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Hi, I'm Cristián.
You probably know me from a while back when I was giving support and doing some development for s2Member. I was there in the trenches its first years. These last years I've been busy with other things, but still in touch with Jason and Raam, who kept things going here.
They're so good at what they do that they've been hired by Automattic, you know, the guys that run WordPress and a bunch of other cool things. But exciting as that is for them, it also means that they can't spend the time needed on WP Sharks any longer...
So we talked and decided that I'm taking over the plugins: s2Member, Comet Cache, Comment Mail, and any other WP Sharks plugins. Going forward, Jason and Raam won't be involved with WP Sharks anymore.
So what does all this mean for you?
For starters, you'll see me in the forums. I actually started a few days ago already. So when you write there, you'll have a reply.
The plugins will keep being maintained, updated, and improved. I'll be working on updating and releasing new versions of the plugins in the coming weeks. This is high on my list.
Please let me know in the forums what you need or want from me. I'll read each post.
I love this project. It was sad for me when I had to leave it back then, and I can't be happier coming back now!
I look forward to 2019. :D
Join the conversation here: https://forums.wpsharks.com/t/happy-new-year-big-announcement/5443


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How Bruce Springsteen Finally Became a Star With 'Born to Run'
"We got one last chance to make it real," Bruce Springsteen sang nearly two minutes into "Thunder Road," the opening cut on Born to Run. He wasn't kidding.
After the commercial failures of his first two albums, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Springsteen had to deliver on his third – released on Aug. 25, 1975. They believed in his talent, but Columbia Records didn't have much more patience for an artist who had great standing among the critics, but couldn't get a song on the radio.
Momentum had been building since mid-1974, however, when the label built a marketing campaign around a quote from a review in Boston's Real Paper. "I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen." Those words were written by Jon Landau, who met Springsteen outside the theater before the show and would soon become a very important part of his career.
"That got people's attention," Ron McCarrell of CBS said in Peter Ames Carlin's Bruce. "We'd been hanging by our thumbs, hoping we were right. That bolstered our feelings. … I remember turning the quote into a poster for record shops, and that was kind of the beginning of what led into the massive campaign for Born to Run."
The tour that summer helped create a buzz around Springsteen, and in August he returned to 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, N.Y., to record a a song he wrote earlier that year in his home in Long Branch, N.J.
"One day I was playing my guitar on the edge of the bed, working on some song ideas," Springsteen wrote, "and the words 'born to run' came to me. At first I thought it was the name of a movie or something I'd seen on a car spinning around the circuit. I liked the phrase because it suggested a cinematic drama that I thought would work with the music that I'd been hearing in my head."
After cutting the song and an early version of "Jungleland," Bruce Springsteen was dealt a blow. Keyboardist David Sancious, whose residence on E Street in Belmar, N.J., gave the band its name, was offered a deal with Epic for his jazz fusion group, Tone. And he was taking drummer Ernest "Boom" Carter, who had only come on board that February, with him. The search for replacements turned up Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg, both of whom brought with them experience in Broadway pits that would suit the grand nature of the new songs Springsteen was writing.
By mid-September, the retooled band was back on the road, working clubs up and down the Northeast corridor, with the exception of a few gigs in Texas and one in Cleveland, until March 1975. This included a Feb. 5 stop at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Penn. Broadcast on WMMR, the concert gave fans their first glimpse at the new material – which included rough, unfinished versions of "She's the One," "Jungleland" and something called "Wings for Wheels," that would later be renamed "Thunder Road."
Meanwhile, Appel took the rough mix of "Born to Run" and leaked it to some friendly radio stations. The response was enough to convince Columbia that their faith in Springsteen could finally pay off this time.
Listen to Bruce Springsteen Perform 'Born to Run'
Springsteen continued to lean on his new friend Landau for advice on the direction of the new record. Landau had expressed his dissatisfaction with the sound of Springsteen's first two efforts, which were also recorded at 914. In order to bring Springsteen's vision to fruition, they needed a proper studio. Sessions began at Manhattan's Record Plant in March, with Landau installed as co-producer along with manager Mike Appel.
They worked through the summer poring over every bar of music. As Carlin put it, "Bruce could take rich advantage of his partners' strength, turning to Landau for structural and narrative advice, while relying on Appel's mastery of detail to make certain every note sounded right." But the tendency to overthink things often bogged the recording down, and on one occasion it took a burst of spontaneity from a guest to kick things back into gear.
Steven Van Zandt had been one of Springsteen's closest friends since 1965. And while they were in some early bands together, once Springsteen got signed he handled all the guitar chores, both on record and on stage. Van Zandt stopped by the Record Plant on the day they were recording "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" with a horn section that saw Clarence Clemons' saxophone augmented by first-call jazz session players Michael and Randy Brecker, David Sanborn and Wayne Andre. Springsteen had asked Roy Bittan, the only member of the group who could read and write notated music, to come up with a horn arrangement, but his chart didn't provide the feel they were looking for. Van Zandt, who had an encyclopedic knowledge of soul music, figured out something on the spot, sang it to the pros and gave the song the southern soul vibe they were looking for.
But the pianist proved his worth in other ways. Springsteen wrote most of the songs on the piano, but his limited technical ability could only take him so far. Bittan's versatility — the ad he answered called for him to be able to play everything from "classical to Jerry Lee Lewis" — paid off, giving an early rock stomp to "She's the One" and a romanticism to the two side-closing epics, "Backstreets" and "Jungleland."
Still, the sessions slogged on for hours at a time. In the Wings for Wheels documentary that accompanied a 2005 reissue boxed set, Engineer Jimmy Iovine recalled chewing on the foil from Wrigley's spearmint gum so that he could stay awake. It didn't help that the man whose name was on the title had great difficulty communicating his vision, largely because he was unsure of what it was.
"My concern was this: I have these abilities," Bruce Springsteen said in Wings for Wheels. "I don't know what they are. But I know that they're there, and I don't know where they're gonna lead me. But wherever that is, I have to go, even if it's down a bunch of blind alleys until I find the one that I do want to go down.
A perfect example of this was "Jungleland." The version heard on the Main Point concert had a guitar-and-violin midsection that pierced eardrums, and one early mix featured a mariachi introduction that bordered on spaghetti-western parody. At some point, they decided to turn that middle instrumental portion over to Clarence Clemons, who spent hours on the final day of recording perfecting the two-minute-and-20-second solo that would become the defining moment of his career.
Listen to Bruce Springsteen Perform 'Wings for Wheels'
They literally had no time left. As the E Street Band left a 19-hour session at the Record Plant, they loaded up the van and headed to Providence, R.I., to begin their tour. The band's only rehearsal, according to Weinberg, was at 6AM in a spare room of the studio.
And even with the album in the can, Springsteen still wasn't satisfied. After a master was made, a copy was brought out to Springsteen on the road so that he could finally sign off on it. "He took it outside and he threw it into the pool," Iovine said, with Appel recalling that Springsteen's words were, "'Maybe I might just scrap the whole thing. How about that?'"
Part of it was the poor quality of the record player on which he listened to it, but most of it was all the pressure he was feeling, both from the label and that he was putting on himself. "I couldn't let it go, and I was just basically frightened," he said. "I just had to spend more time beating myself with it before I was gonna let it go."
Landau was able to convince him otherwise, that it was as good as it could get and that he should save his ideas for the next album.
His label began a massive hype campaign in June that, at long last, drew some attention to the first two records. But their words would mean nothing if he wasn't capable on delivering on its promise.
In the week leading up to Born to Run's release, they booked Springsteen into the Bottom Line, a 400-seat club in New York's Greenwich Village, for five nights, playing two shows a night, with nearly one-fourth of the tickets going to members of the media. The early show of the third night, Aug. 15, was broadcast live on WNEW – one of the most influential FM rock stations in the country. The morning DJ Dave Herman, who had boasted on-air that he wasn't buying into the hysteria, was in attendance and came away transfixed. The next day, he admitted his mistake to his listeners. "I saw Springsteen for the first time last night," he said. "It's the most exciting rock 'n' roll show I've ever seen."
With Eric Meola's black-and-white photo of Springsteen leaning on Clemons' shoulder gracing the cover, Born to Run was critically praised for coalescing much of the best rock n' roll of the previous 20 years — Bob Dylan, Phil Spector, Roy Orbison, soul — into a fresh context. In Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus (who, like Herman, had been previously unconvinced) called it, "a magnificent album that pays off on every bet ever placed on him — a '57 Chevy running on melted-down Crystals records that shuts down every claim that has been made. … Springsteen took what he found and made something better himself. This album is it."
Listen to Bruce Springsteen Perform 'Jungleland'
Born to Run shot to No. 3, but the title track single bogged down at No. 23, which was still the highest placement for him to date. Even with a hit on their hands, however, the hype continued. On Oct. 27, Springsteen made the covers of Time and Newsweek. Time's piece, called "Rock's New Sensation," was pure fan-written fluff, but Newsweek's "The Making of a Rock Star" acknowledged the importance of marketing in his new-found success while still finding plenty of room to praise Springsteen's skills as a songwriter and live performer.
A month after the magazines hit the stands, Springsteen embarked on his first overseas tour. It wasn't long, only a week comprised of two shows in London with nights in Stockholm and Amsterdam in between. But that first night, at the Hammersmith Odeon on Nov. 18, 1975, Springsteen got a first-hand glimpse of what was being done to sell him. The venue's marquee read, "Finally. London is ready for Bruce Springsteen," with posters saying the same adorning the walls. Springsteen, who was so against the idea of self-promotion early in his career that he didn't want t-shirts or stickers made, tore down the posters that day.
In Wings for Wheels, Weinberg said, "I can recall hitting the stage at Hammersmith Odeon and the whole front was filled with what looked like journalists and photographers siting there like this [leans back with his arms folded]," with bassist Garry Tallent continuing, "We were convinced that we were just going to die right there onstage, but by the end we had a great show." Van Zandt punctuated it with, "They all went away saying, 'Wow. What was that?' All of a sudden the Time and Newsweek thing didn't seem quite so silly."
The concert not only impressed the critics, but united both progressive rockers and soon-to-be punks. Peter Gabriel, who had just left Genesis a few months before, was in attendance. "That blew me away," he told Rolling Stone. "Second only in my favorite gig list to Otis Redding in 1967." As told in Chris Salewicz's Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer, the future Clash frontman was quoted as saying, "That's the way to do it!" with Salewicz noting, "The fact that Springsteen plays a Telecaster was significant for Joe, who saw it as a sign. Joe even bought an excessively long guitar lead, allowing him to wander at will about the stage and even into the audience — just like Springsteen."
They returned home for a month of dates in the Northeast and their first Canadain shows. The tour ended with a New Year's Eve performance at Philadelphia's Tower Theater. The triumph was short-lived. Springsteen would soon find out that his contract with Appel's Laurel Canyon Productions was heavily weighted in his manager's favor. His attempt to sue to have his deal terminated prompted an injunction from Appel that prevented Springsteen from recording until it was resolved. A year later, in May 1977, the case was settled and Landau, who had played such a huge role in Springsteen's success, was installed as his new manager.
The importance of Born to Run in saving Springsteen's career has not been lost on the star. "When I hear the record," he said, "I hear my friends, and I hear my hopes and my dreams and what I thought my life was going to be like as a 25-year old kid. I see it as the start of some of the most important and fundamental relationships of my life. … I think today it provides on stage for us a great communion between myself and the band members. Without sounding too hokey … it is a bit sacramental when we play it, and it falls like that in the course of the evening. And it's just a lovely feeling."

subset: commoncrawl


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You are on PERI's international website. Click here to switch to PERI USA. Click here to view all PERI websites.
Through participation in the Construction Exercise, PERI offers educational institutions providing construction-related courses not only the opportunity to gain valuable experience with a specific practical approach but also win attractive cash prizes.
Very recently, the winners of the 10th competition were announced. A jury of renowned experts had the difficult task of evaluating the submitted solutions and then deciding on the final placings. The international PERI Construction Exercise is a competition with a € 20,000 prize fund for those students at higher education institutions which offer construction-related courses. The aim of the competition is to ensure that the teaching content of the construction operations - in particular the areas of work preparation and formwork technology – has a high degree of practical orientation. It comprehensively addresses the interrelationships of many construction disciplines. The main focus is to implement the knowledge acquired in the classroom in a real project. In the process, the participants are required to integrate the use of PERI formwork systems, a situation they will encounter on many construction sites around the world during their subsequent careers. Well-known experts from industry make up the jury for the final round and evaluate the submitted works. At the same time, the competition is an excellent opportunity for students to establish contacts with potential employers as well as getting an impression of the supplier industry.
A total of 31 teams submitted their comprehensive solutions for the10th Construction Exercise with the five best entries qualifying for the final round. The finalists came from universities in Germany and Austria and presented their solutions at the end of November in the PERI training centre in Weissenhorn in front of a large audience and jury of industry experts.
Each team had 20 minutes time to present its work before the jury put forward their questions. For the experts, the important aspects under scrutiny were just how confident and competent the approach taken was and if the decisions reached were well-founded. After the final deliberations, there was a somewhat tight but clear result:
1st place: Christian Jakob and André Pöbel | Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mosbach
2nd place: Christian Hänsele and Mike Hartmann | University of Stuttgart
3rd place: Hermann Wittl | University of Applied Sciences Munich
4th place: Markus Lehr, Andreas Lindner and Andrea Thaler | Technical University Graz, Austria
5th place: Benjamin Otto, Christian Singer and Ksenia Strele | Beuth Technical University Berlin
With a very good written proposal and a convincing presentation, the DHBW Mosbach team were adjudged the overall winners of this final round. In addition to the not inconsiderable amount of prize money, a varied, two-day programme of events in Ulm and surrounding area awaited not only the winning team but also all the other participants – among other things, this included a visit to the "StadtGarten Weissenhorn" project ,which formed the basis of the assignment, and features several three and four-storey buildings with altogether 60 apartments and underground parking spaces.
A reception at the Ulm city hall hosted by the council´s Senior Planning Officer was a great honour for the participants and guests. Mr. Tim von Winning presented current and future key projects of the city of Ulm under the motto "Transforming Ulm". His impressive presentation rounded off a very varied and exciting programme.
Documents for the PERI Construction Exercise 2016 | 2017 can be downloaded free of charge at www.peri.com/en/knowledge/construction-exercise.


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Making a settlement agreement with your employer
Mae'r cyngor hwn yn berthnasol i Cymru. Gweler cyngor ar gyfer Gweler cyngor ar gyfer Lloegr, Gweler cyngor ar gyfer Gogledd Iwerddon, Gweler cyngor ar gyfer Yr Alban
If you have a complaint against your employer which you could take to an employment tribunal, they might try to settle that dispute to stop you making a claim or taking an existing claim any further.
If your employer wants you to give up your right to go to a tribunal, there are only two ways they can do this legally:
negotiate a COT3 agreement through Acas
get you to agree to a 'settlement agreement'
A settlement agreement might involve your employer promising to pay you a sum of money, stop treating you unlawfully or both.
The settlement agreement is a legal contract between you and your employer - you both have to stick to it. Your employer is likely to want you to keep the agreement confidential.
Your employer will usually pay for you to get independent legal advice. This is because if you sign a settlement agreement without getting independent legal advice first, you'll still be able to go to an employment tribunal.
If you don't want to negotiate with your employer, you can go to an employment tribunal instead. You'll need to start early conciliation to do this.
Getting advice before negotiating
You should get advice unless you're sure how much your case is worth, for example you know how much holiday pay you should have been paid.
Get help with a problem at work.
Make sure you have any relevant documents and dates to hand when you get advice. This could be your contract of employment, the date of the dispute and copies of any emails about settling it.
Negotiating the agreement
Your employer will discuss with you what should be in the agreement, either face-to-face or in writing.
Tell your employer if you need someone to help you because it could be hard for you to take part in the conversation - for example because of a disability or if English isn't your first language.
They don't have to let someone go with you, but it's good practice for them to do so.
If the negotiations don't lead to you settling the dispute, you won't normally be able to refer to anything you discussed if you go to an employment tribunal. If you want to refer to those discussions, talk to an adviser.
Considering your employer's offer
When you're considering your employer's offer, you should think about things like:
how strong your case is
how far off their offer is from what you could get
if you want to get your job back or keep your job with an agreement that your employer will make changes in your workplace
what else you could do if you don't accept the offer
if the stress of making a tribunal claim is outweighed by what you could get if you win
If you've been getting Universal Credit, Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance and settle your claim you won't have to pay that back. If you win a tribunal claim, the DWP will claim back what they've paid you. You should also bear in mind that the DWP won't claim that back if you settle a claim.
If you think the offer is reasonable, it's probably worth accepting.
If you don't think it's reasonable, you could ask them to increase it or decline the offer and go to a tribunal.
Talk to an adviser if you need help deciding whether to accept your employer's offer. You can also get advice from a local solicitor - check if you can get help with legal costs.
If you reach an agreement
Once you've reached an agreement with your employer, they'll usually write it down.
Make sure the settlement agreement:
is in writing
covers the specific dispute you're having
is made by a lawyer who's independent of your employer
gives the name of that lawyer
sets out what you and your employer agree to do
says that the agreement meets the rules about settlement agreements
If you think your agreement isn't valid, talk to an adviser. You can also get advice from a local solicitor - check if you can get help with legal costs.
Your employer will usually pay for you to get independent legal advice on the agreement.
Most often it will be from a qualified lawyer, but it could also be a trade union rep or advice worker who are authorised to advise on settlement agreements.
The advice they'll give you is limited to the terms of the agreement - for example, that you understand what you're agreeing to. They won't advise you on whether it's a good agreement or if you could have got a better result by going to a tribunal.
If your employer breaks the agreement
You can go to the county court to claim breach of contract. Find out how to make a court claim on GOV.UK.
Talk to an adviser if you need help.
If you reached a settlement during a tribunal hearing and the tribunal put your claim on hold ('stayed' it) for a set period of time, you can ask the tribunal to revive your claim if your employer doesn't fulfil their part of the agreement within that time.
Help us improve our website
Take 3 minutes to tell us if you found what you needed on our website. Your feedback will help us give millions of people the information they need.


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The word Islam means voluntary "Submission" or "Surrender" to the Will of God. It derives from the root word "salam," meaning peace.
In the Quran, God defines that the only purpose for which He created mankind is to Worship Him. Islam recognizes that humankind has free choice in whether to obey or disobey God, but ultimately we will be held accountable to God in the next life for the choices that we make in this life. (Read more: Concept of God in Islam)
Islamic position on Prophets
God sent Prophets to teach mankind how to worship Him; starting with Adam, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and the last of the messengers, Muhammad (peace be upon them all). The Islamic position is that all of these prophets came with the same message, that there is no deity worthy of worship except the One True God, known in Arabic as Allah.
Islam places great importance in the belief that the soul gives life to a human body. Likewise, in its absence, the human body dies and disintegrates. However, the soul is eternal and will be reunited with the body on the Day of Resurrection, when God will raise everyone to answer for their deeds on earth. Islam encourages the individual to focus on keeping the soul healthy, through the remembrance, obedience and worship of God. There should be a correct balance in strengthening the soul and not over-indulging with the pleasures of the body.
Islam: A way of life
Islam is a natural way of life that encourages one to give due attention to their relationship with God and His creation. Islam teaches that it is through the doing of good deeds and seeking the pleasure of God that souls find true happiness and peace. It is in this context that the word Islam derives from the root word "salam," or peace.
With so much going on the world with Muslims, it's fair to say that we should atleast understand what Islam is in a nutshell. Here's a short explanation offering just that! Explained by Nouman Ali Khan.


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| Iceland Gull Identifications represent best guesses on my part and are not intended to be authoritative. Please feel free to drop me an eMail with corrections or comments. They are greatly appreciated. |


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Major Update Due Soon!
This plugin is getting a major update soon.
WP Super Edit is designed to get control of the WordPress wysiwyg visual editor and add some functionality with more buttons and customized TinyMCE plugins. WP Super edit acts as framework for TinyMCE visual editor plugins and buttons allowing administrators (or users) to arrange buttons and add TinyMCE plugins to the visual editor.
Your feedback is always welcome!
- Drag and Drop interface for arranging the WordPress visual editor buttons.
- Access to built-in WordPress visual editor buttons and functions.
- Additional TinyMCE plugins to add buttons and features like tables, layers (div tag), advanced XHTML properties, advanced image and link properties, WordPress emoticons, style attributes, css classes for themes, search / replace, and more.
- Options for allowing users to configure visual editor settings; One editor setting for all users, role based editor settings, and individual user editor settings. Only WordPress administrators can activate or deactivate TinyMCE wysiwyg visual editor plugins. In single or role based modes, only administrators can arrange editor buttons.
- Easy to install and remove. WP Super Edit uses separate database tables for settings and to support multi-site configurations. Currently only the Super Emoticon / Icon Plugin will leave short tags in your posts or pages.
Version Notice
This version has been tested for use with the versions of WordPress indicated. I attempt to keep WP Super Edit up to date with changes to WordPress and the visual editor, but the complex changes can make it unproductive to maintain compatiblity with some older versions of WordPress. This is a list of recent versions available for older WordPress sites.
- Use WP Super Edit 2.1 for WordPress 2.6 to 2.7.1
- Use WP Super Edit 2.3.x for WordPress 2.8 to 3.1.x
- Use WP Super Edit 2.4.x for WordPress 3.1 to 3.8.x
- Take the whole wp-super-edit folder and put it in the WordPress Plugin directory for your Web site.
- Activate the plugin on the WordPress Plugins administration panel
- Click on the Settings option and you will see WP Super Edit in the sub menu.
- WP Super Edit should lead you through the final installation steps. Please be patient! WP Super Edit will attempt to scan and save your original wysiwyg visual editor settings while installing. WP Super Edit will not work until the installation has been completed!
Contributors & Developers
"WP Super Edit" is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
ContributorsTranslate "WP Super Edit" into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
- Merged in TinyMCS plugins from version 4.3.10
- Tested with WordPress 4.5
- The following plugins have been removed by the TinyMCE development team: advhr, advimg, advlink, style, xhtmlxtras.
- Developmental plugins for WP Super Edit Emotions, WP Super Edit Classes, WP Super Edit Upgrade removed.
- Migrate from depreciated functions.
- Update TinyMCE Plugins to 3.5.8
- Start testing for JSON data migration.
- Fix $wpdb->prepare() errors.
- Remove " default " " from MySQL for dbDelta since text and defaults don't play well everywhere.
- Bring back wp_tiny_mce() for WordPress 3.2 compatibility.
- Using Andrew Ozz's method for loading language files inline. Fixes some issues with multisite and various js restrictions.
- Introduce buttons and support for Distraction Free Writing.
- Minor bug fixes to eliminate warnings
- Another fix for Font Tools issues. Eegistered plugins can assign URL, blank, or none in DB.
- Fix for Font Tools issues.
- Update included TinyMCE pluigns to TinyMCE version 3.9.3 package.
- Dependency checks for WP Super Edit sub-plugins.
- Introduce WP Super Edit Upgrade Utility Plugin to correct my old mistakes and remove depreciated plugins and buttons.
- Fix Custom CSS Classes plugin supporting multiple CSS files thanks @atomas
- Use plugin_url() for better multi-site and domain mapping support
- Cleanup effort to remove warnings and depreciated functions
- minor fixes for Theme Class sub-plugin
- WordPress 3.0.1 support (beta multi-site support)
- Removing callback functionality, so additional TinyMCE external plugins can be added by building independent WordPress plugins.
- uninstall.php to do the right thing when you delete this crap.
- Moved Super-CSS-Classes and Super-Emoticons to separate plugins in this package.
- A hopefully a better method of setting up default TinyMCE settings.
- WordPress 2.8 compatibility fixes.
- Big cleanup to move some of the interface class functions to normal php functions.
- A bug fix from vituko that should work better with some server setups.
- Removed backwards compatibility checks because several changes to TinyMCE and WordPress make backwards compatibility prohibitive to maintain.
- It is now using jQuery UI scripts that ship with WordPress. No more stupid big JS downloads for button settings.
- Updates to most of the packaged TinyMCE plugins for TinyMCE 220.127.116.11 (that is a bunch of dots)
- A bonus backport added as suggested by vituko that should make things work on more server setups.
- Add font tag styling options for font face, size, etc as requested in wordpress.org forums.
- Fix missing bad javascript URL for admin interface.
- Switch to template_redirect method for settings scanning using a pseudo tinymce init.
- Do version checks and remove javascript caching options for WordPress 2.7.
- Clean up CSS for WordPress 2.7
2.0.x and Earlier
- Sorry didn't keep good notes for these changes. WP Super Edit 2.0 was a major rewrite to make this plugin compatible with WordPress 2.5 to 2.6.


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'Queen Elizabeth' - Druid High Priestess and Human Sacrifices
Druidism was the religion of the Celtic people that was administered by priests and priestesses called Druids. Remnants of Druidism still presently exist.
The Druids were a priestly caste existing among the Celtic people. The Celts, as they were called, were a tribal people who spread throughout Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and other parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and the Balkans. This migration had occurred by the 5th. century BC. By the first century AD the Roman had launched many attacks against the Celts that greatly dwindled their population. Christianity dealt them their final defeat.
There is little first hand knowledge or the Druids or of their religion. The chief reason for this is that they taught their acolytes secret Druidical knowledge by word of mouth. None of this trusted knowledge was committed to writing; it was all learned through mnemonics.
The most important knowledge that exists of the Druids comes from the writings of Julius Caesar. Caesar was not only a warrior and statesman but a priest as well; therefore he was keenly interested in the Druidism and the Celtic people. Moreover, he was friendly with a pro-Roman Druid, Diviciacus, who shared with him many Druid beliefs, especially about their gods and life after death.
Caesar mentions some of these beliefs and the behavior of the people in his "Gallic Wars." The Gauls, he observed, treated their ordinary people almost like slaves. There were two notable classes among them, the Druids and the knights.
The Druids were concerned with the divine worship; they officiated over both public and private sacrifices, interpreted ritual questions, settled disputes and issued punishments to those refusing to obey their rulings.
Caesar asserted several times "that Druid power originated in Britain and that Britain remained the center of Druidism." This judgment of the Druids was profound and also served to unite the Celtic people. Druidic decisions were critical and were to be completely adhered to. Caesar noted those not obeying the decisions were banished from the tribe and even a wider community. In Gaul there were always boundary disputes that required Druidic intervention. The suggestion that the Druids settled boundary disputes indicates the importance of Druidic rule among the Celtic tribes.
More evidence that the Druids and the religion of Druidism held the Celts together were the tribal assemblies which occurred on days that were vital in the agricultural year. The original Druidic festive days were 'Beltain,' May 1, the beginning of summer, or the light half of the year; and 'Samhain,' November 1, the beginning of winter, the dark half of the year (see Sabbats).
The assemblies, especially large and important ones, took place in "sanctified" places. It was here that people from a large area or a whole island would gather. For example, ancient Ireland was divided into five communities, each separate and independent of each other, but all unified on days of great feasts.
Both on the continent and in Ireland the Druids held themselves above the kings unless they held both offices. They held themselves in very high esteem, which was shared for them by the people. The Druids called themselves "creators of the universe." In Ireland kings went nowhere without Druids to advise them. Druids believed they were the incarnations of the gods.
What were these "sanctified" or sacred places in which the Druids assembled? First and most important they were sacred groves of trees, especially oak trees. The name Druid means, "knowing the oak tree" in Caelic. It was within these groves that most assemblies and religious ceremonies occurred. The Druids also valued the trees for curative benefits. The mistletoe, which was seen as a sign from the Celtic Otherworld (their name of a place where after life was thought to exist) was used as a cure against poisons, infertility, and even used to cure animals. It can readily be seen that it was here in these sacred groves that the Druids dispensed their judgment and punishments. When the people were not nearby groves they assembled by rivers, streams, and lakes. The Celts worshipped water gods and believed water to be sacred.
Like trees and water the Druids held some islands to be sacred too. One is the island of Mona, (also called Mon or Anglesey); the Romans destroyed the sanctuary there in 60 AD. It is thought that both Irish and British Druids periodically assembled in sacred strongholds. The Isle of Man, sacred to the sea god, Manannan, appears to have been viewed with similar solemnity. A stone discovered in the 19thcentury bore a Celtic inscription, written in Ogam (a cryptic writing used mainly for commemorative inscriptions on wood and stone), which translates: "The Stone of Dovadona, son of the Druid."
This indicates Druids inhabited Man as late as the fifth and sixth century AD, and other discoveries and legends also indicate this. There is the discovery of the three sons of the fifth-century Irish King Erc buried on Iona. This preceded the coming of Saint Columba. It seems that one of Columba's brethren was sacrificed to build a monastery there. This indicates pagan beliefs and ceremonies still existed long after the coming of Christianity.
According to Welsh legend such human sacrifices were recommended and performed. During the building of Vortigen's castle the construction was delayed because as soon as a stone was laid it disappeared. The Druids ordered a child, born without a father, be sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the site to cleanse it.
There are several descriptions of Druidic human sacrifices. They were performed within a religious and spiritual sense. Many were performed publicly among the Celtic people especially at the celebration of Beltain. There were also private human sacrifices. If a leader of warriors was defeated in battle, in disgrace, he would often turn his sword upon himself. The reverse was also true, a petition to the gods, was sometimes accompanied by self-sacrifice.
Behind Druidical performance of human sacrifice laid the Druidic belief in an after life. Again Caesar emphatically states it, "Doctrinally…the most important Druid belief was that after death the soul passes from one to another — hence the Celts' bravery in battle." This belief in reincarnation was not just in the transmigration of the soul from one human form to another, but to other life forms as well. This is evident in the Irish epic 'Tain Bo Cuailnge,' "The Cattle Raid of Cooley." In it two magical bulls possessing human reasoning, initially originating as two swineherds of the Lord of the Otherworld, pass through a long series of metamorphoses – they become ravens, stages, warriors, water monsters, demons and aquatic worms. The evidence from archaeology, the classic writings, and vernacular tradition to the present reinforces Caesar's assertion. In tombs have been found remains of lavish amounts of food, hearty mead, equipment that would seem to indicate the belief the soul would need these things in the Otherworld.
In the poet Lucan's "Pharsalia," a verse epic about the Roman civil war, he addresses the Druids with, "If we understand you right, death is only a pause in a long life." The writer Posidonius states that Celtic men were willing to have their throats cut so they could follow their prince into death, and then into a new life.
A similar interpretation might be drawn from the sacrifice scene on the Gundestrup Cauldron. One column of warriors are marching to the sacrifice while another, reborn, are marching away from it. An explanation for this might be the Celts compared men to sacrificial vassals in which human life was offered up in exchange for another existence.
It is known that the wheel was a Celtic symbol of rebirth. The wheel appears on sword-sheaths and other pieces of art.
That the Celts did not fear death was not because they had a low regard for life or a feeling of recklessness in battle, but it arose from generations of Druid teachings. Druids taught such teachings for countless generations, having been recited at gravesites. Many seasonal assemblies were held at burial sites, including the enigmatic passage graves (dolmens of the megaliths) that stud Ireland. From these beliefs came the interweaving of the spiritual and mundane worlds until the two could hardly be separated. Such an attitude or viewpoint is a blending of ancient Celtic and proto-Celtic ideals that formed the essential and archaic nature of Druidism.
The Druids were said to be the keepers of traditional wisdom that was concerned with moral philosophy, natural phenomena and theology. They were skilled in the reading of omens, the interpretation of dreams, the conducting of sacrifices, the construction of a calendar, herbal medicine, astronomy and the composition of poetry. Some say they also practiced sexual magic.
One way the Druids read omens was by killing a victim. "The inhabitants employ a very surprising and incredible custom when they want to know matters of great importance. They consecrate a human being to death, drive a dagger into his belly, above the abdomen, and draw conclusions about events to come from the squirming of the victim and the squirting of his blood. They have been practicing this since time immemorial."
The composing of poems was the chief duty of the bard, who was also considered a priest in Druidism. In most, if not all, battles bards went along, not to fight but to record the battle that they later composed into verse to be sung and read to the people of their tribe or clan. Bards were free to move about in battle without being in danger because it was a strict rule of Druidic law that no bard should be killed. Bards, like other priests and priestesses, were considered gifted for their offices. Some were also seers.
Ammianus, a Roman historian (c. 330-395 B.C), said Druids "are uplifted by searching into things most secret and sublime."
Much attention has been drawn to the Druid human sacrificial ceremonies that usually conducted on the festive days. "Pliny recorded that the slaying of a human being was considered a highly religious acts among the Britons, and the eating of the flesh regarded as a 'wholesome remedy.'" Also "the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus states the Irish ate their enemies, and the Greek historian and traveler Pausaniaus tells how the Gallatin Celts ate the flesh and drank the blood of children." The Irish Celts also are said to have washed their faces in the blood of the slain, and imbibed in it. They drank the blood of dead relatives, a custom that existed until the 16th century. In the Western Isles the blood brotherhood survived until recent times. All of these cultural traditions seem to indicate a Druidic influence.
Why was such influence so strong and prevalent, it might be asked? Caesar gave two reasons: Druids were omitted from military service and did not have to pay taxes. These appear to be mundane reasons when Caesar also noted some Druids studied as long as twenty years. The Druids, as it had been noted, seemed to possess gifts for learning and art. Their concern for moral philosophy made them skillful judges in rendering rewards and punishments. Their priestly duties also enhanced their judgments, as they knew how to conduct the proper ceremonies to the gods.
There were also female Druids because women were important in the Celtic culture.
There were many gods and goddesses Celtic pantheon. The Celtic belief in the gods was known by their personal names that rendered three kinds of information about an individual. This information was the person's "own" name, his identity; his "collective" name (the classics stated that the Celts knew themselves by the name of Keltoi, or Celtae); and his "ancestral" name — which would, in the early period of these people, indicate which pagan god from which he was descended.
Caesar said that the Gauls "all assert their descent from Dis Pater and that it is the Druidic belief."
Three other major gods were Teutates, "god of the people," he possessed qualities of both the Roman gods Mars and Mercury in that he was not just a god of war, but of healing, fertility and protection, guarding the people against disease and hostility. Though he was guardian of the people he required his victims to be drown in sacred wells or pools, which figured strongly among the Celts. In such receptacles were often offered expensive weapons and ornaments to the gods.
Esus was not a very popular god, and little wonder, since he required his victims to be hung or stabbed. There are few inscriptions to him; although, he was called lord and master.
Taranis, known as "Thunder," is equal to Jupiter. He was symbolized by the wheel which was either of lightning or a solar symbol, and, less frequently the spiral representing a lightning flash. He required prisoners of war to be burned in wicker cages.
These three 'gods' lead the Celtic large and complex pantheon and played important roles in sacrificial worship ceremonies. Each, it was believed, had given explicit instructions, known to Druid priests, as to how their victims were to be sacrificed. The most notable were the sacrifices offered to Taranis which was the sacrificing of prisoners. Both the Greek biographer, Diodorus Sculus, and geographer, Strabo, described the sacrifice. "'They set up a colossus of wood and straw' — it must have been something like a gigantic basket-like plaited figure — 'shut cattle, wild animals and human beings in it, and set light to the whole thing.'" This ceremony was usually held at the feast of Beltain and was referred to by Caesar. Fires played an important role at Beltain and Samhain, because of the threat of poor crops and a harsh winter.
Diodorus thought the human beings were slain first by a blow to the head. But the writers agreed that the victims, however killed, were not sacrificed so much as a cruelty, but for the sake of religiosity. Others have written that before their deaths the victims were told what to ask the gods for when reaching the Otherworld. This, again, reinforces the Celtic belief in an after life. All agreed the Druids, or "wise men" officiated at these rituals. The Roman Senate by degree outlawed such human sacrifice in 97 BC. It was called a barbaric practice.
Celtic warriors were known to be fierce fighters. Caesar laid this to the fact of their Druidic belief in life after death. This not fearing death made them braver. They were well trained and skilled in warfare, and because of this they acquired the name of headhunters. It was described that Celtic warriors were seen "…with whole wreaths of victims' heads dangling from their bridles."
There is also literature hinting of homosexuality among the warriors. One writer, Drodorus, says Celtic women were not only as tall as the men, but as courageous as well. But despite of their charm the young men paid little attention to them. "They longed instead for the embrace of one of their own sex, lying on animal skins and tumbling around with a lover on either side. It is particularly surprising they attached no value to either dignity or decency, offering their bodies to each other without further ado. This was not regarded as at all harmful; on the contrary, if they were rejected in their approaches, they felt insulted." Such behavior was regarded to be the result of their training.
Celtic children were allowed to play what were called "sex games" so they would be familiar with each other bodies when mating. As soon as young men were old enough to bear arms they lived solely among men. They trained exclusively with men; therefore, it was thought natural they should form a likeness for each other. It was not hard in such a situation to see how latent homo-eroticism could turn into true homosexuality. Constant companionships developed such bonds as a driver for his passenger, or a spear-carrier for the warrior. Examples of this were "Achilles loved Patroclus as did Alaxander the Great Hephaestion. Wherever there was no taboo, such relationships understandably gave rise to a cult of the male body."
It is also stated that women that bore children were greatly respected and won a high social status. In time of war they were extremely courageous and fought beside of their men. By ancient Druidic law a man was permitted to have two wives.
When thinking of Celtic women, the name of Brighid must be mentioned. There are many legends concerning her, so it is difficult to say whether there was a real woman by such a name owning up to all the things attributed to her, or she was just a Celtic goddess. According to Celtic mythology, the Irish Brighid is the equivalent to the Gaulish goddess Minerva. Caesar included Minerva among the major deities of Gaul. Both were patronesses of poetry, learning, healing, and art or craftsmanship.
Later the Christian church made her Saint Brighid, but her pagan past survived. Her feast day is February 1, which directly coincides to Imbolc, the pagan festival for the celebration of spring.
The two goddesses may be thought of as one only by different names according to other writings and legends. Brighid and nineteen nuns guarded a perpetually burning sacred fire surrounded by a hedge within which no male could enter. Minerva's sanctuary in Briton also was supposed to have contained a perpetual burning fire.
There is doubt whether the pagan Brighid and Saint Brighid, or Saint Brigit, were one and the same. Therefore, there is speculation that the Celtic Irish Brighid was once abbotess of a pagan sanctuary, which later became Brighid's monastery near Kildare. It was at such sanctuaries that men and women studied together. There were also sanctuaries or schools for women who became Druid priestesses. This has important historical significance because during the Dark Ages, when the Church was busy hunting heretics, Ireland, being isolated by itself, was left alone. During this time Ireland built great schools and libraries at which students could study. Many of Europe's nobility sent their sons and daughters to study in Ireland during this period. Such institutions date back to Druidic times. The schools for women eventually in Christian times became schools for the sisterhoods or nuns.
Historically the Romans wanted to demolish the military and political strength of the Druids and bring them under the control of the Empire. This was pretty well accomplished by the beginning of the second century AD. The Romans, though, were not too concerned about Druidism itself during their earlier conflicts with the Celts because Druidism and the Roman religion were both polytheistic therefore they coexisted together. Even though the Druids lost much of their power, Druidism still lingered on. The ancient and emotional beliefs of a culture were hard to destroy.
Such was seen when Christianity became the official religion of Rome. Christianity was monotheistic, and most of the Emperors soon saw themselves as godheads. There was to be no questioning of their rule or religion. If there was, it amounted to treason.
Soon on the surface, especially in Briton and the Western Isles, the pagan religion seemed to die and enter the Roman temples or churches. But, like other pagan religions, Druidism did not completely die within its practitioners. They just observed and hid their old and sacred beliefs while observing Christianity as well.
It seems that the Celtic Druidism lingered on into the twentieth century, although there was evidence of it in the centuries before. An informant of Dr. Anne Ross, a native of Perthshire, took her to the sacred square where the rites, described by Minister James Robertson of the same area, were performed. The informant remembered witnessing the rituals as a young girl before the First World War. In her description, a bonfire was lit. The oatmeal pancake was made with much care. There was the darkened area "…'resembling the mark of a huge thumb' appeared." The cake was then sliced into pieces and placed in a bag. Onlookers drew pieces out of the bag. The person drawing the charred slice had to jump through the fires, and was then driven from the area with shouts and jeers. "'He was a kind of scapegoat,' the informant said, 'but in the old days, he or she would have been sacrificed.'"
Dr. Ross was told a similar story in Derbyshire in 1977, when she witnessed the lighting of the Beltain fires on May Eve under the pretext of burning rubbish. Traces of Druidism have been discovered throughout the centuries. There has been much romanticizing about the Druids. In the 17th century John Aubrey alleged the Druids constructed Stonehenge, a theory that is thought to be inaccurate. However in the 18th century William Stukeley endorsed Aubrey's views and became the first "Arch Druid" and the founder of modern Druidism. Since then there have been formations and splitting-ups of Druidic Orders.
The Druids may not have built Stonehenge but it has been significant in their history. There is speculation that the Druids met near Stonehenge. A half mile south of it is Normanton Down, Wiltshire, one of the finest barrow cemeteries in Britain. It will be remembered the Druids met at burial sites. Other aspects of Stonehenge suggest the Druids may have used it to construct their Coligny or Bush Barrow calendar; therefore, it is supposed they would not have used it as a burial ground or met there.
The Bush Barrow calendar ties in with the Bush Barrow excavation of 1808. A man of considerable height and social status was discovered under the mound eleven feet high. He was obviously a king or chieftain. Sewn on the breast of his garment was a lozenge-shaped breastplate with an engraved surface. The inscriptions indicate his possible burial was 1900 BC.
Before 1915 Stonehenge was privately owned and modern Druids met there. With the over turning of a stone in 1900, fees began to be charged. In 1915 the owner Cecil Chubb turned it over to the government. For this the Druids ritually cursed him, but continued meeting there until 1988, when spectators that their meetings attracted stopped their meetings because of the vandalism.
The modern North American Druids have no connection with the ancient or modern British Druids. The first group or grove, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA), was formed in 1963, at Carleton College, in Northfield, Minnesota, to protest the school's mandatory student attendance of religious services. When the requirement, was dropped the "grove" continued not so much as a religious group but a philosophical one. Rituals were based on discovered anthropological materials including a non-bloody sacrifice. This group is no longer an active organization but has independent groves scattered throughout the country.
Several groves split off to form a separate branch, this being called the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA), which emphasized neo-Pagan religion. One such grove was in Berkeley, California, led by Archdruid P. E. I(ssac) Bonewits during the 1970s. In 1983 he formed his own organization, AR NDRAfOCHT FEIN (Irish Caelic for "Our Own Druidism"), which had about 400 members in 1988.
Some have said the spirit of ancient Druidism is dead. Others call them headhunters in a derogatory sense. But, the importance of ancient Druidism seems to be that it was the one thing that held the Celtic people together, and these people and their ancestors eventually civilized a major part of Europe, Ireland, Briton, and the British Isles. For this they and their customs, though some were crude, deserve respect and understanding.
Several of the details within this article were attained from previously reading two novels by Morgan Llywelyn, "Bard," and "Druids." This writer is grateful and recommends these books and others by this author to those interested in reading about the lives of the Druids. A.G.H.
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Issue of June 26, 2009
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson & Michele Montgomery
This week's issues:
1. Notes from a Workshop - A Gender Balance Point of View
2. Deadline Extension: Director, NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences
3. Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position, Rice University, October 2009
4. Celebrate Women in Physics Posters
6. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
7. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN
1. Notes from a Workshop - A Gender Balance Point of View
From: Women in Astronomy Blog - Hannah Jang-Condell
Back to top.2. NSF Extends Deadline for Application for Director, Division of
Astronomical Sciences
From: AAS Informational Email 2009-16 [aasmembers_at_aas.org]
The NSF had informed the AAS that the deadline for applications for director of the Division of Astronomical Sciences has been extended to 30 June 2009. Full information and the position is available through the AAS Job Register and the NSF homepage.
Back to top.3. Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position, Rice University, October 2009
From: WIPHYS, June 18, 2009
Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position is a workshop for senior women graduate students and post-docs who are interested in pursuing an academic career. The workshop is designed to provide participants hands-on experience to enhance their knowledge of and ability to find the right faculty position.
Through support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award, all travel, meals, and lodging costs will be provided for workshop participants. Applications are due August 13. For further information visit 2009 Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position Workshop. http://advance.rice.edu/negotiatingtheidealfacultyposition/
Back to top.4. Celebrate Women in Physics Posters
From: WIPHYS, June 24, 2009
This full-color poster http://www.aps.org/programs/women/reports/poster.cfm highlights women physicists actively pursuing their work. The poster is 16 inches x 20 inches and fits easily on a door or bulletin board. To order, please send an email to women_at_aps.org and include your full mailing address. There is no charge for the poster, however we reserve the right to limit quantities.
Back to top.5. Century of Physics Posters
From: WIPHYS, June 24, 2009
This dramatic set of 11 posters was designed for the APS Centennial in 1999. A few sets of the Century of Physics posters are still available for purchase. To order, please download the Century of Physics Timeline Posters Order Form (PDF) . Price is $50 (US and Canada) including shipping and handling. International orders are calculated individually; email timeline_at_aps.org for details before ordering.
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EarthTalk® is a weekly environmental column made available to our readers from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: How far along are we at developing algae-based and other higher yield sources of biofuels? — Jason McCabe, Tullahoma, TN
A few years ago biofuels were all the rage. Environmental advocates to national security hawks alike were extolling the virtues of ethanol and biodiesel as a carbon-neutral bridge to our energy future. But the bubble burst when it became apparent that there wasn't enough agricultural land in the U.S. or elsewhere to grow sufficient amounts of corn, palm and other crops to feed both people and their engines. To boot, the process of extracting and distributing biofuels has proven anything but carbon neutral. And with ever cheaper natural gas widely available now, paying a premium for ethanol or biodiesel seemed frivolous.
But a new generation of biofuels based on algae might just change all that. One of the major problems with biofuels that algae could solve is space, since algae can yield as much as 100 times more fuel per unit area than other so-called "second generation" biofuel crops (e.g. non-food crops or non-food waste parts of food crops). Federal researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy report that it would take only 15,000 square miles—less than 1/7 the area now used to harvest all the corn across the country—to produce enough algae fuel to replace all of our petroleum fuel.
While burning algae-derived fuel in an engine or factory generates carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions just like fossil fuels do, the algae itself requires CO2 to photosynthesize—so overall no new CO2 is added to the atmosphere. Furthermore, any CO2 created through processing or refinement can be captured and re-directed to the growing algae beds. And unlike other biofuel feedstocks, algae production has minimal impact on freshwater supplies—especially when it can be undertaken in ocean waters or even wastewater.
At least three well-funded ventures are poised to ramp up production of commercially viable quantities of algae-derived crude oil over the next couple of years. California's Solazyme is building an algae fuel factory in Brazil in partnership with food processing giant Bunge and expects to manufacture 100,000 metric tons of fuel there each year. Solazyme is also retooling an Archer Daniels Midland factory in Clinton, Iowa to produce another 100,000 metric tons of algae fuel per year domestically.
Another company ready to make the leap into commercial scale production of algae fuel is Sapphire Energy, which operates a 2,200 acre algae farm in New Mexico where oil is harvested across 70 open ponds and refined on site. Sapphire—Bill Gates is a big investor—expects the facility, which goes online next year, to generate some 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day by 2018.
Yet a third player in the emerging algae fuel market is Synthetic Genomics, the brainchild of genomics guru Craig Venter, who beat the U.S. government in sequencing the human genome and at a fraction of the cost. The company, which last year purchased an 81-acre site in California's Imperial Valley to scale up and test its synthetic algae strains across 42 open ponds, plans to genetically modify algae to optimize its oil output. ExxonMobil signed a $600 million development deal with the company to further the cutting edge research.
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Internal Consulting
Over the past few decades, governments, corporates and organisations have been ramping up their use of external consultants, lifting the size of the global consulting market (advisory & implementation) to around $250 billion. The rise of external consulting has, at the same time, sparked a countermovement: the internal advisor.
Wise advice is golden. Seeking wise council has been common practice as far back as antiquity. As stated in the bible, the Wisdom of Salomon, 'Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.' Early on in the existence of humanity, the role of wise advisors is clearly chronicled and, till this day, the need for wisdom remains. To support all kinds of business-related decisions, executives and managers often turn to consultants – independent, external advisors, typically specialised in solving business issues by providing strategic advice.
Following spectacular growth within the consulting industry in the 80s and 90s – when the industry took off for the first time – it has come to be recognised today as one of the largest and most developed areas within the professional services industry.
Yet, what holds true of almost any market – that growth lures competition – also applies to the external consulting industry and, parallel to its rise, the industry has seen a movement towards internal consulting. Traditionally, there have always been professionals who held an internal advisory role within organisations. However, the first large wave of internal advisors made its debut in the 80s in sync with the wave of efficiency and production optimisation work. Similar to that of external advisory firms, the operating area of internal organisational advisory departments gradually expanded into other functional areas of organisations (i.e. policy development, sales, research and development), and also broadened the field of the disciplines involved: from engineers to economists to behavioural scientists.
Over the years the popularity of internal consultants has, like with the fluctuations in the economy and the consulting market, known its ups and downs. After the huge wave of new internal advisors in the 80s, the 90s saw many internal advisory departments within firms scale down – in line with the prevailing 'back to the source' opinions of that era. The 2000s saw a trend toward internal consulting departments again, resulting in a golden age within the internal consulting industry. In the years following the 2008 financial crisis, organisational austerity, particularly on external consultants, drove growth within internal departments.
Concrete data on the market for internal consulting is scarce across the global market. One of the latest studies in the field, conducted among about 50 organisations with an internal consulting department by an academic institution, suggests that the trend of internal consulting has slowed to a plateau following the crisis years. In addition, the study shows that holding sufficient capacity, disposing of adequate knowledge and skills, and other internal characteristics play the most important role for setting up an internal consultancy club.
The better value between the internal vs the external consultant is hotly debated. The most debated point against external consultants is the high cost for hire – an internal consulting team reduces the dependency on expensive, external advisors, enabling organisations to reduce their overall spending on managing their project portfolio. Other arguments typically cited in favour of internal advisors is that, due to their deeper knowledge of the organisation, they are better able to anchor processes and standards, and can better secure continuity in the long term.
The more sceptical opponents of consulting – those who strongly prefer the use of internal resources as opposed to external experts – question the very value added by external consulting. They point at the structurally poor track record of projects and change management, or at the dubious way consultants recycle and monetise value. After working with one client and learning their internal functioning, consultants can charge another client for the lessons in best practice*. Some even go so far as to state that organisations, irrespective of the dilemma they face, may find themselves addicted, and dependent, on "independent" external consulting firms; who are then amidst a powerful decision-making lobby – potentially with a conflict of interest – in the top ranks of governments and companies (for instance through their thought leadership and alumni network).
Besides the growth of internal consultancy in terms of volume, the field is also undergoing a professionalisation process – the same academic study reveals. More than half of the interviewed managers acknowledge that efforts are being made to boost the quality of internal consultancy teams, with investments in education, tools and skills being the main focus areas. Additionally, more long-term initiatives, such as the formation of project management pools and/or alternative ways of organising internal advisory skills, are on the agenda of organisations. Another area gaining more attention is the opening up of opportunities to take on internal consulting roles on a more flexible basis, for instance, during certain phases of a career, which allows organisations to add consulting work to their talent management mix, and gives employees the possibility of expanding their capabilities and thereby strengthen their regular position.
Looking ahead, market analysts forecast that the share of internal consulting, particularly across developed consulting markets, is likely to begin to rise again, in parallel with other substitutes to traditional consulting models, such as online marketplaces and digitised forms for matching clients with consultants. Internal consulting teams will, however, face a natural barrier at some point in time within industries and organisations. This is due to the fact that the need for external consultancy will always exist on the back of several unique characteristics of external consulting such as independent and/or specialist advice.
* Studies on the value of consulting show mixed feedback. A joint study by the World Bank and Stanford University, for example, showed that the application of consulting and best practice management improves operational performance by a margin, while another study by the MCA (the UK Management Consultancies Association) highlighted that, across the board, consultants provide their clients with a more than proportional long term return on their spending. The exact return on investment is up for debate, but advocates stress that the fact that so many smart companies continue to engage consultants suggests that they do add value – settling the discussion on the idea that the free market has spoken. Negative research focuses more on well-known examples of companies that faced mismanagement despite consulting advice, or, on examples of failed implementation programmes.


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University of Sussex, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Barlow Collection, supervised by Regina Krahl, Maurice Howard, and Aiden Leeves (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2006), no. J13
Mythical bird known as hōō in Japan. The Islamic tradition appropriated the far-eastern iconography of the phoenix and used it to represent another mythical bird, the simurgh.
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum


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Fukushima Monkeys' Blood Shows Signs of Radiation Exposure
Wild monkeys living in forests of Fukushima — the Japanese city that was the site of a nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011 — have lower blood cell counts than monkeys from northern Japan, and carry detectable levels of cesium in their bodies, researchers have found.
The researchers studied blood changes and signs of radiation exposure in 61 monkeys living 43 miles (70 kilometers) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, about one year after an earthquake and tsunami struck the region in 2011, causing a meltdown of three of the plant's reactors, which released a large amount of radioactive material into the environment.
The results showed Fukushima monkeys had lower counts of red and white blood cells, and other blood parts compared with 31 monkeys from Shimokita Penisula in northern Japan. The researchers also found radioactive cesium in the muscles of Fukushima monkeys, ranging from 78 to 1778 becquerels (units of radioactivity representing decay per second) per kilogram, but they didn't find any in Shimokita monkeys. [7 Craziest Ways Japan's Earthquake Affected Earth]
Exposure to radioactive materials may have contributed to the blood changes seen in Fukushima monkeys, study researchers Shin-ichi Hayama and colleagues wrote in their study, published today (July 24) in the journal Scientific Reports. Low blood cell counts could be a sign of a compromised immune system and could potentially make the monkeys vulnerable to infectious diseases, the researchers said.
"The findings are consistent with what our group had found with red blood cells and hemoglobin content for children living around Chernobyl," said Tim Mousseau, a biologist at University of South Carolina, who wasn't involved with the study.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded in 1986. Research on the aftermath of the disaster found concerning effects of radiation exposure on people, animals, insects and plants. The new study of Fukushima monkeys indicate the Japanese plant's meltdown could have similarly negative consequences.
"The fact that they are seeing a signal in monkeys living in Fukushima city means that there's some potential direct relevance to the human population," Mousseau told Live Science. "These monkeys are living at levels of contamination that are very similar to what many of the people are also living in."
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In Fukushima, researchers have so far seen significant abnormalities in butterflies and strong effects on bird populations following the leaked radioactive material.
"Whether these effects will persist into the future, whether they increase or decrease, nobody really knows," Mousseau said. [In Photos: Fukushima Butterflies Plagued With Defects]
The studyresearchers also found that among juvenile monkeys, those with higher radioactive cesium concentrations in their muscles showed lower white blood cell counts. These findings suggest that younger monkeys may be more vulnerable to radioactive materials, the researchers said.
The levels of radioactive cesium found in Fukushima monkeys are higher than what is being reported for the human population in the area, Mousseau said.
"It may be because monkeys are eating the fruits, mushrooms and insects that are quite contaminated, so they are probably getting a much larger exposure than people who are eating relatively uncontaminated food," Mousseau said.
However, it is difficult to determine how dangerous the levels are, because the effects of exposure to radioactive cesium are not well known, and more studies are needed to understand this and other consequences of radioactive material in the environment Mousseau said.
"It's really surprising how little research is being supported, given the important questions that can be answered by this research, the implications for human populations in the area, as well as the potential utility of such research for any future nuclear accident that might occur."
More research will be needed to confirm that the low blood counts in Fukushima monkeys are, in fact, caused by exposure to radiation, Mousseau said. The researchers have ruled out infectious disease or malnutrition as the cause of blood changes in the Fukushima monkeys, but it is still possible that their lower blood cell counts are simply random variations among populations of monkeys, Mousseau said.
Scientists will need to compare Fukushima monkeys living in areas with different levels of radioactive contamination with different populations of monkeys living in uncontaminated areas, to be able to say "with 100 percent confidence that this is due to the radiation," Mousseau said.
Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.


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Salvador Dali - Song of Songs of Solomon - The Shepherd
Salvador Dali
Spanish (1904 – 1989)
Salvador Dali The Shepherd 1971
Salvador Dali The Shepherd is a drypoint etching. This is one of 12 drypoint etchings from the "Song of Songs of Solomon" portfolio. The portfolio was printed in 1971. Leon Amiel, New York published the suite. Arches script is the paper. We are not splitting up the suite. You may purchase only the complete suite. The etchings are authentic. The edition size is 520 in two editions.
For additional background information on Salvador Dali, click on this link .
Available for sale are:
1) The complete suite is Avaliable!!!
E-mail us for the price and condition report. For more information, call us.
Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.
For complete etching information go to the main Song of Songs of Solomon page.


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The beauty trends for Haute Couture Fashion week are anything but average. In fact, the typical adjectives used to capture the art displayed by various designers and artists include wild, eclectic, and whimsical. However non-realistic and daring these hair and makeup looks may be, they always seem to have an underlying layer of prettiness drawing us to them and tempting us to give them a try on our own mini runways in everyday life. Here are a few of the 2014 Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week beauty trends we enjoyed the most and would be willing to try for Fall and Homecoming 2014.
Chanel Haute Couture 2014
Each model rocked a sequin cap with a feathered, extremely piece-y up-do. We love this rocker goes glam inspired look complete with metallic winged eyeliner. The silver and gold glow on the eyes reminds of Winter and the holidays!
Atelier Versace Haute Couture 2014
Move over barely there eye makeup. It looks like Atelier Versace went all out with an all over eye color and gave new meaning to winged eyes. Instead of a winged tip, these models had fully winged eyelids in teal for a sultry dramatic effect, which was balanced with nude lips and high slick backed top knots! This look has 70's disco party all over it and we are ready to put on a jumper and dance.
On Aura Tout Vu Haute Couture 2014
The models for this show walked in an ethereal water wonderland with violet shadowed, sunken eyes, also lined in metallic silvers giving an icy winter presence. The tight pin curls on the models have a wet look, which ties in with the entire Haute Couture collection being inspired by water. We can certainly get "aboard" with this look for the Fall and Winter months ahead.
Christian Dior Haute Couture Fall 2014
We thought adhesive eyelashes were a miracle, but we didn't know what was coming next. Makeup artists for the Christian Dior Haute Couture show kept the trending curve going with metallic eyes, only with the exception of using silver adhesive liners instead. We would give these "Velvet Eyes" adhesive liners a go for their perfect shapes, bold colors, and long wear appeal.
After reviewing our favorite beauty trends of 2014's Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, we feel less disappointed knowing Summer will eventually come to an end. Knowing we will have exciting makeup, hair, and fashion trends to look forward to certainly puts our minds at ease!
Which of the above trends did you like or dislike? Are there any you would be willing to try for the 2014 Fall and Homecoming season?
Sources: Glamour Magazine;POPSUGAR.com


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What is so important about an invalid click and how will It affect Me?
More than anything, an invalid click is a big no-no and it will get your account terminated faster than anything else. Having said that, an invalid click is when a publisher clicks on their own ads to add to their earning potential . It's also when a publisher asks others to click on their ads just to raise their revenue. It also raises the advertiser's costs and Google won't tolerate this. Google Adsense has state of the art technology and they know what's going on.
Invalid clicks also happen when someone uses robots to click on ads or automated software. It is any deceptive practice used to click on ads.
Invalid clicks are also unnecessary as there are plenty of money-making opportunities with valid clicks. With an optimized website, useful content, and attractive ads, there's no reason for anybody to even entertain the idea of using invalid clicks.
Having Control Over Your Adsense Account
You the publisher, have complete control over the advertisement that runs on your site. You can choose to run only image ads, only text ads, or a combination of both. Google recommends that you choose a combination of both to maximize your earning potential, but the decision is yours.
When making your ad decision, you also have the freedom to choose which type of ads run across your entire account (image or text) or you can narrow that decision to what type of ad might run on a particular page.
As of right now, you are not able to differentiate your image ad click rate from your text ad click rate. You can of course, differentiate your click rate from one site as opposed to another site. Say, for example, you run only image ads on one site and only text ads on another site. By setting up channels to track both sites, you can see which site has the better click rate. Of course, you have to take into consideration there would be more factors than whether you were running text or image ads. The content, the placement of the ads in general, even the color could make a difference.
Refer to the Google Adsense Support Site for specific instructions on how to enable or disable image ads. Remember, it's all up to you!


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Beloved Friend Wreath
Beloved Friend Wreath
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Substitution Policy
Substitution Policy
To guarantee the freshest bouquet possible, we may replace some stems in your arrangement for color or flower variety. While we always do the best to match the picture shown, sometimes different vases may be used. Any substitution made will be similar to the original design and be of equal or greater value.
Floral and Plant Substitutions
For bouquets and plants of one variety, such as roses or orchids, we focus on matching the floral type but may substitute for different colors.
Our Beloved Friend Wreath beautifully honors a life that was cherished by so many. This classic arrangement stands tall with an array of lilies, gladiolus and carnations in lavender and pink shades to express your love for the friends who truly feel like family.
- Wreath is approximately 22" diameter
Bloom Details
- Lily
- Gladiolus


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There is one week left to enter this year's Doodle 4 Google Contest! Actually, the deadline is this Friday, March 23rd, but the submissions must be postmarked no later than tomorrow (Tuesday), March 20th, 2012.
When I read about the competition this weekend, it reminded me of how last year, my daughter had a Doodle 4 Google birthday party where she invited all her guests to create their own masterpieces. Then the kids took home their creations, had their parents register them, and mailed them in. I noticed that this year, however, the process is even easier as students are no longer required to register to enter. Instead, all you have to do is fill out the entry form and include it with your submission.
This year's theme is: "If I could travel in time, I'd visit…" The competition is open to all U.S. students in K - 12, including homeschoolers (YAY!). AND all the information is available in Spanish (double YAY!)! You can find all the information and guidelines here, or watch this short video. Last year, they received over 107,000 submissions from students coast to coast.
This year's winner will receive a 30,000 scholarship, and $50,000 for their school, and have their artwork featured on the Google home page? AND this year's winner will also have their artwork printed on Crayola's box of 64 crayons.
I'm super bummed I didn't get this to you sooner, but perhaps you can do what I plan to do today: throw today's lesson plan out the window and rewrite it to include an hour or two of art/history. I wonder what period(s) of time my kids will choose? Or you can plan it for tomorrow, though you'll need to get the the post office ASAP before they close!
And if you need a little inspiration, be sure to watch the video at the beginning of this post introducing last year's winner, Matteo Lopez, a second grader at Monte Verde Elementary School in South San Francisco, California.
¡Buena suerte a todos!


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How to make an FOI request
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We already make a large amount of information available through our Publication Scheme and a guide to the information we publish, which can be found on this website.
Before requesting information, please look at the Publication Scheme and the guide to information we publish to find out whether the information is already available. Doing this could save you time because if the information has already been made available to the public in this way, we would normally refer you back to that source.
If you wish to make a request you can contact anyone within the organisation, but we would prefer if you send any request to this email address - firstname.lastname@example.com
We will acknowledge any detailed enquiry and give you an indication of when we will respond by.
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Regulations made by the Scottish Ministers govern the scale of fees which can be applied for providing information. Costs for providing published materials are set out in our Publication Scheme.
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We will advise you if we think these regulations apply to your request and advise you of the level of any fee.
Find out more about by clicking on the following link Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
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Your request will be dealt with promptly and, usually, within 20 working days. There is no need to cite the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 or explain why information is being asked for. However, giving as much detail as you can may help us respond more fully to your request.
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Milky Jelly Cleanser
Conditioning face wash
A super gentle cleansing experience.
A nourishing and pH-balanced gel-cream cleanser that plays nicely with all skin types. Conditioning ingredients leave skin soft, smooth and never stripped to start your day. Then dissolves dirt, oil and makeup when you're ready to wipe the day away.
- Nourishing
- Non-comedogenic
- Vegan
- Soothing
- Cruelty Free
Dermatologist-tested, formulated without fragrance, ophthalmologist tested, suitable for sensitive eyes and contacts lens wearers
Add On
Save With Sets
Formulated with 5 deep conditioning ingredients—including Pro-Vitamin B5 and Allantoin—for smooth, baby-soft skin.
The "milky" phase keeps skin fresh, happy, and conditioned. The "jelly" phase dissolves oil, dirt, and makeup.
- In the AM: Massage 1-2 pumps onto wet skin and rinse for a soft, conditioned look and feel.
- In the PM: Apply 2-3 pumps to dry skin and gently massage away makeup (it's eye area safe!). Rinse with warm water to completely dissolve away the day.
Go big on your skincare routine.
Nina cleanses with Milky Jelly Cleanser.
A super gentle cleansing experience.
Shop all SkincareMilky Jelly Cleanser
177 mL


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Camper Comfort Rustic Hickory 39"Wx30"Hx12"D Blind Corner Wall Cabinet
Introducing our Solid Wood Wall Cabinet: The Perfect Space-Saving Solution for Tiny Homes, Mobile Homes, RVs, and 5th Wheel Campers!
When it comes to optimizing your limited space, every inch counts. Our 39"Wx30"Hx12"D Blind Corner Wall Cabinet is designed with your compact living needs in mind, providing both functionality and elegance to your living space. Crafted with care in America, this cabinet is a testament to quality and durability.
Premium Materials: Crafted from solid hickory for the door and face frame, this wall cabinet boasts not only timeless beauty but also the strength to withstand the test of time. The 1/2" birch plywood construction ensures that your cabinet is sturdy, reliable, and built to last.
- Smart Storage: Inside this compact cabinet, you'll find two Double doors that open up to reveal two 1/2" shelves that provide ample storage space for your essentials. From kitchen supplies to bathroom necessities, this wall cabinet helps you stay organized while maintaining a clutter-free environment.
- Soft Close Hardware: Say goodbye to slamming cabinet doors with our soft close hardware. The gentle, controlled closure adds a touch of sophistication and prevents wear and tear on the cabinet, making it an excellent choice for daily use.
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Upgrade your tiny living space with our Solid Wood Wall Cabinet. With its premium materials, intelligent design, and soft close hardware, it's the ideal solution for keeping your small space organized and stylish. Experience the difference of American craftsmanship and elevate your living space today!


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If the race is early in the morning, is it unwise to skip breakfast beforehand? How long should you avoid eating before running a 5K?
I normally finish in twenty-one minutes, and the race is at 8:30AM.
If the race is early in the morning, is it unwise to skip breakfast beforehand? How long should you avoid eating before running a 5K?
I normally finish in twenty-one minutes, and the race is at 8:30AM.
The main problem with eating before running is nausea and burping up your breakfast during your race. Once the food moves from the stomach to the small intestine, most people are fine (some people experience cramping, but this is uncommon in healthy runners). The stomach usually takes 30-60 minutes to empty, and it empties more quickly with a liquid meal than a solid meal (PubMed).
In endurance running, your main nutritional concern is carbs, because your body has relatively small stores of them. Runners often load up on carbs in the days before long races to fill up these stores as much as possible. Full stores can last 30-90 minutes, depending on intensity (about.com), so maybe that covers you for a 5k, maybe it doesn't, but why not give yourself a little extra fuel, just in case?
Before a race, I usually go for something like a banana smoothie made with yogurt about 45-60 minutes before the race. It has a low glycemic index, which means it will give you a sustained delivery of glucose throughout your run (rather that a spike and a drop). Bananas are also high in potassium, which is important to prevent muscle cramps (health911). If you want to really step up your game, caffeine is an effective performance enhancer, which is thought to work by increasing muscle contractility, mental alertness, and pain tolerance (Current Sports Medicine Reports). According to the article I cited its diuretic properties (makes you have to pee more) are not significant enough to dehydrate you.
You certainly don't want to be hungry right in the middle of your run, as that hungry feeling is quite distracting. Eating immediately before exercise though can lead to cramps, which are quite undesirable as well. Running.about.com suggests eating a light snack or meal an hour and a half to two hours prior to running. They also suggest that what you do eat be higher in carbohydrates for quickly available energy, and lower in fat, fiber, and protein.
My personal experience is that I'm fine to run in the morning provided I ate a sufficient supper the night before. If I didn't, I'll have something light like less than 300 calories about an hour before I go. I will say though, I'm not quite up to 5K yet either, and I can't guarantee that my personal experience will remain the same as I increase my running distances.
Another article on about.com agrees with this, stating that you should simply get up early enough to eat well before your run if you're going to be running for more than an hour. They also suggest a 300-500 calorie breakfast. As a less-preferred alternative, they suggest taking an energy gel about 30 minutes into your run.
Its perfectly fine (and common) to skip breakfast if your race is in the morning PROVIDED that you eat a good meal the night before with lots of healthy carbs (wholewheat pasta is a good one).
Also bear in mind that it is very subjective and what works for one person won't for another.
Something that I would highly recommend is to work training runs into your schedule that are at the same time as your race so that you are used to getting up and running in the morning already. Make sure to test whether you can eat breakfast or not during these tests and you'll have no problems.
For early runs I find there is no time to digest any foods for a comfortable run so I load up the night before so im not too hungry but the one thing I do recommend is spend some time on the lavatory when you wake up and 'empty' yourself. I find it helps knowing your as light as can be. It may just be a mental thing but whatever helps helps.
I usually eat breakfast before I run for races or training. For races, I usually eat before I leave the house. By the time the race starts, then it's been at least an hour because I get to the race early to register, etc.
For training, I run in the evenings before dinner and mid-morning on the weekend. On the weekend, I eat breakfast and run sometime after 1.5 hours. I eat the same breakfast on training and race days, so I know how I will react. I'll get up earlier on a race day so that I can eat my normal breakfast.