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I read a lot, be it articles, books or blog posts; it's why I started my This week I've been reading posts. I love discovering new writers, re-visiting old favourites and I'm grateful to authors, bloggers, columnists, journalists and writers for putting pen to paper, so to speak, and sharing their work with the world.
To mark the new year I'm sharing 12 thought-provoking articles from 2016. These articles have all resonated with me in some way and I find myself returning to them frequently. They've helped me understand the world a little better. They've challenged my views on certain issues. They've helped me come to terms with things in my own life. They've reminded me of the importance of words and the power of telling our stories.
What To Do When You Feel Like Your World Is Ending And Everybody Hates You And Nothing Will Ever Be Ok Again
I've seen a few debates lately about what the "right" kind of self-care is. Should you do the dishes or leave them in the sink while you take a nap? Should you make good on your plans and go out with friends even when you feel crappy or should you bail with some transparent excuse? Should you clean your room or hunker down with a good book and let your future self worry about picking up your clothes? – What To Do When You Feel Like Your World Is Ending And Everybody Hates You And Nothing Will Ever Be Ok Again
This post, by Anne Thériault, is one I've returned to regularly throughout the year. I even printed out the list that is included at the end.
Bustle and the Industrialization of Confession
Cases can be made for and against a survey that distills human experience and outright trauma down to a series of boxes to check, but what is inarguable is that this document is a sign of the times. I would add that it's a fascinating one. The current media climate demands more life from writers than ever, especially if they aren't interested in doing actual reporting. The market rewards personal storytelling with attention—the more lurid and specific, the better. Just a few weeks ago, we saw a young xoJane writer seemingly pushed to the brink by what she perceived to be the demands of her job and her reluctance to reveal. Nora Ephron's signature mantra "everything is copy" has become the norm, except everything can't ever be enough when your job is to churn out posts on a routine basis. – Bustle and the Industrialization of Confession
Much has been written about confessional writing, but this article about the Bustle Writers: Identity Survey is the best I've read.
Shout, shout, let it all out
As someone who talks feminism on the internet a lot, this is a point that gets put to me on average a couple of times a day. That we'd advance our cause a lot faster if we were… well… just a little bit nicer about it. And in general, I think being nice is great. It's very nice to be very nice.
But when we're talking about women taking up space and making their voices heard, we have to be pretty careful about what behaviour we reward. Because when people say women talking about feminism should be "nicer", what they often actually mean is "gentler", "softer", "quieter", "smaller".
When people ask feminists to be nice, they're more often telling us to take up less space, to be less disruptive with our disruptions. We need feminism because women are constantly punished for acting unladylike, so much so that our discussions of women's rights are punished for it too. – Shout, shout, let it all out
Fiona Longmuir's article, in defence of shouty feminism, had me nodding along and shouting "This. This. So much this." to an empty room. Read, enjoy and be proud of your shouty feminism.
Anxiety and the 'fuck budget'
Anyway. She says: the secret to living a happy life is to stop giving a fuck about everything. You make a 'fuck budget', in which you have limited fucks to give, stop giving a fuck about things you shouldn't, then revel in how amazing your life is now.
Except she ties it to anxiety. And that's not always how it works if you have anxiety. As I have had to explain to relatives and friends when I've failed them in any one of a thousand ways: anxiety is not like an M+S jumper – you can't get rid of it by just deciding that you don't want it any more. It would be like preventing the flu by simply deciding never to get the flu. Or solving a transport problem by deciding that you'll learn to fly. – Anxiety and the 'fuck budget'
Telling someone with anxiety or an anxiety disorder to stop focusing on things they don't need to isn't always the best course of action. Not giving a fuck isn't always doable for the person with anxiety either.
For me this ties in with the recent focus on self-care. Yes, self-care has its place but it isn't a substitute for outside care (be it talk therapy or medication) and placing the onus to "get well" on a person who has a mental illness can be dangerous. Sometimes the last thing you are capable of doing when you're in the thick of it are the very things that top every self-care list going (exercise, mindfulness etc.)
To All the Straight Women Who Love Gay Men: Your Safe Space Is No Longer Their Safe Space
This is a thing we do, we straight girls. Especially cis, straight, femme girls. We maintain intimate friendships with beautiful gay men, basking in their appreciation of our femininity, jointly appraising male sexiness, seeking expert opinions on relationships, and invading party spaces. Here we dance, let loose, sing out loud, and enjoy ourselves without fear of predatory male sexual attention. Straight girls love gay male public spaces because they feel like safe spaces. The Orlando massacre reminds us this safety is an illusion of our relative privilege. Not even gay public space is safe space to be gay. – To All the Straight Women Who Love Gay Men: Your Safe Space Is No Longer Their Safe Space
This is an important read about queer spaces and how they can't really be safe spaces for straight women when the Orlando shooting proved that queer spaces aren't even safe for queer people. The last line is particularly powerful.
My Home
My body has changed shape. My jaw has sunk into my neck and my silhouette is rounded and my summer clothes don't fit. My belly gently brushes the tops of my thighs when I sit down and those thighs rub each other when I walk. I'm forty pounds – about three stone – heavier than I was. My physical self is a battle scar, though: every ounce I have gained is testimony to surviving in the only way I could figure out how. Food. But my size isn't the point. The survival is. – My Home
This is an incredible piece of writing about depression, gaining weight and body confidence. It was something I needed to read more than I realised and it's something I've returned to numerous times.
Self-Care Isn't Always Sweet And Cozy
What we need is very rarely what we want, but that doesn't make it any less necessary or important. Some nights, taking care of your mental health means vanilla scented candles and a long bath. On other nights, taking care of your mental health means forcing yourself to do your fucking laundry. The important thing is to remember that there is a balance between the two. – Self-Care Isn't Always Sweet And Cozy
An important reminder that self-care isn't all about relaxing baths, fancy candles and buying things all in the name of treating yourself. Sometimes doing the thing you least want to do is actually self-care.
The Audacity of Hopelessness
"A bigger part of tonight's story is that millions and millions of Americans are willing to vote for a candidate who has been endorsed by the Klan. They are willing to vote for a candidate who has displayed open contempt for women. They are willing to vote for a candidate whose base is openly hostile to people of color, immigrants and Muslims. We cannot ignore the hate that Mr. Trump both encourages and allows to flourish." – The Audacity of Hopelessness
My response to Donald Trump's election was to repeat "this is what the white supremacist patriarchy looks like" over and over to anyone who would listen. Roxane Gay's article in the immediate aftermath of the result has stayed with me.
Questioning Safety Pin Solidarity Revealed why I Can't Trust White People
Don't expect thanks for the solidarity you should have always been showing. Don't expect your pin to provide comfort in lieu of action. And don't expect it to bring actual change. We have real work that has to be done and I suggest we get started. – Questioning Safety Pin Solidarity Revealed Why I Can't Trust White People
Safety pins made an appearance twice in 2016; first following Brexit and then after Trump's election. I've read many articles about the pros and cons of wearing a safety pin and the thing that struck me was that all the articles in favour of safety pins were written by white people who wear them and the articles that had issues with people wearing safety pins were written by people of colour, the very people the pins were supposed to help.
This article, by Ijeoma Oluo, is a must read on the subject.
Queer Writers in the Age of Trump
"Contemporary America is filled with shadows and ghosts; we have never been free of the bigotries of homophobia, sexism, and racism. But it is also, despite all this, a more tolerant America than the one Highsmith lived in. The title of her novel had come from the biblical story of Lot, whose wife turns into a pillar of salt because she looks back while running away from the fallen city of Sodom. We cannot turn back to the past, either." – Queer Writers in the Age of Trump
On queerness and queer writing, how it has evolved and what it means in the age of a Trump presidency.
Hazy visions of "healing" and "not becoming the hate we hate" sound dangerously like appeasement. The responsibility to forge unity belongs not to the denigrated but to the denigrators. The premise for empathy has to be equal humanity; it is an injustice to demand that the maligned identify with those who question their humanity. – NOW IS THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT WHAT WE ARE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the election of Donald Trump because sometimes only the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will do.
Sometimes There Are More Important Goals Than Civility
Civility is not the highest moral imperative—especially in response to perceived injustices—nor is hand-holding and guiding reluctant people to confront their bigotry gently. American history is full of fights, including the ongoing struggle for civil rights, that have been as fierce as they are ultimately effective. Civility is overrated. – Sometimes There Are More Important Goals Than Civility
We hear so much about civility and it's role in political, human rights and social justice movements. We're all familiar with tone policing; the refusal to engage fully with an issue because of how the people affected by that issue act or react. In Ireland, it's most noticeable when it comes to the #RepealThe8th and the pro-choice movement. This articles is about people of colour reacting to white supremacy, racism and the election of Donald Trump in whatever way is best for them, without having to worry about "alienating" people.
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Redefining north.
by Terese Svoboda
Bending over the broccoli in the grocery store, I might suddenly find, like Snow White, a drop of my own blood on my blouse front, with more to come. Or in the middle of an interview, on a high dive, boarding a bus— the bleeding becoming more frequent as I grow older. I have Osler-Weber-Rendu, a/k/a hereditary hemorrhagic telangectasia, a genetic disorder that leads to abnormal blood vessel formation, its most telltale symptom being bleeding from the nose. You think second grade nosepickers? No. My mother, the carrier, bled onto her pillow at night while she slept. Only the brother born right after me had it worse. By the time he was eight, doctors had blown up balloons inside his nose to dam the blood. He bled into pots, leaning over the bed, he bled when he sneezed, he bled all over his opponent when he wrestled in high school—a tactic that always shocked them to his advantage. Pale-faced, he had seizures as a result of an abnormal blood vessel formation in his brain, and died young. You can't cauterize the problem away in the brain or the nose, even if you show a hairless nose to House who diagnoses your "medical mystery" in a 2007 episode as Osler-Weber-Rendu. One in five thousand people of all races have it, and the disease occurs evenly throughout the world. The French Carribean islands of Bonaire and Curacao, off the coast of Venezuela have the highest incidence, 1:1331. It's not in the brochures.
When I was nineteen and in love, I ran off with my high school sweetheart, a kid whose most dramatic gestures always involved walking. He was studying pre-med at McGill and once walked barefoot across the Montreal ice for blocks, pleading for me not to leave him. The gesture proved persuasive—for a while. When he had all of winter break to walk across Nebraska, he arrived to ring my family's doorbell and cast his cow-like mournful eyes on my brother to ask if I were in. It wasn't two hours of passionate exchanges later that I agreed to hitchhike with him to Seattle where he had found a job as an ironworker. There was a big scene, my enraged mother shook her toddler at me to underscore my wickedness with his innocence. Having reached the age of rebellion, I threw an apple into my backpack and walked off with my boyfriend.
But ever the dutiful daughter—or was I rubbing her nose in my escape?—I called home the day after we arrived to give my mother my address. She wrote it down, repeating it as if she couldn't believe I'd actually left, then said she was coming to visit. I was shocked. The year before she had dropped me at my college in New York without so much as a single word of advice, or even much of a goodbye. Maybe I finally had 282 her attention.
She arrived in Seattle alone, another anomaly, but Dad was busy plowing or welding, whatever farmers did in January. She had hired a housekeeper to take care of the other eight kids. Usually if my parents traveled together, I babysat. When they went off to Europe for three weeks the summer before, I cared for everyone, including the three-month-old baby. They returned to a Welcome Home banner, Sunday dinner, and a homemade cherry pie. My sister said my mother went into a collapse after I left for college.
Mom included the boyfriend in her invitation to dinner at her hotel. At forty-five, she was stunning and knew it: thick black hair cut in a sleek Seventies cap, dark eyes, jewels around her neck and fingers, a perfect smile, and a green silk shantung suit. My boyfriend was half in love with her. Half in love? They talked in whispers and told each other jokes. Appetizers arrived with her second scotch, and he ordered another. She had nothing against him, he was attractive, intelligent and fawning—I was her target. Would she hiss whore at me again the way she had when I left home? Would she apologize?
Steak arrived. We had ordered big. We had little money for anything for another week since neither of our new jobs had yet to produce a paycheck. Of course we didn't admit that to her. Both of us moved the food around on our plates and ate little, hoping to bag the rest for later. What did we talk about while we chewed our tiny pieces? The beautiful rain of the city, the view of the water from the window, the trouble with all airlines. Why are you here? wasn't a question either of us could ask outright. That would be treating her like another person and she was not another person, she was my mother. The reverse—that she would treat us like adults, like some other parents rumored to exist, and that she was here just to see that I had settled in—I couldn't imagine.
By the end of dinner, she laid down her cards. Doctors had found a hole between her heart and her lungs, caused by Oslo-Weber-Rendu. In those days doctors sawed open the sternum and stomped around inside, tying up blood vessels, making the operation quite dangerous. (My brother had a similar operation in the 90s and attended a cocktail party afterward.) The operation was scheduled at the Mayo Clinic, the disease rare enough to have interested them, interested them quite a lot, she said—she bat a set of false eyelashes that everyone wore then—but she was postponing it until I came home.
We giggled.
I had to pretend to decide. My mother's life or mine?
She was asking me to remain a child, to acquiesce that she still held all the power, especially when it came to sex and men. Or was her plan to grandstand so the suitor would be frightened off by the genetics? Either way, I was expected to agree with her tactics and humbly return to her domain. Nevermind whether it was too late to protect the particulars. 283 Many years later, I struggled to give her the benefit of the doubt: maybe she wanted to prevent me from being stuck with a child born too soon. A mother in that era, especially with her level of fertility, could not imagine any other outcome with regard to sex. After all, she'd had me a month too early for the wedding date, an embarrassment no one ever talked about, although I had done the arithmetic long ago. My untimely arrival forced her to abandon any possible artistic career for the good Catholic girl's life of meal preparations and diaper folding. Mixed up in this was the idea that the pill could never be involved—the church forbade it.
I imagined her bleeding uncontrollably, her lungs swamped, the heart straining and stopping because I had refused her—the Sacred Heart, pierced and draining.
What about my heart?
The table was cleared. After my mother's stunning revelation, my boyfriend and I forgot to ask to have the food bagged. We whispered together while she went off to freshen her lipstick. He was gallant enough about his part in the situation—of course I could go back to my mother—and I hated him for it. Six months later, he walked away one weekend with another girl more gullible to the dramatic gesture, and was not missed. Oh, but what did I say to my mother that wet Seattle night before we left the restaurant? She flew back alone.
It never occurred to me she might have visited to say goodbye.
She died forty years later, not of anything to do with her condition, just old age. For the rest of her life, she was furious whenever I managed to accomplish anything outside the maternal role. I had cheated—that's what she thought of contraception. On the board of Right to Life in her state, she campaigned and marched and leafleted against birth control and abortion. She put work into justifying her position. In response, I made a documentary about how Margaret Sanger manipulated the media to draw attention to birth control as an issue. The Getty named it one of the two best bio-pics of the decade. But in the end, my mother won. I had a fifty percent change of handing down Olser-Weber-Rendu to my own children— and both my sons have it.
Now—have I bled all over you? There it is, the great tide that is inside us, outside, and the reader recoils. It's not my blood, I'm hollow. Or should I have sat there, great gouts pinched back in my hankie, staring at the blank screen, swallowing?
A 2013 Guggenheim fellow, Terese Svoboda's most recent book is the novel Bohemian Girl. Her biography of the radical poet Lola Ridge is forthcoming from Schaffner Press in 2015 as is When the Next Big War Blows Down the Valley: Selected and New Poems from Anhinga Press.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rugby league in Ireland to expand with two new domestic teams
Ireland's domestic competition will be strengthened by the addition of two new teams and the return of three others when it kicks off in May.
In Northern Ireland, Belfast Eagles, who have been running junior rugby league up to now, have formed an open age side and will join the existing three Ulster teams to make a four-team championship.
In the south, Galway Bay Pirates will make their debut, initially playing friendlies, and will be dual registered with neighbours and reigning champions Galway Tribesmen to assist their development.
"There is a feeling of nostalgia and progress for the upcoming season," said Ulster provincial official Steve Hogan.
"Limerick's finest, Treaty City Titans, return after a troubled 2016 season which culminated in the team standing down mid-season and are joined by Ballyfermont Bears from West Dublin and Waterford Vikings.
"On top of the eight-team competition in the Republic of Ireland, there has been an upsurge of 150 per cent in competitive team numbers and, along with the Pirates, there may be further developments in the very near future in terms of additional non-competitive teams."
Expansion comes on the back of the national team qualifying for the 2017 World Cup with the help of an increasing number of domestically produced players.
"Belief in Ireland is that the game is on the up and with the Wolfhounds at the World Cup, there is genuine excitement from all involved," Hogan said.
PA Media


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Stories tagged "life"
This is a Story
This is a story Where the enemies win, Where the angry ones, The selfish people, They reign. This is a story Where the kind lose, Where the selfless ones, The caring people, They are broken. This is the story of life. The way we have to live. Where rea...
Relief from pain.
If it doesn't make sense, leave a comment and I will explain it. Thanks for reading! Pain. Pain. It burst. Red rivulet's cascaded down the long path to its destination. It caressed the area like a long lost son returning, and it was greeted in...
You know, it's quite strange when you think about it. Life. Think about where you are at this precise moment, and just consider how you got there. What events have transpired throughout the entire course of your life to get you to the stage you a...
The life behind Morana and Avery
Avery and Morana's mother died many years before this story. They're father is always at the bar and making girls pregnant. Morana took custody of her 9 years younger sister and moved far away from her dad. They are now in the lovely state ...
Morana (3)
Today was Monday. I woke up early to get in the shower before Morana did. I walked into the bathroom and started the shower. I undressed myself carefully, so I don't scratch myself. As I did this, I looked at my breast in the mirror. Barely even ...
Morana Part 3 (continued)
English class passed by fast. It was like a minute….went by too fast for me. I walked to her locker and forced it open. "Stupid old lockers" I though. I put her old books away and walked towards the parking lot, feeling sad for some r...
Morana (4)
I looked at the clock. 12:36 am it read. I grabbed my cloak and my shoes and stared outside. I walked through the thick forest, finding my stone creek. I touched the limestone carefully, not let the jagged edges cut my pale skin. The rock was smooth, e...
Temporarily Permanent
two Endings sprung from one Beginning… Everything is so easily changed. every single step changes the whole World. so if even one thing deviates from the original plan of the Universe, does the Whole plan change? and how is there ever Any ...
A Consequence Of Light And Life
Burnt out stars Shine from afar— When our bare Skeletons already are Pockmarked like Mars The Sun will be a speck Newly born in the outer parlors.
Life is Waiting for Me
Walking these halls, I know my days here are numbered. With my books in one arm and my iPod in my free hand, I glance at that chaos around me. This place has become part of my home. It has become my security blanket. So many memories of the past three ...
Nothing Less Than My Sanity
Again I have that sinking feeling, because no matter what I do, none of it is good enough, for them, or her, or you. Disappointment from all sides, including from within, they all repeat their message over and over again. Maybe there's somethin...
A Shattered Place
You took away my voice, you took away my sound. I can't sing, there's no song in my heart, and it used to play so loud. Circles around nothing, walls around who I used to be, sheltered and locked away is the happy and unburdened me. I can&...
My Disgrace
I see your face, I search your face, contorted and twisted with my disgrace. Disloyal I may have been but tied to you I am not, and though you tried and tried again, my loving cannot be bought. And while I may have let you then, your touch still haun...
The Accident
I was okay until the screaming started. My nerves had already been shredded by the noise and the stench of fear, death, and antiseptic. It rose out of nowhere, a wail on a ghostly wind, and then it got louder and louder and louder until finally I was ...
I'm Wondering
I'm wondering as I write this about the purpose of this poem. The people it is about will never read it. The people who need to will never hear it. I find myself more focused on the clean lines of this paper; on my writing being scratched into ex...
Thoughts Of The Day
Imagine if life Is like infinite instances Coming from nothing Inevitably becoming nothing At a constant rate It's circular— life reinitiates Once spread dead Now a lively concentrate Then again All vision dilutes back To inanimate eyesR...
Divine Doorway
I glimpse through the key hole Of heavens door, Waiting, Watching time's architecture Creating My life's touch and texture.
Note To Self
Today— Make sure You take your Stature in nature And set something Solid in said cement. Trace and imprint love And tell her it never went.
Ho Hum
Refusing breath I exhale a hum With all that is left In my numb Lungs of flesh— Soon to become The sum of death.
A Quantized Life
Awake for an hour, asleep for a year. That was the summation of his entire existence, ever since he had agreed to this mad experiment as a way to avoid a boring life sentence without a chance at parole. Every year, on New Years Day, they would wake him...
Unrequited love
"She loves me, She loves me not." I said to myself while pulling the petals off of a daisy under the oak tree in the park. I had been sitting under this oak tree for about 2 hours and my 6-year old sister, Rebeka, pulled the wings off of fi...
Sunken stones In the river Smooth still As water fills The role of life-giver.
You Can't Love A Monster
"I just don't know if I can love you the same Andrew. Your not the person I had fell in love with a year ago. I can sit here and lie to myself, but the fact is that this would never work." – "Amy you can't mean this,...
Ear What She Nose
She nose But she doesn't ear, I suppose, With one eye open clear The other frozen closed By the cold upon her tear.
Infinately Inanimate
What if what we feel Isn't really real? Thought by mind? Made by hand? Maybe all of time Is dropping sand That gravity holds, controls, That simple fulfillment of the inanimate demand. And… Then again the inanimate animates You whether you...


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Radnor™ Clear Flexible Side Shields
Part #: RAD64051421
Product Description
Item Details:
Radnor™ Flex Sideshields are molded to a bendable softness. Simply weave through temple for a secure, comfortable fit. Flex sideshields block 100% UV rays. Conforms to ANSI Z87.1+ standards.
Simple Weave-Through design Secure, comfortable fit on most safety eyewear Block 100% of UV rays
Meets ANSI Z87+ Standard
Shipping & Returns
Your item must be in its original unused condition to be returned, unless there is a manufacturer defect. Your must return the item within 30 days of your purchase.
1. Please email firstname.lastname@example.com to request a refund.
2. Mail your returned item to:
G & L Safety, LLC
Returns Department
708 Broadway Ave.
Gladewater, TX 75647
3. Include in your package a signed letter stating the reason for your return and the original receipt.
Return Exceptions
Some items can not be returned if they are opened. Merchandise that has been worn, used, or altered will not be accepted for return or exchange.
If your clothing item is in like new condition, you may exchange your clothing item for a different size or color. You will not be subject to a restocking fee in this case, but you still will have to pay return shipping.
Contact Us
You can contact us by phone, email, mail, or by filling in the form below!
Phone Number: (903) 720-0353
Email: email@example.com
Address: 708 Broadway Ave., Gladewater, TX 75647
Office Hours: 8 AM - 5 PM Central


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Digital Capital exhibiting at Money2020 Europe
Published in Latest | Be the first to comment!|
Digital Capital will be exhibiting on upcoming Money 2020 Europe event. Event is to take place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from 4th to 6th June and is the biggest Fintech event in Europe.
This market-leading three-day event brings together the entire payments, FinTech and financial services industry. Ideas are created, partnerships are formed and future trends are imagined.
To learn more about our payment, card, acquiring and software solutions visit us on booth H38 and meet some of our team members.


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Kitakyushu, an international, industrial and trade city with a population of one million, was established in February 1963 by the equal-basis amalgamation of five cities: Moji, Kokura, Wakamatsu, Yahata and Tobata.
In around 1600, the Kitakyushu Area was spotlighted for the first time in history. Kokura Castle was constructed during that time and the area subsequently prospered as a castle town becoming the center of governmental and commercial activities in Kyushu.
The Meiji government, formed in the latter half of the 19th century, noted the geographic advantages of the Kitakyushu area which had prospered as a key junction of marine and land traffic since olden times. In addition to the development of commerce, railroad lines and port facilities were rapidly constructed in the area; the City has since developed as one of the most important distribution bases in Japan.
Moreover, regarding the industrial aspect, Kitakyushu comprises one of the four largest industrial zones as an industrial base contributing to the manufacturing abilities of Japan, through the aggregation of such material industries as the steel, chemical, metal and ceramic industries, which began when the government-managed Yahata Steelworks, the largest steelworks in Asia, which was founded in 1901. Today, automobile-related industries are being established in this city one after another.
In addition, along with changes in the industrial structure in recent years, high-technology industries including industrial robots, IC-related products and biotechnologies are being generated in this area while some new regional movements are under way toward the advancement and diversification of regional industries such as joint research through cooperation of business, academic and governmental circles and development of new products by an interprofessional group.
History of KITAKYUSHU
Kitakyushu, an international, industrial and trade city with a population of one million, was established in February 1963 by the equal-basis amalgamation of five cities: Moji, Kokura, Wakamatsu, Yahata and Tobata.
In 1901 the first government-managed steelworks in Japan were constructed in Kitakyushu. Taking advantage of this opportunity, this city developed with key industries, such as steel, chemical, electric and ceramic industries as a base, and played an important role in the modernization of Japan.
Government-managed Yahata Steelworks
Kitakyushu was established in 1963, through the equal-basis amalgamation of five adjacent cities, namely Moji, Kokura, Wakamatsu, Yahata and Tobata. It was the first instance in the world of a city merging in this way, and the United Nations gave it special note. In the same year, Kitakyushu became an ordinance-designated city with a population of one million people.
Five cities consolidated
Although Kitakyushu had developed favorably, because of the dollar and oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, the City was forced to change its industrial structure and create new regional policies.
Kokura Station
At present
To revitalize Kitakyushu, three ports (sea port, airport and e-port) were constructed and new industries including the automobile, semiconductor and environment-related industries were promoted. Now as a hub city of a metropolitan sphere with a population of 2 million people, Kitakyushu is being regenerated as a city of energy and charm.
International Policy Division,
Planning and Coordination Bureau,
1-1 Jonai, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu 803-8501 JAPAN
Tel: 093-582-2146
(International Calling +81-93-582-2146)
Fax: 093-582-2176


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As an educator and entrepreneur, Ryan Gourley is passionate about the development of people, ideas, and innovations. He currently serves as director of the TechArb Student Venture Accelerator, a joint initiative between the Zell Lurie Institute and the Center for Entrepreneurship, where he is responsible for program design, management, and evaluation. In this role, he draws upon over ten years of experience in teaching, training, and community organizing to support student entrepreneurs in launching their ventures. Ryan has previously worked in health and social science research and provided coaching to healthcare and sustainability leaders.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in psychology and Bachelor of Arts in communication studies from The University of Iowa. Ryan went on to receive his Master of Science in natural resources and environment and Master of Entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan.
Tweet @RyanGourley


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Prohibition Styled Shoot/
The sultry mood at Sugar Creek Brewery only intensified with the addition of flares of crimson and warm hues of coppery gold added to the scene. It was just capital sexy, sultry, beautiful baby! This styled shoot was done last year but I never took the time to blog it until now! Mistakes were made, obviously, since this shoot is stunning! The silver lining is that it's still a great time to post it now during the winter season! ;) An incredible team of planners, decorators, artists and stylists came together to create the dark, sexy vibes below. I love the intensity the models brought to the makeup with their intense gazes and confident body language!
We all wanted to go smoky and vampy for the makeup look - so Skylar's lips were painted a plum-wine burgundy color with golds, browns and black pigments on the eyes.
Planner: Details Wedding Planning Florist: P.A.Reavis Designs , Floral & Event Stylist Bakery: Skys the Limit! Custom Cakes and more Venue: Sugar Creek Brewing Videography: West Mint Media (video link coming soon) Beauty: Anne-Marie Mitchell Makeup Artistry & Mandi Does Hair Rentals: Cooke Rentals - Cornelius, NC Jewelry: Skatells Jewelers (personal shoutout to Laura Ealy for making that ring hookup happen last second - she's a killer ring maker) Attire: Paige and Elliott & House of Abbeydale
What a beautiful shoot! Thanks to all vendors involved who made it possible! :)


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Nothing says "Happy St. Patrick's Day" like queso and chips! 😉 Well, perhaps that isn't quite true. But few things say "my tummy is about to be really happy" like queso and chips.
My dark days challenge meal this week was a little different because I was doing a cooking demonstration at the Maple Avenue Market. It wasn't really a prepare the whole dinner kind of thing. I needed to make something that filled two requirements: I could use only ingredients found in the market (plus my venison) to make it and I had to be able to cook it in a pot or saute pan. That limited my choices a bit.
I settled on venison con queso, one of my favorite appetizers. You can see the original version of venison con queso on my GreatVenisonCooking site. I adapted it a bit for this because the Market doesn't have any peppers this time of year. So, I found some jalapeno cheddar cheese that I thought would do nicely. That along with heavy cream, Brigg's Chipotle Seasoning, onion and garlic, and I had a locally sourced Mexican meal. And, the Market sells Nana's Cocina tortilla chips, which are made just about 10 miles from my home. Sweet!
This was my first cooking class at the Market, and it was small…only three people showed up for it (plus several others who came in to buy milk and tasted my dip for fun). I was actually glad it was small…I have some kinks to work out before I do it again. And I will do it again. As I begin my schooling to become a health coach (via the Institute for Integrative Nutrition), I'll be doing more classes and workshops. It's really fun! I'll post them here as they come up.
A note about the picture: I completely forgot to take my camera to the class. The picture here is actually the version I make with roasted peppers instead of a pepper cheese. It tastes the same, and this is pretty much what this one looked like. 🙂
Recipe: Venison con Queso
Summary: spicy, cheesy, meaty goodness
- 1/2 lb ground venison (can substitute beef or turkey)
- 1 TBS chipotle seasoning
- 1 TBS cooking oil
- 1/2 small sweet onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups grated jalapeno cheddar (or jalapeno jack) cheese
- In a medium skillet, brown the meat with the chipotle seasoning. When browned, remove from skillet and set aside.
- While the meat is browning, dice the onions finely and mince the garlic.
- Heat the oil in the skillet. Add the onions and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the cream.
- Add the cheese and stir until melted.
- Add the browned venison and stir.
- Remove to a mini crock pot or other dish that holds heat well.
- Serve with tortilla chips.
Quick notes
It's easy to double or triple this recipe. As shown here, it's a nice appetizer for four people.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
Copyright © Susan Rose.
3 Responses to DDC week 16: Venison Con Queso and Chips
How exciting. Your classic St. Pat's venison con queso looks great. ha
Hey Backyardgrocery,
Along the same lines,, Although several New Mexican dishes are quite similar to Mexican and Tex-Mex offerings such as enchiladas and burritos, New Mexican food is actually very different. The most important difference is the particular variety of chili pepper used. New Mexican chili comes in several different varieties and is usually referred to as "green chili" or "red chili" depending on the stage of ripeness in which it was picked. The green chili is chopped and thickened with a bit of flour to make a sauce, and the red chili pods are ground and simmered with water to make the fiery red chili sauce.
All the Best


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Top Ten Best Bosses in Sonic, Undertale, Five Nights at Freddy's, and Transformers GamesUltron123 These are the boss fights I personally like and think are awesome.
The Top Ten
You're not telling me that this boss isn't one of, if not the best boss fights. Like other boss fights, you face your rival, but, unlike other bosses, you pick your character and your choice changes the ending. Also, you play the close range slicing instead having guns. But to spice things up they have special abilities. Not to mention they are battling on a ship getting torn apart beneath their feet. And old fashion blade clashes. This boss fight is awesome and my favorite. - Ultron123
This is 3rd. Yeah, I'm sorry. But this is probably the hardest in this list. It appears when you fight Purplegeist and substitutes as the fighter. You need to defeat it but it isn't so easy. You have a very limited time of 180 seconds, which isn't as much time as you think. Not only that but the air is poisoned and you need to use Bubble Breath and keep track of when it'll end. Another issue is, while you can dish out a lot of hard damaging attacks, but you can't tank much yourself. If you were to win, you would need 1 hard hitter, 1 gift boxer, 1 healer, and 1 bubble breather. Oh, and quick time reaction to kill the rainbow as quick as you can. - Ultron123
It is satisfying when you beat it it gave you rage with it's mini game which is so hard that I coded Scott and chipper in my party then gave you rage with it's boss fight - Tyoshi
The 2nd best boss is, surprisingly, Sliver's from Sonic Generations. It really is because in Sonic 06, he was a horrible boss who says "it's no use" every 5 seconds. In Generations, he made had moves that weren't really fast that you have no time to react, but not to slow that it was easy. And at his last hitpoint, it turns to finish-off-the-boss phase to the get-out-of-here phase. This is cool because that redeems him from Sonic 06. His boss in 06 was terrible. - Ultron123
You saw him coming. Anyway, Sans is on the list because his fight is also surprising like Silver. Sans was a supposedly lazy and easy boss. However, in genocide, he dishes out living hell. His bones, Gaster Blasters, and soul telekinesis will be a real surprise to the player. Also, he gives a pretty satisfying weakness, the 1 hp. - Ultron123
Wait...he is not number 1? You know what this means? *megalovania intensifies*
Look, another Sonic boss! Anyway, Dark Gaia is awesome. First, you are normal Sonic, facing off of Gaia. After you defeat Gaia, the true battle starts. Gaia turns into Perfect Dark Gaia and to fight back, Sonic goes super and the fight starts. - Ultron123
Another one that needs all your skill to defeat. Metal Sonic's moves are stronger than you and overpower yours. You need to learn from your 8 battles to take him out. Once you do, you get to put the smack down on Eggman, and it's satisfying alright. - Ultron123
This is a tough boss. This guy can be found in a cave and he doesn't let you beat him. Every hit destroys a character, so you need to be cautious. Not to mention, he uses 4th Wall, so you have another thing to worry about. But you can take him down and once you do, you get an ending. - Ultron123
This fight is the final boss of Transformers Prime The Game. This takes all your skill in order to beat. This fight has 4 stages and each need a specific time and attack to beat down. The first one is testing your melee combat skill, the second tests your vehicle skill, and the third and fourth test your range skill. This boss is unique and fun to play against. - Ultron123
This fight would be higher if you could die. But I do like the concept of this. Save your friends' souls, then save Asriel. This is also sad and cool at the same time. - Ultron123
Ah…our good ol' pal Scott. Anyway, his boss fight isn't that different from other bosses. It's the basic attack-it-until-it's-dead, hence why it's 10 on this list. - Ultron123
The Contenders
This should be so much higher
Related ListsTop Ten Characters from Five Nights at Freddy's, Undertale, and Sega Top Ten Undertale and Five Nights at Freddy's Characters Crossovers Top Ten Five Nights at Freddy's Fan Games Top 10 Ideas for a Five Nights at Freddy's Fan Game Top Ten Best Five Nights at Freddy's Games
List StatsCreated 29 Jan 2017
Updated 27 Jul 2017
2 years, 295 days old
Top Remixes
2. Sliver (Sonic Generations)
3. Chica's Magic Rainbow (FNAF World)


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Seven Birds
According to persistent legend a truck carrying a load of green parrots turned over on the Interstate highway near New Orleans sometime in the late twentieth century and spilled its colorful cargo into the local mythology. Whether the story is true or not, there are green parrots all over town and they often congregate noisily in tall palm trees and on telephone and electric wires above the heads of the citizens. The song, Seven Birds, was inspired by the activities of these birds and their similarities to the activities of my son, Tucker, and his teenage friends during high school. Like the parrots who fly away one at a time, Tucker's friends dispersed slowly as they grew into adults. There are eleven stories on this album, but this is the only one told from the perspective of a flock of birds.
Midnight Delta gives us a feeling for the sights and sounds of rural Mississippi. I've Been Delayed tells of longing and loneliness. The Party's Over describes the liberation of a woman who has finally had enough of her old life, while I'm the One paints a picture of acceptance of a status quo that is far from perfect. What's in Your Pocket takes us on a tour of one man's personal, portable treasures; and Disappearing Nightly illuminates the life of a traveling musician. The thread that ties these songs together is nothing more or less than life itself.
On this album I take advantage of a pool of musician friends in Germany. Sini, Reinhard, Fred and Mutz bring fresh ideas to the studio; and it is a treat to create music with them. The two tracks recorded in New Orleans give me a chance to introduce the wonderfully impish Aurora Nealand, one of my all-time favorite musical cohorts. But, of course, no matter how much we enjoy making music, the circle is not complete until someone hears it. Thank you for listening!
Spencer Bohren
January 2015, New Orleans


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Hell Hounds
Cover Reveal
Cover Reveal
Well, the day of the cover reveal has finally arrived and as you can see, it encompasses the action you will find between the covers, perfectly. Though Grim and his team of Hell Hounds pursue their quarry through many levels of the underworld, several epic scenes take place in hell's dark version of Paris – or as the damned say – Perish.
Thus the epic panorama introducing you to the book itself.
I really love it!
All credit and respect to Roy Mauritsen
who once again worked his magic to produce a marvelous first impression.
(Much appreciated, Roy. A fantastic job!)
And of course, a special "thank you" goes to Janet & Chris Morris
and the team at Perseid Press who toiled so hard to ensure we have an amazing treat in store for you this coming Halloween.
and the team at Perseid Press who toiled so hard to ensure we have an amazing treat in store for you this coming Halloween.
Here's the blurb:
Feared throughout the many circles of the underworld, Satan's Reaper – and chief bounty hunter – Daemon Grim, is known as a true force to be reckoned with.
Having eliminated a major player in the uprising eating its way like a cancer through the underbelly of hell, Grim is stunned to discover he cannot afford to rest on his laurels, for the rebellion runs far deeper than was ever imagined. New players have emerged – denizens with uncanny abilities – who seem determined to support Chopin and Tesla's revolutionary agenda.
Ever keen to test their mettle, the Sibitti – personified weapons of the ancient Babylonian plague god, Erra – also appear eager to capitalize on the growing unrest, and set about maneuvering events in order to place themselves in direct opposition to Grim's investigation.
And if that was not cause for concern enough, there's an insane angel on the loose, a creature as hell-bent on creating havoc as he is to return home.
How do Grim and his rabid pack of bounty hunters respond?
Baying for blood – doesn't even begin to describe it.
Buy Link to follow soon
Buy Link to follow soon
For those of you who want to find out more about the release itself, Daemon Grim, or Heroes in Hell, I've devised a little schedule up until Halloween that should fit the bill.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, A Reaper in Hell Blog will provide a brief rundown of Daemon Grim's exploits so far:
Daemon Grim - A Reaper in Hell
Daemon Grim - A Reaper in Hell
Tuesday's – The blurb for each adventure Grim has appeared in;
Thursday's – An excerpt from the same featured story.
Through these tasters, you'll be reminded how the Reaper's story has evolved toward what you get to read in Hell Hounds.
Daemon Grim's Facebook Page will do something slightly different:
Daemon Grim - Facebook Page
Daemon Grim - Facebook Page
Wednesday's – a brief clip from that week's highlighted story;
Friday's – A promoted post featuring a themed article about Hell Hounds itself
By following along, you'll get an accurate idea of the mood and flavor you will experience on the spookiest night of the year when the Hell Hounds are unleashed upon the public.


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Pacific Sunwear's Loss Widens
Teen-Focused Retailer's Sales Fell During Challenging Holiday Season
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. said its loss widened in the fiscal fourth quarter as the teen-focused specialty retailer reported a decline in net sales during a challenging holiday season.
The company previously had warned that a "choppy" holiday season would likely drag down results.
However, shares of the company rose more...


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The future of spa lies in attending to the 'whole person' and as we shift into this new era of wellness it becomes increasingly important to weave wellness into our usual treatment menu. Fortunately the options are both endless and interesting, limited only by your ability to embrace complimentary therapies as befitting spa.
During my 3 year tenure as the spa and dreamtime manager for Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat I had the opportunity to work with over 30 practitioners who offered their own unique signature experience within the healing environ of the spa. I had the privilege of working alongside specialists in ayurveda, traditional chinese medicine, naturopathy, nutrition, kinesiology, psychotherapy, reiki, sound healing, intuitive reading, advanced massage therapies, chiropractic, buddhism and many other healing modalities. The interesting thing was that guests were actually seeking the unique and extraordinary. They wanted profound transformation of mind, body and soul.
Spa's and wellness retreats offer guests the opportunity to disengage from their stress, and as such, we are now quite literally in the stress management and health enhancement business. A spa offers a means to graceful ageing and skilful living and is perfectly placed to educate, inspire and empower. But how then, do we weave wellness into spa?
First, take a look at your business and how you utilise your treatment rooms. Do you have a room that is unused or under utilised on certain days of the week? If so, you have the space for a specialty therapy. You might choose to offer one specialty therapy on one set day each week, or given more room to utilise, you might promote several therapies on a given day each week. For example: Kinesiology on Monday, Acupuncture on Tuesday, Naturopathy on Wednesday etc. If your spa is placed within a luxury resort you might host 'specialty practitioners'' during peak seasons and use this as an added PR exercise.
Why not enhance your current therapies by introducing healing elements such as reiki, reflexology, restorative yoga, meditation or chi nei tsang. Not only does this add a unique point of difference for your client, it also keeps your team learning and embracing new healing skills. You might send them off to training or run the training in house with one of your new or visiting specialty therapist's.
Know your wellness cuisine and always offer genuinely healthy refreshments. Liase with your chef and have him create a healthy spa menu that compliments the spa wellness experience.
Base your business on a wellness culture. Consider the environment, recycle, use natural cleaning products, switch to rechargeable tea lights, incorporate natural skincare and ban smoking and sugar at work. It is important to remember that wellness begins at home and in your daily life. So be the change, set the example and show your team what wellness looks and feels like. And as the enthusiasm for wellness grows with your team so it does for your clients.


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The Five Elements
In 1980, the iconic father of Art Deco and master artist Romain de Tirtoff—better known as Erté—aspired to have his beautiful drawings and paintings realized as
sculpture. Having no sculptural experience, Erté selected Ira Reines, an award-winning young sculptural prodigy whose talent and passion
impressed Erté. Reines collaborated closely with Erté for eleven years, translating the master's celebrated two-dimensional couture designs into a series of seventy bronze sculptures.
Upon Erté's passing in 1990, Reines returned to his own sculptural vision exploring the relationship between man and the cosmos, order and chaos and the
sublime divine beauty that arises from it. Over decades of seclusion, meditation and introspection, he evolved the sculpting style known as "Sculptural
Etherealism"—delicate and intricately formed figures of near-perfect beauty, emerging as if in the process of creation, replete with splendor and spirituality
arising from the intricate relationships between order and chaos—beauty born of chaos, form created from formlessness.
Reines' newest creation The Five Elements or "The Wu Xing" are depicted as: Wood, fire, metal, earth and water. The Wu Xing is the basis for many important aspects of the ancient Chinese culture including traditional medicine, philosophy (including Feng shui), astrology, martial arts, military strategy and political philosophy. In Feng shui, the Wu Xing and the supported interactions between them are at the core of "Qi" (aka "chi") – The invisible forces that find the universe, earth and humanity together. It is in this context of exploring the relationship between man, nature and the universe that Ira Reines created "The Five Elements" – a suite of five sculptures exemplifying the five Wu Xing elements as female figures of sublime beauty.
• Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England.
• Four Arts Gardens — A 1981 heroic installation of Ira Bruce Reines' sculpture titled
"Neptune" is part of the collection of this botanical garden in Palm Beach, Florida
• Shanghai Doland Museum of Modern Art
• "Aurora" — Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Spring, NC.


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How is Frankie Muniz 20 already? Having wrapped the final episode of Malcolm in the Middle, the actor's strapping on his racing boots and taking a ride with Jensen Motorsport's Formula BMW team. He hopes to run Formula Atlantic in a year, with an eye toward the open-wheel big leagues. Act in high school musicals, end up an auto blogger. Act in a hit television series during high school and become a racing driver. We totally should've followed Frankie's example.
Frankie Muniz leaves 'Malcolm' to drive race cars [AZCentral]
Biowillie May Help You Score Chicks [Internal]


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The first and last things Jesus says and will say publicly (Matthew 25 & Luke 4) is about making a way out for the poor, sick, suffering, and struggling. This is good news for the oppressed but bad news for the oppressors, great for the debtors and devastating to the bankers. Listen to this message on Christ's primary purposes here on earth and thereby our primary purposes as the body of Christ.
|[mp3player width=200 height=120 config=christcomes.xml file=http://www.jacobswellmemphis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Christ-Comes_-To-Make-a-Way-Out.mp3] Jamey Lee – Dec 10, 2011
Listen Later: Download mp3 (Right-click and select "Download linked file as" or "Save file as")


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Wonderboy Spencer Speltz graduates from high school and college at the same time
When 18-year-old Spencer Speltz sat through the commencement ceremony in Lewiston-Altura High School's sweaty gym, not many of his classmates knew he'd graduated already. While getting his high school degree, he'd also gotten an associates degree from Minnesota State College Southeast.
Most knew he was taking college classes. He was hardly at Lewiston-Altura, a small school in the countryside west of Winona, doing most of his work online, or at the Minnesota State campus.
If he was at the high school, it was usually for soccer, basketball, and baseball practice. His parents required he earn Bs and As if he was going to play sports, and he did.
He was so busy he didn't tell his family he'd been named to the Homecoming court until three hours before the ceremony. They scuttled their plans and headed to the event, where he earned the crown. The whole "homecoming court" thing hadn't been on his radar until that moment.
Spencer, his mom Carrie says, has that quality rare in a teenager: an exceptional well-roundedness. He's smart, athletic, friendly, tight with his family -- the high school version of having it all. If he were a character in a sitcom, viewers would complain the portrayal wasn't realistic.
Mom admits it's a little weird. She's never met a kid with so much going on, and so little to say about it. She's asked him if he ever looks back at everything he's done in the last four years and notices how incredible it is. He says he doesn't think about it that much.
Spencer isn't great at talking about himself. He has trouble describing who he is. He lands on the word "easygoing," even though he just earned two degrees at once by working nonstop.
"I don't know if he's that naive, or he just really doesn't care," she says.
When he was young, he was antsy. In elementary school, he was always finishing early, then skipping ahead. Through middle school, they'd get the same notes on his report cards: "great kid, great personality, a leader… but he needs to slow down."
"A lot of it is his competitiveness," Carrie says. "He always wants to see what's around the next corner."
He continued his breakneck pace through high school, making the varsity basketball team as a freshman. His coach, Brian Menk, watched in amazement as he would admonish players three years his senior for not pushing themselves and wasting time during practice.
"He wasn't afraid to step up and bark at them a bit," Menk says. Some of the older players resented him, but Menk said the ones who took Spencer's words to heart were the ones who cared about getting better. That's all Spencer cared about.
Spencer wore his workload gently. He doesn't get too stressed–nothing a pickup game of basketball won't fix. He likes watching movies, heading to Winona to get a bite to eat, going swimming with his friends.
For the next few months, he'll be doing electrical work for a family friend's business – assisting in cell tower maintenance. No, he says, he's never done electrical work before. He's going to pick it up on the job.
Then, at the end of the summer, he's heading to Viterbo University in La Crosse to study engineering and business administration. He doesn't know what he's going to do with it yet, but it's a practical choice. He figures he can do pretty much anything once he makes up his mind.
That has been his rule of thumb up until this point. It appears to be working.


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News Keeps You Informed, Right?
When I was a little tike, my dad thought the same thing, and he introduced me to the daily newspaper. I began with the comics (minus Doonesbury because I didn't understand the humor) and the front page. Soon I was devouring the entire first section. By the time I finished high school, my daily habit included reading most of the daily newspaper, and I believed anyone not informed on the news was an ignoramus.
Fast forward to the present day and I have since given up the news completely. Funny how things have changed.
News Makes You Negative
A few months ago, I was having a breakfast with my friend Thomas and his new girlfriend Jane. It was an awkward meal because Jane had a pretty strong personality, complained quite a bit about the restaurant, and continuously chose to talk about the news for conversation. Many of her sentences resembled in one form or another: "Did you hear about …", "It's so awful", "I can't believe…".
Out of curiosity, I asked her, "Do you read the news often?"
Her reply was, "Yes, I love the news. It's an addiction. Every morning I read all The Toronto Star, The National Post, and The Globe and Mail. I like to keep up to date on current events."
Constant news exposure can invade your subconscious, resulting in you complaining more, becoming more pessimistic, and being difficult to satisfy. If your news source is a biased publications, then you'll easily become more opinionated on a subject, feel the need to be right (and others wrong) about your views, reinforce certain beliefs, and swallow points of views verbatim, no questions asked. Seriously, when is the last time any of us have read an Afghani or Iraqi newspaper?
Negative news sells. Good news just isn't as interesting. The incredible damage and lives lost by an earthquake isn't as interesting as the small heroic rescue and recovery efforts by individuals. Have you ever read good news? Unless a well-known philanthropist donates an eight figure sum of money to a charity, day to day good deeds we do for each other go unnoticed compared to the isolated bad things people do – yet good things happen all the time. We see it. We live it.
In Toronto, given the relatively low crime rate, the news feeds on the next best things – traffic accidents, house fires, and of course, the "neverending" cycle of bad weather. In the winter, we have the snowstorms, freezing rain, snow shovel, and the accidents. In the summer, the news shifts almost immediately to the heat, smog, humidity, and construction traffic. The weather is as it is – it's only bad if you let it be.
News Makes you Fearful
Nothing sells better than fear.
The news makes you afraid of things you weren't afraid of before, like killer monkeys or dirty toilet seats. Because the news delivers a heap of tragedy around the world to your door, you get a perception that the outside world is dangerous, when really, day to day, not much happens for over 99% of the world. I encourage you to travel and find out for yourself.
When the tsunami of 2004 hit, in the days following the disaster, "What to do in the event of a tsunami" stories plagued the media. We're afraid of sharks because the news reports it when in fact, more people die from toilets than sharks. Don't start eyeing your throne warily though. They're perfectly safe. And clean.
But seriously, think about it. Even when there is no major news, there are reserve stories. Germs danger on public restaurant trays. Internet predators preying on your children. Potential flu outbreaks.
With information access at our fingertips these days, you can now look for things to be afraid of. As I left to travel around Peru last year, more than one person (who have never been there before) told me of dangers to watch out for, such as an earthquake that happened months before in a region I wasn't visiting. Overfeeding yourself on danger reports will keep you locked up in your home.
Cruises and package vacations to Caribbean resorts make a killing because resorts offer the illusion of ultra-safety and most of all, isolation from most of the local population, who can be unpredictable. In my travels, I've interacted with locals on more than one occasion. I've even been lured away. Yikes. The results? An invitation to pray (to whatever religion or non-religion I chose) in a fantastic mosque. A memorable meal with a Peruvian family. A secret surf spot and a beach party.
News Makes You Bored
If the news isn't particularly devastating, then it's juicy. The personal lives of celebrities are constantly exploited in gossip tabloids, which sell better than regular newspapers. Why deal with your routine life when you can live vicariously through the scandals of other? I'm sure most celebrities live pretty normal lives, but when put under the glaring eye of the tabloids, a small blemish, a bad outfit, or some weight gain can't escape public scrutiny. Really, it's just normal lives re-written into epic tantalizing stories.
Boredom and fear are low frequency emotions. Because the news is so ubiquitous, it only serves to lower the collective consciousness of all people. If you suffer from some of the lowest frequency emotions such as depression or anxiety, then you definitely should avoid the news.
Fortunately, you can choose to be out of the loop. Trust me, you'll get the news if you really need it. If it's big or is something that impacts you, which it rarely is, you'll either hear it from someone else or find out by your own means.
I've given up the news for a few years now, and it hasn't changed much when I glance at the headlines – Turmoil in Iraq. A crime in some part of the city. A fire in some neighborhood. A corrupt politician. I'm not condoning apathety. I know some people who scan the news for , so that they can buy flowers for the victims.
Unless you plan on taking some action, then staying informed is not a good enough reason to subject yourself to such negativity. Do you really remember most of the articles you read?
Ready to give it up? Read Part 2 for more.


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I've written at length about the American Automobile Dealers Association's displeasure with Tesla's business model of selling direct to consumers on a dedicated page on my blog. At this point the reasons for the fight are old news just like the dealer network and way of doing business is from a long-gone era. The dealers are tone deaf to the way consumers shop for and ultimately purchase products. The dealers have a number of stated reasons that Tesla should not be allowed to sell their cars. These are the ones most often stated.
Consumers Won't get the Best Price
Tim Doran, president of the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association recently said, "If you have a manufacturer that is selling vehicles direct to the public and they are the only source for that particular vehicle, there is no competition for the price."*
As a sound byte that seems logical. We know from experience that single providers veer away from consumer good and toward corporate profits. However, that happens even when there are multiple makers and suppliers of products and services. For years we only had one telephone company. If you wanted dial tone there was only one place to go, Ma Bell. The Bell System monopoly was broken up by federal mandate in 1982 as part of a consent decree. Certainly it opened up competition by MCI and Sprint for long distance service and eventually to the cellular phone network. It accomplished the goal of offering the consumer choice. Pricing is an altogether other thing. The plans that were made available were impossible for the average consumer to understand. Local rates, long distance rates and my favorite, local-long distance. Then there was the slamming. Calling a consumer and promising low cost phone service and then switching them whether they agreed or not. This strategy is a time-tested one. Offer non-customers a low rate for a fixed period of them them raise the price and they won't even notice. Built-in price increases without having to publish the price.
Certainly there is an acquisition expense for the company that must be recovered as they calculate their lifetime customer value (LCV), but it lacks transparency and is full of unexpected surprises for the customer. A lower price up front always means it will be made up in some fashion over time. It requires consumers to put considerable effort in understanding the total cost of being a customer for that company and their product or service. Very few of us practice this economy.
Tesla is fully transparent. They don't make or sell a car. I argue it's not a car at all. It's personal transportation. The likes of which has never been seen before. Tesla doesn't tell consumers they are the lowest cost provider. All options and pricing are right up there on their web site for anyone to see. Configure your Model S and you know exactly how much it will cost when you pick it up. Here's the real difference. The pricing on car manufacture's sites have almost no connection with what you will pay when you finally cut your deal. Missing from the car builders's sites are all the things that dealers will try to sell you and charge you for over time. And it's estimated that dealers add up to $1,500 to the cost of a vehicle.
My suspicion is the real reason dealers don't like Tesla is they make a transportation choice that they are unable to compete with. There is very little difference between most internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. Certainly they have varied feature options, designs, technology, etc., but the concept is the same. Thousands of moving parts, burn fossil fuel and carve out your time and money to keep it on the road each year. Dealers have to create promotions and gimmicks to get attention because shopping at Ford is no different than shopping at Chevrolet or Toyota or Honda. It comes down to which car fits your driving preferences and fits within your lifestyle. Not only is the shopping no different, the driving isn't either.
Dealers are dealers and the experience is essentially the same. Saturn made a run at breaking that paradigm with their fixed price, no negotiation approach. It was groundbreaking and in some ways it worked.
The Model S is an entirely new approach to what goes into a car. That means first cycle technology which always costs a bit more at first but will get better and chapter over time. Trying to win on price is largely for commodity items, like milk and gas-powered cars.
Safety Will Be Compromised
Another item cited as a reason to continue the ban on direct sales of cars to consumers is safety. I've read numerous news reports and claims by car dealers that say they make cars safer for consumers. So let's look at the stats. 22 million cars were recalled in 2013. GM alone has recalled 30 million in 2014. In General Motor's case the recalls represent a shift toward a more accountable culture. Decades of covering up problems in the name of profit are perhaps seeing at least a peak of sunlight these days, but not without federal action.
My question to the dealers would be, what action did you take to demand safer cars? When Toyota had their unexpected acceleration issue, did you threaten to stop your orders until it was fixed? When customers flocked to your service bays did you band together with your fellow dealers and forcefully demand more facts and change? I've not read anything even close to that.
Recall service is paid for by the manufacturer, which means dealers can make money on them. I'm not suggesting dealers want to see people hurt or killed, but for minor things that are not mission critical to safety, they probably don't mind much. In fact they have changed the word recall to "product update." When I bought an ICE car for my wife in January of this year, not a word was uttered about safety or taking me through the history of recalls and what was being done to ensure that was a thing of the past.
All Car Manufacturers will Start Selling Direct
Of all the reasons offered up, this one strikes me as the most lame. GM has so many self-made distractions these days, figuring out how to sell direct cannot possibly be high on their radar. First of all having a dealership is only mildly about selling cars, it's really about selling service. It's a system designed for customers to come back again and again to open their wallet to "maintain their vehicle in top working condition." Why would Toyota or Honda or Ford even want to scale up for that? Perhaps I'm wrong and of course I don't know the P&L implications, but this would likely require a huge investment.
Please remember ICE car makers build ICE cars. Tesla makes electric cars. They are on different planets. The Model S does not require anywhere near the service level that ICE cars require. Imaging having an ICE car and realizing that the only thing you had to remember to do was put gas in it and maybe replace the tires? No oil changes, tune-ups, timing belt replacements, transmission service, et… How many more new ICE cars would be purchased if that was true?
What you Don't Have to Worry About with a Model S
Mr. Doran concedes that the Model S is "a pretty nice car," but he says he wouldn't buy one because there isn't enough of an infrastructure for parts and service. So let's make a list of some of the parts you find on an ICE car that you don't have to worry about with a Model S because it doesn't need them.*
I can see how Mr. Doran is so concerned about needing easy and fast access to parts. With so many of them and that display of a lack of confidence in their reliability, he needs peace of mind. As far as "infrastructure" is concerned, the only one really needed is electricity which is already in ample supply across the country. Charging stations are numerous. ChargePoint, the service I use frequently has over 18,000 stations in the United States. As a quick comparison, there are 14,000 McDonald's restaurants.
Let's compare the power plants of an ICE car engine and a Tesla Model S motor.
Tesla uses a brushless AC induction motor consisting of a rotor and a stator. The only points of contact in the motor are the bearings. It puts out 290 kilowatts and delivers 100% instant torque at any speed and does it using a single gear; drive.
Software as a Service
Tesla is a Silicon Valley company. True, there are issues with how these guys behave these days, but what you get is an entirely new experience and level of performance. When the first iPhone was released in 2007, it was either $499 or $599. Who would ever think that spending that much on a cell phone made any sense? After all, you got your new cell phone free from your provider (after signing a new subsidized 2 year contract of course). Apple sold 6.1 million of their first generation iphones in the first five quarters. It was groundbreaking.
Before I purchased my Model S I test drove a Mercedes Benz S Class. The salesman told me the navigation system was amazing and I could get map updates as well. I asked how that worked and he said I would schedule a service visit, bring in the car and they would update them for about $300. My Model S receives over the air updates and they push new versions of Google Maps to me free of charge. Another stark example why dealers don't want Tesla's model anywhere near them.
Ford was founded in 1903, General Motors in 1908, , Chrysler in 1925. Tesla was founded in 2003. They have taken the time to reimagine what transportation should be for consumers. Considered the environment while making them. Building in deep safety measures, and breaking the belief that along with car ownership comes the burden of parenting it with repeated maintenance and expense.
* Quote taken from The Columbus Post Dispatch, September 30, 2014


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Site architecture
Architectural design of the Campus implements the 'city-in-the-city' concept: multiple buildings are united within one complex, each of them can be reached without going outside.
The Campus base, or the Disc area, is a round platform representing four buildings located on its roof: an administrative building (KARAKORUM), hotels: TIAN SHAN and PAMIR, a sports centre (HIMALAYAS).
The Disc is divided into seven clusters, six of which include auditoriums, meeting rooms and a spacious recreation area.
Campus layout
Campus clusters
Clusters were named after the BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa as well as Singapore and Europe.
Individual colour scheme of each cluster will make navigation in the Disc area especially convenient and visual.
Vast open spaces full of light will energize every visitor with airiness and freedom.


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This post will demonstrate how to setup an Ansible control machine on a Windows 10 box leveraging a Ubuntu Vagrant image.
Why might you want to do this?
- Supported Ansible development environment, per Ansible "Windows isn't supported for the Ansible control machine."
- Sync playbooks between Ubuntu Vagrant image and Windows 10 machine via Vagrant synced folders.
- Use tools installed on Windows 10 machine like Git, Sublime Text, etc. without requiring tools on Ansible control machine.
Software Prerequisites:
- Vagrant (I used version 1.9.5)
- VirtualBox (I used version 5.1.26)
Let's Build…
On Windows 10 machine, do the following:
directory "C:\HashiCorp\Vagrant\" should already exist after Vagrant has been installed:
cd c:\HashiCorp\Vagrant\
create "ansible" directory, will build Ubuntu Vagrant image inside here:
mkdir ansible
create "share", will be shared/sync directory between Windows 10 and Vagrant image:
mkdir ansible\share
change into "ansible" directory, build Vagrant image and SSH into Vagrant image:
cd ansible vagrant init ubuntu/xenial64 vagrant up
vagrant ssh
Now inside the Vagrant image, do the following:
install Ansible via apt-get (Ubuntu), as noted here on Ansible docs:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ansible
install 'tree', this is a "nice to have" utility to list files and directories, more info here:
sudo apt-get install tree
Setup complete. Let's Verify…
To recap, the "shared folder" that can be used to sync Ansible playbooks between Windows 10 and Ubuntu Vagrant image:
- Ubuntu Vagrant image acting as Ansible control machine, share path is: "/vagrant/share"
- Windows 10 box, share path is: "C:\HashiCorp\Vagrant\ansible\share"
Sample screenshot showing files/directories created within Ubuntu Vagrant image were synced to Windows 10 box:


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Reading Project Brief
In total 2 of the giant parasol covers had become worn and were in need of a great deal of repair. The valances on both membrane needed un-picking and new replacement canvas. The photographed cover had a half meter whole in it, including the print.
Repair Project Proposal
It was proposed at an engineer would be sent to first remove the initial cover, return leave the new one, take the second damaged one, and then return with the final new parasol cover. Each cover would be repair and re-printed to the original design.
Giant Parasol Approval
Our proposal for off-site parasol cover repair was accepted. The plan was to remove and fix the cover outside of business hours, and to always leave one for the restaurants customers.
Giant Parasol Repairs
Parasol frames, parasol covers and printing can all be repaired and recovered. This service is either carried off or on-site, depending on level of refurbishment required, and of course the suitability at your property.
Giant Parasol Reading Installation
Of course this removal and installation might have been complicated, the restaurant, and their customers were put first every step of the way. Just like our Reading parasol installation, the restaurant and their customer come first.
Burger Restaurant Reading, Berkshire
Why not visit The Handmade Burger Co. to see this repair work for yourself. Giant parasol repairs are usually carried out outside of trading hours. Get restaurant details from www.handmadeburger.co.uk, The Riverside, The Oracle Shopping Centre, Bridge St, Reading, Berkshire RG1 2AG


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Thank you Cschmid! Want to add to the conversation? Check out my bookbub page here!
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I learned yesterday that CHARMING THE PROFESSOR is a finalist in the Prism contest – a contest sponsored by the Futuristic, Fantasy & Paranormal chapter of RWA. The winners will
Check out the book here!
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The Casanova Code placed in the Historical Romance category of the Laurel Wreath Contest.
Casanova Code is a finalist in the Colorado RW Award of Excellence.
The Casanova Code is a finalist in the Maggies.
If you're in the area, come see bandita Donna MacMeans on Saturday, February 9th at the Barnes & Noble in West Chester, Ohio ( just north of Cincinnati). Here's a
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Welcome to our Farm!
The Miracle Fruit Farm is dedicated to supplying the highest quality berries and berry products to wholesale and retail customers throughout the continental United States.
Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is a berry born on a small shrub native to Ghana, Africa. The fruit contains a unique glycoprotein called miraculin that alters the signals sent to the brain from the taste receptors. The effects are experienced by moving the pleasant tasting fruit over the tongue and then discarding the seed. For up to an hour all bitter and sour flavors will be masked and everything consumed will taste sweet. The fruit are commonly used as a novelty, but they are also valuable for medicinal and dietary purposes as well.
Miracle Fruit can mask the metallic flavor food gets after a chemo treatment, thereby acting somewhat like an appetite stimulant. By eliminating that intense metallic flavor the overwhelming sense of nausea and aversion to food vanishes. Chemo patients are able to enjoy a simple meal after using a Miracle Fruit, and this can help improve quality of life, reverse unwanted weight loss, and help speed recovery.
"These berries are truly a "Miracle Fruit" that can benefit many patients suffering the side effects of chemotherapy. I am convinced that these berries were the only thing that got me through my chemotherapy."
‑ Connie Courtney, Springfield, Ohio
Miracle Fruit can help diabetics and dieters naturally reduce or even eliminate their sugar intake without sacrificing their favorite foods, drinks, or desserts. It is not an artificial sweetener. It is an all natural way to enjoy sweet flavors and keep blood glucose levels in the target range without the risk of overloading with unwanted carbohydrates.
"I never cared for sugar free drinks, but after a miracle fruit they are better than the real thing. I cut out over 1,000 liquid calories a day by eating these great fruit and switching to sugar free Red Bull and unsweet tea."
‑ Valerie Daniels, Miami Beach, Florida
If you are not familiar with our product, then please take a moment and read the incredible testimonials. The uses are truly limited only by one's imagination, but the benefits to chemo patients in particular are nothing short of miraculous. If you think you or a loved one would benefit from miracle fruit then please feel free to call us or visit our online store today. Berries are picked, packed, and shipped fresh daily.


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Toggle navigation
Title IV Part A
At-a-Glance: Year 1
At-a-Glance: Year 2
Closeout Report: Year 1
Guidance and Tools
Educational Opportunities
Safe & Healthy
Effective Use of Technology
Professional Development
& Trainings
Fine Arts
Health Education
Physical Education
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Safe & Healthy Students
Effective Use of Technology
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and Participation
Title IV Part A
@ fldoe.org
Title IV Part A, Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE)
Technical Assistance:
Effective Use of Technology
What is the purpose?
Effective Use of Technology is one of the three purposes of the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) program is to improve the use of technology as another means to achieve academic achievement. Specifically, by promoting digital literacy of all students and providing professional development to the educators that teach and support them. In order to ensure that all students build the capacities necessary for thriving as 21st century learners and workforce contributors, program initiatives fall under three categories, Digital Citizenship, Personalized Learning and Improving Equity for All Learners.
The term "educational technology" advances quickly. As stated in the November 2014
Dear Colleague Letter
for Federal Funding for Technology, many of the terms we use today to describe technology enhanced learning did not exist when laws such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) were written. The effective use of educational technology has always been defined as using technological efforts to help students achieve academically.
How to Promote Effective Use of Technology?
Effective Use of Technology
Supporting high-quality professional development for educators, school leaders and administrators to personalize learning and improve academic achievement.
Carrying out innovative blended learning projects.
Providing students in rural, remote, and underserved areas with the resources to benefit from high-quality digital learning opportunities.
Delivering specialized or rigorous academic courses and curricula using technology, including digital learning technologies and assistive technology.
Building technological capacity and infrastructure.
Florida Department of Education
- Florida's platform for educators to Collaborate, Plan, Align, Learn, Motivate and Share.
Technology Integration: An Overview
Instructional Technology
Technology Quick Guide for Teachers
Florida Agency for State Technology
Florida Center for Instructional Technology
Florida Technology Council
Secure Florida
South Florida Technology Alliance
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Educational Technology
Future Ready Schools: Building Technology Infrastructure for Learning
#GoOpen District Launch Packet
Black Girls CODE
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Girls Who Code
Interactive Planning Dashboard
Intel® Teach
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
Prevent Cyberbullying
Technology and Youth: Protecting your Child from Electronic Aggression
Yoga for EdTech Poster


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Europe in Style plan your luxury vacations in France and Italy
- Recommended Links
- Luxury Tours
- Luxury Private Tours
Europe In Style recently launched its upmarket solution for travellers who want to stay away from tour operators and crave for tailor-made holidays and chic travel in Europe. Europe In Style has just entered the world of luxury travel with the original and unique concept of private advisory.
You can hire a Europe In Style's luxury travel consultant that will help you design the perfect travel itinerary for your next trip to Europe – sharing with you an extensive knowledge mainly owned by wealthy locals. You are not tied up in any way as Europe In Style doesn't sell any package tour; instead they provide you with a handy expertise of what to do/ where to eat/ where to party/ where to shop/ where to sleep during your travel and can help you with reservations as well.
Catherine de Montmirail, Marketing Director and Senior Consultant stated, "We offer customized services to our clients who want to avoid regular travel options offered in the market. Our luxury travel consultants with their immense knowledge about Europe will help you visit Europe as a local and not as tourist. We want to revolutionize the concept of luxury travel by providing top notch consultancy services."
Europe In Style personal consultants will recommend you the best Burgundy wine tasting sessions, luxury private shopping tours in Paris, painting lesson in the French Cote d'Azur, private boat tour in chic Portofino, hot air-ballooning experience in the Loire Valley, cooking lessons in Sardinia among many others. They will also advise you on a more general level on how long you need to stay in a specific place, where to go in Europe or what are the best seasons to go to your dream destination. This team is made up of French, Italian and Monegasque sophisticated individuals who have experienced themselves what they will recommend to you.
You might also like
|Discover Your Italy with Customized Small Group Tours Recommended Links View All Discover Your Italy Tours Culinary Tours in Italy Luxury Private...
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|Chauffeured luxury tours with a food and wine focus Related Searches: Luxury Culinary Travel I Luxury Wine Tasting Tours I Tuscany Travel Guide Custom...


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This holiday season, Nordstrom wants to make shopping fun with Gifts That Do Good, Gifts That Inspire, and innovative services that help make the holidays completely stress-free in-store and online. The marketing campaign was produced by Nordstrom and directed and photographed by Theo Wenner, who has worked on original campaigns for Chanel, Chloe, and Topshop/Topman, as well as editorials for Vogue and Rolling Stone. The cast includes Guinevere Van Seenus, who began her modeling career walking a Nordstrom fashion show as a teenager, as well as longtime Nordstrom customer and model Jan De Villeneuve, who has been gracing runways for over 50 years.
The campaign includes a colorful, cheerful video that will run on Nordstrom.com and on the retailer's social and digital platforms, print and out of home. A national TV commercial will launch on November 5.
Giving back feels good any time of year, but particularly during the holidays. From gift cards that give back, to gifts that do good, Nordstrom is making it easier than ever for customers to find the perfect gift.
- Gift Card Give Back – Nordstrom donates 1% of all gift card sales to nonprofits across the U.S. and Canada. This year alone, the company has donated over $7.5 million to more than 600 organizations.
Children's Miracle Network Hospitals™ – In partnership with its customers, Nordstrom is supporting Children's Miracle Network Hospitals™ (CMNH) to make a difference in the lives of children. Now through December 24, Nordstrom invites customers to support CMNH through the purchase of $10 giving cards at any Nordstrom full-line store in the U.S. and Canada. All donations will stay local to the community in which they were given, including 55 network hospitals in regions with Nordstrom stores. The donations will fund critical treatments, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care for children and their families across the U.S. and Canada.
Nordstrom Signature – Nordstrom is introducing a new cashmere collection featuring beautiful designs for women, men, and children. Select products within the collection are produced in factories where Nordstrom has partnered with BSR's HERproject to implement workplace training programs on topics like health, finance, and gender equality. Since 2007, Nordstrom has partnered with BSR to launch worker empowerment programs in 27 factories around the world, reaching more than 18,000 workers.
Treasure & Bond – Nordstrom donates 2.5% of net sales from this exclusive, private-label brand to programs that empower young people to make a difference in their community. To date, the company has donated $2.5 million. This year, Treasure & Bond is supporting WE Charity, which provides educators and students with curriculum and educational resources that help them gain an understanding of the root causes of pressing social issues and provides the tools necessary to take action and make an impact. Treasure & Bond features laid-back wardrobe staples with an Americana aesthetic for women, men, children, as well as home, a new category that launched this year.
Nordstrom aims to be THE destination for unique holiday gifts at a range of price points, from a chic Topshop faux fur shoulder bag for $48 to showstopping Gucci boots for $1,790, including emerging brands and exclusive items.
- Daily Drops – Beginning November 27 through December 18, Nordstrom will release exclusive, limited products each day called 'Daily Drops,' to create a sense of discovery in-store and online throughout the shopping season. Products will be added to Nordstrom.com/holidaygifts at 6:00am PST, as well as on the @Nordstrom Instagram. 'Daily Drops' will feature exciting, new-to-market items and styles from brands like Something Navy, Christian Louboutin, Charlotte Tilbury, Rothy's, Treasure & Bond, Le Labo, Sant & Abel, Hugo Boss x Jeremyville, and Rag & Bone x Mickey.
- Gift Guides – Based on top-demanded categories and search terms by Nordstrom customers, the company is introducing a persona-based gift guide featuring curated and unique ideas for 11 customer personalities. Examples include The Tech Collector, The Luxe Lover, The Traveler, The Witty One, and the Do-Gooder, among others, and can be found on Nordstrom.com/holidaygifts.
Nordstrom Holiday Gift Guide Continue reading


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In Asia, Marketers Pay Heed to a Growing Older Population
When Japan's baby boomers began retiring in 2007, sales in one particular category took a big jump. Not books or cruise packages or gardening tools. It was electric guitars.
This generation that grew up on rock "n' roll was healthier and more active than any group of retirees before them, and wielded significant disposable income. They wanted to pick up right where they left off when they entered the salaryman's world.
"When they retired they basically reformed the bands they were in at 22 ," said Dave McCaughan, Tokyo-based regional strategic planning director for McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific. "If you take a typical 60-year-old retiree, what has he been doing the last 35 years? Basically he's been going to work-related events three nights a week that often end up at karaoke. He's just been rehearsing for performing in the band."
The story highlights an important lesson for marketers: don't underestimate the 50-plus set, a group that will have increasing importance as developed economies age. In Asia, home to large populations of older consumers -- in places such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong -- marketers have found unique ways of tweaking their products or marketing to appeal to golden lifestyles.
Several years ago, electronics maker LG released its "Wine" phone, tailored for older folks with large buttons, easy-to-read text, a simple design and marketing that featured middle-aged models.
Wine was one of LG's top-selling handsets, but the company found that consumers started turning away from older feature phones once smartphones entered the Korean market. "What we've found is that in Korea, older customers don't want to look old. So they would rather use a young, trendy phone that their kids and grandchildren are using," said Ken Hong, LG's director-global communications. (However, it is worth noting that Japan's NTT Docomo has had good success with its Raku-Raku -- it means "easy"—phone, selling its 20 millionth unit this summer.)
"I think the bigger trend is that instead of only marketing to the silver segment, companies like LG are widening their target by promoting convenience and safety, which appeal strongly to an older population without closing the door on a younger segment who might be turned off by anything that is designed for only senior citizens," Mr. Hong said.
Some of those innovations include four-door refrigerators, designed so that users don't have to stoop all the way down to get frozen foods. Deep-freeze items go in the bottom drawer, while the more convenient top drawer is for frequently accessed foods ("Like ice cream!" as Mr. Hong suggests).
Other senior-friendly LG products include front-loading washing machines with higher profiles so there's less bending required, and a vacuum cleaner unveiled this year that automatically follows the user, instead of having to be dragged along like a conventional unit.
Japan, Korea and Hong Kong are being used as global test markets for aging strategies, Mr. McCaughan said, noting that many innovations can translate across markets.
"A lot of the big Western companies have known about the aging thing for a long time and sort of peripherally talked about it, but now they're becoming more active," he said. "The flow will be from North Asia to Europe and then to the U.S. because that 's where the demographic shift is ."
Japan, where nearly one-fourth of the population is over age 65, is the breeding ground of innovations. Beyond the size of the market, there's spending power to back up the numbers: the 50-plus segment in Japan represents roughly 80% of purchasing power, according to Jordan Price, senior-strategic planning partner at JWT Tokyo.
Product innovations include swiveling seats in cars, introduced by Toyota to make it easier to get in and out of the vehicle. A new shoe technology from Asahi is designed to help wearers maintain healthy knees and is being promoted via interactive displays in subways.
Retailers are also thinking creatively to meet older consumers' needs. Last year, media outlets reported that convenience store chain Family Mart was considering entering the funeral business. It's not a typo—nor is it unprecedented. In response to soaring costs that some Japanese families were struggling to meet, suburban retailer Aeon (which is similar to Walmart) provides funeral-arrangement services though a network of contracted vendors for as little as about $4,000.
"Through their scale, they can get better deals for people and better access," Mr. Price said.
And how about robots? Futuristic senior-friendly devices from Japan include a hair-washing robot from Panasonic, which makes a 3-D scan of the head and then uses its 16 fingers to shampoo and massage with just the right amount of pressure.
Then there's Paro the robotic baby seal, designed to meet companionship needs in nursing homes and hospitals. It's being used not only in Japan, but has wriggled its way into some nursing homes in Europe and North America.
But one observer says marketers are not doing nearly enough to appeal to the older consumers.
"Companies are so caught up in wanting to be young and hip and they're ignoring this issue that the seniors are going to be a force to be reckoned with. It's all going to happen in 10 years. I think most brands are not ready to face up to it," said Hari Ramanathan, regional strategy director for Y&R in Asia. "Brand owners are still not comfortable positioning themselves as brands and services for older people. ... An aging population does not mean the country starts to resemble a hospital ward."


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White River (WRHS) Class of 2019 Alumni List
Help us Update the White River 2019 Class List by adding any names missing from the list below:
Registered Alumni
2019 Class List
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Reunions and White River High School News
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If you are an alumn of White River you should register now in the alumni directory. We also encourage you to interact with the rest of the alumni on this site. You can find old friends, share photos and stay updated on the latest school news.


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State: Texas
City of Residence: Denton, Texas
Country of origin: Rwanda
Arrival in the U.S.: 2000
Ms. Hadidja Nyiransekuye is a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide. She was sponsored to come to the United States in 1998 based on her teaching experience and education background, as well as her extensive language skills, which include English, French, Swahili and Kinyarwanda. She and her four children were granted asylum in 2000. Ms. Nyiransekuye obtained her M.S.W. and her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Denver. She currently lives …Read More »