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This past weekend, George Will revealed that he had formally disaffiliated himself from the Republican Party, switching his Maryland voter registration to independent. On Fox News Sunday, the conservative pundit explained his decision: "After Trump went after the 'Mexican' judge from northern Indiana then [House Speaker] Paul Ryan endorsed him, I decided that in fact this was not my party anymore.” For 40 years, George Will defined and personified what it meant to be a thoughtful conservative. His intellect and authority inspired a generation of readers and viewers, myself very much among them.
His departure represents a powerful image of divorce between intellectual conservatism and the new Trump-led GOP. Above all, it raises a haunting question for the many other Republicans and conservatives repelled by the looming nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president of the United States: What will you do?
Some have tried to levitate an independent conservative candidacy off the ground.
Others have speculated about writing-in Mitt Romney or spoiling their ballots.
Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is only the latest and most public former officeholder to declare a willingness to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Will’s dramatic gesture, however, escalates the decision. Will is repudiating not just a single man, but the institution that accepted him—and repudiating it in a way that implies a separation lasting beyond Donald Trump’s likely electoral defeat. Will’s repudiation encompasses Speaker Ryan, leader of the GOP’s monied wing, as much or even more than Trump himself. Has Will set an example for others to follow?
For this one registered Republican, the answer is, “No.” I write my answer as a Republican even more distant from the mainstream of the party, as it has evolved since 2009, than George Will. I write, fully agreeing with Will that the looming Trump nomination represents an institutional failure: A healthy patient would not have succumbed to the opportunistic infection that is the Trump candidacy. The Republican Party is ill, and it has been ill for a long time. But quitting won’t help: An American political party can only be reformed from within.
Republican leaders like Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus were presented with an impossible problem by the rise of Donald Trump. If they enabled him, he’d lead the party to disgrace and defeat. If they battled him after he’d won the most delegates, they’d split the party—and accelerate defeat into disaster. Blame them for choosing wrong—but don’t forget that the circumstances of their choice were not created by themselves, but by millions of voters, most especially the right-leaning independents allowed to vote in GOP primaries. (Trump tended to lose primaries where only registered Republicans could vote, and to win primaries open to anyone who cared to cast a ballot, except Texas and Ohio, the home states of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich.) That old saying, “The people have spoken, the bastards,” was the background fact against which all leadership decisions had to be made. Once Trump had secured the nomination, leaders had to execute a complicated strategy of hoping to lose at the top of the ticket—without in any way being seen to sabotage a nominee they disliked and distrusted—while doing their utmost to protect the rest of the ticket. And they had to execute all this in full realization that complicated strategies usually don’t work.
There’s a lot for which to blame Paul Ryan. His ideological radicalism from 2009 to 2015 pushed the party in directions that made it unelectable at the presidential level. The Republican rank-and-file wanted more health care and less immigration; the GOP congressional leadership consistently offered exactly the opposite. It opened the market opportunity that Donald Trump exploited. Arguably too, some of its members also allowed their personal animosity to Ted Cruz to sway them against supporting the last available alternative to Trump. (Not that Cruz helped. If Cruz had asked them to put aside their personal feelings, and do what’s best for the party and the country, they might plausibly have replied: “When did you ever do that?”)
Yet in the end, Trump is a creature not of the congressional leadership, or the Republican elite, but of the voters upon whom any future center-right presidential candidacy must be based. One can disavow Trump. But if one disavows Trump’s voters, one has effectively surrendered any hope of a center-right alternative in national politics.
I’ll concede: If you define your right-of-center politics as anti-statist politics, maybe you don’t care. The big reveal of 2016 (it was visible to see for much longer than that of course, as I’ve been arguing since 1994) is that Republican voters aren’t anti-statists. People who aspire to lead those voters must recognize that fact and respond to it. If your principles won’t allow you to do that, then you belong not in a political party organized to compete for power, but in an intellectual movement aimed at influencing elites. That’s not a criticism, by the way! Such intellectual movements can change the world, as the environmentalists have done, and the gay rights movement, and gun advocates. Libertarians have won arguments in the past (deregulation of transportation), and they may win arguments in the future (marijuana legalization). But while such movements can shape and bend politics, they cannot form it, because they are inspired by a unitary ideological doctrine and most human beings are not. True parties must be run by politicians, and politicians must make concessions to the refractory and contradictory demands of non-ideological voters.
You support one party or another, if you do, because you share enough beliefs with enough other people that you can accept all the ways that those people also differ with you. If I had $100 for every time a fellow-Republican has ordered me to just go ahead and call myself a Democrat, I’d have more cash on hand than the Donald J. Trump for President campaign at the end of the last reporting period. I’ve disagreed with most of my party’s domestic program since 2009. I favored making a deal on universal health coverage. (Universal health coverage is not a human right, but in an advanced wealthy democracy, the lack of it is a great human wrong.) I thought it was futile to keep trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act once passed. I favored monetary and fiscal stimulus to mitigate the Great Recession. In a slow-growing and increasingly inegalitarian society, it becomes more necessary to preserve the existing American social insurance system: shutting down the government—or even more horrifyingly, threatening to default on America’s obligations—seemed to me a reckless and dangerous means by which to pursue unachievable and undesirable ends.
But I look to the Republican party as the party more sympathetic to creative business enterprise, more respectful of work and achievement, more cautious about social experiments such as mass migration, and more committed to preserving American world leadership. So I stay. And when people who claim to be the membership committee tell me that I’ve flunked some ideological purity test, I reply that I don’t accept their jurisdiction.
Not everybody needs to belong to a political party, of course. There’s a credible case that writers and intellectuals, in particular, should not belong to one: American public discussion is too often deformed by rote repetition of party talking points from people who should be thinking for themselves.
But politics in a democracy is inherently a team sport, and parties are the most important of the teams in the game. Team sports never offer the option of playing alongside only people you like. To effect sustained political change, you have to build broad coalitions. Tea Party Republicans invested great energy in the first Obama term trying to drive out of the party all who dissented from their extremist minority program. They largely succeeded. They built just what they wanted: an extremist minority party. Their hope—and Paul Ryan was very much a proponent of this fantasy—was that they could mobilize a majority coalition for a minority program. To their surprise (but nobody else’s), they have failed. The mission ahead for conservative Americans is to open up their closed ideology enough to attract a majority that agrees on some things, but not on everything. Governing parties can never be doctrinaire parties—and a better memory of the actual record of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher confirms the observation.
Broadening the coalition does not imply unwavering loyalism to every bad party decision. George Meany’s AFL-CIO declined to endorse George McGovern for president in 1972. What it does mean is remembering that a party is more than its presidential nominee, more even than its organization and its organizational leadership. It’s a vast national network of men and women inspired by a shared ideal and impelled by common interests. Those networks are not easily built, and they are even less easily replaced.
And if they are replaced, any new network would soon become as messy and inconsistent as the previous, because that’s the nature of political networks in a vast, complex, continent-spanning society. To say, “We’ll blow up the Republican Party, and build in its place a new party under a new name that would never do anything like nominate Donald Trump” is to mistake the problem. If the new party is open to the same members as the old, it will replicate the behaviors of the old. And if the promise is that the new party will not replicate old bad behaviors because it is purer and more principled, that implies that it will also be smaller and even less competitive than the old.
Much easier than reconstruction of a new network is migration from one network to another. Much of the recent history of American politics is the history of these kinds of political plate tectonics: urban ethnics drifting from the Democrats to the Republicans and suburban professionals drifting from the Republicans to the Democrats; southern conservatives moving one way, northern liberals the other. Barry Goldwater’s 1964 electoral map looks like Al Smith’s of 1928, only turned upside down. Alf Landon’s best state in 1936, Vermont, was Barack Obama’s best state in 2008, after his native Hawaii and the District of Columbia. The term “neoconservative” was applied to a band of Democratic-oriented thinkers and writers who crossed the aisle to support Richard Nixon against George McGovern. With few exceptions (Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ben Wattenberg), they never returned to their original political home. The process endlessly repeats itself. I know more than a few Republicans who cast a Democratic ballot in 2004 to protest the Iraq war, then did it again in 2008 in reaction against the Sarah Palin vice presidential nomination, and only after that realized they had discovered or created a new identity for themselves.
None of this is to rationalize a vote for Donald Trump in November 2016. I won’t cast such a vote.
But once safely excluded from the presidency, Donald Trump will no longer matter. His voters, however, will. There is no conservative future without them. There is no quitting the questions: How to win them back? How to deliver them solutions that will actually improve their lives? How to speak to other Americans too, enough to form a presidential majority again? How to remain true to core convictions while emancipating a great national party from the radical dogmas and crass self-seeking of a narrow-minded few? Hard questions all. The right answers win the right to govern—a right more precious and more precarious than all the grim consolations of “I told you so.”


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One of our schools from West Yorkshire had a wonderful music tour to South Holland.
Caron, Director of Music in Somerset is just back from her big band and show choir’s music tour to Noordwijk in Holland.
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domain: entertainment


Seasonal drought prediction for North America is currently limited to the impacts of tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the winter half year. Predictability is small in winters without strong El Ni˜nos or La Ni˜nas and in the summer half year. However, droughts are year round events and summer droughts can be extremely costly via impacts on agriculture. Does this situation represent the limits of predictability or could predictability be improved based on atmospheric responses to other tropical SST anomalies? Further, could prediction on the basis of tropical Pacific SST anomalies be refined by taking account of the differing patterns of anomalies and the potential different patterns of atmospheric and precipitation response? These questions will be addressed in this proposal. The work proposed combines two thrusts. The first is an extensive set of numerical experiments with comprehensive atmosphere models and diagnostic models. 100-member super-ensembles of climate model simulations will be generated in which various realistic Pacific and Indian Ocean SST anomalies are switched on, creating dis-equilibrium, and the day-by-day transient adjustment of the atmospheric circulation and precipitation back to statistical equilibrium is analyzed. This modeling approach allows establishment of cause and effect in the response to SST anomalies in a way that is impossible by analyzing observations, or models forced with realistically evolving SSTs, where the atmosphere is always in statistical equilibrium with the SSTs. At least two different climate models will be used. The transient adjustment in the climate model simulations will be fully diagnosed using nonlinear storm track models, a linear stationary wave model and a linear quasi-geostrophic model of transient eddy propagation. In this way the transient eddy-mean flow interactions that connect tropical SST anomalies and the precipitation over North America will be fully understood. Imposed SST anomaly patterns will include eastern Pacific centered El Ni˜nos and La Ni˜nas, El Ni˜no-Modoki patterns centered in the central Pacific, and Indian Ocean anomalies. Ground truth will be analyses of observed relations between the SST anomalies and reanalyzed circulation and instrumental precipitation fields. The work will allow a more comprehensive understanding than available to date of how tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean SST anomalies can impact North American precipitation and drought, what matters in the SST anomalies, what the strength of the relations are, how this depends on season, and, most importantly, what the physical mechanisms are that couple the mean and transient atmospheric circulation and the moisture budget. The second thrust will apply the lessons learned to analysis of two specific great North American droughts: the post 1998 drought that still goes on but with a focus on the 1998 to 2004 period, and the early to mid 1890s drought which was a turning point in the economic and agricultural development of the American West.
Relevance to NOAA’s goals: The proposal will help fulfill aims of the MAPP program on “Research to Advance Understanding, Monitoring and Prediction of Drought” with stated goal of “understanding predictability of past droughts over North America” via an intensive modeling and observational study of general predictability offered by tropical SST anomalies and detailed analysis of two historical North American droughts and will help advance NOAA’s goal to provide useful support to the social challenge of dealing with “climate impacts on water resources”.
Relevance to society as a whole: Improved drought prediction could potentially be used to guide adaptation strategies and minimize the tremendous costs to individuals, organizations and the entire nation that currently occur when drought strikes and water becomes limited for agricultural, municipal and other uses. Such advances require a clear assessment of what the limits of predictability are and what cannot be predicted in advance and must remain as inevitable surprises.


We sought for your best shots from the past year and received a staggering amount of more than 2,200 beautiful submissions within one month! It took a while to carefully go through all of the amazing analogue entries, and we have finally selected 3 lucky winners of the Lomography and caseable - Best Shots of 2013 Competition.
I backed the Kickstarter project for the Lomo’Instant earlier this year and was thrilled to receive it last week. I love how the camera naturally encourages you to experiment with its different features, whether it’s through flashing your multiple exposures with different colors or trying different creative techniques after your shots has been ejected. Here are a few tips from what I’ve discovered from playing with the camera so far (and a couple of tips I want to try out in future)!
For the last three weeks, Herr Willie has regaled us with fascinating tales of his Russian adventure. Today, he shares with us yet another great story from one of his travels: meeting the beautiful and influential Ishita Malaviya, the first female surfer of India.
It's been a little while since we've shared the latest shots taken with the brand new LC-A 120 with you. But that just means we have a fantastic collection to show you today! Our testers from around the world have been shooting from the hip and with the heart to capture their daily lives with this medium format master. Skip past the jump to spy into some Lomographic lives!
In this new series, we talk to film fanatics from all around the UK about their passion for film photography and the best places to shoot in their home town. Today we go to Bristol to meet Justin Quinnell, a freelance photographer who has made pinholes out of bins and homemade 3D cameras. He is a true film photography experimenter!
The Lomography Embassy Store of Prague is the place to be for Lomographers from all over the world! If you live in Prague, or even if you are just traveling around and need to buy some new Lomographic accessories, come and stop by to say hi!
On Sunday 20th July from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, 30 of Carnaby’s top restaurants, bars and cafés are bringing their best dishes and concepts out onto the streets of Carnaby, London. We will be running a special "Street Eats Lomography Meet with the Fisheye Camera". Read on for more information
Really want to bring your film photos to life? We’re now offering totally analogue fine art prints in a host of large sizes and formats! Carefully enlarged from your negatives onto premium photographic paper by lab professionals, each picture is a unique piece of craftsmanship.


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An Evening with JAZ COLEMAN
27th November 2017
Cheltenham Town Hall
Imperial Square, Cheltenham, GL50 1QA
The prodigal son returns to Cheltenham after a 40 year musical career – as the frontman of legendary UK punk band Killing Joke, to the Multi-Grammy Award winning classical composer!
This is an intimate evening of music, confessions and re-collections of the journey so far!
Start time: 8pm
Tickets: £27.50 plus bkg fee


The Duggar family of TLC‘s Counting On is no stranger to criticism. This is especially true in the comments section on their social media accounts. Fans and Internet trolls always have something to say about them and how they’re living their lives. By now, plenty of Duggars have learned how to clap back when the comments start getting nasty.
Jessa Duggar Seewald has been quick to defend herself when she gets rude comments on social media. She has even swooped in to defend her siblings before too. It’s safe to say that Jessa knows how to handle the trolls.
Another one of the members of the family, Jana Duggar, is often questioned and criticized as well. She is one of the oldest children in the family and still isn’t married. She’s 29 years old, but her younger siblings often marry when they are in their early twenties. Fans think that Jana should be married and they wonder why she isn’t yet. Rumors have even been started because of this.
On Tuesday, Jana created an Instagram post featuring a photo of her garden. Duggar fans know how much Jana loves gardening and that she looks to be amazing at it. The picture shows a pretty impressive garden.
In the background is the shed, which fans asked about. One suggested she turn it into a studio apartment. Jana is a talented interior decorator, so this suggestion isn’t too far off.
In her caption, Jana wrote, “One of my happy places — the garden!! ‘Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas.’ – Elizabeth Murray #gardeningismytherapy”
Jana Duggar claps back at troll
While most of the comments on Jana’s recent post were positive and uplifting, there are always a couple of nasty comments here or there. Someone left a comment that reads, “Jana do more then be 30 years old living at home gardening lol what a life”.
Of course, Jana does much more than gardening. In response to the previous comment, she wrote, “Oh, believe me, that’s not all I do. Gardening is just my little hobby on the side.” She even added in a smiling emoji.
In response to the original comment, Jana’s fans were quick to defend her. They talked about how talented she is and told the troll to mind her own business.
What do you think of the troll’s comment? How do you feel about Jana’s clap back? Let us know in the comments below!
- Joy-Anna & James Duggar Secretly Feuding Or Innocent Mistake? - November 1, 2023
- Matt Roloff’s Brother Breaks Silence On Why He Won’t Join ‘LPBW’ - November 1, 2023
- ‘Bringing Up Bates’ Erin Bates & Chad Paine Welcome Baby #6 - October 31, 2023


The purpose of this paper is to quantify the impact of the constraints of the power take-off system (PTO) on the power extraction of a point absorber wave energy converter (WEC). Such constraints include power, torque and maximum stroke limitations. Two different concepts, unidirectional and bidirectional point absorbers, are analysed, which both are relevant for practical applications in the wave energy industry.
The two different cases of unidirectional and bidirectional point absorbers are analysed and directly compared. Moreover, a simplified control strategy is considered for the point absorber, which is based on a constant torque reference. The WEC performance is first evaluated in selected sea states and then the analysis is extended to assess the impact of the different solutions on the expected yearly wave energy production of the point absorber, when deployed at a specific location. The European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) is selected as the target site for the analysis.
The analysis was performed in selected sea states and then it was extended to all the sea conditions occurring at the EMEC test site. The comparison between unidirectional and bidirectional operated devices suggested a clear superiority of the latter, ensuring similar power extraction at the expense of a halved required torque by the PTO. Moreover, a selective control strategy was implemented, and the results showed an increase in yearly energy production for the bidirectional device.
The study proved the importance of including the actual PTO constraints in the preliminary power assessment in order to avoid unrealistic overestimation of the expected power performance.
The paper quantifies the power performance obtained with the application of such control strategy considering both unidirectional and bidirectional point absorbers. This analysis and comparison is extremely relevant since both unidirectional and bidirectional devices are reaching the market.
Bozzetto, A., Spro, O.C. and Tedeschi, E. (2015), "Impact of technical power take-off constraints on the power extraction of unidirectional and bidirectional point absorbers", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 34 No. 6, pp. 1796-1806. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-12-2014-0342
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Characterized by its knit polyester/nylon fabric, the men’s New Balance Q Speed Short is a fusion of comfort and performance tech that’s ready to hit the road. NB DRY technology wicks sweat away to help keep you dry and comfortable as you warm up. Meanwhile, two stow pockets store gadgets and other on-the-run essentials, and a drawstring waist ensures a secure fit.
- 360 degree reflectivity for safety and visibility
- Drawstring comfort waistband
- Two stow pockets
- NB Dry technology wicks moisture away quickly to help you stay dry and comfortable
- Vendor Style Number: MS81250


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As much as marijuana initiatives are an experiment in drug legalization, they are also a business experiment. How do you set up an entirely new commercial marketplace worth billions?
In Louisiana today, the Army Corps of Engineers is holding a ribbon cutting to announce the completion of the levee system that covers the West Bank of the Mississippi. It's just one part of the $14.5 billion overhaul of the region's flood protection system.
And three letters could dominate market psychology in the next few days: F-E-D.

domain: news


We propose an approach for biomedical information extraction that marries the advantages of machine learning models, e.g., learning directly from data, with the benefits of rule-based approaches, e.g., interpretability. Our approach starts by training a feature-based statistical model, then converts this model to a rule-based variant by converting its features to rules, and "snapping to grid" the feature weights to discrete votes. In doing so, our proposal takes advantage of the large body of work in machine learning, but it produces an interpretable model, which can be directly edited by experts. We evaluate our approach on the BioNLP 2009 event extraction task. Our results show that there is a small performance penalty when converting the statistical model to rules, but the gain in interpretability compensates for that: with minimal effort, human experts improve this model to have similar performance to the statistical model that served as starting point.


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Cheng Hua offer products for automating a process, material handling, verification, control, packing, palletizing and data management.
Our products include :
- Roller Conveyor, Zero Pressure Conveyor, Accumulation Conveyor, Belt Conveyor, Free Flow Conveyor, Chain Conveyor, Sortation Conveyor.
- Slat Conveyor, Roller Bed Conveyor, Power & Free Conveyor, Overhead Conveyor, Friction Conveyor.
- Vertilator, Lifter, Air Lifter, Scissor Lifter, Turn Table, Traverser, Diverter.
- Robotic system, Auto Storage & Retrieval System, Automatic Palletizer & Depalletizer.
- Electrical Control System and PLC and PC Software.
We listen to our customers. Then we engineer, design, produce, and implement at site, the ‘best-fit’ solutions and ensuring these objectives are achieved for our customers :
- Smartly-engineered functions to increase operation efficiency and productivity
- Easy to adapt, flexibility for production of different models
- Safe, easy-to-work environment for operators
- Improved inventory management
- Worry-free, dependable lifetime
- Reduced lifetime cost for the customers

domain: design


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Doctor Lenisse Candelario - Telemedicine Department, General Hospital of the Plaza de la Salud
Source: Newspaper Today
They have changed the way we live. Current events have led humanity to make radical decisions regarding the way of doing things.
Although we live in a common framework, the truth is that there are many scenarios that individualize the approach with which we assume this situation, so we have a diversity of realities.
In the health context, there is a great demand for services from those patients who live with chronic diseases and who depend on follow-up with their doctor. Thus, we have a pending task, in addition to the one that came to us without notice and came to revolutionize everything.
Today, the provision of solutions in health services has two large groups, patients who need support in relation to COVID-19, whether for education, counseling or disease management purposes, and patients who have other conditions. acute or chronic, which also require support. So, we have a significant increase in demand, but we cannot give the traditional response to it due to the limitations imposed by the measures taken to contain the virus.
Thus, we use strategies that allow us to be present and accompany those who need us.
One of these tools is remote medical assistance, also known as telemedicine, which basically constitutes any means that allows for face-to-face interaction between the patient and their doctor, with the intention of identifying and, as far as possible, treating the conditions that are presenting.
The concept of telemedicine is not new and, in fact, there are countries where it constitutes a common practice, being of special value for the assistance of communities that have little or no access to physical care centers.
In 1924, an article titled “Doctor on Radio” appears in the magazine “Radio News”; in 1951, the first demonstration covering several of the states of the United States was given, using lines and television studios.
In Montreal, in the year 1955, Dr. Albert Jutras carried out tele-radiology, and in order to avoid the high doses of radiation that affected fluoroscopy, a conventional intercom was used.
In 1959, in Nebraska, Cecil Wittson began his first tele-education and tele-psychiatry courses, between his hospital and the state hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, 180 kilometers away.
The doctor-patient connection defines the foundations of disease control and prevention. Today's circumstances call for alternatives that help sustain this link.
Today, more than ever, health education makes a vital difference for individuals. Therefore, it should be assumed as an integral part of the interventions in the consultation.
In 1991, the Unesco Chair in Telemedicine carried out the first remote DNA quantification in the world, applied to image analysis of prognostic factors in breast cancer.
The interaction of health with communication technology has become the best combination for the massification of information, contributing to health promotion, education and prevention strategies.
An ethical, efficient and effective professional orientation can calm a person who feels overwhelmed. There is a significant difference in the provision of this service, ranging from informal conversation to the use of complex platforms that maintain formality and professionalism, preserving the legal medical framework that must support the provision of medical care.

domain: health


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“Sacred Elephant offer an incense like no other… handcrafted incense, traditionally prepared using only the purest, highest quality ingredients provided by nature, and made according to timeless recipes handed down through the generations. This results in a beautiful clean, smooth burning incense that transports you to another world, with luxurious fragrances to suit your every mood or meditation.
To design a visual identity, packaging and ecommerce store that reflected the pure, high quality and luxurious product they offer, as well as the brand’s spiritual and ethical ethos.
The modern, geometric interpretation of Ganesh we designed effectively captures the brand’s spiritual ethos. To create a feeling of purity, luxury and timelessness, we chose a simple monochrome colour palette that beautifully compliments the geometric logo design. Taking the less is more approach, white space was given a premium, both on the packaging and website. Individual symbols were designed for each scent, adding a splash of colour to the visual identity, and allowing the different scents to be easily identified on the shelf.”
“The packaging was designed to stand out among their competitors, and sit alongside premium brands on the shelves of high end stores. We decided on a paper board with a subtle texture, contrasted with a smooth debossed logo, making the box very tactile and adding to the overall sensory brand experience. The eco-friendly boxes are recyclable, and printed using vegetable based inks and water based coating.”


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Katy Perry has professed that she is so happy with the personalised blanket Taylor Swift despatched her new child daughter Daisy, that she hopes her baby cherishes it ceaselessly.
Katy and Taylor had been feuding rivals for a number of years after reportedly falling out in 2013 over a dispute over backing dancers. Nonetheless, the pair publicly buried the hatchet in latest occasions and now brazenly reward one another.
The Unhealthy Blood singer even responded to information her one-time nemesis was anticipating a child with fiance Orlando Bloom by sending a considerate reward.
Katy revealed the gesture in a publish to Instagram on Sunday two weeks after the start of her daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom.
Sharing a photograph of a blanket, which has been embroidered with a flower and the phrases “Child Bloom”, Perry wrote: “Miss (daisy and dove emojis) adores her hand embroidered blankie from miss Taylor Swift.”
She added: “hope it is one she drags round for years until it turns into an unrecognizable shred that she retains in her pocket as a young person.”
The blanket was despatched with a card, addressed to “Katy and Orlando (and baby)” dated three Might – so Taylor seems to have despatched the cardboard earlier on within the Firework hitmaker’s being pregnant.

domain: celebrity


Amazon is set to money a major one-hours of day sale event after Christmas. The ‘Digital Day’ sale is scheduled for Friday, December 28. The online retail giant is promising to happen to 80 Percent discounts regarding a large selection of digital products such as Kindle books, Marvel comics, games, movies, software, and more. Here is your benefit to just what the Amazon Digital Day sale can concurrence for you. In previous Amazon has already conduct Black Friday sale on 23th-26th November.
What is Amazon Digital Day?
Amazon Digital Day sale is all nearly discounts vis–vis pick digital products. The idea at the to the fore such sales is to have the same opinion customers discounted content to absorb happening their toting occurring devices, likely to be dexterous or bought during Christmas. This year’s Digital Day sale will be the third such sale in the company of than year-perspective deals in the description to digital content.
Amazon had held the same sale in India urge just about in October this year. Even even though the sale will be held re Amazon US, you can still participate using your regular Amazon account by now concerning all of the deals will be apropos speaking digital products.
Do You want to know about a special deal on Mackbook Air, Here are the simple tips you should be followed; Amazon Apple sale offer
What to expect from Amazon Digital Day 2018 sale?
Amazon’s Digital Day sale will go live almost December 28, but some deals will begin to sham-conflict happening from December 26 itself. Amazon is letting customers sign happening for notifications taking into consideration the sale goes sentient. The online retailer claims there will be thousands of deals across categories including entertainment, books, games, apps, and software.
Some of the deals that Amazon has previewed hence far toting occurring happening a 75 Percent discount almost best-selling Kindle books and in the atmosphere to 80 Percent off upon popular Marvel graphic novels. Usually, Kindle books are sold at much cheaper rates in India therefore in accomplishment you reach come across an allowable arrangement upon an ebook, create sure you compare prices upon Amazon India in front making a attain.
Other deals count taking place Kindle Unlimited subscription worth three months at just $0.99 (on the Indian of Rs. 70). Audible subscribers will be skilful to purchases two audiobooks at the price of one from a broad selection. You can expect Amazon to offer discounts and bundled deals upon some of its own products such as Echo speakers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and others.
Amazon will be selling its Fire HD 10 tablet taking into account a $50 (harshly Rs. 3,506) discount, bundled considering a three-month measure to Audible. Security software from Norton will be user-pleasurable subsequent to going on to 50 Percent discount and Amazon will as well as throw in a $10 (approximately Rs. 702) fighting card upon choosing software purchases.


Mechanics is the science about force, movement and their relationship. It makes researches on the macro and micro behavior of movement, deformation and flow of medium. It reveals the mechanical process and the interaction mechanisms with physical, chemical and biological processes. It provides concepts and theories for new fields of engineering and effective methods for engineering design. It is an important driving force of science and technology innovation and development.By studying mechanics, you will master knowledge and the experimental skills, and have the capability to carry out scientific research independently on different areas of science pertaining to how different bodies react to forces, their movement, and applications in the different fields of science.
Core Courses：Advanced Rock Mechanics, Multiphase Fluid Mechanics, Advanced Fluid Mechanics in Porous Media, Continuum Mechanics, Elasticity and Plasticity, Tensor Analysis
Course Start Date：September
Course Duration：Four Years
Application Deadline：May 30th
Fluid Dynamics of Multiphase Systems
Mechanics of Flow through Porous Media
Pipe String Mechanics
?1. Not a citizen of The Peoples Republic of China,?in good health and No Criminal Record.
?3. Chinese taught programs: HSK 5 (180 or above)
?English taught programs: IELTS≧6.5 or TOEFL≧80 points or TOEFL Essentials≥9, (DI Code: C806) for non native speakers of English.
?A certificate which can prove you have been taught in English during your previous study for more than two years is also acceptable.
?1. Scanned copies of all China visa pages and China entry and exit record pages
?2. Notarized copies of your Highest level Degree certificates and transcripts
3. Soft copy of passport photo with white background, photo size 480x720, JPG format ?
4. Non criminal record
?5. Physical Examination Form (With all laboratory and X-ray reports) taken not?more than?six months prior to admission
?6. Study plan (Proposal) &CV
?7. 2 Recommendation letters ?(From an associate professor and above, Or Senior Professional in your field of study for postgraduate students)
?8. Acceptance letter from your supervisor
?9. HSK or IELTS/TOEFL


An email linked to the government's secret plans to build a Saudi weapon's factory was removed from a journal that should be open to the public. The email would have shown that the government knew about plans to help Saudi Arabia build a weapons facility. The removal of the email could go against Sweden's Principle of Public Acces, protected in the constitution. Radio Sweden talked to Per Hultengård, a legal expert and the CEO of the Swedish Newspaper's Publishers Association. He says that hiding documents is a very serious matter - but that no one is likely to go to jail for it.


Punjab cupboard approves 500 vacant posts in group C and D in Milkfed and Milk Union
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Cupboard led by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday gave approval for filling up 500 vacant posts of group C and D in Milkfed and its affiliated milk unions by means of direct recruitment.
A call to this impact was taken in a gathering of Cupboard held underneath the Chairmanship of Chief Minister right here at his workplace in Punjab Civil Secretariat- I.
Divulging the main points a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Workplace mentioned that the transfer is geared toward overcoming the scarcity of workers for streamlining the functioning of Milkfed and its affiliated milk unions. This can profit the milk producers and farmers to make sure a profitable milk market by means of worth addition and environment friendly advertising and marketing of produce. Likewise, it would facilitate the customers by additional enhancing the standard of milk and milk merchandise produced by the Milkfed.
GREEN SIGNAL FOR SCHEME TO ENSURE UPKEEP OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
As a way to guarantee correct upkeep of the federal government faculties throughout the state, the Cupboard additionally gave inexperienced sign for implementation of a state scheme to make sure maintenance of Authorities Faculties. Underneath this scheme requisite funds can be supplied by the Authorities of Punjab for the Sanitation, Cleanliness, Safety and clean administration of the Faculty campuses. This can assist the varsity administration to run the colleges in a clean and trouble free method to impart high quality schooling to college students.
DECIDES TO GIVE MOTOR VEHICLE TAX REBATE ON PURCHASE OF NEW VEHICLES BY OWNERS OF SCRAPPED VEHICLE
In consonance to the Scrapping Coverage launched by the Ministry of Street Transport and Highways, relating to registration of latest automobiles, the Punjab Cupboard additionally determined to present Motor Car Tax rebate of as much as 15% to the Transport Car Homeowners and 25% to Non-Transport Car Homeowners in Motor Car Tax underneath Part 13(3) of the Punjab Motor Car Taxation Act, 1924. As per this atmosphere pleasant choice, the house owners of transport automobiles can reap the benefits of this scheme as much as 8 years from the registration of their car and house owners of non-transport automobiles as much as 15 years from the registration of their car. When the car is scrapped by the car proprietor, the car can be bought by the scrapper who will situation a “Certificates of Deposit” to the car proprietor, which can be deposited with the involved Licensing Authority and the proprietor of the car will get the exemption on Motor tax.
NOD TO AMEND EDUCATION QUALIFICATION FOR DIRECT RECRUITMENT AND PROMOTION TO POST OF SISTER TUTOR
In one other vital choice, the Cupboard additionally gave its nod to amend the schooling qualification for direct recruitment and promotion to put up of Sister Tutor in Punjab Well being and Household Welfare Technical (Group B) Service Guidelines, 2018 of the Division of Well being and Household Welfare. As per the choice M.Sc (Nursing) can be schooling qualification for the direct recruitment to the put up of Sister Tutor. Likewise, for promotion as Sister Tutor minimal ten years expertise as Employees Nurse (Group C) together with academic Qualification of B.Sc (Nursing) can be necessary.
APPROVES POLICY FOR DISBURSEMENT OF DISCRETIONARY GRANTS BY CM AND CABINET MINISTERS
The Punjab Cupboard additionally authorized the Coverage for Disbursement of Discretionary Grants by Chief Minister and Cupboard Ministers for creation and restore of present primary infrastructure, atmosphere enchancment and fulfilling the essential wants of the poor residing in Punjab. As per the choice, the Chief Minister may have Rs. 5.00 Crore in his discretionary quota whereas Cupboard Ministers may have Rs 1.50 Crore every of their discretionary quota throughout a monetary yr.
DIRECTORATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION TO REPLACE DPI (COLLEGES)
To make sure higher coordination amongst Larger Training Establishments within the state and efficient implementation of the Larger Training insurance policies of the state and Authorities of India, the Cupboard additionally determined to alter the title of Directorate of Public Directions (Schools), Punjab to Directorate of Larger Training, Punjab. Accordingly the nomenclature to the put up of Director Public Directions (Schools) can even change to Director Larger Training, Punjab. This choice can even guarantee higher coordination between State Larger Training Division, Schools, Universities and Centrally Sponsored Companies.
Pertinently, the Directorate of Public Directions (Schools) was established initially in 1856 within the pre-partition Punjab was performing from Lahore. After the partition and division of Punjab in 1966, it began performing from Chandigarh.
NOD TO AMEND CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION RULES, 2011
To additional streamline the schooling system, the Cupboard additionally determined to amend sub-rule 4 of Rule 13 of Youngsters to Free and Obligatory Training Guidelines, 2011 with inclusion of two different members in Faculty Administration Committees. One member shall be a social employee residing in neighborhood of respective college and one member shall be educationist as particular invitees out of which signifies that an individual who’ve labored within the schooling sector in a College, Faculty, Faculty or some other academic establishment on a instructing put up or some other retired authorities worker from Group-A Service. Nonetheless, such members shall not have any proper to vote and shall not be eligible to be elected as a Chairperson or Vice-Chairperson of the Faculty Administration Committee.
GIVES GREEN SIGNAL TO AMEND VARIOUS RULES IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
The Cupboard additionally gave inexperienced sign to amend the Punjab Academic Service (Faculty and Inspection Basic Cadre) Group ‘A’ Service Guidelines, 2018, Punjab Academic Service (Faculty and Inspection Border Space Group ‘A’ Service Guidelines, 2018, Punjab Academic Service (Faculty and Inspection Basic Cadre) Group ‘B’ Service Guidelines, 2018 and Punjab Academic Service (Faculty and Inspection Border Space Group’B’ Service Guidelines, 2018 with the change of qualification for the direct recruitment of put up of Principal & Headmasters to allow the Agriculture Masters to use for the direct recruitment of Principals and Headmasters of the Division of Faculty Training, Punjab.
GIVES NOD FOR FILLING UP 173 VACANT POSTS OF PEONS AND WATCHMEN IN SECRETARIAT
In view of the acute scarcity of Peons and Chowkidars in Punjab Civil Secretariat (Secretariat Administration), the Cupboard additionally gave nod for filling up 150 vacant posts of Peons in Punjab Civil Secretariat and 23 vacant posts of Chowkidars by means of switch, for the graceful functioning of Punjab Civil Secretariat.
APPROVES TO DISSOLVE DRDAS AFTER ABSORPTION OF 44 EMPLOYEES ON THE VACANT POSTS
The Cupboard additionally gave approval to dissolve District Rural Growth Companies (DRDAs) after absorption of 44 staff on the vacant posts mendacity in Zila Parishads/Panchayat Samitis by making a dying cadre.
NOD TO ANNUAL ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
The Cupboard additionally authorized Annual Administrative Experiences of Social Safety, Girls & Baby Growth Division and Water Assets Division for the yr 2021-2022 and 2020-21 respectively. The Cupboard additionally cleared Annual Administrative Experiences of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Division for the yr 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.


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Total continues to monitor market after boiler restart
Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Total Petrochemicals is proceeding with "routine operations" today, as the Port Arthur refinery continues to watch an ever-changing economy, according to Total spokesperson Pat Avery.
.A Total steam boiler unit shut down last month is now up and running, completing its 24-hour restart process started Monday, according to a report the plant filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
During the shutdown, all employees were working, Avery said.
"We watch the market all the time and make decisions about products every day," Avery said Tuesday. "We're just adjusting our strategy; being a merchant refiner you do that every day."
Avery had also said earlier this month the plant was looking to hire workers, but the employee roster has not changed as a result of the boiler restart.

domain: economics


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Sunset Eat Fresh, Last Day: Final Tally
As we wrap up our third annual #SunsetEatFresh challenge, several editors have evolved from caffeine-fiends and exercise-avoiders to fish-lovers and healthy eaters. (Joanna’s salad round-up is extremely impressive.)
It took two weeks, a slight bit of cheating, and lots of willpower. But, for the most part, their plans have worked. They’ve pawed their way to healthier lifestyles.
How have your resolutions gone this year? Share them in the comments below, so we can all empathize together. Meanwhile, you can see how our participants fared.
Who: Erika Ehmsen, Managing Editor of Sunset’s Digital Editions (for your iPad, Android, Kindle Fire)
This year, I resolved to: Give up my breakfast-bar habit and instead juice whole fruits and veggies daily.
I cheated: Almost every weekday with a bar. But I also whirled up a fresh, healthy superfood smoothie every day of the week.
Next year, I’ll: Still be juicing (but I’ll no longer have a drawer full of bars—I’ve stopped replenishing my supply). At nearly three weeks into the new year, my daily-smoothie habit is sticking, and I’ve learned to add in protein and other boosts to make a smoothie a more feasible meal replacement or afternoon snack. I’m having fun experimenting (and sometimes failing), and overall juicing is an easy and delicious way for me to get my daily recommended allowances of fruits and vegetables, which I’m apparently too lazy to chew.
Who: Gina Goff, Sunset.com managing editor
This year, I resolved to: Start exercising again after a long hiatus, while sticking to a low-carb, no-sugar diet.
I cheated: A little bit. Mid-challenge, I took off three consecutive days from working out, but I rebounded pretty quickly. I learned that the best way to keep a routine going is to set manageable, incremental goals for myself.
Next year, I’ll: tackle my caffeine dependency (maybe). I couldn’t bear to give up coffee the same week I started working out again, but hopefully by next year I’ll be in such a good routine that I can do both without falling asleep on the treadmill.
Who: Andrea Minarcek, senior travel editor
This year, I resolved to: become a more creative, dedicated home chef, starting with a two-week streak of cooking new-to-me, made-from-scratch meals every day.
I cheated: Never, actually. This year, surprisingly— shockingly, to me—I managed to stick to my goals like a champ. I concocted new dishes in my apartment’s little kitchen every day, and without intentionally selecting “healthy” recipes, I ate a lot more healthfully than I usually do.
Next year, I’ll: Next year? I’m not waiting that long. I’m going to continue this cooking run this year. I bookmarked so many tasty-looking recipes during the challenge that I don’t want to wait that long to try them all. This week already, I’m tackling this skillet chicken souvlaki dish (http://www.sunset.com/recipe/skillet-chicken-souvlaki)— from our sister publication, Cooking Light—and this orecchiette dish, with escarole, capers and olives (http://www.sunset.com/recipe/orecchiette-escarole-capers-olives), from Sunset’s January recipe.
Who: Jessica Mordo, Senior Editor, Sunset.com
This year, I resolved to: Eat more fish.
I cheated: I actually didn’t! It was difficult to sustain 4 servings a week for the duration of the challenge, but I made it.
Next year, I’ll: I’d like to aim for 1-2 servings of fish a week moving forward, and now I have some new meal ideas to help me achieve that goal. If I have trouble sticking with it, I’ll have to dig deeper next year to explore even more creative ways to work fish into my diet – or find a good market that has quality filets that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
Who: Megan McCrea, Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief
This year, I resolved to: Give up soda, replacing it with more water.
I cheated: Never, to everyone’s surprise (most of all my own!). I did think I cheated once, when I drank a cocktail containing club soda. But—happily—I learned that club soda contains no sugar or caffeine and, so, doesn’t count.
Next year, I’ll: work harder to replace unhealthy habits with healthy ones, rather than, say, swapping a daily Pepsi for an extra midday coffee. For example.

domain: food


on MINE its Power Saver that restricts the CPU to 50%. Balanced is still it 100% but it does allow Cool & Quiet to throttle down the CPU when full power is not needed.
"Nigel Molesworth" <email@example.com> wrote in message news:firstname.lastname@example.org...
I've just noticed that in Control Panel | Power Options the default
"Balanced" plan has the Maximum processor state at 50% (see Change
Advanced power settings | Processor Power management)
The Resource Monitor shows that it really means it!


April 11, 2023
Plants, pollinators and people: Students preserve a mutually beneficial relationship
Many plants depend on native bees, butterflies and other pollinators to thrive. In turn, people rely on plants and pollinators to produce up to one-third of all the food we eat.
But what are the impacts of urban environments, loss of habitat and climate change on this mutually beneficial relationship?
Students and faculty at the University of Calgary, in collaboration with members of the broader community, are helping to answer that question. And support from Giving Day donors can help ensure they keep searching for solutions.
The tools for their research and observations include the university’s herbarium and native Alberta bee collections, including digital reference biodiversity collections of photos available free online.
“These pollinators and plants play a critical role in increasing our food security and quality of life,” says Dr. Jana Vamosi, PhD, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and herbarium director, in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science.
In assessing the health and biodiversity of plants and pollinators, she says, “it’s really difficult to estimate how these components have changed over time until you compare them with historical records.”
Herbarium supports coursework and research
UCalgary’s herbarium consists of more than 105,000 preserved land plants from southern Alberta and throughout the world collected since the 1800s, including information on where the plants were found and what time of year they were in flower.
These records can be matched with weather conditions at that place and time period to estimate how environmental conditions have impacted floral resources available for pollinators over the past century.
Every year, the herbarium is used by UCalgary students in two plant biology courses, as well as by undergraduate and graduate students doing separate research.
A similar historical record is offered by UCalgary’s extensive collection of insects, which is also being digitized by students with help of the Taylor Family Digital Library. The collection includes bees native to Alberta (more than 330 species), along with other invertebrates.
“Having students and community members out taking photos and making observations will help us to better understand changes in biodiversity as we move into the future,” says Dr. Mindi Summers, PhD, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Department of Biological Sciences.
UCalgary was designated a Bee Campus about three years ago, recognizing the university’s efforts — including a Calgary Pollinator Count Community Science Project — in promoting pollinator, invertebrate and plant diversity on campus and in the broader community.
Students working with Summers did the first-ever citywide survey of insect biodiversity in Calgary in 2020 as part of a course-based research experience. Other student projects have helped The City of Calgary identify which plants are best for attracting pollinators to areas being restored, and have developed identification guides such as Bumble Bees of Calgary.
Student-led research, along with research by faculty members and elsewhere, has found some plant species flowering earlier now compared with 50 years ago and documented a decline in bumble bees and other insect populations.
Studying urban impacts on plants and pollinators in Calgary
Graduate student Justine Doll, for her Master of Science degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, is studying how urbanization affects the relationship between native and non-native plants and pollinators in Calgary.
UCalgary’s herbarium and insect collections will help her identify plants and pollinators, determine which plants are native versus non-native, and pinpoint when non-native plants started appearing in Alberta.
Through an online global repository and community called iNaturalist, which hosts the Calgary Pollinators page, Doll is encouraging citizens to make observations and take photos of pollinators. One of her recent posts to iNaturalist asking for help to identify insect specimens elicited 15 new Calgary Pollinator members and seven new curators who identified nearly 750 insect observations.
As part of her work in science communication and community outreach, Doll is planning walks this summer with community members, to collect information on plants and pollinators throughout Calgary.
“Currently, we have just over 6,000 pollinator observations. This summer, I’m hoping to increase engagement with the Calgary Pollinators Project and reach about 10,000 observations,” she says.
Giving Day donations support a range of biodiversity activities
This January, the family of the late Isaac Rotstein – who graduated from UCalgary with a degree in zoology – donated more than 4,300 specimens Rotstein collected in 27 countries to the university’s herbarium.
Along with students, the herbarium is frequently used by environmental consultants, the Alberta Native Plant Council’s Calgary chapter, and botanical artists.
“Environmental consulting agencies regularly contact us to see if we have students trained and eager to be hired for positions as vegetarian ecologists,” Vamosi says.
With UCalgary's Giving Day happening in April, donors’ gifts will support biodiversity-focused student experiential learning opportunities in research and community outreach, including:
- Providing two undergrad students with a full summer’s research experience;
- Supporting student honour theses and independent study projects in fall and winter terms;
- Enabling students with UCalgary’s Office of Sustainability to develop programming and educational resources for this year’s Pollinator Week celebration (June 19-25); and
- Supporting Wagonstage Theatre – in a collaboration with the Department of Biological Sciences and the Faculty of Arts – in presenting a free play this summer about local environmental stewardship at city parks and community associations. Last year, the theatre group’s play about pollinators reached more than 2,100 children and families through 86 shows.
UCalgary Giving Day is April 27. Whether you support student awards, critical research or any one of UCalgary’s innovative funds, your gift will help change lives and shape the future. All eligible gifts made from April 1-27 will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $2,500 per gift, while matching funds last. Make your gift today at ucalgary.ca/givingday.


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People spend a good portion of their time in their kitchens. Therefore, it makes sense to concentrate on finding great light fixtures when doing a kitchen remodel. When selecting the new fixtures for the space, you’ll want to talk to your contractor about what role each kitchen light will play, whether it’s decorative, practical, or something in between.
Shed Some Light On The Subject
Many fixtures exist, but each serves a specific function. For example, the simple 40-watch bulb in the stove hood lets you see your way around the kitchen at night. When you’re choosing fixtures for your kitchen remodel, keep in mind what purpose each type will serve.
- Ambient: This type of illumination creates soft overall coverage. Pendants work well for this purpose.
- Task: For focused, detailed work, like preparing food or doing homework, go with focused task lighting.
- Decorative: These kitchen lights are just what they sound like. They support “flourishes” in a kitchen remodel. The chandelier you have over the dining table is an example of this.
- Accent: Track lights count among the most common type of accent illumination.
Miles Of Styles Available
When choosing your kitchen fixtures, working with several different kinds is best. Doing so allows you to develop a nuanced look in the room.
- Pendant: Like earrings of the same name, this fixture features a long cord with a decorative lamp or pendant at the end covering the bulb. This offers a good option if you want a soft glow over spots like the counters or the table.
- Recessed: Hidden within the recesses of the ceiling, this sort of illumination works well with dimmer switches. It allows you to set the tone for the room by turning the ceiling lights up or down.
- Under-Cabinet Lighting: Go with this fixture if you’d like a soft glow under your cabinetry.
- Track Lighting: This is just like it sounds. A series of lamps are placed within a track, which allows you to direct their beams to different areas of the room.
Other Considerations For Your Kitchen Lights
If you’re concerned about all these fixtures upping your electricity bill, talk with your lighting contractor about installing LED lights. According to Energy Star, their design allows them to give off illumination at a 90% more efficient rate than other types of bulbs.
They also have a longer life than other bulbs, saving you money because you don’t have to replace them as often.
Talk to Us About Your Kitchen Lighting
When you choose a combination of kitchen fixtures for your room redo, you create a beautiful and nuanced glow in your kitchen. Talk with the contractors at Cypress Design & Build today and let us help you pick the best lighting for your style and your needs.


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Williamsburg Pottery presents a FREE Asian Festival
- Free: $
Enjoy a free Asian Festival that will celebrate with Wine & Food tasting, Korean Drum & Folk Dance, Chinese Dragon and Lion Dances by Jow Ga Kung Fu, Tai Chi, musical performance and too much to list. Come spend the day immersed in Asian Culture for the day.
We will also have a balloonist from 12 - 2pm who will create for you, entirely free, a memento for you take home or give to a loved one

domain: artistic


Club Med unveils new brand identity and CSR initiatives
The all-inclusive lifestyle vacation brand has revealed a revitalised brand identity along with initiatives regarding corporate social responsibility.
Club Med, a company specialising in all-inclusive resorts, has introduced an “elevated brand identity” along with a set of CSR initiatives.
The company has said its new brand identity takes inspiration from Club Med’s origins which date back to 1950. It was then when the first Club Med resort was established in Spain by company founder Gérard Blitz. Moving forward Club Med says it will pay tribute to its French heritage and core values: simplicity, epicureanism, nature and freedom, with a focus on making Club Med a “more premium, family-friendly, and eco-conscious experience.”
The all-inclusive lifestyle vacation brand has recently revealed its new campaign, named “That’s L’Esprit Libre,” which outlines Club Med’s mission of offering simple and positive experiences for its guests.
“When the complexities of everyday life are removed so one can focus on special moments, like having ice cream for breakfast and putting on ski boots, or if your family vacation actually feels like a vacation – That’s L’Esprit Libre,” said Kevin Armstrong, Senior Director of Brand and Communications for Club Med North America and the Caribbean.
“Our new brand positioning takes inspiration from our long-standing 73-year history and iconic advertising campaigns, reinforcing our pioneering essence as well as our forthcoming journey with simplicity, modernised luxury, and playfulness.”
Advancing sustainable tourism among CSR goals
In addition to announcing the brand’s updated identity, Club Med has put forward a list of initiatives related to CSR.
The company’s Happy to Care programme comes with a set of commitments with 2024 as a target. Some goals include tackling food waste via the implementation of food waste programmes. One example of this is Club Med Québec’s partnership with Solucycle, an organisation which produces renewable energy sources from organic waste.
Another commitment from the programme includes the removal of single-use plastic products from Club Med’s resorts in Mexico, the Caribbean and North America. This reportedly saves over 60,000 plastic bottles at the Mexico resort alone on an annual basis.
The company has announced it will prioritise local sourcing of food products for its resorts. Club Med Québec reportedly receives 80% of its food products from Canada, while Club Med Cancun gets 65% of its food products from Mexico.
Another CSR initiative is the introduction of a monitoring and protection programme for turtles at the Club Med Ixtapa resort. Club Med claims to have saved over 13,000 baby turtles in the past year.
Club Med has put forward a list of initiatives related to CSR | Credit: Club Med
New campaign and CSR programme arrives amid portfolio expansion
Club Med has made a pivot to a more upscale customer-base with the expansion of its Exclusive Collection portfolio. The collection is made up of five-star resorts, as well as villas, chalets and even a yacht destination.
The company has said a part of “elevating” its brand identity includes the expansion of the Exclusive Collection portfolio, with more destinations expected in the coming years.
“Throughout our 73-year history, we’ve watched our brand redefine the all-inclusive concept and evolve into a product that prioritises simple luxuries that are ultimately the most meaningful for travellers,” says Carolyne Doyon, President and CEO of Club Med North America and the Caribbean.
“Therefore, we find it important to look back on our roots and pay homage to what has made Club Med what it is today: delivering unique experiences in desirable locations with moments of togetherness, personalization, and opportunities to create life long memories to ensure our guests enjoy the feeling of being completely carefree. That’s L’Esprit Libre.”


After a month of rehearsals, I am proud to say that "In Response" is officially open. This show has taught me so much about how important it is to have a conversation, ask questions, and make our art matter. We have a voice as artists and it is important to me that I must continue to use mine to tell stories and ignites change in people.
We have received fantastic reviews and still have one more weekend to tell these important stories. The picture below is from a piece called "Two Sandras' written by Samantha Clay. It tells the story of Sandra Bland by comparing what happens to a white woman in the same situation.
This experience has been so wonderful. I am so blessed to get to experience telling this story with such talented actors and directors. I have included photos from the production below. The rest of the dates are April 22, 23 at 8:00PM, and closing night is the 24th at 4:00PM.
"A study on racism that is both timeless and relevant
Towne Street Theatre, L.A.’s premiere African American theatre company, presents “In Response,” a multi-author "response" to systemic racism throughout American history. “In Response” is presented from a historical perspective, spanning from 1800 to 2015, with a collage of original scenes, poems, songs, video, and movement written and created by its members. There will be talkbacks following the Saturday & Sunday performances at The Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood.
As artists of color, the company felt it had to respond to the recent numerous police shootings and violence against unarmed black men and women, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and the brutality suffered by African-Americans, beginning with slavery."


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Our region persists in underpaying women, say researchers SABINA DEITRICK and CHRISTOPHER BRIEM
April 27, 2008 4:00 AM
This past Tuesday, Pennsylvania Democrats made a historic choice between a woman and an African American to be their party's presidential nominee in November. For many, the significance of this choice was powerful and emotional, a reminder of how far women and African Americans have traveled to achieve equality in our society.
Tuesday also was Equal Pay Day, a day set up by the National Commission on Pay Equity to remind Americans of how far women have to travel to achieve equal pay for their labor. Equal Pay Day recognizes the additional time women must work, on average, to equal the average male earnings of the previous year. This year it didn't arrive until April 22, which means women must work nearly 16 months to earn as much as men make in 12 months. Minority woman must work even longer.
Despite these differences, women have made significant earnings gains in recent decades. And in some regions, younger and better educated women have closed or nearly closed the gender wage gap.
Not so in Pittsburgh.
Sabina Deitrick is co-director of the Urban and Regional Analysis Program and Christopher Briem is a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for Social and Urban Research (www.ucsur.pitt.edu). They are co-authors of the report, "Gender Wage Disparity in the Pittsburgh Region."
As in the rest of the United States, women's roles in the Pittsburgh region have expanded and grown. Today, women represent nearly half of the region's work force.
When it comes to pay, however, equality is hard to come by in Pittsburgh. The gender wage gap is wider here than the national average and wider than in most other large regions of the country. Women in Pittsburgh, working full time and all year, not only earn less than men, on average, but they also earn less than women in similar metro areas.
One reason is Pittsburgh's industrial legacy. Through much of our history, Pittsburgh industries did not want women in the work place, and the region has paid a price for this lack of diversity. Women have been less likely to enter and remain in the Pittsburgh work force than in other urban areas.
When steel collapsed in the 1980s and the region lost more than 150,000 manufacturing jobs, more women than ever entered the local work force to help their families make ends meet. It would take another decade, until the end of the 1990s, before women's labor-force participation rates in Pittsburgh caught up to the rest of the country, but women's earnings continued to lag.
Another factor has been the general economic climate. Our research indicates that, on average, faster growing places, such as San Francisco, Seattle, New York and San Diego, have a narrower gap in pay between full-time female and male workers than slower growing ones. Washington, D.C., and state capital regions, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham and Hartford, also rank as more equitable environments for women workers -- a not unexpected finding, given the role of the civil service in reducing discrimination.
Our research focuses only on full-time, full-year workers. Of course, in terms of inequities, part-time workers earn less per hour, on average, than full-time workers, and more women than men work part-time. So the gender wage gap actually is wider than the measurements reflected in the report.
Many readers at this point will be thinking about the factors that influence a worker's earnings -- educational attainment, age, marital status, work experience and work history, the presence or absence of children, and so on. But even when controlling for many of these variables, the gender wage gap in Pittsburgh remains much larger than in many other metropolitan areas.
A startling example is in the management field. Women working full time in management positions in private, for-profit firms in Pittsburgh earned just 58 percent of men's earnings in 2000. Women managers in the region's large nonprofit sector didn't fare much better, earning 64 percent of men's earnings. Women in management in Pittsburgh also fared worse than women in management nationally, earning just 90 percent of the median earnings of female managers in both the private, for-profit and nonprofit sectors.
The earnings differential between men and women in the management sector points to another inequity in the region. Higher education, on average, does not necessarily narrow the gender wage gap in Pittsburgh. Women with less than a high school education earned 75 percent of similarly educated men in 2000, while women with a graduate degree fared worse, earning 71 percent of men's earnings.
What are the implications?
For the region, attracting and retaining the best workers is important for regional growth. Promoting fair pay isn't just an equity issue anymore, it's a bottom-line one for firms and the region. Government can enforce and expand equal opportunity laws. Public policy makers can enhance investments in women -- and male workers -- through educational opportunities and by promoting family-friendly work environments.
Promoting careers for women in traditionally male fields -- such as in technical and scientific disciplines -- addresses gender segregation in occupations and industries. Many educational institutions are engaged in such efforts, which need to be expanded.
There's plenty of room for leadership on the issue. The city of Pittsburgh has embarked on its own gender pay audit. It's time for other governmental units to do the same. Private firms and large nonprofit organizations also should evaluate their pay policies to promote gender equality.
Changing its industrial structure and culture is not something that comes easily to Pittsburgh. The Women and Girls Foundation and a host of other advocacy organizations work tirelessly on equity issues, but more is needed. The public sector, nonprofit sector and private sector need to come together in more public ways to demonstrate a commitment to gender pay equality and to set examples.
Let's work to have Equal Pay Day take place on New Year's Day rather than primary day in coming years.

domain: sociology


I have been dancing for 14 years. I do ballet, jazz, modern, tap, contemporary, and musical theatre dancing. I began doing ballet at the Boston Ballet School but once I got to high school I began taking classes at Dana Hall. While in high school, I took up tap, modern, jazz, and contemporary and continued ballet. My senior year of high school I had the opportunity to choreograph a dance for my school's annual dance concert. My dance was called "All I Need" to the song All I Need by Jacob Collier. I choreographed for myself before senior year and continued to do so afterwards. I love dancing because it's a different form of storytelling that tells a story and makes people think and feel. I like all the different ways the body can move to music to create new dances and types of movement.


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An inspirational book showing you how to create realistic, everlasting paper flowers and foliage for use in stunning bouquets, buttonholes and table displays. This paperback version of Paper Flower Art offers Clear step-by-step photographs and instructions will guide you in making 25 delicate paper blooms for focal pieces, accents, or for height and texture. The flowers include both dramatic and romantic species, such as rose, peony, anemone, cosmos, lisianthus, phlox, baby’s breath, magnolia and foxglove. As well as comprehensive chapters on tools, materials and techniques, including paper manipulation and colouring, there is a fascinating section on the fine art principles of flower arranging. This includes colour scheme considerations, scale, positive/negative space, and how to create movement, texture, depth, shape, form and line. Finally, there are instructions on making a range of exquisite bouquets, plus guidance on the aftercare and handling of the finished pieces.
Paper Flowers: Step-by-Step Instructions/Photographs
An inspirational book showing you how to create realistic, everlasting paper flowers and foliage for use in stunning bouquets, buttonholes and table displays. This paperback version of Paper Flower A… [more below]
- Author: Chui, Jessie
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 144
- Publish Date: August 23, 2022
- ISBN10: 1784946427
- Language: English
August 23, 2022
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.

domain: library


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‘The beautifully proportioned red-brick house, the blue bathing-pool surrounded by such a profusion of lilies that the scent at night became almost overpowering, the flamingos and ducks, the banks of exquisite flowers in the dressing room, the red carnation and the cocktail on one’s dressing table before dinner, were each a perfection of their kind.’ R.Boothby, I Fight to Live
The Grade II listed mansion house and heritage grounds once belonged to the Bevan family and the Sassoons. From 1912 until 1939, as the home of Sir Philip Sassoon, it was a socialite’s paradise – regular guests included Charlie Chaplin, Lloyd George, Lawrence of Arabia, George Bernard Shaw and Edward VIII – as well as Winston Churchill who painted several paintings at the estate. The painted murals of the famous artist Rex Whistler still adorn the rooms and renaissance sculptures dignify the landscape. During the 1930s, it was the secret ‘love nest’ weekend retreat of Edward and Wallace Simpson. The glory of its stately rooms are captured in photographs now belonging to one of Philip Sassoon’s descendants. Winston Churchill, later to become wartime Prime Minister, painted the Blue Room at Trent Park.
The present Queen Elizabeth II visited Trent Park as a child and on a visit to the borough a few years ago asked to see the site again. It is our hope that Her Majesty will visit Trent Park again after the restoration and the establishment of the museum.


$700+ if that stock has not been humpped. The FJA and crossed cannon if they are real would put the stock at $400+ alone. The picture is a littl blured.
What condition is the bore in? Have it guaged for throat and muzzel wear that would be as much a selling point as the stock if good.


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LA (AP) - Usher's not taking the release of his third studio album, 8701, in stores today, lightly. "U Remind Me," the album's first single, reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is currently Number Five.
During a recent interview, the 22-year-old singer said that he hopes his latest effort supercedes the success of his 1997 release My Way, which has been certified six times platinum by the RIAA. "As those great legendary performers before me have shown me, you are really in competition with your last record every time," he said. "You're about as good as your last one. So, yeah, after selling 7 million records, touring, doing all the work that it took to make My Way what it is, I want to work just as hard, and hopefully, I can reach out a little bit further. Last time, I was nominated for a Grammy. I want to win a Grammy this year. I'm not leaving without a Grammy, you understand?"
Usher has also released to radio a remix of "U Remind Me" featuring Blu Cantrell and Method Man.


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The AHDB hosted Agronomy Week will run as a virtual conference from Monday 30 November to Friday 4 December in the UK. It will comprise a series of webinars aimed at agronomists on important issues in contemporary agronomy. Monday and Tuesday will be devoted to cereals and oilseeds During the rest of the week, the event will focus on the potato industry. The new Potato Variety Comparison Tool will be launched on Wedneday.
News November 2020
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed the presence of potato wart in two fields on a farm in Prince Edward Island (PEI), according to a pest report issued today by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). According to the report, the CFIA has placed the fields under quarantine and is carrying out official control measures under the authority of the federal Plant Protection Act and Plant Protection Regulations.
Canadian researcher in pursuit of finding potatoes that are resistant to disease, drought and greening
A Prince Edward Island-based Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) researcher, Dr. Bourlaye Fofana, grows 814 different genetic lines of potatoes in fields at AAFC’s Harrington Research Farm, all in pursuit of finding potatoes that are resistant to disease, drought and greening. Dr. Fofana is working to develop potato varieties that are resistant to common scab disease, making crops more plentiful and profitable and providing blemish-free produce for consumers around the world.
Natalie Kaiser’s love for plants started as a child growing up around her parents’ organic greenhouse business in upstate New York. She did her undergrad studies in plant science with dreams of starting a career in farm management; but after taking a few courses in genetics, she found her true passion in plant breeding. A PhD candidate at Michigan State University (MSU), Natalie specializes in potatoes – in particular, looking at which genes make certain potatoes naturally resistant to a troublesome potato pest known as the Colorado potato beetle.
AUSVEG, Australia’s peak industry body for the vegetable and potato industries, has announced the appointment of Renee Pye from South Australia as a Grower Director on its Board. Renee will replace vegetable grower Danny De Ieso, who is stepping down after serving over six years on the AUSVEG Board. Renee is the Marketing Manager for leading potato, carrot and onion packhouse Zerella Fresh, which is one of the largest producers in South Australia.
Register to attend free DEFRA hosted webinars to learn more about what you need to do to import/export plants and plant products between Great Britain and the EU/NI from 1 January 2021. These webinars are for importers and exporters of plants and plant products, and will cover a range of important topics, including steps you need to take before 31 December 2020.
This winter AHDB in the UK is running its Potato Soil Health Campaign – part of the Great Soils Programme. The goal of this campaign is to encourage potato growers to reconsider their current practice when it comes to soil health. You can now watch a re-recording of the AHDB hosted soil health webinar – ‘Potato Soil Health – Why bother?’ online. The webinar was hosted live by AHDB on 19 November.
A custom-built potato grading and washing solution from Tong Engineering has enabled a leading US potato processor to increase sizing potential of both dirty and washed crop, whilst maximising efficiency and minimising waste across its entire potato processing operation. Based in Warden, in Washington State, Skone & Connors Produce, Inc. grows over 2,500 acres of fresh potatoes for Basin Gold, their sales and marketing group.
The 2020 lifting window has come with its own challenges for the British potato industry, but relative to 2019 it’s certainly been more straightforward for most. As at 10 November 2020, it was estimated that just 2% of the planted area was yet to be lifted. This compares with 11% of the crop estimated to be unlifted as at 12 November 2019. The first official GB production estimate is 5.3Mt. This is based on 75% of the sample and will be updated.
The UK potato industry has been left in no doubt about the frustrations, fears and risk attached to trading high value Scottish seed potatoes as the clock ticks down to a possible no-deal Brexit. With just five weeks left until current trading conditions change forever, Sandy McGowan of Milnathort-based seed export company Cygnet PEP gave delegates at the AHDB’s virtual potato conference his personal perspective of the looming cliff edge that threatens the industry on December 31.
Carrie Huffman Wohleb writes in an article for Growing Produce that although it wasn’t an immediate success, the ‘Russet Burbank’ cultivar now accounts for about 40% of the U.S. potato acreage. It originates from a seed collected from an ‘Early Rose’ potato plant that Luther Burbank planted in 1872. Many decades later, a natural genetic mutant (a chimera) of the original Burbank with russet skin became the Russet Burbank we know today.
Scottish scientist Professor Ian Toth has received this year’s prestigious British Potato Industry Lifetime Award. Professor Toth is the director of Scotland’s Plant Heath Centre at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee, where he has been undertaking plant health research for over 25 years, which brought him into regular contact with UK and devolved governments, the public and industry to whom he regularly presents his work.
The P.E.I. Potato Board has a new executive. During the board of director’s Nov. 20 meeting, it was decided that Jason Hayden will continue in the role of chairman, according to a report by The Guardian newspaper. The new vice-chairman is Wayne Townshend of Fortune Bridge. John Hogg from Summerside will continue in the role of secretary-treasurer. Three new directors were also appointed
TOMRA Visual Assist is TOMRA Food’s new Augmented Reality tool that enables remote experts to provide specialist support to a customer or a TOMRA Field Service Engineer on-site – just as if they were standing in front of the machine. It enables TOMRA to solve a broader range of problems of varying degrees of complexity remotely. The result is more uptime and better machine performance for the customers.
In this video, Kerri Ann Lamb tells the story of her family’s potato-growing business at Wickham Farms, Killarney, Queensland in Australia. Kerri is fourth fourth generation potato farmer. Says Kerri: “Our potatoes are planted in October, so they’ll be ready to harvested in February. It will be harvested and sent to the pack house in February and they’ll be sold fresh n supermarkets as brushed potatoes as well.
According to a Farmer Weekly news report issued earlier today, the widely used herbicide glyphosate is likely to have its authorisation expiry date extended until 15 December 2025 in Great Britain after the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December. According to the report, Darren Flynn, head of active substances delivery for the Chemical Regulation Division (CRD), explained that all active substances due to expire between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2023 would be granted a three-year extension under the new GB pesticides regulation regime.
The 2020 lifting window has come with its own challenges, but relative to 2019 it’s certainly been more straightforward for most, according to an AHDB report by Alice Bailey. As at 10 November 2020, it was estimated that just 2% of the planted area was yet to be lifted. This compares with 11% of the crop estimated to be un-lifted as at 12 November 2019. The first official GB production estimate is 5.3Mt.
Ukraine has reportedly started to import potatoes from Poland, where prices fell sharply due to a significant reduction in consumption by the European segment of HoReCa. This was announced by the President of the Ukrainian Fruit and Vegetable Association (UPOA), Taras Bashtannyk, according to “ProAgro Group” with reference to AgroTimes. “We have been importing products from Russia and Belarus for two years now, and this year, at the beginning of summer, we started importing potatoes from the Netherlands and now imports from Poland have also started,” Bashtannyk said.
Ortofrutticola Parma has operated a TOMRA sorting machine since 2008 on its potato selection line, where it has processed about 180,000 tons of the company’s flagship product every year. When the time came this year to find a replacement machine that would continue to meet the need for superior tuber production, the company turned once again to TOMRA Food. The solution, which the company put into service at the beginning of May, was a new Sentinel II.
Dewulf, full-liner in machines for the cultivation of potatoes and root crops, proudly present their new 4-row self-propelled sieving harvester: the Enduro. This new harvester on tyres is intended for growers and agricultural contractors that harvest potatoes. The Enduro combines new harvesting technologies with existing, proven technologies. The result is a powerful harvester that excels in product-friendliness, capacity and ease[Read More…]
Few industries have been so affected by the Corona pandemic as the potato industry. From the hoarding in spring to the sales problems with peeled potatoes in the wake of the current lockdown closure of restaurants and other eateries. The year 2020 was without doubt a remarkable marketing year for the German potato industry. Volker Peters – Managing Director of Helle Niedersachsen – looks back on the year and reflects on the future.
‘The Potato Field’ is an initiative of Spudman magazine in the US. In the latest episode, Ben and Alison Sklarczyk discuss the process of producing plants in their tissue culture lab and then greenhouse before they reach field seed potatoes in disease-free and sterile condition, as well as their recent expansion, trends in seed potatoes and balancing family with their demanding business.
It’s been a year since First Coast News started following a local farmer, sharing with you his successes and struggles. When they started this story, First Coast News had no idea the troubles farmers would face because of a pandemic. This is the final installment in this story, showing how the weather is an age-old challenge for farmers and how Covid is something new. With a thousand acres of potatoes, spuds are the main source of income for the Jones family in Florida.

domain: agronomy


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Hi! I'm one of the new members of the Bookish Delights team, so I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself.
First, my name is Emily. Now, a little bit about myself. I received my Bachelor's degrees in History, Political Science and Telecommunications with a News Option from Ball State University in 2005. In 2007, I received my Master's degree from Indiana University in Bloomington in Library Science. I have been a freelance editor for over 5 years and specialize in e-books, college research papers, dissertations, theses, poetry and fiction and non-fiction books. For the past five years, I have worked as a freelance researcher and, since October of 2008, I have been employed as a professional researcher.
In my spare time, I love to read, play with my dog and spend time with my fiancee and soon-to-be stepson. I am getting married at the end of April, 2011.
I love all types of books, but my favorites are ones that involve time travel or paranormal romances.
I also post reviews on LibraryThing, Goodreads, RandomBuzzers and Amazon.
I hope that you enjoy my reviews and I look forward to getting to know our subscribers!!

domain: literature


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A Caged Birds - Poem by James McLain
I can not notice the words they speak,
the lights dimmed,
so there is a growing,
laughing men and maids in the volunteer search for him my eyes.
I hope that when he smile at me,
he does not guess my joy and pain, for him,
if he is ever so nice to see my way again.
It is a secret in my heart I still do not hear anything so far his ears,
And still it sings there day by day like most caged birds.
Comments about A Caged Birds by James McLain
Read this poem in other languages
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Still I Rise
The Road Not Taken
If You Forget Me
Edgar Allan Poe
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You


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Visits to IRC Latin America information platform soar as Title 42 ends
- Between May 1 and May 11, the number of InfoDigna users—the IRC’s digital information platform in Mexico—doubled compared to the same period in April.
- Searches were mostly related to understanding the policy changes; Title 42, Title 8, the CBP One app and how to find relatives detained by authorities.
- This demonstrates the skyrocketing rate of displaced people looking for answers and a serious need for a humane, fair and predictable process at the U.S. Southern border with increased and accurate information.
Seeking asylum at the United States border is legal—even during a pandemic. People travel to the southern U.S. border to seek refuge, including from political turmoil and rampant violence in Central America. While Trump Administration policies have left behind a broken asylum system, President Joe Biden can take bold action to create a safe, orderly and fair system. Here’s what you need to know.
Many people are traveling to the U.S. southern border to escape violence in the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. They are in urgent need of aid and protection.
Gang violence is rampant in the region. Women and girls are specific targets, with violence leveraged as a method to control families with threats, punishments and extortion. It is considered one of the most dangerous regions in the world for women and members of the LGBTQI+ community, with one woman murdered every 6 hours in 2019.
“Fleeing is a dire choice for any family," says Meghan Lopez, regional vice president of the IRC in Latin America. "They are forced to choose between facing certain death or a desperate journey north—protected by other families in the caravan. Yet we know that individuals will not stop fleeing until the root causes of violence are addressed, and military troops or scare-tactics will not dissuade them, because currently there is no place scarier than their homes.”
The U.S. once had a tradition of welcome that offered safety and a new start to people escaping violence and persecution. Although the Trump Administration implemented policies that chipped away at this tradition, U.S. law clearly grants these asylum seekers the right to apply for asylum.
"There’s no way to ask for a visa or any type of authorization in advance for the purpose of seeking asylum,” says the International Rescue Committee’s director of immigration, Olga Byrne. “You just have to show up."
Based on the IRC's experience in the region, the fears of persecution among those fleeing Central America are very real: Current levels of violence in the Northern Triangle are akin to those in the world’s deadliest war zones. Violence in the region goes back generations and permeates every aspect of people’s lives. In El Salvador, for example, the current gang crisis was preceded by earthquakes and a civil war, and prior to that there were repressive military dictatorships and ethnic genocide.
The danger does not end when people flee their homes; the path north is fraught with gang violence similar to what they’ve fled, which is why some asylum seekers travel in groups referred to as “caravans.” Women, girls and the LGBTQI+ community are specific targets of violence, with women and children also at risk of human trafficking.
Rather than offering safe haven, the Trump Administration issued policies—often in violation of both U.S. and international law—that blocked people from claiming asylum and created standards that depart from decades of precedent. These new policies made obtaining asylum more difficult in certain cases. They separated families and, through a policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (or “Remain in Mexico”), forcibly returned asylum seekers—including women and children—to Mexico to wait for their claims to be processed.
Most recently, the Trump Administration used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to further block asylum seekers at the border. These policies do little to protect the public and in some cases threaten to worsen the U.S.’s public health crisis.
The IRC is concerned that the Supreme Court’s December 27 decision to continue Title 42 will prolong the use of public health justifications as an excuse to deny asylum-seekers their legal right to protection in the U.S. There is no public health rationale for this policy to continue.
The IRC is deeply concerned about ongoing reports that asylum seekers are being transported by state and local governments from U.S. southern border states to cities around the country, often without informed consent, coordination or planning.
Based on the statements of political leaders, these destinations were chosen to maximize public attention. Asylum seekers should not be subject to media stunts.
Government-provided transportation could be a positive and practical component of a safe and orderly system, but it must include key protections and effective collaboration, and ensure the dignity of asylum seekers is respected. Learn more.
Through humane and competent action, the Biden Administration can end cruel policies like “Remain in Mexico,” respond to the current humanitarian crisis and address an increase in arrivals at the border—even during a pandemic.
President Biden has already issued a number of Executive Orders impacting asylum seekers at the U.S. border, including one that creates a task force to reunite separated families and others that begin to outline a vision for a humane asylum system and reversal of Trump Administration policies. The IRC has released a step-by-step roadmap to safely protect the rights of asylum seekers and recommends three critical actions in the administrations’ first 100 days:
1. Increase humanitarian assistance to the border, including for COVID-19 prevention.
2. Reverse the damages of the Trump Administration and use executive actions to restore critical protections to asylum seekers. This should include ending family separation and protecting the rights of children, as well as ending Remain in Mexico.
3. Work to help end the violence and instability in Central America that is causing people to flee. Create more pathways to safety by rebuilding refugee resettlement.
“This is a matter of political will and policy,” says Byrne, pointing out that the right policies could convince other countries to help confront humanitarian crises. “If the Biden Administration gets it right, the U.S. can credibly urge the international community to step up and share responsibility worldwide. If not, the consequences will be measured in lives lost and in regional and political instability.”
The IRC provides critical support to asylum seekers on both sides of the U.S. southern border. That includes providing warm meals, clothing, transitional shelter and travel coordination to more than 8,000 asylum seekers released from U.S. government detention since June 2018. We are also working alongside partners to respond to asylum seekers’ urgent needs.
In Mexico, the IRC is providing support to migrants and asylum seekers from the southern to the northern borders and in between. This support includes prevention and response to gender-based violence; access to critical information through InfoDigna, a multi-channel information platform; prevention and mitigation of COVID-19; economic recovery and development; and child protection services. We also identify needs and refer cases to local service providers where appropriate. For individuals who choose to stay in Mexico, the IRC provides cultural integration support.


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Daschund 4 Tote Bag by Ursula Dodge
Refresh your decor with this Tote Bag by Ursula Dodge. Daschund 4 artwork has been hand picked and digitally refined to perfectly fit this product. We digitally print our Tote Bag and hand finished in the USA for the finest quality. A variety of sizes and finishes to choose from will ensure we cover all your needs. Buy one for yourself and your friend.