text:
How do I get my business listed?
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, just click below to request that it be added. It's free!
How can I get listed at the top of the results?
Both of our upgraded services will list you towards the top of the search results. A Power account puts your business right near the top!


text:
HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre Internet Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to the HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre website. The HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre website contains links to other sites. Once you enter another website (whether through an advertisement, service, or content link), be aware that HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to look for and review the privacy statements of each and every website that you visit.
While you may use some of the functionality of HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre without registration, some the specific tools and services on our website require registration. If you use our website without registering, the only information we collect will be Non-Personal Information using Cookies. If you choose to become a member of our website, we require a limited amount of Personally Identifiable Information, such as your name, birth date and email address.
Non-Personal Information We Collect
Even if you do not register with HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre, we collect Non-Personal Information about your use of our website, special promotions and newsletters.
HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre assigns every computer a different Cookie. The information collected by Cookies:
(i) helps us to statistically monitor how many people are using our website
(ii) how many people open our emails
(iii) for what purposes these actions are being taken
Cookies are also used to facilitate a user's log-in, as navigation aides and as session timers, but not to retain Personal Health Information about you.
Your browser software can be set to reject all Cookies. If you reject our Cookies, certain functions and conveniences of our website may not work properly but you do not have to accept our Cookies in order to use our site. We do not link Non-Personal Information from Cookies to Personally Identifiable Information without your permission and do not use Cookies to collect or store Personal Health Information about you.
Personally Identifiable Information We Collect
As you use HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre, you will be given the option of receiving recurring informational/promotional newsletters via email. These emails will be of a general nature and will in no way disclose your unique health characteristics. At the time you sign up for our email newsletters or any time thereafter, you can choose to opt-out of receiving additional promotional emails from us.
To subscribe to such newsletters, we need your contact information, such as name and email address. You can unsubscribe from the newsletters by simply clicking on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email newsletter. You will be taken to our website where you can unsubscribe from the newsletter. You will then be unsubscribed from that newsletter within two to three business days.
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you send content, questions or ideas to HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre by email. If you want to keep them private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre. We try to answer every email within 48 business hours, but are not always able to do so.
After you have registered as a member of HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre, you may choose to use certain interactive content, tools and services that may ask you to voluntarily provide other types of information about yourself including Personal Health Information. These tools do not retain or store your Personal Health Information.
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. Neither HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre nor any of its services are designed or intended to attract children under the age of 13.
From time to time the HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre market research department, or its operations contractors acting on its behalf, conducts online research surveys in order to gather feedback about our site, our sponsors and opinions on important healthcare issues, through email invitations, surveys and online focus groups.
Personally Identifiable Information collected through market research will only be used by HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre and its operations contractors and will not be given or sold to a third party.
HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre tailors information to reflect your interests, concerns and personal health characteristics.
Disclosure of Your Information
Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre will not disclose any Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information it gathers from you on our website. We will only release Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information to third parties:
(i) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order.
(ii) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information to a third party, we will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order. In addition, we may disclose Personal Information as described below.
We will inform you if a material change to the Privacy Policy is made that involves the use of your Personally Identifiable Information. Your continued use of the HearSay Speech & Hearing Centre site will indicate acceptance of the changes. Please exit the site immediately if you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any revised policy.
Effective: May 26th, 2022

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Calculating a Due Date
How to calculate a due date
A typical pregnancy lasts, on average, 280 days, or 40 weeks--starting with the first day of the last normal menstrual period (LMP) as day 1. An estimated due date (EDD) can be calculated by following steps 1 through 3:
First, determine the first day of your last menstrual period.
Next, count back three calendar months from that date.
Lastly, add one year and seven days to that date.
For example: Your last menstrual period began on September 9, 2010. Counting back three calendar months would be June 9, 2010. Adding one year and seven days would bring you to June 16, 2011, as your estimated due date (EDD).
This three-step method is referred to as Naegele's Rule and is based on a normal 28-day menstrual cycle. Therefore, dates may have to be adjusted for longer or shorter menstrual cycles. However, even with adjustments made, less than 10 percent of women actually give birth on their calculated due dates. Delivery two weeks before or after the estimated due date is still considered normal.
You may also estimate your delivery date by using the steps 1 and 2 and the chart:
First, locate the first day of your last menstrual period (in black text).
Next, note the date directly below. This is your estimated date of delivery (in blue text).


text:
Maxine™ swimwear is designed for curvy and plus size women. The collection includes water aerobic suits, fashion one-piece suits, and flattering tankini sets. The line is focused on providing support and comfort as well as slimming design features.
The delicate draping on the line's swimdresses is designed to flow across your body while hiding the hips and legs. The bold colors and unique prints are used to draw attention to flattering areas on your body. And v-necklines, thick straps, and asymmetrical designs create the elegant, chic appearance. While tummy control lining, soft cups, and side shirring are used to slim and lengthen your body.
Maxine offers a wide assortment of suits for both missy and women's plus size. From surplice mios to tankinis to post-mastectomy suits, Maxine has a style that fits you.


text:
(Wrapping 1972)
-TERENCE McCARTHY
Michael Hudson
Holt, Rinehart, Winston
Super Imperialism
"Never before has a bankrupt nation dared insist that its bankruptcy become the foundation of world economic policy; that, because of its bankruptcy, all the nations what their economies transferring its bankruptcy to themselves, stultifying their industries, and paying tribute to the beggar."
"Effectively speaking, the United States has compelled the older nations of the West to pay for the overseas costs of the US war in Asia. Whatever they may desire, the central banks of Europe had no choice but to continue to except the paper dollar equivalents annually created as the domestic and overseas deficit of the United States increase. Otherwise, the whole of shaky structure of the world monetary system will collapse into rubble. America has succeeded in forcing other nations to pay for its wars on a systematic basis, something never before accomplished by any nation in history ."
In 1949 the United States held three-Quarters of the world's gold; by 1960 it had become a debtor nation. And yet, the United States has built history's most powerful and affluent empire. Its techniques for world domination remained, at first, the conventional devices of the economic superstate. In recent years, however, the United States has sophisticated its strategy to the point here, although fallen into serious debt, it has retained and even expanded its dominance. The United States has pioneered a new form of imperialism in which the assets of its competitors have been employed for American ends. The or now calls the tune for the creditor.
Terence McCarthy, in his Introduction, calls Hudson's analysis of the Debtor superstate "one of the most important books of this century. It is the first work to synthesize the new and different form which capitalist imperialism has assumed since Lenin wrote."
Michael Hudson teaches international and monetary economics at The New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty. He has published articles in Ramparts, the Journal of International Affairs, Commonweal, Cross Currents and the Review of Social Economy, in addition to specialized monographs on balance-of-payments theory and accounting. He has worked as a Balance-of-Payments analyst for the Chase Manhatten Bank and for the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, and as a senior economist for the Continental Oil Com.
In addition, he has lectured at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C, before the National Association of Business Economists in New York, and elsewhere throughout the United States. He is currently writing a history of international trade and investment theory, and a study of the economic origins of the American Civil War.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
383 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10017
Printed in U.S.A.


text:
The World Heritage Centre in collaboration with the UNESCO Offices in Kingston and Havana will organize the Caribbean Training Course in the Preparation of Nomination Dossiers, which will be held in Kingston (Jamaica) from 5 to 15 June 2012 within the framework of the Japanese Funds-in-Trust project "Capacity Building to Support the Conservation of World Heritage Sites and Enhance Sustainable Development of Local Communities in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)".
This 10-days training course is open to professionals from the natural and cultural heritage fields, who should be nominated by their National Commissions for UNESCO, and aims to strengthen professional capacities in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in preparing nomination dossiers and increase the number and quality of nominations of cultural and natural heritage sites, with focus on sites of memory in the Caribbean.
This training course is the first phase of a mentoring and training exercise. After this workshop, participants are expected to undertake fieldwork and to start developing their nomination dossiers, and will gather again for a follow-up training course to assess the development of the dossiers in accordance with the overall planning and specific action plans drafted for the site under consideration.
Contact at UNESCO Kingston: Himalchuli Gurung email@example.com


text:
Insects in the Ear
Insects may fly into the ear and become trapped when a child is playing outdoors. Sometimes, the insect dies after entering the ear; other times, it may remain alive and attempt to work its way back out of the ear. In either case, the insect can cause fear and discomfort for a child and the insect should be removed immediately.
First-aid for insects in the ear
Calm your child and let him or her know you can help.
Do not attempt to remove the insect by poking it with a cotton swab or similar probe. This may push the insect farther into the ear or cause damage to the middle ear and eardrum.
Tilt your child's head to the side and gently shake (do not hit) it.
If your child has tubes in his or her ears or has a history of ear problems call your child's doctor immediately for further treatment recommendations.
If your child does not have tubes or ear problems:
If you think the insect is still alive and it does not come out with gentle head shaking, pour a small amount of vegetable or baby oil into the ear canal. This will usually suffocate the insect.
If you think the insect is dead and it does not come out with gentle head shaking, pour a small amount of warm water into the ear canal to flush it out.
When should I call my child's doctor?
Specific treatment for insects in the ear that require more than minor treatment at home will be determined by your child's doctor. In general, call your child's doctor:
To have the insect removed if it does not come out after shaking or irrigation. Insects are able to cause damage to the inside of the ear by stinging or scratching the eardrum.
If you are able to remove only parts or pieces of the insect.
If your child develops signs of infection, such as a fever or foul smell or drainage from the ear.
Reviewed by Steven D. Handler, MD, MBE, FACS, FAAP


text:
How often do you find Iran, Russia and the United States united behind a single message? Well, representatives from all three countries were in New York City yesterday, rallying support for the sport of wrestling, which could be excluded from the upcoming Olympic Games. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Wrestling will be part of the 2016 Summer Olympics. If the exclusion is approved, it will apply to the Olympics in 2020 and 2024.]
It was quite a show of sportsmanship and diplomacy. Of course, there was time for some conflict among the wrestlers. It took place at New York's Grand Central Terminal; that's why they called it the Rumble on the Rails. Here's NPR's Mike Pesca.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: In order to express just how much the Olympics needs wrestling, the point was made, repeatedly, that wrestlers themselves need very little.
BRUCE BAUMGARTNER: You basically need a pair of shorts and a T-shirt to practice.
BILL SCHEER: Two people on grass, sand or a mat can get together and participate in it.
BILLY BALDWIN: All you need is a pair of shoes, a patch of grass or some sand on the beach.
PESCA: That was Bruce Baumgartner the most decorated wrestler in Olympics' history, Olympic medalist Bill Scheer, and Billy Baldwin who wrestled in high school and college before starring in "Backdraft." That these three would come together to praise wrestling was actually the least remarkable thing in the room on the day before the meet - the room being the delegates' dining room at the United Nations; the agenda being the promotion of the meet featuring the U.S., Russia and Iran, and in turn, the trilateral championing of the sport itself.
Jordan Boroughs, who won gold for the U.S.A in London, says to deny other wrestlers that accomplishment - as could happen in 2020 and beyond - would be crushingly unfair.
JORDAN BOROUGHS: You know, this is our NFL, our NBA, our Super Bowl ring. So to take that away from us is to take away the highest level of competition for a wrestler, and to basically kill the dreams of millions of children worldwide.
PESCA: This is a universal feeling among the wrestling community. Iranian coach Rasul Khadem said the possibility of an Olympics without wrestling was distressing...
RASUL KHADEM: (Foreign language spoken)
PESCA: And questioned the legitimacy of an Olympics without his sport.
Russian coach and gold medalist, Khadzhimurad Magomedov, upon first hearing that the Olympics might discontinue wrestling, simply thought.
KHADZHIMURAD MAGOMEDOV: (Foreign language spoken)
PESCA: That's impossible.
So yesterday, in Grand Central, several causes were arriving at the same time on different tracks. There was wrestling diplomacy. There was saving the sport. And there was the competition itself. Iranian fans packed Vanderbilt Hall, engaging in not one but two versions of an Iran chant.
PESCA: Fans like, Iranian-American Arman Azimi, of Storrs, Connecticut, noted that it was a rare time when he could wave an Iranian flag in the U.S. and feel pride in his culture.
ARMAN AZIMI: I think it's very cathartic, to be honest. I mean my friends say that we need to root as much for the American athletes as we do for the Iranian athletes. You know?
PESCA: Azimi had much to cheer. All the Iranians beat the Americans, with one exception, Klyle Dake - who was a four-time NCAA champion at Cornell - won in his international debut. Later, the Americans would go eight and one against the Russians, who were said not to have fielded their top squad.
Team U.S.A. will seek revenge against the Iranians - the two nations face off in Los Angles on Sunday. Less than two weeks later, in St Petersburg, Russia, a vote will be held to decide if wrestling remains one of three sports that could still make the 2020 and 2024 games, or if the great wrestling powers will be forced to make their connection only at train stations for the foreseeable future.
Mike Pesca, NPR News, New York.
GREENE: This is NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Five years after the Great Recession officially ended, most states still haven't regained all the jobs they lost, even though the nation as a whole has.
In May, the overall economy finally recovered all 9 million jobs that vanished in the worst downturn since the 1930s. Another month of solid hiring is expected in the U.S. jobs report for June that will be released Thursday.
Yet 32 states still have fewer jobs than when the recession began in December 2007 — evidence of the unevenness and persistently slow pace of the recovery.
Even though economists declared the recession over in June 2009, Illinois is still down 184,000 jobs from pre-recession levels. New Jersey is down 147,000. Both states were hurt by layoffs at factories. Florida is down 170,000 in the aftermath of its real estate market collapse.
The sluggish job market could weigh on voters in some key states when they go to the polls this fall. A Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday found that voters named the economy by far the biggest problem facing the United States.
The states where hiring lags the most tend to be those that were hit most painfully by the recession: They lost so many jobs that they've struggled to replace them all.
Nevada, which suffered a spectacular real estate bust and four years of double-digit unemployment — has fared worst. It has 6 percent fewer jobs than it did in December 2007. Arizona, also slammed by the housing collapse, is 5 percent short.
By contrast, an energy boom has lifted several states to the top of job creation rankings.
"North Dakota is the No. 1 example," says Dan White, senior economist at Moody's Analytics. "It's like its own little gold rush."
North Dakota has added 100,000 jobs since December 2007 — a stunning 28 percent increase, by far the nation's highest. The state has benefited from technology that allows energy companies to extract oil from shale, sedimentary rock formed by the compression of clay and silt.
Not surprisingly, the capital of North Dakota, Bismarck, has the lowest unemployment rate of any American city: 2.2 percent as of May.
Mark and Valerie Luna and their eight children had been struggling in Arizona when they heard on television about North Dakota's prosperity and decided to move there in 2010.
"It was becoming like the Great Depression in Arizona," Valerie Luna said. "We were tired of seeing our friends lose their houses and their businesses."
Mark, 40, a laid-off electrician, and Valerie, 37, a corrections officer, immediately found work in North Dakota. He took a job as an electrician, she at an insurance company.
But Mark always had a dream of opening a Mexican restaurant, and Bismarck was ripe for one. Los Lunas Authentic Mexican Food opened last year.
On Wednesday, Mark Luna was busy in the kitchen and had no time for talking. Orders for his homemade tamales, chimichangas, enchiladas were stacking up.
"Business," he said, "is good. Real good."
Another state benefiting from the energy boom is Texas, which has added more than 1 million jobs since December 2007, an increase of nearly 10 percent. For comparison, the nation as a whole has added only a net 113,000 jobs over that period.
Jobs in Washington D.C., where lobbying is an all but recession-proof occupation, are up 49,000, or 7 percent. The gain was led by a 10 percent increase in hiring by private employers.
Wall Street's recovery from the financial crisis has helped New York gain 237,000 jobs since the recession ended, an increase of nearly 3 percent.
Moody's White says many states are struggling because the recession wiped out solid middle-class jobs — in manufacturing and construction — that haven't returned. He says it will take a stronger housing recovery to put significantly more people back to work building houses, installing wiring and plumbing and selling furniture and appliances to new owners of homes.
Housing has rebounded somewhat since bottoming a couple of years ago. But the industry's recovery has slowed. Home construction is running at barely half the pace of the early and mid-2000s. And the United States has lost nearly 1.5 million construction workers since the end of 2007 — a 20 percent plunge. Nevada has lost half its construction workforce.
Factories have added 105,000 jobs over the past year, but manufacturing payrolls remain down 1.6 million, or 12 percent, since the start of the recession. Manufacturing jobs in Michigan hit bottom in June 2009. But the state still has 45,000, or 7 percent, fewer factory workers than it did in December 2007.
AP staff writer James MacPherson contributed to this report from Bismarck, North Dakota.


text:
A United States Helsinki Commission staff report released today describes investigations into the practice of sterilizing Romani women without informed consent in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The report describes an investigation by the Czech Public Defender of Rights as an "unflinching examination" of "highly sensitive issues." An investigation of the same issue by the Slovak Government was "marred by numerous shortcomings and insufficient follow up."
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Czechoslovak Government pursued a policy aimed at reducing the birthrate of Roma, including by targeting Romani women for sterilization. Although it was generally assumed that the practice of sterilizing Romani women without their consent had stopped after the fall of communism, allegations that this practice had not definitively ended persisted throughout the 1990s in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Slovakia investigated allegations regarding sterilization in 2003, and questions continue to be raised about this matter at international fora. The Czech Public Defender of Rights issued a report on December 23, 2005, confirming that some women had been sterilized without informed consent.
"I commend the Czech Public Defender of Rights for his courageous and principled investigation into this sensitive issue," said Commission Chairman Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), "and I call on the next Czech Government to move quickly to act on his recommendations."
"Unfortunately," added Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), "Slovakia has yet to admit that this terrible practice occurred, despite clear evidence to the contrary. I urge the Slovak Government to acknowledge that some Roma women were sterilized without their consent and to ensure that women are given proper access to their own medical records."
The report states, "[T]he Slovak Government has failed to demonstrate any compassion for women and girls who were sterilized without their consent and deprived of the opportunity to bear children again. By treating their claims as lies, the government has effectively treated these victims as liars, and compounded their original injury with this indignity. If the Slovak Government is to counter the endemic prejudice faced by its most marginalized minority, it must acknowledge the fact – and state it publicly – that wrongful sterilizations of Romani women did occur."
Recent parliamentary elections in Slovakia are cited in the report as a potential hindrance to progress on this issue. Slovak parliamentary elections were held on June 17, and those elections produced a coalition government that includes the extremist Slovak National Party. As recently as February 2006, Jan Slota, head of the Slovak National Party, stated that if his party joined the government after the June elections, he would seek to control the birth rate of "unadapted" Roma.
The report is available through the Helsinki Commission's web site at www.csce.gov. The Commission will examine the issue in more detail during a briefing featuring Ms. Gwendolyn Albert, Director of the League of Human Rights in Prague, that will be held on August 15, 2006, at 2:00 PM in Room 2255 of the Rayburn House Office Building.


text:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
And I'm Audie Cornish.
President Obama flew to Afghanistan today and signed a historic agreement on the future of the U.S. involvement in that country. The president traveled under tight security to Kabul and met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a signing ceremony at the palace there.
As the president explained in a televised address just a few minutes ago, the strategic partnership agreement lays out a framework for how the U.S. can pull most of its forces out of Afghanistan without abandoning the country.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today, I signed a historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries, a future in which Afghans are responsible for the security of their nation and we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states.
CORNISH: NPR's Larry Abramson joins us to discuss the day's events. Hi there, Larry.
LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: Hi, Audie.
CORNISH: So, first, tell us a little bit about this agreement the president talked about. What's in it? Why is it such a big deal?
ABRAMSON: This is a big deal because the president used this occasion to basically announce the beginning of the end of the war in Afghanistan. Of course, it's going to take a long time to wind down a war that's been going on for over a decade. This basically charts out, officially codifying the administration's plan to withdraw most U.S. forces by 2014. It also holds open the possibility of maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014. A lot of people think that thousands of U.S. forces will have to remain after that.
CORNISH: And it gives us a sense of what they'll be doing, or...?
ABRAMSON: Yes. And it says that they'll be limited to two major roles - counter-terror against remnants of al-Qaida that are still in Afghanistan and training and assisting Afghan forces. So, after 2014, the active combat role of going out, patrolling the streets and roads of Afghanistan is supposed to be completely over. This lays out an actual official legal framework for the entire process to go ahead.
None of this process is new to those of us who have been following it for a while. This has been the official policy of this administration for months, if not years. But this was really the president's first big chance to present this as a real deal to the American people. And he did it in a very dramatic way, by signing this agreement on Afghan soil at the presidential palace in Kabul.
CORNISH: Now, this news comes the same day that the Pentagon released a major assessment of the war. So, was the report in line with the optimistic tone that we heard in the president's address?
ABRAMSON: You're right, the president was very optimistic. This was all doable, according to him, that we're going to be able to hand over security to the very large army that the U.S. has built up of Afghan security forces, with the - if you count the police - there are going to be over 350,000 Afghan army and police troops there to maintain security. The Pentagon keeps telling us that these forces are becoming increasingly independent, able to operate on their own, and the president basically said that they will be able to handle the job of security all on their own after two years.
However, the Pentagon report today points out that these forces are not ready for primetime quite yet, they still have a lot more training to do and they face a very active insurgency. Even though the Pentagon stresses the fact that violence overall is down, there is still a lot of violence in Afghanistan, it's still a very dangerous place. Certain specific regions, such as the east, still have yet to be pacified. And that's what those forces will be doing over the next couple of years. They also note that there have been a lot of attacks in areas that have been pacified, such as Helmand and Kandahar province, which even though they've changed a lot, there are a lot of people dying in these areas.
CORNISH: Larry, just, in the time we have left, talk about the timing of this speech by the president.
ABRAMSON: A very dramatic trick - trip, obviously. It was kept closely held. Nobody really knew that the president was going over there. There was a lot of whispering going on. It takes a lot of security. He had to go in by cover of night and he will probably be leaving before the sun comes up. And then to stage all of these events - the signing, visiting with American troops, and of course, happening on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, it's quite a constructed event, I guess you'd have to say.
CORNISH: Larry Abramson, Pentagon correspondent. Thank you, Larry.
ABRAMSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
"What I absolutely hate is when people put butter cream in between. There is NO butter cream in macaron!
Butter cream is for cupcakes!"
I went to Google to check about buttercream in macarons.
Next I called Adour to see if I could come buy some of his buttercream-FREE macarons. You can only order them 24 hours in advance (sight unseen I might add!).
Micheli's recipe at the Metro is for raspberry macarons which require a filling of raspberry jam n'est pas? There are not many macarons with a jam filling. Check out Pierre Herme's list of saveurs.
How REAL ganache macaron filling is made here.
I put on my coat and went to La Maison du Chocolate, where you can see Macs, feel Macs (after you buy them natch) taste Macs etc. The shells are flown in from Paris every week, so they're
It reminds me of the lines from When Harry Met Sally.
Harry: There are 2 kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally: Which one am I?
Harry: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.
Sally: I don't see that.
Harry: You don't see that?
Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side.
And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you.
Buttercream on the side svp.
By the way wildly generous Pierre Herme sent out a Thank You to Us!? for attending his amazing macaron marathon
Feel Macs
Touch Macs
Eat Macs
See Macs
Feel Macs
Touch Macs
Eat Macs
Listening to you, I get the Mac music
Gazing at you, I get the Mac heat
Following you, I climb the Mac mountain
I get excitement at your Mac FEET!
Right behind you, I see the millions of Macs
On you, I see the Mac glory
From you, I get Mac opinion
From you, I get the Mac story


text:
Naturally I thought, "So who the heck is this guy and why is he pestering me?" Searching through my email , I found a long exchange with a Muslim, which I eventually got sick of. I even posted about it here, here and here.
Now I had to think real hard about whether to just hit the "block" button, because I don't really want to be hassled at work by some random Muslim apologist. But then I thought about things I might say, and I was inspired. Here is the rest of that exchange.
Then I blocked him.


text:
Curated & Handpicked Events
Paytm Insider aims to give you experiences in Bhubaneswar worth your time and money, and hopefully, encourage you to try something new. Be it curing post-work blues or making your weekend (more) awesome, you'll find it here. Explore live events (music, comedy, theatre, art); dining experiences; weekend getaways (treks, adventure, tours, travel, cycling, amusement parks); and live sport (cricket, football, kabaddi, badminton) matches; workshops (photography, marketing, cooking, baking, painting) and more.
Music Events: Gigs & Festivals
Calling all music lovers! Watch your favourite artists, live - at festivals, club shows, gigs or concerts. Paytm Insider has the best curated music events, across genres: rock, metal, EDM, pop, fusion, hip-hop, jazz, classical, Bollywood and world, at some of the best live music venues in the country. Paytm Insider hosts several top properties, including Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Timeout, SulaFest, Mood Indigo, Gaana Crossblade Music Festival, Locals DISTRICT, Lager n Barrel, MPower Fest. Also look forward to superstars like Arijit Singh & AR Rahman hosting their tours here.
Comedy shows: Standup & Open Mic
Who doesn't enjoy a good laugh? You'll find the latest shows by the best Indian comedians - Zakir Khan, Kanan Gill, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian, Comicstaan finalists (Nishant Suri, Rahul Dua & others) and more, on Paytm Insider. Catch them doing tours of their specials, trying new material, hosting an open mic, and more. Catch the big names of comedy at Headliners and LOLStars; or shows to see up-and-coming comics enthrall audiences, and open mic events where you'll see and cheer on fresh talent! International legends like Russel Peters, Eddie Izzard & Bill Burr have ticketed here in the past.
Cheer Your Favourite Sports Team!
Paytm Insider is home to world-class sporting experiences across India: Vivo Indian Premier League, Indian Super League (FC Goa, Kerala Blasters, Jamshedpur FC, Mumbai City FC, Delhi Dynamos), Vivo Pro Kabaddi (Tamil Thalaivas, U Mumba, Haryana Steelers, Bengal Warriors, Jaipur Pink Panthers), I-League, Vodafone Premier Badminton League, Premier Futsal, and international cricket matches (Test, T20 and ODI). Can't get to a stadium? You'll find amazing screening experiences too - especially the EPL, Champions League and F1.
Trekking, Camping & Adventure
After a tiring week, one of the best ways to unwind is to head to the great outdoors. You will find excellent options for trekking, camping & adventure activities like white water rafting, waterfall rappelling and paragliding near Bhubaneswar. Paytm Insider teams up with experienced and responsible travel groups and event organizers so you have a memorable and safe experience. These events are for novices as well as experienced folks. You will also find special seasonal experiences like fireflies, camping, rafting and more on Paytm Insider.
Discover your city with Paytm Insider
Paytm Insider is a platform that helps you discover and buy the best in events, travel and food in your city. We strive to curate experiences that are worth your time and money, possibly something you have never tried before.
Paytm Insider is built by the same team that created Bacardi NH7 Weekender (us) and we sure know what goes into putting together a great experience. Our technology, marketing and customer support can help you build a community of not just ticket buyers, but also fans.


text:
NEW YORK (AP) — Highways will be packed once again this July Fourth weekend, with 41 million Americans expected to travel at least 50 miles or more.
That's up about 2 percent from the 40.3 million who traveled during last year's Independence Day weekend, according to auto club AAA.
The calendar is helping to push up the number of vacationers. The holiday falls on a Friday this year, making it an easy three-day weekend for many travelers.
As usual, the vast majority of travelers will be using their cars: 85 percent. Gas currently costs $3.68 a gallon, up nearly 13 cents from the same time last year. That means a family driving 200 miles on highways will pay about 75 cents more in total for their holiday gas this year.


text:
Hiroki Kuroda (1-3, 3.67) vs. Johnny Cueto (2-4, 5.75).
COMMENTS: Infused with the heady aroma of a series win over Cincinnati, the Dodgers send Kuroda to the mound tonight for the sweep. A victory would not only give Kuroda his second win of the season but also bring the Dodgers to .500 (7-for-14) sans Rafael Furcal—a pretty decent record without the contributions of this year's MVP. Meanwhile, life without Raffy is looking up. Chad Billingsley just might be the stopper we've been yearning for. The heretofore unthinkable outfield of Juan Pierre, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier is producing and will finally get some consistent playing time. The bullpen is back to its nasty self. All that stands between the Dodgers and Furcal's scheduled return Friday is Cueto, who averages about a strikeout per inning but also allows a lot of home runs. The Dodgers, who have been shut out only twice this season, figure to score some runs for Kuroda. Hopefully his string of hard-luck outings will end tonight.
For those attending tonight's game: Leave early, as you'll be competing with the Lakers (Staples Center, 6p) and the American Idol final (Nokia Theatre, 5p). Our own Steve Sax will be on the Field level, third-base side—give a holler in the comments section if you want to meet up!


text:
LYON, France – Combating the global scourge of fake medicines which threatens the health of millions of people is the focus of a landmark agreement between INTERPOL and 29 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.
The three-year deal, worth EUR 4.5 million, will see the creation of INTERPOL's Pharmaceutical Crime Programme to further build on the work of its Medical Product Counterfeiting and Pharmaceutical Crime (MPCPC) unit. This will enhance the law enforcement community's response to pharmaceutical crime through stronger partnership development.
The programme will focus on the prevention of all types of pharmaceutical crime including branded and generic drug counterfeiting as well as the identification and dismantling of organized crime networks linked to this illegal activity, which generates millions in illicit profits every year.
"With no country, no drug, no medical product immune from counterfeiting, a global effort is needed to combat this threat which puts the lives of millions of people at risk every single day," said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.
"This support from a group of 29 companies from the pharmaceutical industry forms a bridge between the public and private sectors and will assist INTERPOL and each of its 190 member countries to more effectively tackle the problem of medical product counterfeiting," added the INTERPOL Chief.
An essential part of the programme is to raise public awareness of the dangers of fake drugs, particularly for people buying medicines online. The World Health Organization estimates that in more than 50 per cent of cases, medicines purchased over the Internet from illegal sites that conceal their physical address have been found to be counterfeit.
In 2012, Operation Pangea V, an INTERPOL-supported initiative spanning 100 countries aimed at disrupting the organized crime networks behind the illicit online sale of medicines, resulted in some 80 arrests and the worldwide seizure of 3.75 million units of potentially life-threatening medicines worth USD 10.5 million.
"Both brand-name and generic pharmaceuticals are susceptible to counterfeiting, putting patient lives at risk," said Haruo Naito, President and CEO of Eisai. "This is why we have joined our colleagues across the biopharmaceutical industry to partner with INTERPOL and expand the work of its Medical Product Counterfeiting and Pharmaceutical Crime Unit. We fully support INTERPOL's decision to establish a comprehensive initiative that will enhance its efforts to prevent medical product counterfeiting and pharmaceutical crime. Ultimately, this is about protecting patients around the world."
The programme will include training, capacity building and targeted enforcement actions to build awareness of the issue, as well as to disrupt and dismantle the organized crime networks involved in the various types of pharmaceutical crimes such as counterfeiting, illicit sales or illicit diversions.
"In the case of drug counterfeiting, it can mean the difference between life and death for a patient." said Christopher Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi. "It is estimated that 10 per cent of medicines are fake and these figures can go up to 50 per cent, particularly in some poorer countries. This is why it is so important that industry members partner with INTERPOL to coordinate law enforcement operations around the world so that we can help curtail the threat of counterfeit medicines online and at the retail level."
Counterfeit cough syrup and other medicines laced with diethylene glycol have caused eight mass poisonings around the world including in 2006 in Panama where more than 100 people died, many of them children. In 2012, some 109 heart patients in Pakistan died after taking fake medicine.
"Drug counterfeiters put at risk the health of patients around the world by producing substandard and sometimes lethal medicines," said John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Eli Lilly and Company. "Putting an end to counterfeiting requires broad, coordinated action on a global scale. This new initiative between the pharmaceutical industry and INTERPOL is aimed at helping ensure that patients can trust in the safety and efficacy of the medicines they rely on."
Pharmaceutical crime involves the manufacture, trade and distribution of fake, stolen or illicit medicines and medical devices. It encompasses the counterfeiting and falsification of medical products, their packaging and associated documentation, as well as theft, fraud, illicit diversion, smuggling, trafficking, and money laundering.


text:
Whether you're a new parent or a seasoned one simply looking for some new baby gear sets to assist you in taking care of and playing with your little one, Bambi Baby has what you need. We understand how exciting being a parent is – how you get to see the world in a new way while enjoying time with your baby, but we also know that it is sometimes stressful.
Being a parent means playing with and entertaining your child, while also ensuring that he or she is always as safe as possible. While we encourage a lot of play with your child, we always put safety first, which is why all of our gear marries playtime with safety, to ensure that your child is always in the best hands possible.
Our baby gear varies extensively we carry high chairs, baby gates, bouncers, carriers, pack and plays, and toys. Our baby gates are safe and tested to make sure your little crawler stays in place while playing. Bouncers keep the little ones entertained, in addition to strengthening leg muscles, aiding in the acceleration of your baby's crawling and standing stages. Our carriers and high chairs come in all different sizes and styles, to fit your lifestyle and little one comfortably and affordably. Last, but not least, our baby toys are for you and your baby's enjoyment. With the variety of safe baby toys we carry, there will never be a dull moment in your life with your little one.
We carry a wide selection of the best baby gear brands with different price ranges for you to choose from, including: Mamas & Papas, Cocalo, Natart Juvenile, Peg-Pérego, Britax, and Tulip


text:
Tick Bites
Ticks are small insects that live in grass, bushes, wooded areas, and along seashores. They attach their bodies onto a human or animal host and prefer hairy areas, such as the scalp, behind the ear, in the armpit and groin, and also between fingers and toes. Tick bites often occur at night and occur more in the spring and summer months.
What to do if you find a tick on your child:
Do not touch the tick with your bare hand. If you do not have a pair of tweezers, take your child to your nearest health care facility where the tick can be removed safely.
Use a pair of tweezers to remove the tick. Grab the tick firmly by its mouth or head as close to your child's skin as possible.
Pull up slowly and steadily without twisting until it lets go. Do not squeeze the tick, and do not use petroleum jelly, solvents, knives, or a lit match to kill the tick.
Wash the area of the bite well with soap and water or rubbing alcohol and apply an antiseptic lotion or cream.
Call your child's doctor to find out about follow-up care.
Regardless of how careful you are about animals in your home, or how many precautions you take when your child is outdoors playing, animal and insect bites and stings are sometimes unavoidable.
By remaining calm and knowing some basic first aid techniques, you can help your child overcome both the fear and the trauma of bites and stings.


text:
Finding beauty in the ordinary, photographer Jannica Honey exposes images that rest somewhere between art and fashion.
Jannica Honey (b. 1974) is an artist of her time. In an age where contemporary art reaches out to all, where galleries attract audiences of millions each year, and where works span genres with accelerating frequency, Honey embraces multiplicity and defies categorisation. Like Mario Testino, Richard Avedon and Corinne Day before her, the photographs that Honey creates rest somewhere between art and fashion, with a healthy dose of the realism of Richard Billingham and Nan Goldin thrown in for good measure.
At the heart of Honey's work is an interest in people, in the sociological representation of her subject through the camera's lens, an interest that reveals her early educational choices of Anthropology and Criminology at university in Stockholm. Honey aims to show people in their natural element, not in a naturalistic, back to nature manner, but in an amalgamation of the trappings of consumer society. Heavily made-up pre-pubescent girls sulk at the camera, teenagers show off their latest "vintage-look" purchases amongst graffiti-lined corridors and women pose with scarlet lips and bunny ears illustrating the bastardisation of our pre-conceived notions of sexuality. Visit her website and Honey's artist statement will confess her aim "is to create real images. I attempt to expose what is going on deep within the psyche of my subjects. My photographs are of authentic people with their emotional and physical baggage exposed." In a manner apt for an art world ruled by people following Hirst and Emin, Honey's work is about exposure of the subject to the lens, and a reflection of the insecurities that manifests.
Since photography began to be taken seriously as an artistic medium, the canon of artist photographers is continuously growing, and it remains one of the most diverse disciplines – from the anthropology of Steve McCurry, to the playful inquisitiveness of Danny Lyon, via the incandescent gloss of Rankin, each photographer borrows from an ideology, yet manages to maintain an inherent personality in their work. Arguably, the medium reached its peak in the 1990s, before digitisation and citizen journalism made the contemplation of selective editing, and sheer journalistic opportunism available to all.
Today, photography seems to have experienced a curious evolution – alongside the music industry, professional photography is in an awkward position, unclear of where to assert its boundaries in a landscape where amateurs' work is increasingly professional. Finding herself in this uneasy situation, Honey cites the discovery of Nan Goldin as being of particular importance in her career: "I went to a Nan Goldin opening in the late 1990s, which might possibly have been a milestone. Her imagery is so incredible sensitive and raw. She captures her subjects in their most intimate and bearing situations, but she never exposes them. The images whisper about humanity, strengths and weaknesses, in the most delicate way." Honey is passionate about images in a manner that's refreshing; especially in an industry where Goldsmiths' graduates receive as much coaching in business as they do in art, where Damien Hirst talks about money as much as he talks about technique. "Jurgen Teller is another astonishing photographer. My absolute favourite image is of him, naked with a beer can in his hand, by his father's grave. And Corinne Day shooting her friend; that's where you find the true beauty, in the most ordinary day to day events."
Swedish-born Honey moved to Edinburgh to study photography and digital imaging and gradually fell in love with her new-found medium, describing the transformation and development of images in the darkroom as, "close to a religious experience." Her initial exhibition in 2000 embraced the opportunism of Edinburgh nightlife. Collaboration of Clubbing took the viewer on a tour of the city's nocturnal activity, "My photography evolved from there, meetings with people and happenings unfolded."
Nan Goldin, as a repeatedly rehabilitated drug addict, photographed the true fringes of society – the drag queens, AIDS victims and hard drug users at a time when compassion and understanding for these subcultures was limited. Honey's exploration of Edinburgh's nocturnal activity touches upon a decidedly safer aspect of life. Conscious of a growing immunity to shock, Honey takes her photography in a different direction. No doubt, the average art gallery attendee will identify far more with Honey's clubbers than with Goldin's battered and visibly mortal friends.
Furthermore, the past few decades in the art world have seen a raft of confessional narratives, which have spilled over into the popular culture of Big Brother, Jeremy Kyle, and deeply personal but nationally televised celebrity interviews on recent miscarriages and marriage breakdowns, Honey seems to tactfully reserve a part of herself from her work. It's become a cliché to be a female artist and to put yourself in your work, from Tracey Emin to Sophie Calle, the wrong-doing towards women by misogynistic boyfriends (or attackers) is the source of endless pre-occupation and so Honey's work is refreshingly removed. While Honey argues: "I think that a great deal of my images translate into something revealing about myself," she also acknowledges, "I always try to involve my subject. When I work together with my subjects, I produce the most exciting and beautiful work. I really struggle when my subjects are distant or I don't feel any connection. I guess that also reveals something about me." Honey's work represents a new conservatism, a reticence to reveal all that is refreshing in our tell-all age.
In citing her inspirations, authenticity and ordinariness are paramount, but there are clear parallels with fashion photography. Honey has worked extensively on fashion shoots across the UK, including work for Che Camille and Super Fertile. She admits: "I am attracted to the fashion world and at the same time, I loathe it." Honey aims to "encourage the model to uncover and bare something deep and honest, instead of shielding oneself with a mask or playing a role." The young, anti-glamour lifestyle of Corinne Day is reflected in Honey's work, particularly the very pared down, grunge aesthetic of the 1990s. Similarly to Mario Sorrentti's images of a young Kate Moss, Honey's nudity is de-sexualised, her subjects slouch with teenage disinterest, breasts on show as a matter of fact rather than as a tool for seduction. But the authenticity of this tense relationship is absent – Moss and Sorrentti famously shot the Obsession campaign at the apex of their infatuation, the Calvin Klein adverts outliving the relationship in a way that added to the poignancy and fallibility in the images that became a legacy for grungy, anti-fashion. These aspects of the crossover of fashion and lifestyle photography are particularly inspirational to Honey, "I find people the most attractive when they are bare. When they are a true representation of themselves or translate a message I want to disclose. Children do smoke, for example. Women do have hair in their armpits and bruises." In this manner, Honey creates a very subtle social interrogation. Shying away from critique, she presents her subjects as she would like us to see them, and allows the viewer to draw conclusions on both the sitter and herself from her own brand of "styled realism." Although fashion photography is important, she rejects the glossy, high-definition, vision of reality that graces the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair. Honey styles her shoots to coax the emotion out of her sitters: "I think that through supporting my models and giving them direction they relax and fully trust me. This is essential for my photography. By "real" I mean a real emotion, my aspiration is to tell a story with my images. A long story based on a gaze and expression. Unfolding over a mesmerising body with wrinkles pointing the direction of the narrative." Contextualised in this way, Honey's images are captivating, especially when we acknowledge that she shoots, "only people I connect with. Family friends or people who become my friends through modelling for me." Because of this, the works take on a further authenticity: "There has to be some kind of attraction for me to be interested. I have never photographed a person I didn't have any feelings for."
In this instance, it's significant that Honey's subjects are beautifully lit, with sharp bright colours, and although their features are idiosyncratic, they are clear-skinned and young with shiny hair. Honey readily acknowledges: "I'm not sure if anyone can portray an honest view of humanity, but I tend to 'fall' for intriguing people." After all, we are attracted to youth, which explains its proliferation in fashion and advertising, and Honey is no exception. It's clear that fashion photography is central to her work, as something to rebel against as well as take inspiration from, like an off-duty model pose, she retains the beauty and mystique in a way that gives away just enough for us to identify with our own lives, but want to learn more about the aesthetically advantageous alternatives. By posing children with cigarettes, and focusing on the bruised legs of a female gardener, Honey calls our bluff with a new brand of "staged shock."
In a manner her works are inauthentic, but art is also about artifice as well as interiority and in placing a pretty girl in a pastel sundress in front of the washing-up, Honey creates beauty and curiosity out of the ordinary. Who is this girl? Why is she so groomed and dressed up? Honey poses the commonplace in a manner that is shot to seem extraordinary, in contrast to the way that Goldin takes turns to shock and horrify, and familiarise our own emotions with that of the subjects. With all taboos broken, this creates a new field for photography, whereby in the ordinary, you find the most exceptional beauty: "We don't need to search for these extraordinary hits, it's happening all the time in our daily life. Listen to the sound of the breath going in and out, somebody catching your eye on the bus, or the sun reflecting off water." Her latest project, Beyond Retro encapsulates this tongue-in-cheek attitude to style and beauty, as she followed two models around London's iconic tourist sites in a vast array of vintage wares. While her Please Let Bunny Grow Up series continues a more social critique through images of her 11-year old niece, forced to grow up in a world where Katie Price is idolised by children and Hugh Hefner's bunnies are eternally young: "I wanted Emma to present more emotions than the Playboy bunny, I want to present her as the young woman that she is."
Ultimately Jannica Honey's images present her view of reality, one that calls into question our reactions and morals in the way that we suddenly expect to be shocked by art. While, of course, children do smoke, Honey stages these images "because I find it more interesting and honest compared to going to a council estate and capturing the estate's inhabitants." Honey rejects this gritty reality with an ethereal quality that has its roots in truth, but also in the stylised world of fashion: "Sometimes I find my 'real' strangely dreamlike. I am not a reportage photographer collecting snapshots; I see the image before it happens." It represents a new discretion, and an indication that we have become tired of the exposé.
In the tradition of landscape painters of the 18th century, and street photographers of the early 20th century, Honey has made the ordinary beautiful. Her works take inspiration from confessional photographers, but creates something new, with the juxtaposition of the contrived, and the everyday, combined under the photographer's discerning eye. For further information visit www.jannicahoney.com.
Ruby Beesley


text:
Battle Spirits
Flesh and Blood
Set: | Kaladesh |
Type: | Sorcery |
Rarity: | Common |
Cost: | {3}{U}{U} |
What if I change my mind?
We understand that customers will occasionally change their mind upon receiving their order, we are still able to organise a return of the items in order to process a refund for you as long as the following conditions are met:
All change of mind refunds will be inspected to be meeting the above terms and require approval by Games Portal before a refund can be initiated.
Any returns found to have been opened, used or damaged will not be eligible for refund or exchange, and will be held until the customer returns to collect the product or pays the following additional fees to have the item reshipped:
If return postage and handling fees are not paid by the customer within 30 days of being received by Games Portal, the product will be considered abandoned and we will dispose of it.
Items can be returned to Games Portal either:
As soon as we receive the item(s), the refund can be initiated to the payment details used to make the initial order.
Refund Payment
Any refunds will be processed via the original form of payment:
Refund Process Time.
Returns generally take 2-5 business days to reach our warehouse.
Once received, your return request will be processed within 1-3 business days.
For refunds, please note that your financial institution may need an extra 3-5 business days to clear the funds back into your account.
If your return falls outside of these times and are seeking an update on your refund process please contact our customer support team at email@example.com
If you received an item you didn't order.
We always strive to make sure our processes are as fast and accurate as possible but if you have received an item different to the one you ordered, please contact our customer service team at email@example.com who will work with you to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.
If your item is faulty.
At Games Portal we want every gaming experience to be perfect for our customers but unfortunately there are rare cases where an item, due to a manufacturing error, is discovered as faulty.
This can include cases of:
If you have received an item with a defect, please contact our customer service team at email@example.com within 60 days of your purchase date.
They will guide you through the returns process and help resolve the problem as quickly as possible.
All claims of faulty items must be accompanied with a proof of purchase.
Where you believe an item is faulty, it may be necessary for us to send your goods to the manufacturer or their service agent for it to be assessed within a reasonable period of time.
We also request that you take a photo showing the defect/fault to speed up the process as we may need to contact the manufacturer to ensure you receive the correct replacement part.
If it is determined by our customer service team that there is indeed a major fault with the item you will be entitled to one of the following remedies:
If a replacement of the product or part is chosen all postage to deliver the item will be covered by Games Portal.
Instances that Games Portal does not consider as a fault or defect:
*This policy was updated 29/03/2020


text:
In a perfect world, an individual who chooses to promote everyday cycling, and who has dedicated a great deal of time, energy and personal resources to do so, would be set high atop a pedestral to be respected by the local and global community.
Instead, Matthew Modine, actor and founder of Bicycle for a Day, is subject to a cyber witchhunt these days.
Instead of focusing on the good this guy is doing, all the focus is on his personal choice of whether he wishes to wear a helmet or not. Which he doesn't.Ironically, the man is more well-informed about helmets than the pundits who seek to hunt him down.It started in an interview by Tim Murphy in New York Magazine, which was picked up by Ecorazzi and then Treehugger.
The witchhunt was off to a cracking start in NY Mag with the title: 154 Minutes With Matthew Modine - The actor and activist wants to make the world a greener place. But why won't he wear the helmet his wife bought him?
Already right there we're not talking about making the world a greener place or Bicycle For A Day. The focus is far from these good things. Instead, we focus on the bad. The journalist is interested in the man's private business.
Michael Andre d'Estries at Ecorazzi picks up the pitchfork, salivating as he sharpens the points, when he writes "There's an interesting quirk, however, to Modine's love of biking — he doesn't wear a helmet... the 50-year-old says he doesn't wear one, because he doesn't assume he's going to get hurt. Right — because I wear a seatbelt with every intention of getting in an accident." [So it's 'quirky' that 50% of American cyclists don't wear helmets? Hmm.]
Then Lloyd Alter at Treehugger, darling of the helmet industry, gets his knickers into the usual twist. Let's face it, this guy is the Fox News of the bicycle world.
Let's get one thing straight. None of these three men are helmet experts. Lloyd tries to fake it like a porn star but really, these are journalists in Emerging Bicycle Cultures writing about cycling. Let's not take them too seriously. If I want news about the latest cricket Test Match, I don't read Icelandic sports websites.What IS serious is their lack of support for everyday cycling and their eagerness to promote The Culture of Fear instead of promoting a life-extending, safe, healthy form of transport that can also transform cities into more liveable places.
I've visited a number of Emerging Bicycle Cultures through Copenhagenize.com and CopenhagenCycleChic.com and cycled in all of them. When I lecture about Marketing the Bicycle to the Sub-Conscious Environmentalists I have a slide in the powerpoint that sums up how cycling, in many Emerging Bicycle Cultures, is branded:
The difference between North America and other Emerging Bicycle Cultures is remarkable. I covered the rebirth of the bicycle in Paris last year and I was recently speaking in Riga and Moscow. Helmets don't even feature on the radar. Before the start of our Cycle Chic ride in Moscow, one of the organisers apologised that there was an older chap in a helmet and he hurried over to ask him to take it off. In Spain, France, Italy it's the same. When a Polish fashion blogger asked other Polish fashion bloggers to take a photo of themselves with a bicycle in the style of Copenhagen Cycle Chic, there weren't any helmets in the photo montage.
Even in an established bike culture like Japan in general and Tokyo in particular, there are hardly any helmets among everyday cyclists, as you can see right here.
All the people involved thus far in this discussion are homo sapiens who have developed the ability to judge personal risk for themselves. At that level, we're all equal.So why is it so different in North America?The question of lack of helmets has little to do with infrastructure. It is a cultural and, most importantly, economic issue. There are 100 million daily cyclists in the EU accordingly to the European Cyclists Federation. Easily half don't have dedicated infrastructure and yet they don't wear helmets.
The reason is quite simple. All the main helmet manufacturers are American. When they started suddenly promoting helmets in the late 1980's, they targeted their local market and aimed helmets at those who cycled there; namely sports enthusiasts and hobby cyclists. The helmet was yet another piece of 'necessary gear' to be sold. The manufacturers capitalized on their branding of cycling as a fast-paced, sweaty sport.Ironically, no helmet manufacturer will tell you that helmets will or can save lives. When I met a marketing man from a European helmet [and other stuff] manufacturer at the Velocity 2009 Bicycle Conference, who wandered around with a helmet dangling from his bag, I asked him straight out: "Can your helmet save your life?" He shrugged and laughed uncomfortably. "Can it?" "Well, not save your life, no." When I asked why he walked around with it he simply replied, "Because I sell them."At least this guy knew what many people do not. That bicycle helmets are merely merely designed to protect the head from non-life threatening injuries in solo accidents under 20 km/h. And preferably if you land flat on the crown of your head, please. They are not even tested for impact on the sides or back.The lack of helmets in countries outside of America and her cultural puppet state, Great Britain [wink wink nudge nudge], is because helmet manufacturers are American. With regards to Australia, it is hardly surprising that a Vice-President from Bell flew all the way to Australia to be present at every hearing in the early 1990's regarding passing the mandatory helmet laws. He sat quietly in the audience and spoke with the proponents of the law in the breaks.What if the main helmet manufacturers were European? Who knows how things would be. One thing is certain, they would certainly be subject to the usual strict standards applied to other goods and services. As it is now, the helmet industry sits at the table when the standards are decided. As a result, the EU standard 1078 is among the weakest in the world.Would I want cigarette manufacturers at the table when deciding about health laws and campaigns? Nope.So North America has had decades of branding cycling as a 'sport' or 'fast-paced recreational activity' and not much else. This mentality has sifted down to individuals, like the three journalists up top, and has so ingrained itself on the population that the helmet is virtually religious folklore. Hardly healthy for a sound debate or for providing citizens with the big picture and the ability to choose for themselves.
In the current debate, nobody seems to give a shit about the 40,000 motorists killed in America each year, not to mention those who are maimed. Nobody seems to think that motorists should wear helmets, even though motoring helmets actually exist. The risk of drowning is much higher than dying while cycling, so where are the lifevest advocates? What about the 87,000 people hospitalised each year in America because of THIS shockingly dangerous activity? Why aren't they sold safety gear? Where's the logic?
It's usually absent when there is money to be made. Surprise, surprise.The helmet scepticism in Europe and elsewhere is due to a more thorough review of the available scientifc research on the subject, instead of emotional propaganda. It can be summed up in the report issued by the European Council of Ministers of Transport [the ministers of transport for each EU nation] called National Policies to Promote Cycling (2004)."Though helmets are widely accepted as reducing the severity of head injuries, the issue of mandatory requirements for helmet use has been controversial for a long time. PROMISING, a research project commissioned by the European Union and coordinated by the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (2001), suggests that from the point of view of restrictiveness, even the official promotion of helmets may have negative consequences for bicycle use, and that to prevent helmets having a negative effect on the use of bicycles, the best approach is to leave the promotion of helmet wear to manufacturers and shopkeepers.
The report entitled 'Head Injuries and Helmet Law for Cyclists' by Dorothy L. Robinson, Bicycle Research report No. 81 (March 1997) shows that the main effect of the introduction of the general helmet law for cyclists in Australia was a drop in bicycle use."This is the upper echelon of Europe government speaking here. They're worried about fearmongering and public health. Furthermore, the national cyclist federations in Holland, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, France, among other countries do NOT actively promote helmets and they fight legislation tooth and nail.Even the European Cyclists' Federation, at the recent Velocity 2009 Bicycle Conference in Brussels, produced these badges in the interest of placing the focus back on the positive promotion of cycling, instead of fear-mongering. And if Matthew Modine is victim of a witchhunt, imagine what would happen to the Dutch Cyclists' Federation's [Fietserbond] traffic consultent, Theo Zeegers, if he were let loose in the North American press. Drawn and quartered by four SUVs, head left on a spear outside the city's gates.The general attitude towards helmets in North America is the result of decades of exaggeration, misinformation, emotional blackmail all backed by the economic interests of the helmet industry. If I was 'over there' I'd feel duped and brainwashed.Matthew Modine will live to cycle another day, despite the witchhunt. He has made his choice - he wishes to promote cycling and public health. All power to him. The millions of potential cyclists who have been brainwashed into believing that cycling is dangerous and that a helmet will magically prevent them from harm are, however, at risk. Our sedentary lifestyle needs fixing and urban cycling can contribute massively to improving public health. With this incessant fear-mongering, the odds that the silent masses will get on bicycles are slimmer than slim.
It's about promoting helmets or promoting cycling and public health. We can't do both. I've made my choice.


text:
Cookie, candy brands fight to keep their names off flavored nicotine
RICHMOND, Va. -- Owners of brands geared toward children of all ages are battling to keep notable names like Thin Mint, Tootsie Roll and Cinnamon Toast Crunch off the flavored nicotine used in electronic cigarettes.
Now the owners of those trademarks are fighting back to make sure their brands aren't being used to sell an addictive drug or make it appealing to to children.
General Mills Inc., the Girl Scouts of the USA and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. are among several companies that have sent cease-and-desist letters to makers of the liquid nicotine demanding they stop using the brands and may take further legal action if necessary.
The actions highlight the debate about the array of flavors available for the battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. The Food and Drug Administration last month proposed regulating electronic cigarettes but didn't immediately ban on fruit or candy flavors, which are barred for use in regular cigarettes because of the worry that the flavors are used to appeal to children.
It's growing pains for the industry that reached nearly $2 billion in sales last year in the face of looming regulation. E-cigarette users say the devices address both the addictive and behavioral aspects of smoking without the thousands of chemicals found in regular cigarettes.
There are about 1,500 e-liquid makers in the U.S. and countless others abroad selling vials of nicotine from traditional tobacco to cherry cola on the Internet and in retail stores, often featuring photos of the popular treats. Using the brand name like Thin Mint or Fireball conjures up a very specific flavor in buyers' minds, in a way that just "mint chocolate" or "cinnamon" doesn't.
"Using the Thin Mint name - which is synonymous with Girl Scouts and everything we do to enrich the lives of girls - to market e-cigarettes to youth is deceitful and shameless," Girl Scouts spokeswoman Kelly Parisi said in a statement.
The issue of illegally using well-known brands on e-cigarette products isn't new for some. For a couple of years, cigarette makers R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Philip Morris USA have fought legal battles with websites selling e-cigarette liquid capitalizing on their Camel and Marlboro brand names and imagery. The companies have since released their own e-cigarettes but without using their top-selling brand names.
"It's the age-old problem with an emerging market," said Linc Williams, board member of the American E-liquid Manufacturing Standards Association and an executive at NicVape Inc., which produces liquid nicotine. "As companies goes through their maturity process of going from being a wild entrepreneur to starting to establish real corporate ethics and product stewardship, it's something that we're going to continue to see."
Williams said his company is renaming many of its liquids to names that won't be associated with well-known brands. Some companies demanded NicVape stop using brand names such as Junior Mints on their liquid nicotine. In other cases, the company is taking proactive steps to removing imagery and names like gummy bear that could be appealing to children.
"Unfortunately it's not going to change unless companies come in and assert their intellectual property," he said.
And that's what companies are starting to do more often as the industry has rocketed from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide, bringing the issue to the forefront.
"We're family oriented. A lot of kids eat our products, we have many adults also, but our big concern is we have to protect the trademark," said Ellen Gordon, president and chief operating officer of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. "When you have well-known trademarks, one of your responsibilities is to protect (them) because it's been such a big investment over the years."


text:
Designing for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Category: Design / Branding/Identity, Design / Environmental, Design / Packaging, Design / Typography, Designers/Studios, Documentaries/Film,
Posted: Mar 17th 2014
No. of comments: 0
Annie Atkins has my dream job - designing for Wes Anderson's new film . She was responsible for every graphic prop in the film - from passports, to money, to cake packaging. Check out this incredible interview with her on Creative Review, where she talks about her process, a typical working day on set, and what it was like to work with the famous director.
"The Grand Budapest Hotel sign was based on an old steel hotel sign from 1930s Cairo that Wes had picked out. I hand-drew the lettering for our own hotel in the same style, somewhat unevenly, with rather jaunty serifs, and then gave the drawing to our model-makers who sculpted it for the hotel miniature.
I remember they corrected the rather wide kerning between the letters A and N, and we asked them to widen it again just like it was in the reference. It's the little idiosyncrasies like this that Wes loves - it's all part of his aesthetic. On the one hand he's a perfectionist; on the other hand he doesn't want anything to look machine-made, or digitally produced in any way."


text:
Source: IP2Proxy PX11 (The latest update)
IP Address | 18.104.22.168 |
Proxy Type |
No VPN or Proxy Detected |
The IP2Location.io IP Geolocation API allows you to retrieve proxy information and geolocation location information.
Below is the example result for 184.108.40.206.
$ curl "https://api.ip2location.io/?key={YOUR_API_KEY}&ip=126.96.36.199"
"ip": "22.214.171.124",
"country_code": "US",
"country_name": "United States of America",
"region_name": "Ohio",
"district": "Franklin County",
"city_name": "Columbus",
"latitude": 39.96638,
"longitude": -83.01277,
"zip_code": "43218",
"time_zone": "-04:00",
"asn": "749",
"as": "DoD Network Information Center",
"isp": "DoD Network Information Center",
"domain": "nic.mil",
"net_speed": "COMP",
"idd_code": "1",
"area_code": "614",
"weather_station_code": "USOH0212",
"weather_station_name": "Columbus",
"mcc": "-",
"mnc": "-",
"mobile_brand": "-",
"elevation": 231,
"usage_type": "MIL",
"address_type": "Unicast",
"ads_category": "IAB4-10",
"ads_category_name": "U.S. Military",
"continent": {
"name": "North America",
"code": "NA",
"hemisphere": [
"translation": {
"lang": null,
"value": null
"country": {
"name": "United States of America",
"alpha3_code": "USA",
"numeric_code": 840,
"demonym": "Americans",
"flag": "https://cdn.ip2location.io/assets/img/flags/us.png",
"capital": "Washington, D.C.",
"total_area": 9826675,
"population": 331002651,
"currency": {
"code": "USD",
"name": "United States Dollar",
"symbol": "$"
"language": {
"code": "EN",
"name": "English"
"tld": "us",
"translation": {
"lang": null,
"value": null
"region": {
"name": "Ohio",
"code": "US-OH",
"translation": {
"lang": null,
"value": null
"city": {
"name": "Columbus",
"translation": {
"lang": null,
"value": null
"time_zone_info": {
"olson": "America/New_York",
"current_time": "2024-05-30T11:09:40-04:00",
"gmt_offset": -14400,
"is_dst": true,
"sunrise": "06:05",
"sunset": "20:53"
"geotargeting": {
"metro": "535"
"is_proxy": false,
"proxy": {
"last_seen": 0,
"proxy_type": "-",
"threat": "-",
"provider": "-",
"is_vpn": false,
"is_tor": false,
"is_data_center": false,
"is_public_proxy": false,
"is_web_proxy": false,
"is_web_crawler": false,
"is_residential_proxy": false,
"is_consumer_privacy_network": false,
"is_enterprise_private_network": false,
"is_spammer": false,
"is_scanner": false,
"is_botnet": false
For more details, please refer to https://www.ip2location.io.
A proxy address may hide the user's actual IP address and physical location but you can still get lots of info about it.
A proxy address can reveal geolocation information of your internet-connected devices. Geolocation information can be obtained by using IP2Proxy Proxy Detection.
The geolocation information of an proxy address is as below:
Detect your proxy and obtain proxy information like types of proxy.
VPNs are used by people who needs to hide their IP address.
The open proxies make connection requests on a user's behalf. They usually have limited functionality compared to VPNs.
As the name imply, web proxies are simple web-based proxies which make web requests on a user's behalf.
Tor exit nodes are open networks used by those who wish to maintain anonymity.
These are services which perform crawling or scraping to a website, such as, the search engine spider or bots engine.
Since hosting providers and data centers serve to provide anonymity, the Anonymous IP database flags IP addresses associated with them.
These services offer users proxy connections through residential ISP with or without consents of peers to share their idle resources.
These services ensure encrypted traffic by routing internet requests through relays, concealing the IP address, location, and browsing activity.
Services like SASE or SD-WAN combine network security functions with WAN capabilities to meet the secure remote access needs of organizations.
Learn more about IP2Proxy Proxy Detection by viewing articles below.


text:
Support the Hoover Institution
Join the Hoover Institution's community of supporters in advancing ideas defining a free society.
Policy Review was the preeminent publication for new and serious thinking and writing about the issues of the day. Established in 1977; the bimonthly journal became a publication of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, in 2001.
Hoover Institution director John Raisian and Policy Review editor Tod Lindberg announced that the February–March 2013 edition of Policy Review would be its last. The journal's online archive will remain available on the Hoover Institution website.
Policy Review and the Hoover Institution were well matched. They shared a commitment to free and rigorous inquiry into the American condition, into the workings of government and of our political and economic systems and those of others, and into the role of the United States in the world. They both brought together scholars with an interest in current affairs and journalists interested in exploring our world in greater depth. They both take up topics not as exercises in theory, but for the purpose of better understanding the world and the betterment of people's lives. They both are committed to civil discourse, the airing of reasoned disagreement, and a vigorous and open debate. They both are diligently independent, not least in affirming and guarding the independence of those associated with them in the community of informed discussion.
As the Hoover Institution is a premier home for serious scholars, so Policy Review was a premier vehicle for serious writers and thinkers.


text:
So I was delighted when Ria chose this recipe from Manjula's Kitchen for A Sweet Punch for March.The recipe by itself is a very simple one and the video makes things easier.The best part I liked was that this was baked using whole wheat flour/atta.Kind of makes you feel less guilty when you chomp down the cookies one after the other.The ingredients can be found easily in your pantry,so go bake them immediately,I bet you cannot stop at one!!
Eggless Whole Wheat Almond Cookies
Recipe source - Manjula's Kitchen
Whole wheat flour/Atta - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup*
Unsalted Butter - 1/2 cup /100 gms [softened]
Sliced Almonds - 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 2 tbsp[if required]
Preheat oven to 180C.
In a bowl mix together the flour,sugar,almonds cardamom powder and salt well with a spatula.
Add butter and start kneading lightly until you get a smooth dough.
If the dough is crumbly,you could add few drops of milk as required to form a smooth dough.[I had kept the butter outside for about an hour and hence the butter was very soft,I did not add milk at all]
Divide the dough into 24 equal parts and shape into balls.
Flatten a little by pressing each ball between your palm[about 1/2' thick].
Place the cookies in an ungreased cookie sheet/baking tray with enough space between each cookie[about 1' apart].
Bake the cookies for 15-18 minutes or till the cookies turn golden brown.
Let the cookies cool on the baking tray for 2-3 minutes,then transfer to a cooling rack.
Store in airtight containers.
- *Sugar mentioned in the recipe is fine granular sugar,so if you only have access to the regular granular sugar,pulse it in the mixer in 2 second pulses till you get fine textured sugar.
- Butter should be very soft so that it makes easier to knead the dough.If the butter is not soft enough,you would need to add more milk to bind the dough,which would in turn make the cookie hard.
- The baking temperature and time depends entirely on your oven.I baked mine at 150C for 20 minutes and the cookie was baked perfectly,though the recipe says to bake at 180C.So bake according to the oven type you are using.


text:
Ever wonder what happened with Bertha — the world's biggest tunneling machine, stuck under Seattle? We last checked in on the story right before Christmas, when engineers were preparing to send down inspection teams to identify the blockage. People (OK, the media) were having a grand time, floating ridiculous guesses about what the mysterious object might be. An old ship? Dinosaur bones? Bigfoot?
One month later, there's still no clear answer. Certainly nothing headline-grabbing.
At first, the blame was directed at a steel pipe: On Dec. 3, Bertha's cutting face hit the 8-inch diameter, 119-foot-long casing for a research well drilled a dozen years ago by teams working for the state department of transportation. The casing was never removed, and/or someone forgot that it was directly in Bertha's path. The blame game on that is just getting started.
You might wonder why a pipe would matter, since Bertha is designed to chew through boulders. But Bertha's five-story-tall rotating cutting face is meant to fracture rock, not ductile materials like steel. That pipe bent when Bertha hit it — imagine running over a jump rope with your lawn mower.
But now it seems the pipe may not have been the only cause of Bertha's troubles.
Even though the pipe fragments have now been removed, the giant tunneling machine remains stationary. For the past week, specially trained crews have been performing "hyperbaric inspections" in the claustrophobic space around the cutting head, and they've found more potential snags, including a rock that was almost exactly 3 1/2 feet wide. The rock was slightly too big to be "digested" by the conveyor system that moves rubble away from the cutting face, but too light to be fractured into smaller pieces by the cutting face. It's not something that could stop Bertha by itself, but it's a symptom of a bigger problem.
It's like trying to crack a nut with a hammer without being able to hold the nut down. Bertha has a harder time fracturing rocks when those rocks are light — or loosely compacted. At the moment, the machine is only about 50 feet down, in the loosely compacted fill of Seattle's waterfront. Once the machine gets deeper under downtown, engineers assume the more tightly packed soils will hold rocks in place firmly enough to let Bertha chew through.
So, no dinosaur bones. And to be clear, Bertha isn't really stuck. The department of transportation describes the situation as one of "increasing resistance" at the front end, and operators want a full picture of the situation before they put the $80 million machine back in gear.
Or, as the project manager put it to an impatient legislative committee (one more metaphor!): "If it was your car, and all your warning lights were on and you still needed to make a trip, would it be wise to make that trip?"
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
');//]]> '); '); '); ');//]]> ');//]]>
The page cannot be displayed
There is a problem with the page you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.
Please try the following:
Contact the Web site administrator to inform them that this error has occured for this URL address.
HTTP Error – Internal server error.
Internet Information Services (IIS)


text:
Where can you turn for a bit of lighter side of science online?
It's elemental: Here's a look at some of the best, totally nerdy, science-oriented online comics.
Listed in no particular order, this is only a sampling of the phenomenal and insightful work being posted online by a new generation of talented web artists.
Xkcd: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language by Randall Munroe, is probably the most widely known. A cast of stick figures addresses topics ranging from science research to philosophy to relationships and the absurdity of daily life. The illustration to the left mocks Frank Drake's infamous Drake Equation, which attempts to calculate the number of 'intelligent' extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. I've spent quite a bit of time dissecting Drake equation... but that's another topic.
phd Comics: Piled Higher and Deeper: an ongoing chronicle of the life (or lack thereof) in Academia. This comic focuses on the complications of modern scientific research, and the difficulties of graduate school. Written and drawn by Jorge Cham. The selected comic shown charts the perennial ups and downs of graduate student motivation. I recall spending a lot of time on the down side of that graph...
Strange Quark Comics by Dalin S. Durfee, featuring Dr. Ingenio, his nerdly son and assorted nerdy grad students. An insightful look at the everyday quandaries of life in the laboratory, from someone who's obviously been there.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weiner Sometimes about science and research, but more generally about God, superheroes, dating, the meaning of life…and much more. The cartoon to the left questions how nuggets of scientific research are translated into the media frenzy of the real world. I've gotten many a laugh out of the unexpected punch lines and spot-on insight from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
Lab Bratz This cartoon offers geeky science humor focusing on laboratory mishaps and disasters waiting to happen, with a cast of hapless professors, frazzled lab managers and sleep-deprived graduate students. Written by Ed Dunphy. Drawn by Helber Soares.
Tree Lobsters! You can't prove they don't exist! by Steve DeGroof. The illustrations are consistently and incongruously of (guess what?) red lobsters sitting in trees. The humor is in the captions and conversation - of the inexplicably wise tree lobsters. One comic read: 'For a good time call 6.02 x 10 23 Ask for Avogadro.' Tree Lobsters takes on big topics such as Creationism: one lobster asks, "So you think the universe was created by this invisible space pickle? " A second lobster answers, "Our intelligent pickle theory is just as valid as your 'scientific theories'" To which the first responds, "Well, if the pickle created everything, what created the pickle?"
Abstruse Goose: a cartoon about math, science and geek culture. One of my favorites is: How Scientists see the world, shown to the left. Does an understanding of the equations underlying light make a sunset less beautiful? Or, did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to a prism, as Keats contended? The tools of science, from the first microscope to the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes have so vastly expanded our ability to perceive the universe in all its breathtaking beauty. Nostalgic simplicity junkies preach that esthetics should be devoid of either curiosity or understanding. Might as well say that it isn't for human beings.
Girl Genius, offers the marvels of gorgeously detailed steampunk technology, set in an alternate-history where mad scientists rule the world. It follows the adventures of the flamboyant and brilliant girl genius, Agatha Heterodyne, in the city of Mechanicsburg. This beautifully drawn comic, by Phil and Kajo Foglio, has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.
Schlock Mercenary, The Comic Space Opera, by Howard Taylor This science fiction strip, nominated twice for a Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, is set in a distant future that has achieved faster-than-light travel and artificial intelligence, and made contact with aliens. It follows a band of space-faring mercenaries as they travel through wormgates, loosely following a handbook of rules, "The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries." A vivid exploration of far-out futuristic technologies and their implications for humanity -- and lots of fun!
Scenes from a Multiverse: A colorful (in more ways than one) comic about life in an ordinary Multiverse, by Jonathan Rosenberg. One recent strip, set in the "Psychcloaked debris belt of the Third Foundation," depicts an alien who claims, "Using my brand-new science of neurofuturism, I can predict overall historical trends of the multiverse for the next ten thousand years!" He describes a series of disasters, finishing with, "After that it's mostly apocalypses and bank holidays. Not very interesting." Har!
Electric Sheep & Apocamon: The Final Judgement, by my friend, the talented Patrick Farley. Apocamon is an insightful and hilarious look at the Book of Revelation. (It also makes clear just what it is that some on the far right pray to see happen.)
But this is only the tip of Farley's iceberg. He is an amazing artist and the one taking on the deepest issues. His "Spiders" online graphic novel has been seriously studied at the Pentagon, to try and understand how citizens might get involved in defense, if we enter a transparent society.
Sci-ənce! is a wonderful new webcomic (with insightful commentary) that addresses the difference between science and pseudoscience, with a constant reminder to bring a sense of skepticism to our search for knowledge, The sample shown here mocks the between the build-up and the reality of the big NASA press conference about "microbial extraterrestrial" life. By Maki Naro and Nadir Balan. (Note: This has moved to BoxPlot on the Popular Science website.)
Calamities of Nature, by Tony Piro, provides piercing insight into the scientific mindset, and how science research trickles down to influence the general public. The sample strip pokes fun at scientists for their questionable imagination in naming the wonders of the universe: supernovae, superconductors, supersymmetry...
And Dresden Codak is an award-winning science fictional webcomic written and illustrated by Aaron Diaz, who describes it as a "celebration of science, death and human folly." Its highly intellectual humor, not for the faint of heart, ranges from physics to philosophy. A beautifully imagined vision that deals with the results of a technological singularity and humanity's role in the cosmos.
So, which of these (or others) do you like best?
Have a laugh or two, or many — and follow some of these talented (and under-appreciated) artists. Support your favorite webartists on the crowd-funded site, Patreon.
Here are a few more suggestions for sci-fi comics:
Space Trawler Pictured to left
Quantum Vibe
We The Robots
The FlowField Unity
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Poisoned Minds S.S.D.D.
People in White Coats
Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures
And finally, a few Math Comics:
Spiked Math Comics
The Twisted Pencil
Brown Sharpie
Oh, You Math!
Continue to Part 2: A Look at Science Fiction Webcomics
or: Part 3: More Science Fiction webcomics


text:
- This event has passed.
Deadline for REU Site Proposals
August 22, 2018
Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) NSF
Two due dates are listed for REU Site proposals each year. The May deadline applies only to REU Site proposals that require access to Antarctica, which must be submitted to the Division of Polar Programs (PLR) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO). The fall deadline (fourth Wednesday in August) applies to all other REU Site proposals.
NSF REU Site Contacts: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_contacts.jsp
Solicitation 13-542
Important Information for Proposers
ATTENTION: Proposers using the Collaborators and Other Affiliations template for more than 10 senior project personnel will encounter proposal print preview issues. Please see the Collaborators and Other Affiliations Information website for updated guidance.
A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 18-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 29, 2018. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 18-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.
Full Proposal Deadline Date
August 22, 2018
Fourth Wednesday in August, Annually Thereafter
Deadline for REU Site proposals except those requiring access to Antarctica
May 24, 2019
Fourth Friday in May, Annually Thereafter
Deadline for REU Site proposals requiring access to Antarctica. All other REU Site proposals must be submitted to the August REU deadline.
The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program. This solicitation features two mechanisms for support of student research: (1) REU Sites are based on independent proposals to initiate and conduct projects that engage a number of students in research. REU Sites may be based in a single discipline or academic department or may offer interdisciplinary or multi-department research opportunities with a coherent intellectual theme. Proposals with an international dimension are welcome. (2) REU Supplements may be included as a component of proposals for new or renewal NSF grants or cooperative agreements or may be requested for ongoing NSF-funded research projects.
Undergraduate student participants in either REU Sites or REU Supplements must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States.
Students do not apply to NSF to participate in REU activities. Students apply directly to REU Sites or to NSF-funded investigators who receive REU Supplements. To identify appropriate REU Sites, students should consult the directory of active REU Sites on the Web at http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm.
This program provides educational opportunities for Undergraduate Students. This program provides indirect funding for undergraduate students to participate in research. To inquire about possible funding opportunities, please contact the organizations that have received awards. (Do not contact NSF.) A directory of active REU Sites, along with contact information, can be found on the Web at http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm.