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One Sunday morning, I got into one of those rarer moods where I actually felt like cooking something (I’m working on it, okay). After mentally scouring my pantry to make sure I had all the ingredients, I decided to whip up a batch of buttermilk pancakes using this tried-and-true recipe. In a last-minute moment of inspiration, I thought of incorporating some matcha green tea powder into the recipe. This was a good idea because 1) I love matcha anything, and 2) I had two and a half cans of the stuff just sitting in my kitchen cabinet.
These fluffy, green-tinged pancakes leave behind a subtle matcha aftertaste that works well with different syrups, spreads and toppings. Add bacon and eggs, fresh flowers, a good friend or two and lots of sunshine for the ultimate experience. Happy homemade brunchin’!
Matcha Buttermilk Pancakes
- Prep Time:10 minutes
- Cook Time:15 minutes
- Total Time:25 minutes
- 2 cup flour
- 3 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup butter or cooking oil (extra for the skillet)
- 2 teaspoon matcha green tea powder
Mix all of the dry ingredients except for matcha powder.
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Slowly pour wet buttermilk mixture into dry mixture.
Add the matcha green tea powder.
#SpoonTip: Throw in an extra teaspoon if you want a brighter color and stronger matcha flavor.
Give it a mix.
#SpoonTip: Stir until ingredients are incorporated, but don’t beat the batter until smooth. Lumps are crucial for nice, fluffy pancakes.
Once butter or cooking oil is heated, pour batter onto pan in 1/3 cup increments. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Add whatever toppings you desire. Give it a good drizzle of maple syrup…
…or top with a Nutella spread and a sprinkle of extra matcha powder. Enjoy!


- 12-24 Volts
- Charges from a car cigarette lighter socket
If you always forget to charge your phone at home, the Nokia Car Charger DC-4 is a handy device that will ensure that your phone never runs out of battery. Designed to fit perfectly, this charger is compatible with a number of Nokia phones. It features a simple design and a compact profile, which makes it portable and easy to store as well. It is universal in nature and can be used in all cars.


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WEST SPRINGFIELD — Plans are made for the annual free entertainment at the Eastern States Exposition months in advance of the annual event.
Considering that, Big E talent bookers struck it rich by signing on Trisha Yearwood this year. Already a hit from her first album last year and her wide exposure on a yearlong tour with Garth Brooks, Yearwood is poised for her own commercial breakthrough, thanks to her widely praised new album released a couple of weeks ago.
All that, along with beautiful weather on the first Sunday of the Big E, resulted in an even more packed audience of thousands at the ever-inadequate area surrounding the Miller Genuine Draft stage Sunday afternoon for the first of four Yearwood shows.
Still only 20, Yearwood possesses a poise and, more notably, a power that's more startling live than on her records. In a long red Western skirt that made her more visible for those craning to see from the farthest fried-dough stands, she was a delicate, pleasing presence on stage whose phrasing and range hinted at experience -- in life as well as music -- well beyond her years.
"I've never been much past more than a year ago," she admitted between songs, explaining how a video was shot for one of her hits.
With a capable six-piece band that also included an audience favorite in violinist and background singer Tammy Rogers, she alternated her hourlong performance with fast-paced toe-tappers and slow ballads, sung with such authority that the crowd was uncharacteristically hushed.
Besides a fresh face, Yearwood offers a fresh sensibility from the sometimes mournful throngs of wronged woman country singers. "I like a man who's crazy about me," she sings in one of her best songs, "That's What I Like About You." But she also adds, "I like a man who can live without me, too."
She performed surprisingly little from her fine new album, "Hearts in Armor," but she did make room for the deliciously swampy sound of her first single, "The Wrong Side of Memphis."
Hers is an appeal to a new and younger country audience,
although her old-fashioned, no-nonsense appearance harks back to the classic figures of women in country music.
But the Garth Brooks connection cannot be discounted. Not only did he give her the break of his last sold-out tour, but he offered her a song on which he co-wrote and sang on for her first album. She sang the compelling "Like We Never Had a Broken Heart" alone and handled it well.
But she closed the show with a song she made No. 1 all on her own, "She's in Love with the Boy," which closed the show on a bright note. It brought even the fair-weary weekend crowd to its feet.
Trisha Yearwood performs at 2 and 7 p.m. today at the Big E in West Springfield, Mass., free with admission

domain: artistic


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Juan Francisco Catalá is a third generation small nursery coffee grower in the mountains of Yauco. In addition to his work at the farm, he has dedicated his efforts to teach farming to children through summer camps at the family’s farm, Hacienda La Leonor. He is also an activist who is fighting for the rights of nursery coffee growers, who have limited protections in comparison to regular coffee growers.
In this interview, Catalá speaks about how his nursery of over 150,000 coffee plants in his family’s farm, La Leonor, was destroyed by Hurricane María. Catalá also speaks about the lack of governmental support for farmers in Puerto Rico both before and after María. He insists on the need to educate people, especially children, to grow their own food given Puerto Rico’s extreme vulnerability due to its dependency on imported products.

domain: food


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The world's creepiest rendition of Alice in Wonderland. This outing includes but one actor -- Alice herself -- and a gaggle of stop-motion animated creatures. Extremely disturbing -- from the cockroaches to the attacking fowl claws to the phallic socks burrowing up through the floor and crawling about the place -- I wouldn't dream of showing this rendition of the story to a kid. All the dialogue is spoken by the girl, with cuts after every single line to a close-up of her mouth for attribution of the quote (eg. "said the March Hare.") This gets old, fast, but for adults trying to remember that first acid trip, though, it's a winner.
Continue reading: Alice Review

domain: library


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Conservative plans to end subsidies for onshore wind farms will push up energy bills and leave thousands of jobs in the balance, campaigners have warned.
The Government proposal to close the existing scheme for new onshore wind projects a year early has been criticised by campaigners for hitting the cheapest form of clean energy.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd today announced the plans to close the "renewables obligation" scheme for onshore wind farms from April 2016, fulfilling a Tory election manifesto promise.
The Tory Government has said onshore wind farms “often fail to win public support and are unable by themselves to provide the firm capacity that a stable energy system requires” – despite latest Government survey statistics suggesting 67 per cent of people support them.
Ms Rudd said there were enough subsidised onshore wind schemes to meet renewable commitments.
What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?
What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?
1/8 Welfare payments will be slashed
One of the most controversial parts of the Conservative manifesto was to cut benefits for the working age poor by £12 bn over the next three years. But during the campaign they only said where £2 bn of these savings would come from. That leaves £10 bn still to find. Some experts think the only way they can close that gap is by means testing child benefit – with millions of families losing out
2/8 There will be tax cuts for those in work and those who die
The Tories will increase the threshold at which the 40p rate of tax becomes payable to £50,000 by 2020. They haven’t said so but it is also likely that at some point in the next five years they will abolish that 45p rate of tax altogether for the highest earners. They also want to increase the effective inheritance tax threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1m
3/8 There will be an in/out EU referendum in 2017
The next two years are going to be dominated by the prospect of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. First off David Cameron has the daunting task of negotiating a deal with other EU leaders an acceptable deal that he can sell to his party so he can go into the referendum campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote. This may be unachievable and it is possible that the Tories may end up arguing to leave. Opinion polls show Britain is divided on EU membership, one poll this year showed 51% said they would opt to leave compared to 49% who would vote to stay in
4/8 There will be more privatisation of the NHS
Having won the election the Tories now have a mandate to go further and faster reforming the NHS. In order to make cost savings there is likely to be greater private involvement in running services, while some smaller hospitals may lose services they currently provide like A&E and maternity units
5/8 There will be many more free schools – and traditional state schools will become a thing of the past
The Tories plans to create 500 new free schools and make 3,000 state schools become academies. They will also carry on reforming the Department of Education and remove more powers from local authorities over how schools are run
6/8 On shore wind farms will be a thing of the past and fracking will be the future
Government spending on renewable energy is under real threat now the Lib Dems are no longer in power with the Tories. Subsidies are likely to be slashed for off-shore wind farm and other green energy supplies. Meanwhile there will be generous tax break for fracking as ministers try and incentivise the industry to drill for onshore oil and gas
7/8 There maybe more free childcare – but not necessarily
In the campaign the Tories pledged to double the amount of free early education for three- and four-year-olds from 15 hours a week to 30. The extra hours would only be offered to working families where parents are employed for at least eight hours a week. However they have not said where the money will come from to fund the pledge
8/8 Workers' rights could be reduced
The Tories want to slash business regulation, merge regulator and cut costs. The Lib Dems stopped them from reducing the employment rights of workers in power – but these are now under threat
A European Commission progress report this week however suggested the UK was one of several member states set to significantly miss renewable targets for 2020.
Campaigners meanwhile have warned the move will push up energy bills, as in order to meet targets to tackle climate change, support will have to shift towards more expensive forms of low-carbon energy.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "This decision risks undermining the development of the cheapest form of renewables in the country, and is bad news for Scotland's clean energy ambitions.
"Cutting support early for the lowest cost renewable technology is a backward step that will either see bills rise or climate targets missed."
Campaigners have also warned the move sent a "chilling signal" to investors across the UK's infrastructure sectors – and will leave millions of pounds of investment in the balance.
In Scotland, where the majority of planned new wind farms are due to be built, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing MSP has warned the decision may be the subject of a judicial review.
Industry body RenewableUK chief executive Maria McCaffery said: "It means this Government is quite prepared to pull the rug from under the feet of investors even when this country desperately needs to clean up the way we generate electricity at the lowest possible cost - which is onshore wind.
"People's fuel bills will increase directly as a result of this Government's actions.
"Ministers are out of step with the public, as two-thirds of people in the UK consistently support onshore wind.
"Meanwhile the Government is bending over backwards to encourage fracking, even though less than a quarter of the public supports it."
The Government has denied the claim that bills will rise due to the proposed changes, saying there are enough planned and current projects to meet projected targets.
A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokeswoman said: "We have a cap on the cost of renewables to consumers, so this won't push up bills. We have enough onshore wind now - including projects that have planning permission, we have as much as we'd projected.
"If we'd allowed the RO to stay open longer, we could have ended up with more projects than we can afford - which would have led to either higher bills, or other renewable technologies losing out on support."
Under the proposal, up to 5.2GW of onshore wind capacity may be eligible for a grace period offered to projects that already have planning consent, a grid connection offer and acceptance, along with evidence of land rights, the Government has said.
The scheme is due to close to all new renewable schemes in 2017 – the year it had been expected to end for onshore wind.
Ms Rudd said: "We have a long-term plan to keep the lights on and our homes warm, power the economy with cleaner energy, and keep bills as low as possible for hard-working families.
"We want to help technologies stand on their own two feet, not encourage a reliance of public subsidies.
"So we are driving forward our commitment to end new onshore wind subsidies and give local communities the final say over any new wind farms."
Alasdair Cameron, Friends of the Earth's renewable energy campaigner, said: "Slashing wind support on the day the Pope calls for stronger climate action, and 24 hours after thousands lobbied their MPs to do more for the environment, shows the Government is living in a different world.
"Far from showing global leadership ahead of the crucial Paris climate summit later this year, the government appears to be making the environment pay the price for rash pre-election promises."
Greenpeace UK energy and climate campaigner Daisy Sands said: "Ministers have just moved to raise everyone's energy bills by blocking the cheapest form of clean power, whilst continuing to back the impossibly expensive Hinkley C and going 'all out' for unpopular, risky, and unproven fracking.
"Even if this omnishambles of an energy policy survives the many legal challenges threatened against it, it will send a clear message to international investors that the UK Government is willing to wreck our power sector to please their most ideological backbenchers.
"This mistake will cost the UK dearly."
The DECC has said more than £800m of subsidies, paid for through consumer bills, helped onshore wind generate 5 per cent of the UK's electricity last year.
Additional reporting by PAReuse content

domain: news


text:
Up to 12,000 people will evacuate from Minot, N.D., today to escape the imminent onslaught of flood waters that will soon overflow levees along the Souris River and swallow much of the fourth largest city in the state.
Weeks of heavy rain have swelled the Canadian reservoirs in the Souris River basin, forcing dangerous water releases to the Souris River. The basin has received about 200 percent more rain water than normal in the last two months. The Souris River is expected to reach a record-breaking 1,560 feet by Monday, squashing the previous record set in 1881 of 1,558 feet.
Water pushing down the Souris River Valley will test Lake Darling Dam, which is expected to release up to 20,000 cubic feet per second later this week.
The Minot Daily News reports that the Saskatchewan reservoirs were already releasing water at an astounding rate of 28,000 cubic feet per second on Tuesday morning.
“What I see right now is probably the most devastating in terms of the number of people directly impacted and what it will do to damage homes as water begins to overtop the levees and fill in behind,” said Maj. Gen David Sprynczynatyk of North Dakota National Guard, who has been involved in flood response for 40 years, to the Minot Daily News.
On Wednesday, sirens sounded at 12:57 p.m. to warn citizens to immediately head for higher ground. The sirens mean that the water has breached the dikes in the city.
“It’s pretty ugly. We expect dikes to be overtopped, the river channel dikes, pretty much by 7 a.m. Thursday,” said Alan Schlag, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Bismarck.
But the flooding of the Souris River spells trouble beyond North Dakota. It has also threatened towns from Minnesota to Missouri, with the Missouri River also swelling.

domain: geography


text:
Fire destroys Becker's Tire in Grand Gorge
9/27/13 - 2:18 pm
Above: An Arkville Fire Department truck at the scene of a fire at Becker's Tire Service on Route 30 in Grand Gorge. Photo by Lissa Harris.
A massive fire that broke out just past midnight on Thursday night gutted Becker's Tire Service, a longstanding local business on Route 30 in Grand Gorge.
Firefighters were dispatched to the blaze at 12:19am, said Delaware County Emergency Services director Rich Bell, who was on the scene Friday along with county and state investigators. No one was in the building at the time the fire broke out.
Between 15 and 20 local fire departments responded to the fire, Bell said.
"They battled it for hours before getting it under control," said Bell.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, Bell said.
The building was a total loss, said owners Richard and Machelle Haight, longtime employees who purchased the business from its former owners in 2008.
Richard said the business had just gotten a large delivery of new stock, which was destroyed in the fire.
"We just got a delivery of 2,000 snow tires for the winter," he said.
Becker's has been in operation since 1959, and is a prominent local business. The Haights say they will rebuild as soon as they can.
Richard said he was grateful to the firefighters that responded.
"They did an unbelievable job," he said. "I was just so thankful that no one was hurt."
Update, 4pm: Local filmmaker Jessica Vecchione was on the scene Friday morning and took some footage, including interviews with firefighters. Video embedded below.
Below: A Flickr slideshow of photos from the scene. Photos by Lissa Harris and Thomas Filupeit, Jr.
Correction: Firefighters were dispatched at 12:19am, not 12:19pm, as stated in an earlier draft. Apologies for the error.
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POV: How would you describe the Peruvian government's approach to fighting terrorism during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori?
Robert Goldman: I think it's good to preface by saying that, first of all, the groups which were operating in Peru -- Sendero [Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path], and MRTA, but particularly Sendero, were pretty much sui generis. No one had seen in the past a group that was as brutal as they were. They engaged in all sorts of massacres -- this was not like the FMLN in Salvador, or the Guatemalan insurgents, or even the FARC in Colombia, for that matter. Not that those groups have not committed very gross violations of the laws of war, but Sendero was really an exceptional and extremely brutal group.
And one has to understand that under two previous governments, prior to Fujimori, there was a widespread perception that the government did not respond adequately to the threat posed by Sendero and MRTA. By the time Fujimori was elected you had a population in the cities, and particularly in Lima, that was living in fear.
The response, once Fujimori came in, was vigorous and robust, and over time became increasingly indiscriminate and downright lawless. The military response, and most of the military activities, took place in rural regions outside of the cities, and it was characterized by indiscriminate violence on all sides. This has been well-documented by the Truth Commission in Peru. Fujimori also adopted a series of legal measures.
As you know, Fujimori staged in 1992 what has been called a self-coup -- closing the judicial branch effectively, closing the constitutional court, gutting the supreme court, removing virtually the great majority of judges and prosecutors and reshaping the judiciary to his whims. He instituted a series of legal measures that defined terrorism and aggravated forms of terrorism in extraordinarily broad terms that resulted in many hundreds of innocent people being swept up and subject to trial before faceless military and civilian courts. When we say "faceless," that means that the identities of the judges and witnesses were not known.
And we now know that during his administration, death squads were operating. There was a group, Grupo Colina, that was operating and disappearing and murdering people who were civilians suspected of having links with the terrorist groups.
The response was quite brutal. It had results in helping to put down Sendero, but it became increasingly indiscriminate over time. As I said, it's been well-acknowledged that hundreds of innocent people were swept up, and others were killed. Many were subjected to legal processes utterly devoid of any kind of due process.
POV: How different was Peru's approach from other nations -- especially Peru's neighbor states in South America?
Goldman: Peru's neighbors in the southern cone of Latin America -- Argentina, Chile, Uruguay -- had what were called "dirty wars." But they really weren't armed conflicts. "Dirty wars" involved the state, over a prolonged period of time, engaging in what amounts to state terror against internal enemies. Peru, in contrast, was a true armed conflict, within the meaning of the laws of war.
So it's really hard to compare these things with what happened in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In Peru, Fujimori was elected by the people. In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, the democratically-elected governments were overthrown, and you had coupist governments that basically suppressed and terminated the parliaments and the courts. They really were not armed conflicts, but they were extremely brutal. We know in Argentina that perhaps up to 30,000 people were disappeared. Uruguay engaged in systematic torture and had up to 10,000 political prisoners.
The closest thing is the 40-year period of the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia. But there are also some major differences. For one, the dissident forces in Colombia, the FARC, and to a lesser extent the ELN, have certainly engaged in a lot of violent acts and violations of the laws of war. The Colombian response so far has been somewhat checked, and that is because Colombia has not had a coup d'état in this period, and the legislature has acted as something of a brake.
Colombia opted, at one point in the early 90s, to use faceless courts, but they ditched those. The closest thing to Sendero in Colombia would be various elements of the paramilitary forces that have effectively been aligned with the state security forces. They have been responsible for barbaric and indiscriminate acts directed against suspected dissidents and their opponents. With the reelection of president Alvaro Uribe, and his control of Congress, we'll have to see whether those brakes and checks continue to operate on his policies. But I would not say that any of the Colombian governments have acted as lawlessly as the Fujimori government did in trying to put down Sendero.
POV: How did Peruvians react to the government's efforts to combat Shining Path, MRTA and other rebel groups?
Goldman: There's no question that initially, Fujimori had great popular support. When he closed the courts, the people applauded, because the system had become completely corrupt. It was unable to engage in convictions and function well. The amount of justice you got was really dependent on the size of the bribe. This was well known. And so people applauded. When people feel there is no security, people will support suspension of fundamental liberties, basically believing, "This really doesn't affect me, I'm a good citizen, I'm not engaged in any subversive activities."
So the only voices out there were the human rights organizations that were beginning to document and bring to light what was going on. And this came to light as more and more measures were taken, as more innocent people were swept up under these anti-terrorism laws, as they saw the justice system was also becoming an instrument of repression. When Fujimori began attacking critics who were influential, the press, the constitutional judges, it made people uneasy. So there began to be diminishing returns.
POV: It seems that government efforts to combat terrorism often involve tradeoffs between ideals of security and liberty. How do governments and citizens negotiate that tradeoff? Is there an inevitable conflict between security and liberty?
Goldman: First of all, I really think it's a false tradeoff, and I think one has to start with the basic presumption that human rights are not an obstacle. Respect for the rule of law and human rights is not an obstacle to successfully fighting terrorism. Indeed, they are complementary responsibilities -- after the September 11 attacks, for instance, the Security Council and the General Assembly have all indicated through resolutions that the fight against terrorism has to conform to respect for fundamental human rights and the laws of war. Indeed, those who know human rights law will realize that these commitments and treaties such as the Geneva Conventions were written by states.
States were keenly aware of the need to balance national security concerns against individual liberty. And they included in the treaties measures that are temporary and exceptional that states can take when facing an extraordinary threat, which could include both international and domestic terrorism. This means that states are able to restrict and limit rights, and occasionally able to suspend the exercise of certain rights. But all within the framework of the rule of law. In other words, you cannot justify surrendering away the rule of law, of fundamental checks and balances, in doing this.
Experience largely tells us, unfortunately, that this does not seem to have been followed by many states. States, and the United States included, in my judgment, do not seem to have learned the lessons from the past. People seem to forget that in the 1980s, based on experiences in Asia and Latin America, very detailed studies were done on the effects of emergencies on the rule of law and the protection of human rights. Almost all of these studies showed that the initial responses of states, when facing terrorist threats, have been to increasingly have power flow to the executive branch, with a concomitant passivity or marginalization of the legislative branch. At times the civilian judiciary has also been marginalized, because frequently the model has been to create special jurisdictions to deal with terrorist offenses.
The great lesson that came out of past experiences is that the other branches of government need to be involved, and that the civilian judiciary needs to be involved in a supervisory role, both with respect to the content and the nature of the measures to ensure that the rule of law is not surrendered. Various individual countries have also learned some lessons. Criticism of U.S. policies on terrorism come from places like Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Western Europe, all regions which have had to deal with severe terrorist threats in the past. They have opted for different ways of dealing with these things.
So I don't think that following basic due process precludes a state from taking strong, vigorous and robust measures against legitimate terrorist threats. But when you start acting lawless abroad, it's going to have a spillover effect at home, and vice versa. I think those lessons are well-documented.
POV: What lessons about combating terrorism can be drawn from the Fujimori era in Peru? Are there particular lessons in the way that fighting terrorist groups reinforced the government's slide toward autocracy?
Goldman: I think the lesson, always is, "The ends can't justify the means." Fujijmori ended up discredited, in large measure -- though there's still a portion of the population that supports him.
One can look at the Argentine experience for an example of the wounds that can be incurred by a state's responses to terrorism. We're 20 or 25 years from the events there, and Argentina is still coping with the effects of policies in which the ends justified the means. People still want the truth, they want accountability, they want justice.
When, in the name of fighting terrorism, the state descends to the same level as the terrorists, when they say "the gloves are coming off," when the prohibition against torture is set aside, we see a spillover effect like what has happened in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and God knows where else. These divide society, have created major problems for us with our allies and certainly not have helped us in public opinion. Arguably, these methods have been counterproductive for trying to win support globally for the war on terror.
Peru is still a very fractured society. People are still demanding justice. There's been a truth commission that did a superb, very balanced report in assigning responsibility, but the society is not ready to confront all of the consequences of the lawlessness that occurred, and this will continue to haunt Peru, just as it's haunted Argentina, and it's haunted Chile, and it's haunted Uruguay. What one would hope is that in fighting terrorism, complying with the law is not a weakness, it's a strength. It's what differentiates you, in part, from your enemy. It's also going to give you legitimacy, both at home and abroad. I think that that's the lesson that needs to be learned.
Robert Goldman is a professor of law at the Washington College of Law at American University and co-director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. From 2004 to 2005 he served as an independent expert on human rights and terrorism at the United Nations. From 1996 to 2004 he served on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the Organization of American States. From 1992 to 1994 he chaired a commission created by the U.S. and Peruvian governments to evaluate anti-terrorism measures in Peru.

domain: law


text:
Sedona, AZ, U.S.A. 2006 Oversized Soft Cover Very Good 0976216604 Used 180 pages. Clean, crisp copy. Contents include: Earth's Life Support Systems; Livestock vs the
Environment; Food Choices & Natural Resources; Food Contamination; Animal Welvare; Foods & Disease; The Plant Kingdom; Super Heroes for Health; USDA & the National School Lunch Program; Implementing the Earth Voice Food Choice Project; Presenting to Young People; Need for Involvement; Plant-Based Food Preparation for Schools, Camps, Institutions & Homes; Handouts; etc.
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text:
Walmart has been dominating in the fashion department! There is a new brand called Time and Tru and that’s what I’ll be sharing today. We don’t have a Super Walmart locally so I had to venture out of town for these finds! I was in awe at how many amazing pieces they had! I’m so excited to share some outfit inspiration with you today! Some pieces are so versatile they’ll get you through multiple seasons! Most of the clothing items I snagged are under $20! You can’t beat that! The brand does run a smidge big. I’m wearing a small in all things pictured. I’m 5’5 for reference.
Starting with one of my favorite finds is this jacket shirt! Perfect to throw on over a t-shirt to run some errands or dress up for work! I paired it with my Sperry’s and some navy pants, but it would also look great with white pants and your favorite booties!
Next up is this neutral puff sleeve top. This top comes in a variety of colors and is just the thing to make a statement by itself or layer it with your favorite jacket over top! Either way, I’m loving it and you can’t beat the price coming in at $10. I paired this top with some of my favorite colored pants and a new sneaker that will go with just about anything!
It wouldn’t be fall with out a flannel! I had a really hard time deciding which color to pick out! There were too many good choices! Flannels are the perfect shirt to pair with a graphic tee or I love to put a vest over them! I paired this one with some white pants and booties!
This blouse is a steal at $13 and comes in 4 different colors! It was a tough choice between this color and the blue! This vibrant blouse would also be a great piece for next spring! Wear it out for date night or to work!
Another thing this brand got right are the dresses! This style of dress came in several different prints and of course I had to snag the leopard! Hands down it’s my favorite print! This jacket was the perfect piece to throw over the dress and will be a staple this fall! It also comes in black. The jacket does run big. I’m wearing a small and this was the smallest size offered.
This is the same dress as above, but in a different pattern! This will also be great for spring! Pair it with your favorite booties or boots to have you looking stylish all through out the season!
Last, but not least I’m sharing this green dress that I wore for family pictures! It was soo cheap and went perfectly with the new jacket I bought!
Have you bought anything from this brand!? If so, please share in the comments below!

domain: design


text:
Why does this program exist?
To give BIPOC artists a platform and the means to continue creating their art.
The advertising industry needs a dramatic increase in BIPOC representation. It’s been embarrassingly imbalanced for far too long. Especially in a city as diverse as Toronto, that’s unacceptable.
We hope that initiatives like this can help to create change. Because change is long overdue.

domain: sociology


text:
May 16, 2013
SEC spring rewind: Auburn
This is the eighth installment of a 14-part look at spring practices throughout the SEC that the SEC writers of the Rivals.com network are bringing over a three-week period.
...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!


text:
My fiction is an inspiration,
From pleasure and perspiration,
Some tears and exultation,
But it is only an imagination.
I swear by the limitation,
Of my mind, its interpretation,
Of every lovely creation.
Inspired by Trifecta Writing Challenge
This week it says – ‘This weekend we are asking for a thirty-three word confession. You’re free to write non-fiction or fiction or to blur the lines in between. We just encourage you to get creative and give us your best.’
This piece is almost a non-fiction. All the moods and their exaggerations, that I try to capture through my writing, inspired by a complex called our world, almost dazzle me sometimes. I, for one, thankfully, have met very beautiful individuals – those who have mattered to me, even once. Write this as a confession and a wish that may they have a great life 🙂
Like they say, Wishes have a power too !


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text:
It’s Monday, but it doesn’t quite feel like a Monday. It is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday (or really the day to observe it), and it is the first time in my working life that I’ve had it off as a paid holiday.
I’m sitting here listening to music and drinking my first cup of coffee. I’ve been writing more lately. Writing always helps me so much. Music, too.
Music is my oxygen.
So, let’s breathe in today’s Give Me Five songs. Inhale. Exhale. Press Play.
“I wanna know,
will you love me?
I wanna know,
will you care –
in the morning?”
A new Aretha song-discovery for me this morning. Lyrically, I’m reminded of The Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”. Style-wise/sound-wise it is very ’90s R&B. I love the soul in her voice on this track.
Aretha is one of my all-time favorite voices. I love that there is still music of hers that I haven’t heard yet, that there is still music of hers to discover.
“Every light is on,
but all the rooms,
are empty –
Oh babe don’t stay too late.
You know I hate to be alone.
And I’m alone.
Baby woncha come on home?”
I love Joan’s voice. There’s a little Nina Simone in it, and a little Janis Joplin – to me. I’m digging into her albums a lot lately, discovering and re-discovering songs. This is the one that I’m stuck on today – hitting replay, listening again.
If you want to hear more Joan and support her and her music – click here.
“Meet me in outer space.
We could spend the night.
I’ve grown tired of this place.
We could start again.”
Jamila is a new discovery of mine. I love her voice and lyrics, the newer R&B sounds/style. The state of the world lately definitely makes meeting someone in outer space a dreamy option – don’t you think?
If you want to dig in to Jamila’s sound, and help support her and her music – click here.
“He was a skater boy,
she said, “See you later, boy”,
he wasn’t good enough for her.
She’s not a therapist,
don’t wanna take care of him –
she’s an independent girl.”
I’m kinda obsessed with Ashnikko’s take on “Sk8er Boi” (Avril Lavigne, 2002). I mean…yeah. I’m all kinds of here for this.
Check out Ashnikko’s new album and other songs, and support her and her music by clicking here and checking out merch and music.
“Sorrow found me when I was young.
I’m currently reading Tiffanie DeBartolo’s new book “Sorrow”, which she has said was partially inspired by The National. This song was featured in the book towards the beginning – the lyrics above.
I’ve been a fan of The National for years now. Some of their songs have inspired some of my writing, too. This is a beautifully sad song, one that hits deep and fits right in with not only the book “Sorrow”, but the last book I read, Joan Didion’s “The Year Of Magical Thinking”.
I love when art inspires art.
Check out Tiffanie DeBartolo’s book (and her others, including my favorite book of all-time, “God-Shaped Hole”) by clicking here.
Hear more from The National and help support the band and their music by clicking here.


text:
I haven’t done a crafty post in a while, so I thought it was about time I rectified that situation!
Last September at the Handmade Fair I met Moira Fuller who runs Craftiosity - a craft kit subscription service - and loved some of the different projects she had on display that had been made using the different monthly kits. Although I’m not really in a position to commit to a new box every month - there just aren’t enough hours free for all the different crafts I want to try! - the Craftiosity Christmas shop provided the perfect opportunity to purchase a single kit to try.
I eventually got round to opening the box at the end of January (I mentioned the not enough time thing. right?) and was absolutely delighted with the contents and what I’ve manged to make from them!


text:
SKELETAL MUSCLE IN COMPRESSION: MODELING APPROACHES FOR THE PASSIVE MUSCLE BULK
Ciaran K. Simms
The internal loading distribution within the body cannot generally be measured. In contrast, musculoskeletal models have the potential to predict internal stress-strain patterns at all locations within the body. However, this often requires an adequate model of the constitutive behavior of skeletal muscle tissue. Thus far, all attempts at formulating the stress response of skeletal muscle have assumed that the total stress has active and passive components that can be added to yield the total response. In quasi-static applications such as pressure-sore modeling, and in dynamic applications involving transient external loading (especially impact modeling), the passive muscle representation may be more relevant than the active response. This paper summarizes the known passive deformation behavior of skeletal muscle tissue and reviews the constitutive formulations for passive muscle that are included in combined active/passive muscle models. It is shown that none of the existing formulations can adequately represent the asymmetry in the tension/compression stress-strain response, the anisotropy in compression, and the viscoelastic phenomena that have been experimentally observed. To address these shortcomings, a number of modeling developments are proposed. In particular, it is suggested that explicit recognition of the rate dependency of the stress response of skeletal muscle in compression may provide significant benefits. Furthermore, explicit recognition of the high fluid content in skeletal muscle through the development of a poroelastic formulation may be more beneficial than further advances in micromechanical modeling based purely on a solid formulation.
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domain: medical


text:
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is preparing to issue an arrest warrant for Harvey's bodyguard, who is accused of causing keying the car of a young equestrian show participant.
“We are planning on issuing a warrant for the arrest of an associate of Steve Harvey,” PBSO Spokesman Eric Davis told Gossip Extra. He added: “I can’t give out the name now but it appears that he is the only suspect.”
The incident occurred during the Winter Equestrian Festival’s show jumping competition in West Palm Beach, Florida this past weekend. Harvey's 15-year-old daughter Lori was one of the equestrians participating in the event.
Police say the car of an amateur equestrian was keyed so deeply into the metal it could cost upwards of $7,000 to repair. The incident is believed to have started during an argument over a parking spot, according to Gossip Extra.
Witnesses tell police they saw a man matching the bodyguard's description near a late model Ford Fusion in the parking lot.
Deputies caught up with Harvey and his boydguard near the tent where his daughter preparing for her competition.
“Steve just sat in a golf cart and wasn’t talking much,” a source at the stadium tells Gossip Extra. “The deputy talked mostly with the bodyguard.”
Harvey is not considered a suspect.
More from Sandrarose.com:


text:
This picture is a bit of a departure for me since I don’t normally post images like this. It’s kind of a bokeh explosion with almost no clear focal point except for the one seed in the center (another thing I don’t do very often, incidentally) but I’m posting it here for a couple of reasons. You might have remembered a few posts in which I cautioned against shooting prime lenses wide open unless you really needed that crazy depth of field or light-gathering ability. Most lenses aren’t the sharpest when wide open, and the depth of field is often so shallow it’s downright unmanageable. Unfortunately, my trusty little (or giant, when you put it next to almost any modern camera) D200 is not the performer it once was and has this nasty habit of not stopping down the lens aperture on about one in five pictures. This means on any given photo session where I’m shooting with an aperture smaller than f/1.8 I’ll have several photos that are fine and then one that is completely washed out because the lens blades did not close properly.
To combat this problem I’ve started thinking of my lens as not just limited in focal length, but limited in aperture as well. By shooting at only f/1.8 I have had to consider things that would not normally be an issue, since I could just control depth of field or incoming light by stopping down my aperture a bit. It’s kind of ironic since I normally preach against using the widest possible aperture and yet, in some ways it’s what I’m stuck with.
This photo, then, is a result of such conditions. It’s a sprig of seeds on a Chinese Pistache tree caught in the afternoon sunlight, and what you see here is almost exactly what I set out to capture: one single seed in focus with the rest of the image a red and white tapestry of beautiful bokeh. In some ways I wish I could have made the foremost seed a little more accentuated since it’s kind of difficult to notice at first glance, but when dealing with non-macro lenses results like this are about as good as one can reasonably expect.
This is one of about 25 images I shot while moving the focusing ring on my lens back and forth and I quite like it partly because it’s kind of a unique composition for me but also because this is the first post of December and the colors evoke a sense of the coming Christmas season. A bit of foreshadowing, if you will. So while this might be a bit premature, let me close this post in turn with a bit of foreshadowing about Christ himself from the book of Deuteronomy:
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; (18:15)
Beautiful verse to put with it. And not premature at all, since it is Advent, after all! May we all truly hearken unto Him!
Yes, I have had those issues with my 50 mm too! Thanks for the reminder! Still really enjoyed the colors!
Really? You have the same problem? Now that’s interesting. I figured it was just something weird about my camera and lens, but in a way it’s nice to know others have similar issues. Have you found anything that solved it?
Enjoyed looking at this week’s photo. Normally, you don’t open your aperture to 1.8 or 1.4 for your photos. In fact, I have been learning from you that quite a bit of bokeh can be achieved by using f2.8. Now you shoot at f1.8!
Other than that single seed, everything else is totally out of focus. The splash of light and color surrounding that seed is intriguing. Hmmm… would that not suggest that we be aware that, at wide apertures, our depth of field is very limited? Maybe one of the reasons we are told to focus on the subject’s eye? I will make it a point this weekend to work with my D7100 and my prime lenses set at f1.8 and f1.4.
Finally, nice verse from Deuteronomy. Christ is risen!
You’re spot on about the wide apertures, David. I don’t like shooting at f/1.8 as a general rule because the depth of field is razor thin, but sometimes it’s worth it to get that nice blurry background! I’m sure you will get some good shots this weekend with the mild weather, and if you would ever be so inclined as to post them online (I use Flickr for my photos) I would love to see them :)
Great photo, and perfect verse to set the tone for the holidays! Thanks for sharing with us!
Thank you Mike!
I’m glad to hear that you spent some time (25 shots) playing with it. I hate to think anyone is happy with a single click. The side lighting (even in the bokeh) creates a very dynamic out-of-focus area.
Thanks for your comments William, and if I’ve learned anything about photography in my life it’s that sometimes you need a ton of shots just to get one good one. Of course as a photographer yourself, I know this is a rule you surely know all too well :)

domain: hobby


text:
Simultaneously enhanced dielectric properties and through-plane thermal conductivity of epoxy composites with alumina and boron nitride nanosheets.
ABSTRACT: Dielectric materials with good thermal transport performance and desirable dielectric properties have significant potential to address the critical challenges of heat dissipation for microelectronic devices and power equipment under high electric field. This work reported the role of synergistic effect and interface on through-plane thermal conductivity and dielectric properties by intercalating the hybrid fillers of the alumina and boron nitride nanosheets (BNNs) into epoxy resin. For instance, epoxy composite with hybrid fillers at a relatively low loading shows an increase of around 3 times in through-plane thermal conductivity and maintains a close dielectric breakdown strength compared to pure epoxy. Meanwhile, the epoxy composite shows extremely low dielectric loss of 0.0024 at room temperature and 0.022 at 100 ? and 10-1 Hz. And covalent bonding and hydrogen-bond interaction models were presented for analyzing the thermal conductivity and dielectric properties.
Project description:Polymer composites with enhanced thermal and dielectric properties can be widely used in electric and energy related applications. In this work, epoxy composites have been prepared with Ti3C2Tx, one of the most studied MXene materials that can be massively produced by direct etching using hydrofluoric acid. The addition of conductive two dimensional Ti3C2Tx platelet fillers leads to improved but anisotropic thermal conductivity of the composites. The through-plane thermal conductivity reaches 0.583 Wm-1K-1 and the in-plane thermal conductivity reaches 1.29 Wm-1K-1 when filler content is 40 wt% (21.3 vol%), achieving enhancements of 2.92 times and 10.65 times respectively, as compared with epoxy matrix. The dielectric permittivity of epoxy composite is enhanced by a factor of ~2.25 with 40 wt% fillers, and the dielectric losses are within a small value of 0.02. The results prove the effectiveness of Ti3C2Tx in simultaneously improving thermal and dielectric performance of epoxy composites, and it is deduced that further improvements may be obtained by using Ti3C2Tx nanoflake fillers.
Project description:Polymer modified fillers in composites has attracted the attention of numerous researchers. These fillers are composed of core-shell structures that exhibit enhanced physical and chemical properties that are associated with shell surface control and encapsulated core materials. In this study, we have described an apt method to prepare polyimide (PI)-modified aluminum nitride (AlN) fillers, AlN@PI. These fillers are used for electronic encapsulation in high performance polymer composites. Compared with that of untreated AlN composite, these AlN@PI/epoxy composites exhibit better thermal and dielectric properties. At 40?wt% of filler loading, the highest thermal conductivity of AlN@PI/epoxy composite reached 2.03?W/mK. In this way, the thermal conductivity is approximately enhanced by 10.6 times than that of the used epoxy matrix. The experimental results exhibiting the thermal conductivity of AlN@PI/epoxy composites were in good agreement with the values calculated from the parallel conduction model. This research work describes an effective pathway that modifies the surface of fillers with polymer coating. Furthermore, this novel technique improves the thermal and dielectric properties of fillers and these can be used extensively for electronic packaging applications.
Project description:Thermal management has become a critical challenge in electronics and portable devices. To address this issue, polymer composites with high thermal conductivity (TC) and low dielectric property are urgently needed. In this work, we fabricated perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) composite with high anisotropic TC and low dielectric constant by aligning boron nitride nanosheets (BNNs) via hot pressing. We characterized the thermal stability, microstructure, in-plane and through-plane TCs, heat dissipation capability, and dielectric property of the composites. The results indicate that the BNNs-PFA composites possessed good thermal stability. When the BNNs content was higher than 10 wt %, the BNNs were well layer aligned in the PFA matrix, and the composites showed obvious anisotropic TC. The in-plane TC and through-plane TCs of 30 wt % BNNs-PFA composite were 4.65 and 1.94 W m-1 K-1, respectively. By using the composite in thermal management of high-power LED, we found that alignment of BNNs in composite significantly improves the heat dissipation capability of composite. In addition, the composites exhibited a low dielectric property. This study shows that hot pressing is a facile and low-cost method to fabricate bulk composite with anisotropic TC, which has wide applications in electronic packaging.
Project description:Polymer composites with excellent thermal conductivity and superior mechanical strength are in high demand in the electrical engineering systems. However, achieving superior thermal conductivity and mechanical properties simultaneously at high loading of fillers will still be a challenging issue. In this work, a facile method was proposed to prepare the epoxy composite with carbon fibers (CFs) and alumina (Al2O3). This CF and Al2O3 hybrid structure can effectively reduce the interfacial thermal resistance between the matrix and the CFs. The thermal conductivity of epoxy composite with 6.4 wt % CFs and 74 wt % Al2O3 hybrid filler reaches 3.84 W/(m K), which is increasing by 2096% compared with that of pure epoxy. Meanwhile, the epoxy composite still retains outstanding thermal stability and mechanical performance at high filler loading. A cost-effective avenue to prepare highly thermally conductive and superior mechanical properties of polymer-based composites may enable some prospective application in advanced thermal management.
Project description:High over-all properties, including low dielectric loss, high breakdown strength, high mechanical shock strength, high thermal conductivity and high weight stability, are very difficult to simultaneously achieve in electrical-insulation applicable cured potting-adhesive materials. To deal with this challenge, in this work, we have designed and fabricated a series of epoxy based composite potting-adhesives filled with low-cost and high-performance inorganic micro-particles including alpha-silica, alpha-alumina and alpha-SiC. Combination employment of high-molecular-weight and low-molecular-weight epoxy resins as matrices has been made. Heat-induced curing or crosslink of resin matrices has been carried out. Large band gap of silica filler has endowed the cured composite with high breakdown strength and ageing breakdown strength, and meanwhile relatively high deformation trait of silica has led to high shock strength of cured composite. Silica filler has been found to be superior to other two fillers, namely, optimal over-all properties such as dielectric, breakdown, mechanical and thermal features have been obtained in silica filled cured composite. High breakdown strength of ~48?MV m-1 and shock strength of ~9950?J?m-2 have been achieved in silica loaded composite. This work might open up the way for large-scale fabrication of promising epoxy-based hybrid potting-adhesives.
Project description:The development of highly thermally conductive composites with excellent electrical insulation has attracted extensive attention, which is of great significance to solve the increasingly severe heat concentration issue of electronic equipment. Herein, we report a new strategy to prepare boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) via an ion-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation method. Then, silver nanoparticle (AgNP) modified BNNS (BNNS@Ag) was obtained by in situ reduction properties. The exfoliation yield of BNNS was approximately 50% via the ion-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation method. Subsequently, aramid nanofiber (ANF)/BNNS@Ag composites were prepared by vacuum filtration. Owing to the "brick-and-mortar" structure formed inside the composite and the adhesion of AgNP, the interfacial thermal resistance was effectively reduced. Therefore, the in-plane thermal conductivity of ANF/BNNS@Ag composites was as high as 11.51 W m-1 K-1, which was 233.27% higher than that of pure ANF (3.45 W m-1 K-1). The addition of BNNS@Ag maintained tensile properties (tensile strength of 129.14 MPa). Moreover, the ANF/BNNS@Ag films also had good dielectric properties and the dielectric constant was below 2.5 (103 Hz). Hence, the ANF/BNNS@Ag composite shows excellent thermal management performance, and the electrical insulation and mechanical properties of the matrix are retained, indicating its potential application prospects in high pressure and high temperature application environments.
Project description:Polymer-based composites with high thermal conductivity and dielectric breakdown strength have gained increasing attention due to their significant application potential in both power electronic devices and power equipment. In this study, we successfully prepared novel sandwich AlN/epoxy composites with various layer thicknesses, showing simultaneously and remarkably enhanced dielectric breakdown strength and thermal conductivity. The most optimized sandwich composite, with an outer layer thickness of 120 μm and an inner layer thickness of 60 μm (abbreviated as 120-60) exhibits a high through-plane thermal conductivity of 0.754 W/(m·K) (4.1 times of epoxy) and has a dielectric breakdown strength of 69.7 kV/mm, 8.1% higher compared to that of epoxy. The sandwich composites also have higher in-plane thermal conductivity (1.88 W/(m·K) for 120-60) based on the novel parallel models. The sandwich composites with desirable thermal and electrical properties are very promising for application in power electronic devices and power equipment.
Project description:In this study, hybrid fillers of spherically shaped aggregated boron nitride (a-BN) attached with SAC305, were fabricated via simple stirring and the vacuum filtration method. a-BN was used as the primary conductive filler incorporated with epoxy resin, and these fillers were interconnected each other via the coalescence behavior of SAC305 during the thermal curing process. Based on controlled a-BN content (1 g) on 3 g of epoxy, the thermal conductivity of the composite filled with hybrid filler (a-BN:SAC305 = 1:0.5) reached 0.95 W/mK (33 wt%) due to the construction of the 3D filler network, whereas that of composite filled with raw a-BN was only 0.60 W/mK (25 wt%). The thermal conductivity of unfilled epoxy was 0.19 W/mK.
Project description:Development of polymer-based composites with simultaneously high thermal conductivity and breakdown strength has attracted considerable attention owing to their important applications in both electronic and electric industries. In this work, boron nitride (BN) nanofibers (BNNF) are successfully prepared as fillers, which are used for epoxy composites. In addition, the BNNF in epoxy composites are aligned by using a film casting method. The composites show enhanced thermal conductivity and dielectric breakdown strength. For instance, after doping with BNNF of 2 wt%, the thermal conductivity of composites increased by 36.4% in comparison with that of the epoxy matrix. Meanwhile, the breakdown strength of the composite with 1 wt% BNNF is 122.9 kV/mm, which increased by 6.8% more than that of neat epoxy (115.1 kV/mm). Moreover, the composites have maintained a low dielectric constant and alternating current conductivity among the range of full frequency, and show a higher thermal decomposition temperature and glass-transition temperature. The composites with aligning BNNF have wide application prospects in electronic packaging material and printed circuit boards.
Project description:In this study, a thermal conductivity of 0.22 W·m-1·K-1 was obtained for pristine epoxy (EP), and the impact of a hybrid filler composed of two-dimensional (2D) flake-like boron nitride (BN) and zero-dimensional (0D) spherical micro-sized aluminum oxide (Al2O3) on the thermal conductivity of epoxy resin was investigated. With 80 wt.% hybrid Al2O3-BN filler contents, the thermal conductivity of the EP composite reached 1.72 W·m-1·K-1, increasing approximately 7.8-fold with respect to the pure epoxy matrix. Furthermore, different important properties for the application were analyzed, such as Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, viscosity, morphology, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), glass transition temperature (Tg), decomposition temperature (Td), dielectric properties, and thermal infrared images. The obtained thermal performance is suitable for specific electronic applications such as flip-chip underfill packaging.


(Reuters) - Intel Corp and Motorola Mobility Inc have agreed to enter into a partnership in which the mobile phone maker would use Intel’s Atom processors in its products.
The multi-year, multi-device collaboration covers Motorola Mobility’s smartphones and tablets, the companies said.
Motorola expects to begin shipping Intel-based smartphones in the second half of the year.
In a separate statement, Intel said it has entered into a deal with Hong Kong-based Lenovo Group <0992.HK), to embed its Atom processors in Lenovo’s K800 smartphone, which is expected to launch in China in the second quarter of 2012.
Reporting by Eileen Anupa Soreng in Bangalore; Editing by Matt Driskill


text:
You're invited to attend a "Comics and Coffee" signing and panel discussion with special guest Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, Daredevil, Irredeemable, Incorruptible) on Monday, Monday, May 14th, at 6:00 p.m. at Emerald Knights - Comics and Games in Burbank, CA!
"Comics and Coffee" is a weekly discussion series of everything happening in the comic book industry, hosted by Emerald Knights every Monday evening. On May 14th, the panel will include comic industry great Mark Waid, who will discuss his epic story, Kingdom Come. Waid will be signing items for fans from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m., but be sure to stay from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. for the panel discussion.
WHAT: Comics and Coffee with Mark Waid
WHEN: Monday, May 14th
6:00 p.m. (Signing) and 7:00 p.m. (Panel Discussion)
WHERE: Emerald Knights - Comics and Games
4116 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
Stay tuned for more updates on Facebook, Twitter, and the Fanboy Comics website!
We hope that you will join us for a night of comics!

domain: entertainment


text:
Allow the NPA room to do its job
The National Prosecuting Authority should be praised for pursuing and pushing to prove its case in the Dros rape matter, instead of being vilified.
Just last week, South Africans were up in arms demanding harsh punishment for rapists and killers of women and children in the country.
There were even calls for the return of the abolished death sentence, out of frustration by the escalating gender-based violence.
Then rape accused Nicholas Ninow goes to trial on Monday and pleads guilty to two counts of rapes. He deposits a statement where he details how he raped a seven-year-old girl in the restaurant's toilet, claiming to have acted "impulsively" when she came into the cubicle to pee.
However, the NPA rejects certain parts of his version, goes to trial instead in a bid to prove its case to the court, as it is procedure in criminal matters. And that, among other things like physical evidence, requires them to put their witnesses in the dock to testify - and in this case the little girl.
When they do just that, what does some members of the public do? They take to social media to attack the NPA for traumatising minor victims by making them relive their ordeal like it was in the case of Ninow's victim.
Ironically, the same people who were demanding long sentences for perpetrators of violence against women and children, now want to dictate how prosecutors should do their job. How are they supposed to prove their version without the victim countering the evidence the accused put before the court?
Why do we want the court to believe the story of the alleged perpetrator without hearing the version of the victim?
If he walks off with a lesser jail term, the same critics will turn around and attack the prosecutions body for failing to do its job.
Understandably, the anger is based on emotions, as none of the outraged are experts in criminal law but please leave the NPA to do its work as it deems fit.
If they can prove to the court that the alleged rapist lied in his plea, that will assist them in calling for maximum jail term during aggravation of sentence.
And if Ninow gets the maximum imprisonment for his crimes at the end of the trial, that would be in the best interests of the victim, justice and society at large.


text:
The story begins in 2009, when Scott Wynd of TLC Pools approached Anston to discuss his design for the 2010 Trailfinders Australian Garden, the show garden which would be presented by Fleming’s Nurseries at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.
Scott’s garden was to be dramatic: a statement of modern, luxurious outdoor living incorporating a lap pool and spa within areas for eating and entertaining. To build a garden such as this in your own backyard would leave no change from $500,000.
The design included Anston paving in four areas: 24 large custom slabs (up to 2200mm long), custom pool steppers cut to form a circle, an Ashlar 750 pattern to make up the main entertaining area, 20mm thick wall cladding (also in the Ashlar 750 pattern) with alternate cladding units heavily shotblasted to create more texture and contrast against the plain units.
This garden was an enormous engineering and logistical feat. The team of TLC Pools, Hamilton Landscapes, Fleming’s Nurseries and Anston were rewarded for their efforts, winning a prestigious Gold Medal (the equivalent of an Olympic Gold Medal in the landscape design industry!).
“The materials produced and delivered for the Chelsea Flower Show reflect the skill, commitment to quality and pride in workmanship that are hallmarks of Anston’s work.”
Ken Connor, Anston Architectural Products


The infrastructure industry on Monday demanded the rationalization of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), easier bank credit and increased government spending at the usual pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In its presentation to the Minister of Finance, the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) called for a reduction in levies and taxes on the telecom sector amid the rollout of new 5G networks and services across the country. “…our demand for cost reduction needs to be addressed quickly,” COAI Managing Director SP Kochhar said after the infrastructure industry experts met online with the finance minister. The telecommunications industry has also argued for streamlining the GST, reducing license fees from 3% to 1%, and lowering tariffs on equipment.
COAI counts telecommunications operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea among its members.
According to sources, auto industry representatives have sought government support in terms of long-term policies to make India a strong electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing base.
They also advocated for government support to electric vehicle companies for workforce reskilling.
The Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) was of the view that the Bank Loan Rating (BLR) requirement is proving to be a major impediment to the growth of MSMEs and called for immediate intervention in setting establishment of a joint committee of RBI, banks and stakeholders to develop a single rating model for MSMEs, which focuses solely on creditworthiness.
Observing that some private sector banks levy prepayment penalties (four percent) on MSMEs who try to switch banks if they are unhappy with poor services, FISME advocated for the formation of a task force responsible for studying the extent of the spread of malicious intent and suggesting corrective measures within a specified time.
Industry body PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has suggested that infrastructure investment in the country should not be less than 10% of GDP to achieve state-of-the-art infrastructure and become a developed economy by 2047.
CII has proposed the establishment of separate SPVs in the infrastructure sector for the purpose of executing individual infrastructure projects due to the mandate of the tender conditions issued by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Sitharaman kicked off the pre-budget consultations by holding meetings with heads of chambers of industry and infrastructure experts on their expectations for the next budget.
The meetings were held virtually and Union Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad and other senior officials also attended the meeting.
”Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman is chairing his 1st #PreBudget2023 consultation with the first group of industry captains and #Infrastructure and #ClimateChange experts, in New Delhi today,’ the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet.
“The 2nd #PreBudget2023 meeting is attended by MoS Finance Shri @mppchaudhary and Dr @DrBhagwatKarad; the Finance Secretary, Dr. TV Somanathan; Secretaries of DEA, @SecyDIPAM, DoR, @DFS_India, CEA Dr Anantha Nageswaran and Senior Economic Advisor @FinMinIndia,’ he added.
The participants made suggestions on the 2023-24 budget, which will be presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance on February 1.
(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


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7 Oct 2015
Aston Rose completes High Street Kensington Acquisition
Aston Rose has completed on the acquisition of 143 High Street Kensington, London W8 on behalf of a private Middle Eastern client.
The property, currently let to Thomas Exchange Global Ltd on a 15 year lease, was bought for £4.285m.
Further details from Matt Hunter, Director of Investment (email@example.com).Back


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Do you find yourself constantly nagging your kids to clean up after themselves or help out around the house? According to a survey conducted by Braun Research, 82% of parents wish their children would do more chores. Teaching your kids to be responsible and take initiative when it comes to household tasks is not only beneficial for you, but also for their personal growth and development. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of implementing a chore chart for kids and provide practical tips on how to make it successful.
Why You Should Consider a Chore Chart for Kids
Implementing a chore chart for kids has numerous benefits, both for you and your children. Here are some reasons why you should consider creating a chore chart:
1. Teaches responsibility and accountability: Assigning tasks to your children teaches them to take responsibility for their actions and become accountable for their share of the household workload.
2. Builds self-esteem and confidence: When children feel like they are contributing to the family, they develop a sense of self-worth and accomplishment, which can boost their self-esteem and confidence.
3. Helps them learn new skills: By assigning age-appropriate tasks, children can learn new skills and gain valuable experience that they can carry with them throughout their lives.
4. Reduces your workload: Having your children help out with household tasks can significantly reduce your workload and free up time for other activities.
How to Create a Successful Chore Chart for Kids
Creating a chore chart for kids can be a daunting task, but with the following tips, it can be a fun and rewarding experience for both you and your children.
1. Get Your Kids Involved
Involve your kids in the chore chart creation process. Ask them what tasks they would like to do or what they think they are capable of doing. When children have a say in what they are doing, they are more likely to take ownership of the task.
2. Keep It Age-Appropriate
Assign tasks that are age-appropriate and realistic for your child’s abilities. Younger children may be responsible for simple tasks such as putting away toys or setting the table, while older children can handle more complex tasks such as doing laundry or washing dishes.
3. Be Consistent
Consistency is key when it comes to implementing a chore chart. Stick to the assigned tasks and hold your children accountable for completing them. This will help establish a routine and teach your children the importance of following through with their responsibilities.
4. Use Positive Reinforcement
Instead of punishing your children for not completing their tasks, use positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior. Praise your children when they complete their tasks and offer small rewards such as extra screen time or a favorite treat.
5. Make It Fun
Make the chore chart fun by adding colorful stickers or letting your children decorate it. Encourage friendly competition by assigning points or rewards for completing tasks, and have a family game night or movie night once all the tasks are completed.
Implementing a chore chart for kids can be a win-win situation for both you and your children. It teaches responsibility, builds self-esteem, and reduces your workload. By involving your children in the process, keeping tasks age-appropriate, being consistent, using positive reinforcement, and making it fun, you can create a successful chore chart that your children will enjoy and benefit from. So why not give it a try? Your future self will thank you.

domain: psychology


ALP to review health rebate in bulk billing boost
The Federal Opposition says it will review the 30 per cent health insurance rebate as part of its plans to revive bulk billing.
The ALP says its priority will be to reverse the decline in bulk billing that has occurred under the Liberal Government.
The Federal Health Minister, Senator Kay Patterson, says Labor will not be able to fund its bulk billing promises without raising taxes or cutting the health insurance rebate.
But Shadow Health Minister Stephen Smith says the ALP has not made a decision to scrap the rebate to fund its bulk billing plans.
"We think you can review the rebate to ensure that we're getting the best health outcomes when we spend taxpayers' money," Mr Smith said.
"That's why we've said that whatever savings, if any, come from our review of the rebate, will go directly to resuscitating bulk billing."


Look, Ma -- No Hands!
(Sound effect: theme music) I'm Bob Karson with the discovery files--new advances in science and engineering from the National Science Foundation.
Mind control is here. No, not to control a mind but to have the mind control something else, (Sound effect: helicopter sounds) a virtual helicopter in this case; in 3D space.
The system is the handiwork of a team led by scientists from the University of Minnesota. It's a brain-computer interface that's non-invasive just a cap you put on your head. It allows users to navigate the helicopter to fly through virtual rings and 85% of the time, mission: accomplished, flying by the power of the mind.
The system employs electroencephalography. Sensors inside the cap are able to read a specific brain wave called a sensorimotor rhythm. These signals are sent to the computer and once calibrated, have you flying the chopper using only your brain. You just think where you want it to go.
While thoughts of ways to use this technology for gaming might pop into your head, scientists see other applications: like using the mind to control devices that help people who've lost an ability due to injury or disease.
In scientific terms, this is the first time continuous three-dimensional control of a flying object in a virtual world has been accomplished from a non-invasive EEG-based brain-computer interface.
In not-so-scientific terms, 'where's the joystick?'
"The discovery files" covers projects funded by the government's national science foundation. Federally sponsored research--brought to you, by you! Learn more at nsf.gov or on our podcast.


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One of Food52's most popular columnists and a New York Times bestselling author, top food stylist Erin Jeanne McDowell shares her baking secrets and the science behind them
"Erin's fierce understanding of the science of baking makes her one of the most trustworthy bakers that I know. But what's even more special is that she does it all with the exact kind of friendliness and warmth that you want when you're about to tackle laminated dough or French macarons for the first time. The recipes here are as encouraging and thorough as they beautiful and delicious. This book is an absolute must-have for bakers of all levels." --Molly Yeh, author and blogger, My Name Is Yeh"
When people see Erin McDowell frost a perfect layer cake, weave a lattice pie crust, or pull a rich loaf of brioche from the oven, they often act as though she's performed culinary magic. "I'm not a baker," they tell her. But in fact, expert baking is not at all unattainable, nor is it as inflexible as most people assume. The key to freedom is to understand the principles behind how ingredients interact and how classic methods work. Once these concepts are mastered, favorite recipes can be altered and personalized almost endlessly.
With the assurance born out of years of experience, McDowell shares insider tips and techniques that make desserts taste as good as they look. With recipes from flourless cocoa cookies and strawberry-filled popovers (easy), through apple cider pie and black-bottom cr me br l e (medium), to a statuesque layer cake crowned with caramelized popcorn (difficult), and "Why It Works," "Pro Tip," and make-ahead sidebars with each recipe, this exciting, carefully curated collection will appeal to beginning and experienced bakers alike.
- ISBN-13: 9780544791435
- ISBN-10: 0544791436
- Publisher: Harvest Publications
- Publish Date: October 2017
- Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.8 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.77 pounds
- Page Count: 384


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A Place For Black And White In A World of Color
We examine how films have changed their use from black and white to color, as well as how it has continued to be used today.
It’s an established idea that film came into its own as an art form in black and white. Film lovers revere touchstones like Citizen Kane and Casablanca without imagining that they would be improved if they were in color – we know they’re great in large part because of their brilliant use of monochromatic cinematography. Despite this near universal admiration of black and white as a cinematic expression, very few of today’s filmmakers embrace it in their own work.
Although the transition from black and white to color as the dominant form for filmmaking occurred over many years and for many reasons, black and white had all but vanished from theaters by the late 1960’s. Since then, films produced in black and white have been largely relegated to independent, art house fare, often considered to be nostalgic or even pretentious by mainstream audiences.
Black and white began a minor resurgence in 2011, when The Artist, a joyous homage to the beginning of the sound era, won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Other prominent filmmakers embraced the form in the following years, including Noah Baumbach with his New York coming-of-age film Frances Ha, Alexander Payne with his midwestern dramedy Nebraska, and Tim Burton with his dark stop motion animation Frankenweenie. This comeback, however small, brings up questions about how we are to judge and interpret the black and white films of today as opposed to the black and white films of cinema’s golden era, when they dominated the art form.
Our cinematic world differs vastly from the era of black and white’s dominance, both in the available technology and in the perceptions and expectations of moviegoers. Given this reality, does it even make sense to make black and white films today? Can black and white be used in innovative ways to tell new stories, or are the filmmakers who employ it simply indulging in pretentious esotericism or nostalgia for a bygone era of film?
There’s a prevailing conception that film simply outgrew black and white. Many assume that as soon as color film technology became available and affordable, filmmakers made the switch. The truth is much more complicated. Unlike the transition from silent to sound films, which happened virtually overnight, color was not immediately embraced as a positive addition to film as an art form. In order to make sense of the role that black and white can play today, let’s take a look how and why it was abandoned in the first place.
A Chromatic History
The idea of color was present since the invention of film. Far before it was possible to reproduce the colors actually seen by the camera, filmmakers used various techniques to add color after filming. Early on, artists would hand paint the film stock frame-by-frame – the most legendary example of this process is the color version of George Melies’ A Trip to the Moon. Later, when filmmaking became big business, entire reels of film stock were tinted single colors. This can be seen in D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance, in which each section of the anthology is tinted a different color to create a different mood.
The technology to reproduce color existed earlier than many realize – several processes of varying quality and chromatic accuracy were used on a limited basis during the twenties and early thirties, often in high-budget musicals. Still, color had little foothold until Technicolor introduced its three-color system, patented in 1932. It involved filtering light by color and projecting it onto three film strips, which were then dyed their corresponding color (red, green, or blue) and combined to produce the final image. This process could reproduce a full gamut of rich, bright colors, resulting in the classic late-thirties Technicolor look that we know from films like The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone with the Wind.
The process was also famously expensive and restrictive. A three-color camera could cost over thirty thousand dollars, and Technicolor controlled each aspect of the process stringently, requiring a special consultant to supervise on set. But since the company had a virtual monopoly on color film technology, there weren’t any cheaper options. This severely limited the number of color films produced during the forties.
The high cost of Technicolor was not the only factor that delayed the widespread adoption of color films – the process was also artistically limiting. In a time when auteur directors were constantly pushing the artistic boundaries of cinema, the costly color process was seen by many as at best unnecessary, and at worst counterproductive to the creative goals of the art form. Technicolor severely limited the range of cinematography techniques available to filmmakers – deep focus was impossible, and lighting on set had to be extremely bright, preventing any nuanced use of shadows and disallowing outdoor filming. Technicolor productions had to be focused largely on pulling off the color convincingly, not on innovative storytelling.
In 1950, a new color film stock called Eastmancolor was introduced, ultimately breaking Technicolor’s monopoly. It could be used in a standard camera, making it far cheaper and more practical with similar quality and less stringent lighting requirements. The technology was licensed to every major studio, and within three years had completely replaced Technicolor.
Even when it became financially and technically feasible due to the improvements and ubiquity of the Eastmancolor process, many filmmakers remained resistant to embracing color. This reluctance was shared by critics and even audiences – fundamentally, color ran counter to the ingrained understanding of what a film was supposed to look like. Similar to the ambivalence surrounding 3D technology today, color was frequently seen as distracting, unnecessary, a mere marketing ploy, even vulgar. And like our issues with high frame-rate, many thought that it looked almost too real – occupying some uncanny valley between film and life. It would take another decade before color films were seen as aesthetic equals of their black and white counterparts.
Ultimately, the demands of television brought color into full industry dominance. When color TV sets became commonplace, black and white movies were seen by studios as unable to compete with the small screen. At the same time, color technology improved and filmmakers began to find inventive ways to integrate color into their work to create moods, both realistic and fantastical. Black and white had vanished slowly, then all at once.
Color is today’s baseline cinematic expression. Because audiences are so used to color, filming in monochrome subverts their expectations immediately, signaling that an artistic choice has been made that they need to connect to the narrative. In this way, black and white functions in a fundamentally different way than it did in in the past – filmmakers are expected to use it in more specific ways to enhance or subvert the story and tone of their films. This can be done in many ways, creating different cinematic experiences.
Evoking the Past
A useful distinction to make when analyzing the black and white films of today is between films that use black and white to pastiche older genres and styles of filmmaking, and those that choose to use it for purely aesthetic reasons, with no reference to the past.
French director Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist is the most prominent recent example of the first category, the retro pastiche. Hazanavicius doubled down on his embrace of period film techniques by making The Artist predominantly silent, thus producing the film as it would have existed in the time of its setting in the late twenties. While studios blanched at the commercial difficulties that such a film entailed, audiences embraced it – not only was it beautifully made, it was different from anything in theaters at the time. The Artist is able to reproduce not only the visual look of the era, but also the tone – it’s permeated with the excitement of an art form still in its infancy. The effect was no less than magical, proving to the industry that people would turn out for a black and white film that offered them something interesting.
Andrew Bujalski’s 2013 film Computer Chess also falls into the category of retro pastiche, but creates an entirely different experience. Set in 1980, it’s a loosely-structured mockumentary centering around a group of computer science researchers gathered in a hotel to pit their chess-playing algorithms against each other. Grainy black and white is used to imitate the look of amateur video shot on consumer cameras. The film captures the time and place in uncanny realism – with unmannered performances and shaky, haphazard cinematography, it can almost be mistaken for a real documentary in its opening scenes.
While The Artist used black and white primarily in service of creating a love letter to a bygone era of filmmaking, Computer Chess ties monochromaticity into the movie’s themes. The lack of color reflects the state of mind of the researchers at the conference – these people are focused on their work to the point of obsession, unable to take in the full gamut of human experience. This connection is made clear by a single color scene, the only one that takes place outside the bounds of the hotel.
Nebraska: Modern Lives in Black and White
The second category of modern black and white films are those that don’t use black and white to make reference to a genre or create an authentic sense of period, and theoretically would work if they had been shot in color. From a commercial standpoint, these films are an even harder sell than their more nostalgic counterparts — there’s no obvious reason for audiences to choose them over similar color films. They’re also more likely to be viewed as pretentious, because the choice to film in monochrome usually has no explicit function in the narrative.
Sideways and The Descendants director Alexander Payne’s 2013 foray into black and white, Nebraska, depicts an old man scammed into believing that he has won a large sum of money despite his family’s attempts to convince him otherwise. Although the story would be unchanged in color, black and white suits the film well. The bleak midwestern landscape of the titular location wouldn’t have much color anyway — black and white actually imparts more visual interest than the de-saturated greys, browns, and greens that likely would have characterized a color version of the film. While Nebraska isn’t set in the past, it is about the past, and our relationship to it as we age or watch our loved ones age. The instant sense of nostalgia that black and white imparts therefore subtly underscores the film’s themes.
When discussing the decision to film Nebraska in black and white, Alexander Payne mentions no specific psychic or aesthetic connection to the story told in the film, but instead points to monochrome’s inherent qualities as a visual medium, noting that “[black and white] left cinema only for commercial reasons – it never left fine-art photography.” He makes a good point: monochrome remains a standard in still photography, from National Geographic to the average teenager’s Instagram feed. Black and white photos allow for a greater focus on composition, because the eye isn’t drawn to all corners of the frame by pops of color. Details and textures come to the forefront, and stark contrasts make for dramatic uses of light. All of this is as true of the moving image as it is of the still image.
It’s impossible to say how Nebraska would have been received had it been it color – would it, as the producers predicted, have made more money? But if it did, would it have garnered the same level of awards-season buzz?
Fury Road : A Monochromatic Case Study
While weighing the values of color and black and white, it would obviously be helpful to watch a film fully realized in both forms. This is usually impossible, but there is one exception that allows us to do just that. Following the release of his immensely successful and critically lauded car chase thriller Mad Max: Fury Road, director George Miller stated that the best version of the film was actually in black and white. The following year audiences got to make that judgement themselves – a fully monochromatic version of Fury Road, the “black and chrome” edition, was released in a limited run in theaters and later on DVD and digital.
This affords us a great opportunity to compare color and black and white directly, and to explore the strengths that each form brings to the table. In this critical experiment, we’ve controlled for story – both versions have the same airtight, breakneck-paced edit.
The standard version of Fury Road is not an average color film by any means. Heavily saturated color grading was used in concert with wild production design to create a vibrant and surrealistic world. It’s not unfair to imagine that a monochrome version would diminish this core strength of the original.
The black and white version of the world does feel very different, but it’s no less fantastical than the color version – if anything, it feels even more removed from ordinary reality. Miller describes this effect in an introductory video to the release: “Something about black and white, the way it distills [the film], makes it a little bit more abstract.” In particular, a series of shots of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa falling to her knees on a sand dune feel so quintessentially cinematic that they could have been lifted from an Ingmar Bergman film. Black and white’s ability to render details is on full display, especially in close-ups – you can practically see every individual hair on Tom Hardy’s face. Ultimately, the lack of color is a trade off – one layer of visual interest is removed, but another is added.
One weakness of the black and white version is that it’s more difficult to track fast-moving action, especially during the quick-cutting, intricately choreographed fight sequences on and around moving vehicles. It’s likely that if the film was produced in black and white from the start, Miller would have had to tone down the visual density a bit to alleviate this issue.
Nebraska certainly uses black and white to its advantage, but the black and white version of Fury Road better demonstrates the untapped potential of monochrome combined with modern cinematic techniques, especially visual effects. It makes one wish that more mainstream filmmakers would attempt the form, especially in genre films. As a recent example, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner: 2049 would have been a great candidate: like Fury Road, it uses color in creative and surrealistic ways, but would have had a different and interesting dramatic flavor in black and white.
Understandably, it’s big ask for studios to risk releasing a mainstream film in monochrome. Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie proved their apprehension to be valid — although critically adored, it was a box-office failure, taking in a paltry eleven million its opening weekend. Hopefully the buzz that Fury Road’s special edition received can convince studio execs that a high-budget black and white film would be worth the gamble, but fans of black and white shouldn’t hold their breath.
It’s impossible to deny that making a black and white film in 2017 is a fundamentally different endeavor than it was in the past. Since the baseline of what people expect to see at the theater is faithful reproduction real-world color, black and white is jarring. Rather than diminishing the power of the form, this fact opens new doors for filmmakers to use black and white in inventive and interesting ways, both to depict the past and to create new worlds.
This opportunity also comes with risk. Just as audiences were resistant to color in the forties and early fifties, many moviegoers of today will be hesitant about black and white – it’s just not what most people think movies should look like. But as The Artist proved, it’s not impossible to create a black and white film that connects with audiences. We can only hope that directors, studios and movie fans will continue to give black and white a chance. After all, the movies became art in black and white. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a part of their future.
Do you think black and white is still a relevant way to make films, or is it purely a product of nostalgia? What recent film would you love to see in black and white? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Opinions expressed in our articles are those of the authors and not of the Film Inquiry magazine.