text:
Russian companies are facing a $112bn wall of debt over the next four years, according to rating agency Moody's, as Western powers move to strangle credit lines to the country.
The US has already imposed sanctions that effectively shut the energy giants Rosneft, Novatek, and Gazprombank out of US debt markets.
That could make the refinancing of $111.6bn (£65.4bn) worth of debts due between now and 2018 more complicated.
Moody's said that while companies on the periphery of the eurozone received much of the focus last year, the refinancing concerns may shift to Russia, which accounts for about 10pc of the total European debt pile of $1.06trn
Pressure is mounting on the EU to match the punitive US measures on Russian corporates, extending the strangle hold to the European credit market as a response to the downing of a Malaysian passenger jet.
Indeed, European banks have "a lot of money at stake" in the Ukraine crisis, according to analysts at UBS. The institutions covered by its researchers have lent more than €60bn (£47bn) to Russia and Ukraine, excluding "any investment banking activity", the Swiss lender said.
The banks covered by UBS most exposed to any credit selloff in the region are UniCredit and Raiffeisen Bank from Austria, Societe Generale from France and Dutch bank ING who all have loan exposures to Ukraine and Russia exceeding €8bn.
However, the sanctions imposed by the west are also unlikely to force any Russian companies to hit the wall within the next 12 montsh according to Moody's.
Rosneft and Gazprom, who combined make up almost three quarters of the total Russian corporate debts, have cash on the balance sheet, but the situation could deteriorate.
"Russian corporates may be facing increasing challenges to refinance their upcoming maturities…. given the current geopolitical context of US sanctions and a weakening economic outlook in Russia," said Jean-Michel Carayon, Senior Vice President in Moody's Corporate Finance Group


text:
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
5 comments:
Can you whip up a manly mug rug? Hmmmm... is it possible to make a mug rug manly? Would a guy even use one? ;)ReplyDelete
What about a gift card? Best Buy... Amazon... Starbucks...
I hope you get lots of great suggestions!! :)
I am thinking coffee. :o)ReplyDelete
Like a gift card for a coffee house in your area.
gift card. starbucks or barnes and noble maybe?ReplyDelete
I like the coffee gift card idea. Maybe you could make a card with a fabric pocket on the front...and put the giftcard in it. Then you can write something nice inside. Or the pocket can be inside instead. Add a manly fabric mug rug or coaster if you have time?ReplyDelete
I heard that buying books for the classroom library is appreciated, and is something that "keeps giving" year after year. If you are unsure, a gift card to a bookstore, gives him the choice to buy books for the classroom, or books for himself.ReplyDelete

subset: commoncrawl


text:
By using 3D scanning in connection with oral pathways, CAO conception and 3D dental printers, dental laboratories can produce dental crowns, dental implants, plasters and a range of orthodontic products with high levels of precision within short periods of time.
3D dental printing involves simple procedures and the use of specialized dental printing materials. 3D dental printers can be used to create dental crowns, dental implants, dental plasters, orthodontic products, reception and positioning trays, mouthpieces and transparent objects.
3D dental printing makes it possible for you to improve production periods and the productivity of your workshops. In addition, working with digital models ensures that you are able to store your collection of client files at no additional cost. 3D dental printing also makes it possible for you to provide your clients with enhanced levels of service by creating objects perfectly adapted to suit their needs.
With a range of materials completely adapted to clinical and dental laboratories, 3D dental printing can be conducted at affordable prices with exceptional speed and precision.


text:
Parents Pics
These pictures of my Parents over the years is great. Miss them some days.
These pictures of my Parents over the years is great. Miss them some days.
Love this picture of my Aunt. I miss her so much some days. She was such a sweet soul.
I recently joined with my Sister in Poplar Bluff, MO and we began going through the old family photos and came up with these of me from the past. Gosh I was skinny back then. LOL Wish I could still fit into those size 30 pants. Me after Basic Training Me with my little sister. … Read moreOld Pics of me.
Just listened to Hello Beautiful from MercyMe's Lifer album. Love this song.
In my heart I know that to be a "Christian", it means I should strive to live like Christ. I feel that the word means Christ Like. That means a simple life where I love and help my fellow brothers and sister. If that means staying with someone as they pass on so they are … Read moreWhat does it mean to be "Christian"
There are three vows that a Franciscan brother will take when he enters religious life… Vow of Poverty I know some of you are like "I'm outta here." but when we give up all things, what is left is our walk with God. St. Francis was generous and gave away all his earthly possessions. The … Read moreThe Vows of the Franciscan Religious
What can I say except that he's a close friend and I've known him for over 20 years. We first met doing volunteer work at SEHERR in Poplar Bluff, MO. I have watched him over the years find his strength through God. He has been an inspiration to me for longer than he knows. But … Read moreMy Brother Sam
Nobody knows what their life will turn out like or what types of changes will come. I have come to a point in my life where I have two paths. I'm not sure which path I am meant to go down but I can only pray that God will show me the one he wants … Read moreA change in life


text:
This Out! Need a presetter
for your robot tooling?
Robot Tool and Gripper Presetter. Use the presetter to set up your gripper and tooling before installing onto your robot to increase precision and reduce setup time.
Check out our robot tool presetter! Click here to see.
WOW! A New Way to View Schematics With Your Web Browser!
Systems Engineering Co.
has the ability to convert electrical drawings into HTML to allow viewing
with a standard web browser. This enables the electrical drawing to be
viewed without the need to buy an expensive CAD package, and the drawing
can be stored on a computer/server for easy and fast access by maintenance,
engineering, or anyone else who needs to access the drawings. In addition,
you can zoom to specific devices, click, and have all information
for service and replacement. Sure beats having to look for that misplaced
hard copy! We can also convert your existing drawing into this new format.Click
Here to see a Demo.
Small tabletop load balancer
for precision assembly will be available soon. To see its big brother,Click


text:
4 Bedroom Apartment with Alcove for 12, Saint-Lary-Soulan
Stroll through the picturesque streets of St. Lary, or hit the pistes: the choice is yours when you stay in our cozy duplex apartment! Nestled in the heart of the majestic Pyrénées, our property is a short distance from the centre of the village, and the ski lifts. Other features you'll love:
- 4 Bedrooms featuring either a Double bed or 2 Single beds - let us know what you prefer!
- Great value! Alcove with Bunk beds acts like an extra bedroom
- Double sofa bed in the living room
- PRIVATE Terrace/Balcony
- Make a meal in your Kitchen
- Access to a lovely Indoor Pool + Sauna
- Wood, stone and slate features from the Aure Valley!
- Outdoor parking + Covered parking available
- Wi-Fi available
- Ski school only 100m away + Discount on Ski Rentals!
- Access to hiking trails which lead to extraordinary panoramas
**A number of these units are available, and each is individually decorated. The images shown are a representation of the unit you will receive. At check-in, you will receive a unit of the same type as shown in this listing, complete with the advertised size and number of rooms, but the actual decor in the unit, view, and furniture layout may differ. You will have access to all amenities advertised!
Stay in our charming and cozy duplex apartment in the picturesque village of St. Lary, and you'll be only 300m from the ski lifts and 100m from the ski rental shops and ski school! Due to St. Lary's lower altitude, it's one of the warmer mountain resorts, and it's perfect for those who love to ski, but hate the cold. In the summer, head out your door and explore this region, bordering Spain, on the hiking trails. Our 83 m2 apartment is nestled in the Pyrénées, only a stone's throw from the centre of town where you'll find restaurants, shops and famous thermal baths!
There are 4 BEDROOMS in our apartment, each with either a Double bed or 2 Single beds. Providing optimal flexibility, please specify your bedding preferences with our team upon booking and we will be happy to try and accommodate you! Looking for a bit of extra space? Don't worry -- our alcove acts like a fifth bedroom and features Bunk beds. There's an additional Double sofa bed in the living room. Our lovely space comfortably sleeps 10 guests but can accommodate up to 12!
After a long day of skiing, wash off in the 2 BATHROOMS. An additional HALF bathroom provides ample space for your group. If you're travelling light, we've got you covered with bed linen and towel rental for a charge.
In the spacious LIVING AREA, you'll find plenty of space to sit down and enjoy a cup of your favourite coffee. Sit back and read a good book, or watch a movie on TV for a charge. Just outside, you'll love your terrace or balcony to breathe the fresh mountain air!
Make sure you cook breakfast in your KITCHEN, which features cooking hobs, a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a microwave, and a toaster. You can pick up your food from the Carrefour Montagne Supermarket, which is only a 5-minute drive away. Need some caffeine to wake up in the morning? We've got you covered – our kitchen also has a coffeemaker.
Our guests enjoy access to a number of wonderful amenities and services at the Résidence Cami Réal, where our apartment is conveniently located. Go for a dip in the gorgeous indoor pool, or relax your tired muscles in the on-site sauna. If you would like to connect with the people back home, Wi-Fi is available for FREE in the common area. You will love to rent a satellite TV and DVD player from the reception for movie nights with your group, or rent your favourite board games or Wii and get competitive!
We recommend bringing a car to explore this lovely region, and there is complimentary outdoor parking available on-site, along with paid indoor parking!
When you arrive, you'll be asked for a fully-refundable damage deposit and cleaning deposit, along with a small daily tourist tax of €0.50 to €3 per person. If you'd like to bring your pet, let us know when booking and we may be able to accommodate them for a small nightly fee.
You'll love being just 300m from the cable car that will take you to a breathtaking ski area. If you need to brush up on your skiing skills before hitting the pistes, the École de Ski Saint Lary "Evolution 2" is only a short walk away. After a fun day on the mountain, we recommend grabbing the best takeout pizza you'll find in St. Lary's: Pizzalary, located only a 5-minute walk from our unit. Thirsty? Check out Au Balcon, Bar A Tapas Vins & Bières, which is just across the street and serves a great variety of wines and beers.
**For guests not travelling with their own ski equipment, rentals are available at the nearby Skiset, which offers a wide range of equipment for every level of skier or snowboarder. Upon booking with us, we will provide you with an exclusive Promo Code that will give you a great discount on ski rentals when you book in advance!
Air conditioning
In-house laundry services
Ski storage
Washer/Dryer (coin operated)
All suites are non-smoking
Pet Friendly
Indoor pool (shared)
Outdoor parking area (free)
Relax & Rejuvenate
Sauna/Steam room
Coffee maker
Dishes & utensils
Full size fridge/freezer
Home Truths
Please note that bed linen, towels and other Essentials are available on-site, but may not be free. Additional fees are detailed below.
- Sit back and relax in the common lounge area with a large fireplace and meet fellow travellers
- Make sure to soak in the gorgeous indoor pool or relax in the sauna
- Please specify your bedding preferences with our team upon booking
- If you'd like to bring along your furry best friend, they may be accommodated for €5/day or €25/week
- There is a fully-refundable security deposit of €260 due upon arrival, along with a cleaning deposit of €42 to €168
- Upon check-in, a tourist tax of €0.50 to €3 per person per day will be collected
- Guests are requested to clean their apartments prior to departure, or a part of the cleaning deposit from €30 to €40 will be retained
Design your holiday how you want to with these paid extras:
- Don't feel like bringing your own bed sheets and towels? Kits are available for €10 per person
- Watch a movie on the satellite TV and DVD player for €7/day or €35/week
- Enjoy indoor parking for €9/day or €49/week


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Jul 13
Sharon asks…
How can I get rid of acne fast?
OK, so I have acne on my arms and a couple pimples here and there on my face. I have been using Clinique's 3 Step Skin Care for 1 week and I have not seen any results. I REALLY don't want to buy anything more, I want to see if I can get rid of my acne at home. I want my acne gone by the beginning of June. Thank you all!
admin answers:
1) When you're searching for how to get rid of acne one of the best places to start is your stock of herbs. Do you have any dried basil? If so, steep a couple of tablespoons in boiling water for about 20 minutes then allow it to cool. Use this as you would a toner, by dabbing it on the affected areas with a cotton wool pad.
2) Citrus fruits are also excellent to show you how to get rid of acne. The astringent, antibacterial qualities of the juice of such fruits are beneficial when dabbed onto the spots and left to dry. But orange peel can also be used. Simply grate it into a pestle and use the mortar to grind it to a pulp. You may find it's liquid enough without any further additions, but if needed you can add a little water. The resulting mush is an effective face pack for getting rid of acne.
3) Raid the garlic supply and either chop or crush one or two cloves. Garlic has strong astringent and antiseptic properties, both of which are useful when trying to get rid of acne. Dab the juice that comes out of the garlic onto the spots, but also treat the clear areas of skin in between. Leave the mixture on for a few minutes then wash it off with clear water. It is not recommended to leave the garlic on overnight.
4) Toothpaste, the ordinary non-whitening, non-gel, paste variety is another household item said to be a good way to get rid of acne. Dab it onto the spots and leave overnight to see a reduction in the redness by morning.
5) Your most important defence in the search for how to get rid of acne however, is to keep trying. Different things work for different people so keep experimenting until you find the thing that works for you.
Linda asks…
How to get rid of acne & acne scars?
I would like to try and get rid of the acne and acne scars on my face, like every other person in the world, but I would like to try a natural approach.
Does anyone have any natural ways of getting rid of acne and acne scars fast?
Thanks in advance.
admin answers:
Wondering ways to eliminate acne fast? Seeking treatments that promote healthier skin free from acne? Acne sufferers are constantly round the seek out techniques that revitalize the skin and heal the problem fast. Eliminating acne involves integrating healthy modifications in lifestyle together with while using reliable topical goods that ensure fast recovery from acne. A few of the techniques to eliminate acne receive below.
Utilize Right Items
Topical skincare goods that contains benzoyl peroxide are seen to be helpful in eliminating acne. As an antiseptic, benzoyl peroxide does a fantastic job of killing the bacteria in charge of ultimately causing acne. In case that does not work, one may opt to use creams that have salicylic acidity. Essentially, salicylic acidity functions just as one exfoliating agent and encourages peeling of outer skin. Exfoliation allows you to eliminate gathered scalp around the superficial skin. Therefore unclogs the blocked pores effectively. The unblocking action also removes the oil buildup in blocked pores, thus helping obvious acne. Other considerations like 'Exposed' acne treatment are sustained by positive customer recommendations and possess been efficient at obtaining a an appealing skin inside a short duration.
Face Clean
Cleansing the eye two times daily with acne face clean which contain natural elements is another approach to eliminate acne fast. Essentially the most popular face washes like Pronexin and Positive cleansing combat acne effectively. These materials are developed to advertise losing of old skin debris cell and destroy the bacteria. They work as gentle agents and attempt to nourish and restore natural glow of your skin.
Using a 20-25 minute workout daily might also lead in eliminating acne fast. Hormonal discrepancy is frequently the main reason behind surplus output of sebum (oil) that eventually triggers acne. More particularly, an excessive amount testosterone related testosterone are created that disturb the hormonal balance. Work out reduces testosterone production, that is certainly necessary to control and eliminate acne. However, be sure that you do not over exert yourself or exercise for prolonged time period since this contributes to worsening of acne.
Follow a Nutritious diet
Any difficulty the other just cannot have the ability to drink inadequate water. Contamination can aggravate acne signs and symptoms thereby to stop such undesirable changes on the skin, sufficient intake of water is important. Topical items is not going to give good result, except certain your meals are discarded inside diet. A healthy diet plan forms a fundamental element of best acne treatment. More particularly, an acne free diet should be adopted to get over this problem within the earliest.
Stop Constitute Abuse
Over using makeup may also trigger acne outbreaks. The habit of smoking of not getting rid of the constitute and departing it overnight could also cause acne. Sometimes, the cosmetics useful for constitute contain harsh chemicals and so their usage might also resulted in the introduction of acne. So, it is important to do not get obsessive concerning the constitute and then use it only when necessary. Thus, reducing or staying away from constitute is often a pre-requisite for eliminating acne.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9sweJc2Jw4
Joseph asks…
How much water should I drink a day to get rid of acne?
I'm a 15 year old girl, 125 ibs and workout 3 days a week. I want to know how much water I should drink a day to get rid of my acne and how long before it starts to work
admin answers:
How to Get Rid of Acne: ………………Thanks to Mama Bear for the following.
Lemon Juice
Rub fresh lemon juice on your pimples with a gentle hand. The bleaching properties of lemon juice lighten the skin and thus reduce its appearance. Moreover, it removes the topmost layer of the skin surface where bacteria grows and controls the infection. Thus the healthy underlying skin is revealed. If you hesitate to use concentrated lemon juice on the pimple as you fear it may cause skin irritation, then you can dilute it with rose water.
Application of Ice
This is an easy way to get rid of pimples overnight. You have to pack up some crushed ice in an aluminum foil in order to prevent them from getting melted quickly. Then put it inside a plastic bag and wrap up the pack with a thin towel. Now apply it over the pimples for 10 to 15 minutes. This will shrink the pores forcing the oil and dirt out of it. When the two main culprits are out, you can expect the pimple to clear up in no time.
You can get rid of pimples overnight using toothpaste. Many people find it highly beneficial for this purpose. Take some toothpaste on the tip of your finger and apply it on the pimple in such a way that the entire pimple is covered up with the toothpaste properly. Leave it on the pimple overnight. Next morning when you wash it off with warm water, you will be pleasantly surprised with the result. The trick is that the toothpaste absorb all the oil from the pimple and reduce its size so much that it becomes invisible. However, a toothpaste with gel content is not suitable for this treatment.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is considered as one of the best home remedies for getting rid of pimples overnight. Prepare a thick paste using one cup of baking soda, 3 tablespoons of salt and some water. Rub this paste gently over the affected areas of your face making small circular motions. Leave it on the acne for few minutes and then wash your face with cool water. The exfoliant property of the salt removes the dead skin cells from the pores. The baking soda soften up the skin and restore the normal pH balance of the skin. As a result, the pimple clears up fast.
Egg Mask
A simple egg mask can help you in getting rid of pimples from your face. Take one or two eggs as per your requirement. Break them and separate the white portion of the eggs from the yolk. It is the egg white that you need to apply as facial mask on your face. Keep it on the face overnight and then wash off with cold water.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is known for its healing and disinfecting properties. To apply it, start with washing the face thoroughly with an antibacterial soap. Pat dry with a towel and then taking a cotton ball apply apple cider vinegar evenly on the affected skin. Leave on for fifteen minutes before washing it off with cold water.
Steam and Clean
In the very initial stages of acne when it is still a small zit or just in the form of whitehead and blackhead you can try doing this. Clean your face with cleansing milk using cotton pads. Now scrub it with a gentle face scrub. Take steam on your face for about 8-10 minutes. Now take a sterilized blackhead remover and clean the blackheads and whiteheads. You can also try squeezing pimples if they are very small. Use a clean cotton pad to clean the pus or blood that flows out. Now finish by cleaning the area with an antiseptic lotion or a toner. This procedure will help keep your skin clean and avoid further acne breakouts. Following this everyday before going to bed is one of the easiest ways to get rid of acne fast at home.
Acne Prevention Tips
•Do not touch the skin areas which are affected by acne with your fingers, as it can spread the infection to other skin areas as well.
•Maintain hygiene i.e., use clean bed sheets, pillow cases and towels. Dirty towels can be the breeding ground of germs and bacteria, thereby causing severe cases of acne breakouts.
•Dandruff and oil in hair can cause acne too, so to prevent that, avoid doing such hair styles which make your hair touch or fall on your face.
•Exercise everyday as it helps in proper blood circulation, and adequate transfer of oxygen to all the body cells. Exercising will help in both reducing stress and preventing acne.
•Take shower after undertaking any kind of exercise or physical activity to prevent dirt and sweat from getting accumulated in the skin pores.
•Drink lots of fluids and water as it will help in elimination of wastes and toxins from the body, resulting in a blemish free, glowing skin.
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text:
Hi my friends,
I thought you might like to see where I live. So grab yourself a cup of tea, and lets go see a few sites. It will only take a minute- do you have time to come with me?
There she is- the big old farm home. Look at the big tree. It's almost as big as the house!
This is something my mama made out of a fallen bamboo tree. It makes pretty sounds when the wind blows . It's a nice way to remember the bamboo tree.
This was a massive project my moms did in a weekend. It's called a Pergula. They built it to give the flowers some shade while they rest. Do you see my little garden in the back corner, next to the soft tub?
This is one of my friends. I am giving him a big kiss. He is quite friendly.
Lets tip toe on past the big crane, I don't want to disturb him. Do you see him in the Iris flowers?
This is my fern forest . We have LOTS of birds, owls , little snakes, chipmonks, squirrels, deer and a big cat called (a cougar)and oh yes, a creek.


text:
- Location Coordinates N59° 52`.28.69 / E005° 46`20.70
- Municipality estate reference 143/196
- A Greenfield Site in Kvinnherad Municipality located on the west coast of Norway south of the city of Bergen.
- Municipality Areal 1128km² / Population 13.200.
- Located next to the Regional Centre Husnes. Municipality Centre is Rosendal 30 min. by car.
- www.kvinnherad.kommune.no
Site Access:
- International Airports Bergen (BGO) 2.hr.50min / Haugesund (HAU) 2hr.50min. or Stord (SRP) 1hr.40min.
- Daily expressboat connection
- from/to Rosendal and Bergen International Airport (BGO) 1.hr. 20min.
- from/to Sunde and Bergen International Airport (BGO) 1.hr.50 min.
- Regional highway No.48 next to Greenfield.
- 100-500m from deep sea harbour.
Site Details:
- The Greenfield site is partly owned by private investors and Kvinnherad Municipality covering an area of 600dekar.
- Some sites for sale and for rent. Kvinnherad Municipality has 60.000sqm for sale at very favourable prices.
- The site is mainly flat at +5 to +40m above sea level.
- Annual mean temperature 7°C and annual mean precipitation of 1900mm.
- The giant Hydro Aluminium factory is located at the same location.
- http://kommunekart.com/klient/kvinnherad/kart
Power Supply:
- Kvinnherad Municipality hosts several major producers of renewable energy with an annual production of approx. 3000GWh.
- There are 3 levels of power supply on site; the national grid Statnett, the regional Haugaland Kraft and the local Kvinnherad Energi – hence redundant power supply.
- Present available power supply 5-10MW.
Present grid at Husnes is at 700MW. The Hydro Aluminium Factory has reserved appox. half of this capacity. We are in the process to analyse how much surplus power supply may be reserved for the DC site.
Water / Cooling Options:
Direct water to water heat exchangers. No need for cooling compressors. A constant reliable supply of cooling water from the fjord outside pumped from 45m at a temperature +5°C.
Energy Prices:
Please see information front page.
Reliable redundant fiber network on local, regional, national and international level. (Kvinnherad Breibånd, Haugaland Kraftlag, BKK, Telenor, Broadnet, Tampnet)
Zoning & Consent
In process.
Environmental Hazards:
No natural risks.
Location Characteristics:
The site has an established infrastructure.
The site has a stable and guaranteed energy supply and sustainable hydroelectric power at competitive energy prices.
Cost effective location to operate and low costs to upgrade to any concept demands.
Close to optimal PUE /DCiE values. Several hotels, conference facilities and restaurants nearby.
Service / Assistance:
One of the regions largest and professional ICT companies has its head office at Husnes for support and service 24/365.
Kvinnherad Næringsservice
Kjetil Ulvesæter
+47 90888444


text:
KU had a visit from Bridgewater State University
On June 4, students and staff from Bridgewater State University (BSU) USA, one of our partner universities, visited Senriyama Campus.
This year, 14 students whose majors are history and business, and who have an interest in Japan, came to KU accompanied by BSU faculty member, Professor Wing-kai To. In "Study Skill Seminar (Presentation)", a class run by Professor Toshiyuki Yamamoto, Division of Promotion of Educational Development, BSU students made a team with Japanese students and gave speeches respectively on themes such as the difference between American and Japanese university life, stereotypes and culture. Students from both countries deepened their understanding of each other through discussions in the class.
In the afternoon, BSU students participated in Kendo class by Associate Professor Alexander Bennett, Division of International Affairs. Along with an explanation about the techniques and gear used in Kendo, Prof Bennett introduced Japanese culture by explaining about the "Bushido spirit" and ethics, and also "Zan-shin" (lingering spirit), which is a very important mental attitude in Kendo. When two Japanese students from KU's Kendo club engaged in "Kakari-geiko" (attack practice), as it was very powerful, the students erupted into applause. At Q&A time, students asked question after question to Prof Bennett and the Kendo club students.
June 19, 2014 04:01 PM UP


text:
2000AD, Batman, childhood, Comics, Darth Vader, fears, fiction, Hairy Boabie, Maggie Murphy, Pat Black, short story, Subutteo, Superman, Tonka
And now at The Ox, we welcome a raw punk kid… well, not so raw, not much of a punk, and certainly not a kid… it's me.
I've written a bunch of novels and short story collections… They probably haven't rocked your world yet, but you can make a wee start here.
The story below is from Suckerpunch, which you can pick up here (UK) or here (US). I've also written a lot of essays and book reviews for Booksquawk. The early articles are collected in Paper Cuts (UK and US).
Maggie Murphy's Home For Bad Boys
The turquoise paint on the walls of the close reminded Jamie of the ultramarine blue of the swimming baths, and he began to open and close his mouth like a fish.
"Blub. Blub. Blub."
The whistling of the wind up the stairwell was another signal. It had that seashell quality reminiscent of the public pool, the echoing cries of the boys and girls. In imitation of this he began to shriek, like a gull.
His mother hoisted a hold-all out of the back of the car. "Stop that," she said. "The man'll come out and give you a row."
Jamie closed his mouth as if holding his breath and continued to swim around the bottom floor of the close. Beneath his new trainers, the granite floor was clean, the white painted borders around the turquoise unspoiled.
"Have you knocked your gran's door?"
"No. Which one is it?" Jamie had been here a few times before, but not recently – he couldn't remember anything about it. Mostly, gran came over to visit them.
"Never mind, we'll go together." She huffed and blew a strand of blonde hair away from her forehead. Perhaps she was tired from lifting the bag – but the bag wasn't heavy at all, Jamie knew. He had lifted it earlier on. It was easy.
He left her to it as he ran up the stairs ahead of her, his feet a machine gun rattle. An army seemed to echo behind him. He was at the head of his men.
The boy passed big, dark green doors on either side of him on the first landing, the names on them stark against brass and silver. Up another floor, he came to one marked 'Mulhearn' – gran's name.
Jamie could reach the doorbell and had pressed it half a dozen times before the door was snatched open and his gran stood there, fierce behind her owlish glasses, bosomy and thick-set as a carven idol.
"What's all that racket?" she said. "What a noise! Mr Thomlinson will come out and give you a row."
"Hi gran," Jamie grinned. "I'm coming to stay with your for a bit."
"Yes, your mum did mention that. Come on, get inside."
Jamie's mum gave her gran a hug while Jamie went through to the living room. There were photos all over the walls, on coffee tables and the wall unit. One of Jamie when he was a baby, wearing a banana yellow romper suit. He hated that photo, but there were cooler ones; his cousins Elspeth and Rory, in party clothes at a Christmas party; one of his mum with very long hair and her swimming costume on; loads of his granda, who wart in heaven now. Perched on the shelves of the wall unit, a tantalising array of perfectly-polished porcelain figurines, animals and boys and girls. He would need to stand on the telephone table unit to reach them, he decided.
The grey carpet felt strange beneath his soles – Jamie was only used to the wooden flooring in his house and the tiles in school – absorbing the sound of his footsteps. He trailed a finger along the dark green settee, making a darker furrow in the material. Gran had curtains that looked like goal nets, and lampshades with flickable tassels on them.
Gran came in, carrying Jamie's holdall. "Now, I've got a DVD player and a Sky box, so you can watch your all your programmes."
The TV was really old; black rather than silver, and with a bendy screen rather than a flat one. His dad had warned him of this, and his mum had in turn warned him not to mention it. He couldn't help but point out the massive silver box on one of the shelves underneath the set, though.
"What's that?"
"That's my video, son."
"What's a video?"
Mum and gran laughed at that. "Oh, it's a relic," mum said. "Ancient technology, left behind by aliens a long time ago."
Jamie frowned and pouted, not liking being left out of a joke. He took off then. "Where's my room?"
"It's your Auntie Jill's old room… wait a second!" Gran bellowed.
"He'll calm down," Jamie's mum said. "Promise."
"Och, don't you worry yourself. Don't forget, I raised our John. Biggest fidget on God's earth even when I had him in my tummy. Jamie'll be a doddle compared to him."
"I don't know, mum. Jamie's a handfull for anybody. I sometimes wonder if Satan spiked my drink one night."
"Well, I'll threaten to take him to church. That should keep him quiet." She touched her daughter's wrist. "Don't be worrying about it. You two just enjoy your weekend."
"Call us, if there's any bother at all. You've got Tony's mobile number as well as mine, just in case?"
"Of course I have. Now, don't be spoiling it by worrying about MacGubligan. You need time to yourselves."
Jamie's mum nodded. "I really appreciate this. I feel so bad going away without him."
"Put it out of your mind."
"I'll bring you back something nice. Now, he's got loads of clean socks and pants and a few changes of clothes. I've put a wee toilet bag in, toothpaste and some shower gel, and his special shampoo. Oh, one more thing; sometimes he gets frightened if he wakes up in the night. Thinks Jaggy Jammies is after him. So I've packed a wee night light. He's had it since he was a wee boy."
Jamie's gran frowned. "A bit old getting, for that."
"I know he is, but it's better that than he gets into bed with you."
"True, that."
Jamie's mum gave him a kiss and a big hug. He felt sad that she was going, but he transferred this into petted-lip obstinacy, an anger at being abandoned that he had no idea how to express. He knew the sound the heavy front door would make throughout the close if he had slammed it shut, an explosion that would repeat and repeat and repeat for a long time. But he didn't dare, allowing it to close softly behind her.
"Right, you can help me put your clothes away," Gran said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Then you can have a biscuit, if you're good. And cheer up – she's coming back for you. She's just going on a wee holiday with your dad."
"I know," he sighed. "It's their anniversary."
"That's right. Come on now. There's separate drawers for your jammies and your clothes. Shoes go in the cupboard, on the rack. Come on! Chop-chop."
He yawned. "Have you got a football, Gran?"
"A football? What do you want with a football?"
"So I can go out and practice in the back garden."
"You bloody will not! Football, he says. No, there aren't any footballs in here. You can go through and watch a DVD or something in a minute."
"Can I get my games out?"
"In a minute!"
Gran fluffed up the pillows in Auntie Jill's old room and spread the four corners of the quilt, perfectly. Auntie Jill was cool; it didn't look like a girl's room at all. There were a lot of posters of bands on the walls, guys with guitars and funny hair, and the wallpaper was blue. Auntie Jill lived in London now where she had a Right Good Job, and had probably taken all her other stuff like CDs and earrings.
There was one photograph left on top of her dressing table; Auntie Jill, wearing a big red wig and a Union Jack dress. There were four other girls in the picture with her; one of them wore a little black dress and was sucking in her cheeks for the camera. Another one had on a tracksuit and a Liverpool strip; another had blonde pigtails like Daisy Fulton had one time at school, and a black girl had on a leopardskin sort of dress. They were all kicking their legs up, and there was a name for that sort of dance, can-can.
Auntie Jill had really big boobs. Jamie stared at them, thinking of nothing at all, while gran packed away the clothes without any of his help at all.
"So, what's these games, then? Is it something you need to plug into the television?"
"Nope, it's the little games you hold in your hand. I've got Batman."
"Batman? I thought you liked Spider-Man."
"He's alright, but Batman's a better fighter."
"Hmph! Next it'll be Superman."
"He's rubbish. It's so obvious he's Clark Kent, really."
"Hasn't he got glasses on when he's Clark Kent?"
"I know, but it's so obvious."
"I think your Uncle John had a lot of Batman comics when he was a wee boy."
"Have you still got them?"
"You know, I just might." Jamie's gran smiled. "He might have left a few things through here."
Jamie followed his gran through to the hall. There was a cupboard door in there, near the front door. She pulled it open and clicked on a light, revealing a tight space dominated by a large chest of drawers. Gran pulled open one drawer, and the treasure was revealed.
"These are all your Uncle John's old cars and soldiers and things. I'm sure you'll find something to play with in here. Elspeth and Rory usually do."
He delved into a pile of glinting metal and plastic. Pitted metal cars. Green plastic army men, frozen in attitudes of war, one of them in the act of hurling a grenade. The rubber tracks on a tiny Matchbox tank, pliant and spongy. A little ambulance whose doors opened. Broken Subbuteo men, a set of goalposts without a net. Badges; one of them with little men who looked like Weetabix on it. Darth Vader himself, missing a lightsabre but sporting a black plastic cape that someone had chewed; he had a wee nibble himself and spat a fragment out. Other little figures, tiny people he didn't recognise but whose arms and legs could be twisted this way and that, made to fight, just like the Star Wars guys. Someone had conveniently left Action Man's trousers down, saving Jamie the trouble of unbuttoning him for a peek. He gazed for a long time at the pancaked penis, ran his hands along the weirdly textured hair, flicked the eyes left-to-right with the little switch at the back of his head.
A giant orange Tonka truck emerged from one of the drawers, rusted in places and encrusted with dirt but still in good order. And best, best of all, a glow-in-the dark skull badge, true treasure, green in the gloom of the cupboard. He fit it to his jumper, taking care not to nick himself with the needle.
He reached for the top drawer. The old brass handle took a little teasing, but soon he got his fingers around it and eased the compartment out.
Row after row of comics were in front of him, more paper spines than could easily be counted. Some were encased in plastic, reverently placed; others were dog-eared and grimy, yellowed and curling at the edges. The prices on some were impossibly low – 8p, 12p – just as the dates were ancient, signs of an unimaginable past – 1981, 1983. He flicked through some Batman ones kept in plastic, but it was the grubbier papers at the front that drew his eye. 2000AD, they were called, and there were dinosaurs, robots and guys with laser guns on the front. There was another set with a blond football player on the front, in a red and yellow strip. Roy of the Rovers. These all looked neat; Jamie grabbed a handfull, pulled out a pile of the coolest-looking toys, and was just wondering how to transport all of these into the lounge when he noticed his gran wasn't there with him.
In the time it would take to click one's fingers, if one could, in the half-light of that grey afternoon, gran's house seemed totally different. The eyes of the porcelain figurines perched on a shelf behind him were black holes, swallowing up light; the treasure trove chest of drawers seemed to grow large in front of him, oppressive. In such a place, in such a dusty old cupboard, Jaggy Jammies could easily hide.
He belted it up the hall, causing some picture frames to rattle along the wallpaper. He burst into the living room, where gran was sat reading a paper.
"Do you have to run everywhere, Jamie? That makes an awful racket."
"Sorry gran, I can't reach some of the comics at the top drawer."
"Och! I'll be made to regret this, I truly will." She grunted as she got to her feet. "Okay, I'll help you pick a few out. But that's you done for a wee while, okay?"
"Who's this Jaggy Jammies, anyway?" Gran squinted at the TV, nostrils flaring, as Jamie's MonsterBallz DVD crashed, strobed and screeched, accompanied by breakneck fusion guitar solos.
Jamie drank a glass of milk down, sleeving off the moustache. "Nobody."
"You sure? Your mum says you get this silly idea that there's somebody called Jaggy Jammies trying to steal you."
"Nope. There's no Jaggy Jammies."
"Good. I'm glad you said that. Because you're old enough to know that there's no ghosts, no monsters, and no Jaggy Jammies."
"What about God and the angels? And the holy souls?"
"They're different," gran said, barely breaking stride.
"They're things of God. The ghosts you see on silly films and TV programmes are made up. Special effects. There aren't any ghosts."
"There's a holy spirit."
"And that's what I said – different thing. Ghosts are made up. God and the angels and the holy spirit aren't. You feel them in your heart."
"What about the devil?"
"He's down in hell. Jesus put him there."
"Is it like a jail?"
"Yes. Exactly like that."
"What if he gets out?"
"You don't get out of hell."
"Why not just kill him? Why put the devil in a jail forever?"
"The devil is there to tempt us. It's a way of testing our faith."
"What does that mean?"
"It means it's a way of knowing how good a person you are. That was God's plan for the devil."
Jamie pondered this for a second or two. "Would Jesus put me in hell?"
"Just watch your programme."
A Spanish dolly perched proudly on top of the cistern, almost engulfed by a massive flowing flamenco dress, tiny little maracas held in her hand. Jamie tore the skirt upward instinctively, and gasped as a fresh toilet roll was revealed. He imagined ladies in Spain waddling around with giant toilet rolls hidden under their skirts, and he started giggling.
"What are you up to in there?" Gran called through the door.
"Nothing," he said, but he was shaking with suppressed laughter. He pulled at the first folded-down corner of toilet roll underneath the dolly's dress. It unfurled surprisingly easily. So easily, in fact, that an off-white streamer of it soon shot out and collected in the toilet bowl, wrinkling on contact with the porcelain sides. He stopped the cylinder's revolution with his hands, but the naked fact of the sheets of paper wadding up the bowl remained. He flushed and watched, fascinated, as the sheets uncoiled automatically with the suction.
"Right, mister, you've been in there long enough! Wash your hands and get out."
Resisting an urge to peek beneath the line of the doll's modest decolletage, he rearranged her attire then ran his hand under the cold tap before unlocking the door.
Gran stormed in. "Bloody knew it!" she said, smoothing down the dolly's dress. "Typical bloody male!"
"I needed to blow my nose," he said. "I wanted to get some more toilet paper."
"Oh, you're becoming quite the little liar, aren't you? You said that without blushing! Well, I know someone who can fix that." She waddled back down the hall.
For a moment Jamie thought she might call his mum and dad and get them to come back, and his heart soared. He followed her into the living room just in time to see her lift the receiver on her phone and dial a number. She arched her back, one hand on the base of her spine, as she spoke.
"Hello. Is that Maggie Murphy's Home For Bad Boys?" She glowered at Jamie. "Oh, hi Mrs Murphy. Yes, this is Mrs Mulhearn. I've got a special case here needs looking at. It's a wee boy. My grandson, Jamie. He's six years old and he is getting very cheeky. Do you think you might have a cell ready for him? Oh, not quite yet? Well, do let me know when one's available. And remember; no TV, no video games, no DVDs, no sweeties and biscuits. Just bread and water to eat, and scratchy jumpers to be worn all day… Yes, that would be fine. No, there's no need to come round. But I'll call you if I need you. You can take him away until his mum gets back. Thank you." She slammed the phone down, and Jamie leapt in fright.
"Now then. You heard what I said, I take it? Good. Maggie Murphy's Home For Bad Boys is where you'll end up, my lad, if you don't start behaving yourself! Now sit on that couch, watch your DVD, and give my head peace."
"Who's Maggie Murphy?" He pictured the true demon of his childhood; not Jaggy Jammies, but Mrs Foley, a terrible dragon lady who had taken his class for a couple of weeks when Miss Heffernan was off. She had worn a great flannel skirt that chafed as she swished past your seat, and her purplish hair was the very definition of witchy woo. Jamie had put his hand up and asked to go to the bathroom one time, but she had said no. "You had the chance to go at playtime; you must wait till lunch," she'd said. And then Jamie had… well, Jamie didn't like to think of it.
Gran saw his face change, and she regretted what she'd done. "Hey, don't worry, I'm only kidding. Maggie Murphy won't be coming round or anything. But you need to behave, alright?" She ruffled his hair. "Silly boy."
He spent the rest of the afternoon making Darth Vader fight another action figure who had a beret and camouflage trousers. Despite a clear reach advantage, Vader was losing to the square-jawed goodie. But Jamie engineered a comeback, having Darth head-butt the army guy repeatedly with good hard plasticky clacks. Then gran called him through to the kitchen.
She was coughing into the sink, and he hesitated in the doorway.
"It's alright," she wheezed, "I just need you to go in the drawer by the side of my bed and get out my inhaler. The left side."
He went through to a sombre room, with everything in brown down to the lightshades. A double bed, tiny lights casting deep shadows. On the bedside table, a black and white picture of granda, who wart in heaven. He had very black hair and enormous teeth. In the drawer, where she said, was the inhaler. Tommy Kendricks at school had one just like it.
He scamped back through to the kitchen. Gran was holding her throat, her back heaving with the effort to breathe. She took the inhaler and triggered it.
He got her a glass of water, on his tip-toes to reach the taps.
"Good boy," she said. "Good lad."
As tea time approached, he started drawing on the clean white sheets of his new pad. "What's that you're doing?" gran said. "Is that a lion?"
"A dragon," he said, scoring inside his pen-lines with a green felt tip.
"Oh, I thought it was a lion. I thought that was its mane."
"That's its spikes. Its wattles."
He flicked over a fresh page, a good sharp sound, then described long, jagged spikes. Eyes, teeth and obscenely long fingers followed.
"What's that, another dragon?" She set down a china cup, fascinated.
"No. That's Jaggy Jammies." He took a bright blue felt tip, his favourite, and coloured in Jaggy Jammies' eyes. There was a vinegar smell.
"I remember you mum had a wee brownie she was scared of."
"A what?" he spluttered.
"A brownie. A demon. Not real, obviously."
"A brownie!" he started giggling.
"His name wasn't Jaggy Jammies. It was Hairy Boabie."
Jamie looked almost aghast. "Hairy Boabie!"
"Yep. Your mum thought Hairy Boabie lived in the cupboard under the staircase at our old house. It used to be a coal cellar, a long time ago. It was… what are you laughing at?"
He could barely move for laughing, his voice high and girlish. "Hairy Boabie…. oh, ha ha!" Tears squirted out of the corners of his eyes.
"I know what you're laughing at, you little pest! You're too young to be laughing at such things. Och!"
He could not keep his face straight. His shoulders wriggled and he snorted laughter.
"Right, that's it!" She lifted his colouring pad and slapped it shut. "No more drawing! Into your room!"
"But I was only laughing at the picture. I was drawing Hairy Boabie." The side of his face twitched at those gloriously rude words, and he giggled anew.
"Into your room, I said! Go on!"
He went through the comics in his room. The 2000AD ones were the best – there was a giant crocodile in one of these, and it ate some guy in a sewer. There wasn't much blood or anything but you could see the guy dangling from its mouth, and he screamed, "Noooooo!"
From Auntie Jill's room, you could hear people coming up the stairs. Heavy footsteps. They stopped outside Gran's door, and the doorbell went.
"Hi Liz, how are you?" It was a posh lady's voice. Not unlike Mrs Foley's.
"Oh, not bad, you know."
"Did you take a wee turn? Let's have a wee look at you then."
Jamie cracked open the door and had a peek. The lady who'd come in was much taller than gran, with a long straight back and a light coloured coat and… surely not… a battleship grey skirt, with severe black shoes shone to within an inch of their lives.
His breath stuttered in his throat. She had called Maggie Murphy. Because he'd laughed at Hairy Boabie.
Jamie stole along the hallway, the carpet absorbing his footsteps, and he listened in at the door of the living room.
"Is he about now?" Maggie Murphy asked.
"I sent him to his room, he was acting up a bit. My daughter said he does that for attention, likes to show off and act the fool."
"Aye. Typical male, then," the new lady said, primly.
Gran chuckled. "Isn't that the truth?"
"Okay, do you mind if I take a wee listen?"
"No, go ahead."
"He won't come in, will he?"
"It'll be fine if he does. We'll just send him to Maggie Murphy."
Not Maggie Murphy, then. But one of her followers, her henchwomen, come to fetch him. He didn't hesitate; he didn't hear the polite laughter of the lady, or her instructions to breathe in, breathe out. He took off.
He thumped along the hall, rattling the ornaments as before, past the old cupboard. He tore open the front door and he was soon free, leaping down the stairs, cymbal crashes and bass drums echoing through the close. After a blur of doors the mouth of the close appeared. His plan was to head across the road to the little patch of spare ground visible through a wee lane. He could hide in there, get into cover along the treeline and climb to the top, keeping an eye out for Maggie Murphy's agent of doom with her horrible scratchy skirt.
He zipped out onto the road between two parked cars and then he saw everything with perfect clarity, in the most minute detail. The red paint of the car; the gleaming silver of the wheeltrims and alloys, the full lock on the wheels, the crucifix dangling from the neck of the driver and the open mouth of the girl in the seat beside him.
It didn't hit him. He stood there in the road, totally confused and shocked, as the tyres screeched just like they did on the telly.
"What are you doing?" said the driver, voice muffled behind the windshield, eyes bulging. "What are you doing?"
The car's horn sounded at last, and that finally stung Jamie into life. He ran back onto the pavement, where gran and Maggie Murphy's henchwoman were already running towards him, gran's breasts bouncing comically underneath her top as she limped over to him, and the stethoscope dangling from the neck of the doctor, yes, the doctor of course, silly boy, silly boy.
"Yes. If you could come over and get him tomorrow, that would be fine… I hope you don't mind, I let him have a look at your comics… Well, what does it matter if it's the Batman ones or not, John? Christ alive, you're thirty-seven years old! Yes… Okay. He's got all his clothes. I think he'll maybe have more fun with you anyhow. Yes, it's just till Monday morning. Alright then. Thanks, son. Goodnight."
In Auntie Jill's old bed, Jamie's eyes drooped at long last, the room lambent in the orange glow of the night light. The sound of gran putting the receiver in the hall down had been a sort of catalyst for sleep, something final but also reassuring. She looked in on him, an adept at not waking children up for a long time now, and gazed at his wiry little body, huddled among the fresh sheets. She stared at him a long time, then made her lonely way up the hall to her room.
Underneath the bed, Jaggy Jammies stretched and yawned, before folding his arms in on his chest and then allowing himself to drift off. He never could get to sleep before the boy.


text:
Police in Grand Est are searching for a five-year-old boy named Timothée after receiving an unusual postcard praising the force for its work.
Police in Grand Est are searching for a five-year-old boy named Timothée after receiving an unusual postcard praising the force for its work.
A postcard addressed to the "Police Nationale" of Reims, dated July 28, read: "Thank you for protecting us from thieves and allowing us to feel safe", and was "signed off" by a five-year-old boy named Timothée, in his own handwriting.
The card (which was damaged in the post before it arrived) also had the explanatory phrase "(boy), written at his request by his dad" in smaller letters underneath.
The front of the postcard shows photos of Place du Martroi in Orléans (Centre-Val de Loire), police said. Yet, no other signs or names appeared on the card, leaving the actual identity of little "Timothée" still a mystery.
[#ClinDOeil] Quand une carte postale nous donne le sourire dès le matin même si elle est arrivée abîmée . @PoliceNat51 aimerait bien retrouver le petit Thimotée pour le remercier. Alors on compte sur votre aide et vos partages pic.twitter.com/Qzu9QKFXa2— Police nationale 51 (@PoliceNat51) July 31, 2018
An image of the card's written side was posted by the Police Nationale Twitter account, in the hope that it may help find its small author and his dad.
The caption read: "When a postcard makes you smile in the morning, even if it arrived damaged."
So far, the tweet has been "liked" over 3,000 times and shared ("retweeted") almost 2,500 times.
Many users joined the young boy in thanking the police for their work, and others congratulated Timothée and his parents for the gesture.
Bravo Timothée, ainsi qu'aux parents qui éduquent bien leur fils ,— Helen (@Parisiis) July 31, 2018
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There are both moral and economic imperatives for rehabilitating empty or abandoned houses to return to the market for private sector tenants. The most basic of these are:
- the waste of a valuable and one of the most essential human needs if housing is left empty when so many families and individuals lack a permanent home; and
- the financial incentives that are available to landlords and prospective landlords prepared to take on the task of revitalising and bringing up to decent, modern standards housing that might otherwise be left empty and falling into dereliction.
The moral imperatives
According to the Grants Expert website, there are more than a million empty homes in Britain, offering an important reserve of properties that might be used to help alleviate the current housing shortage.
This is at a time when more than 90,000 families with children have no permanent place to live, says the BBC quoting research published by the housing charity Shelter at the end of 2014.
Whilst individuals, families and especially children are without access to even this most essential of human needs, therefore, it might be considered something of a crime that so many homes in the country remain empty and unoccupied.
The economic imperatives
Not only housing charities but the government too recognises the importance of returning unused accommodation to the stock of decent homes for people to live in. As a measure of its commitment to boosting the housing stock in this way, the government's policy paper – updated as recently as the 7th of May 2015 – sets out the many millions of pounds available to developers, builders and individuals for the rehabilitation of currently empty homes.
Funding for many of these financial incentives is administered by local authorities, so if you are a landlord looking to renovate empty housing this might be one of the first places to look for any economic help that may be available:
Renovation grants
- the details of any scheme are of course subject to local variation, but Haringey Council in London, for instance, issues grants for the renovation of property that has been empty for longer than a month. The value of the grant is 50% of the cost of renovation work, up to a maximum of £30,000;
Energy saving grants
- whether the property you are interested in buying to let is currently empty or already occupied by tenants, you may also qualify for a range of energy saving grants;
- these are designed not only to encourage landlords to maintain their properties up to decent modern standards but also to make use of the full range of energy saving measures currently available;
- details of some of those energy saving measures may be found on the website of the Energy Saving Trust;
- this may also be the place to remind landlords – as the website Landlord Zone does – that with effect from October 2015, there is a legal obligation to install functioning carbon monoxide and smoke alarms in any private rented accommodation;
- a further incentive for anyone in the process of turning once empty housing into modern, renovated homes – for owner occupiers or for tenants – is administered by the apparently unlikely source of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC);
- for building works to properties that have been empty for a minimum of the preceding two years, HMRC reduces VAT from the normal 20% to just 5% and if the building has been empty for five years or more, VAT is reduced to zero.
Finding an empty home
With so much financial help on offer, you might well be tempted into acquiring such a property in order to renovate it, bring it up to modern standards, and let it to tenants – for the rental income such a buy to let proposition may realise.
There are a number of resources to help you find a suitable empty property:
- as already suggested, the local council is likely to be a source not only for information about any grants or loans of offer, but also the availability and location of empty homes, too;
- there are also websites – such as Empty Homes – specialising in campaigns and programmes for the rehabilitation of empty housing;
- as you are browsing the internet, you might also come across auction sales of largely empty homes that are advertised from time to time;
- your local estate agent's window – or online versions of the same – may also be worth keeping your eye upon;
- finally, plots of land for sale are frequently advertised as building plots – these may already have a property upon them, which many builders may want to demolish, but which nevertheless be salvageable, suitable for renovation and subsequent letting.
Taken together, these moral and economic imperatives for saving and rehabilitating empty homes may represent a range of attractive opportunities for landlords.


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Diesel International DT466 Full Size 1993 Bluebird School Bus For Sale
-Update: We had the intention to convert this into a future family bus but after just finishing our short skoolie I've realized I won't have the time or funds for a whille to do a full bus conversion and hate to see this great of a bus just sitting without any love. I've dropped the price to help a worthy buyer be able to afford such a good bus to start their "bus life". Check out all the details below and feel free to reach out to me with questions.
This full size school bus for sale has lived in Oregon it's whole life and never exposed to road salt. It's 98% rust free with only a few rust areas on the seat bolts. Underbody and exterior has no rust. Motor and transmission have no significant leaks or drips. If you've been doing your research on buses then you probably know the standard the DT466 sets for running forever if you keep all the fluids topped off. Being that it's not the DT466E the motor is all mechanical and no "electronic controls". Meaning it doesn't rely on a computer to run and is easier to work on and troubleshoot without much mechanical knowledge. It also has the upgraded Allison transmission which is a huge bonus. Do some reading up on the Allison transmissions if you're not familiar.
Make - International
Model - Bluebird
Motor - DT466
Miles - 277k
Transmission - Allison
Tires - 60% tread left
Current Location - Outside Eugene, OR
Asking Price - $6,000 Reduced: $5,000 SOLD
A few seat bolts are rusty.
Underbody is rust free.
Asking Price - $6,000 Reduced: $5,000 SOLD


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If you know what the title is from, I'm sorry. You've been sucked into subjected to The Fresh Beat Band as well.
Tonight we had one of the best evenings we've had since October 6th. Jaycie has been asking us since before her birthday (over a month ago) if all four of us can go eat at The Peanut Place (texas roadhouse). Since Brock hasn't had any chemo in over a week, his counts are great and we felt like it was safe to take him with us. About 23 seconds after we sat down Jaycie declared "I love this!" (Though it's hard to tell if she was referring to dinner as a family of four…or the cinnamon butter smeared roll she'd just popped into her mouth). Either way, it was a great time. And I loved it too.
Afterward, we stopped by Target for some milk and kleenexes. Fifty dollars later (how does that always happen??) we were leaving the store, shopping basket and hearts equally full.
There is such a huge difference in how Brock acts and feels when he hasn't had chemo in awhile.
This was him the day after his last dose of chemo.
Tonight, he was even better than that picture. He was laughing, smiling, dancing, interacting with us. It was so nice to see a glimpse of the "real" Brock, before he gets stolen away again on Wednesday.
Wednesday is a big day. We'll be deciding with the doctors about what treatment he should receive next. There are careful studies done on the most effective way to kill leukemia…which drugs should be given and in which order, all depending on the type of leukemia the child has and their age at diagnosis. Because of the fungal infection, Brock can't go forward with the type of treatment that he's "supposed" to have – the type that has been scientifically proven to be most successfull at treating the leukemia that Brock has. It's a little bit nerve wracking to feel like you're "winging it" as far as treatment goes. We're praying for guidance for the doctors as they decide what to do next and that whatever they do decide will be just as effective as what he was "supposed" to have gotten.
By the way, if he'd never gotten the fungal infection, he would be about half way done with treatment. As it is, he has several more years worth of chemo to receive.
I'm not sure how I ended up on that tangent. The whole reason I wanted to post tonight was to share with you all what a FANTASTIC evening we had.
And to wrap things up, a few more pictures from the past week…
Brock was not too impressed with the snow.


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DYK? Facts from Wednesday's LCS action
It was a good night for the home teams Wednesday as the Yankees continued to dominate at Yankee Stadium and the Cubs kept their hopes of a repeat alive by avoiding an National League Championship Series sweep at Wrigley Field.Behind a splendid start from right-hander Masahiro Tanaka and plenty of
It was a good night for the home teams Wednesday as the Yankees continued to dominate at Yankee Stadium and the Cubs kept their hopes of a repeat alive by avoiding an National League Championship Series sweep at Wrigley Field.
Behind a splendid start from right-hander
• ALCS Game 6: Friday, 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on FS1
:: ALCS schedule and coverage ::
While clubs ahead 3-2 in best-of-seven series have gone on to win 37 of 55 times since 1985, those taking that advantage out on the road are a more modest 14-13. Still, New York could join the 1978 Yankees, '81 Dodgers, '85 Cardinals and '96 Yankees as the only clubs to win four straight games in a best-of-seven postseason series immediately after being down 2-0.
Later in the evening, the Cubs won their fifth straight potential elimination game over the past two postseasons and dealt the Dodgers their first loss in these playoffs, pulling out a 3-2 victory in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series presented by Camping World.
• NLCS Game 5: Tonight, 8 p.m. ET/7 CT/5 PT on TBS
While they still trail in the series, 3-1, the Cubs at least avoided a sweep. Of the previous 36 teams to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series, only seven made it to a Game 5. Of those, just three have made it to a Game 6, including the 2004 Red Sox, who became the only team to erase a 3-0 series deficit while overcoming the Yankees in the ALCS.
Here are some other notable facts and figures from Wednesday's postseason action:
Rely on the long ball
• Cubs catcher
:: NLCS schedule and coverage ::
• Baez went deep again in the fifth, extending the Cubs' lead to 3-1 and making him the fifth Cubs player to have a multi-homer postseason game. Aramis Ramirez, Alex Gonzalez and Eric Karros all accomplished that feat for Chicago during the 2003 playoffs, while Gary Matthews did it in 1984.
Baez is the first player in that exclusive group to homer at least twice in a potential elimination game for the Cubs.
• Baez is the 11th second baseman to have a multi-homer postseason game (13th occurrence) and second this year, with Houston's
Arrieta delivers again
Arrieta joins Curt Schilling (four), Josh Beckett, John Smoltz and
• Arrieta became the first starting pitcher this postseason to record an out in the sixth inning against the Dodgers. His nine strikeouts also were a 2017 postseason high against the Dodgers, as well as for the Cubs. Arrieta now has four of the eight postseason starts in Cubs history with at least nine strikeouts, while no other pitcher has more than one.
Arrieta is the third active pitcher with at least four postseason starts of nine or more strikeouts, joining Verlander (seven) and
Wade in deep
• Cubs closer
Davis also joined Rivera (2001) as the only pitchers to notch multiple saves of at least two innings in elimination games in the same postseason.
It was a gutsy performance by Davis, who began the ninth with a higher pitch count (34) than he ran up in any regular-season appearance this year, ultimately finishing with 48. That, along with the 44 pitches he threw in NLDS Game 5 at Washington, are his two highest totals since he moved to the bullpen full-time in 2014.
• No team has ever been swept in a seven-game series while holding a lead in all four contests, and thanks to Davis, the Cubs avoided becoming the first. Chicago held a lead in each of its three losses in this series.
• Despite the victory, Cubs hitters have just one hit in their last 30 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Chicago went 0-for-2 in those situations Wednesday.
Odds and ends
• The Dodgers' Wood went 7-1 with a 2.24 ERA through 13 starts on the road this season. He completed at least six innings in 11 of those outings, but lasted just 4 2/3 innings against the Cubs in Game 4. He was charged with all three of Chicago's runs in his first career playoff start. All four of his previous October appearances had come in relief.
• Turner's eighth-inning homer gave him 11 RBIs through seven playoff games. He trails only Dusty Baker (13 RBIs in 1977) and Davey Lopes (12 in '78) for the Dodgers' record in a single postseason.
• Turner's 2-for-2 night raised his career postseason batting average to .378, the highest of any player with at least 100 career postseason plate appearances. Turner's .495 lifetime on-base percentage (first) and 1.154 OPS (third) in the playoffs also rank among the very best in that group of qualified players.
• The Dodgers' bullpen has not allowed a run in 21 consecutive innings this postseason, dating back to Game 2 of the NLDS against Arizona. In fact, Los Angeles relievers have allowed just one baserunner to advance as far as third base in that span.
The terrific Tanaka
• Tanaka held Houston to just three hits and one walk while striking out eight over seven scoreless innings. He also held the Indians scoreless over seven frames and struck out seven in Game 3 of the AL Division Series presented by Doosan, as New York won, 1-0, to stay alive. That makes Tanaka the third pitcher in Yankees history to author multiple starts of at least seven scoreless innings in one postseason. Roger Clemens (2000) and Hall of Famer Whitey Ford (1960) are the others, with Clemens also striking out at least seven in both games.
• Tanaka is just the fifth pitcher to make multiple starts of at least seven scoreless and no more than three hits allowed in a single postseason, joining the Tigers' Kenny Rogers (2006), the D-backs' Randy Johnson ('01), Clemens ('00) and the Padres' Kevin Brown (1998).
• Tanaka's 1.44 career postseason ERA as a starter ranks third all-time among Yankees with at least four playoff starts, behind only Monte Pearson (1.01 from 1936-39) and Spud Chandler (1.16 from 1941-43).
Video: ALCS Gm5: Girardi on Tanaka, offense in Game 5 win
• Tanaka's 0.90 ERA (two earned runs in 20 innings pitched) in the 2017 postseason is the second-lowest ERA in a single postseason in Yanks history (minimum 19 innings pitched), behind only Waite Hoyt's 0.00 ERA (27 innings) in 1921. Orlando Hernandez's 1.20 ERA (four earned runs in 30 innings) in the '99 postseason is third, followed by Herb Pennock's 1.23 (three earned runs in 22 innings) in '26 and Carl Mays' 1.73 (five earned runs in 26 innings) in '21.
• Tanaka improved to 7-1 with a 0.96 ERA over his past eight starts at Yankee Stadium.
The Baby Bombers are definitely back
Video: ALCS Gm5: Statcast™ measures Sanchez's 110.7-mph homer
• Sanchez joined Judge and Greg Bird as Yankees with three homers this postseason. Prior to this year, only three Yanks players age 25 or younger had gone deep at least three times in a single postseason throughout franchise history. Lou Gehrig homered four times in 1928, Charlie Keller three times in '39 and Mickey Mantle three times in '56.
• Judge's strikeout in the first inning was his 23rd of the postseason, breaking a tie with Pat Burrell (2010) for the second most by any player in a single year. He later added his 24th. Alfonso Soriano set the record with 26 for the '03 Yankees.
New York finally figures out Keuchel
• Keuchel entered with a 0.70 ERA in his four career postseason starts, which ranked as the best of all-time (minimum four starts). After allowing four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, Keuchel now ranks 19th on that list with a 1.78 ERA in five postseason starts.
Video: ALCS Gm5: Keuchel fans Bird for eighth K in the 4th
• Keuchel's two doubles allowed on Wednesday were as many extra-base hits as he allowed in his last 59 batters faced against New York dating back to July 25, 2016. Entering Game 5, Keuchel had not allowed an earned run to the Yankees in 14 consecutive innings (including the regular season and postseason) dating back to July 25, 2016.
The Yanks' four earned runs against Keuchel are more than half as many as they'd managed against the left-hander (seven) in his eight previous starts against them in the regular season and postseason combined, a stretch that spanned 57 2/3 innings.
• In striking out eight Wednesday, Keuchel became the first pitcher to ever record at least seven strikeouts in each of his first five career postseason starts. Bob Gibson and Roy Halladay each recorded seven-plus strikeouts in four of their first five postseason starts.
• Keuchel's 18 strikeouts are the most a pitcher has tallied in consecutive postseason outings against the Yankees since Josh Beckett recorded 19 in Games 3 and 6 of the 2003 World Series for the Marlins.
Struggling 'Stros
• Houston took only its seventh shutout loss of the season and first since since Aug. 17 against the D-backs.
• The Astros' offense has come to a screeching halt in the ALCS after scoring 24 runs and batting a robust .333/.402/.571 with eight homers and 18 total extra-base hits in four ALDS games against the Red Sox. In five games against the Yanks, Houston has scored nine runs while posting a .147/.234/.213 line with just one homer and eight extra-base knocks.
Video: ALCS Gm5: Hinch discusses lack of offense in 5-0 loss
• This is only the second time all year that the Astros have gone three straight games without hitting a home run. The other occurrence was a five-game stretch from Sept. 12-16.
• Jose Altuve,
Andrew Simon is a research analyst for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewSimonMLB.
Matt Kelly is a reporter for MLB.com based in New York. Follow him on Twitter at @mattkellyMLB.
Manny Randhawa is a reporter for MLB.com based in Denver. Follow him on Twitter at @MannyOnMLB.


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To my Herons,
The other day I went to our team workout, expecting that we'd be doing a circuit workout, and knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to participate. Most of you began to 'riverdance,' and I left, going into the fitness room to start biking with a few of you who were bike testing (GREAT JOB!). I got bored. So I decided to run around the track, hoping that running around in a circle for an hour would be more entertaining than staring at a stone wall in the fitness room. It was certainly interesting, I'll give it that.
It wasn't long before I started feeling funny (see my other posts for what I mean by that). I looked down at my heart rate monitor, expecting it to be somewhere in the 150's to 160's.
It read 196. I stopped running.
After a few minutes of walking, I laid down on the side of the track to try to bring my heart rate down. It got down to about 110 and I felt a lot better, so I got up and started jogging again. Immediately my heart rate went up to 190. So I laid down again to bring my heart rate down. I then got up and repeated the cycle. This time, I didn't get back up for a while.
During the course of this "workout," not one team member came to see if I was alright.
No, it wasn't just one. It was EVERY teammate that passed by. Every one of you that saw me laying on the ground staring at my heart rate monitor came over and asked me if I was okay and if there was something you could do.
I just want to tell you that even if most of the time, I will say "no thanks, I'll be fine, keep going with your workout!" I'm so happy and relieved to know that if I ever do need to say "yes, I do need help," you'll be there offering me a hand. It means so much to me to know that my teammates are not just teammates. You are amazing friends that will drop what you're doing to come to my side, just in case I ever need help, without me ever saying a word. You are amazing women who are not only strong athletes physically, but also have some of the strongest hearts I know, because you extend them to others without thinking twice.
I'm going to miss you all so much over Winter break, but knowing that you're supporting me every step of the way through this disorder has helped me so much to even get this far. I will be back in the Spring to row with you, hopefully not having to lay on the floor anymore, but if I do, thank you for being you and reaching out to me.
Herons really do flock together.
Love you ladies! – Nora
As always, If there's anything in here so far that you can identify with, keep reading as I post. If you can't relate, but want to read more about my journey as I carry on, keep reading. If not, then I hope you learned something about POTS.
Please message me!- email@example.com
To all my fellow Potsies, good luck out there!


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About the author
Irene Nemirovsky
Irene Nemirovsky conceived of Suite Francaise as a four- or five-part novel. It was to be a symphony - her War and Peace. Although only two sections were finished before her tragic death, they form a book that is beautifully complete in itself, and awe-inspiring in its understanding of humanity.


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The King Fantastic Guest Room boasts panoramic views of the Strait of Georgia, stylish design, a King sized bed, balcony, two 'Jacobsen' Egg Chairs, a mini refrigerator, and Nespresso coffee maker. Other standard amenities offered are; complimentary WiFi, flat screen TV with cable, a radio alarm clock, a direct-dial phone, 2 QBI housecoats, hairdryer, Molton Brown toiletries and ample plush towels. The room has its own climate control/air conditioning. (Note: The King Fantastic Guest Room is on the upper floor)
Best Rate Guarantee
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Monsoon (Review)
Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, by Robert D. Kaplan, is an odd duck of a book. It's equal parts travelogue, history, and geopolitical analysis. Kaplan describes his travels around the rim of the Indian Ocean, starting with Oman and ending with Zanzibar. Along the way, he offers an overview of the geopolitics and history of the Indian Ocean and tries to make the case that just as the twentieth century was organized around the Atlantic, with the face-off between the US and the Soviet Union, the twenty-first century will be organized around the Indian Ocean, with India and China becoming the two dominant powers in the world. While I didn't always agree with Kaplan's claims , I did very much enjoy the book. Kaplan deftly weaves past and present, and does a good job of putting the current situation around the Indian Ocean in historical context, without getting bogged down in the minutiae of day-to-day headlines.
Kaplan starts in Oman, and gives a succinct overview of how this unassuming desert sultanate at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz is poised to become one of the fulcrums of global trade in the coming century, possibly even surpassing Dubai. He draws an interesting comparison between Oman and Singapore, noting that both Sultan Qabus and Lee Kyuan Yew have both taken states with few natural resources but good geographic positioning and turned them into regional powers that have influence far beyond what their population or military would indicate. While I think his view of Oman was a bit over-optimistic (absolute dictatorships, enlightened or otherwise, inevitably have human rights abuses), I was fascinated to read about the history and culture of a state that is pivotal to global trade and commerce, yet, so far, has done a very successful job at staying out of the headlines.
From Oman, Kaplan moves on to Pakistan. But this isn't the Pakistan of the news, dominated by the Taliban and the assorted unrest in the Northwest Frontier Provinces. This is the Pakistan of the Arabian Sea, of Baluchsitan and Sindh, the transition zone between Arabia and India. He focuses on the Pakistani port of Gwadar and notes how the continued development of the port has the potential to make Pakistan the prime outlet for natural resources from Afghanistan to the Caspian Sea. He notes increasing Chinese investment in Pakistan, as China seeks to counterbalance India, while India simultaneously invests in Afghanistan to counterbalance Pakistan. Kaplan here does a great job of drawing the outlines of the new multi-polar world order, where America will still have an outsize role, but not a dominating one. He notes that while India, for a variety of reasons, will never formally ally with the United States, Indian and US interests in Afghanistan align and so it would be in American policymakers' interests to work with India to ensure stability in the crossroads of empire.
From Pakistan, Kaplan goes straight east, to Gujarat, and then to Delhi. He describes how the inter-communal riots in Gujarat are symptomatic of a rising Hindu nationalism in India, as Indians begin to recognize that they are a great power, with influence beyond their own borders. He pins much of the blame of the riots on Narendra Modi, who was then the chief minister of the state, and lauds India for not electing the BJP, even after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. He is bearish on Narendra Modi's political prospects - saying that while he has certainly delivered strong economic results as the chief minister of Gujarat, he's too divisive a politician for the national stage. This is where the book most shows its age, since, as we all know, Modi was elected Prime Minister of India in a landslide BJP victory in 2013.
After focusing on India's economic future (in the form of Gujarat), he goes to Delhi, where he focuses on India's geopolitical and military aspirations. He discusses how India is responding to China's "string of pearls" strategy of building ports at strategic locations around the Indian Ocean with its own strategy of building up its navy and building diplomatic relations with countries around the Indian Ocean who are nervous about increasing Chinese assertiveness. Here, again, the interests of the US and India align, even as the two nations can't enter into an explicit alliance. India's position in the Indian Ocean is both a geographical and political counterbalance to China, and so, to some extent, the interests of the US Navy and the Indian Navy are in alignment. He heaps praise on the Indian Navy in particular, and states that while China is more powerful on land, India is stronger at sea.
However, great power considerations between China and India are still a thing of the future. The book moves on to focus on the "here and now", which is the continued threat of Islamic extremism against India. Kaplan notes that while in previous decades terrorist attacks against India came from groups explicitly trained and armed by the Pakistani military, the latest attacks against India have been by non-state actors who are as dangerous to Pakistan as they are to India. In a way, the lawlessness in Pakistan is as much (or more) of a threat than the Pakistani military. Nevertheless, Kaplan remains very bullish on India, stating that India, among all the countries in the Indian Ocean rimland, is the only one that "couldn't fall apart even if it wanted to."
From India, Kaplan moves East to Bangladesh. He notes that Bangladesh is where geopolitics meets environmental policy, as the estuarial landscape of Bangladesh, combined with its extremely high population density renders it uniquely vulnerable to climate change. He covers the way that the semi-aquatic landscape of Bangladesh has shaped its politics and governance, noting the outsize influence of NGOs in a country where both geography and history have conspired to keep the central government weak. Kaplan notes that Bangladesh is more likely (because of environmental disaster) to be a destination for US military forces in the future than just about any other country in the Indian Ocean littoral. You can almost hear the disappointment as Kaplan discusses how the perfect geographic positioning of Bangladesh, right at the middle of the Indian Ocean, has been squandered by a Bangladeshi central government more focused on its own "Shakesperean" politics than on improving Bangladesh's infrastructure to take advantage of the growing trade across the Indian Ocean basin. The chapter on Bangladesh is one of the few that ends on a gloomy note.
After covering the northern part of the two bays of the Indian Ocean, Kaplan jumps south, to Sri Lanka. Here he expresses relief at the fact that the LTTE insurgency has finally been defeated, while sounding a note of caution about the manner in which victory was gained. He writes that Sri Lanka provides India and the US with a quandary. Its government, though democratic, has committed large scale human rights abuses against the Tamil minority. However, at the same time, Sri Lanka occupies an increasingly important strategic location athwart the southern Indian Ocean. With China pursuing ever closer ties with Sri Lanka, including building a multibillion dollar port complex at Hambantota, India and the United States may have no choice but to make arrangements with a regime they find morally reprehensible, if only to avoid Chinese domination of the vital sea lanes between the South China Sea and the Straits of Hormuz and Bab El Mandeb.
Similarly, the US and India may have no choice but to deal with Burma. Burma is coveted by both India and China for its natural resources, with lumber and petrochemicals chief among them. In addition, Burma offers China a way to bypass the chokepoint at the Straits of Malacca. As Kaplan notes, the most direct sea access for much of western China is by going south through Burma, rather than east through China itself. However, Burma, more so than Sri Lanka, or perhaps even Pakistan, is arguably the most politically fragile state in the Indian Ocean region. The brutal military dictatorship conceals the fact that Burma (like Iraq, Syria, and many countries in Africa) is an artificial agglomeration of no less than 18 different tribes and ethnic groups, most of which have asserted claims of autonomy, or even independence, and many of whom have private militias which have historically carried out insurgencies against the central government. Kaplan points out that historically, the region currently known as Burma was a mish-mash of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, forming a rough buffer zone between the post-Mauryan states of India and Tang and Song dynasties of China. According to Kaplan, the key challenge for the United States and India is finding a way to engage with Burma without giving approval to its military regime or unnecessarily destabilizing the country. While he gives air to the opinions of human rights workers and ex-military aid workers who say that the US should intervene to topple the Burmese regime, Kaplan cannot, in the end, bring himself to endorse another fraught intervention in another tinderbox of a country. In my opinion, he is absolutely right to do so, and has been been vindicated by history, as the Burmese regime has started liberalizing on its own, after it has become clear that continued isolation has made the regime politically and economically vulnerable.
Kaplan reaches the Eastern end of the Indian Ocean in Indonesia. Here he describes how Indonesia charts Islam's future, just as the Arabian peninsula remains stuck to an Islamic past. Like in Bangladesh, Islam arrived in Indonesia through trade, and therefore the Islam of the largest Muslim country in the world is a syncretic religion that builds on top of Hindu and Buddhist foundations in stark contrast to the fundamentalist Islam of the Arabian world. Kaplan shows how Indonesia forms an alternative model for political Islam; he shows that Indonesia is a tolerant state that, while officially Islamic, is tolerant of ethnic and religious minorities. In particular Kaplan points to the accord reached with separatist province of Aceh as a symbol of the resilience of the Indonesian state, which was once thought to be on the verge of dissolution after the revolution that toppled Suharto.
Finally, Kaplan circles back to Zanzibar, and shows how the African trading outpost symbolizes both the past and the future of the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania, was once a vibrant trading outpost on the eastern coast of Africa. However, the conquest of Africa by European powers and the opening of the Suez Canal caused Zanzibar to go into a long decline into relative obscurity. Now, however, with the resurgence of African economic growth, Zanzibar is poised to make a comeback as India and China look to Africa for natural resources to fuel their insatiable economies. Culturally, too, Zanzibar is a symbol of the Indian Ocean, as its populace is composed of an eclectic mix of ethnic Indians, Omanis, East Africans and even Chinese. Almost all are descendants of traders who formed communities on this island hub off the coast of East Africa. The resurrection of Zanzibar is symbolic of the re-emergence of African nations as a force, politically and economically.
In addition to all of the above, Kaplan manages to intersperse quite a bit of history, weaving in tales of the Portugese, Dutch and British empires that would all, for a time, exert dominance over the Indian Ocean. Yet all of these empires faded, and Kaplan is quick to draw lessons from both their rises and their falls, and apply those lessons to the current balance of power in the Indian Ocean vis a vis the United States. It might seem that such an analytical volume would quickly devolve into dry calculation, but Kaplan manages to keep the book vibrant by writing about places he speaks from those places. He liberally mixes his own personal observations and adventures in with the statistics and analysis and thus is able to show the big picture view without losing track of ground level reality.
It's remarkable that such a slim volume (400 pages) can be so packed with information and imagery. Kaplan manages to paint visions of his travels with hundreds of words, rather than thousands. If you're at all interested in Asia, foreign affairs, history, or any of the above, Monsoon is highly recommended.


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Elevio is a customer success platform that aims to reduce customer effort.
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With contextually relevant support a single click away for your users, and advanced reporting to identify and fix pain points, elevio has helps hundreds of customers that care about their users take their user education to the next level.


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With Sydney City Limits on every festival-goer's calendar at the end of February, the inaugural lineup continues to astound with each subsequent viewing. Among the stellar roster, here are five must see acts.
The Avalanches
The Avalanches have hit stride after stride following the end of their sixteen-year hiatus, with their long awaited 'Wildflower' (2016) LP solidifying the group as a testament to the Australian alternative scene. Their ground-breaking blend of sampling and live instrumentation provides a spectacle like no other, and will undoubtedly be one of Sydney City Limits' standout acts.
Throw it back to last decade with Justice, the French electronic duo responsible for dance hits like 'D.A.N.C.E' and 'Genesis'. In a time where dance music is populated by trap-heavy production, Justice's discotheque flavour offers a refreshing albeit nostalgic take on the beloved genre, and is bound to be taken to new heights in wake of their latest record, 'Woman' (2016), considering its use of live instrumentation and vocalists.
Following one of 2017's strongest hits, Mask Off, and a slew of other popular tracks and features, Future is bringing hip-hop firepower to Sydney City Limits. After a family emergency cut his Listen Out 2017 headlining appearance short, the Atlanta rapper will be sure to unleash his effortless and uniquely fluid flow to the beloved Sydney crowd he was so sorely missed by.
Gang of Youths
Every significant band has a year where the success of their debut record is deemed to not be a stroke of luck, but a glimpse of strong potential. Gang of Youths followed this trajectory in 2017, where their second LP 'Go Farther in Lightness' exhibited a continuation of their early talent for naturally epic rock ballads.
In addition to winning Album of the Year at last year's ARIA's, the Sydney quintet have just dominated the 2017 Triple J Hottest 100, with three tracks in the top ten alone. As such, these alt-rock heavyweights should be anyone's list to catch at Sydney City Limits.
As the go-to bassist for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus, Thundercat's solo brilliance is evident in his fusion of electronic-funk and R&B. The pairing of his signature bopping basslines and abstract lyricism creates an avant-garde sound that caters to any fan of Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), on which Thundercat graced with his soulful jams. All in all, Thundercat's sound is one that will only be accentuated live, with his bouncing bass and synths set to provide a unique and standout set at Sydney City Limits.


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The Johari Restaurant, which overlooks the lush gardens of the hotel, serves international dishes from all around the world, including healthy options. An organic restaurant, The Tembo Bistro, makes use of organic produce and serves authentic and contemporary dishes.
Meet friends and enjoy a cocktail or two at the Cocktail Lounge. Unwind with a drink or sample some of the new beverage concoctions professionally prepared by the bar staff. Indulge in the tranquility of the Boma's Zoezi Spa which offers a variety of services such as body and facial treatments, aromatherapy, steam bath and more. For guests who prefer to stay in shape, a gymnasium is available with cardio and isotonic machines. More intense workouts are available at the gymnasium such as aerobics, kick-boxing and dance.
Our expertise in African travel comes from years of experience travelling the continent, canoeing the rivers, walking the bush trails, and seeing the stars. We've been on the game drives and watched the sunsets, spent nights wrapped up in remote areas, and eaten great food around the fire. Our recommendations come first-hand, and they are your assurance that a safari booked with us is one we know you'll love, because we did.
We know a safari can be pricey, but we guarantee that we're giving you the best deal on your travel. We don't want your trip to Africa to be a once in a lifetime experience, we want you to do it again, and again! Through nurtured relationships with our suppliers, we can offer you the best deal they've got, and you'll never pay more than you should for your accommodation. If you find the same holiday for less, we'll confidently better the price.
Just like the spots on a leopard's back, each of our tailor-made itineraries is unique. Every journey has a personality, carefully designed to match the desires and expectations our clients bring to the table. Every element is taken into consideration to stitch together a personalised safari experience, grown from seed and cultivated to embody the perfect adventure. Our tailored itineraries are your safari dreams, defined.


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I'm pleased to announce that all of the recordings from LUMIA | Symposium 2017 have been uploaded here and are ready for you to view.
I would like to special thank Royal College of Art and my supervisors for their support and our speakers and participants who have made this very first ever LUMIA symposium possible.
Trent Kim
Trent Kim is a Glasgow-based Lumia artist and researcher. He is the programme leader of BA (Hons) Digital Art & Design at University of the West of Scotland and a part time research student in Animation at the Royal College of Art.


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Volkswagen's use of trick software to cheat in official emissions tests has sowed doubt in consumers' minds. Are they the only ones? Is this practice widespread? With that in mind, Mazda has released a statement to declare that they do not employ such methods.
"In compliance with the law, Mazda works hard to ensure that every gasoline and diesel engine it makes fully complies with the regulations of the countries in which they are sold. Mazda never uses illegal software or defeat devices. Mazda's customers may rest assured that their vehicles are fully compliant with all regulations," the statement read.
"Now and into the future, Mazda remains committed to improving fuel efficiency and reducing CO2, as well as making exhaust emissions as clean as possible, while continuing to offer driving pleasure. Mazda will continue developing new technologies and working towards achieving 'ideal combustion' in the internal combustion engine.
"A number of countries around the world are investigating new homologation testing methods based on real driving conditions, such as worldwide harmonised Light-duty Test Cycles and Real Driving Emissions. Mazda supports these initiatives and will cooperate with any requests from authorities," it added.
It was recently revealed that Mazda is targeting a 30% improvement in fuel economy for its SkyActiv engines, by 2020. The company believes that there's scope for more development in the conventional internal combustion engine, instead of going the hybrid route.
"We have a real passion for efficient combustion. You could equate it to the passion we have for the Mazda MX-5 sports car. There's huge heat wastage in conventional engines: surely it's better to do something constructive about that then adding weight with extra power units?" Mazda Europe boss Jeff Guyton told Autocar.


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Our team of buyers were recently at Eurobike 2014. Here are a few snaps of their trip and some of the kit on show.
A long boat to Germany to bring the best in cycling to our customers.
Scotland comes to Germany.
Local brand Endura, are the most popular brand of clothing at the show nowadays.
Endura's variable width fitting bib-shorts.
The Brooks Cambium saddle, gets a whole new range of models and colours.
Limited edition Brompton with black parts looks great, especially with the new bright colours.
Brand new S5 from Cervelo launched at Eurobike! From £3,799 with Ultegra, Fastest bike just got faster!
The Sealskinz model. Standing in a water feature for 4 days, to prove the product is waterproof.
Syntace had a machine to demonstrate the level of flex their seatpins possessed, due to their construction. This aids rider comfort and control. The seatpins feature on some high end Specialized bikes.
Our own Eileen Roe, on her sponsor's stand.
Giro's Synthe is the best looking aero helmet ever.
The Foray is Giro's best ever £50 helmet, due in late September.
A dapper gent having a seat at the Castelli stand.
Nairo Quintana's race winning machine.
Van Nicholas have got into cross with this hydraulic titanium beauty.