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Friday, September 22, 2017
Shortlist for The 2017 Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition announced!
We are delighted to announce the shortlisted poems, judged by Mary O'Donnell, in The 2017 Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition!
The shortlist, in alphabetical order by title, is:
Digital shadow Orla Fay
The flight of the spiderlings Paul McMahon
Home leave John Davies
The imaginary daughter Alyn Fenn
The lean season Evan Costigan
Metamorphosis Alyn Fenn
Preparation Donna Deeks
Six ways to wash your hands (Ayliffe 1978) Annemarie Ní Churreáin
The sleepover lie James Anthony
Spring, Ballintemple Benjamin Keatinge
A subjective history of orchids Rachel Coventry
There was no funeral Jessamine O'Connor
Tweets Felicia McCarthy
Shortlisted entrants are invited to read their work at our Poetry First event in the Civic Theatre on Wednesday 11th Oct, where the winners will be announced.
Alongside our Poetry Awards Ceremony, we will also be having a panel discussion on First Collections, chaired by Nessa O'Mahoney, and featuring Brian Kirk, Eamonn Lynskey and Phil Lynch.
More info here: http://www.redlinebookfestival.com/
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All the latest Chelsea news including confirmation Diego Costa has trained, why he joined the West Londoners, John Terry on United and Cesc Fabregas.
The headlines on Chelsea TV have today welcomed Diego Costa back to training.
Reports ahead of the club's showdown with Manchester United suggested the Spaniard could be a surprise addition in Jose Mourinho's starting XI, despite being hampered with a hamstring injury.
The striker, though, played no part in the encounter but rumours he requires surgery may be temporarily allayed as Costa is back in Cobham.
A report on the club's official website said: "The club's channel reports Diego Costa was outside and involved as part of his ongoing rehabilitation."
Intriguingly, the player has said the reason he wanted to join Stamford Bridge was down to how famous Chelsea were - and are.
"I was extremely happy at Atletico and the last year when we achieved so much was the best year of my career as a footballer," said Costa, as quoted by the Daily Star.
"However, you always try to improve your life. The opportunity to join this tremendously important club came and while Atleti is a great team, this was a different league, one I'd always wanted to try.
"People always used to say that my game would fit the Premier League perfectly and so the opportunity to sign for an extremely famous club like Chelsea made me super-excited.
"I have to keep on working hard. I still have many years ahead of me in my career so I hope I will be able to play in another Champions League final – to have another opportunity to win this competition."
Elsewhere - why does Francesc Fabregas kiss his ring four times?
The creative midfielder reveals he is a little superstitious… even if he refuses to admit it!
"I'm not superstitious at all but there is one thing that I started doing four years ago – it went well and I didn't stop doing it," he said.
"I kiss this ring that my wife gave me four times – my lucky number – and then I leave it in my locker and I go out."
And finally, John Terry has claimed he and Branislav Ivanovic were subject to playground tactics at Old Trafford.
"It shows how well we are playing when you come away from Old Trafford disappointed with one point," he said on Instagram. "[We're] frustrated not to come away with three points. Thanks to all the travelling fans for your great support (JT and IVA got double-headlocked from every corner."
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subset: commoncrawl


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Less than a month into his tenure, Donald Trump's White House is beset by a crush of crises.Divisions, dysfunction and high-profile exits have left the young administration nearly paralyzed and allies wondering how it will reboot.
The bold policy moves that marked Trump's first days in office have slowed to a crawl, a tacit admission that he and his team had not thoroughly prepared an agenda.
Nearly a week after the administration's travel ban was struck down by a federal court, the White House is still struggling to regroup and outline its next move on that signature issue.
It's been six days since Trump, who promised unprecedented levels of immediate action, has announced a major new policy directive or legislative plan.
His team is riven by division and plagued by distractions. This week alone, controversy has forced out both his top national security aide and his pick for labour secretary.
To be sure, pinballing from one crisis to the next is not unprecedented, particularly for a White House still finding its footing. But the disruptions that have swirled around Trump achieved hurricane force early and have not let up.
Yesterday his choice for labour secretary, fast food CEO Andy Puzder, withdrew his nomination while the administration continued to navigate the fallout from the forced resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn was ousted on grounds that he misled the vice president about his contacts with a Russian ambassador.
"Another day in paradise," Trump quipped yesterday after his meeting with retailers was interrupted by reporters' questions about links between his campaign staff and Russian officials.
Fellow Republicans have begun voicing their frustration and open anxiety that the Trump White House will derail their high hopes for legislative action.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota demanded yesterday that the White House "get past the launch stage."
"There are things we want to get done here, and we want to have a clear-eyed focus on our agenda, and this constant disruption and drumbeat with these questions that keep being raised is a distraction," said Thune.
Senator John McCain of Arizona blasted the White House's approach to national security as "dysfunctional," asking: "Who is in charge? I don't know of anyone outside of the White House who knows."
Such criticism from political allies is rare during what is often viewed as a honeymoon period for a new president. But Trump, an outsider who campaigned almost as much against his party as for it, has only a tiny reservoir of goodwill to protect him within the Republican.


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he award-winning "Not Your Father's Root Beer" achieved a 95 rating from Beer Advocate and is a very popular choice at several Chicagoland bars. Small Town's personally delivered "Not Your Father's Root Beer" kegs consistently sell out at taverns across the Chicago area.Read more
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Bear Bryant died of a heart attack yesterday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., only 37 days after he had retired as head football coach at the University of Alabama with the most victories in college football history.
Mr. Bryant, who was 69 years old, entered the Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday night, complaining of chest pains. Dr. William Hill, the attending physician, said that Mr. Bryant had suffered a massive heart attack at 1:24 P.M. while undergoing X-rays.
''We did put a pacemaker through his chest and were able to restore a weak heartbeat,'' for about an hour, Dr. Hill said. Mr. Bryant was declared dead at 2:30 P.M.
Dr. Hill said Mr. Bryant had been in ''very good spirits,'' early yesterday. ''In the morning, he even joked about going to Las Vegas,'' the doctor said. ''And he said one thing he wanted to do was go back home to Arkansas and do some duck hunting.''
Mr. Bryant created national headlines only a month ago when he ended his 38-year career as the most successful football coach on any American campus, and one of the most colorful. He quit with a record of 323 victories, 85 losses and 17 ties at four schools: Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and, for the last 25 years, at his alma mater, Alabama. Six of his teams at Alabama were rated No.1 nationally by the wire-service polls. And, when Alabama defeated Auburn, 28-17, on Nov. 28, 1981, for his 315th victory, he surpassed the record that had been set early in the century by Amos Alonzo Stagg. Impact on Sport Assured
But, despite his decision to retire, his impact on the university was expected to continue because of two other decisions: He remained as athletic director, and his job as coach was assigned to one of his former players, Ray Perkins, who resigned as coach of the Giants to return to Alabama.
Mr. Bryant's impact on football everywhere was assured through the scores of men who had played or coached under ''the Bear.'' In his time, he developed star quarterbacks such as Joe Namath, George Blanda, Babe Parilli, Ken Stabler, Steve Sloan and Richard Todd, now the quarterback of the New York Jets. More than 40 of his former players became head college coaches, including Jerry Claiborne at Kentucky, Howard Schnellenberger at Miami, Jackie Sherrill at Texas A&M, Pat Dye at Auburn and Sloan at Duke.
He also became instrumental in recruiting black athletes for Alabama. His first black player was Wilbur Jackson, a running back, in 1971. In his final season, 54 of the 128 football players at Alabama were black. Later, he remembered that he had wanted to recruit black football players at Kentucky, and said:
''They wouldn't let me. Then, at Alabama all those years, my hands were tied. To tell you the truth, Sam Cunningham did more for integration at Alabama than anybody else. He was a black running back for Southern Cal. Came down here in 1970 and ran all over my skinny little white boys. Scored three touchdowns.'' Last Game in Liberty Bowl
Two weeks after he announced his retirement as coach, the Bryant era ended on Dec. 29 when Alabama defeated Illinois in the Liberty Bowl, 21-15. It was the eighth victory of the season for Alabama after four defeats, the first time in 13 years the team had lost as many as four games. It was also his 29th bowl game, a record for a coach that included 24 straight at Alabama, and the last appearance in a stadium for the craggy-faced figure roaming the sidelines in the houndstooth hat.
Paul William Bryant was born Sept. 11, 1913, in Moro Bottom, Ark., which he described as ''a little piece of bottom land on the Moro Creek, about seven miles fourth of Fordyce.'' He was one of 11 children in a poor family, and he remembered that he had an inferiority complex and ''wasn't very smart in school, and lazy to boot.''
But he was big, eventually growing to 6 feet 4 inches. And he recalled that he acquired his nickname as a teen-ager in high school when he accepted a dare to wrestle a bear. How He Won His Nickname
''It was outside the Lyric Theater,'' he said. ''There was a poster out front with a picture of a bear, and a guy was offering a dollar a minute to anyone who would wrestle the bear. The guy who was supposed to wrestle the bear didn't show up, so they egged me on. They let me and my friends into the picture show free, and I wrestled this scrawny bear to the floor. I went around later to get my money, but the guy with the bear had flown the coop. All I got out of the whole thing was a nickname.''
As a strapping and aggressive tackle on the Fordyce High School football team, Mr. Bryant lived up to his nickname by winning allstate honors. Then he was recruited for the University of Alabama by Hank Crisp, an assistant to Frank Thomas, and played right end. His principal assignment, he remembered, was doing the blocking while Don Hutson, the left end, was the star pass receiver who later was elected to the college football hall of fame. But they thrived, winning 23 games and losing only 3, and they defeated Stanford in the 1935 Rose Bowl game, 29-13.
After his class had graduated, Mr. Bryant stayed at Alabama as an assistant coach. Four years later, he switched to Vanderbilt as an assistant to Red Sanders. But two years after that, in 1941, he joined the Navy and served in World War II, part of the time as a football coach at the preflight school in North Carolina. He was discharged in 1945, in time to become head coach at Maryland, where he opened his long and sometimes stormy career. An Instant Success
He was an instant success, partly because he had taken the precaution of bringing along several good players from the Navy preflight team. In his first game, Maryland whipped Guilford College, 60-6. That first season, Maryland won six games, lost two and tied one.
But he also was an instant center of controversy. He suspended a player for breaking training rules, was overruled by the school's president and promptly quit and took over as coach at Kentucky.
He stayed eight seasons, and his teams won 60 games and lost 23, appeared in four postseason games and won the school's only Southeastern Conference championship. The highlight was a 13-7 victory over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl in 1950 that broke a 31-game winning streak for Oklahoma.
After he left in 1954, he conceded that one problem had been a conflict of personalities with Adolph Rupp, the highly successful basketball coach. Conflict With Rupp
''The trouble,'' he said, ''was that we were too much alike. He wanted basketball to be No.1, and I wanted football No.1. In an environment like that, one or the other has to go.''
The next stop was Texas A&M, where Mr. Bryant stayed four seasons with a record of 25 victories and 14 defeats, and a Southwestern Conference title in 1956. He also developed John David Crow, a running back who won the Heisman Trophy as the nation's best player.But more controversy arose when the school was placed on probation for violating the rules on recruiting players, and Mr. Bryant acknowledged later that some of his players had been paid, though not by him.
Finally, he went ''home'' in 1958 to his alma mater, Alabama. ''It was like when you were out in the field, and you heard your mama calling you to dinner,'' he said, explaining his joy at returning. ''Mama called.'' Team Ranked No.1 in '61
Alabama had won only four football games in three years. But in his first season, the Crimson Tide won five games and lost four. And in 1961, he received his first No.1 ranking nationally. For the rest of his career, his teams averaged 8.5 victories a year and did not suffer a losing season.
Controversy followed him home, however. An article in The Saturday Evening Post said that he and Wally Butts, the coach at Georgia, had arranged to fix the result of a game in 1962. Alabama won the game, 35-0. Mr. Butts won a libel suit against the publisher, and Mr. Bryant won a substantial out-of-court settlement.
Although he acknowledged an obsession for winning, he was a forbidding figure when it came to training rules. Not even Namath escaped his discipline. In 1964, he removed Namath as quarterback for breaking training and kept him on the sidelines during the Sugar Bowl game. At other times, he also disciplined Lee Roy Jordan, Scott Hunter, John Hannah, Stabler, Sloan and even Perkins, the man who succeeded him as head coach. The View From the Tower
Mr. Bryant was a tireless worker who customarily rose at 5 A.M. and did not stop until late in the evening. He often supervised practice sessions from a tower overlooking two fields, one covered with grass, the other with artificial turf. One of his quarterbacks, Steadman Shealy, once said: ''There's something about him up in that tower that makes you want to run through a wall.''
He was married to his college sweetheart, Mary Harmon Black, who had been a campus beauty queen when he played football at Alabama. They had two children, Paul William Jr. and May Martin Tyson, and four grandchildren.
Mr. Bryant's stature at Alabama was so great that his salary became something of a protocol problem. Eventually, it reached $120,000. But, for years, the university made an effort to keep the football coach's salary below that of the school's president. The president made $100,000 a year; Mr. Bryant was paid $99,999.99.
Mr. Bryant's funeral will be Friday, with members of his 1982 team serving as honorary pallbearers. He will be buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala., following a 10 A.M. memorial ceremony at First Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa.
The world of football reacted with shock and sadness to the news of Bear Bryant's death.


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Sillypore govt likes to emphasize paper qualifications. Look at the utter stupidity of those degree holders who are flushing taxpayers $$$ down the toilet.
They are stuck in WWII carpet bombing mindset by buying ads in traditional media like newspapers & magazines to bombard the readers in an attempt to convert them to tourists visiting Sillypore. I'll write about the much more effective method of doing it later on.
The commentator has pointed out about the folly of building artificial gardens & shopping malls to impress tourists. I've expressed the same sentiments of local uniqueness in blogposts:
- American Vice President Visit Hawker Centre - Tourist Attraction
Who gives a shit about Starbucks when there are thousands around the world?
- 'Potemkin Village' in S'pore
Fake setup makes a mockery but at least it shows the heartland attraction to the british royal couple.
In Era of Globalization, It's Even More Important on Local Uniqueness For Tourism
The governor of Penang, Lim Guan Eng said his move to ban foreigners as cooks was an effort to ensure the unique local taste & flavour of Penang's hawker fare is retained so as to attract tourists. This is common sense which he has which our grossly overpaid scholar ministers don't have.
Do tourists give a shit about globalized spam like Starbucks & shopping malls filled with those spam shops like McDonalds, Uniqlo etc?
By emphasizing hawkers in Penang, its governor continues to ensure affordable food for the locals(continued votes) while generating tourism revenues. It is a high return on minimal investment. A win-win. There is no need to spam shopping malls requiring hundreds of million dollars to build like in Sillypore.
So, why the hell still waste taxpayers $$$ by advertising in a british newspaper?
From Carpet Bombing to Precision Bombing
During the Gulf War & the War Against Terrorism in Afghanistan, warplanes do precision bombing using guided munitions. Times have change from the carpet bombing method of WWII.
Amazon increases its sales by inviting trusted reviewers to write reviews on new products to help customers make informed decisions. It is known as the AMZN Vine Program. AMZN send the new products to these trusted reviewers so $$$ is spent on people who are really using the product. This is a method of precision bombing. Does AMZN need to waste $$$ to buy advertisements to promote those products?
Lest you worry that those reviewers write glossy reviews of those products should the product be mediocre, we don't have to worry as the free market mechanism of reputation is in play. Different people have different experiences but too many phony reviews & that reviewer's reputation is hurt.
Precision Bombing Has a Better Bang for the Buck
Instead of flushing $$$ down the toilet by buying ads in those traditional media, the tourism board has a better bang for the buck perhaps by offering irresistible discounts or freebies to foreigners to try out Sillypore.
Target those trusted reviewers on travel websites & offer them like free Sillypore Airline economy tickets to Sillypore & a 6 day stay at a hotel. This way the taxpayers $$$ circulates in SG instead of going to the guardian newspaper.
Then those reviewers are to write reviews of their trip to SG. Most likely they have social media amplifying their trip to their hundreds of friends. Those friends are more likely to trust those reviewers than a faceless ad on a newspaper(bang for the buck).
Even if those friends don't come to SG, memories might linger on after seeing the pictures of their friends on social media(bang for the buck). Who can remember an ad from the guardian newspaper years ago? Who knows when a couple of years later those friends decide to stopover SG for a visit?
An Example from My Blog to Discourage Participating in Local Cycling Events
In middle of this year, i urged readers not to bother spending $$$ on Sillypore's commercial cycling events - Malaysia's Johor State Helping to Bring Down SG's Hybrid Regime
Which is the reader going to trust more?
Not only are the ads on guardian newspaper considered wasteful spending. The salaries for those degree holders at the tourism board are also wasteful. The hybrid regime needs to be severely punished at the polls to get rid of the emphasis on paper qualifications. Their mindset is stuck in the industrial age which is detrimental to SG's future.
The industrial age method of carpet bombing ads on newspapers & tv still has its uses but the effectiveness now has greatly diminished in terms of bang for the buck.


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|Venue: Hallspace
|Categories: exhibition
For her second solo show at HallSpace, the Boston-based artist Bebe Beard presents new work from 2010-2011 called Love You 'Till the End of Time.
The drawings, sculpture and video in the series were generated from an extended stay on Maine's Monhegan Island in the winter of 2009-2010. Beard lovingly transforms the traditional artist's materials in her drawings by meticulously combining white feathers, EPS foam and video.
EPS packaging ranging from squid coolers, to fruit packing boxes, shipping boxes for glassware, television and computer packing is also arranged into
seven free-standing sculptures titled individually Totems I through VII. Graced with large and small feathers – giving an impression of angelic purity and flight – they have an intuitive and dynamic balance of geometric forms and whiteness. Video is projected into, on and over the Totems making a beautiful yet elegiac environment. Love You 'Till the End of Time is complemented and completed by animation and music composition by Lou Cohen.
Apr 23-May 28
Viewing Hours| Fri & Sat, 12-5pm & by appointment only.
Opening Reception| Sat, Apr 23 | 3-6pm


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- Quicklook All-Clad Stainless-Steel Measuring Cups & Spoons $20 – $50
- Quicklook All-Clad 3-Piece Stainless-Steel Strainer Set $99.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Instant Read Digital Thermometer $39.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Tools, Set of 6 $99.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Stainless-Steel Splatter Screen $49.95 – $59.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Stainless-Steel Colanders $49.95 – $179.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Kitchen Scale $99.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Oven-Probe Thermometer $49.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Pie Server $21.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Tongs $21.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Solid Spoon $21.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Ladle $21.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Slotted Spoon $21.95
- Quicklook All-Clad Odd-Sized Measuring Cups & Spoons $20 – $50
- Quicklook All-Clad Cook Serve Stainless-Steel Fork $21.95
All-Clad Cook's Tools
The cookware and bakeware that you use to make your culinary masterpieces may be the workhorses of your kitchen, but items like spatulas, tongs and slotted spoons make your memorable meals come to life. At Williams-Sonoma, we carry several different cook's tools from All-Clad that not only make your work in the kitchen go easier, but they look good as well.
Cook's tools by All-Clad are available individually or as part of a set. These stainless-steel sets include items like ladles, slotted spoons, turners, serrated or standard serving forks, tongs and regular and slotted spoons. Sets also come in a stainless-steel caddy, some of which you can personalize by having the caddy monogrammed with your initials or those of someone you wish to give the set of utensils to, which make ideal housewarming or wedding gifts.
If you're looking for a replacement item or a specialty tool as opposed to buying a full set, we also have key All-Clad cook's tools available individually. Also made of polished stainless-steel – which means they look terrific when using your items from your All-Clad cookware set – choose from tools like measuring cups, measuring spoons, angled spatulas, pie servers and colanders. These utensils and other kitchen tools are either one-piece forged items or have All-Clad's signature riveted handles, ensuring each item has a secure grip. Being stainless-steel, these utensils are easy to care for and are all dishwasher-safe.
Protect yourself and the surfaces around you by using a stainless-steel splatter screen when frying chicken, fish or other food. Not only does the fine-mesh screen keep you from getting burned and your stove and countertops from becoming greasy, it fits perfectly on your 8- to 10-inch pans when using the small screen and 10- to 12-inch pans when using the large screen.
Ensure precise temperature control in all your cooked meals with our All-Clad instant-read digital thermometers and oven-probe thermometers. The instant-read thermometers allow you to check the temperatures of large cuts of meat like steaks and roasts quickly, allowing you to close the oven or grill back without letting too much heat escape. These are also stainless-steel, have a compact design that fits easily in a pocket or drawer and have a battery-operated backlit digital display. All-Clad's oven-probe thermometer also features stainless-steel styling and allows you to stick a probe into the item you are cooking, such as prime rib or roast turkey, and monitor the temperature easily from one of your countertops. The probe part has an extra-long cord and the display features large, easy-to-read numbers that you can see even from outside the kitchen. The probe lets you set the type of food your cooking and the desired temperature, then alerts you when the food is done. Both thermometers are also easy to clean as well.


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ELECT's Cloud Advisory
Clearing the Cloud
We hear so much today about Cloud solutions and Cloud technologies, but we still get the recurring questions from people asking us what exactly is the Cloud and should they be considering it for their business? The confusion is certainly understandable as the media hype and promotion of the Cloud depicts a world of collaboration, accessibility and user friendliness that seems almost futuristic and intimidating. The concerns about security, protection and segmentation of business data, and the ability to run business operations during potential internet outages, have made many organization hesitant to seriously consider the Cloud as a viable option for their business.
At Elect IT Solutions we realize that for many clients Cloud solutions and services can bring greater access to applications and storage resources at a lower cost than traditional onsite hardware/software solutions. But when does it make sense for your business and what are the questions that you should be asking as it relates to Cloud services? Let our experienced Cloud Advisory team assist you with navigation through the Cloud scenarios and identifying what is truly best for your business.
Your Trusted Strategic IT Partner


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For many of us – as we return refreshed from our holidays with family and friends – the dreaded annual planning season begins, and our calendars get flooded with planning-related meeting requests. The time has arrived again to "race" and produce an annual marketing plan that often ends up being a lengthy – and sadly unused – PowerPoint presentation or document.
With that in mind, I was not surprised to see CMOs and marketing leaders reporting in SiriusDecisions' 2016 CMO study that marketing planning is the number-one internal process they intend to revise and improve. Related to improving the planning process, CMOs and marketing leaders across both North America and Europe also prioritized a need to improve marketing strategy skills within their teams.
Where are marketing planning processes falling short? In my discussions with Europe-based CMOs and marketing leaders, here are some of the most frequent pitfalls I have been hearing about:
To start addressing the above shortfalls, in this blog post I will focus on two areas. First, we will take a look at the information needed to build a marketing plan, and secondly I will describe a plan-on-a page template that SiriusDecisions designed to support the marketing planning process.
As we strive to build comprehensive marketing plans, it's important to remember that marketing doesn't operate in isolation. The marketing plan needs to align with and support the business objectives of the broader organization. There are three types of information required to build an effective plan.
Typically, these types of information become available during the annual business planning process, but if that's not the case CMOs and marketing leaders must take steps to align with sales and product leaders around these inputs.
At SiriusDecisions we have reviewed hundreds of marketing plans, and we have completed hundreds of inquiries on this topic with our members, which gave us the opportunity to step back and put together a plan-on-a page template. The template has six sections, and our clients have access to additional tools they can deploy to populate each section:
What I love about this tool is that it provides a consistent template that can be leveraged by corporate, regional and functional teams, and it can be adapted to reflect and align both end-user and channel-related marketing plans. CMOs and marketing leaders can adopt this approach to address marketing planning pitfalls once and for all.
Editor's Note: Meta Karagianni will be one of the featured speakers at the seventh annual SiriusDecisions Summit Europe later this month. Join her and more than 800 b-to-b marketing, sales and product leaders at the Hilton Metropole in London on 26-27 September 2016.
Meta Karagianni is Service Director, European CMO Strategies, at SiriusDecisions. Before joining SiriusDecisions, she spent several years working closely with CMOs and commercial leaders in Europe and South Africa, providing strategic advice and implementation support across critical decision areas. As a practitioner, Meta led marketing teams in Europe. She started her career as a strategy/marketing consultant. Meta lives in London.


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The wisdom of professional wrestling is that, in order to draw punters, wrestlers need to generate "heat". Every "babyface" hero, whether Gorgeous George, Big Daddy or Hulk Hogan, needs a "heel" the audience can hate, and will buy tickets to see vanquished. For 30 years, and more than 6,000 matches, wrestling audiences hated no one more than "Killer" Kowalski, who has died aged 81.
He was arguably the top heel in the era when wrestling filled north American arenas and hours of airtime for the fledgling television industry. He continued to be the man crowds loved to hate well into the start of the modern era of national promotions and cable TV.
Born Robert Wladek Spulnik to Polish immigrant parents in Windsor, Ontario, he followed his father into the Ford factories across the bridge in Detroit, and began wrestling there in 1947. His physique and good looks saw him billed variously as Tarzan Kowalski, Hercules Kowalski and even the Polish Apollo, but he had also appeared as "Killer", and that name stuck after he tore off part of Yukon Eric's ear while knee-dropping him during a match at the Montreal Forum in 1952. At the hospital, the two wrestlers laughed about the mummy-like bandages covering Eric's face; reporters in the corridor heard Kowalski's laughter and his reputation as a heartless villain was cemented.
It was a reputation he encouraged. He was huge for his day, at 6ft 6in and 20 stone, and his features could be twisted into a horror-movie-type rage. In the ring he was a committed cheat, bully and thug, his interviews laced with eloquent contempt for both the crowd and its heroes. When he accidentally kicked Jack Dempsey, serving as a celebrity referee for a 1958 match against Pat O'Connor, he was quick to claim he had been out to cripple the former heavyweight boxing champ.
Kowalski's signature move was "the Claw", "working on to the muscles of the abdominal area", as the announcers used to scream.
Kowalski won his first title, the Texas belt, over Nature Boy Buddy Rogers in 1950. He and Rogers had a long and successful feud, and he did huge business in Canada against Whipper Billy Watson, who called him his favourite opponent. Kowalski and Hans Herman, who played a pseudo-Nazi, had huge success as a heel tag team on the West Coast.
But he was biggest in the US northeast, after he and Gorilla Monsoon captured the World Wide Wrestling Federation tag title in 1963. His greatest solo matches came against New York's champion, Bruno Sammartino, in Madison Square Garden. But out of the ring, Kowalski, known to his friends as Walter, was considered one of the few truly good guys in an industry not renowned for its integrity.
In 1976 Kowalski and his first star pupil, Big John Studd, had donned masks and captured the WWWF tag titles as the Executioners. It was his last big title before he retired in 1977, to concentrate on training wrestlers.
Unusually for a wrestler, Kowalski was a vegetarian, explaining that "the more you back away from meat, the more you elevate yourself, the vibratory level of your whole body changes and you become more conscious of higher levels of existence". A longtime bachelor, at 79 he married 78-year-old Theresa Ferrioli, telling Esquire magazine "What could I do? She told me she was pregnant!" Kowalski is survived by his wife and by a brother.
• Walter "Killer" Kowalski (Robert Wladek Spulnik), wrestler, born October 13 1926; died August 30 2008


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Photography Classes in Linn TX
Are you looking for photography classes in Linn TX? Whether you are a beginner, hobbyist, or professional, the most effective way to improve your photography abilities is through hands-on training with professional instructors.
Texas has many accredited and recognized photography schools. Subjects covered in photography classes include lighting, exposure and composition, posing and unposing, portrait capture, and other photography fundamentals. Becoming an accomplished photographer can pave the road to a lifelong hobby or successful professional career.
There are numerous Photography Classes in Linn TX:
- Linn Studio Photography Classes
- Linn Photography 101
- Linn Digital Photography Classes
- Linn Nature Photography Classes
- Linn Editorial Photography Classes
Linn TX Photography Classes
St Philip's College
1801 Martin Luther King Dr
San Antonio, Texas 78203-2098
Phone: (210) 486-2000
208.02 miles away
San Antonio College
1300 San Pedro Ave
San Antonio, Texas 78212-4299
Phone: (210) 486-0000
210.47 miles away
The Art Institute of San Antonio
10000 IH-10 W Ste 200
San Antonio, Texas 78230
Phone: (210) 338-7320
216.84 miles away
Texas State University-San Marcos
601 University Dr
San Marcos, Texas 78666
Phone: (512) 245-2111
240.97 miles away
Saint Edward's University
3001 S Congress Ave
Austin, Texas 78704-6489
Phone: (512) 448-8400
265.66 miles away
Austin Community College District
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd
Austin, Texas 78752
Phone: (512) 223-7000
272.15 miles away
The Art Institute of Austin
101 W. Louis Henna Blvd Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78728
Phone: (512) 691-1707
283.18 miles away
The Art Institute of Houston
4140 Southwest Freeway
Houston, Texas 77027-9625
Phone: (713) 623-2040
285.17 miles away
University of Houston
212 E. Cullen Building
Houston, Texas 77204-2018
Phone: (713) 743-1000
289.60 miles away
Sam Houston State University
1806 Ave J
Huntsville, Texas 77340
Phone: (936) 294-1111
338.83 miles away


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Stocks rallied to finish higher in another volatile session Tuesday, led by industrials and materials, but investors continued to remain cautious over the euro zone debt crisis and the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.73 points, or 0.40 percent, to finish at 11,105.85, after toggling between positive and negative territory throughout the session. The Dow still remains on pace for its biggest quarterly point loss since the fourth quarter of 2008.
Intel and GE gained on the blue-chip index, while BofA slipped.
The S&P 500 gained 10.60 points, or 0.91 percent, to end at 1,172.87. The Nasdaq jumped 37.06 points, or 1.49 percent, to close at 2,532.15.
The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded below 38.
All 10 S&P sectors finished higher, led by industrials and materials.
The BRICS major emerging markets are in "preliminary stage" talks about increasing their holdings of euro-denominated bondsin an effort to help ease the euro zone debt crisis, according to a Reuters report, citing Brazilian government officials.
European shares finished higher, led by banks, following news that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is scheduled to hold a conference call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday to focus on developments on Greece's economy.
On Monday, investors were encouraged after an FT report that said Italy's government is looking to China to see if they will make "significant" purchases of the debt-ridden nation's bonds and investments in strategic companies.
However, an Italian government source said the recent meetings with China discussed possible Chinese investments in Italian industrial assets, not bonds as previously expected, according to a report from Reuters.
Meanwhile, an auction of Italian 5-year debt saw yields rise, demonstrating there is still concern about Italian sovereign debt. The Italian government meets later this week to finalize new budget measures to bring the deficit down, but debt at 120 percent to GDP remains a major concern for the country.


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A long history of success
Because of our quality and expertise, Elite Weiler Pools has been recognized as a top builder in Pool & Spa's Top 50 Pool Builders, the Tampa Bay Business Journal, and the Gulf Coast Business Review again and again. Because we stand behind our projects, we have had repeat business and success with several municipalities, the best builders and exclusive communities. Expanding beyond traditional pools and spas, we have built numerous downtown fountains, world-class swimming complexes, therapy pools, spray parks, slides, and resort pools. View our galleries below:
Pools • Fountains • Equipment • Spas • Specialty
Commercial Swimming Pools
Trust only the best swimming pool company in Florida to produce the customized pool shapes and features that your commercial application requires. At Elite Weiler Pools, we build our reputation into every project, taking the extra care to include world class customer service. Take a look at some of our water projects below:
We have built dozens of fountains for municipalities, corporate headquarters, residential communities and resorts. Some of them include:
- Bobby Jones Golf Course
- Broadway Promenade
- Centex Communities
- Heritage Harbor Golf and Country Club
- Internal Revenue Service (Cantu Court Sarasota)
- Lido Beach Club (Lido Key)
- Main Street Fountain (Downtown Sarasota
- Marina Jack (US 41 Entrance, Sarasota Waterfront)
- Sarasota Bay Club
- Sarasota National Golf Club
- Silver Plaza Interactive Fountain Silver Springs, MD
- Stoneybrook at Venice, FL
- Tampa Forum
- Tampa International Airport
- Tervis Tumbler Headquarters
- The Fountains
- Venetian Falls (Retirement Community)
- Venice Theater (Downtown Venice, FL)
- Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort
Commercial Pool Equipment
We utilize some of the most innovative and energy efficient swimming pool equipment to ensure the smooth operation of your pool and comfortable swim temperatures that don't break the bank or the earth. We work with the top swimming pool equipment manufacturers in the industry, providing you with the best value product options for long lasting fun in the sun. Take a look at some of our pool equipment:
Commercial Spas
When it comes to relaxation, Elite Weiler Pools has your outdoor oasis covered. Aside from our impeccable swimming pools, our spa designs are second to none. Whether you're looking to add a spa to your existing commercial swimming pool or build a stand alone spa, you can count on Elite Weiler pools to deliver. Take a look at some of our commercial spa designs:
Commercial Specialty Pools and Features
Looking for a specialty swimming pool addition? At Elite Weiler Pools, we are experienced in building endless pools, specialty water features, slides, sprinklers, water playgrounds and anything you can think of. You dream it we can probably build it. Take a look at some our past specialty pool projects:


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Morning Peacock (3.5e Martial Artist Maneuver)
From D&D Wiki
Morning Peacock
Birds in the morning always shine bright.
Level: Active 2
Type: Stance
Prerequisite: Improved Initiative
Description: This stance gives you a bonus on initiative checks and Bluff checks made for the purpose of feinting equal to your Intelligence bonus. Furthermore, you gain a +4 bonus to Armor Class against attacks of opportunity while you are moving.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Complex Special Ability Components → Maneuvers → Martial Arts Maneuvers


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Literary creature features
When James Herbert published The Rats in 1974 not only did he have a worldwide best-seller on his hands but he also invented a horror fiction subgenre – let's call it Creature-thrillers as a nod to the 1950's/1960's Creature Feature movies.
Herbert said he thought of the story after watching Todd Browning's Dracula on the television and being horrified by Renfield's description of his nightmare involving hordes of rats. The author also recalled the packs of rats he had seen on London's old bomb sites during his childhood and he brought the feelings of dread the creatures had always inspired in himself to his first novel.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, I was as naive as that." James Herbert, talking about writing The Rats.
The book met with a poor critical reception but the first print run sold out within three weeks and the book's remained in print ever since. For many the book was too graphic and the overall theme too pessimistic but what Herbert did was bring a particular working class form of horror to the table and there was a theme of criticism of a government who were not doing enough for the poorer elements of society. It's written in a very visceral style and totally enjoyable but it's so much more than it appears on the surface. And of course the true measure of its success is in the amount of imitations it spawned.
Herbert was very much in the right place and at the right time and almost simultaneously with The Rats, an American writer named Stephen King was getting his first taste of success with Carrie – all of a sudden the horror genre was big business. And of course The Rats was riding on this wave of popularity – there were a slew of imitators – Maggots, Snakes, Cats, Worms, Bats, alligators, frogs and even absurdly Slugs all turned feral and went for the human population.
Guy N. Smith's Crab series was one of the first to cash in on the success of Herbert's rodents with Night of the Crabs and in all he wrote six Crabs books but unlike many of the Herbert imitators these books were actually quite good in their own right. Indeed the series still has a cult following and in 2009 the first book was reissued in a deluxe hardcover edition. Guy runs his own book business, Black Hill Books and many of his titles can be bought there and it also carries an extensive range of classic paperbacks in all genres.
Smith would go on to write many more creature thrillers featuring Bats, snaked, alligators and even a variety of creatures in the vastly entertaining, The Abomination but by far his most popular series was and remains, The Crabs.
Another entertaining creature thriller was Spiders by Richard Lewis which actually spawned a sequel, The Web. I read both of these books many years ago and remember enjoying them both immensely and whilst I don't know what I'd think of them these days I do have fond memories of them.
The reason for these animals going feral was usually some ecological disaster or scientific experiment, although there were one or two examples where the reason was supernatural but for the most part it was bizarre scientific experiments that provoked the horror. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't really remember any of the books where the reason for the crazed creature outbreak was supernatural.
Eventually the creature thrillers fell out of favour and horror readers went for more sophisticated novels but the genre was reinvented briefly in the 90's when Shaun Hutson wrote perhaps the most stomach churning series of all, Slugs.This time there was no holds barred and there is even a scene where a guy is sitting on the toilet and one of the killer slugs goes up his arse.
But back to the originator of this little horror sub-genre, James Herbert – there were three follow ups to The Rats. Lair was a great second story and the third book, Domain took up the story of the mutated rodents in the aftermath of a nuclear war and although this is a good premise the book was not as successful in terms of story as the previous two. It sold by the truck-load, though.
These books made up a trilogy but there was another story with the graphic novel, The City which is again set in London after a nuclear war. Though when people talk about the Rats trilogy they mean the three novels proper with the graphic novel considered something of a companion piece.
This article gives just a taster of all the creature thrillers out there – go on give one a try but beware one thing they all share in common is their extremely graphic scenes.
A strong stomach is advised.


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"Happy endings come from happy beginnings."
Shayanne, who started going by the nickname of Shay, found herself in the same predicament. Though she had no children to support, she was used to living with a decent income and knew that she couldn't go back to 'trying' to pay her bills every month, knowing that she would fail miserably. As I have stated before in my sister article, A Day in the Life of a Cam Girl, when your income goes up, so do your bills and cost of living. So Shay had to do something. She found herself looking for part time jobs in any field, just something until she found more clients. After about a year, she managed to get her own in home clients. She was charging the same fee but was paying out of pocket for all her supplies, so her take home pay was a significant amount less than she had made before. But what else could she do?
Then one day she got an offer from one of her regular clients. He basically wanted a happy ending massage. She was appalled. She was offended. She was...interested? She remembered all the things she used to say about strippers and prostitutes. The terrible names she called the woman down the street that was busted for prostitution just a month ago. She was raised in a family that was centered on religion, pride and integrity. She could not lower herself to those standards. Or could she?
Finally, she accepted the job. After all, she had to do something. So she made the call, set up the appointment and even bought some special lubes in anticipation of the appointment. There was sort of an anticipation building up, she wasn't sure if it was because she was excited about doing something new and fantasy like, or if it was the feeling of a good, religious girl being thrown into a world full of sin by turning herself into a whore.
She remembered the massage starting, without a word other than her 'john' handing her the requested $200 and going in to undress and prepare himself. She went in when he rang the 'ready bell' and she got to work. She was massaging every inch of him completely neglecting his manhood, trying so hard to get up the courage and stop the terrible thoughts going through her head. She just kept thinking, "I am a whore, am I a slut too? What am I doing? What have I done to myself? How did I become everything I hate?"
She finally decided against running off mid-massage and just went for it. She grabbed onto his already erect member and started stroking him softly, and then picking up speed, following his breathing. She was amazed how good she was at this already. She never really had much practice with hand jobs on strangers. I guess it helped that his manhood was pretty much a one handed job. A full hand might have actually been overkill really. This really was more of a 3 finger job. She remembers throwing out her whore thoughts and centering on the fact that for such a big guy, this guy's tiny dick was verging on humorous. And then bam, 4 minutes into the hand job, it was over. He moaned and groaned as she took a wet nap (and later a bottle of isopropyl alcohol) to her hands. He finally got up, dressed and tossed a folded piece of paper on the table which she saw a date and time written on and he left. The typical nod for a good bye, as usual.
When he left, she sat down and thought about whether this meant she was a different person now. She thought that when it was over it would be no big deal, something she could live with and move past. She just gave a hand job to a man 20 years her senior in the back room of her own home. She really wasn't sure how she felt yet. She was more numbed by the experience than anything else. Was $200 all her integrity was worth. Or was her integrity intact and she was just a girl that performed a job, for money. It was more of a 26 minute massage and a 4 minute hand job. Was it worth it? Then she got up and went over to the paper and read what he wrote. "Busy next Thursday, can we do Wednesday at 2pm? Same price, same tip." She wondered what he meant by tip, as she unfolded the rest of the paper. Then she found it. Another $200! She decided right then and there that it was worth it. Over the next week of thinking about it, she realized that she was still the same person, and just had a slight change of career. Now the only question she was asking herself was, should I print new business cards, or go by word of mouth?
3 Words.
So when Shay was asked to describe her feelings on her work in 3 words, she chose these: Empowering, Productive and Easy. Her explanation was that she works less than 5 hours a week and makes more, 2 – 3 times as much as she did when she worked per diem as a basic massage therapist. Enough to pay for her children's private schooling, her beautiful house and anything else they ever need or want. So that covers the easy and productive, now about the empowering. She took her life and fate in her own hands; she does for herself and doesn't have to count on anyone else. And her clients treat her like a princess. They all make her feel so special. They give her gifts, flowers and proposals. They all want her. How could you ever feel bad about yourself when the people you see always want you to know how wonderful you are?
If you could say something to all the people who think your work is shameful or taboo, what would you say?
If you could say something to all the other people who work the sex industry, what would you say?
Look for more articles in this new Sex Worker Appreciation series coming soon from sex workers in all sectors. Ranging from Cam Girls, to Escorts, and more!


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Pricing For Our Kids' Gym
Hot Ground Gym® is the place for kids to be in Vernon Hills! We've got a great variety of children's activities for kids in kindergarten through 8th grade. We're helping kids grow, one obstacle at a time!
We hope you'll be in three times a week to take advantage of everything we have to offer, but you can also purchase day passes that will get you into our kid's gym periodically. Click below to find out about our summer camps as well!


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December 6, 2019 ~ Sh VAYESSE. M AJAM.
ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים - The Talmud teaches that the word ויהי, as opposed to והיה, is applied to foreshadow times of trouble (Megillah 10b). The portion of Miqes (Genesis 41:1-44:17) opens with this ominous word foreshadowing such events. Although this narrative is about Joseph's rise to power, the amount of turmoil experienced by the Israelites in this story is extremely unsettling. What makes Miqes stand out compared to any other Torah portion is that this perasha, consisting of 146 verses, is essentially one long paragraph. From beginning to end, Miqes has no "open portion" (פתוחה) divisions, but rather, the entire portion is one single "closed portion" (סתומה) division. The unusual layout of Miqes is a metaphor for how one must behave during times of trouble. Having the entire portion without any interruptions is a reminder that during times of trouble, in order to survive, one must remain alert, keep moving, and not allow any interruptions. Tiqqun Highlights, Beth Torah Bulletin, 12/8/18.
ויריצהו מן הבור - When Joseph was in jail, in an effort to secure his
freedom, he asked the cupbearer to relay to Pharaoh about his experience
with him. For over two years, Joseph was waiting for his salvation, but
it did not come, because the cupbearer forgot about him. Then, suddenly,
when he least expected it, he was "rushed out of the pit," as the words
ויריצהו מן הבור (Genesis 41:14) indicate, and his deliverance came. He
was released from incarceration so fast, that he barely had time to
change clothing or to shave. Joseph had a complete reversal of fortune.
The message from this story is that it is God that controls the world
and the fate of all mankind. While it is imperative on all of us to
continue to make efforts to accomplish our goals, ultimately, if God
desires to save you from your problems, He can do so effortlessly and in
the blink of an eye, just like He did for Joseph (Beth Torah, 12/31/16).
כי נשני אלהים את כל עמלי - Throughout the whirlwind of activity mentioned in Genesis 41, the reader generally remains unaware of Joseph's emotional state. It is when Joseph names his children, however, that we have a window into his innermost thoughts. Menashe, his first born son, is named such in gratitude to God for allowing him "to forget all my sufferings... in my father's household." Throughout our society, it saddens me to see those with a bitter outlook on life; blaming their failure to progress on people or events of the past. The hatred, rejection, and setbacks that Joseph experiences throughout his youth certainly qualifies to be damaging enough to negatively impact him and prevent future progress, and yet Joseph always remains resolute. With God's help, Joseph is elevated to such high dominance economically, socially, and mentally, that he is gifted with the ability to forget his painful past and not allow it to infringe on his future. Beth Torah Bulletin, December 16, 2017.


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Adding attributes and useful interfaces
Posted on March 1st, 2001
Desktop-as-a-Service Designed for Any Cloud ? Nutanix Frame
|Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java
|Contents | Prev | Next
and useful interfaces
The use of layered objects to dynamically and transparently add responsibilities to individual objects is referred to as the decorator pattern. (Patterns [47] are the subject of Chapter 16.) The decorator pattern specifies that all objects that wrap around your initial object have the same interface, to make the use of the decorators transparent – you send the same message to an object whether it's been decorated or not. This is the reason for the existence of the "filter" classes in the Java IO library: the abstract "filter" class is the base class for all the decorators. (A decorator must have the same interface as the object it decorates, but the decorator can also extend the interface, which occurs in several of the "filter" classes).
Decorators are often used when subclassing requires a large number of subclasses to support every possible combination needed – so many that subclassing becomes impractical. The Java IO library requires many different combinations of features which is why the decorator pattern is a good approach. There is a drawback to the decorator pattern, however. Decorators give you much more flexibility while you're writing a program (since you can easily mix and match attributes), but they add complexity to your code. The reason that the Java IO library is awkward to use is that you must create many classes – the "core" IO type plus all the decorators – in order to get the single IO object that you want.
The classes that provide the decorator interface to control a particular InputStream or OutputStream are the FilterInputStream and FilterOutputStream – which don't have very intuitive names. They are derived, respectively, from InputStream and OutputStream, and they are abstract classes, in theory to provide a common interface for all the different ways you want to talk to a stream. In fact, FilterInputStream and FilterOutputStream simply mimic their base classes, which is the key requirement of the decorator.
Reading from an InputStream
with FilterInputStream
The FilterInputStream classes accomplish two significantly different things. DataInputStream allows you to read different types of primitive data as well as String objects. (All the methods start with "read," such as readByte( ), readFloat( ), etc.) This, along with its companion DataOutputStream, allows you to move primitive data from one place to another via a stream. These "places" are determined by the classes in Table 10-1. If you're reading data in blocks and parsing it yourself, you won't need DataInputStream, but in most other cases you will want to use it to automatically format the data you read.
The remaining classes modify the way an InputStream behaves internally: whether it's buffered or unbuffered, if it keeps track of the lines it's reading (allowing you to ask for line numbers or set the line number), and whether you can push back a single character. The last two classes look a lot like support for building a compiler (that is, they were added to support the construction of the Java compiler), so you probably won't use them in general programming.
You'll probably need to buffer your input almost every time, regardless of the IO device you're connecting to, so it would have made more sense for the IO library to make a special case for unbuffered input rather than buffered input.
Table 10-3. Types of FilterInputStream
Writing to an OutputStream
The complement to DataInputStream is DataOutputStream, which formats each of the primitive types and String objects onto a stream in such a way that any DataInputStream, on any machine, can read them. All the methods start with "write," such as writeByte( ), writeFloat( ), etc.
If you want to do true formatted output, for example, to the console, use a PrintStream. This is the endpoint that allows you to print all of the primitive data types and String objects in a viewable format as opposed to DataOutputStream, whose goal is to put them on a stream in a way that DataInputStream can portably reconstruct them. The System.out static object is a PrintStream.
The two important methods in PrintStream are print( ) and println( ), which are overloaded to print out all the various types. The difference between print( ) and println( ) is that the latter adds a newline when it's done.
BufferedOutputStream is a modifier and tells the stream to use buffering so you don't get a physical write every time you write to the stream. You'll probably always want to use this with files, and possibly console IO.
Table 10-4. Types of FilterOutputStream
[47] In Design Patterns , Erich Gamma et al. , Addison-Wesley 1995. Described later in this book.


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A Twist of Water at Route 66 Theatre Company | Theater review
Caitlin Montanye Parrish's rich and compelling new play sets a nontraditional family's struggle to rebuild against Chicago's own resilient history.
With Chicago and its resilient history as the backdrop, this smart, affecting new play centers on one family's struggle to redefine itself in a tragedy's aftermath. Still recovering from his husband's death in a car accident a year ago, high-school history teacher Noah (Tovar) tries to rebuild his rocky relationship with their adopted African-American teenage daughter, Jira (Pearson), while grappling with her desire to find her birth mother. Sure, this is a nontraditional family—and refreshingly, that's fairly incidental.
Add in Noah's new romance with Liam (Alex Hugh Brown), Jira's young English teacher and Noah's coworker, and the play by former TOC contributor Parrish (director Weiss also gets a cocreator credit) could easily turn melodramatic or farcical. But it doesn't. Above all, A Twist of Water is sincere. Genuine laughs are earned with some great one-liners (mostly given to Alex Hugh Brown, whose timing is spot-on) and truth-born comedy; Weiss's agile direction is apparent in this solid ensemble's deft navigation of a broad emotional spectrum. When Jira and her birth mother (the well-cast Lili-Anne Brown) finally meet, in an incredibly moving scene, the result doesn't fulfill Jira's hopes. Pearson's heartbreak is palpable; the nuance with which Tovar responds makes his almost more so.
There is perhaps an overemphasis on Chicago itself; Noah recounts the city's history in interstitial segments of narration. Despite beautiful use of projections (by John Boesche) on Stephen H. Carmody's aptly fluid set during these lessons, drawing parallels to a larger picture becomes increasingly unnecessary. Parrish's characters and story are rich enough on their own. This is compelling work, well worth sitting through a bit of history.


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The purpose of the Purchasing Policy is to maintain the integrity of the procurement process and to protect Council, suppliers and staff by providing specific guidelines on the purchase of goods and services.
Read or download a copy of the Purchasing Policy (in French - PDF).
This document contains the procedures the Village of Casselman has to follow when purchasing goods and services.
The document is included as an appendix in every formal request for proposals. All bidders must follow instructions contained in the Purchasing Procedures (in French - PDF).


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It's available in modest quantities in cocao, oysters, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds, peanuts and it's an essential mineral required by the body for maintaining a sense of smell, keeping a healthy immune system, building proteins, triggering enzymes, and creating DNA. Yet two billion people are deficient.
Zinc helps the cells in your body communicate by functioning as a neurotransmitter. A deficiency in zinc can lead to stunted growth, diarrhea, impotence, hair loss, eye and skin lesions, impaired appetite, and depressed immunity.
Some researchers have even heralded the element as the long-sought "silver bullet" for treating the common cold. Over the past decade, about 14 studies have been done on the mineral's cold-curing power. About half have shown that it works and half that it doesn't.
Inflammation is linked with a variety of chronic health problems, including cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease and diabetes. A study last fall conducted at Oregon State University and published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, suggested that the recommended levels of zinc supplementation might have to be increased in older people in light of the evidence for a steep drop off in utilization.
The mechanism behind zinc's reported ability to help fight off infections may lie in its ability to kick start and shut off immune pathways, say researchers.
A new study suggests that the mineral plays a key role in controlling the body's response to infections by 'tapping the breaks' on immune system pathways in a way that stops them causing a spiral of our-of-control inflammation.
Writing in the journal Cell Reports, the US-based researchers behind the study also found that if there is not enough zinc available at the time of infection, the consequences include excessive inflammation.
Led by Professor Daren Knoell from Ohio State University, USA, the new research reveals for the first time zinc's role in mediating this pathway and helping shut it down effectively.
"The benefit to health is explicit: Zinc is beneficial because it stops the action of a protein, ultimately preventing excess inflammation," he said.
"We do believe that to some extent, these findings are going to be applicable to other important areas of disease beyond sepsis," explained Knoell.
"Without zinc on board to begin with, it could increase vulnerability to infection," he suggested. "But our work is focused on what happens once you get an infection -- if you are deficient in zinc you are at a disadvantage because your defence system is amplified, and inappropriately so."
It's still not entirely clear by what mechanism the dysregulation of the zinc transporters and resulting poor zinc utilization results in increased inflammation, but the link is real.
Supplement Science
While the primary aim of the study was to explore the link between zinc deficiency and inflammation, Knoell and his team said their findings may also explain why supplementation with zinc at the start of a common cold appears to help stem the effects of the illness.
The research team said while their study and previous research links zinc deficiency to inflammation and may suggest that supplementation could help very sick ICU patients, it is still too early to make that leap.
"I think the question is whom to give zinc to, if anybody at all," said Knoell. "We predict that not everybody in the ICU with sepsis needs zinc, but I anticipate that a proportion of them would."
"Zinc is a critical element that we get from our diet, but we do not think we can give zinc and fix everything," he commented. "Usually, if there is zinc deficiency, we would expect to see other nutrient deficiencies, too."
Study Details
The research team studied the activity of zinc in the context of sepsis -- a severe systemic response to infection, that lead to death -- using cell culture models.
Knoell's lab previously showed that zinc-deficient mice developed overwhelming inflammation in response to sepsis compared to mice on a normal diet.
In the new study, Knoell and his colleagues focused in on zinc's role in preventing the inflammation that had led to such poor outcomes in the zinc-deficient mice. Using human monocytes (immune cells involved in the first line of defence against infection) the research team examined what happens when the immune response is launched.
They reveal that when a pathogen is recognised, a series of molecules wake up to create a process that activates the immune response but also leads to the expression of a gene that produces a zinc transporter called ZIP8.
This transporter then rapidly moves to the cell's wall, where it can then shuttle zinc from the bloodstream into the cell.
After cell entry, zinc is then directed to and binds to a different protein which then halts any further activity in that process.
The cumulative impact of this feedback loop is that it prevents excessive inflammation, which can be damaging to cells and the body, said the researchers.
"The immune system has to work under very strict balance, and this is a classic example of where more is not always better," Knoell said. "We want a robust inflammatory response, which is part of our natural programming to defend us against a bug. But if that is unchecked, and there is too much inflammation, then it not only attacks the pathogen but can also cause much more collateral damage."
Knoell said that the findings from the study may have therapeutic implications for supplemental zinc "in a strategic manner to help improve some people with certain conditions."
"But also, could we learn from this so someday we can be more diagnostic about who it is that needs zinc? And if so, what dose and for how long?"
Karen Foster is a holistic nutritionist, avid blogger, with five kids and an active lifestyle that keeps her in pursuit of the healthiest path towards a life of balance.
Reference Sources 106, 184, 202


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I was at a baseball game a few weeks ago and saw one of the most arrogant shirts I have ever seen. It evoked a sense of arrogance that I just can't stand.
As a framework for this post, it is important to know that I always get upset whenever I see the bumper sticker Coexist because it conveys a sense of arrogance. I always found it funny to see this on (usually) a Prius or sedan in a nation that has historically been more open to different groups of people than any other on Earth. Now, of course there has been faults and evils, but by and large Jews, Protestants, and Catholics have learned to live by each other. Muslims might be harassed in a post-9/11 world, but it is not on the systemic levels of other nations. The sticker assumes that I as a Protestant Christian cannot coexist next to a Buddhist family. While we have our faults, this country is largely peaceful. Personally, it would be a fun experiment to have that bumper sticker in Saudi Arabia, but I digress.
While that sticker might be arrogant, I noticed a shirt that ran laps around the bumper sticker. It also made me weep inside.
A man walked around in the stands wearing a shirt that read I am the Christian Satan Warned You About. Have you seen this shirt? I hope you haven't! It conveys the message that the individual wearing said shirt is the agent of change, the one who will flip your life upside down. He was the one who will do something to you that Satan warned you about. For the sake of argument, I assume it's to hit you over the head with a Bible or hand you a tract!
Seriously though, I would have rather seen a shirt that read, Christ is who Satan warned you about. Or maybe, Christ, who has forgiven my sin and restored me, wants to redeem you as well and give you a new, restored life in the context of the cosmos put to right by the Kingdom of God being made manifest.
Alright, the second shirt might not be quite as catchy. While it might get closer to the heart of the matter, it might be better not to wear that shirt either. Yet, that un-catchy slogan implies that the person wearing the shirt is nothing. They are graciously restored and given new life by putting their hope in Jesus and they then point to that reality. It is not I who should be feared because of what I can do, instead it is Christ in me who transforms ugliness into beauty.
Arrogance removed and humility is put in the proper place, into the life of the Christ follower.
That is what I hope to see!


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The Doha Debates session debating the House's belief that Muslim women should be free to marry anyone they choose. The debate was the fifth and final of the 2008-2009 year, filmed on May 25th, 2009 in Qatar.
For the motion are Asra Nomani from America and Muhammad Habash from Syria. Against the motion are Thuraya Al Arrayed from Saudi Arabia and Yasir Qadhi, American Muslim cleric and instructor for AlMaghrib Institute.


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Dr Ali Morteza Samsam Bakhtiari is a former senior energy expert who spent his long career, which started in 1971, employed by the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) of Tehran, Iran. During the course of his employment with NIOC, he held many important positions of trust and responsibility.
Dr Bakhtiari is now fully retired from NIOC, in accordance with a mandatory age requirement. He has no current official link with the company. But, luckily for us in the Western world, he is among the pioneers of the global Peak Oil theory.
In the future, Dr Bakhtiari predicts oil will cost in the range of $100-150 per barrel in the not-too-distant future. He characterizes as the 'Four Phases of Transition' (which he labels T1, T2, T3, and T4) in a world of declining conventional oil output. So what are the 'Four Phases of Transition'?
Peak Oil: the four phases of transition
I asked the good doctor this very question, and his reply was, 'As for T1, T2, T3, and T4, they are still very vague concepts, but if you allow me a few days…I shall try to explain to you what I think about these four.' And good to his word, within a few days, Dr Bakhtiari was kind enough to forward some amplifying thoughts on the matter. Here is what he sent to me, to share with you:
'The four Transition periods (T1, T2, T3, and T4) will roughly span the 2006-2020 era. Each Transition [will] cover, on average, three to four years.
'The major palpable difference between the four Ts is their respective gradient of oil output decline – very small for T1, perceptible for T2, remarkable in T3, and rather steep for T4. In fact, this gradation in decline is a genuine blessing for those having to cope and adapt.
'It should be borne in mind that these four Ts are only an overall theoretical structure for future global oil output. The structure is thus so orderly because [it is] predicted with 'Pre-Peak' methods, 'Pre-Peak' assumptions, and [a] 'Pre-Peak' set of rules.
'The problem is that we now are in 'Post-Peak' mode, and that none of [the] above applies anymore.
Post-Peak: the consequences
'The fact of being in 'Post-Peak' will bring about explosive disruptions we know little about, and which are extremely difficult to foresee. And the shock waves from these explosions rippling throughout the financial and industrial infrastructure could have myriad unintended consequences for which we have no precedent and little experience.
'So the only Transition we can see rather clearly (or rather, we hope to be able to comprehend) is T1. It is clear that T1 will witness the tilting of the 'Oil Demand' and 'Oil Supply' scales – with the former dominant at the onset and the latter commanding toward the close (say, by 2009 or 2010).
'But even during that rather benign T1, the unexpected might become the rule and the orderly 'Pre-Peak' rapidly give way to some chaotic 'Post-Peak.'
'In any instance, the overall structure of the 'Four Transitions' is a general guideline for the next 14 years or so – as far as global oil output is concerned.
In practice, reality might prove to be worse than these theoretical Transitions; but certainly not better.'
Dr Bakhtiari has a background in chemistry. He holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering, granted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He has worked in industry and taught at a university level in the fields of both chemistry and chemical engineering for about four decades.
I asked Dr Bakhtiari if it would be fair to say that he is using the term 'Transitions' in a manner similar to what are known as 'phase transitions' in physical chemistry? Of course, the analogy need not be an exact chemical description. But I asked him if that concept from chemistry would be a proper way of helping to explain his thinking process.
The reason I asked the question of Dr Bakhtiari, and used terms from physical chemistry, was his statement, 'The major palpable difference between the four Ts is their respective gradient of oil output decline.' My interpretation of that comment is that at each 'transition' point where the gradient changes, we might view that as the 'phase change' analogous to, say, frozen water melting, or hot water boiling.
Peak Oil: sudden changes in levels of oil production
And as for how much we do not know in a post-Peak Oil world, as Dr Bakhtiari noted, that could be analogous to the phenomenon known as 'flash evaporation.' That is, if you raise the temperature of water to something well below its standard boiling point, but then rapidly change some other condition, such as lowering the atmospheric pressure above the water, the water 'boils' at a lower temperature and lower pressure regime. This might be considered similar to some abrupt, unanticipated event reducing the supply of oil; for example, warfare, natural disaster, or unexpectedly rapid depletion and decline in a major oil-producing region of the world.
Dr Bakhtiari replied as follows:
'I certainly like your idea of 'phase transition,'…especially the analogy from ice to water, which occurs gradually. Start with ice and end with water, while to the very last second there is some ice present.
'I also agree that at the junction of two Ts, there should be some kind of a milestone. For example, at the close of T1, Supply should totally dominate Demand…I am toying with [the] idea, very preliminary, that close of T2 could be OPEC [oil production] surpassing non-OPEC [oil production], although OPEC died in 2004.'
Peak Oil: Middle East production
Dr Bakhtiari's statement that 'OPEC died in 2004' is an interesting viewpoint, in light of his idea about the nature of T2, when OPEC production will surpass non-OPEC production. To explain this further, let me refer back to February 2006, in the ASPO-USA newsletter, in which Dr Bakhtiari wrote:
'It goes without saying that when assaying Middle Eastern oil reserves, one should tread carefully. Because, on the one hand, oil reserves' estimation is both a science and an art; and on the other hand, seen from the point of view of most Middle Eastern countries, oil reserves are more political than geological. Thus, nonscientific views come to prime over science and further enhance the various types of shades that have led to an overall opaque situation in the Middle East.'
Dr Bakhtiari wrote this in the context of a discussion in which he estimated total oil reserves in the Middle Eastern group of major oil-producing nations (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) as about half, or even less, than what the respective national governments claim.
Dr Bakhtiari noted in the article that:
'As for Iran, the usually accepted official 132 billion barrels is almost 100 billion barrels over any realistic assay. If the higher figure was for real, its oil industry would not be struggling day in and day out to keep output at between 3.0-3.5 million barrels per day (inclusive of Persian Gulf offshore).'
Coming from a former senior official of NIOC, this is an utterly astonishing comment with immense implications. It may explain much about the current Iranian government's view of its options for setting future industrial, economic, political, and military policy, although Dr Bakhtiari certainly did not say this, and I do not want to put words in his mouth.
In February 2006, Dr Bakhtiari further summarized his thinking on the subject of oil reserve estimates as follows:
'Notwithstanding the importance of conventional oil reserves, their days might now be numbered (both in the Middle East and elsewhere).
'Oil reserve estimates were useful in the era before 'Peak Oil.' But in the aftermath of the mighty Peak (as, for example, in the present 'T1'
period), they tend to become stale and rather useless, as field-by-field analysis and prediction takes over (e.g., Ghawar, Cantarell).
'So it will not be long now before we will have to say goodbye to all these mesmerizing oil reserve figures and dump the whole reserves file into the all-encompassing 'dustbin of history."
In another recent statement, Dr Bakhtiari has said this:
'The decline of global oil production seems now irreversible. It is bound to occur over a number of transitions, the first of which I have called T1, which has just begun in 2006. T1 has a very benign gradient of decline, and it will take months before one notices it at all. But T2 will be far steeper…My World Oil Production Capacity model has predicted that over the next 14 years, present global production of 81 million barrels per day will decrease by roughly 32%, down to around 55 million barrels per day by the year 2020.
'Thus, in the face of Peak Oil and its multiple consequences, which are bound to impact upon almost all aspects of our human standards of life, it seems imperative to get prepared to face all the inevitable shock waves resulting from that. Preparation should be carried out on individual, familial, societal, and national levels as soon as possible. Every preparative step taken today will prove far cheaper than any step taken tomorrow.'
In his message to me, Dr Bakhtiari stated that the 'gradation in decline (between T1, T2, T3, and T4) is a genuine blessing for those having to cope and adapt.' Indeed, it is a blessing, but only if informed people and the industrial and political policymakers of the world will actually take Peak Oil as a serious matter and set policy accordingly.
In this regard, when it comes to his efforts in explaining Peak Oil to a worldwide audience, Dr Bakhtiari is a prophet. He is both predicting something, and giving a 14-year time frame for its occurrence. Thus his efforts, his writings, and his work embody the old saying that 'Time takes no holiday.' Simply allow me to end by expressing my deepest thanks to Dr Bakhtiari for sharing his thoughts with me, and recalling the words of Dante Alighieri, who wrote in Purgatorio, Canto III, 'It is the wisest who grieve most at the loss of time.'
By Byron W. King for The Daily Reckoning. You can read more from Byron and many others at www.dailyreckoning.co.uk


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