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While the knowledge of the practice of astrology in antiquity has been shrouded by the mists of time, some important truths have survived to this day.
We know that Alexander "the Great" opened Greece up to the ancient practice of Chaldean astrology, which was linked to Egyptian astrology and possibly also to the astrology of the Vedas. In turn, Hellenic astrology subsequently informed Roman astrology as the civilizational thrust moved westward.[1]
While closer to us in time, there is little known about the practice of astrology in Roman times. However, there are some important insights that have survived. An essential truth concerning Roman astrology as it was practiced more than two millennia ago is that it placed prime emphasis on the ascendant in interpreting the horoscope, in line with the horoscopic astrology of the Hellenic world [2] . In fact, some even suggest the astrology in Roman times was the same as Hellenic astrology[3].
Octavian "the Capricorn"
According to the poem Astronomica, which was written in the early first century A.D. by a poet named Marcus Manilius, the rising sign was taken as the sign under which one was born. According to modern Western notions Emperor Octavian, who was born on September 23, 63 BC, would have been born with the sun sign of Libra as per the zodiac in use in his day and thus be considered a "Libra".[4] However, in Roman times it was noted by Manilius that "Capricorn [was] the sign under which he was born."[5] It is of importance to note that he was considered to be born under his rising sign, and not the sun sign*. This is further evidenced by the fact that Octavian, or Augustus as he became known as Emperor, had his rising sign with a fish "tail" minted on the back side of a Roman coin bearing his image on the "head".
Ascending sign or Sun sign?
The Vedic astrology of today also places prime importance on the ascendant when interpreting the horoscope. It has retained the link to its ancient origins. By comparison, the emphasis that modern Western astrology places on the sun sign is likely a more recent invention. That said, the Sun is without a doubt the single most important heavenly body, representing as it does the spirit of man and the evolution of the soul. By comparison, the ascending sign and its ruler give the psychological and physiological make-up of man and are the basis for ordering the karmic nature of the planets in the horoscope as per their house rulership.
Important breakBut why did the shift take place?
A key element in the break between modern Western astrology and its ancient forerunners occurred in the 3rd century AD[1]. This was the practice of correcting for the precession of the equinoxes. From Babyloninan astrology and well into Roman times the sidereal zodiac was used.[6] The objective of the correction is to maintain correspondence of the calculated zodiac to the cosmic background of the visible constellations. The ancient astrologers new about the precession and compensated for it. However, for some reason the solar reference to the Vernal Point in the Spring became a new benchmark for astrologers in Rome. In not making the correction, the 0° Aries point in the tropical zodiac began to drift from the 0° Aries point in the visible sidereal zodiac. This technical shift evidently made the Sun more important for the overall consideration. In this regard, we should keep in mind two things, a) the rise of Christianity in the 3rd century and b) the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Together, these events ushered in the birth of Western civilization. However, far from its modern glory, the early beginnings were a picture of complete social and intellecutal breakdown, described as the dark ages. The true rise of Western civilization took place with the renaissance of the late middle ages, which was fuelled with ideas and knowledge from the Arab world. The immediate result of the breakdown of pagan Roman civilization is that the connection with the practice of horoscopic astrology of ancient Rome was for the most part shattered. "After the fall of Rome, there was almost no astrology in the West until the 11th and 12th centuries"[7]. With the rediscovery of astrology in Europe in the late middle ages, it was the sun-sign that became its centerpiece. The birth of modern Western astrology thus represents a clear break with the tradition of horoscopic astrology of ancient Rome, and which is still practiced in India. Adding to the divergence is the compelling fact that the new branch of western astrology evolved based on a zodiac moving with respect to the galactic background while Vedic astrology retained its link with a zodiac firmly anchored on the visible fixed stars.
The constancy of the Ides
History records that the Ides of March (literally, the change of signs in March) was the time when a Roman astrologer warned Julius Caesar about two thousand years ago to take care. While Caesar did not heed his warning, the Sun on March 15 continues to pass into the sign Aries in the tropical zodiac as it did in Rome two millennia ago (adjusting for the change from Julian to Gregorian calendars in the late 16th century). This is because western astrology is based on a zodiac that has as its reference the movement of the sun with an emphasis on the regular appearance of the solar seasons. In doing so, the zodiac lost its moorings in the cosmic background, or the visible fixed stars that make up the signs. By comparison, the sun now enters Aries in mid April in the sidereal zodiac of Vedic astrology. This is because the precession of the equinoxes has moved the constellations backwards by 24° as seen from the earth in mid March two millennia later. Indeed, we now adjust the calendar by 24 days to witness the entry of the sun into Aries, reflecting the shift in the visible cosmic background. In a few hundred years from now the difference between these two zodiacs will be a whole sign, or 30°. Surely, if the constellations and the signs which they make up have meaning at all as reference points in the sky, then this would matter for the interpretation of the influences emanating from the regions of the cosmos. Moreover, as the precession-adjustment gained importance, the focus of the reading apparently and gradually was deflected away from the primacy of the ascendant and house rulerships as in ancient astrology to the placement of the Sun by sign in modern Western astrology. In some sense, the sun had become the fixed star of Western astrology.
Vedic astrology is closer to Roman astrology
Considering that Western astrology has also by now included the outer planets and minor bodies in the solar system, all of which are invisible to the human eye, there is no doubt that it has thoroughly departed from its historical origins in Hellenistic and Roman astrology. In fact, it is modern Vedic astrology that is the closest living relative of the ancient traditions. Importantly, in addition to the different zodiacs, the Western and Vedic forms of astrology now represent radically different approaches to horoscopic interpretation, with one focused on the sun sign while the other begins with the ascendant. The extent of the divergence is not always fully understood or appreciated, including the use of planetary periods in Vedic astrology.
Planetary periods
As in ancient Egyptian astrology, it is possible the Romans also used planetary periods, in addition to transits, when explaining the past and predicting the future. This would have been another similarity with the Vedic astrology tradition.[8] Planteray periods reveal the general trends operating at different stages in the life while transits indicate the nature and timing of significant events. Such systems have evolved through the eons due to the gift of insight by great astrologers, both past and present. The aim has always been to discern the pattern which gives the most accurate reading of a horoscope and predictions for the future.
With hindsight, Caesar would undoubtedly agree that the practice of astrology in Roman times was keyed to predictive accuracy. This is also very much the case with Vedic astrology today.
*) Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus was born sometime between 1 PM to 3 PM on September 23, 63 BC in Rome, giving Capricorn as the rising sign. His Sun was at 4° Libra in the tropical zodiac (9° Libra in the sidereal zodiac). The Moon was at 29° Libra in the tropical zodiac (4° Scorpio in the sidereal zodiac). Importantly, this exludes the possibility of Capricorn being his Moon sign.
[1] History of Astrology
[2] Dr. Gustav-Adolf Schoener, "Astrology: Between Religion and the Empirical"
[3] J. Tester, "History of Western Astrology"
[4] Augustus
[5] Marcus Manilius, "Astronomica"
[6] Robert Harry van Gent. "The Constellations and the Fixed Stars"
"Hellenistic astrological tables and horoscopes indicate that the sidereal zodiac was employed up to the end of the 5th century AD. The use of a sidereal zodiac was continued by many astrologers of the Hellenistic and Roman Period."
[7] Western sidereal astrology, an interview with Kenneth Bowser
[8] Hindu wisdom: India and Egypt


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Our Best Bike Lights page is where we list our current favourites. If you haven't got time to spend hours trawling the Internet figuring out which light to buy, I'm sure you wont be disappointed with any of those featured here. This list gets continually updated as the technology evolves and new lights become available. The brightest (and most expensive) lights are at the top and get progressively cheaper going down the page until you get to the budget lights at the bottom. For now we've concentrated on bike lights for commuting. In time we'll also include a section for mountain bike lights but we need to properly test some first.
Best Front Lights – Luxury
If money is no object, we highly recommend these lights:
Best Front Light – High-end Commuter
The Exposure Strada rechargeable bike light is an easy choice for the position of Best Commuter light. Actually we like all the Exposure lights. This one sits somewhere in the middle of their range and offers a good balance between bright light, long battery life and low weight. It's mainly aimed at commuters and comes with a handy handlebar mounted push button to dip the light for oncoming motorists. The light is plenty bright enough for riding with confidence on unlit roads and would also be fine for some off-road MTB action. Exposure lights are not cheap (you might like to sit down before checking out the price!), but they are well designed, have amazing build quality, are unaffected by severe weather, and if you can afford it you won't be disappointed. The latest version is mk5 which is a few generations on from the reviewed model but has a number of refinements. Some reliable on-line stores from which Exposure lights can be purchased are here.
Best Front Light – High-end Lightweight
The Exposure Diablo is an excellent choice if you want maximum lumens for minimum ounces. This could be if you've got a carbon fibre road bike and don't want to make any compromise on weight, or just because you have to lug it about on a daily basis. This light works very well on a Brompton for example and I would recommend it above all the light options that Brompton themselves offer. Of course it also makes a great helmet light for mountain biking. This light is actually brighter than the Strada but half the weight. It can be purchased from the same places as the Strada (see above).
Best Front Lights – Mid Priced
If you ride regularly on dark country roads and want something much cheaper than the luxury lights above then these are recommended:
The new Lezyne Super Drive rechargeable light has knocked the Hope vision 1 off its perch and is now our favourite light in the mid price category. It's a simple but stylish and well thought out design and kicks out sufficient light to ride confidently on pitch black roads. Since the review updated models have been produced and in particular, the Super Drive XL and Power Drive XL are now recommended. Most of the lights Lezyne make offer about the best value you can get at each of their respective price points. Recommended on-line stores that supply them are here, here and here.
Best Front Lights – Lower Mid Priced
If you ride mainly around town but want sufficient brightness for occasional rides into the country one of these lights would be appropriate:
The Cateye EL530 is one of Cateye's brightest battery powered headlights and is also bright enough for unlit roads though if you can stretch to a Lezyne Power drive or Super drive you'd have a much much better and brighter light for your money. The EL530 can be purchased from here or here. Rechargeable batteries and a decent AA battery charger are pretty much essential with this light. The Cateye EL530 can also be bought bundled with our favourite rear light, the TL-LD1100. Together, these represent much better value for money than when bought separately.
The Smart Lunar 35 is a recent addition to our best lights page. It has a stylish compact design and has surprisingly good battery life from 2 AAs. It's one of the cheapest lights we've found that produces enough light to see for riding (albeit slowly) on dark country lanes. For added value it can be purchased bundled with the Smart Superflash, a very good rear bike light. See the end of the review for purchase options.
Best Bike Lights – Budget
These lights are only really powerful enough for being seen and you wouldn't use them for riding through the dark lanes, but if you're only ever riding in town on roads with street lighting, you can probably get away without spending too much. There's a bewildering range of budget lights to choose from and many of them offer good value. Our pick for best budget lights are the Cateye HL-EL135 and TL-LD150 which can be bought together in a set for a great price. Many of the Cateye sets shown there represent great value for money.
Best Rear Light – All-rounder
The Cateye TL-LD1100 takes the place for best (ahem) rear of the year. It has a rugged design, lots of mounting options, good waterproofing, good all round visibility, lots of modes including a useful steady+flashing mode and long battery life. It's now looking a little dated but is still widely available and is still popular. Purchase options can be found at the end of the review.
Best Rear Light – Compact
The Moon Shield 60 is our latest rear light choice and is ideal if you want to be seen from a very long long way away and want a bijou bike light. Links to online shops that sell this light are at the end of the review.
Previous Winners
The Hope Vision 1 was previously a winner in our mid price category. This rugged light takes 4 AA batteries and is bright enough for unlit roads. It can be still purchased from here. While it's still a good light, it's been around a while and we feel it's now outgunned by a number of new lights on the market, in particular the new Lezyne lights (see above). Let's hope that Hope respond with a new light in this category soon!
The Blackburn Mars 4.0 was our previous choice for small rear light. It's now outshone by the Moon Shield 60 and isn't as widely available as it once was. It's still worth considering though. This (and the Moon shield above) would be a good choice for Brompton owners.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Weekly Recap Jan 28 - Feb 4 What a shit show of a couple of weeks. Donald Trump has been president since the 20th and everything is looking very very bad. We've all got to do everything we can to fight this.Anyways, here are some photos from my week: Grayson JamesFebruary 5, 2017 Facebook0 Twitter Reddit Tumblr Pinterest0 0 Likes


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epic: A long narrative poem, exalted in style, heroic in theme. The earliest epics all focus on the legendary adventures of a hero against the backdrop of a historical event: think of the Trojan War and Odysseus's action-packed journey home in the eighth century BCE Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, the models for epic poetry ever since; or the territorial battles of a warrior culture in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, dated between the eighth and eleventh centuries; or the preservation of a city and a civilization in the Babylonian Gilgamesh (ca. 1600–1000 BCE). These epics seem to be the written versions of texts long sung and retold, composed and recomposed by many epic singers over time, all telling the tale of a tribe. The first audiences for the epics were listeners, the later ones readers. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) considered the Homeric epic the prototype of tragedy. The epic carried important cultural truths but, as M. I. Finley puts it, "Whatever else the epic may have been, it was not history. It was narrative, detailed and precise, with minute description of fighting and sailing, and feasting and burials and sacrifices, all very real and vivid; it may even contain, buried away, some kernels of historical fact—but it was not history." The epic is inherently nostalgic. It looks back to greater and more heroic times—the emergence of tribes, the founding of countries, the deeds of legendary figures. It is removed from the contemporary world of the audience and looks back to what Goethe and Schiller called the vollkommen vergangen, or "perfect past." It moves beyond individual experience. It binds people to their own outsize communal past and instills a sense of grandeur.
The epic singer of tales brings together a powerful memory and strong improvisatory technique, using formulaic phrases, lines, and half-lines; propulsive rhythms; stock descriptions; and recurrent scenes and incidents to build a tale with encyclopedic range and cyclical action. The epic is purposefully recited in segments. In the epic, Bakhtin writes, "It is, therefore, possible to take any part and offer it as the whole . . . the structure of the whole is repeated in each part, and each part is complete and circular like the whole." The epic poets who worked at the same time as Homer are sometimes called the Cyclic poets because they covered the entire war cycle. "The cyclical form of the classical epic is based on the natural cycle," Northrop Frye explains. "The cycle has two main rhythms: the life and death of the individual, and the slower social rhythm which, in the course of years . . . brings cities and empires to their rise and fall."
Some examples: the great Sanskrit epics of ancient India are the Mahābhārata (ninth to eighth century BCE) and the Rāmāyana (fifth to fourth century BCE); the major epic poem in Persian is the Iranian epic Shāhnāma (ca. 977–1010). The epics of Mesopotamia survived in tales written in Sumerian and Akkadian. The Nibelungenlied (ca. 1180–1210) is the great epic of Middle High German. La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland, ca. 1090) is the pinnacle of the French epic tradition of chansons de geste ("songs of heroic deeds [lineage]"), which influenced the most complete example in the thriving Spanish epic tradition, the Poema de mío Cid (Poem of the Cid, twelfth century). The Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) was first written down by monks in the ninth century, but the story dates to the La Tène period of civilization, possibly about 100 BCE It intersperses lyrics and verse duologues with the main tale told in prose. The story, which narrates the great deeds of the warrior Cuchulainn, has attracted a large number of subsidiary tales called remscéla, or introductory tales, and iarscéla, or after-tales. In his translation from Old Russian, Vladimir Nabokov calls The Song of Igor's Campaign: An Epic of the Twelfth Century (1960) "a harmonious, many leveled, many hued, uniquely poetical structure created in a sustained and controlled surge of inspiration by an artist with a fondness for pagan gods and a percipience of sensuous things." In the early nineteenth century, a group of medieval German texts were grouped together as Spielmannsepen, or "minstrel epics." These historic legends included König Rothar (ca. 1160), Herzog Ernst (ca. 1180), Der Münchener Oswald (fifteenth century), Orendel (late twelfth century), and Salman und Moralf (late twelfth century). In the 1830s, the folklorist Elias Lönnrot linked and organized Finnish runo-songs (runo-laulu) to create the Kalevala, a magisterial Balto-Finnish epic ("It is my desire, it is my wish, / my desire to recite, / to get ready to sing"). In the 1860s, the folklorist F. Reinhold Kreutzwald followed suit and used Estonian runo songs to compose Estonia's national epic, Kalevipoeg.
There are two main types of European songs that tell stories: epics and ballads. Whereas the ballad is a short strophic form that focuses on a primary event, the epic song is a long non-strophic form that focuses on a variety of events. But the genres sometimes blur and there is considerable thematic overlap between the longer ballads and the shorter epic songs, often dramatic, that have been collected in a wide range of cultures.
The Serbs, Croatians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians, and Albanians all have epic songs, which are performed by guslars (the gusle or gusla is a single-stringed instrument). The guslars specialized in junačke pesme ("men's songs"), heroic narratives chanted or sung on aggressively masculine themes, like war. They also performed narodne pesme ("people's songs") — the word pesma also means "poem." There are nine epic cycles of these popular narrative poems based on historical events, which were collected in the nineteenth century by the Serbian scholar Vuk Karadžić. The guslari provided the models for Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theories of an oral-formulaic method that stretches back to the Homeric bards. The slow-moving, unrhymed, and typically unaccompanied Russian epic songs are called byliny. The Ukrainian version of the epic is a body of songs called dumy, which were traditionally performed by itinerant Cossack bards called kobzani. The Tibetan Epic of King Gesar (ca. twelfth century), one of the major epic cycles of Central and East Asia, is performed both by amateurs and professional epic bards. A typical episode of the story contains five to ten thousand lines of verse (fifty to one hundred songs) linked by a spoken narration. The Mande epic of Son-Jara is recited by professional finah (poet-historians) and runs to more than three thousand lines. The Kyrgy national epic, Manas (ca. eighteenth century), can range close to half a million lines and take up to three weeks to recite.
Sïrat Banï Hiläl (ca. eleventh century) is the epic history of the Banï Hiläl Bedouin tribe. It has been told and retold throughout the Arab world from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Coast for almost a thousand years. Dwight Fletcher Reynolds points out that "in different regions and over different historical periods the epic has been performed as a complex tale cycle narrated entirely in prose, as a prose narrative embellished with lengthy poems, as a narrative recited in rhymed verse, and as a narrative sung to the accompaniment of various musical instruments." It is both a textual and a performance tradition. Al-Bakātūsh, a village in northern Egypt, is known throughout the Nile Delta as the "village of the poets" because of its large community of hereditary epic singers who recite and perform the poem.
Ezra Pound called the epic "a poem including history." Literary or secondary epics—one thinks not just of Virgil's Aeneid (29–19 BCE), but also of Dante's Divine Comedy (ca. 1308–1321), Ariosto's Orlando furioso (1516), Camões's The Lusiads (1572), Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590–1596), Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1581), Milton's Paradise Lost (1667)—adopted many of the conventions and strategies of the traditional epic, even though they are written poems meant to be read (and reread) rather than oral ones intended to be told and sung. "Homer makes us hearers," Alexander Pope said, "and Virgil leaves us readers." The editors of Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World argue, "Epic conceived as a poetic narrative of length and complexity that centers around deeds of significance to the community transcends the oral and literary divide that has long marked the approach to the genre." Byron playfully satirizes the epic apparatus he employs in this stanza from Don Juan (1819–1824):
My poem's epic, and is meant to be
Divided in twelve books; each book containing,
With Love, and War, a heavy gale at sea,
A list of ships, and captains, and kings reigning,
New characters; the episodes are three:
A panoramic view of Hell's in training,
After the style of Virgil and of Homer,
So that my name of Epic's no misnomer.
The epic also generated several types of revisionary and even anti-epics, such as the epic with a recent action (Lucan's Pharsalia, ca. 61–65 CE) or Christian "brief epics" (Abraham Cowley's Davideis: A Sacred Poem of the Troubles of David, 1656, or John Milton's Paradise Regained, 1671), which were supposedly modeled on the book of Job but more closely followed the classical epic. "All the types of Biblical epic developed during the Divine Poetry movement [in sixteenth-century England] answered the pagan epic repertoire feature by feature," Alastair Fowler explains. The pagan muse was replaced by the Holy Spirit, or a prayer to God, and the national or legendary action became the redemptive history of Scripture.
Pound's Cantos (1915–1969) were a bid to revive the epic as a modernist form. Nikos Kazantzakis's Greek poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1924–1938), David Jones's Welsh poem Anathemata (1952), and Derek Walcott's West Indian Omeros (1990) all make epic bids. From a Turkish prison cell, Nazim Hikmet wrote a five-volume epic novel in verse, Human Landscapes from My Country (1963), which he regarded as a historical synthesis of oral poetry, designed to be sung, and the printed novel, designed to be read silently in private. An epic apparatus has been employed by American poets from Anne Bradstreet's Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies (1650), which could be called the first North American epic, to William Carlos Williams's Paterson (1940–1961), H. D.'s Helen in Egypt (1974), Louis Zukofsky's "A" (1928–1968), Charles Olson's The Maximus Poems (1950–1970), and James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover (1976–1982).
All in all, as Jorge Luis Borges wrote, "the epic is one of the necessities of the human mind."
Excerpted from A Poet's Glossary by Edward Hirsch. Copyright © 2014 by Edward Hirsch. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.


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California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law October 10, which aims to ensure voters with intellectual disabilities are not illegally disqualified from voting.
Currently under state law, people under guardianship, known as conservatorships in California, are denied their right to vote if they are unable to fill out an affidavit of voter registration. SB-589 will create a presumption that voters under conservatorships are qualified to vote.
Specifically, the state, in order to disqualify an individual from voting, must establish by clear and convincing evidence that "the person cannot communicate, with or without reasonable accommodation, a desire to participate in the voting process."
This standard is in line with a series of recommendations adopted by the American Bar Association in 2007.
"Our country has a long history of preventing people with intellectual or mental health disabilities from fully participating in our democracy," ACLU disability rights counsel Claudia Center said in a news release. "Many states place significantly higher burdens on people with disabilities to demonstrate the capacity to vote, including requiring them to answer questions not required of others.
"This law puts an end to these unfair practices and serves as a model for the nation."
The bill, introduced by San Diego Senator Marty Block, passed the Senate by a 27-11 vote, while the Assembly approved it 62-11.
"Conservatorship should not mean disenfranchisement," Sen. Block said in a news release. "Many have risked and lost their lives for the right to vote in our country. Voting is a precious right and privilege that we can and should fully extend to those under conservatorship."
In 2014, the Spectrum Institute's Disability and Abuse Project filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, accusing Los Angeles County of systematically violating the rights of people under conservatorship under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The Department of Justice confirmed in May it is conducting an investigation.


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At 11:10 am of October 28th2013, at Khemarin Palace, HM the King greeted Mrs. Van Luy, President of EUROTECH Co, Ltd and Mrs.Seng Sokhom, President of Mkod Pich Co, Ltd, accompanied by their respective collaborators. Mrs. Van Luy and Mrs.Seng Sokhom offered 6000 purified wather, 200 boxes of sardine can and 200 boxes of Mi-Yeung noodle in contribution to HM the King's humanitarian Action.
Royal Activities » October - 2013
Royale Audience with Mrs. Van Luy and Mrs. Seng Sokhom


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In GNOME Shell, automount is convenient while devices inserting into computer. But it is annoying for me because I'm booting from an USB stick. The rest partitions in USB will be mounted and popup a notification to ask what action should be taken.
To disable the auto-mounting behavior built-in Nautilus (the file manager of GNOME), we need to change the configurations via dconf-editor or gsettings with the path:
org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount
For example, to DISABLE the behavior via command-line:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount false
. Other wise, just set as true to enable it. Enjoy it. 🙂
The reference is: How to disable automount in nautilus's preferences.


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5:30 PM Saturdays, Main Church
8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 Noon Sundays, Main Church
5:00 PM Sunday Evenings, Main Church (Youth Mass)
10:00 Mass - Interpreted for the Hearing Impaired; Nursery available through the Wee Worship Program.
Low-gluten hosts are available at each Mass upon request.
Mass in Spanish - 8:30 AM, preceded by Confession 8:00-8:20 (also on Thursdays at 7:00 PM)
See below for liturgies in Spanish
Mass in Polish - 2nd and 4th Sundays at 10:00 AM
Traditional Mass in Latin - 11:15 AM
(Confession available before Mass, Anointing of the Sick on 2nd Sundays after Mass; Vespers and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on 4th Sundays after Mass)
Mass in Portuguese - 6:00 PM
Monday through Saturday - 8:00 AM (Historic Church)
Note: During the school year, Daily Mass on Friday is celebrated at 8:15 AM in the Main Church with the children of St. Joseph's School.
Tuesdays and Thursdays - 6:00 PM (Historic Church)
First Friday Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with Mass and Adoration- 7:00 PM (Cody Enrichment Center Chapel)
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered on Saturdays beginning at 4:30 PM in the Marian Center (behind the Altar of the Main Church).
How to go to confession!
Confessions are also available by appointment. Please contact the parish office, 268-5422.
Confessions in Spanish are available on Sundays, 8:00-8:20 in the Historic Church.
Misa en español todos los Domingos a las 8:30 a.m.y todos los Jueves a las 7:00 p.m.
Misa por las familias y las vocaciones el primer Miercoles de cada mes a las 7:00 p.m., oficiada por el padre William Villa.
Confesiones y Consejería los Domingos 8:00 – 8:20 a.m.
Grupo de Oración los Martes a las 7:00 p.m. en la Capilla de la Escuela de St. Joseph.


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You're a Physician. What Are You Worth?
You're a physician but what are you worth as a business asset? Here are 3 Ways to determine your price.
One of the key decisions every seller has to make , whether it's a house, a business or any other asset for sale, is to detemine its value and price. I'm married to a residential real estate broker, one of the dwindling few left standing, it seems, in a business that's been in a tailspin for the last 3 years. Consequently, I hear lots of stories about how much people want for their houses and how they make the decision. Typically, sellers overprice, figuring that the largest drop in housing prices in 30 years does not apply to them, that they are entitled to recover every cent they spent on their gourmet kitchen renovation, and they need to build in some wiggle room in the price anyway since they know they will have to negotiate some away later. Then, of course, there is dreaded realtor's commission to factor into the equation.
When it comes to selling a business, there are three basic ways to value it.
The first approach is known as the Asset Based Approach. This approach derives an indication of value based on the costs to replace the tangible assets in depreciated or replacement cost condition. Some businesses for sale are generating negligible cash, so the assets are the only thing that has value. True, intangible assets, like intellectual property, and future market growth might have value, but let's keep this simple for now.
The Market Approach derives indications of value using ratios or factors derived from the earnings, sales and/or assets of past transactions of similar businesses. This approach is like getting comparables for house, asking what a similar house in a similar location has sold for in the recent past. In the case of businesses, the value is determined by comparing it to the selling prices of similar businesses.
The Income Approach derives indications of value by converting some level of earnings into a value using a capitalization rate, discount rate or multiple. There are several ways to calculate this net present value, but basically it has to do with using historical revenue numbers and applying a discount rate to determine the value of the revenue streams.
If you are considering branching out from your medical practice or leaving it all together, suppose you were to apply the same technique to valuing yourself?
Using the asset method, the monetary value of the chemicals and proteins in the human body is $4.50.
Using the comparables method, you are probably worth what most others who do what you do are worth. The average salary of a realtor, for example, is about $45K and it is all commission based. But, don't tell that to all the ex-realtors trading resumes at Starbucks or Ms. Bigbucks still selling the occaisional multi-million McMansion.
Using the NPV method, you are worth the discounted net present value of the future cash flows you can generate compared to what you make doing what you are doing now.
Inevitably, despite the self-actualization talk, docs and their families want to know how much they'd be worth if Mommy or Daddy did something different. Go figure.


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Romantic guest rooms, country gardens, an outdoor pool and a relaxing spa at Hotel Healdsburg are all geared towards providing guests with enjoyable ambiance. If you live in San Francisco, California, the property is an hour north from the city in the heart of North Sonoma Wine Country, ideal for a weekend getaway.
The Spa
If you are looking for some top-notch pampering and relaxation, the spa has six treatment rooms and offers facials, manicures, pedicures, massages, and total body packages. After some time at the spa, you can eat lunch or dinner at the Dry Creek Kitchen and then retire to your suite for a peaceful sleep. Couples can book the couples suite and try a massage side by side. The spa features its own natural blended products.
Rooms & Suites
The 55 guest rooms have oversized bathrooms with walk-in showers and most have 6-foot soaking tubs. All rooms feature wood floors with Tibetan rugs, goose down duvets, Frette bathrobes and linens, CD/DVD players, and high-speed Internet access.
Where to Eat
The Dry Creek Kitchen is open for lunch and dinner and provides catering for groups and special events. The restaurant serves great simple food, a wine list of exclusively Sonoma District bottlings, and has both indoor and outdoor seating in a country garden.
How to Get There
The property is located just 67 miles north of San Francisco in Northern Sonoma Wine Country.
Tour local wineries in the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Alexander Valley. The hotel staff can help you arrange guided tours and private wine tastings.
Go shopping in the town, sample fresh fruite at the local farmers market and visit art galleries. Biking, hiking, golf and hot air ballooning are also popular Sonoma Wine Country vacation activities.
More ideas: Best Weekend Getaways, Best Day Trips
Plan This Trip:
Rates range from $260 to $790 per night. Be sure to look for spa packages.
Location: 25 Matheson Street , Healdsburg, Sonoma Valley , California , United States , 707-431-2800


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Nathan Carter to meet his match in Lisdoonvarna
Third generation matchmaker Willie Daly in Lisdoonvarna
COUNTRY star Nathan Carter will top the bill at this year's Lisdoonvarna match making festival, which kicks off on September 2.
The Wagon Wheel star will perform in Lisdoon on September 3, with Derek Ryan, Buck Taylor, Muriel O'Connor, Finbarr Dennehy, Tommy O'Flaherty and Declan Aungier also among a huge list of those performing over the festival, which runs until October 9.
Matchmaker Willie Daly, having made thousands of matches, has vowed to find love for Carter at the festival. The single star is said to be looking for someone with 'a good personality, up for the craic and willing to travel'.
"All he has to do is come to my matchmaking office and touch my lucky book and he certainly won't go wrong," said Willie.
Marcus White, managing director of the White Hotel Group, said Carter's addition had been "a great boost for the town".
"As soon as we announced he was playing back in January, the phone has been hopping – I have never seen anything like it. We have some tickets left but no doubt that they will be gone very soon.
"We have a great tradition of country music here in Lisdoonvarna - it's the music and the dancing which keeps people coming back to this festival year after year," he added.
The vintage festival is now 160 years old and still going from strength to strength with over 60,000 people attending last year. People of all ages mix happily together, with a friendly atmosphere a major selling point.
This year the event runs for over five weeks, from September 2 to October 9, and includes a great line up of entertainment, with a hen and stag party weekend on September 9-11, three festival dance weekends on the September 17-19, 25-27 and October 1-3, and 'The Outing' LGBT weekend closing the festival on October 7-9.
See www.matchmakerireland.com for more.


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For SJ, My Second Sweet Grandson
Tiny Hands Barely Waiting on Their Future!
With Much Love from Grandmama
How like your daddy in so many ways,
Yet how unique you are with so many DNAs!
Your eyes reflect that you think carefully,
Your feet ready to go with steady certainty,
Your smile lighting up as you share a shout,
Your helpful hands always eager, willing to reach out,
How quickly you stride in thoughts and doings!
How vigorously you are growing, learning, changing!
With a huge heart you already possess
Big-hearted, kind love, that is effortlessly expressed.
Pint-sized man, tiny babe, sweet little one,
I love you more than words can say, my precious grandson!
Growing, Growing, Soon Gone!
Dear, Precious SJ,
You were such a surprise after your two sisters! How happy we all were to have you in our lives!
You are loved by all your family and as our fifth grandchild, Grandpapa and I think of you with loving fondness. Right now, you are such a sweet little boy, learning to think and communicate your thoughts so delightfully. I am praying for you as you grow up so fast.
As your Grandmama I pray that you will walk so closely with the Lord that you will thoroughly know what it is to pray always because one day you will be a grown man and will more than ever need the Lord's wisdom and help on a consistent basis. I pray that according to His Word you would walk as one who fears Him more than most out of love to both the letter and the spirit of the whole counsel of His Word, not seeking liberty from it, but learning to love and trust it.
The responsibility that will come with your roles in life as a man will be huge, but if you learn to walk with God you will have all of His power to lean on. You see, it is when you are a Godly man that you will understand that your power to do right and to work at making wrong situations right is very limited.
If you learn at a young age what it is to lean hard on the Lord, to look to Him for help in everything, to access Him at the throne of grace, then you will know how to pray when you are grown up and are responsible for more than the things of your childhood. This will give you the eyes and ears you will need for all of the roles you will have in life. It will guide you in guiding those you are responsible for and lead you as you work to lead others in God's righteousness. So, I pray earnestly for you, precious boy!
May the Lord help you hone a humble character into the maturity that consciously depends on His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. May one way you walk in wisdom be by walking and talking with the Lord throughout your days. I pray that you will always remember that the LORD is good to those who seek Him and that He always desires to be gracious and merciful to you.
Reflecting on the Word Reflect
Word lovers enjoy pondering the depths of word meanings and poets use that opportunity to their advantage. Studying up on the word reflect gave me interesting connotations to consider and apply for this hub.
Using reflects definitions that extend from the past, to the present, and into the future a poet can give an image to a thinking mind without using too many words. At first thought this verb seemed very passive, or quiet, to me but in considering its meanings I see that it is quite active and that it can speak volumes.
From vocabulary.com we see reflect as throwing or bending backward (an obvious scientific observation) and a manifestation or a bringing back (which could be romantic in connotation). One of reflected's synonyms is reverberated, another is shine, and more include designate, evidence, and demonstrate.
More in this Series
Writing for my grandchildren has become a labor of love since, like many in this day and time, we do not live in the same area. The times we spend together are extra special, but the words I leave for them can speak to them when I leave this life. My hope is to compile the poems and stories I'm writing for them into a book that they can own later in life. Thanks for stopping by to see these that are written for and about them.
• For my first grandson, with love from Grandmama.
• For my first granddaughter, with love from Grandmama.
• For my second granddaughter, with love from Grandmama.
• For my third granddaughter, with love from Grandmama.
• For my third grandson, with love from Grandmama.
If you've not been introduced to Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Child's Heart, please allow me the pleasure of doing so. Her literature guide is a book every parent interested in enriching their children's reading needs to use. Amy Lynn Andrew's Living Books site includes the work along with other recommendations.
Do you write poems for your grandchildren?
On Behalf of Children
- Playing Nice: What's the Truth?
Playing nice is important, as long as children play nice safely. "Be nice to others and they will be nice to you" is not a lie they should be taught.
- Children: The Hope of Our Future in a Few Short Paragraphs?
Americans are letting our most valuable assets, our children, slip into the recycle bins of other cultures. As the future of our society, they need to know who they are.
How Do You Spell Grandson? :)
Your writing for your grandchildren that can be compiled into a book is a gift for them that will hopefully last a lifetime. What a wonderful gift! It is obvious that you care deeply about SJ and are trying to help guide him in the right direction as he grows into manhood.
How beautiful! I wish my children had Grandmama's that are this thoughtful! Lovely.
Your poem and letter are so tender and loving. What a blessing it must be to have grandchildren. With your direction and prayers, your little ones are in good hands.
This is such a lovely tribute. Some surprises are great. More than great in fact. Now isn't it? :) ;)
A beautiful poem for your sweet grandson and great words of faith. A wonderful hub.
Oh, this is so lovely. My second grandson was just born on December 28. What a precious blessing they all are.
I did one of these when my first grandson was born, as I was just reminded reading here. I feel bad now thinking I have not done one for Charlie too.
I have two granddaughters too, so my son keeps blessings me with the most precious grandchildren.
I love your prayer and I know he is blessed in having a wonderful grandmother ...you.
This is a very lovely tribute to your grandson and a beautiful way to share your beliefs. Congratulations on the birth of all your grandchildren! Children and grandchildren are so precious.
I can agree with you in what is said in your lovely poem. I love my three Grandsons very much and am blessed to see two of them growing up, one is graduating and the other will next year. Great Hub, Stella
A lovely poem for your grandson SJ. I hope he embraces the advice. Well done.
Hi RTalloni, What a lovely poem and letter you wrote for your little grandson. The words of faith are beautiful. I love his tiny and precious little hands. God bless him.
Blessings to you.
How very precious this is. Your 'prayer' to your grandson is filled with wisdom and light. I'm sure he will keep this treasure for years to come.


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This post brought to you by LEGO. All opinions are 100% mine.
When it comes to holiday cards, we are always stuck for ideas on what memorable picture we should use to send to our friends. Well having our likenesses immortalized in LEGO form is certainly cute enough to print out and mail, in addition to being able to just email it to our family and friends as well. It was super easy to create just by going to minifigurefamily.com and absolutely hilarious choosing which one of the LEGO faces looks the most like each member of our family. Given the options of different facial styles, hair and hats, outfits and clothing, we had a blast creating the LEGO characters that encompassed our personalities the most. So that is exactly what we did! Introducing our little LEGO Minifigure Family!
We decided to make our scene more seasonal with a background of the North Pole, but there were many others to choose from, and as you can see here, even in LEGO form we are a family with some serious attitude! Happy Holidays everyone!
Modern Day Moms is an award-winning publication centered around motherhood that is real and unfiltered. Basically, we don't sugarcoat anything and aren't afraid to tell you the truth. Let's be best friends, we will make you feel more normal.


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Why Luanda is the most expensive city in the world?
Since 2002, Angola has been growing at an interesting pace, the country´s natural resources endowment is outstanding, namely oil. Yet when the global oil price has negative swings, Angola economy becomes vulnerable, which happen in 2014. Broadly speaking, when a state is very exposure at one specific industry, more usual, one specific commodity, this creates a problem which it is called Dutch Dieses. So, I will try to explain how this event increase the relative price of non-tradable goods and make Luanda the most expensive city in the world according to Mercer's annual "cost of living" ranking.
How to have a wealthy country in natural resources could be a diesis? First of all, I will try to show how labor and production will change during the "boom phase". Typically, when a commodity becomes extravagant pricey, the countries producers gain with this event. So, this make the suppliers richer and creates an expansion of domestic demand, by arbitrage conditions the price of traded goods does not change, to do so, the relative price of non-tradable sector (Pn/Pt) need to increase, in order to respond for this excess demand. When I made this analysis, I am assuming fixed exchange rate, which is a realistic assumption because Kwanza at the "boom phase" had a peg with dollar.
Consequently, these movements of prices come along with a boost in nominal wages, which create a raise in real wages in traded sector (w/pt). Another important feature it is regard to the domestic absorption, which also increase. These two effects (which could be call substitution and income effect) made firms in these industries (exporting firms, except oil producers) reduced production in order to survive to international competition. Hence, labor shifts to the non-tradable side of the economy; a good example of this side is the building construction or services companies. In theory if I assumed flexible prices, which is a reasonable assumption in this phase because the adjustment is slow, the overall economy is in full employment.
Empirically, it is difficult to stated that a country as in full employment, usual when a country stays in 5% unemployment rate you can said that with confidence, but some countries have several socioeconomic environments which become hard to achieve such a truth statement. This applied to Angola, a country with a deep inequality between capitalist and workers. Another important feature which turn this analysis much more complex, it is that a considerable number of immigrants arrived at Luanda at this "boom phase". So, the numbers of unemployment rates were ambiguous, but we could have looked at growth rates and concluded that Angola was booming.
In other words, this inflation on the endowment of Angola, between 2002 and 2014, creates a real exchange rate appreciation, which does not come along with an increase in productivity of the all traded sector, such as Blassa-Samuelson preposition. Therefore, Luanda saw the house prices hike in a way very dangerous for society, but in theory in full employment. Additionally, when the price of houses increases in that way create an illusion, because normally banks ask for houses or buildings as a collateral, so, in this time households and government does not face borrowing constraints. Moreover, the inflows of skilled immigration help to this bubble in house market.
However, when price of oil falls they could face a lot of limitations, which I will try to show how this happen for Angolans. In 2014 global oil price fall a brutally, which made Bank of Angola lose your peg and your growth to decline a lot. Now, this wealth, if it is not used in a sustainably way, looks more as a dieses. Currently, oil producers need to have diversified economies and other stabilizations tools, such as wealth funds like in Norway, to gain with past revenues and do not have currency or others crisis in the future, alike in Angola. Emerging markets have been restricting capital movements in order to mitigate this immersing growth, but it seems a good solution in short run, however, I strongly believe in that countries in the long run will always want to enter in the global world, so, this do not solve the headache of huge capital inflows just delay the problem.
Despite the fact that they do not hold a huge external imbalance as Portugal or Greece. They, also, suffer with credit limitations, so, financial market, now; do not play the role of smooth consumption like in theory. Regarding this, Angolans saw your domestic absorption declined and workers needed to adjust rapidly to the tradable sector. In reality, these adjustments are very difficult to achieved, because the price fall a brutally as I mentioned before, and adjustment needed to be almost instantaneous for economy still function in full employment. However, market frictions could complicate the process.
First complication is regard to skills and geographical mismatch, a worker in services probably does not know how to do manufacture or do not hold the mobility needed. Secondly, labor market regulations as syndicates which prefer higher wages and fewer workers in your industry, bureaucratic procedures or because it takes time to redefine a business. These innumerous examples of possible explanations for delays for the adjustment needed show how the real exchange appreciation before putted Angola out of full employment, when the price of oil declined.
Nonetheless, this environment has different redistributive effects, which are more aggravated for a country unequal as Angola. Owner of capital will prefer wage flexibility in light of higher profits and workers will be dividing in two groups. Those which are employed and those which are unemployed, in one hand, price stickiness would reveal higher wages, on the other hand, flexible wages put economy in full employment. Additionally, Angola have a suspicious democracy, so, more controversial was the choices implemented, in respect of legitimacy.
All in all, it is hard to adjust at once, to that end how to mitigate this exposure? Since 2014 become clear that oil producers will not hold the same power as previous years, for example as oil shocks in 70´s or 80´s. Developments in others energies less scarce and more friendly to world gain a lot of space nowadays. Several countries created laws in light of others renewable energies to earn more market power. Consequently, how oil producers, namely Angola, gain with them remain wealth and invest smartly in your future?
Now, it is time to construct incentives to shareholder and others economic agents to persecute others business with modern technologies and become competitive. Although, if they want to continue in energy market need to adapt. For example, as use of hybrid and electric cars grows, the transportation sector will rely increasingly on the electricity sector or from renewables, such as solar and wind. Others helpful policies could be real devaluation by nominal exchange rate or by fiscal (devalue) reforms.


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Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
Women's clothing and accessories
Full grain Italian leather
14 card slots
Outside coin compartment
Easy button close
4 Individual banknote spaces
182 x 92 x 10mm
Comes in a recycled cardstock Status Anxiety box


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Sometimes I wish I had a kind of control panel like this one from the Aviation Museum where I could just turn a dial and dinner would be done. And press a button for laundry. And another for grocery shopping. And one for paying property taxes. And I'd have a dial to know the current disposition of my children and husband. And if someone was going to blow a gasket it would be right there on the dial. So I'd flip the happy switch and we could change course. And I could switch on auto pilot in bed every night, you know, so the mr. could get some action on a more regular basis. And I would definitely want an eject button.
This would have been especially handy yesterday when we got home from a long weekend in Tahoe (skiing) and our belongings were spread out all over my studio (read: triage) but before I could clean it up I had to help my son make his "friend of the week" poster which put my disposition dial in the danger zone because while I was trying to figure out why my printer was printing his hair purple he would not stop talking. Mommy, my hair's not really purple so I can't put that on my friend of the week poster because then my friends wouldn't know it's me. Maybe it's printing it like that because the black ink isn't working and we could take it out and put in a different ink that's really dark black so that my hair comes out right and then we could restart the computer and the printer so that it works better and then print all the pictures..I would definitely want a button for his mouth. Or maybe just the volume.
So we added construction paper, markers and photos to the mess (did I mention that I ironically don't enjoy doing this kind of crafty school stuff? Need a course redirection for that one too). And then we noticed the ants. The ones that show up whenever it rains. Which it is. Now. Raining.
I could have used my control panel to clean the place up, make the poster, do the laundry, exterminate the visitors. A million other things. It could be awesome. A girl can dream.


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"I love the smell of book ink in the morning"
― Umberto Eco
"Each material that goes into the making of something has a characteristic and unique emanation of which the artist must remain cognizant"
― Richard Selzer
Building Bibliophilia is the beginning of an ongoing series of bookbinding workshops hosted and developed by artist and educator Alva Mooses and architect artist and fellow Troels Steenholdt Heiredal, in celebration of the many aspects of the book.
Through their mutual love of books Alva and Troels will develop a workshop series to revolve around the many different aspects of the book – the book as a work of art, as a vessel, as knowledge, as an archive, as structure, as an anti-rocking device, as a gathering of papers, as a thing, as an object and subject at the same time. The book has a capacity to reach across disciplines as no discipline can renounce the book which is what makes it such a universal object/subject.


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Every now and then, a reader asks us what we think of viaticals as investments. It's a complex issue. Viatical settlements are not without risk, and they may make some people uncomfortable.
Viatical settlements involve a terminally ill person selling his or her life insurance policy to someone else. Imagine John, stricken with a fatal form of cancer. He's 36, single, and is expected to live only three more years. If he needs cash to pay for medical bills or just to spend and enjoy, he might "sell" his life insurance policy to Jane. If it's set to pay $100,000 on his death, Jane might pay $66,000 for it. That way, John gets a lot of cash now, and Jane expects to get the $100,000 in about three years. At that rate, she'd be earning roughly a 15% annual return.
There are many risks, though. John may hang on for seven years, significantly reducing Jane's return. Indeed, a cure for his cancer might be discovered. John may even outlive Jane! It's true that these settlements can provide a service for sick people, but they're not necessarily win-win. The middlemen arranging these settlements take cuts. Also, if John lives, he's without his life insurance policy and few insurers will want to insure him, as he's been so sick recently.
One downside of viaticals is that they're set up to have you rooting for speedy deaths and against medical breakthroughs. Also, there have been many instances of fraud with viaticals. (Some in the viatical industry will want to point out that they've cleaned up their act recently, and that many disadvantages are no more.) Here's more info, from the Federal Trade Commission area, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and viatical-expert.net.
Also, regarding your bigger financial picture, if you wish you had a financial pro to talk to, to address your specific personal situation and help ensure that you're saving enough and well enough to meet all your needs, then read more about TMF Money Advisor. It's a valuable service we're offering, featuring customized independent advice from a variety of objective financial pros.


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Slow Start to 2015? Better Late Than Never
Six days into 2015 and we have yet to create our family playbook for the year. To be honest, the end of the year crept up on us, and we weren't able to find a day to devote to the cause as we have in the past. Typically, we take a personal day to ourselves, pick a local coffee shop, and intentionally look at the next 12 months to dream about what we'd like to accomplish, both as a family, and as individuals.
We use the Family Playbook to devise a plan of attack for the year. The intent is not to bore ourselves to sleep with details, but rather, get back to dreaming about what we want out of this year. Kelsey is much more of a "day-by-day" person, so these kinds of meetings don't get her too excited.
I entice her by letting her pick the venue (food is the key to her heart). The planning takes a couple hours and this year we're doing something fun afterward... going to a movie! (more food)
Rooney will be in daycare all day, so we are taking full advantage of our adult-time.
- Breakfast and meeting at a new bakery in downtown Des Moines
- Movie: The Hobbit
- Afternoon snack? Perhaps if we're not stuffed with popcorn from the movie?
A simple, but ideal day for the two of us. A time to slow down and enjoy each other's company... just the two of us.
This year is completely different from any other year we've created a family playbook in the past. Mainly because my work life has changed dramatically to the point that our budget fluctuates drastically from month to month. Which, in the short-term stinks, but the long-term benefits of running my own business will (hopefully) prove to be more fruitful (God willing).
Regardless, we'll dream, and plan just the same, and be willing to adjust the plan to our resources as needed. Prioritizing wants and needs will be key (as always).
While there is a financial component to most every goal, this is more than just a yearly budget meeting. We try to make this yearly meeting about being intentional with our lives. By carving time together to strategically think about what we want to accomplish this year, we're resolving to make the most of 2015.
The past three years have flown by so stinking fast! I can hardly believe that in less than two months, we'll have a threenager and Kelsey will be entering the third trimester for our little June bug. "Survival" might be the theme for us this year....
What are you hoping to accomplish this year? Personal goals? Family goals? Financial goals?


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"It's the musical equivalent of, 'Honey, I don't care if the neighbors hear us, let's make some noise.' The windows might be open, but what the hell. Somebody needs to tell Greg Wickham not to wait so long between albums." - JM McSpadden, No Depression
How can a fifteen-year disappearance from the music business be a good thing for a musician? Greg Wickham may have the answer, and it can be found on the 2017 release of his full-length If I Left This World.
Raised in the Kansas City area on a wide variety of musical influences, Wickham's music rips through the crossroads of roots rock, country, and Americana. Having shared lead singing and songwriting duties with brother Fred in alt-country's critically acclaimed Hadacol (to whom the quote above refers), Wickham and the band established themselves as vital forces in the alt-country/roots rock music scene with Better Than This (Checkered Past Records) and All in Your Head (Slewfoot Records), leading to features and glowing reviews in Guitar Player, Q Magazine, USA Today, Billboard, No Depression, and countless other national and international publications. With appearances on Mountain Stage, at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and at several other prominent venues and showcases, Wickham and his Hadacol mates were regulars on the road, touring much of the country and earning a stellar reputation for putting on a blistering live show.
Then he disappeared.
Well, at least from the public eye. But he used the self-imposed hiatus from the spotlight to sharpen his songwriting chops and hone his perspective - the kind of perspective that only another decade-plus of grown-up living can provide.
The result is an intensely personal collection of songs written in a universal language, allowing each listener to inject his or her own experiences into the music. Wickham maintains the furious energy Hadacol was known for, but he's now equally comfortable in quieter, more reflective moments, both in the studio and on stage.
With the critically-acclaimed release of If I Left This World, it's a good bet Wickham won't be disappearing again anytime soon.


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Went to Shepard Fairey's art show today. cool stuff. (Went to Coop's show yesterday - also cool, but much smaller.) Image000.jpg Originally uploaded by Jake Sutton.
Yeah, it's a BMW ad, but...
... this is still the coolest video I've seen in a while.
"The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds."
Just making a post with all of the top-level categories selected.... Nothing to see here.


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The answer to every scandal in this administration is: The career people did it.
Now it is the career people at the Internal Revenue Service, as The Post reports:
The IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, Lois Lerner, acknowledged at a conference on Friday the actions were wrong and apologized, according to the Associated Press. Lerner said groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status faced additional screening.
She said that between 2010 and 2012, about 75 of these groups were selected for extra screening as part of a broader review of political advocacy organizations that were seeking tax-exempt status. Front-line IRS employees working in the tax-exempt unit in Cincinnati selected groups with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names, she said, as a shorthand because of the proliferation of these groups in recent years. [Emphasis added.]
If you buy that last part, I've got a video that started riots in Egypt (and didn't in Libya) to sell you.
First and foremost, let me say that the administration has now entered the "not since Nixon" phase of its tenure. Talking points scrubbed. A State Department accountability review board that has to be reviewed itself. A politicized Justice Department.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared that, no, an apology is not good enough.
Today's acknowledgement by the Obama administration that the IRS did in fact target conservative groups in the heat of last year's national election is not enough. Today, I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not underway at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views. Last year, amid reports that the Obama administration was using the levers of executive power to harass conservative political groups in Kentucky and elsewhere, I issued a very public warning to the administration that the targeting of private citizens on the basis of their political views would not be tolerated. Today's apology by the IRS is proof that those concerns were well founded.
My former editor at Commentary, John Podhoretz, adds:
[I]n 2009, COMMENTARY (a non-profit) received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service threatening the revocation of the institution's standing as a non-profit due to a claim that on our website we had crossed the line in the 2008 election from analysis to explicit advocacy of the candidacy of John McCain for president. (Non-profits are not permitted to endorse candidates.) The charge was false — all we had done was reprint a speech delivered at a COMMENTARY event by then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman in which he had endorsed McCain. . . . The investigation into COMMENTARY came out of the Columbus office.
The degree to which politics has come to predominate on everything from the sequester to national security to the civil rights division and now to the IRS is quite startling. It is a pattern of sublimating everything to partisan politics and electoral advantage. It is not good enough for the administration to investigate itself. We have had too many self-serving investigations already.
As David Anndelman describes, the State Department's investigations are anything but independent:
On March 28, the [Inspector General's] office opened its own probe of an Accountability Review Board's examination of the security lapses before, during and after the actual Benghazi attack. But the IG's office is itself headed by a career foreign service officer, Harold Geisel, serving in an interim capacity, appointed by the secretary of State (not the president) and never confirmed by the Senate — which raises at least a suggestion of yet another case of State investigating his own.
Peel back the onion and there are even more layers. It seems that Geisel, [Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick] Kennedy [who denied requests for additional security in Benghazi] and a third Foreign Service officer Richard Shinnick all came up through the same "cone" — the management function at State. All are Foreign Service officers, present or former, and all have had some involvement with Benghazi or its aftermath. Shinnick was named a member of the Accountability Review Board, which Geisel and the IG's office are now investigating.
Are you dizzy yet? Needless to say, it's not enough, whether in the IRS case or the State Department, to allow members of a discredited administration probe themselves.
Let's get a select committee or prosecutor with no ties to the administration to look into the latest — and in fact all — of the questions. (Say, what happened to the probe about leaked national security secrets?)
If it really is the career service people in the IRS and elsewhere, it's odd because we haven't had an outbreak of such problems since the Nixon era. And if so then hiring throughout government has been poisoned by left-wing politics. It is time to get the facts and let the chips fall where they may. I repeat: Stop blaming the little people, whether in Benghazi, Foggy Bottom or Ohio.
UPDATE (3:45 p.m.): House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced, "The IRS cannot target or intimidate any individual or organization based on their political beliefs. The House will investigate this matter."


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In August 2013, the Shanghai Ballet Company made its U.K. debut in London with a contemporary performance based on Jane Eyre, a Victorian novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. Attending the opening event, the Chinese ambassador to London congratulated the dancers, observing that their performance "…shows that broadening and deepening cultural exchanges between China and Britain will increase our mutual understanding, respect, trust and friendship." For his part, London Mayor Boris Johnson welcomed the Shanghai Ballet with a special message: "The fact that we have the Shanghai Ballet company performing a contemporary ballet based on a novel by one of our greatest writers from the early part of the 19th century is a fantastic example of how we are growing ever closer as we share the best elements of our cultures – long may it continue."
Given the concerns and suspicions that China's economic and military ascendancy is causing in many Western countries, such warm words are a welcome—and much needed—attempt to improve perceptions of China among foreign publics. Indeed, as shown by the Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, China tends to be regarded negatively in many European and North American societies, with the lowest ratings received in Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and the United States. As Joshua Cooper Ramo put it in 2007, "China's greatest strategic threat today is its national image." To what extent could the Shanghai Ballet's visit to London serve as a model for Chinese "cultural diplomacy," aimed at improving attitudes toward China in Western societies?
Public Diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy and Soft PowerEnjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.
In its classical sense, diplomacy is confined to the realm of official relations between governments and major multilateral organizations. In contrast, "public diplomacy" campaigns are deliberately targeted at general publics abroad. In this connection, "cultural diplomacy" is often seen as one dimension or branch of public diplomacy, encompassing a range of instruments such as arts, education, language, sports and religion. The concept was famously defined by political scientist Milton Cummings as "the exchange of ideas, information, values, systems, traditions, beliefs, and other aspects of culture, with the intention of fostering mutual understanding." Today, public and cultural diplomacy alike are seen as important elements in the arsenal of "soft power." The term, which was coined by Harvard professor Joseph Nye, can best be understood as "the ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than coercion or payment," with the latter being characteristics of hard—economic and military—power. In short, soft power is "attractive power."
Promoting China's Peaceful Development
Concepts such as public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and soft power now figure prominently on the Chinese government's agenda. For example, at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, then Chinese president Hu Jintao stressed the need to promote the attractiveness of Chinese culture as a way of enhancing the country's "soft power." The China Public Diplomacy Association was founded in Beijing on December 31, 2012. Peng Liyuan, wife of the current President Xi Jinping, has received growing attention as adding a soft touch for China thanks to her role in public diplomacy during presidential visits abroad. As concerns over China's economic and military power mount in some parts of the world, the Chinese government is thus showing greater awareness of the importance of communicating with foreign publics.
To promote a more favorable image of China in the world and facilitate the country's "peaceful development," the Chinese leadership seems to have relied on three main strategies. First, it has been active in releasing White Papers to make Chinese policy more transparent and easier to understand for English-speaking audiences. To date, such papers have covered a broad range of topics, including energy policy, climate change, human rights, the rule of law, foreign trade, national defense, arms control and disarmament, space activities and foreign aid. Second, China is encouraging the establishment of Confucius Institutes on university campuses all over the world to further the study of Chinese language and culture. Since the creation of the first Confucius Institute in Seoul in 2004, the total number of institutes worldwide has risen considerably. At present, there are 324 Confucius Institutes in countries and regions across the world – more than twice as many as the German Goethe Institut and more than four times the number of the Spanish Instituto Cervantes. Third, China recently hosted cultural mega-events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Both events were major platforms for the Chinese government to showcase the country's achievements and provided opportunities to increase its international recognition and status.


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Cover Story
Autumn! Breath-taking foliage! Placid lakes! Scenic views! But the beauty of autumn is more than leaf deep: It is an experience constantly changing, inviting, comforting; the last hurrah before the whites of winter; the long reward between two more bustling seasons.
As the summer of 2016 winds down, it is time to take a look back at an outstanding season. The summer offered some ideal vacation weather Yes, some do love it hot the calendar of events presented a tantalizing overload of enrichment activities and recreation outlets, and our advertisers � the shops and businesses, entertainment and eateries � had a lot of happy visitors. That's the way life should be.
George needs a ride to the Alzheimer's day care center three times a week. Margaret is blind but needs to get to a dental appointment. Betty would like to visit her sister whom she has not seen in six months. Esther has 10 therapy appointments in the next 30 days. Millie needs to go to the food pantry. What all these people have in common is that they do not drive but are receiving rides through a program called Neighbors driving Neighbors.
Conservation Too
Over the years I have often referred to the LakeSmart program. It is a voluntary program where shoreline landowners on some lakes have their property evaluated to review its impact on the lake water quality, i.e. to control erosion and phosphorus runoff, also called "stormwater runoff control."
The Luckiest Boy
Well folks, it's time. I'm speaking of the inevitable process of when one summer season takes a bow and heads off stage. Sometimes they disperse rather grudgingly and other years they are gone in the blink of an eye.
Take It
Suddenly the days are getting a little shorter and I am beginning to notice leaves beginning to turn red in the wetlands and yellow high on the hillsides. It is still quite warm during the day but the nights are growing cooler. Soon it will become easier to find a parking place in the village.
The Belgrade Lakes Association recently recognized Maureen Maslak and Bill Witkin for their many years of service as members of the BLA Board of Directors. Maureen and Bill received a standing ovation and the heart felt thanks of the large crowd at the July 31 BLA Member Reception and Annual Meeting.
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Today, on your yellow bike,
(the one that refuses to turn exactly left)
you passed the ocean.
It was light blue
and foaming at the edges
and reminded you of the days
on the ocean with the summer friend
you had made when
you were younger.
He was quiet and smiled a lot.
You pulled over and examined the waves
and remembered how he
had cried
when you left.
You remembered how many stories
he held inside of him.
Those stories were more of him
than you ever had before.
You remembered the day in the rowboat
with soggy sandwiches and rain.
And all that lost laughter.
It made you smile again.
Where was he now?
Did he remember you?
Did you even remember him?
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How We Celebrated the 2013 Holiday Season
AAF Seattle Administrator
Agencies are well known for their ability to party, and the holidays are a great time to let loose after a year of accomplishments and hard work. Still many take the opportunity to reach out to help others in need, or just to wish everyone well.
We created this Storify compilation of social posts that show how our creative community celebrated the 2013 holidays.


text: We are fancy now, we have an intro and have eliminated the shitty audio issue. I would venture to say that we are now "produced" so thanks for being our guinea pigs, were getting there. We talk MORE Desean Jackson (only a little), wrestling, guilty pleasures, nostalgia, girl meets world, more NCAA shit, and a lot of other nonsense… enjoy


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Portland, OR – A delayed rape investigation allowed the alleged assailant to attack another, according to a victimized patient.
The woman claims she was raped while under the care of ER nurse, and former police officer, Jeffrey McAllister.
Before becoming a nurse, McAllister was a police officer in Seaside and Beaverton on the Oregon coast, reports UPI.
According to the complainant, Susan Graham, who waived her anonymity, it took Portland authorities nearly four months to investigate rape allegations levied against 38-year-old McAllister; a delay which allowed the suspect to attack another.
The initial criminal report of rape had been made in January by Graham, 34. However, it was only after a subsequent victim came forward that authorities moved on McAllister.
McAllister was arrested for allegedly abusing several female patients at the Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. He was charged on multiple sexual assault charges Wednesday.
McAllister denies ever committing Graham's rape or any other sexual assaults. Therefore, the accused rapist pled not guilty in Multnomah County Circuit Court to the 11-count indictment.
The court document included two counts of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree sodomy, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He was also accused of third-degree sexual abuse stemming from last September 24, when he allegedly touched the breast of another patient.
Graham spoke out regarding her outrage over how the Portland Police mishandled her original complaint. The report had been made two days following her assault, but it took four months for a detective to contact her and follow up, reports Oregon Live.
Graham, a recovering opiate addict, believes police had not taken her complaint seriously because she has prior criminal convictions. They include driving under the influence and first-degree burglary.
On January 15, Graham went to the emergency room at Portland's Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, suffering from light-headedness. She'd fainted earlier the same day. A male nurse, identified as McAllister, connected Graham to an IV.
According to Graham, the nurse made odd and inappropriate comments such as, "I like the pattern on your panties." She was later raped by the same nurse inside a hallway bathroom within the facility, falsely lured there under the pretense the nurse wanted to obtain a urine sample.
Two days later Graham went to a different hospital to make a formal rape complaint and undergo examinations. But it wasn't until April that a Portland detective's card appeared at her residence, asking her to contact police to follow up.
Thereafter she was able to identify her assailant from a line up and a warrant was issued for McAllister's DNA.
Prior to, in February, McAllister allegedly forced another patient – who was mentally incapacitated and physically helpless – to touch his penis, and penetrated her with his finger.
[Image via Shutterstock/Mugshot]


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Chile Jam + Crispy Duck Breast
I write this watching the snow fall in Big Sky, Montana, listening to Billie Holiday (couldn't be more perfect). We're here on Christmas Eve with my husband's family - a ski and snow loving bunch, and it has definitely grown on me. My family is definitely a "warm-weather" family - my dad can be found in Florida or India, wearing a long-sleeve shirt (and possibly a jacket) when it's 85 degrees outside. Currently, they wait for me in San Francisco, where it is unusually chilly, and my parents are raiding both my husband's and mine closets, searching for a jacket thick enough to keep them warm. Luckily, I'm able to provide them with some comfort from afar - inside the refrigerator awaits a spicy and warming chile jam. Now that I've turned my dad onto it, I know there is no hope for leftovers when I return to SF in a couple of days.
This chile jam was a happy accident - the result of some gorgeous fresh cayenne chili peppers I bought on a whim, an overabundance of "ugly citrus" (the kind they won't sell at the grocery store, but they do sell on the Bay Area's online farmers' market, Good Eggs!). I was making a pre-holiday meal for some friends, and knew I wanted to highlight my favorite cut of meat- duck breast. As there is nothing more classic than duck with orange, I decided to do a spicy twist on the orange marmalade usually served with a crispy, seared piece of duck breast.
And so I offer you this citrusy, gingery, chile jam, perfect for serving on top of any meat - duck, steak, chicken, pork; or with a meaty piece of fish like salmon, or tossed with roasted carrots or really any vegetable. Coarsely ground fresh cayenne peppers, fresh orange juice, minced ginger, white wine vinegar, and sugar combine to create a versatile spicy jam that will hopefully bring you some warmth this Christmas Eve.
3.5 oz fresh cayenne chili peppers (another fresh pepper would work fine!)
1.5 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
3.5 cups cane sugar
3 tbsp finely minced ginger
1 cup white wine vinegar
coarsely grind chili peppers in a food processor. some pieces can be barely chopped in half. variety in size makes the end result quite beautiful.
combine everything in a heavy-bottomed skillet. simmer on low-medium for 45 minutes. place a plate in the fridge. check to see if jam is ready by 1.) taking the jam off the heat, 2.) placing the jam on the cold plate, and then seeing if the jam wrinkles when you push it with your finger. If it's not ready, simmer for a few more minutes and check again with the same test. Done!
The amazing thing about duck breast is that it only requires itself to cook - the skin renders, meaning the skin's own fat sears and crisps the outside. What you get it is a yummy, yummy piece of meat with some leftover duck fat to cook a million other things!
4 duck breasts (that's it.)
Preheat the oven to 425.
Score the duck breasts, meaning cut into the skin at evenly spaced distances, through the skin and almost up to where the meat begins (see the picture below for reference). This allows the fat to render out of the skin, cooking the duck breast. Do not cut into the flesh. Heat an oven-safe pan to low-medium, stainless steel OR cast-iron.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides. Cook two breasts at a time per skillet; do not crowd the pan. Place the duck skin side down, and after 2 minutes, turn the heat up to medium-high. There will be a lot of splatter, so protect yourself! Cook the breast for 4 minutes undisturbed, and then check the skin side of the breast. When the skin is golden-brown, crisp, and there is no visible fat left (there should be a lot of fatty liquid in the pan), turn the heat down to low-medium and flip the breast. Cook for 1 minute, and then place the breast (skin side-up) on a rack over a baking sheet. Wipe out the skillet (reserve the duck fat), and repeat with the remaining duck breasts.
Roast the duck in the oven for 7 minutes, or until a thermometer registers 130 for medium rare. After removing from the oven, let rest for 10 minutes (at least!) - this step is so important: the juices will redistribute, making for a super juicy slice of duck. Serve with chile jam!
Serves 4.


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Product Description
To hand-craft this exceptional soap our soapmaker begins with a blend of pure coconut and palm oils. At just the right moment this soap mixture is infused with moisturizing Shea Butter, tropical fragrances and swirls of natural color. Once solidified the soap is hand-cut and left to cure in the warm Hawaiian air. Then they are inspected, packed and presented to you in the spirit of Aloha.