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Alan Cooke. a.k.a. is an Emmy-winning actor/poet/novelist who just released his literary piece called Naked in New York. The book is the result of his experiences, when he embarked on a journey to New York city just after the 9/11. He has acted and written since the 90s and then one day he just decided to leave it all behind and take a plunge into the unknown.
Naked in New York is a coming of age for the soul. He mentioned to me in one of our conversations that if he put all of his experiences in New York on text, then it would have taken him more than a thousand pages. This is a book of poetic beauty that flows in abundance through the pages. There are moments of pure illumination amidst the harsh realities in which he describes without sugar-coating. The poetry of his ideas are implied rather than expressed. And it is through one’s poetic soul that the beauty of his experiences is revealed.
This interview is kind of amusing. I have told him to hurry with the interview and not be distracted by other topics. We were doing a sort of dare. If you’ve followed one of his radio interviews, you will realize that he has an ample sense of humor.
“Ok last time give me those questions. I’ll do them right NOW.” The zeal of an Irishman! So we started with the interview.
“Hold on.” I was sifting through my original questions.
“Hurry up.” I was imagining him with that cocky smile at the other side of the monitor. And we started.
Alan with the release of Naked in New York, what do you plan to accomplish personally?
Well this is the first of three books. Naked in New York is a debut. I would like to go to New York this summer and read and promote the book if possible.
You have done stage and acting and I know your are very musically inclined. Any plans to dipping your vocal chords into an EP devoted to Irish music in the future?
I doubt it. I adore music. I adore the sounds of Ireland and the breath and depth of musicians. I do have a strong singing voice but I might make my own single one day . I like to try out new mediums who knows..
How do you feel about the reception towards Naked in New York?
Well whomever has read it has been very moved in many ways. But the promotional aspect I find exhausting. It is way more difficult than writing the book I have to admit. But then it only takes one piece of media coverage or the right person to read the book to bring it to a much larger audience.
Are you planning to do a sort of book tour in a form of public readings in the US?
I would love to yes. I am a performer. I am an orator. I am not a writer hiding out. I love to be in the world. In front of people speaking my words. I like to try and transform a room with the connection between teller and listener. That is the crux of all art.
You have upcoming projects. Can you give us an update on them?
Well as I said, I have two other books. The Spirit of Ireland and Jack Tully and the Midnight Killer. I hope to release both of them this spring. One must keep creating. Keep the candle burning in the midst of dark times. Someone out there could be moved or changed by your work. So I try never to give up.
You often discuss this light and dark contrast in the Irish psyche which is also the focus of your thriller Jack Tully and the Midnight killer. What do you think in brief paragraph, might have caused this phenomena?
Our history. Our colonization. Our religious repression. We are a mythic native culture at our root base. We are powerful poetic and magical in a sense. Our previous overlords knew this and crushed and starved and enslaved us for hundreds of years. So although we have a gift still in our Celtic souls, it is split I believe. At one side is a beauty for poetry and laughter and lightness. On the other is self loathing, self-destruction and hatred of our identity. You see it in the drink culture and the low expectations and learned helplessness that is very dominant here. So I like to explore that in my writing. But I think soon the Irish will rise into the full version of themselves again. Into the colour light and beauty of their own soul. They need to see and explore the myths. They need to cast out shame and sadness and realize we are powerful. Self love is the key. This landscape is filled with such amazing magic and depth. We only have to walk into it and say I AM.
Tell me more about your spoken words via youtube. You have released 3 so far right? What inspires you to make those?
Well I am an actor who hasn’t acted in quite a while. So my narrations are really my way of exploring my performance and my writing together. Both are intrinsically linked. The power of voice and the word is such a potent force when used for good. That is why I try and make these videos to combat so much destructive messages in the media.
I am curious what you have in your music player right now. Can you give me at least five Irish albums you are listening to?
Oh.. ! Well not many. I like the old U2 Albums when they were less concerned about massive profit and more about art. I like Thin Lizzy and also a lot of Uileann Pipe players. I love the Dubliners and Luke Kelly. I need to listen to more music again. !
You mentioned once that the book is a distilled version of what really happened in New York. If you’ve decided to write the story as is, it would have taken you a thousand pages. But as you mentioned, it’s more like an ‘art writing’ but also autobiographical. How did you decide which scenes in your life made it to the book and what didn’t and why?
It flowed in a certain rhythm. It was more an exploration of my feelings related to the experience than the actual experience if that makes sense. All reality is subjective. All magic or true experience is blended at times. I needed a certain level of discernment and trust of my gift to allow the flow to happen. What seemed important at the time of my journey became oddly trivial and then what seemed like an innocent road or a tiny moment became this momentous occasion in the book. I guess it is all perspective. There is no real truths only that which is your feeling of what you believed at the time. New york was such an overwhelming environment that I can only conclude my writing ultimately helped me undo the knots in my soul from the experience.
Let’s do another plug here. Where can they buy your book and the various formats that they can buy of naked in New York?
Three more questions.
I’ll kill you.
What is your idea of a good Irish holiday Alan?
Roaming the west in a car. Going to Kerry, Cork, Connemara. The wild ragged west of Ireland with the people, the food and hopefully in the summer. The long evenings and the sunsets and the magic of animals and mountains. It is all there in the very substance of every tree and river and in the eyes of the old people here. Magic in Ireland will never die.
So …what do you think? Should we stop here? Do you want 10 more questions?
No that’s enough let it roll. Off to do yoga in my house and weights, then porridge.
Copyright 2012 – Alan Cooke and Wild Poet Films. All footage is copyrighted. His Blog: www.wildirishpoet.blogspot.com
Buy the book on http://www.wildirishpoet.com on Audio release soon. Email to order your copy : email@example.com
It is another interesting week for our featured artist edition. We have Alan Cooke above and also links in this column that you should check out because they are interesting! There are things that are yet to happen which will be revealed through my conversation with an artist. Yes, you will get an idea how I talk regularly.
Here’s the fifth teaser for the Kevin O’ Donnell album:
The Album Release
DEEP IS THE WELL will be released and available online Friday, May 3rd for purchase from iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby. A music video for the first single “Factory Girl” will be launched April 16th. Stay tuned for Album Release Events scheduled for May in the Chicagoland area, which will feature many of the guest artists on the album. More at www.deepisthewell.com.
Here’s the latest post from the Saw Doctors fan page: Later this year we are hoping to publish a book featuring 100 songs of The Saw Doctors. We will post a song each day as we reveal the 100.
We are looking for any photographs, stories or memories related to each of the songs for inclusion in the book. So let us know if you have a suggested contribution in the comments section.
Song #1 has to be the first song on our first album and also our first number 1 single 🙂
Check this track by Eve Williams. According to Eve: “It’s a song called Miranda based on the Tempest by myself, Andrew Price and Stuart Revnell. Stuart produced the song and he put a lot of work into the vocals.”
More at http://www.evewilliamsmusic.com/
A Brief conversation with Singer/Songwriter, Writer, Composer, and Native American Rights Activist Jenne Lennon.
How are you Baxter? Its been ages……
I know Jenne but it is timeless in Celticland so it only seems like yesterday the vibes are still the same if you have anything you want me to post let me know id be happy to post it.
oh thank you! yes, a lot going on here. We signed with San Juan records and such. But, I was thinking of you. Last we talked you were feeling down. Are your spirits any better? New year….new energies…
Yes it is Jenne. Just like trees everything has its season. This is spring lol
That’s good news! It is, although in chicago, today was our first day of sunshine and relatively warm weather. By warm I mean 45 F compared to -2 F!
Oh ok. Yeah brrrrrrr haha. Here it is the start of summer in the Philippines so it is getting hot. Kind of silent around due to the lent.
Absolutely. But this amazing city is making up for it. Incredible Celtic music here. A bit of a world music resurgence going on now.
Yes, I imagine it is silent due to lent. I am jealous of the weather though, my best friend who is Filipino told me not to be so jealous as its very humid there, hehe!
You will get one too. In a couple of weeks. Yeah! humid indeed haha. I am doing my blogging outside where there’s moving air and birds…flowers etc
Hehe….I hope so. Although our summers are very hard and humid as well. My ancestors were not cut out for it. I am Irish after all…..I can’t take strong heat or cold.That sounds lovely! what time is it there?
Yeah I can imagine it must be hard for northern skins. Here it is 10 am.http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aww1/2013/03/27/alan-cooke-irish-emmy-winning-writer-actor-filmmaker Listening to the wild Irish poet.
Nice! It’s 9:00 p.m. here. Are we 11 hours apart? Thanks for the link!
Yeah 11 hours.
But, this summer I will be in South Africa, which it will be winter then hehe.
In which I asked her about Shishonnah and a possible online interview.
Oh, great! I would love to talk to you about Shishonnah and the work I am doing in South Africa. I’ve started working with the Chicago Childrens choir and it has completely changed my life. My dream is coming true to go to South Africa this summer if I can manage to raise the funds….
Ok. So info is just in your site right? I can just go there and read. I just want to make sure I am asking relevant questions.
Sure. Or, you can ask me anything you like. I can update you about anything. But, yes, the south African stuff is all on the site. Except for my work with The Chicago children’s choir (who you HAVE to check out) very famous. You would love their stuff
Ok. I would like an update on the Chicago children’s choir. I can just study the south African thing on your site.
Yes, anything you’d like that organization really changed my life. Its been incredible. I will be touring with one of the choirs next month and they will be singing my arrangement of “siuil a ruin” and I’ll be a guest soloist. Too cool! And how are things with you? How is the blog?
I told her about the subscribers have increased and I am introducing changes to the blog. We chatted for a few more minutes before we said goodbye and will be talking again soon.


Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reservation at the University of California, San Diego received an $85,000 grant from Honda to create an integrated research and public engagement program focused on integrating Native American perspectives and cutting-edge science in the management and access decisions necessary to ensure the survival of the marsh as a community asset.
The significance of the grant is not just in the amount, but in the fact that it will reconnect humans to the swamp while supporting the City of San Diego’s climate action plan, improving ecosystem resilience. and fortifying marsh wildlife habitats. The project is a collaboration between the San Diego Audubon Society, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, Native Like Water, and Renascence, a nonprofit organization run by local archaeologists and also a member of the Mesa Grande Band of the Kumeyaay nation.
San Diego Audubon leads the collaborative project and facilitates conversations between researchers and stakeholders. They also incorporate any new scientific and economic findings into their ongoing ReWild Mission Bay planning process. ReWild Mission Bay’s goals align well with the grant project, which is to improve and restore Mission Bay’s natural wetlands for cleaner water, greater climate resilience, and better access to public space.
The Kendall-Frost project has five goals: assess the monetary value of the marsh for carbon sequestration; reconstruct the history of the environment and the plants of the marsh; celebrate the resilience of the Kumeyaay and highlight the importance of the relationship between the community and the natural environment of the marsh; assess the social value of wetland restoration; and create a memorandum of understanding between reserve management and Kumeyaay leadership.
‘Iipay, Founder and Director of the Renascence Project, Brandon Linton, said, “This is a monumental collaboration that promotes the insight and interests of the Kumeyaay people within the building blocks of a program. In the past, we are always invited to the table during the approval phase, but through this grant and partnership, we hope to bring Kumeyaay’s perspective and presence to the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh reservation.
A valuable tool in the fight against pollution
Swamps remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and bury them in the form of plant remains in the soil of the wetlands. The economic value of buried carbon can be used by the City of San Diego to offset pollution through the city’s climate action plan. In fact, preliminary estimates suggest the buried carbon could be worth millions of dollars to the city if there was widespread restoration of the marshes in northern Mission Bay.
An important goal of the Kendall-Frost project is to produce a firm calculation of the amount of carbon buried in the marsh and its monetary value. To assess carbon sequestration in the marsh, the team will use sediment coring, sample dating and geochemical analyses.
Analysis of sediment cores to reconstruct vegetation history will be led by the Renascence project led by Kumeyaay, in collaboration with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Postdoctoral researcher Matthew Costa will perform carbon sequestration and other sediment measurements. The team will examine changes in the composition of pollen and sea shells, charcoal and mud to reconstruct the environmental history of the marsh and surrounding region. They will also date the nuclei to better understand the timing of events prior to European contact.
Costa noted that measuring the carbon burial that has occurred in coastal ecosystems – even small restricted urban wetlands like Kendall-Frost – can help us rethink the city-ocean interface as a critical site. to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century.
He said: “Combining this carbon data with knowledge of the site’s history during natural and human change can inform how we actively manage sites like these in the future to maximize their value for carbon sequestration, wildlife, coastal protection and culture. importance.”
Bridging a nation’s past and present
The Kumeyaay used the swamp for thousands of years before contact and the Spanish conquest of 1769, when they were displaced. Through the grant, the reserve seeks to provide the Kumeyaay people with equitable access to the marsh and show its living history – how the land was integrated into the framework of life and culture a millennium ago and how it could be reinstated as a valuable resource for humanity. experience.
Together, community organizations and researchers will work with Kumeyaay representatives to define research priorities and discuss how best to use the resulting data in a way that benefits the land and those who inhabit this region. This close coordination will also allow researchers to learn sustainable indigenous practices that have enabled a symbiotic relationship between humans and the marsh for thousands of years. Members of the Kumeyaay Nation will also be involved in educating the public about the history and cultural values of the marshes.
San Diego Audubon Society Director of Conservation, Andrew Meyer, sees it as an important way to bring the past and present together: “This project aims to solidify the future of this beautiful marsh by connecting Kumeyaay leaders to its stewardship. and its access. We will be using our community celebration – Love Your Wetlands Day – to share this perspective and gather community feedback.
The Kendall-Frost Marsh is part of the University of California Nature Reserve System (NRS), a library of ecosystems across California representing most of the state’s major habitats. The NRS provides outdoor labs for field scientists, wallless classrooms for students, and inspiration from nature for all.
The mission of the Natural Reserve System is to contribute to the understanding and wise stewardship of the Earth and its natural systems by supporting university-level teaching, research, and public service in protected natural areas throughout California.


This kit uses an indirect competitive ELISA method. The microwell strip is pre-coated with the coupled antigen. The Nitrofurazone Metabolite in the sample will compete with the anti- Nitrofurazone Metabolite antibody pre-coated with the microwell strip. After the reaction, the unbound reagents are washed to remove the unbound reagents, and the color of the TMB substrate is developed. The absorbance of the sample is negatively correlated with the content of the Nitrofurazone Metabolite contained in the sample. The content of the corresponding residue Nitrofurazone Metabolite can be obtained by comparison with the standard curve.
Scope of Application
It can qualitatively and quantitatively detect the residual amount of Nitrofurazone Metabolite in eggs, aquatic products and animal tissues (chicken, chicken skin, chicken cartilage, pork, pork liver, ham sausage, etc.), honey and other samples.
Get in touch with our specialists to discuss profit and quality improvement opportunities for your specific production.


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Local TD Denis Naughten has welcomed the announcement by Minister Jan O’Sullivan that Cloonakilla NS is to proceed through the Department’s planning process to tender stage over the coming weeks. However he has warned that it is imperative that construction starts “as soon as possible”.
“While I welcome the progress on the project, it is vital for the pupils, teachers and the local community that construction is not delayed by the type of tender used to appoint the contractors,” stated Denis Naughten.
“It is a ‘shovel ready’ project and should proceed immediately. My fear is that the project could now be grouped with other schools which are not as far advanced as the Cloonakilla NS project and this could slow down the start of the construction phase.
“Pupils, staff and parents have lost out because of the mistakes made by the Department of Education in the past and they cannot be penalised any longer,” concluded Denis Naughten.

domain: news


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About the game
In My Shadow is a captivating puzzle-platformer that takes players on a moving journey through Bella's mind as she seeks reconciliation with her past. With its unique concept and engaging gameplay, this game is sure to keep players hooked for hours.
The game features four beautifully designed rooms, each offering a different take on Bella's memories. As players progress through the game, they will unravel the changing relationships within Bella's family and discover the secrets hidden in her past.
One of the standout features of In My Shadow is its innovative use of shadows. In each level, players must manipulate shadows cast on walls to solve puzzles and progress through the game. This adds a whole new layer of complexity to the game and ensures that each challenge feels fresh and exciting.
With over 50 puzzles to solve, players will have plenty of opportunities to test their problem-solving skills. What makes In My Shadow even more intriguing is that there is often more than one solution to each puzzle. This allows players to approach challenges in their own unique way and adds a level of replayability to the game.
But In My Shadow is more than just a puzzle game. It is a deeply emotional and thought-provoking experience that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the power of letting go. As players guide Bella through her memories, they will witness her personal growth and her journey toward self-discovery.
The stunning visuals and atmospheric soundtrack further enhance the immersive experience of In My Shadow. The game's handcrafted art style brings Bella's memories to life, while the haunting melodies create a sense of melancholy that perfectly complements the narrative.
In My Shadow is a game that will appeal to players of all ages. Whether you're a fan of puzzle games or just enjoy a compelling story, this game offers something for everyone. Prepare to embark on a captivating journey through the shadows of Bella's past and help her find the answers she seeks.
- SW: Windows 7 SP1+
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E8400, 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 3.0 GHz or higher
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8600/GT, ATI Radeon HD 2600
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 2 GB of available space
- Sound card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with the latest drivers

domain: game


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The Simpsons Meet Family Guy
Kaley Cuoco Shows Off Her Tennis Skills
12 Mind-Blowing Documentaries to Watch On Netflix
Will Liam Neeson Reprise Ra's Al Ghul
Is Amazon Bringing The Tick?
Analysts Predict the Slow Demise of Walmart and Target
'Real Housewife' Ramona Singer Tweets Plans to End Her Marriage
Hunt or be Hunted in the Official Poster for The Walking Dead Season 5
12 Wolverines The X-Men Are Ashamed Of
27 Fascinating Movie Facts You Never Knew
Guardians of the Galaxy Can't Be Stopped
5 TV Shows For Your 'Game Of Thrones' Withdrawal
Will Christian Bale Ever Play Batman Again?
Big News About Shane Black's 'Predator'
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Man of Steel Revealed in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
What Disney Characters Look Like Without Their Epic Beards
28 Marvel Comic Facts You Probably Didn't Know
Exclusive Batman Details You Never Knew
Dwayne Johnson Confirms DC Comics Role
Check Out The New Video from Batman v Superman
Batfleck: One Year After
8 Movies That Turn to Crap After 20 Minutes
A New Batman and New Batmobile for 2016 Movie
Sizzling Footage Leaks for Avengers: Age of Ultron
104 Ending or Cancelled TV Shows for the 2013-14 Season
Here's What Happened To Your Favorite TV Animals
Did HBO Accidentally Spoil 'Game of Thrones?'

domain: entertainment


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Escape Elliott are a Belgian rock outfit that combine punky melodies with conjuring guitar effects and even hints of ska and reggae with heavy guitars and hard-hitting drums. 12 track album that dropped this May gives you those rock sounds that instantly have you in the middle of a concert rocking out and those punk elements you can not wait to hear. Big sounds and solid performances you won’t want to miss a track. With powerful, fun and out their lyrics you can easily just sing along too and have your own spin on them as well.
Take a listen to the full album below:
Follow Escape Elliott


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P Zhu, E S Dettmann, T J Resink, T F Lüscher, J Flammer, I O Haefliger; Effect of Ox-LDL on endothelium-dependent response in pig ciliary artery: prevention by an ET(A) antagonist.. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 1999;40(5):1015-1020.
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PURPOSE: To investigate whether oxidized low-density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL) affects endothelium-dependent responses in isolated porcine ciliary arteries. METHODS: In a myograph system for isometric force measurements, quiescent vessels were incubated with 50 microg/ml, 100 microg/ml, or 200 microg/ml Ox-LDL; 100 microg/ml native LDL (n-LDL); 1 microM of the ET(A)- endothelin receptor antagonist BQ 123; 100 microg/ml Ox-LDL coadministered with 1 microM BQ 123; or 100 microg/ml Ox-LDL coadministered with 50 microM of the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide. Vessels with nonfunctional endothelium (intentionally and mechanically damaged) were also exposed to 100 microg/ml Ox-LDL. Two hours later, vessels were washed, precontracted with the thromboxane A2 analog U 46619 (approximately 0.1 microM), and exposed to bradykinin (0.1 nM to 3 microM), an endothelium-dependent relaxing agent. RESULTS: In quiescent vessels, Ox-LDL evoked delayed contractions. In contrast, no contractions were observed after exposure to n-LDL, BQ 123, Ox-LDL with BQ 123, or Ox-LDL with cycloheximide. In vessels with nonfunctional endothelium, Ox-LDL did not evoke contraction. Bradykinin-induced relaxations were inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by Ox-LDL, but not by n-LDL, BQ 123 alone, Ox-LDL with BQ 123, or Ox-LDL with cycloheximide. CONCLUSIONS: In porcine ciliary arteries, Ox-LDL affects endothelium-dependent responses through the activation of ET(A)- endothelin receptors. As Ox-LDL can accumulate in atherosclerotic plaques, such a mechanism might be involved in the occlusion of the ophthalmic circulation observed in patients with hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis.
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domain: biology


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Has another food trend come and gone? It seems that way. According to registered dietitians in a recent U.S. News article, the gluten-free trend is on its way out.
As with other food trends, many consumers made the jump to gluten-free eating prior to having all the information. Though it was initially thought to reduce the risk of heart disease and help with digestive issues, registered dietitians say that if it is not medically necessary, eliminating gluten may be doing consumers more harm than good. After all, grains are an important source of nutrients and it is recommended that consumers eat around 6 ounces every day as part of a healthy diet.
The declining gluten-free trend is right on trend. Many other past food trends, such as Paleo, low-fat, and low-carb diets have followed the same path, they simply don’t last. The trends begin as immensely popular but quickly fade away, only to be forgotten by consumers. So why aren’t these food trends lasting? Probably because consumers don’t want to make the drastic changes required to follow these specific diets. In fact, the 2017 IFIC Food and & Health Survey found that only 14% of consumers followed a specific eating pattern or diet in the past year. Sure, consumers want to eat healthy, but completely changing the way they eat is simply not sustainable in the long run.
What will the next food trend be? Who knows. What we do know is that rather than large changes, consumers want products that fit easily into their lives and, at the same time, are good for them and have proven health benefits.

domain: sociology


Fertilizers play a crucial role in maintaining the health and productivity of a garden by providing essential nutrients that plants need to grow.
These nutrients include nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, which are often referred to as the "Big 3" in the world of gardening.
When applied correctly, fertilizers can enhance plant growth, increase yields, and promote overall plant health.
The use of fertilizers in a garden can help maintain soil fertility and prevent nutrient deficiencies. Gardeners should consider factors like the type of plants being grown, existing soil conditions, and the nutrient needs of specific plants when choosing and applying fertilizers.
A soil test can help determine the appropriate amounts and types of fertilizers needed, ensuring the right balance of nutrients is maintained for optimal growth.
Fertilizing your garden is not a one-size-fits-all approach, as different plants have different nutrient requirements.
Applying the right fertilizers at the appropriate times can make all the difference in ensuring a garden thrives with healthy, robust plants.
By understanding the role of fertilizers in a garden, gardeners can make informed decisions to create the ideal environment for their plants to flourish.
The Importance of Fertilizer in the Garden
Fertilizers play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy and productive garden.
Promoting Plant Growth
Fertilizers supply plants with the necessary nutrients, such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), which are essential for optimal growth and development.
These nutrients help plants grow strong roots, produce lush foliage, and generate abundant fruit and flowers.
A well-fertilized garden will generally experience faster growth and higher yields, making it essential for a thriving garden.
In addition to the major nutrients, fertilizers also provide minor nutrients like calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S), as well as micronutrients like boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, and more in tiny amounts.
Balancing Nutrient Levels
One of the primary functions of fertilizer is to balance nutrient levels in the soil. Over time, the nutrients in the soil can become depleted due to plant growth, erosion, and other factors.
Fertilizing your garden helps to replenish these lost nutrients and ensures that plants have a steady supply of essential nutrients for optimal growth.
Improving Soil Structure
Another crucial function of fertilizers is improving the soil structure. Good soil structure is vital for proper root growth, water retention, and nutrient availability.
Fertilizers can help improve soil structure by:
- Adding organic matter: Organic fertilizers, such as compost and manure, can increase the amount of organic matter in the soil, which improves water retention, nutrient availability, and overall soil quality.
- Encouraging beneficial soil microbes: Organic fertilizers also promote the growth of beneficial soil microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, which play a crucial role in breaking down organic matter and releasing nutrients back into the soil.
Types of Fertilizers
Fertilizers are classified into two main categories: organic and inorganic.
Organic fertilizers are typically derived from plant, animal, or mineral sources.
Some common examples of organic fertilizers include:
- Manure: Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, manure is considered one of the best organic fertilizers for gardens.
- Compost: Made from decomposed plant and animal materials, compost is rich in organic matter and essential nutrients.
- Bone meal: High in phosphorus, calcium, and trace elements, bone meal is suitable for promoting root development in fruits, vegetables, and flowering plants.
- Fish emulsion: Derived from fish parts, fish emulsion provides valuable nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Inorganic fertilizers are created through a manufacturing process that provides specific nutrient ratios for plants. They are usually applied in granular or liquid forms and are available in slow or quick release formulations.
Some common examples of inorganic fertilizers include:
- Nitrogen-based fertilizers: These fertilizers primarily provide nitrogen, vital for leafy green growth in plants.
- Phosphorus-based fertilizers: Important for improving root development in plants, these fertilizers contain high amounts of phosphorus.


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The new face of streamlining
New Steam Wand
Flip-up Cup Holder
Functional aesthetics and reliability for an even more intuitive and compact machine. The new WBar Pro offers users a smart experience with its new flip-up panels and shot counters positioned directly next to each group. The utmost in comfort for a dream user experience.
A rational design for an intuitive experience
Finally, it’s easy to create versatile work areas with the ability to use a combination of raised and standard-height groups.
220 - 240 / 380 - 415 V

domain: design


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tv CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera CNN December 2, 2018 2:00pm-3:00pm PST
secretary of state james baker remembers about bush's final day. >> he opened both eyes, he looked at me and said, hey, bake, where are we going today? i said, well, we're going to heaven. he said, good, that's wrihere i want to go. >> and we'll have more on the life and legacy of george h.w. bush in a moment. but first, we start with a cnn exclusive. exactly two months after "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi was murdered in the saudi consulate in turkey, we are learning new details about the growing animosity between the journalist and the saudi crown prince in the days and months leading up to khashoggi's murder. cnn has obtained hundreds of text messages khashoggi sent before his death, criticizing mohammed bin salman, mbs, calling him, quote, a beast, and saying, quote, something needs to be done, end quote. even discussing the possibility of an electronic army of fellow
critics. these messages are coming to light as "the washington post" and "wall street journal" report on messages the crown prince sent in the hours leading up to and after khashoggi's murder to a senior aide who allegedly oversaw the assassination. cnn's nina dos santos joins us now from london. nina, tell us more about your exclusive reporting. >> reporter: thanks so much, frederica. well, in the two months since jamal khashoggi tragically passed away after walking into that consulate in istanbul, the question everybody's had is, what exactly prompted him to become a target? was it his public pronouncements in his "washington post" columns that, yes, were critical of mohammed bin salman, the crown prince, or was it something more organized and more sinister, potentially? this sheds light on that question.
these are words you won't have read in jamal khashoggi's columns. instead, they're whatsapp messages, never seen before, sent by khashoggi in the year before his death. they lay bare his disdain for saudi arabia's crown prince, saying, quote, he's like a beast, like pac man. the more victims he eats, the more he wants. in another, may god rid us and this nation of this predicament. the words were exchanged with omar abdulaziz, a fellow critic in exile in canada. >> he believed that mbs is the issue, is the problem. and someone has to tell him that, you know, you have to be stopped. >> talk like this is dangerous for those from a country with one of the worst records for human rights. and it wasn't just political views the pair was trading but plans to hold the saudi state to account, creating an army of so-called cyber bees on social media, leveraging khashoggi's name and the 340,000 strong twitter following of his confident. >> in the beginning, it was a
bit difficult for us to have this kind of relationship. for me, i was a dissident. >> reporter: khashoggi pledged funds, and abdulaziz bought the hardware, hundreds of foreign sim cards to send back home. in one message, he writes, i sent you a brief idea about the work of the electronic army. brilliant report, khashoggi replies. i will try to sort out the money. we have to do something. how much money did he originally say he would commit to the project? >> he said 30,000. >> $30,000? >> yes. >> how dangerous is a project like that in saudi arabia? >> you might be killed because of that. you might be jailed. they might send someone to assassinate you. >> reporter: just like khashoggi, abdulaziz believes he was also targeted after two saudi emissaries were dispatched to canada, he says, last may to coax him into the embassy there. he made these secret recordings of their meetings and shared them with cnn. >> translator: we have come to
you with a message from mohammed bin salman. i want you to be reassured. we don't have to approach someone from an official department or the state security. the saudi arabian embassy awaits you. >> reporter: while he refused, they got to him another way, hacking his phone. according to a lawsuit filed this week against the israeli firm behind the spyware. when the pair's plans were discovered, khashoggi panicked. god help us, he wrote. how much of a target did that make both of you? >> the hacking of my phone played the major role in what happened to jamal. i'm really sorry to say that. we were trying to teach people about human rights, about freedom of speech. that's it. this is the only crime that we've committed. >> reporter: well, fredricka, we've of course reached out to saudi arabia for comment. we haven't received a comment from them despite the deadline
having passed a number of hours ago. we've also reached out to that israeli company at the center of that lawsuit. in the past, they have worked with foreign governments to, as they say, help intercept terrorists and plots against them. what i might caution is obviously in some autocratic regimes, they also view activity like this very much as plots against the state, which is why these revelations here in these text messages are extremely revealing as to why potentially jamal khashoggi was targeted two months ago. >> nina dos santos, thank you so much for bringing us that reporting. joining me right now, cnn global affairs correspondent elise labott and "washington post" assistant editor. good to see both of you. elise, what does it say that after all this reporting, the secretary of state, the defense secretary, and the president all still deny a direct connection between the crown prince and
khashoggi's murder? >> well, you've heard the secretary of state and even the president and defense secretary mattis, fred, say there's no smoking gun. lawmakers have been talking to us and cia officials and analysts. there isn't any kind of smoking gun in things like this, fred. there's an assessment and basically, like one lawmaker said the other day, you're not going to find an e-mail from the crown prince saying don't forget your bone saw. it's pretty clear what happened to jamal khashoggi. it's pretty clear that the crown prince knew at least there was some type of operation going on, whether he knew he was ordering him to be killed or whether he was, you know, ordering him to be detained or abducted back in some kind of rendition. clearly there was a tie between him and some of his close aides. i think this administration is being pretty much pragmatic and saying we're not going to
unravel the relationship over over this. i think the thing is they don't have to unravel the relationship. they can make some kind of punitive measures, use the leverage they have on saudi arabia for areas like yemen or qatar and still maintain the close relationship that they have with saudi arabia, this kind of false choice of all or nothing with saudi arabia is the problem here. >> right. there have been so many who have had ties to the state department who say that's what foreign policy is all about. it's how you craft policy once you know everything or you assess all of the details and you try to craft something accordingly. listen to what the secretary of state told wolf blitzer in this cnn exclusive. >> do you believe the saudi explanation that the crown prince, mohammed bin salman, did not know about the murder of jamal khashoggi? >> wolf, i've spoken about this a lot. i continue to work on this issue. president trump and this
administration sanctioned 17 people that we came to learn were connected to the murder, the heinous murder of jamal khashoggi. all across the united states government we continue to investigate to try to learn, to make determinations about what happened and will continue to hold those responsible accountable. we've been very, very clear about that since literally the beginning. we also, wolf, and this is important, are doing everything we can to make sure that we get it right for america, that we keep the strategic relationship with the kingdom of saudi arabia and protect the american people. those two things can both be done. and we've done it very effectively. >> so david, he is saying you can do these things simultaneous. >> good afternoon, fred. so i want to focus in on something secretary of state pompeo said there, that the administration and the president have been very clear on this from the beginning. no, they haven't. the president at one point said he talked to the king and that he was reassured. he has said over and over, as
elise was saying, that there's no smoking gun, or words to that effect. and here's the thing. you're not going to find a forensic report where there's blood under the fingernails of the crown prince. the question is whether it's plausible or believable that this operation, which no one denies the operation took place, took place without at least the tacid support, or the direct support, of the crown prince. that's where i criticize the president and secretary of state for not being more forthcoming. president trump made his first trip to saudi arabia and then he got out of the iran deal, and he's given the saudis carte blanche in yemen. that's everything they wanted on their wish list. why should they now worry about what president trump thinks anymore? >> elise? >> well, listen, secretary pompeo, when this first happened, he did go out to saudi arabia and say to the crown prince, look, the future of you being the king is at stake. your future rule.
he spoke to the king and said, listen, you really have to get your act together, whether it's about the issue of jamal khashoggi or his adventures, as david said, in yemen with the kidnapping of the lebanese prime minister, about some of these detentions. there's a lot of concern about this young prince that i think congress is starting to articulate their prerogatives when they're trying to call for the end of u.s. support in yemen. i think that there are a lot of concerns about saudi in general. the president is focusing on his relationship with saudi arabia, maybe to some extent jared kushner's relationship with saudi arabia. the u.s. relationship with saudi will withstand, whether they have some punitive measures or not. i think that nina's excellent reporting shows that there was some actions by jamal that the crown prince saw as a threat. there were a lot of texts between him and his colleagues, but there were also texts, as we've seen, in media reports
between the crown prince and his aides about jamal. so as we're saying, there may not be a smoking gun. there's certainly evidence beyond a reasonable doubt at this point. >> so david, while the secretary of state is saying, you know, that the administration can do things simultaneously, they can take into account, you know, the accusations or evidence and at the same time admonish or even punish, even though critics are saying you're not really seeing the latter at this point. there is a certain reticence. is that not further emboldening the crown prince? you just look at his demeanor, and it was just a snapshot, a moment with his kind of high five, bromance kind of handshake with vladimir putin. but is there a feeling that, you know, the crown prince feels nearly untouchable? >> there has been reticence on the part of the administration, and you see the crown prince at least in that clip that you're playing there now with president putin. he's just out there on the world
stage, untouched. back to elise's point from earlier, there is a fine line between politics and doing what the administration is doing. you can, as the secretary of state was saying, continue a relationship with the saudis. we don't have to pull our ambassador from saudi arabia. we don't have to cut off ties. we don't have to stop arms deals or oil deals with them. but for the president to come out here and be so equivocal about what happened with jamal khashoggi, a "washington post" opinion columnist, i think sends the wrong message to the world. >> then there was another moment that was caught on video. still many are trying to decipher the meaning behind this conversation between emmanuel macron of france and the crown prince. a couple words were picked up here and there about macron saying i'm worried and you never listen to me. but we don't really know the context of the conversation and what's happening here.
elise, how can this, i guess, be studied, whether it be the body language, what could they be talking about, if this is at all meaningful? >> i think -- i mean, i can't know for sure, obviously. we don't know the context of that. but president macron has been really reaching out to the saudis, very concerned about how they're handling the situation. i think it's about how the -- if i had to guess, i'd say it's about how the crown prince is comporting himself on the world stage. this certainly is not somebody who as david said is kowtowing, is humbled. he's kind of -- in arabic, there's a saying which kind of means big man on campus. he's certainly acting like that right there. i think not just president macron, but others in the region, king abdullah, others have tried to counsel this young prince. he does seem to at least feel he's untouchable.
i think it's in large part because when you heard the president say maybe he did, maybe he didn't, how will we know? essentially he's saying, who cares? >> and david, they are speaking in english, macron and mbs. macron could be heard saying, you know, you never listen to me. what does that say about the potential leverage that the french president might have in any kind of negotiations or talk or admonishments, et cetera, with the saudi crown prince? >> well -- >> you never listen to me says there have been many conversations. >> right. it suggests that president macron is in the same position that president trump is in and that other world leaders, western leaders, are in. they have relations that they want to protect with saudi arabia for an assortment of reasons, but they also want to figure out a way to exert the kind of influence they want to. as you say, fred, it does suggest that president macron, this wasn't his first time
talking to the crown prince. i think, again, in the absence of leadership from the united states, which used to set the tone of this, then you're going to have different responses from different western leaders. >> right. and so this was on display because if there was anything untoward or strange, they wouldn't want to have that kind of meeting right out in the open. they knew there was a camera there, even if they weren't able to -- you know, even if the audio doesn't pick up everything with clarity. they are out in the open. so there's intent there, too, perhaps, for these two leaders to say, look, we're talking as equals. >> but fred, i will say that the germans have announced they're not going to have arms sales to the saudis. other european leaders are following suit. there is a kind of world leverage that they have against saudi arabia. i think it remains to be seen how far it will go. but this could be another area where president trump, obviously the u.s. has the most leverage here. but this could be another area where if president trump doesn't get on the right side of this,
he could find himself alienated once again. >> all right. elise labott, david, always a pleasure. tomorrow president george h.w. bush will lie in state. the start of a nearly week-long tribute to the 41st president, a look at how he's being remembered in washington and in his beloved state of texas, coming up.
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of state and chief of staff james baker joined cnn to reflect on bush's life and the final moments that they shared together. >> when i showed up at 7:00 in the morning, one of the aides who assisted him physically said mr. president, secretary baker's here, and he opened both eyes, looked at me and said, hey, bake, where are we going today? i said, well, i said, we're going to heaven. he said, good, that's where i want to go. little did i know or did he know, of course, that by 10:00 that night, he'd be in heaven. >> joining me now, cnn national correspondent suzanne malveaux in houston. suzanne, lots of events in honor of america's 41st president. what does the week look like? >> fred, you actually mentioned about that presidential aircraft. it is at ellington field here in houston. it did arrive about an hour or
so ago. that was the same aircraft that carried president trump to the g20 summit in argentine that. that's the same aircraft that will carry the casket, the body of president george h.w. bush. tomorrow morning it will fly to joint base andrews. then the official ceremonies will begin in earnest about 4:45 in the afternoon. that is where you're going to see at the u.s. capitol rotunda both house and senate members paying tribute. the public will be able to spend quite a bit of time paying their respects to the 41st president from 7:30 in the evening, tomorrow evening, to 8:45 in the morning on wednesday. then on wednesday later, about 11:00 is when you'll see the national cathedral remembrance involving friends and family of the president. then the president, the body will be returned here to the home state of houston. this is where he'll lie in
repose wednesday night through thursday morning. then another special ceremony, memorial ceremony hosted at st. martin's episcopal church. this is the same place that memorialized the late first lady, barbara bush. this is the family's place of worship. then there will be a brief train ride of the casket as it is delivered to the burial site, the presidential library in college station, texas. fred, i have to tell you, there have been so many people that we have talked to today about the former president. we had a chance to see a beautiful, larger than life statue here in the park where we are, where they laid down flowers, teddy bears, and those colorful assortment of socks that the president simply loved. we had a chance to get a sense of what people here feel about the first family. take a listen. >> it's just sad to see him go, and he will be missed. we'll feel it here in houston.
we just wish everybody well. >> and how will you feel it here in houston? i know he was really active in the community with the sports teams and both of them as a fixture in the community. >> it's going to be very somber for the next year or so. >> reporter: fred, so many people told us about how there was such a great sense of respect that they had for the president as well as his family here. he was a big booster of the city. he really put houston on the map, a big sports fan as well. the seventh district, congressional district, that he represented now turning blue, but people don't seem to care. they really believe that he was a very good, decent person who crossed the partisanship and divide we see today. >> yeah, he had a big reach. suzanne, thank you so much in houston. meantime, stories and tributes are still pouring in for president george h.w. bush. this morning, former california governor arnold schwarzenegger told cnn about the time bush 41 tried to teach him how to sled.
so last hour, i asked the president's son, neil, about the incident. >> we've been able to hear a lot of stories in the last 24 hours. here's one from arnold schwarzenegger. let's listen. >> but it was one day it was snowing up there. we had this toboggan. he was trying to teach me how to slide that because i was only used to sledding down with austrian sleds, which you direct kind of with your feet. so we went down totally out of control. of course, we crashed into barbara bush, who broke her leg after that. so that's why he sent me this picture. we had really a great time up there at camp david. like i said, it was a great
learning experience, hanging out around him. he was kind of like a mentor and kind of like a father figure at the same time. >> so touching in the end, but about the whole notion of the crash and your mom breaking her leg. so is he saying that he led to the breaking of your mom's leg, or did she break her leg in a different way? there are different stories out there. what do you recall? >> she broke the leg -- i wasn't there, but she broke the leg running into a tree. anyway, so yeah, i love hearing that arnold schwarzenegger accent. he's been such a good friend. >> everybody is sharing so many lovely stories about their interaction with neil's dad, president george h.w. bush. all right. still ahead, are we seeing a truce between the world's two largest economies? president trump says he's holding off new tariffs on chinese products. details coming up. hey joy! hello thomas. hey. what's the worst part about paying for things you don't want? the-- paying! exactly. and what's the best part
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ingenious space- neat nest™ by fasaving design. all designed to stack and protect the lids, and the pan surface. farberware neat nest™. stacked & intact™ no new u.s. tariffs on chinese goods, at least for now n a so-called 90-day cease-fire. that's what came out of a two-hour dinner between president donald trump and chinese president xi jinping on the sidelines of the g20 summit in argentina. the u.s. was scheduled to more than double tariffs on chinese imports starting january 1st, but the white house announced it would hold off as both sides worked toward a trade deal. cnn's sara westwood joining us now from the white house. sara, president trump is back in washington now. what more can you tell us about this latest development with china? >> reporter: after that lengthy dinner meeting in argentina,
president trump and president xi are both signaling optimism that they could hit the pause button on escalating their trade war further. trump is saying he'll delay raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. those are already subject to 10% tariffs, but the president won't be raising those to 25% come january 1st because he wants to give some breathing room for his administration to keep negotiating with china, and in exchange, xi has said china will continue to increase its purchase of agricultural products, energy goods, and other american goods all aimed at reducing that trade imbalance. take a listen to what the president had to say about the agreement. >> it's an incredible deal. it goes down certainly, if it happens, it goes down as one of the largest deals ever made. and what i'd be doing is holding back on tariffs. china will be opening up.
china will be getting rid of tariffs. china right now has major trade barriers. they're major tariffs and also major nontariff barriers, which are brutal. china will be getting rid of many of them. and china will be buying massive amounts of product from us, including agricultural from our farmers. tremendous amount of agricultural. and other products. so it's been really something. >> of course, the issues that prompted the president to impose tariffs against chinese goods in the first place, those remain unresolved, like intellectual property theft, china's industrial subsidies. and although both leaders are touting this as a breakthrough, neither side is touching existing tariffs. >> and sara, trump also says he'll force a six-month deadline for congress to replace nafta after he signed a new trade deal with mexico and canada. what more can you say about that?
>> reporter: that's right. once president trump officially notifies mexico and canada he plans to withdraw from nafta, manager trump says he'll do soon, then the u.s. will not be party to nafta six months from that point. that sets congress up with a narrow six-month window to either approve the u.s. mca, president trump's replacement trade deal for nafta, or risk leaving the u.s. without any kind of trade deal that binds the u.s. to mexico and canada. so he's trying to use the threat of having no deal, fred, to pressure some of those lawmakers who are on the fence into supporting his proposed replacement deal. >> all right. sara westwood at the white house. thanks so much. don't miss a cnn special presentation as we delve into some of the dark truths that won some of the country's most contentious presidential races. watch back-to-back episodes of "race for the white house" tonight at 10:00 eastern time. carl, i as my broker...invite here. what am i paying you to manage my money? it's racquetball time. ♪
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when he was a u.s. attorney in florida, labor secretary alexander acosta gave accused serial pedophile and convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein the deal of a lifetime. that's according to a report in "the miami herald." epstein is known as a wealthy investor who has counted president trump and former president bill clinton among his friends. rené marsh has the story. >> he's supposed to be protecting these victims, and he was protecting jeffrey epstein, a pedophile. >> reporter: according to an extensive investigation by "the miami herald," accused serial pedophile and multimillionaire jeffrey epstein got a sweetheart deal thanks to president trump's labor secretary alex acosta. >> as of today -- >> reporter: the paper found that as a u.s. attorney in
florida in 2007, acosta and another federal prosecutor struck a plea deal with epstein's legal team just as the fbi was investigating years of alleged sex crimes. "t "the herald" reports epstein's accusations include at least 36 underage victims a steady stream of girls 16 years and younger, in and out of his sprawling palm beach mansion and allegations he paid teens to recruit more young v victims. a private investigator for the legal team representing some of the victims. >> i read the indictment. there was multiple allegations of sex trafficking, trafficking girls across lines, using his airplane to traffic girls, witness intimidation, and all the sudden it disappeared. >> reporter: according to "the miami herald," the agreement between acosta and epstein's legal team allowed the defense to dictate the terms, shut down the fbi investigation into
additional victims and accomplices, granted immunity to potential co-conspirators, and it was kept secret from the victims until it was approved. now victims have filed a civil suit calling the plea deal acosta arranged illegal. >> is it illegal or just improper? >> it could be both. it certainly is improper. >> reporter: as for epstein, he pleaded guilty to just two state prostitution charges and served 13 months in county jail. he registered as a sex offender and paid restitution to his victims. secretary acosta addressed the plea deal in his confirmation hearing last year. >> based on the evidence, professionals within a prosecutor's office decide that a plea that guarantees that someone goes to jail, that guarantees that someone register generally, and that guarantees other outcomes is a good thing. >> reporter: for a victim to be
kept in the dark entirely, in conjunction with an fbi probe being shut down and a favorable plea, according to reporting that says he's able to have work release privileges and be able to leave his jail cell and not have publicity in a large extent of these cases, that's what's so shocking about this. >> reporter: "the herald" interviewed several victims, including virginia roberts, who was employed at president trump's mar-a-lago resort, which is near epstein's mansion, when she was recruited. >> the training started immediately. i mean, it was everything down to how to be quiet, be subservient, give jeffrey what he wants. then, you know, before you know it, i'm being lent out to politicians and to academics. >> reporter: rené marsh, cnn, washington. and the nfl cracking down on star running back kareem hunt after an assault is caught on tape. find out what he and the league are saying about the incident, next.
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welcome back. a former star nfl player who was cut from his team after video surfaced appearing to show him push and kick a woman is apologizing today. in an interview with espn, kareem hunt now says he regrets the incident that cost him his job with the kansas city chiefs and possibly his career. here's cnn's polo sandoval. >> reporter: a plea for forgiveness from kareem hunt in a sunday interview with espn, the now former kansas city
chiefs running back admitted he was wrong in pushing and kicking a woman in february. >> i made a poor decision, and i'm willing to take full responsibility of any actions that come, you know, from this point on. >> reporter: first obtained by tmz, this video shows what plook looks like a short conversation in a hallway and quickly escalated into a shoving match between hunt and the woman. several people, men and women, attempted to break up the argument, but the woman is seen falling to the ground more than once. hunt is also seen kicking her while she's on the ground. hunt also seen in this cleveland police body camera footage now shirtless, being questioned by police. no charges were filed following the incident according to nfl.com. >> you kicking a woman, period, how do you explain that? >> you can't really explain it. the video shows it. i was in the wrong. and i'm not that type of person. i'm really disappointed and
embarrassed for myself and for my family. i really am taking actions to learn from this. >> reporter: in a revealing moment, hunt told espn he was never approached by the nfl to talk about what happened. >> has the nfl ever questioned you about that incident? >> no, they have not. >> reporter: on sunday, the nfl released a statement saying their investigation started immediately after the february incident. the league wrote, in part, the nfl's ongoing investigation will include further attempts to speak to the complainants in the incident. a review was made on friday, which was not available to the nfl previously, as well as further conversations with all parties involved in the incident. after friday's release of the footage, the nfl placed hunt on the commissioner's exempt list. right after that, the chiefs cut hunt from the team, saying he was not truthful with them in conversations about the incident earlier in the year. hunt hopes for another chance
with the nfl but made clear in his interview he's unsure if that will ever happen. polo sandoval, cnn, new york. up next, more than a thousand aftershocks just days after a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake people brace for more tremors. this deal won't last long. so get your free samsung tv at t-mobile store today. woooo!! pop pop pop!! what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14.
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saturday. officials were out surveying the damage. many families lost everything. homes were destroyed. 18 people suffered minor injuries and three people are hospitalized with serious injuries but they are expected to recover. a tornado was just confirmed in southern georgia near florida border. it hit kings bay naval base this afternoon. we're still awaiting reports of any injuries and details on the extent of the damages. parts of alaska still shaking two days after a major earthquake hit the state. the 7.0 earthquake send people running for cover. scientists have recorded more than 1,000 aftershocks in and around anchorage. our reporter is near anchorage. how are alaskans holding one all
these aftershocks? >> well, they're hearty folks. to give you an idea what it has been like, we moved a little bit to eagle river. take a look at this glass. this is some of the fallout we've seen. you've seen signs of the freeways affected and also, if you want to see what it looks like, you have to go inside people's homes to see the messes they're dealing with there. road after road. torn apart. alaska. battered by a 7.0 earthquake. the shaking, the worst here since 1964. nick coleman is checking his vacationing neighbor's place for the first time since the quake hit. what he finds is a home wrecked by mother nature. upstairs, cabinets knocked to the floor. a bathroom full of glass. the shower door pulled from the wall. >> it's pretty devastating.
it seems like the higher up you go in the building -- >> from anchorage, and the home of sarah palin. residents reeling from loss but thankful that does not include lives. shocking, they say, because of scenes like this. road crews right now working 40 sites similar to this. >> this is the most traveled artery in alaska. and take a look what has happen to the roadway because of the earthquake. it looks like a massive machine has plowed the roadway. crews are working around the clock so they're saying within days but there is a threat. take a look at this. see this crack? we have to stay on this side of it. that's because everything on the other side is liable to give way with all the aftershocks that continue to hit the anchorage area. >> reporter: more than 650 aftershocks so fafrlt around 20 of those at magnitude 4 or
higher. >> i didn't want to go to sleep last night. afraid it would happen again. >> reporter: diane and bill coleman still on edge after reading out the quake in their home of 47 years. >> it was a very loud sound. >> reporter: even with possessions crashing down around them, they never heard a sound over the roar of the quake. like so many, they search for memories that survived. >> we have to put some lights up and it makes it easier to work. otherwise you cry. >> reporter: still negligent nothing lost here outweighs what really matters. that was quite something we survived. it is quite amazing that no one lost their life. a 7.0 is nothing to sneeze at.
h people trying to get their homes together as well as the businesses. the roadways, while they're working on them around the clock, they're hoping to have that road open by tuesday. >> so 1,000 aftershocks. that's a lot. how significant are they? do scientists say how long the aftershocks will go on? >> reporter: we could be feeling aftershocks here for days, weeks and months even, after an quake of this size. some of them are note worthy. you do feel them. they shake you up. we're californians. we're used to it, too. you have that feeling that it is unsettling. for people who are here, and it is dark much of the time, it is unsettling to have that rattle.
wondering if there will be something as big. there could be some sizable aftershocks after that. that gives the folks working trying to repair those roads a much narrow wind. >> they keep working around the clock. they're used to working in the dark here. >> right now, thank you. thanks for being with me on this sunday. it is something you will only see on cnn today. brand new details throwing more light on the brutal murder of a "washington post" journalist. jamal khashoggi died two months ago in what the cia says was a hit ordered by a prominent member of the saudi royal family. this weekend the "wall street journal" and the "washington post" are both


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Independence Day: Resurgence
It’s just dull and hollow—a massive waste of time and money.
Maggie: What was your favorite movie in your entire life?
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Maggie: And what was the French movie?
Pauline: "Menilmontant," a silent movie made in 1924 by Dmitri Kirsanov starring his beautiful Russian-born wife, Nadia Sibirskaya.
All my TwitterPages are linked at the right.
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...
The new "Ghostbusters" film brings a battle between distorted nostalgia and the power of a child's imagination.
A tribute to the life of a great young actor gone too soon.

domain: artistic


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Sarasota doctor guilty of practicing without license
A former Sarasota doctor whose license to practice was revoked by the state was found guilty Thursday of four counts of practicing without a license. The charge could mean at least seven years in prison if the judge does not stray from sentencing guidelines.
Leonard Rubinstein, who advertised specialties in allergy treatment and cosmetic surgery and kept treating patients even after losing his license in 2012, was arrested in December 2013 after undercover officers posed as a married couple seeking a breast augmentation for the wife.
During the consultation, Rubinstein eventually told them he would have to do the surgery in Mexico, but did not explain that it was because his license in Florida had been revoked after twice previously being on probation.
Rubinstein did ask to examine the woman's breast during the Sarasota consultation.
Sarasota Police then used a search warrant to access other recent medical records, which led to more charges, involving treatment of several other patients. The charges alleged Rubinstein did allergy testing and treatment and other medical procedures as well as offering breast augmentation surgery.
At his four-day trial this week, the defense insisted Rubinstein was working only as an assistant to a licensed doctor who was not always at the office.


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Should landlords be expected to act as border control officials when renting to a new tenant? This is the question that a Judicial Review of the government?s controversial Right to Rent policy, which obliges landlords to undertake immigration checks on prospective tenants, will be asking as it gets underway today.
The Right to Rent scheme was rolled out nationwide in 2016, meaning that landlords must now check the immigration status of would-be tenants. Understandably, this initiative has proved really unpopular. Landlords are already under pressure from government (see my blog Landlords under fire, posted on 11 December) and certainly don?t want to take on responsibility for ensuring that tenants have a legitimate right to rent a home.
When the scheme came into effect, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) thought it was so potentially discriminatory that it put forward ? and won ? a legal challenge, gaining the right to launch a High Court case against the Home Office. As I write this blog, a full hearing is taking place before the High Court today and tomorrow.
The JCWI?s legal challenge is being supported by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) which has carried out research among landlords to find out how they feel about the scheme. The RLA found that, as a result of the Right to Rent policy, 44% are now less likely to rent to someone without a British passport , mainly because they are scared they may be prosecuted if they get something wrong. Landlords also say that, as a result of Brexit and the continuing uncertainty around the future status of EU nationals in Britain, they are now less likely to rent property to anyone from the EU or the European Economic Area.
According to Landlord Today, the RLA is calling for Right to Rent to be scrapped, arguing that it discriminates against those unable to easily prove their identity and foreign-born nationals who have documents unfamiliar to landlords. It is also calling for urgent guidance for landlords to be issued by the government, explaining clearly the rights of EU citizens to rent property, especially in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
The whole situation is reminiscent of the Windrush scandal that came to light earlier this year. Landlords are not government officials and shouldn?t be expected to act on behalf of the Home Office or to make a judgement call around who is and isn?t legally entitled to rent a property. Landlords are under enough pressure from excessive taxation and a new raft of regulations without being expected to act as immigration officers too.
Mary-Anne Bowring FTPI FRICS FARLA FCABE Founder/Head of Asset Management
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Chartered Building Surveyor. Lectures on EWS1 & building safety. Runs CapEx programmes.
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Plot conveyancing. Debt litigation. Group Company Secretary.
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Financial modelling, valuation analyst to support underwriting & fund reporting.
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domain: politics


Dutch and German dike experts held post flood field investigation along Elbe river, Germany
A group of Dutch and German dike experts conducted a post-flood field investigation in the areas around the cities of Dresden and Magdeburg where severe floods occurred along the Elbe river early June.
The Elbe river had reached record heights after days of extreme rainfall in Central Europe. At several locations the river overtopped the dikes and at some locations dikes breached.
Insight in dike failures
The group included experts from the Technical Universities of Delft and Dresden, as well as participants from Rijkswaterstaat, ENW and STOWA. Their objective of the investigation was to gain insight in the dike failures and the effectiveness of emergency measures.
Large parts of the damages have been caused by dike breaches that occurred due to geotechnical failure mechanisms and overtopping and some of these sites have been visited.One of the locations visited by the experts was the 90-m-wide breach near Fishbeck.
Strength as important as height
"We were surprised to see breaches where the water level stopped rising a halve meter below the crest of the dike", told professor Bas Jonkman of Hydraulic Engineering at Delft University of Technology in a first reaction after the tour.
"It was not the height but the water pressure that caused the dike failure. When constructing a dike we pay much attention to the height, but here we learned again that its strength is as important as well."
Find an explanation for instability
Jonkman has been on similar field investigations after the floods in Japan (March 2011) and Thailand (November 2011) where he noticed similar breaches caused by instability.
"Nevertheless we were surprised as the dikes along the Elbe are constructed with heavy clay. This may need a closer look. If we are able to collect more data we may find an explanation when we run some calculations with our models", adds Jonkman. "It would be interesting to know what caused the instability at these specific locations."
The Dutch dike experts will write a mission report with their findings. Just as was done after the visits to Thailand, Japan and New Orleans. Jonkman: "We will keep in contact with our German colleagues at the Technical University of Dresden regarding a next step."
The field inspections by Dutch dike experts started in 2006 with a first visit to New Orleans. By collecting data geotechnical levee failures, damages and loss of life datasets were analyzed. The insights in the failures of some of the levees due to piping and instability have resulted in more attention for these mechanisms in the Netherlands.
A post flood field inspection in New Orleans by the American Society of Civil Engineers with professor Jurjen Battjes of the Delft University of Technology revealed that the sheet piles to keep the flood walls in place were only 5 m deep, where they were assumed to be 15 m deep.
This news item is based on a release on the website of Delft University of Technology.
Read the reports on previous field inspections in New Orleans, Japan and Thailand.
Delft University of Technology
Department of hydraulic engineering
Delft, the Netherlands
+31 15 27 3345


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October 25, 2016 – Valiant Transaction profiled in ACG Philadelphia Deal Wire
June 13, 2016 – Delancey Street Capital Partners partner company Patina Solutions, Inc. featured in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
August 5, 2014 –David Allebach joins Delancey Street Partners
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March 29, 2013 – Delancey Street Partners featured in the Philadelphia Business Journal
August 2, 2012 – Bill Filip, Managing Director at Delancey Street Partners comments on the sale of Pinstripe, Inc. in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel


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Green tea is one of the most commonly consumed natural health beverages in Taiwan's market, with the major functional component catechin being shown to possess several biological activities such as antioxidation, anticancer, and prevention of cardiovascular disease. The objectives of this study were to develop a high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method to determine the variety and content of catechins in green tea leaf waste, a by-product obtained during processing of tea beverage. In addition, catechin nanoemulsion was prepared to study its inhibition effect on prostate cancer cell PC-3. Results showed that a total of eight catechin standards were separated within 25 minutes by using a Gemini C18 column and a gradient mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid (A) and acetonitrile (B) with flow rate at 1 mL/min, column temperature at 30°C, and detection wavelength at 280 nm. Among various extraction solvents, 50% ethanol generated the highest yield of total catechins from tea leaf waste, of which five catechins were identified and quantified. The catechin nanoemulsion was composed of catechin extract, lecithin, Tween 80, and deionized water in an appropriate proportion, with the mean particle size being 11.45 nm, encapsulation efficiency 88.1%, and zeta potential -66.3 mV. A high stability of catechin nanoemulsion was shown over a storage period of 120 days at 4°C. Both catechin extract and nanoemulsion could inhibit growth of PC-3 tumor cells, with the half maximal inhibitory concentration being 15.4 μg/mL and 8.5 μg/mL, respectively. The PC-3 cell cycle was arrested at S phase through elevation of P27 expression and decline of cyclin A, cyclin B, cyclin-dependent kinase 2, and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 expression. In addition, both catechin extract and nanoemulsion could induce apoptosis of PC-3 cells through decrease in B-cell lymphoma 2 (bcl-2) expression and increase in cytochrome c expression for activation of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9. Taken together, both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent pathways may be involved in apoptosis of PC-3 cells.
International journal of nanomedicine. 2016 May 06*** epublish ***
Yin-Jieh Tsai, Bing-Huei Chen
Department of Food Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China., Department of Food Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China.


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Johnston, Iowa police say a local mother left her four kids, ages six to 12, home alone on September 20 while she traveled to Germany. Police found out about the unsupervised children a day after Erin Lee Macke, 30, left the country. She didn't plan to.
Evolutionary biologists have never known what to make of viruses, arguing over their origins for decades. But a newly discovered group of giant viruses, called Klosneuviruses, could be a 'missing link' that helps to settle the debate — or provoke even.
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... Continuing our series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!, in which we strand a Kossack in the Giant Orange Arena with a microphone, 15 soul-baring questions, and El Toro! Yes, Smintheus, We're All Staring At YOU: Where were.
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After the hearing, deputies escorted Eller — clad in orange jail scrubs, orange socks and sandals too small for his feet — back to jail and then to the Hennepin County Workhouse. There, he’ll continue serving his 58-day sentence. When he’s released.


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Israel distributes more medical marijuana than any European country, Health Minister Yael German (Yesh Atid) said Wednesday at a Knesset hearing amid the ministry’s recent attempts to regulate its distribution of the unconventional treatment.
German said every patient who needs medical marijuana should receive it. The question of legality of the nonmedical version should be addressed completely separately, she said.
“I think people who are helped by cannabis should be able to receive it, but that we should keep its legalization as a separate issue, and not to mix them,” German said, defending the ministry’s practice of permitting certain sufferers to legally use the contraband substance.
“Cannabis is not a medical drug. Its effectiveness has not been proven empirically, yet there’s evidence that it helps alleviate pain,” German said at the start of the discussion. “It’s defined as a dangerous substance, and therefore a permit is needed to use it.”
The hearing was scheduled at the behest of MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), an avowed supporter of the legalization of marijuana, who claimed recent ministry regulations deny tens of thousands of patients the medical treatment they have hitherto received or were set to receive.
– Read the entire article at The Times of Israel.

domain: medical


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Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old superstar who capped off her team's win in figure skating over the weekend, tested positive for a banned substance prior to the 2022 Winter Olympics, NBC Sports reported Wednesday.
Team figure skating concluded Sunday with Valieva's first-place finish in the women's single, putting the Russian Olympic Committee atop the field and due to receive their gold medals late Tuesday. But the scheduled ceremony, in which the United States would receive silver and Japan bronze, was pulled from its scheduled slot.
NBC News reported the drug detected was trimetazidine, a metabolic agent that helps prevent angina attacks and treats vertigo, according to the European Union’s medicines agency. It is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because it can help endurance and increase blood flow efficiency.
The sample was reportedly obtained before Valieva won the European championship last month in Estonia, a performance that solidified her status as the leader of Russia's “quad squad” of elite women's figure skaters headed to Beijing.
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It’s unclear if Russia is appealing or fighting the result. Her appearance at practice implies that the federation isn't accepting any finding that would eliminate her.
“She is not suspended,” Russian figure skating federation spokeswoman Olga Ermolina said, with no further detail.
Valieva ran through her program and skated with teammate Alexandra Trusova while getting pointers from coach Eteri Tutberidze at the practice rink. Valieva flashed a smile to one of her coaches near the end of the roughly 30-minute session, and none of the skaters took questions from reporters.
When Valieva left the press conference area, she gave a gesture with a fist in the air. It appeared she responded to something inaudible asked by a journalist speaking to her in Russian.
A positive test could cost the Russians the gold medal in team competition and threaten Valieva's chance to win the individual competition that starts Tuesday. She is the heavy favorite.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams earlier cited “legal consultation” required with the governing body of skating.
The International Skating Union, which had earlier in the week said it needed "legal consultation" with the IOC, said in a statement Thursday it could not "disclose any information about any possible Anti-Doping rule violation," citing its rules for the 2022 Olympics.
The team event was contested over three days between Friday and Monday and included two elements in each of men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance categories.
Valieva had the standout performance, becoming the first female skater to land a quad jump at an Olympics.
If any athlete and team were disqualified or had their results nullified, an appeal would likely follow, which could further delay the medals presentation.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has set up an office in Beijing to hear urgent cases during the Winter Games.
Technically, it isn't Russia competing at the Beijing Olympics, but the ROC.
Russia's name and flag are banned from the Olympics once again in the continuing fallout from the doping scandals that dominated the last decade of Russian sports.
It will be the third and last Olympics under these restrictions for Russia, which fielded an ROC team at last year's Tokyo Olympics and the “Olympic Athlete from Russia” team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The 2018 sanctions were for doping and cover-ups when Russia hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The current punishment is for a further cover-up, when the World Anti-Doping Agency found it had been handed manipulated doping data from the country's national testing lab, which was under the control of Russian law enforcement. The restrictions on Russia expire in December 2022, well before the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
The Russian government denies there was any state involvement in doping.