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In a small tent, in a village about 60 miles outside the capital, Salim is putting the finishing touches on his gun. Despite the bright sun outside, the shelter is dark and Salim, who uses only one name, has to bend close to see the homemade pistol he's been working on for the last hour. Salim, 50, makes pistols and rifles in his clandestine workshop in Jhola, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where many villagers work in India's illegal gun making trade. Low periods are rare, Salim says, and business gets a major boost during the election season, when local politicians buy in bulk. During those periods, he said, he sells guns for anywhere between $90-$600. "We have been doing this for generations," he said.. "I worked with my father and now my son works with me."
Homemade guns have been bought and sold across India for decades, but a string of murders in Delhi has brought fresh attention to the problem. There are 40 million illegal small arms in circulation in the country, accounting for more than half the 75 million illegal small arms currently in circulation globally, according to International Action Network on Small Arms, Amnesty International and Oxfam. Today, India is second only to the U.S. in the proportion of civilians who own guns, and the number is growing. The Control Arms Federation of India estimates that 5000 people are killed each year in small arms violence unrelated to the country's domestic insurgencies. "The continuing proliferation of small arms and light weapons in India is not just a threat to public safety but also to the internal security of the country," said Binalakshmi Nepram who co-founder Control Arms. "Today if you get into a fight in a car, in traffic, you might just be shot."
(MORE: Is India's Gun Violence Spiraling Out of Control?)
The potential for further violence has many worried. Large signs in Delhi's malls and restaurants prohibiting arms and ammunition are a constant reminder of the proliferation of arms in the capital. In October, the Delhi police arrested a 55-year-old man who had been making illegal guns since the 1980s in a factory in Uttar Pradesh and supplying them to buyers in Delhi and a few other states in northern India like Haryana and Punjab. A report released by Delhi police in September stated that most of the murders in the national capital in 2012 were executed with illegal weapons, mostly trafficked from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. "Our challenge is two-fold," says SBS Tyagi, a deputy commissioner of the crime branch of Delhi police. "First, there are often not sufficient intelligence and second, these [manufacturing units] are often in remote areas," which, he said, makes arrests tough.
Salim works in the hub of India's gun country, one of the poorest parts of India where other economic opportunities are scant. After a crackdown in the eastern state of Bihar, once the center of India's illegal gun trade, the production hub moved to a swath of Uttar Pradesh known as the "badlands." Often equated with the Wild West, the region, which borders Delhi, has become infamous for its gun culture and has become a major headache for the capital's police force. In some markets in Delhi, the homemade pistols from Uttar Pradesh are available for as little as $30.
(MORE: The Case for Gun Control)
The cheap availability of homemade guns has rendered India's gun law, which prohibits anyone below 21 or with a conviction to possess a gun, all but irrelevant. In September 2008, Soumya Viswanathan, a 26-year-old journalist, was shot and killed with a homemade pistol for resisting another car's efforts to force her to pull over while she was on her way home from work. In 2011, video footage of two men gunning down a young tollbooth operator in Haryana was televised throughout the country. In another incident this year, a 23-year-old man from Delhi went on a shooting rampage, killing his ex-girlfriend, her landlady, her father and sister, before killing himself.With such crime on the rise, many in India are now not averse to arming themselves for the sake of protection.The gun rights lobby argues that by making it harder to get a legal gun license and making ammunitions and guns prohibitively expensive, the government is stoking the illegal trade. "If somebody commits a crime, there is a law," says Congress parliamentarian and pro-gun rights advocate Naveen Jindal. "Guns are only protective instruments that can be used by women and elderly people to protect themselves."
The United Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime shows that gun crime in India is relatively low with 7.6% of all murders in 2009 committed with guns as compared to, say, Mexico, where gun crime accounts for 54.6% of all crimes. Gun violence was 9% of the 241,986 crimes that were reported from the country in 2010. But with crime on an upward swing in India – there's been a 25% leap just in the last decade – the need to arrest the growing acceptance of illegal guns is becoming increasingly urgent. Creating more jobs and economic opportunity in the hub of the gun trade will be crucial. "Poverty drives them to this trade," Nepram says. "India's challenge is to provide them alternate income and to empower the 500 million living below poverty level so that they don't pick up guns."
And this transition might already be underway in Jhola through the efforts of the panchayats, or village councils, that encourage the younger generation to move away from this illegal trade and instead engage in agriculture. Young people like Salim's son, who has joined him in the illegal guns trade, might eventually find an alternative. "The young generation is on the path of change," Mehboob Alam, a panchayat member from Jhola says. "Sugar cane cultivation and sugar production provides good-paying jobs and is the main source of income for many households now. "
— With reporting by Sushil Kumar/Jhola
MORE: In Search of a New India

subset: commoncrawl


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While playing around with the Stack Overflow data-dump, I was getting a feel for the schema and data by looking at my own posts and comments, and I happened coincidentally to notice my comment on this answer which turns out to have been popular. However, I had no idea until I stumbled upon it in the dump.
Shouldn't the profile page be a way to find everything that a given user has posted, be it a question, answer, or comment? I recognize that comments are definitely not the primary focus, and I wouldn't want to encourage commenting just for the sake of getting voted up (the comment in question was a drive-by comment that I never gave a second thought to until now). However, it would be nice to have a record of my past comments, or to be able to view comments of other users at a glance.
I think, in particular, the comments would be most valuable (or detrimental) to those using Stack Overflow et al as a resume since comments tend to illustrate a user's temperament and civility when dealing with others much more so that questions and answers which are often more carefully worded and edited.


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Legion available for CRSC claims
Many men and women enlist in the military with the intention of making it a career. Some do so and walk away from their service unscathed. But others suffer injuries in combat-type situations that hinder – or eliminate – their ability to work after military retirement. Still, others are so badly injured in those situations that they are medically retired long before the normal retirement age.
That's where Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) can benefit a military retiree. CRSC eligibility can come from injuries suffered during armed conflict or training that simulates war, while on hazardous duty, or from an instrumentality of war, such as exposure to Agent Orange or while in a combat vehicle. To be eligible for CRSC, applicants must:
• Be entitled to and/or be receiving military retired pay
• Be rated at least 10 percent by VA
• Waive all or a portion of their military retired pay
• File a CRSC application with their respective branch of service.
A veteran may be eligible for CRSC no matter when the veteran left active military service; it can be paid to a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran who was medically retired in 1973, a 72-year-old Vietnam veteran who retired in 1982 after 20 years of service, or to a 29-year-old veteran who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and was medically retired in 2006. However, for those retired due to longevity, the effective date for CRSC payments cannot be earlier than May 31, 2003 – the effective date established for the original CRSC statute. For those medically retired under Chapter 61 of Title 10, U.S. Code, the effective date for CRSC payments cannot be earlier than January 2008, when the bill authorizing CRSC for these veterans became law.
If it sounds like a complicated process, The American Legion can help. Through its network of department service officers (http://www.legion.org/veteransbenefits/departmentofficers), the Legion has helped eligible veterans file CRSC claims at no cost to the applicant.
"The Legion has been filing CRSC claims for veterans since the program started," said Verna Jones, director of The American Legion Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division. "We're glad to see this program is getting some more exposure now and that other veterans service organizations now are stepping up to help veterans take advantage of it."
Shortly after the program's inception, The American Legion – during its 2007 National Executive Spring Meetings – passed Resolution No. 16, calling for the Legion to become "an Affiliate of the United States Army's Combat-Related Special Compensation Affiliate program," through educating eligible veterans on the benefits of CRSC.


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Fara Kaplan
It is a well-known fact that Holocaust survivors who endured the concentration camps suffered agonizing emotional wounds that, for many, have never healed. Less well-known is how this legacy has also seeped into the psyches of many of their children. Bower (1996) studied 80 Jewish adults born to Holocaust survivors and 20 Jewish adults whose parents had not faced Nazi persecution. All subjects were of comparable age and all had reported experiencing some type of trauma during their life. At some point over their lifetime, 29 percent of the offspring of Holocaust survivors had experienced symptoms of depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as opposed to zero percent of the control group. This finding suggests that the child or children of the Holocaust survivor may be at higher risk for psychiatric symptoms including depression, anxiety and PTSD through exposure to their traumatized parents (i.e., they may be vicariously traumatized).
Survivors who develop PTSD in response to Holocaust experiences may pass on vulnerability to the same condition to their children. Yehuda et al. (1998) found that survivors' offspring who were diagnosed with PTSD typically reported Holocaust-related thoughts or images as their primary traumas. Personal experience corroborates this finding. My mother is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She reports having early childhood memories of her father's nightmares.
In addition to PTSD, children of Holocaust survivors also experience many other symptoms. Holocaust survivors often develop symptoms such as guilt associated with being alive (i.e., "survivor guilt"). Other symptoms include melancholia and identification with the dead. It has been suggested that survivors may believe that they are unable to fulfill the needs of their children and may withdraw from their children (Fogelman, 1998). However, I must comment that personal experience suggests an alternative response. I have found that the survivors I have known have done "everything" for their children and have deprived themselves in an effort to provide for their children.
Some data indicate that children of Holocaust survivors have difficulties with interpersonal adjustment (Garland, 1993). This may come as little surprise, since many witnessed destruction of interpersonal ties and violence of extreme nature. Such traumatic experiences can lead to difficulty with social adjustment and difficulty trusting others. Garland (1993) has commented that "work has shown that the children of parents who have carried within them, however silently, the experience of a destroyed world have much to contend with growing up…making normal separation and individuation difficult. Children of such survivors have an intense need to act as redeemers for their parents." Similarly, Fogelman (1998) found that children of survivors evidenced problems with communication and identity conflicts. Mor (1990) found a higher frequency of separation anxiety and guilt in children of survivors. My family's experience with separation anxiety supports Mor's findings. My mother suffers from separation anxiety and guilt which has been passed down to her children.
Past studies have focused on survivors of concentration camps and their offspring without regard to those Jews who survived many different circumstances. The research that I have examined inevitably focused on adults who were children during the Holocaust and people who were hidden from their persecutors for the duration of the war. Studies have revealed that the Holocaust impacted a great deal of the identity development of child survivors. Many of the adults studied tended to view their adult experiences with feelings such as the need to escape reality, hide, or save others. Garland (1993) found that child survivors who had experienced loss, separation, and death of family members exhibited somatic complaints, difficulties with the expression of aggression, and pronounced anxieties about themselves and their children.
The various effects that adults who were child survivors experience can be attributed to many aspects of their traumatic exposure. Children and adults were treated differently in the camps and consequently their emotional reactions were different. Children were likely too traumatized during the war to experience "true" childhood. They did not know what it was like to be a child and be taken care of by their parents. Most of them were taken away from their parents. Also, because the child's identity had been in a state of development, their experiences may have remained buried in their memory (i.e., unconscious). This may have impeded their ability to empathize with others and likely negatively affected their adjustment to their own offspring.
Another area in which there have been many interesting findings is with survivors who were hidden during the war. These would include those who actually hid underground, in the woods, or in closed spaces such as attics. Many Jews were also sent to live with Gentile families or in convents or orphanages, posing as Gentiles or actually converting to Catholicism. Others were refugees during the war. Magids (1998) studied differences between the offspring of hidden child survivors of the Holocaust and the offspring of U.S. born Jewish parents who did not undergo similar traumatic events. The survivor sample in this study consisted of adult children with at least one parent who was a hidden child survivor. Surprisingly, findings indicated that children of hidden survivors were no more or less psychologically impaired than children of non-traumatized, U.S. born parents. These results lend support to more recent sociological research claims that the traumas of the Holocaust may not have had pathological effects on all survivors.
Helmreich (1992) interviewed a randomly selected group of 211 survivors and compared them to a U.S. born group of 295 Jews. Data suggested that some of the survivors not only managed to resume their lives but also tended to be more successful than other U.S. born Jews of a comparable age. According to Helmreich (1992), the resilient traits (such as adaptability,
initiative, and tenacity) that enabled Jews to survive the Holocaust may have also accounted for their later success and such characteristics may have been passed on to their children. It has been suggested that positive traits in Holocaust survivors tend to be overlooked and that Holocaust survivors may actually be more task-oriented, cope more actively, and express more favorable attitudes toward family, friends, and work (Leventhal & Ontell, 1989). In short, researchers have tended to overlook such positive traits (in the search for expected and anticipated psychological difficulties).
In all, there is a tendency to focus on the negativity that ensues after life-altering traumatic experiences. My contention is that, although negative traits may develop after having survived a traumatic event such as the Holocaust, positive traits also exist. These positive effects should not be ignored. Further investigation may best address this observation.
Bower, B. (1996). Trauma syndrome transverses generations. Science News, 149, (20), 310-311.
Fogelman, E. (1998). Survivor victims of war and Holocaust. In D. Leviton (Ed.), Horrendous death and health: Toward action (pp. 37-45). Washington DC: Hemisphere.
Garland, C. (1993). The lasting trauma of the concentration camps: The children and grandchildren may also be affected. British Medical Journal, 307, 77-79.
Helmreich, W.B. (1992). Against all odds: Holocaust survivors and the successful lives they made in America. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Leventhal, G., & Ontell, M.K. (1989). A descriptive demographic and personality study of second-generation Jewish Holocaust survivors. Psychological Reports, 64, (3), 1067-1074.
Magids, D.M. (1998). Personality comparison between children of hidden Holocaust survivors and American Jewish parents. The Journal of Psychology, 132, (3), 245-255.
Mor, N. (1990). Holocaust memories from the past. Contemporary Family Therapy, 12, 371-379.
Yehuda, R., & Schmeidler, J., & Giller, E.G., & Siever, L.J., & Binder-Byrnes, K. (1998). Relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder characteristics of Holocaust survivors and their adult offspring. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, (6), 841-844.
Published by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress - 2020


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I had commented on a 2006, post Euphronios krater return announcement, where de Montebello had attacked archaeologists for their emphasis on context. And he has once again shown his basic misunderstanding of archaeological stratigraphy:
One can question whether one particular discipline can arrogate to itself the right to everything that's in the ground. There are many different contexts, many different ways to look at these objects. So you have a discipline that goes too far in claiming that an object is of no merit, of no value, the moment it's out of the ground and you don't know who buried it. That's one context. It's obviously a very precious one, because once an object is out of that context the information is not retrieveable. But it's not the only context.
My students will be familiar with the different contexts - I would call them the life-cycle - of, say, Greek pottery. An Athenian red-figured pot could be made in Attica, Greece; transported to Italy; buried in an Etruscan tomb; dug up in the nineteenth century; passed into a private collection; dispersed at auction; and end up in some internationally famous collection.
My students will also be aware of the different ways to study and look at Greek pottery - and that includes iconography and "connoisseurship".
But I would still stress the importance of archaeological context because that provides a chronological, social and iconographic framework for understanding this part of Mediterranean material culture.
And that context forms part of the universal human heritage: a heritage that will be cherished by archaeologists who will be puzzled by de Montebello's suggestion that they have "the right to everything that's in the ground". Possession is more the domain of museum curators and private collectors than that of the archaeologist.
De Montebello also comments on the new world where North American museums take ethics more seriously. In particular he draws attention to the acquisition policy formulated by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD). He observes:
Acquisitions of antiquities on the part of American museums have fallen to almost zero. Out of a sense of new ethical standards and a not inconsequential fiduciary responsibility — they don't want to make an acquisition that is likely to be subject to claims — most museums have imposed on themselves standards that, as a matter of praxis, are even more stringent than ten years. And so it's been very effective on one level — if you take pleasure in the fact that antiquities are practically no longer entering American collections.
The suggestion of a ten year deadline is interesting and an idea that I have discussed elsewhere arguing that it is inappropriate. It would have allowed the Met to retain all but two of the pieces - a Laconian cup (1999.527) and and an Attic red-figured psykter (1996.250) - which it agreed to return to Italy last year.
De Montebello also suggests that archaeologists have a "debt" to museums. He claims:
Archeologists presumably became interested in archeology by visiting museums. They forget this very conveniently. They become practicing archeologists and then their only interest is in the "find spot."
I do not know the basis of his claim, though I am sure it is true for some. But that does not mean that archaeologists do not have the right to comment on the destruction of the archaeological record to provide stock for the antiquities market.


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In addition to the SEE, the ABS conducts a number of other sample surveys of businesses which collect information about employee earnings. These include the Average Weekly Earnings survey, Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, Wage Price Index Survey and Major Labour Costs Survey. It is important to note that these surveys have different purposes and that there are differences in the concepts, scope, sample selection and estimation methodologies used. INTERPRETABILITY Employment and Earnings, Public Sector, Australia (cat. no. 6248.0.55.002) contains Explanatory Notes, a Glossary and a Technical Note which provide further information about data sources, terminology and other technical aspects of the series. ACCESSIBILITY Employment and Earnings, Public Sector, Australia (cat. no. 6248.0.55.002) is available from the ABS website free of charge. If the information you require is not available as a standard product or service, then ABS Consultancy Services may be able to help you with customised services to suit your needs. Inquiries should be made to the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070. Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window. |


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Opening Up
You can leave comments by clicking here, leave a trackback at http://supervillainous.spiderforest.com/comic/opening-up/trackback/ or subscibe to the RSS Comments Feed for this post.
You can leave comments by clicking here, leave a trackback at http://supervillainous.spiderforest.com/comic/opening-up/trackback/ or subscibe to the RSS Comments Feed for this post.
Yeesh, which administration was that evil?
I'm betting Clinton cause the stuff him and his wife were doing and continue to do are clearly criminal acts (I'm referencing to stuff like Money Laundering, which it has been proven that they've done, why they aren't in prison? I don't know)
OK, I hate to step on your joke in a different way but as I wrote once before I'm not sure doing this to the supers was necessarily all that evil. Take a moment and think about how even the nicest of the villains such as Claw and Meat act towards normals and then ask yourself if any government that just let supervillains run roughshod over everyone like that without trying to do something about it was really doing anything to earn their taxes. It should also be noted that the villains like Hannah and Meat were being sent into the past or into alternate timelines rather than killed outright.
Going after the heroes in the way Captain Ultimo describes was a bit nastier but if you were running the Defender X Program what would you have done differently to keep them from interfering? o_O
Couple thoughts is that Meat and Claw were very very minor with little true hostility. Claw was a thief not a villainous mastermind initially. But targetted for death. This assault forced the villains to evolve or be wiped out.
Now as to administrations, consider how long it would actually take to learn all the identities of villains and heroes. Make the gun drones, and Defender X itself. This is not a one administration project. And shift parties and a project like that would be found out at minimum and likely dismantled. Now consider what does stick around from administration to administration. Yup the intelligence and military organizations. Borrowed military funding gets you Defender X. NSA and CIA work gets you the identities. And all the politicians are left out of the loop.
well there is a Web Novel called Worm that had heroes and villains (at least in the US) play by the Unwritten Rules which basically read as (try not to escalate because open warfare is really bad for all of us.) And this Comic Proved THAT, all the villains got together to take down Defender X and then went on to THREATEN a sitting president (and the city he was in and about 30 miles of suburbs) and if they had gun bots trained on the heroes loved ones I am not sure that the heroes would have stepped in until after the screaming stopped for like a hour. So while action is required to keep baddies in check try not to give them reason to form into a army and DISLIKE you.
"Yeesh, which administration was that evil?"
That would be ALL of them, regardless of which actor is playing the roll of king-for-term this year.
"Yeesh, which administration was that evil?"
That would be ALL of them, regardless of which actor is playing the role of king-for-term this year.
How did he throw up through the mask?
oh god not in the mask
in a Dom "Buddy Bizarre" Deluise voice from Blazing Saddles, natch.
or it could just be a reference to how the government is always evil in comics. See the X-men comics or Marvel's Civil War storylines for references. I'm sure DC has an example too, but I never read DC that much. Superhero tropes generally seem to be in full effect in the Supervillainous universe. Well, except for right now, with Ultimo's face. Cause rule of funny.
Superhero realities usually have multiple secret unnamed branches that go renegade and try to kill heroes. Marvel had the TESS Project and Weapon X, DC had multiple projects specifically designed to find a way to kill Superman (at least one – the Conduit – becoming a mercenary outfit).
The Defender X Project was most likely a think-tank that got too much budgeting, too much Cold-War paranoia, and too many mad scientists. SHIELD and Checkmate did that, too.
Well some examples from dc could be suicide squad, the varies Justice League contingency groups, oh or when Lex Luthor (Superman's archrival) became president. And out of main continuity you have the injustice timeline with dictator superman
I really liked the Red Son limited series. What if superman landed not in Kansas but in Russia?
Amanda Waller is your DC government bad guy. She's also kinda a complete idiot sometimes. "We need a plan for if Superman goes rogue! Get me Harley Quinn!"
To be fair, it that version of Amanda Waller is an idiot because DC seems to have a split personality when it comes to their "shared cinematic universe". One moment, they're afraid they'll copy Marvel too much, while the next they take something that ought to have a less "Marvel formula" feel and force it to conform anyway. @_@
The really sad part is DC's animated offerings often give a rough idea of how they could have pulled it all off. For example, imagine smoosh the Suicide Squad film with the episodes of Young Justice that took place in Bialya. Send them against C-Listers working for a better villain… preferably someone in a position of political power, hence needing a group that could plausibly just be there to rob the place or kidnap someone, and that all conveniently have bombs in their heads so they can be killed in case they are captured. If you want to introduce DC's take on magic and mysticism… just tease it at the end.
Since Supervillainous is coming to a close, I thought I'd make an account and post something.
I've been a reader since the very beginning – I read "Meet Meat" the day it came out. When I started reading Supervillainous, I was in middle school. Now I'm an adult. Waiting for your comic to update has been a part of my life since my earliest days on the internet. So . . . thanks for that. It's been loads of fun.
Any plans for what you'll do after Supervillainous?
The relevant comic is Abandonment issues.
hope he remembered to lift up the mask first… O.o
I like the idea that it just went through, like superpowered puke. He's probably wearing his power belt after all.
Step-Dad was a fighter pilot. He said it was considered "good form" to throw up -inside- your flightsuit. It's not good to make your plane's crewchief clean puke out of the cockpit when he's also the one keeping the plane working properly for you to fight with. 😉
Dear lord that is a lot to process. Claw technically saved the world twice.
Plus side, at least now it makes more sense how in the alternate future Claw and Ultimo were good friends.
They've been dating for more than 20 years? And are just now engaged? I think there might be some commitment issues there.
Henchman?! Oh for the love of… He has a name, you know!
But, there's no real reason Mark should know what that name is.
…and "Henchman" is certainly better than "Hey, You!" 😉
Looking back, Ultimo was always uncommonly nice to Claw considering he was a nemesis… At the time I thought it was weird, but didn't think too much of it. Even for a hero it was above and beyond friendly mode and now it all makes sense.
When your existential crisis ends up all over you future brother in law's shirt.


text:
Original Watercolor Painting
Size: 5"x 7"
Materials: Watercolor on Stathmore Paper
This piece is ready to ship in 3-5 Business days.
This Art does not come with frame
Each item is wrapped, packaged and sent in a tube through priority mail.
All paintings, prints, and products are final sale.
Please email us at email@example.com with any questions or concerns about your purchase.


text:
It's hard to believe that it's been over two years already since I took delivery of the Milwaukee, and my fondness for it has only increased during that time. At this time of year the bike goes fenderless, and I'm taking advantage of the additional clearance to run/rub/palp some 32mm tires inflated to exactly [X]psi instead of my usual 28s. (There's no way I'm disclosing #whatpressureyourunning, or my proprietary tire pressure algorithm which involves daily weighings as well as occasional soil-tastings.) Other features include an EH Works tool roll (go ahead and buy two, you deserve it), as well as a genuine MA2 rim on the front:
I dug these rims out of a bike shop basement many years ago because they were the official Jobst Brandt-approved rim and even though I was still a dyed-in-the-Lycra Fred and these were considered old and heavy his curmudgeonliness spoke directly to my soul. Sadly, the rear rim is no longer with us (probably due to a sub-par non Jobstian wheel build which I was not responsible for), but the front is still going strong--which is not really saying much since pretty much any front wheel will last roughly forever. As for the rear, I rebuilt it some years back with a cheap polished rim of similar dimensions, and I daresay silver wheels lend a bicycle a certain dignity which is absent from today's flashy wheelsets.
And now, I'm pleased to present you with a quiz. As always, study the item, think, and click on your answer. If you're right you'll know, and if you're wrong you'll see a good old-fashioned fixie fail.
Thanks very much for reading, ride safe, and may all your rides be bicycle rides.
--Wildcat Rock Machine
1) Shoe designer Christian Louboutin used which cycling activity to showcase their $995 sneaker?
--Bike polo
2) How much money is Velo Visor looking to raise?
--A few hundred bucks
3) According to Hallmark, which is not an appropriate gift for a 10-year anniversary?
--Carbon fiber
4) Bronx Community Board 8 voted against a street redesign that included a bike lane because:
--People will stop visiting New York City, the economy will collapse, and the city will become a ghost town
--"The Bronx is not close to New York City like Brooklyn is"
--Everybody who'd been killed on that street deserved to die
--All of the above
6) Did Pirelli get bike tires right with the Pzero?
--Who cares?
7) This Bicycling story fails to include the most important feature of all: an "off" button.


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On your drive into work, have you ever noticed a cyclist obviously commuting and admired that person? Have you thought it would be cool to ride your bike to work, or home from the office? Perhaps it's crossed your mind that bike commuting not only helps the environment and saves gas money; but it could help you stay fit, healthy and burn a few extra calories. Despite some worthy reasons to ride your bike to work, there never seems to be a good time to start. So why not start now? Lots of people commute on their bicycles, why not you?
Even if you commute only a handful of times, it's better than none at all. To help you get rolling, here are 13 tips for commuting on your bike.
1. Begin with an achievable distance.
2. Start with an achievable frequency.
3. Wear a helmet.
4. Wear clothing that can easily be seen by motorists.
5. Don't make a big deal out of special clothes and gear.
6. Consider cycling shorts.
7. Do a dry run on the weekend.
8. Find routes with minimal traffic.
9. Learn how to change a flat.
10. Carry a cell phone and call for help if you have significant mechanical trouble.
11. Take your clothes to work the day before you commute.
12. Strategize your clean up time before work.
13. Watch for parked car doors swinging open.


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Merlin's weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin's weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
"What's 43 Folders?"
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann's website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.
Link gratitude: Where I find my best stuff
Merlin Mann | Jun 18 2007
I always try to credit the source for stuff that I link to when I've learned about it from other sites. In addition to helping my readers connect with voices they may not have heard before, I believe it's just the classy thing to do. (I'm looking at you, "A Listers" -- a lot of you have started dropping vias for everyone but your highest-profile buddies: tacky, tacky). Anyway, I admit that I'm not 100% either, but in the interest of trying to make good, here are a few of the sites that I find myself reading and linking to a lot. Thanks to their authors and contributors for sending me (and you) to so many interesting places.
I'm sure I've forgotten someone and will be back to add more folks the minute I hit "Submit," so please bear with me. But, what do you think? Did I miss anyone? Who do I glean links from all the time? Got a great resource I might be missing? (No self-links for this one, please) POSTED IN:
You totally forgot foxnews.com. We... by TimK (not verified)
Oops; my bad, the link... by Mike Rose (not verified)
I'm a big fan of... by Anca (not verified)
Glad you took the time... by Bowrag (not verified)
I also read Lifehacker a... by runiteking1 (not verified)
kottke.org is my #1 favorite... by tom (not verified)
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About MerlinBio Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He's best known for being the guy who created the website you're reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today, Back to Work, and Kung Fu Grippe. Also? He's writing this book, he lives with this face, he suffers from this hair, he answers these questions, and he's had this life. So far. Merlin's favorite thing he's written in the past few years is an essay entitled, "Cranking." |
EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |


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Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A display of moon rocks that disappeared from an Alaska museum after an arson fire nearly four decades ago has been returned to the state following the settlement of a lawsuit by a man who claimed he rescued the rocks from the rubble.
State and federal officials at a news conference Thursday displayed the returned relic _ tiny moon rocks encased in a golf ball-size acrylic glass ball and mounted on a walnut plaque above a small Alaska flag that traveled to the moon aboard Apollo 11.
President Richard Nixon presented the plaque to Alaska Gov. Keith Miller in 1969. It was on display at the Alaska Transportation Museum in 1973 when an arsonist torched the building. Witnesses remembered seeing the plaque intact, but it disappeared until the foster son of the transportation museum director made a claim of ownership in 2010.
Coleman Anderson, a vessel captain who appeared in early episodes of the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," said he had rescued the moon rocks. He sued for clear title but said he would be willing to sell them to the state. State officials questioned Anderson's account and countersued.
"We were eventually able to persuade the plaintiff that he should dismiss this case," said Assistant Attorney General Neil Slotnick, who compiled evidence in the lawsuit.
The state was armed with witness accounts that the moon rocks survived the fire and were not lumped with debris.
"Many times I feel that plaintiffs are asking for the moon," Slotnick said. "This is the first time that that was literally true."
Anderson's attorney, Daniel P. Harris, said from Seattle that Anderson wanted a determination of the rocks' ownership and authenticity. Like anyone, Harris said, Anderson would've liked to be paid.
"He recovered those moon rocks. Without him, who knows where they could be or whether they would exist today. But in the end, the state was unwilling to pay any reward," Harris said. "It just was not worth Coleman's time or money to fight the state on that."
Anderson, who now lives in Texas, relinquished his claim to the rocks in September. Alaska State Museum curator of collections Steve Henrikson took possession of the plaque Wednesday and flew it to Alaska.
He said the rocks will be displayed at the State Museum through December and likely will be made available for showings around Alaska.
Nixon believed it took an effort by the entire world to put a man on the moon, and he gave moon rocks collected by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren to every state and country, Henrikson said.
Alaska is not the only recipient of Nixon's generosity that has lost track of its moon rocks. Nicaragua's ended up with a Las Vegas collector. A sample given to Ireland may have been buried with debris from a fire. And a moon rock at a natural history museum on the island nation of Malta was stolen.
Anderson was 17 when fire destroyed the transportation museum. His stepfather was Phil Redden, the curator. Anderson claimed he entered the "debris area" as crews removed garbage, discovered the moon rock plaque covered by melted materials, and took it home.
State risk manager John George recorded seeing the rocks undamaged. A former museum employee, Janie Barry, testified in a deposition that she, too, saw that rocks intact. She said she saw Redden, the curator, leave the damaged building with the moon rocks and that he intended to take them home for safekeeping.
The FBI used photographic analysis to confirm Anderson's display was the one Nixon had handed to Gov. Miller.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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DID YOU KNOW: Mary Rambin ate her very first grapefruit on April 10, 2009?
For some reason grapefruit sounded good this morning. I've NEVER eaten one before. It was only a month ago I actually enjoyed my first glass of grapefruit juice. I've been missing out! Grapefruit is delicious. Hence, the "after" picture. After one bite, I didn't come up for air.


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5th Annual Zwickelmania – Oregon's Local Craft Brewery Open House
Hood River, Or – Ever wonder what really goes on in a brewery? Well here's your chance. On Saturday, February 16th, dozens of Oregon breweries and brewpubs will open their doors to visitors for the state's 5th annual Zwickelmania Brewery Open House. Hosted by the Oregon Brewers Guild (OBG), Zwickelmania is a free statewide event that offers visitors a chance to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample their favorite beers.
Four local breweries, Full Sail Brewing, Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom, Pfriem Family Brewers and Logsdon Farmhouse Ales will be opening their brewhouse doors for the event.
Double Mountain's co-owner Charlie Devereux will be leading free tours at 12 – 3pm on the 1/2 hour where they'll pull samples "from the zwickel", offer beer and cheese pairings, a complementary glass and a peek behind the curtain to see how the magic happens.
Full Sail Brewing will offer guided brewery tours at 12, 1, 2, 3 and 4pm and will be offering their newest Brewer's Share Experimental beer, "Mathias's Main Ingredient Oatmeal Stout," paired with artisan chocolate. Tours and tasting are free of charge and each tour participant will receive a complementary glass. Full Sail's Brewery at Riverplace in Portland will also be open for tours.
Pfriem will be releasing two new seasonal beers and will be offering food pairings as well. Tours will run from 1-4pm on the 1/2 hour.
Logsdon will offer tours at 12, 1, 2, 3PM Brewery tour and samplings; Featuring: Kili Wit, Seizoen, and Limited Release; Peche 'n Brett. With Xocolatl de David: Premium Chocolates paired with Seizoen Bretta, Cerasus, and Cocoa – Bretta along with Kumamoto Oysters from our friends at Copper Spur Resort – while they last!
For more information contact the breweries at:
Double Mountain 541-387-0042 http://www.doublemountainbrewery.com/
Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub: 541-386-2247. www.fullsailbrewing.com
Full Sail Brewing at Riverplace: 503-222-5343
Pfriem Family Brewers: 541-321-0490 http://pfriembeer.com
Logsdon Farmhouse Ales: 541-490-9161 http://www.farmhousebeer.com
For a complete listing of Zwickelmania events throughout the state: http://oregonbeer.org/zwickelmania/


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- Sep 6, 2023
- 1 min
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OffLeash SoCal Dog Training
OffLeash SoCal provides off-leash dog training, boarding, and lessons to the city of Hidden Hills.
In Hidden Hills, we offer One, Two, and Three week Dog Board & Train Programs, Puppy Board & Training, Beginning and Advanced Dog Obedience Training, Therapy Dog Training, Service Dog Training, Puppy Training, Private and In-Home Dog Training, and much more to the dogs of Hidden Hills.
Our programs are designed to enhance your relationship with your dog.
Dog Training for Hidden Hills
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YWCA is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families, and strengthen communities. For over 160 years, YWCA has been a leader in addressing the most challenging issues of the day, including women's rights, safe labor laws, civil rights, affordable housing, pay equity, violence prevention, and health care reform. Today, our programs and services around Miami serve hundreds of women, girls, and their families. And we combine programming and advocacy to move the needle on three key areas: racial justice and civil rights, health and safety, and empowerment and economic advancement of women and girls.
If you're passionate about eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all, we want you on our team! Join us as we work on the front lines tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time. Our staff is creative, collaborative, smart, dedicated, and inspired as we seek to build a world where all girls and women are empowered to safely reach their full potential. Check out available job opportunities by reviewing our jobs center below.


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Haworth LOOK Used Task Chair, Black
- Seat height
- Arm height
- Back height
- Tilt tension
- Back lock
- Seat slide
Color: Black
Very good condition:
Your used chair will arrive clean and in excellent working order, ready for display in your office. Every feature on the chair is checked by our quality control team and guaranteed to work. Prior to shipment, each chair is cleaned and refurbished as needed including high quality paint touch up. Your chair will be free from fabric rips or tears, the frame is damage free and may only have very slight scratches, if any.
See example photos


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2012 U.S. presidential race is shaping up to be a struggle between
Goldman Sachs candidate Mitt Romney and fellow Goldman Sachs candidate
Barack Obama on one side, and anti-Goldman Sachs candidate Ron Paul on
the other side.
Former Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith described the culture of his former firm as "toxic and destructive," in a New York Times op-ed on Wednesday, March 14, 2012.
prime motivation that drives Goldman Sachs employees is scamming their
customers, says Smith. "It makes me ill how callously people talk about
ripping their clients
off," he writes. "Over the last 12 months I have seen five different
directors refer to their own clients as "muppets," sometimes over
internal e-mail."
Presidential candidates Mitt Romney
and President Barack Obama take the same elitist view towards their
voters and the American people as a whole. Like Goldman Sachs executives, they
don't see Americans as their fellow citizens, but as sheep to be duped,
and as lambs to be skinned alive and eaten for dinner.
The only presidential candidate who respects the intelligence and maturity of the American people is Dr. Ron Paul. In a recent speech,
Dr. Paul emphasized the fact that he is not a Goldman Sachs candidate,
unlike Romney and Obama. "I am not the Goldman Sachs candidate," said
Dr. Paul.
He added: "President Eisenhower warned us of
the military-industrial complex, and I am not the candidate for the
military-industrial complex. And I am not the first choice of Ben
Bernanke or the Federal Reserve System. And I'm certainly not the choice
of those social and economic authoritarians who want to run our lives
and run the economy."
Many of Ron Paul's financial
contributors are in the military. Barack Obama is the commander-in-chief
in name only. Ron Paul is the military candidate, and the president in
the hearts and minds of the military. Dr. Paul is also the national security candidate. He is not an isolationist, but a strong and wise fighter who believes wars should be declared, fought extremely hard, and won.
Paul's old-school model of warfare is out of fashion today because the
warriors of the current generation have been brainwashed to believe that
the perpetual warfare model is tough, brave, and manly. But that is
false. Only weak cowards Lindsey Graham, Joseph Lieberman, Paul
Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld,
Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama support the idea of perpetual warfare.
men support real wars, not psy-op wars that go on forever because every
week a new mythical enemy is invented and introduced to the American
people as the greatest threat to humanity since Adolf Hitler.
has become the enemy of mankind. As John F. Kennedy said before he was
assassinated by the shadow controllers of the CIA, "Mankind must put an
end to war, or war will put an end to mankind."
Paul is carrying the torch of peace that was seized from President
Kennedy's hands and hidden away in the dark corners of history. He is
bringing the torch back into the light of consciousness, but the power
elite in Washington is mocking him, ridiculing his foreign policy ideas,
and cheating him from electoral victories.
Last weekend, Dr. Paul said that he had doubts
about the validity of numerous electoral outcomes in the Republican
caucuses and straw polls. He said that it is highly suspect that the
massive outpouring of public support for his message and ideas doesn't
translate into votes.
Dr. Paul's suspicions of
wrongdoing on the part of the GOP establishment and corporate media are
well-founded. Dr. Paul's supporters are the most energetic, politically
savvy, and enthusiastic of all Republican and Democratic voters. Mitt
Romney and Rick Santorum are both cardboard candidates, while Dr. Paul
is recognized as the founding father of the Tea Party, which is the
largest grassroots political movement to emerge in recent decades.
Paul's message of responsible government, non-intervention, drug
legalization, and fiscal responsibility has struck a chord with young
people in America and across the world.
Romney and
Obama both love Goldman Sachs, the military-industrial complex, and the
rotten Federal Reserve Cartel, all of which are fraudulent machines that
cheat the American people out of their money, and deserve to be
So if you love criminal banks and criminal
wars then support either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. It doesn't matter
which anti-human robot is in office in 2013. But if you hate criminal
banks and criminal wars then the choice is obvious: support Ron Paul.


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In a dining environment where cellphones have become as ubiquitous as breadbaskets, one recent trademark filing stands out. Applebee's, the casual-dining chain that serves more than a million people a day, has submitted an application for something called "No tech Tuesday." Restaurants often file trademark applications before announcing programs or new items.
The company declined to elaborate but said it has no concrete plans right now for "No tech Tuesday."
Spokesman Dan Smith said Applebee's would not be asking customers to turn off their phones, iPads or other tech gadgets. Neither would it change the company's plans to install 100,000 tablets on every table at more than 1,800 of its U.S. restaurants by the end of the year. According to a recent press release, the tablets will allow customers to pay at their table, add additional drinks, desserts and other menu items to their order and play a selection of games and music.
"What it isn't, is anything in the future that would have any connection to the restaurant," Smith said of "No tech Tuesday." He noted the company regularly files applications for things that are related to social media, online ordering or marketing "It could be any number of those things."


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AP Outlet IP67
with M16 cable gland (without pressure compensation)
for 1 or 2 modules
1 MS-K Plus 1/8 Cat. 6A (IEC)
2 KS-T 1/8 Cat. 6/EA
KS-T 5 1/8 Cat. 5/5e
KS-T Plus 1/8 Cat. 6A tool-less
KS-TS 1/8 Cat. 6/EA tool-less
RJ45 outlet IP67
Structured premises cablings in the industrial sector, for the transmission of Ethernet protocols. Outlet IP67, surface mounted, for 2 modules (types see above). For information on the properties of the module: see data sheet of the requested module.
Protection rating IP67 when used together with RJ45 patch cords IP67.
Protection rating IP20 when used together with standard RJ45 patch cords.
Gasket for the incoming data cables with M16 screwed cable gland. Stable housing made of aluminium, grey, similar to RAL 7035.
Wall-/floor mounting by internal screw openings.
Delivery without modules.


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- Home
- Residents & Visitors
- Community Resources
- Downtown Morgantown
Downtown Morgantown
Downtown Morgantown is a mixture of small retail businesses, professional services, restaurants, and residential units. Most buildings have been in place since the turn-of-the-century. As the City grew, the historic downtown remained the focal point of the City and County.
Downtown Morgantown includes :
Downtown Morgantown includes :
- 100 Retailers
- 35 Restaurants, Cafes, Clubs, and Taverns
- 100 Professional Businesses
- An 88-room Historic Hotel
- Historic Metropolitan Theatre
- Over 1,675 public parking places
- An award winning Main Street Organization
Downtown Morgantown
Downtown Morgantown From the Air
A constant boost to the downtown is the fact that the Historic Downtown Morgantown borders the main campus of West Virginia University with an average 22,000 students and 5,000 employees. Along with the University, there are over 2,500 downtown employees in local businesses and City and County public offices, creating an average count of 3,000 pedestrians per day.Downtown Improvements
The face of Downtown has been altered over the years, reflecting the changes that Morgantown itself has undergone. A visitor to the city would have seen, through most of the nineteenth century, a tiny, quiet town where one and two-story houses and stores were concentrated on a tree-lined High Street and its connecting streets down to the river. The town changed very little until the railroad came in 1886 and gas and oil production began nearby a few years later. Industries sprang up in the outlying areas and Morgantown experienced an economic and population boom. High Street changed from unpretentious little buildings to imposing, ornate, structures. Downtown was still the place to live, however, and the wealthy built bigger and grander houses, developing Spruce Street and moving farther south on High, which in a burst of patriotism or perhaps simple conformity, was briefly re-named "Main" Street. The re-naming didn't take; High Street it remains, with its echoes of the main street of English villages.Walking City
These were the twilight years of Morgantown's existence as a "walking city" where inhabitants lived close to their places of employment and the center city housed the affluent. During the years 1890 to 1900, the population more than doubled and more and more people were living in the industrial areas, such as Seneca and Sabraton. Downtown was booming as a commercial district.Increased Activity
By 1903, streetcars brought a public transportation system to town and it became efficient to live outside the city center and commute to work or make shopping trips. The bustling, noisy, downtown area became less attractive for residential use and the suburbs, such as South Park and Durbannah became fashionable. Downtown Morgantown ceased to be a place for single family dwellings and became what it is today, a commercial district peppered with apartments above the shops, whose occupants are more likely to be students from the University than the owners of the shops.Architectural Beauty
Architecturally, Morgantown is typical of small-town America in that its builders preferred traditional forms to high style. This gives High Street the eclectic charm characteristic of Main Street, U.S.A."Almost all the architectural beauty of Morgantown is due to the skill and progressive ideas... of our resident architect." So said the Morgantown "New Dominion" of the Preston County native who came to Morgantown by way of Pittsburgh in 1894. Elmer F. Jacobs virtually single-handedly renovated High Street and its environs, replacing the modest buildings of an earlier era with Romanesque and Queen Anne Revival structures. By the early 1900s, he had designed over 400 buildings, many of which may still be seen in the downtown area.
Much of old Morgantown remains visible to the pedestrian who looks above the stucco or metal facings of altered first-floor entrances to discover bracketed eaves or carved stone columns. In addition, greater appreciation of our architectural heritage has resulted in a growing number of these buildings being preserved and accurately restored rather than being demolished or modernized beyond recognition.


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Show All Answers
If you have any questions regarding TSA firearm rules and regulations, contact their Customer Service Center.
Places as listed in the "Where can I / can't I Open Carry?" FAQ apply to those who open carry. All School Property and Facilities used for school functions are off limits to those without a valid permit / license. The minimum age for Open Carry is 21. Read RCW 9.41.060 for exceptions to restrictions on carrying firearms. For more information on carrying in a vehicle, see RV / Car Carry Without a Permit (PDF).
Use your best judgement. If you live in a state that doesn't require you inform the officer but in which the officer is likely to find out you have a permit when they access your driving record and/or registration then you may find it easiest to be the one who discloses the firearm up front instead of waiting for the officer to find out from a computer. Law enforcement officers hate surprises and the idea that you may have a gun and didn't tell them about it is a not so fun surprise. For more details see RCW 9.41.050.
The non-emergency number for Pasco and Franklin County is 509-545-3510, also a 24/7 number.
If you need to reach the Kennewick Police Department business line, you can call 509-585-4208 Mon thru Friday 0830-0430. The business line is not for reporting incidents or speaking directly to an officer.
To leave a message for a specific officer, call the station at 509-585-4208 and a clerk will transfer you to the officer's station phone.
If you want to file a complaint against an officer, call 509-585-4208. A clerk will transfer you to the on-duty supervisor.
Please contact the Washington State Patrol for anything occurring on the highways at 1-800-283-7803.
You may only apply to the city police department if you live within the city limits. Please apply at the county sheriff's office if you live in the county. Renewal licenses and replacement licenses are handled in the same manner. If you live out-of-state, you may apply at any Washington state police department or sheriff's office. We have sixty days to issue a license to a person who does not reside in the state of Washington and thirty days for Washington residents. Review more details on the Concealed Pistol Licensing page.
The Kennewick Police Department accepts applications for firearm dealer licenses Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 pm. The business must be in the incorporated areas of Kennewick. The applicant must provide a copy of their business license and Federal Firearm License.
The Kennewick Police Department offers fingerprinting services by appointment only at 211 W 6th Avenue, Kennewick, WA 99336. The fee is $21 for 2 print cards. Please call 509-585-4208 to schedule.
The Kennewick Police Department does not do Civil Stand-byes unless the Judge specifically states it in the Order that KPD will assist in retrieving your basic needs i.e.: clothing, personal hygiene items, medications or tools for work. This would not cover furniture, household items, food, etc.
Visit the local courts site for more information about Protection Orders.
To report a junk or abandoned vehicle on City property/roadway, you can use the Online Reporting Form (below), or call the Kennewick Police Department business line at 509- 585-4208, or go to the station at 211 W. 6th Avenue to fill out an abandoned vehicle form. The form is given to the Traffic Sergeant, who will assign someone to inspect and potentially tag the vehicle. The registered owner then must remove the vehicle within a short period of time, or it will be towed at their expense. If the vehicle is on private property, call 509-628-0333 and ask for an officer to inspect it. The officer must determine if it's stolen or considered a hulk (hazard) abandoned vehicle.
Good Rule: If you run into a state that doesn't share reciprocity with yours, store your unloaded firearm in a separate locked container apart from the ammunition in the trunk of your vehicle. That way, you can claim the Firearm Owners Protection Act. You can check at if a state honor your concealed carry license at USA Carry.
The Kennewick Police Department has a Medical Return drug collection unit in our front lobby. It is always locked so you must go to the front desk and ask for assistance. It is available during normal business hours of Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. This is for individual citizen use, not unused / outdated medication from businesses or clinics.
These vehicles also fall under the 72-hour rule. For more information, please see


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Why ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Shares Soared
Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals -- a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a focus on central nervous system disorders -- skyrocketed as much as 32% after reporting data from its late-stage Parkinson's disease psychosis study with Pimavanserin.
So what: At the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, ACADIA noted that Pimavanserin met the primary endpoint of the study by demonstrating "highly significant antipsychotic efficacy." Pimavanserin also met its secondary endpoint of motoric tolerability as measured by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, with the Pimavanserin arm demonstrating twice as much clinical global impression improvement as the control arm. The drug was well tolerated by patients, with urinary tract infections being the most common adverse event.
Now what: While it's impossible to tell if this will net Pimavanserin an approval from the FDA, I believe it undoubtedly gives the company enough fuel to file for a new drug application sometime in the next quarter or two. However, given the amazing run ACADIA's already had, I'm a bit leery about suggesting the stock could have further upside from here, and would patiently wait for the FDA panel's review of Pimavanserin before picking a side.
Craving more input? Start by adding ACADIA Pharmaceuticals to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.
While you can certainly make huge gains in biotechs like ACADIA, the best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool's free report "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich" names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies that every investor should be aware of. Click here now to keep reading.
The article Why ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Shares Soared originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Companions)
- Companions here refer to the fantasy characters. Companion is also a term used to describe a level of mateship amongst chakats.
Companions are horse-like beings which feature in a number of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar fantasy novels. They are reborn souls in the form of blue-eyed white horses with silver (matte, not chrome) hooves. Companions have extended endurance, speed, and mental magic including Mindspeech. A Companion, at some point in his or her life, Chooses a human, bonding them (usually for life) and setting the human on the path to becoming a fully-trained Herald.
Companion characters can be played on the Herald Visions MOO.
See also[edit]
- Companions in the Wikipedia article about Velgarth
External links[edit]
- Mercedes Lackey: Companions archived page in the Firebird Arts & Music Catalog
- Heralds of Valdemar FAQ: Companions
- Companions' Choices or Why Companions Choose the Heralds They Do
This species stub needs improving. |


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Aging middle-class Americans worry about retirement, and for good reason. The financial and economic crises of the last several years have left the country 10 percent poorer, obliterating $6.1 trillion in wealth, some of which people were saving for retirement. When the TV talking heads aren't reminding us about plummeting house prices, they're speculating about not whether, but by how much, politicians will cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. The baby-boom generation must wonder if it's about to go bust.
The problems aren't limited to the boomers themselves. As America ages, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid expenditures will inexorably rise, leaving less money for infrastructure, defense, and other important things. There's also the risk that tens of millions of boomers, discovering that they haven't saved enough money for their dotage, might all sell their assets at the same time and severely pare back their spending, plunging the economy not just into recession but into long-term stagnation.
Americans in their late forties through their early sixties shouldn't stock up on cat food quite yet, though. Nor should we accept as inevitable a future in which the elderly consume so many public resources that they suppress growth for decades. Mass retirement will transform America, yes; and for some people, the transformation may be unpleasant. But it need not drag the nation under.
At first glance, the situation does look bleak: more retirees, less money. This year, the oldest of the 78 million babies born between 1946 and 1964 are turning 65 and becoming senior citizens. Because of the immense size of this baby-boom generation, the number of senior citizens will more than double between now and 2050, from 40 million to 89 million. And because the nation's overall population will grow more slowly, older folks will make up an ever-larger share of it, increasing from 13 percent now to 20 percent in 2050.
Thanks to Botox and treadmills, the boomers are aging well. Their finances? Not so much, as some Federal Reserve numbers show. Baby boomers, like most Americans, have seen no wage gains for two decades. In 2007, families headed by younger boomers—those aged 45 through 54—earned a median income of $64,200, almost exactly the same, in inflation-adjusted dollars, as families in the same age group earned in 1989. (The comparison doesn't work well for the older boomers—those aged 55 through 64—because, as we'll see, people are retiring later these days, which skews their incomes.)
For years, boomers made up for their stagnant wages by borrowing, helping expand the credit bubble. Two decades ago, the average American family headed by someone in his late forties or early fifties owed $38,100, in 2007 dollars; by the time the global debt mania peaked in 2007, such families had more than doubled their indebtedness, to an average of $95,900. (All numbers in this story are adjusted for inflation, and this particular figure doesn't include the 13 percent of such families that had no debt at all, a number that has remained fairly stable for 20 years.) Older boomers, too, dramatically increased their debt relative to earlier generations, from $15,400 in 1989 to $60,300 in 2007—and the percentage that didn't owe money fell from 29 percent to 18 percent.
Everyone knows the chief culprit behind the debt explosion: mortgages. In 2007, the typical younger boomer family with a mortgage—66 percent of the group—was $110,000 in house-secured debt. That was nearly triple the amount that a similar family owed two decades earlier ($41,900). The average older boomer family with a mortgage, meanwhile, owed $85,000 in 2007, well over twice the $32,200 that the equivalent family owed in 1989. More older boomers, too, had mortgage debt: 55 percent, compared with 37 percent in 1989. Another sign that the boomers weren't paying down their mortgages enough in preparation for retirement was that in 1989, 45-to-54-year-olds owed a full 35 percent less in mortgage debt than people a decade younger did. By 2007, the figure had fallen to 14 percent.
Until the real-estate bubble burst, middle-aged Americans told themselves that they were nurturing nest eggs, investments that would more than enable them to pay back what they owed. The facts seemed to bear them out: over the two decades leading up to 2007, the values of homes owned by people aged 45 to 54 exploded, rising 68 percent after inflation, to an average of $230,000. Older boomers made similar gains. Boomers also diligently socked away money in retirement accounts. By 2007, the two-thirds of younger boomers who had such accounts held $63,000 in them, on average; older boomers held $100,000.
Thanks to the rising value of real estate and of stocks, younger boomers had managed, on the eve of the financial crisis, to amass an average net worth—assets minus debt—of $184,900, a modest but very real gain of 16 percent relative to their counterparts 20 years ago. Older boomers had $254,100, a striking 61 percent better than the previous generation.
By 2009, though, all of the younger boomers' gains were gone. When their stock and house values crashed but their massive debt remained, younger boomers' average wealth contracted to $145,400, 9 percent below what folks had two decades ago. Older boomers fared better, but still lost 15 percent, with their wealth shrinking to $214,800.
At first glance, that decline seems catastrophic. That $145,400, even if it grew 5 percent a year for another 20 years until retirement, would generate only the future equivalent of $15,400 in 2011 dollars in annual retirement income. As for older boomers, because they have much less time for their assets to grow, their current $214,800 would generate only about $14,000 a year in retirement income. True, older boomers are likelier to have corporate pensions to supplement their assets. But for most Americans, those sums would offer a bare subsistence, not a fulfilled existence—especially if politicians slashed Social Security, too, as conventional wisdom has long regarded as inevitable.
It's no surprise, then, that folks feel queasy about their retirement prospects. The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) conducts an annual survey, sponsored largely by financial groups, to quantify this unease. The 2011 edition found that "Americans' confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement has plunged to a new low." Half of workers of all ages were "not at all confident" or "not too confident" that they could save enough before they stopped working, up from 29 percent in 2007, before the financial crisis. Of people aged 45 through 54, 29 percent lacked any confidence in their retirement prospects, more than double the 11 percent similarly worried in 2007.
Part of the solution to the retirement crisis is to shorten the years of retirement. "Working longer is the key to a secure retirement for the vast majority of older Americans," notes Alicia Munnell, a Boston College management prof and director of the school's retirement-research center. If you're working, you're not consuming your savings as much; in the best case, you're still adding to them.
The idea of working until the end—or closer to it—isn't new. Many of today's retirees have enjoyed decades of relaxation financed by company pensions and Social Security, but for most of history, voluntary retirement was the exception, not the rule. "Up to the end of the nineteenth century, people generally worked as long as they could," Munnell writes. "At the end of their lives, they had only about two years of 'retirement,' often due to ill health."
As the century turned, however, more Americans began to enjoy leisure time before they died. Many older couples survived on Civil War veterans' pensions and, beginning in 1935, on welfare benefits for the elderly, followed by Social Security. After World War II, companies began to lure and keep workers by providing them with pensions, which often encouraged workers to retire before 65, notes Jack VanDerhei, director of research at EBRI. Responding to such signals, twentieth-century workers got used to the idea of retiring.
But a reversal began in the 1980s, as retirement ages for men started to rise. Men today retire at 64, on average, up from 62 two decades ago, Munnell has found. (Women now retire at 62, but comparisons with previous eras are tricky, since back then, most married women didn't work throughout their lives.) In 2010, according to the U.S. Census, 62 percent of men aged 60 to 64 were either working or looking for work, a significant increase from 56 percent a decade before. Among men 65 and older, 22 percent were in the labor force, up from 16 percent a decade earlier. The change shows up in Social Security statistics, too. Social Security lets people retire as early as 62, but to get full benefits, you have to be a few years older. By the mid-2000s, more than 20 percent of men were delaying collecting until they had reached full retirement age, up from 17 percent in the mid-eighties. For women, the figure had moved from 12 percent to 16 percent.
Washington is partly responsible for the shift. Nearly three decades ago, President Reagan and the Democratic Congress enacted a law that gradually increased the age at which people could retire and get full benefits, from 65 at the time to 67 in 2027. People retiring this year, for example, must be 66 to receive full benefits—though a Nixon-era change gives them even higher benefits if they wait until 70. In 2000, President Clinton and the Republican Congress added a further encouragement to work longer, repealing a hefty tax slapped on those who chose to keep working while collecting Social Security, as long as they waited until the full retirement age to collect.
The corporate world, too, has contributed to people's retiring later, though in a different way: moving from guaranteed lifetime pensions, based on workers' salaries, to matching employees' own retirement savings. That encourages people to work longer. In 1980, when the baby boomers were young, 60 percent of private-sector workers with retirement plans could rely on guaranteed employer pensions. A decade later, the figure was down to less than a third; today, it is 7 percent. (That doesn't include the 22 million Americans who work for government, many of whom will receive pensions when they retire.)
So far, people have changed their behavior only gradually. But as those who have received the new signals during their entire working lives approach traditional retirement age, it's probable that more and more of them will keep working. Making that outcome even more likely, baby boomers have absorbed the cultural lesson that idleness isn't a good thing, often from watching their parents stagnate in long retirements. "We don't believe we're reaching retirement age," says Hershel Chicowitz, who runs the Baby Boomer Headquarters website and newsletter. Chicowitz thinks that many boomers will just "keep working" or start second careers as they enter "old age." The 2011 EBRI survey backs him up: 36 percent of the respondents figured that they'd retire later than 65, a jump from 25 percent in 2006 and more than three times the 11 percent figure of 1991. Three-quarters of those surveyed said that they'd work at least part-time after "retiring."
Most people can work for a few more years, maybe even a decade, but they can't work forever. Barely a quarter of those aged 65 to 74 were in the workforce last year, according to the census. The number declines precipitously as you get into even older age groups, to less than 9 percent of those aged 75 to 84 and less than 3 percent of the 85-and-up bracket. There's no way around it: baby boomers will eventually have to retire, and to do that, they'll need more savings than they've managed to accumulate.
This isn't to say that they won't have any income from Social Security, as some politicians and pundits have warned. "As far back as I can remember, people said, 'Don't count on Social Security; it will be gone,' " says Chicowitz. Indeed, a full 87 percent of workers told EBRI last year that they feared Social Security cuts.
But the situation isn't quite that dire. For decades—until last year—workers paid more into Social Security than retirees took out. That "trust fund" of extra money, amounting to $2.6 trillion, went into a big pile of IOUs from the U.S. Treasury, helping the government spend money on everything besides Social Security, from food stamps to national defense. Now, Social Security's annual surpluses are turning into deficits. To finance the annual deficits, the system this year is turning to its trust fund. But it will take a long time to exhaust the reserves: the trust fund won't run dry until 2037, when the youngest boomer is 73.
At that point, if nobody has acted to reform Social Security, a 24 percent reduction in benefits would kick in automatically. But some kind of reform is almost certain. After all, those millions of boomers vote, making it highly doubtful that Washington would close the Social Security deficit entirely through slashing benefits. Even raising the "early" retirement age is unlikely. If politicians were going to do that, they would have done it in 1983, when the boomers were still young. Making such a move now would provoke well-founded complaints that mandating a longer work life, rather than merely encouraging it through incentives, would unfairly harm workers who have done heavy labor all their lives.
Reform isn't the impossible task that it seems, either. Henry Aaron, the Brookings Institution's Social Security guru, estimates that over the next 75 years, Social Security will take in about 14 percent of payroll and send out about 16 percent. "Minor adjustments are sufficient to close the funding gap," he says. Of course, as Social Security lends less and less to the Treasury, that will create a problem for the rest of the government, which will find itself with a lot less money. But as Aaron also notes—and as the Standard & Poor's August downgrade of the U.S. credit rating reminded voters—Washington must confront that fiscal issue long before 2037. As Alan Glickstein, a senior retirement consultant at benefits consultancy Towers Watson, sums up: incremental reforms will probably continue to modify Social Security, "but it will still exist and be recognizable in its current form."
Social Security will get poorer Americans "a good chunk of the way there" in replacing preretirement income, observes Glickstein—up to 90 percent of it for some retirees. But middle-class workers can't rely on Social Security to replace anywhere near their preretirement income. Social Security replaces only about a third of earnings for retirees who made $55,000 a year, with the figure falling to 15 percent for high-five-figure earners. If Americans don't save and invest enough today, it could mean smashed dreams tomorrow—as well as deflation for the broader economy, as tens of millions retreat from consumption.
But "there doesn't have to be a crisis," says Michael Falcon, head of retirement at J. P. Morgan Asset Management for the United States and Canada. Generally, Falcon says, a retiree will need an annual income that's 80 percent of his preretirement income. He adds that frequently "we see a U shape," with people spending lots of money in their early retirement on exotic trips, less as they get older and less adventurous, and then, as they get really old, lots of money again on health care.
Hitting that 80 percent mark isn't impossible, but it's certainly daunting. Recall that in 2007, the average family headed by younger boomers earned $64,200. In retirement, such a couple will need 80 percent of that per year—roughly $51,400. They'll get about $17,500 from Social Security if they stop working at 62, or $24,900 if they wait until 67. That leaves a gap of $26,500 to $33,900. But remember, even after the market crash of 2008, the average younger boomer family had $145,400 in net worth. If those assets grow by 5 percent annually for another two decades, until they retire, the couple will make up for about half of the gap.
Can they come up with the remaining $15,000 or so? Retiring much later would help, with Social Security providing $30,900 a year for those waiting until 70—an extra $6,000 annually above retirement at 67. Some boomers will have additional income from a traditional pension, though many of these accounts are modest, as companies started freezing their contributions to such plans more than two decades ago. For people without such pensions, the answer, even if it's only a partial one, is to save as much as possible while they're still working. Falcon says that workers should be saving and investing a minimum of 10 percent, and perhaps as much as 14 percent, of their pretax income. Vanguard, the mutual-fund giant, recommends 12 to 15 percent. Americans currently save only about 5 percent—up from the near-zero levels of half a decade ago but still nowhere near enough. Vanguard notes that, including employer matches, the average participant in the 401(k) plans that it administers for employers contributes only about 9 percent of his income, and that only about one-third of its participants presently meet its suggested investment threshold.
Additional saving may not close the entire gap. But it can turn a catastrophic decline in living standards into a smaller adjustment. Of course, looking at averages this way ignores the worst-off—in this case, the millions of boomers who have saved nothing at all. It's growing rather late for them.
Washington has already taken modest steps toward encouraging people to save more. In 2006, President George W. Bush signed a law that allowed employers to enroll workers in 401(k) plans automatically, so long as they didn't specifically opt out. "It's one of the best things Congress has done" to increase 401(k) participation, says VanDerhei of EBRI. Vanguard says that the change has led more people who earn less than $30,000, in particular, to invest.
The nation needs a more dramatic shift from spending and borrowing to saving and investing, however. Here, the pols can use the tax code as a signal. Right now, people can contribute only $5,000 a year before taxes to personal-retirement accounts outside their employer plans—a ridiculously low amount. The government should invite people to save all they can, eliminating the annual limit and imposing only a lifetime limit of $1 million. Those who don't like the 401(k) plans that their employers provide or simply want to save more outside those plans would then have a substantive choice. The president and Congress should also eliminate capital-gains, dividends, and interest taxes on anyone, say, earning less than $250,000 a year, since these taxes discourage people from investing.
Washington must be sure, though, not to encourage everyone to invest in the same thing simultaneously, as happened during the Clinton era, when the government eliminated capital-gains taxes on home sales for middle-class earners but not on any other types of investments. If everyone buys the same thing, its price goes so high that eventually it has to crash. The Bush administration's 2006 pension-reform law is troubling in this regard, by the way, since it favors the "target-date fund," through which investors "target" the year they'd like to retire and let investment managers choose a mix of stocks, bonds, and other assets based on that date. Such funds can be a useful tool, but with so many boomers expecting to retire on the same target date, there's a real risk that fund managers will find themselves buying and selling the same classes of securities simultaneously.
Workers need to invest more but also need to earn better returns. In fact, an 8 percent return on existing investments, rather than 5 percent, would solve much of the problem for younger boomers. It's good news, then, that the average 401(k) investor has stuck to stocks, even though they've had a bad decade. As of 2010, Vanguard points out, its investors aged 45 to 54 had 73 percent of their accounts in stock or the stock portions of mixed funds; for 55-to-64-year-old investors, the figure was 61 percent. Those numbers have stayed pretty much the same since the financial crisis began, meaning that people have largely done what they're supposed to do during times of upheaval, which is not to panic and sell. Vanguard chalks up some of the sanguinity to middle-aged investors' memories of the 1983–2000 bull market: they believe that gains are possible if they sit tight.
If the government simply stuck with shoring up Social Security and modifying the tax code to encourage investment, and avoided getting heavily involved in other areas of retirement, retirees would likely benefit. Grown more confident that Social Security would always be their fallback, Americans might be more willing to invest their other retirement money, even after they've stopped working, and thus create additional income for themselves.
The biggest unknowable risk for future retirees is health care. VanDerhei notes that if you take health costs into account, a retiree may need not 80 percent of his preretirement income but more than 100 percent of it. The problem isn't so much regular or even catastrophic costs, which Medicare and supplementary insurance cover. It's long-term care: nursing homes for the elderly with dementia, for example, and in-home care for people whose frailty keeps them from caring for themselves. Medicare does not cover such costs; Medicaid does. But Medicaid requires its beneficiaries to be, practically speaking, poor. Of course, you will be poor after shelling out for a nursing home for a while—but so will your surviving spouse, who will have to live in severely straitened circumstances for the rest of his or her life.
If you look hard enough, you can purchase long-term care insurance while you're still young and healthy. It's expensive, though, partly because insurance companies are suspicious of their customers, recognizing that those who buy this protection probably have a reason for it. Someone who knows that his parents spent a long time in nursing homes, for example, is more likely to buy care insurance than someone whose parents were healthy until the end.
Potential customers return the suspicion. As three National Bureau of Economic Research fellows determined in a recent paper, many Americans fear that they could spend money on insurance premiums for long-term care, only to watch the insurance companies go bust 20 years down the road. "As events during the recent recession illustrate, long-term contracts are not always honored," the authors write. "The risk of insurance companies going bankrupt . . . may be [a] reason why demand for long-term care insurance is limited." One reasonable-sounding solution would be for the government to guarantee such contracts. Yet the logical way to do it would be folding them into the government's own insurance program, Medicare, which would require raising Medicare premiums significantly. For the time being, that's a political nonstarter.
The best thing for now may be to take advantage of the fact that Medicaid is a state-administered program and to encourage states to experiment more. Congress should reward states that save money and improve treatment, perhaps allowing someone who cares for an infirm spouse to purchase care directly, aided by a government matching sum. Such reforms may be inevitable, in fact, since it's impossible for almost any retiree to make over 100 percent of his preretirement income. Moreover, the boomers are likely to resist bankrupting themselves for miserable care. "I don't see the boomer generation sitting in some nursing home," says Chicowitz. As demand for long-term care changes, supply will have to change, too.
America has significant retirement problems, but we may still be better off than the rest of the world. "The U.S. challenge of financing the transition of the baby boomers into retirement is modest compared to the demographic challenge faced by most other high-income countries," write Brookings scholars Barry Bosworth and Kent Weaver in a recent paper. Though our proportion of the working-aged to the retired will decrease, the fall will be less dramatic than in other developed countries. The nation in 2030 will have 204 million citizens of working age—still nearly three times the number of those 65 and older.
Whatever happens, it's not going to be the static crisis that spreadsheets would predict. As the boomers were born, they sparked the construction not just of homes but of entire towns and school districts; as they went to work, they created day-care centers for their children. As they age, they'll surely continue to change the economy, though the effects are hard to predict. When boomers exchange their bigger houses for smaller ones, house prices may fall even more than they already have, helping younger Americans to use their own savings more productively and generating more wealth. When boomers leave the workforce, wages for younger people may rise, pressuring supply to keep up with demand. Retirees may support younger generations—just as the homemakers who stayed out of the workforce half a century ago contributed to the economy with their unpaid labor—by babysitting their grandchildren, freeing up mothers to work and perhaps encouraging higher fertility. Instead of selling their homes, boomers may invite younger generations to come live with them.
The most disturbing statistic on older-worker employment is this: in 2010, only 77.6 percent of men 55 to 59 years old were working or looking for work—down from 78.5 percent in 2007 and 79.1 percent in 1999. Hammered by the slumping economy, late-middle-aged folks have increasingly dropped out of the workforce and waited to start collecting Social Security. In 2009, only 14 percent of new male Social Security beneficiaries were of "full retirement age"—a precipitous fall from the 26 percent figure of the previous year. It was the lowest rate ever. Unless older unemployed people get back to work soon, they'll never go back, and they'll become poorer retirees than they needed to be.
What this means is that fixing our economy now is the most important task of all. Let the housing market find its bottom, so that people who want to cut losses on bad housing debt have the information they need to make such a momentous decision. Invest massively in infrastructure. Fix the tax code to channel money out of debt and into innovation. Fix immigration so that we continue to attract the world's smartest people. These measures would get people back to work soon and prepare the nation better for the future, making it likelier that those who will shoulder the burden of caring for an aging population are able to do it.
Top photo: sompong liabsanthia/iStock


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Accessorizing your home can be loads of fun and it gives you the unique liberty to showcase your personal taste and design preferences. Accessories are the smaller items you use in your home that can accentuate a theme, texture and add color. They can be unique or a collection of various items that when put together create the perfect marriage designed especially for your living spaces. Home accessories for your media room and other living areas are fantastic additions to your home and can be found at various homeware stores and home depots if you're going it the DIY route.
Rustic décor is a delightful choice if you want to keep it looking original, charming, simple and beautiful. In this seating area, you can come together with others or take the time out to relax and enjoy the benefits of a wonderful private setting that features color, textures and elements of culture displayed in the art, sculptures and pottery.
Kitchens are always great for displaying your crockery and other glass items. When looking at this lovely example, both color and textures were considered to help showcase this simple, yet functional kitchen. The clever use of floating shelves gives it a twist on the standard built-in shelves that are commonly seen.
There are few better ways to display your books than using a book display or built-in shelves as seen here. With these living room accessories, you not only showcase your favorite books which also add splashes of color, but also other items. This is a lovely example of how the designer used framework, vases and other bits to display originalality. Showcasing accessories like this can eliminate the need for a feature wall as this easily takes the place and does the job excellently.
When considering how to accessorize your home, you want to go with a theme and items that you love as these are features that may be on display for some time before undergoing a redecoration. Glassware is always a fantastic item to use as an accessory and is great in kitchens or bars. In this example, you get a mix of textures like raw stone surfaces along with wood, glass and color. This truly is a uniquely designed bar that is both beautiful and cleverly thought out.
Shelving takes care of all your living room accessories, bedroom, dining and kitchen display needs. You can put more of your precious home accessories on display when you use shelves and combine them with books, and various other items. In this office, you cannot deny the sense of it being a personalized place to enjoy work in peace and quiet.
Here's another good use of home accessories on display featuring a stunning designed series of built-in bedroom shelves catering to the TV, books and other items that need their beauty displayed. While you could have regular shelves, this one seen here makes your accessories truly stand out pleasantly by almost being half tucked into the wall, while never failing to show all and impress. This is truly a beautiful way to introduce a unique feature wall as well as display your bedroom accessories.
If you're ready to make a change when it comes to accessorizing your home then why not show it off and get great assistance from professionals right here at homify!


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12 February 2012 | ||
12:00 | to | 12:30 |
Piazza San Marco. The "Flight of the Angel" is a traditional event that goes back to the Serenissima period where an unknown guest of Venice, flying along a rope from San Marco bell tower to the middle of the square, will offer an homage to the Doge, and will be greeted by the crowded parterre of the period costumes parades of the Historical Re-enactments. As a conclusion, the embrace of the Angel and the Doge will smooth the atmosphere of a square galvanized by scenographical effects always appreciated by the Italian and international networks. The angel, chosen among the stars of glamour or those of international sport, will be dressed up with a fabulous carnival costume.
The Angel of Carnival 2012 edition is Giulia Selero, Carnival 2011 Maria winner.


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Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet new blogger friends!
Q: Summer Break is upon us! What would be the perfect vacation spot for you to catch up on your reading & relax?
A. A Beach.
Any beach, with a shade tree and a hammock.
Enough said. :)
TGIF at GReads is a Friday Feature hosted by Ginger at GReadsBooks.com!
A Book Blogger is Born: What made you decide to start your very own book blog?
I started blogging as a way to share my thoughts with some friends on the books I had been reading at the time. The more I blogged, and the more lovely people that I met, the more I fell in love with the book blogging community! It's an awesome place to be. :)