historical theme to the first book festival hosted by libraries in Tower Hamlets this month. The festival starts on Friday at Bethnal Green library It covers forgotten tales of London s low life, to the fog of war as journalist exposed the con
THERE'S a historical theme to the first book festival hosted by libraries in Tower Hamlets this month.
The festival starts on Friday at Bethnal Green library It covers forgotten tales of London's low life, to the fog of war as journalist exposed the conditions endured by soldiers during the Crimean War and prostitution in Georgian London.
The week-long festival has attracted authors of weighty tomes including Spitalfields resident Dan Cruickshank who will shine a light on the murky world of prostitution in the capital, including notorious brothels in Whitechapel and the moralistic Tower Hamlets Society for the Suppression of Bawdy Houses and Reformation of Manners on Thursday December 10. Tim Coates, the former boss of bookselling giant Waterstones is due to speak on Tuesday about his book Delane's War chronicles the Crimean War, which was perhaps the last conflict before reporters became censored by the state.
Both writers will be entertaining bookworms at the Idea Store in Whitechapel but the festival starts at Bethnal Green library tomorrow at 7pm (Fri Dec 4).
You may also want to watch:
Publisher Martin Knight will be discussing three authors from the 1930s whose novels were made into films although the books themselves are largely forgotten now.
Mr Knight said: "The books Wide Boys Never Work by Robert Westerby, They Drive By Night by James Curtis and Night and The City by Gerald Kersh were smash hits at the time. Night and The City starring Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian is considered a classic in the "noir" genre."
- 1 Man killed after fall from Bow tower block
- 2 Man found stabbed on board night bus
- 3 Why some families can't leave Bow's 'dangerous structure' tower block
- 4 Trees planted to remember people who died of Covid in the East End
- 5 Two hospitalised as 60 firefighters tackle blaze in Stratford
- 6 14 charged with alleged drug dealing and money laundering offences
- 7 Fast food! Lewis Hamilton-backed chain opening east London branches
- 8 Panel finds gross misconduct proven against Pc arrested on suspicion of drug dealing
- 9 19 arrested and cash seized in East End dawn drug raids
- 10 O's will need a much improved display against leaders Forest Green
Manzu Islam will take readers on an exploration of Banglatown in East London and Bangladesh as he talks about his 1997 collection of seven short stories The Mapmakers of Spitalfields at the Whitechapel Idea Store at 1pm on Saturday.
On Monday John Bennett will give an illustrated talk about Whitechapel and Spitalfields and crime writer John Harvey will talk about the murky world inhabited by his characters Charlie Resnick and Frank Elder.
East London writer and Docklands columnist Kia Abdullah will round off the festival at Whitechapel Idea Store on Saturday December 12 when she talks about her novel Child's Play which looks at some of the darker recesses of the mind.
*A full programme of events is available at libraries in Tower Hamlets.


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John Larson “Songs About Music”
As long time frontman for The Marlowes, John Larson has plenty of stories about life as working musician. With the help of his bandmate Justin Capaldi and Mick Chorba (The Dispomaniacs), he puts these observations in his new solo LP. Larson opens with the hook filled “Girl in the Band,” about a hook up at a music convention. “They’re Not Writing Country (In This Country Anymore)” is a pretty accurate jab at the current commercial country rock scene.
John’s vocal is limited in range, but clear and best used on “Kiss and Yell” and “Billy and Wiggy” a description of meeting Billy Bragg’s brother. The harmonies and lead work to great effect on the melodic “She Just Wants To Talk” and the obsessive thoughts of a vinyl record collector “Track You Down” combines a vintage Zombies-styled organ melody with a sing-along chorus. “The Lifer” is a gorgeous autobiographical ballad that has echoes of Van Morrison and Lou Reed about how “the critic’s darling” can’t afford to even get gas for the car. Many musicians hearing this album will nod in agreement – a strong effort by a veteran road warrior.
Doctor Ew “Gadzooks”
Don’t judge an album by its cover. Despite looking like a horror soundtrack or punk album, Doctor Ew is the solo debut from Toronto pop musician Drew Smith. Right from the get go on “The House Of Many Mansions,” you’ll hear those XTC and Rundgren influences in the beat and synth compositions. The happy hand clapping melody of “Dance All Over My Grave” is in direct contrast to the dark psychotherapy in the lyric. “Be A Dreamer” is another endearing melody that echoes Brian Wilson with its tinkling piano, and the follow up “To Be Your Man” is an equally wistful Beach Boys styled tune. Ew’s nasal tenor works well on these short lo-fi songs (most under 2 minutes) and the added horn flourishes, guitar rhythms and backing harmonies enhance each melody.
No filler here and every track is interesting, although Drew’s vocal on “Do As The Lord Tells Me,” doesn’t quite fit. Also impressive is the beautiful and creepy “If You’re Happy” and the self depreciating “I’m Getting Fat” with the funny backing chorus of “Hey Chubba Bubba!” Overall, a delicate and fun diversion for those with a musical sweet tooth.


First of all, I'm an admitted noob. I do not have any knowledge or RC cars. So if this is pilot error I completely accept that. Just need to know where if I went wrong, and if so, what I did so it does not happen again. If it's something else, then same story, need to know why and how to prevent it. Thank you. This car was purchase for a custom project but I can assure you that project is not what was the problem that much I know.
I have a Ford Mustang 302, came with the stock battery and has run fine a couple of times after charing the battery. But for this project I needed to be able to run the car, NOT continuously, over several hours without charging. IE, I could run it for 20 minutes, let it rest for 45-60 minutes, run it again for 20 minutes, etc rinse, repeat over say 3 hours. Where the car would be running most likely would not have any place to charge a battery.
So I went to the hobby store and bought a 12800 2 cell 25c 7.4v lipo. I also bought a quick charger and balance charged this 2 cell battery at 6amps which took about 1 hour to charge.
The next day I was at an event and connected the lipo to the ESC. The car "seemed" to run fine for about 1 minute, then going forward it "jerked" and after that, pressing forward on the controller didn't make the car do anything. The car ran in reverse ok and then I noticed the smell. Took the top off and smelled burnt electronics, unplugged the lipo and the left heat sync was so hot I could not touch it without getting burned.
let it sit for an hour, sync was cold, plugged in the stock nimh battery real quick and unplugged, esc was hot. So i know the ESC burnt up. Hours later tried the stock battery again just to test and again after 1 second of plug in and unplug the heat sync is very hot.
Ok, so ESC is gone. I get it.
But I need to know the reason why. So, anyone with a possibility? The only two I can think of are:
1. This Lipo 12800mpH 25c 7.4v battery is not compatible with the Ford Mustang Boss, either because of maH, volts, cells, or whatever in which case I plugged a huge honking battery into an ESC that couldn't handle it and I fried the ESC.
2. I plugged the lipo battery in backwards. Possible. I know this will fry the ESC in seconds.
3. What YOU think caused it.
If it's #1 then I guess I'll try and return the battery. If thats the case, WHAT battery do I get that will last 2-3 hours on a charge?
If it's #2, and you are SURE that the battery is COMPATIBLE, then I buy a new ESC, plug it in, plug in the battery and hope I didn't waste money on a new ESC.
Or, what do you think may have been the problem?
I don't believe the batteries are damaged, but is there a way to check that as well?
Thank you and I appreciate your valued input.


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1890s Victorian Black Straw Bonnet with Rose & Feather Accents
A must-have for the Victorian lady on the go! This beautiful summer day hat pairs wonderfully with a walking habit.
Fashioned in a sturdy, finely woven braided straw, this hat has a traditional bonnet shape, which was popular in the latter portion of the 1800s. It is lined in silk with a hardened paper liner on the inside crown to give the hat strength and to help keep its shape.
The front of the brim is decorated with a small bouquet of ivory cotton spray roses. The back side of the upturned brim is accented with a band of black feathers.
A black silk bow adorns the back of the chapeau. The ends of the bow are left intentionally long so the wearer can tie the ends under her chin.
Condition: Very Good
Given the nature of Victorian-era black dye, the color has faded a little giving it a slight brindle appearance. Since the fade is all over, it almost looks like it was originally designed that way, which it very well could have been. The flowers in the front show their age, but still look lovely. The silk ties have begun to shred and one has a pretty sizable hole. They are still useable as is or could easily be replaced. None of these flaws detract from the beauty of this piece. Priced accordingly.


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(WLNS) – A powerful thunderstorm that roared through mid-Michigan has knocked out power to thousands of Consumers Energy, DTE and Board of Water and Light customers.
Heavy rains, strong winds and lightning knocked down trees and power lines.
Wind gusts as high as 63 miles per hour were recorded at the Capital Region International Airport. StormTracker 6 meteorologist Jim Geyer says 1.46″ of rain fell in Lansing during the storm.
WLNS-TV 6’s over the air signal was knocked off just after 5:00 p.m. and returned about 30 minutes later.
There are reports of power lines down across roads in Lansing, streets flooded in East Lansing and trees and limbs down throughout the area. If you see a downed power line do not approach it. If you come to an intersection without traffic lights treat it like a four-way stop.
6 News crews are spread out covering the damage and will have updates online and on 6 News.


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Unflavoured e liquid There are 4 products.
Unflavoured vape juice
Which VG PG base to choose for your e liquid?
Vegetable glycerine produces consistent vapor clouds.Propylene glycol favors the "hit", the contraction of the throat.To make a balanced electronic cigarette liquid, it is advisable to adopt a 50 50 or 70 30 ratio of your e liquid base to obtain a liquid at the same time great for the perception of throat hit and producing a sufficient volume of steam.If you want more steam production, then you will choose vegetable glycerin for a thick e liquid.The discreet vapers will look for propylene glycol.Different ratios are proposed in terms of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin to adapt to the taste of each.Some vapers appreciate 100 PG e liquid or VG base but, it must be said, the vast majority is oriented towards a propylene glycol-glycerine mixture to obtain a less irritating vape juice while being as efficient.We opted for Revolute brand bases. So you have the best unflavoured e-liquid base, USP grade, made in France, not containing nicotine and allowing you to compose your own vape juice kit. En stock 005BN
Unflavored propylene glycol for electronic cigarette 100 PG e juice
En stock 006BN
Vape E juice Base - Vegetable Glycerin (glycerol) Revolute to make a 100 VG liquid
En stock 007BN
VG PG blend - Propylene Glycol and vegetable glycerin e liquid base to make your e cig liquid
Out of stock 011BN
E liquid Base Revolute 30/70 unflavored for e cigarette diy

domain: chemistry


Aircraft Based On P-8 Poseidon With Some India-Unique Design Features
The first Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft arrived on schedule Thursday at India Naval Station Rajali. The P-8I is one of eight aircraft Boeing is building for India as part of a contract awarded in 2009.
Was The First Woman Selected For Any Military High-Performance Jet Team
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Nicole Malachowski took her final flight as the 333rd Fighter Squadron commander in an F-15E Strike Eagle at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina on May 8. The final flight marks another milestone in her illustrious career, which includes being the first female pilot to be selected to any U.S. military high-performance jet team.


text: About DDS Direct Imports is the exclusive distributor of DDS (Direct Digital Solutions) indoor and outdoor Antenna’s. Designed with specifications & features for the New Zealand market, DDS offers a solution for your indoor and outdoor Digital requirements. Our range of Antenna’s are manufactured to highest of standards and offer outstanding features and represent great buying at affordable prices. DDS is presented in full colour POP packaging especially designed for New Zealand and with approval from Going Digital. This Product range will stand out in any retail environment and offers the latest in product innovation.

domain: design


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Will electric power is adore in religious phrases, enjoy is will electric power. If one claims, “God is enjoy”, it signifies in truth “God is Will”. The really like of God, the Will of God, will cause the creation, “Thy will be carried out on earth as it is in heaven”. Common laws pervade our earth and our heaven. When a particular person says, “I appreciate to do it”, it usually means, “I will to do it”, which is a more powerful expression and signifies, “I fully adore to do it with all my coronary heart and soul”.
Never ever once again clutter your times or nights with so a lot “busi-ness” and unimportant points that you have no time to “be in really like” and “are living with really like”. This applies to play as very well as perform. A day merely survived, with dollars as the only reward, is no trigger for celebration. In its purified state, the human heart is the hologram of the witnessed and unseen worlds it is the section that displays the total. The heart is the position at which the unique human remaining is closest to the Divine. The heart is the centre of our enthusiasm and our figuring out, possessing a depth and power of will that the personality lacks. When we say that the coronary heart has an integrative electrical power, we are not speaking in abstract, metaphorical, or merely intellectual phrases. The realisation and purification of the heart both of those opens a doorway to the infinite, and also results in a restructuring of neural pathways, a refinement and reorganisation of our overall nervous procedure, which makes it possible for the fullest expression of our human choices. We can so effortlessly drop into the earth of lifestyle to get the job done relatively than function to live. Time can rush by, we are so occupied having ready to love daily life, that we are also drained to acquire gain of it. To deal with our daily life, for the advantage of adore, we need to grasp the electric power of will. This, in a different language, suggests self-control.
No a lot more hectic function. No much more hiding from really like. Leave time, depart area to expand. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!
Like in motion. The heart of Like
Discipline is the turning level. The soreness of regret often outweighs the discomfort of self-control. Thus, as we change from the moi target of enjoyment, shorter phrase satisfaction, toward goal, goals, and longer expression benefits, the moi loses manage and gets to be the lion, and you to tamer, The wide the vast majority of spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, tai chi and much more, keep this as the most critical component of the transformation in between moi life and adore existence. Discipline.
Will is a various type of power. Will acknowledges that there are temptations, that there are normally old styles, but that all the righteousness, devotion and fanatic adherence to dogma will never ever clear away the resource of temptation. An alcoholic is nevertheless an alcoholic even though they are in a phobia about alcohol. With will energy, there is a distinctive strategy there is simply just one thing a lot more crucial to do.
Will does not depend on righteousness or goods that are separated from lousy. Like the therapeutic fanatic, who will tell you for hours about the virtues of organic foodstuff. No, that is the moi in blind fanaticism creating dogma, separation. There are two sides to every little thing, very good and poor, which include organic food stuff. But will is distinctive. Will asks, “What are my long expression aims, and what possibilities are greatest for me to make to realize them?” Like, “I want to journey the earth serving to kids”. I would ask “When?”, and you could possibly say, “Until finally the day I die”, and I might say “When?”, and you might incorporate, “Alright, when I am 90”. So now we got past a loose fantasy, with no detail, to a small a lot more element. Then we go for lunch and you are sitting down reverse me, and the menu will come, “What are you having for lunch?” You consider, and say, “Oh there are so many delicious possibilities”, and I would reply, “Not if you are critical about residing till you are 90 and however traveling close to the environment aiding little ones.” Then you could select the natural salad, mainly because it might assistance you dwell your aspiration. That selection is built with “will energy”.
Will electricity arrives from the coronary heart.
A aspect of the body just beneath the breast has been labeled as the heart. As human beings can not grasp the strategy of a heart outside the body, there is a section in this overall body of flesh committed to housing the idea of the heart. This space is most delicate to emotion and has been called broken at situations, although no physical break essentially takes place.
Assumed, memory, will and motive, merged with the moi, make up the heart. The surface of our ego is head, while the depth of it is coronary heart. The heart is a very clear descriptor of our identity. It is by way of the coronary heart that we come to feel ourselves, or know ourselves, as the moi prefers. As soon as a man or woman understands the nature, the character, and the thriller of coronary heart, they comprehend the language of their moi. So a actual understanding of the moi, and turning it to do the job for you, rather of for by itself, arrives from the coronary heart.
Will energy is what can make the variance concerning our skill to truly feel an emotion (which is honesty), and act on an emotion (which is foolishness). It is human mother nature to have all forms of emotional reactions to the globe all-around us these are simultaneously the human illusion, and precisely the characteristics that make us human. The dealing with of emotions more than the full spectrum of existence is what tends to make us entire, just as a musical piece is composed making use of the whole established of piano keys, not just just one. The pleasure of everyday living is enduring emotion, but the suffering of lifestyle is to act, or legitimise them.
Motion and reaction based mostly on emotion are at the floor of daily life. Will is the junction amongst this, and the skill to reside deep down below this surface area, in like. When we act on emotion, our will power (God ability) is overridden, and we develop into like a leaf in the storm, pushed by the comings and goings of many others. There is no certainty in a daily life driven by reactions to emotion. Whilst it gives the taste and spice of lifestyle, it is an appalling assistance method for your choices and direction. Will is, for that reason, the gentle electrical power that can honor the working experience of emotion, but prohibits action centered on it.
Ambition can be centered on psychological escapism and egotistic attachment, or the human spirit and motivated calling. If we want appreciate, then ambition dependent on psychological escapism is a comprehensive contradiction to our aims. Emotional push is sporadic, undisciplined, it vales “How I feel now” more importantly than, “How I am heading to come to feel if I really don’t stay my desires?” It is not the appreciate-centred way of lifetime. It will not magnetise the wellbeing and sacred like we aspire to give.
The value of time
The achievement of perseverance
The satisfaction of performing
The dignity of simplicity
The really worth of character
The ability of kindness
The impact of example
The obligation of duty
The wisdom of economic system
The virtue of tolerance
The advancement of talent
The joy of originality
If you say you are heading to do one thing in your lifetime, and you do not do it, you conquer you up. Make commitments of discipline in your relationship. If you break them, never lie. Admit it. No a person can defeat you up more than you. But then perform on more self-discipline, a lot more will, a lot more love ability, by obtaining a superior motive to follow your motivation. Staying fully commited to one thing is all about having a good enough explanation. If you adore you sufficient, then emotional blackmail is not a fantastic enough explanation to be dedicated. If somebody states, “I is not going to like you if you really don’t do that” then only if you presently loathe you is that a motive. But at this degree of will, there has to be a desire, a desire you would enjoy so considerably that the expense of emotion is way too superior, that emotion is not value the be concerned.
Persons get this when they drop a little something. I experienced a pal who had a heart assault. They had been so not disciplined they had absolutely no will electrical power. Then, soon after that disaster, they turned a health fanatic. A year later they had been psychological once more and eating junk. They were disciplined out of anxiety. This is not sustainable. In your connection, discover a aspiration that is significant plenty of, that you would really like to are living sufficient, and then operate out what the price tag is in conditions of way of life. If you aren’t prepared to fork out the value, get out of the way so someone else can stay it. But will not count on your romantic relationship to very last if you cannot discover a dream worthy of dwelling for.
Soon after two or three shattered dreams you could locate it hard to arrive up with serious commitments for long-expression goals. Just commence with tiny types and perform your way up. There is a course of action in the very last chapters of this e-book on aspiration matching.
The will of the human heart is an unbridled experience of undertaking some thing that you enjoy, alternatively than a thing that loves you. Then you provide this selection making awareness into all aspects of your lifestyle, discernment, and without the need of compromise. Will is the heart deciding upon very long-term benefit around limited-term psychological expression.
Sacred relationship is not identified in emotional drama, but in the knowledge of possibilities produced, the sacrifices made in recognition of desires and Enjoy. If you do not have the will to select sensibly, then you will opt for very low priority functions to fill your brain. Since these are self sabotaging (they do not satisfy your goals), then your lover will not be able to wait around for you to expand up in appreciate, they will almost certainly depart you. If you are managing yourself as unworthy of love, unworthy of increased objective, unworthy of very long-term financial commitment, then your lover will not handle you any in a different way. Recall that no person does to you extra than you do to you. Will is really like, will power is self love.
Self adore is found in the carrying out of everyday living, not in the thinking of it. Self love is motion, motion of decisions. Your self value grows when you do items deserving of your personal regard. Psychological drama and functioning on minimal priorities, doing the job on other people’s priorities, living vicariously as a result of little ones, is all self-deception. Mother nature will not have it. Character will carry disaster, disaster and humbling circumstances to anybody who does not perform on the better priorities that manifest their dreams. If you do not have a desire, there is only ego to adore.
A person who can say, “I like performing this” is significantly a lot more rewarded on the cosmic stage than the moi that would profess, “I appreciate this, since these are the issues I get for carrying out it”. Achievements final for times, but lifetime is a journey. There is no solace for the rich person who, surrounded with material items and victories, can not smile in the deal with of a days do the job, or at the strategy of strolling to the yard for a couple times of reflection. It is in the eyes of cherished kinds the place we find God, alternatively than the buildings we create to dwelling them. It is in the undertaking of points of substantial precedence to our desires that the wealth exists, not in the gratitude of all those we assistance.
Will is not power, whilst it is all the power that exists. How does development function in the universe? The world? The solution is, by will. The guidelines of the universe keep all the chaos into a spectacular buy. It is the power of will, Gods will, that all of the universe conforms to a self-discipline of just 5 basic rules. Emotion is the defiance of those legislation. Therefore, what we get in touch with willpower in us, is much more correctly, God electricity and emotion is hell energy. Will ability is a combination of physical and psychological strength. Our fingers, with all their great mechanics, can’t maintain a glass of h2o if there is no willpower to help it. If will electricity fails us, a seemingly balanced person will not be able to even stand. Thus, fish do not swim with their body they swim with their will power. And when guy has the will to swim, he swims like fish.
Will ability has enabled humankind to total tremendous items. Will brings us to achievement, nonetheless when will fails, even so smart the individual, they too are unsuccessful. Therefore, it is not the human energy entirely that moves us, it is a divine power observed in the human physique that makes unbelievable feats achievable. The do the job of the mind is nonetheless higher, for no a single can hold a believed in their head for a minute if there is not the strength of will to keep it. If a individual are unable to concentrate, are not able to maintain their ideas nonetheless for a minute, it indicates that will electrical power fails them, as it is will which holds a thought.
Rumi, “Start, h2o, fire, air appeared to us as issues, as objects, but prior to God they are dwelling beings they stand as his obedient servant’s and obey divine Will”.
We received a element of that divine will as our possess divine heritage, and it is our consciousness of that will which tends to make it increased. If we are not acutely aware of it, it gets scaled-down. An optimistic frame of mind in the direction of lifetime develops the electricity of will, although the pessimistic attitude reduces it and robs it of its good power. Thus, it is only ourselves that hinders our development in lifetime. There is no 1 in the planet that can be a worse enemy to us than ourselves, for at every single failure we see ourselves standing in our own light-weight.
When the mind is pushed to maintain one particular considered for a while, it becomes restless, because it is not accustomed to discipline. The thoughts by by itself has no hesitation to keep a considered of disappointment, blame, anger, suffering grief, sorrow, or of failure it will keep it so tightly that you cannot choose a single of people righteous feelings from its grip. But when the mind is requested to maintain a certain affirmative considered, generally it will not maintain it, responding alternatively by declaring, “I am no cost and I will not be controlled”. This is the ego preventing against the coronary heart of will, the moi battling for psychological flexibility, and cursing the divinity of sacred adore, goals and joy.
You must educate your mind willpower by focus, by the electrical power of will, then the thoughts will become tied in focus to the aim of your work. A guardian ought to be robust with a kid mainly because they have no willpower, and the guardian need to be that greater wisdom till the child turns into clever. A disciplined thoughts gets to be your servant alternatively than your grasp. The feelings of the heart, and the act of keeping the considered in the heart, are the two of fantastic great importance for the achievement of an individual’s life’s, and most importantly, their associations.
Typically a individual will say, “I attempt my greatest but I simply cannot get my head to focus, I are not able to make my brain however”. It is true that they can’t focus, but it is not accurate that they try their greatest. As soon as the mind has develop into your servant, what far more can you wish? Then your entire world is your personal, you are the king or queen of your kingdom. Though some folks will argue, “Why not allow the head be absolutely free, as we are free?” But the easy remedy to this is to notice the existence of the particular person devoid of self-control, crammed with psychological drama, possibly even a crammed lender balance. They have missing the essence, they are absolutely nothing but dwelling shells of emotion.
Self-self-discipline is that which will make the master of the self, having said that tricky and tyrannical it may perhaps seem in the beginning. Self mastery is a blend of self-control and utilized will. It is not in vain that the good sages are living in caves with devotion and terrific purpose. It is not a thing to imitate, but it is a little something to recognize. This sort of asceticism is self-willpower it is the improvement of will electrical power. This is the turning position for a sacred romance. To make investments by yourself in appreciate is to have the will to sustain it.
There are those who would sit for the total of their lives underneath the coconut tree and wait around for the coconuts to fall. There are those people who would chop the tree, so they have the tree. There are those people who would learn to climb and carry what they will need to their lives. Also numerous of us enter a relationship and then wait around to see what happens. We get the furniture and make the babies. There is no mind required in possibly of people actions, and we can have pleasured sex with 90% of our mind eradicated. Enjoy is will, exertion, and without having affirmative energy, you wait for the coconut, and endure on practically nothing concerning.
You deficiency absolutely nothing if you have will
The best way to cultivate will energy is by very first systematically placing the body by self-discipline. It need to sit in the posture that is prescribed to it it must stand in a put exactly where it is requested to stand. The system should not turn into restless, or fatigued, by what is questioned of it. You will see this in yoga. The entire body have to answer to the calls for of the particular person to whom it belongs. The instant we commence to discipline the overall body, we start out to see how disobedient the overall body has usually been. This entire body is intended to develop into the resource with which you practical experience lifestyle, not the explanation for it. The physique can be skilled with physical physical exercises initiated by the intellect.
The willpower of the head is completed by concentration. It can only choose put soon after the system has come to be disciplined. When you desire the intellect to believe about just one distinct imagined while it is imagining yet another imagined, then the head becomes extremely restless. It does not want to stand in just one location, simply because it has generally been shifting about with no discipline. Pretty often, people today inform me that throughout the working day their most challenging time is the instant that they want to focus. At this time the thoughts will begin to soar. This is mainly because the thoughts is an entity. The head and physique have to have to be your servants, not the other way around. In order for you to manifest your desires, your intellect and overall body need to become your servants in each day lifestyle to fulfill your system with foods and enjoyment, and your intellect with emotion and righteousness. They will have to act as you wish them to, in buy for you to acquire true ease and comfort, happiness and an consciousness of really like.
There is a change in between concentration and silence. Silence is calming brain and entire body. It is repose and healing. Concentration is keeping a specified believed right before you. Additional, focus is the commencing of meditation, and meditation is the stop of concentration
This is illustrated in the pursuing two examples. What time do you rise in the morning? At any time? Or in time to get you to function? The vast greater part of people search for a versatile wake up time, depending on how they truly feel or what they did very last night time. This flexibility, self- specified, has a catastrophic effect on an individual’s health and fitness, worth, and vitality. If wake up time is mounted, then daily life spins all over it. Time turns into a fixture, a marker in the working day. Then, emotion is not the master.
Income is yet another illustration. Folks on the complete commit by impulse – psychological expending, retail remedy. These are not often men and women who have acquired the revenue in their personal correct, nor are they generally the rich people today. If you are not able to handle your emotion, you can’t control your investing. A quest for instantaneous emotional gratification prospects to psychological paying out.
Flexibility does not occur, as many individuals hope, from flexibility to act on impulse or emotion, nor does it come from stoic rigidity. Thoughts ought to be felt for genuine living, and will electricity is the capacity to feel, and not act. We act for really like, we act to build dreams, we sense for honesty.

domain: literature


text:
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Mark Strand, from Five Dogs
I, the dog they call Spot, was about to sing. Autumn
Had come, the walks were freckled with leaves, and a tarnished
Moonlit emptiness crept over the valley floor.
I wanted to climb the poet’s hill before winter settled in;
I wanted to praise the soul. My neighbor told me
Not to waste my time. Already the frost had deepened
And the north wind, trailing the whip of its own scream,
Pressed against the house, “A dog’s sublimity is never news,”
He said, “what’s another poet in the end?”
And I stood in the midnight valley, watching the great starfields
Flash and flower in the wished-for reaches of heaven.
That’s when I, the dog they call Spot, began to sing.


I don’t know if this is ironic, poetic or some amazing mixture of both – but there is an interesting story coming out of the Middle East today. A British sniper serving in the fight against ISIS just did something that not many people can say they’ve done…
While on patrol near an area under ISIS control, a British SAS officer happened to notice a group of terrorists studying the proper methods of beheading a prisoner. About 20 ISIS terrorists had gathered to learn some of the finer points behind properly beheading a prisoner when the SAS officer took aim at the man leading the instruction. As the terrorist was teaching his anxious charges, the British sniper aimed and fired, and milliseconds later the terrorists head was separated from his body landing at the feet of his students.
Another soldier who witnessed the shot still seemed in awe as he described what took place. “One minute he was standing there and the next his head had exploded. The commander remained standing upright for a couple of seconds before collapsing and that’s when panic set in. We later heard most of the recruits deserted. We got rid of 21 terrorists with one bullet.”
The anecdote perfectly encapsulates a truth about the war on terror that sometimes gets lost in the barbarity of our enemy. For all of their bluff and bluster, the radical Islamic jihadists are simply backwater criminals from a stone age culture using antiquated weapons to strike fear into innocent and undefended people. If the Western world chose to wipe the jihadi radicals from the world tomorrow… we could accomplish this task. In fact, the only reason that any terrorist extremist still breathes today is because our Western values, morals and culture dictate that we treat our enemies with more respect and humanity than they treat us.
However, as this British officer explained with his bullet… our patience is not without limit.
The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by EagleRising.com


text:
Symptoms of joint pain
Types of joints often affected by pain are the fingers, knees, hips, ankles, and shoulder joints.
There may be a build-up of fluid in joints due to inflammation, which can cause swelling.
Symptoms may also include numbness, tingling, stiffness, and a reduced range of motion.
How joint pain can affect you
Joint pain can affect you in many ways, depending on where it is felt. Knee pain can make activities like walking, playing sports and dancing uncomfortable. If pain is in your shoulder, you may feel discomfort when you lift things, while hip pain can make going upstairs or simply getting up from a chair painful.
Did you know?
48% of people worldwide with body pain say they have joint pain.
66% of people worldwide say that their pain stops them dancing.
Why do we experience joint pain?
As part of everyday movement, joints are constantly dealing with pressure and damage. The knee joint is particularly vulnerable because it absorbs the full weight of the body and any extra force when running or jumping.
Who is more likely to experience joint pain?
People are more likely to experience knee pain as they get older, and people who are overweight or do lots of sports have a higher risk of damaging their knees.
A common cause of joint pain
Joint pain can usually occur because of an injury (e.g. twisting a knee or ankle joint during sports).
If joint pain is accompanied by swelling, redness, tenderness and warmth around the joint, it is recommended that you visit a doctor, who may recommend light exercise or order one or more tests, such as an X-ray, or blood test to help determine the source of the pain and the most appropriate treatment.

domain: medical


Our entire application stack is packaged using Docker. One particular aspect of getting our application stack up and running is the initial data population. Having streamlined this, we’re able to have a complete environment up and running within minutes.
Prior to setting up seeding with Docker we often had problems with outdated examples and leftover data from previous demos. We also spent too much time manually keeping everything in sync. As our customer base grew, this was not a sustainable situation.
Using Docker we have created a user friendly tool that anyone in our organization can use, (even sales) both when resetting a demo laptop, and when getting a new on-site installation quickly up and running.
Now, let’s dive into the details!
We maintain all our demo workspaces, tutorials and help texts in our SaaS-production environment – this makes it easier to keep everything up-to-date. When running offline demos or setting up on-site solutions at customers, we need a way to copy data from the production environment to seed theses installations.
Prior to using Docker this was an error prone and ad-hoc activity. After moving to Docker we are now able to do this as part of every build. The process of preparing and applying a data seed includes the following steps:
- Copy production data and clean it
- Package and distribute the seed data
- Import the data
Step 1 – Cleaning the database dump
To filter out other environment specific meta-data, we need to clean up the database dump before it is distributed. The core of the clean up is a throw away MongoDB Docker container. The reason we have the separate step with the throw away container is a security precaution – we don’t want to expose filtered out data in a lower Docker file system layer.
We start the container with the database dump available in a mounted volume, fire up MongoDB, run a clean up script in MongoDB, and finally dump the cleaned database to the mounted volume. The Docker container is discarded, so the only side effect of this process is the cleaned database dump.
Step 2 – Packaging the data for distribution
For easy distribution, we package the database dump, the binary files, the MongoDB dump, and restore tools in one Docker image.
ADD cleaned.tar.gz /work
ADD attachments.tar.gz /work
Step 3 – Distribution
Once the data is packaged along with the MongoDB client, we upload the image to our private account on Docker Hub. Right now this is triggered manually, automation is just a matter of configuration.
This allows our developers, sales people and customers to update their local installations by downloading the latest version by pulling the latest image from Docker Hub.
Step 4 – Seeding
Since all data is packaged along with the MongoDB client, seeding is a breeze. It is basically a matter of running two docker commands:
To populate the database, the seed image is started with a link to the MongoDB container, and restores the database using the bundled database dump:
docker run --rm --link ardoq_mongodb_1:mongodb ardoq/demo-seed mongorestore -h mongodb /work/demo_seed/
To populate the binary attachments, the seed image is started again with the data image volumes mounted, and simply copies the files over and exits:
docker run --rm --volumes-from ardoq_api_1 ardoq/demo-seed:latest cp -r /work/attachments /data
Keeping on-site installations up-to-date with the latest data used to be time consuming and error prone. Using Docker we are well on our way to automating the entire process.
Stay tuned for more “behind the scenes” articles!
If you want more updates on Ardoq and Docker, subscribe to our newsletter here:


text:
Ah! The first drawing of 2013... err... coloring of 2013. I completed his line art back in 2012, but all the coloring was done this year
My pencils didn't match up exact to my ref pics, but I'm very pleased with how Kiddo turned out. His guns make me happy; makes me feel like making the actual ones won't be too difficult
Anyways, I hope you all like my Kiddo drawing!
Ref pic is this shirt [link]
Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters (c) Atsushi Okubo


text:
Julie brought this completed quilt for show and tell, she had made it as part of a medallion challenge.
This is Ann from Periwinkle Patchwork! She made this bag over the weekend. The top of the bag has a wire frame so that it opens nice and wide. Just love the fabric Ann chose.
Ann made this table runner using the Quick Curve Ruler.
A small quilting project for the weekend.
These tiny blue and aqua hexies were of course hand stitched, but destine to be a table topper, not a quilt. A project, not something to be rushed, but slowly savoured.
Happy quilting Sue


text:
The Borrowing Side Of Property Investment
Property investment is a great way to create wealth, but the process requires a responsible strategy that adequately accounts for the financial demands of such ventures.
A chat with your mortgage broker may be the most effective way to determine if you are on the right path towards lucrative investment returns, but there are also some general rules to help you on your way.
For example, it is recommended that you review the terms of your loan regularly as your situation and the financial products available can dramatically change over time.
It is also advisable that you practise strict discipline with the types of add-ons you pay for with your investment loan - these extras can be significant in your payment totals.
Finally, you would likely benefit from a thorough calculation of the benefits of switching to another loan. Even if the cost is higher at first, a lower interest loan or a more sensible payment structure could save you heaps of money in the long run.
Your mortgage broker will be best at explaining these strategies to you and can help you navigate all of the different investment loan options out there.

domain: finance


text:
Fictional female spy, Modesty Blaise, was the starting point for Max Mara’s Spring 2020 collection. The feminist answer to James Bond, Blaise uses cunning and subtlety where Bond relies on brute force.
“Modesty Blaise is the new 007,” said the brand in their show notes. “She admires Bond’s elegance, but questions his modus operandi. Bumpy car chases, shootouts and cataclysmic explosions – dangerous, dirty and unnecessary, she thinks. With a strategic hint and a well laid trap, she maneuvers her adversary into surrender. No need for a gun then, but the holster makes for a very stylish design detail.”
The collection thus serves as a wardrobe for a fictional heroine in a film that doesn’t exist, but certainly could and should.
The film begins in London – cars rolling through rain-streaked Whitehall, heels clicking briskly in the corridors of power, and the dark hush of a wood-paneled office. Blaise wears spy-style trenchcoats and sharp shouldered three-piece trouser suits in ‘sharkskin’ and Prince-de-Galles. Later, while lunching at a discreet Mayfair watering hole, she wears a playful mix micro foulard prints in black and white.
Then it’s off to the airport in her generously proportioned bush jacket and a perfectly designed Whitney bag.
A private jet delivers our heroine to a palm-fringed island where she favors tropical military uniforms – shorts that graze the knee and multi-pocketed shirts in eau-de-nil, shell pink, and powder blue. Perfect for keeping cool when chasing bad guys through the jungle.
Naturally, she is well prepared for more formal engagements as well – from cocktails with the subject of her assignment, to a grand affair at the Governor’s mansion.
Max Mara has spent years fostering relationships with and promoting women in Hollywood through their Women in Film initiative. If any fashion brand could get a film like this made, it’s them – and we would be the first ones there on opening night.
Check out the rest of the collection below.


text: Up to 20 million pounds of U.S. shrimp will be purchased from Louisiana and Gulf Coast shrimpers and processors by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a Houma-Thibodaux area congressman said today. U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, sent a letter today to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue thanking him for directing the agency's Agricultural Marketing Service for purchasing the wild-caught, warm-water shrimp landed in the U.S. The AMS, who will purchase the shrimp, will then distribute the shrimp through various food security programs. Graves has worked with the USDA, AMS and the American Shrimp Processors Association on this purchase throughout the COVID-19 pandemic response efforts. The full text of the letter can be found below: Secretary Perdue: I write to thank you for working with me and directing the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to purchase up to 20,000,000 pounds of wild-caught warm-water shrimp landed in the U.S. This is much-needed news coming from the USDA as the coronavirus continues to impact everyone across the board. By supplying healthy U.S. shrimp, members of the American Shrimp Processors Association can sustain their businesses in the meantime while helping to feed those in need across the supply chain. For decades, the U.S. shrimp industry has been plagued with unfair trade practices and is in need of support. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, 80 percent of shrimp consumption occurs at the restaurant level1. However, most of that market share belongs to Asian countries that have a history of dumping in our market. In 2018, U.S. imports increased 5.1 percent, overstocking the market and reducing total revenues by $300 million2. Our shrimpers and processors are competing against government-subsidized shrimp industries that, in some cases, provide export performance subsidies designed to give their producers money for exports. Again, thank you for your leadership and for working with us to produce meaningful results for the American people. Partnerships like this restore confidence in the American economy and provide an opportunity for shrimpers and processors to continue operating their businesses while helping to feed American families. I look forward to hearing more details about the purchase and working with you on other important issues for Louisiana’s seafood and agriculture industries.