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11 Things to Do 4 to 6 Months Before Your Moving Day
Moving into a new home is a really huge activity. While it must be a source of celebration and excitement, moving can also be overwhelming and stressful. Whether you're moving for the first time or it's already your 50th it can be stressful. The key to avoiding stress and hassle during the entire moving process is organization and proper planning. As a matter of fact, a well-thought-out and solid plan greatly eliminate stress through giving you tangible deadlines and goals, which break up all the tasks at hand into more manageable amounts of work. Use this early moving checklist that you can start weeks before you move. It will save you a lot of time before the big move. We will also follow up with a move out cleaning checklist for your house and what to do before you move in to a new house.
Photo 32008396 © Frannyanne – Dreamstime.com
However, the question is, how do you prioritize or how do you know where you should begin when every task on your list has to be done? Actually, we have gathered a dependable checklist of the most important things you should do when moving. When you follow this list, you will have a timeline that's very easy to follow, including all the tasks that you would never want to forget. From the first day you've decided that you want to move until you're comfortably settled into your new house. We want you to be distressed with this simple yet effective early moving checklist. It includes the most important things you should do a few weeks before your moving day. These tips will help make the moving process easier and make any move out cleaning tasks that remain a snap.
Hire a Reputable and Professional Moving Company
Photo by Sunset Removals / Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Once you've already decided to relocate and found a new house your moving date will come quickly. One of the most important things you must do is to hire a professional moving company. Or, if you're considering to move on your own, then consider reserving a moving truck and ask family members or some friends to help you lift furniture, appliances, or boxes. If you already have a certain moving schedule in mind, then it's really better to schedule it earlier. With your chosen professional movers in order to avoid any conflict. It's also best to remember that booking your moving day during the weekdays will usually cost less compared to hiring professional movers during a holiday or a weekend. An early moving checklist can only do so much to get your house thoroughly clean after years of dirt and dust building up.
Gather All the Packing Supplies You Need
Photo by 4Me2Design / Pixabay
While you can purchase boxes as well as other packing supplies. There are probably a lot of packing things you may already have in your home. You can utilize them order to save money. It will also help to make sure that all your valuables are not damaged or broken during the moving day. In addition to that, you can also as local businesses if they have extra boxes as most of them give their extra boxes for free. Cardboard recycling centers and liquor stores are also a good source for getting free boxes. All you have to do is to call them ahead of time and ask them to reserve some for you.
Consolidate and Downsize
Moving is the perfect time to get rid of stuff that you do not need anymore or are no longer using. Certainly, downsizing can help you save a lot of time and hassle of bringing unnecessary items during your move. At first, downsizing can be both emotionally and physically challenging, but the truth is it can also be relieving and rewarding. Now is the best opportunity to plan that garage sale you have been talking about ever since. This can give you a chance to earn some cash from selling what you can from your old stuff, and you can also donate the rest to your friends, neighbors or charity.
Don't Forget to Make an Inventory List of All Your Stuff
Before you start packing your things, make an inventory of all your belongings. This might seem like a daunting thing to do. It is also important that you know if anything was lost or stolen during your move, as well as to document the undamaged condition of an item in case it will be broken or damaged by your hired movers during the move. In addition to that, an inventory list will also help you have an organizing packing and moving system.
Confirm your Method of Transportation
It's always a great idea to follow up with your chosen moving company as well as confirm your moving date ahead of time in order to make sure that you're on the same page. Furthermore, if you have to make any transportation or travel preparations, doing it ahead of time is a wise move.
Measure Your Furniture
Consider measuring all of your furniture as well as make decisions regarding with what you will and won't bring into your new house. The furniture that you don't want to move or don't fit can be donated or sold before your move. All too often people move their furniture to a new house only to find out there is not room for it. Or it doesn't work well in the new room it is going into. Don't pay your moving company money to move an item that you won't keep. Measure your major pieces of furniture and make sure there is enough room for all of it. This should be a top item on anyone's early moving checklist to complete and verify.
Start Packing and Labeling Your Things
Packing can be very stressful, which is why experts recommend that you don't do it all at once. You can start by packing the things that you do not use frequently. Make sure that you are able to label everything clearly. Then keep items separated by where they're generally stored or used. In addition to that, it can even be extremely helpful to make a number and color system, which coordinates with the colors of the rooms in your new home. Aside from that, you can also label each box using an appropriate marking. This help so that they will be identified much easier during your moving day.
Make a Folder to Secure Your Important Documents
Photo by OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay
It's definitely convenient to make a folder that holds important documents that you might need during your moving day and that you'd like to keep safe as well as separate your other papers and files as you pack. Certain documents can include dental and medical records. Also your home warranty and insurance policies, school records, passports, financial statements. Finally it includes receipts from your moving expenses.
Change Your Address
It's important that you change your address officially with the postal service. You really need to receive all your mail. Also you don't want to bother the new occupants for your old apartment or home. To change your address, you can fill out a form online or through your local post office.
Update All Major Accounts
There a lot of important companies as well as other entities that you'll need to notify regarding with your move. These can include your bank, insurance company, phone and internet providers, as well as cable company. In addition to that, you also need to have your car registration and driver's license updated with your new address. By updating accounts with our early moving checklist you won't forget to update an address. Or find out that a critical piece of mail didn't reach you and you missed a critical notice.
- Schedule a Professional Residential Cleaning Service
There a lot of important companies as well as other entities that you'll need to notify regarding with your move. These can include your bank, insurance company, phone and internet providers, as well as cable company. In addition to that, you also need to have your car registration and driver's license updated with your new address. By updating accounts with our early moving checklist you won't forget to update an address. Or find out that a critical piece of mail didn't reach you and you missed a critical notice.
During your move, you will need to tackle a lot of cleaning tasks and if you want to have a stress-free and hassle-free moving experience, it really pays to consider hiring a professional residential cleaning service in your area. There are a lot of things to worry during your move, which is why all cleaning tasks should be left in the hands of professionals.
Early Moving Checklist And What To Next
Now that your house is prepared for the move you may need to do a move out cleaning to thoroughly prepare your house for the new tenants. Or just to reclaim your security deposit. We hope you find these pre moving checklist as valuable as we do.


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This baby was brown, chipped and sad when B hauled it home one day.
I wish I had a "before" picture (it's harder to remember to take the unglamorous shots—I'm always in such a hurry to get to the good stuff. But I will get better at it—I WILL!)
After a little precursory work of patching, sanding and priming, it was coated in a shade of soft black and protected with clear polyurethane.
I love the brass buttons and hardy brass hardware–they lend a clean, militant look to the piece and contrast crisply again the dark paint. My sons both have dressers they are fond of, and no room for another, much to my regret. This piece belongs in a boys room or a swanky bachelor pad.
Which is exactly where she went.
I can't keep every piece we meet, restore and fall in love with. But I always sigh in contentment when they end up in the sort of place I envisioned all along.

subset: commoncrawl


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AceShowbiz - Iggy Azalea and DeAndre Hopkins have confused fans by declaring themselves single on social media shortly after she seemingly confirmed their relationship in an interview.
During an interview with Y100 radio station in Miami, Florida earlier this week (begins August 6), the "Fancy" hitmaker seemed to confirm she was dating the American football star during a game of True or False, with her confessing, "Yeah, we're in a relationship", just days after he told a fan on Instagram that he was her boyfriend.
The romance news hit headlines on Wednesday night, but hours later the Australian rapper confused her fans by insisting she was single in a series of tweets.
"I'm single," the 28-year-old wrote besides shrugging and blushing emojis. "I have come to the conclusion iam going to be alone forever. Iam completely fine with that. I have a routine now. I watch movies alone in the shower n s**t... its nice (sic)."
I'm single. 🤷♀😊— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) August 9, 2018
She also shared a meme of a pie chart which jokingly showed the results to "Will i ever find the love of my life?" and the key beside it shows the large green area of the chart means "no" and the tiny piece of red means "no, but in red".
I have come to the conclusion iam going to be alone forever.— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) August 9, 2018
Iam completely fine with that.
I have a routine now.
I watch movies alone in the shower n shit... its nice.
August 9, 2018
One user responded to her posts by writing, "where's the lie tho (sic)," and she retweeted the message but didn't answer the question.
Another asked, "What happened? That was over quickly," another tagged DeAndre and wrote, "What did you do fam @DeAndreHopkins" and a third tweeted, "We were all happy for you, I hope someone has not tried sabotaging your relationship. I hope that's not the case."
On Wednesday night, hours before she made her "single" post, the "Kream" rapper cryptically wrote, "Sometimes you gotta pick your poison. when you're put in a s**t position the lesser of two evils is often the only option. if anyone can't understand that - stay the f**k from round me."
On Thursday morning, DeAndre, 26, commented on the news and insisted they weren't together, writing on Instagram Stories, "Y'all know I'm not a social media seeker but ya boi is SINGLE (sic)!!"
DeAndre, who plays for the Houston Texans, and Iggy were first linked after fans spotted them flirting openly on Instagram.


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TreeHugger Welcomes Danielle Carpenter Sprungli!
Danielle Carpenter Sprungli is Assistant Communications Manager and Managing Editor for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), where she has been working on sustainability and business issues for the past 7 years.
Before joining the WBCSD, Dani worked in various communications capacities, including webmaster and web editor, publication and web design, and on issues surrounding energy and water, as a systems analyst for a major government project and in the travel and tourism industry.
Dani holds degrees in English, French, Russian and Computer Science from the University of Southern California, the Sorbonne and the University of Geneva, and in her free time she enjoys reading, photography and hiking.


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Thai Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce are a delicious twist on plain, dry turkey burgers.
If there's one thing I've learned during my 28 years on this earth, it's that some things are simply worth paying more for, to get a better quality product or overall experience. Things like…
Workout clothes (the cheap stuff never fits right,) name brand chunky canned soup (my brother learned this the hard way,) beer ('nuff said,) and direct flights (I can't even mentally go back here.)
Oh yeah, and grill covers.
Ben and I thought we scored a sweet deal when we snagged a $15 no-name grill cover on clearance at a home improvement store last Fall, until the first hint of a winter wind came along and tore this thing apart like it was made of tissue paper! FAIL.
I'm afraid to open the lid and find out what the grates look like underneath, which I should probably do sooner rather than later as grilling season will seriously be here before we know it (whee!) Until that bright and shiny day though, I'm getting my grilling food fix in the form of Thai Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce that are better cooked indoors than out!
Made with lean ground turkey breast, fresh veggies, and a savory peanut sauce, these burgers are hearty, filling and ultra-tasty, but are best "grilled" in a skillet indoors. Perfect!
Start the Thai Turkey Burgers by making the peanut sauce that goes into the burger patties AND on top once they're cooked. Just throw flavorful ingredients like soy sauce or gluten-free tamari, peanut butter, garlic, chili-garlic sauce and ground ginger into a food processor and let 'er rip.
Save part of the sauce to slather on top of the cooked burgers, and use the rest of it to mix into the burger patties.
Which is what we move to next! Start with 1lb 99% fat-free ground turkey breast (I use Jennie-O brand,) then add in shredded carrot and finely chopped broccoli. Since they're finely shredded/chopped, the veggies will cook perfectly with the burgers.
Add in a sliced green onion, 3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro, and the remaining peanut sauce.
Top with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and red chili pepper flakes, then put your rings somewhere safe and mix it all up with yer mitts.
Form the mixture into 4 patties then place on a hot skillet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cook for 3-4 minutes then spray the top with more non-stick spray and flip, cooking for another 3 minutes, or until the turkey is no longer pink in the middle. You could cook these on an outdoor grill, but ground turkey is a little more "wet" than ground beef, so there's a bigger risk of them falling through the grates.
Toast up some buns – or Sandwich Thins if you're lookin' for 100 calories or less – and top with a cooked burger patty, 2 teaspoons of the reserved peanut sauce, and some crunchy baby spinach, then dig into the deliciousness!
Thai Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce
Thai Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce are a delicious twist on plain, dry turkey burgers.
- 1 lb 99% fat-free lean ground turkey breast
- 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- 1/2 cup finely chopped broccoli
- 3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1 green onion, sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 buns
- baby spinach leaves
- For the peanut sauce:
- 3 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon water
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- Create peanut sauce by combining peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, water, garlic, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, honey and ground ginger in a food processor or blender. Blend until very smooth. Reserve 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons and set aside.
- Combine remaining peanut sauce with turkey, carrots, broccoli, green onion, cilantro, salt and red pepper flakes in a large bowl. Mix well and form into 4 patties. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick spray. Cook patties for 3-4 minutes on one side, then spray the top with more non-stick spray. Flip and cook for 3-4 more minutes or until burgers are no longer pink in the middle.
- Place a burger patty on each bun and top with 2 teaspoons of the reserved peanut sauce. Add baby spinach for crunch and serve.
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
I HEART this peanut sauce. It is incredibly rich and savory, and goes so well with the light turkey burger which is super moist from the carrots and broccoli added directly into the patty.
As delish as the sauce is, the thing that tickles me the most is the fact that the whole Thai Turkey Burger, including a Sandwich Thin, clocks in at just 350 calories and 10 grams of fat, AND has nearly 40 grams of protein!
Add in freshly steamed broccoli on the side, and you've got yourself a winner of a dinner, my friends.
PS the peanut sauce is the same sauce I use in my Thai Tofu Pizza and P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps. I'm thinking about adding more rice vinegar and maybe even lime juice and ginger into the mix and making a Thai Ginger Vinaigrette out of it sometime. YUM!
In other news, I put the pedal to the medal this weekend and got ALL our tax stuff together for our accountant (which is also worth paying more for, imo) but my parents still hold a few pieces to the puzzle (college loan interest stuff) so I'm paying them a visit this evening to collect, and snag some cereal for dessert in the process.
Parents always have the best cereal, and I am this close to polishing off my box of Whole Hearts in ohhhh, less than 5 days. I will not have another repeat of Nature's Path Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise-gate where I demolished an entire Costco-sized box in less than two weeks. Why's it so hard to stop at one bowl of cereal I ASK YOU!?
"My favorite cereal right now is _________, but my favorite cereal of all time is _________."
"I think paying more for _________ is worth the extra money!"
My favorite cereal right now is Quaker Whole Hearts, but my favorite cereal of all time is Cinnamon Toast Crunch. :) By the way, does anyone have any great gluten free cereal recommendations?
Also, I think paying more for Australian licorice is definitely worth the extra money.


text: Okay, so how about a future stage area where you stumble across a clue that leads you on a quest to unravel a conspiracy that shows the efforts of a shadowy group at work in the past jobs/areas? A controlling interest that has manipulated the elite time and time again. Final reveal in bossfight are all of the common LTs with new skins (that become available at the same time) except in a much more powerful form.


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Friday, September 25, 2015
Weigh in day, etc.
I had to weigh in yesterday which was a day early. This was a day after my birthday and I ate some foods that I wouldn't normally eat! Other than that, I had a good week.
I did gain .3 of a lb. but I am sure that was due to eating salty food for supper on Wednesday night. I'm sure I would have had a loss otherwise and that's encouraging!!
I'm really proud of myself and how well I have been doing lately (except for the birthday eats). I will be out and about this weekend though and I'm hoping I don't lose all willpower and go over board. I will be doing lots of walking though, so that will help.
On another note, I have been feeling very good the past few days. I started a higher dose of Wellbutrin and I don't know if it's that or what, but I am feeling so much more like myself—and a calmer version of myself, actually.
I know I've had some anxiety issues all of my life and I probably should have gotten help before! I just didn't know how bad I really was.
So fingers crossed that I'm making progress on this road to postpartum depression recovery! I just feel happy and more fulfilled.
This blog has been a lifesaver for me because it gives me an outlet to write. You've surely noticed more sponsored posts lately and I hope you're ok with that. It helps me feel more fulfilled to have assignments with deadlines where I can earn a little money to help pay the bills & put my mind to work writing. Not to mention, I am able to purchase more fun blog stuff and am planning some fun giveaways in the future!!
This past week there have been quite a few of these posts and that won't happen on a normal week—it just seemed that my pitches were selected for articles due all in the same week! My goal is to accept opportunities that I think I can write an article for that fits my personality or may be of use to you, my lovely readers. But ultimately, I don't want to lose sight of my true goal—which is to write my heart out.
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
Labels: anxiety , postpartum depression , weigh in day , weight gain , Weight Watchers
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Avaintec joining European Signature Dialog (ESD) as a co-founder13 March 2018
The Association of the European Signature Dialog was founded in Vienna to enhance networking, facilitate the exchange of information and to develop a common plan to improve the regulatory framework for Electronic Signatures and Digital Trust in Europe.
The first ESD event, which was held last year in the presence of Mr. Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission, indicated a common lack of expertise with already approved EU Trust regulations. EU authorities expressed great interest in strengthening the cooperation with signature providers.
The European Signature Dialog founding document includes the following guidelines:
- Enable harmonized cross-border transactions
- Increase awareness about eIDAS (electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services) to foster and accelerate the digital transformation of the European economy
- Promote personal data protection
- Empower European solutions for guaranteed data-security
- Develop a European Cloud Infrastructure, based on local infrastructure and European law
Jere Vento, Avaintec Oy:
"ESD is an important and unique forum to influence the development of a thriving market for digital services. The legal framework for trust services and eSigning is still confusing for many companies and consumers. The purpose of eIDAS legislation is not to complicate things but rather to boost digitalisation throughout Europe. The users of these services don't care about the framework, they only care about delightful experiences and meaningful services. The EU has a chance to boost the growth of digital services or it can complicate things for European companies; but it can't change the fact that in the end, user experience always trumps everything."


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The brain requires daily nutrition for optimal performance. If this is not received, mental clarity is affected. Signs of reduced mental clarity include poor memory, trouble recounting specific times or locations, and an inability to cope with stress. Vitamin supplements, a balanced diet, adequate sleep and exercise are ways to achieve mental clarity. Before taking any vitamin supplement, consult with your health care provider to ensure its safety.
Vitamin C
The Alzheimer's Foundation of America advises eating a balanced diet and taking a multivitamin with vitamin C. Vitamin C is shown to support brain health. The human body is unable to make vitamin C and secretes it through urine rather than storing it, so it must be obtained through diet and vitamins every day. In addition, this vitamin is excreted in the urine and not stored. The recommended daily allowance of vitamin C is 90 milligrams. If this is not achieved, a deficiency could result, leading to poor mental clarity.
Vitamin E
Deficiency in vitamin E impairs the cognitive function of the brain, according to Oregon State University, affecting thought processes and clear thinking. The recommended daily allowance of vitamin E is 15 micrograms. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning it is stored in the liver until needed by the body. This vitamin also serves as an antioxidant which protects cells from free radical damage, keeping brain cells healthy.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 levels in the human body are essential to maintain mental clarity and brain health. When vitamin B12 deficiencies occur, disorientation and confusion may result. Vitamin B12 maintains healthy nerves and red blood cells. Nerves are needed in the brain for quick thought responses and red blood cells carry oxygen to the brain. The recommended daily allowance for adults is 2.4 micrograms. This vitamin can be obtained through supplements and diet.


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GrandBRATS screaming, and a-fightin….too much noise upstairs, time to retreat to the Dungeon Shop, and LOCK the door behind me….
Weeeelll now. Decided to build that drawer. Cut the sides to size. Then set up the router table to cut some grooves.
Had to clear all the junk off of it first. Set a 1/4" straight bit. Set up the fence with a pair of clamps holding it in place. Tried a piece of scrap, first, just in case…
Ok, that is set up and waiting…ah, still have the drawer to level out
Once that was done, marked it as bottom on all three pieces. Then ran the pieces over the router table.
Needed to mill up a back for the drawer, too. Crosscut to length
Disston D-8 from about 1953 or so, nice saw. However, I wasn't about to hand rip to width. Fired up the circular saw, and just left the line. Then a little plane work to get to the line
Almost to long a plane. Needed a place for the back to sit. Was going to do a dado, but, just made a rebate, instead. Seemed to fit ok..
Used to be, I'd always have trouble getting all the grooves to line up, but this time around..
I got lucky. Now, how about a bottom for this drawer? Did not have any thin plywood on hand, but I did have some 1/2" thick ply wood that could be fitted to the grooves. Got out the rebate plane, old #78 and made a 1/4 by 3/8 rebate on the two sides, and across the "front".
Testing the fit as I went along. Time for glue and screws?
Glued, and screwed together, with a couple clamps to hold the dovetails tight. Bottom is flush with the drawer side's bottom
Yep, good place for that nasty looking side of the plywood. Now, I needed some runners for this drawer to slide on. Stashed the drawer out of the way. Cut some 1×2 s to length, and made an "L" shape guide/runner. Glue and screws to place each to the bottom edge of the sides
Ok, did some final sanding, a block plane to champfer the top and bottom edges of the top. That dutchman and the half-dovetails needed a bit of sawdust/glue filler, then sanded smooth. Ok, mixed up a Whitch's Brew.
Bit of Golden Pecan, a bit of Dark Walnut, and a bit of that smelly BLO, mix in a plastic tub. Brush the stuff on like paint, let it sit a bit, then wipe off. Drawer was dry, so it also got the Brew…
Ready the view the almost finished table?
Not too hateful? Hey, the drawer even works!
A white knob was added to the drawer. plastic "feet" were added to the bottom of each leg. Just nail on thingys, put the nail point where the dead center from the lathe was, and drive them down.
Well, that about does it, all that is left is the final finishing. Then I will post as a "Project"
Hope you enjoyed the show….
-- A Planer? I'M the planer, this is what I use


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Planning to work with a contractors can be frustrating and time consuming. Our approach to our free consultations and contractor estimates is designed to be the opposite: consolidated, fun, and efficient.
The first phase is the Design Process, during which we cultivate as much information about your project and create a design derived from your criteria. After a contract is agreed upon, we move onto the Building Process to view detailed structural plans, discuss build logistics, manage a building schedule, and prepare for construction.
Contact us at email@example.com or (301) 875-2781 today to learn more about our fast and effective virtual consultation services, or watch the deck design instrutional video below:


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We are a chemical distributor and work in the oil and gas industry. We are interested in recycled pet and polycarbonate. In particular shredded product is of interest to us. Our requirement could reach 3 to 5 million pounds per year. We need in freight allowed to Dallas, Texas or equal.
Send a message to Arc Products, Inc.


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Public Relations
Getting into the media you've always wanted. Relationships with leading food journalists including: Broadsheet, Urban List, Good Food and Daily Telegraph.
Launch Marketing
We can put you in touch with potential customers for food product and venue launches by targeting them directly. Clients usually see direct function and product sales within days…
Social Media Marketing
Award winning social media experts. Sustained social media growth to exact target markets using sophisticated demographic targeting.
Branding & Design
Our branding and design includes out of the box thinking to create individual and unique concepts with expert technique and attention to detail design work.
Photography & Video
Professional photography and video to capture your launch events along with carefully curated imagery and video with personality and style for your website or social pages.
Website Design & SEO
We deliver beautifully designed, seamless, lightning fast websites. Our designer and SEO team work together to deliver a website that brings your product or venue to life.
Rose of Australia
"The marketing campaign Papaya ran for the Rose of Australia's new restaurant, Howard's, was so successful it won the NSW 2017 Australian Hotels Association Award for Best Social Media Activity. More than that, Papaya's approach generates real business results with hundreds of function enquiries and a sharp increase in revenue resulting from our partnership with the team.
We can only put down the significant increase in revenue over this time to their hard work and expertise".
– Scott Leach, Owner Rose of Australia Hotel.
Broadway Sydney
I have worked with Catherine and the Papaya Team on several key social projects for some of Australia's highest performing shopping centres and have never been let down by the work delivered. In the fast pace environment of retail, Papaya delivered on time and on brief, delivering results above expectation every time.
I have no hesitation recommending Papaya, you won't go wrong.
– Jacinda Robinson, Director Robinson Blake Marketing Communications


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September 20, A tale of Two Oceans
So, some of our regular customers are bemoaning the dearth of fish here on the island. Stickman and U-boat were all but skunked on Saturday. Tall Jeff says the beach was "worse than a desert w/o tumbleweeds." A.Link reported 2 blues trolling in 7 hours. However, as the following reports and pictures will attest, some folks are having a great Fall Run.
While most of you were sleeping this morning figuring Igor has put a damper on your fishing, Peter Timmins and John Noonan hit the beach over in Ipswich. They spent the night, midnight until day break "slinging" eels. Peter brought this nice 32 pounder in this morning. I think John had to go to work. Peter had a good night with about 6 fish being landed and this was the biggest of the night and a season high for him. Peter hit fish until the wind turned at about 3am and left me with this saying: "Wind from the east, fish bite least".
Peter will be taking this fish home to turn it into his "Striper Chowder". I am trying to get him to give me the recipe so I can put it on the site. We'll see
Doug Henderson from North Andover was waiting for me when I opened the store this morning, bought some worms (blood and sea) and headed down to the refuge to see what he could do. The surf that has kicked up from Igor didn't get in his way. Doug just left the store at noon with this 24.4 pounder(personal best)! He reported that he was using his Surfland Worm Cocktail (put on a seaworm and then wraps a bloodworm around it to help hold it on). Doug ran into a bunch of schoolies before landing his "keeper". All during the incoming tide he hooked into 14″-27″ fish before catching this one. Doug also stated that he ran into very little weed and only have a few tangles to deal with during this fishing trip.
We are the rest of you? Are you going to let a "little" hurricane off the coast get in your way? That means you TallJeff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Toby???????????????
The tuna trailers have also been shut off. Tom S took a long trip and found birds, but no tuna. A big basking shark seemed to be creating the avian commotion. He did get a peek at a few giants on the topwater, but nothing else and no hookup.
Social Share
September 20, 2010 at 11:31 am
how would does the blood worm stay on the hook and be wrapped around the seaworm?! interesting method tho, like to see how its done. Clams and regular bloods working at night for me on the refuge. 38 inch 20 pounder this weekend and a load of schoolies, all at night
September 20, 2010 at 6:36 pm
September 20, 2010 at 9:02 pm
In the same boat as Jeff with using lures on Sunday. Out of 20 fisherman on the beach front, I only saw one striper. The waves were awesome though! On another note, last tuesday I found an amazing plug that washed up on lot 3. Brought it into Surfland this Sunday to have a new hook installed on it because the one on there was bent over. Billy greets me and says "did you find that lure? The barb is bent over right? There was a snap swivel too huh? I replied "yes" like I just got my hand caught in the cookie jar. I offered the plug back and Billy and he said "finders, keepers." I felt that fate brought the plug back to Billy so I left the plug for him. hahaha. This could be a sign for his soon to be record striper! Fish on!
September 21, 2010 at 6:44 am
Just read this comment to Billy. He would like to tell Toby this:
Toby, you are a real gentleman and a good honest surf fisherman. I will let you know when he loses another lure. Talljeff on the hand, I'm not sure about. Jury still out on that!
September 21, 2010 at 11:50 am
Hahaha, that's halarious! On the other hand about the little hurricane comment, I had to work yesterday so I could not make it to the beach. Otherwise, I'd be throwing that seaworm / blood worm combo! By the way Doug, good job on your recent success in striperville. You're killin it!
September 21, 2010 at 6:28 pm
That is quite a fish that Peter caught at his SECRET SPOT!
September 26, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Also, see Brian Moc's website..click on the local fishing links "link" on this page to go to the site…crane's beach fishing…he has some comments on keeping stripers and making CHODAH…take a look.
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Once a year in the spring, the Road department goes through the Township several times with the Chipper machine to help residents dispose of tree/brush trimmings. Click on the link below to read the regulations concerning the acceptable SIZE of the trimmings.
In 2019, the Road Department will be collecting trimmings from April 22 to May 1
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I'd stuck with the same brand of flour for so long that I'd forgotten what a difference it can make… So today's lesson is, never again buy F. G. Roberts gluten free plain flour. It just doesn't rise! The bread had adequate yeast and sugar, and the scones had baking powder; both should have risen, and they usually do when made with White Wings flour! Perhaps the most annoying thing is, I bought a 1kg bag of the stuff and still have half left. Maybe I'll make pancakes!
Monthly Archives: August 2013
Staring Boy – part the second
In response to popular demand – that is, a couple of people wanted to know what came next… I wrote some more of this story. There's more to come, too…
Elimere hesitated a moment, then sighed and followed him. She didn't try to catch up to him; she walked slowly, keeping his shaggy black head just within sight. Although he never looked back, he seemed somehow to know when she was on the verge of losing him; he would slow down or pause as though window shopping, until she drew closer.
In a bizarre game of cat and mouse, she trailed the boy past shops and houses, along main streets and alleyways, through twists and turns. Despite knowing the area well, Elimere was soon quite lost. She knew time was getting on, although she wouldn't be missed at home just yet; her dad would still be at work. She was just beginning to contemplate turning back when the boy abruptly stopped. She stopped too, still fifty metres away from him. They were in a narrow, grubby street, and he stood in front of a nondescript door no different from a dozen others Elimere could see.
'What now?' she called to him.
He beckoned again, and vanished through the door.
'I'm not going in there,' Elimere yelled. 'You could be anybody. This could be some sort of trap.' Curiosity was all very well, but this was bordering on madness.
There was no response.
She waited a moment more, then turned on her heel and strode back the way they had come. She fancied she felt waves of disappointment emanating from the street behind her. How ridiculous, she scolded herself, quickening her pace.
She looked for familiar landmarks as she walked, wishing she'd paid more attention on the way to wherever she was instead of remaining intent on the boy. But it soon became apparent that she'd missed a turning somewhere. She was in a quiet residential street, but it was not a reassuring area: paint flaked from the houses and lawns were left unmown. There was an air of neglect and disregard that reminded Elimere starkly that she was from the proverbial, and literal, other side of the tracks.
Somewhere nearby, a dog began a spine-chilling howl that made Elimere jump. It set off a chorus of barks, whines, and growls all around. Elimere broke into a run, uncaring now in which direction, so long as she ran away from this dingy street and the menacing dogs.
'Help!' she cried as she ran. 'Somebody, help me, I'm lost!' The only reply was the echo of her own voice. Once she thought she saw somebody silhouetted in a doorway, but if there was somebody they ignored her plight and vanished inside.
All of a sudden she cannoned violently into a person. She hadn't seen anybody in front of her, had heard nobody nearby. 'I'm so sorry!' she gasped, breathless, from where she'd fallen. 'I didn't see you.' She glanced up then, and gaped. It was the boy, staring down at her coolly. 'How did you…?'
'Lost?' he asked sardonically.
'This is your fault,' she accused him angrily as she caught her breath.
'If you'd come inside…' he replied, finishing his sentence with a tilt of his head and a shrug, which Elimere took to mean, you got yourself lost.
The Newfangled Way
So I tried this bread recipe in the breadmaker instead of doing it by hand. I hoped it would result in a smoother looking loaf, and it exceeded my expectations!
I know there's a lot to be said for the old fashioned ways, but let's not neglect our breadmakers! All I did was chuck all the ingredients in and turn it on – I didn't do any mixing or kneading by hand. The totally lazy way, but still a lovely home-made gluten free loaf of bread.
Gluten Free Small White Loaf
So, the top of this bread looks kind of funky. One day, I will remember to try putting water in the oven; my breads always do this and apparently a lack of steam might be why. However, it tastes delicious! So here it is:
1 tablespoon dried yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon gelatine
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon psyllium husk
1/2 teaspoon citric acid
300 grams plain gluten free flour
2 egg whites
Put 1 cup of lukewarm water in a bowl. Add the yeast, sugar, gelatine, salt, and psyllium. Lightly whisk to mix. Cover, and leave for 15 minutes.
Add citric acid, flour, and egg whites and mix well. Cover and leave for 20 minutes.
Beat for 1 minute, then scrape dough into a small greased bread tin.
Cover and leave for 25 minutes.
Bake at 220 degrees Celsius on a low shelf in the oven. Don't slice until cooled.
Being unwell… and some other random stuff
In the last couple of weeks I've had a cold, conjunctivitis, an ear infection, and some bizarre unidentified rash all over my neck and shoulders. It's all cleared up now except for the ear, which is irritating me no end! I'm pretty sure the infection is gone; I was on antibiotics for a week and the pain has gone. But I'm left with the feeling that somebody's stuffed cotton wool into my ear and won't let me take it out. It feels blocked, and sound is muffled. Sometimes I'm nearly sure the blockage is about to come out, and I shake my head around like a lunatic to dislodge it, but to no avail. I think I'll have to go back to the doctor for this one.
If I were feeling particularly cruel, I could post a picture of my eye. Apparently rubbing at your eye too much – which one does when one has pinkeye – can burst blood vessels and you end up looking rather demonic. But it's not pleasant to look upon, and so I shall not post it here. If you're a sucker for punishment, you can click here to see it! (It got worse than that, but I didn't take any more photos.)
In a quick aside, I should note that today I finally bought some "food rings" to use for making crumpets, muffins, and so on. Egg rings are tolerable only for so long; I needed something taller! Most of my creations rise up above the egg rings and spill out. Oh, and the lady who sold them to me, coincidentally, also can't eat gluten! I'm finding us all over the place. I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I still half-expect a "What?" response when I say I can't eat gluten. Instead I get, "Oh, me too!" or, "My sister/friend/mother/neighbour can't either!" It is becoming more and more common, which is great because increased demand increases supply! It's simultaneously becoming easier and cheaper to eat gluten free foods.
I'm going to try a new bread recipe either this afternoon or tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I bought everything I need for it today – I've never needed citric acid before, I wasn't even sure where to get it, but it was easily found in the baking section of the supermarket. Anyway, if it turns out well, I'll blog it.
Gluten Free Hotcakes
What with this, and the Sausage McMuffin, anyone would think I was opening my own gluten free McDonald's! Sorry, I'm not, but we can make our own delicious "fast food" at home!
2 eggs
1/4 cup lemonade, soda water, or sparkling mineral water
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 tablespoons olive oil
100 grams gluten free plain flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
Separate the eggs: put the whites aside in a small bowl, and the yolks into a bigger bowl.
Add lemonade, vanilla essence, and oil to the egg yolks. Mix well, then add the flour, caster sugar, and baking powder. Whisk well to form a batter.
Whisk the egg whites in their separate bowl until they're stiff. (Best done with an electric beater.)
Add the stiffened egg whites to the batter and whisk well.
Fry dollops in egg rings over medium heat until bubbles form and the top starts to set. Flip over and fry for another minute or so.
Nom with butter and/or honey!
Gluten Free Sourdough Bread
Back in my gluten-eating days, I loved a good sourdough bread. But I never considered making it, as it just seemed too hard. However, I've finally had a crack at it, and I'm really pleased with how well it's turned out! Delicious. Here it is:
2 tablespoons dried yeast
180 grams gluten free plain flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of starter
200 grams gluten free plain flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1 egg
The starter needs to be made at least 48 hours before you bake the bread. Mix all starter ingredients with 1 cup of lukewarm water, and put aside. Stir twice daily.
When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (360 Fahrenheit), and grease a loaf tin.
Put the starter, 1/2 cup of warm water, and all other ingredients in a bowl. Mix well, or beat with an electric mixer for two minutes.
Pour dough into greased tin and leave to rise for 30 minutes. (Mine didn't rise a lot during this time, and I felt discouraged, but it turned out fine in the end!)
Put on a low shelf in the oven and cook for 40 minutes.


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Join us for a TCVN Workshop: Entrepreneurial Tools Led By Steven Mednick!
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Notting Hill Prep is a split-site school. The original building (OB) occupies a site which was purpose-built as a school in 1902 and then refurbished and adapted for modern educational purposes.
The Jane Cameron building (JCB) opened across the road from the OB in October 2009. In January 2018, the new Portobello Green Building (PGB) on Ladbroke Grove opened. The OB houses the Reception to Year 2, the JCB Years 3-6 and the PGB houses Years 7-8.
Facilities across the three sites include two assembly halls, two art rooms, science laboratory, library, two computer rooms, two music rooms and several music practice rooms outside play areas. Classrooms are light and airy.
Lunches are made on site and served in the purpose built dining rooms.
For sport we use various local venues such as Linford Christie Stadium, Westway Sports Centre, Kensington Memorial Park and Kensington Leisure Centre.


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I have been scrapbooking our holidays photos from last April (better late than never!) and am looking forward to a week at the beach in a few weeks.
I haven't been posting much lately, at our school fete two weeks ago we had our camera "lost" ie it fell out of Steve's pocket while he was helping pack some chairs away and someone has picked it up and kept it. It makes me upset to think that someone somewhere now has our camera but not the charger ... so our camera is sitting useless in someone's home, or it has been sold by now. Anyway during the week we bought an identical camera so now we can forget that little incident. We are so thankful that Emily's glasses turned up the week before, they are essential and a camera is not ... exactly .... but it is nice to feel like I can just take more pictures now and blog them!


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Maryam Mir
Maryam is an Assassinations Project Caseworker. Having joined Reprieve in 2016, she has a particular focus on identifying people who are on the 'Drone Age Kill List'. She is committed to assisting targeted individuals by challenging US and UK decisions to kill them without trial. She assists survivors of drone attacks and victims' families in their fight for legal accountability, transparency and justice.
Maryam is also a specialist criminal defence barrister and has experience as trial counsel across the full spectrum of offences. Passionate about fearless representation of her clients, Maryam has particular expertise in cases raising issues of freedom of speech and proportionality. She has experience in taking action against the police where there has been a finding of unlawful conduct.
Maryam obtained her Masters in Human Rights Law at the University of Nottingham and read Law at the University of Leeds. She is a member of Lincon's Inn and a Lord Denning scholar.
Maryam speaks Urdu, Punjabi and some Arabic
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com


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In an article published in the Cayman Financial Review in the third quarter of 2016, I talked about the English case of Dawson-Damer & Ors v Taylor Wessing LLP, Michael Morrison and James Burns and its relevance for practitioners here, given the likelihood of a Data Protection Law (DPL) making its way onto the statute books in the Cayman Islands this year.
I concluded my article in the hope that there might be an appeal of the High Court decision that would add another stage to the debate about the application of the English Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) in the context of dispute between trustees and beneficiaries. In fact, an appeal was heard in November last year and the Court of Appeal handed down its decision on Feb. 16. The issues in the appeal were considered so important that the Information Commissioner (IC) in England was given permission by the court to intervene in the appeal and to provide for oral and written submissions via leading counsel.
As readers will recall, the trustee, Grampian, was resident and incorporated in the Bahamas. The trusts in question were governed by the laws of the Bahamas. In early 2014, Mrs. Dawson-Damer, a beneficiary of one of the trusts involved, sought copies of trust documentation from the trustees, having learned of appointments and resettlements totalling some US$402 million, out of a family trust of which they were beneficiaries, on to new trusts of which she and her children were not beneficiaries.
She followed that request with a formal "subject access request" (SAR) under the DPA of Taylor Wessing (TW), the trustee's London solicitors, for copies of all "data" of which she and her children were the subject, pursuant to her rights under the DPA. When TW refused to comply with her SAR, citing legal professional privilege, she issued an application in the English High Court to compel them to do so.
She followed the application in England with a claim in the Bahamian court against the trustee seeking to set aside the aforementioned appointments and resettlement of assets. As Lady Justice Arden commented in the Court of Appeal judgment, "It is an important part of the background that under The Bahamian Trustee Act 1998, section 83(8) and (10), no trustee can be compelled to disclose a variety of trust documents and the Bahamian court would similarly not be able to order any such disclosure."
The focus of the appeal was centered on three issues:
(1) The extent of legal professional privilege and whether documents were exempt from disclosure under English law only (referred to as the "narrow view" in the judgment and supported by the IC), or whether the exemption should also cover documents that the trustee could refuse to disclose under Bahamian law, the governing law of the trust;
(2) Whether, if the narrow view at (1) is correct, whether the search to ascertain which documents were exempt from disclosure was "disproportionate" and so TW could be excused from doing so; and
(3) Whether the judge at first instance was correct to refuse to exercise his discretion in favor of Mrs. Dawson-Damer because her real motive was to obtain documentation for use in legal proceedings against the trustee rather than to verify the accuracy of documentation relating to her held by TW.
On the first issue, the court held, supporting the position of the appellants and the IC, that legal professional privilege under the DPA applies only to documents which attract such privilege as a matter of English law.
Accordingly, beneficiaries can request disclosure of their personal data from a trustee (or the trustee's solicitors in their capacity as the trustee's agents) using a SAR under the DPA. Of particular note for trustees, the personal data which can be disclosed includes "any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual." This category of information arguably encompasses documentation recording a trustee's deliberations in contemplation of the exercise of its dispositive discretions, information and documentation which would otherwise be protected from disclosure under common law principles.
The Court of Appeal acknowledged that "documents generated in connection with the exercise by trustees of their discretion to make distribution are highly sensitive and likely to antagonise one or other class of beneficiaries. The law recognises this by not in general requiring a trustee to disclose such documents unless he is required to do so under procedural rules applying in litigation." They also acknowledged that in certain circumstances a trustee cannot be obliged to disclose documents to a beneficiary, other than by order of the court.
However, their narrow interpretation of the meaning of the legal professional privilege led the court to conclude that "the DPA does not contain an exception for documents not disclosable to a beneficiary of a trust under trust law principles," even if the trustee is at liberty to refuse to disclose those documents under the governing law of the trust.
Here in the Cayman Islands, a DPL is expected to be enacted imminently. Broadly, the DPL is likely to operate in much the same way as the DPA in England with one notable exception. The first issue in the Dawson-Damer appeal was anticipated by trusts practitioners here and amendments have been proposed by which there will be an exception from the subject access provisions of the draft DPL in respect of trusts and wills. If the DPL includes those proposed amendments, then the particular issue summarized above ought not to be of relevance.
This was, however, only the first of three issues before the Court of Appeal in Dawson-Damer. The appellants argued that TW had produced no evidence that they had taken any adequate steps to locate their personal data. Evidence filed by their lawyers cast doubt on the assertion that TW's paper files "are in such disarray that they cannot be said to constitute a relevant filing system under the Act" and concluded that it was "inconceivable" that trustees and their advisers could operate properly in a commercial environment without creating and maintaining proper electronic records.
While the IC accepted that there was an element of proportionality involved in searching for and assessing documents for disclosure, it argued that it was nevertheless not open to a data controller to argue against substantive compliance with the request by arguing that undertaking proper searches and assessment would be disproportionate. The IC argued, "the cost of compliance is the price data controllers pay for processing data …. The burden of proof is on the data controller to show that it has taken all reasonable steps to comply with a [subject access] request." The court of appeal agreed, concluding that "TW must produce evidence to show what it has done to identify the material and to work out a plan of action. It has singularly failed to do this and so has not discharged the onus on it."
This may well be of relevance in the Cayman Islands once the DPL is in effect. Data controllers should take note that they have to make an effort to locate personal data after receiving a subject access request. Readily searchable records will make that task a great deal easier than in Dawson-Damer, where TW is now facing a search through 30 years or so of paper files.
The final issue for consideration by the Court of Appeal was perhaps central to the judge's thinking in the lower court. Is there a prohibition or restriction on use of the DPA for a collateral purpose, in this case, to obtain information that the appellant could not otherwise obtain from the trustee? The Court of Appeal conclusively rejected that analysis, finding that there is no such limitation allowing an individual to obtain information via a subject access request for use in litigation rather than simply for the purposes of verifying the accuracy of the information held by a data controller about that individual. That principle is still subject to the limited nature of "personal data" under the DPA, by which it is defined at clause 1(1) as "… data which relates to a living individual who can be identified –
(a) From those data, or
(b) From those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller …."
It would then be a matter for the courts of the Bahamas to assess the admissibility of that documentation in the proceedings there, in accordance with local law.
The court was unanimous in finding that the appeal should be allowed. The matter has now been remitted to the Chancery Division where, should there be objection to disclosure of certain documents on the basis of legal professional privilege once TW have completed their substantive review, a judge of the Chancery Division will review the disputed documentation and decide whether it should be disclosed or not. Meanwhile, in the Cayman Islands, we await the new DPL with interest.


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You could face legal problems if you use someone else's trademarks as your meta tag keywords. Generally speaking, a meta tag is a piece of HTML code that is embedded within a website. This tag is used by the designer or owner of the website to quickly identify the content that is contained within the site. They are a powerful online tool because meta tag keywords are used by search engines and have a direct relationship to the frequency in which search engines will display a website as a hit.
Below is an overview of meta tags and trademark issues. See FindLaw's Internet and E-Commerce and Trademarks sections for additional articles and resources.
Meta Tag Keywords and Trademark Issues
While meta tags have proven to be a powerful tool to help websites be "found" by search engines, they sometimes are used improperly as keywords. Some companies have used their competitors' trademarks within their meta tags in order to draw business away from their competitors' websites, resulting in several lawsuits. If you use your competitors' trademarks within your website's meta tags, you risk having to pay damages and even the other side's attorneys fees if you lose in court.
How Meta Tags Work
If you go to a website via a conventional Internet browser, you will generally not see the meta tags that the website is feeding to search engines. Just to give an example, the keyword meta tag for a website that discusses how meta tags work in Texas might look like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="metatags,metatag,search engine,deployment,Texas,United States ">
Additionally, the description meta tag could look like this:
<META name="description" content="Information on the meta tags keywords and how they are used in the internet">
Search engines are the primary users of meta tags. Depending upon how the search engine's code is running, it will find and use a website's meta tags in order to index it within the search. The importance of meta tags for use in search engines has waxed and waned periodically throughout the history of search engines.
Meta Tags Being Used to Divert or Confuse Users
There have been attempts (some successful) to use meta tags and meta tag keywords to divert or confuse web users. The websites do this by using improper meta tags that do not accurately describe their own website, instead drawing hits away from proper websites. As an example, a movie theatre company could plant the keyword "Century" or "AMC" in its site's meta tag to draw traffic away from those websites when using those search terms.
Many courts have found that using trademarked names in this manner is a form of trademark infringement when it causes customer diversion or confusion.
How To Stop a Website From Infringing On a Trademark
In order to stop a website from infringing on a trademark by using it in the meta tag, the owner of the trademark should first send a cease and desist letter demanding that the trademarked terms be removed from the meta tag. If this letter does not work, the next step is to file a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court. Where it can be shown that the use of the trademark was willful and with intent to deceive the customers, monetary damages can amount to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.
When Using a Trademark in a Meta Tag May Be Allowed
What you've read above may incline you to think that any use of a trademark in a meta tag that that could cause confusion is disallowed. But if a trademark is used incidentally to describe a good or a service that a company provides, or a geographic location, then use of the trademark is permitted under "fair use" laws. For example, suppose a company was named "Rain Forest," and also had the term trademarked. If a company that sold art that was crafted in a rain forest used the term "Rain Forest" in their meta tag, this would fall under the fair use laws.
As another example, in the case of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Welles, Playboy sued a former playmate because she had set up a website and used "Playboy" and "Playmate" in the meta tag. The court ruled that Welles could use the terms based on a three step test a normative use of a trademark is permitted where:
The court found that Welles could use the trademarks because she could not identify herself without using the trademarked terms. In addition, the website had many disclaimers that the website itself was not linked to Playboy which further lessened the likelihood of confusion.
Tips on Using Meta Tag Keywords
Below are some additional suggestions for avoiding trademark issues when using meta tag keywords:
Contact an Attorney for Help with Trademark Issues
Intellectual property law, which includes trademarks, can be quite confusing at times. Keeping in mind that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, consider consulting with a trademark attorney or business and commercial law attorney if you have any questions or concerns.
Contact a qualified business attorney to help you address you business's operational needs.


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Date: 01/26/2007
Views: 14357
Menzies Campbell visited the British Heart Foundation shop in Cupar in his constituency in January 2007 to sign a heart as part of their Love Note campaign.
MC said that although heart disease rates in Scotland are improving there is still a lot of work to be done. "That's why I'm supporting the appeal. By taking part people can help the BHF provide care and support for more Scots living with heart disease, and their families and carers"


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Questions tagged [servitudes]
The servitudes tag has no usage guidance.
2 questions
166 views
Are there only two, or are there three, forms of conventional involuntary servitude in the antebellum U.S.A.?
In 1865 the 13th Amendment provided that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime, shall exist in the United States. I have heard it said that slavery and indentured ...
19 views
Are there any criteria in india to register a land for specific purpose?
In india can you register a land to other person for doing anything specific in the land? Like if I give it for agriculture or for devotional songs or Kirtan or any specific purpose? If they happen to ...


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A formidable figure of considerable girth – alliterative legal wags dubbed him "man-mountain Mantell" – he harnessed a seemingly effortless courtroom manner with an iron nerve throughout the seven-week trial which, because of unprecedented pretrial press coverage, became the focus of worldwide attention.
Despite this feverish atmosphere Mantell quickly established a confiding, avuncular rapport with the jury inside Court Three at Winchester crown court. This was completely typical of him, and gave the impression that he and they would suffer the approaching ordeal together. His quiet, persuasive manner and owlish air contrasted with the harrowing story of sexual abuse, torture and degradation that unfolded with the trial's brutal and brutalising details.
Mrs West and her husband Fred – who hanged himself in prison before he could be brought to trial – had preyed on countless children and young women (starting with one of Fred's own daughters) over a 15-year period, subjecting them to terrifyingly cruel sexual assaults before murdering them, dismembering and decapitating their bodies and burying them under their house at 25 Cromwell Street.
The case exuded evil like a contagion in the vast oak-panelled courtroom, adjacent to the historic Great Hall where Sir Walter Raleigh had been convicted of treason in 1603. But, in spite of the evidence that emerged, some discerned the odd twinkle in Mantell's eye when he turned to the jury, and noted his habit of smiling at the eight men and four women jurors and turning up the corner of his mouth to emphasise a point.
He dealt as sympathetically with sobbing witnesses as he did with jurors when they clapped hands across their mouths at some unexpected revelation. When Mrs West's stepdaughter, Anne Marie, recalled her turn in the witness box, she wrote of Mantell's reassuring smile and sympathetic nod, adding that she was "grateful for his kindness throughout".
In contrast to the gothic horrors of the evidence, the trial moved ahead with clinical briskness. Reporters, working in relays with notebooks and pencils, often struggled to keep pace. When some jurors complained about them bobbing in and out of court to file copy while witnesses were in full flow, Mantell immediately ruled that journalists should sit tight until witnesses left the box.
On day 13 Mantell reluctantly agreed to a request from the jury to visit the West house in Gloucester. He and his clerk (in a limousine) led a convoy of buses, one with closed curtains containing the jurors and a second containing journalists. Dressed in overalls and hard hats, judge and jury trooped through the empty house, inspected various burial sites and in the cellar saw the beams from which Fred West claimed to have suspended the bodies of his victims from hooks.
To protect the jurors' anonymity, the police had gone to great lengths to screen the house from prying eyes and lenses, but somehow a press photographer managed to snatch a shot; Mantell made his displeasure plain with a thunderous glare.
Back in court, on the issue of "similar fact" evidence, which became an issue when victims of the Wests who had escaped them gave evidence, Mantell recalled the fable of Bluebeard who murdered his several wives. If one had escaped, the judge noted, he would have regarded her evidence as relevant.
On three or four occasions in the course of the trial, the court laughed at Mantell's dry observations. Even Mrs West, impassive in the dock, allowed herself a slight twitch of the lips.
But any levity evaporated as the case moved towards its close, and it took Mantell three days to sum up the case. When the jury asked if the absence of direct evidence was an obstacle to bringing in a guilty verdict against Mrs West, Mantell replied that it was not.
By the time she faced Mantell to hear him sentence her to 10 terms of life imprisonment, his mood was grave. "If attention is paid to what I think," he added crisply, "you will never be released."
Charles Barrie Knight Mantell was born on January 30 1937 at Romiley, Cheshire, and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University, where he read Law. After National Service in the RAF between 1958 and 1961, he was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, serving his pupillage at 3 King's Bench Walk, Temple, and later at the chambers of Sir Patrick Russell (later Lord Justice Russell) in Manchester. Russell considered Mantell the finest advocate he had ever known.
He practised on the Northern Circuit, appearing in a variety of cases, including that of Trevor Hardy, the so-called Beast of Manchester, whom Mantell prosecuted in 1977 at Hardy's trial for the murder of three teenage girls.
He was also a junior Crown counsel in the trial at Lancaster Castle in 1975 of the Birmingham Six, a group of Irishmen convicted (but famously acquitted on appeal 16 years later) of planting IRA bombs in two Birmingham pubs the year before, killing 21 people. Counsel made up for the rigours of the case by arranging for bottles of claret to be put on their train home at Carlisle; by Lancaster the wine was at room temperature.
Mantell took Silk in 1979 and the following year appeared in the "Handless Corpse" trial (also at Lancaster) in which five men were convicted of murdering a millionaire drug dealer from New Zealand, Marty Johnson, whose headless and handless body was discovered in a flooded quarry near Chorley.
In their eagerness and haste to hack off their victim's head and hands, and to dump his partially dismembered corpse in the reservoir, the killers had omitted to remove his medallion. The body came to rest on a shallow ledge, and was discovered by an amateur diver making his first-ever dive. When a picture of the medallion was published in a newspaper, Johnson's girlfriend contacted the police.
The case was then the longest (at 123 days) and most expensive trial in British legal history.
Between 1982 and 1985 Mantell spent three years as a supreme court judge in Hong Kong, returning to Britain as a judge on the Western Circuit. In 1990 he was knighted on his appointment as a High Court judge, and – as senior presiding judge on the Western Circuit – tried several high-profile cases.
From 1997 he sat as an appeal court judge, and in 2002 – with the Lord Chief Justice and Mr Justice Leveson (formerly Brian Leveson QC) – dismissed the appeal to clear the name of James Hanratty, convicted and hanged in 1962 for the notorious A6 murder of Michael Gregsten and the attempted murder and rape of Valerie Storie.
If the Rose West trial affected Mantell as it affected everyone else who sat through it – "we are none of us untainted," noted one observer – he remained silent on the subject. "To listen to a high court judge describe the details of the assault on an eight-year-old child," wrote another, "or the rape and abduction of young woman after young woman could not fail to churn even the strongest stomach."
Easy-going but astute, Mantell thrived on the law, and was still working at his death on May 1. In 2006 he had been appointed a surveillance commissioner, regulating covert surveillance operations and the use of informants and undercover officers.
A modest man, despite his jocular claim to have the best golf swing in north-west Europe, he nursed a lifelong passion for cricket.
Charles Mantell married, in 1960, Shirley Cogger, a singing student at the Royal Northern College of Music. She and their two daughters survive him.


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College Notices: w/c 15th December 2014
by Kim Small.
For All Students
Assessment Week - Revision
- Christmas Revision Outline Plan available on Moodle / Student Resources
- Plan what you need to revise for your January Assessments
- Have some days off, but make good use of the time!
Use of Lifts
- A gentle reminder that priority use of lifts must be given to disabled users (students, staff and visitors).
- If you are able-bodied, don't use the lifts - please use the stairs.
- This matter was raised recently by students from Treloar's College
- Thank you, Jane Machell, Principal
Important Exam Information
- National guidelines and regulations for separate rooming in exams have changed.
- If you have had smaller or separate rooming either at College or at your previous school, please contact our Exams Officer, Frances Standen, by email email@example.com
- It is essential that you do this before the Christmas break.
- Full information is on Parents Pages of the website – Exams Information, Access Arrangements.
Summer 2015 exam re-sits
- If you want to re-sit exams in the summer you need to make your applications via the on-line store
- We strongly recommend making applications before the Christmas break
- The FINAL DEADLINE is Tuesday 10th February and we WILL NOT be able to accept applications after this date.
- When you apply please check that you receive your on-line store receipt to confirm that your purchase has been successfully processed.
- If you are having any problems making your application then come to the Student Hub for help.
'A Night at the Movies'
- An extravaganza of song and dance inspired by the soundtracks of well known films. Do you love to boogie like Billy Elliot, fancy partying on board the Titanic or singing along to songs from Disney? If the answer is yes, then this is the show for you.
- Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th December at 7.30pm. Tickets are £4.50/5.50 and are available from the Wessex Arts website: http://tickets.wessexarts.co.uk/Sales/Whats-On/Alton-College-Performances
Alton College Student Union Presents.. Festive Thursday
- Thursday 18th December
- Wear your Christmas Jumpers
- Live Music in the Martin Read Hall
- Candy Floss, Donuts and Chocolate Fountain in the Refectory
- Tombola in the Refectory
- Release of Alton College's Band Aid Video
- Events start start at 12.30pm until 2.00pm on the day!
- Fundraising for 'Hand in Hand for Syria'
Bands for Syria
- 18th December 2014 – 1pm to 2pm
- Martin Read Hall
- As part of the Festive Firsday event, some of our talented college musicians are joining with the Student's Union to host a festive party in the Martin Read Hall. Much dance. Very Music. Wow!
- Featuring: Northbound Trio * The Ollie West Band * We Found a Fire * The Ed Allen Trio * Twelve to Six * Beyond the City * and more!
- FREE entry
- Whilst the whole event is free, all money raised from SU food sales and your kind donations will go to the charity 'Hand in hand for Syria'
Issue 5 of The Alternative
- We need you...
- to contribute, email firstname.lastname@example.com with submissions or queries
- Like our Facebook page for regular updates and article links: facebook.com/thealternative
- View the complete issue 4 at altonalternative.wordpress.com
- End of Term:
- Friday 19th December
- Lessons finish at 12.40pm
- Buses leave at 1.00pm
- Start of Term:
- First day of teaching: Tuesday 6th Jan 2015
- @ 8.50am
For Second Years:
Alton College Art Foundation Course
- Students thinking about a career in Art and design should apply for a Foundation Diploma course by submitting an application form before Christmas.
- It is recommended that students apply to other Foundation course should make an application to Alton College Foundation Diploma course.
- There will be a meeting arranged in January to give information about the Foundation course.
- Applicants work will be reviewed in the week of February 23rd 2015 and the majority of places offered shortly afterwards.
- BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art and Design 2013
- Students studying at Alton college Foundation received 51% Distinction at against national average benchmarks of 27.9 %
- For applications contact Mark Taylor in the art staff room
- email@example.com
- What's related:


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Products & Services
Products & Services - Engineering Items
(a) Different types of Railway
Rolling Stock in different types of wagons like BOBRN,
BOXN, BOST HS, BTPGLN, Milk Tank, BCNA, BOXN HS, BRNA,
Flat Wagons, Rail Milk Tanker, BOBYN and BTAP Alumina
Wagon, BOBRNHS M1 and BRN-22.9 wagons etc.
(b) Casnub bogie
(c) Couplers and Draft Gears
(d) Steel Castings, Pressings, Forgings Bridge Girders, Structurals, Sleepers, Points & Crossings, Wagon Components.
(e) Refurbishment of Wagons
© 2005-2019Burn Standard Kolkata, India/ This is aCentury Websites Creation


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Autumn and winter weddings have become quite popular over the last couple of years, and brides around the world are proving that you can look hot when it's cold. If you've got your heart set on a summer gown, then don't feel pressured to change your vision. Ensure that you feel as hot as you look with a stylishly stunning shawl!
These soft and lovely bridal accessories complement practically any bridal outfit and give you the opportunity to get creative. Choose a different shade of white to your wedding dress, or go all out with a colourful shawl that matches your wedding theme. You can also chat to your dress maker and photographer to find the best fit.
Shawls also don't have to be made of fabric necessarily. We love the idea of a fake fur wrap or bolero, and knitted shawls are ideal for a more homely or vintage themed wedding. You can also spoil your bridesmaids with matching shawls to keep them warm on the day.
If you're expecting guests to be unprepared for the weather, rent a number of shawls for female guests to wrap around their shoulders. This is especially recommended if you're planning on having the ceremony and reception outdoors in the chilly night air.
Original images and their credits available on Pinterest


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Creating your first MFC Doc/View application
Creating applications using the MFC document/view architecture can save time, can help you create more structured programs, and can also help alleviate a lot of tedious boilerplate coding that you may otherwise be forced to write. It can, however, force you to structure your applications in a way that doesn't quite fit the problem you are trying to solve (such as games), and it does also mean you are forced to carry the overhead of using the MFC runtime libraries. If you are sure that your user will have the version of MFC already installed, or you don't mind including it in a setup program, and you don't mind an executable that is a touch larger than an equivalent win32/SDK version then MFC can save you a lot of time.
The doc/view architecture that is mentioned a lot in MFC literature simply refers to the practice of separating your appplications data storage and minipulation logic from the data visualisation logic. Basically, you have a
CDocument derived class to load, manipulate and store your data, and a
CView derived class to display the data. Your document and view classes (you can have multiple document and multiple view classes within a single app) are linked together using internal MFC classes by your main application's (
CWinApp derived) class, and physically managed on the screen by a Main Frame (
CFrameWnd or
CMDIChildWnd derived) class.
In Single Document Interface (SDI) applications, there is one
CFrameWnd class and and one view. Each time a document is loaded the view is cleared and redrawn using the information in the new document. The view is essentially reused.
The image below shows a typical SDI application. The main window contains the menu, toolbar, status bar, and the view window. The menus, toolbar, status bar are created and owned by the
CFrameWnd class. You can create entire applications without having to touch the frame class at all.
CView class has, as its display area, the dotted section shown in the image. Everytime that area needs repainting the class'
OnDraw method will be called, and the view will be expected to query it's associated document so it knows what to draw.
In Multiple Document Interface (MDI) applications there is one main frame per application (in this case a
CMDIFrameWnd, and one
CMDIChildWnd derived child frame for each document.
Each time a new document is opened a new
CMDIChildWnd is created that lives inside the main applications
CMDIFrameWnd window. The main frame window contains and owns the menus, toolbars and status bar, and each
CMDIChildWnd window contains a view window. When you switch between different child frames the main frame automatically updates the menu and toolbars to match that associated with the current view inside the child frame.
In Visual Studio .NET there is a third option that creates a new
CFrameWnd each time a new document is opened. This option won't be covered here yet.
It's important to note that each view can only be associated with one document and one frame window. A
CMDIFrameWnd window contains zero or more
CMDIChildWnd windows, and each
CFrameWnd or
CMDIChildWnd contains one
CView window. However, each document can have more than one view associated with it. A typical example is the case of a splitter window that can be split to show two different views of the same document.
Creating an application
Creating an MFC doc/view application is very simple. Fire up the AppWizard (File | New...) and follow along.
First we select the MFC AppWizard.
Choose either MDI or SDI (dialog based have been covered elsewhere) and click Next until you hit step 4.
This step allows you to customise a bunch of stuff including toolbars, menus, status bar and print preview. Check the boxes and you get all this for free! One important step here is the "Advanced" button. This allows you to specify a file extension that your application will open by default - and which the Windows Shell will associate with your application should the user double click on a file of that type.
Here I've simple entered "my" as my file extension. Once the program is compiled and run for the first time, all .my files will have the icon specified by the
IDR_MYSDIATYPE resource (the actual resource name will obviously change with the name of your application).
Continue clicking Next and you will come to the final step that allows you to choose the type of view you want. MFC provides a ton of different
CView derived types to make life easier, including HTML viewers, scrolling views, views that wrap common controls and a dialog-type Form view.
Once the wizard has finished you have an application that can be compiled and run immediately. It won't do anything useful, but in a way it already does a lot: toolbars, status bars, menu, printing and print preview and file type registration. All that remains is for you to fill in the details of your document (
Serialize will load and save documents,
OnNewDocument will be called to create a new document), and your view (
OnDraw to do the drawing, and
OnInitialUpdate for initialising variables when the view is first created).
To customise the menus, icons and toolbars simply use the resource editors provided with Visual Studio. Life doesn't get any easier.


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Has Mr. Tulkinghorn any idea of this himself? It may be so, or it may not, but there is this remarkable circumstance to be noted in everything associated with my Lady Dedlock as one of a class — as one of the leaders and representatives of her little world. She supposes herself to be an inscrutable Being, quite out of the reach and ken of ordinary mortals — seeing herself in her glass, where indeed she looks so. Yet every dim little star revolving about her, from her maid to the manager of the Italian Opera, knows her weaknesses, prejudices, follies, haughtinesses, and caprices and lives upon as accurate a calculation and as nice a measure of her moral nature as her dressmaker takes of her physical proportions. Is a new dress, a new custom, a new singer, a new dancer, a new form of jewellery, a new dwarf or giant, a new chapel, a new anything, to be set up? There are deferential people in a dozen callings whom my Lady Dedlock suspects of nothing but prostration before her, who can tell you how to manage her as if she were a baby, who do nothing but nurse her all their lives, who, humbly affecting to follow with profound subservience, lead her and her whole troop after them; who, in hooking one, hook all and bear them off as Lemuel Gulliver bore away the stately fleet of the majestic Lilliput. "If you want to address our people, sir," say Blaze and Sparkle, the jewellers — meaning by our people Lady Dedlock and the rest — "you must remember that you are not dealing with the general public; you must hit our people in their weakest place, and their weakest place is such a place." "To make this article go down, gentlemen," say Sheen and Gloss, the mercers, to their friends the manufacturers, "you must come to us, because we know where to have the fashionable people, and we can make it fashionable." "If you want to get this print upon the tables of my high connexion, sir," says Mr. Sladdery, the librarian, "or if you want to get this dwarf or giant into the houses of my high connexion, sir, or if you want to secure to this entertainment the patronage of my high connexion, sir, you must leave it, if you please, to me, for I have been accustomed to study the leaders of my high connexion, sir, and I may tell you without vanity that I can turn them round my finger" — in which Mr. Sladdery, who is an honest man, does not exaggerate at all.
Therefore, while Mr. Tulkinghorn may not know what is passing in the Dedlock mind at present, it is very possible that he may.
"My Lady's cause has been again before the Chancellor, has it, Mr. Tulkinghorn?" says Sir Leicester, giving him his hand.
"Yes. It has been on again to-day," Mr. Tulkinghorn replies, making one of his quiet bows to my Lady, who is on a sofa near the fire, shading her face with a hand-screen.
"It would be useless to ask," says my Lady with the dreariness of the place in Lincolnshire still upon her, "whether anything has been done."
"Nothing that YOU would call anything has been done to-day," replies Mr. Tulkinghorn.
"Nor ever will be," says my Lady.
Sir Leicester has no objection to an interminable Chancery suit. It is a slow, expensive, British, constitutional kind of thing. To be sure, he has not a vital interest in the suit in question, her part in which was the only property my Lady brought him; and he has a shadowy impression that for his name — the name of Dedlock — to be in a cause, and not in the title of that cause, is a most ridiculous accident. But he regards the Court of Chancery, even if it should involve an occasional delay of justice and a trifling amount of confusion, as a something devised in conjunction with a variety of other somethings by the perfection of human wisdom for the eternal settlement (humanly speaking) of everything. And he is upon the whole of a fixed opinion that to give the sanction of his countenance to any complaints respecting it would be to encourage some person in the lower classes to rise up somewhere — like Wat Tyler.
"As a few fresh affidavits have been put upon the file," says Mr. Tulkinghorn, "and as they are short, and as I proceed upon the troublesome principle of begging leave to possess my clients with any new proceedings in a cause" — cautious man Mr. Tulkinghorn, taking no more responsibility than necessary — "and further, as I see you are going to Paris, I have brought them in my pocket."
(Sir Leicester was going to Paris too, by the by, but the delight of the fashionable intelligence was in his Lady.)
Mr. Tulkinghorn takes out his papers, asks permission to place them on a golden talisman of a table at my Lady's elbow, puts on his spectacles, and begins to read by the light of a shaded lamp.
"'In Chancery. Between John Jarndyce — '"
My Lady interrupts, requesting him to miss as many of the formal horrors as he can.
Mr. Tulkinghorn glances over his spectacles and begins again lower down. My Lady carelessly and scornfully abstracts her attention. Sir Leicester in a great chair looks at the file and appears to have a stately liking for the legal repetitions and prolixities as ranging among the national bulwarks. It happens that the fire is hot where my Lady sits and that the hand-screen is more beautiful than useful, being priceless but small. My Lady, changing her position, sees the papers on the table — looks at them nearer — looks at them nearer still — asks impulsively, "Who copied that?"
Mr. Tulkinghorn stops short, surprised by my Lady's animation and her unusual tone.
"Is it what you people call law-hand?" she asks, looking full at him in her careless way again and toying with her screen.
"Not quite. Probably" — Mr. Tulkinghorn examines it as he speaks — "the legal character which it has was acquired after the original hand was formed. Why do you ask?"
"Anything to vary this detestable monotony. Oh, go on, do!"
Mr. Tulkinghorn reads again. The heat is greater; my Lady screens her face. Sir Leicester dozes, starts up suddenly, and cries, "Eh? What do you say?"
"I say I am afraid," says Mr. Tulkinghorn, who had risen hastily, "that Lady Dedlock is ill."
"Faint," my Lady murmurs with white lips, "only that; but it is like the faintness of death. Don't speak to me. Ring, and take me to my room!"
Mr. Tulkinghorn retires into another chamber; bells ring, feet shuffle and patter, silence ensues. Mercury at last begs Mr. Tulkinghorn to return.
"Better now," quoth Sir Leicester, motioning the lawyer to sit down and read to him alone. "I have been quite alarmed. I never knew my Lady swoon before. But the weather is extremely trying, and she really has been bored to death down at our place in Lincolnshire."
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Before Allan Woodcourt sails away to China and India as a ship's surgeon, he leaves behind a
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'Machines of Loving Grace,' by John Markoff
With so much breathless coverage of cutting-edge technology, it can be hard to remember the past. Not too long ago, autonomous vehicles (like Google's driverless car), widely used digital servants (like Siri), and family robots (like Jibo) seemed like things we'd only encounter in science fiction. "In Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots," John Markoff goes behind the headlines and reconstructs the long and winding road that led here.
Markoff is a technology and science writer for the New York Times. And so it's not surprising that the Pulitzer Prize winner discusses the recent history of computer development (from the 1950s to today) with a reporter's sensibilities. He fills pages with facts about who did what, why something got done in a particular way and what significance all of this moving and shaking has for specialists and the rest of society.
Markoff did his homework and capably tackles interesting things: why artificial intelligence legend Marvin Minsky was motivated to quip that "if we're lucky" machines will "keep us as their pets," how Google was able to hide its driverless car program in plain sight, why Watson's "Jeopardy" victory is less impressive than meets the eye, why the abysmal failure of Microsoft's intelligent office assistant Clippy didn't portend subsequent chapters of human-machine interaction, what led cybernetics trailblazer Norbert Wiener to stop trying to present his reservations about the "ultimate machine age" in the New York Times, and why debates about automation's impact on work are surrounded by misleading assertions (ATMs killed off bank tellers) and flawed analogies (Instagram killed Kodak). Of course, there are plenty of other gems, too.
All writers — reporters included — have opinions, and two strong and deeply interconnected ones influence Markoff's account. First and foremost, he rejects technological determinism: Technical pathways aren't set in stone, hotly discussed hypothetical inventions aren't destined to flood the market, and experts specializing in how information is processed, automated and used will make decisions that largely determine which technologies will be found in the future. If this thesis is correct, good decisions from the right people will lead to a desirable tomorrow and bad ones might bring dystopia.
But how can good decisions be distinguished from bad ones? Markoff doesn't directly answer this question. Instead, his adamant and frequent refrain is that ethical judgment needs to play a prominent role when technology designers choose their research plans. To focus our attention on this point, he frames the entire book as a plea for two entrenched and divisive camps to communicate better with each other.
There are the folks developing artificial intelligence to replace humans with computers. And then there are the people creating computational tools to assist human decision-making and augment our limited human faculties. If these groups don't mend their dichotomous ways, Markoff warns, nasty things lie ahead. Humans will become increasingly obsolete. And human judgment will be increasingly confined to assessing trivial matters.
While there's much to praise Markoff for, a few issues will make readers uneasy.
The far-reaching scope of the inquiry is at odds with the readerly quality of the narrative. Without writing a colossal tome, you simply can't do a deep dive into any single person or project and cover lots of ground. Predictably, aiming for breadth and controlled word count makes it feel as if Markoff jumps too quickly between short-form reflections and connects dots between flat characters and mere summary descriptions. Some will be grateful for a big-picture education. Others will be disappointed and wish Markoff followed a more circumscribed path.
Markoff could have spent more time defending his anti-determinist outlook and demonstrating that it's a viable position within design-decision parameters. For example, when discussing automation in the workplace, he depicts capitalism as generating "inevitable" outcomes. If artificial intelligence gets sophisticated enough, he acknowledges we'll say goodbye to all the jobs it can replace at a lower cost, including "white collar and professional workers."
Now, the market provides powerful incentives for entrepreneurial technologists. And Markoff himself says that "it will be truly remarkable" if Silicon Valley "rejects a profitable technology for ethical reasons." This leaves the reader wondering why he would believe designers can make choices that will prevent job-destroying tools from being created, or else do something to counteract their results. Quickly mentioning that Toyota has a corporate vision for keeping humans in the loop doesn't cut it here. Frankly, policy remedies might be needed, but Markoff curiously downplays them.
For all his lofty appeal to ethics, Markoff sells contemporary conversations short. Yes, he discusses recently voiced concerns about health care robots, military robots and cyber-servant dependency. But Markoff also uncharitably dismisses philosophical reflections on self-driving cars and distorts why philosophers emphasize variations of the Trolley Problem.
In its classic form, the Trolley Problem is a thought experiment that asks you to consider whether you'd save the lives of several people from being hit by a runaway trolley if you had to pull a lever — an action that would send the vehicle to another track and kill someone there. Among other things, the scenario helps us think about whether there's a meaningful difference between actively killing and passively allowing people to die. The variation for self-driving cars ponders what the vehicles should be programmed to do if, say, they're on a collision course with an "errant school bus carrying forty innocent children."
For Markoff, the answer is obvious: choose the "lesser evil" and remember that far too many accidents come from human drivers making mistakes. But as Patrick Lin convincingly argues, it can be tricky to identify what the lesser evil actually is.
If you believe it's clearly a matter of saving as many lives as possible and couldn't possibly be anything else, you're overlooking the conflicting ethical principles at stake in the decision-making. You're also brushing off the ethical issues associated with machines making moral decisions on our behalf — potentially without us understanding how they're programmed and without us consenting to their coded values.
Even coping with "incoming rear-end collisions" requires nuanced considerations. Like the rest, they're sparked by a willingness to acknowledge that ethical depth lies beneath the obvious surface.
Evan Selinger is a philosophy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His writing has appeared in Wired, the Atlantic, Slate and the Wall Street Journal. E-mail: email@example.com
Machines of Loving Grace
The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
By John Markoff
(Ecco; 378 pages; $26.99)