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NEW YORK — Sidney Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, has died. He was 94.
Poitier, winner of the best actor Oscar in 1964 for "Lilies of the Field," died Thursday in the Bahamas, according to Eugene Torchon-Newry, acting director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bahamas.
Few movie stars, Black or white, had such an influence both on and off the screen. Before Poitier, the son of Bahamian tomato farmers, no Black actor had a sustained career as a lead performer or could get a film produced based on his own star power. Before Poitier, few Black actors were permitted a break from the stereotypes of bug-eyed servants and grinning entertainers. Before Poitier, Hollywood filmmakers rarely even attempted to tell a Black person's story.
Poitier's rise mirrored profound changes in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. As racial attitudes evolved during the civil rights era and segregation laws were challenged and fell, Poitier was the performer to whom a cautious industry turned for stories of progress.
He was the escaped Black convict who befriends a racist white prisoner (Tony Curtis) in "The Defiant Ones." He was the courtly office worker who falls in love with a blind white girl in "A Patch of Blue." He was the handyman in "Lilies of the Field" who builds a church for a group of nuns. In one of the great roles of the stage and screen, he was the ambitious young father whose dreams clashed with those of other family members in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun."
Debates about diversity in Hollywood inevitably turn to the story of Poitier. With his handsome, flawless face; intense stare and disciplined style, he was for years not just the most popular Black movie star, but the only one.
"I felt very much as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made." —Sidney Poitier, on working in Hollywood in the 1950s and '60s
"I made films when the only other Black on the lot was the shoeshine boy," he recalled in a 1988 Newsweek interview. "I was kind of the lone guy in town."
Poitier peaked in 1967 with three of the year's most notable movies: "To Sir, With Love," in which he starred as a school teacher who wins over his unruly students at a London secondary school; "In the Heat of the Night," as the determined police detective Virgil Tibbs; and in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," as the prominent doctor who wishes to marry a young white woman he only recently met, her parents played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their final film together.
Theater owners named Poitier the No. 1 star of 1967, the first time a Black actor topped the list. In 2009 President Barack Obama, whose own steady bearing was sometimes compared to Poitier's, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying that the actor "not only entertained but enlightened ... revealing the power of the silver screen to bring us closer together."
His appeal brought him burdens not unlike such other historical figures as Jackie Robinson and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was subjected to bigotry from whites and accusations of compromise from the Black community. Poitier was held, and held himself, to standards well above his white peers. He refused to play cowards and took on characters, especially in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," of almost divine goodness. He developed a steady, but resolved and occasionally humorous persona crystallized in his most famous line — "They call me Mr. Tibbs!" — from "In the Heat of the Night."
"All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value — to you I say, 'I'm not talking about being as good as you. I hereby declare myself better than you,'" he wrote in his memoir, "The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography," published in 2000.
But even in his prime he was criticized for being out of touch. He was called an Uncle Tom and a "million-dollar shoeshine boy." In 1967, The New York Times published Black playwright Clifford Mason's essay, "Why Does White America Love Sidney Poitier So?" Mason dismissed Poitier's films as "a schizophrenic flight from historical fact" and the actor as a pawn for the "white man's sense of what's wrong with the world."
Stardom didn't shield Poitier from racism and condescension. He had a hard time finding housing in Los Angeles and was followed by the Ku Klux Klan when he visited Mississippi in 1964, not long after three civil rights workers had been murdered there. In interviews, journalists often ignored his work and asked him instead about race and current events.
"I am an artist, man, American, contemporary," he snapped during a 1967 press conference. "I am an awful lot of things, so I wish you would pay me the respect due."
Poitier was not as engaged politically as his friend and contemporary Harry Belafonte, leading to occasional conflicts between them. But he participated in the 1963 March on Washington and other civil rights events, and as an actor defended himself and risked his career. He refused to sign loyalty oaths during the 1950s, when Hollywood was barring suspected Communists, and turned down roles he found offensive.
"Almost all the job opportunities were reflective of the stereotypical perception of Blacks that had infected the whole consciousness of the country," he recalled. "I came with an inability to do those things. It just wasn't in me. I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values."
In his 2000 autobiography, "The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography," Poitier wrote about working in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. "Hollywood let me know my place from the beginning. Back at Columbia in the early days I was doing a picture called 'All the Young Men.' Cast and crew combined were close to 100 people, and I was the only Black person on the set. I qualified hands down as the quintessential outsider. Accordingly, I felt very much as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made."
Poitier's films were usually about personal triumphs rather than broad political themes, but the classic Poitier role, from "In the Heat of the Night" to "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," was as a Black man of such decency and composure — Poitier became synonymous with the word "dignified" — that he wins over the whites opposed to him.
His screen career faded in the late 1960s as political movements, Black and white, became more radical and movies more explicit. He acted less often, gave fewer interviews and began directing, his credits including the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder farce "Stir Crazy," "Buck and the Preacher" (co-starring Poitier and Belafonte) and the Bill Cosby comedies "Uptown Saturday Night" and "Let's Do It Again."
In the 1980s and '90s, he appeared in the feature films "Sneakers" and "The Jackal" and several television movies, receiving an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination as future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in "Separate But Equal" and an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in "Mandela and De Klerk." Theatergoers were reminded of the actor through an acclaimed play that featured him in name only: John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation," about a con artist claiming to be Poitier's son.
In recent years, a new generation learned of him through Oprah Winfrey, who chose "The Measure of a Man" for her book club. Meanwhile, he welcomed the rise of such Black stars as Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Danny Glover: "It's like the cavalry coming to relieve the troops! You have no idea how pleased I am," he said.
Poitier received numerous honorary prizes, including a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute and a special Academy Award in 2002, on the same night that Black performers won both best acting awards, Washington for "Training Day" and Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball." Poitier was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974 and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1995.
"I'll always be chasing you, Sidney," Washington, who had earlier presented the honorary award to Poitier, said during his acceptance speech. "I'll always be following in your footsteps. There's nothing I would rather do, sir, nothing I would rather do."
His life ended in adulation, but it began in hardship. Poitier was born prematurely, weighing just 3 pounds, in Miami, where his parents had gone to deliver tomatoes from their farm on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas. He spent his early years on the remote island, which had a population of 1,500 and no electricity, and he quit school at 12 1/2 to help support the family. Three years later, he was sent to live with a brother in Miami; his father was concerned that the street life of Nassau was a bad influence. With $3 in his pocket, Sidney traveled steerage on a mail-cargo ship.
"The smell in that portion of the boat was so horrendous that I spent a goodly part of the crossing heaving over the side," he told The Associated Press in 1999, adding that Miami soon educated him about racism. "I learned quite quickly that there were places I couldn't go, that I would be questioned if I wandered into various neighborhoods."
Poitier moved to Harlem and was so overwhelmed by his first winter there he enlisted in the Army, cheating on his age and swearing he was 18 when he had yet to turn 17. Assigned to a mental hospital on Long Island, Poitier was appalled at how cruelly the doctors and nurses treated the soldier patients. In his 1980 autobiography, "This Life," he related how he escaped the Army by feigning insanity.
Back in Harlem, he was looking in the Amsterdam News for a dishwasher job when he noticed an ad seeking actors at the American Negro Theater. He went there and was handed a script and told to go on the stage. Poitier had never seen a play in his life and could barely read. He stumbled through his lines in a thick Caribbean accent and the director marched him to the door.
"As I walked to the bus, what humiliated me was the suggestion that all he could see in me was a dishwasher. If I submitted to him, I would be aiding him in making that perception a prophetic one," Poitier later told the AP.
"I got so pissed, I said, 'I'm going to become an actor — whatever that is. I don't want to be an actor, but I've got to become one to go back there and show him that I could be more than a dishwasher.' That became my goal."
The process took months as he sounded out words from the newspaper. Poitier returned to the American Negro Theater and was again rejected. Then he made a deal: He would act as janitor for the theater in return for acting lessons. When he was released again, his fellow students urged the teachers to let him be in the class play. Another Caribbean, Belafonte, was cast in the lead. When Belafonte couldn't make a preview performance because it conflicted with his own janitorial duties, his understudy, Poitier, went on.
The audience included a Broadway producer who cast him in an all-Black version of "Lysistrata." The play lasted four nights, but rave reviews for Poitier won him an understudy job in "Anna Lucasta," and later he played the lead in the road company. In 1950, he broke through on screen in "No Way Out," playing a doctor whose patient, a white man, dies and is then harassed by the patient's bigoted brother, played by Richard Widmark.
Key early films included "Blackboard Jungle," featuring Poitier as a tough high school student (the actor was well into his 20s at the time) in a violent school; and "The Defiant Ones," which brought Poitier his first best actor nomination, and the first one for any Black male. The theme of cultural differences turned lighthearted in "Lilies of the Field," in which Poitier played a Baptist handyman who builds a chapel for a group of Roman Catholic nuns, refugees from Germany. In one memorable scene, he gives them an English lesson.
The only Black actor before Poitier to win a competitive Oscar was Hattie McDaniel, the 1939 best supporting actress for "Gone With the Wind." No one, including Poitier, thought "Lilies of the Field" his best film, but the times were right (Congress would soon pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for which Poitier had lobbied) and the actor was favored even against such competitors as Paul Newman for "Hud" and Albert Finney for "Tom Jones." Newman was among those rooting for Poitier.
When presenter Anne Bancroft announced his victory, the audience cheered for so long that Poitier momentarily forgot his speech. "It has been a long journey to this moment," he declared.
This is a big one. No words can describe how your work radically shifted my life. The dignity, normalcy, strength, excellence and sheer electricity you brought to your roles showed us that we, as Black folks, mattered!!! It was an honor... https://t.co/xaPAjAlRtR pic.twitter.com/aqOmRqq7SN
— Viola Davis (@violadavis) January 7, 2022
Poitier never pretended that his Oscar was "a magic wand" for Black performers, as he observed after his victory, and he shared his critics' frustration with some of the roles he took on, confiding that his characters were sometimes so unsexual they became kind of "neuter." But he also believed himself fortunate and encouraged those who followed him.
"To the young African American filmmakers who have arrived on the playing field, I am filled with pride you are here. I am sure, like me, you have discovered it was never impossible, it was just harder," he said in 1992 as he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute. "
"Welcome, young Blacks. Those of us who go before you glance back with satisfaction and leave you with a simple trust: Be true to yourselves and be useful to the journey."
Poitier had four daughters with his first wife, Juanita Hardy, and two with his second wife, actress Joanna Shimkus, who starred with him in his 1969 film "The Lost Man." Daughter Sydney Tamaii Poitier appeared on such television series as "Veronica Mars" and "Mr. Knight."
AP Film Writer Jake Coyle and former Associated Press Writer Polly Anderson in New York contributed to this report.


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Yesterday the left descended into madness. The madness came early in the day. It happened shortly after 10 o'clock in the morning. Justice Anthony Kennedy opened his mouth and uttered his first question on the issue of the individual mandate. He asked, "Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?" The question, the second asked yesterday morning, bothered the left.As the clock approached 11, Kennedy spoke again, sending shockwaves through the legal community. He stated matter of factly,
the reason this is concerning, is because it requires the individual to do an affirmative act. In the law of torts our tradition, our law, has been that you don't have the duty to rescue someone if that person is in danger. The blind man is walking in front of a car and you do not have a duty to stop him absent some relation between you. And there is some severe moral criticisms of that rule, but that's generally the rule.And here the government is saying that the Federal Government has a duty to tell the individual citizen that it must act, and that is different from what we have in previous cases and that changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in the very fundamental way.
It was the quote heard round the world. It is what the tea party movement, libertarians, conservatives, and so many private citizens have been saying. It was an expression of what every legal scholar on television has pooh-poohed as the troglodyte rhetoric of plebeians not educated enough to understand their own founding compact. That Justice Kennedy expressed something so obvious to so many Americans that so many well educated legal analysts have mocked for two years as an outmoded view of the constitution put forward only by hicks, rubes, and the racist middle class tea partiers not cool enough to defecate on police cars like the Occupy Wall Street hipsters should deeply, deeply trouble every radio station, newspaper, and television news network along with the American people.Just how out of touch are the people the news media relies on as legal experts used to help form both their and their audiences' opinions? More so, is it not abundantly obvious that legal experts let their own partisanship shape their opinions?All of this, however, overshadows a more important issue — how the hell did a constitutional, democratic republic come to depend on the whims of one man in a black robe who nobody ever elected to anything?
Two years ago, Jan Crawford of CBS News noted the President, in his State of the Union, deviating from modern precedent in those speeches to lash out at the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Obama, for the first time in modern history, took a direct shot at the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address, when he slammed the justices for their recent campaign finance reform decision. Six of them looked on — including the author of the opinion, key swing vote Anthony Kennedy — while Democrats jumped up to whoop and holler.
Shortly thereafter the Democrats, without a single Republican vote, passed Obamacare.That Justice Kennedy yesterday raised a point that has been raised by so many non-lawyers is irrelevant to how the Supreme Court rules. All that is relevant is the President's insult two years ago. Why?This morning the New York Times reports that "many legal scholars, including some conservatives, have been predicting that the Supreme Court will uphold the 2010 health care overhaul." In a profile of Randy Barnett yesterday in the New York Times, the paper reported there as well that "many of his [Randy Barnett's] colleagues, on both the left and the right, dismissed the idea [that Obamacare is unconstitutional] as ridiculous — and still do." See also this Politico story also pushing the Democratic line that Chief Justice Roberts is in danger of his own Bush v. Gore. This is precisely the Democratic spin and you can see which outlets are mouthpieces for the Democrats by those so quick to push the partisan line against the Court.Legal scholars the media pays attention to — who are typically on the left, though with a few token like minded "conservatives" — all thought that, based on their jurisprudential biases, Obamacare would be constitutional. About the only left leaning constitutional scholar in America who agreed with the tea party movement and, consequently, with Anthony Kennedy was Barack Obama in 2008. Justice Kennedy, raising the same point raised by so many on the right going back to the 1990's when Republicans originally suggested the individual mandate as an alternative to Hillarycare (yes, many conservatives and libertarians opposed it then too), stunned the legal community yesterday because he deviated from a liberal echo chamber.Consequently, his deviation can only be explained away by partisan politics, not legal jurisprudence. That so many liberal legal scholars disagree with Kennedy is proof he is a partisan. Already the White House and Democratic operatives are screeching that this is just like Bush vs. Gore all over again. They do not presume that the liberal justices are partisan — only the conservatives. On this argument of partisanship, as Steve Hayes notes, it is striking that the presumption in the Obamacare arguments is that one or more conservative justices will bolt left. In other words, the liberal justices are locked in and the conservatives are persuadable. How exactly does that make the conservative justices partisan and the liberal justices pure?In fact, it is both projection by the left, which makes everything from Trayvon Martin's tragic death to a Supreme Court oral argument political, and an argument designed by the left to cook the books in their favor, calculating the GOP will not engage in a fight over the partisanship of the Supreme Court because the right does not want to revisit Bush v. Gore. The left is pretty sure if they scream partisanship loudly enough, no Republican will stand up and defend the Court as the left assaults its integrity.But they miss one thing. A sizable majority of Americans agree with Justice Kennedy. They are also not helped by widespread agreement on the left and right today that the Solicitor General of the United States had an atrocious performance and Paul Clement, arguing for the states, hit every ball out of the park assisted by some terribly insipid questioning from Sonia Sotomayor.As partisans on the left start screaming that the conservatives have politicized the federal bench in a way they did not by attacking Robert Bork or some such nonsense, they ignore both their partisan attacks on Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, etc. and their intellectually dishonest legal progeny derived from Roe vs. Wade. That case, still a source of conflict in America, is no longer even defended as intellectually rigorous by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She may like its holding, but not how that holding was reasoned.Every time the left wins an argument expanding the meaning of the constitution, the Court somehow got it right. Every time the left loses an argument over the constitution, the Court somehow became politicized. And while the right says the same on the opposite cases there is a fundamental difference. The right's position on constitutional jurisprudence boiled down to its essence is that every man and woman in America should be able to read the constitution and have a fair understanding of it and how government is supposed to work. One cannot read the constitution and legitimately understand exactly how an abortion right is extrapolated out of the Bill of Rights. Likewise, one cannot read the constitution and understand how a Congress of limited powers can compel any person to purchase a product he does not want.But liberal legal scholars so stunned at Justice Kennedy's point favor a constitution where the public must hire them and their brethren to bow before men and women in black robes offering up prayers and petitions that our black robed masters divine from the text of the constitution some new right or government power no man on the street can see.We have complicated our tax code, our regulations, and our legal system. In each we must now pay self-appointed experts trained in the art of gobbledegook to parse words, divine intent, and lobby for exceptions that prove rules.Our nation is no longer a nation of laws, but a nation of elites who interpret those laws for us. It has all led to a very logical place.In placing our constitution in the hands of a black robed elite who can divine from thin air powers, rights, and duties neither contemplated nor easily extrapolated from the constitution, our republic has become a kingdom. Our king is Anthony Kennedy. Every argument advanced is advanced with him in mind. On every major issue he is the decisive vote. Put bluntly, the constitutional integrity of our republic has been ceded to one man in the third branch of our federal government. It makes him more powerful than the democratically elected Congress and President. It is not a sign that our system is too partisan. It is a sign that our system is broken in a fundamental way.But the dirty little secret is that while legal experts and scholars may agree the system is broken, they only think so when Anthony Kennedy disagrees with them.

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1 What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got?
2 For if Abraham got righteousness by works, he has reason for pride; but not before God.
3 But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness.
4 Now, the reward is credited to him who does works, not as of grace but as a debt.
5 But to him who without working has faith in him who gives righteousness to the evil-doer, his faith is put to his account as righteousness.
6 As David says that there is a blessing on the man to whose account God puts righteousness without works, saying,
7 Happy are those who have forgiveness for their wrongdoing, and whose sins are covered.
8 Happy is the man against whom no sin is recorded by the Lord.
9 Is this blessing, then, for the circumcision only, or in the same way for those who have not circumcision? for we say that the faith of Abraham was put to his account as righteousness.
10 How, then, was it judged? when he had circumcision, or when he had it not? Not when he had it, but when he did not have it:
11 And he was given the sign of circumcision as a witness of the faith which he had before he underwent circumcision: so that he might be the father of all those who have faith, though they have not circumcision, and so that righteousness might be put to their account;
12 And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who keep to the way of that faith which our father Abraham had before he underwent circumcision.
13 For God's word, that the earth would be his heritage, was given to Abraham, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they who are of the law are the people who get the heritage, then faith is made of no use, and the word of God has no power;
15 For the outcome of the law is wrath; but where there is no law it will not be broken.
16 For this reason it is of faith, so that it may be through grace; and so that the word of God may be certain to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is said in the holy Writings, I have made you a father of a number of nations) before him in whom he had faith, that is, God, who gives life to the dead, and to whom the things which are not are as if they were.
18 Who without reason for hope, in faith went on hoping, so that he became the father of a number of nations, as it had been said, So will your seed be.
19 And not being feeble in faith though his body seemed to him little better than dead (he being about a hundred years old) and Sarah was no longer able to have children:
20 Still, he did not give up faith in the undertaking of God, but was made strong by faith, giving glory to God,
21 And being certain that God was able to keep his word.
22 For which reason it was put to his account as righteousness.
23 Now, it was not because of him only that this was said,
24 But for us in addition, to whose account it will be put, if we have faith in him who made Jesus our Lord come back again from the dead,
25 Who was put to death for our evil-doing, and came to life again so that we might have righteousness.


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Now let's talk about parrots. Does Polly want a cracker? What does Polly really want? Does Polly really want to hear BJ Leiderman, who writes her theme music? The only native parrot in the United States lives in the southern tip of Texas, where it is beloved by locals but threatened by habitat loss and pet poachers. NPR's John Burnett met up with the scientist who's trying to learn more about the smart and often poorly understood bird.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: We're here in Oliveira Park in the Texas border city of Brownsville at dusk. A few dog walkers and hoop shooters are out. In the western sky, as the sun is about to set, a large flock of parrots approaches. They're brilliant green with red splotches on their crowns.
KARL BERG: Did you hear that (vocalizing) by any chance?
BURNETT: Karl Berg is a pony-tailed, sandals-wearing biologist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville campus. He comes out here with his binoculars and recording equipment several times a week to observe and listen to the red-crowned parrots who roost in the eucalyptus trees.
BERG: You're actually hearing the duets a little bit here between the contact calls and the begging call, the (vocalizing).
BURNETT: This parrot is an avian immigrant that flies back and forth across the border between a sliver of Tamaulipas, Mexico, and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. This makes it a Tex-Mex native, unlike its red-crowned cousins found in Florida and Southern California.
BERG: Now, we have a whole lot of breeding parrots in the United States now, but almost all of them are exotic species that escaped from zoos or from families or were freed.
BURNETT: The lower Rio Grande Valley is a paradise for birdwatchers. They come here to check off the green jay, the inca dove and the chachalaca on their life list. And they come to see the multicolored flocks of parrots and parakeets with their distinctive squawks.
BURNETT: Linda Rockwell is a former board member of the American Birding Association who happened to be in the park this evening.
LINDA ROCKWELL: The parrots are so fascinating to watch because they're such a social bird. And they flock together. They communicate with each other. Watching the way birds interact with each other is one of the best parts of birding.
BURNETT: The ability of parrots to mimic human speech is one reason they're so coveted as caged birds. Parrots, along with ravens, are considered the most intelligent birds in the avian world. In other words, they don't just parrot what humans say. The most famous parrot of them all was Alex the African Grey. He had a vocabulary of 150 words and could form concepts. Here's Alex on a "NOVA" report identifying colors and shapes.
IRENE PEPPERBERG: Can you tell me what's different?
ALEX: Color.
PEPPERBERG: All right. Can you tell me what's same?
ALEX: Shape.
PEPPERBERG: Good boy.
BURNETT: When Alex died in 2007, he was so well known that he got obits in The New York Times and The Economist.
Across town from the park, in his cluttered lab on the UTRGV campus, Berg admires the legendary Alex.
BERG: Parrots in general are considered to be the most complex of non-human vocal imitators.
BURNETT: But Berg is taking a different approach than measuring the intelligence of talking parrots. The biologist wants to understand what parrots say when they communicate with each other.
BURNETT: That's the sound of a duet of red-crowned parrots. Now here's the same recording at half speed.
BURNETT: I asked Berg what he thinks this male and female are communicating. He's pretty sure it has to do with mating behavior.
BERG: One hypothesis is that the pair is communicating to the other pairs that this is our nest and we're serious about it. And, you know, there might be a fight if you want to try and take it from us.
BURNETT: Like a couple putting down a contract on a house in a neighborhood they really like.
BERG: That's right. That's right.
BURNETT: The red-crowned parrot is so adored here that Brownsville has made it the official city bird. You see them all over the valley - in the trees, feeding on pecans, acorns and palm nuts.
We're back in Oliveira Park with Jazmin Barrientos, a high school biology teacher and a graduate student who's researching the parrot under Karl Berg.
JAZMIN BARRIENTOS: I've grown up with these parrots, and they would hang out in our backyard and eat whatever they wanted to because my grandma had a huge garden.
BURNETT: One of the serious threats to the species is people stealing nestlings to sell into the pet trade. It continues today.
BARRIENTOS: Growing up, I would see neighbors trying to catch them. The way that they would do it would be, like, with a hose, and they'd hose them down and then with a towel, like, run and grab them. And it's heartbreaking.
BURNETT: Here at the Avian Ecology Lab in South Texas, the researchers believe the more we learn about the intelligent and charismatic red-crowned parrot, the easier it is to protect this bird for all time. John Burnett, NPR News, Brownsville. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Sep, 2012
Sep, 2012
SEC Must Put A Stop To Casino Markets
SEC Must Put A Stop To Casino Markets
By Leon Cooperman, Sal Arnuk and Joseph Saluzzi
A little less than 2,000 years ago, the Great Fire of Rome wiped out nearly three-quarters of the city. It was widely rumoured that Emperor Nero fiddled while his city burnt. A similar story may go down in history with our equity markets. Regulators have done little while recent events have wreaked havoc on what had been the best source of capital formation and creation in the world.
On August 1, Knight Capital's rogue algorithm tore through the market for almost 45 minutes. Another episode – similar to the Madoff Ponzi scheme, the Flash Crash of May 2010, the BATS IPO and the Facebook IPO – that has devastated investor confidence and trust. How many more events do our regulators need to see before they recognise there is a problem?
In 1994, an academic paper titled "Why do Nasdaq market makers avoid odd-eight quotes?" found substantial evidence, albeit only circumstantial, that market makers were colluding to keep spreads artificially wide. The paper caused an immediate response from Washington. Wall Street firms were fined millions of dollars and the Securities and Exchange Commission embarked on a decade of new regulations. This culminated in July 2007 when the uptick rule for short sales was eliminated and Reg NMS, an attempt to modernise the structure of the national markets, was implemented.
The SEC hoped these new regulations would increase competition. Indeed, spreads have narrowed in the most active stocks and commission rates have dropped, but there's no free lunch. Due to a lack of economic incentives, traditional market makers, who used to act as shock absorbers in times of volatility, have exited the business, only to be replaced by "automated market makers". Their operating model is based on paying brokers to direct trades to them – called "payment for order flow" – and then using powerful computer systems to make a small profit per share on turnover of these trades.
Rather than helping customers achieve best execution, automated market makers use these orders to trade for their own account. They have little or no obligation to facilitate trades when times get tough. Moreover, the lack of spreads has caused many broker dealers to exit the business of underwriting IPOs, leaving a void in our economy.
The result is the fragmented equity market that we have today. Instead of a few non-profit, centralised exchanges with deep liquidity, our market structure is based on 13 for-profit exchanges, approximately 40 dark markets and a few dozen of these automated market makers. With all of their computer trading systems interacting at lightning speed, if anything gets out of whack, it's like a room full of mousetraps loaded with ping pong balls going off. Clearly, the SEC's market structure experiment has failed. Unless something changes, confidence-shaking events will only increase in frequency.
The SEC has proposed some fixes, but most are still on the shelf. More recently, as part of the JOBS Act – legislation designed to help start-ups and small businesses to raise money – the SEC was mandated to study how increasing spreads would affect liquidity. Last month, it recommended continued discussion.
There's no more time for talk. Retail and institutional investors have already withdrawn more than $300bn from domestic equity mutual funds since the flash crash. The market needs to move from its current short-term casino environment and return to its true purpose – capital raising and allocation.
Here are three things the SEC can do that will have an immediate, beneficial effect:
● Reinstate the uptick rule and require more stringent obligations for market makers that may be exempt from this rule. This will slow and stabilise the market in times of stress. The uptick rule, which restricted short sales when a stock was moving lower, was introduced in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prevent market abuses. It was appropriate then and it is appropriate now.
● Eliminate all forms of payment for order flow. This will change the economic model of automated market makers from disadvantaging customers to serving them.
● Set up a pilot programme to study wider tick sizes. Rather than talking about it, this will show us if larger spreads would really help realign trading to serve all participants.
There is no need for the heavy hand of regulation to start all over again. These simple changes will go a long way to getting rid of the microsecond arbitrage games that have turned our market into a casino. The sooner the SEC acts, the faster we can start rebuilding trust and confidence in our market.
Or we can just watch it burn to the ground.
Leon Cooperman is chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors and a former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Sal Arnuk and Joseph Saluzzi are co-founders of Themis Trading


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Discover a list of 1 Geology courses offered by the Top 2 universities and colleges in Malaysia. Gather valuable information such as entry requirements, fee structures, intake schedules for 2024, study modes, and recommendations for the best universities and colleges offering Geology degree programs. Enroll directly in Geology courses through EducationMalaysia.in.
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Ms. Van T Nguyen
Program Manager
Facility Coordination, Metrics, and Assessment
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
SC-32.3/Germantown Building
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585-1290
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: (301) 903-3976
Fax: (301) 903-1690
Ms. Nguyen joined the Scientific User Facilities Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) in July 2008. Prior to joining BES, Ms. Nguyen was the director of the Office of Science's Environment, Safety and Health Division.
In 2004, Ms. Nguyen served a one-year detail as senior advisor to the Office of Science's Chief Operations Officer. From 1990-1999, she held general engineering positions at DOE first with the Office of Defense Programs' Office of Nuclear Materials Production and Office of Engineering and Operations Support, and later with the Office of Energy Research. From 1985 to 1990, Ms. Nguyen worked for an engineering consulting firm as a Chemical Engineer.
M.S., Environmental Science and Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993
B.S., Chemical Engineering, Penn State University, 1984


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Will Smith
actor; musician
Born: 9/25/1968
Birthplace: Philadelphia
Smith got his start in show business as half of the Grammy Award-winning rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. An auspicious acting debut in television's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–96) led to an equally successful movie career, including leading roles in the blockbusters Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997) and Men in Black II (2002), Enemy of the State (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), Ali (2001), and Hitch (2005). He got critical acclaim for his role in 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness in which his young son costarred. He released his first solo album Big Willie Style in 1997. He is married to actress Jada Pinkett-Smith.
See also:


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Making paper flowers for kids is a fun paper activity, and the flowers kids make will last a long, long time! All it takes is some colorful tissue paper and a healthy dose of imagination. Use our step-by-step instructions to make a paper flower garden.
Learn how to make paper flowers for kids with the craft instructions on the following pages.
- Paper Carnations These sweet, simple flowers will be the center of attention.
- Paper Roses These roses don't wilt, they don't have thorns, and they can be any color of the rainbow!
- Tiny Paper Flowers These tiny paper flowers make a big statement.
- Tissue Bouquet Why stop at just one? Craft a whole bouquet of beautiful flowers.
Learn to transform used wrapping tissue into a gift of paper carnations in the next section.


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Conversations with a rock (Original framed drawing)
Out of stock
Framed original drawing by artist @stevexoh. Signed by the artist.
Width: 254mm
Height: 254mm
Depth: 40mm
Artwork: Acrylic pens on white paper
Frame: Black acrylic surround, glass aperture cover, wooden back with hanging hooks
This framed drawing is shipped via Royal Mail 1st class signed for as a small parcel. International orders will be shipped via a similar service.
NOTE: This is a bit of original artwork so comes with all its wonky imperfections, bumps, smudges (etc). The video included in the product gallery shows you the actual piece in close detail. Please get in touch if you have any questions about this piece.


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Thankfully, I know Jeff Smith of Toad from his recent trip down to Tampa.
At dinner later that evening, I told him as much. He finally got it out of me that it isn't really Toad's fault, but the developers that use it. I agreed.
Unfortunately when I said it at COLLABORATE (jokingly of course), one of his colleagues heard me. Uh oh. Anyway, I had to explain why it is I "hate" Toad and think he was mostly happy with my answer.
Ultimately, a tool that helps you increase your productivity is a good thing. I like and have used the DBA pack that comes with Toad. However, many "developers" I have worked with can't live without Toad...and that's where I have a problem.
So trying to be fair, I asked Mr. Smith to walk me through Quest Code Tester. I "like" testing and think it is one of the bigger problems in the database developer community; in that we don't do it very well. Java, .NET, and many others have it built in (mostly anyway) to what they do. How many times have you seen a database developer run through unit tests on his or her code? I've seen exactly 1 shop (where I learned it).
From that demo, I would say it has much, if not more, of the functionality in SQL Developer. I haven't had a chance yet to really use that one either.
But if you would like to try out it, there is a free trial version (registration required)


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Of all the evil forces in the realms, the Hedonites of Slaanesh take the most pleasure in the carnage they wreak…
Slaanesh may be imprisoned – but, with this battletome, his powers are yours to master. This 96-page hardback battletome is your complete guide to the armies of the Dark Prince. You'll discover dark lore that sheds light on Slaanesh – the Chaos God of excess and pleasure – and his dreaded hosts. From the relentless seekers to usurping pretenders, this book brings some of the most sinister corners of the Mortal Realms to life in fantastic detail, with stunning art, new lore and tantalising hints of what the future holds for the Dark Prince. Meanwhile, a number of warscroll battalions, three sets of allegiance abilities, magical spells, command traits, artefacts and more allow you to build deadly Slaanesh armies made up of daemons and mortals alike. What's more, the book contains painting tips and different colour schemes to inspire your collection, as well as bespoke missions and Path to Glory rules that are perfect for organising your first battles with Slaanesh's hosts.
This book contains:
- Allegiance abilities for Hedonites of Slaanesh, including a table of Battle Traits, a system for summoning Slaanesh Daemons, plus battle traits, command traits, and artefacts of power for the following Hosts: Invaders, Pretenders, and Godseekers
- Three Spell Lores: Lore of Slaanesh, Forbidden Sorceries of Slaanesh, and the Lore of Pain and Pleasure
- Path to Glory campaigns – rules for creating a Hedonites of Slaanesh warband for Path to Glory, including Champion Rewards Table, and Followers Rewards Tables
- Four Warscroll Battalions that reward you for fielding thematic combinations of models
- 18 unit warscrolls, 3 endless spell warscrolls and a warscroll for the Fane of Slaanesh, printed here for your convenience
- Pitched Battle Profiles for all units, endless spells, and the Fane of Slaanesh featured in this battletome, including minimum/maximum unit sizes, points values and battlefield roles


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Kati Egg Roll with Basmati & Quinoa
Spiced rice tucked into a kati egg roll
- mild
- 7.66KViews:
Curry seems to have a bit of a bad rap and I think this could well be because of people's experiences with (low quality) curry houses. We've all had that one takeaway where the paper bag is virtually disintegrating from the amount of fatty oil spilling out of the boxes.
When you cook Indian food at home you have more control over what goes in your curry. For example, you can substitute cream for yoghurt in your recipes, or you can make as much rice as you need, rather than feeling you should eat the whole tray just because you know it won't keep. And of course, you can limit the amount of grease when you cook healthy Indian recipes, helping keep a few inches off your waistline.
The Indian diet is largely vegetarian, and many Indian curry recipes contain an absolute tonne of veg - onions, tomato, chilli, garlic and ginger make up the basis of most. What's more, the spices used in Indian food have been proven to be good for your health - did you know that turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory? The humble Rogan Josh is basically Ibuprofen in curried form! And Indian rasam soup is the perfect pick-me-up when you're suffering from a cold.
What's more, although some curries do have red meat (usually in the form of lamb), pretty much any protein in Indian food can be substituted for a healthier, low-fat option without losing out on flavour. For example, both turkey breast and tofu is absolutely lovely in a Biryani! Check below for more healthy Indian recipes.


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I finally did it... I assembled and painted Smaug. I've had the model for months, but have been too intimidated to give it a go. With a 1000 point all-hero tournament coming up, my ever helpful boyfriend suggested that I break out this beastie. I immediately loved the idea, and hated the fact that it would force me to work so quickly (for me, that is a VERY short timeline). Probably for the best, since otherwise this model probably would have been completed in spurts over the course of months lol... and thus, with 16 days to go before the event, I got to work! FYI.. Games Workshop states on their website: "This miniature is not recommended for children under the age of 14. Advanced modelling skills are required". This is no joke. I've been painting models since I was 2, and modelling for decades, and this guy was a serious challenge. If you want to do him justice, there can be no short cuts, and he is not beginner friendly. You'll need a shape blade in your x-acto, a couple of solid glues, a metric crap-load of filler (Milliput or Green Stuff, or what-have-you), and a great deal of patience. He will surprise you. He will test you. He will break. You will break. But with perseverance, you will wind up with an unbelievably gorgeous centerpiece to your collection.
Next I assembled the head and filled the gaps in those pieces. I followed by gluing the head to the neck, and filling the gaps that followed. Then the neck and tail were attached to the body. Gaps aplenty. The texture stamp I created was helpful for maintaining the scale pattern in the newly sculpted areas.
More repairs and texture matching in progress. There was a massive space between the end of the wing and the side of Smaug's body, which had to be bridged.
Belly scales were next, and the pressure was on! I wasn't expecting to be so happy with the outcome of the air brushing, so getting the belly to a place I was happy with was difficult. I used a combination of airbrushing, dry-brushing, washes, and edge highlights to get to this point. Several shades of tan and brown were blended using dry-brushing, blending into the red of the body. Both Agrax and Nuln washes came in handy.
Holding Smaug proved to be one of the biggest challenges. I didn't want to paint in pieces and assemble afterwards because matching the blends to fill the gaps would have been impossible. It would have made some things a great deal easier however... getting a grip on him to access different parts was difficult and sometimes painful. You can see some of the little dents in my hand from his spines above. The mouth was a lot of fun to paint, I used a variety of shades of purple for the tongue and gums. The teeth were first painted brown, then a tan, then white, so that they looked suitably aged and shaded. I picked out a lot of face scales by hand with a liner brush, but it's difficult to see them in the photo. The entire dragon was varnished with Testor's Dullcote (my personal favourite varnish), and then I glossed the eyes and mouth to make him a little more life-like.
The finished base! I painted in several shades of grey, and then added some natural sand and stones to vary it up. I also added flock. Here's the finished Smaug on his custom base!
Another hobby project! This time a Games Workshop model, Radagast the Brown on Great Eagle. Looks relatively simple, yes? NO! As if VERY poorly fitting pieces weren't enough, I had to way over-complicate things for myself. Allow me to explain. The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fit.WHY GAMES WORKSHOP, WHY?!?! This resin model kit has some truly appalling joins. I mean seriously. The unintentional gap where the neck meets the body is almost as wide as the intentionally made hole for the wings! WOWZA. There are also huge gaps where the wings meet the body, and along either side of the body between the wings and tail. Just awful. A bit of hot water was able to warp the two body halves into fitting together well, but the rest were beyond the powers of hot water. Milliput required. MUCH Milliput. EDIT: GW did send me a replacement for the warped pieces, their customer service is super helpful. It's still not a great fit, so be prepared for that if you purchase this kit. They are super helpful though, and their support was much appreciated! Buy with confidence that they'll make it right. Let's make it complicatedIn for a penny, in for a pound. I HATE mounted models that can't be removed from their mount. In a game where riders dismount voluntarily or otherwise, it's annoying, and I might want to use the eagle without the wizard. Radagast unfortunately doesn't sit very well on the Eagle on his own, he will always fall off. Ugh. Since I want the option of using the Eagle without Radagast, and don't want to have an alternate Eagle to use if/when Radagast dismounts, gluing him onto the eagle was a hard pass. I also hate using pins because then when you remove the rider there's either a hole or a pin, and that's ugly, so no. I opted to try something new (to me), using magnets. But I did NOT want the magnet to show on the Eagle, because that'd be even worse than the pin. The plan was to drill a hole large enough for the magnet, but deeper than required so that I could sculpt a thin layer of feathers on top of the magnet, concealing it. Above is a photo showing the neck gap, and the hold I dremelled for the magnet. It almost killed me to drill into the sculpt, and I worried I wouldn't be able to match the feathers, or would ruin it... but I proceeded. I started filling the gaps with Milliput and sculpting new feathers to blend the seams. You can see some of the gaps, and the Milliput used to fill them in the photos above. Some progress photos showing the sculpting process. The gaps have all been filled. The sculpting is finished, and all base coated. I was pretty pleased with how the sculpting worked out. The painted Eagle and rider!I used my typical assortment of craft acrylics to paint up this piece, and will seal it shortly. Still planning the base. And just because I'm SO FREAKING HAPPY with the way the magnet solution turned out, here's a video. IT WORKS and I. IS. HAPPY.
It's been WAY too long since I blogged here, so I decided to dive back in with a passion project I've been working on… a Games Workshop Lord of the Rings 25mm Legolas and Gimli figure! This mini is one of my all-time favourites in the LotR line, in no small part because the Legolas/Gimli dynamic never fails to crack me up.
I begged a hand from my boyfriend who prised apart the two pieces for me. I cleaned off the green stuff, and reassembled using 5-minute epoxy glue. I then filled the gaps in the horse using milliput (a two-part epoxy putty like Green Stuff, but with a longer working time), and sculpted new details on the left side, to complete Legolas' and Gimli's waists where the two pieces fit together. Also resculpted a portion of Legolas' bow, which was split in half for molding. The arm was the most difficult part. I used a hand and forearm I had from a "Breaking of the Fellowship" Legolas, attached it to a pin to extend it to the right length, pinned it to the shoulder, and then sculpted the upper arm and shoulder from scratch. I also wound up having to sculpt some of the bracer on his forearm. Once the sculpting and filling was complete, I gave it a quick base coat in grey to see how the details were shaping up. I began painting with the skin (I like to start my models from the skin and work my way out, layer by layer until I reach the outermost layers of clothing and weaponry). I'm just going to say this, I HATE PAINTING WHITE. It's the worst. Single most challenging colour to get right. I know Arod, Legolas' horse, is white/grey, and I was sorely tempted to paint it brown instead (because I actually enjoy painting brown horses), but wanted it to be as accurate as possible. I decided to go with a grey/white. Starting with a medium grey base, I used thinned paints in many layers to slowly build up colour, getting lighter and lighter until it was almost white. I did the same thing along Arod's legs, but getting darker and darker grey. I hit the mane with a nuln oil wash to darken it, and then used thinned black paint to add the gradient effect on the mane and tail. After that I began painting the dwarf and elf skin, which involved a flesh base colour and Earthshade wash. Later on I built up the colour on the skin in several layers with a very fine brush. I even painted the eyes (which I avoid like the plague on 25mm figures, because their eyes are so unbelievably tiny, and it's difficult not to make them look bug-eyed) using an 18/0 brush. A trick I like to use for painting such tiny things is to hold my breath, pay close attention to my heartbeat, and actually stroke the brush between heart beats so that my hands are as steady as possible. A bit of a pain, but it helps! Used the same trick for painting the hair. I'd tell you how I did the blonde hair, but I honestly couldn't say. I painted and repainted it so many times in so many layers that I completely lost track over what was still showing. I almost ripped out all of my own hair in frustration, but ultimately reached a colour I could live with. Each bunch of hair was painted individually with the 18/0 brush. The finished model used several different shades of brown for clothing and accessories, as well as reds, greys, and greens. I couldn't for the life of me find a paint colour in any brand that was the right colour for the Elven cloaks. Those cloaks are something between a grey and a green, in a natural shade that is apparently impossible to acquire. I broke down and mixed a custom colour, two actually. The base colour was a 50/50 mix of dark grey and green paint, followed by a nuln oil wash, followed by a 50/50 mix of medium grey and green as a highlight. I opted to use natural stones for basing because I like the random and realistic look it adds. A quick spray with Testor's Dullcote to seal it, and it was finished! This mini presented a couple of pretty significant challenges (replacing an arm, painting white, painting blonde hair, and painting Elven cloaks among them), but was very rewarding. It has only fueled my love for this range of models, looking forward to painting something else! Thanks for Reading! |
AuthorThis is a blog for my artistic endeavours... as I experiment with new mediums, styles, and techniques, I'll post here. Archives
June 2020


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Alt Hist Issue 6 is pretty much published. We are just waiting for one more retailer to sort their catalogue out – Apple iBooks, but otherwise you can now get Alt Hist Issue 6 from the usual suspects. I'll post fully all the details next week when iBooks is up to speed!
You can currently get it at:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | All the other Amazons!
Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords – and others too numerous to list!
Alt Hist Issue 6 includes four wonderful alternate history stories, plus a great "straight" historical fiction set in 1914 about a teenage girl accused of war crimes. The alternate history stories cover some classic areas for speculative fiction and of interest to alternate history buffs: what if Hitler won the war, what if the Germans invaded Britain in WW2, who really killed JFK and what if the Cold War turned hot? But none of these tales are just speculation on alternative versions of history. They all share what you have come to expect from Alt Hist: a strong story and engaging characters.
Alt Hist is the magazine of Historical Fiction and Alternate History, published twice a year by Alt Hist Press.
Stories featured in Alt Hist Issue 6:
- "B-36"by Douglas W. Texter
- " Battalion 202: Worm in the Apple" by Jonathan Doering:
- "The Iceberg" by Andrea Mullaney
- "When Shots Rang Out" by Lynda M. Vanderhoff
- "Hitler Is Coming" by Martin Roy Hill
Set in a world in which the early Cold War grows very hot, "B-36"by Douglas W. Texter tells the tale of what might have happened if the Soviet Union had taken Berlin during the Berlin Airlift. In this world, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal orders a B-36 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Drummond and a very special mission commander to fly to the Soviet Union with a secret "gimmick" on board. The results of the mission are world-changing.
The next instalment of Battalion 202 by Jonathan Doering: "For all I know, you're dirty as well." Christopher felt his chest flare. "Alright then, if you don't believe me, shoot me." A worm enters an apple. It is seeking food, shelter. It is only acting on its nature. But sooner or later the apple will turn rotten. Everything will explode. There is a traitor in Pontefract Auxiliary Unit. A traitor who places his own survival and success in the new Nazi state ahead of everything – even the lives of his comrades….
On Boxing Day, 1914, a teenage girl sits in an Edinburgh prison awaiting trial for a war crime. Her lawyer finds himself captivated by her as he tries to establish the truth of the case, whose roots lie in the Titanic disaster two years before. 'The Iceberg,' by Andrea Mullaney, is based on an extraordinary true story.
In "When Shots Rang Out" by Lynda M. Vanderhoff JFK was a well known ladies man, but his family has suffered under a curse that is nearly Shakespearian in scope. Could it be that Kennedy upset the wrong person with his philandering, putting in motion the death and bad fortune that would see his family destroyed?
What would the United States be like if Hitler won the Second World War? In "Hitler Is Coming" by Martin Roy Hill protagonist Paul Klee is an OSS veteran and police investigator on temporary assignment to the post-war American SS to stop a plot to kill a victorious Adolf Hitler on his first visit to the U.S. From fascist cabbies to corrupt Party gauleiters, Klee wends his way through an America most Americans today never knew once existed.


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Robert S. Kenison (Colombia 1963-65)
Monday, November 21
8:03 pm
WHAT THE PEACE CORPS DID for me was to change my life. That's all.
I was a member of Colombia Group XVI, Urban Community Development. We were in training at the Columbia University School of Social Work in New York City when President Kennedy was killed. Midway through our training, this wrenching event unsettled us all, but in a real way firmed the resolve to move forward in the host country.
In 1963, I had just graduated from law school, an experience which had not done much to chisel an uncompromising New Hampshire political philosophy. Steven Vincent Benet has Daniel Webster describe the state of the nation in traditional Granite State terms: "rock-ribbed, firm, and indivisible." That kind of stern, individualistic thinking underlay my thinking about political and social problems taking care of themselves through individual effort, just as hard-working tillage will produce fruit and blossom through flinty New England soil.
But, as I say, all that Peace Corps did was change my life. I was assigned to Barrio Pio XII in the City of Manizales. At that time at least, the Urban Community Development program was far from a Peace Corps lodestar, tending to lead in categories like pregnancies, early returns, and disciplinary problems. Like some other community development Volunteers, we had tangible projects (like an alcantarillado, or sewage system) but hardly turned our barrio around. It is not fair, or within my ability, to describe in brief terms my industrious, winning neighbors in Barrio Pio XII so I will say only that our friendships have endured till even now.
I met my wife, an educational TV Peace Corps Volunteer, in Manizales. We were married within a year of my return. Our marriage and our daughter in a very real way flow from the Peace Corps.
I have been doing urban community development ever since. An Ivy League law school degree generally is highly marketable, but I thought I would try domestic government service. I took a job in the counsel's office at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for what I thought would be about four months. That was over 22 years and four month ago. During all that time I have worked on poor people's programs of urban community development, including assisted housing. I think I am getting the hang of it.
Throughout those years, my vision of what is important in life has been radically informed by the two years of Peace Corps service where I learned that while people must help themselves, sometimes they need other resources – people, money, other support – to help them help themselves. For me (like my neighbors of Barrio Pop XII, I expect) Edgar's exhortation to Gloucester in "King Lear" that "ripeness is all" is not an affirmation of stoicism; it is a credo of joy.
For all that, I owe the Peace Corps.


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Last week's economic news included an encouraging report from the National Association of Home Builders, whose housing market index held steady with a reading of 60 in July. This was the 13th consecutive month for readings over 50, which indicate that more builders are confident about housing markets than those who are not. July's reading was noteworthy as it was the highest since November 2005 prior to the recession.
Housing Starts, Building Permits Increase
The Commerce Department provided further evidence of stronger housing markets with reports on housing starts and building permits issued in June. Housing starts rose from May's reading of 1.07 million to 1.17 million, which surpassed the expected reading of 1.11 million housing starts.
May's reading for housing starts was revised from 1.04 million to 1.07 million an annual basis.
Construction of apartments and other multifamily housing complexes attained their highest level since 1987, which supports reported trends that millennials who prefer to live in larger cities are renting rather than buying homes. Housing starts gained nearly 10 percent between May and June. Would-be home buyers are also renting due to tighter mortgage approval standards; others may be "sitting on the fence" as they wait for further indications of stronger labor markets and improvements in overall economic conditions.
Building permits issued in June supported trends in housing starts, with permits for multi-family housing units higher by 16. 10 percent and was the highest reading for multi-family building permits since 1990. Analysts said that the increase in multifamily building permits was in caused by the pending expiration of a tax credit for builders in New York State that was set to expire June 30.
Permits for single family homes rose only 0.90 percent in June, to an annual pace of 689,000 but this was still the highest reading for single family housing permits since 2008.
Mortgage Rates Rise, Jobless Claims Fall
Freddie Mac reported that average mortgage rates rose last week. The rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.09 percent and was higher by five basis points. The average rate for a 15-year mortgage was also five basis points higher at 3.25 percent. The average rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage was up by three basis points to 2.96 percent. Discount points were 0.60 percent for 15 and 30 year mortgages and 0.50 percent for 6/1 adjustable rate mortgages.
New jobless claims fell to 281,000 last week against the prior week's reading of 296,000 new claims and an expected reading of 285,000 new jobless claims. Analysts said that the current reading indicates that last week's spike in new unemployment claims was a false alarm. Seasonal anomalies and re-tooling at some auto plants were cited as causes for the prior week's high reading. New jobless claims have remained under the benchmark reading of 300,000 since February for the longest consecutive period in 15 years.
Last week's reports ended with the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index, which fell from June's reading of 96.1 to 93.3; analysts expected a reading of 95.0.
What's Ahead
Scheduled economic reports for next week include new and existing home sales, and FHFA home prices along with weekly reports on mortgage rates and new jobless claims.


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Holy Land Christians Hope Pope Francis' Visit Might Revive Peace Talks
- Evan Simko-Bednarski and Harry Stevens Religion News Service, Religion News Service
- Updated May 14, 2014
With the last round of peace talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority stalled if not moribund, some are hoping that a scheduled visit by Pope Francis to the Holy Land in May will breathe new life into the peace process.
Vera Baboun, the first female mayor of this embattled city where Jesus was born, is one.
The peace process, she said, has been hampered by a lack of courageous leadership. "How many courageous hearts do we have in the world? Francis is a courageous heart."
Baboun, 50, is Roman Catholic in a city where most Christians are Orthodox and the Christian population as a whole has dropped to 15 percent from a high of 85 percent in 1947.
Bethlehem is within Israel's occupied territories. But though it lies just five miles north of Jerusalem, a 26-foot-high concrete wall separates the two cities, tracing fault lines of religion, politics and history. Travel between Israel and the territories is highly restricted.
"It's time to topple it down," Baboun said. "And I hope that not only Francis will be the one to say it, but as well, around him, people who are listening and responding."
Not all Palestinian Catholics are as sanguine as Baboun about the promise of Francis' visit.
North of Bethlehem, in Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian Authority, Xavier Abu Eid said a statement from the pope in support of Palestinians would mean little.
"I don't think we need statements here," said Abu Eid, a Palestinian Catholic who was in charge of communications for the Palestinian negotiating team during the peace talks. "We need action. I think the church is capable of doing a lot more than it is now."
Abu Eid decried the Israeli government's refusal to allow him to travel the 12 miles from Ramallah, where he works, to Jerusalem to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He doubted whether the pope would take a stand on such an issue.
The Vatican has downplayed whatever political symbolism might be seen in Francis' visit to the Holy Land.
"The Holy Father is coming to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the meeting of Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras," said Monsignor Giuseppe Lazzarotto, the papal nuncio to Israel. "That is the main purpose of the visit and everything will be focused around this event."
To mark the anniversary, Francis will travel to Jerusalem to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew I, head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, on May 26. The trip marks the historic 1964 meeting in Jerusalem between their two predecessors, in which the leaders lifted a mutual excommunication that had been in place for a millennium.
The excommunication of 1054 split the Catholic Church into East and West and came, gruesomely, to a head when Roman Catholic crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204. So pivotal was the event in the annals of Christianity that in the centuries that followed it came to be known as the Great Schism.
But the meeting with Bartholomew I is just a portion of the pope's three-day itinerary, which also includes a day in Jordan and one in Bethlehem. After saying Mass at the Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe Jesus was born, Francis is scheduled to eat lunch with Palestinian families and greet children at the Deheishe refugee camp.
Baboun remembers Pope John Paul II's meeting with refugees when he came to Bethlehem in 2000. She said the visit brought hope to Palestinians, Christian and Muslim alike.
"John Paul II made it clear, why are we masters at building walls?" she asked. "Let us build bridges."
Francis will stay at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, a Vatican-owned hotel in the Old City where, come May 24, all 140 rooms will be reserved for the papal entourage.
From the rooftop of the hotel, the Rev. Eamon Kelly, vice chargé of the hotel, gestured toward the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is said to have died on the cross. Today, the church is controlled by six separate Christian denominations whose relationship is so fraught with mutual suspicion that a local Muslim family holds the key to the front door. It is often the butt of jokes about divisions within Christianity. Kelly feels differently.
"For me, the Holy Sepulchre is a model of peace," he said. "The Old City is a model of peace. It's live and let live."
Kelly quipped that his role during the pope's visit would be to "get out of the way while the Israelis put up their security barriers."
Kelly brushed aside security concerns surrounding the papal visit.
"Pope Francis is not interested in niceties," he said. "Pope Francis is interested in looking people in the eye."
(Columbia University students Evan Simko-Bednarski and Harry Stevens traveled to Israel and the occupied territories as part of a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation.)
Courtesy: Religion News Service
Publication date: May 14, 2014


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OCEAN CITY – Ocean City has a serious flooding problem that could cost millions of dollars to rectify, resort business owners learned this week during a presentation from a University of Maryland researcher heading up a study of the town's aging stormwater management infrastructure over the next several months.
Ocean City Economic Development Committee (EDC) members heard a presentation from Joanne Throwe, a researcher with the University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center, about the resort's aging stormwater infrastructure and its impacts on flooding and the local waterways. The University of Maryland's environmental finance center is sponsored in large part by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is one of 10 similar agencies set up at universities and colleges across the country to conduct regional research on growing stormwater management issues around the country.
The University of Maryland was chosen for the mid-Atlantic region and the focus of its program is on Ocean City, where the juxtaposition of intense urban development next to fragile natural resources makes the resort a natural fit for the study. "Stormwater management is a very important issue for Ocean City," she said. "Run-off from all of this impervious surface goes right into the sewers and ditches and ultimately right into the coastal bays. All of these pollutants, oils, trash, pet waste and metals go right into the bays and then directly into the ocean."
Throwe said her group will spend the next several months exploring Ocean City's stormwater runoff issues and develop a series of short- and long-term solutions. Perhaps more importantly, the group will explore ways to fund the improvements identified in their study.
"Ocean City has no dedicated funding source for stormwater management," she said. "Some projects have been paid for piece-meal over the years, but it appears the system needs a complete overhaul. The good news is, depending on what we find out, there could be federal funding in the form of grants for some of these projects."
Throwe said the early phases of the study indicate Ocean City has about 82,000 linear feet of aging corrugated metal pipe in its stormwater management system that will likely need to be replaced at some point in the future.
"We expect to have a full report prepared in about a year, at which point we will present a series of recommendations to the Mayor and Council," she said. "It will be up to the council to decide how to act on those recommendations."


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Vanessa Lucas
Vanessa Lucas — Carved Vase in Cream
Working simultaneously across the mediums of textile and clay, Vanessa Lucas has a practice whereby the refining of form and the consideration of function have resulted in works of impeccable quality.
Vanessa has both trained and taught in the field of textiles, receiving an Advanced Certificate of Clothing Design, from RMIT, later receiving her ceramic mould making Certificate from Holmesglen Institute of TAFE in 2005. She has since worked in a disciplined double medium practice between textile and clay. Vanessa works to refine and perfect her crafts, and has exhibited in many esteemed exhibitions, including the 10th International Ceramics Competition in Mino, Japan receiving an honourable mention.
Vanessa's graceful and disciplined ceramic forms, exhibited here at Craft, are a joy to use. Attention is paid to the performance of the work, and each object offers an opportunity to engage with presence in the action of use.
Material: ceramic, porcelain
Dimensions: approx. 13cm tall


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Some believe that physical illnesses are tangible in nature because professionals can see through someone's misery. Well, physical scars are indeed visible and if we just simply asked for assistance whenever and wherever we needed it, someone would unhesitantly offer to treat them.
Hence, when someone was in mental anguish, invisible battles were not even noticeable, and the most challenging part was not noticing someone's weight behind their optimistic and confident masks.
That's why being compassionate in all ways is important, considering that we don't even know whether the stranger who walked past us was fine or if they were carrying baggage within them.
You can have anxiety but still sound confident
As they say, nobody knew us better than we knew ourselves. And it's perfectly fine if we feel a little lost at the peak of accomplishing something. Amidst all the uncertainties along the way— we fought hard and made it this far. Hence, no one knew more than ourselves about the numerous battles we'd waged to get to where we are.
We can be vocal about our ambitions, accomplish so much, climb all the way to the top, and sound confident in all of these whilst experiencing anxieties in the process.
And if there comes a time in life when we feel that no one recognizes the sacrifices that lie behind our triumphs, always come back to the idea that no one knew us better than ourselves. Nonetheless, no one – not even ourselves – is allowed to invalidate the invisibility of our battles and how we've managed to fight them.
Don't be hesitant to celebrate even the smallest wins in life because even the baby steps are still progressing. It's alright to weep when you reflect on the times when you questioned your capabilities and now you're here— celebrating what you deserve.
Share your accomplishments with the world if that's one way to validate what you've gone through.
You can have depression but still smile and make jokes
We've all known at least one person who laughs a lot over little things and often characterized them as overacting because they get overjoyed with almost everything. But we never really considered looking at it through a different lens and not knowing that moment may have been their happiest after enduring so much hardship due to depression.
Every time someone decides to permanently end their pain, we often hear things like "she/he used to laugh frequently" and "we never expected it since she/he looked optimistic all the time." And it's really hard to witness someone's misery yet we can't do anything for them, but nothing is more painful than not knowing about it behind their smiling faces.
We can't really tell whether someone is really happy or if they're simply pretending to be happy so that no one notices their silent battles. Hence, the least we can do for them is be kind.
And for anyone who is currently battling their own struggles, remember that your burden is not meant for you to bear all alone. Never be afraid to reach for help or find someone to speak to if everything becomes too much to handle. It's okay to not feel okay, but it's also best to communicate about it with someone you trust.
Your voice matters, your feelings are valid and so — you are.
You can feel suicidal but still turn up to work everyday and appear "fine"
Being suicidal may appear to be someone productive and persevering in life. It could also be someone who laughs at work while bragging about how delicious their iced coffee tastes or those who boast about how great their day was and being able to sleep early and get a full hour of sleep.
Yet, no one can really assess a person's load if just the physicalities are seen.
If work can be so draining, so does pretending to be fine so that people wouldn't know your misery. It's hard for someone to pretend as if everything is fine and to carry on while merely surviving the day in silence.
Therefore, we must consider being a support system for our colleagues and reassuring them that we can be their safe place in times of struggle.
We sometimes hated the idea of interacting with other people and interfering in their personal lives at some point, but being there and reassuring that someone is willing to listen is a big help in supporting those who are in a suicidal state.
Some weren't really reluctant to open up and talk about their feelings, it was just that no one was there to listen to them. So, be there if you can.
There are days when getting out of bed feels extra heavy, and that's okay. You can take all the time you need to heal from the things you can't speak about, and you shouldn't feel obligated to do so if you don't want to.
Your voice matters, and so does— your silence.
Find more of these stories at http://woman.ph/ or you can visit http://pageone.ph/ for the latest news and updates.


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While every brain injury is different, we have a range of resources on hand that can help explain the impacts.
Find out more
Connect with the community, share your experiences and be surrounded by support.
We support individuals and organisations at every stage of their journey with practical solutions to the everyday challenges associated with brain injury.
Our continued focus on research ensures that we have an evidence-base to improve the lives of people impacted by brain injury.


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I'm quite new to CSV area...currently doing Risk assessment for an authoring tool which basically enables to build in content from slide decks and make it more interactive and engaging. Once the transformation is complete, the module is exported as a HTML package and host the files in the internal orgs server or directly onto a clients server I'm still trying to gather information info abt the system in detail to see if it qualifies for a GxP Category or Non GxP.
Does anyone have any idea if tools of this sort are usually classified as a GxP or a Non GxP SYSTEM? Please share your thoughts! Would appreciate your help!


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Bamboo Specs
Configuration as code is now available in Bamboo! We called this feature Bamboo Specs. Learn more about this feature that lets you store build plans configuration as code.
Why configuration as code?
Consider storing your build plan configuration as code for easier automation, change tracking, validation, and much more. You can read about the details in What is configuration as code?
What's in the package?
Bamboo goodies
- Bamboo Specs library with an API for writing configuration as code
- Bamboo Specs Runner Maven plugin for easier plan deployments
High-level language for configuration
YAML can get the job done, but we know that enterprise users need something much more powerful. That's why we decided to use a simple Java-based plan description language:
- Enjoy highlighting, syntax checks, and code autocompletion.
- Validate when you compile and run offline tests.
- Use high-level language features like modularization or libraries.
If you're not familiar with Java, don't worry. Our onboarding process will bootstrap you directly into a working environment and we have made sure that the plan definitions will be familiar to users of other languages such as Python, C++ or C#.
Configuration in a language of your choice
The Bamboo Specs library is written in Java. It means that you can write your code in any high-level JVM language that interoperates with Java, for example Groovy, Scala, or Kotlin.
Docs and more docs
We're still working on our documentation, but progress is more important than perfection, so we're sharing the first versions with you.
Bamboo Specs reference
Concepts explained with examples. We really like this one, check it out!
Bamboo Specs API reference
Our API. Documented
Because we already have some recommendations!
Supported scenarios
Make the best use out of Bamboo Specs and our Support.
OK, I'm sold. Where do I start?
Easy. We've prepared some short tutorials for you.
Start with Java | Start with YAML


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Chef Michael Scipione and Chef Geoff Johnson duke it out in a one on one cooking challenge at Copper Fish on Broadway in Cape May, Nj. The two chefs agreed to host a dinner pary at Johnson's restaurant on Friday, December 2 which featured eight courses, four recipes from each chef. The Chefs were judged on each of their courses in a freindly competition featuring great food and lots of laughs.
- Copyright
- © 2011 Jason A. Bleecher
- Image Size
- 1296x864 / 771.7KB
- Keywords
- Contained in galleries
- 2011-12-02 Scipione v Johnson - My Food Will kick Your Food's Ass!, Copper Fish, Cape May, NJ


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Luke's body whirled through the portal in a kaleidoscope of starlight and rainbows. Burnt ozone stung his nostrils, and his stomach roiled as if live dragonflies flitted inside. He clutched his grandfather's palm tighter, the only connection anchoring them together while they spun into the void, guided by the compass in his grandfather's other hand.
"We're here." His grandfather's words whistled with wheeziness.
He released Luke and turned away, pocketing the compass, but his old man's movements weren't quick enough to hide the tremors or his shortness of breath.
A mountain breeze, tinged with smoke ruffled the tussock grasses underfoot. In the valley below, Luke pinpointed a chimney on a cluster of shacks beside fenced paddocks. Had the old man's sense of direction faded and cast them adrift?
"Follow me." His grandfather rolled his shoulders back, lifted his head high, and led the descent.
Mindful of their journey's mission doubt dragged at Luke's feet. At only twelve, would he be found worthy? He didn't want to think about his grandfather's declining health if their bid was rejected.
Metallic scent tainted the air as they skirted past the dwellings; a one-room cottage, barn, and a smithy. Orange coals smoldered on the forge, hammers, and tongs lined up in military precision, but the pockmarked leather apron hung empty from a hook on the open door.
Without pause, his grandfather guided Luke out the back to the horse corrals. A bear of a man with arms like anvils leaned against the fence. Leather pants and knee-high boots sheathed his legs, but his chest was bare except for a star patterned tattoo, staining his chest muscles indigo and cobalt. At their approach his head swiveled, snaring the pair with a deep ocean gaze. Dryness etched Luke's throat.
"Navigator, so many years have passed, I feared you would not return."
Luke's grandfather bowed his head. "Farrier, events have been unkind, but I keep my promises. My grandson had agreed to assume the responsibility in the place of his father who died when he was a babe."
The men spoke as if Luke were a phantom, but he remained silent, remembering his grandfather's instructions only to speak when asked a direct question by the otherworld farrier.
Grass scented warmth huffed through Luke's hair. A midnight coated horse towered above his head. A white star marked the stallion's forehead.
Luke clambered up the railings, but he still had to stretch to trail his fingertips along the horse's snout. His breath caught when he gazed into the depths of the creature's starlight eyes.
Firm fingers clasped Luke's shoulder, and the farrier bowed towards the steed. "Kasper approves of you. Come inside."
The temperature in the smithy scorched the hairs inside Luke's nose, and sweat trickled beneath his tunic, but the farrier worked the bellows until the coals combusted into flames. Next, he sprinkled a handful of sand into the hearth, and the fire danced into violet and malachite hues.
"You understand, old friend, without the enchantment your life span will be reduced to mortal years?"
My grandfather nodded. "These old bones grow weary, and the pathways are becoming muddled. My time is past. Luke is young, but he is pure of heart."
The farrier studied his friend for a moment before he reached out with his palm. "Navigator, of your own free will do you relinquish your powers to your grandson?"
The old man answered by dropping his compass into the farrier's outstretched hand. "I do."
The farrier's otherworld stare scrutinized the boy, and although the being didn't touch him, a prickling sensation rippled up Luke's spine. After several heartbeats, the farrier inclined his head. "Your soul is free of darkness, but perhaps you are too young yet for any temptations to have challenged your values."
"He's a good lad. I vouch for him and will guide his path." His grandfather squeezed Luke's shoulder.
Calloused fingers gripped Luke's chin. "Are you sure you want this? It's not too late to back out and live a normal life. Be warned, once you accept you are bound for life. Each time you enter here seeking my help a non-negotiable toll must be paid."
Before crossing over doubts had plagued Luke's thoughts, but after tasting magic, he couldn't settle for a dull life on the farm when his world had been opened to the lure of other realms.
Luke moistened his lips. "Navigator blood runs in my veins. I'm young, but I'm ready."
The farrier released him. "Do I have your solemn vow you will only guide your passengers by the way of the light?"
Heart thundering, Luke focused on the compass. "I swear I'll follow the true pathways."
Light glinted off the chain as the farrier dangled the compass into the sparking coals. "Hold out your hand."
Luke flinched, expecting his skin to sizzle when it touched the metal, but the compass was cool. He didn't feel any different. Had the transfer worked?
The farrier clasped forearms with the older man. "You owe me one last favour, but I will redeem what's due at another time."
"As always it will be an honour to serve." Luke's grandfather stepped away.
"Navigator, peer into the fire."
Several moments passed before Luke responded to his new title. Within the flames, he spied a young woman's face, whose striking features seared into his memory.
"One day she will seek your skills, and when she does you must bring her to me." The farrier crossed his arms.
Questions burned in Luke's mind, but he'd been schooled on the protocols, so he suppressed his curiosity, and lowered his eyes. "As you command."
The farrier ushered them into the yard and bid them farewell. "Keep your promises, follow the light and your direction will always be true."
Outside Luke paused, blinking. A glittering path lit the way up to the portal.
Unshed tears gathered in his grandfather's eyes. "The navigator's sight is now hidden from me."
Grasping the compass in one hand, Luke held out his other hand. "Come grandfather, I will guide you home."
(Navigator is a prelude and companion scene to Fire Hooves – yet to be released.)


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Revenue Cycle Management in Madison WI
Revenue Cycle Management in Madison WI:
Next to patient care, revenue cycle management is likely the most important function of your practice. Ensuring that procedures are properly captured, coded, submitted and collected upon will define your profitability.
Many practices struggle with one or many functions of the revenue cycle – missing out on potential revenue opportunities, affecting their bottom line.
How does MedCycle Solutions Improve Your Practice's Revenue Cycle?
Our solutions are customized to the needs of each practice to assist you in the areas you need most. MedCycle Solutions helps practices of all sizes and specialties. We do this by identifying the root causes and opportunities for improvement. Our experienced revenue cycle team helps you implement workflow efficiencies which result in greater cash flow and maximized reimbursements.
Revenue Cycle Consulting
We have worked with many practices to improve their revenue cycle management process. Starting with an evaluation of current processes, we review every function of the revenue cycle in your practice. We provide feedback and recommendations on how to improve your process so your practice can be more efficient and profitable.
Practice Management & Consulting Solutions
At MedCycle Solutions we offer you relief from the daily tasks of running a business. For small and mid-sized practices, we offer solutions that are designed around your practices unique needs.
Our practice management & consulting solutions have helped practices in the areas such as:
- Denial Management
- Policies & Procedures
- Compliance
- Staffing
- Software Selection and Implementation
- Workflow Management
- Operational Efficiencies
Is RCM Outsourcing Right for Your Practice?
If your practice is experiencing one or more of the following pain points, you're a great candidate for revenue cycle management outsourcing.
High Turnover/Lack of Staffing
There's a significant investment in finding, hiring, training and retaining qualified staff to run your back office. It is often devastating when that staff takes that knowledge and goes to another practice. Our revenue cycle management solution helps fill that gap. Our team is your team.
Denied Claims
When practices experience denied claims, it often adds undue time and energy to research, fix and resubmit the claim. MedCycle Solutions' coding team are Certified Professional Coders and are able to greatly reduce the number and frequency of denied claims, saving your practice time and getting you paid faster.
Long Reimbursement Process
Often times with broken processes, reimbursement takes much longer than it should. This could be caused by denied claims, heavy workload or delayed charting. Long reimbursement affects your cash flow and ultimately, your bottom line. By reviewing every function of the revenue cycle, we work with your practice to ensure your revenue cycle is efficient and accurate, getting your practice paid faster.
Short or Long-Term Staffing Needs
Many practices experience a peak where their typical staff cannot handle the additional workload. MedCycle Solutions comes alongside your team to augment your staff for however long your practice needs the extra help.
Tap Into Our Solutions
Points of Interest in Madison WI:


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Southern Ivy Boutique
Gangster Wrapper Long Sleeve T-Shirt
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Make your presents stand out under the tree this year, and do it in the cutest shirt EVER!
- Vinyl colors: Red & Black
- T-shirt color - White
- Please select from the drop down options above the add to cart button, first for the size, second for the color t-shirt you are wanting - Be sure to check the size chart in the images.
- Add any personalization/customization info to the notes to seller section at checkout - be sure to double check your info for accuracy! This will include any changes you may want in vinyl color.
*Please note that not all t-shirt or vinyl colors shown in the color chart are available in every design. If a color is not shown in the dropdown menu as an option, feel free to reach out and ask, however it may be sold out or not available at that time.
**T-shirts are all Bella+Canvas Brand Unisex sizing. 100% Cotton for most colors and a 50/50 blend for heather and safety colors.