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Japan's Nikkei average surged 3.5 per cent to a 52-month high on Wednesday, boosted by exporters as the yen fell after central bank governor Masaaki Shirakawa decided to step down earlier than expected.
His decision raised the prospect that Japan will speed up aggressive monetary easing as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has put the central bank under relentless pressure to do more to pull the economy out of the doldrums and made it clear that he wants a governor who will be bolder in loosening monetary policy.
The Nikkei climbed 383.45 points to 11,430.37, its highest level since early October 2008 and on track for its biggest one-day percentage rise since March 2011. The broader Topix jumped 3.1 per cent to 969.17.
Currency-sensitive shares jumped. Toyota climbed 4.6 per cent to its highest level since September 2008, also supported by a hike in its full-year operating profit guidance by 10 per cent on a weaker yen and a firmer US sales forecast.
The Japanese currency plumbed a fresh 33-month low of 93.80 yen to the US dollar on Wednesday morning.
"The market's consensus is that it wants a BoJ governor who shares the government's push to reflate the economy with aggressive easing, and the news raised expectations for an appointment of such governor," said Hiroichi Nishi, assistant general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.
The Nikkei climbed 2.8 per cent to 11,357.24, its highest since April 15, 2010. If it tops 11,408.17, an increasingly likely prospect according to market players, it will reach a level not seen since October 2008, after the global financial crisis kicked it off that year's high of 15,156.66.
While all sectors moved higher, the stand-outs were those set to benefit from a softer yen, with automakers Mazda Motor and Nissan bounding up 4.8 and 4.6 per cent, respectively.
Although Japan's earning season has been relatively weak, with 63 per cent of the 99 Nikkei companies that have reported so far missing analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine, investors are hoping that a more favourable exchange rate for overseas revenues will boost future profits.
Shippers, highly sensitive to the general strength of the economy, sailed up 5 per cent, while the iron and steel sector, weakened over the past year by fallings steel prices, jumped 4 per cent. The real estate sub-index advanced 3.2 per cent.
Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Tuesday he would step down together with his two deputies, three weeks before the end of his five-year term.
"This is proof that the market is still running on speculation rather than the facts at hand... the Abe effect is
creating something close to a bubble," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley.
"And yet I think the market could yet rise when they announce the new governor's name, particularly if it makes an asset purchase budget of 50 trillion yen ($525 billion) from the BoJ more likely."
Fujito singled out Kazumasa Iwata, a former deputy governor to the BoJ and a vocal supporter of a 50 trillion yen fund, as the most likely candidate.
Better-than-expected euro zone data also supported bullish sentiment after political strife in Italy and Spain sent shivers through the market on Tuesday. Markit's euro zone composite PMI, seen as an indication of economic growth, climbed to a 10-month high for January and was slightly above the preliminary reading.
The broader Topix jumped 2.6 per cent to 963.64 by mid-morning.


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Like many scientists, I am aghast at an Italian court's conviction of geoscientists on criminal charges for their judgements made about seismic risks prior to a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that descimated the L'Auqila, capital of the Abruzzo region, and killed more than 300 people in 2009.
Anyone who lives there knows that L'Aquila lies in a tremendously seismically active area of Italy. In fact, Italy is one of the most earthquake-prone regions of the world— dozens of earthquakes occur every day there though many are low magnitude and not felt by human beings. But sizeable seismicity is recent history: a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Eboli, south of Naples, in 1980, killing more than 2,700 people and another major quake struck the Molise region in 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when a school collapsed.
As journalist Stephen Hall reported in a feature article for Nature, L'Aquila was devastated by earthquakes in 1461 and in 1703; he quotes British travel writer Augustus Hare in 1883 on the seismic reputation of the place: "Its rocks, its soil, its churches, are riven and rifted by constant earthquakes, for even now nature suddenly often sets all the bells ringing and the clocks striking, and makes fresh chasms in the old yellow walls."
My heart aches for those beings that lost their lives in the L'Aqulia quake of 2009. But why blame scientists for a natural event and its consequent unnatural disaster just because human beings live in harm's way? This seismic event and the unjust conviction of scientists trying to understand an always and yet increasingly unpredictable Earth remind me of words attributed to historian Will Durant, "civilization exists by geological consent subject to change without notice."
Geologists cannot predict with exactitude when an earthquake will occur. We can get some notion of how often seismically-induced motion will occur on a particular fault because we can check the timing of previous jolts along the fault. But really this allows us only to forecast, in decades-wide windows, the inevitability of such events.
When we examine a geologic map of the world, an unfortunate reality becomes clear: the most populous cities on Earth exist along plate boundaries. Plate boundaries are typical sites of seismicity AND since they frequently coincide with shorelines and sources of water our earliest civilizations arose and grew there. Rather than focus on retrospective blame for today's unnatural disasters, especially in light of inevitable yet unpredicatble seismicity in poorly constructed megacities, society as a whole must accept the fact that geoscientists will never be able to predict these types of events with temporal accuracy enough to save lives.
We would do better to focus on the fact that today large population centers in places like Tehran and Istanbul are disasters waiting to happen. As we saw in the 2010 Port-au-Prince quake, haphazardly constructed communities in vulnerable mega-cities put millions of people at risk for the suffering that ensues after a large earthquake in a poorly prepared region. The answer to the problem lies not in the impossible prediction of the timing of earthquakes. Rather it requires that existing buildings be reinforced and that new construction be done such that buildings don't collapse when the ground shakes.
Rather than punish the geoscientists in Italy who did what they could given the predicatable unpredictability of earthquakes, the Italian government should bear responsibility for not taking steps to secure buildings in this seismically active area. And in terms of the future, may we recognize that the Earth is a dynamic planet. As a planetary community, we must find ways for all human beings to live in tune with the movements of Earth.

subset: commoncrawl


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Kind of sad, isn't it? This sorry attempt at a festive display of new PCs at a Micro Center store in Rockville, MD, says a lot about the thud with which Windows 8 seems to have landed.
Windows guru Paul Thurrott recently reported that Win 8 sales are running below Microsoft's expectations. Microsoft executives, Thurrott says, put much of the blame on OEM partners for being late to market with exciting hardware. But much of the problem may be closer to home. Neither Microsoft nor its retail partners seem to be making all that great an effort to sell new systems, especially compared to past efforts.
This week, I stopped by several big box retailers, the sort that generate most of the sales of Windows PCs, and what I saw was dispiriting. Instead of the end caps, banners, ceiling-high stacks of boxed software, and the occasional brass band that accompanied past Windows launches, I saw a distinctly low key effort. Windows 8 has only a modest presence on TV–most of Microsoft's ad buy is dedicated to Surface, which is sold only online and in Microsoft's own sparse retail outlets–and I saw no sign of any Microsoft promotional effort at my local Best Buy, Staples, Microcenter, or H.H. Gregg. In fact, the display below, at Staples, was about as flashy as it got:
Now it is a fact of life in retailing that vendors literally get what they pay for in terms of shelf position, end-cap displays, store advertising, and other promotion. It appears Microsoft isn't paying much this time around. It doesn't help that Microsoft is not, at least at this point, selling Windows 8 as physical media, so there are no in-store displays of the software itself. Still, it's telling that Windows is missing from this row of promotional posters at the Micro Center entrance:
On the shelves, things are just as bad. The main selling point for Windows 8 is touch, but most of the new touch models have yet to come to market. Laptops are generally grouped by price, sometimes by size. In no case did I see touch models grouped together or in any way featured. Best Buy at least had little tags on some non-touch models proclaiming their lack of touch screens, but otherwise, you had to figure it out for yourself, either by reading the detailed product descriptions or by touching the screen and seeing whether anything happened. (A clue: If it costs less than $1,000, it probably doesn't has a touch screen.) In most stores, there are some Windows 7 machines mixed in among the newer models, and I wouldn't be surprised if few shoppers managed to figure out just what was supposed to be superior about Windows 8.
Unless Microsoft is going to open a whole lot more of its own stores (there is only one full-fledged Microsoft Store in the Washington area–in Arlington, Va.,–and just two pop-up stores, really glorified mall kiosks, in the entire state of Maryland), it should work with OEMs and retailers to do something to improve a horrible shopping experience. Most of the machines I saw on shelves made it impossible to get any sort of meaningful Windows 8 experience. Many of the machines were dead, or were locked into demo screen shows. Of those that were running Windows 8, almost none were both connected to the internet and linked to a Microsoft account, two features necessary to understanding what the new OS is all about. And while I understand the need of retailers to keep stock from walking off, their approach to theft prevention is lethal to sales. For example, it's impossible to get a real sense of the sleekness of this Hewlett-Packard Spectre XT Ultrabrook at Staples with that horrible anti-theft clamp and cable device on its side:
Even worse was a similar clamp (at Best Buy) that prevented a Lenovo Yoga convertible notebook/tablet from going through its agile tricks.
I only ran into one true Windows tablet in my shopping tour, a $600 Asus Vivo Tab RT. To my complete lack of surprise, the display was free of any information on the differences between its Windows RT software and the full Windows 8 on the systems surrounding it, another bit of consumer education that Microsoft is sorely ignoring.


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So far this #RecordOfTheDay series has been a different song from different every single day since the start of the year (WTF am I doing???), however since tonight we are DJing tonight for the San Francisco leg of the #ChichaSummit tour which features La Chamba and Money Chicha there's no reason why not to pull another track from this excellent LP Ecos De La Selva. This is one is a cover of the Peruvian classic song Cariñito by Los Hijos Del Sol which happens to feature Jose Carballo, the frontman of Los Hijos. This is a song we've played at practically every party we've DJ'd as it never fails to get everyone dancing and singing together.
I'm super excited for tonight as it will be my first time listening to Money Chicha who also have new record out that I for sure be coping. Listen to their 🔥 track Tiro al blanco!


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Kissin' Kin
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012Nicholas King wrote a few days ago:
"I associate the word kin with the phrase 'kith and kin'. Which leads me to ask two follow up questions:
- Whence the word kith?
- Might the German word for child, Kind, be a linguistic relative?"
Actually, the two are only accidentally similar. Kith is related to German kennen "be acquainted with", and originally meant "knowledge, things known". It survives disguised in two forms in English today, can and uncouth. I think there may be isolated Scottish dialects where they still say "I ken you" for "I know you". It is also related to know and the -gnos- of Latin cognosco, etc. So kith originally referred to acquaintances, someone you know.
Kin, on the other hand, comes from the same source as gen- "give birth, create" found in words like generation, generate and, by the way, gynecology from Greek gyne "woman". (Get the connection?) In German it popped up as Kind "child".
When kith vanished from the English language, the phrase "kith and kin" remained. Since English speakers no longer knew the meaning of kith, they substituted a word they did know and which made some sense: kissin' kin. Only a lithp separates the two words. This process is known as folk etymology about which I have written elsewhere.


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Eilidh stares out to sea and dreams of a new life beyond her lonely island. Myth and reality collide when the tide washes a mysterious stranger onto her beach, changing her life forever.
When did you turn 21? Featuring interviews with 200 people from around the world about becoming an adult, video installation 21 is an urgent reminder that we have more in common than sets us apart. 'Addictive' (Guardian).
In the overwhelming, desolate landscape of the Faroe Islands, a young person is found. Washed ashore. Adapted from Johan Harstad's acclaimed novel into a thrilling verbal, musical and visual experience by multiple Fringe First winners Kopergietery.
The story of a young man from the north of Scotland who tries to prove the Earth is flat: a tale of friendship, loss and conspiracy that will take you on a journey to the outer limits of common sense, and beyond.
What makes a home for you? Victor Esses is Jewish-Lebanese, Brazilian and gay. Start your day with a tender exploration of how to find your place in a rich, complex world of identities. Emerge Performance Prize shortlisted.
Taiwan's award-winning Chang brothers (co-creators of Bon 4 Bon, a five-star hit at the 2018 Fringe) bounce back with a new trio that reveals fresh facets of their fraternal relationships and inherent conflicts of male bonding.
Sparkle, who loves to dress in tutus, tiaras and sparkly dresses, finds on his first day of school that not everyone wants to let him shine. In this playful and poignant show, Sparkle discovers the joy of standing up for himself and being unique.
Join us inside a converted 1970s caravan for puppetry, shadows, absurd object theatre and live soundscapes to get lost in. Escape into a wildly different world where no experience is ever the same.
By Charley Miles. One sister stayed at home to care for Dad. The other set out to "make a difference". A beautiful, ferocious play from Charley Miles about the bonds that tie us and how we sometimes need to break them.
The concert on the Moon is about to start. But where's the pianist? Solos, storytelling and theatrics from creator of critically acclaimed Anatomy of the Piano.
Total Theatre Award-winning Rachel Mars returns with a gloriously intimate, funny new show, unearthing the filthy letters that make sexts ashamed.
A Windrush generation boxer, a Polish migrant marked with a tattoo and a man with a bottle of gin and a television in his shopping trolley. Playfully serious and seriously playful.Last seen at the Fringe with Cathy in 2017, Cardboard Citizens return with an eye opening collection of homeless histories. Are we mere bystanders?
One teacher. Five students. Five desks. A powerfully compelling show about dogma. Inspired by personal experience of a cult, this meticulous ensemble piece explores the seductive power of discipline, hierarchy and the search for an ultimate truth.
Sign language meets puppetry in this engaging, BSL-signed production based on Taiwanese author Huang Chunming's novel. Conflicts between a grandfather and grandson unfold in a touching, richly sensory experience aimed at, but not limited to, hearing-impaired audiences.
Cyst-er Act. A messy live art musical about the bloody realms of the womb. What's it like to have your fallopian tube hacked off or to birth a 10lb cyst? Find out through gospel, death metal and punk.
Aoife's hungry and bored. Cillian makes a mean toastie. After boredom and hunger are satisfied in Cillian's bed, Aoife's life changes forever. As social and political upheaval grips her country, can Aoife regain control over her future?
The ocean contains the switch of life. Not land, not the atmosphere. The ocean. And that switch can be turned off... Acclaimed science journalist Alanna Mitchell performs her terrifying, laugh-out-loud and ultimately hopeful story about climate change.
A bold, imaginative response to the stories of those seeking refuge in the UK, The Claim asks what happens when your life is at stake and all you have to save it are your words.
A prayer group? A 12-step meeting? A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? (Unless you go back the next day?) 'Blew me away. An absolute masterclass in comedy performance' (Scotsman). '100% gag-free. Clever without being a smartarse. Go' (Mirror).
Imagine the moment of waking up is actually the moment when your dream begins. In light of this new and strange reality, how can we save you from the unspeakable horrors which lurk in the dark tunnels of your mind?
Life is No Laughing Matter's a performance about mental illness, suicide and radical cures attempts. Expect a selfish woman, her reluctant, shy doesn't-want-to-be-there partner, a f*ck ton of bananas, holy water and Yoko Ono.
Chris Goode's new solo show uses the life and death of River Phoenix to look back on the turbulent experience of queer life in the 90s, including the intense summer of his first Edinburgh Fringe, twenty-five years ago.
One human. Twenty-six thousand animals. A wildly intimate, inter-species meditation on mass animal disappearance. From the 2018 Herald Angel award-winning Mechanimal.
A beautiful wordless dialogue between Iraqi traditional music and Finnish contemporary dance. The piece touchingly draws out the human experience and the consequences of an increasingly restrictive asylum policy.
Catherine Graindorge – writer, violinist and actress – distils emotions with words, images and music to construct a moving story about the loss of her father. Acclaimed by press and audience in Belgium. Universal and emotional.
'Wonderful' (Margaret Atwood). Unicorns, Almost is a play by Owen Sheers about the life and work of WWII poet Keith Douglas. A one-man show in an immersive space with accompanying exhibition. Produced by The Story of Books.
Two of Scotland's finest live artists spew out their dark, humorous take on modern communication as doppelganger DJs Barry and Barry, trapped in a surreal phone-in talk show.
Clara and Nyri. Two very different women. Two complicated lives. Both having a very bad day. Interweaving and unexpected connections collide in this fast-moving, touchingly funny one-woman show by Alan Harris.
Alaska is a funny, singing, dancing, magical trip to the moon: one woman's extraordinary story of surviving growing up with severe depression. A raw, powerful performance, with humour, heart, and soul, stunning vocals and beautiful imagery.
Take a gin jolly with Pickering's Gin in their home at Summerhall Distillery. Pickering's and Tonic in hand, discover how the former kennels of the Royal (Dick) Vet School came to be Edinburgh's first exclusive gin distillery in 150 years.
Inspired by true stories of animal language experiments. A funny and touching show about love and communication in human (and not-so-human) relationships, performed by a real couple.
By Daf James. A single Dad meets his adopted daughter for the first time. Then he agrees to meet her birth mother. A tender, funny, hopeful play about being a mum when your name is Dad.
A verbatim play about ordinary young men in extraordinary times. Bomb Happy evocatively brings to life the powerful testimonies of five Normandy Veterans, inexperienced young conscripts, who find themselves part of one of the most dangerous operations of World War II.
Jonny Donahoe is the co-creator and performer of the international smash-hit Every Brilliant Thing. This is his first new solo show in five years. 'Painfully honest, funny, joyous – indeed, brilliant' (Guardian).
Meet Jonny: teacher, father, artist. He loves music, festivals and nightclubs. He longs to sing. Jonny is deaf. This is a moving, funny story of disconnection, difference and desperation to belong. British Council Showcase.
'My name is Lila and I am a proud Blackfoot woman. What I am doing is illegal.' So begins Deer Woman, a solo warrior-woman story of righteous vengeance created by ARTICLE 11, presented by Indigenous Contemporary Scene.
Multi award-winning writer Kit Redstone ('multi-layered and gripping' Lyn Gardner on previous show Testosterone) and director Jessica Edwards explore the epic battles within the mind and the incredible power of the psyche to protect itself from pain.
Men Chase Women Choose is an informative and uproarious feminist romp that features fruit flies, film, physical theatre and a flute solo.
An absurd exploration of wanting to live, wanting to die and what can happen if we sit together with the dark. Written and performed by Olivier Award nominee Caroline Horton, directed by Alex Swift (Mess).
Delve into the wonderful world of Science of the Sesh, with fun experiments, craft Scottish spirits and delicious cocktails, while learning about the science and history of your favourite drinks!
Challenging homophobia and transphobia within our communities, Out is a conversation between two bodies; a live art/dance performance, reclaiming dancehall and celebrating queerness amongst the bittersweet scent of oranges. Performed with marikiscrycrycry.
Siân Owen's one-woman play, produced by the company behind fringe hit Sugar Baby, is about what we're made of and learning to be brave when your world's falling apart.
Leaping barriers of age, sexuality and gender, Gloria prepares to dance the Can-Can one last time. Written and performed by the pioneering Claire Dowie and directed by Colin Watkeys.
Introducing Bobby Awl: Edinburgh urchin, poor, half-starved, violent yet beloved. Bobby, once robbed of his place in Scottish mythology, here resurrected by Brian Catling, author of the Vorrh trilogy.
This Time It Will Be Different denounces the Canadian government's discourse on Indigenous people and takes a critical look at the national reconciliation industry.
Two performers, one story, one life... One speaks the truth, one lies. Part-spoken, part-sung, intimate production. Previous Herald Angel winners: The Gardener.
'Remember your first time? I can't forget mine...' HIV+ theatre-maker Nathaniel Hall presents a funny, frank autobiographical show about staying positive in a negative world.
Everything I Do is the award-winning, music-driven theatre show about love, loss and floating in space. Performed by Zoe Ní Riordáin and directed by Maud Lee. Winner of Best Performer at Dublin Fringe Awards 2018.
Shit is an award-winning, compelling, raw and powerful play which examines the intersections of class and misogyny. It is provocative, tragic, heartbreaking, bracing and bitterly funny.
A performer steps out of the show for personal reasons. Every day, a different stand-in takes on the central role to replace her. A live green screen is the backdrop for this show about the weather.
A musical feast for the ears, eyes and heart, Brigitte Aphrodite and Quiet Boy's new show lands from Margate. Find your flock, ruffle some feathers and discover empathy is the new punk.
December, 1998. Dunedin. Bottom of New Zealand, bottom of the world. High summer in a town where there isn't lots to do. A comedy about death, revolution, unfulfilled love, and a possum.
From Serbian snowfields to deserts in Afghanistan, four women unite across a century.
One girl's story about losing her mum to a cult. A funny, honest, teen-spirited and gangsta rap-fuelled survival guide to growing up with an actual twat for a mum. Written and performed by Anoushka Warden.
Comic dance-theatre conceived and performed by Yukon born 'Intrepid' Jen. This is the story of Jen's life and survival in the remote wilds of the Yukon Territory, Northern Canada... and her ultimate escape.
Comedy duo Ridiculusmus reclaims humankind's last taboo from imminent eradication in a paper-fine portrait of a timeless trio: cursed to eternal life without eternal youth. Part of British Council Showcase 2019.
Daddy Drag is a show about dads, good dads, daft dads and dads who are not very good dads at all. How do the relationships with our fathers affect us for the rest of our lives?
A man gives a thought-provoking and humorous lecture about all the people he has met in his life, but as he delves deeper his mind begins to unravel.
A compelling study of female empowerment and shifting generational attitudes to sex and feminism, fusing theatre, aerial performance and shibari – the erotic art of Japanese rope bondage. Provocative and unforgettable.
A new documentary play by LUNG (Trojan Horse, E15, The 56 and Chilcot), Who Cares examines our failing care system, the impact of austerity and what happens when a child becomes the parent.
Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner Richard Gadd has a chilling story to tell about obsession, delusion, and the terrifying ramifications of a fleeting mistake. An unmissable debut play, directed by Olivier Award Winner Jon Brittain.
Eight spectators. Eight ordinary people. But how ordinary are they really? What makes someone a suspect? Featuring original choreography and whispered secrets, this intimate play of appearance and reality challenges the judgements we make every day.
In a collage of music, text, photography and animation, Miss AmeriKa tells the story of a New York misfit's experience of immigration, loneliness and dislocation.
Cree-Canadian playwright Tomson Highway is one of history's most important Canadians (Maclean's Magazine). Presented by Indigenous Contemporary Scene, he is accompanied by singer Patricia Cano and saxophonist Marcus Ali in this vivid compilation.
A herstory about women warriors; weaving verbatim testimony of contemporary army servicewomen with the true story of Flora Sandes, heroine on the Allied front line in the First World War, set to music by Rose Miranda Hall.
Green & Blue explores the painful and humorous realities faced by the individuals who patrolled the Irish border during the height of the conflict. Written by Laurence McKeown.
A live jam of music, video and poetry, Drone is part weapons system, part office worker, part background hum. Drone's bleak humour and tender fury asks how anxious people live as part of systems of such astonishing destruction.
One parent refuses to talk about sex. The other buys their child gay porn DVDs. Sex Education blends startling performance, moving storytelling, a no-holds-barred interview with Harry's mum and some good old-fashioned gay porn.
Darkly comic tale of finding love in rural Ireland, a lifelong quest to settle down and a bride that flees her own reception. Can Sorcha ever go back?
This is a show about having sexual fantasies that don't align with your politics. Award-winning performance artist Louise Orwin presents a surreal joyride through female sexuality to uncover the power of asking for what you want.
Inspired by real events and influenced by true crime podcasts and horror films, this dance-theatre piece explores what happens when a group of young women is stricken with a mysterious affliction that infects their bodies, minds, and souls.
The award-winning Middle Child present The Canary and the Crow, brand new gig theatre about the journey of a working class black kid who is accepted to a prestigious grammar school.
An intimate and provocative live performance that 'evolves into a hypnotic whirlwind of warring emotions' (Herald), Cryptic's critically acclaimed, poignant staging of award-winning singer Kathryn Joseph's second album returns by popular demand. www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com
Celebrating their final year as Europeans, 'the rising stars of performance art' (Telegraph) Sh!t Theatre travelled to Malta and found mystery and murder in the fight to be European. ★★★★ - The Guardian, ★★★★ - The Sunday Times
Daniel is an artist. He is also a sex worker. Traumboy explores why he chose this profession and why having sex for money is still considered taboo. Where do your boundaries lie? Performed in response to Anne Welenc's Traumgirl.
A show about food. From primitive struggle, through baroque excess to technological perversion, how has our relationship with nourishment changed throughout history? This one-woman show employs physical theatre, clowning and multimedia to delve into consumerism's excesses and extremes.
Last seen at Summerhall in 2016 with Putting The Band Back Together, Unfolding Theatre return with a new show about memory and what we pass on.
Miscommunication and confusion are often things to be avoided, but what if you just lay into them? What if there's actually nothing else? Big questions. Existential meanderings. Don't worry. I have a PowerPoint.
Is female ejaculation the last taboo? Performance about sexuality and desires, based on interviews with women from various backgrounds. Through a personal journey, the performance creates safe space for self-discovery and explores the collective.
A sexy French clown goes on a blind date with a willing gentleman from the audience. Expect improv, naughty clowning, strong language, spiritual nudity and hilarity.
Five years ago, James met the love of his life. Two years later, they broke up. A story about love, words and the word love. 'Stunning' ★★★★★ - The Reviews Hub
Bearing sharp knives and shooting fireballs into the air, Emma Frankland (double Fringe First award-winner) tackles the current fascination with transgender lives and interrogates the controversial bio-technology of HRT. It's messy, it's on fire and it's politically charged.
The unmissable, Fringe-First-award-winning show from Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair returns. A raucous play about playground violence, myths of masculinity and the challenge to step up or run.
A fun, provocative foursome raises the heat on the dance floor. They've questions for you, things on their minds, an awesome playlist... Expect sweat, sequins, and a playful take on what unites or divides us in uncertain times.
By mixing fiction and non-fiction, this performance transports the audience to the moment before the inevitable eruption, allowing them to understand and feel the causes that led to the revolution, within a specifically designed visual and soundscape.
Breaking the rules, the patriarchy and the time/space continuum. A search for a feminist futurism and a gesture toward the impossible. An ode to utopia. Or just some moves in the night.
Something new, vaguely experimental, unfinished and frankly, quite unlikely to ever be finished, by Daniel Kitson.


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I have appended two kinds of information to the following bibliography of Tupper's writings: (1) passages from Tupper's unpublished letters which either explain the circumstances of his writing particular pieces or else help demonstrate the attribution of anonymous writings to him; and (2) passages from the writings themselves, particularly when they are hard to come by, which I have included both to suggest something of the nature of the works themselves and to tempt others to study them.
Over a period of years students in English 221, the no-longer extant course in methodology of scholarship at Brown University, have edited selections of various unpublished manuscripts as part of their graduate training. Much of the information presented below should be understood to have been provided by members of these various classes. In 1986 members of one of these classes — James H. Coombs, Anne Scott, and Arnold Sanders — and I published the correspondence of Hunt and Tupper; see bibliography. This bibliography is the second part of an article that originally appeared in The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 7 (1986): 63-68.
(1) "A Sketch from Nature." The Germ: Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature, and Art 1, no. 1 (January 1850), 47.
(2) "The Subject in Art. (No. 1)." The Germ: Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature, and Art 1, no. 1 (January 1850), 11-18.
(3) "The Subject in Art. No. II." Art and Poetry: Being Thoughts towards Nature Conducted principally by Artists [the title of The Germ for its last two numbers- 1, no. 3 (March 1850), 118-25.
(4) "An Incident in the Siege of Troy, seen from a modern Observatory. [from] "Papers of 'The M[edical]. S[tudent]. Society.'" Art and Poetry: Being Thoughts towards Nature Conducted principally by Artist 1, no. 3 (March 1850), 131-36.
(5) "Viola and Olivia." Art and Poetry: Being Thoughts towards Nature Conducted principally by Artists 1, no.4 (May 1850), 145.
(6) "Smoke" [from] "Papers of the M. S. Society." Art and Poetry: Being Thoughts towards Nature Conducted principally by Artists 1, no. 4 (May 1850), 183-86.
(7) "Extracts from the Diary of an Artist." The Crayon 2 (1855), 159-60, 271-72, 319-20, 336-37, 368-69, 400-01; 3 (1856), 43-45, 75-76, 102-05, 234-36; 4 (1857), 103-07, 145-49, 200-04.
These extracts, which were published under the name of "Jack Tupper," contain entries from 6 December 1836 — the day Tupper began studying at the British Museum to gain entrance to the Royal Academy schools — to 6 June 1841.
(8) "The Light of the World." The Crayon 2 (1855), 87.
Although this poem on Holman Hunt's famous religious painting appeared over the name of "John Lionel Tupper," it is almost certainly by our Tupper since it is mentioned as being his in a letter to him by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. On 18 January 1855 Rossetti, writing of Tupper's poems, wrote to him: "I read some time back, and like much, the one on Hunt's picture in The Crayon." The Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ed. Oswald Doughty and J. R. Wahl, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1965), I, 237. Since there is only one poem about a Hunt painting in this periodical, Rossetti, I infer, was writing about this particular work.
(9) Hiatus: the Void in Modern Education, Its Causes and Antidote. London: Macmillan, 1869. pp. 251.
Tupper published his treatise on art education under the name of "Outis" or "No man," a fact that he mentions in a letter of 24 May 1870 to his close friend William Holman Hunt. Tupper wrote that "Gabriel [Rossetti] asked me to send him my Book and promised to let me have his poems in return when out. He has kept his promise this time, but my Book must have been a choke-pear; it advocates an accuracy that wd. ruin him. The title is 'Hiatus, or the void in modern education,' by Outis. I must add to your burden and have it sent to you" (Huntington Library)." Rossetti's presentation copy, which is inscribed "To John L. Tupper from his friend D G Rossetti April 1870," was offered for sale by Woodspurge Books of Staunton, Virginia, in its catalogue for spring 1981.
Tupper's main point for educating the eye is that such training provides an essential contribution to educating the whole person. Like Ruskin and Hunt, who advocate drawing in a realistic style as a means of encountering the truths of the visible world, he emphasizes that "form, so far as it exists to us, comes in at the eye and goes out at the hand; and until it has travelled this round, however it may be talked about, read about, thought about, it is in no true sense apprehended" (p.42). According to Tupper,
Such accurate teaching as I am advocating would, in the majority of cases, rather tend to encourage an artistic scrutiny and accurate observation of all things visible than a predilection for the artist's profession. When this truth shall be recognized and possessed in its fulness as it was by the Greeks (whom we indeed copy, but in that literal manner which the Greeks would have despised), then, and only then, will a study of the imitation of visible nature hold its true position in nature as singly the most powerful ally of all other studies whatever. For what art or science, with the exception of music or mathematics, and what polite or useful calling in life, is not aided by increased accuracy of eye?" (p. 60)
Like Ruskin (whom he often seems to follow but never mentions in his published work), Tupper finds essential connection between art, education, and the conditions of life in society; so like that far better known critic, he begins by talking about art and ends by talking about society. For example, after arguing that false education that scants training the eye causes men and women to live in an ugly manner in ugly environments, he attacks the woman of fashion: "Contemplate if we can without sorrow such opulence of grace and all charitable devotion, overmastered by the tyranny of fashion, arraying herself, as by fatal impulsion, in a garb which shall starve a thousand families" (p. 145).
Waxing even more rhetorical, Tupper finds in such women — and such manner of dress — a grotesque emblem of the times and their unnaturalness:
Dare we to conceive of what must be our contempt for taste, propriety, and artistic discretion, when men endure and approve that their wives and daughters transfigure their divine image, transforming their beauty into hideousness, obliterating the natural flexures of the body and the visible grace of movement by a tumid dome of skirts, a waist up to the chest, or a pair of balloons at the shoulders or elbows, or anywhere, as chance may determine?" (p. 146).
Unfortunately, despite some truly interesting ideas and some occasionally strong, clear writing, Tupper frequently succumbs to a characteristic inability to discipline and organize his thoughts. Unable to resist following out a train of thought, he often finds himself led far afield, and, as a consequence, his reader often finds it difficult to follow his reasoning.
(10) The True Story" of Mrs. Stowe; by Outis. London: Mann Nephews, [1869?]. Pp. 58.
In a letter to Hunt written on 5 July 1871, Tupper explained that "just after 'Hiatus' was paid for I was tempted to write a pamphlet on the Howe & Byron controversy. I knew that very few would take it either in the physical or mental sense but it offered such a splendid chance for irony, so I wrote it for my own comfort like most I write and do. George would make me publish it however and got it printed in the City" (Huntington MS).
In the course of defending Byron — and Byron's poetry — from Harriet Beecher Stowe's "The True Story of Lady Byron's Life," which appeared in the September issues of The Atlantic Monthly 14 (1869), 295-313, and Macmillan's Magazine 20 (1869), 377-96, Tupper lambasts not only trial by newspaper but also Stowe's general practice as a critic. In the course of his argument he also raises some astute objections to romantic and post-romantic literary criticism that tries to read the artist out of his works. First, however, Tupper asks his audience, with reference to the Byron case, "Are we willing to be tried thus by newspaper evidence whenever someone shall say in a magazine that our wives have given a very bad account of us, which account is 'down in writing,' and which good people are to believe but not see?" (p. 5)
Next, Tupper satirizes Mrs. Stowe for setting herself up as a universal censor:
Would she make an index expurgatorius, and straightway banish Boccaccio and Chaucer, and abolish Cellini's sculpture and 'autobiography,' because we know he was an acknowledged ruffian? or does the author of 'Uncle Tom' think we could do this if we would? Conceive the apostle of impartial love and justice to bond and free, black and white, the believer in the irrepressibility of all God-created things, one of an Orthodox Limited Company for the repression of dangerous geniuses!" (pp. 16-17)
Pretending to find such an hypothesis too absurd to take seriously, Tupper mockingly proposes that she wrote "willfully at random in a vein of grotesque irony" (p. 17), and he offers as evidence a series of arguments that prove her methods and conclusions to be so absurd that he cannot accept she meant them seriously. He points out, for instance, that it is too absurd for belief to conceive Mrs. Stowe and her fellow critics "studying a passage from 'Cain' to see how and by what reasoning Byron 'justified himself in incest,' and next week, studying 'Othello' to see how Shakspeare [sic] justifies himself for strangling his wife" (p. 27).
From such objections eventually follow Tupper's most interesting and sophisticated theoretical points — first, that we must not naively assume we find the complete life, personality, and spiritual state of an author in any one of his works, particularly if they are complex and varied; and second, that such personal elements do not provide the value of the literary work. Characteristically, he states his theories in the form of rhetorical questions:
How far should our estimate and perusal of an author's works be affected by our knowledge of the author's morality .... Are we to recognise personal morality as a normal and constituent element in the question of what a book is worth? And, if so, is the new moral censorship to apply to all works of literature, arts, and science? a moral censorship not only of the works themselves, as touching upon their intrinsic morality, but likewise of the author dead or living? Ought the respective morality of Des Cartes and Newton to weigh as evidence for the truth of their systems?" (p. 48)
(11) "On an Optical Illusion." Philosophical Magazine 39 (1870),423-28.
Tupper mentioned this article and the periodical that published it in his letter of 24 May 1870 to Hunt while complaining about his difficulty in finding a mass audience for his ideas: "The Press has done good, but has been for some time now doing more harm than good, in my opinion. If I write anything new and true I can get it printed only in the 'Philosophical Magazine' which the people don't read, and which does not cater to the public. I have an optical article to appear in June which was the result of some study and experience and which I get no pay for" (Huntington MS).
(12) "Henry Hugh Armstead, " The Portfolio 2 (1871), 129-34. Reprinted in English Artists of the Present Day. London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1872, pp. 61-66. [full online version]
Tupper first mentions to Hunt that he will be writing for The Portfolio in a letter of 22 June 1869: "Do you know Hamerton is going to bring out an art periodical called 'The Portfolio'? I have been asked to write for it. " Then in a letter of 5 July 1871 Tupper told his friend: "I have the offer from Hamerton (Editor of 'The Portfolio') to write articles (leaders) on all the English sculptors. 'What! any one want Jack's writing!"' (Huntington MS) In this same letter when telling Hunt that William Michael Rossetti had first offered him the job of reviewing for The Spectator which he later passed on to F. G. Stephens, he reports that Rossetti had said,
I "should do it better." He was wrong. I should not have done it better, and I refused then to do it at all, as I have, through weal and wo[e], constantly refused to write in a required style and under pressure of any kind. So I have refused to write this series of articles for Hamerton, seeing that I could not write faithfully about any other sculptors but[?] Woolner and Foley. I have engaged to write but these two" (Huntington MS).
Hamerton apparently induced Tupper, as few others ever managed to do, to write additional articles for him.
(13) "W. Cave Thomas." The Portfolio 2 (1871), 149-53. Reprinted in English Artists of the Present Day, pp. 67-71.
(14) "Thomas Woolner. " The Portfolio 2 (1871), 97-101. Reprinted in English Artists of the Present Day, pp. 56-60. [full online version]
(15) "(Review of) J. R. Morrell's The Essentials of Geometry, Plain and Solid, as Taught in French and German Schools, with Shorter Demonstrations than in Euclid " Nature 3 (1871), 323-25.
When looking for a periodical to publish some anti-Darwinian writings, Tupper explained to Hunt in a letter of 15 October 1872 that "'Nature' is not the thing by any means. I have had to write reviews of Geometry books for it twice. Wilson (our swell mathematician) writes for it now & then, and asked me as a favour to do these 2 reviews. I hate all reviewing but did them to oblige him, and I keep his letter as my justification" (Huntington MS).
According to Ms. Lori Lefkovitz, who has provided al the information in the remainder of this paragraph, Tupper's interests and style of writing help identify the anonymous review of Morrell's book as his. Tupper is then also the "Reviewer" of the dialogue with Morrell which followed; Morrell defended himself against the Reviewer's criticism of his work on 23 March 1871 (vol. 3, p. 407) and the Reviewer responded on p. 427 of this same volume. Tupper had attacked the book as unclear, vague, and of little value for the student of geometry. It is interesting to observe that Tupper wrote the review at the request of his friend, J. M. Wilson, a noted Rugby mathematician who had just published the third volume of Solid Geometry and Conic Sections. with Appendices on Transversals and Harmonic Divisions, for the Use of the Schools, London: Macmillan, 1872. A review of this work appears in Nature4 (1872), 118-19, which praises Wilson's treatment of his subject.
(16) " (A letter to the editor re Prof. Helmholz and Prof. Jevons.)" Nature 5 (January 1872),202-03.
In the previously cited letter of 15 October 1872 to Hunt, Tupper complained that "I once wrote on my own hook a paper against Professor Helmholz's views of Geometry, but they inserted it as a letter, & that gave it less weight than it wd. otherwise have had" (Huntington MS).
Helmholtz's views of geometry — again according to information furnished by Ms. Lori Lefkovitz — appear in the Academy, 1 (12 February 1870),128. In "The Axioms of Geometry" from a philosophical standpoint, Helmholtz contends that the truth value of geometric axioms is not absolute but rather conditioned by empirical evidence. He believes that one could hypothesize a world for which accepted geometrical principles would not hold true, and it is to this notion that Tupper objects. Tupper's article was meant to respond to an earlier one by W. Stanley Jevons entitled "Helmholtz on the Axioms of Geometry." In Nature, 4 (1871) 481-82.
(17) "On the Center of Motion in the Human Eye." Royal Society Proceedings 22 (1874), 429-30.
(18) Poems by the Late John Lucas Tupper. Edited by William Michael Rossetti. London: Longmans, 1897.
Rossetti, who put together this volume of Tupper's poetry, only included previously unpublished poems; and therefore to perceive the full range of Tupper's attempts at verse, one must also look at items 1 and 4-8 above
Last modified 1 January 2005


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I have been reading The Heart of the Revolution by Noah Levine and a part stuck with me that I would like to share. When I read the part about the Buddha and Mara, I moved right on without extra deep reflection, but it kept resurfacing in my thoughts long after the fact. Here are some highlights I made- I am posting from my phone so forgive my punctuation!
(After enlightenment) the Buddha continued to experience an aspect of his mind that he referred to as Mara- that aspect of the mind that experiences craving, aversions, and doubt.
The Buddha responds to each attack with wisdom and compassion. In response to doubt, the Buddha reflects on all the hard work... He inclines his mind and heart toward faith and confidence based on the progress that he has made so far.
Mara came back regularly to see if the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha had wavered. Fear, desire, and doubt still arose in the enlightened Buddhas mind. The difference was that he responded each time with "I see you, Mara." He did not take Mara's visitations personally and did not feel that he had to act on them; he saw fear, desire, and doubt as they were and responded with care and understanding.
Becoming friendly with ourselves has to include every aspect of our being, including every manifestation of Mara.
(End Noah Levine excerpt)
These little excerpts in one form or another have been rattling around my empty brain so I thought sharing might be beneficial to someone! I think there is a lot to reflect on there, and it was easy to miss- the profoundness stands out when quotes are pulled, but I feel I was precariously close to missing a lesson when it was buried in the chapter! I will now cease rambling.
Thank you, Noah Levine.
In gassho to all,
Ps I will edit this from a real computer soon!


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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday Singalong with Circlemending - waterways
I have a fondness for Bill Staines's song "River" - it makes me want to find the closest river and just sit on the bank with my feet in the cool water, feeling the smooth rocks, and watch the sun go down. Do you know it? It's on YouTube (of course): Aileen & Elkin Thomas (one of my favorite musical couples) performed it with him at the 1987 Philadelphia Folk Festival (how I would have loved to have been there).
Or just read the lyrics.
Do you have a favorite waterway song? Share the title, some lyrics, or link to an MP3 or YouTube performance. Don't forget to tell us why it is a special song to you.
3 comments:
Pocahantas: "Just Around the River Bend." (1995)
The song was released "just in time" and my life made a few more turns around the river bend. A 'not so long ago' memory was revisited today; thank you for your post. Now blessed with a wonderful family of my own I must give thanks to this fine song.
Jennifer R. BernardI'm from New England. I love the song "Dirty Water" by the Standells, but not because they always play it when they air a Red Sox Game. It's a song about the Charles River. I went to Boston and sailed and rowed in the Charles, and my daughter rowed crew for Simmons College when she went to college. We spent many chilly mornings cheering on her team from the banks of the Charles River. We still go to concerts on the riverbank. I can't tell you how many days have been spent on the banks of the Charles River- but that song fits the memories perfectly!
Please keep comments related to this post or topic; others will be deleted. Contact blog author directly for other issues.


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This is a 2011 stage performance of Stephen Sondheim's musical comedy, which had a brief run in movie theaters last year and has now been issued on Blu-Ray disc from Image Entertainment. Company premiered in 1970 on Broadway with a cast album released shortly after. Since then it has had several revivals, including one previous to this production in 2006 which is also available on Blu-Ray and DVD. In 1970 a documentary film was shot by D. A. Pennebaker about the recording of the original cast album, which was issued on DVD but is now out of print. This production was shot in New York's Avery Fischer Hall, with music performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Gemignani.
Company's main character is Bobby (played by Neil Patrick Harris), a single man in New York City who is a neighbor and friend to five married couples (Stephen Colbert, Martha Plimpton, Craig Bierko, Jill Paice, Jon Cryer, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Aaron Lazar, Katie Finneran, Jim Walton and Patti LuPone). All of them wonder if and when Bobby is going to settle down and get married himself, and Bobby contemplates this himself also. There are three women he dates casually (Chryssie Whitehead, Anika Noni Rose and Christina Hendricks) but it isn't clear if he will ever commit to one of them.
Most scenes are of Bobby hanging out with one or more of the couples, or with one of his lady friends. At one couple's apartment he gets put in the awkward situation of being offered a drink and then hearing that the husband has been trying to stop drinking. Another memorable scene is where Bobby and another couple smoke pot together.
One thing I find fun about musicals is how many of them, like Company, work musical numbers into stories that you wouldn't think would call for them, and yet they end up working very well. The songs here address Bobby's situation and relationships in general- most are catchy although there are a couple slower numbers. Nothing in the show is taken too seriously however, and here the actors and audience both seem to have an understanding that everything is in good fun. Everyone has good singing voices here, even those you might not have expected to.
The design of the production is interesting- there are hardly any sets except for some furniture that serves several functions during the show, and a few props. The orchestra is on stage directly behind the performance area, so they can be plainly seen while playing as the conductor has his back to the audience. During dialogue scenes most of the lighting is off the orchestra, and on this disc you can see some of the inactive musicians watching and enjoying the actors' performances until it's their turn to play. In some scenes, actors who do not appear in them are seen sitting to the side of the stage, but they do go off-stage at other times.
I will explain the one criticism I had about this production- at first many of the actors appeared to have large warts on their heads- some near their foreheads and others on the side of their face. After a while I figured out these were small microphones, which explained the vocals sounding clear but ended up being a bit distracting as the microphones were obviously meant to be hidden. I found myself playing "find the mic" for the rest of the actors. I'm sure the theater audience didn't notice the microphones and many home viewers may not either, but I've given my opinion of it as a perhaps overly critical viewer. One scene that is particularly awkward is where Neil Patrick Harris removes his shirt for a bit, and some wires are seen running down his back. I don't know how visible this was to the theater audience, but it's painfully obvious here.
Picture:The presentation is shot on video (1080i) at 30 frames per second. This was a relief as I dislike the look of video-based material at a more film-like frame rate (24 frames per second) which I've seen used on many recent live performance videos. (In fact, that's how the brief clip during the main menu on this disc is encoded, but the actual show is 30 frames per second.) Most of the presentation looks excellent, and reminds us of the "wow factor" of high-definition video (most TV and cable broadcasts use too much digital compression and could never look this good.) What particularly stood out to me was the clarity of the stage floor, with scuffs left from previous performances. However this was shot with several cameras simultaneously, and the quality is inconsistent. Most of the shots are from the camera directly facing the stage and those look gorgeous, but then the show will cut to a shot from a camera off to the side and you can immediately notice a loss of detail with the picture being a bit softer. I do not have any high-definition video production experience so I cannot explain the reason it looks this way, but it loses a point for this. (Note that the back cover incorrectly states a 2.35 aspect ratio; this is standard 16x9 1.78.)
Sound:Company's sound mix is great- in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (the cover indicates an additional Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but it is not actually on the disc), all voices from the actors onstage are clear and do not appear to be overdubbed later. The surrounds are used liberally which I always like to hear, especially after viewing some productions where I have to double-check that my rear speakers are actually working! Most of the applause and laughs from the audience, which seems to have been directly miked, come from the rear channels giving one the feeling of sitting there with them. They seem to be really into the show as well. The orchestra's instruments are also mixed into all channels. While I have read some criticisms that doing this for a live performance is inappropriate because being in the audience you would only hear the music coming from the front, I personally like the effect. There are also a few scenes that use recorded sound effects, like the sound of traffic in a scene taking place on a balcony, which is effective.
Optional subtitles for the dialogue and lyrics are included.
Packaging:The copy I received was in an Eco-Case, basically a standard Blu-Ray case but with a large amount of plastic missing in the name of "environmental concern." Plastic "spokes" are the only thing under the area holding the disc, and the side facing the front cover has the arrow "recycle" symbol cut out. As a collector, I object to these cases as they are very flimsy and are not the type of item that most people are going to throw out or recycle anyways. On the plus side, an informative 4-page insert is included with liner notes by director Lonny Price, who explains the casting and rehearsals for this show. He reveals that the cast never had a formal rehearsal together; the first public performance was the first time they had all been in the same place at the same time!
Final Thoughts:
This was my first exposure to Company and I certainly enjoyed this production; long-time fans of the show have acclaimed it as well. It seems that movie theaters were charging a premium price just to see this once, so the Blu-Ray disc is a bargain. Recommended for anyone who likes musicals!
Pictures here are publicity photos, not taken from the Blu-Ray disc.
Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.
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447 N. Catherine Avenue | La Grange Park, IL 60526 | Phone: (708) 354-0225
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The Village of La Grange Park purchases its water from the Brookfield-North Riverside Water Commission, who in turn receives its water from the City of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is one of the largest and cleanest sources of fresh surface water found in the world today. Public Works is responsible for approximately 42 miles of water mains throughout the community, in addition, the water plant, reservoirs, overhead tank and pump controls are also maintained.
Yes, the water supplied to our Village meets every State and Federal regulation. If our water ever did exceed a standard you would be notified and on an annual basis the Water Quality Report available to every person paying a water bill. View the Consumer Confidence Reports or call Public Works at 708-352-2922 to receive a copy by mail.
No, the water you receive from your tap is safe to drink and has already been filtered through granular activated carbon and fine sand.
In general, no. There are no health benefits to drinking bottled water compared to tap water. Your water is tested for more kinds of bacteria and contaminants and is tested much more often than bottled water. Tap water is held to higher standards than bottled water and treatment plants use the same water treatment technology available to bottled water producers, in addition, tap water is much less expensive. Bottled water does offer advantages to those who prefer the taste of a specific kind of water or to people on the go who don't have time or forget to fill a sports bottle with tap water.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the United State Environmental Protection Agency require that all water plants disinfect the water. The Chicago Water Department uses chlorine for this purpose adding a minimal amount assuring the water remains safe as it travels from the treatment plant to homes.
If you are sensitive to chlorine in your water, a carbon filter will remove all chlorine. Carbon filters must be consistently maintained to minimize bacteriological contamination of your water. Alternatively, fill a pitcher with tap water and place it in the refrigerator overnight, usually by the next day the chlorine will have evaporated out of the water. If your immune system is compromised in any way, ask your doctor about any precautions you should take when drinking bottled or tap water.
Yes, the Illinois Department of Public Health requires the addition of fluoride to potable water to provide children with the proper dental health care.
No, radon is virtually non-detectable in surface water supplies such as Lake Michigan.
The water that Brookfield-North Riverside Water Commission delivers to the Village contains no detectable lead. Lead in tap water typically comes from the service pipe that enters a building or the plumbing within the building. Newer homes typically do not have lead service pipes or lead containing plumbing. Because homeowners, typically own the service pipe leading into their building and the plumbing within it, they should consult with a licensed plumber and/or consult with their Public Works department if they are concerned. View U.S. EPA guidance to reduce lead in your water.
The Village of La Grange Park strives to deliver a consistent, high quality drinking water to the residents. Numerous water samples are collected throughout the Village during the year to meet State and Federal water quality requirements. View the La Grange Park's most recent annual water quality Consumer Confidence Report.
Services for water testing are available from private laboratories for a fee. The fee will vary depending on the field of items tested. To obtain a booklet of qualified laboratories visit the Illinois Environmental Protections Agency, Division of Laboratories website or call them at 217-782-6455.
By contract of receiving Lake Michigan water each utility has to enact indoor and outdoor water restrictions. Indoor restrictions include plumbing codes that require the installation of water conserving fixtures. Outdoors, residents are restricted in water sprinkling during the hottest time of the day to minimize evaporation. The code restrictions for water sprinkling. A $50 fine may be imposed for each occurrence of code infraction. View the ordinance: Title 5, Chapter 51, Article 49, Section Meters and Rates.
From May 15 through September 15, it shall be unlawful for any person to sprinkle or water lawns within the corporate limits of the village except in accordance with the following guidelines:
The hardness of our water is about 8 grains per gallon or 137 milligrams per liter as CaCO3. It does not change significantly.
Generally no. Considering a water softener purchase, keep in mind a softener will remove the calcium and magnesium (hardness) from your tap water but these essential minerals will be replaced with sodium (salt) in your tap water. While this does not improve the healthfulness of your tap water, it will cut down slightly on soap and detergent use. A softener does eliminate scale build up around your kitchen and bathroom fixtures but a minimal improvement compared to the expense of a softener.
Softeners do increase the corrosivity of water and are often implicated in increased lead and copper levels in homes with these plumbing materials. Finally, if you decide to purchase a softener, please invest the time to flush it out after being away for more than a few days. This reduces the number of nuisance bacteria that are present inside stagnant softener tanks.
The summer sun heats Lake Michigan throughout the summer months. Typically, July through September are the warm water months with our tap water reaching into the low 70 degrees Fahrenheit range (21 degrees Celsius). Winter brings about much cooler water temperatures, usually just above the freezing point. To enjoy an ice cold glass of water in the summer, collect a pitcher full and store it in the refrigerator.
When a glass of water appears milky, let it sit and observe the cloudiness. If the cloudiness rises to the top, the milkiness is composed of air bubbles. Air bubbles in water do not make the water unsafe. They can be removed by flushing the taps in your home. There are a few possible sources of air in water including air entrapped in repaired pipes, malfunctioning water pumps or more commonly, water temperature changes, as wintertime cools Lake Michigan more air dissolves in the water. Call your Public Works department at 708-352-2992 if the cloudiness persists in your taps or settles to the bottom of a glass of water.
Contact the Village Hall Water Billing Department at 708-354-0225.
Call the Public Works Department at 708-352-2922.


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Going up on your roof in cold weather, especially when there is ice or snow is potentially very dangerous indeed. Any traffic on your roof should be avoided wherever possible because a slippery roof is likely to result in a very serious fall. If you do have to go on the roof to conduct repairs you should always ensure that the roof itself, ladders and any equipment you will be using is dry and safely secured.
You can damage material if installing roofing shingles in cold weather.
Removing ice or snow from the roof can cause serious and irreparable damage to the roof. Scarping away at anything on your roof can easily lead to you removing the protective surface on the shingles, and this surface is the best protection you can get against the elements. It prevents damage to the material itself and ensures that any water will run smoothly off your roof surface without collecting. Removing it means your roof is more prone to leakage. Also, the slightest knock to a freezing cold shingle is likely to break it very easily.
Things to consider when installing roofing shingles in cold weather.
The most important thing to remember in the event that you need to install roofing shingles in cold weather is your personal safety. Traversing a sloping roof in icy conditions is near suicidal and should be avoided at all costs. There is a reason that you can't get a roofing contractor to come out and fix your roof in these conditions and it isn't because it's too cold to work. Snow is no better and even early morning dew can create a very slippery surface that is potentially lethal to anyone trying to walk on the roof. However, if you do need to replace a shingle try to remain on the ladder and be sure to handle the shingles with as much care as possible so that you don't break them. You will have to manually seal the tabs of the shingles down yourself, because the warmth of the sun normally activates the adhesive strips, but this obviously will not be possible in cold weather.
Roof Repair Near Me near Cold Springs, California
Our expert Roofers provide Roof Repair Near Me. If you have any questions or concerns about our service area, please give us a call today. We are competitively priced in the region from other roofing companies because we are confident that you will be thrilled with how your roofing project will turn out. Again, call today to schedule a quote for your roofing job.
Obtain a Roofing Estimate
With regular maintenance and some care most roofs will have a considerable life of 15 years or more, but regardless of how careful you are in looking after your roof you will inevitably need to have a new roof fitted one day and it can be a large outlay of money, however, your roof provides an invaluable service to you, the house itself and the contents within it so it is important that you do not compromise the quality of your new roof by taking the cheapest quote around. The key is to shop around as much as possible. Get a roofing estimate from numerous different companies and make sure that you are comparing them on a like for like basis to get the best idea of which quote suits your needs.
Preparation before you request a roofing estimate
It is always important to do your research, especially if you know little or nothing about roofing. When you request a roofing estimate you want to be able to do so with confidence that you know what you are asking for. Searching the Internet will usually yield impressive results for your research and you can always ring a roofing contractor to ask a few questions; they will normally be glad to help in the hope they will be invited to work on the project. Try to research as much as possible regarding the potential materials and some basic building techniques that may be employed.
Picking the companies to give you a roofing estimate
Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of finding good roofing contractors. This way you will already know that the company in question has done good work on somebody else's house. Look around for houses that are having their roof done and ask the homeowner what they think of the work; if the work has been good they won't mind telling you.
Compare on a like for like basis
When you have a list of quotes for anything, whether insurance or for your roofing work it is vital that you compare them on a like for like basis. This is why it is also important that you research the product you are looking to buy before you begin your hunt for the best roofing estimate you can find. If you have a quote from one company offering you two layers of slate shingles and an offer from another company only offering one layer it is immediately obvious that the latter is going to work out cheaper because they have lower cost of materials and lower labor costs.
You should always make sure that you clearly indicate what you want a quote for and this way whenever you receive a roofing estimate you will be able to quickly ascertain how it stands up to competition from other companies. A roofing estimate is invaluable in your search for the best value roofing contractor but only when used properly, otherwise it can do more harm than good.
We at Excel Roofing Services aim to produce the landscape of your dreams! Call us today and set up a consultation with our specialist roofers. You won't be dissatisfied. Call today for Regular and Emergency Services!
E-mail: [email protected]
Local address:
Cold Springs, CA United States
Roof Repair Near Me in Cold Springs, CA


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We've all done it: made excuses for not exercising. But do our excuses really hold water? Clearing up the misinformation can help keep us on track with our commitment to building a healthy lifestyle. Here are eight common exercise myths.
1. Myth: If you don't exercise daily, it won't do any good. Reality: More exercise is better, but even a little exercise is better than none at all.
2. Myth: Spot training will reduce key areas of fat.
Reality: Although spot training builds muscle, it doesn't reduce fat. To reduce fat, nothing beats a cardio workout.
3. Myth: Muscle converts to fat when you stop exercising.
Reality: Muscles do shrink if exercise ends, but they don't convert to fat.
4. Myth: Morning is the best time for a workout.
Reality: Some people like to work out in the morning, others during their lunch hour and others at night. Exercise at the time of day that feels best for you.
5. Myth: Gaining muscle mass means gaining weight.
Reality: Many women avoid weight training because they fear they'll gain weight. However, women have much lower levels of testosterone (a main contributor to muscle-mass building). Consequently, weight training will produce tone, rather than bulk, in women.
6. Myth: No pain, no gain.
Reality: Slight discomfort means muscles are working; pain is your body's way of telling you to stop! Push yourself a little but not too hard.
7. Myth: You shouldn't exercise right after eating.
Reality: You won't harm yourself if you do some light exercise after eating. Running a marathon isn't recommended, but a walk is always good after dinner.
8. Myth: Burning more calories than you eat is a healthy way to lose weight.
Reality: Exercise is good for toning the body, but most of us don't have enough hours in the day to burn off our excess fat. Also, if you reduce your calories too much, your body will think it's starving and will burn muscle tissue instead of fat.
The ideas our mothers taught us still hold true: eat a healthy, nutritious diet and get regular exercise even if the exercise occurs in small increments.


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IT is a welcome move by a forward thinking judiciary official of an Indian High Court to challenge the law made centuries ago by the British. The old law set by the British in 1860 (which is in practice even today) considers a 16 year old girl mentally and physically fit for giving consent to a person for having sex with her. The said law is in force in India even today when the legal age for a boy or a girl to vote is 18. This is the age when they are considered to be adult citizens.
Justice VD Chaturvedi, the judge at the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court, has termed this provision of law "outdated and invalid." According to him, "The 1860 British law was designed to suit the then British rulers only."
Justice Chaturvedi has asked both the Government of India as well as the Government in the state of Uttar Pradesh to have a fresh look at the old law. He has shot off letters to Attorney General of India and the Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh besides both the governments at the Centre and in the state asking them their opinion on raising the 16 years age parameter to 18.
The move of Justice Chaturvedi has given an opportunity to legal experts and social activists to raise a debate on the said law mentioned in the Section 375 IPC (Indian Penal Code).
The issue cropped up when a man convicted for raping a 17 year old girl, filed an appeal in the High Court. A trial court had announced seven years' of rigorous imprisonment to the rapist, who sought amnesty from the High Court on the plea that the girl was above the age of 16 and was therefore, under the law, entitled to give her consent for having sex with him.
In his appeal, the convict had pleaded that the girl was 17 years of age at the time of rape. She had given her consent to him for making physical relations. Therefore, his conviction was not proper under Section 376 of IPC for rape as section 375 of IPC provided that he or she could give consent for sexual intercourse after attaining the age of 16.
Looking to the circumstances of the case, the High Court dismissed the appeal upholding the conviction, also holding that the consent was not voluntary.
The court went to the extent of observing that "the law relating to consent for sex was apparently designed keeping in mind that most of the British officers had to live here without their families so they were bound to indulge in extra-marital sex with women of all ages."
The High Court commented that a girl below 21 is not normally fit to decide good or bad for her and therefore, if any decision taken before that age is damaging to her welfare or interest, it must be deemed that such a decision was taken under inducement. The judge has also drawn comparison with other laws of the land which do not give several rights to persons of the age of 18 or even 21.
"It is an absolutely right observation", says Shalini Mathur, Director of Suraksha, an anti-dowry organisation. "The age of marriage is 18 and a 16 year old girl is considered adolescent which causes a grey area as to what a child in the age group of 16 to 18, is. However, the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 clearly states that "there is nothing like adolescence. Up till 18 a girl or boy is a child and after 18 he/she is an adult." Shalini Mathur, who has worked with young girls living in shelter homes argues, "If a girl is not fit for marriage till she is 18, how can she be fit to have sex with a man?"
Besides, in cases of rape in India, the age of a girl is judged by an X-ray of the girl's pelvic girdle and the age determined by this system is always two years plus or minus, which causes a hurdle in justice.
If the observation of the High Court is considered and an amendment is brought into the IPC, it will certainly eliminate the ambiguity and will bring clarity in the law.
Alka Pande, CNS
(The author is a senior journalist and a fellow of Citizen News Service (CNS) Writers' Bureau)


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Spider Cakes
Use our BakeBot Ai Chat for instant answers.
Why I Love This Recipe
To make these sinister-looking cakes, you'll need six 1 1/2-by-3-inch dome silicone baking molds, a medium pastry bag with coupler, and a #7 and #4 pastry tip.
Makes 6 cakes.
Ingredients You'll Need
Unsalted butter, room temperature for molds
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for molds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Black Swiss Meringue
1/4 cup black sprinkles
Black Italian Meringue Buttercream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter six 1 1/2-by-3-inch dome flexible baking molds, and dust with cocoa, tapping out any excess. Set aside on a baking sheet.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add egg yolk, the warm water, the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping the sides and bottom as necessary.
Pour batter to within 1/4 inch from the top of each mold. Bake, rotating once, until a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
Invert and unmold cakes onto a wire rack; set aside until completely cool, about 30 minutes. Trim cakes flush with the top of the molds, using a serrated knife.
To create the heads and legs: Fill a medium pastry bag fitted with a coupler with black meringue. Using a #7 pastry tip for the heads and a #4 pastry tip for the legs, pipe directly onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, keeping the pastry bag at a 45-degree angle to the baking sheet. After piping the heads, carefully affix sprinkles for eyes and mouths. Transfer to oven, bake at 350 degrees.for 5 minutes; set aside.
Using an offset spatula, spread black buttercream over each cake to evenly coat. Cover with black sprinkles; set aside.
Transfer the remaining buttercream to a small disposable pastry bag; snip off the end to make a small hole for piping. Carefully pipe a small amount of icing onto the end of one of the spider legs, and attach to one of the spider-body cakes; apply a small amount of pressure to insert the leg into the frosted body. Repeat with remaining legs and cakes.
Pipe a small amount of buttercream onto the front of one of the bodies, and carefully attach the head. Allow to set; carefully transfer to serving plate by sliding a large spatula under the body from the back of the cake. Repeat with remaining cakes and heads.


text: [said Rick] > I really hate seeing a student drop out. I think making > it fun helps reduce that problem. But it still happens. > My Freshman dropout rate is a little more than 50% this > semester by my current estimates. And you're teaching VB to them, so clearly VB is not keeping them in, is it? You guys really need to try to find out why so many are bailing out. For whatever consolation it is to you, I've heard of lots of 50% dropout rates in CS. At GW our dropout rate from freshman to sophomore year is typically 25-30%; this is to be expected because a lot of students come into CS with no clue about what it is, then bail out when they find out there's (gasp!) math and science in it, not to mention all the SE concepts they must get at least in the second course. If we had anything like a 50% bailout rate, we'd be REALLY upset and trying VERY hard to figure out why. Of course, we are also a middle-tier private university, dependent on (very) high tuition. Maybe KSU, as a state school, is less concerned, because their entrance standards may (by legislative fiat) be lower. Dunno. And of course we are teaching Ada 95 in our first 2 courses, so clearly an Ada-based curriculum does not, in itself, lead to lower retention. And a VB-based one does not, in itself, lead to higher retention. There are lots of factors here, Rick (and everyone) - after 25 years as a full-time CS prof (and the one responsible for the first 2 courses, and an undergrad advisor, and the curriculum chair...) I'm convinced that there are no magic bullets. I don;t think a really good discussion of currculum development needs to degenerate into a language war - there is MUCH more to it than that, as our respective situations make obvious. I hope John McCormick is reading this - I'm cc-ing him just to be sure. He may have some things to say on this subject. [snip] > > Rick Mike


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0 to 60 (quid). Ten Top Things to do for your mum on Mother's Day.
1. Make her an origami heart. Be creative; use a colourful paper bag, a piece of old music sheet, a sheet from a magazine. Once the paper is folded, the end result can look really great, once you get the hang of making this easy to learn paper fold then you could make a whole collection of hearts to show your mum how much you love her.
Cost £0.00
2. Take your mum around one of Brighton's most iconic buildings, The Royal Pavilion. This Mother's Day the tour guides are dressed to impress in authentic costumes from the Regency era, giving you and your mum and insight into the bygone year
Cost £4.90 (for Brighton & Hove residents)
3. Put together a collection of books. With a little forward thinking, you can put together a set of books that you know your mum would love. There are some fantastic second-hand book shops including Amnesty international bookshop and Oxfam bookshop with hundreds of titles. Use your imagination, buy a bundle and wrap it up with some nice ribbon and pop one of those origami hearts (point 1) on the top and you'll have a truly original gift and be helping some really good causes to boot!
Cost £10.00
4. Chocolate, for most mums, is always going to be a welcome present, but don't just grab a box while doing your weekly shop, get yourself down to the Brighton Lanes where shops like, the outrageous choccywoccydoodah, or the more traditional chocolate Hotel are on hand with a range of traditional and not so traditional chocolate range for every budget, but for this day, push the boat out and get your mum something really special.
Cost £20.00
5. Mother's day and flowers is all very nice, but think outside the box and buy her a Bonsai plant. These miniature trees are not as difficult to look after as you may think, they are also an excellent talking point for when your mum's friendscome over giving you added brownie points.
Cost £30.00+
6. Mother's Day experience on the Brighton Wheel. Give your mum a chance to see Brighton as she never has before with the Brighton Wheel she'll have the best panoramic views of the city. For under the £40.00 mark you and your mum can jump the queue, make use of the VIP lounge. The entrance fee also includes a glass of Moët and a small box of luxury chocolates.
Cost £35.00
7. Champagne will plant you firmly in your mum's good book for the rest of the year. There may be those who frown at such an idea, but this is all the more reason to get a very special bottle of fizz for your mum as it's something that she would least expect, particularly if you go for a chilled bottle of Veuve clicquot Rose ice Dress to really show how you want to spoil your mum.
Cost £46.95
8. For a very special afternoon to remember then it has to be a trip to The Grand for afternoon tea where a selection of cakes, scones, cream cakes and a selection of teas or for a very special treat add Champagne to the menu for your mum to feel she is treated like a queen for the day. There are two sittings and it is extremely advisable to book well in advance to avoid disappointment. £50.00+
9. Push the boat out and allow your mum to truly relax with one of the many luxurious treatments at Brighton's premier health spa, The Treatment Rooms. The Treatment room offer gift vouchers so your mum can decided for herself which treatment she would like to indulged in, or you could choose one for her, why not buy the wonderful Lava shell Massage where mind and body are brought back into perfect balance.
Remember, whatever you do for your mum on mother's day she going to love you no matter what you give her. Just remember the date this year Mother's day is on the 18th March 2012, Don't Forget!


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Profits triple for Abu Dhabi's Eithad Airways
Feb. 4, 2013, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. - Fast-growing Etihad Airways tripled net profits last year as it added routes and code-share arrangements in its expanding rivalries with other premium Gulf airlines, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier said Monday.
February 4, 2013 By Carey Fredericks
Government-owned Etihad said that 2012 net profit jumped to $42 million, compared to $14 million in 2011. Revenue rose 17 per cent to $4.8 billion, while the number of passengers increased by 23 per cent to 10.3 million.
"This has been a game-changing year,'' said Etihad CEO James Hogan.
He said cost-control measures and ongoing investments helped boost the airline's profits during a challenging global economic environment.
Etihad began flying to six new destinations last year, including Shanghai and Kenya's capital, Nairobi. It also has announced expanded service this year to Washington and other cities.
The nearly 10-year-old airline has aggressively sought to expand cost-share agreements and purchase stakes in foreign airlines such as airberlin and Virgin Australia. It also is in talks for a possible share in India's Jet Airways. Etihad said that partner airlines contributed 19 per cent of last year's passenger revenue growth.
The carrier is locked in deepening competition with Gulf rivals Qatar Airways and Dubai-based Emirates.


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The Super Saiyan of stonerdom and stand-up, Doug Benson has made a name for himself by making whip-smart observations even through the murky haze of a bong-addled brain. With four stand-up albums, a Morgan Spurlock-parodying documentary Super High Me, and his ever-popular Doug Loves Movies podcast under his belt, Benson's comedy bowl is packed rather tight. But, as most folks herbally treating their "glaucoma" will tell you, there's always room for a little more, which is why we were super-excited to hear about Benson's latest full-length album Smug Life, an experimental double album that will make many comics put down the dutchie and wonder why they didn't think of it first. The two discs – "Uncooked" and "Cooked – are, in theory, the same material, but the circumstances under which they're performed couldn't be more different (and hilarious). I caught up with Benson to talk about "cooking," the challenge of making a double album, and his Twitter obsession.
Nerdist: Do you find it harder or easier to perform while "cooked"?
Doug Benson:I get slower and wittier at the same time, if you can believe that. The first few times I performed high, I was pretty paranoid. But eventually I got over it and it's been smooth sailing ever since!
N: What inspired you to make a double album? Is the material totally different or is it sort of a dry run/high run scenario?
DB:Â The second thing. I thought it would be fun to record essentially the same jokes, but one show I was high and one I was not.
N: While both discs are ostensibly the same material, they both have a distinct feel to them and don't come off as repetitive. Do you think that was a result of your experiment or a result of the random nature of audience makeup, your mood, etc?
DB: It really captures what happens when I'm out on the road doing shows. Each one is different, because each crowd is different and my mood is different. So this album is a chance to hear me do the same stuff, but each show has it's own vibe.
N: Which set do you think went better? What was the experience like for you?
DB: I liked the "cooked" one better. But that's because I was high at the time.
N: How will you turn Morgan Spurlock's manscaping documentary into your own marijuanafied version?
DB:Â He makes movies so fast I might be able to skip that one.
N: You're a big proponent of Twitter, even going so far as to read audience tweets on stage as well as some of your own. What is it about the medium that excites you?
DB: It's a great place for jokes. I used to write daily jokes on Myspace – holy shit, remember Myspace? – and people would complain that the jokes were too short. You can't make that complaint about tweets.
N: Who are some of your favorite comedians working today?
DB: Paul F. Tompkins, Louis CK, and about a hundred others.
N: Your podcast Doug Loves Movies is very popular and always draws a sizable crowd to its live shows. How do you think the podcast has helped you professionally and how important do you think the medium is for comedians today?
DB:Â I think every comic should have a podcast. And most do. It's just a great way for fans to get more of you. And to get to know you better. They get to listen to you speak for hours a week, so when they come to see you in person, they feel like they know the person on stage. Because they do. Hope that answer made sense. I'm high.
N: According to your podcast, you love movies. What is your favorite movie of all time? What is your favorite movie of all time to watch stoned? Was it the same movie?
DB:Â I don't do the favorite thing. Too many great movies to choose from. But I will say that the first Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder is a great movie to watch stoned. And if you're not stoned, it's a great movie to make you feel like you are.
Doug Benson's latest album Smug Life is available now nationwide. Follow him on Twitter and, who knows, you might make the next album.


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The novelties of 2010/2011 Winter Timetable
Commencing October 31, 2010 the UIA 2010/2011 Winter Schedule takes effect until March 27, 2011. During this winter season UIA provides passengers with new opportunities for air travel to South Asia as well as expands the range of offers to Europe, the Gulf and the cities of Ukraine.
The regular flights to Goa (India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Johannesburg (South Africa Republic) will become the novelties of this season`s winter schedule. These flights will be operated via Abu Dhabi where the passengers will be able to visit one of the world`s best Duty Free Shop networks.
During 2010 – 2011 winter seasons UIA launches new regular flights from Kyiv to Almaty that will be operated twice a week. The frequency of Kyiv – Geneva flight will be increased up to 4 times per week, Kyiv – Tel Aviv flight – up to 5 times per week, Kyiv – Tbilisi – up to 13 flights per week, Kyiv – Abu Dhabi flight – up to 7 times per week and Kyiv – Milan flight – up to 5 times per week.
Moreover, new charter flights will connect Kyiv with Phuket (Thailand), Tenerife (Canary Islands), Lleida (Spain), Erzurum (Turkey), Grenoble (France), Aqaba (Jordan), Al-Fujairah and Ras-al-Khaimah (UAE).
UIA expands the geography of its charter flights not only from the capital but also from the regional centers of Ukraine. Cooperating with one of the largest touristic companies of Ukraine – Pegasus Touristic – UIA launches charter flights from Lugansk to the popular resorts of Egypt – Hurghada and Taba.
Charter flights to Erzurum (Turkey) will be operated from Donetsk, Odesa and Kharkiv, while charter flights will also connect Donetsk with Dubai (UAE), Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) and Salzburg (Austria).
"UIA has been actively developing exotic resort destinations, as passengers invariably response positively to the launch of such flights, - said Sergey Fomenko UIA Vice President Sales and Marketing. - These routes are particularly relevant in winter as, due to climatic peculiarities, the vacation on European beach resorts becomes impossible, while distant exotic countries offer to enjoy "out of seasons" resorts throughout the year."


text:
I am a Technology Apprentice at the Woolman Semester School, in northern California. I am currently studying web standards, Python programming, and libre/open souce multimedia production and distribution.
I am dedicated to promoting libre/open source software and web standard technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
I am also very interested in Geospatial tools such as Quantum GIS and GRASS GIS.