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Landscaper Geelong – Garden Landscaping & Construction
Rigid Landscapes specialise in garden landscaping and landscape construction in Geelong and surrounding areas. We design and build outdoor spaces that reflect and enhance your home and lifestyle. We are happy to work within and maximise your landscaping budget to ensure you get the most of your garden.
Landscape Designers Geelong
Rigid Landscapes are passionate about all aspects of garden design including synthetic turf, paving, decking, retaining walls and landscape construction.
As expert landscapers in Geelong, Kane (owner and principal landscaper at Rigid Landscapes) has been in the landscaping business of creating wonderful gardens and outdoor spaces for more than 10 years. It’s fair to say that many of the gardens you have admired in Geelong over the years, have been constructed by Rigid Landscapes. Kane takes great pride in seeing how well his gardens grow and flourish over time.
The key to designing the perfect lanscaped garden is to make sure that it has a balance of function, style and practicality, and that the landscaping design works within the local environment perfectly.
Rigid Landscapes Geelong Landscaper
Professional, reliable and highly experienced landscapers in Geelong
At Rigid Landscapes, we specialise in landscape design and construction in Geelong and the surrounding areas. We create outdoor spaces that reflect and enhance your lifestyle or business needs, and we always complete our landscaping projects on time and within budget.
In Geelong, we design the perfect outdoor spaces for homes, businesses and commercial properties. We are just as passionate and enthusiastic about designing garden water features, planter boxes, paving and timber decking for small properties in Geelong, as we are about designing expansive landscaping projects with patios, pergolas, retaining walls and complex garden irrigation for larger properties in the area.
If you want a Landscape company to handle your project from start to finish – Taking care of all the individual elements from design to construction that mould together to form an overall landscape in Geelong.
We understand the local climate, and can tailor a package to match your lifestyle whilst working within your budget and are well-known for designing gardens that look good, function well and flourish all year round, then you can’t go wrong calling the professional landscapers at Rigid Landscapes.
Rigid Landscapes has a solid reputation as a professional Landscape business in the Geelong region. We can not only design your new landscape or garden, we also project manage and construct your decking, patios, pergolas, and retaining walls as well. We are passionate about building it right, and building it to last. With a large and reliable network of suppliers, we have everything on hand to successfully complete your project in time.
If your looking for anything from an overall construction of your outdoor space, to just a neaten up or new or refurbished driveway. To a stonewall builder in the Geelong area, even an outdoor entertainment area or to landscape a new or existing pool surround, we have the experience and the passion to do a perfect job, every time. Not forgetting that we also offer mini-digger hire that comes with an operator for small scale projects in Geelong as well.
Whether you want something as simple as a small garden makeover, a new deck or paved area, or an expansive new lawn installation with an automated water system. To new patios, planter boxes or even a complete outdoor lifestyle package, you can’t go wrong contacting the Geelong Landscapers passionate about quality today to discuss your needs.


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If you are in the city for just a short visit, you may not be able to cover everything. But this does not mean that you cannot enjoy this beautiful city. Twenty-four hours may seem to be too less when it comes to sightseeing in the city of Dubai. However, if you time it right, you can see and do a lot of things in just one day.
How to Save Time Sightseeing in Dubai?
You would definitely look for ways to save time when you are in Dubai just for 24 hours. One way would be get into a 24 hours hop-in and hop-off bus. The hop-in and hop-off bus gives you the tour of all the important locations in Dubai and at the same time gives commentary of each of the places on the go. You get to choose from 12 different languages for the commentary. The best thing that if you find a place interesting, you can hop off the bus to explore it in detail and then hop on to the bus to continue your tour. Moreover, along with your tickets, you get complimentary passes for museums, dhow cruises, water bus tours, etc. So, you can decide what interests you the most and plan your tour accordingly. This is the ideal way to save your time as well as money.
Things Not to Miss in Dubai
While the bus tour is an interesting concept, you may be someone who likes to chart his or her own tour. If this is true in your case, you would like to know about the things you must not miss when in this lovely city. Here, we have come up with some of the places and activities that you should not miss in Dubai.
The Dubai Mall is the mother of all malls as it is largest not only in UAE but also in the entire world. Apart from being home to almost 1200 retail stores, the mall has a large food court, a host of entertainment options and a large aquarium and underwater zoo right inside the mall. While shopping in the mall is a delight, the aquarium is something you must definitely see, especially you have children with you. If you are in Dubai Mall during evening time, step out of the mall to enjoy the fountain show.
Burj Khalifa being the tallest building in the world is something you must see when in Dubai. Located next to the Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa is a tally, steely structure comprising of 163 floors. The Burj Khalifa tour begins with a tour of the gallery which would show you the story of the construction of the building through pictures and videos. After viewing the gallery, you head to the observation deck on 124th floor in the fastest elevator created till now. The view from the 124th floor is absolutely spectacular as you would not only be able to see the entire city but also the desert and …

domain: geography


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Early 19th Century French Painted Credenza
Dealer Reference: 9370
Period: 19th Century
Sale Price: $4,850
Number of Items Offered: 1
Condition: Excellent. Minor wear consistent with age and use.
Enfilade, of oak, having a distressed painted finish, elaborately foliate carved case, its rectangular molded top, over double frieze drawers, with double cupboard doors, serpentine apron and raised on scrolling legs.
James & Jeffrey Antiques
3619 & 3713 South Dixie Highway
West Palm Beach,

domain: history


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domain: entertainment


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Sensational and talented Disc Jockey, DJ Zack brings us another mixtape. He calls this one Ruff Town. The mixtape features songs from EBony, Wendy Shay. Hope you like this one
Have a feel of it and leave your comments here, Please don’t forget to share with the social media buttons below.!!!!!!
If you are a music artist, be it upcoming or famous and you wish to drop your music for fans to access it here online. Call on +233548221150
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Iran Leader Orders Start of Plan to Save Shrinking LakeLadane Nasseri
Iran, sapped by drought in parts of the country for five decades, will try to save one of the Middle East’s largest lakes after it lost 85 percent of its water.
Lake Urmia “shouldn’t be left in its current status,” President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday, according to the state-run Fars news agency. “The government is ready to pay the costs, as much as needed, to rehabilitate the lake.”
The lake in northwest Iran has shrunk as dams were built and farmers diverted water for crops amid climate change, state media say. The average depth of Lake Urmia when it covered 5,000 square kilometers, the size of the Caribbean island of Trinidad, was six meters (20 feet). That’s now one meter, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.
The United Nations in partnership with Iran’s environment department presented a report in March on conserving Iranian wetlands. The project relating to Lake Urmia will introduce sustainable agriculture practices to 40 villages with a potential water savings of about 35 percent while water-harvesting options will also be considered, the UNDP said on its website. Japan contributed $1 million to the UNDP’s office in Tehran to help manage area waters more efficiently.
Operations to save Lake Urmia may start next week though restoring it will require 10 to 15 years, IRNA said, citing Davoud-Reza Arab, a spokesman for the Lake Urmia Restoration Committee.
Iran has suffered from drought either nationwide or in certain areas for about half of the past five decades, the Tehran-based Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper reported today, citing Deputy Energy Minister Sattar Mahmoudi. This year, Iran’s rainfall has decreased 6 percent, with the capital Tehran and 11 other cities bordering on water shortages, Mahmoudi said.
About 92 percent of Iran’s water is used in the agriculture industry, the minister said. At 236 liters (62 gallons) per person, Iran’s daily water consumption is higher than the global average, he said.


text: Dr. Golinsky is an extraordinary chiropractor and has become a major and vital part of my recovery to health. I see Dr. Golinsky as one of the MAIN instruments in helping me to overcome my anxiety and to undo the pain and trauma that years of constant anxiety had caused. I truly appreciate his outlook and his approach as well, as it is holistic and based on caring and positive energy. I can almost now look back on this entire painful ordeal as a "blessing in disguise" as it showed me and reminded me of what is important and true in life. Not only were my anxieties and pains greatly healed but also my outlook and attitude. I will never be able to repay him for all the care he has given me as he helped to restore my sanity and health. I recommend Dr. Phil to anyone who is experiencing pain.

domain: medical


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A Gonojagoron Mancha activist was stabbed by unidentified miscreants this afternoon at Bangla Motor in the capital.
Shishir, 30, came under the attack around 4:45pm near Bangla Motor foot over-bridge on his way back to Shahbagh from Bashundhara city shopping mall, Muktijodha Projonmo President Mehdi Hasan told The Daily Star.
Locals later rushed Shishir, also a member of Muktijodha Projonma, to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Mehdi said a gang of 12 miscreants attacked Shishir.
“Shishir has identified two of the mas Nobendu Saha Joy and Ariful Islam Sani,” Mehdi told The Daily Star.
Gonojagoron Mancha spokesman Imran H Sarker denied the presence of Joy, who is known to be Imran’s close aide.
“Joy has been staying in Narayanganj to celebrate the Pahela Baishakh,” Imran added.

domain: news


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SUNOVIN®, SUNOX ®,SUNNA ®, SUNOBLE ®.
According to different mechanism, Sunovin is mainly divided into two categories: hindered amine light stabilizers and ultraviolet light stabilizer. Hindered amine light stabilizers are a class of steric effects on the organic amine compounds, because of its decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, quenching medium state oxygen, scavenging of free radicals, and the effective group can be recycled, is home to the largest amount of a light stabilizer. Ultraviolet light stabilizer is known as UV absorbers, this kind of light stabilizer is using its molecular structure. Light energy is converted into heat energy to avoid plastic material of light oxidation reaction to light stabilization. Ultraviolet absorbent according to different molecular structure is divided into two benzophenones and benzotriazole and so on.

domain: chemistry


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Duff Goldman's Vanilla Cake Recipe
Duff Goldman's cake decorating tips
Duff's Chocolate cake with American Buttercream Icing.
Duff Goldman's Carrot Cake.
Confetti Cake in a Jar? Yes, and Duff Goldman Shows Us How!
How to make Quick roses Duff Goldman (from Ace of Cakes) Style!!! PERFECT FOR BEGINNERS!!! :)
Stop Making Awful Buttercream, Let Chef Duff Show You The Way | The Savory
How to use FONDANT with Duff Goldman
Duff Goldman’s Swiss Buttercream Recipe More
Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios-Buttercream Basics

domain: food


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I care about the fact that I was actually correct about marijuana, like all along.
I was right about how beneficial cannabis is and could be even more if legalized… And, I put my cash where my mouth was as soon as medical marijuana was finally legalized in various states.
I pretty much started investing in what would be crucial parts to sustain a corporate marijuana business. It was a pretty sizable risk at the time, but it was also the easiest investment I’ve ever made in my days. I’m no investment whiz. And I’ve never felt wonderful turning my cash over to some broker I don’t even know! So investing in the marijuana supplier was absolutely something that was seriously self driven the whole way. Yet, it’s so self-explanatory to take a gamble on something you just completely have a strong belief in. When I was in university, I finally got past debilitating anxiety thanks to certain sativa strains that I was introduced to. It was so completely life changing entirely for me. I finally was free of all the self judgment and fear that had plagued me up to that point in time. So when I noticed that more states were going for it with medical marijuana, I saw the golden opportunity for a big hit. Investing in the marijuana supplier was a no brainer to be honest. I guess the way I went about it has also set me up for success… These days, there are more states that have some form of legal marijuana than don’t. This is such excellent news for all the people who are going to benefit from sativa, indica and hybrid strains for sale. And all they have to do is go to a cannabis store and simply shop for marijuana for sale.

domain: finance


You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
The new Lidl TV advert is part of a £20 million marketing campaign called #Lidlsurprises.
The ad starts with consumers tasting goods, believing it to be a normal food market. The customers then express how impressed they are with the quality of the food and the good value for money prices. It’s then revealed that they are, in fact, tasting Lidl products when the stall vendors hand them their purchases in a Lidl bag.
#Lidlsurprises will be used across all media channels and take the store through to Christmas. The aim is to let the customers do the talking and encourage sales. The overall goal is to portray Lidl in a more modern way and change people’s perceptions of the store – low prices doesn’t have to mean poor quality.
The UK’s number one popcorn brand, Butterkist, is celebrating its 100thbirthday with a limited edition popcorn and a ‘Willy Wonka style’ golden birthday card giveaway.
Starting in September, a select few promotional packs will contain a golden birthday card. Each card will contain a code that can be entered into their website or Facebook page for cash prizes.
You didn’t win? Well, don’t worry…They are also giving everyone that buys a promotional pack of popcorn 50p off their next purchase.
Continuing with the celebrations, Butterkist will also be launching a Salted Caramel Flavour popcorn. And at only 104 calories per serving, the new flavour is a great snacking option.
Mexican food chain Chipotle promised its customers one tasty treat of a giveaway this month. And, with 14,000 burritos up for grabs through a digital marketing competition, boy, did they deliver!
So, how did it work? First they created a different, funky website for every day of the week and hid the URL in seven different videos. Burrito fans were then invited to watch the video on its Facebook page. The first 2,000 people to spot the hidden URL and visit the website were able to download a voucher for a free lunch.
2,000 burritos were snapped up in just eight minutes on one day during the campaign. Chipotle have certainly had a taste of digital marketing success…
Forget male celebs slowly sipping and women oohing – Kenco has gone for gangs.
The controversial approach of Kenco’s latest ad is spearheading their new multimedia campaign that launched on the 18 August to raise awareness of its ‘Coffee vs Gangs’ project.
The project is be being run in Honduras, where some of the world’s best coffee is produced – so, what better place to start.
Honduras is a country sadly beset with gang related issues that are a constant threat for young people –For some, joining a gang seems like the only choice.
The aim of Kenco’s project is to keep young people out of the gangs and instead get them into training programmes to provide them with knowledge on farming coffee and running their own profitable business – this opportunity will give them a promising chance at a prosperous future.
From September, you’ll be able to follow the stories of the people Kenco are helping on their website. https://www.coffeevsgangs.com
For the first time in its 138 year history, Warburtons is set for a rebrand.
The trusted British bakery brand has teamed up with the family favourite Paddington Bear to develop ‘Warbeartons’.
Paddington Bear will feature on the packaging of Warburtons’ Half & Half products to draw attention to the brand and create stand out in-store.
An integrated marketing campaign inspiring families to get out and about across the UK will support the new rebrand, in the lead up to the launch of the first ever Paddington movie on 28 November.
With Paddington Bear being a lover of marmalade sandwiches the two brands fit perfectly. We presume Paddington will only be making his favourite snack using a Warbeartons’ loaf from now on.
Coke are back with their ‘share a Coke campaign’ and it’s even bigger than before, with one incredible new feature – ‘personalised ads’.
The idea is simple but unique. Customers watching TV on 4od will see the general TV ad featuring a dog searching for his name. Then as a little extra add on, there will be a personalised ad featuring their own name.
Personalised bottles are now not only available in stores, but can also be ordered from the Coca-Cola website – so everyone wins!
Last year’s campaign was a huge success, and this looks set to be no different.
It’s not strictly food marketing, but I’m sure we can get away with looking at the big drinks brands every now and then – especially when the campaign is this great.
Budweiser is searching the globe for undiscovered musical talent, trawling city streets and subways to find the ‘ultimate busker band’. The campaign will culminate in a performance at the Budweiser Made in America Festival on Saturday 30 August.
With celebrity support from the likes of Jay Z and Rihanna, the search is bound to gather some momentum so watch the video above and this space…
Waitrose is set to revolutionise post holiday food shopping if its latest airport click and collect plan takes off.
According to a story in the Crawley News, the upmarket supermarket has applied for planning permission to install food lockers at the long stay car park at Gatwick’s South Terminal.
If council bosses agree, holidaymakers will be able to pre-order their groceries and unpack the shopping with the holiday suitcase.
It’s a thumbs up from us. But we’ll have to wait until 22 August to see if Waitrose can land this idea with planning bosses.
With millions of brands in the food and drink industry using the internet as a soap box for their marketing strategies, digital measurement has never be so important. Let’s take a look at some of the most common myths in the online marketing arena…
Myth #1: TV and online video follow the same rules
Myth #2: Just having a presence online is enough to drive brand impact
Myth #3: Click-through rates will tell me if my online campaign is a success
Myth #4: Everyone interacts online
Myth #5: Creative strength is less important online
Myth #6: Consumers will automatically view and share my content if I put it online
Read the full article for tips on how to avoid these industry potholes: http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1304332/six-myths-digital-marketing-measurement
Wrigley-owned Skittles has teamed up with Microsoft Xbox for a second time, offering consumers the chance to win Xbox prizes with an on-pack promotion. A unique code will feature on packs across the Skittles range, which consumers can submit via the Skittles website to find out if they have won a prize.
The four week promotion will receive a marketing boost in the shape of a £3 million integrated campaign, launching on Monday 28 July.
The last few years has seen some epic partnerships between big brands (such as Coca Cola and Menthos) so the latest duo on the scene has a lot of work to do – fingers crossed!


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As simple as that, no alterations are vital as well as wheel may be used with gears once more merely by removing the singlespeed cog and mounting a cassette.The lever over the remaining of the steering column is for ignition timing. The remaining foot pedal variations The 2 forward gears whilst the centre pedal controls reverse. The proper pedal is
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As for the answer on your issue — sorry, I don’t have the foggiest as my Blazer doesn’t hold the “Auto” characteristic. Ya gotta have one of these extravagant trucks! You determine what I’d say while? If it ain’t broke, don’t touch it! Thanks for the comments!PS – Great to own solutions Along with the Polaris however, isn’t it!
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Islamabad (IANS) Pakistan has decided to upgrade a group of banned outfits, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), to the "high risk" category and start monitoring and re-examining their activities to comply with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The Paris-based global watchdog against financial crimes had expressed dissatisfaction over considering these entities as low to medium risk and said Pakistan did "not demonstrate a proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by the JeM, Islamic State (IS), Al Qaeda, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Haqqani Network, and persons affiliated with the Taliban", Dawn news reported on Saturday.
All these groups have now been described as "high-risk" entities and would be subject to greater scrutiny by all agencies and institutions of the country, starting from their registration to operations and from their fund collection to bank accounts and issuance of suspicious transactions, information sharing and so on, an informed official said on Friday.
The institutions include the Federal Investigation Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan, National Counter-Terrorism Authority, Financial Monitoring Unit, among others.
He said these decisions were taken at a meeting of the general council on FATF led by Finance Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan as part of a series of meetings to comply with the watchdog's obligations.
Khan had led the Pakistani delegation to Paris during the February 18-22 meetings of the FATF plenary and its group reviews.
The institutions would complete this exercise within two weeks so as to present a compliance report to a delegation of the Asia-Pacific Joint Group, a regional associate of the FATF, slated to visit Islamabad on March 24, Dawn quoted the official as saying.
The delegation would review Pakistan's performance on the basis of Islamabad's fresh exercise and submit its assessment report to the FATF headquarters.
The FATF would then make a fresh review of Pakistan's current progress and whether the country should be moved out of the "grey list" it imposed last year or be downgraded to the "black list" having serious financial and economic repercussions in case of serious shortcomings.


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Screening and diagnostic imaging
exams for you and your family.
A WIDE RANGE OF MEDICAL IMAGING
Mayfair Diagnostics provides diagnostic imaging exams to investigate specific concerns, such as the cause for symptoms, as well as screening exams to help detect diseases before they cause symptoms and while they can still be successfully treated. Mayfair physicians also use medical imaging to perform minimally-invasive procedures that can help treat pain or other conditions.
Located in your community
Serving Our Communities
FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT
Find out what to expect and how to prepare for your exam.
A low-dose X-ray exam that measures bone density to determine your risk of fractures or osteoporosis.
Leading-edge breast services, including ABUS, breast ultrasound, breast MRI, and mammography.
Stress testing to assess your heart health by examining the structure and function of the heart.
A combination of X-rays and computer technology produces comprehensive images of any part of the body.
Our private pay MRIs use radio waves and a strong magnetic field to provide very clear images of the body, without radiation.
Procedures that use radioactive material and a gamma camera to assess organs, bones, or tissues.
A diagnostic exam that uses high frequency sound waves to examine organs, tissues, and blood vessels.
Offered in Regina and 11 convenient locations in Calgary. X-ray is not offered at our Cochrane, Southcentre, or Sunpark clinics.


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Founded in 2011, Avalon Malibu has carved out a niche in Malibu’s luxury scene by specializing in mental health issues as a primary diagnosis. Clients suffering from depression, anxiety, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, personality disorders and more can stay at Avalon regardless of whether they also have problems with substance abuse.
Accommodations and Food
Avalon leases two properties in the remote northern end of Malibu. The Cottage House is home to its substance abuse and addiction treatment program, which includes detox when necessary. With stunning balconies overlooking the ocean, a swimming pool and bright, airy interiors, it certainly doesn’t fall short in the comfort department. The Grand House (in Encinal Canyon) has a dramatic staircase in the foyer and a grand piano in the living room. It’s also home to Avalon’s mental health treatment program. Both houses are co-ed, and most bedrooms are private. Private access to the beach is a perk for both residences. A location on the far northwestern end of Malibu, only a couple miles from the Ventura County line, making this a private, relatively remote option for those wanting seclusion during treatment.
Meals at both facilities are prepared by gourmet chefs and, in keeping with rehabs that also treat eating disorders, healthy, well-balanced options are always on the menu. Nutritional counseling is not only available but also a big part of the program at Avalon.
Treatment and Staff
Avalon offers a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) treatment at a separate facility in Zuma Beach and are willing to work with most PPO insurance plans. It also promises a myriad of therapy options, be it traditional, cutting edge, Eastern or Western. On one side of the buffet is a mind-boggling variety of integrative therapies, including both Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. On the other, clinicians provide evidence-based practices like CBT, DBT and EMDR. Individual therapy occurs at least three times a week, and family and couples therapy are also available. And in keeping with the smorgasbord of offerings, clients can choose to participate in either 12-step or SMART Recovery meetings. The philosophy is that all the treatment variations at Avalon share a unifying focus on mindfulness practice as well as on identifying the underlying causes of mental illness and addiction.
The staff of 35 employees has both medical, clinical and wellness components. All doctors, nurses, therapists and resident advocates are kept educated and trained on the latest recovering research and treatment tools. Holistic treatment and experiential therapies are fully represented with a psychodramatist, massage therapist, neurofeedback specialist and Chinese medicine specialists also on hand.
Avalon espouses a “Sanctuary Model” of stress reduction and lifestyle changes—through recreation people can “re-create” their lives. In typical Malibu fashion, outdoor activities are plentiful, including yoga, hiking and even paddle boarding off the treatment center’s private beach. Clients also have access to the aforementioned multitude of alternative therapies like sweat lodge therapy, art therapy, acupuncture, writing therapy and a ropes course.
Avalon is a very solid option for those looking to recover the Malibu way. The wellness balance is commendable and it implements the best of both 12-step and holistic worlds.
Avalon Malibu Location
30765 Pacific Coast Hwy, Ste 376
Malibu, CA 90265
Avalon Malibu Cost
Do you have a complaint or review of Avalon Malibu to add? Use the comments area below to add your Avalon Malibu review.
Sponsored DISCLAIMER: This is a paid advertisement for California Behavioral Health, LLC, a CA licensed substance abuse treatment provider and not a service provided by The Fix. Calls to this number are answered by CBH, free and without obligation to the consumer. No one who answers the call receives a fee based upon the consumer’s choice to enter treatment. For additional info on other treatment providers and options visit www.samhsa.gov.


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Acre To Cent
Acre to cent conversion is often used in farm land purchase. In some cases commercial space also converted from acre to cents. In recent times so many agriculture lands converting into residential and commercial space purposes. so we use this conversion often. Some sellers divide land into cents to sell their property.
In Ventures, land developers sell open plots in cents. usually we see 3 cents, 4 cents plots. One cent is equal to 48.39 square yards. 3 cents is equal to 150 square yards approximately. So Cent to square yard conversion also required in some times.
Acre To Cent Conversion
1 acre = 100 cents
2 acres = 200 cents
3 acres = 300 cents
4 acres = 400 cents
Likewise we can calculate acres into cents.

domain: economics


SOLO. Bukopin Club Solo and RZ organized a social program for the citizens of Solo namely free mass circumcision, Sunday (21/12).
This program was presented as a health service for the needy. It was implemented in the Branch Office of BTN Bank of Solo. There were 50 children who became a beneficiary in this program.
To enliven the program, RZ Solo presented traditional musical performance performed by the RZ’s foster children.
Mei Widuri, Branch Manager of RZ Solo, said that the program was started at 8 a.m. and closed at 12 p.m. “We expect that the synergy will be implemented in other programs,” she said. ***


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I met a friend for lunch this week and she chose Milton's. Though I had been there a couple of times before, the cozy atmosphere struck me again with its odd mixture of collectibles; a crazy chandelier, lead pipe shelving, then there's a large and thick "ice room" door laid flat as a table! Also, check out the gurgling water pitchers! It was a fine place to meet and visit along with fine vittles. They specialize in scratch cooking with a soul food bent.
Milton’s is a home-grown neighborhood place to eat and socialize in Crystal at 3545 Douglas Drive North. Plopped in the middle of a wide range of commerce, you can find tropical fish, get a haircut or tattoo, pick up a pizza, or get a personal exercise "workout". Parking is at both ends of the strip.
Besides the great food there’s a comfy couch area for visiting and socializing with friends. It's a place to sip something from the coffee bar or kick back with your friends, relax while you catch up on your reading, or maybe do a little knitting. They even have board games for the kid in all of us.
For breakfast try the Stuffed French Toast. "Real" jerk chicken is great for later in the day as well as their signature BBQ ribs. How about an asparagus and fried egg sandwich! There is so much to chose from beyond what I mentioned.
Crystal, MN is a suburb just west of Minneapolis. It doesn't have any big 'destination' draws, it is just a quiet residential community with tree-lined streets and easy access to Highway 100 and the city. Its location makes it very convenient to get to almost anywhere in the metro area.
Crystal Lake Township started about 1860 as a swath of land stretching all the way from Plymouth (Highway 169) to the Mississippi River. Minneapolis took part of it in 1887, then Robbinsdale took another chunk of the eastern side in 1893 and New Hope took much of the western side in 1936. The Village of Crystal, what remained in the middle after the squeezes from both sides, became a city in 1960. Crystal's houses are mostly 1950's and 1960's ramblers, with some 1 1/2 and 2-story homes as well.
Average price of Crystal homes for sale (lifestyle search, needs flash) right now is $163,173, making it an affordable location for first-time homebuyers… plus it is an easy commute to downtown Minneapolis.
Let us know if you would like to check out homes for sale in Crystal (no flash needed)… we would be happy to show them to you!
John Hensrud, REALTOR
- Sunday's Site – New Hope MN, home of Cinema Grill
- Crystal Lake… a charming neighborhood lake in an affordable community


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With some of the team at Pitti Uomo in Florence, some just back from a trip to Venice and some on a short stay in East London, next week we will definitely have lots to catch up on! Below is a visual diary documenting an early-rise excursion to the Tate Modern gallery.
We enjoyed a quite coffee with a view just below the observation deck and then hurried round taking in as much of the eclectic mix of exhibits as possible before our midday train.
If you are familiar with the Tate Modern, you will already know that the building housing the art-work is a spectacle in itself, particularly in the early hours of morning with no-one else around and sunlight streaming in. It definitely had the potential to inspire future look-book or lifestyle shoot settings.
The day before we explored Whitechapel and next door the reputable Brick Lane, home of one of our favourite menswear shoes: Jacket Required. Brick Lane and the surrounding area is also home to some of the most stylish and well-curated independent shops that London has to offer, keep scrolling for more of our trip.

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Just did a World of Warships stream. Go check it out! It'll be available on my YouTube channel soon. You can watch it on my Twitch channel right now. While you're there go ahead and hit follow and sub. All the follows and subs help me out. Thanks!

domain: hobby


Coffee Lake Processors
It seems Intel is preparing to announce against the upcoming AMD Ryzen 2 processors with their very own range of prevailing eight-core processors. Yes, an octa-core Intel Coffee Lake CPU has been spotted lurking in the 3DMark database.
The second generation of AMD Ryzen chips set to launch on April 19th, now it’s about time we are starting to hear a little bit from Intel too. They aren’t going to just let AMD launch a whole CPU range unchallenged, And an eight-core / 16-thread Coffee Lake chip is surely their only real option to right now.
The details on the 3DMark database are pretty dense in details and pretty light on power too. Inceptive reports assert that Coffee Lake “s82” is an identified Intel testing platform, and the mentioned lowered 2.2 GHz clock speeds and lack of any name or process information, the probability of it being early silicon is pretty high.
This means this eight-core Coffee Lake chip isn’t being introduced any time soon, so AMD may have some clear sales time for their Ryzen 2 chips for a while. If it was expected to happen in upcoming weeks, we’d have some sorts of benchmarks being run by motherboard manufacturers in their own board, not Intel test platforms.
According to several rumors: The budget 300-series motherboards to be released soon, but they’re not going to deliver the sort of platform you’d think who’d conduct a high-end CPU launch. That’s more what you’d expect from the praised Z390 chipset reveal.
Expected to be unveiled after September or October this year
Information from several sources states that the unveiling is not going to happen until September or October this year. And as the Intel Z390 boards aren’t expected to provide anything above some extra native USB capabilities they desperately need some sort of hardware support to make them seem in any way worthwhile. No one wants to upgrade to a Z390 board if there wasn’t a better reason than USB 3.1 gen2 support, but an eight-core i7 – or even Coffee Lake Core i9 – might just offer that.
And if AMD had some notion that an eight-core Intel chip might be in the incoming that might explain why a potential top-end Ryzen 7 2800X hasn’t been seen in any of the leaked benchmarks so far – they could well be keeping their absolute best Ryzen 2 chip in reserve to compete with Intel’s new offerings


July 4th, 2014
Seven years ago, Stan O’Neal was ousted as chairman of Merrill Lynch. He had forced the bank to become more shark-like in its behaviour, and succeeded – to the extent that it almost collapsed due to sub-prime loans. “Merrill’s mess” ran a BBC online headline after his departure. “Wave after wave of schadenfreude had been crashing” on his head, it said. Not the most elegant metaphor, perhaps, but a relatively mild verdict, given the circumstances. In the past few weeks, however, someone has complained and Google has emailed the BBC to say that the offending story would be removed from its search engines. The great digital redaction has begun. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10944111/Google-has-become-the-victim-of-digital-censors.html
Via the Torygraph news email.
Not a good thing.
June 20th, 2014
18th June 2014 A selection of photographs from the end of the first innings and beginning of the second http://charleswhittonphotography.com/exeter-cricket-westbrick-vs-luckham
Composite image produced in the Gnu Image Manipulating Program (Gimp)
Click image for larger – and larger – image. Ask for a full size one by all means.
June 16th, 2014
Whether the amount of variation of sick leave between Devon and the average in England is statistically significant is doubtful, even if it is then in business or social terms it is of little importance. http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/People-Devon-sick-days-UK-average/story-21242636-detail/story.html?ito=email_newsletter_exeterexpressandecho
What is worth noting is that the advice some employers apparently feel GPs give poorly is of course Occupational Health advice, or Occupational Medicine, and oddly enough this is something that employers should be getting from Occupational Health departments in their businesses or from Occupational Medicine doctors in OH/OM Practices. Not GPs. Now which employers will it be who are complaining that they don’t get the good advice they feel entitled to, free, from doctors who have many other things to do which are either in their specialty, paid for, or both? Perhaps the ones that are too mean to buy Occ. Health services; and who operate the Bradford Score on employees who have odd days off not as a means to pick out who they ought to think about, but as if it were a justification for “disciplinary” action.
That’d be the ones that cause psychological illness in their employees, piss them off and lose effectiveness and willingness, and persuade mildly ill employees to come in and infect their co-workers instead of calling a duvet day.
The Express & Echo is owned by the owners of the Daily Mail, a rag(e) resembling a newspaper in shape, but is in general a local paper and therefore interesting.
June 8th, 2014
“Memory card formatting trick
When a memory card is formatted in the camera, only the file management information is changed. The data itself remains on the card until it is over-written by new data. This is why it is possible to recover ‘lost’ images even after formatting. Whilst it could be a benefit to recover ‘lost’ images, it is something you should be aware of when selling or discarding memory cards or using them in a different camera. To minimise the chance, after formatting the card, take pictures with the camera with the lens cap on, until the memory card is full. This will help to overwrite the pre-existing data.”
If someone tells you that formatting secures your clinical data satisfactorily, they havn’t done their homework, have they.
With big cards, overwriting them with zeros or the traditional DEADBEEF pattern of Hex values in the computer is probably more conveneint once you have that set up.
May 21st, 2014
I present here a petition signed by 1843 people calling upon UK media outlets to eschew time-wasting debates about the science or significance of climate change and instead to make a concerted effort to conduct meaningful discussions about the constructive responses that are at our disposal.
Since this petition was started, there have been a number of other calls to the media, not least from the UK parliament’s science and technology committee, demanding a responsible approach to coverage of climate change. While there are signs that some outlets are responding to this request, there is still much ground to cover.
The upcoming IPCC summary report of Working Group III provides an unparalleled opportunity to open up genuinely informative, cross-disciplinary and ground-breaking debates about the actions at our disposal that can help with both mitigation and adaptation to this plane tary crisis.
It is critically important that people gain a full understanding of all the options and their implications. The media has great power, and great responsibility, and the signatories to this petition call on you to fulfil your duty to inform the public sufficiently, in order that a public mandate can be secured for policies that restore rather than further degrade the viability of the planet’s ecosystems and climate.
The background information to the petition is available at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/to-the-media-please-debate-the-constructive-responses-to-climate-change-not-its-existence.
I look forward to your response.
I signed the petition ‘To the Media: Please Debate the Constructive Responses to Climate Change, Not Its Existence’.
May 11th, 2014
would be a good idea, I think. It went well for Munich.
May 7th, 2014
We took over 1000 pictures of the runners at the Killerton Races Relish Racing organised. Nice day. Images to inspect and buy at http://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/killerton-races


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Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have been making headlines ahead of the Fox Network's decision to revive The X-Files for a six-episode mini-season this year. The two stars from the classic series have talked to interviewers about the new episodes, about Anderson's feminism and bisexuality and how Duchovny believes that Agent Fox Mulder is "the worst FBI agent of all time."
On Saturday, the Hollywood Reporter quoted Duchovny about some of his hopes and expectations for the new version of the show, which ran for nine seasons and spawned two feature films.
Duchovny -- who played the lead in the Showtime series Californication -- said that both he and Anderson have grown as actors since the X-Files.
"If I were to look back at the first or second year of the show, I wouldn’t try to act like that guy," Duchovny told the Reporter. "I’m capable of doing more. She’s capable of doing more. It’ll be interesting to see how we keep the characters the same but also the actors are better."
He went on to say that the show's writers and producers are hoping to make the new episodes work both as a stand-alone series for newcomers and as a continuation of the original program for returning fans.
"They were always kind of juggling about what people needed to know, especially when we made the movies. Can we get somebody in who’s never seen this? And I’m sure we’ll have to juggle that again with this iteration of it," he said.
Anderson -- who is currently playing opposite 50 Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan in the BBC series The Fall -- told the Telegraph that she is excited about her life and career, but that she's looking for a romantic partner.
“I’m so lucky to have such great work. I’ve got a fantastic life, I have a wonderful relationship with my kids, and there’s nothing lacking, but I’m leaning towards the idea that it’s time for somebody to be brave enough to ask me out,” Anderson said.
When asked if she would consider a relationship with a woman, she said, "I wouldn’t discount it. I did it before and I’m not closed to that idea. To me a relationship is about loving another human being; their gender is irrelevant.”
Duchovny, for his part, told the New York Times that he's not impressed with his character's track record for solving crimes.
"The interesting thing about Mulder is nominally he is law enforcement but he never solved one case in nine years," said the actor. "So he’s the worst FBI agent of all time. As FBI agents, I would say we were not by the book. Especially Mulder."
Will Agents Mulder and Scully solve the crimes presented to them in the new episodes, asked the Times.
"I don’t know," Duchovny replied. "I hope not. That would really change the show."


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Simmons First National Corp. announced after Wednesday’s closing bell it had entered into an agreement to acquire Stillwater, Okla.-based Southwest Bancorp Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at more than $564 million, the two publicly-traded banks announced.
The deal, one the largest in the Pine Bluff banking group’s history, would easily push the growth-oriented Arkansas financial concern well over the $10 billion mark, the key financial touchstone established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection act as the regulatory baseline between super-community banks and larger regional banking groups.
“We are excited to welcome the customers and associates of Bank SNB to the Simmons family. This transaction provides Simmons with an incredible opportunity to enter new markets in new states – Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas – and grow our operations in Kansas,” Simmons Chairman and CEO George Makris Jr. said of the year-ending deal.
Southwest Bancorp was organized in 1981 and reported assets of $2.5 billion at the end of the third quarter. Its operating subsidiary, Bank SNB, was chartered in 1894 and offers commercial and deposit services from offices in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Colorado.
The fast-growing Oklahoma community bank was previously known as Stillwater National Bank and Trust Company, but changed its name to Bank SNB nearly three years ago. Immediately prior to the name change, the Stillwater National Bank merged on Nov. 15, 2013 with Southwest Bancorp’s main subsidiary, the Bank of Kansas, and created what is now known as Bank SNB.
“We at Southwest Bancorp are thrilled about the merger of our company with Simmons,” said Mark Funke, SBI’s President and CEO. “After much consideration of our strategic options, it became clear that partnering with Simmons – a premier financial institution that still appreciates the advantages of the community banking model – presents the best long-term opportunity for our associates, customers, and shareholders alike. We’re eager to experience all the benefits of the combined franchises.”
According to the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, shareholders of SBI’s common stock will have the right to receive 0.3903 shares of the Simmons First’s common stock and $5.11 in cash, subject to certain conditions and potential adjustments.
After closing, which is subject to approval by shareholders of both companies and state and federal regulatory endorsements, SNB is expected to continue operations as a separate bank subsidiary of Simmons for an interim period until it is merged into Simmons Bank.
“The leadership of Bank SNB, quarterbacked by Mark Funke, has been dedicated to building a brand known for excellence in customer service. They’ve been highly successful, and we look forward to their continued involvement in the combined organization,” Makris said.
Once combined, Funk is expected to continue as the new head of the Southwest Division of Simmons Bank, where he will oversee the Pine Bluff’s banking group’s operations in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Kansas. As of today, Simmons has operations in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
On Nov. 17, Simmons First also announced a deal to acquire Jackson, Tenn.-based Hardeman County Investment Company Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, First South Bank, for $72 million. That deal is expected to close early next year and will increase the Arkansas community bank’s assets and deposits by $464 million and $373 million, respectively.
The SNB deal would create a regional bank giant headquartered in Pine Bluff with branch offices in seven states and combined assets of $11.1 billion, a loan portfolio worth $7.5 billion, and deposits totaling nearly $9 billion. That would also allow Simmons First to leapfrog Conway-based Home Bancshares Inc. as the state’s third largest bank.
According to the third quarter ranking by Banks Street Partners (BSP) LLC, Bank of the Ozarks is now the largest bank in Arkansas with $18.4 billion in assets. Arvest Bank, which has held the top position for more than a decade, is now the state’s second largest bank with $17 million in assets. Centennial Bank and Simmons are third and fourth in the quarterly BSP ranking with assets of $9.7 billion and $7.6 billion, respectively.
At Wednesday’s close on the NASDAQ stock exchange, Simmons First shares closed at flat at $64.75. Southwest Bancorp’s shares close at $23.80, down 50 cents or 2.06%. Given Simmons First closing price today, Funke’s cash-and-stock holdings from the deal would be worth nearly $11.5 million.


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|Blogs > sexyasianangel70 > Sexy Asian Single Angel Room|
The room that Brenda and the other girls were led into was large and ornately decorated with tapestries along the walls, plush carpet, and oak furniture. Brenda's quick glimpse gave her the impression of wealth and finery but subdued with cold formality.
So intrigued was she by the unusual surroundings that they were almost to the front of the room before she realized she was standing before a large oak desk. Across the front was inscribed in large wooden letters, "Justice is mine, Saith the Lord."
Brenda looked up and behind the desk sat an imposing man dressed in a black cloak. His eyes were dark and cruel and somehow made Brenda deeply afraid. With irony she felt she'd get no justice here. At least not justice from her point of view.
"Welcome to the House of Correction, Sinners." The voice was deep and stern and Brenda could detect a faint note of sarcasm. "All of you are here for one reason and one reason only--to be punished. This place you are in is a prison--a private prision run by private individuals for private ends. The founders of this prison, depressed with society's lack of morals and lack of discipline, established this building and organization in order to administer justice and proper punishment to the sinners of today."
A dark hand moved and lifted a sheet of paper. The tiny eyes squinted. "Sarah Andrews? Are you here?" The eyes scanned the girls. Finally, trembling and half-crying, a young blond girl on the end stepped forward. "Answer 'Yes, Sir!' if you are Sarah Andrews!" glared the Judge.
"Yes, sir," the girl nodded.
"Sarah, this court accuses you lewd conduct, public indecency, and moral impropriety. Do you have a defense?"
"Sir, I do not know what you are talking about...I, I never did anything so wrong. I..."
"Silence! On the evening of July the third, 1987 you attended a party with Sir Walter Andrews, did you not!"
"Uh, yes, sir, but--"
"And did you not have sexual intercourse with Sir Walter that very night?"
"Uh, how did you? Of course not. I never--"
"Then you married him a virgin?"
The girl paused, her face confused. "Uh, no sir. Well, I mean, sir. I--"
"In the September 1989 issue of _Topless_ magazine were there not nude photographs of you published?"
The girl turned red and did not answer.
"And the January issue of this year's _Playboy_? Were you not arrested on January first of last year for indecent exposure? What about the several affairs you've had continuously since your marriage to Sir Walter? Did those contribute to your subsequent divorce from him? Do you have any defense against these charges? Can you disprove them in any way?"
The girl was crying now, her pretty face blotchy and red, her breasts heaving with her sobs. "I was at a party, we got carried away. I didn't mean anything by any of it. Everyone was doing it. I'm not the only one. Why punish me?"
The Judge's voice boomed out cutting through her sobs: "Enough! Understand, Sarah Andrews, the judgement of this court: guilty as charged. The sentence: three years in the House followed by six months probation--your release conditional upon your behavior." The Judge hammered his gavel with a bang and Brenda gasped. She was terified, though she didn't even understand anything.
She vaguely remembered being stirred out of bed, something pressed over her face, then waking up in a dark van which drove for many hours. She slept several times, her rest interupted by terrible dreams. When they finally stopped, she was blindfolded and led on a long walk through corridors and up and down flights of stairs. She had absolutely no idea where she was when she finally found herself in a darkened room with several other young girls. She was gagged and bound to a bed in a corner and left. Much later she was awaken and led here. To be judged. For what? She frantically ran through her mind the things she could have done. Posed nude? No, she'd never done that. Except for that time with Brad--she blushed at the memory--but that was just the two of them. And no one knew but them knew.
Suddenly Brenda realized that the Judge was reading through another list of crimes and asking Sasha Phillips for a defense. Sasha was a tiny dark-haired girl, plumply endowed, with gorgeous pouting lips. Her eyes were dark and firey and she glared at the judge in fury.
"You pompous ass," she shouted. "What gives you the right to judge us? You have no right at all! I will not even try to defend myself against your ridiculous accusations. This is ridic--"
"Guilty as charged! The sentence: five years in the House with the standard conditional release. I also proscribe daily punishment of Scarlet Intensity for the first six months or until you appologise to this court for your rudeness!" The gavel banged and Sasha was led away her angry shouts drifting back from the corridor.
"Brenda Colner?" Brenda started with surprise. "Are you here?"
"Yes, sir." She stepped forward, and found herself shaking.
"You are acused of lewd behavior and illicit sexual relations. Do you have a defense against these charges?"
Brenda decided to play along. "I would like to know the specifics, your Honor."
He stared at her for a moment. "Very well. Does this photo look familiar?" He held out a photo that she definately remembered--she blushed immediately--it was her and Brad. They both were naked and rather preoccupied in the photo. She knelt her head in shame, her blush stinging her face.
"How did they get the photo?" was all she could think about.
"Brenda Colner is guilty as charged. The sentence--"
"But wait--I didn't get a chance--"
"What can you say? That is you in the photo, isn't it?"
"Well, yes, but it was only that once--"
"Once is all it takes."
"What now? You want to tell me you and Brad were married? No? Have you _ever_ been married?"
"Well, no, but--"
"Enough said. The sentence: two years and just for your stubbornness, Scarlet Punishment for one month!"
"But--" Brenda was being led away, the judge already reading the crimes of the next sinner. In despair Brenda turned to her captor, a large matron of considerable strength who pulled Brenda down a corridor and into a room.
In shame Brenda found her clothes torn off and tossed aside. Naked, she was again led down the hall towards a heavy door that was barred and bolted with several locks. After unlocking theses, the matron knocked rapidly on the door and stop in coarse tones. The door was opened from the inside and Brenda was shoved through.
Chapter 2: The Welcoming Committee
The new matron--dressed in the same gray uniform and so much like the first as too be identical--led Brenda down the hallway and into a large lobby area. Here Brenda gasped in shock, for everywhere she looked were naked girls like herself. She noticed they were all very pretty, with excellent figures and attractive faces. But to her horror she also noticed that almost all she saw bore marks of severe punishment, their buttocks red and in many cases, welted and even blistered. Others also had red strap marks across their thighs and calves, and an least two she noticed had marks across their breasts.
No one seemed to take notice of her as she meekly followed the matron through the throng and to another matron where she was left while the first returned to her post at the door.
The new matron looked at Brenda darkly and grinned almost evilly. "I'll enjoy spanking you, I will. Fresh and plump, you are. Untouched and virginal. You'll be raw by days end, I reckon." The matron laughed, but it was not reassuring laughter to Brenda.
She followed the new matron down yet another corridor, leaving the crowded room behind. They hurried and Brenda had no time to notice the rooms she was passing, but got just glimpses of nakedness and pain. She could have sworn she heard the sounds of a strap striking bare flesh, and in another room she thought she saw a girl being heavily paddled by a matron, the girl hanging from the ceiling, her arms over her head.
When they finally stopped before a closed door, Brenda was positive she could hear weeping inside. At the matron's knock the door opened and Brenda was pushed inside. She saw with horror that it was Sarah Andrews who was crying. She was naked and as she was ushered past and led outside, Brenda saw her buttocks were red and sore. Something inside her trembled, but another part of her was almost turned on by excitment. Was this to be her fate? A paddling? Were her buttocks to be so reddened for the next two years of her sentence? She was terrified and anticipatory at the same time.
Suddenly she realized she was alone with a matron. This one a thin woman, but wearing the same gray outfit as the others. Her cold face smiled without meaning at Brenda and she ran her fingers down the side of Brenda's face.
"You are a very pretty one, Brenda. Welcome to the House of Correction. My name is Mistress Angela. You may never address me without my title. I am here to welcome you to the House and to give you a little demonstration of what will become of you here, as I am sure you are curious. First we shall begin with a little spanking. Please place your hands on the back of your neck and spread your legs apart a little more. Stand firmly now."
As she spoke Mistress Angela was manipulating Brenda into position, her strong hands plumping Brenda's breasts, squeezing her buttocks and pulling them apart slightly. Brenda stood still during all this, too afraid to move. Frantically she tried to think when she had last been paddled.
There was that time as part of that sorority initiation--that had been pretty painful. But before that, on her sixteenth birthday, when her father had paddled her for spending the weekend in Baja, Mexico without telling him. That had really hurt.
Suddenly Mistress Angela gripped Brenda's arm and hissed in her ear. "This is going to hurt, Brenda, really hurt. And you will get more, much more, every day you are here. Learn to enjoy it, Brenda. Learn to ache for it, to desire it more than food. Learn to crave the warmth and severity of the paddle, Brenda, for then you can be free to enjoy it. If you fight it you make it all the worse."
Brenda listened, her mind wirling, trying to make sense of the Mistress' words. Desire the paddle? That made no sense. She was terrified of it. She feared the pain. Even now she had gasped and was holding her breath, her whole body still with anticipation. But nothing happened.
Just as she started to look over her shoulder to see what was keeping the matron, she felt the rough wood of the paddle touch the flesh of her bottom. It just pushed up against her, rotating slightly, letting her feel its weight and tecture. Then it pulled back and Brenda really began trembling.
The first blow struck her buttocks full on and sent waves of stinging pain through her body. The pain seemed to increase each second, getting hotter and hotter and hotter and Brenda unintentionally wiggled in her agony. She wanted to grip her buttocks between her hands, but she could not move. She was too afraid of what the matron might do.
Another blow landed, its loudness terrifying her, the waves of pain becoming a little more familiar now, her body adjusting. Again and again and again the paddle came down, harder and harder, and soon Brenda was gasping for breath, her buttocks flaming. But the paddle did not stop. It mercilessly kept going, catching and lifting her rump with each blow, pushing it down with others. Sometimes it caught her on the left, other times on the right. Mistress Angela seemed determined to redden every part of Brenda's ass.
The paddling sped up, the blows coming harder and faster, when suddenly an extra hard blow almost knocked Brenda off her feet. As she struggled to stay upright the matron mercilessly beat her buttocks furiously with the paddle. When she stopped Brenda could hardly breathe, and her buttocks felt so sore she thought they'd never heal.
Mistress Angela grabbed Brenda's shoulder and rotated her so she could see her backside in a wall mirror. Brenda stared in amazing and almost cried out in fear. Despite all the pain she'd just endured, her bottom was barely red. It certainly was no where near the welted, blistered bottoms she'd seen out in the lobby.
The matron smiled unpleasantly. "Not a bad start. But we'll get those buttocks the proper color soon." Her hand gently touched Brenda's ass and she winced and sucked in her breath at the pain. "I think you're ready for a tour of the facilities now."
Before Brenda could wonder what she might mean, she found herself out in the hall again, being led by yet another gray matron.
Chapter 3: A Quick Tour
As Brenda trotted down the hallway desperately trying to keep up with the quick-moving matron, her mind was whirling in confusion. Her bottom throbbed, and as each step bounced it she could almost see how it looked, reddened and bright, all curves and softness. The pain made her unduely concious of her buttocks and her sex, and her nakedness accentuated those feelings.
Around her she saw many other naked girls, some obviously in various forms of punishment, others seemingly wandering about on their own. But though she couldn't look too closely, she didn't see any girl whose bottom wasn't at least a little red.
"This is my life," she thought in misery. "I will be in this kind of pain for ever!"
Suddenly she saw they had stopped before a large glass window. Inside was a sight that brought a gasp of dismay to Brenda's throat. "This is one of the training rooms," the matron said matter-of-factly, in an almost bored tone.
In the room were several young girls, pretty and completely naked. Each was carrying a glass of water on a tray. One by one they walked down a line of matrons, each wielding a light leather paddle.
Brenda watched as a cute brunette started down the aisle, trembling as she tried to hold her tray steady. Her shapely buttocks were already bright red. The first matron struck her full cross her buttocks with a terrible blow, but somehow the girl managed to keep her balance. On down the line she went, tears pouring down her face and across her well-endowed chest as matron after matron paddled her furiously. About halfway through she wobbled and spilled some of the water, but kept going, but just a few blows later she lost her balance completely and the glass tumbled off her tray.
Instantly a matron came from across the room and led her to a corner and proceeded to whip her thighs and calves with a thick leather belt. When the whipping was finished, she was giving another tray and glass and returned to the start of the line.
Brenda couldn't believe what she was seeing. There were half-a-dozen girls waiting in line and several being whipped at all times. With almost two dozen matrons to pass through, it apparently took numerous trips for the girls to learn to balance the trays properly.
But Brenda's matron was leading her away. Not far was another window, and Brenda received another shock and a sense of dispair began to grow within her.
In this room were a series of phalluses. Suspended above each phallus was a girl, her hands and ankles restricting her movement to barely a budge. Yet several girls had mounted the phalluses and were contorting the best they could while powerful matrons paddled them furiously with heavy leather paddles.
"This is the Reward Center," Brenda's matron spoke suddenly, her voice calm. "Girls who are cooperative are brought here, where if they wish they may mount a phallus and pleasure themselves briefly. They are punished most severely for this satisfaction, of course."
For a moment Brenda wondered why these women would subject themselves to such pain just for a few seconds of pleasure, when she began to feel her desire growing. She could feel her sex dripping and almost looked down at it. Instead she tried to concentrate on the blows of the paddles, how they slammed into the bare, unprotected skin and sent shivering tremors of pain through the bodies. She knew suddenly, that she craved a phallus more than anything, and it wouldn't have taken her long to satisfy herself despite the distraction of the paddle.
Again they moved on, passing other windowed rooms of training and punishment, Brenda's mind whirling with all the terrible pleasures and tortures she'd seen. They reached another room and Brenda saw with despair that her matron was opening the door and ushering Brenda inside.
She was almost afraid to look. What torture would she be subject too? What pain would she be forced to endure? She didn't have long to wait. The room was apparently a training room for new inmates. This was a brief introduction to the various forms of spanking employed at the castle, commented a matron.
Brenda was led to a line with other girls and watched as one by one each was soundly spanked in a variety of methods. The first girl, an exotic with beautiful dusky skin and midnight hair, was pulled forth and introduced to various paddles. Then the matron applied several weights of leather belts and straps, and finally she was bent across a matron's lap and spanked by hand for quite some time.
But the other girls were already being spanked, and Brenda suddenly realized there was only two girls in front of her. She began to tremble and wondered if she could dare run away. Apparently the girl in front of her had the same thought--she made a bolt for the door. She didn't get halfway before two matron's had grabbed her and turned her upside down by her ankles. A third matron brought over a heavy wooden paddle and procceeded to paddle the girl soundly, the loud blows deafening in the small room. After several dozen hard blows the much-quieted girl was returned to her place in line just in time to be taken for her training spankings.
Then it was Brenda's turn. Awash with emotions, Brenda couldn't tell if she was more excited or afraid. Everything was somehow sexually stimulating. She was unbelievably turned on, her sex wet and desire imense. The first spanking, a very thin leather paddle that was so flexible it slapped her buttocks more than paddled them, calmed her a bit. The stinging blows were rapid and hard, and in moments she was gasping and tears were in her eyes.
She was moved into various positions while the paddle rained down--standing, kneeling, bent over from the waist, on her hands and knees, flat across the floor, stretched out across a giant round cushion. This last was the worst, because her bottom was so relaxed and bouncy.
Then the matron showed her a new paddle. This was a thin wooden one. It's blows were harder and sharper, and it's high-pitched _Crack_! made Brenda cringe as much from the terrifying sound as from the pain, though it didn't really hurt much more than the thin leather one.
Next was a heavy leather, which was followed by a several weights of wooden paddles, each of various thicknesses. The heavier paddles made the muscles in her buttocks ache, and Brenda began to groan after each blow. As she was moved from position to position for each paddling, she found herself able to distinguish between the various pains of each paddle and each position.
In the standing positions the paddles would catch the underside of her buttocks and lift them. It was almost a sexual movement of her body, and Brenda found she was growing hot. But the pain was excrutiating, the lower part of her buttocks very tender and soft.
When she was kneeling, the paddles drove her forward, the blows pushing her buttocks toward her spine. The pain was duller, but steady and more agrevating. Sometimes the paddle caught the tender flesh of her thighs and she almost screamed. But the lying down positions were the worst, her buttocks relaxed and soft, the heavier paddles driving her into the floor. At times she so drove herself with it she almost felt she was trying to masturbate with the floor or the cushion.
Finally the paddles were over and it was the belts and straps. For these Brenda assumed several positions, including standing, crawling, and lying across another cushion. At first the thin belt stung so lightly it almost seemed an insult. Brenda found herself watching the girl in front of her, the one who had tried to escape. Her buttocks were extremely red and welted, and she was writhing and crying with terror that while Brenda felt sorry for her, she also felt a tremendous sexual charge within herself at seeing the girl's graceful rump being lashed with a heavy leather belt, seeing the red flesh turn white with each blow, watching the skin tremble and quiver and the bottom bounce.
But then Brenda was moved to another position and a new belt, a heavy thick belt that felt as hard as a paddle. The blows stung more, and more than ever before landed across her thighs and calves and Brenda was soon using all her energy in the struggle to remain in position. She desperately wanted to run, to cover her tender ass with her hands, to comfort her sore bottom with water, but she was even more terrified of what punishment would follow such rebellion.
Finally the straps were over and Brenda almost gratefully stretched out across the matron lap for the hand spanking. But soon she realized that the hand hurt as much as any paddle. The matron was very strong and heavy, and her blows were fast and hard, and she spread them about to spank every inch of Brenda's generous bottom. She would spank near the top of her buttocks for a while, then move to the lower, fatter portion, then concentrate on just the left cheek, then the right. She even spanked Brenda's thighs for a while, and Brenda began to panic wondering when this nightmare would end.
Brenda was desperately craving sexual satisfaction, but her position prevented her from achieving any at all. The pain just increased her desire by distancing her from it, and by preventing its immediate gratification. The longer she went without satistifying it, the more intensely she felt the desire. The pain caused a certain amount of distraction, but because of its sexual nature, it also renewed a certain amount of desire in her. By the time the hand spanking was over, Brenda was trembling all over, not from the pain, but from trying to maintain control over her sexual impulses.
She gratefully stood up after the spanking, relishing her legs touching each other and the slight benefit this gave her sex. She followed her matron out the door of the training room obediently, terrified as she saw the escapee-girl being led back to the line for another run through the training session, her matron apparently not satisfied with her performance.
"You did very well in there, Brenda," said her matron as they walked down the hall. "I was very impressed. Many virgin inmates require much more extensive training than you have received to maintain such control that you demonstrate."
Brenda nodded but didn't say anything, not sure if the comment was a compliment or not.

domain: literature


text:
Recumbent Exercise Bike Review
What exercise equipment is most excellent for your exclusive training?
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domain: health


text:
Reflections on Photographing Trauma
Reflections on Photographing Trauma
A COM lecturer, an alum, and a student on documenting conflict and its aftermath
From distant war zones to protests on US streets, photographers play a vital role in documenting conflict and its aftermath. The best of them can capture layers of drama, trauma, and humanity with the single click of a shutter button. They also risk their physical and mental well-being in pursuit of photographs that can stand as the iconic representations of historic events. Think of Nick Ut’s image of Vietnamese children fleeing a napalm attack, or more recently, Jonathan Bachman’s photo of Ieshia Evans, a lone protestor being swarmed by riot police in Baton Rouge, La. Even in today’s digital, connected world, where everyone is a photographer, the work of professionals devoted to representing conflict and trauma remains vital.
Three members of the College of Communication community—a war photographer, an artist, and a student journalist—discuss their experiences reporting on traumatic events, and share some of the powerful, sometimes disturbing, photos they took.
Seeking a greater truth
Greg Marinovich, a COM master lecturer in journalism, has thought a lot about conflict photography’s power and its pitfalls. He spent years documenting the violence that accompanied South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democratic elections and has himself been shot and injured four times in the field. In 1991, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his photos of African National Congress (ANC) supporters stabbing, stoning, and burning a man to death because they suspected him of being a Zulu spy.
There’s a duality to photography, Marinovich says. “You have these defining moments that are true in the moment—but are they true to the bigger story?”
A good photo challenges the viewer to think—and to learn more.
Ut’s photo, for example, captured the brutality of the Vietnam War. Only when you read about the incident, though, do you learn that the napalm was dropped accidentally on a non-Vietcong village. In early 1990s South Africa, news reports often portrayed violent outbreaks as ethnic clashes, but the truth was far more complex. Investigations later revealed that white authorities and law enforcement not only helped organize attacks, but sometimes participated in blackface. And some perpetrators weren’t Black South Africans, as viewers of a photo might assume, but mercenaries from nearby countries hired to create unrest.
“More complex photography, more ambiguous photography, can lead you to draw your own conclusions,” Marinovich says. “I prefer that. I think being certain of facts and truth and what’s happening just means you don’t know enough.” That is to say, a good photo challenges the viewer to think—and to learn more.
In 1996, Marinovich shot a simple portrait of a young man gazing into the lens. One cheek, bisected by a jagged scar, is turned slightly toward the camera. A dark, blurry background reveals no clues. The man’s eyes convey an immediate, haunting message, but the story behind the image includes several layers that require additional context. The man? An ANC supporter. The scar? Left by a bullet. The dark background? The charred remains of his home.
In another of Marinovich’s photos, this one taken in 1990, a group of police officers—including a police cameraman filming something out of the frame—seemingly ignores the focus of the photograph, the corpse of a Black man lying next to them. The image tells an immediate story of violence and abdication of power—but it doesn’t answer many questions. “They’re just ignoring the dead guy,” Marinovich says. “They’re not investigating. They’re documenting it for other reasons—God knows what.”
While a written story can weave events over a span of time, he says, a photo must distill multiple ideas and details into one scene, but that brevity lends photos some of their power. “Photographs are often singular. We can linger on them, in whatever medium they’re in. That helps them to imprint themselves,” says Marinovich, who in 2000 published the memoir The Bang-Bang Club, with longtime collaborator João Silva; their story was later turned into a movie. A good photo, Marinovich says, “represents multiple points of view and multiple angles—and can stand longer than that day as a valid piece of communication.”
Artist Susan J. Barron (COM’80) works in several mediums, from oil on canvas to collage, but for a project about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she started with photography. Barron was motivated by the number of US veteran suicides—according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 20 veterans, active-duty, and reserve troops die by suicide each day. “I wanted to shine a light on this epidemic of PTSD and suicide. I wanted to give these veterans a voice,” she says. “I felt that it was a story that I needed to tell.”
In “Depicting the Invisible,” which is currently on exhibit at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tenn., Barron combined photographs, paint, collage and text to create 16 mixed-media portraits. Each of her subjects gazes out from the canvas, engaging the viewer. “There’s something that happens when you stare into somebody’s eyes. It’s very difficult to turn away,” Barron says. “If you can’t look away, you have to bear witness.”
Barron layered the veterans’ own words into each portrait. “The elegance of the black-and-white photographic imagery is in direct contrast to the brutality of their stories,” she says. “I was trying to depict the invisible wounds of war—exactly what it is you can’t see—but these works communicate an understanding of what PTSD feels like.”
Unlike journalists reacting to unpredictable events in a war zone, Barron could take her time with each shot. She got to know the vets, speaking with them at length before setting up her first photograph. She photographed them in their homes and garages, the lighting and backdrops carefully controlled. And, once completed, she could present the images as she wanted—choosing the size of the final works (72 inches square) and hanging them in a particular way on gallery walls. “It’s much more introspective, it’s much more controlled, there is a lot of trust in this kind of photography,” Barron says. But, she adds, “When I am creating these works, I am a storyteller. All the Pulitzer Prize–winning photographs that we all have indelibly memorized in our minds—those are also storytelling.”
Though far from a battlefield, Barron couldn’t insulate herself from the emotional risks faced by photographers documenting trauma. As she prepared for the premiere of her exhibition in New York City, she learned that one of her subjects, Damon Ziegler, had died by suicide. “That was really very dark—I felt that I knew him so well and that maybe I should’ve known or could’ve done something,” Barron says. “The other veterans said to me, ‘This is exactly why you’re doing this. This is why we’re doing this with you.’”
Not a typical summer
The Daily Free Press, BU’s student-run newspaper, doesn’t typically publish during the summer. But when Black Lives Matter protesters took to Boston’s streets in June, editor in chief Angela Yang (COM’23) decided to make an exception. “We published almost every day,” she says. “It was a special situation because there was so much going on.”
She and her staff reported on the protests day and night, publishing multiple stories and a series of photo galleries (on May 30, June 2, June 3 and June 5). Images taken by Yang and the newspaper’s photo editor Lauryn Allen (COM’22) showed peaceful protestors carrying signs—”Wake up America” and “Stop Killing Me” read two of them—and also rows of police officers carrying batons, looted stores, and protestors washing tear gas from their eyes.
Nothing Yang had studied prepared her for the scene in downtown Boston, but, she says, she never felt unsafe. Even when she was bumped by a police officer, protestors spoke up on her behalf. On another occasion, a plate glass window exploded as she walked by, likely from a thrown rock or brick. “I didn’t really have time to feel any sort of emotion,” as she navigated the chaotic scene, she says.
Although Yang thinks of herself as a writer first, she also photographed throughout the protests. She says she wanted to avoid focusing on the sensational—tear gas, a burning police car. “It was really important to try to tell as much of the story as possible,” she says. “If we had photos of the destruction of a storefront, we also had photos of people passing out hand sanitizer and boxes of free food for protesters.”
Reflecting on the importance of visually representing conflict and trauma for people not at the scene, Yang repeats a maxim: “When a tragedy happens to more than 200 people, you start to lose the sense that these are people and you see them as a statistic.” A photograph, though, puts a face to the tragedy. “You realize that these are real people that these events happened to. It allows you to empathize,” she says.
A vital role
A lot has changed in photography and media since Marinovich’s time in South Africa. Then, he shot with film and only his best images would be transmitted by the wire services. After they went out, he had very little control over how a published photo was presented. Today, anyone with a smartphone can take, send, and post photos from virtually anywhere. As has recently been the case with videos revealing police brutality, that imagery has the power to spark social movements. It’s a democratization of voice, Marinovich says. “We see things we never saw before. I think that’s quite remarkable.”
Rather than replace the professional photographer, however, Marinovich sees as great an opportunity as ever. “There’s a gap, for people who work in this field to elevate what they do into a realm that makes it stand out—to become the kind of imagery that remains memorable,” he says. “There’s a place for professionalism and I think it’s even more vital than before.”
Bless the artistry, honesty, and bravery of these photographers and all journalists who use their talent, training, and passions to tell us and show us what is going on in our world.
The use of photography to tell a story and bring attention to events in the world is agreeably far more effective than writing an article. The visual shock provides another dimension to the story and as the article states, allows the readers to venture further into the story. The picture of veterans with writing on it provided the image of a normal human but brought trauma through the writing. This allowed the viewer to relate with the person and sympathize. However, much like the case of the Police in September 1990 near Soweto’s Jabulani migrant workers hostel were doing, there are going to be many cases of falsified. cherry picked information. How do we prevent those with bad intentions from using the limitations of a photograph in order to spread an untrue message?


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The Environment Bill, which puts components of the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan into statute, creating an over-arching scrutiny framework for the environment and outlining commitments to areas as far ranging as biodiversity and air quality, has been a marathon undertaking, writes Alastair Chisholm.
Now in the final straight to becoming an act, it dates back to environmental campaigns during and before 2017, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s Nature’s Way report.
Nature’s Way called on government to commit to a new Environment Act. This would set clear, legally binding objectives for wildlife, water, air and natural assets. It would also establish environmental principles in law: sustainable development, polluter pays, integration, and the precautionary principle.
This is in addition to the creation of new institutions – an Environment Commission and an Office for Environmental Responsibility – delivering world-leading environmental accounting and reporting and access to environmental justice.
Fast-forward four years, and progress, has been somewhat glacial. Partly because of seismic challenges including Brexit, a general election and the Covid-19 pandemic, but also because of no lack of wrangling between government and environmentalists over how well it meets the above brief.
A solid act
The Environment Bill undoubtedly establishes institutions – the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) – duties and targets in law to secure important protections and progress across a range of environmental challenges. But questions remain over whether these are strong enough in the face of now-critical climate and nature challenges.
As it has inched its way through both houses of parliament, it’s been tweaked and refined more than many, undergoing intense scrutiny that has bolstered and refined its individual components.
A weighty piece of legislation, variously described as “landmark” and a “lodestar”, it’s approaching 300 pages in length and it’s seen 130-odd amendments tabled during its passage. Government has conceded to pressure along the way, amending and strengthening the bill as it’s brought it back to parliament at the various stages.
And the House of Lords fought hard to secure 15 cross-party amendments during report stage in September, often by narrow voting margins. These strengthened a critically important component – the independence of the OEP – a source of tension and wrangling throughout the evolution of the bill and one on which the Lords didn’t back down on.
Beyond this, they also beefed-up targets on storm overflows, placing a duty on sewerage undertakers to progressively ensure untreated sewage isn’t discharged and for government and the Environment Agency to exercise their functions to secure compliance with this duty.
Amendments also strengthened requirements on soil quality, air quality, ancient woodland, pesticides’ impacts on pollinators, and more.
Controversial loopholes letting government off the hook on having to consider environmental principles when making policy in areas relating to national security, defence and fiscal matters were also removed – no small feat.
These changes reflect the vital role the bill will play in environmental management over the next decades and our hopes of essential nature recovery and climate action.
Despite the fact the above cross-party amendments wouldn’t cripple the economy, the vast majority were still voted down by government. But the Lords haven’t given up on three of these amendments: two on the independence of the OEP and one on sewage.
The Environment Bill is totemic of just how serious and aligned government is over the urgency of the climate and nature crises and its willingness to deliver a genuinely ambitious framework amongst the best in the world.
At a third reading in the Lords in October, Lord Goldsmith, for the government, told the house of his firm belief that the bill was “more than just a credible step in the right direction”, but “an ambitious answer to the scale of the task”.
So, has it met those ambitions? At the time of writing, whether the bill would be passed before COP26, so it could be held up as a beacon of ambition and forward thinking on the environment much in the same way as the Climate Change Act before it, hung in the balance.
Government has also continued to be unbowed in maintaining loopholes in the bill that serve defence and fiscal policy, and on not strengthening provisions on pollinators and soil. These are key issues which really speak to where levels of environmental ambition and concern really are (or not) in some quarters.
Government is also displaying a clear unwillingness to open public bodies up to full scrutiny and enforcement by the OEP. To draw parallels with existing bodies, the amendments would place the OEP on the same level of independence as the National Audit Office and Office for Budget Responsibility.
Cause for hope
And yet, there is plenty of room for hope and optimism. Whatever the detail of its final form, we will have a piece of environmental legislation which moves protections and duties forward on many fronts as envisioned in Nature’s Way.
And the protracted wrangling, willingness of stakeholders to fight tooth and nail for improvements and of the Lords to keep the pressure up means that progress on what’s set in law will be watched carefully. Moreover, where some measures have fallen out, the case will soon be built again for future bolstering of the law.
As a recent poll by The Sun showed climate change as the number one issue for voters, above the pandemic and the economy, we seem to be entering a new paradigm where public scrutiny on the environment may just keep government honest. That’s a great place to be.
Alastair Chisholm is CIWEM’s policy director
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Here is the short kit of the Rodule!
The Rodule is a 3m Tow plane designed to tow anything between 500Grs to 30 Kgs and up! The sky is the limit!
Construction is all wood and designed around 80 to 120cc Petrol engine
So, what's in the "short" kit?
All pieces that need to be cut like the ribs, formers, flancs, elevator and all the little bits and pieces, and the plans in 4 large sheets (10m of paper!) showing ALL the parts!
What's not included?
This is a short kit, so some parts are left to you. Not included are the Landing Gears, canopy, accessories, wood strips/spars (too long to ship unfortunately) but can all be sourced at your local DIY shop, balsa for sheeting. The rudder is made of square balsa, and is not laser cut (so you know! :) )
You can follow the prototypes build, and the story behind it here: