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Young Professionals of Vermont: Ryan McCabe"Continue to learn new things and don't be afraid to ask questions." Ryan McCabe, 35, is a design engineer living in Essex Junction. How did Vermont become home for you?My fiancée Lindsey is from Vermont and I am from Colorado. Lindsey was starting to look for work in Vermont and landed a job here. I work remotely and my company also has an east coast office in Massachusetts, so I was able to keep my job and make the move, so I decided to go for it.Continue reading
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Adult Primary Care
Meet the Comprehensive Family Care Center (CFCC) Physicians
Peter F. Belamarich, MD
|Practice Specialty:
|Pediatrics, Pediatrics - Gastroenterology
|Medical Education:
|Boston University
|Brookdale Med. Center
|Babies Hospital (Columbia)
|Main Location:
Montefiore Medical Group-Comprehensive Family Care Center (CFCC)
1621 Eastchester RoadBronx, NY 10461-2604
Phone: (718) 405-8040
Fax: (718) 405-8091
Get Directions | View Map
View Locations
|Academic Title:
|Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
|Administrative Title:
|Vice Chair, Affiliate and Network Relations, Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Medical Director, Comprehensive Family Care Center (CFCC), Montefiore Medical Group
|Clinical Focus:
|General Pediatrics, Nutrition, Lipid disorders-cholesterol.
Peter F. Belamarich, MD, trained in gastroenterology and nutrition but returned to the practice of general pediatrics and retained my clinical activities and interest in non-procedural gastroenterology. He regularly practices and writes about both areas.
Within general pediatrics, Dr. Belamarich interests include the diagnostic process, diagnostic errors, the practice of general pediatrics, well-child care, the application of evidence-based medicine to pediatric practice and the use of electronic health records. He also focuses on nutrition, lipid disorders, cardiovascular health, and obesity and infant formula.
Dr. Belamarich has been a regular panel member of the FDA orphan drug review process and also enjoys acting as a reviewer for journals. He reviews for Pediatrics and JAMA Pediatrics and the Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. Belamarich also has been appointed to the Editorial Board of Pediatrics in Review.
In 2011, Dr. Belamarich served as lead medical reviewer for an FDA panel charged with evaluating a novel lipid-lowering medication. He is currently a member of the National Lipid Association. Dr. Belamarich believes that recent advances in imaging technology will make the identification of children at high risk of developing heart disease as young adults easier and more accurate.
Dr. Belamarich teaches and sees patients in the Comprehensive Family Care Center. In 2010, he won the Lewis Fraud Award for Excellence in Resident Teaching.
He received his medical from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, where he was chief resident. He then finished a postdoctoral fellowship in gastroenterology and nutrition for the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sunday, January 22, 2006
Blog Stuff: Born To Lose.
I even got nominated for a category: Best Gun Pr0n.
Now, I'm fairly proud of the gun pictures on my blog. I try hard to eschew the standard, blurry, flash-illuminated 2D stuff normally associated with gun pics on blogs; I work to the best of my limited abilities and tools at composition, lighting, focus and backdrop. Every gun picture on my blog was selected from five to ten shots of the same layout. I even use a camera formerly owned by Oleg Volk.
Unfortunately for my chances, Oleg's up as a nominee in the same category.
Go vote for him; I did. :)
9 comments:
- rodrigo said...
hey you are grate, i love guns. and your page is amazing. excuses for mi english.
please enter to mi page
and write me some times,mi mail es firstname.lastname@example.com.
and mi page is http://diversionaventurera.blogspot.com/
- 10:04 PM, January 22, 2006
- Xavier said...
I know what you mean Tam! I voted for him too.
- 11:13 PM, January 22, 2006
- Countertop said...
So far, in the early rounds, the Gun Pr0n voting isn't even close. Oleg is just dominating the category.
- 11:21 PM, January 22, 2006
I'm afraid Oleg is inevitably going to come up top.
His gun pr0n is like the Victoria's Secret Catalog of firearm photographs. Classy, stylish, and it makes you think, "I'll bet that gun would look good on me." My wife's gorgeous, but if Oleg took some shots of her holding any kind of gun, that gun would be the one every girl would want in their purse. Even if it's a Tiawanese knock-off of a Chinese clone of Russian reverse engineed copy of a French pistol.
In comparison, I'd say Tam's gun pr0n is like a Maxim layout. Pretty good, OK lighting, good clarity... functional.
Most gun-store online pics, however, are like Swank. Straight up "Tab A goes into Slot B" explicitness, shocking lighting, faux-wood panelling background with an ugly guy with braidable back-hair in the frame for no good reason.
- 11:47 PM, January 22, 2006
View from the Porch would be my choice for "most educational".
None of the others caused me to burn H.G. Wells "Outline of History" on 35CD's for a remedial history lesson.
- 8:16 AM, January 23, 2006
- Elmo's aphasiatic twin said...
Ditto: No. 1 for "Most Educational"--I like the book reviews and history lessons. I tune in every day more than once.
Tam, you ought to be generating cash for your writing and research work.
Capitalism, Bebé!
- 10:01 AM, January 23, 2006
- Dwight Brown said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- 1:38 PM, January 23, 2006
- Dwight Brown said...
" View from the Porch would be my choice for "most educational"."
I'd vote for VftP for "most expensive blog to read", too. Thanks to Tam, I've started developing a taste for Smith and Wesson revolvers. Sadly, I didn't see any 544's at the gun show this weekend...
- 1:42 PM, January 23, 2006
- Cowboy Blob said...
Oh, yeah! The thrill of having been nominated was quickly replaced by the old nightmare of showing up--in my underwear-- to take a test I hadn't studied for-- when I saw who else was in the running. Some of the other categories have blogs I may have read only once or twice...ever; the Gun Pr0nners get visited twice a day, at least!
- 10:40 PM, January 23, 2006


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Commercial National Declares $.26 Per Share Special Dividend
LATROBE, Pa., Dec. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Commercial National Financial Corporation (OTCQX: CNAF), parent company of Commercial Bank & Trust of PA, has declared a special dividend of $0.26 per share payable December 29 to shareholders of record as of December 26.
Direct and beneficial ownership by executive officers and directors of the Company's outstanding shares totaled 700,192 shares, or 24.47% on September 30, 2017.
As disclosed each year in the Annual Report to Shareholders, on September 30, 2017, the Company employed 100 people in full-time and part-time positions. Forty-seven (47) employees are represented by the United Auto Workers, Local 1799. Of that bargaining unit total, Thirty-five (35) employees are full-time and twelve (12) employees are part-time. The Company has had unionized employees since 1972. In 2013, the Company and the bargaining unit entered into a labor agreement that will expire in February 2019. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Labor Relations Board both afford protection to the organized status of pre-existing collective bargaining units. The Company has been advised that bargaining unit status may limit the Company's strategic options relative to those of non-unionized insured depository institutions. The Company continues to consider this as a factor in its strategic and capital management decisions.
The Company operates nine community banking facilities in Greensburg, Hempfield Township, Latrobe, Ligonier, North Huntingdon, Unity Township and West Newton, Pennsylvania and also maintains a commercial business development sales force throughout its entire market area. The company operates an asset management & trust division headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Commercial Bank & Trust of PA also serves its customer base from an Internet banking site (www.cbthebank.com) and an automated TouchTone Teller banking system.
Forward Looking Statements
Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may," "will," "to," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "would," "estimate," or "continue" or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on information currently available to the company, and the company assumes no obligation to update these statements as circumstances change. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, including changes in general economic and financial market conditions, unforeseen credit problems, and the company's ability to execute its business plans. The actual results of future events could differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statements herein.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/commercial-national-declares-26-per-share-special-dividend-300571620.html
SOURCE Commercial National Financial Corporation
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VISTA – Each summer, 19 people that reside in the county are randomly selected from applications to serve on the San Diego County Grand Jury, and this year Vista resident Jim Lewis, 67, was chosen to lead the grand jury.
"I'm thankful to have this opportunity to go through this for the next year," Lewis said.
He said he applied last year to become a grand juror after a friend, who had served previously, told him she thought he might be interested.
He was selected out of a total of 86 applicants this year, according to officials.
Lewis served on the Salt Lake City, Utah, police department for 10 years, then worked for the Utah crime bureau for a couple of years before moving his family to Southern California, he said.
He worked in a management position with the United Parcel Service before retiring.
Lewis said that the mission of the grand jury is to represent the citizens of San Diego by investigating the actions of local government and special districts, but it also includes reporting on the good things.
"Most people think we're only looking for bad things that go on, but that's not true," Lewis said.
Last year, for example, the law and justice committee found the county's detention facilities to have good food, good health care and clean facilities, he said.
The San Diego County Grand Jury is not part of trial juries. They are regular citizens who have the power to investigate public agencies such as health and human services and environmental public works, and make sure they are serving honest and fair.
They do not handle criminal activity, but civil issues.
"They are kind of referred to as the watch dog of the community," said Laura Nicks, San Diego County Grand Jury coordinator. "They look into local government entities to be sure they are running properly."
Nicks said it's essentially a full-time commitment for a year, and the jurors are paid a daily stipend of $25 and mileage to and from the courthouse.
She said that anyone who meets the criteria could apply each mid-November to become a grand juror, and judges then interview applicants.
The names of potential grand jurors are placed in five hoppers — one for each of the county's supervisory districts — and jurors are selected by lottery.
The Superior Court's presiding judge selects the foreman of the jury. The grand jurors officially began service July 11.
During a grand jury investigation, if an agency is found to be out of compliance with something, a report is generated by the grand jury and that entity is required to respond within 90 days.
That entity has to indicate on whether or not they agree with the recommendation, Nicks said.
Anyone can send in a complaint to the grand jury at any time, Lewis said. The grand jury will review it and check it for merit and see if the complainant should seek legal advice instead.
If it's a grand jury-suitable issue, then a private investigation begins.
To read public reports, to file a complaint or for more information, go to sdcounty.ca.gov/grandjury/.
Vista man selected to lead grand jury
VISTA – Each summer, 19 people that reside in the county are randomly selected from applications to serve on the San Diego County Grand Jury, and this year Vista resident Jim Lewis, 67, was chosen to lead the grand jury.


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Peter Michael Chardonnay 2009 . La Carriere . Bottle (3). ... (Total: 3 Btls. )Click the image to load the highest resolution version.
DescriptionPeter Michael Chardonnay 2009
La Carriere
Bottle (3)
"The 2009 Chardonnay La Carriere emerges from the glass with layers of mineral-infused fruit. There is a saline note woven throughout the fruit that adds considerable freshness, verve and cut. White flowers, lemon and spices frame the long finish. I very much like the energy here." (93 pts. Antonio Galloni, Wine Advocate #199, Feb. 2012)
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DUNEDIN, Fla. (12/2/15)--Achieva CU, Dunedin, Fla., announced this week that it has received both state and federal approval to formally acquire the Florida-based, state-chartered Calusa Bank.
Negotiators of the deal have said it's the first time a credit union has made a "whole bank" acquisition in the United States, as Florida law allows capital stock financial institutions to be merged into credit unions.
As part of the deal, Achieva will purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Calusa Bank, all Calusa branches will become Achieva locations, and the bank's former customers will become credit union members.
"All Calusa customers received multiple communications as the acquisition progressed inviting them to transfer to Achieva Credit Union," David Oak, Achieva vice president of marketing, told News Now in an email. "Many have already taken this opportunity and we expect the majority to become Achieva members by the end of the month."
Oak added that Calusa Bank signage has been covered temporarily to reflect the Achieva logo. Also, interior branch signage and materials have already been updated.
"(We're also) educating new members on the credit union difference and all that Achieva has to offer," Oak said. "These four new locations provide opportunity for outreach to potential new members in the surrounding areas."
Added Lew Albert, Calusa president/CEO: "It was immediately evident that Achieva's service culture and attention to the customer was in lockstep with ours, giving us assurance that our customers will continue to receive the unparalleled level of service they have come to expect."


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Office Space for Rent in Noida One
Noida one Sector 62, IT park is located in the well developed area of Noida. An ambitious IT project is presented to you jointly by KLJ Developers Private Limited and Pioneers Group. It is one of the well planned sectors where commercial, residential and institutional areas are properly divided. Sector-62, Noida is a major hub of many multinational & Indian firms, it also houses almost all major banks for the convenience of an occupants. The sector is the midpoint of Noida which offers unmatched advantages and commuting options through several modes and routes. Sector-62 is the most prime location of entire Noida with best connectivity via elevated roads, highways, expressways and the metro line, infrastructural development etc. The recently started metro route is attracting many more Indian & International companies as well as employees, which is also boosting the employment opportunities of the region. Unmatched location, unbeaten facilities and upbeat connectivity, the combination of trio together are perfect ingredients for rapid success of the sector.
Why We Prefer Office Space in KLJ Noida One Sector-62?
Noida One Sector-62 is a magnificently sprawling project with 7 lac Sq. Ft. area and looks imposing on a 3 side open plot with landscaping catchment area. Tower B & C of the Noida One are as of now operational and Tower A is expected to be functional soon. Tower B & C have grand entrance lobby with waiting area. Both the Towers- B & C are interconnected with 6 lifts. A high-tech and high-speed work environment designed around the futuristic and dynamic needs of IT industry, Noida One promises exceptional durability, latest construction technologies and efficient space utilization. Noida one Sector 62 has projected to be an IT complex with efficient floor plans. The complex has designed to be a state-of-the-art green building with international amenities like wi-fi enabled towers, earthquake resistant RCC structure, 100% power back-up and multi-level parking with international style landscaping. It shall also have 24x7x365 days of security & CCTV surveillance with integrated amenities. The idea behind this campus is to make ensure that each corporate get the best facilities so that people working there have a peace of mind and satisfaction from their work with maximum productivity and profits. KLJ Noida One Sector 62 offers spacious offices with intelligent planning and minimum wastage norms. The complex has two level basement and ground parking, grand entrance lobbies, pleasing modern external façade, high speed elevators, latest fire fighting equipments etc.For the maximum availability of furnished/semi-furnished/bareshell office spaces for rent in Noida One, Sector-62, call us at 9810000375/9811004272.


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Andrew McGregor
March 8, 2018
Shaykh Salman bin Fahd al-Ouda (Sydsvanskan/Lars Brundin)
One of Saudi Arabia's leading Salafist religious scholars, Shaykh Salman bin Fahd al-Ouda, is currently hospitalized under guard after spending nearly five months in isolation without charges in a Saudi prison. [1] Once a strong opponent of the American military presence in the Arabian peninsula and often described as an inspiration to leading jihadists such as Osama bin Laden, al-Ouda's failure to endorse the Saudi rivalry with Qatar has brought a bitter end to years of cooperation with the Saudi regime. With millions of followers in the Saudi Kingdom and abroad, the shaykh's death in custody would have a direct impact on Saudi stability and the long-term plans of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman al-Sa'ud to reform the nation according to his own vision and succeed his father as king.
Early Career
Shaykh al-Ouda is today a leading scholar of Salafist Islam, one of the most influential preachers in Saudi Arabia and a member of the influential International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a movement often associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al-Ouda was born in 1955 in the village of al-Basr near the Saudi city of Burayda in Saudi Arabia's al-Qassim Province, a relatively poor agricultural region in the center of the Kingdom known for its religious conservatism. The region is considered the heartland of Wahhabism, the 18th century Islamic reform movement that united with the al-Sa'ud royal family to form the Kingdom's enduring power base. [2] By 2001, it was estimated that 80% of the Kingdom's judges (experts in Shari'a, the nation's sole system of jurisprudence) hailed from al-Qassim (Economist, June 16, 2001).
Al-Ouda is a scholar of the Hanbali madhab, one of the four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madahib), Hanbali is the dominant school in Saudi Arabia and is the one most commonly followed by Saudi Arabia's conservative Salafis ("followers of the pious predecessors," i.e. the first three generations of Islam). The shaykh carries a Ph.D. in Islamic jurisprudence from the prestigious Imam Muhammad bin Sa'ud. After completing his Islamic education, al-Ouda returned home to become a professor at the al-Qassim campus of the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Burayda. In those years, al-Ouda operated under the shadow of well-known Burayda-based Salafist scholar Shaykh Muhammad bin Salih al-Uthaymin, who was frequently critical of the young al-Ouda.
Osama Bin Laden and the Gulf War
The internal controversy over the Kingdom's participation in the First Gulf War (1990-1991) provided al-Ouda with the opportunity to become internationally known in the Islamic world through a series of audiotapes critical of a fatwa (religious ruling) issued by Saudi Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz bin Baz that permitted non-Muslim allies led by the United States to use Saudi Arabia as a base for the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Al-Ouda questioned why the Kingdom was still reliant on U.S. protection after billions of dollars of American arms purchases. The presence of kaffir (infidel) U.S. troops on the Kingdom's sacred soil during the campaign was also used to propel the career of a supporter of the Islamic jihad in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden.
Al-Ouda was not alone in using cassette tapes to address Islamic issues; indeed, Shi'a Iran had been prepared for the return of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 by a series of audiotapes recorded by the Ayatollah in his Paris exile. With such tapes being collected like books by Saudi citizens, al-Ouda even addressed the importance of the phenomenon in a sermon entitled Al-sharit al-Islami ma lahu wa ma 'alih (The Islamic Tape: An Assessment).
During the next three years, al-Ouda became a leading opposition figure and a signatory of the Khitab al-Matalib (Letter of Demands), a 1991 document requesting the king to open the political system to reforms and greater consultation (shura). It is al-Ouda's belief that shura rather than democracy is the core of a successful Islamic state; those that relied on shura, such as the Ummayads, Abbasids and Ayubids survived, while those that rejected shura, such as the Ottoman Empire, ultimately disintegrated. [3] In September 1994 the regime asked him for a pledge to desist from preaching on politics. His refusal led to his arrest two days later. [4]
Al-Ouda was arrested in September 1994 along with fellow Sahwa movement leader Shaykh Safar bin Abd al-Rahman al-Hawali. Bin Laden spoke approvingly of al-Ouda shortly after the latter's arrest in his "Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews." [5] Two years later, Osama bin Laden would insist the arrests were made on the orders of the United States in his "Declaration of jihad on the Americans." [6] The claim was repeated by al-Gama'a al-Islamiya leader Omar Abd al-Rahman while he was serving a life sentence in the U.S. for various terrorist activities, including the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center. [7] While awaiting trial in 1995 for his role in the World Trade Center, imprisoned terrorist Ramzi Yusuf claimed his "Liberation Army" was preparing strikes in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the arrests of al-Ouda and al-Hawali (al-Hayat, April 12, 1995).
Bin Laden's biographer, Hamid Mir, recalled that Bin Laden had described al-Ouda as his "ideal personality, a savior who was the first to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Saudi." According to Mir, Bin Laden claimed al-Ouda had written several pamphlets on jihad for al-Qaeda, though these had not been issued under his name. [8]
In 1998, former Bin Laden bodyguard Abu Jandal (a.k.a. Nassir al-Bahri) told an interviewer that Bin Laden had told him that he would never have entered into opposition to the Saudi government had al-Ouda and al-Hawali not been detained. [9] In his pre-9/11 communications, bin Laden frequently addressed themes contained in al-Ouda's written works and taped messages. [10] Al-Ouda's five-year imprisonment failed to silence the preacher, as he continued to record audiotapes smuggled out of prison and released for public consumption.
The Sahwa Movement
After his release, al-Ouda became an important member of the Saudi al–Sahwa al-Islamiya (Islamic Awakening) movement. The group emerged when Muslim Brotherhood members fleeing repression in Egypt began to interact with normally hostile Saudi Salafists in the 1960s. A shared conservative approach to Islam was the foundation for greater cooperation, particularly in urging a greater political role for religious scholars in the state. The Sahwa movement was strongly opposed by the Kingdom's Madkhalis, another Salafist faction that advocates an almost extreme form of loyalty to the state and its rulers. [11]
Letter to Bin Laden
Bin Laden's admiration of al-Ouda does not appear to have been reciprocal; six years after the 9/11 attack, al-Ouda released an open letter to the al-Qaeda leader. [12] In the letter, al-Ouda accuses Bin Laden of tarnishing the image of Islam: "People around the world are saying how Islam teaches that those who do not accept it must be killed. They are also saying that the adherents of Salafi teachings kill Muslims who do not share their views." Al-Ouda asks who benefits from turning Muslim nations into battlefields "where no one feels safe" and questions whether obstructing governments is a solution for anything: 'Is this the plan – even if it is achieved by marching over the corpses of hundreds of thousands of people – police, soldiers, and civilians, even the common Muslims? Are their deaths to be shrugged off, saying: "They will be resurrected in the hereafter based on the state of their hearts?"
The shaykh also asked what violent extremists could contribute should they succeed in taking power: "What can people who have no life experience hope to achieve in the sphere of good governance? People who have no knowledge of Islamic law to support them and no understanding of domestic and foreign relations? Is Islam only about guns and ammunition? Have your means become the ends themselves?" Al-Ouda concluded with one last question for the al-Qaeda leader: "What have all these long years of suffering, tragedy, tears, and sacrifice actually achieved?" (Muslim Matters, September 18, 2007).
Overall, the letter falls short of being a clear denunciation of Bin Laden or his terrorist tactics. Instead, al-Ouda treats Bin Laden as a Muslim believer who has strayed from the path of Islam but still has the opportunity to review his approach much like the imprisoned jihadists occupied with compiling "revisions" of their past activities. The fact that it took six years for al-Ouda to compose his critique suggests a long period of either indecision or fear that such criticisms might alienate the shaykh's following.
Becoming a Voice for Moderation?
Moving on from production of audiotapes, al-Ouda embraced the internet, becoming in 2001 a director of IslamToday.net, which carries content in Arabic, English and Chinese. Islam Today has become the shaykh's most significant avenue for influence, supplemented by numerous YouTube videos and the publication of over 50 books on Islamic theology. Al-Ouda also realized the potential of Twitter and has today something between 11 to 14 million Twitter followers (The Peninsula [Doha]. January 26, 2017). 14.3 million (Al-Bawaba, October 7, 2017).
Shaykh al-Ouda was generally supportive of the Arab Spring uprisings as a much-needed corrective to Arab authoritarianism, but this did not play well with the Saudi regime. Al-Ouda's relationship with the regime was further aggravated when he denounced the military overthrow of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government in 2011 as a "coup." Nonetheless, al-Ouda rejected the absolutism that runs as a common thread through Islamist politics:
We have to remember that the Islamists' program in any country should not be mistaken for Islam itself, nor that anyone who disagrees with it is a loser. It is the Islamists' right, like anyone else, to practise what the others practise [i.e. politics], as long as it respects the limits of moderation, justice, and distance from the assumption that they have the absolute truth or that what they are calling for is sacred. [13]
In March 2013, al-Ouda took the bold step of issuing an open letter to the Kingdom's rulers, warning of the danger posed by censorship and political repression: "[The people] will not remain silent forever if some or all of these things are constantly denied to them. When revolutions are suppressed, they turn into armed conflicts. If they are ignored, they grow in reach and breadth" (IBTimes, March 18, 2013).
No Place in the Crown Prince's Reforms
Saudi Arabia's political climate began to undergo major changes with the accession of King Salman to the throne in January 2015. Foreign policy in particular took on a much more aggressive edge as Crown Prince Muhammad assumed the defense, economic and foreign affairs portfolios in the Saudi government while the eighty-one-year-old King, possibly suffering from pre-dementia, began to prepare for an expected abdication in favor of the Crown Prince.
Crown Prince Muhammad is well aware of the tenuous nature of his status – his two predecessors as Crown Prince since King Salman took the throne in 2015 were both removed. In this tense atmosphere it can be risky just to withhold public approval of the regime's activities (including the feud with Qatar), most of which are already controlled by the ambitious Crown Prince.
For al-Ouda, 2017 began with tragedy when his wife Haya al-Sayari and his son Hisham were killed when their car collided with a truck (The Peninsula [Doha], January 26, 2017). Accusations of extremism came next, as al-Ouda appeared on a list of six "hate preachers" who were banned from Denmark in 2017, with the Danish government describing the six (five Muslims plus evangelical American preacher Terry Jones) as "travelling fanatical preachers" who "indoctrinate listeners to commit violence against women and children, spread ideas of a caliphate and undermine founding values" (Jyllands Posten [Copenhagen], May 2, 2017).
Crown Prince Muhammad moved to consolidate his personal power in September 2017, when he ordered the arrest of over a score of religious scholars, businessmen, politicians, poets, academics and writers, including al-Ouda (Middle East Monitor, September 14, 2017).
After news spread of a U.S.-brokered phone call between the Saudi Crown Prince and Qatari amir Shaykh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on September 9, 2017, al-Ouda tweeted "May God bring their hearts together for the good of their people." [14] Al-Ouda's arrest followed only hours later. Even the suggestion of support for a Saudi reconciliation with a Qatari regime the Saudi leaders describe as supporters of terrorism was evidently enough to remove al-Ouda from the public sphere. According to the shaykh's family, al-Ouda had resisted previous pressure from the regime to support its feud with Qatar and his brother Khalid was imprisoned just for announcing news of Salman's arrest (AFP, January 18).
Al-Ouda and fellow Sahwa leader Shaykh Awad al-Qarni (reputed to have close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood) were among those accused by the Saudi Security Directorate of engaging in intelligence activities "for the benefit of foreign parties against the security of the Kingdom and its interests, methodology, capabilities and social peace in order to stir up sedition and prejudice national unity" (Saudi Press Agency, September 12, 2017).
Al-Ouda's actual Twitter message may not have been as offensive as its demonstration of defiance of regime instructions to scholars to attack the role of the Qatari government in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. Al-Ouda's international reach only helped make his recalcitrance impossible to ignore.
Al-Ouda's greatest offense seems to have been his continued association with the IUMS and its leader, Egyptian-born Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, now living in exile in Qatar and viewed as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. This association appears to be at the core of Saudi contentions al-Ouda, al-Qarni and other religious figures were acting as agents of the Qatari regime, which has sheltered leading members of the Brotherhood (Arab Weekly, September 17, 2017; Gulf Digital News [Manama], September 11, 2017).
Return to Prison
Al-Ouda was sent to solitary confinement in the Dahaban Prison, north of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, where he quickly entered into a hunger strike to protest his detention, isolation and inability to secure legal assistance.
When rumors of al-Ouda's death began to circulate after five months of solitary confinement, the shaykh's son Abdullah demanded information on his condition. In frail health, al-Ouda was transferred to a hospital in Jeddah, but remained incommunicado until he was allowed to make a phone call to his son on February 6 of this year (Middle East Monitor, February 8).
Al-Ouda's world-view is based on a kind of religious nationalism, in which Saudi Arabia remains the spiritual and physical homeland of an Islamic practise untainted by innovations or foreign influences (other than the Western experts who should be expelled and replaced by Islamic scholars). The shaykh melds this religious nationalism with a type of Arab supremacism in which Arabs are both intellectually and physically superior to other races and even non-Arab Muslims. [15] This sentiment is common in the Arab leadership of extremist movements such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Though some of his views (especially those presented in Western rather than domestic forums) appear to suggest a moderate approach to Islam, al-Ouda remains adamantly anti-Western and anti-Shi'a, including the Arab Shi'a in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich al-Sharqiyah Province, where they form as much as one-third of the population. [16]
Despite al-Ouda's popularity in many quarters, he remains a polarizing figure in Saudi society, where some view him as a progressive voice while others remain convinced he is a conservative extremist. Unlike many Saudi imams, al-Ouda does not rely on a government salary and this makes him dangerously independent in the eyes of the regime. For now, the shaykh's millions of followers await his fate, which depends largely on the political mood of the determined Crown Prince.
- Other common transliterations of the shaykh's nisba include al-Awda, al-Odah, al-Udah and al-Auda.
- Founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), the movement rejects the term "Wahhabism" as implying worship of its founder rather than God. Its followers prefer the terms "Salafi" or "al-Muwahidin" (Monotheists).
- Salman al-Ouda, Audiotape "Asbab Soqut al-Diwal," (Why Do States Disintegrate), as cited in Mamoun Fandy, Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent, Palgrave, New York, 1999, p.97.
- Mamoun Fandy, Ibid, p.92.
- Osama bin Laden: "Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews" (September 29, 1994), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Shaykh_Bin_Baz_on_the_Invalidity_of_his_Fatwa_on_Peace_with_the_Jews
- "Declaration of jihad against the Americans occupying the land of the two holiest sites: A message from Osama bin Muhammad bin Laden," August 23, 1996, https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2013/10/Declaration-of-Jihad-against-the-Americans-Occupying-the-Land-of-the-Two-Holiest-Sites-Translation.pdf
- "Fatwa of the prisoner Shaykh Doctor Omar Abd al-Rahman," May 26, 1998, cited in Peter L. Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader, Free Press, New York, 2006, p. 204.
- Peter Bergen interview of Hamid Mir, March 2005, in: Peter L. Bergen, op cit, p.149.
- Khalid al-Hammadi interview with Abu Jandal, al-Quds al-Arabi, August 1998, as cited in Peter L. Bergen, op cit, p. 149.
- Mamoun Fandy, op cit, pp. 186-192.
- For Madkhalism, see: "Radical Loyalty and the Libyan Crisis: A Profile of Salafist Shaykh Rabi' Hadi al-Madkhali," Militant Leadership Monitor, January 19, 2017.
- "A Ramadan Letter to Osama bin Laden from Salman al-Ouda," delivered on Saudi Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), September 14, 2007, (Muslim Matters, September 18, 2007).
- Salman al-Ouda, "Al-Siyasa," Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), April 6, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfKpSoccw5s
- https://twitter.com/salman_alodah/status/906280562956132352
- Salman al-Ouda, Audiotape "Jazirat al-Islam," (The Island of Islam), as cited in Mamoun Fandy, op cit, p. 101.
- Graham E. Fuller and Rend Rahim Francke, "The Arab Shi'a: The Forgotten Muslims," St. Martin's Press, New York, 1999, p. 180.
This article first appeared in the March 8, 2018 issue of the Jamestown Foundation's Militant Leadership Monitor.


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This recently refurbished penthouse duplex is located in beautiful gardens, close to the center and the large sandy beach of Santa Ponsa, in the popular southwest of the island of Mallorca.
This Mallorca property with approximately 144 m2 of living space has two bright living / dining rooms with open and fully equipped kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms spread over 2 floors. Both floors are fully equipped and usable separately, ideal for family and friends visiting. Enjoy your own sunny terraces and relax in the large, curved communal pool in the beautifully landscaped and tranquil gardens. Other advantages of this property are: underfloor heating, air conditioning h / c, double glazed wooden windows, numerous built-in wardrobes with plenty of storage space, large brand new massage shower. Also to be highlighted are: brand electrical appliances, telephone and TV connection in each room, dry building fabric and exceptionally beautiful, quiet and sunny location, and own carport parking space.
Santa Ponsa with its romantic marina, beaches and countless recreational opportunities offers a great deal of quality of life. For example, this place alone offers 3 golf courses in the immediate vicinity - others are also within a few minutes drive. There are international schools nearby, as well as international medical centers and pharmacies. Numerous bars and restaurants provide the physical well-being and are within walking distance in a few minutes, as well as a wide range of shopping. The island capital of Palma can be reached in 15 minutes and the international airport in just 25 minutes by car.
Inside fittings:
underfloor heating by heat pump, air-conditioning h/c, double-glazed windows with wooden frames, wooden shutters, tiled flooring, wooden ceiling beams, recently refurbished, safe , 2 living rooms, built-in closets, furniture included in the price, open-plan kitchen with electrical appliances
hot water via electric boiler
carport, community parking
renovated, protected from unwanted views, Mediterranean style, south-facing, view over the enviroment, views to the mountains, view of garden and pool
near the golf course, near the beach, near the marina, local public transport, bars and restaurants within walking distance, shopping facilities, International schools near by, International medical centers, international pharmacies nearby
ADSL, telephone extension, satellite TV, has energy certificate, intercom
Outside fittings:
pool, community garden, outside shower, BBQ
Costa d'en Blanes | Ref. 2401836
Santa Ponsa | Ref. 1202548
Santa Ponsa | Ref. 2402678
Santa Ponsa | Ref. 2202682
Santa Ponsa | Ref. 2402524
Avenida Rey Jaime I, 109
07180 Santa Ponsa - Mallorca


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Parcel to Holland?
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The city of Rotterdam is home to the largest port in Europe and, as of 2013, Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port - handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The Netherlands is a central hub of European trade, so whether you need to send a package to a client in Utrecht or a birthday parcel to a loved one in Amsterdam, P4D are committed to providing you a fast and reliable service.
As the Netherlands are a member of the European Union, you won't need to fill in any customs documentation when shipping to the Netherlands from the UK. That being said, we recommend you contact the Dutch Customs Authority if you have any queries regarding restrictions on specific items. Before addressing your parcel to the Netherlands from the UK, we also recommend you take a look at this handy addressing guide – courtesy of the Universal Postal Union.
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We offer a comprehensive parcel tracking system so you can check on the delivery status of your parcel as it's being delivered to the Netherlands. If you have any further questions about your order, or our European parcel delivery service, please contact P4D directly by clicking here.


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Apple Devices iOS iPad iPad mini Microsoft News Samsung Tablets, — October 22, 2012 18:31 — 0 Comments
Two years ago, Apple's then-chief executive told financial analysts why the 'avalanche' of 7in tablets would fail. How do his reasons look now?
This article titled "iPad Mini launch: why Steve Jobs thought 7in tablets would fail" was written by Charles Arthur, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 23rd October 2012 06.40 UTC
So if Apple is really launching a 7.85in "iPad mini", how does that square with what Steve Jobs said two years ago? You might recall that on 18 October 2010, Jobs popped up on the discussion of Apple's earnings results to put in his two billion-worth.
Apple at that time had had yet another good quarter: sales of the new iPhone 4 were going well (a record, with phone sales up 94% year-on-year to 14.1m, and iPad sales too had begun gaining momentum – up from zero when the iPad went on sale in April 2010, just six months earlier, to 4.2m for the three months to September.
But at the IFA exhibition, Samsung had shown off a 7in tablet – and others were starting to move into the tablet market, focussing on 7in devices partly because it made the screens cheaper.
So what did Jobs say? After taking a potshot at RIM ("We've now passed RIM, and I don't seem them catching up with us in the foreseeable future") and the lack of figures for Android phone sales – estimated by analysts at 20m for the quarter, though Nokia's Symbian was still the largest at 29m ("Unfortunately, there is no solid data on how many Android phones are shipped each quarter. We hope that manufacturers will soon start reporting the number of Android handsets they ship each quarter" – a hope that still hasn't been met).
Microsoft had only just launched Windows Phone, so there was no point in discussing that as a competitor.
And now we come to tablets. Transcript courtesy of Seeking Alpha:
I'd like to comment on the avalanche of tablets poised to enter the market in the coming months. First, it appears to be just a handful of credible entrants, not exactly an avalanche. Second, almost all of them use seven-inch screens as compared to iPad's near 10-inch screen. Let's start there. One naturally thinks that a seven-inch screen would offer 70% of the benefits of a 10-inch screen. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so that a seven-inch screen is only 45% as large as iPad's 10-inch screen. You heard me right; just 45% as large.
If you take an iPad and hold it upright in portrait view and draw an imaginary horizontal line halfway down the screen, the screens on the seven-inch tablets are a bit smaller than the bottom half of the iPad display. This size isn't sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion.
So, how would you deal with that, Mr Jobs?
Well, one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference. It is meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size. Apple's done extensive user-testing on touch interfaces over many years, and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps.
Third, every tablet user is also a smartphone user. No tablet can compete with the mobility of a smartphone, its ease of fitting into your pocket or purse, its unobtrusiveness when used in a crowd. Given that all tablet users will already have a smartphone in their pockets, giving up precious display area to fit a tablet in our pockets is clearly the wrong tradeoff. The seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad.
Let's note that: 7in tablets as "tweeners". You've got to think that if the "iPad mini" is that sort of size, then Apple's executives have already been practising their responses to "but Steve Jobs said tablets this size were tweeners!" for the event on Tuesday.
Oh, and back to Steve Jobs in October 2010:
Fourth, almost all of these new tablets use Android software, but even Google is telling the tablet manufacturers not to use their current release, Froyo, for tablets, and to wait for a special tablet release next year. What does it mean when your software suppliers does not (inaudible) to use their software in your tablet? And what does it mean when you ignore them and use it anyway?
Fifth, iPad now has over 35,000 apps on the App Store. This new crop of tablets will have near zero.
The apps point remains true, of course, but the question now has to be: if 7in tablets (or even 7.85in ones, as Apple's expected to unveil – though don't be too certain) are "tweeners", how will apps written for the 9.7in iPad look on them?
A little maths: if the smaller iPad does have a 7.85in screen, and the same 4:3 proportions as the existing iPad, then it will have a screen area of 29.6sq in, compared to the 45.2sq in of the existing iPad – so the new one would be two-thirds the area (alternatively, the old one is 50% bigger; it depends what you use as the denominator).
By contrast, the Google Nexus 7 has a 7in screen; its proportions – 16:10 – mean that the actual area of the screen is 22sq in. The Amazon Kindle Fire, which also has a 7in diagonal, has even stranger proportions – 17:10 – which means its area is 21.4sq in.
That means that the "iPad mini" would, if those measurements are the same, have a screen area about a third bigger than either of those two devices (or their screens would be 25% smaller; again, pick your denominator).
This raises a couple of questions: will that screen size make the device seem bulky in comparison? Its measurements will be 6.3in by 4.7in, compared to the Nexus 7′s 5.9in by 3.7in. So barely any longer, but noticeably wider (a whole inch).
Of course, there's always the possibility that this will be a differently proportioned device. Which would trash all those calculations.
Back to Mr Jobs:
And sixth and last, our potential competitors are having a tough time coming close to iPad's pricing, even with their far smaller, far less expensive screens. The iPad incorporates everything we have learnt about building high value products from iPhones, iPods and Macs. We create our own A4 chip, our own software, our own battery chemistry, our own enclosure, our own everything. And this results in an incredible product at a great price. The proof of this will be in the pricing of our competitor's products which will likely offer less for more.
Price, of course, is going to be the other testing ground. Amazon is pricing the Kindle Fire pretty much below cost, starting at £159, as is Google with the Nexus 7. (See what we know so far here.)
Jobs's parting shot:
These are among the reasons we think the current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be DOA, dead on arrival. Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small and increase the size next year, thereby abandoning both customers and developers who jumped on the seven-inch bandwagon with an orphan product. Sounds like lots of fun ahead.
Indeed, the other 7in tablets pretty much foundered. And although Amazon and Google have proven that there is a market there, it doesn't look like the biggest – with Amazon reckoned to have sold 5m in the past year, and Google about 1m in the past quarter (based on data in its financial results).
There's a market there, but it isn't that big – so far. Can Apple make any difference, with or without sandpaper?
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.


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Posts tagged with 'paintings'
International Women's Day 2018: Celebrating Sisters
8 March 2018 by Nicola Scott
It's International Women's Day 2018, and I'm reflecting on the achievements of British artist sisters, Amrit and Rabindra Kaur Singh, and how the twins celebrate women throughout history in their latest exhibition: 'Slaves of Fashion: New Works by The Singh Twins'.
The art of love
13 February 2018 by Ann Bukantas
Love threads its way though many of the artworks in the Walker Art Gallery's collection, and across the years, artists have explored the themes of romance, passion and heartbreak in paintings. Let's go find a little love this Valentine's Day, and see how different artists have tackled the subject across the centuries.
Dante's Dream
Hidden treasures on display for the first time at the Walker
5 February 2018 by Nicola Scott
Slaves of Fashion: New Works by The Singh Twins has just opened at the Walker Art Gallery, and thanks to this unique collaboration between National Museums Liverpool and The Singh Twins, you can see some star objects that have never been on display before!
It is not new for artists to take inspiration from museum collections, but what is different is the extent of The Singh Twins' research. They have viewed hundreds of objects, which have contributed to many ideas for their artworks.
We began in 2014 when I planned a visit to our stores with the artists. The exhibition tells stories from the history of Indian textiles, so I was looking for items made in India or inspired by Indian design. I was thrilled to discover exquisite hand-embroidered pieces and stunning, woven shawls – I realised these had never before been seen by the public. The Singh Twins went on to work with colleagues in other departments too. The objects they discovered have informed some of the main themes for their artworks, and you can see many referenced within the actual artworks themselves! I was delighted to put some of these on display for the first time in Slaves of Fashion.
A selection of our textiles, jewellery and books on display for the first time
Shawl or 'Phulkari', India 19th century
The grid is the thing
5 February 2018 by Ann Bukantas
What unites the paintings in our new display of past John Moores Painting Prize winners since 1957 is of course the fact that they have all won the UK's most prestigious painting prize, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. But across this diverse group of canvases from different decades, other common links start to emerge, and this week we have mostly been spotting the variety of grids in the room!
A fashion statement
18 December 2017 by Mannika Dhadwal
We're super excited to announce that The Singh Twins will be exhibiting their new works Slaves of Fashion at the Walker Art Gallery, opening January 19 – 20 May.
Exploring the history of Indian textiles, Empire, enslavement and luxury consumerism, and the contemporary relevance of these issues in the world today, the exhibition focuses on the relationship between Britain and India. Hidden details of Europe's colonial past and its legacies are uncovered, including current debates around ethical trade and responsible consumerism.
Victorian Treasures: to Japan and back
11 January 2017 by Alex Patterson
Victorian Treasures is a new exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery featuring some of the world's most famous 19th– and early 20th– century Pre-Raphaelite and Romantic paintings. It's been a long time in the making and has traveled thousands of miles already – from Liverpool to Japan and back…. Read more…
Focus on: Viscountess Folkstone
10 November 2016 by Megan
The conservation treatment of Gainsborough's Viscountess Folkestone during the refurbishment of Sudley House (2007) provided an ideal opportunity to examine the materials and technique of this remarkable portrait. Read more…
Art and the Sea gallery rehang now on display
29 April 2016 by Sam Vaux
The Art and the Sea gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum has been a hive of activity this week with a rehang of a collection of fourteen maritime paintings; some from the existing collection or only rarely displayed, and one which hasn't been on public display before. Curator of Maritime Art, Rebecca Smith reveals the history behind some of these works.
'Liverpool in its heyday caused it to be regarded as a mecca for those with maritime aspirations of any sort', Sam Davidson, maritime art historian
Exploring artistic process and practice
23 October 2015 by Alison
We recently spoke to artist Caroline Walker whose paintings 'Consulting the Oracle' (2013) and 'Illuminations' (2012) are currently on display as part of REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting. We were interested in finding out more about the artistic practice behind Caroline's work, which we hope will inspire other artists. Read more…
Designing our online collections
3 September 2015 by Lynn
Tibetan robes, watercolours, Egyptian mummies and frogs – what do they have in common? They're all part of our vast and varied collections!
We've been looking at how we can present the items from our collections, better online. Because we have such diverse collections, it's really difficult to find a single way to do this. As well as decorative and fine art collections, we have collections of insects, birds, plants, social history, medals, ships, models, maritime archives and items associated with slavery. And that's just some of them! Read more…


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Club Refund Policy
Club Refund Policy
At Mavericks Soccer Club we understand the circumstances may change for your family during the year. Annually there is a tiny amount of players who leave the club due to events such as families moving away from the area. However, it is important to understand the Mavericks Soccer Club has a certain amount of costs that need to be committed to at the beginning of each year.
Mavericks Soccer Club has a fair and clear refund policy that applies to all club players. If a player notifies the Mavericks Registrar that they are withdrawing from a Mavericks Team, for any reason, prior to June 30th, then the refund amount will be forty percent of the annual club fee (e.g., for a 7v7 player $500). After June 30th, no refunds will be issued for any reason.


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if you're missing Saku, here's a quick shot of her from my 365 the other day:
I'm planning to do a roomwear-style shoot with her (and proper lighting) soon… but that doesn't mean a lot;;
just a girl who loves technology, Japan, and cute
When I started becoming interested in DDs last year, I found myself drawn to this particular girl… I eventually found a decent deal for her on y!Ja, fullset, but stained. I spent some time cleaning her up, and finally now she gets some time in the spotlight~
I'm attempting to do a 365photo thing over at my personal blog lately since that's about all I have time to do these days… this is today's shot! (Please ignore the ratty wallpaper in the background, I will eventually do something about that OTL)
Oh, but wait, what's this? I thought Saku's head had been sent off to get remakeuped? Then who's in all pink…?
[ Apologies to all DD people I haven't been keeping up with (which is basically everyone) – there are some pretty major changes going on in my life right now and I've had to take a little break for the moment, but I plan to come back to active status in the next month or so! I hope to squeeze in a swimsuit shoot before summer is completely over, at least… orz; ]
Since it was so nice out (and I wasn't able to get proper lighting set up in my room…) I thought I would take Marisa out for a photoshoot…
Somehow this turned into a whole session with all three girls, however…
I feel like Marisa has kind of a Haruhi vibe going on with this wig…
One of the things I love about dolls is how much you can change their look just by giving them a new wig.
Since Leekeworld is having a brief sale of their Misty Rose color again (which I want to get for Saku), I was browsing the site looking for new wigs to get for my other girls.
In order to not end up with any duplicates (or wigs that are too similar to ones I already own) I decided to pull out my wig box and try some out to refresh my memory.
Mio ended up being the model because both Saku and Marisa are perfect just as they are right now… XD
So I've been trying to get more comfortable with just taking photos of Saku whenever I bring her places. The last time I brought her on a trip, I took zero photos
It looks like a lot of travel will be in my future, so I've invested in a new doll carry bag from Dollmore (in pink, of course!) after discovering it via Wolfheinrich on twitter XDD I'll let you know how that works out after it arrives.
In the meantime… some photos!
"This is…. my new older sister…."
That's right. How about you open it?
"What are you doing, Saku?"
Is this girl…. my older sister?


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If ever there was an ideal band to re-write the pop handbook so the genre could be cleansed and its image overhauled, Cut Copy would be the ones to commission.
The four knights in shining armour from Australia were on a rescue mission of sorts at London's HMV Forum on Sunday 6 March, and succeeded in breathing life into an otherwise plastic, clichéd world of boy bands, poor Madonna and Kylie replicas and cringeworthy Euro cheese. Their brand of 80s-influenced synth pop unstuck the shoes of a somewhat static crowd, transforming the old theatre into a mass of flailing arms and happy faces.
Arriving to one of In Ghost Colours' atmospheric interludes, Visions, the band appeared through an eight foot high panel with a door playfully projected onto the screen. Mirroring the album, they launched into Nobody Lost, Nobody Found, and in stark contrast, a Pretenders beat introduced Zonoscope's Where I'm Going. This was neatly knitted into So Haunted, whose guitars hammered home the realisation that the band never really been solely about synths and beats, and its twinkling xylophone at the break also became a wake up call for the crowd's dancing feet.
Flashing lights played with the techno beat and cowbell of Corner Of The Sky, whipping the atmosphere into a soft peak. But it was perhaps the most popular Cut Copy offering to date – Lights And Music – that ensued a frenzy to its immaculate sing-a-long-ability and perfect piques and troughs. Dan Whitford and Tim Hoey's on-stage confidence visibly grew with the reaction to their pop chemistry.
After the blissed-out, beachy Take Me Over, comparisons between Pharaohs & Pyramids to The Orb's Pink Fluffy Clouds became visual as well as audible, as clouds floated in and out against a bright blue sky on the screen behind the band, rather like a Chemical Brothers live performance.
Amongst the 12 tracks there was even slot for synth-saturated Saturdays, from Bright Like Neon Love, with its edgy 80s-come-funky-house feel. Nevertheless, it was Hearts On Fire's deep bassline and pleading chorus that galvanised the band's party atmosphere and prickled the hairs on the back of the neck. Its soulful saxophone was a deliciously impossible to refuse, textbook example of a hands-in-the-air moment.
A straw poll of the audience would have probably concluded that Sun God's inclusion was a bit self-indulgent. Announcing, 'this is probably a good time to take a toilet break', the band's 15 minutes of button pushing, freestyle percussion and woven synths – although delightfully anorak-ish and introspective – would have been better spent on three more tracks. It felt like finding out you'd missed out on a three-for-one deal after spending as much on buying the product on its own.
Aptly choosing to include Zonoscope's Need You Now in the encore, the track was a new favourite with the well-versed crowd, who'd clearly had the new material on regular repeat since its release. Signing off with Out There On The Ice, the quartet were greeted with a chorus of, "Yes, no, maybe, is all I need to hear from you" – the backing 'doo doos' layered amongst other instruments to give the track a complexity that's become so rare in pop, while the slow build up was dropped at just the right level of tension. Fundamentally though, this track is like a biopsy that shows the fundamental make up of Cut Copy.
In a nutshell, they make immaculate, un-soppy songs about love and life that are both complexly layered and structured, but sound simple at the same time. Live, you might have expected them to struggle to translate that magic, but instead, it feels like Cut Copy might be the new owners of the keys to electro pop perfection.
Filed under: gig review, Bright Like Neon Love, Cut Copy, Dan Whitford, Hearts On Fire, HMV Forum, In Ghost Colours, Lights and Music, Tim Hoey, Zonoscope


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"The acting is terrific throughout, with gems by Tucci, Clarkson, Byrd and Church"
Hollywood Reporter Sep 10th 2010
High school is hard; for Norman Long, triply so. Having recently lost his mother in an auto accident, now his father is dying of cancer. Confused, hurting, and angry, he traverses his senior year by keeping everyone at arm's length with his dark wit, depressing declarations, and disinterested demeanor. When his only friend attempts to press into the woundedness, Norman deflects by declaring that he has cancer and is dying. Speaking this half-truth (for while Norman doesn't have cancer, he is dying inside) sets in motion a cascade of consequences that erodes Norman's hardened exterior and creates an opportunity for honesty and love.
While Norman could have easily fallen into the mire of your typical teenage angst film, it flies above this self-involved type of cinema on the backs of its two lead actors (Dan Byrd as Norman and the always brilliant Richard Jenkins as his father). Both actors bring a no-nonsense approach to their craft here and willingly subject themselves to the full-range of emotions one would expect between a young son and his dying father. Eschewing melodrama, the actors set the right tone between honesty, humor, and heartache. I shudder to think how off-track this film could have gone were it not for Dan Byrd's willingness to risk and Richard Jenkins' mature presence.
In addition to its fine acting, this film has a compelling score provided by versatile composer/songwriter Andrew Bird. I appreciate music that compliments a story and does not seek to draw attention to itself, and Mr. Bird's score provides the appropriate emotional punch when necessary but never attempts to make more of itself.
At its core, Norman is a resurrection film; a story about life out of death. As one might imagine, such a rebirth is not easy nor all together fun; yet, this movie has plenty of sweet moments to soften hard edges (not to mention some beautiful cinematography that also helps). As you stand on your two new wobbly feet at film's end, I guarantee that you'll be better for having joined Norman in his bittersweet journey.
''Jules' son is played by Dan Byrd with a sweet, dry sense of delivery that recalls Neil Patrick Harris.''
ABC Entertainment News - "Cougar Town'' 2009
" The huge supporting cast is all good, especially Dan Byrd as Jules' perpetually mortified teenage son''
AZCentral.com - "Cougar Town" 2009
"When your show continues to employ the under appreciated gem that is Aliens In America survivor Dan Byrd, you get a second, third, well, as many chances as you need to make it work''
thetvaddict.com - "Cougar Town" 2009
"Dan Byrd (who I've been touting on this blog since Aliens in America) has the sardonic son thing down."
IamaTVjunkie - "Cougar Town" 2009
"Byrd does a great job of convincing us that having Jules as a mother would be embarrassing"
buzzsugar.com - "Cougar Town" 2009
"In Aliens in America [Dan] played someone the complete opposite of his serial killer wanna-be in Heroes. Dan grew up in the business and can bounce between these two extremes. Zach Quinto has always been a lovely and very focused guy on set. But my personal observation was that he seemed even more relaxed on this one and that he enjoyed the scene he played with Dan."
Beeman's Blog - "Heroes" 2009
"Dan Byrd is impressive as a scaled-down, teen version of Doug"
Variety - ''The Hills Have Eyes'' 2006
"Dan Byrd gives the movie's best performance as Sam's actor pal, a beanpole given to daily costume changes. Byrd plays this young man as smart and confident, the kind of guy who will grow up to be a real catch. Too bad there are no romantic sparks between the pals. Now, THAT would have been a welcome twist on Cinderella."
San Francisco Chronicle - "A Cinderella Story" 2004
"They brought me leather chaps and I thought "You have to draw the line somewhere""
About.com - Interview about 'A Cinderella Story' - 2004
"Part of what defines Justin is that he's so undefined."
E! Online - Interview about 'Aliens In America' - 2006
"I'm ready to be preyed upon".
TV.com - Interview about 'Cougar Town' - 2009


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Space10 and Opendesk are among the first to "hack" Tom Dixon's modular bed for IKEA
The Space10 innovation lab has teamed with open-source manufacturing platform Opendesk to create workspace attachments for IKEA's Delaktig system by Tom Dixon. More
The Space10 innovation lab has teamed with open-source manufacturing platform Opendesk to create workspace attachments for IKEA's Delaktig system by Tom Dixon. More
Anyone wanting to construct their own tiny house can now buy detailed plans for a micro dwelling designed by Washington DC studio Foundry Architects (+ slideshow). More
The volume dial is the only focal point on London designer Paul Crofts' pared-back amplifier, created for new hi-fi company Audioberry (+ slideshow). More
Business news: open-source furniture brand Opendesk has launched a service aimed at disrupting the contract furniture industry, allowing businesses to order locally manufactured products that can be delivered and installed in just 14 days. More
Open-source furniture company Opendesk has created customised workspace fittings for self-build computer brand Kano (+ slideshow). More
London architect Carl Turner has developed a design for a prefabricated floating house and has made the plans available to download via an open-source architecture website. More
This children's library with rammed earth walls in Burundi, Africa, was built by Belgian studio BC Architects and Studies and members of the local community, according to an open-source design template (+ slideshow). More
Designer Yves Behar of San Francisco studio Fuseproject has launched his OUYA open-source game console. More
News: Nokia has become the first major manufacturer to give consumers access to its 3D design files so they can create their own versions of products, according to open design pioneer Ronen Kadushin. More
News: mobile phone maker Nokia has released open-source files that will let Lumia 820 smartphone users 3D print their own customised case. More
Istanbul Design Biennial: Belgian design studio Unfold have created a 3D printed ceramic filter for an open source water boiler and purifier that was developed by Jesse Howard in collaboration with Thomas Lommée for use in the developing world. More
News: cheap 3D printers mean manufacturing can again take place at home as it did before the industrial revolution, according to MakerBot Industries CEO and co-founder Bre Pettis (+ audio). More
Visitors to the Adhocracy show at the Istanbul Design Biennial are confronted with a plotter taking the text of the Open Source Architecture Manifesto from a Wikipedia page and writing it onto a wall. (+ slideshow) More
News: new technologies are causing a "cultural revolution" that will transform the way objects are made and the way they look, according to the curator of Adhocracy, a new exhibition exploring the impact of digital networks and open-source thinking on the design world (+ interview transcript). More
News: advances in 3D printing could allow people to "print ammunition for an army", according to Ronen Kadushin (pictured above), one of the pioneers of the open design movement. More
News: a group of libertarian activists in the U.S. plans to distribute open-source blueprints for homemade 3D-printed guns, provoking questions about the potential uses of the increasingly affordable technology. More
This modular container by architects Nilsson Pflugfelder of London and Berlin can be reconfigured to create a workspace, artist's residence, archive or meeting area as required by its host, the FLACC Workplace for Visual Artists in Genk, Belgium. More
Digital manufacturing and open-source design are revolutionising the way designers make their products, reports Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs in this latest article from our series on technology and design supported by computing brand Intel. More
Milan 2012: in this interview filmed at Dezeen Studio, Guardian critic Justin McGuirk gives us his take on the future of design criticism, as fast reactions on platforms like Twitter and Facebook are balanced by long-form analysis in e-books and online journals.
He goes on to discuss how the fetishisation of traditional crafts by mass-producers is pushing design in a new direction and agrees with previous guest journalist Joseph Grima that the arrival of hacking culture and open-source production is the big story in Milan this year, describing it as the antithesis to the luxury design industry that the city normally centres around. More
Milan 2012: London designers 00:/ recently showed visitors to Milan's most famous department store how to construct a wooden house from a downloaded kit of parts. More


text: At 10:03 AM 2/19/02 +0100, Bernhard Rosenkraenzer wrote: >It *IS* a fair point of view - if someone just adds a bit of value, why >should they be able to make loads of cash of the much bigger original work >without giving anything back? No one will make loads of cash by just adding a bit of value. Why? Simply because no one would pay them much for that. It would be simpler to add that bit of value yourself or hire a programmer to do that in a weekend. People would only pay for big improvements, like Lindows, they invested around 5 million AFAIK. >Selling a proprietary fork of an open source application is much more like >stealing a car, giving it a new paint, and then selling it. >The thief added value (the new paint), so by your argumentation, he >should be able to make money of it and what he's doing is perfectly ok. First of all, you cannot steal something that is already free. But lets apply the rest of your analogy: Suppose the car is under a BSD license, which means everyone can get one for free. Now, someone gets the car, gives it a new paint and sells that product. How much would you pay him? Of course, since you can get that very same car for free also, you would only pay him the amount equivalent for the paint + the work involved in painting. If he wanted to charge you 10.000 for the painted car, you would laugh on his face, get that car for free and paint it yourself over the weekend(or pay someone else to do that). But if he charged you 40 $, you would probably pay him, since he as a professional would do a better job and you wouldn't have to make your hands dirty. In effect that 40 would probably be cheaper than the money it would cost you to do the job yourself, if you also count the time investment necessary on your side. So I think this business model is perfectly ok! This is the great advantage of the BSD license. It enables business. With the BSD license applied to your analogy we soon would have lots of businesses created to enhance the car: Painting, Putting sound equipment to the car, increasing the engine power, etc...Customers interested in one enhancement or the other would be willing to pay for it. Eventually one enhancement would be so popular that a group of volunteers would integrate it into the original car. What would be the GPL equivalent in your analogy: you can have the car for free, but any enhancements you make have to be given back at 0 cost also. Now suppose a guy wants to make the paint job. He will have to make it for free! So no one would do that of course. The result of this would be that if you want to paint the car you will have to do it yourself. Or you have to wait till someone else wants to do it and give it back for free afterwards. The GPL discourages business... Of course there are still business models possible, though restricted, for example: you hire the guy for painting the car as you wish. But that means you pay him in advance. And if this has been done once...no one else has to pay for it again... > > The GPL prevents this from happening but where is the advantage in > > that? > >Forcing everyone to contribute, preventing this type of theft. As I said, you cannot steal what is already free. >They are, if they choose to go by sane licenses. >Releasing products as Open Source certainly hasn't hurt companies that >aren't scared of doing it. Hmm, that might be true in some cases, especially where the software requires some kind of specialized support, where you pay more for the support than the software itself. >The problem is that many companies refuse to even consider sane licenses, >not that they couldn't do it. I don't consider the xGPL to be that sane anymore. > > Personally I keep wondering if it would be that bad if we had a company > > producing a better version of WINE than the free one. Why should this be > > bad? > >- it would take users (and therefore potential developers) away from the > real version. If that was true no one would be making Mozilla, OpenOffice, even Linux. When Linux started the proprietary Unix was MUCH better. History showed, that the opensource Linux was capable of catching up with UNIX and even become better. >- why should someone who made just a couple of changes make lots of profit > from (mostly) someone else's work without giving anything back to that > someone else? It's certainly not fair. Read above again. If you want to make big money you will have to invest MUCH. It is fair to get a corresponding return for that. I dare to claim that Linux distributors have done a lot more for Linux >than Apple has done for the BSDs, partially because licenses forced them >to give back rather than just keeping things closed. I wonder how profitable the Linux distributions are...and will be in the long run... Roland


text:
Acyclovir is a drug primarily used in the treatment of conditions caused by the herpes simplex virus. However, it is also sometimes used in the treatment of the Epstein-Barr virus. The drug works by interfering in the process of viral DNA synthesis, reducing the overall viral load present in the body. Thus, the drug does not cure the viral infection but does reduce the rate of viral reproductive success. This helps the body battle the infection and reduce overall treatment duration. In moderate doses, acyclovir is well tolerated though at higher doses it may cause side effects,
Acyclovir is a prescription drug classified under the group of medications known as antivirals. Acyclovir is used to treat infections brought about by certain types of viruses.
Additionally, Acyclovir is used to treat cold sores that form around the mouth as a result of herpes simplex, shingles, and chickenpox. Acyclovir can also treat outbreaks of genital herpes. In individuals who experience frequent outbreaks, Acyclovir is used to reduce the number future episodes.
Acyclovir works by reducing the intensity and duration of these outbreaks. Through its action, Acyclovir helps heal the sores faster and reduces the likelihood of new sores forming. It reduces pain and itching as well.


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Secrets to Fearless Living
Pushing yourself slightly outside your comfort zone could radically change your life for the better.
A few years ago my oldest daughter, Maggie, was selected to play the part of Young Cosette in a local production of Les Misérables. The closer we got to opening night, the more nervous my 9-year- old became.
"Mommy, what if I forget my lines?" she asked, terrified. "What if everyone laughs at me? I'm so scared!"
"Honey, everybody gets scared," I said, reminding her of the same things I tell myself as an entrepreneur almost every single day. "Real courage is when you feel scared but you take action anyway. Sometimes you just have to do it scared."
As adults, we too get cast in roles that can be terrifying to play. I've learned that you can build your courage muscles—and make it more likely that you'll overcome the next nerve-racking obstacle that stands in your way—with these simple exercises.
Be Brave Daily
Make a conscious effort to do little things that scare you every single day. It could be striking up a conversation with a stranger in an elevator or at the supermarket, trying that new combat fitness class at the gym or speaking up in a meeting at work.
For me, it was public speaking—just the thought of it sent a chill through my body! But I also knew that being able to communicate effectively to a crowd was key to future success in my career. I started with short videos on YouTube, which led to a live segment on the local news, which opened the door to small speaking engagements, which eventually led to keynote speeches in front of hundreds. Every time I was scared. But those small wins gave me the courage to do just a little more each time.
Use Fear for Good
If your goals don't make you nervous enough to motivate you, they're either not big enough or you haven't committed to them. The next time you set a goal—like taking an online class, posting a dating profile or running a 10K—do a gut check. Are you feeling that knot in the pit of your stomach? Good! It will inspire you to get out of bed a little earlier, push yourself a bit harder and work a little longer, just to make sure what you want happens. And if you don't feel it? Then set a bigger goal or make a firmer commitment until you actually do. Embrace this good kind of fear to add fuel to your fire.
Always Fail Forward
Think back to the last time you made a mistake and ask yourself a few key questions: What went wrong? And how can I do things differently next time? By redefining your breakdowns into breakthroughs you'll overcome being afraid of messing up.
Then, the next time something goes wrong—and it will, because everyone makes mistakes and that's OK—instead of beating yourself up, go straight back to those questions. Remind yourself that all the best lessons come from failure because you have the opportunity to learn, which means that even when you lose, you win.
And in case you're wondering: My daughter did push through her fear and was amazing—for all six performances.
Ruth Soukup is a speaker, blogger and entrepreneur, as well as the CEO of LivingWellSpendingLess.com. Get inspiration from her Do It Scared podcast at DoItScared.com.