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Arraymold Tissue Microarrayer
For Constructing Both Paraffin and Frozen Tissue Microarrays
The place to purchase our products online
Tips & Tricks For Preparing Tissue Microarrays Using Arraymold
#1. Always punch a paraffin TMA block at room temperature. Cold paraffin can crack when inserting core samples.
#2. Never push the dermal needle into a TMA block. This will damage the TMA block.
When constructing frozen
arrays, NEVER snap frozen the arraymold
in liquid nitrogen or other snap freezing chemicals. NEVER allow
arraymold temperature go
lower than -30 ºC
#3. When constructing frozen arrays,
NEVER snap frozen the arraymold in liquid nitrogen or other snap freezing chemicals. NEVER allow arraymold temperature go lower than -30 ºC
#4. Make a practice TMA block first to test your skills. And it is a good idea to practice cutting on a test TMA block before you attempt to cut the real one.
Preparing Arrayblock for Cutting
These simple steps will help you set the punches in your paraffin Arrayblock and create a flat surface for cutting.
1st - Once punching is complete, set the block on an uncharged slide (face down) in an oven @ 37 C overnight. In the morning, the block should be tacky and possibly stuck to slide. DO NOT PULL SLIDE AND ARRAYBLOCK APART.
2nd – With Arrayblock still warm and tacky, heat another slide in an oven to around 70 c for approximately 10 minutes. Take this separate HOT slide and place under slide stuck to Arrayblock. The Arrayblock surface should turn to liquid quickly. Move the two slides around on the Arrayblock to push any surface air bubbles away and to flatten Arrayblock surface.
3rd – Remove second slide and place Arrayblock with original slide (slide down) on a room temperature counter top for 10 minutes to cool. Once Arrayblock is room temperature, place Arrayblock and slide on an ice tray (No Water) to cool for 20 minutes. Slide should remove easily from Arrayblock and it should now be ready to cut.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q. How should I store the Arraymold when it is not in use?
A. One of the unique benefits of the Arraymold is its size. It doesn't take up counter space when not in use. It is best to store the Arraymold in a dark dry place. When not in use keep the Arraymold in its box in a drawer away from chemicals and light.
Q. If I don't need the full 60 cores how do I make an array without all the extra holes?
A. Just fill the extra holes in the paraffin array block with blank paraffin cores. This way you can customize the Arraymold to whatever size you need.
Q. What is the depth of the Arraymold cores?
A. The 2mm 60 core Arraymold is 7cm. The 1.5mm 150 core is 4cm. The reason why the 1.5mm depth is not as deep as the 2mm is because during our testing we found that the cores rods are stronger and last longer being shorter since they are much thinner than the 2mm core rods.
Q. What is the best way to judge the core depth for creating paraffin array using the Arraymold?
A. If you need to judge your depth, the best way would be to take a Sharpe marking pen and mark the needle to the maximum depth and stay within this distance. This is especially important when punching with the 1.5mm Arraymold needle.
Q. After repeated use a few of the rubber rods in the Arraymold have broke off. Is it still possible to still use it?
A. Yes, but you will now have a blank spot in your paraffin array or cryo-array where the punch rods are missing. Remember; be gentle when pulling the paraffin array or cryo-array block out of the array mold. Working patient, slow and gentle is the best way to keep the Arraymold rods intact for many molding.
Q. My Arraymold has cracked or split. Do I need to order another kit or is it possible to continue using it?
A. Yes, you can still use it. Our tester said even after the Arraymold split they were able to continue making arrays. Use a rubber band or tape to keep the Arraymold together when you pour paraffin or frozen embedding medium into the Arraymold. Be gentle when pulling the embedding medium out of the Arraymold.
Q. How cold can I make the Arraymold before it brakes?
We have taken the Arraymold down to -80 Celsius.
The Arraymold was ridged but didn't crack.
Once it thawed to around -30 Celsius it was flexible again.
The Arraymold is designed to use in a cryostat as well as for
paraffin molding.
Between -10 to -30 Celsius is the recommend limit for frozen array
construction. NEVER snap frozen the arraymold
in liquid nitrogen or other snap freezing chemicals. NEVER allow
arraymold temperature go
lower than -30 ºC
NEVER snap frozen the arraymold in liquid nitrogen or other snap freezing chemicals. NEVER allow arraymold temperature go lower than -30 ºC
Q. How many paraffin arrays have technicians been able to produce from a single Arraymold before it became unusable?
A. Again the number of uses depends on the technician and how well the Arraymold is treated. Some labs have been able to create up to 40 molds from one Arraymold. If you take care of your Arraymold it has the potential of giving you many arrays.
Q. I had difficulty pushing the stylet into the disposable dermal needle. What is the best way to insert the stylet into the dermal needle?
A. Before you use the needle gently push and twist the stylet down the needle before you begin an array. You may notice some plastic coming out of the dermal needle as the stylet goes through it. This is just left over plastic from when the metal needle part was pressed into the plastic handle. Once the stylet is through the needle, push it in and out several. Now you are ready to punch and insert cores.
Q. What paraffin do you recommend for paraffin array construction?
A. We recommend the paraffin you are used to sectioning on a microtome. It should be embedding type paraffin. We have not found any benefit to using a specific type of paraffin. It is the histologist's preference.
Q. Is there a specific type of cryostat embedding medium you recommend for frozen arrays?
A. The best thing we would recommend is to experiment. Create a frozen array first using hotdog samples and test the embedding medium in your lab. As we hear from technicians we will try to update this section.
Q. When I was cutting my Cryoarray the punches became loose. What can I do to eliminate this problem?
A. The punches need to be set into the embedding medium compound. This is done by melting the surface of the cryoarray block on a metal plate, and then freeze it again before sectioning it in a cryostat. This step may need to be done several times to the cryoarray as you go deeper into the block. For further clarification review the instructional video to understand this process step by step.
As more questions are brought to our attention we will add them to this Q&A page.
The place to purchase our products online


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Labour to 'restore balance of power' with radical workers' share plan in manifesto
All medium or larger businesses would have to set up "ownership funds" to give workers a financial stake to "restore balance".
Tuesday 11 September 2018 06:24, UK
John McDonnell is to unveil a radical workers' share plan in which employees would receive dividends to boost their income.
The proposal, which will be part of a left-wing Labour manifesto, is being announced by the shadow chancellor in a speech to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Manchester on Tuesday.
Under the plan, all private companies employing more than 250 people would have to set up "ownership funds" giving workers a financial stake in their company.
Mr McDonnell is also promising a "new workplace environment" in which employees would also be given increasing power to influence how their company is run.
He claims the Tories have stripped back employment rights to a level not seen since the economic depression of the 1930s and is pledging that Labour will "restore the balance of power in the workplace".
The shadow chancellor also wants to provide more power to trade unions whose freedoms he says have been the victim of "cumulative assaults" so shareholders "take a greater share of national income than workers".
Mr McDonnell is expected to say: "The massive growth in zero hours contracts and the gig economy have produced a workplace environment of insecurity not seen since the 1930s.
"The decline of collective bargaining has meant that workers also now have little say over the key decisions taken by their employers over the future of their companies.
"Labour's programme of workplace reform will restore the balance between employer and worker with a significant extension of trade union rights, modernising corporate governance structures and extending the opportunity for employees to share collectively in the benefits of ownership of their company.
"Labour's commonsense approach will forge a new workplace environment best suited to meeting the challenges of Britain's ongoing low productivity and the emerging fourth industrial revolution."
Mr McDonnell's proposals were welcomed by the TUC's general secretary, Frances O'Grady, who told Sky News: "We would like him to talk about the bread-and-butter issues.
"We need Labour to start talking about the basics. It will be good to hear what Labour's thinking is, good to hear the plan. Rewards should be shared fairly."
But Chancellor Philip Hammond has already hit back at Mr McDonnell's proposals and defended the government's record.
He said: "This is Labour's record on workers: The last Labour government left over half a million more people out of work and every Labour government leaving office with unemployment higher than when it started.
"Under the Conservatives, there are over 3 million more people in work with the security of a regular pay packet, unemployment is at an all-time low and the lowest paid have seen the fastest rise in pay for 20 years thanks to our introduction of the national living wage."
:: John McDonnell will be speaking to Sky News this morning at 7.30am

subset: commoncrawl


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Fishermen's village at Pellestrina, Venice
Art Photography by Yann ARTHUS-BERTRAND, fishermen's village at Pellestrina, Venice lagoon, Italy. The lagoon of Venice in Italy is separated from the Adriatic Sea by a string of long and narrow barrier islands, among which that of Lido where the island and fishermen's village of Pellestrina is situated.
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|Reviews for Trouble Starts With a Q
| Acie chapter 3 . 4/4/2018
Aw, thus looks like a great story, it's a real pity that it's been removed
| Oblivious Originality chapter 1 . 11/17/2012
I like your style of writing and the originality of your work. It's sad that none of your work is available because of plagiarism.
| oh raachel chapter 1 . 7/9/2012
Devon, is someone that I can definitely relate to, lol. As an asian kid living in Canada, we probably have a lot in common! Right down to the sarcasm (Although she is much more witty than I am, gah)
Also, I'd like to say that I really appreciate you keeping it so multicultural and diverse in your stories! You got asians, whites .. etc. A LOT of other authors write stories which can generally be summarized as WPDT - white people doing things. I'm glad to see an author who's not only a master at syntax but thoughtful about this kind of thing as well (:
| michellllle chapter 1 . 7/5/2012
Hi! I'm pretty new to fictionpress and I discovered your profile because you were on so many users' favourite author list.
I've been reading the first chapters of your stories and I really appreciated how your characters all appear to have unique personalities and voices. I chose to review this story because it's so rare to find a story about American born Asians. Plus Quentin was simply hilarious in Still Waters with his condom cactus and now my curiousity is piqued to find out how these two eventually end up together.
I'm so sorry to hear about you having been the victim of plagiarism on numerous occasions. FP has been an exciting find for me, but it's silly that the site has not disabled the copy function to protect authors. Although it sucks for new readers like me, I do understand why a screened LJ community would be a safer and more appealing writing environment for you. That said, I will be sending an application form and keeping my fingers crossed! Whatever the outcome, I hope you are well and still writing your delicious stories (:
| silverstarazor chapter 2 . 3/8/2012
So we cant read it anymore? I just got past the first chapter :\
| Worth A Thousand Words chapter 1 . 2/23/2012
Sadly I've never gotten to read your stories. I'm pretty much just reading the first chapter of all your stories here. Kinda sad.
This story seems really good.
| Destiny's Call chapter 1 . 1/5/2012
Love this chapter! Do you know how hard it is to find a story online that not only sounds interesting but is actually also WELL WRITTEN? No? Well I'm off to tackle that entry form and hopefully get to read the rest of the story!
| 12eafggdsg chapter 2 . 12/30/2011
Well, I really enjoyed the first chapter of this story and really would love to read more of it :) I'm going to try and join this livejournal thing now, and see if I can get on to read the rest. (I really hope so, because there are quite a few of your other stories that I am interested in reading too!) I don't blame you at all for moving it though - It must be incredibly frustrating to have your work ripped off like that! Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to read the rest and review again on the rest of the story if I get approved for the livejournal thing! :D
| ContinuedChaos chapter 1 . 11/5/2011
I've only read the first chapter of this story and it's got me hooked. It is so hard to find well written fiction online. I'm going to apply for your LJ forum. I know you said if you weren't a loyal reader/reviewer before the whole plagarism fiasco the chances of you being accepted are low. I really hope I'm accepted, and I'm sorry that all of you have had to go through such plagarism. Hopefully one day you all will be published and we can just buy your stories. Good luck in your writing endeavors. (:
| SoulSurviver233251 chapter 1 . 10/12/2011
Fantastic, I love how each character is completely different from the next, apart from the Amoeba girls. xD An absolute pleasure to read, though I am sorry to hear how much you have been plagiarised.
| redDaisies chapter 1 . 9/19/2011
In case you're interested, there's this website called where lots of authors get to post their stories with less worry about plagiarism. At least, that's what I think as far as I've visited the site. Anyway, I just really miss this story.
Take care! And God Bless in your future endeavors. :)
| Anonymous chapter 1 . 8/13/2011
Absolutely fantastic, I love this story and I'm really sorry about the plagiarism fiasco. You and all the other wonderful authors really deserve better!
| tittletattle chapter 1 . 8/9/2011
| butteredfacade chapter 1 . 6/15/2011
Only the first chapter, and Im hooked to no end. I am so glad to have found you, my friend recommended you on her list when i told her i joined FP. But im so sad to find out that you arent posting here anymore, and that you're in a community in livejournal. Im hoping i can join that to read more stories ahead even though im quite new here.
I like how funny this story is, not the typical romance but there are the quirks and strong characters in here!
| Lidiu chapter 1 . 4/24/2011
This story could be a really good movie or an awesome TV show,it could teach a lesson or two to the screenwriters of our reminds me of Keiko Agena in Gilmore Girls,she is my favorite is just my right type of guy and you describe him has the substance and depth of a excellent character and I think a lot of girls could find themselves in bad that in real life we can"t meet a guy like Quentin.I confess I would have loved to read about the physical part of their relationship,but I am glad they ended up together.


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When it comes to the latest games online, people have hundreds of options as there are so many websites that are offering free gaming options to the gamer without charging them any money. Thus, with the availability of such sites, people now have unique and wonderful opportunities to avail free entertainment. When downloading entertainment stuff from the websites, one has to make sure that the site from which he or she is downloading should not charge money, rather it should offer free entertainment games to the players.
What is the most special about these websites is that they offer a wide range of games to satisfy the different needs of the players. Hence, the individuals can choose any of the latest games from them depending on their choice and requirement. Some of the latest thrillers that are creating a great deal of uproar in the gaming industry include some popular names such as Helicopter Games, Bump Copter, Alpha Bravo Charlie, PS3 games to name a few. If you want to know and read about these gaming options in detail, just visit some entertainment portals where you would be able to search lots of latest options of fun and the entertainment.
It is said that the latest games are one of the most sought options after thrillers in the modern days because they have an edge over traditional methods of gaming. It is believed that they are one of the best sources to spend your quality time and relax during the leisure time. The gamer accept the fact that the latest thrillers are highly useful for the individuals who suffer from the mental stress and depression in this hectic and monotonous life where one hardly find time to stand and stare. It is, due to this, the latest games are getting more and more popular throughout the world and making great impact on the minds of young generation, though they are not meant only for the young generation.
It is a fact that those who are in the gaming industry are making huge profit by providing various kinds of latest thrillers to the masses all over the world. Today, different companies hire highly efficient technical people who are able to think of new ideas and based upon those ideas they design some unique and special entertaining thrillers for the gamer to satisfy their urge for gaming. These days, the gaming designers are making exciting games using a technology called 'flash'. In fact, flash is a wonderful technology that is most widely used by gaming companies.
The modern entertaining thrillers offered by different websites can be of any type like adventure, shooting, flying, action, puzzles and racing. This is so because these websites cater to the need of millions of gamer who have different interests and needs when it comes to entertainment. Hence, one can say that latest games are one of the most sought after options to gain amusement and fun to pass our time in good manner. If you are looking for them, they are available free of cost from so many gaming portals. They can also be easily downloaded with the help of various data transferring devices such as Bluetooth and USB.


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Welcome to the Forest Park High School Title I page. Below you will find some useful links regarding Title I. The Title I contact for Forest Park High School is Dr. Lorraine Lambert. Any questions or concerns you may have in reference to Title I at FPHS should be directed to Dr. Lambert.
What is Title I? (Spanish Version) (Vietnamese Version)
Highly Qualified Teacher Notification Letter from Principal
FPHS Priority Designation Letter (Spanish) (Vietnamese)
Parents Right to Know Letter (Spanish)
Title I Parent Informational PowerPoint
FLP Brochure Updated
FLP Program Overview
FLP Student Application


text: The Brewer Family – Perdido Key, FL February 27, 2019 This sweet family sure knows how to have fun together and their little boy is the center of their world. Even though it was an overcast day at Johnson's Beach, they made memories they will cherish for a lifetime. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading... Related


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Company has raised $15 million in funding PolicyGenius, a comparison insurance brokerage based in Brooklyn, New York, has announced that it has raised $15 million in its latest round of funding. The funding will allow the company to extend its insurance comparison insurance services, allowing it to provide consumers with better access to price comparisons and quotes. PolicyGenius specializes in life insurance, long-term disability insurance, renters insurance, and pet insurance. Companies like PolicyGenius are beginning to find more success in various markets and the overall insurance industry is beginning to…Read More
Tag: long term disability insurance
Disability insurance need rapidly growing in the workplace, study
The results of recent research are underscoring the importance of employer sponsored coverage. A new study's results were issued this week and have highlighted the importance of disability insurance that is sponsored by employers when it comes to the health and financial wellbeing of American workers. It showed that only one in three private sector employers is currently offering long term disability coverage. Despite the fact that this is the case, the Social Security Administration's own data suggests that one in every four workers in the United States will need…Read More
Insurance fraud news made when two men in Spain cut off their hands to collect
The scammers were nearly successful except that they did the damage too neatly and cleanly. Two men in Spain who were hoping to collect up to $3.1 million in insurance fraud, cut off their own hands in order to be able to make an dismemberment claim, but were caught because their amputations were performed too well. The men acted in two completely separate and unrelated incidents but each had a similar plan. Unfortunately, this type of instance of insurance fraud is growing in the country, as Spain continues to be…Read More
How disability insurance can provide security to the household finances
Consumer advocates and personal finance experts are trying to educate the public about its importance. For most people, throughout their working lives, the financial security of their family is based on their current income and not an asset that has already achieved its full value, making long term disability insurance a highly valuable and yet greatly overlooked element of any personal finance strategy. One of the most devastating events to a family's finances is a disabled earner who cannot continue to work. This is the case at any point in…Read More
Survey shows American workforce unprepared for new long term disability insurance benefits
Study indicates that many full time workers have not prepared for their potential risks. Despite the fact that medical expenses are a factor that contributes to approximately 50 percent of all home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies within the United States, the majority of the country's full time workforce has not adequately planned for the risks that are covered by long term disability insurance. This, according to a study for the Sun Life Financial Inc's American business group. The report on the study was entitled "Will workers in America hope to…Read More
Liberty Mutual announces new disability insurance benefits to assist mid-sized businesses
Liberty Mutual Insurance has unveiled its new Benefits Select product line in an effort to better serve mid-sized businesses and the employee benefits consultants and brokers who work with them. The Benefits Select group disability product suite is designed to be a cost-effective way for these employers to be able to offer more attractive passengers to current and potential employees so that they will experience better retention while still keeping an eye on the bottom line. According to the chief operating officer at the group benefits unit of Liberty Mutual…Read More
Florida to join the Interstate insurance Product Compact
Florida may be the latest state to join the Interstate Insurance Product Compact, a program established in 2006 in order to improve consumer protection and hasten the accreditation process for new insurance products. Currently, 41 states have joined the program, all of which have adopted universal standards regarding application procedures concerning life insurance and long-term disability coverage products. The program does not account for health insurance, but Florida legislators may seek to include these products into the program if the state joins. The Insurance Product Regulation Commission, a multi-state agency…Read More


text: The Chanel runway always presents lots of unusual details, like the solar-powered wind turbines that spun beneath the glass ceiling of the Grand Palais today or this lurid green clutch, worn with a plum-colored garment. While it certainly wouldn't qualify as "green" in the environmental sense, it caught our eye as both practical and playful. Click on the image to zoom in on the details.


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Brian Krebs at Security Fix does excellent research into breaches, but I cringed when I saw his advice to "business owners" about how to protect themselves from cybercriminals:
"The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online."
In my opinion, this is horrible advice, especially to small and midsized businesses. Here are some reasons why:
- "Don't use Windows" is a half-hearted recommendation to begin with. Because it is oriented around the threat, any significant movement to follow the advice would increase the threat to the new platform in kind. So the only way for this advice to work is if nobody follows it.
- This move is unlikely to protect against the omnipresent phishing threats that are out there. While Brian asserts that his research shows mostly host-based rootkits/malware as culprits, there are a number of other ways to compromise an account and most business owners will not recognize this difference.
- While a move from Windows to Linux will save licensing fees, it is highly unlikely to save money in the long run. The total cost of ownership is much higher when you factor in support, training, cost of labor, etc.
So now the question is, what should you do? Aside from being a skeptical Web surfer, the biggest bang for your buck will come from taking away local administrator capabilities. Sure, there are ways around this, but this alone will solve 80% of the rootkit problem. there are a number of budding host intrusion prevention solutions out there that can address this problem well, too.
Update: In the comments, Kurt rightly pointed out that I did not read Brian's full posting carefully enough (or jumped to conclusions). Another pertinent paragraph:
"Also known as "Live CDs," these are generally free, Linux-based operating systems that one can download and burn to a CD-Rom. The beauty of Live CD distributions is that they can be used to turn a Windows-based PC temporarily into a Linux computer, as Live CDs allow the user to boot into a Linux operating system without installing anything to the hard drive. Programs on a LiveCD are loaded into system memory, and any changes – such as browsing history or other activity — are compeltely wiped away after the machine is shut down. To return to Windows, simply remove the Live CD from the drive and reboot."
This advice is much more reasonable than I first thought, assuming that the banking application/site still works in read-only mode. There are other solutions that run virtual machines and isolation programs that may be as useful with less hassle, but this certainly isn't "horrible" as I originally thought.


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Buy this DVD NOW and SAVE!
Bonus Feature:
Press your Down button at the main menu until the "Twisted Special Features" option is highlighted. Then, press your Left button to see a clip about an egg cult.
Disclaimer: The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and presented without warranty.


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BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal stenting is most often utilized for end-stage palliation for unresectable malignancy. We propose the concept of gastrointestinal (non-biliary) stenting as a bridge to surgery for benign conditions, as well as, neoadjuvant stenting for malignant diseases.
METHOD: All stents were placed in the operating room under general anesthesia, with endoscopic and fluoroscopic techniques. All foregut stents were placed for nutritional repletion in place of parenteral or percutaneous enteral feeding. Colonic stents were placed for strictures or colonic cancer to relieve obstruction.
RESULTS: Over 60 enteral stents were placed during a 7 year period, mostly for esophageal cancer palliation. In 13 patients, enteral stents were placed with the intention of performing a subsequent operation; 9 patients had esophageal stenting (5 removable polyester, 4 covered metallic, 4 stents for benign disease), 1 duodenal metallic, and 3 colonic metallic stents. There were no perforations, no aspiration events. All colonic stents underwent resection without colostomy. The patient with duodenal stent was not resectable secondary to metastasis. Three polyester esophageal stents had migration, and were replaced. All esophageal stenting patients underwent successful surgery.
CONCLUSIONS: Gastrointestinal stenting is an acceptable strategy as a bridge to planned surgery. Colonic stenting for obstruction may obviate the need for colostomies. Gastroesophageal stenting enhances nutrition during neoadjuvant treatment periods, reducing the need for enteral feeding tubes or parenteral nutrition. The benefits for duodenal stenting in preparation for future surgery are less clear. This is also the first report of temporary gastroesophageal stents placed for benign conditions prior to definitive surgical treatment.
Session: Poster
Program Number: P347


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Weekly Whitman: "The Dresser"
Just what did Walt Whitman do in the hospitals where he worked? He was a wound dresser. The duties of the wound dresser—always a man, unless the emergency was dire—were to change bandages, hydrate wounds or operation sites, turn patients and check wound drainage, and—alas—to find those who had passed on and arrange for their removal from the hospital ward. Whitman did his best to cheer up the fellows he tended. He brought them stationary (and wrote their letters), fresh fruit, little flowers, books, and small amounts of money "so they had something of their own."
This poem is sometimes called "The Wound Dresser." It is notable for cataloguing the daily scenes of the hospital without becoming gruesome or maudlin. Sometimes Whitman simply sat with a patient, holding a hand so that the soldier would know he was not alone. We—in this time of Covid—now know just how important that contact is. Whitman knew instinctively.
The Dresser
An old man bending, I come, among new faces,
Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to children,
Come tell us, old man, as from young men and maidens that love me;
Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions, these
Of unsurpass'd heroes, (was one side so brave? the other was equally
Now be witness again–paint the mightiest armies of earth;
Of those armies so rapid, so wondrous, what saw you to tell us?
What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics,
Of hard-fought engagements, or sieges tremendous, what deepest
O maidens and young men I love, and that love me,
What you ask of my days, those the strangest and sudden your talking
Soldier alert I arrive, after a long march, cover'd with sweat and
In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight, loudly shout in the
rush of successful charge;
Enter the captur'd works…. yet lo! like a swift-running river, they
Pass and are gone, they fade–I dwell not on soldiers' perils or
soldiers' joys;
(Both I remember well–many the hardships, few the joys, yet I was
But in silence, in dreams' projections,
While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on,
So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the
In nature's reverie sad, with hinged knees returning, I enter the
doors–(while for you up there,
Whoever you are, follow me without noise, and be of strong heart.)
Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
Where they lie on the ground, after the battle brought in;
Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the ground;
Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd hospital;
To the long rows of cots, up and down, each side, I return;
To each and all, one after another, I draw near–not one do I miss;
An attendant follows, holding a tray–he carries a refuse pail,
Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied and fill'd
I onward go, I stop,
With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;
I am firm with each–the pangs are sharp, yet unavoidable;
One turns to me his appealing eyes–(poor boy! I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that
would save you.)
On, on I go!–(open doors of time! open hospital doors!)
The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand, tear not the bandage
The neck of the cavalry-man, with the bullet through and through, I
Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life
struggles hard;
(Come, sweet death! be persuaded, O beautiful death!
In mercy come quickly.)
From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and
Back on his pillow the soldier bends, with curv'd neck, and side-
falling head;
His eyes are closed, his face is pale, (he dares not look on the
bloody stump,
And has not yet look'd on it.)
I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep;
But a day or two more–for see, the frame all wasted already, and
And the yellow-blue countenance see.
I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bullet wound,
Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so sickening, so
While the attendant stands behind aside me, holding the tray and
I am faithful, I do not give out;
The fractur'd thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdomen,
These and more I dress with impassive hand–(yet deep in my breast a
fire, a burning flame.)
Thus in silence, in dreams' projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night–some are so young;
Some suffer so much–I recall the experience sweet and sad;
(Many a soldier's loving arms about this neck have cross'd and
Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)
This is a reading of the poem. It is not the best, but the best I could find:
8 Responses to Weekly Whitman: "The Dresser"
Touching, especially during the physical exam, is a core element of that physical exam.
Thanks Meg for this poignant thread.
Note reference to Whitman writing letters for patients. Makes one wonder how many of these if any have survived. Imagine having ANY surviving Civil War correspondence from a wounded soldier in hosptial–then discovering it is in Whitman's hand!
"So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the
In nature's reverie sad, with hinged knees returning, I enter the
doors–(while for you up there,
Whoever you are, follow me without noise, and be of strong heart.)"
I am now a old man and a combat veteran, and have studied this and other wars for many years. I find Whitman's words inexpressibly sad and beautiful. That one of this nation's greatest poetic voices was there to give care and to bear witness to the suffering seems a powerful act of Grace. How fortunate we all are to be able to read his words. I am moved to tears.


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This is an easy read version of what you said and what we did about Allied Health Professionals.


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Time flies and my diary fills…all the more so in the run-up to World Book Day on Thursday 3 March 2016. So here's a further update (accurate at the time of posting) on my availability for author sessions around that time.
w/c 22 Feb – I can be anywhere in Central Scotland on the Mon, Tues & Wed. Can't do the Thurs. Can do anywhere in or around London on Fri; and from Greater London down to Lewes on Sat and possibly Sun.
w/c 29 Feb (yes, it's a leap year)– Limited availability Mon & Tues in South/West/Central Scotland. Wed: can do 1 session in/around Edinburgh in the afternoon. Thurs (World Book Day): sorry, fully booked. Fri, Sat & Sun: available
w/c 7 Mar – available Mon, Thur & Fri.
w/c 14 Mar – Available Mon morning, Tues & Wed in Scotland. Can't do Thurs. Fri: can do pretty much anywhere from London northwards.
You'll find full details of what I talk about in schools elsewhere on this site.


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4 Public Speaking Techniques for Every Student Who Wants to be a Filipino Motivational Speaker
February 27, 2018
What are some useful public speaking tools for students that aim to be motivational speakers?
- Being clear and organized with your thoughts and ideas.
- Making practice a sacred habit.
- Engaging with the audience.
- Having the right approach to public speaking.
Public speaking is an integral skill that one can learn a lot from. In fact, it's one of the essential skills that one must learn every once in a while in their lives. Students are always paving the way for the future, they foster overall grow through their many extra-curricular activities. Many students become professional athletes, while others strive to inspire others in becoming an outstanding Filipino motivational speaker. The one common ground between these exceptional students is that they feel a strong sense of duty in terms of giving back to the community.
When it comes to acquiring any skill, students need to immerse themselves in all the guidance they can get. Learning through a steady progressive scale of development means adapting to many tiers of difficulty and struggle. The one key tool to make sure that you are always improving is to always understand the core techniques of your craft. Every little piece of intricacy should be put into serious consideration by having a holistic approach to speaking in front of an audience.
Here are some of the key components when it comes to the skillful craft of public speaking:
1. Clarity and Organization of Thought During Presentation
First and foremost, being an effective speaker that aims to motivate his or her audience entails that you have in yourself the ability to construct and communicate big ideas in such a way that is universally understood. This can mainly be achieved by being concise and 'neat' with arranging the reasoning behind the thoughts that you are trying to project to an audience. Some simple and obvious tips for easy organization of ideas include: using bullet points, using tangible examples, and having strong and more importantly, valid structures of logic.
2. Practice and Discipline
Gaining confidence is not something that automatically transpires in an instant; it something that is developed through countless hours of dedicated practice. A helpful tip is to join a Toastmasters club for a combined group effort with colleagues that have the same goals. If you have a presentation coming up, make it a point to have practice rounds running through the summation and course of your presentation –make it a point to self-reflexively assess yourself before and after the actual presentation. It is through this constant trial and error process that one can master the art of preparation.
3. Captivating the Audience
There are many ways to catch the attention of an audience, the tricky thing, however, is keeping them interested and invested in what you have to say as well as share. A smart way to approach engaging an audience is through combining the different strategies in a way that is apt for what you are going to discuss.
Entertain an audience by sharing relevant stories and delivering them in such a way that amplifies a fruitful curiosity. Establish an emotional connection with an audience by unlocking a plethora of honest humanism from whatever subject and contextual plane it is that you are initially tackling. Appeal to the individual self-interests of each audience member by finding a way for them to realize and get in touch with themselves and their different wants and desires in life. Finally, a great tip is to have a well-balanced participative dynamic with your audience –be sure that they feel like you have the same approachability as of that of a good friend.
4. Gaining Confidence Through Positivity
Public speaking can be immensely tricky, especially in terms of being nervous or falling to a sort of common stage fright. The best way to tackle this issue is to first realize that it is fine to have these feelings of slight anxiety. Next, is to ingrain it to your mind and entire being that it is all in your head. Don't get in the way of your own self by giving in to over-rational thoughts of inadequacy that only cause destructive hesitation –don't think too much, and just do it.
Key Takeaway
Being on the path to becoming an excellent Filipino motivational speaker is one journey that can require a lot of patience, effort, and genuine inner self-confidence. Meticulous planning is a crucial aspect that can be difficult at first, but just like all the other encompassing aspects, the development of a synthesized system will be necessary for a masterful grasp.
Public speaking is an essential factor when it comes to motivational speaking. Finding ways to incite people's collective mental framework is a process that calls for utilizing and executing a nuanced display of effective communication on both a wide and inclusive sphere.


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SHANGHAI (Xinhua) — President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam, who is in Shanghai for the second China International Import Expo.
After hearing Lam's report on the recent situation in Hong Kong, Xi said the disturbances in Hong Kong have lasted five months. Lam has led the SAR government to fully discharge its duties, strive to stabilize the situation and improve the social atmosphere, and has done a lot of hard work, he said.
Xi voiced the central government's high degree of trust in Lam and full acknowledgement of the work of her and her governance team.
Ending violence and chaos and restoring order remain the most important task for Hong Kong at present, he noted.
Xi demanded unswerving efforts to stop and punish violent activities in accordance with the law to safeguard the well-being of the general public in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, effective efforts should be made in work including having dialogue with all sectors of the society and improving people's livelihood, Xi said.
Xi expressed his hope that people from all walks of life in Hong Kong fully and faithfully implement the principle of "one country, two systems" and the HKSAR Basic Law, and make concerted efforts to safeguard Hong Kong's prosperity and stability.


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Stainless Steel Strands for Prestressed Concrete Bridge Elements
Prestressed concrete elements such as beams, girders, piles, and decks are an essential part of the vast majority of bridges built in the United States. Concrete bridge elements that are built with prestressed 7-wire uncoated steel strands are susceptible to corrosion leading to structure deterioration. Delaying strand corrosion will reduce maintenance needs, extend the bridge service life, and enhance the overall safety. Therefore, state departments of transportation (DOTs) have been investigating alternative strand materials such as stainless steel to address steel strand corrosions. However, there is no national standards or specifications to support bridge owners in using stainless steel strands. Bridge owners, fabricators, and contractors need specifications and guidelines for the applications of stainless steel strands for prestressed concrete bridge elements. The objectives of this research are to (1) propose modification to the AASHTO LRFD bridge design and construction specifications and (2) develop guidelines for the applications of stainless steel strands for prestressed concrete bridge elements including design examples to demonstrate the application of the proposed modifications. At the minimum, the research shall include pre-tensioning and post-tensioning of concrete bridge elements.
- English
- Status: Active
- Funding: $600000
Contract Numbers:
Project 12-120
Sponsor Organizations:
National Cooperative Highway Research ProgramTransportation Research Board
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)444 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001
Federal Highway Administration1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590
Project Managers:
Abu-Hawash, Ahmad
Performing Organizations:
University of Houston, TexasHouston, TX United States
Principal Investigators:
Belarbi, Abdeldjelil
- Start Date: 20200901
- Expected Completion Date: 20240515
- Actual Completion Date: 0
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bridge construction; Bridge design; Corrosion resistant steel; Guidelines; High strength steel; Prestressed concrete bridges; Specifications; Wire
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Design; Highways; Materials;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01707719
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
- Contract Numbers: Project 12-120
- Files: TRB, RIP
- Created Date: Jun 8 2019 10:02AM


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Taxistop is the Belgian partner in the CHUMS project. Under the motto 'doing more with less', Taxistop keeps developing new services which allow for the optimisation of use of personal goods. The promotion of carpool (via the matching software carpool.be) has been their core business for over 40 years.
In Belgium, car usage accounts for 65 per cent of all trips made and over 48 per cent of these trips are estimated to be made by cars with a single occupant. Belgian roads are among the most congested in Europe. In the most recent study on modal split in Flanders (2012), only 4 per cent of respondents answered that carpooling is their main mode for commuting.
Research by TML estimated that there would be 25 per cent reduction in congestion if every commuter would carpool at least once a week. There are some good practices in Belgium, although in a feedback questionnaire on the Flemish Mobility Policy 2020, 75 per cent of respondents answered that they were enthusiastic about more carpool actions. This suggests significant potential still exists without requiring major infrastructural investments and the CHUMS measures can have a significant impact on this potential. The goal of the CHUMS project is to increase the amount of carpoolers at companies.
To achieve this, Taxistop has tested the CHUMS approach for carpooling:
- The organisation of a real promotional campaign through the rollout of a 'Carpool Week'
- A mobility lottery for carpooling employees
- Personalised travel advice
The first businesses targeted in the area were mostly organisations that were relatively new to the idea of formal carpooling and as such, they needed convincing of the benefits. Eventually Taxistop found three suitable candidates. The college UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL) participated with around 2 000 students and 120 staff alongside two private companies, Imec with 1 500 staff and KBC (bank) with 3 500 employees.
Due to the nature and variety of the targeted businesses the timings of the implementation was varied. New term time seemed most appropriate for the college while when working with the bank, the new fiscal year was a better fit with business schedules.
Taxistop created individual detailed implementation plans for each of the organisations involved. The actual implementation of the CHUMS approach was split into two phases, one in 2015 and another in 2016.
Carpool Week
The three sites that were targeted were largely engaged in a similar manner. An important first step was to set up a plan of action with a supportive mobility co-ordinator in place. This is a key figure to push measures out on the ground and ensure everything runs smoothly. Taxistop assisted the sites in brainstorming for communication campaign methods (flyers, posters, intranet pages, digital screens, articles in business magazine, mail-outs). UCLL focused on carpool heroes and carpool buddies. Imec preferred a 'green stamp' on their campaign and KBC put forward the financial advantages and their VIP parking as great incentives to carpool.
Mobility Jackpot lottery
Registered members who were actively searching for a trip or were actually carpooling were eligible for the draw. Information about the lottery was on the posters at the information booth and was on the brochures handed out to employees. Dates were set with the companies for the draws. Taxistop drew a name from the matching system and mailed the winner.
The prizes consisted of a road assistance package and Breakdown assistance from VAB; blue-bike subscription; bus passes from De Lijn; vouchers for cultural events; and gift baskets from the province Flemish-Brabant.
Personalised Travel Plans (PTPs)
Initial sign up for the PTPs was slightly different within each organisation, but the common theme is self-selection of participants. In one case the employees were e-mailed about the possibility to get a PTP and in other cases information about this available service was given to them at the Carpool Week info stands or from flyers that were be distributed on the premises of the organisations.
Hosting a 2 hour information booth to gain more carpool potential, usually leads to 20 to 40 new subscriptions. It might not sound that impressive, but it does take a lot of proactive recruiting, a lot of passage of employees (beware of dead moments) and a lot of reasoning power to get there. To have a more successful info booth, Taxistop often provided some nice extras: sweets or apéro, gadgets, a good conversation starter (e.g. roadmap for pinning carpool potential) or an action (e.g. Race game at UCLL).
For UCLL Taxistop could clearly see the peak of almost 20 new subscriptions during the first carpool week in October 2015. In March 2016 Taxistop hosted a second carpool week, but this was more focused on collecting mini-surveys for PTP delivery. Taxistop believed that the PTP option would be more easily requested by employees or students already interested in carpool. It quickly became clear that the option needed proactive promoting and then choices had to be made: recruit carpool potential or deliver PTPs. General information on carpool was handed out, but this was clearly less sufficient for a second great wave of new subscriptions.
For KBC Taxistop could clearly see the number of requested trips go up after the delivery of a carpool week. Here, Taxistop hosted a carpool day in September 2015, which led to a peak of more than 40 requested trips. The carpool week in January 2016 even led up to a peak of nearly 70 requested trips.
A first barrier is the accessibility of certain cities and regions by public transport. Some regions (or parts of regions) are very well serviced by public transport (train, tram, metro, shared bikes). For example, big city centres have an elaborate and cheap public transport system. Other regions (e.g. on the outskirts of Limburgh province) are very hard to reach by train and sometimes require a follow-up trip by bus to reach the destination.
In Belgium, if public transport is provided and it is effective, it's cheaper than going by car. However, there may be reasons why employees prefer to come by car (hobby, weather, children etc). In this scenario – though carpooling is a part of the solution - employers also like to promote sustainable transport.
In Belgium, companies prefer an integrated story. Some companies in Belgium are looking for a general mobility solution. Carpooling can offer a good alternative, but it's not the solution for every single employee.
Organisations can move slowly. Expect them to take a while to commit to a project. Often there are many levels of authority that will need to be consulted for approval.
Lessons learned:
- Have one clear message at the information booth: subscribe to carpool!
- Have an interactive activity at the info booth for employees. It draws people to the booth and it is good fun!
- Host a special event when you're sure you can handle the logistic approach yourself and there will be interested people showing up (tip: pre-subscriptions)
- If you find a company that shows interest in the project, it's important to have good communication between the two parties. The mobility coordinator plays a major role in this: it's difficult to convince someone with lack of time, lack of enthusiasm, or lack in belief of the success.


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By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
Two New Jersey Assemblymen are sponsoring bill A-3163, an effort to make elections of executive boards in Association-Governed Communities more democratic.
Among the key proposals:
- limiting the size of the board to 3 members in Associations with 11 or fewer units and a minimum of 5 members in larger HOAs
- providing for secret ballot, directed proxies, and electronic voting for HOA elections
- requiring establishment of a disinterested, independent election committee or contracting with an election monitoring service provider to oversee the entire election process
- allowing for recall of board members subject to petition by association members
- allowing for appeal to the Department of Community Affairs
- rights to vote and/or run for election are disqualified only if a member is not current on assessments
- the law would apply to all existing and new HOAs
All of the above are steps in the right direction toward ensuring a more fair election process in HOAs. The apparent intent of the legislation is to eliminate bias and opportunities for rigging an election or influencing the vote. A state-level appeals process is established to settle disagreements or challenges to an HOA election or recall.
NOTE: The bill does not address the fundamental issue of allocation of voting interests per property owned, special rights of the declarant (developer) prior to or following turnover of control, or specific election procedures such as allowing or disallowing cumulative voting. The governing documents, specifically By Laws, will determine all election procedures not otherwise addressed in A-3163.
Here's a recent press release:
Panel OK's Bill to Establish Election Standards for Homeowners' Associations
Press Release | Posted Yesterday
TRENTON – An Assembly panel cleared legislation sponsored by Assemblymen Bob Andrzejczak and Bruce Land (D-Cape May, Atlantic, and Cumberland) to establish a set of standards for elections and the recall of officers who serve on the board of homeowners' associations.
"Homeowner's Associations must operate under similar rules and procedures as other governing bodies," Andrzejczak said. "A resident's interest and right to approve and elect board members must be preserved. And setting clearer, more fair and unified set of rules for board elections and a clarifying a resident's ability to recall will help to do just that."
The bill (A-3163) sets standards for election and recall of executive board members of homeowners' association, which are formed to manage community-owned elements in condominiums, cooperatives, and certain planned communities with common elements.
Read more:
You can access and track A-6136 here:
Bill Summary: (as initially drafted)
This bill sets standards for election and recall of executive board members of homeowners' associations, which are formed to manage commonly-owned elements in condominiums, cooperatives, and certain planned communities with common elements. The bill would limit the size of executive boards of such communities comprised of less than 11 homes, to three members. The bill would also provide a default size of five members for the executive board of all other communities unless the bylaws provide otherwise. The bill requires that associations permit owners to vote anonymously for executive board members, and establishes fair election procedures. Violations of these procedures could be appealed to the State entity having oversight of planned communities, which currently is the Department of Community Affairs. The bill also establishes standard procedures for recall votes of executive board officers or trustees, and provides that any member of the executive board may be recalled and removed from office, with or without cause, by the vote of, or agreement in writing by, a majority of the executive board members present and eligible to vote at a meeting called for that purpose, provided that any vote to recall shall be initiated only upon a petition of at least five percent of all association members. The bill provides that a special meeting of the association membership to vote for the recall of a member or members of the executive board may be called by 10 percent of the members giving notice of the meeting as required for a meeting of members.


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Jack Francis Musgrave (writer), Sam Nelson (graphics)

Listen to Jack read "Big Heavy Things". Eddy wanted to lift big, heavy things. The biggest, heaviest things he could feasibly lift as a human (though even that wasn't necessary). He'd eat shit if it meant he could bench 500 kilos. Eddy vowed to pledge himself to whatever could help him lift the biggest, heaviest […]

Listen to Jack read "Big Heavy Things".
Eddy wanted to lift big, heavy things. The biggest, heaviest things he could feasibly lift as a human (though even that wasn't necessary). He'd eat shit if it meant he could bench 500 kilos. Eddy vowed to pledge himself to whatever could help him lift the biggest, heaviest things.
Weightlifting seemed like the way to go.
He'd always been jealous of the big men lifting their big, heavy things in their big, heavy gyms. Subconsciously, anyway. Eddy would never admit it. The big men would be 'unnatural'. Unnecessary for day-to-day life. Unable to run for more than a minute without crumbling beneath their own mass (but did you ever see Eddy on the track?). Maybe he saw these guys and gals dedicating themselves to a cause and not giving up two weeks in and thought fuck, I'm just gonna pretend they don't exist.
There was an event, of course. There's always something. Something that stirs that caveman need to pick up big, heavy things. At the request of those involved, I've been asked to redact any details. I wonder, though. Were Eddy older, would it have ended this way? Was he simply too young and naive to handle it all?
Not really my place to say.
Eddy wasn't too well equipped to jump into anything that required any type of strength. When school said he had to do sports, apathy said aerobics. Once school ended even that had been gone for years. There was that stint at ultimate frisbee in his second year of uni. That was put off when assignments got too pressing, but then that was put off when life got too pressing, so life itself was put off for a couple of years. It was here in this void that he found the big, heavy things.
At 185cm of lank and 66kg of corn chip malaise, Eddy's first gym visit wasn't quite the miracle he'd hoped it to be. He'd walked in, all graphic tees and jean shorts without even a water bottle. At the counter of the YMCA was the chiselled jawline of someone just weeks from the finish line of their personal training course.
After signing up, he was offered a free consultation and took it because he had no idea. After being asked a series of increasingly concerning questions – like, what's your weight and height? Um, well. What's your diet like? Uhhh. How frequently do you exercise? Oh. Do you understand what that means for your health? Oh god. – he was left with a smile and a "I'll send you what to do by Thursday."
But Eddy didn't want Thursday. Eddy wanted now. So he smiled and pretended to walk away, before turning back and running through the gates as though he'd broken some rule. Then, within sight of the big men, Eddy stopped smiling. He loitered around, staring at the steel and the mirrors and the skin. Feeling that mist of sweat. All it took for him was to walk into the room to look like he wasn't meant to be there. Standing still wasn't helping. So Eddy moved from station to station, looking like he wasn't meant to be there, only this time with weights in his hands.
He stopped. He looked at a dumbbell. He picked up the dumbbell. He put it down.
Am I doing this right? he wonders.
He does it again.
Eddy feels like God.
Small weights become slightly larger weights. He goes home and wakes up unable to move. He soaks in his bath of paralysis. Once movement comes back, Eddy returns to the dumbbells and hopes that tomorrow he can move even less.
Soon, he's starting to know what he's doing. He's bought name-brand shorts and he's wearing a singlet, though really he's not quite ready for that yet. Eddy is becoming smug, but he'll move beyond that quickly enough, once he realises that he doesn't have to talk to newbies to intimidate them. He's a human fitness encyclopaedia. Maybe not even human. With no uni and no friends beyond his mum (who's been on thin ice anyway for having the nerve to say he looks "too big" when he's only got 16-inch arms), his days are spent between lifting weights and memorising new facts about weights. Knowing all the nutritional macros of a Whopper meal, every variation of every exercise, the pros of the Latvian Goblet Split and the wonders it does for the knees. Eddy can count the calories of a meal just by looking at it – or, really, by looking at it the night before and memorising numbers that he thinks will impress his stepdad (they don't).
Slowly, 'Eddy' is becoming a known name. Known, at least, on every body-building forum on the internet as some prodigy – Arnold reborn, only far nerdier and hasn't really reached any of his potential at all. Whether the response is positive or not depends on where on the internet you go. At strongmen.org he's essentially an admin, but if you dare even utter his name on liftapedia.com you'll be hit with a lifetime ban and exiled from the sport entirely. He's still an unknown at his gym. He's held on to that initial fear of those big men for sentimental reasons.
So go his days for the next year or so. Lift big, heavy things. Read big, heavy things. Eat big, heavy things. Dream big, heavy dreams.
He's not back at uni but he is on Instagram now, which is something. His body is chiseled, sculpted, the kind of piece that would give a contemporary artist an aneurysm. Eddy is on all the phones. More people have seen his abs than have heard him speak.
Yet something isn't there. His looks are enviable, sure. But he just doesn't care. He's plateaued: his numbers aren't climbing like they used to. He doesn't give a shit about his abs anymore or monitoring his daily lentil intake. Big. Heavy. Things. Where it all started.
So he gets straight on the roids. Shocking he didn't earlier, really. Going from Geek to Golem. His neck and body are essentially interchangeable. His balls have grown in on themselves. The fire, though. The fire is back. The numbers are going higher and higher.
Eddy doesn't view it as cheating. He's not deceiving anyone. He's not competing. He's never claimed his body is all natural. Roids are ancillary. How heavy can you go without them?
Eddy's mum has a nervous breakdown. All the chicken and the rice in the fridge. The getting stuck in the doorways. Her son trapped in some muscle prison. His stepdad comforts her, but deep down he is finally impressed. Eddy doesn't care much. He has internet mates now, with couches big enough to fit him.
Everything is going well. Then she comes back.
Uh oh.
Eddy emerges sometime later, whether from a cave, a coma or just his home gym. He is weak. Outside, walking in the sun for the first time, scaring all the kiddies in the park.
There Satan comes to him, in the form of a magpie, as Eddy always knew He would. Satan swoops every child, cyclist and ice-cream bucket He sees, until He reaches Eddy and perches softly on his head.
"Warble warble, fuck-o," says Satan.
"Who–" starts Eddy.
"Shut it," says the bird. "You know who I am – call me whatever, Devil, Antichrist, Baphomet. I go by Lucy myself – and I know you've been waiting for me. So. What's it gonna be, huh?"
The bird pecks at dandruff and loose strands of hair, its beak stabbing into the crown of his skull.
"I want to lift the biggest, heaviest thing."
"Well then," says Lucy. "Suit yourself."
The bird leaves its roost and floats in front of Eddy. Then, shoves its magpie arse over his face. Before Eddy can scream, Satan shits an egg straight into his mouth.
The egg is blackened, cracked, but the shell is still intact when his jaws come down. Out comes blood, bile, something that he guesses ash must taste like. The more he chews the more his throat burns. Broken shards of human teeth. Four-day old milk. A thirty-year-old chiko roll. Eddy's gums are all cut-up and bleeding, his taste-buds are eroding, his stomach is fucked. But he's going on. Maggots and cum and ah fuck was that a Bounty bar?
He swallows it all.
"Onya," says Lucy.
So Eddy goes bush. He's grown and now his clothes don't fit so he's naked – glistening with sweat and magick. His breath is able to send most small mammals into extinction. Footprints press deep into the mud and the leaves.
He goes off track, scrambling over rocks and branches, down gullies and ridges until he can find The One. Then he sees it. Up a ledge, 200 metres or so into the blue of the sky. Not looking back, he scales the cliff-face, naked and gearless. The rocks cut his skin – blood forges a path down the rock. He reaches the top, battered but painless. There is the boulder – sun streaming through the edges of its silhouette.
Eddy bends down and pulls at the rock. Every vessel in his body pumping, ever fibre of muscle strained. The stone cracks as the faultline tears through the earth to the other side. Then, in one fluid motion, he lifts it above his head and screams. Triumph echoes down the valley. He throws the stone some hundred metres away, crushing two families of wombats and a wallaby in the process. He flattens the land and screams one word.
There's Lucy again, perched on a nearby bluegum.
"Figured as much. Well, you know what it's gotta be."
It's over in moments. Eddy devours the thing with something like enjoyment. Chew four times and swallow. Blood trickles from the corner of his mouth. He smiles.
Eddy is not the Golem anymore, he is the Behemoth. Twelve metres tall, striding across the plains towards a big, heavy thing. News' copters hover at his brow like flies. Country police shit themselves. The roos bound away in the hundreds. Everyone's talking about him now. Everyone.
After four weeks of travel he sees that orange peak at the sunrise. Uluru. Another Big One. Without a word, he reaches beneath the soil and pulls. The rock trembles. Five tourists fall to their deaths mid-climb. So, the Behemoth goes and hoists Big Red above. It smashes back down on the ground and Australia rumbles.
Once again he screams:
"More is it?" says the bird on his shoulder. "Knew you'd come around to it"
Behemoth feasts. Begs for seconds. Three, four, five eggs. Five eggs and his body begins its ascent to the stars.
He's over five hundred metres tall now. His dick casts a shadow all the way to Launceston. Behemoth goes now and steps off the Earth – floating in space. Lucy flies beside him, warbling.
Behemoth makes his way to the bottom of the planet. Above, the Earth is screaming. Every military on the planet is scrambling for something, anything. The world screams fuck, I knew Australia would kill us.
Every big man in the world is banding together to do something.
It's not enough. Behemoth places his hands on the Antarctic and hoists Earth on his shoulders. Then, he throws it away. All life burns in a second. All that is left is a husk, a lifeless ball, gone away to leave havoc somewhere else in the universe. If a magpie could smile, Lucy would be.
Eddy turns to the sun and the sun says,
"Go on, then. Try me."
Khadijah Majid (writer), Jennifer Nguyen (illustrator)
Matthew Lee (writer), Manyu Wang (illustrator)
N.H. Van Der Haar (writer), Amber Liang (illustrator)
The harpsichords sound like skeletons. The wings of butterflies open and close like lungs. The trees are murdered for pianos. The dust in the abandoned antique store glows gently, as if made from the powdered skulls of fairies and changelings. Welcome to the weird and wonky world of Edition Six, Phantasmagoria. We bid you to tread carefully...


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Can you help support a STAR?
TOGETHER we can SHINE brighter and continue to provide healthier lifestyle opportunities that will assist in positive development. Become a guiding light and support STAR Girlz by giving back through volunteering your TIME, using your TALENT, and/or TITHING a financial contribution. Whether you are an individual or a corporate organization, you can help us continue to SHINE year round.
Below are ways you can get involved. Fill out the form at the bottom of the page to start the process.
Join a system that works. We are looking for dedicated individuals and community agencies who are passionate about transforming lives of young women. We currently have a variety of ways you can volunteer.
Individual Volunteering:
- Facilitate an Empowerment Workshop
- Be a guest speaker for an event
- Join our board of directors
- Plan events/activities
Group Volunteering:
Corporate and community agencies have an opportunity to improve their community and assist in making our annual events a memorable one.
Are you interested in giving back through hosting a fundraiser and organizing special offers where proceeds are donated to STAR Girlz Empowerment, Inc.? Through this effort, you can reach out to new customers and increase productivity while driving customers to support your efforts. Some ideas that have worked in the past are: Facebook birthday fundraisers, Kroger community support, Work Dress down Day, sales from t shirt purchases, and bake sales. STAR Girlz welcome the opportunity to be a recipient of your fundraising ideas designed to highlight your business's engagement in the community. We're happy to promote your special event through our social media channels.
Partnerships & Sponsors
Let's continue to SHINE! STAR Girlz love to meet new people and corporations to help us fulfill the mission of our organization. It's because of you, our STARZ continue to SHINE and beat the odds. There are many ways your business can support STAR Girlz and meet the goals of your organization. If you have an idea you would like to share, we are happy to speak with you one on one and tailor a custom partnership exclusively for you.
We are currently accepting partnerships where our STAR can engage in career shadowing and/or business workshops in graphic design, cooking classes, financial literacy, and coding.
STAR Girlz Empowerment, Inc. hosts a variety of events throughout the year. Our Event Sponsorships help individuals and businesses reach target audiences while supporting our STARZ who need us the most. Sponsoring one of our popular events, such as our SiSTARhood Retreat, BLING back to school empowerment camp, Creating Employment/Entrepreneurship Opportunities, and an evening Under the STARZ banquet creates an opportunity for both you and our STARZ to SHINE.
I want to to get involved!


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Where Does The Buck Stop In The Cloud?
Who is responsible for outages caused by IaaS failures. Is the relationship between traditional data centers and customers better for small and medium businesses? Consider these two scenarios.
You are hosting your busy website on a cluster of managed dedicated servers located in a trusted data center. You have a close working relationship with the system administrators who manage your servers. They helped you to set up your infrastructure and they understand the needs of your business, acting as first line of defense against outages and performance issues.
One morning, your cluster suffers a hard drive failure on one of its MySQL servers. It's not a disaster because the other MySQL servers in the cluster can handle the load for the time being. But, when the peak traffic period hits in a couple of hours, performance is likely to be seriously degraded. Fortunately, the data center team spot the problem on their monitoring system and swap out the defective hardware within a couple of hours.
Most importantly, your users never have any clue that there was a problem.
You are hosting your busy website on a popular IaaS provider. You were tempted to provision your infrastructure from a cloud provider by promises of cost reductions and flexibility. It was easy for your in-house team to spin up the necessary servers and networking infrastructure with the provider's control panel. No one in your business has ever spoken to a human being that works at the cloud provider — everything is managed through a web-based interface.
One morning, you start getting emails from your users telling you that they are having trouble accessing your site. Availability is intermittent at first, but eventually the site goes down altogether. Your team takes a look at the cloud provider's status page, which is showing performance degradations in the region that houses your site's servers. There is nothing that can be fixed with your infrastructure, but nevertheless, your site is not accessible to your users. So, you wait, fielding user complaints to pass the time. After several hours, your site reappears online. A couple of days later your cloud provider sends out a press release blaming the outage on a misconfigured software update that propagated through their system. They offer users a rebate for the downtime and reduced price services for a short period in accordance with their service level agreement.
Who Is Responsible For Storms In The Cloud?
These examples are not entirely analogous. Outages caused by incompetence can happen in data centers housing traditionally leased servers just as easily as they can with cloud services. But, the significant issue that the differing scenarios highlight is one of responsibility and communication. One thing is certain. If your site or service goes down, your users will blame you. They don't care about the underlying technology. Your business, however, has to know where the buck stops and who is to be relied on.
While the on-demand nature of cloud services is beneficial for some businesses and essential for a very few, the vast majority of small and mid-sized enterprises do not benefit at all from being able to spin up servers and infrastructure at will. They do however reap considerable rewards from developing a close relationship with the staff who will manage their hardware and who will be the first line of defense when something inevitably goes wrong.
By Graeme Caldwell,
Graeme works as an marketer for InterWorx, a revolutionary web hosting control panel for hosts who need scalability and reliability. Follow InterWorx on Twitter at @interworx, Like them on Facebook and check out their blog, http://www.interworx.com/community.


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Attending EMC World? You WANT To Attend the Hands-On Labs As Well
This year we have a total 31 labs. Attendees can sit as few or many of these labs as they'd like. Each lab is designed to be 60 minutes in […]
Dell Storage, PowerStore, PowerFlex PowerMax & PowerScale, Virtualization & Containers Technologies
This year we have a total 31 labs. Attendees can sit as few or many of these labs as they'd like. Each lab is designed to be 60 minutes in […]
This year we have a total 31 labs. Attendees can sit as few or many of these labs as they'd like. Each lab is designed to be 60 minutes in length, though as these are self-paced (step by step) labs attendees can sit the lab at their own pace.
LAB01 SRM Suite – Visualize, Analyze, Optimize
LAB02 VNX with AppSync Lab: Simple Management, Advanced Protection
LAB03 EMC Software Defined Storage (SDS)
LAB04 Atmos Cloud Storage: Mature, Robust and Ready to Rock
LAB05 EMC NetWorker Backup and Recovery for Next Generation Microsoft Environments
LAB06 Flexible and Efficient Backup and Recovery for Microsoft SQL Always-On Availability Groups
using EMC NetWorker
LAB07 Easier and Faster VMware Backup and Recovery with EMC Avamar For the Storage Administrator
LAB08 Automated Backup and Recovery for Your Software Defined Data Center with EMC Avamar
LAB09 Taking Backup and Archiving To New Heights with EMC SourceOne and EMC Data Domain
LAB10 Optimizing Backups for Oracle DBAs with EMC Data Domain and EMC Data Protection Advisor
LAB11 Operational and Disaster Recovery using RecoverPoint
LAB12 Achieving High Availability in SAP environments using VMware ESXi clusters and VPLEX
LAB13 VPLEX Metro with RecoverPoint: 3-site Solution for HighAvailability and Disaster Recovery
LAB14 Introduction to VMAX Cloud Edition
LAB15 Replication for the VMAX Family
LAB16 Performance Analyzer for the VMAX Family
LAB17 Introduction to the VMAX Family
LAB18 Storage Provisioning and Monitoring with EMC Storage Integrator (ESI 2.1)
and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager
LAB19 EMC|Isilon Compliance Mode Cluster Setup, Configuration, and Management Simplicity
LAB20 EMC|Isilon Enterprise Ready with OneFS 7.0 Enhancements
LAB21 RSA Cloud Security and Compliance
LAB22 VMware vSphere Integration with VNX
LAB23 VNX Unisphere Analyzer
LAB24 VNX/VNXe Storage Monitoring & Analytics For Your Business Needs
LAB25 VNX Data Efficiency
LAB26 VNXe Unisphere Administration & Snapshots
LAB27 EMC VSPEX Virtualized Infrastructure for End User Computing
LAB28 Collaborative Big Data Analysis with the Greenplum Unified Analytics Platform
LAB29 Manage Your vCloud Suite Applications with VMware vFabric Application
LAB30 Discover VMware Horizon Workspace
LAB31 Deploy and Operate Your Cloud with the VMware vCloud Suite
Lab Opening Hours:
Monday: 11:00AM- 9PM
Tuesday: 7:00AM – 6:30PM
Wednesday: 7:00AM – 5:00PM
Thursday: 7:00AM – 2PM
*Note: Doors close 30 mins before the end of each day
What does the HOL Layout Look Like?
We have a total of 200 seats where attendees can come and sit any of the 31 labs. There are representatives from all BUs and the SD Specialist and SE teams, who will be supporting their respective labs, along with seating the attendees ensuring they have a great HOL experience.
Where is the HOL Located?
The labs are located on the 2nd floor of the Sands Expo Hall at the Venetian – immediately on the right hand side as you enter the EMC Village.
Backend Infrastructure Details:
The backend infrastructure is run out of our massive Durham data center, with the infrastructure being based on VCE Vblock architecture. *Note: we are also running eight XtremIO bricks to serve up the content.
• EMC Data Center: Durham – North Carolina
• EMC: Storage (VNX & XtremIO)
• Cisco: Servers (UCS) & Networking
• VMware: vSphere 5.1 & vCD
Management & Monitoring Showcase:
At the front of the HOL area we also live showcasing (via two large 27" plasma screens) the following products which are connected, and provide an insight, to the backend HOL Cloud infrastructure:
• EMC SRM Suite:
– ProSphere
– Watch4Net
• EMC XtremIO
• VMware vCOPS
We will have representatives from these product teams to walk through a demonstration with attendees, showing them what is happening "under the hood" of the HOL Cloud infrastructure (eg: compute, network, storage utilization, etc) using the various products mentioned above.
We are running a number of competitions at the HOL, with spot prizes, giveaways and a daily prize draw of an Apple TV for those who sit a lab and complete the brief survey at the end.


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One of a series of articles about the Poole-Bell House on Laidley Street in Fairmount Heights, San Francisco.
By Amy O'Hair
On the first day of October 1906, Annie Poole, widow of a disgraced public official, and Teresa Bell, widow of the city's once-richest financier, met to discuss the sale of the small mansion that now bears both their names, the Poole-Bell House.
Bell was moving out to this remote enclave, the sparsely settled Fairmount district, where the house sat perched on a hill with a fine view of the city in the distance. She wanted to put a bit of space between her and the nattering classes of society. It was a prickly conference; Bell wanted to move in a day earlier than the transfer of the funds between the two women, a presumptuous request that Poole resisted. Bell recorded their conversation, with commentary, in her diary.
"Mrs Poole said she could not personally let me move in until Wednesday. I said I only cared because of the family, her and their discomfort. 'Oh,' she said, 'tell them I am an old cross crank.' I said, 'No. I told them the facts that you had no right to let me in your house until you had your money, and that you would not let me in.'
"She stopped laughing quickly and her eyes popped out with surprise. She saw she was not fooling me. With all the lies she had told about 'the people not removing their things yet,' her stare of astonishment showed I was right in my surmise as to her not letting me in.
"Of course I do not blame her a bit, but she could have accommodated me one day, considering my paying her in cash down for her furniture, and I paid enough for it too. But it's all right, she knows nothing about me nor I of her, and she didn't do business on trust evidently. She is one breed and I another, that is evident."[1]
Bell thought herself a cut above, as if more money granted greater nobility. The irony is that the Bell family scandals far outpaced the minor frisson of shame that the Poole family endured. The Bells provided sensational fodder for newspapers for decades, whereas Poole's husband had made a mistake and in the way of the times taken the 'honorable' way out through suicide.
Continue reading "The Widows Do Business: How the Poole-Bell House Got Its Name"


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With several major international public relations having adopted the Barcelona Principles of Measurement, there's renewed interest in the topic of measurement and metrics in communications programs. That should come as welcome news to agencies and in-house departments, as it's time for all of us to commit to more effectively counseling our clients on measurement. Like any good counselor, this means challenging assumptions, providing options and making recommendations.
When a client asks for program metrics, the first reaction is usually either fight or flight. The "fight" happens when the communications professional launches into a litany of reasons why the program can't be measured. The "flight" is when we run back to our offices to try to come up with some type of graph or pie chart that shows we've moved the needle.
Rather than fight or flight, it's up to us as professionals to engage in a constructive conversation about what can—and should—be measured within a program. And don't forget to ask why. Using measurement strictly to gauge whether someone is doing their job is shortsighted. Instead, measurement should be a continuous effort used to adjust or alter a program to improve its effectiveness. It's not a performance review—it's a diagnostic.
The big question we all get is, "what's the ROI?" Rather than jump to the answer, we should challenge the question. Next to the phrase "we offer solutions," ROI is one of the most overused and oversimplified concepts in business.
Most people tend to equate the word "return" with "dollars earned." What we really want to know is the value of the investment—not just the return. Let's use your car as an example. We all want value from our car purchases, but rarely do we talk about the ROI on our automobiles.
Value has three dimensions. Certainly there's monetary value—how many dollars did I invest, and how many dollars did I earn? But how many of you drive down the road and calculate the money you paid for your car, gas and insurance, the depreciation and the dollars per mile and compare that to what you made at the office that day? Yes, we want our money's worth, but rarely is it calculated in what's traditionally been referred to as ROI.
In addition to monetary value, we also have to look at utility. Does this method work better than other methods? Let's compare the utility of your car to that of a bicycle or walking. Yes, the bicycle and walking might be cheaper and give you more exercise, but if you live 20 miles from work those methods aren't as useful as a car.
And then there's a third dimension—brand building. Your choice of automobile says something about you—it makes a statement. That's why there are Ford people and Chevy people. Toyota people and Honda people. When you get right down to it, many cars aren't much different from one another in cost and functionality, but we buy one or the other because it says something about us. Likewise, we can't calculate the ROI or utility on a corporate sustainability report, yet companies are producing them in droves because doing so says something about their brand.
When embarking on more effective measurement, you need to avoid the wild animals in the zoo.
There's the HIPPO method. That's measurement based on the Highest Paid Person's Objectives. Unless we're talking about the CEO, rarely are one person's objectives aligned with the objectives of a truly strategic communication program.
There's the Monkey See, Monkey Count method. That's when we run off and measure everything that can be measured because there are really cool tools out there to do it. We end up with variation upon variation of dashboards and reports that look great, but nobody reads them.
There's the Penguin method. That's where every tactic in a program is measured the same way. Our industry used to do this a lot when we calculated the "Advertising Value Equivalency" of a published story and tried to convince senior leadership that the one-line mention in the story was as valuable as taking out a full-page ad. Those still using AVEs will be hard-pressed to get strategic about programs, because AVEs don't take into account the fundamental value of different PR channels.
And finally, there's the T. rex method (let's assume it's a prehistoric zoo). That's when the measurement becomes so all-consuming that it devours your entire budget. Measurement itself requires investment, so make sure to keep your perspective.
THE THREE O's
To take a healthier approach to measurement, start with the premise that measurement in and of itself is a good thing both for the agency and the client. Then make a joint commitment on why we're measuring, what we should be measuring and how much time and effort we're going to spend on it. Then use the "Three O's" to frame up the conversation.
Outputs: This is the most basic form of measurement, and everything we do can be evaluated at this level. In essence, it's what we produced and how we did in producing it. Was it on time? On budget? On message? Adhering to corporate standards? Yes, this is pretty basic, but for some programs, measuring outputs can point out inefficiencies that need to be addressed.
Outtakes: One level up in sophistication, outtakes focus on who was reached vs. what was produced. What's the circulation on that article? How many people viewed that Web page? Who downloaded the video? What was the attendance at our event? We're getting more and more sophisticated at measuring at the outtakes level, but we need to realize that reaching someone is rarely the end goal. If that were the case, we could simply stop at awareness. And we all know nobody made a decision solely on being aware.
Outcomes: Clearly, the most sophisticated form of measurement. Look at what behaviors changed as a result of our efforts. Who voted? Who purchased? Who stopped protesting? Who called their legislator? Did customer loyalty for the brand improve after the program? Did we generate more qualified leads year-over-year? Outcomes-based measurement is the Holy Grail in PR, and it's within reach.
There's never been a better time to commit to program measurement. The industry is adopting reasonable and consistent standards, and the tools are there for us to do it effectively. It's time for us to truly be counselors to our clients and help them measure what's important. PRN
[This article was adapted from PR News' PR Measurement Guidebook, Vol. 6 . To order go prnewsonline.com/store/68.html.]
This article was written by Matt Kucharski, ([email protected]), executive vice president of agency services at Padilla Speer Beardsley, and Heidi Wight ([email protected]), director at Padilla Speer Beardsley.


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Aberdare Autos 1965
Purchased in 1983
Finance to suit all budgets
Gerry Hill
Hirwaun Garage 1973
Buy from a name You can trust
Gerry Hill
VW Workshops, Hirwaun 1973
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