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"She's smarter than she looks," Maris sneered.
The duchess stared holes into the senhorita. "Oh, she's sharper than that. Give her a moment to get her bearings. I can see that even now, she's assembling the pieces."
Adonia Salgado glared at Von Ferrin. "Anthony's journal. It mentions the key doesn't it?"
"Quite right, it does. More specifically, it led me to understand the key is a 'who' not a 'what'." She waved a dismissive hand. "Anthony was never good with metaphors, so I'm sure when he read it the information went over his head. Fortunately, I knew where to look in the journal ahead of time." The duchess looked down as a brass spider servitor scurried out of an air vent, then crossed over to her. She knelt down to lift the device with great care.
The servitor spewed forth a stream of chattering, metallic sounds. Von Ferrin smiled at the small clockwork device.
She gestured to Marino. "Which is what I wanted him to tell me," She sighed. "Where our 'key' has gone and hidden herself. But the stubborn mule won't admit where that is."
Marino gave a painful sigh. "Like I told you, Duchessa, that is because I do not know."
"Moira!" the senhorita exclaimed. "You think Moira is the key!"
"Think? I know, my dear." The duchess considered the metal spider in her hand for a second. "With Moira, I can take what is rightfully mine. After all, I'll manage it better than any of these so called 'captains of industry' of today. In fact, I plan on demonstrating just what it means to be in 'command'."
Marino laughed, which ended in a hacking cough. "Yours? Duchessa, you know nothing. The knives cannot 'belong' to anyone. They have their own will. And what lies at the end of the map? That isn't for you." He coughed again. "Besides, you don't have signorina Wycliffe. She is the key, and without her, you only have delusions. Her companions will find her first."
Von Ferrin's gaze was like ice. "I think you underestimate me, sir. Just as you underestimate your role. You failed in your Order's duty to protect the knives. Oh yes, I know about your Order of Mulciber, don't look so surprised. As I was saying, now I don't even need you for the simple task to entice Miss Wycliffe out of hiding." She indicated Maris with a nod, then gestured to the brass spider. "My associates failed to collect her, but my servitors picked up the slack. They tell me she's in the starboard cargo hold." The Duchess recovered her handbag while the brass spider servitor ascended to her shoulder.
"Told you?" the senhorita asked in confusion.
"Oh yes, 'told'. That chattering, which I'm sure is meaningless to you, is a precise mathematical language of sorts. It took some time to unravel it once I stumbled on the amazing fact that all servitors speak it. It's their native tongue, my dear. I took steps to acquire some 'alterations' so that I would understand them better." She smiled like a well-fed cat. "I have them all over the Britannia. They've been following your every movement, then reporting to me. Just like now, they've told me where Miss Wycliffe can be collected. Once I've had her gathered up, she'll complete her role as 'key', and get me the information I need."
Adonia Salgado seethed. "Moira isn't a handbag in your wardrobe! You do not get to choose what she will, or will not do!"
The duchess turned to face Salgado. "She's also low-born, my dear. I don't expect you to understand, being the daughter of a well established landholder from your own country, but at least try. Miss Wycliffe is too common to fully appreciate her gifts. I can show her a new world, and direct her properly. Starting with getting me what lies at the end of that Roman map."
Marino coughed again, then winced in pain from the effort. "Duchessa, the signorina Wycliffe is far more formidable than you know. She knows herself, and her skills, quite well. The Knives were never yours to influence, Duchessa. Never. Where that map may lead? What lies at the end of that road? Those questions were never yours to know the answer to. It was not meant for you."
Salgado gave the man an uncomfortable look, as a sudden realization dawned on her. He lifted his eyes to meet hers, then a ghost of a smile crossed his lips for a moment. It was a small motion that tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Those answers are meant for the Knives. Always for them," he said, then nodded once to Adonia Salgado. "It is for only them, and the Seventh of them will show the way." He intoned the last words as if he recited a prophetic quote.
"The Knives are people," she mouthed without a sound to Marino.
He smiled, and nodded once more. "And you are one," he mouthed back.
"I don't believe in destiny, or your Order's half-baked prophesies," the duchess replied with a bored tone. "Wait. Why am I even talking to you? I believe I decided you're useless."
With a swift motion, she withdrew a needler pistol from her handbag, and fired it three times at Durante Marino. Each shot released a swarm of needles that slammed into the man's body. Leaning against the railing, Adonia Salgado stood wide-eyed in shock. Before she could react, Marino battered body was wracked by violent spasms, then slumped against the railing.
The senhorita willed her body to move, and rushed to the man's side. He tried to talk, but no sound came out, only blood. Salgado looked at the dozens of darts that littered his body, unsure of how to help him. She jerked the ropes free that held him prisoner against the railing.
"Hey!" Maris snapped. Salgado turned on him in an instant, her needle-like fangs unfolded from the roof of her mouth. Murder glistened in her eyes.
"Leave her!" Von Ferrin ordered. "Let her have her moment, Mr. Maris. Perhaps she'll finally understand the lengths I'll go to for this."
Maris frowned, but nodded. He backed away.
With his free hand, Marino clutched his chest a moment, his face a mask of pain. Then he grabbed one of the senhorita's hands. Marino shook his head when Salgado tried to reach for a dart. "Remember," he said. His voice was half a whisper. Then, with a sigh, he stopped breathing.
Salgado was on her feet in an instant, rage shone from her eyes. Despite being unsteady, she launched herself at the duchess, fangs bared for the kill. Maris lunged to stop her, but missed. The senhorita froze in place when she found herself at the end of a pistol.
"See, Mr. Maris? She can learn. I can see it in her eyes." The duchess almost purred with bloodthirsty satisfaction. "Now, I had no use for Mr. Marino, but you, my dear? You I so have a use for. Miss Wycliffe will need to be coaxed. You will be essential for that role. So, out of respect for your class and station, you get to live to help me." She motioned with the pistol for the senhorita to step towards the door. The charybdian woman complied with a seething glare.
"Mr. Maris?" The duchess said with a cool tone. "Be a dear, and escort the good lady. She'll need someone to be a firm, guiding hand while we go help her dear friend, Moira. She's had a rough time of it after all, and might feel a bit battered."
"Yes, mum," Maris replied with a malicious grin.
Frustrated and helpless, the senhorita fought down an urge to rip Maris open the instant he touched her. Instead, Adonia Salgado focused on the unusual tiny gear that Marino had secretly pressed into her hand. A steel gear with a bronze band.
Tags: fantasy, fiction, hero pulp, historical fiction, novel, pulp, science fantasy, science fiction, Steampunk, story
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Ancient Antioch was famous for its humor, especially the coining of jesting nicknames. When an organized brigade of chanting devotees of Nero led crowds in adulation, this band of imperial cheerleaders with their ludicrous homage was quickly dubbed Augustiani. And earlier, when the devotees of the one called Christ came to public attention, they were named Christianoi, partisans of Christ (11:26). What may have been first coined by outsiders as a term of derision (see Acts 26:28 and 1 Pet 4:16, the only two other New Testament occurrences of the term--both on the lips of hostile unbelievers), the followers of the Way embraced it as a fitting label.
Theophilus and his peers had heard the name, though not always distinctly. It was confused by many with Chrestianos, possibly deriving from Chrestos, "useful," a common name for a slave (compare Suetonius Claudius 25.4). What does it mean to be a Christianos, a Christian (Tacitus Annals 15.44; Suetonius Nero 16.2)? Luke clears this up for Theophilus and us by pointing to Antioch.
To show the origin of the direct mission to the Gentiles, Luke picks up the thread of the story from Acts 8:4 and notes the geographical progress of Hellenistic Jewish Christians who spread the life-giving seed of the word (Lk 8:11) even as they were scattered by "affliction" (NIV persecution; compare Acts 14:22; 20:23) brought on by Stephen's martyrdom. They evangelized the Jews of Phoenicia--modern Lebanon, the coastal strip seven and a half miles wide and about seventy-five miles long from Cape Carmel north to the river Eleutheros. Congregations in Tyre, Sidon and Ptolemais were the fruit (21:4, 7; 27:3). They extended their mission to Cyprus, the location of a very early and now very large Jewish colony (Philo Legatio ad Gaium 282; compare Acts 4:36) and then on to "Antioch on the Orontes" in Syria. Three hundred miles from Jerusalem and fifteen to twenty miles east of the Mediterranean, it stood at a point where the Orontes River breaks through at the convergence of the Lebanon and Tauros mountain ranges.
Of the sixteen cities built by the Seleucid general Seleucus I Nicator and named for his father Antiochus, Syrian Antioch was the largest and most prosperous. With a population of over 500,000, including a Jewish colony of 70,000, and a thriving economy because of its strategic position at the crossroads of trade routes south to Palestine and Egypt, east to Persia and west to the Asia Minor peninsula, Antioch was justly called "Antioch the Great, Queen of the East." Josephus ranked it as the third greatest city of the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria (Josephus Jewish Wars 3.29).
This free city, capital of the Roman province of Syria, was "a melting pot of Western and Eastern cultures, where Greek and Roman traditions mingled with Semitic, Arab, and Persian influences" (Longenecker 1981:399). Cicero (Pro Archia 3) praised its art and literature. Juvenal referred to its reputation for immorality, writing of "the Orontes pouring pollution into the Tiber" (Satires 3.62)--the invasion of Rome by eastern superstition and profligacy (compare Barclay's [1976:89] description of the cult prostitution associated with the worship of Daphne and Apollo; the temple was near Antioch).
To such a city came Hellenistic Jewish Christians from Cyprus and Cyrene (a city on the Mediterranean coast of modern Tunisia) and directly evangelized Gentiles, while continuing the outreach to Jews (note also in v. 20). Luke gives us neither the motive nor the date of this bold new mission thrust. Because Luke sees Peter as the inaugurator of the witness to the Gentiles (15:7, referring to 10:1--11:18), and the church sends Barnabas and not the apostles to investigate the Gentile mission at Antioch, it appears that this witness follows Peter's preaching to Cornelius. Indeed, it may be consciously following Peter's precedent.
Preaching of the good news of the Lord Jesus to Gentiles points them to Christ's sovereignty and deity. "Many were trying to find in various mystery cults a divine lord who could guarantee salvation and immortality to his devotees" (Bruce 1988:225). The good news is that "this can be found in the Lord Jesus" (compare 10:36; 16:31; 20:21; 28:31).
The Lord's hand, an Old Testament metaphor for God's power and favor (Ezra 9:7; Is 66:14; compare Lk 1:66), is with this witness--not in signs and wonders (Acts 4:30; so Krodel 1986:207), for they are not explicitly mentioned here, but in the convicting and convincing work of the Spirit such that significant numbers believed and turned to the Lord (4:4; 6:7; 9:24; 10:27; 14:15; 15:19; compare 9:35; 26:18, 20).
Though Luke uses Lord interchangeably for the Father and the Son, if all the uses in 11:19-26 speak of Jesus, we learn the comprehensive role he plays in bringing salvation to the Gentiles. He is the gospel's content, power and goal. He is the sustainer and the identity of those who receive it.
In a day when a misapplication of church-growth theory's "homogeneous unit principle" can produce monocultural churches, God's blessing on inclusive evangelism across ethnic lines at Antioch is a necessary reminder of where God's heart is. While he may indeed give growth within homogeneous ethnic units, such units are not his ideal, and neither should they be ours.
Though Luke does not tell us the Jerusalem church's motive for dispatching Barnabas, the circumstances and the church's disposition are probably not unlike what we find in Acts 11:1-3. The church as a whole is sympathetic, which their choice of Barnabas indicates, but a segment, "those of the circumcision," are not so sure and need to be placated (Marshall 1980:202).
The Jerusalem church's action reflects a concern for continuity and accountability in the advance of the church's mission. Sometimes missionaries today hesitate to tell all that is happening in their work, believing that unorthodox strategies or methods required by crosscultural witness will not be understood by "the folks back home." The early church never manifested such lack of trust, and the resulting churches were the stronger for their willing accountability.
Barnabas authenticates this church growth both in his initial reaction, joy, and in his encouragement to perseverance. Unlike "those of the circumcision" in verse 2, but very much like the hosts of heaven (Lk 15:7, 10), Barnabas rejoices at seeing the evidence of the grace of God (Acts 11:23; NIV introduces the phrase the evidence of). The grace that Barnabas sees is not so much the change in lifestyle or the more manifest spiritual gifts (as Williams 1985:193), though these are undoubtedly present; rather, it is the great numbers of newly and soundly converted Gentiles. "In Acts grace is that power which flows from God or the exalted Christ and accompanies the activity of the apostles giving success to their mission" (Esser 1976:119; Acts 4:33; 15:11; 18:27; 20:24). Do we, with Barnabas, rejoice "at the spectacle of God's free favor, unlimited by racial or religious frontiers, embraced and enjoyed by all without distinction" (Bruce 1990:273)?
Barnabas, true to his name ("Son of Encouragement," 4:36), encourages (note continuous action imperfect parekalei) the Antioch believers to steadfast loyalty to the Lord (compare Josephus Jewish Antiquities 14.20; Wisdom 3:9; Lk 8:15). Note that the "glue" of their perseverance in salvation is a personal relationship with Christ embraced from the inside out, not the external mark of circumcision and Jewish practice. And such must be the case for new converts to Christianity from any culture. If the heart is first abiding in Christ as Lord and Savior, the new ways of living will necessarily follow as the person learns to walk according to God's will as revealed in his Word.
Luke now authenticates Barnabas, showing approval of this "bridge person's" authentication of the Gentile witness at Antioch. He attests his character as a good man (Lk 8:8, 15; compare 6:45). He presents that character's source: full of the Holy Spirit and faith (see comment at Acts 6:3; compare 6:5; 7:55). Instead of operating by sight, insisting that Gentiles show outwardly, through circumcision and ritual observance, what they claim to have happened inwardly, Barnabas chooses by faith to apply God's promise of a universal offer of salvation to the Antioch situation (Lk 24:47; Acts 2:21, 39). Finally, Luke tells us of the fruit of such character: numerical growth of the church (compare 2:41, 47; 5:14; 6:7; 8:6). In any age those full of the Spirit and good character, "faith" vision and fruitfulness will be on the cutting edge of the church's advance.
Though Luke does not give the motive, the explosion in numbers and the need to conserve the harvest through careful grounding in the faith may have moved Barnabas to recruit Paul, still called Saul (E. F. Harrison 1986:194). He travels northwest to Tarsus in Cilicia, east Asia Minor, to look for Saul in his hometown (the term implies a thorough search; compare Lk 2:44-45; Acts 9:30; 21:39; 22:3). For a whole year Barnabas and Saul work together in the church, teaching great numbers of people. As Luke uses the concept and as Paul articulates his calling (2 Tim 1:11), teaching (Christian nurture) and evangelism are not necessarily mutually exclusive activities (compare 4:2; 5:42). When the gospel and the Christian way of life are correctly understood, teaching and evangelism are distinct but must be seen as inseparable.
The believers are first called Christians at Antioch. Literally the verb means "to transact business." Hence to transact business under a particular name is to be known by that name (Bruce 1988:228).
For Antioch to model fully what it means to be Christians, it must demonstrate orthopraxy by meeting physical needs (compare 2:42-47).
Antioch learns of a need through the word of prophets, Agabus in particular. Itinerant prophets ministered in the first-century church. They were evidence that the last days, the time of salvation, has dawned (2:17-18; Longenecker 1981:403). They "spoke revelation from the Spirit (1 Cor 14:29-30), usually in terms of edification and encouragement (1 Cor 14:3, 31) and even fundamental doctrine (Eph 3:4-5). But occasionally their ministry included prediction" (E. F. Harrison 1986:197). Prompted by the Spirit, Agabus "makes a prediction" (in extrabiblical usage this action points to enigmatic speech [Lake and Cadbury 1979:131], but not here, according to Haenchen [1971:374]): a great famine will spread over the entire Roman world. Luke tells us this prediction was fulfilled during Claudius's reign (see note). The entire Roman world, literally, is the inhabited world politically, not geographically. At this time it was often viewed as coterminous with the Roman Empire (Lake and Cadbury 1979:131; Marshall 1980:204). This prediction was probably made before Claudius's reign (A.D. 41-54; Bruce 1990:277).
Since we too live in the last days, should we in the church expect to find prophets foretelling the future? Christians are divided on this issue, based on beliefs regarding how the closing of the canon of Scripture relates to the presence of revelation today. That factor must certainly be taken into account. Any claims to divinely inspired prophecy must be tested and must meet the criteria in Scripture for true prophecy (Deut 18:20-22). Alleged divinely inspired prophecy must be completely fulfilled. Anything less is not biblical.
The church responds in holistic liberality. Each member as he or she is financially able--that is, from discretionary income (compare Lev 25:49; Acts 19:25)--decides what to give and contributes it to a fund for famine relief. Their liberality is holistic in two ways. First, it extends beyond spiritual concern--"we will pray that God provides for you in your affliction"--to practical physical aid. Hence the collection is labeled a "service" (diakonia; Acts 6:1; 12:25; Rom 15:31; 2 Cor 8:4). Second, this interchurch relief involves the receiving church serving the sending church--a mixed Jewish and Gentile congregation serving a Jewish assembly. Such unity is based on the conviction that the church is a body greater than any single congregation within any culture. This unity carries with it a responsibility for the well-being of all disciples, wherever they are (note the use of the terms disciples and brothers). Barnabas and Saul take this collection to the elders (see comment at Acts 15:2), who have emerged as the administrators of physical aid in the Jerusalem church after the evident dispersal of the "Seven" at Stephen's martyrdom.
In our time, in the Western world and increasingly elsewhere, decades of social legislation have made the state responsible for meeting the physical needs of our neighbors, including fellow Christians. Antioch's example, then, raises the hard question: How much personal responsibility do I feel for the physical needs of others, especially the church in the Two-Thirds World? Though we cannot meet every need that global news brings to our attention, we can still do something to live out the holistic liberality that is an essential mark of being Christians.
Previous commentary:
The Mission Continues and Faces Opposition
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Briggs and Stratton
Briggs and Stratton
The Briggs and Stratton Corporation is the world's largest producer of gas engines for outdoor power equipment. The company was founded in 1908 in Milwaukee by Stephen Briggs and Harold Stratton with the intention of going into automotive manufacturing and originally produced automobile parts.
In 1919 Briggs and Stratton took over production of the Motor Wheel from the A.O. Smith Company, a gas engine patent they improved and used to power the Briggs and Stratton Flyer, a small, simple two-seated vehicle. Successes with the Motor Wheel lead to the development of other small engines that powered consumer products like washing machines, tractors, cultivators and portable generators.
By the 1950's Briggs and Stratton had revolutionized the lawn and garden industry by introducing their lightweight aluminum engine. Lighter and less expensive than cast iron engine, this engine made outdoor equipment more accessible to the masses and the company saw a steady growth for the next few decades.
Today they are the largest producer of small gas engines for mowers, generators, snow blowers, pressure washers, and other outdoor equipment. Nearly 60 million households have lawn care products powered by Briggs and Stratton engines and 8 out of 10 lawn mower brands choose to use Briggs and Stratton engines to power their products.


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I have recently returned to the U.S. from my trip through the Balkans which had an aim to see what the ever expanding middle east into Europe looks like up close. Here is my after-action report for those who are interested in hearing about a situation which may chillingly parallel future events in America if we do not take action to prevent them today.
I landed in Kosovo on a flight from Istanbul directly into the Kosovo capital city of Pristina. This city is a showpiece for the Kosovo Albanians who often take visiting dignitaries and American politicians through a twisty roundabout path through the city, avoiding the many destroyed churches and other evidence of the less than tolerant attitudes so prevalent in the region. I went on a very different tour of Kosovo than what our politicians see. I didn't stick to only seeing the few good parts of Pristina, I went to other parts of Kosovo where Christians are forced to live in military-like compound ghettos, with the terror and fear of death if they ever set foot outside of their enclaves without protection. I saw a rogue and wild west region with very little self built infrastructure, and vast amounts of foreign money flowing in from Saudi Arabia and other nations hell bent on exporting their extremist ideals. The only real infrastructure I saw were remnants of Tito's Communist Yugoslavia, with the current flow of money primarily being dumped into new construction projects of Wahabi mosques and madrases. But what is scariest of all is that I saw America several generations from now if we continue to allow Islamism to spread through the socialist and naive policies so many American politicians have adopted.
From Pristina I headed for Gracanica, a small enclave of Christian Serbs who's ancestors have been living in Kosovo for thousands of years. Gracanica Monastery has been the site of Christian churches since the 6th century, yet when I arrived I was struck by the towering concrete walls adorned with coiled barbed wire and machine gun nests, all required now for the protection of the nuns and bishops who live there. The outside was also spotted with vehicle blockers reminiscent of the beaches at Normandy, with KFOR guards and vehicles patrolling to protect the Christians from Islamist attacks.
I visited with the nuns in the monastery, who told me their stories, how much they lived in fear of being murdered by radical Muslims. My heart sank as I saw that even though their families had been there for countless years, they knew that their situation would never get better, and that sometime in their lives they would either be murdered or forced to leave. My mind shot back to Dearborn, Michigan, and I found myself wondering if Christians there would one day be forced to live like this. Dearborn today is estimated at around 30% Muslim, and they are emboldened enough to hold Hezbollah rallies last year which attracted an estimated 10,000 people. What will happen when they are over 50%? The ludicrousness astounds me how any of our politicians can believe that simply because the Muslims have the majority in Kosovo, Serbia, it entitles them to have their own Islamic country, yet if you ask any of those same politicians if they believe the same would apply for Dearborn, Michigan in a few years, they never seem to have a solid answer.
In my journey I met up with many experts in the region who told me how the Kosovo predicament came to be, and as I learned I shockingly saw many more parallels with what is happening in America. Illegal immigration was the number one cause of how the Islamic population suddenly took over Kosovo in only the past couple hundred years. Very recently it seemed that this region was majority Christian, and not only was it a majority Christian but the heart of much Christian worship in Southern Europe. Even Constantine himself was born in Southern Serbia, and the region has always held vast amounts of ancient monasteries and churches. It seemed that the bulk of this flow of immigrants came under Tito's socialist policies, which largely opened the floodgates and turned a blind eye to the onslaught of Muslim illegal immigrants, mostly coming from Albania to work in mining and agriculture. Today in America I see much of this occurring, when I hear we are granting 25,000 student visas for Saudi students, or when our government is negligent in securing our borders due to socialist-like policies from the open-borders crowd. Our politicians never stop to think about the long term effects of such policies on the future of America.
One other point of interest is how the Albanians in Kosovo know how to put on a show and dance until they get their way. Right now they have no state, and the U.N. controls most activities in Kosovo, so they kiss up to America, who we all know has the final say in if they get their independence or not. One thing in their capital city that is a bit humorous, are all the dictator-like murals of one particular politician. In Baghdad before the fall of Saddam there were four or five story pictures of Saddam Hussein, well in Pristina Kosovo there are four or five story pictures of Bill Clinton. Clinton as we know was behind the taking of sides in the Kosovo Albanian's conflict with the Serbs of the late 1990s, using American planes to bomb the Serbs several hundred miles north of Kosovo in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. The Kosovo Muslims are of course grateful for this, yet I spoke with several dozen of them about their allegiances and it was blatantly clear that their allegiance was to the east, towards Mecca, and certainly not to the west. Where will their allegiances be once they get their way and have an independent state? Considering the continual bombardment of Saudi money and Wahabist indoctrination in most every mosque and every school in Kosovo? I saw the Saudi flag on more than one occasion while there, and even saw many of the U.N. workers driving around wearing full hijab Islamic head coverings, quite comforting considering the U.N. is suppose to protect the Christians who live there if they are attacked. But in 2003 we saw an uprising against the Christians where many churches were destroyed and Christians killed, and the U.N. troops all ran away.
After visiting several other churches destroyed as recently as 2003 and many vandalized in the last year, I headed for Bosnia not too far away. In Sarajevo I got a tour of the EUFOR Army base there, and was comforted to learn that although our politicians may not get it, the Army certainly understands who the enemy is today. A Sergent Major told me of villages in Bosnia where the women wear full Afghanistan style burkahs, and when a vehicle approaches the village all the women go run and hide, and the men surround the car and you must ask permission to enter the village. He told me what is scariest of all is that the people who live there are not foreigners, but Bosnian born and raised, right there in Europe. I learned from him and others that nearly all of the military activity involves problems with Muslims, and not the Christians, such as surprise...
In Banja Luka, Bosnia, one of the last remaining Christian majority cities, I met with two amazing individuals. One was the former mayor of a Bosnian city, a non-religious and westernized man born into the Muslim faith by the name of Dzevad Galijasevic who is an activist against the Wahabi and fundamentalist indoctrination occurring in the region. The other man I met with was Dejan Miletic, the former Serbian ambassador to the Hague war crimes tribunal who was removed for political correct reasons when he continued to pursue the war crimes of Muslims in the region and would not only stick to going after Serbian war crimes. Galijasevic told me from a Muslim perspective that he witnessed first hand the extremists during and after the war seizing every opportunity to pursue their jihadist goals of spreading radical Islam through this European region. He said that the current Islamic political leadership of Bosnia were the same people who during the war sent pleas to the Taliban and other Islamist regimes to send their best jihad fighters to Bosnia to fight the Christians. Now that the war is over and anyone brings up the fact of Islamic war crimes, these leaders use the excuse that it was just foreign fighters and not them, when in fact they were the ones who brought those foreign fighters to the land. Miletic, the former ambassador to the Hague, showed and told me things that wanted to make me puke my guts out. While working for the tribunal he set up a website that I am warning is not for the weak stomached, you can see pictures and videos of Islamist activity right there in Europe by visiting the following link: http://www.rs-icty.org/gallery%20eng.htm
The entire region is an example of the catalyst that all Islamists are trying to create here in America. An all out war where in the end the Muslims have the majority, and the non-Muslims live in fear and dhimmitude. What happened there is the end result, 50 to 100 years ahead of where America is today, that is unless we take action to prevent it from occurring here.


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To further the advancement of an environmentally responsible power source, an international energy company, public power utility, leading fuel-cell company, and major automotive company recently broke ground on a fuel-cell demonstration project that is the first of its kind in the United States.
Southern Company (NYSE: SO), Alabama Municipal Electric Authority (AMEA), FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL), and Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. (MBUSI) recently joined forces to field test an environmentally responsible power-generation technology as part of the process to bring a clean energy option to the marketplace.
The Alabama Direct FuelCell Demonstration Project is intended to drive a growing interest in fuel-cell technology - as demand for cleaner, more efficient power generation increases.
The plant will use FuelCell Energy's Direct FuelCell stack in a unique design developed by MTU Friedrichshafen, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler and partner of FuelCell Energy.
The plant will convert pipeline natural gas to electricity at an efficiency of about 50%, compared with 33% for conventional generation. The plant will feed the Mercedes-Benz production facility power-distribution system. MTU conducted a 250kW commercial field trial at Bielefeld, Germany, to provide electricity to the grid, processing steam for the university, and heat for district heating.
The fuel-cell plant is expected to be fully operational by spring 2001. For more information, visit www.fce.com.


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Inspired by Wrap It Up from designer Linda Lum DeBono
Quilt Tester: Laura Boehnke
9—8" squares assorted prints in blue, gold, green, red, cream, and navy (appliqué foundations)
1-1/2 yard total assorted solids in light green, white, red, dark green, gold, and cream (appliqué foundations, appliqués)
2/3 yard navy print (sashing, border)
3/8 yard navy stripe (binding)
1-1/2 yards backing fabric
42x50" batting
Lightweight fusible web
Tear-away stabilizer
Finished quilt: 34x41-1/2"
Finished block: 8-1/2x11"
Quantities are for 44/45"-wide, 100% cotton fabrics.
Measurements include 1/4" seam allowances. Sew with right sides together unless otherwise stated.


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Moderator: Moderators
dear RAV. check your privilege
RageAgainstVoid wrote:ToB related to wc3campaigns in the past.
Turkey_Slayer wrote:dear RAV. check your privilege
Jesus, that's one thing I never thought I would read.
Turkey_Slayer wrote:RageAgainstVoid wrote:ToB related to wc3campaigns in the past.
I believe that had more to do with the B&B crew than ToB itself.
Zeuter wrote:SJWs are misguided idiots with anxiety issues, they cannot be reasoned with. The social justice movement on the internet is a horrible echo chamber, is far more toxic and deals more harm than 4pedos could ever hope to. Stay away from those people.
I mean, there's a lot more context to it, and the US as well as other countries have really messed up African politics by meddling with imperialist goals and colonization, why won't we leave Africa alone?"
Zeuter wrote:Spoiler:
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You don't want to play the Padres these days.
After spotting the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead, San Diego roared back to take control of the game via 3 consecutive 2-run innings. Then, after Dale Thayer got Matt Holliday to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded to end the seventh, the Padres broke the game open with 5 runs to win going away. 11-3 was your final.
Some scoring tidbits:
- The last time San Diego hung 11 on the Cardinals was last April 2 in St Louis.
- The last time they scored 10 or more against the Cardinals in San Diego was 5/28/2006 (W 10-8). That game is memorable because Josh Bard hit 2 home runs off Mark Mulder. It's the only 2-HR game of Bard's career.
- You have to go back to 1993 to find a home game where the Padres scored at least 11 runs against St Louis - 8/24/1993 to be exact. The Padres scored 13 in the first inning that Tuesday night, although only 9700 people saw it.
Some odds and ends from last night (quick hits, since I started this post at 0650 and now it's 1510):
- You're no doubt aware that Cameron Maybin and Logan Forsythe had three opportunities to be the first Padre to hit for the cycle. In those 3 AB neither one put the ball in play (Maybin walked). Oh, well.
(Seque: Andrew Cashner will throw the first no-hitter in Padres history. Bank it.)
- I couldn't tell if Forsythe burned Cardinal CF John Jay on his RBI double in the second, or if Jay just took a bad route to the ball. Some on Twitter thought the latter. That ball was drilled, however.
- Initially I thought wild pitch was the correct call, allowing Everth Cabrera to advance to third; after looking at the replay, however, he was going. Perhaps it should have been a stolen base.
- Taking Carlos Quentin out after his AB leading off the third - right call. He looked uncomfortable at the plate during that at-bat.
- Good Grief Maybin's HR was crushed. 439' was a conservative distance.
- When was the last time a Padre got six plate appearances, at home, during a 9-inning game? Can't remember seeing it in person this year.
- Reports that Pete Kozma can't hit seem greatly exaggerated. Then again, one game is the definition of a SMALL SAMPLE SIZE.
- Jamie Garcia couldn't find the plate, and when he did find it he caught too much of it. I've been out of touch a lot, but there seemed to be a lot of hysteria amongst #stlcards Tweeters about his home/road splits. Yes, Garcia is a much different pitcher at home than on the road. It has to be all mental; is he able to locate that badly at Busch and get away with it? Can't be.
- Cardinal pitching in this game was awful overall. They gave up 4 - FOUR - unintentional 4-pitch walks in this game. Headley got 2, Kotsay 1, Grandal the other. I believe there is a study out there documenting that the strike zone gets bigger in the pitcher's favor on a 3-0 count. St Louis hurlers couldn't even hit that expanded zone.
- Shelby Miller pitched well. Hey, he kept the Cardinals in the game for 3 innings when San Diego threatened to blow it open early. When he has a HOF career, I can say I saw his first ML at bat. Assuming I don't lose my scorecard.
- Holliday's double play. Killer.
- David Freese was hit twice last night. St Louis came way in to Yonder Alonso in the eighth, after Freese got hit the second time, but didn't hit him. I wonder if this will carry over to tonight's game. St Louis can't afford to give the Padres free baserunners, not the way they're currently swinging the bat.
St Louis came in leading for the second Wild Card spot, but you would have thought the Padres were playing for a post-season berth, not the Cardinals, the way last night's game unfolded. It's too bad the Padres are 8.5 back with 20 to play, because I would not want to face them in the post-season.
Neither do the remaining teams fighting for a playoff spot.
CORRECTION to my last post: I said if the Padres won 4 of 6 from the Diamondbacks they'd tie AZ. Yeah, not quite. They'd need to win 5 of 6 to catch AZ, assuming they both win the same number of games outside of those head-to-head matchups. Math is hard.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Bringing the Playoff Hammer
Labels: Padres Recap
2 comments:
Regarding 6 PA in 9-inning game, the Padres have done it a few times this season: http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/mHQVEReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Geoff! They have indeed.Delete
Turns out Monday's game was the first time in 2 years a Padres' had 6 or more PA's in a 9-inning home game. http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/game_finder.cgi?type=b#ajax_result_table::none (Here's hoping the link works)
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"Bronte" Cat Print
Have a question?
Available as 8" x 10", 16" x 20" on smooth or textured paper
Print Quality:
Sizes and Mounting:
Packaging and Delivery:
About Laura's Work
Customer Reviews
Lovely print, looks just like one of our cats. Good quality and will look great in the frame I've bought for it.
Let customers speak for usfrom 188 reviews
Smoochy Foxes Print
Lovely picture, quality card. Always a fan of your work.
Beautiful art - Laura is very talented
LOVE my pictures and will definitely be back to get more
Super fast delivery & well packaged
bought as a present for a friend, she was over the moon !
I have collated the three and they are now hanging in my hall for all to see
The product arrived very fast and I loved the quality of it. Lovely design which both me and my partner enjoyed.
Beautiful pictures! Delivered promptly. Well packaged.
Bought this for my daughters birthday she loved it. Beautiful painted print of a hedgehog.
I ordered 3 prints in the offer and am delighted with them. I will be ordering more. Such a talented artist and affordable too. Thanks
Was absolutely delighted with the 3 prints that I ordered, special deal and well worth the money. Will look amazing in frames.
This looked amazing on the web site, it was easy to order and delivery was prompt. When it arrived I was unexpectedly surprised by how beautiful it was thank you, I am going to order again. And recommend Laura's work to everyone.
Very sweet picture, with the subjects bearing extremely sweet expressions. Printed on good quality card and it looks good with a simple frame.
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I have long admired the paintings but could not choose which one to have, when I saw the offer for 3 for £20, I couldn't resist. They are just too beautiful and such expressive drawings. I love them.
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I bought this as a Valentine's Day present for my husband. We are both delighted with it. It is a quality print, was well packed and quickly despatched. Hope to buy more in the future. Best of luck, your paintings are beautiful.
Very happy with my purchases pictures are of a high quality I bought one for myself, daughter and my friend I have framed them all and they look stunning very prompt service would recommend and definitely buy more.
I bought whilst these were on offer but would gladly have paid full price for them. I used mine as cards for friends both of whom have framed the print. I kept the hare for myself and its beautiful. Delivery was quick and the product is lovely, will definitely be using the Laura Slade Art site again.
I purchased 3 works of art and couldnt be more delighted. All are proudly displayed in my sitting room. Could look at them for hours.
These cards are just what I wanted to have in my box at home so that I would always have a special card to send greetings to my family members and special friends. I'll certainly be purchasing more!
This is a stunning print and extremely high quality. Am over the moon with it. Bought it as a present for myself!
Excellent service, ordered and paid one day, order received in two days. Fabulous prints . xxxx
lovely picture framed and on the wall
Easy to order and arrived quickly. Bought as a gift so unsure of response to the item as yet but I loved it!
I love my picture of the cat , it came very quickly and packed well , it's beautiful :heart_eyes: and would order again , thank you
Print is gorgeous and sits with two others in a nice display for my bedroom. Love these pieces :)


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Wedding Website
Weddings Blog
Connect with me on Facebook
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Carry and share us from your mobile device!
. However,
is more than just taking pictures. It's also about telling a story with every picture. Your
only comes once and the fine art photography you desire will be a very integral part of your entire day. I offer a personalized and accommodating feel to my wedding photography that I'm told is rare. ProImage Weddings is the
San Luis Obispo wedding photographer
that will give you photographs with the highest style and quality. Your wedding should be covered in a way that moves hearts and evokes emotion. You deserve nothing less than the best on your special day. On your wedding day I will come early, stay late and give you every ounce of passion towards capturing the special moments of your wedding as humanly possible.
Enjoy not only the wedding photographs, but the service as well. With professional service to guide you every step of the way, you'll be in good hands with ProImage Weddings Photography - a great choice for photographers in
San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez Paso Robles, Cambria, Cayucos, Morro Bay, Solvang
Morro Bay, Arroyo Grande, Atascadero Pismo Beach, Shell Beach and beyond.
ProImage Weddings is your source for photojournalistic photographers in San Luis Obispo, California. If you are looking for a
San Luis Obispo
wedding photographer
, a
senior portrait photographer
Paso Robles wedding and engagement photographer
or a
Santa Barbara wedding photographers with a photojournalistic style also specializing in engagement and wedding photography
- you've come to the right place. We provide our professional photography services to the following cities locally; however we can service destination weddings worldwide including wineries, beaches and resorts:
San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Templeton, Arroyo Grande, Pismo Beach, Templeton, Avila Beach, Shell Beach, Morro Bay, Los Osos, Cayucos, Cambria, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez, Monticeto, Oxnard, Ventura, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Miguel, Creston, Harmony, Orcutt, Oxnard, Shandon, Bradley, Lockwood, San Ardo, San Simeon, Ragged Point, King City, Santa Cruz, Big Sur, Soledad, Carmel, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Coalinga, Hanford, Visalia, Avenal, Bakersfield, Fresno, Tulare., Lompoc, Buellton, Carpenteria, Goleta, Santa Margarita, Fresno, Bakersfield and other destinations through out California and beyond.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Laguna Beach, Long Beach
Copyright © ProImage Weddings 697 Chorro St. San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 | Phone: (805) 458-8513 | Owner: Trent Buckle
San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographers and Photography
Monterey Wedding Photographers
San Luis Obispo Photographers
Paso Robles Wedding Photographers
Santa Barbara Wedding Photographers
Santa Maria Wedding Photographers
Introduction To ProImage Weddins:
I've been involved with photography since 1997. I graduated from Cal Poly around the same time with a degree in Speech Communication. I was ready to enter the corporate world, but wanted to find something I could do that I would be passionate about and enjoy. It was around this same time that I was introduced to wedding photography. It didn't take long before my heart was drawn into a business that relied upon a passion for creativity, serving other an a vision for capturing the romance, passion, humor and emotion that makes up a wedding day. I began to study and practice photography with deliberate and concentrated focus. At the same time I undertook the most effective training possible: working as a second shooter for other photographers. In this capacity, I was not learning by ready a book, but by being right there in the heart of the action and with real life scenarios, issues and problems. I learned what it took to photography a wedding from start to finish and to do it well. Since then I have been on a never ending mission to improve my photography, serve brides and grooms the most effective way I can and to sculpt the art of wedding photography to the highest degree. I truly feel like I am living a dream, running my own business. A business that I am so passionate about and grateful for. I am a wedding photographer!
As a
San Luis Obispo photographer
at ProImage Weddings I seek to produce images that are rare and top anything I have done before. I give my best at each
providing the
quality possible. It is my hope to develop your
into the image you want – while at the same time sculpting ever picture or set of pictures into a work of art. My goal is not just to capture photographs, but the highest quality of
portrait photography
- that moves you to emotion. -
that can be displayed with timeless beauty. To achieve
award winning and elite photography
one must always be learning, improving and discovering. San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Wedding photographers represent the highest quality photography in the industry. Award winning photographers are not easily found.
Central Coast Wedding Photographer:
What better location could there be to be a wedding photographer than the Central Coast. While I am not a member of the Central Coast Wedding Professionals CCWP, I do maintain the highest degree of professionalism as possible in the circle of professional wedding photographers. Photography references are available on request.
Types of Photography:
While ProImage Weddings specializes specifically in
professional wedding photography
we also offer
professional photography
in many other genres, including photography for seniors, corporate and commercial photography, re-unions and popular events through out the county including in areas such as Santa Barbara and Monterey. Clients tell me that among photographers I am unique for my accommodating and attitude, hard work and exceptional photography. From the beautiful wineries and vineyard weddings of Paso Robles, Templeton, Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, Santa Barbara and Atascadero to the gorgeous beach weddings of Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, Avila Beach and Santa Barbara it is my passion to bring the most beautiful photography I can. Santa Margarita, Templeton and Cambria are also unique wedding venues.
Who photographs the weddings?
While some companies will send you one of many different photographers to photograph your wedding. At ProImage Weddings you always will have your wedding photographed by Trent Buckle, unless otherwise agreed upon. I'd strongly recommend you read the testimonials that are on my website and furthermore look up the reviews that I have received on Wedding Wire, Google, Yahoo and Yelp. My goal is to have each and ever client that contract me to end up raving about the service and photography they received. I have received dozens and dozens of rave reviews over the years and that is why I work so very hard at each and every wedding.
If you want a great taste for my style, my weddings website has plenty of photographs that display the look I commonly capture. However, an even better source to see my photographic style is on my San Luis Obispo wedding blog. There you will see sample wedding photographs from whole weddings for the whole wedding day. It is important that you are able to see what type of quality wedding photographs your photographer capture throughout the course of a whole wedding day. My
San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographers
blog can be seen here!
In the Santa Barbara area from Gaviota, Goleta, Carpenteria, Solvang, Buellton and Harmony
the beauty of the wedding venues as well as the couples love for each other is something that all Santa Barbara wedding photographers enjoy.There are other very important events in your life that we cover. No one looks forward to a
, but photographing
can be a very important time. A much more cheerful photo genre is a couple's
engagement session
are so much fun and wonderful because time is not as much an issues as it is on the
wedding day
. A child's
Bar mitzvah
Bat mitzvah
is one of the most important times for the family as well as the individual child.
Bar mitzvahs and Bat mitzvahs
are filled with such celebration and joy. Another group of very similar events that we cover are the
Filipino debutante balls
as well as the
Hispanic or Mexican quinceaneras.
The balls and
are like mini or major
in the scope and scale of what I cover.
Sweet sixteen parties
are fun as well. A
child's birth
and subsequent
birthday parties
are important in a much different sort of way. We cover those as well.
are very significant. The re – union is a major life event and one that you will wish had been documented properly. These types of events are quite common in San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles and Santa Barbara and we are happy to offer top wedding photography services for these occasions. The Santa Barbara Courthouse is one of many favorite locations and wedding venues of mine. On the other hand Harmony, Solvang and the rest of the Santa Ynez Valley are the most unique wedding locations I can think of.
In terms of
maternity pregnancy photographs
, this is an area I love and enjoy. It is such an awe-inspiring thing to see and produce artistic
portraying the gift of a
growing inside the protection of their mother. If the father is brought into the
it is even more meaningful to portray what God has allowed them to create. It is important to
photograph your child from infant, toddler and baby
stages on up. Working together to produce amazing
fine art images
. We all know that family life is especially important in the San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara communities. I have even traveled to Monterey, Carmel, Nipomo and Lompoc to capture every thing from a wedding to a little newborn.
Digital photography
has also led me to offer
documentary photography
corporate events
, as well as for
advertising, product advertising parties, graduations
and a host of other genres.
Head shots
are another genre that I offer and can be your key to landing an
role, developing as a
and or launching your
modeling career
can also personalize and represent the face of your business. When
time comes around the
investment of hiring a professional photographer
is always worth it. Imagine how much you and your family would enjoy looking back on your
graduation photographs.
will love them. Whether you or your son or daughter is graduating from San Luis Obispo High School, Cal Poly or one of the schools located in Santa Barbara - we can offer you the photography you need. From hiring a wedding disk jockey (dj), to a wedding florist, videographer, baker, event coordinator or hair stylist, your photographer will be involved with all of them. If you need help locating the right vendor or venue, ProImage Weddings is happy to help you with all of these areas including locating the right officients, offficiant, wedding and event coordinator, live music, musicians, caterer, caterer, rental company or florist.
Destination Wedding Photographers:
There can be no doubt that being a destination wedding photographer is an amazing thing to do/be. To travel from amazing venue to venue, location to location to capture amazing brides and grooms at the most important event of their life!
Spanish Oaks Ranch Weddings
Los Angeles River Center and Gardens Weddings
What you should be looking for in a wedding photographer is a great question. First and foremost of course is the quality and creativity of their wedding photography samples. Next, a great personality that goes well with yours. Professionalism, experience and a good reputation. They should be easy to get a hold of and willing to incorporate your vision for the photographs you want. They should have plenty of experience as well as samples of their work. References should be made available upon request. They should have a wide variety of the very best photographic equipment available, with back up equipment. At least three cameras. Lastly, they should approach weddings with the mindset that they are there to serve you, not the other way around. Look for images that are clear, bright, colorful, sharp and well composed. Look for images through out individual weddings that show their consistency and ability to produce in a wide variety of venues and circumstances. Ask questions and never get involved with someone who does not want to answer your questions and/or thinks they are "too good" to be looked at with a skeptics eye. Oh one more thing - your photographer should have a good sense of humor!
From the
wedding rehearsal dinner
to the
, nighttime
it is my goal to capture everything like a giant panoramic photograph that encompasses a
corner to corner. Ceremonies are the peak of the photojournalistic genre. The moments captured are thrilling and amazing. I always lean towards the
photojournalistic approach
when it is available. The beauty of the wedding flowers, cake, seat covers, combined with the energy that a great dj (disk jockey) can bring, makes wedding photos priceless. Additionally, I prefer to shoot almost all photographs outdoors because the God given
nature light
provides the most amazing and vibrant backdrops. Natural lighting is used as much as possible weather in Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande or Cambria. The climate is perfect for taking portraits in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. Photographers are so blessed to live here: with the great out back look of Atascadero and Paso Robles to SLO towns green hills, creeks to Avila and Pismo Beaches sandy shores. Everywhere you look on the Central Coast is amazing. Santa Barbara and Monterey are very high end venues and are just as beautiful as the Paso Robles and Atascadero Wineries and Vineyard weddings.
Your dog, cat, bird, snake or other pet can make for great pet or animal portrait as well. As a lifestyle photographer it is important to provide documentary coverage and a photojournalism that paints a picture of who you are and what relationships are meaningful to you. The relationship between you and your child, infant, pet or lover beautiful when artful photography is used.
Artistic sports
are exciting also. In California, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara is home to some of the most talented artists you can imagine. North of San Luis Obispo and past Morro Bay, Cayucos, Cambria and San Simeon is the beautiful and magnificent Bir Sur, Ragged Point, Monterey and Carmel. One of my favorites is the Carmel Mission Bascilica.
Wedding Photography Style:
My style seeks to develop timeless images that combine
posed, informal, classical, traditional candid photographs with the fresh, creative, modern, candid, informal photojournalistic
shots that form an
original, creative, emotional, top rated, contemporary marriage of styles
into a vibrant
supplemented with poses when needed. I have found this artistic method to be
successful, popular and unique
. Clients through out San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Carpenteria and Solvang
seem to appreciate this. I have developed strong relationships with florists, djs, venues and other vendors such as event coordinators, wedding coordinators, videographers, musicians, caterers, hair stylists and ministers.
Photography's Technical Side:
There is a technical side to photography equipment that one must master. The four most important settings on the camera to master are the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and flash. Reviewing my work over and over again I have learned what works and what does not. I have developed a method to using flashes, strobes, an assortment of lenses – as well as angles, composition, poses, cameras, textures, lighting Photoshop and lightroom in post production. Black and white, sepia and adding textures can enhance many photographs. Once the photography is accomplished the photographs are ready to be made into proofs, prints, enlargements, guest books, matted albums, flush mount albums, a framed or stretched canvas enlargement. My professional lab, Pro DPI in San Luis Obispo offers the highest quality reprints available. I have learned much traveling and shooting weddings up and down the Central Coast. From Santa Barbara, Santa Maria to Monterey, Cambria, Templeton, Santa Margarita, San MIguel and Morro Bay.
Every person at your wedding is very important from the bride, groom, guests, best man, bridesmaids, maid of honor, father of the bride bridal party all the way down the ring bearer and flower girl. Each should be treated with the utmost respect from your dj, florist, efficient, caterers, musicians hair stylist and make up artist.
Wedding Organizations:
It's important to be aware of the rest of the photography world. There are many great photography organizations such as the
Central Coast Wedding Professionals (CCWP)
(encompassing San Luis Obispo, Atascadero, Paso Robles, Templeton, Pismo Beach, Avila Beach, Shell Beach, Arroyo Grande, Cambria, Cayucos, Los Osos), Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), Professional Photographers of America (PPA), The North American Nature Photography Association (NPPA), Santa Barbara Event Professionals (SBEP). Brooks Art Institute is also a great source for knowledge. Weather looking for a photographer in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Atascadero, Cambria or Santa Maria, the Better Business Beau can provide a good reference for photographers. Wedding Fairs, and Bridal Expos such as the Wedding and Special Events Faire and the Central Coast Bridal Faire are a good place to compare services.
Wedding Magazines
can make for an important resource. It is amazing how many resources are at our fingertips:
Wedding Magazines:
Rangefinder, Popular Photography, Professional Photographer, My Wedding Day, Central Coast Bride, PopPhoto, In Style Weddings, The Knot, Wedding Style, Get Married, Brides Club, Modern, Elegant Bride, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, Martha Stewart Weddings, World Bride, Bridal Guide, Unveiled, Collezioni Sposa,Vogue Spoza, Aziana Wedding, Latino Bride and, Groom, Modern Wedding, Asian Bride, New Times, Your Wedding Day, Wedding and Party, MyWedding, All Wedding. You will notice that many of the photographs and photographers in these magazines originate from locations in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. Santa Ynez, Solvang and Santa Maria all challenge each other in beauty and uniqueness as wedding venues.
Wedding Diversity:
Today we live in wonderfully diverse ethnic landscape. From Indian,
Asian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, German, African, Jewish, Filipino, Mexican, Spanish, Latino, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Hawaiian, Arab, Muslim, Hindu, or Christian
– people of all ethnicities, languages and religions have weddings and may need professional photography at some time in their life. It is exciting to
the interesting customs and traditions of all. San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles and especially Santa Barbara seems to be a melting pot of many of these ethnicities. It seems from each area has it's own predominance of ethnicity from Oxnard, Goleta, Solvang, Monterey, to Santa Maria. Each town also has it's own distinct climate, from the cool breezes and fog of Morro Bay and Monterey to the warm and soothing dry heat of Paso Robles, Atascadero, San Miguel, Templeton and Santa Margarita.
Wedding Details:
One of my favorite aspects of being a wedding photographer in San Luis Obispo is taking pictures of all the little beautiful physical details of your wedding day. Everything from the
shoes, dress, dresses, gown, gowns, veil, veils, arrangements, bouquet, bouquets, gifts, seat covers, table cloths, center pieces, candles, candle holders, san ceremony, ring, rings, cupcakes, decorations, invitations, songs, chocolate fountains, food, banquet hall, sunset, sunsets, hair, nails, make up, horse carriages, favors, keepsakes, jewelry, limo, limos, limousine, limousines, pillows, toppers, disposable cameras vintage cars, candles, candy, candies and all the other goodies the bakeries make including the cakes.
– my goodness I love it all!
Central Coast including Paso Robles, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Santa Maria and Monterey
are the most unique cities in the California's landscape. The local people are wonderful. There is a reason we call is
SLO town. The regions vineyards, wineries, restaurants, hotels and motels, botanical gardens, banquet halls, coastal venues, beach locations, quaint chapels, rustic barns, barn weddings and ranches make this California County
ideal. Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Santa Maria are ideal and prime wedding destination locations.
Paso Robles
is one of the most popular winery wedding locations in California.
wedding photographers
is always a large issue in planning a wedding. However,
usually means the product you get will not be what you want. A
reasonably priced package
may be a
great bargain
if the product is exceptional.
Wedding photography prices
very as they do with all services in today's world.
Economical photography
may or may not be the way to go. You don't want to skimp on one of the most important parts of your
by getting a
low priced photographer
. Some photographers may offer a
of sorts. I offer a
Friday and non-Saturday discount
. I find this to be
reasonable on average.
You want to find an
affordable photographer
but not at the price of having bad results. I also offer a
military discount.
A photographer who caters more to the
high end
market is more likely to present you with a refined and quality product.
Wedding Venues:
Picking a
whether it is in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Barbara or Santa Maria - for your ceremony and/or reception is very key. Fortunately
San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County
offers many
great ceremony and reception sites, locations and venues.
Paso Robles, Cambria to Pismo Beach, Avila Beach, Santa Barbara, Nipomo, Santa Maria and Morro bay
- beautiful venues are everywhere! Here many of the venues of the area from the cities of Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Cambria, Atascadero, Avila Beach, Shell Beach, Santa Barbara, Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Nipomo, Los Osos, Templeton, Solvang, Harmony, Oceano, Cayucos, San Simeon, Ragged Point, Goleta, Carpenteria Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.
Arroyo Grande:
Cypress Ridge Pavilion, Dune Lakes, Heritage House Museum and Gardens, The Casitas of Arroyo Grande,
The Victorian Pitkin-Conrow Estate, The Gardens at Peacock Farms
Fleur de Lis Estate, Green Acres Lavender Farm, Oak Hill Manor, Pavilion on the Lake, Silver Mountain Resort, The Carlton , Waterfall Park
Avila Beach:
Avila Beach Golf Resort, Avila Lighthouse Suites, San Luis Bay Inn, Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort
: Fog's End, Moonstone Beach, Old Santa Rosa Chapel, Robin's Restaurant, The Cambria Pines Lodge,
Victoria's Last Resort, Moonstone Gardens Restaurant
Cass House Inn and Restaurant, Cayucos Creek Barn,
Swallow Creek Ranch and Vetrans Hall (Vets Hall)
Los Osos:
Back Bay Inn, Sea Pines Golf Resort, South Bay Community Center, Montana de oro
Morro Bay:
The Garden Chapel, The Inn at Morro Bay, The View at Morro Bay
: Black Lake Golf Resort, Dan Powers House, The Kaleidoscope Inn, The Monarch Club at Trilogy Central Coast, Black Lake Resort
Paso Robles
: Adelaida Cellars, Bianchi, Cass Winery and Vineyard, Castle Rock Winery, Castoro Cellars, Cottage at Capitol Hill, Dancing Horse Ranch and Retreat, Denner Vineyards, Doce Robles, Eagle Castle Winery, Eberle, Edward Sellers, EOS Estate Winery, Falcon Nest Vineyard and Winery
Firestone, Hampton Inn, La Bellasera Suites and Spa, Maloy O'neill Vineyards, Meridian Vineyard and Winery, Midnight, Park Ballroom, Paso Robles Wine Trolley, Pear Valley Vineyards, Rio Seco Vineyards, Robert Hall Winery, Stacked Stone Cellars, Still Water Vineyards, Summerwood Winery
Sunrise Ranch Celebrations, Sylvesters Winery, Tablas Creek Vineyard, The Paso Robles Inn, Tobi James Cellars, Villa Buena Vista, Villa nel Mondo, Villa Toscana, Villa Valdemosa Bed and Breakfast Inn. Vina Robles Winery, Zenaida Cellars, Healthy Heart Farms
Pismo Beach:
F. McLintocks Saloon and Dinning House, Pelican Point, Pismo Beach Golf Course, Shelter Cove, Shore Cliff Lodge, St. Paul's Church, Steamers of Pismo Beach, The Cliffs, The Sea Venture Hotel, Giuseppe's Cucina Italiana
San Luis Obispo:
Apple Farm Inn and Restaurant, Camp San Luis Obispo and Officers Club, Courthouse, Courtyard Marriott,
Dallidet Adobe and Gardens, Edna Valley Vineyards, Corbett Canyon, Elks Lodge, Embassy Suites, Hotel, Fairways at Dairy Creek, First Presbyterian Church, Grace Church, Holland Ranch, Jack House, Madonna Inn, Monday Club, Quality Suites, San Luis Obispo Country Club, San Luis Obispo Mission, Downtown Mission, Trilogy Central Coast, the San Luis Obispo Old Mission. Holland Ranch is one of the most popular and up and coming San Luis Obispo wedding venue locations.
Santa Barbara and Solvang:
Will list separately
Santa Maria and Orcutt:
Saint Louis De Montfort Church, Santa Maria Church, St. John Neumann, St. Mary of the Assumption, The Historic Santa Maria Inn, The Radisson Hotel and Resorts, Addomo Estate Vineyards, Trattoria Uliveto
Shell Beach:
The Dolphin Bay Resort and Spa, The Cliffs Resort, La Perla del Mar Chapel
Santa Margarita:
Santa Margarita Ranch, Spanish Oaks Ranch. The Santa Margarita Ranch is one of the counties most popular locations.
San Miguel:
San Miguel Old Mission
Santé Ynez:
Gainey Vineyard
Carriage Vineyards, Hummingbird House, Pomar Junction Vineyard and Winery, Spiritrek Event and Retreat Center, Templeton Estates
Vendors In San Luis Obispo County:
Your wedding ring will last a life time. It's that one piece of jewelry that will be worn daily.
Wedding ring
s are common but finding one that is a work of art is what you are after as you search through many
jewelry stores.
ProImage Weddings can not vouch for any of the
venues or vendors
listed. This is meant to be a resource for your own exploration. Please contact us if you'd like our personal opinion on a particular
All That Glitters, The Gold Concept , Kevin Main Jewelry Design, B Anthony and Company Jewelers, Marshalls Jewelers, Serengeti West Fine Jewelers, Pan Jewelers, K-Jon's Fine Jewelers, Zales, CB Hood Diamond Co., Garden Street Goldsmiths, STinn Jewelry
flowers a florist
arranges for you into
and other
are vital to your
. Each
must be just right to make the perfect
for you. There are many gifted
in the area. Make sure you find one that is just right for you that can decorate your
Adornment, Cover Ups, D and D Floral, Flowers To You By Jessica, Harbor Floral, Jenny McNiece Flowers, Panacea Event Floral Design, Gordon's, April Flowers, Adelaide Floral
runs the show at your reception. A good
disk jockey
will keep the atmosphere pleasing.
Disk Jockey
s should stay in communication with your other
to keep everyone on the same page. Your
personality will be part of your
. Make sure you choose the right
AMS Entertainment, Audio Rev, Entertainment Now, Escape Entertainment, Joe LaBarbera Sound, Kramer Entertainment, Phase 1 Mobile DJ, Paradise Dj's
Finding the right
is key to picking the right
cake design
. Each
makes a different style of
. Many
offer exceptional wedding cakes.
Wedding Cakes:
Cassie's Custom Cakes. Madonna Inn, The Cakery, Gina's Piece of Cake, Éclair Bakery
Live music
can often be a nice change from pre recorded
. Finding a
band or musician or a set of musicians
can add much to your
wedding day
. An
instrumental specialist
such as a
pianist, guitarist, harpist or violinist
may be the perfect touch for your special day. A
vocalist, piano or Mariachi Band
may have a place as well.
Live Music:
All Occasions Live Music, Altered Pieces, Dandle Light Strings, Jeffrey Peters, The Wedding Guitarist, Larkspur String Quartet and Trio, Manny Mestas, Penny Beavers, Harpist, San Luis Jazz Band, Aurora Denny Harpist, Music For Festive Occasions – Trumpet and Harp
is not for every couple. Some
choose to have a
videographer or videographers
and some choose to go with out a
wedding video
. It depends upon your resources and if it is important to you.
Cana Video, Jack Hutchinson Videography, Rain Studios, Caballero Video. I strongly recommend Cana Video Productions
Apparel and Accessories:
Down the Aisle, Inc.
Officiants and Officients
have an important yet short role. Each
officiant or efficient
brings a unique flavor to each ceremony. Whether they are a
minister, judge, pastor, clergy person or officiant
choose carefully. Searching through the available ministers is very crucial.
Everyone likes to eat good food and that is where your
catering company
comes in. Your
caterer or wedding caterers
will bring experience and expertise to preparing the right
wedding dinner
for you. It really makes me hungry just thinking about all the different
catering companies.
Caterer and Caterers:
Anacapa Barbecue, Bayou House Catering, Chocolate Events, Epic Weddings, In Good Taste Catering, Linda Mora's Classic Catering, Mama's Meatballs, Pacific Harvest Catering, Phoenix Fine Catering, The Coffee Diva, Trumpet Vine Catering, The Hitching Post. In order for the night to go smoothly the food and drink provided by your catering must be the best. Whether it is bbq or fine cuisine, from Cambria, Santa Barbara or Santa Maria the Central Coast offers some of the best Caterers in California.
Finding the perfect
wedding dress
is every brides dream. Your
should be everything you dreamt it would be from the
veil, design
and how it fits your body. As you search through many
wedding dresses and gowns
be patient. When you walk down the aisle your wedding dress should be stunning and elegant. Santa Barbara is know for a wide selection of the best wedding dresses in all of California.
makeup and artist, pedicurist and hair stylist
should be picked carefully. There are a ton of
hair salons
and make up
to choose from. Pick wisely and make sure your hair stylist offers the option to come to your place of getting ready on your wedding day - if that is something important to you. You will not feel confident and beautiful as a bride unless your makeup and hair stylist does the job you want. I have worked with many wedding hair stylist and those with a great attitude aid setting a good attitude for the whole day. Besides, your hair and make up are things that will be in all the pictures.
Salons Make Up and Hair Stylists:
Blade Runner Day Spa, Bliss, Hair and Makeup by Angell, Joseph Atone Salon, Kim and Co. Beauty Salon, Reveal Salon, Soho Studio, Synergy Salon Glo, LuLu's Downtown, Templeton Beauty Salon, Serenity Salon and Day Spa. Upon request I am happy to tell you which Salons and hair stylists I most recommend.
Invitations and Favors
: All Traditions, Invitations by Gina, Sugar Plum Invitations
Wedding Rentals:
Got You Covered Party Supplies and Tent Rentals, Party Plus, Taylor Rental
Wedding Centers:
Central Coast Wedding Center, Down the Aisle, The Bridal Boutique, The Red Dress
wedding coordinator
can really help in your most special day. The
it takes to pull off a successful
day is enormous. A
good planner
will help take much stress from your day and have many
. Search through many
wedding coordinators
I'm sure you will find the right one. Wedding coordinators can help you with your wedding time line, finding quality vendors as well as all the little details of a wedding day that you would never think of. Just like your photographer, your wedding and event coordinator has seen 100's of weddings, so you can trust their experience. Your event will be greatly benefited from a wedding coordinator or coordinators.
Wedding Coordinators:
A Heart To Heart Wedding Consultant, All Traditions, Allure Event Designs by Jenn, Arranged by Patrice, Jour Parfait, Love Always Weddings and Events, Mark Padgett Event Design, Fancy's Events. Wedding coordinators and event coordinators are key to making your day run smoothly. Wedding coordination is an art in itself..
Wedding Dresses:
David's Bridal, Central Coast Wedding Center, Down the Aisle, The Bridal Boutique, The Red Dress, Diaz Bridal Boutique, Casa Blanca Bridal, Apple Tree - Tuxedo, Tux rental and sales, Quinceneras, Proms, Special Events: Anderson Men's Wear, Fashion N Formal, Candice's Custom Bridal and Embroidery, David's Bridal. All of these vendors offer unique wedding dresses.
I hope that this will be helpful in your wedding photography - whether it is in the beautiful city of San Luis Obispo, the country setting of Paso Robles and Atascadero, the sandy shores of Pismo, Avila and Shell Beach, the wooded areas of Los Osos, Cambria and Cayucos, Arroyo Grande, Santa Maria, Templeton, Monterey, Ventura, the beach community of Santa Barbara, exotic San Francisco, The Bay area, or Los Angeles. From the trees of Thousand Oaks to the rock of Simi Valley, to the shores of Ventura, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpenteria to Morro Bay. ProImage Weddings seeks to provide great photography far north of Monterey to the Central Coast including Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles and Solvang.
we offer not only those cute portraits of your
new born babies
, but we also offer an added value to your
by making available
individual high school senior portraits
Baby, family and seniors
a like, present unique challenges. Much like every
is a unique creation - working with
infants, children and kids
in general is a special time to be creative and get great
fine art images
. That's one thing I love about being a
children's photographer
. It also reminds me how fun it was to be a
and how in each stage of my life - my
highschool portrait, child portrait and senior portrait
– were very important. Living in San Luis Obispo and near Santa Barbara affords me many opportunities for great wedding photography. High school senior pictures are some of my favorite to take. There is plenty of time and seniors are quite attentive and willing to do everything it takes to get to a great senior photography session. From Harmony, Lompoc and the rest of the Santa Ynez Valley - ProImage Wedding Photography offers to capture the beauty of your wedding venues, the delicate floral arrangement your florist has made, as well as the artistry of your bakeries wedding cake and other important items. From Paso Robles, Monterey and Santa Maria - my passion is to be the best photographer I can be.


text:
Adalimumab in the Treatment of Chronic Pouchitis (ADAP)
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01670240
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : August 22, 2012
Last Update Posted : January 28, 2016
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
This study wants to investigate the efficiency of biological treatment for chronic pouchitis. Chronic pouchitis is inflammation in a reconstruction after removal of the colon, a pouch. It is examined in patients with ulcerative colitis.
The primary objective evaluation is to evaluate the clinically effect of biological therapy (adalimumab) in patients with chronic pouchitis.
Secondary objective is to evaluate the effect of biological therapy on the endoscopical and histological inflammatory activity.
It is a double-blinded randomized placebo controlled study.
|Condition or disease
|Ulcerative Colitis Pouchitis
|Drug: Adalimumab Drug: Placebo
|Phase 3
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|13 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Parallel Assignment
|Quadruple (Participant, Care Provider, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Adalimumab (Humira) in the Treatment of Chronic Pouchitis
|Study Start Date :
|August 2012
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|September 2015
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|January 2016
Active Comparator: Adalimumab
Every second week, mg: 160-80-40-40-40-40 12 weeks in all
Drug: Adalimumab
Other Name: Humira
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Given as the active comparator, every second week
Drug: Placebo
- Clinical response on treatment with Adalimumab [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]
The number of patients with chronic pouchitis achieving a clinical improvement, defined as a reduction in clinically PDAI ≥ 2 at any time within the 12 weeks of treatment with adalimumab (Humira).
Clinical PDAI (0-6 points)(pouchitis disease activity index)refers to fewer (0-1 point), number of bowel movements(0-2 points), rectal bleeding(0-1 point) and fecal urgency(0-2 points).
- Clinical improvement after 12 weeks of treatment [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]The number of patients with a clinical improvement (PDAI reduction ≥ 2)at week 12 See the description of clinical improvement and PDAI under primary endpoint
- Clinical remission after 12 weeks [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]The number of patients with pouchitis in remission at week 12 (total PDAI ≤4)
- Endoscopic and histologic response after treatment with Adalimumab [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]Effect (reduction in PDAI)of adalimumab (Humira) on the endoscopical and histological activity in chronic pouchitis Endoscopical and histological activity is defined from PDAI (pouchitis disease activity index). Endoscopically the presence of Edema, Granularity, Friability, Loss of vascular pattern, Mucous exudates or Ulceration, gives 1 point each (max 6 points). Histological the presence of polymorphic nuclear leukocyte infiltration and ulceration each gives 1-3 points regarding severity (max 6 points)
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Operated with proctocolectomy and construction of an IPAA
- Prior to surgery diagnosed with ulcerative colitis according to established clinically, radiologic, endoscopic and histological criteria.
- Diagnosed with chronic pouchitis as defined above
- PDAI ≥ 7, with the clinically part of PDAI >2 and the endoscopic part of PDAI >3
- Age >18 years
- Negative stool cultures for bacterial bowel pathogens and negative stool microscopy for parasites
- Serology negative for chronic hepatitis B
- Negative examination for tuberculosis (including x-ray of thorax and a interferon gamma test)
- Signed informed consent
Exclusion Criteria:
- Treatment with glucocorticoids within the last 4 weeks
- Diagnosed with Crohn's disease
- Need of an interpreter or if patients do not understand oral or written information.
- Surgical complications as anal stenosis, leak of the anastomosis, or fistula arising from the pouch
- Abuse of medicine, alcohol or drugs
- Ongoing treatment with NSAID (non steroid anti inflammatory drug)
- Pregnancy or nursing
- A diverting stoma
- Malignancy or other severe chronic disease or expected longevity less than one year
- Patients diagnosed with immune deficiency
- Ongoing infectious disease
- Contraindications against treatment with tumor necrosis factor-alpha antibody, such as heart disease, former cancer disease, in vivo vaccination within the last 4 weeks
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01670240
|Odense University Hospital
|Odense, Denmark, 5000
|Principal Investigator:
|Jens Kjeldsen, Phd
|Odense University Hospital
|Responsible Party:
|Mie Dilling Kjaer, Principal investigator, Odense University Hospital
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01670240 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|First Posted:
|August 22, 2012 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|January 28, 2016
|Last Verified:
|January 2016
Keywords provided by Mie Dilling Kjaer, Odense University Hospital:
Ulcerative colitis
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Colitis, Ulcerative
Gastrointestinal Diseases
Digestive System Diseases
Colonic Diseases
Intestinal Diseases
Pathologic Processes
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Ileal Diseases
Anti-Inflammatory Agents
Antirheumatic Agents


text:
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Never short of questions, let these titles bring answers to children who may just want to know, or who may be struggling in their walk with Christ. Parents and teachers need not be afraid of hte tough questions with these solid aplogetics titles in The Answers Book for Kids series. Too many children have grown up and left the Church because they asked tough questions and no one seemed to have an answer. Now, here are those answers!


text:
ELECTRO-TOTAL is a private company established in 1991 and working in the area of industrial automation. Over the last fifteen years ELECTRO-TOTAL became one of the most important Romanian system integrators and distributors for industrial automation related products, applications and services.
An important part in this ascending evolution has been played by the careful attention in selecting our partners and suppliers. They have always been selected from the world market leaders in their specific area of expertise. All our partners are important companies, with a long and successfull tradition. They have an outstanding reputation and they are continuously setting new standards and trends in the field of industrial automation.
ELECTRO-TOTAL is now able to offer complete solutions including design, field equipment delivery, electrical and automation cabinets, application software, commissioning, training, service etc.
The high expertise of our technical staff combined with the quality and diversity of the products and services we are currently offering brought us an important number of customers. We are proud to have among them the most important companies from metallurgy, machine building, ceramics, glass, chemical and petrochemical industry, power generation, pulp and paper, wood and building materials, medicine etc.


text:
Five Things Apple CEO Tim Cook Must Do to Replace Steve Jobs
In 2009, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs stepped down unexpectedly for the first time.
Now, Tim Cook, Apple's new chief executive, is in the same place as he was before, being asked to lead a company that's associated, in many minds, with Jobs himself.
In 2009, I asked Marshall Goldsmith, the author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, and 23 other books, and a columnist for the Harvard Business Publishing Web site what he thought Cook should do. Below are excerpts from that conversation.
Let's talk about Tim Cook. What sort of problems does he face, taking over for an iconic CEO like Jobs?
Big problems. Its not any fault of his. His problems are not that something's wrong with him. His problems are that he's replacing an icon. I was at UCLA when John Wooden was the basketball coach. The next coach was Gene Bartow, who got fired for winning 90 percent plus of his games. He wasn't John Wooden. It's incredibly difficult to replace someone who has seen as an icon.
The only thing I don't think people don't understand about good leaders is that they're both good and lucky. A lot of it is timing. If Jack Welch was still the CEO of General Electric, he wouldn't nearly be the icon he is today. The timing was good. General Electric's stock would have tanked whether he left or if he had stayed. But he happened to leave at the right time and so he came off as an iconic, do no wrong figure. But he was lucky. I'm sure he was a great CEO, but the thing is you can be a great CEO and the corporate results can tank.
With Cook running the company, do people see him as a natural #2, or as someone who is filling in temporarily?
(Editor's Note: Jobs is remaining at Apple as chairman, a position that Apple has not had since Armas Clifford "Mike" Markkula, Jr. gave up the position in 1997 when Jobs returned to Apple.)
Right now it's unclear, because the message is that he's filling in temporarily. Whether that's a correct or incorrect message no one knows. So right now he is sort of an odd place.
Let me give you what I'd say would be a positive scenario. Steve Jobs is really different than most CEOs. Most CEOs entire identity is running things. Jack Welch's entire identity was being a leader, a manager, a person who ran things. Well, Steve Jobs' major identity is being a brilliant creative inventor, innovator. I believe that Jobs could not be the CEO and still make an important positive impact on the company and not ruin life for another person. Most people can't do that, that's not their identity.
When Bill Gates called himself chief software architect that didn't seem weird, as a human being, not just a runner of businesses. So I think there may be a positive scenario in the future, where Steve Jobs might not be the CEO, and still may make a very valuable contribution to the company. And that assumes that his health stays in place, and doesn't try to run the company during that time.
Also. Perhaps this other person is a better operating manager than he is. I don't think that's impossible. Steve Jobs' image has never been one of an operating manager anyway. Yes, he's a visionary. So he could be a visionary, strategist, look at the big picture, do things that could be inspirational for young people, do things that are positive for the company, without having to be CEO. I think that would be a positive scenario.
As a business consultant: what would be the top five things you would tell Tim Cook?
1.) Maintain a positive relationship with Steve Jobs: No matter what happens, that's an important part of his job. Because if he doesn't do that, it's not going to work. If he comes across as trying to put him down, or doing anything negative, he can only lose. So job one is maintaining a positive rapport with him.
2.) Maintain a positive relationship with the board.
3.) Have a contingency plan.
4.) Look in the mirror. Figure out what you can do with Steve Jobs helping you and what you can't do without Steve Jobs and start working immediately for all contingencies.
That's four. Let's say the worst happens, and Jobs doesn't come back. What does Apple need to do then?
I think that the company has to work very hard to establish a company identity outside of [Jobs]. He is not the person that stands for all of these things. And you can do that without demeaning him, and you can do that in a way that is positive for him and his history, tradition, and memory.
For more, please read: Steve Jobs: What They're Saying,, Apple Will Be Fine Without Jobs As CEO, and The Greatest Victories of Steve Jobs.
For more from Mark, follow him on Twitter @MarkHachman.


text:
Rory McIlroy was closer than ever to a first Major title as the US PGA Championship made up for lost time on Saturday, and he was not the only European Tour Member in the hunt.
Following long fog delays on the first two days it was all systems go at Whistling Straits - and, thanks to a five under par 67, 21 year old McIlroy was in joint second place with American Dustin Johnson with 18 holes left of the final Major of the season.
He was also, however, three behind another of the home contingent Nick Watney, who despite a closing bogey shot 66 for 13 under and remained the likeliest of the trio to become the sixth first-time winner in the last seven Majors.
McIlroy, five under at halfway, birdied three of his first five holes and after a slip on the eighth picked up the pace again on the back nine.
Further birdies came at the tenth, 13th and long 16th, the last of them lifting him out of a group containing German Martin Kaymer, Australian Jason Day and China's Liang Wen-chong, who set a new course record with a sparkling 64.
"I'm very excited," said Kaymer. "There's a lot going on tomorrow, with The Ryder Cup as well - that's obviously important that I secure my spot there.
"But my goal now is to finish in the top five, top three - that would be great. If I'm playing exceptionally well tomorrow for the first time that I'm in the lead maybe or close, then of course I want to win, but top three, top five - that would be awesome."
McIlroy also revealed he was considering a conservative approach.
"I'm not going to be over-aggressive and stupid, but you are going to have to give yourself plenty of chances," said McIlroy, third in the event last year and at The Open Championship last month.
"I feel as if I've got to shoot something in the mid-60s, but you never know.
"You could go out and shoot a great score and Nick plays well and that's it."
Watney, who needs a top-four finish to have a chance of a Ryder Cup debut at The Celtic Manor Resort in October, took charge with five birdies in his first seven holes as halfway pacesetter Matt Kuchar faltered.
He also bogeyed the eighth, but had three inward birdies before coming unstuck at the 500 yard last - a hole England's Simon Dyson (joint 14th after a 68) described as "probably the hardest finishing hole I've played in my life".
The 29 year old was seventh in the Masters Tournament and at St Andrews - and it took Phil Mickelson to deny him a World Golf Championship title last season.
The day's play began with the completion of the second round - and the story of the morning had centred on Padraig Harrington, who was distracted by a photographer as he hit his second shot into the hazard short of the 18th green and double-bogeyed to miss the cut by one.
Watney said: "The key was definitely my wedges and putting. I was spot on with those.
"I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. It's going to be a great challenge and I'm very excited.
"I can only control what I do. It's going to be a long day. It's going to be a tough day.
"I wish I could putt like I did today consistently, but I think it's more about just trusting it as opposed to anything physical.
"There's some really good players that haven't won a Major. And all the guys that have, at one point they hadn't won either, so you got to start somewhere and hopefully tomorrow will be my day."
Liang needed only 23 putts in an incredible round that propelled him 36 places up the leaderboard.
"After I made the cut yesterday so I feel much more relaxed today also and was able to play on the back nine from the tenth hole and it started well," he said.
"So that started building the confidence. And also today the driving, also putting and all very well and so it makes the whole round very good."


text: Change the personality of your projects just by adding texture stamps. Keep it simple with one image or layer a few for more character. Our clear-mount stamps * Are made of the same premium rubber as our wood-mount stamps.* Have deeply etched images so you get a superior stamped impression each time. * Are precut so you don't have to trim.* Are repositionable; temporarily mount them on clear blocks for stamping, then remove them for storage.* Save space—you need only one set of blocks for all your clear-mount stamps (blocks sold separately). * Come packaged in cases with images on the spine for easy storage and quick reference.Quantity: 9 rubber stampsSuggested clear blocks (sold separately): a, b, c, h