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Now that Lou Dobbs and other T.V. talking heads have mellowed on the outsourcing hysteria circa 2004, a sober look at the strategy, especially when it comes to the broker-dealer back office, is yielding positive results in efficiencies and cost containment.
TrustFort, a Woburn, Mass.-based provider of technology and back office solutions, is one company taking full advantage of the phenomenon. Founded in 2003, it specializes in working with independent broker-dealers to provide turnkey portfolio accounting systems and service teams.
TrustFort’s competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded space is its flexibility and customization capabilities, Atindra Barua (left) told AdvisorOne in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“Most of our competitors offer a standardized solution, rather than what we call a focused solution,” Barua said. “They bundle their offerings; we break out different pieces to fit a particular firm’s needs.”
And because of their offshore back-office operations, they cost less than competitors, he adds, savings they pass on to customers.
“We recently did an analysis for a client of ours and here’s the answer,” he said. “For corporate actions processing and reconciliation, the client uses a combined team with people from our team working closely with their own staff. The cost of processing a single corporate action event by their internal staff is $184 while their cost with us is $29 per corporate action event. That is combination of both productivity and cost difference.”
Another differentiator is the firm’s performance reporting engine, specifically its ability to track different lots at different periods of time.
“Consider the case where a company has spun off another company,” Barua explained. “With solutions like [our competitors], the security level performance covering the two securities over the spin-off event will yield different results for accounts over the same window of time, depending on when the cost of the security in the account. That is blatantly incorrect. [Our competitors] also do not calculate security level performance correctly when you have buys and sells of the same security on the same day, which happens frequently when you have corporate actions.”
The company counts Orion Advisor Services and Commonwealth Financial Network as recent clients. Its competitors, according to Barua, include Black Diamond Performance Reporting, Advent Software, Albridge Solutions and Morningstar Advisor.
“The problem with them, and the opportunity for us, is that they are all ‘off the shelf’ and you have to take what they give,” he said. “With our integrated solution, it’s customized within an existing structure. You don’t have to take all the pieces from us, just what you need.”


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Claire Dining Server
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Wood: Acacia/Cashew Solids & White Oak Veneers
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Server: 56"W x 18"D x 40"H.

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Portfolio of Paintings
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domain: hobby


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While I’m in Korea shooting my documentary, Compassion Soup: the End of Dog Meat in Korea, I’m also working very hard to find homes for the Chicken Farm Dogs at Gin Oak Shelter and also the dogs at Wizard of Hope Animal Shelter (WOH). At the moment, there are 10 dogs, mostly Jindo mix, at Gin Oak shelter and 32 dogs (half of them are small breeds) at WOH.
When I drive around outside big cities in Korea, I see dogs all over tied to poles with no water, food, or shelter. Korea is a really tough country for dogs. Yesterday I saw these three dogs with no water or food. Two of them had no shelter. It rained a lot two days ago and they would …Read More about Dogs in Korea
We are excited to announce that production has started in Korea on our documentary film Compassion Soup: the End of Dog Meat in Korea. On March 29th, EK flew to Korea for two months of filming, loaded down with what seemed like way too much equipment for one small person to handle. The goal of this trip is to capture perspectives from both those in the dog meat trade and those trying desperately to stop it.
About a month ago I got an email from a couple in Korea. They asked if I could help them to rescue the dogs held in a dog meat farm near where they live. Every day they pass the dog farm and hear horrifying cries from the dogs. They have asked animal organizations and activists in …Read More about Dog Meat Farm Closing, 25 Dogs Going to Slaughter
Each year over two million dogs are slaughtered by Korea’s unregulated dog meat industry often after enduring unbearable suffering. Especially during Bok-Nal through July and August, two-third of dogs are killed for Boshintang (dog meat soup). It is because many Koreans believe that Boshintang boosts their stamina and energy. That’s why it is often called …Read More about Meet These Adorable Rescue Dogs in Korea
Tasha (formerly Chanel) was pregnant when she was about to be killed for her meat in Korea. She was starve to death and we could literally count her rib bones. After being rescued, Tasha gave birth to five healthy puppies. However, it was hard for “meat” dogs like Tasha to be adopted in Korea because of the stigma.
What do you have to know before fostering a rescue dog in Korea? Dale, a foster parent originally from Alabama in the US, is sharing her experience in fostering a dog rescued from the meat trade in Korea. Dales says that a lot of people have romanticized the idea of fostering and adopting. But you really have to consider it before you just go and adopt a pet.
Who could imagine that Swayze was a dog raised for his meat until six months ago in Korea? But now he is the happiest chicken farm dog in the world. Swayze is an one year old dog living in Seoul who has his own bed, countless toys, and the most beautiful mama. Born in Ilsan outside Seoul, Swayze was one of the twenty dogs raised for their meat by a neglected chicken farm owner.
Bella is one of the most popular dogs from the Gin Oak shelter both to volunteers and shelter dogs. She is an one year old female dog rescued by Jinoak last spring in Korea. I asked Jinaok to tell me everything about Bella. She says that Bella is a happy virus: she makes people and even dogs laugh and happy. Bella is the most affectionate, loving dog who is more than ready for her forever home. Who will be the lucky person?
Coco is a beautiful two year old female dog who weights 12kg. Coco was born two years ago outside Seoul. Her mama and papa were raised for meat by a neglectful and abusive owner. When Coco and her four siblings were puppies they were fed with human food waste that was very salty and spicy. Shortly after she was born her papa and three siblings were killed for meat by the owner.
The current shelter is not yet completed and also a year leased temporary one. Jinoak has to return the land and remove the shelter after a year. That’s why it is so important for us to find forever homes for the chicken farm dogs. Let’s help the chicken farm dogs to find their forever homes so they know they are not left alone.
It was an honor to interview Lola Webber, co-founder of Change for Animals Foundation. Lola is a dedicated animal advocate who has been working hard to stop the dog meat trade in Asia. In this interview Lola shares her experiences and insights about the Korean dog meat trade.

domain: pet


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Dole® Organics Raspberries 12 oz. Pouch
Gluten free. USDA Organic. Certified Organic by Quality Assurance International. Non GMO Project Verified nongmoproject.org. All natural fruit. Just as nutritious as fresh fruit. Goodness inside. Satisfaction guaranteed call 1-800-232-8888. DoleSunshine.com. Connect with us at (at)dolesunshine. Visit dolesunshine.com for delicious recipes. Resealable package. Packed in the U.S.A.

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- 05:50, May 26, 2020 (diff | hist) . . (+184) . . N Talk:Racesemail@example.com (Created page with "When I finished the game with happy ending, it informed me I have unlocked Foal. But when I started a new game, I didn't know how to select Foal, still earth, pegasi and unic...") (top)
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The Senate confirmed Justice Department official Bradley N. Garcia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday, a move that would make him the first Latino judge on the influential court.
Garcia, 36, is the youngest circuit court nominee confirmed under President Joe Biden after the 53-40 vote. And he is the Senate’s fourth confirmation of a Biden pick for the D.C. Circuit, which handles many regulatory cases with a national sweep on environmental, labor, immigration and other policy issues.
“Latinos are historically underrepresented across the federal bench,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said in a floor speech ahead of the vote Monday. “So confirming the first-ever Latino to the second most important court is a long overdue step towards making the federal bench better reflect our country.”
Although the Biden administration has pushed to diversify the federal bench, it has also faced criticism from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund on its approach to appointing Latinos to appellate courts.
Garcia, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, currently is a deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. He previously worked at O’Melveny & Myers law firm.
Progressive groups such as Alliance for Justice backed Garcia’s nomination, along with former prosecutors and the Hispanic National Bar Association.
Garcia received some support beyond the Democratic caucus during the floor vote Monday. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for his confirmation.
Garcia’s appointment won’t change the ideological balance of the court, which can also be a pipeline to the Supreme Court. Biden’s first pick for the D.C. Circuit, Ketanji Brown Jackson, left that bench when Biden appointed her to the Supreme Court. The Senate also has confirmed Biden appointees Julianna Childs and Florence Pan to the court.
Meanwhile, conservatives criticized Garcia’s age during his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last summer, and most Republicans last week opposed a procedural vote to get to Garcia’s confirmation vote.
During a confirmation hearing last summer, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas pointed to Garcia’s youth and brought up what Democrats said about Judge Justin Walker, a Trump nominee who was in his 30s when confirmed to the D.C. Circuit.
“You’ve never served as a judge,” Cruz told Garcia at the hearing.
Garcia responded that he couldn’t speak to anyone else’s nomination. “What I can speak to is my record. And in my career, I’ve litigated more than 50 appeals, argued 13 of them,” he said. “I sit before you here today as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department.”
Garcia at the hearing also highlighted that he clerked for former Judge Thomas B. Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee who sat on the D.C. Circuit.
Griffith supported Garcia’s nomination in a letter to the Judiciary Committee, writing that Garcia knew he was a judicial conservative and helped him “be that type of judge regardless of his views.”
“Brad’s integrity in this regard coupled with his brilliance gave me complete confidence in his work,” Griffith wrote.
John P. Collins, a visiting associate professor at the George Washington University Law School, said one benefit to appointing a younger circuit court judge is that it locks up a seat for a prolonged amount of time and prevents the spot from being flipped.
“Because people are very concerned about having a majority of seats on individual circuits,” Collins said.


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Prefix : KAYLAJAZ (Staffordshire Bull Terrier)
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Arc of Justice : A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
Arc of Justice A Saga of Race Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age Author:Kevin Boyle An electrifying story of the sensational murder trial that divided a city and ignited the civil rights struggle — In 1925, Detroit was a smoky swirl of jazz and speakeasies, assembly lines and fistfights. The advent of automobiles had brought workers from around the globe to compete for manufacturing jobs, and tensions often flared with th... more »e KKK in ascendance and violence rising.
Ossian Sweet, a proud Negro doctor-grandson of a slave-had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white neighborhood. Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly, shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes.
And so it began-a chain of events that brought America's greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality. Historian Kevin Boyle weaves the police investigation and courtroom drama of Sweet's murder trial into an unforgettable tapestry of narrative history that documents the volatile America of the 1920s and movingly re-creates the Sweet family's journey from slavery through the Great Migration to the middle class. Ossian Sweet's story, so richly and poignantly captured here, is an epic tale of one man trapped by the battles of his era's changing times.« less
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they ate nothing. they just traveled and just kept going to find their lost treasure
Yes. She helped Lewis and Clark through raging rivers, dreadful cliffs, and rugged mountains. If Sacajawea never exist, Lewis and Clark would be lost. Sacajawea, helpful and considerate, shown the way for Lewis and Clark. Therefore, Sacajawea was a great guidance for Lewis and Clark on their expedition.Please Do Not Change.
Sacagawea is mostly known for helping Lewis and Clark on their expedition exploring the Louisiana Territory for President Thomas Jefferson. America had just gotten that land from Britain after the Revolutionary War. Lewis and Clark were two former soliders. Sacagawea was a shoshone indian girl who took care of her baby while helping Lewis and Clark. She helped them go over mountains and showed them paths inbetween mountains. Without her Lewis and Clark would have got lost and died. Sacagawea treated ingured people. She save Clark when he got bitten by a snake. She was very important.
Yes. A few now famous places that they passed through in Montana: Little Bighorn Battle Feild, Lost Trail Pass, and the Madison Buffalo Jump.
the Corps only lost one man on the entire journey. Sgt. Floyd died early on, most likely from a burst appendix, according to historians.
President Thomas Jefferson authorized the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 through 1806 of the Louisiana Purchase. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was sometimes called the Corps of Discovery. The Lewis and Clark Expedition did explore, scout, survey and map the lands of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and meet the Indians that inhabit it As early as January 18, 1803, in a secret message to Congress requesting $2,500 Jefferson was laying the foundation for The Lewis and Clark Expedition of the Louisiana Purchase even before the Louisiana Purchase was signed later in May of 1803 The Lewis and Clark Expedition of the Louisiana Purchase was underway August 31,1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark floated the Ohio River in the first step of their journey. On May 14, 1804, Lewis and Clark left St. Louis on a keelboat and two pirogue boats with an expedition of 29 men One of the men in the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the Louisiana Purchase was John Colter who would be remembered later as an explorer and trailblazer in his own right. 16 more men traveled with them as far as the Mandan villages located in current North Dakota before returning to St. Louis with specimens collected thus far The winter of 1805 was spent in North Dakota. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of the Louisiana Purchase kept detailed maps and diaries, studying the animals, plants, terrain and the Indians that they encountered. The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was due in part to the assistance that Sacagewea gave them after Meriwether Lewis assisted in the delivery of her child on February 11, 1805 On April 7, 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out in two pirogue boats and six canoes up the Missouri River. By the end of April the Lewis and Clark Expedition had reached the mouth of the Yellowstone River and by May had in their sights the Rocky Mountains June 13th is recorded as the day the Lewis and Clark Expedition reach the great falls of the Missouri River and that on August 15th the Continental Divide was crossed. The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled over 1200 miles from the mouth to the source of the Missouri River As luck would have it the Lewis and Clark Expedition they were captured by Shoshone Indians on August 17th but the irony was that it was the long lost tribe of Sacagewea whose brother was now chief The Snake River was discovered flowing west on October 10th and the Cascade Mountains were reached by November. The headwaters of the Columbia River were obtained on November 7th and later in the month the Pacific Ocean was seen for the first time by the Lewis and Clark Expedition The winter of 1806 was spent in current Oregon in a makeshift fort that the Lewis and Clark Expedition built and named Fort Clatsop. Throughout the winter months, time was spent on the journals, maps and diaries recording and cataloging all of the specimens that had been collected thus far In March 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition broke camp and headed back east. The Lewis and Clark Expedition split up so that Lewis could explore further the Marias River while Clark explored the Yellowstone River to the Missouri River It was here that the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the Louisiana Purchase rejoined and returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806. Mission accomplished! The final cost of the trip was close to thirty nine thousand dollars, a little more than the twenty five hundred originally requested for the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the Louisiana Purchase Only one man died during the Lewis and Clark Expedition which appears to have been due to an appendicitis attack The Lewis and Clark Expedition did forever imprint one bad impression on the Blackfeet Indians. Lewis regretfully tangled with Blackfeet Indians who were caught stealing some of the men's rifles and one Indian was shot another was stabbed to death. Throughout the settling of the West the Blackfeet Indians made war upon the mountain men the Army, and the pioneers due to this event The other incident also involved Lewis when another man in the party mistook him for an animal and shot him in the posterity. For weeks, Lewis was carried due to the pain in his behind The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was and is measured in its ability to create the enthusiasm of a nation to the dawning of a new era. From it came the mountain men the explorers the gold miners, the stagecoaches the pioneers the transcontinental railroad and the great expansion of the United States into the West The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a great inspiration for the American Dream. The Louisiana Purchase was a great resource giving fuel to a nation needing to grow The Louisiana Purchase marked one of the largest, if not the largest, land transactions in history. The persons who played key roles in this transaction were Thomas Jefferson , Napoleon I of France, Robert R. Livingston, James Monroe, and Lewis and Clark. The actual Treaty can be viewed. The vast Louisiana Territory was purchased for 60 Million Francs or about $15,000,000.00 of which $11,250,000.00 was to be paid directly. The balance to be covered by the U.S. in the assumption of French debts to U. S. citizens. This territory included 800,000 square miles of land. The purchase of the Louisiana territory came about as a result of concern to secure free navigation of the Mississippi River. President Jefferson sent Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe to negotiate with the government of the powerful Napoleon I for the sale of New Orleans. Since the aggressive French leader roused fears once France had just acquired Louisiana from the Spanish, Jefferson knew immediate action must be taken. Surprisingly, Napoleon offered not only to sell New Orleans, but the entire Louisiana territory.The treaty that Livingston and Monroe sent home aroused constitutional worries in Jefferson's mind. A Constitutional amendment would be extremely slow and Napoleon wanted the transaction finalized by a specific date. Since the nation was so young, issues such as the one at hand had not arisen before. Jefferson had to make a decision and that he did. He acted without hesitation and left the matter to the people to decide. With the exception of a small number of Federalists in New England, the people overwhelmingly accepted Jefferson's actions. The Louisiana Purchase was by far the greatest achievement of his presidency. This began exploration in the United States. Lewis and Clark were sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.
I think Lewis and Clark would have gotten lost because they had never been in that area and no clue as to the safest way to get through the mountains. Sacagawea was their guide and she knew how to bypass mountains and avoid dangerous animals therefore keeping Lewis and Clark away from most danger giving them a safe passage to where they wanted to go.
knife river North Dakota is exactlly 5 miles and 45 feet long and that is where Lewis and clark found sacageweas lost baby
"what type of expedition are we going on grandad?" Henry said
Pitfall The Lost Expedition - 2004 VG is rated/received certificates of: USA:E
Pitfall The Lost Expedition - 2004 VG was released on: USA: 18 February 2004
The Lost Album - Lewis Taylor album - was created in 2005.
Expedition Week - 2011 Secrets of the Lost Gold was released on: USA: 7 November 2011
Expedition Week - 2011 Lost Land of the Tiger was released on: USA: 8 April 2011
Expedition Africa - 2009 Lost in Africa - 1.1 was released on: USA: 31 May 2009
Mathew Lewis and Meriweather Clark, (sent by President Thomas Jefferson) led an expedition from St. Louis Missouri to North west Oregon on the Pacific Ocean and back again to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase territory. They lost only 1 person to a medical illness that no one anywhere (at the time) could have cured.
Robert E. Clark has written: 'The first book of Paradise lost'
Kelly Tyler-lewis has written: 'The Lost Men'
Darius the Great's punitive expedition.
Expedition Africa - 2009 Lost in Africa 1-1 was released on: USA: 31 May 2009
Lennox Lewis lost to the underdog Hasim Rahmann. This was considered a huge upset and Lewis wanted to have a rematch.
Most importantly, Robert Falcon Scott lost his life on this expedition.
The redhead in Lost, is Rebecca Mader, who plays the character, Charlotte Staples Lewis.
No. He established Roanoke which is the lost colony.
Lewis and Clark ExpeditionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(Redirected from Lewis & Clark Expedition)"Lewis and Clark" redirects here. For other uses, see Lewis and Clark (disambiguation).The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) was the first overland expedition undertaken by theUnited States to the Pacific coast and back. The expedition team was headed by Meriwether Lewis andWilliam Clark and assisted by Sacajawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. The expedition's goal was to gain an accurate sense of the resources being exchanged in the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition laid much of the groundwork for the westward expansion of the United States.The Lewis and Clark expedition was only the third recorded transcontinental crossing of North America, having been preceded to the Pacific coast (on July 20, 1793) by a Canadian expedition led by explorerSir Alexander Mackenzie. Mackenzie had previously crossed North America in 1789 as well, but had turned north at the Continental Divide, also becoming the first European to reach the western Arctic Ocean. In 1536, Cabeza de Vaca and four others of the NarvÃ¡ez expedition reached the Pacific Ocean after crossing the continent through parts of what later became the United States.[1Louisiana Purchase and a western expedition"The river Missouri, and Indians inhabiting it, are not as well known as rendered desirable by their connection with the Mississippi, and consequently with us.... An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men ... might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean..."The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 sparked interest in expansion to the west coast. The United States did not know precisely what it was buying and Francewas unsure of how much land it was actually selling. A few weeks after the purchase,President Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of western expansion, had Congress appropriate $2,500 for an expedition. In a message to Congress, Jefferson wrote:Thomas Jefferson had long thought about such an expedition, but was concerned about the danger. While in France from 1785-1789, he had heard of numerous plans to better explore the Pacific Northwest. In 1785, Jefferson learned that King Louis XVI of Franceplanned to send a mission there, reportedly as a mere scientific expedition. Jefferson found that doubtful, and evidence provided byJohn Paul Jones confirmed these doubts. In either event, the mission was destroyed by bad weather after leaving Botany Bay in 1788. In 1786 John Ledyard, who had sailed with Captain James Cook to the Pacific Northwest, told Jefferson that he planned to walk across Siberia, ride a Russian fur-trade vessel to cross the ocean, and then walk all the way to the American capital. Since Ledyard was an American, Jefferson hoped he would succeed. Ledyard had made it as far as Siberia when Empress Catherine the Great had him arrested and deported back to Poland.The American expedition to the Pacific northwest was intended to study the Indian tribes, botany,geology, Western terrain and wildlife in the region, as well as evaluate the potential interference of Britishand French Canadian hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area.Jefferson selected U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis, his aide and personal friend, to lead the expedition, afterwards known as the Corps of Discovery. In a letter dated June 20, 1803, Jefferson wrote to LewisThe object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce.Lewis selected William Clark as his partner. Because of bureaucratic delays in the U.S. Army, Clark officially only held the rank of Second Lieutenant at the time, but Lewis concealed this from the men and shared the leadership of the expedition, always referring to Clark as "Captain".JourneyClark made most of the preparations, by way of letters to Jefferson. He bought two large buckets and five smaller buckets of salt, a ton of dried pork, and medicines.Lewis declared the mouth of the river Dubois (on the east side of the Mississippi across from the mouth of the Missouri river) to be the expedition's official point of departure, but the two and one-half months spent descending the Ohio River can be considered its real beginning."Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 o'clock with a party of 11 hands 7 of which are soldiers, a pilot and three young men on trial they having proposed to go with me throughout the voyage."With those words, written on August 31, 1803, Meriwether Lewis began his first journal entry on the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean.The first tribe of Sioux they met, the Yankton Sioux, were more peaceful than their neighbors farther west along the Missouri River, the Teton Sioux, also known as the Lakota. The Yankton Sioux were disappointed by the gifts they received from Lewis and Clark-five medals-and gave the explorers a warning about the upriver Teton Sioux. The Teton Sioux received their gifts with ill-disguised hostility. One chief demanded a boat from Lewis and Clark as the price to be paid for passage through their territory. As the Indians became more dangerous, Lewis and Clark prepared to fight back. At the last moment before fighting began, the two sides fell back. The Americans quickly continued westward (upriver) until winter stopped them at the Mandan tribe's territory.The party of 33 included 29 individuals who were active participants in the Corps' organizational development, recruitment and training at its 1803-1804 winter staging area at Camp Dubois, Illinois Territory. They then departed from Camp Dubois, near present day Hartford, Illinois, and began their historic journey on May 14, 1804. They soon met up with Lewis in Saint Charles, Missouri, and the corps followed the Missouri River westward. Soon they passed La Charrette, the last caucasian settlement on the Missouri River. The expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. On August 20, 1804, the Corps of Discovery suffered its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. He was buried at Floyd's Bluff, in what is now Sioux City, Iowa. During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark had reached the edge of theGreat Plains, a place abounding with elk, deer, bison, and beavers. They were also entering Siouxterritory.In the winter of 1804-05, the party built Fort Mandan, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota. Over the course of the winter the expedition enjoyed generally good relations with the Mandan Indian tribe who lived alongside the Fort. It was at Fort Mandan that Lewis and Clark came to employ a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau, whose young Shoshone Indian wife, Sacajawea, translated for the expedition among the Shoshone and Nez Perce. Sacajawea would also serve sometimes as a guide for the expedition.The expedition continued to follow the Missouri to its headwaters and over theContinental Divide at Lemhi Pass via horses. In canoes, they descended the mountains by the Clearwater River, the Snake River, and the Columbia River, past Celilo Falls and past what is now Portland, Oregon. At this point,[clarification needed] Lewis spottedMount Hood, a mountain known to be very close to the ocean. On a big pine, Clark carvedIn April 1805, some members of the expedition were sent back home from Mandan in the 'return party'. Along with them went a report about what Lewis and Clark had discovered, 108 botanical and zoological specimens (including some living animals), 68 mineral specimens, and Clark's map of the United States. Other specimens were sent back to Jefferson periodically, including a prairie dogwhich Jefferson received alive in a box."William Clark December 3rd 1805. By land from the U.States in 1804 & 1805"The explorers began their journey home on March 23, 1806. On the way home, Lewis and Clark used four dugout canoes they bought from the Native Americans, plus one that they stole in "retaliation" for a previous theft. Less than a month after leaving Fort Clatsop, they abandoned their canoes because portaging around all the falls proved terribly difficult.Clark had written in his journal, "Ocean in view! O! The Joy!". One journal entry is captioned "Cape Disappointment at the Entrance of the Columbia River into the Great South Sea or Pacific Ocean". By that time the expedition faced its second bitter winter during the trip, so the group decided to vote on whether to camp on the north or south side of the Columbia River. The party agreed to camp on the south side of the river (modern Astoria, Oregon), building Fort Clatsop as their winter quarters. While wintering at the fort, the men prepared for the trip home by boiling salt from the ocean, hunting elk and other wildlife, and interacting with the native tribes. The 1805-06 winter was very rainy, and the men had a hard time finding suitable meat. They did not consume much Pacific salmon because the fish only return to the rivers to spawn in the summer months.The first written account of the expedition was published by Patrick Gass in 1807. Lewis and Clark's much more extensive official report of the expedition wasn't released until 1814.On July 3, after crossing the Continental Divide, the Corps split into two teams so Lewis could explore the Marias River. Lewis' group of four met some Blackfeet Indians. Their meeting was cordial, but during the night, the Blackfeet tried to steal their weapons. In the struggle, two Indians were killed, the only native deaths attributable to the expedition. The group of four: Lewis, Drouillard, and the Field brothers, fled over 100 miles (160 km) in a day before they camped again. Clark, meanwhile, had entered Crow territory. The Crow tribewere known as horse thieves. At night, half of Clark's horses were gone, but not a single Crow was seen. Lewis and Clark stayed separated until they reached the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers on August 11. Clark's team had floated down the rivers in bull boats. While reuniting, one of Clark's hunters, Pierre Cruzatte, blind in one eye and nearsighted in the other, mistook Lewis for an elk and fired, injuring Lewis in the thigh. Once reunited, the Corps was able to return home quickly via the Missouri River. They reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806.The Corps of Discovery returned with important information about the new United States territory and the people who lived in it, as well as its rivers and mountains, plants and animals. The expedition made a major contribution to mapping the North American continent.AchievementsGeography and mappingIn 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery as a scientific expedition to explore the newly acquiredLouisiana Purchase. The expedition's goal as stated by President Jefferson was "to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river that may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce". In addition, the expedition was to learn more about the Northwest's natural resources, inhabitants, and possibilities for settlement. Although Lewis and Clark were not the first explorers to travel west and they did not achieve their primary objective of finding a waterway across North America, the significance of the expedition can be measured in other ways.One of the most significant contributions of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was a better perception of the geography of the Northwest and the production of the first accurate maps of the area. During the journey, Lewis and Clark prepared approximately 140 maps. Author Stephen Ambrose states that the expedition "filled in the main outlines of the previously blank map of the northwestern United States".Before the expedition, most Americans were not aware of the size and extent of the Rocky Mountains. They believed that the Rocky Mountains could be crossed in a single day and that the Rockies separated the source of the Missouri River from a great "River of the West" that would empty into the Pacific Ocean. However, the expedition found that the supposed single day of traveling was instead an 11 day ordeal that nearly cost them their lives and that an easy water route across the continent did not exist.Natural resourcesFurther information: List of species described by the Lewis and Clark ExpeditionA second achievement of the expedition was a better understanding of the Northwest's natural resources. During the journey, the expedition documented over 100 species of animals and approximately 176 plants. The expedition even sent a caged prairie dog, which had never been seen before in the East, to President Jefferson as a gift. Over the two year journey, the expedition had made more discoveries of landscapes, rivers, native cultures, zoology, and botany of North America than any scientific expedition.Native American relationsAnother achievement of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was that it established friendly relations with some of the Native Americans. Without the help of the Native Americans, the expedition would have starved to death or become hopelessly lost in the Rocky Mountains. The expedition was especially indebted to a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea, who served as a guide and interpreter. The sight of a woman and her infant son would have been a reassuring sight to Native Americans who might have mistaken the armed explorers as a group on a warlike mission. For the most part, encounters between the three dozen Indian tribes and the expedition were successful. Author James Ronda states "Lewis and Clark matter today because they act as a benchmark by which we can measure change and continuity in everything from the environment to relations between peoples". Lewis and Clark may not have found the elusive Northwest Passage and were not the first to explore the west, but as Robert Archibald states, "they were the first United States citizens to have described the place officially". The fact that they were a scientific expedition was extremely important, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The new knowledge they obtained about the Northwest's geography, natural resources, and native inhabitants sparked American interest in the west, and strengthened the nation's claim to the area.Ella Elizabeth Clark has written, "It was the Missouri River, not the young Indian mother, that served as the Expedition's "principal guide." Sacagawea had seen only a small part of the area explored and not since her childhood....Though she was not the guide for the Expedition, she was important to them as an interpreter and in other ways. Two days into the journey, Sacagawea collected edible roots hidden by small animals in piles of driftwood. The roots were a welcome addition to meat....Captain Lewis ended his report of the mishap with praise of Sacagawea: 'the Indian woman, to whom I ascribe equal fortitude and resolution with any person on board at the time of the accident, caught, and preserved most of the light articles [that] were washed overboard.'"
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CF60006 Japanese album leaf painting from the Taiheiki of Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) in the legendary scene at the beach at Inamuragasaki where he prays and offers his treasured gold-mounted sword to the sea to aid him in passing this water obstacle, the waters parted away and he was able to pass, all painted in ink, mineral and gold pigments in detail on paper with speckled gold leaf mist. Minor water stains and signs of wear otherwise fine condition. 7-7/8” high x 10-3/8” wide. Contemporary frame: 13-3/8” x 15-5/8”. 18th century. $1,200.
Private Collector, Florida.
Charles A. Greenfield, New York.

domain: artistic


Mini LED SuperCharged Curing Light
Lamp complete with a grey handpiece, a battery, a battery charger, a power supply cord, a 7.5 Ø mm light guide and oval protection shield.
- 3 modes : fast, pulse and ramping
- Wavelength : 420 - 480 nm
- Light guide 7.5 Ø mm with a power of 2.000 mW/cm2
- LED indicators
- Dimensions : 24 Ø mm / length 201 mm
- Weight : 160 g


Just a place to put notes about how I configure my Arch Linux setup, particularly preferences and optimizations.
Parallel package building
When building packages, particularly through the Arch User Repositories (AUR), the process may take a fair bit of time, depending on what is being packaged. Changing a few flags can allow for parallel compiling and compression. In the /etc/makepkg.conf file, these changes can be made:
MAKEFLAGS="-j4"COMPRESSXZ=(xz -c -z - --threads=0)
The first change will set the number of compiling threads to the number of available CPU threads. The second will set the maximum available threads as default. Note that, while technologies such as Hypertheading will increase the number of threads per core, they may not pose an advantage when being used all together for the same task. It may be worth reducing the number of threads being used, though an investigation into this is need to confirm. EDIT: I’ve had my system completely freeze once from using all available system threads at the same time. I’ve changed what was $(nproc) to 4 to correct this. I have not experienced the issue with the compression, so I am leaving it at 0.
While other changes may also be made, I have yet to experiment with them, and several (from what I can tell) would more likely improve the runtime of the application, rather than building, and it is difficult to say that there would be a significant improvement.
There are a few preferences, and aliases that I’ve added to this (~/.bashrc), for convenience and personal usage. The main of which is to add automatic colouring to applications like the following:
ls, grep (and variances), pacman
I’ve also set an alias to redirect vi to vim, since 3 characters are too exhausting to enter, whereas 2 is much more conservative on energy. I’ve also set my default editor by exporting VISUAL=’vim’.
Finally, to avoid overlapping issues when a line surpasses the width of the terminal, the following is also set:
shopt -s checkwinsize
pacman mirror list organization
One change I recently discovered was how to organize mirrors in the list by connection speed. This made a significant improvement to my package download times, and the change was fairly simple to do. The rankmirrors command will automatically test available mirrors, and can output them to a new file organized. More details about this are available on the Arch Wiki.
I’ve also set a bashrc alias to automatically perform this task, limiting the testing mirrors to United States and Canada, in order to reduce the testing duration:
alias updatemirrors=”su -c $’cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup; sed -i \’/.*\(Canada\|United States\)/,/^$/ s/^#//p\’ /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup; rankmirrors -n 6 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist'”
TLP is an advanced linux power manager, which is particularly useful for those using laptop computers. Its default configuration is generally useful, however sometimes it’s worth tweaking settings found in /etc/default/tlp. The following are some of the changes I’ve made to my own, for a more particular use case.
I disabled the following settings, as I do not have an AMD GPU:
I also disable bluetooth all together, since I never use it:
I’ve had instances where I end up maxing out my memory, or nearly, and by default the system moves pages to swap. The problem with this, is once memory is freed later, the swap isn’t cleared, and applications become slow. To avoid this, setting the swappiness as described on the wiki page does the trick. Creating the file /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf and adding the following line:


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As I write this, we have been watching a major rotation of capital out of the high growth, speculative stocks, and even the high market cap tech stocks. This capital has been moving into value stocks with lower P/E rations as more people realize inflation is taking hold and start to follow the heard. Yesterday we saw QQQ drop over 2% and /NQ futures are down this morning quite a bit. For a short term trade, I am looking for some really sold off names to bounce, only if they are solid companies in demand sectors. AMD currently rests at a support level that goes back to September 2020 and a nice defined stop if the downside continues. I am watching Cathie Wood’s ARK funds to see what investors are doing, as well as TSLA, NIO, and the cryptos. ARKK should rally for a couple days as it has gotten seriously oversold. I personally think it is time to ring the register on these value stocks as long term holdings as more and more of the growth names hit attractive levels. I would expect to see the institutional investors increasing there holdings in the growth names.
Longer term, as we move into summer and fall, we most definitely will see more shortages and higher prices continue. Companies like PG, KO, and REYN have already increase prices and have all stated they expect more to come. As the velocity of money increases due to more people going on and spending, the economy will really heat up. It is astonishing to me that the Fed continues to keep rates at zero, but at some point they will be forced to raise them. The market is not going to like that. I am working on an inflation article as well as some more trade setups to take advantage of this downside. Watch AMD for the bounces off this $76 level and keep an eye out for more ideas.

domain: economics


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As a SciFi novel it is up there with the best I have ever read. It has great characters, an intriguing and ever developing plot and a quality of writing that paints picture in your mind.
I can't agree that there are lot's of complaints about dystopian SciFi. There are a handful of people here who have been vocal about it but that does not make them right. It is all opinion and it seems a lot of people share the same opinion of not only Wool but Hugh's other writing.

domain: literature


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Embark on a culinary journey that marries simplicity with sophistication as we delve into the world of Dump and Bake Garlic Parmesan Pasta. This one-pan wonder is a testament to the idea that delicious meals can be crafted with minimal effort. Imagine a dish where pasta, garlic, Parmesan, and a medley of flavors come together in a symphony of tastes that will leave your taste buds singing. Join us as we unlock the secrets to creating this effortless yet elegant pasta masterpiece.
For the Garlic Parmesan Pasta:
- 16 oz (450g) penne pasta
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
Prepare the Garlic Parmesan Pasta:
- Preheat and Assemble:
- Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C). In a large baking dish, combine uncooked penne pasta, chicken broth, heavy cream, grated Parmesan, sliced butter, minced garlic, dried Italian herbs, salt, and black pepper.
- Mix and Level:
- Stir the ingredients in the baking dish until well combined. Ensure that the pasta is mostly submerged in the liquid.
- Bake to Perfection:
- Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the pasta is tender, and the liquid is absorbed.
- Garnish and Serve:
- Garnish with fresh parsley if desired. Allow the dish to rest for a few minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.
Cook Notes and Variations:
- Customize the dish by adding cooked chicken, shrimp, or vegetables before baking.
- For a golden and crispy top, consider finishing the dish under the broiler for a few minutes.
- Sun-Dried Tomato Twist: Add a handful of chopped sun-dried tomatoes for a burst of tangy sweetness.
- Spicy Garlic Kick: Incorporate red pepper flakes or a dash of hot sauce for a spicy kick.
Keto and Low-Carb Versions:
For Keto Enthusiasts:
- Replace the penne pasta with a low-carb alternative like zucchini noodles or shirataki noodles.
- Use almond flour or coconut flour instead of regular flour for thickening.
- Opt for a low-carb pasta substitute or spiralized vegetables.
- Choose a low-carb thickening agent like xanthan gum or arrowroot powder.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Q1: Can I use a different type of pasta for this dish? A1: Absolutely! While penne works wonderfully, you can experiment with other pasta shapes such as rigatoni, fusilli, or even spaghetti broken into smaller pieces.
Q2: How can I make this dish vegetarian? A2: To make it vegetarian, simply omit the chicken broth and use vegetable broth instead. You can also add a variety of vegetables or meat substitutes for added flavor.
Q3: Can I use fresh herbs instead of dried? A3: Yes, you can substitute fresh herbs for dried. Use a larger quantity of fresh herbs as they are milder in flavor.
Q4: Can I prepare this dish ahead of time? A4: Certainly! You can assemble the dish up to the baking step, cover it, and refrigerate. Bake when ready, adjusting the cooking time if needed.
Q5: Can I freeze Dump and Bake Garlic Parmesan Pasta? A5: While pasta dishes can be frozen, keep in mind that the texture may change slightly upon thawing. Freeze in an airtight container, and reheat in the oven for the best results.
In concluding our exploration of Dump and Bake Garlic Parmesan Pasta, we find ourselves enamored by the sheer elegance that can be achieved with minimal effort. This dish, born from the union of pantry staples and a touch of culinary magic, stands as a testament to the idea that simplicity can coexist with sophistication.
As you savor the creamy goodness and aromatic allure of each bite, let this recipe be a reminder that joyous moments in the kitchen need not be complicated. Share this dish with loved ones, and revel in the joy of savoring a meal that embodies both ease and indulgence. Happy cooking!


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Key figures from the consolidated financial statements 2021
- Profit before unrealised financial items amounted to USD 227.1 million compared to USD 138,7 million in the previous year which is an increase of 63.7%.
- The profit for the year amounted to USD 148.6 million but was USD 78.6 million in the previous year.
- Operating revenues amounted to USD 558.8 million and increase by USD 105.3 million (23.2%) from the previous year.
- Net debt decreased by USD 175 million between years and was USD 1,500.8 million at year end.
- Cash flow from operating activities amounted to USD 323.3 million, an increase of 38.1% from the previous year.
Hörður Arnarson, CEO:
“After the uncertainty and difficulties in the company’s business environment at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 there were very positive developments in Landsvirkjun’s operations in 2021. Profit before unrealised financial items, which is the benchmark we tend to use when evaluating the company’s core operations, was USD 227 million and increased by 64% between years. Landsvirkjun’s operating revenues increased by 23% between years and were higher than at any point in the company’s history.
The improved results can be attributed to a vast improvement in the operating environment of our industrial customers and of Landsvirkjun. Iceland’s electric power system was fully utilised towards the end of last year and demand was high from a variety of customers.
Total power sales increased by 5% between years. The average price on the wholesale market to homes and smaller companies did not increase from the previous year and was ISK 5.3/kWh while the average price to industrial customers increased by 55% and was USD 32.7/MWh. This increase is mainly due to favourable external conditions on aluminium and power markets and also because renegotiations have taken place with most of our customers. They now pay a similar price to what one can expect in those countries which we want to compare ourselves with. The improved results of last year can therefore be completely attributed to increased sales to power intensive users.
We continued along the same lines of reducing debt. Net debt decreased by about USD 175 million from the beginning of the year. The main debt ratios are now comparable to out sister companies in the Nordic countries which is an achievement we are proud of. The key benchmark net debt/EBITDA decreased substantially last year and net debt is now only 3.5 times operating profit before depreciation. It is therefore not necessary to continue to emphasise a rapid decrease in debt which is why the company’s ability to pay dividends has increased. In light of this, the Board of directors plans to recommend a dividend of USD 120 million for the prior year at the annual general meeting.
This strong financial position of Landsvirkjun provides a solid foundation for future challenges on the road to the community’s green and climate friendly future. There are a few projects in development related to increased power generation which will be ready to initiate later this year. There are a lot of opportunities and we have already started preparing projects which will support national energy transition and the government’s ambitious climate goals.
Power station operations were good, as in previous years, despite various challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are therefore in a strong position to face the challenges which the future brings.“

domain: news


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Gina Jeffreys Workshops Enquiries and Audition Bookings : email@example.com Announcing auditions for 2016 When: Saturday 12th December Where: Music Cellar Studios Time: 10am sharp What to bring: Backing Track or Instrument LIMITED POSITIONS AVAILABLE CONTACT NOW TO BOOK AN AUDITION
Saturday 16 May Fred’s Pass Rural Show Darwin.
Here we have Gina in the studio yesterday with Mitch, Mak, Gina, Rod, Jay from The Million and Ian.
Gina is very excited to have recorded a song on the new Beccy Cole CD along with Sara Storer. The song is ‘Precious Times’ on Beccy’s new CD Sweet Rebecca to be released on April 10, 2015.
Friday February 20th 2015 at Toowoomba City Golf Club.
SONGBIRDS LIVE IN CONCERT DVD Release date May 1 Relive the magic of the Songbirds live in concert with this new DVD release. Join Sara Storer, Gina Jeffreys and Beccy Cole in their “You’ve Got A Friend” concert. Special guests on this live DVD also include Kasey Chambers, John Williamson and Troy Cassar- Daley.
Don’t miss the SONGBIRDS at the 2009 Country Music Festival Gina is perfoming with Beccy Cole and Sara Storer in ONE SHOW ONLY, on Thursday 22nd January at TREC Tickets are on sale now and selling fast. Buy your tickets online at visittamworth.com or phone 02 6767 5300
‘The Friends of GINA JEFFREYS’ Fan Club Tamworth 2008 Morning Tea Once again in Tamworth our club will be holding our morning tea with Gina The Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 The Venue: The Quest Apartments – Function Room 327 Armidale Road Tamworth (opposite Powerhouse) The Time: 9 am to 11 am The Cost: Members […]

domain: entertainment


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Online casinos offer a wide range of bonuses to their players. It is important for you to understand what each bonus entails and how it can benefit you if you decide to take it up. In this guide, we will look at the different types of online casino bonuses that are available and help you make an informed decision if one of them appeals to you.
No Deposit Bonuses
These are the most common type of online casino bonuses available. As the name implies, no deposit bonuses do not require you to put any money down in order to get them. Instead, they offer you a chance to try out the games and services offered by an online casino without risking any of your own money. These bonuses are generally offered as free spins on slot games, or small amounts of money that you can use to play other types of games.
Many online casinos offer welcome bonuses for new players who sign up at the site. These welcome bonuses are usually bigger than no deposit bonuses and often come with additional perks such as bonus cash or bonus spins. Welcome bonuses are a great way to get started with an online casino and can help you acclimatize to the games, software and services available at the site. With www.howaboutbingo.com, you can find the best bingo bonuses and promotions to kickstart your gaming experience.
Reload bonuses are offered by some online casinos as a reward for returning players. These bonuses usually come in the form of additional bonus cash or bonus spins that you can use on the games at the site. Reload bonuses usually have a higher value than no deposit and welcome bonuses, making them an attractive option for experienced online casino players.
Online casinos also offer loyalty bonuses to their most loyal customers. These can take many forms, such as exclusive bonuses, special offers and even VIP access to exclusive events. Loyalty bonuses usually have more value than standard welcome bonuses and are a great way to reward your loyalty.
VIP bonuses are usually reserved for the most loyal customers of an online casino. These bonuses offer exclusive rewards such as access to special events and promotions, higher withdrawal limits and even personalised customer support. VIP bonuses are designed to encourage players to keep playing at the site, so they tend to have higher value than other types of bonus.
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Storage.co.uk, an advice website for people interested in renting self-storage space in the United Kingdom, conducted a survey in early January of U.K. self-storage facilities, attempting to gain insight to the outlook for 2011. The survey results were published on the website last week, indicating optimism for self-storage in the year ahead.
According to Storage.co.uk, virtually every self storage centre in the country was invited to take part in the e-mail survey, though the site does not clarify how many facilities that includes or how many companies responded. The survey asked operators four questions:
- Do you plan to plan to increase your rental rates in 2011?
- What percentage of your space is currently occupied?
- Do you think 2011 will be a better year for your business than 2010?
- What percentage of your new rental inquiries comes from the Internet?
More than two-thirds of respondents (69 percent) said they are not planning to increase rental rates in 2011, with many saying they feel their current rates are reasonable and reflect the average for their local market. Several firms pointed out that rates will go up without management intervention because of passing on the higher rate of VAT (value added tax).
On average, respondents reported being 74 percent occupied in their self-storage facilities. Storage.co.uk believes this number agreeably high in light of the still sluggish economy and the timing of the survey; January is a seasonal low point for U.K. storage operators.
Ninety percent of the self-storage operators polled said they believe 2011 will be a better year for their business than 2010. Though several of the respondents are new players to the U.K. self-storage industry and have every reason to expect increasing performance as their facilities lease up, Storage.co.uk said this optimism on behalf of established companies has everything to do with the recession.
Respondents indicated that an average of 49 percent of their rental inquiries come through the Internet, though some indicated a percentage as high as 90 percent or more. A minority said they get almost no online inquiries.
Storage.co.uk provides a self-storage finder, a how-to guide, videos and blogs covering all aspects of renting storage space.


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By Tsvetan Ivanov
In Southeast Europe the automotive industry is presented by two subsectors – motor vehicle manufacture and automotive components manufacture. The first subsector encompasses the production of passenger cars, buses and trucks and is present in Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Bulgaria. Automotive components are manufactured in the above-mentioned countries and in Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Motor vehicle production
Romania, Slovenia and Serbia reported a decrease of their motor vehicle output in 2011 compared to the previous year due to a drop in demand on most European markets. The steepest decline was reported in Serbia – 17.6%, Slovenia followed with 12.4% and Romania with 4.5%. The launch of new manufacturing facilities in Bulgaria and Serbia in 2012 is expected to give a boost to the sector.
Automotive components production
Automobile plants usually group a large number of automotive suppliers at the same location or in the vicinity, contributing enormously to the economy of regions and countries. The high potential for import substitution related to the increase in motor vehicles production in Southeast Europe remains one of the main features of the local automotive component market. New players are expected to enter this market following the arrival of new passenger car manufacturers.
Opportunities for the automotive components sector include above all investment in R&D centres, increasing the role of national automotive clusters or the possible creation of international and regional clusters. Tucked between western Europe, Russia and the Middle East, the region of Southeast Europe offers automotive manufacturers and suppliers a potential strategic advantage in terms of transportation.
Motor vehicle sales
Although the volume of the second-hand automobile market is significant in SEE, our analysis is concentrated on the sales and registrations of new motor vehicles only as the best indicator for market development.
In 2011 the EU-27 market of new passenger cars declined for a fourth year running, contracting by 1.7% to 13.1 million units. For 2012, international consulting company IHS forecasts another fall in the EU-27 new cars market, by 6.1%. In 2011, Bulgaria recorded the fourth highest year-on-year increase in new passenger car registrations in the European Union – a hefty rise of 22.3% – primarily as a result of the stable macroeconomic environment in the country. In the same year Romania registered the fourth most severe annual drop in new car registrations in the EU-27, by 13.6%.
According to data from automotive organisations and the statistical institutes in the SEE countries, total sales in the region (no data available for Albania and Kosovo) fell to 265,845 cars in 2011 from 292,349 in 2010. Motor vehicle sales in the region moved in opposite directions in the different countries in 2011 compared to 2010. The largest year-on-year increase was registered in Moldova (25%), followed by Bulgaria (19.8%) and Croatia (7.7%). The negative record was set by Macedonia where new car sales in 2011 were 38% lower than in 2010. Other significant drops were marked in Romania (23%) and Serbia (18.3%).
Automotive industry has historically been among the leading sectors of the Romanian economy. The local association of automotive manufacturers Asociatia Constructorilor de Automobile din Romania (ACAROM) estimates a 10% share of the automotive industry in Romania’s GDP in each of 2010 and 2011, or more than 9.0 billion euro. In 2010 automobiles accounted for 18% of Romania’s exports, while the expected figure for 2011 is 20%. Romania is the biggest producer of automobiles in the region. The country is home to two car plants – Dacia is manufactured in Mioveni, in central Romania, and Ford in Craiova, in southwestern Romania.
More than 310,000 passenger cars were manufactured in 2011. Romania’s car production per 1,000 inhabitants is among the lowest in the European Union – 16 vehicles compared to 36 on average in EU-27 in 2011. Total motor vehicle production in Romania is expected to rise to 469,800 units in 2012 and 569,100 units in 2015, according to international consultants CSM Worldwide Automotive Forecasting.
The Renault subsidiary sold 343,233 units worldwide in 2011. Dacia Duster was the bestselling model with 47% of all Dacia sales.
On the domestic market, Dacia sold 30,867 vehicles giving it a market share of 28.9%. Dacia Logan was the most widely sold model in 2011 with a 21.3% market share. Dacia exported 91.5% of its production, or 312,000 vehicles, 240,470 of which in Europe. France is the top export destination for Dacia with 94,278 units sold (3.5% of the French car market in 2011 according to company estimates). Other major foreign markets in 2011 included Germany with 43,452 units sold, Italy with 26,838, Turkey with 21,339 and Algeria with 19,242.
The plant has an installed capacity of 350,000 cars per year. In 2010 its staff numbered more than 13,800.
In March 2008 Ford Motor Company took over the former Daewoo plant in Craiova. Production of Ford models in the new plant with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year started in September 2009. In 2011 the number of employees exceeded 3,500. Total investment as of June 2012 amounted to 675 million euro. By 2013 the annual output capacity of the plant will rise to 350,000 units. Exports are estimated at more than 90% of the output. Three Ford models are assembled in the plant – B-Max and the light commercial vehicles Transit and Transit Connect.
In 2010 the Romanian exports of automotive components rose by 30% from the previous year to 2.0 million US dollars. The country acts as an industrial hub in the region with easy access to major markets such as Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Turkey. Expectations for the period 2012-2015 are that demand for automotive components in Romania, central and Southeast Europe will increase. Major automotive components manufactured in Romania include electric and electronic systems, tyres, cables, steering wheels, gear boxes, safety systems, car seats, upholstery, etc. The leading automotive suppliers in Romania are Autoliv Romania (safety systems), Continental Automotive Products (tyres), Takata-Petri (safety systems) and Schaeffler Romania (car parts).
Potential for growth
The car ownership rate in the region is still much lower than in western and central European markets. The potential for development of the automotive manufacturing industry is higher in Romania than in most central and eastern European countries. Passenger car production per capita in Romania is one-tenth of the figure in Slovakia and a third of the figure in Hungary.
The concentration on rolling out no-frills cars allows Romania to aim at two growing market segments at the same time: customers in the neighbouring states and other emerging markets with lower incomes; and customers in western Europe with a preference for budget cars, who form a rapidly growing group in the recent years.
Threats to the sectors’s development can arise from a possible abandonment of the car scrappage programme implemented by the state if the macroeconomic situation worsens.
The Romanian new passenger cars market shrank by 23% to 81,709 automobiles in 2011 Dacia suffered an above-average drop but its top position remained unchallenged.
The roots of the Slovenian automotive industry reach back to the period between the First and the Second World War when buses were manufactured in Ljubljana. Passenger car production started in 1959 in Novo Mesto, in southeastern Slovenia. Cars under the Renault brand have been manufactured there since 1972. The factory is operated by Revoz d.d. and produces an average of 200,000 cars a year. Since February 2004 the company is wholly owned by Renault s.a.s. France.
In 2011 Revoz, the sole Slovenian motor vehicles manufacturer, produced 174,127 automobiles, down from 211,493 in 2010. Revoz currently makes three Renault models – Twingo (141,739 cars produced in 2011), Clio II (26,773 cars) and Wind (5,615 cars).
According to Revoz’ estimates, the company will manufacture 160,000 vehicles in 2012. The company exports almost 100% of its output. Top export destinations are France, Germany and the UK. In 2011 Revoz sold on the domestic market only 1,304 Clio IIs and 485 Twingos.
According to Eurostat and ACEA, in 2011 Slovenia was the third largest producer of automobiles per 1,000 inhabitants in the European Union with 100 cars, after Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The government provides financial support to the development of new technologies in the automotive sector. Increasing technology competence is seen as the only way for Slovenian automotive producers and suppliers to gain competitive advantage over the low-cost destinations in the region.
The Slovenian new vehicles market performed with minor fluctuations in the last three years. The market growth potential in Slovenia is substantially lower than that of the other countries in Southeast Europe given the small population combined with high car penetration rate.
In 2011, the year-on-year decrease in the sales of light vehicles in Slovenia was 1.4%. Volkswagen was the only brand in the Top 5 to register an increase in sales, almost closing the gap to the leader Renault. According to local automotive association Avto Drustvo Slovenije, the bestselling model in 2011 was Renault Clio with a 6.5% market share.
Manufacturing of automotive components is still lagging behind automobiles production in Slovenia but has an immense growth potential. More than 90 companies with 24,800 employees are involved in this sector. Cars and auto-components traditionally account for more than 20% of Slovenian exports. Here one should mention leading Slovenian company CIMOS, which supplies braking systems to car makers in western Europe. The Automotive Cluster of Slovenia has 59 members, including technical universities and research and development centres. The organisation ensures vertical and horizontal integration, as well as effective communication between manufacturers, research organisations and the government.
Automobile manufacturing in Serbia began soon after the World War II. In 1953 FAP Priboj started making trucks and buses. In 1954 FIAT started assembling cars in Kragujevac, in central Serbia. Later the factory produced Zastava and Yugo brands under FIAT licence and trucks under Iveco licence.
In 2008 FIAT Automobili Srbija was established as a 67/33 joint venture of Italy’s FIAT Group Automobiles S.p.A and the Serbian state. Since April 2009 the company has been rolling out the passenger car Fiat Punto Classic.
In April 2012 FIAT launched its modernised factory in Kragujevac at the same site where it manufactured Zastava cars from 1954 to 2008. The production of the new model FIAT 500L will begin in the fourth quarter of 2012. The capacity of the plant is 160,000 units per year. More than 2,400 employees will work at the plant by the end of 2012. The output will be sold on the domestic market, in Italy and other European countries.
FIAT’s investment was backed by financial aid provided by the Serbian government.
According to Serbian state investment agency SIEPA, motor vehicle production accounted for 12% of the total automotive industry turnover of 929 million euro in 2011, up from 838 million euro in 2010 and 646 million euro in 2009. The remainder is formed by automotive components production, in which 26 companies are engaged. Tyres and suspension parts make up 32% of the automotive industry turnover, followed by electrical system components with 22% and engine components with 13%. The leading companies in the components sector in terms of total investment are Tigar Tyres d.o.o. with 150 million euro, CIMOS a.d. with 120 million euro and Robert Bosch a.d. with 72 million euro.
The new passenger car market in Serbia recorded an 18.3% year-on-year fall to 31,770 vehicles sold in 2011 against 38,900 in 2010. Despite a slump of 60% in sales, FIAT retained its leading position, closely followed by Skoda which was the only brand among the Top 5 in Serbia to grow in 2011.
The country’s first automotive factory, in which buses and cars were assembled on imported chassis of Fiat and Daimler Benz, was opened in 1924 in Botevgrad, in western Bulgaria. Later the plant produced buses under the brand Chavdar, using engines and gearboxes produced by Skoda. Between 1965 and 1990 Russian-designed Moskvitch passenger cars were assembled in Lovech, in central Bulgaria. From 1967 to 1971 Pirin-FIAT was assembled in Lovech under the licence of FIAT. In 1966 Renault started assembling passenger cars in Plovdiv, in southern Bulgaria, under the brand Bulgarrenault. Trucks under the Madara brand were produced in Shumen, in northeastern Bulgaria. The last attempt of Bulgaria to produce cars before China’s Great Wall company arrived in 2012 was in Varna, in northeastern Bulgaria, where Rover Maestro was assembled before production collapsed within a year from its launch in 1996.
In February 2012, Great Wall opened a factory in Lovech, its first production site for Chinese-made automobiles in the European Union. The assembly plant of Great Wall and its Bulgarian partner Litex Motors will have a production capacity of 50,000 cars a year. It will assemble four models: two passenger car models – Voleex C10 and Voleex C30 (still not in production), a pickup truck – Steed and a SUV – Hover H5.
According to Business Monitor International, full capacity will not be reached before 2016, when 32,600 units are expected to be assembled. Initially, Great Wall plans to sell its cars assembled in Lovech in Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia.
As of February 2012 total investments in the factory amounted to 30 million euro and its workforce numbered 120. They are expected to increase to 2,000 when full capacity is reached within three to five years. The company plans to assemble 2,000 motor vehicles in 2012. Great Wall sold 516 cars in Bulgaria in the first half of 2012 which gave it a market share of 4.3%.
The success of the Great Wall venture in Bulgaria is critical to the future of the Bulgarian automotive industry. Success means Bulgaria may soon become a booming site for Chinese car production in the European Union. Bulgaria, a member of the EU since 2007, was chosen by the Chinese manufacturer as a bridgehead for its expansion on European markets as cars produced in Lovech will be eligible for duty-free sales in the other 26 countries of the bloc.
The market potential of Bulgaria is higher than that of Slovenia but lower than that of Romania, Serbia and Croatia. Bulgaria is one of the five large markets in the region but its relatively high rate of car ownership (632 vehicles per 1,000 people) compared to the SEE average, the very low number of new vehicle registrations and the dominance of aftermarket dent its attractiveness.
More than 30 auto-components producers with 15,000 employees operated in Bulgaria in 2012. Their total turnover in 2011 exceeded 750 million euro. Among the leading automotive suppliers are: Sensor-Nite, which makes temperature sensors for Volkswagen Group, KIA and Hyundai; cable producer SE Bordnetze Bulgaria; Yazaki Bulgaria, which makes cables for Renault; Integrated Micro-Electronics Bulgaria, a producer of electronics for BMW, Mercedes, FIAT; Montupet, a manufacturer of aluminium components for Audi, BMW, Ford, Dacia and Volvo, and Johnson Controls, which makes software for automobile electronics.
Most of their production activities are export-driven. With the entrance of Great Wall Motors in Bulgaria the local component sector is expected to gain momentum and possibly attract other foreign investors.
According to the government’s investment promotion agency, the production of components for the automotive industry was one of the two sectors that attracted most FDI to the Bulgarian economy in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The trend, however, is for a drop of investments in components production. One reason is that operational production capacities in Europe are more than enough to satisfy demand for components. Many companies in the sector are trying to find alternative use of their facilities in order to keep their staff.
According to the newly established Automotive Cluster Bulgaria, the most important reasons for investment in this sector are the lower labour costs as compared to those in central Europe, low taxes, qualified workforce, proximity to automobile plants in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey, flexibility and work on clients’ demand.
Threats to the sector’s development can arise above all from the extremely weak domestic demand and from strong competition in the neighbouring countries – Romania, Turkey, Serbia.
In 2011 automobile sales in Bulgaria showed fast recovery after the slump in 2010. For 2012 Business Monitor International projects a 3.5% growth in new car sales. New passenger car sales rose to 22,550 units in 2011 from 18,820 a year earlier. Competition at the top of the brands’ ranking remains intense. Volkswagen enjoyed a 33% increase in sales and climbed to the top from the fourth place in 2010. Ford lost its leading position and dropped to the second position, closely followed by Toyota, Opel and Peugeot. The best-selling model in the first six months of 2012 were Dacia’s Logan and Sandero models, with a combined market share of 5.2%.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 2011 the automotive industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by production of parts and components – engines, gearboxes, metal precision parts, drive shafts, brake parts and systems, clutches, steering parts and systems, electric parts, aluminium wheels and seat covers. More than 90% of the output was exported to 30 countries. The main export destinations were Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and Sweden. The leading investor was Volkswagen which operates a production plant for various Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda parts and components. Until 1992 passenger cars were assembled in the Volkswagen plant in Sarajevo. According to data from Bosnian automobile club BIHAMK, 44,249 new passenger cars, 4,429 trucks and 187 buses were registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina last year.
The automotive industry is represented solely by automotive components manufacturing. The most important players in the industry are members of the Croatian Automotive Cluster which comprises 50 companies with a total of 6,000 employees. Their combined turnover was 420 million euro in 2010. Leading automotive components producers in Croatia include CIMOS, Yazaki, Boxmark Leather and AD Plastik. More than 90% of the automotive sector production was exported last year to Germany, Austria, Italy, France and other European countries for clients like Volkswagen Group, Ford, Opel, BMW and Renault. Croatia exports mainly electronic components, safety systems, braking systems, seats and steering wheels.
To attract large international automotive suppliers Croatia relies on:
– the huge concentration of motor vehicle zzmanufacturers within 600 km from Zagreb – in Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Austria and Italy
-low shipping costs for manufacturers in zzAsia and the Middle East
In 2011 passenger car sales in Croatia increased by 7.7% from 2010 to 41,560 units. Volkswagen reported a sound 20% growth and snatched the title of most popular brand from Opel. Sales of Skoda increased most.
Macedonia lacks automobile assembly plants but automotive components manufacturing is regarded by the government as one of the priority economic sectors. The third largest Macedonian company in terms of total revenue in 2011 was automotive components producer Johnson Matthey DOOEL, according to local daily Kapital. Among the main product groups manufactured in Macedonia are seat belts, car parts, electric batteries, printed circuits and clutches. World Trade Organisation figures show that most exports of automotive components go to Russia (27%), followed by Serbia (23%), Slovenia (16%), Germany (12%) and Croatia (6%).
Proximity to automobile production sites in Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey is seen as the main driver of the automotive components industry in Macedonia, together with the cheap, yet well educated workforce.
As far as new motor vehicle sales are concerned, Macedonia was the country in the deepest crisis in the whole region. In 2011, sales dropped by 38% from 2010 and were equal to less than a third of the peak performance in 2008.
Brands’ positions in SEE
The new passenger car market in SEE remained dominated by European manufacturers last year led by a local brand.
Despite the 22% year-on-year drop in sales, in 2011 Dacia maintained its position as the most widely bought brand in Southeast Europe (excl. Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro), followed by Volkswagen and Renault. The main reason for this leading position was the dominant share of Dacia in Romania (by far the largest market in Southeast Europe), supported by high shares on the Serbian, Bulgarian and Moldovan markets.
Volkswagen and Skoda were the only brands in the Top 5 to increase their sales in 2011. Volkswagen outperformed Renault and occupied the second position in terms of sales in SEE. Ranking among the Top 3 brands in Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the German giant is the most evenly distributed top brand in the region.
Encouraging growth prospects
In 2012 the growth rates of the global automotive industry are expected to remain low. A slowdown can be felt in western Europe and North America, while emerging markets like Southeast Europe, may show recovery due above all to lower car density and higher growth potential. International business advisory company PricewaterhouseCoopers expects a 10% rise in global light motor vehicles production in 2012.
The major strengths, on which all hopes for development of the automotive industry in the region rest, include low production costs, skilled workforce and strategic location between significant markets such as western Europe, Russia and the Middle East. There are, however, a number of challenges. It will take a long time to turn around the current downward cycle in the passenger car market, even if consumer confidence and fiscal stability in Europe improve. In addition, there is no local car manufacturer in the region – all plants in SEE are operated by subsidiaries of global companies. Thus, local industry remains vulnerable to decisions of global manufacturers which plants to develop and retain and which to close down or move to other countries.
The rapid development of the automotive industry in several countries in central and Southeast Europe in the last two decades inspired others in the region to learn from their experience and join the race. For example, Serbia has announced they wanted to copy Slovakia by attracting European investment to their automotive industry and declaring the latter a top priority sector. Bulgaria and Romania have also launched new production plants and aim to turn the whole region into a strategic zone for automotive manufacturers and suppliers. The SEE region will undoubtedly remain important for years to come, as international producers continue to choose SEE as a place for new investment despite the recent economic turmoil. In the medium to long run, changes are possible in the positions of the individual countries within the region as a result of investments in new automobile production facilities.

domain: geography


By Britt Oldenburg, Bay of Islands Association
One of the key attractions of cottage life is being immersed in the beauty of nature: the lake, the trees, the loons, and a dark, star-filled sky. This dark and starry sky is increasingly threatened by light pollution caused by artificial lighting.
Ironically, lighting designed to save energy has only increased light pollution. According to an article by Robert Dick in a 2021 Federation of Ontario Cottagers’ Associations (FOCA) newsletter, energy-saving lighting is increasing the amount of artificial lighting at night by 2.2 per cent each year. It has become easy and inexpensive to light up docks and pathways with solar lights that stay on all night.
While light pollution interferes with our aesthetic enjoyment of the dark night sky, it also causes harm to nature. Animals, birds, and insects have evolved to take their cues from a world where the days are bright with sunshine and the nights are dark or gently illuminated by the stars and the moon.
For animals that use the stars to navigate for migration, the night skies and artificial lighting interferes with their ability to migrate. Birds can mistake artificial lights for their navigational stars, leaving them exhausted, dehydrated, and off course, and can sometimes lead to their death.
Nocturnal animals need the dark to protect themselves from predators. They use the protection of the dark to find food, eat, and mate. Artificial lighting reduces the time they have to spend on these essential life activities.
Even humans need darkness at night to produce melatonin, a hormone that helps us achieve the deep sleep we need to stay healthy. Artificial lighting affects our hormone levels and the structures by which we grow.
The good news is that light pollution is one of the easiest forms of pollution to address, and there are things we can do to help reduce its impact. As Nicholas St. Fleur wrote in a 2016 article for the New York Times, “light pollution is a problem researchers say could disappear with the flick of a switch.”
Angel Lillard of the McGregor Bay Association took this to heart this summer, after years of increasing light pollution from the Lafarge cement plant located on the eastern shoreline of McGregor Bay. Together with McGregor Bay Association President John Woodrooffe, they brought the issue forward to Lafarge, who quickly agreed to adopt a dark-sky policy that will see the lights turned off between 9:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Angel is now working to make the local municipality’s (the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands [NEMI]) dark-sky regulations more accessible so that cottagers can easily understand how to make their lighting comply with the by-law.
There are several initiatives in the Georgian Bay area aimed at curbing light pollution:
How You Can Reduce Light Pollution
Even if you don’t have an industrial source of light pollution in your area, we all have a role to play in reducing light pollution. This simply involves turning off lights that are not required, directing light rays to the ground, and blocking light from travelling upwards and into the sky. The International Dark-Sky Association recommends the following principles for lighting:
For more information on what you can do to make your outdoor lighting dark-sky friendly, check out the International Dark Sky Association here: darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-citizens/residentialbusiness-lighting
The Bay of Island Community Association held breakout sessions at this year’s Annual General Meeting to capture key issues for members. Light Pollution was one of the top issues that members wanted BICA to address. Members can start to address the issue by simply turning off their lights at night.


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Ian James an author from Warrington, has launched his first children’s book -‘The Elephant in the Room’.
‘The Elephant in the Room’ is about a little boy, Henry, who grapples with a problem with his friends at school. The book’s engaging narrative encourages children to explore their feelings, teaching them that it is okay to share their emotions and worries.
‘The Elephant in the Room’ does more than just entertain; it encourages conversations between parents, caregivers and children. In a world where conversations around mental health are increasingly vital, this book provides a nurturing platform for families to broach these essential topics.
Author Ian James, said: “I wrote ‘The Elephant in the Room’ to spark meaningful conversations between parents, caregivers, and children. The aim is to help young minds navigate emotions and feel confident in discussing their feelings.
“Henry is a little boy who has trouble with his friends at school – something a lot of children can relate to. Hopefully anyone going through something similar can recognise their own situation and speak to their family or loved ones, learning that sharing a problem can help.”
‘The Elephant in the Room’ is available here https://amzn.to/45coZok

domain: psychology


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Materials include furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, agricultural and military equipment, musical instruments, toys, vehicles, and numerous other products, tools, and household and industrial objects. Special areas of strength include Chicago-made furniture, ceramics, glass, and metalwork. Of particular interest are pieces by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, The Kalo Shop, Gates Potteries, Tobey Furniture, and the New Bauhaus.
Chicago’s industrial heritage is well represented by the Pioneer locomotive, meatpacking equipment, and a wide range of products made by American Flyer, Bell & Howell, Playskool, Schwinn, Sunbeam, Western Electric, and many other Chicago companies. In addition, the collection holds a rich array of artifacts from Fort Dearborn, the 1871 Fire, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition, city politics, and an increasing number of pieces from Chicago neighborhoods and diverse communities.
Highlights of the American History Collection include military and home front materials from the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. Of special note is the John and Jeanne Rowe Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln Collection, which contains many rare items from the 1860 campaign, his presidential carriage, and many materials related to his assassination, including his death bed. The collection also contains important pieces of early American folk art and furniture.

domain: history


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An organic farmer is similar to regular farmer, but planting, harvesting for farming is dependent on the quality of the soil. The soil is to be fed with organic matter, compost and manure and must be carefully monitored.
It takes almost 3 years to make a farm ready for organic farming .The crop seeds used for farming must be from certified organic stock and a farmer has to organic certifications .There is lot of effort and hard work to become an Organic Farmer.
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domain: agronomy