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- Care Free 14-Day Exchange on Pre-Owned Inventory
- Care Free Flexible Financing (Bad Credit? No worries!)
- Care Free Service with Courtesy Loaner Vehicles available
- Care Free, No Stress Car Buying Process
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Come in today and experience the Cable Dahmer difference! Cable - Dahmer Chevrolet Inc offers a 5-Year Unlimited Mileage Warranty on nearly every vehicle on the lot! Call for a free test drive in this 2017 GMC Acadia.
AWD, Black Cloth, 5-Passenger (2-3 Seating Configuration), ABS brakes, Advance All-Wheel Drive System, All Terrain Package, Automatic temperature control, Black Roof Rails, Cruise Control, Driver Alert Package I, Electronic Stability Control, Emergency communication system, Exterior Parking Camera Rear, Fully automatic headlights, Heated door mirrors, Hill Descent Control, Leather-Wrapped Steering Wheel w/Audio Controls, Power Liftgate, Preferred Equipment Group 3SB, Radio: AM/FM w/7" Diagonal Color Touch Screen, Rear Air Vents, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, Rear Park Assist, Remote Keyless Entry, Side Blind Zone Alert w/Lane Change Alert, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, Universal Home Remote, Wheels: 18" x 7.5" Aluminum (4) (5PJ).
Contact us online or give us a call at 866-918-1427 to have your questions answered, obtain a price quote for this vehicle, or schedule your test drive today!
When you're shopping for a new vehicle, you have hundreds of options available. Even a single auto manufacturer can have an extensive lineup, especially when you factor in trucks, sedans, hatchbacks, SUVs, and minivans. If you're looking for a reliable, safe, and affordable vehicle, check out the selection from Kia. This South Korean automotive company has been around since 1944, delivering high-quality options to buyers across the globe. Here in Lee's Summit, MO, you can find a wide selection of vehicles at Cable Dahmer Kia of Lee's Summit.
**With approved credit. Terms may vary. Monthly payments are only estimates derived from the vehicle price with a 72 month term, 4.9% interest and 20% downpayment.
All pre-owned sale prices are after a $1,000 discount for trading in a 2009 or newer with less than 100k miles All sale prices are with dealer arranged financing. Prices listed do not include additional fees and costs of closing (including, but not limited to: government fees, taxes, finance charges, dealer's $199 Administrative Fee, or emissions testing fees). Some models may also be subject to $890 in additional dealer markup for the following items: Tire Nitrogen for life and 3M Protection Package, which are installed on all new and most pre-owned vehicles at their time of arrival. Some models may also be subject to $998 in additional dealer markup for S.W.A.T., which are installed on all new and most pre-owned vehicles at their time of arrival. Pre-owned inventory online price may require Cable Dahmer arranged financing. All prices, specifications and availability are subject to change without notice. While dealer strives to ensure the accuracy of displayed pricing and other information, unintentional pricing, calculation, or typographical errors may occur, and customer acknowledges that dealer is not responsible for any inaccuracies caused by such errors. Pricing, availability, and specifications must be confirmed in writing (directly) by dealer to be binding. Purchaser must have proof of insurance. EPA Estimates only. While great effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, errors do occur so please verify information with a customer service rep. This is easily done by calling us at (816) 207-6200 or by visiting us at the dealership.
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CMS advanced five divers in nine events to the SCIAC Diving Finals during the preliminary rounds which were contested this past weekend at Pomona-Pitzer.
For the Stags, senior Garrett Smith and sophomore Andrew Fevery advanced on both 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Sophomore Drake Escrofani advanced on 3-meter. Brandon Brown and Christophe Bindert scored points for the Stags within the top 16 on both boards.
The Athenas advanced both Carmen Lundell (pictured) and Kelly Chang on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Each set personal records in 1-meter and 3-meter diving and secured spots on CMS's Top 10 list. Senior Teija Mortvedt also scored in the consolation finals on each board.
SCIAC diving finals will be February 20 and 21 at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach. Competition begins at 1:30 p.m. each day, in between the swimming preliminaries and finals.

subset: commoncrawl


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One of the many cyanotypes (or "sunprints") that make up Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843) by Anna Atkins, an English botanist and, some argue, the very first female photographer, most noted for using photography in her books on various plants. Having grown up with her father John George Children (a chemist, mineralogist, and not too successful zoologist) Atkins was surrounded by science and also contributed to her father's work. Through her father and her husband, Atkins came to know both William Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneer of early photography who invented a process of creating photographs on paper treated with salt and a solution of silver nitrate, and Sir John Herschel, the inventor of the cyanotype printing method. She became interested in the cyanotype process which produced images through so-called sun-printing. The object is placed on paper which has been treated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, after which it is exposed to sunlight and then washed in water, leading to the uncovered areas of the paper turning a dark blue. The process, known as blueprinting, was later used to reproduce architectural and engineering drawings, but Atkins chose to use it for what is considered to be the first work with photographic illustrations, namely her Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843). Only 13 copies of the handwritten book are known to exist, some of which are in various stages of completion. Later, she would collaborate with another female botanist, Anne Dixon (1799 – 1864), in making two more books featuring cyanotypes: Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns (1853) and Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns (1854). Atkins became a member of the Botanical Society in London in 1839, one of the few scientific societies which was open to women. (Image source: New York Public Library)
Kalymenia Dubyi
Museum quality Giclee print printed using archival inks on premium fine art paper — 100% cotton, finely textured, and acid-free archival substrates purposefully chosen for optimal historical art reproduction. Orders for US and Canada will be printed on LexJet Sunset Textured Fine Art Paper (310gsm); Australian orders on Hahnemühle's Photo Rag (188gsm); and all other orders on St Cuthbert Mill's Somerset Enhanced Velvet (255gsm).
All frames are custom made to order.
- Solid wood with a 3/4″ face (and 1″ depth for US orders, 3/4" elsewhere).
- 2" acid-free 4-ply natural white mat with beveled edges
- Shatterproof, high quality UV-shielding acrylic glazing
- Archival acid-free foam core backing
Why acrylic instead of glass? Although more expensive than glass, like most art-sellers and galleries we've chosen acrylic for its superior UV protection, and because it is also lighter and much less breakable — not only does this ensure it gets to you safely, but also handy for when you might want to move house in the future!
All prints, unframed and framed, will be expertly and securely packed to make sure they arrive in top condition.
|US, Canada, UK, EU, Australia
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|$30 for S, M, L, and $45 for XL.
Last order dates for Christmas delivery
– US and Canada: 13th Dec (Unframed) and 12th Dec (Framed)
– UK: 13th Dec (Unframed) and 2nd Dec (Framed)
– EU and Australia: 9th Dec (Unframed) and 28th Nov (Framed)
– Africa/Asia: 25th Nov (Unframed), now too late for Framed.
– Everywhere else: 2nd Dec (Unframed) and 21st Nov (Framed)
All prints, framed and unframed, sent via tracked service. Unfortunately, we are unable to deliver to PO Boxes. Estimated delivery times from day of ordering are as follows:
- US and Canada — 7 to 16 business days
- Australia — 5 to 19 business days
- UK — 7 to 10 business days (unframed), 14 to 17 business days (framed)
- EU — 7 to 14 business days (unframed), 15 to 19 business days (framed)
- Everywhere else — 10 to 15 business days (unframed), 17 to 21 business days (framed)
If ordering to addresses outside of the US, UK, EU, Canada or Australia you may be required to pay duties and taxes to claim your package, depending on your local customs office.
As the prints are custom (made specifically for the image, size, and frame colour you have chosen) then we can only accept returns or refunds in the case of incorrect or damaged goods. For more info see our Returns Policy.


text: Hi, my name is Gary Yeardley - Domain Consultant for Authority Domains UK. I connect businesses with domain assets to help them grow their business online. If you don't believe you are big enough, important enough, and here to stay, how do you expect your clients and business partners to believe it? "Companies pay too much attention to the cost of doing something. They should worry more about the cost of not doing it." Philip Kotler Author, Marketing Professor, Economist and Consultant, Founder of World Marketing Summit


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Caramel au Beurre Salé (Homemade Sweet Caramel Salted Butter Sauce)
Le caramel au beurre salé is a classic French sauce. It goes perfectly with many desserts: ice cream, plain yogurt, some berries, banana split, apple tartelet or simply for breakfast on a piece of toast. Un pur délice!
Yields: 4 servings2 tablespoons butter, diced
1/8 teaspoon fleur de sel de Guérande
½ cup cane sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream , or even better 4 Tablespoons of crème fraiche
In a non-stick sauce pan, melt the sugar without water over high heat. It's important to carefully watch the stove, as soon as the edges of the pan start caramelizing, immediately lower the heat to a medium low.
Gently jiggle the saucepan in circles. Do not use a spoon! Lower the heat to the lowest setting when there are only a few remaining non-caramelized pieces. Don't let the sugar get brown, otherwise you'll get a burnt taste.
When all the sugar is an amber color, remove from the heat, pause for about a minute (be careful of splattering when the butter is added), then slowly add the butter and salt. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Bring back to the stove using the lowest setting, pour the heavy cream little by little . Let the sauce cool down, then transfer to a squirty plastic squeeze bottle, then drizzle over your favorite dessert. I drizzled mine of a sweet cream glacé.
Bon appétit!
When the butter is fully incorporated, you can directly pour the mixture into a sterilized Mason-type jar. Wipe the rims with a damp cloth and seal the jar with the lid. Invert the jar for about 5 minutes then turn it upright. It'll sterelize the trapped air. Check out my kumquat marmalade and how to make preserves.
Per David Lebovitz's advice, to make a smoother more spreadable product, add a tablespoon of light corn syrup to the sugar.
Once the jar is completely cool, you can store this sauce up to 2 weeks in your refrigerator.
Of course, we didn't do any of this. The girls took the saucepan and wooden spoon and licked them clean.Published By: on January 19, 2009.


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We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The issue you described should now be resolved.I don't think I've ever been quite so relieved. While the whole experience was a bit of a nightmare it did get me thinking about how I could keep backups of all my Google data in case something similar happened again in the future. After a little bit of hunting around the web (via Google of course) I came across the Data Liberation Front.
The Data Liberation Front is a Google engineering team who are trying to make it easy to liberate your data from Google products. This is useful for either moving your data to a competing service or for simply backing it up locally.
They have step by step instructions on exporting your data from most of Google's products, but they are also developing Google Takeout. Google Takeout brings together a number of the export tools into a simple interface allowing you to select which data you want to download. It then collects the data together into a single zip file that you can easily download and archive. Currently it supports: +1'd sites, Buzz, Contacts and Circles, Picasa Web Albums, Profile, and Google+ Stream. As far as I can tell the aim is to add more products to this list and I'd certainly appreciate Blogger being included.
So if you don't have a recent backup of your Google hosted data maybe now is the time to do something about it.


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Refugees are orphans of the wars we have created
Refugees are orphans of the wars we have created
7/9/2015, carton, 11 x 8 cm, signed
Artwork by Thierry Geoffroy/ COLONEL
As an immediate and direct way of expressing and freezing his thoughts, Thierry Geoffroy/ COLONEL has in 4 years been producing cartons in a diary like way consisting of drawing, text and occasionally glued paper clippings.
The cartons express the raw, unpolished artistic thought, which depending on the moment (state of mind if the artists and his surrounding) can range from direct and sharp to personal and doubtful also including the contradiction as part of authentic and honest communication.
The cartons form an impressive collection of more than 600 works, and can be analyzed chronologically, thematically or visually.
Add To Cart


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WOW! Would be the short and sweet version of my 1st New York Fashion Week experience, however, I'm sure you'd prefer actual details of my trip. LOL! 🙂
I had to take selfies with the snow in the background because before this trip, I'd never been in real snow. 🙂 By the way, I'm wearing MAC Lipstick in Sin. It's a Pro color. It lasted all day! Like, for real. I took it off before I went to sleep that night. I tried it on at the MAC Pro Soho store and kept it on.
I almost got it, but it's so close to Diva. I really couldn't justify buying it. Here are swatches below. The Beauty Blogger in me couldn't resist doing a product review while I was in NYC. LOL! 🙂
I was on my way to work on a photoshoot with UK Designer Blessed Zion. This explains why I'm at the store with my Zuca and my bag. You know, just in case you were wondering. Ha ha ha! 😛
Now back to talking about New York Fashion Week. I was blessed to be able to work on 4 fashion shows while in NYC. I almost did 5, but due to the snow on Sunday, the promoter felt it would be best to cancel it. So we did a photoshoot instead.
The 1st show I worked on was on 2/4/14. I assisted Celeb Makeup Artist AJ Crimson who was the Key for the Michael Bastian Show. It was a Mens Wear show and I had a great time. Above is a picture of the AJ Crimson Glam Squad for the Michael Bastian Show. Here are a few behind the scenes shots I took. The hair and makeup team getting prepared for the models to come in.
Above is my makeup station set up. 🙂 Below is a picture of the models, and designer team getting the guys ready for the runway
Muji was one of the sponsors for the makeup team. They provided these amazing masks for skin prep. I forgot to take a picture of them, but they're really small; like the size of a nickle. Once you wet them, they expand and you just peel it a part and place it on the face for a few minutes. It provides instant hydration to the skin and makes it smooth and ready for makeup. Below is a picture of AJ showing us how to use the Muji Masks.After the time is up for the mask, he sprayed Caudalie Beauty Elixir (also one of the sponsors for the Makeup Team). Then he perfected the skin with his AJ Crimson Creme Foundation
Here are a couple of the looks from the show below.
I have so much to share with you all. It's hard for me to know when to stop so that I don't overload you in one post. I'm still trying to decide just how many parts I'm going to break up this series into. In the meantime, I'll stop here for the 1st part. Make sure to stay tuned to find out more about my 1st experience working at NYFW!!! 🙂


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The gloves were popping
You know it's early in Spring Training when the manager pulls a roster out of his pocket to see who's pitching on the mounds in front of him. Toronto's pitchers and catchers took part in the first official workout on Saturday, and manager John Gibbons was getting acquainted with a few of the new faces and young pitchers taking the hills.
The sun came out today, making for a more enjoyable day out on the ball fields. Pitchers took turns firing fastballs, and moved to one of the diamonds to work on fielding drills. Catchers spent time behind the dish and in the batting cage at the Bobby Mattick Training center.
Morning physicals took place without any casualities, but right-hander Brandon League is dealing with a tight hamstring. It's not serious, according to Gibbons, which is good news for the Jays. League is the leading candidate for Toronto's setup job.
Pitcher Ty Taubenheim came into camp looking trimmer and said he dropped about 15 pounds over the winter. A.J. Burnett and Brian Tallet both arrived sporting long locks. Tallet, who cycles through hair styles throughout any given season, showed up with a shoulder-length 'do. Reed Johnson arrived with a longer chin beard — think back to when Jeff Bagwell showed up with the extra-long gotee.
All hair styles and fitness updates aside, we did talk some baseball on Saturday. Gibbons would like his pitchers to get quicker to home plate in order to cut back on opposing teams' stolen-base totals this season. Toronto gave up an AL-worst 130 swipes in 2006.
Gibbons also said that Shaun Marcum would most likely make the club's bullpen if he didn't win a rotation job. Casey Janssen, Dustin McGowan, and Taubenheim — on the other hand — would start in the rotation at Triple-A. And concerning the bullpen, Francisco Rosario and Brian Tallet are each out of options.
Tomo Ohka and Victor Zambrano (visa issues) weren't the only ones having problems getting to Dunedin, either. Toronto third base coach Brian Butterfield has been unable to get to Florida because of inclimate weather. He's been stuck in Maine, but is expected to arrive some time on Sunday.
That's all I got for you tonight. It's 1:26 a.m. (why am I still up?) and tomorrow's workout kicks off at 9:30 a.m. I guess I should hit the sack. I was up watching the slam dunk contest, which I was disappointed in. The only thing that made watching the NBA All-Star coverage tonight remotely worthwhile was seeing Charles Barkley in a race with a 67-year-old referee and barely winning.
On that note…
3 Comments
That Dwight Howard sticker dunk was amazing!
OK, Howard's dunk was pretty sweet. But the contest as a whole — partly due to Howard not getting his props for that slam — was disappointing. None of the other slams really were anything we haven't already seen before, either. Anyway, back to baseball…
Problem is there's only so much that's humanly possible.
The only way to entertain is to change it up with more props, and gimicks like putting microphones on the players.
And giving the judges the benifit of replay is a must.


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Your Mommy Body
by Jeannie Ralston
A head-to-toe guide to the changes — and what you can do about them.
I was getting out of the shower recently and did something I normally don't dare do. I took a glance at my body in the mirror. The glance turned into a stare.
My body, once so lithe and lean, looked shockingly like the lumpy, droopy bodies of older women I used to pity smugly in locker rooms. What happened? I thought.
Kids are what happened. Ever since my body endured two pregnancies, childbirth, and nursing, it's never been quite the same, even now, eight years later. "Creating a baby and giving birth, your body has gone through some remarkable changes," says Iffath Hoskins, M.D., an obstetrician in Savannah. "Many parts of your body will revert back to normal, but not everything. After kids, your body redefines what normal is."
In our appearance-obsessed society, that's not exactly comforting. It's hard not to grieve the departure from what's considered attractive.
Of course, some women do manage to accept their body's changes as badges of honor, and even welcome the excuse to relax their expectations. "Having had kids has given me permission to stop worrying about my body so much," says Gloria Lee of Austin, Texas, a mom of two, ages 10 and 7. "After all that, I figure I've earned the right to wear elastic-top pants and skirts if I want!"
"I'm too old to be Jessica Simpson and (hopefully) too wise to want to be," says Elena Junes of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the mom of two, ages 8 and 6. "I feel like my body is the sum total of the experiences I have had in my life."
There's comfort in knowing we have lots of company in these long-term physical changes. Here, the most common transformations:
Face Almost 25 percent of women have a change in their skin pigmentation, due to hormones while they're pregnant. Many women complain of blotchy skin after having kids. "It's the reverse of the 'mask of pregnancy'" says Jennifer Proud Mearns, a mom of five from Shaker Heights, Ohio. "It's almost as if the melanin has been zapped from my face in places where it was initially dark." The sun makes those changes more noticeable, says Marianne O'Donoghue, M.D., associate professor of dermatology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The prevention is daily sunscreen. The cure: a gentle bleaching by a dermatologist.
Teeth, breasts, midsection, and more
Teeth Folklore has it that a tooth is lost for every pregnancy — which would be quite a dramatic price to pay for our beloved children. But there is a factual basis for its origin. Progesterone and estrogen can increase circulation, bringing more blood to the gums, causing swelling and sensitivity to bacteria. "Pregnant women are more prone to gingivitis," says Kimberly Harms, D.D.S., of River's Edge Dental Clinic in Farmington, Minnesota. "And any gum disease you have can grow worse during pregnancy." If not taken care of, pregnancy gingivitis can damage the supporting fibers and bone that hold teeth in place — hence the old wives' tale. "All the problems can be avoided with meticulous dental hygiene during pregnancy and afterward," says Harms.
Breasts Laments about post-pregnancy, post-nursing breasts are common (the breasts of 95 percent of women won't look the same afterward, one expert estimates). They fall into one or both camps: the lessening or the drooping of these prized pieces of real estate. Going down in bra size is thought to be caused by a change in the makeup of the breast. When you get pregnant, the ducts, lobules, and other glandular matter inside spring to life and push aside some of the fatty tissue, according to Natalie Angier, author of Woman: An Intimate Geography. Each breast can gain as much as a pound while working to sustain your baby. Afterward, the milk-producing apparatus shrinks, but, says Angier, "the fat grows lazy and doesn't reinfiltrate the spaces." So the breast gets smaller. Drooping breasts can be blamed on overly stretched skin and connective tissue. Nothing can be done to counteract the shrinking breast. But you can lessen any additional sagging during your next pregnancy and in the months after by wearing a good maternity and nursing bra, day and night, to ease the load on ligaments and skin. The nipples don't escape unchanged, either. During pregnancy, the areola around the nipple darkens due to hormonal changes, and it may stay that way. Some women complain that after nursing their nipples are constantly on alert. They may also become larger after breastfeeding simply because "they're being pulled out every time you nurse," says Sumeeta Nanda, M.D., an Oklahoma City obstetrician.
Midsection Of all the things I've lost since having babies, I think I miss my waistline the most. One study of the post-pregnancy body used a charming description of this area: "redundant skin." "This tissue only has so much elasticity, so once stretched past that, it does not completely return," says Laura Irwin, M.D., an obstetrician and gynecologist and associate professor at the Medical College of Georgia. Also problematic are the abdominal muscles, some of which stretch 50 percent during pregnancy, according to Sylvia Brown, coauthor of The Post-Pregnancy Handbook. After such extreme stretching, the muscles will never again be as strong, she says. This means that it will be next to impossible to have a stomach as toned and flat as it was when your baby was just a glimmer in your eye. Part of the prescription to improve your chances of ever showing your midriff again is not to gain more than the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy and to return to your ideal weight after the baby. Good posture and daily stomach-strengthening exercises can help, too. Women who've had c-sections have a special challenge — a scar. "There are several layers in the abdominal wall, and that affects the way the abdomen heals," says Bruce Flamm, M.D., clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of California, Irvine. The most common complaint of those who have had c-sections is that their abdomen pooches over their scar and that it's difficult to get muscle tone back.
Lower back Back problems are expected during pregnancy, but one study found a third of women still reported them three months after delivery. Why? It's difficult to pinpoint all the factors, but it may start with a hormone called relaxin, which loosens the joints in the pelvis to allow the baby to pass in delivery. "This loosening may change the support structure of the spinal joints," says Anthony Lisi, a professor at University of Bridgeport College of Chiropratic in Connecticut. Then, after the baby is born and before ligaments have tightened up, you could put more of a strain on your back by lifting and nursing in an awkward position. To help prevent back problems, do abdominal-strengthening exercises, and use leg muscles more than back muscles when picking up things — including children — by bending from the knees, not the hips. Also, make sure not to hunch over when you nurse, which can exacerbate back pain.
Thighs and rear end Treasonously, the female hormones estrogen and progesterone encourage the collection of fat in the thighs, buttocks, upper arms, and breasts, especially during pregnancy. "In evolutionary terms, women who collected more fat were the ones who could keep their babies alive through the winter," says Mary Vernon, M.D., a bariatric physician in Lawrence, Kansas. This may have made sense for hunters and gatherers, but it's a brutal anachronism now. Much of the collected padding disappears over time, especially if you breastfeed, since this uses up fat stores. Still, experts estimate that on average a woman retains eight to ten pounds with each pregnancy. "The double whammy of it all is caring for your kids," says Helen Darling, a mom of two from Austin, Texas. "I can't find time to exercise now without paying a sitter." Studies have found that women who gain more than the recommended weight during pregnancy are more likely to retain it. This makes it all the more important next time around to gain a reasonable amount of weight and to continue to exercise during and after pregnancy — even if you can manage nothing more intense than pushing the baby in a stroller.
Feet, body hair, and those pesky stretch marks
Pelvic floor Pelvic floor is a nice term for the "down there" region where so much of the action of childbirth takes place. This area, also called the perineum, can change drastically after vaginal births. Instead of looking like a pencil point, the opening of the cervix will look more like a fish mouth. The vagina will be larger after serving as the interstate for a seven- or eight-pound baby. The clitoris also often remains enlarged after pregnancy, according to Angier. One of the repercussions of all this is incontinence; about 25 percent of postpartum women suffer from it. "The perineum is like a lawn chair. When you have a lot of weight sitting there for a long period of time, it begins to sag in the middle," says Dr. Irwin. The sagging of muscles leads to less control over the bladder and even the anus. Pregnant women know they should do their Kegel exercises to strengthen the pelvic-floor muscles, and Kegel slackers are punished by slacker muscles. Still, certain factors that are mostly out of a woman's control may put her at more risk for pelvic-floor damage. They include prolonged pushing during labor, a forceps or vacuum delivery, large babies, and episiotomies.
Feet Fourteen years after the birth of her first child, Tina Moody still has dozens of pairs of shoes that she outgrew by half a size, but refuses to let go of. "No one told me that every shoe in my closet would become too small after my pregnancy," says Moody, a therapist from Dripping Springs, Texas. Who knows how many pairs of shoes are sold every year to restock postpartum women with exaggerated extremities? According to researchers at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, feet don't actually get longer or wider during pregnancy. But the volume of the foot increases due to fluids retained by your body — 6.5 extra liters on average, some of which pools at the feet and then sticks around — along with extra fatty tissue.
Spider and varicose veins Months of carrying around the additional load of pregnancy can take its toll on the legs in the form of spider veins, and their uglier cousins, varicose veins. Spider veins, dilated blood vessels, can look like tiny red and blue sunbursts. Varicose veins are larger, dilated veins that may stick up above the skin surface. "Estrogen relaxes the smooth muscles in the veins, which can cause them to dilate," says Diane Berson, M.D., a Manhattan dermatologist. In addition, blood volume during pregnancy increases by more than a pint, and veins expand to carry the extra blood. The tendency to develop spider and varicose veins is hereditary, and both usually remain after pregnancy. The best preventive step, especially if you have a family history, is to wear support hose during pregnancy, which helps keep blood vessels from stretching out. Also, avoid standing for long stretches, prop your feet up when possible, and exercise to help circulation. Spider veins can be diminished by a dermatologist, who will inject them with a saline solution. The treatment for varicose veins is more complex. Problem veins can be blocked, stripped out, or removed by laser surgery.
Stretch marks Fifty to 90 percent of pregnant women suffer from stretch marks — those squiggly lines that look like so many lightning bolts and are often found on the abdomen, buttocks, thighs, and breasts. Some are reddish and purplish, others become white breaks in the smooth surface of the skin. Brought on by the rapid weight gain and loss during and after pregnancy, stretch marks are caused by a breakdown in the connective tissue of the skin. There's little that can be done about them, so think of them as mementos of your fertility! Special creams during pregnancy can alleviate the itching that sometimes comes with the stretching, but won't prevent the marks. Retin A may help fade stretch marks, but you should never use it during pregnancy or while nursing. And laser resurfacing isn't usually effective, either.
Skin changes Other reminders of your pregnant days that have staying power include the linea negra, the dark line from the pubic area to the sternum that often develops as estrogen and pro-gesterone increase, which may never quite disappear. "You can also see an increase in benign growths during pregnancy," says Dr. Berson. The most common are skin tags — extra dollops of skin that develop wherever you have folds in the skin, such as underarms and the stomach — and angiomas, which are clusters of blood vessels near the surface of the skin that appear as round red dots. A dermatologist can easily remove skin tags and angiomas.
Body hair About 5 to 8 percent of women have more body hair after pregnancy, showing up in inconvenient places such as the chin and the nipple. "This is because progesterone — one of the two pregnancy hormones — contains some of the male hormone androgen," says Dr. Hoskins. Fortunately, excess hair can be removed by plucking, shaving, or — more permanently — by electrolysis. Head to toe, these changes of motherhood can be devastating and deflating. The best treatment? Looking at the smudged and smiling faces of your kids, and knowing that you wouldn't trade anything, not even the bulges, sore back, or bigger feet, for the experience of being a mom.
Jeannie Ralston is a Parenting contributing editor and mother of two boys, Gus, 8, and Jeb, 6.


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Ask Rosalind: 9 Parenting Questions on Tween Dating
They may be young, but tweens experience relationship ups and downs too. Teen parenting expert Rosalind Wiseman offers advice on how to help your tween navigate the murky waters of relationships, sex, and, yes, love.
No parent looks forward to "the talk." But there are ways to make the conversation easier. Check out these tips from Rosalind Wiseman, best-selling author, mom and Family Circle columnist, about how to help your child navigate the murky waters of relationships, sex—and, yes, love. If you have a question of your own, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com, and your answer may appear in the magazine. (Be sure to read How to Have the Sex Talk with Your Teen for more tips about how to make the conversation more relaxed and how to get your point across.)
Q. My daughter says she has a boyfriend. How should I respond? She's only 12!
A. Without freaking out, ask your daughter what having a boyfriend means to her, keeping your questions positive so she'll feel more comfortable sharing with you. Did they meet at school? How did she know she liked him? When did she find out he liked her? While you have the right to tell her she can't have a boyfriend at 12, remember that "couples" this age are mostly too scared to talk to each other without their friends around. Regardless, tell her your expectations for how a boy should treat her, and that you are always there to talk. Also, encourage her to confide in her dad or another trusted male. Start teaching her that she deserves to be treated with respect, always.
Q. I'm scared my 13-year-old is too advanced. She told her stepmom that she let her boyfriend touch her and she touched him. They broke up, then a few days later I heard her on the phone saying "I love you" to another boy. Can you suggest books for her about self-esteem and relationships?
A. Absolutely! Right now, my favorites are The Girls' Guide to Guys (Three Rivers Press) and The Blueprint for My Girls in Love (Fireside) . Ideally, they'll be conversation starters. For example, you each read a chapter and then talk about it. Don't ask personal questions, which may make her freeze up. Instead try, "How realistic do you think the author is?" or "Do you see kids acting like the ones in the book?" Also remember that your goal isn't to make your daughter feel ashamed for wanting a boyfriend. What she needs is to understand why she's so pulled to have a relationship and how to maintain her boundaries while she's in one.
Q. I'm in a bind. My 12-year-old confided in my brother that she had two boys in the house when we weren't there, which is totally against our rules. She adores her uncle, and if I punish her she'll know where I got the information and stop talking to him. If I don't do anything, she'll do it again!
A. Suggest your brother have the following conversation with your daughter: "I know this is hard, but your mom needs to know about the boys in the house. So I'd like you to tell her—alone or with me." Your daughter may respond by saying, "Do I really have to?" or "Okay, I'll do it when I'm 25." He should insist that it needs to be done within 48 to 72 hours or he will tell. I have worked with a lot of kids in your daughter's position and almost without fail after I "force" them to come clean, they're amazed at how much better it feels to confess than to wait anxiously to be caught.
Q. My seventh grade daughter says another girl in her class is sexually active. The girl's mom is just an acquaintance, and I don't even know if the story is true. What do you advise?
A. Here's what I don't suggest: "Hi, Kathy, my daughter just came home and told me your daughter is hooking up with all the boys in the grade. Just thought you should know. Bye!" Instead, ask your daughter who's the best counselor at school. Set up a meeting with that person and tell her what you've heard, saying, "I don't know how accurate this information is, but I figured there's a chance this girl may need some help." Tell your daughter why you're going, as in, "I'm making sure a professional is looking out for your classmate." And be very clear that she's not to gossip about any of this with her friends.
Q. My 10-year-old just told me he and his girlfriend plan to stay together until they graduate from college, then get married. How can he be so serious about this girl at his age?
A. Serious for a 10-year-old is a relative thing—the chance that this girl is your future daughter-in-law is slim to none. But that doesn't mean you should pat your son on the head and send him on his way. Use this as an opportunity to validate his feelings while not necessarily agreeing with him, a skill that comes in handy with temperamental tweens and teens. Ask him to talk with you about why he likes this girl and to describe specific ways he and his friend are showing each other respect. Finish by reminding him of your rules for his conduct in all his relationships.
Q. Our kids aren't allowed on the phone after 9 p.m., but my 12-year-old daughter keeps getting calls from one boy as late as 12:30. How can we get him to stop?
A. On the off chance this boy is using your land line, keep the phone close by. When he calls, answer in your most intimidating parent way (meaning, don't threaten him but be very clear that he can't call after 9). If he's reaching your daughter on her cell, then she needs to surrender it to you (which, by the way, all teens should do when they go to bed). If her phone rings, answer it exactly the way I advised if he were calling the house. Be strict with this rule now, and you'll save yourself a lot of headaches as your kids get older—by, say, intercepting that after-hours text message about the unsupervised party down the block.
Q. My 10-year-old son is asking me a lot of questions about sex. I managed okay with our daughter but was hoping my husband could handle this one. My son says he feels more comfortable talking to me. Do you have any suggestions?
A. Here's the deal: If your son wants to talk, you talk. Yes, it can be awkward. My personal favorite, from one of my boys, is, "Wait, do people have sex even when they don't want a baby? Why would they do that? Do you and Dad do that?" Even if you're blushing, tell your son how glad you are that he approached you, and reassure him that you're happy to discuss whatever is on his mind.
But when the conversation is winding down say, "I also want you to feel good about going to your father, so next time the two of you are hanging out, ask him your questions too." Then privately let your husband know he's on deck.
Q. My 13-year-old has made it her mission to find a boyfriend and is acting so clingy that she has driven away all the boys she used to be friends with. How can I get her to slow down?
A. My worry isn't about her boyfriend search; my concern is her inability to see how her behavior is pushing people away. You didn't mention if she has a similar history with girlfriends, but this is often the case—and it usually backfires in the same way. In other words, kids feel forced to be mean to her because she's not recognizing their personal boundaries. So you should focus on increasing her social intelligence. I would have her work with a counselor who specializes in adolescent social and emotional skill-building to help her learn to read herself and others more effectively.
Q. My 12-year-old son is 5'9" and very good looking. The problem is, girls ages 14 and 15 find him attractive and actively pursue him. How can I make him understand that they're too old and he shouldn't be encouraging them?
A. Don't assume that boys always welcome these advances. They're under tremendous pressure from our culture to look like they want attention from girls, even if they don't. Today it's not uncommon for older girls in high school to target 9th-grade boys for pursuit, just like 12th-grade boys have done for years to 9th-grade girls.
Watch your opinions of these girls. It's normal but not good parenting to judge them harshly (you know what I mean). Tell your son, "Because you're tall and good looking, older girls will pursue you. You could be happy, nervous, or not like it. You could even have all those feelings at once. What's important is that 1. Being attractive doesn't mean you're more special than anyone else. 2. Just because they like you doesn't mean you have to do anything with them that makes you uncomfortable. 3. You must always treat girls and women with respect, but you have to treat yourself with respect, too." (For more conversation tips, read How to Talk to Your Teen about Sex.)


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In all the hoo-ha about how hard up GCC is because of the council tax freeze, remember this – a blog from 2010. Since then, of course, we've had the scandal of the commonwealth Games development and the astronomical profits of property speculators while small businesses and house owners were crushed and evicted by GCC, and there have been some egregious final settlements made to former employees of GCC. That's where at least some of the council tax went …
Economists use the concept of externalities to describe the impact organisations make upon the society that they operate within. An organisation's responsibility is to itself and to its own objectives but in the process of discharging this responsibility, it creates an impact on others, positive or negative. If that impact and effect was part of the organisation's intention – part of its business strategy – that's fine, but if it was simply an unintended consequence of its pursuit of its objectives, then problems can arise.
An externality is the effect of a transaction between two individuals and a third party who has not consented to, or played any role in the carrying out of that transaction. MILTON FRIEDMAN
For example, a mining company has an environmental impact, a chemical company may pollute the rivers or the atmosphere, a growing company may force smaller companies out of business – the negative examples can be multiplied along familiar lines.
The negative impact of organisations on people and communities can be considerable. A large company that becomes the dominant employer in an area can destroy the entire community if it pulls out. A dominant company can drive down the price of the goods and services it procures, forcing small suppliers into reducing their margins to dangerous levels.
An organisations can engage in practices and processes that are actively dangerous to the health and safety of those it employs and to the external community. Such effects were common in the early stages of the industrial revolution, and they were still occurring in the late 20th century, and will still occur in the 21st century, especially in third world or economically vulnerable communities. (The disaster at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in India is still one of the worst examples, and of course, Chernobyl.)
Entrepreneurs have two major concerns – one is to be able to take commercial risks without destroying entirely their own security and economic viability, and the other is to be allowed to focus on the central purpose of the venture without being deflected by external consequences that are not central to the business purpose, especially those that relate to morality, legal compliance and social values.
Business is essentially amoral – morality and legality are constraints imposed on it by a society that it of necessity must operate within, and the dynamic balance of these forces is the essence of capitalism in a free society. Organised crime is simply a business that elects to ignore these constraints.
That is not to say that entrepreneurs, business managers and directors of companies are amoral, or lack a moral compass, but that the very nature of business is without malice or pity, and the moral individual must operate within that context. All too often the individual moral conscience becomes subordinate to, or is crushed by the demands of the organisation.
When businesses are small, and a sole proprietor or family dominates, the business activities can and usually will reflect their personal ethics and morality, and concepts of equity and justice can prevail. In rare cases, that ethical basis can survive the growth of the company if the values of the founder or founders – or indeed the founders themselves – are still present, and some great British companies managed to preserve such an ethos until comparatively recent times. Altruism has existed and does exist in business, but it often has a hard time …
Entrepreneurs protected themselves against the first risk - destroying entirely their own security and economic viability in commercial ventures – by getting the concept of the limited company on to the statute books. The company or corporation became a legal person, distinct from its owners and directors, with almost all of the legal protections an individual person has under law, and a limit set to its liabilities – the limited liability corporation.
Without that legal protection, there can be little doubt that we would not have had the industrialised world that we know today. An entrepreneur could set up a venture and take risks, supported by investors in the company - the shareholders and venture capitalists – and fail occasionally without destroying his or her own capital and financial security, going into personal bankruptcy and losing everything. Legal safeguards were set up to prevent abuse of this immunity by entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs protected themselves against the second risk - being deflected by external consequences that were not central to the business purpose, especially those that relate to morality, legal compliance and social values, and not being allowed to focus on the central purpose of the venture – by insisting that it was the job of government and society to impose morality and social values upon them by legislation and regulation. This was the first externalisation, releasing the organisation from the need to establish its own morality and values and leaving them free, within the regulatory constraints, to pursue their business objectives. Thus was the balance to be maintained between the legal protection of the limited liability company and the needs of the society it operated within.
The company, in essence, could be amoral but have its morality imposed by society and be constrained within limits acceptable to that society.
But this ideal rested on an assumption that proved naive and false from the very start, namely that the limited liability company would not be able to influence the legislative constraints that they operated within. In fact, from the earliest days, companies have sought to influence, and in an increasing number of instances, subvert the very legislative process that was meant to constrain them.
The most spectacular example of this has been the insidious, relentless and inexorable growth of the military/industrial complex, a threat defined and named by President Eisenhower in 1961.
This has proved to be a cancerous growth that has perverted our values, our politicians, our democracy and our world.
The results of externalisation in America have been evident for well over a century – explosive industrial and commercial expansion delivering enormous wealth and prosperity to some and utter misery, poverty, sickness and death to others. Initially, the exploited were the immigrant population and the ill-educated lower classes, but then, faced with the growth of organised labour and labour protection legislation at home, exploitation tended to shift to America's colonies (which of course it always denies having) in Latin America, in its offshore islands, and in many other parts of the world. In this, they were simply following the brutally exploitative model of British imperialism, whilst coyly rejecting the idea of an American empire.
(The continuing American hatred of Castro's Cuba stems, not only from real ideological or strategic beliefs, but also significantly from the burning resentment of American big business and American organised crime at losing a population that could be exploited with minimal risk and effort.)
But closer to home, the events leading up to the financial meltdown that followed the near-collapse of Northern Rock had already signalled that all was not well with our notional democracy, and the regulation of big business.
Maggie Thatcher began the process in the 1980s that involved widespread deregulation, externalisation and outsourcing of business, and we entered the era of the short-time temporary contract, of cleaning contractors who didn't clean - killing hospital patients while their directors grew fat on the proceeds - of railways where the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing and trains crashed with alarming regularity, of an exploding housing market where essential workers couldn't afford to live within commuting distance of their place of work, of the destruction of entire mining communities – the list goes on.
Industry, notable the financial sector, were allowed to lobby, bribe and bully the Westminster government and our elected representatives, and to negate or at least emasculate the regulatory authorities designed to keep each industry in check. A government and the regulators turned a blind eye while the banks and the financial industry gambled with the security and the lives and hope of millions of ordinary citizens. The concentration of power – by acquisition – in the newspaper industry and the media also led to distortion of objective journalistic values and to the impotence of government in the face new Citizen Kane's in their Xanadus.
Revolving doors carried senior civil servants into top jobs in the industries they had been so recently responsible for controlling. Regulatory bodies were – and are - packed with industry representatives, neutering attempts to limit the worst excesses. Our own elected representative were either lobbying themselves or acting as pimps for the professional lobbyists. And of course they were also ripping off the taxpayer by inflating their expenses or actively falsifying them.
A new generation of politicians, drawn at a much younger age from the offices of the party machines and from PR companies, or straight from university, saw politics as a career and a route to enrichment rather than a calling.
They knew nothing, had done nothing, had achieved nothing and were, figuratively speaking, nubile adolescents eagerly awaiting their imminent ravishment and reward by the hard-eyed men and women of big business.
And so we come to Scotland, and to the great city of Glasgow …
Scotland, a little nation of over five million people at the northern end of Europe, had nonetheless punched well above its weight for centuries, in culture, in learning, in innovation and invention and had made a crucial contribution to the industrial revolution. It was no stranger to the huge forces of industrial and commercial change that swept across the globe: it had experienced the cruel impact of the shift from the land to the city, from an agrarian society to a mechanised one, and its people had felt the iron hand of capitalism.
The abandonment of personal responsibility by their leaders, in very early forms of externalisation – an externalisation of responsibility and values - driven as always by rampant greed, from the Highland clearances to the dispossession of the lowland cottars had brought misery to hundreds of thousands, and the great workshops of Empire in the ancient city of Glasgow exacted a terrible price from the ordinary people, producing amongst other evils disease, death and malnutrition in the worst slums in Europe.
The clan chiefs unforgivably broke the bonds of faith, blood and absolute trust to enrich themselves (with a few honourable exceptions) and most of them reap the benefits of their ill-gotten gains to this day. The lowland landowners were little better, and both highland and lowlands leaders were prepared to ruthlessly suppress any attempts by the people they were exploiting and oppressing to obtain justice.
(The 'Big Factor', John Campbell, Chamberlain of the Duke of Argyll's estates in Mull and Tiree, was so hated by his former tenants that emigrant communities in America and Canada celebrated his death (1872) in 'uninhibited style' with singing, bonfires and drinking.)
We must never forget that this, in the main, was done by Scots to Scots. There are those who are still doing it to this day, and their betrayal is all the greater because they know their history. They still see their noblest prospect as the high road to England, specifically Westminster, and once there, Scotland becomes almost an embarrassing memory.
In our own time, Scotland was devastated by Maggie Thatcher's destruction of large parts of our industrial heritage. Her cynical and ill-judged attempt to pilot the hated poll tax in Scotland cost her party dear, and ultimately brought her down as Prime Minister. The Tory Party has been a negligible force in Scotland since that time.
But of course Scotland had been, for over half a century, a Labour fiefdom, nowhere more powerful than in Glasgow, one that was propped up by the ineffectual Scottish Liberal Democrats, whose utter betrayal of the ideals and principles of liberalism continues under Tavish Scott, in the name of unionism.
The revelations followed Steven Purcell's tragic collapse and resignation show something deeply suspect in the heart of the administration of Gleschu - the dear green place - by the Labour-dominated City Council.
ALEOs and Glasgow City Council
The responsibilities of Glasgow City Council are as extensive and complex as one would expect from the requirements of governance of one of the major cities of the United Kingdom, a city of 620,000 souls. The governance of this great city is entrusted by its electorate to elected councillors, and they represent the democratic will and control of the people of Glasgow over how their city is run.
Ideally, those running for office would see the role of councillor as a vocation, not as a career ladders nor as a route to personal wealth. Power would be sought unselfishly to serve the people.
But life – and politicians – ain't always like that …
An elected councillor can expect to earn a minimum of £16,234 per annum, and has pension rights in addition to this. This is about two thirds of the average wage and in itself is unlikely to attract an ambitious and able person who is not driven by an altruistic wish to serve his or her fellow citizens, and is even less likely to persuade someone to give up a higher rate of remuneration to seek election.
However, anyone who was driven by money and career considerations would already be highly aware that the potential earnings are very much higher. The great British public were duly shocked when the Telegraph exposed the true level of earnings of honourable and right honourable members of Parliament, made up of expenses, expenses fiddles and extra-curricular activities of various kinds, including directorships, consulting, and other nice little earners too numerous to name.
The Glasgow electorate – not easily shockable after generations of corrupt administration – might just be beginning to see what is going on by the light that the Herald (belatedly, but God bless them for doing it now!) has been mercilessly shining into the earnings activities of their councillors.
And they may be coming to grips with the acronym that represents a nice little earner – the ALEO, or Arms Length External Organisation, which should really be ALEGO, Arms Length Governance External Organisation. I suppose ALEGO was too close to A LEG OVER, with its related concept of screwing the electorate. Or is it related to that old Glasgow chant about the Eely Aleo?
So what are the ALEOs? They are external organisations set up by Glasgow City Council to run departments and functions and deliver services to the people of Glasgow that were formerly run by Glasgow City Council. They are given a considerable degree of freedom of decision and action, but have at least one board member who is also a councillor, to ensure that they remember to whom they are ultimately accountable – the people of Glasgow.
Here's what Glasgow City Council says about the principles of governance in a paper relating to ALEOs by its External Governance Committee on 26th May 2009.
Governance has been defined as the means by which an organisation ensures that the level of direction and management of the affairs of the organisation are satisfactory, aligns corporate behaviour with the expectations of the public and maintains accountability. The process of governance therefore involves the clear identification of responsibilities, accountabilities and adequate systems of supervision, control and communication. Fundamentally, governance is about how the organisation ensures that it is doing the right things, in the right way, for the right people, in a timely, inclusive, open, honest and accountable manner.
The Council has statutory responsibility for the delivery of a range of services and it meets
this through its operating structures and its governance arrangements.
ALEOs are therefore a manifestation of externalisation – outsourcing – and of shuffling off the inconvenient need to run departments, deal with real people and with trades unions - in other words, of reducing, if not avoiding real responsibility for doing what Glasgow City Council is elected to do. A fig-leaf of residual control and accountability is provided by the external director or directors appointed from the ranks of councillors – and perhaps friends of the Labour Party.
It goes without saying that the above is not the rationale used by Glasgow City Council to justify the helter-skelter multiplication of ALEOs.
It was, of course, no part of justification for the setting up of the ALEOs to provide a nice little earner for councillors or others, nor to regard the ability of the new external directors, in the City Council's own words (from the extract above) to
… ensure that the level of direction and management of the affairs of the organisation are satisfactory
… align corporate behaviour with the expectations of the public and maintains accountability
(provide) … clear identification of responsibilities, accountabilities and adequate systems of supervision, control and communication
… ensure that it (the ALEO) is doing the right things, in the right way, for the right people, in a timely, inclusive, open, honest and accountable manner
as rather likely to be compromised by their need to protect a healthy supplement to their council salaries and to stay on the right side of their new board members. The eternal question cui bono? always has a familiar answer in Glasgow – Who dae ye think, Jimmy?
The potential of corruption in government is ever-present, and it is not McCarthyite to say that the facts revealed by the Herald give grounds for grave disquiet.
Whit's goin' on Jimmy, eh? There's somethin' no' right here, ah can smell it fae here …


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Westbrook leads Thunder to win in home opener
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — So far, Kevin Martin considers it an easy transition into James Harden's old role as the Oklahoma City Thunder's top bench player.
Having two All-Stars to work with can make it look that way.
Russell Westbrook scored 32 points, Kevin Durant had 23 points and 17 rebounds and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers 106-92 on Friday night to win their fourth straight home opener.
Martin added 19 points, hitting a 3-pointer and a runner during an 11-2 spurt that extended the Thunder's lead to 95-81 with 4:05 remaining. Durant had the assist on both baskets.
BOX SCORE:Thunder 106, Trail Blazers 92
"They have to pick their poison when it comes to us," Martin said. "We're both used to putting up numbers in this league, so they're going to take him and he's going to make the easy pass to me or ... they took me and then I made the pass to him.
"We can read off each other very well."
LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 22 points and 15 rebounds and first-round pick Damian Lillard followed a sizzling debut with 21 points and seven assists. The Trail Blazers shot 36 percent and were unable to follow up their surprising opening win against the Los Angeles Lakers.
"We competed for most of the game," first-year Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "We had a hard time putting the ball in the basket."
Oklahoma City bounced back from an opening loss at San Antonio that at least temporarily shifted the focus off Harden's departure. The NBA's Sixth Man of the Year was traded to Houston on Saturday night, shaking up the Thunder's second line before they could even play a game after making it to the NBA Finals.
He wasn't missed as much in this one.
Oklahoma City led throughout the second half, but twice allowed Portland to get within one point late in the third quarter. Lillard's right-handed floater got the Trail Blazers within 64-63 with 3:04 left in the period, before Durant hit a free throw and Nick Collison got free for a two-handed dunk.
The Thunder never looked back, finishing with a 44-24 scoring advantage in the paint and a 23-6 edge on the fast break.
"We just ran the floor better. A lot of guys finished a lot better around the basket. That got us easy points," said Westbrook, who was 13 for 24 from the field and had six assists.
Durant ended up with a full stat line, finishing one shy of his career best in rebounds to go with seven assists and six of the Thunder's 12 turnovers while dabbling at the point guard.
Collison was Oklahoma City's only other player in double figures, with 12 points. He dived to save a ball from going out of bounds on one baseline, getting it to Westbrook, who whipped it ahead to help Durant earn two free throws.
"I saw the ball and was able to get after it quick," Collison said. "I feel good. I feel like I'm reacting well. I feel like I'm really locked into the game.
"Those are the type of plays you can make if you're really locked in mentally, where you can just go get it and react."
The sequence finished off the Thunder's big fourth-quarter run and effectively put the game away.
"We got enough stops. That was big. We finally were getting some stops and created some separation," Collison said.
HARDEN:Rockets' newest acquisition scores 45 in win
Wesley Matthews chipped in 17 points and J.J. Hickson contributed 14 points and 12 rebounds, seven on the offensive end, for Portland. Lillard, who joined Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas as the only players with at least 20 points and 10 assists in an NBA debut, had seven assists and two turnovers.
"It's not really about how I play," said Lillard, the No. 6 pick in this year's draft. "It's more about the team making a few more shots to get the win."
Durant scored seven points in the middle of an 11-0 run as the Thunder recovered from an early deficit to take a 24-18 lead after Martin's jumper from the left wing, his first basket at home with his new team.
Portland rallied to go ahead briefly with the first eight points of the second quarter, only for Martin to hit a 3 and start a 7-0 response that put Oklahoma City back on top to stay.
"When you talk about chemistry with our group, you haven't been around our group," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "James was a good player but it wasn't Dr. James. He wasn't helping the group stick together. All the guys do that."
As a group, the Thunder bench outscored Portland's reserves 42-15.
"You have to have a punch coming off the bench. I think that's one of our biggest strengths right now," Martin said.
"We've just got to keep on jelling as a group and help the first unit when they need a little rest."


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Special Events
Related Programming
Winnipeg Now
Winnipeg Design Festival: 10X20X20
Begins: Friday September 21, 2012
Produced by the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA) Interns in Architecture Committee and the University of Manitoba Association of Architecture Students (UMAAS), this edition of the popular 10X20X20 series is themed to BUILD. Ten presenters, will each present 20 slides, lasting 20 seconds each.
Featuring An Exhibition of the Faculty of Architecture Student Work and the musical stylings of Tony, the presenters include (* indicates artists from Winnipeg Now):
Rodney LaTourelle*
Artist / Designer / Writer
Dominique Rey*
Video Artist/Painter/Photographer/
Performance Artist
Michael Dudeck*
Artist & Cultural Engineer
Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan*
Performance Art Collaborators
KC Adams*
Contemporary Visual Artist
Clayton Salkeld
Design Build
Ray Wan
Raymond S.C. Wan Architect
Desmond Burke
Bios Architecture
Jennifer Stillwell*
Mike McDermott
Green Apple Skate
For more info visit 10x20x20.blogspot.ca.
Gallery Hours
- Tuesday 11am-5pm
- Wednesday 11am-5pm
- Thursday 11am-5pm
- Friday 11am-9pm
- Saturday 11am-5pm
- Sunday 11am-5pm
- Closed Monday


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If you don't keep up with the top search engine blogs or Google's own search blog, then you likely miss out on the news about Google's search quality updates.
You might be surprised to find out that so far in 2012, there have been three Panda rollouts and over 100 other changes in addition to the notable implementation of Search, plus Your World.
So today, we're going to take a somewhat quick run through of what you need to know about changes to Google search that might have affected your website's rankings.
Search, plus Your World
On January 10, 2012, Google announced its incorporation of social search into general search results with Search, plus Your World. This means that when you look up something on Google, you are likely to see search results influenced by your connections on Google+.
You can change these results using the toggle at the top right of your search results page to hide personal results.
Then you'll get the following results.
These non-personalized results will be what you expect users to see if they are not logged in to Google. But the order of search results are not the only things affected by Search, plus Your World.
Related People and Pages on Google+
You will also see related People and Pages on Google+ for many searches, regardless of whether you are logged in to Google or hiding personalized results.
If you want your own Google+ profile or page to show up in this area, typically shown above Google AdWords ads in the right sidebar of search results, you should follow Google's tips on how to appear as a related person or page which are as follows.
- Fill out your profile. When filling out your Google+ profile, be sure to think about the keywords you want to appear in search results for and include them in your introduction, your headline, and your job title if possible.
- Post about your favorite topics. Keep your keywords in mind when creating status updates – your status updates could easily be included in search results and help boost your profile or page for that keyword.
- Appear in search results. If you've optimized your profile correctly and share useful content on Google+ related to your targeted keyword, you should soon start finding your profile or page in search results.
Google not only suggests people and pages on the search results page itself, but also in their suggested search dropdown when you are typing in a search query.
This could be a great way to nip online reputation management issues in the bud – putting your profile above any other suggestions!
Images Shared by Connections
Regular search results aren't the only ones affected. Even image search results will be different based on your connections.
This means that getting higher in image search results with your connections is as easy as sharing an image on your profile as a status update or in your photo albums.
Featured Authors
If you do a lot of writing, on your own blog or through guest blogging, then you should work to establish authorship in Google search results using your Google+ profile. There are two methods to claim authorship of your content as detailed in Google Webmaster Tools Support.
- Link your content to your Google+ profile via a verified email address. This is where you enter an email address with the same domain as the site you write for on your Google+ profile in the contact information and add the sites you write for to your Google+ profile's Contributor To section. This works well for your own blog or company website, but will be difficult for sites you do not write for often.
- Link your content to your Google+ profile. This is where you add sites you write for to your Google+ profile's Contributor To section and include a link to your Google+ profile from your content. Be sure to append ?rel=author to your Google+ profile URL to let Google know you are the author.
Once you've implemented one of the two authorship methods, use the Rich Snippets Testing Tool to test your content's URL. I would suggest you test some of your guest posting spots as some people may not have them set up correctly, which may result in you the author not getting the authorship credit.
The nice part is, once you have this set up correctly, articles that you have written will stand out from others in search results.
And searchers can click on the More by link to see more content by you no matter where you have written it!
As an added bonus, if you use Google Webmaster Tools on the same account as your Google+ profile, you can click on the Webmaster Tools Labs and try out Author Stats. This section shows you search statistics for pages where you are the verified author. This means you can get analytics on sites that you don't even own so long as you have written for them.
Now, let's move on to the next big thing in Google search changes.
Google Panda
Unfortunately, we're not talking about cute and cuddly red pandas, or the traditional black and white pandas either.
Google Panda is the algorithm that first struck in February 2011, sending hundreds if not thousands of sites' keywords plummeting from search results. Since then, they have made numerous updates to the Google Panda algorithm.
So far in 2012, they have rolled out three minor updates to refresh the algorithm based on current search results, putting Panda's current version at 3.4.
Was Your Site Affected by Panda?
How can you tell if your site has been affected by Panda? The simplest way is to go to your Google Analytics and run a report from February 2011 until today, then look at your Organic Search visits under Traffic Sources. If you don't see a significant spike in traffic around the following dates, you should be alright.
- Panda 3.4 on March 23, 2012
- Panda 3.3 on February 26, 2012
- Panda 3.2 on January 15, 2012
- Panda 3.1 on November 18, 2011
- Panda 2.5 on September 28, 2011
- Panda 2.4 on August 12, 2011
- Panda 2.3 on July 22, 2011
- Panda 2.2 on June 21, 2011
- Panda 2.1 on May 9, 2011
- Panda 2.0 on April 11, 2011
- Panda 1.0 on February 24, 2011
If you do see a spike in traffic around one of these dates, then your site might have been affected by Panda. If it has been affected in a negative, you will need to do an inventory of your website. Particularly, you will need to be on the lookout for low-quality content that needs to be updated or removed from your website. You will also need to analyze whether you have too many ads, as one of the many updates include singling out websites with too many ads above the fold of quality content.
If you're not sure based on your own Google Analytics data about whether you were affected by a Panda update, or you want to check to see if another site was affected by Panda, you can use SEMRush. Using a free account (without logging in), you can enter a domain into their search box. For Panda analysis, you will want to look in the left sidebar for the graph under SE (search engine) Traffic and click on the More link.
Preventing a Panda Attack
So how do you prevent your website from being affected by the next Panda update? It's all about the content.
- Think about people first. When it comes to creating quality content, it's easy to do so if you are thinking about people first and not search engines. Would you subject a reader who you hoped to convert into a buyer a spun article or one that is over optimized? Doubtful!
- Size does matter. While the SEO standard has always seemingly been around 300 words, challenge yourself to go beyond that. Aim for blog posts that are a minimum of 600 words.
- Cut down on ads. This goes back to thinking about people. Let someone who isn't familiar with your website take a look at it, and see if they have any issues distinguishing the content from the ads. If they have issues, Google's next Panda update may have issues with your site.
- Mix up your media. Don't just stick to text-based content. Mix in images and video when possible, with a bare minimum of one image per piece of content. This make your content more appealing to people and to Google.
Also, you can take a few tips from some of the article networks that have bounced back from the first Panda update like HubPages.
- Remove sub-par content. Some article directories, like GoArticles, took it upon themselves to review their articles and weed out any content that did not fit their new, higher standards. You should do this as well.
- Move sub-par content to sub-domains. If you want to keep your lower-quality content, but don't want it to hurt your main domain, move it to sub-domains like HubPages did. Previously, users would create articles that would be placed on http://hubpages.com/hub/article-name/. Now, all articles have been moved to sub-domains for each user such as http://username.hubpages.com/article-name/.
- Keep your content quality in check. Whether you invite people to post articles on your article directory or invite guest bloggers onto your blog, be sure that the content they submit meets high standards. It's not about having just any content on your website – it's about having quality content on your website.
Then, you will see a fully expanded view of the site's number of keywords driving traffic through search. Use this graph and compare it against Panda updates timeline.
If the site has been affected by a specific update, then just search for more information on that update to find out what may have gone wrong.
Keywords Not Provided
Another significant change that began in October of 2011 is becoming more of a trouble spot in 2012. This change involved Google's implementation of encrypted search for logged in users. When logged in users come to your site via keyword search, that keyword is no longer displayed in Google Analytics. Instead, you will see (not provided).
This graph from Google Analytics shows keyword not provided visits from January 1, 2012 – March 31, 2012 compared to October 2, 2011 – December 31, 2011. Overall, you can see that keyword (not provided) has almost doubled in 2012.
Since Google is encouraging more and more people to create an account with Google for Google+, YouTube, or other features, the not provided keyword is on the rise regardless of whether your overall traffic is or not. This graph from Google Analytics shows the difference in all visits from organic search vs. keyword (not provided) visits from October 2011 until April 3, 2012.
On some days, as the one annotated, the (not provided) keyword visits are almost half! And while, for many domains, this still only accounts for a single-digit percentage of overall visits, that number can still be quite high!
De-Indexing of Blog Networks
Blog networks allowed people to get tons of low-quality, anchor text links through posting articles on automated blogs. In the quest for quality, it was only a matter of time before Google caught up with these huge networks, and now they have. Near the end of March, several large networks like Build My Rank announced that the blogs in their networks where people had been buying links have been mostly de-indexed. Build My Rank, along with other networks, have closed their doors and started processing refunds.
What does this mean for you? Website owners that have been building low quality links are receiving messages via Google Webmaster Tools about unnatural linking practices to their domains. If you receive one of these messages (or anticipate that you will), then your best bet is to start removing any low quality links that you can. Sites like Build My Rank have instructions on how customers can delete all of their links from the blog networks. If you do receive this message, you will have to do your best to remove any low quality links to your website and then submit your site for reconsideration in Google search results.
Going Local
In February's search updates, there were three particular updates focused on local search.
- More locally relevant predictions in YouTube. Whenever you search something on YouTube from the United States version, it will suggest / predict results from the US. The same search performed on the Indian version would predict results from India.
- Improvements to ranking for local search results. Google now relies on ranking of main search results as a signal for triggering local results.
- Improved local results. The new system can target a searcher's city more reliably to find queries and documents that are more local to the searcher.
This basically tells what most of us already know. Local search marketing is becoming more important than ever because local results are taking over.
In the above example, a search for plumbers from Seattle, WA reveals a Seattle-based plumbing company at number one, two plumbing directory services, and then seven search results from Google Places before the rest of the organic results. Even Wikipedia finds itself at #6 in organic search results, well below the results pictured above and an additional two Seattle plumbing related pages.
This means you need to take advantage of anything local your website has to offer. If your business has multiple locations, be sure that you have a page dedicated to each location, each with unique content.
The Other 100+ Updates
Want to know more about the latest updates to Google Search? Then head on over to Inside Search – The official Google Search blog. It wouldn't hurt to subscribe to their RSS feed as they don't post often – the average is between five to 13 posts per month. This blog will keep you up to date with details about the latest search quality highlights. You can start by checking out the following.
- 17 Search Quality Highlights: January – Short summaries of other changes to our high-quality sites algorithm, spelling systems, snippets, search preferences, speed, freshness and much more.
- 40 Search Quality Highlights: February – Google continues to improve many of our systems, including related searches, sitelinks, autocomplete, UI elements, indexing, synonyms, SafeSearch and more. This is also the one where they announced changes to the way they evaluate links, specifically saying that they turned off a method of link analysis they've used for several year without specifying which method that is.
- 50 Search Quality Highlights: March – Another 50 changes to report on symbol handling, sitelinks refresh, autocomplete, password changes, indexing of profile pages, and more.
Additional ways to keep up to date with the latest changes in the Google Algorithm are via the Google Algorithm Change History by SEOmoz and Search Engine Roundtable's Google PageRank & Algorithm Updates.
Neil Patel is the co-founder of KISSmetrics, an analytics provider that helps companies make better business decisions.
More from Neil Patel on GeekWire: Seven signs that you might just be an entrepreneur… Eleven things every entrepreneur should know about innovation… 17 things I wish I'd known when starting my first business…


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Learn How a Sedation Dentist Can Help You to Stay Comfortable
As a sedation dentist, we make it possible for people to get dental work done that have been unable to visit the dentist. For a number of Americans, sedation dentistry, is the answer to a life-long fear of the dentist chair. Studies have shown that somewhere between 5% and 8% of Americans have never visited the dentist because they are afraid of the experience. There is no doubt that the fear is a legitimate one, and there are a number of theories why people are so afraid of oral procedures. One theory, that makes a lot of sense, is the helplessness many people feel while in the chair. Having a person hovering over you, with your mouth open to the point of being barely able to speak, can cause a great deal of anxiety for some people.
Luckily sedation dentistry has a solution to help ease some of the anxiety. By allowing our patients to select the level of sedation they want, we can provide them with an experience that is stress-free and still gets the dental work they need to be done. It is inaccurate to refer to sedation dentistry as "sleep dentistry", a term that is relatively popular, because it is only in some cases that the patient is actually asleep. Much of the time the sedation is at the minimal levels, which allows us to take the edge off and ensure that you are comfortable.
You will need to make a number of decisions with regard to the level of sedation, you want, and need, and also the method of delivery. We will then advise you on the benefits and risks of each of the options, so that you have a complete understanding of sedation and how it works with dentistry. There are four levels of sedation that you can elect for. We will give advice and recommendations for each of these in conjunction with the procedure you are going to be getting.
Mild sedation is the most moderate form of sedation, typically administered using inhalation. A mask is placed over your nose and mouth, following which you will be asked to breathe normally. A solution of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, will be administered. Nitrous oxide causes you to relax and let go of excess anxiety during the procedure.
Moderate or conscious sedation is typically given using a pill. The sedation dentist can determine what level of sedation, you require, and work with an anesthesiologist to get you a pill that has the right level of anesthesia. Typically this kind of sedation does leave you with a heavy tongue and slightly drowsy.
Deep sedation sits somewhere between moderate sedation and full general anesthesia. Deep sedation puts you into a light sleep, from which you could easily be awakened. This allows you to be relatively unaware of the activity around you as we perform the oral work you need.
General anesthesia is the heaviest form of sedation and is typically associated with surgical procedures. Given through an IV, general anesthesia is monitored throughout the surgery and the levels can be adjusted constantly to ensure that patients remain asleep and comfortable.
If you want to learn more about the ways we can help you to relax, schedule an appointment at our sedation dentist office.