text:
TV & Radio
2007年 09月
2007年 08月
2007年 07月
2007年 06月
2007年 05月
2007年 04月
2007年 03月
2007年 02月
2007年 01月
2006年 12月
2006年 11月
2006年 10月
2006年 09月
2006年 08月
2006年 07月
2006年 06月
2006年 05月
2006年 04月
2006年 03月
2006年 02月
2006年 01月
2005年 12月
2005年 11月
2005年 10月
2005年 09月
2005年 08月
2005年 07月
Powered by Excite Blog
大陸を超えた広がりがあった 京大教授、エイズ国際会議の意義語る (京都新聞 2005/07/05)
エイズワクチン開発強力に ウイルス撲滅へ専門家 (共同 2005/07/05)
エイズ国際会議が閉幕 (読売・関西発 2005/07/05)
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 23:17 | HIV/AIDS
エイズ国際会議が閉幕 (読売・関西発 2005/07/05)
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 23:11 | HIV/AIDS
July 5, 2005
The Heterosexual Revolution
By STEPHANIE COONTZ - New York Times
Michael Klein
Olympia, Wash.
THE last week has been tough for opponents of same-sex marriage. First Canadian and then Spanish legislators voted to legalize the practice, prompting American social conservatives to renew their call for a constitutional amendment banning such marriages here. James Dobson of the evangelical group Focus on the Family has warned that without that ban, marriage as we have known it for 5,000 years will be overturned.
My research on marriage and family life seldom leads me to agree with Dr. Dobson, much less to accuse him of understatement. But in this case, Dr. Dobson's warnings come 30 years too late. Traditional marriage, with its 5,000-year history, has already been upended. Gays and lesbians, however, didn't spearhead that revolution: heterosexuals did.
Heterosexuals were the upstarts who turned marriage into a voluntary love relationship rather than a mandatory economic and political institution. Heterosexuals were the ones who made procreation voluntary, so that some couples could choose childlessness, and who adopted assisted reproduction so that even couples who could not conceive could become parents. And heterosexuals subverted the long-standing rule that every marriage had to have a husband who played one role in the family and a wife who played a completely different one. Gays and lesbians simply looked at the revolution heterosexuals had wrought and noticed that with its new norms, marriage could work for them, too.
The first step down the road to gay and lesbian marriage took place 200 years ago, when Enlightenment thinkers raised the radical idea that parents and the state should not dictate who married whom, and when the American Revolution encouraged people to engage in "the pursuit of happiness," including marrying for love. Almost immediately, some thinkers, including Jeremy Bentham and the Marquis de Condorcet, began to argue that same-sex love should not be a crime.
Same-sex marriage, however, remained unimaginable because marriage had two traditional functions that were inapplicable to gays and lesbians. First, marriage allowed families to increase their household labor force by having children. Throughout much of history, upper-class men divorced their wives if their marriage did not produce children, while peasants often wouldn't marry until a premarital pregnancy confirmed the woman's fertility. But the advent of birth control in the 19th century permitted married couples to decide not to have children, while assisted reproduction in the 20th century allowed infertile couples to have them. This eroded the traditional argument that marriage must be between a man and a woman who were able to procreate.
In addition, traditional marriage imposed a strict division of labor by gender and mandated unequal power relations between men and women. "Husband and wife are one," said the law in both England and America, from early medieval days until the late 19th century, "and that one is the husband."
This law of "coverture" was supposed to reflect the command of God and the essential nature of humans. It stipulated that a wife could not enter into legal contracts or own property on her own. In 1863, a New York court warned that giving wives independent property rights would "sow the seeds of perpetual discord," potentially dooming marriage.
Even after coverture had lost its legal force, courts, legislators and the public still cleaved to the belief that marriage required husbands and wives to play totally different domestic roles. In 1958, the New York Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to the traditional legal view that wives (unlike husbands) couldn't sue for loss of the personal services, including housekeeping and the sexual attentions, of their spouses. The judges reasoned that only wives were expected to provide such personal services anyway.
As late as the 1970's, many American states retained "head and master" laws, giving the husband final say over where the family lived and other household decisions. According to the legal definition of marriage, the man was required to support the family, while the woman was obligated to keep house, nurture children, and provide sex. Not until the 1980's did most states criminalize marital rape. Prevailing opinion held that when a bride said, "I do," she was legally committed to say, "I will" for the rest of her married life.
I am old enough to remember the howls of protest with which some defenders of traditional marriage greeted the gradual dismantling of these traditions. At the time, I thought that the far-right opponents of marital equality were wrong to predict that this would lead to the unraveling of marriage. As it turned out, they had a point.
Giving married women an independent legal existence did not destroy heterosexual marriage. And allowing husbands and wives to construct their marriages around reciprocal duties and negotiated roles - where a wife can choose to be the main breadwinner and a husband can stay home with the children- was an immense boon to many couples. But these changes in the definition and practice of marriage opened the door for gay and lesbian couples to argue that they were now equally qualified to participate in it.
Marriage has been in a constant state of evolution since the dawn of the Stone Age. In the process it has become more flexible, but also more optional. Many people may not like the direction these changes have taken in recent years. But it is simply magical thinking to believe that by banning gay and lesbian marriage, we will turn back the clock.
Stephanie Coontz, the director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, is the author of "Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage."
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 22:56 | LGB(TIQ)
エイズ国際会議:市民社会との対等なパートナーシップを (毎日 2005/07/05)
アジアの地域対策急務 エイズ国際会議が閉幕 (神戸新聞 2005/07/05)
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 22:48 | HIV/AIDS
Tuesday July 5, 4:05 PM
Asia-Pacific AIDS forum ends with call for greater gov't support
(Kyodo) _ Participants of an Asia-Pacific AIDS conference in Kobe called for greater proactive support from governments in the region for the prevention and treatment of HIV infection and AIDS as they concluded a five-day meeting Tuesday.
About 2,700 people from around 70 countries, including those in Africa and the Middle East, who took part in the seventh International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific shared the recognition that the region is "at a crossroads" in terms of the epidemic, with 12 million new infections expected in the next five years without immediate action.
Representatives of people living with HIV/AIDS such as sex workers and gays as well as their supporters demanded urgent action from each government, in line with previous declarations made at the United Nations and a ministerial conference on AIDS, including adequate health budgets.
"Every hour, more than 148 Asians contract HIV. The overall proportion of people in the region with advanced HIV infection receiving ARVs remains pitifully low," said Periasamy Kousalya from India on behalf of key nongovernmental organizations, in reference to antiretroviral treatment, an advanced therapy said to suppress HIV.
"We demand that our governments work in equal and meaningful partnership with civil society, including people living with HIV and vulnerable populations, in addressing the control of the epidemic," she said, seeking enhanced counseling and testing as well as a reduced stigma related to the disease especially among healthcare workers.
Maura Mea, a Papua New Guinean HIV-positive who contracted the disease from her husband, said at the closing ceremony, "We need actions...and community-driven leadership. The voice of positive people needs to be strengthened and needs to reach out loud and clear to every government department in every country."
Prasada Rao, director of the regional support team at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, said that in a region where 1,500 people die each day due to AIDS, "Business as usual is no longer an option."
Rao said that every government in the region agreed in 2001 on the goals in the U.N. Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, but not a single one has met them. "We don't need any additional commitments -- they already exist. What we need now is to act on them."
Both Rao and Masayoshi Tarui, vice secretary general of the conference's local organizing committee, warned that Japan is facing AIDS-related problems similar to those in the rest of Asia.
Rao commended Japan for its $500 million pledge to a global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, but urged the country to "intensify sex education in schools and prevention efforts in general" to counter the growing number of reports of infections among young people and men who have sex with other men.
Tarui lamented the apparent lack of interest in the HIV/AIDS issue in the country, which was represented by the absence of Japanese ministers at the meeting despite attendance by some ministers from other Asian countries.
He also noted that Japanese participants accounted for only one-third of the total.
Muthu Puravalen of the Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations said at a press conference that it is meaningless to discuss political leadership without government participation, suggesting fund provision is not enough.
"It has to be 'Walk the talk'," he said.
Masahiro Kihara, secretary general of the local organizing committee, said the Kobe conference helped enhance solidarity among those concerned about HIV/AIDS issues in Japan and other parts of Asia, and expressed his expectation that stronger ties will be an effective tool in the fight against the disease in the region.
The next Asia-Pacific AIDS conference is slated to be held in Colombo in 2007. The Kobe gathering was originally scheduled to be held in 2003 but was put off due to the outbreak of SARS in the region that year.
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 22:27 | HIV/AIDS
Tuesday July 5, 3:12 PM
Regional AIDS conference ends in Japan with talk of future challenges facing the region - AP
After five days of hearing figures and seeing charts about the increasing spread of AIDS in the Asia-Pacific, Maura Elaripe Mea said Tuesday it's time for those living with the disease to rise up and demand what's needed to keep them alive.
As an HIV-positive woman from the impoverished Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, she represents the growing face of the disease in the region where about 40 percent of the 8.2 million people infected are female.
"The voice of positive people needs strengthening and it needs to ring out loud and clear at every level and within every government department and in every country," she said during the closing ceremony of the Seventh International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe, Japan. "The days of tokenism must be laid to rest."
Mea called on everyone to battle extreme stigma and discrimination that people living with the virus face daily, so that more positive people from a number of countries can speak up and reach out for help.
"We cannot just sit back and let the issue of ... scaling up access to treatment slip through our hands while our brothers and sisters continue to die and infections continue to rise," she said.
Papua New Guinea is facing the biggest epidemic in the region with an estimated 1.7 percent of the country's adults living with HIV. It's the only country in the Asia-Pacific where the disease has moved into the general population and the only nation UNAIDS fears will reach sub-Saharan Africa proportions.
But the challenges are as large and diverse as the region itself.
Targeting and reaching out to vulnerable populations that many countries would rather ignore is key, said J.V.R. Prasada Rao, regional director of the UNAIDS support team for Asia and the Pacific.
In order to keep the epidemic from ballooning over the next five years with a projected 12 million new infections, sensitivities must be put aside and sex workers, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men must be given condoms, clean needles and methadone.
"Without a doubt, we will have to concentrate our efforts on these groups despite the taboos, the social constraints and the moral arguments," he said.
But Andrew Hunter of the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers said that's a difficult message to deliver when sex workers were not given a loud voice at the conference and some studies on the issue were not accepted for presentation.
"This conference, we had hoped, would be an opportunity for those of us who know what works and to respect the human rights of the most vulnerable groups to speak out but ... this has not happened," he said.
He said the next conference in Sri Lanka two years from now needs to include more involvement from affected groups.
The Asia-Pacific has the second-largest number of people living with the virus after sub-Saharan Africa. UNAIDS repeatedly called for governments to take a strong role in addressing the issue, including investing more in programs and prevention and conducting more surveillance to determine where problem areas lie. Migrant groups and young people also cannot be forgotten in the fight against the disease, UNAIDS said.
If response to the epidemic is dramatically increased over the next five years, the region has a chance to prevent 6 million new infections from occurring in a region where AIDS has already orphaned 1.5 million children, Rao said.
"In a region where 1,500 people die each day because of AIDS, the window of opportunity to reverse the epidemic is closing fast, "he said. "But that shrinking window can be held open by political will."
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 22:24 | HIV/AIDS
Japan tries to make condoms fun
Tue Jul 5, 3:56 AM ET
(Photo) Japan's condom maker Fuji Latex employee Toru Katsumata displays a flourescent-colored condom as part of Japan's Condom Association efforts to educate people about sexually transmitted disease at the 7th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe.(AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)
KOBE, Japan (AFP) - With bare-skinned porn stars providing a negative example, Japan is trying new tricks to get men to put on condoms, making rubbers that are thinner, thicker or glow in the dark.
A regional conference here on AIDS has largely focused on how to promote condom use in developing and conservative societies. But host nation Japan has seen condom sales shrivel.
Japan for the first time recorded more than 1,000 new HIV or AIDS cases last year, which is low by global standards but is at odds with most of the industrialized world where the number of new infections is decreasing.
"Since the mid-1990s, we have seen industry-wide sales plateau or slightly decline, mainly due to decreased use of condoms among young men and to young couples who do not have sex," said Akira Tsukamoto, salesman at Japan's top condom maker Okamoto.
The company occupies more than 60 percent of the 10 billion yen (90 million dollar) a year domestic condom market.
The use of condoms in Japan peaked in the early 1990s after a series of HIV cases led to a sense of emergency, Tsukamoto said.
"But that time has passed, and we are now seeing many young people who are used to watching porn videos and fantasizing, misunderstanding sex," Tsukamoto said.
"Young men nowadays say they get more pleasure without condoms. They prefer not to use condoms because they see porn stars are not using condoms. Because Japan does not have full and proper sex education for students, they just believe what they see," he said.
The Japan Condom Association, an industry group of eight Japanese manufacturers, showed off its new wares aimed at making condom use exciting.
Tsukamoto said his company has seen a hit with a super-thin condom, introduced in 2003 that is 0.03 millimeter (0.0012 inch) thick, even though at 2,000 yen (18 dollars) a dozen it is twice the price of the standard 0.05 millimeter ones.
"We spent eight years for research and development of the super-thin condom," he said.
But for those who would rather have the opposite sensation, Okamoto has also developed a "hard play" condom that is 0.1 millimeter thick, which Tsukamoto said can help stop premature ejaculation.
And then there is a condom meant to prevent another problem -- fumbling around in the dark.
"We have glow-in-the-dark condoms available. It is easy to see, so it is easy to wear in the dark," Tsukamoto explained.
Behind the gimmicks, though, he said the special condoms had a serious point. More young women are falling pregnant because of men who believe withdrawal before ejaculation can prevent pregnancy and diseases, he said.
"Condoms are necessary. We must get our message to young people," Tsukamoto said.
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 22:14 | HIV/AIDS
July 5, 2005
First Gay Couples Apply for Marriage Under New Spanish Law
By RENWICK McLEAN - New York Times
MADRID, July 4 - When Ramón Vizcaíno and Luis Ibarcena tried to apply for a marriage license here two months ago, they caused a minor scandal.
Confusing news reports had led them to believe that Spain had legalized gay marriage, they said, when, in fact, it had only passed a preliminary vote in Parliament.
"The people there were very surprised to see two men asking about marriage," said Mr. Vizcaíno, a 38-year-old security guard. "They looked at us like we were crazy."
But on Monday, the baffled faces and dismissive tones gave way to smiles and handshakes, as the men became one of the first gay couples to seek government authorization to wed under Spain's new marriage law, which took effect on Sunday.
"This means we are no longer second-class citizens," Mr. Vizcaíno said in an interview Monday. "We have always had the same obligations as other citizens. We deserve the same rights, too."
The lines inside the Madrid Civil Registry, where capital residents apply for marriage licenses, swelled with gay and lesbian couples for the first time on Monday, four days after Parliament passed a law giving same-sex couples across Spain the right to marry and to adopt children.
The vote makes Spain the first nation to remove all legal distinctions between same-sex and heterosexual unions, say advocates for marriage rights for gay couples. Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands have also legalized gay marriage, but only Canada's laws, which do not yet apply to all of the country, contain language as liberal as Spain's.
Near the close of business on Monday, Boti G. Rodrigo, an official at the registry, said that only four gay couples had formally applied for marriage licenses but that many more had come seeking information about the process.
"We expect that the number of same-sex couples will be disproportionately high for weeks, if not months to come," she said.
Ms. Rodrigo said that most of the couples requesting information on Monday had been together for years.
Parliament's decision to legalize gay marriage has provoked tremendous animosity among religious conservatives in Spain, a predominantly Roman Catholic country.
In a speech before Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Monday, the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, condemned the law, saying it was evidence of a society in which "not only is faith denied, but also human reason itself."
Ricardo Blázquez, the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, also denounced the law on Monday, saying at a news conference near Madrid that it "throws moral and human order into confusion."
Many of the gay couples interviewed on Monday said they had grown up in Catholic households but were no longer practicing Catholics, in part because of the church's opposition to gay marriage. But Mr. Ibarcena, 32, the partner of Mr. Vizcaíno and also a security guard, said he still attended church regularly.
"I stand up and challenge them when they say things that are anti-gay," he said. "I haven't given up on them yet."
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 17:45 | LGB(TIQ)
United Church of Christ backs same-sex marriage
By JOHN BLAKE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/05/05
The United Church of Christ became the first mainline Christian denomination to endorse gay marriage Monday when its 25th biennial General Synod decisively approved an "equal marriage rights for all" resolution.
The vote set off a celebration in the Georgia World Congress Center. Gay couples hugged one another. Some wiped away tears. A group of UCC delegates joined hands afterward and sang, "Amen." But other delegates rushed from the hall warning of schism within the 1.6 million member denomination.
The Rev. John H. Thomas, the president of the UCC, drew a link between the vote and the historical significance of another event on Monday.
"On this July Fourth, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ has acted courageously to declare freedom," said Thomas, who was re-elected to another term. He announced June 28 that he supported the resolution.
The vote affirms equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and says that the government should not interfere with same-sex couples who want to marry. It calls on denomination officers to press local, state and national legislators to support equal marriage rights.
Many mainline denominations, including the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church, also are wrestling with the issue.
Some members fear the issue could tear denominations apart much like slavery did in the 19th century.
Spain joined Belgium and the Netherlands last week in legalizing gay marriage. In Canada, the House of Commons has approved gay marriage and the Senate is expected to follow suit this month.
The Rev. Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and a member of the United Church of Christ, was honored by the denomination at the convention. He had endorsed the resolution, and in remarks after receiving his award he praised the UCC's activist tradition. The UCC, which helped inspire the Boston Tea Party, says it was the first denomination to ordain a black pastor (1785) and a woman (1853).
"What seemed controversial back then seems so automatic today," Young said before the vote. "We wonder why it was a struggle at all. There's no education without controversy and there's no resurrection without crucifixion."
Opponents told the synod that the resolution ignores Jesus' declaration that marriage is between a man and woman.
Others said the denomination would lose members and financial support.
One group, Biblical Witness Fellowship, fought unsuccessfully for the resolutions' defeat. It's executive director, the Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, dismissed the UCC's slogan — "God is Still Speaking" — which some supporters of the resolution used to justify their position.
"God is still speaking; but they're speaking for God," Runnion-Bareford said. "They're going to redefine marriage speaking in the name of God. It's quite arrogant. Who dropped dead and left them in charge?"
Members from the Southern California conference that offered the resolution argued that marriage was an evolving institution and pointed to Biblical passages where polygamy was accepted, women were property and interracial marriages were taboo.
Lisa Stedman, a UCC delegate, walked before a microphone with her partner, Johanna, and said they didn't want to be partners. They wanted to marry.
"Separate but equal has never worked, and equal but different has never been truly equal," Stedman said.
Thomas said the synod's resolution waisn't compulsory. The denomination won't punish congregations that chose to ignore it.
"There's no discipline offered to those congregations," he said.
The Rev. Timothy Downs, head of the Southeast region, thinks some Atlanta congregations will embrace the resolution and others will struggle with it. Victory for the World United Church of Christ in Stone Mountain is the denomination's second-largest congregation in the country.
Downs said membership in the Southeast Conference has doubled to 12,000 since 1996. Four of the nine UCC churches in metro Atlanta area officially welcome gays and lesbians.
"Jesus Christ came first for the locked-out and those left behind," Downs said. "The overarching commandment from Jesus Christ is that we're to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. This decision is congruent with that commandment."
Thomas said he wanted the UCC to understand in the tense days ahead that "unity does not mean uniformity."
"My hope is that we won't run from one another," he said. "When we run from one another, we run from Christ."
Despite Thomas' consoling words, there's more controversy awaiting the UCC.
Today, delegates will take up another explosive issue: resolutions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One measure calls for the denomination to divest from companies "involved with Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza." Several Jewish groups plan to protest.
United Church of Christ Panel OKs Gay-Marriage Resolution
United Church of Christ: http://www.ucc.org
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 15:54 | LGB(TIQ)
AIDS educators fight sex taboo
By TARO KARASAKI Staff Writer
KOBE--A recent attempt to stop "Dr. Condom" from teaching safe sex is a perfect example of what is hampering efforts to curb AIDS in Asia, experts say.
Dr. Condom is actually Shinya Iwamuro, a urologist and public health expert. A junior high school in Kanagawa Prefecture has asked Iwamuro to refrain from showing how to affix the prophylactics (to inanimate objects) when he teaches a course on safe sex there later this week.
"How am I supposed to properly have the students understand? Properly being able to apply a condom is the most important part of learning to protect oneself," Iwamuro said here Monday as he prepared for a presentation at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.
Education has been repeatedly described as crucial in containing a potential AIDS pandemic in Asia during the conference, which ends today.
But even in the host country, such education faces a huge obstacle.
Iwamuro, who gives 100 lectures at schools nationwide annually, says he thinks conservative politicians pressured the education board to ask the school to alter the content of his course on safe sex.
The Liberal Democratic Party is on a nationwide campaign to tone down sex education, a topic some conservatives deem "too radical and explicit" for children.
A symposium in June organized by an LDP group to study sex education drew more than 600 participants.
An organizer said the group is not opposed to sex education, but it wants to remove "education unfit for the hearts and minds of young children."
AIDS conference participants from Asia say such attitudes toward sex are a major barrier to their efforts.
"Even the Islamic clerics realize there is a problem, as they have youths suffering from HIV in their backyards," said Ari Yuda Laksmana, youth advocate counselor for the Indonesian Youth Partnership. He is lobbying with Jakarta for a law mandating reproductive and sex education for youths.
Ira Sridhiva, who helps commercial sex workers in South Sumatra, said the social stigma prevents the government from grasping the depth of the problem. "They do not acknowledge the existence of sex workers," she said.
Iwamuro has not given up.
He was recently heartened by the words of a principal at a junior high school where he teaches his course. The principal said he would protect the course because it is a form of "human rights education," since condom use advocates consideration for others.
"Nobody really ever put it that way before," Iwamuro said.(IHT/Asahi: July 5,2005)
▲ by alfayoko2005 | 2005-07-05 15:14 | HIV/AIDS


text:
Solar hot water in a box
A new DIY solar hot water system has been introduced by Fafco, a Chico-based company that specializes in solar pool heaters. The new system can be installed by two homeowners in half a day, the company claims, and the whole thing weighs just 62 pounds. And it comes in a box!
The system costs around $1,800 and the company says it will supply half the hot water needs of a typical household. And thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which has been extended through 2008, your tax bill will be approximately $600 less if this system is installed, and if the heated water is used for the home, and not for a pool or hot tub.
• A black polymer panel, made of hundreds of tiny tubes, that screws onto the roof. When the system is installed, water in these tubes is heated by the sun, and then that heat is transferred to water that goes into your water tank.
• A controller that sends water up to the roof only when the sun's rays are hot enough to heat it. This handily avoids the chance of water freezing in the tubes in cold weather.
• A small "drain back" tank where the water for the panels sits until the controller sends it back up.
• The heat transfer device, which brings together heat from the solar panels to fresh water going into your existing tank.
Fafco claims this system pays for itself in less than three years. The downside is that while a traditional system made of copper lasts more than 20 years, this system will last 12 to 15 years.
You can see more at www.hot2o.com or call 1-877-55-HOT2O.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Home > Eyeglasses > Sunoptic > PK11 (D)
PK 11 is available in 8 additional attractive styles
Size and availability
Free outbound and return shipping
30-day money-back guarantee
Low prices
Free outbound and return shipping
30-day money-back guarantee
Low prices
PK11/D Eyewear
With these designer eyeglasses, you are always perfectly dressed. The new Sunoptic underlines that you are a trendsetter. For the current season the renowned label sets the standards with its collection for 2019. Would another colour not be a better match for your favourite outfit? Check also the other styles of PK11in our 2018, and 2019 Sunoptic range.
Children's eyewear should also suit the wearer. The sturdy craftsmanship of these frames is convincing and their unique style makes children's eyes sparkle with joy. Full rim frames completely enclose the lenses within the frame. For a convinced eyeglass wearer, any other frame style is ruled out, with very few exceptions. Plastic is a very lightweight and flexible material. This ensures a long life and a high level of comfort.
Decide now and secure your exclusive discount, because this model is in the sale! But only while supplies last.
Don't hesitate to call us at
payment methods
Credit Card
Cash on delivery
Bank Transfer


text:
The All-Star Smoothie
The overachieving all-star smoothie has both The Essential Greens and The Matcha Warrior! This delicious smoothie is filled with antioxidants, fibre, protein, vitamins, minerals and omega3s. Begin your day as an all-star.
1 cup organic non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon MyMaha's The Matcha Warrior powder
1 sachet of MyMaha's The Essential Greens powder
1 frozen banana
1 tablespoon of chia seeds
1 tablespoon of flax oil
- Add all ingredients (except flax oil) into a high speed blender and blend on high for 1-2 minutes or until smooth
- Add flax oil and blend for about 30 seconds or until combined
- Enjoy!
The Essential Greens
The Essential Greens is our high-vibe proprietary blend of green superfood powder made out of 10 organic fruits and vegetables, conveniently packaged in single serving size packets to provide excellent, convenient nutrition whenever you want.Find out more


text:
BAMA, Nigeria (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the northern Nigerian town of Bama the streets are eerily quiet. Houses lie empty, riddled with bullet holes, and symbols of the jihadist group Boko Haram are painted on the walls.
Bama, once the militants' stronghold, was liberated from the Islamist fighters by the Nigerian army in March 2015, but is only reached safely by helicopter - the roads still too dangerous because of the risk of ambush by the insurgents.
Despite its ghostly atmosphere and violent history, the town is now a safe haven for around 10,000 people, among more than two million in Nigeria who have fled areas held by Boko Haram.
Two years ago, when militants seized Bama and rounded up all the men, 55-year-old Malam Wana hid in his house for a month, surviving on grain and sending his wife out to collect water.
When Wana was eventually discovered by Boko Haram fighters, they took him to the yard of Bama prison, crowded with men.
"They spared the older men, but took the others out of the prison and shot them all," said Wana, who was released due to his elderly appearance before fleeing to a nearby village.
Since the town's liberation, Wana has lived in Bama's camp for those uprooted by the conflict. The walled compound, full of makeshift shelters covered by tarpaulins bearing the names of aid groups, is home to 10,000 people who have fled fighting.
Some like Wana are from Bama itself - forbidden from leaving the confines of the camp as the town has been designated a military security zone. Most camp dwellers are from surrounding villages, many of which are still controlled by insurgents.
Those who have reached Bama are the lucky ones. Abdi Farah, an official at the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in Maiduguri told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that some areas still controlled by Boko Haram are out of the reach of aid agencies.
In many areas north of Bama, people are suffering "famine-like conditions" and millions are in need of urgent food aid in order to survive, according to several United Nations agencies.
Although they feel safer in Bama, the thousands displaced by conflict face a new set of problems on arrival. Kelu, 20, had just been dropped off by pick-up truck with her two infant sons.
"I left my village because of fear," she said. "(Boko Haram) used to come to the village and would take all of our possessions, everything, even our shoes. Now I have nothing,"
Security is still a concern, even in Bama. The prison where Wana was taken is now used as a processing centre by the army where arrivals are screened before being allowed into the camp.
"They call people from our village (who already live in the camp) and ask them if we are Boko Haram. If they say yes then you will be taken to a prison in Maiduguri," Kelu added.
The camp provides counselling and medication to treat mental illnesses. The seven-year-old insurgency aimed at creating an Islamist caliphate - in which thousands have been killed and women abducted and raped - has left psychological scars on many.
"Fifty percent of (those in the camp) have depression. The family break-up is part of it. You see families with no father, the breadwinner. Some are orphans and widows," said a psychiatric nurse at the camp who did not want to give his name.
Once new arrivals reach Bama most have no way of earning a living and farming is impossible due to security concerns and restricted movement outside the camp.
A livelihood programme run by the camp manager, Ali Musudi, employs people in carpentry. Some of the women work in the school which also helps train them to become teachers, but most are idle and completely reliant on food handouts from the WFP.
In the centre of the camp children play on slides and swings built especially for them. The camp school is a cluster of five tents. "How many oranges and bananas?" shout the pupils in unison, reciting dictations from their English teacher.
For some of the students learning English, Arabic and social studies, this is their first taste of schooling in the rural state, where conflict has crippled education.
Yet this is not the case for all. Aba Modi, 12, attended one of Boko Haram's Islamic schools, or madrasas, when he lived in Banki, a town under the militants' control for two years.
"They only taught the Koran at our school. All day, we were just memorising the Koran," Modi said.
Occasionally the pupils would be taken out of class to learn to shoot a weapon or how to crawl under fire. Modi eventually fled Banki with his brother in the middle of the night.
"Life is completely different now. I enjoy coming to school," he said. "Some of the things they [Boko Haram] taught are correct. Being taught about the Koran is right, but there is nothing in the Koran that says you should hurt people or take their possessions."
Modi said most of his friends did not believe the ultra-hardline Islamist teachings either, but some still joined Boko Haram. "They offered them money or even a motorcycle," he said.
Around 4.7 million people are in need of emergency food aid in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, said a recent report by the U.S.-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).
Some 400,000 children are at risk from famine in the three states, 75,000 of whom could die from hunger within months, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) said in September. [nL8N1C54E7]
Yet the WFP, which provides food in the camp, only began operations in oil-rich Nigeria in March this year.
In 2017, it hopes to reach 1.8 million people in need of food aid, said WFP's Nigeria country director Sory Ouane.
"If we do not get funding we might face a humanitarian catastrophe in the area. The biggest challenge is access and security and we need funding to scale up our assistance," he said by phone from Abuja.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) earlier this month doubled its humanitarian funding appeal for northeast Nigeria to $1 billion in 2017.
For now, the displaced, like Malam Wana, are relieved to be living in relative safety, with food aid provided by WFP.
"When I first came to the camp the situation was terrible. Now we have three meals a day. I have two wives and nine children and they are all healthy," he said.
Editing by Ros Russell and Kieran Guilbert; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org


text:
'I'm keen we get it right': Sheffield museums boss says library and gallery building could become 'vital and vibrant cultural destination'
Turning Sheffield's Central Library and Graves Gallery building into a landmark arts centre rather than a five-star hotel could create a 'vital and vibrant cultural destination', a city museums boss has said.
But Kim Streets, chief executive of Museums Sheffield which will be heading the scheme, said the city needed to 'get it right' and show true ambition if the vision was to be fully realised.
The idea of converting the venue into a luxury hotel failed to gain momentum. The council's Chinese investment partner Sichuan Guodong Group, which had been exploring the feasibility of funding a hotel and keeping a gallery at the Grade II-listed Graves building on Surrey Street, decided the project would be 'very difficult' because of the significant costs involved.
The proposal now is to transform the building on Surrey Street into a 'cultural hub' - a place where Sheffield's full art collection can finally be displayed alongside touring exhibitions, space for performances, music and a restaurant. The library would move to a new, £20 million multi-purpose facility, with a site in the new retail quarter between Charter Square and Barker's Pool emerging as the frontrunner.
"I would like to see us be ambitious, and work really closely with the city but with partners as well, to make sure we really realise the potential of that building and what a vital and vibrant cultural destination it could be," said Ms Streets.
"I'm keen we do something and that we do get it right. I feel very positive about the role of the building and its collections and what it could be, but we need to sit down and thrash that out, and ask the people of Sheffield what they would like to see in it as well."
A previous estimate to renovate the Art Deco building, which dates from 1934 and needs extensive repairs, was put at £30 million, but the council has suggested the cost of a new redevelopment could be far less. Bids to the Arts Council and heritage bodies are expected.
Ms Streets admitted the Graves building, with its library, gallery, theatre and IT suite, could already be described as a cultural hub, but said a new complex would have a more modern outlook.
"What I think is meant by it is a space for people that is democratic, accessible for everyone to enjoy, but has some of those components in it.
"From our perspective what we can see is a building that is the jewel in the crown of Tudor Square. With the right vision and imagination, and of course support and funding, we could transform that into a fabulous cultural centre."
The ambition of a 'Hepworth for Sheffield', referring to the popular gallery in Wakefield, has previously been expressed.
However, Ms Streets said: "I think it's a bit too early to say that's what we're going to create. It might have some of the best of the Hepworth, or the Manchester or York Art Galleries. We can see beacons of excellence around the country, and I think we need to look at all those fantastic sites and think what we could bring to Sheffield."
She said Sheffield had a 'very large' art collection, including pieces by Turner, Cezanne, Bridget Riley and Paul Nash, adding that, like many museums, only a small proportion of the work kept in storage was on display.
"We'd like to show more of Sheffield's collections then, as we do in the Millennium Gallery and Weston Park Museum, showcase some of the best of the rest."
Past successes have included visits by the Tate's Artist Rooms series, bringing exhibitions by Andy Warhol and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
"It's about getting the balance right between the collections we hold and what we're bringing in."
Thorough discussions about the scheme would be needed, said Ms Streets.
"We're hoping to have more conversations with the council about what kind of resources are required. There's a lot of work to be done. We've had a year of thinking of it as being a hotel and now we've got to look at all the options."
The council has said the hotel scheme could still happen elsewhere in the city centre. A consultation on the library is to start early in 2018.


text:
Love vs Fate: My first 55 Fiction.08:24
On a full moon day,Tracy was waiting for him...................her love.
.............some one knocked....her heart skipped a beat..............there he stood, so handsome!
Both stood in silence, staring..........Suddenly a cloud shifted and the moon was shown as magnificent as ever..........He started transforming..........and........unexpectedly he bit her!
He was a werewolf!
40 comments
- Anonymous21 February 2013 at 08:49
scary!! :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Yeah very scary! Raat me uth kar mat baeth jana! Ha ha!Delete
Wow, didn't quite expected this ending :-D Surprised :-DReplyDelete
Ah, you know what....i wrote a very similar short story (though it was not a 55 fiction, but a proper short story) which had this kind of setting and climax...slightly different, but quite similar...... so, u made me nostalgic :)ReplyDelete
PS- You can read that story. It's there in my blog titled 'The werewolf' :))
PPS- Your first attempt at this genre is very impressive. One suggestion. There is no need to put that last line 'he was a werewolf'. Let the reader make his own interpretation.Replies
ThanQ for your advice Ritesh!Delete
- Anonymous21 February 2013 at 11:01
.......dar gye.ReplyDelete
nice attempt ,, but cud have been better :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks:) Got me irritated u know! Never really used to this short a story!Delete
Good attempt dear! Nicely pennedReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Valli:)Delete
Surprise.. and well written.. :-)ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Meera:)Delete
A wonderful piece of heart attack to a romantic plot...werewolf...!!!ReplyDeleteReplies
ThanQ Anjan:)Delete
Ouch..! Well done!ReplyDeleteReplies
ThanQ:) Welcome to my blog!Delete
Ewww...I could almost hear the scream.... Enjoyed, Bushra!ReplyDeleteReplies
ThanQ Panchaliji:) Welcome to my blog!Delete
Your lines are simply awesome.....ReplyDeleteReplies
ThanQ:) Welcome to my blog!Delete
Oh! The twilight saga! Surprising indeed!ReplyDelete
- Replies
ThanQ Magiciye:)Delete
A pretty good attempt Bushra.. you managed to convey the atmosphere, the character's feelings, the setting of the story very well. Just a suggestion - the twist was clear before the last line itself. Since 55-fiction has a strict word limit, you could use those extra 3-4 words that you get to add something more to the story.ReplyDelete
Enjoyed reading this one :)Replies
Thank you for the advice Mixi dear:) Will keep your suggestion in mind the next time:)Delete
A good attempt....didn't expect the ending :)ReplyDeleteReplies
ThanQ Akash:)Delete
Whoa!!! poor galReplyDeleteReplies
Yeah so sad na?!Delete
Wow! That's a neat story in just 55 words. But I guess you do uses a lot of ellipses.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous22 August 2013 at 03:57
A pattern that transfer ones funtion of things is the fundamental of advertising.ReplyDelete
This shipment project can be followed on online website links.
Kids grow fast, and shoe sizes can change on month to nights.
Bryant's blurb says: "I'll do no matter what to win card games.
Here is my website ... nike dunk sb
- Anonymous4 September 2013 at 17:29
You ought to take part in a contest for one of the greatest websites on the internet.ReplyDelete
I'm going to highly recommend this site!
Here is my webpage シャネル 財布
- Anonymous7 September 2013 at 23:55
Have you ever thought about including a little bit more than just yourReplyDelete
articles? I mean, what you say is fundamental and all.
Nevertheless think about if you added some great
visuals or videos to give your posts more, "pop"! Your content is excellent but with pics and videos, this site could definitely
be one of the most beneficial in its niche. Amazing
My web page :: レイバン サングラス


text:
Speaker: Dr. Chad Jordan
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are frequently in the news, but what exactly are these organisms and why are they the subject of so much debate? Dr. Chad Jordan, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at NC State, will share information on how these organisms are produced, their application in agriculture, and some of the issues surrounding their use.
Dr. Jordan received his BA in Biology from UNC Asheville and his doctorate in Botany from NC State. He is Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor in the department of Plant and Microbial Biology.


text:
Current Status
Not Enrolled
Get Started
Course Description
Ethics for Colorado – CR&R (2 hrs.)
This course is designed to meet the 2 hour CR&R requirement of the Colorado State Board of Accountancy. The course overviews Colorado's Accountants Practice Act and examines in depth CCR 705-1 : RULES OF THE STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTANCY. It also covers Colorado State Board of Accountants Policies updates.
We also have a 4-hr Ethics Course for Colorado if you do not need CR&R hours.


text:
James Anthony Zoccoli
Chicago, IL. U.S.A.
Where to begin...?I do theatre.I work with kids.I produce a weekly radio show.I emcee special events & do public address announcing.I've played teeny parts in tiny movies.I've done a couple o'commericals & TV shows.I'm featured as the voice of some pretty cool characters in a couple of really awesome video games.My autobiographical solo show with stories, slides & music debuted in 2010 at the Chicago Cultural Center.In 2013, I performed at the SoloNOVA Arts Festival in NYC & the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington DC.In 2014, I did a one-nighter at Steppenwolf Theatre for their Garage Repertory Series.WIGGERLOVER [whiteboy blackdad=greyareas]You can hear me playing original games & giving away fabulous prizes on The Game Show Show...& Stuff! Radio Show.THE GAME SHOW SHOW...& STUFF!Also, people call me "JAZ" because the first gift my mother ever gave me was a cool nickname.Thanks, Ma.


text:
Ian has been studying and playing percussion for over 36 years. He has a great deal of experience touring and recording as a sideman and he would love to contribute to your recordings, tours, or any other sort of music project that you can dream up. He also composes and arranges. Below are samples of his abilities on various percussion instruments as well as his composing/arrang…
© 2019 Created by Ian Dobson (Drumworldtv).
Powered by
Badges |
Report an Issue |
Terms of Service
Please check your browser settings or contact your system administrator.


text:
A Man's Healthy Qualities: 10 Signs
Your relationship has ended and you have now moved into the mourning (or for some of you undoubtedly celebratory) period. After some time has passed since the relationship dissolved more than likely you've had some time to reflect on what was healthy and what was not.
Yet determining what is UNHEALTHY and what you will not choose again is not being picky. That is okay. That is smart. It's making the decision to form boundaries and set healthy limits for any future relationships.
We may at first say yes to little annoyances and endearing quirks but they may be small signs for big deal breakers that will later balloon and affect our daily life in a toxic manner.
Deciding what is healthy versus unhealthy is up to you and your personal preferences. This is not about saying "Oh, he leaves dirty clothes on the floor", or "The way he loads the dish washer really doesn't line up with my way... so he's not an prospective mate". This is not about picking someone apart and nit picking every little thing they do or don't do or that they do things differently than you. What this IS about is choosing a person with healthy qualities versus someone with unhealthy or even toxic qualities. Not everyone will have the same preferences because everyone is different. That's okay.
For me, high maintenance is a deal breaker. Neediness. (Sometimes masked as control) For me, it's highly unattractive and unhealthy for a man to come across as needy. It screams of insecurity. Yes, we all have needs. But when his needs continually push, demand (and DEMAND is the word I stress here because it's a form of extremeness) more of us than we can give we have a serious problem. It leads to the one whose demanding needs aren't being met becoming resentful. Always needing more. Never satisfied. It leads to the one who can't meet their unyielding needs to feel an enormous strain and pressure and continually depleted.
Ugh. Deal breaker.
I want him to feel fulfilled. Through God. Without that constant demanding need from me. That constant tug. That constant pull. That constant pressure. Neediness also often masks itself as control. If they are exhibiting needy behavior they may very likely be controlling which is unhealthy. We have to determine if that's the case. We have to follow our instincts and look at the behaviors… actions of others.
I will not go back to that.
It made me want to toss the phone out the window most days.
Almost nothing will chase me off faster and it's on my radar continually.
I will not do anything that remotely resembles high maintenance, control, neediness, insecurity or likewise a man in an egocentric three year old girl's body calling and whining "What about ME?!" We can stand firm in what we choose for ourselves. For me, a confident and secure man in God is a must.
When we are mulling over the relationship and realize what was at best completely dysfunctional and toxic we can make a list of what we desire in a man and future relationship. We can list the things we are searching for, the HEALTHY qualities. Likewise, we can write down what the qualities were that wrecked havoc and dysfunction in the relationship and are our deal breakers.
This gives us something concrete. It helps us in our discernment to choose wiser the next time and choose a closer reflection of what we regard as healthy for ourselves.
Here is a list of qualities I came up with that are important to me but taking time to make your own may offer valuable insight into what you are truly looking for in a man.
1. Reads, studies and applies God's word to his life.
2. Makes God number one.
3. Lives a calm demeanor & has self control. Is respectful to others.
4. Puts family and love before materialism, image, and ego.
5. Is confident & secure. Not needy.
6. Is humble.
7. Mentally Healthy. Does not have any issues that involve control and abuse such as a personality/mood disorder, narcissism, etc. It's okay for you to say "I know this behavior is not healthy for me."
8. Empathy toward others.
9. Does things with love. Does not view his deeds done as debts that must be paid. There are no "deals" made.
10. Is passionate about love and life in general; enthusiastic.
Once you have your list of the positive qualities that are important to you, (the deal breakers may be pretty obvious by then) at that time you can begin to picture his overall character. This should help in keeping your focus tuned into what you truly want so as not to sway on your desires for your life.
As women, we hold infinite power in who we choose to allow into our life that we wish to intimately share with someone. We don't have to be complacent. We can choose to take an active role.
When making a list of Godly attributes we desire in a man, we can pray and ask God to guide us, to give us discernment and insight into what's healthy.
You are loved and you have a path of healthy new beginnings stretched out in front of you....
For I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil,
to give you a future and hope.
- Jeremiah 29:11
© gps-gracepowerstrength.blogspot.com ~ 2013
image "Man With His Luggage" by photo stock via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
To My Readers:
Thank you for reading,
commenting and sharing!
Comments are closed.
July 2018
Proudly powered by Weebly


text:
Vedanta I.L. & F.S. Skills School stall at the 'Panchayat MahaSamellan& Vikas Mela' in Karthala under Rampur Region was an eye catcher. It drew attention of many dignitaries, notably, Dr. Raman Singh, CM, Chhattisgarh, Mr. Amar Agarwal, Commerce & Industry Minister, Mr. BansilalMahto, M.P. Korba, Mr. LakhanlalDevangan, M.L.A. Kathghora, Mr. P. Dayanand, Collector Korba and Mrs. Niharika Barik, Commissioner, Bilaspur Division.
Dr. Raman Singh and all other dignitaries were warmly welcomed by students of Vedanta I.L. & F.S. Skill School. Dr. Raman Singh praised Balco's presence in the 'Mela' and also motivated the students.
Mr. Vijay Bajpai, Assistant Manager, Corporate Communication was also present to welcome the dignitaries.


text:
Posted under government & local wildlife
It looks like curtains for the Martinez Beavers as we've known them (type "Beavers" in the search box to see more blog entries about these wonderful animals): the City is planning to remove their lodge in order to do creek bank stabilization (which means, in this case, putting more concrete and rocks into the east bank of the creek). It's an all too typical story, stretching back a few decades in this case: first, property owners hem in a creek by building closer and closer to it on each side. Then, the creek floods, and the property owners and/or the city build retaining walls to contain the creek. During non-flood years, the walls give the property owners the sense of security they need to justify building even closer to the creek; eventually they're right on top of it. Then, something happens — a high water year, or some beavers that build dams and a lodge, or just aging of the infrastructure — that threatens the retaining walls. The property owners sue the city, the city caves, and public money is spent to mitigate the problem. We've seen it in New Orleans and Galveston on a large scale, and we're seeing it in Martinez on a small scale.
Personally, I can't say one way or the other whether the beaver lodge is actually undermining the retaining wall next to the creek. I can say that I think it's ridiculous that people were allowed to build a building four feet from the creek bank, as they did. A better solution than trying to maintain a permanent wall there would be to add some meander to the creek to take it away from that wall. Apparently that isn't even being considered, I'm not sure why.
There's no plan to kill the beavers, just to wreck their home so they have to move elsewhere. I hope they move somewhere else where they are more welcome; although they have had many great, great fans and helpers in Martinez, the city as a whole has treated them badly right from the start. It's sad.


text:
[separator type="thin"]
'Scattered / Alteration' marks the debut of Fractured, a new Dutch duo that shares a love of insistent, droney techno while leaving ample room for seemingly spontaneous interaction between man and machine.
The unlikely duo consists of death metal icon Robbert 'Robbe' Kok and Rush Hour supreme digger Rogier Oostlander. Kok may be best known as the vocalist and one of the driving forces behind renowned death metal groups Disavowed and Synesis Absorption. He's also one half of electronic duo Tangent, who released their third album 'Collapsing Horizons' on n5MD in September of 2016. Kok is currently working on new Tangent and Disavowed albums that are due out later this year.
Oostlander works as a vinyl archaelogist for Amsterdam's infamous Rush Hour store. He's also the former editor-in-chief of BG Magazine, one of the first European electronic music magazines starting out in the early nineties. Oostlander used to run Haarlem's legendary Funky Harlem record store and has written music documentaries for Dutch TV networks.
Two years in the making, 'Scattered / Alteration' is a bass heavy excursion into constantly mutating drone techno territory. Check out the preview below or head over to Planet Rhythm to hear the two tracks in full.
'Scattered / Alteration' is out now on Planet Rhythm.


text:
The Steering Team consults with collaborators and Partners to provide intellectual and logistical leadership for The Family Camera Network.
Principal Investigator, The Family Camera Network
Associate Professor, Western University
Thy Phu was born in Vietnam, and grew up in Toronto, where she lives with her family and three cats. Since completing her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto, Thy joined Western University in 2005 where she is presently an Associate Professor of English and Writing Studies. She has also held a Visiting Research Fellowship at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and presently serves as a research associate at the Royal Ontario Museum. Her work focuses on the visual representation of race and gender among diasporic communities, and has received supported by SSHRC Connection, Insight, and Partnership Development Grants. She is the author of Picturing Model Citizens: Civility in Asian American Visual Culture, and co-editor of Feeling Photography, a book that examines our deep emotional attachment to images.
Dan Mishra Curator of South Asian Art & Culture, Royal Ontario Museum
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Deepali Dewan is a Senior Curator in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum and an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto, where she specializes on the art and visual culture of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. Her research concerns questions about colonial and modern art, vernacular and hybrid visual forms, art education, and the production of knowledge. Her current research focuses on the photographic image, with a view toward understanding how the practice of photography has shaped contemporary ways of viewing and being in the world. She is the author of Raja Deen Dayal: Artist-Photographer in 19th-Century India (2013, co-authored with Deborah Hutton), Embellished Reality: Indian Painted Photographs (2012), and the editor of Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s (2011). All three were accompanied by exhibitions.
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Elspeth Brown is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto, where her research concerns the history and theory of photography; modern American cultural history; queer and trans* history; and the history of US capitalism. She is the author of award-winning The Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture, 1884-1929 (Johns Hopkins 2005) and Sexual Capital: A Queer History of Modeling, 1909-1983 (forthcoming, Duke University Press). She has co-edited two volumes: Feeling Photography (Duke University Press, 2014; Thy Phu, co-editor) and Cultures of Commerce: Representation and American Business Culture, 1877-1960 (Palgrave, 2006). Brown currently directs the The LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, a five-year digital history and oral history research collaboration that connects archives across Canada and the United States to produce a collaborative digital history hub for the research and study of gay, lesbian, queer, and trans* oral histories (http://lgbtqdigitalcollaboratory.org). She is a founding member of the Toronto Photography Seminar (http://www.torontophotographyseminar.org).
Associate Professor, Western University
Sarah Bassnett is associate professor of art history at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She is the author of Picturing Toronto: Photography and the Making of a Modern City (2016) and curator of a related exhibition at City of Toronto Archives Gallery (2012-13). Her essays have been published in journals such as History of Photography and Photography & Culture. She co-edited a special issue of Visual Studies on "Cold War Visual Alliances" (2015) with Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, and she is a founding member of the research collective, the Toronto Photography Seminar.
Associate Professor, York University
Sarah Parsons is an associate professor in Art History and Visual Culture at York University, where she specializes in the history of photography, and modern and Canadian art. Parsons is the editor of Emergence: Contemporary Canadian Photography (Gallery 44/Ryerson, 2009) and Photography After Photography: Gender, Genre, and History (Duke, 2017) a volume of essays by Abigail Solomon-Godeau. Her research on 19th century Canadian photographer William Notman has been published by the Art Canada Institute and the McCord Museum. Other essays have appeared in edited volumes and in the journals, History of Photography, Photography & Culture, and the Review of Canadian Art. Her current research focuses on the interconnected histories of privacy and photography.
Banner Image (top of page): Detail of albums collected at the Royal Ontario Museum (J. Orpana, 2016).


text:
For the local house and techno DJ who plays today at Buku, being prepared is crucial.
Tristan Dufrene is careful to point out that she's not producing yet. In the electronic music world, "DJ" and "producer" seem to be used almost interchangeably, but she's the former and not the latter. She mixes songs, but she doesn't make her own yet.
"I'm working through all the knowledge about being a DJ before I move on to start producing my own material," she says.
Dufrene will perform Friday at 3:45 p.m. on the Back Alley Stage at Buku, and that clarity is consistent in her approach to music. She liked growing up in Cut Off, Louisiana, but she didn't find a lot of creativity there, so she moved to New Orleans five years ago. Her primary connection to electronic dance music was her brother, who was also a DJ. She helped him by acquiring and cataloguing his music for him—"that was in Napster days"—and when he got out of the game, Dufrene picked it up, playing parties and weddings. "That was before I knew how to beat match," she says.
Deep house and techno are her sweet spots—"sometimes a little tech house," she adds—and hearing techno made her decide to be a DJ.
"A little over a year ago, I went to New York and decided I wanted to be a DJ," Dufrene says. "I was pretty inspired. I went to a party on an island and it was pouring down rain, and there was a certain sound there that doesn't happen in New Orleans and needs to because it's not being exposed. The party was mostly European and European-influenced techno which was pretty obscure here in New Orleans."
The song that made a particular impression was "Rave" by the Italian DJ Sam Paganini. "It's a really great track," she says. "And he closed with a Led Zeppelin song remixed. I was like, This is what I need to do."
She thinks techno hasn't caught on here like it has elsewhere because it's harder, heavier, and "from the outside looking in, if you're unfamiliar, it could be repetitious. I tell them it's not repetitious; you're not listening."
Dufrene plays parties at least two to three times a month but doesn't have a steady night or venue. She's become connected to the Nola Burners—a New Orleans Burning Man community—and plays at some of their events, and often performs at the Dragon's Den. Her most regular gig is the weekly time she spends spinning with roommate and DJ Javier Drada at TechnoClubNola.com. It has helped her find her audience while developing her skills for building a set that goes somewhere. "I want to take listeners on a journey," she says.
She doesn't go into any set knowing what she wants to play, not even the first song, though she likes to start in a similar place.
"I'm very adamant about being prepared," Dufrene says. "When I get to a gig, I have a collection sorted out and I go from there. I like to start with something very melodic like an intro to build it up."
Keeping track of electronic dance music's near-constant development of new subgenera can be dizzying, but Dufrene thinks it's crucial as a DJ that she stay on top of new movements and know what she's playing. There are diehard fans for almost any sound in the audience, but nobody's diehard for everything. Keeping track is also simply practical. "I'm pretty meticulous about categorizing my catalogue into certain fields because I have a pretty big catalogue," she says.
When spinning at TechnoClubNola, she has a vague idea what the audience responds to because the site's name is a clue to all listeners as to what they can expect. The platform tells her how many people are listening and where they are—Dufrene has followers in Russia and Romania—and she gets some feedback through its chat function. Still, for the most part she's in her own world when mixing, trusting her instincts and interests because she can't see her audience. When Dufrene plays live, her ideas about when it's appropriate to play something remain personal and intuitive. "To be honest, it's very rare that I'll look up," she says. "I'm very deep into what I'm doing. I'll glance up every now and then to see if they're receptive, but when I play, I'm playing how I feel."
Dufrene believes working techno into her set means picking the appropriate moment, and that people get it when it's put in the right context. "I'm playing early in the day at Buku, so I won't be throwing out this heavy techno set," she says. There are unspoken protocols among DJs, and much the same way that an opening act at a concert isn't supposed to blow away the headliner, it's poor form for the DJs earlier in the day to raise the energy on a stage until there's nowhere for the headliners to take it. That doesn't necessarily mean earlier DJs limit themselves or compromise. For Dufrene, it simply means going another direction. "I'll go for more of a feel-good, atmospheric sound," she says. "There is some atmospheric techno that I've been playing out recently, and some atmospheric deep house."
A mix Dufrene put up on Soundcloud in January starts in an atmospheric place, but when I wonder if it was more for listening than moving a crowd, she explains why the music really ought to be heard on quality speakers or at a venue. "Hearing it on a proper sound system makes all the difference," she says. "I can listen to anyone's mix in the office [at work] and it's good. Hear it live and it's totally different. You can hear every specific sound," and with so much electronic dance music, those sonic textural differences are crucial. "There are so many layers behind all the music that I play."
For more on Dufrene and Buku, visit Nola.com.


text:
Federal File
Valuable Real Estate
Federal Law to Aid Charter Schools in the District of Columbia Draws Flak
District of Columbia officials are screaming foul over a new federal provision that requires their city to offer any surplus school property to charter schools for at least 25 percent less than its appraised value.
The measure was introduced by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., as an amendment to the annual spending bill for Washington's local government. The bill became law last month. But local leaders are now complaining that they were never told that the amendment was in the works—not by Sen. Landrieu's office, nor by Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a local charter advocacy group that pushed the initiative.
"Whenever you have a local organization that actively undermines home rule, it is upsetting,'' said Jim Graham, a Democratic member of the District of Columbia Council, who described himself as an advocate of charter schools. "This is local property, and it was local decisionmaking which has been taken out of our hands.''
He said the city would now work to have the requirement repealed.
Charter advocates say going over the local government's head was the only way they could force it to turn over surplus buildings to needy schools instead of selling them for profit to others buyers.
"The [local] administration has for all these years ignored charter school needs while deciding what to do with the surplus buildings,'' said Robert Cane, the executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools.
Mr. Cane said the law previously gave Washington charter schools first preference in buying surplus school buildings. But of the 58 buildings declared surplus since 1996, charter schools were able to get only 13.
The new measure says that charter schools will get the "right of first offer'' to lease or purchase surplus buildings at a 25 percent discount.
Charter schools have grown rapidly in the District of Columbia since they were first authorized in 1995. Charters enroll just under 16,000 students this year, around 20 percent of the total public school enrollment in the city. Mr. Cane said that of the 42 charter schools, two-thirds have yet to find permanent facilities.
Brian Geiger, a spokesman for Sen. Landrieu, said the law that authorized charter schools in the city had intended for such schools to get a preference for surplus school buildings.
"This was just a tweak to ensure that happened,'' he said.
Vol. 24, Issue 12, Page 24Published in Print: November 17, 2004, as Valuable Real Estate


text:
The Ozarks. Built by Titans. Not fictitious Titans... no, real Titans. Sam, JB, Johnny, Bill. They came out of these mountains and built enterprises on principle. Hard work. Honest. Character at the core. Upon these rocks rose industry that drives the day. Honoring their legacy, Ozark FC stands to bring together a community to celebrate their principles.
Ozark FC brings together the best of Northwest Arkansas and Ozark culture. The Club is built on hard work, defined by excellence. At Ozark FC, it's more than a game. We're building bridges across the community.
Ozark FC's mission is to provide the Northwest Arkansas community the opportunity to enjoy high-level, fast-paced, semi-professional soccer in a family-friendly environment while giving back to local, regional and global youth organizations. Beginning in the summer of 2017, the club became an expansion team of the NPSL as part of the Heartland Conference of the South Region. Ozark FC competes against the the following teams: St. Louis Club Atletico, Tulsa Athletic, Little Rock Rangers, Springfield Demize and FC Wichita.
This is Our Community... Our Club.


text:
About William O. Pate II
William O. Pate II is a writer, editor, researcher, certified social media manager and public policy specialist. He is the marketing specialist for Innovative Computing Systems, Inc. He also serves as a member of the Texas Veterans Commission Communications Advisory Committee. In his off time, he edits the San Antonio Review. He has lived in San Antonio since December 2016. He has been writing online since 1997.
Mr. Pate started his career in public policy. At the Texas Freedom Network, where he served as Legislative Research Fellow for four years during college, his research and writing contributed to a number of reports issued by the organization's Education Fund. At TFN, Mr. Pate worked on charter school, voucher/school choice, church-state and other issues before the State Board of Education, Texas Education Agency and Texas Legislature. He wrote the organization's Activist Tools Handbook. He produced TFN's Daily News Clips for over a decade.
As Research and Policy Director for the Texas Legislative Study Group, an official Texas House of Representatives caucus chaired by state Representative Garnet F. Coleman, D-Houston, Mr. Pate trained and co-led a team of ten policy analysts. Simultaneously, he analyzed, evaluated and offered recommendations to legislators on every education- and defense-related bill that hit the floor of the House in the 81st Legislative Session. During the 80th Legislative Session, Mr. Pate worked double-duty as a Policy Analyst for LSG and the Texas AFL-CIO, working on the above and labor-related issues.
During the interim, Mr. Pate continued his service at LSG while also working in Rep. Garnet F. Coleman's Capitol office as Legislative Aide, focusing on education- and health-related policy.
Mr. Pate has also consulted and managed campaigns for U.S. Senate, gubernatorial, and other candidates, as well as non-profit organizations and corporate clients.
After the Great Recession hit, he made a couple of forays into graduate school (in Rhetoric and Composition and then Counseling). He then began transitioning from the public and nonprofit sector to the private sector in a desire for new experiences and skills.
As a freelance content strategist, Mr. Pate had the opportunity to develop and implement the content strategy for client web sites, assessments, nurture streams and other deliverables. He has had the pleasure of working with teams from IBM, Dell, HP, EMC and a number of other high-tech organizations. In 2015, his content strategy and production for IBM's Enterprise Content Management group was recognized by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts with a Communicator Award.
Mr. Pate is currently the marketer for Innovative Computing Systems, Inc., a legal technology firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Austin. He works with management and outside agencies to develop marketing strategy, campaigns and events to increase brand awareness and grow the company's client base. He leads development of blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks, webinars, newsletters and social media.
In a desire to learn how to make specialty coffees and espresso, he took a job at an acquaintance's coffee shop in Austin for a month. He now owns his own Silvia espresso machine.
Mr. Pate graduated summa cum laude from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Writing and Rhetoric and a minor in Political Science. He has completed graduate coursework in Rhetoric and Composition from Texas State University-San Marcos and Mental Health Counseling from St. Edward's University and Capella University. He's fairly certain he will never pay off his student loans.
He is married to Misty Cripps, an interaction designer, and has three fur-children:
Jeff, the true multiethnic American (50% Pitbull, 25% Rottweiler, 12.5% Chow Chow, 12.5% Basenji);
Luther, the black and white mutt;
Carl, the Rat Terrier; and
Misty's feather-mate, Mel, the blue-crowned conure, who is slowly cooling off (but not necessarily warming up) to him.
William is also a proud Air Force Brat.
Contact William for access to his portfolio of work.


text:
Robert Kubica to remain with Renault
The Renault F1 team announced that it has signed a contract extension with Robert Kubica through the 2012 season.
It is understood that Kubica has a deal to drive for 2011, and can opt-out for 2012 if Renault is not within the top 3 in the standings by mid-season next year. The highly regarded Pole was tipped to be going to Ferrari next year, but with Felipe Massa re-signing for Ferrari, and Mark Webber re-signing for Red Bull, all the top seats have been filled for 2011.
Kubica said, "It was a straightforward decision for me to continue with a team where I feel at home. What's important for me is to be in the right atmosphere, with a good group of people, where everybody is pulling in the same direction. This is what we have tried to build from the beginning of my time with Renault. I think we have already achieved a lot together, and I believe that with plenty of effort, time and the right approach, we can move even further forward. That is certainly our target, so we will keep working hard and pushing on every front, not just for the rest of this season but also for next year when there are more big rule changes on the way. I am really looking forward to the challenge."
Renault's team principal, Eric Boullier, said, "We are delighted that Robert will remain with us for the next two seasons and I would like to thank him for the faith he has shown in this team. There have been many rumours surrounding his future in recent weeks, which were a tribute to how well he has driven this year, and we are very happy to have agreed a multi-year deal. Our clear goal is to become title contenders over the next two years. To do so, we need a driver of Robert's calibre: somebody who is fast, totally committed and doesn't make mistakes. His performances during the first half of the 2010 season were flawless, and we hope to achieve great things together in the future."


text:
A day ski touring trip from Queenstown with moderately easy access. I found the Eyre Mountains at this area to be very interesting topography with many options for the ski tourer. There are both shorter day trips as well as some longer ridge traverses possible. The geology is quite rugged with steeper terrain, which offers lots of couloirs through rock bands, for those keen on a steeper line.
Symmetry peaks can be accessed from the turn off about 12 kms south of Kingston at Fairlight Station; the end point for the Kingston Flyer. Take Cainard Road heading west up the Mataura River. Further up the watershed there are extensive forestry interests with massive plantings of Douglas Fir. The forestry company has built a large network of roads and has maintained them to a good level. DoC has negotiated access; the entire route to Symmetry peaks is on DoC easements. The road is 4wd only. There are several river crossings but all of them have a concrete fords (except the Robert Ck crossing), and are not deep. The road is well maintained and not hard going; moderate clearance should be all that is necessary. However you can expect frost lifting and so traction can be an issue as the road is not metaled. Therefore I would recommend off road tyres. Given you have some decent tread, pretty much any 4wd should make it in there, (except for maybe a BMW X5, which lets face it is not a car, nor a 4wd, and is in fact neither ).
Anyhow head up Robert Creek to the Ross Spur. Make sure you take a good map with you or you might find yourself lost in the forestry block. Ross Spur is signposted!! Driving up the spur is not permitted, however we had skis on from the car at 60om and toured up through the pine forest with snow falling, making us feel like we were in Canada eh. Tree line is at about 8-900m, followed by tussock land and shrub. The track is clear and easy to follow. Look for an obvious fence-line at about 1150m to help with your bearings. Sidle around to the North at about 1400m, to find a bench that leads to a gut which in turn leads to the shelf below Symmetry Peaks. Route finding is a little tricky here, and can look quite improbable. However it is straight forward and low angle if you get it right. We transitioned from skins and skied in a downward traverse to gain the gut just above a small waterfall, that leads to the peaks. The gut provides straightforward, sheltered travel up to the main shelf, which itself is low angled easy terrain.
Once on the shelf there are many options for ascending the Symmetry Peaks, touring about, steep couloirs, extended trips and loops. We skied this area in winter in a low snow year, but when the snow line was moderately low. Late spring would be a whole bunch of walking I would suggest. A great tour close to Queenstown. Get into it!


text:
awards & achievements
Our staff and pupils are proud to share details of the awards we have received over the last few years. These awards recognise the hard work staff and pupils have applied in particular areas. If you would like further information, please let us know!
On 9 February 2017, we were awarded Gold accreditation against the Investors in People Standard, joining the top seven per cent of accredited organisations across the UK, demonstrating our commitment to high performance through good people management. Investors in People is the international standard for people management, defining what it takes to lead, support and manage people effectively to achieve sustainable results.
We were pleased to achieve the Engaging Families Award in 2017. This was a special award for us because it also reflected the hard work undertaken by our parents' group, Friends of Joseph Norton (FoJNA). To achieve the award JoJNA held events such as the Christmas coffee morning and Summer BBQ to involve our parents in the school community. We also invited parents to sample and give feedback on school lunches. Most importantly, FoJNA helped us develop our Parent Partnership Policy and Parent room where we hold regular events and meetings.
We were delighted to achieve the Primary Science Quality Mark on 6 June 2018. The Primary Science Quality Mark is a unique award programme to develop and celebrate the profile of science teaching, learning and leadership in schools. The award identifies our clear vision for the teaching and learning of science; our understanding of the importance and value of science to children's learning; the range of teaching strategies that we use and how all pupils are actively engaged in their own learning and achievement.
We are extremely proud to be listed as a holder of the Restorative Service Quality Mark (RSQM), which we achieved in October 2017. The RSQM is a badge of quality that guarantees we provide safe, high quality restorative practice that meets the six Restorative Service Standards. The award shows that restorative practice is championed at a senior level; that it is embedded across the school and that we monitor and evaluate our performance.
We are pleased to share that we have achieved the School Games Silver Award for the 2018/19 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.
We are delighted to confirm that following external verification, Jwe have been awarded the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools 'School Mental Health Award' – Gold Status. This has been a significant piece of work and evidences the positive and relentless work the school undertakes to improve emotional health and wellbeing for both staff and pupils.


text:
This session from the 2018 Application Architecture Summit covers how workflow automation and application development can accelerate digital innovation and the connected experience.
Previous Video
Dell Boomi Unified Integration Platform: Overview
This webinar walks through the features and benefits of the Boomi unified integration platform, highlightin...
Most Recent Videos
Demo | "Hello World" Solution
Chris Cappetta from Boomi demonstrates a "hello world" solution that goes from Flow to AtomSphere and back.
Demo | NetSuite and Amazon Seller Central Solution Accelerator
To be successful with Amazon Seller Central Streamline, you'll need seamless integration between Amazon and NetSuite. Watch this short video to see how Boomi can help accelerate your success.
Demo | Boomi Simplifies GDPR Compliance
Boomi streamlines consent management and data privacy control within GDPR standards. Watch this short video to see how it works!
Demo | Magento - NetSuite Accelerator
Watch this short demo to see how to quickly and easily connect and sync Magento and NetSuite.
Demo | NetSuite and Square Integration
Boomi provides bidirectional sync between NetSuite and Square, making it easy for you to be efficient and productive. Watch this short video to see how it works!
Demo | NetSuite and Zendesk Integration
To get a 360 degree view of your customers and provide a superior service turnaround, you need seamless integration of elements between your customer service data in Zendesk and your sales and financi
Demo | Salesforce and OpenAir Integration
Boomi provides seamless integration between Salesforce and OpenAir. Watch this short demo to see how to get started!
Demo | NetSuite and HubSpot Integration
Boomi provides bidirectional sync between NetSuite and HubSpot, making it easy for you to be efficient and productive. Watch this short demo to see how!
Customer Case Study | North Sea Port
North Sea Port is using an intelligent IoT platform powered by Boomi to streamline ship registrations – improving revenue, cash flow, port security and operational efficiency.
Chalk Talk | Master Data Hub - Episode 2
This chalk talk video gives an overview of how the Boomi Platform can be used to build end-to-end solutions where data quality and data synchronization are key to driving business value.
Solace and Boomi Deliver Event-Driven iPaaS for Digital Transformation
Together, Dell Boomi and Solace provide integration and data movement for any hybrid environment at scale, regardless of complexity — meeting the demands of the modern enterprise.
Chalk Talk | Master Data Hub - Episode 1
In this chalk talk video, Boomi Master Data Hub product manager Geoff Bockelmann provides an intro to Hub and walks through the concept of a golden record.
Boomi World 2018 Highlights
Check out our highlight reel from Boomi World 2018. And for information on Boomi World 2019, which will be held Oct. 1-3 in Washington DC, visit https://boomi.com/boomiworld/
Customer Testimonial | Lusiaves Goes All In on Integration With Dell Boomi
Portuguese poultry producer Lusiaves needed fast, agile integration and API management to connect legacy and cloud systems and accelerate its business results.
Webinar | Forrester: The Total Economic Impact of the Dell Boomi Platform
This on-demand webinar discusses the drivers for and results of "The Total Economic Impact™ of the Dell Boomi Platform" a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell Boomi.
Demo | NetSuite and Shopify Integration Accelerator for Ecommerce
Boomi seamlessly connects Shopify and NetSuite, so your order, customer, inventory and billing information is always synchronized and up to date.
Customer Testimonial | Dell Boomi Delivers Agility to Eddie Stobart
Boomi's unified integration platform keeps Eddie Stobart agile, speeding partner onboarding and cutting implementation times in half.
Platform Release Highlights | Fall 2018
In the second half of 2018, Boomi released more than 100 new and enhanced features. This retrospective covers key features and how they can help you work better, faster and smarter.
How Dell Boomi & Accenture Are Transforming the Utilities Industry
Boomi and Accenture help customers across all industries deliver rich user experiences. Accenture's Pete Yao gives a real-world example of a utility company's digital transformation.
The White Company Powers Evolution of Its Omnichannel Business With Boomi


text:
DIPLOMATS have made a bold $34 million pitch to win extra resources in readiness should Australia win a prized two-year stint on the United Nations Security Council.
With the campaign set to go to a final vote in the early hours of Friday, the Foreign Affairs Department has made a confidential budget submission to the government to fund up to 20 more staff.
The Age has learnt the plan is intended to boost the New York embassy and headquarters in Canberra, as well as several key diplomatic missions around the world.
Labor has already spent $24 million on the campaign and the extra money is seen as essential for Australia to credibly serve on the council.
Australia's diplomatic network has progressively been run down over the past decade, ranking it among the smallest of developed countries.
Yet despite entering the race several years late, there is quiet confidence Australia has secured enough support to win one of two seats on offer in a three way tussle with European rivals, Finland and Luxembourg.
But the secret ballot means no one is willing to predict the final result against the risk that ledges of support fail to materialise into votes.
Australia lost its last campaign for the council in 1996 under the Howard government despite a widespread belief it had enough support.
Finland has declared it is hoping to win a seat in the first round of voting by securing support from the two-thirds majority of the 193-strong UN membership.
''The goal is realistic, but difficult,'' Finland's ambassador to the UN, Jarmo Viinanen, told Finnish media overnight.
Australia held a special reception for all UN representatives on Monday night in New York, attended by Foreign Minister Bob Carr and parliamentary secretary for Pacific affairs, Richard Marles.
Luxembourg was set to hold its reception overnight and Finland tonight.
The complex ballot - where every country has an equal vote, making tiny nations such as Tuvalu equal to China - will go on for as many rounds as required until two candidates win the necessary 129 votes.
The Foreign Affairs submission for extra funds to the government's powerful Expenditure Review Committee was first put forward last year, but was put off until Australia won the vote.
Eight new jobs were advertised in August to bolster Australia's representation in New York, including two senior roles with salaries in excess of $220,000 and accommodation.
Depending on the outcome of the ballot, the submission is now expected to be considered in the next fortnight after Prime Minister Julia Gillard returns from overseas.
Daniel Flitton is senior correspondent for The Age covering foreign affairs and politics. He is a former intelligence analyst for the Australian government and was at one-time a university lecturer specialising in international relations.


text:
Cell Phone Directory Lookup has been a leading phone directory since 2009. For over 10 years we have helped people find information on phone numbers.
We pride our selves in data accuracy, usability, and speed. We use deep web technology to search billions of records to find the most accurate data and return it to the user fast.
Wether you need to lookup a phone number that called your cell phone and you don't recognize it or if search phone numbers is part of your job - we're here to help!
We pore over millions of available public phone information, social info, and more to provide you with accurate live information. Uncover cell phone records, contact information, address history, online profiles, and more.
Reconnect with family, friends, classmates... almost anyone you've lost touch with. Discover someone's possible relatives and associates, known aliases and birth records right here on FreeCellPhoneDirectoryLookup.com.
We scour the deep web to uncover information that normal search engines can't find. Uncover social network data, photos and videos, and online activity for the person you're looking for.
People will go to great lengths to hide the truth about their past, and keep you in the dark about who they really are. Uncover possible traffic tickets, arrest records, felony convictions, sex offender status, and more.


text:
We love to see that our artists stood out to those reflecting on 2016!
Here is well deserved nod to Town Mountain and their newest album Souther Crescent!
"Town Mountain- "Southern Crescent" (LoHi Records) "Southern Crescent" isn't so much a departure from previous albums, especially 2012's excellent "Leave the Bottle," as it is an intense continuation of their southern influences and hard-scrabble bluegrass sound. As raucous as this approach is, there is a place within the (sometimes) staid and constrained bluegrass community for exactly this type of music. It isn't trying to be country, it sure isn't leaning toward easy listening, NPR pap-it is bluegrass, just not the type favoured by Bill Monroe. For that matter, it isn't of the flavour projected by Doyle Lawson, Rhonda Vincent, Lonesome River Band, or most of today's mainstream headliners."" - DONALD TEPLYSKE


text:
Bruce Golden
Accel Partners
Bruce has been a partner at Accel for over 19 years and has been on the Forbes Midas List of best venture investors several times. Bruce helped to create the Accel London office and has backed a number of companies from Series A to IPO.
Saul Klein
Saul has two decades of building and exiting companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has been a co-founder of Seedcamp, co-founder and original CEO of Lovefilm International and part of the original executive team at Skype.
Bill Roedy
Non-Executive Director
Bill is the former Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks International, where he built from scratch a global operation of 200 channels and 20 brands (including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central) in 200 countries.
Michael Acton Smith
Mind Candy
Michael co-founded online retailer Firebox.com before his passion for games and puzzles led him to found Mind Candy. Aside from creating Moshi Monsters, Michael has founded networking events such as Silicon Drinkabout, Second Chance Tuesday, Ping Pong Fight Club and Berwickstock – a secret music festival.
Ian Chambers
Ian's wealth of entertainment experience comes from his time at Ubisoft and EA which in turn led to his role as Managing Director, International at IGN where he was responsible for its global expansion and making IGN the #1 video games media network in the world. Before joining Mind Candy Ian was Chief Digital Officer at GAME Digital Plc.


text:
NPR has a terrifically terrifying piece on the story of Brock Savelkoul, an Iraq war veteran who suffers from PTSD and mild traumatic brain injury. The story begins in North Dakota where cops are in pursuit of Brock who is armed and driving at high-speed down the highway.
The story works backward from there. If you listen to the 20 minutes of audio, NPR paints the picture of an honorable young man who has done three tours of duty in Iraq, and overtime began to show signs of PTSD and emotionally breakdowns from a severe concussion brought on by a rocket attack of his barracks while on his third duty. As Brock goes from VA hospital to VA hospital he continues to deteriorate until he sought to take his life, which is how the standoff develops in North Dakota.
The piece caused me to think, what is going on with our returning veterans. Beyond painting a picture of deterioration and eventually hope what should we take from this story. What does it all mean?
What I found was concerning, there seems to be an increase in suicides and PTSD and traumatic brain injury without any clear consensus as to why. Some reports suggest that as more military personnel are dying less from moderate to severe injuries that there are just more members in the service who are dealing with the psychological stress of that survival. A by-product of surviving severe psychical injury is this psychological increase. While the view seems plausible to me, it is likely more complex.
A study from the RAND corporation sheds some light on what might be going on in terms of increased psychological pressures. The study looked at the suicide rate among army veterans and found that the rate of suicide had gone from 10 in 100,000 in 2001 to 160 in 100,000 in 2008. That is a dramatic jump.
The RAND study shows that the suicide rate has mostly been driven up by suicides in members of the Army. The full study is available here.
An earlier NPR report from July 2010 presented an Army report which recommended reducing the stigma around those who seek help for mental health. The Army report also sought to raise the alarm on the increasing psychological cost on the military.
The Defense and Brian Injury Center describes their prospective on the current rise in traumatic brain injury on their website here. The site also offers Armed Health Surveillance Center numbers on the actual diagnosis of U.S. Military traumatic brain injury diagnosis. The numbers show a tripling on the diagnosis front.
It is clear that the medical community is noticing something different in veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq and is struggling to figure out what the difference is and how to respond. As I find out more I'll keep folks updated.