text:
Her Dark Half
X-Ops #7
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | IndieBound
X-Ops #7
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | IndieBound
Trevor Maxwell
Coyote shifter with an attitude
Covert operator
Trusts no one, especially his devastatingly beautiful new partner
Alina Bosch
Former CIA, newest operative on the covert team
Hired to spy on her partner
Motto: "Never be deceived again."
Coyote shifter Trevor Maxwell is teamed up with CIA agent Alina Bosch to catch a killer. But when the mission becomes much more dangerous than they expected, they're going to have to ignore the attraction between them and learn how to trust one another to come out on the other side...
Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy, romantic fiction. Paige writes books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines they fall in love with. She lives with her very own military hero (a.k.a. her husband) and their adorable dog on the beautiful Florida coast.
Find Paige and her books
a Rafflecopter giveaway
"What's the plan here?" she asked Trevor quietly as the restaurant's patrons eyed them curiously. "Because I don't see anyone warming up to us enough to invite us into the back room."
"We're Trevor and Alina Hoffman, a filthy rich, newly married couple from Silicon Valley," Trevor said, glancing around as if taking in the ambience. "We've been on an extended honeymoon for the past few months and are currently heading for a trans-Atlantic cruise out of New York City. We decided to do some gambling and got tired of dealing with all the crap at the local casino."
"You think they'll buy that?" she asked as he led her across the room toward the door with the guards.
"You sell the fact that we're a newly married couple, and I'll make them believe I'm a rich guy with a gambling addiction."
She could do that. Then she realized one big flaw in their cover story. "If we're a newly married couple, shouldn't I be wearing a ring?"
Trevor gave her a sidelong glance. "What makes you think you aren't?"
She looked down at her hand in confusion and almost fell off her stacked heels as she saw the monstrously large diamond he'd somehow slipped onto her ring finger when she wasn't looking. Oh crud, it was huge! And as beautiful as any she'd ever seen.
"When did you put this on? More importantly, is this thing real?" she whispered.
Thank goodness she had his arm to keep her steady. She was feeling faint at the idea of wearing a diamond that was probably worth more than her entire apartment.
"I put it on you when we were married on the first of June in Monaco," he whispered back. "And of course it's real. I would never put something fake on the love of my life."
"Trevor, I'm serious," she said.
He made a face. "Okay. I slipped it on your finger when I was helping you out of the SUV. And yes, it's real, so don't lose it. I had to sign my life away to get it out of the DCO safes."
She gulped. "How much is it worth?"
"Nothing compared to you, sweetheart," he said in a romantic tone as they stopped in front of the two guards.
The bouncers working this door were a little bit more professional than the ones outside.
"Can I help you?" one of the men asked in a deep, rough voice that made Alina wonder if he chewed gravel for fun.
"Someone told me a man might be able to find a friendly game of poker somewhere near here," Trevor said casually. "I don't suppose you two might be able to point my wife and me in the right direction for a game like that?"
The two men regarded him suspiciously.
"I think you're talking about the Horseshoe Casino," Gravel said. "It's nearby, very clean and friendly." Trevor chuckled. "The Horseshoe is very friendly. But the place doesn't have the quite the atmosphere we're looking for. It's a little too…what's the word?… sanitized for our liking."
Gravel studied Trevor for a moment, then glanced at the bar, giving someone there a nod. Ten seconds later, a slim man in an expensive suit appeared at their side.
"My name is Teddy," he said in a cautious yet friendly tone. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm Trevor Hoffman. This is my wife, Alina. We're getting ready to head out on a cruise in a few days and decided to do some gambling while we're in town. Someone told us this place runs a clean game, so I thought I'd spend some money here."
Teddy surveyed them with a practiced eye, taking in the cut of Trevor's suit and her expensive gown, not to mention the big honking ring she wore. He must have liked what he saw, because he nodded.
"If I could get some identification and a credit card from you, Mr. Hoffman, I can quickly check your credentials and set you up with a line of credit."
Alina tensed as Trevor handed over the requested ID and credit card. They could be in trouble. The fake ID and credit card by themselves would have taken quite a bit of time and money to pull off. Coming up with an Internet background to support that would take even longer.
"What are they going to find when they run your name and that credit card number?" she whispered as he slipped his arm around her and casually urged her away from the two men guarding the door.
"Relax." He flashed her a grin. "They'll find us with all the relevant financial and societal tidbits one would expect to see when looking at the rich and bored."
She glanced at Teddy. He typed something into a computer just out of sight behind the bar. A moment later, he lifted his head and frowned in their direction.
"Something's wrong," she whispered.
Even the two guards were eyeing them funny now. She was starting to wish she had a weapon. If things went bad, they were in trouble.
"Alina," Trevor said softly as he tightened his arm around her waist and tugged her closer. "Now's the time for you to sell the newlywed thing."
She opened her mouth to ask him exactly how he suggested she do that when he pulled her even closer.
She wished she could have said it was years of CIA training that took over and made her kiss him. But that wouldn't have been true. Instead, it was a totally different kind of instinct. The kind that made a woman want to kiss a hot guy.
Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy, romantic fiction. Paige writes books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines they fall in love with. She lives with her very own military hero (a.k.a. her husband) and their adorable dog on the beautiful Florida coast.
Find Paige and her books
Tour Wide


text:
The Dell is Northwest London's best kept secret. An award-winning park, it is the jewel in the heart of Mapesbury, a truly magical garden hidden behind a row of residential houses. Once you have discovered it, you'll keep coming back.
It is open to the public during daylight hours. Although the Dell is small, there is something for everyone to enjoy: a superb play area for children, a pond teeming with wildlife, green lawns for summer lazing, picnic tables and benches, stunning gardens. It is simply a wonderful place to come with the kids or just sit, stroll, listen to the birds and enjoy some peace.
But it is much more than a just a pretty park. We have annual events such as the popular Wild Day in the summer, a Midsummer Open Air Opera Evening, a Back to School children's party in September, festive fun and carol-singing at Christmas, as well as a regular Gardening Club. All our events have free admission so that they are accessible and inclusive.
And we are always busy with ongoing projects.
The Dell wasn't always like this. Before its regeneration in 2005, it was an unwelcoming, derelict piece of wasteland. Read all about it in Our Story.
Now the Dell is a true people's park, run by the community through us, Mapesbury Dell Trust, and kept beautiful by the local volunteers who love it. You too can become a member (it's free) and get involved in our projects and activities.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Seat availability calendar feature on Trainman lets user know the vacant berths count if seat is available or waiting list count if the seat is unavailable. User can enter train number and select origin and destination stations for this train from the drop-down list. Since, user can check the reservation status for entire 4-month in one view it becomes really easy to compare the availability for different dates and classes quickly. User can also know the ticket price for each class for both general and tatkal quota. This way user can take a final decision on dates before booking the ticket on irctc.


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These were the last words of legendary Steve Jobs, moments before he died on October 5, 2011, in Palo Alto, CA. I have come to the pinnacle of success in business. In the eyes of others, my life has been the symbol of success. However, apart from work, I have little joy. Finally, my wealth is simply a fact to which I am accustomed. At this time, lying on the hospital bed and remembering all my life, I realize that all the accolades and riches of which I was once so proud, … [Read more...]
You are here: Home / Archives for steve jobs iphone


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Update! Here are my winnings! Thank you again, @tinycartridge, @aksysgames, @GaijinGames, and @BitTrip!
* * *
If you've read this blog for any length of time you know that I love Nintendo. I admire the company itself almost as much as the games they produce.
For the most part I really only stick with the major Nintendo developed and published titles (Mario, Zelda, Pokémon) for several reasons, one of which being I simply don't have that much time to enjoy video games and with a Nintendo game I'll have a solid experience that I'll love. Everyone once in a while though, I'll happen upon a game developed by another and fall in love with that as well.
One of my favorite new series like this is Bit.Trip. The games play like love letters to the classic video games of the past. Each game in the series is almost elemental, they abstract and distill the building blocks of classic games into a fresh, new experience.
My favorite one in the series is Bit.Trip Runner. It's a terrifyingly challenging game. It also has some great music. See below.
* * *
Here's a better look at the piece I did for it:
* * *
And here's the moment from the game that inspired the piece. I wanted to do a more "realized" version of the blocky, pixelated scene. (Not to try an improve it in any way, mind you, there's not really anything to improve with pixels, they're perfect. I love them.)
Though actually I did another version of the piece too, one where
CommanderVideo (that's the little fellow) was developed kind of along
the same lines as the skull-monster. I made him more of an astronaut, or something. See below.
In the end I couldn't decide and sent in both to let the judges figure it out.
* * *
Well, thanks again to Tiny Cartridge and Gaijin Games for picking my piece! It's an honor and I'm really looking forward to another Bit.Trip!
PS If you're interested here's my original thumbnail for the piece.


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- Servizi di consulenza
MDS to Profisee Migration Assessment 1 Day
Leverage your existing investment in MDS whilst migrating to a fully supported feature rich cloud platform. Use Profisee's native MDS migration utility to reduce the effort of achieving true cloud MDM
If your existing Master Data Services (MDS) implementation has reached the end of life, or your organisation is rearchitecting away from Self-Hosted solutions to a pure cloud-based implementation, then Profisee is your path forward.
Profisee's native MDS to Profisee migration utility means you no longer need to rewrite your entire Master Data Management platform from the beginning. Your MDS migration project now becomes a true migration project shrinking the test volume, reducing migration time, mitigating risks, and lowering your migration project's costs.
By leveraging Profisee's native MDS migration utility to migrate both your model and your data, you can fast track your MDS cloud migration onto Azure's extensive cloud platform, freeing up valuable project resources to fully utilise your investment in the full stack of Azure services:
Once your migration is complete, your organisation can take advantage of the new features available in Profisee, features many other platforms don't offer or charge you extra for...
Our one-day assessment will provide you with a comprehensive GAP analysis, highlighting any issues that may be incurred during your migration. Solution Architects and Project Managers can leverage this analysis to accurately allocate resources to your project, while Business Sponsors will be able to more effectively understand the full benefits of choosing a MDS to Profisee migration over a rebuild from the ground up.


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Using filesync for Disaster Recovery, Business Continuance, and Mobility
Since the September 11th disaster, many information technology professionals are looking for disaster recovery and business continuance solutions. Disaster recovery and business continuance are intended to ensure that a business can survive a disaster, recover from it, and continue to handle normal business activities. Implementation of a disaster recovery and business continuance plan can include offsite data storage, disaster recovery procedures, security implementations, and hot, disaster recovery sites.
The Solaris™ Operating Environment (Solaris OE) filesync(1) command can be used to help with both disaster recovery and business continuance. The filesync(1) command synchronizes ordinary, directory, or special files. It can be used to synchronize data between two servers that are in the same data center or miles apart. In the event of a primary server failure, the synchronized secondary data can be used to continue business activities. Additionally, mobile employees can synchronize data between a laptop and an office server in the event of laptop damage or loss.
UNIX™ users have been copying and synchronizing files and directories for a long time. For instance, the RSYNC command has been used for some time for one-way synchronization between two files or directories. The filesync(1) command does bidirectional synchronization. If files in the source directory change or if files change in the destination directory, the filesync(1) command synchronizes the files in both places. You can also use the -o option with the filesync(1) command to overwrite only the files that were modified, which might be quicker than restoring the whole directory.
With the filesync(1) command, you can do the following:
Recover from a disaster
You can recover files from a previously synchronized directory on a backup server to a production directory on a production server. You can also use filesync(1) to recover files that were synchronized to a production server if the files on that server are lost or corrupted. Finally, if your laptop computer is lost, stolen, or damaged, you can use filesync(1) to restore your files to a new laptop computer.
Continue business activities
You can work from your laptop or workstation at home if the office servers are down.
Create a point-in-time copy of your data
You can use the point-in-time copy of your data for testing or for returning your system to a known state.
Enable mobility
You can synchronize your laptop so that you are prepared to give presentations, read your email, or maintain your web siteanywhere, anytime.
The filesync(1) command creates the .packingrules file and the .filesync-base file in the home directory of the user ID that evoked the command. The .packingrules file controls the functionality of the filesync(1) command, and the .filesync-base file lists every file that was synchronized, along with the file's checksum value.
If you edit the same file on both servers, the filesync(1) command will notify you that you need to fix this situation. Also, you can use the -f option to force a synchronization one way or the other. For example, the filesync -f src command will overwrite the files on the destination server with the files on the source server (src). If there is a conflict in which the same file was changed in both the source directory and the destination directory, the -f option will overwrite the incorrect file with the correct file. The following example, shows the output of a reconciliation operation:
user%: filesync RECONCILE /production and /databackup (1 files) -> 0 copies, 0 deletes, 0 ownership <- 0 copies, 0 deletes, 0 ownership UNRESOLVED CONFLICTS: 1 data.txt (two different versions)
In this example, both files were changed since the last synchronization, so you have to determine which file is the good file. For instance, if you determine that /production/data.txt is the good file, use the -f option with the filesync(1) command. Because the /production directory is the source directory, use the following command:
user%: filesync -f src cp /production/data.txt /databackup/data.txt RECONCILE /production and /databackup (1 files) -> 1 copies, 0 deletes, 0 ownership <- 0 copies, 0 deletes, 0 ownership
Synchronizing Two Directories
This section contains a procedure for synchronizing two directories. After you have synchronized the directories the first time, use the filesync(1) command without options to resynchronize the directories. You can use crontab(1M) to resynchronize the directories on a regular basis.
To Synchronize Two Directories
Choose the directory you want to synchronize.
In this example, we use the /data/oracle directory.
Choose the directory to which you want to synchronize.
In this example, we use the /backupdisk/oracle directory. The first time you use the filesync(1) command, the /backupdisk/oracle directory must be empty. Otherwise, the filesync(1) command will return errors, indicating that it cannot resolve conflicts, for every file in both directories.
Execute the following command:
user%: filesync -s /data -d /backupdisk oracle
When you want to resynchronize your files, issue the filesync(1) command without options. To synchronize your files automatically, use the cron(1M) command. For instance, to synchronize your files nightly at 1:00 a.m., add the following line to the crontab(1) file:
0 1 * * * /usr/bin/filesync


text:
I read a PR release from a company named Unified that says it has a new product that can "activate social audiences on all media ecosystems simultaneously." It's a freakin' dream come true.
"Unified's enterprise marketing technology allows global brands and agencies to easily activate social audiences and impact consumer actions on all major social media ecosystems simultaneously."You know, if there's one thing I love to do, it's activate a social audience. To be honest here, I've unwittingly activated a few anti-social audiences. That's no fun at all. Those people are dangerous.
One more thing. I'm used to activating my social audiences one at a time. Usually over a Ketel One martini, very dry, with an olive. Who'd believe I could activate them simultaneously on all media ecosystems ? It's a doggone miracle.
Not only that, but...
"The SOP is an enterprise-architected multi-tenant environment..."Now this one's got me a little worried. You see, I grew up in multi-tenant environment in New York City. We called it a project. And I got my ass kicked fairly regularly in my multi-tenant environment.
I don't know if it was enterprise-architected or just architected by, you know, architects. But either way, I'll take a nice uni-tenant environment any day.


text:
Showing Collections: 1 - 1 of 1
Richard J. Pavlicek photographs, 1949
Identifier: 006.06.28
Description of the Collection
Vintage black and white photographs of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Illinois Institute of Technology Department of Architecture students, ca. 1949. All photos are believed to have been taken by Richard J. Pavlicek. The photographs include:
Five prints of the graduation party for the Class of 1949, which was a class trip to Indiana Sand Dunes for a picnic. The photographs include a group of 21...


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How SIOS DataKeeper Works
At the highest level, DataKeeper provides the ability to mirror a volume on one system (source) to a different volume on another system (target) across any network. When the mirror is created, all data on the source volume is initially replicated to the target volume, overwriting it. When this initial synchronization (also referred to as a full resync of the data) of the volumes is complete, the target volume is an exact replica of the source volume in terms of size and data content. Once the mirror is established, DataKeeper intercepts all writes to the source volume and replicates that data across the network to the target volume.
Replication is performed at the block level in one of two ways:
In most cases, asynchronous mirroring is recommended on WANs and synchronous mirroring is recommended on LANs.


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By DAVID SHARP Associated Press
WALDOBORO, Maine (AP) — With millions of people having stayed home from places of worship during the coronavirus pandemic, struggling congregations have one key question: How many of them will return?
As the pandemic recedes in the United States and in-person services resume, worries of a deepening slide in attendance are universal.
Some houses of worship won't make it.
Smaller organizations with older congregations that struggled to adapt during the pandemic are in the greatest danger of a downward spiral from which they can't recover, said the Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, lecturer at the Harvard Divinity School and co-pastor of a church in Boston.
On the Maine coast, the pandemic proved to be the last straw for the 164-year-old Waldoboro United Methodist Church.
Even before COVID-19 swept the world, weekly attendance had dipped to 25 or 30 at the white-clapboard New England church that could hold several hundred worshippers. The number further dwindled to five or six before the final service was held Sunday, said the Rev. Gregory Foster.
The remaining congregants realized they couldn't continue to maintain the structure, and decided to fold the tent, Foster said.
"We can't entirely blame everything on COVID. But that was just the final blow. Some people have not been back at all," he said.
In Virginia, the Mount Clifton United Methodist Church experienced a similar fate. The church can seat more than 100 but the number of weekly worshippers dwindled to 10 to 15, even before the pandemic.
The small white church built on a hill in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1880s may be rented to another congregation, or it may be put up for sale.
"It's a complicated picture overall, but the pandemic was the straw that broke the camel's back," said the Rev. Darlene Wilkins, who oversaw Mount Clifton. "It just became next to impossible to sustain."
In the United States, the latest challenge for places of worship comes against a backdrop of a decadeslong trend of a smaller share of the population identifying as religious.
It's too early to know the full impact of the pandemic. Surveys do show signs of hopefulness — and also cause for concern.
About three-quarters of Americans who attended religious services in person at least monthly before the pandemic say they are likely to do so again in the next few weeks, according to a recent AP-NORC poll. That's up slightly from the about two-thirds who said in May 2020 that they would if they were allowed to do so. But 7% said they definitely won't be attending.
Those findings are in line with a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. residents last summer. It found that 92% of people who regularly attend religious services expected to continue at the same or higher rate, while 7% say they will attend in-person services less often.
Nashville, Tennessee-based Lifeway Research, an evangelical research firm, says many churches lost steam when in-person services shut down. A small but concerning number of churchgoers are coming out of the pandemic in limbo without a church home, said Scott McConnell, Lifeway's executive director.
"That's a lot of momentum to lose and a lot of people stepping out of the habit" of weekly worship, McConnell said.
Those that are successful in reemerging from the COVID-19 lockdowns will likely be those that did a better job adapting to the pandemic, said White-Hammond. Eight in 10 congregants in the U.S. reported that their services were being streamed online, Pew said.
Those that kept a connection with congregants and relied less on the physical passing of the plate for donations stand a better chance of emerging unscathed, White-Hammond said.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Temple Beth El was closed during the pandemic but kept congregants in touch through events like "challah day." Volunteers baked over 900 loaves of the bread, which were delivered to homes so worshippers could share them over a Shabbat meal.
There will be no returning to "normal" after the pandemic, said Rabbi Dusty Klass. "There were people who went home and may never come back to the sanctuary. They may just pray from their couch. It's up to us to make sure they have the opportunity."
The All Dulles Area Muslim Society, whose main campus is in Sterling, Virginia, said some of its 11 locations have reopened to worshippers with safety measures.
"If COVID is gone 100%, I firmly believe our community would be fully back because people crave … to be together," said Rizwan Jaka, chair of interfaith and media relations.
In San Francisco, the historic Old St. Mary's Cathedral survived when members rebuilt after a fire following the 1906 earthquake but it has struggled mightily during the pandemic to stay open.
The 160-year-old Roman Catholic church, which is heavily dependent on older worshippers and tourists, lost most of its revenue after parishes closed during the pandemic. During those "dark hours," the Rev. John Ardis had to dismiss most of the lay staff, cut the salary of a priest and close the parish preschool.
The plaster is crumbling, the paint is peeling off the walls and dozens of its stained-glass windows need to be replaced.
"But those are secondary at the moment," Ardis said. "Because I'm just basically trying to trying to keep the doors open."
Here in New England, any slide could be more acute since a smaller proportion of residents identify as religious.
In Maine, Judy Grant, 77, was a newcomer to Waldoboro who started watching the services online and then began attending in person.
She's upset by the closure.
"I'm extremely disappointed," she said. "A lot of churches are closing. I think COVID had a big part in this latest shrinkage, but they were shrinking even before that," she said.
The final service on Sunday was emotional, with both smiles and tears, as nearly 60 gathered in the sanctuary. Foster preached about new beginnings and encouraged people to continue their faith.
Afterward, people began removing some of the church's contents, including religious paintings, some furniture, and other items.
Grant said some hope the building will come alive again with a new congregation: "We have to be positive — and pray."
Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle


text: Sample code is provided for educational purposes or to assist your development or administration efforts. Your use rights and restrictions for each sample code item are described in the applicable license agreement. Except as may be expressly stated in the applicable license agreement or product documentation, sample code is provided "as is" and is not supported by Oracle.


text:
Mixing Dynamic and Cached Data
This is a sample showing how to integrate product data details such as description, price, availability etc with different data freshness requirements. AMPs can be served from the AMP Cache. Due to the AMP Cache's stale-while-invalide caching strategy, one user will see stale data until the latest version has been fetched. This might be a problem if product data needs always to be up-to-date, for example, product availability. This sample demonstrates one approach how to avoid stale data on cached AMPs.
We use amp-list
for retrieving latest data from the server.

We use amp-mustache
as a templating for amp-list

How to implement dynamic and cached product data details
For product details such a description or title, where are unlikely to change frequently, you don't need to do anything special.
To ensure that users always see the latest content, you can use the amp-list
component which will fetch and render content directly from your server.
My product
This is a really great product.

My product

This is a really great product.

<amp-list height="24"
<template type="amp-mustache">
Price: ${{price}}
if you need to make multiple calls to get all the data, that is not a problem in AMP since if multiple amp-list
with the same src
are found in the page, only one network call is actually made by the AMP runtime.
By checking the network tab of the Chrome dev console, you can check that this second amp-list
does not cause a second network call.
Since we are using a service-worker you may see two similar calls one after the other to the same endpoint, so to better verify this behaviour, go to Application -> Service workers and click on Unregister.
<amp-list height="24"
<template type="amp-mustache">
Availability: {{availability}}
编辑 GitHub 上的示例-
Written by @kul3r4


text:
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes the necessity is simply avoidance of unpleasant tasks such as cutting down 3500 header pins by hand. [Nixieguy] and his coworkers were faced with 50 prototype boards bearing 70 overly long pins apiece. He saved them from cutting them all down by hand by making a tiny improvised circular saw/grinder.
[Nixieguy] started by laser-cutting a combination tool holder and grinding platform. His laser failed before he could fashion a guard to keep the pin bits out of the motor or cut all the pieces he had in mind. The grinder is made from a 10A brushless RC motor, a motor driver, and a servo tester. [Nixieguy] machined an adapter to connect the disc to the shaft.
The transformer is there to hold the thing down during use since it's so lightweight. He's wearing two pairs of gloves because the pin cuttings were hot enough to sear skin. [Nixieguy] is planning on a complete redesign including a motor guard and the ability to adjust the depth. Maybe he can turn it into a chainsaw, maybe not.


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Happy ASTC Halloween!
The international "gathering of the clans" of science center folks called the ASTC Annual Conference starts in Fort Worth this Saturday.
Which as my four children have repeatedly reminded me is Halloween.
So here is a great "trick or treat" (without the trick!) opportunity for any intrepid ExhibiTricks readers who will be in Fort Worth --- I've got several decks of Harry White's Exhibit Aphorism cards (kindly provided by Harry) to give away. To find out how to snag your own free deck, just keep reading ....
Here's an excerpt from a previous ExhibiTricks interview with Harry about the decks:
Tell us about your card deck of exhibit aphorisms.
In 1996, Techniquest started the UK's first Masters course in Science Communication based in a Science Centre. It was a great success with students from all around the world, graduates were snapped up by most of the new UK science centres. I taught the Exhibits module, but after a year of PowerPointing them into submission, I felt that it just wasn't appropriate to teach a degree about informal education, formally. Also, whenever I ran out of material for a session, just saying something deliberately controversial would start a debate that would fill the time and engage the students.
So I started collecting these quotations, jokes and provocations as aphorisms and put 52 of the best/most annoying onto a deck of cards. When the sessions flagged, I'd ask someone to pick a card, read it out and then the group would try and fathom what I was getting at. Most times a heated debate would ensue.
So you'd like some examples. There are over 200 so bear with me and I'll pick some of the better ones. You may notice I've sneaked one in already in italics above.
The first is from Ken Gleason, at one time it was up on the wall in our workshop.
The Three Ways an Exhibit Must Work.
1. Attraction
If they don't use it, it can't achieve anything.
2. Function.
It must work, keep working and be safe.
3. Education.
What we're for, and why we're doing it. 1 & 2 lead here.
And from Ian Simmons
"The Survival of the Dullest"
Good exhibits are popular, get used and therefore break down.
Dull exhibits don't get used, and so don't break down.
Therefore all interactive exhibitions, without maintenance, eventually tend towards the dull.
Others are shorter and reflect bitter experience:
Sufficient ruggedisation of loose parts turns them into weapons.
For every hole or gap there is a corresponding human limb or appendage to get wedged in it.
Making easy exhibits is difficult.
Making easy exhibits difficult is easy.
Then some come in pairs:
Any component which is ideal, cheap and universally available will be discontinued by the time the exhibit that uses it is fully developed.
Any component that doesn't exist, so you have to devise it at great cost, will be in the next RS (McMaster Carr) catalogue.
Not all are about exhibits:
Nobody cares who the Director is.
(As you may imagine this was more forcefully put, the point being that however hard the administration works it's the people on the front line that the Visitors meet and our job is to support them.)
"Give a visitor a fact and they know one thing,
Give them curiosity and they will learn endless things."
Ian Russell
"Nobody flunked a Science Centre."
Frank Oppenheimer
"The probability of somebody doing the absolutely inconceivable is never exactly zero."
H. Richard Crane
"Visitors come to a Science Centre because it's cheaper than the movies and less exhausting than the swimming pool."
Gillian Thomas
You can know the science from a book,
You can know the engineering from experience,
But to find out what it makes people think you have to ask them.
Exhibits are about the phenomena, if the Visitor notices that the design is good, then it's not good enough
The interactive content of an exhibit is inversely proportional to the area and expense of the graphic surrounding it
And so on, and on and on…………….
The idea of an Aphorism is to put some core truth in a memorably flippant way so that people who are "in the know" recognize it and those who don't think about it. As an instructional tool this has a fatal flaw in that any one who "gets" it doesn't need it and those that need it, don't get it.
So I have started writing explanations of the Aphorisms to go with them. I use them a lot in consulting with other centres because they are memorable and anti-intuitive, a bit like good exhibits really.
A consultant is a person who borrows your watch and then charges to tell you the time.
So, if you'd like a chance to win your own Exhibit Aphorisms deck of cards, just find me on October 31st, hand me your business card, and say "Trick or Treat!"
That's it. Supplies are limited, but I'll make sure I have a batch to give away for both the A.M. and P.M. to keep things interesting.
Hope to see you in Fort Worth!
Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.
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The Case for CantorBy Bruce Walker August 11, 2008Eric Cantor is being vetted by John McCain for the vice presidential slot. Congressman Cantor may very well be the best possible Republican to run with McCain - for several different reasons. First, Cantor is very conservative. Virginia, a conservative state, has eleven congressmen. Only one of those eleven has a higher lifetime rating by the American Conservative Union than Eric Cantor. No one, anywhere, was more conservative than Cantor in the last year of congressional ratings, 2007: Congressman Cantor had a perfect one hundred percent rating by the ACU. McCain needs a conservative to enthuse the Republican base and balance the Republican ticket. Cantor does that nicely. Second, Cantor is young, handsome, and articulate. McCain is not. Fairly or unfairly, that counts in presidential elections. Obama won the nomination largely because he was pretty. Some voters will vote for Obama the candidate because they have a crush on Obama the man. McCain cannot compete against that, but Cantor can. Congressman Cantor not only looks handsome, but he is a new handsome face. His very obscurity will mean lots of media attention on him when the campaign starts in earnest. Weary voters - voters who are even weary of gazing at a photograph of the Messiah Obama - are looking for something, anything, exciting. Cantor could bring that bit of flash which the McCain campaign needs and which the Obama campaign, by sheer fatigue with the candidate, cannot generate. Third, Cantor is Jewish. He is not just Jewish, but a Jew who keeps Kosher, like Joe Lieberman. Like Lieberman, who takes his Judaism seriously, Cantor is a social conservative. That is a "two-fer." Cantor will attract those social conservatives who are overwhelmingly Christian because they rightly see in Cantor a real ally in our common war against the muck of modern culture. This is the particular part of the conservative base that McCain needs most to reassure. A religiously serious Eric Cantor does that. Beyond that, Eric Cantor will also attract Jewish voters. Many Jews feel a bit uneasy about Obama and his anti-Semitic friends. These Jews are also disturbed at the summary dismissal of a serious Jewish liberal Democrat like Joe Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate eight years ago. Lieberman is a strong McCain supporter, and that support will provide a strong push for ambivalent Jewish voters to tilt towards McCain. Placing a religiously serious Jew on the Republican ticket with McCain will provide an even stronger push. In a close election, and this looks to be a close election, a swing of Jewish voters to McCain could translate into victories in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and other states that McCain could either win or lose. Those battleground states are the keys to victory for McCain. Fourth, Congressman Cantor is a popular politician from Virginia, itself a swing state in this election. Fundamentally, Virginia is conservative and Republican, but with a popular Democrat governor on the ticket, Obama would have a real chance of carrying Virginia. If Cantor was on the Republican side, though, McCain would have the edge in Virginia. Perhaps the most appealing part of a McCain-Cantor ticket is the elevation, without a primary battle, of Cantor to presumptive nominee when McCain leaves office (which could easily be 2012.) The image of a young, handsome, very conservative heir apparent who is also an Orthodox Jew could make Democrats break out in cold sweats at night. At the top of the ticket, Cantor could put Illinois, California, New Jersey and even New York in play. In four years, the fabulously successful Governor Bobby Jindal, a devout Catholic who is just as conservative and bright as Cantor, could be a dream vice presidential candidate aside Eric Cantor. That very conservative but also ethnically atypical ticket would make Democrats have to fight hard for votes outside the traditional white, conservative Christian Republican base, but this dream ticket would not lose a single conservative Christian vote in the process of putting so many other voters in play. Win this election, and maybe win the next few elections too: What would that mean? It would mean a conservative Supreme Court, an American victory in the war against global terrorism, and an articulate, sincere expression of the values of conservatives. That all makes a very good case for Cantor.
Bruce Walker is a long-time conservative writer whose work is published regularly at popular conservative sites such as American Thinker. |


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Photo: David Swanson/IRIN. PNG has a high incidence of gender-based violence
Source: IRIN
PORT MORESBY, 8 March 2012 (IRIN) - Critical gaps in the treatment of survivors of domestic and sexual violence are placing thousands of women at serious physical and psychological risk in Papua New Guinea (PNG), health experts warn.
In a recent report, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - the largest provider of specialized medical and psychosocial services to survivors of family and sexual violence in the country - highlights the "urgent, unmet medical and emotional needs of survivors of gender violence" in this half-island nation.
The international health NGO said it had seen more than 11,000 survivors of family and sexual violence in PNG, including 2,000 survivors of sexual violence, between January 2008 and October 2011.
In Lae, Morobe Province, between January 2008 and October 2011, MSF and Angau Hospital treated 6,869 survivors of intimate partner violence - the equivalent of 149 a month - and 1,599 survivors of sexual violence (35 per month).
In Tari, Hela Province, from September 2009 to October 2011, MSF and Tari Hospital reported 1,471 survivors of intimate partner violence or 59 per month and 398 survivors of sexual violence or 16 cases per month.
"The problems have always been there but we did not have any concrete data and information. Now that MSF has moved into the country, the situation is becoming much clearer," Ume Wainetti, head of the Family and Sexual Action Committee, a government programme set up to address gender violence, told IRIN.
PNG, with more than six million inhabitants, is known for its high rate of gender-based violence.
According to the PNG Law Reform Commission, 70 percent of women in PNG say they have been physically abused by their husbands. That number reaches 100 percent in some parts of the country.
And though domestic violence is a criminal offence, it continues to be viewed as a private matter and rarely addressed in public, according to the Social Institutions and Gender Index of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Over the years, when survivors sought care at hospitals or health centres, their specific medical and psychological needs were not recognized.
"Survivors with serious physical injuries will have their wounds tended to and will be sent back home. Their less visible health needs, with negative and potentially fatal long-term consequences, are completely neglected by Papua New Guinea's healthcare services.
"This neglect is causing suffering and, at times, putting lives at risk," MSF said in its report.
Joan* fled her home in the capital, Port Moresby, in late 2011, leaving her four children and their abusive father, a senior government official, with a broken arm, after living a life she described as hell.
"We survived on the little income I was earning from the ice blocks I was selling. My children and I never saw his wages. When I inquired, I was bashed up and told to shut up. He drank and gambled a lot," the 30-year-old said from her Chimbu village where she is recovering in her family home.
MSF recommends that the National Department of Health take charge of policy-making and set up treatment protocols and guidelines for survivors, implement operational guidelines, provide support to family support centres, and waive fees for treatment of survivors of family, sexual violence and child abuse.
And while the government is aware of the problem, it has no reliable data to work on. The most recent is about 20 years old and was gathered by the Constitutional Law Reform Commission, which works on new legislation for the government before parliament passes it.
However, it has moved to address gender violence, albeit slowly, both at the political and administrative levels.
"Already parliament had passed the Lukautim Pikinini Act, to protect children from all forms of abuse. In 2002, it also passed amendments to the Criminal Code, to protect women from domestic and sexual violence, even marital rape, but we still have problems with enforcement. The Family Protection Bill is still awaiting parliament to pass it. Hopefully this will be done next year," Wainetti said.
At the administrative level, all major hospitals in the country set up family support centres to provide medical and psychological services but they are operating with unskilled staff and on very small budgets.
"We have already provided training to staff at Mendi, Mt Hagen, Vanimo, Goroka, Nonga and Kudjip hospitals. We are training staff right now at Buka, Alotau and Wabag hospitals," Patrick Almeida, medical coordinator of MSF, said.
Meanwhile, a lack of financial support has seen the closure of a number of shelters for abused women in PNG. Of four in the capital, only one can provide services effectively.
"The problem is bad. We pretend that it is not there," Wainetti said.
*Not her real name


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The Ugly Borns - Contact Flour Live
The Ugly Borns were a brief project of John Olson, Aaron Dilloway and Wade Kergan. This is a recording of a gig where you get sax honk, drums, withered electronics and an irritating woman talking in the background (but I'm sure that all of her observations were crucial). CDr released on American Tapes in 2000 in an edition of 12.
It's AM152 btw.
Contact Flour Live


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For Arts Sake! – Visiting Bali #8
The Ubud market, on the outside, appears as if it was trading in art and craft only, and therefore is frequented by tourists and small entrepreneurs. Inside, people sell and buy food, clothing and some other articles of daily use. A great variety of vegetables and fruits are on offer as well as fish, chicken, ducks, meet, sausages, eggs, honey and sweets of all descriptions. Among many tropical fruits there are mandarins imported from Australia and red apples from California, specifically for their bright colours. The people are particular about food presentation, especially for ceremonial offerings. For that matter colourful petals of various flowers are also sold for offerings which are made daily as well as on special occasions. Some stalls sell spices, pepper, chilli, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, peanut, saffron, cinnamon, and a lot more.
Although tourism contributes the lion's share of income to the Balinese economy, the agriculture, especially rice growing, provides work for the majority of people. There are many who grow small amounts of crops such as fruit and vegetables as well as cash crops such as coffee. Poultry and meat is often provided by small farms. Fish and seafood often come from the small fishing communities along the coast.
So, people come to the market to sell and convert the fruits of their labour into money. They have to pay bills and for the education of children (from secondary level), the cost of transport and other life necessities. Small farmers are members of water societies that not only provide and maintain very complex and efficient irrigation systems but also a sense of communal work. Known as the Subak Abian system it promotes happiness through good relationships with gods, other people and the environment.
The other group of sellers include artisans who produce an impressive array of goods including fabric and clothing, shoes and bags, head ware, jewellery, wood and stone carvings of all descriptions, paintings, fragrant oils, and more. While many of these products are intended for tourists, some are bought by Balinese to redecorate their temples and homes. Throughout Bali there are villages specialising in stone or wood carving, silver jewellery, paintings, and other forms of craftwork – tradition that has continued for centuries.
Sellers are predominantly women. The older ones have their regular spot at the market for decades. They are the soul of the market – a living witness of history. Some could remember the early decades of the 20th century and, possibly, the ancestors of the royal family – in the palace, just across the road from the market.


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Meningitis Outbreak Toll Rises to 12 Amid New Questions on Oversight
As the death toll climbs to 12 in the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, calls for FDA oversight of the contaminated drugs that caused the outbreak continue to stack up from congressmen, doctors and think tanks.
All 137 confirmed victims of this outbreak received spinal injections of a compounded steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, manufactured by New England Compounding Company in Framingham, Mass. The special pharmacy that compounded drugs has since shut down operations and recalled all products. An estimated 13,000 patients are at risk because they received the injections, according to the CDC.
For a map of cases by state, click here.
"What is particularly tragic for the families of those who have been sickened or killed by the tainted drugs is that this situation was completely avoidable," said Dr. Michael Carome,
Deputy Director of Public Citizen's health research group. Public citizen is a 41-year-old non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C.
Unlike other forms of meningitis, the fungal type is not spread person to person. It does, however, affect the spine and membrane surrounding the brain. Early symptoms of fungal meningitis are mild and include headache, fever, dizziness, nausea and slurred speech, but the inflammatory disease can later cause permanent neurological damage and death. Patients are told symptoms can occur up to a month after their spinal injections.
Carome said the meningitis outbreak highlights an oversight "failure" by the Food and Drug Administration, which knew the once niche pharmacy that tailor-made mixed steroids for individual patients had become a bulk drug manufacturer when it started compounding drugs in large quantities. As a drug manufacturer, New England Compounding Company would have been held to safety, effectiveness and manufacturing standards, but Carome said these were not enforced, calling it a "double-standard."
The FDA responded to Carome's allegations by saying that it is working with Massachusetts to identify and recall harmful products because the states have primary jurisdiction over compounding pharmacies. However, the FDA did not answer whether it knew NECC was manufacturing drugs in bulk before the outbreak. It's investigation is ongoing.
"Traditional drug manufacturers must adhere to rigorous drug safety standards intended, for example, to prevent the contamination of their products," he said. "But so-called compounding pharmacies engaging in large-scale drug production to not."
Earlier this week, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., wrote a letter to the Food and Drug Administration to ask how the drug contamination happened and followed up by introducing new oversight legislation on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, compounding pharmacies are a 19th century service operating in a 21st century industry, and we need to update and strengthen the rules that govern these operations so that patients can safely benefit from the unique service they offer," Markey said.
With compounded drugs under attack, hospitals are pulling compounded steroids, according to board members from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
"The vast majority of hospitals and facilities have done that for liability reasons," said Dr. David Kloth, an ASIPP board member and pain management physician.
Although Kloth did does not use the NECC compounded steroid that was tainted, he said it's important to remember that this is an aberration.
"I don't think compounding should be condemned for this," Kloth said. "There have been compounding pharmacies that have produced millions and millions of doses of units to patients safely."
Carome called for an investigation into the fungal contamination and said FDA officials should be held accountable if investigators learn existing regulations were not enforced.
For a full list of clinics that recieved the recalled lots of spinal steroid injections, click here.
Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/meningitis-death-toll-rises-fda-oversight-questioned/story?id=17444841


text: Seller warrants for 10 years from date of purchase that products shall be free from defects in material and workmanship at time of delivery, and conform to specifications for the products set forth at the time of order acceptance. Seller's liability for breach of warranty for products delivered hereunder that are proven by Buyer to be defective or proven by Buyer to be at variance with applicable specifications shall be limited, at Seller's option, to 1) replacing or repairing such materials, or 2) refunding the sales price received by Seller for such materials. In no event shall Seller be liable for 1) materials damaged in shipment or otherwise without fault of Seller, 2) defects in products due to negligence (other than that of Seller), accident, abuse, improper installation, care or storage, 3) damage to products which have been tampered with or altered in any way other than by Seller, 4) expenses incurred by Buyer in attempting to correct any defects in products prior to or after installation. This warranty is in lieu of any and all other warranties, express or implied, arising by law or custom, including but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability and the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. Please contact Mortar Net Solutions™ regarding an Extended Warranty.


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- Peace In The Valley EP (including all the binaural outtakes from 1957)
- G.I. Blues
- A What If Album featuring Nashville recordings from 1966-1968
- From Elvis In Memphis
- Back In Memphis
- He Touched Me
- Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas
- Promised Land
- From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee
- Moody Blue
- Elvis In Concert
And the fans can count themselves lucky. Like Troy writes, the FTD label "has released nearly 100 titles since it began in 1999, more albums in eleven years than Elvis released during his entire twenty-three year career."
And yeah, Troy, I'm also hoping for Promised Land to be next in line to receive the FTD treatment. If I was a betting man, this is what I would put my money on:
- Promised Land (April release)
- G.I. Blues (June release)
- Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas (October release)
- He Touched Me (December release)


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The following is the complete text of Ambrose Bierce's At Old Man Eckert's. The various books, short stories and poems we offer are presented free of charge with absolutely no advertising as a public service from Internet Accuracy Project.
To see all available titles by other authors, drop by our index of free books alphabetized by author or arranged alphabetically by title. Potential uses for the free books, stories and poetry we offer * Rediscovering an old favorite book or classic haunted house story. * Bibliophiles expanding their collection of public domain ebooks at no cost. * Teachers trying to locate a free online copy of a book for use in the classroom. * Actors or writers looking for free material to adapt for use in the theater or on stage. * Students or educators looking for material to adapt for a public performance or in drama class. NOTE: We try to present these classic literary works as they originally appeared in print. As such, they sometimes contain adult themes, offensive language, typographical errors, and often utilize unconventional, older, obsolete or intentionally incorrect spelling and/or punctuation conventions.
Philip Eckert lived for many years in an old, weather-stained wooden house about three miles from the little town of Marion, in Vermont. There must be quite a number of persons living who remember him, not unkindly, I trust, and know something of the story that I am about to tell. "Old Man Eckert," as he was always called, was not of a sociable disposition and lived alone. As he was never known to speak of his own affairs nobody thereabout knew anything of his past, nor of his relatives if he had any. Without being particularly ungracious or repellent in manner or speech, he managed somehow to be immune to impertinent curiosity, yet exempt from the evil repute with which it commonly revenges itself when baffled; so far as I know, Mr. Eckert's renown as a reformed assassin or a retired pirate of the Spanish Main had not reached any ear in Marion. He got his living cultivating a small and not very fertile farm. One day he disappeared and a prolonged search by his neighbors failed to turn him up or throw any light upon his whereabouts or whyabouts. Nothing indicated preparation to leave: all was as he might have left it to go to the spring for a bucket of water. For a few weeks little else was talked of in that region; then "old man Eckert" became a village tale for the ear of the stranger. I do not know what was done regarding his property--the correct legal thing, doubtless. The house was standing, still vacant and conspicuously unfit, when I last heard of it, some twenty years afterward. Of course it came to be considered "haunted," and the customary tales were told of moving lights, dolorous sounds and startling apparitions. At one time, about five years after the disappearance, these stories of the supernatural became so rife, or through some attesting circumstances seemed so important, that some of Marion's most serious citizens deemed it well to investigate, and to that end arranged for a night session on the premises. The parties to this undertaking were John Holcomb, an apothecary; Wilson Merle, a lawyer, and Andrus C. Palmer, the teacher of the public school, all men of consequence and repute. They were to meet at Holcomb's house at eight o'clock in the evening of the appointed day and go together to the scene of their vigil, where certain arrangements for their comfort, a provision of fuel and the like, for the season was winter, had been already made. Palmer did not keep the engagement, and after waiting a half-hour for him the others went to the Eckert house without him. They established themselves in the principal room, before a glowing fire, and without other light than it gave, awaited events. It had been agreed to speak as little as possible: they did not even renew the exchange of views regarding the defection of Palmer, which had occupied their minds on the way. Probably an hour had passed without incident when they heard (not without emotion, doubtless) the sound of an opening door in the rear of the house, followed by footfalls in the room adjoining that in which they sat. The watchers rose to their feet, but stood firm, prepared for whatever might ensue. A long silence followed--how long neither would afterward undertake to say. Then the door between the two rooms opened and a man entered. It was Palmer. He was pale, as if from excitement--as pale as the others felt themselves to be. His manner, too, was singularly distrait: he neither responded to their salutations nor so much as looked at them, but walked slowly across the room in the light of the failing fire and opening the front door passed out into the darkness. It seems to have been the first thought of both men that Palmer was suffering from fright--that something seen, heard or imagined in the back room had deprived him of his senses. Acting on the same friendly impulse both ran after him through the open door. But neither they nor anyone ever again saw or heard of Andrus Palmer! This much was ascertained the next morning. During the session of Messrs. Holcomb and Merle at the "haunted house" a new snow had fallen to a depth of several inches upon the old. In this snow Palmer's trail from his lodging in the village to the back door of the Eckert house was conspicuous. But there it ended: from the front door nothing led away but the tracks of the two men who swore that he preceded them. Palmer's disappearance was as complete as that of "old man Eckert" himself--whom, indeed, the editor of the local paper somewhat graphically accused of having "reached out and pulled him in."
If you find the above classic literature useful, please link to this page from your webpage, blog or website. You can also help support Internet Accuracy Project's work by contributing surplus office supplies, or used books. Alternatively, consider recommending us to your friends and colleagues. Thank you in advance!


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W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). The Wild Swans at Coole. 1919.
33. Ego Dominus Tuus
Under your old wind-beaten tower, where still
A lamp burns on beside the open book
That Michael Robartes left, you walk in the moon
And though you have passed the best of life still trace
Enthralled by the unconquerable delusion
Magical shapes.
I call to my own opposite, summon all That I have handled least, least looked upon. We have lit upon the gentle, sensitive mind And lost the old nonchalance of the hand; Whether we have chosen chisel, pen or brush We are but critics, or but half create, Timid, entangled, empty and abashed Lacking the countenance of our friends. The chief imagination of Christendom Dante Alighieri, so utterly found himself That he has made that hollow face of his More plain to the mind's eye than any face But that of Christ. Or was the hunger that had made it hollow A hunger for the apple on the bough Most out of reach? and is that spectral image The man that Lapo and that Guido knew? I think he fashioned from his opposite An image that might have been a stony face, Staring upon a bedouin's horse-hair roof From doored and windowed cliff, or half upturned Among the coarse grass and the camel dung. He set his chisel to the hardest stone. Being mocked by Guido for his lecherous life, Derided and deriding, driven out To climb that stair and eat that bitter bread, He found the unpersuadable justice, he found The most exalted lady loved by a man. Out of no tragic war, lovers of life, Impulsive men that look for happiness And sing when they have found it. For those that love the world serve it in action, Grow rich, popular and full of influence, And should they paint or write still it is action: The struggle of the fly in marmalade. The rhetorician would deceive his neighbours, The sentimentalist himself; while art Is but a vision of reality. What portion in the world can the artist have Who has awakened from the common dream But dissipation and despair? No one denies to Keats love of the world; Remember his deliberate happiness. I see a schoolboy when I think of him, With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window, For certainly he sank into his grave His senses and his heart unsatisfied, And made—being poor, ailing and ignorant, Shut out from all the luxury of the world, The coarse-bred son of a livery stablekeeper— Luxuriant song. Burning alone beside an open book And trace these characters upon the sands; A style is found by sedentary toil And by the imitation of great masters. Those men that in their writings are most wise Own nothing but their blind, stupefied hearts. I call to the mysterious one who yet Shall walk the wet sands by the edge of the stream And look most like me, being indeed my double, And prove of all imaginable things The most unlike, being my anti-self, And standing by these characters disclose All that I seek; and whisper it as though He were afraid the birds, who cry aloud Their momentary cries before it is dawn, Would carry it away to blasphemous men.Ille. By the help of an image Hic. And I would find myself and not an image. Ille. That is our modern hope and by its light Hic. And yet Ille. And did he find himself, Hic. Yet surely there are men who have made their art Ille. No, not sing, Hic. And yet Ille. His art is happy but who knows his mind? Hic. Why should you leave the lamp Ille. Because I seek an image, not a book.


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At Bio-One, we love being able to help people during difficult times. Unfortunately, we see the aftermath of a lot of terrible situations. For us, this business is all about helping people and making something hard a little bit easier in the way we know how.
This week, April 8-14th is National Crime Victim's Rights Week. We want to show our support for crime victims and all those affected. If you know anyone who is a crime victim, take them out to lunch, ask them about their story, or do something helpful to pass on kindness.


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(NNPA Newswire Columnist)
Here we go again. Another school massacre and another overreaction by liberals who want to play politics with the Second Amendment.
On Valentine's Day, 17 students were murdered by a former classmate at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a small community west of Boca Raton. As tragic as the murders were, sometimes I am confused by the way people
react to tragedies. In the after math of a mass shooting, many people want the government to immediately pass new gun control laws.
The hard truth is that there is nothing the government can do to protect you from tragedies like the horrific massacre in Parkland.
Tragedy, by definition is, "an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe."
Sometimes good people are beset by tragedies, randomly and without warning.
If you ban guns, do you really think violent tragedies will go away? One need look no further than Japan to nd the answer. In Japan, it is illegal to possess, carry, sell or buy guns. So, it is extremely rare, if ever, for a shooting death to occur there.
For example, in 2014, Japan had six gun related deaths compared to 33,599 in the U.S.
In 2016, however, 19 people were killed and 26 injured in a stabbing massacre in Tokyo, which was Japan's deadliest mass killing since World War II. In 2008, a man ran over a group of people with his truck and then stabbed 18, killing seven in Tokyo's Akihabara gaming district. In 2001, eight children were killed when a former employee entered an elementary school in Osaka and stabbed them to death.
So, the point is that even if guns were outlawed in the U.S., a person determined to commit an act of violence will always nd a weapon of choice to unleash their diabolical schemes.
Irresponsible mainstream media outlets take advantage of these crises, broadcasting the anguish and misery of distraught family members to boost their ratings. As they say, "If it bleeds, it leads."
Let's game out one of the liberal arguments that outlawing guns is the solution to these mass shootings, that seem to happen with more frequency.
So, Japan has outlawed guns. Now, killers in that country use knives and cars to in ict massive carnage upon their fellow citizens.
If the U.S. outlawed guns and preemptively banned, let's say, ice picks and utility knives, then individuals who are committed to killing other people will simply use whatever else they can get their hands on. Cars and trucks might become the weapons of choice. Should we ban them too? If we go down that road, where will it end?
What liberals refuse to address is the lack of values and morality in our society. Religion instills in a society a sense of right and wrong and demands some type of structure in our lives, but liber- als have run prayer out of our nation's schools, and any mentions or references to God in the public square are ques- tioned, mocked or maligned.
Regardless of one's religious beliefs, can anyone legitimately argue that the Ten Commandments are not good standards for any society to live by? Thou shalt not murder, lie, covet, etc.
In American society today, many people have bought into the notion that man, not God, is the measure of all things. There are no rules. No restraints. American society has cast the traditional nuclear family by the wayside. For liberals, normal is whatever you feel like doing at any given moment.
Liberal Hollywood elites, the most vociferous advocates for gun control, refuse to take responsibility for the violence and lack of morals that are constant themes in their movies and TV shows. Most of them won't acknowledge the negative effects that their industry has on the minds of young people.
The result is generations of children who become desensitized to violence and mayhem, who then lash out in real life, without ever considering the repercussions of their actions.
These kids don't wake up one day and decide to go on murderous rampages at their schools simply because someone picked on them during lunch or they experienced a bad breakup. We have all gone through that as teenagers and young adults and we got through it without killing and maiming dozens of our classmates.
What is different now? Today, it's very hard to get teenagers and young adults to think critically about the world they live in. No one wants to accept personal responsibility for anything that happens in their lives; everyone gets a trophy; everything bad that happens to them is someone else's fault.
The State of Florida and the FBI are going to spend millions of dollars trying to gure out why this kid killed students and faculty members at that school in Parkland. In reality, there are no simple solutions to most problems that we wrestle with as a society.
Unfortunately, sometimes bad things happen to good people, and banning guns won't change that.
Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF).


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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Eighty years after it was founded, dozens of questions remain about the murky inner workings of the Augusta National Golf Club.
There are none about who calls the shots.
Chairman Billy Payne proved that again Wednesday, tackling a wide range of issues in his annual "State of the Masters" news conference. Since taking over from Hootie Johnson in 2006, Payne, the former Atlanta Olympic Committee CEO, has found himself facing such hot-button issues such as adding women to the Augusta's membership and Tiger Woods' suitability as a role model.
This time around, the mood was decidedly lighter. Yet judging by the frequent smiles and nods of assent from the dozen green jackets lining the back of the room, Payne's pronouncements on the less-weighty issues of his own golf handicap and whether to replace the famed Eisenhower Tree on the 17th fairway – lost after being damaged in an ice storm – aren't likely to face much headwind.
A reporter asked Payne whether he took the job with a "to-do" list and if so, how many items on it had been resolved.
"I had no list because I didn't know anything about the job," he said. "When I became a member of Augusta National, I had dreams of becoming a scratch golfer."
Once the laughter stopped, Payne turned to Fred Ridley, chairman of the club's competition committee, and asked, "Have I made it there yet, Fred?"
"Working on it," Ridley replied.
"However," Payne added quickly, "I compete quite well here because I'm also chairman of the Handicap Committee."
Handicaps are hardly the only issue where Payne makes use of his bully pulpit. After several years of vigorously – and very publicly – defending the club's longstanding policy of barring women, he presided over the quiet addition of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina business executive Darla Moore to the membership rolls in August 2012.
With the Royal & Ancient, golf's oldest governing body, set to vote on admitting women later this year, Payne left no doubt how he planned to vote.
"Well, as I've said before, we readily and joyously welcomed our lady members when that happened a couple years ago, and it remains a very good decision on our part. We are so delighted, and I know I speak for everyone, that they are members. …
"Other than that, I would respect their process, their requirement to conduct a vote … and as I've said," he paused, smiling, "I know where one vote is going to be cast."
Payne also revealed the club no longer maintained a waiting list for Masters passes – among the toughest tickets in sports to obtain – for "some kind of ego purposes," deciding instead to put any tickets returned to the club into an annual lottery.
But he may have bruised a few egos when asked why total donations to the club's Masters Tournament Foundation were down significantly from its first year.
"I have a very simple answer. The donations went down because the first year we started it, all the members got a little encouragement from the chairman to donate," Payne said.
"So when the second year rolled around, there wasn't anybody left but the new members. So that's the phenomena you saw."
The accomplishment Payne touted most was the role Augusta National and the Masters Foundation played in creating and hosting last Sunday's inaugural Drive, Chip & Putt Championship for youngsters ages 7-15.
"I was trying to make comparisons," Payne began, "think about how I had been impacted like that before, and I can only go back to, I used to ask my mother, `How will I know when I meet my wife?'
"And she would always say, `Well, you'll know. You'll know.'
"And Saturday night at the banquet preceding the Sunday competition, I knew," he said.
Payne added he was already looking forward to next year's event, saying he'd heard more than 15,000 kids had already signed up. But Payne also took advantage of the opportunity to poke a little fun at himself.
Playing off his reputation as a promoter – Payne admitted using fuzzy math to convince the International Olympic the average summer temperature in usually steamy Atlanta would be 75 degrees during the games – he said, "You've got to ask the U.S. Golf Association to get actual (numbers).
"I am known to exaggerate a little bit."


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Details of a Listing Contract
Obviously the name of the seller and the property address will be included in the listing contract. There are many other things that are included, too, and you should be aware of them.
Price and Terms of Sale
When setting the terms of sale, the main thing you are concerned with is the price. You should have a basic idea of what your home is worth by keeping track of other sales in the neighborhood. Plus, you have probably interviewed at least two real estate agents and they have given you their own ideas. Exercise great care in determining your asking price, making sure not to set it too high or too low. In addition to the price, you will disclose what personal property, if any, goes with the house when you sell it. Personal property is anything that is not attached or fixed to the home, such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, and so on. There may be some item that is considered "real property" that you do not intend to include in the sale. Real property is anything that is attached to the home. For example, you may have a chandelier that has been in your family for generations and you take it from home to home when you move. Since the chandelier is attached to the house, it is considered "real property" and a reasonable buyer would normally expect it to go with the house.
Lockbox – Yes or No?
A lockbox is a basically a padlock with a cavity inside where a key to your home can be placed. Only someone with an electronic key or the combination can get into the lockbox and access the key. Having a lockbox available at your house makes it easy for other agents to get access to your house. Without the lockbox, agents representing buyers would have to set appointments to meet you or your agent at the house so they could gain access and view the home. This would be inconvenient. Since almost every other house does have a lockbox available, if you do not allow one most agents will simply not show your property. You will miss out on lots of potential buyers. The listing contract specifies whether you allow a lockbox or not. It is locked into place, usually on the front door and cannot be removed. Only other agents can access the key that is located within the lockbox.
Real Estate Commission
In some areas of the country there is a certain percentage that real estate agents expect to earn as a commission.This commission amount is a certain percent of the sales price.Or, some companies will charge a set fee for their services.However, just like anything else in real estate, this amount is negotiable.When completing the listing agreement, you and your agent will agree on the amount of the real estate commission.
Multiple Listing Service
Your listing contract should specify whether or not the house will be listed with the local MLS (multiple listing service). It is definitely in your interest to have the house listed. This is because your sales force is automatically multiplied by however many agents are members of the local MLS. If your house is not listed, then you only have one agent working for you instead of many.
Agency Duties of a Listing Agent
The listing contract will specify that your agent is acting as a "seller's agent." This means that, in the sale of your house, they are working for you and only you. However, there may be times when your listing agent has a client who wants to buy your home. For that reason, there is a little "wiggle room" in the listing contract. If your agent also represents the buyer, the listing contract should specify that they provide an additional disclosure that details their duties as a dual agent. The contract also provides permission for your listing agent to act as an agent for others on other transactions. They can continue to list other properties, and represent buyers looking at other homes.
Resolution of Disputes
There are times when you and your agent have a disagreement that you cannot resolve by yourselves. Maybe the agent did a poor job or misrepresented something. Maybe your agent was really doing their job correctly, but you did not understand. Perhaps the agent will have a dispute with you. The listing contract specifies what methods will be used to settle such disputes. You can choose to accept binding arbitration, which is usually cheaper than hiring a lawyer and going to court. Usually, matters that can be dealt with in a small claims court are excluded from having to go to binding arbitration. You are not required to sign or initial the binding arbitration clause. This would leave you free to hire an attorney and pursue disputes in civil court instead of binding arbitration. Consult your attorney for advise on this legal matter.


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Top 5 things to see and do in Seville
I had a quick 2 days to visit Seville, it was going to be such a quick trip I almost decided to just skip Seville and go straight to Barcelona…I'm so happy I took a stop in Seville Spain, and I suggest you do to.
Seville is one of the most exciting and beautiful areas of Spain.
Located on River Guadalquivir named after 'Hispalis' (Roman origin). Seville has so much to offer and the history an iconic representation of architectural relics by Moorish Almohad dynasty. You can explore most of the city just walking around, and two days will allow you to get the vibe of the city, the taste of the cuisine, of the history and art.
Within a 5 minute walk of our hotel.
So easy to experience the taste of tapas from many of its outstanding restaurants. There are so many scattered around the city, flamenco is everywhere and you can catch some of the best flamenco shows to be seen in Spain. Horse drawn buggies crowd the streets hop in one to view the architecture everywhere you look will take your breath away landmarks, fountains, squares, gardens, and sculptures. We had 2 days and we really felt we were able to capture the feel and history of the city.
While planning to visit Seville, try to stay at the Hotel Alfonso.
Save up some extra money for one of the best & most interesting hotels in Europe. We booked the perfect room in Hotel Alfonso XIII, a Moorish style royal palace dating back to 1929. This exquisite hotel provides delicious and visually beautify traditional breakfast. From the lush garden view, private terraces and elegant Juliet balconies these hotel staples make your trip priceless.
Take the Hotel Tour.
My girlfriend Pam had stayed the year before and mentioned I should take the hotel tour, it's free and there is so much to see just in the hotel. As you will see from the below photo our tour guide was the same one my friend had almost 2 years before us. Even if you are not able to stay at the hotel, do spare some time to enjoy a cocktail, grab breakfast in the garden or have a late lunch there, because they offer free hotel tour after 3 o'clock.
Start at the Real Alcazar.
Once in Seville, start your visit at Real Alcazar. It is a world heritage site, a royal palace originally constructed during Moorish Muslim reign. This place is an amazing depiction of Mudejar architecture, which beautifully blends Islamic architectural elements with local materials. Rising arches, decorative courtyards and amazing intricate details on the wall simply takes your breath away. Alcazar of Seville combines influences from Renaissance period, late Middle Ages, Baroque and Gothic culture.
There are ten major zones of in the Alcazar of Seville, each of which signifies art forms from different cultures. There are hidden courtyards, baths, tropical gardens, walkways and patios which simply have to be seen.
The Cathedral is beautiful night and day.
Once done with Alcazar of Seville (which will take a bit of time), walk across the street and visit the Seville Cathedral. Also known as Cathedral of Saint Mary with majestic appeal and bell tower. It is the third-largest church in the world, which depicts city's wealth during Reconquista years in 1248. You won't be able to explore this cathedral in one day as it has eighty chapels and five hundred masses. Since we were short on time we just did some of the highlights and then spent time reading more about it online. The inside of this cathedral is a never-ending chronicle, of gothic arches, sculptures of archangels, stain glass artwork on windows, cross vaults on ceilings and so much more.
Food, shopping, tapas, and more in the Jewish Quarter.
Just around the bend back towards the Alcazar is an area known as the Jewish Quarter. Here you will find many interesting gift shops, restaurants, and some other hidden off the beaten path sights. Enjoy the area and you can find great little places that serve tapas, so grab a bite and enjoy.
Great Shopping.
The main shopping area of Seville is also filled with history, restaurants, shops, and more tapas. At night you can find lots of spots to sit and take in the view of the Cathedral while enjoying some of the best sangria you may ever have.
You can also catch many Flamenco shows; many change each night so even if you go back to the same place you may see different dancers.A short carriage ride away from Seville cathedral is Casa de Pilatos, an Andalusian style palace which is now a permanent residence of Medinaceli Dukes.


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St. Louis, Missouri. Orleans, France. The Hot Gates, Greece.
Throughout history, certain places have been anointed with the term "gateway to the _____." These locations are famous for being strategically important to either the defense of a kingdom – France, Sparta – or as the beginning of an expansive effort to settle new lands – St. Louis. Gateways are places that lead to somewhere else, usually someplace important. If you control it, you control who or what comes in (or goes out). They provide control over access as well as affording a more efficient point of protection against invasion or attack. In the modern world we see these gateways at airports around the globe when we're required to traverse "customs" in an international airport or have to pass through the dreaded "security" to enter in the first place.
It is no surprise, then, that a group of devices has arisen in the course of technology's history that are considered strategically important and are known collectively as "gateways."
In the case of applications, these devices (that occupy a strategic point in the architecture), provide for security, scale, and often interoperability, of emerging technologies.
Loosely, we could deem the network firewall as "the first" instance of an app-centric gateway in the network. Back in the early days, they were the gatekeepers, after all. Apps could only be accessed from outside the corporate network if the network firewall allowed that access. Today's gateways, however, are far more application savvy and address not only the need for security, but scale, access, and interoperability, as well.
All are key concerns as we ramp up into the era of IoT. A recent HCL survey conducted by Vanson Bourne found that 93% of respondents were concerned about security, 86% about scale, and 83% about interoperability. None of this should be surprising. The sheer volume of devices needing access to apps to collect data, exchange commands, and monitor things is sure to have an overwhelming impact on any network. The speed with which firms are pressured to get the next "thing" to market has a deleterious impact on security. And interoperability is always challenging in a new market that is reliant as much on communication with other things and apps as it is performing its intended use. Nascent markets tend to diverge quickly and pockets coalesce around a variety of standards until one day, we settle on one or two. But early on there is often a complex and confusing set of choices. Innovators are unwilling to wait for the dust to settle. Innovators win, after all, by getting to market.
The issue then becomes how to address security, scale, and interoperability while the emerging technology is maturing and standards are being hashed out. The answer to that is, generally, gateways.
In the past, gateways have arisen to deal with the same challenges around other technologies and protocols such as XML and SOAP. I'm not the only one who will remember (and perhaps cringe) at the fisticuffs between RPC/ENC and DOC/LIT as the "standard" for web services. And I'm not the only one to recall the more recent battle between JSON and XML. Today, those tug-of-wars are occurring in the IoT arena, where MQTT and CoAP and AMQP are vying for ascendancy.
Innovation can't wait, however, and gateways are emerging left and right to deal with challenges arising from new technologies and protocols.
HTTP2 gateways primarily address a challenge with interoperability between HTTP/1x and HTTP/2. These devices terminate HTTP2 on the "outside" in order to support mobile and IoT devices that perform with greater alacrity when using the most recent HTTP standard. They enable innovators to provide support for HTTP2 to consumers and things without the massive disruption required to upgrade app and network infrastructure to support the new standard. Certainly it is hoped (expected) that one day everyone will be running HTTP2, but in the mean time, HTTP2 gateways provide the interoperability necessary for innovators to move full steam ahead.
The emergence of API gateways is akin to that of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. It was a caterpillar (SOA gateways) but now it's a butterfly (an API gateway) instead. Now, that's not to say that there aren't brand new entrants to this category – there are – but they do share a great deal of similarities primarily because the foundations of both reside in HTTP. Where SOA gateways were primarily concerned with XML and SOAP, API gateways are focused on JSON and RESTful APIs implemented using HTTP endpoints.
These devices provide security and scale, and in some cases interoperability services. They're fluent into the language of apps, speaking JSON and HTTP with equal ease, and provide a strong foundation for supporting emerging app models like microservices and serverless that can distribute API calls not just across applications but environments, as well. API gateways also serve to protect scalability by enforcing quotas (rate limiting of calls) as well as controlling access via API key management.
These are not just "load balancers", though scale through load balancing is certainly a key characteristic of API gateways. These bad boys must be able to go beyond plain old load balancing to enable a consistent consumer-facing experience while simultaneously enabling developers and businesses to take advantage of cloud and serverless. API gateways need to be "smart" if they're going to secure and scale APIs, which means being able to inspect requests and responses as well as integrate with external authentication providers like OAuth2 and JWT.
IoT gateways are the most nascent of the gateways today, but they are out there and they're vitally important to the success of IoT initiatives, perhaps more so than that of other gateways to their respective markets. This has to do with the protocols, which are not at all web-friendly protocols. While many consumer gadgets do speak "web", it's more and more the case that thing-makers are relying on IoT specific protocols like MQTT and CoAP because they are more efficient and consume less compute on the device. But the apps that receive that data don't necessarily speak MQTT and even if they do, they can't scale on their own to meet (hopefully outstanding) demand.
So arises the IoT gateway, which is fluent in the languages of IoT and the web, and can scale and secure access at the same time. These gateways, like API gateways, need to be "smart" enough to translate and route requests and responses as well as detect anomalies or bad behavior to prevent exploitation.
Architecturally, gateways provide access to networks and applications. Requests are funneled through them, making them a strategic point of control at which access can be controlled, translations provided, and security enforced. They are a key enabler of new technologies as they afford organizations the ability to innovate during the natural transition period that occurs when any new technology or protocol emerges with less disruption and risk to existing business and apps.
While gateways tend to be viewed as architectural constructs they are just as frequently today key enablers of innovation that enable business to harness the power of emerging technologies.


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The classic E pendant, world renowned for its elegant tribal style and unique polished finish.
Size: approx. 4cm long with loop
Care: BICO pendants and chains are silver plated. General sensible care must be taken to ensure product longevity. BICO recommends gently wiping the product with a damp cloth and drying with a soft cloth. Exposure to colognes and aftershave, pool products, and excess sweat can affect the coating and plating of your product. Pendants should be carefully rinsed and dried if worn at the beach.


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As millions of Americans are receiving their government stimulus checks this month, the IRS is encouraging Americans who did not receive their check via direct deposit to check their mail.
While some are receiving a paper check, others will be receiving their payments via a prepaid debit card.
The Better Business Bureau says there is one way scammers could access these funds.
"BBB warns that scammers may try to text, call or email you, trying to convince you to give up the card number or your personal information. Report any phishing or scam attempts to the IRS and file a report with BBB Scam Tracker to warn others not to fall for the scam," the Better Business Bureau said.
The Better Business Bureau offers the following tips if you receive a prepaid debit card.
- Economic Impact Payments Cards are being sent in a white envelope with the U.S. Department of the Treasury seal.
- The Visa name will appear on the front of the card; the back of the card has the name of the issuing bank, MetaBank, N.A.
- The welcome kit explains more about the EIP card. Please go to EIPcard.com for more information and to see a sample image of the card.
Once the card has been verified:
- Activate the card by calling the number provided, setting a 4-digit PIN
- Sign the card.
- Keep the card in a safe place.
- Do not share the information on the card with anyone.
- Use the card anywhere Visa cards are accepted and/or get cash back at a retailer or ATM. Note that most transactions are free, but certain uses could incur fees. For more questions, visit EIPcard.com/FAQ.
Last month, Congress authorized that most Americans making less than $75,000 a year will get a direct payment of $600 (couples making less than $150,000 a year will get $1,200). Heads of households making $124,500 annually also will receive the full $600.
Those making $75,000 to $87,000 ($150,000 to $174,000 for couples) will get a prorated check. Those making over $87,000 ($164,000 for couples) will not receive a check.
If you're still waiting on your second stimulus check from the federal government, by going to IRS.gov, Americans can see when they will obtain their check.


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Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre Company
Written by James McLindon
Directed by Tyler Monroe
January 31 – February 8
The Factory Theatre
Boston, MA
Fresh Ink on Facebook
Review by Kitty Drexel
With apologies to Fresh Ink Theatre Company. The Queen Geek was waylaid by illness and could not complete her review until now.
(Boston) Handicapping by James McLindon combines three heavy subjects into one script: gambling addiction, physical incapability, and the deep holes we dig ourselves when we deny reality. It is a short but effective play. From the moment the lights come up, with the help of the Fresh Ink crew, McLindon's script relentlessly reveals the exacting scarcity that is his cast and plot. There is no hope for the denizens of the betting booth. There is hope for the audience. Continue reading


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SHAZAM! – Only in theaters April 5
David F. Sandberg ("Annabelle: Creation") directs New Line Cinema's "Shazam!," the origin story that stars Zachary Levi (TV's "Chuck") as the titular DC Super Hero, along with Asher Angel (TV's "Andi Mack") as Billy Batson, and Mark Strong (the "Kingsman" movies) in the role of Super-Villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. Peter Safran ("Aquaman," "The Conjuring" and "Annabelle" films) serves as the film's producer.
We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson's (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he'll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).
"Shazam!" also stars Jack Dylan Grazer ("IT") as Billy's best friend and ultimate superhero enthusiast, Freddy, part of the foster family that includes Mary, played by Grace Fulton ("Annabelle: Creation"); Darla, played by Faithe Herman (TV's "This is Us"); Eugene, played by Ian Chen (TV's "Fresh Off the Boat"); and Pedro, played by Jovan Armand (TV's "Hawaii Five-O"). Cooper Andrews (TV's "The Walking Dead") and Marta Milans (TV's "Killer Women") play foster parents Victor and Rosa Vasquez, with Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou ("Blood Diamond") as the Wizard.
Firmly set in the DC universe but with his own distinctly fun, family-centric tone, the screenplay is by Henry Gayden, story by Gayden and Darren Lemke. Shazam was created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. Christopher Godsick, Jeffrey Chernov, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia serve as executive producers.
Sandberg's creative team includes his "Annabelle: Creation" director of photography Maxime Alexandre, production designer Jennifer Spence, editor Michel Aller and costume designer Leah Butler.
A New Line Cinema production, "Shazam!" is set for release on April 5, 2019. It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.