text:
HI(aq) is the symbol for hydroiodic acid, an aqueous solution of hydrogen iodide, HI. Hydrogen iodide is a gas at standard temperature and pressure. Its molar mass is 127.9 grams per mole, and its solubility in water is 245 grams per milliliter.
Hydroiodic acid is classified as a strong acid. It is used in organic chemistry as a reducing agent and as a source of iodine. Hydrogen iodide is industrially obtained from the reaction of molecular iodine with hydrazine, N2H4. The reaction also produces molecular nitrogen as a secondary product. Hydroiodic acid is spontaneously oxidized in the presence of molecular oxygen. It is listed as a controlled substance, since it can be used to produce methamphetamine, an illicit drug.


text:
We have a new website
go to gov.scot
Register to receive email news alerts, daily digest, weekly roundup or Topic newsletters.
The EMFF e-system allows applicants to apply online for European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) support. It enables applicants to manage and track their applications online, submit claims, progress reports and upload any documents directly onto the system.
The e-system is used by both applicants and the Intermediate Bodies who will process your applications and claims and more information on how to use the system is available below:
Page updated: Tuesday, March 21, 2017

subset: commoncrawl


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Holly Springs K-9 recovers from rare infection
Storm, a 3½-year-old police dog with the Holly Springs Police Department, wants nothing more than to go back to work after being out for about a month.
That time will come within a few weeks. Storm had surgery in late June to remove a potentially life-threatening fungal infection from his belly. Now, the K-9 is in recovery.
For the Holly Springs Police Department, Storm represents not only a significant investment but an integral part of the police force.
Soon, the department will have five police dogs on its force, one of the most robust K-9 programs in the area.
Sgt. Chris Poston, who is in charge of the K-9 unit, said Storm is an intense, intelligent animal who, like the other dogs on the force, wants nothing more than to have a job.
"I love that little pup to death," Poston said. "He's just a ball of fire."
Officer Daniel Kozik, Storm's handler, was the first to notice a small spot the size of a quarter on Storm's belly. Antibiotic treatment from a veterinarian in Holly Springs wasn't working, and the spot progressively got worse.
Finally, the vet took a biopsy and sent the results to the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of the Carolinas in Cary. There, Dr. Rae Hutchins diagnosed Storm with cutaneous zygomycosis, a rare fungal infection.
Hutchins said she had never seen a case in her career. The infection tends to affect police and working dogs more frequently than others, Hutchins said, probably because they are so often exposed to the environment.
Dr. Elaine Holmes, one of the hospital's surgeons, removed the infection on June 30. Since then, Storm has recovered comfortably.
The hospital treats working dogs often, Hutchins said. In general, they can be a challenge to work with. But Storm has warmed up to the hospital staff.
"He's got a really good personality," Hutchins said. "He gets excited about his visits to come here now, which I think is really sweet."
Handling a K-9
Kozik, who has been with the Holly Springs Police Department since May 2012, said he spends more time with Storm than he does with his wife. Storm has been living with Kozik, his wife, and their two other dogs for about a year since his training for the K-9 unit began. By now, the Belgian Malinois has become a part of Kozik's family.
"Emotionally, he's like a pet to me," Kozik said.
Kozik said he always knew he wanted to work with a police dog. His aunt was a K-9 handler for the Fayetteville Police Department. Officers have to go through an application process before getting a K-9 partner. Then, there's a four-month training course for both the officer and the dog.
For Kozik, the work has paid off.
"It's the best job in the police department," Kozik said.
Some dogs will work for the praise, Kozik said, but Storm works for the reward. He has a hard head and a strong will, but Kozik knows those qualities make for the best police dogs.
"He tests me all the time," Kozik said. "But I'm very lucky to have him."
The K-9 unit
The price tag for Storm's surgery was staggering, Poston said. It stung, especially because Storm is young. The canine only has been on the force for about a year and a half. The department has had health issues with its K-9s before, but nothing this intensive or expensive, Poston said.
Storm and the four other dogs on Holly Springs' K-9 unit — Justice, Blaze, Cody and Oz — are expected to work every day. Their jobs range from drug hunts to missing-person searches. If a K-9 indicates that they smell drugs inside a car, for example, the officer will have probable cause to search the car.
Poston said the department has heard people charged with drug crimes say they purposefully avoid Holly Springs because of the size of the K-9 unit. The department has been lucky that the town supports the police dog program, Poston said. It is unusual for a town like Holly Springs, which a population of 30,000, to have five K-9s. Cary, with a population of 155,000, has three. Raleigh has 11.
The first Holly Springs police dog started working in 2005. Poston said the department has had a goal of having five K-9s for about three years. With five dogs on the force, every shift at the department is covered, which Poston said is ideal. The initial cost of a K-9 with minimal prior training is about $7,000, but after that, Poston said they usually cost little.
"They work for dog food and a rubber ball," Poston said.
Kozik uses a mixture of German and Dutch commands. That's Storm's native language; he was born in Europe. German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois, the two breeds most police departments use, are exceptionally smart dogs.
Poston described German Shepherds as a luxury sedan, built for a casual pace. Comparatively, Belgian Malinois are like a Corvette, he said — high-speed and harder to drive.
But Storm has proven himself useful to the department. On one occasion, an officer was trying to stop a speeding car. The car wrecked, and the driver darted. Within 20 minutes, Storm tracked the man to his house, where he was standing in the driveway.
For the five dogs on the force, training won't end until they retire. They're required to be re-certified every year, and they undergo at least 16 hours of formal training per month, not including all the time handlers invest in their partners outside of training.
"It's truly a lifestyle," Poston said. "It's one of the biggest commitments you can have within the police department."


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Seed counting and bagging machine.
For precisely counting and gently bagging seeds such as corn, beans, peas, cereals, oats, millet, sugar beet, and sunflower seeds.
- Rotating filling device
- Different operational modes are available such as pre-selecting the required number of seeds or bags to be counted or filled (max. 9.999).
- Low vibrations
- No de-mixing due to different kernel sizes
- Additional cleaning and sorting out of awns or broken grains


text:
At the most basic level, a hormone is a chemical made in one part of a living thing that travels around and affects other parts of that thing. Hormones are as old as the hills, and probably evolved when life on Earth was nothing but cells bobbing in the primordial seas. The special organs in human bodies that make hormones–including ovaries and testicles–came much later.
What are a typical woman's hormone levels?
When you say "raging hormones," most people think about those awkward teenage year–complete with sprouting hair, inconveniently timed periods, and zits. This makes sense since it's during the change from childhood to adulthood that women's ovaries start making the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone in large amounts. (By the way, "large amounts" of a hormone are actually very tiny amounts, since we measure hormones in our blood in billionths or trillionths of a gram.)
For the average woman between ages 15 and 40 who isn't using hormonal birth control, here's what the sex hormones estradiol (a type of estrogen) and progesterone do each day of a menstrual cycle.
Both hormones increase about 10-fold over a few days around the time an egg is released from the ovary. (FYI, estrogen and progesterone aren't the only hormones involved in coordinating the whole menstrual cycle, but they're the two that cause either a period or a pregnancy.) The amount and timing of estrogen and progesterone an individual woman makes changes from cycle to cycle depending on lots of factors–including age, health, stress level, and whether her body will release an egg that cycle or not. Between different women, there can be even bigger variations in the amount of these hormones they produce and when.
How do hormones affect mood?
It's a challenge to make any general statements about how hormones impact women since every woman is different. Studies about the relationship between women's hormones and mood have had mixed results. The most scientifically sound studies show that stress and overall health had a much greater–and steadier–impact on mood than hormones did.
But some women have serious depression that comes and goes with their periods–about 1% have a medically recognized condition known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). These mood changes are not caused by higher levels of hormones–studies of women with PMDD show they have normal levels of estrogen and progesterone. The actual cause isn't well understood, but it may be related to differences in the way women's bodies process hormones. Women with a mental health condition like bipolar or anxiety disorder may also process hormones differently, leading to different experiences of hormone changes during menstrual cycles.
Because there are as many ways to react to hormones as there are human beings, each woman will be the best judge of how her mood changes during the menstrual cycle.
How do hormones in birth control work?
The hormones in some methods of birth control are similar to the ones women's bodies make–close enough that the body recognizes them as estrogen and progesterone. There are multiple kinds of hormonal birth control, each with unique ingredients that are released differently.


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Sponsored by Automattic Comics
Mouseover for sound fx...
The Sixth DoctorReal Time signed by Colin Baker for Children in Need 2009 with authenticating framed print
Colin Baker's SignatureColin Baker signed his Real Time action figure to be auctioned by doctorwhotoys.net to raise money for Children in Need 2009
Pudsey & Colin Baker 100% of the winning bid for the signed Colin Baker figure will be donated to Children In Need
The auction for the signed figure & print is now closed. Together we raised £97 for Children in Need. Many thanks to everyone who helped publicize the auction, all the bidders and especially the winning bidder. Thank you.
Followers of the site will recall that back in March together we raised £120 for Comic Relief with the signed Cyber Controller figure
The mission of Children in Need is "to make a positive change to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the UK". Registered charity England & Wales no. 802052 and Scotland no. SC039557
Sponsored by Automattic Comics & doctorwhotoys.netWith thanks to Colin, Matt and Hoosier Whovian


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Setting up your own business is expensive. Apparently. But it doesn't have to be that way. Most startup businesses spend an absolute fortune on those first few months – the first few months when you're not actually generating any income. To be successful, you need to maximise profits and minimise expenditure. You can't get more minimalist than zero expenditure, so here are some tips on how to start up a business without spending a single penny!
Get registered
To start operations, you will need to register your business. This is usually free, and will give you a certain degree of protection from day one, such as safeguarding the business's name and any corporate identity you may be developing. You are required to register your business with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) under the Companies Act 1965 and the Registration of Businesses Act 1956 .
Get your finances in order
This may seem like a strange piece of advice to give in an article that's showing you how to avoid spending any money, but if your finances are sorted from the outset you will avoid costly accounting mistakes (and possible taxation violation fines) further down the line. Look for cheap accounting software such as QuickBooks Online, and make sure your financial records are kept up to date from the start.
Domain names can cost a fortune – or they can be free. Spend a bit of time hunting around for a domain name that encapsulates your business identity, and doesn't cost anything to acquire. Once you've registered your domain name you can start to build a website. You don't need to employ expensive webmasters to do this, as there are plenty of online resources for startup businesses that can help you to build a very basic website. You don't need bells and whistles at this point – but what you do need is to get your name out there quickly. So blog, Tweet and use social media sites like Facebook as free advertising platforms to grab the attention of your potential customers.
Check out sites such as Yalwa.my and Malaysia.Craiglist.com. These sites are incredibly popular and a great place to start pushing your business. MeetUp.com (http://meetup.com/cities/my) is another option – this site connects people who have similar interests and can help you to build your local customer base. Make sure you have something to offer and that you're pro-active in your approach. Another alternative is posting videos on YouTube. You don't need fancy cameras or professional set-ups. An effective and very professional-looking video can be shot on a smart-phone or tablet and uploaded onto the site in seconds. Once it's up there, point people in the direction of your video by Tweeting about it or telling your followers on Facebook.
Emails are free, and take your message direct into the heart of someone's home. Use it wisely and ensure that you do a little bit of research on the principles of email marketing first, but this can be one of your most effective marketing tools.
All of these techniques enable you to set up and promote your business without spending any money, and can form the foundation of a successful marketing campaign. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to get started, but if it isn't costing you anything except a little bit of time and effort, why not give it a go?
By Carlo Pandian, freelance blogger and tutorial writer. Carlo also speaks at conferences on how the Internet can help entrepreneurs to boost their business.


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Finding your thesis topic can take months. You need to come up with something original, and something for which you can find research to support your argument. For this reason, it's not unusual at all for thesis topics to change before the student finally settles on one. Of course, it's easy to come up with a general focus, but what's more difficult is finding a thesis topic that is specific, original and that your advisors will approve. One way to get started is to review existing websites which offer thesis topics. These sites may also provide examples of fully written theses and dissertations to serve as an example of what you need to produce. Use these resources for what they are-a starting point. Using an existing idea off of a website will seldom meet with success, but you may well be able to come up with an original idea of your own simply by immersing yourself in a body of existing work.
In developing your thesis topic, it is always a good idea to get professional help from the very beginning. Professional academic researchers and writers can help you at every step of the way, including coming up with your original idea and strategy. In coming up with a good thesis topic, you need professionals to guide you, to work with you, and to listen to your ideas and offer feedback. A professional will be able to help you develop your thesis topic, help you to focus on the strongest aspects of your topic, and to help you discover the weaker points of your argument. You can leverage the services of a professional as much or as little as you like, using them as a sounding board and a second advisor, or leveraging their expert services in conducting research, professional writing and formatting, and editing. Bestdissertation.com will be your trusted advisor through the entire thesis development process.
You can count on Bestdissertation.com from beginning to end. One of the most important steps is simply coming up with a viable thesis topic, and you can rely on Bestdissertation.com's professionals to help you from the very beginning with your initial strategy. Our professionals will stay with you, offering personalized service, direct contact, and caring advice whenever you need it, for as long as you need it. Bestdissertation.com has been in business for over ten years, and has a large staff of highly skilled, expertly vetted and degreed professionals who have helped thousands create high-impact, insightful, and results-oriented theses. Every thesis will be fully original-there's never any duplication or plagiarism. You'll always enjoy direct contact with your writer, and as always, your confidentiality is guaranteed.
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Posted by TheFallen on March 27, 2002
In Reply to: Skeeziks posted by Gary on March 27, 2002
: : I've heard the term "Skeeziks" used by certain older people
as a nickname for youngsters. Does anyone know where the term originated,
and if it has any meaning?
: : Is it used in Great Britain?
: I've never heard that in the UK.
Nor I. Colloquially over here, we use the ubiquitous "kid", though I've heard the older generation on occasion also use "nipper" or, if the child in question were a truculent and badly-behaved male teen, they might describe him as a "yob".


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Song of the Week :: January 11, 2016
The Inflation Kills :: "Churches"
"Churches" is the lead single off Hamilton-based rockers The Inflation Kills' newest release.
The song is a moody one, perfectly mixing hard-hitting drum beats with angular guitars and jagged vocals – before throwing it all to the dogs and switching it up at will.
It's a great reintroduction to the band, whose first release in more than a decade – titled Grounds For Termination – is set to drop on January 22.
For more on The Inflation Kills, visit the band's Facebook page.


text:
Orchard Hotel Singapore, Singapore
- Free WiFi and free parking
- Collect nights
Orchard Hotel Singapore, Singaporefrom $151
- Premier Room
- Premier Club King Room
- Signature Deluxe
- Signature Suite
- Signature Premier
- Premier Club Twin Room
- Premier Twin Room
- Grand Deluxe Room
- Grand Deluxe Twin Room
- Premier Family King
More great choices
What's around Orchard Hotel Singapore, Singapore
- In Orchard
- Orchard Road - 1 min walk
- Singapore Botanic Gardens - 15 min walk
- National Orchid Garden - 24 min walk
- National Museum of Singapore - 35 min walk
- Peranakan Museum - 38 min walk
- Raffles City - 42 min walk
- Bugis Street Shopping District - 44 min walk
Getting around
- Singapore (SIN-Changi) - 20 min drive
- Singapore (XSP-Seletar) - 15 min drive
- Johor Bahru (JHB-Senai Intl.) - 42 min drive
- JB Sentral - 22 min drive
- Orchard Station - 8 min walk
- Newton Station - 18 min walk
- Somerset Station - 20 min walk
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 656 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 18 floors
- Check-in time 2 PM-midnight
- Check-out time is noon
Required at check-in
- Credit card or cash deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
- Minimum check-in age is 18
Travelling with others
- Pets not allowed
- Free WiFi and wired Internet access in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
- Free valet parking
Payment types at the property
In the hotel
- Buffet breakfast daily (surcharge)
- 2 restaurants
- Bar/lounge
- Coffee shop/café
- Poolside bar
- 24-hour room service
- Coffee/tea in a common area
- Outdoor pool
- Fitness facilities
- Nightclub
- 24-hour business center
- Conference space
- Meeting rooms
- Conference space size (feet) - 21605
- Conference space size (meters) - 2007
- Conference center
- 24-hour front desk
- Concierge services
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Limo or Town Car service available
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Laundry facilities
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Luggage storage
- Wedding services
- Multilingual staff
- Porter/bellhop
- Number of buildings/towers - 2
- Elevator
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Designated smoking areas
- Television in common areas
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Wheelchair-accessible path of travel
- Wheelchair-accessible parking
- Chinese
- English
- Filipino
- Indonesian
- Korean
- Malay
In the room
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Air conditioning
- Coffee/tea maker
- Bathrobes
- Slippers
- Iron/ironing board
- Pillow menu
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Pay movies
- Cable TV channels
- Desk
- Free newspaper
- Free WiFi
- Phone
- Free bottled water
- Daily housekeeping
- In-room safe
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
Also popular with travelers from the USA
Special features
DiningOrchard Cafe - This café serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. A children's menu is available. Reservations are required.
Hua Ting Restaurant - This restaurant specializes in Chinese cuisine and serves lunch, dinner, and light fare. A children's menu is available. Reservations are required.
Noodles - This restaurant specializes in Asian cuisine and serves lunch and dinner. Reservations are required.
Intermezzo - Onsite cocktail bar. Happy hour is offered.
Orchard Hotel Singapore, Singapore's small print
Also known as
- Hotel Singapore Orchard
- Orchard Hotel Singapore
- Singapore Orchard Hotel
- Orchard Hotel Singapore Hotel
- Orchard Hotel Singapore Singapore
- Orchard Hotel Singapore Hotel Singapore
The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.
Optional extras
Rollaway beds are available for SGD 94.16 per night
Buffet breakfast is offered for an extra charge of SGD 44.73 for adults and SGD 22.36 for children (approximately)
We have included all charges provided to us by this property. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the unit you book.
Didn't find the right property?Continue searching for Singapore, Singapore
Recent reviews
Very Good 8.2 From 1,088 reviews
Waited 3hrs for my room to be ready
First trip to Singapore. Hotel was very accommodating and professional. Service very good! Good location
When I made the booking it clearly showed including breakfast. Not sure why/when it was skipped on the last page or not [normally I do check this before I pay] it NEVER appeared on the bill. The bad news is I trusted hotel.com/Orachard to have ensured it was never skipped but next day when we went hungry we were told on face that breakfast was not included Imagine travelling with a baby being told this despite paying the whole money upfront. Its been a week but I still have the bad taste of it. Someone should take responsibility about this.
As a solo traveler, I felt very secure
As a vip member i got a free upgrade I left my pearl earrings and they kept it for me. Good and honest service. Kudos to the room attendant
Is the description of this hotel not correct? Tell us


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I've known you forever.
And I'm not just saying that figuratively. Really…I've known you forever.
I've known you since the Universe flashed into existence and flung outward the particles that would coalesce into us. That unbearable heat that sent us barreling into the inky blackness of the void with no other intention but to burn off the Old Energy. To fight back against gravity for whatever it would prove to be worth. Heinrich had it right: "Aliveness is to resist inertia"
…and there was life within that purity.
The Old Energy is funny, though. Sometimes it streaks across the heavens like wild photons. Other times it lazes, like quiet moons. Timing is everything, or so they say, and we all take different paths towards the same destiny of no-thingness. Interdependence is a funny thing, too.
We had different Dharma, all the same, you and I. We ended up here, as it were, just slightly out of step with one another. Perhaps it just turned out that I was here ahead of the time, though I must ponder that possibility advisedly. Lest the balance be knocked off kilter.
What I do know is this:
Somewhere along the path, someone caused you to believe you weren't good enough. Maybe it was unspoken, yet there was this odd feeling that you lacked adequacy, that you didn't deserve to be loved because you failed to hold a standard that seemed oddly vague and unspecified. The thought of this brings me a mild pang of recognition. As if I know the precise feeling of the experience. As if this has all happened before.
But you had to try. They were all you knew, really. They were all you had.
Besides, it wasn't in your nature to not try. The thought of giving up was simply incongruent with you. The dissonance was unbearable. I know this…I know you! You had to try to do something to mask the hurt you had to do something that They could see, so you could stand up and shout:
"I'm here! Why don't you see me?! Why can't you just accept me and love me? LOOK, look at what I DID! IS IT NOT GOOD ENOUGH?"
So you kept trying – you burnt your mind out flooding over academics and snapped sinews with athletic effort and tore your body asunder trying to do something, anything that was good enough for them.
The goalposts moved, though.
And you persevered.
I felt you, sometimes. I saw you in my own reflection and your tenacity – your sheer WILL – was enough to rend me.
But I know you. I've known you forever. You and I have always been on the same trajectory. Our paths were the same, but the timing was all different. The Universe has its way, and who am I to think it owes me anything? Least not explanations for the affairs of humans.
People ask me why I don't speak to Them anymore. Those without understanding tell me it is inconceivable; monstrous. They are missing the point. There is nothing hateful about the choice I have made. The reality is that the choice to walk away from Them was the last labor of love I had left. It was a selfless act of ripping a piece of my heart out, willfully handing it over, and refusing to be motivated by hate and spite and pain any longer. I didn't want thought of them to be littered with resentment and scatter-shot "fuck-yous".
And you know what?
If I could have it all back, I'd do it all the same. Every last bit of it. In a billion realities, in a billion alternate dimensions, if the Universe collapsed on itself and re-banged into existence a billion times…
I would choose the same me. Again…and again…and again.
…The heartache, the pain, the alcohol, the drugs.
…The suicidal ideation, the divorce, the financial mess.
…The career in a gutter, the life in a gutter, the soul in a gutter.
All of the shit I crawled through.
All of the glass the I was dragged through.
All of the kicks while I was trying to move forward.
I would do it ALL again.
Because every moment of my life, from the start, has unfolded exactly as was intended. Because the moments, as agonizing as they were. We structured exactly as they should have been…
To lead me…
To YOU.
So that I can tell you I've been there. So that I can tell you that I was never really free until I learned to ignore everyone else's goal posts but MINE. So that I can tell you that I never really knew how to love myself or ANYONE until I learned to let go of the hate and resentment I had toward Them.
Until I chose to walk away and LOVE Them, instead.
To love MYSELF.
When you are on that call with me and you tell me that you feel like we know each other, you are more right than you can possible imagine.
I've known you forever.


text:
There are NO MORE excuses for supposed 'lack of artistic ability' when it comes to the wildly adaptable and endlessly versatile updated world of the CHALKBOARD!! This HOT–HOT–HOT new/old medium has permanently crossed over from the classroom to--well, just about everywhere else! The once imposing chalkboard--where we stayed after school to write … [Read more...]
Employee Picks: Best Gifts to Give and Receive this Holiday
The holidays are right around the corner and before you know it, Christmas Day will be upon us. With all the decorating, holiday parties, baking and traveling during this time of year, we know shopping can seem like more of a chore than anything else. Between the shopping mall traffic and waiting in long lines to fight over that must-have item of … [Read more...]
Christmas Themes at Iron Accents: Winter Chalet
It's (almost) the most wonderful time of the year! That's right... Even though Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, we couldn't help ourselves and just had to start decorating for Christmas. While some may scoff at the idea of decorating before Thanksgiving, we have no shame and are in full "holiday mode" at Iron Accents. In fact, we held our … [Read more...]
Join The GG Collectors Loyalty Club at Iron Accents!
Apparently a very large number of you share our passion for the elegant and inspiring Gracious Goods Collection of kitchen, tabletop, serving ware and home accessories. So much so that you might say we've seen a "pattern" developing! With every new GG Collection product introduction at Iron Accents, you've created best sellers and in turn, … [Read more...]
Featured Manufacturer Highlight on Roost Design
At Iron Accents, we are proud to offer an expansive collection of items to turn a house into a home. From wrought iron home furniture to unique home accents, we have it all. Whether you're looking for the perfect outdoor patio furniture set, or you're in need of some lighted florals to create that perfect atmosphere for a dinner party, or you're … [Read more...]
Fall Preview: What's New from The GG Collection
It's one of our favorite times of the year -- That time when we get new goodies from the fabulous Gracious Goods collection and we are thrilled to introduce you to their newest pieces. That's right... Iron Accents is pleased to prime your creative tabletop this autumn with a preview of The GG Collection's newest array of premier serving trays, … [Read more...]
Featured Manufacturer Highlight on Park Hill Collection
Valerie Kirves founded Iron Accents back in 1999 with the goal of providing homeowners and designers with a wide variety of high quality and unique wrought iron home furnishings and decorative accents. When Valerie and her husband, Mark built their lake house in North Georgia, they handpicked every piece of hardware and took great care in making … [Read more...]
Designer Picks for a Beach Style Home
Decorating a home can be overwhelming. We've all been there. You know what we are talking about... Flipping through a hundred decorating magazines searching for ideas, collecting random clippings of a pretty table or unique lamp we'd love to own and worst of all -- standing paralyzed, staring at a million options in the paint aisle and having to … [Read more...]
June's Wedding Theme of the Month: Beach Weddings
According to the calendar, it won't officially be summer for a few more days. However, here in North Georgia, we've been battling the heat for weeks. While the mountains are a beautiful place to enjoy the sunny season, at Iron Accents, we have to admit we're all yearning for a little sand under our toes, a tropical drink and an ocean view. That's … [Read more...]
Iron Accents Has New Products for the New Year
With the new year off to a wonderful start, now is the perfect time to showcase some of our most favorite new products. One of our favorite jobs at Iron Accents is searching for the best pieces for all of you wonderful people. We are always open to hearing your suggestions about what items you want to see in store. We asked, you answered, we … [Read more...]


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Wrappers attract fund savers through Q3 in Sweden
Data from the Swedish Investment Fund Association point to net sales increasing via wrappers such as the investment savings account (investeringssparkonto, ISK) and unit linked solutions through the third quarter this year, even as the industry experienced net withdrawals from direct fund investments by Swedish households.
Out of a total net investment of SEK1.7bn (€180.9m) by households during the period, the data show that some SEK4.8bn were invested on a net basis via ISK, and some SEK2.9bn via unit linked investments. By category, balanced funds drew the largest share of money, the Association said.
However, at the same time, households took out some SEK10bn (€1.1bn) from their direct savings, mainly by selling shares in equity funds.


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Every year, Australian Creative Magazine release their Power 20 – the most courageous creatives to watch in Australia. In February 2012, I was honoured to be selected.
The criteria for selection was three fold. Firstly, they sought individuals who exhibited a gathering momentum of influence. Secondly, individuals must be in senior position and be closely involved with the creative process. Finally, they looked for those who displayed bravery in their creative process.
This accolade was given to me after one of the toughest and most terrifying years of my life – The creation of the new brave and colourful brand for Telstra. It was also recognition for my work for Alzheimer's Australia which resulted in $300m funding from the government and a change in the law following a protest march on Parliament House in Canberra. The magazine did a four page feature the new Alzheimer's Australia brand in the same issue.


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Prayer Topics for Unity Synod August 11-20, 2016 Unity Synod brings together delegates from all around the worldwide Moravian Church. It occurs only once every seven years and is being held this year at the Rose Hill Hilton in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The theme for this Synod is Discerning the Unity Together. This theme points us to some of the opportunities and challenges.
Read more HERE


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When I'm talking narrative and I want someone's eyes to light up, I just tell them this: Die Hard is one of my favorite Cinderella stories. I cannot take credit for making the connection myself. It was at a conference. An editor from a well-known publishing house was defining an elevator pitch for the benefit of a new writer. "It's like: Cinderella meets Die Hard," he said. The audience laughed, and the editor with them. "I know," he continued. "What would that even look like?"
Reader, I was shaking. Instantly abuzz. If I hadn't been conspicuously seated in the second row at this panel, I'd have run straight out of the room and started writing.
OF COURSE Die Hard is Cinderella. A mysterious stranger crashes a party he wasn't officially invited to. His feet are covered in glass. Later he is pursued by people who are desperate to uncover his real identity. He ends up reunited with the person he went to the party to see. Holly is the prince. Al is the fairy godmother. Argyle's limo is the pumpkin carriage. And Hans Gruber, naturally, is the wicked stepmother.
I've been thinking a lot about this in context of a recent NPR story by the ever-revelatory Linda Holmes -- this paragraph in particular:
[Cinderella is] partly a fantasy about simplifying the relationships between social standing and coupling — one that makes the most sense in a world in which class differences are an accepted barrier to a good man choosing to marry a woman. If the prince is a man who believes from the outset that love conquers all, the story doesn't really make any sense. It would be hard to set Cinderella on a properly functioning egalitarian collective.
The gender-flip in Die Hard turns the prince into a princess -- but the class chasm stays the same. Bonnie Bedelia's Holly is a corporate ladder-climber, an executive at a Japanese company that occupies an entire LA skyscraper. Her job is far more high-status than that of her scruffy blue-collar cop husband. But where the original Cinderella is about elevating the low-born heroine to the prince's aristocratic level, Die Hard's perfect, meticulously constructed plot inexorably undermines the foundation of Holly's higher status.
Imagine Cinderella blowing up the palace.
Yes, technically Hans Gruber is the villain -- but our hero John McClane does at least as much blowing up of things as his nemesis does. One by one, the connections between Holly and her career are severed: her boss is killed, her douchey co-worker is shot, the company is burgled, the building is destroyed, and finally even her new Rolex must be sacrificed to ensure Hans Gruber's downfall. (See what I did there? Oh, Hans, please forgive me that joke, I love you -- you were raised to be charming, not sincere.) She is given no choice but to take John back almost out of self-defense.
It's not just me saying this, either -- witness this really detailed PopMatters essay about the political/social/cinematic context of the film:
The obvious professional success of Holly at Nakatomi, which led her to forsake her husband in New York, is presented in Die Hard as a metaphor for the threat of feminism to the family institution and to the established patriarchal social order.
There's a lot in there about westerns and WWII and Vietnam and categories of masculinity; it's pretty dense and I recommend reading the whole thing.
Getting back to the fairy tale, everyone's always framing Cinderella stories in terms of agency. Here is Linda Holmes on the Prince in Disney's earlier Cinderella film:
If you were putting on a stage play based on that cartoon and you were short of actors, my very first suggestion would be that you obtain a large bag of flour and a toupee, allowing you to dispense with casting anyone at all as the prince.
And yet when we criticize the storytelling in Cinderella tales, it's never the prince's role that comes under fire. Because even in the most bare-bones versions, the prince goes in quest of something -- and there is a long, long, Western narrative tradition that tells us the quest story is a hero's story and automatically worthy (oh hello, Star Wars fans who like to cite Joseph Campbell). We read the prince as a little mini-hero in this tale, while we dismiss Cinderella for being confused and conflicted and passive. (Sondheim's Into the Woods will always be the most resounding critique of this structure, for me.)
Joseph Campbell has a lot to answer for.
But agency is only one axis on which a character can be given importance. Perspective, choice, centering of a protagonist can happen regardless of the level of doing-ness. For comparison: Hamlet is notorious for passivity and indecision, but his inability to act is a feature of the story, not a bug, and critics discuss it as such. Die Hard reads as anti-feminist thus not so much because Holly is inactive -- she is the agent of several key turns of the plot. The movie is anti-feminist because Holly's perspective/wants are not centered by the film's arc. We see a little bit of her emotions at the beginning, on the phone with her children, but we never see the real defining moment where she decides she and John can make their relationship work. (They ultimately don't, as the next few films demonstrate.) We do see John's moment of revelation -- but crucially, this transformation appears in a scene between him and Al. Al and John's developing trust, of course, is the real emotional arc in the film, and a much more convincing romance.
Using pure action-based agency as a metric to judge female characters as more or less feminist has become this year's Manic Pixie Dream Girl: it started as a useful critical lens, but when it's the only lens we apply it blinds us to other aspects of storytelling. The protagonist's lack of agency in recent glorious mess Jupiter Ascending was frequently singled out as poorly written and regressive.
From the Mary Sue's review:
If I had to critique this movie in any sort of, you know, actual way (beyond "it was a hot-ass mess"), I would say that I do wish the film had been a little less caught up in the traditional model of princess-saving. When I hear "Mila Kunis black leather space princess," I want to see her bulked the hell up, Emily Blunt style, kicking ass and taking names. We don't get to see Kunis looking really cool until the very end of the film, at which point I wanted way more of that. Which, I guess, means I would pay for a sequel.
From Variety:
Although clearly conceived as an empowered female heroine, poor Jupiter spends most of the movie being kidnapped and shuffled from one unpleasant situation to another...
From The New York Times:
Though she has more space opera swirling around her than any actor could possible hold together, Kunis does an admirable job even if never given much of a chance to be the prime mover in her fairy tale.
All these reviews and many others have bought into a limited concept of agency: kicking ass and taking names. Partly this is habit -- quest narratives and violence-as-agency are hugely enshrined in sff/geek culture and film blockbusters both, most especially when those two fandoms overlap: see The Matrix, The Fifth Element, Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien/Aliens, Terminator/Terminator 2, and even The Princess Bride. Take a good hard look at your love for The Princess Bride, those of you who found Jupiter Jones too passive a heroine.
See also: critiques of Twilight that point out how much of the series is designed to give Bella Swan everything she wants. People hate when you suggest that maybe Twilight is doing something interesting with its heroine. (Standard disclaimer: not a Twilight fan, haven't read it, found some persuasively written articles.)
Jupiter Jones does not hit very many people in the course of her movie, it's true. But her life, her experience, her anxieties, and her choices are all central to the film's framework. She is important, and not merely as a vessel of power: she narrates her own birth in voiceover and explains how it is significant, she worries about trust and love and an inherited history of unhappy relationships, she struggles with a difficult family whose engagement is embarrassing and an irritation, she is burdened with sudden knowledge and terrible power and galactic prominence without ever asking for it, without being sure if she even wants to be a part of what seems like a really shitty system of government and exploitation. That she hesitates to wield this power is, I think, a mark of intelligence and good moral sense. She mistrusts her sudden elevation in rank, and does not consider herself automatically an expert in an ancient and politically fraught hypertechnological culture she's only known about for three days.
Imagine Cinderella realizing she has no inclination to rule a kingdom where three of the most powerful nobles are constantly trying to kill one another.
Caine, by contrast, is given the cardboard quest narrative: get your wings back, brooding hero, and find your pack or mate or whatever. It's as plain and predictable as the prince's agency in the traditional Cinderella. Caine has only one possible choice or motive in this movie: to save Jupiter, to choose Jupiter, to support Jupiter. Jupiter, meanwhile, gets everything she wants. Caine objects to a relationship between them because of her higher rank, but she laughs this off and they end up together despite his objections. Caine gets his wings back (hardly a spoiler), and Jupiter lovingly caresses them as though they belong to her. She insists that he call her "Your Majesty" because she likes it -- and then she straps on his gravity skates and flies away with him.
Is our heroine really the one with the lack of agency in this framework?
The scene where Sean Bean lays out Caine's angsty backstory for Jupiter's benefit is so full of lingering shirtless Tatum camerawork that I laughed aloud in the theater. It is the single most romance novel-esque thing I have ever seen on film (though I haven't seen the wedding episode of Outlander, which author Alisha Rai assures me is the most Female Gaze-y thing in all the world). The critics focusing on action might have misread the film: the romance readers and authors I know were all hailing it as one of our own.
Romance as a storytelling form has long existed in counterpoint to the mainstream male narrative canon -- counterpoint both in the sense of alternative, and in the sense of harmony (since not all romance is automatically feminist in nature or perspective). Romance features happy endings instead of 'important' tragedies, female characters given pride of place as heroines, love and family and domestic concerns treated as weightily as wars and battles. Romance also deals quite often with limits on agency: the unmoneyed gently born heroines of Austen's novels; those notorious scenes of forced seduction during the era of Woodiwiss, Rogers, and Small; even E. L. James' The Book That Shall Not Be Named explores what it means to be constrained on both a physical and metaphorical level.
A romance heroine's limited agency is, like Hamlet's, not a bug but a feature.
Jupiter Ascending is a Cinderella story -- but it is also, importantly, Jane Eyre. We begin with our heroine's birth, we see her thankless labor and her mortified body (someone write me an essay comparing the egg-selling clinic with Lowood School IMMEDIATELY PLEASE), she finds a secret family and a brooding love interest, there is an interrupted wedding and an unpleasantly insistent relative and at the end everything burns to the ground but our heroine finds happiness anyways. And you could make a pretty good case for this narrative being anti- or ambiguously feminist, as people often do with Jane Eyre --but the critics of Jupiter Ascending have not been making this argument. The sci-fi movie lovers have not been making this argument. They have been arguing for more violence, more unquestioned use of questionable power. More doing simply for the sake of doing-ness.
It is not enough to critique a character's lack of action, especially a female character, without looking at the context in which that action or non-action takes place.
If what Jane Eyre really wanted from her story and her wold was agency for agency's sake, she'd have gone off with St. John Rivers. Rochester would have struggled alone with his disabilities. Jane herself would have died while bolstering a racist colonial empire in a sexless marriage with a coldly principled, joyless man. Instead Jane makes a choice -- as Jupiter Jones does, over and over, not carving out a space with fists and weapons but picking the least bad of several options -- and that choice is given weight and heft by the narrator. Reader, I married him, she says, speaking out to us from the page.
I've always loved dogs, says Jupiter Jones. And we laugh, because it's ridiculous, and she rolls her eyes, and says it again, horrified at what's just come out of her mouth.
And we laugh again, in recognition. Because we've been there, so many of us, at the peak of a crucial romantic moment, saying something that initially seemed clever but turned out to be an absolute disaster.
Jupiter Jones may not be the Heroine With Agency we're supposed to want -- but she may be the heroine we didn't know we've been missing.
There's always someone, somewhere, writing about Cinderella. Here's a very incomplete list of the most recent/most interesting ones I've seen:
- Malinda Lo, author of beautiful lesbian YA Cinderella story Ash, has a new post up about her personal reading and reinterpretation of Cinderella.
- I've written twice on Cinderella, once to contrast Lo's Ash with Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, and another time to revisit Ash with a new appreciation for the plot structure.
- Sara Maitland explores agency in a whole host of Cinderella variations for the Guardian.
- Sady Doyle in the Baffler says Cinderella is dead.
- Jenny Crusie's older but still thought-provoking post on Cinderella from an author's perspective.
- Todd VanDerWerff writes about the new Cinderella movie's regressive politics for Vox.
For bonus fun, here is a short and pointed Jupiter Ascending fanfic that imagines an alternative wedding scene because, per the author, "I spent too much of the movie waiting for Chekhov's bees to go off."


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The Camp Eagle Value
Something is VALUABLE when the BENEFITS outweigh the COST. Camp Eagle is a very valuable asset in the life of an individual because of the benefits it brings! Eternal impact, phenomenal fun, unforgettable memories, interactive leaning, exhilarating outdoor experiences, life-long friendships are just SOME of the benefits of Camp Eagle! The COST of camp is not measured best in dollar amounts, but LIFE IMPACT.
For more details on price, log in to the Camp Eagle Registration Portal.


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I get a chuckle when I hear the results of sleep studies. You know, the ones that based on sleeping positions your personality can be judged/guessed.
OK, fine I suppose that's interesting.
But keeping in mind that I like to find the "other" side to pretty much anything here are my thoughts.
The Yearner Position:
- That's a partial fetal position with your arms straight out in front of you, hands together. The study says this person is chasing their dreams.
My alternate description:
- Your spouse/partner takes up more than their share of the bed – you're "fighting" back to re-claim your territory.
The Log Position:
- That's sleeping straight on your side – nothing bent (i.e. knees, arms). The study says this is the result of a completely rigid personality – no flexibility.
My alternate description:
- You're sleeping in tight quarters. OR you've finally found that comfortable spot and you don't want to lose it. Maybe your knee hurts when you bend it?
The Free Fallers Position:
- This is lying on your stomach with both arms up – hands bracketing your head. Like free falling with a parachute. This person feels they have NO control over their life.
My alternate description:
- You are so tired that since that's how you fell into bed, that's where you are until you move. Or your shoulder hurts too much to lie on your side (one of my reasons of late.)
The Warrior Position:
- That's sleeping in a fetal position – all curled up. The study says this is the most comfortable position and shows complete comfort with life.
My alternate description:
- Your spouse/partner has stolen all the sheets/blankets and you're cold!!! Or there's the "I'm pregnant and this is the only way I can lie in bed!" answer for the fetal position.
I noticed they didn't mention the folks who lie on their backs. They never seem to discuss the folks who lie in a sort of oblique position lying on side with the "top leg" bent and knee touching the mattress and opposite arm tucked behind you. Or the just so tuckered out you'll sleep in any position, position.
As for me, I don't seem to stay in any one position – more the toss and turn type until I get the optimum spot. By then I generally have to get up and go to the bathroom and my body doesn't remember that perfect position. Dang!!!


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As any common sense observer of the economy can see. We are headed toward a death spiral leading to hyperinflation and economic collapse. Yet the stock market continues to soar! Why?
It's the momentary calm before the storm. The stock market gurus are capitalizing on our illiterate population's ignorance of what is happening before their very eyes. Instead, listening to the Fed and the administration's fictional rosy picture of bliss and leveraging themselves to the hilt.
The crash and burn is near. Are you prepared? Are you ready to hunker down? Or bunker down?


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Tattooed Children! (Just kidding)
Yes, children with Photoshopped tattoos look badass and cute. But what do tattoo artists and laws say about children and tattoos?
Yes, children with Photoshopped tattoos look badass and cute. But what do tattoo artists and laws say about children and tattoos?
Can I bring my children to the tattoo shop? Yes, children are allowed in most tattoo shops and tattoo conventions, and there is nothing criminal to show your kids how tattoos are made. But the potential disturbance of children is a source of irritation for tattoo artists, willing to work in calm. So call them before coming, to check if it is okay to bring your offsprings. If the working session is not very long and your child peaceful, his presence is acceptable, but don't take an impatient kid to a 6 hours tattoo session! Children are easily tired and inconstant, so you'd better plan to hire a babysitter to let them do their nap while you're at the parlor or at a convention.
Is it okay to tattoo children? Respectable tattoo artists all agree: letting your kids getting a tattoo before 16 is wrong, and it's even more wrong if you are deciding for them! After being release from jail on bail, a mother from Georgia, USA, who tattooed herself her children aged from 6 to 12, declared: "I am their mother. Shouldn't I be able to decide if they get one?". Law doesn't agree. Tattooing a child is forbidden in most countries. Tattoo is an individual choice no one else can take but the person concerned, and this person has to be responsible.
When a British woman made a prank with a fake tattoo shop for children, she received many calls from parents wanting to book for their kids! No, that is not cute. Tattoos are not intended for bodies which have not finished their growth yet and children are not reasonable enough to think before they ink. You could tell us that some adults are taking bad decisions too, but a Pikachu or Frozen tattoo is even worse when you got it at an age when you were not even able to spell "consequences" So okay for teaching children to be open-minded with tattoos, okay for letting them having temporary tattoos and dreams of real tattoos, and it is so cool to allow them to color your tattoos! But let them get their own choices when they will be able to do so, without regrets.
By the way, what's the legal age for tattoos? In most countries, you need to wait to reach your legal age (between 16 to 21) but some allows minors to be tattooed with parental consent since 15. However, professional and reputable tattoo artists are insisting you should not get a tattoo before 18 and affirm they will refuse to tattoo someone under that age. Legal actions against tattooed minors can be pretty rough depending of the country or state you are living in (for both parents and tattooists), so don't joke with that.
However, in some cultures, tattooing children is admitted and even forced. Children can receive tattoos at their puberty or for tribal and religious meanings, for example young monks in Thailand and young girls in Ethiopia. But humanitarian organizations are working with populations to ban forced tattooing (as well as other abuses of course) and traditions are getting lost in some tribes.
Is it okay to have children tattooists? Yes, you've read it correctly. Inking the drawings of your children can be cute. But getting a tattoo from a kid? The world record for the youngest tattooist until now belongs to 3 years old Ruby Dickinson of Wales, GB, daughter of a tattooist eager to teach the trade to his offspring, with a special tattoo machine built for small hands. Other precocious tattooists have made the front news, including 5 years old Emilie Darrigade.
If it is a great connection to receive a tattoo from your child when you are tattoo artist, it is perhaps not a good idea to make him believe he's professional enough to ink other people. Actually, it is not illegal, as laws didn't see it coming. But 16 years old is also a good minimum age here too. Well, it is also the adult customer's choice! What do you think, would you let a child tattoo you?
There is two ways to love your children with tattoos: get their portrait on you or do adorable photos of them with fake tattoos! Love badass looking kids? Check those fun pictures.
There is two ways to love your children with tattoos: get their portrait on you or do adorable photos of them with fake tattoos! Love badass looking kids? Check those fun pictures.


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Hey folks!
The sequin panda bag and velvet brothel creepers are from ASOS.
Leather skater skirt is from Ebay.
Owl bag is from Ebay.
I'm particularly taken with the 'Home Alone' themed Christmas jumper, seeing as it was (and still remains) one of my favourite films of the 90's. This is also from Ebay.
Blue earrings H&M.
Silver spike earrings are from an amazing online jewellery shop called Kukee, all their items are very cheap and they do some really fun and quirky things - perfect for yourself, a friend or for stocking fillers at Christmas!!
'Talk nerdy to me' t-shirt from Republic.
Dinosaur & moustache necklaces from Kukee.
I know a lot of people have items from Black Milk but I absolutely love their Cathedral skirt and if I get paid a whacking great bonus at the end of December I'm definitely going to buy it.
Galaxy maxi skirt from Boohoo.
Moustache smoking slippers from Boohoo also (I seem to have a thing for moustaches?)
Super cute cat t-shirt dress from Ebay.
Post to come soon with outfit shots from my last shopping trip (I've been lax I know) and an update from my weekend of 30's fun!!


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Date: 09/14/2010
Views: 1195
Photos taken near (and of) the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, 1-16-02
Artists painting in the garden outside the De Young
The new De Young Museum. That's a copper skin on the building.
Another view of the De Young
Stow Lake
The waterfall at Stow Lake
Another shot of the waterfall


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Live Reviews
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2004 JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony Announced
Published: 2004-03-24
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Much pomp, circumstance, and, of course, music surrounds the televised Juno Awards. But there is more the television audience never sees. On Saturday night April 3, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) will hold the 2004 Juno Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony. A tribute, a Hall of Fame induction, and 28 Juno Awards will be presented at the Gala. CARAS has announced that Ed Robertson and Steven Page from the Barenaked Ladies will host the Gala. The Ladies will be performing at the televised award ceremony. The band has also been nominated for two Juno Awards. Scheduled to perform at the Gala are Juno nominees Buck 65, Shaye, and Don Walker.
While portions of the event will be aired on the televised show, the induction of producer and musician Bob Ezrin into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame will be a part of the Gala on Saturday night. The same will go for a tribute to the pioneer of the Canadian music industry Walt Grealis.
The 2004 Juno Awards is hosted by Alanis Morissette and airs on CTV Sunday April 4 at 8pm (9pm Atlantic time).
Writer: Sherrill Fulghum
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Jabels wrote:Andy wrote:Red_Robin wrote:Andy wrote:The search function still barely works. I don't really remember it ever working.
What's up with it?
To be honest, half the time I dont get any search results.
Just receive a page saying "Sorry but you cannot use search at this time. Please try again in a few minutes."
The other half of the time, when the search works initially, Ill try to move to another page of results and then Ill get the above message again.
Yeah this is really irritating.


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Newborn Moccasins
$ 39.00
This variant is currently sold out
**Please size up and leave 1/2" space at toes (end of shoe) if your little one is walking so their big toe doesn't slip through the crack : ) For example my little boy wears an XL but he doesn't have much room left at the toes so we size up to XXL.. Please measure the length of the foot for the most accurate sizing guide.
As you can see from the photos, these moccasins go with EVERYTHING. These are the go to, throw on in a rush, but we always look cute shoes. They have stood the test of time. We run and skid on concrete, play in the dirt and occasionally get soaked from our back porch water table. Spots and wear make them cuter but I occasionally clean them back to life with a suede eraser and brush. If they get a wet spot, I wipe them down with a damp rag and they dry back to normal. Very easy to care for however the marks your little one puts on suede will become priceless and invaluable. I honestly can't say enough about these. They are a favorite and essential shoe in our house. If you have ever tried to put shoes on a wiggly toddler 30 seconds before you need to walk out the door then you know why.


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For the latest on Hurricane Irma, read this article.
Hurricane Irma strengthened over the Atlantic Ocean into "an extremely dangerous" Category 5 storm on Tuesday, threatening to batter the Caribbean and, potentially, Florida, too, according to the National Weather Service.
Irma is expected to retain Category 4 or 5 status for days as it makes its way through the Caribbean, most likely hitting the islands of Antigua and Barbuda as soon as Tuesday night, according to a weather service meteorologist. Florida, where evacuations have already been announced, is increasingly likely to feel Irma's effects later this week and over the weekend, though the storm's potential severity is not yet clear.
"There are different scenarios and we really won't know which one of those is going to be the case until a couple days beforehand," said Chris Landsea, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Still, the weather service urged people living in hurricane-prone areas to have plans in place should it hit. And officials in the Florida Keys announced that a mandatory evacuation would begin on Wednesday. The mayor of Miami-Dade County, which is home to 2.7 million people, warned residents that evacuations might be forthcoming as soon as Wednesday, too.
Maps: Tracking Hurricane Irma's Path Over Florida
Live, updated maps showing where the storm has made landfall and how much of the state has been hit by tropical-storm- and hurricane-force winds.
With maximum winds near 185 miles per hour, Irma is tied as the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. Only Hurricane Allen, in 1980, was stronger, with peak winds of about 190 m.p.h.
Starting Tuesday night, the weather service said, the "potentially catastrophic" hurricane is expected to bring life-threatening wind, rain and storm surges to parts of the northern Leeward Islands, which line the eastern edge of the Caribbean. The storm is expected to move on to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Wednesday and Haiti, the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday, according to the forecast.
The latest estimates put Irma on a more direct path toward South Florida, raising the possibility that the United States could be hit by back-to-back major hurricanes. In anticipation, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida declared a state of emergency on Monday for the state's 67 counties.
"We do not know the exact path of this storm, but weather can change in an instant and while we hope for the best, we must prepare for the worst," he said in a statement.
Mr. Scott on Tuesday asked President Trump to issue an emergency declaration for every county in the state. He also said that he had activated 100 members of the Florida National Guard and ordered 7,000 members of the Guard to report for duty on Friday.
On Tuesday afternoon, Carlos Giménez, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, warned residents in some areas that he might call for mandatory evacuations as early as Wednesday.
"This hurricane is far too powerful, poses far too great a threat, for us to delay actions any longer," he said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. Residents with special needs will be evacuated on Wednesday, he said.
Coast Guard crew members and helicopters that assisted in rescue missions in southeast Texas for Hurricane Harvey were starting to return to their home stations, including Florida, to prepare for Irma, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
American Airlines announced late Monday that it had canceled several flights on Tuesday between Miami and destinations in the Caribbean.
"For people in South Florida, now is the time to start preparing and getting those hurricane kits in order," said Chuck Caracozza, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Miami.
If the peak storm surge coincides with high tide, waters may rise 7 to 11 feet above ground in the Virgin Islands and 3 to 5 feet above ground on Puerto Rico's northern shore. Waves could reach heights of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels in the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas.
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands can expect 4 to 10 inches of rain, with totals potentially reaching 15 inches in some areas. Islands east of there can expect 8 to 12 inches of rain, with totals as high as 20 inches in some areas, according to the service.
Even as Irma moved toward the Caribbean on Tuesday, the service offered an update on another weather system: Jose, a new tropical storm, had developed in the central Atlantic and was forecast to become a hurricane later in the week.


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No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.
It was the first weekend of Spring. There is nothing quite like seeing the trees start to come alive and to feel warm air on your skin. One of my newest projects for the house has been my subway art. I started making these prints for each of the seasons and some holidays. I couldn't wait to get this one into the frame as reminder of warmer days ahead.


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Recall 13V271000
The Brakes May Not Perform as Expected
Recall Details
Operation of the anti-lock brake system (ABS), traction control, and electronic stability control (ESC) puts to use a brake pressure modulator valve assembly. This valve assembly can fail causing the front brakes to lock up and not release. Locking of the brakes could result in loss of steering control and/or lengthened stopping distance, increasing the risk of a crash. dealers will replace the brake pressure modulator valve assembly to correct this concern.
Our Quick Take
Four Volt vehicles are being recalled because one or both front brakes may lock up and not release.
What Should You Do?
Chevrolet will notify owners of affected Volt models beginning July 12, 2013. If you don't receive notification and you feel you should have, please contact your dealer for further instruction. They may ask for your vehicle identification number (VIN), so please have it handy when you call. The Chevrolet recall number is 13184.


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Thursday, 27 September 2007
the big science of small things...
Small here means really small – 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Nanotechnology is expected to hit big times in the next ten years or so with the industry worth $2000 Billion. Nanotech is not just about making things smaller. Matter behaves differently at the small scale of atoms and molecules. This leads to new properties that can be used to benefit mankind in many different ways. It has applications in medicine, energy, smart materials, consumer goods, defence, electronics, computers, communications…to mention a few.
Nanotech is not science fiction – living systems have perfected nanotechnology over the past 3 billion years. Humans are hoping to reach there in the next few decades. Whereas biological systems are water-based and temperature-sensitive, molecular nanosystems will be able to operate in a far wider range of environments and should be much faster.
The science of nanotech is fascinating. Dr Singhal will explain the science behind nanotech. The talks are part of community science education programme that Dr Singhal has pioneered in East Kilbride. They are aimed at the general audience covering the age groups from 10 to 100 years and no prior background in science is required. The presentation promises to be visually attractive, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Dr Singhal will also discuss the serious ethical and risk issues associated with nanotech. These are not well understood. There is urgent need for more public involvement as nanotech develops – understanding the science is a vital first step.
The talks are free to attend.
The series of six talks start on Saturday 20 October at 11 am. The venue is James Watt Auditorium in Technology Park, East Kilbride and affords ample free parking. Glasgow University and Scottish Enterprise support the programme. More details may be found at http://ektalks.blogspot.com or by contacting firstname.lastname@example.com
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Nanotechnology talks start on October 20...
Dr Ravi Singhal
No Science Background Needed
11 am – 12 noon on Saturdays
20, 27 October, 3, 10, 17 & 24 November 2007
James Watt Auditorium, E.K. Technology Park, G75 0QD
(Ample free parking on site)
Nanotechnology (NT) promises to be the next big thing. Nano-industry is estimated to be worth over $2000 billion by 2015. NT is engineering at the level of atoms and molecules involving dimensions 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair - truly the science of the small! It has applications in medicine, energy, smart materials, consumer goods, defence, communications…to mention a few.
Dr Singhal will explain the science behind NT. The talks are aimed at the general audience and no prior background in science is required. The presentation is visually attractive, entertaining and thought-provoking. Dr Singhal will also discuss the serious ethical and risk issues associated with NT. There is a need for more public involvement as NT develops – understanding the science of NT is a vital first step.
In Partnership with: Glasgow University
Scottish Enterprise, Lanarkshire
Further Information: firstname.lastname@example.com
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Time to talk science again...
Science talks start in October…
Got around to setting up the blog. Now we can also keep up to date with climate change and cosmology.
Opening up of the northwest passage this summer was unexpected – arctic ice is melting many times faster than in the past years. The minimum for 2007 falls below the minimum set on 20-21 September 2005 by an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five UKs. Does this mean that we have been grossly underestimating the rate of global warming?
Other interesting news is about more evidence for dark matter in the universe – matter that we cannot directly detect with our instruments. More on this later.
From October 20, we shall look at how matter behaves at the tiny scale of atoms and molecules and the rapidly expanding discipline of nanotechnology. Nano is Greek for dwarf. This is supposed to be the next big thing and very interesting science indeed.
Pass on the blog address to your friends and neighbours!


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Saddam Hussein is now dead. He is almost forgotten. This is some legacy for a man the U.S. government used to love, sorta.
If today you ask people in the U.S. about Saddam, what will you get in reply? Do you think that anything will be said of his being on the U.S. payroll? Yes, he was. Although a long time client of the Russians, during the Iran-Iraq war the U.S. shifted toward him. He was a murderous thug, but since we had lost our murderous thug, the Shah of Iran, we needed some we could count on. All the other players in the region are minor league. Does anyone really think the Saudis can be much help?
Unlike the Shah, we didn't install Saddam. He did this on his own. This guy knew power. When it comes to thuggery, he was impressive. Just read Republic of Fear. The entire area is run by a collection ruthless killers, but among them Saddam stood out as exceptional. Does our government know quality, or what?
Knowing all this makes it interesting to wonder just why Saddam ended up at the end of his enemies' rope. It is about playing ball.
It is no secret Iraq's only asset is oil. Iraq is a virtually landlocked country. It position is important, but not critical. It is just the oil. It is the oil game that did in Saddam.
Invading Kuwait threatened the oil supply. The supply would never have been totally cutoff, but the price would have been affected, badly for buyers. The western nations, i.e., the U.S. and its military allies, would have been harmed by Iraq's actions. Potentially more so if Iraq had conquered Saudi Arabia. The western nations could not tolerate this. It is better to have many suppliers competing with each other than to have a single oil czar setting the price.
Something had to be done. The U.S. had a defense treaty with Kuwait. Saddam was told otherwise by the U.S. ambassador when she was asked by the Thug himself. So the legal framework was there, but how to get the consent of Congress and the American people?
The then U.S. president when on a sales campaign. He bloviated on about this and that, about threats to the world's oil supply, about Saddam being a new Hitler. (Hitler was also our thug of the time, but was replace by Stalin, a much better thug. Does the our government know quality, or what?) None of the cant got any traction until the use of the N word.
No, not that one. The other one. The one that is really dangerous; the one that has killed thousands and is still killing. Nuclear weapons, we were told, are being produced in Iraq. These weapons are a threat to those we love (i.e., to those who are on our payroll), and this just cannot be. Images of mushroom clouds in Manhattan were invoked. Israel was mentioned, and the Israeli lobby went to work on Congress. The deal was in the bag.
No mention was made of whether or not Iraq had an actual working bomb. Nor was any mention made of how would Iraq deliver a bomb, if they had one, to our land. Iraq had no long range air force or missiles. I guess they could have just driven it by truck, or sent it FedEx.
Israel had already struck at Saddam's nuclear program by bombing the reactor the French were building in Iraq. (For an inside account of the work of Israel's intelligence arm, the Mossad, read By Way of Deception.) Saddam was not deterred, set back perhaps, but not deterred.
Why would he be deterred? Why should he not pursue nuclear weapons? Lots of countries have them. We are not about to give up ours. This was never mentioned in the propaganda leading up to the counter invasion of Kuwait. Besides, the U.N. said it was okay to kick Iraq's army out of Kuwait but not for Iraq to have nuclear weapons. You know what the U.N. is. So tell me.
The American people were scared (and lied) into agreeing with the U.S.'s involvement. The Congress was won over by the Israeli lobby. The U.N. made three in favor. Any opposing votes? Good, it is unanimous. To war we go.
The war was impressive. How often do you get to see a fourth rate military take on a first rate military and get clobbered? At least the Iraqi's were smart enough to surrender.
Kuwait was made safe for democracy, even though it was and still is a monarchy with little freedom. Most Kuwaitis prefer to live outside of the country were there is the good life. Saudi Arabia was saved for totalitarianism. But Iraq's oil did not flow.
Saddam was still in power, and he was not about to give up. What was a little military defeat? He still had the bulk of the military and all the secret police. He was not going hungary. That was the duty of the people. The sanctions imposed by the victors ensured that would happen.
Saddam still had not learned not to mess with the West's oil. Just because it was under the ground in Iraq did not mean that it belonged to Iraq. The West wanted it, and the West was going to get it. Saddam forgot that when you are on our payroll you better obey. We pay for quality, and we expect to get quality. Just ask what's his name from Panama.
Saddam had to go. Bill wasn't up to the task, so the job was given to a Yale man. Not just any Yale man, but a Yale man who is the son of a Yale man who was the son of a Yale man who financed Hitler. (Does our government know quality, or what?) By one of those meaningless, crazy coincidences, all these Yale men were members of the Skull and Bones fraternity. Blood is thicker than mud.
A new sales job was needed. There was no defense treaty. Lying ambassadors were not required. But how to convince the Congress and the people? The nuclear issue had not really been resolved. This time it was repacked as a broader "weapons of mass destruction" concern. Still, so what? We have plenty of weapons of mass destruction. We used lots of them in firebombing Tokyo. They worked well, and they still do. This nugget of information was not forwarded to the common folks. No need to needlessly worry folks. The fact that Saddam's army could not do much beyond Iraq's borders was also concealed.
Into war we went. Confident we would find the ever abundant WMD's. We found sand and people happy to get rid of the Thug, but there were no WMD's. We looked everywhere. There was egg. It was all over our faces. Not to worry. The government's top spy was rewarded with a presidental medal and given a nice retirement.
Once you jump into the lava pool you must swim or drown. We tried to swim. The little matter of this 1000 year grudge between the Shiites and the Sunni factions of Islam surfaced. It seems that there is a lot of hate here. This is a feud that is usually settled by violence. There is nothing we are going to do to stop this. We can only control this by being there to present another target. If we play this right, these two groups might just stop shooting at each other long enough to start shooting at us. At least this is how it seems to be working.
It is tempting to say that you know how the story ended: Saddam was hanged by those who should have joined him and all lived happily ever after. The end. p.s., The oil is flowing!
No. The misery is only beginning. The oil is not flowing and probably won't for some time. The place has degenerated in to chaos and civil war. The Iranians will make much of this to their advantage. Their guy is not on the payroll. He has got to go, but right now we are a little busy killing folks in neighboring countries. He will have to wait his turn.
But don't lose hope about Iraq. It is just a matter of time; sooner or later some one will take control and rule the country the way Saddam did. Then all we have to do is put him on our payroll.


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I must admit. I have a sweet tooth. I could eat 4-5 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting! I could probably run the calories off, but "real" cookies are also full of butter and sugar (and flour <gasp>). I do still make them, but should stay away from them. Haha
So I found a "guilt free" recipe to get my chocolate chip cookie fix. They are eggless, sugarless and flour less! Don't worry, they taste really, really good. In fact I made a batch last night and they were gone with in minutes! I find the ingredients at Sprout's, WholeFoods, or the Commissary!
Here goes:
1 cup Almond Meal
1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt ( I used Kosher)
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup (I used honey)
11/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 teaspoons water
3/4 cup (or less) semi sweet chocolate chips
Just mix, scoop onto a parchment paper lines cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Then cool for about 5-10 minutes.
This recipe makes 9-12 cookies. So they don't last long!
Here is the finished product! I guess I'm lucky I got a picture…they disappeared shortly after this was taken! 🙂


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Char siu is Cantonese barbecued pork and something I've wanted to make for a long time. This is a two-day preparation. The recipe is mainly based on posts in this thread on eGullet, as well as some comments in this post on the Food Canon blog from Singapore.
I used pork belly instead of loin, resulting in a lot more fat and fatty, chewy pieces.
Serves 2
1 lb pork belly, sliced into 1″ x 2″ strips containing fat and lean, pricked all over with a fork
(a) marinade base:
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 stick cinnamon
2 1/2 star anise
1 tbs cloves
1 tbs cumin seeds
1 tbs coriander seeds
(b) other marinade ingredients:
1 tbs dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 1/2 tbs brown bean sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
3 cloves of garlic, mashed and lightly chopped
1/4 tsp – 1/2 tsp salt
pinch of MSG (optional)
First make the marinade base. Simmer the first 1/2 cup dark soy sauce with the water and whole spices for an hour. Be sure to keep the flame very low so that the whole spices don't burn. It should be a bare simmer.
Discard the whole spices, and combine the liquid marinade base in a medium-sized bowl with the other marinade ingredients and mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust balance for sweet / salty.
Add the pieces of pork to the bowl and combine thoroughly with your hands, rubbing the liquid into the pork. Put in fridge and marinate overnight.
About 2 hours before you want to eat, remove pork chunks from bowl, reserving marinade (discard the pieces of garlic). Thread the meat on skewers, leaving a small space between chunks. Use a set of two skewers for each set of chunks of pork, so that you will be able to turn them easily. (I used wooden skewers similar to these, which needed soaking in water so they wouldn't burn – if you have metal ones, so much the better – just make sure they're long enough to stretch to both sides of your roasting pan.)
Put oven rack in middle of oven and preheat to 300F.
Basting liquid:
1 1/2 tbs hoisin sauce
1 tbs brown bean sauce
1 tbs Shaoxing rice wine
1 1/2 tbs honey
1/4 tsp five spice powder
Excess marinade
Mix thoroughly, and adjust sweet / salty balance to taste.
Put about 1/2″ water in a roasting pan narrow enough to balance the skewers on, and place the skewers on top so that the pork is above the water. Place in oven.
Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, turning every 20 minutes.
Now raise the heat to 425F and brush the meat with the basting liquid. Cook for 20 minutes more, basting frequently.
Carefully take the pork from the oven and remove from skewers when cool enough to handle. Chop into 1/4″ pieces and set on a plate to rest for at least 30 minutes. Do not cover or keep warm – char siu should be eaten at room temperature!
Above: dipping sauces: light soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Chinese mustard.
Serve with steamed rice, and a vegetable foil – something like this baby bok choy (recipe from Steamy Kitchen).


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This is the ninth article of the series, Healthy Foods Creating Healthy Relationships. See the eighth article now.
I love snacks. I remember growing up always munching on them… chips, crackers, cookies, pretzels, carrots, celery, grapes, slices of cheese, trail mix, beef jerky, popcorn, you name it! It almost seems like an American past time is snacks. Go anywhere and there are "snack-type" foods. The biggest issue I've found with snacks is that they are easily over-consumed and often the ones eaten have less nutritional benefit.
Let's change that.
This week, I have been away from home at a national sales meeting. If you have ever experienced corporate America, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Sit in the same room for hours on end. Lots of caffeine. Heavy meal options or no option but what they get you and the group.
And in the room (or right outside of it) are the unhealthy snacks. Sure, there is sometimes a few healthy options, but not often! Do you succumb to the traditional caffeine and sugar and salt? What if we reinvent snacking?
Although I'm not competing for a bodybuilding show in quite a while, I am now in a habit of choosing healthy foods. My taste buds have adapted and so has my digestive system. When I eat less healthy things, I tend to regret it in a few hours or the next day. Whether you are snacking away from home or with loved ones, don't let the same old foods loaded with hidden calories take over.
How to reinvent snacking
The first thing to do is identify the healthier foods you and your family enjoy. Here is a great list of healthy snacks compiled by Bodybuilding.com. Notice some of the items that you may see at meetings? Fruit and nuts are one! You just have to be cautious of portion sizes, as they can add up quickly.
Many of these foods can be purchased in travel size portions or bought in bulk and separated into individual serving sizes for you and the family. It's easy, grabbing the whole bag of peanuts and just eating straight from the bag, right? But if you took a few minutes to portion out servings into little Tupperware containers or baggies, you can save calories and time later on when you are in a hurry and need a quick bite. Fruits and veggies can be cut an stored in individual containers also. Keep it simple. Do what works for you all!
You don't have to always resort to raw foods. Like to bake? Make homemade snacks! Pinterest has tons of ideas. You can modify them to your liking. Making homemade snacks is a good way get others in the family involved and try new things. You can consider alternative sugar sources, whole grain ingredients and the most "fresh" you can get. I love making protein oatmeal bars for my breakfast on trips. They usually consist of egg whites, egg, banana and some other flavors from whey protein, powdered peanut butter and Greek yogurt. If you are making something sweet, I like to incorporate more natural sources of sugar like honey, agave, maple syrup and coconut palm sugar. Did you know coconut palm sugar is one of the healthiest plant-derived sweetener options? See why here.
Maybe you aren't a baker. You can certainly make alternative snacks for all with appetizer-like foods such as dips, breakfast muffins and more. Homemade guacamole with pita chips is a favorite for me. You can control the amount of spices added, as well as little to no additional sugar.
Last but not least, scout out healthy snack items online, in your local healthy foods section of your grocery store and sometimes at gas stations and airports. I am keen on reading the nutrition label and ingredients before buying. One snack that is my current fav is Eat Enlightened Roasted Broad Bean Crisps. They are more addictive and tasty than chips. They also have a good protein and fiber content with various flavor options. Use code "STRONGSWEET20" online for discount because let's be honest, I love them. They also just released Crispy Marshmallow Treats that I am dying to try.
What other ways do you plan to reinvent snacking for you and your loved ones? Hope you enjoyed this ninth article. I'm planning on one more entry for this series. Subscribe and share and stay tuned for the last one.


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Delicious scones and no, I didn't eat them both myself!
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Making Me Smile - 12/52
Labels: Making Me Smile
7 comments:
But you need to try them both to find out wich is better!ReplyDelete
That's a fine pair!ReplyDelete
All they need is a cherry on the top! JxoReplyDelete
Two to share? Yummy. Di xReplyDelete
And why should you not have eaten both if you wished? But it seems the company you ate in may have been good too?ReplyDelete
are you sure... I would have !!! lol xReplyDelete
Those look fab! What flavour are they?ReplyDelete
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I do try to respond to every comment, but forgive me if occasionally time does not permit.
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Let's Connect!
How can I help? Are you looking for some DIY guidance or a full reboot?
Tell me what's working, what's not and how I can best help. From there we'll schedule a short call where you tell me more about your calling, your business, your ideal clients and how I can help your words resonate better or optimize your systems.
If it seems like a good fit, we'll move forward with outlining the scope of the project and other fun stuff like that. Once we're on the same page, you'll send over all your market research, I'll probably ask even more questions and then I'll get to work!
If you're interested in chatting, introduce yourself below! I look forward to hearing about your business!


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I have been making a conscious effort to try and include green vegetables in as many meals as possible these days, and Kale is a particularly healthy choice. This particular preparation, intended as a side dish for leftover roast pork, uses bacon, whose smoky richness complements all the cruciferous veggies…
For this recipe I am using a very small bunch of kale which will yield about three cups or so of chopped leaves. In addition, the recipe requires:
- 1 small onion, cut lengthwise into thin wedges;
- ½ cup lean, smoky Bacon, sliced into thick matchsticks;
- 4 tbsp. Chicken stock;
- 1 tbsp. Vinegar;
- 1 tsp. Sugar;
- 1 tsp. coarse Salt;
- Black Pepper to taste.
The Method
First, massage the kale leaves well with the salt then chop into large bite sized pieces and set aside to wilt for at least twenty minutes.
When you are ready, sauté the bacon in just a smidgen of oil until beginning to brown.
Now, add the onion and cook quickly just to the point that it is beginning to soften.
Add the stock, vinegar and sugar and, as soon as it starts to bubble, add the kale. Toss and stir until the liquid has just about evaporated and then season with pepper and plate for service.
The Verdict
The kale made a lovely side-dish for the pork and mashed potato and my wife really enjoyed it. I liked it but, to be honest, I think it should have cooked a little longer. I was trying to preserve the bright green color as much as possible but the trade-off was a lack of tenderness. If you make this dish, you may want to double, or even triple, the amount of stock and cook everything down a bit more. Either way, the taste is lovely.


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The role plastic products play in the daily lives of people all over the world is interminable. We could throw statistics at you all day long, (e.g. upwards of 300 MILLION tons of plastic are produced each year) but the impact of our consumption borders on inconceivable.
For those living on the coast, a walk along the ocean can begin to shed some light into just how staggering our addiction to plastic has become as bottles, cans, bags, lids and straws are permanent fixtures on many beaches. In other areas our addiction is more poignant; remains of animal carcasses and the plastic debris they ingested or became entangled in still visible long after their death.
To make matters worse, an overwhelming amount of plastic pollution isn't even visible to the human eye, occurring out at sea and on a microscopic level. The short-lived use of millions of tons of plastic is, quite simply, unsustainable and dangerous. We have only begun to see the far-reaching consequences of plastic pollution and how it impacts the environment.
According to a study from Plymouth University, plastic pollution impacts at least 700 marine species, while some estimates suggest that at least 100 million marine mammals are killed each year from plastic pollution.
These are some of those species:
1. Sea Turtles
Sea turtles often ingest plastic waste after mistaking it for a viable food source, resulting in severe blockages. Although a number of factors are responsible for the declining sea turtle populations worldwide, (most all of which involve human exploitation) plastic pollution plays a significant role.
Separate studies from 2013 suggest as many as 50 percent of sea turtles are ingesting plastic debris at an unprecedented rate, and dying because of it. Another study of the Loggerhead species found that 15 percent of young turtles had consumed such enormous quantities of plastic that their digestive tracts were completely obstructed.
2. Seals and Sea Lions
Marine life can become entangled in any number of ocean debris common in our oceans including: fishing nets (bottom trawls, gill nets), long lines, and lures. Additionally, thousands of animals, specifically seals and sea lions, become entwined in plastic bags and plastic packing bands every year, with many eventually succumbing to their injuries.
An eight-year study in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia documented at least 388 Stellar Sea Lions impacted by these single-use plastic products.
3. Seabirds
Plastic pollution results in the deaths of millions of marine birds every year. Arguably more so than other species, the Laysan albatross has been deeply impacted because of their unique feeding technique. When the albatross dives into the ocean to catch fish or squid, they use their beak to skim the surface, picking up plastic along the way.
Research suggests an estimated 98 percent of albatross have ingested some type of plastic debris.
4. Fish
Fish, along with pretty much any animal that brings in water through its gills, are increasingly at risk to microscopic plastic debris. A study performed at the University of Exeter UK suggested that these microplastics could take up to six times as long for the animal to rid themselves of, in comparison to ingesting the debris orally.
Unlike the other animals on this list, fish are the only species that are also frequently consumed by humans. A number of studies confirm that most fish have at one time or another ingested plastic microfibers, including brown trout, cisco, and perch.
5. Whales and Dolphins
Many cetaceans consume plastic as a result of their feeding habits. In some species, similar to the albatross, the mouth of the animal is so large it inadvertently ingests plastic debris (observed in baleen whales).
Research and mounting evidence continue to corroborate the notion that hundreds of species of cetaceans are impacted by our addiction to plastic.
According to Marine Pollution Bulletin, cetaceans are ingesting plastic at a rate as high as 31 percent, and in turn, 22 percent are at an increased risk of death.
What Can You Do?
It's clear that plastic pollution impacts virtually every living organism inhabiting, or thriving off of, the oceans of our world. We must remain diligent in our work to minimize the amount of plastic we consume. Whether you're just starting the journey to minimize your plastic consumption or not, there are a few key steps that never hurt to repeat.
Clean Up After Yourself
Sounds pretty self-explanatory, right?
If you're on the beach or at the park, be mindful of a "leave with what you came with" policy. It also doesn't hurt to pick up after your neighbors if you notice they may have left a few things behind. Beach cleanups are a great way to help the environment and meet like-minded individuals who want to reduce their plastic footprint.
It's simple to apply this in your everyday life by recycling in your own home. Most public places now offer waste versus recycling options, too. If you happen to be out and you don't see an area for recyclables, simply ask. Worst case scenario? You're forced to take a plastic bottle or bag home with you and recycle it on your own.
When You Can: Just Say "No"
We understand that going completely plastic free is challenging for most families, but plastic consumption is not by any means necessary. Saying no to straws, buying in bulk, and bringing your own reusable bags grocery shopping are just a few of the many ways you can cut down on the amount of plastic you're consuming.