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Equality of Opportunity and the Exam System
I have been pondering inequality lately and the challenges we have as a society in giving our young people the same chance in life.
Every study says that these inequalities are built in at an incredibly early age and despite years of effort to do something about them we, as a society, still have to accept that where you are born and who you are born to has a major impact on the opportunities you will get in life. These inequalities are reflected through school and in the grades and qualifications that students from different backgrounds are able to access.
So, what is to be done?
I have one idea – and whilst I recognise that this may cause some readers to choke on their morning cornflakes I hope that you will keep reading to the end where I genuinely believe that the compromise I propose is something we as a society should consider.
My proposal is to do move away from purely absolute exam grades and add to them some relative grading.
To explain further:
At the moment all exams are marked and the grade boundaries set by the exam board. Regardless of who you are the mark you receive in your exam will be the only determinant of the grade you get. This means that the results of Gareth in Morden are directly comparable with the results of Glen in Westminster.
This method is obviously 'fair'. Everyone is treated the same regardless of background, schooling or even age and there is an impartial judgement of the individuals ability provided by the examination.
However, my argument is that in many ways this isn't really 'fair'.
If you're a kid who goes to a bad school with a terrible English teacher then it is likely that your English result will be worse than if you went to a good school and had a great English teacher. Likewise, if you come from a family living in temporary accommodation or an overcrowded property you are less likely to perform well in the 'impartial' exam than someone in a permanent house with their own bedroom.
An alternative would be to recognise this and to provide relative grades, reflecting not everything about your background but at least recognising that schools and the students studying at them are very different to each other.
So, if your exam has 5 grades, A-E (yes, I know this is touchingly old-fashioned but it's easier maths!) then instead of there being a defined pass mark the grades would be handed out as follows:
Top 20% in your school get an A, the next 20% get a B and so on with the bottom 20% getting an E.
In this model exam grades are not giving potential employers an absolute sense of your ability but a relative sense of how you performed in that exam against your direct contemporaries.
Whilst we pretend that exams are tests of absolute knowledge at the age of 16 in many cases they are as much about testing potential for work and for college and university. I genuinely don't believe that children from the best backgrounds are inherently cleverer than those from disadvantaged backgrounds and yet exam grades would seem to suggest that is the case. As such, perhaps knowing the relative ability of someone is far more useful to a potential employer or as a measure of their potential when they reach the next stage of education.
This would also prevent the exam system from being a means of protecting the position of the middle-classes. Exams can be gamed and those with the money, top schools and ability to support their children can ensure even an average student gets good grades - an opportunity not available for all.
Obviously, if we were to introduce relative exam grades on their own this would be a policy with significant downsides:
1) Whilst exams are bad signifiers, in that they don't do a perfect job of identifying the talent and potential of people, they are good at preparing people for further education and often employment. There is a risk that people coming into our universities would require a lot more work to succeed there if all they had achieved was relative success. Likewise, industry often talks of the lack of skills from young people leaving school. This could make it worse by giving people grades that aren't linked to absolute skills and instead to potential.
2) Parents would seek to game the system – having middle class flight towards the roughest neighbourhoods in the UK just so they can top the class is probably not the worst thing in the world but if this exam system was imposed people would exit the system and look for an alternative – perhaps an international qualification to bridge the gap.
3) Schools would lose a key measure of success and it would become more difficult to measure the achievement of teachers – if every school received 20% As the exam league table would have a lot less meaning.
These downsides are real and are the reason I would never actually propose relative grading on it's own. However, with a slight adjustment I believe relative marking could work really well and be acceptable to all. The wrinkle is as follows:
I would keep the current exam results but mandate a second relative score to accompany it.
Thus, every exam would come with two scores written together, the first the absolute grade and the second the relative grade. For example, a student could receive a:
AA (Top 20% score on the exam, top 20% in the school)
AC (Top 20% score on the exam, middle 20% in the school)
CA (Middle 20% score on the exam, top 20% in the school)
Etc etc
These grades would tell us far more about an individual than the current grades do and with more information comes more chances for people to use those grades when recruiting and thinking about who goes to university or college or is employed. Some would choose only to recruit on absolute terms and that would be fine but some employers would be interested in the relative score as well and they would have that information and be able to use it as they chose.
Even the fiercest opponents of relativism or dumbing down might find it difficult to argue that providing more information is not helpful when judging our young people, especially when this information is directly related to their life chances.
I imagine many people won't like my grading plan, and I recognise it is far from the full answer to equality of opportunity but any small adjustment that we can introduce that would help ameliorate the inherent disadvantage many children face by dint of birth should be tried.
I'd love to hear what people think of it.
Escaping the Green Belt
A few years ago I was delivering some training with a colleague who told a little anecdote about a parks officer he had met who opened the parks in his patch in a random order – zigzagging across the Borough and taking over an hour to open them all.
My colleague asked him why he did it that way and didn't just start at one end of the borough and work his way to other end. The parks officer didn't really know but told my colleague that this was the way he had been trained to do it. Further investigation found that the officer's predecessor as parks officer had children and used to combine opening the parks with the school run and thus did it that way to suit him.
This story came back to me during the last week as I was thinking and tweeting a little about housing and particularly this country's green belt policy.
In 1935 when the Greater London Regional Planning Committee proposed the creation of a green belt they did so: 'to provide a reserve supply of public open spaces and of recreational areas and to establish a green belt or girdle of open space'.
A worthy aim from the 1930s has morphed into a policy which, at least in London, preserves a green space that is twice the size of the city itself and is far from providing a 'reserve of public open spaces and recreational areas'. In some areas the green belt stretches out 35 miles across and protects basically the whole of Hertfordshire.
Anyone setting up a new city would not seriously think that the green belt in London is sensible policy making. Even if we accept that all of the objectives of the policy are still correct, and I'm almost certain they aren't, the policy itself does not meet the needs. Let's look at them in turn:
1) Preventing urban sprawl
A belt of a mile or two across would manage this and you certainly wouldn't require one 35 miles across to do so.
2) Providing recreational spaces
The greenbelt is miles away from where most people live and large chunks of it are not used for recreation or public open space but instead used for farming. Indeed, a third of London's green belt is used for high-intensity farming which is far from the ideal pictured in the 1930s. A sensible policy would be to focus on protecting parks and open spaces within the cities or near the towns rather than an arbitrary big chunk of green space around the city that no one can actually use.
Likewise, we should be protecting farming land but as the country with the third lowest building density in the EU there is plenty of space for farming around the country and it doesn't really need the green belt to protect it.
3) Preserve rural England
This is where the policy gets particularly ridiculous. Houses will have to be built somewhere so not letting them be built in a big arbitrary belt around a city is simply going to push them elsewhere and be built on other parts of the countryside. Protecting greenbelt just pushes the problem around rather than ameliorating it.
What makes this historical policy worse is the unintended, and extremely negative, consequences of it. Our green belt policy has led to insufficient housing in and around our cities and thus in turn rising house prices, an escalating housing benefit bill and has helped consign people to poverty.
If there was any other Government policy which was contributing so significantly to making a negative impact on the lives of its residents it would have been dealt with years ago. The fact that it hasn't is a failure of epic proportions – I'll leave a discussion of exactly why this has happened for another day.
Far more importantly, you may wonder what we should do instead.
We don't have to abolish the green belt in its entirety – the political interest in protecting arbitrary NIMBY policies will never fade – but we can make some small changes to it to improve our housing situation and to design a policy that is far more appropriate for the country as it is now, rather than as it was 40 or 80 years ago.
The Adam Smith Institute (http://www.adamsmith.org/research/reports/the-green-noose/) have predicted that allowing building on green belt land that is 1 mile from a train station only would allow for 1 million more homes to be built around London. (It is worth thinking for a moment about a policy so ill-conceived that you cannot build on land that is within ten minutes' walk of a train station – stations being a service which primary function is to take people to and from work. If you can't build homes there then your policy really is bad).
At the same time the Government could carry out a fundamental review of the green belt and once they have resized it down to a few miles or so across introduce new rules for any building that takes place on land previous allocated as green belt. This could include the guarantee of gardens for all developments, protected parks, meadows and other open spaces for every area and a maximum density for each development. Each one could be negotiated locally but with an explicit expectation that the point is to provide high quality housing for people to live in.
A policy like this would protect the spirit of the green belt policy but without the historical, illogical and arbitrary position that the current policy has left us with.
So Long and Thanks For All the Flags
It's a funny thing, change and loss. Sometimes (as the song says) you don't know what you've got till it's gone, whilst at other times change can be met with more relief than a cold beer at the end of a long, hot summers day. It's between these two points that emotions swing when the DCLG career of Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP is reflected upon.
Just a few short days after the Conservative party won a small majority in Parliament, David Cameron set about completing his grand reshuffle of seats and positions great and powerful. Among these was the announcement that Eric Pickles would be moved away from his position (be)heading the Department for Communities and Local Government to be replaced by Greg Clark, former Minister for Universities, Science and Cities. And you know what? I'm not sure where I stand on Uncle Eric's legacy.
Over the years, many – this blog included – have given E-Pic a fair degree of criticism for some of his more outlandish behaviours and obsessions. I am not sure I will ever quite understand his fixation on flying flags and bunting. He has been a constant and vocal advocate on flag-flyers behalf, encouraging flags to be flown from council buildings high and low (with double points no doubt awarded if in the process you flew the flag of some long forgotten historical version of a local authority).
And then there are the bins. Mr Pickles over the years basically declared war on bin collection on a less-frequent-than-weekly basis, aiming to "tackle the ghastly gauntlet of bin blighted streets and driveways." Never mind that councils are having to be creative to collect bins at all within their much reduced budgets, he wanted to see them under pressure to maintain or even improve on levels of service that the overwhelming yet silent majority of service users had no problem at all with. And don't get him started – EVER – on local council funded newspapers (an area I won't go into for fear of causing an internal WLLG Towers debate once more...).
And it wasn't only the little, petty things (throw in parking charges for good measure too) which blot his copybook. During his time at the helm it did not for one second feel like he ever had our back, that he was on our side. It's difficult to remain hopeful for the future when the person theoretically at the top of the local government decision making pile does nothing but publicly and privately berate your work and belittle your efforts, demanding ever more and condemning progress as not good enough.
Eric regularly singled out individual councils for harsh criticism, rightly or wrongly, and never missed an opportunity to score political points at the expense of other hard working councils who had the 'misfortune' to be run by someone wearing a different colour tie than him. That he was such a persuasive orator and garnered such a high public profile meant that his undeniably negative public views of the sector bled out to the wider public, who were led to believe that all local government staff were sitting on their backsides, doing very little for massive paycheques and wasting fortunes of tax payer's money.
Perhaps this was why he was so ever-eager to give it away to his colleagues. As a friend recently said, the impression was that at Cabinet meetings when George Osborne said "ok, we need to make another couple of billion....any ideas?", whilst everyone else looked down and shuffled their papers, E-Pic could barely wait to offer up another slice from the local government pie. Not only was there no fight to protect his service, there was active enthusiasm to trim, trim and trim once more.
And yet...
Nobody can accuse him of not living by his own values. Under his stewardship the DCLG budget itself was slashed significantly, so much so that they were able to move in with the Home Office as they simply didn't need all that much space for themselves. While he couldn't get other departments to quite take his approach to austerity as seriously as he did, that didn't stop him practicing what he preached at every opportunity.
And the financial impact doesn't stop there. Mr Pickles was vital in the process of reducing and removing the amount of ring-fencing around budgets, giving local authorities a far greater degree of financial flexibility than they had before. That some councils may have abused this in various ways large and small is an issue for them to sort out, and that even these budgets have since been further reduced can at best be described as unfortunate, but at the time it was the right thing to do and a brave thing to do.
Braver still was his decision to abolish one of the most powerful bodies in the world of local government during the previous decade – the Audit Commission. This major QUANGO required huge amounts of data collation, analysis and presentation, powering whole departments of statisticians across the country but not really with the purpose of service improvement in mind, more service reporting. Again, this freed up councils to attack local problems with local solutions rather than reinforcing a one-solution-fits-all-philosophy that was arguably in place at the time. All this reporting was replaced by a massively reduced set of performance indicators to report on and the hope that an army of armchair auditors would spring up to take their place (admittedly we're still waiting for this army to by fully recruited and armed for battle).
He did however start at the very least pushing to supply this army with ammunition, forcing councils to up their game somewhat when it came to open data and releasing hitherto hidden datasets to the rigours of public scrutiny. Of course there were and are issues around data quality and context, but if nothing else it undoubtedly led to councils reducing the number of highly paid jobs at the top in the face of this increased public scrutiny (and with no small amount of help from the Tax Payers Alliance). Whether this saw cuts to unnecessary spending or it instead removed a huge amount of senior experience from the ranks when it was needed the most is as always up for debate, but it certainly had an effect.
The fact was though that he gave councils the ability to make these decisions for themselves. Taking aside points about flags, bin collections, parking charges and prayers at meetings (an area for another post on another day, I assure you...) he ushered in the Localism Act, and through it the general power of competence. After years of being told what to do, how to do it and what evidence to collect to prove it had been done, he simply gave councils free rein and released them to the wild. They were better able and empowered to give things ago than many thought possible and perhaps sensible, and some (though not nearly enough) took advantage of this to really push their local interests forward.
Leading on from this was devolution and the power ceded to cities through City Deals. City areas were better able to push for bespoke deals with central government, with the aim of redressing the perceived imbalance between the almighty powerhouse of London and regions outside of the M25. Yes, a lot more could have been done, but it was a move in the right direction.
If there's one thing I wish had felt different throughout that entire, turbulent stint it would be the relationship he had with local government. Just once you wanted to hear him say publicly that while the sector would of course need to do more, that actually they were doing great things and people should lay off from criticising for a bit. Perhaps if he had been seen to defend anywhere near as much as attack his charges his words and intentions may have fallen on more sympathetic ears. This isn't some form of demand for acceptance like a teenager to their distant parent, more a professional acknowledgement that local government was leading the way in so many areas and should be seen as the leaders they were and are.
Pickles said at the start of his reign that he felt much could be cut from local government budgets without services to the average person being severely affected, and certainly for those not deemed vulnerable that is indeed the case. A few streetlights get switched off, perhaps some libraries have closed down but in general for the majority of the population the local world hasn't collapsed. Maybe he had something of a point after all. I only wish he hadn't used it like a rapier to repeatedly stab at those trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Many years ago I watched an excellent road trip documentary where Stephen Fry (one of my heroes) drove across the US in a black cab. Along the way he shared a probably apocryphal quote from Oscar Wilde (one of his heroes) about scale and impact; "the immensity of some things, like the Empire State building, can only truly be appreciated from a distance".
The intent was I believe to say that some things, when viewed up close, seem as ordinary as the next and nothing to remark upon. However, the addition of distance allows those grand works to rise above their lesser brethren and stand proud for all to see.
Perhaps in future years we will look back at Uncle Eric and appreciate that, love him or loathe him as a person, he pushed the sector to change when it needed to change the most. Perhaps not. But at least he made an impact, one way or another.
Eric Pickles; well played sir, well played.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Shares of the following companies were making notable moves in the U.S. stock market Friday:
Biolase Technology Inc.'s BLTI shares advanced 9% after the dental-laser firm projected 2011 revenue that topped analysts' expectations.
Danvers Bancorp Inc.'s DNBK shares rallied 27% after People's United Financial Inc. PBCT, -0.36% said it would buy the bank in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $493 million. Shares of People's United were off 3.6%.
Dean Foods Co.'s DF, +2.29% shares gained 6.1% after billionaire investor David Tepper told CNBC the dairy company looked undervalued.
General Electric Co.'s GE, +0.62% shares gained 7.1% after the conglomerate reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Read more about GE's results.
Hughes Communications Inc.'s HUGH shares were up 18% after Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the broadband satellite-services company was exploring a sale.
Intuitive Surgical Inc.'s ISRG, +0.84% shares rose 13% after the maker of surgical systems reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped expectations.
Online Resources Corp.'s ORCC, +0.73% shares jumped 33% after the online-banking software developer said it was reviewing unsolicited merger offers from unidentified parties.
Polycom Inc.'s PLCM shares gained 15% after the maker of video-conference systems reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street's estimates.
SunTrust Banks Inc.'s STI, +0.39% shares were up 5.9% after the regional lender reported quarterly results that beat expectations.
Tempur-Pedic International Inc.'s TPX, -0.49% shares rose 11% after the mattress maker projected 2011 earnings above Wall Street's forecasts.
Warner Music Group Corp.'s WMG, +0.00% shares jumped 27% as the recording label reportedly has hired an adviser to explore a possible sale.
Acorda Therapeutics Inc.'s ACOR, -9.59% shares declined 14% after European regulators voted not to approve its multiple-sclerosis drug. Shares of Biogen Idec Inc. BIIB, -0.93%, which paid to market the drug outside the U.S., fell 2.9%.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s AMD, +1.10% shares fell 6% after FBR Capital Markets Corp. trimmed its 2011 and 2012 earnings estimates for the maker of computer microprocessors.
Emulex Corp.'s ELX, +0.00% shares shed 7% after the storage-equipment maker offered a weak third-quarter forecast.
Jones Group Inc.'s JNY shares slipped 9.7% after the apparel seller projected fourth-quarter earnings below analysts' expectations. Read more about retail stocks.
Synaptics Inc.'s SYNA, +2.01% shares declined 11% after Jefferies offered a bearish outlook on the developer of touch-screens for wireless devices.
Vivus Inc.'s VVUS, -1.45% shares lost 16% after the company said federal regulators had requested more data on its experimental obesity drug.

subset: commoncrawl


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I recently did a session with another local model who is battling her own demons in the form of depression and anxiety. We had talked a few weeks prior about ideas and concepts for the session. We came up with a few solid ideas and luckily enough I was able to capture it all in one multiple exposure image.
For some of the other ideas we discussed we will be doing them at another time in a different location. So sty tuned for those.
Now of those reading this post, please take care to not judge anyone who might be suffering from depression or anxiety. If you've never experienced it yourself, then you can know what it's like. This session was pretty as much a therapy session for the both us and I must say it was nice to be able to step outside my boundaries of photography. It felt great to be able to help someone bring this to light and not have it hidden.
So enjoy the images and if they move you. Feel free to leave a comment.
All images were shot on a Mamiya M645 with Kodak TRI-X film.


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To many, it may seem that shock absorbers are just there to keep the ride as bump free and smooth as possible. Whilst this is true, they also serve other important functions that can affect the performance of your vehicle in a number of ways.
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- Boosted handling and cornering, with less body roll in the corner


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Scented Soy Candle/Jar Cotton House 185g
Cotton Home - R&H Signature Scent Cotton home is the signature Raine & Humble scent. To us, the fresh smell of cotton typifies feelings of warmth and familiarity. These feelings are tied to strong memories of home: laundry day, mum hanging out freshly washed sheets, the tumbling noise of the drier and the warm scented air when your push through the laundry door. These associations of home-comfort and freshness inspired us to create this signature scent and continue to inspire us in all we do.
Jar candle: wick - 100% cotton (lead free) wax- 85% soy/15% plant wax blend fragrances - combination of essential oil/fragrant oil blend Jar- glass 6.5 oz 8x7 cm 20 - 35 hours (depending on care of candle)


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Greek officials have rejected out of hand a German idea for Athens to cede control over its budget policy to a special eurozone commissioner.
It comes as the government and the country's private creditors said they were finalising a deal to slash Greece's debt, essential to secure a new bailout and avoid a default.
Both sides say the deal follows a framework put forward by eurozone finance ministers.
However, progress could be undermined by problems with the 'troika' of foreign lenders: the EU Commission, European Central Bank and IMF.
Their inspectors are back in town demanding unpopular reforms – and threatening to hold up aid unless more is done to streamline the economy.
The Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is trying to appease both sides.
"Nothing must be done that will deepen the recession," he said. "We must do everything to restrict the recession and begin the cycle of growth. The coming days will determine the coming decade. What is happening now is of historical significance, and we must all work together."
Greece has baulked at the German plan which would effectively mean Athens surrendering sovereignty over tax and spending to the EU, at least until its finances are sorted out.
Many Greeks already blame German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government for the austerity medicine they are being forced to swallow.
The European Commission has said Athens should retain autonomy.
However, German intervention suggests Berlin is running out of patience with Greece's failure to meet its targets.


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Drive Axle Transporter
A producer of mining equipment needed a safe and effective solution for inserting a transmission drive axle into a mining truck frame. Airfloat designed and manufactured a self-contained 30,000 lb.-capacity axle transporter that uses a powered tugger for positioning the axle under the truck frame.
Learn how air caster technology can work for you. CONTACT US


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Chorley renew acquaintances with Kidderminster Harriers tomorrow for what will be an important National League North fixture.
The two teams have met in some important games in recent seasons with the Magpies certainly holding the upper hand. Last season they enjoyed success over Kiddy in the play-off semi-final – Adam Roscoe's late winner sending Matt Jansen's men through to the final.
The Magpies also got this season off to the best possible start by beating Harriers at Aggborough 1-0 on the opening day of the campaign.
They have the opportunity to complete the double over Kiddy when the Worcestershire-based side visit Victory Park this weekend.
Both teams are badly in need of the points as they look to maintain their play-off ambitions. Kidderminster currently occupy the final play-off position – a place and a point above Chorley, who do have a game in hand.
"We have always done well against Kiddeminster and we will hope to do well again tomorrow," Jansen said.
"We are in a good vein of form, especially at home. So we'll take the game to them and hopefully come out on the right side of the result."
Jansen also spoke of his delight at the return of influential midfielder Dale Whitham, who featured in the 2-1 Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy quarter-final win over Bamber Bridge.
The long-serving Magpies star has been out for a couple of months with a fractured foot. "It was great for Dale to get some vital minutes after a couple of months out," said Jansen, pictured.
Elsewhere, Southport are away to Boston United.
In the National League, AFC Fylde travel to Boreham Wood.


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|Building bridges based on the belief that film becomes art only when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil & paper. Cine Pobre Film Festival is the 100% cartel-free intersection of culture and capabilities.
Argentina | Documentary, Student
Italy | Magical Realism, Short
USA | Drama, Native Peoples
Colombia | Documentary
Netherlands | Comedy
USA | Animation, Avantgarde
Iran | Human Rights, Short
Egypt | Docu-Drama, Women
Argentina | Documentary
France | Short
Having trouble with his marriage, a drunk driver finds the path to solving his hopeless life via a developing relationship with his personal GPS


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When I was a kid, I was a swimmer. I was on the JCC team and we'd swim miles a week. It was hard, I remember, but I loved it. Sure, I occasionally vomited from swallowing too much water and sure, I hardly ever won a race. Still, I loved it.
I loved the quiet of it. I loved how the thoughts in my head were all mine and that I could think – really think – without the outside world or any other thoughts or sounds peeping in. Being underwater was this peaceful place that I owned.
When I was around 10 or 11, my family built a pool in our backyard. We'd swim all day long when it was warm enough, though no one had the stamina of my sister who would do laps until someone made her stop for dinner or bedtime.
So speaking of quiet and being underwater, my dad bought this diving helmet. It was just like the one pictured here. I looked it up:
This helmet was produced in the USA in the 1970's. In those days it was sold for $49. It was used together with a 12 Volt or 110 Volt air compressor.People used it for fun in their pools or to inspect their boats. It is in fact a modern shallow water helmet that needed extra weights.
We would take turns putting on the heavy helmet and walking into the deep end and hanging out there. My father did it best; he'd take a folding chair with him and set it up the deep and and sit in the quiet. The only sound was the air coming in through the tube at the top.
We were talking about this the other day and he told my boys about the time that my brother wanted to get his attention and pulled on the cord – ala Jacques Cousteau – and disconnected the air cord. It's funny to laugh about today, but imagine sitting there minding your own business at the bottom of the pool when the water starts to pour in. Scary! And that thing was heavy. (Obviously, my dad was okay and he laughs like crazy when he recounts the story.)
Next week, I start a swim class. It's been 25 years or more since I really swam. (I used to swim laps back in my advertising agency days before work.) So this class is a stroke improvement and endurance class and I figure, I have no place to go but up. Thinking of the days when I could swim miles without even blinking, I wonder if I can make 10 laps without major effort. But we'll see.
I am looking forward to the quiet.


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Rosacea Channel
Topics & Medications
Related Channels
Oracea Drug Interactions
Quinapril may decrease the absorption of Oracea, perhaps making it less effective. Separate your doses of Oracea and quinapril by as much time as possible (at least two hours).
Oracea may increase the level of ranolazine in the blood, perhaps increasing the risk of side effects of ranolazine. Check with your healthcare provider before taking these medications together.
Combining Oracea with some retinoid medications may increase the risk of a dangerous condition known as intracranial hypertension. In many cases, such combinations are not recommended. Be sure to check with your healthcare provider before combining such medications, making specific mention of this interaction.
Combining Oracea and warfarin may increase the risk of bleeding. Your healthcare provider may choose to monitor your INR and prothrombin time more frequently and adjust your warfarin dosage if necessary.
It is possible that not all interactions were discussed in this article. Therefore, you should talk with your pharmacist or healthcare provider about any specific drug interactions with Oracea that may apply to you.
Oracea Medication Information
Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD


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At the start of 2014 Mohammed weighed 197kg, he now weighs 105kg. No surgery, no drugs, no fad diets
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For further details or to set up your first session with one of our coaches mail us


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We had the pleasure of celebrating my son's first birthday over the weekend with both sets of parents! I will admit that having four extra adults in my house was a bit overwhelming at times (especially the more "needy" ones). The kids were completely off their sleep and bath schedules, but they made it through the weekend fairly well. I think mommy and daddy were the hardest hit! We are both exhausted today! Phew!
We celebrated Vasili's birthday Saturday. His actual birthday was Friday. Saturday we started off with a big breakfast at home and then we all hit the road for Clifton Park for pictures! As soon as we got on the road, though, both kids fell asleep! The portrait studio was nice enough to let us wander the store hoping the would wake up. When they didn't we did the BIG "no-no", woke two sleeping babies! We got lucky, though, we made it through a sitting of Vasili and daddy; Vasili and Sibylla and the three of them before anyone started to melt down!
The party was last night! I made cupcakes (chocolate of course) and we had a few decorations. We made sure Sibylla had a few gifts to unwrap so she didn't feel left out! Vasili was quickly overwhelmed by the pictures and gifts and balloons! When he unwrapped his "Band in a Box" by Melissa and Doug, we decided it was time to take a break and "jam out"! Oh what fun! The entire family started playing the little instruments and singing and being silly! Needless to say we had a grand time!
It was really nice to have everyone over to celebrate the Little Man's first birthday! We all had such a great time! The grandparents braved the snow and a 7 hour drive to celebrate Vasili's special day with us!
Now it's back to our little routine!


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There is sadness in the world.
I hate to break it to you, but there is.
Recently I started to feel guilt over how incredible my life is and how good I feel. I am a privileged, straight, white female living in a very safe place with near zero health issues to impact my way of life.
There have been no gigantic obstacles that tell me how I can or can't live. I'm free to do mostly what I want how I want (within the law of course) and I have boundless opportunities in this world.
And then I started catching glimpses of the news. I haven't watched the news in a few years because MOST of it is stuff that doesn't effect me and is none of my business. If I need to know about what's going on I'll do my own research. But sometimes, Hugh has it on to keep up to date with things that are important for him to see and know.
I realised that there is so much hurt in this world. From the brief 30 minute segment that I caught parts of, I saw the hurt. Crime, murder, suffering. Then they think it's a good idea to let you know that some baby whales were born yesterday as though our minds are completely wiped of all the pain we saw prior.
I sat on this guilt for a few days. I journaled about it. I cried for people in pain.
There are things I can do to help, there are things we can all do. And we should. But I wanted to write this so we could all start small. Because Hugh always tells me that charity starts in the home. Being a good human, a good parent, friend, lover and community member is so important to the big picture.
I was getting caught up in feeling small. I was getting caught up in what I couldn't do for the people in pain.
So I decided to start playing full out in the things that I could.
:: I can smile at everyone I pass on my morning walk. Because I know when I've been feeling low, a smile from a stranger is that little reminder that happiness exists.
:: I can help people. Even in the small ways, like the cliched carrying an elderly persons groceries to their car. Or telling another mother that they're doing an awesome job when I see their toddler on the floor in the grocery store crying. Or picking up rubbish on the street, even if it's not mine, even if it seems gross. I can wash my hands after.
:: I can raise kind girls. This part is a little more difficult to navigate, but I'll do my best so that more happiness spreads through the world because of them.
:: I can speak up about the things that I believe in. Like gay marriage. Like gender equality. Not in a way that makes me feel loud and important, but in a way that lets people who don't have the opportunities that I do know that I'm there for them in love in whatever way I can be. The way that makes just one other person feel loved and cared for.
:: I can work on myself so that I can be of service to others in the best way possible.
And I know, in the grand scheme of things, these little acts don't mean a lot. But that feeling of support that someone might feel from something you or I do could be the difference for them in that day.
Adding lots more light, more love and more happiness in the smallest of ways is going to make us better as a whole. Sending love to the guy who cut you off instead of throwing your middle finger in the air. You don't know his situation, you don't know if he's hurting. The more we can treat each other like the best version of themselves, the more OUR world grows.
That gives us more energy, more power, to make difference in the world.
In what small way can you make a difference in the world?


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Category Archives: Press
Life's a Beach painting shortlisted for National Open Art Competition
Very exciting news – The painting I submitted has been shortlisted for #thegreatartprize #NOA17 and as one of the 500 shortlisted works will go through to the second round of judging for The National Art Open Competition Continue reading
Posted in Exhibited, News, Painting, Press Tagged Art, art collection, art critic, artist, competition, exhibition, national art open, national open art, NOA, Painting, painting prize Leave a comment
Quirky outdoor seating to make your garden look amazing
Pretend you are relaxing on the beach from the comfort of your own back garden with this Life is a Beach deck chair (above) designed by British artist Jacqueline Hammond Continue reading
The Guardian featured Country Lane Deckchair by Jacqueline Hammond at the weekend
Posted in News, Press, Smart Deco Collection Leave a comment
Country Lane Deckchair Featured in Five of the Best: Designer Deckchairs in Homes and Property, Evening Standard
Smart Deco's Country Lane Deckchair by Jacqueline Hammond has been featured in Five of the Best: Designer Deckchairs Continue reading
Life's a Beach in the Summer Sale at notonthehighstreet.com
#summershere #salenowon Only £80 – Life's a Beach Deckchair by Jacqueline Hammond #artbyjaxx Are you enjoying #theweather and #fancyatrip to the #beach at #theweekend ? With my deckchair design you can just stay at #home Gaze at the pretty coast from a bird's eye view or sit down and #relax in the #garden . Continue reading
Posted in Business, Press, Shopping, Smart Deco Collection Tagged Art, artist, beach, deckchair, gallery, garden, jacqueline hammond, landscape, Local News - Brighton, painter, Painting, sea, seascape Leave a comment
House to Home's Festival camping essentials – 10 of the best – features Santa Fe Deckchair
Dreaming of pastures new? Perfect for watching the sun set while camping, this British designed deckchair – with its smattering of poppies bursting with colour against a stunning Spanish landscape – is just the spot from which to while away … Continue reading
The Guardian featured Country Lane Deckchair by Jacqueline Hammond at the weekend
With its enticing avenue of trees on the sling, this design features a print of a painting entitled 'Mum's Drive Home', depicting an atmospheric drive down a winding road from a coastal town in Devon. Achieving a pleasing perspective, it evokes the feeling of travelling down a country lane with the roof down, feeling the cooling breeze, seeing dancing dappled sun spots, anticipating finding a tucked-away rural pub or picnic spot. Continue reading
Posted in Press Tagged Art, British, country lane deckchair, designer, guardian newspaper, painter, smart deco 1 Comment
Artist Jacqueline Hammond Installs Art Print Deckchairs on Brighton's Rainbow Crossing in support of the 'Rainbow Crossing Forever' campaign
Jacqueline Hammond (http://jacquelinehammond.co.uk ), a renowned artist from leading Brighton art studio, JAG Gallery (http://www.jagartgallery.co.uk/), is urging Brighton & Hove Council to keep the freshly-painted Rainbow Crossing that was painted on Madeira Drive on [DATE]. The first of its kind … Continue reading
'Queenie Nose She's Picked a Diamond Year 2012' Mug Heads Alternative Memorabilia Trend
Artist Jacqueline Hammond depicts the Queen enjoying a private and unusual moment May 17, 2012, Press Dispensary. With the Queen's Diamond Jubilee fast approaching, a public backlash is starting to occur against the hype and twee memorabilia flooding the UK. Renowned … Continue reading
Sit Pretty This Summer with Art Print Deckchairs from Jacqueline Hammond
For those seeking a stylish seating experience this summer, Brighton-based artist, Jacqueline Hammond ( http://www.jacqueline-hammond.com ), has the answer to 'sitting pretty' without the need to visit a scenic location in person. Thanks to Jacqueline's series of Art Print Deckchairs … Continue reading


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Thank you to all our MyMarathon champions who took on 26.2 miles this May and raised funds for our life saving research into heart and circulatory diseases.
Get rewarded for your fundraising!
We value all of our fundraisers - every donation, no matter the amount, powers our life saving research - so thank you!
If you're going the extra mile with your fundraising, then we want to reward you. Pay in your fundraising by 30 June 2019 to be eligible for the prizes below*.
Raise £150* or more
And you'll get one of our champion medals. A permanent reminder that you went the distance!
Raise £300* or more
And you'll get one of our champion medals and entry into our luxury prize draw*!
Get fundraising!
Share your everydayhero fundraising or collect sponsorship offline and get rewards!
What is MyMarathon
MyMarathon is a challenge to complete 26.2 miles throughout May, in any way that suits you. Whether it takes you 4 hours, 4 days or 4 weeks, you can get out there as much as you need to clock up your miles over the month. Whether these are the first miles you've ever run, you're a regular runner, or you decide you'd rather walk it, as long as you cover 26.2 miles in May you'll be a MyMarathon champion.
However you choose to run, you decide the place and you decide the pace.
Three great reasons to take part
Not sure if you can run a marathon in May? Here are a few reasons to give it a go:
For your health
Running is good for your heart! Your heart is a muscle, and running will increase its strength, which could reduce the threat of heart conditions.
For the challenge
The satisfaction of completing a marathon, however long it takes, is a reward in itself - especially if running isn't your go-to activity!
For the cause
Every donation you raise, no matter the amount, helps to power our life saving research into heart and circulatory diseases.
How to get started
Whether it's over 4 hours, 4 days or 4 weeks, getting involved couldn't be easier! Follow these three simple steps to sign up and kick start your fundraising.
Sign ups for 2019 are now closed, but you can still visit our website for other BHF events.
- Link your fitness tracker to keep count of those all-important miles
- Set a fundraising goal and share your page with friends and family
- Sign up and create an everydayhero fundraising page to collect donations
Get going
From top tips to help you clock up the miles, to some great places to run, we can help keep you on track until you reach your finish line.
Learn about setting goals
Fundraising tips
Take your fundraising all the way to the finish line! We've got lots of downloads to help you raise as much as possible to support our life saving research. And the more you raise, the more likely you are to get one of our fundraising prizes.
See our range of tips


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In the last few years, podcasts have become incredibly popular, but I've never really jumped on the bandwagon. Even though there's a podcast for just about everything from performing arts to science, I just never found a podcast that could hold my interest for more than one or two episodes. However, I discovered recently that I genuinely enjoy podcasts about Doctor Who, one of my favorite television shows. After browsing through many podcasts, I stumbled upon a podcast about podcasting which was recorded at ChicagoTARDIS 2010. It was through that podcasting panel podcast (say that five times fast) that I learned about the New Who Podcast, a short (less than 30-minute) program produced by David Vox Mullen and his stepdaughter Nicole. I was immediately drawn to their show because I loved not only the fact that someone watches Doctor Who with his stepdaughter, but also that he co-hosts a podcast with her.
While at ChicagoTARDIS 2011, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with Mullen about his podcasting career.
The New Who Podcast isn't the first podcast that Mullen has produced; he started out in 2009 with a Flash Forward podcast, the Flash Forcast. Says Mullen, "we got to speak with the creators of the show, some of the stars of the show, and it was just my first foray into the podcasting universe. And it was kind of trial by fire, learning things that worked, things that didn't work, but I found that because we were the first podcast about that show, we were getting a majority of the audience."
After Flash Forward met an early death, Mullen began a new podcast about The Event, which was, unfortunately, also canceled. In summer 2011, Mullen produced Torchcast, which focused on the ten-episode Starz and BBC collaboration Torchwood: Miracle Day. Just prior to the start of the 2011 fall lineup, Mullen merged all of his productions together to form the DVM Podcast Empire, a conglomerate which now encompasses over a dozen shows. Although the idea of a podcast network isn't new, Mullen's empire is unique because it focuses on high-concept television shows.
Mullen truly has taken on a unique and challenging enterprise by covering so many shows, including Grimm and Terra Nova for sci-fi/fantasy geeks, Person of Interest and Alcatraz for drama buffs, American Horror Story for horror fans, and The Secret Circle for teenagers (hosted by Mullen's stepdaughter Nicole), just to name a few. "We literally cast a giant net each year on all the high-concept, high-drama shows like Person of Interest and Alcatraz, shows that are created by people like J.J. Abrams and Jon Nolan, where we know we're going to get the big puzzle-type mystery thing. And that's what we do, we just enjoy trying to unravel the mystery, and we're having great fun with it." Because the DVMPE podcasts include so many shows, Mullen couldn't possibly host them all. While he does produce each podcast, he currently has contributing hosts in New Jersey, South Carolina, Illinois, and even the United Kingdom.
Anyone can record a podcast, but both the production and the content of the DVM Podcast Empire's shows are definitely high-quality. The hosts are engaging and entertaining, thorough in their reviews, and their discussions are thought-provoking without being overly serious. In fact, some hosts are so personable that I've actually caught myself agreeing (or arguing) with them out loud in my car. Mullen explains, "we're just having a blast, meeting new people, and we're always growing and looking for new podcasters and new talent."
If you're a fan of any of the shows that the DVM Podcast Empire produces, I absolutely recommend that you check out their podcasts. In addition to current productions, you can also download podcasts from shows that are no longer with us. If there's a show not currently being produced by the DVM Podcast Empire that you'd like to see added to their lineup, please contact David Vox Mullen via www.dvmpe.com


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Detecting Buffer Overflow with Intel® Pointer Checker
Por Nguyen, Khang T, publicado em 30 de janeiro de 2013
There are many ways a hacker can attack web applications. Some of the most common security threats are buffer overflows, SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS) and denial of service (DoS) attacks.
This blog will cover buffer overflow attacks along with technology (the pointer checker feature in the Intel® compiler) that can help you determine if your code is vulnerable.
What is Buffer Overflow?
A buffer overflow occurs when data is written into a buffer that does not allocate enough space to store the data being written to it. The extra data will overwrite adjacent memory locations. This is especially dangerous because when unintended memory is written to, it could have very serious results in an application, for example: overflowing a buffer for a local variable in a function could result in overwriting the return address of that function causing the program to crash.
More information about buffer overflow can be read here .
How Hackers Can Take Advantage of Buffer Overflow
Programming languages such as assembly language, C and C++, do not perform automatic bounds check unless developers use new string-safe functions such as those found in Microsoft* Visual Studio. These languages require developers to manually manage the size of allocated memory. Applications developed using languages such as C# and Java will be immune to this kind of problem. However, if Java or C# applications are linking to legacy applications that still have C/C++ or assembly code in them, they still have this inherent dependency on proper bounds checking being done by the original developers of the C/C++ code.
There are two main types of buffer overflow attacks: stack based and heap based. Heap based attacks flood the memory space reserved for a program. In a stack-based buffer overflow, a hacker can submit data to a Web application, and that data is intentionally larger than the memory buffer size allocated to hold it. This extra data can overflow into adjacent memory, overwriting any valid data held in it, and often overwriting the return address that is used when the function ends. A hacker can then strategically insert his or her own new return address causing the application to then execute their own malicious code.
Stopping Buffer Overflow Defects with the Intel ® C++ Compiler XE 13.0
The Intel® C++ Compilers generate code for IA-32 and Intel® 64 architectures. The Pointer Checker is a debugging feature that helps find buffer overflows occurring in Windows* OS or Linux* OS based applications. The feature performs bounds checking for memory accesses through pointers and identifies any out-of-bounds access in pointer checker enabled code. The pointer checker can also detect dangling pointers, that is, pointers that point to memory that has been freed. When this detection is enabled, using a dangling pointer in an indirect access will also cause an out-of-bounds error. More information about the Intel® Compilers can be found here.
How Pointer Checker Detects Buffer Overflows
When Pointer Checker detects there are copy instructions like "memcpy" or "strcpy", it will compare the amount of space allocated to the destination with the amount of data being copied to ensure the copy instruction is successfully executed. If there is not enough allocated space, it will display error. For example:
memcpy(destination, origin, 17)
If the destination only has room for 13 bytes while 17 needs to be copied then the pointer checker will display errors.
strcpy(destination, origin)
Similarly, if the destination can store 15 bytes of data while the length of origin is more than 15 bytes then the pointer checker will display errors.
More information about how Intel Pointer Checker works can be found here.
Buffer overflows are a well-known security hole that has been exploited by hackers in legacy systems. The pointer checker feature in the Intel® C++ Compiler XE 13.0 will detect this problem in C/C++ applications for both Windows* and Linux*.


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Norman Chamber of Commerce
Norman Chamber of Commerce
115 E Gray
Phone: 405-321-7260
Fax: 405-360-4679
Norman is home of the University of Oklahoma, many cultural attractions and activities and an abundance of shopping and dining. The Norman Chamber of Commerce helps grow current businesses in Norman, establish new ones and draw individuals and businesses to the area. Through a variety of programs and events, the chamber helps to continue Norman's legacy as a proactive force in the community.
Find Nearby
Off I-35 take Main St downtown (E) exit, go several miles, after crossing the railroad tracks turn left at the 1st light (Peters), go one block to Gray St and turn left again. Chamber is on the N side of the street in the middle of the block.
Related Topics


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Spanish Arch Galway
The Spanish Arch is, perhaps, Galway's most iconic fixture. It stands alongside the river new Wolfe Tone Bridge, and historians believe that it was originally a part of the city's medieval walls. Technically, there's nothing inherently Spanish about the Spanish Arch, aside from the fact that it was used to regulate the import of Spanish wine that arrived along the river.
The arch was originally built in the 16th century, along with three other arches. When Cromwell ploughed a line of destruction through Ireland in the 17th century, much of the walls were destroyed. This arch survives and has been carefully restored, and today it serves as an important (not to mention, attractive) point of reference in Galway.
The Galway City Museum was formerly built into the arch, though it has since relocated to a location directly behind it. If you're looking to linger, a few restaurants and hostels in the immediate area command fine views of the Spanish Arch.
Geo-Coordinates: Latitude: 53.270992 Longitude: -9.054277


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Another film on the cards then. We were filmed this morning here in the studio for the Crafted programme we are on. Hence the late post. It was fun, if a little time consuming. You know these media types, one more shot like this; there was a rustle on that take; phone rings mid flow. Oh, the glamour!
They did some interesting takes of the making process, so I look forward to seeing those. We can use the material apparently, so we might be able to edit our own version with all the best bits, ie, none of me or the Other One wittering on, and lots of shoemaking stuff.
And more time in front of the camera tomorrow. This time for some lifestyle shots of the Winkers. We are going to the Millenium Bridge and will shoot either back to Tate Modern or with Tower Bridge in the background. We need to get the Winkers shot outside to cement the fact that they are outdoor shoes, not slippers. Should be fun too, just hope the snow stays away and the models don't freeze.
And the Other One now tells me that she wants to post something for you all, so here she is and see you all next week...
One of the interesting things about all this filming is that the interviewers keep asking us what is so different about what we do? It's a good question and we thought it might be nice to share our musings on the subject...and to hear what you've got to say. What sets carreducker shoes apart? Well, we think that there are a couple of things... First of all, neither of us are particularly formal people, although we do take our shoemaking seriously, so we are more flexible about the details. Our designs and shoe styles are an interesting combination of the traditional, but with a strong design element; we pay close attention to detail, the precise shape of a curve or length of a toecap; and although we know the industry standards - heel height, shape of counter etc. - and apply them where appropriate, ultimately we do what we feel is right for the customer, their personal style and their foot shape.
We would love to know your thoughts...anyway, that's my bit for this week, so have a good week and back to jimmyshoe next Friday.


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This adventure will leave you wanting more!
Minimum Age: 14 Year(s)
Set beneath the watershed of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains, Interlaken is internationally renowned for its variety of rivers and whitewater rafting tours. Here you'll find everything from fast flowing alpine rivers with adrenaline fuelled class IV rapids, to calm sunny floating trips on the famous warm water of the Aare river between Thun and Bern. Our team of internationally accredited guides will raft you down some of the most scenic rivers in Switzerland, providing safety and professionalism together with the thrills of white water action. Iconic peaks from the Jungfrau region including the dramatic Eiger North Wall provide the backdrop for our uniquely spectacular raft trips and guarantee a memorable experience for all participants.
Rafting Latschine
Duration: 4 hours including transport and changing time
-Pick up at your hotel/hostel/train station
-Meet your guides at Outdoor Interlaken Summer Base
-First briefing
-Changing and Dressing in rafting equipment.
-Drive to the start of the rafting (20 minutes).
-Instructions, training, comprehensive safety talk
-Rafting approx. 1.5 a 2 hours to Lake Brienz
-10 minutes drive back to Outdoor Interlaken Summer Base


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Technical Paper
The University of Windsor - St. Clair College E85 Silverado
The fuel called E-85 can be burned effectively in engines similar to the engines currently mass-produced for use with gasoline. Since the ethanol component of this fuel is produced from crops such as corn and sugar cane, the fuel is almost fully renewable. The different physical and chemical properties of E-85, however, do require certain modifications to the common gasoline engine. The Windsor - St. Clair team has focused their attention to modifications that will improve fuel efficiency and reduce tailpipe emissions. Other modifications were also performed to ensure that the vehicle would still operate with the same power and driveability as its gasoline counterpart.


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Northern Ireland Golf Trips
Visitors to Northern Ireland can book their Northern Ireland Golf Trips safe in the knowledge that our 25+ years experience will serve them well. Our visitors can choose from the best golf courses Northern Ireland has to offer. Some people feel that the Royal County Down is one of the best available! Others prefer the fantastic layouts offered by the Royal Portrush. Still others rave about the challenge offered by the Portstewart Golf Club. This really is the best golf that Northern Ireland has to propose. So, get your spikes ready and book your Northern Ireland Golf Trips now!
Royal County Down Golf Club
Royal County Down is widely thought to be one of the world's best courses. The Royal County Down is situated in one of the world's most naturally beautiful settings in the Murlough Nature Reserve. The links stretche along the shores of Dundrum Bay and zig zag to provide a different view from virtually every hole.Narrow ribbons of fairways feed their way through an impressive a set of sand dunes as you may conjure up. Purple heather and golden gorse adorn your path but beware! They may be beautiful though they are distracting – punishment awaits those who lack focus!
Portstewart Golf Club
Portstewart is one of very few Golf Clubs in Ireland which offer three 18 hole golf courses. Each offers something different for the intrepid Golfer. Our favourite 3 holes include The Strand (par 72): The Riverside (par 68) and The Old Course (par 64). Click on this link to figure out why! And then contact us to get your Northern Ireland Golf Trips ready for booking!
Royal Portrush Golf Club
Here you can choose from Dunluce or the Valley Courses. Dunluce has been voted the 12th best in the world by Golf Magazine
Dunluce Links – Championship Course
The Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club ranks amongst the world's greatest courses. Voted Number 12 in the world by Golf Magazine and it really is a masterpiece of golf course architecture. Rough and testing greens will expose the lesser golfer and exalt the the real champions! The unpredictable weather of the roaring Atlantic make this course a great test for even the most seasoned golfer. The Valley is somewhat different.
Valley Links
The Valley lies between the East Strand and Dunluce. The course is located between the huge sandy hills along the Atlantic shore and higher ground. The Valley has a huge number of bumps and hollow which may be found on many a course – but they aren't like this! If you fancy your chances and want to prove your skill – get on down here now!


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Did we just skip over winter? It was not intentional. Winter is beautiful here- the snow covered mountains, the ice filled bird baths, the internal arthritic ache of cold hands. I thoroughly enjoyed my first winter here. Cold but doable. It is usually quiet and peaceful here, but the winter was extra quiet and extra peaceful. Most of the bunnies and birds and critters were hiding away, and the most wildlife I would see somedays would be a couple of ravens.
The last few weeks have changed drastically. Now everything is coated in green and starting to flower. There are furry, feathered and scaley creatures at every turn, and the babies. The BABIES! So distracting to see baby bunnies that could fit in your palm, jumping around spastically with their fuzzball bodies and tiny ears. Difficult to get any work done with that scene outside my window, but at the same time it sure is inspiring.
Since it's spring, it means festival season has begun. My first is the Indian Wells Art Festival in a couple of weeks on March 31- April 2nd at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens. My first time doing this show, and I am excited! Looks like a beautiful location, and I have so much work that is ready to be shown off (and sent to their new homes).
The very next weekend will be the Joshua Tree National Park Art Festival at the Oasis Visitors Center in 29 palms.
Later in April, in San Diego, will be the Mission Federal ArtWalk in Little Italy.
It will be a busy April.
As I cast aside my heavy sweaters in favor of lighter weight fabrics, I feel like I am coming out of hibernation, coming out of the winter studio where I have been wrapped in a blanket, sipping tea as I add layers upon layers of paint on canvas after canvas. Spring is the season of reaching out and doing cleaning and embracing new things.


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Senator Wallpaper Collection
Senator Wallpaper Collection
The Vymura Senator Wallpaper Collection is a modern take of a traditional damask design. This design features beautiful colour schemes complete with subtle glitter accents. Vymura Senator Damask Glitter Wallpaper is a welcome addition to any home.
Senator Damask Taupe/Silver Glitter Wallpaper
M1031 by Vymura£12.99 inc VAT
Senator Damask Teal/Silver Glitter Wallpaper
M1030 by Vymura£12.99 inc VAT
Damask wallpaper designs are timeless, offering just as much style and elegance today as they always have. Vymura bring damask designs to life in the Senator Wallpaper Collection.
A modern take on traditional damask designs, the Vymura Senator Wallpaper Collection has a majestic look and is sure to make a welcome addition to any room. Choose from neutral silver and gold tones, vibrant teal, rich red or a black colour options to create your desired look.
Perfect for use throughout a room or as a feature wall, we're confident you'll love to see Senator Wallpaper on your walls.


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Secure Lock
Lock your rate and secure peace of mind. With our SecureLock programs, you can lock in today's competitive rates while you shop for a home, sell your home, or while your home is under construction. You can also take advantage of a float down option if rates go down prior to signing your loan documents. If rates go up, you are secure!
- Lock and Buy:
Lock in your rate while you shop for a home
- Lock and List:
Lock in your rate while you sell your home
- Lock and Build:
Lock in your rate while your home is under construction
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We have Reporter Marcella Raymond On To Discuss her Body Shaming letter of "ConcerN" From anonymous sender That went viral. We get scoops. She got a ridiculous SECOND PAGE! Hear about that and lots more....
We welcomed the lovely Marcella Raymond to our show last week. Marcella is a reporter for WGN in Chicago. Marcella posted a body shaming and ageist letter she got from an anonymous "concerned"viewer on her Facebook page and it went viral. She talks about what its like to have so much attention on her, how she felt when it goes away and how people feel its somehow their duty to criticize strangers. We even got an exclusive scoop due to the opening disappearing. Marcella was kind enough to do another opening and she told us she got a SECOND page!! Wait till you hear what the concerned listener added..Michelle thought perhaps it was an aspiring personal trainer. WE find out what profession this person allegedly is in.. Marcella was open, funny and endearing. She is welcome back anytime. WE LOVED HER!! So will you. She also talks about her new book which sounds like it should be juicy read.. She will be on again to talk about her book.
Thanks so much Marcella. You are smart, fun, and a great guest!!
You can see Marcella on WGN in Chicago. Follow her on facebook
My other podcast will be starting up soon. in the meantime check out some old shows at www.groovypodcast.com
Thanks again Marcella. Most of all thanks to our listeners. We love ya!!
Michelle and Grace
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September 2019


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It is essential to draw up advance-planning documents while you still have the decision-making capacity to do so. These documents can help ensure that all your financial and medical wishes are carried out, which is especially important with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. If you don't have the appropriate documents, a court can appoint a guardian for you.
Power of attorney for finances. This legal document allows another person to manage your finances on your behalf. Naming a competent, trustworthy agent is essential. Many seniors designate a family member for this task. You can build in checks and balances by requiring that the agent provide a periodic accounting to a third party, such as another relative or a lawyer. Or you can require that another individual sign off on any gifts of your property.
Powers of attorney should state the agent's authority to handle specific investment accounts, annuities and other assets -- details that aren't included in some off-the-shelf documents. Make sure the power of attorney is "durable," meaning that the agent's powers continue when the person creating the power of attorney becomes incapacitated.
Living trust. This document can provide detailed guidelines on how your property should be managed if you become incapacitated. You transfer your investments, real estate and other assets into the trust and name yourself as trustee, so you maintain control of the property. You also name one or more successor trustees to manage the property if you become incapacitated, and you include detailed instructions on how the money should be used if you are hospitalized or need long-term care.
After you die, the trust allows the successor trustee to transfer your property to your beneficiaries without having to go through probate. If you have a living trust, you still need a financial power of attorney to manage transactions that may fall outside the scope of the trust, such as dealing with credit card accounts.
Health care directives. A living will documents your wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment. Some states combine the living will with a health care power of attorney in one form.
The health care power of attorney allows you to appoint someone to make medical decisions for you if you become incapacitated. You also can include specific instructions on how your agent should make your health care decisions.
Laws governing these documents can vary from state to state. Look at the American Bar Association's health care power of attorney guidance, titled Giving Someone a Power of Attorney for Your Health Care, at www.americanbar.org.
Also, those who wish to include more details in their advance directives might consider the Five Wishes form, which meets legal requirements in more than 40 states. The form, available at www.agingwithdignity.org, allows users to designate a health care proxy and outline the care they want under various medical scenarios.
Note: Because of the differences in state law and the complexities involved in ensuring that your instructions are airtight, see a lawyer for help in drawing up these documents.


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A round of thanks is due to the Folger Estate Stable Committee for their bull-rilliant efforts on raising enough money to repair and restore the historic Folger Estate Stable in Wunderlich Park. This comes on the hooves of the Committee's achievement of getting the stable placed on the National Register of Historic places in 2004. YOU can find out more about the restoration and the Stable Committee here.
Built in 1905, the stable used to be a grand palace for the horses it housed – filled with marble, skylights, and crystal chandeliers. It was designed by the same architect who envisioned Coit Tower and San Francisco City Hall. These days, it's coming apart at the seams – according to Inside Bay Area, the skylights are boarded up, the eaves are falling off the building, and the storm drains don't work properly. After the Wunderlich donated the property to the County, the stable fell into disrepair – and was almost shut down in 2002.
In addition to the structure's historical importance to Woodside, Folger Estate Stable is one of the few public stables left in Woodside, as many of the older structures have been torn down over the years. The 24 stalls are much needed by the community, and riders pay up to $750 a month to keep their horses at the deteriorating but historic Stable
The hard-working people at the Stable Committee managed to raise $3.3 million for repairs that begin this spring. The repairs will include a new roof and skylights, buffing up the marble baseboards, and retrofitting to modern safety standards. They're hoping to raise an additional $1 million for an educational endowment that will pay for schoolchildren to come and visit the Folger Estate Stable, to learn about horses and the place they've had in Woodside's history and present, as well as creating a riding lessons program for children.
It seems stables are getting a lot of discussion in Woodside these days, as seen in this COW article from November 4th – no doubt because so many of us COWs are so horse-friendly! Thanks again to the Folger Estate Stable Committee for all their hard work and dedication in saving this important Woodside landmark, and a hip hip hooves-ray to all the people who donated!


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Walkthrough: 'Kota' Opens at the Pulitzer This Friday With Some Groundbreaking Work
The Pulitzer occupies a fascinating space in STL's museum scene as a laboratory, a testing ground for new ideas and showcase for research. The newest show, "Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art," opens this Friday and leads the audience through an exploration of an academic argument about the Kota figures. True to the Pulitzer's habit of shying away from didactics, it instead calls on participants to actively engage with the exhibition by asking questions and making connections—and a trip to the exhibition's digital space will allow them to find and visualize the answers they've been looking for through the sleek (and kind of trippy) Kota Data Cloud.
On a visit to the Pulitzer last Friday, I walked through the exhibition, still in its last stages of setting up, with Kristina Van Dyke, the former Pulitzer director, an African arts specialist, and the co-orchestrator of this exhibition. As mentioned here, Kota are guardian figurines from what is now Gabon and the Republic of Congo, created over the course of the 17th-20th centuries. Believed to embody local, protective spirits on whom the success of the village depended, they were affixed to bundles (most of the bundles—but one—are long gone) containing the remains of village dead. They vary in size, have different facial attributes and ornamentation.
As missionaries and colonialism spread through Africa, especially in the 1930s, the stories and oral history behind many of the Kota figures was lost. Not much is known, especially, about the production. How do the figurines relate? What were their specific origins and who specifically created them?
The other co-curator of the exhibition, a Belgian computer engineer named Frederic Cloth, thinks he might be finding some answers through algorithms he wrote to reveal patterns among the Kota—and his argument, constructed over more than 15 years, is what will guide you through the exhibition. First, you see his line drawings that breaks down the Kota into their most elemental attributes—highlighting distinctions in ink that patina on the objects might otherwise obscure. "Your eye starts moving across this field, and you think, 'I want to bring order to this,'" Van Dyke says.
Also, you'll notice more detailed drawings that depict the Kota from both side and front angles, splicing the attributes into individual, building-block-like units. The exhibition is "designed for people who don't know anything about African art," says Van Dyke—this is all an exploration.
An assemblage of Kota wait to greet you as you move into the first gallery space, along with plenty of seating. The selection is "the widest range possible," says Van Dyke—the better for you to "sit and mediate," as she says, examine them, see similarities and think about how they relate. One example: Some of the figures' heads are concave, others protrude out. Why? In his study of 2,000 Kota (50 are displayed in the exhibition), Cloth hypothesizes that concave heads represent a female figure; the protruding ones represent a male.
Next along the wall is a case that holds seven Kota—this time grouped to begin to provide answers. While not all details about all Kota are known, in this case, three Kota belonging to one workshop are adjacent; next to them are two Kota from another workshop—both groups flanked by singletons. You look at them grouped like this and begin to pick out common characteristics from given workshops through different generations (one of Cloth's arguments).
The last stop on the first floor is the Kota Data Cloud, a room where what you piece together on screen surrounds you on the wall for an immersive experience. A massive touchscreen in the center selects Kota for you from a virtual "card deck," and then you put the connections you've been making outside in the gallery by "drawing" lines to connect the Kota where you see relationships (all of this is projected large-scale on the wall in front of you) and form them into groups. The software then analyzes, by percentages, how much of each characteristic the Kota share in common. It allows you to visualize the relationships, get a sense of participating in the research and learn more about the figures' production in various workshops.
"Through the digital experience of the Kota Data Cloud, the exhibition at the Pulitzer visualizes the process being undertaken by the curators to reconstruct the history of Kota reliquaries through a close observation of the objects themselves," according to the exhibition's press release.
This might seem a little intimating for some new to African art or to the most casual of museumgoers, but remember, this was designed for people who are coming in with a blank slate: "When people get their 'report card' back of what they see, they feel more confident about looking," says Van Dyke. "So they go back out and look harder."
Downstairs, more Kota await, some grouped so you can examine them by attribute (heads, arms), as well as a gallery showcasing some of the quirkier Kota that take on personalities of their own. There's also the Kota Protolab, the site of Happy Badger/Rampant studio's five-month residency at Pulitzer, where they'll be using their program to draw further connections between the Kota and where guests who use the technology located there to create their own Kota might luck out with a 3-D printed version.
It's a groundbreaking exhibition—and unusual in that rather than presenting the outcome of research, it presents the research itself, as well as new ways of exploring it. "This is not a done deal," says Van Dyke. "We want visitors to ask if they should believe in the argument." And with the incorporation of computer science, well…"I don't think it would happen at any other institution," she says. Importantly, the software, tweaked accordingly, could be used well outside of this context for art historians and specialists to track correlations and relationships between objects.
PS—If you want to get into the tech behind the exhibition, check out Cloth's lecture at the DeYoung Museum, "Algorithms and Mathematics Applied to the Reconstitution of Lost Traditions," here:
"Kota" runs Oct. 16-March 19 at the Pulitzer.


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Who We Are
We've been working at desks in the big city, engaging our creative sides only on evenings and weekends, and we've had it. We ditched our careers on the East Coast and headed home to the Northwoods of Minnesota. It's time to get creative, to put down roots in a place we love, and to get our hands dirty making something that we can all enjoy.
Emily is a native Duluthian who holds a PhD in food policy and behavioral theory from Tufts University. She is a nationally recognized food and drinks writer. She was a regular columnist for the James Beard award-winning site Food52 for four years, and has contributed to a wide swath of other publications including Lucky Peach, Minnesota Public Radio and Norwegian American Weekly. Her first book, Camp Cocktails, is coming out in February 2020! Also, she once accidentally won a wine-tasting contest in France. That was funny. She's the palate of the operation and resident mad scientist.
Joel has followed a crooked path. Exciting highlights: Getting bitten by a bat while mist netting at night in a Costa Rican rain forest. Working with nuns running a clinic on a landfill in Tijuana. Leaving medical school to focus on global health and starting not one, but two! internationally acclaimed non-profits that fight HIV-AIDS and promote water sanitation in parts of Africa. Learning how to distill a moonshine called "the tears of the lion" in a mud hut using clay pots from Dani, his Kenyan "grandmother." Now Joel is using his background in strategic planning, plus his hobby-honed mechanical skills, to assemble and run our crazy amounts of equipment.