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[column class="column- float-right width-right-default"]
- Financial Aid
- Projected Costs
- Applying for Financial Aid
- Notification of Award
- Federal and State Assistance
- Private and University Sources
Financial Aid
The Office of Financial Aid offers financial assistance to students who might otherwise be unable to attend the university. Financial aid awarded through the office may be gift aid, which includes grants and scholarships, or self-help aid, which includes loans and student employment programs. Regardless of income, residence or academic credentials, students should apply for all types of financial aid. Students should not just assume their financial status disqualifies them from eligibility.
University Contact With Students Through Electronic Mail
Electronic mail (e-mail) is an official method of contact between the university and students. This e-mail contact applies to all forms of communication including but not limited to matters concerning admissions, registration, financial aid, and academic affairs. Students are given e-mail addresses after their initial registration. Students should check e-mail at least once a week. The university provides computer access for all students by way of open computer labs. For information concerning the use of e-mail and the availability of computers, check the Academic Computing website at https://www.nicholls.edu/academic_computing/ for more information.
Projected Costs
The following chart details the estimated costs for tuition and fees, room and board, books, transportation, and personal expenses for a full-time, undergraduate resident student. The estimated costs are based on the student's housing plans for the award year.
Full Time Student | |||
On Campus | Off Campus | With Parents | |
Tuition | $6,318 | $6,318 | $6,318 |
Room and Board | $8,392 | $8,789 | $3,127 |
Transportation | $1,108 | $1,685 | $1,685 |
Personal/Miscellaneous | $1,941 | $1,941 | $1,941 |
Books | $1,200 | $1,200 | $1,200 |
Loan Fees | $71 | $71 | $71 |
$19,030 | $20,004 | $14,342 |
The above figures are based on the 2013-2014 award year. Some components of the total cost are direct costs and others are indirect costs. The total cost does not necessarily represent the actual charges you will be billed for by Nicholls. Expenses for housing, clothing, travel, recreation, and personal and miscellaneous items vary based on individual lifestyle. The Office of Financial Aid uses an estimate of what reasonable expenses for these items would be.
For students who qualify for financial aid, adjustments may be made for costs incurred because of a disability or other extraordinary circumstances.
For most students and their families, financial aid reduces out-of-pocket expenses considerably, and the actual cost of attending Nicholls will not be as much as the full estimated projected costs shown above.
Applying for Financial Aid
To apply for financial aid, a student must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) detailing information about their family's financial circumstances. Because financial aid is intended as a supplement to the family's resources, the student and his or her family will be expected to contribute as much as they can afford toward educational expenses.
Determining how much a family can pay toward college expenses is a complicated process that involves much more than looking at family income. Normally three major factors determine the family's ability to pay for college: income, family size, and number of children in college. Upon receipt of the FAFSA, the Federal Processing Center makes a thorough evaluation of the family's financial strength and, using a federally mandated formula, computes the expected family contribution (EFC) which is an estimate of the amount the family can contribute toward educational expenses. This process is a function of the Federal Processing Center, not the Nicholls Office of Financial Aid.
Once the FAFSA is processed, a Student Aid Report (SAR) is forwarded to each applicant, and an electronic SAR is forwarded to each institution the student lists on the FAFSA. The student must provide any material or supporting documentation if requested by the Office of Financial Aid in a timely manner. Failure to do so will result in aid being delayed.
Students must reapply for financial aid every year. The FAFSA is available after January 1st each year. Paper applications are available in high school guidance offices and at the Nicholls Office of Financial Aid, or a student can apply online at www.fafsa.gov.
To be considered for priority processing at Nicholls, a student must complete his or her FAFSA before April 15 for the following fall semester and October 31 for the following spring semester.
Students should ask the high school guidance counselor about community, foundation and other private scholarships. Veterans should also ask about Veterans Administration benefits to determine eligibility. The Nicholls coordinator may be consulted at 985-448-4208.
Transfer students must be maintaining satisfactory academic progress as defined by the Office of Financial Aid in order to be eligible to receive financial aid.
Notification of Award
A financial aid decision will be made and the student notified only after he or she is admitted to Nicholls and the financial aid application is complete. If the student is awarded aid, the decision will be in the form of a financial aid award notification. This communication will direct the student to access his/her financial aid awards through the Banner Self Service System, which includes the total amount of the student's award; a breakdown of the award by its "package" components: grants, loan and employment; a summary of the analysis of the student's financial need; and any assumptions on which the award was made.
Most financial aid is based on documented financial need. Financial need is the difference between the cost of attending the university and the financial resources available to the student. Students are responsible for reporting to the Office of Financial Aid any change in their financial situation that occurs after the initial application for aid is submitted. A documented decrease in resources may provide for an increase in financial aid if funds are available; an increase in resources may result in a reduction or cancellation of financial aid funds or a requirement to repay awards already released to the student.
Before financial aid funds can be disbursed to a student, he or she must be fully admitted to Nicholls.
Rules and regulations governing federal financial aid programs are developed by the federal government and Nicholls. They are subject to change as necessary, and changes can apply to both prospective and currently enrolled students at the time of the change.
The university provides scholarships and employment; the federal government and the state provide funds for grants, loans and employment opportunities; and private individuals and organizations assist students by awarding scholarships. The Office of Financial Aid will refer students with a disability to Vocational Rehabilitation, which will determine whether they qualify for assistance.
In general, scholarships and grants are funds that students do not repay. They are usually awarded on the basis of academic ability or financial need or both. Loans must be repaid at a predetermined interest rate over a specified time. Employment involves providing a service for compensation on campus during the academic year.
Federal and State Assistance
To apply for federal or state aid or both, a student must be a U. S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen. A Student Aid Report (SAR) must be on file in the Office of Financial Aid, and students must maintain satisfactory academic progress standards as established by the Office of Financial Aid in order to receive federal financial assistance. Students should apply for federal financial aid as early as January 1st each year. Counselors are available to assist students with their financial aid applications. Students are encouraged to meet all deadlines in order to avoid delays. The following awards can be made only in accordance with federal and state regulations:
The FEDERAL PELL GRANT is awarded to eligible undergraduate students with no prior bachelor's or professional degree, and is intended to be the "floor" of a student's financial package. The maximum grant for each student is determined by the U.S. Department of Education according to federal guidelines. A student's cost of attendance, expected family contribution and enrollment status can affect eligibility for a Federal Pell Grant.
FEDERAL SUPPLEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY GRANT (SEOG) is available to undergraduate students with exceptional need to the extent that funds are available. Students with the lowest Expected Family Contribution, who are also receiving a Federal Pell Grant, may be eligible to receive this grant.
SUBSIDIZED STAFFORD LOAN is awarded to undergraduate students on the basis of financial need determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Eligible students borrow directly from the U.S. Department of Education. The federal government pays the interest on this loan while in school. Repayment of this loan will begin six months after the student graduates, leaves school, or drops below half-time enrollment (6 hours). This loan must be repaid.
UNSUBSIDIZED STAFFORD LOAN is awarded to undergraduate and graduate students and does not require demonstrated financial need determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Eligible students borrow directly from the U.S. Department of Education. The federal government does not pay the interest while the student is in school. Interest will be charged from the time the loan is disbursed until it is repaid in full. If the student decides to capitalize or defer the interest, it will be added to the principal amount of the student's loan and this will increase the amount to be repaid. Repayment of this loan will begin six months after the student graduates, leaves school, or drops below half-time enrollment (6 hours). This loan must be repaid.
PARENT LOAN FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS (PLUS) is a loan for parents to help pay the cost of education for dependent undergraduate students. Parents may borrow up to the full cost of attendance less any other financial assistance the student receives. Parents must be able to pass a credit check or obtain a "co-signer" who is able to pass the credit check. Both the parent and student must meet general eligibility requirements for federal financial assistance.
STUDENT EMPLOYMENT is a financial aid program that enables students to earn money toward college expenses by working on campus. Students can be employed through the university's institutional student employment program, a federal work-study program, or a grant program. Federal Work-Study employment is based on financial need as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Applications for any program are available in the Student Employment Office.
TEACHER EDUCATION ASSISTANCE FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER EDUCATION (TEACH) GRANT PROGRAM is awarded to undergraduate and graduate students who intend to teach full-time in high-need subject areas for at least four years at schools that serve students from low-income families. Students must meet other requirements to establish and maintain eligibility for a TEACH grant.
Private and University Sources
A variety of individuals and private organizations including corporations, foundations, churches and community groups offer financial assistance to students in the form of scholarships. Upon graduation, students may also receive financial assistance through their secondary schools. Visit https://www.nicholls.edu/financial-aid/ for a complete list of scholarships.
Students with a disability may qualify for financial assistance through Vocational Rehabilitation.
Nicholls State University also allocates a large percentage of its funds to scholarships and student employment.


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Is this the most attractive torso in women?
This is a rough sketch of the average torso of a sample of adult women that was found most attractive in a study by Donohoe et al.(1, pdf), more attractive than the average torsos of "super attractive" women such as Playboy centerfolds, high-fashion models from the 1920s and 1930s and high class Australian prostitutes/escorts.
This study employed a different methodology from most studies in the genre to date. The authors produced sketches of torsos with random combinations of shoulder, waist and hip widths – all widths found within samples of ordinary women – and had sets of images rated for attractiveness by male students.
The authors offered three reasons for why the "super attractive" samples fell below the attractiveness of the average among ordinary women:
- The "super attractive" women may actually be less attractive. But the authors think that this is unlikely.
- The "super attractive" samples had lower absolute waist and hip circumferences. The authors speculate that they did not have enough images where narrower waists and narrower hips were paired with the right shoulder length and the right dimensions for others parts of the torso that were not manipulated.
- Other features not considered by the authors – such as face, breasts – could make the "super attractive" samples overall better looking.
The "super attractive" samples are easy to address.
- Donohoe et al. need to look at the frequent prevalence of masculinized women among Playboy Playmates, thanks to the bisexual Hugh Hefner.
- Donohoe et al. also need to look at high-fashion models. These women are super-attractive indeed … but to the homosexual male fashion designers who find the looks of adolescent boys appealing.
- There is also literature showing a positive correlation between masculinization in women and a tendency toward promiscuity,(2–5) and thus we expect lots of women with below average femininity among prostitutes or escorts.
A reason why Donohoe et al. think that it is unlikely that their "super attractive" samples actually have below average attractiveness than the average among ordinary women is presumably that if these women were not very attractive then they would not end up where they did. This reasoning is easy to address for the fashion models samples. Regarding Playboy magazine, Hefner had the advantage of coming up with a pioneering product that caught on in the absence of competition. Airbrushing, crafty posing and breast implants among a lot of Playboy playmates since the 1990s onward would also help Playboy magazine remain a name to reckon with in spite of declining sales since competing publications in the internet age are unlikely to have the funds to recruit high-priced feminine beauties that Hefner can recruit but doesn't because he is into masculinized bleached brunettes with fake breasts.
Donohoe et al. found strong support for stabilizing selection for the average, but what does one expect from their methodology? Nature will select against or equip organisms to sexually select against phenotypes comprising of random deviations from the average, and their stimulus set does indeed contrast the average torso with torsos featuring random combinations of shoulder, waist and hip widths.
We know from other research that above average femininity is a powerful correlate of beauty in women. Variation in shoulder, waist and hip widths all together does not capture much of the femininity variable; feminization does not change these three widths in a non-random manner; and feminization changes other aspects of the torso along with these width – e.g., the abdominal region gets elongated with feminization; see shape changes resulting from increasing attractiveness, clearly strongly overlapping with above average femininity.
In short, Donohoe et al. did not have the design to detect a component of attractiveness related to deviation from the average. Selection for averageness and selection for a specific type of deviation from the average will tend to cancel or oppose each other, and one needs proper methodology to detect both components. In practice, directional selection will have an upper bound resulting from selection for the average.
All indications are that if we start with the average face and body in women, which are attractive, and feminize them somewhat, then we improve upon their attractiveness, but there is an upper limit to how much the attractiveness can be increased by greater feminine exaggeration. There are some other components of physical attractiveness, most extensively described for the face, that correspond to increased attractiveness with some deviation from the average.
In their samples of ordinary women, the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) varied from 0.52 to 1.15, with an average of 0.78 and standard deviation of 0.12. They found that peak attractiveness corresponded to a WHR of 0.75, which is in the middle of the range, just as shoulder-waist and shoulder-hip combinations in the middle of the range were most attractive, but as the response surface below shows, there is nothing about having a 0.75 WHR or for that matter any WHR that maximizes attractiveness. In other words, peak attractiveness was related to a combination of a specific waist circumference and a specific hip circumference that produced a WHR of 0.75 rather than any other combination of waist and hip measurements that had a WHR of 0.75.
To understand these graphs (see study pdf for details), imagine you are looking at a mountain ahead of you when you see the image on the left, with its outline tracing attractiveness. The image on the right shows the view when you see the mountain from top. The solid diagonal line on the right image corresponds to a WHR of 0.75 and the dashed line below it corresponds to a WHR of 0.7. Thus the peak attractiveness is for a WHR of 0.75 found at the peak of the mountain. Descending below the peak of the mountain diminishes attractiveness even if the WHR remains 0.75.
Here is the waist-hip response surface showing the placement of different groups. The ordinary women samples comprised of women ranging from age 19 and over. The average for women between the ages of 19–45 was a height of 5-foot-4, a waist circumference of 77cm (30 inches) and a hip circumference of 101cm (40 inches).
A = Playboy centerfolds (from measurements provided by Playboy magazine), B = 1920s high-fashion models, C = 1990s high-fashion models, D = Australian escorts; E–H = ordinary Australian women, E = 19–24 years, F = 25–44 years, G = 45–64 years, H = 65+ years. The data on high-fashion models were taken from a study by Byrdbredbenner et al. discussed here.
The ordinary women sample ranging in age from 25–44, F, was the closest to peak attractiveness, but the sketch of the average (and also most attractive) torso shown above, which describes the average for group F does not look like it describes the average for group F, i.e., there is a problem with properly translating these proportions to a sketch.
- Donohoe ML, von Hippel W, Brooks RC. Beyond waist–hip ratio: experimental multivariate evidence that average women's torsos are most attractive. Behavioral Ecology 2009; Epub, ahead of print; doi:10.1093/beheco/arp051
- Cashdan E. Hormones, sex, and status in women. Horm Behav. 1995;29(3):354-366.
- van Anders SM, Hamilton LD, Watson NV. Multiple partners are associated with higher testosterone in North American men and women. Horm Behav. 2007;51(3):454-459.
- Mikach SM, Bailey JM. What distinguishes women with unusually high numbers of sex partners? Evolution and Human Behavior. 1999;20:141-150.
- Ostovich JM, Sabini J. How are sociosexuality, sex drive, and lifetime number of sexual partners related? Pers Soc Psychol Bull. Oct 2004;30(10):1255-1266.
I find this interesting, but odd. With the prevalence of less-feminine models on Playboy's pages, I would have expected their models (item A) to have had WHRs higher than .75, not lower.
You cannot trust the measurements given by the models/Playboy. It's a well known fact they falsify those measurements for the magazine readers. The measurements used by this study were most likely taken from the magazine and model sites.
That tends to be the basic torso of a woman who is a fitness enthusiast. I personally find female speedskaters quite attractive because of the large muscular buttocks and thin upper body.
That sketch is very close, indeed, to one of my ideal female figures.
I can't imagine having only one. I find there are many highly complementary combinations in face and body.
Weird, so chicks who are skinny are only thought of as attractive by bisexuals and gays? Something tells me the author of this article is... umm... biased?
Not women who are naturally thin, but women who are anorexic thin, like the models, and those who are underweight, there is a difference, but most hetro men prefer curves in some places, there are always exceptions to every rule.

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Later in the program we will speak with a man for whom art and politics were intertwined. South African musical great Hugh Masekela will be with us. He talks about his years in exile and how he stays creative after decades of performing. That's later.
But first, we are going to continue our conversation with former Congressman Asa Hutchinson. He recently co-chaired a study examining the treatment of U.S. detainees during the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida. He was also the director of an NRA-funded taskforce on school safety that recommended the hiring of more armed guards in schools, and I asked him where some of the evidence supporting those recommendations comes from.
ASA HUTCHINSON: You take it for what's it worth. The NRA did fund this taskforce, but the taskforce was composed of former Secret Service, former Homeland Security, current experts in school safety that did these assessments and made these recommendations. And so why is this a best practice? Because they reviewed schools. They saw the school environment and what was needed and made these recommendations.
You know, for example, whether we want to or not, these schools are making decisions to protect those children. We want to give them the tools that they need.
MARTIN: One of the arguments, though, against this is that environments that have law enforcement personnel handling school safety sometimes are not trained in appropriate behavior for children. They don't understand child development, that that's not their expertise, so that they may not understand what's developmentally appropriate for a 12-year-old, for a 15-year-old, and that as a consequence a number of these schools are finding that more kids are being funneled into the criminal justice system and people are asking, is that better? Does that make us better?
HUTCHINSON: Well, that's a little bit of a side issue there.
MARTIN: Is it?
HUTCHINSON: The...
MARTIN: Is it?
HUTCHINSON: Yes, it is.
MARTIN: How is it a side issue when you consider that, in jurisdictions like Baltimore, you've got a third of the young people already under criminal - young men under criminal justice supervision?
HUTCHINSON: That's how you manage your school resource officers. It is a legitimate debate as to what their responsibilities are, but we're talking about armed personnel that protect children. If you don't want them carrying out school discipline - well, that should be their memorandum of understanding that they don't do that. If a school does not want them to engage in ordinary discipline matters, that should be set forth.
You say it's a sensitive environment. Absolutely. And so that's part of the training that they understand how to operate there. If you have a child that goes on an airplane, he's not afraid because there's an armed officer on the plane, a federal air marshal, because it's discreetly done. It's there for protection. They don't even know it. The children don't run away in fear. They feel comforted because they know and the parents know they'll be safe.
MARTIN: Finally, before we let you go, do I have it right that you have now announced your bid to run for governor of Arkansas? So frying pan, fire. You clearly have not lost your appetite for public service. Is there something that you learned by digging into these two issues that you'll carry forward that has kind of changed the way you think about something fundamental in the way you think you might approach public service if you should prevail?
HUTCHINSON: Well, the safe route is not to engage in controversial issues, but I've engaged in a number of them and I hope people see that - hey, this guy, even though he's a conservative, he works across the aisle. He works with people who don't think the same.
In our taskforce on detainee treatment, I work with incredible, incredible bright minds that don't think the same way I do, but we reach good conclusions and work together on this, and so I think it's a lesson in public service that we've got to find what brings us together and - rather than just what divides us, and I hope they see that in some of the things that I've done in public life.
MARTIN: Asa Hutchinson. He co-chaired the taskforce on detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay and he also spoke with us about his work with the NRA-funded study on school safety. He was kind enough to join us from our Washington, D.C. studios.
Mr. Hutchinson, thank you so much for joining us.
HUTCHINSON: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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With the rapid development of the local gastronomy market, the volume and variety of Kraków restaurants is now extremely wide, and though the city's most refined restaurants are still waiting for starry-eyed acceptance from a certain French tyre company, Kraków's city's culinary rep is most definitely on the rise. For proof, look no further than the fact that not only has Kraków been anointed 'European Capital of Gastronomic Culture 2019' - it is the first city to receive the prestigious title (take that, Michelin). There are certainly more good restaurants in Kraków than you could ever possibly fit into one trip, so fear not, you won't have to eat tyres.jsjsj
Follow the link for all of our Food & Drink related Kraków feature articles.
All our Kraków restaurant reviews are updated regularly, completely subjective and unsolicited. The opening hours we list are given to us by the restaurants themselves, but only serve as rough guidelines as to when you can expect the chef to be working. Enjoy reading our online reviews of Krakow restaurants, but don't let us have the final word - leave your own opinions in the comments section. Smacznego!


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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly addressing the leaked alleged nude photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Ariana Grande and more.
According to PEOPLE, on Monday (Sept. 1), the FBI announced it will pursue allegations that the stars' private accounts had been hacked.
The publication reports that the FBI claims it is "aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter."
"Any further comment would be inappropriate at this time," spokeswoman Laura Eimiller added in a statement (via PEOPLE).
Over the weekend, a spokesperson for Lawrence confirmed the Oscar-winner was in some of the leaked images. Celebs like Ariana Grande, Victoria Justice and Mary Elizabeth Winstead also responded to the account hacks.
More recently, model Kate Upton's lawyer addressed the hack, telling Us Weekly: "This is obviously an outrageous violation of our client Kate Upton's privacy. We intend to pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these illegally obtained images to the fullest extent possible."
USA Today reports that Apple is investigating whether any iCloud accounts were compromised, according to spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.


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The Slotegrator team is participating in a world iGaming festival SiGMA Eurasia 2023 in Dubai, a major hub for trade and commerce between East and West. Slotegrator is presenting its innovative solutions and sharing its vision for the development of the industry at booth S14.
Prague, Czech Republic, 14th March 2023, ZEXPRWIRE, The exhibition is held at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City hotel on 13-16 March, and is providing invaluable opportunities for attendees to network with industry professionals, demonstrate the latest tech and innovations in the sector, meet key decision makers, and gain insight into new markets.
The Slotegrator team are welcoming visitors at booth S14 to discuss current issues, share insights, explain more about the products offered, and present their benefits.
The main Slotegrator's solutions that are the most popular among exhibitors:
- a new multifunctional turnkey solution for online casinos which has already proven its efficiency in Europe with 4 updated modules,
- another product that has stayed in high demand is Telegram Casino, a solution that is popular in 2023 as well. Telegram Casino, an alternative frontend to the classic platform, is integrated with one of the most wide-spread mobile messengers in the world. This trending tool is a highly effective means of reaching a new niche of players. Telegram Casino in particular made a positive impression with its intuitive navigation interface (the chat bot in the app makes the player journey fun and convenient) and high adaptability (Тelegram Casino may serve as an independent casino platform or an alternate frontend for an online casino).
"Scaling the business is what we intend to do this year. In 2022, we have improved many of our products. It's time for their active implementation in all markets," notes Yana Khaidukova, managing director at Slotegrator.
Three conference stages welcome the best minds in the industry, including household names like Gary Vee, Dr Sara Al Madani, Josef Holm, John Lee, and Jordan Belfort. The speakers assess the challenges and future opportunities for the MENA region while sparking discussions on current industry trends in areas such as esports, affiliate marketing, virtual reality, and Web 3.
The first day of SiGMA Eurasia is fantastic. The atmosphere is great, and the team has a busy schedule of meetings. Tomorrow there will be a variety of activities and sessions too. Come and find Slotegrator at booth S14!
About the Company
Since 2012, Slotegrator has been one of the iGaming industry's leading software and business solution providers for online casino and sportsbook operators.
The company's main focus is software development and support for online casino platforms, as well as the integration of game content and payment systems.
The company works with licensed game developers and offers a vast portfolio of casino content: slots, live casino games, poker, virtual sports, table games, lotteries, casual games, and data feeds for betting.
Slotegrator also provides consulting services in gambling license acquisition and business incorporation.
More information: https://slotegrator.pro/


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After some years of absence from the black metal scene, guitarist Rune Eriksen (AURA NOIR, EARTH ELECTRIC, ex-MAYHEM), decides to venture back into the aural landscapes he's widely known for. Having played with one of Norway's leading extreme metal bands for years, Eriksen seeks to coalesce classic, cold Scandinavian riffing with an air of darkness and the signature force of death metal.
Combining strengths, Eriksen brings in veterans of the extreme, David Vincent of legendary death metal formation MORBID ANGEL, as well as acclaimed drummer Flo Mounier from CRYPTOPSY. The three-piece have completed the work on their debut album, which is slated for release early 2019 via Season of Mist. The new death metal powerhouse will be known under the moniker of VLTIMAS.
The foundation for VLTIMAS was laid when Rune, after collecting a handful of riffs, presented drummer Flo Mounier with the idea of forming a band together. For the two musicians, having composed and recorded numerous songs together in the past, the musical chemistry was already tried and tested. However, one thing was still missing. This extraordinary musical project needed an extraordinary voice and Eriksen got in touch with David Vincent, with whom he had been in contact for years, to finalize the line-up.
Vincent had just exited Morbid Angel and was ready for a new chapter in his long spanning career. Everything fell into place, and VLTIMAS came into being.
During the Noize Factory sessions (Georgetown, USA), the musicians started writing a substantial amount of music. The sessions proved to be a fruitful endeavor and the first ideas and song skeletons were later fleshed out by Rune at his home studio in Portugal, then finalized when Flo Mounier and Eriksen returned to Texas, in order to put the final touches to the material at David's home studio. In a more controlled surrounding the songs started to unveil themselves and the studio was booked.
The band entered Orgone Studios in Woburn, England in May 2018 with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano. Here, the three-piece recorded nine crushing tracks that will appear on the full-length debut album.
The new record offers a vast array of influences, but most notably the distinguished symbioses of these three respected and talented musicians. A dark and sinister ambiance meets a majestic and a commanding death metal energy.
David Vincent : Vocals • Rune Blasphemer Eriksen : Guitars • Flo Mounier : Drums


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My fellow Americans:
Today I'd like to speak to you about a gathering crisis in our society: It's a family crisis. To some it's hidden, concealed behind tenement walls or lost in the forgotten streets of our inner cities. But for millions of Americans, the crisis is ever present and growing, and it threatens to become a permanent scar on the American promise of hope and opportunity for all.
I'm talking about the crisis of family breakdowns, especially among the welfare poor, both black and white. In inner cities today, families, as we've always thought of them, are not even being formed. Since 1960 the percentage of babies born out of wedlock has more than doubled. And too often their mothers are only teenagers. They're children—many of them 15, 16, and 17 years old with all the responsibilities of grownups thrust upon them. The fathers of these children are often nowhere to be found. In some instances you have to go back three generations before you can find an intact family. It seems even the memory of families is in danger of becoming extinct. And what of the babies born out of wedlock, these children born to children. Statistically, we know that they're much more likely to have a low birth weight and, thus, serious health problems. We know that out-of-wedlock children often suffer abuse and neglect as well. And what sort of future can they look forward to?
The family is the most basic support system there is. For two centuries now, it's been families pulling together that has provided the courage, willpower, and sense of security that have enabled millions of Americans to escape poverty and grab hold of the rungs on the ladder of opportunity. How often have we heard about the immigrant father laboring long into the night to give his children the advantages he never had? How many self-made men and women in America of all ethnic backgrounds owe their success to the strength of character given them by hard-working, loving parents? But for the children of child mothers and absentee fathers, there is often only a deepening cycle of futility, hopelessness, and despair.
We're in danger of creating a permanent culture of poverty as inescapable as any chain or bond; a second and separate America, an America of lost dreams and stunted lives. The irony is that misguided welfare programs instituted in the name of compassion have actually helped turn a shrinking problem into a national tragedy. From the 1950's on, poverty in America was declining. American society, an opportunity society, was doing its wonders. Economic growth was providing a ladder for millions to climb up out of poverty and into prosperity. In 1964 the famous War on Poverty was declared and a funny thing happened. Poverty, as measured by dependency, stopped shrinking and then actually began to grow worse. I guess you could say, poverty won the war. Poverty won in part because instead of helping the poor, government programs ruptured the bonds holding poor families together.
Perhaps the most insidious effect of welfare is its usurpation of the role of provider. In States where payments are highest, for instance, public assistance for a single mother can amount to much more than the usable income of a minimum wage job. In other words, it can pay for her to quit work. Many families are eligible for substantially higher benefits when the father is not present. What must it do to a man to know that his own children will be better off if he is never legally recognized as their father? Under existing welfare rules, a teenage girl who becomes pregnant can make herself eligible for welfare benefits that will set her up in an apartment of her own, provide medical care, and feed and clothe her. She only has to fulfill one condition—not marry or identify the father.
Obviously something is desperately wrong with our welfare system. With only about half of what is now spent on welfare, we could give enough money to every impoverished man, woman, and child to lift them above the poverty line. Instead, we spend vast amounts on a system that perpetuates poverty. But the waste of money pales before the sinful waste of human potential-the squandering of so many millions of hopes and dreams.
In my State of the Union Address, I directed our administration to study the welfare system with a keen eye to making reforms. We already have in place a low-income assistance working group, which is hard at its task. In addition, I've instructed Attorney General Edwin Meese, as Chairman pro tern of our Domestic Policy Council, to convene a working group to evaluate the effect of a wide range of government programs on American families, especially poor families. These groups will report back to me by December 1st. The welfare tragedy has gone on too long. It's time to reshape our welfare system so that it can be judged by how many Americans it makes independent of welfare.
Until next week, thanks for listening. God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 9:06 a.m. from his ranch in Santa Barbara County, CA.
Ronald Reagan, Radio Address to the Nation on Welfare Reform Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/257734


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A reverse mortgage is a special type of loan made to older homeowners to enable them to convert the equity in their home to cash to finance living expenses, home improvements, in home health care, or other needs.
With a reverse mortgage, the payment stream is "reversed." That is, payments are made by the lender to the borrower, rather than monthly repayments by the borrower to the lender, as occurs with a regular home purchase mortgage.
A reverse mortgage is a sophisticated financial planning tool that enables seniors to stay in their home or "age in place" and maintain or improve their standard of living without taking on a monthly mortgage payment. The process of obtaining a reverse mortgage involves a number of different steps.
The first most widely available reverse mortgage in the United States was the federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), which was authorized in 1987.
A reverse mortgage is different from a home equity loan or line of credit, which many banks and thrifts offer. With a home equity loan or line of credit, an applicant must meet certain income and credit requirements, begin monthly repayments immediately, and the home can have an existing first mortgage on it. In addition, there is no restriction on the age of borrowers.
In general, reverse mortgages are limited to borrowers 62 years or older who own their home free and clear of debt or nearly so, and the home is free of tax liens.
Borrowers usually have a choice of receiving the proceeds from a reverse mortgage in the form of a lump sum payment, fixed monthly payments for life, or line of credit. Some types of reverse mortgages also allow fixed monthly payments for a finite time period, or a combination of monthly payments and line of credit. The interest rate charged on a reverse mortgage is usually an adjustable rate that changes monthly or yearly. However, the size of monthly payments received by the senior doesn't change.
Some reverse mortgage products also involve the purchase of an annuity that can assure continued monthly income to the senior homeowner even after they sell the home.
The size of reverse mortgage that a senior homeowner can receive depends on the type of reverse mortgage, the borrower's age and current interest rates, and the home's property value. The older the applicant is, the larger the monthly payments or line of credit. This is because of the use of projected life expectancies in determining the size of reverse mortgages.
Seniors do not have to meet income or credit requirements to qualify for a reverse mortgage.
Unlike a home purchase mortgage or home equity loan, a reverse mortgage doesn't require monthly repayments by the borrower to the lender. A reverse mortgage isn't repayable until the borrower no longer occupies the home as his or her principal residence.
This can occur if the sole remaining borrower dies, the borrower sells the home, or the borrower moves out of the home, say, to a nursing home.
The repayment obligation for a reverse mortgage is equal to the principal balance of the loan, plus accrued interest, plus any finance charges paid for through the mortgage. This repayment obligation, however, can't exceed the value of the home.
The loan may be repaid by the borrower or by the borrower's family or estate, with or without a sale of the home. If the home is sold and the sale proceeds exceed the repayment obligation, the excess funds go to the borrower or borrower's estate. If the sales proceeds are less than the amount owed, the shortfall is usually covered by insurance or some other party and is not the responsibility of the borrower or borrower's estate. In general, the repayment obligation of the borrower or borrower's estate can't exceed the value of the property.
In general, a borrower can't be forced to sell their home to repay a reverse mortgage as long as they occupy the home, even if the total of the monthly payments to the borrower exceeds the value of the home.
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Attention, Little Monsters: Lady Gaga is coming to Coachella.
The diva announced Tuesday night that she will perform at the music festival in April. Gaga will take the headlining spot that had been Beyonce's; pregnant with twins, the superstar announced last week that her doctors recommended she bow out. She rescheduled her performance for next year.
"Let's party in the desert!" the "Born This Way" singer tweeted while sharing the adjusted lineup Tuesday evening.
Gaga is set to launch her "Joanne" world tour this summer, so Coachella, the annual, multi-weekend Indio, California, event (scheduled for April 14-16 and 21-23), will be a warm-up for her of sorts, though she may have given fans a sneak peak of what to expect with her Super Bowl half-time performance in February.
Besides Gaga, other performers at the festival will include Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar.
Last year's biggest names included Guns n' Roses, Calvin Harris and LCD Soundsystem.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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As gloomy as liberals can sometimes be, it's been a long time since there was a presidential election in which Democrats actually thought their presidential candidate was certain to lose. The last one would have to be 1984, and before that, 1972. But in the 28 years since Ronald Reagan got re-elected, there hasn't been a Democrat who has been totally blown out of the water, an election in which even his own partisans thought he had little or no chance. The closest would have been Michael Dukakis, who famously had a 17-point lead after his convention, even if he did end up losing by a healthy seven-point margin.
But if you listen to Joe Scarborough, Republicans have basically given up on winning in November. He's not the first person to say it (George Will suggested a month ago that the time to give up on the presidential race was coming), but we haven't heard anyone of his prominence say so vociferously that Republicans are all thinking this one's over, as Scarborough did on today's "Morning Joe":
"Nobody thinks Romney's going to win. Let's just be honest. Can we just say this for everybody at home? Let me just say this for everybody at home. The Republican establishment -- I've yet to meet a single person in the Republican establishment that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election this year. They won't say it on TV because they've got to go on TV and they don't want people writing them nasty emails. I obviously don't care. But I have yet to meet anybody in the Republican establishment that worked for George W. Bush, that works in the Republican congress, that worked for Ronald Reagan that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election."
We should remember that the brand Scarborough has built is as a rebellious Republican, an ideological conservative but straight-talking guy who isn't afraid to tell it like it is, upset the apple cart, annoy his own party, and so on. Saying things like this helps him enhance that brand. But that doesn't mean he isn't telling the truth.
So it's possible that 2012 could be the third presidential election just in the last 16 years in which Republicans knew they had basically no chance of winning. Nobody ever thought Bob Dole had much of a shot to beat Bill Clinton, but it was his turn and making him the nominee seemed like the right thing to do after a lifetime of service to the Republican party. He lost by eight and a half points, in an election that was never close. In 2008 the polls were a lot tighter for much of the race, but in the end Barack Obama spanked John McCain by seven points.
It's still quite early, and the election will have ups and downs. I'd even guess that at some point, Romney will actually pull ahead in tracking polls. But what's interesting here is Scarborough's contention that the Republican establishment has already given up. That can't be good for Mitt.


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Clark gloats over BBM's veto of Bulacan ecozone bill
July 4, 2022
Auro stages World Chocolate Fair 2022 at S Maison
July 4, 2022
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Remove Fear Instilling Brita Ads From Television
The commercial in question. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=RRQls4ot3l4 A table sits with a glass of water. In the distance you hear a toilet flush. The glass empties as a toilet would. Then fills back up. The woman goes to take a sip. The caption says, "Tap and toilet water comes from the same source." What motives other than to instill fear did this advertisement have Below, is my ongoing correspondence with Brita. Feb. 4, 2007 "WHY is it that your current commercials are geared to place potential customers into a state of fear "Tap water comes from the same source as your toilet." We are not a third world country. Our water is cleansed before it is sent to our homes. Yes, there were instances such as Walkerton ON where the water was not fit for human consumption. Your product doesn't filter out ecoli or any other HARMFUL bacteria. So stop leading potential/established customers to believe so. The marketing department for this organization is nothing more than a bunch of FEAR MONGERS. Perhaps your commercials will work south of the border, but this is Canada. So 'smarten' up. Sincerely, Tanya Park" February 5, 2007 "Ms. Tanya Park Reference Number: 4803621 Dear Ms. Park, Thank you for contacting us about Brita. We always appreciate hearing from our consumers. As you can imagine, advertising is an integral part of our company's operation, and we devote a great deal of time and research to it. The objective of any Clorox Company advertisement is to provide the consumer with accurate, useful information about a product in a manner that makes the message memorable. On those rare occasions when there is disagreement about an advertisement's content or impact, we appreciate the feedback we may receive from our loyal consumers. Such feedback is always kept in mind when reviewing future advertising. Again, thank you for contacting us. Sincerely, Marie Mendez Consumer Response Representative" Feb. 5, 2007 "Thank you very much for your prompt FORM LETTER. I believe I saw it in a Business Communications Text somewhere. If another response should come my way, I expect that it will be another FORM LETTER. But, as a consumer I have come to expect that kind of communication from organizations such as this. Please note, that your consumers are actual human beings and that they do have minds of their own. Perhaps your company would benefit from having employees with these same characteristics. Your response did not answer a single question I had asked. It is said that you devote much time to market research etc for your advertising. Perhaps you're not doing enough. Your target markets are not bumbling idiots who are going to believe any buzz words you throw their way. You say that you want your advertising to be memorable. So, the fruits of your research showed that putting consumers in a state of fear was the most effective way Scare tactics are best left to the military not to a company just wanting to turn a profit. So, I do thank you for your promptness in replying, but how about next time some actual content If my "feedback was actually appreciated" I wouldn't have received such a cold, and bleak reply. Sincerely, Tanya Park" Feb. 6, 2007 February 6, 2007 Ms. Tanya Park Reference Number: 4803621 Dear Ms. Park, Thank you for contacting us about Brita On Tap System - Chrome. We always appreciate hearing from our consumers. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this problem may have caused you, and we will forward your comments to our marketing department. We certainly hope you will continue to use and have confidence in our products. Again, thank you for contacting us. Sincerely, Marie Mendez Consumer Response Representative Consumer Services Feb. 6, 2007 "Thank you once again for a prompt response. Yet again, NO content. I do realize that I am probably corresponding with a front line agent. For that I am sorry that this organization has put you in such an awkward position. I greatly appreciate that this is going to be sent tot he marketing department. Failing that, I will mail my questions and opinions with a petition to have these commercials removed from the air. Please do not underestimate the feelings of the mass public when it comes to these commercials. Sincerely, Tanya Park" SO........ feel like signing It is the opinion of the following individuals that the current Brita commercials and advertising tactics are insulting. Insulting because they attempt to do nothing more than place potential/current customers in a state of fear. Fear that they will not be "healthy" without their product.


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Photography podcast #96 is a primer on how to buy a great tripod, what to look for in a tripod and why you should buy a great tripod. (In the longrun, if you stick with photography long enough, you will be buying a great tripod eventually anyway)
If you are serious enough about your photography that you save money to buy great lenses, then this podcast won't scare the crap out of you.
If you are into the cheap stuff, and are more concerned about overall price versus overall quality, be afraid — be very afraid.
Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Tripod article by Thom Hogan — a must read
Gitzo GT2540LLVL tripod at B&H
Manfrotto 055 Tripod plus 3-Way Pan/Tilt Head w/ Quick Release at B&H
The following companies make recommended ballheads — Arca Swiss — Acratech — Really Right Stuff - Markins — Gitzo — Manfrotto
Cheaper Carbon fiber tripods by Induro — Benbo (Remember to research and TRY specific individual models)
April's regular assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Geometric shapes
April's level 2 assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Creative underexposure
If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page
If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)
Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile — Feel free to "friend" me — please just mention Photography.ca
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If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum
Thanks to forum member Benny who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.
If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
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Tell your friend how much you value her friendship.
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Pasta Salad Ingredients
1 pound uncooked pasta – I like rotini!
3 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese balls, cut in half
1 lb. salami or summer sausage, cut into cubes
3/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
3/4 cup pepperoncini (optional, but do it)
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Italian Pasta Salad Dressing:
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/4 cup white vinegar (white vinegar or red wine vinegar work)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt (yes, tablespoons – see notes!)
2 cloves garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons each dry oregano and dry basil
black pepper to taste
fresh herbs if you want! sometimes I add fresh parsley, basil, or chives.
Cook pasta according to package directions, in salted water for more flavor. Allow to cool slightly and toss with a little oil to prevent sticking.
Blend up the dressing, or shake together in a jar.
Toss all ingredients together! I like to use about three-fourths of the dressing, and then I save the rest of the dressing to add to my leftovers.
Keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. I think it actually tastes best the day AFTER you make it.


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This was made abundantly clear recently when Silverstein published a vicious attack on Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., one filled with venom and tinged with racist imagery. Silverstein was angered by (among other things) Jackson's proposal that the Palestinians renounce violence and follow the teachings of King and Gandhi. Silverstein, rather than jumping on that bandwagon as he might have at one time, accused Jackson of being a whore, a beggar and an ignorant lackey of "rich pro-Israel Jews". To his shame, he also mocked Jackson by adopting a blackface dialect, dropping the g's on several words in the piece in apparent imitation of an African-American accent.
That bugged me, and I said so in a post that appeared on my blog and at Harry's Place. Silverstein has now responded to my post supporting Rep. Jackson by publishing a blog post which calls me, in Silverstein's very offensive words, "the Negro's greatest friend". He goes on to bizarrely call me "a British Christian" ("keep in mind this guy is British and not Jewish" he writes), and falsely charge that I never write about race or civil rights except as a means of promoting Israeli interests. All that came as news to me. I'm Jewish, American, liberal, and a frequent commenter on racial issues in the U.S. My parents and grandparents were active in the civil rights movement and I consider myself to be proudly in that tradition. Silverstein, knowing virtually nothing about me other than the fact that I had criticized both his racist attack on Jesse Jackson Jr. and his misguided support of violence as a political tool, went so far as to invent an identity for me out of whole cloth, then attacked it.
(Since the time that his "Negro" post went online, Silverstein has learned from a comment that I'm an American Jew and has posted a half-baked explanation of his repeatedly calling me British and Christian. He claims that it was based on my frequent writing about a British cleric named Stephen Sizer. My blog has mentioned this man precisely twice in the course of the more than five years I've been blogging: I wrote one paragraph on him in 2007 and I cross-posted another blogger's piece on him in 2010. According to Silverstein's explanation, these two references to Sizer somehow led to his belief that I'm a British Christian. As to why this is important to him, I just can't say.)
I guess that I shouldn't be surprised by any of this. Silverstein has a reputation of being both thin-skinned and irrational when angry. I even saw evidence of this myself a while back. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he bizarrely condemned Israel for sending portable hospital facilities to assist the victims, an act of charity that many people regarded as heroic. Silverstein called it "the Zionization of disaster relief" in a blog post that was subsequently reposted on neo-Nazi and other racist websites. When I pointed out that Silverstein's attack was unfair, he wrote a response in which he invented another false identity for me. Without any basis whatsoever, he called me a right wing "Muslim-hater" and "McCarthyite", linked me, again without basis, to a list of people he put in that category, and went on to condemn the liberal blog Daily Kos for publishing me. His attack verged on paranoia when he wrote of those who expressed disagreement with his views on Haiti relief:
The attack is . . . coordinated along with internet activists recruited by the Foreign Ministry. Dershowitz and buddies of his like Weissman and Holland also play a useful role. I call it the vast right-wing hasbara conspiracy-crusade.
After inexplicably calling me a McCarthyite, he accused me of being part of a vast international conspiracy.
Looking back at both of these tantrums, it strikes me that this new one is actually worse than the previous one, and may reflect a further stage of Silverstein's decline. While the level of vituperation and deception in the personal attack is about the same, the broader implications of Silverstein's words are actually much more destructive. Having been criticized for using racist language, Silverstein in response uses even more offensive racist language. Having been criticized for opposing non-violence and negotiations, his response calls advocates of non-violence and peace negotiations agents of oppression.
What has become painfully obvious from his recent writing is Silverstein's difficult relationship with advocates of peace. Silverstein starts from the assumption that his opposition to Israel is intrinsically pro-peace and progressive. He then argues that people like Jesse Jackson, Jr. only support non-violence to help Israel, which Silverstein regards as being intrinsically reactionary and warlike. Through these mental gymnastics, Silverstein would have us believe that his support of political violence is more pro-peace than Jesse Jackson's support of non-violence.
It makes me sad to think that Richard Silverstein used to support peace in the Middle East and oppose the use of racially offensive stereotypes. I wonder what went wrong with him.
From Richard Silverstein's blog: "Adam Holland: Negro's Greatest Friend" |


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Eskal Foods produce premium quality, gluten and dairy free foods. Eskal is a global brand sold in many countries across the world. Specialising in unique and innovative food lines like chocolate coated pretzels, gluten free biscuits and wafers, crackers, pasta and noodles Eskal is known for its commitment to great tasting products produced in safe and clean manufacturing standards
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Via BoingBoing comes details of songs created from speech samples from George Bush. george Bush sings Imagine and Sunday Bloody Sunday. It'd be nice to see more of this in the irishblogs arena as we get closer to the next Irish general election. Hopefully we'll have our own EFI/EFF up and running by then as well as an Irish version of They Work for You. I'd happily donate a few hundred quid for something like that.
Speaking of EFF, Danny O'Brien is the new Activist Co-ordinator for the EFF. He'll still be writing his Irish Times piece though and doing NTK.
And in RSS news The BBC is going all out RSS ka-razy after the general election. Pete Clifton, editor of the BBC News website gave a summary:
So in May we'll be happy for outside websites to dip in and take our headlines. We're also adding new feeds, like one with the most recently published stories, and still to come will be an RSS search telling you when reports have been published about particular topics you are interested in.
May sound a bit much to get your head around, but it's the way ahead for lots of people. In March, we registered 16.5 million click-throughs to reports from RSS feeds, and our target is 10% of our traffic driven by RSS by the end of this year.
Come on RTE, get the party started !
[EDIT 11-11-05] Hello to BBC readers than came from this article.


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Dr. Bridget Fitzpatrick, Foreign Consultant Veterinarian |
Dr. Xu Jiang and Dr. Bridget Fitzpatrick and ICVS medical team with rabbit, ferret and bird patients at ICVS Interview with Dr. Bridget Fitzpatrick in Beijing Kids March 2012 issue: http://www.beijing-kids.com/magazine/2012/03/29/I-Want-to-Be-a-Veterinarian Dr. Bridget Fitzpatrick is an American foreign consultant veterinarian participating in the Veterinary Learning Exchange Program at ICVS. Originally from Maryland, Dr. Fitzpatrick has lived in many of the states in the Eastern United States. Dr. Fitzpatrick received a B.S. from the University of Maryland and obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Dr. Fitzpatrick is an experienced veterinarian with special clinical interests in feline, avian and exotics medicine and surgery (e.g., rabbits, ferrets, possums, chinchillas, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds, turtles, lizards, snakes and other reptiles). While serving the Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Dr. Fitzpatrick was part of the veterinary medical team caring for a troupe of animal actors, including skunks, macaws, giraffes and donkeys, that formed the cast of "Noah's Ark," a live play performed each Christmas. In addition to having worked at full service animal hospitals and small animal, avian and exotics specialty practices in the U.S., Dr. Fitzpatrick has also worked at several poultry disease laboratories, including those under the United States Department of Agriculture and at several wild bird study facilities, such as the International Crane Foundation. Her practice philosophy is to thoroughly evaluate each patient, clearly communicate with owners, and advocate for the best care for each patient. While in the U.S. she shares her home with a playful cat and two boisterous cockatiels. In her free time she enjoys social swing dance, reading, and creating lots of messy dishes, countertops, and floors in her cooking attempts. |
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What are we missing? Is there a key link we skipped, or a part of the story we got wrong?
Let us know — we're counting on you to help Encyclo get better.
Groupon (a play on "group coupon") is a company that offers high-discount coupons to people in a particular geographic area — typically to local companies like restaurants, dry cleaners, clothing stores, or salons. The coupon becomes valid only if a predetermined number of people purchase it on a given day.
Groupon has been lauded for its particular twist to local online advertising, leading to hundreds of new Groupon competitors. Some are tied to news companies, which have traditionally been dominant players in the local advertising market.
Groupon was launched in 2008 in Chicago and spread quickly to more than 150 markets in the United States and Canada and more than 100 in Europe. A Groupon study claimed the company was on pace, as of 2010, to be the fastest company to reach $1 billion in annual sales in history.
For a local business, Groupon offers a deal different from traditional media outlets. Companies offering the coupon do not pay upfront; instead, Groupon takes about half of the revenue generated by coupon purchases. Since those coupons are often for roughly 50 percent off the normal price, companies often end up generating about one-fourth the revenue that traditional sales would. That has led some businesses to report a negative experience when Groupon sent them more customers than they could profitably handle. But many companies consider Groupon's ability to put their product in front of so many customers — in particular, so many new customers — that they're willing to accept the lower revenue per sale.
In 2010, search giant Google reportedly offered $6 billion to purchase Groupon, hoping to tie its advertising strength to Groupon's local emphasis. Groupon reportedly rebuffed the offer, believing it could make more money as an independent company.
One analysis of Groupon's revenues estimated 2010 revenues in the United States of $460 million. But that same analysis showed a significant decline in revenues for February 2011, coupled with a decline in traffic to the site.
In May 2011, Groupon launched Groupon Now, the instant, location-based version of its service. The pilot program is taking place in Chicago, but the company plans to extend the service to other cities.
A number of news companies have started or partnered with Groupon competitors in an effort to halt Groupon's domination of the space. The Washington Post Co. has allied itself with LivingSocial, whose chief executive Tim O'Shaughnessy is the son-in-law of Post Co. chairman Don Graham. The New York Times launched TimesLimited in early 2011, and McClatchy was planning its own coupon service as of May 2011.


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Well, Thanksgiving is done and we've survived Black Friday.
But we're not through the holiday abyss yet.
Which means we'll most likely be dreading the stress, craziness and visions of perfection shoved down our throats.
For many of us, the holidays can feel dark, lonely, and stressful—especially if we are going through or recovering from divorce. And instead of looking forward to the beautiful decorations, smell of baking pies, and holiday songs on the radio, we instead may feel triggered by sadness.
So this week, I wanted to give you all a few pointers to remember as you navigate the next few weeks.
You may be going through divorce or recovering from divorce right now, but that doesn't mean this season has to make you feel worse. Moving on from divorce and our lives does not mean that we cannot enjoy the holidays. In fact, we can even make them better than over before when we remember the following.
Manage expectations, but remain optimistic.
For years, we have been inundated with people telling us how the holidays "should" be. It could be from watching impossibly staged meals on cooking shows. It might be from pictures we see in the media of the perfect holidays, or from family members who say "but we've always done it this way." We have been taught to do whatever everybody else wants to do. Often, we have never learned to imagine how we want the holidays to be for ourselves.
So, it's no wonder why we feel lonely or stressed when we are spending the holidays alone!
These unrealistic expectations of perfect holidays and families getting along have conditioned us to feel as if we are not up to those standards. We feel that we are wrong, and that we're not celebrating the holidays "the right way."
You have worked too hard over the years and deserve more than to get sucked into the idea that you're doing the holidays wrong. This year, it is time to envision what the best holiday season means for you, regardless of where you are in your life.
If you are alone, you are still worthy of celebrating the season any way you like. A change in family circumstance does not mean you are sentenced to feel bad. It just means that you are now given an opportunity to decide how you want the holidays to be, regardless of what anyone else thinks.
Your selective memory may be your worst enemy.
When we are alone, we tend to think about the times when the family was together, when the marriage was strong, and when the holidays were "perfect." We're all guilty of remembering our past holidays when we were still married as perfect. It's easy to fall into this trap when we are divorced. But what we forget are all the things that weren't great during the holidays when we were married. When we shut those not-perfect memories of family holidays out, we are subconsciously setting ourselves up for failure. We are holding our current holiday mood up to an impossible ideal of selective memories that may not be correct. We do this when we are feeling down, trying to imagine a happier time.
This way of thinking does not serve you because you are holding yourself to an ideal that is impossible to attain. Making yourself feel guilty or resentful or longing for the past will not serve you this holiday season. The only way to start loving the holidays again is to reclaim for yourself… now.
How to actually embrace the season instead of dreading it.
During the holidays, especially the times when you were married or raising a family, you were probably so caught up in trying to please others. You were almost certainly trying to make things so perfect that you never took the time for yourself.
But overlooking your own needs stops now.
This holiday, especially if you are spending it by yourself and are worried about being lonely, gives you a unique gift. This season, you get to ask yourself and do something for yourself that you may have never had the opportunity to do before. You get to choose the season for yourself.
The first steps to learning to love the holidays again begin here. Celebrating you in this chapter of your life starts by answering the following questions. Ask yourself:
What do you really want to do?
What will give you joy this holiday season?
What steps will you take to get there?
That is all you must ask yourself. These answers do not have to be complicated. You are not required to spend a lot of money on them.
Now is your chance to reclaim the holidays.
Shaking off your loneliness and reclaiming the holidays is all about taking care of yourself for a change. This is the year that you can say "no" to the things from holidays past that you have not enjoyed and that bring you stress, such as traveling, seeing toxic family members, spending too much money.
This is also the year where you can pick the traditions that you love and throw out the rest. This is the year that you can define what a joyous season means to you and choose to celebrate how you want to celebrate.
And learning to love the holidays again, even if you are divorced, starts with kicking those unrealistic expectations to the curb and ignoring the selective memory that plays tricks on you.
These new few weeks can be the season that you finally recognize that you deserve holiday joy and happiness and you have the power to define that on your own terms. Will you accept that gift?
Author Bio
Martha Bodyfelt is a CDC Certified Divorce Coach® whose website "Surviving Your Split" helps readers overcome their guilt and regain their confidence so they can move on with their lives. For your Free Divorce Goddess Recovery Kit, stop by http://survivingyoursplit.com or drop Martha a line at [email protected].


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Health Concerns, Six Gentlemen, 90 ct
UPC Code: 810034441133
Health Concerns Professional Product
- Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang Herbal Supplement
- Supports Healthy Gastrointestinal Function: Helps with loss of appetite and addresses symptoms related to poor digestion.
- Chinese Therapeutic Benefits: Tonifies Qi. Strengthens the spleen. Harmonizes the spleen and stomach. Transforms phlegm.
90 vegetarian capsules
About Health Concerns
Health Concerns is the first company in the U.S. to manufacture Chinese herbs for herbalists, bringing centuries of tradition to the West. By applying modern biochemistry and scientific accuracy to the rich base of Eastern knowledge, Health Concerns has developed uniquely effective formulas. The formulas are manufactured under the strictest quality controls, producing easy-to-take products with consistent potency. During the formulation process and after manufacture, Health Concerns formulas are tested extensively to ensure optimum effectiveness, consistent potency and maximum bioavailability.
Individual results may vary. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The statements on this website and all affiliates have not been evaluated by the FDA. Advice on treatment or care of an individual patient should be obtained through consultation with a trained health care practitioner.


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Paperback in Good (G) condition. Chip on spine, otherwise clean and straight.
Kids will giggle as they count all the animals that have frightened the monkeys off the pages. Full of fun reader interactions and keeps readers guessing until the very last page! Matching Mac Barnett's brilliant wit are Kevin Cornell's luminous illustrations, which will have young readers begging to count the monkeys all over again.


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We use a Yeti designed collet system and alloy pivot axles that minimize the amount of hardware needed to assemble the frame. We also employ custom Ti bolts and hardware for mounting the shock and anywhere we can because who doesn't love a little Ti! Maintenance is an important part of keeping your bike running smoothly. If you ride your bike as much as we do, we recommend a complete rebuild every year or so. We also highly recommend you have your local Yeti dealer take care of the service, but offer this complete hardware kit for those who prefer to do their own work.
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How To Achieve Better Patient Engagement
Meaningful Use Stage 2 proposals raise the bar for online patient engagement, highlighting how important it is for healthcare providers to communicate with patients and give them access to their information.
Sooner or later, everyone gets upsetting health news either about themselves or a loved one. When a clinician delivers that news, a stunned patient often goes into a fog and doesn't hear what's said next. Having another person accompanying the patient is great, but not always possible. The proposed new Stage 2 MU rules can help.
Compared to Meaningful Use Stage 1 criteria, under the proposed rules for Stage 2, eligible providers and hospitals must provide access to more information to a greater percentage of patients in a shorter amount of time. Some Stage 2 proposals for patient engagement are changes to what Stage 1 required, while other Stage 2 rules are brand new.
For instance, Stage 2 requires that clinical summaries be provided to patients within 24 hours for more than 50% of office visits. That shortens the time from three days in Stage 1. Another proposal for Stage 2 requires that 50% of patients discharged from emergency rooms or hospitalizations have their information available online within 36 hours, up from 10% in Stage 1.
Among the new requirements, Stage 2 proposes that 10% of patients discharged from hospitals or ERs electronically view, download, or transmit to a third-party their health information during the hospital's reporting period for MU. Also new is a requirement that eligible clinicians use secure electronic messaging to communicate relevant information to 10% of patients during the MU reporting period.
While some of these new proposals might appear like minor variations of Stage 1 rules, they indicate a growing acknowledgement of how important it is for healthcare providers to communicate with patients and give them access to their information.
Granted, as more patients are granted access to their information, they also need to be made aware that this information is available. Having just 10% of patients downloading, viewing, or electronically transmitting discharge instructions regarding recent hospitalizations won't happen if not enough patients know to look for that capability.
Meanwhile, I suspect that many consumers who haven't recently been hospitalized or suffering from a major illness--or aren't caring for someone with a significant health issue--would also find it handy to access to their health information periodically, whether it's seeing results for routine blood tests performed during annual physical exams, or printing out copies of their kids' immunization history for summer camp applications. Consumers need to know the information is available, and healthcare providers should be proactive in getting the word out.
Some healthcare providers say patients generally don't ask for access to their information unless they're collecting records to take to a new doctor, specialist, or for a second opinion. But perhaps some consumers don't realize what they're missing by not having access, even if they think it's pretty routine content. Wouldn't it be great for more elderly patients to know they can view a clinical summary of an office visit, and then share that information with a family member who can double-check if Mom or Dad is complying with the doc's instructions?
A study released this week by the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC)--a public-private healthcare stakeholder organization focused on advancing interoperable health information exchange--found that nearly all healthcare players think engaging patients is critical to transforming healthcare.
In fact, of the 185 stakeholders who participated in the NeHC online survey conducted in mid-February, 77% of respondents said patient and consumer engagement is "very important" to transforming healthcare and 18% said it is "important." Only 5% think that engagement is "somewhat important," and no one thought it was unimportant.
Still, "while consumers want access to basic health information, the challenge is engaging people who don't have chronic illnesses, or see their doctors more than once a year," said Kate Berry, CEO of NeHC in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare during the recent HIMSS12 conference in Las Vegas.
Of course, it's also possible to engage patients through health information exchanges (HIEs), which are organizations that facilitate the regional or statewide sharing of patient data among member healthcare providers. As Berry points out, "some are looking to involve consumers … but need to look at patient consent issues."
Some HIEs are looking to incorporate patient portals into their service offerings, or to populate health information into records that patients can access, she said. Meanwhile, "some HIEs say it isn't their role to give patient access, it's up to the providers to do that," she said.
When asked to define patient engagement, 64% of NeHC survey respondents said it's "best reflected" as online resources and education material to inform patients about health and health conditions; 59% said it was patients using tools and online resources for managing their health records and other data; 41% said it was patients feeling comfortable to challenge a doctor when something doesn't seem right or clear.
Sooner or later the ability for patients to check lab test results or see other health information electronically should be as common and easy as going online to confirm their checking account balances. Similarly patients should be able to send secure messages to their doctors when they don't understand in those test results, and have docs respond with links to educational information that explain them.
The proposals in Meaningful Use Stage 2 can help encourage all sorts of enhanced patient engagement. But healthcare providers might need to enlighten some patients so they actually starting looking for those capabilities and participate.
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee is a senior writer for InformationWeek.
Healthcare providers must collect all sorts of performance data to meet emerging standards. The new Pay For Performance issue of InformationWeek Healthcare delves into the huge task ahead. Also in this issue: Why personal health records have flopped. (Free registration required.)
About the Author(s)
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Hale County Animal Shelter
© Timothy Hursley
Rural Studio is an undergraduate program of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University. The program has been located in Hale County, Alabama since its establishment in 1993. Rural Studio's education strategy combines hands-on learning with a healthy dose of social activism. Students draw, interact with clients, meet with consultants, draw some more, fund raise and, finally, build projects. As an educational institution, Rural Studio has the ability to investigate ideas, techniques and materials in a research-based process and share that knowledge with the broader community. To date, Rural Studio has built more than 150 projects and educated more than 600 "Citizen Architects."
- Category
- Architects
- Locations
- Newbern, USA
- Employees
- 18
- Website
- www.ruralstudio.org
- Founded
- 1993


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Holy Week or Semana Santa in Oaxaca, Mexico, is coming to a close for 2016. On Good Friday, the Procession of Silence that re-enacts the trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus (14 Stations of the Cross) starts around sunset and winds through the main streets of the historic center.
Leading the procession is Archbishop Jose Luis Chavez Botello and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Antequera, Oaxaca.
(FYI: Oaxaca was named Antequera in 1529. Later, it reverted to Oaxaca, adapted from the Nahuatl Huaxyacac, which was Hispanicized to Guajaca. The predominant tree of the region is the guaje, which produces an edible seed pod, the source of Oaxaca's name.)
Spanish Catholicism came to Mexico with the conquest and many areas here observe Semana Santa with devotion that include influences from indigenous tradition. In Oaxaca city, the Procession of Silence is probably more akin to its Iberian Peninsula origins.
Solemn, spiritual, filled with the images of belief and sacrifice, the procession draws visitors from throughout the world. At its apogee, the crowd was at least 10 people deep.
The mystery is further heightened by the metered beat of a drummer, candlelight, rebozo draped women, hooded men, the eerie sound of crosses dragging on the cobbled streets, and the illumination of a full moon.
I usually spend Easter week in Teotitlan del Valle, so this was a new experience. What I heard about from friends beforehand was the description of men wearing pointy hats, a reminder of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States. Let's be clear. We don't want to confuse the two!
The conical hood, called a capriote, hides the face of the person wearing the nazareño cloak. This is a garment of Medieval origin and associated with the Passion of Christ.
I am not Catholic nor am I religious, but I consider myself spiritual, observant and respectful, so understanding the rituals and traditions of Catholicism in Mexico, where I spend a good part of my life, is important to me.
We had a great perch on the rooftop patio at Mezzaluna, at the corner of Garcia Virgil and Allende, in clear view of Santo Domingo Church and the procession as it passed below. This is the corner where the procession began and ended.
Cost of admission was a delicious pear and gorgonzola pizza, sueros (I like mine plain, Victoria beer. fresh squeezed lime, and a salt-rimmed chilled glass) and mezcal. The house espadin mezcal was especially delicious, especially since it came in a double-shot tumbler size glass!
As the procession ended, the crowd dispersed to fill the walking street/andador Macedonio Alcala, the adjacent artisans markets, and restaurants open late to feed all the hungry visitors.
As I walked by Templo de Sangre de Cristo at the corner of Alcala and M. Bravo, I was moved to enter where I saw figures carried in the procession at rest inside the church. The altar was draped in red cloth as were all the saints in their wall niches. People sat in silent prayer.
Back on the street, I passed Ave. Morelos, where the full moon hung low in the sky, a backdrop to street lights and headlights. As I meandered back to where I stay in the city, it was a perfect ending to a great day and a reminder that life is in the beauty of each moment.
And, of course, there are the children, who hold all the promise of a future yet to unfold.


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Fate of Zedekiah. 1The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army and all the earth's kingdoms under his rule, and all the peoples were attacking Jerusalem and all her cities:a 2Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: Thus says the LORD: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon; he will burn it with fire.b 3You yourself shall not escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak to him face to face. Then you shall go to Babylon.c
4Just hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah, king of Judah! Then, says the LORD concerning you, you shall not die by the sword. 5You shall die in peace, and they will burn spices for you as they did for your ancestors, the earlier kings who preceded you, and they shall make lament over you, "Alas, Lord." I myself make this promise—oracle of the LORD.
6Jeremiah the prophet told all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah.* Only these fortified cities were left standing out of all the cities of Judah!
The Pact Broken.* 8This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom: 9Everyone must free their Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold another Judahite in servitude.d 10All the princes and the people who entered this covenant agreed to set free their slaves, their male and female servants, so that they should no longer be in servitude. But even though they agreed and freed them, 11afterward they took back their male and female servants whom they had set free and again forced them into servitude.
12Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your ancestors the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: 14Every seventh year each of you must set free all Hebrews who have sold themselves to you; six years they shall serve you, but then you shall let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or obey me. 15As for you, today you repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming freedom for your neighbor and making a covenant before me in the house which bears my name. 16But then you again profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves whom you had just set free for life; you forced them to become your slaves again.e 17Therefore, thus says the LORD: You for your part did not obey me by proclaiming freedom for your families and neighbors. So I now proclaim freedom for you—oracle of the LORD—for the sword, starvation, and disease. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18* Those who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the covenant they made in my presence—I will make them like the calf which they cut in two so they could pass between its parts— 19the princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. 20These I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.f
21Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, I will hand also over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon which is now withdrawing from you.g 22I am giving the command—oracle of the LORD—to bring them back to this city. They shall attack and capture it, and burn it with fire; the cities of Judah I will turn into a waste, where no one dwells.h
* [34:7] Lachish, and Azekah: fortress towns southwest of Jerusalem which Nebuchadnezzar besieged to prevent any help coming to Jerusalem from Egypt. At Lachish, archaeologists found several letters written on ostraca (pottery fragments) dated to 598 or 588 B.C., which mention both Lachish and Azekah.
* [34:8–22] During the siege of Jerusalem, its citizens made a covenant at Zedekiah's instigation to free Judahites they held in servitude, thus providing additional defenders for the city, leaving slave owners with fewer mouths to feed, and making reparation for past violations of the law, which dictated that Hebrew slaves should serve no longer than six years (Dt 15:12–15). But when the siege was temporarily lifted, when the assistance promised by Pharaoh Hophra arrived (cf. Jer 37:5), the inhabitants of Jerusalem broke the covenant and once more pressed their fellow citizens into slavery (v. 11).
* [34:18–19] Both the Old Testament (Gn 15:10–17) and the eighth century B.C. Sefire inscription indicate that sometimes contracting parties ratified an agreement by walking between dismembered animals, invoking upon themselves the animals' fate if they failed to keep their word. The covenant: that mentioned in vv. 10, 15.
a. [34:1] Jer 52:4; 2 Kgs 25:1.
b. [34:2] Jer 21:10; 32:3, 28.
d. [34:9] Ex 21:2–4; Lv 25:39, 46; Dt 15:12–15.
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