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By Siobhan McKeown, Smashing Magazine Feed – September 12, 2012 at 10:05AM
We all know that WordPress is awesome — but being awesome isn't always enough. Does it perform well under pressure? Can it deal with traffic from millions of visitors every month? There's no question that WordPress can be used for your or my blog, but what about multi-author blogs with thousands of comments? How do developers make it scale and perform?
I spoke with the developers behind some of the biggest WordPress blogs on the planet and asked them to tell me their secrets. Now I get to share them with you.
The Blogs
Website | Monthly uniques | Monthly page views |
Digital Trends | 10 – 12 million | 33 million |
iPhoneclub.nl | 2.5 million | 5.4 million |
The Next Web | 4 million | 8 million |
Neatorama | 2.5 million | 4.5 million |
Slashgear | 6 million | 10 million |
Hot Air | 2 – 3 million | 35 – 45 million |
Laughing Squid | Undisclosed | Undisclosed |
In The Beginning
The first thing I asked the developers was whether they prepared for the heavy traffic that now flows through their website. In almost all cases, the answer was a resounding no. From The Next Web, CTO Arjen Schat and lead developer Pablo Roman said they had planned for growth but didn't expect growth to happen on such a large scale. "There were few large WordPress sites at the time, so we learned as we went along."
Neatorama started out in late 2005 on cheap shared hosting until it got kicked out. It moved to a VPS and got kicked out again. In 2007, it moved to a dedicated server with a CDN, which eventually was insufficient, until finally it moved onto load-balanced servers with a CDN. Similar stories are echoed by iPhoneClub.nl and Laughing Squid.
Hot Air's developer, Mark Jaquith, also a lead developer at WordPress, had to migrate his website to a new server within 48 hours of launching. Only SlashGear planned for a 30% increase in traffic per year.
Digital Trends started out with around a million uniques a month and has since risen to 10 to 12 million uniques. Tom Willmot, of Human Made, the development shop behind Digital Trends, said this of starting out:
When I started work on the website, there were some pretty big performance sinks in the code base that needed ironing out. A clean code base takes you only so far, however. I don't think it's something that should be too heavily focused on at the outset as you don't know what specific features will need performance considerations. Coding well plus some persistent object caching are enough to begin with.
Server Shred And Burn
High-traffic blogs have to deal with things that regular bloggers only dream of: loads and loads of visitors, eager to read all of the latest news. Neatorama held up when it was featured on the front page of Digg, but was shredded within a few minutes of being featured on Yahoo's front page — over 2 million visits in the space of a few hours. To deal with that, it had to make a static page on a CDN and redirect traffic there.
Other blogs face challenges related to major events. Visitors flock to their websites to follow what's happening and hear the news. iPhoneClub.nl and SlashGear are particularly affected during Apple's live broadcasts. SlashGear experiences traffic of more than 4 million uniques within the two hours of a broadcast's duration; to deal with this, it adds Amazon EC2 to its normal infrastructure.
Jean-Paul Horn, whose iPhoneclub.nl started out on WordPress 2.0.5, had to learn to deal with these problems on the fly:
We used to run a standard LAMP stack with WP Super-Cache, since the site was already growing rapidly when the iPhone started to get really popular. Our main problem was that the server ran perfectly fine on normal news days, but almost literally burned whenever Apple had a keynote or another big iPhone-related announcement. We tried preparing for these short avalanches by temporarily adding more cores and RAM, but it was never really enough, and I wasn't really keen on investing in a big-ass server just for two to three days of insane amounts of Web traffic a year.
While moving to a Web server and database server with MySQL stored on a separate server helped in its continuing growth, it was still dealing with the same issues when Apple held a press conference. Enter Frederick Townes of W3 Total Cache and Mashable fame. Jean-Paul met Frederick at WordCamp Netherlands, and Frederick went on to help them set up their current configuration:
- The app server hosts the Varnish front end.
- They use two nginx Web servers: one with PHP-FRM, the other with static content, like a CDN.
- The database server runs a highly tuned MySQL server, in which some of the WordPress tables, such as
, have been transitioned from MyISAM to InnoDB. Because InnoDEV doesn't have full text search, Sphinx Search was implemented.
Jean-Paul has been using this configuration since November 2011 and has survived two major Apple events without any of the previous load issues or other performance troubles. They've also been able to accommodate more traffic and have beaten all of their previous traffic records.
Dealing With Growth
Hot Air
US political blog Hot Air has gone through some major performance and scaling sprints, particularly in advance of US election years. An election guarantees a larger than average flurry of activity around politics. Given that politics is already one of the most popular topics on the Internet, this means some hardcore scaling. Mark Jaquith explained to me the steps he has taken to cope with scaling:
- Deliver all static assets through a CDN.
- Set up a load balancer, with multiple Web back-ends behind it.
- Cache the front page proactively
- Cache page fragments (such as sidebars) proactively, so that they can be loaded statically.
- Cache recent posts proactively (mostly the ones displayed on the home page). Every time a post is updated or a comment is left, a back-end process generates a new static snapshot of the page and distributes it to the Web machines.
- Eliminate the cache differentiation between logged-in and anonymous viewers. Most caching plugins don't cache pages for logged-in users, or if they do, they cache a different version for each viewer. Hot Air's templates are modified so that there is no difference in the HTML generated for logged-in and anonymous users, so there can be one shared cache pool.
- Use Batcache (with a Memcached object cache back end) to cache views of old content.
The Next Web
As with most of these other blogs, scaling was forced upon The Next Web. The founders did plan for growth, but not on the scale they encountered. Arjen and Pablo went into detail on how they dealt with it.
The team's essential tools are:
- Varnish as a reverse proxy and for ESI (Edge Side Includes);
- Memcached to store the results of heavy queries, such as popular stories;
- Munin for monitoring.
Setting this up wasn't enough, though. All of this had to be tuned, and poorly performing plugins and code had to be identified. To do this, they did the following:
Use MySQL slow query log with
Keeping your MySQL slow logs empty is essential. Your key cache suddenly might not be sufficient anymore if your data is growing. - Use XHprof for code path analyses.
Keep Apache logs clean.
External referrers will link to pages on your website that don't exist anymore. If a WordPress 404 page is loaded every time, then you're doing work that can be avoided. Generating a 404 page can be heavy, so it needs to be cacheable in Varnish as well.
The team at The Next Web also uses additional tools with Varnish to improve cache hit rate. These include:
Lets you look into Varnish. -
varnishtop -i txurl
This shows you all of the requests that make it into Apache that aren't cached by Varnish. This helps you to identify different cases:- Whether the back end sends a header that Varnish can't cache;
- Whether the back end starts a session that isn't needed;
- Partially malformed links to your website, such as
; - Small variations of a normal request that you can normalize in Varnish, so that you can serve the standard page, such as
Their basic VCL, which normalizes many different request into the standard versions.
An essential step for The Next Web was developing the ability to serve cached content to logged-in users. To do this, it pulls in all of the user-specific parts of the page and loads these through an AJAX call. This means that content doesn't need to load all of WordPress. The developers have duplicated all of the code that is needed to handle logging in and basic user-profile stuff in WordPress into its own tiny login class. The class takes 1 millisecond to load, instead of 100 to 200 milliseconds to load through the whole WordPress stack. This prevents WordPress from loading for a trivial request, which can degrade the overall performance of your website by eating CPU cycles that should be used to render pages that are not cached. An added benefit is that WordPress can render all pages in non-logged-in mode.
This is used simultaneously as a feature of Varnish called ESI, which lets the team cache different sections of a page separately with different expiration times. This lets them show fresh content in the sidebar widgets even if the main content has a long expiration time.
Essential Plugins
- W3 Total Cache: iPhoneClub.nl, The Next Web, Digital Trends
- WP Super Cache: Laughing Squid
- WP Widget Cache: iPhoneClub.nl
- Plugin Output Cache in conjunction with Similar Posts, Recent Posts and Recent Comments: iPhoneClub.nl
Clean Options: iPhoneClub.nl
To keep WordPress' easily bloated options table tidy. -
WordPress Sphinx search plugin: iPhoneClub.nl
To connect WordPress with the open-source Sphinx search project. -
WPVarnish: The Next Web
or cache busting. -
Term Management Tools by Scribu: Hot Air
Useful for merging duplicate tags. -
Memcached Object Cache Plugin: Digital Trends
Lets you run a persistent object cache outside of PHP-APC. This is important if you're running multiple servers. - Varnish: Digital Trends
Essential Tools And Services
VaultPress: Hot Air
Real-time back-ups. - WordPress.com stats: Hot Air
- Google Analytics: Hot Air
- Chartbeat and Newsbeat: Hot Air
- A CDN: everyone
SoftLayer: Slashgear
A dedicated hosting company that Slashgear has been with for seven years. -
Cloudflare: Laughing Squid
Provides Web performance and scalability services. -
Disqus: Slashgear
Helps to socialize engagement and offset comment loads from its servers. -
Solr: The Next Web
For search.
High Levels of Caching
All of the blog owners I spoke with have high levels of caching. Digital Trends deals with this by using Akamai Distributed, Varnish and Memcached. When this is combined with user log-ins and registrations, it can be difficult to make sure that everyone is seeing what they should be seeing while caching as many things as possible.
iPhonclub.nl has to deal with a relatively high number of mobile visitors. In the past, it used WPTouch for iPhone visitors (along with its native app). The server team had to do major work with Varnish, nginx, and W3TC to keep the caches for desktop and mobile visitors separate, thus making user configuration more complex. However, later this year iPhoneclub.nl will merge with iPadclub.nl to become iCulture.nl. In addition to the merge, they are moving to a responsive design, which will better suit the new website and solve the issue of dealing with mobile visitors.
Built to Work, Not to Perform
A challenge raised by The Next Web is the actual architecture of WordPress. While using all of the options and all of the plugins is easy, they are built to work, not to perform. With every code change, you have to make sure it doesn't cripple performance.
Security is a big issue for every WordPress user, particularly for high-visibility websites. As Neatorama points out, keeping WordPress up to date isn't always enough. You also have to keep your server's operating system up to date as well.
Some websites need a huge server. (Image: Skimaniac)
Slashgear has found it challenging to scale WordPress without chucking more hardware at it. It uses a caching system, but WordPress is built to be dynamic, and caching in a dynamic environment does not always work smoothly. The developers have overcome this by modifying their plugins to use AJAX to pull live data on statically cached generated pages.
A website like Hot Air can receive hundreds or even thousands of comments for a single post. There are dozens of posts every day, and the website has been live for six years. "With that many comments," says Mark, "you really have to look at database optimization. We have a few custom plugins that intercept comments queries and rewrite them to be simpler. And you want to limit the number of queries you make against that table. For instance, I killed the 'Right Now' and 'Recent Comments' sections of the Dashboard."
As discussed regarding iPhoneclub.nl and SlashGear, Hot Air has to deal with its own major events. When a big political event is happening, just a few minutes of downtime can do damage. Mark has warning systems and automated responses in place. In the event of an problem, he can set up something to automatically fix it if it recurs or to notify him when something indicates that a performance issue is imminent.
Would You Say Goodbye To WordPress?
I asked all of the blogs whether they've ever conceived of a situation in which they would have to move beyond WordPress. Here's what they had to say.
Tom Willmot, Digital Trends
I really don't like the whole "WordPress is slow" rhetoric. It's just PHP plus MySQL — so is Facebook. It is possible to move beyond certain things that WordPress does (for example, perhaps you replace the rewrite engine with something more efficient), but to decide fundamentally that WordPress is somehow slow and needs to be gotten rid of is probably avoiding the specific issue that is the problem. Sure, there are aspects of WordPress that can be slow if you don't do anything about them, but this is far outweighed by everything that you do get.
Writers love the WordPress back end; WordPress.com runs some of the largest websites in the world. Digital Trends servers 33 million pages a month for a website that is hugely more complicated (from a technical point) than a blog.
Jean-Paul Horn, iPhoneclub.nl
I can't for the life of me think why I would want to do this. I have been using WordPress since early 2.0. My wife started iPhoneclub.nl in December 2006 on WordPress 2.0.5 and we haven't looked back since. I had some previous experiences with PHP-Nuke and Joomla, but WordPress has really grown on me for its simplicity and huge developer community.
For almost every missing piece of functionality in core, a plugin is available or so easy to patch that you could write your own theme-specific function. I evaluated both Drupal and ExpressionEngine (then called pMachine) when we faced our performance issues, but stuck with WordPress because of its extensibility and there was already a clear vision laid out for WordPress becoming more of a full-featured CMS.
The Next Web
I don't see a situation where you need to move beyond WordPress, as long as you don't fall into the trap of thinking you can do everything with a plugin.
Laughing Squid
WordPress continues to evolve along with us and is still the best platform out there for blogging. There is every indication that it will continue to be so in the future.
[We would leave] when WordPress becomes too bloated. As you can see, each major WordPress version comes with more hooks (WordPress 3.0 had a little over 750 hooks, and 3.4 has over 1500 hooks). At this point, we prefer scalability and platform robustness over features that are not commonly used.
Mark Jaquith, Hot Air
No way. Comments are the hardest thing to scale, and there are solutions for that, such as using an external service or even sharing comments between multiple tables. I haven't yet come across a problem that I didn't think could be solved, and the flexibility and extensibility of WordPress have proved invaluable.
Saying Goodbye
Why would anyone ever want to leave WordPress? One of the blog owners I spoke with was in the process of doing just that. Neatorama's e-commerce operation, NeatoShop, has grown, and it has decided to integrate the blog and the shop into one platform. This makes it possible for it to tailor its publishing process to fit its particular needs, such as scheduling and queueing multiple posts, maintaining multiple blogs with a single dashboard, cross-posting and having an inline commenting system. For Neatorama, the problem wasn't WordPress itself, but that they couldn't implement large-scale e-commerce.
I asked Alex Santoso of Neatorama why he hadn't considered using a WordPress e-commerce plugin such as WooCommerce or WP E-Commerce. Here's what he had to say:
Because e-commerce isn't just a shopping cart — there's a whole other logistics fulfilment and shipping back end to it. We grew NeatoShop from selling just 12 t-shirts to over 5,000 items today, and we had to write our own software to enable us to process (i.e. ship) orders efficiently.
I'm doubtful that you can do large-scale e-commerce with plugins. Selling a dozen items or so should be no problem, but keeping track of thousands of items in inventory, minimizing fraud, automating, and the logistics would be.
It's interesting that Neatorama feels that plugins aren't sufficient to carry out large-scale e-commerce. But how does Alex feel about WordPress as a publishing platform?
We're not moving away from WordPress because it's failing us as a blogging platform. Rather, our business evolved from being a pure publisher into a side-by-side e-commerce and blogging operation. WordPress and its vibrant community continue to be a great choice for most publishers big and small.
Learning From The Pros
It's great to hear about what all of these websites are doing, but what advice can they offer you?
Learn how to deal with servers, or get someone who does. You should know how to configure nginx and PHP-FPM, MySQL slaved with HyperDB, Varnish VCLs, and NFS. "If you don't know how to deal with the stuff in between a browser sending the request and your code running," warns Tom Willmot, "it will seriously limit you in terms of how things can be improved and also debugging issues. Server issues can be extremely frustrating; if you don't have a handle on it, it will come back to bite you."
Read and Learn
Jean Paul Horn advises that you should keep up with the latest performance recommendations, and he particularly recommends the following:
- Steve Sounders,
- Web Performance Today,
- Articles about performance right here on Smashing Magazine,
- A saved Twitter search with the #webperf hash tag.
Ask for Help
"Don't be afraid to ask for help," says Jean Paul. "The community out there is exceptional and truly supportive." Spend money hiring WordPress performance experts. This provides an excellent return on investment. If your website goes down or is unreachable, potential readers could end up with the competition. Trying to visit a website that is constantly down is frustrating for the visitor, and they won't stick around.
Shop Around
Alex Santoso suggests that you "Shop around for hosting costs. Similar hardware configurations can have vastly different pricing from different hosting companies."
Trail and Error
SlashGear suggests that you use trial and error to get your configuration right. Decide whether a plugin is really necessary. Many plugins use many resources for a simple function that could be hard-coded into the theme. "Adding new hardware and server resources isn't always the solution," said Ewdison Then, "but sometimes it's the only solution."
Optimize What Matters
Mark Jaquith recommends that you don't optimize blindly. "Find out what the biggest bottlenecks are and eliminate them. Rinse and repeat."
WordPress Performance Resources
If you feel inspired to start scaling, here are some resources to check out:
- "Scaling, Servers and Deploys, Oh My!" (video), Mark Jaquith
- "High Performance WordPress" Themes Forge
A three-part series. - "WordPress Performance Server: Debian 'squeeze' with Nginx, APC and PHP from the Dotdeb repos," Chris Olbekson, C3M Digital
- "Do-It-Yourself Caching Methods With WordPress," Milan Petrović, Smashing Magazine
- "Performance Optimization for Websites," Rene Schmidt, The Smashing Book
- "Scaling WordPress"
WordPress experts share advice on scaling
Many thanks to all of the people who contributed their knowledge to this post:
- Tom Willmot (Human Made) for Digital Trends;
- Jean-Paul Horn for iPhoneclub.nl;
- Zee M Kane, Pablo Román and Arjen Schat for The Next Web;
- Alex Santoso for Neatorama;
- Ewdison Then for Slashgear;
- Mark Jaquith (Covered Web Services) for Hot Air;
- Scott Beale for Laughing Squid;
- And thanks to Simon Wheatley (Code for the People) for a final sanity check.
© Siobhan McKeown for Smashing Magazine, 2012.


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subset: commoncrawl


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In a world of imitators, worldwide singing star Adele recently proved there can be only one genuine article.
In a hilarious stunt pulled by the BBC's Graham Norton, the singer put on a prosthetic nose, chin and concealing makeup and took on a group of impersonators.
She introduced herself as "Jenny" and disguised her voice, walk, and identity, saying she is a nanny.
As impersonator after impersonator takes the stage belting her hits, Adele spends her time backstage enjoying the ruse, commenting on the impersonators: "She's got (Adele's) hands."
And then the real Adele pretends to be sick and disappears from the audition.
The next time she's seen again, she's back on stage. The music cue begins, she misses it, saying she's a bit nervous.
And then the fun begins. Adele - the real Adele - sings. The faces on the impersonators light up one-by-one in stunned, sometimes teary-eyed recognition, and they all start singing together.
Watch the full video below.


text: Top 100 Websites That Rule The Internet Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist The 100 Websites That Rule the Internet For the full-size version of this giant infographic click here. There are over 1.1 billion websites on the internet, but the vast majority of all traffic actually goes to a very select list of them. Google.com, for example, has an astounding 28 billion visits per month. The next closest is also a Google-owned property, Youtube.com, which brings in 20.5 billion visits. Today's infographic comes to us from Vodien, and it lists the 100 highest ranking websites in the U.S. by traffic, according to website analytics company Alexa. The information is grouped by company – for example, you can see that Google controls four sites in the Top 100 (Google, Youtube, Blogger, and Google User Content), while Verizon owns the Huffington Post and AOL.com (they will also control Yahoo and Tumblr when that deal closes in Q2). The data is also sorted by industry, so sites in a similar category are grouped in the same color. A STEEP DROP OFF The dropoff from #1 to #100 is significant. Google.com has 28 billion visits, but a website like Citi.com (ranked #98) only has 53 million visits a month. That's a 500x difference! Meanwhile, a website like ours (Visualcapitalist.com) gets one million visits per month, and is ranked #33,000 in the United States – a 50x difference from Citi. Further down the trail – there are literally millions of tiny websites that get thousands or just hundreds of visits per month, and some that don't get any love at all. The whole distribution is quite fascinating, and it is clear that the spoils go overwhelmingly to the very top of the food chain. However, that also means that there is an entire world of millions of websites out there that almost no one (except Google's crawler) has ever seen.


text:
From Dusk Till Dawn
1996 · Film
Seth Gecko and his younger brother Richard are on the run after a bloody bank robbery in Texas. They escape across the border into Mexico and will be home-free the next morning, when they pay off the local kingpin. They just have to survive 'from dusk till dawn' at the rendezvous point, which turns out to be a Hell of a strip joint.
Written by
Robert Kurtzman and Quentin Tarantino


text:
Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Just a heads up to those of you who are wondering when the heck I am going to post a new recipe already around here. There is a new, summery recipe by me on The Japan Times online version today! The Japan Times is the largest English-language daily paper in Japan, and I'm happy to say that I will be writing for them occasionally about - what else? - Japanese food and cooking. The theme of this one is using food to combat natsubate, the Japanese term for "summer fatigue" or "summer lethargy" - a common malaise in most of the country, where it is unrelentingly hot and humid until about mid-October. The recipe is a very easy one to put together, essentially a meal salad with soba noodles as the base. (How to cook and rinse soba noodles properly.)
Here's an alternate shot of the salad:
It really is delicious, if I do say so myself!
I worked on the recipe before I was hospitalized, but had to finish the article itself while I was still there to meet the deadline. That meant taking the photo of the dish too. So, I had The Guy make the components at home and bring them in a cooler to the hospital, where I could arrange and style them and photograph them. A nurse came in while I was doing this - I was cutting up extra shiso at the time if I remember correctly - and I had to explain that ce n'est ne pas pour manger, c'est mon travail! (It's not for eating, it's for my work!) Fortunately it was not Madame Méchante, but one of the younger laid-back nurses, and she just laughed. Phew!
It was one of those moments when I realized that I may just be turning into a real Food Writer; who else would be crazy enough to be styling a salad in a hospital, with an IV drip in one arm, a vacuum hose dangling from my back. Surreal.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider becoming my patron via Patreon. ^_^
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Haha, that's job dedication! It looks very tasty, I'll check out the article now, congratulations!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
A tempting dish, perhaps photographed under one of the more unusual situations ever for the JT. Congratulations on publishing with them! Wow!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
You're just wonderfull! So professional! Thanks to the Guy;).Take care!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Verdict's in: you're a nutcase, and so's The Guy! :-D
That's a beautiful photograph, and the recipe is exactly what my own Guy needs for this hot, muggy NYC weather which is virtually identical to Japan's this year.
Maki, you're a wonder! thanks again for all you do!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
"... just turning into a food writer." Maki, you are the real deal. Best wishes on you continued and speedy recovery and looking forward to what you can do when you get sprung from the 'joint'.
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Recently discovered your blog while searching for a pão de queijo that did not require tapioca flour. So sad to hear that you are at the hospital! Hope you feel better soon!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Congratulations with the Japan Times!
Also, I hate to be nitpicky, especially when you provide a mouthwatering photo, but just a heads up for future reference.. it is ce n'est pas pour manger. Always remember that ne...pas/rien/whatever is placed around the verb! ^_^
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
[quote=maki]Well I do know that much. It was a typo - I make those all the time in English or Japanese too! Anyway it's been corrected.
I appreciate all the French people coming here to correct my grammar and spelling, really (gritted teeth ^_^) I don't make a habit of going around correcting English or Japanese grammar on French sites, but whatever rocks your boat![/quote]
Sorry, I don't mean to offend you. I thought you might take it as an educational tip rather than something offensive, as I thought that it was an honest mistake and not merely a typo. I would want to be corrected if I had made a mistake, and I'm sure others would want to as well, so I was really trying to be helpful (which is the least I could do since you are always helpful and informative on your blogs). Again, I am sorry.
Re: Nitpicky
Since you prefer to be corrected if you make a mistake, I just wanted to let you know that in many cultures, it it considered rude to publically correct someone if it is not essential to the discussion at hand.
Next time, if you really feel that it's helpful to correct a writer's grammar, maybe you could send an email instead. I'm sure that you are a really nice person who really did have good intentions, but grammar comments really distract from the focus of the post - delicious food! :-)
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
I really enjoyed your article in The Japan Times. It was so informative and I liked how you brought your grandmother into the story! And great photo, I can't believe you took it in the hospital hooked up to everything!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
The recipe sounds delicious, and I do have some soba in my pantry I've been wanting to use soon.
The weather in Japan would be a relief from the weather we're having here, in Oklahoma, USA, right now. Humid, and sometimes up to 108 Fahrenheit, not with the heat index. At night, if it cools down to anything below 90, we are happy. It's hotter than Las Vegas most days, and they live in a desert, we are surrounded by green hills, rivers and lakes.
In winter, it's colder than Alaska most of the time, which means you basically have to have cool cotton clothing and parkas within a couple months of each other.
(having a Wii with the WiiWeather channel is amazing, but makes me upset more often than not when I look at the global weather. I'm honestly starting to think I live in some weird geographic impossibility. no where on earth has the same weather patterns.)
But anyway, any and all cooling and fatigue fighting recipes are great this time of year. I wonder if I could bento it...
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Congratulations on the Japan Times gig - I was very happy when I saw the article. Thanks to your sites, I can actually USE the mysterious ingredients at the grocery store and not always eat pasta and pilaf. I've gotten half my foreign friends hooked on your websites - I have two jars of umeshu in my cellar, one friend makes bento worthy of a Japanese mother every day, my husband is excitedly looking up matsutake recipes as the first ones begin to appear on the shelves, another friend told me just this week how she enjoyed your recipe for ground goma dip and asparagus and I have referred my adult English conversation class to your website as an example of how to explain Japanese dishes in English. In short, I love Just Hungry/ Just Bento, and the more exposure it gets, the better! Your fan base in Gifu is very excited :-)
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Thanks for this fantastic recipe. I made it on Sunday and it was a great boost! Merci beacoup!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Thankyou so much for this article and recipe! I am in Kyoto, suffering through record highs. I didn't realise the extent of the word natsubate, until I read this. It makes me feel so much better, knowing Autumn will cure all! In the meantime, I made this salad - delicious!
Re: Combatting Summer Fatigue article in The Japan Times
Thank you for your lovely Blogs Maki. I especially enjoy the brown rice, vegetarian and vegan options as, like you, I try to be a bit healthier much of the time. Mainly so I can indulge when the mood takes me :) I was browsing through today and came across this article which is perfect timing as Perth (Western Australia) has been suffering a long, hot summer :( I will be making the Soba salad tonight!


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Kelly Clarkson Might Be Getting a Talk Show
Kelly Clarkson might be adding another role to her TV resume.
According to B&C, who first reported the news, the Grammy-winning singer, Voice coach, and all-around national treasure is filming a pilot for a syndicated daytime talk show. A network is not yet attached, but the project is being shopped around for a fall 2019 premiere, and could be sold to TV stations for syndication, air via another platform, or some combination of both. Any further details are being kept tightly under wraps.
Clarkson, who won American Idol's first season in 2002 and has since released eight albums, has been ramping up her TV and film efforts as of late. She joined The Voice as a first-time coach earlier this year and is set to return this fall. She's also slated to star alongside Pitbull in upcoming animated film UglyDolls, in which she'll voice the character of Moxy and perform original songs.
It's unclear what kind of segments Clarkson's potential talk show would cover, though she did give fans a taste of her hosting skills when she emceed the Billboard Music Awards in May. Clarkson has has yet to confirm the news directly.


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To build up a good pension and secure your future plans, you'll want to make sure you're receiving the best advice to maximise your returns.
Pension funds offer a much wider range of investment opportunities than ever before, with Self Invested Personal Pension Plans giving you greater influence over decisions relating to your funds. You can even set up a pension for your grandchildren and start saving for their future too.
Whatever your needs and wishes, one of our advisers will be able to help you review your individual circumstances and advise you on the most suitable options available regardless of your age and term to retirement.


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VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - Swimways Corp., a leading outdoor recreational products manufacturer celebrated raising more than $900,000 for charity organization Operation Smile. Over the last six years, Swimways has created nearly 5,000 smiles around the world.
Packaging for the SwimWays(r) Swim Steps product line has highlighted Swimways support for Operation Smile since 2007. Swim Steps packaging also includes a donation brochure insert featuring a special message from Swimways Corp. President David Arias, inviting consumers to make direct contributions to Operation Smile. Swim Steps is a three step program consisting of a line of floats and swim training gear for children. Swim Step 1 supports young children as they are introduced to the water, Swim Step 2 provides support as children explore the water and become more confident, and Swim Step 3's graduated support gives parents a swim training system to empower their child in the water.
In addition to packaging and print support, Swimways also supports the charity online, with direct links from Swimways.com to the Operation Smile website, and via social media. In April 2012, Swimways launched a social media campaign with a Facebook challenge to benefit the charity, donating $2 for each new "like" resulting in 11,000 new Operation Smile Facebook fans and a 171% increase in Facebook monthly revenue, funding 91 surgeries.
"We're very proud of our partnership with Operation Smile," said David Arias, president of Swimways Corp. "As a manufacturer of children's products, and parents ourselves, we believe that every child should have the ability to smile. We're honored to have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many children around the world."
Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William P Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife Kathleen, a registered nurse in 1982. At a recent Swimways Corp. meeting Dr. Magee gave thanks to the employees for their efforts. "If it wasn't for people like you all doing what you do every day, Operation Smile would not be able to do what it does," Dr. Magee said. "Swimways is part of our team, and that team takes care of kids all over the world."
This year Operation Smile launched its 30th Anniversary celebration with the change forever(tm) campaign, featuring a year-long series of events in the United States and globally. World-renowned athlete Tony Hawk stars in an interactive film which can be viewed at www.wecanchangeforever.com<https://www.wecanchangeforever.com>. In the film, viewers can upload their smile through Facebook and watch as their smile travels around the world to help a child suffering from a facial deformity such as cleft lip and cleft palate. They are also asked to take a pledge to help create greater awareness for children suffering from facial deformities.
SwimWays Swim Steps, a product line created for swim development, includes the Swim Sweater(tm), Sea Squirts Swim Assist Vest(tm), and the #1 selling Baby Spring Float(tm). SwimWays Swim Steps products are available nationwide at Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Leslies' Pool Supplies, and other retailers.
About Swimways Corp
Based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Swimways Corp is a privately owned leisure and recreational water products manufacturer whose mission is making free time more fun through innovation. It is a company rich in traditional values and respected for the quality and integrity of its products and services. With distribution in more than 50,000 storefronts, it markets three unique brands: SwimWays(r), Kelsyus(r) and COOP(r). With offices in Hong Kong and the United States, the company's diverse staff is passionate about developing fun and engaging products for kids.
About Operation Smile
Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is an international children's medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries, whose network of more than 5,000 medical volunteers from over 80 countries is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than 3.5 million healthcare evaluations and conducted over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities, as well as patients suffering from burns. To build long-term self-sufficiency in developing countries, Operation Smile trains doctors and local medical professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their own local communities, donates medical equipment and supplies, and provides year-round medical treatment through its worldwide Comprehensive Care Centers.


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Wednesday, September 13, 2006
The Hoff
Well I tried to find some way I could relate this to software development or IT but failed miserably. So I'll just say I had the pleasure of seeing the Hoff in person in Manchester today. Hoff was a super hero/idol/star for many kids in the school playgrounds in the 80s due to his role in the TV show KnightRider, myself included.
David I know you're a fan of reading websites about you so if you're reading this just post a reply message below please!
As you could imagine he was very popular and I have a old sub megapixel Sagem camera phone with digital zoom, but I managed to get a few shots. Despite my poor camera work it's clear he still doesn't look any older than in the eighties and has proven himself with his fan base to be to pulp sci-fi adventure series what Sean Connery is to Bond.
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Men's Underwear and Swimwear
Geronimo's 1861s9 Red jockstrap is built with a spacious pouch made of soft cotton and lycra fabric that wicks away sweat and provides support just where you need it. This jock offers incomparable comfort and freedom of movement. A modern soft elastic waistband with the brand logo decorates this pair.
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Copyright © 2022 Concupisco. All Rights Reserved.


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I'm currently reading my friend Lara Lacombe's fourth book — Killer Exposure. It's so dang good, probably my favorite she's written thus far. I love it, but it is destroying my sleep schedule because I "one more chapter" it all the way to way-too-late every single night. Thank goodness I'm almost done.
Lara writes exclusively romantic suspense, so it may surprise you to know that while chatting with my sister-in-law this weekend, a line from the book sprang to mind.
You see, Sister Doctor has now graduated from medical school and is officially an MD, which I guess means we can upgrade her to Dr. Sister. Yayyyy!! In honor of this big occasion, we threw a big Stankowski-style party… you know… like we do.
Dr. Sister tends to be on the humble side, which is the nice way of saying she absolutely cannot take a compliment without qualifying it, deflecting credit, downplaying it, or when all that fails, just getting super awkward.
Humility is an excellent thing and all, but when you excel as mightily as Dr. Sister has, too much can be a problem. Like yesterday, for example… she just didn't seem to be able to thank us enough. Everything was "too much" and she seemed almost stressed out by all the attention and congratulations and such. Poor thing.
That's when the line from Lara Lacombe's Killer Exposure came to mind… when the (hunky) hero gets all intense and says to the (all-too-relatable) heroine: YOU ARE NOT AN OBLIGATION. (Oh man, Owen and Hannah…)
And after thinking that over last night, that's exactly what I think yesterday's (beautiful, curly-haired) heroine (me) should have said to (the overly humble) Dr. Sister: YOU ARE NOT AN OBLIGATION. We did not have to have a party. We wanted to have a party. We wanted to celebrate what you have accomplished, to recognize your achievements, to give your friends and family a chance to tell you how crazy proud we are and how unbelievably happy we are that you'll be staying nearby. Not a hafta. A wanna.
We're all a little like all-too-relatable Hannah and Dr. Sister on her big day, though, aren't we? It's hard not to let the insecurity that plagues us all play on the second track when other people are doing or saying nice things, isn't it? Almost like our accomplishments, our big moments, are in some way a burden to other people. Why is that? Because think about it — think about those moments when you are super happy for or proud of a friend or a family member. It's not an inconvenience to you — the happiness, the pride — it's genuine. So why do we assume the worst of others? (Dr. Sister, I am not saying this to try to make you apologize for being overly humble, do you hear me? I'm merely using you as an illustrative example. Stop over-analyzing.)
I love the golden rule, the idea of treating other people as you want to be treated. But I think it's wrong to some extent. I think a better rule is to treat everyone, ourselves included, as we would treat our best friend. That's what works for me, anyway. Even my therapist says to me, and I am not kidding right now, "What would you say to Melissa if she were in your shoes?" The answer is always, of course, "I love you and you're perfect and beautiful no matter what you do!!"
For example, when I got my PhD, after all was said and done, I felt pretty crappy. Looking back on it now four years later, I can see that really, the day was quite lovely. I looked like a million bucks in my fancy dress and sky high shoes, I rocked my public defense, I survived the private defense, I earned my doctorate, my labmates threw me an amazing party, and my friends and family were all there to support me despite having to listen to me drone on about mouse vaginas for an hour (literally). All I could focus on, though, was how much I sucked because one person told me I sucked. And I cried and cried and cried…. Again, literally.
What would I have said to Melissa? I would have said: Are you freaking kidding me?! You were perfect and beautiful and have so much to be proud of!!
So much nicer.
So, Dr. Sister, and all you other doubters, myself included, accept the compliment, let yourself be celebrated, appreciate the kind words and the hugs and the gifts and the parties in your honor, and always assume that it comes from a want, a desire to show you love… you, my darling, whoever you are, are not an obligation!!
So let's just take this one more moment to celebrate Dr. Sister, MD, in all her glory! It's been a long journey, and Dr. Sister has absolutely taken the long way — not because she had to, ever, but because she is so determined to 1) do things right and 2) get every possible valuable experience she can out of her training. It's amazing. She's amazing. And the University of Wisconsin is brilliant for choosing to keep her on for her general surgery residency. So much hard work to celebrate!! Seven more years to surgeon-dom!!


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Natural Order is a System Extension that improves the sorting order that your Macintosh uses when it displays lists of items that have numbers in the name.
If you have a group of numbered files on your disk and you select "View By Name" in the Finder, you might expect the files to be displayed in sensible numerical order, like this:
Picture1.jpg Picture2.jpg Picture3.jpg Picture4.jpg Picture5.jpg Picture6.jpg Picture7.jpg Picture8.jpg Picture9.jpg Picture10.jpg Picture11.jpg Picture12.jpg
If you've ever had a group of numbered files on your disk, you'll know that the Finder doesn't do this. When you select "View By Name" what you get looks like this:
Picture1.jpg Picture10.jpg Picture11.jpg Picture12.jpg Picture2.jpg Picture3.jpg Picture4.jpg Picture5.jpg Picture6.jpg Picture7.jpg Picture8.jpg Picture9.jpg
This looks stupid, and it's because the System is just sorting the names lexicographically. By the same logic that dictates that "ab" comes alphabetically before "c" (which is correct) the System decides that "12" comes before "3" (which is stupid). D'oh! Natural Order works by overriding the System's comparison of the numerical portions of strings, and sorts them by numerical value instead of "alphabetical" value.
Drop Natural Order into the System Folder and Restart your Mac.
Natural Order works with all Macintosh System Software versions.
Natural Order works by overriding the System's IUMagString and IUMagPString functions.
Natural Order only overrides the sorting of the numeric parts of strings. It still uses your System's built-in sorting function for the textual parts of strings, so if you have your system set to some non-US sorting order, that order will still be honoured by Natural Order.
Natural Order uses the following rule to sort strings:
Because Natural Order works by overriding the System's IUMagString and IUMagPString functions, programs that use their own sorting order and do not call the System's comparison routines will not get any benefit from Natural Order.
You can get Natural Order from the usual Macintosh software archives, such as the MIT Info-Mac HyperArchive or directly from this server.
On a Macintosh, you should tell your users to install Natural Order, and you should change your software call the system's standard International Utility string comparison functions. This way the user gets the benefit of string sorting that conforms to their local language conventions, and you get the benefit of any future improvements in Natural Order without having to update your software.
If for some reason this solution is not suitable for you, you may include the Natural Order sorting algorithm directly in your software at no charge, providing that you credit my contribution in a piece of text such as a copyright or acknowledgements section that is visible to end users of the product.


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I have a couple of guava trees that are starting to flower and while noting the flowers today I saw a number of very small, black bugs hanging out on some of the leaves and stems. They look like baby flies.
I noticed there are a few leaves that have been nibbled on by insects, but overall the tree is very healthy. Are these little guys responsible? If so, what steps can I take to reduce if not eradicate them?


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Whether you've had an estate plan for years or only recently set one up, it's essential to update your estate plan from time to time. So when should you update your estate plan? That answer depends on your unique circumstances. However, most financial experts recommend that you review and revise your estate plan every three to five years or after you've undergone a significant life event. Here's a closer look at circumstances that may warrant an update to your estate plan:
A change in your marital status is the ideal time to review your estate plan. If you get married, you may want to add your new spouse to specific estate planning documents. On the flip side, if you divorced, you might want to remove your former partner from your estate plan.
It's essential to protect your children when something unfortunate happens to you or your child's other parent. That's why the birth of a child usually requires an update to your estate plan. You can also use the opportunity of updating your estate plan to name a guardian for your child.
Maybe you purchased a home, or perhaps you made a considerable investment or became a business owner. If there has been a substantial change to your finances, you must update your estate plan to reflect your and your family's new needs.
Estate planning laws may vary from state to state. While some differences are slight, others are significant and warrant changes. Things related to powers of attorney, advance medical directives, and living wills. If you move to another state or acquire a second residence there, it's in your best interest to meet with a legal professional to learn how your new state's estate laws impact your situation.
An estate plan is designed to protect your health, well-being, and finances. If you or a loved one experience a substantial change in health, it's essential to revise your estate plan. For example, if your power of attorney is a spouse whose health now prevents them from taking on the role, you may want to consider changing to someone else.
A financial professional can help you with your ever-evolving estate planning needs by reviewing your financial situation and determining the ideal strategy for your unique situation.
SWG2241771-0622a The sources used to prepare this material are believed to be true, accurate and reliable, but are not guaranteed. This information is provided as general information and is not intended to be specific financial or tax guidance. When you access a link you are leaving our website and assume total responsibility for your use of the website you are linking to. We make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at this website. Nor is the company liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, websites, information and programs made available through this website.
First Fruits Asset Management has been in the financial services profession since 2007. We work together to create a personalized financial plan. We then review and revise the plan as situations and/or goals change over time. Contact us today to learn more about how we can build a partnership with you today.


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Warning: This is the manual of the legacy Guile 2.0 series. You may want to read the manual of the current stable series instead.
Next: Error Handling, Previous: Value History, Up: Using Guile Interactively [Contents][Index]
The REPL exists to read expressions, evaluate them, and then print their results. But sometimes one wants to tell the REPL to evaluate an expression in a different way, or to do something else altogether. A user can affect the way the REPL works with a REPL command.
The previous section had an example of a command, in the form of
scheme@(guile-user)> ,option value-history #t
Commands are distinguished from expressions by their initial comma (','). Since a comma cannot begin an expression in most languages, it is an effective indicator to the REPL that the following text forms a command, not an expression.
REPL commands are convenient because they are always there. Even if the
current module doesn't have a binding for pretty-print
, one can
always ,pretty-print
The following sections document the various commands, grouped together
by functionality. Many of the commands have abbreviations; see the
online help (,help
) for more information.
• Help Commands: | ||
• Module Commands: | ||
• Language Commands: | ||
• Compile Commands: | ||
• Profile Commands: | ||
• Debug Commands: | ||
• Inspect Commands: | ||
• System Commands: |


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Export 165 results:
Author Type [ Year] Filters: Author is Arnold Jan den Dekker [Clear All Filters]
"Automatic estimation of the noise variance from the histogram of a magnetic resonance image", Physics in Medicine and Biology, vol. 52, pp. 1335-1348, 2007. Download paper (297.18 KB)
, "Automatic estimation of the noise variance from the histogram of a magnetic resonance image", in IEEE/EBMS Benelux Symposium proceedings, 2006, pp. 135-138.
, "Estimation of the noise variance from the background histogram mode of an MR image", in Proceedings of SPS-DARTS 2006 (The second annual IEEE BENELUX/DSP Valley Signal Processing Symposium), Antwerp, Belgium, 2006, pp. 159-162.
, "Estimation of the noise variance from the background histogram mode of an MR image", in Proceedings of the 25th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, Heeze, The Netherlands, 2006.
, "Robust estimation of the noise variance from background MR data", in Proceedings of SPIE Medical Imaging: Image Processing, San Diego, CA, USA, 2006, vol. 6144, pp. 2018-2028.
, "Advanced Image Processing in Magnetic Resonance Imaging", in Series: Signal Processing and Communications, vol. 27, Marcel Dekker, 2005, pp. 85-143.
, "Brain activation detection from functional magnetic resonance imaging data using likelihood based hypothesis tests", in Abstracts of the 24th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, Houffalize, Belgium, 2005.
, "Generalized likelihood Ratio tests for complex fMRI data: a simulation study", IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 24, pp. 604-611, 2005. Download paper (377.11 KB)
, "Implications of the Rician distribution for fMRI generalized likelihood ratio tests", Magnetic Resonance Imaging, vol. 23, pp. 953-959, 2005. Download paper (1.36 MB)
, "A likelihood ratio test for functional MRI data analysis to account for colored noise", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3708, pp. 538-546, 2005. Download full paper (483.15 KB)
, "Brain activation detection from magnitude fMRI data using a generalized likelihood ratio test", in Abstracts of the 23rd Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, Helvoirt, The Netherlands, 2004.
, "Construction of a likelihood ratio test for magnitude fMRI data", in 19th Annual Symposium of the Belgian Hospital Physicists Association, 2004.
, "Coregistration of Micro-MRI, microCT and microPET", in Workshop on non Invasive 3D Microscopy, University of Antwerp, Belgium, 2004, p. 16.
, "Detection of brain activation from magnitude fMRI data using a generalized likelihood ratio test", in Proceedings of the 12th European Signal Processing Conference, Vienna, Austria, 2004, pp. 233-236.
, "Generalized likelihood ratio test for complex fMRI data", in SPIE Medical Imaging: Physiology, Function, and Structure from Medical Images, San Diego, California, USA, 2004, vol. 5369, pp. 652-663. Download full paper (251.15 KB)
, "Maximum Likelihood estimation of signal amplitude and noise variance from MR data", Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, vol. 51, pp. 586-594, 2004. Download full paper (295.12 KB)
, "The performance of generalized likelihood ratio tests for complex functional MRI data in the presence of phase model misspecification", in European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ESMRMB), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004, p. 96.
, "Mapping a polyhedron onto a sphere: application to Fourier descriptors", in 22nd Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, Lommel, Belgium, 2003.
, "Maximum Likelihood estimation of signal amplitude and noise variance", in 13th IFAC Symposium on System Identification (SYSID-2003), Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2003, pp. 126-131.
, "Adaptive anisotropic noise filtering for magnitude MR data", Magnetic Resonance Imaging, vol. 17, pp. 1533-1539, 1999. Download full paper (366 KB)
, "Adaptive anisotropic noise filtering for magnitude MR data", in Proceedings of SPIE Medical Imaging, San Diego, USA, 1999, vol. 3661, pp. 1418-1425.
, "How to optimize the design of a quantitative HREM experiment so as to attain the highest precision", Journal of Microscopy, vol. 194, pp. 95-104, 1999. Download full paper (601.48 KB)
, "Model-based two-object resolution from observations having counting statistics", Ultramicroscopy, vol. 77, pp. 37-48, 1999. Download full paper (226 KB)
, "Parameter estimation from magnitude MR images", International Journal of Imaging Systems and Technology, vol. 10, pp. 109-114, 1999. Download paper (350.44 KB)
, "Quantitative HREM: viewpoints on resolution, precision, and experimental design", in Acta Cryst. A55 Supplement, Abstract M11.OE.OO5, IUCR Glasgow, Scotland, 1999.


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Quilt Details
Fabric is Kona Solids by Robert Kaufman
Pattern - Sweet Tooth, JBQ 159
Designed by me
Quilted by Angela Walters
Started on 9/4/15
Finished on 10/2/15
Quilt measures - 66" x 88"
I partnered with Robert Kaufman Fabrics to offer a quilt kit that has the exact Kona colors I used. It will be available early next year online and at local quilt shops as a quilt kit OR as a block of the month club. The kit includes all of the fabric to make the Twin size quilt top and binding.
Believe it or not... this entire quilt is machine pieced and has no Y seams!!
Here are my latest posts on each block in Sweet Tooth:
Block 1 - features an image of the Queen size option to make Sweet Tooth!
One last bit of exciting news... I have included a bonus in the Sweet Tooth book for you!! Directions on how to make the quilt in Queen size!
The book is printed in full color, and it includes templates. Check out my video ruler tutorials to help you out along the way.
Here are some process photos from when I made Sweet Tooth.
This was when I made all of the blocks. Lots of chain piecing to get the blocks finished before Quilt Market!
Binding! Can you tell I love Wonder Clips??
We took over 250 photos of Sweet Tooth to get the right shot for the pattern cover. Here are a bunch of the outtakes.
We found this fence and I knew it could be a great way to get a flat shot of the quilt.
The wind, however, had other ideas & we never got the shot we wanted.
Then we found this wall with greenery, but we had no way to secure the quilt & it kept falling down.
I wanted to try to get a higher angle so I climbed up the ladder and sat at the top of the slide.
Then I was too high, so I started to slide down to try to get a better angle. If it wasn't for the shadows on the bottom left of the quilt I might have used this photo!!
Lawrence took this photo of me at the same time that I was taking the one above!
Eventually I slid down & took this photo of the pieced back. I love how the light makes it look like stained glass!
We tried to turn the quilt around to avoid the harsh shadows, but now you can't really see any of the quilting.
Lawrence always likes to stay close when it is windy so he can catch the quilt if it starts to fall or fly away!
This photo of the back really shows off Angela's quilting. I enjoy picking a fabric for the back that contrasts with most of the front so that the quilting will really pop. I kept my label strip and pieced quilt back pretty simple for this quilt.
Our last location of the day was a friend's front steps. I had a feeling that the big deep steps would be a great place to lay the quilt.
I know I shouldn't pick favorites, but this block is the one that started it all!
Sweet Tooth will debut in shops January 2016. Be sure to share your Sweet Tooth blocks on social media using #SweetToothQuilt. I can't wait to see what you make!
© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/


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Tag Archives: IPS Massachusetts
Massachusetts Renewable energy
Here are listed many of the developers, installers and other companies exploring and promoting renewable energy sources in the state of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) – https://www.masscec.com/ – The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is a state economic development agency dedicated to accelerating the growth of the clean energy sector across the Commonwealth to spur job creation, deliver statewide environmental benefits and to secure long-term economic growth for the people of Massachusetts. MassCEC works to increase the adoption of clean energy while driving down costs and delivering financial, environmental, and economic development benefits to energy users and utility customers across the state.
Kearsarge Energy – https://www.kearsargeenergy.com/ – Kearsarge Energy is a full-service renewable energy project development, finance and holding company, with a mission to build a more sustainable world and to provide superior returns to all project stakeholders, including the communities in which company works. Founded in 2009, Kearsarge has developed and financed more than 60 MW and $180 million of solar PV projects and is rapidly growing its business in select markets across the U.S. Kearsarge Hydro & Wind ("KHW") acquires existing small and mid-sized (up to 25MW) hydroelectric projects throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic region. Kearsarge Public-Private Partnerships ("KPPP") works closely with governmental entities, non-profits, private companies, and private landowners in order to facilitate timely financing, permitting, community acceptance and resolution of all regulatory issues in developing various kinds of renewable energy projects, including hydroelectric facilities, wind farms, biogas and biomass projects. Kearsarge AD ("KAD") is developing utility-scale 1 to 5 MW anaerobic digesters at multiple sites across New England.
Boston Solar – https://www.bostonsolar.us/ – Boston Solar is the #1 residential solar contractor based in Massachusetts, with more than 4,800 installations in 10 years. Boston Solar team members are proud to power Massachusetts, a state that continues to lead the nation in solar installations. Boston Solar provides superior products, exceptional customer service, and the highest quality workmanship. Boston Solar offers residential and commercial installations across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts including cities and towns on the south shore, north shore, metro west, central mass, greater Boston, south coast, and parts of cape cod (up to Hyannis). Boston Solar is dedicated to helping customers save money while improving the environment and supporting our local community.
Mass Renewables Inc. – https://www.massrenewables.net/ – Be independent, save money, and lower your carbon footprint. Mass Renewables' goal is to provide the local community and beyond with a sustainable source of residential and commercial energy. The team believes in thinking globally, acting locally, and making the world a better place to live. Mass Renewables Inc. is a full-service Solar PV installation company. It is a family owned company that has been in business since 2009. Mass Renewables offers their customers innovative system designs that best fit their individual needs. Mass Renewables Inc. is rated the #1 solar company in Massachusetts.
ReVision Energy – https://www.revisionenergy.com/ – ReVision Energy is a full service renewable energy contracting company that provides a full range of engineering, design, installation and equipment service for homes, businesses, municipal buildings and nonprofits. ReVision Energy is fortunate to have an outstanding team of committed people creating success. ReVision Energy is the first solar company in the country to launch a dedicated and state-certified electrical training program, including an apprenticeship program.
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From the Richmond Dispatch, 10/31/1860, p. 1, c. 6
The Encampment. – It is as true as anything can be that the citizens of this free Republic enjoy military displays, considered merely as a pastime; but at present something more important is involved in the assembling of a body of seven or eight hundred cavalry at the metropolis of Virginia. The impetus that was given to military spirit by the occurrences at Harper's Ferry has not been suffered to droop, and we have now, throughout the State, a thorough and complete organization of the forces. The land is now overshadowed with ominous clouds, and none of us can tell how soon the services of the troops may be needed. Hence the experience to be derived from the establishment of Camp Lee is a consideration of no small importance to the soldiers who participate. We are advised that the First Regiment will parade one day during the encampment, and we anticipate a week of excitement commencing on the 8th of November.


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In EXIT: The Sacred Temple, you are racing through the jungle on a small island in the Indian Ocean, trying to save the professor and find the Sacred Temple before the treasure hunters do.
Only this time it's different because there are riddles within riddles hidden within puzzles. Like other EXITs before it, this game has no game board! But it also has no cards; instead, in this new addition to the EXIT series, there are four puzzles, which you will find during play and assemble one section at a time, one puzzle after another. Each puzzle creates an image that will show you what you need to find in the game and what each room looks like.
At the start of the game, all you have available to you are the puzzle bag and the decoder disk. But there are also strange items to be found within the game that may be used to help solve the riddles found in each of the puzzles.
The game ends when you have solved the last riddle and saved the Professor and the Temple!
Difficulty Level: 4 of 5.
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Belarus country flag is a vector file editable with Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. You can download SVG, PNG and JPG files.
If you are looking for an Belarus flag icon or a high resolution image, on this page you will find the best versions to download.
The colours red, white, green are used in the the national flag of Belarus.
In 1995 Belarus adopted this official flag.
The proportion of width of the flag to its length is 1:2.


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See more: Sarees
The simplicity of the body and the dressy nature of the border makes this saree a delightful blend of elegance, tradition and style. Pair this saree with a silk blouse or a cotton blouse depending on the occasion .
Sungudi Sarees look great for small family or formal functions and are a great gifting option as well.
Material : Pure Madurai Cotton
Dimensions - Length- 43 "
Blouse: Without Blouse
Care - Dry clean recommended
There might be slight variation in colour.


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In the News
San Diego Union Tribune - Port warns of sequester slowdowns: Peters uses waterfront to highlight cuts
February 18, 2013
Mark Walker
SAN DIEGO — Slower vessel and crew clearances combined with backlogs in cargo inspection and release for shipment could soon hit San Diego's waterfront, officials said Monday.
Port security could also be threatened if Congress and the White House fail to reach a deal to stave off massive federal budget cuts set to kick in March 1.
Those warnings came from Rep. Scott Peters and Port of San Diego officials as the countdown begins for the start of a decade-long, $1.2 trillion in federal budget cuts stemming from the 2011 "sequester" agreement between the White House and Congress.
Barring another last-minute deal, which appears increasingly unlikely, at least initial cuts are going to take hold.
Peters, D-San Diego, is calling called for a more reasoned approach, saying a scalpel and not a meat ax is what is needed.
"Our debt is a serious issue that we have to deal with," the former port commissioner said during a bay-side news conference at the agency's 10th Avenue Terminal. "But the way to deal with it is not through these indiscriminate cuts that happen right away and hurt our economy just as we're coming out of a national recession."
As Peters spoke, a nearby cargo ship, the "Dole Ecuador," was unloading containers of fruit, a process that Port Commission Chairwoman Ann Moore says is threatened.
"We have to make sure that federal spending cuts don't hamper the ability to move our cargo in and out of out of our two terminals in the safest and most efficient way," she said.
Moore also said cancellations or lack of new work for the shipbuilding and repair industry would ripple throughout the region.
"The greatest potential for new jobs is along the working waterfront here on San Diego Bay," she said.
Economists have warned the looming cuts could reverse the ongoing recovery from the Great Recession, leading to both government and private sector retrenchment.
While neither Peters nor port officials were able to put a price tag or job loss figure on the immediate effects of sequestration, they worried those developments are inevitable.
"It will hinder, not help our ability to be globally competitive and will cost San Diego countless jobs by taking away critical federal funding," Peters said.
San Diego's defense sector has warned for more than a year that the cuts could result in thousands of layoffs and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost contracts.
A recent George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis study projects California could lose 225,464 jobs with more than half coming from defense.
Peters said he and most of the 84 other freshman members of the House from both parties are willing to work together to stave off the cuts.
"Eighty-five of us heard the message that it's time to stop fighting and start fixing," he said. "If we can hold on to those instructions and that mood, I think we can have a big effect."
Peters later said that with no clear way emerging to avoid the beginning of the sequestration, the White House has to act.
"If the president would get involved, that would be helpful."
Peters plans to highlight potential cuts in the bio-tech and defense sectors later this week.
His drumbeat comes after House Democratic leadership urged members to highlight the effects of sequestration while they're home this week.
"The fact we are in recess is surprising and disappointing," Peters said.


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If you do not know what to look for when buying Fans Best Buy, it is not easy to make the right decision. There is a too big risk of choosing Fans Best Buy and being disappointed when you receive the product. This guide will help you.
Source: https://saifkhatri.com/best-fans-best-buy
The post Top 10 Best Fans Best Buy Comparison appeared first on Saif Ahmed Khatri's Blog.


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There are several advantages of 3reyes Casino playing demo casino slots. You can get a feel for the game and also practice for real-time games. This method is also an excellent advertisement campaign for an establishment. Additionally, it guarantees a safe session. Moreover, it increases the amount of audience for the establishment. So, you can get an idea about how reputable the casino is. Read on to discover how demo slots work. You may also find them entertaining.
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Most online casinos have a free demo version of their games. If you're a new player to the game or would casino-mrgreen.top like to try out a few games before committing to a real money account, a demo version will allow you to get a feel for the game without spending money. Although the real game is more exciting and fun, it is important to understand the rules and how to play a slot machine before making a deposit.
They are a convenient way to practice for real-time games
Playing demo casino slots is an excellent way to get a feel for the slot machines without risking your money. Real-time games come with a lot of risk and huge payouts, and a few gamblers think that playing demo slots can minimize the risks. But this misconception has cost many gamblers dearly. The best way to learn the game and gain confidence is to practice it first on a demo slot machine.
There are many advantages to playing demo games. You get to know the game mechanics and the winning potential. You can also practice on various variations of the game, which is ideal for beginners. It is important to find the right online slots for you to practice before making a real-time deposit. There are several factors to consider before deciding on a casino. These include: * How to choose a game. Try playing several games in demo mode.
They are an effective advertising campaign
When it comes to marketing casino games, creatives are essential for success. Since casino games are virtual replicas of real ones, creatives should reflect the look and feel of slot machines in Las Vegas. They should also feature recognizable elements such as coins and dollar bills. Localizing your ad copy to cater to different languages will ensure that your game is well represented by the right audience in all countries. The same goes for the ad copy.
When it comes to choosing words for your marketing strategy, research the words and phrases that resonate with your target demographic. Try different marketing strategies to find out which ones are most effective. Some people respond to Facebook ads, while others prefer SMS text messages. Make sure to try several different forms of advertising to reach as many potential customers as possible. Don't overspend on any one medium. By combining digital and traditional marketing, you'll be able to maximize your overall marketing efforts.
They are fun to play
A good reason to play demo casino slots is that they are free of cost and can help you familiarize yourself with the games. Also, you can learn about the variance of each title without risking your own money. In addition to being free, demo slots are also fun to play and do not involve any risk of losing real money. A video slot has stunning graphics and an exceptional soundtrack. It can be fun to play even if you're not a high roller.
Playing free online slots is a great way to test out different games before playing them for real. This way, you'll be able to try out the latest games before you put your money on the line. You'll also be able to test out new games before they even hit the online casinos. You'll also be able to win some free credits to try them out before you invest any real money.


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Business News
STERIS Corporation Announces Quarterly Dividend Increase of 33%
2008-07-24 14:30:00
STERIS Corporation Announces Quarterly Dividend Increase of 33%
MENTOR, Ohio, July 24 /EMWNews/ -- STERIS Corporation (NYSE: STE) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a 33% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.08 per common share. The dividend is payable September 11, 2008 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 14, 2008.
About STERIS The mission of STERIS Corporation is to provide a healthier today and safer tomorrow through knowledgeable people and innovative infection prevention, decontamination and health science technologies, products and services. The Company's more than 5,000 dedicated employees around the world work together to supply a broad array of solutions by offering a combination of equipment, consumables and services to healthcare, pharmaceutical, industrial and government customers. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol STE. For more information, visit http://www.steris.com . This news release may contain statements concerning certain trends, expectations, forecasts, estimates, or other forward-looking information affecting or relating to the Company or its industry that are intended to qualify for the protections afforded "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other laws and regulations. Forward-looking statements speak only as to the date of this report, and may be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "may," "will," "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "targets," "forecasts," "confidence," and "seeks," or the negative of such terms or other variations on such terms or comparable terminology. Many important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements including, without limitation, disruption of production or supplies, changes in market conditions, political events, pending or future claims or litigation, competitive factors, technology advances, and changes in government regulations or the application or interpretation thereof. Other risk factors are described in the Company's Form 10-K and other securities filings. Many of these important factors are outside STERIS's control. No assurances can be provided as to any future dividend payment or other financial results. Unless legally required, the Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements even if events make clear that any projected results, express or implied, will not be realized. Other potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation, (a) the potential for increased pressure on pricing that leads to erosion of profit margins, (b) the possibility that market demand will not develop for new technologies, products or applications, or the Company's business initiatives will take longer, cost more or produce lower benefits than anticipated, (c) the possibility that application of or compliance with laws, court rulings, regulations, regulatory actions, including without limitation the previously disclosed FDA warning letter, certifications or other requirements or standards may delay or prevent new product introductions, affect the production and marketing of existing products, or otherwise affect Company performance, results, or value, (d) the potential of international unrest or effects of fluctuations in currencies, tax assessments or rates, raw material costs, benefit or retirement plan costs, or other regulatory compliance costs, (e) the possibility of reduced demand, or reductions in the rate of growth in demand, for the Company's products and services, and (f) the possibility that anticipated cost savings may not be achieved, or that transition, labor, competition, timing, execution, regulatory, governmental, or other issues or risks associated with the matters described in this release may adversely impact Company performance, results, or value.
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Each breast has 15 to 20 sections, called lobes. They are arranged like the petals of a daisy.
Each lobe has many smaller structures called lobules. These end in dozens of tiny bulbs that can make milk.
The lobes, lobules, and bulbs are all linked by thin tubes called ducts.
These ducts lead to the nipple in the center of a dark area of skin called the areola.
Fat fills the spaces between lobules and ducts.
There are no muscles in the breast, but muscles lie under each breast and cover the ribs.
Each breast also contains blood vessels and vessels that carry lymph. The lymph vessels lead to small bean-shaped organs called lymph nodes. These lymph nodes are found in clusters under the arm, above the collarbone, and in the chest. They are also in many other parts of the body.


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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Singer Chris Brown walked off stage after his concert in Florida and into the hands of waiting deputies, who arrested him on a felony battery charge involving a nightclub photographer last year.
Tampa Police released more details about the battery warrant on Friday after Brown posted $2,000 bond to be released from the Palm Beach County Jail.
The warrant accuses Brown of hitting a Bennie Vines Jr., who was hired by a club in Tampa to take pictures during an event hosted by Brown in April 2017.
Vines told officers Brown punched him while he was snapping photos. Brown was gone by the time officers arrived that night, and Vines refused medical treatment, but he told the officers that he wanted to prosecute over a minor lip cut.
Emails to Brown's agents weren't immediately.
The entertainer is in the middle of his Heartbreak On A Full Moon Tour and was scheduled to perform in Tampa Friday night.
Brown has been in repeated legal trouble since pleading guilty to the felony assault in 2009 of his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, ahead of the Grammys. He completed his probation in that case in 2015.
In 2013, Brown was charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly striking a man outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. He was ordered into rehab but was dismissed from the facility for violating its rules.
Brown spent 2½ months in custody, with U.S. marshals shuttling him between Los Angeles and the nation's capital for court hearings.
After he completed court-ordered anger management classes, Brown was accused of throwing a brick at his mother's car following a counseling session.
After Brown posted a picture to his 44 million Instagram followers in January showing his 3-year-old daughter, Royalty, cuddling with a pet monkey, California fish and wildlife agents seized the capuchin monkey named Fiji from his home in Los Angeles. Agents said then that Brown could face a misdemeanor charge carrying up to six months in jail for lacking a permit for the primate.


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380 East Court Street, Atoka, OK 74525
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
In a riveting new thriller, worldwide bestselling suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark weaves the mystery of twin telepathy into a mother's search for a kidnapped child, presumed dead.
Margaret and Steve Frawley celebrate the third birthday of their twin girls, Kelly and Kathy, with an afternoon party in their new home, a modest fixer-upper in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
The evening of the twins' birthday party, Steve and Margaret attend a black-tie dinner in New York. When they return home, the police are in the house, and they are told that the babysitter had been found unconscious, the children are gone, and a note demanding an eight-million-dollar ransom had been left in their room.
Steve Frawley's firm, a global investment company, agrees to pay the ransom. The kidnapper, who identifies himself as the "Pied Piper," makes his terms known -- on delivery of the ransom, a call will come, revealing the girls' whereabouts. The call comes, but only Kelly is in the car parked behind a deserted restaurant. The driver is dead from a gunshot wound and has left a suicide note, saying he had inadvertently killed Kathy and had dumped her body in the ocean.
At the private memorial Mass for Kathy, Kelly tugs Margaret's arm and says: "Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now." More unexplainable occurrences follow, indicating that Kelly is in touch with Kathy. At first, no one except the mother believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. As Kelly's warnings become increasingly specific and alarming, however, FBI agents set out on a search for Kathy. The novel reaches a breathtaking climax as they close in on the Pied Piper and his accomplices, while Kathy's life hangs by a thread.
In delving into the well-documented but still unexplained phenomenon of twin telepathy, Mary Higgins Clark tells a spellbinding tale that takes us deep into the minds of her characters while lifting us to the heights of suspense.
This hardback book is in great condition and weighs 14.5 oz.
380 East Court Street, Atoka, OK 74525
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
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Main Stud Kit for Chrysler 318-440 Wedge (12 pt nuts)
Ships Direct from ARP - 3-5 Day Lead Time
For rush orders please contact to check availability
There are many important reasons to use ARP main stud kits, including the elimination of main cap walk and fretting, as well as protecting the threads in your engine block. All kits come complete with hardened parallel-ground washers and high quality nuts. Some applications have provisions for mounting windage trays and have specially designed standoff studs with serrated lock nuts to position the windage tray and lock it securely in place. The studs are manufactured from 8740 chrome moly steel, heat-treated in-house to 190,000 psi tensile strength, and precision J-form threads rolled after heat-treat to create a fastener that has threads 2000% stronger than others.
- Material: 8740 Chrome Moly
- Finish: Black
- Material 2:
- Finish 2:
- Origin: USA
Returns Policy
You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).
You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).
If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the 'Complete Orders' link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.
We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.
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Sarah Low and Brian Donovan who are currently working at the RAF Northolt project visited local primary school, Ruislip Gardens Primary School, to deliver Road Safety Awareness Talk.
Sarah and Brian discussed the dangers of using the roads and the ABCs of Road Safety – Awareness, Behaviour and Choices. The children were engaged, curious and had many questions for Sarah and Brian.
Sarah and Brian thoroughly enjoyed visiting the school and presenting to a full assembly hall of children.