text:
Ciao a tutti! Hello everyone! Have you ever thought about learning a language to go with your travel? About 20 years ago I thought I'd try to learn Italian 🇮🇹. I started and forgot everything about 10 times before I started trying seriously 2 years ago. I joined Italian Connections https://www.italianconnections.com.au/ in Crows Nest, Sydney and I've been doing a class there once a week for nearly two years. The difference for me is that they make it fun, and that makes me want to keep going. Italian Connections offers Italian courses in small groups for all levels as well as private tuition for adults in kids and exam preparation. They also have boutique-style Study...Weiterlesen
Χαίρετε! - Hello in Greek 🇬🇷 and yes, I had to look that up! Welcome to Flomochori Greece and Sharon's place on People Like Us https://peoplelikeus.world/properties/570! 😃Think dolmades, souvlaki, bouzoukis definitely, but also beaches, stone houses, cobbled streets, amazing views. Sharon says the beach is only a few minutes away by car and you can even walk there if you want to enjoy the scenery. The nearest beach 🏖 boasts two ouzeries/cafeterias 🍸 where one can taste real octopus-meze, squid and drink ouzo, whilst taking-in the beautiful picturesque scenery of Kotronas Bay. The historic town of Areopolis 🏛 is only 15 minutes by car with tavernas and souvenir...Weiterlesen
Posted on our World Home Swap FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952476815051268/: I've been chatting with Danny 🇮🇱 and he has convinced me that I must visit Tel Aviv one day, or TLV as the locals call it. He describes it as a hipster, vegan, gay 🏳🌈 world capital, with many aspects and vibe of Berlin, San Paolo or San Fran. :) Love it! 😃😃 On Danny's listing https://peoplelikeus.world/en/properties/596 (which looks fantastic, BTW) he has a drone flight over TLV, really worth looking at. You'll get a great surprise!...Weiterlesen
We're always adding new features to People Like Us. Two weeks ago we completed our French translation (helped immeasurably by one of our members, Jen) and last week we added the ability to see when your messages are read. Earlier this week we did a huge overhaul to the way we store and send your pictures which has seen our site running MUCH faster. Later this week, we're going to add a BIG NEW FEATURE (yes, the caps are intentional and I shall now add not one, but two exclamation marks)!! I know many of you have been swapping for years and have listings on other sites before joining People Like Us. I know some people have lots of listings they maintain and some even have their own web or Facebook pages just for their home. It's a great way to boost interest and, even if some sites ch...Weiterlesen
Good morning world travellers! This morning I'd like to remind you of one of our very popular listings on People Like Us Home Swap, in Kandy, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 with member Sally. https://peoplelikeus.world/en/properties/365 Sally and her husband are seasoned home swappers and her home is available for most of the year for swaps. Her place has had over a thousand views on our site and you can see why with the photos! Sri Lanka is a fascinating place to visit. I've been there nearly 10 times myself, mostly for work but also for leisure so I can verify personally to the friendliness you'll encounter and the amazing sites you'll see. Jungle Tide is very well positioned...Weiterlesen
Featured this morning on World Home Swap https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952476815051268/ and People Like Us is a new listing in the middle of the UK. I hadn't heard of it either but you're going to want to take a look. 🇬🇧It is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, nestled in between 3 valleys in the Pennines. It's really beautiful and it's the location of this morning's feature home from Adelle. Adelle may get the Photographer-of-the-week award 🏆. Her photos are truly stunning. She should win the award for her handbags alone! 😄🍾👜 Weiterlesen
On this morning's post on World Home Swap on Facebook I'm introducing you to Pedro in San Diego! 🏝https://peoplelikeus.world/properties/546. If you are not yet a member, come and join 187 of your close home-swapping friends! 😁https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952476815051268/ And while you're at it, check out Pedro's place. Everyone always says if you've got one day in LA, go to San Diego and I see why! Pedro's place is one block from the sand and has an incredible roof-top terrace with the views you see below. It's architect-designe...Weiterlesen
We've had 157 new members on our Facebook group World Home Swap since launch 5 days ago, plus loads of new People Like Us members and listings as a result. This little community of travellers is growing quickly. Thank you all for your kind words of support, and always for your suggestions as to how the site can be improved. May I ask you to do something for this community? If you're on Facebook and you haven't yet joined the group, now is the time: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952476815051268/. Share the group to your friends and tell them about home swapping, why you do it, what you love, and tell them about People Like Us. Your People Like Us c...Weiterlesen
This morning, come with me to member Caroline's place Pallisters in Midigama on the south coast of Sri Lanka. https://peoplelikeus.world/properties/517 It's approx 2.5km from the coast in a little village, but close enough to the ocean to still hear it. There's a walled and private garden, which is full of fruit trees and spices and birds. There are two spacious bedrooms with large ensuite bathrooms. Each having, air conditioning and hot water showers. Each room has its own outside area, with courtyard gardens, and a fish pond. Look outside the garden and you will see paddy fields, kades, buffalo and cow herds. Fresh milk straight from the cow is available every m...Weiterlesen
They're at opposite ends of the planet, but at People Like Us, they're both brought to you by two of our most experienced members, Richard & Christine. https://peoplelikeus.world/properties?user=1081 Richard and Christine have completed about 75 exchanges over 19 years! They live in Rotorua in New Zealand (https://peoplelikeus.world/properties/367) but also offer their penthouse apartment in Málaga (https://peopleli...Weiterlesen


text:
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Barry Diller's USA Networks said on Wednesday that it's agreed to acquire Internet-based Hotel Reservation Network for an undisclosed amount.
Privately held HRN offers discounts, via the Web and telephone, of up to 65 percent off published rates at more than 600 hotels in 34 U.S. cities.
Diller said in a statement that HRN "has substantial revenues and profits." Internet sites account for about 70 percent of the company's revenue.
USA Networks USAI, -0.60% shares lost 15/16 to 39 1/4 after being up as high as 42 7/8 at one point in the session.
USA Networks holdings include USA Network; SCI FI Channel; the Studios USA production company; several television stations; Home Shopping Network; Ticketmaster and USA Networks Interactive, which includes Internet Shopping Network, whose primary service is First Auction.
The company also owns a controlling interest in Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, Inc. tmcs, a provider of local content and live event ticketing on the Web.
Diller is also trying to buy Lycos lcos, a major online search engine provider. But that bid faces opposition from Lycos' largest shareholder, CMGI cmgi, which objected to the deal.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Creative Tips to Decorate Your Home With A Sharpie!
Use a simple Sharpie and see how your interior design transforms over night!
It's not hard at all to make some pieces of furniture look totally different with minimum effort, if only you use your imagination to the fullest. For example, you can make a totally white kitchen look like a new one if you draw some polka dots on the furniture. It's not hard at all and you can be sure everyone will notice the difference. Finish off the effect by using the Sharpie on the chairs as well to create a certain harmony in the room.
See also: Surprise Your Lover With Valentine's Day Decorations!
However, if you feel more creative than simply choosing some polka dots for the furniture, you can go for more intricate patterns and drawings and even some writing! Make your old plates much more interesting by writing positive messages on them or even draw funny things: cats, dogs or food! Isn't it easy to decorate your home with a Sharpie?
Moving on to different rooms, obviously you can use the Sharpie on other types of materials, like textiles. That means your pillows in the bedroom and the cushions in the living room can suddenly be more original and more suited to your taste. For these you can get more creative and stop using only black Sharpie. Use any colors you want and draw leaves, flowers, or simply random shapes and figures that will turn a dull pillow into a great one!
See also: Creative Pillows for Your Bedroom
Maybe the easiest way to decorate your home with a Sharpie is to take simple and small decorations around the house and give them a complete make-over in less than 10 minutes! Christmas globes, plain white vases, porcelains and simple glasses can be transformed with very little effort in original and creative pieces that will complement your interior design. You can integrate them in your home either by choosing the same Sharpie color as the rest of the room or by choosing one pattern to use on several items placed strategically in the house.
And for when you want to take a relaxing walk in the garden, you will want to add some decorations there too! Use decorative stones and write positive messages or ask your loved ones write them for you. Also, don't forget to decorate your plant pots with themed drawings: plants, flowers, garden gnomes, gardening tips or tools and basically, whatever you find suitable. Decorate your home with a Sharpie in the easiest way by doodling on your rugs everywhere in the house: front door, back door, door mats, bath mats etc. Stimulate your creativity and your home will look wonderful!
See also: Photo Decorations You Should Use in Your Home


text:
C4 Database
Bütçe $500-5000 USD
As you can see from the attached document, the design and specification of this program has already been done. Therefore, with little more needed (we will provide more detail where required along with specifications), we are seeking a programming team who can code this program to the specifications and guidelines established within the spec.
We're looking for a fixed bid only. No hourly fees will be considered.
All code must be fully documented and thoroughly tested. Any undocumented and untested code will not be accepted.
The critical factor here (as it is always) is time. We are looking for that great compromise that gets this program done quickly without sacrificing its quality or the time required to test and make those little changes that always seem to crop up.
We have an existing database with which this program will integrate. You will be sending your finished code to our in-house programmer. He will also be available as needed to answer any questions you may have and to guide you where necessary.
When you submit a quote, we will require samples of your work (we are not impressed with Flash websites since they have no bearing on this project. In fact, please do not refer us to any website work you may have done unless there is VB.NET coded material we can reference.) We will also require references whom we can contact. Naturally, they should say wonderful things about your work, your communication skills and hopefully, your sense of humor.
Any sample code you can offer to demonstrate how wonderfully you document would be valuable.
This, like all projects, is just the beginning. Anyone who gets this job and performs to our standards will have many more projects to follow. We have six additional programs to develop and a large website project later this fall.
Please respond with any question you may have along with your bid and due date for this project.
## Deliverables
1) Complete and fully-functional working program(s) in executable form as well as complete source code of all work done.
2) Deliverables must be in ready-to-run condition, as follows (depending on the nature of the deliverables):
a) For web sites or other server-side deliverables intended to only ever exist in one place in the Buyer's environment--Deliverables must be installed by the Seller in ready-to-run condition in the Buyer's environment.
b) For all others including desktop software or software the buyer intends to distribute: A software installation package that will install the software in ready-to-run condition on the platform(s) specified in this bid request.
3) All deliverables will be considered "work made for hire" under U.S. Copyright law. Buyer will receive exclusive and complete copyrights to all work purchased. (No GPL, GNU, 3rd party components, etc. unless all copyright ramifications are explained AND AGREED TO by the buyer on the site per the coder's Seller Legal Agreement).
## Platform
Windows XP


text:
Once again Pfluger Park in Pflugerville, Texas was an absolute delight to use as a backdrop for the set of maternity portraits I was asked to do for Jennifer and her husband. Not only does the park offer a diverse set of backdrops but it is remote and quiet, especially useful for those moms-to-be who are more shy and reserved about showing off their baby bump! The lighting, the weather, my clients were all great and the results truly show that. We captured some absolutely beautiful maternity portraits! Keep checking out the blog for more updates from this photo-shoot!
If you haven't already check us out on Facebook and give us a thumbs up!
For Session Information & other helpful links head on over to HatCreekPhoto.com
Austin Family Photography | Austin Newborn Photography | Austin Maternity Photography


text:
On 18 January 2015, significant amendments to the Polish competition law (Amendment) aimed at making merger control more efficient entered into force. The OCCP also published the secondary legislation (Guidelines), which includes details relevant for the Amendment's practical implementation, on 27 January 2015.
Two phase proceedings
Before the Amendment (OJ.2014.945) came into force, a statutory review period of two months applied to all concentrations, irrespective of their complexity. Even in uncomplicated cases, the authority (Office for Competition and Consumer Protection ľ "OCCP") often exhausted the entire two-month period to review a notification. The Amendment introduces a two-stage procedure for notifications of a concentration, with those transactions that do not raise competition concerns to be cleared within a month from submitting of the complete notification in a stage one procedure. Merger control experts expect that approximately 80% of the notifications will be covered by this stage.
More complex transactions will be dealt with in a second stage. In phase II, the OCCP has to decide within additional four months (ie. altogether five months) from the initial submitting of the initial notification whether to clear the transaction with or without remedies or whether to prohibit the transaction. This second stage will apply: i) in case of particularly complicated matters, ii) to concentrations that can be expected to significantly impede competition, or iii) in cases where market surveys are required.
As was previously already the case, any OCCP request for information sent to the parties will "stop the clock", which will in practice suspend the above-mentioned review periods.
One can reasonably expect that those merger control filings involving foreign-to-foreign concentrations with no effects in Poland will benefit from the shorter review period under phase one.
De minimis exemptions
Although the general turnover thresholds have not changed (EUR 1 billion worldwide or EUR 50 million in Poland), the Amendment has introduced new de minimis exemptions based on Polish turnover.
In case of mergers, a transaction will be exempted from a notification to the OCCP if the domestic turnover of each of the merging parties did not exceed EUR 10 million in each of the two financial years preceding the transaction.
The same applies to concentrations consisting in the founding of a joint venture. The transaction will be exempted from notification to the OCCP if the domestic turnover of each of the joint venture parents did not exceed EUR 10 million in each of the two financial years preceding the transaction.
The previously applicable EUR 10 million de minimis exemption concerning the takeover of control over an entrepreneur has been extended to cover not only situations in which control is taken over an entrepreneur, but also those in which assets are simultaneously acquired as well.
Deadline for implementing of commitments
Under the previously binding legal framework, a deadline for the implementation of the commitments was disclosed in the text of a decision and thus available to anyone. This practice was heavily criticised by the business community and legal advisors, as in certain cases (eg. an obligation to divest a business) the prospective acquirers were aware of the timeframe in which the business was to be sold. They could use this knowledge in their negotiations with the parties to the transaction. Under the new regime, the deadline for implementing the commitments will not be disclosed to third parties if the addressee of the commitments requests such confidentiality.
Statement of objections
The Amendment has introduced a Statement of Objections ("SO"), which is aimed at increasing companies' certainty as to the result of merger control proceedings. The SO can be issued by the OCCP at any stage of the proceedings. In cases where the significant impediment of competition is probable, the OCCP will issue the SO, thus allowing the parties to become acquainted with the authority's position. The notifying parties are entitled to comment on the OCCP's objections and in practice can propose modifications of the intended concentration. One can expect that SO and the parties' reply to it will become the phase of the merger control proceeding that will directly precede the discussion on the proposed commitments.
Follow-up concentrations
Separate concentrations occurring between the same groups of undertakings are subject to notification to the OCCP if they take place within a period of two years and the added turnover figures of the acquired targets exceed the thresholds of the de minims exemption. This regulation is aimed at preventing firms from circumventing the obligation to notify by splitting a larger transaction into smaller parts that would not qualify for the notification if considered separately.
Amended notification form
The notification form has been reorganized and the level of the information required has been increased slightly. Irrespective of the complexity of the transaction or its effects on the market, all merger control notifications must be submitted using the special notification form template. However, Part II (Sections 8-9), which requires the parties to submit detailed information on the relevant markets and the market conditions as well as the effects of the transaction must only be completed if the transaction gives rise to so called affected markets. The notion of "affected markets" mirrors the concept applied by the European Commission, although the percentage thresholds are slightly different and amount to 20% and 30% for horizontally and vertically affected markets respectively.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.


text:
Blue Ridge - an area of Northern Greenville County, South Carolina - has become a community ripe with Gospel opportunity.
Having nearly doubled in population in the last 10 years, this once quite rural community is changing. Instead of farms and forests, subdivisions and neighborhoods are beginning to dot the landscape, and they are being filled with thousands of people. Most of these families work and play in places like Greenville and Greer, but Blue Ridge is the quiet oasis they have chosen to call home. The incredible changes that are taking place in Blue Ridge have created an amazing Gospel opportunity. We believe God has placed us here to help meet.
Our Vision
A people transformed by the Word of God making disciples for His glory in Blue Ridge and around the World
To Make Faithful Disciples through the gospel of Jesus for the glory of God.
Core Values
We value the Scripture because it is the only means by which the lost are saved and God's people are sanctified (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
We value God's Kingdom because it motivates God's people to do all things for His glory (2 Thessalonians 1:10-12).
We value Mission because it is the calling of God's people to proclaim the good news of repentance and faith to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20).
We value Community because it is the environment in which God's people grow in their love for Him and one another (Ephesians 4:11-16).
- An in-depth look at The Church at Blue Ridge and the community we desire to reach with the Gospel
Summary Vision Document
An overview of The Church at Blue Ridge


text:
Nevin and McGivern strike gold in Eindhoven
Ireland's boxers claimed two gold and two silver medals at the Elite Eindhoven BoxCup in the Netherlands yesterday.
European Youth champion Michael Nevin and James McGivern had their hands raised in victory in the middle and light finals on unanimous decisions.
Belfast native McGivern beat England's Cam Shaw, but English super-heavy Chez Nihell edged Tipperary's ex Irish Elite champion Dean Gardiner on a 4-1 split decision. Nevin took all five judges with him in a convincing verdict for the Portlaoise BC middle over Jaber Dahou of the Netherlands.
Galway welter Kieran Molloy had to cede a walkover in yesterday's decider against Belgium's Nabil Messaoudi after picking up a facial cut in his last-four win.
Cork pair Christina Desmond and Tiegan Russell, both representing the Fr Horgan's BC, took Elite gold and bronze.
Irish Independent


text:
BHA York Charitable Homeopathy Clinic
AddressBest Foot Forward Ltd
27B Mill Lane
Appointments and enquiries01904 750 096
Opening timesEvery other Monday morning, from 9:30am–12:30pm
DoctorThe clinic is run by Dr Charlotte Batchelor MFHom
About the clinic
The British Homeopathic Association (BHA) is currently funding a homeopathy clinic in York. The clinic is run by Dr Charlotte Batchelor who is trained in homeopathic medicine and is a member of the Faculty of Homeopathy. She manages the service on the BHA's behalf. Dr Batchelor has been running her own private homeopathic and nutritional practice for the past five years.
The clinic is run on a charitable basis. Although patients are not charged, they are encouraged to make donations towards their treatment. All donations go directly to the clinic. The generosity of supporters makes a valuable contribution towards the running costs of the clinic, and the BHA hopes that this support will continue to grow to help to ensure the homeopathy clinic serves the people of York for many years to come.
The BHA York Homeopathic Clinic is open two mornings per month.
The clinic is at The Best Foot Forward Clinic in the village of Wigginton, five miles north of York city centre, or five minutes from the main ringroad around York. We have free parking and the clinic is wheelchair accessible.


text:
Ronald Jones
On September 23, 2017, RKJ produced a fashion event. This time he also allowed his mother Metruis Jones add in a few of her ideas as well. She picked a few performers to warm the crowd, while still applying real messages before the actual fashion show. RKJ began to understand his purpose and mission in life around this time in the journey. Of course that had to be displayed through out the fashion portion. RKJ worked hard on each new design he showcased at this event with guidance from his mentor Aretha Foster. Pay close attention!
- Ronald K. Jones II


text:
I really do not know what to make of Nocturne. One moment I think it's a great, laid back album, that I enjoy listening to a lot. At another moment I'm thinking to myself, get real, start making this interesting! So, whatever else Nocturne is an album that intrigues me.
If anything Nocturne is a relaxed album and yes, very good to listen to when it's dark. The songs develop themselves slowly, like the water of a brook on even terrain. Not that all songs are slow paced. Even if they are faster, like 'Only heather', the vocals and keyboards create this layer of rest that allows the guitars and the drums to be a bit wilder. The overall impression remains a mood of relaxation, of modest, perhaps even shy people making music. The background vocals, "o-oh and o-o-ooh" being an exception of boldness.
It is around this point that Nocturne usually starts drawing me in. 'This chain won't break' is were the best of Tears for Fears, from before mega hit 'Shout', shines out most. 'Change' and 'Pale shelter' are songs that are not unfamiliar to Wild Nothing, as is revealed on the album later on also. This makes the album an interesting mix of 80s pop with shoegaze elements. There is also a distinct new romantics element in here, without disturbing me too much. To add all up, there is a Johnny Marr like guitar playing going on, that constitutes Wild Nothing's wild side. As a last reference here's The Cure again in its more poppy period in the second half of the 80s.
Wild Nothing is a US indie group or indie dream pop band as Wikipedia lets us know, that only has one member: Jack Tatum. He started this project in 2009 and released the first album 'Gemini' in 2010. Nocturne is the second album by Jack Tatum under the name Wild Nothing. As such Tatum holds a promise for the future, as he knows how to write a song and infuse his songs with interesting moments, for which he draws mostly on familiar sounds. Don't expect overly new things or experiments on Nocturne. It's a feast of old friends that come by. This may be called the weakness of Wild Nothing. In moments like 'The blue dress', when the music develops in the direction of Howard Jones, I'm gone. It's a delicate line Nocturne balances on as far as I'm concerned.
All in all, in my opinion I am reviewing a talent here that holds promise, but also needs to find his own voice more. Nocturne is not the great, fantastic album some seem to hold it for. Let me suffice with a quote from Wikipedia on 'Gemini', which works for me for Nocturne: ""While I wasn't totally convinced with Gemini as a whole, I adored it in chunks", from Blogcritics.org. It's up to you to decide. I can't do this one for you.
You can order Nocturne here
or here


text:
Lucille Clerc
Lucille Clerc is a French Illustrator. She established her studio in London after graduating from ENSAAMA in Paris with a DSAA in Visual Communication, and also Central Saint Martins with an MA in Communication Design. She works mainly within the field of editorial design and illustration, occasionally also realising interior design and installations.
Her work is mainly handcrafted from drawing through to printing. In the past two years she has created projects for Berluti, Dior, DC Comics, Editions Rivages, Editions Plon, Farrow&Ball, Fortnum&Mason, Hôtel de Paris, Kew Gardens, Laurence King Publishers, L'OBS, Macmillan, M&S, Penguin, Sandro, TGV Magazine, V&A Museum, Winsor&Newton.
A large part of her personal work is inspired by London, and the relationship between nature and cities. She produces most of her work by hand silkscreen printing.


text:
Laura Schoeneberger, Teacher
Education and Professional Experience:
Truman State University, Missouri, 1988-1990
GKirksville Senior High School, Missouri, 1988
Owner/Teacher, Talbert Academy (Preschool/nursery school with a focus on Art, Language/Literature, and Nature), 1997-2013
Julia Rosmawi, Teaching Assistant
Before becoming a teacher's assistant at the Redeemer Day School, Julia was a freelance illustrator. She completed her diploma degree in Design at Lim Kok Wing University in Malaysia, and Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. Shortly after completing her education, she married her husband and moved to United States. She was living in Illinois for 6 years moving to Texas.
Since her teenage years, Julia has a great passion in arts and children. She used to teach drawing to children and help babysitting for family and friends. Her longingness to work with children has landed her to become a teacher's assistant at the Redeemer Day School.
Julia is mostly occupied by taking care of her soon to be 3-year-old daughter. In her free time, she likes to organize, Illustrate and design, her most favorite activity is enjoying a cup of tea in rainy days.
Education and Professional Experience:
Bachelor of Design – Swinburne Univessity of Tech – 2008
Graphic Design – Limkokwing Univesity of Tech – 2006
Pearl Magazine – 2012-2014
Nerdy Scrapper Studio – 2012-2013
Ozip Magazine – 2007
Limkokwing University – 2005
Danielle Thomas, Director
Stacey Morgan, Assistant Director
(972) 529-1502
Redeemer Day School
7820 Silverado Trail
McKinney, TX 75070
© Copyright 2017-2018 Redeemer Day School is a ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian Church-McKinney. All rights reserved.


text:
The Hand's Breadth Murders
Adam Nicolson & Gus Palmer
In the poor and remote province of Maramureş in the northern Carpathians, cut off by bad mountain roads from the rest of Romania to the south, the ancient body measures persist. Anything approaching six feet long – a plank of wood or a table – is a râf, the span of a man's arms; a cot is a cubit, from elbow to fingertip; a țol – about an inch – is the length of the last joint of the thumb; and a palmă is a hand's breadth, the distance between the outstretched tips of the thumb and fingers of one hand.
Sitting in a cafe or in people's kitchens over a cup of coffee or a glass of palincă, the same palmă gesture recurs: the fingers held out over the table, tensed, overstretched, the most that a hand can cover. The palmă isn't much, but it isn't nothing, something you can imagine mattering more in a moment of passion or fear than it would before or after.
The word can turn metaphorical, so that a palmă de pământ, a hand's breadth of land, can stand for those little patches, the slim border zones between holdings, pieces of land whose ownership is uncertain, which are also sometimes called 'battlegrounds', luptă terenuri, literally 'fighting lands'. Every year in Maramureş neighbours kill each other for these contested slips of territory. At times in this mountain province there have been forty such violent attacks in twelve months, and week after week, much as road accidents are described in other parts of the world, the local press reports another man – always a man – ucis pentru o palmă de pământ: killed for a hand's breadth of land.
After the act, the murderers usually give themselves up, shocked at what they have done, going back into their kitchens to wait for the police to arrive and, when the case comes to trial, pleading guilty, as if something had burst up within them for which they were not responsible.
I have wondered if this is a glimpse into antiquity, beyond the agreements of modernity; an archetype of the failure of human relations, or at least an eruption of the underlying facts of rivalry, loathing, violence and hatred? It is certainly behaviour as old as any record of human life. In the Iliad, Homer compared the Greeks and Trojans fighting across a blood-spattered wall to 'two men, with measuring-rods in hand, tussling over the landmark stones in a common field', and Patrick Kavanagh, remembering an incident at home in Ireland in 1938, when the neighbours were suddenly at war over 'half a rood of rock, a no-man's land':
heard the Duffeys shouting 'Damn your soul'
And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
Step the plot defying blue cast-steel –
'Here is the march along these iron stones.'
Kavanagh called his little fourteen-line poem, in which the rhymes never quite rhyme, 'Epic' because:
Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind.
He said: I made the Iliad from such
A local row.
We – I – now live almost entirely insulated from these competitive realities. Our rivalries are expressed in remarks at home, after a party when the guests have gone, or in non-replies to emails or phone messages. In that way our relationships are made and unmade almost at will. Physical neighbourhood – the ever-present neighbour-touch of poor farming life – is not like that, and seems older and more elemental. In Maramureş it is, for example, the practice to bury large stones along your boundary, only parts of which appear at the surface. They are difficult to move and it would be even more difficult to conceal the marks of their having been moved, but they also work as a kind of psychic fact. Their dark and buried bulk, powerfully present in their hiddenness, known but unseen, have threat crouched within them, the silent but implicitly violent distinction between what is yours and what is mine.
This is an old practice but there is something slightly more complicated in play than the survival of ancient behaviour into modern life. The hand's breadth murders in modern Maramureş are something more disturbing than that, signs of modern dysfunction and dispossession, of traditional systems failing, of the modern substitutes proving inadequate, of naked, unregulated behaviour leaving in its wake decades of pain and grief, widowed women and orphaned children.
I was in Maramureş with the photographer Gus Palmer and Romanian journalist Teofil (or 'Teo') Ivanciuc.We went looking together for the stories behind these murders. The first piece of land we found for which a man had died was a palmă of 1,800 square metres, or 0.44 acres.
It is about fifteen yards wide and about one hundred yards deep, next to the long fast road that runs through the village of Săcălăşeni in north-western Maramureş. The village is now a dormitory suburb for the provincial capital Baia Mare just to the north, with fewer than thirty cows where even ten years ago there used to be seven hundred. An air of lifelessness hangs over it, with no one about in the daytime. On the patch of murder-land, which has been uncared for since the killing, you have to push through a thick pelt of buttercups and foxtail grasses to reach the willows that are now springing up along the boundary fences.
Just along the road, the dead man's brother, Ciprian Radu, is living in a small house at the side of an unused yard – no animals, no muck. This is the house where his brother was killed three years ago. It is a weekday mid-morning. Ciprian is welcoming but he has been drinking and his handsome, high-cheekboned face is flushed and puffy. There is a smell of drink in the air and both maleness and poverty seep from the walls. A soft-porn calendar hangs in one corner of the living room, a tapestry of da Vinci's The Last Supper is up behind the sofa, there is a crumpled paper icon of Christ pinned by the door and, on the television, people in traditional Maramureş costumes perform songs for a bare-shouldered hostess while colours flicker on the set.
In April 2012 the three Radus – Ciprian, his elder brother Calin, a big man aged thirty-five, and their younger brother Petru, twenty-eight, anxious and flighty – were here in their grandmother's house. It was a holiday, one week after Easter, in the middle of the day and they were drinking: palincă, the plum brandy which features in most of these stories. Calin, over eighteen stone, had just been left by his wife. He was unhappy as she had kept the children. Petru was getting overwrought. 'He had a nervous disease,' Ciprian says. And so Calin rang for an ambulance to take him to hospital. 'But Petru could be aggressive when he was drunk.'


text:
12 Nov 2016
In a flower-adorned evening gown with Prince Rainier in January 1956, three months before their wedding
We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.
We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.
Thank you for your support.
Need help?
Visit our adblocking instructions


text:
As is our tradition, we begin each new year with special days of prayer. On Tuesday and Wednesday, January 9–10, from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, expect open space in our West Hall with a focused guide to help you pray. We conclude with a special Concert of Prayer on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 7:00 pm.
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: January 71830 Sunday Night Relaunch
Later Event: January 16Her Time


text:
This land for sale is in Roda, Corfu, in the north of the island. It is 2,130 sqm and has many olive trees. It has an asphalt road close to the land and access to water and electricity.
This is a rare find on the North East coast, located only a short walk from Roda and features all local amenities, which are open all year, as well as plenty of restaurants and coffee shops. It is only a 5-minute walk from the sea and a 30 minute walk to Acharavi.
It will be possible to build a 200 sqm house or a 400 sqm commercial property on the land.
This land is ready to be built on and would make an amazing investment. We can provide you with the license and a quote for building the house of your dreams.


text:
Incidence and risk factors of vascular complications following endovascular treatment of peripheral arterial disease via the popliteal artery
- 143 Downloads
- Citations
To evaluate vascular complications associated with endovascular treatment (EVT) of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) through the popliteal artery and to identify the risk factors for these complications. Between November 2005 and January 2009, 63 patients with PAD received EVT via the popliteal artery. Retrograde (n = 58) and antegrade (n = 5) transpopliteal procedures were performed to target 77 lesions, including 12 distal to the trifurcation. Thirty-five punctures were performed under ultrasound guidance and 7 under angiographic guidance; 21 punctures were performed without any guidance. Vascular complications were evaluated by physical examination and duplex ultrasonography. Vascular complications at the popliteal puncture site occurred in 8 patients (12.7%): 6 hematomas and 2 arteriovenous fistulas (AVF). Seven of 24 patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) (29%) had significantly higher complications (P = 0.004) compared with 1 of 39 patients not receiving hemodialysis (non-HD) (2.6%). HD alone was also a significant risk factor for hematoma (P = 0.010). Both AVF occurred in HD patients (P = 0.141), and one occurred despite ultrasound-guided puncture. Ultrasound-guided puncture showed no significant improvement in reducing both complications. The combination of antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy showed no statistical significance in overall complications. In non-HD patients, the transpopliteal approach in the EVT of PAD seems to be safe. More attention should be paid to HD patients when using the transpopliteal approach due to a higher complication rate.
KeywordsTranspopliteal approach Vascular complications Peripheral arterial disease
We are grateful to the Cardiology Department of the Kumamoto Central Hospital for giving us the opportunity to publish this paper. We thank Dr. Taro Saito in particular for the advice and expertise in the field of endovascular treatment.
- 1.Gardiner GA Jr, Meyerovitz MF, Stokes KR, Clouse ME, Harrington DP, Bettmann MA. Complications of transluminal angioplasty. Radiology. 1986;159:201–8.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- 2.Tonnesen KH, Sager P, Karle A, Putnam SG III, Ball D. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the superficial femoral artery by retrograde catheterization via the PA. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 1988;11:127–31.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Schroeder J. Catheter lysis and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty below the knee via the popliteal artery in a patient with femoral artery obstruction: technical note. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 1990;12:344–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 4.Noory E, Rastan A, Schwarzwälder U, Sixt S, Beschorner U, Bürgelin K, et al. Retrograde transpopliteal recanalization of chronic superficial femoral artery occlusion after failed re-entry during antegrade subintimal angioplasty. J Endovasc Ther. 2009;16:619–23.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 5.MacCullough KM. Retrograde transpopliteal salvage of the failed antegrade transfemoral angioplasty. Australas Radiol. 1993;37:329–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 6.Zaitoun R, Lyer SS, Lewin RF, Dorros G. Percutaneous popliteal approach for angioplasty of superficial femoral artery occlusions. Cathet Cadiovasc Diagn. 1990;21:154–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 7.Saha S, Gibson M, Magee TR, Galland RB, Torrie EP. Early results of retrograde transpopliteal angioplasty of iliofemoral lesions. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2001;24:378–82.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 8.Kluge A, Rauber K, Breithecker A, Rau WS, Bachmann G. Puncture of the popliteal artery using a Doppler-equipped (SMART) needle in transpopliteal interventions. Eur Radiol. 2003;13:1972–8.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 9.Trigaux JP, Van Beers B, Dewispelaere J. Anatomic relationship between the popliteal artery and vein: a guide to accurate angiographic puncture. Am J Roentgenol. 1991;157:1259–62.Google Scholar
- 10.Yilmatz S, Sindel T, Luleci E. Ultrasound-guided retrograde popliteal artery catheterization: Experience in 174 consecutive patients. J Endovasc Ther. 2005;12:714–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 11.Noory E, Rastan A, Sixt S, Schwarzwälder U, Leppännen O, Schwarz T, et al. Arterial puncture closure using a clip device after transpopliteal retrograde approach for recanalization of the superficial femoral artery. J Endovasc Ther. 2008;15:310–4.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 12.Norgren L, Hiatt WR, Dormandy JA, Nehler MR, Harris KA, Fowkes FG et al. Inter-society consensus for the management of peripheral arterial disease (TASC II). J Vasc Surg. 2007;1:45 Suppl S:S5–67.Google Scholar
- 13.Weigert AL, Schafer AI. Uremic bleeding: pathogenesis and therapy. Am J Med Sci. 1998;316:94–104.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 14.Galbusera M, Remuzzi G, Boccardo P. Treatment of bleeding in dialysis patients. Semin Dial. 2009;22:279–86.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 15.Perings SM, Kelm M, Jax T, Strauer BE. A prospective study on incidence and risk factors of arteriovenous fistulae following transfemoral cardiac catheterization. Int J Cardiol. 2003;88:223–8.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar


text:
Encano Plumbing & Draining also has vast experience in commercial jobs ranging from:
- Schools/Universities renovations
- Child Care Facilities
- Shop Fit-outs
- Sporting Complex's
- Hotel renovations
With over 20 years of experience in the Construction sector, we at Encano Plumbing & Draining understand the importance in making sure that the client has a detailed proposal that covers all aspects of the desired project.
We supply nothing but the highest quality products backed with the very best customer service. This provides you with peace of mind knowing that the client is delivered the solution they want and receiving the service they deserve.
In other words - we remove your headaches and give you peace of mind in trusting Encano Plumbing and Draining to complete your plumbing projects.
The following enables Encano Plumbing
to consistently deliver high quality service and value:
Our Professional Behaviour and Attitude ensures we deliver 100% of the time to designated time frames from the first phone call through to quotation and installation.
We Deliver Solutions and Support by providing you with a free consultation prior to commencing projects to identify any potential issues and offer long term solutions.
We have over 20 Years of Experience in residential plumbing giving you peace of mind knowing the job will be done correctly the first time.
Limit the amount of variations by providing detailed precise and clear quoting.


text:
Life Of A True Creator
Back again! First, I want to say THANK YOU (bold, in all caps, yet!) to everyone who bid on our recent art auction for Japanese Tsunami Relief. It really meant a lot to me (and everyone else) and I hope you all enjoy the art you won. I think winning it for a good cause just makes it that much more desirable and special. Then again, I'm biased because I bid on and won a…Continue reading


text:
WINTER IN YUMA: Other places, with lots of snow and ice? Please stay cozy and be sure to throw an extra blanket on the bed. These colder months make us think about a particular dune-close city that is so famously toasty there's a whole deal where you get a free meal on days the sun doesn't shine. Yep, we're talking Yuma, and, nope, it isn't only the new Taco Trail thing that has us turning our eyes toward southwestern AZ. We're thinking about the Y Town and all of the winter to-dos it has going on (after all, figure that winter is Yuma's high season. And yeah, we said Y Town.
ON THE CALENDAR: The aforementioned Taco Trail kicks off on Jan. 6, but there are other foodie events ahead, like the Field to Feast agricultural tours (pick produce and then eat a meal based on that produce, a meal created by culinary students). There's also the Gathering of the Gunfighters at the Yuma Territorial Prison on Jan. 14 and 15. That's going to coincide with the Spirit of Yuma Festival and the Yuma Home & Garden Show. For the whole roster, and to see what's happening in the dead of winter in one of the world's sunshine-iest cities, click on Y Town lovers. Click on.


text:
Your stay: The Red Roof Inn Atlanta – Suwanee/ Mall of Georgia welcomes you. Enjoy a nice stay at a nice price at our newly renovated property located off of I-85. This Inn features newly renovated rooms, free wifi, an outdoor swimming pool, free truck parking, flat screen TVs, and select rooms with microwaves and mini-refrigerators. Along with newly renovated rooms, free WiFi, and our pool, we offer coffee for our guests and we would love to host all members of your family at our pet-friendly property. Many eateries, Lake Lanier, and malls are nearby!
The Great Outdoors: Lanier Islands (13.6 miles) features activities for everyone. Come here for boating, golf, horseback riding, hiking trails, canopy tours and more. This attraction also hosts many weddings and meetings throughout the year. Stone Mountain Park (21.7 miles) features attractions like Summit Skyride, the JUMP, & Yogi Bear 4-D Adventure. Check out festivals & special events happening here. BOOK HERE.
Adult Fun: Chateau Elan Winery & Resort (16.2 miles) sits among acres of vineyards and also hosts two dining restaurants. Plan your trip and take a public or private wine tasting and tour. Public tours are offered daily and you have 5 different options when it comes to private group wine tours. Chateau Elan also features golfing, a spa, meetings, and events. The Georgia Trail at Sugarloaf (6.4 miles) is a public golf course located in Duluth, GA. This is not your typical executive golf course. The trail features multiple areas to learn, play, shop and relax. Book a tee time then book with us.
At Red Roof Inn, "You Stay Happy, Pets Stay Free!" Don't worry about leaving your four legged friend behind, bring them with you when you stay with us!
Downtown Atlanta (30.1 miles) has so much for you to explore. Watch this video and plan your travels. It's worth the trip!
Get a wonderful overview of the city of Suwanee, GA in this video. Video credit.
See how Red Roof Inn Atlanta - Suwanee/Mall of Georgia can make your stay fun and comfortable.
We've been audited, verified and qualified for certification! Verified Wi-Fi means Red Roof now offers speeds that will allow you to stream your favorite movies, video games and music when staying at our Red Roof property. Explore this site to experience FAST + FREE activities nearby, and let Red Roof Inn Atlanta - Suwanee/Mall of Georgia be your companion!
Infinite Energy Center (4.7 miles) features three venues: the arena, forum, & theater. Events at the arena include MANÁ: Rayando El Sol Tour 2019 10/27, Atlanta Praise Explosion 11/1 and more! Book Now.
Our hotel in Suwanee, GA has 1,000 square feet of meeting space available! Please call 770-932-1939 to book your meeting. Stay with Red Roof Inn Atlanta - Suwanee!
Save by staying with Red Roof Inn and have more to spend on your shopping spree at these two nearby shopping malls. Check out Sugarloaf Mills (4.8 miles) and Mall of Georgia (5.8 miles). Book your stay now!
"The rooms are clean, they smell good, and they are updated. The area is safe, it is near lots of restaurants, and Jose' was an extremely great help! This is the only place I stay when I am in town. Just because it's cheap, does not mean it can't be clean!" BOOK NOW.
Visiting the campus of one of these nearby schools? Stay with us and spend less time on the commute. There's the University of Georgia Gwinnett Campus (3.6 miles), Gwinnett Technical College (6.4 miles) and DeVry University (8.7 miles). BOOK NOW.
The fastest way to free nights and other rewards!View all program details


text:
on 03 May 2012
Tags: Chongqing, RUFF 3, youtube
It's been a long time coming, but the fights from RUFF 3 are now available on YouTube for the entire world's viewing pleasure.
All nine RUFF 3 fights are embedded below; China-based users will need to enable their VPNs (or check our Youku page).......
Continue Reading
No Comments
on 25 March 2012
Tags: Results, RUFF 3
Chongqing, CHINA – On heels of the RUFF Million RMB Super Fight announcement, lightweight Rodrigo Caporal secured a majority decision victory over Zhang LiPeng, 28-28, 29-28, 29-28, at RUFF 3, to move one step closer to becoming China's first MMA national champion.
Taking what was later named the "Ranik Fight of the Night" to the ground in the first two rounds, Caporal nullified Zhang's striking e......
on 23 March 2012
Tags: RUFF 3, Weigh In
Chongqing, CHINA – There were no major surprises at the RUFF 3 weigh-ins, as 17 of the 18 fighters made weight on their first try, with only featherweight Xue GuoBin needing an extra hour to drop an additional 200 grams to avoid penalty.
While the majority of the fighters were relaxed for the weigh in, extending an almost friendly rapport to their opponents, tensions flared for the final stare dow......
on 20 March 2012
Tags: QQ, RUFF 3, Tencent QQ
With RUFF 3 just four days away, QQ Sports has, for the second consecutive fight, been named the official online portal of the Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation.
QQ Sports, a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, will air RUFF 3 fights beginning on March 25th, and has build a custom portal for all the latest RUFF news.
Tencent QQ is the world's largest online community, reporting over 647 million regis......
on 20 March 2012
Tags: Amu RiJiRiGaLa, Chongqing, Fight Card, RUFF 3
Just a week after being awarded his BJJ purple belt, China Top Team bantamweight Amu RiJiRiGaLa has been diagnosed with a Staphylococcal infection (staph infection) that will keep him sidelined for RUFF 3.
Replacing RiJiRiGaLa is Thailand native A Qiao, a Muay Thai veteran of over 100 fights who currently trains at the K-1 Jiu Jitsu Club in Tianjin.
A Qiao will face Xi'An striker Ayideng Jumayi at......
04. April, 2014 | #
great fight!!!
22. October, 2012 | #
RUFF puts on some good fights. Send a fighter to the UFC
I like how your fight cards always have blood on them. nice touch
The main event is sick. I'd put my money on that Thai kid any day of the week. Yeah, Brazilians are tough, but every third one of them is...
Wang Guan has less votes than da Silva? What's up with that? Gotta show some love for my Chinese brotha! He's gonna whoop that ass again...
04. April, 2011 | #
I'm a looking and I'm a liking.
Check out that tall drink of water on the far left.
28. February, 2011 | #
Tie Quan straight up demolished Reinhardt with that nasty guillotine choke; boy's got skills for sure.


text:
Game description
Vote: Did you like this game? 00
Ziggy Fraud wants the crown. He will do anything (and I mean anything) to make his dream come true. Even if it needs a little cheating.
Game controls:
Think out of the box."WASD/Arrows" to move, "Space" to interact with objects, "1/2" to modify strength/life, "Q" to pause, "R" to restart.
PuzzleAdventurePlatformsFunnyHidden ObjectsHumbug


text:
Books that cost less than cornflakes
I mean Kellog's, not supermarket own. But still, the Wordsworth Classics range is damn affordable, especially when there's a reading challenge on the go, and a 100 specific books to buy. In the Oxfam bookshop classics are about £2.75 each, which is grand if they have the specific title I want, and eBay is also about that for second-hand with free postage, but the two at the bottom were £1.99 each. Although it must be said libraries are just grand, and if you live near one and can order specific books, that's great.
The only complaint I have with Wordsworth is the artwork is sometimes a little off. Behold, War and Peace. It looks like a tacky romance novel, or a VHS cover of a mini-series or soap from the 80s. Falcon's Roots Knot's Landing Crest.
So far on the 100 Greatest Novels list I've been reading some of the heavier books (literally), such as Ulysses and Clarissa. To give my brains (and back, lift with your knees) a break, I have just got these two.
The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith is the thickness of a bus timetable, and Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (his dad's name was Jerome Clapp, he changed it to Jerome Clapp Jerome, so Jerome the younger was born into his father's repetitive name syndrome) is hilarious and involves boats, dogs and pies. Jackpot.


text:
I'm waiting for my copy of Curt Thompson's Anatomy of the Soul to show up in my mailbox.
Last week my friend Cameron sent me a Q Talk from Andy Crouch called Overcoming Our Greatest Affliction. In it Crouch references Thompson and I love the quote he gives.
"Our deepest drama is that we are looking for a face that is looking for us."
I had to find out who Curt Thompson was and read something from him. Turns out I had several of his books on my To Read list already.
I also found the lovely video I shared above while looking around for more info about Thompson. The spiritual exercise he walks through is so simple and sweet. It's not big or weird or self important. It's such a lovely little way we can remind ourselves of how God is with us and what he thinks of us.
I can't wait to read more from him.


text:
8 Charlotte Street 1408
8 Charlotte Street 1408
Exceptional decor and design
A spectacular fully furnished one bedroom suite awaits you at Great Gulf's brand-new Charlie condos located at 8 Charlotte Street. Professionally designed with contemporary finishes throughout. The exquisitely designed modern kitchen features gleaming granite countertops, spotless stainless steel appliances and contemporary cabinetry designed by the renowned Cecconi Simone. Boasts floor to ceiling windows with unobstructed views of the city and lake. Located in the heart of Toronto's electric entertainment district.
About Charlie Condos
Charlie is more than just a place. It's a vibe that defines the way you live. Fashionable. Elegant. Unique and undeniably sexy. You can feel it the second you walk through the door. Surrounded by irresistible design, deliciously rich details and extraordinary space that takes style to the next level. Call it love. Call it home. Call it Charlie. Learn more about Charlie Condos here>
Fully Furnished. Fully Featured.
From towels to the dishes we have you covered. Why stay in a hotel when you can stay at Charlie in this lavish one bedroom suite. With five star amenities, including 24-hour conceirge, gym, patio, bbqs, pool, and lounge you can't go wrong. This suite not only comes fully furnished, but utilities are also included. From Rogers HD TV, to AppleTV and Hydro... it's all inclusive.


text:
(selected images of the 50+ in the series)
Graphite rubbings made at the Catwalk artist residency in Catskill, NY. Photographs of local gravestones and monuments transformed into cut paper silhouettes. These become plates from which to take a rubbing, the fold and cut calculated to produce a thin(g) double. Paired incompletions and distortions, the odd redundancy or two, and a few outright fakes.
All images graphite on tracing paper, 2007.
(selected images of the 50+ in the series)


text:
DNA – Dreamy Natural Accord
The group "DNA" was founded in 1994 at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University as a purely vocal – or a cappella – group. So, we have no instruments and all you hear at our concerts are the sounds of the human body and our vocal cords. The original five members dispersed after graduation, therefore the group members soon changed. According to the song, we now perform as a five to eight-member group. The band's repertoire is still expanding. We have already sung in many churches and chapels, balls, music clubs, festivals, castles, birthday parties, and other festive events such as book introductions and vernissages. At the beginning we sang Negro spirituals, which are still the basis of our repertoire, but today we have a program for almost every occasion; we also sing jazz standards and popular music, always with great joy and purely a cappella.


text:
Australian beauty is crowned Miss Grand International 2015
BANGKOK, April 1st — During a special ceremony held in Bangkok, Claire Parker from Australia received the crown, sash and trophy that confirms her as Miss Grand International 2015. She was crowned by Lees Garcia, the winner of 2014.
Parker thanked all her fans and the organization, and it was announced that her first trip will be to Vietnam, to do charity work and help those who in one way or another, were affected by the war.
This ceremony marks the beginning of Claire Parker as the new titleholder. Good luck!
Miss Grand Anea Garcia steps down! Welcome, Claire Parker, the new queen!
"Breaking News!!
With immediate effect, Miss Anea Garcia will step down from her position as Miss Grand International 2015 due to unable to fulfil and follow the contractual agreement with Miss Grand International Organisation.
We are pleased to welcome Miss Claire Elizabeth Parker to take over this honourable position and continue the honourable duty as Miss Grand International 2015.
Congratulations to Miss Claire Elizabeth Parker as the new Miss Grand International 2015.
Miss Grand International Organisation".
Claire Parker is from Australia and placed 2nd in last year's Miss Grand International 2015. She will soon be officially crowned.
The last time Australia had won a Grand Slam title was in 2004, when Jennifer Hawkins won Miss Universe in Quito, Ecuador. Now the Aussie have a new Grand Slam queen!
MGI2015: a final review
Top 10 facts, figures and opinions about Miss Grand International 2015 final show:
Number 10 – A perfect Opening Number!
MGI can still be considered a baby among the biggest beauty contests on the globe, however, it has been acting just like a grown up: the opening number for the 2015 edition was one of the best and most energetic in the Grand Slam in a long time, perhaps in over a decade! With MGI 2014 Lees Garcia taking center stage, the candidates danced to Fergie's A Little Party Never Killed Nobody and one by one,they introduced themselves. It was just perfect to kick off a great show!
Number 9 – A Top 20 with few surprises and a black-out
Most names called as Top 20 quarter-finalists were actually expected, but the few other favorites left out this early in the competition were all black: Suriname, Ghana, Colombia, Haiti. The only African woman to actually make the cut was the biggest surprise of the night, Miss Angola (a good surprise, by the way). All in all, the judges' selection made sense and was within the expected, although it was a pity to see such amazing black stunners ignored (unfortunately a trend in most international beauty contests, especially in Asia). All heavy favorites were through and took the stage on a very well-prodeced and sexy (without being vulgar) swimsuit competition.
Number 8 – Perfect Top 10
When one of our correspondents talked to Miss Netherlands the day after the pageant, the only hot favorite not to be included in the group of 10 semi-finalists, she told him: "I looked at the 10 women who made it and I could not think of any who did not deserve it, so I was just fine with it". And that's indeed how tough the competition was! The judges nailed it, and Spain ended up taking Europe's highest rank, deservingly so. The group was completed with Dominican Republic, Brazil, Costa Rica, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Philippines and Thailand. How do you pick just 5 out of these 10 fantastic women?
Number 7 – A flawless production with elements of the other 4 Grand Slam contests
This year MGI did what many thought to be impossible: it put together a show which was upbeat, fun to watch, in which everything flowed with perfection. Something interesting about it, however, is that elements of all other 4 Grand Slam contestants were present: Miss Universe's swimsuit, opening and evening gown's format; Miss World emphasis on a noble cause, in MGI's case, "Stop the War"; the Top 10 speech is an old Miss International tradition; and finally, all the dancing and a few fashion elements found in Miss Supranational. When put all together, the magic was done and a great show delighted the viewers!
Number 6 – Rehearsed or coming from their hearts, the Top 10 speeches passed the test
All 10 delegates did a really good job with their Top 10 speeches. Speaking English or Spanish (Costa Rica), the semi-finalists did the their homework and impressed everyone with their words. Some sounded rehearsed, others genuine, but all did just fine here, making the judges' challenge even more difficult. The crowd went wild especially with Australia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Thailand and India. One of these 6, could not advance, and in the end, the one left behind was Miss Brazil. Why? The Brazilian beauty, who's a singer in her native country, ended her speech singing a few words from John Lennon's Imagine. Organizers claimed they were not allowed to sing, only to talk. So the judges decided that Miss Brazil's participation in MGI2015 would end at that point. The other 5 favorites went on to fight for the crown.
Number 5 – The Top 5 and their final answers
"Who's the most influential person in your life?". A perfect question to this question could lead a contestant to the crown, cash prize, and an exciting year ahead as Miss Grand International 2015. It was time for them to use their well kept weapons, and that's what some of them did. Australia went for Lees Garcia, Miss Grand International 2014, for her amazing work and inspirational words; India may have given one of the best answers, naming Mahatma Gandhi; and Miss Dominican Republic said that her father, who raped her mother and brought her to life, was the most influential person in her life. "If I could I would hug him and forgive him. That's the only way I can live and spread a message of peace". As controversial as such answer might have been, it worlked for Anea Garcia, who ended up winning the title, with Australia as runner-up and Miss India in 3rd place. Philippines ranked 4th, and Thailand, who really got lost when giving her answer, finished 5th after an otherwise flawless performance.
Number 4 – Lees Garcia, a queen with a heart
Lees Garcia's farewell walk and speech were very touching, which did not surprise anyone, after all, she was an amazing queen. Garcia traveled to over 10 countries entering regions facing war and conflicts, being always kind, saying the right words, touching hundreds of people's hearts. She left a very positive mark in pageantry and will always be remembered as a perfect ambassador for peace and good-will. We wish her the very best in the future!
Number 3 – What to expect of Anea Garcia, the new Miss Grand International?
Anea Garcia of the Dominican Republic was always a favorite among pagent fans and those who were not following the pageant from a close distance, after all, she participated in Miss USA, one of the most important and talked about national pageants in the world, and placed 3rd earlier this year (she is the current Miss Rhode Island USA). Nevertheless, Anea was not one of the most popular choices among the contestants, perhaps because she was too focused on her goal and did not travel to Thailand to make friends. The judges, however, were impressed by her perfeormance and convinced by her answers, she won the crown, the crowd went wild, and now she will have a whole year ahead to show her real essence. We wish her and MGI the best of luck, and hope the new queen can follow the steps of Lees Garcia and Janelee Chaparo, two excellent titleholders.
Number 2 – The Hispanic Caribbean reign supreme in Miss Grand International!
Three editions, three winners from Spanish-speaking countries and territories located in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico (2013), Cuba (2014), and now Dominican Republic (2015). Will another Caribbean beauty storm hit Miss Grand's shores again in 2016?? As for the Dominican Republic, this is the country's 3rd Grand Slam victory, after winning Miss World 1982 and Miss Universe 2003.
Number 1 – Tonga and Macedonia: queens without a crown
They did not win MGI 2015. As a matter of fact, they were not even among the Top 20 quarter-finalists. However, they left their mark in pageant history, we risk to say, after being noticed for different reasons. Miss Tonga won GB's special award "Woman of Substance" for the fantastic human being that she is. If her type of beauty is not the usual doll-like to succeed in pageants, she showed that beauty truly goes beyond it. Miss Tonga is smart, charismatic, confident. By the end of the competition, she had thousands of faithful followers and supporters.
Also on a league of her own, Miss Macedonia delighted all of us with her unique and unforgettable diva performance in swimsuit and evening gown in the preliminary competition. When covering the preliminary round of interviews, we saw Miss Macedonia being asked the following question: "What do you want to be 5 years from now?", to which she answered: "I don't want to be. I AM… Beauty has always been in my family, I've won many trophies and awards, so I AM now…". Indeed YOU ARE! Thank you Misses Tonga and Macedonia for making this year's MGI even more special!
GB photos | Leonardo Rodrigues


text:
In celebration of the launch of their flagship store in Melbourne's Emporium we recently had five minutes with Athan Didaskalou and Richard Li, the team behind July, a sophisticated luggage range for the modern traveller. Designed here in Melbourne, the July luggage range uses good, functional design to overcome some of the most common flaws in modern luggage options. Our favourite features are the removable USB-C charger, highly adjustable handle, and custom-designed wheels which you can trust not to break halfway across the world. Partnering with ODO, they have succeeded in creating a range of beautiful, practical and durable luggage and a flagship store to match!Read More
Ahead of the Melbourne Design Week starting on March 14, we met with Kate Stokes of Coco Flip Design Studio to hear about Honey, her new collaboration with Bendigo Pottery, timber craftsman Charles Standford and glass artist Amanda Dziedzic. Honey is a collection of lighting designs including table lamp, pendant and wall sconce which feature slip cast ceramic stoneware or turned American white oak paird with hand-blown glass.
We talked about the inspiration behind Honey, the collaborative process and some of the highlights of the experience. Enjoy!
We were stoked to have a chat with talented Melbourne jewellery designer Abby Seymour. We've been following her work for the last couple of years and we're currently obsessing over her Australis collection which is inspired by the natural beauty of the Australian bush. Abby has seamlessly merged her signature geometry and fine detail with natural shapes and textures and the result is stunning. One of our favourite things about Abby Seymour is her commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical labour practice which we hope means we'll continue to see her work for many years to come!Read More
Nobody said collaborations were easy, but teaming up with someone who lives over 3400 kilometres away presents unique challenges. Tough Luck is a joint effort from Melbourne-based artist Katie Eraser and Perth-based artist Emma Lipscombe, and brings together their distinct but complementary styles. Their upcoming exhibition features a range of paintings by each artist, and also a series of limited run textiles which the pair designed together. The exhibition is a great example of the way which social media platforms like Instagram can bring together likeminded artists and help foster creative relationships and friendships. Katie and Emma have overcome physical distance to create a truly collaborative and unique exhibition.Read More
We met Lucy Grant and Adam Brislin in 2017 when Beeline Design did collaboration with Felix Furniture and we were delighted to see them again in the lead up to the launch of The Ridge Collection, their new work inspired by the rich dairy-farming land of south-west Western Australia. We had a quick chat with them about this project, their journey to get to this point and where they hope to go in the future!
Enjoy!Read More
We recently spoke with Bear Agushi from Agushi Developments and architect John Bornas of Workroom Architecture about their recent collaboration, the stunning Huntingtower house in Armadale. Huntingtower was designed and built as a home for developer Bear Agushi and his family and is a true labour of love. You can see the dedication to quality of materials and design in the attention and care given to each detail. The project features natural stone, timeless European Oak parquetry flooring, and rich and beautiful brass fixtures.Read More
We are thrilled to finally feature the amazingly talented young artist Hannah Nowlan. We first came across her work from her previous solo exhibition Myths, Moons and Mountains in 2017. Hannah's current exhibition Cerberus is an exploration of her environment and landscape in her iconic, rich and evocative style.
We hope you enjoy this Q&A and a selection of some of our favourite works from Cerberus. Make sure to check out the full exhibition which opens on the 16th of August at Modern Times in Collingwood.Read More
We recently caught up with Luke Fry, the designer behind the incredible refurbishment of an Art Deco home in Chaddesley Avenue, St Kilda East. We spoke about his recent work, inspirations, and how he manages to balance a young family and his design practice.
Luke's rare and broad skillset has enabled him to create a cohesive and beautiful vision from inside to out, and allows him to identify the full potential in a building design, and then bring it to life.Read More
We had a chat with Anne-Claire Petre, creative director of Anaca studio about their new take on the forever favourite Camille sofa. Anaca studio designs versatile, sustainably-produced forever pieces, at home in all kinds of aesthetically minimalist interiors, and offering cool comfort throughout the seasons.Read More
I first came across the work of Tuckbox Design on Instagram a few years ago, and I was thrilled to finally meet Dan and Anthony at their workshop in Campbellfield last week to learn a bit more abaout how they got into design and what inspires them to create their unique and beautiful range.Read More
Last week I travelled to Gallerysmith, a contemporary art gallery in North Melbourne, to speak with director and art curator Marita Smith about Gallerysmith's 10 year anniversary, 200th exhibition, and the importance of art curation in modern society.Read More
Schiavello has just launched its new retail furniture line with the opening of a new retail showroom in Melbourne's Southbank. Located at ground level at Southbank's Prima Tower, the warm, light-filled space showcasing local and international design by Schiavello and MAP features interiors by award-winning designers, Hecker Guthrie. Clean lines, layered volumes and an assemblage of textural materials (leather, velvet, glass, timber) create balance and a distinctively architectural approach.Read More


text:
Penplotting with the Axidraw V3
I purchased a penplotter called AxiDraw V3, which is a fine-precision 2D plotter that can be used with any implement at 90˚ and 45˚ configurations. My plotter is refurbished with free ground shipping, and delivered by Auspost Shopmate mail redirection service. It works like brand new.
I am working on a RESTful API for the plotter, using their private beta Python CLI which has a permissive open source license. Watch this space.


text:
It goes without saying that opening Studio Poise was the best decision I have ever made in my life. With the opening of a little dance studio, I have met the most amazing people every single day who inspire, motivate, and teach me so much in so many different ways. I recently had the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with Kristen Lucas, film producer and the face behind the Respect Her Hustle movement.
I had seen the #respectherhustle hashtag and logo here and there on social media and was very intrigued. I hadn't had a chance to really go beyond "liking" them on facebook, but I had hoped to get a better grasp on what they were all about, or, at the very least, purchase a tank top because, in the words of Jay-Z, "I'm a hustler…". Needless to say, when our girl DJ Nixx was in the house last week, she brought it up. "You NEED to connect with Kristen". She had recently done the mix that set the scene for early May's Respect Her Hustle product line launch. Kristen and I connected, and the rest is history!
What is Respect Her Hustle?
"We're about women. About self-made moguls and single moms, stars on the soccer field and in the science lab. Women of all ages who are not content to just dream, but must DO. We're about hustling. Passion. Dedication. Living for long hours, savoring hard work. We're about women who jump when there is no net, who laugh at the "shoulds" and "should nots", who won't apologize for chasing their dreams. Women who break the mold and don't look back. Whatever it is she's hustling for, you've got to #respectHERhustle."
What I absolutely LOVE about this brand is that WE ALL fit into it; just like Studio Poise. You don't have to be an entrepreneur to have your hustle respected, and you don't have to be a fitness model to come to Studio Poise. We are about women – all kinds of them. We are about appreciating what we all do, whether you're a doctor or a stay at home mom. This is one of the most admirable things I find when I am teaching classes. I look around the room sometimes and see just that – women of all ages; 17-70; teachers, nurses, lawyers, and students. Some looking to lose weight, some looking to tone up, some just looking to ease their minds, some just wanting to dance! To all of you women, whatever the reason or the occupation – I RESPECT YOUR HUSTLE.
Where Did it Come From?
When meeting with Kristen the other day, she gave me a little rundown on how this whole movement came to be. Like most amazing things in this world, it was kind of a fluke that is quickly becoming so much more. She had met with a big leader in the film industry and when referring to her he said "I respect her hustle". She started using the term in conversation, then hashtagging on social media, and one day threw it on a sweatshirt. The brand and the movement really just came to be in January, with their product line launching the beginning of May (same birthday as SP!). To me, the line is so much more than a t-shirt, but a symbol and phrase that unites all of us. I knew I had to have it as part of the Studio Poise showroom and that is exactly what is happening!
How To Respect The Hustle
Tank tops are now available in studio for purchase! More products to be released in the months to come!
Additionally, you can catch me as a guest blogger on the RespectHERHustle blog! I am so excited about this opportunity to be a part of the movement and hope to write and post my first entry this week!
And last, but certainly not least, check out DJ Nixx's HustleHER mix NOW and listen for it during some of our signature classes! (Debuted last Tuesday 5/13 to my Poise Xpress beauties!)
Keep hustlin' ladies!


text: We have equipped the laundry with all the latest washing machines and dryers, so why not make use of them and do your own load if you prefer to do it yourself. We are very reasonably priced at £5.00 per load, and we also have a comfortable waiting area where you can wait for your laundry to finish. Staff are on hand to offer any advice or assistance.


text:
- Error
Meeting Customers' Requirements
Meeting Customers' Requirements
One of Wenco's key strengths is our ablity to custom-made rubber moulded products according to our customers' specifications of size, shape, weight and technical properties.
Our adept and knowledgeable team of mould makers are well-equipped to develop the prototype for a new product within a very short time frame after receipt of the technical specifications.
To ensure that the customer's specifications are fully met, Wenco has a well-equipped testing laboratory to conduct stringent tests on each product prototype before production begins.
While we pride ourselves to be efficient, versatile and fast in our work, we are best known for our precise production of high quality and price competitive products.
Fulfilling Customers' need
Wenco is adaptable to last-minute production changes by OEMs. To cater to these changes and to ensure that the final product is delivered on time to the client, our strong networking experience has allowed us to quickly and smoothly align our entire value chain from raw material suppliers, mould makers, production team to even delivery team.
Moreover, Wenco has created its own multiple production lines which are readily inter-changeable to allow us to expedite any last minute changes in our production orders.
Our ability and flexibility to react quickly to customers' changes has established Wenco as one of the leading OEM parts manufacturers in the country.
Future Vision
Moving forward, Wenco had set the quality standard of Rubber moulding industries and are looking to venture into trading of raisin parts and components for the electrical appliances and automobile industries.


text:
Kua ngaro mamao 'ua atu te 'enua (The Land faded into the distance) is a photographic installation that explores the layers of time, memory and my personal cultural history as a person with Samoan, Cook Island and New Zealand European heritage. My Grandfather emigrated from Samoa, my Grandmother from the Cook Islands to New Zealand where they met and had seven children. My mother being the fifth. Although I was not able to meet my Grandmother I see her in the faces of my mother and her siblings, the way groups of Cook Island women will speak in a language I know to be of my heritage but I do not understand and the family house that still stands on Avondale Road. Using these memories, imagery and site specific installations I am attempting to make some kind of sense of the emotional distance between familial ties and history when you are physically and geographically so far away.
Documentation credit: Document Photography


text:
The Innovation of Loneliness from Shimi Cohen on Vimeo.
Monthly Archives: September 2013
The Followers of Religion
Sometimes you think that the followers of religion will understand your concerns, your dreams, your caution, your fears and your efforts. Because they practice as you do and they strive as you do, but sometimes for them you are extreme and you stand all alone in an ocean of confusion where even the life buoy can't wait to slip out of your grip because it is too overwhelming.
Shaykh Omar Suleiman | A Reflection of Greatness ~ ilmfest
Reflections from Jeffrey Lang's "The Purpose of Life"
It took me forever to learn that this world is not meant for happiness. We are made for struggle and we will always have problems. I can't believe that I underestimated the amount of people who have problems or the amount of problems per person. We always think others have it easier than us, but in reality, most of us have it hard in our own personalized way. When we embrace suffering and use our intellect to make the right choices, we develop superior qualities and become people of strong character. No wonder good character is worth so much on the scale on the Day of Judgement. It's as if the weight of your worldly hardships will be lifted off your shoulders, converted into the reward for your sabr and placed atop the scale. Indeed, Allah is One Who removes hardship and brings ease.


text:
The Truth Behind #METOO: Patriarchy is a Lose/Lose
#86this: Main Menu
By Remy Ramirez
illustrations by jessie kanelos weiner
My first #MeToo moment came at six years old, walking single file to gym class along an elementary school corridor. The perpetrator, also six, smirked when I bolted around to see who had grabbed my ass.
This was the first time I was sexually assaulted, but certainly not the last. The offenses would range: gropes in clubs by faceless hands; a friend's father who grabbed my crotch in the dark corner of a house party—his wife one room over; the job I quit after a boss asked to see under my skirt; that time in Germany when a kindly old man invited me to his home for lunch, and then blocked the door, masturbating, when I tried to leave. In my 30s, a life coach would rebuff an enduring denial I'd maintained about my introduction to sex. "That's rape!" she interjected vehemently as I detailed the events of that night two months before my 15th birthday. It knocked the wind out of me. For years I'd dodged the word, subbing in its stead "nonconsensual," whose elasticity was so generous, so resilient, so free of stigma and the years of necessary therapy.
I couldn't know then that within months, the truth of Harvey Weinstein would break, bringing with it a flood of histories whose traumas, cemented firmly to every crevasse of social media, would allow no respite, no hiding from the truth—not mine, not any woman's.
But more to the point, I couldn't know that in the midst of #MeToo—wedged somewhere between Kevin Spacey and Al Franken—I would experience sexual assault anew. This one at the hands of someone I deeply trusted, making the emotional repercussions far more extensive, more complex, and, to be plain, more painful. There were days immediately following that felt as if someone had slipped a shadowy hand beneath my joy, my faith in the goodness of humans, and fondled it. The extent to which life imitated social media was surreal. As I lived out my own private anguishes in real time, they appeared in nearly identical manifestations on my Facebook feed from women I had never, and likely would never meet, while they revisited the days, months, and years following their own sexual traumas. There was a sense that we were echoing each other on loop: an infinity mirror of rage, shame, and heartbreak.
It wasn't that I had never considered the source of the schism powerful enough to create what I will—without hesitation—call a culture of betrayal, more commonly referred to as patriarchy. After all, I'd been raised by a single mother, was well versed in Audre Lorde, and donated monthly to Planned Parenthood; feminism was second nature to me. It was that I suddenly found myself in a micro-crisis amidst its parallel macro-crisis. The pressure that phenomenon created forced me to dissect my individual relationship to men, their relationship to me, and the broader social relationship of men to women in this country.
During that process, I uncovered a truth that I'd been surreptitiously ignoring for years: I simply don't enjoy being around men.
Generally speaking, I much prefer the company of women. And the reason for this, which I also uncovered in those weeks immediately following, is that I haven't found men to be safe people for me to interact with. Some of them kill women—serial killers and random acts of crime aside, statistics show that husbands and boyfriends are collectively one of the greatest threats to women's lives* (an observation Louis C.K. made when he correctly noted that "globally and historically, [men] are the worst thing that happens to [women]," a statement now so rife with irony, it's nearly laughable). Some men physically abuse women; some of them emotionally, verbally, or psychologically abuse women; some of them rape or sexually assault women; some of them sexually harass women.
Some of them don't do any of those things, but they belittle or condescend to women so they can feel superior. They shame women's emotions. They vote for Trump knowing he's a misogynist and a sexual predator. They humiliate women they decide are too sexy, or not sexy enough. They vote pro-life without even understanding the anatomy of a woman's reproductive organs, much less the vast and complex reasons she may want or need an abortion. They father children and then leave women alone to raise them. They lie to women to use them for sex. They blame women for being raped and assaulted. They work to ensure the wage gap isn't closed, or don't care whether it is or isn't. They objectify women in casual conversation and call it "locker room talk," or they don't interject when their friends do. They divorce a woman so they can marry another half her age, essentially swapping her in for a newer model, like a car. They write a book from multiple perspectives—none of them a woman's; in it, they make God male, blame women for all of humanity's sorrow, enlist one woman as worthy of worship on the basis of her desexualization, and make a list of moral imperatives that includes being nice to your parents but excludes rape. Over a thousand years later, they use this book to justify pedophilia.
If you removed all of those men from the pool, I believe you'd be left with very few. A generous guess is around 10 percent, based on nothing but my life experience. Of those left, how many look at a sexually expressive woman without the intention of benefiting from or condemning her sexuality—how many view her sexuality with awe and reverence? How many provide safe spaces for women to birth ideas? Expose their hearts? Rage? Grieve? Dance? Celebrate their bodies? Menstruate? Breastfeed? Argue? Travel? Learn? Create? Lead? How many are curious about who a woman is without wanting to use or control her in any way? How many, when a woman confronts them on their shortcomings, take those women seriously, hold themselves accountable, and legitimately work to be better?
These men are incredibly rare. And the reason they are rare is because we live in a patriarchy, and a patriarchy does not value the thoughts, needs, desires, opinions, agency, hopes, or experiences of women. And therefore, far more often than not, its named benefactors do not either. It is woven into the fabric of our reality.
Of course, this is coming from the perspective of a woman who's been sexually assaulted multiple times. But if I learned anything from #MeToo, it's that that describes pretty much every single woman. Ever. And in that finding, I also found myself struggling not to perpetuate a belief that men aren't safe.
But men aren't safe. That's more true than untrue. Even if they don't physically take women's lives, they, in my experience, are not the people giving women life—giving them hope, strength, inspiration, opportunity, spiritual sustenance, or comfort. In my experience, they are often the people taking those away from women, leaving us to rely on each other. Does that make me angry? Yes. But more to the point, it fills me with grief.
That grief is not solely for what I've experienced, nor is it solely for the onslaught of sexual assault women everywhere have experienced, as evidenced by the recent crater in our country's charade of gender equality. It's not solely for understanding that the people who are meant to work in partnership with you are the very ones who undermine you.
That grief is for the sheer scope of it all. The ubiquitousness. The insidious roots that have tangled themselves into our government, our spirituality, our jobs, our homes, our minds—into every facet of our psychology and therefore, our culture.
Because the problem is so much more complex than we have ever wanted to acknowledge, the solution is also more complex. In the past, feminists have relied on policy change, women rising through the ranks of corporate America, and the infiltration of higher education with women's and queer studies courses. Although we've seen progress through these tactics, we've also come up against their limitations, like a bird to glass.
This is because in our rage and sorrow, in our political organizing, in our increased representation throughout Hollywood and Silicon Valley, we haven't addressed patriarchy's most coveted secret: in order for it to operate, men must, on some level, hate themselves. Even now, in this exact moment, my anger is begging me to resist this fact because it's so much easier to vilify.
But I also know it's true. Patriarchy is a thousands-year performance of smoke and mirrors, and while women have suffered profoundly at its hands, men have also suffered, as the system cannot succeed unless men buy into a hatred of their own vulnerabilities. They must agree that their fear makes them less valuable, their heartbreak less masculine, their insecurities less desirable, and their failed attempts—on anything, really—less powerful. They must become complicit and active in their self-sabotage so that domination, unquestioned authority, and willful abuse can prevail. As a result, we have inherited a culture of masculinity covertly built on self-loathing, emotional arrested development, masked fear, lack of empathy, and rage—the only emotion patriarchy affords men.
As the adage goes: a person who doesn't love themselves cannot love you. Only in the last couple months have I realized the mass—literally worldwide—repercussions of that truth. By design, patriarchy would have us believe that men are the winners, but there are no real winners.
The hatred projected onto women is rooted in a hatred men feel for themselves, which I think they experience as emptiness or depression at best, sociopathic violence at worst. We all lose.
This doesn't mean we don't hold men accountable for their actions. Anyone who has perpetrated violence, whether physical or psychological, must face the harm they've caused if they hope to forgive themselves and move forward. Denial, mitigation, excuses—these are how the cycle of abuse has been able to thrive for so long, and they are therefore not to be tolerated.
But if we want to dismantle the patriarchy, the cesspool in which rape culture has been harvested, we must create space for men to study their own wounds and talk about what they find. We must insist that they come to know how they've been hurt, so they can clearly see the moments they used that pain to injure others. We must accept nothing less.
We must redefine bravery—any coward can pick up a gun and shoot someone; it happens daily. Real courage is looking honestly at the fragments of a broken heart, bringing them into the light, studying the ways that, in grief, those shards were transformed to arrows aimed at innocence, and then asking for forgiveness where there may well be none.
If we work to rebuild masculinity from the ground up based on emotional intelligence, rigorous honesty, accountability, and empathy, we don't just transform men; we also protect ourselves. We get them to relate to us as people, first and foremost, rather than as women. To demystify our pain by converting "overly emotional" to deeply affected. To see that just because they don't rape or kill women doesn't mean they aren't part of the problem. That the problem is deeply and painfully mired but not impossible to extract. And that the extraction is worth it—that we're worth it. That they're worth it, too.
*Between 2003 and 2012, 34 percent of all female homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner of the opposite sex (boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, husbands, ex-husbands, or estranged lovers), according to the Violence Policy Center. This same study revealed that 2.5 percent of male homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner of the opposite sex.
Remy Ramirez is the executive editor of The FIXX magazine and has written for Nylon, Bust, Refinery29, and Nasty Gal. She likes crystals, crosswords, and caffeine. When she isn't calling on spirit guides to help her manifest free parking in Los Angeles, you'll find her in Sedona, Arizona, planting succulents and writing her reps.
Jessie Kanelos Weiner is an illustrator and food and prop stylist living in Paris and a frequent contributor to Cherry Bombe. She is co-author of the upcoming Paris in Stride: An Insider's Walking Guide (Rizzoli 2018) and author of Edible Paradise: A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables (Universe).
back to #86THIS


text:
"Having Manya come into my life has been such a gift. She greatly expanded my view of wellness and food and it has been an impactful and positive journey. With her gentle guidance and insightful recommendations I was able to navigate a new fresh path for myself that has led me to feeling the best I have felt in my body. I started working with Manya to solve a problem I was having with food.
Food had become a chore, no fun, a bother. I was counting macro-nutrients, calories, and eating large quantities of food and this left me feeling constantly hungry, tired of preparing meals, and run down. This approach had been missing the mark for a couple of years and I was not feeling my best. Manya helped me press the pause button and re-energize my love of food. I am now feeling inspired and my creativity and love of food is back. I feel freakin' amazing! And besides all of that I easily lost 15 pounds without evening trying. Manya has a deep understanding of food and its nourishing capabilities and is a masterful guide to a new level of understanding for looking and feeling your most beautiful."
Allee Zapp, President / Tri-Trillion Marketing
"Excellent. I've encountered a handful of individuals who are very knowledgeable about clean eating and fitness, but what separates Manya apart from others is the in-depth knowledge she has about what foods do to the body. I'm already feeling a difference after 1 week."
Susie Lee, Working Mother of 2
"I really loved the juice and smoothie recipes. I received encouragement, tips and most of all hope! Manya is such a doll. All my needs were met."
Lisa Graves, Graphic Designer
"Losing weight is just one of the many benefits in working with Manya. My skin clearing up was my biggest accomplishment. For more than 2 years, I suffered with an uncomfortable, irritable rash that was "diagnosed" by doctors as just about everything, including eczema, psoriasis, urticaria (hives), dry skin, contact dermatitis and depression. My face was puffy and I had terrible water retention.
Thousands of dollars and hours in waiting rooms, and they never found the cause. Eventually, I took control and invested my money in the support of someone that was saw me as a whole person with my own specific needs and concerns. That process is what led me to completely change my diet and my life."
Anna Harmon, Traveling Stylist
"For years I shunned juice cleanses. Misunderstanding their purpose, I categorized them as a fad diet and a dangerous practice. Though they are misused by many in this way, I only truly began to learn about their purpose and power when I uncovered a heavy metal toxicity issue earlier last year. Already on a largely organic, Non GMO, clean diet, I discovered that much of the heavy metal damage may have been done in my youth and now deeply embedded in the tissue of my body.
A holistic nutritionist and friend suggested I consider a juice cleanse, to give my body the opportunity to cleanse itself at every level, clearing away years of damage. To say I was nervous, mostly about hunger and deprivation, is an understatement. But my experience could be described as nothing but empowering. Although the first day was physically difficult and painful, as the toxins purged themselves from my body, by the end of day 2 and throughout day 3 I felt a deep sense of focus, energy and cleansing. Hunger pains were not longing, but empowering. When I woke up on day 4 I felt disappointed that I couldn't continue. I've never felt stronger or more proud of myself. I felt nurtured by Manya's knowledge and will happily juice cleanse again."
Katie Miller Jesionowski,
Founder/Owner MySuper Foods Company
Are you ready to get started on your journey to a more fulfilling and nourishing relationship with food (and yourself)? Let's chat.


text:
wedding films for the lovers.
Thank you so much for taking the time to inquire with us. If we don't respond immediately, please know that we will respond as soon as possible.
In the meantime, come check out our Gallery and FAQ. Just be sure to have some tissues ready.
Follow us on Instagram, @mwlfilms


text:
Green Design
Mark Eisen's Cape-inspired prints add an enduring element to the Protea range. After the wine has been enjoyed and the table cleared, these bottles challenge us with a number of creative possibilities. Why dispose of a functional piece of art?
In a time when great emphasis is placed on the environment, rather than recycling your Protea bottle why not re-use it? A plethora of possibilities present itself when faced with these authentic prints – only a bit of personal innovation is required to:
- Take your bottles to a professional glasscutter and have them transformed into cups, vases and plant pots.
- Take your bottles to get melted as placemats or even seats (as pictured).
- Build a Protea bottle rack.
- Add a serving top to a bottle transforming it into an ornamental sauce container.
Lastly, we would like to highlight the obvious: Protea bottles make great gifts. We've gone one step further and rendered the Eisen Cape-prints as wrapping paper, allowing you to download and print your favourite at home. Gifting made easy – have a go and print an A3 sheet now.