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Intel Vector Statistical Library, also known as "VSL," is a powerful integral part of the Intel Math Kernel Library. VSL provides optimized routines that implement pseudo-random and quasi-random number generators with continuous and discrete distributions. Thus, you just have to think about the necessary type of distribution and the desired mode of random number generation, accurate or fast. Once you make the first call to one of the VSL optimized routines, you'll never have to write your own generation routines.
Simulations usually require random number generation. When running simulations, you need to ask yourself a few questions. Do you really want to design your own optimized algorithm to create a normal (Gaussian) distribution generator? Are you going to take full advantage of the most modern SIMD instructions? Are you going to create a thread-safe optimized algorithm? Is your optimized algorithm going to take advantage of the forthcoming micro-architectures? Is your optimized algorithm scale as the number of available cores increase?
If you just want to consume the results of an optimized and scalable generator, then the VSL routines included in MKL are for you. VSL implements all the random number generators with vector types. In fact, VSL uses Intel Vector Math Library
vector functions, and therefore, VSL takes full advantage of the most modern SIMD instructions found in modern Intel CPUs. Intel Vector Math Library, also known as "VML," is another integral part of MKL. You can read "Intel Vector Math Library: A Simpler Way to Take Advantage of SIMD Instructions" for more details on VML.
Please note that the optimizations included in the VSL random number generators with MKL 10.3 are more efficient with the latest Intel CPUs. VSL is a thread-safe library and supports parallel execution with many possible configurations. Parallel execution of random number generations is usually a problem for legacy code. Thus, VSL is usually useful for replacing routines that provided you random number generations optimized for sequential execution, but coded in the single-core era.
VSL allows you to execute simultaneous generation of several random number sequences produced by one or more basic generators. In addition, it is possible to split the original sequence into many subsequences. VSL allows you to easily use the leapfrog and block-split methods in order to process many subsequences. Of course, you can also use VSL routines with a sequential execution while still taking advantage of SIMD instructions. However, it is best to select the most convenient parallel execution configuration according to the application requirements and the available hardware. VSL provides a simple interface with a universal mechanism to initialize generators. In fact, there are just two subroutines to initialize any generator.
VSL provides continuous distribution generators with the following types of distributions:
- Beta distribution
- Cauchy distribution
- Exponential distribution
- Gamma distribution
- Gumbel (extreme value) distribution
- Laplace distribution (double exponential distribution)
- Lognormal distribution
- Multivariate normal (Gaussian) distribution
- Normal (Gaussian) distribution
- Rayleigh distribution
- Uniform continuous distribution on the interval [a, b]
- Weibull distribution
In addition, VSL provides discrete distribution generators with the following types of distributions:
- Bernoulli distribution
- Binomial distribution
- Geometric distribution
- Hyper geometric distribution
- Negative binomial or Pascal distribution
- Poisson distribution
- Poisson distribution with varying mean
- Underlying BRNG (short for "Basic Random Number Generator") integer recurrence
- Uniform discrete distribution on the interval
[a, b]
- Uniformly distributed bits in 32-bit chunks
- Uniformly distributed bits in 64-bit chunks
Intel Math Kernel Library includes a complete set of examples that demonstrate how to use the VSL random generators in both C and Fortran. You will find the examples written in C within the
examples\vslc\source folder, in the main MKL folder. For example, in case you installed Intel Composer XE 2011 in Windows 7 64-bit, by default, that folder will be located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ComposerXE-2011\mkl\examples\vslc\source. Intel Composer XE 2011 includes Intel Math Kernel Library, and therefore, includes VSL random generators.
When you work with VSL you just have to include "mkl_vsl.h" to have access to all the necessary functions that provide access to the generators and call them with the necessary parameters. However, it is also useful to include "errcheck.inc" in order to have a reference to the descriptions for any possible errors.
The typical usage of a VSL random number generator requires following just four steps:
- Create and initialize one or more streams. There are just six functions related to this task.
- Call one or more random number generators.
- Process the output generated by the random number generators.
- Delete one or more streams.
The samples included with VSL are very useful for understanding how to create, initialize, and configure the different random generators. Whenever someone tells me about a need for optimized pseudo-random or quasi-random number generators, I suggest the VSL shortcut. It usually takes no more than a day to understand all the examples and start using the generators with the appropriate configuration.
As with many other parts of MKL, VSL makes your code scale as new microprocessors add new SIMD instructions. Intel MKL is a commercial product, but you can download a free trial version.


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2 Men Have Been Arrested For Their Plot To Assassinate Barack Obama & African Americans In High School! Plus Obama Gives His Reaction
CBS reports
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Red Sox Manager Search Will Be Different From Last Year
October 7, 2012 Leave a comment
In something totally different in Red Sox Nation the Sox will be looking for the 2nd new manager in as many years. After Terry Francona's 8 successful years at the helm in Boston Bobby Valentine barely made it through the one. So it's back to the drawing board. While the Red Sox will look to several of the managers that they did the last time around they will be taking a wholly different approach in the winter of 2012.
The structure of the team is entirely different this time around. Last year, in the wake of the September collapse and all that went down behind the scenes, the Sox were looking for someone stern and experienced who could keep the big contracts and big ego guys in line. They looked early at some up-and-coming guys with less experience but they clearly valued someone who had been in a major league dugout before and narrowed the field down to Valentine and Tigers 3rd base coach and former Pirates and White Sox manager Gene Lamont. Valentine won out in the end and as we saw the results were an utter disaster. He attempted to overcompensate for the coddling ways of his predecessor and wound up alienating many members of the team before the season was even off the ground. He never developed a great relationship with his coaching staff, even the ones that he chose himself. In the end Bobby V. wasn't the right guy for the job.
Fast forward to 2012 and it's a whole different ballgame for Valentine's future replacement. Gone is 71 and 1/4 million dollars from the Red Sox 2013 payroll with the subtractions of Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto. The big egos and big contracts have been reduced to John Lackey and, well, John Lackey. Two of their three remaining productive hitters from last year's lineup, David Ortiz and Cody Ross, have expiring contracts. It's a totally different landscape for the next Red Sox manager and one could make the argument that this situation is a much better situation for an up-and-comer to enter than the one that faced the new manager last season. And for that reason the names that were not good enough for the Red Sox last season may look a lot more attractive this time around.
Of the 4 guys that the Red Sox interviewed last season only 1, Cubs manager Dale Sveum, is not available. Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin has been fired and doesn't seem like he'll be in the mix this time around. That leaves two guys – Indians bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. and Blue Jays first base coach Torey Lovullo. You could make a serious argument that those 2 guys are 2 of the top 3 on the Red Sox list for their next manager. Alomar lost out on the Indians job to Francona and looks to be the next big managerial candidate in the majors. If not Boston he's expected to be a contender for possible openings in Miami and Toronto. Then there is Lovullo who spent a year as manager of the Pawtucket Red Sox. With a younger generation of players coming up for the Sox it would be to Lovullo's benefit to have familiarity with the Red Sox' minor league system.
There are other names in the mix, chief among them former Sox pitching coach and current Blue Jays manager John Farrell. I'd expect the Red Sox will spend the early part of next week surveying the situation with Farrell and the Blue Jays before deciding whether that avenue is one worth pursuing. I don't expect them to dance around with the Blue Jays for too long before moving on Farrell or simply moving on. There are some pros and cons to bringing Farrell back but I'd rather get into that when its clear that he's an actual candidate. Of course there are other names being thrown around, perhaps former Sox players Mike Lowell or Bill Mueller. Maybe Marlins bench coach Joey Cora who should be about ready to step out of Ozzie Guillen's shadow after spending 9 seasons as his #2. His brother Alex played in Boston for four years.
The picture should get a lot clearer early next week. After all unlike last season when in late August replacing Terry Francona would have thought to be unheard of, the Sox brass has probably been looking to the future since as far back as July. Either way remember the names Lovullo and Alomar. They may have not had enough experience for management last year but the dynamic of the team has changed and Ben Cherington may see one of these two guys as the right man for the job this time around.


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Sheriff Clarke develops plan to stop wrong-way driving on county highways
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke revealed a spike wrong-way driving in 2013, and he wants to solve the problem.
New data shows 34 wrong-way drivers were stopped in 2012 and 43 in 2013. Of those stopped last year, 93 percent were also drunk.
The sheriff's two-year report reveals it's from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays that someone would most likely to encounter a drunk wrong-way driver.
"As we saw more and more fatalities and serious injuries, that's when I said, 'We've got to do something about this,'" Clarke said.
Clarke is on a mission to stop the destructive, sometimes fatal, results of drunken wrong-way drivers on local interstate ramps.
"We do want to get this underway at a minimum by spring, and then we're going to take a look at a six-month window to see if it's had any impact," Clarke said.
The sheriff wants the state Department of Transportation to improve on- and off-ramp warnings by adding flashing wrong way signs, lowering Do Not Enter and Wrong Way signs and placing them on both sides of a ramp, installing trailblazing lines, or so-called elephant track markings as well as reflective markers, and with ramps that parallel each other, place median barriers for clear separation.
"You definitely have to have some physical restraint to stop them," witness John DeHahn said.
DeHahn questioned whether the sheriff's proposals are enough after his family witnessed a wrong-way driver on Interstate 94 heading home to Racine from a Brewers game.
"The guy was hitting the median going 65 mph the wrong way and still it wasn't clicking in his head that he was going the wrong way," DeHahn said.
"The important thing is here it's going to take multiple interventions. There's no one thing that's going to work here," Clarke said.
The DOT said it will take a look at the sheriff's suggestions and see how they can partner with him and the state patrol to address safety issues.
The study revealed most wrong-way drivers were stopped in lane one.That's the high speed lane. The sheriff believes this happens because drivers think they are in the slow traffic lane.
Most of the arrests happened on westbound Interstate 794 and eastbound I-94. Most of the drivers said they were coming from the east side or downtown area.
The following ramps were included in the study:
--I-94 at South 76th Street (temporary due to closure at 84th Street)
--I-94 at General Mitchell Boulevard
--Highway 794 at Oklahoma Avenue
--I-794 at Lincoln Memorial Drive/Michigan Avenue
--I-794 at James Lovell
--I-794 at Carferry
--I-94 at 13th Street
--I-94 at 26th Street


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Facilities will cease operations this year rather than in 2014.
The U.S. Postal Service has accelerated plans to shut down processing operations at 53 facilities by one year, according to a letter the agency sent to a postal union.
USPS will cease to process mail at the plants by the end of 2013, instead of 2014, the agency said in a letter to the American Postal Workers Union. The Postal Service has sped up the schedule because it can save money "while still maintaining the interim [processing] service standard," the letter said.
"The Postal Service continues to face one of the most difficult challenges in its history," USPS wrote. "The current economic downturn and continued Internet diversion has led to historically large deficits. As a result, the Postal Service is not receiving enough revenue to sustain the cost of its processing and delivery network."
APWU decried the announcement, saying the acceleration will harm employees, communities and the Postal Service itself.
"The Postal Service is on the brink of cutting service in a way that will permanently damage our treasured institution," APWU President Cliff Guffey said in a statement. "This would be a tragic mistake, and it is unnecessary."
USPS said the consolidations may lead to some employee reassignments, which "will be made in compliance with applicable law, collective bargaining and Postal Service regulations and policies," an agency spokeswoman said.
The facilities will remain open for retail service, vehicle maintenance and other operations.
The new consolidation schedule comes after the Postal Service accelerated the closure of 18 additional plants earlier in 2013, APWU said.


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- GuardianX99
- Lurker
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None at all, or at least not public.
Shadi wrote:
I'm sorry, I haven't visited this project since I last said I will work on it, but I promise I'll look into it again, and hopefully bring it into newer and better standards
lipmonstar wrote:
Hihi, I was just looking for subs of the Batsu 2008 newspaper agency and chanced upon this site, was just wondering if there will be an update for this sub file with full subs?
much appreciated.


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The breathtaking Best 2019 Suzuki Vitara Image image below, is section of 2019 Suzuki Vitara document which is grouped within Suzuki, Suzuki Vitara and published at December 5, 2018.
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Equipment stocks showed their true colors Wednesday (04/25), failing to keep pace with the major market indices…
While Apple's positive earnings announcement sent the bulls into a buying frenzy, the major equipment stocks failed to show up at the party. Bearish action in an otherwise positive environment is definitely a red flag worth digging into (no pun intended)…
There were two primary catalysts that drove equipment stocks lower.
- The first quarter earnings report for CAT failed to live up to expectations.
- The durable goods report turned out to be the weakest reading in a number of years.
First, the earnings announcement from CAT. On the surface, the report was fairly positive. Q1 EPS rose 29% over last year due to strong domestic sales and healthy demand from mining equipment.
Management even raised full-year guidance – although not as much as Wall Street was expecting. Instead of focusing on the strong quarter and higher guidance, investors worried about weakening demand in China, Brazil and Europe – and dumped the stock on heavy volume.
Via the WSJ:
Chinese buying of construction equipment has plunged since the middle of last year as higher interest rates, have discouraged spending on machinery and building projects.
But Caterpillar expects Chinese demand to recover in the next few years.
Since the real opportunity for equipment makers is heavily weighted towards potential sales from China and India, a disappointing picture for emerging markets is certainly cause for concern.
This falls in line with our Gray Swans thesis – as a confluence of bearish macro-economic catalysts challenge the Goldilocks growth scenario. Decelerating growth in China and austerity measures in Europe can't help but dampen global demand for capital-intensive equipment.
But what about domestic sales? This was an area of strength right?
Caterpillar may have reported a strong sales of construction equipment in the US, but yesterday's durable goods report was much less optimistic.
For the month of March, durable goods orders declined by 4.2% – the largest drop since January 2009. And just for good measure, the Commerce Department revised the February report lower – so March's decline was actually worse than the headline number indicated!
Once more from the WSJ:
Wednesday's durable-goods report followed a string of weaker regional manufacturing reports as well as industrial-production data that showed manufacturing production fell slightly in February, despite strength in several areas including vehicle and parts manufacturing…
Indeed, while new orders for durable goods slipped over the month, shipments were up. That means the slowdown in manufacturing, if it continues, is likely to take a bite out of second-quarter growth. The shipment figures, in fact, prompted economists at Morgan Stanley to boost their forecast for first-quarter gross domestic product to annualized growth of 2.9% compared with 2.7% before the report.
While the CAT may already be out of the bag (ok, that was really bad…), we've got our eye on a number of equipment makers that have bearish or weakening chart patterns along with fundamental vulnerabilities.
All of our trades are time stamped and reported in real time via the Mercenary Live Feed.
- Cummins Inc. (CMI) has a focus on diesel and natural gas engines, and relationships with OEMs who are selling directly to domestic and emerging market end-users. The stock broke to a new high in February – but ran into overhead resistance and broke down. CMI pays a 1.4% dividend yield (creating a negative-carry short position), but looks technically vulnerable in an industry that is under pressure.
- Deere & Co. (DE) manufactures equipment for agricultural as well as construction markets and is expected to grow earnings by 21% this year. A heavy debt load (249% debt to equity) makes for a vulnerable financial situation, and the stock dropped sharply this month after a crop report hit corn prices hard. With significant overhead resistance, DE shares should have difficulty trading higher, and there is plenty of room below before hitting significant support.
- Joy Global (JOY) sports one of the better growth rates (expectations for 30% EPS growth in 2012), but analysts have been revising their models lower as the economic picture deteriorates. The stock has been underperforming its peer group this year (see chart above) and has established a predictable bearish pattern. JOY is set to announce Q2 earnings on May 31 (fiscal year end Oct 31), and for now the stock is trading in-line with the increasingly bearish industry.
- United Technologies (UTX) has been under pressure due to low revenue and earnings growth. For the first quarter, UTX logged a 2% decline in revenue, but cut costs enough to manufacture a 2% bump over last year. The stock peaked in March and has been trading below the key 50 EMA since the beginning of April. With earnings now out of the way, there are few catalysts that would send this stock higher, and plenty of vulnerability based on economic headline risk and industry trends.
Read more posts on Mercenary Trader »


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May 2, 2020
Sat Morn Men's Group - Canceled More info ►
Every Saturday, from 03/21/2020 to 05/30/2020, 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM
This group is for men who are interested in Bible study and fellowship in a small group setting. The group chooses a variety of different Bible passages to study. We also include time for prayer. If you are looking for a Christian community at the end of your work week, this group is for you! We meet in the Library at 7:00 a.m. every Saturday and you can join us anytime.
Brotherhood of St. Andrew - Canceled More info ►
First Saturday, Third Saturday, from 03/21/2020 to 05/30/2020, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
We meet at 8:00 a.m. in the Library on the first and third Saturday of the month. St. John's has an active group of men engaged to follow a discipline of prayer, study and service. The Brotherhood prays daily for the spread of Christ's Kingdom among men, especially youth. Service is geared toward bringing others nearer to Christ through His Church. Regular study of the Holy Scriptures enhances an understanding of what it means to follow Christ and bring others to Him. The Brotherhood supports youth ministries through volunteer opportunities and financial support. Market Day sales are used to fund the goals of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Please join us!
Altar Guild - Canceled More info ►
Every Saturday, from 03/21/2020 to 05/30/2020, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM


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Stockland has Design Guidelines in place to ensure that all homes are developed in harmony with the surrounds, whilst working together to create stunning streetscapes.
In most cases your builder will take care of submitting your design application for you. If you, or your designer are doing this, we have made it easy for you with the Builder Portal: a program for all Stockland purchasers and building partners.
If you wish to submit your application, simply log onto Stockland Builder Portal.
For assistance with submitting your design application, watch the videos below or read the user guide. We recommend reading this guide on search wildcards and operators to have more control over your search results in the portal.
Need more help? Please email your queries to email@example.com


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Lady Gaga Teases Tour, Comments on Super Bowl Halftime
Lady Gaga is being coy in multiple ways. The Mother Monster issued a Facebook post that was loaded with comments and innuendo ripe for dissecting.
First, she teased about possibly announcing her upcoming tour in the next couple of days, per little monster requests. The next Gaga tour has been a source of speculation, with rumors abounding that it would number around 450 dates! Wouldn't announcing such a trek in the coming days be the perfect way to wrest the spotlight away from Madonna and her Super Bowl halftime show?
Oh, and speaking of the Super Bowl. Gaga is psyched about it, presumably because the team she roots for is the New York Giants and they are playing. She did mention the halftime show, saying "it will be wonderful I'm sure." Was she being sarcastic? Serious? Sly? Her statement is so perfectly worded that it arouses curiosity and suspicion. With all that mud Madonna is slinging at Gaga in the press – and unnecessarily so, we might add- Gaga is taking the high road. Or is she? Sometimes not saying much says a lot.
The full text of her post is as follows:
Looking forward to seeing the Superbowl! The halftime show will be wonderful I'm sure. An excuse to drink beer+watch boys in tights. #yes I think my favorite tweets from lil monsters this week are "can you get drunk and announce the tour dates." Am I that predictable!??!?!??! were my NIPPLES TRENDING? Haus texted me but I thought they were joking! Monsters #VirtualSpanking for cuteness and being inappropriate.
So what's this about the Mother Monster's nipples as a trending topic? What have the lil' monsters been up to? Did they embark on a campaign to make Gaga's headlights a topic of online chatter? She seems to be saying "Tsk tsk" but secretly loves that the little monsters do naughty things in her honor.


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Hungerford & Terry-designed system protects RO membranes at facility in Geneva, Ill.
Hungerford & Terry-designed system protects RO membranes at facility in Geneva, Ill.A new 8-million-gal-per-day Black & Veatch-engineered water treatment center has received the Project of the Year Award for 2009, as well as the Public Works Project Excellence Award, from the Chicago Chapter of the American Public Works Association.
The facility incorporates pretreatment equipment, designed by Hungerford & Terry, upstream of the reverse osmosis (RO) treatment system.
This Hungerford & Terry-designed filter system offers protection to the RO membranes. The filters are sized to treat a flow of 3,576 gpm and remove 3 mg/L of iron and 0.06 mg/L of manganese. Hungerford & Terry's system includes four 10-ft-diameter by 30-ft-long two-cell horizontal filters and a custom forced draft degasifier to reduce 50 mg/L of carbon dioxide in the RO effluent to 8 mg/L.
The degasifier is housed in the silo portion of the farm building and includes a 12-ft-diameter by 16-ft-tall FRP tower with 905 cu ft of polypropylene tower packing, plus a 16,900 cfm air blower.
"Hungerford & Terry was pleased to provide this specially designed pretreatment equipment in order to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in extending the life of the membranes as well as in saving money in the ongoing treatment process," said Ken Sayell, Hungerford & Terry's vice president of sales.


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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2007 News Releases > February 2007 > Pottery Projects, Hunger Awareness to be Focal Point of Chamber Banquet
Pottery Projects, Hunger Awareness to be Focal Point of Chamber Banquet
PLAINVIEW – Any event requires advance planning and hard work, but this year's Plainview Chamber of Commerce Banquet takes the cake. This time, the entire community has been in on the front work for the banquet instead of just the end result.
Featuring a theme of community service, the banquet is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the McClung Center dining hall on the campus of Wayland Baptist University. But unlike previous years, the planning for this year's event started well before the usual time.
The theme was the major reason for the change. According to 2006 Chamber President, Dr. Claude Lusk, the idea of making the chamber banquet into a more service-oriented event came together after hearing about a project being undertaken by the Division of Fine Arts. An international effort aimed at promoting positive social change, Empty Bowls involves the creation of pottery bowls to bring awareness of hunger and relief efforts. When the project was mentioned to Lusk, he thought the two events could go together well.
"Part of who we are as a chamber should be supporting this type of activity, and I thought they might work together well. It will be a significant departure from what we normally do as a banquet, but I think it'll be a positive event that will show our heart," said Lusk, who is vice president for enrollment management at Wayland.
Back in October, Wayland solicited help from the community to create 600 bowls in the art studio, setting up two sessions weekly and others by appointment to accommodate up to 20 artists at one time. Groups ranging from Plainview High and Wayland students and staff to athletic teams, local churches and civic organizations participated, many completing two bowls during the session.
The art department at Wayland began to fill up, and Hilliard began racking up the hours as he supervised almost all the sessions and glazed every bowl himself for the project, with help from some art students.
"At one time, this whole room was covered with bowls on all these tables until we could get them fired and glazed," noted Mark Hilliard, assistant professor of art at Wayland and a major organizer of the Empty Bowls project. "We lost count somewhere around 550, and we were shooting for 600, so I think we're close."
Hilliard said the group approach worked well, and he was pleased with the community's support of the bowl-making sessions.
"The dynamics of each group were really different. Some groups were really enthusiastic and wanted to stay all night," he laughed. "It was fabulously successful, and everything well very smoothly, especially for our first time doing this.
"Now we just need to get the people (to the banquet) to support it as well."
Lusk agrees. Though the bowls portion went well, the support from the community to attend the banquet is key to the overall success.
"This year is essentially a departure from the normal chamber banquet," Lusk said, noting that aside from the presentation of the Man and Woman of the Year awards, not much is the same. "For your ticket, you get a meal of stew and cornbread and salad, and you get to take home one of the bowls created. The bowls will be displayed throughout the cafeteria, so you have the chance to come in and eat and then shop. Music will be going on and folks can eat, visit, walk around and just fellowship."
The visiting will halt around 7:15 p.m. for the presentation of the Man of the Year and Woman of the Year awards, and the 2006 awards mark the 50th year Plainview has recognized local citizens for their service and support. Afterward, banquet attendees can return to the fellowship mode.
The décor and entertainment will follow the theme as well, with musical entertainment provided by the Wayland Jazz Ensemble and various jazz combos, all directed by adjunct instrumental instructor Joe Vandiver.
"Jazz sets the mood for artistic contemplation, so it is well suited to this event," noted Dr. Ann Stutes, co-chair of the Division of Fine Arts. She added that art students and faculty will have artwork on display at the banquet as well, creating a well-rounded arts experience with a service focus.
"Normally, businesses will 'adopt' a table and decorate them with giveaways and things from their business," Lusk noted of the décor for the event. "This year, the businesses have adopted tables and are 'pounding' them with canned goods to be given to Faith in Sharing House and the Salvation Army. Some of the Wayland student organizations have also adopted tables to pound. Everything we're doing is to help these organizations out."
Lusk noted that the majority of the $15 ticket price will go directly to FISH and the Salvation Army, supporting those organizations that work for hunger relief. Students college age and younger will be granted admission to the banquet for a donation of five cans of food.
Tickets for the banquet are available through the Chamber Office at 710 West Fifth Street or at the door the evening of the banquet. Reservations are encouraged if possible. For more information, call the chamber at 296-4731.


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Program Overview
The Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Fellowship at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is a two-year, ACGME-approved fellowship that admits two fellows per year.
Program Details
The Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is proud to offer a fellowship designed to prepare individuals for a career in endocrinology.
It is the program's goal to achieve an optimal balance between clinical training, didactic learning and research activities.
Our Team
First Year
The first year of the fellowship is primarily focused on clinical training. During this year, the fellow splits time between the inpatient consult service and the outpatient rotation.
Under the supervision of a faculty attending physician, the inpatient fellow assumes responsibility for all consultations in addition to teaching medical residents and students.
Consultation rounds take place daily with a team consisting of a faculty preceptor, the fellow, one or two medical residents, and one or two senior medical students.
This arrangement provides critical longitudinal experience in endocrine diseases, which are frequently chronic in nature.
During the months of outpatient rotation, the fellows participate in daily half-day, general endocrinology clinics where they see a wide range of endocrine patients under the mentorship of faculty members.
Fellows will also have their own continuity clinic on a weekly basis where they will see their own patients under the guidance of a faculty preceptor. Fellows will be responsible for the ongoing care of these patients.
During elective rotations, fellows participate in outpatient subspecialty clinics in pediatric endocrinology, lipid disorders, genetics, reproductive endocrinology, high-risk pregnancy, infertility clinic, endocrine surgery, nuclear medicine (including bone mineral density study) and radiology (focusing on ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration/biopsy of thyroid).
During all rotations, fellows are expected to participate in regularly scheduled educational activities, which include weekly Clinical Endocrinology Conference and Medical Grand Rounds, monthly Diabetes Journal Club, and Endocrinology Research Conference every other month.
In addition to the above clinical and educational activities, the first-year fellow is expected to develop and initiate a research project with the assistance of an assigned faculty mentor.
Second Year and Optional Third Year
The second year of training is divided between six months of clinical activity (alternating inpatient consults with outpatient clinics) and six months of elective time, including research.
Participation in the continuity outpatient clinic remains throughout the second year.
The option for a third year of training is available for those interested in academic research careers who need to prepare themselves as independent physician-scientists.
These fellows will be expected to apply to the NIH or an appropriate extramural funding agency/organization for a research fellowship.
Clinical and Laboratory Training
A variety of clinical and laboratory training opportunities are provided in the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Fellowship.
Inpatient Consultation
Most of the fellows' activity during the inpatient rotation is addressing consults from medicine, surgery and OB/GYN services. This activity provides a broad exposure to clinical endocrinology while allowing ample time for careful follow-up reading and teaching. In particular, the fellow is routinely involved in the perioperative management of glucose control in diabetic patients who have undergone coronary artery bypass surgery and in the postoperative follow-up of patients who have undergone various endocrine surgeries such as transsphenoidal surgery, parathyroid exploration, adrenalectomy, etc. A limited number of patients with specific endocrine diagnoses are admitted to the Endocrine Service; the vast majority are patients with thyroid cancer who are admitted for radioactive iodine therapy.
Outpatient Clinics
Experience in the outpatient setting is emphasized throughout the fellowship, since the majority of the endocrinology practice occurs in the ambulatory setting. During the outpatient rotation, the fellows participate in five half-day general endocrinology clinics per week. Although every patient is seen under the supervision of faculty attending physicians, the fellows are expected to assume a primary role in patient management and to follow individual patients until the next appointment. A team approach to diabetes care is encouraged with a staff that includes diabetes educators, dietitians and nurse practitioners. An active insulin pump program and the use of new technologies such as the Continuous Glucose Monitor Sensor (CGMS) are available.
Clinical Laboratory Experience
Training in assay methodology and its pitfalls is a critical component of our training program since the correct interpretation of laboratory results is essential for a successful practice in endocrinology. Such training occurs through the interaction of the fellows with the staff of the Pathology Core Reference Laboratory, a fully accredited reference laboratory that specializes in the quantitative analysis of hormones, hormone receptors, cytokines and growth factors.
Multidisciplinary Endocrinology Conferences
Thyroid Unit: Held on a monthly basis in conjunction with Nuclear Medicine, Endocrine Surgery and Pathology to review primarily patients with thyroid cancer and their treatment options but also any other interesting thyroid case.
Hereditary Endocrinopathies: Held on a monthly basis in conjunction with Endocrine Surgery and Genetics to review patients with hereditary endocrinopathies (multiple endocrine neoplasia types 1 and 2, etc.).
Pituitary and Skull Base Tumor Cases: Held on a monthly basis in conjunction with Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology and Radiology to review patients with pituitary and skull base tumors and their evaluation and management plans.
Research Training
Along with high-quality training in clinical endocrinology, research training is a major focus of our fellowship program. While we welcome all well-qualified applicants, we particularly encourage individuals with an interest in an academic endocrinology career to apply.
First-year fellows are introduced to the spectrum of research activities conducted within the Division and by faculty members affiliated with the training program. Within the first three months of the fellowship, the fellow should be able to identify an appropriate research topic and faculty mentor. Fellows are expected to submit a brief research proposal within the first year in order to gain experience in devising an experimental plan. These research proposals are assembled with the guidance of the faculty mentor.
Fellows on the academic track are encouraged to apply for extramural funding during the second year to support additional years of training. Fellows are encouraged to attend national meetings and submit abstracts of their research for presentations. They are also expected to submit their data for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
Research opportunities for fellows are available in a variety of endocrine-related disciplines, including:
- Diabetes
- Endocrine oncology
- Heart and Vascular Institute (cardiology)
- Obesity and insulin resistance
- Ovarian cell biology
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
A unique, state-of-the-art patient registry database tracks patient outcomes for all diabetes patients within our endocrine clinics and 10 primary-care sites affiliated with Hershey Medical Center. This functions as a valuable resource for population-based diabetes management and research.
A number of diabetes related research opportunities exist outside of the Division of Endocrinology as well.
To Apply
We accept applications through ERAS and participate in the NRMP.
Each completed application, when received, is thoroughly evaluated by Division of Endocrinology faculty. A limited pool of applicants for interview is selected based upon evidence of superior academic credentials as documented in the written application. Out of the interviewed applicants, candidates are selected on the basis of their overall perceived academic potential, communication skills, motivation and integrity.
While all candidates will be considered, priority will be given to those pursuing academic endocrinology. Qualified candidates will have graduated from medical school, completed an internal medicine residency at an approved institution and submitted three letters of reference, and will be eligible for a Pennsylvania state medical license.
Our program accepts J1 visas. Our institution does not accept H1B visas.
Current Fellows
Past Fellows
Contact Us
General Contact Information
Phone: 717-531-8395
Fax: 717-531-5726
About Hershey
Interested in learning more about living and working in Hershey, PA? See details here:
Penn State Health also offers
- Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
- Geriatric Medicine Fellowship
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Fellowship
- Rheumatology Fellowship
- Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship
- Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
- Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship
- Infectious Disease Fellowship
- Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Fellowship
- Hematology/
Oncology Fellowship
- Internal Medicine Residency
- Nephrology Fellowship
- Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship
- Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship
- General Internal Medicine Fellowship
- Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship


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Bloomberg Sports thinks Alex is unlucky:
In terms of batted-ball data (line drives, groundballs, flyballs) Rios is largely the same hitter he has always been. Looking at line drives – the type of balls that fall most for hits – he is actually hitting more liners this year than he did in 2010. This could be some classification bias as liners are sometime misclassified as flyballs and vice versa; however, all of his rates are within career norms.
In addition to the batted-ball information, Rios is showing similar plate discipline. His walk rate is in line with his career number and he has actually cut down his strikeout rate quite a bit. He is also making more contact and whiffing on fewer pitches.
According to the pitch values listed on Fangraphs.com, Rios has struggled with fastballs this year. As a player hits the other side of 30, this could be a concern. Meanwhile, Rios continues to make contact with heaters so it doesn't appear as if his bat has slowed up enough to be a legit concern right now.


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Alice Springs town camp leader Barbara Shaw is in Sydney this week pushing for the Federal Government to put a moratorium on income management.
Introduced during the Northern Territory Emergency Response, income management quarantines a portion of Centrelink payments.
This money can only be used to buy priority or approved items at government-approved stores.
Ms Shaw says there is no proof that life has improved under the system and people should have the right to choose whether their income is managed or not.
"Us mob in the Northern Territory, it was imposed on us," she said.
"There was no consultation, really, except one day you walk in to Centrelink and half your money is missing, basically."
She says social issues and welfare have not improved since the introduction of the scheme and it should not be extended to any more communities in Australia.
"People do not want income management in their areas," she said.


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Having pondered this subject for the last 20 mins, I believe that they should be banned from here.
This is supposed to be a Forum, a place were Local and Non-Local Members come and Discuss Various Issues affecting the Kintyre Area and both National and International events. It is not, Twitter or Facebook or like texting your mates, it,s a place for words and Emoticoms have no place here. We have all witnessed the damage that can be done by a smiley face being used to mock a fellow Member and for that reason alone there should be a ban on them. I personally think that they should be removed and People should only be allowed to communicate with words, (while being protected from people correcting their grammer or spelling), an opinion is an opinion wether it is spelled properly or not and is more valid without an Emoticom than with.


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Gabby Zakuani cites hard work and a change of attitude as reasons for his return
Gabby Zakuani cites old-fashioned hard work and a change of attitude as the factors behind his return to Peterborough.
Last Updated: 11/12/12 5:37pm
The Posh defender was included in Darren Ferguson's starting line-up for the first time since he was transfer listed following a night out with team-mates Tyrone Barnett, Emile Sinclair and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, who have all since left on loan.
Zakuani has spent a month on the periphery at London Road but has not let that sour his relationship with Ferguson, who he insists is the best thing to happen to the Championship club.
"The manager is probably sick of me always knocking on his door, asking why I'm not playing," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. "I've stayed behind more in training and I've been dying to play.
"I've just got on with it and I think he's seen a change in attitude over the last few weeks. As we know a lot of stuff has happened that's maybe not football related. That's not helped.
"I just want to be putting my body on the line and when you're not being selected it is very frustrating and when we're not on the best run it's even more frustrating. But everyone knows my passion for this football club and what I do for the club.
"I know he's (Ferguson) the best thing to happen to this club. When he left we all saw how things went pear-shaped.
"I think he knows me deep down and what sort of person I am, that I'm a good guy, and I know everything about him."


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A freed slave from the Old South joining forces with a German bounty hunter to find his wife--that may be Will Smith's latest movie role.
The "Men in Black" actor is reportedly the frontrunner to star in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film, "Django Unchained," a spaghetti Western, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sources say that Smith was scheduled to meet with executives from Universal yesterday. Tarantino reportedly would like the actor to be in his movie, though no official deal with Smith has been made.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
According to The Hollywood Reporter story, Smith would play the title character, Django, who is looking to reunite with his slave wife. A Germany bounty hunter trains Django and aids him in his search.
Christoph Waltz, who starred in "Inglorious Basterds" and won an Oscar for his role in that film, would play the bounty hunter, while Samuel L. Jackson could portray a house slave.
Selected Readings: The Hollywood Reporter, IMDb


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|Expert witness testimony
ClimaData provides expert testimony for litigation where weather has been a factor in the dispute. Demonstrative exhibits produced from our data archive, including video animation of weather satellite and weather radar imagery, poster boards, and/or models, illustrate testimony for our customers. We conduct retrospective reconstruction of pertinent weather events.


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The most embarrassing or sensitive text messages and photos that ever crossed one of your discarded cell phones - even the ones you deleted - could be in someone else's hands, a computer forensics expert said.
"I don't know if there is such a thing as a totally secure phone," said Patrick Paige, a former computer forensics detective who cofounded of Computer Forensics LLC.
Extraction devices that can recover even deleted data can be bought online, some for as little as $8. Beyond the invasion of privacy, the data can be especially useful for identity thieves.
Local news from across Southern California
A reporter purchased several used cell phones from a thrift store and gave them to Paige for analysis. Within minutes, he found photos, names, phone numbers, text messages and videos.
"This person's identity, I could probably steal pretty easily," he said.
So what should people do with their old cell phones to ensure their privacy?
"I'd break it in half," he said. "Yeah, that's what I would do. Snap it in half."
If that seems too extreme, he recommended performing a factory reset that wipes most information from many phones, removing passwords from apps and removing the memory card before getting rid of your phone.


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Dickey (garment)
A dickey (alternately written as dickie or dicky;[1] sometimes known in American English as a tuxedo front or tux front) is a type of false shirt-front - originally known as a detachable bosom - designed to be worn with a tuxedo or men's white tie, usually attached to the collar and then tucked into the waistcoat or cummerbund. Better dickies have a trouser tab at the end to secure them down, preventing the dickey from comically popping out. The rigid plastic dickey came into fashion in the latter years of the 19th century, and was one of the first successful commercial applications of celluloid.
The invention of the dickey was to make the bosom front of a full dress shirt a separate entity in itself, like the detachable collar, so it could be laundered and starched more easily unlike a traditional shirt with the bosom attached. The use of the dickey was considered bad style by traditionalists and had fallen out of use but shirts with an attached bosom are now rare in themselves now that traditional evening dress is no longer regularly worn.
Dickeys – celluloid, cardboard & cloth[edit]
Celluloid (hard plastic)[edit]
Celluloid dickeys were popular for their waterproof and stain-resistant properties. Unlike traditional cloth shirt-fronts, they remained sleek, bright white, and did not wilt or wrinkle. Celluloid dickeys simulated the look of a formal shirt bib for day and evening wear. They were designed in a variety of patents, such as: rounded, flat-end, no restraints, a restraint tab at the end of the bib or side straps that tied at the wearer's back. For this reason, they were popular with entertainers, musicians, and other performers. Nevertheless, they were frequently maligned and spoofed for their stiffness, unmanageability, and tendency to pop out of place. In one notable Looney Tunes segment, Bugs Bunny conducts an arrogant opera singer and makes him hold a note so long that his dickey snaps out of his waistcoat and rolls up to his throat. "The flapping dickey", a famous Vaudeville cliché, involves a dickey which has been intentionally rigged to flap in a comical fashion.
Cardboard dickies were worn in theater and service professions to save money from using linen formal shirts for uniforms. Examples of professions that used cardboard dickies include waiters, hotel managers, doormen, bellboys, limo drivers, and servants. Cardboard dickeys are still manufactured in the United States by Amazon Dry Goods.
Cloth dickeys simulate many different styles, some often seen examples include dress shirt front and collar, formal frilled shirt front (popular in the mid seventies with powder blue tuxedos) and most commonly in modern times as false turtleneck sweater fronts. Cloth dickies are also often used in marching band uniforms.
Hard plastic dickeys have long since gone out of manufacture and fashion, but cloth turtleneck-style dickeys are still sometimes seen, for example on the TV series The Big Bang Theory, worn by the character Howard Wolowitz, as well as in Dinner for Schmucks character Therman Murch, played by Zach Galifianakis wore an orange turtleneck dickey. Cousin Eddie, character played by Randy Quaid, in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" wore a dark green turtleneck dickey underneath an ivory sweater. The character Liz Lemon wore a "sweater" type dickie on the opening episode of season 6 on the TV series 30 Rock.[2]
See also[edit]
- ^ Merriam-Webster, Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Monteagudo, Jennifer. "'30 Rock' Recap: 'Dance Like Nobody's Watching'". 30 Rock.


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You may anticipate you accept the "perfect" résumé, but a hiring administrator — who is attractive for specific things — may disagree. Here are seven affidavit why your résumé may accept been rejected:
1. Too abundant focus on accomplishments and acquaintance that is extraneous to the position. If you're in your 50s or 60s, you may be apprehensive whether to accommodate all your job acquaintance on your résumé. The accuracy is: it depends.
Are you abiding to the workforce afterwards blockage home for abounding years? If so, part- time jobs; assignment you did in, or adapted out of, academy and volunteering can annular out your résumé and appearance the abilities you've obtained. On the added hand, if you accept decades of around-the-clock experience, accord your résumé a haircut. Here are a few items to accede t:
If you anticipate it's important to accommodate some of these, accomplish references to them as abbreviate as possible. For example, rather than eliminating a job access entirely, artlessly account the name of the employer, your job appellation and the years you formed there.
2. Missing keyword phrases that résumé scanners demand. Afore your résumé anytime alcove an HR being or hiring manager, it apparently will be scanned for assertive keyword phrases. Abounding companies use scanning software to booty some of the workload off their staff. If your résumé doesn't accommodate the adapted keywords, it may be alone afore a animal could anytime see it.
Customize your résumé for anniversary job aperture by inserting accordant keywords. These can be pulled from the job advertisement itself, industry publications and added sources. A aggregation such as JobScan can admonition ensure that your résumé is optimized for resume robots.
3. Your résumé doesn't bout your added appliance materials. If a hiring administrator decides to dig a little deeper, it's important that aggregate you present adds up. Your résumé, awning letter, alike your references amalgamate to actualize an all-embracing consequence of who you are.
Be abiding aggregate you present to a abeyant employer is consistent. If you charge admonition befitting your messaging on track, there are assets such as Hudson and ResumesCentre, which action résumé and awning letter autograph assistance, templates and career advice.
4. Leaving inappropriate agreeable on your amusing media accounts. If you've developed a able attendance on amusing media, you should accommodate advice about your amusing media accounts on your résumé. But…if you accept accounting or aggregate agreeable that ability be beheld as abhorrent or controversial, that could actively abuse your affairs of accepting hired. Get rid of it.
5. Failing to focus on what you can contribute. Save animadversion about pay, allowances and advance abeyant for the negotiations phase. Your résumé should be all about what you can accompany to the table. What abilities do you have? What accept you done at your accepted employer or antecedent administration to advance the basal band or admonition things run better?
Show proof! Don't aloof say that you bigger processes in chump service. Say that you created a affairs that led to a 25% advance in chump achievement for over-the-phone support.
6. Typos and poor editing. There's no allowance for spelling or grammar goofs in your résumé. Fortunately, there are affluence of accoutrement you can use to aftermath error-free résumés, such as ProWritingAid. You ability additionally accede accepting a acquaintance or ancestors affiliate booty a glance at your résumé, too. A additional set of eyes may t mistakes or awkward diction that you missed.
7. Résumé formatting and agreeable that isn't a cultural fit. The way your résumé looks and reads should be adapted for the employer area you're applying. If you are activity for a job area adroitness and assortment are valued, acquisition means to accent in your résumé items that appearance your relevance. Your awning letter additionally provides an accomplished befalling to authenticate cultural fit.
14 Disadvantages Of Ats Resume Template And How You Can Workaround It | Ats Resume Template – ats resume template
| Pleasant in order to our website, in this time period I will show you about ats resume template
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Happy Halloween to everyone who is celebrating tonight.. Only if I was more organised I would have more to show in my Halloween book. However Mr Owl will have to suffice for now. The inspiration for Mr Owl came from the woman herself Jenny
and the window from the awesome talented Audrey . Both owl, windows and branches are all part of the Collections goodness I came home with from Paperific.
Today went junk shopping and this is what I had to come home with. A beautiful oval frame, that shall be painted black.. An old index card drawer, that will house my handmade cards. A fabulous old bread bakers tin that will house my bits and pieces on my desk such as scissors, glues, inks all the essentials.. I also got some lovely tattered and crochets doiles, gloves, postcards that will be used next weekend at Judy's
class here in Melbourne. I am so looking forward to it. I am just hoping that the perfect book I bought off ebay, many months ago for this class, arrives this week. If not plan B will have to have to be used.. Dont ask, I dont have one yet!!!LOL
Love Sarah


text: Rapunzel Naturkost is one of Europe's leading manufacturers of certified organic, natural and vegetarian foods. The production lines were no longer able to keep up with the increasing order volumes. The products filled in glass jars as well as block-bottom and stand-up bags need to be packaged ready for shipping and sale by case packers. …more


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COVER- Horror in Mumbai: Inside a terrorist attack and the mind of Synchronicity
"Loud gunshots."
That was the first sign of trouble for Charles Cannon, the spiritual leader of the Nelson County-based Synchronicity Foundation who had traveled to the luxurious Oberoi Hotel in downtown Mumbai, India with two dozen fellow peace-seekers. Their late November spiritual journey of meditation and enlightenment was on a collision course with an international terrorism incident that left more than 150 dead, including two of their own.
As Cannon and several followers huddled in his 12th floor hotel suite, explosions and gunshots rang out below. Downstairs, Synchronicity vice president Alan Scherr, 58, and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were caught in the gunfire that erupted while they dined in the restaurant adjacent to the soaring hotel atrium.
As news of the American deaths spread, attention turned to Nelson County, where the Scherrs had lived, and to a mourning widow and mother, Kia Scherr. As she grieves in the glare of the international media spotlight, she has exhibited an uncommonly graceful demeanor. While the Scherrs' spiritual community has its critics, members of the Synchronicity Foundation say that Kia's public serenity is living proof that the group can deliver what it promises– true inner peace.
A peaceful enclave
Spiritual seekers have arrived in Nelson to discover wide skies, sweeping fields, and mountain views– as well as affordable land. Adial Road, a winding, wooded country byway just off Route 151 near Nellysford, is home to two meditation centers using sound waves to achieve higher levels of consciousness: the Monroe Institute, founded in the late 1970s by electronics guru Robert Monroe, and Synchronicity, founded by Cannon.
Cannon spent a dozen years living and studying in India with the celebrated but controversial Swami Muktananda, who Cannon says urged him to spread a postuhumous message of peace through meditation in America. In 1983, Cannon– then known as Brother Charles– purchased the first portion of what has grown to a 450-acre tract.
The Synchronicity Foundation eventually built a multi-building compound housing 15 permanent residents and welcoming guests– who pay as much as $1,500 for a week– with spiritual enlightenment from the man who is now known as Master Charles.
Two years ago, the pull to Synchronicity became even stronger for some, with the alleged appearance of the "Blessed Mother," an apparition who thrills those who claim to witness her. It was soon after his 60th birthday when Master Charles announced the Blessed Mother's presence, and skeptics have wondered if it were a ploy for money and attention. Even some of Master Charles' adherents were initially surprised. Master Charles, however, was not.
The Blessed Mother, he revealed, had been appearing to him for his entire life– something he attributed to his Catholic upbringing. But the Blessed Mother is not a Christian apparition; she is a universal divinity who can appear, Master Charles has said, "as Mother Mary of the Catholic tradition, as Kali Durga of the Hindu tradition, or as the White Buffalo Woman of the Native Americans."
While the Blessed Mother has proven such a powerful draw that Synchronicity erected a new temple just for her, the centerpiece of Synchronicity remains its use of targeted sound waves during meditation, "delivering a precision meditation experience," according to the Foundation website, which offers Alpha, Theta, and Delta-wave CDs for $15.95.
Perhaps the best known of such contemplative practices is Transcendental Meditation, a form championed by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which won its greatest renown after the Beatles temporarily embraced it in 1967. That mingling of rock-and-roll with self-reflection was appealing to a young Alan Scherr, whose own spiritual and musical awakening was then stirring.
Alan Scherr
"Alan was a very unique guy– old beyond his years," says Russ Margo, a Baltimore musician and Sherr's bandmate in The Road Runners, a late '60s/early '70s British cover band.
"Here was a kid 15 years old singing the blues, and being able to do it," Margo recalls. "He was from a middle class Jewish family; it was not something you expect to hear."
Margo recalls an early '70s camping trip with his bandmates in which a torrential rainstorm conspired with a leaking tent and a failing air mattress to leave Scherr lying in a cold puddle.
"We were laughing, at him, at the predicament, the rain," Margo recalls. "He didn't really care for us laughing that much."
Margo says they could hear his canteen clanging against his backpack as Scherr stormed off the next morning. "We were laughing and yelling that his anger didn't reflect well on his inner serenity," says Margo. "He told us where to go."
Scherr's introspection was always leavened with bawdy humor, says Margo, who recalls countless occasions of laughing with Scherr "until we cried." The teenagers experimented with marijuana and hallucinogens, but Margo says Scherr's interest in drugs waned as his desire for more substantial enlightenment grew– along with a more serious demeanor, displayed when Scherr would attempt to discuss his awakening spirituality with bandmates, who wouldn't be coming along with him on the journey.
That camping trip, Margo says, was one of the last times he saw Scherr for a decade. But in the mid-'80s, Margo looked up his old Road Runner bandmates. Having long gotten over his campsite anger, Scherr received his old friend warmly, but the relationship had changed.
"His sense of humor, the way he would look, was more like a sense of whimsy. Kind of a chuckle, instead of a belly laugh," says Margo. "I don't think he lost his sense of humor; I think his sense of humor had changed."
There was an even simpler explanation: "He'd just outgrown us," he says.
If he'd outgrown his old bandmates, he had found new and deep kinship in a new relationship– and in another role: fatherhood.
Kia Scherr
"It started as a friendship," says Kia Scherr, recalling the early days of her relationship with Alan, when both were teaching Transcendental Meditation in Maryland in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Gradually, their friendship deepened, she says, and they eventually fell in love and married.
"He was multi-talented," says Kia, citing Alan's abilities in photography and meditation, cooking, and music. He made her laugh, she says, with an "earthy sense of humor" that he also used to help others comprehend some of the more difficult concepts in meditation.
During Naomi's infancy, the couple lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, while Alan was an art professor at the University of Maryland. But in 1996, when Naomi was two, the Scherrs decided to make a more significant commitment to Master Charles, whom both had discovered two years earlier, an experience Alan wrote about at length in an essay linked on the Synchronicity website.
"His energy seemed to move right through me, enlivening and uplifting every particle of my being," Alan wrote of an early encounter with Master Charles. "I felt a mixture of joyous ecstasy and sweet sadness welling up as tears filled my eyes. Then, looking directly at him, I thanked him for the uncountable gifts and blessings I had received since I first met him.
"'It's my intention to move here with my family and be with you,' I said. His face lit up with a broad smile. 'Just have the intention, and see what happens,' he answered."
The family moved to Faber to be close to Synchronicity, while Alan found work as a chef. About a year later, Master Charles invited the Scherrs to move to the compound. They did so, devoting themselves full time to their own meditative practice and to helping teach the Synchronicity way. Alan served as the Foundation's president and later vice president; Kia was appointed executive secretary. As Synchronicity's only resident child, Naomi was a beloved addition to the community.
"She was great," says Thomas Sechak, 30, who was already living at Synchronicity when the Scherrs moved in 11 years ago.
"When she came here, she was very quiet," Sechak recalls, and would only speak to her mother. But about six months later, he says, she opened up. "She was a chatterbox," he laughs, "asking all kinds of questions."
Sechak, who is Synchronicty's IT director in charge of website design and computer repair, says Naomi helped heal him after his own difficult early years.
"I didn't have much of a childhood. I had to be very responsible," he says. Playing with Naomi, he says, "allowed me to be a child all over again. She had that ability to bring out the fun."
As she got older, Sechak says, they remained close, and he eventually started teaching her a bit about computer repair.
"She wanted to learn computers, do graphics, and I was training her on that," he says, amused at the memory of "a 10-year-old running around helping people with their computers, installing Office Outlook, debugging software. She could do it."
It wasn't her only responsibility. Although she was young, her mother boasts that Naomi had inherited her father's gift for cooking, and more than once the girl prepared a full Zone-balanced meal for Synchronicity's residents and guests.
Life on the compound wasn't all about responsibility, says her mother, naming several of the rock bands Naomi loved: Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Mindless Self-Indulgence, a name that made the teen's parents chuckle.
Sechak says he admired Kia and Alan as parents.
"They deeply cared for her, made sure she had everything she needed," he says, "and everything she wanted, within reason."
He recalls an eight-year-old Naomi wanting to dye her hair different colors. Her parents, he says, set limits. "They said, 'Once you turn this age, we'll let you put streaks in your hair.'" And they did. Last Christmas, her mother recalled at a recent press conference, Naomi's hair was purple and fuschia. By summer, it was teal, blue, and green.
"She was fascinated with all the different ways she could look," Kia said.
"She was going through a transition, being 13," agrees Sechak. "You could see that pretty quickly a new personality was emerging. It was rebellion in a postive sense, like her trying to find herself. It was fun to watch."
Turning 13 also meant another new adventure for Naomi: her first plane ride, her first trip to India.
Good news
The first few days in Mumbai were a thrill for all the members of the Synchronicity group, but perhaps none more so than Alan and Naomi Scherr.
"They were both having the time of their lives," said Kia Scherr at the December 2 press conference held in a communal gathering space at Synchronicity. Naomi was exploring Mumbai– which is both India's financial capital as well as its largest city– attending Synchronicity seminars, and enjoying one-on-one time with her father. After receiving permission from her parents, Naomi had gotten her nose pierced with a small gold stud, which she proudly showed off to Master Charles.
Several days after they'd arrived in India, Kia had called the home-schooled Naomi with good news: the eighth grader had scored a 92 percent on the SSATs, a standardized test she'd taken for entry into a prestigious boarding school in upstate New York.
"All she could say was 'Oh, my God,'" Kia recalled. When Kia spoke with Alan the next day, "We were discussing that news and what the next steps would be."
Tragically, there would be no next steps.
Under seige
Even before the battles ended, the extent of the devastation wrought by a small group of Pakistan-based terrorists began emerging. According to the most recent official reports at press time, 163 people were killed in the attacks that targeted up to 10 sites including the historic Taj Mahal hotel, a railroad station, a Jewish center, a hospital and the place where the Synchronicity pilgrims were staying: modern Oberoi Trident hotel.
A luxurious place where even the simple rooms can go for $450 a night, the 12-story Oberoi offers sunset views over the Arabian Sea.
On Wednesday, November 26, Synchronicity evening seminars ended at 8:30pm. Shortly thereafter, Alan Scherr stopped by Master Charles' top-floor suite to discuss plans for the next day. While Master Charles and several others had chosen to eat in the suite, Scherr announced to the group he'd be having dinner in Tiffin, a casual restaurant with a sushi bar located in an upper level of the hotel lobby.
Soon after, the first shots rang out.
Frantically seeking out the source of the noise, Master Charles recalled at the press conference, a friend ran to the hallway and peered over the railing to the wide-open atrium below. He returned to the room with horrific news. Gunmen were in the lobby, Master Charles recalled, "shooting everything."
The group pushed furniture against the door to barricade it, and the next 45 hours unfolded like a surreal nightmare.
"We heard very loud explosions, grenades, gunfire," said a somber Master Charles, "the volume of which you couldn't imagine."
Trapped, the group huddled, "adrenaline pumping, hearts racing, unsure what was happening." It was about to get worse.
A fire broke out on a lower level, and smoke began to filter into the suite, growing thicker to the point that visibility was obscured and breathing became increasingly difficult. For those locked in their guest rooms, there was no means of escape.
The gunmen took several hostages inside the Oberoi. Hung from one window, a makeshift banner offered a heart-breaking plea: "Save us."
Looking down to the street below, said Master Charles, a man gestured for them to break a window. The thick exterior glass made it it difficult, but the Synchronicity group turned some of the room's posh accoutrements into battering rams.
"Then," said Master Charles, "the three of us huddled, sucking air for survival."
Terror continues
By the next day, which was Thanksgiving back in America, electricity and water in the hotel went out, but cell phones remained functioning, allowing trapped travelers to receive updates from the outside and from the other members of their groups. Relief at their own survival was soon tempered by fear for their friends.
Another day dawned, and all but two members of the Synchronicity group had been accounted for. What had begun as a joyful father-daughter trip– Naomi's first chance to see the country that had long inspired her parents– ended with their lives cut brutally short.
By 3pm November 28, more than a day and a half after the horror began, Indian army commandos successfully secured the building. Explosions continued to rock the building, but this time it was security forces blowing doors off the guest rooms.
Forty-five hours after the first gunshots inside the hotel, Master Charles and his fellow Synchronicity survivors were freed, but his grimmest task lay ahead.
On their way out of the Oberoi, Master Charles said, police asked if he could identify the remains of the two people they believed to be Alan and Naomi Scherr. He agreed.
Walking through the atrium, which less than 48 hours before had been a sunlit luxury room filled with well-to-do patrons willing to spend as much as $1,400 a night for a prime seaview suite, was a horror unto itself.
"You could not believe the devastation," said Master Charles. "It was like a bombed out war zone, with blood and bodies."
Entering the restaurant, now blackened with soot, he was forced to step through pools of blood before he discovered the bodies of the fallen father and daughter.
"They were under the table," Master Charles recalled at the press conference, wiping his eyes and his voice briefly quavering, "their arms outstretched to each other and overlapping."
Only later would the details of what occurred in the restaurant be revealed.
According to various news accounts, Alan and Naomi were dining with four other Synchronicity travelers. One of them, a woman named Andreina Varagona, also known as Rüdrani Devi, told a Nashville television station that she had played dead during the attack and, as gunmen strafed the room, had been huddled under a table with a panicking Alan Scherr.
"I put my hand on the back of his neck, just saying, 'Shhh,'" she told the station. "And then I felt a bullet penetrate his head, and he just went limp, and he was bleeding all over me."
Another Synchronicity traveller, children's book author Linda Ragsdale, said she tried to save Naomi by pulling her under the table, but it was too late.
Ragsdale did not respond to the Hook's emailed request for comment by presstime, but spoke to the Washington Post about the aftermath from her bed in the Bombay Hospital, where she'd undergone surgery for a bullet wound to her back.
"I was taking in the enormity of the moment, thinking that this energetic child who I had been playing with in the pool the night before– and had made a pact to do somersaults with– was dead, shot," Ragsdale said.
Like Ragsdale, Varagona was also shot, as was a third member of their party, while a fourth escaped physically unscathed. All were eventually led to safety by hotel staff and were taken to a hospital.
For the Synchronicity survivors of the Mumbai attack, the images of the attack and the deaths of their friends will remain forever etched in their minds. Life will be forever changed. But for one woman who stayed home, life– at least as she knew it– has ended.
Peace outpouring
By December 2, five days after Kia Scherr learned her husband and daughter perished in India, she had already granted several interviews to national news media alongside Master Charles, who arrived back in Nelson County from India the night before. Just before a scheduled 2pm press conference at Synchronicity that day, soft soothing tones play over a speaker system as she arrives at the building arm in arm with one of her two adult sons from a previous marriage.
She walks slowly into the building, dressed casually in slacks, a sweater and Dansko style clogs, her brown hair, touched with gray, brushing her shoulders, her face make-up free, her brow unfurrowed. In fact, her expression, to an onlooker unaware of the terrible blow she had suffered, could seem serene.
"Kia, what's on your mind?" asks a reporter, soon after Kia has taken a seat at the front of the room, below an artist's rendition of the Blessed Mother.
"It's not what's on my mind," she quietly corrects. "It's what's in my heart."
Continuing slowly in a soft, clear, and steady voice, she recalls meeting Alan, describes their courtship, their life at Synchronicity, and, of course, their only child together, Naomi. She does not fidget. Her hands, folded mostly in her lap, remain still.
Her emotions range, she says, from "the deepest grief and pain" to gratitude for "the most love and support I've ever received."
The outpouring from across the globe, she says, has been massive– a memorial website for Alan and Naomi has collected hundreds of posts, and emails and calls expressing support have been continuous.
One might imagine an endless primal scream as the only possible response to this type of senseless violence, a lashing out at those who have terrorized for their own inexplicable reasons. But Kia Scherr seems calm. Someone watching her speak out of hearing range might imagine her discussing plans for a trip or a book she's recently read, not the recent deaths of the two people closest to her in this world.
Her external calm, she says, is thanks to her years of meditation at Synchronicity, which have trained her to remain internally balanced even in times of the most extreme external imbalance.
"Of course you are challenged to the max," she says. "But if your lifestyle is all about balance, then some balance should hold."
This particular time provides the harshest possible test of her mastery.
Master Charles later explained to reporters the tradition he teaches– that there is not good and evil, but rather "positive and negative polarities" which, he says, should balance each other out.
"My heart is broken," he says, "but at the same time the love and beauty of humanity to choose love over violence is inspiring to me."
It's a teaching Kia now truly embodies.
In the first days after Alan and Naomi's death, Kia says, she was in Florida with friends and family.
"We went outside, and the sky was black except for two bright lights," she says. Those stars, she says, represent Alan and Naomi. "Their lights will shine forever, and that's how I remember them."
Alan and Naomi are not the only ones she will think of with love. The terrorists, "shrouded and clouded by fear," are also in her thoughts.
"We must send them," she says, "our love, forgiveness, and protection."
Master Charles nods approvingly.
Naomi Scherr poses for a picture in the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai with her new nose piercing– a long awaited wish her parents granted as part of her Indian trip.
A woman peers down through the broken window of her Oberoi Hotel window during the two-day siege.
"They deeply cared for her, made sure she had everything she needed and everything she wanted, within reason," says Synchronicity resident Thomas Sechak of Kia and Alan's parenting.
Master Charles is escorted from the Oberoi Hotel by Indian army commandos after the siege ended.
Heavily armed Indian army commandos dressed in blue camouflage patrol during the siege on the Oberoi.
A one-word headline sums up the two-day terrorist attack on as many as 10 targets that left more than 150 dead and dozens more injured.
Alan Scherr, second from right, was a teenager in the late 1960s when he played with the Baltimore-based Road Runners, a British cover band. Eventually, "he outgrew us," says his bandmate Russ Margo, far left.


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Video: How To Smoke A Turkey Like Dinosaur Bar-B-Que's John Stage
Barbecue ribs? Yep, the folks at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que do that. But what about turkey? In this video, our own Carey Jones drops by Dinosaur's Harlem kitchen, where founder John Stage shows her how to smoke a turkey. 'Tis the season, after all.
Watch Carey and John delve into the entire turkey-smoking process, from preparing the brine to sending the bird off into the pit. Trade secrets abound!
Have you ever smoked a turkey? Got any pointers? Tell us about your successes and mishaps in the comments.


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Berber carpet from Azilal in Morocco - 258 x 149cm This moroccan rug is a unique piece. It is the result of a month of weaving in the mountains of the Middle Atlas mountain range in Morocco.. It expresses the feelings of a Berber woman her emotions her loves her sorrows. Each woman weaves according to her desires and movements. Each colour and drawing has a symbolism. This berber carpet is not just an object of decoration but a creation full of history.
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Acquires SPS
Recognized in the Top 100 Asia's Best Employer Brands 2019, Employer Branding Institute – India
Acquires SCOPE e-Knowledge Center
Named one of 25 Hottest AI Companies in APAC
Partners Group acquires SPi Global from CVC Capital Partners Asia III.
Managua facility re-launches operations under new parent company SPi Technologies Nicaragua.
Divests healthcare business to ADEC Group.
Divests the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) business in the Philippines, United States, and Nicaragua to Japan-based Relia, Inc.
SPi Global was recently recognized by the Vietnam Software Association (VINASA) for successfully implementing a foreign Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service in Vietnam.
SPi Global was recognized for developing internal tools that enabled the seamless delivery of the requirements of the most-used genealogy data subscription site in the United States and Europe. The work done by SPi Global was substantial in converting English and non-English handwritten public records dating as early as the 1500s into an online reference for the site's subscribers. This is the fifth year that SPi Global received the prestigious award.
SPi Global received special distinction as part of its inclusion in the 2016 Global Outsourcing 100 list by the International Association of Global Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®), for the 11th straight year.
SPi Global received special distinction as part of its inclusion in the 2016 Global Outsourcing 100 list by the International Association of Global Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®), for the 11th straight year.SPi Global received special distinction as part of its inclusion in the 2016 Global Outsourcing 100 list by the International Association of Global Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®), for the 11th straight year.
Wins "Best Company to Work for in Asia of the Year" at the Asia Corporate Excellence and Sustainability (ACES) Awards in Singapore.
Earns Asia's Best Employer in the 6th Asia's Best Employer Brand Awards
SPi Global is included among the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) 2015 Global Outsourcing 100® List. This is the tenth consecutive year the company has been included in the prestigious list.
- The company is included in the following sublist honors: Leader Size Group, Half Star – Distinguished in Delivery Excellence Judging Category, and Multi-Year Winner (since inception of list).
Receives Best BPO Company in the Philippines award from Business Worldwide Magazine; earns President and CEO Maulik Parekh award for CEO of the Year, BPO Services.
Receives the Recognition of Excellence for Service in BPO at the Sao Khuê Awards organized by the Vietnam Software Association (VINASA)
Completes acquisition of all of the assets of China-based Bachieve International Inc; renamed SPi Global (Xi'An) Information Technology Limited.
SPi Global secures slot among top 100 BPO companies for the eighth consecutive year.
Earns Best BPO Provider in Asia at the European CEO Awards.
Wins the National Outsourcing Association's (NOA) first Outsourcing Professional Award for Best Business Process Outsourcing Team.
Subsidiary Laserwords acquires Tighe Publishing Services, a full-service educational development house in the K-12 educational marketplace to position in the educational publishing business in the United States.
SPi Global wins the Award for Corporate Social Responsibility at the 2012 National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Awards. Our CSR program "Power to Inspire" was bestowed the highest honors among the many CSR programs of some of the best outsourcing companies in the Philippines.
SPi Global continues to rank in the prestigious Global Services 100 Survey. SPi Global was cited in the following categories:
- Top Mid-Tier BPO Provider.
- Top Industry-Specific Niche Leader.
- Top Global Knowledge Process Leader.
- Leader – Mid-tier Customer Management Services.
Acquires Laserwords Private Limited from India's Murugappa Group. Laserwords is one of the pioneers and most successful publishing BPO companies in India's Education sector. The acquisition expands the depth and breadth of the company's content solutions business and strengthens presence in the Scientific, Technical, Medical and Legal verticals.
SPi Global launches the SPi Innovation Lab, a platform for developing and testing new innovations for clients. The SPi Innovation Lab involves a formal standardized process undertaken with strategic customers to help develop innovations in the BPO content space. It encompasses the company's strategy, marketing, technology, and research and development units. Among other things, Innovation Lab works on projects involving conceptualizing "e-primary" workflow and production process for books and journals, improving the "content experience" through enhanced eBooks, ePub 3.0 and HTML5 deliverables, partnership approach with client teams in overall process optimization, and pilot projects in services and solutions not commonly outsourced.
Wins biggest scientific conversion project from Springer, one of the leading publishers of scientific and professional journals and books in the world, to digitize and archive 70,000 books dating back to the 1840s.
Our parent company, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), completes the creation of SPi Global Holdings, Inc. There are now two operating entities under this company: SPi Technologies, Inc. and SPi CRM, Inc. (formerly known as ePLDT Ventus, Inc., which earlier subsumed two other call centers, namely, Vocativ Systems, Inc. and Parlance Systems, Inc.)
SPi Global wins the International ICT Awards' "2010 Non-Voice Excellence of the Year Award."
SPi continues to rank among the top 10 in the prestigious Global Services 100 Survey. The annual ranking by neoIT and the Global Services Magazine once again recognizes SPi as one of the "Best Performing BPO Providers" and a leader in Human Capital Development. SPi also ranks for the first time in the Emerging Asian Markets category.
- Best 5 Leaders in Document Management.
- Best 10 Leaders for Administrative Services.
- Best 20 Leaders for Customer Relationship Management Services.
SPi continues to rank among the top 10 in the prestigious Global Services 100 Survey. The annual ranking by neoIT and the Global Services Magazine once again recognizes SPi as one of the "Best Performing BPO Providers" and a leader in Human Capital Development. SPi also ranks for the first time in the Emerging Asian Markets category.
Renews partnership with American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) on editorial and content production services to all AACR's journals.
Renews partnership with the Council of Science Editors and National Institute of Health to aid the African Journals Partnership Project (AJPP).
Appoints Peter Maquera as President and CEO
SPi receives the Outsourcing & Offshoring Regional Excellence Award from the Philippine Department of Trade & Industry. This is a recognition given to SPi for its help in generating investments and employment in other regions of the Philippines outside of Metro Manila
SPi continues to rank among the top 10 in the prestigious Global Services 100 Survey. The annual ranking by neoIT and the Global Services Magazine once again recognizes SPi as one of the "Best Performing BPO Providers" and a leader in Human Capital Development. SPi also ranks for the first time in the Emerging Asian Markets category.
Launches new Managed Review offering; becomes first to offers legal clients complete, end-to-end discovery and document review services for a simple, per-document price.
SPi receives several awards from the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). The company is included in the categories "Top Offshoring Providers," "Top Companies Serving the Healthcare Industry," " Top Companies Offering CRM Services," and "Top Companies Offering Administration and Corporate Services."
SPi Legal is named one of the "Top 20 Overall Service Providers" by industry leader Socha-Gelbmann in its Annual Electronic Discovery Survey of the litigation support market.
SPi ranks among "Top 10 Best Performing BPO Service Providers" and "Top 10 Leaders in Human Capital Development" in the Global Services 100 Survey for 2005. This survey was conducted by the Global Services Magazine; and neoIT,, a consulting firm specializing in services globalization and the Global Services Magazine
SPi Technologies launches its new "SPi" brand name. The company moves to leverage its multiple competencies and synergies through a unified brand.
SPi was named "Global Outsourcing Leader" by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) in The Global Outsourcing 100 list
SPi Legal is awarded top 10 status by Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey.
SPi Foundation responds to the Tsunami disaster in India with substantial employee and corporate donations. Furthermore, SPi employees respond to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts by supporting the Central Texas High Tech Hurricane Fund for Hurricane Relief, which helped thousands of families that relocated from the Gulf Coast to the areas in and around Austin, Texas.
SPi partners with Springer Science and Business Media, and Philippine social progress organization Gawad Kalinga (meaning "to give care") to revitalize housing in a Metro Manila slum community.
SPi is taken private from the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Prestigious Science magazine selects SPi Publishing as composition vendor.
SPi gains CMMi Level 5 accreditation, the highest level of quality certification in the software development industry.
Acquires Med-Type, a medical transcription company based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Partners with The Children's Hour, an international charity that calls on individuals and companies to donate an hour of their earnings to local programs benefiting children and the youth.
Expands book services capabilities in India through the acquisition of Kolam Information Services.
Launches SPi Foundation; inaugurates community investment program.
Enters the US medical transcription industry.
Philippine-based operations enter the journal editorial, content production, and the litigation support services market; pioneers the hybrid offshore-onshore production model.
Appoints Ernest Cu as President and CEO
Becomes one of the first companies in the BPO sector to receive accreditation to ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems.
Successful IPO in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Allan Frasier establishes SPi Technologies, one of the first companies in Asia to provide content outsourcing services to Fortune 500 companies like Boeing, Reed Elsevier, and Sony.
Partners Group is a global private markets investment management firm with over USD 91 billion in investment programs under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and private debt. The firm manages a broad range of customized portfolios for an international clientele of institutional investors. Partners Group is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and has offices in San Francisco, Denver, Houston, New York, São Paulo, London, Guernsey, Paris, Luxembourg, Milan, Munich, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Manila, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney. The firm employs over 900 people and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (symbol: PGHN) with a major ownership by its partners and employees.


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Whilst our offices in Sutton, Banstead and Cheam may be closed to visitors, we can still assist with many legal services using technology.
If you need a Will prepared, advice regarding an employment or commercial issue, guidance with divorce proceedings or you're hoping to buy or sell a property, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We are working remotely and observing social distancing, but can help over the telephone, via email or a video conference "meeting room".Close
Because we know our clients often have to be many things at once – parent, business owner, entrepreneur, carer of elderly relatives, guardian of a family business – Gowen & Stevens has specialists on hand for whatever you may be facing.
Our lawyers are each specialists in their area of law but they all share a commitment to providing a highly personal service together with the very best legal expertise to our clients.
Well known for our expertise in property, wills & probate, family, corporate and commercial matters, Gowen & Stevens brings together a team with an impressive array of legal specialisms and a level of service that is renowned for being both personal and responsive.
"I have just moved into my first business premises and John Mill from Gowen & Stevens did an outstanding job of guiding me through the commercial property letting process and helped me to understand the contract and planning process throughout the time that it took for me to move into the property. Despite problems with the landlord's solicitor and the planning process he advised me along the way and kept me updated throughout so that I knew what was going on. ___________________________________________________ Dear Tracey, thank you for all your hard work for us. We really appreciate your kindness and support. ___________________________________________________ Dear Cathy and Louise Thank you both for all your help with this. I'm really happy that I can start this new chapter in my life. You have been most reassuring throughout this process as well as the earlier sale of my parents' flat. Your calm professionalism throughout has been much appreciated. With all best wishes "
From initial contact to first meeting we'll work hard to understand your current concerns and where you want to get to – from every angle. We'll then put together the right team, with the right mix of experience and skills, to help you get there as easily and cost-effectively as possible.
We have an open and adaptable culture, and we put a lot of effort into making our relationship with you effective and stress-free. Clear communication is vital, so we make sure you always know what's going on and how much it's going to cost. We invite regular feedback from the start to ensure we understand your expectations and then we make sure we meet or exceed them.
We specialise in work for private clients and privately owned businesses. From business owners through to wealthy families, landowners and successful individuals, clients choose us for our renowned technical expertise and our friendly partner-led service.
As a client of Gowen & Steven you receive a very personal service that is designed to support you, your business and your family in every aspect and at all stages of life, from complex business and property transactions, through to preserving, growing and transferring your wealth and the care of elderly or vulnerable relatives.Read More
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Until 31 October the Aram Gallery showcases 'Grassworks' – the most recent creations of Jair Straschnow. The Amsterdam-based Israeli designer developed a comprehensive collection of flatpacked furniture which are based on one single material – bamboo sheet laminate – and on the the manipulation of traditional interlocking woodworking techniques.
A good example is Jair's reworking of the dovetail joint, an old principle of slotting pieces of wood that have opposing sloped angles to wedge themselves against one another – without any need for screws or glue.
The beauty of Jair Straschnow's pieces lies in the obvious logic of the construction which also enables the user to assamle the pieces intuitionally.


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Peter Cruddas, the disgraced former Tory party treasurer, claimed to have direct access to Prime Minister David Cameron on at least 13 occasions - even bankrolling a dinner at Chequers, it is reported.
Mr Cruddas was forced to resign last week after he was secretly filmed by undercover reporters from The Sunday Times boasting that he could provide access to Mr Cameron and other ministers and influence over policy for "premier league" donors giving £250,000 to the party.
In the wake of the disclosures the Conservatives released details of party donors attending dinners and lunches held at the Prime Minister's official residences at No 10 and Chequers.
Now, The Sunday Times - publishing further details from its investigation - said that Mr Cruddas described having direct access to Mr Cameron on at least 13 occasions, including a dinner in London's Belgrave Square on the Prime Minister's birthday.
He was also said to have claimed he served a "ruby murray" - curry - to Mr Cameron's wife, Samantha, when she was his dinner companion at a charity event at Chequers which he sponsored.
Although the event, on October 15 last year, was mentioned on the list released by the Conservatives, no reference was made to Mr Cruddas's involvement.
In a statement, the Conservative Party said:
Over last weekend there was speculation about dinners in the Prime Minister's flat in Downing Street. In response to this, the Conservative Party published details of occasions when significant donors had lunch or dinner in official residences used by the Prime Minister, ie Downing Street and Chequers. The Conservative Party never claimed that it was publishing details of every occasion the Prime Minister had met with a donor and explicitly did not publish details of the Chequers charity opera event in aid of Mencap and other smaller charities. This was attended by a large number of people, including donors to both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. It is a longstanding event, organised by a fundraising committee and it raised £1 million for the charities.