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If you are working in digital marketing and haven't come across Kerboo yet, I would strongly recommend that you have a read over this article and get yourself signed up for a demo. Kerboo were formally known as LinkRisk but rebranded in June 2015. LinkRisk remains the name for their link scoring system in the Audit platform but the overall company name needed to change to become more encompassing of the variety of tools available within the suite.
I must start this post by saying that I am in no way affiliated with Kerboo; in fact, we (Koozai) pay to use their service. I wanted to write this post for three reasons:
- To have the ability to use the tool fully from start to finish to really get to grips with all the features
- To be able to share my thoughts and processes with you (the reader) to hopefully help you to get the most out of the tool if you decide after reading that you want to give it a try
- To help those who already use it maybe uncover some of the features that they might not have come across yet
We have been using it at Koozai since it first came out a couple of years ago and the tool has gone from strength to strength; adapting to what the industry needs in a tool. The team at Kerboo welcome any feedback from their customers and act on ideas that are put across to them which is extremely valuable in a service provider.
As I mentioned above, I have put together this post (it isn't a short one) to help you understand what Kerboo is and how you can and should be using it for your website.
Already aware of or using Kerboo? You can jump straight to guides on the individual modules by clicking on one of the links below.
Getting Started / Home / Audit / Investigate / Monitor / Peek / Rankings
If not, I will start by telling you a little more about the Kerboo platform before going into detail on what each module can do for you.
Let's get cracking….
So what is Kerboo?
Kerboo is a data intelligence and workflow platform for marketers. It is a tool that can be used by various roles in digital:
- SEO Execs
- Content Execs
- Brand Managers
- Affiliate Managers
- PRs
- Online Business Owners
- Many more……
There are five core modules that make up the Kerboo Suite. I will go into each of these in detail a little later on in the post but essentially, what Kerboo have done is put together a workflow that allows you to Audit, Maintain and Grow your Link Profile in a natural way. It is a collaboration tool for teams who are working on the same account, making it easy to manage a link profile without duplicating up on work.
It pulls link data from multiple sources such as MajesticSEO, ahrefs and Google Webmaster Tools (which ever platforms you link up) and de-dupes it so you have a working list of links to analyse.
Kerboo can also be used as a tool to analyse your competitors link profile and keep track of their Kerboo score overtime.
Why should I care?
With the ever changing Google algorithms, if you own a website, you should be using a tool like Kerboo to manage your link profile to try and future proof your website from search engine updates.
There are lots of different tools out there that help you to analyse your link profile but I haven't come across any other tool that pulls everything together in one central place so you can really manage it and grow it at the same time.
Kerboo isn't just designed for link profiles either. The Peek app is used by affiliate managers and networks to help them in publisher discovery. You can look for sites within a niche and exclude any sites that do not have an existing affiliate relationship. Its also possible to target a specific network so you can say "show me all the food bloggers who are working with network A but not network B"
When should I start using it?
I wouldn't wait until you have been hit by a penalty, you should keep on top of your link profile now and clean up links that could potentially harm your site in the future. Working on cleaning up a link profile can be time consuming (number of links dependant) but putting the work in now is a much better strategy than waiting to be hit.
Kerboo isn't just about auditing your existing link profile, you can use the different apps for a variety of things. For example, Peek (we will look at this in detail later) can be used to aid an outreach campaign or to uncover new affiliates for a network. Monitor can be used to make sure your good links remain present and don't get dropped. Rankings, well rankings does just that. It tracks rankings on Google for your core keywords.
What will it cost me?
There are eight different plans available to users plus a custom plan. Four of the standard plans are shown below. Pricing starts from £149 per month.
So, now I know what it is, how do I actually use it?
The next 5,000 or so words will walk you through each of the modules and give you steps on how to use them. I have looked at Kerboo from an SEO or Website Owners perspective looking to audit, maintain and grow my link profile. The screenshots used throughout are for the purposes of this exercise so the data will not match up as I am going through.
If you are already familiar with Kerboo and just want to find out more about a specific area of the tool, use the below links to quickly navigate to your area of interest.
Getting Started
When you first login to Kerboo, it will ask you to create a profile for the first website you want to analyse. Enter the details and hit continue. I mentioned at the start of this post that you can also use Kerboo to analyse competitors link profiles; if you are using it for that, I would recommend that you create separate profiles in Kerboo for each site you are looking to track.
You will be taken to the 'Home' screen where you can easily navigate to each of the different modules that Kerboo has to offer.
Once you have been using Kerboo and have worked your way through all the different apps, the Home screen will be a very interesting place for you to keep an eye on your sites performance. The below screenshot is what your Home screen could look like once you have started your work across each app.
The first logical module to use is Audit so I will walk you through using this providing you with insight into some of the features available to you.
Data Sources
There are five sources in which you can add data to Kerboo:
- Upload a file
- MajesticSEO
- Google Webmaster Tools
- ahrefs
- Paste Links
I would recommend that you use as many sources as you have access to as all link tools tend to have access to different links. If you would like to link Google Webmaster Tools to your account, you will need to add 'wmt at Kerboo dot com' (obviously as an actual email address) to GWT with restricted access. Kerboo will de-dupe all the links from each source so you only end up with one list taken from all sources.
Auto Imports
When importing from Majestic, Webmaster Tools or ahrefs, you will be asked if you want to import new links automatically each day. Unless you have another way of keeping on top of new links, I would strongly recommend this feature. You only use one credit for each link found.
Rescanning Link Profile
The next screen you will see will ask you about rescanning the link profile for the site. How you answer this will depend on a couple of things:
- How many credits you have in your Kerboo account: Each time you rescan the link profile, you will use credits to do this (one credit for every link rescanned)
- How frequently you will be making changes to your link profile: Removing links rather than adding links as this gets done with the auto imports
For me personally, I would rather rescan my link profile when I am ready so I would leave it blank.
Adding Additional Domains
You also have the option to add Additional Domains that are associated with your domain. This wasn't entirely clear from the screen but if you have any redirects set up for your domain, you should include them here. In the example below, I have included http://www.stateofsearch.com because this redirects into https://www.stateofdigital.com. By doing this you are telling Kerboo that it is a known redirect so that it doesn't raise any alarm bells within the system.
Once you have configured all your data, you then need to wait for Kerboo to analyse everything and pull it into the Audit tool. Depending on the size of your link profile this could take anywhere from 2 minutes to a couple of hours.
Control Panel
Don't worry if you get through the above process and realise that you missed something as you can change everything from within the Profile Control Panel or Add Additional Data section on each profile.
From within here you can update all of the above plus do a couple of extra things too:
The first step before you audit the links is to upload your existing Disavow file (if you have one). This is done within the Profile Control Panel. By doing so, you can make sure that the work you do in Kerboo gets added to your disavow file which you can keep updated at all times.
Profile Page
Once Kerboo have done all their analysis, it will be displayed to you in a very simple format.
You can tab through the graphs displaying your Kerboo, Anchor Text and TLDs.
The algorithm improves the more data is fed into it so the more websites using Kerboo the better it will become! From looking at how it scores the links, it isn't far off in a lot of examples.
Scoring System
The links are colour coded into five categories. I have explained each of them in the table below. Kerboo gives each link a score of between 0 and 1,000 (0 being excellent and 1,000 being the worst possible link).
Filtering the Link Profile
Scrolling down in the Audit section you will see a list of all the links pointing to your site with some information associated with each link. You can sort links by any of the columns.
If you were not using a tool like Kerboo to check your link profile, you would end us sifting through an Excel spreadsheet full of data making the task a lot more time consuming than it needs to be.
The most effective way to use this area of the tool is by making use of the filtering options. Just above the table of links, you will see the filters. You can filter by lots of different methods making what was once a long list of links come down to a more manageable size to work through.
If you want to apply a simple one stage filter then the normal filtering system will work for you but to really drill down the data you are working with, the advanced filtering works best as you can filter by multiple metrics.
In the example below I have asked to be returned all links that have a Kerboo score of Bad that are from forums.
Another nice feature that has been added is the Reports. You can drill down in a similar way to filtering but with pre-defined reports. The data is displayed in an easy to read format as it categorises all the links into sections.
Take a look at the report generated from clicking on 'Follow / No Follow'. You can then drill down into either section and continue your analysis from there. For each of the Reports, you can also see the data in a doughnut graph.
Adding Links to Lists
Once you have your filtered down list of links either using filtering or reports, you can use the 'Lists' feature to put your links into certain categories. You can either add the URL or the Domain, Kerboo will give the option when you select any of the options below.
I would start with the Bad and Suspect links and add all those to the 'Investigate' list unless you are confident from looking at the URL to say that you want it to be removed, approved or disavowed.
This will add your link to your 'Approved' List. You should add links here that you want to keep and make sure they don't get removed.
This will add the link to your 'Investigate' List. No algorithm is as good as the human brain so it is important that you also do manual checks on links to make sure you are making the right decision. Adding links to the 'Investigate' list allows you to use the 'Investigate' module quickly and easily. We will come onto look at that module in more detail later.
This will add the link into your 'Remove' list. Building up your list of 'Remove' links makes it very simple when you get to the stage of needing to go through and contact the webmaster for the site to get the link removed.
This will add the link to your 'Dissavow' List that you can export from Kerboo and upload to your site.
This will add the link to your 'Ignore' List. This is for links that don't require any real attention at the moment. If you add a link to the 'Ignore' list, the Kerboo score will be returned to 500 (Neutral).
Video Guide for using Audit
There is a handy 4 minute video that gives you a quick demo of Audit here:
Once you have gone through and categorised your links into either Approved, Investigate or Remove, the next step is to begin your investigation and the obvious place to go for this is the Investigate module.
Importing Links from Audit to Investigate
When you click through you will see the below screen. For the purpose of this exercise you should tick 'Import from Audit' and select your Investigate list.
The links you sent to the Investigate list will appear in a table format similar to the below.
Defining the Tags
Before you get started, it is important to define the tags so they match how your business works. Kerboo has pre-defined the tags based on what most would use but it is down to you to decide if this is right for you. If you have a team of people working on the same account, you need to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands the tagging system you have set up.
Each time you use Investigate for a new set of links, you can set up new tags which is a very handy feature which didn't jump out at me. You will see why this is a good feature a little later on when we start looking at using the Peek module.
Begin the Investigation
As soon as this is setup, you can hit Begin Investigation and start going through each of the links directly within the tool. A separate tab will open up so you can easily navigate through each of the links and look at the page to decide on the appropriate action.
One of the options that isn't shown in the screenshot below is (r). If you hit R on your keyboard, it will open the link in a new tab away from the Kerboo platform. Be careful though as some sites may have malware; Kerboo take the risk for you on this as they open the sites within their platform and show you a cached version so as not to harm their customers.
The progress bar at the top tells you how far along you are in your investigation. I spoke to Paul Madden from Kerboo and he said that the most links an individual person has investigated in one hour using the tool is 2,350!
NOTE: There is no way of investigating just one link. The idea is that you use Investigate to analyse sites on mass. When you start working in Investigate, I would suggest that you get through all the sites (you can stop and start) before you import any other links into investigate.
After the Investigation
Once you have gone through all the links, you will be returned to the main Investigate page where you have your original table of links but they will now be tagged based on the work you have just done. You can then filter these so you can see links with a certain tag and act on them accordingly.
For example, the screenshot below you can see all the links that I have added to my Disavow list.
Multiple people can use investigate on the same account and they will be served individual pages with all different links to investigate. You can also see the email address or name of the person that investigated the link. This is an awesome feature if you have a team of people working on auditing the same link profile.
Exporting from Investigate
On completion of your investigation, it is time to import the analysis back into Audit. Click on Export and you will see two options:
- Export to CSV
- Export to Audit
You can set this up so that each time you mark a link in Investigate, it will automatically export the data back into Audit or you can just do it manually. For ease I would just do it automatically unless there are multiple people working on the account and you want to review their work first.
Back in Audit, you can continue further analysis and filtering should you need to do more.
Putting Your Lists into Action
If that part is complete, this is when you need to start thinking about actually putting your lists into action. For example, the links that you have marked as Remove or Nofollow will need to be contacted to make that happen. We will come onto speak about Peak (another module within Kerboo) a little later which will help make this process a lot quicker.
Exporting Lists
When you click on Export within the Profile Control Panel (note: you will not see Export in the list if you are importing or scanning any links) the screenshot below will appear. You can see the predefined lists that are already set up making it nice and easy to see what can be exported and in what format. There is also the option to download all your links which will include the list you have added them to if you prefer to play around with data in Excel.
Create Disavow List
At the bottom of that screen, you will see the Google Disavow File button. By clicking on this, all the links that you marked as disavow in Audit will be added to a text file that you can upload easily to Google Webmaster Tools.
Exports are not always instant; they will appear in the Exports section in the sidebar on the left.
Links that have been added to your Approved List at the Audit stage will most likely be links that you care about and would not necessarily want to lose. For example, let's say that you had an awesome link from the BBC, you would not want this link to change in any way and you definitely would not want to lose it.
On the flip side, you might also like to keep track of the links on your Remove list to check when sites act on your request after you have outreached to them.
This is where Monitor comes in. Kerboo have added this module so that you get alerted if one of your Approved or Remove links change.
You can use Monitor to tell you if any of the below happens to a link you are monitoring:
- The link rel changes
- The link anchor changes
- The link id changes
- The link class changes
- The link becomes active / inactive
- The Link To (destination) changes
When you first navigate to the Monitor module, you will see the screen below. You can select what you want to be alerted too but I would imagine you would want to keep all the options selected.
You can either paste the links you want to monitor in stage 3 or you can import your Approved or Remove lists from Audit. One or both options need to be used in order for Monitor to work. Leaving them blank doesn't mean that Kerboo will monitor all your links. The links will be checked automatically once a day.
Kerboo will then rescan all the links that you have asked it to before returning a screen like the below to you. From within here you can use the filters to drill down into each link that has changed and investigate what has happened and what you can do to get the link back.
You can filter by the following options:
In the table, you will be able to see why a link has changed by looking down the Changes column. Different colour circles are representative of a different type of change.
Moving on from Monitor, the next logical step is for us to look at Peek. Peek was designed to help you rebuild your link profile with quality links after you have completed the audit and removal stage. It helps website owners or marketers to identify websites for content placement or affiliate opportunities and gives you the contact details for the website making outreach a lot faster. Peek can also be used to aid with link removal in the previous process as you can find the contact details for the site you need to reach out to in order to get the link removed.
Kerboo have built up a huge database over the past few years and using Peek you can drill through a minefield of websites and really hone in on the ones that are most important for you in your outreach work. You can use Peek to find sites about a specific Keyword set, find people and what they are connected to via Email Address or find all the sites that are on a particular server by IP.
Keyword Search
The keyword search does just that. Search for sites based on the keywords that you add into the search.
In the example below, I have looked for sites related to 'Pizza', 'Takeaway' or 'Fast Food'. The first thing you will notice is a word cloud at the top of the page which you can use to drill your site list down even further. If one of the words in the cloud seems relevant simply click it and add it to your search.
Once you have got all your keywords in place, it is time to take a look at the list of results that have been found for you. The filtering is brilliant in Peek; you can really drill down using the advanced filters to get to the websites that you are interested in looking at without doing a huge amount of work first. Kerboo has done this work up front for you.
Filtering in Peek
Here are the things that you can filter by:
You can save your filter so that when you come back into Peek you can use the filters again without having to start from scratch each time. Name them sensibly though; I would recommend including the core search term in the name along with what filters you have selected.
In the example filter below, I have asked Kerboo to display all sites that have a contact method and an RSS feed who are based in the UK.
List of Sites
I have been returned 431 results of which I can either export and view the data in a csv file or I can just view each result from within Kerboo. Exporting data does cost you credits; one for each domain exported but you do get the data for each site in an easy to use spreadsheet if you do it this way. You might want to drill down using some more of the filters to make this list more targeted but for the purposes of this, I am leaving as it is.
Each column can have a sort applied so you can view the data that is most important for you. The Social column is interesting and each of the icons has a hover over so you can see what they all mean. From this column you can see whether the site has a:
- Twitter Account
- Facebook Account
- Google+ Account
- Email Address
- Contact Page
- What keyword tags are relevant to the site
The best way to use Peek in my opinion, is to go through each of the domains listed within the interface and look at the data associated with each. The screenshots below show you the information that you can find for each site listed.
Contact Details
The first thing you will see is all the contact details that Peek has found for the site. Anything left blank is obviously not available on the site.
Quick Stats
You can see some very top level stats for the domain which can be helpful depending on the reason that you are using Peek.
Kerboo pulls relevant keywords and tags into this area to give you a quick overview of what the site is about.
Kerboo are aware of when a site is linking out to an affiliate of some description. They track around 60 – 70 affiliate networks and in turn, can pull in details about any affiliate networks a site is featured on.
Advertising Details
If a site offers advertising in the traditional sense (EG banner ads), then they often have a page or section on the site dedicated to telling you about it. As you can see from the screenshot below, this is true for Great Days Out.
Meta Details
From here you can see all the sites Meta details including title, description, keywords, generator, robots and RSS. This is for the main Home page of the site.
Social Media Details
The numbers you see here are not based on the following the site has on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. It is based on how many times that root domain URL has been shared on the platform.
The numbers are likely to be bigger than what the accounts will have as Kerboo is looking for reach rather than just numbered.
SEMrush Data
This graphs gives you a snapshot on the traffic from Google.com on SEMrush. Kerboo have said that they are working on this particular area to make the graph and data more beneficial to their users so I will be interested to see what they do with this.
Majestic Data
Where Kerboo is linked with Majestic data, you can see a snapshot of information pulled directly from there. In the example below you can see where a site is placed within the Majestic Million, the Citation and Trust Flow and the number of Backlinks. You can also see the topics that the site is listed in.
This table will show you the sites Adsense and Analytics IDs if they are present. This is very helpful to see if they have any other sites using the same IDs. In the example below you can see 11 instances of the same Google Analytics ID.
Clicking through on the number will take you to a new screen with an advanced filter showing you all sites using that ID. The likelihood here is that all sites are owned / run by the same person so you can save yourself time and reach out to the owner for multiple sites (if relevant).
Whois Details
You can use this section to find out more information about the domain registrant. Where there are multiple instances on any of the details, you can drill down to find out the details for the other sites managed by the same registrant. In the example below, you can see thousands of sites owned by the same registrant which would indicate that the hosting provider registers and controls them all.
In the second example, you can see that this is more likely going to be an individual that has registered the site.
Hosting Details
The hosting details section is good to see whether a site is on a shared server and if so, what other sites are hosted on that server. Additionally, you can also see how many sites are using the same IP address. In the example below, you can see 1,188 instances on the same IP and 25,063 instances on the same C Class! You can click through to drill down on this data further by clicking on the number within the Instances column.
Latest Posts
If there is a blog present on the site you are reviewing, you can see in this section a few of the latest posts that have been published.
Similar Sites
This is one of the most interesting features from within Peek for me. If you have found a site that you like the look of, you will want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and look at what is returned within Similar Sites. The Kerboo algorithm looks at what makes up the site you are looking at and returns others that are of a similar makeup. This can speed up your research and outreach phase massively as you will have a list of sites here that could potentially very interesting for you.
Marking Sites as Favourites
As you are going through the sites, you can mark the ones you want review in more detail as favourites by clicking on the Star next to the domain.
The following two features will only appear once you have favourited a domain.
Your Notes
Use this area to write notes about the site. This is not visible anywhere externally, just within Kerboo. If you have different people working with you that come across the same site in their research, you can see the shared notes which acts as a kind of internal CRM system.
Your Tags
You should use this to add tags that are relevant to the domain you are looking at. This will prove invaluable once you get to the end of your research in Peek. If you have different people working with you that come across the same site in their research, you can each see the shared tags.
Import to Investigate or Export to CSV
Once you have a list of all your favourited sites and added your notes and tags, you will either need to return to Investigate and import the links from Peek so you can perform the full analysis there or export the links to csv.
Export links by added an advanced filter in Peek which only shows you the domains you have favourited (see below).
If you are going to pull the links back into Investigate, I would recommend that you make sure your previous analysis from Audit has been completed. I will explain why shortly.
Back in Investigate, you can import the links from Peek by ticking the box and selecting which ones you would like to import (All favourites or certain tags).
Editing Investigate Tags for Peek
Once the links have been imported, you can change the Tags within Investigate to match the work that you are doing. Historic tags for links you have already investigated will not be changed. For example, when you use Investigate from Audit, your tags are more likely going to be geared around disavow, approve, remove etc but doing this from Peek, they will be different.
Tags for Peek could look like:
Export to CSV or back to Peek
On completion of the work in Investigate, you can either export the data into a CSV or you can export it back into Peek where the tags you have added will be appended to the sites. Depending on what you are doing, exporting in both formats will most likely be needed so you can act upon the data and begin your outreach campaign.
Peek Email Search
The second method for using Peek is to search for a specific email address to find out more about that person. Kerboo hold a lot of public data for individuals that will come in handy when you are doing outreach or just trying to find out more about a person.
Have a look at the screenshot below. All I entered was James Crawford's email address and I got back a huge amount of data about him from his social profile usernames through to the different sites he is associated with.
Peek IP Search
The third and final way of using Peek is to search by IP or by domain to understand what other sites are on the same server or C Class. You can then drill down into each of these for further investigation.
For the search I did for www.koozai.com, I can see that there are 3 domains on the same IP and 94 on the same C Class.
Drilling down into the C Class information, I can look through to see the types of sites we have as neighbours. The one and only Russell Watson is hosted on the same server as Koozai 🙂
12 Minute Video Guide to Using Peek
If you want to watch a quick video guide on how to use Peek, you can click below.
Peek It Bookmarklet
We always come across sites that might be of interest to an outreach campaign on our travels. Kerboo have created the Peek It Bookmarklet so you take look at a sites Peek data from wherever you are on the web.
The bookmarklet can be access here: https://peek.Kerboo.com/bookmarklet
When you click on the bookmarklet whilst on a site, the below screen will appear. You can see some nice top level information about the site and then you can choose to open the site in Peek for further analysis should you wish.
This is the last of the six modules and is a logical place to end as we have gone full circle on our link management campaign. Going back to the start of the process first we performed the audit, followed by the investigation which led us to conduct the link removal campaign. After that, we monitored the link profile to make sure the good ones stayed and the bad ones were actually removed. The next stage was moving onto the outreach campaign to push some good links back into the site to replace the bad ones we removed (Audit >> Investigate >> Monitor >> Peek). Rankings is there to help you keep track of the search engine positions for your important keywords; tracking the movement as you work hard to clean up your link profile and encourage new and better quality links.
Adding keywords to Rankings couldn't be more straightforward. Simply add your keywords, select the location and choose whether you would like reports sent to you either Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Never.
Once you have added the keywords, depending on how many, Kerboo should return the data to you within around 20 minutes or so.
You will be able to see the current Google ranking position for each keyword and this will begin to be plotted on the graph overtime as the data accumulates. Regardless of when you have said you want data reports, Kerboo will check the ranking on a daily basis.
Within the Notifications section, you can ask Kerboo to inform you via email instantly when:
- A ranking drops/gains from page one to page two
- A ranking drops from #1 or gains to #1
- A ranking drops/gains more than 10 places
The ranking data is displayed in a table as well as in a graph at the top of the page. Kerboo give you a snapshot view of where your keywords are ranking within the top six boxes on the screen. You can see the number of keywords you are tracking, how many are in #1 position, how many are in #2 position, how many are on page one, how many are on page two and how many are on page 1 to 10.
If the graph is looking a little cluttered, you can simply click on the keywords next to the graph that you don't want to see and the graph will recreate just containing those that you have left.
As with all areas within Kerboo, you can export the data but this time, you can only export to CSV as there is no other app that would benefit from utilising this data.
So there you have it, my epic guide to using Kerboo! At just over 6,000 words I do hope you have found it useful and I would love to hear your thoughts on the tool and whether there are any other ways you would recommend using it.
If you are not a customer of Kerboo and would like to get a demo, you can get in touch with Gareth, Paul or Dom here.
You can download the PDF Version of this post by right clicking here. But only if you promise to tweet what we say below 😉
[Tweet "I just downloaded the epic post from @koozai_sam on @Kerboo on @stateofdigital!"]


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As most of you know by now…I am addicted to e-book freebies and sales. I hoard e-books like nobody's business and I like to think that I have enough books stashed on my kindle to last me a lifetime. (In truth probably several lifetimes!) I always look for e-books under $3.00 because to be honest…if it costs more than that, I'd rather just buy the paperback! I was doing my monthly..ok weekly..search for cheap e-books and I had such a hard time choosing which ones to buy! I was amazed at how many great books were out there to be had for so little.
So I decided to periodically share some of my finds with you guys! Click on the cover to check the books out on Amazon. I'll repost some titles as long as they are still on sale. Keep in mind that some of these may be full length books, some only novellas…and that I have not read them all so unless I specifically recommend a title, I am only bringing the sale to your attention.
Also pricing changes constantly on Amazon so please confirm the price before buying!!
|For more Freebies, Steals & Deals – See my main page here: E-Book Hoarding Main Page
Middle Grade
Young Adult
New Adult
Adult Romance
Adult Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Science Fiction
Adult Cozy Mystery
Adult Fantasy and/or Paranormal
Adult Chick Lit, Historical Fiction and/or Literary Fiction
Non Fiction
|For more Freebies, Steals & Deals – See my main page here: E-Book Hoarding Main Page

subset: commoncrawl


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So-called privacy expert lauds bill brimming with anti-privacy measures as being "good for privacy"
Paul Joseph Watson
Friday, April 20, 2012
Forbes writer Kashmir Hill responds to our report about black box data recorders becoming mandatory in all new cars under a bill set to be passed by the House by accusing Infowars of engaging in a "freak out" and claiming the legislation is "good for privacy" when in reality it destroys privacy.
"The big news in automotive privacy this week is that Congress is on the verge of passing a transportation bill that will make "big brother" black boxes mandatory in all new cars. InfoWars is encouraging drivers to freak out about the horrific invasion of privacy represented by the government's insisting that all Americans have event data recorders that reveal exactly what happened before and after a crash. But the truth of the matter is that most Americans already have black boxes in their cars. They've been around since 1996, are found in at least 60 million vehicles, and are a feature in 85% of new cars every year," writes Hill in a piece entitled Hate To Break It To You, But Your Car Likely Has A Black Box 'Spying' On You Already.
Hill's attitude seems to stem from the mind set that the state has already eviscerated our privacy, so why should we bother fighting back to salvage what's left of it? She brazenly dismisses fourth amendment rights as "roadkill" simply because having a black box in your vehicle might help the authorities work out who was responsible for an accident.
The most chilling aspect of this approach is that Hill bills herself as a privacy expert yet she has no idea about the 'slippery slope' principle and has seemingly failed to read the 'Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act' (MAP-21), on which her article is based.
The point of our original story was not that the black boxes will merely be in all new cars from 2015 onwards if this bill passes, it's that it will be mandatory to activate them and anyone who attempts to deactivate them will be hit with civil penalties under section 31406 of the bill. This is about creating the groundwork for a future tax by the mile system which has been aggressively promoted by the Obama administration.
Sinking further into the depths of idiocy, Hill claims that both the mandatory black boxes and the entire bill itself are "actually good for privacy in a few ways," because the legislation establishes "that the data in the recorder belongs to the owner (or lessee) of a vehicle."
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
- {openx:74}
Just like every other piece of data was originally owned by us – web history, phone calls, library records, until the government demanded ISPs, cell phone companies and libraries turn them over in the name of security.
In addition, the empty-headed notion that the bill is "good for privacy" completely ignores the other sections of it which Hill has obviously failed to read.
Section 53006 of the bill – the "Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications systems deployment," creates the framework for all vehicles to be connected wirelessly to other vehicles and infrastructure (such as the new street lights which are being installed with "Homeland Security applications" and can listen in on conversations), greasing the skids for constant real-time tracking, eavesdropping and surveillance.
Presumably, Hill thinks that all vehicles being connected to the 'Internet of things' – a transformation which CIA chief David Petraeus recently hailed as making it much easier for the government to spy on you – is also "good for privacy"?
The legislation also includes a provision that allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes, a measure slammed by legal experts as anathema to the constitution.
Presumably Hill thinks the IRS sharing information about your financial situation with the TSA and US Immigration authorities is also "good for privacy" too?
Is it any wonder that people are turing away from the mainstream media in droves when columnists like Hill, who grandstand as privacy experts, praise legislation like MAP-21, a bill that is brimming with horrendous measures that will destroy privacy, as being "good for privacy"?
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
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The Cornelius C. Platter Civil War Diary, 1864 - 1865
- Coverage Dates: 1864-1865
- Update Frequency: Complete
- Audience: General, research, student
The Cornelius C. Platter Civil War Diary of Lt. (later Capt.) Cornelius C. Platter, of the 81st Ohio Infantry Volunteers, from November 10, 1864 to April 27, 1865. Platter's diary details Sherman's march through Georgia from Rome to Savannah and the march north through the Carolinas. He gives dates, times, and lengths of marches and describes the weather, locale, scenery, and food as well as orders, rumors, positions, troop morale, and administrative duties. The diary also includes a description of the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, the news of the Confederate surrender, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Database Provider: Digital Library of Georgia
• Database Tutorial: DLG Help Information
Express Link (bookmark): http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zlpd


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Considering going green?
Decorating experts the world over will advise you to live in a neutral world.
They concur that a neutral colour scheme makes your home easier to sell and decorate.
But living in a beige coloured world is not much fun.
If you haven't experimented with colour before, it can seem daunting.
Especially when there seems to be so much written about how colour can affect mood.
The scientific studies related to this though, remain largely inconclusive.
It's best then, to find a colour that makes you feel good and start to experiment with it.
A good place to start is with green.
Green is one of the easier colours to decorate with. It is the colour of nature and plants and if you are a follower of Feng Shui – you will know that it represents growth, vitality, abundance, and nature.
To keep the look modern, stick to dark forest greens.
Pair the colour with timber.
The patina of wood fits naturally with green and you only have to look outside your window to see it works well together.
White is an obvious choice when choosing decor items, but don't be afraid to match bold with bold.
The effect of black or gold on green is quite striking and will bring your room to life.
Dark forest green is seen as a traditional colour and is often seen in the regal palaces of Europe.
You can pair heavier, more traditional furniture with this look, but don't discount keeping things relevant and and using fresher pieces against your green walls.
Lighter timbers work equally well and the use of a bold background will bring out the design element of your furniture.
Green is a great base for any room and evokes the feeling of intelligence and creativity, so get out the paint and go green today.


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Sometimes I go for what I find interesting instead of what is considered important. Having this attitude has been educational and it has let me produce work that I'm exceptionally proud of but it has also made me miss deadlines and disappoint people.
Sometimes I think that I do this because I don't want to break my curiosity. I'm afraid that if I ignore it I may gradually lose it.
Do you have any advice?
Meta: How can I make this a community wiki?


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Creamy seafood stew
Nutrition and extra info
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal270
- fat9g
- saturates3g
- carbs11g
- sugars6g
- fibre1g
- protein31g
- salt2.22g
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Olive oilol-iv oyl
Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…
- 1 onion, chopped
Onions are endlessly versatile and an essential ingredient in countless recipes. Native to Asia…
- 2 celery sticks, chopped
A collection of long, thick, juicy stalks around a central, tender heart, celery ranges in…
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 175ml white wine
- 300ml chicken stock
- 1 tbsp cornflour, mixed to a paste with 1 tbsp cold water
- 400g bag frozen seafood mix, defrosted
- small bunch dill, chopped
- 5 tbsp half-fat crème fraîche
- garlic bread, to serve
Part of the lily, or alium, family, of which onions are also a member, garlic is one of the most…
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion and celery until soft but not coloured, about 10 mins. Throw in the garlic and cook for 1 min more. Pour in the wine and simmer on a high heat until most has disappeared.
Pour in the stock and cornflour mix and simmer for 5-10 mins, stirring often until thickened. Season, then add the seafood and most of the dill. Simmer for a few mins until piping hot, then stir in the crème fraîche.
Meanwhile, cook the garlic bread following pack instructions. Divide the stew into warm bowls and scatter with the remaining dill. Serve with garlic bread for dipping into the stew.


text:
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My friend Gerda, who has a heart of gold, just got her rescue website up. Animal Aid is a 501 (C) 3 not for profit organization.
I especially would like you to look at the "About" section. Gerda has written a beautiful introduction. When you see the photo of Gerda and Sugar (RIP) in her hospital bed, you will surely be brought to tears.
This woman is an Angel, in my eyes. I am very fortunate to have her as a friend. I have learned so much from her about dogs and life.
Thank you for looking:


text:
Design Challenge
Only for Design Guru's and Aspiring Design Hacks!
We need the best of the best designers out there. If you're a design guru or if you think you could send us a visual draft or graphic design sketch for eurodesign.com or eurozone.com, then please enter this challenge!
Start: 2019-03-22
End: 2019-12-20
From: 2019-12-26
To: 2019-12-27
We will never rent, sell or share your email to a third party.
Sponsor a challenge or a set of challenges! In return you will get traffic, advertising, company and/or brand partnership with Global Ventures.
Head on to Sponsor Registration so you can start browsing and sponsoring the challenges you feel are in sync with your goals.
Click the sponsor link and our admin will contact you personally to setup your sponsorship incentives.


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Please login to proceed with payment. Alternatively, you can register by clicking the register button or you can continue shopping.
Find the perfect pen for your tablet or display
Get the feel you want from your tablet.
Protect your tablet or display with a custom-fitted travel bag.
Enjoy the freedom of wireless connectivity.
If your wacom device requires a battery or power supply, you'll find it here.
New overlay for your tablet, or anti glare adhesive for your Cintiq 21UX.
Whether it's a Smudge Guard or a tutorial DVD, get the most out of your tablet
Find the perfect pen for your tablet or display


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Love in the Animal Kingdom
Animals dance, sing, flirt and compete with everything they've got to find and secure a mate. For many, the all-important bonds they share as a couple are what enable the next generation to survive. Can we call these bonds love? In this delightful, provocative look at the love life of animals, watch the feminine wiles of a young gorilla, the search for Mr. Right among a thousand flamingos, the open "marriages" of blue-footed boobies, the soap opera arrangements of gibbons and all the subtle, outrageous, romantic antics that go into finding a partner.


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Last Call!
Start FREE
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Why we're here:
School districts get huge discounts on their curriculum. Why not homeschoolers? The reason is simple: school districts have purchasing power and homeschoolers don't because we purchase as individuals. The Homeschool Buyers Co-op changes that for homeschoolers everywhere.
What we provide:
We save you 20%-90% on your homeschool curriculum. By pooling the purchasing power of our entire membership, we are able to call major educational publishers and homeschooling curriculum providers and negotiate much better prices for our members than they can get on their own. And it works! Virtually every vendor will give discounts for their homeschool curriculum if they are assured adequate volumes.
How we do it:
How do we get the volumes needed for affordable homeschooling programs? We do it through a unique process called a "GroupBuy". Essentially, we negotiate volume discounts with the homeschool curriculum publishers, then put an offer out to our members that says, for example, "Hey, Co-opers, you can get 20% off for this homeschool curriculum if you purchase by the end of the month, but if we get 20 members to sign up, everybody will get 30% off, and if 50 members sign up, everybody will get 40% off and so on." Once the GroupBuy is complete, we are often able to lock in those GroupBuy savings and offer them year-round.
Why you should join:
Great deals are not the only reason for joining the Co-op. Read the top 5 reasons for joining.


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I've got an Anti-AOL reader who recently used their AOL email to whistleblow in such a way that their life is now possibly endangered. Given that this person got to this point over not knowing how to send anonymous email anonymously, I thought a quick tutorial on how to do it right, especially if you use AOL email, might be a good idea.
When using AOL email is a fairly safe and anonymous way to communicate
- When you sign into AOL's dial-up software (the thing that yells "You've got mail!") with your computer's dial-up modem as your only connection to the Internet while using an anon-looking username that reveals no personal info in your AOL or Bebo profile. So you sit down at your PC, open your AOL software, sign in as gooblygookhaha!1!11, then listen as your dial-up modem screeches until it connects. So far, so good. Now you send an email directly from your AOL software. This is a fairly good way to hide your IP address (the number that can reveal your approximate location to others who view the headers of your email). The tl;dr technical explanation on why this is a fairly anon way to communicate is here.
- HUGE CAVEAT: Even this method is not a bulletproof way to hide your identity or location from anyone. All it takes is one court order from a sufficiently determined party to force AOL to hand over your contact and billing details to any interested legal authority.
When using AOL email is not a fairly safe nor anonymous way to communicate (that is: most of the time)
- Say you sign into AOL's dial-up software with any username that resembles your real name, such as iampatsyclineha!ha!1!1. Won't work. Forget it.
- Say you sign into AOL's dial-up software with a username like gooblygookhaha!1!11 but your Bebo or AOL profile contains info like your street address, home state, phone number, pictures of you, other email addresses tied to your real name, AIM and other chat handles tied to your real name, comments indexed by Google under the username, etc. Won't work. Forget it.
- Say you sign into AOL's software at home or work using any ISP besides AOL dial-up (such as Verizon, Comcast, Brighthouse, Time Warner Communications, CenturyLink, etc.). Doing so will reveal your IP address to AOL, which in turn will force your IP to show up in the headers of email you send from AOL or from any other email client (such as Outlook or Thunderbird) or any other online email service (such as AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) that you use.
- When you sign into AOL's online email from any connection to the Internet besides AOL dial-up.
- When you use your old cell phone, current iPhone, new smart phone, PDA, Blackberry, Android tablet or any other smart/wifi-enabled device to sign into AOL's online email.
How to ensure you remain anonymous while using AOL email
This is where I review a few key points and make some suggestions to help you play it safe.
- Don't use a connection to the Internet from your broadband, DSL, or cell phone service provider to use AOL email. If you use AOL's dial-up software with your dial-up modem to connect to the Internet, do make sure you sign into AOL with an anon-looking username with no profile/contact info or comments tied to it that might reveal your true identity. Do be aware that even this is not a bulletproof way to remain anonymous.
- Do use the free wifi (wireless Internet connection) available at public libraries, cafes, and other hotspots where people congregate in large, mostly unknown masses. But for an extra layer of protection, don't sign into AOL's online email from any hotspot until you visit a free web proxy. Choose a proxy from the list on any free proxy website by clicking on it, then on the next page you see, type in the address you want to visit (like http://aol.com/), then press the Enter button on your keyboard or click the button next to or below the address box you just filled in.
- For maximum anonymity, do forget about using AOL email altogether. Also forget about using Hotmail, Yahoo, GMail, or any other "normal" online email service, as all of them will throw your IP address up in the headers of any email you send. Instead, go to your chosen hotspot, connect to a free web proxy (you can then connect to another proxy from the first one, if you're really paranoid or just need to take every possible precaution), then use a disposable or highly anonymous email address to get your super-seekret business done.
Caveat Emptor, yo: This page does not represent an exhaustive list of options for sending anonymous email, nor does following the suggestions here guarantee you will remain anonymous. Following them may simply help reduce your chances of exposure.


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get (one's) dander up
get (one's) dander up
To become annoyed or angry. Don't get your dander up with me—I'm just trying have a conversation here. I know I got my dander up a bit last night, so I understand why you're avoiding me.
get someone's dander upand get someone's back up; get someone's hackles up; get someone's Irish up; put someone's back up
Fig. to make someone get angry. (Fixed order.) Now, don't get your dander up. Calm down. I insulted him and really got his hackles up. Bob had his Irish up all day yesterday. I don't know what was wrong. Now, now, don't get your back up. I didn't mean any harm.
get someone's dander upOLD-FASHIONED
If someone or something gets your dander up, they make you feel very angry. I read the article and have to admit, it really got my dander up. Note: The origin of the word `dander' is unknown.
get your dander uplose your temper; become angry.
The sense of dander in this originally US expression is uncertain, as neither dandruff nor dunder (meaning 'the ferment of molasses') seems entirely plausible.


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Maximising Kasai portoenterostomy in the treatment of biliary atresia: medical and surgical options
A GrieveI; M DavenportII
IDepartment of Paediatric Surgery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
IIClinical and Academic Head of the Department of Paediatric Surgery at King's College Hospital, London, United Kingdom
]]> Corresponding author
Biliary atresia (BA) remains one of the most challenging conditions in paediatric surgery. It has several possible causes, resulting in a range of different clinical scenarios. The current therapeutic approach is almost entirely surgical with an initial attempt to restore bile flow and preserve the native liver using a Kasai-type portoenterostomy. Liver transplantation (cadaveric or living donor) is usually reserved for failure or for infants presenting late with end-stage cirrhosis. The role of adjuvant medical therapy is unclear and evidence of benefit is lacking. Nonetheless, the use of post-operative steroids, prophylactic antibiotics and choleretic agents such as ursodeoxycholic acid is common. Ideally, the entire pathway should be complementary and seamless with few infants dying of end-stage liver disease or uncorrectable associated congenital malformations. Experience from high-volume centres suggests that clearance of jaundice can be achieved in 50 - 60% of infants, with 10-year native liver and real survival rates of 45% and 90%, respectively.
Ladd1 described his experience of operating on newborn infants with surgical jaundice at Boston Children's Hospital. Although it is unclear how many of his cases had genuine biliary atresia (BA), his results were remarkable, with 6/11 cases draining bile. Unfortunately, later reports identified most cases of BA as 'uncorrectable', with an inevitable dismal outcome despite many desperate surgical manoeuvres.2,3 Those surgical pioneers recognised that no matter how high the level of biliary dissection, it was not possible to identify any bile-containing structure to fashion any kind of conventional biliary anastomosis.
Kasai4 published his first report in the Japanese surgical journal Shujitsu in 1959. He recognised, albeit accidentally, that the apparently solid proximal biliary remnant contained microscopic biliary channels which retained a communication with the intrahepatic bile duct system. Therefore, if enough of these could be exposed in the porta hepatis and be drained into a Roux loop, then sufficient bile flow could be restored and jaundice would recede.
The results in 'uncorrectable' BA were greeted with scepticism in the West, and it was not until the 1970s that the procedure was taken up by institutions in the USA and western Europe. Our experience with the Kasai procedure at King's College Hospital dates from this era.5 Nevertheless, what Kasai performed in the 1950s and 1960s is not necessarily what we would recognise today. His original technique, while reaching the surgical plane flush with the liver capsule, does not attempt to go beyond a fairly narrow oval within the bifurcation of the portal vein (5 mm diameter), and uses a short Roux loop (25 - 30 cm) with a relatively crude anastomosis (5/0 surgical catgut).6 Later, authors sought to increase the area exposed by dissecting into the Rex fossa around the umbilical point (junction with left portal vein) and around the bifurcation of the right vascular pedicle.7,8 This more extended approach leaves a denuded area approaching 20 x 10 mm, to be incorporated into a longer (40 - 50 cm) Roux loop (Fig. 1).]]>
The only other element of the operation which changed, but was subsequently reverted to the original, was the design and configuration of the Roux loop. It became fashionable to open the loop to the skin as a stoma and then re-feed the bile back in again in an attempt to reduce the incidence of post-operative cholangitis.9 Other modifications with the same objective included the creation of 'valves' within the loop.10 Despite initial acceptance of theoretical benefit, neither manoeuvre has any advantage to the standard long Roux-en-Y limb. About 20% of cases have a patent common bile duct and gallbladder, leading to a mucocele, which can be used as the conduit with the transected porta hepatis (i.e. a portocholecystostomy). This abolishes the risk of cholangitis, but bile drainage is more tenuous and a much higher revision rate leads to failure.11 Efforts to use the appendix as a conduit have also been discarded with time.
The advent of minimally invasive surgery and laparoscopic techniques probably reached its apogee with a successful laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy (KPE) by a Brazilian team in 2002.12 Several small-series case reports followed, together with a prospective trial from Hannover, Germany.13-15 Most pioneers came to recognise that, while possible, the laparoscopic technique was sufficiently different to lead to poorer outcomes.15,16 Isolated centres in China, Japan and South America still offer this technique, but most larger centres have reverted.
What would constitute an open radical extended KPE today? The principles include a radical dissection within the porta hepatis to separate the proximal biliary remnant (and any lymphatic efferents) from the right and left portal vein and the hepatic arteries. Usually, small veins from the confluence of the portal vein are divided, exposing the caudate lobe as the posterior limit. The Rex fossa on the left side can be opened by dividing the isthmus of liver tissue connecting segments III and IV exposing the junction of umbilical vein with left portal vein. This triangular, pyramidal biliary remnant is then transected flush with the capsule, starting in the gallbladder fossa. It extends on the right side to incorporate a small triangular area between the anterior and posterior right vascular pedicle and on the left to the umbilical point. Controversy remains as to how best to expose the porta hepatis to achieve these goals. Since the 1970s, the large centres in London and Paris have advocated dislocation of the liver outside of the abdominal cavity by dividing the ligaments. Others advocate division of the left triangular ligament, extracting only the left lobe to achieve a similar objective. Others leave the liver within the peritoneal cavity, but sling the vascular pedicles to aid portal dissection.
KPE, as described here, should be associated with clearance of jaundice (to normal) in 50 - 60% of infants.5, 17
Key variables in outcome]]> BA should not be considered a single disease entity with a predictable natural history and stereotypical response to surgery. This aetiological heterogeneity is complex and our broad classification which seeks to categorise syndromic BA and cystic BA as examples of developmental BA and cytomegalovirus (CMV)-IgM-positive BA as a clinically defined virus-associated BA, still leaves many cases of isolated BA with no obvious definable aetiology.18
However, compared with isolated BA, infants with syndromic BA splenic malformation (BASM) respond less well to KPE and have a poorer overall outcome with a higher risk of death.5,19 By contrast, higher proportions of infants with cystic BA (usually type 1 and 2) clear their jaundice after KPE and have a better long-term outcome (Fig. 2).20,21 The outcome of these 2 types of developmental BA has a marked relationship to the age at which the KPE is performed. This is not seen so clearly in isolated BA. In our age-cohort analysis of infants aged up to about 100 days at King's College Hospital, we could not predict outcome (by clearance of jaundice or need for transplantation by 2 years) simply on the grounds of age. Certainly, no 'cut-offs' at 6, 8, or 10 weeks were evident.22
The poorest outcome and highest risk of death is in the group of infants with CMV-IgM-positive-associated BA. These infants are usually older at presentation and at time of KPE, are more jaundiced and have a pronounced hepatic inflammatory reaction with a higher degree of fibrosis. Consequently, their chance of clearance of jaundice following KPE is much lower and their need for transplantation correspondingly greater.23
Peri-operative regimens
Given adequate uncomplicated surgery exposing enough ductules, the question is: can more be done to improve the chances of eventual success? Medical management and perhaps pharmacology may help in 4 potential areas.]]> Bile drainage
Change of stool colour is evident in most cases in the first week post KPE; failure is inevitable if this does not occur. While the early return and degree of bile flow is related to anatomical factors evident and only correctable at surgery, there may be a role for other choleretic agents.
The efficacy of corticosteroids, which have been used for over 30 years post KPE, remains unknown. Despite this, about 50% of infants with BA treated in the United States of America receive postoperative steroids.24 The problem is one of scale: BA is rare and few centres see more than 5 new cases per year. This is compounded by surgeon and disease variation, leaving only small cohorts to analyse.25 A meta-analysis failed to find evidence of effect.26 A randomised placebo-controlled trial from 2 centres in the United Kingdom retrospectively reviewed low-dose prednisolone treatment (starting at 2 mg/kg/day) in 73 infants.27 The study showed early biochemical benefit (reduced 1-month bilirubin), but no effect on ultimate outcome (need for transplantation, etc.). Further evidence from one of the centres using a higher dose of prednisolone (5 mg/kg/day) showed continued biochemical benefit, resulting in an increased proportion clearing jaundice (Table 1).
Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been used in adult cholestatic diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, with evidence of benefit. It appears to increase choleresis, with protection of cholangiocytes and hepatocytes.28 A crossover trial from France assessed the effect of UDCA (25 mg/kg/day in 3 divided doses) on liver function in children more than 1 year post KPE in a discontinuation/re-introduction fashion. Sixteen children with BA all cleared their jaundice.29 Six months after ceasing UDCA treatment, 1 child worsened clinically with recurrence of jaundice, and all but 2 had significant worsening of their liver enzymes. On UDCA re-introduction, their biochemistry improved.
Other agents such as phenobarbital and the bile acid sequestrant, cholestyramine, have been studied in a small randomised trial in France, with no significant benefit.30
Prevention and treatment of cholangitis
Cholangitis may occur in children with some restoration of bile flow, typically in the first 2 years post KPE. Early use of potent intravenous (IV) antibiotics effective against gram-negative organisms remains the agreed first-line treatment, but there is controversy about the value of any published prophylactic regimen. Some centres insert a Hickman line and administer IV antibiotic for 4 - 6 months, while others do not administer anything.5
Limitation of hepatic fibrosis
Unlike many cholestatic conditions presenting in infancy, BA is characterised by relatively early aggressive hepatic fibrosis and, ultimately, cirrhosis that leads to life-threatening portal hypertension and the early need for transplantation.31 Modulation of this biological process would have immense benefit, but seems elusive and far distant. Asian centres routinely prescribe the Chinese herb Inchinko-to; claimed benefits include inhibition of apoptosis and liver fibrosis,32 but real evidence of benefit remains unpublished.
Nutritional management]]> BA infants are nutritionally compromised with deficits in protein metabolism, low muscle and liver stores of glycogen, obvious fat malabsorption, key deficiencies in fat-soluble vitamins (D, A, K and E) and, if cirrhotic, low serum and storage levels of zinc and selenium. Medical and dietetic attendants must maximise nutritional potential and maintain normal growth and development with sub-optimal liver and bile flow. This usually involves changing to a more appropriate formula (e.g. Caprilon (Nutricia)) with higher medium triglyceride levels) and regular parenteral vitamin supplementation. Early initiation of overnight naso-gastric feeding also helps to maintain effective calorie/ protein intake, which becomes crucial in the failing liver listed for transplantation, where outcome is directly related to nutritional status.33
Benchmark of outcomes in BA
KPE remains an important element in the strategic management of the infant with BA. In historical series, it was the only solution available. The Sendai (Japan) series reflecting Kasai's experience is a good example of surgical evolution.34 This showed 10-year survival rates of 10% for the first 63 patients treated from 1953 to 1967, 27% for 44 cases from 1968 to 1972, and 48% for 61 cases from 1973 to 1977. In addition, not all were jaundice-free, with major problems with cholestasis and portal hypertension. By comparison, in our recent experience in England and Wales, where liver transplantation is available to all regardless of status or income, overall 10-year survival was about 90% with native liver survival of 46%.17 Over 95% of those with their own livers are jaundice-free and have a good expectation of normal life. In England and Wales over the past 12 years, resources and expertise have been concentrated, which is probably the most important aspect of maximising KPE potential.
1. Ladd WE. Congenital atresia and stenosis of the bile duct. JAMA 1928;91:441-444. [ Links ]
2. Longmire WP, Sandford MC. Intrahepatic cholangiojejunostomy for biliary obstruction. Surgery 1948;24:264-276. [ Links ]]]>
3. Fonkalsrud EW, Kitagawa S, Longmire WP. Hepatic lymphatic drainage to the jejunum for congenital biliary atresia. Am J Surg 1966;112:188-194. [ Links ]
4. Kasai M, Suzuki S. A new operation for "non-correctable" biliary atresia: Hepatic portoenterostomy. Shujitsu 1959;13:733-739. [ Links ]
5. Davenport M, Kerkar N, Mieli-Vergani G, Mowat AP, Howard ER. Biliary atresia: the Kings College Hospital experience (1974-1995). J Pediatr Surg 1997;32:479-485. [ Links ]
6. Kasai M, Kimura S, Asakura Y, Suzuli H, Taira Y, Ohashi E. Surgical treatment of biliary atresia. J Pediatr Surg 1968;3:665-675. [ Links ]
7. Endo M, Katsumata K, Yokoyama J, et al. Extended dissection of the porta hepatis and creation of an intussuscepted ileocaecal conduit for biliary atresia. J Pediatr Surg 1983:18:784-793. [ Links ]]]>
8. Kobayashi H, Yamataka A, Urao M, et al. Innovative modification of the hepatic portoenterostomy Our experience of treating biliary atresia. J Pediatr Surg 2006;41:e19-22. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2005.12.056] [ Links ]
9. Ohya T, Miyano T, Kimura K. Indication for portoenterostomy based on 103 patients with Suruga II modification. J Pediatr Surg 1990;25:801-804. [ Links ]
10. Ogasawara Y, Yamataka A, Tsukamoto K, et al. The intussusception antireflux valve is ineffective for preventing cholangitis in biliary atresia: a prospective study. J Pediatr Surg 2003;38:1826-1829. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2003.08.025] [ Links ]
11. Zhao R, Li H, Shen C, Zheng S, Xiao X. Hepatic portocholecystostomy (HPC) is ineffective in the treatment of biliary atresia with patent distal extrahepatic bile ducts. J Invest Surg 2011;24:53-58. [ Links ]
12. Esteves E, Clemente Neto E, Ottaiano Neto M, et al. Laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy for biliary atresia. Pediatr Surg Int 2002;18:737-740. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00383-002-0791-6] [ Links ]]]>
13. Ayuso L, Vila-Carbó JJ, Lluna J, Hernandez E, Marco A. Laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy: present and future of biliary atresia treatment. Cir Pediatr 2008;21:23-26. [ Links ]
14. Dutta S, Woo R, Albanese CT. Minimal access portoenterostomy: advantages and disadvantages of standard laparoscopic and robotic techniques. J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A. 2007;17:258-264. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/lap.2006.0112Links ] Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">]
15. Ure BM, Kuebler JF, Schukfeh N, Engelmann C, Dingemann J, Petersen C. Survival with the native liver after laparoscopic versus conventional Kasai portoenterostomy in infants with biliary atresia: a prospective trial. Ann Surg 2011;253:826-830. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0b013e318211d7d8] [ Links ]
16. Chan KWE, Lee KH, Mou JWC, Cheung STG, Tam YHP. The outcome of laparoscopic portoenterostomy for biliary atresia in children. Pediatr Surg Int 2011;27:671-674. [ Links ]
17. Davenport M, Ong E, Sharif K, et al. Biliary atresia in England and Wales: Results of centralization and new benchmark. J Pediatr Surg 2011;46:1689-1694. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2011.04.013] [ Links ]]]>
18. Hartley J, Davenport M, Kelly D. Biliary atresia. Lancet 2009;374:1704-1713. [ Links ]
19. Davenport M, Tizzard SA, Underhill J, Mieli-Vergani G, Portmann B, Hadzic N. The biliary atresia splenic malformation syndrome: a 28-year single-center retrospective study. J Pediatr 2006;149:393-400. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2011.04.013Links ] Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">]
20. Caponcelli E, Knisely AS, Davenport M. Cystic biliary atresia: an etiologic and prognostic subgroup. J Pediatr Surg 2008;43:1619-1624. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2007.12.058] [ Links ]
21. Superina R, Magee JC, Brandt ML, et al. The anatomic pattern of biliary atresia identified at time of Kasai hepatoportoenterostomy and early postoperative clearance of jaundice are significant predictors of transplant- free survival. Ann Surg 2011;254:577-585. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0b013e3182300950] [ Links ]
22. Davenport M, Caponcelli E, Livesey E, Livesey E, Hadzic N, Howard E. Surgical outcome in biliary atresia. Etiology affects the influence of age at surgery. Ann Surg 2008;247:694-698. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0b013e3181638627Links ] Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">]]]>
23. Zani A, Quaglia A, Hadzic N, Zuckerman M, Davenport M. Cytomegalovirus-associated biliary atresia: An aetiological and prognostic sub-group. (abstract) Presented at 57th annual BAPS congress, Aberdeen, 22 - 24 July 2010. [ Links ]
24. Lao OB, Larison C, Garrison MA, Healey PJ, Goldin AB. Steroid use after the Kasai procedure for biliary atresia. Am J Surg 2010;199:680-684. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2010.01.014] [ Links ]
25. Kobayashi H, Yamataka A, Koga H et al. Optimum prednisolone usage in patients with biliary atresia post- portoenterostomy. J Pediatr Surg 2005;40:327-330. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2004.10.017] [ Links ]
26. Sarkey A, Schreiber RA, Milner R, Barker CC. Does adjuvant steroid therapy post-Kasai portoenterostomy improve the outcome of biliaryatresia? A systemic reviewand meta-analysis. Can J Gastroenterology 2011;25:440-444. [ Links ]
27. Davenport M, Stringer MD, Tizzard SA, McClean P, Mieli-Vergani, Hadzic N. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of corticosteroids after Kasai portoenterostomy for biliaryatresia. Hepatology 2007;46:1821-1827. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hep.21873] [ Links ]]]>
28. Paumgartner G, Beuers U. Ursodeoxycholic acid in cholestatic liver disease: mechanisms of action and therapeutic use revisited. Hepatolgy 2002;36:525-531. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/jhep.2002.36088] [ Links ]
29. Willot S, Uhlen S, Michaud L, et al. Effect of ursodeoxycholic acid on liver function in children after successful surgery for biliary atresia. Pediatrics 2008;122:e1236-1242. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2008-0986] [ Links ]
30. Vajro P Couturier M, Lemonnier F, Odièvre M. Effects of postoperative cholestyramine and phenobarbital administration on bile flow restoration in infants with extrahepatic biliary atresia. J Pediatr Surg 1986;21:362-365. [ Links ]
31. Ramm GA, Shepherd RW, Hoskins AC, et al. Fibrogenesis in pediatric cholestatic liver disease: role of taurocholate and hepatocyte-derived monocyte chemotaxis protein-1 in hepatic stellate cell recruitment. Hepatology 2009;49:533-544. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hep.22637] [ Links ]
32. Tamura T, Kobayashi H, Yamataka A, Lane GJ, Koga H, Miyano T. Inchin-ko-to prevents medium-term liver fibrosis in postoperative biliary atresia patients. Pediatr Surg Int 2007;23:343-347. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00383-007-1887-9] [ Links ]]]>
33. Moukarzel AA, Najm I, Vargas J, McDiarmid SV, Busuttil RW, Ament ME. Effects of nutritional status on outcome of orthotopic liver transplantation in pediatric patients. Transpl Proc 1990;22:1560-1563. [ Links ]
34. Ohi R. Biliary atresia: Long-term results of hepatic portoenterostomy. In: Surgery of Liver Disease in Childhood. Howard ER, ed. Oxford, United Kingdom: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991:60-71. [ Links ]
Accepted 19 July 2012.
Corresponding author: ]]>
M Davenport


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THE FIRM: Chapter 11 - The Hitman
AT THE OFFICES of Messrs. Venal & Grabbit, Solicitors, Mike McCheap has finished printing off all of the evidence he needs.
It's time to go and see Ronnie and Reggie Molotov.
He stuffs the papers into his briefcase and hurries out of the office.
What he does not yet know is that he is being followed...
Ronnie and Reggie Molotov have recently moved into their new luxury apartment on the sixty-fifth floor of The Shard, London Bridge (they have always liked to look down on others). Such prestigious apartments are only sold to the right kind of person, the sellers being "extremely selective" when choosing the people they wanted to do business with.
McCheap is taking the tube to London Bridge. He looks behind him before he enters the station, but can't see anyone he recognises. Satisfied that no one is following him, he enters the station.
What he has not noticed is a highly-suspicious looking tall blond man who IS following him.
What he does not know, even if he had noticed him, is that the Blond Man is Venal & Grabbit's resident hitman.
McCheap pushes his way on to the crowded platform. He looks up at the display and sees that his train is due next.
He makes his way through the crowd towards the platform edge, to make sure he gets on the train when it arrives. He occasionally glances behind him, but still does not notice the Blond Man, despite him sticking out like a sore thumb and looking highly-suspicious.
McCheap hears the train approaching. He looks down to make sure he is not too close to the platform edge, and notices that one of his shoe laces is undone. He bends down to tie it. As he does so, the Blond Man lunges at him.
The Blond Man flies over the top of the crouched McCheap and lands on the track in front of the on-coming train.
What McCheap DOES now know, although he would rather he didn't, is what it's like to see a highly-suspicious tall Blond Man get run over by a tube train.


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The first I ever heard of adding spice to hot chocolate was when I first watched the 2000 movie, Chocolat. Juliette Binoche added so much allure and sexiness to the art of making chocolate, and I fell under the spell of chocolate whenever I watched her work her magic on the rigid townspeople.
But it took years before it actually occurred to me to try it, so last winter I made hot chocolate with a pinch of cayenne, and it really does add something special that takes it beyond just a sweet, chocolaty drink to a concoction that's a little more mysterious.
In the same way that a pinch of salt makes sweets so much better, a little spice adds intensity to chocolate.
To create my hot chocolate cupcake, I started with a chocolate cake batter with a little cayenne and cinnamon. I thought the cayenne was a little too light, and would have liked to taste the spice more, but not knowing how other people would like it, I played it safe. My advice is to start with a little, taste the batter, and then increase to taste before baking.
After cooling the cupcakes, I scooped a little cake out of the center of each and filled them with barely sweetened whipped cream.
To top them off, I whipped up a fluffy chocolate buttercream, spiced with cinnamon and vanilla, then lightened it up by folding in more whipped cream, for a very light and airy swirl of frosting that tasted just like a creamy cup of hot chocolate.
Mini marshmallows and candy canes were the final touch.
For the photo shoot, I set up a mirrored cake stand next to our Christmas tree, and I loved how the mirror captured the reflection of the pretty lights and sparkling ornaments. I can hardly believe Christmas is less than two weeks away!
Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 1 Devil's Food Cake Mix
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk or buttermilk
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Filling and Chocolate Whipped Cream Buttercream:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 48 Mini Candy Canes
- Mini Marshmallows
Preheat oven to 375. Line pans with 24 paper cupcake liners.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cake mix, cocoa, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Add the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed to combine then on medium for 2-3 minutes, scraping the bowl down a few times, until well blended. Divide batter between the paper liners.
Bake for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Use a cupcake corer to remove a little bit of cake out of the center of each.
Pour the whipping cream into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip for 3 minutes, then sprinkle in the ¼ cup powdered sugar. Continue whipping until medium/firm peaks form that can hold their shape. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
To make the buttercream, place the butter in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa powder, 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, meringue powder and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add the vanilla and milk, then increase speed to medium/high and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until the buttercream is very light and fluffy.
Scoop about a cup of the whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe the cream into the center of each cupcake, filling the hole just to the top. Squeeze any whipped cream left in the piping bag back into the bowl.
Fold the remaining whipped cream into the chocolate buttercream in three additions, folding gently just until combined. Fit a piping bag with the Wilton #2D tip and fill with the whipped cream chocolate buttercream. Pipe onto the cupcakes. Garnish the frosted cupcakes with the candy canes and marshmallows.
Because the frosting contains whipped cream, cover the cupcakes and refrigerate if not eating right away. Take out of the fridge about an hour before serving.
Yields 24 cupcakes.
Recipe from Curly Girl Kitchen


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Course Description
EN 340 Victorian Literature 3-4 cr.
- Offered: Contact department for information
- Prerequisite: EN 211.
The important Victorian writers between 1820 and 1900, including Tennyson, Browning, Dickens and Arnold.
Note: Available for an additional research credit; students must be registered for the three-credit course before signing up for the additional credit. This additional credit must be added separately.


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Rainbow Moments Candles
August 4, 2007
Blue and white flames are so yesterday—red, green and orange are where it's at now. And by replacing standard candle wax with various minerals and crystals, Rainbow Moments Candles can produce these flames in the comfort of your own home. You can get them as both birthday candles or the decorative kind, or buy colored lamp fluid and make your camping trip that much more exciting.
Extract from Rainbow Moments


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Where's the roasted hatch chile guy? He was at our local farmers' market in August. Now he's gone, and I'm angry. That's because last time we saw him, Jeff turned to me and asked, "Do you want a 5-pound bag or a 20-pound bag?"
"20 pounds?! What am I gonna do with 20 pounds of roasted hatch chiles?" I said, incredulous.
We bought the 5-pound bag. Now I'm hatch chile-less.
I had no idea I'd become so attached. I can't stop thinking about them. I can still see that circular roaster tumbling warm hatch chiles like clothes in a dryer. I can still smell their woodsy, spicy fragrance that reminds me of crisp autumn nights in front of a fire. I can still taste their smoky, mouth-filling flavor and salivate at the memory every time.
I'm in hatch chile withdrawal.
If you've had hatch chiles, then you understand. If you haven't had hatch chiles, then find some. Quickly. Then add them to salsas and relishes, put them on hamburgers or hotdogs with Jack cheese, and fold them into scrambled eggs. When you run out, call me. We'll commiserate.
I haven't told Jeff this, but if the hatch chile guy doesn't show up at our farmers' market soon, I'll be catching a flight to New Mexico -- hatch chile heaven. Unfortunately I've missed their annual Hatch Chile Festival, but I know that you can't walk more than a couple of blocks in New Mexico without stumbling upon a man with a roaster and 20 pound bags of roasted hatch chiles.
Grilled Sirloin Steak with Hatch Chile, Corn, and Scallion Relish
Makes 4 servings
Printable recipe.
4 (6-ounce) pieces of steak, such as top sirloin, rib eye, or T-Bone
1-2 teaspoons olive oil for rubbing steak
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 ear sweet corn, kernels removed from cob
1/2 cup roasted hatch chiles, stems removed, chopped (about 2 whole chiles)
a few shakes of salt, to season
1. Pre-heat grill to high. Allow steak to come to room temperature. Rub it all over with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Warm 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add scallions and corn kernels and saute 2 minutes, until just browned. Add chopped chiles and warm through, about 2-3 minutes. Season with salt. Set aside.
3. Place steaks on the grill. Grill 5-6 minutes. Flip once using tongs (forks can puncture the meat, releasing tasty juices). Cook another 5-6 minutes for medium. Cook less time for rare and longer for well-done. Do the finger test for doneness: Press steak with your fingertip. Rare should feel soft and spongy; medium should feel moderately soft; well-done should feel firm. Transfer steaks to a plate. Cover with aluminum foil and let rest 5 minutes to seal in juices. Top each steak with a quarter of the relish, and dig in!
You might also enjoy these recipes from Food Blogga:
The Southwest Hamburger
Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
Turkey Burgers with Apples, Gruyere, and Sage Mayo
Healthy Chipotle Chicken Chili with Crispy Spiced Tortillas
Here are more hatch chiles recipes you might enjoy:
Hatch Chile Potato Salad recipe from San Diego Food Stuff
Turkey Green Chile Chili recipe from The Perfect Pantry


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Abdominal Hold
This is the sort of move that looks so wonky, you sure hope your roommate doesn't catch you doing it — unless she also gets to see you look stellar in a bathing suit, in which case she just may pull up a chair.
Do it:
Sit tall on the edge of a sturdy chair (or step with four risers) and place your hands on the edge with your fingers pointing toward your knees.
Tighten your abs and bring your toes 2 to 4 inches off the floor. Lift your butt off the chair.
Hold this position for as long as you can — aim for 5 to 10 seconds.
Lower yourself down and repeat.
Continue this exercise for 1 minute.The Side Crunch
A deceptively difficult move, the side crunch tests your balance while it teases your oblique muscles. (It worked my hips in a way I've not felt in a while, too.)
Do it:
Kneel on the floor and lean all the way over to your right side, placing your right palm on the floor.
Keeping your weight balanced, slowly extend your left leg and point your toes.
Place your left hand behind your head, pointing your elbow toward the ceiling.
Next, slowly lift your leg to hip height as you extend your arm above your leg, with your palm facing forward.
Look out over your hand while bringing the left side of your rib cage toward your hip.
Lower to your starting position and repeat 6 to 8 times.
Do two sets of 6 to 8 reps, and then switch sides.Opposite Arm and Leg Raise
Done during my workout warm-up, this move makes me feel longer, steadier, and seriously balanced. Thanks, core!
Do it:
Begin on all fours, aligning your knees under your hips and your wrists under your shoulders.
Raise your left arm to shoulder height and your left leg to hip height.
Hold for 2 counts, reaching forward with your fingers and back with your heels.
Repeat this exercise on the opposite side.
Do 15 to 20 reps, alternating sides.
For a bigger challenge, touch your opposite elbow to your knee as you pull your arm and leg in.The Prone Plank
A super-simple, do-anywhere move that zips up your abs a la Ms. Stefani. (Fingers crossed.)
Do it:
Get into a full pushup position with your palms on the floor beneath your shoulders.
Hold here for 30 seconds, with your abs contracted and your arms and legs extended and your head aligned with your spine.
As you build strength, hold this position longer, up to one minute.
Go deeper: Try the one-arm stable switching plank.Squat Thrust with Twist
I avoided this move at first because I thought it had "wrenched back" written all over it. But after doing slooowly at first and testing where the back tweaking would begin, I found the threshold between "yikes" and "yes!"
Do it:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and extend your arms in front of you at shoulder height.
Begin by squatting down, bending your knees 90 degrees, and twisting your upper body to the left.
Now come up and repeat the exercise to the right.
Keep your weight in your heels and don't allow your knees to jut forward away from your toes.
Keep your knees facing forward as your chest and shoulders move side to side.
For the best results, bend your knees as close to 90 degrees as possible.
The Climb Up
Crunchier than most of the lying-down crunches I've tried, this move also makes the cut simply because it's novel.
Do it:
Start by lying on the floor with a 3-foot-long scarf or towel wrapped around the ball of your right foot, knees bent, left foot on the floor.
Hold the scarf in both hands, and extend your right leg, keeping your foot flexed.
Slowly walk your hands up the scarf as you lift your head and shoulders off the floor. Hold for a count of 2.
Now lower yourself back to the starting position, walking your hands back down the scarf.
Do two sets of 8 to 10 reps on each sides Be sure to keep your head neutral — don't tuck your chin or tilt back.
Ballet Twist
I like the really generous side-stretching in this modified half-crunch. (When I first tried this move, I had a buddy hold my feet still at first until I got the motion down — it was helpful to have her watch my form and correct the angle of my back.)
Do it:
Sit on the floor and extend your legs, pressing them firmly together.
Lean back 45 degrees from the hips.
Keep your abs engaged as you bring both your arms overhead like a ballerina.
Slowly twist your torso to the right, placing your right arm on the mat. Keep your left arm reaching overhead for a slow count of 3.
Repeat the movement, keeping your left arm on the floor, and keeping your butt and heels on the floor.
Contract your abs to support your spine as you return to center, bringing both arms overhead.
Continue alternating sides. Do 2 sets of 6 to 8 reps on each side.
The Single-Leg Stretch
The top of my abs burns at first when I do this move consistently, and after a few days my whole six-pack feels engaged. Nice.
Lie back in the center of your mat with your knees bent. Lift your head and shoulders and curl your chin in toward your chest.
Inhale as you draw your left knee in toward your chest, placing your left hand on your ankle and your right hand on your knee.
Lift your right leg about 45 degrees off the floor.
Switch legs, extending your left leg while hugging your right leg to your chest.
Switch hand positions each time your switch legs, placing your right hand on your right ankle and your left hand on your right knee.
Do between 5 and 10 reps for each side.
The Cobra
After doing a series of regular crunches and other lying-down exercises, getting into cobra pose is a welcome change. It always makes me feel like I'm lengthening the front of my rib cage, too, which is a sweet reward.
Do it:
Lie facedown on the floor with your palms near your chest.
Lift your head, shoulders, and chest off the floor, pulling your shoulder blades down and together.
Hold for 2 counts and then lower back down. Repeat 8 to 10 times.
For a more difficult exercise, try lifting your thighs and hips off the floor.


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Pennsylvania Events, Coupons, Reviews!
Subscribe to KidsScoop! The monthly family event and savings newsletter.
This post is sponsored by Philly Pretzel Factory, however, all opinions are my own.
December can be a busy month with extra things going on at school, shopping, extra cooking and baking, parties to attend and all the great things that go along with the holiday season. Last week during a hectic week we decided to keep things simple and grab dinner to go at The Philly Pretzel Factoryfollow in Temple, PA. Our family loves soft pretzels and making a meal out of them sounded like a fun family dinner date!
Philly Pretzel Factoryfollow is the world's largest Philly-style pretzel bakery with over 100 franchised locations throughout the United States. Philly Pretzel Factory's promise is freshly made dough and that they hand twist each and every pretzel. Every menu item is also guaranteed to be freshly baked and served hot out of the oven.
Our dinner order included pretzel dogs, spicy pretzel sausages and my favorite the pepperoni pretzel melt! This melt is so yummy and full of cheese, spices, and pepperoni slices on top of a soft pretzel rod with a cup of zesty marinara sauce for dipping! We also added some rivets with a yummy mustard sauce for dipping to our order. Dessert was a cinnamon pretzel twist although I got to taste very little of this as everyone in the family wanted to help devour this sweet treat. I know now for next time we need to order more of the cinnamon pretzel!
Whether you need a snack for one or dinner for a crowd or even a holiday appetizer you will find it at Philly Pretzel Factoryfollow. Choose party trays that include flavored pretzel rods to mini dog bites to rivets pretzel bites. No need to cook when you bring these grab and go appetizers to the next party!
Find your local Philly Pretzel Factory using this location search featurefollow. The next time you are hungry for tasty hot pretzels at reasonable prices be sure to head to Philly Pretzel Factory.


text: They're fuzzy and colorful, soft and cute - perfect for mixing and matching until you're as stylish and comfy as can be! Stars in all shapes and sizes are a style success, plus pops of color on the heel and toe add extra flair. Variety is the spice of life, and between these lively prints and bright hues, these liner socks are anything but bland! Cotton blend. Imported.