text: Build your next cosplay in a 6000 sq foot maker space! Get 8 hours of access to WiFi, 3D printers, dremmels, hot glue, belt sanders, large tables, sewing machines & much more. But best of all, get acquainted with skilled cosplayers just like you, that you can bounce ideas off of or can help take your props/costumes to the nest level.


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Author: Abbie St Claire
Genre: Contemporary Romance
A woman whose past holds her hostage…
A man who can't let the past go…
A favor that brings them together again…
Pro fisherman, Stephan Hart let the best thing in his life get away. When Wrenn Cunningham ended their relationship, she was broken. He was shattered.
At age 17, Wrenn suffers a tragic event at the hands of her father in the barn on their property. When he dies, he takes their secret to his grave. To others, Wrenn's small-town life in Arkansas might appear boring, but in reality, it's far from easy. The daily physical and financial struggle to help her mother keep their ranch after her father's untimely death begins to take a toll. Receiving a nursing school scholarship to a North Texas University means a chance to move away from her tiny existence and start over. It means a chance to leave her secret behind.
If only life was that simple… Nightmares find you no matter where you are.
Author Bio
I've spent many years crafting stories in my brain. Finally, after the encouragement from those that love and support me the most, I put my first story out by self-publishing in 2013.
That first milestone created a writing monster in me that couldn't be stopped and filled a void I cannot explain. Each story is a true gift from my heart and a sacrifice from my soul, since I find it difficult to let the characters go.
At home in Texas, my husband and I share our life with children that mean the world to us and include a couple of fur babies. When we aren't busy watching sports and betting on the game, we are entertaining with friends.
I do have a writing cave, but honestly, most of my work comes from the kitchen, the heartbeat of any home. Since noise doesn't disturb me too much when writing, I can write and keep the pulse on the family at the same time. And… Possibly enjoy my favorite, sinful treat… Cookie dough!
The writer-reader world is my lifeline. I'm addicted and each time I get a message from a reader, I'm thrilled. There's quite a few stories planned for the next several months. I'm hoping the readers fall in love with my next series, The Creek Series. A story that is guaranteed to bring out all the emotions.
Social Links
Buy Links
Other Books in the Series:
Forgiveness Creek
Pre-Order (releases 11th November)
Redemption Creek
Pre Order (releases 25th November)

subset: commoncrawl


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Healthcare Insurance Industry's' New Business Model Is Wrong.
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
One percent of the people spend 25% of the healthcare dollars. Twenty percent of the people spend 80% of the healthcare dollars.
It would be important to know why this is true. Then figure out what could be done about it Stakeholders need to agree on a course of action.
It would be a good idea to understand what physicians think should be done.
"One percent of patients account for more than 25 percent of health care spending among the privately insured, according to a new study. Their medical bills average nearly $100,000 a year for multiple hospital stays, doctors' visits, trips to emergency rooms and prescription drugs."
The 1% and the 20% are suffering from complications of a chronic disease.
The incidence of chronic diseases is on the rise in the United States. A major precipitating factor for this is obesity.
The incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is increasing in both adults and young children, as the incidence of obesity is increasing.
The incidence of complications of Diabetes Mellitus will increase in the future. The result will be an increase in the cost of medical care.
President Obama's healthcare reform act will expand healthcare coverage to 32 million uninsured in 2014. Obamacare is forcing the healthcare insurance industry to change its business model in order in order to remain profitable.
Premiums are out of the reach of most businesses and individuals. Premium increases are not an option.
High-risk individuals are denied healthcare insurance coverage. High-risk patients automatically get coverage in corporate healthcare plans. The healthcare insurance industry simply raises premiums on corporate groups in order to maintain its profits.
Something must be done to decrease the increase in chronic disease and its complications.
The government cannot afford to insure its present patient obligations much less the 32 million uninsured.
"As the new federal health care law aims to expand care and control costs, the people in the medical 1 percent are getting more attention from the nation's health insurers."
Twenty percent of the population not 1% should be getting the attention of the healthcare insurance industry.
"Studies have already shown that Medicare spending is concentrated on a small group of individuals who are seriously ill.
An analysis by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, the research arm of IMS Health, a health information company in Danbury, Conn., provides a rare glimpse into the medical problems of people with private health insurance that are under 65.
About three-quarters of them suffer from at least one chronic condition that could spiral out of control without proper care."
Most of these people were obese.
The healthcare insurance industry cannot avoid these patients after 2014.
"Insurance companies will be required to enroll millions of new customers without the ability to turn them away or charge them higher premiums if they are sick. They will prosper only if they are able to coordinate care and prevent patients from reaching that top 1 percent."
The healthcare insurance industry realizes it must fundamentally change its business model.
The healthcare insurance industry has a problem developing a new business model that would work. The industry does not want to lose control over patients, their physicians and the monies paid into the healthcare system.
The healthcare industry does not have a clue about how to actually repair the healthcare system. It is focused on its own bottom line rather than looking at business models that will be beneficial to everyone and align all the stakeholders' incentives.
The healthcare insurance industry is planning on instituting programs that will tinker with the edges. It will not fix the problems.
The new business models will increase the percentage of money the insurance industry receives for direct patient care maintaining a Medical-Loss ratio of 15%. There is no interest in providing patients with financial incentives and a choice.
The net result will be higher costs and system failure. The weird thing is most of the healthcare insurance industry executives know it.
"The reality is if we don't figure out how to get to the patients, we're not going to get where they need to be," said Dr. Lonny Reisman, the chief medical officer for Aetna.
The reality is that the system must be consumer driven with consumers in charge of their healthcare and their healthcare dollars.
At the moment patients have no incentive to decrease the cost of care. Hundreds of patients have told me that they go to the doctor to fix their illness. Medicare or their insurance pays. The patients have no idea of the costs they incur nor do they care. They have no interest in controlling their disease.
My ideal medical saving accounts would give the patients incentive to learn about their disease. They would be interested in self-managing their disease with the physician and his medical care team being the coach.
"The next challenge, say insurers, is to figure out how best to work with a person's doctor. Because many of these patients seem to be seeing many doctors and taking many medications, there may be no one who is accountable for the patients' overall health."
Physicians have figured out what services get paid by the healthcare insurance industry. They do not get paid for educating patients about their disease.
The healthcare insurance industry and the government have developed a punitive bureaucracy.
An attempt is being made to penalize or reward physicians for medical outcomes. Pay for Performance (P4P) is a punitive payment system. It will fail.
Patients are responsible in large part for the onset of their medical problems and in controlling their medical outcomes. Physicians cannot be responsible for patients' outcomes. It is the responsibility of the patient.
"Insurers are also still grappling with their understanding of human nature — why some people simply don't take care of themselves or take their medicine or go to the doctor, even when it is clear that they should."
Patient outcomes have nothing to do with human nature. It has everything to do with financial incentive and effective education.
Spokes 5 and 6 of my future state business model has everything to do with patients' responsibility for caring for their disease and the physicians' responsibility to the patients. It has nothing to do with physicians' and patients' responsibility to the healthcare insurance industry or government.
The opinions expressed in the blog "Repairing The Healthcare System" is, mine and mine alone
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Here in north Texas, marching bands are large and competitive with their own cultures. My daughter's high school band has around 260 kids. They are a competitive band and the competitions are extravaganzas of massive orchestration. The complexity of the shows is stunning. My little high school band had only a couple of dozen kids and they just wore green polyester and marched in straight lines with the odd occasional left turn.
My daughter's band, however, can take up nearly an entire football field when standing still and they quickly form large patterns like their high school's letters while marching sideways and backwards in intertwining lines. The complexity of a set's mechanics are almost a distraction from the performance itself. These elaborate band shows are modeled through software, but the execution is managed by section leaders and band directors. While directing by instrument and other organizational break-downs help make it easier to coordinate, in the end, the band has to operate together.
I use the opening act before band performances to process my working day. (The warm-up is an avant garde experiment with time displacement where giants donned in ceremonial faux-armor group, struggle, and regroup while searching for a pointy leather balloon. The surreal part of the performance is there is a clock that slows down, teasing you with the Theory of Relativity.) As I decompress and have sensory input outside of a computer screen, I reflect on Agile, Scrum, and the nauseating smell of liquid arena cheese.
I'm less enamored with Agile and Scrum as of late. I just don't think it's a one-size-fits-all system. The transition from Waterfall to Agile has been a little ugly. The unforeseen consequences are rearing their heads as we spend copious blocks time fixing things we broke in haste to make dates.
For example, with Waterfall, we had accounting systems that tracked project numbers. It wasn't perfect, but if you knew the project number, you could search any internal system and find documents, diagrams, code, etc. Now, project numbers are peripheral. Those same systems (e.g. our testing and bug tracking system) are free-for-alls. The taxonomy of projects is based on whatever the person entering the data thinks of. It could be project name, number, or cutesy Scrum names you only know if you're on those teams.
Agile is like vaguely written legislation. It's open to interpretation and abuse. Part of the problem lies in the Agile Manifesto, published in 2001. Each tenant of the manifesto is utopian and lacks specificity. Agile is one of the best, neutral (i.e. not religious or political) examples I can think of demonstrating how philosophical underpinnings affect the execution of an idea. Unless the organization has absolute cultural practices that supersede process ambiguity, then things will stop getting done with each new process, for example, documentation.
Organizations who don't have a strong content strategy embedded in its culture will lose knowledge when processes don't unconditionally require matters of record.
Traditional software development methods seem clunky. Gathering and writing requirements is perceived to be arduous. Agile software development is a convenient excuse to shortcut research and documentation. On the surface this seems like a good idea. Who reads the requirements anyway?
Basic software documents like requirements, use cases, user studies, etc. have quick expiration dates. There's no question about it. But it's not the documentation that's important—it's during the exercise of producing traditional documentation when the magic happens. When business analysts work with developers to determine technical constraints, for example, they are providing context for everyone. Yes, this takes time, but the consequences of not going through those exercises is a future full of reconstructing knowledge often, meetings with the only goal of clarity, arguments over semantics, and a disregard for complexity and nuance.
There's fast and then there are aimless, spastic, endless releases. The more release cycles are sped up, the more things we drop to meet deadlines. The larger the scale of software, the more complex its environment. While mobile apps lend themselves well to Agile, large enterprise applications interconnected with other large enterprise applications have layers of complexity you can't deal with in a six-week sprint. At what scale does ambiguity across dozens or hundreds of autonomous teams no longer function?
I often feel Agile in large enterprises is like a big marching band without a planned show. We are all out on the field and left to our own autonomous teams who are trying figure out where to go to form the letter "T." There is a band director and drum major signaling to us but they keep looking at the visiting team's band for queues so we can improvise competitive moves. Then every once in a while the school's principal shows up and yells at us maneuvers the district's administration wants added into the show. And, by the way, we need to stop using one-third of the field because they've decided to add folding chairs there. Apparently we aren't maximizing the potential revenue of the stadium.
Back in my Air Force days, I marched in the honor guard. Four of us worked together to present the flags at ceremonies. We were flexible enough to fall in with larger parades or individually, we could march with members from other services (i.e. the Army, Navy, and Marines). I know how to march and I have a snappy salute to boot. But I would never hold up in my daughter's band because I learned military rather than band marching, the scale is much greater, and the purposes of each are distinct (not to mention considerable time has passed since then, but let's keep our eyes on the pointy balloon).
Orchestration of so many people is strategic, not tactical. The trick, I think, is to work the process most applicable to the scale of the project. Using different methods for different circumstances, planning scalable processes, setting absolute standards for matters of record, and paying attention to what is and isn't working are all more in the spirit, rather than the letter of Agile.


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Slide 1 - my ever present microscope graphic (courtesy of Balázs Turai) with tinyurl link in homage to the diggers of Kokoda on the eve of ANZAC day (CoCoDER was already taken!).
Slide 2 - 7.30 Report from 4th Dec 2007 featuring Kevin Rudd, Mark Pesce and principals discussing the DER (post-election). Nice quote from Pesce that providing every student with a device will force the issue with teachers, policy makers and curriculum design.
Slide 3 - A Digital Education Revolution policy document (Rudd, Smith & Conroy, 2007 (pre-election)
Slide 4 - Melbourne Declaration (MCEETYA, 2008)
Slide 5 - back in 2008 I moved from being a Physics teacher in one school to eLearning Adviser to many schools, right at the outset of the DER. As such I had Principals, Consultants and Directors asking me what would happen to their exam results now every student would have a laptop? My boss said that sounded like a PhD thesis. At the same time I was offered postgraduate study with the Sydney University Physics Education Research (SUPER) group following my work with them developing an interactive Thomson's Experiment for HSC Physics as part of the Australian Multimedia for Physics Students (AMPS) program. Accordingly I applied to research the impact of the DER in CEO Sydney through SUPER.
Slide 6 - originally, the main phrase banded around was the National Secondary School Computer Fund (NSSCF) rather than the DER, looking to move to a 1:1 computer to student ratio. There were to be two rounds, 1 & 2, beginning in 2008 and 2009 respectively, operating for 4 years each. However, due to negotiations between DETNSW and the federal government, Round 2 was pushed back to later in 2009 and became Round 2.1.
Slide 7 - CEO Sydney got involved straight away, accessing Round 1 funding for half of its secondary schools and Round 2(.1) funding for the other half. Every year 9 student was provided with a Federally funded Macbook or HP laptop. The schools had to bite the bullet and find funds (not budgeted for) to provided the teachers with the same laptops. CEO Sydney had to foot the bill for wireless infrastructure and tech support (though the DETNSW negotiations may have retrospectively covered this). These devices were issued to every Year 9 student over 4 years to be used until the end of Year 12. As such, some will still be in use until 2015, though no new DER devices have been issued since 2012.
Two unique epochs occurred in 2009 and 2011 where, due to only half of the students receiving laptops in 2008, we had a situation where half of the School Certificate candidature in 2009 and again for the HSC candidature in 2011 had been schooled with 1:1 laptops and half without. These epochs represented unique, never to be repeated, dichotomous scenarios to compare students with laptops to those without. Unfortunately, I was unable to begin my research in 2008/2009 (due to not being Australian enough as a then Temporary Resident!). However, after Permanency (and subsequently Citizenship) I started in July 2010, and thus was able to capture the 2010 data and importantly the 2011 dichotomous HSC epoch data.
Slide 8 - Visible Learning (Hattie, 2009). Most studies have historically compared classes with and without technology and not different ways of learning with technology. We are investigating both.
Slide 9 - Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform (Fullan, 2011). "Pedagogically vapid" is a great phrase. The full statement is important as it emphasises that student performance is about teaching and learning, not the tech. (Fullan was relatively technophobic up to 2011. However, from 2012, in 'Stratosphere', he sees the opportunities technology potentially offers to teaching and learning).
Slide 10 - Laptops for Teachers: Practices and Possibilities (Cowie et al, 2011) - a more positive quote alluding to the new opportunities potentially provided to teaching and learning with laptops.
Slide 11 - The 3 papers so far from DECNSW on DERNSW by Sarah Howard et al from the University of Wollongong. (I envy the time and hence efficiency with which Sarah can work - my 2010 data analyses are appearing in 2013...). Peter Goodyear who leads the USyd Sciences and Technologies of Learning (STL) network and invited me to speak at CoCo was instrumental in setting up the DERNSW evaluation program and is a mentor to Sarah Howard.
Slide 12 - The 16 secondary schools I work with and surveyed in South-West Sydney and the Shire.
Slide 13 - School Profiles - quite a spread in SES and ESL, all non-selective.
Slide 14 - Response Rates - very nice :) It helps having a relationship with the schools to encourage participation. Anonymisation of data and an obsession with objectivity will ensure no bias (the results published so far demonstrate this, I want to tell an honest story not butter up my colleagues with faux research).
Slide 15 - First paper published thus far, second one pending. Results of both discussed below.
Slide 16 - Some questions paraphrasing those in the first paper.
Slide 17 - Questionnaire Tool (using Google Doc Forms)
Slide 18 - Bubble Diagrams for 3 teachers in the same department - 2 very similar and well aligned to their students, one very different and quite misaligned.
Slide 19 - Misalignment Index discussed with results
Slide 20 - Graph of Misalignment Index versus average Likert response for all teachers (split as Round 1 (2 years' experience) and Round 2 (1 year's experience)). The spread and trend are very similar for both groups. Those with higher average Likert responses had lower MI i.e. teachers utilsing and expecting greater use of laptops were more highly aligned with their students i.e. the students follow suit.
Slide 21 - Graphs for Student v Teacher responses for the 4 questions. Greater alignment between teacher expectation of laptop use in class/homework and student reported use (bottom two graphs) than between teacher practices of bringing their laptop to school/class and student practices (top two graphs).
Slide 22 - Empirical Alignment Graph - along with the Misalignment Index, the Empirical Alignment Graph could be used by any researcher when comparing teacher responses/activities with student responses/activities. Do you agree?
Slide 23 - Second paper 'in press' - some of the questions discussed.
Slide 24 - Bloom's Digital Taxonomy (reproduced with permission from Andrew Churches - thanks Andrew!)
Slide 25 - Questionnaire Tool (again using Google Doc Forms)
Slide 26 - Frequencies of use for all applications for teachers and students - note the disparity for Simulations in particular.
Slide 27 - Frequencies of use for 3 most enjoyed - note how students out report teachers for blogging, video editing and podcasting (higher order activities)
Slide 28 - Frequencies of use for 3 used most often - word processing, internet research (googling) and electronic text book reported in that order by both teachers and students (usually low order activities)
Slide 29 - Summary of Findings - note, though few students experience simulations, those that do really enjoy them.
Slide 30 - Summary of Findings continued - note issues with BoS. However, in all of these results it is very important to note that this data is from 2010, only one or two years into using 1:1 laptops for these teachers. Three years on from that the classrooms should look quite different (some researchers will have to investigate :)
Slide 31 - Quote from Halverson and Smith (2009) - a great quote highlighting that in some classrooms/schools/systems technology can be manipulated to simply maintain the status quo.
Slide 32 - Current Research - overview of current analysis of 2011 HSC dichotomous data, directly relating to the student performance (dependent variable).
Slide 33 - Whetting people's appetites with the early results - we have significance and correlation, but not saying what :)
Slide 34 - References for this presentation, many more in the papers.
Slide 35 - Acknowledgements - have Ethics Approval form CEO Syd and USyd and greatly appreciate the participation and openness from the teachers and students!
Slide 36 - love the quote attributed (though not definitely) to Tagore and the augmented reality pic from turkletom.
With the second paper to be published soon there will be far more detail for readers to cogitate if they so wish. Any dialogue/feedback would be greatly appreciated.
For me, the highlight of presenting at CoCo was the discussion that ensued during the seminar (and has continued subsequently) with the excellent researchers, educators and student teachers that I met. Many thanks to Peter Goodyear for the invitation, Pati Paez and Maryam Khosronejad for the organising and Martin Parisio for the webcasting.


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Race up "La Cuchilla" at GFNY Bogota
GFNY, the global endurance sport series, is coming to
Bogota, Colombia on July 17, 2022!
The Course
The GFNY Bogota course starts and finishes in the charming town of Guatavita, at an elevation of 2725m. You'll warm up your legs as you make your way to Sesquile, a nearby colonial town, and back, over a relatively flat 40km. You'll enjoy the beautiful views of Guatavita Lake and lush greenery covering the rolling hills of the Bogota savanna.
The course then takes a left turn onto Calle 8, which is the beginning of the first major challenge: La Cuchilla, from Guasca. Starting at 2625m, this 14km-long ascent will 735m of climbing wow you with beautiful, rich, green Andes mountain views and numerous switchbacks. The scenery will help distract you from the challenge in your legs and lungs as you make your way to La Cuchilla's summit at 3360m.
Once at the top of Cuchilla, put on your jacket or vest for the descent. The medium distance riders turn around and head back to the finish line in Guatavita, while the long distance riders take on the fast and beautiful descent down the other side of La Cuchilla, which is arguably the most beautiful part of the course.
The 20km descent will provide some recovery, but will drop you to the lowest point of the course, at 2390m. From this side, the La Cuchilla climb will be that same 20km you just descended and 1025m of climbing.
Once you reach the summit of La Cuchilla, it's just 25km until the finish line in Guatavita, but the race is not over yet. The 14km descent will make you work, with its turns and switchbacks. At the bottom of the descent, find a group to cover the fast, flat, and straight 7kms before the final challenge of the day. The final 3km climb to the finish line in Guatavita has a manageable 3.4% average, but after racing almost 120km with 2500m, the climb will put a sting in your legs. There will be a total of 6 fully stocked aid stations on the race course, especially at the top of La Cuchilla.
Back in Guatavita, a festive post-race celebration with finisher medals, music and awards awaits. Check out the local crafts market and all that Guatavita has prepared for GFNY Bogota athletes to celebrate your accomplishments on this amazing day.
Long Route – 121 Km / 2565m+
Medium Route – 81 Km / 1475m+
About Bogota
Bogota is the capital of and largest city in Colombia. It's a place of convergence for people from all around the country, making it diverse and multicultural, the "melting pot" of Colombia. This diversity drives a fascinating cultural, culinary and social way of life that makes for an exciting and memorable visit that you'll want to repeat.
Within Bogota, the past and present come together from the commanding Andes mountains, to the colonial architecture to the modern high-rises with trendy decor. And you'll enjoy this unique combination as part of your GFNY Bogota race: the pre-race expo takes place in Bogota, but it's the nature outside Bogota that you'll enjoy as part of the race course, including the famous La Cuchilla mountain at above 3000m altitude.
About Guatavita
Guatavita, the host town of the start & finish festivities for GFNY Bogota, is a 1hr drive from Bogota and is an architectural heritage site. With its colonial architecture, cobble streets, crafts market and Central Square, take some time in the days before the race to combine a course recon ride with sightseeing this charming town.
GFNY Perks
All riders receive the official GFNY race jersey, which is mandatory attire at the race. The jersey is designed in NYC and Made in Italy.
Every GFNY Bogota finisher receives a medal, no matter which distance they complete. All finishers also earn a "Finish" towards their 3×2022 GFNY medal or the 10x lifetime medal. Go to gfny.com/medals for more information on GFNY's multi-finisher medals.
The top 10% of finishers in all age groups riding the long course qualify for the front corral start at the GFNY World Championship NYC.
Bogota's El Dorado International Airport (BOG) is the central hub of Colombia. It's a modern airport with Duty Free shopping, free Wifi, money exchange and a handful of restaurants and bars. With daily International and domestic flights from many major cities around the world, you will find traveling to Bogota to be an easy trip. Some of the main airlines that fly into Bogota include:
- United Airlines
- American Airlines
- Delta
- Spirit
- Copa Airlines
- AeroMexico
- Avianca
- Wingo
*All foreign travelers need to fill out a small online form before entering the country as per immigration policy.
Tags: LatAm


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Cast iron merchandise bookends.
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Luke Bryan Has More Farm Animals Than He Can Count, and New Ones Show Up Every Day
Luke Bryan fans likely know that the country superstar has a large property complete with a farm and extensive animal housing, many of which were adopted as part of Brett's Barn, an organization established by the singer and his wife, Caroline.
But not even the biggest fans know exactly how many animals are currently residing on the Bryan's property — because the singer himself isn't even sure!
"A new animal shows up, like, every day," Bryan explains during a recent appearance on ABC talk show Live With Kelly and Ryan. "We have donkeys, pot-bellied pigs, pet turkeys ... it goes on and on and on. Llamas, miniature goats. All this miniature stuff."
As for the cost of transporting, feeding and housing all the animals? Bryan prefers to remain in the dark about that aspect of farm management, too.
"I told my accountant, 'Whatever you do, never let me see the bill for all these animals. I'll be done," he adds with a laugh.
While the animal family members add plenty of joy and levity to the Bryan household, they're there for a good cause: Brett's Barn is an aspect of the couple's Brett Boyer Foundation, which was created in memory of Caroline's niece, Sadie Brett Boyer, who died at 7 months old from complications of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD). The foundation's mission is to raise awareness of CHD, as well as supporting research for the disease.
Brett's Barn was inspired by her decision to fulfill a promise to her infant niece, and adopt a white pony that the family found at a local rescue facility. From there, the barn quickly grew into a menagerie that now houses goats, donkeys, kangaroos, dogs, horses, llamas and more. The family has also since partnered with hospitals such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to invite children out to the farm to visit the animals.


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Berit Sahlström, a Swedish professor in African Studies claims in her article from 1996 that Edward Saidi Tingatinga was born in Mozambique. The Tingatinga Arts Co-operative (TACS) and family of E.S Tingatinga disagree with the Mozambique link. In fact Berit Sahlström starts her article with Mozambique. Once there was a man called Eduardo S. Tingatinga. He was born in Mozambique, but during the 1960s he established an art form that became associated with his new homeland, Tanzania. (see http://art-bin.com/art/atingae.html)
When Tingatinga´s children Martina and Daudi and TACS decided to write to Berit Sahlström she refused to change the birthplace of E.S.Tingatinga to Tanzania where he was really born. She told that Tanzania could have a political interest to claim the Tingatinga art to be its national identity though it comes from Mozambique.
Daudi (left) and Martina (right) should notice that their father came from Tanzania and not Mozambique
Unfortunately the article which is otherwise very informative, is copied all over the world and it has been spread among galleries, museums, literature, catalogues etc. Many people think that Tinga Tinga art has really originated in Mozambique. Unfortunately the disinformation has also been copied by international media because Tiger Aspect Production plans to launch globally a series of 52 films called Tinga Tinga Tales. Tinga Tinga was already referred as Mozambican on the website where Tiger Aspect advertises, see http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/22591) The reason for the popularity of the article is that the article has a very good Google ranking. Although the article was written in 1996, Berit Sahlström refuses to add the date to the article so most readers think that the article is a new research.
The disinformation about E.S.Tingatinga´s birthplace spreads fast and the consequences for members of TACS are painful. For example a certain website is depicting a photo of the painters at the Tingatinga Cooperative. The photo is accompanied by text: "Tingatinga was born in Mozambique but the art is associated with his new homeland Tanzania". The paradox is that the same painters who are on the photo protested to write such statement. (look here: http://www.pbase.com/glipper/image/72536057)
Berit Sahlström maintains that she cited her student Mia Terent, who wrote a research paper on Tinga Tinga for a short 4 weeks course on Islamic and African Art. When the manager of TACS contacted Mia Terent, she admitted that she never visited Tanzania while she made the research about Tinga Tinga art. She saw two Tinga Tinga paintings brought to Sweden by her parents and she liked them so she decided to do a research. She interviewed another Swedish, Barbro Johansson who lived in Tanzania.
And it was this Swedish woman who told to Mia Terent about that E.S.Tingatinga was born in Mozambique. Mia further concludes in her mail to TACS that she (Barbro Johansson) was in good health despite high age. She did not know where Barbro got the information but because she is unfortunately dead we can´t ask her. Then Mia Terent suggested that somebody else could write a new research article. It could be even the children of E.S.Tingatinga who could start to research about their father.
Do the European or American art researchers have right to write that Galusi´s older brother has lived in Mozambique without even visiting Tanzania and meeting the family members? Do they have right to publish the disinformation even after the protest of the family?
It was absurd when the children of E.S.Tingatinga heard that somebody in Sweden who has never met them could spread this disinformation. Mia Terent and Berit Sahlström don´t want to accept the results of other researchers either. The book written by the artists themselves is also ignored. Berit Sahlström will not correct the article, because it was written 12 years ago, she maintains. Unfortunately, the article has no date.
Paradoxically Berit Sahlström uses photos of the old paintings made by a Danish researcher Jesper Kirknaes. The owner of the photos claims rightfully that E.S.Tingatinga was born in Tanzania. http://22.214.171.124/search?q=cache:c5S7Y0MlRnAJ:www.afrikagrupperna.se/cgi-bin/afrika.cgi%3Fd%3Ds%26w%3D1715+kirknaes+tingatinga&cd=3&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=se. Even this has not convinced Berit Sahlström to correct the information about Tingatinga´s birthplace.
Interestingly Berit Sahlström is suggesting that Tanzania could have a political interest in owning Tingatinga art. She writes (approximate translation form her letter): "It is known that the modern Makonde sculptures were renamed to Ujama in Tanzania. In this way Makonde art became politically and nationally a part of Tanzanian heritage even if there was no difference between the Tanzanian sculptures and those sold in Maputo. It is important the art is used in national interest but it is also important that the art historians do not change the history to advantage of other nation.
Berit Sahlström´s last words were: "I will not change anything (Mozambique) in an article which was written a decennium ago" Berit Sahlström left her academic position in 2006 and returned to her work as a practicing artist. She is married with professor of African History Tegeste Natashe living half of the year in Mozambique. (see:
Tinga Tinga is purely Tanzanian art and there is no link to Mozambique regarding the family of E.S.Tingatinga. Both parents and grandparents of E.S.Tingatinga were born in Tanzania. Daudi and Martina Tingatinga, the children of E.S.Tingatinga consider themselves to be Tanzanians with no roots in Mozambique. It is unfortunate that the disinformation is spread on the Tingatinga exhibitions, literature and other media. The only source of this disinformation is the article published online by the Swedish professor of African Studies Berit Sahlström. The information about Mozambique contradicts all other research. The information is not of academic but personal nature.
The text of this webpage is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).
2. http://www.africanart.com/tingatingapaintings.aspx
4. http://www.maridadiartz.com/paintings/id35.html
6. http://www.nameloksafaris.com/en/tingatinga.php
7. http://www.magic-safaris.com/country/detail.php?cid=3
Author: Daniel Augusta


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Yates Map of Lancashire – 1786
Yates Map of Lancashire – 1786
Including maps of Lancashire by Saxton 1577, Mercator 1585, Ogilby 1675, and Bowen 1752
In an attempt to improve the state of mapping in Britain in the latter half of the eighteenth century, The Society of Arts offered £100 prizes for accurately surveyed county maps. Yates Map of Lancashire was one of the maps that won the prize. It is a beautiful map. The illustration on the CD cover, shown above is one of the vignettes from the map. The intention to produce an accurate map is demonstrated by a drawing in one of the blank areas of the map showing his triangulation of the county.
Also included on the CD are other important maps of Lancashire which demonstrate the advancement that the Yates map made to the mapping of that area. Of particular note is the map by Christopher Saxton of 1577 which remained in use and was the source of data for other map makers for about 200 years. Also of interest are three sheets covering two routes from John Ogilby's Britannia. These are transport maps of the routes from York to Chester and from York to Lancaster.


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Hailing from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Black Tie Stereo has already had had the honor of opening for major acts such as Panic! At The Disco, Weezer, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, MIlky Chance, AWOLNATION, K. Flay, and Lewis Del Mar. The band is comprised of singer/keyboardist Stephen Murphy, guitarist Jesse Morvan, bassist Aaron Kovalich, and drummer George Pachucy, four high school friends with eclectic tastes and a common love of creating intricate yet accessible music. Since their launch, the band has completed and released a six-song EP and two singles, with a freshly completed, EP on the way soon. In the meantime we browsed the group's catalog and discovered the beautifully harmonic and melodic single – "The Artist".
The indie-rock and pop scene has long been as full of copycats and one-trick ponies as the mainstream (or close to it, anyway), but over the course of their still-brief career it seems as if the Black Tie Stereo has managed to stand out as a force for innovation.
They could easily stand alongside the cadre of indie bands that have managed to move on to commercial success with little to no help from radio, as they've managed to find a sound that's catchy without pandering and intelligent without any undue intellectual pretensions.
Black Tie Stereo rely as heavily on unpredictable, sharp song structures and lush organic arrangements as on their sunny melodies and enjoyably rich vocals, and it's as winning a combination here on "The Artist" as it is on any of the other songs in their catalog.
The song takes just one listen to get into, probably even more so in this case as the band's sound comes to rely increasingly on melody and harmony, as opposed to some of their more electrifying rhythms on other songs.
But at the same time Black Tie Stereo's sound is invitingly luscious: the at times big, chiming guitars that sort of float along over the rumble of the bass, with the subtle keyboard accents drifting in and out of the mix, all signal a level of mass appeal that few will see coming from an indie band of this nature.
"The Artist" establishes their continued vitality quickly, starting off all dreamy and minimal and lulling the listener into a false sense of calm before the intensity increases and takes off into a blissful gem of a song. Luckily for us, Black Tie Stereo's well of unpredictable, endlessly listenable indie-pop tunes sound endless.
It's forever refreshing to hear new music by contemporary groups that are as tuneful as these fellows. I won't be making any predictions or placing any bets, but I will advise you to write the name Black Tie Stereo down somewhere, then sit back and keep your ear to the radio and your eyes on the charts and any major award winning events, in the near to mid-term future…


text: Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images. This story is from VICE News, our new news website. See more and sign up now at vicenews.com."I'm a farmer."So said Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán when the press asked him what he did for a living on June 10, 1993, following his arrest and extradition to Mexico after years on the run. In a way, no truer words have been spoken in the history of the country's bizarre and bloody drug war.Guzmán was indeed a kind of "farmer." The poppy and marijuana crops under his control were the basis of a multibillion-dollar transnational trafficking empire that would eventually make him one of the richest and most wanted men in the world.He was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security prison, but in 2001 he managed to escape, cartoonishly, in a laundry cart. Guzmán expanded his reach by trafficking marijuana, heroin, and cocaine into the United States, Europe, and Australia. He is said to exert control over most of western Mexico, parts of Guatemala, and trafficking ports in West Africa. While his nickname means "Shorty," there's nothing diminutive about El Chapo's stature in the illicit drug world. Forbes has regularly named him in its lists of richest and "most powerful" people.Guzmán's prosperous stint as a fugitive came to an end again on Saturday morning, following an epic 13-year manhunt that left a trail of blood and tragedy as Sinaloa, his cartel, ruthlessly fought off Mexico's security forces on one front and combated rival cartels for control of the country's lucrative drug trade on another.Shortly before 7 AM, Mexican authorities captured Guzmán in a condominium building overlooking the water in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlán, in Sinaloa. No shots were fired in the raid, which was assisted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the US Marshals Service, and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.Condo 401 looks plain, almost shabby, in photos taken after the raid that led to Guzmán's capture.Mexican authorities addressed the media on February 22.Guzmán was flown to Mexico City. In the afternoon, after Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam delivered a brief statement on the tarmac of the international airport, uniformed soldiers wearing face masks led the drug lord from a navy hangar to a federal police helicopter.Guzmán wore dark jeans, a pale long-sleeved shirt, and a formidable mustache. The kingpin was briefly seen hunched over and wearing handcuffs. He didn't take questions and wasn't heard speaking before the helicopter swiftly carried him away to the Altiplano federal prison. (The Justice Department announced on Sunday that it will seek Guzmán's extradition to the US.)Mexican authorities also took no questions; the dais and flag that were used for their statements were packed up within seconds of the helicopter's departure.Mexicans were left to absorb the fall of a mythic figure in the country's recent history. Many wondered what would come next. Despite recent drug-liberalization initiatives within the United States—the leading drug-consuming nation in the world—Mexico's drug war has shown no signs of abating.Guzmán's role in the US-Mexico drug trade is a mystery, colored by allegations that he or his operatives maintain contact with US and Mexican authorities, perhaps as protected informants.Jesús Vicente Zambada, a major Sinaloa cartel operative who was extradited to Chicago to face trafficking charges, has claimed in court that US agents in Mexico gave him and other cartel members immunity in exchange for information about rival cartels, particularly the bloodthirsty Zetas. US prosecutors insist that he had no such deal with federal agents. (Zambada is still awaiting trial.)While associates and relatives of Guzmán have been arrested or killed in shoot-outs in recent years—among those killed was Guzmán's 22-year-old son, Édgar, in 2008—others in his inner circle have been known to move about on either side of the border.In the summer of 2011, Guzmán's wife, Emma Coronel, gave birth to twin girls at a hospital in Los Angeles County. Guzmán married the former beauty queen in a extravagant party in 2007, when she was only 18. Federal agents monitored Coronel, a US citizen, while she was in California. Because there were no charges against her, she freely returned to Mexico with her children.Guzmán was born in 1957 in a village called La Tuna, located in the Sinaloa municipality of Badiraguato—one of the poorest counties in all of Mexico. His father was a gomero, or poppy farmer, but Guzmán grew up mostly poor and neglected, and eager to prove himself.Badiraguato is considered the gateway to the "Golden Triangle," the rough and remote poppy- and cannabis-growing region of the Sierra Madre mountain range that runs down western Mexico, dominating Sinaloa and neighboring Durango and Chihuahua. Some of the biggest names in Mexico's narcotics industry were also born in Badiraguato, including Rafael Caro Quintero, an old-school drug lord who was released from prison on a technicality last August, after 28 years behind bars.According to the book The Last Narco by Malcolm Beith, Guzmán got started in the drug industry as a lieutenant to Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, considered the godfather of Mexico's cocaine shipping trade, in what was then known as the Guadalajara cartel. After Félix Gallardo's capture in 1989, Guzmán and his group within the Sinaloa cartel effectively took over and began expanding, killing, or disappearing anyone who stood in their way. By 1993, when Guzmán survived an assassination attempt in Guadalajara that left an archbishop dead, El Chapo's legend already loomed large in Mexico.Pressure began mounting on the government to score a victory against the drug traffickers, which led to Guzmán's capture in the summer of 1993 by Guatemalan authorities and his extradition to Mexico. Guzmán reportedly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle within the maximum-security prison Puente Grande. According to a 2009 Wall Street Journal profile, he was so well-pampered during his stint in the pit that his set-up rivaled the comforts of his beachside condo in Mazatlán. He had a television and a cellphone to direct his drug empire, selected meals from a menu, smuggled plenty of contraband, and received visits from cartel members and prostitutes. He kept a supply of Viagra on hand.Guzmán's escape coincided with the transition to a multi-party democracy after the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was interrupted by the election of President Vicente Fox, a member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Fox took office in December 2000 as the first non-PRI president in Mexico's post-Revolutionary history. Guzmán escaped from Puente Grande a month later.The country's bitterly contested 2006 presidential election resulted in a second presidential term for PAN under Felipe Calderón. Immediately after taking office, Calderón launched a military campaign against drug cartels in his home state of Michoacán. The new president even made an appearance in public wearing military fatigues.Troops rolled into cities and towns within cartel territories, sparking warfare in major cities like Monterrey, Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, Morelia, Acapulco, and Culiacán, Sinaloa's capital.The six years of Calderón's presidential term proved to be the bloodiest period in Mexico's history since its revolution, more than a century before. At least 70,000 people were killed in drug violence during that time, and some 26,000 people went missing. Only a small fraction of these cases will ever be solved. Most of these atrocities occurred because of a government-approved, prohibitionist drug war in which Guzmán was arguably the most symbolic figure.Sightings of Guzmán abounded for the next several years. He was said to be in Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, and even the US. Narcocorridos about his exploits could be heard in nightclubs, on YouTube, and over the airwaves in northern Mexico (until authorities banned their broadcast). When Guzmán dined out, he would pay the tabs of the other diners. It seemed for a while that El Chapo was everywhere except prison.In 2009, a Catholic archbishop in the state of Durango said that Guzmán was living just up the road from a town called Guanacevi. "Everyone knows it, except the authorities," he said.The Sinaloa cartel made strategic decisions to combat its rivals—the Gulf cartel, the Zetas, and the Beltran Leyva gang—across Mexico. Violence erupted in Guerrero, Veracruz, and Michoacán, with Mexico's security forces killing and capturing various capos.Ciudad Juárez saw the worst of the warfare by far. An estimated 11,000 people were killed in there between 2007 and 2012. Over the same span, more than 7,000 civilian complaints of military abuses were registered with the country's National Human Rights Commission.In the course of the conflict, the US played an unprecedented role in Mexican law enforcement, making it seem almost as though the US agents operating in Mexico were practically in control of the push to find and capture Guzmán and others. Calderón left office in December 2012 and turned over power to Enrique Peña Nieto, returning the PRI to the presidency and introducing uncertainty about the direction of the fight against cartels.With Guzmán's capture, there's no telling what will happen next. History has shown that the capture of top capos in Mexico often precipitates a violent struggle among splintering forces to fill the power vacuum. The leadership of the Sinaloa cartel is said to have shifted to Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, Jesús Vicente's father, who is believed to be Guzmán's second-in-command. But reports have also noted that Dámaso López, a young, flashy capo known as "El Mini Lic," could position himself strongly within the top ranks of the Sinaloa cartel in Guzmán's absence.At the same time, rival cartels could detect an opening in Guzmán's arrest and seek to regain ground that they have lost to the Sinaloa cartel in recent years. This would be a very dark turn of events.Follow Daniel on Twitter @longdrivesouthSubscribe to VICE News on YouTubeFollow VICE News on TwitterLike VICE News on Facebook


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He wanted the fire only large enough to last ten minutes. I wanted it to rage.
I spent 2011 in a slow, smoldering state, never able to maintain my flame for long. Reading my friend Emily's year-end favorite posts list, however, reminded me that I started it raging.
Damn it, this year did not go at all as I had planned. With that longing in mind, I built a fire New Year's Eve night to light up the bayou. Let it burn. Let it rage. I'll stand here until the last ember smolders. To hell with control.
• • •
So. The skin cancer. The last time I wrote about it was July, shortly after two full excisions that resulted in suspicion that the melanoma had "skipped" across my back to a second location. July. I am shaking my head because that's just about when everything truly did begin slipping from my controlling grasp. No wonder I haven't brought it up since then.
We found an oncologist. She was dissatisfied with the pathology reports and had samples from both the first and second excisions sent to one pathologist to determine the exact margins between the last sign of melanoma and the edge of the sample.
In the meantime, my dermatologist determined three new sites he wanted biopsied. One on my arm, two more on my back.
Pathology results came back and the margins were not clear for my original melanoma. My oncologist requested that I immediately have the melanoma site in the middle of my back re-excised and I promptly began procrastinating.
This lasted for months.
I took on more work. Brilliant work. Dazzling, distracting fuel for my fire.
Together with Alli Worthington, we re-imagined a new format for the BlissDom conference in Nashville.
I began consulting under contract for a PR firm, traveling to New York, creating intricate databases of bloggers and social media projects.
I organized and co-hosted The 5th Annual People's Party at BlogHer in San Diego. I accepted a long-term campaign with Hallmark.
I signed on as a first-wave writer at Babble Voices, a new venture under Catherine Connors at Babble.com, a major parenting site which would shortly thereafter be acquired by Disney. And all the while leaned heavily on my Editorial Director at Story Bleed Magazine to keep our momentum and direction sound.
May – July marked the beginning of an ambitious period of creative spark honed to distract from what would become a suffocating crush of reality come October. Although I do not believe that my quality of work diminished (never phone it in. never.), the timeliness of my work surely faltered and I found my fire consistently dampered. My work pace slowed to a flinching crawl under the threatening shadow of the sun.
I lost control.
Fear of this cancer paralyzed me. I couldn't talk about it, I couldn't work quickly under the weight of it, and I couldn't make myself do anything to resolve my fears. I constantly needed to make an appointment for surgery and I constantly had a reason to put it off. I held roughly six jobs simultaneously, some days needing to answer to all six at once. There was never a moment when no one needed something from me.
It was so easy to be too busy. And I refused to relent.
• • •
I was sitting in a hotel room in New York City with my agent, Deb Rox, when we heard a news report mention as an aside that Steve Jobs regretted putting off his cancer treatment. I was suffering a particularly potent bout of procrastination paralysis at the time, trying to juggle four responsibilities at once that very evening. I didn't even own an iPhone.
Who knows why some things crack our shell and others don't. However slightly.
A month later, I was standing in the Connecticut kitchen of Barbara Jones, receiving a verbal kick in the right direction from her and Alli, the night before a company meeting for BlissDom. They were complaining about both my work pace and my cancer procrastination all in the same breath. That's always fun.
And my shell splintered.
• • •
I have stitches in my right arm. Stitches lace across the middle of my back in the shape of what can only be described as a Star Trek communicator device. Stitches mar my skin in two other places across my lower back, all spread out nicely to ensure I can't lean back at any comfortable angle ever.
The pathology results were smeared in red ink: ALL CLEAR.
• • •
I have so much to do this year. So much to write. I can't let anything stop me from writing this time.
I need to read more.
It's cold enough outside for a fire. I need the fire to rage. I know just how to build it.
• • •
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Fabio and Michele Onesto are one of the best contemporary glass masters is the lagoon of Venice, Italy. The magic of the underwater sea life inspired the brothers to break the traditional rules of sommerso glassmaking and create something unconventional. The unique artworks created by the Fabio and Michele capture the boundless magic of the sea.
Please note, that we do not sell artworks on our website, we only honor the artists. In case you would like to purchase the displayed artwork, we advise you to visit the official online sales partner of Fabio and Michele Onesto, MuranoGlassItaly.com (Murano Vase Auguri)


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Is there a gustative equivalent to the olfactory "malodour"?
Is there a gustative equivalent to the olfactory word "malodour"?
Is there a lexical, not imaginary, word that means anything that tastes bad just like "malodour" means anything that smells bad?
Submit Your Comment
I have to say, I love the way you phrased the question. You are really just asking for a word that means bad taste, right?
"Malodor", according to my dictionary, is not a thing that smells bad; it means bad smell. So, are you asking for a word equivalent of bad taste, or a thing that tastes bad?
Ignore the second paragraph. I'm looking for a word for "bad taste".
While this doesn't exactly answer your question, if you were looking for an analog to "malodorous", I'd suggest simply "bad-tasting". If you accept that "bad-tasting" should be hyphenated, then it would qualify as a single word. Somehow, I can't quite get myself to suggest "bad-taste" for a noun, though.
I'd rather use "unpalatable" as an adjective. However, I'm looking for a gustative equivalent to "malodour", a noun.
Allow me to propose an English equivalent in the Noun category:
olfactory malodour = gustative malsaveur
Love the mental exercise you have triggered. I will be rummaging and ruminating these words for days. I am grateful. I LOVE playing with language(s). LD
If there is a single word for anything with a bad flavor, I would suggest avoiding it, as I also suggest avoiding the word "malodour." "Bad taste," and "bad smell" do the job, and anything else smacks of synonym searching.
What about off-flavour and off-taste? Will they be ok as a noun?
English, please. :)
How about poison? That's a noun that connotes a bad taste.
I'm looking for a word that denotes/means bad taste.
Rancidness? Though that applies to smell as well.
Etymologically, disgusting fits the bill, though we now use the word without any necessary connection to the physical sense of taste. Another word that works is yucky, which also isn't restricted to the sense of taste.
Do you have a question? Submit your question here


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A warm welcome awaits you at The Tweeddale Arms Hotel in Gifford. Our goal is for our customers to have the best experience with us as possible. Whether you are staying in one of your rooms, or just here for a meal, we want you to enjoy your time with us. Why not take a look at our facilities, menus or accommodation pages to see what we offer.
You can book a room with us online, just click Book Now to start your booking.
The hotel is ideally positioned in the centre of Gifford near the village hall and opposite the beautiful village park, is only four miles away from Historic Haddington and offers free Wi-Fi, free parking. There are two golf courses minutes from the hotel.
If your looking for a good meal, great accommodation or just a place to stop for a refreshing break, be sure to come and see us. We look forward to welcoming you!
Continental Breakfast & VAT included in Room Rate


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High-quality Laser SLA 3D printer resins and 3D printer photopolymers available for a variety of stereolithography 3d printers, including high-temperature resins, castable resins, and flexible resins. What is SLA Laser 3D Printing? SLA 3D Printing uses a laser that focuses on a vat of resin and photopolymers. The laser follows a 3D design or model and cures the resin point-by-point to create the design. SLA 3D printing is popular for projects/industries that require highly-detailed 3D printed parts.
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text:
Much of what we do today is to improve our future financial position. As with anything, we can get better results by following a plan. This is why both an Estate Plan and a Financial Strategy are important for those who want to ensure better tomorrows for ourselves and our families.
A Financial Strategy focuses on what we want to happen while we're still alive. Estate Planning is concerned with what we want to happen here on earth after our death. It's best to start with the Estate Plan because no one knows how soon it will be needed. Also, a well thought out Estate Plan provides direction for the development of your Financial Strategy.
Your Estate Plan
The first step in planning your estate is to decide what you want to happen to the people you care for after your death. For example, how much income do you want your widow to have? If you want your family to have a debt-free estate, how much is needed to pay off your debts? Some income taxes are triggered by death. How much tax will your heirs have to pay before they can inherit?
If you have a business interest, do you want it to be sold or retained? If it's to be sold, who will buy it? What will be needed to guarantee the sale? If you want it to be kept in the family, who will run it? What will they need to keep it going?
After you decide on the things you'd like to see happen, you can begin figuring out how to improve their chances. Some of your decisions can be written in your Will as directions to your successors. Others may need special written Agreements with other people to make sure that they will happen.
Some assets will be in the wrong form to do what you want. You may want to make arrangements to convert them to another form at your death. For example, an interest in a private business could be converted to cash by means of an Insurance-Funded Buy-Sell Agreement.
Some of your assets may be of the right type for your heirs and you want to preserve them from the tax collector and other creditors. What you need is a method of creating instant, adequate cash at death to satisfy the vultures
Some of us may discover that we don't have enough to leave our family in the position we'd like them to be. We then need instant cash at death to create our estate.
A sad fact is that many people will spend more time planning a vacation or dinner party than their financial future.
Your trip to your financial future deserves at least equal concern about the risks ahead. Then you can try to avoid them or offset their adverse consequences. Is your financial vehicle in good condition? Will there be enough cash or income to offset such common risks as death, disability or serious illness? Have you reviewed your financial trip insurance lately?
Questions about estate planning ?
Copyright © 2020 AdvisorNet Communications Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific financial advice. It is strongly recommended that the reader seek qualified professional advice before making any financial decisions based on anything discussed in this article. This article is not to be copied or republished in any format for any reason without the written permission of the AdvisorNet Communications. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy of the information and is not liable in any way for any error or omission.


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While Kohl's will be one of the big retailers open to holiday shoppers on Thanksgiving, it's starting to offer deals even earlier as its online Black Friday begins at 12:01 a.m. CT Monday.
Kohl's brick-and-mortar stores will open at 5 p.m. Thursday, so those who want to grab the big doorbusters may have to skip the pumpkin pie. While not offering as many electronics as Best Buy, or as many toys as Walmart or Target, Kohl's is a serious Black Friday competitor, especially since it offers extra Kohl's Cash rebates, and has a great selection of clothing and home goods.
Best Kohl's deals
The site BestBlackFriday.com analyzed the ad, and says the best deals include:
Samsung 58-inch 4K Smart TV + $165 Kohl's Cash for $549.99 (reg. $899.99)
Amazon Echo 2nd Generation + $15 Kohl's Cash for $69 (reg. $99.99)
Microsoft Xbox One S 1TB Minecraft Creators Bundle + $60 Kohl's Cash for $199.99 (reg. $299.99)
Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Generation for $24 (reg. $49.99)
Nintendo Switch Bundle + $90 Kohl's Cash for $329.99 (reg. $359.99)
Microsoft Xbox One X PlayerUnknown's Battleground bundle + $120 Kohl's Cash for $399.99 (reg. $529.99)
BestBlackFriday.com says additionally, shoppers can earn $15 in Kohl's Cash for every $50 spent Nov. 19-23.
The site says "Kohl's has one of the best overall sales when accounting for the free Kohl's Cash. "


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As one who spends most of his time investigating the archaeology of the Old Testament, 'Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture' is a much appreciated primer on the historical evidence for the New Testament. It also functions as a comprehensive presentation and refutation of the major objections commonly heard in today's post-modern landscape...
This book is available for purchase in the ABR online bookstore.
The three authors, J. Komoszewski, M. Sawyer, and D. Wallace, begin by posing a problem with which ABR readers are well-aware: America today has an abysmal level of biblical knowledge, which makes it easy prey for every new skeptical theory that comes along, from Dan Brown's popular novels, to the Jesus Seminar, to television and pop culture. The book is explicitly written that the lay skeptic might take a hard look at the true evidence, and that believers would experience a strengthening of their faith. The authors endeavor to build a positive case for the trustworthiness of the biblical text using an historical approach, asserting that 'We treat the Bible like any other book to show that it is not like any other book.' That they succeed in their task is made abundantly clear in 262 well-written pages.
The first part, 'I Believe in Yesterday,' makes the case that, despite having been written decades after the life and times of Jesus, the record of events in the New Testament is trustworthy. This several decade delay begs the question as to why the writers waited so long. Most scholars hold that the first Gospel published was Mark, sometime prior to the early 60s AD. Luke's Gospel and the Book of Acts, originally conceived as a single two-part volume, can also be dated with confidence to the same period (both Peter and Paul were reputed to have been executed during the Neronian persecution following the fire in Rome in AD 64, according to the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio). These dates tlearly show that nearly three decades had passed since the resurrection. On the surface, this may seem like a long wait. But was it really?
There was undoubtedly a period of oral proclamation that followed Jesus' death and resurrection. As indicated by numerous passages (Acts 2:47; 6:7; 19:20; James 1:1; 1 Pet 1:1, etc), the church was growing and the gospel message was spreading rapidly. During this formative period, the emphasis was on the preached word of eyewitnesses. We should recall that it was only a few weeks after the crucifixion that the Day of Pentecost took place. As recorded by Luke, members of the Jewish community from around the known world were present on that fateful day, from as far as Parthia and Elam (Persia), Mesopotamia, Cappadocia (Turkey), Egypt, Libya, Crete, and Rome (Acts 2:9). From that point forward, there were no longer effective controls on the content of the Gospel. Moreover, it was not feasible for the Apostles to have conspired to construct a fraudulent Jesus narrative while hundreds of eyewitnesses were alive to dispute it. The subsequent rapid spread of the Gospel across the Mediterranean world makes the conspiracy theory quite untenable.
Only when the Apostles began to die off and the return of the Lord did not transpire as expected was the need perceived for a written account. The authors correctly highlight the critical role played by Jewish oral culture of that day. Long before the printed word, the centrality of memory in community cannot be overstated. In such an environment, the events and words of Jesus were replayed and recalled hundreds and thousands of times by those who were present with him, beginning during Jesus lifetime and continuing for decades through countless retellings.
It has also been noted that Jesus' instructions were often uttered in rhythmic fashion, making them easier to recall later and memorize. We also cannot discount the probability that the disciples took down notes to record significant events or lessons. It seems quite likely that the collective memory of the early community of followers faithfully and accurately preserved an oral tradition of the activity and teachings of Jesus. The consequence of these cultural and historical factors leads to the only reasonable conclusion-that the written record forms an authentic eyewitness account of the life and times of the founder of the Christian faith.
Part 2 examines the question of how much the New Testament text was altered or corrupted during the early centuries of transmission. Even if the authors were faithful in recording what they saw and understood, later editorial activity may have changed or embellished the original accounts. The field of textual criticism attempts to recover the original wording of the books of the Bible. Using this methodology over the last two centuries, scholars have been successful in isolating what are known as textual variants. Although quite numerous, the vast majority of such variants are comprised of spelling errors, nonsensical errors, and other miscellaneous corruptions that do not affect the accuracy of translations. This category includes errors that appear in only one manuscript or group of manuscripts such as, for example, the addition of 'and drink' after 'eat' in Matt 9:11, in which Jesus is reported to have eaten with 'many tax-gatherers and sinners.' This minor alteration was evidently added in order to conform to the parallel passage in Luke 5:30.
In the final tally, only about 1 percent of all documented variants are actually considered viable and meaningful. The most significant of these is the conclusion of the Gospel of Mark, in which the best and earliest manuscripts end after verse 16:8. Terminating immediately after the women had fled from Jesus' empty tomb, frightened by what they had seen; it makes for an abrupt conclusion to the book. Despite the fact that the vast majority of manuscripts add twelve more verses, it leaves open the question of what the original text held. Was it intended to end so abruptly, or was it simply lost in the early copies? Perhaps the additional twelve verses reflect the original version? Whatever proves to be the case, no fundamental truth or doctrine is affected by the omission of the final verses of Mark.
It is now well established that the New Testament is by far the best-attested work of antiquity. New manuscript discoveries have multiplied the source documents upon which our modern translations are based one hundred fold over those used in creating the King James Version of 1611! The earliest of these is the famous John Rylands fragment, which is dated to the first quarter of the 2nd century AD. In all, over 5700 full or partial manuscript fragments of New Testament writings are known. The average surviving texts from other ancient books, such as Livy, Tacitus, Herodotus, and Homer is a mere twenty! Moreover, the biblical documents date much closer to the events which they report. The earliest copies of other works are often separated by a millennium.
The authors spend considerable space reviewing the results of textual criticism in discerning the original words of scripture. The corpus of material used in this endeavor is truly immense. To the thousands of Greek documents can be added over ten thousand Latin manuscripts, as well as ancient versions in Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Armenian. Not to be overlooked is the witness of the early church fathers, whose commentaries, sermons, and treatises are sufficient alone to reconstruct virtually the whole of the New Testament. In sum, the staggering amount of material and the tiny number of variants demonstrate the remarkable stability and reliability of the New Testament, a fact that popular culture is usually remiss in highlighting!
Another popular myth holds that the 'custodians of orthodoxy' revised and edited the New Testament under the auspices of the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in the early 4th century. This allowed church authorities to rewrite their material to suit their tenets. Only then did Jesus take on divine status in the many manuscripts that postdate the council. However, this overlooks indisputable evidence from nearly fifty pre-4th century documents that correspond on all counts in their portrayal of Jesus as God. These verses refer explicitly to Jesus as such, in additioin to the dozens of others that imply as much.
Questions surrounding the canon are addressed in Part 3, 'Did the Early Church Muzzle the Canon?' The charge has been made that the books included in the New Testament were not finally approved until as late as the 6th century. The word canon derives from the Greek term kanon, meaning 'rule' or 'standard.' The earliest known list of accepted books was compiled by Marcion around AD 140. His activities prompted the church to further refine what constituted canon, with the result that 22 of the 27 books of the New Testament were admitted by the end of the 2nd century. By the end of the 4th century all 27 books had been enshrined as scripture.
It is important to take note of the careful process by which the church assessed the authenticity of these books. Three criteria were utilized: apostolicity, orthodoxy, and catholicity. The first concerns authorship of the book in question. Was it written by an apostle or associate of such? Secondly, were its teachings in harmony with others known to be authentic? The third measure determined whether the book was accepted early and by a majority of churches. In other words, did it pass the test of universality? (catholicity)
Another significant aspect of these books is that, rather than being accepted into the canon by a church edict or council, they in effect authenticated themselves. By this definition, the canon consists of a 'list of authoritative books' rather than 'an authoritative list of books.' They qualified as such on the strength of their intrinsic worth and authority as true witnesses to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The only books that were disputed were some of the shorter letters, such as 2 and 3 John, Jude, and 2 Peter, for reasons of style, none of which alter the portrait of Christ put forth in the rest.
Much has been made of other gospel writings, known as apocryphal books (meaning 'hidden'). That some of these were suppressed from inclusion in the canon has become standard fare in popular media, such as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Upon closer inspection, however, such works describe a Jesus that stands in stark contrast to the one that appears in authentic works. These writings tend to dwell on two gaps in the life of Jesus: his childhood and the three days between his death and resurrection. The most famous is the Gospel of Thomas, one of a group of Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi (Egypt) that date to the 2nd century or later.
Since Gnostic thought held that the material world was evil and the spirit world was good, the portrayal of Jesus found among these documents consists of a collection of non-narrative sayings and teachings. Moreover, their Jesus bears little resemblance to the human messiah of the genuine gospels. He performs fanciful miracles, such as turning his childhood playmates into goats and back into children. The Gnostic Jesus virtually 'floats above the earth' and his relationship to women is ascetic, such that they require transformation into men to qualify as his disciples. The Gnostic gospels virtually plead for acceptance by their spurious claims of apostolic authorship. As such the church rightly and roundly rejected them as fraudulent and inconsistent with catholic faith and practice.
Part 4 delves more deeply into the question of whether the divinity of Christ was an early tradition or late superstition, as claimed by Dan Brown and others. Not surprisingly to those who study scripture, the New Testament speaks clearly and unambiguously that Jesus was equal to God. In other words, 'the earliest Christology was already the highest Christology.' From the beginning, he was elevated to the highest divine status. The Jewish leaders of the time well understood Jesus' claims to divinity and reacted with unbridled fury.
In addition to the Gospel presentation of Jesus, the testimony of the remainder of the New Testament bears similar witness. Three passages may well reflect the first discernible doctrinal statements of the early church. Romans 10:9-13 contains a Pauline description of saving faith. It also contains an ascription of the title 'Lord' to Jesus himself. Paul's epistle to the Philippians likewise bears a divine description of Jesus as Lord in what appears to be an early hymn. Another ancient hymn appears in Colossians 1:15-20, in which Christ is equated with the God of creation and ruler over all things seen and unseen. The books of the New Testament are unanimous in their view of Jesus as the true son of God and savior of the world. Collectively they render the notion that his divine status was granted by the Nicene clerics as utterly absurd and unsustainable.
Support for the early high Christology of the church comes from three other extra-biblical sources: secular historians, who were often at odds with the young faith, apostolic fathers of the early centuries like Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, and the so-called apologists such as Irenaeus (c. 130-200) and Tertullian (c. 160-225). These together form a continuous tradition of a high view of Christ from the apostles to the time of Constantine.
Political leaders like Lucian of Samasota (c. 170) criticized Christians for their worship of Jesus, while the Roman philosopher Celsus (c. 177) scoffed at their worship of the man as God, as well as their belief in his position as the 'son of God.' He saw this as a breach of monotheistic faith. Pliny the Younger (c. 112), as governor of Bithynia, condemned Christians for worshipping Jesus and ordered their execution if they failed to renounce their faith. The writings of the early church fathers also testify to their belief that Jesus was both man and God, as did those of the apologists of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. These all demonstrate that the core teaching of the church of Jesus as Lord was essential from the start, and was sustained and consistent for centuries prior to the Nicene Council.
The real issue at Nicaea was not the divinity of Jesus, which had long since been established, but rather the nature of that divinity. The Roman emperor Constantine summoned bishops from across the empire to settle the question of whether Jesus was a divinely created being or coequal with the Father. This became known as the Arian controversy, since Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria, held that Jesus, though of divine nature, was a created being. The adoption of the Greek term homoousios-meaning 'one substance'-as part of the Nicene Creed, was a repudiation of the Arian position. It made official the long-held belief that Jesus was of the same substance and equal with the Father, yet distinct in person.
The final section, Part 5, relates to the allegation that Christianity adopted its core tenets from other ancient religions. These theories arose during the 19th century 'history of religions' school that sought parallels to the teachings and practices of the church. Where such similarities were found, the unique nature of Christianity came under attack. Such parallels consisted of the virgin birth, God made flesh, and resurrection, among others. Their implications were that Christianity borrowed heavily from so-called mystery religions such as the Isis-Osiris myth, Dionysus, Mithra, and Tammuz. Unfortunately for the critics, this approach has been largely discredited by scholars, even as it lives on in the popular mind.
These fanciful notions were found wanting for several reasons: The pagan religions were often lumped together as though they comprised one common faith, with strong parallels to Christianity. However, these proved to be a creation of the modern imagination, known as the Composite Fallacy. Secondly, scholars fell into the trap of describing the practices of ancient creeds in explicitly Christian terms, such as the death and 'resurrection' of Osiris, even though their meaning in a pagan context was entirely different. This is the Terminological Fallacy. Related to this is the Dependency Fallacy, which equates the similarity of particular concepts, such as the universal human desire for companionship with the divine, as being examples of Christian dependence. Mystery religions also tended to view time as cyclical and related to seasonal harvest cycles rather than as linear and intentional as in Christianity. The reality is that the ancient pagan religions had more in common with one another than they did with the early church. The Christian faith rooted in historical events and correct belief stood in contrast to the mystery cults, with their emphasis on cyclical history and emotional frenzy.
In summary, Reinventing Jesus comprises a rather exhaustive and comprehensive treatment of modern objections to the Gospel, many of which are really not modern at all. However, the historical and theological superficiality of contemporary society makes it fertile soil for every new skeptical theory. Owing to rampant biblical ignorance, many trendy notions that would have once been dismissed now take root in the culture. On the positive side, the case for the historical trustworthiness of the New Testament is actually overwhelming. The authors contend that 'the closer you look, the better Jesus looks,' and that an honest appraisal of the evidence and the search for truth will result in a high view of Jesus and the writings of the New Testament. In a postmodern age, we should remain prayerfully hopeful that hearts and minds remain open to the good news of the Gospel and intellectual appeals like Reinventing Jesus. Komoszewski , Sawyer, and Wallace have rendered exemplary service to the household of faith and have made an compelling defense of the word of truth (1 Pet 3:15).


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Chewable Jewellery – Disk Necklace (Purple) | code: ST30 | Our Chewable Jewellery range of stylish necklaces is designed to look great while discreetly serving a child's need to chew. Great for children who chew their collars, as well as children who have a weak jaw motion and need to practice their chewing. Made of silicon, is soft and flexible but hard wearing. Non-toxic and safe to chew. Also serves as a great fidget toy. NOTE: NOT suitable for aggressive chewers (see Chewy Tubes and Chew Stixx instead).
– are non-toxic and safe to chew.
– are hard wearing and tough.
– although not indestructible, more reassuring than chewing on unsuitable items than may contain toxins, be damaging to teeth or are expensive like school uniforms and books.
– are stylish and discreet and available in a wide range of colours.
– are washable in a steriliser, dishwasher or just hot water.
– are fitted with a breakaway clasp as an added safety measure.
– come on a long cord and this can be cut and adjusted to suit your child.


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Charleston collection is inspired by the twenties' age of splendor and prosperity with "champagne draped-prisms" reminding us long pearl necklaces, draped dresses of Charleston dancers. This collection also pays tribute to the creations of Georges Chevalier, his boldness and genius in particular through Jets d'eau collection. The latter is also in the history of the Maison Baccarat and its private mansion. Indeed, Marie-Laure de Noailles, the owner of this place during this period, was actively involved in the expansion of this movement conducive to creativity, art and renewal. In this spirit the Charleston chandelier has been chosen to adorn the first Baccarat Hotel in New York. The color is a main element in the creation of this new collection. "Charleston" is characterized by a champagne color that plunges us into the splendor and atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties. As the legendary gilded red, Baccarat champagne color is obtained thanks to the union of gold and crystal.
Other compositions: 8L 18L 24L 36L 48L 64L 84L
Other versions: Long


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This is for the purchase of a flat rate repair service for the Stryker 30L, this comes with a 90-day repair limited warranty
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05 March, 2018
A new bus route linking Ho Chi Minh City's downtown area and Tan Son Nhat Airport was launched on Thursday.
Like its cousin route No.109 started about two months ago, the route No.49 is operated with modern buses imported from South Korea. Its staff is also trained and equipped with English and communication skills.
The new service has more stops, most near big hotels, and charges passengers a flat fare of VND40,000.
It takes 30-40 minutes to complete the whole journey. The service is available between 5 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. the next day.
Passengers of the route No.109, meanwhile, pay VND12,000 if they travel less than half of the distance and the full fare VND20,000.


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US economy grew at modest 2.4 pct. rate in first quarter
Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 30, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.4 percent annual rate from January through March, slightly slower than initially estimated. Consumer spending was stronger than first thought, but businesses restocked more slowly and state and local government spending cuts were deeper.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that economic growth in the first quarter was only marginally below the 2.5 percent annual rate the government had estimated last month. That's still much faster than the 0.4 percent growth during the October-December quarter.
Most economists think growth is slowing to around a 2 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter as the economy adjusts to federal spending cuts, higher taxes and further global weakness. Still, many say the decline may not be as severe as once thought. That's because solid hiring, surging home prices and record stock gains should keep consumers spending.
Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said the small revision to first-quarter growth supported her view that the economy will grow a moderate 2.2 percent for the year, the same as last year.
Still, Lee expects growth to improve to 3.2 percent in 2014, as the job market accelerates and consumers grow more confident in the economy.
Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity as measured by the gross domestic product. GDP is the economy's total output of goods and services, from haircuts and computers to trucks and aircraft carriers.
The government's second look at first-quarter growth showed that consumer spending roared ahead at a 3.4 percent annual rate. That's the fastest spending growth in more than two years and even stronger than the 3.2 percent rate estimated last month.
Healthy consumer spending shows many Americans are shrugging off an increase this year in Social Security taxes that has reduced most paychecks.
And more consumer demand could also prompt businesses to restock at a faster rate later this year. Business inventories grew in the first quarter but at a slightly slower pace than first estimated. That was a key reason for the small revision.
A big reason that consumers have been able to withstand the higher taxes is the job market has improved. Employers have added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That's well above the monthly average of 138,000 during the previous six months.
Surging stock prices and steady home-price increases have also allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession. Higher wealth tends to embolden people to spend more. Some economists have said the increase in home prices alone could boost consumer spending enough to offset a Social Security tax increase.
The weakest area of the economy continues to be government spending, which fell for the 10th time in the last 11 quarters. The 4.9 percent rate of decline was even larger than first estimated, reflecting further drops in defense spending and weaker activity at the state and local level.
And with the federal government furloughing workers and trimming other spending to meet the mandates of the sequester, government activity will be a drag on growth for the rest of the year.
The housing recovery continued to add to growth at the start of the year. Home construction, one of the economy's top performers, grew at an annual rate of 12.1 percent in the first quarter, its third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
Businesses, however, reduced the pace of their investment in equipment and computer software. That slowed to a growth rate of 4.6 percent in the first quarter, down from growth of 11.8 percent in the fourth quarter.


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Public Lecture by Silvia Federici and launch of her new book: Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (PM Press, 2012)
Written between 1974 and the present, Revolution at Point Zero collects forty years of research and theorizing on the nature of housework, social reproduction, and women's struggles on this terrain—to escape it, to better its conditions, to reconstruct it in ways that provide an alternative to capitalist relations. Indeed, as Federici reveals, behind the capitalist organization of work and the contradictions inherent in "alienated labor" is an explosive ground zero for revolutionary practice upon which are decided the daily realities of our collective reproduction. Beginning with Federici's organizational work in the Wages for Housework movement, the essays collected here unravel the power and politics of wide but related issues including the international restructuring of reproductive work and its effects on the sexual division of labor, the globalization of care work and sex work, the crisis of elder care, the development of affective labor, and the politics of the commons.
About Silvia
Silvia Federici is a feminist writer, teacher, and militant. In 1972, she was cofounder of the International Feminist Collective, which launched the Wages for Housework campaign internationally. With other members of Wages for Housework, like Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James, and with feminist authors like Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Federici has been instrumental in developing the concept of "reproduction" as a key to class relations of exploitation and domination in local and global contexts, and as central to forms of autonomy and the commons. She is the author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (Autonomedia, 2004)
In the 1990s, after a period of teaching and research in Nigeria, she was active in the anti-globalization movement and the U.S. anti-death penalty movement. She is one of the cofounders of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, an organization dedicated to generating support for the struggles of students and teachers in Africa against the structural adjustment of African economies and education systems. From 1987 to 2005, she also taught international studies, women's studies, and political philosophy courses at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.
Her decades of research and political organizing accompanies a long list of publications on philosophy and feminist theory, women's history, education, culture, international politics, and more recently on the worldwide struggle against capitalist globalization and for a feminist reconstruction of the commons. Her steadfast commitment to these issues resounds in her focus on autonomy and her emphasis on the power of what she calls self-reproducing movements as a challenge to capitalism through the construction of new social relations