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Sparkle Shoes
"I WEARIN' dem!" four-year old Henry told me defiantly on Sunday, stomping a shimmery foot. He'd discovered his sister's black "sparkle shoes" that afternoon; black ballet flats covered in silver glitter. I was trying to get him and Rose in the car to go grocery shopping, and he refused to change into his Batman sneakers for the trip.
"But Mom," Rose whispered. "Everyone will stare at us if he wears those."
I looked down at my pink girl blankly for a moment and thought, really? This is what you're worried about? People staring at us?
I'm certainly no stranger to staring. I used to think people were gawking at me because I look uncannily like Halle Berry and I figured they were wondering what she was doing unloading a dented recycling bin from her red minivan at the dump in New Hampshire instead of frolicking on the beach in Malibu or Hawaii or wherever it is she's always pictured in People magazine.
But then I realized. It's not because I look like Halle Berry. It's because of my kids.
We certainly don't have the most kids or even the cutest kids. But we do have very entertaining kids, and we usually draw a few stares whenever we go out. When we ate at the hotel buffet on our trip to Buffalo, two women turned their chairs to the opposite side of their small round table just to get a better view of our family. I can't imagine why. Jack had been obsessing about that buffet since we'd flew in the night before, and the second we walked in he raced to the stack of plates, grabbed two, and started piling on eggs and pancakes and toast, all while muttering "two minutes until it closes, two minutes until it closes," under his breath. The boy loves a good buffet.
People especially stare at us at airports. When we were trying to catch our flight home from the Disney Cruise, I saw a woman actually set her breakfast sandwich down in its greasy yellow wrapper so she could gawk as we raced by in a panic. This might have something to do with how I dressed all the kids in matching neon yellow t-shirts so we wouldn't lose track of them. Or because Henry had decided he was a puppy and started crawling through the terminal on all fours. Barking.
People also stare because I have an extraordinarily handsome husband. (Okay, I only added this part because I want Joe to let me buy a copper bathtub for our bathroom. But really, he is handsome.)
At least once a week people ask if the kids are all mine. I always hesitate a moment before I answer, you know, to build the suspense. And then I usually say something like, "Well, they say they are but I'm planning on getting a DNA test to make sure." Joe and I get asked a lot of different questions, but mostly people want to know if we have any twins in the group, if our daughter is the youngest, and whether or not we're crazy.
People stare the second Henry opens his mouth and starts booming, because he is an incredibly loud child and loves to sing all the verses to Thrift Shop at the very top of his lungs. "I gonna POP SOME TAGS!" (Luckily, he hasn't heard the explicit version.)
And obviously, people stare because of Jack. Since he was a toddler pitching enormous tantrums on the floor at Walgreens to a preschooler who could repeat whole commercials to a second-grader who remembered hundreds of birthdays, people have always been interested in him. And really, it's hard not to notice a boy who is zooming through the mall, galloping and stimming like a tornado.
To tell you the truth, staring and the questions that follow the staring don't bother me in the least. I am a big gawker myself; you might even say I am a consumer of human behavior. I love to look around when I'm out and see how people are dressed, what they're eating, what they're buying. If I didn't take note of those around me, I would have no idea that low-waisted jeans are all the rage and I might still be wandering around in my Z Cavariccis from the seventh grade. It's how we learn from each other.
I much prefer staring to the opposite of staring: not staring. I think not staring leads to worse things, like muffled giggles and whispers and labels and stereotypes. Misconceptions. But when someone is staring at you, there's a chance you can catch their eye and say, "Well, he has autism and this month he's obsessed with avocados. That's why he's piled forty-two of them in the cart." Then that person might say something like, "Oh, my niece's son has autism, and he is a handful!" And before you know it, you and the woman in the navy blue tennis skirt at Hannaford's are giggling over the avocado antics of a nine-year old boy and swapping recipes for guacamole.
And you walk out, pushing your cart with three bags full of avocados, smiling.
So, you can imagine my surprise that Rose was nervous we'd catch a few stares if Henry wore her shoes shopping. I wasn't sure how to tell her that staring doesn't bother us. That our family walks with pride regardless of how loud we are or how much we stim or what shoes we're wearing. It seemed too big of a message to explain to a five-year old. So I said the first thing that came to mind.
"Who cares? Let 'em stare."
And so Henry danced on out to the car and buckled in with a wide grin, shouting "I wearin' pretty shoes!"
But little did he know that ballet shoes are hard to walk in—he couldn't quite manage the flat sole and the bigger size. He shuffled along through Fresh Market like a glitter-clad platypus until I scooped him up and plopped him in the back of the cart, where he reclined lazily and let his sparkly footwear dangle over the sides while he ate a banana muffin. And people did stare, but I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled.
I'm sure Halle would've done the same thing.


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TAMPA, NOV. 10, 2019 – USF turned in another strong defensive effort by forcing 28 turnovers and collecting 18 steals, but Derryck Thornton scored a game-high 22 points to lead Boston College to a 74-60 victory Sunday afternoon at the Yuengling Center.
"Give Boston College a lot of credit. They really played well today and really hurt us on the glass. Mitchell dominated the game and only took four shots. He had 13 rebounds, five offensive, six assists and only one turnover. Thornton from the point guard position did a great job of running his team. We didn't defend well enough and we got out of sorts. We played really hard but kind of got over-juiced on our defense. Offensively, we've got to be able to make some open shots. We probably left 10 to 15 points on the rim on missed layups in the first half. You can't do that against the quality of opponents that we're now playing." ~ Brian Gregory
Nik Popovic finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, and Julian Rishwain added 11 points and three rebounds off the bench. David Collins led USF with 19 points and seven steals, while Laquincy Rideau had 14 points and Ezacuras Dawson III tied his career high with 11 points.
A Michael Durr free throw gave USF a 26-17 lead with 7:17 left in the first half, but Boston College closed on a 26-6 run and used a three-pointer at the buzzer by Popovic to build a 43-32 lead at halftime.
USF scored the first two baskets of the second half to trim the lead to seven on a jumper from Justin Brown and a layup by Rideau. Popovic answered for Boston College on the ensuing possession with a three-pointer to push the lead back to 10. USF cut the lead to single digits minutes later on a free throw by Rashun Williams, but back-to-back layups put the Eagles ahead 50-37.
We sincerely hope you enjoy flipping through the handpicked photos by David Gold. The Bulls kickoff the regular season is in full gear so be sure to check back right here after for more USF Basketball photos all season long!
All photos are courtesy of our photographer David Gold, Stephanie Manuri and Matthew Manuri so please respectfully enjoy our hard work, but kindly tag us on Instagram (@soflobulls), Facebook (@SoFloBulls), and Twitter (@SoFloBulls).
All media requests must be made directly to Matthew Manuri (firstname.lastname@example.com).
Key Stats
58.8 – Boston College shot 58.8 percent in the second half while holding USF to 32.4 percent.
18 – USF totaled 18 steals to tie for the eighth-most in a single game in school history.
28 – USF forced Boston College into 28 turnovers to record the eighth-most in a single game in school history.
107 – David Collins scored 19 points and is only 107 points shy from becoming the 20th member of the USF 1,000 point club.
131 – USF connected on six 3-pointers and has made at least one trey in 131 consecutive games.

subset: commoncrawl


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When Dr. Francis Sutter operates these days, about half the time you'll find him at the controls of a surgical robot, moving the arms that put in healthy arteries to do the work diseased ones can't handle any more.
When he started using the robot in 2006, it wasn't because it was new technology.
He realized the traditional open-heart method often failed to help people who needed it most - the very sick.
"You do perfect surgery, but it was so much trauma to the patient, they didn't do well," Dr. Sutter told us.
So he's doing more less-invasive cases - using a combination of robotic surgery and stents.
"Robotic surgery does the one thing that makes patients live longer - putting an artery inside the chest wall to the most important artery in the heart," says Dr. Sutter.
Dr. Sutter says there's no scientific evidence using it for other heart arteries increases long-term survival.
For them, he says stents do just as well.
Morrie Richfield, an author and businesman from Gulph Mills, who was the 1000-th patient, appreciates the more cautious approach.
He was willing to put up with chest pain to avoid open-heart surgery.
"The thought of being cut open and ripped to pieces, I'd never had any surgery before - so it scared the..... It scared me," Richfield says.
Although Dr. Sutter is proud of his milestone patient, he's just as proud of that first patient in 2006.
"He's still with us, and going strong," he says.
Dr. Sutter says the big gain for patients is getting back on their feet in about half the time as open-heart surgery.
For some that means going back to work, for others it means getting back into the gym faster.
He's now part of a government study to see how much difference the hybrid approach makes.


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Press Room
CAACI exhibits at the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE)
Published December 2015
George Town, Grand Cayman, (December 2015) – The Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI) exhibited at the National Business Aviation Association's annual Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) tradeshow, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in Las Vegas, Nevada on 17-19 November 2015. NBAA-BACE is the premier event and annual meeting venue for the business aviation community in the North American marketplace. This event brings together key business and corporate aviation stakeholders from around the world, including current and prospective business aircraft owners, aircraft manufacturers, service providers, government and private sector stakeholders into one meeting space.The show closed with more than 1,100 exhibitors and 27,000 attendees (representing 50 US States and 96 countries), making it the highest level of attendees since 2008. Additionally, the 2015 show featured approximately 100 aircraft at a sold out static display at Henderson Executive Airport, as well as several aircraft models on the show floor at the LVCC. Throughout the 3-day event, attendees and exhibitors had the opportunity to attend various educational seminars and press briefings designed to bring greater awareness to the newest trends such as unmanned aircraft systems (drones); NBAA was also the venue for the Inaugural National Safety Forum which highlighted the principal safety issues facing the business aviation community.
Director-General, P. H. Richard Smith remarked, "The NBAA 2015 tradeshow is a signature event for the CAACI in the promotion of the Cayman Islands Aircraft Registry. As we face increasing competition from other jurisdictions which have launched aircraft registries, it is critical that we are present and take a leadership position in the registration services we provide," continuing he commended the related aviation, legal and financial industry for their years of partnership, "Again this year, visitors to our booth commended the Cayman Islands on having well-rounded representation at NBAA, their questions on company incorporation, financing, legal matters and queries on flying into the jurisdiction could be answered along with enquiries on the registration process."
The delegation of Cayman Islands' business representatives jointly exhibiting with the CAACI at NBAA included Marcus Cumber of Island Air (local FBO operator) and Shari McField of Cayman-based law firm, Maples & Calder. Department of Tourism (DOT) and Stuarts Walker Hersant Humphries also provided brochures and information and giveaways to have on hand at the booth.
Each year CAACI offers partnership opportunities with the local business community to offer a prize package for a raffle at NBAA and would like to thank this years' sponsors: Cayman Airways Ltd, Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort & Spa, and The Wharf restaurant for kindly donating this year's prize package. Mr. Emanuel Farias of Regalia International Aviation Ltd was the lucky winner of this prize package.
To review the highlights for this event please visit NBAA website
Background info: The Civil Aviation Authority is the statutory body responsible for aviation regulatory (technical/safety and economic) oversight throughout the Cayman Islands and for aircraft registered in the Cayman Islands. The organization is headed by P.H. Richard Smith, the Director-General. The organization is comprised of four regulatory divisions: – the Air Safety Regulation division headed by Director Jerry Higgins; the Air Navigation Services Regulation division headed by Director Alastair Robertson; the Economic Regulatory and Administration division headed by Deputy Director-General, Nicoela McCoy; and the Finance & Compliance division headed by Director Jane Panton.
The CAACI has full designation for safety oversight as a UK Overseas Territory. In addition, the Cayman Islands is classified as Category 1 by the USA Federal Aviation Administration under their "International Aviation Safety Assessments" (IASA) programme that evaluates a country's civil aviation authority's ability to effectively regulate its aviation industry. This rating enables commercial air transport operators registered in Cayman to conduct international air transport operations, i.e, Cayman Airways, Ltd. The requirement for such rating lies with the CAACI being assessed as having technically qualified and appropriate administrative staff to effectively oversee the aviation industry in accordance with established standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Group photo of attendees during NBAA 2015:
L-R (FRONT ROW):– CAACI- Nikki McCoy, CAACI-Richard Smith, Maples-Shari McField, CAACI Joni Wood
L-R (BACK ROW): CAACI- Jerry Higgins, CAACI-Yolanda Pierson and Island Air-Marcus Cumber.


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Future freshers were met by students protesting the state of mental health services at the University of Stirling's Applicant Day.
Protesters gathered at the main entrance to the university and around campus to hand out leaflets to potential applicants, and discuss the issue of the state of mental health services.
The group were moved on from some locations by campus security officers and claimed that posters they had put up previously as part of the protest had been taken down.
The testimonials being distributed by protesters were anonymous from both students and staff about their negative experiences with mental health.
"People are killing themselves because it is so underfunded, and the impact on everyone's education is crazy, if your mental health is awful, your grades are awful and your whole future suffers."
Some testimonials highlighted how some students didn't feel comfortable approaching student support services;
"They have made me feel worthless and repeatedly made it clear they do not care for my physical or mental health and wellbeing."
The testimonials have also highlighted the experiences of staff members whose mental health is being harmed;
"This same system has led to staff confiding in me that they are too scared to disclose serious medical conditions.
"These are the same staff who routinely overwork, often admitting to working up to 70 hours a week and falling asleep at their keyboard."
Some people approached the protest praising their actions, whilst others criticised them for "damaging the university's reputation."
The protest group were invited to meet with the Head of Student Support Services Jill Stevenson and the Head of Accommodation Services, Joanne McManus, to discuss their protest and the issues that they were aiming to highlight.
The protestors spoke with staff for over an hour, raising student concerns surrounding waiting times and the quality of mental health services.
Throughout the meeting senior members of the protest group showed a willingness to work with student support service to stop myths and mistruths about mental health at Stirling becoming prominent, and to help promote the work of the new mental health and wellbeing strategy.
Both sides described the meeting as productive, as the protest group leaders will now have a chance to be part of the consultation for the university's new mental health strategy, which is currently being developed and is planned to be taken to university management in autumn.
After this meeting had taken place the decision was made to call off the protest early.
The leader of the protest said: "Today a number of students from a variety of back grounds took part in a protest against the lack of adequate mental health support and funding at the university of Stirling."
Daniel Deery said that he still had concerns over mental health services despite the meeting.
"During the day we met with representatives from the management and had a constructive discussion however we are still concerned about the attitudes and priorities if the most senior management at this University."
Abbey McLean, gave a comment on behalf of the whole protest group, outlying why they arranged the protest and the decision to hold it on Applicant's Day:
"We decided to stage a protest because we are becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of support for those who have been affected personally by this issue.
"We also believed that the protest would put pressure on the university and its reputation during applicant day, when it looked to reach out to a new student community.
"We were involved in a constructive meeting today and are now in the process of working with them to create change that works for everyone."
Sonny Bailey, the new Disability Officer posted about the protest on Facebook:
"This morning I took part on a mental health protest on campus which received positive response from counsellors and people visiting campus today.
"I'm utterly disappointed with upper management and their attitudes towards this massive student wide issue.
"Clearly more dialogue and outreach to the wider student body has to be one of the next actions.
"DSAS will be involved with examining the upcoming Mental Health Strategy Plan alongside other societies to ensure that the student voice is heard.
"Right now our position is clear. Mental health on campus is not being taken seriously and I will be involved with the future discussions surrounding it."
The University of Stirling released a statement about the protest, stating their commitment to student welfare;
"The wellbeing of our students is an absolute priority for the University and we encourage any students seeking support to access the range of support services available."
They spoke about how students will be involved with the development and implementation of the new mental health strategy.
"We are developing a new Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy, in partnership with the Students' Union and a range of partners, and will be working closely to engage students further in this process.
The University described the meeting as "constructive."
"The protest took place freely and peacefully and posters were displayed in the usual designated student spaces. Senior colleagues met with a small group of students on the day and held constructive discussions, resulting in the end of the protest and an agreement for ongoing dialogue."
Staff have already emailed the protest group with plans to discuss the mental health strategy and establish a student's forum on mental health.


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Stopping Land Grab and Attempted Bankruptcy Against America.
Our Constitutional Republics stand. How crime led to the cocaine cartel now, that must be arrested legally and lawfully to prevent more crime. It started out as fun and parties in 1989, and then succumbed to murder of media media mogul and others who stand for justice. They forced America to be a loser with what they are currently are conducting and must be arrested now. I am President gold and money back. Though Trump is silently deposed, his premeditated criminal behavior is clear here.
This presentation discusses the land grab and attempted bankruptcy scam that is being perpetrated against American citizens through individuals who are deposed technically and who stole election 2016 with the help of Russian resources and are currently working with them against American citizens nationally. I operate constitutionally for real elections, every day. We need elected representative government. This was updated to perfect it. Real estate and drug sales connector added with Maxwell murder added today. Please call me to interview me in person (760) 672-2028.
I want our Constitutional America restored without foreign influence harming American citizens. Panty parties with cocaine men will not stand here. They are outed in their entirety here.
For more informations, a video was taken by me of Deripaska's yacht close to a Chinese container ship that may have contained suspected cocaine on board months ago in San Diego. This is important to watch and no more taunting American Naval service members by China should be tolerated.


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About Beijing China
China City Guide
Beijing China
Duck, Peking Duck
Beijing Hutong Tour
Beijing Imperial Palace & Garden - 1 Beijing Imperial Palace & Garden - 2 Beijing Imperial Palace & Garden - 3 Beijing Ming Tomb Tour
Beijing YongheGong Lamasery
Beijing Zoo
Beijing Happy Valley Theme Park
Beihai Park Travel Guide
China Great Wall
City in Beijing
› Forbidden
Palace - Wumen Gate
› Three
Great Halls
› Nine
Dragon Wall
› Inner
Palace of Forbidden City
Wall of China
› Badaling
Great Wall & Mutianyu
› China Great Wall Tour
› Juyongguan
Great Wall & Simatai
Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan)
Peking Man at Zhoukoudian
Peking Opera (Beijing Opera)
Summer Palace - 1
Summer Palace - 2
Temple of Heaven - 1
Temple of Heaven - 2
Tiananmen Square - 1
Tiananmem Square Attractions - 2
Things to do in Beijing
Kong City Guide
Hong Kong History
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Districts
Hong Kong Lantau Island
Hong Kong Racing Museum
Hong Kong Science Museum
Hong Kong Space Museum
Hong Kong Discount Hotels
Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car Tour
Ocean Park Hong Kong
Prepare for Travel to Hongkong
Ride on the Hong Kong Star Ferry
So Much to See at Ocean Park
The Sights of Hong Kong
Things to do in Hong Kong
Things to See at Repulse Bay
Top Budget Hotels in Hong Kong
Trip to Hong Kong Museum of History
Victoria Peak
Visit Hong Kong Maritime Museum
Visit Hong Kong Victoria Peak
Wong Tai Sin
About Shanghai China
China city Guide
Shanghai History
Jade Buddha Temple
Pearl TV Tower
Much to do at Oriental Pearl Tower
Shanghai Bund &
Huangpu River
Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Shopping and Food
Shanghai Jin Jiang Amusement Park
Shanghai Visitors Guide
4 Must See Places in Shanghai
A Day at Shanghai Ocean Aquarium
Daytrip at Shanghai Animal Park
Staying in Shanghai Hotels
Xian City (Xian City Guide)
Amazing Xian Terracotta Museum
Banpo Village Museum
Huaqing Hot Springs
Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang
Maoling Mausoleum
Qianling Tomb of Xian
Qianling Tomb - Princess Yongtai
TerraCotta Army
Terra Cotta Archer & Chariot
Warriors - History
Mausoleum of Qin
Shi Huang
Tour of Terra
Cotta Museum
Xian City Wall
Travel China & China Tour
China Tourism
Chinese Food
& Cuisine - 1
Chinese Food
& Cuisine - 2
My Impressions
of China
The Tiananmen Square is located at the center of Beijing city. It is a brilliant symbol of confidence and self reliance of the Chinese nation, and it is also one of the most popular tour destinations in Beijing. The square itself is named after the Tiananmen Gate, which is translated as "Gate of Heavenly Peace". In ancient times, this was a forbidden area during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and was surrounded by palace walls on all sides. During the 1911 revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the Tiananmen Square became open to the public.
The Tiananmen Square is symbolically the heart of Beijing and China. It has a rich history witnessing several key events which shaped China into what it is today. The "May 4th Movement" began here in 1919, and the incident of March 18, 1926 and the movement of December 9, 1935 all took place in Tiananmen Square. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared the founding of the people's republic of China standing on the Tiananmen Gate tower.
Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world with a total area covering over 440,000 square meters, which can hold up to one million people. The Monument to the People's Heroes sits at the center of the Tiananmen Square. Below is a photo of the monument.
To the east and west of Tiananmen Square are the National Museum of China and the Great Hall of the People. To the south are the Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall and Zhengyang Gate.
Tiananmen Gate is a structure in traditional Chinese architectural style, located at the north of the square. It was first constructed in 1417, during the 15th year of Emperor Yongle's reign. Its original name was "Chengtianmen", meaning gate of Heavenly Succession. In 1651, under the reign of Qing Emperor Shunzhi, the Tiananmen gate tower was rebuilt and renamed to Tiananmen.
Today, the Tiananmen gate retains the basic style and look of the early Qing Dynasty gate. Tiananmen was the main entrance to the Imperial Palace (forbidden palace) during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Standing north and south of the gate are a pair of Huabiao which are ornamental architectures made from marble engraved with dragons and clouds. Two stone lions stand at the sides of Tiananmen Gate.
A photo showing the Huabiao and Stone Lion by the Tiananmen Gate.
The Monument to the People's Heroes stands in the very center of the Tiananmen Square. Construction took place between 1952 to 1958. It was built in memory of the people who died for the revolutionary cause. Built in the form of an obelisk, the monument is 37.94 meters tall. Its top is decorated with red stars, pine trees, and wreathes of flowers. Its sides are inscribed with writings by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.
More about Tiananmen Square in part 2.
>> Click here to discover how to get dirt cheap airfare tickets


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Property Owners
Property owners along the Costa Maya - Meet your Neighbors!
We feel it is a pleasure to introduce you to people who live and plan to live along the Costa Maya. Please do not use these e-mail addresses to send SPAM, but instead contact them and start up a conversation, learn from their mistakes and successes. If you want to be spotlighted, please contact us. Also check out a new Forum to talk to your neighbors. Costa MayaLIVE! Forum. Hopefully this will become a good place for conversation among neighbors.
Pam and Don Laurion
Location of Property: , Pulticub
(for those of you who don't know, Pulticub is located just south of
the Sian Ka'an at the end of the paved road.)
NOTE: even though Pam is still in the US, she is active on the Costa Maya Live message board and is organizing an Ubero-Pulticub property owners association.
Contact e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
David and Jacque Jaquith
Originally from: Lincoln Nebraska
"Jacque and I have been coming to the Yucatan for the past 23 years. Like all the other people that come for a week or so we dreamed of having a place on the beach someday. Most of our travels in the past years had not extended much further south than Tulum, so when we stumbled into a real-estate office on fifth Ave. in Playa six years ago and found ourselves in Majahual it was a new experience to say the least. We purchased a lot that day and we're excited to have a "piece of paradise" as they say. The next question that soon came to mind is what to do with it. For several years we would drive down and stay for the day and then drive back north to our hotel. It was much too far to really be of much practical use to us as the distance from the airport made it more than a one day trip. At some point I lost my mind and decided that if we built a house we would stay longer. So last December we started the house and as you can see are just about done. The whole process has been painless due to our contractor Guillermo Romero.
Jacque has a school for behavior disorder kids that I built and I had
built houses in the past, so we had some idea of what to expect. It's
still a long way to get to; but as we were spending New Year's Eve in
an exciting and entertaining Mexican resort hotel party, I looked up
at one point and saw the moon breaking through the clouds and thought
how nice it would be to be sitting in the palapa just enjoying the night
there. There is something to be said for that. Happy New Years from
Jacque and myself at Casa de Suenos lot 12 El Placer"
|Photo coming soon
Natalie Dale, John Vizard and
Originally from: Minneapolis, MN
Sept. 15, 2006
Joe Labor
Plans for property: "I plan
on renting the both units at first and then renting one side once I
move down permanently." (See picture at the right)
Bill Ellis and Tricia Nelson
Location of Property: , Sapphire,
Lot 8B approximately km 22 north of Mahahual
Contact e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Bill and Tricia Nelson
Kent Lancaster Family: Kent, Elizabeth, Cameron, Margaux, and Olivia
Location of Property: Placer, approximately
km 19.5 north of Mahahual
Contact e-mail: Please contact
us at Mayan Beach Garden if you are Costa Maya neighbors of the Lancasters
and would like to contact them
Kent, Elizabeth and Olivia, Cameron Margaux
Bruce and Gayle Houston
Property location: San Jose, Lots 10 and
11, or about 4 km south of the Placer access Road and 1.1 km South of
Mayan Beach Garden
Gayle and Bruce Houston 11/2005
Don and Jan Slahetka
Property location: Our lot is located
in Sapphire Beach , Lot 7a.
Contact info: firstname.lastname@example.com
Don and Jan Slahetka 12/2005
Wayne Kelly and Karla Nelson
Property location: Placer, approximately
21.5 km. north of Mahahual
UPDATE: Karla and Wayne beat their timeline and moved to the Costa Maya in November 2005. Now, their remodel is almost finished!
Wayne and Karla 10/2005
Kerry Vaughn
Property location: Approximately 19 km
north of Mahahual, lot #20
Picture coming
Bales - Kim and Marcia (owners of Mayan Beach Garden)
Property location: 21.5 km north of Mahahual
Kim and Marcia Bales, Aug., 2006
Hadfields - Pat and Leanne
Property location: 15 km south of Mahahual
Pat and Leanne Hadfield have provided a great diary of their property purchase and building process. As of July 2005 they are deep in the process of building their home. Hopefully I will soon add a picture of them, but they have supplied a picture of their home in the process of being built.
1988: Seventeen years ago we started our excellent adventure into Mexico. With supermarket coupons, we redeemed tickets to Mexico for $129.00 per person, and traveled to Puerto Escondido, south of Acapulco, to the placid resort of Hotel Santa Fe. Leanne still refers to this as "the time of her life". A quiet bay to the north, maverick waves to the south, with matching maverick surfers; thatched roof serenity in the open air hotel restaurant.. tropical breeze, sunbathing geckos and iguanas on the beach rocks, and always, the hushed sounds of the Pacific Ocean,
Fast forward to 2000. We've bought a time share in Cozumel, exchanged to most of the hot tourist spots on both shores of Mexico, and decided the Y in Yucatan stands for Yes! We contact Vicki at Playa Real Realty in Playa del Carmen to preview property in the new Cost Maya. We looked at Play property 5 years earlier, and have since had shoe-to-butt regrets. Vicki's partner sputters when we call to preview. Our host, Maryanne at Que Ondas Hotel in Akumal comes to the rescue. She contacts her Real Estate agent, Chucho, and it's off to the Costa Maya the next day.
Great beaches later, we make an offer on a site north of Xcalak, but the owner has withdrawn the property from the market. Electricity is coming, He wants more juice.
Later, we reconnect with Vicki from Playa Real. She shows us a patch of sand and sea her mother owns, 15 km south of Mahahual. We react like flipper in reverse mode and offer to buy.
2001: We make an emergency flight (read red-eye) to Cancun to confirm our fidecomiso purchase. An employee of the Notaria (Mexican attorney) has absconded with the funds for closing on the property. We get to the Notaria's office 30 minutes prior to closing on a Friday afternoon. We show our original documents to the Notaria. Al fin, we have Fidecomiso!
2002: We visit our property with our daughter and her boyfriend. Fellow gringos arrive to inform us this is not our property. Do we know our lot number? No.
2003: We arrange a Caribbean cruise, including day layover at the the new Costa Maya dock. We take a taxi ride to our property, with lot number in hand. Can't find the little markers, but land looks familiar. "Con cuidado" says our driver. What does he know? Later, we meet with Guillermo (Jose Guillermo Romero Pasos) at the new Pemex station to preview his tour of homes along the Costa Maya strip. We help unload a washing machine/dishwasher (quien sabe?) at his soon-to-be-completed project,he drops us off at the cruise ship dock, then returns to one of the job sites with a water problem. This is our kind of builder.
2004: We have cost estimates from Guillermo and decide to move forward. Guillermo applies for permits in October, which includes the Environmental Impact Study. We schedule a meet with G in December to choose tile. Our meeting does not go well. Our 10:00 A.M. appointment at job site conflicts with G's 1:00 P.M.
Our two ships pass in the day without a connect. At least we see surveyor's tape and markings to see where our property REALLY is.
That night, Pat calls Guillermo's home, speaks with family about our missed sita. For me, a phone conversation in Spanish is the same as interpreting airline arrivals and departures in Spanish. Lotsa luck. Que suerte! we meet with G the next day, sign contract, and pick tile.
Prior to our meeting, while in the states, I apply paint samples to a plywood round for our interior color choice. A new paint manufacturer, Devine Paint, lets me purchase a generous pouch of real paint, superior to the typical paint chips normally available. On our next trip in August, we'll bring colors-in-the-round to pick vegetation compatible exterior colors.
April 2005: G has permits in hand, including Environmental Impact Study. Manual back hoe dig-out begins (read shovels). G shows picture of wash-out of beach with potential of further erosion. We set house back an additional 5 meters. Surf eventually recedes.. We think Tsunami; who knows? G takes excess sand from the dig and deposits on the beach.
June 2005: SEMARNAT puts the kabosh on construction. G thinks somebody up there doesn't like him. Construction resumes in mid June. Mud is flowing over the cinder blocks in earnest. G says palapa roof should start next week. Caretaker house is substantially complete.
August 2005: We will meet with G, his attorney, and Jorge del Dios (solar panel guy). We'll choose fixtures, appliances, perhaps furniture. We're hip deep in the Big Muddy of construction. Life doesn't get any frothier than this.
We've decided to call our house "Viva Zapatos"
Dana, Suzanne, Ben (26), Josh (19) and Sierra (16) Tirado
Property location: lot numbers 17
& 18 of a group of lots that number from 1-40 located between Rio
Indio and El Placer.
The Tirados
Dana, Suzanne, Ben, Sierra and Josh June 2005
Kristine Garbo and Dick Bonner
Property location: Alma
6 lot 4A where the blue bucket is located -- about 4 km north of Uvero
beach club.
Dick Bonner and Kristine Garbo -
April, 2005
Updated: 22-Aug-2010
| Activities | Mayan
Ruins | Accommodations | Travel
Info | Costa Maya |
us via e-mail at email@example.com


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Belize Bread Crisis: Rising Costs and Calls for Government Action
Belize's Public Healthcare: Patients Struggle to Access Medicines Despite Fee Removal
A Call for Urgent Divorce Reform: Breaking the Chains of Chaos
Government's Borrowing Strategy Raises Concerns Amidst Repayment Claims
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Reimagining Belize's Political Landscape
The Fourth Estate: Unwavering Pillar of Democracy
Drug Cartels Change Tactics: Local Aircraft Stolen for Illicit Cargo
"Middle East Crisis: Striking a Balance Between Condemnation and Compassion"
It's Time to Prioritize the Will of the People
Belize Demands Urgent Action on Mental Health Care Amidst Pandemic Fallout
True Threats, Judging the Intent: If it's a crime, it should provide Equal Protection for All Belizeans
Raising Awareness: Addressing Child Labor in Belize, especially in the Hispanic Community
Belizeans Demand Government Action as Corn Grain Exports Drive Up Tortilla Prices Locally
"Belize at 42: Government Priorities and Public Concerns in the Spotlight"
Prosecutors' Sickout Prompts Government Response on Compensation and Security
Minister of National Defence Honored for Strengthening Ties with Louisiana National Guard
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Tribute to George Cadle Price - Father of Belizean Independence
"Striking the Balance: Prioritizing Belizean Well-being Alongside Economic Growth"
Annual Sarstoon Island Event: Balancing Act Amid Diplomatic Concerns
Urgent Call for Government Action: Third Suicide in 12 Hours Raises Alarms
"U.S.-Belize Collaboration Bolsters Regional Fight Against Transnational Crime"
U.S.-Belize Partnership Regional Response to Migration and Security Challenges
Resignation Marks End of Ruth Shoman's Brief Tenure as B.N.T.U. President
"Beyond Rhetoric: Bridging the Gulf Between Government Priorities and Public Dreams"
Catalyzing Opportunities for Growth and Sustainability
Prominent Attorney Criticizes New and Exponential Penalties for Marijuana Trafficking
Denial or Distraction? Cartel Infiltration in Belize Amidst Authorities' Controversial Response
Shifting Diplomatic Landscape: Central American Parliament's (PARLACEN) Decision Reflects Evolving Regional Alliances
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Winds of Change: Bernardo Arévalo Triumphs in Landmark Guatemalan Election … a Stinging Rebuke Against Corruption
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Belize's High Court Landmark Ruling Shakes Up Belize's Sugar Industry
Uniting for Justice: A Call for Collaborative Efforts in Criminal Justice Reform
Allan Pollard: A Visionary Newcomer Outlines Three Pillars for Belize City's Future
Census Before Redistricting: A Prudent Path to Fair Representation
Belizean Citizens Call for Competent Commissioner as Crime and Violence Continue Unabated
Government's Bold Move to Control Food Prices Receives Acclaim Amidst Rising Costs
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The workplace and suicide prevention
Centre for Suicide Prevention
The workplace is a major part of the lives of most Canadians. Many of us spend upwards of 60% of our waking hours at work (Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, 2016). Therefore, when a colleague dies by suicide the emotional and financial costs are enormous not only to family members, but to co-workers and the organization itself. Workplaces need to have measures in place to inform and educate about suicide. It is an issue that cannot be ignored.
This toolkit is a collection of facts, figures, and best preventative practices regarding suicide in the workplace.
Workplace warning signs
People who are suicidal typically exhibit warning signs. In the workplace, these changes may be identified as a person:
- Being very happy after a period of depression;
- Acting more aggressive or stressed out than usual (e.g. lashing out at people);
- Commenting on being tired all the time, being noticeably fatigued;
- Commenting about being a burden to others (e.g. "Everyone would be better off if I wasn't here");
- Not showing up for work as often or being absent for periods of time (absenteeism); and
- Not being as productive as usual, being un-motivated (presenteeism).
Some warning signs require more immediate action than others. If someone is exhibiting the following warning signs, call 9-1-1:
- Talking about wanting to die or to kill oneself; and
- Looking for a way to kill oneself or already having a plan.
(American Association of Suicidology, 2017)
Occupations with high suicide rates
People in occupations where some of the following factors are present generally have higher suicide rates:
- easy access to lethal means (e.g. guns, pesticides);
- exposure to chemicals (e.g. pesticides) that can cause mood or behaviour impairments;
- high workplace stress (e.g. trauma, dangerous working conditions);
- job insecurity (e.g. contract work);
- low wages;
- stressors related to gender imbalance (women working in traditionally male-dominated industries); and
- inconsistent work schedule (e.g. shift work) which can cause a disruption of family routine, inconsistent sleep patterns and other challenges; and
- isolation in the workplace.
Occupations with the highest rates of male suicide include (per 100,000):
- Construction workers (53.2);
- Installation, maintenance, and repair workers (39.1); and
- Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers (32.2).
Occupations with the highest rates of female suicide include (per 100,000):
- Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media professionals (15.6);
- Protective services (e.g. police) (12.2); and
- Health care support (11).
(Peterson et al., 2018)
More research is needed to understand occupation-specific risk factors and develop evidence-based programs for the workplace (Tiesman, et al., 2015).
Suicide prevention at work
Prevention measures
- Employee assistance programs or human resource departments are available to help employees access mental health services (SPRC, 2013)
- Promotion of mental health (such as paid mental health days, sufficient vacation time, benefits that acknowledge both physical and mental health services)
- Suicide prevention awareness and training
- Fostering a culture where help-seeking is encouraged
How to talk to a co-worker you think may be suicidal
- Mention you have noticed changes in their behaviour and that you are concerned about them
Hey, you seem to be a bit overwhelmed with all the work you've been getting lately. I notice you are a bit more distracted than usual and I'm a bit worried about you. Are you okay?"
- Ask them directly if they are having thoughts of suicide and if they a plan to kill themselves,
Sometimes when people feel overwhelmed they think of any way possible to escape their situation. Sometimes they even think about killing themselves. Are you thinking about suicide?"
- Connect them with resources in your organization (e.g. human resources, the employee assistance program or another mental health professional) or resources in your community.
(Suicide Prevention Resource Center, 2013)
After a suicide at work
When a suicide occurs in the workplace people in leadership roles need to respond swiftly and appropriately.
Immediately after a suicide, leadership should:
- send their condolences to the deceased person's family;
- ask family members if they are comfortable with the leadership acknowledging the death as a suicide to other members of the organization;
- communicate the death to employees while respecting the family's wishes; and
- follow any existing crisis response policy guidelines.
In the days and weeks following the suicide, leadership should:
- identify those employees most impacted by the death and ensure they receive the grief support they need;
- offer psychological resources and supports to all employees; and
- decide whether or not to memorialize the deceased.
In the months and years following the suicide, leadership should:
- ensure preventative measures (previously listed) are put in place.
(Carson J. Spencer Foundation, 2013; Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, 2016)
Bullying in the workplace
Workplace bullying can contribute to:
- anxiety;
- panic attacks;
- depression; and
- higher risk of suicide for those already experiencing suicidal risk factors (e.g. previous attempts, family history of suicide, substance abuse).
Bullying includes:
- repeated intimidating or abusive behaviour;
- assertion of power through aggression; and
- calling attention to or mocking a person's perceived shortcomings (including psychological or physical disabilities).
Bullying does not include:
- expressing differences of opinion;
- offering constructive feedback, guidance, or advice about work‑related behaviour; and
- reasonable management actions (e.g. managing a worker's performance, disciplinary actions, assigning work).
(Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2017; Workplace Mental Health Promotion, 2017)
Breaking the silence in the workplace: A guide for employers on responding to suicide in the workplace
Irish Hospice Foundation
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
A Manager's Guide to Suicide Postvention in the Workplace: 10 Action Steps for Dealing with the Aftermath of Suicide
Carson J. Spencer Foundation
Content from this toolkit was used to create our presentation for the Mental Health Commission of Canada's Suicide prevention in the workplace webinar, available online.
The American Association Suicidology (2017). Know the warning signs of suicide. Retrieved from http://www.suicidology.org/resources/warning-signs
Anielski, M. (2015). The cost of suicide to Alberta. Retrieved from http://www.anielski.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Suicide-and-Unemployment-in-Alberta.pdf
Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention. (2016). Becoming a suicide-safer workplace. Retrieved from http://suicideprevention.ca/understanding/workplace/becoming-a-suicide-safer-workplace/
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health. Bullying in the workplace. Retrieved from https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/bullying.html
Carson J. Spencer Foundation, Crisis Care Network and the American Association of Suicidology (2013). A manager's guide to suicide postvention in the workplace: 10 action steps for dealing with the aftermath of suicide. Denver, CO: Carson J. Spencer Foundation
Institute for Work and Health. (2010). Probing the link between occupation and risk of suicide. At Work, 61. Retrieved from https://www.iwh.on.ca/at-work/61/probing-the-link-between-occupation-and-risk-of-suicide
Mental Health Commission of Canada. (2013). Making the case for investing in mental health in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/sites/default/files/2016-06/Investing_in_Mental_Health_FINAL_Version_ENG.pdf
Mustard, C., Bielecky, A., Etches, J., Wilkins, R., et al. (2010). Suicide mortality by occupation in Canada, 1991-2001. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(6), 369-376.
Peterson, C., Stone, D., Marsh, S., Schumacher, P., Tiesman, H., McIntosh, W., Lokey, C., Trudeau, A., Bartholow, B. & Luo, F.(2018). Suicide Rates by Major Occupational Group — 17 States, 2012 and 2015. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(45), 1253-1260. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a1.htm?s_cid=mm6745a1_e
Stuckler, D., Basu, S., Suhrcke, M., Coutts, A. & McKee, M. (2009). The public health effect of economic crises and alternative policy responses in Europe: An empirical analysis. The Lancet, 374, 315-323.
Suicide Prevention Resource Center. (2015). Costs of suicide. Retrieved from http://www.sprc.org/about-suicide/costs
Suicide Prevention Resource Center. (2013). The role of co-workers in preventing suicide in the workplace. Retrieved from https://www.iasp.info/pdf/special_interest_groups/workplace/coworkers_suicide_prevention.pdf
Tiesman, H., Konda, S., Hartley, D., Menendez, C., Ridenour, M. & Hendricks, S. (2015). Suicide in U.S. workplaces, 2003-2010. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 48(6), 674-682.
Workplace Bullying Institute. (2007). Workplace Bullying Survey. Retrieved from http://www.workplacebullying.org/research/WBI-Zogby2007Survey.html
Workplace Mental Health Promotion. (2017). Harassment, violence, bullying and mobbing. Retrieved from http://wmhp.cmhaontario.ca/workplace-mental-health-core-concepts-issues/issues-in-the-workplace-that-affect-employee-mental-health/harassment-violence-bullying-and-mobbing


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Who will you follow this #teachertuesday?
If this is your first visit, then I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, in which I post some of my favorite tweets, which either are thought-provoking or provide useful educational technology links. Click on the images to see the original tweet and add these individuals to your Personal Learning Network (PLN). Moreover, you will find links and snapshots of their blogs by clicking on their names! If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!
Why Twitter?
As you tackle a new school year, several educators will ask you this question. People in my PLN weekly share useful information to help answer this question. Candace Townsley (@GiftedTeecher) provided a link to Christine Morris' post on using Twitter as a teaching tool for her college class. Christine provides tips to motivating students to use Twitter and the opportunities Twitter provides for real time research. She also discusses the obstacles she faced and offer tips for improvement. Check out Candace Townsley's blog!
Mark Oehlert (@Moehlert) provided a unique way to use Twitter when giving presentations. Several conventions, workshops, webinars, seminars, and conferences are using hashtags for Twitter. After giving a presentation, check the hashtags and analyze what your audience really grasped from the event. What a fantastic idea! Encourage your audience members to tweet during the discussion. Not only does this get you publicized, but your audience will remember the majority of your points. Mark Oehlert provides more great advice in his blog!
This tweet by Crista Anderson (@cristama) I thought would fit nicely on a coffee mug! Visit Crista Anderson's blog for more of her witty reflections! Often, I do get sidetracked by the thought-provoking discussions or useful links providing by my PLN. However, as Nancy Blair (@Blairteach) points out, "At least it's productive procrastination." With this tweet series, I have to say I am definitely being productive with my tweets. Visit Nancy Blair's blog for more of her great insights!
A Video Inspiring Global Collaboration
This summer I participated in several global collaborations and established relationships with educators in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Australia, Japan, France, and the US. For this reason, I had to share the Matt international dance video tweeted by Isabelle Jones (@ICPJones) and Michael Fawcett (@TeacherNZ), which is more than inspiring! Matt began a video dancing in several countries. Sometimes he asked people to join him. Check out Isabelle Jones' blog!
Michael Fawcett joined other educators from New Zealand to create their own dance video, which were inspired by the Matt videos. The video collaboration was fun and inspirational that I had to include the actual video from the website as well! Check out Michael Fawcett's class blog for other amazing projects he does with his students!
Cool Link for the School Year!
Have you ever wondered what your students can do with the various Web 2.0 tools you learned about this summer? Larry Ferlazzo gives inspiration by providing you with a link, which demonstrates how his students use several of the Web 2.0 tools he tweets and updates daily on his blog! Larry's post provides categories of Web 2.0 tools and lists the best student projects under each category. For additional examples of his students' amazing work you may want to visit his English website!
Have you missed my previous favorite tweets of the week? Just click here for the posts!
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:
- Gr8 Edu-tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.
- Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
Share the value of Twitter with at least one member of your school community this month!
Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!


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Saba Qamar is famous Pakistani actress, model and host. Saba Qamar is getting success day by day. She has done a number of hit dramas and has also worked in upcoming movie Manto. She has shown different looks in Dramas like Bunty I love you, Digest writer and S.H.E which is a hit comedy drama on aired on GEO TV these days. Here we have Saba Qamar's latest photoshoot for her upcoming project of Faheem Burni. Have a look to Saba Qamar's latest photoshoot.
See Saba Qamar's latest photoshoot for upcoming project!
Also see: Maria wasti's latest photoshoot.


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The stock markets fell across the world today. We saw the biggest two-day decline in the S&P 500 since 2008, and the S&P 500 Index itself is at a twelve month low. Europe is teetering and it's not just Greece anymore, not even the very scary Italy that is befuddling the markets. Doubts are beginning to be cast on powerhouses France and Germany and, of course, the euro is in shambles.
In the U.S. the volatility of our markets is at historic highs – day after day the markets spasm violently like the death throes of some giant leviathan. We are down 7% in the last 4 days, a kind of uncertainty you see in Banana republics. The economy is unable to generate any momentum, unemployment hovers at 20,000,000 people and 46,000,000+ are below the poverty line.
What's going on? You will hear a lot of nonsense explanations from pundits – like it was the Fed speech of Wednesday or an unemployment number blip. But you must understand the deep, deep malaise that affects us and that we seem unwilling to address. The most articulate expression of this came from Dylan Ratigan, who has an extraordinary financial commentary and news coverage at 1:00 pm (albeit on MSNBC). Try him if you want some sensible, fact driven analysis of the markets. He beats the pants off of Fox Business News or CNBC.
Here's a paraphrase of what he says:
Our market volatility, instead of being driven by irrational fear, is in fact exquisitely rational. This is because the stock market knows that the underlying foundation of the financial system is completely bankrupt, shored up by little or no capital, regulatory requirements or transparency. The entire risk in the financial markets comes from a large chunk of it (99% or even more) remaining dark – outside the exchanges and unregulated by capital requirements, or reporting, or grown-up supervision. This segment includes $600 trillion dollars worth of credit default swaps* (see explanation at bottom) and thousands of other complex instruments, derivatives, private hedge funds and high frequency trading mechanisms.
So the stock market cannot adequately assess risk or or do a rational valuation of its assets. The largest chunk of the risk comes from outside its purview – the dark financial sector which is private, complex and corrupt. Thus the extreme volatility we are seeing today.
Yet our government continues to insure the financial system with its full faith and credit, buoying up a corrupt, too-big-to-fail, technically arcane, private Ponzi scheme by underwriting it and implicitly promising to rescue it when it inevitably fails. Rescuing it at any cost, even to the point of complete financial collapse of our huge economy!
The way we dealt with the multi-trillion dollar banking collapse of 2008 was by printing huge amounts of money, flooding the financial sector with easy trillions courtesy of the tax payer, provide government bond insurance and government direct injections of capital and continuing the decade old harnessing of Uncle Sam to cover up the underlying flaw in the financial system. Instead of resolving it by pushing the complex derivatives markets into regulated exchanges and pushing capital requirements back into the banking system.
None of the underlying problems that led to disaster were resolved.
It was like you have a big fight with your family, find out that your sibling is stealing all your money, and instead of confronting the problem pretending that it's not happening, giving him even more money and starting to take drugs to not have to think about it!
This has been a festering decade old problem, since 2000, when under President Clinton, a $600 trillion Credit Default Swaps market was invented by Larry Summers and Robert Rubin under the Commodity Futures and Modernization Act (CFMA) which created the highly technical, hugely risky, and dark, derivatives markets – i. e. no exchanges or reporting requirements and no capital requirements for risk. Some of it was a useful tool in hedging risks for legitimate financial activity but a vast, vast majority of it is idle, zero-sum speculation and because we cannot tell which part is useful and which bogus the tax payers continue to pay off for this $600 trillion dollar casino.
In 2009 our current administration tried to attack the problem by passing the so called Dodd Frank Consumer Protection Act – the creation of an oversight body to curb these underlying flaws and dismantle the casino. It was done in a watered down way, leaving much of the reform to be done in the future by the new Agency created for this purpose. Even this watered down action to fix our pathetic financial sector is now being reversed by the Republicans in Congress whose theology does not permit any reform and who are wholly bought puppets of the financial industry.
But this is not a Republican vs Democratic issue at the big picture level (although the Republican solutions are far, far worse). The Democrats have no desire or ability to make changes either. This shows the extreme power of big money to control our political process – although frankly even the big money interests must now be getting nervous at the extreme instability of the financial house of cards that we have in the Western economies.
Who is the boss? We had hoped it would be Barak Obama. But he has proved unequal to the task. Our economy continues to be schizophrenic with the top handful raking in all the benefits, and at the bottom 20% having inadequate or no jobs, the middle class shrinking and zero-sum financial games replacing sound economic activity. Obama's speeches on how he will create jobs, although better than the clueless schemes of the Republicans, seem hollow in the big context. They sound like someone trying to bail out the Titanic with a thimble.
Oh well. It's a beautiful September day in the Bay Area. What am I carping about? It's my birthday and I am flooded with good wishes and warm friends. Mustn't complain.


text:
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When we make a tree preservation order it takes effect immediately and lasts for six months. A notice and a copy of the order are then made available for viewing and making representations.
Before the six months expiry of the order, the development management sub committee must consider the order along with any representations and decide whether to confirm the order.
New orders can be viewed below along with a notice advising
- the reasons for making the order
- how representations can be made
- the date by which representations must be made.
View recent tree preservation orders.
View a map showing all tree preservation orders in the city.


text:
3 Drukarska Street: Ghost Signs, Fruit Liqueurs, Postal Pies
The building at 3 Drukarska Street was built c. 1543, and was owned by Stanislaw Schtansl Scholtz. The building later become known as "Under the Mother of God" because of a statue of the Virgin Mary on the façade. In 1858 the building housed the St. Sophia Association of the […]Read More


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This page lists some of the more frequently asked questions about the Nucleus Project, specifically the Essentials like plugin that we publish for Sponge servers.
/help command!
/back telling me there is nowhere to warp to?
/rtp or some other teleport to a place no player has gone before!
Nucleus is, quite simply, the Ultimate Essentials Plugin for Sponge! Nucleus was born to bring a modern, modular and feature-rich Essentials style plugin that makes Sponge a viable choice for all server owners to cover the basics, whether they be vanilla servers or modded servers. It lets you get on with making your server unique with a solid base you can trust!
If you want more information on Sponge, see their website and documentation.
You sure can get that help! Come visit us on Discord - click here and you'll be with us in no time! But please, take the time to read the rest of this FAQ too.
No, not at this time.
Not yet, but it is being worked on - v2 will contain the backbone for this.
Unfortunately so. See our compatibility page for more details - we will update this list as we find more.
No. You will need a separate permissions plugin if you wish to use permissions to manage your server.
Yeah, 1000 permission nodes can be daunting, and there is nothing stopping you, but we honestly recommend you do not. If you do so, the following things will happen:
Other plugins may also not function as intended, a good example is GriefPrevention. So, please, don't use the wildcard.
For more information on why this is bad, read this article on why you shouldn't use it, including background information on what Bukkit did
Instead, Nucleus offers a way to setup our suggested permission sets, that should get you off the ground. You can read more about it at this documentation page, but the gist of it is that you should setup your user, mod and admin groups, then run the following command on each:
/nucleus setupperms [USER|MOD|ADMIN] <groupname>
You can then tweak your permissions as you see fit. The permissions that get loaded with the
NONE set are highly specialised, we do not
recommend you actually grant these unless you are SURE you know what you are doing.
USER gives permissions to:
/afk, allowing themselves to be marked as AFK
/me, to be able to write "action chat" (such as
dualspiral wrote these docs)
/helpop to message staff
/realname to find out what a player's IGN is from a nickname
/itembuy and
/spawn and
/tpa, accept and deny requests, and use
/tptoggle to blanket deny requests.
/warp to teleport to any available warp point (but if enabled, only to those they are given explicit permissions for).
/getpos to get their own position
MOD gives permission to:
/tpahere to request someone to teleport to them.
ADMIN gives permission to:
As the
ADMIN set spans about 900 permission nodes, please forgive me for not listing it all here!
If you are using FTB, FTB Utilities also tries to format the chat, with the result that player names appear twice. If you wish to use Nucleus' chat formatting,
you should turn off FTB Utilities handling. The ranks config file is in the
local directory, set the following options to false:
Then reload the FTB Utilities plugin or restart your server.
Yes! Nucleus has a system which wraps up the functions into units called "modules". So, if you have a better banning plugin, turn off the ban module! Something else does chat? Turn off the chat module!
The modularisation of Nucleus allows for exciting plugin combinations
To turn off a module, in
/config/nucleus/main.conf, scroll to the
modules section and set the module to
DISABLED. Then restart your server.
/help command!
Nucleus does not touch the
/help command.
/help is a Sponge command - please see the Sponge Docs for more information (and permissions).
It's important to note that no minecraft command is actually turned off. To access a vanilla Minecraft command hidden by Nucleus, you can use
/minecraft:<command>, such as
If you would rather have Minecraft use the command, but keep Nucleus' available, use Sponge's command alias feature.
In Sponge's
global.conf file, find the
sponge.command.aliases section, and add
<command>=minecraft to the list.
So, to set
/kill to redirect to Minecraft, your aliases section should look like this:
aliases {
kill is then available through
If you want to turn off Nucleus' command completely without turning off the whole module, you can turn it off in
A BungeeCord plugin is probably taking over the command. The only thing you can do in this case is disable the command on your proxy, which might involve disabling the whole plugin.
In these scenarios, you can still use
/n[command] (replacing
[command] with the name of the command),
or if it has an alias, the alias.
Most of Nucleus' commands support warmups, cooldowns or costs. All the settings are in the
/config/nucleus/commands.conf file, see
our page on this for more information.
Note that you can either do this on a global basis by changing the
commands.conf file, or on a per
player/group basis using permission options.
Yes, you can. This is described in the Connection Messages module documentation.
This is entirely dependent on your Permissions plugin. While Nucleus has a lot more to offer in terms of chat formatting, and we recommend that you look at the chat module documentation pages, by default, Nucleus will display prefixes, display names and suffixes in the chat message. Therefore, you just need the to set the prefix options in your prefix options, select commands for sample permission plugins are provided here.
For a user:
For a group:
This is implemented as the permission option/meta
home-count, rather than a specific permission for performance reasons.
Consult your permission plugin on how to set this option, but for reference, commands for popular permission managers are shown below:
For users:
For groups:
You can read more about the home module here.
/back telling me there is nowhere to warp to?
/back was designed to be more flexible than previous plugins, but that also means that configuring it can take a few more steps. If it
isn't working, make sure you check the following:
main.conf at
back.* are set as you expect them to be.
By default, Nucleus overrides this behaviour if you have custom spawn rules set. If you want bed spawns to override other
respawn logic, set
spawn.affect-bed-spawn to
false and reload the config.
Minecraft has a special spawn logic for new players:
You can fix this by running
/gamerule spawnRadius 0 (shoutout to Karaga for discovering this!)
Have you got any chat management plugins installed? These plugins tend to override what Nucleus is doing, and while Nucleus tries to be as compatible as possible, some plugins do interfere, from duplicating sections to completely blowing away all of Nucleus' formatting.
Before reporting this to the Nucleus issue tracker (see below), please remove ANY chat management plugin and test without. SimpleChat and UltimateChat, to name some of the more popular plugins, do alter the chat and can cause surprise to the server owners! While we can try to give you help in these scenarios, please bear in mind that anyone in the Nucleus Discord channel are there for Nucleus. That said, developers of some of these other plugins are also in our Discord channel and can help you directly too.
/rtp or some other teleport to a place no player has gone before!
Chunk generation is slow. A general recommendation by most of the community is to do what is known as "pre-generation" of your world. Pre-generation creates chunks in your world before they are needed, so when someone does reach that chunk, it just has to be loaded, rather than generated first. This, in general, offers a moderate performance gain, however, do be careful to not pregenerate a large world!
Nucleus offers a way to do this in the
world module. If you're running a 1.10.2 server, we recommend installing the
Nucleus Mixins plugin before attempting this, as this can provide moderate speedup of pre-generation.
The command
/world border gen [-a] [--save <time>] [world] allows you to pre generate
up to your world border. We recommend setting your world border to be about a 4000 block diameter around your spawn point (using the command
/world border set 4000 when stood at the centre), and then running
/world border gen. This will generate your world, using 80% of the tick
time and save every 20 seconds.
If you want to try to run the pre-generation faster, you can change the same interval to be much higher, and run in "aggressive" mode. Adding
-a to the command indicates aggresive mode, where 90% of tick time is dedicated to the generation routines, and memory checks are turned off.
To increase the save interval, add
--save <time> to your command, many server owners choose save intervals of two minutes.
Some configurations are:
/world border gen -a --save 1m - aggressive mode, 1 minute save intervals.
/world border gen -a --save 5m - aggressive mode, 5 minute save intervals.
/world border gen --save 2m - normal mode, 2 minute save intervals, usually used for live servers (which we do not recommend).
We recommend you do this on a server with no players on!
If you get an error that states "An error occurred while running this command", or Nucleus does something weird when you perform an action, please do the following (make sure you have console and filesystem access):
main.conf, set
core.debug-mode to
true and run
/nucleus reload.
/nucleus info on your server, and get the file it generates.
That's it! The developers may ask for more information, they will direct you on how to get this info if it's needed.
Absolutely, we'd love to have you on board. We have JavaDocs for our API, but if the API you want doesn't exist, or you want help with the integration, the developers are frequently on Discord.
We certainly do! This information is posted on all feature release notes where the API will have changed.
The repo is available at
https://repo.drnaylor.co.uk/artifactory/minecraft/, you want the
nucleus-api artifact, which contains the API
interfaces we will keep stable.
You can also use JitPack as your repo too, be sure to select the
nucleus-api artifact.


text:
Your home is your sanctuary. It's where you come at the end of the day to rest and reflect. It's more than a place to hang your hat. It's an extension of who you are.
When you know yourself, you're not about to be content with the banal or boring. That just won't cut it. You're unique and you want your home to reflect that.
A key way to achieve a home environment which reflects your lifestyle, ambitions and personal taste is custom furniture. It's served up just the way you like it in terms of style, color, texture and size. What could more aptly express your vision than furniture that's been created to do just that?
This post address how to use custom furniture in your NJ/NYC home to make it both a statement and sanctuary.
Re-creating space.
Let's start in the living room, where custom furniture can make all the difference in the room's aesthetic.
Ask yourself what the room's focal point is. This is the most compelling and noticeable feature of the room and everything else in it should acknowledge and enhance it.
Your focal point might be a fireplace, or a large picture window. If you can't identify a strong focal point, you may need to create one with a striking painting, print, or wall hanging.
This is where custom furniture comes in. How to use custom furniture in our NJ/NYC home is to punch up the volume of your focal point, making it even more striking and pleasing than it already is. Regardless of what that point is, custom furniture allows you to highlight it and enhance its eye-appeal.
If your focal point is a fireplace, choose a sofa which is scaled to your living room. Choose a color which works with the dominant material in the fireplace and then, select a style which works with the vision you're creating. You may see an overstuffed sofa there. But consider the lines of the room before going for something which appeals to you, which may be at odds with the room's structure.
Build on the idea.
Once your custom sofa is in place, how will you complement it? Consider chairs instead of another sofa. Create a conversational area with a large area rug in a vibrant color which either complements or contrasts with your custom sofa and anchors the area.
Select a coffee table to scale, made of a material which again acknowledges the focal point, creating harmony. See a table you love, but don't particularly like the material it's made of? If you've seen it online, bookmark it and then check the image against other tables which may be closer to your vision. Once found, ask the sales floor staff at the store where you've found it if the table can be made to order.
Remember – custom furniture is going to be around a long time. When chosen carefully, custom furniture is a smart investment in your home and lifestyle.
Looking for something special? Look to Michelangelo Designs.


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
OK, Google: Why does Chromecast clobber Wi-Fi connections?
Router vendors sling firmware to protect users from packet floods
Wi-Fi router vendors have started issuing patches to defend their products against Google Chromecast devices.
TP-Link and Linksys were first out of the blocks with firmware fixes, and TP-Link has posted this explanation of the issue.
The bug is not in the routers, but in Google's "Cast" feature, used in Chromecast, Google Home, and other devices. Cast sends multicast DNS (MDNS) packets as a keep-alive for connections to products like Google Home, and it seems someone forgot to configure the feature to go quiet when Chromecast devices are sleeping.
That, at least, is how Vulture South reads the issue that TP-Link's engineer described:
"These packets normally sent in a 20-second interval. However, we have discovered that the devices will sometimes broadcast a large amount of these packets at a very high speed in a short amount of time. This occurs when the device is awakened from the 'sleep mode', and could exceed more than 100,000 packets in a short amount of time."
It continues: "The longer your device is in 'sleep', the larger this packet burst will be."
If left alone long enough, TP-Link warned, the burst will fill up the router's memory and leave a reboot the only option to restore connectivity.
As a poster to this Reddit thread noted, MDNS uses UDP – and UDP doesn't have congestion control.
Linksys posted its firmware update here, while Netgear acknowledged the issue and put up a beta firmware release here.
ASUS users may also be affected.
It should be noted that the router vendors' fixes are mitigations while the world waits for Google to patch Cast. ®
UPDATE: The Register understands that Google has admitted to the flaw, said it impacts a "small number" of users, and committed to providing a fix in short order.


text:
Thousand is the natural number, which is often written with a comma separating the thousands unit. The symbol K is sometimes used to denote thousand. This page provides you the conversion tool from thousand to million, lakh and crore.
Online converter provides quick answers for thousand to million, lakh and crore conversions. Make use of this converter page for higher scale to lower scale representations and vice versa.


text:
Clocks slow to a crawl time creeps it's deceit
Some days lack ambition no spring in my seat
Pounding heart sure to cave won't endure it's fatigued
Need mighty endowment strength stability proceed
This pen hits the paper racing heart slowly calms
I believe in my words the sweat dries from my palms
Trembling hands quieten be sturdy as steel
I take a deep breath... Now to enjoy how I feel
Shane Aaron
Dec 7 2013
comfortably nestled in between two rocks
above the stillness overlooking the small village
flattened black tar rooftops
steep cobblestone paved streets
winding around the southern tip of the mountain
a bicycle ride away
too far to touch the bitter memories
my gaze is locked into a numbing trance
time stands still
when all confidence has left you,
and you feel bereft of love,
forsaken by those who claimed they cared,
that's when i'll fit you like a glove.
i'll wait behind your neediness,
and use arrogance, he's my friend,
i'll have you projecting all of me
onto children, women, and men.
that's when i do my finest work,
and all of me i'll bring,
when others up and leave you,
i'll infect you, and do my thing.
my presence will be cunning,
my manipulation sly,
i'll have you wrapped around me,
you won't even ask yourself why.
the more of you i can consume,
the larger we become,
to contaminate all is what i want,
'cause YOUR pain, to me, is FUN!
a fiendish scowling wimp, you see,
a psychopath, my dear,
enjoying all your suffering,
your kidnapper...i'm fear.
fear is the king
of a coward's delight,
fear rules illusions
that cloud all fools' sight,
fear wants compliance
adoration and praise,
fear becomes arrogance
when you challenge his gaze,
turning the tables around
can be bliss,
when I make friends with fear
his intentions I twist,
fear uses everyone
and makes them his slaves,
fear turns the souls
of some dead in their graves,
fear teases weaknesses
of youth and of old,
fear changes hearts of warmth
into stone cold,
fear is the god
that brings glory to killing,
fear is the god
that makes the spineless willing,
motivation of many is controlled by fear,
due to principles twisted,
and virtues unclear,
many will use fear,
unwilling to see,
their fears are controlling them
clear as can be,
if ever you see one who
worries too much,
believe it is fear that is
gaining their trust,
fear is a mirror
when we've lost our way,
that tells us "forget love, honey...
I'm your hero...please stay?"
misguided people fall into fear's rut,
they slip and fall in,
losing touch with their gut,
banish your worries
and live in the now,
To strongarm your fears,
honeybun, this is how!!
In awe, she stood, gazing up into the unknown. As the rotting face of the old the power plant loomed tall over her, she found herself being engulfed in its massive shadow; in the arms of the dying moon, it frowned down upon her. From somewhere within the void, a shallow, dim light escaped through the dirt encrusted window, reaching out to her as though to welcome her inside. Something foreboding fell upon her; a sense of gloom and loneliness crept into her mind. The light from within, burned low.


text:
Sexual harassment is widely recognised as a violation of basic human rights. Complaints about sexual harassment or assault have been increasing in recent decades on university campuses around the world. Despite the grave nature of this offense and its prevalence, it is almost only discussed behind closed doors. In Forum Week's final blog post on the international student, author Jana Stoláriková brings this topic to the forefront and shares some best practices to ensure a safe and inclusive campus.
Sexual harassment is defined as behaviors against the psychological and bodily integrity of a person that may or may not involve force, which target the person's sexuality, gender, sexual identity and/or sexual orientation verbally, physically or through various visual materials and means of communication. Such an act occurs without the consent of the recipient. It is determined not by the intent of the assailant, but by the impact it has on the victim.
Examples of harassment that international students may experience:
- Offensive comments or jokes
- Derogatory remarks
- Gender-discriminatory comments
- Sexual requests, offers and suggestions that persist after rejection
- Any look, attitude, touch, mimic or gesture that makes the recipient uncomfortable
- Stalking
The importance of counseling services on campus
International students go through a period of adjustment as they adapt to local campus life, unfamiliar local norms and expectations. This can leave them vulnerable and make them targets of harassment. Part of crisis management protocol, counseling and special support groups for international students should be offered at all times. Internal campus support resources tend to be limited and students may experience additional psychological pressure not to report harassment as a result of cultural norms and even their sense of obligation to their families to succeed academically in the host country. Receiving institutions need to create awareness of sexual harassment on campus to prevent the potentially devastating consequences to victims such as depression, anxiety and possibly even feeling forced to return home.
Is sexual assault prevention part of your institution?
Universities strive to provide a supportive environment for personal, intellectual and academic growth. In this environment, any inappropriate joke, visual, verbal or physical encounter without the consent of exposed individual is considered an assault. These assaults harm the open and safe nature of education, the work environment and internationalisation on campus.
Institutions must be prepared to build an environment that encourages meaningful academic and support programs. Sexual assault prevention counseling should be included to the counseling service center. Institutions are obligated to confidentially address the reports of students who have been sexually harassed and provide them the necessary security as well as medical, psychological, psychosocial and legal support. Every sexual assault case on campus should be followed up and taken seriously. University-wide education, policy and action plans should be implemented.
Be part of the solution
Incoming international students need to be informed about this unspoken issue, as 80% of all rapes or assaults that take place on university campuses are committed by an acquaintance of the victim.
The international office together with the counseling center are responsible for helping students achieve the most out of their experience abroad by providing quality services and support. Counselors and other staff in the institution play an integral role in promoting campus support for the exchange of learning between all students.
- Awareness – Define sexual harassment and tell students what they can do to prevent it
- Perception – What is acceptable to one person may not be to another
- Prevention – General understanding that any kind of sexually suggestive behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated on campus
- Get involved – Be a part of your campus community
As a result, providing sufficient support and information on such issues helps international students feel more confident, which helps them maximize their satisfaction during the study abroad period.
For more on the international student, check out Forum magazine.
Jana Stoláriková is Senior Adviser, Office of International Relations at Boğaziçi University.