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This weekend we added two new features to the pidoco Prototype Creator: colors and permalinks. From now on you can choose the border and fill color for rectangles and ellipses to highlight certain areas of your prototype. We also added a semi transparent grey filling which you may use to create overlays and modal dialog boxes, similar to what you see on the screenshot.
For the second new feature we slightly modified the invitation dialog and added a new feature to the invite menu entry. In this new dialog you get three links, one points to a png image, one to the sketched html, and the third to the plain html version of your prototype. You can choose the page they will point to and copy paste the link into your wiki or send these links via chat to your colleagues.

subset: commoncrawl


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The following is a summary of the rules of Beg, Borrow and Deal. It is for viewer information only. For the Official Rules of the game click here.
Official Rules
Two teams each consisting of four players, were dropped off in Times Square New York City without any money, credit cards or any other resources - with only their driver's license and the clothes they were wearing. Their goal - be the first to complete 10 tasks from a list of 40 and get to Al Capone's cell on Alcatraz Island. Beg Borrow & Deal their way across the continent!
Two tickets, all expenses paid, to four championship events of the next year!
The goal of each team will be to finish 10 Tasks chosen by the team from a list of 40 which will be given to the team at the time they are dropped off. Teams may complete no more than five (5) Tasks in each U.S. time zone. Teams can complete a maximum of 1 Task in any given state.
THE CONTESTANTS CAN NEVER ACCEPT OR HANDLE MONEY - EVER! The Contestants will be required to travel together with all members of the team at all times. Contestants are required to rest for at least six hours out of every day.
Contestants may make no promises, commitments or other representations of any kind purporting to bind ESPN, the Producer or any other third party in exchange for any assistance from people during the game.
Contestants may receive non-monetary assistance from any third-party source, including friends and relatives. All contributions or assistance must be completely utilized or disposed of within twelve (12) hours of receipt. For example, a Contestant may not use a donated car during a period longer than 12 hours after receipt nor may a Contestant stay in someone's house for longer then 12 hours.
A team may receive non-monetary assistance only once from any particular person or entity. For example, a team may use a car owned by a friend, family member or stranger only once. In the event the friend, family member or stranger gives the contestant a stick of gum prior to getting in the car, the contestant would not be permitted to use the car as the stick of gum would serve as the one favor or assistance.
If a Contestant obtains lodging, he or she is permitted to use or consume any item owned by the person or entity owning or leasing the lodging, if that item is and remains physically located at the place of lodging. For example, if a Contestant obtains lodging in a friend's apartment, during the permitted 12-hour stay, the Contestant may also consume food and use toiletries owned by the friend, and use the friend's telephone and computer. The Contestant may not use the friend's vehicle (as this would involve off-premises use). The "run-of-the-house" rule does not extend to any item not at the place of lodging at the time of the Contestant's arrival (e.g., the friend can't go shopping or order pizza for the Contestant).
Contestant staying at a friend's apartment may not use the phone to call another friend to ask for assistance.
Contestants must abide by all applicable laws. Violation of any applicable law is grounds for immediate disqualification from the Program, and any Contestant taken into police custody will be disqualified and removed from the Game, with attendant penalties.
Each team, with the unanimous consent of its members, will have the opportunity twice during the Game to elect to obtain a cash stipend. The team may elect to either forfeit a completed Task and all related points in exchange for a cash stipend of $300, or forfeit the right to travel or attempt any Tasks for a period of 48 hours after the election in exchange for a cash stipend of $300. In each case, the team members must act unanimously, but the cash stipend will be divided equally among all of the members of the team, and the divided amount held by the Producer.
If a Contestant violates a rule it will be within the sole discretion of the Producer to determine whether such Contestant receives a penalty, which may include, without limitation, mandatory periods of inactivity (e.g., no work or Tasks), point or Task deductions or immediate disqualification. If a Contestant is disqualified, his or her team forfeits all Tasks and related points earned by the team until then.


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Prestige Yachts' 680 flybridge has been reinvented in the sportsbridge style. Nick Burnham shows us around...
Sportsbridge yachts are all the rage these days and it's easy to see why – they combine the open, airy feel of a sportscruiser with the elevated driving position of a flybridge.
At the recent Dusseldorf Boat Show, Nick took the chance to film the flagship of Prestige Yachts' sportsbridge collection, the Prestige 680S.
This is a great example of the style, with the compact upper deck blending in nicely with the sleek exterior styling.
Moving inside and the Prestige 680S also boasts a clever layout, with the three-cabin guest area situated amidships and a very spacious master suite in the bow.
Enjoy the tour…
LOA: 70ft 5in (21.46m)
Beam: 17ft 6in (5.33m)
Draught: 5ft 2in (1.58m)
Displacement (light): 29.8 tonnes (65,698lbs)
Fuel capacity: 3,450l (759 gal)
Water capacity: 920l (202 gal)
Engines: Twin 1000hp Volvo Penta IPS1350
Top speed: 30 knots
Cruising speed: 24 knots
Cruising range: 350nm
CE category: B for 16
Design: J&J / Garroni
Price from: £1,600,00 (ex. VAT)


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Letters / Press Releases:
Media Matters in NZ is 21 years old - March 2015
Our members span three generations and we continue to advocate for a safer TV and Internet environment for our kids.
You have to admit that the politicians have had it their way for too long. The recent election campaign has been dominated by stories of Internet misuse, yet nothing has actually been done, or planned to be done, to prevent this.
Please help our cause and NZ's future.
The rise and rise of violence on television - NZ Listener Letter - 17 March 2013
Dianna Wichtel [Listener columnist] deserves the thanks of us all, for her telling appraisal of the rise and rise of violence on television. She is the only NZ media commentator I know of, who has been brave enough to label it "unacceptable".
Why is there not more regular critical assessment of the social impact in this country of the most powerful instrument of behaviour modification ever devised in our media? TV columnists prattle on about what they have seen. A Radio NZ journalist lectures journalists about journalism standards weekly on Media Watch. TV3 runs a show around midnight in which a pompous academic bangs on about various esoteric subjects.
None of these people show any awareness whatsoever that this month, a study by Otago University was released which found that constant exposure to TV Violence, contributes to violent crime.
TV watching linked to criminal activity - Press Statement - 19 February 2013
The latest report from Otago University (Dominion Post today) says what Media Matters and other advocacy groups around the world have been saying for 25 years, i.e. that watching repetitive violence on TV encourages the young and the vulnerable to see violence as a solution to their problems.
Media needs new complaints body - DomPost letter - 31 December 2011
I'd like to thank Unicef NZ's Dennis McKinlay for his timely observations about online child abuse (Features, Dec 27). I'd add two things.
First, he mentions the need for international co-operation; ...
[ Read full letter by John Terris ... ]
Features, 27 December 2011 - Related article:
Searching for ways to prevent online child abuse
DomPost Online | Tuesday, 27 December 2011
By Dennis McKinlay
OPINION: How do we tackle online child sexual abuse while still giving young people access to the internet? It's a thorny problem, but some thought is starting to sort fact from the emotion that has accompanied this debate. [ Read full article ... ]
BSA fines complainant Donald McDonald - Press Statement - 14 August 2011
It appears from its decision in respect of a complaint from one of our members, Donald McDonald, a retired scientist, about news accuracy, which has resulted in its effectively fining Mr McDonald for having the temerity to complain, that the Broadcasting Standards Authority has relinquished any claim to credibility as a monitor of standards in NZ Broadcasting.
Read full statement ...
Read BSA decision 2011-020
BSA Handling of Complaints from our Members - Letter to BSA - 24 October 2010
By Media Matters President, John Terris
John Terris
Background: Donald McDonald, a long-time Media Matters member and a pensioner with about 100 complaints to his name, has had the BSA threaten to charge him for a recent complaint.
Dear Sir,
We are appalled that the Authority has threatened Donald McDonald with costs for making what are alleged to be frivolous and vexatious complaints.
Our Executive is of the view that the statutory role of the Authority is to uphold Standards, not to punish the people who complain. We have completely lost confidence in the ability of the Authority to contain continuing offenses against standards on NZ television ....
Media complaints - Sunday Star Times letter - 30 May 2010
THE ARTICLE ridiculing those who make complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (News, May 23) shows just how contemptuous of
any sort of standards those responsible for the increasing volume of gratuitous violence, sex and bad language
on television really are of the audience ...
[ Read full letter by John Terris ... ]
News, 23 May 2010 - Related article:
Mice cruelty aside, chill wind blows back on media accusers
Sunday Star Times, 23 May 2010,
by Esther Harward
RECENT COMPLAINTS to media watchdogs – including that a runway fashion outfit was described with the wrong animal print, a flounder dish was criticised in a restaurant review, and a newspaper dropped an apostrophe in Hawke's Bay – have got commentators ... [ Read full article ... ]
What about the kids? - Press Statement - 3 November 2008
The latest crime statistics show once again that while overall crime is declining, crimes of violence
involving young people continue to rise.
[ Read full statement ... ]
Media Matters name change - Press Release - 28 April 2008
Press statement by Media Matters President following AGM in Lower Hutt 28 April 2008.


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Enzagen has over 20 years of experience in industrial biocatalysis, covering all aspects of manufacturing processes using enzymes.
We have been involved in enzyme cloning and expression, fermentation development, enzyme isolation, immobilization, and applied biocatalysis for many different types of reactions in water-based and solvent processes.
We can help you with biocatalyst screening, route scouting and process development to large scale for specific products, or alternatively we can help you build a powerful biocatalysis technology platform if your company seeks to exploit the benefits of biocatalysis.
Email : email@example.com Tel : +44 (0)774 9225986 Enzagen Ltd. Newton Hall, Town Street, Newton, Cambridge CB22 7ZE
Copyright © Enzagen 2012


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There's something about this team that's wired to win when its best players go down:
Combined record during Aroldis Chapman's two hiatuses and without Joey Votto (June 20-23, June 27-July 1, July 16-Sept 7, Sept 11-Sept 21): 41-24
And then there's the fact that that they've looked like an unstoppable juggernaut ever since Cueto went down in the first inning of Game 1. Maybe it's like a mother whose strength multiplies when her child is in danger.
So it would seem plenty believable that they could weather a less-than-effective Chapman over the remainder of the post-season.
With Chapman, the problem right now isn't injury - or even a decline in velocity. He averaged close to 98 on his fastball Saturday night. The problem is control - he only threw 57% strikes (vs. 64% on the season). It's also pitch mix, partly as a response to less control.
Chapman wanted strikes and leaned a little heavier on his fastball to get back in the zone. He threw just one slider Saturday in 28 pitches, after working sliders (and a few splitters) in over the second half of the season to wind up with a season fastball rate of 88%.
I think Chapman needs to be somewhere above 60% strikes and mixing in his slider just a little bit more to be "effectively wild" and prevent hitters from sitting on a dead-red fastball, ahead in the count.
But Chapman is pretty close to where he needs to be. If he does get himself in trouble, the main worry is that Marshall and Broxton have already been used in the 7th and 8th. Given how uniformly good the Reds' 'pen has been, this isn't a huge worry. Dusty just need to hook him if he doesn't have it.
For Chapman, not "having it" doesn't mean walking the world so much as not getting ahead and not finding his spots. He's had just five games this season in which he's given up multiple walks - and in none of these has he given up earned runs. In fact, in only 2 of the seven outings where Chapman gave up earned runs did he even issue a free pass.
For Chapman, it boils down to hittability. When he's going well - as he did over the last four appearances of the season - Chapman can scatter the walks. He held opponents to a .091 average in those four games. But when he senses something wrong, he starts to work slower and guide the ball, reducing the movement on his fastball and getting him closer barrels of bats.
If Chapman starts pitching to contact, it's time to get someone up.


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Every Child advocacy campaign's response to children's rights report released today
Every Child advocacy campaign's response to children's rights report released today.
Media Statement
10 February 2020
Statement from Dr Kirsty Nowlan, Co-Chair Every Child:
"The Every Child national alliance urges all governments to act on the recommendations made by Commissioner Mitchell.
"Governments view physical infrastructure – the building of bridges, roads, rail and ports – as a top priority. We say infrastructure to support children must be a top nation-building priority.
"A national plan and Minister is a start but is still not enough. We need to turn the volume up on the wellbeing of children and young people in Australia and elevate their needs to a nation-building status.
"We agree with the Commissioner that the increase in neglect and abuse of children is a particularly worrying trend, as is the increase in children living in out of home care.
"The report shows that Indigenous children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, children with a disability and LGBTI children – are particularly vulnerable. They experience higher levels of developmental challenges and poorer mental health relative to national averages.
"Every Child alliance members praise Commissioner Mitchell for the advocacy she has done throughout her seven-year term."
The Benevolent Society
M: 0421-761-332 (Lisa Hresc) / 0413-995-189 (Jon Abbott)
E: [email protected]u; [email protected]
Every Child is a national advocacy campaign spearheaded by The Benevolent Society that aims to promote the wellbeing of children and young people, and is. We are determined. We know that with strong support, stable relationships, and a safe place to call home every child and young person can thrive. This means supporting families to navigate tough times. We recognise the leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders across the country to advance the interests of their children, young people and families. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are removed from their families at ten times the rate of non-Indigenous children, this is a national shame and Every Child is committed to supporting the self-determination and advocacy work of our First Nations people as they work to ensure their children and young people have the opportunity to grow up well cared for and safe in family and community. Australia's children need us to get this right, and we can.


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Continuing students pre-register for spring semester courses in mid-November, and for fall semester courses in mid-April. All currently enrolled CMC students who plan to attend Claremont McKenna College in the future terms should pre-register at their appointed day and time. Students who cannot register at their assigned day or time may do so at a later time, but they may not register early. The course schedule will be available online beginning at least two weeks in advance of pre-registration. Specific registration information, including registration appointment date and time, will be conveyed to students via email at least two weeks in advance of pre-registration. Pre-registration appointment windows are open for 24 hours from the assigned date and time. Registration opens for all students following the conclusion of the last pre-registration appointment.
Registration windows open and close to accommodate academic policies and new student orientation. Registration opens for all continuing and returning students following the conclusion of pre-registration. In fall, registration for spring remains open through the add deadline in spring, which is the 10th instructional day of the semester. In spring, registration for fall remains open until late summer, at which time registration will close to allow the incoming class to register for their first semester of classes. At the conclusion of freshman registration, registration will re-open for all students until the add deadline in fall, which is the 10th instructional day of the semester.
New students entering CMC in the fall semester register for classes for the first time at the conclusion of new student orientation before fall classes start. Over the summer, incoming first-year students will be registered for a portion of the first-semester course load in courses such as by-invitation-only courses. New students will be assigned a 2-hour registration window before classes start, during which time only new students are able to register and make schedule changes. Once classes start, registration opens for all students.
First-year students entering CMC mid-year are offered a registration opportunity in January before spring classes begin.
Transfer students work closely with Registrar's Office staff to determine their first semester schedule. Once transfer evaluations are complete during the summer and course recommendations made, transfer students send course preferences to the Registrar's Office. To ease the transition to CMC, Registrar's Office staff register transfer students over the summer leading up to the start of the first semester at CMC. After classes begin, transfer students use the student portal to make schedule changes and register for all subsequent semesters at CMC.


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All Battlefields Present the Possibility of Success
All Battlefields Present the Possibility of Success
Plenty of people expend enormous energy avoiding toxic people, toxic situations and air pollution. However, even when we least expect it, we will have many trying times involving physical and even mental health issues, relationships with others, and generally dealing with the world around us.
It might be tempting to retreat from the challenges of the daily hustle-bustle by retreating to a desolate mountaintop, at least until boredom and freezing temperatures set in, bugs eat you alive in the summer, you get tired of having to travel one hundred miles even to a mediocre grocery store, and noisy construction starts next door for the newest Dollar Store and McDonalds.
An essential ingredient to reaching true personal satisfaction is to work on internal balance and harmony so as not to be thrown into an emotional tailspin from someone farting in the elevator, from environmental stench, from a bunch of seeming buffoons in the rest of the rooms at your resort hotel room, and the list goes on.
As a criminal defense lawyer, my practice of internal balance and well-being is all the more important while, among the many good things and people I experience, I regularly encounter plenty of clients expressing low moods and even anger, too many prosecutors ready to fight without a heart and even to try to throw sand in their opponents' eyes, and too many judges at best chasing dockets rather than fulfilling their judicial oaths of office to enforce the laws and Constitution.
Consequently, to achieve internal harmony, one must have daily time — even if sometimes only at brief moments — to oneself to experience calm quiet and one must also regularly interact with the surrounding world, even to the point of being in the belly of the beast. That is what my daily taijiquan practice is about — maintaining calm in the eye of the storm through enjoying the solitude of practicing the t'ai chi form combined with t'ai chi sparring with opponents running from the new to those using hard force when taijiquan is about using soft energy to opponents who are so achieved that they are blessings as teachers.
As with a fistfight, the stakes can be high in criminal defense. Humans and weather are very unpredictable, so I can only forecast how a judge and jurors might act, even with a flowchart of innumerable external variables, and even if I can seed the clouds to try to make rain. Therefore, repeatedly when a client asks me what our chances are with my client's case, I remind my client that s/he and I can help write the answer to that question, with my being fully prepared for the litigation battle in a team with my client. A raindance may help me in getting grounded, but holistic and hard work are needed to carry the day.
I believe strongly that when I am in a state of spiritual, physical and mental well being, I perform and persuade best, in terms of strengthening myself, inspiring and winning for my clients, inspiring others to decide and act in my favor, not being a blockade to achieving what I want, and unblocking barriers to achieving my goals. If a lawyer walks into court not having bathed for a month, with a cloud of fleas around his hair, with rags for clothes drooped around his body, and stooped over in low self esteem, then he already has not only thrown in the towel, but has done the opposite of helping himself and others free themselves of blockages and not to create new blockages.
At my best, I approach every courthouse and all other battlegrounds as my home, and envision and internalize as sacred every inch of ground on which my client and I walk, every molecule of air that we breathe, and every person we deal with, even with people who are unaware of their sacredness and show an unawakened state through vile actions. At my best, I do not rush into the courthouse or courtroom, but instead start with a loving kindness prayer for myself, my client, and everyone else inside that building, and see the building itself as my inanimate friend and everyone I encounter as a potential ally, welcoming the potential for victory and success in each moment, in each step, with each word I speak and with each movement of my mind and body. Like a great comedian who can rouse the most moribund and cranky audience, I have the potential to turn around even the seemingly most intransigent skeptic of criminal defendants and civil liberties. That will not happen, of course, if I do not open myself up to everyone, never judging them.
My teacher Ihaleakala Hew Len insists that internal cleaning is the solution both to clear blockages within ourselves and others and to reach abundance. To him, every time we face a hurdle with others and with situations, we need to work on ourselves, not on changing others. That might sound overly simplistic, but much of it makes sense. For instance, rather than my getting annoyed at unhappy Manhattan subway commuters knocking into me rushing to work while I am there for a few days off with my family, I need to simply make a minor mental adjustment to get no more annoyed at that than at an unexpected wind shotgunning New Jersey river stench into my nostrils.
Some people may be so comfortable embroiled in daily discomfort that they destroy a moment of true bliss by wondering when it will end with a car smashing into them, someone hurling a bigoted epithet, or a diagnosis of cancer. Of course, if one is in true harmony, s/he will drive in a way — and at times and in places — that will make a car crash less likely; will enable at once firmness and compassion for the ignorance and pain of bigots, and will recognize vicious words for the wind that they are; and will have better physical immunity against disease in the first place. It is possible to reach a point of being both compassionate and responsive to the suffering of all, while knowing that circumstances are neutral, and that we can be as calm in the midst of apparent chaos as Al Calavicci in Quantum Leap.
As Wayne Dyer reminds us, we all come from the same abundant source, so not only do we not need to struggle with scarcity nor the risk of scarcity, but we are capable of great things, and should be inspired by others doing great things rather than feel resentment when others seem to be leaping light years ahead of us.
Back to my daily litigation battles, when I follow the above roadmap, I am both grounded and relieved of unnecessary blocking burdens, having the battleground as my playground, while in the best shape possible to win. My clients and I deserve no less.


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I'll Google It!: How Collective Wisdom in Search Engines Alters the Rhetorical Canons
by Jill M. Parrott, originally printed in Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric In Society, 1.1, 2010; reposted under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
When seeking information for the development of informed argument—a process known as invention, the first of the rhetorical canons—often the first action we take is to "Google it." Yet, because Google's mathematical algorithms decide the arrangement of search results, Internet users do more than "use" Google: they create it. With Google's search structure, users actually participate in the construction of results. Therefore, Googling is not merely a receptive act but a collectively creative one as well. By exploring the implications of the rhetorical canons—invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery—in the search engine and its mechanizations, I argue that the search engine provides a unique opportunity for us to investigate the dynamic nature of the canons. Search engine users have expressed desire for more collective agency by investing time and energy into the rhetorical act of "Google bombing." Consequently, I will discuss what happens to the canons when rhetorical artifacts are collaboratively rather than individually created. I will contend that we must recognize this "collective capability" as a rhetorical act (Tapscott and Williams 3), that we must explore this act through the lens of the canons, and that we must investigate our own roles as composers of these texts.
The Collective Rhetoric of Google Bombing
Knowledge of the way Google works is necessary to understand its rhetorical implications:
Google uses numerous factors including its patented PageRank™ algorithm to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. It then conducts hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, Google is able to put the most relevant and reliable results first. ("Google Corporate Info: Tech Overview")
Google's PageRank™ system calculates how many times a website links to other websites or uses a particular word, and every website is qualified as more or less relevant to the search than others. The most relevant websites are given a higher page rank and have greater influence on which sites come up first on the search results document. Therefore, the arrangement of results is distinctly linked to the collective users of the web. Although it happens almost simultaneously, the search act is multi-layered. When the query prompts a search, PageRank™ decides the arrangement of the document. The style of the search engine has already been decided by Google and is directly influenced by the limits of coding and an Internet browser's interpretation of those codes. The search engine calls on the collective memory of Internet users by scouring the Internet for links to websites. The results of this collective memory reach the searcher through the delivery of a results page. When the user browses the search results document and chooses which sites to gain information from, she is then empowered to invent a new document based on this information, or she can start again with a new search invention. The canons' relationship to the search engine necessarily toggles back and forth between individual and collaborative rhetorical action. Invention is part of a single act committed by an individual in synchronous time while the returned arrangement is a result of thousands of asynchronous choices enacted collectively by Internet users. This individual-collective dynamic seen through the framework of the canons exemplifies how we must re-envision our definitions of textuality and authorship to include both singular and collective authorship.
New media scholar Collin Brooke makes precisely this argument in his 2009 bookLingua Fracta. Brooke calls on new media scholars to address new media in their own terms but also to see ways old terms, such as the rhetorical canons or the trivium, can be adjusted to meet the contingencies of the new media era. Brooke reminds us that the canons have never been static—they have always been subject to the whims of historical situation—and they will now adjust to contemporary new media interfacing. New media contexts do not negate our use of the canons; however, we must now envision them as open to collectivity rather than singular authorship. In Brooke's vocabulary, the ecology of new media compositions can be fruitfully understood through the lens of the canons, and this lens can aid in a contemporary understanding of the search engine as collective rhetorical activity or performance.
In "The Database and the Essay: Understanding Composition as Articulation," Johndan Johnson-Eilola provides support for the search engine's role in rhetorical history. Johnson-Eilola says that "if we value this as a form of writing, then we can then begin to argue that the sorts of choices one makes in writing the database … involve responsibilities to the reader and to society, just as we now do in other, more traditional forms of writing" (Johnson-Eilola 220). Not only should we envision search engine results as documents with rhetorical implications, we must also understand how they transform our idea of textual authority. Many texts, particularly new media texts, are often no longer the "property" of one individual author. In fact, they indicate a collective authorship that harbors massive control over the rhetorical act.
One way that we have seen this control show up is through "Google bombs," which occur when bloggers and website creators conspire to change what is most relevant on Google's search results by linking certain phrases to particular sites. Google bombs are possible because the arrangement of results is determined in part by links on individual websites external to Google. A single bomber can link a phrase to a site, but Google will not recognize that bomb as relevant; it takes hundreds of bombers to increase the relevancy connection between a particular phrase and a page to which Google's arrangement system will show preference. One of the most famous Google bombs is the phrase "miserable failure," which for a period of time would lead to an official White House site representing George W. Bush's administration.
Google had been reluctant to change its search results to avoid interfering with what users see fit to manipulate, but in 2007 Google changed its position. Fearful that users would confuse these Google bombs with the political ideologies of the company itself, Google adjusted its algorithms (Kehaulani par. 2). Yet, some of these bombs are still up and working. For example, typing in "French military victories" and hitting "I'm Feeling Lucky" will still result in a fake Google page saying, "Did you mean: french military defeats," claiming the search resulted in no matches for French military victories. Searching for "miserable failure" still connects users to the Bush Google bomb; the White House site is fifth down on the relevancy list in Yahoo's search engine, and a Google search produces a full page of resources discussing the "miserable failure" Google bomb itself. Indeed, fallout from that particular bomb lingers.
These examples are amusing, but they also have serious implications. Erika Chavez points out that "[s]ome liken Google bombs to political activism, while others see [them] as harmless (and funny) cybergraffiti" (par. 16). Political bloggers have not taken Google bombs very seriously; one even parallels it with throwing spitballs from the back of the room. While some may not see Google bombing as serious political activity, it is serious rhetorical activity. Internet users decide which pages are interesting, what information is important, whose sites are user-friendly, and so tacitly reward relevance. These decisions affect the individual's results document because PageRank™ scours the Internet to achieve its results. In his 1989 bookWriting Space, Jay David Bolter says that "although readers can search for topics in a number of ways, they cannot intervene in the structure of encyclopedia or build new structures" (95). Bolter's observation is still true for print media, but we are now in a technological moment where Internet documents give more power to user-viewers, where readers often prefer documents structured through collective wisdom.
Collective Wisdom and Changes to the Canon
Collective wisdom has become a catch phrase used to describe the ways that the Internet is shaped by its users as well as the way they expect authority to manifest itself. Pierre Lévy, expert on collective wisdom, defines it as "a form of universally distributed intelligence, constantly enhanced, coordinated in real time, and resulting in the effective mobilization of skills" (13, emphasis his). Briskin, Erickson, Ott, and Callahan's 2009 book The Power of Collective Wisdom: And the Trap of Collective Folly provides an alternative definition: "Collective wisdom is about how we come to make sound judgments with others, touched by what is common and decent in all of us . . . as such, it is not solely analytic decision, a compromise, a vote, or even a win-win situation" (18). While their text wisely balances collective wisdom with the potential for folly, its overall tone is hopeful that what is common and decent in all of us will prevail. What these definitions have in common is that collective intelligence demands active participation rather than spectatorship. We are now using the "living web"; instead of traveling to some far off place called cyberspace, we are the information on the web. The web is not a place to go, but "things to do, ways to express yourself, means to connect with others and extend your own horizons. Cyberspace was somewhere else. The Web is where we live" (S. Levy par. 8). Indeed, in the last few years, interactive web communities such as Flickr,MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and others have flourished at astronomical rates.
However, to suggest that collective wisdom is about process or group-joining would be a drastic over-simplification. Collective wisdom represents a marked change in the way we create knowledge. Lévy "argues that we are passing from a Cartesian model of thought based upon the singular idea of cogito (I think) to a collective or plural cogitamus (we think)" (Provenzo xi). A main tenet that upholds collective wisdom is that the collaborators are not only relaying ideas to one another but are actually creating knowledge in the interaction. Therefore, the type of knowledge-making interaction that collective wisdom embodies is expedited with web documents because of the speed with which information can be exchanged and the collaborative environment the web inherently allows. And, collective wisdom certainly need not indicate collective agreement. James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, explains that "Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise" (xix). Surowiecki insists that collective wisdom is about using mechanisms to promote cognitive judgment.
As people exert their judgment by using such "weapons of mass collaboration," the way we process information changes (Tapscott and Williams 11). Our communication will also change, and this transition will be reflected in our interpretations of the canons. The reality that authors' audiences are no longer audience-receptors but also audience-creators requires the canons' re-conceptualization. When a rhetorical act is also a collective act, authors' relationships to invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery become inevitably more complicated. With search engines specifically, we see these changes embodied most pointedly with invention and arrangement, as those are the areas that require the most participation from users. One's role within the canons in negotiation with other collaborators necessitates an understanding and acceptance that cogitamus is at work, not cogito. Such a re-envisioning is necessary to fully embody the potential of contemporary collective acts, which involve some individual behavior and some cooperative behavior, asynchronous activity and synchronous activity. As Brooke suggests, the canons concept still provides a vocabulary and framework through which we can view composition acts and understand the elements behind their manifestation, though they necessarily change with technological development.
Works Cited
- Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 1991. Print.
- Briskin, Alan, Sheryl Erickson, Tom Callanan, and John Ott. The Power of Collective Wisdom: And the Trap of Collective Folly.San Francisco: Berret-Koehler, 2009. Print.
- Brooke, Collin Gifford. Lingua Fracta: Toward a Rhetoric of New Media. New York: Hampton, 2009. Print.
- Chavez, Erika. "'Google Bombs': Graffiti or Activism?" The Sacramento Bee 30 Sep. 2005, online ed. Web. 1 Apr. 2008.
- "French Military Victories." Albino Blacksheep. Albino Blacksheep, 2003. Web. 6 May 2010.
- Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "The Database and the Essay: Understanding Composition as Articulation." Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Eds. Anne Frances Wysocki, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia L. Selfe, and Geoffrey Sirc. Logan, Utah: Utah State UP, 2004. 199-235. Print.
- Kehaulani, Sara. "Google Moves to Disarm Search 'Bombs.'" Washington Post 30 Jan. 2007, online ed. Web. 1 Apr. 2008.
- Lessig, Lawrence. Code Version 2.0. New York: Basic, 2006. Print.
- Lévy, Pierre. Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace. Trans. Robert Bononno. New York: Plenum Trade, 1997. Print.
- Levy, Steven. "Searching for Searches." Newsweek 30 Jan. 2006: 34. Print.
- Provenzo, Eugene E. Foreword. Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace. By Pierre Lévy. New York: Plenum Trade, 1997. vii-xii. Print.
- Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations. New York: Doubleday, 2004. Print.
- Tapscott, Dan, and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York: Portfolio, 2006. Print.


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Should the UCI relax its bike rules?
Simon Smythe reflects on the regulatory inertia that some say is stifling innovation in bike design
The UCI has been busily modernising bike racing, announcing changes for 2019 that include the introduction
of a new ranking system, increasing the number of riders on a WorldTour team, renaming the Pro Conti and Conti divisions, axing the World Championship team time trial to be replaced by a mixed event and reducing the number of wild-card invitations to Grand Tours.
But its bike rules are the same as they have been for the best part of 20 years.
>>> Should you change to winter tyres?
The permissible weight for a bike is still 6.8kg, despite huge advances in carbon-fibre technology in that time, and bikes must still conform to a template whereby, as the UCI describes in Article 1.3.020, "the frame of the bicycle shall be of a traditional pattern, i.e. built around a main triangle".
The triangular shape is defined from a design using 8cm-wide boxes for each tube, and dates back to the UCI's 1996 Lugano Charter, implemented in 2000, which "has the objective of preserving the culture and image of the bicycle as an historical fact".
Among other things, the Charter banned 'girder' frames, monocoques such as the iconic Lotus, and bicycles with "extravagant shapes that do not represent bicycles as understood by the UCI".
To reinforce this, the 3:1 aspect ratio rule forbids elements of the bike from exceeding these proportions; extensions of tubes beyond their 8cm boxes are banned, fairings are banned and so are integrated bottles that improve aerodynamic performance.
Worth a Tri
But with the launch of the new triathlon-specific Shiv, which has enormous storage boxes that also act as fairings, Specialized has turned its back on the UCI and focused all its R&D on triathlon.
Robert Egger, Specialized's creative director, expressed his opinion of the UCI in no uncertain terms with the launch of the 'fUCI' bike in 2016 (no prizes for guessing what the 'f' stands for), which was a concept bike designed to be everything the UCI does not permit with its enormous rear wheel, curved, split tubes, fairings and even an electric motor to get it up to speed.
We contacted the UCI for comment but an out-of-office message indicated that our question would not be answered before we went to press.
So how much faster is the new Shiv Tri than the UCI-compliant version? It turns out there is no comparison data, although the divergence in performance is likely to have advanced considerably.
"We have actually had a completely separate product development programme for the Shiv Tri for the last three generations of this bike dating back to 2011, where the first generation Shiv Tri set the course record at Ironman Kona," said Specialized's William Watt.
However, unless the UCI changes tack, the WorldTour pros could end up stuck in a backwater riding outdated equipment while everybody else enjoys lighter, more aerodynamic and more modern bikes.
Tony Wybrott, composites engineer who worked on the original Lotus bike, which was banned by the UCI, now broadly supports the UCI rules as a way of limiting the cost of bike: "There should be some rules that allow Joe Public to ride something to close to what the pros ride. Then maybe leave the cutting-edge higher budget to those sexy triathletes."
My view
William Watt, PR specialist road, Specialized UK
The UCI obviously only caters for a very small population of riders; they are the ruling body, and whether they are regressively prescriptive and restrictive on design or not, we would not wish to politicise their important role in professional cycling.
For those riders who need to be fully compliant with the UCI regulations we have the Shiv TT. There are many other riders who want to be able to ride fast on a road bike, and aerodynamic drag is the biggest force acting against them in achieving this goal.
Different disciplines demand different functionality in design integrated with aerodynamics. Long-course triathlon, for example, demands integration of hydration and nutrition storage.
The evolution in the fit of the bike, and the adjustability to achieve this for each rider, is also critical to optimise aerodynamic performance and biomechanical efficiency.
The new Shiv Tri is inherently unbridled by UCI regulation, and our goal was to develop the fastest and most complete bike for long-course triathlon, specifically Kona Ironman.
Our view
The new Shiv is the clearest indication yet that the big brands are not prepared to wait for the UCI to relax its rules and are willing to pour all their latest tech into a bike that completely tears up the UCI rulebook.
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Courtrooms may be empty across the US, but in England trials have resumed, and they are in the middle of a big one – Johnny Depp vs. The Sun. In 2018, the British tabloid published an article about Depp which described him as a "wife-beater," referring to allegations from Depp's ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, that Depp was frequently violent with her when he was impaired by drugs and alcohol. Johnny Depp denies those claims so he is suing the paper for damages. Court TV's Grace Wong has been tracking the case and has all of the details.
The trial highlights the fundamental differences between libel laws in the United States and the UK, but which country gets it right? Defense lawyer Darryl Cohen is here to make his case for our neighbors across the Atlantic. And Vinnie will explain how win or lose, this won't end well for Johnny Depp. Get the latest updates on CourtTV.com and catch Vinnie Politan and the entire team live weeknights 8/7c on Court TV Live.
To see Court TV's coverage of the closing arguments in Johnny Depp vs. The Sun, click here.
Check out the latest podcast series from the Court TV library – Murder and the Menendez Brothers: A Court TV Mystery.
The Court TV Podcast is available now, wherever you listen to podcasts.


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Friday, August 14, 2009
now here's a shrug I can get behind
via {a glamorous little side project}
Did I say I'm not a shrug person??
5 comments:
That's a shrug I can get INReplyDelete
that is a big shrug.ReplyDelete
Very cool
MISS YOU TOO ESB! Wedding stuff/life stuff has been coming before my blog life:{ Ok, { bridal business} I need some kind of shrug for the churchy part of the wedding so if you come across any in cool shades of gray or black velvet vintagey ones holla at me:} this one is gorgeou$ though.ReplyDelete
oh bunny, don't even get me started on shrugs.ReplyDelete
Umm..hot! Although I love mine more!ReplyDelete
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By Lucy Freeman, BA Journalism If you're not quite ready to switch to the vegan lifestyle (lasagne is really rather alluring, we get it) maybe you can make your next clothing purchase animal free. It can be difficult to make a sudden change to your lifestyle, but it's all about taking baby steps. Thanks to […]Read More
MA Television Journalism Reporter – Anna Georgevic Co-Director– Georgia Barnett Co-Director- Sarah Higgs This was their first attempt at a longer form film, made part way through the course.Read More
MA Television Journalism REPORTER Georgia Stewardson PRODUCER Saffron Amis DIRECTOR Frederick Ferguson Georgia Stewardson won The Today Progamme Student Broadcaster of the Year 2019 with this film It was shortlisted for a BAFTA in 2020.Read More
By Will Tullis, MA Investigative Journalism This investigation reveals serious faults and deficiencies at leading military mental health charity Combat Stress. Health experts have said its miscommunication has "directly" impacted the mental health of veterans. At least 186 veterans have suffered, some of whom have attempted suicide. New and exclusive revelations from former Combat Stress […]Read More
By Cait Findlay, MA Newspaper Journalism Before Sarah* met her wife, she found that conversations in bars about her job always led to the same jokes – jokes she describes as "low-hanging fruit". Sarah is a registrar doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology. She is also a lesbian. She says: "When I was single, there […]Read More
MA Television Journalism This documentary was winner of Best TV Documentary at the 2018 BJTC Awards. Callum McCulloch – Producer, Co-Director Christian Olsen – Director Vedika Bahl – ReporterRead More
By Michael O'Dwyer, MA Financial Journalism The World Health Organisation has added burnout to its official diseases classification list in a move that "adds legitimacy" to the struggles of sufferers. Burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. In addition to adding "legitimacy", the decision to recognise the […]Read More
By Abigail Buchanan, MA Newspaper Journalism Stepping into the offices of The Lady magazine in Covent Garden is like stepping back in time. Behind a cream exterior and gilt doors that read 'General Enquiries' and 'Classified Advertising', there is an unmanned old-timey oak reception and a bell that says, 'PLEASE RING'. Old issues of the […]Read More
By Lydia Veljanovski, MA Newspaper Journalism I'm sat in the church pews with a plate of curried fish on my lap, bubbles are floating in the air above and everyone around me is intent on finding Geoffrey: an invisible man who is accused of kicking a dog. As a custard pie is carried down the […]Read More
By Alice Hall, MA Newspaper Journalism ~ More and more people are turning to apps such as Tinder to meet future partners. Alice Hall explores a hidden world where users become hooked in a cycle of addiction and despair. It's three in the morning and Sam* is partying with some friends in an east London […]Read More


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Product Details
These Black and White Vintage Motorcar Cufflinks are the perfect gift for lovers of both modern and classic cars . The striking black and white cufflink image is highly detailed and encased in a round glass cabochon fitting which is approximately 16mm in diameter with a polished rhodium plate fitting. These Vintage Motorcar cufflinks are delivered in a Bassin and Brown Buff Coloured Recyclable Kraft Cufflink Box and feature a swivel back design so adding and removing them from a shirt is done with complete ease. Motoring cufflinks that will make a thoughtful gift for Christmas, Fathers Day or a Birthday for collectors and admirers of vintage cars. Bassin and Brown for creative cufflinks.
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Time Mag Asks American: Are You Mom Enough? a Man's Perspective
the time-honored Time Magazine published a controversial cover that elicited wrath from certain women.
for example:
- [are you mom enough, my ass. By Karen. At http://mundaylincoln.blogspot.com/2012/05/are-you-mom-enough-my-ass.html , accessed on 2013-10-14 ]
- [TIME: "Are You Mom Enough?"…..what???? By Mommy Om. At
my thoughts on this is that, tits, what a great wonder of humanity.
and, we should allow breast-feeding in public.
however, there's the issue, if the woman is a eyesore.
We need a standard. I think we can follow Time Mag's standard here. If the woman's look is above or equal to the ones published by Time here, then they should be allowed breast-feeding in public. Else, public washhroom should be used.
i remember, a while back such photo would land you in jail for kiddie porn.
and remember the Janet Jackson Breast Outrage?
it seems, America has improved in the past decade.


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Most every songwriter tries new work out for friends and colleagues. When Andrea Zonn does so, it must be especially nerve jangling, because her friends includes some of the finer songwriters of all time. Her years on the road as a fiddler and harmony singer for James Taylor, Vince Gill, Trace Adkins and others have drawn her close to some important artists. And she's the first to tell you how much she values working for them. But on "Rise," Zonn's second album as an artist, they're supporting her.
"I kept wanting to call this The Love Record because I have so much reverence for the people who are on this project and who I've had the opportunity to collaborate with over the years," Andrea says. "I have learned so much from them. And I'm their fan. There are no casual calls here."
Nor is she merely dropping names. These are the kind of high-level recording sessions any producer would put together if they had these contacts. Besides Taylor on harmony vocals, plus country legend Gill and modern day blues master Keb' Mo' singing and playing guitar, her dream team includes great session and road musicians she's worked with over her career: dobro star Jerry Douglas, Newgrass-founding mandolinist Sam Bush, former Newgrass vocalist and current Doobie Brother John Cowan, and multi-award winning musician Mac McAnally.
Central to the project's conception and guiding her songwriting was the core rhythm section of bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Steve Gadd. Weeks (Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Rolling Stones, Doobie Brothers) and Gadd (Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul McCartney) are certified legends, yet only rarely had they recorded together before these sessions. Zonn, who's known both of them for years, conceived the project around their studio collaboration. "I knew that the chemistry between them would be fantastic," she says, "and so the album was written with the two of them in mind."
To some, this might seem like insider talk, but it's actually central to the creative process and to the exceptional results. Zonn knows as well as anyone that the right players and the right chemistry are what elevates an album and serves the songs. The ten tracks that emerged in this case elude any neat genre descriptions—folk-rock suits as well as anything – but they're heavy on groove, natural tones and spontaneous, transparent beauty.
As for those songs, they represent a new chapter in Andrea's story. Whereas her debut record featured her interpreting works by her favorite writers, many of them her friends, the new project shows off Andrea digging into songcraft with focus and newfound confidence. "I had always been a bit timid about writing, because I've been fortunate enough to work with some of the greatest writers ever, anywhere," she says. "I wasn't writing up to my own standards. Or I didn't feel like I could."
Then came a life and family crisis. Andrea's young son needed a series of dangerous brain operations. More than anything she'd encountered, she says, the surgeries and their related complications became a "catalyst for me learning to speak." In a hospital setting, with so much on the line, she explains, "you can't afford to pussyfoot around." Suddenly she had plenty to say and the will to say it, so in the company of some extraordinary co-writers, new material came flowing out.
Andrea Zonn is rare in modern music in her twin training in classical and traditional music. In her teens, she became a national fiddle champion the same year she won a prestigious violin fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival. She played in bluegrass bands around the same time she was performing avant-garde classical music at Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress. Hoping to bridge the gap between folk and art music, she came to Nashville, ultimately landing a scholarship to Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music.
Zonn's wide-ranging tastes and training helped her find extensive studio work, including recordings with Linda Ronstadt, George Jones, Amy Grant and countless others. Besides Vince Gill and James Taylor, her touring has included stints with Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood and Jerry Douglas. In 2005, she ventured into production, initiating the Hands Across The Water album that raised money for victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. So she's seen music making in all its possible outlets and venues.
Somehow, Zonn found the time to pursue her desire to make a fresh album of original material. The first song that emerged and the one that became an emotional beacon for the project is the roiling gospel/New Orleans funeral number and title track, "Rise." She'd just learned the extent of her son's health crisis and as they came home to process what lay ahead, clouds began gathering for what would become the historic Nashville flood of 2010. The beginning of the song she felt that day was completed with phenomenal young musician Luke Bulla, himself a member of Lyle Lovett's band.
After that, songs continued to flow. Opener "Another Side of Home," a study in how age changes our perceptions of the simple things, was written with Nashville power pop favorite Bill Lloyd and Thomm Jutz, a hidden treasure Nashville guitarist and record producer who is deeply wound into the way this album feels and sounds. Jutz was also part of the writing session, along with recording artist, journalist and baseball fan Peter Cooper, that produced "Another Swing And A Miss," the album's melancholy swing jazz tune. "You Make Me Whole" has a mid-tempo Motown feel and is a lovely tribute to a friend or lover who went the extra mile. Here, James Taylor's kindly background vocals evoke the similar message and magic of his touchstone song "You've Got A Friend." The power of his belonging on this shimmering track is testimony that Zonn belongs in rarified company when it comes to songwriting and record making.
"There's a peacefulness and a surrender" behind "Rise," says Zonn. "I don't have a need to show anything off. I don't have anything to prove. I'm just there to serve the song and serve the moment and to listen to my bandmates and let this dialogue occur."
One could say Zonn is worthy of close attention based on the company she keeps. But it's even more telling that they seem just as honored to have her around.


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Cascade By 3 Sisters Fat 8th Bundle (1 mtr).
Cascade By 3 Sisters Fat 8th Bundle (1 mtr)
Worldwide shipping: prices will be determined on an individual basis. For shipments to destinations other than Australia, contact Bella Fabrics - Email: email@example.com Landline: +61 3 9078 9500. All costs include GST unless otherwise indicated.
Our terms and conditions are in line with the Australian consumer laws. We do not refund for change of mind purchases but will happily except an exchange up to 14 days except with books and patterns. We will gladly offer a refund, repair or exchange on items found to have a manufacturer's fault. No exchange or refund on sale items. Please retain your receipt as proof of purchase.


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Want to Learn to Paint?
I was recently contacted by Wine and Canvas, which offers 3-hr painting classes in restaurants all over the country, and just opened up in Knoxville, to become one of their instructors. You can look on their calendar and pick a piece to paint, and it's fun for a date night, or a night out with the girls (I've already done both!). So far, I've submitted four pieces which I will (hopefully!) be teaching in the upcoming months. I'll let you know here, and on my Facebook page, when I will be teaching these, and you can register at the website for Wine and Canvas.
It's Pumpkin Time in Tennessee! Check out the windows at Einstein Bros. Bagels in Farragut for some perfect pumpkins, and then come inside for some pumpkin bagels or muffins.
A Gallery after my own Heart
It's exciting, nerve-wracking, and wonderful to have your work on display. It feels the same way to create that gallery too! This Friday, May 24 at Einstein Bros. Bagels on Parkside, I've curated an art exhibit of local students and their amazing work. The work will be up for a week after, but Friday is opening night, and will include an inaugural spoken word event from 6-8, that will hopefully continue throughout the summer. I've done our pervious Kids Nights, but this will be my first event on my own, and I know that it would mean so much to me, and infinitely more to the talented artists in the show, that you stop by to see their amazing work.
I'm Elizabeth Kidder, freelance illustrator currently located in Knoxville, TN. Please enjoy the site and Contact Me with any job inquiries or questions.
September 2017


text: Machelle is a certified and registered yoga instructor, massage therapist, and has earned a masters degree in mythology and depth psychology. Since 1991, Machelle has led therapeutic movement and hatha yoga demonstrating the complementary intersections of asana and Chinese meridian theory as a form of self-acupressure. In tending the physical body, Machelle weaves ancient yoga teachings with modern scientific research on the health and rehabilitation of muscle, connective tissues, and joints. In tending the psyche, she infuses storytelling, poetry, and modern psychology through Vinyasa and Yin Yoga practices in a creative and grounded approach to self development.


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There are more than 100 different types of arthritis, and per the CDC, close to 23% of Americans suffer from it in some form. For those 52.5 million people, daily life can be a struggle, but it doesn't have to be. Studies show that physical therapy, as part of a larger multidisciplinary team of health care professionals, can help to alleviate the pain and discomfort associated with arthritis, and help to restore flexibility, strength and mobility.
Articles from: May 2017
The Joys of Grandparenting How to Mindfully Love Little Ones by April Thompson
Being a grandparent can be magical; an opportunity to create both lifelong memories and formative experiences for grandchildren. However, it can also pose challenges that need to be managed mindfully, say experts.
Yoga to Uplift and Ground Us by Paula Heitzner
Now that we have settled into spring, enjoying the warmer days, we can be attuned to and receptive to the growing and the greening of the planet as we respond to the wonder and energy of Mother Nature.
Rockland County Pride Weekend
http://RocklandPrideCenter.orgThe new Rockland County Pride Center is the heart and home of the LGBT community, celebrating unity and inspiring social change. Celebrate Pride Weekend June 9 – 11 and join over 3,000 people to help celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who live, work and play in Rockland County.
Essential Touch for Better Health by Abi Keene
Shiatsu, which literally translates as 'finger pressure,' is a form of Japanese therapeutic bodywork that is based on the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. There are many different schools of shiatsu and the techniques vary, but often the session will be done with the receiver fully clothed on a special mat on the floor. During a shiatsu session, the practitioner applies pressure on specific points called tsubos and along energetic channels known as meridians. These are the same points used in acupuncture. Shiatsu techniques range from light pressure to deep muscular work and can include stretching, soothing and kneading.
Get Back to Living and Stop Suffering with Chronic Illness and Pain
When you are suffering with chronic illness or pain, it is important to discover and treat the root causes. With Functional Nutrition and a "whole body/ whole life" approach Alain Mass, MD and Naomi Mass, CHHC, FNLP can help. They specialize in helping individuals recover from Lyme disease, mold toxicity, hormonal imbalance and brain fog.
Together…Breathe: New Yoga Studio Opens in Gardiner
Liz Glover Wilson, yoga instructor and artist, is excited to announce that her yoga studio and holistic studio, Stone Wave Yoga in Gardiner, opens this month. A recent immersion yoga teacher training course helped her realize her goals with her new business.
How Acupuncture Can Help During Pregnancy and Delivery by Dr. Lauren Dulberg
Chinese Medicine has much to offer both mother and baby during pregnancy. Regular check-ins and treatments can play an integral role in a healthy pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery.
The Many Benefits of Chiropractic Care by Dr. Janette Asaro Pena
For Pregnancy Care
Everyone should be checked for subluxations by a chiropractor and adjusted as needed. It is especially important to be adjusted during pregnancy to make sure the spine and pelvis are aligned and balanced for a normal and healthy delivery. During pregnancy the ligaments become softer to allow the pelvis to expand during delivery. The soft ligaments can cause misalignments and pain. Chiropractic is safe for expectant mothers and their unborn babies at a time when medications are often unsafe for the unborn baby. Following delivery it is important to make sure the spine is properly aligned as the ligaments go back to their normal tension.
Exploring the Benefits of Mindfulness by Dr. Sally Nazari
Mindfulness has become a buzzword that's gotten a lot of attention over the last few years. The benefit of this is that a lot of awareness has been brought to this powerful exercise. And yet much of the important components of it are often overlooked. Because of this, many people have an incomplete understanding of mindfulness. Mindfulness can help us work through various disruptions and stressors in our lives and bring a deeper level of benefit, growth and enduring change as we redefine and recreate our lives.


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Anthurium lancetillense Croat,
sp. nov. TYPE: Honduras. Atlantida: Lancetilla Valley, ca. 10 mi SE of Tela; in forest preserve along Río Lancetilla, on trail to water reservoir; 10-150 m elev., Croat 42672 (MO-2583478-79, holotype; EAP, K, MEXU, SEL, TEFH, US, isotypes; Live at MO).
Planta terrestris; caudex ad 15 cm longus; petiolus 17-82 cm longus, teres; lamina anguste ovata, 38-54 cm longa, 20-35 cm lata, basi cordata profunde; inflorescentia effusa-erecta, foliis breviora; pedunculus 3.5-36 cm longus: spatha viridis, interdum intra purpurea, lanceolata, 8.5-16 cm longa, 2-3.2 cm lata; spadix atropurpureus, 11-20.5 cm longus; pollen aurantiacum; baccae aurantiacae, ovoideae.
Terrestrial; stems to 15 cm long, 2.5-3 cm diam.; leaf scars conspicuous, 2.3-3 cm wide; roots tan, 6-8 mm diam., descending; cataphylls subcoriaceous, 9-13 cm long, acute at apex, minutely subapiculate, drying tan, dilacerating at base, remaining intact at apex, persisting around base of leaves.
LEAVES with petioles erect, 17-82 cm long, 5-10 mm diam., terete; geniculum 1.5-3 cm long; blades narrowly ovate, moderately thick, gradually long-acuminate at apex, deeply lobed at base, 38-54 cm long, 20-35 cm wide, broadest midway between base and point of petiole attachment, margins weakly undulate; anterior lobe 24-37 cm long, the margins rounded to concave; posterior lobes 12-19 cm long; the sinus spathulate to hippocrepiform, acute to obtuse at apex; both surfaces semiglossy; the midrib convexly raised above, more acutely raised below; basal veins 6-7 pairs, first and second free, the remaining coalesced 3.5-4 cm; posterior vein naked, weakly curved, rolled conspicuously upward; primary lateral veins 3-4 per side, departing midrib at 45°-50° angle, raised at midrib, sunken near collective vein above, raised below; lesser veins less conspicuous, flat above and below; collective vein arising from the first basal vein, sunken above, raised below, 2-10 mm from the margin.
INFLORESCENCE erect-spreading, shorter than leaves; peduncle 3.5-36 cm long, 4-7 mm diam.; spathe subcoriaceous, green, sometimes heavily tinged with violet-purple on inner surface, lanceolate, 8.5-16 cm long, 2-3.2 cm wide, gradually long-acuminate at apex (the acumen inrolled ca. 3.5 cm) rounded at base, inserted at 45° angle on peduncle; spadix dark violet-purple (B & K Blue-purple 2/10), 11-20.5 cm long, 7-12 mm diam. at base, 3-5 mm diam. At apex; flowers rhombic to weakly 4-lobed, 3.3-5 mm long, 2.8-4.5 mm wide, the sides straight to weakly sigmoid; 5-7 flowers visible in the principal spiral, 4-12 visible in the alternate spiral; tepals matte, obscurely punctate, minutely papillate, lateral tepals 2.3-4 mm wide, the inner margin concave; pistils violet-purple around stigma, green below, weakly emergent; stigma ellipsoid, 1 mm long, opening ca. 2 weeks before first stamens emerge, large milky droplets apparent for several days, drying before first stamens emerge; stamens emerging in a relatively rapid sequence from the base, the lateral stamens emerging in basal one-quarter before alternates emerge, exsented on translucent filaments, 0.7 mm long, 0.5 mm wide; anthers pale orange, 0.6-0.7 mm long, ca. 0.8 mm wide, held in a contiguous cluster around pistil; thecae ovoid-ellipsoid, somewhat divaricate; pollen orange.
INFRUCTESCENCE pendent; spathe persistent; spadix 10-23 cm long,
developing berries in basal one-third to one-half; berries, orange, ovoid,
10-13 mm long, 8-11 mm diam., acute at apex; mesocarp juicy with numerous,
minute raphide cells; seeds 1-2, pale green, ca. 6.8-8.0 mm long, 4.5-6.2
mm wide. Figs. 92 and 96.
Anthurium lancetillense is known only from Honduras in the Lancetilla Valley at elevation from 10 to 600 m. It occurs in wet forest. The species is a member of section Belolonchium and is characterized by its narrowly ovate, moderately thick leaf blade, its green, subcoriaceous spathe that is sometimes tinged violet-purple on inner surface, its deep violet-purple spadix, orange pollen, and ovoid orange berries. Anthurium lancetillense is most clearly related to A. umbrosum, which occurs only in Mexico in Oaxaca. It can be distinguished by its longer, more erect petioles and shorter more erect inflorescences. Anthurium lancetillense has larger, ovoid berries while A. umbrosum has smaller, globose berries with 4-radial ridges at apex. Anthurium umbrosum is also found at much higher elevations ranging from 1,200 to 1,800 m.
Map of Mesoamerican specimens with coordinates
Honduras Atlántida: 70-90 m, 15.44N 87.27W, 9 Feb. 1987, Thomas
B. Croat & Dylan P. Hannon 64613 (MO).
Honduras Atlántida: 10-150 m, 15.44N 087.27W, 3 Aug. 1977, Thomas B. Croat 42672 (CM, MEXU, MO, WU).
Honduras Yoro: Cordillera Nombre de Dios, 250-350 m, 15.30N 87.26W, 15 May 1991, Davidse et al. 34411 (IBE, K, MO).
Honduras Yoro: Cordillera Nombre de Dios, 250 m, 15.31N 87.26W, 13 May 1991, Davidse et al. 34368 (MO).
Honduras Yoro: 700-870 m, 15.29.30N 87.27.00W, 06 Nov 1988, MacDougal et al. 3225 (MO).


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UK: GUARDHOG co-founder and director, Andrew Boldt, expresses his excitement ahead of the inaugural Shortyz Awards on 11 March 2020, and discusses his company's sponsorship of an award at the event.
Home-sharing insurance specialist GUARDHOG has also been announced as a sponsor for the Best OTA / online accommodation booking platform category [along with Pikl], ahead of the awards, which will take place as a unique boat party on the River Thames in London.
For more information about GUARDHOG, visit the company's website here.
If you too would like to sponsor a category at the inaugural Shortyz Awards in March, get in touch with the ShortTermRentalz team at the link here, email firstname.lastname@example.com or telephone +44 (0)20 8340 7989.


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Mike Weiss obsession with bags dates back to elementary school and figuring out if one-shoulder or two was most comfortable and why. Fast forward 20 years and he clocked a few years working at the infamous Triple Aught Design. Now, he's putting those years of experience to work for Carryology…and clogging up his house with rad carry in the process.


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Components leaving the APM factory meet the highest quality standards. To ensure that quality remains at the levels APM stands for, critical and weak points in the production- and logistic process are continually monitored and adjusted where necessary. Cause & effect analysis and statistical process control methods are systematically used to accomplish these goals.
APM continuously invests in the quality of production, with the 0-PPM standard forming its benchmark. In order to achieve that objective, APM works preventively. The daily challenge is to improve the production process and make it more robust. To achieve this, every rejected component is analyzed immediately. The picture that emerges from the analysis is then used to modify the production process. If these modifications demand investment in the know-how or skills of employees, and/or the operation of machinery, these investments are made.
Quality assurance takes place at four levels:
Track & Trace
The components, including production data, can always be traced by batch. This "Track and Trace" functionality is achieved by linking all of the production machines to the DataLyzer and SAP B1 ERP system.


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Last night, my last dream had me sitting all of a sudden bolt upright in bed. It was of an event that happened recently (this week) in New England, USA concerning a parent murdering his child and committing suicide.
Derry, NH, father killed himself and 6-year-old son by carbon monoxide poisoning
It is happening all of the time, too, since we live in Coo-coo Land in the USA as, of course, the Las Vegas murdered amply shows.
Father suspected of killing 'young son,' then himself in Foxborough … Sep 22, 2017 – A 22-year Army veteran who was twice deployed to Iraq shot and killed his six-year-old son and then killed himself here Thursday night, an act of domestic violence the boy's mother warned authorities four years ago she feared would happen.
Well, we have a fairly frequent happening here in the Northeast USA of people killing their children. Mostly the men do it, but women do so, too. Obviously we are failing in mental health treatments here in the USA.
Then we have the pedophilia, too — like the type that Cardinal Law indirectly condoned. What is wrong with our species?
Why can't we all just act nicely with each other and other species? … Yesterday I was playing with a young squirrel on a pine around a foot from my window. So I said while laughing," I love you and here are some kisses" and I smacked my lips into kisses three times. Staring at me, he opened and shut his mouth three times.
We did that game twice before he disappeared up the tree in my attic. He lives there with two other squirrels. They may be siblings.
I've had around twenty generations of squirrels there. Why shouldn't they reside there? I don't use it and it is compensation for them for humans taking over my whole neighborhood and increasingly so … such that not much else will be left here except people and buildings everywhere in times to come.
Sometimes I introspect. I consider that about four percent of the human population is born genetically to be sociopaths. Then I think about the way that that number can rise to twenty or more percent in dysfunctional societies such as mine.
Then I go onward in thought to the fact that I traced the affliction in my own family to the German side of my family (expressing in males) back to the 1600's. The ones, though, that I know the most about are my brother, who is shunned by my sister and me, my uncle, his son, my grandfather and my great-grandfather.
They are/were very crafty and bright. Yet there is something wrong with their brain pathways and areas of the brain related to ethics, compassion and self-restraint.
Brain scans show it, too.
Then I start feeling sorry for my two female cousins since they had to put up with two of these monsters and my sister and I only had one in the family. Double my brother and make one of him as my father? Have a monster as a father AND a brother? Well, no thank you. No thank you big time!
So we have around twenty percent of these people messing up the world. Where do we go from there?
One answer is to say that I can't do anything since I am one little person in the world. Another is to say that I can help a few people along the way as I move my life forward in time, such as when you give food to a homeless person. Yet a further one is to say that I will go all out to be my best self and serve social and environmental betterment as best as I can and pay attention to my effort rather than outcomes, the latter of which can never be discerned in the long run.
My friend Steve, a psychotherapist in NC USA, has hinted to me that he went into his psychology practice due to something happening to him as a child akin to my growing up with a sociopathic brother. Whatever it was, I'm sure that it was dreadful since I, myself, know from direct experience.
In any case, he wrote me regarding our dealing with trauma:
With love, pain and hope that the following thoughts are somehow useful to you, in whatever way you choose to use them. I have had moments and still occasionally have dream experiences like the one you are describing. They used to come over me more often and more persistently than they do now. Acceptance of "what is" was helpful. But there is something worth mentioning now, something else unexpected that I experienced when hitting 'rock bottom' years ago. In the depth of despair, deep in the pit I helped dig, there appeared a completely unanticipated light, a ray of hope, a form of hope that is beyond childish "wishing and hoping" (i e, without reality-orientation or the assumption of personal responsibility for ones behavior). This abiding hope beyond hope takes its shape in the form of recognition: None of us can comprehend enough about our existential situation to understand all its dimensions, much less its implications for what the future holds in store. According to the Qum'ran Scrolls, not one among us knows the whole tale. As long as I am becoming everything I can be and doing the best I can do, according to 'the lights' I possess, then by hoping for the best not only can we experience a release from the despair but also a sublime contentment deriving from the realization that we are (despite many failings) our best selves. What more can be asked? What more can be done? Peace. – Steven
Don't think for a moment that you do not have the power to change the direction that society takes. You do! You just have to believe that you do. We all have the power. It's just a matter of aptly applying it.
In my opinion, there are two techniques to serve the world. One is to be loving and kind. The other is to fight like all hell let loose in the way that my sister did against the teenager boys, strangers to her, beating and kicking up another one, who she came across while riding down the highway. She turned her car around to confront them. Then you have the POWER!
The combination of caring and fighting is excellent! I know this for a fact. We can't be stopped. Nope.
P.S., I have red shoes somewhat like theirs in the following video and eleven years of modern and ballet dance lessons, but I am sixty-seven years old. Yet I can make the same moves — just a little more clumsy and more grounded — less lithe … less in the mode of defying gravity. I'd have to be hunkered down a little more. … The choreography, though, is a snap for me … as are their viewpoints.
Just now one of my friends told me about a massive murder in Florida. We endure so many murders in the USA. So I'm going to dance my way through them and pay attention to words like the ones from my friend, Steven S. Doing so is the only way to get through the mess.
Police respond to shooting at high school in Florida | fox8.com
27 mins ago – PARKLAND, Fla.—The Broward County Sheriff's Office in Florida is responding to reports of a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. … Aerial footage from CNN affiliate WSVN showed a number of people lying on the ground outside the school, being treated for injuries …
Yeah, we are rising upward! The moves come easily then.
Sally Dugman is a writer from MA, USA.


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Learning German can seem like a daunting challenge and one that requires a big investment of time and money. But with the advent of the internet it's never been easier to find ways to learn German on your terms — and that includes learning German for free. Today's technology has opened up a world of opportunities and possibilities for those who want to learn, but with so many options, what method makes most sense for you?
If you want to learn German without having to pay, you have your fair share of options to choose from. Here are a couple popular ways to learn German for free:
- Online courses, software, and apps
- Language exchange/tandem learning with a native speaker
- Media resources like podcasts, TV shows and movies
- Library books and public resources
- Immersion learning
There's no right answer, and with so many choices, you can try to learn German for free in the way that works best for you.
The Many Ways To Learn German For Free
You can learn German for free in a whole world of different ways. Read on to find out more about all the different methods of learning German for free and how to decide which ones work best for you.
Learning German For Free With Online Courses And Apps
Lots of apps, software and online courses help you learn German for free and on your own schedule. The fact that many of these apps are mobile-based means you can take many of them along with you in your pocket wherever you go.
But be aware that the tradeoff of a free product is that it usually sacrifices quality. A lot of content in apps like Duolingo and Memrise or scattered around the web comes from user-generated translations that are rarely verified. They are often inconsistent or riddled with errors. These lessons often focus on writing and reading without much of a way to improve listening and speaking skills. And be wary that free interactive lessons like these can often be basic, poorly designed, messy, rigid, and just downright boring — not to mention littered with distracting ads.
Learning German For Free With Language Exchange And Tandem Partners
Because the goal of language learning is to be able to have real-life conversations with native speakers, it only makes sense that one of the best ways to practice German or any new language is with another living, breathing person. It's especially great if you have a friend who is a native speaker of German to help you practice your skills, especially if that person wants to learn your native language. In tandem learning, you and your learning partner would have a reciprocal, back-and-forth dynamic where you both learn from and teach each other.
But asking a friend, family member or acquaintance to spend many hours helping you learn German for free might be a tough sell, especially if you're not looking to offer money or language lessons in exchange. Just because someone is a native speaker of German doesn't mean he or she is necessarily a great or willing teacher.
Learning German For Free With Media Resources
German podcasts, German playlists and German audiobooks are a great way to practice German for free passively while you trudge through your daily commute, cook dinner, or take a walk in your neighborhood. It's easy to fit learning into your busy schedule when you're doing it in the background of another activity. Luckily, there are lots of free audio resources to pick from. And when it comes to other more visual media like German TV shows and German movies, they can be just as helpful as audio resources, but they require more of your attention if you're going to be reading subtitles and wanting to closely follow the plot of what you're watching.
Media can be a great way to round out your language learning in a way that's fun and engaging, and it's especially practical because much of it helps you learn German for free. But keep in mind that to really master a language, you've got to do more than just listening to it or reading words on a screen; you'll need to supplement media with ways to practice writing and speaking German, too, especially in real-life conversations.
Learning German For Free With Library Books And Public Resources
If you have a library card, you open up a whole new way to learn, and often for free. Libraries are designed to make learning more accessible to the general public, and many of them have resources that make it easier to learn German for free — whether it's through German language textbooks or just German literature of every level.
But textbooks and other learning materials might not be readily available at your local library, or you might not get enough time with them before it's time to turn them back in. And that's not to mention the fact that, depending on the size of your local library, the selection of resources to help you practice German for free might be limited to begin with. And if you don't live near a library, it might not be a great option for you, either.
Learning German Through Immersion
If you want to dive headfirst into learning German, there's no doubt that immersion learning — putting yourself in a place where you're forced to speak German regularly — is the way to go. Though it may be uncomfortable at first, you'll be challenged to survive in an environment where most people don't speak your native language, and you'll make rapid progress in learning German when you have no other choice.
But it might be deceiving to say that immersion learning is completely free. In fact, once you factor in the costs of travel to a new locale, your housing accommodations (if you can't crash with a friend or a host family for free) and all of the other miscellaneous costs associated with moving to a new place, you can't really say that immersion learning is a totally free way to learn German.
Where Learning German For Free Falls Short
When you learn German for free, you often sacrifice the quality of your learning experience. Sure, you might be able to recruit a native speaker to help you learn German for free, for example, but unless you're paying for regular one-on-one tutoring sessions or a classroom learning experience, you can't guarantee that you're getting the best experience possible. And free books and software can only take you so far if you're not having regular conversations with native speakers or teachers who can give you feedback.
Building any new skill, especially learning a new language, is an investment — and if you want to do it right, it often takes time, money and intention. That's not to say these free resources and methods can't be helpful! But it's important to know how and where to fill in the gaps in your language learning journey when certain content isn't enough.
With the benefit of teams of language teachers and native speakers, products that charge money can offer a superior quality learning experience, broader content and more innovative teaching methods.
Learning German With Babbel
Babbel doesn't promise you that you can learn German for free. But to fully make the most of your language learning journey, free software, apps and methods by themselves just won't cut it. For a small and affordable subscription fee, Babbel helps you master a new language by offering the best learning technology available.
Learning German with Babbel is designed to be effective, engaging, fun and affordable. All of Babbel's German content is created by more than 150 language-learning experts whose goal is to get you on the fastest track towards being conversational in German — and with confidence.
Babbel's lessons are interactive and cover all the aspects of learning German — reading, writing, listening, and speaking — with multimedia content to train your ears and eyes. Our speech recognition technology even helps you hone your pronunciation, too. And the Review feature takes advantage of the concept of microlearning, which brings back information in short bursts to help you remember it better. You can practice the terms and expressions you've learned in your earlier lessons to lock them into your brain.
With lessons that take 10 to 15 minutes to complete, you can fit them into your already busy schedule. It's all designed with the learner in mind, making it an exceptional value for the money.
We're committed to making sure you get the most out of learning German with Babbel. Try a German lesson today and see for yourself how quickly you'll be on your way to speaking German with confidence like you've always wanted to.
Check out our other topics about learning German:
Learn German
German Vocabulary
German Phrases
German Grammar
Best Way To Learn German
How To Speak German