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Barcelona prayed for peace on the third and final day of official mourning for the victims of Thursday's twin van attacks.
Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia, as well as Mariano Rajoy, the country's prime minister all attended mass at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia Basilica on Sunday. Congregants prayed for peace and for the victims of Thursday's twin van attacks that left 14 people dead and more than 120 injured.
At Barcelona's Las Ramblas avenue, people marked the third and final day of official mourning, laying flowers and lighting candles at the site where one of the attacks ended.
Senora Pratz, a local resident, said she got up this morning and decided to pay her respects to "all those people who will never go home".
Another local resident, Ricard Salvia said: "Now we live in fear. Now, every time we get up we turn on the news to see what happened, what didn't happen or what could happen. But we hope and desire that we don't see more terror attacks".
Police have arrested four people in connection with the attack in Barcelona and another in the seaside resort of Cambrils. A manhunt is underway for the driver of one of the vans and for an imam from a mosque in the town of Ripoll.


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ORLANDO, Florida – Titleist has introduced new versions of the 3-piece Tour Speed and 2-piece Tour Soft golf balls citing enhanced distance and overall performance.
- 3-piece construction
- Urethane 346 dimple cover
- High speed 1.55" diameter core
- High flex mantle casing layer
- White or yellow
- $40 dozen
- 2-piece construction
- 4CE 346 dimple cover
- Large 1.60" diameter core
- White or yellow
- $35 dozen
WYNTK: Titleist Tour Speed & Titleist Tour Soft
The 3-piece Tour Speed and 2-piece Tour Soft make use of a quadrilateral dipyramid dimple pattern—their description not mine—for a better, more penetrating flight with pricing significantly less than their premium Pro V1/Pro V1x models targeted for play by better players.
Comparing the two new members of the Titleist family, the Tour Speed has a soft feel and the Tour Soft a very soft feel. Both fall in the mid-trajectory category with low long club spin and medium amounts of short club spin.
The basic choice would appear for those not opting to use the $50 per dozen Pro V1/Pro V1x and still wanting to stay with one of the company's models, would be evaluating the advantages of the urethane cover Tour Speed (added control greenside, slightly higher ball flight) versus the Tour Soft which is more of a pure distance category ball.
Compare: Titleist Tour Speed and Titleist Tour Soft

subset: commoncrawl


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The EU should stop channelling funds to Libya to manage migration and train its coastguard as it is not a "safe country" for disembarkation of people rescued at sea, MEPs in the European Parliament's LIBE Committee heard on Monday (27 April).
Ahead of a videoconference of EU home affairs ministers on Tuesday, EU lawmakers met with the Commission, EU border agency Frontex, UNHCR, the Council of Europe and NGOs to discuss the migration situation in Libya and on the Central Mediterranean route.
In the hearing, EU lawmakers discussed the situation at sea after the EU launched its new naval and air mission in the eastern Mediterranean, Operation IRINI. Its aim is to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya but it cannot patrol the Egypt-Libya land border, through which artillery is still being delivered.
Libya's conflict escalated sharply this month, with fierce fighting on several different fronts in the west of the country despite urgent calls from the UN and aid agencies for a truce to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Fabrice Leggeri, head of Frontex, told EU lawmakers that due to the COVID-19 outbreak and civil war, Libyan authorities' ability to control migrant departures and patrol its own waters had been seriously constrained.
By last week, he said, his agency has documented a 400% increase in migrant arrivals compared to 2019, while according to UNHCR, 3,277 persons have arrived in Italy by sea, and 1,135 in Malta, significantly lower figures than those arriving in Spain (4,934) and Greece (7,569) this year.
"Since 24 April, more than 3,000 migrants have registered claiming to have been rescued at sea by the Libyan coastguard and brought back to Libya: over 800 of the rescued people are refugees from Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Pakistan," UNHCR's Sophie Magennis told the European Parliament hearing.
Magennis urged member states to step up search and rescue capabilities in the central Mediterranean but also to adopt a "predictable disembarkation mechanism" to relieve frontline states like Malta and Italy.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Italian and Maltese authorities declared their own ports "unsafe", preventing people rescued at sea from landing. Authorities in Libya have also blocked disembarkations due to heavy shelling around Tripoli.
The EU has repeatedly voiced concerns an escalating conflict could worsen regional instability and swell the flow of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
"The Commission is trying to find a harmonised approach with member states for search and rescue and disembarkation, but I reiterate that this is a member state competence," Martin Schieffer from the Commission's DG HOME told MEPs.
He acknowledged that a "political agreement" between member states on a set of guidelines on search and rescue at sea is not within reach.
Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, said that although the epidemic was not the main cause of human rights violations, it has aggravated the situation.
Mijatovic stated that human lives cannot be adequately protected at sea without adequate search and rescue capacity if there are not enough state-funded ships to rescue.
However, Inmaculada Vazquez from Doctors Without Borders told MEPs that none of the organizations working in the field had the capacity to provide sufficient assistance to refugees rescued and returned from the sea.
According to Julian Pahlke from humanitarian NGO Sea Eye, which operates the search and rescue vessel Alan Kurdi, it has become more dangerous to work in the area as Libyan authorities had fired shots around its volunteers.
Complaint to Court of Auditors
Earlier on Monday (27 April), three organisations launched a complaint to the European Court of Auditors, requesting an audit into the EU's cooperation with Libya to determine whether the EU has breached its financial regulations and its human rights obligations in its support for Libyan border management.
The complaint was submitted by Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and Italian Recreational and Cultural Association (ARCI), and supported by 10 more organisations.
Based on an opinion by German EU budget and development law experts, the signatories argued the Commission would provide financial support for projects that result in the return of people to Libya, where they face abuse, breaching its obligations not to contribute to serious human rights violations.
The signatories called on the auditors to initiate a special review of the 'Integrated Border Management programme' run through the EU Trust Fund for Africa that supports Libyan authorities and recommended the Commission suspend it pending necessary legal revisions.


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Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Old Saxon
|←main page
|Request for a new language edition: Wikipedia Old Saxon
- The community needs to develop an active test project; it must remain active until approval (automated statistics, recent changes). It is generally considered active if the analysis lists at least three active, not-grayed-out editors listed in the sections for the previous few months.
- The community needs to complete required MediaWiki interface translations in that language (about localization, translatewiki, check completion).
- The community needs to discuss and complete the settings table below:
|Example / Explanation
|Language code
|osx (SIL, Glottolog)
|A valid ISO 639-1 or 639-3 language code, like "fr", "de", "nso", ...
|Language name
|Old Saxon
|Language name in English
|Language name
|Language name in your language. This will appear in the language list on Special:Preferences, in the interwiki sidebar on other wikis, ...
|Language Wikidata item
|Q35219 - item has currently the following values:
|Item about the language at Wikidata. It would normally include the Wikimedia language code, name of the language, etc. Please complete at Wikidata if needed.
|no indication
|Is the language written from left to right (LTR) or from right to left (RTL)?
|Links to previous requests, or references to external websites or documents.
|Site URL
|Project name
|"Wikipedia" in your language
|Project namespace
|usually the same as the project name
|Project talk namespace
|"Wikipedia talk" (the discussion namespace of the project namespace)
|Enable uploads
|Default is "no". Preferably, files should be uploaded to Commons.
If you want, you can enable local file uploading, either by any user ("yes") or by administrators only ("admin").
Notes: (1) This setting can be changed afterwards. The setting can only be "yes" or "admin" at approval if the test creates an Exemption Doctrine Policy (EDP) first. (2) Files on Commons can be used on all Wikis. (3) Uploading fair-use images is not allowed on Commons (more info). (4) Localisation to your language may be insufficient on Commons.
|Optional settings
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|This needs to be an SVG image (instructions for logo creation).
|Default project timezone
|"Continent/City", e.g. "Europe/Brussels" or "America/Mexico City" (see list of valid timezones)
|Additional namespaces
|For example, a Wikisource would need "Page", "Page talk", "Index", "Index talk", "Author", "Author talk".
|Additional settings
|Anything else that should be set
|submit Phabricator task. It will include everything automatically, except additional namespaces/settings. After creating the task, add a link to the comment.
- The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.
I'm still learning but I think a Wikipedia in Old Saxon should be a great occasion for other people to learn about it. Then some new texts - even written nowadays - would be welcome. -- Stardsen 22/3/2012, 19.51 (UTC)
A Wikipedia in Old Saxon can easily be created. There's a lot of material on which people can study (grammars, dictionaries, texts, etc.). It is like Old English about the material, and like old English, Latin, Gothic and all the other historical languages that have been created it should be accepted. It is vain to create a Wikisource because of the lack of texts in the language (the texts that survived are now written in the Dutch Wikisource or similar), but I think that a Wikipedia is the right thing to do with Old Saxon. -- Italian Norman 14/2/2012, 21.44 (UTC)
- No native speakers. Old English and Gothic shouldn't have been created, and Latin is sui generis, as it has fifteen hundred years of new works after it stopped being used, and is still being taught to children.--Prosfilaes (talk) 04:40, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.


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Advertising or informative boards, stickers, posters or wallpaper applications are commonly used as indoor advertisement. We are capable of creating template letters painted or glued to walls and furniture.
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text:
The Best Books Of All Time: 22 Must-Reads of the Year
One of the most important steps in starting to read is to find the right book. As J.K. Rowling said: ...Read more
One of the most important steps in starting to read is to find the right book. As J.K. Rowling said: ...Read more
Cozy socks, coffee, and some amazing Christmas books? Yes, please! It's the most wonderful time of the year and to ...Read more
Wondering what to read this Christmas while curling up by the fire? No worries. We're here to help you! Since ...Read more
Gloomy, meandering staircases; ancient, dark libraries; stories set in old colleges, universities with beautiful Gothic architecture and darkened hallways with ...Read more
'The Gothic is a sensation, not a genre,' writes Sarah Perry in The Paris Review. But this sensation, in my ...Read more
Are you seeking out some 'horror books for Halloween' that will give you a similar feeling to the jump scare? ...Read more
When it comes to Gothic literature, it's absolutely impossible to avoid its literary cousin—I mean Southern Gothic literature. Southern Gothic ...Read more
In the infinite world of literary genres, Gothic novels are the ones that trap us in their labyrinth the most. ...Read more


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Our History
In 1901, Mary Harriman, a 19-year-old New York City debutante with a social conscience, founded the first Junior League. Moved by the suffering she saw around her, Harriman mobilized a group of 80 other young women – hence the name "Junior" League – to work to improve the squalid conditions in which immigrants were living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Mary Harriman's vision for improving communities by using the energy and commitment of trained volunteers inspired others around the country. The second Junior League was started in Boston, MA in 1907 and was soon followed by the founding of the Brooklyn, NY Junior League in 1910.
In 1921, the Association of Junior Leagues was formed to provide professional support to the Leagues. Today, the Association of Junior Leagues International governs 296 Junior Leagues in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Great Britain.
The Junior League of Austin was admitted to the Association on February 9, 1934. At the time of acceptance, The Junior League of Austin had 50 active members.
Throughout its history, The Junior League of Austin has demonstrated its commitment to volunteerism and community service through its projects. League members volunteer in all funded projects as well as in other community placements each year.
The Junior League of Austin's oldest fundraiser and community service program was the Resale Shop. The Resale Shop sold gently worn clothing, accessories, toys, house wares, appliances, and home furnishings. It began as The Thrift Shop in 1914 at a location on 9th and Red River. Due to the construction of IH-35, the League needed to find a new location. In 1969, A Thrift Shop Relocation Committee was appointed to study a possible new location for the Thrift Shop. The perfect building was found at 522 East Sixth Street and was purchased in December of 1970.
For almost 20 years, the Thrift Shop was located in the renovated building on East Sixth Street. Due to space restraints of the store, the 1996 Junior League of Austin Board of Directors approved a recommendation from an ad hoc committee to move to 6555 Burnet Road. The JLA Resale Shop closed it doors in May 2009.
In 1976, The Junior League of Austin undertook a new direction in fundraising, A Christmas Affair, a four-day holiday shopping market that brought together the finest in holiday gifts, decorations and celebration. In recent years, A Christmas Affair has raised roughly $1,000,000 a year to be given to the community through the League's projects and programs.
Also in 1976, the League's first cookbook, The Collection, was published featuring favorite recipes from The Junior League of Austin membership, with an initial printing of 10,000 copies. Selling out in the first year, it was reprinted in 1977 and profits from sales of the second year completely financed the second run of 15,000 copies. In 1981 and 1982, The Collection was reviewed in Harper's,Reader's Digest and several out of state newspapers.
In 1987, The Junior League of Austin celebrated the release of Necessities and Temptations. Touted as one of the best reference cookbooks on the market, it serves as an invaluable kitchen resource and reference guide for beginner cooks and is a favorite of brides to be. In 2001, Necessities and Temptations entered its eleventh printing, winning the McIlhenny Tabasco Community Cookbook Award for selling over 100,000 copies and was inducted into the Tabasco Hall of Fame as a best seller.
In November 2000, The Junior League of Austin introduced its third cookbook, Austin Entertains. Named "The Official Cookbook of the City of Austin," Austin Entertains features a plethora of delectable recipes and is conveniently menu driven to accommodate in-home entertaining.
In 1983, The Junior League of Austin purchased The Square on Parkcrest Shopping Center at 5416 Parkcrest. This retail-oriented center houses the League's headquarters as well as wide range of tenants. Net revenues from The Square help support the League's operations.
Over the years, The Junior League of Austin has contributed millions of dollars to programs and agencies that benefit the Austin community. Click here to see a list of the League's current projects and programs.


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When Smallville ended after 10 seasons in 2011, Allison Mack found herself a little adrift, having played journalist and town truth-seeker Chloe Sullivan for almost the entirety of her adult life.
"I was 28 and I felt not quite sure where I was going or who I was. I think that was probably the most bumpy transition," Mack told Fine Magazine for its March 2017 issue. Asked how she managed to navigate that change in her life, she said, "I have a wonderful teacher and mentor named Keith Raniere, who really gave me some incredible guidance."
Raniere had suggested she try the stage, and sure enough, she was appearing in a play, Red Velvet, at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre.
"I think everyone needs a mentor," Mack said. "I don't think any of us really know the answers without a little bit of wisdom. If you aren't willing to be humble enough to seek wisdom from other people, I think you're missing a lot of really incredible opportunities to build a certain amount of depth and value in your life that you wouldn't have if you didn't have somebody to help guide you. I chose to have this mentor in my life, and I was talking to him about my struggle, confusion, and not knowing what to do. He said, 'Why don't you take some time and think about? Give yourself some space to figure out who you are now.' So that's what I did."
At the time, maybe, that just sounded like glowing praise. Now, in hindsight... more like indoctrination.
On June 30, Mack—who pleaded guilty in 2019 to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering acts of state law extortion and forced labor, vowing in a tearful statement to "be a better person as a result of this"—was sentenced to three years in federal prison for her role in a sex-slave ring led by Raniere. Free on a $5 million bond, she had been facing a maximum of 17 years behind bars.
"It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry," Mack wrote in a note include d in her sentencing memo, obtained by E! News. "I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life."
Raniere was the leader of what's been widely characterized as a "sex cult," given his Svengali approach that demanded utter devotion from his followers, under the shield of a lucrative, albeit suspect, self-help company called NXIVM that he operated out in the open for decades, backed by deep-pocketed believers and applauded by satisfied customers even as reporters and authorities closed in.
In June 2019 he was convicted on all counts, including sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, racketeering and possession of child pornography—and in October he was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
"All these women are throwing their arms about him and kissing him on the lips. Not just a peck but like, slow, long, lingering kisses," Catherine Oxenberg, whose daughter India Oxenberg spent time caught in thrall to Raniere, said on a 2019 E! True Hollywood Story episode about NXIVM. "My husband looked at me and he went, 'Oh, he's having sex with all these women.'"
Catherine's book Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult was also fodder for a Lifetime movie starring Peter Facinelli as Raniere and Sara Fletcher as Mack, while HBO's 2020 docu-series The Vow also took a deep dive into what really happened.
In a statement read in court Wednesday, Mack said, "I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man."
India told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement following Mack's sentencing, "I'm still in a state of disbelief, but I trust and honor the judge's decision. I hope that her victims, including myself, feel vindicated and safer, given that she has denounced Keith Raniere. We all need time to process and digest everything. This is a big moment for all of us."
Raniere was arrested in March 2018 near Puerto Vallarta, Mexican and American authorities having tracked him to a $10,000-a-week rented villa inside a luxurious gated community. According to authorities, the women he was living with sped after the agents as they left with him in their car, reluctant to let Raniere—called "The Vanguard" by his acolytes—go.
According to the federal criminal complaint filed against him, as the leader of the Albany, N.Y.-based NXIVM (pronunced "nexium," like the heartburn medication) since 2003, Raniere "maintained a rotating group of fifteen to twenty women with whom he maintains sexual relationships. These women are not permitted to have sexual relationships with anyone but Raniere or to discuss with others their relationship with Raniere. Some of the Nxivm curriculum included teachings about the need for men to have multiple sexual partners and the need for women to be monogamous."
Within NXIVM was DOS, a "secret society" made up of women who were considered to be struggling in the program and were then tasked with recruiting other women to join. In order to join, potential members had to provide "collateral" in the form of compromising photos or videos, or other information about themselves or family members that they would not want made public should they be inclined to cut ties with DOS (the name derived from a Latin phrase that could translate as "Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions" or "The Vow") or refuse sex with Raniere.
"DOS operates as a pyramid with levels of 'slaves' headed by 'masters,'" the charges continued. "Slaves are expected to recruit slaves of their own (thus becoming masters themselves), who in turn owe services not only to their own masters but also to masters over them in the DOS pyramid."
The women were also submitted to a branding ritual, in which a symbol integrating Raniere's initials was seared into their skin near their pubic region.
And they weren't just used for sex, but for banal errands such as coffee runs, and they'd be asked to perform weird, random challenges, like holding a plank position on demand. Also according to the charges, Raniere would have some women severely cut their caloric intake because he preferred sexual partners who were very thin.
Overall, under the guise of offering self-help and what amounted to life coaching, Raniere was running an elaborate pyramid scheme in which women paid for his tutelage and could only move up the ladder of personal growth by forking over more cash, with a five-day workshop costing upward of $5,000.
"The Nxivm curriculum taught that women had inherent weaknesses including 'overemotional' natures, an inability to keep promises and embracing the role of victim," the complaint continued, per the Washington Post. "Nxivm operates largely in secrecy. Nxians were often required to sign non-disclosure agreements and to make promises not to reveal certain things about Nxivm's teachings."
A letter posted on the NXIVM website in late 2017 from Raniere in response to a New York Times investigation and other reports which included interviews with women who said they were branded and subjected to other abusive treatment, read, "I am deeply saddened by the recent news relating to our organization, a number of key people involved, and past friends.
"The picture being painted in the media is not how I know our community and friends to be, nor how I experience it myself. However, as an organization and as individuals, we felt it was imperative that we hire experts to ensure there is no merit to the allegations.
"Over the past months, there have been extensive independent investigations performed, by highly qualified individuals, and they have firmly concluded that there is no merit to the allegations that we are abusing, coercing or harming individuals. These allegations are most disturbing to me as non-violence is one of my most important values."
Raniere also maintained that he wasn't associated with "the sorority," nor was it a part of NXIVM, the umbrella company comprising Executive Success Programs Inc., the professional and personal coaching business he co-founded in 1998 with former nurse, therapist and hypnosis expert Nancy Salzman—the "Prefect" to his "Vanguard," whose upstate New York home was also searched by the FBI after Raniere's arrest.
A 2018 statement from NXIVM read: "In response to the allegations against our founder, Keith Raniere, we are currently working with the authorities to demonstrate his innocence and true character. We strongly believe the justice system will prevail in bringing the truth to light. We are saddened by the reports perpetuated by the media and their apparent disregard for 'innocent until proven guilty,' yet we will continue to honor the same principles on which our company was founded. It is during the times of greatest adversity that integrity, humanity and compassion are hardest, and needed most."
Nancy Salzman has since pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced July 28.
Allison Mack was accused of being a DOS recruiter between February 2016 and February 2017, having risen to just below Raniere in the DOS hierarchy.
"As alleged in the indictment, Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere,"Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement following her arrest. "The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants' benefit. This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to prosecuting predators who victimize others through sex trafficking and forced labor."
Added FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney, "Today we announce an additional arrest, and an indictment, in a case that brought to light an inconceivable crime. As this pyramid scheme continues to unravel, we ask anyone who might have been a victim to reach out to us with information that may further our investigation."
A consumer-fraud complaint filed in the summer of 2017 in New York by a former NXIVM member, who was demanding a refund of $9,000 spent on self-improvement programs, wrote in documents obtained by USA Today, "This company is a cult preying on vulnerable men and women who are looking for a credible self help program. Unless forcible confinement, branding, sex with students, and taking people who disagree with the program to court is a bona fide business in New York then I suggest all fees and tuition collected are baseless and fraudulent."
While the federal complaint stopped short of calling NXIVM a cult, and Raniere and active members denied being a cult, experts on the subject say the organization checked off all the boxes, from its charismatic leader to its focus on separating members from their families and other non-believers.
"In my opinion, NXIVM is one of the most extreme groups I have ever dealt with in the sense of how tightly wound it is around the leader, Keith Raniere," Rick Ross, a cult tracker who at the time was embroiled in year nine of an ongoing legal battle with NXIVM (the company sued him for allegedly exposing too much of its teaching practices while writing about and discussing the program; he eventually won), told Albany's Times-Union. (The newspaper published a four-part series about Raniere and his businesses in 2012 after a year-long investigation and continued to closely follow NXIVM.) Ross likened him to Branch Davidian leader David Koresh.
"Cults come in all forms," Alexandra Stein, author of Terror, Love and Brainwashing and holder of a PhD in the sociology of cults, told Rolling Stone while talking about NXIVM. "Religious, political, self-help, therapy, sports/martial arts, commercial, business. If someone is promising you the world and starting to do [those] other things, beware."
And then there was the preying on vulnerable females.
After Raniere's arrest, Mack's former Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk tweeted that she had taken an Executive Success Programs/NXIVM course called an "intensive" to help her combat her shyness, but had left the program five years prior and had had "minimal contact" with anyone else still involved.
"The accusations that I was in the 'inner circle' or recruited women as 'sex slaves' are blatantly false," stated the actress (who was not charged or otherwise implicated in any crime). "During my time I never witnessed any illegal or nefarious activity. I am horrified and disgusted by what has come out about DOS. Thank you to all of the brave women who have come forward to share their stories and expose DOS; I can't imagine how difficult this has been for you. I am deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with NXIVM. I hope that the investigation leads to justice for all of those affected."
Kreuk went on to star on the CW's Beauty & the Beast and the Canadian legal drama Burden of Truth.
Authorities said that the FBI had built their case against Raniere with the help of eight female victims following years of media scrutiny and state-level investigations into his former businesses as well as NXIVM.
In 1993 Raniere was sued by the New York Attorney General's Office, which alleged that his multilevel marketing business Consumers' Buyline was a pyramid scheme. He agreed to close the business and pay a $40,000 settlement, but by 2003 had only paid $9,000. Next he started another multilevel marketing company, National Health Network, selling vitamins.
According to Forbes, Raniere met Nancy Salzman in 1997 when she was going through a difficult time and, after a few days of persuasion, she became his business partner. She also loaned his then-girlfriend Toni Natalie $50,000 for National Health Network (which was registered in her name) and became her therapist.
Natalie's eight-year relationship with Raniere ended in 1998 and NHN folded in 1999.
"What he kind of does is he elicits as much information as he can, almost as a friend you're sharing with," Natalie told USA Today in March 2018. "Then he takes those things and he manipulates you with them."
Meanwhile, Raniere went on to start Executive Success Programs with Salzman.
In 2003, Forbes reported that Executive Success Program's devotees over the years had included BET co-founder Sheila Johnson; onetime U.S. Surgeon General Antonia C. Novello; Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. and his daughters Clare and Sara Bronfman; and former Mexican president Vicente Fox's daughter Ana Cristina Fox.
By then there was already controversy regarding Raniere's practices, questions of whether he was a charlatan cashing in on the (still-ongoing) fulfill-your-potential-for-a-fee fad or was manipulating people in a cult-like fashion for more nefarious reasons.
Forbes featured Raniere on the cover and the story was titled "Cult of Personality."
"I think it's a cult," Bronfman, who died in 2013, told Forbes. The billionaire said at the time that he hadn't talked to his daughters in months and then-24-year-old Clare Bronfman had loaned $2 million to the group. (Clare denied that. Vanity Fair reported in 2010 that Clare and sister Sara continued to give Raniere millions of dollars for NXIVM, and they were identified as members as recently as 2017).
In the fall of 2017, Catherine Oxenberg told the New York Times that her daughter India had joined the secret society within NXIVM and, though she had lost weight and said she hadn't gotten her period in a year, India defended what she was going through as "a character-building experience."
Meanwhile, Raniere insisted in 2003 that, though he had claimed to have made tens of millions of dollars, he wasn't in it for the money, calling his life "a somewhat church-mouse-type existence," and telling Forbes, somewhat cryptically, "I consider everything payment for what I've done."
Canadian actress Sarah Edmondson, once a devoted follower of Raniere, tweeted in support of Kreuk in 2018, writing, "For the record, my dear friend @MsKristinKreuk was never in the inner circle of #NXIVM. She never recruited sex slaves and has been out since 2013 before shit got weird. She is a lovely person who should not be dragged into this mess. Thank you. #Cult #DOS #freedom #TRUTH."
Recalling the branding ritual that new DOS members were required to undergo, Edmondson and others told the New York Times in the fall of 2017 that they were instructed to say, "Master, please brand me, it would be an honor." And then the smell of burning flesh filled the room.
"I wept the whole time," Edmondson recalled. "I disassociated out of my body." The Vancouver native filed a complaint in 2017 with the New York State Department of Health against Dr. Danielle Roberts, the osteopath she says did the branding. She received a letter back from the agency (posted by the Times) informing her they wouldn't be investigating Roberts because the action in question didn't occur "within the doctor-patient relationship," but should be reported to law enforcement; a state police investigator said they wouldn't be pressing charges because the action had been consensual.
Edmondson told the Times that she had been invited starting in January 2017 by NXIVM teacher (and Nancy daughter) Lauren Salzman, whom she considered a close friend and mentor, to become one of the women who would recruit others to join.
"She made it sound like a bad-ass bitch boot camp," the actress said, claiming that Lauren told her that the proposed group was "kind of strange and top secret and in order for me to tell you about it you need to give me something as collateral to make sure you don't speak about it." It was at Lauren's home in Clifton Park, N.Y., where the branding ceremony took place, Edmondson said.
Lauren, who had been staying in Mexico with Raniere when he was arrested and later testified against him at trial, pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy in April 2019 and is also due to be sentenced July 28. ("It never occurred to me that I would choose Keith—and Keith would choose Keith," she said in court.)
After the branding, Edmondson and her husband, Anthony Ames, decided they both wanted to leave NXIVM. Later the organization (which tended to suggest that ex-members would say anything to take it down out of spite), filed a complaint against Edmondson and two other women with Vancouver police, accusing them of mischief and other criminal activity. The ladies denied all accusations against them.
"No one goes in looking to have their personality stripped away," Mark Vicente, a filmmaker and former member who once made a glowing documentary about Raniere (and who first recommended NXIVM to Edmondson), told the New York Times. "You just don't realize what is happening." He followed his wife in leaving after she, as an ex-member, was shunned and then got wind of a secret all-female society.
Edmondson has written her own memoir, Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult that Bound My Life, and she told Refinery 29 in 2019 that she was responsible for recruiting at least 2,000 people into the program over the years.
"I have a lot of guilt about the people I brought in, but if there's one thing I can hang my hat on, it's that I never lied," the actress said. "I thought Keith Raniere was the greatest, wisest, most brilliant man on Earth. I had no idea what was going on with the women and everything that came out in the FBI's investigation."
Catherine Oxenberg was unrelenting in her quest to get her daughter out of Raniere's clutches, insisting to whomever would listen that she felt India's life was in danger.
"She's one of the kindest people and I believe that her goodness and her kindness are being used against her," Oxenberg said on Today in November 2017. The Dynasty actress turned star of the reality series I Married a Princess unwittingly brought India to an introductory Executive Success Programs session six years beforehand. "I thought it was kind of an innocuous, personal-growth, self-help business-oriented program," she explained. And her daughter loved it, opting to participate in more and more classes.
After her mother talked to the New York Times, India Oxenberg wrote on Facebook on Oct. 19, 2017, "I'm absolutely fine, great actually. I would never put myself or the people I love into any danger." After denying requests for an interview with Raniere or other officials, NXIVM turned away Today's reporting team when they drove to the Albany facility to ask for answers in person, Kelly said.
NBC News was directed to a previous NXIVM statement that the company "firmly opposes and condemns violence, victimhood, dishonor and abuse."
Mother and daughter reunited once Raniere's trial got underway, and Catherine wrote in Captive that she considered it a major step in the right direction when India said she was willing to entertain the idea that she had been manipulated by the people she had trusted. "I'm open to that possibility, Mom," India told her.
"He was pretending, it seems to me, now that I'm out, to be an ambassador for women," Sarah Edmondson mused to VICE Canada about Raniere in 2017. "An ambassador to help women get over these things so they can be strong. I did ten eight-day trainings. So 80 14-hour days on this particular topic. That's a lot of time. And there was a lot of information plugged in there that I'm just sorting out now, like what do I believe, what do I not believe."
Later on she said, "I felt fear after I was in, after I committed, and when I gave more collateral to commit—that's when I gave a nude photo and video testimonials—trash talking all the important relationships in my life. That's what I did to collateralize. Which, by the way, was nothing compared to what other women gave. I didn't find that out until later. Other women gave full frontal videos of themselves, I wonder where those went. I didn't want my collateral to be released, which is how they kept us quiet."
Edmondson acknowledged that people had told her that she could've just left, but "I just didn't feel like that was an option at the time."
"Keith made me feel precious to him," Christine Marie, who was a divorced mother of four when she first met Raniere in 1998, told the Albany Times-Union in 2012. "He touched me gently on the side of the face and told me that I was such an innocent, pure soul that I didn't even belong on this planet."
Christine said he hired her to write marketing materials for National Health Network and then for Executive Success Programs.
Then "Keith explained that it might help me if I would be physical with him," Marie told the paper. After they slept together, she said, Raniere "sat me down and told me I was now part of his inner circle and committed for life and I could never be physically involved with another man." He, however, said he was still involved with other women.
"I found it fascinating that these beautiful, smart women knew about each other and didn't seem upset to share Keith," Christine continued. "I thought they were all extraordinary women. Still, it seemed like secret polygamy to me, and I remember feeling sorry for them, too. As I understood it, they had to share the man they loved, they couldn't publicly celebrate their love with a wedding, they couldn't be with any other man, and they had to sacrifice a normal family life for what they believed was a higher cause."
She said that Raniere helped extricate her from a toxic relationship with another man in 2000—a Utah cult leader, according to the Times-Union—and Keith called him "a suppressive parasite who was taking advantage of me, who was attracted to my light and wanted to destroy me while benefiting from my life work. Keith wanted me to understand that I was being exploited by a cult leader who was nothing more than a con artist. He made a lot of sense."
Christine said that, largely because of her children, she ultimately figured out that she shouldn't go from the clutches of one guru type to another, though "Nancy Salzman could not fathom why I would make my family my priority when I was so desperately in need of their thought-reform program. I felt an intense amount of pressure to go. But in the end, I did not go. I did not join NXIVM, and I did not become part of Keith Raniere's inner circle."
"April of 1999 was the last time I laid eyes on Keith Raniere," his ex-girlfriend Toni Natalie told USA Today in 2018, before Raniere's arrest. "My brother came in and started what he called 'negotiating my release' because having a conversation with Keith that was easy or normal wasn't possible."
Litigation kept them connected. A bankruptcy court judge wrote in a 2009 decision, "This matter smacks of a jilted fellow's attempt at revenge or retaliation against his former girlfriend, with many attempts at tripping her up along the way."
"I live by the premise that it's going to come; it's just when is it going to come," Natalie said. "Because until he's dead or in jail, this is what my life is." She concluded, "The last thing my mother said to me that was clear before she died was: 'Toni, you're not crazy. And don't let them make you think you're crazy, because you're not.'"
In a video since taken down but which was circulating around the time of her arrest, Allison Mack was seen getting emotional in an undated conversation with Raniere. "As individuals we strive to break through a type of existential isolation," he told her. "We want to touch someone, we want to know that other people have souls. We want to experience this. We want to experience connection, things like what we call love and compassion—even something like as I say connection or rapport, some people call it, an energy or whatever." Even when talking to our devices, we imbue them with human characteristics, he said.
Asked why she was getting so emotional, Mack, wiping away tears, said, "I don't know, 'cause it seems like it's a...something that I just...I feel like I want it, authenticity."
Her blog appeared to have been taken down by March 2018, but Mack would regularly link to new posts via Twitter. In a cached post linked to by FoxNews.com, she wrote about what sounded like her discovery of NXIVM after living her life "conflicted."
"A collective inspiring a community of strong, authentically empowered women to own themselves in a way that has never been seen or understood before?" she wrote. "It sounded like the perfect blend of what I was looking for! So I took the leap and enrolled in a weekend workshop and within the first few hours I knew I had found my people."
"Many years later, the curriculum continues to guide me through the maze of my inner world shining light on the dark corners of my psychodynamic revealing confusions and insecurities that have hindered the expression of the authentic, empowered woman I have always sought to embody. I embrace so much more of myself now and am beginning to understand what it takes to grow into the vision of the woman of our times."
(Originally published April 24, 2018, at 5 a.m. PT)


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Read All About It
March 8, 2019
Buzzfeed, one of the internet's most 'internetty' websites, has launched a newspaper. It's not a full-time thing (although the brand did say it's tracking coupons printed in the back of the paper to see how well it performs) – but rather a fun stunt to get eyes on the brand.
What We Like
IW is a fan of the print medium. We're not going to advocate giving up our iPads any time soon, but there is just 'something' about picking up a physical book or newspaper – feeling the weight of it in your hands. It's awesome to see it get a bit of love here.


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Willett Family Estate 25 Year Old Single Barrel Rye #1770 / Signed by Even Kulsveen
Kentucky Bourbon Distillers are the owners of the Willett distillery in Bardstown. Willett distillery was built in 1936, just a few years after the repeal of National Prohibition by Lambert Willett, a former distiller for Max Selliger & Co. The distillery was initially a success, principally through its Old Bardstown and Johnny Drum brands, however it was hit hard by the bourbon slump of the 1970s. The result was an ill-advised move into producing ethanol for the production of "gasohol," spurred by the 1979 energy crises. When that market re-stabilised, Willett was left floundering and eventually closed in the early 1980s. Lambert's granddaughter, Martha Willett and her husband, Even Kulsveen, then purchased the distillery and established Kentucky Bourbon Distillers in 1984. They originally bottled the remaining barrels of 1970s-distilled stock, however as that gradually diminished, they began sourcing barrels from other producers in order to replenish it, becoming one of the most important independent bottlers in Kentucky. The majority of their barrels were believed to have come from neighbouring Heaven Hill, and with these casks they developed a wealth of important brands, including the Willett Family Estate, Noah's Mill and Rowan's Creek. In addition, they contract-bottled brands for other companies, such as the Very Olde St Nick and Black Maple Hill brands. Revered for the quality of their whiskey, their products have become some of the most collectible to come out of Kentucky. One January 21st, 2012, the company re-opened Willett distillery, and have been slowly replenishing its warehouses with its own whiskey ever since.
This Willett Family Estate release was bottled from a barrel sourced from somewhere in Kentucky.
We would recommend viewing/close inspection prior to placing any bids. If this is not an option and you have questions beyond the offered description and images, please contact us for a more in-depth condition report. Otherwise lots will be sold as seen in the images.
Please note: Due to the various ages of bottles and their seals, condition of liquid is at the buyer's discretion and no claim can be lodged against failure/leakage in transit.


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Making your workplace more productive, transparent and fun
Modern digital signage software for the workplace
Businesses across 50 countries trust Valotalive's digital signage solutions to improve workplace communication and drive transparency. The largest customer verticals are manufacturing, logistics, construction, IT & technology, retail and education.
Valotalive integrates with the business applications you use today
We are continuously making new integrations and technology innovations available for customers who have a passion to improve data transparency and employee experience in the workplace. Automate content and data from tools you're already using with our 35+ turn-key integrations.
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Transparency boosts employee productivity
At Valotalive we are building the future where employees will be prompted about their daily operations in a visual format at the right time, at the right place.
We use turn-key applications and custom applications to drive data transparency providing live dashboards and visual information for Digital Signage displays. Valotalive can distribute – to all employees – company metrics from data silos that were only accessible to executive management or specified teams.
Kaijus shares his thoughts about the modern workplace the vision the Valotalive team has.
Wärtsilä Corporation: More effective workplace communications with Valotalive digital signage software
Wärtsilä on yksi suurimmista Valotalive asiakkaista. Valotalivea käyttää yli 300 infonäyttöä parantaen työyhteisöviestintää toimistoissa, auloissa, tuotantolaitoksissa sekä asiakastiloissa.
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We have cool people working in Valotalive!
We are also a company with strong values. Meet our team as they present the core values of Valotalive.
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Being a vegan is tough at the best of times, especially if you're a traveler, you're either faced with meat crazed nations, lack of options or people who simply don't understand what it is that vegans can and can't eat. Traveling can be difficult too, more often than not airports are filled with pre-made sandwiches and snacks that contain, butter, mayonnaise, creams or flavorings from animal extracts, there is rarely room for maneuver or for tailor-made foods. When you are taking a long haul flight you are naturally offered meal choices and any airline worth their salt will have a vegan option available, that is all good and well but we vegans need sustenance and the meals on offer on long haul flights might tick the vegan-friendly box, but they rarely give us the fuel we need. In order to survive a long haul flight, here are some tips for you.
Smart Snacking
Flights are the ultimate place to snack, snacking on flights serves many purposes, primarily it will keep you boosted with energy when you need it most, sitting in the same place for hours on end drains you and you need to stay alert, secondly, flying is often boring and snacks fill the void, finally snacking will keep your hunger levels at bay, and lets be honest, nobody likes being hungry.
What Snacks?
If you want to take fruit then considered then dried variety, fresh fruit does not travel well, trust me, I had a laptop/banana situation a couple of years ago that taught me this the hard way. Nuts are also great snacks, good source of energy and tasty and you could look at packaged items like cereal bars, they are small, travel well and pack plenty of flavor and nutrients for your long journey.
Meal Options
If you forgot to order a meal to have the plane then you are going to need to get prepared. Disposable tupperware-style dishes are brilliant for pre-prepared salads or vegetable based meals, you can fill them up with rice, noodles or cous cous, just bear in mind that items like these can be chunky and you should definitely buy the disposable variety, the last thing you want is empty containers to lug about on your travels. Another great option for you is the noodle pots that you can buy, take a few of these with you and ask the flight attendant to fill them up with hot water and hey presto.
The spork is your new best friend when you travel, this knife/spoon/fork in one means that you can ask for some food to be rustled up, or eat the meals that you have brought along with you, with ease. This handy gadget means that you don't have to carry several pieces of cutlery with you, you have less things to wash and you are ready to eat given a minutes notice.
The key to having a successful long-haul trip as a vegan is all in the planning, make sure you book meals ahead of time and prepare your food before you go, fail to plan, plan to fail.


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thursday august 6, 2009
* GFC Gluten Free Celebrity
*Zooey Deschanel - GFC - Specially Cooked for by five great chefs on Top Chef Masters episode on Bravo the other night. She stated that she is gluten free and was cooked for accordingly. Also in a new movie (500) Days of Summer.
*Keith Olbermann - GFC - In the new TV guide article TV's biggest paychecks revealed his is $7.5 Million per year doing what is categorized as News for MSNBC. He has stated he has celiac, and is thus gluten free.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
GFC Gluten Free Celebrity, Zooey Deschanel, Top Chef, Keith Olbermann, News, thursday august 6, 2009
Posted by hello at 1:03 PM
Labels: (500) Days of Summer, Bravo, GFC, Gluten Free Celebrity, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, News, Top Chef, TV guide, Zooey Deschanel
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Baldwin Boxall OmniCare & CARE2 Disabled Toilet Alarm Wall Pull Cord White DTACPW
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Product details
Baldwin Boxall OmniCare & CARE2 Disabled Toilet Alarm Wall Pull Cord White
- Disabled Toilet Alarm Wall Pull Cord White
- Description
All Baldwin Boxall disabled toilet alarm systems, including the waterproof (IP65) solution, are fully compliant with BS8300
Disabled people should be able to find, and use, suitable toilet accommodation no less easily than non-disabled people. All disabled toilet cubicles should be fitted a with suitable 'call for assistance' alarm system. The waterproof disabled toilet alarm products also enable mounting of pull cords and reset buttons within wet rooms and shower cubicles. The alarm system must not be confused (visually or audibly) with a building's fire alarm. The alarm pull cord needs to be sited within easy reach and operable from two levels – one being near the floor in case of a fall. The cord needs to be freely available and not tied or wrapped around any fixed object. All Baldwin Boxall toilet alarm kits are available with a choice of white or stainless steel finish (except the waterproof disabled toilet alarm system).
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Pumpkin Mini Cakes - gluten free
2 cups chunky all-natural peanut butter
2 cups of pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie)
3 eggs
2/3 cup of honey (or more if you prefer it sweeter)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
3 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 ginger
Dash of clove
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
optional: 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all of the ingredients, except eggs and walnuts, together until smooth. While mixing add 1 egg at a time. Once all eggs have been added, turn mixer on medium and mix for 2 minutes. Add walnuts, mix to combine.
Spoon batter into mini cupcakes tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes . Test with a toothpick. Cool and enjoy.
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This is a great resource page for gardeners that are just beginning and those that have been doing it a long time.
On the go a lot? Don't have time to always make a wholesome dinner for your family? Check out these recipes to get you ahead of the game.
How to's, ideas, inspiration, books, and so much more for learning how to can and preserve your food.
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Student Account Policies
Students with outstanding account balances will not be allowed to register or attend courses for future semesters. Existing registration for future terms may be cancelled as a result of an outstanding account balance. Lewis & Clark also reserves the right to withhold grade reports, transcripts, bar certifications (if applicable) and diplomas. Full payment of any balance due is required to facilitate the release of these documents and/or to clear a student for class re-registration. Students are responsible for their costs whether or not the statement has been retrieved. Any semester costs incurred after the semester due date has passed is considered due upon receipt. Students with an outstanding balance are additionally subject to a semester late fee. Please review the Fees section of our website for more details.
For further Student Account policies, please visit your school catalog publication listed below and review the Statement of Student Responsibilities.


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A bill signed by President Joe Biden this week extends a benefit that helps hundreds of thousands of low-income Los Angeles families buy more fruits and vegetables. WIC's monthly fruit budget has been $9 for kids and $11 for parents for over a decade. Congress increased it during the pandemic, but the increase was due to expire at the end of the year. That benefit increase to $35 per child and adult will continue through March 2022.
"Feeding children healthy food is not a partisan issue," said Shannon Whaley, Research and Evaluation Director at PHFE WIC. "I think right now it's important to be reminded, all families, all children, all pregnant women really deserve access to healthy food."
Read full story by KPCC Early Childhood Reporter, Mariana Dale, on LAist: Fruit And Veggie Benefit For Low-Income Families Extended Through March>


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World-class indoor rock climbing for all sorts of climbers. Balsam Lake Mountain is the 17th highest peak inside the Catskills Mountain Vary. There's a hearth tower at the summit that gives 360-diploma views of the surrounding mountainous area. The tower is open to hikers through the summer season months just for security purposes. Balsam Lake Mountain is a common place for winter adventurers to go snowshoeing and cross-nation snowboarding , although the views from the highest are restricted when the hearth tower is closed.
Smith Rock has among the most scenic landscapes in Central Oregon. There's something for everyone here, from mountain biking, to rock climbing, to the casual stroll. To be prepared, decide up a Smith Rock brochure at the customer center or on the path signal on the parking space that shows the completely different trails.
Hiking poles are not only for older hikers or these uncertain of their footing or climbing abilities. Everybody can benefit from them. Hiking poles help with stability, make the hike simpler on the knees and might really help to hurry up a hikers velocity. Additionally, they provide a bit of higher body exercise. Make sure when ordering that you buy poles which have the flexibility to adjust in peak.
Over time, our company has expanded and advanced, offering huge improvements and opportunities for our prospects to get an actual authentic style of Iceland. Our foundation lies in our hottest day excursions; River Rafting, Snorkeling, Glacier Hiking, Super Jeep excursions, Sea Kayaking, Diving, Snowmobiling, Hiking, Sizzling Spring Hunts, Ice climbing and plenty of more.
To encourage the use of the most effective available dark sky know-how for communities, IDA has established Criteria for Neighborhood-Pleasant Out of doors Sports activities Lighting that embraces the values that many communities seek of their publicly illuminated spaces. These criteria make sure that outside sports lighting designs minimize gentle spill and glare into surrounding neighborhoods and pure areas, tackle local sustainability and energy discount targets, and minimize sky glow to the greatest extent practicable. By utilizing IDA's criteria, communities can demonstrate and promote out of doors sports lighting designs that meet the demanding activity of illuminating evening-time sports occasions whereas preserving night time skies.


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The God of the Valleys
Dr. Daniel W. Paterson
"And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD ." (1 Kings 20:28)
I want to speak tonight, beloved brethren, about the God of the valleys. Rather a striking title. These were words that came from the lips of one of Israel 's enemies. The setting of this chapter is very interesting. The preceding chapters deal with the history of Elijah and the decadent nation of Israel. In response to his testimony there was a contest on Mount Carmel between Elijah - one man - and the prophets of Baal - one hundred and fifty - and consequent upon Elijah's testimony the fire came down upon the burnt offering and when the people witnessed this there came from their lips the confession, "the Lord He is God; the Lord He is God". There were features in victory, in recovery in the hearts of the people of God. Now it is against this background we come to this chapter of victory, 1 Kings 20. The Syrians, enemies of Israel, came and they were utterly defeated. There followed from them the testimony that Israel 's God was a "God of the hills" at the first victory (v.23) and the second victory proved that He was the "God of the valleys".
Now I want to suggest, dearly beloved brethren, that in our meetings at times we likewise have seasons when we prove the God of the hills. Let no-one mistake, happily in various places and in different times we have climbed to those hills and God has given us an impression of the God of the hills, the Pisgah view, if you like, Canaan (Deut. 34); and it is a very, very good land. Sometimes we have climbed the Mount of transfiguration (a prelude to the world to come) and we have seen Him whose face is as the sun and His garments white as light, and we have heard that conversation concerning the exodus which he accomplished at Jerusalem.
At other times we have climbed that exceeding great and high mountain and have seen that holy city of Revelation 21 and we have had our hearts warmed in regard to the administration of the world to come, the assembly in its rightful place. These are wonderful times. I was coming back from one of these sessions recently and I wondered, beloved brethren, if it would not be appropriate sometimes to consider not the God of the hills , but to have a look at the God of the valleys.
I came across pure gold almost at once when I looked up the Hebrew word for 'valley'. I was most interested to find that there are no fewer than five Hebrew words used. The first is used for the valley of Megiddo for example, the valley of Jezreel, 'the breadbasket of Israel 'a low plain with distant mountains. The second is more like the English valley where the mountains are a little bit closer, the valley of Jordan is an example. The third is like the valley of Hinnom, 'the waste-paper basket of Israel', the place where "the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched", a very deep valley. The fourth is like a wadi you might call it, a river bed where the water runs in the winter, you do not see it in the summer. When you come to it the guide says, "that was the river Kishon". Where? You cannot see it; it is a river bed. An example of the fifth is the Shephelah, south-west of Jerusalem going down to the Philistine country where you would not know it was a valley at all.
Why have I said all that? For this reason, that as God brings home the saints, as the Lord Jesus leads home many sons to glory, we have to pass through an infinite variety of circumstances and they are not always mountain top experiences, there are valleys, sometimes very deep valleys, so I want tonight to spend a little time looking at some of the valleys of Scripture. Of course in this hour we can only allude to one or two of the valleys through which we pass, but I want to stress immediately it is not the valleys so much I want to engage you with, but the God of the valleys. The God who is victorious in 1 Kings 20, the God who having begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6), the God who wants you and me to get the maximum out of those valley experiences through which in His wisdom and His love He puts us through. I am glad to say the Scriptures I will refer to are all pretty well-known, particularly in a company such as this, but I am going to refer to them and, I trust, "stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance" and if I happen to forget some of the points I am sure that you will pursue this yourself later and get the gain of all the valleys of Scripture and the God who is over them all.
1. The Valley of Elah
"And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel , were in the valley of Elah , fighting with the Philistines " (1 Sam. 17:1, 17)
Most of us will have some familiarity with this valley. Here we find a full length portrait of the enemy of our souls, figured in Goliath of Gath in all his armour with his armour bearer going before him. When he made the challenge to Israel they were dismayed and they were greatly afraid. I do not think anyone who walks with God in sobriety will fail to have some thoughts concerning him who is the enemy of our souls. By the time we come to the book of Revelation 20:2 we get his full title, "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan". He is too much for man, he is too much for you and me. Indeed in Jude 9 we read, "Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee". Goliath, prefiguring him who is the great enemy of our souls, stands in the valley of Elah. There came up one who answered this challenge - God has His man, a man of a beautiful countenance, goodly to look upon, and that man was David, a mighty valiant man and a man of war.
Take account of the way on which he went. Saul's armour would not do to defend him and for a weapon he selected five smooth stones for his sling. How do we do this? We have to get down on our knees. It is very attractive to see when we consider the Lord Jesus dealing with the enemy of our souls how He selected exactly the right stones to deal with him. Not all five stones were 'used', as it were, in the temptation, but only three. Then in the garden another was used when He said, "Not my will but Thine be done." In a world where man does his own will (sin is lawlessness), here was a man who is utterly devoted to God's will and that stone, rightly directed, brought the giant down and David stood on him, drew the sword out of its sheath and with it cut of Goliath's head, "death by dying slew."
David returning to Jerusalem with the head, put the armour of the giant in his tent (there was still more work to do), and Abner, asked the question by Saul, "Whose son is he?" could not answer. But we can answer the question. It is the Father's only begotten Son in whom He is well pleased; Jehovah's Servant, God's King. He has met the adversary and shortly He is going to undo the works of the adversary, but in the meantime a stronger than he has come upon him and taken away all the armour in which he has trusted and proceeded to spoil his goods. We can rejoice, dearly beloved, first of all in this first valley, and not only in the valley but in the God of the valley. Who is He? It is Jesus, who has met the enemy and defeated him, spoiled principalities and powers, now at God's right hand with all power in heaven and earth given to Him.
2. The Valley of the Shadow of Death
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me " (Ps. 23:4)
I want now to introduce you briefly to the second valley, a valley described by another word in the Hebrew, like the Valley of Hinnom. If any of you have been in Israel and have been down to Petra you will know exactly what I am talking about. This is the kind of valley where the bottom is only a matter of fifteen to twenty feet across, maybe less, but the walls may rise to as high as eight hundred feet very close together so that at the bottom of the valley the sun hardly penetrates it, it is a dark valley. Now there are plenty of this kind of valley in the Judean foothills and if you use the old road from Jerusalem to Jericho you see some good examples of it.
I do not know whether you have ever pondered the time when David was fleeing from Saul just how close Saul seemed to get to David sometimes but he never caught up with him. David knew these deep valleys, they were excellent places for fugitives, just as they were excellent places for robbers. It is also a very dangerous place for sheep. This is the place where the wolves, the lions and the bears were found in Biblical times, and any sheep who found itself in such a valley was in the greatest danger.
What is the point of safety in this psalm? "Thou art with me". Here the sheep turn their eyes away from the dangers to the shepherd and his business was to deal with adversaries and foes, the grievous wolves. If sheep are in danger their safety is found in the shepherd. Have you every pondered the words, "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me"? That rod is something like a club, two foot long with a bulb on the end, perhaps a nail as well, a tremendous weapon against wild beasts, and if you are in the hands of a shepherd who loves you so much that he is prepared to give his life for you, you are safe, and that shepherd is Jesus. My dear friend, we can approach the valley of the shadow of death in all confidence. In the first three verses of Psalm 23 David speaks about the Shepherd - "the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want", but when he gets down to verse 4 he no longer talks about the Shepherd, he talks to the Shepherd - "Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". Some connect the valley of the shadow of death only with the circumstances of death, but rather it seems to me that it represents the whole of our pathway, all is connected with danger, but safety is found in Him who is the Shepherd, the God of the valley.
3. The Valley of Baca (Psalm 84:5-6)
"Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools"
This valley has occasioned me personally a great deal of exercise. If you look up the best Biblical map you can find you will find that against the valley of Baca you come to this entry - "situation unknown". Now if you move amongst the saints of God, if you get a little bit nearer to the burdens that saints carry, you discover that, like the valley of Baca, there are many places of weeping, situation unknown. If you lose your husband to a coronary or a car accident or your wife or your child to leukaemia, then you can locate the area, but there are many areas of sadness amongst the saints of God that are unidentified. In a company like this tonight there will be a good many bearing trials and burdens that nobody else knows about. That is why we want to talk a little bit about the valley of Baca.
There are a lot of tears in this world - that is what Baca means, literally 'lamentation' and 'weeping' - national disasters, weeping amongst men of the world, but there is also a good deal of weeping amongst saints if they are sensitive at all in these closing days of the testimony. Jeremiah, for example, closed his dispensation as "the weeping prophet of the nations".
Let us look briefly into the matter of tears in the Bible. We read about tears of remorse - Esau sought the blessing with tears (Heb. 12:17), but remorse did not get it for him. Malachi also covered the altar with tears, remorse, unavailing tears (Mal. 2:13).
There are however better tears such as those of the woman in Luke 7, tears of repentance shed at the blessed feet of the Lord Jesus with which she washed His feet. But let us also consider the tears of a servant, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Ps. 126:6). Do you feel hard sometimes, a long way removed from the compassions of the Lord Jesus? I do. One of General Booth's captains in the Salvation Army sent a message to him, saying he had tried everything and there was no response from the hard hearts of the community where he was, and the general sent back the message, "Try tears". That is a very testing word for us all.
There are other tears too; Paul in serving the Lord in all humbleness of mind in Ephesus wept for three years night and day (Acts 20:31). Timothy was a man of genuine feeling as to how the saints get on. Where did he learn this? Probably from Paul. Paul yearned over the Ephesians, he wrote also to the Corinthians "out of much affliction and anguish of heart . with many tears" (2 Cor. 2:4). Do you feel hard and unresponsive, removing your affections from the saints? I do. But that does not hold us back from at least admiring the features in others. Where did they learn it from? They learnt it from the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came to Jerusalem He wept over it with an audible expression. Then in John 11 He shed tears of silence expression, deep feeling, a unique word in the Greek original. The Lord cried the tears (Heb. 5:7). This is the God of the valleys. This is the One whom we love. "My sorrow", said Lady Powerscourt, "lies too deep for human sympathy". Thank God we have One who does draw near to us, and even when our brethren or our nearest and dearest cannot understand there is One who delights to draw near and it is in these circumstances, dearly beloved, we learn how precious is the Man of Sorrows.
It is against this background that we can begin to appreciate Psalm 84. "Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee". This is not the natural man, it is the man of faith, the man of God who is drawing his resources from another sphere, he knows his God. The man had Old Testament limitations in his knowledge of course, nevertheless he could say "For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (v.11). He knows where he is going - "How amiable are thy tabernacles" (v.1), "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house" (v.4) - he wants, he longs, to be there, but in the meantime we read "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them" (v.5). He realises that he has got a path through these various circumstances for the education of his soul. He understands it and he accepts it. That is very testing. Are we going to kick against the sorrows, are we going to hit out - many do - or are we going to be exercised? This man is exercised and passing through the valley of Baca he finds a well, he finds refreshment in the God of the valleys. But that is not the end, "the rain also filleth the pools", there is education, there is something liberated for the whole church of God. In 2 Corinthians 4:1 the apostle Paul says he went through all this. Why? That he might be able to comfort the saints in any tribulation whatever with the comfort wherewith he was comforted of God. It is tremendously encouraging to belong to the family of God, and if we have proved God in any circumstance at all the good and gain of it is available for the whole church of God . He is the God of the valley.
4. The Valley of Achor
"And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor , unto this day ." (Josh. 7:24-26)
There is no difficulty in identifying this valley on the map, and there is no difficulty in identifying this valley in the Scriptures, the only difficulty about this valley is that we cannot always identify it in our experience either individually or collectively. Geographically it is down near the Red Sea and we read about it in Joshua 7 and Hosea 2. It is "the door of hope". Achor is the place where sin is confessed, judged and put away and it is very important to understand a little about it.
Let us spend a little time on this important matter. Historically, when the children of Israel came over Jordan they had a tremendous victory at Jericho, but at the next place Ai they sent only three thousand men thinking it was a small place and the people of God were defeated before the people of Ai and thirty six died. In that chapter we find Joshua with the elders of the children of Israel on their faces before the Lord crying, 'What shall we do? would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan!' Before we are too hard on Israel let us recognise that this is the language of many hearts today, put to flight before the adversary and so humbled, we think 'We wish we had not taken heavenly ground at all. Let us get out of it as soon as we can'. Some do. Some do in heart. Ah, but the Lord said to Joshua, "Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned". They were to confess their sin and deal with it. There was a man who had coveted a goodly Babylonish garment, silver and gold and had hidden them in his tent, and so the victory of God was halted. In the mercy of God that sin was brought out into the open, confessed, dealt with drastically, judged and put away and Ai became the second city of victory in the triumphant march of Israel through the promised land.
In Hosea 2 we get the prophetic picture in regard to Israel in a coming day. They are also guilty of sin in that they have crucified their Messiah. In this chapter, sometimes called 'the Luke 16 of the Old Testament', God brings His people into the wilderness and there speaks to their hearts. The steps of recovery in Israel are three - lamentation, confession and response, and their door of hope is in their confession and their putting away of their sin, which we read about in Zechariah 12:12-14, "And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart . of Nathan apart . of Levi apart . of Shimei apart . every family apart, and their wives apart". There they are in their mourning and confession, and "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" (13:1) - sin is put away. The valley of Achor for a door of hope.
This is right up-to-date. If there is with us the ability to bring sin out into the open and confess it I believe we will still prove that He despises not the exercises of His people, "a humble and a contrite heart, O Lord, Thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:17). I was privileged to be in Dearborn , Canada , in 1970 when we were having talks with our beloved 'Kelly' brethren. There was a difficulty in America concerning the Mory brethren, for there had been a division there in 1953 and things were at stalemate. But I remember one meeting particularly well. A great number of brethren, sober and grave, were there, and a brother from Montreal, with the Lord now, stood up in the meeting with tears in his eyes and confessed before the brethren that the Mory brethren were wrong in the 1931 division. Those tears and that confession altered the picture in America. Again, I was in Switzerland in the autumn and we had meetings there, reasonable meetings, quite ordinary. A sister there asked me for a copy of Hamilton Smith's book on Daniel and I was able to oblige. I got a letter from her just a week or two back, she said that when she got to the ninth chapter of Daniel and she recognised the condition of her own assembly and the state of her own heart she got down on her knees and with tears confessed it before the Lord. Since then, she said, there have been two families added to the meeting with children. There seems to have been a turning of the tide because one person took up the valley of Achor and the door of hope. I am just telling you the way God has worked in the past and what He is waiting to do today.
5. The Valley of Berachah
"And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day ." (2 Chr. 20:26)
This is a very happy valley, a precious valley, mentioned as another chapter of victory. This is a prophetic chapter, there are features in it that carry with it teachings that are referable to things which must shortly come to pass. Most of you in this room are intelligent to the fact that the world to come will be introduced by judgments. Babylon, religious and commercial (Rev. 17 and 18) first, then the Western powers next, the Arab powers third and Russia fourth. This chapter deals with some of the prophetic elements that are found in connection with the Arab states in a coming day. You remember how the king of the north will come down in an overflowing scourge (Dan. 11) and he is found in Egypt. There he hears tidings out of the east and out of the north (probably the eastern powers and the western powers being dealt with by God at Armageddon - Rev. 16) and he returns towards Jerusalem. Then as he gets as far as the valley of Berachah news reaches Israel (Jehoshaphat) that there is this great army waiting to overrun Jerusalem. This reminds us of Psalm 46. The Lord will have partially intervened for His people, so they are encouraged to "Be still and know that I am God", and although the army was only twenty-five miles from Jerusalem Jehoshaphat approached this situation in a dignified way and called for a fast.
Then there was a great prayer meeting in Judea. Jehoshaphat and the whole city gathered in the temple court. Can you picture them? There were no absentees from that prayer meeting, the wives and the little ones all stood before the Lord with real, earnest prayer, and Jehoshaphat prayed like a man who was used to praying. He quoted the Scripture, bringing the situation into focus. It must have been a very moving occasion.
This was a prayer meeting that turned into a word of ministry for the prophet Jahazial spoke, "Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's". They fell down in worship, and they lifted up their voice and praised the Lord. What a happy prayer meeting. On the next day they went out to meet the great host and Jehoshaphat "consulted with the people". Some leaders are in danger of steamrollering the saints, but here was one who called in the saints, he consulted with the people and they appointed singers to go before the army. The praise was too much for the enemy. "God dwells in the praises of His people" (Ps. 22:3). The enemy oftentimes attacks our praise and if that is missing the enemy gets an advantage. It was not so with Jehoshaphat, they appointed singers in the front line and went out against the enemy and we get the delightful picture, so many times repeated in Scripture, where the enemy began to slay one another - the children of Ammon, the children of Moab, stood up against the children of Seir and slew them and when they had dealt with them they slew one another. I am not quite sure how many references there are (I think about six) but this is God's approved method of dealing with the opposition - praise is given to the Lord and the enemy begins to slay one another.
So in the valley of Berachah when they looked upon them they were all dead corpses, just as in Exodus 15. They stripped them of their precious things and it took them three days to gather in the spoil because it was so much. Israel had a session of praise on the battlefield but then they went back to Jerusalem. They went to the very place they started from, the temple. This incident started with prayer and ended with praise. We can see this picture of the valley of Berachah, the intervention of the God of the valley Jehoshaphat, no doubt a picture of One greater than he, in the temple leading the praise, the song going up to the God who has blessed His people in valley conditions.
The God of the Valleys
In 1 Kings 20 we saw that God in His grace came in for a people who said "The Lord He is God; the Lord He is God". Graciously victory is given to Israel, the God of the hills, the God of the valleys. There is one character however in this chapter who I submit to you in utterly despicable - that man is Ahab. He did more to provoke Jehovah to anger than any other king in Israel. He sold himself to do evil, his wife Jezebel stirring him up. Now you may not have noticed, but in the first victory (when God was declared to be the God of the hills) with thirty three kings against him Ahab come not in the forefront of the battle but in the rear. Who shall order the battle? It is set in motion by the young men, the servants of the prince of the provinces. These two hundred and thirty two go out for the battle, then the seven thousand go out to the battle, and when Ahab sees that the enemy is routed he joins them, he comes in when the victory is won; despicable I say. When we come to the God of the Valleys God has given a signal victory, Israel slew a hundred thousand footmen slain in one day, then twenty seven thousand died when in the city to which they fled a wall fell on them, tremendous intervention. Then we find an encounter between Ben-hadad and Ahab. Ben-hadad, I may say, is a religious type of the kings of Syria, he was an idol worshipper. Ahab said to this idol worshipper, "he is my brother" (v.32), for he too was an idol worshipper.
Here we find the test at the close of our talk together. Where is your heart? And where is mine? Are we just going to stand by and see these victories, God proved to be the God of the hills and the God of the valleys? Are we going to be spectators? Are we? It depends altogether, dearly beloved brethren, as to whether your heart and mine are taken up with the idols of this world, are we lovers of pleasure, lovers of money, lovers of ourselves, or whether in devotion our hearts are going out to Him, who is the God of the valleys, the God of the hills, our precious Saviour and Lord.
This is the message I want to leave with you tonight. The God of the hills, the God of the valleys, our God has been fully revealed in the Lord Jesus, but the final test is what is in your heart and what is in my heart. "My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways" (Prov. 23:26). Let our affections flow out to Him who is worthy to be praised.
"In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here;
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?"


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I used the hostess stamp set from Stampin' Up! called Hello Love to create a birthday card to share today.
My card design was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #144.
I started by adhering a panel of Lullaby DSP to a panel of Coastal Cabana card stock with SNAIL, then to a Hello Honey card base with Stampin' Dimensionals.
I stamped the bird image and sentiments from the Hello Love hostess stamp set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and I colored the little bird with my Coastal Cabana and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blendabilities Markers. I colored the entire bird with the Light Marker, then went back and added a little Dark and Medium shading on the abdomen and tail. Then I colored the cloud image from the Hello Love stamp set with my Coastal Cabana Stampin' Write Marker and stamped it in the upper right corner. I did use my Stamp-a-ma-jig to help with placement of all of these images.
I layered the stamped panel over a panel of Coastal Cabana card stock, then adhered the panel to the card front with SNAIL.
I stamped the sun image from the Hello Love stamp set in Hello Honey ink on a panel of Hello Honey card stock and I cut it out with my Paper Snips. Then I stamped the image again in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on a Whisper White panel. I punched the center of the image from the Whisper White panel with my 1″ Circle Punch and I colored it with my Daffodil Delight Blendabilities Markers. I used the color lifter to create a little highlight on one side, then adhered the colored circle to the stamped image that I'd hand cut. I adhered the layered image to the card front with SNAIL.
I stamped the other bird from the Hello Love stamp set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on a Whisper White panel and I colored it with my Light Calypso Coral and Light Coastal Cabana Stampin' Blendabilities Markers. Then I stamped the stem image from the Flower Patch stamp set (see below how I did that) in Pistachio Pudding Ink under the bird image. I cut it out with the Banners Framelits Die and trimmed just a bit off the sides and top, then adhered it with SNAIL to a Banners Framelits die cut (using the same die) from Coastal Cabana card stock.
One of the cool things about photopolymer stamp sets is that the images are a little bit flexible. So I slightly bent the stem image when I adhered it to my block.
I finished the card front by adhering the layered banner to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals, then tying a bow from Coastal Cabana Thick Baker's Twine to a Basics Hodgepodge Clip and clipping it over the edge of the banner.
I adhered a strip of Hello Honey card stock and a strip of Lullaby DSP to a Whisper White panel to complete the inside of the card.
You can find a complete list of supplies, including card stock cuts, at the very bottom of this post.
July 1-15 Hostess Code: ZZDRPDQ3
Use this hostess code when you order and receive a free gift from me! If your order is over $150, please do not use this code, but you'll still get the free gift. The free gift for July is an Embossing Folder of your choice. You may choose any one of the embossing folders in the 2014-15 Annual Catalog (you can find them on pages 226-227)!
Last Day for This Weeks Weekly Deals From Stampin' Up!
Here are this weeks Weekly Deals:
Click here to see the Weekly Deals from Stampin' Up! in my online store. The Weekly Deals are only while supplies last and only available at these great prices through July 14.
If you need any stamping supplies, I'd be very happy to be your Demonstrator. Just click on the Order Stampin' Up! Online Now button on the right side of the screen to go directly to my online store or drop me an email if you have any questions. Happy Stamping!
- Visit my online store here.
- Shop the Clearance Rack here.
- Earn FREE Stampin' Up! Products – Join my Running Shoe Rewards Program – My online customer thank you program!
- In addition to my online store, also take PayPal payments for orders – Check my Rewards page for more information.
- I offer gift certificates for Stampin' Up! merchandise too! Click on my Gift Certificates page for more information.
- Hello Honey – 4-1/4″ x 11″ card base, hand cut image, 5/8″ x 4″ strip (inside card)
- Coastal Cabana – 4″ x 5-1/4″ panel, 2-1/2″ x 3-1/8″ panel, Banners Framelits die cut
- Whisper White – 2-3/8″ x 3″ panel, 1″ Circle Punch, Banners Framelits die cut, 4″ x 5-1/4″ panel (inside card)
- Lullaby Designer Series Paper – 3-7/8″ x 5-1/8″ panel, 1/2″ x 4″ strip (inside card)
Stampin' Up! items used to create this project:


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PlayStation Games
Switch Games
PlayStation 3 Games
4K Ultra HD Movies
Hong Kong Version Blu-Rays
Hong Kong Version DVDs
US & UK Version Blu-Rays
Region Coding: Region A (Locked)
Megan Fox
Alan Ritchson
Pete Ploszek
Johnny Knoxville
Jeremy Howard
Noel Fisher
Jonathan Liebesman
Audio Tracks:
Atmos 7.1.4, Dolby Surround 5.1
English, Mandarin
English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Malay
Running Time:
- minutes (TBA)
Paramount / Intercontinental Video Ltd. (IVL)
Release Date:
16 Dec 2014
The city needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O'Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) to save the city and unravel Shredder's diabolical plan. Based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters Created by PETER LAIRD and KEVIN EASTMAN with a Screenplay by JOSH APPELBAUM & ANDRÉ NEMEC and EVAN DAUGHERTY, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is produced by MICHAEL BAY (director and executive producer of the blockbuster Transformers franchise), Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Galen Walker, Scott Mednick and Ian Bryce, and directed by JONATHAN LIEBESMAN (Wrath of the Titans).
movie trailer (Chinese subtitle)


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One Response to Valence
Fausto Sparacino says:
We will join "CHALK TIBET" on 2nd Nov in Rome, with many realizations and I'll send the pictures.
Fausto Sparacino
(Vice-President ITALIA-TIBET Association)
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