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Suppose that just after you finish reading this article, you keel over, dead. Perhaps you're ready for such an eventuality, in that you have prepared a will or made some sort of arrangement for the fate of the worldly goods you leave behind: financial assets, personal effects, belongings likely to have sentimental value to others and artifacts of your life like photographs, journals, letters. Even if you haven't made such arrangements, all of this will get sorted one way or another, maybe in line with what you would have wanted, and maybe not.
But many of us, in these worst of circumstances, would also leave behind things that exist outside of those familiar categories. Suppose you blogged or tweeted about this article, or dashed off a
Not many people have given serious thought to these questions. Maybe that's partly because what we do online still feels somehow novel and ephemeral, although it really shouldn't anymore. Or maybe it's because pondering mortality is simply a downer. (Only about a third of Americans even have a will.) By and large, the major companies that enable our Web-articulated selves have vague policies about the fate of our digital afterlives, or no policies at all. Estate law has only begun to consider the topic. Leading thinkers on technology and culture are understandably far more focused on exciting potential futures, not on the most grim of inevitabilities.
Nevertheless: people die. For most of us, the fate of tweets and status updates and the like may seem trivial (who cares — I'll be dead!). But increasingly we're not leaving a record of life by culling and stowing away physical journals or shoeboxes of letters and photographs for heirs or the future. Instead, we are, collectively, busy producing fresh masses of life-affirming digital stuff: five billion images and counting on Flickr; hundreds of thousands of
At some point, these hoards will intersect with the banal inevitability of human mortality. One estimate pegs the number of U.S. Facebook users who die annually at something like 375,000. Academics have begun to explore the subject (how does this change the way we remember and grieve?), social-media consultants have begun to talk about it (what are the legal implications?) and entrepreneurs are trying to build whole new businesses around digital-afterlife management (is there a profit opportunity here?). Evan Carroll and John Romano, interaction-design experts in
Adele McAlear, a social-media and marketing consultant, became interested in this subject a few years ago, when one of her regular
ON OCT. 18, 2009, Mac Tonnies updated his blog, sent out some public tweets and private messages via Twitter, went to bed and died of cardiac arrhythmia. While he had experienced some symptoms that indicated potential heart problems, his sudden death came as a shock even to those who knew him well. He was 34.
Tonnies lived in
Rita J. King, an expert on online identity and persona who is an "innovator in residence" for
The last entry on Posthuman Blues was titled "Tritptych #15," a set of three images with no text. The first comment to this post came from an anonymous reader, wondering why Tonnies had not updated the blog or tweeted for two days. Some similar comments followed, and then this: "Mac Tonnies passed away earlier in the week. Our condolences are with his family and friends in this time of grief." The author of that comment was also anonymous. After a rapid back-and-forth about whether this startling news was true and some details of the circumstances, that post's comment section transformed into a remarkable mix of tributes, grieving and commiseration. You can still read all this today, in a thread that runs to more than 250 comments.
"It was a very strange feeling," Dana Tonnies, Mac's mother, told me, describing how she and her husband became aware of the swirl of activity attaching to her son's online self. "I had no control over what was being said about him, almost immediately." Dana and Bob Tonnies were close to their only son — in fact they had coffee with him, in a regular Sunday ritual, the morning before he died — but they had little contact with his digital self. Sometimes he would show them his online writing, but he had to do so by literally putting his laptop in front of them. The Tonnies did not read blogs. In fact they did not own a computer.
In the months after their son's death, Dana and Bob went about the difficult business of organizing his papers (letters, e-mail printouts, story drafts) and deciding which of his belongings to keep (like his thousand or so books) or to give to his friends (his leather jacket, his three watches). This painful process took awhile, and they were not really focused on his blog or Flickr account and the like. They also inherited their son's computer and have since learned how to navigate it and the Internet. But by then, their son's online circle had already taken action.
I spoke to a half dozen people Mac Tonnies met online and in some cases never encountered in the physical world. Each expressed a genuine sense of loss; a few sounded grief-stricken even more than a year later. Mark Plattner, who lives in
Plattner was one of several online friends who got involved in memorializing Tonnies and his work. Dia Sobin, an artist who lives in
"I only ever knew him over Twitter," Sarah Cashmore , a graduate student in
This outpouring of digital grief, memorial-making, documentation and self-expression is unusual, maybe unique, for now, because of the kind of person Tonnies was and the kinds of friends he made online. But maybe, his friend Rita King suggests, his story is also a kind of early signal of one way that digital afterlives might play out. And she doesn't just mean this in an abstract, scholarly way. "I find solace," she told me, "in going to Mac's Twitter feed."
Finding solace in a Twitter feed may sound odd, but the idea that Tonnies's friends would revisit and preserve such digital artifacts isn't so different from keeping postcards or other physical ephemera of a deceased friend or loved one. In both instances, the value doesn't come from the material itself but rather from those who extract meaning from, and give meaning to, all we leave behind: our survivors.
The most remarkable set of connections to emerge from Tonnies's digital afterlife isn't among his online friends — it is between those friends and his parents, the previously computer-shunning Dana and Bob Tonnies. Dana, who told me that her husband now teases her about how much time she spends sending and answering e-mail (a good bit of it coming from her son's online social circle), is presently going through Posthuman Blues, in order, from the beginning. "I still have a year to go," she says. Reading it has been "amazing," she continues — funny posts, personal posts, poetic posts, angry posts about the state of the world. I ask her if what she is reading seems like a different, or specifically narrow, version of her son. "Oh, no, it's him," she says. "I can hear him when I read it."
Mac Tonnies's digital afterlife stands as a kind of best-case scenario for preserving something of an online life, but even his case hasn't worked out perfectly. His
It's unlikely the material Tonnies left online would have fared as well had it not been for his savvy and generous circle of Web friends. For most survivors, coping with the physical possessions and conventional assets of the departed can be overwhelming enough, but at least there are parameters and precedents. Even if a houseful of objects is liquidated through an estate sale or simply junked, mechanisms exist to ensure some sort of definitive outcome, even in the absence of a will. And there's no way of ignoring or forgetting it: eventually the stuff will have to be dealt with.
Bit-based personal effects are different. Survivors may not be aware of the deceased's full digital hoard, or they may not have the passwords to access the caches they do know about. They may be uncertain to the point of inaction about how to approach the problem at all. Any given e-mail account, for instance, can include communication as trivial as an "I'm running late" phone call or as thoughtful as a written letter — all jumbled together, by the hundreds or thousands. Similarly, let's just say not all of us are discriminating curators in uploading pictures to Facebook, for instance, flinging more images from one weekend onto the Web than an earlier generation would have saved from a weeks-long vacation. When you inherit a physical scrapbook or even a diary, some choices have already been made — either by culling or by constraints of space — but accessing and then assessing the digital effects of a dead loved one entail a thicket of choices and challenges that many would simply rather avoid.
This has inspired a variety of entrepreneurs to place bets that, eventually, people will want control over the afterlife of their digital selves. Several promise to manage the details of your digital death — storing your passwords and your wishes for who gets access to what and integrating your content-related instructions into a kind of adjunct to a traditional will. Legacy Locker claims "around 10,000" people have signed up for its digital-estate-management service. Its rivals include DataInherit, a service of DSwiss, "the Swiss bank for information assets" (you can even update your digital-legacy data via its iPhone app), and Entrustet, of
The founders of Entrustet are surprisingly young. Jesse Davis , who is 23, was still a student at the
Such businesses rest on a simple idea: Web, mobile and social-media use keeps exploding; everyone still dies. Meanwhile, much of the archiving of basic family life is becoming digital. It has become routine to have an online "presence" even as an infant, by way of a picture posted on a parent's social-networking profile. Lustig pointed me to a recent corporate study that identified "chief memory officer" as a kind of unofficial role taken on by someone (often mom) in many families — the person who is paying attention to the idea that there may be no physical scrapbook or set of journals to hand down to future generations and that bits-and-bytes memory objects need to be preserved somehow.
I spoke to a couple of Entrustet users, who said they particularly wanted to protect photos stored online, along with hosting and domain-registration information for personal and business sites. Entrustet also offers an "account incinerator," to obliterate content its users would prefer not to have linger on after them, and one person I spoke to mentioned having tagged a personal Twitter account for deletion — "it's just inside jokes, personal ranting and raving" — along with a Gmail account. "I don't need people judging the personal e-mails that I sent to my friends," he explained.
Given the degree to which the most popular online platforms involve promoting a quasi-public persona — the "you" who declares fandom of
Most people do not leave such directives, making the fate of their digital lives uncertain. One of the better-known instances of a disappeared digital legacy involves Leslie Harpold, a Web pioneer who died unexpectedly in 2006, at age 40. Her writing and other online projects connected her with friends and admirers who were helping create the Internet's self-expression tool kit back in the mid-1990s. In early 2010, after her sites Harpold.com and Smug.com quietly disappeared, some of those friends lobbied Harpold's family to let them preserve her work. "Her work is her legacy," one admirer, Rogers Cadenhead, wrote to Harpold's niece, Melissa Krauskopf, an attorney who served as the personal representative of Harpold's estate. "I have corresponded with several of Leslie's friends about her sites all disappearing from the Web. For what it is worth, all of us believe that she would not have wanted that to happen."
This offer was declined. Harpold's niece replied that Harpold's legacy isn't in her online work but rather "is with every person who knew her and loved her." I spoke to Krauskopf briefly, and while she was cordial, she had little to add. Had her aunt left directives about her online work, they would of course have been honored, she said. But in their absence, the domains were part of the estate that went to Harpold's mother, and while Krauskopf appreciates the perspective of her aunt's Web friends, it was a family decision that doesn't require public explanation. "People need to appreciate that she was a real person," Krauskopf says, and the family prefers to "remember her as she was."
You might think that stories like that would inspire at least the most cutting-edge true believers in the importance of online expression to stampede digital-afterlife-management companies. But Entrustet and its rivals acknowledge facing a variety of challenges, from an estate-planning community that isn't particularly tech-forward to convincing potential customers that the start-up meant to deal with their digital afterlife will still be a going enterprise by the time they die. I tried out Entrustet myself. It seems to ease the unwieldy process of sorting out what to do with lots of online accounts with different passwords and so on, but I would add another challenge to the list: it's depressing. I made my wife my "digital executor," which meant that she received an e-mail about her responsibilities that she found jarring and a little chilling, even though I'd warned her. The idea of updating this thing every time I change a password or try out a new social Web tool that I may or may not keep using seemed even less enticing than cleaning out the attic.
Perhaps as a way around this problem, Entrustet is testing the waters on making deals with social-networking services. Its first partner in that approach is Broadjam, a service where musicians store and share their work. The idea is that Entrustet will function as a quietly integrated feature built into something you are happily using rather than being the go-to brand for everything you would rather not think about.
FOR NOW, THE DIGITAL identities of people whose Web contacts aren't sophisticated techie types are simply languishing, or quietly fading away, with no hubbub, controlled not by friends or family but by the defaults of the services that enable their creation. And maybe that's as it should be: what difference does it make what happens to the mundane accumulated detritus that makes up so much of what we do online? Once the people who cared about our status updates are gone, who cares if the updates persist?
One answer to that question is future historians. They surely won't be poring over as many physical documents as today's historians do, and surely the granular documentation of life in the 21st century, in digital form, is unprecedented. Fragile digital selves, then, represent a potential loss to the future.
This point of view has been most convincingly articulated by Dave Winer, the software developer whose Scripting News site is regarded as one of the first examples of what would come to be called blogs. He has been writing about the issue of online content preservation — he calls it "future-safing" — for several years. His views are a surprise to anybody who assumes that expression preserved in bits is somehow more durable than expression preserved in atoms; in fact he has drawn the opposite conclusion, repeatedly pointing out that digital technologies can be surprisingly unstable or can change rapidly in ways that leave a trail of obsolete material in their wake or both. He has written about his own efforts to preserve the original specs and code for some of his most significant technological creations on a suitably reliable server that future historians and others will be able to access. In thinking about how to do the same for his (and others') online writing, he sounds pessimistic.
At one point he suggested a big company like Amazon or Google might be a suitable repository — maybe charging a flat fee to host content in perpetuity. But lately he has leaned more toward solutions involving institutions like universities or maybe the government. "What's needed," he wrote in early 2010, "is an endowment, a foundation with a long-term charter, that can take over the administration of a Web presence as a trust — before the author dies."
In general, the companies that have created the most popular places and tools for online expression don't exactly encourage users to stop and think about these subjects. Specific policies vary — details, buried in terms of service agreements, often involve a fair bit of effort, like providing a death certificate — and newer social-media services often have no particular policy at all. (Twitter established its guidelines only in August 2010.) The most prominent place this issue has come up, not surprisingly, is Facebook. For some time now, it has offered an option to request that a profile be switched to "memorial" mode when an individual dies. A post on the company blog explained that the issue first arose internally back in 2005, when one of its employees — there were only 40 at the time — died in a
To Winer, however, the issue goes beyond how a person is remembered by those he or she knew. And he's right that Web sites come and go — often vanishing in months, depending on the whims and intentions and
"This is a huge gap in the Web we're building today," Winer has written. "Eventually it's going to catch up with us when we lose a huge amount of stuff we thought we couldn't lose."
Cameron Hunt is one of the few people I encountered who is actively trying to preserve his digital identity. A 38-year-old
His motivations aren't obvious: he is in good health; he's divorced and has no children; and unlike Tonnies he is not engaged in traditional acts of creative expression, like writing books. Raised a Mormon, he never really connected to that church's penchant for genealogy, which always struck him as a bunch of dry lists of names and dates. Then, a couple of years ago, his grandmother died, and he was given a copy of various family stories she had written. "Reading them as an adult, I was able to read between the lines," he says, "to understand things in a rich way, and see how the stories and the experiences had influenced down through multiple generations." Something else happened at the same time: the family realized that a big batch of slides in his grandmother's possession had faded beyond recognition. Hunt was stunned. "Memories that were precious to me — not just living them, but after that going back and revisiting them — and now it's gone," he recalls. "I thought: I really need to do something."
Hunt uses Twitter and Facebook; in fact, he has no privacy restrictions on his Facebook account, which lists his address and cellphone number. "I do that as part of my persona," he told me when I suggested that it was a bad idea. "My friends know — if there's an image that maybe I've cultivated, it's 'Cam's crazy, he won't be afraid to do it.' Therefore opportunities come to me or people confide in me."
In any case, while he's also a user of Flickr, LinkedIn, Foursquare and various other online services, the core of his digital legacy is a collection of e-mail dating back to 1994. He has come to realize that achieving his goal is going to take serious effort. "I want to fund a bank account," he says, "so that when I die, a curator can be paid to digitize anything that may not have been digitized, manage the collection, maybe do some research, help people find stuff if they're looking for it.
"You know," he adds with a chuckle, "all these ego-driven things of not being a famous man yet treating my digital afterlife as if I were famous."
Admittedly, Hunt's thinking sounds over the top. But part of the reason it seems so audacious is that there is so much to preserve, compared with, say, the physical material his grandmother left behind. A side effect of digital life is that the border between the real-time self-expressive object and the durable memory object has become porous.
Consider Gordon Bell, a famous computer engineer whose innovations date back to the 1960s. More recently he undertook a project under the auspices of
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, in his book "Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age," notes Bell as an extreme example of a general cultural drift. It is only relatively recently, he argues, that our tools for recording what we see, experience and think have become so easy to use, inexpensive and effective that it is easier to let information accumulate in our "digital external memories" than it is to bother deleting it. "Forgetting has become costly and difficult, while remembering is inexpensive and easy," he writes. This is so even though a great deal of our digital expression is simple communication about the present, "intentionally ephemeral." But because it's more trouble to delete old blog posts, digital pictures and tweets than it is to make new ones, "society's ability to forget has become suspended, replaced by perfect memory."
Mayer-Schönberger is only glancingly concerned with the notion of legacy; he is mostly making a point about privacy and personal information, not about what happens after life ends. So in the long run, his contention that the digital memory is "perfect" is doubtful. And as he notes, even in real time, digital memory can be flawed and misleading: it often merely seems perfect but can be incomplete or even altered.
Stacey Pitsillides, now finishing a graduate degree in design at Goldsmiths, University of London, has been researching digital afterlife issues for a few years now, drawn specifically to the question of what the piles of identity that we're building up online will ultimately amount to. "We just see it as this infinity," she says, but it isn't. "There are certain costs, financial costs, physical and social costs, to keeping this amount of data. One of the social costs is that we kind of lose the ability to begin to choose and arrange what we want to say about ourselves, and instead get lost in this wash of information.
"If every object you've ever owned was a memory object," she continues, "and we gave that to a family member and said, 'You have to remember this person by all of these objects,' then what position would we be in, and how would we ever remember everyone?"
It is possible that technology will answer this question with new ways for organizing, sifting and coping with masses of preserved personal data. Richard Banks, an interaction designer for Microsoft Research in
That, to put it mildly, is a hard claim to take seriously. For now, the less pie-in-the-sky issue is whether most people scattering digital objects across the Web have strong feelings about their persistence, or whether, as Mayer-Schönberger suggests, it simply isn't worth the time to dispose of them. To Hunt, his own project is perfectly consistent with any effort to preserve analog mementos of life, just as his family (and many others) have for many years. "I'm just part of another generation," he says. "I really don't think it's different in instinct or desire from what other people have done — except that so much of that information is quasi-public already." He has a point there: even if we aren't obsessing about the persistence of online expression and memory materials, we sure are cranking it out. What's really surprising is how few Cameron Hunts there are, actively working out which of the digital self-traces they want to preserve, and how to go about it. All he is really trying to do is have some say in how he's remembered.
My favorite digital-mortality business,
DeathSwitch.com has enough subscribers to cover costs, according to Eagleman. It keeps tabs on users by sending a periodic e-mail to make sure they are still alive. I suggested to Eagleman that I would find this regular reminder of my own mortality pretty unnerving, and he seemed perplexed. "If you allow the fact that you are going to pass away," he replied, "and there are smart things you can do before you pass away to keep everybody in your family happy and well, then it's as useful as a will, or a do-not-resuscitate."
Eagleman is an interesting character. He is an assistant professor of neuroscience and
His speculative afterlives end up offering provocative takes on what mortality and legacy really mean. One story posits that there are three deaths, the last coming when your name is spoken for the final time. In another, there is a hell in which you see yourself as others saw you; and in yet another, we sit in the afterlife looking back at life for evidence of our influence, as long as it lingers. "Death Switch," the story, suggests that there is no afterlife as we think of it but that "a version of us" lives on in the endlessly sophisticated last notes we each send out, creating a strange network of "transactions with no one to read them." The afterlife isn't some other place or state of being. "Instead an afterlife occurs for that which exists between us."
Wertheim pointed out that cyberspace had become a new kind of place, where alternate (or at least carefully curated or burnished) identities could be forged, new forms of collectivity and connection explored, all outside the familiar boundaries of the physical world, like the body and geography. It's not such a long journey to follow those assertions to the "view that man is defined not by the atoms of his body but by an information code," as Wertheim wrote. "This is the belief that our essence lies not in our matter but in a pattern of data." She called this idea the "cybersoul," a "posited immortal self, this thing that can supposedly live on in the digital domain after our bodies die."
And that, essentially, is what is implied by Gordon Bell's assertion that his MyLifeBits project is a way to "leave a personal legacy — a record of your life." Or to put it more prosaically, it's the same thing Trendwatching.com meant by calling your digital traces on social networks the "nucleus of one's personal brand." It's what the uncanny avatars of Lifenaut and Virtual Eternity hope one day to encapsulate. It's at the heart of "singularity" theory.
Wertheim, it should be noted, saw the cybersoul notion as both flawed and troubling, and I would agree. Life's essence reduced to captured data is an uninspiring, and unconvincing, resolution to the centuries-old question of where, in mind and in body, the self resides. At least other imagined versions of immortality (from the Christian heaven to the Hindu wheel of life) suggested a reconciliation, or at least a connection, with the manner in which a physical life is lived; the cybersoul's theoretically eternal and perfect persistence ignores this concept. Most of all, though, fantasizing about living forever — in heaven or in a preserved pattern of data — strikes me as just another way of avoiding any honest confrontation with the fact of death.
Avoiding that confrontation isn't merely a stumbling block for those digital-afterlife start-ups. I was struck by how many of the people I spoke to who professed a keen interest in the issue of preserving a digital legacy had in fact done absolutely nothing about it for themselves. "Hmm, that's a good question," one of the organizers of that Digital Death Day event, a Web-identity expert, replied when I asked her why she had not taken steps to plan for the future of her digital creations. "I'm probably afraid of resolving the issue," another online-expression enthusiast offered (before joking that all he really wanted to do is "save my work better than my enemies save theirs"). Actually, I completely empathize. I'm not anxious to resolve the issue either, at least not by making any prolonged and thoughtful effort centered on the extended contemplation of my demise.
For me, at least, pondering the digital afterlife made me rethink digital life. We're encouraged to record and express everything, all the time. In real time, we can record and distribute the most important moments of our existence, and some of the least. For the generations growing up in the Web era, this mode of being is more or less taken for granted. But the tools we use privilege the moment, not the long term; they also tend to make everything feel roughly equal in importance and offer us little incentive to comb back through our digital scribblings and sort out what might have lasting meaning from what probably doesn't. The results are pretty much the opposite of a scrapbook carefully edited to serve as a memory object but could end up serving that function by default.
If "digital litter" is all around us, then thinking about how to clean it up in real time — or producing less of it in the first place — might be more productive. Rita King, the online-identity expert who was a friend of Mac Tonnies's, is clearly pleased to have access to his online effects and generally optimistic about new forms of remembering that digital technologies might enable. At the same time, though, she expressed some caution about the mindless expression of everything, the default veneration of "sharing" over "curating." While she's clearly an online-life enthusiast, she's also careful about what she discloses in that new form of space. "If people thought about dying more often," she observed, "they'd think about living differently."
I found myself wondering, oddly enough, about what Mac Tonnies's take might be. The last of his friends to whom I spoke was Paul Kimball, a filmmaker who lives in
Among their shared interests, it turns out, was the relationship among technology, consciousness and mortality. Their play, based on a science-fiction story Tonnies had written in college, involves two women who turn out not to be, strictly speaking, creatures of organic matter: one is an artificial-intelligence program, the other a human consciousness uploaded into a form that could survive a centuries-long space journey. The very title of Tonnies's Posthuman Blues blog, Kimball points out, hints at ambivalence about these subjects. But that was the place, he says, where his generally private friend "revealed himself," post by post. The fact that the blog persists, in public, is what makes it distinct from, say, a journal Kimball owns that belonged to his grandfather and that has been read by perhaps 20 people.
The day before we spoke, Kimball continued, he had linked to an old Posthuman Blues post on his Facebook page, seeking reactions from his own online circle. "So I'm still having this conversation" with his friend Tonnies, he told me, "even though he's been dead for more than a year." Eventually, Kimball added, such situations may be routine. "We're entering a world where we can all leave as much of a legacy as
After talking to Kimball, I ended up watching a couple of interview clips of Tonnies on YouTube. In one, he discussed "transhumanism," the techno-scientific quest to transcend the traditional limits of the human animal, death included, whether through merging with machines or fiddling with our genes. Skeptics or opponents of transhumanism are missing the point that it's well underway, he argued: medicine is transhuman, in that it thwarts mortality. While I didn't find this wholly convincing, I will concede that it was interesting to find myself in a position to listen to his arguments at all. It made me wish I could offer Tonnies my counterpoints — but of course I can't. So I'll give him the last word. "I like to think of death as a glorified terminal illness," Mac Tonnies said, and will continue to say, for as long as this particular collection of bits remains available for someone to watch and listen to. "If we can escape the boundaries of death, maybe we'll be O.K."Continue reading the main story


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|Penny, the 6th member of the happy band who roamed the earth in aid of Unicef
My mother in law has very good taste when it comes to books, and after seeing Simeon Courtie talking about his experiences on a trip round the world with his family in aid of Unicef, touring as "The World's Worst Beatles Tribute Band" I said that he should write a book about the trip.
Little did I know that he had, and that the book was my secret christmas present this year. A signed copy of "The Long and Whining Road" and the start of an on-off-on love/hate relationship with the book for me.
You see, I'm envious - ridiculously envious of the sort of folk who can throw everything in to pursue something that - on paper - sounds absolutely ridiculously crazy. Simply thinking about the logistics of what it would take to chuck in the towel for a year or more, and pursue the dream of taking a battered old VW camper van around the world, driving across continents and through hazardous countries for what must have been (in sheer understatement here) the trip of a lifetime.
My on-off-on love hate relationship with the book had nothing really to do with Simeon Courtie's writing style (which is funny, and at times the right kind of 'brutally honest' that books of this ilk need to be) but an unshakeable recollection of a sketch that once appeared on the darkly comic TV show "The Day Today".
The sketch was an interview between Chris Morris' bile-filled parody of a Jeremy Paxman-style news anchor, and a woman who had raised some money for charity through selling jam.
It basically pivots around the amount of money she raises, and Morris' reaction - which is less than complimentary about the amount.
Throughout "The Long and Whining Road" I kept thinking about the costs involved in sending a family of 5 (plus a diesel camper van) around the world, and what would happen if that budget was - well - just handed over to Unicef rather than the final amount raised in donations or obtained through busking.
Of course, if that had been page 1 it would've been an extremely short book, and we wouldn't have been able to follow Simeon's journey of discovery, along with his family, and the ups and downs of their trip.
Things that stuck in the mind were how much we (humans) take our machines for granted. If a sane rational (and let's face it, 'play it safe') type of person had planned a trip like this, they'd be looking at taking the most up to date technologically advanced and reliable vehicle on the journey - not a 20 year old camper van. They would have made a meticulous plan of routes, factored in the need to deal with emergencies, and would (quite possibly) have been about as entertaining to read as most travelogues. The book swung up on my "I like it" scale when Simeon described the nitty gritty reality of globetrotting across land. Not only that, his description of humans encountered along the way ranged from amazing people who you sincerely wish were part of your community where you lived, and people who you'd quite happily see fired in a rocket straight at the heart of the sun.
I finished the book, ended on an up-swing. Breeze through nasty pessimistic views of how much easier it would've been to skip the trip and donate the money, put a boot through the 'fussy parent' notion of what impact the trip must've had on his daughters' educations (or sanity in places!) and thoroughly engross yourself in the story of what happens when people wake up one morning, look out of the window and contemplate the morning commute or the daily grind and say "Stuff that, I'm going to do something crazy but worthwhile instead"

subset: commoncrawl


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November 08, 2009
The fashion world, by its very nature, constantly reinvents itself, with new styles from the outrageous to the classically inspired hitting the runways each season.
But what about Islamic fashion? Confined by rules of modesty and propriety, Muslim clothes for women have seen little change over the years. The hijab dress code stipulates that women should cover their entire body, except their face and palms, in public. Clothing, including the headscarf, cannot be transparent or tight-fitting.
But fashion label Up2Date, which specializes in clothes for Muslim women, manage to combine traditional thinking with modern styles.
On Tuesday, Up2Date presented its collection for next year in the ballroom of the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta. Called "InterAction 2010," the show combined exotic looks inspired by Mexican fashion icon Maria Felix with a funky retro approach.
Read the rest here.


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Mourning Becomes Electra, a Trilogy
Mourning Becomes Electra, a Trilogy
The action of the trilogy, with the exception of an act of the second play, takes place in or immediately outside the Mannon residence, on the outskirts of one of the smaller New England seaport towns.
A special curtain shows the house as seen from the street. From this, in each play, one comes to the exterior of the house in the opening act and enters it in the following act.
This curtain reveals the extensive grounds--about thirty acres --which surround the house, a heavily wooded ridge in the background, orchards at the right and in the immediate rear, a large flower garden and a greenhouse to the left.
In the foreground, along the street, is a line of locust and elm trees. The property is enclosed by a white picket fence and a tall hedge. A driveway curves up to the house from two entrances with white gates. Between the house and the street is a lawn. By the right corner of the house is a grove of pine trees. Farther forward, along the driveway, maples and locusts. By the left corner of the house is a big clump of lilacs and syringas.
The house is placed back on a slight rise of ground about three hundred feet from the street. It is a large building of the Greek temple type that was the vogue in the first half of the nineteenth century. A white wooden portico with six tall columns contrasts with the wall of the house proper which . . .


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Running time: 20 min
Performed by 2 dancers
Technical requirements: sound equipment
Minimum space: 8 x 6 m
Venue or outdoors show
In 2014 the Fruitós brothers start a new phase, they decide to go back to the Brodas essence to continue their path. Searching and carried by a more contemporay choreographic dramaturgy to the one we are used to see them using, they propose us a duet about brothers complicity. A choreographic work with a mixed language, without barriers or limits, using popping, locking, break and modern dance techniques.
These brothers story is curious because from long ago they have shared most of their passions such as hip-hop, bodyboard, snow sports…Each of them has his personality and they are different in many aspects, but dance has brought them together in a very special way.
Solo2 is a "solo" created for two people, two dancers who look for compenetration, balance and harmony, but at the same time they seek for the necessary space to avoid suffocating one another without stopping to be there. There's a sentence that defines this piece: "to be always there", when everything is all right, when everything is fine, when everything is going badly, when you're surrounded by many people or when you're alone. Being always there doesn't mean to be annoying or omnipresent, it means to back or help but also to fail and heart the other. In body and soul, in a small and big scale, the difficult thing is to be always there at the precise point, achieving the suitable complicity at each instant.
"To work with my sons, who know what they want, hasn't been easy; but achieving what the three of us like is fantastic!" ANNA SANCHEZ.


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Hardening hearts: building walls
Many people are fixated with walls. Walls are created in a literal and metaphorical sense to send a message to others and to propagate a political ideology or view. Walls demonstrate insecurity and they emphasise a fear of the "other". Countries often build walls in the literal sense to map out their political views. For 28 years, The Berlin Wall perpetuated separation between two distinct political ideologies: communism and democracy.
Sometimes walls are set up in the name of safety. When Israel created a barrier in the West Bank, it was argued that the wall was not a symbol of oppression against Palestinians, but was needed to "protect" Israel. However, Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East and thus does not require a wall to defend or protect itself. The wall, however, has succeeded in making the everyday lives of ordinary Palestinians more arduous and has significantly impacted their quality of life.
In his quest to secure the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump expressed controversial rhetoric against Mexican people and vowed to build a wall (if elected) to discourage illegal immigrants. Whilst many people were outraged by Trump's salacious comments about Mexican immigrants, there was little outrage or discomfort at his proclamation that he would build a wall to solve the perceived immigration issue in the U.S.
More recently, Hungary has emphasised its reluctance to help refugees and migrants by creating a fence. This fence is a manifestation of intolerance and highlights the growing dehumanisation amongst countries that deem themselves to be civilised. Migrants and indeed refugees (who are sometimes wrongly labelled as migrants) are facing coldness from countries that perceive them as a nuisance and not as part of humanity. Thus walls, barriers and fences symbolise prejudice, fear and a refusal to explore challenges and issues in a constructive and open way.
Walls are not confined to the literal sphere. Increasingly, people build barriers around themselves. Some people build a frosty exterior because they do not want to reveal their vulnerability. Thus for some individuals establishing invisible walls around themselves serve as protective shields. They believe by being distant and unapproachable they can avoid dealing with people that may hurt them. Instead of being marginalised by others – they take the offensive step in marginalising people. This is also a defence mechanism. It may indeed keep disingenuous people away, but it also deters genuine and inspiring people from ever entering their lives. I would argue that literal and invisible walls are counter-productive and erode our compassion and humanity.
If we start to alienate ourselves from other human beings simply because they are different or are struggling – we are undermining and dehumanising ourselves. Walls cannot extinguish insecurity, fear or prejudice. Strong people should not fear integration or getting to know the "other". Walls emphasise separation. Separation and isolation create animosity and allow heinous acts of injustice and cowardice to occur. This notion that having walls or barriers can wish people away is dangerous, untenable and dispiriting. Helping people enlivens hearts and promotes justice. Walls, however, harden hearts and allow apathy to flourish.
By Mussarrat Shaheen
© TheMYN.uk 2015


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Selectively Enabling the Date and Time Stamp on Vocera Messages
For many users, having their Vocera voice mail or text messages prefixed with the date and time stamp is a very useful feature; however, in some cases this feature is best turned off. Fortunately, Vocera can accommodate both preferences.
At one of our sites, the transport team uses Vocera and has requested that time and date announcement behavior be enabled. The same site also has nursecall integration between the Rauland Responder IV and Vocera and those users would prefer to not have data time stamping on messages.
As a best practice, we often globally turn off the time and data announcement when nursecall is involved, as the volume of messages that a user receives can be high, and the time data stamp unnecessarily lengthens the nursecall alerts.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to enable or disable this preference using the genie. So here's how you can selectively allow certain users to get time stamping on messages.
If you are a Vocera administrator, do the following (otherwise contact your administrator):
- From the Administrator console, select "Defaults" from the Navigation bar
- Select the Miscellaneous tab and make sure that the "Play Message Time and Date" settings is deselected, and that the "Override User Settings" radio button is set to "No." Save changes
- For each user who requires Time and Date messages notifications enabled, login as that user from the User console.
- Choose "Announcements" from the navigation bar.
- Select the Miscellaneous tab and make sure that the "Play Message Time and Date" settings is selected. Save changes
In the event you don't want to manage the users' preferences as described above, users can be reminded that they can always hear the time a message was sent by pressing the Call button and saying "Time" during or just after the play of the message.


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To prepare for tomorrow, it's worth asking the team today
- In what ways are we functioning now that strengthens us for unforeseen challenges?
- Considering the "fire" we're currently facing…what do we do to ensure we're stronger because of it?
- Despite the circumstances, why is it important for us to still realize and activate our potential?
- Given what we're going through as a business, what does it look like for us to heal as a team moving forward?
read full article here


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© 2018 - 2019 witchuru
Another icon for MR Kuma from Discord
Please do not trace, use, copy or steal the art or character.
Commissions are OPEN
Concept Commission $25- $30 [$25]
Please do not trace, use, copy or steal the art or character.
Commissions are OPEN
Commission InfoCrown Cafe
Hello everyone!
Thank you for taking the time to revisit my commission page,
I have just recently revamped it and hope you all enjoy the new stuff~!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me or to note me!
-Please note that prices listed are generalizations. Complex designs may have a bit of an increase in price but I will always tell you before taking the commission~!-
-Just to make this clear as much as I would love to help I do art and commissions to make a living,
I don't have time to volunteer working for free-
Will Do
Won't Do
MechaSome Fetishes [Please inquire privately]Clutter
Payment Info
-Payment will vary upon commission type,
Concept Commission $25- $30 [$25]
Image size
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Chef's Treasure
I was dining at Salty's on Alki recently and Chef Paolo Carey-diGregorio stopped by my table. He looked at me with wide eyes and a huge grin and said, "Kathy, come back to the kitchen I have something really exciting I want to show you." I was so curious, I jumped up and followed Paolo back to the chilly walk-in cooler. He very reverently picked up a huge basket of gorgeous, just picked mushrooms gathered by his favorite forager and said, "He gave me the best he had. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?" Gorgeous chanterelles, porcinis and morels were heaped before my eyes like gold. "I can hardly wait to make my Chef's special with these," he said. I felt as if he was sharing some regal treasure he had just unearthed … and truly he was.
There is barely anything as sumptuous and delicious as elegant mushrooms. Mushrooms were the food of royalty and so loved by kings that historically the first known mushroom farming is attributed to Louis the XIV. Undoubtedly he would agree with Paolo that mushrooms are a food to be revered.
The richness, flavor and texture of mushrooms is unique in our world. In fact mushrooms have such an extraordinary cell structure and composition that they are honored with their own designated food kingdom, of which there are only three; plants, animals and FUNGI. Admittedly when mushrooms are fresh I think of them as a vegetable, and when they are cooked they remind me of meat, but scientists are right, they are distinctively in their own class. The flavor they impart is called "umami" and is so unique it is considered the fifth essential flavor (sweet, sour, salt and bitter are the other four).
Mushrooms are intrinsically mysterious. They thrive in the dark and feed on decomposing matter. The amazing thing about them nutritionally is that one of their strongest nutrients is vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. Clearly mushrooms are highly intelligent; knowing they won't see much daylight, they store up all the D they can and with that the beautiful chanterelle reigns supreme. As sleepily as mushrooms live their lives, they are ironically packed with the "energy vitamins" niacin and riboflavin. Mushrooms are also the preeminent "produce provider" of the powerful antioxidant selenium, strengthening our immunity and protecting us from cellular level damage, which leads to many chronic diseases.*
We invite you to come to Salty's in November and taste the splendid ways our chefs honor mushrooms, especially in our "Aw Shucks" Bivalves Festival dish Local Oyster Stew. Chef Jeremy enriches us with knowledge of how to buy, prep and cook mushrooms in his blog The Fungus, Among Us.
*Read more mushroominfo.com.


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Bed & Breakfast
Since 2017 the hotel turned into a Bed & Breakfast, but it preserved the purpose to make the guest feel hearthy welcome. At Villa Merope B&B we will ensure our guests a relaxing stay, in the respect of the different lifestyles of each visitors.
Breakfast times from 7:30am to 10:30am
Check out: 10:30am
Marina Centro location: only 200 meters from the beach
The success of HOTEL VILLA MEROPE comes from the multi-year experience of the Giannini family, which welcomes, from three generations, visitors from behind the reception desk.
We are located in the heart of Marina Centro, the most beautiful area of Rimini beach town, at only 200 meters from the beach and 1.5 km from the fascinating old town.
Breakfast is one of our strong point: guests will enjoy the many sweet and savoury delicacies, that we prepare each day, such as home-made cakes, donuts, croissants, waffles, pan cakes and much more.
There will also be natural juices, juices, flavored waters, in addition to a selection of precious tea, American coffee and cappuccino.
Gluten Free corner
At Villa Merope you can take advantge of a 'gluten free corner', with Dr. Schaer products, for a tasty and healthy breakfast.
We want you ensure the best day start time in the respect of your lifestyle.


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After getting a ton emails and questions about some of my favorites covering every category you can imagine I decided it would be really fun to start a new series Sooooooo
Today is Friday…welcome to the brand spanking new
Today is going to be a super quick rundown of my five favorite beauty YouYubers! I realize that generally my blog surrounds fitness, workouts and nutritional meals & snacks…however I am a girl who loves all girly things! One of my most favorite things in the entire universe is makeup and beauty (which you will see next week when I post my Sephora and Ulta Haul…just brace yourself I may have a problem!) These are YouTuber's that in my opinion if you are not following you should! Disclaimer: not everybody has the same personality and some of these YouTubers may not mesh with your personality and you may not like them, that's okay, however, these are ladies that I absolutely love and my suggestions are based on my personality.
Her we goooooo!
Bunny {aka grav3yardgirl}
I recently discovered the fabulous Bunny and I adore her! I love her personality…probably because I have a very similar personality to her (very hyper, very wild and very loud) I just adore her! She has quickly become one of my favorite YouTubers, who thankfully posts all the time so I can get my fill of her! She has the series called "does it really work" these videos are awesome & she is hilarious! She covers tons of different categories on her channel {not just makeup} I HIGHLY recommend you check her out…NOW!
I have been watching Katie since shortly after she started her channel! I love this girl. She always has a tutorial for my mood, natural, warm or cool toned, smoky, blue or pink! We have very similar likes and HUGE plus she has fair skin and dark hair {usually 😉 this girl can rock the forest green…totally reminds me of me when I was younger and I rocked…Purple, blue and green on a regular basis!} I love that we have similar skin tone because it seems all too often beauty youtubers are all about tanner and I'm not…I really dig my pale skin so I embrace it! If you haven't checked out her channel I think you should, I really think you'll love her!
Jaclyn Hill
Oh Jacklyn Hill what can I say…she is amazing! She is a professional makeup artist who gives the most fantastic tutorials that are so easy to follow! If you are someone who has a hard time getting your makeup the way that you wanted to look, Jaclyn is the gal that you need to go and watch! She will make you feel confident in your make up applying ability, plus she gives tips on how to do things and she also regularly shares her favorite items! I love her, She is fun and genuine!
Steph Willis
I have been watching Steph for months and hands down she is one of my all time faves! Similar to Katie I love that she has fairer skin and dark hair! She is a mama and a baker! She is so sweet and very soft spoken. Her tutorials are always beautiful and easy to follow! Please go and check out Steph!
Kathleen Lights
I also recently discovered Kathleen and I don't know how I have not known who she was for so long?! She is adorable, there is no other word, this girl is freaking precious and I love her! I love her tutorials. She also does, monthly favorite & hauls. If you have not watched Kathleen Lights you need to immediately go and check her out! She has a very sweet and genuine personality which I LOVE!
Kandee Johnson
Last but definitely not least is Kandee Johnson!!! I have been a follower Kandee for years and I adore her and everything she does! She has a fun and wild personality that I of course connect with! Kandee's YouTube channel is the one you need to go there first, hands-down! she is so amazing! She currently has a "every day princess" series going on where she gives make up tutorials on how to look like your favorite princesses! My so far my two favorites have been Jasmine and Pocahontas. This series in awesome she totally transforms herself…she does contacts and wigs the whole things!
Okay guys so there you have it these are my five favorite beauty you tubers! I do subscribe a TON more and I hated to leave anybody else out but I follow so many that I thought a top 50 would be a little excessive so I picked my top five that I watch daily…and often binge watch!


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KCB Rwanda made Rwf 71.1m in net profit (after tax) in 2013, overcoming a more than Rwf1bn after tax loss it recorded in 2012.
According to a statement released by the Kenyan lender last week, the bank's loan book grew by 9.8 per cent last year to Rwf48bn from Rwf43.7bn in 2012. At the same time, total customer deposits increased to Rwf62.02bn last year from Rwf54.28bn in 2012.
The bank's net operating income went up by 5.91 per cent year on year, from Rwf8.48bn to Rwf8.98bn.
Maurice Toroitich, the chief executive officer, said that the bank took up a number of initiatives last year that led to a surge in profit. Some of the initiatives include increasing staff productivity, loan portfolio and stabilising the bank's operating expenses.
He said that most of the bank's branches were now making profit and noted that customer deposits were also growing as a result of good customer service and other banking services like the mortgage facilities that clients know can impact their lives positively.


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cuddle doll
Products You May Like
Ratings & Reviews
15 reviews
by Nona A. -
This is the perfect doll for my 15 month old great-grandson....small, soft and pliable, designed to be cuddley...I know he will love it!!
Sweet and simple doll
by Heather S. -
I got this doll for my almost 3-year-old daughter, and she loves it and has been carrying it around ever since. The doll is well-made from quality materials and just the right size for a small child to hold. At first, the doll felt a little stiff compared to a stuffed animal, but the wool softened up and becomes softer (and warm) when held. Lovely.
Just what we hoped for
by Lindsay G. -
We ordered this for our nine month old who loves giving kisses to this old plastic doll I had. But we wanted something snuggly for him to keep in bed. I wasn't sure if he would respond the same to the simple Waldorf face but he has. Kisses galore plus he likes playing with the hat and it is the perfect weight and texture for hugs as he gets older. We are very happy and think this doll is perfect to grow with him.
Very appropriate for a 15
by Sharon S. -
Very appropriate for a 15 month old. Small enough to hold, carry around. Not quite as "soft and cuddly as I hoped but all in all, it's great.
First doll
by Jennifer G. -
Our fifteen-month old loves her soft, cuddly friend. It's the perfect size and shape for a wee one. Highly recommended.
Great dolls!
by Holly K. -
This is our second "cuddle" doll we've bought from Nova Natural Toys. We bought our first one (the pink one) back in 2011 and it has held up reasonably well. The doll has been well loved by our daughter since she first got "Peppa". My only problem is that the dolls are very difficult to clean, so be prepared for that. Our first doll has some staining on her now from my daughter when she was a baby that we weren't able to spot clean off.
Despite that, I still bought another cuddle doll because they are great dolls. The faces are expressive enough to be captivating but not too much so the children can still use their imaginations. The colors are super vibrant (wish there was a yellow!) and they hold up well to baby, toddler, and little kid play.
by Kathy H. -
got the cuddle doll in good time for Easter and it is wonderful- beautifully made and cuddly!
Wish it could be a
by Nancy C. -
Wish it could be a little more "babylike"...but for a six month old...good
So Sweet
by Samantha S. -
So Sweet
by Keely O. -
This doll is very sweet and lovable. My son loves it.
Really great doll!
by Carey M. -
We got this and the Nonny doll for our 13 month old for Christmas. So far she absolutely ADORES the Nonny doll and has even named it, but I think in time as she grows, this doll will fit better for her (the doll is larger and she is pretty tiny) and become a favorite as well. The two as a pair are really perfect! As far as quality and materials is it absolutely top notch!
Gave this to our granddaughter
by Rita Q. -
Gave this to our granddaughter as her first doll. Soft, cuddly and colorful!
Very Happy.
by Richard P. -
Beautiful doll! Bought it for my grand daughter and we all love it.
cuddle doll
by Erin -
My daughter loved her first cuddle doll to pieces. She is five now and we bought a replacement. It is soft and a great size for young children. My only issue is that it was difficult to clean. She took it everywhere with her and spot cleaning wasn't enough to keep it clean. We did end up washing it, but then I had to restuff it, as the stuffing bunched up. I still bought another, though!
Really nice doll
by Helaine I. -
My Grandson loved it.


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21 September - Not a big spender
Bexley council is proud of spending
less on
domiciliary care workers than any nearby borough and it never seemed likely that
it would be the biggest spender nationally on child care. The last thing Bexley
council does is care so it is not very surprising that
the recent Daily Telegraph report
was wrong. Councils are expert at wasting money but £3 million pounds a year on each child had to be
a mistake - and it was. The real figure is now
said to be £192,400 per year.
The council's rebuttal of the Telegraph's figure taken from Department of Education data naturally includes the proud boast that they are spending less than most councils. I hope that isn't a recipe for more Rhys Lawries and Barbara Bakers (BELL).
Nice to know that Bexley council has never felt it necessary to correct anything reported here.


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Leisure in Donegal!
We have the best beaches in the Country! With Rossnowlagh (2 miles long), Murvagh (1 1/2 miles long, Bundoran being a premier seaside resort, Mullaghmore – superb sandy 3km beach, Rosses Point, Sligo a seafaring village with a seaside resort with two magnificent sandy beaches, Strandhill, Sligo very popular for surfers, but not safe for swimmers due to strong currents. Not forgetting Streedagh stand – an impressive 3km long sandy beach. Also famous for the Spanish Armada ship wreak site in 1588.
Ballyshannon & District Museum – Slevin's Department Store – floor 3!
Tel: 087 1937 166 (Admin Free)
'Ireland's Oldest Town' Come and visit Ireland's oldest museum and take a step back in time, learn about the fishing industry, the defeat of Cromwell's army, the famine workhouse, the literary history, the Donegal Corridor and much, much more!
A visit to Donegal Castle, Donegal Town home to the O'Donnell chieftains in the 15th century and later extended by Sir Basil Broke in 17th Century.
A visit around the Glenveagh estate which is home to the castle surround by ornate and renowned gardens.
Ballymote Castle – Richard de Burgo, the 'red earl' of Ulster built the strongest fortress of Connaught!
Horse Racing
County Sligo Races, Cleveragh Road, Sligo Tel: 071 9183342 Web: www.countysligoraces.com
Sligo races is located just 1km from Sligo town. The programme consists of Flat and National Hunt racing. The track has a bar, restaurant and snack bar. Coach tours welcome. Free parking. Corporate facilities available catering for up to 80 people with viewing area and balcony.
Greyhound Track
Ballyduff Road, Lifford Tel: 074 9141083 Web: www.liffordgreyhounds.com
Lifford Greyhound Stadium is renowned for its excellent facilities and atmosphere. It is a modern and sophistaced racetrack bringing you an exciting programme of racing. It has top class restaurants and bars where you can wine and dine and watch the racing action. After, there is music or DJ until closing every Saturday. Live broadcasts from the Dublin tracks. Free car parking.
Bundoran Glowbowl & Macks Amusements
Main Street, Bundoran Tel: 071 98 42111 Web: www.bundoranglowbowl.ie
Bundoran Glowbowl & Macks Amusements is the largest Family Entertainment Centre in the North West and caters for everyone. It is centrally situated on main street in the beautiful sea-side resort of Bundoran in County Donegal. Glowbowl houses 8 lanes of fully computerised Tenpin Bowling and the fantastic Amusements Complex has something for all the family.
Eagles Flying
Portinch, Ballymote, Co Sligo Tel; 071 91 89310 Web: www.eaglesflying.com
Situated amid the beautiful landscape of the North West, Ireland's largest sanctuary for birds of prey and owls offers an incomparable impression of majestic ratpors soaring over one of the most lovely locations. At present, Eagles Flying is home to about 350 animals and birds out of more than 70 species.
Bundoran Seaweed Baths
The Promenade, Bundoran Tel: 071 98 41172 Web: www.waterworldbundoran.com
A relaxing, invigorating environment for adults only. Unwind in one of the many individual bathing rooms, steam cabinets, seaweed baths with filtered and heated sea water, local seaweed and a refreshing sea water drench shower. Alternatively enjoy total mind and body relaxation in a self contained environment in the Relaxarium – a unique sensory experience. Physioacoustic massage chair, treadmills, sea based body treatments, sun bed, juice bar and relaxation area complement an atmosphere of calm.
Voya Seaweed Baths
Strandhill, Sligo Tel: 071 91 68686 Web: www.voyaseaweedbaths.com
Locally hand harvested seaweed to bring you an organic beauty experience that will purify the body. Local traditions of seaweed baths and treatments.
Motorbike Tours!
True North Bike Tours Tel: 086 382 0969 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Web: www.truenorthbiketours.com
Traverse our mountain passes, rise over our renowned sea cliffs, relive the glory days of our greatest road races, sample our rich and colourful history, feast on our salty Atlantic air, roam our award winning beaches and uncover our inhabited lands… Contact Brendan for guided tours by motorbike!


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When we first spotted this ASOS Google Eye Fascinator Hat, we were all like, "OMG WTF?" and decided to have fun with the idea of sporting an extra pair of eyes on a black piece of circular felt. And while that was just for a laugh in the name of fashion, we suppose ASOS never got the joke (or hint). Instead, the popular retailer was probably all like, "OMG YES! MORE!" The result? MORE tiny hats that are even more ridiculous than before. If you're down with donning a fascinator at your next soiree, might we suggest one that resembles the top of an apple? Perhaps one with miniature mouse ears? Or maybe a hybrid wicker-basket-cupcake hat? ASOS has got you covered from head to–well, just your head—a kooky-looking head at that.
Read more WTF moments in fashion: bizarre eBay listings, Jeffrey Campbell's floating shoes, and a dress whose 'crack' can kill.


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Suzann Christine: Living Out Destiny.
Text by Aneesah Coley. Image by G.W. Miller III.
Suzann Christine says she was always singing. Since the age of 5, she loaned her voice to church and talent shows, but she didn't think about turning her passion into a career.
"I didn't really come to the conclusion that it was something that I may want to pursue until probably, like, 2010," says the 22-year old singer/songwriter who grew up in the city's West Oak Lane section. "Not that long ago. And it was just something that I really wanted to do. I felt like I couldn't run from it."
Inspired by Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé and Teena Marie, Christine says she really enjoys being able to express how she feels through music. She hasn't released a full album yet but she's managed to build a fan base by releasing singles, doing shows and contributing to various records with other local talents including Chill Moody and Lee Mazin.
"It's just gonna be a matter of getting everything together," she says, "deciding which songs I'm gonna put on the project and which songs I'm not."
She's a versatile artist who tackles various genres including hip-hop, R&B and pop.
She earned the chance to perform at this year's Radio One Fest in Miami in July after entering her single, "Closed Casket" to a contest advertised on OurStage.com. She beat out more than 1,400 entries from across the country. At the fest, she performed before T.I., Wale, Melanie Fiona, Monica, Young Jeezy and others.
"I love her," says Craig White, owner at Sound Doctor Productions. "She's very beautiful, obviously talented, a fabulous writer, and she can really, really sing."
The Girls High graduate aspires to be someone who young girls and people in general can look up to. She definitely wants to be a voice for women.
"I feel like we go through so much and we let men kind of get us in a place where we hate each other," she says. "That's not the way it should be."
Christine finds herself to be relatable because a lot of her songs are about things that she's actually lived through. Music is very powerful, she says. The messages that artists put out can really affect people, changing the way they feel and act. This is why she wants her music to be able to speak to people, to encourage them. It's fulfilling to her when her music can be the reason why someone was able to get through a tough situation.
Through her non-profit organization, SCH Creative & Performing Arts Inc., she gives back to the community. Beginning in October, the organization will offer classes in photography, dance, vocal music and music production at the Philadelphia Center for Arts & Technology in West Oak Lane.
"At the end of the day you have to live out your destiny," Christine says. "You have to live out your dreams."
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Williams Sonoma Mulling Spices
- Only at Williams Sonoma
- New
- Free Fast Shipping
- Exclusive
Easy, hassle-free returns online and in-store for eligible items.Learn More
Earn 5% Back in rewards4 plus free standard shipping3every day when you shop with your Williams Sonoma credit card at Williams Sonoma.Apply Now Learn More
- Summary
Chuck Williams introduced our signature mulling spices over 50 years ago—and they've been a customer favorite ever since. His special recipe combines Korintje Grade-A cinnamon, Madagascar cloves and whole allspice berries with tangy bits of American orange peel. When you simmer the blend with apple cider or red wine, it fills your kitchen with a rich, spicy aroma that's warm and welcoming as the drink itself.
- 5.75 oz.
- Made in USA.
- Ingredients
- Cinnamon chips, orange rind, whole allspice, whole cloves, cinnamon oil, orange oil.
- This product is prepared and packaged using machines that may come in contact with wheat/gluten, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, soy.
- Shipping
Shipping Information
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3–5 business days. UPS is unable to deliver to P.O. boxes.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
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For an additional charge of $26 per address, we can expedite delivery to most destinations. This service is not available for some oversize items, items shipped directly from the supplier (including perishable and custom-manufactured items), out-of-stock items and items to be shipped outside the contiguous 48 states.
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Williams Sonoma Mulling Spice Ball
Williams Sonoma Mulling Spice Ball
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Rated 5 out of 5 by SFlady from The best These whole spices are simply the best. None of the other "shortcut" products like the individual mulling spice sachets, or the quick mix, even come close. If you want your apple cider or mulled wine to have a full multi-layered spice flavor then only this product will do. Some people put the mulling spices in a spice ball or cheesecloth, but I like to just pour them in the cider and let the float around while it simmers. It gives the dry spice pieces and orange peel room grow back to normal size. And it's easy enough to strain out the spices when serving. I buy glass jugs of organic apple cider and simmer it with the spices for about 30 minutes (it makes your home smell wonderful!). If there is any leftover cider, let cool and use a funnel to pour it back into the glass jug and refrigerate. A mug reheated in the microwave tastes just as great.Date published: 2019-11-15Rated 5 out of 5 by amrunner from Apple cider will never be the same! I've always loved apple cider, but it will seriously never be the same without these mulling spices! They are so flavorful without being overpowering, creating the perfect batch of cider each and every time.Date published: 2017-11-30Rated 5 out of 5 by LizVallejo from The Best....Ever! Nothing else on the market can hold a candle to these mulling spices. The ingedients are the best, the ratio of the mix is perfect. Not just for mulled beverages-- they are a secret ingredient for many a jar of blue ribbon jam or jelly. Just add a tablespoon of these spices to a teasack and cook with your fruit, remove before you add the pectin. It adds an element of yummy that lingers on the roof of your mouth. I stock up when it goes on sale!Date published: 2016-04-06Rated 5 out of 5 by kaytalker from best ever mulling spice I gave this as gifts and they loved it. I tried to restock mine and they were out. I was sad. This is the best ever! Hope they continue this product.Date published: 2016-01-08Rated 5 out of 5 by ladydragon from Fabulous Mulling Spices I always order this every year. I buy it for gifts and for myself. I love the wonderful aroma smell when making the Mulling Spices with the Apple Cider. I make a large pot and put it in a large bottle; this way I can have cup every day.Date published: 2015-10-30Rated 5 out of 5 by foodqueen from more classic than peppermint bark even I try never to run out of this. It will keep for at least a year on a dark shelf and kept in its airtight jar. Starting in the fall and all the way through spring, nothing makes a kitchen smell better than a small pot of cider with mulling spices on simmer. In a pinch, to freshen up the adjoining rooms, I have simmered a tablespoon of spices in a quart of water as a homey, inviting scent. Try simmering cider in the all clad slow cooker with these spices. At Christmas, I prefer a copper pot on the stove top with a nice ladle and mugs nearby. These spices are also good in hot buttered cider with rum. I do put them in a spice ball when simmering.Date published: 2015-02-09Rated 5 out of 5 by AnneM59 from A cold weather classic These mulling spices are the most balanced and consistent blend I've found. Great with cider or wine. We purchase every year for making mulled cider in the percolator on Christmas morning.Date published: 2015-02-03Rated 5 out of 5 by AshleyKay from Love this stuff! I am so happy to see that the mulling spices are back this season. They make a great apple cider and make your entire house smell like fall heaven. Perfect for a cozy fall/winter day or entertaining.Date published: 2014-10-16
I was just wondering how long the mulling spices are good for opened and unopened. I have the same question for the mulling spices sachets.Hi Kathy, Since these are just spices, the shelf life is pretty long—at least a few years. Though the longer you have them, they will begin to lose potency.Date published: 2019-12-02


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Photo: Iain Bagwell; Styling: Kay Clark
Prep this citrus butter in advance for Gulf Crab Cake dipping -- because every superhero needs a sidekick.
How to Make It
Step 1
Bring first 5 ingredients to a simmer in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or until liquid almost completely evaporates. Reduce heat to low, and whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking constantly and allowing butter to melt between each addition.
Step 2
Pour mixture through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a bowl, discarding solids. Stir in salt and white pepper. Cover with foil to keep warm.
United Tastes of Texas by Jessica Dupuy, copyright 2015, Oxmoor House.


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So you could imagine my initial excitement about VH1's "Basketball Wives." I thought that finally, I could turn away from the soon-to-be train wreck that is the Housewives of New York City and get a glimpse of the life that I had always thought should really be mine. Keep your Upper East Side condo and your VIP seating at New York Fashion Week. I'll take a house in Miami and court side seats, thank you very much!
However, I quickly found fault with the show and got confused about what Shaunie O'Neal and VH1 are trying to show the viewing public about sports, marriage and the intersection of the two. These things are things I take very seriously. Just take a look at how the show disappoints...
First of all, there are at least 6 women featured on the show. 1 is married. 1 is engaged. 1 has an ex-fiance. 2 are divorced. 1 may or may not currently be an NBA dancer who seems to show no interest in being married to a basketball player or otherwise. That does not a show about "wives" make! The show is more about the failure of marriage in the League than it is about the lives of these women.
Secondly, and this is a consequence of my first issue, there is hardly any basketball. It's really a shame. Not that I am particularly excited to see any of the men affiliated with this show playing. I lost interest in Shaq years ago, and Matt Barnes reminds me of the guys I can see playing at The Rucker every summer. But I wouldn't mind some footage of games, practice, dealing with injuries, watching fathers interact with their families. Without that element, this show could be about any wives. It could be about army wives. It could be about wives of politicians. It could be about wives of media moguls and oil kings. What it actually does become is a show about women with too much time and money on their hands in Miami. Who cares?
Lastly (as I've put a cap on my negativity and criticism in 2010 in an effort to usher more positivity into my life), clearly VH1 is not the place to see love happen. I don't think VH1 execs are fooling themselves into believing that Ray J Norwood is really going to settle down with anyone of the women he's met on the 2 seasons he's been looking for a steady piece of career backside! This is the same network that brought us 3 seasons of Flava of Love and the ridiculously unnecessary I Love New York. Then, in case you didn't know, there were 2 spin offs of that - one featured a guy who lives in his parents' basement looking for a girlfriend and the other featured 2 brothers who were looking for women. Brett Michaels gave love a shot on VH1 with 2 seasons of Rock of Love. There's Tool Academy, Tough Love... VH1 used to be in love with music. Does anyone remember that? It is a joke now to believe 90% of what VH1 calls "reality" programming is anywhere near real. How dare they make the jump from creating C-list celebrities who may or may not have been involved with or interested in musical careers to letting Shaunie O'Neal expose what has got to be the most ridiculous part of the NBA - the residual effects of a lack of common sense in an alternate universe of professional sports. If there needs to be a show about how relationships fall apart, it didn't have to include sports. Seriously.
Even though I would like to be the wife of a professional athlete someday, I have to agree with blogger, Mason Jamal:
... as a man, I can't imagine a more entertaining way to spend my twenties and early 30s than to play basketball, get paid millions of dollars to do so, invest wisely, stay single, protect myself and chase women up and down the rainbow. Star NBA players in their prime, as within any professional sport, are way too fortunate and far too fertile to take chances, let alone get married at such a young age. They're different. They live in an alternate universe of long money, short skirts and even shorter attention spans. Getting drawn into a one vagina vortex of matrimony, for most of them, should not be part of the pre-retirement plan. It's like taking sand to the beach.
So, since I will no longer be watching "Basketball Wives," I do not think the concept is all bad. It had potential, and it gives Shaunie, Royce, Evalyn, Gloria, Jennifer and all their little friends in South Beach something to do with their time. It gives them a chance to be in the spotlight rather than in the shadows of their husbands, boyfriends, ex-fiances, etc. We could only hope that once all the eyes are on them, they do something worthwhile and commendable like fight hunger, raise awareness and money about disease, leverage their affiliation with their significant others to launch their own businesses, demonstrate true partnership with their spouses/significant others, raise children well, be charitable. Bottom line: They've got options!
And just in case someone out there, like me, is obsessed with the family lives of professional athletes - for whatever reason - I recommend watching Kendra on E! The former Playboy bunny presents a much more honest look at being a young wife and mom, married to a professional athlete - NFL's Hank Baskett (Indiana Colts) God, I hope they make it!
That is all. I'm still here utilizing the privilege extended to contribute to this blog. Good day.


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At 51, Greg Norman is as candid as ever when it comes to golf equipment. Recently, GOLF Magazine sat down with him to talk about today's game. Here are excerpts from that interview.
GOLF Magazine: What's the biggest advancement in equipment during the past five years?
Greg Norman: No question it's the ball. The golf ball spins less. You have less control over it. I think if they went back to the specifications of the golf ball in the 1996 era, you're going to find that the long hitters still hit the ball long. But also the ball moves more through the air. The art of playing the game of golf, hitting shots, comes back into the game a little bit more. Nowadays you see young kids pulling out sand wedges from 120 yards and just smashing it as hard as they can. The days of seeing [Lee] Trevino take a pitching wedge out and spin it in there from left to right and land on the green and spin 25 feet to the right, is gone. They're gone. Because everything's just aim at the top of the flagstick now and just go at it. I've always believed that the PGA Tour should take the lead role in this and put restrictions on for the pros. I think the masses, the 25 million golfers out there in America, shouldn't have any regulations. They should have a golf ball that goes 330 yards.
GOLF Magazine: Should there be two sets of rules?
Greg Norman: Absolutely. We are supposed to be the best players in the world. We practice and hit golf balls 10 hours a day. So why should we be the ones benefiting from technology. We should be the ones having to work hard, which we do, to extract the best we can from the game. I go back to the Masters and get in this discussion a lot with manufacturers. They think by making this comment, they think that they'd sell fewer products. But that's not the truth.
Take women, for example. Women get the least amount of advantage of technology nowadays because they don't have the clubhead speed to generate, to get that extraction from the golf ball. And it's the same with even the top players. You take 144 guys on the PGA Tour, there's probably only 14 that generate a clubhead speed over 118 mph, I'm guessing. So you're only talking about 10 percent of the players really extracting maximum performance out of technology.
Why not balance it out? So a player like a Corey Pavin or a Ben Crenshaw of the old days could beat you with the short game just spinning the golf ball around the golf course with their shotmaking ability.
They're kind of gone now. I think of a Luke Donald who's not a big guy in stature but a magnificent swinger of the golf club. Does he hit the ball a long way, 340 yards? No. But when he gets to certain golf courses, I think he's not getting the advantages like some other players. Go back to the olden days whether it was Nicklaus or whether it was me who was the longest hitter in the world. Sure, we outdrove players by 20 to 30 yards, but the golf courses weren't out there at 7,600-7,700 yards, either. So it's a totally different story.
GOLF Magazine: How low could you go with today's technology?
Greg Norman: I don't think I'd be a better player with the equipment because I was taught to maneuver the golf ball. Very seldom did I ever hit a straight shot. What type of player would I be today? I'd be just aiming dead straight and hit it as hard as I could every time. Whereas in the olden days, I would be taking a lot off my shots and feeling the golf ball into a certain position on the green to spin into a certain place.
GOLF Magazine: You in your prime versus Tiger in his prime? Who wins?
Greg Norman: That's an interesting question. It's hard for me to answer that because the technology's different. I used a persimmon driver and used to driver it 300 yards with an old Tour Edition golf ball that used to spin too much.
What would be the outcome? I don't know. I'd probably say I'd hit the ball as far as Tiger, nowadays with the same equipment. From a mental skill, I think he'd probably have the edge on me. From a tenacity point of view, and an aggressive and confidence level, I think we're pretty much the same.
|Rob Sauerhaft is the Managing Editor of Equipment for GOLF MAGAZINE. E-mail him your questions and comments at [email protected]


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The latest modern-day Planet of the Apes sequel takes a major step into the future we know and love from the original film run, and director Matt Reeves has opened up about where he's taking the franchise next.
Reeves chatted with io9 about the plan going forward in the wake of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and revealed they'll be digging deeper into the ape religion and Caesar's role and legacy in the future of the ape society.
Check out some excerpts from the interview below and let us know what you think:
"That's (the ape religion) definitely going to be an aspect of the story. He becomes a very mythic character. And he's the Caesar that shall begin other Caesars. Given that we know the ending of the story and we know that Caesar has these ties to humans and to apes, and that everything gets really turned upside down by the world of the '68 film …
The question is how do we get there? And this then becomes a generational story. A story of not only Caesar and his family, but his children and how this story continues down that path. How Caesar becomes the first, truly mythic god-like character for the apes. He's very seminal figure for the apes. The idea, the objective for the story was to being the beginning of that mythic status for him. He goes from being a kind of revolutionary to a kind of leader to a mythic god …
Now we start to go into this place where self preservation starts to be the order of the day. He knows there's no going back and explaining, 'the apes didn't really mean to attack the humans, they were misled by a rogue ape.' That's not something you can really explain to a society. And he realizes that now he has to grapple with the reality. He's got pulls in both worlds, this is going to be a very painful journey for him, and for the apes."
The revitalized Apes series has become one of the most compelling sci-fi franchises on the market, and it sounds like Reeves has an incredibly compelling vision for where he wants to take it. We loved Dawn, but we're even more curious to see where it might go next.
Are you intrigued by what Reeves had to say?
(Via io9)


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Marina Cruysmans
Marina Cruysmans has a degree in Archeology and History of Art from the Université Catholique de Louvain. She started working in the field of art and archeology for ten years. After a few years in Paris and Seoul (Korea)where she worked for the Korean radio in French language, she joined the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS ) as assistant to the Director General and conferences project manager. She joined the Royal Institute for International relations in 2002. In charge of the conferences, she is currently Executive Director.


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Wickham Tractor Co. has a new team behind the parts counter at its Fort Morgan location.
Rob Bare became the parts manager for that location about three months ago, and he said the company felt it was time to hire some new people and expand their product selection. The change comes partly in response to increased business, and partly as a result of Wickham's move to become more focused on customer service and relationships. Their Sterling location has also gained several new employees.
"The business is growing," Bare said. "Things are really looking up."
Tom Hayes, one of the new Fort Morgan employees, has 15 years of experience in parts. Tabitha Stratton brings 11 years of parts experience. Kaleb Harms has only spent a year behind the parts counter, but grew up on local farms and knows how tractor parts work in the field.
Wickham Tractor also recently added Polaris tractor equipment to its lineup of brands, which already included Case IH and Kubota. Both locations employ certified master technicians for Polaris.
But Bare hopes all the changes will just serve to make Wickham a more people-friendly company. Their slogan is "We're in the business of making friends," after all.
"There are no numbers here," Bare said. "We don't look at people as numbers–we try to treat everyone like friends. Our main goal is customer service."
Wickham Tractor Fort Morgan is located at 15447 U.S. 34, and can be reached at 970-867- 5669. The Sterling location is at 18875 County Road 24 in Sterling and can be reached at 970-521-9999.
For more information about the services available from Wickham Tractor, visit www.wickhamtractor.com.
Stephanie Alderton: 970-867-5651 ext 227, email@example.com or twitter.com/slalderton


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Rainbow Wedding Network's Gay and Lesbian Wedding Expo
I have been a supporter of equal rights in regards to same sex marriage since I understood the concept of two people uniting. I was lucky to have been exposed to a variety of colorful lifestyles and communities at a young age. For as long as I can remember, my uncle, who was gay, spoke openly about his life and his long term relationships. He was a good man with many wonderful qualities and I treasured my time with him immensely. I was incredibly lucky to have him as my uncle because he taught me to be open, kind and respectful of all people. Many of my values in regards to "untraditional" unions came from him. For example, in college I made the decision to become and egg donor. When asked if I was willing to donate to a gay couple, I didn't hesitate. I have donated to several different gay couples and I couldn't be more proud.
Finally when Proposition 8 passed, I knew that same sex couples everywhere were celebrating, just as my uncle would have if he were still with us. The event planner in me immediately got excited at the idea of being a part of these long awaited unions. I was beyond excited to exhibit at the Rainbow Wedding Network's Wedding Expo in San Diego, Ca on August 18th, 2013 at the Handlery Hotel. The San Diego Events Company team had a phenomenal time and we can't wait to start planning! Below you will find the event gallery from our booth. Although my official title is Owner and Lead Event Coordinator of San Diego Events Company, I prefer to think of myself as a facilitator of creating treasured memories. I hope to be a facilitator for many same sex weddings for years to come.


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Glock Model 41 M.O.S. Gen 4 45acp 5.31" (NEW)
Guns International #: 100646404 Seller's Inventory #: 138696
Category: Glock Pistols - .45 ACP Pistols
Seller's Information
When emailing or calling sellers direct, please mention that you saw their listing on GunsInternational.com
Seller: Jaqua's Fine Guns Inc
Company: Jaqua's Fine Guns Inc
Member Since: 4/11/07
State: Ohio
Zip: 45840
Country: United States
Phone: (419) 422-0912
Platinum Seller
Number of Active Listings: 647
Total Number of Listings: 10717
Seller: FFL Dealer
Return Policy: 3 day inspection and return policy on used guns.
Payment Types Accepted: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, MoneyOrder
Glock Model 41 M.O.S. Gen 4 45acp 5.31" (NEW)-- New from Glock the Model 41 with Modular Optic System (MOS) adapter plate for optics, adjustable rear sight, fixed front sight, interchangeable backstrap, reversible mag release and three 13 round magazines
Price: $697.00


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REVIEW: Leo Sayer: Just A Boy At 70, New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth
The songs are great. They really are.
But it's the overall package that makes a Leo Sayer concert such a supremely enjoyable night out.
It's difficult to think of anyone who so positively fizzes with the sheer joy of performance quite as much as Leo does – or of anyone who so effortlessly and so easily builds such a great rapport with his audience.
Feed in songs of the quality that Leo Sayer writes and sings, and the result is memorable indeed – a couple of hours in the company of a true entertainer in the broadest sense, witty, irreverent, hugely energetic and hugely skilled.
He comes across as so immensely likeable, taking nothing terribly seriously – apart from the music which is delivered brilliantly – delivered along with oodles of nostalgia for those of us old enough to remember it all from the first time round.
All the hits were there including Thunder In My Heart, Moonlighting, One Man Band, I Can't Stop Loving You, More Than I Can Say, Have You Ever Been in Love, When I Need You and You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.
And on the back of them Leo slipped in some newer numbers which were equally enjoyable.
The tour comes as part of his 70th birthday celebrations – celebrations which have gone on so long that he turned 71 just a couple of days before his Portsmouth gig. Long may he continue. The man's a tonic.


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Behind the Scenes
Park students intern at the 2010 Olympics. By Monica Watson '12
While viewers tuned into the 2010 Winter Olympics from comfy couches and warm living rooms, students from the Roy H. Park School of Communications were working around the clock with NBC in Vancouver to ensure that coverage of the event was a success. Out of the pool of students who applied and interviewed with NBC for these coveted internships, 31 were selected.
Junior Nicholas Karski was one of them. He worked as a logger, a job that entailed watching Bob Costas' prime-time Olympics coverage and Mary Carillo's NBC Olympics Late Night show and then writing down anything significant that happened. He recalls an epiphany-like moment while taking a break near the Olympic cauldron. "I was sitting right next to it as if it were a bonfire, and everything just seemed to come together in my mind," says Karski. "I had this realization that not only was I working at one of the biggest sporting events in the world but also for one of the biggest television networks."
Sophomore Meghan Rindfleisch worked as a runner for the Daily Stories department at the NBC headquarters in the International Broadcasting Center. The department was responsible for creating profiles on athletes and short feature pieces. Her job entailed transcribing interviews, creating lists of clips of a particular person or event, assembling research packets for reporters before they interviewed people, and selecting background music.
Rindfleisch says she felt a little starstruck in the presence of some of the biggest names in media. "You'd see Bob Costas and Dick Ebersol walking around and Lester Holt joining them for coffee," she says. "Brian Williams almost ran me down coming out of a bathroom once. I did get to meet Tom Brokaw because he worked really closely with Daily Stories. I pretty much wanted to pass out after I talked to him."
Diane Gayeski, dean of the Park School, says that the Olympics is a way for students to gain experience working in a professional situation that is irreplicable in the classroom. "It's important for our students to be able to see how professionals deal with large-scale events and complex issues and how they work together in a real-life setting."
Associate dean of the Park School Virginia Mansfield-Richardson says that real-world working experience is crucial for students. "The Olympics is a fantastic venue for students to be working in," she adds. "The whole behind-the-scenes effort of preparing, producing, and televising the event is extremely complex. Not a lot of things compare to what it takes to put on the Olympics."
Karski says that witnessing what it took to organize an event like the Olympics was an eye-opening experience for him. "We have ICTV," says Karski, "but NBC just has so many people working. Being able to work alongside the best in the business has offered me a great learning experience."
1 Comment
Thats so cool i want to be just like you one day!