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Alice In Wonderland Costume
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Alice in Wonderland
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|Costumes for Girls
This store bought costume for girls entered our 2012 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Lacey, the 'Alice In Wonderland' costume creator:
This is my daughter Trinity wearing the Alice in Wonderland costume. The idea came from the movie. She is in love with Alice. I purchased the costume on Craigslist and purchased the striped tights at a local Halloween store.
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Dear Washington, thanks for my new tax increase: Column
- Who%27s more qualified to talk about shared sacrifice than those who can vote themselves pay raises%3F
- I%27ve got a list of people I%27m grateful to for making it possible for my family to live on less.
- How about we change our national motto from %22In God We Trust%22 to %22Thank you%2C sir%2C may I have another%3F%22
This week I got my first paycheck of 2013 and noticed my take home pay is about 5% less than it was in 2012. I had heard reports from all over the country from listeners to my radio show who noticed the same thing, but it didn't really hit home to me until I saw it for myself in my own paycheck.
Contrary to the rant in response you're anticipating, I'm not upset. I'm actually honored to do my part in that whole "shared sacrifice" thing we keep hearing about from our benevolent ruling class. After all, who's more qualified to talk about shared sacrifice than those who can vote themselves pay raises whenever they want, pass laws they don't have to subject themselves to and take vacations all over the world that are bought and paid for by others.
And just like all those glamorous stars that will be thanking their minions during those awards shows that air this time of year, I've got a list of people I'm grateful to for making it possible for my family to live on less at the same time they're asking us to pay for their $16.4 trillion (and climbing) in debt.
The first people I must thank are the Republican majority leadership in the U.S. Congress. The Constitution – you know, that dusty artifact kept in stasis in various museums you often ignore – says all taxing and spending begins in your chamber. Who else could come up with the counter-intuitive brilliance to call something that raises the taxes taken out of my check by 5% the "Tax Relief Act of 2012?" I know my fellow conservatives often complain about that John Boehner being clueless, but it turns out he's a crafty linguist able to bend word definitions in a single bound.
Next is Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Let's not overlook his contribution. Without the shrewd leadership he's shown in not passing a budget out of his chamber for four years and counting a lot of this "shared sacrifice" wouldn't be possible. Not to mention Reid is setting an excellent example for our children by blaming everybody else for his mismanagement.
What about my Republican governor, Terry Branstad? We were fortunate enough to have him run for a fifth term, and who doesn't appreciate that level of dedication to public service? Blessedly, he's already grown my state government bigger than either of his Democrat predecessors while promising us he would grow personal income by 25%. Since my personal income is down 5% that means I still have a lot to look forward to!
Last, but certainly not least, is President Obama. All the "solutions" he's presented to our various problems helped grow government more in four years than his big government predecessor accomplished in eight. The warm fuzzy my children will experience when I tell them we're doing less as a family this year so Obama can do even more, promises to be a Kodak moment. Besides, as loyal subjects of the crown, my children need to realize that we work hard so he doesn't have to. They can enjoy their family vacation this year vicariously through all the vacations the first family will be taking instead.
With government doing more to us…err…I mean for us than ever before, I have a suggestion. Not a complaint, mind you, but a humble suggestion for our benevolent ruling class. To avoid offending anybody, and to make sure there's truth in advertising, how about we change our national motto from "In God We Trust" to "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"
Steve Deace is a nationally-syndicated radio show host based in Iowa.

subset: commoncrawl


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L'un de nos experts en espace de travail communiquera avec vous à l'adresse courriel que vous avez fournie dans les 48 heures.
Shoreditch is the byword for hipster London: after all, this is where East London's regeneration started at the end of the '90s. Dot coms, media companies, designers, and fintech firms alike are drawn by the area's funky warehouses, pop-up shops, and close proximity to the city and East London. Whether you're a team of one or 100, WeWork offers everything you need to work in a setting as inspired as the neighborhood itself—from artwork by local graffiti artists to comfy communal areas where you can hang out with other members. Have lunch with the team at one of the curry houses of Brick Lane, take a midday stroll through Columbia Road's famous flower market, or entertain clients at a cool Hoxton bar. There's no shortage of things to do here. Tube stations at Old Street and Liverpool Street, the East London overground line at Shoreditch High Street, and a constant stream of buses nearby make the commute easy. Join WeWork for Shoreditch coworking space and then some.
Home of the artist Damien Hirst, actor Russell Brand, and surreal comedian Noel Fielding, Shoreditch is a hub for creativity and opportunity. With cool bars like the Queen of Hoxton, exclusive clubs like Shoreditch House, and the funky shipping container shops in Boxpark, Shoreditch has something for everyone. Our shared office space is similar: month-to-month flexibility and a diverse business community makes WeWork the ideal office space for teams in a range of industries, whether you're a scrappy startup or a more established company. The vibe is collaborative and chill with open, airy common areas and community events spanning from lunch and learns to member happy hours. For an inspiring workspace, easy commute, and vibrant community, join WeWork today. You'll be glad you did.


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Charlie Sheen could soon have a home on Mark Cuban's HDNet station.
Cameras already are rolling, although plenty of details still need to be worked out -- such as what kind of show it might be. Cuban said Sunday a decision of whether to make it a reality show, a talk show or something else will be up to Sheen.
Sheen has become a media phenomenon lately with off-beat rantings filled with lines that have become catchphrases, such as "tiger blood" and a drug called Charlie Sheen. It's all part of a campaign to disprove that he is a drug-using, reckless playboy.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The future of his hit CBS show "Two and a Half Men" is uncertain.
Cuban described Sheen as "somebody that everybody has a whole lot of interest in who is doing some interesting things, to say the least."


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|Version 56 (modified by 11 years ago) (diff),
Welcome to the Cloudy Trac site
Cloudy is a spectral synthesis code designed to simulate conditions in interstellar matter.
Please post question or problems on the Cloudy discussion board. Updates to Cloudy will be announced on this board.
Installing Cloudy
StepByStep instructions for installing the release version.
StellarAtmospheres in Cloudy are now very flexible. They are described on this web site rather than in Hazy.
KnownProblems are described on this page.
HotFixes are small corrections to the source that fix problems discovered after the current stable version was released.
Other pages
The RevisionHistory pages list changes to the code and new features in upcoming versions
Acknowledgments for help with Cloudy are on the AcknowledgmentsPage
The NextRelease page gives changes and improvements that are planned for the next version
Frequently asked questions are on the FaqPage
Old versions of Cloudy are on the CloudyOld page
The DownloadLinks page gives links to download the code
Cloudy's discussion board, the place to go with questions or problems.
Meta wiki
Discussion about the wiki, trac, etc is at MetaWiki
For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.
The trac page on wiki formatting
Return to nublado.org


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NASHVILLE, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Will Blackmon returned a fumble for a touchdown Sunday and the Jacksonville Jaguars recorded their first victory of the season, 29-27 over Tennessee.
The Jaguars were clinging to a 22-20 lead with 2:32 left in the game when Blackmon stripped Tennessee quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick of the ball and returned it 21 yards to secure the victory.
Maurice Jones-Drew and Jordan Todman each ran for a touchdown for Jacksonville (1-8), who took the lead on a fourth-quarter safety and held on to snap a 13-game losing streak stretching back to last season.
Fitzpatrick took over behind center for the injured Jake Locker in the first half and went 22-of-33 through the air for 264 yards with two touchdowns for the Titans (4-5).


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Separatist Quebec premier to meet with Scottish counterpart
Quebec's premier says she has no intention of interfering in the internal politics of the United Kingdom when she meets with Scotland's separatist leader next week.
Pauline Marois says she looks forward to chatting about independence next week — not to helping achieve it.
She will meet with Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, during a stop in Edinburgh on Jan. 29.
Marois says she knows his pro-independence Scottish National Party has observed her Parti Québécois with interest and she's ready to answer any questions Salmond might have.
"I will obviously not interfere in their politics or decisions," Marois told a news conference Tuesday.
"But you know they have observed Quebec quite a bit, and our experiences. Mr. Salmond will surely have some questions to ask me."
So what is the meeting's objective?
"My objective is not necessarily to make a contribution, to have an influence, but it's really an exchange between political people who have similar perspectives on certain subjects, such as achieving more powers and on the means for achieving powers or becoming independent," she said.
Unlike the Scottish nationalists, the PQ has already held two referendums in failed attempts at independence over the years but currently has no timetable for a third such vote.
The SNP, on the other hand, is now planning to hold its first such referendum after being elected with a majority government for the first time since the creation of the modern Scottish parliament.
Although the PQ and the SNP have forged ties over the years, it will be the first time their respective leaders meet while in power.
Their movements do share a familiar obstacle: less-than-favourable polls.
Surveys peg support for Scottish independence at levels that suggest it might be hard to achieve when the referendum takes place in the fall of 2014.
Marois' office, in announcing the meeting, has said it would be an opportunity to underscore the parallels between the respective independence movements.
Scotland has many powers, including jurisdiction over education, health, law and local government. But there are several areas — including economic policy — where it is dependent on decisions made in London.
Many Scots have long contended that revenues from North Sea oil should stay in Scotland, a situation they say would increase wealth in the country of slightly more than five million people.
In Quebec City, the opposition Liberals criticized Marois' upcoming visit, saying she should focus on economic issues instead of building nationalist alliances.
Federal government keeps quiet
The federal government had little to say about the planned meeting.
When asked whether Ottawa might have a diplomatic response to it, the office of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird replied with the customary line repeated by the Harper Tories in any discussion related to Quebec nationalism.
"Canadians do not want to revisit the old constitutional battles of the past. Our government will continue to focus on what matters to Canadians: jobs, economic growth, and long-term prosperity," the government responded in an email.
Marois' trip will also take her to London and to Davos for the World Economic Forum, before she heads to Scotland.
A referendum on devolution was held in Scotland in 1979.
The regulations at the time stated that at least 40 per cent of eligible voters had to vote Yes as well as 50 per cent of people who actually voted.
While more than 51 per cent of those who cast a ballot voted in favour of devolution, the referendum did not carry the day because turnout was low and only about 33 per cent of eligible voters voted Yes.
In 1997, nearly 75 per cent of voters endorsed the creation of a Scottish parliament in another referendum.


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Halle Berry's publicist has confirmed reports the actress is pregnant. She is expecting her first child with fiance Olivier Martinez.
Her representative tells WENN, "I can confirm that Halle Berry and Oliver Martinez are expecting a child."
Berry, 46, is already mom to 5-year-old Nahla Ariela – her daughter from a previous relationship with Gabriel Aubry – and the actress clearly had babies on the brain when she was interviewed last year about the possibility of becoming a mother again – she explained her little girl was keen to become a big sister.
Berry said, "Every night, we do our prayers, and she (Nahla) says, 'God, please bring me a bunk bed and a baby sister'. And I say, 'I can do one of those things, I know for sure. The other one, we've got to keep praying on.'"


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Five Nittany Lions earn AVCA All-America honors
Five Nittany Lions earn AVCA All-America honors
SEATTLE -- Four Nittany Lions have been selected to the AVCA Division I All-America teams, with one more garnering honorable mention honors, as announced by the organization Wednesday (Dec. 18) morning. Senior Deja McClendon highlighted the entire group, as the only player in the 2013 class to be honored as a four-time AVCA All-American, earning a spot on the second-team. Senior Ariel Scott and junior Micha Hancock were both selected to the first-team, while senior Katie Slay was tabbed to the third-team. Junior Nia Grant rounded on the group as an honorable mention honoree.
The four selections marks the second consecutive year that Penn State has placed four Nittany Lions on one of the three teams and brings the program's total number of All-America honorees to 79 since 1979. Additionally, head coach Russ Rose has mentored at least one All-American in 34 of his 35 seasons at the helm of the program.
AVCA divides its All-America class into three 14-student-athlete teams (first, second and third), adding an additional honorable mention squad. The AVCA DI National Player of the Year will be selected on Dec. 20 at the AVCA All-America/Players of the Year Banquet presented by Northwestern Mutual.
McClendon is the fifth four-time All-American in Penn State history, joining Bonnie Bremner, Christa Harmotto, Nicole Fawcett and Megan Hodge in the elite group. McClendon recently earned her fourth Big Ten postseason award, earning a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten team and a spot on the AVCA All-Northeast Region team. She has previously been selected as the 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, having registered two consecutive All-Big Ten accolades from 2011-12. She's started all 34 matches at outside hitter this season and leads the team in kills with 356 on the year. McClendon also ranks second on the team in digs with 342 in 2013, averaging 2.87 per set. She's led the team in kills 11 times this season, while posting 11 double-doubles. Earlier this year, she notched her 1,000th career dig to eclipse the 1,000 career kills/1,000 career digs mark. She is the first Nittany Lion to reach the mark since Megan Hodge in 2009 and the fifth in program history. She recently hit the 1,500 career kills mark after tallying 11 kills at Minnesota.
Slay collected her third consecutive All-American honor, after being tabbed as a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten team and an AVCA All-Northeast Region honoree. The 2011 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year was also a member of the 2012 All-Big Ten team. The two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week also picked up one Big Ten Player of the Week accolade in 2013. She's amassed 252 kills on the year, posting a team-best .404 hitting percentage, which ranks fifth in the Big Ten and 21st nationally. Slay is at the helm of the Nittany Lion blocking unit with 200 total blocks on the year. Her 1.67 blocks per frame leads the conference and ranks third among all individuals in the nation. Earlier this season, Slay reached the 500 career blocks mark and has totaled 620 blocks in her career, which is good for sixth on the Penn State all-time list.
Scott also garnered her third consecutive All-American honor. In 2013, she earned a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten team as well as a spot on the AVCA All-Northeast Region team. She also earned the Big Ten Player of the Year honor in 2012 and a spot on the All-Big Ten team in 2011. A finalist for the Senior CLASS Award, Scott ranks second on the team with 315 kills on the year, averaging a squad-best 3.18 kills per frame. She's posted double-digit kills in 18 matches this season, while leading the team in the category 15 times throughout the season. Totaling 26 multi-block performances, she closed out the regular-season ranked second on the team in blocks, averaging 0.85 per set. In 2012 she reached the 1,000 career kills milestone. Since then, she's added 352 more kills for a career total of 1,352, which ranks 14th in program history.
Hancock earned her second career All-America honor after picking up her third consecutive Big Ten Setter of the Year honor, as well as a spot on the All-Big Ten team. She also garnered AVAC All-Northeast Region honors. The 2011 Big Ten Freshman of the Year also earned the 2011 AVCA Mideast Freshman of the Year award. She's also earned a spot on either the All-Big Ten team or the Big Ten All-Freshman squad each year. The five-time Big Ten Setter of the Week in 2013 is the only recipient of the Big Ten's Setter of the Year award, having claimed the title in the last two years. Hancock has guided the Nittany Lion offense to a .306 hitting percentage in 2013, which ranks fifth in the nation and leads the Big Ten. She's paced two top attackers to .355 or better hitting on the year. Earlier this season, she set a new program record with her 237th career ace. Hancock leads the team with 76 aces on the year and her 0.63 aces per frame ranks second in the country and first in the league.
Junior Nia Grant earned her first AVCA All-America status, having been selected as an honorable mention honoree. Last week she picked up AVCA All-Northeast Region honors, marking the first postseason honor. The Warren, Ohio native has established herself as a key offensive weapon for the Nittany Lions, as she's ranked second on the team with a .358 hitting percentage and fifth on the squad averaging 1.78 kills per set. Her hitting efficiency ranks 57th nationally and fifth in the Big Ten conference.
No. 2 Penn State is set to square off against No. 12 Wisconsin in the NCAA national championship match Saturday, Dec. 21 at 9:30 p.m. ET in KeyArena. The matchup will broadcast live on ESPN2.


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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott vows to fight for cheerleaders banned from using Bible verses on football banners. KXAN's Ignacio Garcia reports.
A judge ruled Thursday that a group of cheerleaders fighting for the right to display biblical-themed banners during high school football games in their small Texas community could continue to do so, at least until the battle goes to court next June.
The cheerleaders in Kountze prompted a complaint to the school district in September when they rolled out banners with scriptural references, such as "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me," and "But thanks be to God which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
A letter of complaint from the nonprofit Freedom from Religion Foundation prompted Kountze Independent School District Superintendent Keven Weldon to bar the religious banners.
The foundation argued that when the religious sentiments are displayed by cheerleaders in school uniforms before large groups of students at official school functions, the banners violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
"It is not a personal opinion of mine," Weldon told the Houston Chronicle after making his initial decision. "My personal convictions are that I am a Christian as well. But I'm also a state employee and Kountze (school district) representative. And I was advised that that such a practice (religious signs) would be in direct violation of United States Supreme Court decisions."
But parents and attorneys for the girls, supported by the nonprofit law firm, the Liberty Institute, filed a lawsuit arguing that the scriptural banners should be allowed as constitutionally guaranteed free speech. The judge granted a temporary injunction on enforcement of the ban.
On Thursday, District Judge Steve Thomas extended that injunction until a trial scheduled for June 24.
The cheerleaders gained heavyweight support Wednesday when Texas Governor Rick Perry and State Attorney General Greg Abbot made high-profile endorsements of the religious messages.
"We will not allow atheist groups from outside of the state of Texas to come into the state, to use menacing and misleading intimidation tactics, to try to bully schools to bow down at the altar of secular beliefs," Abbot said in a statement Wednesday.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is a national group based in Madison, Wis., said that it did not expect a favorable ruling on the case in Texas courts, and that it hoped to take the case to federal court.
"If the school district drops this, what we would like to do is sue the school district, but we have to have a plaintiff," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Madison, Wis.-based organization.
But she said that finding someone to be named in the lawsuit in Kountze, a predominantly conservative Christian community with a population of about 2,100, is a challenge.
"People who are in the community are afraid to come out of the closet," said Gaylor. "Our complainant is not able to be the plaintiff for that reason."
A Facebook page supporting the cheerleaders had more than 48,300 members on Thursday.
"Our little town is sticking together and standing behind our kids!!!" the introduction to the page states. "Someone has tried to prevent our cheerleaders from ...using religious scriptures on their run-through signs at the football games. This was all led by our children, and they made the decision to give the glory to God this year. We, as a community, will stand up for our kids and make sure they do not lose their voice and their rights in this."
More content from NBCNews.com:
- U.S. nonprofit 'names and shames' businesses to put bite into Iran sanctions
- Same-sex marriage supporters rack up large war chests in state battles
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- Ocelots, pro baseball pitcher and pipeline builder tangled up in lawsuit
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


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Projects Abroad Team Triumph in Indian Cricket Contest
India volunteers, Alice French and Ben Thurman tell us about their weekend of cricket, cows and controversy.
'On Saturday 10th February, for the third time, volunteers from all over the globe gathered to challenge the mighty staff at Projects Abroad to a game of cricket. The volunteers were at something of a disadvantage, having only three real cricketers amongst them but, with the assurance that the game would not be taken too seriously, spirits remained high.
The volunteers suffered an early setback as their captain, Simon Walker, tried – unsuccessfully – to field the ball with his head in pre-match practice on Friday evening. He was rushed into hospital and, although declared fit to play, it was clear that his performance suffered as a result. Moreover, our ranks were further depleted as a key member of the volunteers' team mysteriously fell ill the night before the match. Sabotage was suspected.
We were all rudely awoken at the unearthly, and frankly unfair, hour of 6am (thanks Pabbu!) in order to get to the pitch in time for the 'fun match'. Though looking around the breakfast table, one wondered how much fun anyone was likely to have at that hour of the day! The so-called 'fun match' consisted only of volunteers - cunningly split up into team A and team B – all desperate to prove their worth on the cricket pitch. Some impressed with their skills, whilst others found the game somewhat more challenging. Alice French caused our captain some serious selection problems, but did not quite make the final XI (or fit into the kit). Frederik Isler had the misfortune of being bowled out first ball, for a golden duck or – as volunteer Leonie Lawrence sagely commented – was it a golden eagle? This notwithstanding, he yet somehow managed to make the team. Sexism was suspected.
The real game began with the Projects Abroad staff batting first. Rajendran, who opened the batting, blasted into the game with a dynamic performance, sadly cut short when he was outpaced by Pandi. However Pandi's stint at the crease was also short-lived as, following a brilliant bit of bowling from Ben Thurman, he was caught out by Alice Lindsay or 'Big Al', as she likes to be known. Regardless of her incessant apologies, it is unlikely the two will ever really be friends again. Victor, the imposing opposition captain, then entered the crease and, despite some inspiring bowling from Freddie Swift, managed to preserve his wicket until he was expertly caught out by Alex. Another highlight was Fred Miles' surprisingly athletic piece of fielding, resulting in Pabbu's dismissal. Helped by significant contributions from the rest of his team - and despite Frederik Isler's alternative bowling style - Victor guided the Projects Abroad staff to a healthy total of 146.
The volunteers' innings got off to a promising start with a superb opening stand of 70 between Ben Thurman and Freddie Swift, before the inspired decision to bring Pabbu on to bowl, resulted in the former being dismissed for 23. A catastrophic middle order collapse ensued as Simon and Tom were returning to the pavilion almost before they had reached the wicket. Freddie 'man of the match' Swift controlled the innings, with help from Fred Miles who made 10, before being dismissed on 80. This left Frederik Isler and Leonie Lawrence to bring up the tense conclusion to this enthralling match, and it was here that we saw Frederik's place in the team justified as the Swiss superstar outplayed himself in his first ever game of cricket! In the controversial last over, Leonie Lawrence was judged run out, going for the run to tie the match. The volunteers were left forlorn and dejected as they lost the match by a mere 1 run to the far more experienced Projects Abroad side. Victor's until then unseen competitive side shone through as he ecstatically lifted the trophy up on high (although not that high), and the writing on the back of his shirt said it all! Alice Lindsay also batted well.
Despite the unwelcomingly wet weather, painfully early start and occasional intrusions by cows on the pitch, it was overall a highly successful day, enjoyed by all. So, from all the volunteers, a sincere thank you to the staff at Projects Abroad, but also a warning that this defeat was but a minor setback and will only make us stronger, so next time – watch out!'


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This event occurred in the past
Ahlers Center International Speaker Luncheon: Hector Medina
This event occurred in the past
This event occurred in the past
Date and Time
- Thursday, April 4, 2013 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, Room D
This event has reached maximum capacity. To be placed on a wait list, please email Erin Kellaway at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Business Strategy for Innovation and Global Growth: The Case of CEMEX
Hector Medina will share with you the major decisions taken by CEMEX over a 20-year period in which the company was transformed from a local Mexican cement player to a global construction materials supplier. During this period, the company's sales and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) grew at a significant annual rate and operations expanded to more than 50 countries. Mr. Medina will highlight the major cultural changes that CEMEX underwent to support this growth, with innovation playing a fundamental role in the process.
Speaker Biography:
Mr. Medina joined CEMEX in 1988 and was responsible for the company's worldwide strategic planning and finance. In 2010 he retired, and he now serves as a board member for several public and private companies in Mexico, while actively pursuing a variety of other business and personal interests. Mr. Medina received his degree in Chemical Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey, followed by a MSc degree in Management from the University of Bradford Management Center in the U.K., and a M.S. degree from the Escuela de Organización Industrial in Spain.
No Show Policy:
Since there will be food served at this event, please let us know at least 48 hours in advance if you will be unable to attend. While we do not charge a fee to RSVP, these programs would not be sustainable and available to all wanting to attend unless all registrants abide by the 48 hour notice policy. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Post Contact
Erin Kellaway
(619) 260-6809
College of Arts and Sciences
Contact Us Email
Visit Campus Map
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110


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A Bass Player's Dream Come True
The BOSS ME-50B puts world-class bass effects in a rugged floor unit with easy pedal-style control. Effects are divided into six sections: Compressor/Limiter, Master, Filter/Tone, Drive/Synth, Delay/Modulation and Expression Pedal giving bassists a range of unique and powerful tones including new effects like Sound Hold, Octave Up and Kick Drum. Effects can be edited using 23 knobs and controlled via three built-in footswitches and an assignable expression pedal. This is the piece no bass player should be without!
- Floor-based bass multi-effects processor with easy analogue control
- Killer COSM Compressor/Limiter and Drive effects, plus T-Wah, Slow Gear and Defretter
- Innovative Sound Hold function for sustaining a low note while playing on top
- Sound On Sound recording with new Kick Drum effect for keeping time
- Dedicated knobs for each effect section - no menu-surfing!
- Easy Tone effects with Preset EQ templates for quick tone editing
- 3 footswitches and onboard expression pedal routed to 6 options like Octave, Wah, etc.
- Solid metal case built to withstand abuse
Multi-Effects Made Simple
BOSS understands that bass players want access to powerful effects, but they don't want to get caught up in the menus and programming hassles of a multi-effects processor. Enter the ME-50B. Just like its guitar-oriented sibling, the new ME-50B puts BOSS' finest multi-effects for bass into a convenient floor processor with the feel of a compact pedal. Forget about menus and cursor buttons. Just reach down and twist a knob!
Independent COSM Compressor/Limiter and EQ
Everyone knows that the fundamentals of good bass tone are compression and EQ. That's why the ME-50B features two dedicated sections for these essential effects. The Compressor/Limiter uses advanced COSM modelling including a "Natural" compression setting that retains the nuances of your playing - to give you tight, punchy tone. Simply select the compressor "Type" and adjust the Sustain/Threshold knob to get the tone you want. The Master section includes a 3-band EQ with a sweepable mid for precise tonal shaping.
Get Creative with Cool Filter/Tone Effects
The ME-50B includes a variety of unique tone-shaping effects just for bass. These include a handy "Octave Up" effect, which adds a note one octave above the original while retaining your natural bass sound - complete with adjustable drive on the octave-shifted note - plus favourites like Slow Gear, T-Wah and a Defretter effect for instant fretless sounds. Using the Tone effect preset, you can get quick tonal variations with preset EQs like "Bottom Boost" and "Mid Shape".
Incredibly Warm Overdriven Sounds and More
Want some extra bite? Switch on the ME-50B's Drive effects, which include settings like "Muff Fuzz", "Bass Driver", "Natural" and "Metal" to give you a range of overdriven/distorted sounds. A new "Hi Band" effect creates a distorted sound on the high frequencies while keeping the lower frequencies intact - perfect for creating complex tones while keeping your original playing dynamics. There are also four synth bass sounds with superb tracking and natural feel.
Sound On Sound with a Twist
Sound On Sound recording is very popular with guitarists, and now bass players can build their own loops, too. But the ME-50B can do even more. Using the new Kick Drum function, players can tap in their own kick drum and create loops over the beat. If that's not enough, check out the new Sound Hold function, which lets you endlessly sustain a low note while playing over it. With the ME-50B, bassists can take their playing to a whole


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Song Bird Bell
Beautifully hammered decorative song bird over a small, recycled metal bell.
Dimensions: 6.5" L, 4" W
- Artforms
- Artisans
- Shipping & Returns
Bell Craft
Bell-making is an ancient Indian craft with enchanting origins. Traditionally used by farmers to identify their livestock, each bell is tuned to produce a distinctive chime. Creating music from lifeless metal, bell-making in India uses craftsmanship passed down through generations. Made from recycled tin and iron, artisans in the desert Kutch region manually cut and hammer the metal to hand-shape the bells, then coat them in powdered brass and copper before firing in kilns. Each rustic bell is then tuned to reveal a rich, unique sound like no other bell.
Bell Craft Artisans
Due to consecutive droughts over the years, cattle breeders no longer buy bells on a regular basis and the demand for traditional bell making was on the verge of dying. With the help of fair trade and mission-based organizations, at least 1,000 village artisans in the desert Kutch region are repositioning this art form and earning sustainable livelihoods by selling the bells internationally. Most artisans work from their homes on local or homemade furnaces.
Shipping & Returns
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Availability: In stock
Afghan Ziegler or Chobi translates from Dari and Farsi (Afghan and Persian languages) to mean 'wood', referring to the natural colours created by Vegetable dyes.
Our Ziegler rugs are woven by Turkoman Tribes from the Northern Afghanistan provinces of Faryab, Jawozjan and Mazar-e-Sharif. Only the most skilled and experienced weavers work on our Ziegler rugs and we ensure only highest quality wools and dyes are used.


text: Quickly punch out a peek-through design, scallop corner, and ribbon hole all in one punch. Punches are a quick and easy way to add interest and depth to your projects. And there's no better way to cut out stamped images—many of our stamp sets have coordinating punches. Our punches are high quality, affordable, and easy to use.* Punched image: 5/16" x 3/16" (0.8 x 4.8 mm)* Sleek body style * Large surface area offers precise cutting and leverage* Locks to store* Slim and stackable


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Philosophy and Methodology
John Rawls claimed "justice" demands governments use their power to benefit the least well off in a given society. But then he arbitrarily restricts the scope of these programs to particular nation-states. This betrays a fundamental problem with his idea of inequality.
Money and BanksMoney and Banking
In the blurry world of conflicting economic indicators and forecasts and policy surprises, activist policymakers at the Fed do not know exactly what the "right" monetary policy is today. Neither do their activist critics.
War and Foreign PolicyPhilosophy and Methodology
Acting to promote power political interests does not meet the criterion of humanitarianism, even if the missile attack is defended as a humanitarian gesture.
Taxes and SpendingInterventionismPolitical Theory
Taxes and SpendingPhilosophy and MethodologyPolitical Theory
BiographiesPolitical Theory
J.B. Say was the foremost French political economist in the early 1800s, and many of his insights are important for economists today.


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A common topic of contention in our own Battlefront forum—where the elite meet to beat each other's favorite OS into defeat—is that given two computer platforms, A and B, one measure of superiority between the two is the number (and style) of programs available for it. If, say, a powerful video-editing application is available on A but not B, while simultaneously a popular game is readily available for B and unlikely to ever see release for A, which platform sees the net gain?
Introducing a new point of contention into this debate is the arrival of one of the PC world's most popular applications for the Mac. Yes, friends, Bonzi Buddy, that furry purple gorilla that became the bane of Windows 98 users everywhere has made the cross-platform leap and is now ready to "assist" you in your day-to-day Mac needs.
Of course, this isn't exactly a full port. For one thing, the Mac version isn't actually spyware; in addition it sports a somewhat more, shall we say, "profane" attitude than its original PC counterpart. Still, if you just have to have something from your pre-Switcher days to comfort you, ain't it good to know that you've got a friend?


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We don�t need more business people, more lawyers, more economists in Washington, D.C., and in the state capitols. We need an army of accountants!
We don�t need more business people, more lawyers, more economists in Washington, D.C., and in the state capitols. We need an army of accountants!
Accounting is a very unemotional profession, leading to calm, clear columns of numbers that either add up � or not. Input and output either match � or they don�t. How refreshing it would be to be able to look at what is going on in our country with an eye to what our efforts are producing, in black and white; if our governments, our groups, our systems, our individual efforts are actually contributing to putting us in the black � or in the red � columns.
Congress allowed extreme budget measures to go into effect to deal with America�s budget/deficit crisis, then said �Oh, we didn�t mean it for this and that program,� and so funds their pet programs � from some funds that evidently ARE available? In doing so, it completely loses sight of the priority of balancing our budget/reducing the deficit, and destroys a goal of balancing priority needs.
We are told that Social Security is going to fail in a few years if something is not done because of our large debt. But some sources say that Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. We are told that people have been conned into taking out loans for housing and education that they cannot pay. But instead of changing the laws regulating those who gave them these loans, many just want the loans forgiven, ignoring the responsibility on both sides for their greed.
We are told that too many people are dependent on government support, but Congress does nothing proactive except increase the dependence of businesses on government support. What is the logic we are working under?
Florida�s government decides that budget shortfalls require teachers to pay into their pension fund to avoid its failure. Then the governor gives teachers a raise. From where? If the funds were short to begin with, where did he find this money? And why this convoluted method of shoring up his support?
Our government appears to have gotten too big for anyone leading this country, or our states, to insist on sane accounting and establishing of priorities.
Is it any wonder the people are fighting among themselves about superficial, irrelevant issues? Instead of being led to help make the hard choices that need to be made, we are focusing on the anger of conservatives for a Democratic president, and the anger of liberals at the previous victories of Republicans. The news is rife with rants against abortion and gun control, or insistence on the need for help for students who have taken out too much debt, or to avoid climate change. In the middle are so many of the middle class who are so sick of this circus, they just want to opt out or bring on a revolution that deposes everyone in government and makes it every person for themselves.
Where are the leaders, from government and from the people, who can cut through the bullhockey that is the focus of so many of us (and which encourages government and the media to continue to focus on these irrelevancies) and who can direct our attention to the constructive changes that are needed to ensure our survival and prosperity?
Some leaders who can do some critical thinking and problem solving, prioritizing and accounting, would be a good start. After all, it is not just the appearance of the U.S. that is at stake. It is our ability to go forward as a successful, prosperous nation. But don�t we all have an obligation to evaluate where we are spending our energies, and do some prioritizing and accounting of our own? Don�t we all need to see if we are adding to the black, or to the red, columns, adding to the growth of our country or detracting from it?
Panama City


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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that two of America's Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, are at their lowest water levels since recording began in 1918. The lakes were 29 inches below their long-term average, and down 17 inches since this time last year. "We're in an extreme situation," the Corps' Keith Kompoltowicz told USA Today.
The causes are threefold:
* Below-normal levels of rain and snowfall
* Record-high temperatures
* Dredging (the process of deepening navigational channels by removing layers of the bottom sediments)
Why should we be concerned? First of all, the Great Lakes store 84 percent of the nation's freshwater, so their decline should be cause for some alarm. Second, "a long-term decline in water levels threatens coastal habitats, especially wetlands," says Robert Glennon at the Detroit Free Press. Plus, lower water levels are bad for the local economy. For every inch the water level falls, cargo ships have to lighten their loads an average of 100 tons to avoid running aground. This dramatically boosts the costs of shipping.
Researchers are eager to find a way to prevent water from leaving the lakes. One option: Tightening regulations on groundwater pumping, which sucks up runoff that feeds the lakes. "The state can't control precipitation, but it can control diversions from streams and pumping from wells that reduce flow into the Great Lakes," says Glennon. The Army Corps has suggested placing "speed bumps" in the surrounding rivers to slow down lake drainage, which could be put in place over the next few years. But what the lakes really need is several consecutive years of above-average rain and snowfall — and there's no magic wand for that.


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Nitrogen formulation for vigorous green growth. It may also be used as a Superior General Purpose Fertilizer that will provide vigorous growth and outstanding production of flowers, vegetables and fruit. It is the Best Choice for those who prefer to use a single formula. Approved by Organic Materials Review Institute for organic crop production.
The Earth Juice line of liquid organic fertilizers are derived from an array of 100% natural, organic ingredients and formulated for vegetables, ornamentals, shrubs, trees and lawns. Used by professionals and hobbyists worldwide. Non- burning formulas stimulate vigorous growth, and provide abundant yields, while improving the soil. They are highly concentrated, easy to use, dust free, and contain no salt-building chemicals or hidden NPK boosting synthetics. Designed for soil and soil-less medias and for indoor or outdoor use, these trusted liquid concentrates fulfill the concerned gardener's need for a convenient alternative that will provide brilliant gardens of thriving plants, naturally. All the Earth Juice products may be used solely or together for custom formulas.


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Man charged with chaining boy to the floor was charged earlier with choking the boy's sister
Joshua Lee Smith ordered to anger management
A man who's accused of chaining an 11-year-old boy to the floor after the boy refused to eat the food on his plate, was ordered by a judge to undergo a mental health evaluation when he showed up for his preliminary hearing Tuesday.
Joshua Lee Smith, 38, of Canonsburg, has been in custody since his arrest last week. Court papers say that when the son of Smith's girlfriend wouldn't eat dinner, Smith made him get a dog chain out of the yard, then nailed one side of the chain to the stairs and put the other around the boys right ankle. Police say Smith also threatened to give the boy a bucket to relieve himself.
Smith's only comment to reporters as he left court on Tuesday was, "You're in my way." He was taken back to the Washington County Correctional Facility on charges of false imprisonment, simple assault and harassment.
When Smith was charged in this case, he was awaiting a hearing on charges that he choked the boy's 16-year-old sister, after coming home drunk last month.
District Justice Jay Weller said "There is something going on there. As far as we can tell, he really hasn't been on the criminal justice radar until the last couple months, and then all kinds of things are popping up, as far as anger management and unreasonableness."
The judge cited specific incidents in the past few months -- the case involving the boy's sister, a police report that Smith threatened to kill his ex-wife, an incident where he was kicked out of the Meadows because of a loud argument and refused to leave, and a charge of retail theft from a local Walmart -- as factors in his decision to order a mental evaluation.


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Are you ready for the season of a LIFETIME? One lucky skier or snowboarder will win a LIFETIME Season Pass this Labor Day Weekend. Will it be you?
Mountain High's Labor Day Sale returns Sept 5-7. One lucky guest will win a Lifetime Season Pass plus everyone receives a FREE Buddy Ticket worth $109.
The bounty of this spring's snow still hangs in our memory. We are now closer to opening than we are to the end of last season. Mountain High will open this winter. Click here to learn...
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Bead embroidery kits. Duplet and Zhurnal MOD MOA crochet patterns magazines. Duplet publisher representative.
After 2 weeks your items will automatically renewed for another 60 days and $0.23 per item will be added to your billing ledger.
While you were away our TOU was updated,
read the terms of use here.
*No action is required on your part.


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La cacica de Guatavita. Leyenda Muisca o Chibcha, Colombia: photo by Pilar Cerisola, 6 June 2009
- He jumped into the icy lake. Pine pitch
glittering with gold dust
stuck to his body. It kept him warm.
After he jumped out of the water
the gold sank to the bottom of the lake.
The subjects on the shore clapped wildly.
He must have looked like a golden human fish.
Muisca raft, representation of the initiation of the new Zipa in the lake of Guatavita. The Zipa covered his body in gold dust and, from his raft, offered treasures to the Guatavita goddess in the middle of the sacred lake. The cacique in the center is surrounded by attendants and oarsmen. This ancient Muisca tradition became the origin of El Dorado legend. The model raft, 19.5 cm long, 10.1 cm wide and 10.2 cm high, made by a lost wax method using an alloy of gold (80%), silver and copper, and dated between 1200 and 1500 BC, was found together with many other gold objects in a cave in Pasca, Colombia in 1856: photo by Andrew Bertram, 19 January 2006 (Museo del Oro, Bogotá)
We watched once at Lake Tahoe while
a man scuba dived in the clear cold water.
We sat on the piney beach with my mom
in the golden sand. My mom was topless.
We were so embarrassed. Please
put on your top, we said. That man will see.
She lifted her arms above her head and stretched.
European style, she said.
It took about a minute to get too cold
jumping in and out of the water, ignoring her.
Our fingers were so blue the sun did not warm them.
Figura votiva, Oro: 600 d.C. - 1600 d.C. 8.4 x 2.5 cm (Museo del Oro, Bogotá)
- On the beach near Nome we took Kathleen Kennedy
and her friend Sophie for a picnic the second day
they stayed with us. My dad smoked a cigarette
then another, watching the topless teenagers
jumping in and out of the waves. Their breasts
larger than the hands that held them. My dad's
cigarette stub glowing dangerously close to his fingers.
Kathleen trying to pop corn after the salmon roast,
using only salt, no oil, her method. The popcorn
burning black as the abandoned starts of driftwood.
- Mayor Bill Stirling and Katherine Thalberg look so much alike.
Like brother and sister. Katherine has gold chains against
her collarbones. Her bookstore comes alive when Bill
walks in to give her a rose. This is Aspen, where the winters
are often frozen. The rich fly in and out of the icy valley.
The poor live in teepees if they're lucky. Katherine and Bill
stay warm long after their smiles flash golden.
Ofrendatario donde se halló la Balsa Muisca: 600 d.C. - 1600 d.C. Pasca, Cundinamarca (Museo del Oro, Bogotá)
- He would jump into the icy lake. Pine pitch on his body.
He glittered with gold dust. Underneath the water he opened
his eyes and the coldness and flashing of the water made him
want to linger as long as possible.
- Out in back right next to the hot tub my sister's in-laws from Romania
wanted their picture taken with my Dad's golden pistol he always keeps
in his closet within easy reach of his bed where he dreams.
Muisca raft (the Golden Boat): photo by SAM601601 (Museo del Oro, Bogotá)


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Henderson B. Alverson
My first ancestor to join was Henderson B. Alverson also know as H. B. Alverson.
In 1861 at the age of 44, H. B.Alverson decided to join the civil war. I don't know why he decided to travel from Texas to Mississippi to join, but he enlisted in Corinth, Mississippi on May 28, 1861. He joined Capt. O. R. Singleton's Company, Company C, 18th Regiment Mississippi Volunteers as a private for a period of 12 months. The unit was ordered to Virginia, and fought at First Manassas under D.R. Jones, then was engaged at Leesburg. On September 21, 1861 H.B. was discharged.
His Certificate of Disability for Discharge states:
"…H. B. Alverson, Private of Captain O. R .Singleton's Company (C) of the 18th Regiment of
Confederate States Misp Vols, was enlisted by Capt. Walker at Corinth, Misp on the 28th day of
May, 1861, so serve one year; he was born in Surry Co., in the State of N. Carolina, is forty-five
years of age, 5 feet, 7-1/2 inches high, ruddy complexion, blue eyes, sandy hair, and by
occupation when enlisted a farmer. During the last two months said soldier has been unfit for
duty 10 or 12 days. He ought to be discharged on account of his family. He has a wife and eleven
children (nearly all small) upon the frontiers of Texas, poor, sick, and defenseless since the war
broke out in the west. Common humanity requires his presence at home."
This document was signed near Leesburg, Virginia on September 21, 1861. He was allowed travel expenses for 1000 miles from Manassas, Virginia to Corinth, Mississippi. He was paid $29.70 for two months and 21 days service and 50 rations at .22 ½ for $11.25 for a total of $40.95. It would be interesting to learn H.B.'s method of transportation back to Corinth, Virginia. Did he travel the 1000 miles on foot, by horse or by railroad? We may never know, but whatever the method I'm sure it was a long and arduous trip. When he did finally make it back to Corinth, he still needed to travel 700 miles back to Texas. During this time there were no railroads to Texas so he would have to travel by foot or by horse or wagon. Let's hope he had a horse.
Interesting to note he served four month before being discharged. I would love to see his pension record but don't have $75 to order it. So if anyone has H. B. Alverson's pension record I would love to see it.
He Served Three Times
This was H. B. Alverson's third time as a soldier. He served in the 1836 Creek War for about three months and he served almost five months as a Texas Ranger in 1860.


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Mommy Wars: The Prequel
Ina May Gaskin and the Battle for at-Home Births
Gaskin assisting a woman at the Farm, Jane Montanaro, during a delivery. More Photos »
By SAMANTHA M. SHAPIRO
One Monday morning last spring, Ina May Gaskin got into her golf cart and drove it down the dirt road away from her home on the Farm, a community of 175 residents on a former commune in rural Tennessee that her husband started in the 1970s. She pulled up to the community center, where she would be teaching a class on delivering breech babies. The class was part of a weeklong seminar Gaskin and her fellow midwives were offering to an eclectic group: nurse-midwifery students attending for college credit; a Boston-area family-practice doctor; midwives from around the country; and one, from Australia, who went by the one-word moniker Macca. They had traveled to this corner of southern Tennessee to learn from the founding mother of the natural-birth movement.
Gerald Wheeler
Ina May with Stephen Gaskin in 1971. More Photos »
Gaskin began her presentation. She told the students that "at first, we brought breech pregnancies to the hospital, but we found after a while that we could deliver them here just fine. Footling breeches, which are thought to be the most difficult, in our experience, they often just slid right out." Gaskin, who is 72, has the spry, almost Seussian presence of someone much younger. Her gray hair, trimmed since the days when she wore it in thigh-length braids, was loose and a bit wild, and she wore jeans, gardening shoes and a homemade jacket.
Gaskin, a longtime critic of American maternity care, is perhaps the most prominent figure in the crusade to expand access to, and to legalize, midwife-assisted homebirth. Although she practices without a medical license, she is invited to speak at major teaching hospitals and conferences around the world and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Thames Valley University in England. She is the only midwife to have an obstetric procedure named for her. The Gaskin Maneuver is used for shoulder dystocia, when a baby's head is born but her shoulders are stuck in the birth canal.
Gaskin cued up a video of a birth that took place in the 1980s. The couple, Judy and Brad, had traveled to the Farm from another state because their midwife couldn't deliver their breech baby vaginally.
Most American doctors and midwives won't. In 2001 the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended C-sections as the best route of delivery for breech babies. Although ACOG modified that view in 2006, more than 90 percent of breech babies are now born by Caesarean, and the Farm is one of a dwindling number of places in the United States where practitioners still know how to perform vaginal breech delivery.
On the video, after five hours of pushing, Judy's son emerged buttocks first, his tiny scrotum swollen from the pressure. Judy made increasingly urgent sounds — something between a Tuvian throat singer and a squawking chicken — as the buttocks inched out.
Gaskin paused the video. "The main danger with breech babies is that the head, the largest part of baby, is last to come out, so it may get stuck," she told the students. "If the baby has been delivered to the umbilicus, you have five or six minutes before hypoxia sets in, but you don't want to pull on the head if you can't see the neck for fear of injuring the baby," Gaskin said.
She restarted the video to show how that situation could unfold. Judy's baby had been born up to his chest but his arms were caught alongside his head inside his mother's body. On the DVD, a younger Gaskin, wearing a sleeveless dress, moved without a hint of nervousness. She rotated the baby's torso vigorously to loosen it from Judy's body; one arm emerged, but Gaskin was unable to reach in and grab a shoulder. The Tuvian throat sounds escalated.
Gaskin let the baby, half-born, hang out of his mother and dangle off the side of the bed. Using the weight of his body to traction his head into a better position, she pulled him out with a rush of bloody fluid. The boy looked a little limp, but after a vigorous rubdown and some gulps from an oxygen tank, he gave a cry. Minutes later Judy called out joyfully to another Farm midwife "Pamela, we have a baby!"
I first learned about Gaskin when I became pregnant last year. In my Brooklyn neighborhood, her books on birth are a standard part of the pregnancy canon, and I was given "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" and two copies of "Spiritual Midwifery" by three different friends. Now in its fourth edition, "Spiritual Midwifery" is a heady dispatch from the Farm's midwifery practice around 1975. It tells of how Gaskin and other women discovered that birth could be a euphoric experience, a way of accessing a uniquely female power. In first-person anecdotes of births — "I began to rush and everything got psychedelic" is a typical description — the book shows vaginal, unmedicated birth to be an unparalleled opportunity for transcendence and communion. It has been translated into six languages and sold well over half a million copies.
I viewed the book with equal parts fascination and trepidation. Gaskin's insistence that birth is a normal life experience, not a medical event to be feared, was a welcome balm to the care I was receiving at a traditional OB/GYN practice at a major New York City teaching hospital, where my healthy pregnancy seemed to nonetheless present a set of potential problems to bang down like Whac-a-Moles. But it was hard to imagine not only getting through birth without pain medication or whining, as Gaskin prescribes, but also laughing joyously, as a hippie woman in "Spiritual Midwifery" is pictured doing as her baby crowns. The very idea of natural childbirth contained within it the possibility of an "unnatural" birth, a way to fail.
Since the 1970s, Gaskin and the other midwives at the Farm have attended an estimated 3,000 births of women who live on the property, are from the local Amish community or have come to the Farm to give birth because they have read Gaskin's books. Approximately 2 percent of them have ended up with C-sections, and none have labored under epidural anesthesia save for one "princess," Gaskin told me, who rented white leather furniture for her birthing cabin and ultimately had to be taken to the hospital for pain relief.
Unmedicated home birth is being chosen by a growing minority of women. Between 2004 and 2009, giving birth at home increased 29 percent. Most of this rise is among white women. Recent pregnancy documentaries like "Pregnant in America," "Orgasmic Birth" and "The Business of Being Born" — all of which feature Gaskin — present hospital birth as profoundly disempowering to women.
Currently about one-third of all American babies are delivered surgically. Most U.S. hospitals require labor to be artificially induced if a woman goes one to two weeks past her due date. There are also often deadlines for the length of time a woman may be in labor before surgery is required, and many doctors will not perform a vaginal delivery after a previous Caesarean.
Gaskin says the American approach to birth is not serving women and babies. The United States spends more on health care than any other country and more on maternal health than any other type of hospital care but is ranked 50th in maternal mortality and 41st in neonatal mortality. To draw attention to America's poor maternal outcomes, Gaskin travels witha quilt; each square represents an American woman who died in childbirth.
Gaskin and many of her fellow midwives have no formal medical training, and the fact that they have good outcomes even with births that obstetricians consider high-risk — breeches, big babies and vaginal births after C-section or VBACs — is evidence, she says, that for most women less interventionist care is better.
In Gaskin's experience, many women do not follow the labor curve that hospitals generally require of dilating approximately one centimeter per hour, and some women's pregnancies go to 43 weeks without consequence. "Some women are stuck at two or five or seven centimeters for hours, then quickly they move several centimeters," she said. She has found that upright positions, dim lights, eating and drinking and fewer vaginal exams speed women's labor — none of which tend to be encouraged in a hospital.
Of course, comparing the Farm to hospitals is of limited value. Many hospitals deliver at least as many babies in a year as the Farm midwives have delivered in three decades. Women who give birth at the Farm are self-selected, and midwives screen them further, eliminating, for instance, women with complicated medical histories. Hospitals would undoubtedly have better outcomes if all pregnant women arrived in excellent health.
Nonetheless, Gaskin's outcomes are compelling. Is it actually safer for a low-risk woman to give birth outside of the medical establishment, as Gaskin claims? In 2011, ACOG acknowledged that "the absolute risk of planned home births is low" but cited a meta-analysis of 12 home- and hospital-birth studies, called the Wax Paper, which reported a two-to-three-times-higher risk of neonatal death in home births than in hospital births. But critics have raised questions about the Wax Paper's methodology; the study included unplanned accidental home births, for instance. Natural-birth advocates point to studies in countries where home birth and midwifery are part of mainstream medical care — in the Netherlands, 30 percent of births take place at home — which show home birth to be equally safe for the baby.
I went to Tennessee to meet Gaskin when I was five months pregnant. The Farm has the sleepy feel of a utopian community post-fervor, a slightly ruined idyll on 1,750 acres of forest. One paved road connects a network of dirt roads where trailers, solar-powered permaculture huts, a geodesic dome and regular suburban houses coexist.
Gaskin hadn't planned to become a midwife. In 1968, having returned from the Peace Corps, she was living in San Francisco with her husband and young daughter and teaching English. She and her husband were spiritual seekers and tried LSD a few times, in hopes of "opening the doors of perception," she told me.
Ina May and her husband went to hear Stephen Gaskin, a professor at San Francisco State College who held a weekly session called Monday Night Class, where young people processed their acid trips. "He was a little older, very charismatic and extremely sure of himself, and he could kind of speak to what was on people's minds," Ina May recalled.
Reed thin and over six feet tall, with long stringy brown hair and a beard, Stephen Gaskin opened class with a lecture, delivered cross-legged, drawing on geometry, Taoism or the New Testament, and then took questions. Gaskin was also married with a young daughter, and soon the two couples became involved in what was called a "four-marriage." The relationship settled down to just Ina May and Stephen in the early 1980s.
Eventually, Stephen Gaskin's audience grew to thousands and in 1970 he announced he was taking Monday Night Class on the road. Around 250 of his followers decided to join him in a bus caravan. Ina May, then 29, and nine other women on the trip were pregnant. The birth of Ina May's first child had been traumatic. She was strapped down and given an episiotomy and a forceps delivery, standard hospital protocol at the time. Other women also had bad birth experiences and wanted to avoid hospitals. They passed around a Mexican midwifery manual and agreed to support one another in labor. Gaskin attended her first birth in a bus parked at Northwestern University, where Stephen Gaskin was speaking. Her main method initially was to "just be nice to the women." After a couple of months, an obstetrician outfitted Gaskin with syringes and clamps and taught her basic emergency techniques. During the five-month trip, there was one death: Ina May's son, born prematurely.
The participants in the caravan settled in Summertown, Tenn., in 1971. They took a vow of poverty and veganism and lived communally. Birth was a revered "sacrament." Ina May and five other women ran a midwifery practice delivering babies of the community's 1,200 members and nearby residents. Members built latrines, acquired horses and tractors and plowed meadows. They opened a soy "dairy" and a sorghum mill and started a book-publishing company. (Although the land is still communally owned, the Farm largely embraced capitalism in the 1980s, a traumatic event known as "the changeover.")
The progenitor of the modern natural birth movement was a British obstetrician named Grantly Dick-Read. In his book "Childbirth Without Fear," published in 1942, he argued that the pain of birth was primarily a result of social attitudes. Dick-Read was in part hoping to persuade working women to come back to the home and have more babies. He said that non-Western women, free from negative ideas about labor, gave birth more easily, and he recommended using fewer medical interventions.
The ideas in "Childbirth Without Fear" overlapped with the Farm's back-to-the-land ethos and with Stephen Gaskin's brand of spirituality, which focused on the importance of group energy and being "unafraid." Ina May and the midwives believed that a woman's body would open more easily when the energy in the room was relaxed and she had sorted out her fears. The midwives saw themselves as putting birth back in women's hands and showing them their true power.
But for much of history many feminists have come out on the side of fleeing from nature, not embracing it. In the early 1900s, feminists played a significant role in moving birth out of the domain of midwives and the home and into the hospital. In 1915, a group of suffragists, professionals and housewives formed the National Twilight Sleep Association to lobby for access to scopolamine, an amnesiac that when paired with morphine allowed women to go into labor and forget the experience afterward. In retrospect, twilight sleep looks barbaric; women on the drugs thrashed violently and were often hooded or placed in cage-beds while they labored. But many women demanded it, staging meetings where they testified about the benefits of twilight-sleep birth: shorter, less painful labors, better breast feeding, fewer forceps deliveries and an easier recovery.
In the 1970s when Gaskin began advocating for natural-birth options, she found herself at odds with feminists who were focused on getting women into the workplace and out from under the constraints of family. She was even booed off the stage in 1975 by a Yale feminist group. Some feminists, like the theorist Shulamith Firestone, hoped ardently for the day when human reproduction would be handled completely by machines.
"Simone de Beauvoir said that the act of creating a baby is not volitional, so it's basically not worth anything," Gaskin told me. "The woman is just a passive instrument of biology. The idea then was that biology was not destiny, and we should transcend it." But, Gaskin said, "having a female body — the ability to bring forth life — is something you could be grateful about, not repulsed by."
Gaskin says that because midwife-assisted home birth is illegal in many states and hospital birth comes with restrictions, many women are de facto coerced into surgery or other interventions they don't need. For Gaskin, choice in birth remains a realm of reproductive freedom that mainstream feminism, until recently, has foolishly ignored. She thinks that women should seek not just the freedom to decide whether or not to have a baby, but how to have it.
At the end of the breech-birth presentation, Gaskin got a call from another Farm midwife, Pamela Hunt, who had just delivered the baby of a woman who was staying at the Farm.
Gaskin headed to her birthing cabin. Inside, she found Hagino Hargis, who was 28, naked on a wicker bed with her tiny daughter at her breast under a heating blanket. The baby's skin, still bluish, had a fine covering of down and was streaked with her first bowel movement. Tiny veins were visible through translucent aquatic eyelids. Her cord, twisted like a fiber-optic cable, was still attached to the placenta, which bubbled lightly in a bloodied salad bowl next to Hargis. Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" played.
Hargis had driven from Kentucky with her husband, 3-year-old son and mother the previous week as she neared term. Her primary midwife was Hunt, and Gaskin planned on attending the birth. But after a week of going for walks, baking cakes and painting a labyrinth to meditate on during labor, Hargis had given birth very quickly. Hunt barely had time to get her gloves on when she arrived and found Hargis on her hands and knees, about to deliver.
"I was going to call you," Hargis said apologetically when Gaskin came in, "but I just wasn't sure it was the real thing because the contractions stayed far apart."
"That's O.K., you did everything perfect," Hunt said reassuringly.
"Mommy going to eat it," Kanase, the 3-year-old, volunteered, pointing at the quivering placenta.
"Did you decide about the antibiotics?" Hunt asked Hargis and her husband.
Hargis looked uncertain. In hospitals, babies' eyes are routinely covered with antibiotic ointment to prevent infection that can be passed through the birth canal. In most states, the procedure is required by law. Farm midwives also recommend using the ointment — they know that some infections can be asymptomatic and they think the ointment is harmless. Some women don't want to use it, however, because they have concerns about antibiotics and because the ointment temporarily blurs the baby's vision and they think it interfers with bonding. The midwives then advise of the risks and let the woman decide. Hargis had tested positive for bacterial vaginosis. "What do most people do?" she asked Hunt. "Usually, it's a 50-50 split," Hunt told her. "But most people don't test positive for B.V. You don't want her to get an infection — if it happens, it's a bad situation."
Hargis looked to her husband. "She's getting antibodies from your colostrum," he said. "I think we'll skip it."
OB-GYNs are very vulnerable to lawsuits. According to the Physician Insurers Association of America, they pay the most in damages of any medical specialty. The charge frequently leveled against practitioners is that they did not offer a medical intervention or did not offer it early enough. In a hospital's risk analysis, it makes sense for many babies to have their vision briefly, sometimes unnecessarily, blurred to prevent a single case of blindness, or for a certain number of women to undergo unnecessary C-sections to prevent a single neonatal death.
Lawsuits aren't an issue in Gaskin's world. Her midwifery clinic has never purchased malpractice insurance or been sued. For years, when the commune was a true collective, she did not even accept payment for attending births. Farm midwives give intimate intensive prenatal care and have a high degree of trust with their patients. That's why, Gaskin said, in 2006 when a breech baby she delivered became temporarily stuck and suffered permanent neurological problems, the parents did not sue. "We thoroughly discussed the issues, and they didn't see a reason to be punishing," Gaskin told me.
Midwifery was outlawed in some states as an independent profession at the turn of the century. Soon after, it was reinvented as an extension of a nursing degree, under the management of obstetrics. Today certified nurse midwives largely practice in hospitals and generally rely on obstetricians to grant them privileges. In 1982 Gaskin and other midwives created an organization, called Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA). Later, some members helped found the North American Registry of Midwives, which credentials midwives who haven't necessarily been trained in medical institutions and aren't beholden to their priorities. The registry, whose accreditation office is in a trailer on the Farm, grants an alternative certification and title — certified professional midwife (C.P.M.) — in the 27 states where the practice is legal.
When I visited the Farm, Gaskin was planning to travel to testify at the trial of a C.P.M., Karen Carr, who delivered a breech baby in a home in Virginia who died. Carr lived and practiced in Maryland, but Virginia requires a license in addition to certification, and because Carr didn't have one, she was charged with involuntary manslaughter. (She pleaded guilty to lesser charges.) I pressed Gaskin about the case. Wouldn't that particular baby have been better off in a hospital? She conceded that his life would have been saved but said that hospital birth comes with its own risks. "What bothers me are all the cases of women or babies who die due to unnecessary C-sections or postoperative infections or hospital errors," she said, pointing to cases in the U.S. and Canada in which women died from complications from elective repeat C-sections. She says that when something goes wrong in a home birth, critics use it as evidence that home birth is dangerous, but when women die from embolism or hemorrhage after surgery, people don't attack hospitals. "No one ever says those women were selfish for giving birth in a hospital, and no one ever blames the concept of a hospital birth," she said.
Gaskin's ideas about a less medicalized environment being conducive to labor made sense to me. But I wasn't comfortable with any risk, however small, of something going wrong at a home birth, and I thought I might want pain relief. So midway through my pregnancy I switched from my obstetrician to a certified nurse midwife in a well-regarded New York hospital.
When I reached my due date, an ultrasound estimated that my baby weighed 9.4 pounds. I didn't have gestational diabetes and had gained an average amount of weight, and fetal tests showed my baby was thriving. But the baby's estimated size, combined with the fact that he hadn't yet descended into my pelvis, worried my midwife.
She wanted the baby out by 41 weeks, and to my surprise, she suggested I consider going straight to surgery without labor. She sent me to be evaluated by a doctor she worked with. "One way or another, this baby will be a C-section," he said.
I wanted to avoid induction or surgery, so eight days postdate, I drank castor oil, said to be a homeopathic labor inducer, and it worked. I was admitted to the hospital 12 hours later, four centimeters dilated. At the hospital my water broke, and I dilated another centimeter. But after two more hours without change, I was told I wasn't progressing. The midwife pressed for a C-section, saying if I continued to labor I risked the chance of infection or shoulder dystocia. Bigger babies are at a greater risk for this complication, which in rare cases results in stillbirth or injury to the baby. It's impossible to predict which babies will get stuck — average-size babies get caught, too — but when they do, it can be terrifying. Shoulder dystocia is also a major cause of obstetric lawsuits.
ACOG's report about shoulder dystocia acknowledges that once a baby is thought to be big, practitioners are more likely to diagnose "failure to progress" or recommend surgery.
My son's heart rate was strong, and I wanted to keep laboring. It was hard to make my case, though; I had been up all night and was hungry — in most hospitals women are prohibited from eating while in labor in the rare event that they might need general anesthesia. The midwife told us, "You don't want to wait until the baby shows signs of distress — at that point it's too late." I negotiated for two more hours, made no further progress and then, under pressure, agreed to surgery. It was the kind of coercion by dint of not offering any other options that Gaskin talks about.
I was laid down with my arms on planks, a sheet dividing my head from my lower body. I was given a shot of spinal anesthesia, which caused me to shake — a common side-effect, although I didn't know it at the time — so hard that my jaw would be sore for weeks. I felt a raw ache as my belly was cut. My husband was brought into the operating room; he saw blood on the floor and my shaking, and he felt terrified. He tried to reassure me. Soon, we heard the cry of our son, and he was handed, wrapped in a blanket, to my stunned husband. I couldn't see the baby clearly because I couldn't hold my head still. My husband couldn't focus on the baby because he was worried about me. Then the anesthesiologist gave me a shot — "it will put you out just for a bit," she said, and it did.
About 20 minutes after I woke from surgery, still shaking and out of it, I got to hold my son. He was alert and impossibly beautiful, with a single dimple and eyes open wide as satellite dishes, receiving everything.
Later, when I sat him up on my lap, his head dropped somnolently forward and he curled into a ball. It was the position he held inside my body and, still narcotized and sluiced with postpartum hormones, I cried in recognition and sorrow. We had grown together over 10 months, continuously shifting shape in response to each other, sharing every flight of stairs, dance party, bad mood. Having him cut out of my body felt like a rupture, and now I was too physically wrecked to even lift him from his bassinet.
My diagnosis — arrested dilation or "failure to progress" — is estimated to account for approximately 60 percent of American C-sections. In Gaskin's practice, the failure-to-progress diagnosis doesn't exist. When we discussed my birth story, months later on the phone, she told me she thought a bath, a nap, a snack, some encouraging words — or just a chance to labor without the threat of various catastrophes hanging over my head — might have kick-started my labor. Who knows if any of that would have worked, but I wish alternatives had been offered to me before surgery, because neither my son nor I were in any immediate danger. The most important thing to me is that my son emerged healthy. Still, I would like to have been more present for his arrival and in better shape during his first weeks, when just rolling over or sitting up hurt, and I worry about the risk for serious complications — uterine rupture, hysterectomy, endometriosis — I now face in any future pregnancies.
Yet I would still not choose to go to rural Tennessee — more than an hour from a top-level N.I.C.U. ward in Nashville — to be able to have more of a say in how I give birth. I wouldn't even choose to have a do-over in my apartment, 10 minutes from a hospital. And although I like aspects of the home-birth experience, I'm put off by some of the dogma that can accompany the movement. In their rush to defend unmedicated births, natural-birth advocates sometimes fetishize them, saying for instance that the first moments after birth present a unique opportunity to bond that is forever lost when the mother's and baby's systems are flooded by anesthesia or other drugs. "The Business of Being Born" shows an image of a baby screaming alone in a hospital bassinet as a narrator intones: "When chimpanzees give birth by C-section, they don't take care of their babies. It's that simple."
It's not that simple, of course, and it is unfortunate that the choices and the rhetoric around birth — like many of the choices and rhetoric around motherhood in general — are so polarized. It should be possible both to have a baby in a place that doesn't have financial and legal incentives to medicalize a low-risk pregnancy and to still have immediate access to top-level care if it's needed. It shouldn't be necessary to leave the medical establishment entirely to give birth vaginally to a breech baby or after a previous Caesarean. It should be possible both to acknowledge that something real was lost in the way my baby was born and to know that this loss is finite; there is not one pure route to authentic motherhood. Eight months with my son have offered ample evidence that there is not only one opportunity for joy.
Samantha M. Shapiro is a contributing writer for the magazine.
Editor: Ilena Silverman


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Fitzroy North, VIC 3068
Ph: 9482 4240
I thank this humble food blog for many things. It's been an excellent outlet for my food writing as I really enjoying writing and talking about food. I've also improved my photography skills as I constantly strive to take better photos for this blog. I've met so many wonderful people through this food blog, as well as trying out the exciting food suggestions that other food bloggers write about. I've also been able to experience all aspects of the food industry due to this blog. People can have whatever opinions they want about accepting food invites but I find that I tend to accept invites as it usually leads to something new and good. The Steer Boot Camp experience was one such thing. From that, I learned about how hard a commercial kitchen is and how passionate and hard working chefs are. I also had the pleasure to become good friends with a number of the chefs there. One of them, Bruno, I consider a good friend now. We really get along well and I met up with him and Sarah for a dinner at Moroccan Soup Bar. It was his suggestion to eat there and I'm so glad I got to try it as I normally would not go due to my dislike of vegetarian food.
Bruno told me that Moroccan Soup Bar was started by a migrant woman, who used the restaurant as a way of employing and giving opportunities to other migrants in need of a job. It's a great story and even better still, the story is backed up by wonderful flavoursome vegetarian food. While I was there that night, the small restaurant was packed the whole time and with a steady stream of people coming in for takeaway food. The aspect I loved was that in keeping with the whole ethos of the restaurant, everyone brought their own containers to pick up the food. Brilliant.
There's no menu at the restaurant and you ask the waiters what's available. We went for the banquet meal, which at a mere $18 per person was exceptional value. The banquet for the 4 of us consisted of some tasty dips to start, 5 different mains, desserts of pastries and tea or coffee.
The dips were some of the best I've had and I had to stop myself from over-eating them with the pita bread. Mains consisted of a variety of stewed vegetables, rice dishes and this super chickpea bake dish. The chickpea bake has toasted pita bread pieces, almonds ,chickpeas all topped with yoghurt, so simple but so addictively good.
The desserts of baklava were not as good as my favourite from El-Fayha, but was still surprisingly good, better than most places. The desserts were finished off with some tea or coffee, a perfect ending.
I love this restaurant, with it's vibrant coloured walls and equally vibrant vegetarian food. The price is excellent value and you will be so full at the end. My only gripe is that the restaurant is so busy that you only get to sit for a 2 hour session. But that is a small gripe for such a great place.
Overall Rating: 16/20, Great vegetarian food at excellent prices.
Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.


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For schoolchildren, nothing is more thrilling than a snow day, and this winter came through big.
But now, the bill is coming due.
Caught in a scheduling bind after a harsh winter, public schools are trying to squeeze in make-up days wherever they can by stretching the year further into June and in several cases holding classes on Good Friday.
In Andover, where school has been canceled six times because of inclement weather, students and teachers are scheduled to meet for a half-day next Friday, as are their counterparts in Brockton. School officials in Watertown have followed suit, and the school board in Hopkinton was scheduled to consider a Good Friday school day.
State regulations call for students to attend school for 180 days, and districts typically allow for five snow days in their calendars. But in a school year that brought an epic hurricane and blizzard to Massachusetts, not to mention a late-
winter blast earlier this month, many have run through their reserve.
As a result, schools must make up the time by tacking on days in late June, holding school on a Saturday, cutting into April vacation, or canceling a religious holiday.
"None of them seem to be popular," said Nancy Alvarez Burdick, chairwoman of the Hopkinton School Committee.
Tom Scott, who directs the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said school officials are wise to wedge in the extra days in the spring, before the weather gets too warm and minds turn to vacation. "Late June is really undesirable," he said. "Those aren't good learning situations."
Many schools do not have air-conditioning, he said, making it harder for students to concentrate. Teacher contracts often require that the school year end by a certain date.
Following stormy winters, schools that have maxed out snow days will often schedule half-days on Good Friday, a return to school schedules from years gone by, Scott said.
But such moves are measures of last resort. Schools will first try to cancel days assigned for professional development or parent-teacher conferences before taking back holidays or trimming vacation.
"The last thing you want to do is start playing with people's lives by moving the calendar around," Scott said. "But people are basically scrambling."
With the frequency of severe winters, schools should consider creating calendars with more leeway for cancellations, he said. But substantial shifts, such as starting school before Labor Day, would surely meet resistance, he acknowledged.
"Tradition is such a powerful thing," he said.
Schools are required to accommodate students who miss school for religious observances, and officials said students who stay home on Good Friday will not be marked absent. Good Friday is a Christian holiday preceding Easter.
In Andover, Superintendent Marinel McGrath informed parents last week that school would be held on Good Friday, "provided we have a sufficient number of teachers on that day to hold school."
"Parents who have already made plans for that day may choose to keep their children home," McGrath wrote.
This month's snowstorm closed school for the fifth and sixth time this school year, forcing the search for an open day.
"I know that it is not optimal, but under the circumstances, we believe this is the most viable option," McGrath wrote.
The impact of Hurricane Sandy, particularly in towns south of Boston, forced many schools to cancel classes even before winter began.
In Brockton, the two days lost to the fall superstorm mean students will be in class on Good Friday. "It was either Good Friday or April vacation," said Jocelyn Meek, a spokeswoman for Brockton schools.
Brockton also closed schools for the November election, because many served as polling places.
Boston has canceled classes only five times so far this school year, within the school calendar's cushion, so no more school days will be added unless another storm arrives.
While students are cherishing the bonus days they may get off in the winter, they should keep in mind that classes have to be made up at some point, often when they are desperate for summer to begin.
At least in theory.
"Every day that goes on [into June], the attendance goes down," said Gary Maestas, the superintendent in Plymouth.
Deirdre Fernandes of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Peter Schworm can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @globepete.


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Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE
Beyond speed. Beyond motion.
Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE1 makes it possible to conduct dynamic contrast-enhanced abdominal exams in free breathing. The acquisition is performed in one continuous run, using a golden-angle stack-of-stars radial scheme that gives robustness towards motion and the flexibility to choose the temporal resolution, which can even vary over the duration of the scan. Reconstruction is performed using a Compressed Sensing GPU accelerated iterative algorithm with per voxel through-time regularization for further improved quality. The combination of features enables for free-breathing abdominal exams with both robust diagnostic image quality and the high temporal resolution required to capture the dynamic phases of contrast enhancement.
Additional features:
- Auto Bolus Detection
- Configuration of exam phases in terms of start time relative to the auto-detected bolus arrival, duration and temporal resolution
- AutoLabeling of relevant phases (pre-contrast, (multiple) arterial, portal-venous and delayed)
- Self-gating for further reduction of residual motion blur
- InlineReconstruction using GPU acceleration allows to access the images after a few minutes – no need to export data to external research servers
- Protocols for the abdomen and the prostate
- Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE includes FREEZEit
Requerimientos Generales
Minimum Software Version
syngo MR XA10
Please note: Additional technical prerequisites may apply. Upon receiving your request, your local Siemens representative will clarify whether your system meets the requirements.
Also available for:
- MAGNETOM Sola Fit
- MAGNETOM Vida Fit
Productos, servicios y recursos relacionados
1Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE is not for sale in the U.S. Its future availability cannot be guaranteed.


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Agroforestry for Europe
Full project title:AGroFORestry that Will Advance Rural Development (AGFORWARD)
Project code:Agreement no. 613520
Contract period:1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017
Project webpage:http://www.agforward.eu/index.php/en/
Main funder:EU FP 7
Contact staff at ORC:Jo Smith
Other staff involved:Martin Wolfe, Sally Westaway, Kevin Waldie, Anja Vieweger, Kostas Zaralis, Phil Sumption
Project aims
The overall goal of the project is to promote agroforestry practices in Europe that will advance sustainable rural development, i.e. improved competitiveness, and social and environmental enhancement.
To achieve this, the AGFORWARD project has four main aims:
1) To improve our understanding of the technical, environmental and socio-economic functioning of existing and new extensive and intensive agroforestry systems,
2) To identify, develop and field-test innovations related to provisioning and other ecosystem services (biodiversity, carbon storage, nutrient cycling, resilience, stress toleration) to improve the benefits and viability of agroforestry systems in Europe,
3) To develop and update designs and practices adapted for areas where agroforestry is currently not-practised or is declining, and
4) To promote the wider adoption of appropriate agroforestry systems in Europe.
A central part of the project is the development of a number of participatory research and development networks where project participants will work with land managers and other stakeholders, using existing knowledge and experience of their own multifunctional systems, to identify key challenges and potential innovations to improve their systems. These innovations will then be evaluated experimentally and on-farm.
ORC's roleORC is responsible for developing participatory research and development networks centred on silvopoultry systems (such as Woodland Egg producers) and silvoarable systems within the UK. We will also be collecting data from our own agroforestry research sites (Wakelyns Agroforestry and Elm Farm) to feed into modelling impacts on yields and ecosystem services at a field, farm and landscape scale. We will work with colleagues from Spain to investigate how agroforestry sits within the current and future policy frameworks, and develop policy recommendations. We will also be closely involved with the development of tools for farmers and advisors and other knowledge transfer activities.
Current progress highlights
We held an Agroforestry for Growers workshop at Tolhurst Organic on 30th November 2015.
Project leader and partners
- Cranfield University (Project Coordinators)
- European Forest Institute (International)
- Association de Coordination Technique Agricole (France)
- University of Santiago de Compostel (Spain)
- TEI Stereas Elladas (Greece)
- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France)
- BTU Cottbus (Germany)
- Universidad de Extremadura (Spain)
- Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisbon (Portugal)
- University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Research Station FDEA-ART Zurich (Switzerland)
- Werkgroep voor Rechtvaardige en Verantwoorde Landbouw (Wervel vzw) (Belgium)
- Aarhus University (Denmark)
- Agri Food and Biosciences Institute (UK)
- Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura (Italy)
- Louis Bolk Institute (The Netherlands)
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
- Cooperation Research Centre for Environmental Resources Management and Protection (Hungary)
- Universitatea Babes-Bolyai (Romania)
- Veneto Agricoltura (Italy)
- Agroof (France)
- AssemblÚe Permanente des Chambres dĺAgriculture (France)
- Association Franšaise dĺAgroForesterie (France)
- World Agroforestry Centre (International)
- European Agroforestry Federation (Pan-European)
Smith J (2017) Agroforestry that will advance rural development ORC Bulletin 123