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Don't forget to enter the Small Kitchen College Brown Bag Challenge for a chance to win some great BuiltNY prizes!
Since becoming officially gluten-free, I've been pretty much living on quinoa. I keep a tub of it pre-cooked in my fridge, and am now trying to find ways of disguising it for lunch so that I don't go crazy from boredom. Luckily, it's a very versatile grain, and there have been many experiments to-date. My favorite thus far are these quinoa cakes, which taste good room temperature or hot, and keep just as well pre-made in the fridge as the leftover quinoa itself.
This particular version is kind of a deconstructed pesto. Instead of mixing all the elements together in a food processor to form a paste, each classic pesto ingredient–nuts, parmesan cheese, basil, and garlic–gets finely chopped or pulverized (see recipe headnote) individually and mixed in with the quinoa. The result is much more subtle, and the flavor of the ground nuts helps bring out the nuttiness of the quinoa grains itself once toasted in the skillet.
When it comes to brown bag lunch dishes, we take into consideration portability, the re-purposing of leftovers, and the ability to be made ahead or quickly the morning of. These cakes fit the bill completely. If you omit the eggs, the quinoa mixture can keep in the fridge for up to a week. You can cook the cakes the night before or in the morning before work, then reheat at the office. Almost every ingredient, aside from the basil, is pantry-friendly, so this is a recipe that will always be within your reach. Or, if you're one of those new apartment dwellers just getting your pantry going, you won't be disappointed by buying these ingredients for your lunch, and holding onto the excess in your cabinets for the months to come.
Phoebe is the co-founder of Small Kitchen College and Big Girls, Small Kitchen.
Nutty Quinoa Cakes With Basil and Parmesan
Makes 6-8 Cakes; 2 servings
This is a great recipe for putting your mini food processor to work. Instead of chopping your onion and garlic by hand, simply do so in your mini prep. Add to the bowl, and continue by pulverizing your Parmesan, followed by your nuts, and finally your bread crumbs. This will take a lot less time and work than doing it by hand, but of course you can do so as specified in the recipe.
1 cup cooked quinoa (from 1/3 cup dried)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
¼ cup nuts (pecans, pine nuts, or cashews), ground in a food processor or coffee grinder
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (from 1 slice sandwich bread)
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Mix together the quinoa, salt, herbs, onion, garlic, cheese, nuts, and bread crumbs in a medium mixing bowl. Add the eggs and fold until the mixture is moist and sticking together.
In a large cast iron skillet or non-stick pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Form the quinoa into rounded patties, about 2 tablespoons worth in each, and place as many in the pan as will fit without over crowding (if using a 15-inch skillet, you should be able to fit all of them. Otherwise, cook them in two batches, and add another tablespoon of olive oil after the first).
Cook the cakes for 5-7 minutes on the first side, until dark brown on the bottom. Flip the cakes and gently push down on each with your spatula so they flatten slightly. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for another 7 minutes, until dark brown on the second side and firm to the touch.
Remove to a plate to cool slightly. Then either serve, pack into a Tupperware container, or store in the fridge for a brown bag latter in the week!
Originally posted on Friday, July 15th, 2011
[...] to stay healthy and still eat your comfort dishes. Some favorites include: Brown Rice Jambalaya; Nutty Quinoa Cakes; Moroccan Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Whole Wheat [...]
I just made these for the first time, and they were absolutely delicious. Thanks so much. I doubled the recipe and made enough for one dinner for two, and a few lunches. Great recipe!


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ethanv needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 101 designs submitted by 19 freelance designers.
Ethan Valentino
I am a life coach with years of experience in the field of seduction and dating. I am about to startup a company whose mission is to teach men how to overcome their social anxieties, increase their self confidence, understand and manipulate social dynamics and ultimately to seduce women. The coaching consists of workshops, individual trainings, ebooks and phone and email consultations.
The target audience is composed by males usually between 20 and 40 years old, single, usually belonging to middle-class with jobs or lifestyle preventing them to get in touch with many people and new media aware.
The site is brand new, you can be as creative as you want.
Personally I like the following points in a website
- Minimalist and with a lot of breathing
- Great visual impact
- Few and clear calls to actions (but without exaggerating)
- Light color based
- I love typography and readable but refined fonts
- Dynamism
- Big headline and web2.0 design which would include a video and optionally the slogan
- The slogan is "To experience extreme success in your dating life you need to develop an attractive identity, social awareness and balls of steel. This is what Surreal Seduction is all about" and must be present in the page somewhere
The sections present in the website should be:
---> "Learn" (call to action: learn more) a brief description of the ebooks
---> "Experience" (call to action: choose your training) a brief description of the in-field trainings
---> "Get Answers" (call to action: ask your questions now) a description of the consultation
---> A form to collect an email for some free content
---> Articles (from the blog)
---> Witnesses (testimonials)

subset: commoncrawl


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Greenpeace monitoring efforts are showing that radiation levels in the wider Fukushima area are higher than indicated by the Japanese authorities. As government decontanimation attempts are proving insufficient, Greenpeace says it is not safe yet for residents to return to the region. Oct 10, 2013
© Greenpeace
1 - 12 of 5649 results.


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Yung Berg Talks Peeing On A Popular Model During Sex & Getting His Backside Licked + Fake Pictures Leaking? + Get Better To Sean Kingston! [Fixed]
Behind the Scenes from his New Video "THREESOME" . Shot by propFOOTAGE
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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Forms Jobs
Come work for the city of Winston-Salem! We have need for a great variety of skills – from accounting clerks to equipment operators to information systems analysts – and much more! Our benefits package includes subsidized health and dental insurance, paid vacation and holidays, education assistance, a retirement pension plan and much more. Links to the complete list of benefits, and to more details about working for the city, are posted on the right side of this page.
The system will require you to have an e-mail address which will be used to contact you throughout the hiring process and to keep you updated on the status of your application. You will also be able to create an application that can be used to easily apply for multiple jobs in the future without creating a new application each time.
Thank you for your interest in promotional opportunities with the City of Winston-Salem. We look forward to providing better service as we make this transition. For more information, please visit the city's NeoGov information web page.
Job vacancies are published weekly and are available by phone at (336) 631-6496 and on the city's web site (see link at the right). Vacancies are also posted in the Human Resources department and mailed to other local government agencies, local colleges and universities, the Employment Security Commission, and other career placement centers.
The City of Winston-Salems employment practices are guided by federal, state, and local rules and regulations guaranteeing employment opportunities to all persons without regard to and prohibiting discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, religion, political affiliation or beliefs, national origin or handicap, unless a bonafide occupational qualification exists.
Applications are accepted for current, published vacancies only. All applications must be submitted through the City of Winston-Salem NeoGov portal. Resumes may be attached to your application but will not be accepted in lieu of an application. Applications may be completed from any computer with Internet access. Two kiosk computers are available in the Human Resources department for your convenience. Applications must be FULLY completed (i.e. dates of employment, salary history, reference names and phone numbers, etc.). Resumes may not be substituted for employment history.
Resumes that are not included as part of the application will NOT be accepted.
After the application is received in Human Resources, it will be processed in consideration of the position indicated on the Employment application. Applications from "qualified candidates" will be forwarded to the department for review. If you are selected for an interview, you will be contacted by the department supervisor. At any time, applicants may track the progress of their application by accessing their NeoGov account.
Applicants selected for hire must pass a drug screening test and background check. Some positions may also require a physical examination. If a drug test result is positive, the applicant will be notified in writing by the Human Resources Director of the test result. Job applicants will be denied employment with the city if their drug test is positive. A job applicant who refuses to consent to a drug test will also be denied employment with the city.
Receive E-Mail Notification When New Information is Posted on this PageAs a member, enjoy the benefits of MyCityofWS, including your choice of newsletters, and notifications about events and site updates. Login and Manage Your Subscriptions Now.
See the current job openings and apply online
Directions to the Bryce A. Stuart Municipal Building
Job Classifications
Human Resources
Equal Employment Opportunity
The City of Winston-Salem's employment practices are guided by federal, state, and local rules and regulations guaranteeing employment opportunities to all persons without regard to and prohibiting discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, religion, political affiliation or beliefs, national origin or handicap, unless a bonafide occupational qualification exists.
Requests For Reasonable Accommodation
The City is subject to certain provisions within the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). Should you have a question concerning the ADA, its application to the City or a request for a reasonable accommodation, please contact the Human Resources Department or the City's ADA Coordinator in the City's Attorney's Office for further information.


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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Roy Hibbert had 18 points and seven rebounds, and the Indiana Pacers handed the Charlotte Bobcats their 13th straight home loss with a 103-76 victory Tuesday night.
The Pacers bounced back from Sunday's 11-point defeat to the Brooklyn Nets and won for the fifth time in six games.
With team owner Michael Jordan looking on from the bench, the Bobcats lost their fifth in a row. They've dropped 24 of 26 since Thanksgiving.
Indiana won this one going away behind some dominant inside play, outrebounding the Bobcats 60-31 and outscoring them 52-22 in the paint, once again exposing Charlotte's problems down low.
Paul George had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while David West added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers. George Hill chipped in with 16 points and seven rebounds.


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U.S. Probes Microsoft Over Bribery Claims
Federal regulators are investigating Microsoft's relationship with business partners that allegedly bribed foreign government officials in return for software contracts. WSJ's George Stahl reports on digits. (Photo: Getty Images)
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... Micra soft any investigated by the U S Department of Justice about bribery claims ... and mall ... thing on Digits good afternoon and welcome I'm Simon Constable ... discuss the blog of George Stahl is on the site with us and thanks for being now to get ... I guess ... um ... school spokesman and ... yet the Justice Party the ICC officials are looking into Micra soft to see whether or not ... overseas it a microscope or its partners may have tried some officials for business ... specifically the looking at Micra soft in China to see if they ... get kickbacks to Chinese officials the company itself ... on to ... secure some business there meanwhile in Romania ... and Italy ... the regulators are looking at to see whether partners are resellers of Micra soft ... didn't do this ... and this all gets to some ankle the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which states from nineteen seventy seven and basically says you come do that right right and and that's not true of every ... company ... aam and the wealth of those to the U S banks Friday I see Diana does give us companies a disadvantage so now as foreign land where maybe bribery is warranted ... I was excepted but a more traditional way of ... getting business done ... aam and and so ... up they receive it this is a ... popular area to investigate among tech companies and along the pharmaceuticals ... and Micra sauce Casey did this up I investigation in twenty ten and found no instances of wrongdoing in China ... and in the day that information to government regulators ... I know we see that they're looking into this map notices of this is just a pro this is an accusation as it ... gets ... yet it is is that it is a simple interface ... and so we still have a ways to go ... as I said Microsoft has helped the process by handing over their notes Napoli internal investigation which is something that's commonly done by companies ... as a way to ... either try to avoid any counties whatsoever or less to Penney's and click on that the government buys it if he doesn't like now this comes some ... from attempts to combat so that it is this can can can get a Romney can get it right to ... monitor what is that it's it's what we do but on the muzzle to stop but if you have the policies implies that Microsoft has policies in place and to um they tried to enforce them and timely ... that will help the corporation ... even if they offer as someone who wants five am ... is found to be killed it yet ... I still will come down to the judgment of the regulators my Pursell says it has a hundred seventy people but the discovery that my which are just the sorts of things and ... operate for the tipster there's an economic advantage when they can get to thirty percent of any punishment ... that is heated up by the government for four of violation of the Foreign Corrupt policies XL ... Beck Beck could bring as if you would fall for that and you're addicted to tears crack a new map on my devotion them ... very much George Stahl Dynasty's was I'm Simon Qassam on and that was digits


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Liberate the Prophet from the Stranglehold of Religion!
For a Muslim, it is not just an article of faith, it is a "scientific" certainty that we know all the details about the life of Mohammed. There are various sources: first among them, the Koran, then the traditions about what Mohammed did (the Hadith), which set the standard for action today, and the Prophet's biography (the Sira).
The most ancient witness in the Sira, that of Ibn Ishaq as edited by Ibn Hisham, was made available to students in the mid-nineteenth century by the German orientalist Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, who was teaching in Göttingen at the time. In the eyes of a Muslim, Mohammed is the guarantor of everything "Muslim" from the theology to the rules which govern daily life.
At the end of the nineteenth century, European students of Islam began to lose their faith in the reliability of these three sources. Ignaz Goldziher recognised that the Hadith reflected in various ways the disputes which broke out in the Muslim world around three decades after Mohammed's death.
It could therefore not be seen—as Muslims see it—as an authentic source for the personality and the actions of the Prophet. This led to a reconsideration of the value of the Sira, which, according to the widely accepted view among Islam experts, is in large part based on the Hadith, especially on the parts of the Hadith which explain the Koran.
Unsatisfactory impression
The Dane Frants Buhl, whose biography of Mohammed, published in 1903, retained its importance in the academic literature throughout the twentieth century, complained in the introduction to the book that it was impossible to see "a creature of flesh and blood" behind Mohammed's words as reported in the Koran and Hadith; what emerged was rather a strange double image.
The British Islam expert, W. Montgomery Watt, who attempted a broad-ranging biography of Mohammed in the 1950s, also failed to solve the core question as to the validity of the non-Koranic material. All the same it is to him we owe the clarification of a number of important events in the life of Mohammed.
But in general, one is left with the unsatisfactory impression that it has so far been impossible to reach an evaluation of the sources which is independent of Muslim assumptions, precisely because, in a way which is hard to identify, these assumptions are omnipresent in the sources themselves.
The findings of Watt and others seem to become completely worthless as soon as one calls into question the authenticity of the Koran itself, and thus the historicity of its propagator.
The work of Günter Lüling can be seen as herald of this radical development, although his findings have not been adopted by all Western Islam experts. In 1974 he published a work in which he analysed 26 passages from the Koran, most of them brief texts written in Mecca.
He argued that these texts concealed "a pre-Islamic Christian original or ur-text." He divided these passages into two kinds: those which were grafted onto the ur-text, and those which were originally Muslim. The Koran, he argues, is the result of several stages of editorial activity—a conclusion to which the non-Koranic material lends weight.
Slow growth towards a holy text
Lüling links his analysis with a certain view of the character of pre-Islamic Arab Christianity. According to the British scholar, John E. Wansbrough, what we now call the Koran emerged over a period which lasted until the ninth century and during which, through an anonymous editorial process, a variety of text fragments slowly grew into a holy text; this is how the Muslim religion arose.
The main sources about Mohammed were revealed as later fictions. Wansbrough and his supporters failed to show how their editorial history was embedded in the general history of the time in the Middle East. But they quoted in evidence of their view the fact that there were no complete texts of the Koran dating from the early seventh century.
This is true, but what would become of Plato's writings, the New Testament, or especially the Old Testament if their existence could only be proved by the presence of physical texts dating from the time of their composition?
Wansbrough's view that the author of the Koran was anonymous provided the foundation stone for the construction of an allegedly "authentic" non-Arab ur-text which was later Arabised and then distributed in the form of the existing Koran.
This hypothesis is already immanent in Lüling's work, but it was left to a researcher writing under the name of Christoph Luxenberg to elaborate the position and to claim it for his own in a book called "The Syro-Aramaic Approach to the Koran," originally published in 2000.
Wondrous mixture
Luxenberg's work is a wondrous mixture of basic knowledge about Semitic languages (for example about consonantism) spiced with wide-ranging fantasy.
Serious reviews, such as that of Simon Hopkins in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (2003), point out the thoroughly dilettante character of Luxenberg's approach, and note that Luxenberg submits only a few passages from the Koran to his "analysis". (In the 2004 edition of the book, a few more passages are considered.)
Luxenberg's inventiveness fails to deal with more than 95 percent of the text, so that, even if the few examples were based on solid argument, one could not speak of a general "Syro-Aramaic approach," and certainly not of the decoding of the thoroughly Christian liturgical text which is said to lie hidden beneath the Arabic of the Koran.
In addition, Luxenberg is unable to tell us anything about the historical background of the Aramaic-Arabic hybrid language which he assumes to have been spoken in Mecca. It is well known that a number of Syrian-Aramaic terms became naturalised into Arabic in the course of the fourth century during a religious revival in Arabia.
Studies of South Arabic inscriptions have shown that key terms in the Koran, such as "Salat" (prayer), were in use in a heathen context long before Mohammed. But it was only in exceptional cases that the religious revival led to conversions to Judaism or Christianity. Luxenberg pays no attention to the results of this research.
Critics careful with opinions
Revelation of these inadequacies, however, has done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of his admirers. As early as 2004, they published a small book on the Luxenberg debate.
The articles in the book did not deal with criticisms of Luxenberg's approach, providing instead only general considerations on the reception of his theses, whilst giving him the opportunity to comment on his own work and to provide a few more examples of his method.
Some experts, interviewed by the book's editor, Christoph Burgmer, expressed their opinions as cautiously as possible; the topics of the interviews were in any case chosen so that the commentators would be able to avoid adopting a clear position on Luxenberg's work.
All the same, they dropped hints implying that anyone who believes himself to be in possession of a "hermeneutic master key" for the Koran should also be required to explain how the emergence of a Muslim community out of a Christian-Aramaic-Arab community and the transformation of its holy text fit in with the historic events of the time.
The book has recently been republished in an enlarged edition. Burgmer notes in the introduction that Luxenberg's area of research has expanded to include Christian textual contexts: "The possibility of seeing into the beginnings of Christianity has been opened up."
Once more, Lüling could have been Luxenberg's inspiration. But in this case it is the Saarbrücken theologian and student of religion, Karl-Heinz Ohlig. He is known for works on the history of Christology, as well as for a book on Islam, published in 2000, in which he wrote in the introduction that Islam experts who read Arabic are biased by their knowledge of the sources.
That could not be the case with him, because he did not read Arabic. Ohlig's academic interest has in any case nothing to do with Islam. His aim is to hunt down evidence of a non-Trinitarian Christianity, which he sees as authentic: Jesus was not the Son of God but an exemplary human being; he was the servant of God. He summarises his views on this in one of his contributions to a collection of essays called "The Dark Beginnings."
A historical context
That Jesus was not the son of Allah, but his servant, is repeated several times in the Koran—and that is where Ohlig and Luxenberg meet: the "Syro-Aramaic approach" espoused by Luxenberg provides the evidence for the survival of an original non-Trinitarian Christianity in Arabia. That furnishes Luxenberg at long last with something like a historic context for his imaginings.
"The Dark Beginnings" and "Early Islam" include essays which in one way or another support the assumption that, somewhere in the Syro-Aramaic area, an ur-Christianity was turned into Islam via a transitional stage which consisted of a brusque rejection of post-Nicene Christology.
To make this assumption convincing one has to liberate the Koran from any hint of an Arab prophet by the name of Mohammed. The first and most important step is taken by Ohlig, in that he ignores the many thousands of pages of Arab-Islamic traditions about early Islam.
He regards them as a gigantic fraud. By the nature of things, Ohlig has no insight into the multifaceted character of these traditions and evidently confuses their content with the dogmatic, oversimplified picture of Mohammed which dominates Muslim inspirational writings. Ohlig only deals with the Koran, and, he says, its texts are "in a strange way geographically undefined."
More than a servant?
As a result it is not necessary for him to relate the texts to the Hejas. Only the name "Mohammed" or "The Blessed One" has to be explained away. It is found in the Koran, on coins of the second half of the seventh century and in an inscription in the Dome of the Rock, which was completed under Caliph Abd al-Malik, who reigned from 685 to 705.
The inscription states "Mohammed is the servant of Allah and his messenger." In a reference to Sure 4, verse 171ff, the learned are warned not to see more in Jesus than a servant and messenger of Allah.
A prophet called Mohammed, for whom there is such early incontrovertible evidence, ought to be enough to bring the construction of an ur-Christian community crashing down.
Luxenberg dismisses the danger in "The Dark Beginnings." "Mohammed" in this case is not a personal name at all, but the title of the "servant and messenger of Allah." So the correct translation should be: "Praised be the messenger and servant of Allah," meaning Jesus.
An interpretation that brings new problems, which, it is not necessary to emphasise, cannot be easily overcome. "Mohammed" causes trouble. Even though the root of the word is found thousands of times in Arabic, the word has to be sourced elsewhere.
Christian Syriac does not offer anything useful. Ohlig says that "Mohammed" survived from Old Aramaic (seventh to fourth century BC) into the times of his Christian sect. The newest theory, proposed by Volker Popp in "Early Islam," has the word coming from Ugaritic (two thousand years BC), and being chosen for mysterious reasons as an epithet for Jesus by non-Trinitarian Christians.
Paradoxical side effect
The "new, critical study of Islam" tries to find answers to questions which the historian should certainly be asking about the sources for the life of Mohammed, but its answers consist in eliminating the object of study.
As shown, this is done by questionable means. It means that the Mohammed of the Koran, as well as of the other substantial Arabic and early non-Arabic sources, remains an unresearchable, unhistorical fact of life, beyond the events of his time and inexplicable—exactly the way the vast majority of Muslims would want it. That is a paradoxical side effect of this approach.
Islamic Studies has to emancipate itself from Muslim approaches to Mohammed if it wants to get closer to historical reality—that is beyond dispute.
Some of its practitioners have been trying to do just that already for over a century. They have been hunting for a model which would allow them to test the historical validity of the sources using a method which they could apply mechanically, saving themselves the effort of individual analysis.
But by doing so, the sources have one by one been eliminated. It became a defining characteristic of the "historical critical method" that it should not be taken seriously.
The result is an arrogant treatment of the tradition in general as well as of individual citations. In the end, even the problem of the influence of the religious revival on the early history of Islam, which Lüling, for example, saw as an issue requiring attention, does not find adequate treatment. An attempt to emancipate oneself from Muslim assumptions which leads to such results must be regarded as a failure.
What is the significance of the abrupt change in Mohammed from a man who was patient with what came upon him to one who exercised power? What historical events lie behind that change, and how did the interpretations which Muslims today see as historical truth emerge? These questions remain but they are not unanswerable.
Earlier stages of interpretation which are no longer welcomed by Muslims today lie hidden in the tradition; the task of Islamic Studies is to hunt them out. It is not as if such attempts had never been made or had never led to convincing conclusions. Convincing results have been and are being achieved, even if those who have achieved them do not pretend to be prophets of a new enlightenment.
Tilman Nagel
© FAZ/Qantara.de 2007
Translated from the German by Michael Lawton
This article was previously published by the German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Christoph Burgmer (Ed.): "Streit um den Koran". Die Luxenberg-Debatte: Standpunkte und Hintergründe. Erweiterte Auflage. ("Dispute about the Koran". The Luxenberg Debate: Positions and Background. Expanded Edition.) Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2007. 214 pages, paperback, 19.80 euros.
Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Gerd-R. Puin (Ed.): "Die dunklen Anfänge". Neue Forschungen zur Entstehung und frühen Geschichte des Islam. ("The Dark Beginnings". New Research on the Emergence and Early History of Islam.) Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2006. 406 pages, hardback, 38 euros.
Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Ed.): "Der frühe Islam". Eine historisch-kritische Rekonstruktion anhand zeitgenössischer Quellen. ("Early Islam". A Historical-Critical Reconstruction on the Basis of Contemporary Sources.) Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2007. 666 pages, hardback, 68 euros.
The Emergence of Islam
No Prophet Named Muhammad?
"To shed light on the dark beginnings of Islam" is the call of Karl-Heinz Ohlig, editor of the volume "Early Islam". Its authors claim to be able to trace the actual emergence of Islam through recourse to "contemporary sources". Daniel Birnstiel has read the book
Koran Studies
"What is the Koran?"
Christoph Luxenberg's book on the history of the origins of the Koran has found wide resonance internationally. But scholars of Islam are skeptical about the work. Michael Marx summarizes the results of a Berlin conference on the subject.


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Last Sunday afternoon, at 12.34 p.m., I received an email from someone I did not know. The email was titled simply "Hey." and contained a link to a nefarious looking website.
Within a half hour or so, another person I did not know responded, adding simply "spam?"
I didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of my ascent into "reply-all" hell. Since Sunday afternoon I've received 293 emails from people I don't know in response to this first email. What's worse, is that this doesn't seem to be the standard case of stupidity, naivety, or unfunny jokes — instead, me and the 342 other people trapped on the email list from hell seem to be stuck in some kind of infinite loop.
It took me a little while to realize, but it's all Facebook's fault.
Every person who has a Facebook account has a Facebook e-mail address. This is an email address that can be used to send messages to your Facebook account.
This feature was implemented in 2010, but the service never really took off — despite Facebook making it your "default" email address. It's still there, however, and it's still possible to send messages to people via their Facebook email address, which is usually related to their username.
One place you are likely to have seen Facebook email addresses is in your mobile phone's contact book. If you've ever synced your contacts with your Facebook profile, you may notice that when you look at a contact on your phone is an "@facebook.com" address for them. It's a little confusing, and has sparked a small amount of controversy from some who said it was replacing their original contacts, but other than that it always seemed harmless.
That is, until it trapped me in an infinite loop of "reply-all" emails.
I actually never read the first email with that nefarious link that was sent to me — my spam filter caught it. Looking back, I can see that I must have been in the person's address book because they tried to contact me about a story a couple of times (I never responded). Then it appears that this person got some kind of virus that sent the dodgy link out to everyone in his contact book.
Curiously, I would guess that the email may have been sent from this person's phone. How can I tell? Because more around half of the addresses on the list seem to be "@facebook.com" email addresses, among the many gmail addresses and the automatically created "@craigslist.org" addresses.
By their very nature, the Facebook email addresses add another layer of disaster to this "reply-all" email thread. This is because they are two things at once — both emails and Facebook messages.
When one of the Facebook users, understandably, wants to leave the conversation, they click "leave conversation" in their Facebook message window. Doing this, however, sends the following message to all people on the email chain:
"Auto-generated message: [Person's Name] has left this conversation and will no longer see your messages"
For reasons I don't quite seem to understand, it's not quite as simple as that for the Facebook users. Despite the 293 emails that have been sent, almost all attempts to leave the thread, my latest email shows 306 people on the respondent list for the latest email. According to the emails, some people appear to have "left this conversation" multiple times, but they are still there in the latest email. Those who are receiving the messages on their normal email addresses, like me, for example, have no option to "leave the conversation" at all.
Personally, I am not particularly upset when I get stuck in "reply-all" email threads. I am aware of how to block email addresses or mute certain conversations in gmail. Whenever I get a new email in this particular email thread, I chuckle to myself, thinking "Wow, it's still going."
However, among the others, things are getting a little "Lord of the Flies"-esque in this "reply-all" society.
"Mark" writes:
If I find out who put me on this list, they will be banned from my Friend's list.
"David" seemed confused:
What in the world is all this about and why now am I seeing it on Facebook after a day of constantly having to clean out my regular [mail] inbox the last couple of days?
"Rebecca" is exasperated:
how the hell do you make this message stop.. I have hit leave conversation now over [ten] times and this s*** keeps showing up in my inbox and popping up a chat box. .
Someone named "Big David" wrote 560 words in size 18 font admonishing people for hitting the "reply-all" button — slightly missing the point, I felt.
Sadly, the problem may not go away away anytime soon. According to Facebook's Community Help pages, the issue is widespread. One man complains he's been getting hundreds of messages for months. In a post marked "leave a conversation for eternity," someone complains that they've been getting the messages for around 6 months and have tried multiple tactics to get themselves out of the infinite message loop.
For now, I've put up a filter that will keep the emails out of my inbox. It's a minor annoyance, sure, but it's a sad legacy for an email system even Business Insider once called "brilliant."


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The Heart Conditions That Will Set You Free- by
Inner LifeOur inner life is more important than anything else because it is based on our thoughts and attitudes, which determine how we live. Real life is the life that's in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you're in relationship with… Real peace and joy come from God's Spirit in us, not things or people around us. And when your heart is right with God, it's amazing how peaceful, content and even happy you can be in the midst of difficult situations and turmoil.
Matthew 5:8 says the pure in heart will see God. And Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to "keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life" (AMPC).
The scripture in Proverbs makes it clear that it's our responsibility to guard our heart. And we need to do it often, because each day there are countless opportunities for something to creep into our heart that is not pure or pleasing to God.
The Litmus Test of a Pure HeartChecking your motives is a good way to determine what condition your heart is in. Motives reveal why we do what we do, which is actually more important to God than what we're doing. If we're really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what's causing us to do what we do.
But I've learned a powerful secret: When we no longer have to impress people and are instead living to please God, we will have real freedom to enjoy life and be who God created us to be.
Think about it. If your schedule is hectic, is it because God is overloading you with responsibility or because you're striving to do what you feel other people want you to do? Have you ever said, "Well, so-and-so expects me to do this, so that's why I'm doing it." Or maybe you were afraid someone would be mad or disappointed with you if you didn't do what they asked. I've done it. And it just made me miserable and even resentful at times.
I also used to do things because I was nosy and just wanted to know what was going on – even at church! I wanted to be involved in some groups because of it. And at one time I even pushed Dave to be an elder so he could go to meetings and then tell me what was going on.
How to Check Your HeartAs I grew in my relationship with God, He showed me what it means to have a heart like Him. He is a God of grace, mercy, truth, compassion and generosity. Whatever He tells us to do, it's because it's for our good, not His benefit. He gave His best for us when He gave Jesus, His only Son, to die on our behalf so we could be forgiven of our sin through His shed blood.
No matter what condition your heart is in, if you'll trust God, He can heal you and make your heart like His.
If you aren't in the habit of checking your heart and really guarding it, I want to encourage you to spend a few hours alone one day and think about what you do and why. If you'll be honest with yourself, God can help you see the truth about your condition. And the truth will always make you free!


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Huntly properties to pay for watershed benefits
Some Huntly residents are being asked to make a direct contribution under Environment Waikato's Project Watershed proposal for maintaining the flood protection works in their area.
Some Huntly residents are being asked to make a direct contribution under Environment Waikato's Project Watershed proposal for maintaining the flood protection works in their area.
More emphasis on improving water quality in the Region's rivers and streams, investigating erosion on the coast and flood protection and river management works under the catchment-wide Project Watershed are included in Environment Waikato's Annual Plan for the coming financial year.
Huntly residents will have a chance to ask questions about Environment Waikato's Project Watershed next week at a public meeting.
Environment Waikato chairman Neil Clarke was presented with a 3000 name petition calling for the urgent completion of the State Highway One expressway today.
Environment Waikato Land Transport Committee chairman David Peart wants immediate action to reduce the health effects of vehicle emissions.
Claims today that Environment Waikato might bail out the financially troubled Waikato Stadium were seriously misleading, according to Regional Council Chairman Neil Clarke.
Almost 60 kayakers of all ages spent the weekend on the Waikato River learning more about the river's environment.
Businesses as diverse as The Warehouse, Otorohanga Zoo and Transit New Zealand won awards for their environmental contribution at last week's Waikato Business and the Environment Awards.
Levels of toxic organic compounds found in Hamilton's roadside runoff are about the same as those found in Japan – despite the higher traffic density there.
Environment Waikato's Regional Land Transport Committee wants State Highway One expressway as the number one strategic roading priority for the Region.
The Waste 2 Art exhibition held in Hamilton this week was a success, with 29 entries and 160 people viewing the art works.
Coromandel's roading problems need to be included on the Region's list of priorities to get action, a workshop in Coromandel has decided.
Environment Waikato has granted resource consent for a Tuakau tomato grower to take underground water for irrigation purposes.
Environment Waikato's Environmental Monitoring Team has been awarded ISO 9001 registration for its work.
Hamilton ratepayers have been well represented in developing Project Watershed, according to Middle Waikato Liaison Committee chair Lois Livingston.
Residual levels of pesticides in some Waikato soils could be high enough to be a potential hazard to environmental health.
Environment Waikato is to issue an infringement notice against a Karapiro onion grower following a dumping of about 750 litres of herbicides in November.
Environment Waikato received fewer pollution complaints in the last year, with the largest drop in air pollution complaints.
Environment Waikato has granted resource consent for a proposed walkway around Hamilton Lake.
Environment Waikato welcomed diverse points of view on the funding policy for Project Watershed – the three year project to establish long term funding for flood protection, soil conservation, and river management services in the greater Waikato Catchment.


text: Got my 2011 HBII last year to retire my old Les Paul. Absolutely in love with the HBII. Just wish I had the $$ to get a custom shop HBII with my own specific details. Thanks PRS for such wonderful instruments! I can now sing without being a vocalist! And then I just had to make this 4' wide photo of my HBII and my buddies 513 Swamp Ash for my new born's bedroom, yes he will be a PRS rocker!


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At the Hill on Monday, Pete Kasperowicz, employing the establishment press's usual "mean Republicans attack" spin, is packaging something first aggregated on Friday at Michelle Malkin's Twitchy.com exclusively as an accusation coming from GOP Congressman Steve Stockman of Texas.
Malkin's credit-denied crew, with the help of citizen activists who did much of the dirty work, detected what I will call "Astro-Tweets," a Twitter-driven variant of the campaign tactic known as "astroturfing," which aims, using a variety of means, to create the illusion of public support for a cause where little or none exists (bolds are mine throughout this post):
"Kathleen H. Dittus" wasn't born yesterday, you know. She — or her Twitter account, at least — was born today. No, she hasn't even been born yet; she's still inside that "egg" avatar, but she can't wait to break out and lend the president a hand with his gun control effort.
The @BarackObama account, fresh off of exploiting Gabby Giffords to push its demand that Congress vote on an assault weapons ban, is doing its best to get #WeDemandAVote trending, but some conservatives are noticing that a lot of the supporters are a little, um, young. They have zero (Twitter) followers, follow no one, and have tweeted just once.
One watcher noted that "Almost all of the accounts in #WeDemandAVote are created in the last 72 hours."
Well, maybe the gun control cause is soooooo important that people are coming out of the woodwork and joining the Twitterverse to make their feelings known. Uh, no. Enter Stockman:
Stockman said that in response to Obama's call for people to tweet their congressman in support of gun control legislation, he received just 16 tweets. But he said all of these messages were identical, and that a closer look at them revealed that only six were from real people.
"The other 10 are fake, computer-generated spambots," his office said in a press release. As evidence, he said these 10 tweets use default graphics and names, and have not engaged in any interaction with other people. Two of the tweets were sent at nearly the same time, and both follow just one person: Brad Schenck, Obama's former digital strategist.
That's not exactly a compelling groundswell.
A search at the Associated Press's national site on Stockman's last name comes up empty. Searches at the Politico on its "gun control" tag and on Stockman's last name also return nothing relevant to Obamabots' astro-tweeting. There's not a chance that a similar fakery-driven effort by a conservative or Republican group would be so studiously ignored.
The Politico does have a previous indicator of Stockman's style. A brief item on Thursday tells readers that the Texas represenative invited staffers to attend a gun rights talk with these words: "Grab free donuts and coffee before Obama grabs your gun!"
The Politico's Jake Sherman whined that "Obama's proposal to overhaul gun laws does not include a mass roundup of guns." Okay, but he forgot to note a Justice Department memo which became public over a week earlier told higher-ups that the only way to get "assault weapons" off the streets was to do just that.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.


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JP Morgan's London Whale Report's Five Conclusions
J.P. Morgan's London Whale task force reached five conclusions on its long review.
The conclusions place plenty of blame on the CIO and its management team, but also notes problems across the company on how the unit was reviewed.
One conclusion the task force reached but didn't include as one of its five is that compensation "did not unduly incentivize the trading activity that led to the losses." Still, the report does say better communication early on with the traders that they would still be "fairly" compensated notwithstanding the losses might have helped.
Here is the summary on the five official conclusions.
1. CIO's judgment, execution and escalation of issues in the first quarter of 2012 were poor, in at least six critical areas. The six areas were:


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Opinion: Come One, Come All to ObamaCare
Editorial board member Joe Rago on the Congressional effort to require income verification for people seeking ObamaCare subsidies.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... I ... the services Department announced earlier this year ... the wind not verify incomes for Americans who are applying for ... Obamacare subsidies to any in vacation ... to fraud well is this going to be six before the program goes live ... editorial board member Joe rego is here talk about it Sunday the general answer to that question is no time at ... the site is that he ... has outlined SingTel what a in first off for people are falling this ... how was this loophole created in the first place write what the teacher said was that the the it was too complicated basically that there were operational barriers to verifying peoples in common they apply ... for the Affordable Care Act subsidies away with a gun and be allowed to do is is called self attacks ... and just it is essentially ... like a liar loans for example now in the housing market where you you can require some it isn't the view to ... outward and certain to start pushing money out the door ... I'm ... in order to just pack as many people espouse mourns the exchanges ... as as as the government can carry away so I did there something called an ObamaCare navigator ... the people going out ... to help other Americans ... sign up for this program ... could they be used to detect this come from ... write lol what ... a lot of people are worried about state attorneys general and so forth ... I've that the Navigators themselves are going into the sea and implements of Friday on the ... House Energy and Commerce Committee ... I've that some of these groups which have been ... very handsomely funded with with taxpayer dollars ... to say what he used to walk on training are the Navigators undergoing what kind of background checks and Danny are you running ... I think cause each year and scandal on Capitol Hill with great saying I'll I'm Terry us these groups ... are routes them China sabotage the law ... so ... here's an ... example of something that ... the the the the glitches really aren't going to be worked out but I wonder if the Knicks know there is a fix though right show on Capitol Hill now for ... a lease this income ... ID verification ... but there is is a bill on the house that will most likely pass them and I'm Sam ... Southern in the voting on that ... later this afternoon it okay Sudeep only in the second in a Tuesday is going to fail if it dies what kind of you are out there do ... if anything ... to ... express their anger and a new way to basically talking about is another ... massive fraud it's about to be perpetrated on the American taxpayer ... for The Wall ... I don't know how they would express surrender rather than just being mad about something out but you know this is really kind of ... headed on autopilot account starting in just in ... fewer than twenty and twenty days ... and and go on live national what else should we be looking for is Obamacare goes and implementation of the other big issues ... that states are facing as they started the sixteenth was how ... I'd you know what one of them one of the big things is is our is the operational architecture really can work I'm you know this is a huge ... information technology undertaking ... are the systems can it be in place if you want to get subsidies and actually qualified for them when you be able to get them or will you just kind of ... you don't get their message that both the the the the the big question is what Houlihan which insurers who bought our operating in which states ... how much their coverage Costco ... broad or narrow their networks might be and what if you like your doctor will you do we keep re doctor ... so that this sort of a ... major questions or are still home to ... Spokane the slow moving train wreck of Obamacare continues editoral board


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Find a register office
You can use a register office to:
- register a birth, death, marriage or civil partnership
- find records of a birth, death, marriage or civil partnership (if it was registered at that register office)
- order copies of certificates
You can report a death through the Tell Us Once service if the register office offers it.
Further information
This service works in England and Wales only. Find a register office in Scotland and Northern Ireland.


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FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A University of Alaska, Fairbanks, biology professor says his research indicates the eight tiny reindeer pulling Santa Claus' sleigh are actually young caribou.
The University of Chicago Press reported Perry Barboza's study, published online by the Physiological and Biochemical Zoology journal, argues the animals pulling Santa through the air on his Christmas Eve round trip across the globe are caribou rather than the traditionally accepted reindeer.
"Although the mechanisms of flight for Santa and his team are as yet unknown, the energy required by his team of animals to fly around the world from pole to pole is considerable," the study reads. "The animals that draw the sleigh must deliver high power with a minimal flight mass. Such a level of energy expenditure in a ruminant capable of flight would require significant food intake, because larger fat stores increase flight mass. Calves entering their first winter have the greatest power-to-mass ratios, because their legs are proportionately longer and their body is leaner than those of adults. Although Siberian reindeer may appear a suitable choice, North American caribou are leaner and longer-legged than reindeer during this time of year. Caribou can also better sustain very high food intakes -- of a diet including dry lichens and formulated rations -- at 6 percent of body mass per day. What has been reported in sightings as "eight tiny reindeer" are therefore likely to be young caribou."


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Intel's Efforts Are Helping Families in the Congo
Intel is creating a responsible supply chain to ensure minerals that finance violence don't end up in the devices we use every day. We're committed to using only conflict-free1 mineral resources, which means greater economic opportunities and safety for miners and their families. Now through third-party audits and direct validations by Intel's supply chain organization, we have gone beyond just microprocessors to ensure that our broader product base will be conflict-free.
What Are Conflict Minerals?
Tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold are referred to as conflict minerals.2 They are integral to the technology and other things we rely on every day: from laptops, phones, and tablets to cars, airplanes, lighting, and jewelry. Militias and rebel groups in eastern Congo, funded by the sale of these minerals, have killed over 5 million people since 1998.
Learn more about our efforts to eliminate conflict minerals from our supply chain in the links below.
Improving Worker Livelihood
Conflict-Free Mines Help Improve the Livelihood for Workers
Knowing where the minerals are sourced from, companies can ensure they are using conflict-free resources and miners like Jean Marie can earn a fair wage to support their families.
Bag and Tag System Benefits
Miners Can Benefit More with the Bag and Tag System
In the past, armed groups could strike any time and take the miners' profits away. Intel's commitment to sourcing conflict-free minerals provide a safer working environment to miners like Richard.
Eastern Congo Mine Progress
Over 200 Mines in Eastern Congo Are Now Conflict-Free3
For so long, mining was an informal, lawless, and violent industry in Eastern Congo. Thanks to the efforts of NGOs like the Enough Project and companies like Intel, mines can now be conflict-free, allowing workers to make living wage and work in a peaceful setting.
We Sent Three YouTubers a Mysterious Box
They unbox and review electronic devices every day. But do they know where the minerals used to make their gadgets come from?
Watch Unbox Therapy's unboxing ›
Watch Linus Tech Tips' unboxing ›
Get Involved
Through the Enough Project's Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, thousands of individuals, students at more than 175 schools, and state legislatures are already voicing their demand for conflict-free products made with minerals from Congo. As a result, companies are beginning to change their practices so they don't lose this huge segment of their consumer market. Join the conflict-free movement by working with your campus or city to demand conflict-free products from Congo.
Learn more about our efforts to eliminate conflict minerals from our supply chain in the links below.
Intel Policy
Intel's policy on sourcing minerals responsibly.
SEC Filing
United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Our White Paper
Intel's efforts to achieve a responsible minerals supply chain.
Corporate Responsibility Report
Transparency is at the heart of our commitment.
For Our Customers: Conflict Minerals Declaration
Submit a request to receive Intel's Conflict Minerals Declaration.
For Our Suppliers: Intel's Supply Chain Expectations
See Intel's supply chain expectations concerning conflict-free minerals.
Product and Performance Information
"Conflict-free" refers to products, suppliers, supply chains, smelters, and refiners that, based on our due diligence, do not contain or source tantalum, tin, tungsten or gold (referred to as "conflict minerals" by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries.
"Conflict minerals", as defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is a broad term that means tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold, regardless of whether these minerals finance conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or adjoining countries.
Source: Enough Project


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Warning: Plug ahead
We've just started our new section Two-Way Street on SearchCIO.in which features interviews between CIOs and their business peers in the organization. Here's the latest instalment of Two-Way Street, which features Arun Gupta, the group CTO of Shoppers Stop and Chandrashekhar B Navalkar, the group chief financial officer of Shoppers Stop and CEO of Crossword Bookstores. Read on for this interview in which Gupta and Navalkar discuss how they worked together on Shoppers Stop's long term IT infrastructure outsourcing deal for its retail organization (which includes Shoppers Stop, HyperCITY and Crossword).
Overheard talking about CloudAudit
|Overheard: Winston Bumpus
"One of the things cloud tends do is hide a lot of the complexities by having these virtualized environments. Understanding what's going on in the infrastructure is important when you're running production applications and services in the cloud."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is CloudAudit.
Overheard talking about FCoE
|Overheard: Shamus McGillicuddy
"Most data center networking vendors at Interop 2011 conceded that Fibre Channel over Ethernet, Transparent Interconnections of Lots of Links (TRILL), Shortest Path Bridging and some other hot buzzwords are overhyped…During the session, not a single vendor was willing to stand up and argue that FCoE would take anyone to the promised land."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
Overheard talking about the Dodd-Frank Act
|Overheard: Fred Cohen
"[Dodd-Frank compliance] is just a huge undertaking. Y2K is going to be a walk in the park compared to this."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Dodd-Frank Act .
Overheard talking about LUNs
|Overheard: Greg Schulz
"LUNs represent a logical abstraction or, if you prefer, virtualization layer between the physical disk device/volume and the applications."
Today's Word of the Day is logical unit number (LUN).
Overheard talking about enterprise collaboration platforms
|Overheard: Linda Tucci
"Now that Facebook has trained people to socialize online and Twitter has turned opinion into global "activity streams," the rush is on to develop enterprise collaboration platforms that add broad social networking capabilities to work processes."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is collaboration platform.
Overheard talking about PBX and IP PBX
|Overheard: Jon Arnold
"The PBX has long been the gold standard for quality and reliability for which businesses have paid a premium. This speaks to the primacy of telephony—and voice—for getting things done in the workplace."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is private branch exchange (PBX).
Overheard talking about pretexting
|Overheard: Marcia Savage
"To complete a fraudulent transaction, such as changing a mailing address on a credit card or confirming a large online banking transaction, a criminal can simply place an order at what RSA calls "fraudster call centers." For $7 to $15 per phone call, these centers will provide professional callers who can impersonate a broad range of people, from a middle-aged English speaker to an elderly Italian."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is pretexting.
Overheard talking about Wolfram Alpha
|Overheard: John Overbaugh
"I'll be honest, I heard about [Wolfram Alpha] a while back and wrote it off as just another search engine without ever visiting it. Man, was I wrong. It is no more a search engine than a computer is a calculator."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Wolfram Alpha.
Overheard talking about defect rate per KLOC
|Overheard: John Overbaugh
"In agile and waterfall alike, your code is your heartbeat; you live and die by it. If your code is "spaghetti code" (weaving and winding all over the place) and difficult to read, not only will it likely have a higher defect rate per KLOC, but it'll also take forever to debug."
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is KLOC.


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IG's John Crumlish is in northern Europe this week, visiting gymnastics clubs. First stop: Helsinki, Finland
Once a world power in men's gymnastics, Finland is in the process of devising a system that hopes to develop high-level coaches and subsequently more world-class gymnasts, national team coach Timo Holopainen said.
"We are try to reach a better level, like the British team," said Holopainen, who also coaches six members of the Finnish senior national team at the Voimisteluseura VSH club, which he founded in 1997.
Holopainen notes the progress made by the British men since the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim, where Great Britain and Finland placed 23rd and 27th, respectively. A little more than three points separated the two teams in Anaheim. Great Britain won the bronze medal at this summer's London Olympic Games.
"In Anaheim, we were quite the same, but then the British (makes whooshing noise)," Holopainen said. "In Britain there are also only four or five clubs, but they made some good changes in their system. We're trying to do the same. We also have five cities and, if we put in more money for new coaches in all of them, maybe we can raise our level."
Voimisteluseura VSH is the home club to several of Finland's most successful international competitors. The club's top gymnasts include Tomi Tuuha, the 2010 European vault champion; Markku Vahtila, who placed seventh on rings at the recent FIG Challenger Cup of Ostrava; Petrus Laulumaa, a floor exercise and vault finalist at the 2012 FIG Challenger Cup of Maribor; and Kasper Holopainen, the 2012 North European all-around bronze medalist and 2012 Finnish national all-around champion.
Holopainen said he is optimistic that Finland can achieve better team results ahead.
"We hope to build a team like Great Britain has now," he told IG. "Like the British system, it takes about 10 years."
Read more about IG's visit and the Finnish men's program in an upcoming issue of International Gymnast magazine.
Next stop: Tallinn, Estonia!
Comments (1)
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Castor is one of two bright stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins. It appears as a single star, but it's actually a famous multiple star system, containing three pairs of binary stars all revolving in a complex way around a common center of mass. In other words, the single bright light we see as Castor is really six stars in one. Follow the links below to learn more about Castor, one of Gemini's two bright stars.
Castor is really six stars in one.
History and mythology of Castor.
How to see the star Castor. The single point of light we call Castor appears as one of two bright stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins. It appears as a prominent white star, noticeable for its nearness to its brother star, Pollux in Gemini. No other two such bright stars appear so close together on our sky's dome.
Castor and Pollux are sometimes called the "twin" stars, but you can tell them apart easily. The brighter and more golden star is Pollux. The fainter, whiter star is Castor.
These two stars of nearly equal brightness in Earth's sky are not really related in space, and Pollux is not one of the six stars in the Castor system. At 34 light-years, Pollux is closer than Castor (52 light-years). Thus Pollux and Castor aren't gravitationally bound, but only near each other along our line of sight. Plus they are different kinds of stars. But their proximity in our sky makes them easy to spot.
Castor and Pollux are well placed in the evening sky from late November through May. Castor is opposite the sun in middle January. In February, Castor is particularly well placed for evening viewing. It is well up in the east an hour after sunset in late February – high in the sky throughout the evening hours.
Castor and Pollux are close to the moon's path across our sky. The moon passes no more than 15 and sometimes fewer than 5 degrees south of Castor on some day every month. For this reason, the moon might help you find Castor.
The sun passes closest to Castor on or near July 14, and consequently the star cannot be seen for several weeks before that date to several weeks afterward. Other than for that time period, intrepid observers can find Castor at some time of night for about 10 months of the year.
Castor is really six stars in one. Even a fairly small telescope shows that Castor appears double, and in fact an even fainter star nearby also is part of the same system.
Each of these three stars (Castor A, B and C) is also double. This is not directly visible in telescopes but obvious through the use of a spectroscope, which is a device for splitting starlight into its component colors. The two larger and visible components in the Castor system – showing in the drawing on this page – are hot A-type stars, whereas the smaller ones are cool, M-type red dwarf stars.
The mass of all six stars together is, very roughly, about six times that of the sun. So, like our sun, they're a bit on the puny side, as stars go.
History and mythology of Castor. Castor is designated Alpha Geminorum. Most alpha stars are the brightest in their constellations, but Castor is slightly fainter than Pollux.
The reason for the name Castor is unclear, although there appears no specific connection with a beaver, which is what the word means in Latin. It's also not clear why this star holds the appellation of alpha, a label typically put on a constellation's brightest star. Castor is clearly secondary in brightness to Pollux, which is officially called Beta Geminorum.
There is much mythology associated with these two stars, typically only in conjunction with each other. They are usually considered to be twins. In Greek mythology Pollux is immortal, the son of Zeus, and Castor is mortal, the son of King Tyndareus of Sparta. Thus they were really half-brothers rather than true twins, with a common mother in Queen Leda. Their conception and birth, however, was a complicated and unlikely affair, with their mother succumbing to both Zeus (disguised as a swan) and King Tyndareus on the same night, with the resulting birth not only of Castor and Pollux, but of their sister Helen of Troy. Castor and Pollux later were among the argonauts who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, and due to their mutual devotion, Zeus placed them both in the heavens on their death, so that they could remain together forever.
Although many cultures saw Castor and Pollux as twins, early Christians sometimes called them David and Jonathan, whereas the Arabs knew them as peacocks. Perhaps the most unexpected connotation for the twins (along with the rest of Gemini) was as a "pile of bricks" as reported by Richard Hinckley Allen. Apparently the pile of bricks stood for the foundation of Rome, and in that context Castor and Pollux were associated with Romulus and Remus, the city's legendary twin founders.
Castor's position is RA: 07h 34m 36s, dec: +31° 53′ 19″
Bottom line: The star Castor, which appears as one of two bright stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins, is actually a multiple star system.
Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Larry Sessions has written many favorite posts in EarthSky's Tonight area. He's a former planetarium director in Little Rock, Fort Worth and Denver and an adjunct faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He's a longtime member of NASA's Solar System Ambassadors program. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Space.com, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and Rolling Stone. His small book on world star lore, Constellations, was published by Running Press.


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HTC hasn't had a big stake in the large-screen market, but that might all be about to change with more leaky information suggesting that the company is about to unleash a new phablet handset.
The infamous evleaks tipped off Twitter that the upcoming phablet "goes by codename T6", which was then backed up by a Linux string discovered by HTCSoku, listing a certain T6 device.
If this code is to be believed, the new device will come in various forms. This includes Cassiopeia, Columba, Delphinus, Crater and Eridanus. Extra points for noticing these are constellations.
T6: Rise of the One
The T6 also had a couple of variations for different carrier networks, covering GSM, CDMA and LTE options which suggests a wide release on a variety of markets is in store.
Previous rumours have suggested that a large version of the HTC One is on its way, with a screen between five and six inches. It seems that this new phablet could be that very device.
As for when we might see the HTC One tablet surface from the depths of the rumour netherworld, your guess is as good as ours right now.
Via Phandroid


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We keep most of our bar seats available for walk-ins. Can't get a booking for the time you want? Please call or drop by as a walk-in.
020 7734 6676
If you make a booking and need to cancel or amend it please give us as much notice as possible - last minute cancelations and no-shows have a big effect on a small restaurant like ours. Thank you.
Online BookingBook your Bonnie Gull Soho reservation on Resy
22 Bateman Street
London W1D 3AN
Bookings and walk-in spaces available throughout the day.
Private hire available for groups of up to 12.
Telephone: 020 7734 6676
Kitchen Hours
Mon - Wed: 16:00 - 21:45 | Thurs - Sat: 12:00 - 14:30, 16:00 - 22:45
Sun: 14:00 - 20:45


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Measures .5 square inch.
These earrings are sourced from Italian made and imported acetate. Each is fixed with hypoallergenic, stainless steel posts.
1500 East 53rd Street
Chicago, IL 60615
Modern Cooperative – Where Vintage Modern Meets Handmade
Modern Cooperative is located in downtown Hyde Park on 53rd Street. ModCo hand picks and fully restores vintage midcentury modern home furnishings from the 60's and 70's, in addition to a new line of contemporary furniture from Gus Modern.
We also showcase more than 75 local artists and designers who craft letterpress greeting cards, jewelry, pillows, bags, artwork and more – as well as reclaimed modern furniture and home decor.


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Outdoor Adventures in Utah
Near Red Mountain and Snow Canyon Park – Over 7,000 acres to explore
Explore Outdoor Adventures
Right outside our back door, a world of outdoor adventures awaits. Red and white Navajo sandstone capped by an overlay of black lava rock makes hiking, biking and photography in our local State and National parks an experience for the senses. The parks are an amazing display of desert animal life, unique botanicals and dynamic rock formations. Bordering Red Mountain, Snow Canyon State Park is home to 7,000 acres of red rock canyons and cliffs, lava caves and two volcanic cones. The moderate winter climate of Southern Utah creates an ideal environment to enjoy outdoor activities in Utah year round.
Red Mountain offers the services of our Pre-Arrival Reservation Team to answer all your questions and to reserve your outdoor adventures. Call 800-407-3002 or email Red Mountain at email@example.com. An Adventure Concierge is available in our guest registration area each day, so you can make the most of your time at Red Mountain.


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The Hotel Location Ischia Island The Restaurant
Ischia is world reknowned for its thermal pools with healing waters and the various health spas and gardens, such as Negombo and Poseidon.
More Information
La Mortella is the spectacular subtropical and mediterranean garden developed by the late British composer Sir William Walton and his wife, Susan.
La Rotonda sul Mare Beach ResortRing Backpackers Hostel
Hotel Poggio del Sole via Baiola 269 Forio-Ischia Email:
Phone +39 081987756 • Mobile +39 3336985665Skype: hotelpoggiodelsole
VAT Number:03888891219


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10:45 am Celebration Worship
Every Sunday
10:45am – 11:45pm
Location: 2314 North Grand Blvd, Pearland, Texas 77581Category: Worship Services
Known as the "Celebration Service", this service welcomes all to participate in an uplifting, powerful, spirit-filled and prayerful worship experience that truly seeks to get people to the heart of worship... it is about God!
Contemporary praise music is integral to the experience, but our desire is not only that we come together to praise God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, but to hear what God has to say to us in order that we may take the Gospel Message to the world. The music, message, and everything else about the service is designed to allow the participants to recognize the relevance of God's word in today's world, and to boldly go out and live in a way that defines that relevance.
The service is led by our Worship Leader Reggie Clemons and the Celebration Singers & Praise Band. It is held in our Family Life Center, where you will find this multi-purpose room transformed into a contemporary worship setting with individual chairs, dimmed theatrical lighting, and a stage housing a full band and contemporary worship singers. Large projection screens display text and information to support the worship experience.
Communion is served by intinction during each service on Sunday.


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Hey folks, I've been receiving nonstop requests for a very popular Pokemon. Now, this little guy is one of the starter Pokemons, and definitely one of the popular ones. Who hasn't heard of Bulbasaur, the green creature that using Vine Whip attack? I just couldn't resist doing a chibi version of him, since I get so many requests to create this guy as a chibi. I've used a dark pink/purple background to accent the cute lil' Bulba. Get yourself a pencil, paper, and kneaded eraser to prepare for this tutorial. I've used a cool drawing program to design the critter as well as a Wacom Intuos 4.
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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While all the recent chatter about the way that 3D-printing technology has advanced is pretty cool, there's a new prototype that has us thinking about printing out custom chocolates instead of Companion Cubes. Called the Digital Chocolatier Prototype, it allows you to quickly design and assemble different kinds of chocolate candies via a touchscreen interface. Using a chocolate extruder, the device puts the delicious confection into a thermoelectric cup that rapidly cools the candy ready for consumption.
The mastermind behind this awesomeness is a man named Marcelo Coelho, a Canadian designer and researcher who is currently finishing his doctorate a the MIT Media Lab. When he's not getting smarter in Cambridge, he runs a studio called Zigelbaum + Coelho in Montreal. His goal with tackling food-based printing is to continue the convergence that's going on between technology and everyday life. What's more a part of our culture and our identities than food?
As mentioned above, this machine is simply a prototype. It consists of a carousel of 4 different delicious items that you can layer to your hearts content. The pictured user interface is simply a concept as to how the device would work. There are no plans to build a fully working unit for mass production, so you can view this as adding to the body of work that Coelho is trying to develop for his doctorate work. Of course, if a working prototype emerges, we'll be first in line to try it.
Using chocolate or other confections as the material for 3D printing is not a new concept. Rather than extrudable plastics, you simply replace the building material with molten chocolate to create a layered object that you can actually eat.
How long before an established chocolate company gets wind of this and commercializes it?
Read more at Coelho's page at the MIT Media Lab site


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7725 Superior Wall Safe
If you are considering an electronic wall safe, look no further. Paragon Lock & Safe has developed a winner with the 7725 Superior Wall Safe. They took their best selling wall safe and re-engineered it with a new locking mechanism which is much "flatter" and easier to conceal. It is perfect for the home, office, or vacation home. It was designed with the intent to secure your valuables in a concealed location - behind a picture or inside a closet. The 7725 Superior Wall Safe offers 2 options to open, code or key. We include a 10 Year Manufacturer Warranty. The best part of this item is the price, it is significantly less than similarly featured safes and is packed with more features!
- Digital entry eliminates the need for making multiple key copies
- Easy to operate and program
- Larger and More Robust than the competition
- Store your jewlery, guns, and valuables!
- Digital entry eliminates the need for making multiple key copies
- Flat Panel Design so you can conceal the safe
- Easy to operate and program
- Larger and More Robust than the competition
- Store your jewlery, guns, and valuables!
- Opens with secret PIN code or included keys (2 FREE KEYS)
- Simple programmable Electronic Lock with buzzer and LED. 3 to 8 numbers
- Code can be changed infinitely
- Fits between the studs. Easy to install yourself
- Runs on AA SIZE(1.5V) batteries
- Constructed with solid steel to resist hand and mechanical tool attacks
- Pre-drilled holes inside the safe with fixing bolts allowing anchoring
- Powder coated interior and exterior
- Safe door opens to the right
- Constructed of 1/8" thick solid steel
- Inside tamper-proof hinges
- Grey carpet mat padding on inside bottom
- Anchor bolts are included
- Outside dimensions: 22" high x 16 1/2" wide x 4" deep
- Inside wall dimensions: 20.25" high x 14.25" wide x 3.75" deep
- Weighs approximately 39 pounds
- 1" Frame around the front of Safe conceals lines that are not cut straight along drywall
- Simple to install
- Color: Dark Gray


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Five Things Not to Buy on Black Friday
Does it make sense to shop on Black Friday? Is it worth spending one's day off going toe-to-toe with hordes of desperate deal-seekers? As Quentin Fottrell explains on Lunch Break, it depends on what you're shopping for.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... it's been a complete about the five things you should not die on Black Friday guess what one may start with and ... I ... went on strike at this and he writes for MarketWatch ... he's not to buy the one who led the story to the point that you found them I'd I'd to an end in general when jewel since what are they what when in general sense that things were not Guinea get a good deal on row is use that year so I've I've seen it up with new tablets in often to get a good deal on them ... Wal-Mart out the back to ... the sale of these underpriced mechanic throw in the seventy five dollars gift card ... but that's if you want the I five to ten or on the fourth generation I pad ... so you really know Connecticut deal on them it is tough to control those ... on Black Friday ... as ... you engine braking hard to cross a minor ... holiday toys for data that it's corny it's yes the pot you can get like ... to do we hide first edition ... tablet for kids to know but ... the one your kids to be as up-to-date ... as you are not going to get this on the opening of the latest leap out ... on ... the kids' tablet why he doing that in in the reserve base with the teasing us with with not not the hot toys that are in a spot to sort of ... hold up these hotter ones because they know where to spend on a metal BlackRock the advent of the gonna get that the summons and an aunt ... made this the monster ... dolls they have this high school math ... here ... the very lucky to get out on Friday ... what about winter apparel you say that's not something we should be like Russia to buy out Friday may you always can find a few license but the really big ... sales for winter Cairo ... for the January when people are trying to retailers during the ... tournament remain active near the right the exact sizes and colors that you want a chorus ... Bekah got but yet I just call until January pre match or what or ... is there then why would rank last season Don't Orkut shocking at times like growing economy when has done us a bed linens ... yes the little white sales are in January so you gotta get some mechanic in my kid got the case ... but if you really want high quality ... I know I think about how one bad enough but this time I did them a consensus that the Emirates late ... write a view of the high quality stuff ... you don't have to wait until January sales and he doesn't want that to the sum of six hundred thread count sheets Wright ... luxury goods do we ever get a deal on luxury goods are generally an e I mean there are some new socks they they might ... release of emotions in mind that ... the markets ... Tiffany released into the very stern statement to say that in a muscle cells in by Friday or any other day ... so this is not a good day for like watches or ... actually I found out what went on the Gemini the Michael ... Michael court a factor will actually be ... cheaper earlier in the year and was on Friday ... the dressing down from Tiffany had a filter that when you forget about the pre


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You are here
Bedroom Decorating Ideas: Window Treatments
The finishing touch on your bedroom: window treatments
Dressing your bedroom windows is decorating at its most intimate. Window treatments are foundational to any room's decorating. And in the private retreat of the bedroom, window dressings reveal our attitude on everything from privacy to pampering. Puddling clouds of sheers and streamlined Roman shades, for example, point to two very different personalities.
A Curvy Bedroom Window Cornice
In this serene master bedroom walled with pale, hand-painted tone-on-tone stripes, the rigid rectangle of the window is softened with a scalloped cornice. This window treatment is frankly feminine, and it literally shapes the way the owner views the world outside. White-painted wooden blinds ensure privacy.
Interior Design: Eva Quateman
Pretty Panels for the Bedroom Window
A three-layered window treatment in the master bedroom at this D.C. Design House cuts no corners on elegance. The design begins with a scalloped valance in a creamy silk, and continues to soft-flowing panels in the same swishy silk. Both the valance and panels are finished with a blue band and silk passementerie trim. Underneath it all are Roman shades in the same material.
Interior design: Kelley Proxmire
Bedroom Drapery Details
A blue band and silk passementerie trim were sewn together, then applied to the edges of the drapery panels for a fine finish. The robin's egg blue trim matches the paint color on the walls, integrating the creamy silk curtains into the room and making sense of the palette.
Interior design: Kelley Proxmire
Variety Spices Up Bedroom Draperies
When just one curtain pattern presents a tough choice, think twice. Two favorite fabrics decorate the windows of the master bedroom in this Long Island home. The all-cotton curtains, heavy enough to block the sun, are hung as four panels in two alternating patterns of fabric. The unexpected variance of pattern adds a kicky, light-hearted mood appropriate for a home at the water's edge. Mixing patterns is also a good solution for dressing a long wall of windows without risking redundancy.
Interior design: Eliza Gatfield
Bedroom French Doors Need Draperies, Too
French doors are found in more and more bedrooms, where privacy is non-negotiable. So how to cover these airy architectural assets when it's lights out? This master bedroom's solution is to extend the curtain rod the entire length of the room, well beyond the doors themselves. When the natural light and views are desired, the curtains are pulled past the doors, covering only the walls.
Interior design: Elizabeth Corker
Sleep Tight with Shutters
A cozy niche for guest beds in this deep window alcove leaves little room for expansive window treatments. White-painted wooden shutters provide privacy and block the light while respecting spatial limitations. The contrast with the black-painted windows creates a graphic, architectural effect.
Interior design: Elizabeth Corker
Master Bedroom Window-and-Wallscape
Windows and walls receive identical treatment in this Texas lake house bedroom tented in African ticking. The fabric's stripe hangs vertically on the window panels and also as the wall covering. A short valance of vertical stripes finished at the bottom with the same fabric running horizontally skims across the top of the windows and continues along the tops of the walls, uninterrupted, for a tented look. The idea of a tent is completed with the same African ticking covering the ceiling.
Interior design: Joe Minton
Befitting a Bedroom Window
A refined stripe in burnished canyon colors aptly dresses the pair of canyon-view windows in this California master bedroom. Fabricated as shades for privacy, the Cowtan & Tout stripe replaces the usual severity of Roman shades to take a softer, rounded shape at the bottom more befitting a bedroom. Pulled up, the window treatment's sides suggest rosettes, evoking dressmaker detailing.
Interior design: Catherine Bailly Dunne
Draping the Bedroom Window Seat
Window seats are charming additions to any room, instantly amping up character. Often they're located in public rooms where privacy isn't important and window treatments aren't an issue. But in the bedroom, where privacy is essential, the window seat can literally stand in the way. The solution in this master bedroom is to bring the window treatment out from the wall to drape the entire window seat. When the drapery is open, the window and views are unimpaired with cluttering curtains. When it's closed, privacy is all wrapped up.
Interior design: Catherine Bailly Dune
Valancing Act at the Bedroom Window Seat
A second viable option to dressing a bedroom window that's outfitted with a window seat is to go minimal. This only works, however, when privacy isn't a consideration. In this bedroom at the American Red Cross Showhouse in Palm Beach, the conversation area doesn't demand privacy, so a girly ruffled and swagged valance is the only dressing needed. It gives the space a fine finish without compromising the views. Plus, the valance won't be in the way when a catnap is called for.
Interior design: Cristina Keogh
Window Dressings on Closet Doors
In this bedroom in the American Red Cross Showhouse in Palm Beach, a pair of closets on either side of the bed feature French doors backed with checked fabric panels. The window treatments suggest an outdoors area beyond, increasing the allure of the space. The checked fabric is repeated on the French bench at the foot of the bed.
Interior design: Cristina Keogh
Log Cabin Curtains
A loft bedroom in a 1928 log cabin in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina demanded a window treatment that could hold its own with the room's sturdy split-log walls. Graphic patterns in bold red and white refuse to shy away from the no-nonsense past, while taking the design into the future. The window is paneled with a leafy pattern that is also used on the bed pillows. A red-and-white striped cornice is repeated with a privacy-ensuring striped Roman shade.
Interior design: Carole Weaks
Sheer Delight at the Bedroom Windows
A traditional master bedroom designed in a British Colonial style carries the airy island theme to the window treatments. The clean-swept look of the all-white walls and paneled high-pitch ceiling continues at the windows with white puddling sheers. Shirred for depth, the gauzy panels drop from simple iron road mounted a couple of inches above the windows. Woven bamboo shades add an organic element that's a characteristic of campaign style, while ensuring privacy. The lightness of the window treatment underscores the contrast of the white room and the dark four-poster bed, which is copied from an Indonesian antique.
Interior design: Wendi Young
Win-Win Window Treatments
A girlie coral palette and soft silk textures may not pass muster with the mister for the master, but they announce a warm welcome in the guest room and everybody's happy. This design goes glam with a tufted Lucite bench covered in the same color of fabric as the classic silk drapery panels and valance. Understated at first glance, the voluminous solid-color curtain panels are discreet indulgences.
Interior design: Jan Showers
Dramatic Draperies
Amazing how the flow of fabric can dramatize a design. The stone-colored drapery panels in this master bedroom, coupled with the room's free-flowing bed curtains, are the single-most important design elements. The window treatments puddle to the floor and flair out like ball gowns, bringing contour to the quiet design.
Interior design: Jan Showers
More Bedroom Decorating Ideas
You'll find more wonderful ideas for decorating your special retreat in our presentation Serene Bedrooms.


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While daily stretching of muscles underused, misused, or otherwise affected by multiple sclerosis is an important daily routine for each of us; that is not what this blog posting is about… This post is about the other kind of stretching.
It's "Moving Forward Luncheon" season in my neck of the woods. As many of you know, I have a minor speaking role in these fundraising events for my chapter of the National MS Society.
Last week, the keynote speaker was an amazing woman, one Wendy Booker, who lives with MS and has climbed (as she puts it) six and a half of the world's tallest peaks. The half was her two "failed" attempts at Everest!
Now, I know that climbing a mountain isn't in the cards for me. Hell, climbing a mountain was NEVER in my cards!!! What Booker has done is beyond the reach of 98 percent of the "healthy" people in the world so, I'm okay with not climbing any mountains…but I do; we all do.
Our mountain is multiple sclerosis!
During her speech, Booker fully acknowledged that she has had a mild case of MS thus far and that literally climbing mountains isn't for everyone. She did, however, encourage each one of us, MS or no, to find and conquer our own "insurmountables" and to attack them.
"Be it wall-walking to the kitchen, and only making it to the dining room or running a 10k and only making it part of the way," she said, we're still making it further than had we not tried!
THAT is a stretch I can get my head around!!!
This past weekend I stretched myself, both mentally and physically.
I mounted our new television (using one of those very complicated swiveling-articulated-professional grade mounting brackets that comes with six times the hardware required, to make it fit any TV…) onto a newly-made mounting base that I had to first secure to a concrete wall behind some lovely mahogany paneling. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!
Then Saturday, I dusted off my old professional skills and made the cutest baby's first birthday cake for a dear friend's little girl! It was a foot-and-a-half tall ghost carved from angel food cake and coated in several inches of Italian meringue buttercream, resting on a base made to look like a rural, autumnal scene. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!
Neither of these tasks was completed in the manner I would have expected of myself just a few short years ago. The TV thing took me so many re-readings and re-doings and re-drillings that I am glad it's in a darker corner of the room. The cake, well… with enough icing, who'd know; right?
I climbed no real mountains this past weekend, but today I feel as if I may as well have. The mental and physical exhaustion of today is real and will be something I'll have to work around. However, every time I feel those effects, I'll be able to remember why they are there. Not something we get with most MS symptoms.
So, we may not make it to our goals, we may only make it part way. But, part way is a lot further than the place we'd be had we never set out to climb our mountain…
What have you done (big or small) to "stretch" of late?
Wishing you and your family the best of health.


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Clear questions and runnable code
get the best and fastest answer
Re: An interesting rebuttal of "agile"by ack (Deacon)
|on Mar 22, 2008 at 05:45 UTC ( #675592=note: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
I am reminded of a quote from Peter F. Druker, a renowned management consultant who was, several years back, reputed to have said on one of those news shows (Sunday morning's Meet-the-Press or similar):
Never confuse motion with progress.
As a senior (maybe that should be senile? ;-) ) Systems Engineers, I keep a little notebook of the various Axioms of Systems Engineering that I have heard or read over my 30 years in the business. These guide much of my everyday thinking about all aspects of systems engineering. The above quote from Peter Drucker is one of those Axioms.
I was, not too long ago, asked to be the lead of an independent review team of 'greybeards' for a floundering satellite flight software effort. The flight software was woefully behind and had reached a point where it was the 'long pole in the tend' holding up the satellite launch (at a cost of about $75,000 pre day for the delay).
The project had an independent test & evaluation team (which has proven, over the years in my business, to be a most useful strategy).
That test & eval team, briefing the progress and their assessment of the effort stated with great pride that were finding and getting fixed...on average...about 20 to 50 bugs per day. And they had proudly sustained that rate for almost 3 months...and that the software development team could turn most of the 'fixes' on average in 2 days and, in many instances, were releasing new versions within a day.
My reaction was one of horror...but all of the senior managers were nodding with clearly impressed feelings, that this was wondeful! After all, that clearly would get the problems cleared up in no time.
My horror was the realization of how bad the underlying code was, how undiciplined and chaotic the development process had become, and how painfully incompetent it made the software development team look.
Several other fine and wondeful monks have made great observations about the reported situation of the OP. I concur with virtually all of them. I am especially sensitive to and agree with the comments that emphasize the sense that such a change rate seems to be symptomatic of an undeciplined process, of the implication that such a high rate of turnarounds might be indications of seriously flawed underlying software.
I really like this thread and everyone's comments.
ack Albuquerque, NM
In Section Meditations