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Your Item Color and Text Color are the Same. Please Select Another Color.
Personalized Love Photo Canvas - Personalized Wedding Couple Wall Art Our Personalized Sitting In A Tree Photo Canvas Wall Art is the perfect gift for anyone in love. We carve your first names within the tree bark creating a one-of-a-kind piece of art for you alone! This is a stunning personalized gift that is sure to be well received by your favorite Newlywed couple or a beautiful couple in love.
This photo canvas print has gallery wrapped edges so they are perfect to hang with or without a frame. Includes FREE Personalization. Please choose between 4 different sizes, 8" x 10", 11" x 14", 16" x 20" and 18" x 24". Personalize your Photo Canvas with any couples names.
GiftsForYouNow.com has a complete collection of Personalized Wall Plaques & Signs. We are certain you will find a Custom Printed Wall Sign for that special occasion. Our Personalized Wall Signs are fantastic Personalized Birthday Gifts, Mother's Day Gifts, Father's Day Gifts, Wedding Gifts and Christmas Gifts.


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By Ed Stoddard and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Impala Platinum (JNB:IMP) shut its Rustenburg operations on Wednesday a day before a planned strike over wages across the country's platinum belt by the hardline Association of Mineworkers and Construction union (AMCU).
AMCU, the platinum industry's main trade union, plans to strike from Thursday at Implats, Anglo American Platinum (JNB:AMS) and Lonmin (LMI.L), the top three producers of the metal used in emissions-capping catalytic converters in cars.
The union had also planned to strike in the gold sector but a court ruled that the strike be suspended pending a review of its legality.
Around 100,000 workers or a fifth of South Africa's mining labor force could down tools or be prevented from crossing picket lines in a stoppage that would hit over half of global platinum production.
However, Implats said it was closing its Rustenburg operations from its mines, processing units and smelter ahead of Thursday's strike to ensure the safety of its employees.
"We have also deployed additional security measures," spokesman Johan Theron said, adding those reporting for work during the strike would be paid even if the mines were shut.
The company said its Marula mine in the northern Limpopo province and Two Rivers mine in the eastern Mpumalanga province were not affected by the strike and had not been shut.
Amplats and Lonmin said they would stop operations with the morning shift on Thursday.
Police said officers would be deployed to the platinum belt to ensure the strikes were peaceful, a necessary precaution after a protracted and bloody turf war in 2012 and 2013 between AMCU and the rival National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
The chief executives of the three affected platinum producers said on Tuesday the industry could ill-afford further production and job losses, noting they had lost a combined 879,400 ounces of output to labor stoppages in 2012 and 2013.
Platinum traded near $1,452 an ounce on Wednesday, near a three-month peak reached this week on the strikes.
Amplats said on Wednesday it swung back into profit in 2013 as it rebounded from a wave of wildcat strikes but its recovery is again threatened by this week's looming industrial action.
The government, lead by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, has offered to mediate to try to end the dispute, which threatens South Africa's already struggling economy.
"The three platinum producers have all accepted, so they are willing to come together in one room to have one negotiating team," Motlanthe spokesman Thabo Masebe said. "AMCU did indicate that in principle they are willing to negotiate."
There were also signs of divisions in AMCU's ranks after dissidents said this week they planned to form a rival union, accusing its leadership of recklessly pursuing a damaging strike they say many miners do not want and cannot afford.
Vuyo Maqanda, AMCU shop steward at Implats, told Reuters workers there were holding a mass meeting on Wednesday to decide whether or not to heed the strike call by AMCU leader Joseph Mathunjwa.
"Mathunjwa told the workers they need to strike, whereas the workers don't want to go on strike. They have no money - it's January," he told Reuters.
The union was also threatening to strike over wages at gold mines operated by AngloGold Ashanti (JNB:ANG), Harmony Gold (JNB:HAR) and Sibanye Gold (SGLJ.J).
The bullion producers sought a court order to halt the action on the grounds that a wage agreement signed with last year with the NUM - still the majority union on the gold mines - applies to all workers in the sector.
The court is due to give its verdict on January 30 and ordered the strike be halted until then.
Besides the economic damage, President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) are keen to avoid labor unrest ahead of general elections expected in around three months.
(Additional reporting by Zandi Shabalala, David Dolan and Ed Cropley; Editing by Ed Cropley, Mark Potter and David Evans)

subset: commoncrawl


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Circle Track Has Gathered Some Basic Wiring Tips From Some Of The Industrys Top Wiring Professionals
From the lowest class of stock car racing all the way up to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, wiring is an important aspect of getting your race car to Victory Lane. One bad connection or exposed wire can ruin your chances of finishing the race. Circle Track spoke to numerous experts who deal with wiring systems in race cars to come up with some hot tips on how to install and maintain your race cars wiring system.
Many of our experts manufacture and install wiring systems for the upper levels of auto racing, such as the Winston Cup Series. Though their products may be at the higher end of the racing spectrum, their tips on proper wiring cover all classes of racing.
In regards to weatherproofing and fire prevention, Dennis Overholser of Painless Performance supplied us with a great many tips, while Wade Brown of Brown & Miller Racing Solutions gave us some pointers on connectors, terminals and switches. Last, but not least, David Hatfield of Hatfield Ignition let us in on some of his tips for batteries, battery cables and ignition wires.


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Alerts/ Disasters
Headlines (last 30 days)
- UNICEF: Angola's drought takes heavy toll on children's education. 2 Oct 2019
Most read reports
- AfDB: Angola: African Development Bank approves $1 million grant to children's food and nutrition security programs. 19 Oct 2019
- EC-JRC: GDO Analytical Report: Drought in southern Angola - October 2019. 22 Oct 2019
- UNICEF: Where drinking water is a 90-minute walk away. 2 Oct 2019
- Govt. Angola: WHO and UNICEF reiterate support for routine vaccination in Angola. 19 Oct 2019
- WHO: Angola conducts review and validation of data on Neglected Tropical Diseases. 9 Oct 2019
Global Overview MAY 2018
Global Overview APRIL 2018
On Monday 16 October 2017 the Council adopted the EU Annual Report on Human Rights And Democracy in the World in 2016.
2016 was a challenging year for human rights and democracy, with a shrinking space for civil society and complex humanitarian and political crises emerging. In this context, the European Union showed leadership and remained strongly committed to promote and protect human rights and democracy across the world.


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- Authors:
Publication Date:
March 2014
This report presents the findings of a survey conducted by The Conference Board, The Institute of Executive Development, and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University to assess how well corporate directors know the senior executives one level below the CEO (the key set of executives for internal succession to the CEO position). The results reveal that, while many interact with senior executives periodically in a boardroom setting, most directors do not have extensive exposure to them outside of the boardroom nor do they have detailed knowledge about their skills, capabilities, and performance.
This publication is complimentary.
To gain access to it and our other free content, click "Read more" and create an account.


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The Masonic Temple in Detroit is an architectural marvel. The building was built in 1926 and is the largest Masonic Temple in the world. It contains two theaters, two ballrooms, and hundreds and hundreds of rooms. This chapel, on the third floor of the main Temple building, was set up for a wedding the day I was permitted to roam about taking pictures. Many thanks to Steve and James of the Temple staff for their cooperation and assistance on this project.
The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.


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Seasonal campfire restrictions commence in national parks and reserves
Fly Neighbourly Advice for the Tasman National Park
Hybrid diesel-electric shuttle buses at Cradle Mountain - a first for National p
Tinderbox Marine Reserve
Visitor Guide
Tinderbox offers visitors of all ages a safe introduction to the underwater world.
Maria Island Marine Reserve
Visitor Guide
Discover a spectacular array of marine life at Maria Island Marine Reserve.
Ninepin Point Marine Reserve
Visitor Guide
Ninepin Point protects an unusual underwater world where light is cut off by tannin-stained water.
Governor Island Marine Reserve
Visitor Guide
A spectacular reserve which offers magnificent sponge gardens and much more.
Kent Group Marine Reserve
Visitor Guide
These Bass Strait islands are unusually rich in fish species, having the highest diversity in Tasmania.
Port Davey Marine Reserve
Set in the wilderness of southwest Tasmania, this remote region supports unique marine communities.
Macquarie Island Marine Reserve
The sub-antarctic Macquarie Island Marine Nature Reserve occupies all of Macquarie Island's waters from 0-3 nautical miles.
Video Gallery
Discover the marine environment of Tasmania.
Caring for our Marine Reserves
A practical guide to ensuring that your visit will leave no impact on our fragile marine reserves.
Managing our Marine Reserves
A summary of the issues involved in the management of Tasmania's Marine Reserves.
Take a journey beneath Tasmanian waters to discover remarkable marine life with this slideshow.
This page produced by the Parks & Wildlife Service,
a unit of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment This page was last modified on Tuesday, 24 May 2016


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Yesterday at work I overheard part of a consversation that hurt my brain.
Customer: It's so warm today!
Worker 1: Must be global warming.
Worker 2: Global warming isn't real.
Worker 1: Yes, it is. Go back to school.
Worker 2: Do you believe in God?
Worker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Worker 2: [looks skeptical]
Worker 1: Yes, I do. Why would I lie about that?
To my great dismay, I missed the part where Worker 2 explains how his belief in God conteracts the Greenhouse Effect. It kind of shocked me that they would talk about something politicized, like climate change, at work. I was blown away when Worker 2 brought up God.
Has anyone else encountered this kind of God-trumps-climate-change thinking? What do you think the Climate Change Skeptic/Theist would have said next? For my edification and general amusement, please tell me, how does this work?
Views: 1181
I agree with both GM and Greg with two g's. You are both right. I look around this redneck town and hear all about how bad they hate communist Chinese, where are our jobs, boo hoo? And every weekend (ok 24-7) they flock down to walmart and spend 90% of their cash. They don't care, it's cheap, just like oil.
THAT is why we need Government. Business will do the wrong thing, it almost has to. Government is supposed to do the right things. There lies the rub.
500 B against 70 T is .7 not .1.
Let's talk about how many Kilowatt hours your 500 B investment represents.
The US uses around 4T Kw's per year, about 3T of this is Hydrocarbon Fuel, so the question is; How much of this is your 500 B dollar investment going to replace?
FWikipedia: F is the sixth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. →
Then there is the Bull in the China Shop that you have to deal with Transportation.
As your own charts point out, cars, trucks, buses, trains are for the most part run on Hydrocarbon Fuels. Replacing these millions of vehicles with electric will most likely run into the hundreds of Billions if not Trillions. In addition there will be an immediate need for a few more Trillions of Kw hours in electrical power production ie. more fusion plants (ie. lots more investment dollars).
AREAIRES, ICAO airline code →
We have about 250 million fuel cars on the road today, next years sales of new cars estimated at 13 to 14 million of primarily fuel cars.
Tesla has 6,500 pre-orders not really a candidate for changing out 250 million fuel cars.
Yes. So where's the problem?
Money, money, money, where's the money going to come from?
Then there is the Bull in the China Shop that you have to deal with Transportation.
As your own charts point out, cars, trucks, buses, trains are for the most part run on Hydrocarbon Fuels. Replacing these millions of vehicles with electric will most likely run into the hundreds of Billions if not Trillions. In addition there will be an immediate need for a few more Trillions of Kw hours in electrical power production ie. more fusion plants (ie. lots more investment dollars).
It is more than the bull in the china shop, it's the elephant in the room.
Unfortunately no current existing battery technology can possibly replace gasoline for anything but short trips... and you'd better live in a warm climate, too, as batteries don't like the cold (there is a reason GM tested their EV car in LA and Phoenix). Also, making batteries is very much a chemical industry with all the attendant pollution it entails. And it depends on rare minerals. Most lithium comes from Bolivia, for example. And notice the price of the cars... and the word is not in on how often you will end up having to replace all the batteries (thousands of dollars all at once) because they are worn out from being cycled over and over.
GM actually loses money on every Volt it sells in spite of heavy federal subsidies and a high price tag: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/gm-losing-much-49-000-volt-sold-989680 (please note this is NBC news, not the "right wing" media). The correct sticker price for this car to recoup production costs is upwards of 89 thousand dollars.
Yep, elephant.
I'm glad you opened the battery can-o-worms, I didn't want to add that one into an already crowded mix.
But your are correct sir, that is indeed another missing piece of the puzzle.
Are we talking of 500 billion dollars a year, or just 500 billion in total - spread across ten years that might not be too painful...
How much do you think each 2 gigawatt reactor will cost to build?
You will need 500 of them to replace the 3T Kw currently being produced by Hydrocarbon Fuels.
For the sake of argument let's say that we can built a 2GW fusion plant for $20 B @ 500 plants that's $10 T. Not an insurmountable problem but still a very large one and that's just the US.
It still remains a global problem requiring a global solution with a very short window before it becomes an insurmountable problem.
Given the history of humankind I am very doubtful that we will see a solution before the SHTF day.
If I were going to pursue nuclear energy I'd go with Molten Salt Reactors, better bang for the buck, uses cheaper more abundant fuel and can use up the current nuclear waste.
That's where I'd dump my research money and efforts.
Pretty soon you'll have................
-Alligators working their way up the Mississippi. Hey, lets check out Cleveland!
-Banana plantations in Iowa. Hey mista tally mon banana, beauty aye?
-The birds will fly North of the North, for the summer
-Hurricanes in NY (oh yeah, we already have that)
All Y'all Yankees are gonna have to get a drawl and drink sun tea. You like yer trees full o moss. Oh and mango trees make a real mess...You'll are gonna have to slow down. It's too damm hot foe all that running around. And you put put lime on your beer to shoo flies, not because it tastes good!
That's why the lime in the beer bottle?


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This article is reproduced with the kind permission of Bruce Campbell, PhD and www.cfidsselfhelp.org.
Note: Chronic illness brings physical suffering from symptoms, but it also creates mental suffering, caused by things like worry, uncertainty, regret, guilt and grief. Physical suffering may be addressed with medications and lifestyle changes, but treating mental suffering calls for a separate set of strategies. The articles in this series focus on ways to ease the second type of suffering, psychological pain.
Responding to negative feelings by developing a habit of gratitude is another way to ease mental suffering.
Research Findings
Gratitude has long been extolled by religion. Now, thanks to new research, there is scientific evidence that gratitude produces health benefits. The research is summarized in Robert Emmons' book Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
Emmons' book reports on several studies. In the first, he and his colleagues divided participants into three groups, each of which made weekly entries in a journal. Those in the gratitude group felt better about their lives overall, were more optimistic about the future, and reported fewer health problems than the other participants. Results from a second study suggested that daily writing led to a greater increase in gratitude than weekly practice.
A third study reproduced the results among a group of people with chronic conditions, including post-polio syndrome, which has symptoms similar to those in CFS. People using daily gratitude journals reported more satisfaction with their lives and were more optimistic about the future than the control group.
Summarizing the findings from studies to date, Emmons says that people who regularly keep a gratitude journal report fewer illness symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and are more optimistic about the future. (For more on the book, see our article "Counting Your Blessings: How Gratitude Improves Your Health.")
Personal Experience
Joan Buchman, longtime moderator in our program, describes her personal perspective with gratitude in her article "The Healing Power of Gratitude." The article outlines how gratitude helped her through a family crisis and produced a long-term improvement in her outlook.
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Some years ago, Joan and her husband invited her husband's sister to live with them. She had terminal cancer and they wanted to help. Joan writes that "The stress of caregiving for those months affected me emotionally more than anything." She found emotional support from two unexpected sources.
The first was the gratitude journal she had started keeping a few months before her sister-in-law moved in. She writes, "During the months Janette was with us, I felt it was very important to keep up with the Gratitude Journal and I focused on aspects of this situation from which I could pull out something to be thankful for."
The second source was her sister-in-law: "Janette was a constant inspiration, for in her final months, besides reaching out to others, she took time to appreciate her surroundings and the pleasures of everyday life." Joan writes that Janette "gave me a crash course in finding gratitude in my life. From Janette's model of living her last days with grace and appreciation of everything she had right then, I learned that I can live a happy and peaceful life with my chronic illness."
Getting Started
If you would like to increase the level of gratitude in your life, here are five suggestions for getting started.
1) Keep a Gratitude Journal
This is probably the most effective strategy for increasing your level of gratitude. Set aside time regularly to record several things that you are grateful for. (Some research suggests daily entries, other studies favor writing several times a week.)
The typical number of entries is three to five, the more specific the better. For example, "I'm grateful for my husband's picking up the groceries today" rather than, "I'm grateful for my husband." The important thing is to establish a practice of paying attention to gratitude-inspiring events and to write them down.
2) Use Reminders
Two obstacles to being grateful are forgetfulness and lack of awareness. You can counter them by giving yourself visual cues that trigger thoughts of gratitude. Emmons says he puts Post-It notes listing his blessings in many places, including on his refrigerator, mirrors and the steering wheel of his car. Another strategy is to set a computer or smart phone to signal at random times during the day and to use the signal to pause and count blessings.
3) Have a Gratitude Partner
Just as you may be more likely to exercise if you have an exercise partner, you may be able to maintain the discipline of gratitude more easily if you have a partner with whom to share gratitude lists and to discuss the effects of gratitude in your life. Also, as Joan discovered, if we are around someone who is grateful, their attitude is likely to rub off on us.
4) Make a Public Commitment
We feel accountable when we make commitments to others. You may be familiar with this if you have set weekly goals or targets in a group. The fact that the goal is made publicly makes it more likely you will follow through.
5) Change Your Self-Talk
We all carry on an inner dialogue with ourselves that is often called "self-talk." When this inner conversation is negative, our mood is usually low. Research has shown that we can change our mood by changing the tone of the things we say to ourselves.
About the Author: Dr. Bruce Campbell directs the educational CFIDS and Fibromyalgia Self-Help website (www.cfidsselfhelp.org), and online self-help group discussion courses focused on practical ways to deal with the daily challenges of chronic illness.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


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STREATOR — It's been 13 wins up and 13 down for the Princeton Logan seventh-grade girls basketball team. One more win and they'll be crowned as Starved Rock Conference champions.
The Lionesses will take a 13-0 record into the championship game against No. 2 Peru. Logan was a 47-18 winner over LaSalle Lincoln Tuesday. Anna Murray scored 22 point with Cydney Kelly adding six, Hannah Meyer five and Lydia Smallwood and Brittney Kamphuis four each.
With a win, the Lionesses would become the first Logan girls' squad to finish undefeated since the 2002 eighth-grade team went 15-0.
Peru beat No. 3 Ottawa 26-24 to set up a showdown of the top two seeds at 6:30 p.m.
Top seeds 1 Mendota and No. 2 Ottawa clash in the eighth grade.


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It's tough to cut it as a young playwright. With fierce competition and paltry rewards for their hard work, aspiring bards in most cities could be forgiven for throwing up their hands in defeat. But in Buffalo, where opportunities to develop new plays abound, they have reason to be optimistic.
The results of one of several new play development programs can be seen this weekend at Canalside, which is hosting the American Repertory Theatre of Western New York's Young Playwrights Festival. It will feature new work by Matt Kindley, Kalani Kapahua, David J. Moran and Emily Cutler.
Kindley's play, "10 Minutes," is "an existential pondering facing a young man in a moment of purgatory." Kaphua's comedy, "Cut Like a Buffalo," explores the lives of two very different sisters who find themselves in the midst of a charging herd of buffalo. The more-or-less self-explanatory piece "The Awkward Hookup," by Cutler, explores the mores of young relationships. And Moran's two-hander "Missed Signals" is a mini-love story featuring a "superhero-pajama-clad nerd" and the beautiful girl he's crushing on.
The festival runs at 3 p.m. Friday at the Ruins and 11 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday on the boardwalk. Call 634-1102 or visit www.artofwny.org.
– Colin Dabkowski


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IT and Network Consulting
What We Do...
Synergies Systems specializes in secure, cost-effective VPN, LAN and WAN design for the Northern California area in integration, monitoring and management solutions. Synergies provides the kind of reassurance clients need to know that their vital networks will function to support their enterprises -- whenever and wherever they are. Working with industry leaders, Synergies offers clients complete network solutions.
Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Devices
How do attackers exploit the absence of this control?
Many criminal groups and nation-states deploy systems that continuously scan address spaces of target organizations, waiting for new and unprotected systems to be attached to the network. The attackers also look for laptops not up to date with patches because they are not frequently connected to the network. One common attack takes advantage of new hardware that is installed on the network one evening and not configured and patched with appropriate security updates until the following day.
Malware Defenses
How do attackers exploit the absence of this control?
Malicious software is an integral and dangerous aspect of Internet threats, targeting end-users and organizations via web browsing, e-mail attachments, mobile devices, the cloud, and other vectors. Malicious code may tamper with the system's contents, capture sensitive data, and spread to other systems. Modern malware aims to avoid signature-based and behavioral detection, and may disable anti-virus tools running on the targeted system. Anti-virus and anti-spyware software, collectively referred to as anti-malware tools, help defend against these threats by attempting to detect malware and block its execution.
New Hire / New Hardware
A common challenge for an effective security awareness program is continuously reaching out to employees/staff in a fun and engaging manner. Training people once a year may keep auditors happy but will not change behavior. As such, you always want to be thinking of different ways you can reach out to people. The new hire process is a great place to start. While "new hire" training is the first thing that comes to mind, there are other options to consider.


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Idaho Preferred® is a program of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture dedicated to identifying and promoting Idaho food and agriculture products. Fresh fruits, vegetables and meats; fine wines, beers and spirits; specialty foods, forest products and nursery plants and trees – are all products marketed through the Idaho Preferred® program. Eating fresh, locally produced foods and beverages and buying plants acclimated to Idaho's environment not only assures freshness and quality, but also supports local farmers, ranchers and communities. To find local products, look for the blue and gold Idaho Preferred® label at your local grocery store, farmers market, restaurant, retail nursery or home improvement store.
The Local Pledge
Do you support local? Take the local pledge and receive email updates on new products, events and recipes.


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It's boot season! And I could not be more excited. The hunt for the perfect boots can be tough, but from the looks of our office these Rag & Bone Harrow boots are where it's at. The burn is they cost what lots of us make in a week so they may be a splurge item.
However, Sole Society's Skylar bootie looks almost identical and are under $100. The heels on both are perfect to walk in and the color will give you plenty of outfit options.
What boots are you rocking this season?
$495, Barney's.
Want more from Krystyna? Follow her on Twitter @Krysty_C


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The German Academy for Esthetic Dentistry (DGÄZ) is delighted that their application to host the 2013 World Dental Congress in Munich has been accepted by the plenary meeting of the International Federation of Esthetic Dentistry (IFED). We look forward to welcoming you – our international guests – to an intensive mutual exchange of ideas on an international level, and to an inspiring and successful World Dental Congress under the motto "Practice meets Science" here in Munich from 18-21 September 2013.
Modern dentistry is a fast-moving field and the pace of development brings with it the need for analysis that is solidly science based and practice oriented.
What are the possibilities and limitations of state-of-the-art dentistry?
What can we expect from the latest developments and innovations in the field?
What challenges are awaiting us in the future?
Taking "Innovative Dentistry" as our motto, practice and science will come together in a discussion about cutting-edge topics and practically relevant treatment concepts. Keynote speakers from all over the world will be taking part and will provide clear-cut, concrete answers to your questions.
|Innovative materials and Implant dentistry
|Future technologies
|Esthetics of soft and hard tissues
|Digital dentistry
Munich, the charming and lively capital city of Bavaria, situated in the heart of Europe, offers all that the heart could desire in the way of sightseeing and cultural possibilities. In addition to a varied and interesting sightseeing program you will have the option of visiting the world-famous Oktoberfest after the congress.
We look forward to welcoming you to Germany, to an intensive mutual exchange of ideas on an international level, and to a satisfactory and successful World Dental Congress.
|Prof. Dr. Daniel Edelhoff
Scientific Chairman
|Dr. Siegfried Marquardt
Congress President
|Siegbert Witkowski
Scientific Comittee Dental Technology Programme
|Dr. David Winkler
IFED President
|Prof. Dr. Dr. Robert Sader
DGÄZ President
|Copyright © 2012-2013 Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH, Berlin


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White Oak basketball coach Chris Grimes said Kendall White had to be a man among boys if the Vikings were to snap a 19-game losing streak to rival Jacksonville.
White Oak basketball coach Chris Grimes said Kendall White had to be a man among boys if the Vikings were to snap a 19-game losing streak to rival Jacksonville.
White certainly was that Thursday night as he scored 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead White Oak to a 76-54 victory over the Cardinals to give the Vikings their first win against Jacksonville since 2006.
Earlier, the White Oak girls� defeated Jacksonville 53-25 to complete the season sweep of the Cardinals in the teams� regular-season finale.
The White Oak boys� team (6-18, 3-11 Coastal 3-A Conference) entered having already lost twice this season to Jacksonville (10-14, 5-9) to continue a long stretch of losses to the Cardinals, most of them not close.
The Vikings hadn�t earned a victory over the Cardinals since a 64-54 win at White Oak High on Jan. 13, 2006.
�The seniors go out with a win. It�s a win against our rivals and it�s everything,� said White, a junior. �We just wanted to go in with a lot of intensity, but at the same time keep ourselves under control and not make stupid turnovers.�
The Vikings held their own in both losses to the Cardinals this season, only to stumble late and allow Jacksonville to pull away. This time, however, White Oak managed to extend a 32-26 halftime lead into a 22-point win over the Cardinals, who will still be the conference�s fifth and final seed for the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.
�It�s a rivalry renewed, a rivalry renewed,� Grimes said. �It�s not a rivalry when one team wins consistently. What a way to send off our four seniors, Quinirius White, Mike Barton, Elu Riley and Anthony Sloane.
�Those guys have paid their dues for four years to Oak Town and for them to get a victory in their last time in this gymnasium, it�s really special.�
But the night belonged to Kendall White, a 5-foot-11 guard who came in averaging 15 points per game. He finished 13 of 23 from the floor and 7 of 11 from the free throw line.
White did most of his damage on dribble penetration.
�I thought Kendall did a really good job of, when he got to the rim but there was traffic, he jumped stopped and went up with two feet and used that body with his huge shoulders to finish,� Grimes said. �He has such a calming demeanor. He�s going to let the game come to him regardless of the hype of the game.�
Although the Vikings had an 18-12 lead, White only had four first-quarter points. He didn�t get his first field goal of the second quarter until he scored on a layup with 5:50 left in the period to give White Oak a 20-17 lead.
Late in the second quarter, he scored all 10 points in a 10-4 Vikings� run that have WOHS a 32-23 lead.
�I was attacking like I wanted,� White said. �I wanted to take it to the hoop and see if I could make something happen.�
White then scored 17 points in the second half to help the Vikings pull away.
�He penetrated, drove and crashed,� Jacksonville coach James Jordan said of White.
Still, White was helped by his teammates.
Antione Robinson added 14 points, and Malik Jones had 8 points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings. Jones had 7 points in a third quarter that saw White Oak have spurts of 5-0 and 9-0 to extend its lead.
�We just wanted to stay composed and not let down,� White said. �We have been in this position before and so we didn�t want to let it slip.�
The Vikings didn�t, thanks to a 45-31 advantage on the boards and 31 percent shooting from the floor by Jacksonville. Tyler Perry scored 15 points, Nigel Vialva had 13 and Chris Smith added 10 for the Cardinals.
�This game we had an extra post with Malik, who didn�t play in the previous two games,� Grimes said. �Our two senior post players, Elu and Quinirius, did a really good job of denying the post and helping out when Nigel, (Perry) or Chris drove. All our guards did a great job of contesting threes without fouling.�
Jordan agreed the difference other than White was rebounding and the Vikings� defense.
�We were not able to penetrate,� Jordan said. �We got to move the basketball faster and make the defense move.�
White Oak 53, Jacksonville 25: Tineisha Smith made her first shot 90 seconds in to give White Oak the lead for good at 4-2. Her solid shooting then allowed the Vikings to forge a double-digit lead they would never lose as White Oak defeated Jacksonville.
Smith finished with 17 points on 8 of 12 shooting.
�Tineisha has actually stayed after practice the past two practices just to work on shots on her own,� WOHS coach Carolyn Ashdown said. �I didn�t tell her to stay. She�s been doing it on her own.�
Lyric Levester added 15 points and Emily McLain had 10 for the Vikings (15-9, 7-7), who pulled away with a 7-0 run to end the first quarter and a 6-0 spurt in the second quarter.
�We have been doing a good job of staying active on defense,� Ashdown said. �We were able to switch up. We pressed a little bit, played man-to-man and zone. I think we had a quite of a few more steals than we normally do because we anticipated.�
The Vikings will be the Coastal Conference�s fifth and final seed for the state playoffs.
Lyssa Wallace-O�Neal led the Cardinals (2-19, 0-14) with 8 points and 7 rebounds.
Jacksonville coach Monique Gidrey was not available for comment.
Jacksonville 12 14 8 20 � 54
White Oak 18 14 21 23 � 76
Perry 15, Stone 2, Franklin 2, Williams 2, Farrow 1, Vialva 13, Bodette 4, Smith 10, Perez 2, Kellum 3. Totals� 17-54 18-32 54.
Garrison 4, K. White 33, Barton 3, Jones 8, Q. White 3, Robinson 14, Riley 8, Snowden 1. Totals� 29-59 16-29 76.
3-Point Goals� J 2 (Perry, Smith), W 2 (Garrison, Robinson). Rebounds� J 31 (Vialva 6), W 45 (White 10, Jones 10, Q. White 8). RECORDS� J: 10-14, 5-9, vs. TBA in conference tournament. W: 6-18, 3-11, vs. TBA in conference tournament.
Jacksonville 6 6 4 9 � 25
White Oak 14 11 14 14 � 53
Hurd 2, Heritage 2, Wallace-O�Neal 8, Wangerin 2, Scott 6, Kennedy 1, Berry 4. Totals� 11-41 3-8 25.
Bailey 4, McLain 10, Pawlowski 2, L. Levester 15, Smith 17, Czigler 1, I. Levester 4. Totals� 22-47 9-21 53.
3-Point Goals� J 0, W 0. Rebounds� J 21 (Wallace-O�Neal 7), W 34 (L. Levester 7, Czigler 7). RECORDS� J: 2-19, 0-14, vs. TBA in conference tournament. W: 15-9, 7-7, vs. TBA in conference tournament.


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On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, half a world away….
Anne-Lise Gere is over the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Paris to North Carolina. Six months pregnant with her first child, she looks forward to a reunion with her Air Force husband. Then the pilot breaks in with an announcement: The plane is being diverted to Canada. There is nothing wrong with the aircraft. No further details.
Anne and Arthur Korff of Newport News are visiting Scotland. They climb into a cab, where the radio is abuzz with people crying and yelling. The driver picks up on their American accents and asks: "Were any of your people involved in that?" The Korffs have been having tea with friends. They don't know what he is talking about.
Robert Quandahl of Hampton is aboard the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier when the news starts to filter through the ship. An attack on the World Trade Center, an attack on the Pentagon, an attack on American soil. The Enterprise is leaving the Persian Gulf as Quandahl writes a quick email to his wife. Suddenly, the Enterprise is no longer leaving the gulf. "I could feel the ship starting to turn," he said.
That same morning in Hampton Roads….
Tahani Amer goes to work at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton and sees the first horrifying images on TV. As the World Trade Center burns, she goes to her office and does something she does five times a day — she prays. Then her thoughts turn to her children at school. "The older daughter was covered," she said, referring to her daughter's hijab, or headscarf. "I was afraid someone would bother her."
At Bruton High School, senior Todd Weaver sees the attacks and takes it particularly hard. Later, his mother would say she had never seen him so angry and upset – and so motivated. The course of a heroic and tragic life is set that day. Todd Weaver will end up in Afghanistan.
That same morning in New York City….
Monika Kelly of Poquoson is running late for a meeting at the World Trade Center. Stopped at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, she hears a news report about airplanes slamming into the twin towers. In the days and weeks that follow, one thought will keep her up at night: I was supposed to be there.
Doug Wood of Newport News is in New York for a business meeting. He's sitting in a cab, watching from a distance as flames spew from the first tower of the World trade Center. He sees a speck in the air and thinks to himself, It's a rescue helicopter. But the speck keeps moving. It isn't stopping. It is speeding toward the second tower.
That same morning at Ground Zero….
Bob Berry of Newport News waits in line for a tour of the New York Stock Exchange. Suddenly, pieces of paper flutter all around him. He looks up – it is a beautiful blue sky – and he can't figure it out.
Where is all that paper coming from?
That day
On Sept. 11, 2001, residents of Hampton Roads experienced the single most important moment in recent American history from every conceivable, horrible angle. They learned the news in random snippets in foreign countries and aboard ships at sea. They stood close enough to breathe dust laden with incinerated human remains.
The 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is next Sunday. This week, the Daily Press will introduce 11 people who have shared their thoughts about that day – where they were, how they believe it changed America, how it changed them.
Today, those changes are part of our everyday lives, from metal detectors at local airports to tight security at our military bases in Hampton Roads. We live with the realization that disaster could happen at any time.
But consider what worried us 10 years ago on this day: Sept, 4, 2001.
It was the Tuesday after Labor Day, and the Virginia political season had just kicked off. A businessman named Mark Warner was running for governor as a Democrat against Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican.
The candidates were fresh off their appearance in the traditional Labor Day parades in Buena Vista and Covington, in southwest Virginia. One week later, their campaigns would go dark for several days – candidates running for office who could say nothing, because no one was listening.
On Sept. 5, then Gov. Jim Gilmore appointed the Shark Attack Task Force — a group of experts who would look into shark attacks that had killed two Virginians.
One week later, America would mourn more than 2,600 people who died at the twin towers, 125 who died at the Pentagon and 256 who died on four hijacked planes.
The governor would have much more to worry about.
A better place?
Like the country itself, our diverse group differed on whether America is better or worse 10 years after the terrorist attacks. That's a question we'll explore in detail next Sunday, when America pauses to reflect on its great loss.
Some expressed optimism that that our institutions are still strong. Others lamented the bitter divisions in America and wondered why we could not sustain the feeling of unity so prevalent in the wake of the attacks.
Some people walked away from the attacks with vivid memories and nothing more. For others, the day left a more tangible impression. That was certainly true for Berry, who lived to tell his story of Ground Zero, and for Kelly, whose life may have been saved by the stopped traffic at the Holland Tunnel.
"It's been 10 years and it still bothers me sometimes," Kelly said. "I obsessively watch any special about the towers going down or anything like that. It's stupid. I don't know why, but I do.
"It's like, you have to know other people's stories."


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Hello I'm new to this forum.
I'd like to look into programming a game in java.
Iv'e programed simple text-based games such as tic-tac-toe and battleship in C. But I'd like to do something more graphical in java. I have some experience from classes I've taken in java, some basic work with graphics in swing.
My problem is knowing where to get started. My idea is to make a hacky-sack game. I understand how I will need to implement math in order to make it happen, its just coding it that I feel shaky about.
Any information would be helpful to help me get going on this project.


text: Derek C 16 Posted March 11, 2013 I followed his book exactly, for a LONG time, and saw no results. It's a total scam and one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. If you want to turn you life up-side-down, spend all your money on vitamin supplements and organic vegetables for juicing, and if you want to get sucked into the strange pseudo-science of his brand of "nutrition", then do it. Seriously, I believe Mike Walden is a con-man. When I bought his book, it was actually years ago, and went by a different name, "Your Last Acne Solution". I see he's re-branded. Myself, along with everyone on his message board, were not only desperate, but stupid, and in my case, young, and willing to do all this in good faith, thinking we were going to "cure" our acne. It never worked, no matter how close you followed his steps. In fact (and I'm not exaggerating here), you're required to follow his steps so closely, that it's almost like a cult. Seriously. People would ask this guy what to do about this, or about that, and just blindly follow. He's not a dermatologist, scientist, or doctor. He probably took a few nutrition classes or something, if that. Please read on.... Basically it involves you cutting out of your diet basically most things people eat regularly. He won't even allow fruit, cause it's too high in sugar, which he claims feeds bad bacteria in your body which create acne. You have to go on days-week long juice fasts, eat only the foods HE says are appropriate, "purge" your liver, which I believe was probably totally unhealthy with no medical research to back up any claims of benefit, watch EVERY SINGLE thing you eat, it's really really really psychotic, and quite honestly, evil and harmful. I cannot stress enough how EVERY SINGLE THING you eat or do is scrutinized in this book, to the point where it became virtually impossible to follow without going off a cliff of dieting insanity. He is not a doctor or scientist and all the medical explanations about how your liver and organs and digestion works is not backed up by any scientific or medical journals. He's bases a lot of it on OTHER new-age, holistic, raw food-type, diet books. As I said, I was desperate and stupid, as was a lot of people on the boards. EVERYONE was having issues not seeing results. EVERYONE. And his response was ALWAYS, "well, you have to do more", or "you're not fully cleansed". So, purge your liver more, do another juice fast, take MORE supplements, don't eat this or don't eat that. And you know what? We did it. For me it turned into a boarder line eating disorder. It's a completely psychotic thing to do, and the bottom line is my acne probably got worse during that period. And he also use to refuse to refund anyone. He claimed that it's stated that "if we follow the program and don't see results we get a refund" BUT if we're not seeing results, that clearly means we're not following it or haven't followed it long enough, even if it was years. He'd say, well, you just have to purge your liver again or fast some more, and if you didn't and just wanted your money back, he's say you weren't following it, so you're not entitled to a refund. So between the people wanting the refund (after turning their lives up-side-down and gaining a true eating disorder), and I suspect complaints to authorities, the website/message board was eventually shut down. And now it's back, as "Acne No More", with all kinds of bogus youtube videos. People, please believe me, if you go down this rabbit hole, not only will you not help your acne (and since he advocates STOPPING any topical/treatments you are using, which he claims interferes with his "all natural" methods, it will likely get much worse), but you will also open yourself up to a world of pain and misery with all these crazy fasts, purges, and excessive supplements, to the point that before you know it, you have an eating disorder, all because "if I eat this, I'll break out", "if I don't fast for 5 days, I wont cure my acne", "if I don't eat this way I'll never clear my skin", "if I don't eliminate this from my diet there's no hope", etc. Go to a dermatologist. If you don't like them, find one you do like. Do Dan's regimen (which has worked pretty well for me). But DON'T believe a word of this "Acne No More" scam, no matter how much he tries to present his information as if it was scientific or medically sound. He's not a doctor or scientist. But he knows how to present things in a way that is convincing, and for non-doctors, it's impossible to disprove, because in order to disprove it, you have to do it, and when it doesn't work, he'll say you have to do it longer or harder or more intense, and it will just continue like that until you finally realize (traumatically in my case), that you've totally lost control of your life and have developed a psychotic way of making sense of you acne, and you have what basically amounts to an eating disorder. It's a gigantic scam and I fell for it. DO NOT DO IT. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Seattle, WA
January 14, 2020
Event Registration
Note: All fields must be filled out for submission.
Digital Transition Discussion
8:30 a.m. Registration
9:00 a.m. Programming
Note: All fields must be filled out for submission.
Events are FREE to attend for Educators but we ask all Company representatives to
sponsor or, for some events, pay a small fee to just attend and be part of the activities.
Most events open registration at 7:30am and programming starts at 8:00am. Some events vary. Check out the events schedule for specific start times.
For the Learning Group conference calls: Join in Knowstory to get call invitation.


text: Landsat 7 ETM+ image of path 39 row 27, taken on 07/12/2002. The image consists of 9 separate GeoTIFF images for 9 spectral bands. To provide information to the general public on Agriculture, Natural resource management, and education communities Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, University of North Dakota 2007 Landsat 7 ETM+ image of path 39 row 27, taken on 07/12/2002. remote-sensing image Helena, MT MontanaView Consortium http://www.montanaview.org http://digital-ngp.aero.und.edu ground condition 20020712 Complete None -112.51 -109.54 48.37 46.53 ISO 19115 Topic Category imageryBaseMapsEarthCover None Raster Land cover none Montana none This data set is provided "as-is" without warranty of any kind. The MontanaView Consortium makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this data set and assumes no responsibility for the suitability of this data set for a particular purpose; and MontanaView Consortium will not be liable for any damages incurred as a result of errors in this data set. Raster Pixel 7269 7625 9 Universal Transverse Mercator 12 0.9996 -111.0 0.0 500000 0.0 row and column 30 30 meters World Geodetic System 1984 WGS_1984 6378137 298.257224 Montana State Library mailing address P.O. Box 201800 Helena Montana 59620-1800 USA 406-444-5358 email@example.com Downloadable data Users must assume responsibility to determine the usability of this data for their purposes. 9 single-band GeoTIFF images 238 http://www.montanaview.org Xiaodong Zhang Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium/Digital Northern Great Plains mailing and physical Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences University of North Dakota University and Tulane Drive Grand Forks North Dakota 58202-9007 USA firstname.lastname@example.com 701-777-2490 Downloadable Data http://digital-ngp.aero.und.edu 20071212 Montana State Library Gerry Daumiller mailing address P.O. Box 201800 Helena Montana 59620-1800 USA 406-444-5358 email@example.com FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998


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Let us help you bring your dream wedding to life. Explore the world of Divine Dreams and meet with one of our Dream Team to discuss customised styling and a bespoke package for your special day. From ceremony chairs and carpets to reception centerpieces and draping, we will ensure that your wedding day is seamless with our end-to-end styling services. Click here to browse our wedding image galleries, hire catalogue & real weddings blog. We can't wait to make your dreams come true!
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It's been a rough day for the coaches of underachieving NFL teams: The Chiefs fired Todd Haley this morning, and Adam Schefter reports that the Dolphins fired Tony Sparano this afternoon.
Miami recovered from an 0-7 start to the season and climbed back to a respectable 4-9, but they're going to miss the postseason for the third year in a row. Unlike Haley, Sparano's tenure was rather unmemorable, save for his oddly-timed real estate dealings and his penchant for wearing your dad's sunglasses on the sidelines. Secondary coach Todd Bowles will reportedly take over as interim coach.
We'd predict that Indy's Jim Caldwell is up next, but he and the Colts are doing a very fine job of Sucking For Luck this season.


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Phoenix (Wednesday, July 02, 2014) -- The Office of the Arizona Attorney General, along with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Pima County Sheriff's Office are seeking the public's assistance to identify victims of an individual suspected of engaging in the Practice of Medicine by a Person Not Licensed.
Gustavo Felix Nunez has been performing cosmetic surgical procedures in Tucson, as well as other states and countries. In Tucson, these procedures may have taken place at an industrial warehouse located at 1656 N. 15th Ave., his residence in the 8600 block of North Bobby Jones Drive by North Shannon and West Overton Road near the Omni Tucson National Golf Resort, or other locations. These procedures include liposuctions, lip injections, Botox injections, and other similar cosmetic procedures and plastic surgeries.
Mr. Nunez is not a doctor, nor does he carry any licensing in the state of Arizona to practice medicine. Any person who has had any medical procedure conducted by Mr. Nunez is encouraged to consult with a currently licensed and certified medical doctor to review the safety of such procedure.
At this point in the investigation, the Office of the Arizona Attorney General and the DEA are working together to identify possible victims. Those who believe they may have been patients of Mr. Nunez are encouraged to contact law enforcement. Victims also may be eligible for assistance through the Attorney General's Office of Victim Services.
If you have information regarding Mr. Nunez, or believe you have been a patient of his, please contact DEA Special Agents Adam Nobbley or Jonathan Shankweiler at (520) 573-5500 or Assistant Attorney General Josh Moser or Special Assistant Attorney General Jordan Emerson at (520) 628-6504.


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Q: If $f$ is Riemann integrable over $[0,1]$, then there exists a differentiable function $F$ on $[a, b]$ such that $F'=f$ and $\int_a^b f(x)dx = F(b)-F(a)$.
Here's what I'm thinking so far:
- If $\alpha = x$, then you can say that $f$ is also Riemann-Stieltjes integrable on $[0,1]$.
- Then, since $f$ must be a bounded real-valued function due to being Riemann integrable, we can use the theorem that states "For $0\le x \le 1$, put $F(x) = \int_0^x f(t) dt$. Then $f$ is continuous on $[0,1]$
- In order for $F$ to be differentiable, $f$ must be continuous on $[0,1]$, so we add that as an assumption
- Then, by Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, we can say $\int_0^1 f(x) \; dx = F(1) - F(0)$.
I realize there are lots of issues here, but I'm hoping I'm at least on the right track. Any direction or hints are appreciated.


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Padraig Harrington Joins Citizen Watch Club
March 31, 2009: If you can't get Tiger Woods it pays to go for the next best, so Citizen Watch has signed Padraig Harrington to appear in marketing efforts supporting the launch of The Signature Men's Collection. Financial terms were not disclosed. Harrington, ranked in the top-five worldwide and winner of the last two consecutive British Open Championships, and the 2008 PGA Championship, will appear in a print campaign in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. in daily newspapers and monthly fashion and lifestyle magazines. The Signature Women's Collection is represented by top-ranked golfer Paula Creamer. The effort will precede the launch of the collect in stores this fall. "I look forward to wearing The Signature Collection watches and being featured in their marketing programs," Harrington said in a statement. Citizen Watch athlete endorsers also include New York Giants QB Eli Manning and 2009 Daytona 500 champion race car driver Matt Kenseth. Harrington's list of endorsements includes Footjoy, Kartel, Titleist and Wilson.( Photo: Harrington, right, with Laurence R. Grunstein, president of Citizen Watch. Courtesy PRNewsFoto/Citizen Watch). Back to Home Page


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Battle for strategic Syrian town shows why war has displaced millions
Late in August, when world attention was focused on the poison gas attack near Damascus, Syrian government forces were waging an intense assault against a small rebel-held town 150 miles to the north.
The spotlight never touched on Ariha, south of Idlib, even after Sept. 3, when Syrian state media announced that the government had "cleansed" the town of "terrorist gangs." But the two-week battle helps illuminate why Syria's civil war has created such a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
To "cleanse" the town, government helicopters dumped dozens of "barrel bombs" – improvised explosive devices filled with shrapnel and varying in size from a large pipe to a garbage Dumpster – on houses and shops, multiple witnesses told McClatchy. Tanks and howitzers fired into the town, and the army also fired mortars, gravity bombs, vacuum bombs and cluster bombs.
Outgunned and low on ammunition, the rebels gave up. They and around 70,000 civilians fled to other towns and to Turkey, and that may have been the aim of the operation. The United Nations now estimates that 6.8 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes, and outside experts say the number may be as high as 10 million.
What's remarkable about the battle for Ariha, which sits astride a strategic government resupply route, is that few outside Syria were aware of it. Neither the U.N. nor most international nongovernmental organizations, nor even the most widely quoted Syrian monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported on the battle.
One reason may be that for two and a half years the town was surrounded by government troops and penetrated by government informers, and possession of a photo on a telephone led to arrest and torture for the person with the phone and his family, activists from the town say. During the long siege, almost no news got out of Ariha.
Ariha is a case study in Syria's hidden war, in which government forces besiege towns and villages sympathetic to the rebels, fire on them with their heaviest weapons, then send in ground troops for a brutal "cleansing."
The assaults have forced hundreds of thousands from their homes to seek food and shelter with relatives, in schools or makeshift camps or abroad as refugees. Similar "cleanings" are underway in two other strategically located towns in northern Syria – Saraqeb, southeast of Idlib, and Safira, southeast of Aleppo – according to reports. In addition, Human Rights Watch has closely tracked government operations, starting in July 2012, to bulldoze or blow up entire neighborhoods in Damascus and Hama dominated by rebels and their sympathizers.
"What happened in Ariha is a small version of what is happening everywhere in Syria," said Abu Ahmed, a 46-year-old former Ariha government official who'd fled to Reyhanli, Turkey, on the border with Syria, and who asked to be identified by an Arabic nickname that means "Ahmed's father." "The army goes in, attacks the people, kills the people who stay behind, then fires on the people who are fleeing. Then it takes control of everything in the area. It destroys everything."
Rebel participants in the battle in Ariha say it was fought not by the foreign extremists who increasingly dominate the anti-Assad movement, but by residents who were prepared to die to defend their families and bring down the Assad government. It came against a backdrop of more than a year of rebel harassment of Syrian military convoys on the highway and deadly attacks on government checkpoints that had begun to take shape as early as the middle of 2011.
The battle involved about 600 anti-government fighters from four groups, including the al Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, working from a single operations room, according to Abu Muataz Billah, 23, a rebel commander interviewed in Reyhanli. They faced at least 1,000 Syrian army troops, augmented by militias, Iranians and fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, they said.
The death toll, according to town officials and the rebel commander, was 130 civilians and about 80 rebels. As many as 150 government fighters died, they said. About 600 townspeople were wounded, and the death toll among the civilians might be higher, rebels said, because many might have been trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. Satellite photos obtained by McClatchy and Human Rights Watch show heavy destruction in several parts of the town.
Ariha is only one of dozens of towns and cities under government siege, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and its location on a key supply route makes it all the more vulnerable. "That's the pattern," said Donatella Rovera, senior investigator for Amnesty International. "Areas taken by the rebels get pounded, and the more they are strategically located, the more they get pounded."
Battles such as this receive little news coverage. Reporting from rebel-held areas has come largely to a halt following a surge in kidnappings by the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, an al Qaida group whose influence has spread throughout northern Syria. Reporters' only alternative is to report from Damascus, if the Syrian government will grant a visa, and that provides little access to rebel-held zones.
After receiving a tip that the regime had dropped an enormous number of "barrel bombs" on a thickly populated town, McClatchy sought out witnesses from Ariha and surrounding villages to reconstruct the story. The U.S. government had few details on the fighting and the U.N. doesn't closely follow the war in this part of Syria. More than a month after the government's proclaimed victory, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had no information about the fighting in Ariha.
But the humanitarian impact of the battle seems likely to have been enormous.
Ariha, surrounded by olive and fruit groves, is a typical Syrian farming town, with no manufacturing other than small clothing producers. Its distinction is its location aside the M4 highway, which crosses Idlib province from the cities of Idlib and Aleppo, in the neighboring province of the same name, to the port of Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast. It's an important route for transporting supplies from the port to military bases in Idlib and Aleppo and supporting two Shiite Muslim towns northeast of Idlib.
"This is the only road linking the Mediterranean coast with Idlib and Aleppo," Abu Ahmed said. "I reckon that the regime, even if it has to kill every single person in Ariha and every village around it, will not let go of Ariha."
Ariha's politics were decidedly anti-government when anti-Assad demonstrations began in southern Syria on March 15, 2011. Ariha's first protest came on April 22 that year, when townspeople pulled down the statue of Assad's late father, President Hafez Assad, at a major traffic circle. It was the first town in northern Syria to see such action.
The anti-government mood sharpened after a peaceful march by tens of thousands of residents from around the Idlib countryside on May 20, 2011. They gathered in Ariha and carried olive branches toward Idlib, chanting the familiar "The people want the regime to fall," as well as "No Iran and no Hezbollah, we want a state that fears Allah." When they moved within range of the military base at the town of Mastouma, soldiers opened fire, killing at least 11 people, witnesses said.
"That day changed my life," said Nourlddin Abdu, 25, a retail clerk from Ariha. "After that, people decided we had to carry weapons. We all began selling what we had in order to buy a Kalashnikov."
Abu Ahmed said this effectively launched the insurgency in Ariha. Attacks on government installations followed, including on police stations.
In June that year, regime forces attacked Ariha with artillery, followed by a ground assault, during which the minarets of its ancient mosque were destroyed. They briefly occupied the town and set up checkpoints, then surrounded and besieged it, blocking nearly all routes in and out of it. On Jan. 7, 2012, Assad loyalists attacked the town of Mastouma, killing 75 people – apparently in response to rebel attacks on military convoys.
In early 2012, the military also began shelling or bombing villages around Ariha, townspeople said, culminating in an attack on Nahliya, another strategic village on the M4 highway. As the shelling continued, villagers began to flee to the homes of friends or relatives or to camps for the displaced in Syria or in Turkey.
Abdul Halim Alawi, a schoolteacher from the nearby city of Jisr al Shughour, recalled that at some point early in the year the attacks intensified. "There were 10 rockets in one go, instead of artillery," he said.
After months of such pressures, the four local rebel groups began coordinating closely on a response. In addition to the Nusra Front, there were representatives from two Islamist brigades, Ahrar al Sham and Shuhada Souriya, and a secular one affiliated with the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army, Suqour al Sham.
The rebels' first goal was to close the main road.
"We are in different brigades but we are all sons of the villages," said Usama Abu Sayf, 30, a painter and plasterer from the village of Kafr Zeeba, near Ariha, who's a commander in Suqour al Sham.
The brigades mounted an operation at Basnqoul, a village west of Ariha, on June 19 this year. "We closed the road and killed some soldiers," Abu Sayf said. The government mounted a fierce counterattack with its aircraft – "maybe 28 hits in one day," Abu Sayf recalled – and the rebels withdrew.
Abu Sayf said the army had followed up by occupying Basnqoul and nearby Kafr Shalaya, committing "horrible massacres" and expelling the residents. The cleansing had begun.
The army then entered Urum al Joz, a village that straddles the highway, and ordered its residents to leave. The soldiers continued to two other villages, Maatrim and Kafr Najd, where they massacred residents, expelled the population, and burned and looted the houses, Abu Sayf said. Each of these villages had a nominal population of at least 5,000, though some were swollen by internally displaced people and others had lost population because of the military pressure.
The most devastating blow to Ariha came on July 17. It was Ramadan, the month of daylong fasting, and townspeople had turned out by the thousands at Ariha's main market at 4 p.m. to purchase food for the Iftar, the post-sundown breaking of the fast.
"I was riding my bike, parked it and was inside a shop when a mortar fell about five meters away," said Ghazal, 23, a student activist who works in the opposition's Ariha media office. Ghazal, who was interviewed by Skype from Syria and telephone from Turkey, asked to be identified only by his first name.
"I was in shock. I didn't move," he said. "There was a huge noise of screaming. People feared another mortar would land in the same place." Thirty people lay dead on the ground, he said. "There were corpses without limbs, people with their heads severed, old people, children, women, shopkeepers."
The town had no ambulance and no hospitals, because the military had burned down its three clinics, he said. "All we had were motorbikes. We could take people to mobile clinics to be bandaged up, but that was all we could do," Ghazal said. As many as 20 more townspeople died of their wounds in the days that followed. The mayhem is documented in YouTube videos.
That same day the army attacked Nahliya, which was partly under rebel control.
The bombardment began at 6 a.m., said Suleyman, a former civil servant who also asked to be identified only by his first name. Aerial bombardment stepped up in the early afternoon, and by evening the town had taken more than 250 rocket and mortar hits, as well as four barrel bombs that destroyed 11 houses, he said. Those residents who hadn't pulled out before the bombardment fled.
"There's nobody left," Suleyman said.
Kafr Najd, the home village of Abu Ahmed, the former Ariha government official, was the next village to be "cleansed." The assault began Aug. 2 with 24 hours of intense artillery bombardment and air attacks that included barrel bombs dropped from helicopters, he said.
On Aug. 3, ground troops entered the town. They seized a neighbor in his house and executed him in his front garden. "They pulled his sweater over his head and fired three times at his head," Abu Ahmed said. "I saw it with my own eyes."
Abu Ahmed's two sons went outside to see what was happening, and found themselves pushed against the wall of the house and threatened with execution. Abu Ahmed managed to talk the soldiers out of it. But he said six other townspeople were executed.
The family fled in the clothes they were wearing on motorbikes to Assadiya, the next village, where nearly everyone from Kafr Najd had gone. Abu Ahmed said they were shelled along the way. "They were trying to kill us," he said. His 19-year-old son recalled that five people who were fleeing on a small tractor – a man, two women and two children – were killed in the barrage.
The killing continued in Kafr Najd the next day, Abu Ahmed said. "Only old people and the sick stayed behind, and whoever was in their house died," he said. Abu Muataz Billah, the rebel commander interviewed in Reyhanli, said the military had poured gasoline on a woman and her six children and set them on fire, and had tied several men together and thrown them down a well. Then the army set up a multiple rocket-launch position to rain fire into the town.
The town's four rebel groups devised a bold plan to retaliate: Seize control of Ariha and shut down the supply route altogether. They were sure they could capture the major checkpoints.
But lacking a single dominant leader, the fighters had no plan for staying in control when the military struck back. The rebels called the operation, "Breaking the Chains of Ariha the Steadfast."
The operation began at dawn Aug. 9 in complete radio silence. With a common operations room, the groups took control of half the city within a few hours, killing members of the Alawite Shabiha militia, said Abu Muataz Billah, a law student who commanded a squad of 24 men.
They started by capturing a key government checkpoint where the southern edge of Ariha met the rebel-held hills of Jabal al Arbaeen, capturing six tanks and an armored personnel carrier. Advancing around the western edge of the town, they took out several government checkpoints and finally reached the highway, which they closed. Not until they'd captured every checkpoint but one and effectively controlled the city did they announce the offensives, on Aug 19.
On Aug. 21, the regime struck back.
The government's first two forays into Ariha were costly, according to Abu Muataz Billah. It lost as many as 50 fighters, but then it stepped up the bombardment and inflicted heavy losses on the rebels, killing possibly 40 on the third day, he said. Regime forces marched into other villages and used them as bases for artillery attacks.
The worst day of bombing came Aug. 25.
"Twenty barrel bombs were dropped from helicopters, and there were more than 200 rockets," Abu Muataz Billah said. "Over 70 houses were destroyed on that day."
The wounded couldn't be treated, and it was impossible to dig out people who'd been crushed in the collapse of apartment buildings, he said.
With the rebels in disarray, the army threatened to step up its attack on the city. The rebels withdrew, "for the safety of civilians, and in order to preserve the town," Abu Muataz Billah said. Government forces mounted a ground sweep, in which soldiers tortured and executed some of the stragglers. Militias looted the town, witnesses said
Of all the destructive weapons, barrel bombs struck the most fear into those on the ground. "I was stationed in a trench when a helicopter flew over us," said Abu Mohammad, 37, a fighter with the Nusra Front. "We heard a roar that was like a MiG warplane, and it grew and grew and then the explosion happened, producing a cloud of dust and black smoke. I looked around, and some of my friends had lost limbs. I could no longer hear anything but ringing in my ears from the force of the explosion and the pressure."
"People tell me there's not a single washing machine left," said Dr. Najib Adel, a local physician who had his clinic burned by the army in September 2012. "They can take our washing machines, but don't leave Assad."
According to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, almost all of Ariha's 70,000 inhabitants were displaced to other locations in the Idlib governorate or abroad. Sixty to 70 percent of Ariha's houses were destroyed, and the rest were looted. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent said some families had returned to their shattered, looted homes in Ariha, chiefly because they had nowhere else to go.
Josh Lyons of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, who closely examined satellite photos that showed Ariha before and after the August onslaught, said he'd spotted instances of precision, targeted bombing but also many cases of seemingly random destruction, caused by howitzers, tanks and barrel bombs. He said there was a "high terror factor" in the use of such weapons: "The effect was more psychological than strategic or tactical."
Humanitarian observers said they saw the Ariha offensive as a deliberate targeting of civilians in order to depopulate rebel-held areas. They cited as evidence that the army routinely attempts to kill those who flee the scene, and not just in Ariha.
The displacement is being repeated. Last week, government troops occupied Safira, which like Ariha lies on a crucial supply route and which had long been under rebel control. Nearly 130,000 people, almost all of them civilians, fled north, toward Turkey.
"What I find really shocking is that it seems to be a strategy to bomb civilian areas . . . not just military strategic locations," said Jordan Davidoff, the emergency coordinator in Turkey for Doctors Without Borders. He said the government had even bombed displaced people at camps east of Safira; "not just a couple of bombs, but a shower of bombs."
The same displacement is taking place at Saraqeb, a town of 40,000 southeast of Idlib that's a key crossroads for military supplies flowing to Aleppo and Idlib. Still under rebel control, it's been bombarded daily since late September, causing an exodus of its residents as well as people from other towns who'd sought refuge there.
"The refugees are now in the villages around the city, in the countryside, some in tents and some living in the open," said Fuad Bilal, 60, who fled Saraqeb to Turkey when his house was bombed. "Those who still have homes wait for night to fall and sneak back into their homes like thieves."
As Ariha's former inhabitants seek out new shelter, the rebels are reviewing an operation that failed.
"In the beginning, we benefited from liberating Ariha after two and a half years of the regime's control, and we took control over the supply route," Abu Muataz Billah said. "We captured seven armored vehicles and we killed a number of regime troops. But unfortunately we lost Ariha," and, in an even bigger setback, major parts of the Jabal al Arbaeen countryside they'd controlled.
"In hindsight, the losses were bigger than the gains," he said.
And in the long term, the regime has won a strategic victory.
"Its aim is to hurt popular support of the FSA by making people afraid of the massacres," he said, referring to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army rebels. "People will say to the FSA, 'Go away, because if the regime comes, it will massacre us.' " And that, he concluded, "will undermine the FSA."
Jonathan S. Landay contributed to this article from Washington..


text: Introducing a better, more nimble BRZ THE WELL-EQUIPPED 2018 SUBARU BRZ tS at $ JV1SL In the world of performance cars, the phrase "Tuned by STI" is the stuff of legend. Now, the legend grows with the introduction of the 2018 Subaru BRZ tS, a new track-tuned, limited-edition model. In the development process, Subaru engineers were challenged to improve upon the original BRZ — no small feat. But they succeeded. The tS features heightened performance levels in key areas — increased control, improved stability and great flexibility — thus creating more sheer fun behind the wheel. But the fun won't last. Once the 2018 Subaru BRZ tS is gone, it's gone forever.


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Blackgang Chine Cliff Top Glass Coaster
Blackgang Chine Cliff Top Glass Coaster
My coasters are made from toughened glass, making them super durable and resistant to heat up to 130 degrees. They have a non-slip backing and should be wiped clean.
Each purchase of 4 Glass Coasters will include a free wooden stand.
Product Size:
Height: 100mm x Width: 100mm
Add To Cart


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At the height of the muscle car wars in 1969, car companies were doing some new and interesting things in order to make their models stand out.
As you can see from this very "groovy" 1969 AMC Javelin dealer promo video, sometimes that included writing original songs about your car "tearing up the trans am races" and showing random dancers flopping around on a yacht.
Few things say 1969 quite like this swinging dealer promo advising potential AMC buyers to "get the Javelin beat".


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Internet Advancement
Journey To Excellence-JTE
Unit Websites
Follow us...
With almost a century's experience in designing and administering youth programs, the Boy Scouts of America provides handbooks that give step-by-step guidance as well as supplemental literature and periodicals that will help you in your role as a Cub Scout parent.
BSA Insignia GuideThe BSA Insignia Guide presents detailed information to enable our members to wear the correct complete uniform on all suitable occasions.
Youth LiteratureCub Scout handbooks are designed for boys and their parents to use as they progress along the Cub Scout trail.
Age-Appropriate Guidelines for Scouting Activities ChartThese guidelines apply to Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops, Varsity Scout teams, and Venturing crews.
Scouting Safely The Boy Scouts of America places the greatest importance on creating the most secure environment possible for our youth members. To maintain such an environment, the BSA developed numerous procedural and leadership selection policies and provides parents and leaders with resources for all our programs.
Boys' Life MagazineThe mission of Boys' Life magazine is to entertain and educate America's youth and to open their eyes to the joyous world of reading. Parents can always be confident that the content of the magazine is wholesome, entertaining, and educational.
Scouting MagazineMany parents of Scouts find Scouting magazine a valuable resource. The magazine provides a wealth of information about parenting and working with youth.


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The optimal temperature for cell culture largely depends on the body temperature of the host from which the cells were isolated, and to a lesser degree on the anatomical variation in temperature (e.g., temperature of the skin may be lower than the temperature of skeletal muscle). Overheating is a more serious problem than underheating for cell cultures; therefore, often the temperature in the incubator is set slightly lower than the optimal temperature.
Optimal Temperatures for Various Cell Lines
- Most human and mammalian cell lines are maintained at 36°C to 37°C for optimal growth.
- Insect cells are cultured at 27°C for optimal growth; they grow more slowly at lower temperatures and at temperatures between 27°C and 30°C. Above 30°C, the viability of insect cells decreases, and the cells do not recover even after they are returned to 27°C.
- Avian cell lines require 38.5°C for maximum growth. Although these cells can also be maintained at 37°C, they will grow more slowly.
- Cell lines derived from cold-blooded animals (e.g., amphibians, cold-water fish) tolerate a wide temperature range between 15°C and 26°C.


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Roro99 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 34 diseños de 17 diseñadores freelance.
Everest Estate
We are a real estate company in Switzerland.
We love what we do and we would like a fantastic design, that people remember when they visit our website.
People come from our area or abroad and are looking for real estate to buy or invest.
We're simply looking for some pure design.
We have logo (do not use purple color on website please), which we have attached below, we would like you to use this in the design, but here are a few things to think about:
1. We would like a clear/ nice design, with a very nice map and photo combination.
2. The headers should be clear, simple and bold. We want something that stands out.
3. We want to give the website a friendly easy to understand
4. The main menu should have link tabs for the following: "home" "Active Projects", "Done Projects", "About us" "contact us",
5. The main menu should have sub-navigation under the "Active Projects" and "Done Projects" item: "Geneva", "Vaud", "Valais", "Fribourg", "Neuchatel"
We will require a layered .psd file as the final product (RGB). Do not mind if you use stock images, but please make sure you declare it.
Page colors will be mainly a warm brown. (with anthracite and white)
Please forget the purple color of logo, we would not use this color on website.
As we have Active and Done projects, we would like people that visit the website, to find out in a glance, how many projects we have active (about 10) and done (about ten) on a very nice map. Active project would be marked as red and flashing, Done projects would appear in green. When people are over a project that is indicated on the map, a little box with photos and text appear. (make it visible on your work please, as a person would actually surf on your page).
I attach here some maps example of our area, that we would like our customer to see.
We do not have an existing website.
http://www.hawaiilife.com/ I like the map with a background photo integration. (you can see also directly different area to search). It would be nice to have a mix of maps with flag and information, with background photos from past project that are rotating.


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They don't all look the same – could better facial discrimination lead to less racial discrimination?
It's been a big week. With a simple words, Barack Obama became the first black President of a country whose history has been so haunted by the spectre of racial prejudice. His election and inauguration are undoubtedly proud moments but they must not breed complacency. Things may be changing outwardly, but problems remain.
For a start, it goes without saying that many people, even the most liberal and left-wing among us, still harbour unconscious prejudices against members of other races. These "implicit biases" may be hidden, but their effects are often not. For example, a study published last year showed that unconscious biases can hold greater sway over a person's voting decisions than their conscious, rational preferences.
Their influence becomes apparent even when we simply look at people of other races. It's a well-known fact that people generally find it more difficult to distinguish between the faces of people from other ethnic groups than those of their own. This so-called "other-race effect" is the phenomenon behind claims that "they all look the same". But looks are in the eye of the beholder and the other-race effect can be negated through experience with members of different races. For example, African infants who are adopted by white families develop a bias in distinguishing between faces that matches those of white children.
Sophie Lebrecht from Brown University sensed a link between poorer facial discrimination and greater racial discrimination. Her idea is simple: if someone finds it hard to tell the difference between people of a certain race, they will be more likely to characterise that entire group with broad stereotypes. When the lines between individuals blur, generalities start seeping in and implicit biases have a stronger influence. But if that's the case, there may be a way around it – indeed, Lebrecht found that by training people to better discriminate between faces of other races, she could help to reduce their biased attitudes towards those races.
Lebrecht recruited 20 white volunteers and found that they showed typical other-race effects. She asked them to memorise 24 Chinese and Black faces and later, say which they recognised from a larger set of 48. Lebrecht also tested the volunteers for signs of implicit biases using a test called the "affective lexical priming score" or ALPS. Like similar tests, this one relies on the fact that relationships that certain mental tasks are more difficult if they challenge a person's hidden prejudices.
The volunteers saw a series of white, black or oriental faces, each paired with a word. The word could be positive (such as "love"), negative ("hate"), neutral ("tree") or nonsense ("malk") and the volunteer's job iwas to classify it accordingly. If the volunteers bore any hidden prejudices against, say, black people, their response times would be quicker if black faces were paired with negative words, and slower if they were paired with positive words.
After these initial tasks, the volunteers were split into two groups. One was asked to categorise various faces as either Chinese or Black; all they had to do was to consider the faces on a very general level. The other volunteers were faced with a more difficult training exercise, where they learned to press a different key for each of eight Black faces (and the same key for each of eight Chinese faces). They had to learn to recognise the headshots on an individual basis.
Finally, Lebrecht put all the volunteers through the recognition test and the ALPS a second time. As expected, Lebrecht found that those who were trained became better at telling the difference between faces of other races. Their scores in the recognition test improved, while the volunteers who just had to categorise the faces were no better the second time round.
Better yet, the trained group showed fewer implicit biases against black faces. Before the training, they took significantly longer to respond when Black faces were paired with positive words than when they were paired with negative ones. Afterwards, these delayed responses were, on average, nowhere to be seen. Lebrecht even found that volunteers who showed the greatest progress in discriminating between ethnically diverse faces also showed the greatest declines in their implicit biases. For comparison, the volunteers who merely categorised Black and Asian faces still bore the same hidden prejudices that they showed in the first test.
It's not just experience with other races that made a difference – after all, both groups of volunteers saw the same sets of faces and only one developed smaller implicit biases. To Lebrecht, it was the motivation to consider the faces as individuals rather than members of a group that did the trick. She isn't claiming that this training is a complete or foolproof solution to the problem of unconscious racial bias, merely that it could go some way towards reducing it. Perhaps it will find uses among immigration workers, teachers, policemen or other professions who regularly come across people from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
However, it's worth noting that the study had a very small sample size, a weakness that Lebrecht acknowledges. That doesn't invalidate the study, but it does leave its conclusions on shakier territory. Nonetheless, it's an interesting piece of work with fascinating social ramifications; it surely deserves to be replicated with bigger numbers.
Reference: Sophie Lebrecht, Lara J. Pierce, Michael J. Tarr, James W. Tanaka (2009). Perceptual Other-Race Training Reduces Implicit Racial Bias PLoS ONE, 4 (1) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004215
More on race and stereotypes:
- Social status shapes racial identity
- People overestimate their reactions to racism
- Mind your words – how stereotypes affect female performance at maths


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Useful Tips
Homeschooling is rewarding, but hard work. You'll need friends and resources along the way. Here are a few ideas to get you started on your homeschooling journey:
Get Plugged In
Join your local and state support group, participate in local homeschool events, and talk with veterans who can show you the ropes. Plan to attend a homeschool convention—every state has at least one. You can find contact information for your state group—usually the host of state or regional conventions—and local support groups by visiting www.hslda.org/laws, clicking on your state, and then selecting the "organizations" tab.
Tune in to Your Child's Learning Style
Homeschooling enables you to tailor your child's education to his unique style of learning. "Children's overall learning style includes both the channel through which she/he learns (eye, ear, or hand) and the ways in which she/he is most motivated to learn—'thinking style&rsuqo;" (Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling). Other resources:
Select a Type of Curriculum & Method of Homeschooling
There are almost as many curriculum combinations and educational philosophies as there are homeschooling families. Many families find their teaching style and curriculum choices altering to meet their growing children's changing needs. Here's a nutshell description of some general categories: (See Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling for a much more thorough description of curriculum types.)
One of the great things about homeschooling is that you don't have to be limited to just one approach—you can mix and match, taking what you like from each approach, to maximize your child's learning.
Attend Teacher Training, Convention or Curriculum Fair
Curriculum fairs, often held in conjunction with state or regional homeschool conferences, provide you with an opportunity to check out the curricula you've been researching. Not only can you look through the materials, but you can ask questions of the publisher representatives as well. Beverly McCord, who founded the Arlington Book Fair with her husband Kirk, offers this advice: "Just stand at a publisher's booth for about 10 minutes and get an earful of what homeschoolers think about some of the titles of that publisher—which ones are the jewels that everybody's using and which ones are really not that helpful."
Choose a Place to Do School
In the kitchen? Living room? In a school room? Each family finds solutions that work for them. For some creative ideas for streamlining and maximizing your space, check out these books:
Be Creative with Field Trips
Start with nearby chambers of commerce, tourism offices, historical societies, town halls, craft guilds, fire/rescue companies, other support groups, and yellow pages. Next, try your local library or book store for family travel guides for the region in which you are interested and then use your imagination!
Tips for Overcoming Obstacles
Many parents have faced and overcome the same obstacles you may encounter in your homeschooling journey. In addition to asking homeschooling veterans for their advice, consider some of the following suggestions:
Winning over Friends & Relatives
If you have some skeptical relatives or friends, you're not alone. Many homeschooling families have won the respect, and even changed the opinions of nearby critics through simply providing positive social interaction and allowing their children's educational success to speak for itself. You can make a difference by explaining why you are homeschooling, having your child put together a scrapbook or portfolio showing samples of his best work for the year, reporting standardized test scores, having your child write articulate letters, or encouraging him to perform some voluntary service demonstrating strong language, math, and/or social skills.
Tackling the 'Hard' Subjects Like Calculus or Latin
Maybe you could trade calculus for French lessons! Many homeschooling parents have found they can round out their children's education by trading teaching time in their areas of expertise—usually referred to as co-oping. Other options include private tutors (could be a friend or coworker) and community college classes.
Making a Transcript
The key here is not waiting until just before college. Help your student start planning his transcript as he's getting ready to enter the high school years.
Adjusting to Life on One Income
Many families have faced this challenge and share the innovative ways they found to meet their goals.


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New rules that come in to force next month will restrict the amount of money that can be paid back into pensions for those who have already started taking withdrawals.
With the new flexible pension rules that allow any amount of money to be withdrawn from a private pension at any time from age 55, the temptation to raid the pot to provide a spending boost has never been greater.
However, taking benefits early has some potentially costly consequences.
Firstly, spending the pension money at an early age can obviously mean that the pot could run out too soon.
Secondly, there are limits as to how much can be paid back into the pension pot out of earnings in order to replenish it.
Currently, someone who has raided their pension early can pay back in up to £10,000 of earnings each year.
This contribution allowance, known as the money purchase annual allowance, is set to reduce in April to £4,000.
The objective is to prevent widespread recycling of pension income, where money is put back into pensions to generate future tax relief.
Any breach of the reduced allowance will result in a tax charge. This could particularly hit higher earners and those people continuing in company pension schemes where the employer contributions are generous.
Another pension change that limits what can be paid into pensions is the option to carry forward the £50,000 contribution allowance from the 2014/15 tax year will expire on April 5. This use-it-or-lose-it allowance will encourage higher earners to make significant pension contributions before the end of the tax year in order to maximise the generous tax reliefs that are currently available.
Of course, this very generous pension system is estimated to cost the government over £30bn each year, so any future budget could restrict this generous giveaway even further.
David Hill is a Chartered Financial Planner and Trust & Estate Practitioner at Hills Financial Planning, 15 Agnew Street, Larne. He can be contacted on 028 28276814, email email@example.com or see www.hillsfinancialplanning.co.uk


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I actually MUCH prefer to not even use traps cuz they can be a pain in the butt AND one thing I have noticed regarding them is they can actually be used to train your adult fish to STOP trying to eat your fry.
I mean hell, after the adults attempt to attack the fry that they can see in the trap for about the 1000th time, they sorta figure out that perhaps it's just not a good idea to try eating the damn things. That of course ends up making life a lot more pleasurable for the fry that
Updated 05-01-2011 at 01:39 AM by lotsoffish
Friday while I was screwing around down in the fish room I tried something new with these traps. I decided to try feeding my trapped females live daphnia seeing I have a ton of it. I actually added a bunch of it to all my traps cuz I figured since it's alive if I put too much of it in the traps and both the fish AND the shrimp (yes shrimp eat daphnia) end up stuffed, any extra daphnia will just swim out of the traps and be eaten by the rest of the fish in these tanks. What I didn't count on is the
I guess it was only a matter of time before I actually started writing down some of the hoards of crap I have learned regarding fish keeping through out the past 40 years so here is my first random tip on the subject.
When keeping females trapped I like to FEED them but any food that falls below the slots in the trap gets trapped (duh) and will begin to rot in the chamber below. One way of solving this issue is to place shrimp in that area and why not place berried shrimp there? It
Updated 04-17-2011 at 03:27 PM by lotsoffish
So ive had aquariums my whole life, and for me and my girlfriends 10 month anniversary i got her a 20 gallon fish tank for her pet betta fish that shes had for about a month. The bettas really happy as well as my girlfriend i plan on getting her more tropical fish soon i know about fish and aquariums so i know it needs a filter and a heater which the tank has. I myself have a 30 gallon tank with various types of fish and ive had them for years theyre healthy and happy )


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Kemble's K113 Silent SG2 model has a sensational sonority and a wonderful dynamic range with the added benefit of being able to play through headphones.
This is an SG2 type Silent piano™ featuring a CFIIIS sound source.
– USB To Device Connection (for USB memory)
– AUX IN/OUT via 3.5mm stereo jack
– Headphone Out x2 (via 1/4′ TRS jack)
Thanks to its impressive presence and sturdy construction, the new 113cm K113 silent delivers a rich, expansive sound with great depth and volume. Front and rear castors enhance movability and the beautiful, traditional cabinetry ensures that the K113 elegantly complements your living space. For serious performance at a modest cost, it's a perfect choice.
The superior 'crown' soundboard design ensures maximum resonance, and the specially selected ribs, matched to the characteristics of the soundboard, further enhance sound performance.
The 3-ply solid maple bridge guarantees optimum tuning stability and makes a significant contribution to the K113's tonal personality. Traditional cabinet in Black polish with Chrome fittings