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Hello again everybody...
Once again, we've made it to the end of the week.
And once again the brain wizards have asked me to work a weekend shift. Okay, it's only half a shift really, but it's still Sunday night, and who the hell wants to work on Sunday night I ask you?!
Not me, I can tell you that.
Near as I can tell, we're no closer to actually getting someone hired. Oh they keep winging people through the studio as part of their interviews, but strangely, that's the last time they're ever seen. Maybe there's some sort of "Studio Coordinator Black Hole" that keeps swallowing them up? Perhaps there's an alternate universe where bizarro-WCCO has more Studio Coordinators than they know what to do with?
Maybe I should quit my bitching and get on with the column? You're right...
It'd Friday, and that means Update time. And once again, there's plenty to update on lots of teams.
Off we go!
"An ardent supporter of the home town team should go to a game prepared to take offense, no matter what happens."
- Robert Benchley (1889 - 1945), American humorist
Ardent?! I'll show you ardent!
«Read More...»
That's because it's time... once again... for everybody's favorite segment...
Dan's Favorite Teams Update
Minnesota Wild: The Wild are 28-25-4, giving them 60 points. They're 4th in the Northwest Division, and 11th in the Western Conference, 4 points out of the 8th seed.
The Wild have played three games since we last updated. Two of them were on the road, and both of those were losses. The Wild are now 9-19-2 on the road, one of the worst road records in the league.
Conversely they're 19-6-2 in the friendly confines of the Xcel Energy Center, including last night's 4-2 win over Edmonton.
The disparity is troubling, but in the short-term, it benefits the Wild since they began a 5-game home-stand last night that will take them to the Olympic Break. It's a crucial stretch for the Wild as they try to get themselves into playoff position. They kicked things off right with a win over Edmonton last night, and the rest of the games are winnable too: Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta and Vancouver.
Okay, the Canucks game will be tough, but if you're going to make any noise in the post-season, you're going to have to beat a team like Vancouver anyway.
The hot story with the Wild right now is their goaltending health. I mentioned in last week's DFTU that Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding were both a little beat-up.
A week later, not much has changed. Backstrom went from being out due to a back injury, to being out due to some sort of alien flu virus that has had him out for longer than you'd suspect it would take to get healthy. I'm not saying there's something hinky going on in the Wild's injury reporting. But plenty of the guys have had some form of the flu this year, and they haven't been out as long as Backs has been. And nobody questions his toughness, so it's definitely a quandary.
I actually had a chance to speak to Harding last Friday night, and when I asked how he was feeling, I got the standard, "Oh, I'm fine." Well he was fine til he re-tweaked his hip in Saturday's game in San Jose.
That force the Wild to start Dubers (I'm still not going to try and type his full name) against Dallas, and that didn't go well at all. A 4-2 loss doesn't sound that lopsided, but at least two of those goals were decidedly soft. So much so, that the Wild turned around and recalled Anton Khudobin from Houston, and when it turned out Harding could go against Edmonton last night, it was Khudobin backing him up, not Dubers.
But Wade shouldn't grab that ticket back to Houston just yet. Last night, Harding tweaked the hip again - albeit making a spectacular save - and his readiness is once again in question.
Hopefully this situation corrects itself. If Backstrom can get over this - swine/bird/dog flu - whatever it is, and get back between the pipes, that will allow Hards to rest his bum hip. After that, things sort themselves out. If we start hearing reports of Backstrom needing to spend a week in a Jamaican hyperbaric chamber, then the Wild may be in trouble.
I ran down the list of opponents earlier, but not the days, so... the Wild take on the Hammer-hated Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night, then it's three days off til they face Phoenix on Wednesday and the now Kovulchuck-less Thrashers visit next Friday night.
Wisconsin Badgers: The Badgers are 17-5 (7-3 in the Big Ten). They're in second place in the conference, and ranked 16th nationally.
… for now.
Because after Tuesday night's 18-point beat-down of 5th-ranked (and previously undefeated in the Big Ten) Michigan State, that ranking is likely to rise.
Sure there's a huge risk of a hangover loss on the road at Michigan tomorrow, but that's a game the Badgers can, and should win. If so, you'll see them knocking on the door of the top 10 in the polls.
Not that the polls mean much in college basketball - they play virtually no role in seeding for the NCAA Tournament - but it's a nice honor none the less.
I have to tell you, I'm still floored at the ease with which Wisconsin handled the Spartans. Earlier that night, I received a text from a co-worker asking if I thought Bucky had a chance of covering the two-point spread that he was considering wagering on (if recreational gaming were legal, mind you). I'll be honest, even though Wisconsin was at home, I told him I'd stay away. Michigan State is a very good basketball team with perhaps the best coach in the Big Ten. No way I saw an 18-point win in the mix for the Badgers.
But when you shoot nearly 51% against a club that you hold to 37% shooting, that can happen. It's still somewhat worrisome that the Badgers got out-rebounded (31-25 in favor of Sparty), but I shouldn't nit-pick when my club beats their second Top-5 opponent of the season.
I still can't find much of an indication of when Jon Leuer will be back. But hopefully it's sooner than later. The Badgers have played admirably without him, and obviously that win over the Spartans was huge. But they're still going to need his presence inside as they head down the stretch in the Big Ten and on to the NCAA Tournament.
As mentioned, the Badgers travel to face Michigan on Saturday and then return home to face Illinois (also a 7-3 team in the Big Ten) on Tuesday night. It's a tough stretch for the Badgers, but they certainly started it off on the right note!
Oh, and of course, there's that arch-rival game against the Gophers looming on February 18th.
Yes, we're talking about the same Gopher program which has finally cut ties with troubled freshman Royce White, who said he was leaving the University because he "doesn't feel safe" and believes that the campus police "doesn't answer to anybody and can do whatever they want".
Yup, that's it Royce. The cops are out to get you. Never mind that you were caught red-handed trying to shoplift at the Mall of America and assaulted the security guard who caught you. And let's just forget the fact that you're about to go to trial for criminal trespassing in relation to a laptop that was stolen out of a campus dorm room and "anonymously" returned to its owner.
None of that is relevant when the police are out to get you. I just can't figure out why Gopher A.D. Joel Maturi sounded relieved when commenting on your departure?
On the plus-side, White now is part of a nifty piece of trivia. After all, how many schools can lay claim to the distinction of losing their #1 basketball recruit and their #1 football recruit (local product Seantrel Henderson who decided to join a soon-to-be-sanctioned USC program over joining Brew's Crew here in Minnesota) on the same day?!!!
Well done, Minnesota!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was this week's "Golden Gopher Cheap Shot" brought to you by Badger fans everywhere and Tires Plus - who's currently running a 3-for-the-price-of-4 special... just like the Gophers who lose two recruits after spending a bunch of money wooing them, and lose one more to Wisconsin for free!
Maple Grove Crimson: The Lady Crimson Basketball team is 19-2 (12-0 in the Northwest Suburban Conference). They're in first place in the conference, and ranked 4th in Class 4A.
Ho-hum. Another week, three more 25+ point victories for the Crimson.
I'm almost starting to wonder if they're getting a bit bored. And I say that only partly in jest. Knowing their coaching staff, there's no way they're being coddled. But part of me wonders if there isn't some impending let-down ahead for Maple Grove.
No loss is ever a "good thing". But perhaps stumbling in one of their last two games against Centennial and Osseo might give the ladies a wake-up call ahead of the post-season?
I talked to Coach Cook after their 83-50 win over Champlain Park last night and he's of the opinion that winning the conference title outright, and beating Osseo for only the 2nd time in his four years with the program will be far better for the players' confidence, than a reality-check loss would be for focusing them for the ultimate goal, a run at the State Title.
Knowing how competitive he is, I can't say that surprises me. Knowing the experience his staff has, I'm confident they'll be able to make the most out of whatever happens - win or lose - down the stretch.
And for anybody concerned with the margins of victory that the Crimson have been piling up, just know that against Coon Rapids, 20 different Crimson hit the floor, and against Blaine the number was 15. Even the back-ups want to play hard folks. It's not Maple Grove's fault if the opponents can't stop them.
If that let-down's coming, it's not likely to happen this week. Andover (Tuesday) and Elk River (Friday) are next up in the Crimson's hit parade. Maple Grove owns 20+ point wins over both of those teams already this year.
Minnesota Twins: The Twins are the defending American League Central Champions.
And defend it, they just might.
Last night, rumors started to surface - and around 10pm, they were confirmed - that the Twins have signed 4-time Gold Glove second baseman Orlando Hudson to a 1-year $5 million contract.
Season-ticket package purchased: check. Progress on the Mauer contract: check. Filling a hole at second base as well as the two-hole in the line-up: check.
Yep, this has been a pretty damned good week for my favorite baseball team!
Hudson hit .283 for the Dodgers last year, with 9 home runs, 35 doubles and 62 RBI. He brings experience, speed and terrific defense to a club that needed a little extra speed after trading Gomez for Hardy.
And speaking of Hardy, how many clubs out there would be interested in a Hudson/Hardy double-play combo? I'm guessing more than a few.
Look at these line-up options:
Span (CF), Hudson (2B), Mauer (C), Morneau (1B), Cuddyer (RF), Kubel (DH), Young (LF), Hardy (SS) and Harris/Punto (3B)
Or, if Young struggles at the plate, you could go:
Span (CF), Hudson (2B), Mauer (C), Morneau (1B), Cuddyer (RF), Kubel (LF), Thome (DH), Hardy (SS) and Harris/Punto (3B)
No, those line-ups aren't better than what the Yankees can run out there, but I know at least 10 other AL skippers that are jealous when they see the tools that Gardy has to work with now.
Even Star-Tribune beat writer, LaVelle E. Neal, III, is excited. Last night he tweeted: "This is my 13th year on the beat. This is the best team the Twins have had going into spring training."
With the right mid-season pitching addition, this club is set up to not only defend it's Division Championship, but maybe (finally) do some damage in the post-season.
Is it Opening Day yet? (No, but there are only 36 days until I get to head to Phoenix for some Spring Training goodness... oh, and to visit my folks. Love you, Mom and Dad!!!)
Yes, I'm a wee bit excited by the possibilities.
That's going to wrap things up for this week. Hope you all feel sufficiently Updated!
I'll be back on Monday (perhaps with the return of a segment that's been gone too long? Well see).
Until then, thanks for reading!
Posted by Dan Cook at 1:10 PM
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Rochester getting $175K firefighter assistance grant
ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The fire department in Rochester, New Hampshire, is getting a grant of over $175,000 to help buy updated breathing apparatuses.
The money is coming from the Department of Homeland Security.
Since 2001, the grants have helped firefighters and first-responders purchase equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources.
The grant was announced by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.

subset: commoncrawl


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Scientific publications
Lymphaticovenular anastomoses for lymphedema treatment: 18 months postoperative outcomes
Auba C, Marre D, Rodríguez-Losada G, Hontanilla B.
Department of Plastic Surgery, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
Magazine: Microsurgery
Date: Jan 20, 2012
The purpose of this work was to report our initial experience with lymphaticovenular anastomoses (LVA), a controversial technique for lymphedema treatment. Although LVA technique was described many years ago, the procedure is not as widespread as it was supposed to be, taking into account the high impact that lymphedema has in the quality of life of patients. Thus, 12 patients, 5 with lower limb and 7 with upper limb lymphedema, underwent LVA surgery under local anesthesia.
Two patients were excluded from the study due to the lack of follow-up. At 18 months, 8 out 10 patients showed a variable objective reduction of the perimeter of the limbs and 9 patients presented a subjective clinical improvement.
These results joined to the outcomes of the most experienced surgeons in this field are encouraging, although there are still many issues that need to be addressed with research to optimize the efficacy of this technique
CITATION Microsurgery. 2012 May;32(4):261-8. doi: 10.1002/micr.20980. Epub 2012 Jan 20
you maybe interested
The Clínica is the greater private hospital with technological equipment of Spain, all in a single center.
The professionals of the Clínica perform continuous research and training, always to the benefit of the patient.
Learn why we are different from other healthcare centers. Quality, speed, comfort and results.


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We're approaching the end of our beta program, so if you haven't signed up yet now is the perfect time. This great offer for a complete 5.1 or 7.1 system won't last much longer. There is no risk with our no questions 30 day money back guarantee. We are looking to get your feedback and suggestions for features and improvements. So far your feedback and comments have been great!
Thank You Reviewers!If you are tired of hearing us talk about how great the Axiim Q is, you don't have to just take our word for it anymore. In the past week we've had a couple of great reviews published! One by missingremote.com, as well as a great conversation on the htguys.com podcast. Special thanks to our reviewers for getting some great information out about the future of wireless audio!
What is ARC?
Many of you may use the built in apps on your smart TV to watch movies and other content, and you may be wondering how to send the audio from those sources to your Axiim Q. The answer is Audio Return Channel, or ARC. You may have noticed that one of the HDMI inputs on the back of your TV is labeled "ARC". By plugging the output of your Axiim Q into this input on your TV, you will be able to enjoy all the audio from your TV on your wireless speakers without the hassle of any additional cables!
What content can play through ARC?Just because the TV is the source of the audio, doesn't mean you are stuck listening to it with the TV's built in speakers. Depending on your TV compatibility, surround sound content from any of the sources listed to the right can be sent from your TV to the Axiim Q via ARC.
- Smart TV apps (Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc)
- Over-The-Air (OTA) tuner plugged directly into the TV
- Other HDMI input devices plugged directly into the TV
How do I use ARC?
An ARC enabled TV will have one of its HDMI input port labeled "ARC". Simply connect the TV's ARC port to the output of the Axiim Q AVR with an HDMI cable and make sure to enable the external speakers on your TV. That's it!
Start up your TV's built in Netflix app and start playing. The Axiim Q will automatically detect the content coming over ARC and start playing through your wireless speakers, with all the great audio processing and features you are used to with the HDMI input devices plugged directly into your Axiim Q.
4K support with ARCOne great feature ARC enables is that it gives you the ability to turn your TV into an HDMI hub. This allows you to enjoy 4K video and still have a great audio experience. You can connect your 4K devices directly to your 4K TV, and still stream all the audio to your Axiim Q with ARC.
If you haven't already, sign up here to keep learning about the amazing features of the Axiim Q! If you need to catch up with our previous newsletters:
The Axiim Team


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Sliding Screen Door Grills give sliding screen doors attractive protection. They are made from heavy-duty steel with long-life finishes with rattle-free, interlock construction. The grill's Florentine pattern will not mar the view or the air flow. Installation only takes minutes. Intended to mount on the outside of the door. There are holes in the side ears for attaching with screws to the door frame. Ears may be trimmed with a hacksaw if necessary.
Width range tip to tip 33 1/4. Height range tip to tip 36 1/16. Actual coverage Width range 32 1/8. Actual coverage Height range 33 1/8.


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A little over a year ago, I switched from hosting my Blog on a Windows Server in my home office to using a cheap paid hosting company. This company was pretty good for about 9-months. Its been a disaster since then. I have finally switched this blog off. I'll be switching the Wife's soon. If you have noticed a decrease in activity since about April, the problems we have been having with the host, as well as school for me is the reason.
Category Archives: Mike's World
New Kid, New House, New Host
A lot has happened since I last blogged.
I now have a daughter, Hannah! She is just about 3-weeks ago. The Wife did a nice post called "Here's Hannah".
We moved about a week ago from one side of town to another side.
If all that isn't enough, I just moved my blog from an old self-hosted server to a new web host. There have been a few problems, but I hope to work though it all soon. Please be patient. If I don't get it working as fast as you'd like, please see the other two items I posted on…
Emergency Preparedness & Family Home Storage page
So, our Emergency Preparedness Fair is over. Should I redesign the Emergency Preparedness & Family Home Storage page to look more like the Emergency Preparedness Fair Resource CD, keep the page basically as it is, or get rid of it all together?
Resource CD
[poll id="1″]
It's done
The Nellis Manor & Sierra Ranch Wards Emergency Preparedness Fair is finished. Between work, school, Church, and family, most of my extra time was spend working on this fair; thus the lack of posting for nearly a month.
I created a CD with a bunch of resources. This CD had many of the things found on the Emergency Preparedness & Family Home Storage page, plus much, much, much more. I never really finished it; I more abandoned it and burned it as it was. I've already found new things that I wish I had put on it. I guess there is always next year. Oh, one of the presenters wants to sell the Resource CD in her store. And, at Church yesterday, the Bishop told everyone that he wants them to actually study the information on the CD, not just take it and put it on a shelf somewhere. He said that when they are talking to the Lord and they tell Him they didn't know anything about preparedness, He (the Lord) will show them the CD and tell them they should have! 🙂
All is going well here at Mike's World Newsand at the CoxFam. Did you guys miss my updates?
Missing comments
The Next Radio Star?
I tried out today for Radio Star 4 on Newsradio 840 KXNT. I had a lot of fun doing it. I had thought about doing it, but wasn't sure if I was going to or not. My friend Denise kept e-mailed myself and Troy that we should go out and try. She thought we would do a good job. At about 12:00, I called Troy to see if he wanted to go down to it (the contest started at about 9:00 AM). He told me that he had already gone down. I finally went down and got there at about 1:00 PM. The people who were registering everyone said that they had filed up all the slots. I was a little disapointed, but oh well. I decided to stay for a while at watch. I was going to sit near Casey Hendrickson, the afternoon drive time host and winner of Radio Star 1. I've talked to him quite a bit via e-mail and phone, but have never actually meet him. I decided, instead, to sit by the registration booth. After being there for a few minutes, someone who was registered decided to leave. The people registering asked me if I wanted to take his spot. I did. It was fun. I got to meet Jodi, winner of Radio Star 2, who hosts the show "Jodi & Friends" Sunday mornings. She gave some good advice when I was standing in the back waiting for my turn. The Wife, who is at her parents for a week, listened online. Ammon (and his parents) as well as Troy & Sarah listened on the radio. After I do my audition, I went and sat by Casey. After he signed off, I said hi to him. It was nice to finally meet him in person.
I don't imagine I'll win, although the odds are not impossible. There was about 110 people who tried out. Of that, 20 people will be chosen as quarter finalists. Once the process is all done, 1 person (out of 110) will be hired to have a show on News Radio 840 KXNT.
I'd like to thank Jack, Heather, and Alan for being judges, Casey and Patrick for hosting the show, and all the staff at KXNT who made this event possible. It was a lot of fun!
New features
I've added a few new features to Mike's World. These include the option to e-mail an entry, or post it to various social networks, like FaceBook or MySpace, the popularity of a post, and several other features. The biggest change most will notice is the entire layout (or theme) of the site has changed. Let me know what you think.
Welcome to my New Blog
As promised, Mike's World is now running on it's new Blogging Software. For the time being, I will have the new blog be only at Michael.CoxFam.org and the old blog at www.MikesWorld.org. In the near future, I'll recombine these two pages and post the old blog at a different address.
In the meantime, I have some work to do to reformat my old blog postings and to correct the dates (it decided that all the posts were done 31 December 1969!). It did not transfer over the old comments. I'll try to find someway to do that manually.
I'll be changing Blogging software soon
I've had it with this piece of crap blogging software that I've been using. There is no type of antispam protection. There is no updates, no support. I have some stupid blog spammers who keep posting comments on here with links to their stupid crap. I go in and manually delete them (about 250,000 today) and, sadly, accidentially delete real comments at the same time. I'll be switching to WordPress in the new year, but as a result, the Permalinks will be changing. Between now and then, I'm going to disable comments. However, this will also prevent the reading of comments, except by way of RSS.
I'll be changing Blogging software soon
I've had it with this piece of crap blogging software that I've been using. There is no type of antispam protection. There is no updates, no support. I have some stupid blog spammers who keep posting comments on here with links to their stupid crap. I go in and manually delete them (about 250,000 today) and, sadly, accidentially delete real comments at the same time. I'll be switching to WordPress in the new year, but as a result, the Permalinks will be changing. Between now and then, I'm going to disable comments. However, this will also prevent the reading of comments, except by way of RSS.


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Community is a core value at Nilan Johnson Lewis: We will treat each other with respect, and provide an environment where people share a sense of excitement and enjoyment and can flourish in both their personal and professional lives.
Our community involvement is vast. We have a great level of participation from all areas of the Firm, both staff and attorneys. Many volunteer their time and serve on Boards. For a sampling of some of our programs, please see below:
This program serves families that are in need and cannot afford to buy Christmas presents. The family members who utilize the Crisis Nursery make their own wish lists. Individuals or teams from Nilan Johnson Lewis buy the wish list items as gifts for the families. Sponsors then drop the gifts off unwrapped at the Nursery and they are delivered to the family by Crisis Nursery staff.
Nilan Johnson Lewis has raised over $12,000 in the past seven years for the Second Harvest Heartland Food Shelf as part of "Souper Bowl," a self-initiated in-house event that began in 2005 as a small potluck featuring homemade soups and chili. This event is held the week before the NFL Super Bowl, as an occasion to further the Firm's commitment to support hunger relief in the Twin Cities community. The yearly event raises money through a silent auction and donation opportunities.
The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery works in partnership with parents in crisis and the community to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect. The Nursery is able to feed breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the children in their care through its Cook for Kids program. Nilan Johnson Lewis teams volunteer to Cook for Kids 4-5 times a year.
Power Lunch, a signature program of Everybody Wins!, is a lunchtime literacy and mentoring program. For the past 5 years, a group of 7-10 Nilan Johnson Lewis volunteers have participated in this program and traveled to various schools in the North Minneapolis area. Power Lunch has emerged as one of the very few programs documented to effectively help at-risk students in reading comprehension, motivation, and academic achievement.
Since 2001, the Firm has tutored kindergarteners at Bethune School through the Hennepin County Reading Buddies program. The school is located in north Minneapolis and is comprised of ethnically and economically diverse students generally lacking English-speaking and reading skills. The program focuses on helping children to read and understand books and encouraging children to study hard and succeed as students.
PRI is an organization that provides vocational opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. In 2005, the Firm hired one of PRI's clients, Jackie Kirkpatrick, as part of our administrative staff. Jackie has been with us for four years. In early 2008, she was presented with the 2008 Successful Community Living Award from Opportunity Partners, whose mission is to empower individuals with disabilities and special needs to achieve maximum self-sufficiency in the community. This award recognizes Jackie's accomplishment of living independently in the community for over five years. In addition, she has also demonstrated vocational success, good decision making, and developed a strong network of support through her community and friends.
In addition to these programs, Nilan Johnson Lewis supports and recognizes the many organizations in which our employees are involved and has adopted an employee "matching" program designed to support charitable giving by employees and assisting those charities most important to them.
Nilan Johnson Lewis also supports the following community organizations either through direct involvement and/or pro bono work:
Nilan Johnson Lewis has established a Pro Bono Policy that espouses the principle of equal justice under law for all persons regardless of income. This support is derived from two of the Firm's Core Values – diversity and community. All Firm members recognize the unique ability that attorneys have to serve in a pro bono capacity. This obligation is one deeply rooted in the tradition of attorneys' duty to help those less fortunate, separate and apart from any formal procedures or requirements the Firm may adopt.
The Firm strongly encourages its practitioners to volunteer a minimum of 50 hours per year to pro bono services, in support of both this principle and the Firm's overall dedication to providing equal access to legal services for all people.
Firm members are free to identify the pro bono projects of their choice, although the Firm does promote the creation of teams to work for organizations for which our talents are particularly suited. The Firm supports its members in their commitment to meeting this 50-hour goal and takes into consideration all pro bono efforts of each practitioner in evaluating his or her performance at year-end.


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Launch of the frigate "Aquitaine"
Lorient, May 4, 2010
For me, it's very symbolic and very important to be here in Lorient at the headquarters of DCNS [French shipbuilding company] for the launch of this European Multi-Mission Frigate (FREMM), "Aquitaine".
I'd like to deliver the following messages to you:
I've always believed in France's industrial vocation. There are no great countries in the world which aren't sustained by industrial ambition.
Countries which have abandoned their manufacturing are countries which have gone back down to the second division. A great country must have a strong manufacturing sector. This doesn't mean we don't want research laboratories. It doesn't mean we aren't interested in the service industries. It means that if we give up manufacturing, we'll be giving up all the rest.
I will never accept France's de-industrialization. France has an industrial tradition, a powerful industry. France knows how to build cars, trains and planes.
France must retain a strong civilian and military shipbuilding industry.
This is the heart of the economic strategy I want to see adopted for France and it explains all the decisions the government has taken.
Abolition of the taxe professionnelle (1), a tax which existed only in France and nowhere else, means that French industries can be competitive. Saying that one is in favour of industry and then taxing industry is doing the opposite of what should be done. With the crédit impôt recherche [R&D tax credit], we have the world's most beneficial tax system for encouraging research. Without research, there's no future for our industry. I want now to come to the shipbuilding industry itself and talk about DCNS.
In 2003 DCNS changed its legal status (2) and its workforce may legitimately have been worried, as one is before every change. Thanks to the adaptability of the DCNS women and men the change of status has been a success.
I have come today to a company which has a full order book for four years, and which, thanks to the FREMM programme the Defence Minister and I have decided on, has the prospect of ten years' work ahead of it.
The women and men of DCNS must know that our aim isn't to stabilize employment at DCNS, it's to expand it. The State will remain a DCNS shareholder, not a sleeping shareholder, but one who invests and makes clear choices. When you say, M. Boissier [DCNS CEO], that your goal is to double DCNS' turnover in ten years, this is the goal which your shareholder, the State, is setting you.
DCNS will have the resources for its development, but it mustn't work solely in the military sphere. Of course there's the military work – Scorpène [attack submarine], FREMM programme, Barracuda [nuclear attack submarine class] and all the prospects opening up before us.
But we, the State shareholders, will support the diversification of DCNS' activities. I'm thinking of nuclear technology whether or not for submarines, and renewable energies with floating offshore wind farms, these are intelligent projects, ones which, thanks to your teams' skills, you can envisage.
The dismantling programmes, especially submarine ones, are important to us; so please remember that your shareholder will give you the requisite resources and is encouraging you to develop them.
Let me add that we aren't a financial partner, we are an industrial partner. The State isn't a hedge fund. Of course we are keen for DCNS to make profits. What's important to us is for you to be competitive so that it's easier, for both ministers and me, to sell abroad the products manufactured here.
I pay tribute to the Moroccan authorities (3). I am well aware of the priority you attach to selling a FREMM to Saudi Arabia. This will be at the heart of my talks with the King of Saudi Arabia. I know how many visits and hours of discussions we needed for the submarine programme with Brazil. I know your expectations vis-à-vis our Greek friends whom we are so strongly supporting. I know how important the [corvette] programme with Bulgaria is to you.
I am proud to be part of the DCNS sales department. (…)
Finally, I would like everyone to understand that what we have seen is the finest reward for the DCNS workers, managers and engineers. They can be proud of their work and thus of demonstrating that in France we can remain a land of production and be competitive, that manufacturing isn't finished, can't be written off, and that the workers who, for decades, worked before you to create this industrial skill potential didn't work for nothing. Yes, DCNS must take on apprentices, attract young people, because if we don't pass all this know-how on to the young, it will be lost. (…)
I had a prepared speech, it was certainly excellent, but I preferred to speak to you from the heart, because what is at stake here – I believe this deep down – is France's future, the credibility of French power, the future of shipbuilding and the future of employment areas here in the heart of Brittany, in Lorient. (…)./.
(1) a local business tax based on capital and turnover.
(2) from government administration to that of a stand-alone company.
(3) Moroccan and DCNS have just finalized a contract for a FREMM.


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day wearing a NZ paua shell pendant
This highly polished New Zealand paua (abalone) shell is a simple way to add some fabulous colour to your wardrobe.
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Exhibiting Artists: Johanna Poethig and VPA (Visual and Public Art Dept.) CSU Monterey Bay, Eliza Barrios, Binh Danh, Lola Remedios Felias, Kija Lucas, Hector Dionicio Mendoza, Angelica Muro, Anne Perez, Delfina Piretti, Jadelynn Stahl, and Jenifer Wofford
Recent Press for Songs for Women Living with War: Read full Hyperallergic article.
Artist Johanna Poethig is the curator of a "Living Memorial" and anti-war monument to open at Pro Arts in the form of an installation and series of public workshops, presentations, performances and discussions, entitled "Songs for Women Living with War." This is the second iteration of "Songs for Women Living with War." Three academic departments at Cal State Monterey Bay joined forces in Spring 2016 to present "Songs for Women Living with War," a series of public art installations, performances and discussions. Events at Cal State Monterey Bay included Claudia Bernardi who works in the fields of art, human rights and social justice, Gwyn Kirk (Women for Genuine Security), Deborah Pembrook (Coalition to End Human Trafficking) and Lila Ramos Shahani, former Assistant Secretary head of communications of the Human Development and Poverty Cabinet Cluster of the Republic of the Philippines and Spokesperson against Human Trafficking.
"I picked this theme because there are so many public memorials that commemorate wars, victors – primarily men. Though women suffer so much in conflict, there are hardly any public sites that acknowledge this," said artist and curator Johanna Poethig.
"The inspiration was the work of writer M. Evelina Galang, who has documented the testimonies of the World War II comfort women in the Philippines," Poethig added. "This issue is still relevant in that the comfort women in South Korea and the Philippines want an apology from the Japanese government, which they still have not received to their satisfaction."
"Songs of Women Living with War" installation and anti-war memorial on view at Pro Arts consists of three walls forming an open house structure, which incorporates elements from the traditional architecture and materials used to build Philippine's nipa huts. The central wall spells out Songs for Women Living With War. The woven textile wall, based on banig or mat designs is draped with the words of war accounts collected from multiples sources. The third wall comes alive with the sound of voices, stories and songs, collected from Lolas (Pilipino for Grandmother) and from past events that took place during the first iteration of "Songs with Women Living with War" at the Visual and Public Art Department, CSU, Monterey Bay in Spring 2016.
Read Dr. Kathryn Poethig's essay on the project here: Songs For Women Living With War.
"Songs for Women Living with War" project is created in conjunction with the Visual and Public Art program at CSU, Monterey Bay. With special acknowledgment of VPA alumni John Elliott, Elgene Tumacder and Roxana Keland, and VPA faculty Angelica Muro, Dionicio Mendoza and Stephanie Johnson.
"Songs for Women Living with War" at Pro Arts is made possible in part with funds by the City of Oakland's Cultural Funding Program, the Clorox Company Foundation, the W & F Hewlett Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the Fleishhacker Foundation.
The consequences of poverty, conflict and sexual violence and how to organize against it and create works of art and creative actions will be explored at these events:
Opening Reception & Performance
Saturday, October 8, 2016 | 6:00 – 9:00 pm | Pro Arts Gallery
The opening reception for "Songs for Women Living With War" features a reading by Evelina Galang and performance by Jadelynn Stahl with Lydia Greer.
Women for Genuine Security Event & Workshop
Saturday, October 15, 2016 | 2:00 – 4:30 pm | Pro Arts Gallery
In conjunction with the "Songs for Women Living With War"exhibition, this event features musical performances by Vân-Ánh Võ and Theresa Wong, and presentations by members of Women for Genuine Security on the subject of military violence against women.
Closing Reception & Special Program
Saturday, November 12, 2016 | 6:00 – 9:00 pm | Pro Arts Gallery
The exhibition "Songs for Women Living With War" closes with an evening of performances by Rhodessa Jones, Theresa Wong, WIGband, and Evelie Delfino Såles Posch.
Eliza Barrios
Eliza Barrios is a multidisciplinary artist. Her work ranges from installation, performative to new media art which draws from her background as a queer American Filipina. Barrios is inspired by her fervent curiosity of how ephemeral space is perceived in relation to systems of belief. Barrios' work has been exhibited at museums, film festivals, and new media festivals internationally and domestically, including the Optica Festival (Gijón, Spain), New Forms Festival (Vancouver, Canada), International Turin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art (Oahu, Hawaii) and Mag:Net: Gallery – Katinpunan (Manila, Philippines). Barrios holds a B.A. from San Francisco State University and an M.F.A. from Mills College. She has received an Honorary Fellowship from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Barrios is also a member of Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. have been scheming, entertaining and creating together for more than 10 years. Their work ranges from video, performative to public art. Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. have shown in various museums, galleries and film festivals including the DeYoung Museum (San Francisco, CA), the Mix Festival (New York, NY), SF International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (San Francisco CA) and the Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco, CA).
Binh Danh
Binh Danh received his MFA from Stanford University in 2004 and has emerged as an artist of national importance with work that investigates his Vietnamese heritage and our collective memory of war, both in Viet Nam and Cambodia—work that, in his own words, deals with "mortality, memory, history, landscape, justice, evidence, and spirituality." His technique incorporates his invention of the chlorophyll printing process, in which photographic images appear embedded in leaves through the action of photosynthesis. His newer body of work focuses on the daguerreotype process.
His work has been included in important exhibitions at museums across the country, as well as in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Art Gallery, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the M.H. de Young Museum, the Harry Ransom Center, the George Eastman House, and the National Gallery of Art. In 2012, he was a featured artist at the 18th Biennale of Sydney in Australia. He is represented by Haines Gallery in San Francisco, CA and Lisa Sette Gallery in Phoenix, AZ.
Lola Remedios Felias
Remedios Felias was born in 1928, Espermanza, Burauen Village of Leyte, in the Philippines. When she was fourteen, Japanese Military invaded her village and she was taken to become a Comfort Woman to give sexual service the Japanese soldiers. She was rescued at the end of the war; and married at the age of nineteen.
However, when her husband learned of her experience as a sex slave their marriage fell apart. Leaving her hometown, she went to Manila where she married once more and had four children by her second husband who died after a brief marriage. Struggling to make ends meet she raised the children herself until she met her third husband. In response to an appeal by LILA Pilipina in 1993, Lola Remedios openly gave witness to her experience as a Comfort Woman. She joined those struggling for an official apology and individual compensation from the Japanese Government. She passed away without this ever becoming a reality. She was an artist who created these quilts telling her story by her own hand.
Kija Lucas
Kija Lucas is an artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She uses photography to explore ideas of home, heritage and inheritance. She is interested in how ideas are passed down and seemingly inconsequential moments create changes that last generations. Lucas received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006 and her MFA from Mills College in 2010. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Bay Area at The Headlands Center for the Arts, The California Institute of Integral Studies, Altar Space, Intersection for the Arts, Luggage Store, Mission Cultural Center, Root Division, The Bedford Gallery, Pro Arts, The Asian Resource Center Gallery, as well as Venice Arts in Los Angeles, CA, La Sala d'Ercole/Hercules Hall in Bologna Italy, and Casa Escorsa in Guadalajara, Mexico. Lucas Has been an Artist in Residence at The Lucas Artists Residency at Montalvo Center for the Arts, Bunker Projects, Grin City Collective, and The Wassaic Artist Residency.
Dionicio Mendoza
Dionicio Mendoza was born in Uruapan, Michoacan, México in 1969. As a young child, Mendoza spent a great deal of time after school playing with his friends and selling Chiclets in the town's plaza. There amongst the musicians, merolicos (street venders), fortunetellers and beggars, Mendoza developed a deep sense of awareness and observation, which he believes, influenced his artistic career. At the age of twelve Mendoza, along with his family, immigrated to the small town of King City in California. After graduating from High School with honors he was awarded a scholarship to attend California Polytechnical University where he studied graphic design. His interest in graphic design led him to study fine arts at California College of the Arts where he graduated magna cum laude with a BFA degree. Following his studies, he was awarded a six-month residency in Switzerland. In 2003, Mendoza was one of four artists awarded the highly competitive Eureka Fellowship by the Fleishhacker Foundation. The Di Rosa Art Preserve of Napa, The Swagger Group of New York, and La Corporation Jimenez of Mexico hold Mendoza's work in their permanent collections. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Mexico.
Dionicio Mendoza takes an ethno-botanist approach to art making, his most recent body of work, "White Wilderness", explores the intersection of photography, drawing, digital printing, landscape, race, privilege and belonging.
His works offer a counter narrative to the view of "wilderness" as a pristine sanctuary, separate from human civilization. Embedded in many of his haunting images are spiders' webs- symbols of danger and threat- as well elements associated with urban street life like fire-arms and car tires. Descriptions of "wilderness" often overlook the complex historical relationship between landscape and people of color. Mendoza's "wilderness" are unsafe spaces, were historically, people of color have been murdered, kidnapped, hung and raped.
Angelica Muro
Angelica Muro received a MFA degree from Mills College in 2005, and a BA in Photography from San Jose State University in 1998. Recent exhibitions include Photo ID, Santa Cruz Museum of Art, Chico & Chang: A Look at the Impact of Latino and Asian Cultures on California's Visual Landscape, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Chica\Chic: La Nueva Onda/The New Wave of Chicana Art, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, You're Breathing in It: Exploring the Studio and Alternative Art Strategies, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, Domestic Disobedience, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, CA, and Better to Die on My Feet, Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA. She is the recipient of the Herringer Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Art and the Trefethen Merit Award. Muro's curatorial projects have been awarded grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation through the Creative Capacity Fund, the James Irvine Foundation for Intersections, and Adobe Youth Voices. She is co-founder, principal, and curator of Space 47 projects, and is an assistant professor of Integrated Media and Photography at California State University, Monterey Bay and Chair of the department of Visual and Public Art.
Delfina Piretti
Delfina Piretti MA, LMFT, REAT is a body mind healing practitioner who is an all time believer in the power of the arts. She has been licensed since 1986. In her private practice she blends somatically oriented psychotherapy with the expressive arts, dream analysis, generative hypnotherapy, energy work, Buddhist psychology and mindfulness practices. In her work in the community over the years Delfina has pioneered innovative programs such as Project Sanctuary (one of the first battered women's shelter in Northern California), SAGE (an agency designed for women traumatized from prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation) where she was the first Clinical Director. Delfina created and implemented expressive arts therapy groups in jails for seven years and integrated expressive arts into an elementary school violence prevention program. She has done two public art projects with The Sage Project and incarcerated women through the S.F. Arts Commission in collaboration with artist Johanna Poethig. Delfina is adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, S.F. for 12 years where she teaches expressive arts therapy and group supervision. As a studio artist she does oil painting and interactive installations such as: Dream Repository Tent,The Sin Eater Cafe and Tabula Rasa Confessional. Delfina's art directly relates to her work as a psychotherapist, her interest in the creative process, human emotions, shamanism and Zen Buddhism. Most recently her Sin Eater Interactive sculpture was the exhibit Left Coast at The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco.
Anne Perez
Anne Perez is a composer of new music that bears primitive and modern elements. She has a background in music composition, computer engineering and electronic music from the University of the Philippines, Dartmouth College and Mills College. Anne Perez is a sound artist, composer and technologist.
As a sound artist, she weaves and sculpts sounds to create sonic environments and soundscapes that engage and expand audience imagination, memory and emotions. As a composer of new music, her current writing uses modular technique and other new ways to create an open interactive structure. Her works seek to provide ways to engage performers and audience, invite them to contribute by adding sounds, manipulating interactive elements, etc. to affect the soundscape or music and enhance their musical experience. As a technologist, she works as a developer of business tools that creates better experience and efficiency at work. She has also developed pro-audio hardware and software products for music making in the 21st century.
Johanna Poethig
Johanna Poethig's work crosses public and private realms. She has exhibited her paintings, sculpture, public art works, murals, installations and video internationally. Poethig works with other artists, architects, planners, curators and specific communities on social and artistic interventions in our shared spaces. She produces and participates in performance events that mix feminism, global politics, cabaret, experimental music and video. Poethig's recent exhibits include Transi(en)t Manila, a site specific project that brought artists from all over Southeast Asia, EARTH residency at Krowswork in Oakland, "Glamorgeddon: The Spectacle" at SOMArts Gallery and Artisterium, the annual international contemporary art exhibition in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. She has exhibited at the Luggage Store Gallery, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Togonon Gallery, New Langton Arts, Manilatown Art Center Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, the SFMOMA Artist's Gallery, Mills Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum, Berkeley Art Center, SF Galeria de la Raza, Headlands Center for the Arts and Mag:net Gallery in Manila. She is currently Lead Artist for a new 9-mile transit corridor of integrated public art work for AC Transit in the East Bay. She produced the Cab Top Art Ads that were seen throughout the Bay Area on taxis with The Sage Project (an agency designed for women traumatized from prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation) and a series of posters for Art on Market Street program with incarcerated women in the San Francisco Jail through the San Francisco Arts Commission in collaboration with Delfina Piretti. Poethig received her MFA at Mills College and is a professor at the Visual and Public Art department at California State University, Monterey Bay. She grew up in the Philippines and lives in Oakland, California.
Jadelynn Stahl
Stahl is an interdisciplinary performance artist, activist and organizer. Fusing elements of durational art, video, ritual and burlesque, her work seeks to centralize and complicate socially prevalent narratives concerning systemic cultures of violence, in particular gender-based violence and forced assimilation. Stahl offers her body as a site of artistic investigation, exploring somatic and psychological expression in relation to legacies of trauma as well as cultural, racial and sexual identities.
Stahl's artistic work has been shown both domestically and internationally in museums, festivals and performance venues including Fort Mason Center (San Francisco, CA), Galería de la Raza (San Francisco, CA), Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (San Francisco, CA), the Camden People's Theater (London, England), Kaliedeskop PsK2 Festival (Copenhagen, Denmark) and as part of the 2016 Hemispheric Institute Encuentro in Santiago, Chile. As a artist and community organizer, Stahl works collaboratively to incite dialogues which contribute to the movement to end sexual assault. In the Bay Area, she has organized with Slutwalk SF, Women Organized to Resist and Defend, La Casa de las Madres and the Berkeley Coalition Against Sexual Violence, among others. Nationally, she is working with the art-activist effort FORCE, helping to organize the 2018 culminating display of the Monument Quilt, a crowd-sourced collection of thousands of stories from survivors of rape and abuse. In addition, she is the founder and lead coordinator of DISCLOSE, an Oakland-based collective of artists and educators committed to organizing arts-based community engagement in the eradication of sexual violence.
Jenifer Wofford
Jenifer K. Wofford is a Filipina-American artist and educator based in San Francisco. Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. Wofford received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and her MFA from UC Berkeley.
Her work has been exhibited locally at the Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, and Frey Norris Gallery, nationally at New Image Art (LA), Thirtyninehotel (Honolulu), De Paul Museum (Chicago), Wing Luke Museum (Seattle), and internationally at Manila Contemporary (Philippines), Valentine Willie Fine Art (Kuala Lumpur), and Osage Gallery (Hong Kong).
Wofford has also undertaken artist residencies at The Living Room (Philippines), Solyst AIR (Denmark), Liguria Study Center (Italy) and Chateau de la Napoule (France). Her awards include the Eureka Fellowship, the Murphy Fellowship, the SFBG Goldie Award, and grants from CCI, the Art Matters Foundation and UCIRA. Wofford is senior adjunct faculty at the University of San Francisco and UC Berkeley. She is also 1/3 of the manic, brilliant, highly delusional artist trio Mail Order Brides/M.O.B.
[WRG id=2721]


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T. J. O'Connor & Associates has been the lead designer in many of the country's major wastewater systems, water supply projects and flood alleviation and management schemes, including working in environmentally sensitive Natura 2000 sites and marine and harbour works. We have undertaken Masterplanning and Infrastructure design for a range of large business parks and are leading the way in the design of innovative Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems(SUDS).
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Doggie Cakes - Dog Bakery, and Cosmo (seen having his cake and eating it too) were in attendance at the first ever Yappy Hour in Port Richey - Sunday, February 10th. This event was wonderfully orchestrated by Gulfside Regional Hospice. We donated three Doggie Cakes and some bags of cookies for the raffle and for the dogs' dessert. The $10 donations per attendee dog, benefited their fine non-profit organization, which provides support and care to patients with life-limiting illness and their families.
It was a great success with other vendors and many dogs and owners having a great time at Fatty -N- Mabels Riverside Eatery. From 4 -7 they let us use their awesome deck, which has a great view of the Pithlachascotee River. I had never been there before, but it was really a gem in this day of chain restaurants.
We hear that future dog-related events are planned in support of Hospice. Check the local newspapers, and for sure - this blog - and our MySpace for any details that we receive. You can also support them by shopping at their thrift shoppes, volunteering, or donating on their website.
Fatty -N- Mabels Riverside Eatery (Map)
5245 Limestone Drive
Port Richey, FL 34668
Doggie Cakes - Dog Bakery and Boutique
5644 Main Street in New Port Richey. (Google Map)
Tuesday - 10 am - 6 pm
Wednesday - 10 am - 6 pm
Thursday - 10 am - 2:30 pm
Friday - 10 am - 6 pm
Saturday - 10 am - 6 pm
Sunday - Closed
Monday - Closed
On the Town at Yappy Hour in Port Richey, Florida
Posted by Doggie Cakes.com at | Thursday, February 14, 2008 Labels: charity, community, dog friendly, events, Hospice, Port Richey, yappy hour
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I therefore give to you, for your edification and amusement, one Jimmy Breslin (formerly) of Newsday, and his finest achievement, his swan-song.
One day last May, I assigned the election to John Kerry. I said it early, and often. As I looked more, I saw that it shouldn't even be close. I said that in this space more than once. Now I am so sure that I am not even going to bother to watch the results tonight. I am going to bed early, for I must rise in the darkness and pursue immediately an exciting, overdue project.Ah me. You really can't make stuff like this up.
Besides, if I was up, so many people, upon seeing every word I said of this election coming true on television in front of them, would be kissing my hands and embarrassing me with outlandish praise. So I go to bed with total confidence.
For non-US readers, who may not be quite aware of exactly how totally, utterly, gloriously 180-degrees off-course he was, here's Mark Steyn in The Spectator :
But just to run through what happened: in the House of Representatives the Republicans have picked up five seats; in the Senate they've picked up at least three, maybe four, including David Vitter winning a Louisiana seat that's been Democrat since post-Civil War reconstruction; it looks like they've knocked off their chief obstructionist in the Democratic caucus.
And, oh yes, the most hated man in the world has become the first President since 1988 to win over 50 per cent of the popular vote.
In other words, it's the perfect hat trick: a Republican President, a Republican Senate and a Republican House have been re-elected for the first time since President McKinley and the GOP Congress of 1900.


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Battlescarred (the song)
The Pugilist
Music from Mars?
Together with Little Willie and Hoover Street Gym, Battlescarred is also an "epic" song, but of a different kind.
It is not exaggeration to say that Geoff's Battlescarred has been years in the making. A fighter's surprisingly humble legacy, Battlescarred was the ultimate challenge to The Pugilist album. So how, and where to begin?
Trained in the classical tradition, which -could you believe? – still remains very classical, I am by nurture very ill disposed towards orchestral arrangements of "popular" music. Biased as this may sound, and it is a bias, the thick and over-orchestrated arrangements of otherwise great pop and rock pieces I have heard throughout the years passed, do very little to dispel my misgivings. And yet, Battlescarred, then only a bass and guitar draft, with a silly electronic drum beat at the back, supporting some of Geoff's most accomplished lyrics, asked for a new approach.
By that time Thell's songs had already been mixed. His clear and calm dialogues contrasting with Geoff's emphatic narrative of hard-boxing training sessions and tough fights. Geoff's voice, not by accident, sounding like broadcasted right out from the gym. How to match that? How to instill the right spirit to Battlescarred, how to make it sound like a boxing contest with life, and not another victim's plight in the face of unconquerable fate? (Who, mortal, can win the ultimate fight in any case? And who can suffer to be reminded of it!). No. Not another "look at me, pity me". And so we sat down and decided on a different approach: an orchestral arrangement, yes, but one that represented at the same time a new composition, applying techniques commonly used by composers, but without the usual tearjerking (or bombastic) cliches: no neeeeh, naaaaah, neeeeeh, nor boooom, pah, bahm! Or at least not much of it, who can tell what these arrangements may sound like in different ears.
Tough, really.
The first thing to do was to choose a motif, a building block that I could use to structure the song. It had to come from Geoff´s own melody, otherwise it may sound odd, or worse, artificial. The obvious choice was the very first bars: Weary worn and battlescarred, with no place left to go… this melody is first heard on the vibraphone (and a faint echo in the marimba), the first few bars in the strings being simply an inversion of this, augmented in irregular intervals. I wanted a clean orchestral sound, but one that would sound like the records I used to play in my old hi-fi, pure luxury at the time, with a low-mass needle and automatic arm! I remember listening to classical recordings conducted by Otto Klemperer, Herbert von Karajan, and (my favorite) the passionate and unpredictable Leonard Bernstein. Those records are now scratched and worn out by use, the hi-fi an antique beyond help, but their sound is still alive somewhere inside of me. It is possible that even before I sat down to write the sequences, even before I decided what to do, an imaginary low-mass needle had already found the groove and begin to play the music for me.
Classical music, maybe better called orchestral music, is still very much alive in films and video games today. The style id usually that of 19th century romantic composers and classical revivalists. It sounds fine, and some of it is of exceptional musical quality, but I wasn't sure it would do for Battlescarred. I was skeptical about inserting Geoff's verses into a mammoth composition, where they would sound out of context. I had to weave his sentences in and out of the musical textures, composing the music in and around Geoff's melody and words, constructing a musical shape that didn't sound "square".
There are different ways in which that could be achieved, but it all revolves around maintaining the continuity without boring the listener. Not easy. In a movie, for instance, the music is always aided by the image. The sweeping melodies and percussive events are there to intensify our emotional response and not, as in the orchestral music of the past, to offer a structured musical experience to the listener. Nowadays this is what songs do. The shape of a song is an undemanding game of contrast in which there is an A theme and a relatively catchy B theme, or simply a musical tag plodding along with the theme. The songs for musicals or some high budget films are different. Here other techniques come into play that allow the songwriter to extend the music without sounding too repetitive. These techniques usually circle around what we call modulations, or changes in the pitch and musical scales that enable the music to jump from one area to another using the same material. Some of these songs are true masterworks of craftsmanship on the part of their writers.
The problem with this approach is that in Battlescarred Geoff's melodies don't modulate, changing pitch and scale. They are to be heard more like a poem, in which a recurring sentence or motto begins or ends every verse:
Weary worn and battlescarred
With no place left to go.
Hardened to life's miseries
No tears left to flow.
And this called for a different approach once again.
In the end I used a technique call variations, in which a melody is gradually transformed while, at the same time, sent to different groups of instruments. An instrumental interlude that begins around 2'45" or so would be responsible for adding the soundscape required by the title of the song, a kind of sound battlefield where the listener is asked to reflect on what she or he has heard so far.


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Southern Youth and Family Services (SYFS), is an independent, local community-based benevolent (charity) organisation in the Southern part of NSW. SYFS provides support and assistance to vulnerable, disadvantaged and homeless young people and those at risk of, disadvantage and homelessness. This support extends to the children and families of these young people.
The target group includes:
- young people aged twelve to twenty four years who are homeless and/or otherwise disadvantaged (unemployed, in poverty, experiencing housing stress etc) and/or vulnerable.
- young people in the care of the State Department and State Wards
- people with disabilities
- Aboriginal people
- people from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds
- young offenders and those at risk of entering the Juvenile Justice system
- young people in need of protection who have been abused or are at risk of abuse
- people with mental health issues
- people with alcohol and other drug use and other at risk behaviours such as suicide attempts, prostitution, and others
- refugees and new arrivals to the country
- school attendees and early school leavers.
SYFS works with the broad community in a collective effort to reduce homelessness, prevent hardship and disadvantage and to enhance the quality of life for all Australians. SYFS assists individual young people and their families to improve their living situation, to reunite them to their families, to maintain their tenancies, to learn living and social skills, to link them to education and training, to support them to reduce the barriers to employment, and to enhance their health and overall wellbeing. Relationships between young people, their families and the Staff are important as a key to engagement and the delivery of services.


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I hate to cut this off, but a full response would require that I repeat myself (again). So I'll leave it here ... > I understand and appreciate your enthusiasm for REST and HTTP. > I do believe that there's significant merit there, I just don't > think that I necessarily share your view of REST/HTTP world > domination:) I thought it already had dominated the world! Luckily, the WSAWG has it in its charter to be cleanly integrated with Web architecture, so you're not going to get off this easy over there. 8-) MB -- Mark Baker, Chief Science Officer, Planetfred, Inc. Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA. email@example.com http://www.markbaker.ca http://www.planetfred.comReceived on Friday, 29 March 2002 16:24:42 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Friday, 17 January 2020 23:11:48 UTC


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Our Services
Hamilton Sleep Dentistry
Sleep Dentistry allows your anxiety about a dental procedure to drift away.
At Jackson Square Dental Centre, our team is dedicated to you and your smile.
When you walk through the doors of our Hamilton dental practice, our front office staff is always ready with a friendly hello. Their organization keeps Jackson Square Dental Centre running smoothly, and they're always happy to answer questions about scheduling or insurance. We accept most dental insurance plans and social services, and they take care of all the paperwork – making visits a breeze for you!
Our hygiene staff is committed to helping you maintain healthy teeth and gums. They're pros at demonstrating proper brushing and flossing techniques, and will give your teeth a thorough scaling and polishing for that squeaky-clean feeling.
Our dentists are proud to provide a wide range of services, including dental implants, cosmetic dentistry, family dentistry and sleep dentistry. They always take the time to explain procedures thoroughly and discuss your treatment options with you.
Call today to learn more about our practice, or to schedule an appointment. Because at Jackson Square Dental Centre, it's all about you …


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Thank you for visiting our website. By accessing our website, you agree that these terms and conditions (T&Cs) will apply to your use.
From time to time it may be necessary for us to review and revise our T&Cs. It is your responsibility to check for changes and your continued use of our website means you agree with the changes.
These T&Cs should be read together with our Privacy Policy.
General disclaimer
To the extent permitted by law, we will in no way be liable to you or anyone else for any loss or damage, however caused (and whether direct, indirect, consequential or economic) which may be directly or indirectly suffered in connection with use of this website or websites of other entities which are hyperlinked from this website (linked websites). We have no control over the nature, content and availability of linked websites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
The information contained on this website is provided by us in good faith and on an 'as is' basis. Whilst we endeavour to keep the information on our website up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind (express of implied) about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, we are not liable to you or anyone else if interference with or damage to your computer systems occurs in connection with your use of this website or a linked website or if the website is temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control. You must take your own precautions to ensure that whatever you select for your use from this website is free of viruses or anything else (such as worms or trojan horses) that may interfere with or damage the operations of your computer systems.
You must ensure that your access to this website is not illegal or prohibited by laws which apply to you or in your location.
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As a condition of your use of the website, you warrant to us that you will not use this website for any purpose that is prohibited by these T&Cs. In particular, you agree not to:
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You are provided with access to this website and may download, store, display, print or make a single copy of the information or material stored on this website (in its unaltered form) and for your personal and non-commercial use only. Except for these purposes, and for the purposes of and subject to the conditions prescribed under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (or any similar statute that applies in your jurisdiction), you may not, in any form or by any means:
All trade names, trademarks, service marks and other product and service names and logos ('marks') displayed on this website are proprietary to their respective owners and are protected by applicable trade mark and copyright laws. These marks may be our registered or unregistered marks or may belong to others and are used on this website with permission of the relevant owner.
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This website may contain links to other external websites which, once clicked, will take you away from this website. Those links are provided for convenience only and may not remain current or be maintained. We have no control over or rights in any linked website that is not our own.
Unless specifically stated, the inclusion of a linked website should not be construed as any endorsement, approval, recommendation or preference by us of the owners or operators of the linked website, or for any information, product or service referred to on the linked website.
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We collect information in a number of different ways including directly, indirectly and through third parties including:
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We may also collect the following information from you:
We use this information so that we can tell which pages are the most popular and where people spend most of their time on our website. We use this information to improve our website and our services delivered to you. In some circumstances we may collect personal information about an individual from a third party, for example, to analyse traffic at our website. If this information is linked with personal information we already hold about you (as set out above), this new information will be treated as personal information and will be handled in the same manner as the personal information to which it has been linked.
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In order to maintain the security of your personal information we may require you to provide proof of your identity before discussing any personal information and we may ask you to specify what information you require. Ways in which we may ask you to provide proof of identity may include the following:
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This privacy policy relates to our current privacy standards. We may periodically amend our Privacy Policy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and other relevant laws. It is your responsibility to ensure you understand our current Privacy Policy. The most current version of our Privacy Policy is located on our website and can be obtained by contacting our Privacy Officer.
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Should you have any questions or complaints about our Privacy Policy, please contact us:
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Varcon Group
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
For more information on privacy in Australia, please visit the Australian Commonwealth Government's Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website at www.oaic.gov.au.
Varcon Terms and Conditions for Purchase Orders – Clean


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I work in a large Italian company, I deal of support in windows and we often have to prepare new server on which to install the web server.
then it is useful to automate the creation of the shell in which you install the web site.
I'm happy to help :D
This will be a great support for the one who trying to create .. :)


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Philip Armand considers a more sanitary form of commuting, after witnessing a man attacking his own nose.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
To hell with facts, we need stories!
Hi there! I could have sworn I've been to this
web site before but after looking at a few of the posts I realized it's new to me.
Regardless, I'm definitely pleased I found it and I'll be book-marking it and checking back frequently!


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Danylo owns Organic Edible Gardens and specializes in organic edible landscaping in Northern Virginia.
I love the designs that he & his designer John have come up with. John's drawings are gorgeous!!
Our house is a cedar contemporary but I tend to like more classical gardens and have always loved the idea of a "garden with paths" so the design was a bit of a challenge.
Here's another picture of our house before we bought it & added the patio:
The garden will be going to the right of the house along the fence and it will be as deep as the house. This was a tough decision for us to make because it will reduce the size of our "playing field" and we're constantly playing soccer or football or something else out there:
...But we decided to give it a go because the yard is still going to be large enough to play football or soccer even with the garden.
Besides where we were going to put the garden, we also had a bunch of other decisions to make: raised beds or in-ground beds? What should the paths be made out of? Should we go symmetrical/classical or more casual/ meandering like the rest of the landscaping at our place? My biggest fear was (and is!) that the type of garden I really love doesn't exactly "go" with the style of my home.
I collected a bunch of images on pinterest of gardens that I loved and of course, I was drawn to the more classic gardens. Many had brick paths...
All had a series of paths because I want us to be able to enjoy actually being "in" the garden vs. just being beside it.
And of course, one of my favorite local places to visit is Mount Vernon:
It's going in now so I'll be sure to post pictures once it's all planted!!! I can't wait!!! And of course, thanks so much to Danylo and his team for everything!!! They were so patient with my craziness and are incredibly creative and know their stuff. If you're in the DC-VA area and are looking for a kitchen garden or eco-friendly landscape in general, definitely check out the Organic Edible Gardens website & get in touch. They're amazing!!!
If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.


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You are here
Industrialization a precondition for Africa's economic transformation
Africa will have to step up investment in industrialization and trade facilitation to ensure that the current growth momentum is more resilient to external shocks and translates into economic transformation.
Africa remains the least diversified region in the world, both in terms of its production and export bases, despite the recent economic progress.
This was discussed on Wednesday, October 30, the third day of the eighth African Economic Conference (AEC) taking place in Johannesburg during a plenary session held under theme: "Making Industrialization and Trade Transform Africa".
While African countries continue to register strong growth with 20 countries growing over 6.5 per cent, this growth performance remains highly vulnerable to external shocks and has not translated into meaningful job creation for most countries.
In addition, weather vagaries and global commodity price volatilities due to the continent's reliance on agriculture and primary commodities for its performance continue to dampen its prospects for growth.
"We have to adopt strategic and pragmatic approach to industrialisation, said Patrick Osakwe, the Chief, Africa Section from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD).
"You have to identify clearly how you intend to achieve the goals and have a mechanism for measuring progress to achieve those objectives." He said industrial policies must be realistic and should have accountability mechanisms to facilitate effective implementation.
"It is very important that African countries be realistic and approach industrialization policies from a strategic perspective. We have to focus on what works, not ideological convictions," Osakwe said, underscoring that countries have to be pragmatic.
There is need for diversification of Africa's production and export base to reduce its dependency on few commodities.
This, coupled with value addition to main exports and accelerating regional integration, has been identified as key to the economic transformation of Africa.
According to Asma Bouraoui Khouja, the Executive Director of the Maghreb Economic Forum, there is need to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as engines of job creation.
"We need to come up with a sovereign fund to support SMEs," Khouja said, pointing out that small and medium businesses need support to diversify their production.
But the underperformance of industries in Africa is also linked to the lack of infrastructure, the energy gap, poor governance and fierce competition from products imported from emerging countries such as China.
"In most African countries, the trade deficit is very high because of weak linkages between sectors.
Policies are incoherent and contradict each other. We talk about trade liberalization, but we have very limited safeguards, yet we are talking about industrialization," said Jane Nalunga, the Country Director, Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institutes (SEATINI), Uganda.
Nalunga also raised issues including tariff escalation, rules of origin and trade partnership agreements as challenges limiting industrialization and trade in Africa.
"In Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs), we are talking about prohibiting export taxes, yet you cannot talk about industrialization when you do not have export taxes – these are some of the contradictions.
"You find that most of these EPAs do not make economic sense, but most of our African countries are going to sign them, not because they are going to promote our industrialization but for political reasons," Nalunga said.
Participants underscored that pooling African economies and markets together through trade and regional integration provides a sufficiently wide economic and market space to make it possible for trade to exploit economies of scale.
African leaders have adopted the Action Plan for Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA) to foster industrial development across the continent.
The discussion was chaired by Stephen Karingi, the Director of Regional Integration and Trade Division, United Nations Economic Commission (ECA).
The African Economic Conference was organized jointly by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).


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When It Comes to Parenting, Older Doesn't Always Mean Wiser
Over the past nineteen months, my daughter and I have toured most of the toddler groups within a three mile radius. Some (those which hand out tea and toast) are better than others (those with barely any toys) but only one frustrated me so much that I have ruled out going back.
Half the point of toddler groups is for the grown ups to get a bit of adult conversation - more often than not, it's awkward chit chat about the weather and civic events; sometimes it's joyfully agreeing about mud (immune booster or laundry nightmare?); but at this particular toddler group it was calling the kids lazy, stupid and selfish, none of which I wanted my child to listen to. None of which I wanted any of the kids to have to listen to. None of which I intend to listen to again.
Anyway, eventually, the viciously negative conversation turned to sleep. Because it always turns to sleep. All of these kids were "horrible" and "manipulative" and "refused to go to sleep" and the grown ups were united in their belief that "the only way to teach them" was to leave them to cry it out.
I disagree. But that's not what this story's about.
This story is about the grandmother who had taken great offence because her daughter refused to do it. "But what do I know?" the grandmother yelled. "I ONLY RAISED HER."
And here I am, getting to my point.
That there are so many grandparents out there dispensing well-intentioned but often dated advice. They don't know that when they tell their children to leave their babies to cry, to lay them on their fronts and to introduce solids at eight weeks, that they're directly contradicting the advice the NHS hands out; they forget that their children are new to parenting, scared of getting everything wrong, raised to have faith in their parents' opinions (even if they think they've outgrown that phase) and too tired to read the great big Ready Steady Baby book their community midwife gave them; that new parents will so often trust peer pressure over gut instinct and may regret it later.
Or perhaps they won't regret it later. That's not the point.
The point is that it's not the grandparents' place to get angry and offended if their kids consider taking a different path through parenthood.
My mum was here when the health visitor first came to meet my kid. She was so glad she was. She heard, first hand, the health visitor tell me that it's recommended parents cuddle their babies as much as possible, do skin to skin, hold them when they sleep - that it's creating a bond rather than bad habits. Not that my mum would have disagreed, necessarily, but she knew plenty of people who would do and it gave her the arguments she needed to defend my choices.
I had what I consider to be good parents. But there are things I choose to do differently from them.
My choices (Steve's and my choices, obviously, but I can only comment on my own family background) are not a criticism of my parents' (or his parents') choices - they're just different; they're based on newer research, newer evidence; they're a reflection of us having supportive people around who encourage us to trust our own instincts rather than pressure us to do things in the way they consider proper.
And I'm lucky because I have a mother who has told me, "I wish I had known all the things you know now, when you were a baby." She acknowledges that there are things she might have done differently and, should I ever become a grandmother, I hope that I'm as open to ideas which differ from the ones I currently hold as she is.
Gentle parenting - because, if we need a label, that's the one which best fits Steve's and my approach - sometimes gets attacked in the mainstream media. There are plenty of people out there angry that their own parenting choices aren't being validated by this particular ethos so they try to rip it to pieces; inaccurate descriptions are thrown around, portraying gentle parents as permissive idiots who let their kids run riot, smearing poop all over the swings. Meanwhile, I admit: I've seen plenty of gentle parents tear apart those parents who opt for controlled crying, reward charts and naughty chairs.
We're so keen to prove our own approach right, we're desperate to invalidate all others.
And here's what prompted this stream of consciousness: a little while ago, there was a meme going round Facebook, lots of people announcing that their parent/s "apparently abused" them, gave them the belt, force fed them, locked them in their rooms etc and they turned out okay so where do these hippies get off telling them their parent/s were crap when they clearly weren't because - look! - they've got jobs and THEY LOVE THEIR MUMS SO THEIR PARENT/S DID EVERYTHING RIGHT.
But, you know what? It's okay to think that there are things your parent/s could have done better AND TO STILL LOVE THEM.
It's okay to acknowledge that your parent/s were raising you in the best way they knew how, but that perhaps that way wasn't ideal.
It's okay to be the parent who would go back in time and change things (that feeling starts from the day you're sent home with a brand new kid to raise, doesn't it?).
It's not okay to state that because something did you no harm, it's impossible for it to have harmed anyone else - that's not the way people work.
It's not okay to be so scared of being wrong that you shame your child into repeating your mistakes.
And, simply, it's not okay to make your grown up child feel that the way they choose to raise their baby is anybody's business but their own.


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The lotto numbers drawn for Saturday December 17th were 7, 20, 25, 45. There was no winner. The jackpot now stands at €9050.
Lotto tickets for 2017 are currently on sale from club officers.
Congrats to Corey Duffy winner of the €1000 draw in the four ways last weekend.
The club will hold their annual social and presentation in the Brusna inn on the 30th December. Please support!!!