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Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Sprinkle bread crumbs or crushed salad croutons on top of the cheese for a more traditional, crunchy macaroni and cheese. Stir bacon, diced ham, or other add-ins into the mixture before transferring it to the casserole dish for a twist on a classic. I remember my mother making this.
She taught me how to make it.
They were the best! My husband always request we make it together..
Hungry for more?
After 51 years of marriage I finally have him helping in the kitchen. This was also my mothers recipe, only we did not bake it we cooked the ingredients over medium heat on the stove to bring to a rolling boil. We also added onion for more flavor and texture. We then would put under the broiler until browned. Leftovers are the best!!!!! Everyone loves it. It is a huge hit with my kids. We have at least twice a month. We use sharp cheddar cheese that we grate ourselves.
That makes a huge difference in the taste.
Traditional Baked Macaroni and Cheese
No pre-shredded cheese! I bake mine in an 8x8x2 Pyrex dish. Before baking put grated medium cheddar cheese on top of the macaroni mixture. Then dot it with butter, and sprinkle paprika, salt and pepper over the top.
Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Bake 35 to 30 minutes.. It will be hot and criispy.. I have been making this since , and my mother way before that!
To update it, I use 4 different cheeses, sundried tomatoes and basil. Please send info for your cheese, the name, type, where purchased, etc. I would so appreciate it. Your review Old Fashioned Baked Macaroni and Cheese August 9, This classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese dish comes together quickly and is sure to be a family favorite thanks to its cheesy flavor.
Ingredients 8 oz. Cooks Tip Stir bacon, diced ham, or other add-ins into the mixture before transferring it to the casserole dish for a twist on a classic. Pat January 21, Elvis Smoothbore December 28, Made this in the firehouse many times. Always fills the crew up! Cheryl November 21, Devon Perez November 20, Mary Kuks November 18, Sonja November 17, Amber October 24, BURT August 1, Sharon Y. Burt August 1, Icing June 23, Dyemac May 29, Sharon May 15, Kathie Scott March 22, Shahadah January 27, Kathy November 25, Loyd November 22, Walter Willaford November 13, Cathy November 9, Elizabeth Ann DiGiuseppe June 26, Kerry June 22, Susan June 10, If I use corkscrews would that change the amount of the other ingredients?
Janice May 1, Gigi April 24, Helen March 30, Cheryl M January 30, Susan Kubler January 28, Brenda January 7, Lulu December 24, Cody H December 22, Cynthia Hartsock December 16, It says to cook noodles for 3 minutes. Is that correct? The box states 9 to 11 minutes. Danielle B. December 4, Kim November 24, Salt is listed in the directions but not in the ingredients. Gail November 24, Marie Graham November 22, Main Dish. Instructions Boil pasta in a pot of salted water according to box directions until it is right at al dente! We are going to bake the mac and cheese so more so you don't want it to be overcooked or it will get mushy.
Strain when done. Set aside while we make the cheese sauce. Prepare your casserole dish by greasing it with cooking spray or butter. Set aside. Preheat oven to degrees. Grate cheddar cheese and monterey jack cheeses and place into a medium bowl. Add Parmesan cheese. Split into two bowls: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add garlic powder and flour. Whisk for 2 minutes. It should begin to thicken. This is the roux.
- Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese.
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It will make the sauce super thick and delicious. Once all the milk is added, increase heat to medium so that the sauce begins to boil and thicken. While the milk sauce is heating to a boil, make the corn starch slurry. This will help the sauce thicken even more. We need this since we're not using a heavy cream or high-fat milk. Add this to the milk mixture.keithmars.com/how-to-install-gps-locate-devices-in-smartphone-samsung-galaxy-s10.php
Muellers Baked Macaroni And Cheese Recipe - Genius Kitchen
Keep whisking sauce until it has thickened to almost the texture of a gravy. Add salt and pepper. Taste it to make sure it tastes right. Add more seasoning if needed. Once thickened, remove from heat. The heat of the sauce will melt the cheese and make a delicious cheese sauce.
Once the cheese has melted into the sauce, add the cooked pasta and combine. Give it a taste to make sure you have enough seasoning. Add mac and cheese to the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese all over the top. Place in preheated oven to reheat and melt the cheese on top, about 15 minutes.
If you want a crispier top, let it keep cooking until about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and let it cool for a couple minutes before serving. Share this: Comments I am making your Mac n Cheese for my youngest grAnddaughter. Made this exactly like the recipe says and it came out delicious! I love those additions! So glad I was able to convert you. I call that a win, for sure!!


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Why Harry & Meghan Have Less Privacy in U.S.
"Why Harry and Meghan's Privacy is Even Less Protected in the US"
Description: Bernadette Roe interviewed international family law attorney Christopher C. Melcher regarding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s privacy and protection in the United States.
Publication: Nicki Swift
Publication Date: February 26, 2021
Journalist: Bernadette Roe
Area(s) of Legal Expertise needed for interview: Privacy
Legal Expert: Christopher C. Melcher
Quote: “An English court can prohibit the publication of information about a child. This is not the case in America.”
Celebrity divorce lawyer Christopher C. Melcher continues, “The law in the U.S. is opposite. Our Constitution rejects governmental interference with the press, giving the media the right to publish information subject to few restrictions. Public figures have almost no protection under U.S. law from unflattering stories. Markle and Harry will not have the protections they did in England. They could be subject to more exposure and scrutiny in California than could exist in England.”
Complete Article: Why Harry & Meghan Have Less Privacy in U.S.

domain: law


According to BBC, Paul Simon announced yesterday that he would be reuniting his 1987 band and embarking a world tour in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his Graceland album next year. The Grammy-winning and chart-topping album featured an eclectic mix of world music cultures with most of the album having been recorded in South Africa.
Having just finished the world tour for his 10th studio album, So Beautiful or So What, the 69-year-old doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon. The band’s reunion tour will begin next year and include the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Along with the tour, a Graceland box set will be released which will include a documentary DVD about the making of the album.


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Best Online Slot Machines Accept US Deposits
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There are some online casinos that offer real money slot games and offer bonuses to players. Players can play for free, real money games for a while and try playing for real money slot games with bonuses. It is important to look for a legit online casino that provides these bonuses before registering. The casinos that offer real money online slots games with bonuses don’t have hidden charges or jackpots looking forward to players to take advantage of them. Instead, the bonuses are earned when players win.
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In order to discover which online slot games accepts US currency deposits we suggest you check the website of the casino you’re most interested in. In addition to that, you should also check out the bonus section because the casinos that have the best bonuses will have the best payout rates. We recommend one to read the bonus details because some bonuses include lower payout rates. However, there are a few casinos that allows you to double your winnings with their special bonuses so it is always good to read the details.
Lastly, we recommend you to visit the casino and look around because that is where you can find the very 에볼루션 카지노 best slots games with the lowest payout rates. There are many factors that affect your chances of winning and the payout rates. For instance, if you are using a casino which has a low maximum bet it’ll be difficult for you to increase your winnings. In addition to that, the bonuses provided by the casinos are very important because they let you improve your skills. The best online slot machines accept US funds and therefore you should choose one that accepts those.

domain: entertainment


text:
Hardcover, laminated pictorial boards. Square 8vo. 207 pp. Exhibition catalogue copioulsy illustrated in b/w with numerous colourplates; maps. Spine sunned, with a couple of tears to head.
Book ID: 12911
Animals in Ancient Art. From the Leo Mildenberg Collection.
Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Hardcover. Very Good.

domain: hobby


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On the one hand I’m appalled that the French police is reacting this passively to the Muslim riots. On the other I think that it may be better to show restraint while they don’t have a real strategy for handling the rioters. Going in without a plan could well lead to more bloodshed than would otherwise ever happen. Besides, so far nobody has been killed except the two idiots who were electrocuted when they ran into a transformer house.
Also restraint definitively is better than this:
On October 17, 1961, thousands of Algerian immigrants living in Paris took to the streets in support of the national liberation struggle being waged in Algeria against France by the FLN (Front Libération National – National Liberation Front). In response, the Paris police department violently broke up the demonstations, as well as took other severe actions related to the demonstrations. While the police originally claimed that only three deaths resulted from the conflict, historians estimate that between 32 and 200 demonstrators died. With almost no media coverage at the time, the events surrounding the massacre, as well as the death toll, were almost unknown both in France and worldwide for decades. For this reason, there is no generally-used name to designate these events.
The Paris massacre of 1961 appears to have been intentional. …
As noted on this Wikipedia page, some question the article’s objectivity, so here’s another source for corroboration.
Also, don’t forget that French troops killed several hundred thousand Algerians between 1952 and 1962 in order to keep the country a French colony.
Compared to this, (maybe) excessive restraint, or officials squabbling among themselves if Sarkhozy was wrong to call the rioters scum, doesn’t seem to be all that bad.
Update: Some may have misunderstood what I was getting at. I wrote that I have mixed feelings, but I don’t advocate a weak response to the riots at all. Then again, any response has to be based on some kind of plan, and the French leadership doesn’t seem to have any right now, nor are they agreed on what to do. A crackdown is fine, as long as the police moves into the suburbs with some kind of plan. If they go in without some kind of strategy, and are beaten back, if only locally, it will be far worse than maybe excessive restraint, as far as encouragement for the rioters is concerned. Once they go in in force and well prepared, and finally rout the mobs, any perception of weakness on the side of the authorities will soon be forgotten. In the meantime the non-violent majority in the suburbs, including the Muslims, are getting fed up with the riots, for they bear the brunt of the riots.
For perspective, the riots in L.A. 1992 cost 50 lives in three days, so far there don’t seem to have been any in France. Ginny raises the point in the comments that rioting deaths in France may have been gone unreported since the police isn’t going into these areas even in good times, but I think that is unlikely – if there had been any deaths, the organizers behind the riots would have tried to blame them on the police. They would be eager to drag dead bodies into the spotlight, and if the media wouldn’t report them, they would do it themselves online.
To sum it up, the situation is serious, but it isn’t desperate, and I don’t feel any psychological need to prove that I have big pair by calling for bloodshed. It’s all fine and good to demand a crackdown from a distance, but up close it isn’t all that simple.
Update II: Please see my next post above.
18 thoughts on “My mixed feelings about the French police’s restraint”
An interesting point someone made re: the “scum” remark – the word Sarkozy used (I can’t find the French at the moment) translates more accurately into “rabble” or “mob” than “scum.” Meaning that he was essentially pegging them with the same label that has been applied to other revolutionary groups of people in the past, from the time of the French revolution onward.
It would seem to put a less inflammatory and more politically astute spin on the events, I think.
Riots need to be stamped out early, with overwhelming force. Otherwise they spread. Rioters are opportunistic. If the police respond roughly and soon, most decide to sit it out. If not, then many who would be deterred join in, and it balloons into a huge problem which the police are no longer able to overwhelm.
The French have made a foolish error, and far more destruction and loss of life will ensue when they finally take the necessary — harsh — steps to restore order.
Tear gas and clubs would have worked the first night. Now it is going to take troops and police snipers. Maybe tanks.
No one killed yet, Ralf, but not for want of trying. The disabled, elderly woman, set on fire by “youths” is lucky — maybe — to be alive. With this much arson it is pure luck that there are no fatalities, if that is even still correct.
It is astonishing even to cynical-old-me how little coverage this is getting in the American media.
No Pasaran proposes a solution. Time to restore an old tradition.
Sarkozy first used the word following the murder of a 10 year old child. Pretty tame word given the circumstances.
Is is right or meaninbgful to r3efer to these younbg hoodlums as \”immigrants\” when in fact their parents have been in France for a very long time and these rabble rousers were all born in France? Isnb\’t labeling them \”immigrants\” setting them aside linguistically?
Verity says it’s a civil war over on Albion’s Seedling. Interesting long-term predictions.
Restraint in response to rioting or even threatened rioting is almost always a mistake. Order should be restored as quickly as possible. Rioting tends to feed on itself. The best strategy is to start with minimal force while being prepared to instantly ratchet it up as far as necessary.
The L.A. Rodney King riots are instructive in this regard. The riots occurred in the first place because “community leaders” convinced the authorities that presence of the national guard or even the normal police would inflame passions. As a result, there was no additional forces in place and the normal police presence was intentionally reduced. The riots began as a smattering of spontaneous acts that the police could have stopped if they had been prepared to do so.
Lex, How sturdy is the information on deaths? If the police don’t go into these areas in good times, surely they aren’t now. Who’s reporting? (I certainly haven’t seen anything that indicates there were more deaths – just wondered if we really know much.)
This is the result of too much trust in pacificism.
For too long, too many elites have pressed the belief that everything will be fine if we just trust each other.
Just as if we only disarm, our enemies will see our good faith and do the same.
And all bears are just like Yogi and BooBoo.
Eventually the froggies will call out the army, then there will masacrees. The MSM and the international left will continue to focus on Israel, allegations of torture by the US, and George W. Bush.
There is only ONE reply to terrorist violence like these Muslim scum are engaged in–overwhelming deadly force. Kill a few score of them now, and intimidate the rest. Delay only leads to more deaths in the end.
No deaths, according to the news, though the cops and fire-fighters have been shot at. One French politician said something like “even one death and this will get out of control.” Ha. This is “in control”?
I translated an op-ed piece from the Süddeutsche Zeitung on the riots. It’s not bad as far as it goes (e.g. it acknowledges that concessions would be useless in quelling the violence), but in the end it all comes down to “the dialog of civilizations”. Not a word given to how to deal with the present situation on the ground.
“Next door” to it is an interview [using tinyurl.com because the blog rejected the link: it has three sixes in it] with the director of the Criminalogical Research Institute of Lower Saxony (haven’t translated the whole thing yet). His view: it’s all Sarkozy’s fault:
“Pfeiffer: These violent groups from North Africa act out of a deeply rooted culture of honor. When one insults them as Interior Minister Sarkozy did with the word ‘rabble’, one virtually provokes them to revolt against the state. One cannot act more stupidly. The chief blame for these riots falls to Sarkozy.”
I guess he must mean that it’s Sarkozy’s fault that the riots got this bad. They didn’t start with Sarkozy’s comments. And evidently Pfeiffer regards the 30,000 cars burned by these youths this year before the riots as irrelevant.
“America has rabies!”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
Ha … haha … ahh … hahahah! Bwahahahahaha!
*gasp for breath*
You want a plan? Here is one. Load up a bunch of guns. Put the sights of the guns on the first rioter you see. Pull the trigger. Repeat. Keep doing this until the riots stop.
How simple is that, right?
We really need a poll at this point. Will the US media blame the French riots on:
I’d include a fifth choice, global warming, but that wouldn’t even make sense to Michael Moore. Maybe Time magazine could work in a sidebar about how all the cars being burned in Dick Cheney’s French riots is contributing to global warming.
Comments are closed.

domain: news


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You’ve just arrived at the most catlike website on the Internet. Here you will find all kind of information about the different cat breeds that exist. We are passionate about cats and the cat is our greatest passion, whether they are mixed or purebred cats. So if you want to join us, we will be happy to explain you all our knowledge about cats. Whatever their breed is, you will find it here.
What breeds of cat will you find here?
Cat breeds: everything you need to know!
When you want to adopt a cat, several questions arise immediately. The first one is obviously to know if you want to buy a cat with pedigree in a cattery and therefore from a breeder or rather to adopt a crossed cat in a shelter or an association. In the case of a cat with a pedigree, one has to think about the different hereditary diseases that would be the responsibility of the breed. Do we want a cat with a very specific character, which is suitable for living in an apartment and doesn’t need much space, or on the contrary a very independent cat which can stay alone?
Of course, these questions should be asked before the adoption of the animal so that everything goes well afterwards during the cohabitation with his new companion. Follow the guide!
How to choose the breed of my cat ?
Unlike dog breeds, which actually have specific behavioural characteristics, things are less clear-cut with cats. The first criterion that will make you choose a pedigree cat instead of a cross-bred street cat will therefore be its physique and morphology: long or short hair (or even no hair at all), a dense and silky coat, a coat with a specific pattern, eyes of a precise colour, a flattened nose, a size… Here, therefore, it will only be a question of taste.
But what about the cat’s character? Can one choose to adopt a pedigree cat with behavioural criteria? Are some pedigree cats quieter, more playful or more affectionate than others? Are some cats more sociable and affectionate than others? Is a cat breed more suitable for children or older people?
It’s hard to say. But it’s obvious that not all cat breeds have the same character and behaviour. Some cats will be wilder like the Abyssinian and the Bengali, while other cat breeds will be more sociable and more willing to spend long periods of time cuddling, like the British and Persian chinchillas. On the other hand, the Siamese cat will be more exclusive and particularly talkative, while the Turkish Angora will be particularly fussy and the Sphinx will be a real glue pot !
To go a step further and see which cat breeds are right for you, take our test to find out which cat breeds are right for you.
Breed cat or stray cat: what are the differences ?
Choosing to adopt a pedigree cat or a stray cat (not to be confused with the European cat) is mainly a matter of taste. Because the main difference between a cat with pedigree and a stray cat lies in its physical appearance: morphology, coat, length of hair, eye color, muzzle …
The advantages of a cat with a pedigree
If you want a cat with a very specific morphology, it is on the side of pedigree cats that you should convert. Indeed, the cats of race have a very particular physique, which answers to precise criteria and which is the result of a long process of genetic selection.
Do you dream of a blue-eyed kitten? A small feline with dense hair or on the contrary with short hair? A flattened muzzle? All these criteria vary from one breed to another, but they can be selected when choosing a cat breed because it must meet very precise standards. This is not the case when you choose an alley cat, or even a mongrel cat. In this case, it is more difficult to know exactly how the cat will be as an adult.
The disadvantages of the pedigree cat
However, it should be noted that purebred cats are more prone to genetic diseases. The Maine Coon and Devon Rex, for example, are often prone to heart disease.
The other aspect to consider is the financial aspect. And rightly so, since the price of an alley cat is not at all the same as that of a purebred cat. When an alley cat can be sold for a fairly reasonable sum, the pedigree cat will be sold at a very high price, sometimes even several hundred euros.
As for the character, there are relatively few differences between a pedigree cat and an alley cat, although some behaviors can vary slightly. This can in no way be compared with dogs whose character varies greatly between breeds. But there are some differences anyway.
Breed recommendations according to common character traits
Loving cats: Siamese, Turkish Angora, Sphinx or Persian are particularly close to their master.
Quiet cats: Maine Coons, Persians or British are known not to be particularly active cats.
Active cats: the Devon Rex, the Chartered or the Abyssinian on the contrary are known to be strong heads and quite restless.
Dog-cat: The Maine Coon, the Ragdoll, the Egyptian Mau or the Turkish Van are cats with a character close to that of a dog.
Adopting a stray cat?
If you are no longer interested in your future cat or kitten’s physique and simply want to adopt a cat to share good times in its company, it may be interesting to opt for a simple alley cat that you will find in a shelter or with an association. Many cross-bred cats are waiting to be adopted and are as sociable and fond of petting as a small cat from a cattery or pet shop.
Street cats can have a morphology close to that of a purebred cat depending on the crosses. Therefore, there is an infinity of options between these cats that can have very different coats to each other, but also eyes of different colors, a coat more or less important…
Finally, there is nothing like adopting an adult cat to know its character perfectly beforehand.

domain: pet


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- Master the art of northern Thai cuisine during a luxury cooking class
- This experience focuses on fine Thai dining
- Escape the busy city and relax in a rural environment
- Recipe cards are included as a souvenir
Departure & Return
We offer complimentary pick up in mostly city center area. However, you can choose to meet us directly at Mae Hia market (in front of Bangkok bank) for the market tour before the actual cooking class.
Return DetailsReturns to original departure point
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 2 days of travel. In this case confirmation will be received within 48 hours, subject to availability
- Not wheelchair accessible
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 12 travelers
- OPERATED BY Pantawan Cooking
- This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
- This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
Learn more about cancellations.

domain: travel


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Dozens of West Baltimore residents shared the first open community lunch of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Community Engagement Center on West Baltimore Street on Friday, Dec. 18.
Ashley Valis, MSW, executive director of strategic initiatives and community engagement at UMB, said she hoped the gathering would help the residents of nearby Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods feel more at home at the center. “We want them [community residents] to come in and to feel comfortable with the center,” she explained.
Helping to spread the holiday cheer were a dozen members of the UMB University Student Government Association (USGA), who greeted guests and served the meals. USGA Vice President Jonathan Van Ryzin said students also paid for the lunch in the hopes that events like this one “will help merge the University with the community.”
The Community Engagement Center, which opened in October, provides a venue for UMB outreach services from its six professional schools and Graduate School, such as health screenings, legal clinics, job and job search training, and social services.
In the minutes before the food arrived from Pigtown’s Breaking Bread restaurant, Brian Sturdivant, MSW, director of strategic initiatives and community partnerships, asked attendees for their ideas and goals for the center. “If you can think of any services we can offer, we’d love to have that kind of feedback,” he said.
Wasting no time, resident Robin Lipscomb offered several ideas. “We need a place for kids to play,” she said, adding, “It would be nice if there was a place for kids to do homework.” Lipscomb and others at her table all agreed that programs helping young adults prepare for and find work are top priorities. “You might not see them out on the corner so much,” she said. “They need some way to support themselves.”
Midway through the well-received lunch of roast chicken, saffron rice, pasta salad, garden salad, and freshly baked rolls, Valis paused the holiday music long enough to introduce the center’s leadership and ask for volunteers to serve on a neighborhood advisory board. The board, she explained, will help ensure the center offers those services most important to the community.
“I am really happy with this turnout,” Valis said with a smile. Her goal now, she said, is to provide community lunches like this one monthly, and to keep spreading the word about the UMB Community Engagement Center.
See photos from the CEC Holiday Lunch here.


Changes for version 1.999_001 - 2015-02-01
- Incompatible Changes
- strictures 2 fatalizes only a subset of warnings. Some warning categories are not safe to catch, or just inappropriate to have fatal. Existing code looking like 'use strictures 1;' will continue to get the old behavior of fatalizing all errors. The new behavior will take effect when no version or version 2 is specified.


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It’s been almost a year since we returned from Machu Picchu, and I realized we hadn’t written anything about this special place. We shared a few photos from the road, but were never inspired to write anything further.
I guess this isn’t surprising. By the time we got to Peru, we were burned out from travel, and the process of arranging the trip to Machu Picchu was frustrating and exhausting. The experience was further marred by the traumatic day prior when we ran screaming from a restaurant that we thought was about to explode, watched an adorable animal have his neck broken, and I developed food poisoning and spent the entire train ride to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu, over the toilet vomiting.
Nevertheless, exploring the streets of this mysterious city was a highlight of my world travels thus far. So I wanted to share our best Machu Picchu travel tips to save you time and help you have a great trip.
These tips only apply if you are NOT planning to get to Machu Picchu by doing an organized tour to hike the Inca Trail. For more information about hiking the Inca Trail, check out this post, this post, this post, this post, and this post.
1. Spend the night before going to Machu Picchu in the town of Aguas Calientes
Aguas Calientes (sometimes called “Machupicchu Town”) is a hole. It’s located at the very end of the PeruRail line at base of the hill below Machu Picchu so every tourist who visits needs to pass through the town. The community was settled in the 1920’s for the sole purpose of staffing the Machu Picchu tourism industry. The hotel rooms are much more expensive than elsewhere in Peru (and lower quality), and there’s nothing of much cultural significance in the city. It was an altogether forgettable place. BUT (and this is a very big BUT) you need to spend the night there to pursue tip #2.
2. Take the first bus in the morning from Aguas Calientes up the hill to Machu Picchu
The first buses leave downtown Aguas Calientes each morning at 5:30am. It’s these buses that all the staff of the park use to get to work. By getting on this bus for the 20 minute ride up the hill, you will be the first people in line to enter the park when it opens at 6am. The only other way to get there is by doing a 2 hour hike up the zig-zagging steep hill (starting at 4am), but personally I’d rather pay the ~$17 USD round trip bus fare!
I’m not a morning person, so getting up at close to 5am was brutal. But it was the best decision we made for travel to Machu Picchu. By being able to enter right when the park opened, we were able to see the park before the hordes of other tourists cover every available surface (as happens later mid-day as the majority of tourists travel to Machu Picchu from Cusco or Ollantaytambo that same morning–see first photo, above).
Entering the park early allowed us to admire the ancient city on our own and get the postcard-perfect photographs like this one, taken at about 6:10 am, right after the park opened:
3. Booking rail transport and admission to Machu Picchu is annoying!
The Peruvian government restricts admission to Machu Picchu, so you need to buy your admission ticket and your train ticket to Aguas Calientes a few days in advance via the web or in-person at an office in Cusco.
This may have changed since we were there early last year, but at that time, the websites for both PeruRail and the government’s official Machu Picchu Authority were buggy, painfully slow, and nearly impossible to use. We spent nearly 3 weeks before we arrived trying to buy our tickets to Machu Picchu (with optional admission to hike the trail up the mountain of Huayna Picchu) but we couldn’t get the website to accept our credit card. We finally had an agent buy our tickets in person at the PeruRail office in Cusco, but by that point (4 days before), the admission to Huayna Picchu had sold out. We were pretty disappointed we wouldn’t be able to do that hike and with the hours we had wasted online while traveling in the attempt to buy those tickets.
So get started trying to buy your admission several weeks before the day you want to visit, and if you are having trouble, don’t hesitate to call Peru to have an agent at PeruRail or the Machu Picchu Authority help you out over the phone!
4. Hike either Huayna Picchu or Macchu Picchu Mountain for amazing views!
As I noted in #3, we were very disappointed that we were not able to get tickets to hike up Huayna (a.k.a. “Wayna”) Picchu. We had heard a lot of people loved this hike and the views over the Machu Picchu ruins and, hey, it’s one of the most recognizable mountains in the world!
But when we bought our ticket, we were given optional admission to another trail, up Machu Picchu Mountain (or Cerro Machu Picchu). Without knowing anything about it, Kevin opted to add that on. For only about $5 USD extra per ticket, we figured it couldn’t hurt.
This hike is a much longer and higher hike than Huayna Picchu (elevation=2,740 meters, or 290 meters above Machu Picchu), climbing to an altitude of 3,051 meters, or 601 meters above Machu Picchu. It took us about 2.5 hours to climb Machu Picchu Mountain, and we’d heard that Huayna Picchu takes about an hour and a half.
The trail up Machu Picchu Mountain is not as steep as Huayna Picchu, which I heard could be scary and precarious when wet, but I still found it scarily narrow in parts. It is also less busy, so we saw far fewer other hikers on the trail than we would have on Huayna Picchu, which is often congested.
Through the ascent, we had occasional shade (which was rewarding!) and a diverse range of orchids and plant life which changed as we rose in elevation. About half of the way up, we were high enough that we could look down into passing clouds.
When we finally reached the top, we had a 360-degree view over the ancient city, over Huayna Picchu, and down into the rivers and valleys below. We had a wonderful time, and feel it was an equal experience to Huayna Picchu. Maybe even better!
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domain: geography


Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Don't be put off by the magazine or the title of this piece. Read the whole thing. My only argument with Doc Searls is that he is calling for what PR should have been doing all the way along. It is not a "new" discovery that companies should talk about what they do rather than influencing. Arthur Page had much to say about that back in the 1930s. Most of my work is increasing understanding of what companies do and how they contribute to business and society.


text:
Brotherhood detainees denied medical treatment in prison
|Thursday, August 30,2007 02:59|
|By Liam Stack|
Muslim Brotherhood detainees Mohamed Hussein and Khayrat El Shater have both developed serious and possibly life-threatening illnesses in prison, according to Brotherhood sources and family members.
The regime has so far refused to provide the men with appropriate medical treatment, they say, blaming the unhygienic conditions of Tora prison and its hospital for the deterioration of their health.
Family members say they want the men released to house arrest, which has been allowed for some high-profile detainees in the past. But the government seems unlikely to acquiesce to their demand.
Hussein, a member of the group’s Executive Bureau, suffered what Brotherhood sources call “an acute heart attack” and was rushed to Qasr Al Aini Hospital, where doctors inserted a diagnostic catheter while he was handcuffed to the operating table.
Officials at Qasr Al Aini could not be reached for comment at press time, and his prognosis is unclear.
Hussein was detained last week in Giza en route to an appointment at Cairo’s Dar El Fouad Hospital, where he was to be treated for a chronic heart condition.
“He needed to go to the hospital and instead he went to prison,” said Ibrahim El Houdaiby, director of Ikhwan.net.
“When he was taken to prison the police would not let him see a doctor or get any medicine,” he added. “When you are put in jail in bad conditions and put under a lot of pressure, of course that could lead to a heart attack, [especially] when someone has a pre-existing condition.”
El Shater, who has been detained since last December and is currently standing trial before a Cairo military court, is a diabetic who suffers from high blood pressure and chronic heart problems.
As a consequence of high blood sugar, he has developed a severe and painful infection in his leg. His family fears that without immediate medical attention his leg may have to be amputated.
“He is being held in a very narrow cell with three other men and it is so small that they can’t even pray,” she says. “ But the hospital in the prison is even dirtier and worse than the prison itself. We would rather he stay in that cage then be sent to that dirty hospital.”
In addition to unsanitary conditions, Brotherhood sources say that prison doctors are not trained to treat diabetics and would not know how to deal with an advanced infection.
Members of El Shater’s family have tried to get specialists to travel to the prison to treat their father, but say they have found no one willing to treat a detained political prisoner.
“Many of them are afraid to go to with us to treat a Muslim Brotherhood detainee,” says Zahraa El Shater. “People are afraid to go to the prisons when they don’t have to because they are afraid that the police with take their ID number and cause trouble for them later.
“Even at my sister’s wedding last month, the police surrounded the whole place and took everyone’s ID number,” she adds. “Later they called people and asked why they came to a Brotherhood wedding.”
El Shater’s family is calling for the regime to release him in to house arrest, where he could more easily be treated by specialists. They point out that other high-profile detainees who have been tried before military courts in recent years, such as Talaat El Sadat, have been allowed to remain in their homes throughout the trial.
“He is a well known person, he will not [try to] run away,” says Zahraa.
“Prison is a very dirty place and is not suitable for a sick man,” she adds. “His situation is critical now. I just want him to get good medical care quickly and get some good medicine.”
The Brotherhood is Egypt’s most influential opposition group. It holds 88 seats in the 454 member People’s Assembly, which it won during a brief period of political opening that coincided with elections in the fall of 2005.
More than 600 members of the group, including top leaders such as El Shater and Hussein, have been detained since December.
El Shater is one of 40 currently being tried for money laundering and membership of a banned organized before a military court, which is empowered to sentence them to death without appeal.
He was referred to a military court by special order of President Mubarak, after he was acquitted four separate times by civil courts.
Hussein has been charged with membership of a banned organization and working against the public interest, although no trial date has been set.
The arrests began after a kung-fu themed demonstration by students in an MB youth group at Al-Azhar University, which the regime condemned as a militia exercise.
Brotherhood sources argue that the recent wave of arrests are in response to the group’s plans to register as an official political party, in defiance of constitutional amendments passed in March that forbid political activity based on religion.


text:
This was the original first paragraph that I wrote for this post: I have to admit that I’ve only been to the Shedd Aquarium (the full name of which is “John G. Shedd Aquarium”) a few times. I recall a childhood field trip to the Aquarium, one trip with my parents when I was pretty young, and a trip sometime in the early 1990s.
At this point, I remembered that I had a trip to Chicago scheduled and that Alex and I could actually visit the aquarium and wouldn’t need the explanation that I hadn’t been there in over 20 years. So we did.
One thing that I’ve noticed about Chicago is that retail was a big deal there in a way that it doesn’t seem to have been in other cities. In Pittsburgh, for example, the Carnegie family was a big deal — the Carnegie Museums, Carnegie Mellon University, etc. In Chicago, one of the leading families was the Field family and you see their name on the Field Museum, for example. Marshall Field & Co. also was instrumental in the founding of the Shedd Aquarium. you see, John G. Shedd was an executive at Marshall Field & Co.
I wasn’t really thrilled by the aquarium when I was younger. For my first visits, I was too short to really see into the tanks comfortably (I loved the reef in the center of the building, though, since the glass goes all the way down to the floor). I loved the architecture, though. There are carvings of sea life, like scallop shells and sea stars, in the details on the building, and the octagonal dome above the reef is gorgeous. The rest of the building is long sort of galleries with an arched ceiling that gives the building a unique feel.
In 1991, they opened the Abbott Oceanarium and then they made another addition in 2003. Today the Shedd Aquarium is home to 32,000 animals, including dolphins, beluga whales, and sharks. There is also a tank holding sea lampreys, which are a major pest animal in the Great Lakes.
Most of the museum is accessible to wheelchair users. If you give the museum two weeks’ notice they can also get a sign language interpreter for deaf visitors. Also, as I write this, there are plans to add special features for blind visitors.
This finishes off this issue. In other news, now that the summer heat is over (or is it?), I’m back to walking the greenways, which means that I’m back to listening to the issues from the 1800s. And they are just as gripping as always. I’m counting down the issues until 1915, when National Geographic starts to appeal to a more general audience.
Also, as of the day I’m writing this (November 26), I’m finally caught up on my steps (nothing like waiting until the last minute!). I’m actually a bit ahead. I’m done with today’s steps already. And, finally, I’m sticking to the Duolingo thing. I’m averaging 4.7 lessons per day, and I plan to invest this money in the stock market as I save up enough to buy shares of stock (probably a share every nine months or so). This certainly won’t make me rich, but it won’t hurt, either.
Swimming with Tigers, by Glenn Hodges, photographs by Brian Sherry
Swimming with Tigers is the first story in a three-part Summer of Sharks series. Hodges admits that he was afraid of sharks, but that when he was given the assignment to write this article, he decided not just to research tiger sharks, but to actually get in the water and swim with them.
Additionally, Hodges was not an experienced diver. In fact, the tiger shark experience was his first dive ever. We accompany him and watch the tour operators feed the sharks to make sure that they aren’t hungry when the divers get in with them. We also see a frightening moment when an angelfish swam into their group followed by smaller sharks. Then, after the swim, Hodges goes to Hawaii to visit with a scientist who studies tiger sharks.
Juárez Returns to Life, by Sam Quinones, Photographs by Dominic Bracco II
Despite having lived in San Antonio for nearly a quarter of a century, I have only been to Mexico once. When my former in-laws were visiting, they had one day that they hadn’t made plans for. We offered them a choice of a water park or of visiting Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. They opted for Mexico. We went down and ignored the panhandlers (of which there were many) and did a little shopping. What’s funny is that I was the least not-impressed of the four of us and yet my former mother-in-law goes down there regularly now (she is decorating her house with things she’s bought in Mexico).
And I admit that Mexico would definitely be a good place for me to explore for my blog. However, there’s the War on Drugs going on in Mexico right now, and while our War on Drugs has been largely metaphorical, the war in Mexico . . . isn’t. Travel Blogger Wounded in Drug Shootout isn’t really the kind of attention I’d like to garner. And until the State Department’s Travel Warning for northern Mexico becomes a Travel Alert (or even better goes away completely), I think I’m going to stay out of that area. This does not rule out travel farther into the country, by the way, Alex and I visit a volcano in even-numbered years and a trip to Mexico City and Popocatépetl sounds like it might be in the cards for the 2020s.
All is not lost for Norther Mexico, however. In this article, we watch the rebirth of Juárez Mexico, once considered the most dangerous city in Mexico and possibly in the world. There’s a nifty chart showing the spike in killings in Juárez in 2010, how it increased, and how killings have declined in the years since.
The Art of Solar Energy, by Jamey Stillings
This is another in the ongoing Photographer’s Journal series, in which Stillings shares with us some of the photographs he has taken of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant in Nevada.
I almost got ahead of myself and said that this was about 2017. This is the worst time of year for me in the pharmacy. We’re pulling medications that expire in early 2017 off of the shelves. So I will be dating everything 2017 until this time in 2017, when I will suddenly decide that it’s 2018.
The one place that Alex always wants to go when we visit Chicago is the Chicago Botanic Garden. I at first worried that I might have to rent a car so that we could drive to Glencoe, but when I started planning I discovered that the Braeside station on the Union Pacific/North Metra line is a straight shot down Lake Cook Road from the garden (note: As always, this is how it worked in 2016. I make no promises that it will stay that way indefinitely.)
So, the morning of our third day in Chicago, Alex and I got up and stopped by another couple of notable buildings, this time the Sears Tower and the Chicago Board of Trade building. We went into the Sears Tower so that Alex could see “The Universe,” the Calder mobile in the lobby (which, at first, he misheard as “Caldermobile,” like Batmobile, but for Alexander Calder, I guess). We went to the Board of Trade building because, well, it’s the Board of Trade building.
After this, we walked to the Ogilvie Transportation Center, where we caught the next train to Glencoe. On the way, we passed the Morton Salt storage facility that has had a wall collapse two times. Google seems to think that the first collapse was in 1989, but I can’t find anything specific about that collapse. The second one (in 2014), however, was big news. You see, in the intervening 15 years, a car dealership moved in next door and they had parking spots right up against that wall. So, yeah. The cars that had been parked there ended up covered in bricks and salt. 11 cars were damaged in the wall collapse. I told Alex this whole story as we went past. The building is hard to miss. It says, “MORTON SALT” on the roof.
When we got to the Braeside station, it was a one-mile walk to the gardens. There is a pedestrian entrance to the garden that is lovely. Much nicer than the parking lot. We stopped in the visitor’s center and stopped in the cafeteria for a snack. Then we hit the garden. They’ve added a few things in the six years since we were last there. I think that the Regenstein Fruit and Vegetable Garden was new. Also I think that there is more to the Dixon Prairie than there was last time. Otherwise, though, it was pretty much the same lovely garden as usual.
There were only two negatives. One was apparently they had just done something — spread manure, maybe? — under the trees, and the smell burned our sinuses. As a result we had to avoid the trees. And then, possibly because we were avoiding the trees, it was hot. Like, really hot. Like, almost Texas hot. As a result, we left an hour or two earlier than we’d originally planned. We got most of the gardens in during the almost three hours we spent in the garden, tough. Then we slogged back through the heat to the Braeside train station.
While we were on the train back to Chicago, I texted a friend that we had planned to meet to let him know that we were going to be a lot earlier than we’d expected to be. We met our friend by the Michigan Avenue bridge (one of my favorite places in the city) and he showed us around his work. Then the three of us headed for Navy Pier, where Alex and I had plans to see the fireworks.
We got dinner from the food court at Navy Pier. Alex and our friend got hot dogs, I got the strange combination of an Italian beef sandwich and a Greek salad (They were delicious, by the way). Our friend had to head home soon after dinner, so Alex and I found a seat for watching the fireworks. It turns out we weren’t quite in the perfect spot for the fireworks, so we moved a little closer and I got some pictures of the fireworks. Then, as everyone else on the pier headed home, we walked farther onto the pier.
We walked to the end of the pier and watched the beacon from Chicago Harbor Light for a while. Then I took a picture of Alex on the couch of Bob Hartley, Bob Newhart’s character from the 1970s Bob Newhart Show. I also took a picture of an insomniac seagull that Google photos thought was a picture of the moon. we walked back down the back side of the pier, where there were fewer other people and the lighting was more subdued. I got some lovely pictures of the pier back there, and we continued on to the bus back to our hotel.
We checked with the driver to make sure we were on the right bus, and then we completely missed our stop. We ended up at Union Station, which I had been wanting to visit anyhow. So I took Alex into the station and pointed out the corner where Zod threatens the family in Man of Steel (I find violent scenes in movies to be really boring, so I spent those scenes in Man of Steel trying to identify buildings, because I was pretty sure that they were using Chicago as Metropolis. Once they arrived at Union Station, I was certain that they were using Chicago as Metropolis).
At some point on the walk back to our hotel, S Health let me know that I had set a new step record that day. This really did not surprise me a bit. My previous record had been 12.25 miles on the day we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This day, my new record was 14.37 miles. It may be a long time before I beat that one.
Peru’s World Apart, by Emma Marris, photographs by Charlie Hamilton James
We return to the Power of Parks series with Manu National Park, a park in Peru that is home to “uncontacted” tribes of indigenous people, including (but not limited to) the Mashco-Piro and the Matsigenka. I put “uncontacted” in quotes because that is how they are generally referred to, but some of the indigenous tribes that had previously been keeping to themselves (and, by policy, outsiders were forbidden to initiate contact with) are starting to reach out to the outside world.
Of course Peru and Brazil are two different countries with different policies, despite their proximity to one another. Brazil’s ban on contacting their indigenous people dates back to the 1980s. Peru’s only goes back to 2006. One of Marris’s guides, Glenn Shepard, has been living with the Matsigenka for “30 years,” so before the limits on contact were put in place.
There is a lot on the history of the area and also on the geography, geology, and natural history of the area. Natural history is, of course, not really history as we think of it. It’s the study of the flora and fauna of a place (we get another of those strange trap camera photos that make the animal look more like taxidermy than like life, this time of an ocelot). And we get some idea of the llifestyle of the Matsigenka. We go along as Marris goes monkey hunting with them, for example.
Plundering the Past, by Tom Mueller, photographs by Robert Clark
Mueller takes us into the world of illegal artifact trafficking. We are introduced to the mummy of Shesep-amun-tayesher (who, for some unknown reason, loses her hyphens after the first time she’s named) and as we watch how her mummy got transported from Egypt to Birmingham, Alabama, we also see how the business of trafficking works with other artifacts as well.
We also see the conflict that museum curators and others who work with these artifacts are trying to deal with. You see, a lot of these artifacts are being trafficked by terrorists and so, by dealing with them, the collectors and the museums and other institutions are probably supplying terrorists with money. However, if ransoming these artifacts weren’t lucrative, there’s a good chance that the terrorists would just destroy them, or that the artifacts would be “collateral damage” of the wars in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question, and there probably never will be, until some farflung future date when the terrorism in the Middle East finally stops.
No, I’m not taking up stripping. There’s no way I’m in shape enough for it. I have to admit that I have nice legs, though.
When I first started blogging, I read a bunch of articles saying that you need a “niche.” If you don’t bring your readers something that no other writer focuses on, you’ll never find an audience or whatever. The examples they gave were budget travel, traveling with children, and so on. Like there aren’t dozens of blogs on those subjects.
Then, sometime this summer, it hit me. Two things I really love, and the reason I cannot see myself living in a rural area, are public art and urban parks. I’m not going to only write about those things, there aren’t enough days in the week for me to visit all of the art and parks in all of the cities to be able to keep up a regular schedule of posting on just those two subjects. But as Alex and I (and, once Alex is grown, just I) travel, I’ll be visiting the parks that I can get to and photographing and exploring the history of the public art that I see as we go. There will probably be a side order of museums along the way as well.
The plan (and I’ve saved nearly all of the money up for both) is to visit Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto in July 2017 and then Memphis, Nashville, and Cincinnati (possibly Louisville as well, depending on how early we get out of Cincinnati) in August on our way to and from Kentucky for the eclipse. I think I’ve only visited one park in one of those cities, Centre Island Park in Toronto, so that will give me some new areas to explore while I’m on those trips.
Speaking of “You Gotta Get a Gimmick,” it was probably about 10:00 p.m. or so when I heard Gypsy coming from the other room (my dad watches Turner Classic Movies a lot). I knew that Alex had never seen most of the classic movies and Gypsy was a particular favorite. So I offered Alex a choice, he could go to bed or stay up with me watching a movie about a stripper. I assured him it wasn’t *that* kind of movie (its TV rating is PG), and he was intrigued enough to check it out and interested enough to stay up until the end.
Phil Hardberger Park is one of the crown jewels, if not the crown jewel, of the San Antonio Parks and Recreation system. The city purchased the family farm of the Voelcker family and have turned the site into a natural and historic landmark. Hardberger Park is 311 acres and has 19th century buildings on the site.
Hardberger Park is unusual in that it is actually two separate parks, to all appearances. The eastern part of the park has an entrance on Blanco Road and seems (to me at least) to be the more heavily visited of the parks. The eastern side has, in addition to the usual walking paths and playground, the picnic pavilion and the larger of the two dog parks. The western half of the park has an entrance on Northwest Military Highway and has, in addition to the usual walking paths and playground, the Phil Hardberger Urban Ecology Center.
Alex and I have explored the eastern side of the park pretty thoroughly. If you are in San Antonio and are starved for some greenery, there is a lovely corner of the Geology Trail that is really vibrant in the springtime. We have spent more time but done less exploring on the western part of the park, because there are a lot more paths over there. Somehow, since Hardberger is one of the closest parks to my home, we only go there when we’re out of ideas on where to go, and since between the heat and the fact that there just aren’t many people out there, we tend to do just a short walk and then hop across the street to pick up groceries (as I write this, the western entrance is across the street from the Alon Market HEB supermarket; I make no promises that the supermarket will be there whenever you’re reading this).
I mentioned earlier that there are two halves of the park with separate entrances on different streets. The halves of the park are separated by Wurzbach Parkway, a four-lane highway with a 50 mile per hour speed limit. So it’s cross-able, but it can be something of an adventure getting from one side to the other. The plan is to add a bridge joining the two halves. And the bridges that are on the Howard W. Peak Greenway System are very nice, and would serve for the purpose of getting visitors safely across. That’s not the plan, however. The plan is for a $25 million bridge that would be 150 feet wide and have enough native greenery on it that animals wanting to cross from one side to the other will be encouraged to use it rather than risk crossing the road as well. At the moment, it looks like voters will be voting on a bond to raise $15 million of this money in May 2017. Will the bond pass? After the November 2016 elections, who knows? Will the Hardberger Park Conservancy be able to come up with their share of $10 million? I don’t know that either. If I ever do find out, I’ll let you know.
Update: 3:10 p.m. Actually you can no longer cross Wurzbach Parkway. They’ve put up a Jersey barrier. Unfortunately, this is not a barrier made of jersey material (which would be easy to move aside and get through) but is, in fact, a 3.5-foot-high cement wall. As a result, the only way from one side to the other is to drive until when (if?) they build that bridge.
I think I may have to start paying myself to do Duolingo. It’s kind of disheartening to see the things I’ve completed become uncompleted again, particularly in Spanish. I speak Spanish practically every day at work (today I had to give a woman the cash prices for her medications) so it’s not like I’m losing my abilities in Spanish. I am a bit rusty in my other languages, though, so I need to get back to that.
Additionally, if the bottom drops out of the economy, I’m going to need all of the skills I can get. And working in a foreign language, translating or whatever, is something that I could hang my shingle up and do on my own (unlike working as a paralegal or a pharmacy technician, which require supervision of a lawyer or pharmacist (respectively)) if it came down to it.
And between the progress I’ve made getting undone and the fact that there are so many points between levels up where I am (Level 12 in Italian, Level 12 in Spanish, Level 10 in German, Level 8 in English for Chinese Speakers) I’m thinking maybe $0.10 per Duolingo lesson? It’ll add up over time and persistence, but won’t break me to save up as we go.
If that’s the amount I go with, I’ve saved up $0.20 so far today working on German. Now on to a little English for Chinese Speakers and $0.30.
I actually finally got the tiniest bit ahead on Saturday, November 12. Then on Sunday, Alex and I went to the southern end of the Riverwalk, which was exciting. I’m trying to decide if I should post my picture of the end of the Riverwalk here or wait until I finish walking the whole thing and do the Mission Reach writeup. I think maybe I’ll leave you in suspense.
Then I went to work for two hours. When I came home, i was still about 2,000 steps short, so Alex and I took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood and then I got the final couple of hundred steps pacing in the house.
So now I am pretty much perfectly caught up. I’ll probably be good through Wednesday, but then I have Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday off, and Alex is with his dad for both this weekend and next weekend. That may leave me up to 24,000 steps behind again.
Let’s hope I can get motivated enough to get some walking done this weekend. Otherwise I’m probably sunk.
We got up early and hit the complimentary breakfast, which was lackluster. The “scrambled eggs” tasted like those cholesterol-free artificial eggs, judging by the overwhelming onion flavor that they had. I’m not a big fan of onions, so that was disappointing.
Then we hit the road. Our first stop was the Harold Washington Library, which I, personally, love. Yeah, I can see the disenchantment with the big verdigris structures on top, but I love the rest of the red granite exterior and the inside is lovely. I also have a sentimental connection to the building. They were putting the finishing touches on it during my time working in the Loop and I walked past the construction site nearly daily. My folks and I also went on one of the official tours when the library officially opened, but I don’t recall ever visiting the winter garden on the top floor. So, Alex and I took the escalators all the way up and then all the way back down again. I have to admit that I slipped my shoes off in the winter garden because they were just the tiniest bit squeaky and the silence up there made the squeakiness really loud.
After we left the Harold Washington Library, we continued eastward on Van Buren and into Grant Park. We passed the statue of Lincoln and then headed for Buckingham Fountain. From there, we went on to the Field Museum of Natural History.
While in the Field Museum, we visited all of my favorite exhibits: Ancient Egypt, the gemstone and jade halls, the taxidermied Lions of Tsavo, and, of course, the dinosaurs. They have modified that section of the museum since the last time I was there, focusing on the eras in which the different animals on display went extinct. They also have the old Charles R. Knight paintings in the same rooms with their respective eras. I love those old paintings, even though they’re a bit out of date by today’s scientific standards. Isn’t it interesting that two of the artists whose work I’ve loved since I was a child — Monet and Knight — both had visual impairments? I have always been extremely nearsighted, so perhaps something about their work feels sort of “homey” or something. We also found that the meteorites, which had been removed from display for decades, if I recall correctly, were back on display. It was lovely seeing them again.
We headed from there to the Adler Planetarium (writeup to follow someday). I hadn’t been to the planetarium in years. Since the last time I was there, they added a whole glassed-in section, and, I think, at least one sublevel. So Alex and I spent quite a bit of time there. We were constrained by time and finances, so we had to pick just one show to see, which ended up being in just a regular auditorium, rather than being in the big dome. I have promised Alex that we’ll do another planetarium sometime soon so that we can get the dome show in.
After that we went to the Shedd Aquarium (which I also have yet to write up). We got the most basic admission, which only lets you in to see the fish and other animals on the main level. But that ended up being enough. I also love the building itself. The attention to detail in the doorways and things makes just walking around the building an enjoyable experience.
I had planned to take Alex to Aurelio’s Pizza* in Homewood. While we were looking up train schedules, I stumbled across the information that there is (or perhaps was, for those of you reading this in the future) an Aurelio’s in the South Loop, almost on the doorstep of the Museum Campus. As it was around 5:00 by then, we sat down for a while before heading off for pizza. I got some pictures of the museums without crowds around them while we enjoyed the early evening.
I had hoped to make it to the park on Northerly Island (which used to be the Meigs Field airport), but, again, it was 5:00 by this time and we were exhausted.
We had our pizza and then headed back towards our hotel. On the way up Michigan Avenue, I happened to notice the Rosenberg Fountain, which may be the oldest piece of public art in Grant Park (I’m not sure if the fountain or the Art Institute lions are older). So I made Alex stop so that I could take pictures. One thing led to another and we ended up walking back north through the park while I took pictures of the art.
Then we hiked back to our hotel and got some rest for what would turn out to be a record-setting day of walking on our third day in Chicago.
*I hardly ever mention the names of businesses in these writeups, but I figured that this would be far more complicated if I tried to talk around the name of the restaurant rather than just naming it outright.


Thermal analysis of complex multi-layer printed circuit boards
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In this webinar you will gain an understanding of the core challenges facing designers of FPGA-based devices.


A commercial jet aircraft has millions of individual parts and a supply chain that covers multiple tiers, from raw materials to the finished product.
It’s a supply chain that can be spread across numerous companies globally, specialising in different parts and components. To complicate things further, each component might be part of a subset that is being developed by a different supplier, and so compatibility issues between parts may surface.
With such a complex supply chain it’s easy for things to wrong, especially when you consider the thousands of people who might be involved in the development of a new aircraft.
By using a software package that improves communication, eliminates design and development errors, speeds up time to market and reduces costs along the way, managing the supply chain becomes much more efficient.


"I don't know how good of a judge I'd be. Although I am the only person that actually does what the contestants do as a performer, I'm not in that world," Connick said during a Thursday appearance on Idol host Ryan Seacrest's KISS-FM radio show.
"I can look at people objectively and say what I think about their performing skills or their singing skills -- that I know. But the pop world isn't my world, and this is a pop show."
Cowell's potential replacement has been a hot topic of conversation ever since he inked a January deal to leave American Idol this May and launch an American edition of his British The X Factor reality competition series on Fox in Fall 2011.
Connick said it was simply a "great, great honor" to serve as this past week's musical mentor and added he gained a new respect for the show's contestants.
"One reason I would have never made it on this show, I just was too cocky when I was that age," he told Seacrest. "I thought to be able to stand on that stage and basically face the whole country judging you -- I couldn't have done that. There's no way."
In addition, Connick -- who was also responsible for composing the arrangements of the songs the finalists sang and accompanied them on-stage with his big-band orchestra as they performed -- apologized to Shania Twain for comments he was shown making during a video package that aired at the beginning of Tuesday night's performance show.
"American Idol is keeping me pretty busy right now to be honest with you. I mean I should be out laying by the pool -- you think Shania Twain was up in here doing this?" he joked, referencing last week's Idol mentor.
Connick said American Idol producers "cut out" the actual joke he was trying to make.
"I tried to call Shania Twain because I said something that came across very insulting to her... What they cut out was, 'She's an A-list celebrity, she's probably at some huge party. They don't think of me like that so they lock me in the hotel room.' That was the joke. But it came across like, 'Shania's not up here doing all the work.' I'm like, 'Oh my god! They didn't put the funny part in!'" he told Seacrest.
"I felt so bad. I've got an email off to her as soon as I finish with you because if she saw it, she must think, 'What a loser? Why would he say that?'"


mounting UDF disks
bolivar.de at terra.com.br
Thu Jun 10 19:47:25 UTC 2004
On red-hat 9 i could mount UDF CD-RW disks without problem. On my FC2, they
mount, but they mount "empty". I´m sure there´s no problem with the
disks(tried 2, one formated with roxio cd-creator and the other with Incd).
Listing their contents in the terminal, i can see their files, but them all
written in red and flashing (means empty right?). Checked the fstab, the
udf option is there.
More information about the fedora-list


The EUROsociAL+ programme takes part in the XX Plenary Assembly of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit focusing on the sustainability of social peace
The association, with its regional networks, in particular with the justice networks of Latin America, has been one of the cornerstones of EUROsociAL+, managed by FIIAPP withEuropean financing. Promoting alliances and networks for the exchange of experiences and good practices between counterpart institutions in Latin America and Europe has been one of the central pillars of this programme’s work. This has made it possible to advance in the construction of common responses from various countries to shared problems.
EUROsociAL+ has taken part in the XX Plenary Assembly of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit. On this occasion, the meeting held in Panama focused on “The sustainability of social peace: challenges for the Justice Administration in Latin America in the face of the new demands of the Millennium”. The Assembly was opened by the President of the Republic of Panama and the President of the Panamanian Judiciary. In addition, the highest representatives of the Ibero-America Supreme Courts and Judiciary and Magistrates’ Councils were present.
With the Ibero-American Judicial Summit, the association has been especially fruitful with two of its Commissions. Since 2020, the EUROsociAL+ gender area has worked with the Gender Commission in order to incorporate gender equality and non-discrimination within the Ibero-American Judicial Summit and in the Ibero-American Judiciary.
The most significant collaboration has taken place since 2008 with the Brasilia Rules Follow-up Commission, which seeks to reduce barriers to vulnerable people’s access to justice. The programme has been present at the definition of the Rules, working on their implementation in the countries in the region and transferring them to national programmes, policies and plans for access to justice.
María Luisa Domínguez, a technician in the programme’s Governance Area explained that she is currently accompanying regional justice networks in the development of an Ibero-American Agreement on Access to Justice that includes the content and principles of the Rules. “Once it has been approved and ratified by the States, this Convention can become a very powerful instrument in the face of social exclusion and the fight against inequalities” she said.


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Copley Place, Boston
Categories: Shopping Malls, Shopping
Copley Place is located in Boston. Our Boston vacation planner makes visiting Copley Place and other Boston attractions simple, and helps you make a travel plan personal to you.
Create a full itinerary - for free!
Loved Copley Place especially as it was hot outside and cool inside at the time of our visit. There are some lovely very expensive shops but also the usual ones you'd expect- Banana Republic, Gap, etc... read more »
If you are in town and need to pick up a bag, shoes, or most other high end items this is your one stop shop in a climate controlled environment. Most of the major luxury sto
Seriously disappointed .. Indifferent bunch of designer stores in what advertises to be a premium mall. Personally won't bother again
Decent mall with only upscale stores. Since losing American Eagle it's lost some of it's appeal though it still has Gap and Banana Republic as well as J. Crew. It's undergoing some major renovations right now so many stores are closed or in temporary spaces. Looking forward to when the renovations are complete. Parking is expensive in the mall garage or unless you know you are planning on buying something so you can validate parking, make sure to seek out a cheaper garage.
Usually stay here for work. Really enjoy it, but they do charge for wifi, so keep that in mind. They have a direct connection to the mall by a walkway on the 2nd floor of the hotel, so you easily have access to restaurants and shops without needing a coat.
Great mall but not for everyone... Really expensive brands here..
It is a standard American hotel but the rooms and beds are very comfortable with all the usual trimmings. The hotel is central with easy access to all areas of Boston.Bars and nightlife just a short walk away either through the attached mall area or out the the front of the hotel Amazing 24hr supermarket across the road for late night attack of the munchies without having to call room service Breakfast is well laid out with a good choice of either full or continental.
Beware of the Oro Gold shop. Scam. Ripped off. Cant understand that the mall accepts this people
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The shaft support rail unit SBR series is characterized by small coefficient of friction and low power consumption, and achieves flexible, accurate fine movement. Also it features easy lubrication, quick, convenient maintenance and replacement. In addition, this bearing has a self-adjusting capacity in structure, which reduces accuracy of the relative accessories.
SBR–LUU Series Linear Sliding Unit
Original Packing, Neutral Packing, Customized Packing
Standard or OEM
Delivery time: 3-7 days if it is in stock, 15-30 days if not in stock, according to the quantity
Features: Light weight; Large load; High precision
Application: The slide units are widely used in CNC milling machines, milling machines, lathes, punching machines, grinding machines, measuring equipment, automatic equipment, high speed transfer equipment and so on.
We will contact you within 1 working day, please pay attention to the email with the suffix “@chorshing.com”.


PIEDMONT – The Boomers used a punishing running game to defeat Piedmont 28-7 Friday in the District 4A-1 opener for both teams.
In addition to going 1-0 in district action, the Boomers extended their road winning streak to 5 games and are 2-2 on the season. Piedmont is also 2-2, but 0-1 in the district.
Ky Merriman scored a pair of touchdowns and Dakota Taylor one in the second half as the Boomers controlled the action.
Woodward finished with 205 yards on the ground while holding Piedmont to just 33 rushing yards.
The Boomers led 7-0 in the first half on the strength of a 7-yard touchdown pass from Jake Hughes to Kaleb Roach.
That was all the scoring before intermission.
In the second half, the Boomers opened up a 14-0 lead as Ky Merriman scored on a 3-yard run and Jesus Munoz, as he did after every touchdown, kicked the extra point.
Piedmont countered with a score, but the Boomers opened it up to 21-7 in the fourth period on a 4-yard run by Merriman.
Late in the game, the Boomers added another touchdown on a 4-yard run by Taylor.
In addition to the 205 yards rushing, the Boomers added another 57 yard passing as Hughes hit 5 of 10 attempts.
The Boomers didn’t commit a turnover.
Defensively, the Boomers also picked off 3 Piedmont passes.
Woodward will host Weatherford next week on White Out Night at Boomer Stadium.
In other District 4A-1 action on Friday, Clinton downed Weatherford 17-7, Elgin routed Elk City 35-0 and Anadarko buried Cache 47-0.


With a celebrity preacher, but a lesser known young gay christian i'll is abruptly tainted by the unyielding taboo of homosexual conduct. Only about half of white gay men are totally out most of the rest are only situationaly out and some refuse to acknowledge that they are gay even to themselves. Although marriage equality is the law of the land – all 50 states have legalized same sex marriage – the picture perfect gay or lesbian couple. But earlier this year, rm once again took a stance on twitter, recommending “ strawberries and cigarettes,” a song by the openly gay musician.
Ask any gay man in urban china what social media platforms he most frequently uses and there is a fair chance he will be among the 27 million. New frontiers, old taboos: progress was not limited to pop culture gay rights were advancing in the courts too the supreme court's romer v. Homosexual acts as “unnatural” and the medical or psychiatric labelling of today i am going to focus upon the anti-homosexuality taboo itself i'll use the word. How did male/male sexual contact become taboo a fascinating documentary about an openly gay anthropologist named tobias schneebaum who returns to.
The strong taboos against homosexuality, bestiality, and transvestism that exist in they have sought to punish the homosexual, the trans- vestite, and to a. Anti-gay violence has reportedly tripled in india since a 2013 indian criminalizing same-sex relations, thrusting the once-taboo topic into the. 3 relation to taboo 4 ethical calculus 5 bisexuality then, their arousal by homosexual and heterosexual images were measured via penile. Think being gay is unnatural then look no further than the animal kingdom, where homosexuality is very common gay animals | 02082017 what's very unnatural are homophobia and all those kinds of taboos that are still present in a.
In gay marriage debate, both supporters and opponents see legal taught me that this was something that was taboo and not accepted. This article analyzes the evolution of gay and lesbian rights and same-sex marriage in american public opinion it describes how obergefell v hodges. A reality in which relationships between individuals of the same sex occur in all species and are part of their. Homosexuality, for major part of human history has been considered a taboo the origins of its condemnation can be traced back to primitive.
Many countries have laws against “buggery/sodomy”, “gross indecency,” or homosexual behaviour socio-cultural and religious taboos in many countries deny. In june, gay rights activists in cameroon were dealt a disheartening activists have gradually chipped away at longstanding taboos about. As the world's oldest democracy legalises gay marriage nationwide, it is time for the world's largest democracy to perform some much needed.
Within the quietly thriving gay scene in india's entertainment and financial capital, one thing appears to be common. A large number of countries worldwide have legalized homosexual in various forms, homosexuality is still considered a taboo subject in india. Domestic violence has become a silent epidemic in the gay and lesbian community despite being the subject of increasing scrutiny in. Yesterday the 59-year-old gay rights campaigner said that he could now “die without regret” after a case he took to the island's top court ruled in.
Italy reached a historic milestone in granting civil unions in 2016, but is a long way from being lgbt-friendly, a report published on. A significant percentage of youths identify themselves as homosexual, and even more experience sex with the same sex or are confused about sexual feelings. Peel family's story of support for gay son draws standing ovation at south asian ' taboo' issues forum news jan 27, 2018 by graeme frisque brampton guardian. Close to 3,000 gay and lesbian couples are now living in registered partnerships in the czech republic thanks to a law approved in 2006 after.


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Social Partnership Counseling: Being Alone is a Health Risk
Recent studies have indicated that next to genetic factors given to us in our bodies, the level of our social interactions are the greatest predictor of our long-term health and happiness.
American are increasingly alone and lonely and this has wellness and mental health risks.
A groundbreaking study in the July 2012 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 43 percent of older adult participants reported feelings of loneliness. That study further indicated that people 60 years and older who reported struggling with loneliness faced an increased risk of mortality compared with participants who do not report being lonely (22.8 percent versus 14.2 percent).
A research perspective published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedias in 2017 by a behavioral medicine researcher at St. George’s, University of London, concluded that people who feel lonely are more likely to suffer from coronary artery disease, declines in motor function, frailty, and other physical and cognitive function conditions.
Writing in the Harvard Business Review in 2017 on work and loneliness, physician and former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted, “During my years caring for patients, the most common pathology I saw was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.” Noting that rates of loneliness in the United States have doubled since the 1980s, Murthy called the condition “a growing health epidemic” and pointed to research showing that “loneliness and weak social connections are associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.”
If you’re alone, lonely or not connected and as these issues contribute to some mental health issues tied to anxiety, depression, grief, or loss, we can partner together to shift your future.
Psychotherapists have many interventions designed to assist with the disruption of being alone, including: Improving social skills Enhancing social support, Increasing opportunities for social interaction, and working for Shifts in maladaptive thinking.
Let’s partner together toward your better partnered social connections.

domain: sociology


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Stay up-to-date on
That affect you
Here is the message from the CFIA on October 2nd, 2020:
“The CFIA has delayed the implementation of the requirement to upload a copy of the organic certificate for imported organic products.
Starting October 5, 2020 AIRS registration type #68 – Organic Certificate format will be updated to a confirmation and the Licence, Permit, Certificate, and Other document(s) (LPCO) will be modified from "Materialized" to "AIRS Registration".
This update applies to organic fresh fruits and vegetables, organic honey and maple products, organic eggs and shell egg products and requires an indication of confirmation (i.e. a declaration of "yes") in the Integrated Import Declaration (IID) system that the importer is in possession of the organic certificate. The certificate number and an uploaded copy of the certificate will not be required as part of the declaration until further notice.
CFIA remains committed to the implementation of this requirement and a new timeline for this initiative will be communicated to industry in the near future.
Please continue to use AIRS to verify the import admissibility requirements for any organic requirements.”
As the Importer of Record, you will be required to provide and ensure validity of Organic Certification for each of your organic imports. You can do so in any of the following methods:
As a valued client of PCB, you receive the benefit of our proactive release process which will ensure your imports are declared with the additional requirements listed above:
Please reach out to your account manager with any questions you have about these new requirements at any time by emailing email@example.com or calling 604-538-1566. We are here for you always.

domain: food


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Tech Neck: What It Is and How You Can Combat It
Find yourself often glancing down on your phone like what you are doing now? Chances are, you might already have a tech neck. But what is a tech neck or “text neck” and what are the dangers to it?
Tech neck is basically a forward head position where your head tilts forwards and often downwards. This position stretches, strains, and puts flexion on your neck muscles, shoulders, and back due to supporting the approximately 10-pound weight of your head. When done repeatedly over a period of time, this reverses the natural curvature of your neck (and spine) from a normal concave like alignment to an “abnormal” or straightened position.
Dallas Lifestyle Management Clinic helps individuals get educated and treated for this global health concern brought by the regular and often prolonged use of gadgets like computers and cellphones. Through chiropractic methods and physical exercises that target the relaxation of your neck muscles and back, we can help return the natural alignment of your spine. In this way, you will be relieved from common conditions that come along with a tech neck or a forward head position.
These common symptoms that come along with spinal tensions may be relieved through Spinal Decompression Therapy:
- Neck pain
- Shoulder pain
- Back pain
- Strained eyes
Anywhere you go, you can help yourself from developing a tech neck by practicing proper posture when you use any of your handheld devices. Consider the following tips:
- Elevate Your Device
Whether you are sitting down or walking, try using your phone at a comfortable eye level where you do not need to look down and put so much strain on your neck. You can also use a phone or tablet mount to put your phone on when you are watching a video or creating a long blog entry, email or file.
- Limit Your Usage
One way for you to stay off your phone for extended periods of time is to set a timed usage when you are on your device. This could mean having a 5-minute use for social media browsing and random phone scrolling. By minimizing the use of your device on necessary breaks and leisure purposes, you get to spend more time interacting with people around you.
- Acknowledge Pain Signals
When you start feeling any discomfort in your thumb, arms, shoulders, and neck, that should be your signal that you either need to put your phone down or you need to better position yourself.
You can surely stay away from any spinal tension problem with health awareness. Through good guidance on better posture from our Lifestyle Management Clinic in Dallas, Texas, you can make this lifestyle change possible.
Do you think you might have tech neck? Check with our experts at Dallas Lifestyle Management Clinic. Let us help you see if you have tech neck or start performing ways to prevent tech neck.
Blogs, content and other media uploaded online are for informational purposes only. Contents on this website should not be considered medical advice. Readers are strongly encouraged to visit their physician for health-related issues.

domain: medical


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At the time of writing, it’s rather unclear what the Cambodian cabinet is trying to achieve by amending the constitution again – the third time in four years. The government is tight-lipped. Because we know what articles are under review, it seems they are trying to change how prime ministers are appointed and how they can be removed from office. Possibly, this will remove certain powers from the National Assembly. Most likely, the changes are being made because of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s succession plans.
In December, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) selected Hun Manet as its next prime ministerial candidate once Hun Sen, his father, resigns. Sar Kheng, the interior minister, took exception, but Hun Sen appears to have now put him in his place. Talk of a Sar Kheng putsch is fanciful; he’s lost even more power after two new party vice presidents were appointed in December. The CPP itself easily won last month’s commune elections, and we can expect another rout at next year’s general election. Kem Sokha’s trial seems to be nearing a climax, yet whatever the result, his partnership with Sam Rainsy is as good as over, ending the united opposition.
Because of the pace of changes, and the CPP’s (and Hun Sen’s) political strength right now, it’s tempting to think he might favor an early handover. But, in reality, there isn’t any great hurry. Only ill health would disrupt the succession, and Hun Sen is 69, younger than most of his CPP rivals and political opponents. Hun Manet is only 44. Time, it seems, is on their side. The economy is fine, despite the pandemic and crises this year. It’ll be stronger the longer Hun Sen waits for succession. There’s a new political challenger in the Candlelight Party, but it could be dissolved all too easily if Hun Sen wanted.
Yet, as Andrew Nachemson argued recently in Foreign Policy, “Hun Sen faces many difficult decisions to ensure Hun Manet makes it to the prime minister’s office, but one of the biggest obstacles may be his own reluctance to walk away.” It is certainly Hun Sen’s gift to decide when he steps down. Yet, at the same time, the importance of when exactly he walks away can be exaggerated.
Much of the talk of political succession overlooks two issues. First is the semantics of Hun Sen’s “retirement.” He might one day resign as prime minister but he won’t immediately give up power. (This could be a reason for the current constitutional changes.) Just like Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, he will almost certainly retain de facto control in a “senior minister” role. One also imagines he wouldn’t immediately resign as president of the CPP. So, then, there’s an important difference between the date Hun Sen resigns as prime minister and the day he resigns (properly) from front-line politics. The former could be in 2023 and the latter 2028, the years of the next two general elections. Or it could be 2028 and 2033. Hun Manet could be prime minister for years, if not decades, before Hun Sen actually exits politics for good. As such, handing over the prime ministership will be a relatively easy decision for Hun Sen if he is assured he can maintain power through an advisory post – and if he is assured there are no surprise avenues for attack by potential rivals who want the top job.
More to the point, political succession won’t simply be Hun Sen handing over the prime ministership to Hun Manet. He has already instructed Hun Manet to create a “reserve cabinet” composed of younger politicians and bureaucrats. That is the club to watch from now on. Rather than a simple succession of Hun Sen to his eldest son, it will be a far more complex “generational succession.” Yet, like Hun Manet, many of his younger partners are not yet elected politicians. If they want to rise to minister status they will also need to run for the office next year and then slowly replace the current party grandees, now in their 60s and 70s. Hun Manet will be the most important node, but his succession cannot happen alone, nor without this wider shift in the party network. We’re not going to see Hun Manet as prime minister while Sar Kheng remains interior minister and Tea Banh defense minister.
This suggests a prime ministerial handover is more likely before 2028, not before 2023. Like Hun Manet, the members of his “reserve cabinet” will also need to gain the necessary experience in politics and ministerial life between 2023 and 2028. (Although some are already secretaries or undersecretaries of state, and many act as de facto deputy ministers.) One reckons Hun Manet will be named defense minister after next year’s general election, at which point he will resign from the military and run as an MP.
Hun Manet’s growth in other important areas also appears to be going smoothly. He’s controlled the party’s youth wing for several years. He’s now greatly expanded his control of the CPP’s “philanthropic wing.” His Samdech Techo Voluntary Youth Doctor Association (TYDA) became a very powerful “charity” during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent months it has collected millions of dollars in donations from Cambodia’s rich and powerful business community. He is also president of several other party-aligned charities, which all bring him close to party donors. It’s speculation, but one wouldn’t be surprised to see Hun Manet’s wife Pich Chanmony, who runs many of these “charities” with him, soon take over as head of the Cambodian Red Cross, an important post held by Bun Rany, Hun Sen’s wife, since the late 1990s.
If you click through Hun Manet’s Facebook page (which is followed by more than 1 million people) you might notice that he’s rarely in military fatigues nowadays. He’s regularly dressed in suits, opening pagodas, schools, or hospitals, the bread-and-butter work of a Cambodian prime minister. Indeed, Hun Manet seems to be regularly replacing his father at many of these events, a sign that the succession is a gradual process. He’s now also met with senior world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2020. He’ll need to gain more experience on the world stage before succession, though. That might come when Phnom Penh hosts the ASEAN and East Asia Summits later this year.
Hun Sen, indeed, might be the person who most stands in the way of succession. However, that would only be the case if he quits politics on the same day he resigns as prime minister, which is highly unlikely. Or if his government somehow manages to cripple the economy and squander its political chokehold over the next few years, which is equally unlikely. Succession, instead, ought to be seen as a gradual process, not a single event in which the House of Hun passes on the political throne. In fact, the succession has in many ways already begun.


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Retrak Raises Awareness With Shape History Video
On Halloween, a day when people in the UK might expect to see children on their doorstep, we wanted to see how people would react to a ‘homeless girl’ knocking on their door. Retrak collaborated with the creative agency Shape History to conduct a social experiment in which a child actor posed as a homeless child and knocked on doors in London to find out how people would respond when faced with a similar situation.
The Shape History team said “We didn’t expect such negative reactions from some people towards such a young ‘helpless’ child, but of course we were uplifted by others.”
Mike Buonaiuto, Executive Director for Shape History added “at first we only captured random acts of kindness but pretty soon we started to also see the darker side of London.”
The motivation behind the video was to raise awareness of the issues that street children face. The contrast between the offers Jessica got from people wanting to call the police for help and those who used the police as a way to threaten her really resonated with Retrak’s work. Our projects are increasingly engaging with the police to show that children living on the streets are not criminals but are often the victims of crimes themselves.
While the experiment highlights the varying and often alarming responses people have when faced with children in need, we do not feel it is representative of the population.
Jessica was briefed in advance of the experiment to ensure her safety wasn’t compromised. Jessica’s mum and the crew were outside the properties at all times and they were in contact with her via a radio.
To watch the video please click here.