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Musings from Ciarán Cuffe, Green Party campaigner and Dublin candidate for the 2019 European Elections
12 November, 2009
Shenanigans in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown
Six months after the Green Councillors lost their seats on Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council the Fine Gael councillors are back to their old tricks. They're rezoning 30 acres of land of high amenity lands at Fernhill beside Three Rock Mountain for 660 houses. My view is that we've more than enough land zoning for housing already. Councillor-led rezoning became a debased currency a long time ago in Ireland.
You can get a good feel for what they're up to if you go to the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council website. Click on 'Councillors', and then on 'Council Business'. If the 4th November 2009 link is still up there you can delve into the belly of the beast and determine for yourself whether you approve of the motions that the councillors have submitted. Motion number 221 is signed by two Fine Gael councillors and allows for the rezoning of lands adjacent to Fernhill Gardens at Stepaside. They're currently zoned for amenity and agriculture, and the Fine Gael councillors want to change that to residential. Mind you, Minister Martin Cullen said in a submission that he supported an arts cultural and heritage amenity facility there, but I'm not sure about his views on the rezoning itself though Cllr. Jim O'Leary feels that he's supporting it. If you go this page, click 'register' then search for 'd1393' in the search box here you'll find Cullen's submission.
Further down the road in Kilternan Councillor Tom Joyce from Fine Gael also wants to rezone twenty acres of lands at Droimsi from agriculture to residential, and I hear on the grapevine that at least one former senior Fine Gael figure is lobbying hard on these issues. Cllr. Joyce is also busy removing proposed rights of way for walkers from the Plan.
Not that Fianna Fáil councillors are above reproach either. While FG are trying to up the amounts of retail floor space in some shopping centres, FF are doing itelsewhere. Even independent Councillor Gearoid O'Keefe is pushing for the expansion of retail uses at Carrickmines, off the M50.
Meanwhile at last Wednesday's Special meeting of the Council to discuss the County Plan Cllr. Barry Saul from Fine Gael was calling the Sutton to Sandycove cycleway a 'sop to the Greens' and a waste of money, and Cllr. Richard Boyd Barrett voted against the proposal.
There were 269 submissions that referenced rezoning, and in the 433 motions from councillors that are tabled on the County Council agenda rezoning is mentioned dozens of times.
Everyone is pushing for the expansion of shopping centres in what they believe will create much-needed jobs, but there is little realisation that expanding the floor are devoted to shopping
does not in itself create sustainable jobs
I suspect if some councillors were to get their way it would be a recipe for suburban sprawl from the Three Rock mountain to Dublin Bay. In one sense it is an ironic reworking of the Council's motto "ó chuan go sliabh- from the mountains to the sea". Sprawl is bad for business, bad for job creation, and bad for the planet. We'd be better off building mixed-use well-planned walkable communities. My fear is that many of the Councillors don't realise that their actions will increase car dependency and leave families a long walk away away from public transport connections. It will also hasten the decline of established retail centres such as the town of Dún Laoghaire.
The Labour Party has taken a much more considered approach to the County Plan. Cllr. Niamh Breathnach and Cllr. Dennis O'Callaghan come out of this as well, as does Cllr. Aidan Culhane who is going down the path that I took fifteen years ago- he's studying for a masters in urban and regional planning at UCD while attending to his duties as a councillor.
Look, I believe that many of the councillors proposing rezoning motions believe that they are doing so for the greater good of the County, but I just wish they had a wider understanding of the principles of 'proper planning and sustainable development'. There's a series of lenghty Council meetings scheduled for the week starting 16th November 2009. We'll see what emerges.
Maybe we should borrow an idea from the UK where the Royal Town Planning Institutes runs a Summer School for county councillors that is held back-to-back with the annual conference for professional planners. I suspect both groups could learn a lot from each other.
4 comments:
Good point on education, you wouldn't let an unqualified architect design a building, why should an unqualified councillor make a planning decision
- 14 November, 2009 10:08
- Alice Charles said...
This doesn't surprise me. However, the County Manager can intervene based on the precedent of the Adare case and of course failing that the Minister.
- 14 November, 2009 11:04
- Ciaran Daly said...
Very interesting post, perhaps you could produce more updates along these lines. I suppose the only consolation is that rezoned land in such far off locations will unlikely to be developed for 20 years given the chronic state of the economy and property market.
It is not sufficient to provide for mixed use higher density zonings in good urban locations, there must be real and meaningful restrictions on development outside such locations - by law.
I would like to strongly object to your support of the NAMA bill yet again. Ironically your vote on this will have done more than any other measure to affect future land use planning in Ireland. It is a tragedy for the country and its economy.
- 14 November, 2009 13:10
- Mic Mac said...
"Not that Fianna Fáil councillors are above reproach either." Very good, very funny. Droll.
This sort of dry wit helps. Keep the one-liners coming!
- 16 November, 2009 15:10


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Cost cutting is an ongoing requirement for organizations, yet keeping service levels high while cutting costs is a challenge. One way to approach this is by utilizing a Shared Services model for various functions. Shared Services is a model wherein support for functions like IT, HR, Accounting, etc. is shared across multiple organizations — sharing the overhead. Leaders of today are recognizing that success in the digital era requires rethinking existing operational models to take advantage of innovation and drive value.
What is a Shared Service
A Shared Services team or department can reduce overhead expenses while increasing quality of services. In the case of internally consolidated services, like a municipality might do, the best procedures and the brightest employees can be focused on these shared functions, freeing up other resources for larger tasks. In some cases, it may mean an overall reduction in the number of people required to support a particular function. In other cases, it may mean better quality of service. Instead of each department having to support their own IT infrastructure and staff, in a Shared Services model, the departments interface more as a client obtaining services from the services provider. In this case, they can obtain what they need, without having the departmental overhead of supporting the entire infrastructure.
Way back in 2011, IBM Global Process Services detailed this shift in their white paper, Today's shared services operating models: The engine behind enterprise transformation. In the white paper, they detail that the "integrated" shared services model creates an "entirely new joint 'hybrid' organization (encompassing internal and external provider shared services scope) led by a newly created C-level executive." Taking service delivery to the next level and enabling a stronger growth strategy at a pace that is right for each business. Shared Services sets the stage to optimize and better leverage business insights, enabling enhanced decision making and making the entire business smarter and more resilient.
Benefits of Shared Service
One of the real value propositions coming to fruition with this model is that a company or municipality can utilize the services as much or as little as they need, with ready access to experienced and expert staff whenever needed. This avoids either having to maintain the expertise in-house full time or risking sub-par service being provided by someone that only touches on the subject occasionally. In today's regulatory and legal world, it is good to have experts in roles dealing with IT and HR, but hiring and sustaining that expertise is expensive. If you do not have sufficient volume to warrant a full-time staff in these areas, Shared Services can be a good solution.
Fundamentally, consolidating back office functions to a shared services model within an organizational structure like a municipality is a good way to improve quality and control costs. Small private sector companies do this through functional services providers as a means to obtain required expertise without the overhead of maintaining in-house support for all functions.
From the same IBM white paper: "A shared services model is a global, centralized organization built on the principles of consolidated technologies, embedded analytics, end-to-end process optimization, global process ownership and global integration." As more and more enterprises tackle this model and the value of services sky rockets, shared services may be joining your organization in the very near future.
About Oz Merchant
Read more articles by Oz

subset: commoncrawl


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Never tried stitch markers? You don't know what you are missing. My stitch markers are snag free and
easy to use. Just slide them on and off your knitting needles as needed it's that easy! Do more knitting and less frogging because stitch markers help you make less mistakes.
- Each set includes 8 matching stitch markers and 1 unique lead marker.
- YOU CHOOSE THE SIZE THAT WORKS FOR YOU! (see options) If purchasing as a gift, sizes medium or large are the most commonly used. Please contact me if you need a recommendation
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- Made using solid rings with NO opening to catch on yarn. Beads are attached with a hand done wire wrapping technique to make the marker snag free.
QUESTIONS AND SPECIAL REQUESTS ARE WELCOME! I love working with my customers to create custom orders!
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ORDERS PROCESS AND SHIP IN 1-5 BUSINESS DAYS. Large orders could take up to 7 days to process. This is determined by the size and volume of orders being placed at the time of your purchase. All items are handmade as purchased.
© COPYRIGHT NOTE: All of my designs, photos and descriptions are under copyright. They may not be copied, duplicated, reproduced or republished without permission. All rights are reserved


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To schedule an appointment for your floral consultation with Exquisite Designs, call our studio at (773) 975-3333 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
So that we can be prepared for your upcoming floral consultation, fill out the form below with as much information as you have available prior to our meeting.
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ALDO, BCBGirls, Fashion, G by Guess, Jessica Simpson, Lulu*s, Michael Antonio, Naughty Monkey, Shoedazzle, Spring, Steve Madden, Summer, Wedges
Warm weather is here and your toes want to come out to play so store away those boots and slip into some wedges. I'm partial to wedges, though they are probably the most comfortable type of heeled shoe to wear. Wedges fall closely to platforms so I despise chunky wedges! God's gift to me was to be a tall 5′ footer (yes, that's 5'0″ no shorter or taller), so platform type wedges tend to make the leg look shorter, not longer and not mention that it gives you the "I'm trying too hard to be tall" look.
Through the years I've chosen wedges wisely. No chunky platform. No flat platform wedges (they look like a flip-flop with soles 3 inches or more thick). No chunky platform with skinny (skin piercing) straps (they just not proportioned!). Lastly, no tie-around straps wrapping up my leg. I'm not saying you can't wear them but be cautious of how wedges make your entire silhouette looks. Flaunt it if you can rock it!
Below are some of my favorites and some already have made it into my closet. I've chosen most of these wedges because their ankle straps are thin so it doesn't distract the lines from foot to shin to calf. All these wedges have a thicker heel and thinner toe platform, which I prefer since it clearly shows that they are wedges but not a chunky platform. Everyone has their preferences so hope you find your perfect wedge!
See you on Life's Runway,
1) Michael Antonio, Goldy, $49.00 2) G by Guess, Lasino, $69.00 3) Naughty Monkey, Fixation, $89.00 4) Steven Madden, Manngo, $80.00 5) BCBGirls, Frankee-Mint Green, $99.99 6) Jessica Simpson, Marcos Bermuda Color Block Platform Wedges, $109.00 7) Aldo, Bennick, $80.00 8) Aldo, Munley, $54.98 9) Shoedazzle, Nicci, $39.99 10) Shoedazzle, Mayumi, $39.99


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Niveshak is official Finance magazine of IIM(Indian Institute of Management), Shillong.
Click on the magazine to open it in Fullscreen mode.
Current Issue(June 2013 Edition)*
About Niveshak
Launched on 15th August 2008, Niveshak is the monthly finance magazine released by IIM Shillong. Realizing the potential that the idea carries, and the need of such magazine in the business world, the magazine was opened to all the B-school students with free subscription. Its widely circulated in top B-schools of India, and features Best article of month and monthly quizzes with cash prizes
Previous Niveshak Issues can be accessed from the official Niveshak Website : www.iims-niveshak.com
If you represent a B-School and want to see your magazine on mbaskool.com, mail us at
*MBASkool has officially taken permission from every B-School for their magazine, who are the owners of this magazine. Further use of this magazine can be done only after their permission.


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The Gospel of Trees: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Not Currently On Our Shelves. Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
In this compelling, beautiful memoir, award-winning writer Apricot Irving recounts her childhood as a missionary's daughter in Haiti during a time of upheaval—both in the country and in her home.
Apricot Irving grew up as a missionary's daughter in Haiti—a country easy to sensationalize but difficult to understand. Her father was an agronomist, a man who hiked alone into the hills with a macouti of seeds to preach the gospel of trees in a deforested but resilient country. Her mother and sisters, meanwhile, spent most of their days in the confines of the hospital compound they called home. As a child, this felt like paradise to Irving; as a teenager, the same setting felt like a prison. Outside of the walls of the missionary enclave, Haiti was a tumult of bugle-call bus horns and bicycles that jangled over hard-packed dirt, the clamor of chickens and cicadas, the sudden, insistent clatter of rain as it hammered across tin roofs and the swell of voices running ahead of the storm.
As she emerges into womanhood, an already confusing process made all the more complicated by Christianity's demands, Irving struggles to understand her father's choices. His unswerving commitment to his mission, and the anger and despair that followed failed enterprises, threatened to splinter his family.
Beautiful, poignant, and explosive, The Gospel of Trees is the story of a family crushed by ideals, and restored to kindness by honesty. Told against the backdrop of Haiti's long history of intervention—often unwelcome—it grapples with the complicated legacy of those who wish to improve the world. Drawing from family letters, cassette tapes, journals, and interviews, it is an exploration of missionary culpability and idealism, told from within.
About the Author
Apricot Anderson Irving is currently based in the woods outside Portland, Oregon, but has lived in Haiti, Indonesia, and the UK. Her missionary parents moved to Haiti when she was six years old; she left at the age of fifteen. She returned to Haiti in the spring of 2010 to cover the earthquake for the radio program This American Life. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship. Her renowned oral history project, BoiseVoices.com, was a collaboration between youth and elders to record the stories of a neighborhood in the midst of gentrification. She loves to garden, and on rare occasions she can be persuaded to belt out Irish folk songs in bars. The Gospel of Trees is her first book.
Praise For…
"Finely crafted...Irving moves seamlessly between the wide-eyed perspective of the child and the critical gaze of the adult, creating a tale as beautiful as it is discomfiting."
"The daughter of a dedicated missionary, Irving grew up in Haiti, where she learned both the power and the risks of working to improve the world--and the toll it can take on a family. An eye-opening memoir."
"Apricot Irving's honest memoir highlights the good, the bad and the ugly of missionary life, challenging traditional "white savior" narratives."
"Lush, emotional debut...A beautiful memoir that shows how a family altered by its own ambitious philanthropy might ultimately find hope in their faith and love for each other, and for Haiti."
"With insight and admirable even-handedness, Irving shows the complex forces at play in both the story of Haiti's cycle of poverty and the more personal dynamics at play in her family as they struggle mightily to do God's work."
"Provide[s] a useful view of the inherent ethical and moral ambiguities of well-meaning but sometimes ineffective charitable interventions in Haiti."
"A timely and often insightful perspective on modern-day Haiti."
"Saving souls and saving Haiti, one tree at a time: this is the charge of the Anderson family when it arrives in Haiti in 1981. They are "the sent ones," Baptist missionaries led by a workaholic agronomist father who walks the hills declaiming Bible verses about trees in Haitian Kreyol. If a memoir's worth lies in the truths it's willing to tell, then The Gospel of Trees is the most worthwhile of memoirs, an unflinching and gorgeously written account of a young girl's coming of age in a difficult family, in one of the world's most difficult places. How do we survive our own lives? "Such endeavors only look easy from a distance," writes Apricot Irving, née Anderson, apropos of planting trees, though of course it's about so much more than those trees. Her story hits hard, and sticks, as only the very best stories do."
— Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
"An engaging, detailed, nuanced and penetrating look at the seldom-studied effects of the do-gooders on the countries, communities, families they seek to improve. Neither sugar-coated, nor cynical, Apricot Irving has mastered the most difficult aspect of this kind of memoir: the just-right tone of compassion and hard-earned hope. Hers is a valuable lived experience which she reports in lucid and lively writing. We learn not just about Haiti, but about families, about the human heart. A family memoir, a coming of age story, an exploration of a country greatly loved and little understood. A cautionary tale for all those setting out to do good, may this gospel be read as the good news it is—a moral compass and a must read for all of us who struggle with how to create a better world."
— Julia Alvarez, author of numerous novels, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Saving the World, as well as the memoir, A Wedding in Haiti
"A beautiful exploration of hope and hubris. Irving shows us the many entanglements among our relationships with the land, other cultures, and the mysteries of our own families."
— David George Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Forest Unseen
"The Gospel of Trees is rich with such passionate insights; also, it's a rare thing to find an insider account of missionary life not blunted by conventional piety. Very particularly sensitive to Haiti, this book is an object lesson for anyone wanting to do good in the world: forget about moving that mountain of sand with your tweezers; you will (as the old Vodou song has it) be carrying water with a spoon."
— Madison Smartt Bell, award-winning author of All Soul's Rising


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Foodservice is a good business
Good business attracts competition.
Foodservice units in Canada grew 7.9% in the last three years!
That $5B in sales from new entrants alone…. and another $1.5B in new jobs payroll.
Low unemployment is good
Where there is employment there are restaurants; Canada's unemployment rate is falling.
What is good for sales makes it harder to keep talent.
Well trained employees who stick around can be paid more than ones that run for the next 25 cents an hour.
Innovation, quality and convenience are a winning formula
Foodservice operators have regained market share they lost to grocery stores since 2006.
This despite most foodservice customers outside of BC and Alberta paying a sales tax on their food.
Raising the bar on Innovation, quality and convenience have been a big part of the "return of restaurants."
For a good location follow the money
Households are 70% of all foodservice sales, tourists and business spend are the rest and can make or break a restaurant location.
An old formula for locating a restaurant is close to dinner guests at home while also being near a good business lunch.
Tourists are unique; where location can often be the biggest driver for these guest.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are a unique opportunity
While it is tough in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the two economies are still the largest per capita in the country.
Not surprisingly these two provinces have the highest average unit sales for foodservice in the country.
Busy operators in these markets can use this period to gain advantage over operators who take a cost cutting view on the world.
Hungry for more?
Restaurants Canada's Foodservice Facts 2017 delves into these insights and more. Watch for the full report, coming soon! Sign up here and we'll notify you once it's released!


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Latest insights from our experts
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Alternatively you can call us on 01392 207020.


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When I saw my cardiologist yesterday. He explained that they are not over keen on doing any more ablations because of the scar tissue and my lung condition. He stated that any other procedure could be more dangerous than the possible benefit I would get if it worked.
I ended up been told leave the room and wait for the head man to come and see me. What was said to me then was my best options are increase my tablets. (not keen as my fingers went blue last time) Or have a pacemaker fitted wait 6 months and then have my sinus node removed which will make me pacemaker dependant. This will give me a regular pulse but will not cure the wobbles.
However he closed this with I must get more advice and help with my lungs as they have noticed a deterioration from when they had to give me O2 while flat a few months back when they did the EP.
Seeing my doctor about my lungs next week. I have found out I was working with asbestos for 15 years so might get some sort of reaction to look further
Do I wait and hope for the wonder pill or go for machine reliance?


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By Rich Johnston and Hannah Means-Shannon
In case you haven't noticed, this is the first year in which Bleeding Cool has done "best of" lists, and there are many reasons for that. In the past, we've rightly acknowledged that to single out only a few comics for praise is to exclude others and with comics expanding into new genres every year, if not every month, it seems increasingly limiting to stand in judgment by using ranking systems. So why do it? Because we, as readers, make choices every day about what comics to buy and read in our limited amounts of free time, and to make recommendations to others is part and parcel of comics culture.
In fact, we rely on it. And because those who make comics thrive on observing innovation and draw inspiration from creative ingenuity. In case readers and creators somehow haven't noticed the strength of these comics, we have selected some we most recommend from 2013. To do this, we limited ourselves here to comics that have appeared in print single-issue form, whether in mini-series or ongoing series format, though they are also available digitally in the same creative units. These are Bleeding Cool's 11 best comics of 2013:
11. Sex Criminals, from Image Comics, written by Matt Fraction, with art by Chip Zdarsky
Generating buzz isn't enough to make a comic one of the top comics of the year, and though Sex Criminals certainly has done that with its semi-explicit depictions of sex and sexual themes like masturbation, there are three things that particularly make it a stand-out of 2013: Matt Fraction's relentlessly unpredictable and believable dialogue, often demystifying sex and one's private thoughts about sex, Chip Zdarsky's unique and unabashed indie style of linework and use of contrasting sharp and "fuzzy" definition, and the bold, even trend-setting cover art on the book. Some comics change the landscape of comics, and this book stands a good chance of doing that. It's like Sex Criminals tackled the elephant in the room and made it a showpiece, sexuality as a major part of human life rather than just a narrative ornament, and even managed to turn it into the focus of a hero story of sorts.
10. Buzzkill, from Dark Horse Comics, written by Donny Cates and Mark Reznicek, with art by Geoff Shaw and colors by Lauren Affe
Buzzkill is another comic that changes the conversation in comics and about comics without becoming a thinly disguised social treatise. In fact, it's hard to even type the phrase "social treatise" in connection with a comic that's so full of action, pulpy comic tradition, and weird science fiction elements. The fact that the series starts off handling the heavy themes of addiction and maintains them throughout while also lacing in equally dark themes of abusive relationships is fairly mind-boggling, and it couldn't succeed in its strange journey without the rabidly off-beat dialogue crafted by Cates and Reznicek and the rawly emotive, and at times even fragile linework that's setting Shaw apart as a comic artist to watch carefully in 2014. Sometimes a book seems to contain echoes of things to come for the creators involved, and all the parties on this comic have established the kind of innovation they are capable of. But read Buzzkill for the experience, always a page-turner, and splash around in Lauren Affe's intuitive and zany color-schemes.
9. The Fox, from Red Circle Comics, a division of Archie Comics, written by Mark Waid and Dean Haspiel, with art by Dean Haspiel
I don't think that anyone could have predicted that Red Circle Comics, and Archie Comics in general would have become the breakaway trendsetters of New York Comic Con in 2013, though those who were hearing rumors about The Fox and keeping their eye out for other Archie developments might have hoped, if not counted on that kind of sudden confluence of new approaches. The Fox is here in our "best of" list not because it sold out in its first issue very rapidly, nor because it looks so radically different from any other comic on the shelves this autumn, but because it represents something very rare in mainstream comics: a company giving what amounts to free reign to a strange idea passionately believed in by a creative team. A Silver Age hero revamped and given the energy rarely evidenced in "retro" properties that are often handled a little too sentimentally, the Fox combines many of the elements of a classic hero, but he faces a post-modern, often crippling rejection of a hero role. All this is handled lightly in Haspiel's non-stop motion style, making the book simply a pleasure to look at. And the storyline is blissfully unencumbered by that bane of resurrected properties: heavy self-awareness of its own place in comics history. For that reason, each panel of the book feels fresh and new. The colors buck the trend, too, and aren't even self-conscious enough to be called "hipster". They are a return to the sensibilities of Pop Art at its height and a celebration of the role of tone and hue as a key part of comic storytelling.
8. Grindhouse: Doors Open At Midnight, from Dark Horse Comics, written by Alex de Campi, with art by Chris Peterson, and Simon Fraser (with more artists to follow), colors by Nolan Woodward on issues #1 and #2, and cover art by Francesco Francavilla
This book has all the elements of a fabulously good terrible idea. The risks it takes in terms of reader reception are simply massive, and that makes its success that much more of a spectacle, in keeping with the spectacle-driven intentions of the series. Jumping between grindhouse cinema genres every two issues, the first two arcs, "Bee Vixens from Mars" and "Prisonship Antares" are now complete and confirm that the mini-arcs have a governing unity in their punchy attitude and brash handling of iconic sexual tropes while tackling science-fiction head-on. But as Bleeding Cool has suggested in the past, there's more to Grindhouse than meets the eye for the savvy reader–by bringing in elements of exploitation film, the comic says a lot about exploitation themes in comics and turns gender power-structures into stripped down basics in the hands of writer Alex de Campi. She divests these elements of domination and fear of the "other" of their taboo status and reinvents them as gender-universal tools of storytelling while still celebrating the kitsch and wacky playful attitudes of the grindhouse tradition. The result is an explosive comic, and one that will leave its mark as well as posing questions for the bolder members of the comics community to continue answering in 2o14 and beyond.
7. Verity Fair from idcm, written by Terry Wiley with art by Terry Wiley, colors by Terry Wiley, cover by Terry Wiley, everything by Terry Wiley.
It remains the comic book that simply not enough people have heard of. Hopefully its inclusion on the Sequential App might improve that, but Terry Wiley's continuance of his Sleaze Castle opus in a series that needs no previous knowledge whatsoever as we explore the life of an alcoholic semi-actress trying to get her life together, putting on a brave front, but falling apart in the small moments of the night, is clever, funny and looks drop dead gorgeous, as if Jeff Smith and Frank Quitely had bred, in terms of how a character appears on the page. This year has seen the character almost grow, trying to get her taxes, her acting career, her life sorted – but not quite. And with each issue, drawing from Love And Rockets, Tintin, Cerebus and Posy Simmonds, you just fall further in love with her. This is what Bridget Jones should have been and never was.
6. Superior Spider-Man, from Marvel Comics, written by Dan Slott, with art by Ryan Stegman
Love it or hate it, Superior Spider-Man has continued to be one of the most ground-breaking mainstream hero comics of 2013. Other comics have toyed with the superhero-supervillain reversal in the past, but none have pursued it so relentlessly into emotion-rending territory as this wholesale relocation of a villain's mind into a hero's life. It's the definitive bull in a china shop scenario as Doc Ock toys with the persuasive power of environment over personality, and swings between the allure of being beloved and the desire for asserting the power that will make him either a hero or a villain. And for poor Peter Parker, consistently rendered powerless with only his quips for company, things become more tragic than even a Spider-Man story usually shoulders. What started as an interesting idea that engages with some of the deeply-rooted flaws in superhero tradition turns into a marathon interrogation of superhero comics in Superior Spider-Man, all while maintaining a wide cast of characters and reminding us consistently of the fragility of Spider-Man's world. Still surprising this far along in the series is the fact that a book like this happened at all, since it chips away and tinkers with the structure of the very long-lived superhero properties that support the Big Two.
5. Letter 44, from Oni Press, written by Charles Soule, with art by Alberto Jimenez Albuquerque and colors by Guy Major
The debut of the year, Charles Soule and Raphael Alburquerque delivering a stunning bolt from the blue in terms somewhere between The West Wing and 2001: A Space Odyssey. A defense for the actions of President Bush (if this kind of thing was actually going on), its a procedural drama for First Contact that eschews the formulaic and gives us the petty, pragmatic detail on what such an event might involve. It grabs the reader and places them in the front seat that complicitly involves them in making the same choices that the new President has to.
And you do. Charles Soule is writing a lot of books right now. This is, by far, his best.
4. The Wake, from Vertigo, a division of DC Comics, written by Scott Snyder, with art by Sean Murphy
The Wake follows its own star as a series, shuffling aside expectations and even the burdens of science-fiction and horror traditions in comics, and for that reason it swims rather than sinks. Neither Scott Snyder nor Sean Murphy, for all their massive successes as comics creators in other works really gave any preliminary signs that they were capable of producing something so far outside of their previous oeuvres, making the series that much more remarkable. That is, in fact, the definition of a phenomenon, however, The Wake has proven that it's in it for the long haul. Rather than relying on the simple sticking power of a series of unusual ideas about the origin of humanity and the menaces of a deep-sea race of beings, and encouraging the suspense that Murphy is more than capable of generating in his panel layouts, The Wake embraces the long game in comics and in that way actually resists the overly-decompressed graphic novel collection planning typical these days. Though planning has certainly gone into the series, more than readers at first realize, the comic flows like a long-running series that focuses on texture and detail issue by issue. The Wake is a strange beast, and one that refuses to give up the best features of serialized comic storytelling or the certainty that, all told, it will complete one narrative. And it does all that while keeping you on the edge of your seat. Let's hope Snyder and Murphy remember that trusting their instincts for the weird and profound can yield great things in future projects.
3. Hellboy in Hell, from Dark Horse Comics, written by Mike Mignola, with art by Mike Mignola and colors by Dave Stewart
Hellboy has, over time, become a grand old man of comics, which is perhaps as much a surprise to his creator Mike Mignola as it would be to the character himself. But what do you do when you've created, and allowed others to help create, a universe so complex that its inner workings become as much a part of the plot as the character-driven storyline a particular comics universe is known for? You take it all away, and you return your central character to a man vs. nature scenario. In this case, of course, it's demon vs. Hell as befits the nature of the being and his own natural environment. The Hellboy in Hell storyline continues to be both episodic in fan-delighting detail and epic in hero-journey scale that for many readers, they might be content for it to simply go on forever. That is a feat rarely accomplished in comics, and owes as much to Mignola's hard-headed obsession with staying true to character as his relentless craftsmanship of haunting panels capable of standing alone as examples of a high-point in comic art. Hellboy in Hell, in particular, is an arc where nothing particular happens and yet everything happens, trapped somewhere in Hellboy's patchy memory of dark deeds. For a series that has resisted psychological revelations about the titular character, Hellboy in Hell suggests the fragmentation of a hero's psyche, a loss of identity, and yet refuses to allow the reader to "abandon all hope". For a comic with an often meandering pace, it continues to await rather patiently other works that might attempt to catch up to all its accomplishments.
2. Locke & Key, from IDW, written by Joe Hill, with art by Gabriel Rodriguez, colors by Jay Fotos, and letters by Robbie Robins
Locke & Key could easily rank in one of the best comics of the past five years, but since we're only working with 2013 here, that will have to be praise enough somehow. Like many of the comics in this list, it's the product of a strange confluence between the kind of stories a couple of supremely talented people are internally driven to tell. It's hard to imagine that Joe Hill would have produced such startling concepts in quite so flamboyant a fashion were he not egged on by Gabriel Rodriguez' upping the ante consistently on how to express supernatural themes visually and psychological realities in such sensory-engaging terms. It would be remiss not to include Jay Fotos color work on the series in this visionary company because the tone of the comic is so firmly established by the tension between a certain physicality in flesh-tones and the strangely blurred lines between the gradations of perception and reality. Fotos in many ways is the artist who makes us "believe" in the world of Locke & Key so firmly, though that's not to take away from the heights of imagination Rodriguez routinely reaches in each issue. Selecting the series as one of our top comics of 2013 is not a lament for its conclusion, but a reminder that a tightly conceived series that nevertheless allows room for its own growth in storytelling techniques can maintain massive readership over time. It's a testament to the strengths of the comic art form when it is handled in a way that includes the reader as a participating factor, reminding us that in many ways, comics are all about the experience of the page.
1. Afterlife with Archie, from Archie Comics, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, with art by Francesco Francavilla
Who would have thought there would be one, let alone two Archie books in the top eleven of the year? And this is written from the perspective of someone who actively dislikes standard Archie titles. But the complete reinvention of Riverdale as a teen horror is incredibly convincing as it takes America's favorite icons and transforms them into either zombies, or those who would kill their old zombied friends. Again, the reader, who may also regard them as friends, is complicit in that decision. Whether it's Sabrina The Teenage Witch getting hold of the Necronomicon, two established young girls of Riverdale expressing their love for one another, or the slow transformation of Archie into a man who has to do what must be done, this comic surprised everyone who came across it. For the better. I do hope other all-ages publishers take note…
Honorable mentions to Manifest Destiny, All New X-Men, Superman Unchained, Crossed: Wish You Were Here, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Thunder Brother: Soap Division, Demeter, Saga, Quantum and Woody, Umbral, Trillium, Federal Bureau of Physics, Sandman: Overture, and Coffin Hill.


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Leading Strategy Software Company Releases Breakthrough Agile Strategic Planning Tool
Breakthrough Agile Strategy Software
Highland, UT (PRWEB) April 22, 2013
Y-Change (http://www.y-change.com), a leader in real-time "Enterprise Strategy Management", has launched Y-Change 8.0. This release provides organizations with a real-time, agile platform for reporting and executing strategy, scorecards, and organization projects/tactics.
Study after study has demonstrated that even well-defined strategies are only understood and executed in organizations between 10-25% of the time. One barrier has been a lack of a real-time method for managers of an organization or chain of suppliers to view and update their strategic and operational plans, tactics and results.
For the past 10 years, Y-Change's enterprise strategy management (ESM) solution has helped leading organizations to overcome their "strategy gaps" by turning strategies into performance based results.
Their latest release allows an organization to not only integrate strategic and operational perspectives but also view this data in customizable reports, using visual dashboards and scorecards.
Their clients have easily configured the Y-Change platform to meet their specific requirements, including Agile planning, Hoshin Kanri, 6-Sigma, Lean and Balanced Scorecard methodologies.
ESM Standard Features Include:
The Strategy Manager
Solution enables organizations to integrate, align and manage all strategic, tactical and performance information. Organizations can support all strategy and initiative management processes, including Hoshin, OGSM, and VSE.
Each department or area can organize, manage and link their strategies, objectives, initiatives and tactics to all programs and projects throughout the organization.
Executives and managers can easily create and update dashboards and performance metrics, with simple double clicking to edit information, in accordance with company security procedures. Additional resources, including meetings, metrics, documents and action logs are easily available.
The Project and Portfolio Manager (PMO)
Executives and managers can select, plan, manage and track a portfolio's lifecycle from idea to execution. The ESM portfolio tracker allows individuals to setup and track the stages of a portfolio, as well as link and report on those selected projects in that portfolio.
An organization can easily view the metrics of their portfolio, as well as which objectives and initiatives they are supporting.
The ESM enables an organization to align, track, manage, and account for decentralized teams collaborating on a variety of programs with as much detail as required.
Many features such as Gantt charts, risks, deliverables, phase status, heat maps and custom dashboards allow for company wide visibility and expeditious reporting. Organizing projects around user specified project types allows for customization of information specific to the needs of each organization or project.
Whether one needs a simple project reporting tool, or a detailed phased based six- sigma/ product development management system involving customized charter elements, financial and metrics requirements, the ESM can do both.
Report Manager
Organizations can easily create, save and export unlimited cascading and filtered initiative and project reports and dashboards.
Results will flow from top management through the organization, showing the tactics, timelines, and action items.
There are unlimited reports, with customized filters generated with the report wizard.
Reports have on-line editing of the data, ideal for monthly or quarterly reviews and updates.
Dashboards can be easily created, saved, emailed and exported to one's favorite desktop application
About Y-Change
Y-Change was built on the premise that organizations will succeed best when their goals and objectives are aligned and tied directly to specific programs and projects.
Established in 2000, their online management tools have been designed to take advantage of the Internet, using original applications at the forefront of web-based technologies, creating the "edge" to succeed in today's volatile market. Learn more at Y-Change.com
Alan Leeds at email@example.com or 510-573-2205


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<myCurriculum type="pdf" ⁄>
In website design, there are an endless amount of possibilities, styles and techniques that can be used to make a beautiful design that flows with the content. One of these styles is an illustration-heavy layout, which can take a website to a whole new level. Illustrations are becoming more and more popular, and some designers are really pushing the limits with some beautiful ones.
Below you'll find 40 designs that feature skillful and beautiful illustrations, integrated properly to create a visually pleasing style.
este é só um excerto do artigo, para aceder ao artigo completo, clique no link em baixo:
this is just a small excerpt from the article, to access the full article please click in the link below:


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Audio Visual Services
With your meeting package, all of your basic meeting needs are included:
- LCD projection/screen
- Internet access
- Flip charts and markers
- Podiums
- Sound systems
- Dining Room Sound system upgraded in 2013, two microphones available, a lapel and a hand-held mic
- Angora Room Sound system upgraded in 2014 to allow up to four wireless microphones at one time
- The Angora Room can be split into two rooms with a portable wall, and each side of the room has its own sound system
- The Cathedral Room Sound system upgraded in 2014 to allow for up to 8 microphones to be used at one time
Before your event, communicate with speakers/presenters to confirm A/V needs. Plan for a minimum of one screen, flipchart(s), and LCD projector(s). Stanford Sierra does not provide laptops. Be sure to remind presenters to bring all necessary cords and adapters to connect their computer to A/V equipment. Stanford Sierra does have a supply of cords and adapters, but technology changes rapidly.
There is a digital sign in the Stanford Room/Lobby where you can post messages specific to your event. Please provide copy and images one week in advance of your meeting.


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Gardaí are appealing for information after thieves stole an entire ATM using a digger this morning.
Anyone who saw a white coloured lowloader drawing a Kamatsu digger near the Mountain road area of Tubbercurry and Lovers Lane between the hours of 6pm and 10pm on the 28th January 2014 is asked to come forward.
Also, anyone who may have seen a white Nissan vanette drawing a twin axle trailer in the Teeling Street area of Tubbercurry, between the hours of 4am and 6am on the 29th January 2014 should contact Ballymote Garda Station at 0719189500, any Garda Station, or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800-666-111.
Gardai are investigating after the Bank of Ireland ATM was nicked on Teeling St, Tubbercurry, Co Sligo at around 5.30am on Wednesday.
A mechanical digger made a hole in the wall of the bank and dug out the machine, which was then driven away on a trailer.
Gardai later recovered the ATM nearby and have sealed the scene of the crime off for an examination by forensic specialists.
The vanette, lowloader and digger were later found at Carrowneden, Coollaney, Co. Sligo.
A Bank of Ireland ATM was previously stolen using a digger in Tinahely, Co Wicklow in May 2011.


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Despite one of the longest recoveries in recent US history, hiring remains subdued and the unemployment rate decreases mainly as a result of falling labour force participation. Other advanced economies face similar difficulties, even though their recovery has been less dynamic. Currently more than 8.3% of workers are out of a job in advanced economies, and the unemployment rate is only slowly receding. In European countries, unemployment is even expected to reach its peak only later in 2014 before seeing some improvements. Clearly, low growth and the unresolved public and banking sector debt problems are largely responsible for this low employment growth. Recently, however, a new dimension has been added to low job creation rates in advanced economies: High and rising hiring uncertainty. Indeed, besides the weak overall outlook for growth, the uncertainty about new market opportunities for investment and difficulties to find job seekers with the right profile makes companies reluctant to advertise new vacancies and hire workers.
To measure the extent to which hiring uncertainty prevents companies from expanding their workforce, the ILO has developed an indicator which captures employers' assessment of the uncertainty of the labour market outlook when taking hiring decisions. The ILO hiring uncertainty index makes use of an economy-wide indicator of hiring intentions of the ManpowerGroup which is calculated from a survey of employers. The indicator measures hiring intentions and is calculated as the difference between the percentage of employers that expect an increase of employment in their establishment for the next quarter and the percentage of employers that expect a decrease.
Hiring uncertainty and unemployment
Hiring uncertainty and the unclear picture that firms have regarding their economic and the policy environment drives up unemployment over and above the effect of weak economic growth (see figure 1 below). Indeed, firms are not only concerned about the uncertainty regarding their potential new areas of growth but also about the general political environment that might affect the profitability of their investments. Both labour market and political uncertainty play an important role in explaining the strong and persistent uptick in unemployment rates in G7 countries. Moreover, it appears that changes in uncertainty precede changes in unemployment rates, indicating that additional information can be gained from such indicators to improve labour market forecasts.
What explains hiring uncertainty?
In order to better understand what is driving hiring uncertainty, several potential factors were regressed on the evolution of the ILO hiring uncertainty index in G7 countries. Given the high correlation shown above between policy uncertainty and hiring uncertainty, a first candidate was to look at the evolution of public debt in these countries. As can be seen in panel A of figure 2 below, this is indeed a significant factor to explain the evolution of firms' hiring uncertainty. In periods where countries are confronted with high levels of public debt, the hiring uncertainty of firms is more than 1 percentage point higher than in periods where it is low. In addition, as panel B demonstrates, standard economic factors also enter the hiring uncertainty. Indeed, when using unit labour costs as an indicator for firms' competitiveness, it can be shown that higher levels of unit labour costs (i.e. lower levels of competitiveness) are correlated with higher levels of uncertainty, an intuitive result. In this case, the impact of changes in competitiveness on hiring uncertainty is even stronger, as firms face hiring uncertainty that is 2 percentage points higher when competitiveness is low in comparison to their competitors with high competitiveness.
In particular for Southern European countries, these two results suggest that a reduction in public debt and a reform agenda to strengthen competitiveness might push up hiring significantly to the extent that it reduces hiring uncertainty. Such a positive contribution to job creation might compensate for the otherwise deflationary effects that austerity policies and structural reforms have in the short run. Ideally, the effects will be strong enough to make up fully for the reduction in aggregate demand that these measures have already brought and could help to smooth the transition to an improved outlook for European labour markets.


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A San Diego mother who tortured her daughter with punches, kicks and insults for 17 months, until her blows killed the 9-year-old last year, was sent to prison Tuesday for a term of 15 years to life.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Eugenie Eyherabide sentenced Crystal Cardenas, 27, for the second-degree murder of Elizabeth Holloway.
Faced with a torrent of scorn and anger from family members in the downtown courtroom, Cardenas bowed her head and cried at times.
Elizabeth's father, Willie Holloway Jr., wiped tears from his eyes, looked at Cardenas and told her, "I don't know how you could do this to her. I just want justice. I'm going to leave it in God's hands."
He then turned and bolted from the room.
His father, Willie Holloway Sr., told the judge he felt partly to blame for not knowing what was happening to his granddaughter.
"Who would stoop that low to do that," he said.
An aunt, Angela Holloway, said that perhaps the family could have helped Elizabeth more, "but not one of us made her die."
Other family members sobbed as Eyherabide told them no one should have suffered as Elizabeth did.
"There was no one to blame except Cardenas," the judge said.
She said Cardenas will remain in prison a full 15 years, then it will be up to the state parole board whether she serves additional time.
Elizabeth had endured brutality at the hands of Cardenas and her boyfriend, Lorenzo Castillo, after going to live with them in September 2009, authorities said. She previously lived with her father's family.
Cardenas inflicted "slapping, punching, kicking, choking, stomping and actually burned her daughter," Deputy District Attorney Lindsey Krause told the judge. "Ms. Cardenas talked to her daughter like she was a piece of trash and discarded her like a piece of trash."
Cardenas, Castillo, Elizabeth and two younger siblings moved into a Mountain View apartment in January 2011. Castillo is Elizabeth's paternal uncle.
A few days after the move, Cardenas beat and kicked Elizabeth in the stomach. The child later told her sister, then age 7, that she thought she was going to die.
Elizabeth became increasingly ill, and at home on Jan. 17, stopped breathing. Cardenas carried her outside and screamed, and a neighbor began CPR on the child. Elizabeth died at a hospital.
Family said at the time of Elizabeth's death that she enjoyed listening to YouTube music videos and playing with her cousins.
A few weeks after the killing, Cardenas was arrested on charges of murder, torture and five counts of child abuse. She pleaded guilty on Aug. 21 to second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life.
Castillo was arrested on the same charges as Cardenas. He pleaded guilty in December to one count of felony child abuse resulting in great bodily injury. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Defense attorney Megan Marcotte said that as a child, Cardenas suffered physical and abuse from her own mother. Cardenas was pregnant when she was jailed last year. The baby and the other children are being cared for by Cardenas' brother, Marcotte said.


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Eye On Golf will begin 2007 with a couple of soul-baring revelations and one cautionary note to our faithful readers. The first pertains to our organization itself and the other with my own personal trials and tribulations as a golfer and a writer. (Unfortunately, this will not be autobiographical in nature.) Finally we'll examine the reading habits of our readers.
I would suspect that few of Eye On Golf's fans are aware of the size of our organization. In the past couple of years we have not only increased our journalistic duties, but also the size of our staff. We have added a photographer and an editor/copy editor. Despite this increase in staff, we have determined to remain in the same one story structure that we currently occupy. We have, however, elected to construct a small addition for much needed office space. Life is really good at Eye On Golf and we anticipate a terrific 2007.
On a personal note I have two items to share – actually they are New Year's resolutions. One is that I have increased determination to become more disciplined in my journalistic endeavors. That means I will attempt to write something of quality and quantity on our various projects every day – just like we're doing now. You, our faithful readers, will be the beneficiaries. Concerning my own personal golf game, I have decided to take one of my own suggestions to heart and vow to do something every day to improve my game. Even if it's just hitting a few putts or reading an instruction book for a while, that is valid. In golf every tiny step toward improvement is worthwhile.
Finally, I want to thank and encourage all of you who read the golf blogs. All of us who blog on this great game have no hidden agenda. We're just average golfers who love the game and want to give an honest opinion on the game. We are not influenced by advertisers or controlled by editors. It's our game and we want to keep it that way.
Have a happy and prosperous golfing 2007.
Monday, January 01, 2007
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PowerPay Merchant Account Agent Partners
PowerPay's deep expertise and wide range of services mean we can say "yes" to all kinds of customers, whether they need software, eCommerce solutions, card processing or merchant account services. Agent Partnerships offer generous revenue share programs and unique opportunities that benefit merchant accounts and agents alike.
As an Independent Sales Agent (ISA) of PowerPay, you'll enjoy:
- Competitive revenue share programs based on true net costs
- A comprehensive resource center for all training, pricing and service documents
- Dedicated, continuous support from PowerPay's in-house operations team, long after initial set-up and implementation
- Easy-to-complete application with digital signature, fast turn-around time and quick installation that make it easy for customers to get started quickly
You can be confident in PowerPay's winning combination of innovation, value, flexibility and responsiveness for serving merchant account and agent needs. In fact, PowerPay has the resources and technical capabilities to provide comprehensive payment solutions to almost any type of merchant in over 40 countries including the US and Canada.
Agents of PowerPay will enjoy a comprehensive product suite when selling payment solutions including:
- Point-of-sale (POS) software for credit, debit, gift/loyalty, ACH, recurring payments
- POS check conversion
- ACH processing
- VISA/MC branded gift and reloadable gift cards for financial institutions
- Merchant Funding
- QuickBooks Integration
PowerPay is a comprehensive, one-stop solution provider, thanks to our in-house merchant underwriting, risk management, customer service, technical support, information technology, product development, marketing and inside sales departments. Most importantly, we offer exceptional personal support to help our agent partners anticipate market trends, diversify their revenue streams and stay ahead of the competition.
Fill out the form below to request more information
about PowerPay Agent Partnerships
or call the Business Development team at 877.235.8803.
PowerPay is a registered MSP/ISO of: Deutsche Bank AG, New York, New York. ©2013 All Rights Reserved.


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If you have a class library project, it's a good idea to learn how to use NuGet to package the resulting assembly. It's a good idea even if you do not plan to share your assembly with the world, because you can still take advantage of the smarts built into NuGet to make managing your own packages easier. It's not very hard at all to get up and running with your first package, and then you can start customizing from there.
Once you start customizing, you begin to realize there are some scenarios where you might want some slightly different packages. For example, maybe you have some code contract assemblies, but you don't always want them included. Perhaps you have a library and a shell, and you want to give people the option of downloading just the library in one package, but to download both in another.
I have a scenario like that in at least a couple of my projects. I copied my nuspec file, customized it, added it back to my project then setup a script in the post-build event to create both packages. Worked great the first time I tried it, then failed when I tried to replicate the process in the next project. In the both projects, I kept the "easy" path (described below) which builds against the project file and finds the nuspec on its own. In both projects, I used the same scripts and naming conventions. Yet when it came time to create the project-based package the first project correctly selected the nuspec file that belongs with the project-based package, while the second project consistently selected the nuspec file that belongs with the customized package.
I searched around for an answer to how NuGet was making its decision, but could not find anything. Maybe I wasn't using the right search terms, but I decided it would be best to stop being lazy and just go read the source. I have written a few CLI applications over the years, but I have to say I have never designed one as nice as NuGet. Next time I have a CLI to write, I'm going to study NuGet more carefully before writing any code.
As you may have guessed by the title of this post, I did find the answer to my question. You can go read the source, or you can read this post.
(Go ahead and read the source anyway, it is great.)
The Easy Way
The easiest way to get your assembly into a NuGet package is to follow the outline here: Creating and Publishing a Package. First download NuGet.exe then skip down to the section under the heading "From a Project." Read the docs.nuget.org page for full details, but it boils down to this once you are used to the process:
- Open command window and navigate to your project folder. I will assume your project is called "foo.csproj"
- nuget spec
- notepad foo.nuspec
- Delete a few lines of junk from the nuspec then save.
- nuget pack foo.csproj –Prop Configuration=Release
Done, now you can copy your package to your local package source or upload it to NuGet.org.
The Question
Now you want to create a custom nuspec to go with the one that you generated with NuGet.exe. Let's call it "foo.custom.nuspec." Now when you run "nuget pack" the process may or may not pick the correct nuspec. If it picks the custom nuspec file, it will build the incorrect package. After all, the premise is that you want both the default package and a custom package. If NuGet does pick the wrong metadata file, how do you get it to change its mind? You could be like me and try a bunch of things.
- Maybe it's picking the newest file?
- Maybe it's picking the oldest?
- Shortest file name?
- Longest?
- Blah, blah blah, blah blah blah
Actually, I didn't try all of those. I did try a couple, and then I went to the code.
The Answer
Here is the code that selects the nuspec file in version 1.6:
private string GetNuspec() { return GetNuspecPaths().FirstOrDefault(File.Exists); } private IEnumerable<string> GetNuspecPaths() { // Check for a nuspec in the project file yield return GetContentOrNone(file => Path.GetExtension(file).Equals( Constants.ManifestExtension, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)); // Check for a nuspec named after the project yield return Path.Combine( _project.DirectoryPath, Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(_project.FullPath) + Constants.ManifestExtension); }
We can see right away that the search ends as soon as it finds an existing file that ends with "nuspec." We can also see that the process prefers to get that file from the project file before it goes looking in the project directory. The "GetContentOrNone" method looks at the project file and chooses files marked with build action "Content" or "None" and yields back the matches. That was the key for me to figuring out why NuGet picked out the wrong file.
I added my nuspec files to the project for convenience. In one project, I had decided from the start to keep both Nuspec files, so I left the original alone and created a copy, renamed and added the copy to the project. This caused the new file's ProjectItem to appear after the original in the csproj xml file.
In the other project, I had only thought that I wanted to customize the nuspec, then realized later that I wanted both. In the second project, I had customized the nuspec that was already there, then generated a new "default" nuspec, then added the new default to the project. This caused the default nuspec file's ProjectItem to appear after the customized nuspec in the project xml. The order of operations mattered. I opened the misbehaving csproj in a text editor, rearranged the order of the ProjectItems, and tried again, problem solved.
For easy reference, here is the search path NuGet takes to choosing the file when the pack target is a project file:
- Project Members are preferred
- NuGet checks items that have "None" or "Content" build actions for the .nuspec extension.
- The first of these found is used.
- If there are no nuspec files in the project, NuGet tries to find a .nuspec file in the project file's directory with the same name as the file.
Maybe this information is already out there somewhere, but if it is, I had a hard time finding it. If you have this problem, I hope this helps you.


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Privacy, Shipping And Delivery Information:
Information Collection and Use:
Spoil My Kitty is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. Spoil My Kitty collects information from our users at several different points on our website.
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. For instance, by setting a cookie on our site, the user would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If a user rejects the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. For example, the user will not be able to participate in any of our Sweepstakes, Contests or monthly Drawings that take place. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.
Log Files:
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Surveys & Contests:
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.
Notification of Changes:
If we decide to change our privacy policy, this document will be updated. Our current privacy policy can always be found on this page. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
Shipping And Delivery:
Questions Or Comments?


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Mardi Gras & Caribbean Gay Cruise 2020
February 21 – March 2, 2020
All Gay Cruises calendar
Gay Group Cruises calendar
About Pied Piper cruises
Pied Piper cruises FAQ
Pre & Post-Cruise
Ship info / Deck plans
Travel Insurance
Gay Destinations
All-Gay Resorts
All-Gay Tours
Ship Facts
Occupancy: 3046
Tonnage: 126,000
Length: 1047 feet
Beam: 123 feet
Draught: 27 feet
Cruisespeed: 24 knots
Inaugural Date: Oct 12, 2012
What's Included
Shipboard accommodations
Ocean transportation
Most meals
Some beverages
Most entertainment aboard the vessel
What's Not Included
Air transportation
Shore excursions
Specialty restaurant fees
Gratuities/service fees
Medical services
AquaSpa service, etc.
Mardi Gras & Caribbean Gay Group Cruise 2020
10 nights cruise, roundtrip from/to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
February 21 – March 2, 2020
Celebrity's Reflection
Experience the incredible excitement of New Orleans during the annual Mardi Gras! On this 10-night gay group cruise you'll set sail round-trip from the gay-friendly port of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to New Orleans and Caribbean. The highlight of our cruise will be three days in exciting New Orleans to celebrate the annual Mardi Gras! And we'll sail on the new and ultra-stylish ship, Celebrity Reflection!
Mardi Gras is the biggest celebration the city of New Orleans hosts every year. This magnificent, costumed, beaded and feathered party is laced with tradition and is all about having a good time!
All this is yours while you are pampered with gracious service, gourmet dining, and numerous venues for entertainment on the brand new and most up-to-date luxury cruise ship.
Celebrity Reflection
Relax like never before on board Celebrity Reflection, one of the newest ship in the Celebrity fleet, where a host of innovative features add up to a cruise experience you will not forget. Relax on real grass on the top deck, lie back in superb spa facilities and much more. You can have it all on Celebrity Reflection.
The newest ship which joined Celebrity Solstice® Class fleet, the chic Celebrity Reflection is the ultimate escape no matter how you enjoy spending your time. Experience some luxurious alone time at the Canyon Ranch SpaClub®, with treatments that will lead you to a state of complete tranquility. Up on top deck, The Alcoves sit on the real grass of the fantastic Lawn Club. These cabana-style hideaways are the perfect place to unwind with up to three friends, enjoying a picnic basket from one our speciality restaurants, entertainment on iPad® and optional spa treatments. If all the alfresco dining has you in a creative mood, head to the Art Studio where a trained artist is on hand to show you how to master new crafts, painting and more. When the day is done, pay a visit to the fascinating and fresh Molecular Bar for contemporary cocktails crafted using intriguing modern mixology methods.
At the exciting Lawn Club Grill our expert chefs are on hand to freshly cook a great range of seafood and meat over the specially-made grill right at the side of your table. If you fancy yourself as a Grill Master yourself, then you can take the reins and grill your food to perfection, with our friendly chefs at your side. Nearby is The Porch where you can gather for paninis, drinks and fresh, light bites throughout the day. You will find the interactive menu at speciality restaurant, Qsine®, is just as fun as eating the fascinating food itself. You will experience modern tastes and presentation amid inviting and exciting décor. For complete sophistication, head to Murano for a modern take on classic French cuisine. Chic and smart, the menu offers expertly-crafted classics and artisan cheeses.
Staterooms on board Celebrity Reflection are stylishly fitted with forward-thinking design in every aspect. The experience is indulgent from the moment you step on board and there are accommodation options to suit the tastes of every guest. A stateroom is more than just a room. It is a place where guests can lie back, relax and take in the unmistakable luxury of a Celebrity Cruises holiday. Most of our staterooms include a private balcony for a personal open space, while others offer a superb sea view. Unique to Celebrity Reflection, there's an extra beautifully crafted deck, dedicated to our 34 AquaClass® Suites complete with spacious 79 square foot balconies and stunning panoramic views. Select an Inside Stateroom for a cosy stay, or a luxurious Penthouse Suite for incredible views and European-style butler service. All staterooms include en-suite facilities and luxurious bed linen.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Gay friendly Fort Lauderdale lies along the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the New River, 25 miles north of Miami. Its warm tropical weather attracts many people throughout the year. For sun-worshippers, the city has six miles of beaches. There are also many recreational waterways with extensive boating facilities, access to every conceivable watersport, a variety of fascinating museums and trendy restaurants, and an array of entertainment venues.
Known as the "Venice of America," Fort Lauderdale has 165 miles of canals that wind through this waterfront city. With plenty of sun and sand, you'll find the beaches inviting and only minutes from elegant shops and championship golf courses. After dark, the town offers many five-star restaurants and exciting nightclubs, all set in a lush tropical environment.
People have been flocking to Fort Lauderdale's beaches for decades. And with good reason. Fort Lauderdale Beach is a two-mile strip of beautiful beach featuring the recently renovated Promenade, which offers all sorts of bars, restaurants and shops.
Take a 30-minute airboat ride across the Everglades, one of the most breathtaking natural areas in America. Discover a variety of fish and birds that inhabit the area, and perhaps see the most famous Everglades inhabitant - the alligator. Enjoy Sawgrass Reptile Exhibit after your ride and take the opportunity to touch or possibly hold a small alligator. Discover the replica of a Seminole Indian village. See tropical birds, rare snakes, and even the endangered Florida panther.
Take a narrated drive through Port Everglades over the Intercoastal Waterway and along the famous Fort Lauderdale Beach. Explore the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Las Olas Boulevard, the Riverwalk area and more. Stop and see Esplanade Park, the crossroads of the Center for Performing Arts and the Museum of Discovery and Science. Take a 90-minute Intercoastal Waterway cruise, and hear a lively commentary from the boat's captain on the history of the New River and Fort Lauderdale's historic sites.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Cruise to New Orleans, Louisiana, with Celebrity Cruises. The home of Mardi Gras, is also a beautiful, romantic and colorful city to explore. The food, the music, the sights are all unique and utterly charming.
New Orleans tempts visitors from all over the world with its legendary combination of cuisine, entertainment and southern architecture. It doesn't have to be Mardi Gras for New Orleans to throw a party, as you'll see with a visit to the French Quarter. Preservation Hall, perhaps Americas most historic music hall, offers an evening of Dixeland jazz, while the district's antique stores, Creole cuisine and colorful street life all make New Orleans a favorite stop.
You can't say you've been to New Orleans if you haven't been to the French Quarter. This charming area is the oldest part of the city and home to many of its most popular sights. In addition, as you walk through the city, you can visit one of over 45 New Orleans museums and discover a world of fine art, history, culture, Mardi Gras, military, and nature.
Explore lively Bourbon Street and experience New Orleans' Southern hospitality firsthand. Take in some of the best jazz music in the world, while enjoying the unique cuisine of New Orleans - crawdads, gumbo or jambalaya.
Head to the Garden District and check out some of the beautiful homes and architecture. Join a famous after-dark Vampire Walking Tour for a fun and thrilling night out.
George Town, Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman is one of a group of three magnificent tropical islands Christopher Columbus called "Las Tortugas" (the turtles) for the sea creatures he found in the ocean water. The designation did not endure, however, for on later maps the islands were labeled the Caimanau, the Carib Indian word for "crocodile." The name "Caimanas" refers inaccurately to the iguanas native to the islands, which were perhaps at one point mistaken for crocodiles. Among other attractions, visitors to the island will enjoy learning about the turtles, visiting the town of Hell, exploring Seven-Mile Beach and enjoying the undersea world.
Discovered by Columbus in 1503, these islands are a popular resort and British Crown Colony that still provides travelers with unspoiled beauty. As a destination known for its superb diving opportunites, the Caymans are home to unforgettable ship- wrecks, brilliantly colored fish and Caribbean-clear water.
Experience a once-in-a-lifetime adventure: snorkeling with stingrays at Stingray City Sandbar. These relatively tame creatures will swim right into your arms and eat from your hand. They have velvety soft skin and love to have their bellies rubbed. Despite their frightening name, they are very gentle and won't hurt you as long as you stay away from their tails.
The Blow Holes are an amazing natural wonder. These geologic formations on Grand Cayman provide a wonderful photo opportunity. Waves crash on to rocks, forcing water into caverns and sending geysers shooting up through the ironshore.
Visit Bodden Town, the Island's original south-shore capital. Here you'll find an old cemetery on the shore side of the road. Graves with A-frame structures are said to contain the remains of pirates. There are also the ruins of a fort and a wall erected by slaves in the 19th century.
At the Cayman Island Turtle Farm you can see turtles in various stages of growth, and some can be picked up from the tanks At the Cayman Island Turtle Farm you can see turtles in various stages of growth, and some can be picked up from the tanks
The tiny village of Hell is little more than a patch of incredibly jagged rock formations called ironshore. The big attraction here are the small post office and a nearby gift shop, where you can get cards and letters postmarked from Hell.
Cozumel, Mexico
The Conquistadors first saw Mexico from the shores of Cozumel while searching for gold. Today, visitors to the island continue to seek out gold and silver jewelry in the shops of San Miguel while having a great time in its many local bars and restaurants. Plus, the waters around Cozumel's sheltered coral reefs make this one of the best snorkeling areas in the world.
The 'Island of Swallows' is as rich in Mayan culture as in wildlife. Glass-clear waters around coral reefs offer you a world-class encounter with majestic eagle rays and more, while the isle's centre is home to hosts of brightly-hued tropical birds.
Don't miss the opportunity to explore the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Tulúm, majestically perched above the turquoise Caribbean. The site was occupied as far back as 600 A.D. However, it was most densely populated around 1200 A.D. You will be struck by the pyramid-shaped El Castillo, which dominates the city from atop a forty-foot cliff. The nearby Temple of the Descending God provides equally excellent insight into the architecture of the Mayan people, who gained considerable achievements in the arts and sciences, only to decline and vanish for no apparent reason.
The crystal clear water surrounding Cozumel makes it a favorite for divers and sun-seekers from around the world. Found on the Yucatan peninsula, it is the largest of Mexico's islands and steeped in history, tracing Mayan descendants from 300 A.D. In town, there is shopping for local crafts and dining in colorful restaurants.
Explore the underwater world of Chankanaab on a deep-sea adventure aboard the Atlantis Submarine. Discover what makes a dolphin so magical as you play and interact with these amazing creatures in Chankanaab National Marine Park.
Sit back, relax, and bury your toes in the white sand of Playa del Sol beach in Cozumel. This destination offers all the food, drinks and activities you can imagine, including relaxing massages on the beach. Take a Jeep-safari adventure through the tropical landscape of Cozumel's east side. Ride through sand dunes and trails for an unforgettable experience.
Join the Fiesta party boat for a fun-filled trip to Playa del Sol, with margaritas, rum punch and a live band setting the mood for fun. Helmet dive in Chankanaab and trek around coral reefs to see the abundant marine life up close. Escape to the secluded beauty of your own private beach paradise, Passion Island, by a four-person canoe or motorized tender
Just a few onboard highlights in a long list of many
Celebrity Reflection is Celebrity Cruises newest marvel. She boasts an expanded deck, 72 additional staterooms, extra seating in the main and specialty restaurants, more sun lounges on the pool deck, and more seats in the theatre. Celebrate the flavorful joys of outdoor grilling at the new Lawn Club Grill. Enjoy more than 20 delicious dining options in the Main Restaurant. Unwind in your own cabana-style haven at The Alcoves. Treat yourself to new spa innovations at the enhanced Canyon Ranch SpaClub®. Your vacation time is precious. Time aboard Celebrity Reflection will make the most of it.
Reflection Theater
The grand Reflection Theater is the premier venue for live performances aboard Celebrity Reflection. While accommodating a generous audience, it retains a comfortable, intimate atmosphere, bringing you production shows, beautiful musical arrangements, and sidesplitting comedy.
Main Dining Room
The magnificent and luxurious main restaurant of Celebrity Reflection. With a two-story glass wine tower and dazzling chandeliers, this spectacular dining area has a sophisticated aura. Featuring globally infused, classic and contemporary cuisine that's complemented by Celebrity's talented and knowledgeable wait staff and sommeliers.
Cellar Masters
Inspired by the vineyards of the world, Cellar Masters brings to life the experience of a global wine tour, while you learn about and taste a large variety of wines from around the world. Using state-of-the-art Enomatic® wine dispensers, your bacchanalian curiosity is satisfied with the press of a button. A welcoming and unique onboard environment, you'll discover new wines, receive recommendations and enrich your knowledge of the world of wine.
Martini Bar
With an atmosphere inspired by ice and snow, the enchanting frosted bar is the social epicenter of the ship. An absolute must-visit for its chic and ultrahip feel, swing by the Martini Bar and grab a signature martini before dinner or make a night of it. This bar has a vibe like no other, which makes it the perfect spot to gather with friends all night long.
Sushi on Five
Try our modern luxury take on traditional Japanese fare. Take the opportunity to try our premium, super-premium, and specialty sakesselected by our sake sommelier. Ask for fresh wasabi, if you dare. It's rare to find the real thing.
Café al Bacio & Gelateria
If only your local coffee shop had ocean views like these. Savor a cup of freshly brewed coffee or a delightful liqueur in this lively style coffee house. Or treat yourself to the gelateria, where sumptuous Italian ices and gelatos are prepared afternoon and evening.
Michael's Club
A premium, private lounge for those in Reflection, Penthouse, Signature, Royal, and Celebrity Suites, as well as for Captains Club Zenith members. This luxurious club features a large-screen TV, reading areas stocked with magazines, newspapers, and books, plus a continental breakfast. Complimentary drinks are available throughout the day and canapés are served with evening cocktails. Michaels Club is available 24 hours a day with selected service hours from the Michaels Club Concierge.
Impeccable service, classic design, world-class cuisine and comfortable sophistication are celebrated to the utmost in Murano. Experience tableside lobster presentation, an expansive selection of artisanal cheeses from around the world, or the extensive American and French wine list. Charming and timeless, Murano transports you, through palate and décor, to a modern and sophisticated level of dining.
Qsine® offers a culinary journey that delivers elements of surprise and delight. Our James Beard featured Master Chef created Qsine to give you something you've never experienced beforeon land or at sea. Leave any preconceived notions behind. Dig in and try new things. It's time your palate got a wakeup call. Our iPad® menus make your dining experience even more fun and interactive.
As an AquaClass® guest, you can enjoy Blu, your own exclusive restaurant for breakfast and dinner. If the concept of spa restaurant causes you or your significant other to think youll never see a steak or a rich dessert on the menu, that is definitely not the case. The cuisine at Blu is simply an imaginative way of preparing popular dishes without fussiness or pretense. Tender steak is served with a flavorful truffle vinaigrette instead of a heavy béarnaise. We call it clean cuisine.
Tuscan Grille
An outgoing waitstaff ensures tableside service thats personal as well as professional. And the food? Take the traditional style and artisanal flair of Italy, add contemporary influences, and serve the cuisine in abundance. Its all part of the expansive character of Tuscan Grille.
Celebrity iLounge
This is Celebrity's chic, new approach to the Internet lounge that's also the first Authorized Apple® Reseller at Sea. It's the modern way to connect while onboard. Here, you'll find state-of-the-art workstations featuring MacBook Pro® laptops and iMac® desktops where you can take a class, check your email, surf the web or print a boarding pass. Certified staff will help you master the latest audio and video products. Learn how to get the most from the hippest tech devices, like the iPhone®, iPad®, iPod Touch®, and MacBook Pro®. And, if you like, you can purchase some of these items on your cruise.
Canyon Ranch SpaClub®
Your destination for health, beauty and extraordinary relaxation, Canyon Ranch SpaClub soothes both body and mind. Facilities include a solarium, Persian Garden, private treatment rooms, relaxation room, and fitness center.
Fitness Center
In our fitness center you can meet with a personal trainer, take a fitness class, try an invigorating spin class or challenge yourself on our state-of-the-art exercise equipment.
The Pool
Spend the day by the pool. Relax with a book, or have a bite at the grill. Enjoy the serenade of the music from the bandstand and dance your heart away on the dance floor. For a refresher, take a dip in the pool or rejuvenate in the whirlpool.
Oceanview Café
This café's décor and offerings reflect that of an international marketplace. With a menu influenced by multiple cultures, the cuisine takes diners on a voyage around the world. Stations available in the marketplace include: made-to-order pasta, stir-fry, pizza and sushi, a full salad bar, and a variety of appetizer entrées and desserts. Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night.
The Art Studio
Get creative in this new venue on The Lawn Club that allows intimate, hands-on instruction from resident experts in drawing, painting, beading, drink mixology, culinary lessons, taste tests and chef-prepared dinners.
The Porch
Relax and gaze out over the cool, green grass of The Lawn Club, or the cool, blue sea, while savoring just-made fare for breakfast or lunch. Featuring quick, simple and fresh food, like soup, salads and panini. Open for breakfast and lunch.
Lawn Club Grill
Meet our newest restaurant, available only on Celebrity Reflection. The bright and modern Lawn Club Grill celebrates the flavorful joys of outdoor grilling. The highlight of dining at the Lawn Club Grill is the opportunity to serve as your party's "Grill Master," by being paired with a Celebrity chef to assist in preparing the menu for your table over custom-built, ventilated grills.
The Lawn Club
A freshly manicured lawn on the highest deck. Enjoy casual outdoor activities in a decidedly Country Club atmosphere, and let the grass between your toes take you places no cruise has gone before.
Mast Grill
The perfect place to grab a quick bite, like burgers and other specialties grilled to order, while relaxing out on the Pool Deck.
Celebrity Reflection
We help you select the best cabin according to your requirements
Clicking on a the deck below will open it in a
Guests: 3,046 • Gross Tonnage: 126,000 • Length: 1047' • Beam: 123' • Draft: 27' • Cruising Speed: 24 knots
All prices are per person, double occupancy, and include all meals, accommodations and entertainment!
Taxes of $122.64pp, gratuities, and optional insurance are additional.
A deposit of $500.00 per person is required upon booking.
Optional shore excursions will be offered.
Prices are cruise only and DO NOT INCLUDE return airfare! Please ask for airfare add-ons back to your home city.
Fares are subject to availability and may change without prior notice.
Also included are the traditional PIED PIPER escort and activities, subject to minimum participation.
Traveling alone? Ask about our single roommate share program to help you avoid the single supplement of 200% of the per person double occupancy rate.
Please ask for further details.
Two Perks Included! Book any non-suite category and GET TWO of the following: a complimentary Classic beverage packages, complimentary gratuities, unlimited onboard internet packages, or an onboard credit of $300 per stateroom!
Please note: the cruise line now charges a $14pp, per day, surcharge when choosing the beverage packages as one of the perks.
Four Perks! Book any non-suite category, and for only $49 per person, per day extra, receive all of the following: complimentary Premium beverage packages, complimentary gratuities, unlimited onboard internet packages, and an onboard credit of $300 per stateroom!
Four Perks Suite deal! Book a Suite and get all of the perks, with a complimentary upgrade to a Premium beverage package, at no additional charge!
NO PERKS PRICING! Please refer to the pricing column with lower prices that don't include any perks! Deposits are non-refundable with this option.
©2006-2020, Adonis Holday All rights reserved


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Did you hear? Did you read? Did you know?
That…millions of people voted illegally in the November 8th presidential election. No, really. I'm not kidding. I read it in a tweet from our new President elect. Well, I didn't really read it on Twitter. I actually clicked a link on Facebook and that brought me to a story in an online newspaper about that tweet and that claim, and so since it is in print, it must be true. True!
Did you hear? Did you read? Did you know?
That…members of the Electoral College are getting ready to revolt. Huge numbers of them are going to change their votes and totally upset the results of the election, because, after all, the losing electoral candidate won more popular votes and so she'll end up being president under this "hush hush" conspiracy. Yup. I read about it on a website. Well, actually I googled "Electoral College Revolt" and that brought me to the story. It's on my computer screen right now. Features a sharp headline and a crisp photo too, all looks very "official" so the story must be correct.
I also read that childhood vaccines absolutely cause autism. That President Obama is actually a secret Muslim. That CNN recently aired thirty minutes of pornography during a prime time news program. That the actor Clint Eastwood was offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom and refused it. I read all those things on the Internet so they all must be true, right?
What is true?
These days the answer to that question is getting harder and harder to figure out, at least for me. The gift of the web and our 24/7 wired world is that in 2016 we as news consumers have greater access to more "news" in more places through more devices than ever before in the history of news gathering and news reporting. The quaint days of Walter Cronkite saying "And that's the way it is" on TV, and America actually believing him, are long gone. The notion that one or two national daily newspapers are "the papers of record" has been lost as well.
Now we have more news than we could ever hope to read or watch, let alone understand. Print news. TV news. Comedy news. Fox News on the right, CNBC News on the left, and all of these sources online too. Google reports there are about 1 billion unique web sites worldwide at present, so if even one percent of those are news oriented, that equals 10,000,000 places to get "the news".
Which is good, I suppose. More news, more stories, more reporters, more news outlets, more news sources should lead to more truth, correct? A better informed citizenry. A stronger democracy. The media as a more powerful watchdog over the institutions that run the world: government, business, education, etc.
True and yet…the conundrum in the midst of this news glut is this: how do we determine what news is really true? Factual? Real? And how do we figure what news is slanted? What news is not really news, but is instead opinion or speculation or rumor? What news is totally fake, completely made up? Consider this fact, as reported on Vox.com: the most read "news" stories on Facebook in the three months leading up to the election were false, so-called "click bait" stories. Like one "story" that reported Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump. When you or I clicked that link (admit it—you did!), the creator of that tall tale made money on our sincere desire to just get the news. The truth.
What is true?
To answer that question, we as citizens and news consumers will just have to work much harder now to get to "the truth". Read sources that challenge our bias, not merely confirm our views. As a devoted nytimes.com reader I need to also read the "Wall Street Journal" more often. We'll have to adjust to having a new commander in chief who is addicted to tweeting, saying, and declaring as "true" whatever is on his mind at anytime of the day or the night. Reality TV: meet the news cycle. We'll have to just be much more skeptical and much more curious when it comes to the news.
Quid est veritas? What is true? That is the question. God help us all as we seek to find an answer.


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It was good. Pulled pork and Sweet Baby Ray's on a bun. Yum.
I had good intentions last night to put the pork roast in the crock pot before church. Well...three slow moving kids plus a tired and itchy mom don't really allow for extra time or even a thought about dinner plans. (I think I've only used my crock pot about 10 times in the 17 years I've had it. It doesn't rank very high on my kitchen tools list. Obviously.) I ended up putting it in the oven in the clay baker from Pampered Chef. It turned out pretty juicy. I just wish pork wasn't so fatty.