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text:
Manchester United boss is sweating on the fitness of England duo Nicky Butt and Phil Neville, while Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastian Verno may make their first appearances.
Manchester United (from): Barthez, Irwin, G Neville, Stam, Silvestre, Beckham, Butt, Veron, Giggs, Scholes, van Nistelrooy, van der Gouw, Carroll, Brown, Johnsen, P Neville, Chadwick, Wallwork, Cole, Yorke, Solsjkaer.
Fulham manager Jean Tigana will take an injury-free squad to Old Trafford. New signing from Juventus, goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, will make his debut, but striker Luis Boa Morte will miss the first three games of the new campaign.
Fulham (from): Van der Sar, Finnan, Melville, Symons, Harley, Clark, Collins, Taylor, Malbranque, Hayles, Knight, Goldbaek, Saha, Davis, Goma, Ouaddou.
* Manchester United go into the 10th Premiership season and Sir Alex Ferguson's last as manager, seeking a unique fourth successive League Championship.
* Fulham go into their first ever Premiership meeting with Man U, knowing that they've only recorded one away win over the Old Trafford giants since League hostilities began in 1922.
Total meetings: 50
Man United wins: 38
Fulham wins: 10
Draws: 12
* This is the first time in 26 years these two have met in League competition
* Man U have won the last six corresponding fixtures, stretching back to 30 March 1964.
* Fulham's one League win at Old Trafford was a 2-0 success on April Fools Day 1963 - 38 years ago.
* The Londoners last win over United was in the old 2nd Division, a 2-1 success at Craven Cottage on 5 September, 1964.
* United have gone eleven games without defeat against the Cottagers.
Man in the Middle: PETER JONES (Loughborough, Leics)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sample Company Profile
Access company profiles with full contact information, product & service details, executive names & titles, and more. Compare versions.
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Learn about a company's parent headquarters or subsidiaries with the family tree view.
NOTE: This is a representative sample only and does not reflect current data.
|EZ Select® is now called IndustrySelect® — Please click here now to go to industryselect.com


text:
Credit scores and credit reports have been somewhat of a mystery to the public for decades, but now U.S. consumers are gaining unprecedented access to them. The new transparency is undoubtedly positive, but a critical question remains: Will it help consumers, or just confuse them?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Thursday that some 50 million U.S. consumers now have free access to one of their credit scores – mostly through their credit card issuers. This has increased the level of consumer awareness around the credit system, but it also creates another need: Consumers need context in order to make sense of the scores.
To see how well consumers understand credit reports and scores, the CFPB recently conducted focus groups in Boston, St. Louis, Atlanta and Seattle. Extensive interviews revealed what you might expect: there's plenty of confusion around the three-digit number that has such a big impact on consumers' lives.
The CFPB found that consumers:
- Found it difficult to "disentangle" credit reports and credit scores;
- Said they knew about the three largest nationwide credit reporting agencies, but were hard-pressed to name all three;
- Were puzzled when they encountered differences in information across their various reports;
- Thought they knew what raises or lowers credit scores, but still felt that their scores were not completely within their control;
- Said they understood that multiple scores exist, but seemed unclear about which ones lenders use or how;
- Were unsure if requesting a copy of their credit report would be considered a hard inquiry and thus could negatively affect or "ding" their credit scores (it doesn't);
- Reported feeling "overwhelmed" — a few consumers were surprised at the amount of information on their report;
- Said that they were confused by the names of financial institutions that appeared on their credit reports, because the financial institution went by a name the consumer wasn't familiar with;
- Indicated that they learned from their credit reports that their loans had been sold or were being serviced by companies other than the lender from which they obtained their loans;
- Distrust the sources of their credit reports. Some are not sure which website or sites provide free annual credit reports. "Even if they know to use AnnualCreditReport.com … They are reluctant to enter their Social Security number and other private information, because they fear that this may put them at risk for identity theft";
- Fear being trapped into purchasing unwanted products, like an additional report or a credit-monitoring service.
The CFPB urged credit reporting agencies to make it easier for consumers to access and interpret credit reports and scores.
"Consumers' credit information is the foundation of their financial lives," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "Access to these scores provides an opportunity to engage consumers around their credit reports. Once consumers see their credit scores, they can be motivated to learn more about their credit history, check their full credit report, and take action to improve their financial lives."
There are various free tools available to consumers to help give context to their credit scores — such as on Credit.com, which offers two free credit scores every month and an explanation of what factors are influencing your scores. Once consumers understand why their scores are what they are, and what behaviors build good credit, they can take the steps that will help them improve it.
More on Credit Reports & Credit Scores:
- How to Get Your Free Annual Credit Report
- How Do I Dispute an Error on My Credit Report?
- How Credit Impacts Your Day-to-Day Life
Image: iStock


text:
By Bobi Tiglao
I cannot fathom why people, especially communists and media still listen to Joma Sison. He was in prison 9 years (captured 1977 by Marcos and released by Cory in 1986).
He has been in the Netherlands since 1987, or for thirty long years, or for most of his adult working life.
That means for 39 years he was either secluded in prison or enjoying a Dutch lifestyle.
How long siya nakikibaka with his comrades in Pinas?
Counting from 1968, when he founded the CPP, to his arrest in 1977, that's just NINE years. And most of this time — from the declaration of martial law to his arrest — he was living very comfortably in safe-houses in Metro Manila, not even in provincial cities.
Contrast that to my old comrades ex-party chairman Benny Tiamzon and his wife Wilma Austria who spent 43 years in the urban underground (when they were members of the Manila Rizal Party committee) and then in the jungles as guerrillas until capture in 2014.
So this revolutionary leader — that's what he calls himself — spent three-fourths of his "revolutionary" days not in the trenches of the Revolution.
And he has the gall to talk about undertaking Revolution in the Philippines?
And the foreign- and oligarch-financed Rappler published his long rant against the Republic's President? Amazing.


text:
Venture off Cartagena's tourist trail, scratch beneath the surface of the city with some tailor-made experiences filled with insight into the city's idiosyncrasies and go home feeling like a local.
Address: Meeting point: Centro, Calle Sargento Mayor, Calle 38, Cra 7, No. 6-107, Of 104, Cartagena, Colombia
Rating: TIC User Rating
It's hard to imagine another world outside the dreamy colonial city, but for 90% of Cartagena's population, that's exactly what the walled city is to locals—a distant dream far from the reality they actually live in.
Tread outside the walls and you'll find yourself in a typical Latino workhorse town; a blend of pulsating markets, fishing villages, and grass-roots communities. There are no echoes of colonial Spain here, this is100% Caribbean flavour through and through.
Our boutique selection of tours embody experiential travel at its most genuine. The Real Cartagena Tour offers an authentic six-hour trail that takes in the famous Bazurto market, street food stops a local fishing village and lush mangroves all in one sitting.
Explore Getsemani is an opportunity to inform yourself on the complex socio-economic forces underlying of rapidly gentrifying cultural quarter, Getsemani. As well as informal meet-and-greets with local heroes you'll learn about the rebellious history which characterises this revolution-spirited barrio.
Culture vultures eager to glide through Cartagena's creative circles can gain the inside track on an inspirational Cartagena Art Tour.
Under the guidance of a local artist, you'll go beyond the Fernando Botero fakes and delve deep into the rich underground scene which defines this eclectic city.
Cartagena's nerve centre serves up breathtaking colonial architecture, the city's top attractions, finest hotels, eateries and drinking dens as well as being the administrative and cultural heart of the city.
Centro has lost none of its importance thanks to the universal lure of its colonial pomp and the concentration of government buildings, hotels, tourist attractions, bars and restaurants in the area.
Cartagena's finest hotels and restaurants have taken over the uber-casas built by slave traders and Spanish plunderers in the 17th century.
The richest residents knocked up stunning two and three-storey mansions by the westernmost tip of the walled city, where they bagged the sea breeze and first whiff of pirates. Today only those at the very top of Colombia's rich list can afford to maintain these opulent houses in their original residential state.
The Cartagena Cocktail Tour is a special concoction for thirsty visitors that want to discover Car…
If your New Year resolution was to get out more, Cartagena's booming party scene will help you clo…
Rent a boat or yacht for the day and let the Caribbean be your world-class oyster, a place filled …
Want to dance on the tables at Cartagena's standout night club, La Movida? You're going to have to…
Sail through the best ceviche offering in Cartagena with a tasty tour that will delight your taste…
Fall head over heels in love with Cartagena and set your love fire alight with a passionate escape…
Give our on the ground team a little more information about what you are looking for and when you are looking to do it. Our travel team will take care of the rest.


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The Meals on Wheels program is seeing an increase in client numbers without an increase in funding, so a new position, that of a resource development director, was hired to fill the gap.
Kimberly Spencer started in mid-July to provide marketing and fundraising for the organization, which delivers meals to homebound southern Larimer County residents in Loveland, Berthoud and Masonville. Her aim will be to increase individual and corporate donations.
"We strategically have to build the donor base to meet the rise in the number of clients," Spencer said.
During the first half of 2011, the average number of new clients was 16 a month and rose to 25 for the same period in 2012, a 35 percent jump. The average number of meals served is now at 235 a day.
"We anticipate this number will continue to grow," Spencer said, adding that the nonprofit also faces a decrease in clients' ability to pay and rising food costs. "We don't want to scrimp on quality. We don't want to scrimp on variety. We don't want to scrimp on nutrition."
The organization serves those who are disabled or temporarily homebound from surgery or illness and are unable to prepare their own meals.
"We want to be able to provide everyone who needs the service a well-balanced nutritional meal," said Elizabeth Harless, executive director of Meals on Wheels.
Since the nonprofit was started in Loveland in 1968, there has not been a waiting list.
The Meal Preparation
On any given day, three staff cooks prepare the meals and with the help of volunteers, pack them that volunteer drivers deliver to clients. The clients pay for the meals, served during the noon hour Monday to Friday, on a sliding scale of $0-5.
"The aim is to have quality, variety and, of course, well-balanced meals," Spencer said.
Loveland resident Margaret Beverly, who is blind and a client for 10 years, said the Meals on Wheels lunches are the only hot meal she eats.
"They're so kind, and it's always delivered hot. It tastes good," Beverly said. "I just appreciate the effort they put into it."
The volunteer drivers conduct a wellness check with every meal they deliver. If a client does not answer the door, the volunteers call the office; if no contact is made during the second visit, the office staff call the client's emergency contacts.
"With a lot of homebound seniors, they may be the only person checking on them," Spencer said.
The nonprofit has 11 staff members, who are assisted by 512 volunteers.
In 2011, the volunteers donated 15,065 hours in 2011, the equivalent of seven full-time employees.
The Building
Meals on Wheels is housed in a 6,900 square-foot building at 700 E. Fourth St., where it has been since 2004. The building was purchased by the Erion Foundation, which has supported the Loveland program since Helen Erion and Dorothy Morin founded it.
"They both saw a need for people to have nutritional meals and socialization," Harless said.
In 2010, the nonprofit began leasing nearly 2,300 square feet of the space to the Loveland Community Kitchen that serves meals seven days a week. The meals are provided through Meals on Wheels at an average rate of 75 meals a day.
"We had this large state-of-the-art kitchen with the capacity to prepare more meals," Harless said.
Shelley Widhalm can be reached at 669-5050, ext. 531, or email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ShelleyWidhalm


text: This article was published on 25th January 2013. The name given to this column is the last episode of Corruption kahani. The person discussed here is Nawaz Shrif property and accounts in all over the world as well as his all periods of life. The beginning of Itafaq Foundry and his family departure to Jeddah is also included in debate. This steel mill has diversified in many other production units also. It is a big source of earning for Sharif family. He initiated the motorway project with the help of Korean company Daewoo. These projects gave a huge loss to Pakistan. He got accepted many bills in his favor from parliament. Those who took loans to purchase taxies were latterly declared as bad debts. Some harsh memories are also elaborated here which include the 2nd period of Nawaz reign. His Government was made null and void by Pervaiz Musharaf. He made few calls to Benazir as well and talked on such important matters. It is said that N league earned a lot from highway project in shape of corruption. People party and Noon league relations become worst when steel mill was nationalized. Zia ul Haq gave t back to Sharif brothers again. All the details are given below and you can read. it.


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Having considered some of the historical background and social, intellectual, and spiritual context in which the scriptural geologists opposed the old-earth theories, we must look at one more issue to properly understand the debate. Before we can ascertain the level of geological ignorance or acumen of any of the scriptural geologists, we must define, as best we can, what constituted a competent geologist in the early 19th century. How do we distinguish a "real geologist" from a "quasi-geological theologian" at this time? What qualified a person to critically evaluate geological arguments for an old earth? In answering these questions we will see that some of the scriptural geologists were very competent to judge old-earth theories.
In his mapping of the field of geological competence, the respected historian of geology Martin Rudwick broadly defined geological competence as the ability to deliver reliable information or ideas on the subject. But measuring such competence in the 1820s and 1830s was and is difficult, partly because the definition was not static or suprahistorically absolute,1 but was being progressively refined as geological development approached 1850. Therefore, Rudwick said, "to talk of a geological 'community' at the time of the Devonian controversy [1834–37] is misleading on many counts, not least because it suggests anachronistically a strong-boundaried professional group marked by standardized training and certification, with only the uninitiated lay public outside."2 He went on to say that therefore "the formal hierarchies of position and influence are by no means coincident" with what he termed "the informal and tacit gradient of attributed competence." 3 Rudwick described three zones of this gradient of attributed competence in the mid-1830s (see figure 1 on page 49).
Zone 1 was the small group of "elite geologists," who were characterized by a primary commitment to geology (rather than some other science), high activity in the affairs of geological institutions and in practical fieldwork, and significant production in the publication of geological information. Most importantly, they considered themselves, and others considered them, to be the competent arbiters of the most fundamental questions of geological theory and methodology. According to Rudwick, this class included not only the most well-known geologists (Sedgwick, Murchison, De la Beche, Lyell, Greenough, Buckland, Conybeare, Phillips, and Darwin), but also the non-geologists, Whewell and Humboldt, because of their weighty achievements in other sciences and their appreciable work in geology.
|Name (year)b
|Date of creation
|Gen. 1:1c
|Gen. 1:14 Sun-Day 4d
|Josh. 10:12e
|Ps. 19:5-6f
|Ps. 96:10g
|Ainsworth (1639)
|Day 1
|24 hr
|Richardson (1655)
|24 hr
|Stackhouse/Gleiga (1817/1737)
|ages ago?h
|24 hr
|Patrick (1809/1738)
|4004 B.C.?i
|24 hr
|lm, nc-a
|Gill (1809/1763)
|Day 1
|24 hr
|Purver (1764)
|24 hr
|Dodd (1765)
|Day 1
|24 hr
|Henry/Blomfield (1810/1765)
|Day 1
|24 hr
|lm, nc-a
|Brown (1816/1777)
|Day 1
|24 hrk
|Geddes (1792)
|ages ago
|Priestley (1803)
|ages ago
|lm, nc-a
|Fuller (1806)
|24 hrk
|D'Oyly/Manta (1817)
|24 hr
|Hornea (1818/1856)j
|24 hrk
|Clarkea (1836)
|24 hr
|Scotta (1841/1812)
|24 hr
|nc-a, law-unbroken
- This indicates that the author consciously defended his position in reference to rival cosmologies, whether pagan or geological.
- The years are first that of the edition I consulted, followed by the original publication, where known, or the date when the author made his last revisions, whichever is latest. D'Oyly, Mant, Scott, Horne, Dodd, Patrick, Richardson, Stackhouse, and Gleig were Anglicans; Gill and Fuller were Baptists; Clarke was a Methodist; Brown was a Presbyterian; Geddes was a Catholic; Henry (edited by Blomfield) was a non-conformist; Priestley was a Unitarian; Purver was a Quaker. According to Horne, Ainsworth was Jewish, but to me he appears Christian in doctrine.
- "Summary" means that Genesis 1:1 was taken as a summary statement of the whole creation week; "day 1" means this verse was understood to refer to the first act of creation on day 1; "nc" means the author did not make a specific or clear comment.
- "Created" means that the sun was actually created on day 4; "appeared" means it only appeared on day 4, having been created some time before.
- "nc" means no comment was made on the passage; "lm" means a literal historical miracle; "lm-h" means a literal miracle described according to appearance, not according to the heliocentric view which the commentator accepted as true; "nc-a" means no comment was made in relation to astronomy; "myth" means the passage was taken as a myth, not as history.
- "nc" means no comment was made on the passage; "nc-a" means no comment was made in relation to astronomy; "rh" means the commentator rejected the heliocentric view; "la" means the commentator believed that the biblical writer used language of appearance.
- "nc" means no comment was made on the passage; "nc-a" means no comment was made in relation to astronomy; "law-unbroken" means that the interpretation of the phrase "the earth cannot be moved" was that the earth cannot be moved from its relative place compared to the other heavenly bodies, i.e., the laws governing the earth and universe cannot be broken.
- Stackhouse believed the earth and solar system were created at Genesis 1:1, but the rest of the universe of celestial bodies may have existed for an immense time before this. Gleig, on the other hand, believed that Genesis 1:1 referred to all the heavenly bodies. Although he believed the text would allow for a gap theory (either of chaotic matter existing for ages or this world being built out of the wreck of another), he was not convinced that this was what actually happened. Both men believed that the events beginning from Genesis 1:3 onward occurred in 4004 BC.
- Patrick said that the text would not rule out the possibility of a long time period before Genesis 1:3, when the literal six-day creation occurred about 6,000 years ago. But he conceived the earlier formless and void creation to have been a chaotic mass of muddy matter, which was void of any plants or animals.
- Horne continued to hold these views on creation and the Flood until the 1856 tenth edition of his work, when he embraced the gap theory.
- Though Brown, Fuller, and Horne made no explicit comment about the length of the creation days, they clearly took them as 24-hour days. This is evident in the fact that Brown and Horne believed the date of creation was 4004 B.C. and although Fuller was not explicit about the date of creation, he believed the creation of the sun was literally on day 4.
Zone 2 was what Rudwick termed the "accomplished geologists." This zone contained two different groups. One comprised those scientists whose primary commitment was to some other science in which they were regarded among the elite, but their scientific judgment impinged in an auxiliary way on geology. They did little or no geological fieldwork and did not publish much, if anything, on the subject. Men in this category of "accomplished geologists" included the botanists Lindley and Brongniart, the fish expert Agassiz, and the conchologist Sowerby. The other group of "accomplished geologists" was comprised of men who were primarily focused on geology and were expert on a particular geographical region, group of strata, or group of fossils. Their geological opinions were highly regarded by the elite geologists, but in matters of theory their judgments were only respected on points where the elite had less expertise.
Zone 3 was the "amateur geologists," men and a few women whose geological knowledge was restricted to a very localized area. This group included country gentlemen and ladies, physicians, lawyers, and clergymen with intimate knowledge of the area near their homes, as well as government officials, military officers, and others whose jobs took them to isolated parts of the world. Their knowledge was trusted by the elite only at the strictly "factual" level.
The elite geologists regarded only themselves as competent to propose the most fundamental, theoretical, or global claims to geological knowledge.
Within these zones of attributed competence, the elite geologists regarded only themselves as competent to propose the most fundamental, theoretical, or global claims to geological knowledge.4 Beyond these three zones lay the general public. The geological statements of people in this category (which included quarrymen and miners) were never accepted as reliable until checked and corroborated by those with recognized geological competence.
As enlightening as Rudwick's discussion of these three zones is for understanding geological competence in the mid-1830s during the Devonian controversy, there are at least six reasons to conclude that this analysis is not obviously applicable to the assessment of the geological competence of the scriptural geologists to critically evaluate the arguments in favor of an old earth.
First, although Rudwick accurately describes competence relative to the famous "Devonian controversy" of 1834–37,5 his study does not enable us to adequately place people who were not involved in that debate, such as William Smith, Robert Bakewell, and leading American geologists, who were recognized by many geologists to have broader and deeper knowledge of geology than the "accomplished geologists" (and even the "elite geologist" Whewell), but who were not considered to be in the elite category.
Second, Rudwick pictured diagrammatically (see figure 1) the fact that some of the scriptural geologists were included within the class of "amateur geologists,"6 whom the leading geologists at the time of the Devonian controversy "regarded as at least modestly active and competent in geology."7 However, it would be difficult to prove in 1822 (after the scriptural geologist George Young had published four scientific journal articles on geology and his Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast, in which he objected to old-earth theory) that Young was any less active in geological fieldwork and geological reading or any less capable of geological theorizing than Sedgwick, Buckland, or Lyell (or Smith, Cuvier, Hutton, or Werner), especially given the great amount of exposed strata in Yorkshire which represented a major portion of the secondary formations and were right at Young's doorstep.
Third, to say that experts in other scientific fields (with little or no fieldwork or publications in geology) were more competent than scriptural geologists (who did both activities) is to imply that social standing in the scientific establishment and general scientific reasoning ability were far more important criteria of geological competence (at least in the minds of the geological elite) than actual first and secondhand knowledge of geological phenomena. But this is a strange definition. On this basis, the scriptural geologist Andrew Ure should be ranked higher in geological competence than George Young, a conclusion most inconsistent with the facts (as will be shown) and the actual opinions of the recognized geologists of the time.
Fourth, this definition of competence was determined by a small group of "elite geologists," some of whom gained their elite status before they themselves had achieved a high level of geological competence. Sedgwick, for instance, attained the prestigious position of Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge in 1818 when, by his own admission, he knew very little about the subject and had done virtually no fieldwork.9
Fifth, the definition does not objectively reflect a person's knowledge of geological literature, and his intellectual ability to understand geological arguments and evaluate the logical soundness of induction from agreed-upon geological facts.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the authors of the catastrophist and uniformitarian theories of a very old earth constructed those theories and presented their geological evidence in defense of their theories long before the Devonian controversy illuminated and developed a more restrictive definition of geological competence. Hutton, Werner, and Cuvier (along with Buff on and Laplace, both non-geologists) were the chief authors of the old-earth view.10 But at the time they proposed their theories they were not very geologically competent by the standards of the mid-1830s. Furthermore, while the Devonian controversy involved very technical discussions, it was not introducing or finally establishing the old-earth theory, but only hammering out details within the old-earth interpretive framework, and therefore only one or two scriptural geologists even made mention of the Devonian controversy. In the late 1810s, when the old-earth view was firmly established in the minds of geologists at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh, other institutions of higher education, the Geological Society of London, the provincial philosophical societies, and in similar institutions on the European continent, Hutton, Werner, and Cuvier would have only satisfied Rudwick's criteria of "amateur geologists."
So in order to assess the geological competence of the scriptural geologists to critically evaluate the catastrophist and uniformitarian theories of an old-earth and the evidences presented in favor of those theories, we must also look at geological competence in the light of some additional possible criteria as seen in the lives of those who, all agree, were competent geologists, such as Charles Lyell and William Buckland, two of the greatest British geologists of the 19th century, as well as others.
In terms of education, Buckland, son of a clergyman, studied classics at Oxford from 1801–05 in preparation for his ordained ministry. However, his real interest was in science, particularly geology, and he learned much from the writings and lectures on mineralogy and geology by Dr. John Kidd, an Oxford University chemistry professor and a founding member of the London Geological Society.11
Buckland took his first geological tour in 1808 alone in the countryside of Berkshire and Wiltshire, and soon after began to give an annual eight-lecture series on mineralogy (from 1813) and on geology (from 1819). Lyell studied at Oxford and later Lincoln's Inn to become a lawyer, which was his vocation until 1828. While at Oxford he attended Buckland's eight geology lectures in the springs of 1817 to 1819. Sometime before 1826 he had read Robert Bakewell's Introduction to Geology12 and John Playfair's Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, the latter of which had a significant influence on the development of his own ideas about the history of the earth.13
Some people in Britain had studied mineralogy or chemistry as a background for their geological investigations. This was particularly true of the Scots. They had geological instruction at Edinburgh University much earlier than Oxford and Cambridge, and Robert Jameson, one of their most prominent geologists, was an alumnus of the German institute, Bergakademie Freiberg, where the famous old-earth mineralogist, Abraham Werner, taught from 1775 to 1817.14 But Buckland and Lyell had a more limited educational background in the subject area. Their expertise came predominantly through self-education. It was the same with other leading British geologists of the 19th century. George Greenough, the first president of the Geological Society of London, trained in law. Roderick Murchison, who was significant in working out the Devonian and Silurian systems of strata in the 1830s and 1840s, had a military education. In fact, it is said that he chose to learn stratigraphical geology because it did not require the academics of mineralogy. Henry De la Beche similarly had a military education. He eventually headed up the geological survey of Britain for the government and led the efforts to found the School of Mines in London.15 As noted earlier, Adam Sedgwick admitted that he was practically ignorant of geology when in 1818 he was elected to the Geological Society and to be Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge. What he did know of geology came from reading, not field experience, though this quickly changed after 1818.
William Fitton, who later became president of the London Geological Society, was rather emphatic on this matter of education, when he defended the society in 1817, saying:
It has been remarked by critics that the want of education is sometimes of advantage to a man of genius, who is thus free to the suggestions of invention, and is neither biassed in favour of erroneous maxims, nor deterred from the trial of his own powers by names of high authority. On this principle it is evident that the members of the Geological Society have derived great benefit from their want of systematic instruction. At the time of its formation there was, in fact, no English school of mineralogy where they could imbibe either information or prejudice. They were neither Vulcanists nor Neptunists nor Wernerians nor Huttonians, but plain men, who felt the importance of a subject about which they knew very little in detail; and, guided only by a sincere desire to learn, they have produced, with a rapidity that is truly surprising, publications of the greatest interest and importance upon the subjects to which they have devoted.16
So while university studies in chemistry or mineralogy were seen by some as helpful, they were not necessary to be regarded as a competent geologist in the 1820s and 1830s. In fact, professional training in science generally did not become established until the late 1840s.17 In any case, it will be seen in subsequent chapters that many of the scriptural geologists had just as great a desire and intelligence to learn as any founding member of the Geological Society or other "elite" geologists.
Certainly we would expect that a non-negotiable characteristic of a good geologist was his personal firsthand observations of the rocks, fossils, and strata of the earth's crust. Buckland and Lyell both had ample experience here. Buckland regularly explored the geological features in the countryside and took students on field trips. He had an extensive collection of fossils and rocks, which he always used in his lectures. His most famous field work was related to the fossils found in the Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire and incorporated into his early apparent defense of the Noachian flood in Reliquiae Diluvianae (1823).18
Lyell, though a practicing barrister until 1828, spent some considerable time in the field before writing his Principles of Geology (1830–33). In the summer of 1823 he visited Paris and met the catastrophists Humboldt, Cuvier, and Brongniart and made some geological excursions in the area. In 1825 he went on geological field trips in southwest England and later with Buckland in Scotland. And he spent three months in 1828 in the Auvergne region of France with Roderick Murchison studying the river valleys. Many more trips followed as he gave up law and pursued geology on a more full-time basis. However, the original two-volume manuscript of his Principles was given to the publisher in late 1827, six months before he made his first major geological tour, which was through France and northern Italy.19
In addition to geological reading (or education) and field work, other criteria could be suggested which might be assumed to be necessary marks of a competent geologist, but which in a study of the recognized geologists of the 1820s and 1830s prove not to be essential.
1. A competent geologist need not be a member of the Geological Society of London.
William Smith, the "Father of English Stratigraphy," was considered to be one of the best practical geologists in early 19th century Britain. But he was never a member of the Geological Society. In fact, many of the leading practical geologists (i.e., those involved in mining, building canals, railways and roads, and digging wells, etc.), such as John Farey and Robert Bakewell, were not members of the GSL and many of the early members and officers of the society were not geologists, even well into the late 1820s after its birth in 1807. Furthermore, Rudwick has estimated that at the time of the "Devonian controversy" (1834–37) only two-thirds of the competent geologists in Britain were members of the society.20
2. Being well-traveled, especially internationally, or having first-hand knowledge of the geology and geography of an area was not essential to write competently on geology.
John Macculloch was praised by Lyell as an excellent geologist, who had a lasting and powerful influence on geology and even on Lyell's own thinking, even though Macculloch was a catastrophist and his two-volume System of Geology (1831) had many imperfections, including outdated information.21 Yet in defense of the fact that Macculloch based his System of Geology mainly on what he observed in Britain, he stated:
Geologists have been acused [sic] of founding theories upon single and favoured districts; yet have I drawn my chief illustrations from Britain? It is true: but there is no resemblance in the applications: as I can also justify this proceeding. Geological facts have no relation to geography: the Earth is everywhere of the same general structure. And I need not hesitate to say, that excepting volcanoes, and little more, this little island contains every fact in the world, with much that is almost peculiar to itself; and that more knowledge can be acquired from a careful examination of it, than from all the writings of all those who have prided themselves on the extent of their travels.22
Like the scriptural geologist George Fairholme, Lyell wrote on the causes and age of Niagara Falls in his Principles of Geology based on the writings of other reliable observers, long before he himself visited America (including the falls) in 1841–42.23 Nevertheless, Lyell discredited the great German mineralogist Abraham Werner because Werner made a universal theory of the earth based on very little personal knowledge of the geology of areas outside his native Saxony. Ospovat has pointed out, however, that James Hutton, forefather of Lyell's own uniformitarian ideas, likewise traveled little outside his native Scotland.24 In fact, Hutton first published his cyclical theory of the earth in 1785 before he had studied any rocks in the field and he traveled very little outside Scotland to look for confirmation of his theory.25
Similarly, Georges Cuvier, who did not explore much geology outside the environs of Paris, based his Theory of the Earth (1813) exclusively on a study of the Paris Basin, or rather a study of the fossils found there by others, for he himself relied on others, primarily Alexandre Brongniart, for the geological information.26
3. A person did not need to be gainfully employed as a geologist in order to be considered a competent geologist in the 1820s and 1830s.
Murchison was an independently wealthy, retired military man, who did not take a job as a geologist until he replaced De la Beche in the 1840s in the governmental Department of Geological Survey. De la Beche himself initially did his geological work living off funds from his father, a plantation owner in the West Indies, before becoming a government geologist in the mid-1830s. Lyell was initially a lawyer by profession. Then for a short time he earned a little from geological lectures presented to a paying public. But for most of his life he lived off the royalties of his successful geological writings. George P. Scrope married into wealth, which funded his early geological research on volcanos and valleys in France and he spent most of his professional life as a member of Parliament from Stroud (for 35 years) before resuming geological work in his retirement. George Greenough, the first president of the Geological Society and active in geology for many years after that, was likewise independently wealthy.27 In fact, it was not until the late 1840s, in large measure because of the Devonian controversy, that we see the rise of the professional specialist (as opposed to the independently wealthy gentleman) in geology.28
4. A competent geologist in the early 19th century did not necessarily have a good knowledge of conchology.
One might think that this would be absolutely essential, since shells were by far the most common fossils found in the geological record and the most important fossils used to identify, correlate, and relatively date the strata in various locations. However, William Smith, who was recognized for having developed this technique for classifying the strata, said the following in 1817 about his Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils:
Errors in [my] stratified arrangement can be corrected by those only who are locally acquainted with the strata, and the numerous organized Fossils they contain. On this principle I have ventured, without much knowledge of Conchology, and with weak aids in that science to give the outlines of a systematic arrangement [of the geological record].29
Similarly, Lyell based his uniformitarian theory largely on the fossil shells of the tertiary, but he did not start studying conchology until 1830, the year Volume 1 of his Principles of Geology was published and two years after the theory was firmly fixed in his mind.30
5. Finally, and perhaps most important to note, for a person to be considered competent in geology it did not mean that he was unbiased and unaffected in his geological theorizing by non-scientific considerations.
Nicholaas Rupke has argued persuasively that Buckland's catastrophist geology was significantly influenced by his involvement in university and social reform. Speaking of the reform going on in Britain at the time, Rupke wrote:
The geological notion of progressive earth history cannot be separated from this historical milieu. The progressivism of the English school [of geology, of which Buckland was a leader] was formulated at a time when the idea of progress was becoming a major determinant of cultural expectation in English society.31
In other words, the perceived progressive nature of the geological record was used as a basis for, and to some extent shaped by, the idea that man and society were improving.
Lyell likewise was not a purely objective observer of the geological facts. A number of recent historians of science and geologists have shown that politics, economics, and deistic (or unitarian) theology had a significant bearing on the interpretation of geological formations given by Lyell (and Scrope, upon whom Lyell heavily relied).32 In his discussion of Lyell and the uniformitarian catastrophist debate in the 1820s and 1830s, evolutionist geologist Derek Ager, a leader in the 20th century renaissance of geological catastrophism, remarked:
My excuse for this lengthy and amateur digression into history is that I have been trying to show how I think geology got into the hands of the theoreticians [uniformitarians] who were conditioned by the social and political history of their day more than by observations in the field.33
American old-earth geologist, Edward Hitchcock, argued that both the French geologists and Lyell had a hostility against the Bible, which very much affected their interpretation of the Noachian flood and the geological evidence.34
So, the definition of geological competence was not fixed in the 1820s and 1830s as geology matured as a science and certainly, as Rudwick has shown, there was a gradient of competence. But the level of competence necessary for proposing or debating a detailed stratigraphy of a particular region within the old-earth framework (such as in the Devonian controversy of the mid-1830s) was much higher than that needed to propose the old-earth framework and state its supporting evidences (in the years 1790–1815) or to criticize those theories and arguments, as the scriptural geologists did. Upon consideration of further criteria than those proposed by Rudwick, it may be argued that a competent geologist in the 1820s and 1830s was one who devoted a significant portion of his time to firsthand observation of the geological formations in the field and was knowledgeably conversant with current geological literature, facts, and theories. If, added to these, his field observations were not just regional, but national or international in extent, if he published his research in reputable scientific journals and/or books, if he was a member of one or more scientific societies, if he had personal contact with recognized geologists, if he added new facts to the pool of geological knowledge, if he earned his living from his geological work, etc., then so much the better. But these latter attributes were not necessary in the 1820s and 1830s to qualify as a competent geologist who was able to critically evaluate the theories of an old earth and the geological evidences adduced as proof of those theories.
These considerations assist in the evaluation of the Genesis-geology debate and the part which the scriptural geologists played in it. As we will see, George Young, John Murray, William Rhind, and George Fairholme were quite competent in geology (possessing even some of the extra characteristics mentioned above) and had as much or more first and secondhand geological knowledge than some of those categorized by Rudwick as accomplished, or even elite, geologists. It will also be shown that some of the other scriptural geologists were better informed geologically than was (or is) generally acknowledged by their critics.


text:
A drill pump is used to pump nonflammable fluids. The drill pump has no internal motor to drive the impeller; instead, you use a standard hand drill to move the fluids. The power from the drill motor moves the impeller, which pulls the fluid through an inlet hose and ejects the fluid out of the other side of the housing through the outlet line. A drill pump does not have the power of a standard pump and therefore cannot move large amounts of fluids over long distances.
Put on your safety glasses.
Insert the 1/4-inch impeller shaft into the chuck of the drill motor. Lock the chuck to secure the impeller shaft to the drill.
Attach the hoses to the standard 3/4-inch male garden hose fittings on either side of the drill pump. If you are draining oil or removing nonflammable fluid from a tank with a small opening, attach the small-diameter hose to the intake side of the drill pump.
Place the hose attached to the intake side of the drill pump into the nonflammable fluid that you need to pump.
Extend the outlet hose of the drill pump to another container, or outside if you are pumping straight water.
Flip the switch on the drill motor to forward and depress the trigger of the drill to start pumping the nonflammable fluid with the drill pump.
Make sure that the inlet hose remains in fluid the entire time that you are using the drill pump to avoid water from entering the pump housing.
Thoroughly clean the drill pump after each use; run a manufacturer-approved cleaner through the drill pump after pumping oil or toxic fluids.


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Week 3: Stories in Music on Summer Listening
a Classical 90.5 original with Stage One's Lucas Adams and Mozart's Don Giovanni! Use it as a bedtime story or a resource in your classroom.
(available until September 14th)
Saturday July 23rd from 1 – 3 p.m. at the KY Center. Crafts, puppets, Where the Wild Things Are screening of the children's opera, and a premier of a Squallis Puppeteer/Classical 90.5 show Ferdinand!
Listen to Mackenzie Berry's poem inspired by Copland and Hadley Thompson's story inspired by Berlioz:
Aubrey Baker from KY Opera shares some of her favorite stories and music:


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Brenau recently filed its Fifth-Year Interim Report with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
This is the first time Brenau has filed such a report. In the past SACSCOC has required the submission of a comprehensive report every 10 years in order to reaffirm accreditation. In response to Department of Education requirements to monitor institutions on a more frequent basis, SACSCOC created a fifth-year report requirement that falls halfway between reaffirmations.
This report includes approximately 20 of the standards required in the 10-year submission and addresses areas such as number of full-time faculty, student support services, student achievement measures, physical facilities and finances. It also includes a report discussing the results of Brenau's Quality Enhancement Plan on critical thinking.
Accreditation serves many purposes. Ongoing accreditation affirms the educational quality of the institution as a whole. In order for students to qualify for federal financial aid programs, educational institutions must be accredited by a federally recognized accrediting agency. Accreditation also facilitates the transfer of credits for students, because regionally accredited colleges and universities typically accept credits from other regionally accredited institutions.
Marlene Giguere, dean of library services and SACSCOC liason, and Amy Wages, library administrative assistant, spearheaded completion of this report.
"I hope everybody on faculty and staff will join me in congratulating Marlene and Amy for getting this report completed," said President Ed Schrader. "There was a lot of work involved, and they did an outstanding job in pulling together all of the pieces."


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We are entering the deepest stretch of winter now, so I thought I'd tell you about the light at the end of the tunnel. You may have already noticed that light.
Days are getting longer
December 21st is usually regarded as the shortest day of the year. After December 21st we start to gain daylight overall. It's a little deceiving, however.
The sunset actually starts happening later in the evening starting December 12th. You might have already noticed that it's still light a few minutes later than in early December. The sunrise, however, doesn't start getting earlier until January 9th. Once we get past January 9th, we are gaining daylight on both ends of the day. Until then, enjoy the darker mornings and sleep in if you can.
Lots of daylight growth in January
From now until the end of January we are going to gain 49 minutes of daylight. Yes, we will have days that are almost an hour longer by February 1st.
Most of the daylight growth occurs at sunset. We will gain 33 minutes of daylight at the end of the day, and only 16 minutes at sunrise. We'll take it anywhere we can get it. I don't about you, but I'm a sunset person more than a sunrise lover.
You'll really notice the sunset by February 10th. That date is when the sun sets around six o'clock. You get off work, and notice that it's still light when you get home. Working in television all my career, early February is when I notice we don't need lights for any outdoor weather live shots. It seems to happen all at once, like a light switch was flipped.
With more light comes heat
I want to continue to give those that don't enjoy winter a good shot in the arm! If we gain 49 minutes of daylight this month it has to translate to warmth as some point. It does, but for Spring lovers it is painfully slow.
The extra sunlight finally shows up as warmth in our normal high temperatures around February 1st, but It really depends on where you live.
If you want the earliest warm up, live in Flint. For whatever reason the normal high temperature in Flint goes from 29 degrees on January 25th to 30 degrees on January 26th. It's all uphill from there.
Most areas see the normal high temperatures start to go up in the first week of February. Detroit goes from a normal high of 32 degrees on the last day of January to 33 degrees starting February. All of the other cities in southern Michigan do the same in the first few days of February.
I know it's a stretch, since we most likely have our harshest winter weather yet to come. But there is light at the end of the "winter tunnel." If you can get by until early February, I can give Spring lovers another shot in the arm. February is a month we can really talk about weather statistics hinting toward Spring. So hang in there, and in the meantime enjoy the longer days.
Are you a sunrise person or a sunset lover, and why? They both look the same.


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Yesterday, we gave you the first photos of the of Lamborghini's first Anniversario Edition car, the Lamborghini Aventador LP720-4 debuting in Shanghai this weekend. Today, we show you more of this Giallo Maggio flame-throwing carbon fiber monster.
720 horses and (guess what) a claimed fifty percent more downforce doesn't make it faster than a normal Aventador, as zero to sixty remains 2.9 seconds with a top speed of 218 mph. Still, track performance is most likely better thanks to all those agressive aero bits, so that you can push it until the brake fluid starts boiling.
Costumers also have to be rather fast, as the Aventador LP720-4 50 Anniversario is limited to a hundred numbered units. That's right, 50x2! I wonder how many will end up in China...
Photo credit: upcomingvehiclesx


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Parents interested in developing their kids' curiosity and ability to state points of view can book a philosophy workshop for them. The program starts on November 8 and will take place on every Sunday at a new place in town, Seneca Anticafe.
The philosophy workshops are designed in English, for kids aged 4 to 8, and focus on using philosophy to seek for interesting questions, to match the questions with the answers, to state our points of view and argue them. The workshops are planned to start with a story about courage or lack of it, Dragons and Giants by Arnold Lobel and end with a tridimensional book made by kids themselves.
Based on a method designed by the American Professor Thomas E. Wartenberg and successfully used in many schools around the world, the program is a new concept, adapted to the needs of children and aims to develop critical thinking and argumentative skills.
The fees are 40 lei / child / workshop, 60 lei / 2 brothers / workshop and 90 lei / 3 brothers / workshop. Appointments can be made at [email protected], mentioning the date, the name of the child and her/his age. Parents who wish to spend their time at Seneca Anticafe will pay a fee of 8 lei / hour directly to the host-venue.
For more details on the program, check out the official website.


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text: CupCake washable nursing pads provide a clever, all-in-one solution for breastfeeding mothers. This innovative nursing pad is pocketed for additional liners should it be required during the night or periods of heavy flow. Customise to suit your personal needs by adding up to two liners inside the CupCake nursing pad.


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Monday, August 29, 2011
Hungry for Stories
It's tempting to think that the hunger for stories follows hard on the heels of our need for food and shelter. As far as I know, all cultures have rich story traditions. Those of us who write popular fiction feed a need that must surely be as old as humanity.
Readers look to assuage different tastes with different types of books. From the time I was able to choose my own novels, I always loved stories about times and places beyond my reach. The first novel of my very own that I remember reading was Zilpha Keatley Snyder's "The Velvet Room." I got it through the Scholastic Books order program at the elementary school in Cincinnati where I attended third grade. Remember filling out those order forms, and the careful deliberation that went into choosing however many books you could get? And then the exquisite anticipation when they arrived. I couldn't wait to get them home and start reading.
"The Velvet Room" was about a twelve-year-old girl, Robin, whose family struggled to survive as itinerant workers in California in the 1930s Depression. When her father gets a job at the McCurdy ranch, life is better, but it's still hard. An unexpected friendship with an older woman who lives in a hidden cottage opens a new world to Robin. She sneaks into the derelict mansion on the ranch. There she finds the velvet room, full of magic and the promise of hope. I've forgotten the mystery Robin solved, but the velvet room is still clear in my mind and heart.
"The Velvet Room" whisked me into a world I'd heard about from my father, who had traveled from South Dakota, where his parents, both teachers who didn't get paid through the summer, to work in the apricot and cherry orchards that belonged to their California relatives. At three years old, my dad was put to work cutting 'cots grown on land my sister now owns. Like Robin, they lived in a tent community of itinerant workers. When I read "The Velvet Room," I could see the kind of people who had worked in those orchards. I could smell the fields and feel the hard won stability Robin's bare-bones four-room house represented. "The Velvet Room" whetted my appetite for more. More stories. More novels.
I still hunger for good stories. I like variety, but I can live for a good long time on a steady diet of romance and adventure. A little mystery, a little magic, a lot of history or a setting where I've never been—all add spice and savor. Because I like to read stories with these elements so much, that's what I write.
I'm curious: What stories do you hunger for most?
9 comments:
- toni in florida said...
L-o-n-g stories. I love to immerse myself in another world (even one that recognizable) and experience it through the lives and adventures of a story's characters. I love stories that make me unable to slow myself, even as I begin to dread the inevitable ending. Perhaps that's why I am drawn to series fiction so much, because I can revisit these hypothetical worlds and play in them over and over, for as long as their authors keep setting their stories in those worlds.
That said, I hunger more for characters than for any world, no matter how richly imagined and well described. Give me a character I can care about and you have me.
- August 29, 2011 at 5:30 AM
- Adrienne Bell said...
I am always hungry for fantasy. I've never been interested in stories that highlight the brutal reality of the real world. I'm up to my eyeballs in reality around here. Give me something that can take me away from that for a little while and I'm in. It can still be brutal as long as there is the promise of a satisfying ending.
- August 29, 2011 at 6:37 AM
- L.G.C. Smith said...
Toni, I love long stories, too. My dad and I were just talking about those old James Michener novels like "Hawaii" and "The Source." I read them when I was twelve, and I loved getting lost in the ancient Near East and Hawaii through the centuries. No surprise, I love George R.R. Martin, the Harry Potter books, Dorothy Dunnett. Dive in. Live somewhere else for hours and hours. Glorious.
Nowadays good characters are a must, too, but I remain a sucker for an epic novel.
Adrienne, all I have to say is 'amen.' :)
- August 29, 2011 at 11:05 AM
- Juliet Blackwell said...
I love this-- me too, I want more more more! Love story, love character. Love when the two come together.
- August 29, 2011 at 1:31 PM
Stories that manage to capture the chimeric(sp?) quality of relationships in transition. Although I don't consciously seek them out, I am forever finding myself in the middle of dead parent stories, and weeping like a baby.
But most of all, stories about people like me and my ancestors, neither of which are especially well represented in modern literature. Tall, overly proud, stoic folk. Women with high tolerances for risk and an eye for men with strong if scarred hearts. Poor but smart as whips, struggling against city hall and, if they don't entirely win, they don't entirely lose, either.
Not even sure this makes sense...
- August 29, 2011 at 4:38 PM
- L.G.C. Smith said...
Oh, Mysti, that makes excellent sense, and I love it. We don't have enough of those stories, do we?
- August 29, 2011 at 5:47 PM
- Rachael Herron said...
THE VELVET ROOM! That's it! That's the name of it! I have goose bumps everywhere, just all over. That book was my very, very, very, very favorite book, and over the years, I'd forgotten the title of it. That, The Secret Garden, and The Little Princess -- stories of finding hidden rooms/spaces -- that is still my favorite thing to read and to fantasize about. (Hello, my first book! A cottage, made to order!) One of my recurring dreams is that I find a hidden room in my own house. Oh, oh, oh, thank you. *trotting off to try to order it....*
- August 29, 2011 at 6:07 PM
- L.G.C. Smith said...
Rachael! Too cool! I think The Velvet Room is in print again. I need to get a copy, too, although I think my original may still be at my mother's house. I want my nieces to read it.
- August 30, 2011 at 5:38 PM
- Jeorge Mackay said...
To finalise, Sunday payday loans are a best suggested financial aid which shows lender's consciousness for their borrowers. Such kind of loans shows lender's positive attitude towards borrowers and their needs in every situation and know more about our services please visit us saturday payday loans UK.
- February 12, 2014 at 9:28 PM


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Ofsted inspections set for radical changes
Ofsted's Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has set out proposals for a radical reform of education inspection, designed to maintain and accelerate improved standards in England.
Sir Michael said schools rated good will be inspected at least every three years, rather than up to seven at present. But no-warning inspections would not become the norm, as proposed after the Trojan Horse scandal.
The Ofsted chief said he was determined to challenge mediocre schools.
He said: "'The time has come to introduce frequent but shorter inspections for good schools and further education and skills providers. These inspections will be different to what has gone before. They will have a much clearer focus on ensuring that good standards have been maintained.
"In particular, inspectors will be looking to see that headteachers and leadership teams have identified key areas of concern and have the capability to address them.
"For good schools and further education and skills providers who have the capacity to show this, the changes being proposed will mean that there is no longer any need for a full inspection.
"At the moment, it can be five years or even more between inspections for a good school or provider. This is too long."
Sir Michael confirmed that Ofsted will retain the power to undertake a full inspection at any time where there are significant concerns about standards.
Another key proposal due to take effect from next September is the introduction of a new common inspection framework, which will standardise the approach to Ofsted education inspections. This will be adapted to suit nurseries, schools and colleges, including the independent schools that Ofsted inspects, making it easier for parents, employers, pupils and learners to compare different providers and make more informed choices.
Brian Lightman, leader of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned there was still too much variability in validity and reliability of judgements and that Ofsted still has some way to go to restoring heads' trust in the reliability of inspection.
- i-wigt - what is good teaching?
- wigl – what is good leadership?
- project-based learning resources
- creative teaching and learning
- school leadership and management
- every child
- professional development today
- learning spaces
- vulnerable children
- digital learning
- leadership briefing
- manager's briefcase
- school business


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ABOUT + CONTACT + extras
Born in Fiji, raised in New Zealand and forged in the dance music revolution of London in late 90's London, FreQ Nasty started his career in 1998 on the seminal UK label Botchit & Scarper where he helped pioneer the global 'Nu School Breaks' movement. After becoming one of a select few artists to appear on the front cover of UK dj bible 'DJ Magazine' he moved to the legendary SKINT Records in 2003 he went on to release a slew of cutting-edge records, collaborating with and remixing a diverse range of artists including Fatboy Slim, Kelis, KRS One, Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Bassnectar, and Reggae legend Junior Delgado. In '04 and '05 FreQ toured the world with his 'Video Nasty Experience', an eye-melting DJ/VJ/ live MC fusion, with animation perpetrated by a hit squad of crack artists including the 'Brother's Mogg' (Lord of the Rings animators), and 'Gorrillaz' artist Jamie Hewlett's company Zombie Flesh Eaters.
2008 saw the release of 'Creator', his crossover collaboration with MIA producer Switch and NYC hipster Santigold, and the ground breaking FABRICLIVE 42 mix CD, which was picked as DJ Magazine's compilation of the month. He also found time to launch the Giveback website that he co-founded with the purpose of using music to raise money for causes close to artists' hearts including Tibetan people's rights, safe drinking water in Ethiopia, and rebuilding homes in Haiti.
After taking 3 years out to study, 2011 saw his return to the studio chair with the release of "Dread at the Controls" on California's cutting edge bass music label, Muti Music, which launched the 17-city Monsters of Bass tour with Marty Party and Opiuo. In December, FreQ's 'Low FreQuency Pureland EP' dropped, and was selected by DJ Mag as the MoneyShot release for December, receiving a 10 out of 10 rating. He is one of Burning Man festival's most loved DJ's where he has brings his signature mix of all things dub-wise and bass heavy, including 808 trap music, post-dubstep, breakbeat, and glitchhop.
2012 has seen the release of the 'Bon Merde' EP on New York's High Chai Recordings, and 'Beethoven's Filth', a collaboration single by MartyParty and FreQ on his own FreQ Nasty Recordings imprint. In late October look out for the Skint Records release of "Not Givin' In�? by FreQ Nasty, a collaboration featuring Tippa Irie of the legendary Saxon Sound System and California producer Solar Lion, along with remixes from both sides of the pond. The end of the year sees FreQ on an Australia/New Zealand tour as well as prepping upcoming studio projects with Bassnectar and live-looping Beatbox supremo DubFX.
FreQ's latest side projects to tour the festival scene are the Dub Kirtan All Stars, a live 9 piece band of singers and musicians led by the beats and bass of FreQ Nasty and David Starfire. He also presents a series of talks given with yoga teacher Claire Thompson called 'The Yoga of Bass', both of which seek to open up the Yoga tradition to underground dance music club audiences focussing on the ecstatic dancefloor experience.
To learn about FreQ Nasty's Giveback project visit: Giveback.net
To learn about FreQ Nasty's "Yoga of Bass�? workshops, visit: FreQNasty.com/yoga-of-bass


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Arriving at Penarth there was a slight problem. With it being a very big spring tide there was no beach to launch from, luckily I could launch from the lifeboat slipway.
With the ebb tide just starting to flow it was a bit of an effort to paddle the short distance to the entrance to the Cardiff Bay Barrage.
Inside the two breakwaters, one section of the road is raised up meaning that some boats are either entering or leaving one of the three locks. These locks allow boats to enter or leave Cardiff Bay at any state of the tide.
I decide to wait a while and in a few minutes the lock gates open and a small flotilla of boats steam out into the Bristol Channel.
As I paddle out of the breakwaters and back out into the Bristol Channel I can see straight into the lock and that the sea level has already fallen just over a metre, to a height of just under 12 metres, according to the scale at the side of the lock entrance.
Paddling along the outside of the breakwater I approach the five sluice gates that control the amount of water that flows from the Rivers Taff and Ely into the freshwater lake of Cardiff Bay.
I paddle towards the entrance to the Queen Alexandra Dock, I pass the White Sails Statue and the three navigational markers that guide ships into the dock.
The Queen Alexandra Dock was opened in 1907 and leads into the Roath Dock, these are the only two remaining working docks of the once massive Cardiff Docks.
The water level has dropped almost another two metres since I paddled the short distance from the Barrage. I paddle along the sea wall with a good view to Penarth Pier and Lavernock Point in the distance and also back to the dock entrance.
I paddle to the end of the jetty. It is looking a bit worse for wear and with the sails, in the background it is the new face of Cardiff with the rotten timber in the foreground the old.
I then paddle out into the main tidal flow where I am taken on an express train ride back towards Penarth passing the West Cardinal Outer Wrach Buoy straining at its moorings.
Before I know it I am back at the pier where, in just over an hour and a half, the tide has fallen very quickly with now plenty of room to get under the pier.


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For over forty years – since 1971, to be precise – authors and avid literature fans have been gathering every springtime in Rauris Valley to participate in readings and discussions – always dedicated to a different topic. At traditional inns, even up in the mountains. From a small events series, Rauris Literature Days has gradually transformed into a literary event renowned far and wide. In the German-speaking world, the Rauriser Förderungspreis is one of the most prestigious prizes for first prose publications. Complete information about this highlight event in Rauris Valley, programs and dates as well as authors, can be found on the Literature Days website.
The 50. Rauriser Literaturtage will be held from 25.03. - 29.03.2020.


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Last week, I had an absolutely amazing time in New York for Mark.'s Tenth Birthday Party! This whole experience was such a blast, and I couldn't wait to get home and share the pictures with you guys!
One of the huge highlights of the trip was getting to meet Mark.'s celebrity brand ambassador, Lucy Hale! I love Pretty Little Liars and ever since it first came on, I've thought that Lucy was absolutely adorable!
I've been lucky enough to meet a bunch of celebrities between different events and fashion week — sometimes they're sweet and sometimes they're not, so let me tell you: she was darling. After being awake for 36 hours (seriously! yikes!), she was a total pro — fielding interview questions about Mark. and her involvement with m.powerment (they look good and do good, raising over $1 million to combat dating abuse and violence), and teaching us a few ballet positions at the end of the meet and greet. She's totally goofy and seriously just the cutest. I was a total fan before, and even more so now!
And the party itself was a total blast! We sipped champagne, ate birthday cake, and got a surprise performance from Mark.'s newest cover model, R&B singer Elle Varner! I felt so incredibly lucky and thrilled to go — I knew the party was going to be so much fun, but it was even better than I'd imagined!
Happy tenth birthday to Mark., and many more!
Photos: Rob Loud


text: The best part of staying in the Catskill Mountains is the endless opportunity for adventure. Make Hotel Vienna your Hudson River kayak and canoe headquarters. Spend the day on the waters of the upper Hudson River or the nearby North and South Lakes. The relaxing settings and beautiful scenery are perfect for low-key paddling and family adventure. Outfitters in the area have boats and all of the necessary gear available for rent. A new outfitter in the area will delivery and pick up of Kayaks, and paddle boards. For details, call Dave at 518-903-1966


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J.Crew Style Sessions
One of my favorite brands is J.Crew. Though the retailer does not carry many extended sizes (they're missing out on a viable market), they do sell "special sizes" that run up to size 16 online. Their limited sizing doesn't stop me from shopping their gorgeous, well-made accessories or XL sweaters, which is why I was more than happy to be a part of J. Crew's Style Sessions. James, an old friend and now vPS (very Personal Stylist) invited me to check out the brand's fall/winter collection and take selfies of my looks on Instagram for a chance to be featured in an upcoming style guide. How cool is that?
I had a great time hanging out with beautiful clothes and shoes, sipping on refreshing lemonade, and, doing what I do best, taking pictures of myself. Just because the event is over, doesn't mean you can't still participate. Head over to your nearest J.Crew, peruse the new collection, and snap a few selfies using @jcrew #jcrewstylesessions.You just may end up in their style guide!


text: Season finale baby! Teams are flying from India to Hiroshima Japan. Rachel and Dave leave first and head to the travel agency to book tickets. It looks like all teams are on the same flight, Brendan and Rachel, Art and JJ, and Vanessa and Ralph too. Vanessa's ankle looks all swollen and bruised.


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Logo 2000
Can you believe that the year 2000 is 16 months away?! And we are already going to be represented in the upcoming hardcover annual "Logo 2000", edited by David E. Carter and published by Art Direction Book Company, NY. This hardcover annual will feature logos that have been selected for their enduring design quality – that will span the millennium. Our logos were selected from over 10,000 logo entries. Tom Fowler, Inc. will have 7 logos featured in this annual, as shown below.


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SHEFFIELD, Iowa (May 13, 2015) – Sukup Manufacturing Co. of Sheffield, Iowa was awarded a President's Choice Hazard Control Award from the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council during the 62nd Annual Professional Development Conference and expo held in Dubuque, Iowa April 22- 24, 2015
Sukup Manufacturing Co. was chosen as one of five President's Choice recipients from over 101 entries from industries and government agencies in Illinois and Iowa. Applicants submitted hazard control projects and programs designed to improve the safety culture of the organizations. The top five projects from those submissions were chosen for this prestigious honor.
Sukup received the award for improvements to an assembly process. A lift table was added to a work area, eliminating multiple personal injury hazards. The lift table also makes the work station adjustable to any size person and allows employees to choose whether they sit or stand to perform the assembly tasks. Not only did it make the assembly process safer, it also transformed the task from a two-person job to one that can be completed by one person. It also reduced assembly time by 50%.
About Iowa-Illinois Safety Council
The Iowa-Illinois Safety Council is a Chapter of the National Safety Council – a non-profit membership organization dedicated to protecting life and promoting health. The mission of the Council is to persuade society to embrace effective safety, health, and environmental practices in the workplace, on the roadways and in our homes and communities.
About Sukup Manufacturing Co.
Sukup Manufacturing Co. is a family-owned grain storage, drying, and handling equipment manufacturer located in Sheffield, Iowa, USA. Sukup has been Engineering Solutions® to protect and preserve the world's grain supply since 1963. The Sukup product line includes on-farm and commercial grain bins, portable and tower dryers, as well as a full-line of accessories needed to properly dry and store grain. Sukup also manufactures a line of material handling equipment that includes bucket elevators, drag conveyors and chain loop conveyors. Their pre-engineered steel buildings feature clear-span construction, making them customizable and ideal for agricultural, industrial or retail use. Sukup products are sold throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in over 80 foreign countries.


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A Friend of Unfair Park sends word that a video showing the arrest of Sandra Camille Bridewell in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been posted on YouTube: "This is the lady who got arested in dean and deluca where i work and i m getting this video for all u guys who love this kind of stuff," writes 23-year-old "goptim." (Spelling, schmelling.)
Shot from above, it appears that the video was taken from the Dean and Deluca security camera. Since it's, oh, a little hard to tell what's happening -- it's not what the kids would call "a talkie" -- here's the rundown: Dressed in a green shirt, the Black Widow enters from the right and sits at a table with Jim Moseley, son of Sue Moseley, the elderly woman from whom Bridewell is accused of stealing. He excuses himself, and several officers surround Bridewell and slap on the handcuffs.
It's like a boring, stop-motion-animation episode of Cops , but also one more reminder that cameras are everywhere. Yes, we see you. --Glenna Whitley
Bonus video: The Black Widow gets popped while drinking some bottled water.
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I was provided a rug pad from Rug Pad USA for this review, but as always all opinions and thoughts expressed are 100% my own.
Rugs are fabulous. They add warmth, personality and style to any room and do an awesome job of dividing spaces within a room. And in my opinion, they complete a room beautifully. Not to mention, they come in different textures, patterns,styles and colors. They're just so much fun to pick out, right?
But as fabulous as they are, there is nothing more annoying than a rug that doesn't stay put! Or worse, a gorgeous rug that isn't very, um...comfortable on your feet.
I can just see your nods in agreement...
So you have your beautiful rug but it keeps sliding all over the place and isn't very comfortable to lay on or stand on, you say?
I did too, but now I have the secret to KEEPING MY RUG IN PLACE WHILE ADDING COMFORT TO MY FEET!!


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L Shaped Bungalow for Sea Views
When you want to have a family gathering or a vacation with family and you choose to stay in a bungalow near the beach, you are definitely seeking for some different situation and feeling. That's why you need to choose the right bungalow that is different with your house in the city.
A classic one storey L shaped Bungalow for sea views can be the right choice to get closer with your family and get to know better with your big family, or a bungalow that is more modern can also be a good choice. There are a lot of L shaped bungalow that are available, but choosing one that can directly let you have the view of the sea is not only romantic, but also refreshing.
Classic and Modern designOne of the best designs of L shaped bungalow near the beach can be one that is built on the cliff of the beach where it is surrounded with trees and flowers. Brick wall design will give more natural feeling that can be more refreshing.
In the corner of the L shape that faces the beach, a gazebo that is made of mostly wood and suitable couch can be the best place to spend the morning and afternoon to wait the sunrise and sunset view.
Another intriguing choice of L shaped bungalow design is one that is more modern where it is built right on the beach with the sea water under the house. This kind of bungalow is best for minimalist design house where most of the wall is using glass wall where it let you get the sea view even inside of the house. This kind of bungalow is good for a honeymoon or to celebrate a birthday party of your partner.


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Correction Appended
The scene sounds like one conjured up by a screenwriter for a Civil War epic. As the Union Army converges on Richmond in 1862 and white residents frantically pack their silver, a group of slaves gathers in a hotel tavern after closing time. The slave in charge of the tavern, John Washington, pours the others drinks, and they all cheerfully toast to ''the Yankees' health.''
The scene is not from a movie. It is from an account that Mr. Washington wrote in 1873 and whose existence few people even knew of until the last few months. But through a series of coincidences, his handwritten autobiography and another powerful unpublished narrative much like it, by a former Alabama slave named Wallace Turnage, have surfaced and come to the attention of a Yale historian, David W. Blight, who calls them ''altogether remarkable.''
The narratives are likely to generate great interest in the academic world, in part because they speak to a lively debate in recent slavery studies: to what degree did Lincoln emancipate the slaves, and to what degree were they already emancipating themselves as the war ravaged the South? Mr. Washington and Mr. Turnage liberated themselves during the war, stealing away from their masters by rowboat, at great risk. But both were taken in by the Union Army, without whose help they might have been recaptured.
''What these narratives demonstrate in authentic and rich detail is that slaves became free by both means,'' Dr. Blight said.
The publishing world will probably also be eager for the stories, especially after the success of ''The Bondwoman's Narrative,'' an autobiographical novel written in the 1850's by a slave, Hannah Crafts, who made her way to freedom. That narrative, discovered and edited by the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., became a best seller in 2002.
Dr. Blight plans to publish the newly discovered narratives together, along with his research into the lives of their unsung authors.
The Turnage narrative was completely unknown to scholars until year. For many years it was kept in a cluttered bureau drawer in the Greenwich, Conn., home of Mr. Turnage's daughter, Lydia Turnage Connolly, who died in 1984 at the age of 99.
His story, written on blue-lined paper in a leather-bound notebook, probably sometime in the late 19th century, ended up with a neighbor, Gladys Watt, who discovered only by reading it that Mrs. Connolly was a former slave's daughter. Mrs. Connolly often described herself as ''Portugee'' to explain her dark complexion; it is very likely, Dr. Blight says, that the fathers of both Mr. Turnage and Mr. Washington were white slaveholders.
Mrs. Watt kept the notebook in a closet for years, in a clamshell archival box, unsure what to do with it. And then last summer she took it to the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, where Dr. Blight later gave a lecture.
''They asked me to take a look at it,'' he said in an interview last week near the Yale campus, smiling and admitting that because he was so busy at the time, ''I really wasn't paying that much attention at first.''
But after the Washington manuscript was brought to his attention last winter, Dr. Blight realized the rarity of both manuscripts and their value in the emancipation debate.
The two narratives are also significant because, unlike many other such accounts, there is a wealth of genealogical information about the former slaves' lives that corroborates much of what they wrote.
After the Turnage narrative was donated to the Greenwich historical society, the group hired two researchers to make sure it was authentic. ''This is such a vivid and amazing story, the first thing we wanted to do was make sure it was not a fake,'' said Debra Mecky, the society's executive director. The researchers found that much of Mr. Turnage's account could be verified in census, Army and bank records.
About 120 autobiographical narratives were published by freed slaves before the Civil War, the most famous of which were Frederick Douglass's. Another 100 or so were published after the war.
But discoveries of new ones, especially those by slaves telling the story of their own emancipation, are very rare. Dr. Blight said that only a half-dozen or so exist, most housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. It is unclear whether Mr. Washington, who died in Massachusetts in 1918, or Mr. Turnage, who died in New Jersey in 1916, ever tried to publish his account during his lifetime.
''It is very exciting,'' said Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American collections at the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University in Atlanta. ''The thing that's really exciting to me about these is that the provenance of both is so clear.''
Records show that Mr. Turnage went on to live a long and rich life after the war, some of it in New York City. For many years, according to the research of Christine G. McKay, one of the researchers hired by the Greenwich group, Mr. Turnage worked as a waiter, janitor and glass blower in Manhattan. In the 1870's he lived in the neighborhood then known as Little Africa -- today's Greenwich Village and SoHo. He later moved to Jersey City, but he is buried in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.
The Washington narrative was kept for many years by his granddaughter, Evelyn Washington Easterly, who briefly gave it to the Library of Congress in 1976. Before she died Mrs. Easterly gave it to a close friend, Alice Jackson Stuart, a college English professor who intended to publish it herself and spent some time at Harvard in the mid-1980's doing research related to it. But Professor Stuart died in 2001 with her work unfinished.
The narrative then went to her son, Julian T. Houston, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge, who lent it to the Massachusetts Historical Society for safekeeping. Judge Houston, who writes fiction, later talked to his agent, Wendy Strothman, about the narrative. Late last year she helped find Dr. Blight, who has written extensively on slavery and was recently chosen to direct the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale.
While both narratives are gripping and often painful to read, Mr. Washington's demonstrates more writerly flair. Dr. Blight said that one of his jobs would be to try to determine the literary influences on both men. It is clear that both knew the Bible, but it also seems as if they may have been familiar with Frederick Douglass. (In one scene in the account by Mr. Turnage, he describes wrestling for two hours with a brutal overseer, echoing a famous account in which Douglass describes his own two-hour fight with an overseer.)
Mr. Washington's story is shot through with dry humor. Immediately after the scene in which he describes toasting the Yankees, he tells how his mistress, in tears, implores him to escape from Richmond with her into the countryside.
He writes: '''Yes madam,' I replied. 'I will come right back directly.''' He had no intention of returning; instead he made his way to the Rappahannock River, where he rowed to freedom among Union troops.
In a motif that shows up repeatedly in such narratives, he also writes in great detail about how he learned to read and write. Mr. Washington writes that while cleaning a room in his master's house, he would read -- though ''imperfectly,'' he says -- Harper's magazine. Two boys who were friends of his master's family helped him learn to spell, he adds. Teaching a slave to read or write in the antebellum South was a crime, often severely punished.
Mr. Turnage's story tells much more of the brutality of slavery, because most of his years of bondage were spent as a field hand in Alabama. He writes of near-crippling lashings of female slaves and describes four unsuccessful attempts to escape, some of them followed by severe beatings, before he finally succeeded in 1864 after hiding in a swamp for a week.
While hiding, he often slept in an unused Confederate lookout perch. One morning, he writes, as if he were witnessing a miracle, he saw the tide bring something in.
''Now when I got down there I seen a little boat very small indeed though the tide was going out,'' he says. ''It stood like it was held by an invisible hand; so I got in the little boat and it held me.''
A few hours later, as a storm threatened to drown him, he was pulled over the side of a Union gunboat by eight soldiers -- and finally ''had obtained that freedom which I desired so long.''
He ends his story with a stern command to his readers not to regard his account as a ''novel, nor a fable, but a reality of facts.''
''My reader,'' he adds, ''I will now leave my book to your judgement. The end.''
Correction: June 23, 2004, Wednesday A front-page article on June 14 about two journals by former slaves in the American South, recently made available to scholars, misstated the year that one, by Wallace Turnage, was given to the Historical Society in Greenwich, Conn. It was 2002, not last year.


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Hey! Do you remember me? Yeah, I'm the author of this blog and no, I'm not dead. I just needed a very, very, very long creative break and now that that's done, I'm back to blogging! Rejoice! Let's jump right into it like nothing ever happened!
Since moving to Ireland two years ago I've had this dream of touring around the entire island. I want to visit every corner of it, drive through tiny rural villages and stop by every breathtaking view on the way. One day, when I'm inevitably going to leave this place for good, I want to be able to look back to my years in Ireland and feel like I really got to know this country. And that doesn't come only in the form of me being able to place all the counties on the map, know the lyrics to Up the 'RA or recognise the twists and quirks of all the major local accents. I want to see it all.
That's when Dingle happened. I suggest at this point you type in 'Dingle, Ireland' to Google Maps just to really understand the magic of the place I'm about to share with you guys. Alex and I had been talking about renting a car for quite some time now, and our anniversary weekend seemed like the perfect moment to finally hit the gas pedal and embrace the left-sided traffic for the first time.
Needless to say, we're still alive.
Dingle peninsula is at the very South West corner of the Irish isle, in county Kerry. Now, Kerry is the kind of place you absolutely fall in love with - unless you're Irish, then it seems for some reason you just have to hate it. 'Don't look into the Kerry man's eyes, ladies', we were told by a dude in Cork. 'You'll fall in love in an instant.' Now, the local twang sure is a whole world of its own for a non-native speaker, but what hits home for me in Kerry is the absolutely crazy-ass landscape that leaves you believing you took a wrong turn and accidentally drove straight into Middle Earth. In other words, if New Zealand is out of your budget, welcome to Kerry.
We left Dublin after work on Friday and stayed over night in Limerick. From there we head straight to Dingle peninsula through the city of Tralee. The road around the peninsula joins the famous Wild Atlantic Way, but since this wasn't really the season for road trips, the roads were empty. In case you're planning on doing the same trip by car, a piece of advice: rent the smallest car you can possibly find. These streets get narrow.
The landscape gets pretty hilly from the moment you enter Kerry. Our first stop was Lough Doon, this random tiny lake we had spotted on the side of the road on the map. The road to get there travels straight between the most mountainy area of the whole peninsula so we were treated with some pretty awesome views on the way. And a shit ton of fog, of course. The skies had been unbelievably clear for the whole 4-hour drive from Dublin to Tralee, but then Kerry happened and we dove head first into a massive cloud of fog we wouldn't leave before Sunday. Hello Kerry!
This is where the real stuff begins to happen. Lough Doon needs quite a bit of effort to reach, since there isn't a path up the hill from the parking lot and the terrain is as muddy as it gets, but we kept on climbing. What greets you at the top is an otherwordly landscape: this tiny black lake right at the bottom of a mountain disappearing to a curtain of thick mist. There's no one around. Nothing is moving. I was expecting an ancient god emerge from the water but instead stepped into a deep puddle of mud.
As mentioned, there's no path whatsoever. Prepare to turn into a mountain goat. Good shoes is what gets you around in Dingle.
I don't have much to say about Conor Pass, our second stop on the Dingle peninsula road trip. It was supposed to be 'the thing' to see on this trip, but as we know, Ireland is as unpredictable as it is beautiful. Enter the thickest fog ever and there goes Conor Pass. Here's a photo of Alex looking disappointed instead.
"On a clear day, you can see Loop Head in Clare, Galway's Aran Islands and the beaches at Castlegregory." We saw fuckall. We sat in our car for 15 minutes hoping for the rain to stop but of course it didn't, this is Ireland for feck's sake. The only other car in the parking lot seemed have a lot going on in the backseat, so onwards we went.
We stopped at the village of Dingle to check in at our guest house and eat lunch before heading to the Slea Head Drive, a coastal route around the very tip of the peninsula. This turned out to be a rollercoaster of emotions and weather conditions...
Slea Head is pretty much as western as you can get in the mainland Ireland. It's a very popular place in the summer but since it was mid-February and foggy as hell, we got to tour around in peace and enjoy this very, very typical Irish weather alone. Slea Head is in Coumenoole, the tiniest little village consisting of no more than 10 houses tops.
From the viewpoint in the above picture we headed downhill to Slea Head Beach, probably the most impressive beach I've ever seen. This beach is tiny and not much made for sunbathing, but it's in complete isolation surrounded by walls of rock and moss right by the Atlantic.
Everything was so quiet. I honestly think it was the best part of this whole trip. When you live in the city centre of Dublin, surrounded by crowds upon crowds of tourists, commuters and language school students, it's nice to get away from it all every once in a while and just enjoy the emptiness of rural Ireland.
Right before driving off we got a glimpse of sunlight just so we could enjoy this view of Coumenoole peeking from the mist.
Our last proper stop was a weird one: Dunquin Harbour. If you google photos of Dingle Peninsula, you're likely to see pictures of a herd of sheep roaming up the tiny path seen in the photo below, this time starring yours truly.
The Dunquin Harbour is hidden from the main road, so you'll have to walk further down the road after parking the car to actually reach this spot. On a clear day you could see the Blasket islands in the distance, the most western tip of the whole of Ireland. The ferries to the Blasket islands leave from the Dunquin harbour, but only during summer.
The whole tour from Lough Doon to Dunquin Harbour and then back to Dingle from the north of the peninsula took us a good three hours in total. The rest of the evening we spent in Dingle Pub drinking Bulmers (Magners for the rest of the world) and listening to live traditional Irish music like the filthy tourists we are, so I'd say our Saturday was a success.
Sunday morning we spent in Dingle. It was quite the adventure since one moment it would be hailing, the other it turned into the most beautiful sunrise, which then turned into a crazy downpour... All within a span of 15 minutes. Dingle, stop toying with our emotions, please.
Now, if you need to visit one ridiculously picturesque rural Irish village in your life, come to Dingle. It's very popular during summertime (judging from the fact that half of this village seems to consist of B&Bs) but I actually found it very pleasant to visit off-season. You can guess why from the photo below:
It's. So. Quiet. It really was a mental break from the everyday hassle of trying to commute across Dublin on weekday mornings. Guess how many people live in Dingle? Around 2000. No queuing in this village.
We ate breakfast at Deirdre's café. The second thing you probably pay attention to in the below picture (after that flaming hot pink store front) is one of the things that make me really love Ireland - Irish. As someone who comes from a bilingual country myself I find it super fascinating to travel in these Gaelic-speaking areas (or Irish, Irish Gaelic to be exact) and see the language in action, like here. Don't stress about your language skills as Gaeilge though - no one expects a foreigner to speak it. I'm planning on writing a blog post about Irish later on, so stick around if you're interested in learning more! (I actually studied two whole modules of Irish during my postgrad but all I remember is 'Where is the toilet', so that was an effort gone to waste...)
Deirdre's café served me hands down the best pancake breakfast I've ever eaten, with real maple syrup. (Alex: "Oh yeah.... That's the real stuff.") Maple syrup costs a big penny here in Ireland so the last time we got an actual taste of real maple syrup was back in Canada...
If you're looking for a good restaurant to dine in later during the day, we had our anniversary dinner at The Ashes Bar. Most of the restaurants in Dingle concentrate on sea food, very understandably since it's right by the Atlantic, and our dinner at Ashes was so, so good.
The drive back to Dublin took us roughly 4 hours, stopping in Nenagh for lunch on the way. Driving on the left turned out to be super easy after living in here for a few years and cycling to work alongside traffic on a daily basis. It even feels a bit silly to think we were so scared of it before. Then again, I wasn't the one driving so who am I to speak...!
Have you been to Dingle? Have you visited other cutesy rural towns in Ireland? Share your tips in the comments below!
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