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Peter Dow
Joined: 01 Apr 2012
Posts: 10
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:41 am
Post subject: Pumped-storage hydro dam schemes to store wind energy
I want to discuss the hydro-electricity option but not as a stand-alone alternative but pumped-storage hydro schemes as a complement to wind power.
This begins with a statement of the obvious as far as Scottish electrical power-generation engineers and scientists are concerned I expect but I am making this introductory statement anyway, not for the benefit of our scientists or engineers but to inform the political debate about the potential of the Scottish economy
"after the North Sea oil runs out"
because political debate involves mostly non-scientists and non-engineers who need to have such things explained to them.
The Scottish economy has a profitable living to make in future in the business of electrical energy import/export from/to English electrical power suppliers and perhaps even to countries further away one day.
The tried and tested engineering technology we Scots can use in future to make money is pumped-storage hydroelectricity.
Wikipedia wrote:
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
The technique is currently the most cost-effective means of storing large amounts of electrical energy on an operating basis, but capital costs and the presence of appropriate geography are critical decision factors.
In Scotland, the
Cruachan Dam pumped-storage hydroelectric power station
was first operational in 1966 and was built there to take advantage of Scotland's appropriate geography and available capital.
So Scotland has the appropriate geography for pumped-storage hydroelectric power and we have the capital particularly if we invest some of the taxes on North Sea oil before it all runs out and it is all spent.
Investment in wind-power energy generation is proceeding apace, in Scotland, in England, on and offshore, and that's very "green" and quite clever, though wind power is not as dependable as tidal power, but unless and until sufficient capacity to store energy becomes available to supply needs when the wind isn't blowing then conventional, and perhaps increasingly expensive, coal, gas or oil burning or nuclear energy power will still be needed to keep the lights on when the wind doesn't blow.
Scottish opportunity
Here is the opportunity for the Scottish economy in a future where wind-power generation is increasingly rampant:
if we Scots build a large capacity of new pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations, not only can we supply all our own Scottish energy needs from "green" renewable energy schemes, but we could provide energy storage capacity for customers outside Scotland, particularly in England
, who live in a land not so well endowed with appropriate geography for hydroelectric power.
which illustrates the principle of using wind turbines and pumped storage hydro dam schemes together.
In future, a Scotland with investment in a massive pumped-storage hydroelectric capacity could buy cheap English wind-power while the wind is blowing then sell the same energy back to English power suppliers,
at a profit
, when the wind isn't blowing and the English will pay more for energy.
So everyone wins, the energy is all green, the electricity supply is always available when it is needed and
is how the Scottish energy economy does very well after the North Sea oil runs out.
So problem solved but not job done as yet. We Scots do actually need to get busy investing and building pumped-storage hydroelectric power generation and supply capacity in Scotland now.
I am presenting here my vision for a large pumped storage hydroelectric 2-square kilometres surface-area reservoir and 300+ metre tall dam which I have designed for the Coire Glas site, Scotland.
View site using Google Earth where the convenient label is
"Loch a' Choire Ghlais"
- or,
I was inspired to conceive and to publish my vision by learning of
the Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) proposal to build a smaller hydroelectric pumped-storage scheme at Coire Glas
which has been presented to the Scottish government for public consultation.
I have not long been aware of the SSE plan for the Coire Glas scheme, not being a follower of such matters routinely, but I was prompted by an earlier tangentially-related news story (about energy storage technology for renewable energy generators such as wind farms) to write to Members of the Scottish Parliament on the merits and urgency of new pumped storage hydroelectric power for Scotland on 14th February and a reply from Ian Anderson, the parliamentary manager for Dave Thomson MSP received the next day, the 15th February informed me about the SSE plan and Ian added
"initially scoped at 600MW but, to quote SSE, could be bigger!"
I replied to Ian
"So the schemes proposed by the SSE are welcome and ought to be green-lighted and fast-tracked, but I am really proposing that Scots start thinking long term about an order of magnitude and more greater investment in pumped storage hydroelectric capacity than those SSE plans."
So I had in mind "bigger would be better" but it was not until the next day on the 16th February when
a news story informed me that the SSE plans had been submitted to the Scottish government for public consultation
that I thought
"this needs consideration now"
So starting late on the night of the 17th, early 18th February and all through the weekend, I got busy, outlining my alternative vision for a far bigger dam and reservoir at the same location.
So this is my vision as inspired by the SSE plan. If my vision is flawed then the fault is mine alone. If my vision is brilliant, then the brilliance too is mine.
Image also hosted on postimage
The black contour line at 550 metres elevation shows the outline of the SSE proposed reservoir of about 1 square kilometre surface-area and the grey thick line shows the position of the proposed SSE dam which would stand 92 metres tall and would be the tallest dam in Scotland and indeed Britain to date though it seems our dams are several times smaller than the tallest dams elsewhere in the world these days.
Part of the red contour line at 775 metres elevation, where the red line surrounds a blue shaded area, blue representing water, shows the outline of my larger reservoir of about 2 square kilometres surface-area and the thicker brown line shows the position of my proposed dam which would stand 317 metres tall which would be one of the tallest man-made dams in the world, 1475 metres long and about 72 million cubic metres in volume.
Enhanced satellite photograph
Image also hosted on PostImage.Org
Cross section of the Dow-dam
The Dow-dam would be more than 3 times higher than the proposed SSE-dam. In this diagram, a horizontal line one third of the way up the Dow-dam indicates the relative height of the SSE dam although it is not aligned with this cross-section.
Image also hosted on PostImage.Org
Maps showing the line of cross-section viewed from each side
Image also hosted on PostImage.Org
Image also hosted on PostImage.Org
Cross section of the Dow-dam reservoir
Cross section along the major diameter of the elliptical excavation of the reservoir bed
Also hosted on PostImage.org
The Upper Reservoir
The green ellipse of major diameter of 1.5 kilometres and minor diameter of 1 kilometre represents an excavated reservoir bed, as flat and as horizontal as practical, at an elevation of 463 metres.
Since an excavated reservoir bed is not, that I can see, part of the SSE plan, except as they need rock for their dam, I will provide some more information about my vision for that now.
The basic idea of excavating a flat or flattish reservoir bed is to increase the volume of the water stored in the reservoir because more water means more energy can be stored.
Capacity of the reservoir, energy stored and power supplied
Excavating around 138 million cubic metres of rock increases the volume of the reservoir so created to about 400 million cubic metres, achieving a theoretical energy storage capacity of more than
600 GigaWatt-Hours
and it ought to be possible to excavate enough rock to achieve a practical 600GW.Hrs electrical energy supplied.
Accordingly, I envision it would be appropriate and useful to install the required turbine-pumps to supply up to
12 GigaWatts
of electrical power to the grid for up to 50 hours before the energy store would be exhausted.
Excavation details
Depending on the geology and strength of the rock of Coire Glas the walls of the reservoir bed perimeter could be as steep as vertical from the reservoir bed up to the natural elevation of the existing rock surface which would mean, presumably, blasting out rock to create a cliff which at places could be as much as about 290 metres tall.
Near the dam, the reservoir bed perimeter wall would be only 40 metres or less tall. The further from the dam, the higher the wall will be and the more rock needs to be excavated.
A vertical reservoir bed perimeter wall would be ideal to maximise reservoir volume wherever the geology provides a strong stone which can maintain a vertical wall face without collapse, (a stone as strong as solid granite would be nice though Coire Glas looks to be mostly made of a rock called "psammite"). Ideally this would allow about 138 million cubic metres to be excavated to flatten the reservoir bed.
Where the geology only provides a weaker stone then a sloping perimeter wall at a suitable angle of repose for reliable stability would be constructed.
So the reservoir perimeter wall could be as sloped as shallow as 45 degrees from the natural elevation at the perimeter of the eclipse sloping down to the reservoir bed at 463 metres elevation in the case of the weakest and most prone to collapse kinds of stone.
Exactly how strong the stone is at each location I guess we'll only find out absolutely for sure if and when engineers start blasting it and testing the revealed rock wall face for strength.
The shape of the perimeter of the excavated reservoir bed is not absolutely critical. So long as it ends up as a stable wall or slope, however it is shaped by the blasting, it will be fine. There is no need to have stone masons chip the perimeter smooth and flat! The ellipse is simply the easiest approximate mathematical shape to describe and to draw. If the end result is not a perfect ellipse, don't worry, it will be fine!
Geology of the Coire Glas site
I have been able to extract this information from the
British Geological Survey (BGS) Geology of Britain viewer
from the 1:50 000 scale map.
Click to see larger image
According to this map, the bedrock at the site which would be used to build the dam on top of and to extract rock from to create the tunnels for the underground complex seems to be a rock geologists call "
" which I understand to mean here
"a metamorphic rock whose protolith was a sandstone".
What neither the map nor the "psammite" name is telling us is how fractured the psammite rock there is and therefore how strong and also how impermeable or otherwise to water this rock is likely to prove to be, both of which would be interesting for any engineers building a pumped-storage hydro dam scheme there to know.
What does look fairly obvious to me is that the superficial deposit of what the map calls "
hummocky (moundy) glacial deposits - diamicton, sand and gravel
" would not be strong enough, nor impermeable enough to build any dam on top of and at least along the line of the dam, this glacial deposit ought to be removed to get down to the bedrock within which to establish the foundations of the dam, although I would think that this glacial deposit might be made into aggregate to make the concrete for the dam by the sounds of it.
Dam foundations and height of the dam above the bedrock
The top of the Dow-Dam has an elevation of 780 metres by design.
Image also hosted here
The lowest elevation of the current ground surface of Coire Glas along the line of the proposed dam is 463 metres and subtracting 463 from 780 is how the initial value of 317 metres for the nominal height of the dam above the existing surface used in previous diagrams was arrived at.
However, the glacial deposit of as yet unknown thickness is to be removed before building the foundations of the dam within and upon the bedrock.
Although the lowest surface elevation along the line of the dam of the bedrock too is unknown a formula relating the
Height of the Dam Above the Bedrock (HDAB)
to the
Glacial Deposit Depth (GDD)
can be easily stated.
If the GDD turns out to be 13 metres then the dam will be 330 metres tall.
If the GDD turns out ot be 83 metres then the dam will be 400 metres tall.
Image also hosted here
I propose that the height of the Dow-Dam be as tall above the bedrock as it needs to be to keep the top of the dam at an elevation of 780 metres no matter how deep the removed glacial deposit layer turns out to be.
My approach may well differ from the SSE's approach. The SSE have said that their dam will be "92 metres" high and they may stick to that without having any goal for the elevation of the top of their dam.
As the diagram indicates, I propose to secure the Dow-Dam to the bedrock by massive piles inserted and secured into shafts which would be drilled into the bedrock.
Reservoir bed drain
The high pressure of water which is deeper than 100 metres has the potential to induce seismic activity or earthquakes in susceptible rock in which a new reservoir has been constructed.
Wikipedia wrote:
Induced seismicity - Causes - Reservoirs.
The mass of water in a reservoir alters the pressure in the rock below and through fissures in the rocks, lubricates the fault, which can trigger earthquakes.
Unfortunately, understanding of reservoir induced seismic activity is very limited. However, it has been noted that seismicity appears to occur on dams with heights larger than 100 meters. The extra water pressure created by vast reservoirs is the most accepted explanation for the seismic activity.
Coire Glas/SSE/92 m
Hopefully, reservoir induced seismicity was an issue considered by the SSE when selecting Coire Glas for their hydro dam project.
I am speculating that this issue may be why the SSE have limited their dam to a height and their reservoir to a depth of 92 metres?
I would note however that the pressure in the head race tunnels which supply water from the reservoir to the turbines would be proportional to their depth below the surface of the reservoir and this could be as much as 500 metres deep, so there would seem to be some potential for water to penetrate the bed rock from the high pressure water tunnels and induce seismic activity even in the SSE case.
This is an issue which ought to have been addressed in the many previous pumped-storage hydro scheme projects, most of which seem to have a difference in head of more than 100 metres.
Given that
"understanding ... is very limited"
according to Wikipedia, though, I do wonder if the reservoir induced seismicity issue has not always been properly addressed in all previous dam and reservoir construction schemes where the great depth of water and susceptible geology ought to make it a relevant concern?
Coire Glas/Dow/317+m
I am proposing measures to counter the reservoir induced seismicity effect in the case that the geology of Coire Glas is susceptible to it and in the general case.
I propose the construction of a large reservoir surface drain to cover
the whole reservoir bed and the reservoir sides too
to try to stop the penetration of water under high pressure into fractures in the bedrock and so thereby stop this high pressure water from widening and extending bedrock fractures.
To illustrate my "reservoir bed drain" concept, I have drawn a diagram comparing the usual no drain on the left, with my proposed reservoir bed drain and dam drain pipes on the right.
Image also hosted here.
So my idea is that the top layer of the bed drain is as impermeable as practical, using perhaps a layer of reinforced asphalt concrete.
In engineering practice I believe that impermeable reservoir bed layers have used clay or clay with asphalt or even rubberised asphalt mixed with sand.
My basic idea is to construct an impermeable layer and to use whatever material is best for that.
Then working downwards, the permeable bed drain layers are increasingly bigger loose particles, with sand at the 2nd top then beneath that grit, then gravel, then small stones and finally below all those a layer of large stones.
The higher layers support the top impermeable layer which is under high pressure from the reservoir water and the lower permeable layers provide many small channels for any (hopefully tiny amounts of) water which forces its way through the supposedly impermeable top layer to drain down the slope of the reservoir bed to the base of the dam and then out under the dam through drain-pipes built into the base of the dam.
The bottom layer of the bed drain is another impermeable layer to try to make doubly sure that the relatively low pressure water that gets into the bed drain will find its way out through the dam drain pipes by following the course of the drain.
These kinds of layers of different sized loose particles have previously been used to make simple narrow drains and impermeable layers have been added to reservoir beds before now but whether professional dam engineers have ever covered the entire reservoir bed and sides with one large drain I don't know. If not, this could be named the "Dow drain" solution to reservoir induced seismicity!
Why not add a simple impermeable layer to the reservoir bed?
I think the additional complexity and expense of a bed drain (and drains for the sides too) is better than simply adding an impermeable layer.
Consider the fault condition of the two possible solutions.
If a simple impermeable layer fails, if it cracks or ruptures or disintegrates under the pressure changes, how would anyone know? It may look fine but be leaking high pressure water into the bedrock and inducing seismicity which OK the engineers would notice any earthquakes but so would everyone else, the earthquakes could cause damage or loss of life and it could lead to a loss of confidence in the project and in the engineers who built it. They could go to jail!
If the top impermeable layer of the bed drain fails then there would be some water pouring out of the drainpipes through the base of the dam when at most it should only be a tiny trickle of water. So the engineers would know there was a problem with the bed drain and they'd know to drain the reservoir and fix or replace the top supposedly "impermeable" layer, fix the bed drain so that it operated as it should.
So failure with the bed drain is noticed right away and it is not a catastrophic failure. Whereas failure with the simple impermeable layer may not be noticed until a catastrophic earthquake happens.
So this is why I think the bed drain is worth the extra complexity and expense. It is a more fault tolerant engineering solution.
Loch Lochy and vicinity water flow control works
Here is an annotated satellite photograph of the land south from Coire Glas showing Loch Lochy, Loch Arkaig, the isthmus between the lochs, Mucomir where Loch Lochy empties into the River Spean before it flows on as the River Lochy, the Caledonian Canal and Fort William where the river flows into a sea loch.
Click to see larger image
New waterway
Loch Lochy
is separated from a neighbouring loch,
Loch Arkaig
, by a 2 km wide isthmus, which I have identified on
this map
as "the Achnacarry Bunarkaig isthmus", after the local place names.
It ought to be quite straight forward to build a canal or culvert, to connect those two lochs. The idea is that the new waterway would be wide and deep enough, enough of a cross section area under water, perhaps hundreds of square metres, so as to allow free flow from one loch to the other, so as to equalise the surface elevations of the two lochs, so as to increase the effective surface area of Loch Lochy so as to decrease the depth changes to Loch Lochy when water flows in from the Coire Glas reservoir when it discharges water when supplying power.
Now, Loch Arkaig has a natural surface elevation of 43 metres and this would be lowered to that of Loch Lochy. The surface area of Loch Arkaig is given by wikipedia as 16 km^2 also, (though it looks to me somewhat smaller than Loch Lochy). In addition, partially draining Loch Arkaig to bring its level down to that of Loch Lochy will also reduce its surface area.
If say, the additional surface area of Loch Arkaig is about 10 km^2 added to Loch Lochy's 16 km^2 this would give an effective surface area of 26 km^2 and reduce the potential depth variation to
Potential depth variation of Loch Lochy + Loch Arkaig = 400 000 000 m^3 / 26 000 000 m^2 = 15.3 metres.
Without equalising the loch levels, the depth changes to Loch Lochy that would require to be managed may be potentially more like 25 metres than 15 metres. So the new waterway is an important part of the new water flow control works that Coire Glas/Dow requires to be constructed.
Additional Loch Lochy water level control measures
When the Coire Glas reservoir is full, then the water level of Loch Lochy should be prevented, by new water works - drains, dams, flood barriers etc. - from rising due to rainfall and natural flow into the loch above a safe level which allows for the reservoir to empty into the loch without overflowing and flooding.
The safe "upper-reservoir-full" loch level will likely turn out to be around about 15 metres below the maximum loch level.
The next diagram showing the new loch drain and the reservoir pump inlets indicates how this might be achieved.
Click to see larger image
The drain from Loch Lochy to the sea which goes underground from the 14 m elevation level in the loch would need capacity for the usual outflow from Loch Lochy which currently goes through the Mucomir hydroelectric station.
I have estimated the flow through Mucomir from its maximum power of 2MegaWatts and its head of 7m as somewhere near 0.2 Mega-cubic-metres-per-hour and compared that value using a spreadsheet I have written to predict the capacity of water flow through different sizes of drains using the empirical
Manning formula
and this is also useful for determining the appropriate size of the new water channel between the lochs.
Ease my quantity
To construct
Coire Glas/Dow/600GW.Hrs/12GW
may cost of the order of around
£20 billion
, but that would be my order of magnitude educated guess more than a professional cost estimate.
In other words, I'm only really confident at this early "vision" stage that the cost would be closer to £20 billion than it would be to £2 billion or to £200 billion but I'm not claiming to be able to quote an accurate cost estimate at this stage.
I have not itemised my costs - how much for land, how much for labour, how much for trucks, how much for diggers, how much for cement, how much to install the generators etc. and the SSE have not published itemised costs for theirs either so I can't calculate my costs in a proportion to the SSE's costs.
Although my version offers 600 GigaWatt-Hours energy and 12 GigaWatts power (or 20 times the capacity and performance) some of the items in my version would cost more than "in proportion", in other words more than 20 times the SSE's cost.
For example, the cost of my dam will be more like 27 times the cost of the SSE's dam. (3.44 times higher and thicker and 2.27 times longer).
For example, the cost of excavating 400 million tonnes of rock from the reservoir bed to increase the capacity of the reservoir to hold water (and energy) in my version won't be in proportion to the SSE costs for excavating their reservoir bed because, as far as I know, they don't plan to excavate their reservoir bed, except for rock for the dam.
On the other hand, my land costs are about the same as the SSE's - much less than in proportion. I may well need to use more land to dispose of the additional excavated rock spoil but perhaps when that additional land has been landscaped over it could be resold?
So it depends how much the land is as a proportion of the SSE's costs. If land is a small part of their costs, if 20 similar sites to build on are just as cheap and easy to buy then my costs will be much more than proportional, since saving land won't save much money.
If land is scarce and valuable and the cost to purchase suitable land with a good chance to get permission to build on it is a significant proportion of the SSE's or anyone's costs to build 20 of their size of hydro dam schemes then my costs may be better than proportional. Sometimes securing suitable land for development can be very problematic, very expensive. Sometimes people won't sell their land. Sometimes the authorities won't agree that the land can be used in this way.
The SSE say that suitable sites for such pumped storage schemes are rare indeed, so land costs may be very significant and my scheme good value for money.
If indeed the cost of my scheme is somewhere around £20 billion it is likely to cost far more than the SSE or any electrical power supply company looking to their annual profits for the next few years could possibly afford.
Something like £20 billion I expect could only be found as a national public infrastructure project, spending government money, like the building of a large bridge or motorway would be.
A £20 billion government project would require Treasury approval, at least while Scotland is ruled as part of the UK.
I have suggested funding my much larger hydro dam scheme by re-allocating of some of the Bank of England's "Quantitative Easing" funds which amount to some £300 billion of new money printed with not much to show for it.
Any Questions?
OK, well I guess that's the vision part over. The rest is fairly straight-forward engineering I hope. Oh, and there is always getting the permission and the funding to build it of course which is never easy for anything this big.
OK, well if anyone has any questions or points to make about my vision or can say why they think the SSE plan is better than mine, or if you don't see why we need any pumped storage hydroelectric scheme at Coire Glas, whatever your point of view, if you have something to add in reply, please do.
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Joined: 24 Nov 2005
Posts: 18541
Location: Lincolnshire
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:35 am
Post subject:
Welcome to PowerSwitch, Peter. Your first two posts, this and on wind power, have certainly boosted the information per post average of the forum.
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Peter Dow
Joined: 01 Apr 2012
Posts: 10
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:03 am
Post subject:
biffvernon wrote:
Welcome to PowerSwitch, Peter.
Thanks for the welcome!
biffvernon wrote:
Your first two posts, this and on wind power, have certainly boosted the information per post average of the forum.
Well I am sorry if I am disappointing you with this information-free post which is bringing the information-per-post average back down again. Such information-rich posts are not typical for me.
Those two posts represent about 6 weeks of thinking, researching, composing and posting multiple smaller posts elsewhere, getting replies, debating, re-thinking and generally going through many emotional and intellectual crises known to man, yet somehow managing not to damage either myself nor my PC in the process.
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Joined: 24 Nov 2016
Posts: 1
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 8:37 am
Post subject:
Peter Dow wrote:
biffvernon wrote:
Welcome to PowerSwitch, Peter.
Thanks for the welcome!
biffvernon wrote:
Your first two posts, this and on wind power, have certainly boosted the information per post average of the forum.
Well I am sorry if I am disappointing you
with this information on xtrasize
free post which is bringing the information-per-post average back down again. Such information-rich posts are not typical for me.
Those two posts represent about 6 weeks of thinking, researching, composing and posting multiple smaller posts elsewhere, getting replies, debating, re-thinking and generally going through many emotional and intellectual crises known to man, yet somehow managing not to damage either myself nor my PC in the process.
Lol, I agree with Biff, this is one of the best posts on this site. What do you think about this subject these days Peter?
Last edited by Sury on Tue May 16, 2017 11:00 am; edited 2 times in total
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:02 am
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Peter Dow
Joined: 01 Apr 2012
Posts: 10
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:42 am
Post subject:
Sury wrote:
Peter Dow wrote:
biffvernon wrote:
Welcome to PowerSwitch, Peter.
Thanks for the welcome!
biffvernon wrote:
Your first two posts, this and on wind power, have certainly boosted the information per post average of the forum.
Well I am sorry if I am disappointing you with this information-free post which is bringing the information-per-post average back down again. Such information-rich posts are not typical for me.
Those two posts represent about 6 weeks of thinking, researching, composing and posting multiple smaller posts elsewhere, getting replies, debating, re-thinking and generally going through many emotional and intellectual crises known to man, yet somehow managing not to damage either myself nor my PC in the process.
Lol, I agree with Biff, this is one of the best posts on this site. What do you think about this subject these days Peter?
Well four and half years later I am disappointed, but of course not surprised, that they haven't built anything like my super-sized 600GWh version of the SSE's modest 30GWh plan for a pumped-storage hydro scheme at Coire Glas.
What I didn't predict was that by now there would still have been no decision to invest in the construction of any large new pumped-storage hydro scheme anywhere in Britain.
Meanwhile, other plans for large-scale Scottish pumped-storage hydro schemes have been published ...
2013 -
Energy Storage Solution for the UK: Large Scale Pumped-Storage Site
2015 -
Worlds biggest-ever pumped-storage hydro-scheme, for Scotland?
Meanwhile, Scottish Renewables are going blue in the face trying to explain -
2016 -
The Benefits of Pumped Storage Hydro to the UK
Then there was the poor decision to close Longannet coal-fired power station instead of converting it to burn biomass, leaving Scotland having to import power from England at times of low wind, an embarrassing state of affairs for an energy resource rich country like Scotland.
What I think is that if there are any power cuts caused by UK government energy policy incoherence and mismanagement then there will be hell to pay.
The European Blackout Risk
Peter Dow is a Scottish scientist and a republican socialist.
My political defence blog.
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text:
Delegation from Tagai State College in front of the Torres Strait display at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on 13 November 2013.
Left to right: Curator Anita Herle, Stephen Yamashia, Amelia Mari, Valent Kirk, Margaret Rishbeth (Haddon's graddaughter), Zach Bani, Tanisha Pabai and Deborah Belyea.
During the week of 11 November 2013 the Museum welcomed 5 secondary students from Waybeni Koey Ngurpay Mudh Tagai State College on Thursday Island. Led by their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies teacher, Mrs Deb Belyea, the students (Zach Bani, Valent Kirk, Amelia Mari, Tanisha Pabai, and Stephen Yamashita) were keen to re-connect with aspects of their heritage at the University of Cambridge. MAA has developed strong collaborative relationships with people in the Torres Strait, and hosted numerous visits by Islanders, but this is the first time that the Museum has worked closely with a student group.
Tagai State College students Stephen Yamashita and Tanisha Pabai with teacher Deborah Belyea looking at a dibidibi shell pendant collected by Alfred Haddon in 1898.
Academic Advisor Dr Anita Herle developed a week-long programme which focused on the University's important Torres Strait collections, many of which originate from the landmark 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait lead by Alfred Haddon. The students each selected an artefact to study and compiled a learning log. Other academic activities included a visit to the University Herbarium to see the Torres Islander plant samples collected on the Expedition, a tour of the Haddon library, a talk in Bio-anthropology, and a presentation given by the students to the Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures Group. A highlight of the visit was meeting with Margaret Rishbeth, Haddon's granddaughter. Amelia Mari demonstrated a range of string figures using the string that was taken by Margaret's mother Kathleen Rishbeth (née Haddon) to the Torres Strait and New Guinea when she accompanied her father on a research trip to the region in 1914. On return to the Torres Strait the students shared their experiences at a Community Feedback Evening.
Amelia Mari demonstrating string figures to Haddon's granddaughter Margaret Rishbeth.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Places to stay
The simplest way to find a room or an apartment is to search on the private housing market. Many students in Berlin live in shared apartments (WGs) and there is a relatively large supply of rooms. You find these offers on the internet, in various Berlin magazines, or on notice boards in different places of the university. 30 minutes to one hour commuting time on public transportation is nothing unusual - depending on where you live in the city. It is advisable to attend to find a room in Berlin soon because low priced accommodations are rare.
The rent
Rents in Berlin normally start at 350 Euro, shared apartments tend to be less expensive. On signing the lease your landlord will probably expect a deposit of three months, reimbursed with interest at the end of tenancy as long as nothing has been damaged. Sometimes a commission or a compensation for furniture is requested; therefore, make sure that you bring enough money with you.
Short-term Accommodation
If you arrive in Berlin and have not yet found an apartment or a room you will need cheap short-term accommodation at either a youth hostel (in German) or a guest house (Jugendgästehaus).
Registration at the Bürgeramt
Within 10 days after your arrival in Berlin, you need to register at the local authorities (even for a temporary stay). The proof of residence registration is needed to open a bank account.
The Berliner Bürgerämter (in German) are related to the particular districts.
For the registration you need to bring:
- the official registration form
- your passport or identity card.
All students from EU Countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland ask for the "Freizügigkeitsbescheinigung", when they register at the Bürgeramt.


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iCal export
Download current event:
Event calendar file
Detailed timetable calendar file
In order to enable an iCal export link, your account needs to have a key created. This key enables other applications to access data from within Indico even when you are neither using nor logged into the Indico system yourself with the link provided. Once created, you can manage your key at any time by going to 'My Profile' and looking under the tab entitled 'HTTP API'. Further information about HTTP API keys can be found in the Indico documentation.
I have read and understood the above.
In conjunction with a having a key associated with your account, to have the possibility of exporting private event information necessitates the creation of a persistent key. This new key is also associated with your account and whilst it is active the data which can be obtained through using this key can be obtained by anyone in possession of the link provided. Due to this reason, it is extremely important that you keep links generated with this key private and for your use only. If you think someone else may have acquired access to a link using this key in the future, you must immediately remove it from 'My Profile' under the 'HTTP API' tab and generate a new key before regenerating iCalendar links.
I have read and understood the above.
Permanent link for public information only:
Permanent link for all public and protected information:
Please use
to copy this URL
Detailed timetable
The 6th International symposium on Negative Ions, Beams and Sources (NIBS'18)
3-7 September 2018
Asia/Novosibirsk timezone
Scientific Programme
Speaker List
Book of Abstracts
Previous Meetings
NIBS Award
Proceedings at AIP
International Program Committee
M. Bacal, UPMC, France
Y. Belchenko, BINP, Russia
C. Corr, Australian National University, Australia
D. Faircloth, STFC, UK
G. Fubiani, LAPLACE/CNRS/Univ. of Toulouse, France
A. Holmes, Marcham Scientific, UK
Y. Hwang, SNU, Korea
A. Ivanov, BINP/Novosibirsk State University, Russia
M. Kashiwagi, JAEA, Japan
W. Kraus, IPP, Germany
J. Lettry, CERN, Switzerland
R. McAdams, CCFE, UK
Y. Mori, Kyoto University, Japan
B. Schunke, ITER Organisation, France
M. Singh, IPR, India
M. Stöckli, ORNL, USA
Y. Takeiri, NIFS, Japan
M. Wada, Doshisha University,Japan
A. Zelenskii, BNL,USA
Local Organizing Committee
Yu. Belchenko – chairman
A. Ivanov
A. Sanin - scientific secretary
M. Kuzin
S. Popov
A. Prokopenko
I. Shikhovtsev
A. Zolkin
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NEXT DEPARTURE July, August and September 2016
Comments about our last trip ....
1st class service from Bev and Lucho…
Bookings, hotel selected were well placed near the center, organizing of tours, organizing of tours and travel enroute excellent
Loved the trip
Have no hesitation on recommending your tour to others.
Laurie Cleland
I agree with everything Laurie has mentioned. I enjoyed the trip inmensely…. Not as fit as I thought I was
Thank you very much.
Jill Carolyn Cleland
The trip was FABULOUS from start to finish . Really well organized and really well planned so we had every moment filled with new sights and experiences. A selection of highlights in a short time. Everyday so different and unexpected.
Paula Jane Stuart
Click Here Photos
• Enjoy the traditional centre of Peru's capital city Lima.
• Travel on one of the highest trains in the world over 4,800 mts into the Peruvian Andes.
• Soak up the flavours and colours of our open air market in Huancayo (3,200mts).
• Visit craft villages ….and step back in time!
• Enjoy the ancient city of Cusco – the centre of the Inca Empire.
• Visit the Sacred Valley and enjoy the traditional markets and ancient ruins.
• Visit the spectacular Inca ruins of Machu Picchu – hidden from the Spanish and from the world until 1911.
• Stay in a jungle lodge in the Madre de Dios National Park surrounded by exciting wildlife.
• Search for crocodiles in the dark of night and fish for piranha in the mightly Amazon!
• Travel by boat on the highest navigable lake in the world – Lake Titicaca.
• Spend a night on Taquile island in the middle of lake Titicaca.
• Visit the incredible floating islands – Los Uros
• Stay in the beautiful city of Arequipa and explore the Santa Catalina Monastery.
• Travel through the spectacular Colca Canyon and see the famous Condors in flight.


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We want to hear about your experience.
By Wells DunbarAugust 1, 2016 9:53 amOut of the Blue
Miguel Gutierrez Jr. /KUT News
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A weekly update of the top stories and statewide coverage right to your inbox
©2018 Texas Standard. A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin | Contact us


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Many fans celebrate Elvis Presley's birthday, each and every year, regardless of the day it falls on.
But it is on a Saturday in 2011, meaning a luau-type lark can be had without thoughts of rising early the next morning. And should we even put here that Mr. Presley was born on Jan. 8? Surely that is on your calendar.
And if you're an Elvis buff, and live in or near Hollywood, you also have something else on your calendar, we're betting: the "Blue Hawaii" luau at the Egyptian Theatre. The theater is screening the movie, which American Cinematheque describes as "classic Elvis 2.0," on Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to a lot of people in brightly hued shirts and leis watching the movie, there will also be a courtyard party, complete with karaoke and island-style treats. You'll want to watch for details here, and you want to dig out your floweriest shirt, we expect. The courtyard party starts at 4 p.m., the better to get people in a perfectly Presleyian mood for the movie to come at 7:30 p.m.
By the by, this all dovetails -- or gulltails? -- with the opening of Maui and Sons Bar and Grill, next to the Egyptian. Wonder if a place called Maui and Sons might serve up Hawaiian barbecue? Chances are excellent.


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EDMONTON – As people struggle in a tough economy, their pets can end up feeling the pinch. That's where the Alberta Helping Animals Society (AHAS) comes in.
The non-profit is designed to help low-income Edmontonians keep their pets when money is tight.
Jill Duncan has been on the receiving end of the society's kindness before. She has three poodles, Nicholas, Copper and Bella, and never had trouble supporting them until she developed a medical condition that prevented her from working.
Paws for Hope helps pets in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
'Your pets are living creatures; don't abandon them,' says SPCA
Duncan became homeless and when Nicholas' teeth began to deteriorate, she was scraping rock bottom.
"I had taken them in to get spayed through the PALS program and his teeth were so bad that they literally could not let him leave without doing something about it," she said.
Her Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) payments weren't cutting it when it came to her pets' needs.
"It was a $3,000 bill and there is no way, ever, that I could have afforded to do it," Duncan explained.
Instead, the surgery was paid for by strangers, through donations.
Bella also needed teeth removed, and Copper developed a bladder problem. The surgeries and medicine were covered by AHAS.
"These are my babies, they're my life. Without this medical care they're getting from AHAS, I wouldn't be able to take care of them properly."
The society's president, Connie Varnhagen, described the work her team does daily: "We are house call veterinary services to provide wellness care for the companion animals of vulnerable people in their homes."
Varnhagen said pets are invaluable to low-income people.
"They're there with you 24 hours a day. They're there for everything. Imagine tearing that away, tearing that animal away, your life support and your social support. What is there for you to get up in the morning?"
Post-secondary students have been helping the group with educational material, fundraising, business ideas and research.
Meghan Senger is one of those students.
"There is no reason that even if you're low income you shouldn't have pets. Animals are such a huge part of people's lives," she said.
Her group made a video to help raise money for AHAS operations.
"Being able to help the people in your city, especially with animals, is something I'm so passionate about, there's nothing more rewarding than that."
Duncan said their efforts won't soon be forgotten.
"These students have put their heart and soul into this program and it means the world to me."
To qualify for home veterinary services, clients must be on AISH, receiving social assistance, fall under the low income cut off or have special circumstances.


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Quick Reference
An investor in a high-risk enterprise. Traditionally, the term was applied to the financial backers of stage productions but it is now used increasingly for investors in e-business.
Subjects: Financial Institutions and Services — Computing.
Related content in Oxford Index
Reference entries
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Since our establishment, the Dayton Mortgage Bankers Association has worked toward representing, protecting and improving the quality of mortgage services in the Greater Miami Valley area.
The real estate finance industry contributes significantly to the strength of our economy— on a local and national level. It stabilizes markets, creates jobs, revitalizes communities and expands housing opportunities for all Americans. The profession is crucial to assisting home buyers realize their dreams of ownership and manage their financial assets. It provides mortgages to a full range of homebuyers and commercial enterprises, often to low- moderate- and middle-income borrowers needing Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or Veterans Administration (VA) backed financing. Because mortgage origination is a complicated industry, DMBA brings together providers of capital (investors) with those needing such funds (homebuyers) while overseeing that standards of excellence and integrity are consistently held to, insuring that everyone is treated fairly.
View the DMBA Constitution and By-Laws
View the Canon of Ethics and Standards of Practice
You can also learn more about MBA at the state and national levels:
Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association
Mortgage Bankers Association
Mission Statement
The purpose of this association shall be to promote the success of its individual members and companies and to improve their interaction within our industry and service to our community.
We shall recognize to the fullest extent the obligations of its members to act in accordance with the highest standards of business ethics, including, but not limited to, the Canon of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
We shall provide quality educational and networking opportunities to enhance the professional growth and development of our members.
We shall support and encourage our membership to engage in fair, affordable housing initiative that will promote home ownership for all segments of the community.
Our member companies include all elements of real estate finance such as:


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Gynexin: Customer reviews from real users of this natural pill
Gynecomastia is a real problem in males when the size of the breasts increase and this condition is totally unwanted. The reason behind this can be either pathological or non-pathological. Mostly it is the simple fat deposition in majority of the males. Many different treatment options are present for curing this disease but Gynexin is believed to be the best on the market. In cases of pathological gynecomastia, proper hormonal profile is seen and the treatment is initiated according to that.
In cases of simple fat deposition in large quantities, patients are many a times given the option of breast surgery in which the fat is taken out of the breast and the breast size returns back to normal. The surgical option is not very appealing to many males. Thus any medication which can decrease the male breast size is more comfortable for majority.
Gynexin is also a male breast reducing pills composed of the natural ingredients which aims at reducing the breast without any surgical intervention required. The product is said to show its affects within 2 to 4 weeks of usage of the pill. The manufacturer also claims that the product has no side effects although this moobs reducing pill is not being approved by FDA as yet.
Thus it is wise to see some real customer reviews after their experience for this male reduction pills. These reviews are from amazon.com which has verified and real customers available for this product. The following are some of the customers reviews regarding gynexin and others can be found on the official website as well. But those can be totally trusted as they may be changed in order to be in the favor of the manufacturer's product.
The following reviews show that these customers have really good experience after using the male breast reducing pill. One of the customers combined the pill intake with a proper diet plan as well as exercise to gain the maximum benefits. No male breast reduction pill can show any results if the fat intake is not diminished and proper exercise is not done. It is very essential to monitor ones dietary habits and not leave it solely upon the pill to decrease the breast size.
As far as the good reviews are present, there are always something negative about the product as not every product has same effect on different individuals. Few of the following reviews showed that the pill had no effect and it's better to have surgery instead of wasting money on the pill. But different individual factor can have effect on the efficacy of the gynexin pill. In the case below, the customer is only 18 years of age and is still undergoing puberty which may hinder the pill from showing its results due to constant hormonal changes.
The side effect of gynexin is not documented but they are still experienced by the individuals such as headache and feeling dizzy. Thus individual body does pay a role in determining the affect any pill can play.
After seeing both positive and negative comments from the real life customers, it is totally personal choice either to use this male boob reduction pill or to go for surgery. One should make the decision wisely after doing proper research and consulting a doctor in order to prevent any complications later.


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Welcome to the Reader's Guidesite, the portal for news about the Reader's Guides websites. I now have three websites about classic novels:
so I thought I would create a blog where I could post any changes to the sites or plans for new ones. I can also post any news which I think might interest visitors to the sites (such as 2018 being the 200th anniversary of Emily Brontë's birth).
The site was originally created in WordPress but I have been experimenting in Joomla, a similar system. I prefer the latter so this site now runs with Joomla.


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Sony Xperia Ion pictures here!
Sony Xperia ion pictures here!
Sony Xperia Ion Power and Battery; Talk time (maximum): 10 hours Standby time (maximum): 400 hours Music listening time: 12 hours
Sony Xperia Ion Camera Features; 12 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus Sony Exmor R ™ for mobile CMOS sensor 16x digital zoom HD video recording (1080p) 3D panoramic shooting On playback supported image formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WBMP Image capture format supported: JPEG Supported formats, playback and recording Video: 3GPP, MP4 Accelerated Adobe Flash Video The front camera (1.3 megapixel, 720p) Face detection
you can make video calls with a 1.3 megapixel camera located on the front of the Xperia ION. But the video call feature is only available on the instant messaging service. You can not make 3G video calls by dialing the number. Likewise, you can not come in 3G call. The camera can be used in services such as GTalk and Skype.
Android v2.3 operating system, the Xperia IONs operating system can be upgraded up to v4. Sony Xperia ION 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, has 1 GB of RAM, 13.2 GB of internal memory. Sony Xperia ion sell for $ 850.
Red and a high sound and image quality to the Xperia ION with black. 4:55 inch LED-backlit LCD capacitive touch screen with the size and shape of the Sony Xperia ION 133x68x10.8 mm. The weight of 144 grams.
guzelresimler.info is a web site that beautiful, funny and interesting photos are shared. The source of photos used in the web site are social media, any publicly shared images or directly shared photos with us. If you have any copywrite claim for any photo you can get in contact with us.
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text: Colombia vs Peru Archive 20 Jun 2015 Colombia Vs Peru Free Live Streaming By Copa America LIVE STREAMING 0 Comment Colombia Vs Peru Free Live Streaming Get ready for the Group C encounter between Colombia and Peru in the 17th match of the Copa America 2014 at Estadio Municipal German Becker, Temuco. Enjoy here the live streaming of Colombia vs Peru 2015 Copa America match. Here is the complete procedure to online live match of Read More


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There are seemingly thousands of different ways to build a website now. Wix is one of the best-known brands in the website builder product type. They've been around for quite a while (circa 2006), and have built a large word-of-mouth brand. I recently had a small project, and a reason to try out several drag and drop website builders. I gave Wix a try to see how they fit. Here are my 6 pros and 6 cons and full Wix review.
But first, a bit of an overview of general website builder considerations. There really are more than a thousand ways to get what you want in the end (aka someone to type in a website address and see your information in their browser). Technically to create a website, you just need a text editor to hand code an HTML file.
But most people choose a solution on a spectrum based on their skill, time, and goals. The spectrum ranges from all-inclusive (ie, "we do everything for you, but also control everything) to 100% DIY (ie, "you do everything, but it's quite complicated").
Whether you are building a simple personal website or running a business, the way you build your site has a lot of consequences.
In the long-term, it affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short term, it can certainly add or take away a lot of headaches. That said, just like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute "best" or "top" choice. There's only the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.
What Is Wix?
On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Wix lives on the website builder end that is all-inclusive. You build your site on their software with their tools. Your website lives on their servers. You can only access your site via the Wix admin panel. It's in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the "pieces" of your website separately.
Like other website builders, using Wix is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a gated development instead of buying and owning your own house. You're still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there's usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.
As far as direct competitors, Wix competes directly with all-inclusive website builders like Weebly, Squarespace, GoDaddy GoCentral, and WordPress.com.
Those all-inclusive options as a group compete with options like self-hosted WordPress (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control on your own hosting – see my WordPress setup guide) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file.
Is Wix Safe?
Yes – Wix is safe to use. Wix is a publicly-traded company that operates globally with well-established legal, privacy, payments, and product standards. There are plenty of fly-by-night or amateur-run website builders. But Wix is not one of them. They have downsides, but a solid upside is their safety & reputation.
Is Wix Free?
Wix has a free plan, but only if you use a Wix subdomain (e.g., yourwebsite.wix.com). You also have to display Wix ads and have limited functionality. To use a custom domain and have full functionality, you have to pay for a premium plan. It's great for a short-term or temporary project…or to simply try Wix out before upgrading.
If you are looking for a free website builder option, you could also explore these free website options. This review will explore Wix's full product suite with a focus on anyone building a full, public-facing website.
Make sense? Awesome, let's dive into the Wix review.
Pros of Using Wix
Here's what I found to be the pros of Wix – not just in comparison to Weebly and Squarespace or WordPress, but also as an overall online website solution.
Wix has historically been disliked by professionals while remaining the go-to "simple" solution for DIY website owners. In the mid-2000s, they led the way with an easy, intuitive drag and drop builder that was also built with Flash – a technology loathed by everyone from Steve Jobs to every professional marketer that I know.
They have since moved off Flash and significantly invested in their platform with a focus on marketing tools and specific needs of DIY small business owners.
As we'll see in the cons section, professional marketers will still have significant reservations about Wix. However – in some ways that misses the main pro about Wix – they are investing in being simple and easy for the DIY website owner who just needs something that works.
If Wix were a meal – they would not be a $30 brick oven pizza with custom ingredients. They would be a DiGiorno's microwavable pizza. That's not a good or bad thing. But it is something to know when figuring the best fit for your business.
Short-Term Pricing
Wix offers a free plan if you don't mind having your site address structured http://yourwebsite.wix.com/yourwebsite. Their only caps are around file storage and features – not around pages or page types. Their paid plans aren't outstanding (they are actually a disadvantage listed here shortly), but they are competitive enough for short-term projects.
Their plans allow you to get a site up quickly with no technical fuss and everything bundled and provided for you.
Their tiers are reasonable – though it is worth paying close attention to the caps and whether you actually need the bonus features (ie, Form Builder).
All plans have tiered discounts for the longer that you sign up.
Helpfully, they give you the "true" price upfront and show the discount after you select the plan.
Site Configuration & Onboarding
Wix's backend and overall design are functional at the core. But they've also cleaned up many of the edges to make it "prettier" while retaining a wealth of functions on a single screen.
But – it is simple and fairly intuitive. When they talk about drag and drop, they literally mean you drag and drop elements wherever you want them. They have tools, templates, and guidelines to help you design a site that you not only build but also literally see come together as you imagine it to look. Here's a bunch of Wix website examples to explore.
Figuring out design, pages, navigation – all the basic elements of a website are straightforward to configure. If you're going the website builder route, that's exactly what you're looking for.
Now – as you can see, it has an element of overwhelm due to all the options. However, they do a fairly good job getting you started from a good place, rather than from scratch.
That's because Wix's onboarding is also pretty solid. They immediately start your account on an email training sequence and guide you through design choices.
Additionally, Wix has a solid mobile experience, so that you can actually get your design started on a mobile device and worry about doing the finishing touches later.
Design Templates
In the past year, Wix has done a good job upgrading their designs & theme selection. When I tried them last year, their themes were fine but very 2010-ish.
While not quite up to SquareSpace's designs, Wix has a solid selection of modern themes. And unlike Squarespace, most do not require giant, professional photos to look good out of the box.
In the last year, Wix has introduced a new "Artificial Design Intelligence" that handles a lot of the manual work of designing a site with an algorithm. It makes designing a site even faster. Here's the product pitch.
Wix's design approach is a major advantage to its platform.
Additionally, their designs take care of both responsiveness (ie, they adapt to the device) AND accessibility (ie, they adapt to the user's browser – especially if the user has a disability). These two features are important since most DIY website owners don't have the time or knowledge to test & patiently edit site designs. Wix takes care of it for them.
Speed & Security
All Wix websites are hosted on Wix's servers. That means a few things. It means, of course, that the servers are optimized for Wix websites. Professionals at Wix are in charge of making sure your site stays fast. It also means that professionals are in charge of securing your site. Here's my speed test:
Wix's sites run off lots of Javascript. So their speed tests are a bit different than others. Their sites respond very quickly, but also take a while to fully load. Many professional developers are not fans of the approach, but for an average user, the sites appear fast. And in many ways – that is what counts.
And most importantly, the sites stay secure and they rarely, if ever, "go down." You don't have to worry about caching, CDNs, salts, or patches – which is really the core speed & security offering. Running a fast website can be straightforward, but if you are a contractor or business-person, sometimes you just need something to work.
Customer Support & Knowledgebase*
Like speed & security, Wix websites have an advantage of being an all-in-one solution. If there's a problem, it's on Wix. There's no tracking down the root problem or figuring out who or what is at fault.
When something is wrong, or when you want to edit something, you can get in touch with customer support. Wix does support via Knowledge Base, Phone, and Email Tickets. Since they run a proprietary platform, they can actually solve any problem you have.
*Aside – the "fine print" here is that Wix can solve any issue that is within their control to solve. I have received many emails about how Wix couldn't help them…but it was usually due to the fact that they had an edge case where Wix simply couldn't offer a solution. Here's an example from my project –
Wix was fast and fine solving service issues like my domain connection issues. They also pre-empted many issues with built-in features like one-click SSL (which is much easier than self-install).
But when I reached an edge case for their platform (swapping a template directly from an already published site) – I was simply out of luck.
The point, though, is that their service is a pro – but you have to keep their limitations in mind.
Business Customization
Wix is specific about their target markets and typical customers. They've done an excellent job "triaging" customers based on their business and building out custom templates and features for each market.
When you sign up for Wix, you have to choose whether you are a restaurant, band, real estate, etc, etc. After your choice, your settings are preset along with featured templates. It makes a fast sign up process even faster.
Product Investment
As I'll outline in the next section, Wix has some downsides. But, one thing that is different about Wix compared to many website builders is that they are a 100% independent, publicly-traded company exclusively devoted to website builders.
This means that they have every incentive to keep improving the product and make money as a website builder.
That point is important because, for many companies, their website builder is part of a product suite. So the website builder is only as important to the company as it is to the product suite – and have a risk of stagnating.
Blogger and Google Sites are premier examples of this situation. Both are excellent products that Google simply does not care about. Square recently purchased Weebly, so there's a risk there as well.
In my other reviews, I point out that it's important to understand how & why your service provider makes money so that you don't make a long-term decision around someone who doesn't care about you (ie, Facebook Pages!). Wix's independence and business model are a solid pro here.
Cons of Using Wix
But of course, no Wix review would be complete without looking at the disadvantages. Wix has come a long way since the days of their Flash-powered websites, but they still have some disadvantages – especially if you are working with a professional marketer or developer.
There are plenty of Wix complaints around the Internet. Some are justified and some aren't – but all are anecdotal. Keep in mind that the big picture tradeoff for their convenience is lack of total control and advanced features. That's not necessarily a Wix thing as much as it is a website builder thing. But within that context – here's some individual considerations I'd look at when deciding if Wix is a good fit for you.
Here's a summary from a HackerNews thread –
Everyone here is disgusted by it because, it is in fact disgusting from the perspective of a developer.
I spent a few hours with Wix earlier this year while needing to help a family quickly get a funeral site up they could hopefully have some chance of maintaining themselves. Getting started is actually pretty slick. The designer software is easy to use and gets a basic decent looking site up extremely fast.
Towards the end of the few hours I was hitting roadblocks left and right. Artificial limitations, edge cases not supported, things that could have been fixed on a real site trivially.
Still, what they've built, what it in turn allows pretty nontechnical people to build quickly, is impressive. I think it may have been possible to do better on performance and flexibility without compromising for other users. My guess is it's not mostly because they are just not obsessing on that part much.
With that said – here's the specific disadvantages that I found**.
Note that this is all from the default setup – Wix has a new product called "Wix Code" – my take on that product is beyond the scope of this review. My disadvantages listed below are from the perspective of a small business owner who is looking to use Wix and might one day call someone like me or a developer friend to help with website marketing or development.
Long-Term Pricing
Wix's paid plans start at $4.08/mo, but even the starter plan doesn't remove Wix ads from your site.
As their plans go up, they all remain more expensive than their main competitors – Weebly and Squarespace. And they remain much more expensive than setting up your own website with WordPress on your own hosting. At each stage, Wix doesn't even allow unlimited bandwidth or file storage.
If you are using Wix for more than a few months, they are going to be a much pricier option than other site builders or buying your own shared hosting somewhere like Bluehost or InMotion Hosting (which has a drag and drop tool for WordPress called BoldGrid).
Editing & Design
The editing and page layout process also has a few intangibles missing. You can drag and drop anywhere…literally. This can be good from a control standpoint, but it can also be frustrating based on expectations.
There are parameters, rulers, etc to keep you on track to a degree. But building a site still takes a bit of work and thought. They have plenty of templates available that go a long ways towards solving this pain point – and Wix has done a good job in the past year investing in their builder.
However, compared to their marketing material, I think some customers (like me) will be disappointed to see how much time and effort remains to get a project to be presentable.
Apps & Extensions
Like other platform solutions, there are only so many features they can add natively to the platform. One solution to give customers the features they want is to open an App Store (aka Apple, Android or Shopify).
Wix has opened a Wix App Market to provide access to compatible 3rd party apps for Wix storeowners. It's fine, but I found the apps to not be true apps. Instead, most of them were just Iframes that were added to a new Wix page.
Over the past year, Wix has expanded its selection of apps – which is great. They even have a native forum app that is unique to them among direct website builder competitors.
But they still are not quite as seamless as I'd hoped.
For example, adding the Etsy app doesn't actually add Etsy functionality to your website. Instead, it adds an Iframe (ie, a window) for people to navigate your Etsy store while staying "on your website".
Technically, it works. And technically, it is "easy" – you don't have to grab an embed code from Etsy and paste it in. You don't have to really do much to make installation happen. However, Wix's solution is still not ideal. Ideally, you'd have an app that was easy to install and fully integrated into your site. You'd have apps that don't mess with your website analytics and don't present accessibility issues as they do via Wix's iFrame solution.
Technical SEO for Growing Sites
Wix has always been disdained a bit in the professional SEO community. Most of that has to do with their technical implementation years and years ago. Their sites used to use Flash, which was a complete bane of every SEO consultant's existence.
And even as recently as last year, this site heavily criticized Wix for its crawlability and overpromises.
Over the past couple years, though, a few things have changed.
First, Googlebot is *much* better at crawling and indexing websites.
Second, Wix has substantially improved its platform for search bot visibility. Here's an example of how they've reworked and clarified redirects.
Third, the market needs for SEO have dramatically diverged.
And it's this third point that leads to a lot of confusion.
The SEO needs for a 500+ product online store with international shipping are *very* different than the SEO needs for a flower shop in a small city.
This point was emphasized by John Mueller of Google in a Google Webmaster Help Thread. He says that "Wix websites work fine in search" and website owners should "look at the bigger picture."
Most website owners only need the bare basics (which Wix does provide), and really need more design help than anything (which Wix does provide).
From a professional standpoint, I would not use Wix for any of my clients because of a range of reasons too nerdy for this post.
But from a DIY user's standpoint, Wix is great to get started with.
A local deli near me uses it – and they do great in their search results.
Because for them, the most important SEO factors they need to worry about are updated content (ie, their selection & menu) and their Google My Business connection. Wix makes that happen and that's all that matters.
Again – SEO is not the end-all of any platform. But – Wix does have a serious disadvantage here for growing sites that depend on non-branded organic search.
If you generate new leads via word of mouth, referrals, social media, etc – then Wix will be fine. People will be able to "find you with Google."
But if SEO is essential to your long-term marketing strategy or you are working with an SEO professional, then Wix will be an impediment.
Technical Limitations & Advanced Marketing Tools
Related to their technical SEO issues, but separate is Wix's technical limitations and advanced marketing tools.
Since again – Wix provides total convenience in return for total control over the platform, this disadvantage is built-in but worth calling out.
Wix has many built-in tools for small business owners – everything from CRM software to contact forms to appointment software to eCommerce and much, much more.
However, if you want anything that they don't have – adding any additional code to the site is difficult. There are advanced marketing features like Schema for events, music, business info and reviews that they are adding at some point – but have not yet. Adding pixels, retargeting tools, custom share buttons, custom email collection tools – all are either difficult or unavailable.
While Wix's tools are easy and useful for most customers – keep in mind that any advanced tools may be out of reach if you grow into them.
Data Export
Related to growing is what happens if you do need to move platforms. What happens to your data, designs, and content?
With Wix – there is no way to export your data. It's a bit like having all your furniture bolted to your house. If you move – you can't bring anything with you.
In the worst-case scenario, you'd have to scrape and/or manually copy paste your data to your new site. But either way, Wix does not make it easy to leave. It is a feature that they are working on – but is not currently available.
Wix eCommerce Addendum
At Wix's top tier – the VIP plan – they offer online store functionality. E-commerce is a nice to have if you are already on Wix and want to start selling, but I'd hate to call it full-fledged eCommerce like online store platforms such as Shopify or have. It's more like Wix has shopping cart and payment functionality.
It's great for websites that are primarily lead-generation, informational, etc but also want to sell a few products – think restaurant owner who wants to sell a few shirts or mugs.
It's not so great for websites that are eCommerce-first. The functionality is there. It's fine. But I would not choose Wix to start an online store. I'd either build an online store on your own with WordPress + WooCommerce or go with a specialty eCommerce platform like Shopify (comparison) or Bigcommerce (review). I wrote a direct comparison of Shopify vs. Wix here.
Video Overview & Tour
This backend tour is from last year, but the functionality is all the same. The backend design is a bit sleeker though.
Wix has made incremental improvements, but it's the same basic setup.
Wix Review Conclusion
Wix has a well-known brand in the website building space. In 2006, it was one of the first to offer end to end website building with no coding skills.
Wix promises 100% convenience with built-in tools for DIY website owners (and they meet that promise) – but they have a few drawbacks for professional developers & advanced beginners.
If they sound like a good fit for you – check out Wix's plans here.
If you are trying to figure out good alternatives, you can also check out my Buzzfeed-esque quiz to find the best website builder for you here.
Wix FAQs from Readers
Wix has a free plan, but it includes many limitations and Wix advertising. Their free plan is great to get started, but a paid plan is worth it for a long-term website. See the intro above for further information.
Wix is safe for payments and all business assets. They, like all SaaS companies, can be hacked, but as a large publicly traded company, they use best in class security with a large security staff.
That depends on what you need. Wix has fixed a lot of their past SEO issues and offers a good toolkit for websites that generate most of their organic traffic with "brand" terms and good content. Read more about the nuances under technical SEO limitations.
Wix has blogging options, but they aren't as good as platforms originally built for blogging. Wix is better as a website builder with a small blog add-on, not as a blog-focused builder.
That depends on your goals and how much you want to put into it. You can build a free site with lots of limitations and your own time. You can also pay more than $500/year for a full-featured eCommerce website with many premium extensions and themes.
That depends on your experience, budget, and goals. WordPress has a steeper learning curve and requires more maintenance. But over the long-term, it offers much more versatility and options to grow. If you self-host WordPress (rather than use WordPress.com), it can also be much cheaper than Wix. Wix focuses on onboarding and pure ease of use for someone who wants a solid, maintenance-free website without the frustration of a web designer or figuring out HTML issues.
First, I'd encourage you to try Wix's free option yourself, just to get a sense of the platform and how it fits with you. Second, you can browse my site to explore other website builder options with a bunch of Wix's competition.
Wix is one of the best known all inclusive website builders. It has drag and drop design, and straightforward user experience. Wix lacks some features favored by design and marketing professionals, but, for DIY website builders, they have solid pricing and functionality.
Price Currency: USD
Application Category: Website Builder


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Mature landscaping, tucked away in the trees, this
property borders a small, clear-running stream that meanders down to the
Gunnison River.
Close proximity to shopping, airport, museum, arts center, and more, makes
WestWood Cove a great
year-round hideaway or welcoming second home for
whenever you have the impulse to be in Colorado!
Private, restricted, adult condominium community
Quiet and secluded
In town, near the Gunnison River
Mature landscaping
Units are 36x 22' plus carport and private locked
storage :: click here
for floor plan
Very well maintained
Low utility bills — cool in summer, warm in
Carpeting in living room and bedrooms;
vinyl in kitchen and bath
Range, refrigerator, dishwasher, and stack washer/dryer in bathroom
DirectTV designated
Owner-occupied only
Cove Condominiums
W. Gunnison Avenue
P.O. Box 864
Gunnison, CO 81230-0864
• Fax 970-641-5186
Email: email@example.com
More Details
Unit Floor Plan
Map & Directions


text:
- WHAT IT IS: Custom Cover Drops N50. Size: 15 ml.
- WHAT IT DOES: Create your ideal foundation or tinted moisturizer by mixing these revolutionary drops of pure pigment with your favorite liquid beauty products. These award winning, revolutionary drops of pure pigment were not designed to be worn alone but instead allow you to transform all of your favorite liquid beauty products into your ideal foundation or tinted moisturizer. With this breakthrough formula you can customize both your level of coverage and desired finish. What you choose to mix Custom Cover Drops with will determine your finish. For a radiant finish, add to products like oils, serums, or creams. For a matte finish, mix with a mattifying primer or lightweight lotion. The possibilities are endless! Then, simply adjust your coverage by the number of drops you add.
- 1 Drop = Sheer Coverage
- 2 Drops = Medium Coverages
- 3 Drops = Full Coverage
- 4 Drops = Extra Full Coverage
- Suggested Usage:
- For best results, prep your skin as you normally would with your usual skin care regimen and Primer application. This unique formula must be shaken well prior to use
- Place your favorite beauty product into the palm of your hand
- Drop in your desired number of Custom Cover Drops: one drop for sheer coverage, two drops for medium coverage, three drops for full coverage, and four drops for extra full coverage.
- Mix together with your fingertips to transform into your ideal foundation
- Apply as you would any foundation. For best results, we suggest using the Custom Blending Brush. It was designed for the seamless application of any level of coverage or finish created with Custom Cover Drops.
Shipping & Returns
- 25050~41207952990000


text:
View Park Events
(As of 1/21/20 10:00 a.m.)
The Blue Heron trail at Simpson Park is closed due to flooding.
The carousel at Faust Park will be closed from noon on December 31, 2019, to February 1, 2020 for annual repairs and restoration.
The entrance to Lone Elk Park is under construction. Access has been rerouted.
The Sioux Passage boat ramp is closed indefinitely.


text: Main Content House Bill 4217 (2017) rss? friendly link printer friendly Friendly Link: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2017-HB-4217 Sponsors Diana Farrington (district 30)Jeff Yaroch, Jeffrey Noble, Peter Lucido, Tom Barrett, Joseph Bellino, Sylvia Santana, Kristy Pagan, Stephanie Chang, Steve Marino, Pamela Hornberger, Michael Webber, Henry Yanez, Beth Griffin, Pam Faris, Jim Runestad, Rose Mary Robinson, Beau LaFave, Martin Howrylak, Jim Lilly, Ben Frederick, John Chirkun, Holly Hughes, Jason Sheppard, Leslie Love, Sue Allor, Bronna Kahle, Triston Cole, Donna Lasinski (click name to see bills sponsored by that person) Categories Veterans: other; Veterans: health care; State agencies (existing): military and veterans affairs; State agencies (existing): health and human services; Veterans; other; Michigan veterans' suicide prevention task force; create. Creates new act. Bill Documents Bill Document Formatting Information [x] The following bill formatting applies to the 2017-2018 session:- New language in an amendatory bill will be shown in BOLD AND UPPERCASE.- Language to be removed will be stricken.- Amendments made by the House will be blue with square brackets, such as: [House amended text].- Amendments made by the Senate will be red with double greater/lesser than symbols, such as: <<Senate amended text>>. (gray icons indicate that the action did not occur or that the document is not available) Documents House Introduced Bill Introduced bills appear as they were introduced and reflect no subsequent amendments or changes. As Passed by the House As Passed by the House is the bill, as introduced, that includes any adopted House amendments. As Passed by the Senate As Passed by the Senate is the bill, as received from the House, that includes any adopted Senate amendments. House Enrolled Bill Enrolled bill is the version passed in identical form by both houses of the Legislature. Bill Analysis History (House actions in lowercase, Senate actions in UPPERCASE) Date JournalAction 2/15/2017HJ 15 Pg. 140introduced by Representative Diana Farrington 2/15/2017HJ 15 Pg. 140read a first time 2/15/2017HJ 15 Pg. 140referred to Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs 2/16/2017HJ 16 Pg. 151bill electronically reproduced 02/15/2017


text:
|The original star spangled banner - on display at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American
History in Washington, D.C.
Countless men and women have died to ensure this basic freedom, knowing the great importance of being a democracy.
With the tip of a pencil, we possess the ability to rise to power men and women who will make decisions that not only affect us, but future generations to come. Don't, for one moment, take that responsibility lightly.
Cast an educated vote and cast it not with the end goal of seeing a person in the Oval Office who will "change" our lives - cast it with the knowledge that it is but one step toward making America the kind of home we want a generation not yet created to inherit.
As you vote, think of the America our Founding Fathers envisioned for us. Many of them didn't simply cast a ballot, they cast their lives for a dream - a dream of one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
What about you? Do you exercise your freedom to vote?


text:
Gurrola Reprographics, Inc.
Since 1969 family-owned Gurrola Reprographics,Inc. has provided quality reprographic services to the architectural/engineering/ construction (AEC) , legal, and energy industries of Houston, Texas. The company was founded by Charles Gurrola, who can still be seen daily in the shop. Sons Charlie and Kenneth now run the operation and the experienced team that includes three generations of Gurrolas.
6161 Washington Ave.
Houston, TX 77007
United States
Phone: 713-861-4277
Fax: 713-861-8635
Contact us
Url: http://www.gurrolareprographics.com/


text:
> Auto Scanner Tools
> Original brand
> Launch X431
> Launch Cresetter
Launch Cresetter
Cresetter is a specialized automotive diagnostic tool for resetting the automotive service lights, which is developed on the 6th generation CReader hardware platform. This product has applied the latest Cortex-M3 32-bit processor, 2.8" color LCD display, which is smart, portable, and simple to use. After repaired and serviced the vehicle, the maintenance man can use it to clear or reset the warning lights on the instrument cluster to eliminate the unnecessary warning, which can make the car owners driven at ease.
Language: English, Spanish
Main function
a) Oil lamp Reset
Additional function(for special models)
b) Airbag ECU Reset
c) Brake pads Reset
d) Air filter indicator Reset
e) Spark plugs Reset
f) Maintenance interval set
Screen: 2.8"" TFT 262K true color, 320*240 Pixels LCD display
Input voltage range: 8 ~ 32V
Operating current: <100mA @ 12V(Typical)
Power consumption: <1.2W(Typical)
Link connection: Standard OBD 16-pin DLC
Operating temperature: 0 C ~ 50 C
Storage temperature: -20 C~ 70 C @ RH 60%
Outline dimension: L * W * H = 15 * 5.5 * 26cm
Weight: 264g per set
Vehicle List:
User Comment(Total 0 User Comment Num)
- No comment
Shipping Terms:
a) Items will be sent to all the countries over the world.This package will be sent by Hongkong Airmail Post,EMS,UPS or DHL.
b) Items will be checked carefully before sent out.
c) We will use air bubbles to wrap the items carefully.
Shipping Time:
a) one business days for order processing after received the payment.
b) The shipping time is about 2 to 5 days via UPS DHL and EMS,15-30days via HK POST AIR to Worldwide
Return Policies:
If you are not satisfied with your purchase .please contact us quickly, we can exchange one to you,but buyers is responsible for the returning shiping cost .
Contact Us:
Our office hours are 24hours 7 days online service
Attention: PLZ leave your telephone number and address in detail when you take order in our website, it is very important to ship your order. (Customers from Brazil PLZ leave your Cutsom ID also, thanks!)


text:
[Flower mania at the Saturday market in the Place Des Lices] my pic on the verge of 2,800+ notes on Tumblr!
[Amazing brownie ice-cream by La Visitation]
[A hint of Halloween spirit in Rennes]
[The beach at Saint Malo]
['Kouign-amann' breton cakes]
[A contrast of old/new of the same building in Saint Malo]
[Hanging out with Carolyn's host sister's friends]
[Host mom's daughter's black cat Lola looking creepy]
[The main church in Rennes at sun down]
[Fall-ness in Rennes]
Ever since I stepped foot in France, I've had my camera attached to my hip (more like attached around my neck, but you get the idea). Considering this fact, I decided I should do regular posts of new random pictures I've taken (that were not taken on a longer vacay), entitled "Rennes Roundups". Today's post is a roundup of pictures that I took after my "First Glimpse" post and over La Toussaint break. This break was pretty low key for me, as I only left Rennes for two days to go back to the beach. Our trip this time did not include the college students, but just my host mom's daughter's family. On the Saturday we drove up, we immediately went into town for the once-monthly market in Saint-Briac sur mer. It was on a smaller wavelength compared to the one of the Place Des Lices, however, it was just as good. Everyone was grabbing special ingredients in advanced prep for Christmas dinner. Besides just seeing the delicious warm bread and freshly made chocolate, the best part of our trip to the market was the taste tester bins! The idea of "goûter"-ing (tasting) everything is very prominent in France, and I've been trying to keep with that spirit as well. On Sunday, I woke up semi-early and drove to Saint-Malo with my host mom's son in law, where he gave me a grand tour of Saint-Malo. There is actually a ton of history to the beautiful beach town. I also got to quickly see the large race-boats for the Route Du Rhum, which brought a huge crowd of people. Other than our trip to the beach, I just hung out with my friends (once they returned from their beach vacations), went into town & ate, shopped the boutiques, and then repeated that cycle!! Haha. Hoping you enjoyed these photos! I also filmed a little video of one day when I went into town and it is now up on my Youtube Channel! Check it out below. Watch in HD too! xoxo


text:
- Page 1 LG DVX440 DVD Player Review
- Page 2 LG DVX440 Review
Key Specifications
- Review Price: £26.97
If you're looking for a cheap 'n' cheerful DVD player for yours or the kids' bedroom then you're spoilt for choice. There are shedloads of budget players for sale in supermarkets, online and on the high street at rock-bottom prices, many of which are made by well-known, reputable brands – like this one from LG.
But just because they're cheap, it doesn't mean you should just blindly bung one in the trolley – budget decks are more likely to deliver dodgy picture quality or lack the features and connections you're looking for, which is why it's still worth doing your homework before trading in those loyalty card points.
Looks-wise the DVX440 has all the hallmarks of a budget player, such as the barren button count on the fascia, the miniscule five-digit display panel and its ridiculously slim height (36mm). But despite this, the DVX440 remains an utterly likeable and good-looking player, thanks to the use of gloss-black styling and an eye-catching silver ring on the right that encases the playback controls. If this deck is destined for the living room, then its looks certainly won't show you up when visitors come calling.
Around the back, the socketry panel is more sparsely populated than a Gary Glitter comeback gig. Although we've come to expect measly connections from budget players, surely there's no excuse for leaving out a SCART output on a deck that's destined for the bedroom, where TVs generally aren't as cutting-edge as bigger 'living room' sets. We can understand ditching it in favour of an HDMI port, for example, but you don't get one of those either.
This socketry slip-up could present problems when hooking the player up to a TV. Your options are limited to composite video, which invariably delivers poor picture quality, or progressive scan-capable component output, which you're less likely to find on a small-screen TV than a SCART input.
You're supposed to use a composite/analogue stereo-to-SCART adapter cable, but with this method you have to settle for composite picture quality as opposed to the RGB signals that would have been available from a proper SCART output.
And unless you're connecting the player's coaxial digital audio output to a home cinema system (which would make the deck's limited video outputs even more galling) then you'll have to connect its stereo audio output to your TV, as neither connection carries sound. Whichever way you look at it, this is more hassle than you should expect from a budget DVD deck.
Still, solve that dilemma and you can start digging into the deck's features, which are limited but acceptable for the money. The highlight is DivX playback, which the LG supports up to version 6 and you can also watch video-on-demand content with the code in the setup menu. The DVX440 will happily spin MP3, WMA and JPEGs, which is pretty much taken for granted now but at thirty quid nothing is guaranteed.
However, all of these formats have to be played back from CD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW or DVD-R/-RW as there's no USB port on this player. If you want one, opt for the slightly pricier DVX450 or DVX452.
The deck outputs Dolby Digital and DTS bitstreams from the digital audio output and will decode the former into PCM or two-channel analogue, but not the latter.
Unlike other sites, we thoroughly test every product we review. We use industry standard tests in order to compare features properly. We'll always tell you what we find. We never, ever accept money to review a product. Tell us what you think - send your emails to the Editor.


text:
So, besides the salad already mentioned, here is where many of those green-skinned Emerald Beaut plums ended up. Surprise! They're yellow inside! Don't they look nearly like peaches, as yellow as they are? It's only the lack of any red coloring around the pit cavity that gives them away as plums.
Chimp and I made a double batch – two 8×8 pans – of plum crumble at the start of the week; I took one of the pans down to the office on the day of a meeting and we kept the other one to enjoy ourselves.
This recipe became a major favorite of mine last summer, when we made at least four double recipes of it with large quantities of fruit left over from photo shoots. It's adapted from the July/August 2006 Cook's Illustrated, where it was originally a recipe for peach crumble (having tested multiple varieties of all three fruits in this recipe, sometimes in combination, I can vouch that plums work equally well, as do nectarines).
What I love about this recipe is that it makes a massive amount of topping – none of this little-bit-of-crispy-stuff-on-top-of-a-whole-lot-of-fruit problem. There is at least as much volume of crunchy, crumbly topping as fruit, and it's like a miracle – you just pulse it up in the food processor, spread it out on a sheet to bake, and when it comes out, it's made itself into all these little cookielike nuggets with bits of almonds in them. I have seriously considered just making the topping, rolling it out into shortbread cookies and forgoing the fruit altogether.
So there is a two-step baking process here – bake the topping, then place it on the fruit and bake the fruit – but it is entirely worth it. I use white whole wheat flour and I think the extra nuttiness makes for an even better end result than when I first made it with unbleached. After all, crumbles often have whole oats in them, so why not a whole-wheat flour?
We went ahead and peeled the plums on this occasion, but if you're not fussy and the fruit isn't fuzzy, I don't think that's even absolutely necessary.
Oh, and a tip – if you are baking and you find yourself with stone fruit that is clingstone, as we did on this occasion, don't wrestle with trying to cut wedges off the pit. Instead, set the fruit on its stem end (on its head, basically) and cut down both sides of the pit to cut the cheeks off. Then cut off the other two sides that are left, then the little bit at the tip. You'll lose a little bit that sticks to the pit, but that's always the case with clingstone fruit, and cutting it that way is safer than trying to knife and extricate all those little wedges away from the pit while holding the slippery piece of fruit in one way or another.
3 1/2 lbs. peaches, plums or nectarines (6 to 7 medium peaches or nectarines, 7 to 9 plums), peeled (in the case of fuzzy peaches; plums and nectarines can be left unpeeled if you want the extra fiber and don't mind the skin) and cut into 3/4-in. wedges
1/3 c. sugar
1 1/4 t. cornstarch
3-5 t. juice from one lemon (add to taste to the fruit depending on sweetness; the sweeter the fruit, the more lemon juice it can take – the tartness will add dimension to the flavor)
pinch table salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1/8 t. cardamom
1 c. white whole wheat flour (trust me, they'll never know)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. packed light or dark brown sugar
1/8 t. table salt
2 t. vanilla extract
6 T. unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, very soft
1/2 c. slivered almonds
Adjust oven racks to lower and middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the fruit and sugar in a large bowl and stir gently to combine. Allow to macerate for a half-hour, stirring occasionally, then drain fruit in a colander, catching juice in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix together 1/4 c. of the reserved juice, the cornstarch, lemon juice to taste, salt and spices. (Remaining juice can be discarded…or better yet, mixed with liquor! Bourbon is good.) Place fruit in an 8×8 baking dish and pour juice mixture over it; toss gently to combine.
Place flour, sugars, and salt in food processor workbowl and sprinkle vanilla extract over dry ingredients. Pulse to combine, then add butter and nuts and process until the mixture begins to show signs of clumping together – this will take about half a minute. (If it doesn't seem terribly clumpy, don't worry – it'll clump in the oven.)
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and turn the crumble out onto the paper. Spread it in an even layer across the sheet. If there are few chunks, pinch a few with your fingers to encourage it. Place on middle rack of oven and bake 18 minutes, until light brown.
To finish:
Pick up the edges of the parchment paper and slide the topping onto the fruit. Spread it into an even layer over the fruit. Place on the lower oven rack, increase oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake until well-browned and fruit is tender, 20-25 minutes.
Remove from oven and set on a wire rack to cool somewhat. Crumble can be served warm, room temperature or cool. Store in refrigerator.
Makes about 6 good-sized servings or 8 smaller ones (of a good size when combined with ice cream).


text:
Presented by Fpweb.net
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Top Conference Hacks to Get the Most out of Ignite
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A Digital Marketer's Guide to Platform Selection
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