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Ride-hailing operators should just need a regular driver's licence, not a commercial one, Kelowna-area politicians say.
The government should rethink its decision to require drivers for services like Uber and Lyft to have a Class 4 licence, they say.
"Limiting drivers to only those who hold a minimum of a Class 4 licence could greatly limit the viability of ride-hailing as a transportation option in our region and across the province," says a joint letter to Victoria from politicians representing Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, Westbank First Nation and Peachland.
Services like Uber and Lyft are welcome, politicians say, because of their potential to "reduce car dependency, increase mobility options, reduce the need for parking, lower impaired driving rates and prepare the region for technology change in transportation".
The government says ride-hailing services should begin operating in B.C by the end of the year.


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A conversation with Vice President-elect Mike Pence prompted South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) to abandon a Medicaid expansion plan he was considering proposing to state lawmakers during their 2017 session.
“Based on that discussion, I will not recommend that South Dakota pursue Medicaid expansion in 2017,” Daugaard said after meeting with Pence at a Republican Governors Association conference in Orlando on November 14, the Argus Leader reported.
Daugaard had previously proposed expanding Medicaid to cover approximately 50,000 residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, newly eligible under the Affordable Care Act, in exchange for the federal government absorbing some of the state’s costs of providing health care to Native Americans in South Dakota, the Leader reported on November 15, 2016.
“Completely repeal Obamacare” and “Block-grant Medicaid to states” were two of seven points in a paper titled “Healthcare Reform” released by President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign in March 2016. Similar reform proposals appear in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) health care plan, contained in his “Better Way” proposal, and in plans offered by other Republicans in Congress.
Opportunity for Reform
Ron Williamson, board president at the Great Plains Public Policy Institute, says Daugaard’s decision to halt Medicaid expansion efforts creates an opportunity for Medicaid reform.
“I would commend Gov. Daugaard on his meeting with Vice President-elect Pence and deciding not to recommend that South Dakota expand Medicaid,” Williamson said. “Also, with the opportunity for reforming Medicaid, the governor intends to work with the Trump administration, especially regarding health care access provided by Indian Health Service to Native Americans.”
— Staff Report

domain: economics


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About the Author
Jesse Teller fell in love with fantasy when he was five years old and played his first game of Dungeons & Dragons. The game gave him the ability to create stories and characters from a young age. He started consuming fantasy in every form and, by nine, was obsessed with the genre. As a young adult, he knew he wanted to make his life about fantasy. From exploring the relationship between man and woman, to studying the qualities of a leader or a tyrant, Jesse Teller uses his stories and settings to study real-world themes and issues.
He lives with his supportive wife, Rebekah, and his two inspiring children, Rayph and Tobin.
Buy Onslaught of Madness here.
The Pristine Moment
If you are lucky in life, you get one. The really lucky ones get three. So far in my 43 years of life, I have had six. Six pristine moments I would never change.
Every normal experience has some sort of stress. Every meal we eat, every car drive, every book, we have some sort of distraction, some sort of smudge.
Maybe we are thinking of something else. Maybe we are hungry, uncomfortable, maybe the activity takes longer than the time we have to accomplish it, or we have too much time to analyze it when it is over. In this world, in this era, there are very few times when everything lines up and you have a moment, no matter how long, that cannot be improved upon.
When I graduated high school, I went on a trip to Milwaukee. I was given an audio book of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I started it on my tape player when we left Milwaukee. I listened to it all the way home. The story started slow, but as it progressed, as I traveled down that dark river, and things grew ominous, the sun went down. We made a few stops, gas, food, but never very long, and I do not even remember them. I was trapped in Conrad. By the time the story got dark, really dark, the storm began.
It was immense. The lightning, the sheets of rain. The horror outside mimicked the horror in my mind. As the final terrifying revelation came, the lightning became an explosion. When the story was finished, we pulled into the driveway. When the story was finished, the storm had died down to distant rumblings and a brief lighting of sky on the horizon. That was my first pristine moment.
I read Dante’s Inferno two years ago in one sitting. I started at eleven at night and finished at six in the morning. I faced the horror and majesty of Hell in an island of light, for every light in the house was turned off, except those burning in my office. Everyone innocent was asleep. I was the house’s last sinner, sitting in my office and witnessing the workings of Hell. When it ended, the sun came up, the day began, and the moment was over. One pristine experience, one moment I would not change a second of.
The other night this happened again. My friend and I were supposed to hang out and his truck had trouble. I put my wife to bed, kissed her well and went to pick him up. I was on the interstate in a breath, driving the short distance, listening to blues, when Jonny Lang’s song “The Truth” came on. The heartbreak in that song. If I held my hand out and could grasp the power of the song, and I squeezed, pure liquid ache would run through my fingers and into the car.
The volume was perfect. I didn’t have to turn it up or down. The hum of the road brought a lonely bass to the song I never would have heard before. The light of the dashboard, the slow march of the street lights on the highway. One semi tractor trailer to pass as the guitar wept and moaned, and a quick exit from the highway. A perfect dismount as the song ended at a lonely street light. A pristine moment I will never have again. The song was the perfect length. Everything about the moment was pure.
A collection of songs put together for me by a friend to ease my heart late at night while the house slept. A dance on a dance floor so perfect, at such the right moment and ending with unexpected flourish, unchoreographed and fulfilling. My life has had six perfect moments. The writing of a letter to a friend of mine. Just the right length. Just the right setting. Just the right volume. Just right.
As writers, we look to bring that experience to our readers. We yearn for the idea our book will hit the right person at the right time and bring to them the hum of perfection. In my newest release, Onslaught of Madness, I hope to have done that. I have given you the very best I am capable of at the moment. The cast of characters to bring you in, the heartbreak to twist you up. You will feel hate, love, joy, and victory. You will experience the best I have to offer.
I hope for you it brings a pristine moment.

domain: artistic


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Sara Haines does it all! While speaking to Rach, the co-host of “The View” jokes about her “messy” home life with husband Max, who she “cannot keep in line.”
When asked how she handles her family — including children Alec, 7, Sandra, 5, and Caleb, 3 — Sara says “the struggle is relative.”
“When I had 1 Chihuahua, I struggled. Then I had 2 Chihuahuas, then a husband, then I had some babies. Every time you think, ‘Well, I can’t do that,’ you can, you do. It’s messy but you get it done,” she says.
Be sure to also check out Sara talking about her 6 years on “The View”!

domain: entertainment


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"Clanism architecture" Top 5 Page for this destination Penang Things to Do Tip by l_joo
Penang Things to Do: 901 reviews and 1,768 photos
This is a must see clannish construction of the old days.
Address: On Chulia street, near to Indian jewelries shops
Directions: If you are in Chulia street, walk till you see the traffic light where lots of Indian jewelries shops loacted. Walk ahead as you can see this construction at your right, just after the traffic light (ang-chnea-huay).
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domain: travel


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AUSTIN– State Senator Donna Campbell wrote an open letter to Mayor Julian Castro, adding her voice to the number of concerned Texans who have come out against San Antonio’s proposed nondiscriminatory ordinance. Many community leaders are worried the LGBT ordinance will penalize families, churches, and businesses for holding traditional views about marriage or being unwilling to provide benefits to same-sex couples.
The full text of the letter is included below.
August 29, 2013
Dear Mayor Castro:
I have watched the debate over San Antonio’s so-called nondiscrimination ordinance with great interest hoping that an agreeable solution could be reached. However, with a vote quickly approaching, I feel obligated to add my voice to the number of concerned Texans opposing this measure.
San Antonio is an exceptional city in which every individual should feel welcome, and I believe that’s the intention of the authors of the ordinance. However, by alienating the majority of Texans who believe in traditional marriage and values, it is having the opposite effect. San Antonio churches, families, and businesses feel less welcome in their hometown as a result of this proposed ordinance, fearful that they may now be penalized or face costly lawsuits just for practicing their faith or expressing their opinion.
Any ordinance that ostracizes a majority of its citizens for their personal religious beliefs is wrong, whether you agree with those beliefs or not. It threatens our liberty and epitomizes the worst of Big Government. This ordinance doesn’t strengthen our rights as citizens. It weakens them.
I share the sentiments of Attorney General Greg Abbott and others who have spoken out against this ordinance. I believe it violates the Texas Constitution, will harm families and businesses, and has unnecessarily divided our city.
It is not without accident that the city of San Antonio is named after a saint. We have built a strong, vibrant, and culturally diverse community because we have always honored faith, freedom, and family. Let’s not lose sight of those guiding principles.
Senator Donna Campbell, M.D.
Senator Donna Campbell is a practicing emergency room physician representing Senate District 25, which includes all or parts of Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, and Travis Counties.
Follow Sen. Campbell on facebook: www.facebook.com/DonnaCampbellTX

domain: news


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During what is typically referred to as the “slow season” for adult shelter dogs, San Diego Humane Society has a record number of dogs in care and is launching a new incentive to encourage the community to help out.
San Diego Humane Society is offering a $100 gift card to volunteers who foster a dog weighing 50 pounds or more for two weeks.
The new incentive was created to get 50 dogs into foster homes and comes after the organization set a record on March 24, with 620 dogs in care, breaking its previous record of 606 dogs on Dec. 20, 2022.
While the organization is working tirelessly to place dogs in foster homes, even more fosters are needed to care for the high number of dogs in care.
Large dogs are more difficult to place in foster homes, which is why the incentive focuses on this specific population.
Any length of stay at a shelter can be stressful for pets — especially dogs.
“We are piloting this new approach because we want dogs in our care to have an easier transition in foster care while they wait for their future family,” said Dr. Gary Weitzman, president and CEO of San Diego Humane Society. “We’ll be there to support fosters every step of the way, through staff support, medical care, and behavior assistance. All we ask is for our community to provide the temporary home, love and care. We’ll help with the rest.”
To qualify for the $100 gift card, foster volunteers must sign up in advance at sdhumane.org/foster.
Nina Thompson said Saturday that there still are gift cards available, and the organization may give away more than the 50 original gift cards. She said some foster families have declined to accept the gift cards in order for more dogs to be placed in care.
The ideal foster for this incentive has the ability to separate the foster dog from other pets in their home.
Many of the dogs San Diego Humane Society is looking to place into foster homes would prefer to be the only dog in the home. Society officials say the benefits of fostering include:
* Temporarily opening your heart and home to a pet offers the one-on-one attention and loving comfort that shelter animals need.
* Every pet in a foster home opens up space in the shelter for another animal urgently needing care.
* While in a foster home, we learn characteristics and preferences of the animal that will help find a better match for the pet when speaking to potential adopters.


Motorola starts rolling out Android 11 to the Moto G 5G Plus
After rolling out Android 11 to the Moto G Pro in February, the Moto G8/G8 Power earlier this month, and the Moto Edge lineup just last week, Lenovo-owned Motorola is now bringing the latest flavor of Android to one more device. The company has started rolling out stable Android 11 to last year’s mid-range Moto G 5G Plus.
The Android 11 update package is about 1.08GB in size and it comes with the version number RPN31.Q4U-39-27-5. As reported by TudoCelular.com, this particular build is meant for the Brazilian dual-SIM variant of the Moto G 5G Plus (model number XT2075-3-DS). The OTA also includes the February 2021 security patches.
With the update, Moto G 5G Plus users can look forward to all the new features and changes introduced in Android 11, including Conversation notifications, Chat bubbles, a built-in screen recorder, media controls in the Quick Settings panel, Smart Device controls, one time permissions for apps requesting location and microphone access, and much more.
At the time, the Android 11 update seems to be rolling out to Moto G 5G Plus units in Brazil only, but it should be coming to more regions in the following weeks. In case you haven’t received the OTA notification on your phone, you can manually check for the update by heading over to Settings > System > System update. You can also try out the Lenovo Moto Smart Assistant (LMSA) tool to download the updated firmware right now and flash it using a PC.
Launched in July last year, the Moto G 5G Plus is an affordable 5G-capable smartphone from Motorola, packing a 6.7-inch FHD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate, Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 SoC, 4/6GB RAM and 64/128GB storage, quadruple cameras, a 5,000mAh battery with 20W fast charging support, and a 3.5mm audio jack. It came with Android 10 out-of-the-box and Motorola released the kernel source code a few months after its launch.


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INTERSCHALT to Showcase at SMM Shipbuilding (Germany)
INTERSCHALT maritime systems AG will be presenting several highlights at this year’s SMM trade fair, ranging from its new TROP trim optimization software and IMO-compliant ship monitoring system all the way to satellite communications and service solutions.
The maritime-shipping industry has also been forced to contend with the key issues of energy efficiency and sustainability. Optimizing the trim of a ship is a good way to achieve lasting reductions in fuel consumption. In fact, trim optimization has been an object of investigation since the 1990s. Back then, forward-thinking German shipowners were using models in towing tests designed to determine the trim that produced the lowest resistance as a ship moved through water. These tests showed that in many cases a slightly lower forward draft yielded the ideal trim. Based on these findings, INTERSCHALT added a ballast optimization tool to its MACS3 loading computer system. However, over the next 15 years interest in this special module declined because the costs for conducting the associated towing tests proved to be too high.
“These days, towing tests can be realistically and economically simulated with special software,” states Bernhard Finke, a software developer at INTERSCHALT. “However, determining the optimum trim is one thing; being able to practically apply these findings in actual ship operation is another.”
After a ship has been loaded, the crew usually has only one method left to alter its trim: by using the ballast tanks. But here the following questions arise: How do the tanks need to be filled to achieve the ideal trim? How will this affect stability and strength? The new TROP trim optimization module, now fully integrated into INTERSCHALT’s proven MACS3 loading computer system, answers these critical questions. As Bernhard Finke notes: “The user can now even automatically determine the best ballast distribution necessary to save the greatest amount of fuel.” In making its calculations, TROP also takes into account all safety regulations pertaining to stability and strength.
So how much fuel can be saved? The answer to this question does depend on many factors, such as the size of the ship, its speed, the weather, how calm or rough the sea is, and so on. Here’s an example for a medium-sized container ship with approximately 7,500 TEU of capacity: At a speed of 20 knots, it’s realistic to expect savings of 2 to 3%. At a bunker price of around $600 per ton of fuel, this yields savings of from $1,500 to $2,200 per day.
At this year’s SMM, INTERSCHALT will present its new TROP trim optimization software to the broader maritime industry for the first time.
Source: Interschalt, August 16, 2012

domain: design


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Techniks, a partner of Techniks Tool Group, is known for its quality industrial tool holders and cutting tools. The company's product catalogue includes collets, tool holders, collet chucks, below-the-hook lifting magnets and tool holder accessories for applications in the metalworking industry and workshops. Techniks tool holders are the physical interface between machine tool and tooling. These are lab tested for accuracy and balance to ensure optimum operation under high rotational frequencies. Techniks collets can handle a wide range of machining jobs such as drilling and milling without the need to buy a new tool holder. Raptor Supplies offers a wide range of Techniks tool holders and collets to choose from as per your specific industrial requirements.
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WITH big weekend wins under their belts, the captains of Warwickshire's first and second teams are well set to capture their respective Midland League titles in the county's centenary year.
Two more wins in early october will see captains Graham Hargreaves and Nick Clifford achieve that goal.
The first string's most recent success in an unbeaten 2006 came at Olton where, after etablishing a 3.5-1.5 lead against Shropshire and Hereford in the morning foursomes, they went on to take the tie in comprehensive fashion.
Matt Cryer was the biggest winner in the singles, being five-under-par when he won 6&5 while Andy Sullivan was inches away from another hole-in-one in a 4&3 win.
Other wins came from Gareth Jenkins, Paul Randle, Dale Marson, Andy Jones and Mark Davies.
The team's cause was strengthened as Worcestershire halved with Warwickshire's nearest challengers, Nottinghamshire at Moseley.
The second team hammered the same opposition in the singles to take their match 11.5-6.5.


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Uttar Pradesh transplant Prashasti Singh, who now calls Mumbai home, chose to be funny over being a corporate bigwig. An engineer and IIM Lucknow grad, Singh quit her cushy television company job for a career in comedy after participating in an open mic event on a lark. People sat up and took notice of the spunky and hilarious Singh when she featured as a contestant on Amazon Prime’s Comicstaan in 2018. While she may not have won the season, she definitely garnered a loyal fan base and became a popular face on the Indian comedy circuit.
Singh went on to feature in Netflix’s women-only comedy special Ladies Up with Kaneez Surka, who was a judge on Comicstaan. Singh, who hails from Amethi, very smartly weaves together anecdotes and comic observations of small-town life to create relatable and snappy Hinglish content. Her hilarious sketch on Ladies Up on life in UP, real estate, her relationship with her mother and Ravish Kumar has score over a million views.
Catch Singh live in action at That Comedy Club in Bandra from Saturday, March 27 to Sunday, March 28 at 6 pm.


Email： [email protected]
Address： E-15, Huaqiang International, Shanda Road, Lixia District, Jinan, Shandong,China
Illustration of 3D Fiber Metal Cutting Manipulator
Dekcel 3-Dimensional fiber laser cutting manupulator is an advanced laser cutting device which processes flexible cutting for metal plates multi-dimensionally and multi-directionally with the adoption of specialized fiber laser cutting head, high precision capacitive tracking system, fiber laser module and industrial robotic system.
Utilizing the performance of robot’s flexibility and swiftness .besides, according to different workpiece’s size, it can do three dimensional cutting to irregular workpieces by fiber laser cutting head through formal and inverse installation of robot.
It also requires teaching programming or offline programming according to different products and various tracks. Under the utilization of transferring fiber laser to cutting head(fiber laser cutting head is equipped with specialized fiber auto-following device and light path transferring device), and focal system, the machine can achieve three dimensional metal plates’ cutting multi-directionally.
Description of Fiber Metal cutting Manipulator main Parts
Dekcel metal cutting manipulator widely used in Automotive industry,3C industry, IC industry, Kitchen and bathroom industry, Electronic motors industry, Battery industry, Solar energy industry, Building industry, Machinery industry, Hardware, Glasses and watches, Jewelries, etc.


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Business Directory Search
Nearest GA mountain community to Johns Creek offering new and resale Mountain Vista, Golf and Lake View homes and lots
10523 Big Canoe
Big Canoe, GA 30143
Chili's Johns Creek, the #1 Chili's in the Southeast & #2 in the nation striving to be #1! Casual dining atmosphere with fine dining service, great food with unbeatable prices, & famous margaritas!
11720 Medlock Bridge Rd
Johns Creek, GA 30097
We are a specialty coffee roaster specializing in sustainably grown, organic and women-coffee producer coffees. We offer wholesale, education and have a small coffee shop at the location.
11130 State Bridge Rd. Ste E104
Johns Creek, GA 30022
ConnectPay provides exceptional service to small businesses all across the country. ConnectPay is experienced, accessible and reliable.
2805 Peachtree Ind Blvd Ste 214
Duluth, GA 30097
''Your Healthy Choice for Real Estate''
5940 Bethelview Road
Cumming, GA 30040
The Cultural Arts Alliance is a nonprofit partnership of arts and cultural organizations, individual artists, and others focused on growing a vibrant, creative, and culturally rich Johns Creek.
11877 Douglas Rd Ste 102-295
Johns Creek, GA 30005

domain: geography


The final fields for the 2022 Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic and 3YO Guineas have been finalised this morning, with the barrier draw set to be conducted on Tuesday morning.
A capacity field of 16 with a further five emergencies has been assembled for the $2 million 2YO Classic, while 18 runners will take their place in the Guineas, with five emergencies also sweating on a run.
In the 1200m 2YO Classic, there will be an even split of eight fillies and eight colts and/or geldings.
Topping the weights is the winner of the Ballarat Magic Millions 2YO Clockwise Classic, Cusack, with the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained colt having his first start since his November 20 debut win.
Les Ross will saddle up three horses in the race, Mishani Warfare, Mishani Spartan and Mishani Persuasion, with the possibility of a fourth should second emergency Spanish Angels gain a start.
Peter & Paul Snowden are also well represented, with Saturday’s Aquis Gold Pearl winner Miss Hellfire set to take her place, along with her undefeated stablemate, Russian Conquest, with Revolutionary Miss the third of the Snowden-trained fillies currently the third emergency.
Russian Conquest by @NewgateFarm’s Russian Revolution out of G1 winning Artie Schiller mare My Conquestadory makes it two from two after taking out Race 1 @royalrandwick.
A $425k purchase for @SnowdenRacing1 from the 2021 @mmsnippets Gold Coast Ylg Sale.
— Thoroughbred Daily News AusNZ (@TDNAusNZ) December 26, 2021
The current odds-on favourite, Coolangatta, will jump with the number nine on her saddlecloth, with James McDonald once again in the saddle in his quest to win his first Magic Millions 2YO Classic, completing a massive six months.
Five runners in the final field of 16 will be looking to become the sixth two-year-old in the past eight years to run in either the Gold Nugget or the Gold Pearl and go on to win the $2 million feature seven days later.
Also on a relatively quick turnaround is Sharyn Livingstone’s Friday night winner, Thelwell.
Thelwell, a $25,000 purchase at last year’s Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sales, has already won three times his purchase price, after running a very game second to Coolangatta in the Group 3 B.J. McLachlan Stakes on December 26 at Doomben.
Coming out of the Wyong Magic Millions 2YO Classic is Soaring Ambition (1st) and Miss Hellfire (2nd), with that form franked after Miss Hellfire won at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) December 15, 2021
After starting a short-priced favourite with the online bookmakers at her next start, Soaring Ambition was defeated by the locally trained Golden Artie for Bryan & Daniel Guy.
Rounding out the field of 16 is New Zealand filly, Bright Blue Sky, who looks to improve on her Australian debut when fourth behind Coolangatta on Boxing Day.
The Jamie Richards-trained filly was an impressive winner on debut at Listed level at Te Rapa, before coming to Australia in a bid to win Saturday’s feature race.


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A Guide For New Online Casino Games Players
Casinos brazino777 casino online offer games similar to brick mortar casinos. Casinos online let gamblers play blackjack, video poker, bingo, slot machines, and roulette game through the Internet. It is a very popular type of internet gambling. The fundamental concepts behind playing online casino games are known to most people.
If you are planning to play casino games online it is important to read up on casino game reviews and tips provided by review sites for casino games.websites. This will help you select a casino game table that’s right for you. If you’re new to online casino gaming, you should first register at an online casino that offers free games. Many casinos offer a free trial account that allows you to play games for a week or two. Once you’ve withdrawn your money, you can join a regular casino account.
Online casinos offer real betting on money. However, there is a risk that comes with it. It all depends on the amount you wager and what type of game it is. In the majority of cases, winning is dependent on luck. Gambling is risky when you don’t conduct your research before placing your money at risk. For any questions or concerns about playing games at casinos, most gambling websites offer customer support.
Many websites offer special offers as well as rebates and bonuses for players who wish to make their gaming experience the best. Players can receive bonuses for depositing funds into their accounts. Some casinos offer bonuses for casino games with credit cards. There are casinos that offer double the amount of bonuses for depositing extra funds. For these kinds of promotions and rebates, players might require their credit cards.
Every online casino offers welcome bonuses when first signing up. As a way to encourage new players, welcome bonuses offer free access to online casinos. You may receive welcome bonuses like more than double your winnings, additional spins on the slots, or other rewards. Players can also get exclusive entries into big poker tournaments. Online casinos can consume some of your time, so it is essential to know how much time you have.
It is important to thoroughly review the process for selecting games at a casino when you decide to gamble at a casino without a deposit via credit card. Each game has its own requirements for deposits that are minimum and maximum. You must set an amount for your deposit with credit card in order to make sure you are able to make the payment if the game you are interested in alpino isn’t accepting the amount. Before you decide on where to go, be sure to examine the specifics of the casino’s game selection process.
As you begin to play, you will want to try the different casino games. You will want to find out which games allow you to concentrate on the casino game’s theme. The top online casinos provide a wide variety of games, so you’ll be sure to find one that meets your requirements and provides you with the best entertainment while you play.
When you first begin playing, be aware of what your odds are in comparison to other players. It will make playing more enjoyable if you know your odds are in advance. Online casinos provide a wide range of special promotions and offers to keep their customers satisfied. These promotions are always available so keep an eye out for them. Online casinos that offer the best casino games have many casino games, so there is something for everyone.

domain: hobby


Received in an email today:
Two-star Major General Harold Greene was killed in Afghanistan on August 8, 2014 while serving his country with pride for 34 years.
He was the highest ranking officer in the military killed in action since the Vietnam war, since 1972.
President Obama has not mentioned anything publicly regarding this highly-decorated soldier yet he spoke highly of Robin Williams who committed suicide.
Greene was buried August 14 in the Arlington National Cemetery. Neither the President, Vice President, Secretary of State nor Secretary of Defense attended the funeral. President Obama was on vacation, playing golf at Martha’s Vineyard.
No flags were ordered to half-mast, yet they were for Whitney Houston who also committed suicide.
I find this very offensive and disrespectful to the veterans who have served our great country.
But then again, this not surprise me. What do you expect from someone who has never served and has no honor?


Jan 16, 2014, 5:41 PM EDT
As the first car in the history of the world’s first fully-electric global racing series, Formula E’s Spark-Renault SRT_01E has already carved out a unique niche for itself.
The SRT_01E, which recently had its first American demonstration in Las Vegas, is charged (no pun intended) with not only producing a solid on-track product but also to redefine what many casual observers may believe about electric cars.
It may not be the quickest race car ever (its top speed is around 150 miles per hour) and its quieter noise will no doubt be a strike against it in the eyes of some. But in the end, it’s about the technology that’s inside – technology that one day could play a major role in how we move around our world.
In the YouTube clip above posted by Qualcomm, one of F-E’s key technology partners, development driver Lucas di Grassi gives us a quick tour of this innovative machine.
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by Patrick Rall in July 2017 (5)
After years of Dodge fans demanding a proper high-performance SUV, the 2018 Durango SRT is finally here. To get a feel for the newest SRT, Dodge brought us out to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to drive them on the infield road course.
In most cases, testing an SUV on a road course would be a curious decision, but since the Durango SRT is closely based on the sharp-handling Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, there is no better place to test the 475-hp family hauler. After a short presentation, we headed out onto pit row of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was a surreal experience on its own, but the situation became even more incredible when I climbed into a new SRT Durango for a few laps around a modified form of the F1 Grand Prix Circuit, which included a long blast down the front stretch and across the famed brick start/finish line.
Our laps around the IMS road course began with a sweeping left turn off of the straightaway just past the pit road, as we were running the opposite direction of the Indy 500 or the NASCAR race, so we dove into our turn 1 just inside of the oval’s turn 4. For a big SUV which can tow 8,700 pounds, the Durango SRT carried speed through that first turn very well.
The sweeping turn #1 led into a series of harder turns which forced us to use the big Brembo braking system as well as the Track mode of active suspension system. Not surprisingly, the brakes had no issue getting the 5,000 pound SUV down to a safe speed to attack the tighter turns with minimal body roll.
Once we cleared those two turns, we accelerated out along the inside of the oval’s turn 2, allowing us to build speed as we did so. As the Durango SRT powers through the turns, it has the driving dynamics of a rear-drive vehicle; while the performance tuned AWD system allows you to put the hammer down without concern of smoking the rear tires. Exiting the turn too hard will get the tires spinning a bit, but the all-wheel drive system quickly reels you in and keeps you pointed in the desired direction while the sport-tuned steering system provides the perfect mix of feedback and support as the big SUV attacks the curves.
After this long, sweeping turn, there was a hard left turn through a narrow opening in the infield wall, followed by a series of S-turns which the Durango handled well. Through these turns, if I got going too fast, the vehicle would get to understeering a bit, but having recently driven the SRT Jeep which shares many of the drivetrain components, it seemed to me that the larger Durango slips through the back-and-forth turns a little more smoothly. My SRT Jeep testing was on a very different track, making it hard to directly compare the two, but the Dodge seems to cut back and forth more smoothly than the Jeep – even if only by a slight margin.
Finally, after a couple more hard turns through the infield area, we popped through a hole in the wall just inside of the oval’s first turn for a blast down the historic front straightaway of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Durango SRT climbed up past the 100 mile per hour mark as we soared past the brick start/finish line, but the Brembo brakes and the active suspension system allowed us to enter our turn 4 without any problem, carrying that straightaway speed through the wide first turn as the next lap began.
Although the Durango SRT is a bit bigger and a bit heavier than the similarly-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, thanks to the added third row seats, it still handled the intricate Indy road course remarkably well; in my opinion, it handled the famous F1 course better than any 3-row SUV in America could ever dream. The video below shows one of my sessions with the Durango SRT on the IMS road course, with a warm-up lap, a wide open lap and then an easy cool-down lap.
After spending a few hours storming around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, we headed out onto the road. While it is great that the high performance SUV handles a road course so well, few Durango owners will ever take them to any race track, let alone one with turns, so how it drives on the road is more important than track readiness to most prospective buyers.
Like the rest of the modern SRT cars, the Durango SRT has an active suspension system with varying levels of aggressiveness, so after running at the track in the stiffest mode, I swapped to Sport mode for the road drive. In sport mode, the Durango SRT will handle just about any turn on a normal public road at solid speeds, but at the same time, it had a smooth ride. The ride of the R/T model is likely smoother than the SRT, but that is to be expected with an SUV that handles so much better and the trade-off is fair; the ride quality of the SRT Dodge SUV is still more than comfortable enough for daily driving. After all, the people buying this Durango are looking to get into a performance model, so they should expect that priority was paid to handling, but the ride is still great for everyday driving even in Sport mode.
Really, the 2018 Dodge Durango SRT offers the same advantages as the rest of the modern SRT lineup, combining impressive track capabilities and ideal on-road manners thanks to the various adaptive systems. When the situation calls for premium performance, you can ask the Durango SRT to offer crisp shifts, instant throttle response and precision corner carving capabilities, but with the push of a button on the UConnect touch screen, the ride softens, shifts soften and throttle response eases back a bit, making this Durango every bit as drivable as the rest of the model lineup.
When you combine the fact that the 475-hp Dodge Durango SRT will also tow 8,700 pounds, it is truly unrivaled in the 3-row SUV segment in every way. It is the best handling three-row SUV sold in America, it will tow more than larger, slower three-row SUVs, and it is as comfortable on the road as the rest of the Durango lineup. This is the perfect SUV for someone who wants to tow their race car to the track with a fun-to-drive SUV, which can unhook from the trailer and shine on the road course or the drag strip.
Dodge Durango SRT • All Car Reviews
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Tribal sovereignty may only be invoked by a member of the tribe. Michael Rost lived on the Schaghticoke Indian reservation with Gayle Donovan, a recognized Schaghticoke Indian.
Schaghticoke Indian Tribe v. Rost
Connecticut Appellate Court
September 24, 2012
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domain: law


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With Abacus Row's Tanami Hoops, designer Christine Trac plays with fixed and open pattern designs. Each earring hoop is hand hammered from 14k gold-filled wire and beaded by hand. These large and small hoops are whisper light for everyday adornment.
This is the end of the Tanami series... when items are sold out they will not be repeated. ;(


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A REACH in this form would do almost nothing to improve protection for public health, workers, consumers and the environment from the growing levels of toxic chemicals in our daily lives.
WWF recognises that the letter from De Buck is part of the intense industry pressure on MEPs and follows industry actions two years ago on the Commission, which resulted in a watered-down proposal.
The amendments adopted by IMCO and ITRE would fatally undermine the basic principle of REACH: to identify from full safety data which chemicals are hazardous and need to be phased out of our daily environment. Removing the responsibility of the chemicals industry for the safety of their own products is simply unacceptable.
If REACH is to live up to its original goal of improving the protection of human health and the environment, it is essential that on 4 October the members of the environment and public health committee overturn Tuesday’s votes and ensure that the environment and human health are given the protection from industrial chemicals they deserve.


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The jaw joint is located just in front of each ear. It is a complex joint controlled by many muscles. Pain in the jaw joints can result from grinding, clenching, and/or an incorrect bite position. The jaw muscles can become overworked, fatigued, and go into spasm. Pain may be experienced in and around the joints themselves. Pain may also come in the form of earaches and headaches, as well as back, neck, and shoulder spasms. The pain is often persistent, and can become so severe that at times it may be debilitating.
We provide a comprehensive jaw joint evaluation. Sometimes an appliance is indicated to wear over the teeth that will allow the muscles to rest and reduce the symptoms. Various medications can also be prescribed to help reduce the pain. In other cases, an incorrect bite will require dental restorations. The establishment and maintenance of a comfortable, proper jaw position is the foundation of all of our treatment.
Comprehensive dentistry recognizes the interrelationship of the teeth, gums, and supporting bone and jaw muscles – the TMJ. All these structures must function together well to allow us to chew, speak, and smile for a lifetime!
If you are experiencing TMJ symptoms, don’t ignore them. You don’t have to try to cope with them on your own. We can provide both immediate relief and long-term treatment to resolve TMJ problems.

domain: medical


Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH (1714-1788)
Piano Concertos – Volume 5
Concerto in A minor, Wq. 1 (1733) [16:22]
Concerto in D major, Wq. 45 (1778) [14:18]
Concerto in E minor, Wq. 15 (1745) [25:15]
Michael Rische (piano)
Berliner Barock Solisten
rec. 2017, Jesus Christus Kirche, Berlin-Dahlen
HÄNSSLER CLASSICS HC17034 [56:28]
Given my considerable enjoyment of his cello concertos and symphonies, I was surprised to find that these were the first keyboard concertos of CPE Bach that I had encountered. However, when I did some research, the reason became clear. While he wrote a substantial number of concertos for the keyboard - probably in excess of seventy - recordings to date have almost exclusively employed a harpsichord, fortepiano or similar. In 2013, Miklós Spányi completed a 20-disc series of the concertos for BIS, and these have garnered glittering reviews, but the instruments used are not for me. If there are any other recordings out there with his concertos performed on the modern piano, I couldn’t find them. That mystery is solved, then.
The Wq. numbering system for the CPE Bach catalogue groups together works of the same type, and begins with the keyboard concertos. It spans Wq. 1 to 47, and is chronological as far as I can tell. Certainly Wq. 1 is indicated in the booklet as his first, written in Leipzig at the same time as his father was composing the miracle that is his D minor concerto, BWV1052. Even as a first effort, it shows some of the vivacity and unpredictable rhythms that make his cello concertos and symphonies so striking, but in the end it doesn’t stay in the memory.
I’m surmising that the late D major concerto is placed second so that it separates the two minor key works. It is certainly a huge advance on Wq. 1, the middle movement Andantino quite dark in its textures, Stürm und Drang even. For me, the E minor concerto is the most interesting of the three, having more of the characteristics that I associate with this composer; it is described in the notes as “experimental”. That said, these three works don’t hold a candle to his cello concertos; churning out so many keyboard works as he did, doesn’t necessarily lend itself to consistent quality.
The performances are uniformly smooth and refined, but a little too uniform, I feel. Given I couldn’t compare them to other piano-led versions, I went to the BIS series, and heard a much more energetic and vivacious sound from the orchestra than that presented on this recording. I realise that one can’t simply mix and match two very different approaches, but I think some of the verve of the BIS recordings wouldn’t have gone astray here.
As you can see this is the fifth volume in this series, but the first to feature the Berlin ensemble; the previous four volumes employed the Leipzig Chamber Orchestra. Michael Cookson reviewed Volume 4 at the end of last year, and said good things about the music and the performers. There is no indication as to why the change was made, and certainly a quick listen through the Naxos Music Library didn’t suggest any great difference in style.
Michael Rische provides the booklet notes, and spends more time on musical analysis, and rather less on its history and context. I would have preferred the opposite, but it is likely that there is a limit to what is known about the works. Sound quality is very natural; the piano is caught very beautifully and the balance between it and the orchestra is ideal.
One oddity: the timings given here are those provided on the back cover, but they don’t correspond remotely to the overall disc duration, or the timings shown on my media player after ripping to my hard drive. Not at all important, but curious.
Given these are basically the only game in town for those wanting the modern piano, I would have liked to have been more positive.


Small dimensions for big innovations
Teda Srl presents itself at LAMIERA 2022 with an exhibition space dedicated to the various clamping systems for press brakes. Continuous innovation has allowed us to offer a complete range of mechanical / manual or pneumatic solutions for the various tool attachments: standard and new axial standard. Our locks guarantee a very fast vertical insertion and and thanks to them tools are perfectly seated and aligned, with the advantage of having very small dimensions.
Particular attention is paid to the Star system which offers the possibility of moving the intermediate in all desired positions without having to worry about the air supply. An area of the stand is instead dedicated to our Speedy Compact Touch press brake which has unique characteristics: compactness, absence of side photocells and an ergonomics of the ram that makes it much easier to create large boxed bends. It is a very practical, fast and safe solution. Everything is made simple by the CNC touch screen which makes every operation very intuitive.
These are some of the Teda Srl news for LAMIERA 2022, in addition to the presentation of the new catalog and the new site where all the products and updates of our systems will be present.


Topics Covered: January 30, 2023
- Benchmark results on Amazon ad shifts
- Teams restructuring for retail media
- Ad slowdown debate
- Clean room adoption
- Just Walk Out(performance)
- Getir expanding
How are brands shifting between Amazon ad types in '23?
We’ve recently published Amazon’s fast growth outlook compared to retail peers, it maintaining its dominance amongst retail media competitors, and the fact that a third of brands don’t consider Amazon a full funnel advertising opportunity.
We now need to examine how brands are planning to adjust their advertising spend inside of Amazon, meaning how share is shifting between Amazon paid search, display, and DSP options.
We benchmarked 51 consumer brands and agency partners on how they’re adjusting budget allocation in ’23. Benchmark respondents.
The results will help advertisers on Amazon and retail media leaders inside brands understand how their own plans stack up, along with second-order effects on other retail sites.
For the Nerds
Retail media restructuring teams: Like other large CPG companies, Unilever restructured their media team last year so that retail media was an integral part of the media allocation decision process.
"The ads team manages both national and retail media spend, meaning that one Unilever team can tweak retail media budgets to be higher or lower. Donkada's team also works with Unilever's long-time media agency Mindshare to help carve out its budgets across multiple channels."
Stratably's research suggests a natural progression for large brands that involves first, hiring an individual or small team to “figure out what to do” with retail media, and then re-organizing in a way that integrates retail media into the broader media strategy.
This often doesn't eliminate challenging questions around merging brand and sales goals, but it does tend to result in faster decision-making and a more holistic viewpoint. (Insider)
Why the social media ad slowdown: There's a debate brewing - is slowing ad spend from recessionary concerns or Apple's privacy initiatives?
"If a recession is afoot in the advertising market, the brands that paid a substantial premium for Netflix inventory aren’t aware of it: compare Netflix’s $65 CPM to the $50 CPM that Disney sought for Disney+ inventory, or to the $20-35 CPM range paid for cable and network television inventory. And then consider that, even at this price, with advertisers limited to utterly primitive targeting tools, Netflix couldn’t fulfill the entirety of advertiser demand for its inventory."
The answer is less "or" and more "and" - recessionary risk AND privacy related changes are impacting results, albeit unevenly between media types.
For instance, recent layoffs at consumer brands Newell and 3M highlight slowing , but at the same time, our research suggests planned ad spend at Amazon and Walmart is resilient. Both Amazon and Walmart are seeing slowing sales growth, but neither are impacted by Apple's privacy initiatives, helping buoy their performance.
Data clean room (DCR) benchmark: IAB estimates 67% of brands are using DCRs today and another 19% are considering them. (slide 10)
The IAB study seems to confirm this with only a minority of DCR clean room users leveraging advanced measurement capabilities (slide 16) and "proving ROI" is a top challenge (slide 25). (IAB)
JWO at Whole Foods outperforming: Placer.ai data indicated Whole Foods with JWO technology tend to be attracting younger, more affluent shoppers and the technology is reducing the amount of time spent in the store.
While the study is limited (looking at just a couple of stores), it is a positive sign for JWO tech, which some analysts believe solves no real problem for the consumer and is too expensive to operate.
Getir expanding in the U.S.: Despite the variety of challenges in the Q-Commerce market, Getir indicated it is planning to expand in the U.S. market and raise new capital.
This latest announcement is partly enabled by Getir removing-thru-acquisition its most formidable rival in the U.S., Gorillas.
However, it faces steep competition from Gopuff in addition to tests between Food Rocket and Circle K, DoorDash and Albertsons, and Instacart's Priority Delivery Service. (Insider)


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Todd Magill debuts his second act with the arrival of Graydn. By Kathleen Adams Clements
For someone who got his feet wet launching Tommy Hilfiger's women's division, Todd Magill, the designer and creator of the new label Graydn, has a fresh approach to fashion that seemingly belies his years in the biz. As it turns out, it's exactly these experience-filled years and the notoriety they've garnered (most notably, in his previous cult fashion line Wyeth), which have allowed the designer to let loose and craft an impossibly wearable—and wantable—women's collection.
That respect for balance seems to be Magill's muse more than anything at the moment. "I have this huge love for vintage, but it's about finding this formula, taking these details and transforming them into something modern," says the designer, "without being super literal about it." In Graydn's debut collection for fall 2008, he employs said formula, slightly tweaking classic shapes (ie: tunics and pencil skirts) and mixing them with modern fabrics, like well-washed silks and lightly sprayed wools (treated "to take the preciousness out of it,") lending each piece in his line a contemporary ease softened up with some old-world finesse. The result is an assemblage of slightly evolved classics that walk the line, being at once "familiar but," he says, "always new, too."
"There was definitely, in the prints, a deco influence that began when I started discovering downtown Los Angeles," says Magill referring to his company home-base. "There is an amazing amount of Deco architecture down here. I was trying to find some rooting in that." Gorgeous graphics like the collapsing triangle print are the result of those roots. And his take on the more demure shapes of the late '70s have us seeing stunning shirt-dresses, an amazing cropped cowl-neck leather jacket and an elongated version of the classic cardigan with side-button detail that allows for a sleeker more sophisticated silhouette.
When Magill, a native New Yorker, says of L.A., "there is a tremendous feeling of freedom and possibility here," we're tempted to think he's talking about more than just the city. In fact, we're pretty sure that he's talking about Graydn, too.
Todd Magill debuts his second act with the arrival of Gradyn.


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We’ve had our eye on Hamsterdam from Muse Games since we first saw it during the summer of last year, and we really enjoyed their approach to creating a beat ’em up game with truly native touchscreen controls rather than just a bunch of virtual buttons. After that initial announcement though, Muse had to step away from Hamsterdam for a bit to work on other projects before refocusing their attention on it this past August when they launched a Kickstarter campaign and announced that the game would be heading to multiple platforms. Well they blew by their initial Kickstarter goal and as of this writing with just under two days remaining they’re about to actually double that initial goal. Good job! That also means development has been moving forward at a good clip and today Muse has unveiled a full 3-minute video showcasing the many types of gameplay in Hamsterdam, check it out.
So as you can see, the meat and potatoes of Hamsterdam is its combat that sees you taking on a bunch of bad guys by utilizing various types of quick-time events and some good old-fashioned button mashing. However, there’s a lot more to the game than that which includes some different types of mini-game-style sections AND my favorite feature of all: Scootering! Highly reminiscent of the Rat on a Scooter/Skateboard/Snowboard games from Donut Games, these scooter portions see the main character Pimm riding, jumping, and grinding in a variety of environments which also looks to include part of a boss fight. Oh, and speaking of those boss fights! From what I can see in this trailer they look wonderfully imaginative and entertaining. While no release date is set yet, you can still try to get in on the mobile beta testing by signing up here for iOS or Android, and hopefully it won’t be too long until we can dive into the finished Hamsterdam product.

domain: game


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After much waiting, the CrossFit Semifinals are finally here. Check out how to watch the CrossFit Semifinals this weekend: the North America East, in Orlando (Florida) and the Rebel Renegade Games in Johannesburg, Africa.
Here is everything you need to know about the first weekend of CrossFit Semifinals and how to watch them.
2023 CrossFit Semifinals – How to Watch
North America East
- When – May 18-21
- Where – Orlando, Florida (USA)
How to Watch
The events will be televised for free on CrossFit’s Youtube channel, on their homepage and through the app.
Who is Competing?
Now that CrossFit has cut down from 4 to 2 in the number of Semifinals in North America, the amount of elite CrossFit athletes competing is one more reason to keep an eye out for this event.
Some of the best of the best will be side-by-side in Orlando this Thursday. Here are some of the names you will be seeing on the competition floor:
- Women – Brooke Wells, Emma Cary, Emma Lawson, Danielle Brandon, Amanda Barnhart.
- Men – Jeffrey Adler, Dallin Pepper, Noah Ohlsen, Roman Khrennikov, Saxon Panchik, Samuel Cournoyer.
Both winners of this year’s CrossFit Open will be on the floor: Mal O’Brien and Jeff Adler.
UPDATE: Mal O’Brien announced on Tuesday evening that she won’t be competing at Semifinals.
Rebel Renegade Games – Africa
The African CrossFit Semifinal this year is being hosted by the Rebel Renegade Games. The competition, however, starts a day after the one from North America East.
- When – May 19-21
- Where – Johannesburg, South Africa
How to Watch
The livestream will be available at Rebel Renegade Games YouTube channel.
Who is Competing
Here are all the participants expected to show up in South Africa this weekend to fight for an invitation to the CrossFit Games (scroll to the second photo).
How Many Athletes Will Receive an Invitation After the Semifinals?
BOXROX went into depth about how many invitations each Semifinal will have available for its competitors.
In short, these are the cutlines for this weekend:
- North America East – 11 (women) and 12 (men)
- Africa – 1 (woman) and 1 (man)
Are you excited for this weekend’s turn of events?
- Roman Khrennikov CF 2022: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.


Recap: ALL GONE 2012 Book Release at Supra NYC
Last night the Supra NYC store played host to the book release of the seventh annual ALL GONE book. The 2012 hardcover edition is 256 pages filled with product profiles of everything from sneakers to skateboards, toys to fashion with contributions from some of the most important names in the street culture industry as well as art from Scott Campbell, Wes Lang, Futura, Kaws, Barry McGee, and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Author, cultural curator, and collector Michael Dupouy was on hand to sign copies of the ALL GONE while New York City legend and friend of 12ozProphet Dante Ross spun 90’s hip hop to the packed room. Copies of ALL GONE are available for purchase at Supra NYC located at 4 Prince St., New York, NY 10012. To get a better look at the book, check out 12ozProphet’s preview post here.


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'This jail is costing this county a fortune'
The first public hearing to explore the possibility of a public safety tax was conducted by the Owen County Council last night.
The tax would fund both a PSAP or Public Safety Answering Point, commonly known as 911 or dispatch, and a jail project.
With dispatch literally going dark due to old, failing equipment and the jail failing every inspection from the state for nearly a decade, the need for an upgrade in equipment and renovations to jail is apparent. Thus challenging the council to find the money in an already tight budget.
At the start of the hearing, Council President Jennifer Abrell laid some ground rules. She said that they would present some information about the need and the tax itself and then allow the public to have a chance to speak. She offered them the sign-up sheet to speak if they had not yet signed up, and she said they would only allow three minutes per person.
“We are not sure if we will or we won’t [implement a tax], but we want to hear the information and all of the input,” Abrell said.
She then said a few words to introduce the topic.
“We find ourselves at this point we’ve been studying the issue of the public safety project for quite some time now,” Abrell said.
Dan Zuerner, a consultant that the county has hired to help with the project and vice president Garmong Construction Services, helped establish with Abrell that the council has been working on the public safety project for about three years.
“We found ourself in the position that our jail is not up to standards where it should be. We have to decide what we’re going to do with that, and in the course of that we have developed the entire project which includes the EMS building currently going up,” Abrell said. “We’ve done everything so far without doing having to do any kind of tax increase, and that was our goal to try to do as much as we could without further tax burden to the taxpayer.”
Abrell cited a need to outfit the 911 dispatch center and to either renovate or expand the jail, both of which are costly.
She said they have already done a financial study, which was done to help them better understand more about where they are and where they need to go.
Abrell then yielded the floor to Zuerner. Zuerner started by thanking the public for being there.
“I appreciate seeing this much interest in the county,” Zuerner said.
He added that there isn’t an elected official that wants to be in a position where they need to increase taxes.
“They’ve worked very very hard at this point to avoid that (raising taxes) at every opportunity,” Zuerner said. “They take their responsibility very seriously, and they know how important this subject is to all of you.”
Zuerner said the county is being proactive to save money in the long run. He said that the jail has failed inspections from the state for several years. He also said that in the winter, there is an average of 80 to 90 inmates. In the summer, however, that number can rise to more than 100 inmates.
Currently, the jail has 73 beds. As a result, the jail does not have enough beds for inmates, which leaves them on cots on the floor, eliminating the ability to completely lock down that particular cell block and sometimes leaves inmates in cots in the jail’s library. To make matters worse, federal law mandates that 20 percent of the beds are reserved for classification.
“Classification is the ability to separate inmates to keep them where they need to be to be safe,” Zuerner said.
The county jail is required by law to separate inmates based on gender, level of crime and type of crime. County jails now have to house Level 6 felons in addition to the various misdemeanor offenses and those awaiting trial. To help remedy the issue, some alleged offenders can be part of a pre-trial release program to free up space while they await trial.
Zuerner said that an issue for most jails that were built 20 to 30 years ago is that they were not built to house a large population of female inmates.
To make matters worse, Zuerner said that the infrastructure is no longer working in the jail. He said some of the electronic locks don’t work and have to be manually overridden. Plumbing issues plague the facility, and the electrical infrastructure was built inside concrete walls, making those repairs even more costly.
“This jail is costing this county a fortune,” Zuerner said.
And it has the potential to cost the county much more because it doesn’t meet federal jail standards.
Zuerner pointed to Terre Haute, where failure to comply can mean that an inmate group can file a lawsuit, making the progress up to a federal judge. Terre Haute has to report to that judge every month until the new facility is built, and if there isn’t progress made, they can be held in contempt of court.
Zuerner said that they have been able to show some progress forward for solving the issue as a means to buy time.
“We’re at a point now where we’re going to have to have some money to bring this up,” Zuerner said.
He said the county has been proactive in purchasing the storage units near the jail to have space if needed. He added that Greene County built a pod that solves the current issue and allows the existing jail to be renovated.
Zuerner said one major part was the need to move the 911 system. He even went as far to call that system “the most important system” that the county serves the public with. He said the infrastructure for 911 is shot.
“It’s being run out of really an oversized broom closet right now,” Zuerner said.
As a result, the county is not getting the bet 911 service, through no fault of the dispatchers, but because of the equipment.
Zuerner then said that he wanted to “give kudos” to EMS Director Cris Lunsford.
“Every one of you ought to come up and shake Cris’ hand,” Zuerner said.
There was a round of applause for Lunsford.
Zuerner said more than half the money for the new EMS center has come from Lunsford’s budget from Lunsford operating the department efficiently and collecting from private insurance for services rendered.
He said the first step is to restore 911’s integrity.
“We need about three-quarters of a million dollars to finish the 911 project. The EMS project is fully paid for,” Zuerner said.
He said they don’t know how much the jail project will cost, but that similar projects cost between 10 and 20 million dollars.
“That’s the best I can tell you at this point in time,” Zuerner said.
He guessed that for Owen County, that number would be within the middle of that range.
“The county is strapped right now,” Zuerner said.
More on the other presentations, what the cost would be to the average taxpayers and how the public responded to the information will be the focal point of a future SEW article.

domain: politics


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The privacy and security of your personal information is very important to the ABPI. This policy explains how and why the ABPI uses your personal data and explains your privacy rights under data protection laws. For the purposes of data protection law, the ABPI is the “data controller”.
Links to Other Websites, Plug-Ins and Applications
This website may include links to third party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links, enabling those communications may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control those third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website that you visit.
Other Policies that May Apply to You
This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Who Are We?
In this policy when you see the words, “we”, “us, “our” or “ABPI”, it refers to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (“ABPI”).
The ABPI represents innovative research based biopharmaceutical companies, large, medium and small in the UK.
The ABPI is a company limited by guarantee with registration number 09826787 and its registered office at 2nd Floor Goldings House, Hay's Galleria, 2 Hay's Lane, London, SE1 2HB.
What is Personal Data & Purpose of this Notice
In this policy the words, “personal data” means any information that identifies you, for example, your name, address, telephone number and email address.
What Personal Data Does the ABPI Collect?
The ABPI will collect, use, store and transfer the following different kinds of personal data about you:
- Your full name, including your title;
- Your employment status and start date in industry;
- Your contact information, including telephone number, email address and postal address;
- CCTV images;
- Date of birth;
- Opinions and feedback if requested;
- Communication preferences;
- Technical information, including the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, as well as browser plug-in type and versions, operating system and platform and if you access our website via your mobile;
- Information about your visit, including but not limited to the clicks used to navigate to, through and from our website (including date and time), items that you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visit to certain pages, page interaction information (such as but not limited to scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, any phone number used to contact us;
- The terms that you use to search our website.
How is Your Personal Data Collected?
Your personal data is collected in a number of different ways including when:
- You give us your personal data by:
- Completing the Registration form for the ABPI Exam on our website:
- Receiving communications about our services;
- Corresponding with us (in any form).
How We Use Your Personal Data
Your personal data will be saved in the ABPI’s Candidate Management Platforms and may be processed by ABPI employees and contractors.
We will only use your personal data on relevant lawful grounds as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, such as for performance of a contract with you, to comply with our legal obligations, where you have given us your consent and in pursuit of our legitimate interests. We explain how we rely on these lawful grounds below.
The ABPI does not sell your personal data and we only share it with the organisations that we work with when necessary.
In some rare circumstances, during a technical difficulty, the ABPI, or their proctoring partners, may have a legitimate reason to ask to take control of the candidate's computer to resolve the issue.
The main uses of your personal data are set out below, as well as the legal basis that we rely on for this processing.
To Register You for the ABPI Exam
We will use your identity, career and contact information in order to contact you in relation to your ABPI Exam. We consider that using your personal data for this purpose is necessary for our legitimate interests in order that we can sign you up for your ABPI exam and follow up your process.
We would like to use your details to keep in touch about things that matter to you. If you choose to hear from us, we may send you information about activities that may be of interest to you. This might be about our work, new courses and upcoming events. We will only send these to you if you agree to receive them. If you choose to receive this information, you can change your mind at any time. In all communications you will be provided with a link to unsubscribe from all communications. If you choose not to receive these communications, you may not hear about events or other work that we do that may be of interest to you. When we send you email communications we use technology that enables us to track who opens particular emails. This helps us to understand which issues are of most interest and helps us to ensure that you continue to receive useful information.
To Respond to a Question Raised
When you contact the ABPI using the Contact Us form on https://mylearning.abpi.org.uk, Get In Touch form on www.abpi.org.uk, or on https://mylearning.abpi.org.uk your contact information will be retained by the ABPI. We consider that this is necessary for our legitimate interests in order that we can communicate with you in relation to the matter raised by you and track our response to you.
Disclosures of Your Personal Data
If asked by any police, regulatory or government authority we may need to provide your personal data to these agencies in order to comply with our legal obligations and to pursue our legitimate interests in engaging with and responding to governmental, regulatory and public bodies.
Other than set out in this Privacy Notice and any other notice that may be delivered to you, the ABPI does not sell or transfer personal data to third parties.
The ABPI has put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents and contractors and representatives who have a business need to know it. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and the relevant regulatory authority of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
For How Long Will Your Personal Data be Retained?
The ABPI will only retain your personal data for so long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.
- Your basic contact information will be retained indefinitely to allow you to complete your qualification process.
- Record of certificate issued to candidate (name, date of birth, employer at time of awarding) to be retained electronically indefinitely.
- Any sensitive information will only be retained during the qualification period. Once qualified, this information will be destroyed.
- Emails are retained for 2 years.
- Recordings of on-line exams (proctoring) are retained for 60 days unless there is a query regarding a specific examination. In which case the recording will be retained for as long is necessary.
- ABPI Exam attempts are retained for up to 3 years.
- Basic eLearning access information is kept only for the purpose of allowing us to improve our offering.
- Any contact us/support queries will be retained until qualified and then be destroyed annually.
Your Legal Rights
Under certain circumstances, you have the rights set out below under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:
- Access to Personal Information – You have a right to obtain access to the personal information that we hold about you.
- Change Inaccurate Information – You have a right to ask us to correct inaccurate personal information and to update incomplete personal information.
- Request to Delete Your Information – You have a right to request that we delete your personal information if you believe that we no longer need your information for the purposes for which it was provided; or we are not using your information in a lawful manner; or we have requested your permission to process your personal information and you wish to withdraw your consent. Please note that if you request us to delete your information, we may have to stop engaging with you and close your qualification process.
- Request to Restrict the Processing of Your Information – You have a right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data if you believe that any of the information that we hold about you is inaccurate; we no longer need your information for the purposes for which it was provided but you require the information to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or we are not using your information in a lawful manner. Please note that if you request us to stop or restrict the processing of your information, we may have to stop engaging with you.
- Request Your Personal Data in a Portable Format – You may have the right to ask us to provide your personal information in a portable format.
- Object to the Processing of your Personal Information – You have a right to object to the processing of your personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling and legitimate grounds for the processing. Please note that if you object to the processing of your information, we may have to stop engaging with you.
- Object to Direct Marketing – You have a right to object to use of your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
- Withdraw Consent – Where we rely on your permission to process your personal information, you have a right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, we may have to stop engaging with you.
- To Complain - You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulatory authority responsible for data protection issues. If you are based outside the UK, you can contact your national regulator. We would appreciate the opportunity to resolve any concerns before you approach the Information Commissioner (or your local regulator if outside the UK) and therefore, wherever possible, we request that you contact the ABPI in the first instance.
We may need specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request.
We will try to respond to your request within one month. Occasionally, it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case we will provide you with updates.
Last Updated: August 2023.


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It’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month and that’s why we’re dipping into the archives and bringing out some episodes from the Take a Stand Event. This week my guest is, well, ME! Deborah Kagan is a Speaker, Mentor and Mojo Recovery Specialist.
It’s October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And truly, why I do what I do, with this podcast, with all the Rock Your Mojo live events, programs and mentorship, is dedicated to the cause of ending domestic violence and sexual assault. Education, support, accurate mentoring and community can be extremely powerful in supporting women to reestablish the Mojo connection—and therefore, your enthusiasm for life.

domain: sociology


Following the release of ‘I Followed’ comes ‘Lost Myself’, the new single from the nice young man known as UNBLOOM. This guy has been killing it lately and has been responsible for dropping banger after banger over the last year or so. Infact, he’s got so many bangers he could be a butcher. Awful joke, but seriously, this new track is good.
What I enjoy most about UNBLOOM’s music is the level of depth it has. Sure, the instrumentals take the spotlight with their immediate, sugary-sweet goodness but it’s the lyrical content that makes it more than just another dance number. ‘Lost Myself’ is a song that wishes to bring back the version of UNBLOOM pre-breakup, and illustrates it with an instrumental that sounds straight from the This Could Be Everything EP days.
Synthesisers lead the way with a blend of shimmering sounds and anthemic beats that could get any dancefloor jumping. The blips of bassline drop little breadcrumbs of Funk into a mix that has all the urgency and fire to get the hips moving, and it works so well against UNBLOOM’s vocals. The soaring notes crooned through auto-tune add an extra metallic element to the track, and it just sounds so good.
UNBLOOM can do no wrong in my eyes. ‘Lost Myself’ is a great track and one that adds so much colour and vibrancy to the airwaves. It’s awesome.


Service of environmental fluegas measurings systems.
Market dialogue for service of environmental fluegas measurings systems on ARC's Waste to Energy plant.
We want market dialogue within the following areas related to the subject at the waste incineration plant:
— service and maintenance on analyzers for environmental fluegas measuring,
— verification of parameters acording to EN14181,
— strategic spare parts for analyzers,
— wear parts for analyzers,
— Remote and hot line service.
We want market dialogue on the possibilities for assistance within both service and supply of spare parts.
All interested parties are welcome to contact ARC (within the specified month). ARC will then invite selected firms to market dialogue meetings.


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Do you have difficulty concentrating or have racing thoughts?
Do you feel constantly worried, anxious or scared?
Do you lack self-confidence?
Do you have trouble sleeping and feel generally tired?
How we can help…
Whilst stress is something that everyone experiences you may find that you are experiencing high volumes of stress consistently. If so, then it may be useful to consider making some changes to your lifestyle in the way of stress management. Whilst in short bursts stress can be positive and motivational, in the long term, it can have a detrimental effect on your well-being.
Stress – Adults
- Headaches and dizziness.
- Aches or pains.
- Muscle tension.
- Digestive difficulties or stomach problems.
- Tightness or pain in your chest.
- Faster heartbeat.
- Sexual problems.
- Difficulty concentrating.
- Struggle to make decisions.
- Overwhelmed and unable to cope.
- Constantly worrying.
- Becoming forgetful.
- Irritable and snappy.
- Sleeping more than usual or experiencing sleep disturbances.
- Eating more than usual or not eating enough.
- Avoiding certain places or people.
- Beginning to smoke or drink more than normal.
Stress – Young People
Many young people experience stress. Adolescence is a transitional life stage where a young person moves from childhood into young adulthood. Throughout this developmental period, the young person begins a process of individuation. This is where they gradually start to separate from their parents/carers and develop their own identity and values. This process can be stressful for both parent and child. There may be disagreements and challenging negotiations related to newfound freedoms. Parents/carers may also struggle with their children ‘leaving the nest’ and find it difficult to adjust to being at home without them.
As a person moves from childhood into their teenage years a greater emphasis is placed on friendships. Fitting in with other young people becomes incredibly important for some teenagers and many find that they struggle with peer pressure. The NHS defines peer pressure as “pressure that your friends and the people you know, put on you to do something you don’t want to do or don’t feel ready to do”. In the current climate of social media, young people are in constant contact with their peers. Not only do they spend most of their time with them whilst at school, but they also continue to communicate into the night when they get home. This can add to the pressure that a young person may feel to fit in and partake in activities they do not feel comfortable with or ready for.
Exam pressure is another form of stress for many young people. A young person may feel tired, confused or worried that they won’t do well. It is perfectly normal for young people to feel worried before an exam and, indeed, the optimum amount of anxiety can be a good thing as it enhances performance. However, too much anxiety or stress can be debilitating and inhibit a young person’s ability to perform. This can leave a young person in a state of panic or feeling as though their mind has gone blank. There are many things that can be done to manage exam-related anxiety and stress. These interventions can enable young people to perform to the best of their abilities in exams.


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There are lots of drug rehabilitation programs possibilities open to people living in the Gila region. You will need to understand each of the varieties of rehabilitation options that are available in Gila, AB., so that you can find the suitable rehabilitation approach for yourself or a loved one. Choosing the right alcohol and drug rehabilitation program in Gila is the central element in the process of treating of substance abuse, drug addiction and alcoholism. The following information will help you understand your various rehabilitation possibilities allowing an individual to have the maximum potential for an effective outcome.
Let's have a look at the different alcohol and drug rehab centers in Gila, New Mexico choices that correlate with the circumstances of the individual in search of treatment.
Inpatient alcohol and drug rehabilitation in Gila, AB. is really a rehabilitation choice ideal for those who will need medical treatment during rehabilitation or individuals with considerable drug use histories. People will experience mental and physical dependence to drugs even after a short time period, so inpatient drug treatment in Gila is among the best treatment choice in the majority of cases. As a result of dependence and addiction, people will often not be able to make a full recovery using the limited services available from outpatient rehab programs in Gila, New Mexico where drugs and alcohol continue to be easily available when they depart the outpatient center. In addition, people in treatment who take part in outpatient rehab as opposed to inpatient alcohol and drug rehab in Gila remain vulnerable to negative influences and circumstances which might get in the way of their process of recovery. If someone resides with an abusive companion or continues to maintain associations that entail abusing drugs, any rehab activities in outpatient treatment are done in vain. For this reason in-patient alcohol and drug rehab in Gila, AB. will most certainly result in more tangible outcomes that may prove lasting unlike an outpatient alcohol and drug treatment facility where advantages could be very minimal and acute.
In Gila there's both short-term and long-term inpatient alcohol and drug rehab. Short-term is often a 30-day facility, while long-term inpatient drug treatment in Gila, New Mexico is a lot more intensive and treatment lasts 90-120 days on average. This is an excellent environment for clients because it is a completely drug-free setting where they can recover both mentally and physically without interruptions. Preferably, people proceed inside a long-term in-patient alcohol and drug rehabilitation program in Gila for the optimum stretch of time allowed, to enable them to deal with anything which can jeopardize their abstinence after they depart rehab. Because of the fact that detoxing and becoming physically stabilized can take a couple weeks alone, the 3-6 months in long-term in-patient drug and alcohol rehab in Gila is going to be time wisely spent and a lot more efficient than short-term programs.
The main factor of all if you or someone you love is struggling with a drug abuse or addiction issue is to get it resolved right away, make calls and talk to experienced addiction professionals and get an evaluation and rehab options to ensure the greatest opportunity for a full recovery.
Drug Rehab Exact Match:
We can help! You can overcome addiction and have a better life than you ever thought possible.
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Santa Clara, NM. 88026
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Counselors available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.1-800-405-8409
We have addiction treatment specialists available 24/7, ready to help you find the right treatment choice that meets your financial ability.addictionca.com


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Welcome to Tomes & Tones, a brand new feature which explores the often uncanny pairing between books and music. Have you ever read a novel, and had a particular soundtrack in the background? And is this novel now synonymous with that music, whenever you think back to it?
For each episode, one writer will give an example of when they have experienced this pairing, and why these seemingly unrelated components worked so well together. Hopefully it will offer up some creative combinations to our readers, who can judge for themselves how the works of art are able to merge. No doubt many readers will also have some unique and interesting combos of their own.
In our first episode, I will recap on my partly unintentional but ultimately divine pairing of Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz and the industrial/electronic band Squarepusher‘s record Hello Everything. Enjoy!
Writing is an important part of my life. In fact, my lifelong dream is to publish novels. I do believe the year was 2006 when this ambition was solidified with more resolve than ever before. There was one particular book which skyrocketed my creative synapses, and whenever I think back to my initial experience with that novel, a specific soundtrack plays in my head.
We all have life-changing moments with music, novels and visual entertainment… This was mine; It resounds to this day. And I’ve read a lot. So I guess this piece is also my platform to praise and defend the works of Dean Koontz. Okay, so he is not an underrated author. He essentially lives the dream that vanity-struck aspiring authors salivate over. Every year a new Koontz novel arrives for retail, available in all outlets reputable or otherwise, and with his name embossed and shiny on the front cover. And this gives the impression that his books are nothing more than cosmopolitan pulp. If I’m discussing literature with a supernatural twist, why am I not instead covering the works of China Miéville or Haruki Murakami, to name but two?
I believe Dean Koontz is a little misrepresented in this respect. It’s true that, in the words of Primus, ‘They Can’t all be Zingers’. But Koontz is also a writer with a lot of conviction. And his pacing and mastery of suspense in writing is often remarkably adept. Look no further than his 2003 novel Odd Thomas for a prime example of this.
2006 was the year when this book set my imagination on fire.
Meanwhile, I was also branching out musically. I had so far been dosing intensely on the newly acquired delights of Opeth, Strapping Young Lad and Meshuggah. But even when soaking in these endlessly giving treats, I sought after something a little different; that same level of non-commercial intensity but manifested in a form different to metal…
Having dabbled with the likes of Aphex Twin in the past, Squarepusher appeared to be the soundest choice. I made the impulsive decision to dig deeper when I was only five minutes away from the local HMV. Once inside, Squarepusher’s latest album, Hello Everything, took only moments to find. Hello Everything is an instrumental opus of numerous layers, part jazz, part dance, part everything else. So it was not only a branch out for me, but also a branch out for Squarepusher mastermind Tom Jenkinson. I hadn’t bought a non-metal CD for a long long time. The experience was mind blowing.
So back to the book: Odd Thomas is the true embodiment of a page-turner. The main protagonist, whose personal perspective comprises the entire narrative of the novel, is a young male living somewhat comfortably as a fry cook in a small fictitious American town… except that this young male is endowed with a high level of supernatural intuition. He sees the wandering spirits of the dead. He also sees the venomous oily black shapes of creatures, invisible to all else, who are naturally drawn to any place or event where a high level of death and suffering is set to unfold.
Odd is a hopelessly noble, caring, giving and all-round decent guy, who is endlessly drawn to the darker recesses of humanity in an unnamable bid to do the right thing. It is never made clear why he possesses these powers, or why he is compelled to save the innocent when necessary. And as the narrator of the novel, Odd assures readers that he is equally as clueless. One of the main questions proposed to the reader is, ‘Is all of this in Odd’s head?’
At the start of this novel, Odd foretells a forthcoming event that will bring mass death and destruction over his reclusive and profoundly naive town of Pico Mundo. And so ensues a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of events leading up to the supposed catastrophe. Readers in turn have the opportunity to take the ride, uncover the truth, and find out exactly what malevolent forces lie behind this prophecy.
Three chapters in, and I was drawn. I needed to know everything. The book was my obsession for its entire duration. And by repetition, I’d have Squarepusher’s Hello Everything as the background soundtrack.
It was a marriage of coincidence at first, until the light hearted elements turned dark in both mediums and several undeniable parallels began to form.
As I said already, Odd Thomas’ world is inhabited by the innocent. The sweet nature of his friends, loved ones and colleagues are a heartwarming affair. And, as he often does in his novels, Dean Koontz juxtaposes this warmth with the polar opposite of the human species: the savage and the sadistic, the cruel and the evil. Tragically enough, the bad guys in Koontz’s novels often have more similarities to their real life counterparts than the good guys do.
Through location and through character, the book siphons through these varying degrees of innocence. And the instrumental quirky electro-licks of Hello Everything siphon along with it. Now as you must obviously know, it takes longer to read a book than it does to listen to an album. Well, it does for me at least. I never did the math of how many manifolds of start-to-finish replays of Hello Everything occupied the start-to-finish journey of Odd Thomas, only that Hello Everything accompanied most of it. I had discovered that the span of the album would cover five to six of the novel’s bitesize chapters. And, keeping in mind that I was reading an extremely quick-witted suspense thriller, there was always a progression, a miniature mystery with a jaw-dropping climax to be found inside each miniature act of the novel…
Hello Everything has an open door policy on its musical interpretation. It is largely abstract. But on face value it is comprised of the upbeat, the excessively energetic, and a less than subtle bout of unanimity. Maybe this is why it fit so well with the unfolding puzzle of the book, why the bouncy, dreamy pops of “Theme From Sprite” are such an avid soundtrack to the sleepy sunny town of Pico Mundo, why the marginally more assured synths of “Welcome to Europe” embody the emotional intensity of our main hero, why the hyperactive video game blips of “The Modern Bass Guitar” operate so well with the adrenaline-fueled segments of the book, and why the monolithic ambiences of “Circlewave 2” and “Orient Orange” add mass to the more unsettling moments of Odd’s journey.
And as the book progresses towards its heart-pumping and surprisingly bleak climax, the emotional content of the album seems to grow more potent with every play, such is the complex relationship with the brain and its outside stimulus. No longer are the pokey nuances of the album trivial. Within Odd Thomas‘s final act, a great weight and sense of consequence bears down on the music which was unimaginable when playing it during the start of the novel.
What does literature and music have in common? One of the biggest things is the lack of visual aid in both instances. In both situations, the mind is left to paint its own interpretation of what the visuals might be. And one difference is that the visuals conjured up by music are often abstract, whereas the visuals in literature are largely more, well, literal.
Yes, just to clarify once more, I’m calling Odd Thomas literature. I make no apologies. Fun fact: There has since been a movie. It was an 85% faithful and impressive adaptation, but alas, Hello Everything was not the soundtrack. Therefore, the resonance of the film was next to nothing compared to what I felt when reading the book.
So for all these reasons, Odd Thomas and Hello Everything will be eternally bound in my mind. Memories of the book conjure segments of Hello Everything‘s music. And on hearing the record itself, I gather traces of the intensity found in the book’s closing act. I know a lot of people have read Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I know that probably the same number of lots have listened to Hello Everything by Squarepusher. But unless the nature of infinity comes into play, I could very well be the only one who mentally infused the two on such a profound level. And naturally, because the experience is so ingrained in my archive of influences, I can’t conceive a more appropriate fit for one than the other.


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It took the Senedd’s Petitions Committee less than three minutes to “consider” my petition calling on proposals for a council tax revaluation to be rejected. The Welsh Government wants to revalue all 1.5 million properties in Wales, create new bands and set new tax rates. I launched a petition, which collected 3,324 signatures, after reports contained in last summer’s phase 1 consultation suggested Monmouthshire residents will be hit by astronomical rises in the amount of council tax they pay if proposals go ahead. Sadly, I fear these reforms for a so-called “fairer” council tax system are a done deal as a letter to Petitions Committee chair Jack Sargeant from Finance and Local Government Minister Rebecca Evans indicates the Welsh Labour Government is determined to push ahead with its plans. Even the committee acknowledged “we can see quite clearly the intention” of the Minister, coupled with the Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Labour Government which states council tax reform is a “clear intention by both parties”. Nevertheless, it was agreed to keep my petition open and review it when the next round of consultations – due later this year – have finished. I still maintain an issue of this importance needs full debate and proper scrutiny… but it strikes me as being a fait accompli.
Desperately sad news for everyone connected with Abergavenny Women FC after the club announced it is folding. When I visited the Pen-y-Pound Stadium two years ago to speak with the ladies, I could see what a tight-knit football family this was. I remember quizzing senior Football Association of Wales (FAW) officials at the time about their decision to restructure the women’s domestic game and demote Abergavenny Women FC from the top flight. Rightly or wrongly, I am sure this is not the outcome they wanted. To lose a club that has contributed so much to the development of women’s football in Wales is bitterly disappointing and I really do feel for the players, coaching staff, officials and volunteers. I wish them all the best for the future and very much hope they are able to continue their footballing journey elsewhere.
Congratulations to Cllr Steve O’Brien on his appointment as Mayor of Usk. It was a pleasure to talk to him and his consort Peter Hall at their civic service on Sunday afternoon. Steve spent 30 years in the police force in Greater Manchester so he comes well equipped for the job, although I like to think any problems in Usk will be somewhat tamer! Good luck to Steve and Peter for the year ahead.
*Published in the Monmouthshire Beacon on 07 June 2023 and Abergavenny Chronicle on 08 June 2023*