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FAVELA RISING documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sá is a former drug-trafficker who turns social revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro's most feared slum. Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to counteract the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.
At the dawn of liberation, just as collective mobility is overcoming all odds and Anderson's grassroots Afro Reggae movement is at the height of its success, a tragic accident threatens to silence the movement forever.


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When I start a new project, I often have a moment of anxiety - blank canvas syndrome. I am really excited about all of the possibilities that are embedded within the task of initiating new work, however I am overwhelmed by the blank screen that is staring me in the face. I start to think: will I ever be creative again? Will I create something unique? How can I effect the most change? ... make impact? do something original.... not find the obvious solution... but the best one.
Despite the fact that I feel like an impostor or a fraud in these moments - this is actually pretty common. I've talked to a lot of designers, illustrators and creative people and everyone seems to have a strategy for conquering this feeling. Here are some of my strategies:
Sit with a marker in your hand
My good friend Chloe Varelidi suggested this to me once and it works for me 99% of the time. I find if I just sit somewhere - a coffee shop, a subway ride, a library etc - with a pen in my hand and a sketchbook in front of me and just start the action of drawing, something will spur on an idea. If I am in a total rut, I will start by drawing what I think is the boring or obvious solution to a design problem - kind of to just put it out there into the world. After that is done, it's out of my mind - time to come up with a handful of other ideas.
Look or listen to something that is unrelated but inspiring
I am the queen of podcasts - at any given time I can tell you about something that I found interesting in a recent episode of 99 Percent Invisible or The Moth. The topics of the show don't ever need to relate to something I am working on, but I find that hearing how other people process problems and ideas inspires me to create. Sometimes looking at art in a museum or gallery is helpful. I will say that not going online and hunting for ideas on Pinterest or Dribbble is the most constructive for me. If I go to those sites I tend to go into a downward spiral of self doubt - thinking - look at all these other designers rockin' it - will I ever get my idea? Instead I think more conceptually and proactively.
Move your body
You've heard of the expression - 'mind - body connection' right? Well there's a reason for that - it's true. Stretch, run, do yoga, go for a swim or a walk around your office. My friend Atul Varma actually takes off his shoes and paces from room to room while he is brainstorming. It's the act of waking up your body and prepping it to be creative that really motivates you - and it could be completely subconscious. I always hear about people coming up with great ideas in the morning while they are showering. This is unscientific, but I am sure that it has something to do with the fact that you are moving your body - stretching, standing and letting your mind relax.
Context switch
Sometimes the reason that I can't get started on something new is that my head is stuck on something old. For example, I recently went from designing a snippet for Firefox to making an onboarding experience to then making promotional content for Privacy day. There's a lot of context switching going on here. I am switching mediums, platforms and thematic concepts! I am still struggling with how to get over this, but one thing that I do is context switch my physical environment. If I have been sitting at a desk for a week straight working on a project, I go to sit at a coffee shop or on a couch to brainstorm. If I have to work at my desk, I find some way to change it : re - organize it, put some fresh tea in front of myself, find a new pen to sketch with - sticky notes to cut up etc. Anything to alter the environment within my zone of comfort.
Talk it out
When all else fails, I find a friend or colleague to talk to. This might be in the form of a tweet, a blogpost (ahem ahem), a journal entry, an instant message or a conversation in real life. I tend to talk to everyone - my husband, my community, my mom, my fellow designers, people who are struggling with the problem that I am trying to solve - people who know nothing about the work that I am dealing with, people who won't respond - but just listen to me ramble, people who will respond and give me thousands of ideas that make no sense, just anyone. It's like talk therapy for me. I just need to get out my concerns and energy in some way so that I can move forward with the creative business at hand.
None of these solutions are fool proof, and it's not like you do one thing and it's a magic bullet or creativity, however, I find that these things are constructive ways to focus and release my anxiety or nervous energy when initiating new work. If you have other strategies, I would love to hear about them, please send me or copy me on a tweet.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Privacy Day Mobile and Desktop Wallpapers
When I was creating the patterns for the Webmaker privacy campaign, I posted my works-in-progress up on Instagram and a few people asked if I would make them into desktop wallpapers. So... in honor of Data Privacy Day you can download them in a variety of patterns and sizes here.
Doodle Pattern: 320x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800 | 2560x1440
Hexagon Pattern: 320x480 | 800x600 | 1024x786 | 1280x800 | 2560x1440
Wink Pattern: 320x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800 | 2560x1440
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Doodle Pattern: 320x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800 | 2560x1440
Hexagon Pattern: 320x480 | 800x600 | 1024x786 | 1280x800 | 2560x1440
Wink Pattern: 320x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800 | 2560x1440
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Quality Assurance reviews for Design, Functionality and Communications
This week a few of the features that I have been writing about will be shipping on webmaker.org - the work for Privacy Day and the new on-boarding experience. You might be wondering what we've been up to during that period of time after the project gets coded until the time it goes live. Two magical words: quality assurance (QA). We are still refining the process, and I am very open to suggestions as to how to improve it and streamline it. For the time being, let me walk you through this round of QA on the Privacy Day content.
It all starts out with a github issue
... and a kickoff meeting
The same team who worked on the prototyping phase of the Privacy Day campaign work are responsible for the quality assurance. We met to kick off and map out our plan for going live. This project required three kinds of reviews - that more or less had to happen simultaneously. We broke down the responsibilities like this:
Paul - (communication/marketing) - responsible for preparing the docs and leading a marketing review
Jess - (lead designer) - responsible for preparing docs and leading design review
Bobby - (product manager) - responsible for recruiting participants to do the reviews and to wrangle bug triage.
Cassie - (quality) - responsible for final look and thumbs up to say if the feature is acceptable to ship
Each of us who were responsible for docs wrote up instructions for QA reviewers to follow:
We recruited staff and community to user test on a variety of different devices:
This was done in a few different ways. I did both one on one and asynchronous review sessions with my colleagues and the community. It helps to have both kinds of user tests so that you can get honest feedback. Allowing for asynchronous or independent testing is particularly beneficial because it signals to the reviewer that this is an ongoing process and that bugs can be filed at any point during the review period specified.
The process is completely open to the community. At any given point the github issues are public, the calls for help are public and the iteration is done openly.
and if there were any problems, they were logged in github as issues:
The most effective issues have a screenshot with the problem and a recommended solution. Additionally, it's important to note if this problem is blocking the feature from shipping or not.
We acknowledge when user testers found something useful:
and identified when a problem was out of scope to fix before shipping:
We quickly iterated on fixing bugs and closing issues as a team:
and gave each other some indication when we thought that the problem was fixed sufficiently:
When we are all happy and got the final thumbsup regarding quality, we then....
Close the github issue and celebrate:
Then we start to make preparations to push the feature live (and snoopy dance a little):
quality assurance,
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Dino Dribbble
The newly created Mozilla Foundation design team started out with a bang (or maybe I should say rawr) with our very first collaboration: a team debut on dribbble. Dribbble describes itself as a show and tell community for designers. I have not participated in this community yet but this seemed like a good moment to join in. For our debut shot, we decided to have some fun and plan out our design presence. We ultimately decided to go in a direction designed by Cassie McDaniel.
The concept was for us to break apart the famed Shepard Fairey Mozilla dinosaur into quilt-like
Check out our new team page on dribbble. rawr!
Cassie also wrote about the exercise on her blog and discussed the opinion position for a designer to join the team.
The concept was for us to break apart the famed Shepard Fairey Mozilla dinosaur into quilt-like
Each member of the design team was assigned a tile or two and given a shape. This is the one I was assigned:
We all met together in a video chat to upload our images on to the site.
Anticipation was building as we uploaded each shot one by one:
But the final reveal made it worth all the effort!
Check out our new team page on dribbble. rawr!
Cassie also wrote about the exercise on her blog and discussed the opinion position for a designer to join the team.
Friday, January 16, 2015
EYE Witness News: Promotional Content on Webmaker
1. micro: how might we promote the unique Privacy Day content on the splash page for the 28th?
2. macro: how might we incorporate promotional interest-based content into the real estate on the Webmaker splash page on an ongoing basis?
Constraints: needs to be conceived, designed and implemented within 2 weeks.
Start from the beginning
I took a look at the current splash page. The content that we are promoting is directly connected to the Mozilla mission, so I identified a sliver of space directly above the section where we state the project's values. My thinking here is that we are creating a three tier hierarchy of values on the page: 1) we are webmaker - we are all about making - and this is what you can do right this second to get started, 2) we are deeply concerned about [privacy] - and this what you can do right now to dive into that topic and 3)we are more than just making + [privacy] - here are all the things that we value.
I SEE what you did there
Building off of my thinking from designing the Mozilla snippet and the onboarding ux, I wanted to make this repoussoir element
something that a user might find quirky, whimsical or relateable. All
of the other elements on the page were expected and kind of standard
elements for a webpage. I needed to create something that would be
subtle yet attention grabbing. Looking at subject of privacy, I
immediately had associations with corporations and individuals big- brothering
me as I visited web pages. I realized that the activity we were
directing users to was called private eye - and this led me to create a
small asset that features an eyeball that follows your cursor around as
you explore the splash page. On hover it will flip and direct you to the
activity.This worked for desktop, but for mobile we would have to simulate the action by having a simple CSS eyeball animation center aligned on the sliver. Major props here go out to Aki who had to invoke the pythagorean theorem to get the eye to follow the cursor without leaving the sclera.
did a study of eyeballs on redpen and immediately got a ton of
community and staff feedback - which told me two things: 1. it was a
conversation topic and 2. people liked the very first eyeball that I
My javascript now has a variable called 'pythagoras'.
— Social Justice Mage (@gesa) January 14, 2015
Let me give you a walk through
- whimsy vs. traditional promotional placement
- mission driven content
- how many people are we getting to engage with Webmaker and sign up for new accounts
What's Next Up:
- This will be deployed on staging on Monday and then our goal is to go live on January 28th, which is Privacy Day!
- Now that we have a promotional framework, figuring out how to incorporate a richer learning experience around mission - based content.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Shall we dance? On-boarding Webmakers
The first time that someone comes to your website is like a high school dance at the gym. You want that hottie who you have been thinking about all year to be attracted to you and join you on the dance floor . You want to show them what you are all about: how you aren't just about the MC Hammer pants and bikini top you are wearing (dating myself much?) - and you have the moves to prove it. This dance is just the beginning - you really want to go steady, but you have to start somewhere, right?
About 40-60% of users who sign up for a free trial of your software will use it once and then never come back.
When designing the on-boarding experience, we have a few goals:
- We should make a positive user experience where the visitor learns something within minutes of interacting
- We should have the user take some action which results in signing up for a Webmaker account
- We should give the user a clear and compelling reason to return.
Deeply inspired by the theory of Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media, I started to think about what a low bar way might be to get people to dance with me. The idea is that there is a progression and/or just different ways that a site visitor might interact with the site. I wanted to create an experience for the user, that will allow them to walk away having seen a little bit of code, had the a ha! moment, the realization that there is so much to learn about the way that the web is crafted - and most importantly: that remixing the web is an approachable challenge. According to this chart below, we could argue that most of our site visitors are at the beginning of the customer awareness journey.
Start from the beginning --- err where is that exactly?
I started by doing an exploratory sketch - asking where might users first see/ interact with the Goggles on Webmaker? I see 5 main areas of contact:
- Via the not-yet-existing "Join Webmaker" button user flow
- Within the Goggles interface upon activating the bookmarklet
For this heartbeat (and the build sprint after) we decided to focus on number 1 via 2 (Join Webmaker user flow via the landing page) as the goal for the first quarter is to improve our conversion of visitors to Webmaker.org into makers.
Think through the user flow
With a clear scope, I took a stab at thinking through potential user flows (ahem,dance moves). What interactions might I be able to design that could help the user gain an understanding of the awesome potential of Webmaker and come away with learning a little bit about making things on the web within the first few minutes of their site visit? On a traditional site, this is where I would do a product tour - to tell the visitor about all the bells and whistles. But, let's remember, we are at a high school dance. We don't want to just tell that hottie about how great we are, we want them to hold our hand and dance with us. So what exactly is our dance? It's an introduction to the site through an interactive tinkering activity.
I had some experience tackling this user experience challenge a few months back when I designed the Maker Party snippet for the Firefox about page. Here, we were trying to coax visitors to the About Page to sign up for Webmaker AND ... (the cooler part) expose them to a little bit of code through modeling a playful interaction that they in turn would emulate. We found this approach to be successful. I personally user tested the page with a variety of site visitors in the Hive Learning Network and found that the animated modeling of the CSS value being typed acted as I would as a teacher in a classroom, or a friend showing someone how to approach the problem, asking the friend to try it out themselves. This approach could easily translate to an activity on the landing page where we show a visitor how to edit some playfully placed text using the X-Ray Goggles.
Approach 1: Modeling
Modeling tries to emulate the way you might teach this in a classroom environment - you show the actions that you want the learner to emulate. See complete mockup here.
I also tackled this challenge of getting a user to dabble with new information and content in the weather activity experiment for the Hour of Code. Here, I thought about how I like to follow recipes and get feedback as I do each each step in a staged progression. (This would be like... someone teaching you how to do the macarena step by step at the dance)
Approach 2: Stage Progression
The staged progression allows the user to read, and then asks them to try it out, providing little tips along the way. See complete mockup here.
After getting some feedback from my colleagues and a few user testers I am leaning towards a hybrid approach - where you might model for them at each "step."
Next up: enticing your friend to get on the dance floor
All of the user flows and interaction designs are a good exercise, but if the icebreaker prompt isn't enticing, then it's no good. So - I did a few iterations:
Name tag fill in the blank --- this could somehow tie in to the sign up flow.
Venn Diagrams - probably too designerdy but I couldn't help myself.
Fill in the blank - I <3 webmaking.="">3>
Fill in the blank - attempt 2. I like this one the most at the moment because it has a focal point, and it feels a bit disruptive, like Webmaker itself.
Next up: Finding those dancing shoes.
To get to an interactive prototype, we need to:
- Design the hybrid interaction design (modeling + staged progression)
- Choose a direction and then work on the UI elements
- Wordsmith the copy.
- User test with real humans!
Designing an on-boarding is like asking someone to the dance floor ----testing if your pits stink and all, so I would love to hear any thoughts if I've got any moves.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Hive Labs at the Mozilla Festival: Building an Ecosystem for Innovation
This weekend marks the fifth year anniversary of the Mozilla Festival - and Hive Labs has a ton of fun design - oriented, hands-on activities to get messy with in person or remotely. We are using the event to explore design questions that are relevant to local communities and Hives and to dabble in building out a community-driven ecosystem for innovation. Here's a few highlights:
Challenges to Enacting and Scaling Connected Learning
This year, the Hive track at MozFest (http://2014.mozillafestival.org/tracks/) is bringing together Hive and "Hive curious" travelers from around the world to incubate solutions to shared challenges in enacting and scaling connected learning. We're working together over the course of the MozFest weekend to collaboratively answer questions that come up again and again in our networks across the globe. One question that Hive Labs is focusing on is: How do we build a community that supports innovation in the education space?Action Incubator
We will be hosting a series of activities embedded within the Hive track to think through problems in your Hives and local communities and brainstorming solutions collectively. We will be leveraging three teaching kit's that were made specifically to facilitate this kind of design thinking activity:- Firestarter: In this activity, participants will identify opportunities and then brainstorm potential design solutions.
- User Testing at an Event: Events are a great time to leverage all of the different kinds of voices in a room to get feedback on an in-progress project or half-baked idea. This activity will help you to test ideas and projects and get constructive and actionable feedback.
- Giving + Getting Actionable Feedback: Getting effective and actionable feedback on your half - baked ideas and projects can be challenging. This activity explores some ways to structure your feedback session.
Art of the Web
This entire track is dedicated to showcasing and making art using the Web as your medium. Follow the #artoftheweb hashtag on twitter.
in response to the #mozfest remotee challenge
MozFest Remotee Challenge
Want to join in on all of the Mozilla Festival action even though you aren't physically at the event? This challenge is for you! We have compiled a handful of activities focused on Web Literacy, supporting community - based learning and making so that you can take part in the conversation and brainstorming at the Mozilla Festival. Go here to start the challenge.You can follow along all weekend using the #mozfest or #hivebuzz hashtags on Twitter.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Lucara's Karowe mine in Botswana has delivered another head-turning rough diamond — a 998-carat stunner that ranks as the fourth-largest gem-quality diamond ever recovered.
Other famous Botswana-sourced diamonds include the #2-ranked 1,758-carat Sewelô (2019), the #3 ranked 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona (2015) and the #9-ranked 812-carat Constellation (2015).
Despite being nearly the width of a baseball and weighing 7 ounces, Lucara's newest find is less than one-third the weight of the granddaddy of them all — the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905. Finished gems cut from the Cullinan Diamond include the Cullinan I (530.20 carats) and the Cullinan II (317.4 carats).
The yet-to-be-named, 998-carat gem might be worth $50 million or more, based on the per-carat price achieved by diamonds exhibiting similar characteristics.
For example, Lesedi La Rona was sold in September of 2017 for $53 million, and the Constellation fetched $63 million in May of 2016. Both were D-color diamonds that had been rated Type IIa, which means they were chemically pure with no traces of nitrogen or boron impurities.
Lucara reported that its newest find measured exactly 67x49x45mm and was recovered from direct milling of ore sourced from the Karowe mine's South Lobe. Recent finds at the mine included gem-quality rough diamonds weighing 273, 105, 83, 73 and 69 carats.
The 998-carat diamond was pulled from Lucara's MDR (Mega Diamond Recovery) XRT circuit, a system that uses advanced technology to identify 100-carat-plus diamonds by monitoring the rocky material for X-ray luminescence, atomic density and transparency. Previously, large diamonds might have been mistaken as worthless ore and pulverized during the primary crushing process.
This recovery represents the second 500-plus-carat diamond recovered from this circuit in 2020. Year to date, Karowe has produced 31 diamonds greater than 100 carats, including 10 diamonds greater than 200 carats.
Just last week, we reported that luxury brand Louis Vuitton had secured the rights to represent Lucara's 549-carat "Sethunya" rough diamond. The retailer will be offering its discriminating clients an opportunity to customize a piece of the rough diamond, down to the exact shape and carat weight.
Credits: Images courtesy of CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.
The post Botswana's Prolific Karowe Mine Delivers 998-Carat, Gem-Quality Diamond appeared first on Diamond Designs | Orange, CT Jewelry Store.


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Social Justice
The Berkeley Fellowship has a long-standing commitment to Social Justice. Through our Social Justice Committee and individual members, we are involved in diverse educational and activist campaigns. These include promoting inclusion and diversity, international solidarity, environmental stewardship, ending corporate rule, fair labor practices, homeless people's rights and dignity, repealing the death penalty, stopping modern-day slavery and human trafficking, and promoting peace, democracy, and human rights in the US and abroad.
BFUU has twice received the "Moral Beacon" Award from the Pacific Central District of the Unitarian Universalist Association, for its "extraordinary courage and commitment in the work of creating a better world." The Social Justice Committee sponsors events and forums on many issues of the day, including the "Conscientious Projector" film and discussion series. We partner with local social justice groups to host a wide variety of events. Check out upcoming events to find out what's coming up soon.
If you represent a non-profit Social Justice group wanting to partner with the BFUU SJC for an event, please read through and complete these three forms: 1. Contract between the BFUU SJC and Event Partner 2. Event Information Intake Form 3. Form for the Event Plan for Sound-Tech People Note that the we request submission of completed forms at least three weeks prior to event. You can choose which plan is right for you. The SJC normally meets on the third Sundays at 12:30 pm in Fellowship Hall – 1924 Cedar Street. Meetings are open to the public; all are welcome!


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The Residual World::Tag = 'Hazard'
Entries that have been tagged with 'Hazard'.-
Solution Risk, Vulnerability, Threat and Mitigation - Does Risk Need to be Separate from Event?
by Nic Plum on Thursday 07 January, 2016 - 19:37 GMT
Posted in Architecture Framework • TRAK
Tags: definition • hazard • metamodel • ontology • risk • standard • threat • trak • viewpoint • vulnerability
Changes have been made to TRAK to support the description of risk and event sequences in the guise of the SVp-11 Solution Event Causes and SVp-13 Solution Risk Viewpoints. This has been a piece of work underway for at least 3 years but it seemed necessary to publish it so that the viewpoints and tuples can be exposed to wider testing i.e. used in anger.
As with most of this sort of work there is a limit to the amount of theorising that is possible and it's necessary to test the pragmatism and utility. It's likely therefore to undergo some tweaking. If any relationship or metamodel entity is not needed then it should be removed since the overall aim is to work with the minimum metamodel needed to just be adequate. A larger metamodel is not only harder to maintain and keep consistent but because it is only there to support the concerns in the set of TRAK viewpoints (specifications for views cf ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011) it follows that a larger metamodel makes definition of a consistent set of viewpoints harder. With more entities and relationships it is also likely that an architecture description can become more complex and require more effort to present it clearly to get the meaning across (at least to a Mk 1 Human Being since being based on triples a TRAK architecture description is machine-readable and analysable). Every tuple in the TRAK metamodel has therefore to earn its keep / justify not being removed.
Solution Risk
In a previous posting I identified why we think, in TRAK at least, that a risk is a type of event and why many of the current definitions of risk do not actually define what a risk is (only how you might calculate a number or metric i.e. probability of occurrence x impact severity).
We've tied risk to the solution because we think that this is where it most often manifests itself in terms of design features or changes to the design of the system of interest to mitigate it. In engineering terms it is really the cumulative risk exposure to people that drives design change hence it makes sense to be able to relate risk, vulnerability, threats and mitigation to a solution design whether the causing agent or the impacted one.
TRAK therefore supports the following triples / tuples for describing risk:-
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATRAK_metamodel_part_2_safety_security.jpg">
- Resource (System, Software, Physical, Role, Job or Organisation) has Vulnerability
- Function has Vulnerability - what the Resource does
- Resource Interaction has Vulnerability - the exchange between Resources
- Interaction Element has Vulnerability - what is exchanged between Resources
- Resource poses Threat (synonym Hazard)
- Threat exploits Vulnerability
- Threat to Resource
- Threat to Function
- Threat to Resource Interaction
- Threat to Interaction Element
- Threat poses Risk
- Resource exposed to Risk
- Risk is managed by Mitigation
- Mitigation uses Function
- Mitigation uses Resource
By way of a small example using a small subset of the above we have a nuclear reactor.
It is possible to identify an external actor as the origin of the threat (hazard) - 'Resource 1 poses Threat to Resource 2'. Similarly mitigation might be a result of a part of the same resource or it might require a different one ('Resource 1 is exposed to Risk is managed by Mitigation uses Resource 2').
In all of this the description of Risk, Vulnerability, Threat (Hazard) and Mitigation can be linked to the description of the solution or part of the solution. This therefore enables the solution design to be modified in response or the mitigation to be altered in response to a design change so the cause and effect is always visible in the architecture description.
So far all of this is pretty straightforwards. The "toughie" is:-
- Risk is a Event
This is tricky not because there is any doubt that a Risk is a type of Event. A risk typically is associated with a probability of occurrence and an impact severity. If we are thinking about an event in the way it would be used in, say, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) then it also has a probability of occurrence. It too can have an impact severity. So are there differentiating attributes of a risk (event)? We couldn't think of any - suggestions welcome. The rationale for having a separate Risk metamodel element was simply that people might expect to see elements labelled as 'Risk' because they might not equate 'Event' with the description of a risk (affordance and visibility).
Note. Although there isn't a difference in the attributes there is a distinction in the possible values A Risk and an Event can take. A Risk, by definition is always uncertain but possible therefore 0 < probability of occurrenceRisk < 100% whereas a 'straight' Event may be impossible or certain and therefore 0 ≤ probability of occurrenceEvent ≤ 100%. Risk therefore seems to occupy a subset of the range of values for Event.
Is this worth having 2 distinct elements, particularly since the inheritance ('is a') means that we also have:-- Risk caused by Risk
- Risk impacts on Resource
- Risk caused by Resource
- Risk AND / OR / etc. Risk
and this is less clear when Risk and Event are separate entities on the metamodel diagram.
If there was the one element, Event, then it would still allow risks (Events) to be clustered or grouped which would allow the SVp-11 to be used to describe and identify common causal risk (events) and therefore suggest ways in which risks might be managed. The only penalty seems therefore to be 1) visibility - can risks be identified as such when typed as Event? 2) affordance - is it obvious that an Event element can be used to describe a risk?
Can anyone justify why Risk and Event should be distinct or why they should be subsumed into Event? Clearly from a TRAK-management point of view it would be better to apply the Highlander Principle ("there shall only be one") but this might overridden by the UI / HCI aspects.
Related Articles
Sharing tags:
- Risk and Threats - The Common Ground Between Security and Safety? (70% )
- Definitions - What Exactly is a Risk Part 2? (60% )
- Definitions - What Exactly is a Risk? (30% )
- What Would a TRAK View Look Like in a Graph Database? Part 1 (20% )
- Just When You Thought It Was Safe - EntiTy Returns (10% )
External Links
- TRAK00001. TRAK. Enterprise Architecture Framework. Viewpoints. 1st January 2016
- TRAK00002. TRAK. Enterprise Architecture Framework. Metamodel. 1st January 2016
- TRAK Metamodel fragment - Safety & Security 1st January 2016 - Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATRAK_metamodel_part_2_safety_security.jpg
Definitions - What Exactly is a Risk Part 2?
by Nic Plum on Monday 05 August, 2013 - 21:46 GMT
Posted in Architecture Framework • TRAK
Tags: definition • hazard • ontology • risk • standard • threat
In part 1 we established that a lot of the current definitions of risk don't actually define what a risk is - they simply define a formula for calculating it or prioritising it which doesn't help us get at what a risk is and therefore whether it is a distinct entity.
The OED has a definition:
(Exposure to) the possibility of loss, injury, or other adverse or unwelcome circumstance; a chance or situation involving such a possibility
Dissecting this with the old semantic scalpel we have parts:
- possibility or chance
- adverse circumstance
- a situation
Possibility or Chance
A risk always has a probability of occurring. This therefore means that the metamodel entity has 'probability of occurrence' as an attribute. It also means that there are qualifying values in order for it to be a risk - the probability of occurrence cannot be zero since there is then no possibility and it cannot be 100% either because it is then a certainty not a risk.
Adverse Circumstance
A risk is associated with a harmful outcome (the positive flip side is an opportunity). We can represent this using a relationship between risk (if the vehicle for risk is an event) and hazard (threat).
A Situation
This starts to sound like an event through which the unlucky recipient is exposed to the risk. Is this a risk or is it really a description of a risky-event?
Much the same thing happens to hazard where at least one definitions defines a hazardous event not a hazard. In IEC 61508:2010 part 4 Hazard is defined as:
potential source of harm [Guide 51 ISO/IEC:1990]
but then add
NOTE – The term includes danger to persons arising within a short time scale (for example, fire and explosion) and also those that have a long-term effect on a person's health (for example, release of a toxic substance).
which isn't correct because the release of a toxic substance is not a hazard but a hazardous event. The toxic substance represents the hazard. This is important because we'd represent hazard and hazardous event differently with a relationship between a Hazard and Event and the combination becomes the 'hazardous event'.
Is something similar happening with risk in common parlance or definitions?
If a Risk is a distinct entity we have:
- Hazard (syn. Threat) poses Risk
- Risk is a Event (where 100 > probability of occurrence > 0)
and we can have
- Hazard (syn. Threat) to Resource (i.e System, Physical, Software, Organisation, Job or Role)
to introduce the required 'harm' or 'adverse circumstance'.
The limits on probability of occurrence have to be applied because if it is 100% it isn't a possibility it's a certainty and therefore no longer a risk. Similarly it cannot be zero because it can never happen and is therefore not a risk.
We could of course just represent a Risk using Event where the value of an attribute 'probability of occurrence' takes a value between these limits when representing a risk and is otherwise null or 100% if representing a 'straight' Event.
Of course even if it is a type of event there are advantages in making it a distinct entity since as an element in a tool it makes it easy to find, to navigate to or from and to distinguish it from a straight event. This utility might justify it being distinct.
So, is a risk a type of event?
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Local News
Franken accused in assault during USO tour in 2006
Franken: "Disgusted with myself"
WASHINGTON — Minnesota Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday and faced a likely Senate ethics investigation after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour. Fellow Democrats as well as Republican colleagues called for an investigation.
I've decided it's time to tell my story. #MeToohttps://t.co/TqTgfvzkZg
— Leeann Tweeden (@LeeannTweeden) November 16, 2017
Leeann Tweeden also accused Franken of posing for a photo with his hands on her breasts as she slept, while both were performing for military personnel two years before the one-time comedian was elected to the Senate.
Tweeden posted the allegations, including the photo, on the website of KABC, where she works as a news anchor for a morning radio show.
Tweeden said Thursday that Franken was persistent, and "every time I see him now, my hands clench into fists."
Still, she said she has no reason not to accept his apology, and is not calling for an ethics investigation or for Franken to resign. She told a news conference in Los Angeles that she came forward hoping to inspire others to tell their stories.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the allegations "troubling" and said he hopes and expects that the Senate Ethics Committee will investigate.
"Sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated," Schumer said.
Franken's fellow Minnesota Democrat, Amy Klobuchar, said, "This should not have happened to Leeann Tweeden. I strongly condemn this behavior, and the Senate Ethics Committee must open an investigation."
Franken initially released a brief statement in which he apologized but questioned Tweeden's recollection of his behavior during their rehearsal for a skit. In a longer statement Thursday afternoon, he again apologized while maintaining that he remembered the rehearsal differently.
"While I don't remember the rehearsal for the skit as Leeann does, I understand why we need to listen to and believe women's experiences," he said. "Coming from the world of comedy, I've told and written a lot of jokes that I once thought were funny but later came to realize were just plain offensive."
Of the photo, Franken said: "I look at it now, and I feel disgusted with myself. It isn't funny. It's completely inappropriate. It's obvious how Leeann would feel violated by that picture."
Senate Democrats reacted swiftly and with one voice to the allegation that came as Republicans are grappling with allegations of molestation against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said Moore should step aside, quickly said the Senate should look into Franken.
"With all credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, I believe the Ethics Committee should review the matter," McConnell said.
Franken said he welcomed the investigation.
Some of the more forceful statements came from the Senate's Democratic women.
Claire McCaskill of Missouri said she was "shocked and concerned" at the allegations. "The behavior described is completely unacceptable. Comedy is no excuse for inappropriate conduct, and I believe there should be an ethics investigation," McCaskill said.
Patty Murray of Washington state said she was glad Franken had apologized but "that doesn't reverse what he's done or end the matter."
Tweeden told The Associated Press that Franken wrote a skit for the pair that was filled with "sexual innuendo," and that he had brought a woman's thong as a prop that he waved around during their performance. Part of the skit included a kiss, she said, and he insisted they practice during a rehearsal despite her protests.
"We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth," she wrote.
The photo that she included was taken on the trip home from Afghanistan. Franken is shown grinning and staring at the camera while reaching out as if to grope Tweeden's breasts as she sleeps. Tweeden said she didn't discover the photo until she returned home.
Speaking on her radio show Thursday morning, Tweeden said she didn't come forward with the allegations sooner because she feared her career, including a stint as a swimsuit model, would lead others to discount her story.
"I felt belittled. I was ashamed. I've had to live with this for 11 years," she said on-air. "Somehow it was going to be my fault. It was not going to be worth the fight."
Franken is a longtime comedian and "Saturday Night Live" writer who won a Minnesota seat in the Senate after a lengthy recount in 2009.
He drew criticism during his first Senate campaign for joking about rape while discussing a sketch idea during his days at NBC-TV. Franken said then that he regretted some of the things he had written, and said he respected women "in both my personal and professional life."
Franken is the latest person swept up in sexual harassment allegations that have mushroomed since Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein was hit with multiple allegations.
Tweeden said the surge of people coming forward with their own experiences of sexual harassment or assault encouraged her to go public with her account.


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Welcome to the Third Side Website
No more critical challenge faces each of us, and all of us together, than how to live together in a world of differences. So much depends on our ability to handle our conflicts peacefully – our happiness at home, our performance at work, the livability of our communities, and, in this age of mass destruction, the survival of our species.
The Third Side offers a promising new way to look at the conflicts around us. The Third Side is the community – us – in action protecting our most precious interests in safety and well-being. It suggests ten practical roles any of us can play on a daily basis to stop destructive fighting in our families, at work, in our schools, and in the world. Each of our individual actions is like a single spider web, fragile perhaps but, when united with others, capable of halting the lion of war. Although the Third Side is in its infancy in our modern-day societies, it has been used effectively by simpler cultures for millennia to reduce violence and promote dialogue.


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The unelected pigs are squealing at the prospect of democracy in the House of Lords. |
The idea of a completely unelected upper house would be utterly incomprehensible to residents of many other countries. Admittedly democratic systems across the world suffer from their own specific defects but the idea of an unelected Senate would be shocking to most people in France, Germany, Italy or the United States.
The votes of around 40,000,000 Brits determine the 650 representatives in the House of Commons yet the 789 members of the House of Lords have been selected by just 9 men and 1 woman since the introduction of the Life Peerages act in 1958 (see table below). At first the Prime Minister selected life peers to top up an upper house stuffed with hereditary peers who had simply inherited their positions of power and authority from their fathers. Before the 1997 General Election Tony Blair promised House of Lords reform but only carried out half of it removing hundreds of Tory Hereditary peers in 1999 but failing to bring in a proper democratic replacement in favour of stuffing the place with 357 of his hand picked unelected political stooges.
Since 1999 the selection of unelected life peers has been an important part of a Prime Minister's job allowing him to alter the balance of power in the upper house to suit his own interests. This is best illustrated by the fact that David Cameron created 116 life peers in his first year in office, nearly ten times the rate of Tory predecessor Alec Douglas-Home who created only 14 life peers in his one year stint as Prime Minister between 1963 and 1964.
Before the 2010 General Election all three major parties committed themselves to introducing some democracy to the upper house in their manifestos however the overwhelming majority of the unelected rabble that are famously allowed to claim expenses just by signing in and doing absolutely nothing else are obviously strongly opposed to any kind of democratic reform.
The current unelected peers will almost certainly vote down any proposals to apply democracy to the upper house and some have even claimed that use of the Parliament Act to impose reform would be "unconstitutional". They know as well as anyone that the United Kingdom has no written constitution and that the Parliament Act has been used before to prevent the undemocratic Lords from sinking legislation from the less undemocratic Commons.
It is quite pleasant to know that these horrible unelected political stooges are getting so upset at the prospect of losing their power, influence and expenses however this feeling is tainted by the knowledge that they will just be replaced by another tier of corrupt, dishonest, self serving career politicians wearing the rosettes of the three main political parties in the UK, Neo-Liberal Blue, Neo-Liberal Red & Neo-Liberal Yellow.
Peerage dignities created under the Life Peerages Act 1958


text:
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Simply purchase the update version of this chart or the update version of the new chart you want to exchange for by browsing through our C-Map update Max chart collection (exchange offer only valid if the new chart is the same price class as the current chart on your cartridge). Once your purchase has been made we'll email you a link to our customer return portal where you can enter your order # and email address to login to generate a return label. Once we have received your C-Map cartridge we'll program it accordingly with the update/exchange chart ordered and send it back to you. Please note there will be two shipping charges involved in this process, one to ship the cartridge to us and another to send it back to you.
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Several months ago a long time friend of mine asked me if I would be willing to prepare a devotional about Heaven. I have been collecting my thoughts regarding the subject and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are many analogies between heaven, home, and baseball.
Heaven is home to the Christian! Notice they both begin with the letter "H". The beginning of your life begins at home. Notice the shape of the home plate – it looks like a home. Extending from the bottom of the home plate upward is an upside down "V" which separates the fair from the foul in life. When you stand at home place in baseball as in life you want to direct everything in your life into fair territory and stay out of foul territory.
Your goal standing at home plate is to return to home plate (reach heaven). You want God to call you safe at home plate. Before doing that, you must begin at first base which in my thinking is represented by accepting salvation. This means knowing that Jesus Christ is your Savior and His life, death, and resurrection has personally saved you. You need to believe and trust in that!
It is hard to get to first base. In baseball, there are nine defensive players who are trying to prevent you from reaching first base. In your life, it may mean a variety of situations. Each person can relate to what those obstacles are in their life. It may be the friends you pick or it may be an addiction you have. It could be that you think you need all the answers before you can believe. However, you have to accept his salvation gift to have an opportunity to reach home.
After first base comes second base, and if you think about it, it is the base that is farthest away from home; 127 feet and 3 3/8 inches to be exact. Because it is so far away, and because it is a base where there is no coach directly able to help you, you need a community of support. It may be a Bible study that you are a part of. It may be a body of other believers who have experienced salvation. You need their involvement in your life to prepare you to continue around the bases and reach home plate. You need them because there are many different pickoffs that can happen at second base. At first and third, the pick usually involves only the pitcher and the first or third baseman. At second base, it could the pitcher and the shortstop, or the pitcher and the second baseman, or even the pitcher and the center fielder. The distance that you lead off is greater, but you do that because you have involved your self with others who are there to help you in your life.
After second base comes third base and now you a short distance to home and you should be ready to score. After reaching third base, it is time to make use of your salvation and your community of support by being ready to help others who may be on the other bases or better yet want to get on a base. Think about who is better prepared than you to let others know what you have experienced by running to first base (receiving salvation) or second base (finding a community support). You have been prepared through a multitude of ways to speak to the world and let others know what you have! On the surface you may be saying "I don't want to go home yet. I have so many things I want to do with my life". But, where else do you want to finish? I know in my life, I want the umpire to say "Safe!" at home in heaven rather than out in Hell. I want to touch that five sided piece of rubber and be engulfed by those who have already scored.
In conclusion, you need to make sure that you have tagged all the bases. It is not a matter of who you are, but whose you are. Someday everyone of us will approach home plate and each of us should be prepared to answer by what right we have to score. Your answer should be that you have tagged all the bases and have given your life to Christ. Have you done that? If so, you are home in heaven.


text:
Not yet rated.
1 x Luv-A-Duck, Smoked Duck Breast
8 round wonton wrappers
rice bran oil, for shallow frying
½ an avocado, mashed
Juice of ½ lime
1 clove garlic
1 French shallot
½ bunch parsley
3 sprigs oregano, leaves picked
1 chilli, seeds removed
1 tsp. cumin
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
Baby shisho leaves


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Experience a Hunt with an Outfitter from Sublette County, Wyoming!
Experience the Magic of Sublette County
THE SUBLETTE COUNTY OUTFITTERS & GUIDES ASSOCIATION is ready to help you plan a memorable wilderness adventure or hunting trip. Wyoming Vacations, Hunting Trips, Horseback Riding, Camping, Hiking, Mountain Climbing, and Pack trips in the beautiful Wind River Mountains of Western Wyoming. Pinedale is an important hunting outfitting town and a gateway to the Wind River Mountains. It is also a major gateway to the Jackson Hole area in Wyoming, being 78 miles south of Jackson Hole and 90 miles south of Yellowstone National Park.
Pinedale, Wyoming in Sublette County sits in the heart of the American West, in western Wyoming along the Oregon Trail. The county rests on a high plateau ringed by glaciated mountain ranges. Vacation and hunting opportunities abound amongst spectacular scenery rivals other places to see in our beautiful US.
The Bridger Wilderness
Sublette County is the gateway to the Bridger Wilderness in the Wind River Range which includes 1300 named lakes and many more. Famous mountains in the Bridger Wilderness include Gannett Peak, the highest point in Wyoming, and Square Top, one of the most photographed mountains in the west. Moose and other wildlife are abundant in the pristine river valleys and surrounding mountains, and marmots and pikas can be seen and heard in the boulder fields. Numerous feed grounds provide elk with a stable source of feed in the winter, assuring good populations. Hunters get ready for the hunt of a lifetime.
A Taste of the Old West
In Sublette County, cowboys still make their living herding steers, and busting broncs and roping are still favorite pastimes. The Oregon Trail passed through here, and before that the Mountain Men had rendezvous on the Green River after trapping for beaver. A rendezvous is still held each July. Join us for some real Western hospitality around the camp fire and get away from the crowds. With the lowest population of any state in the US, you'll enjoy the wide open spaces and abundant wildlife not seen in other areas. We've got the saddles, so grab your boots and head our way.
A Unique Vacation
Wilderness activities include horseback riding or hiking to a blue ribbon trout stream or scenic high mountain valley. Enjoy a day trip into the mountains to fish along crystal clear streams, with meals and cold drinks provided. If you plan to spend a longer vacation, a pack trip is a great way to explore deep into the mountains and enjoy the incredible views, while the outfitter takes care of the camp and great Wyoming dining. After dinner, evening walks may offer sights of local wildlife such as elk, moose, or deer, as well as gorgeous sunsets framed by high mountain peaks. Then it's back to camp to enjoy the fire.
Create memories, Have fun, Enjoy the spectacular landscapes of Western Wyoming.


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Women Are Not Bears
I originally intended it to be an advice piece about relationships and communication because that topic has mass appeal and I want to be famous, but no. My article turned out to be mostly about bears.
I wrote about bears because, as I was writing about relationships, I made a bear-related analogy and then it spiraled and the whole thing kind of became bear-themed and before I knew it, I was writing almost entirely about bears.
I'm probably not going to get famous by writing about why women are not like bears, but you never know. I like to think of it as niche-writing.
Anyway, if you want to read my article about why knowing how to tell the differences between women and bears could save your life, then go HERE.
It's kind of about relationships, but it is mostly about bears.
If you suspect that you may have been exposed to a bear, please go to the hospital.
ALSO BEAR RELATED: Remember this?
EMERGENCY UPDATE: A few of you conveniently pointed out some common but often lethal misconceptions about bears:
Tim from infinitely funny blog I'm Not Benny said: "Rosie O Donnell is kind of like a bear. I'm not saying she IS a bear, I'm just saying that there is something called electrolysis in the world and it's not beyond the realm of reason that she might actually be made out of bear.
You know, originally.
So that's why I always ask women if they've had electrolysis. If they say yes I immediately start banging cooking pots together and screaming SHOO BEAR, SHOO!
Bears hate that shit."
Tim, you make a good point because Rosie O'Donell IS the most dangerous halfling shapeshifter there is, but I feel compelled to point out one fatal flaw in your logic: If you were able to successfully shoo the creature away by banging pots and pans, it most likely actually was Rosie O'Donell and NOT a bear. Unless it brutally maimed you and deflowered your skull before it left. Then it was probably a bear. But it could also have been Rosie O'Donell still. It's a fucked up world, Tim.
Carlston from If Carlston Made Blogs (and let me tell you, if Carlston made blogs, they would probably be a lot like this one) said: "I always wondered why my dates kept eating entire tubes of toothpaste until I hid them up trees. Thanks for the insight, Allie"
Again, I feel the need to clarify. Carlston, your dates were most likely WOLVES and not bears. Bears don't give a fuck about toothpaste - they want your blood and there is nothing that can distract them from that ultimate goal.
It can be very difficult to tell what is truly a bear and what is merely a dangerous but not 100% fatal animal. It is very important to understand that if it is not actively destroying you, it is probably not a bear. Even if you think you are safe because you are on top of a mountain and you can see the bear lumbering around in the valley - that's not a bear. If it was a real bear, it would instantly teleport to your pathetic mountaintop and slaughter you without remorse. In fact, most modern-day images of bears are actually of Rosie O'Donell. She is much less aggressive and easier to photograph. It is difficult to say whether anyone has been able to successfully capture a bear on film, but my instincts say it is doubtful. The lack of photo evidence with which to identify bears makes them even more of a threat to your safety.
27 comments:
- Sorcerer said...
women and bear!
well... some hug like them..
thank you for this awesome insight into the intricate mind of bear..err..woman.thank you - November 28, 2009 at 4:34 AM
- Homemaker Man said...
Was that a paid gig? Sweet. And funny.
- November 28, 2009 at 5:29 AM
- Paul Blanchard said...
Excellent, this would have proved invaluable at what I thought was my wedding...
- November 28, 2009 at 6:12 AM
- miss. chief said...
You're already famous. In my head.
- November 28, 2009 at 8:17 AM
- dogimo said...
I've noticed that while a bear does shit in the woods, it won't ask you to stand lookout. True story!
- November 28, 2009 at 8:23 AM
- miss. chief said...
Holy moly. Thanks to your article I now know that I'm being disemboweled by a velociraptor and not a bear, like I had originally thought. Thanks, Allie!!
- November 28, 2009 at 8:23 AM
- Steam Me Up, Kid said...
I am so impressed by that article. It was really clever and hysterical and I have a burning fire of jealousy in the depth of my bowels, but mostly I'm really impressed.
- November 28, 2009 at 10:57 AM
You could also present the woman/bear with an adorable kitten. If the kitten lives more than 5 seconds, it is definitely NOT a bear. But not necessarily a woman..keep working. Maybe we can get there by the process of elimination.
- November 28, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Rosie O Donnell is kind of like a bear. I'm not saying she IS a bear, I'm just saying that there is something called electrolysis in the world and it's not beyond the realm of reason that she might actually be made out of bear.
You know, originally.
So that's why I always ask women if they've had electrolysis. If they say yes I immediately start banging cooking pots together and screaming SHOO BEAR, SHOO!
Bears hate that shit. - November 28, 2009 at 11:31 AM
- ifcarlstonmaddeblogs said...
I always wondered why my dates kept eating entire tubes of toothpaste until I hid them up trees. Thanks for the insight Allie
- November 28, 2009 at 11:39 AM
- yoli said...
nice blog
- November 28, 2009 at 12:15 PM
- Allie said...
Sorcerer - if it wasn't for you, this topic may never have happened. You were the first one to ask me for advice, so you kind of kicked off the whole thing. Did you ever think it would go in this direction? I mean, did you ever think that asking me advice about women would eventually lead to me giving advice about bears?
Homemaker Man - It will be if it gets selected by the editors to be paid. It's kind of one of those "write it for exposure, and if we really like it, we'll give you money" kind of deals.
Paul - YOU MARRIED A BEAR? Classic mistake.
miss. chief - Do I have my own star? If not, I'm not famous enough. Imagine me famouser. And I'm glad I could help you distinguish between different types of disembowelments. That's a valuable life skill to have.
Becky - That's how I feel when I read YOUR blog! It is extremely validating to know that you feel the same way about mine.
Nikole - that is a great method! And you're right - there's really no way to tell without just using trial and error. For all you know, I could be a bear. Let's hope that I'm not.
Tim - Please see post. I have responded to you directly because you brought up an urgent point that the whole world could benefit from understanding.
Carlston - I have also responded to you directly. You have done a great service to mankind by pointing out this common mistake.
yoli - thanks! - November 28, 2009 at 2:19 PM
- JMH said...
I love the drawings. Can I order prints? I'll give you my credit card information.
I'm not proud of this, but after drinking all day in a rural dive bar, I accompanied a woman home who smelled very strongly of musky leaves and dead fish. My God, it was probably a drunken she-bear. That would explain the rough tongue. It's good I left the cave before dawn. - November 28, 2009 at 9:05 PM
- Amber said...
Dude, I'm actually really hoping that my husband at least sees the fiery bowels of hell when he looks in my eyes. Keeps him in line, you know?
Also, I'm really disappointed now because I had this great story about how there was a bear like thirty feet behind me once with no protection, but it wasn't really a bear because it didn't disembowel me or the deer that I was with. It only wanted fruit, so maybe it was a giant hedgehog? It sounds lame if there was a giant hedgehog sneaking up on me ... - November 28, 2009 at 9:17 PM
So at first I was all "No way, I am totally correct and bears fear pots. Then I realized that, no, I was actually thinking about cougars. The kind of cougars that live in caves and eat hikers, not the kind of cougars that whore themselves out for cheesy reality shows.
I'm pretty sure I saw that on Macgyver, or possibly the Brady Bunch.
About the cougars.
The cave ones.
So there you go- either way, I am facing an unpleasant death:
1) I give the bear a headache because of my pot crashing, and he does unspeakable things to my skull without even buying me dinner and then kills me.
2) I give Rosie O Donnell a headache because of my pot crashing, and she beats me to death with the pots, but first I pee in my pants because I find her quite scary and unnecessarily screamy.
And so, in conclusion, I would like to thank you for possibly saving my life.
And my pants. - November 28, 2009 at 11:17 PM
- Kirsten said...
Did you draw those bears too?!
You are magical.
I think you might have to illustrate all your posts from now on because I am enjoying it too much.
The article was fabulous as well. I think I might give it to my boyfriend so when he gets mad at me I can be like hey at least I'm not a bear and then he'll realize how stupid he was being and buy me some pie to say sorry. - November 29, 2009 at 10:13 AM
- Allie said...
JMH - You were lucky to get out alive, man. That bear must have been above a 0.4 BAC to have not decapitated you mid-coitus (some bears will wait to destroy you until after you satisfy their sexual desires... they're like fucking mantises... and I mean that literally and figuratively). You bring up an important point in that alcohol may be able to save your life in a bear encounter. Was she drinking sheep's blood and gin? That would be typical. Anyway, I can email the pictures to you... or you can drag them to your desktop and print them from there. But you can give me your credit card number anyway. Just in case.
Amber - It may have been a black bear. Black bears are noticeably less attack-y than grizzly bears. I had an encounter with a black bear once too. Maybe I'll write about that sometime. I'm pretty sure I almost died.
Tim - Yes, it most definitely could have been a cougar, in either sense of the word. Both kinds of cougars are scared off by the clanging of pans. That can save your life in a bar AND in the forest. Oh, and I love the adjective "screamy." That is comedic genius right there.
Kirsten - Yes, I drew the bears. I would love to illustrate more posts because that means I get to draw more! I love drawing, but there are very few circumstances that require it anymore, so I rarely get the chance. But now I have a reason! Definitely show this to your boyfriend. It will be useful to him not only because it will put his whole life in perspective, but also because what if his boss is a bear? Or what if his mom is a bear? He needs to be educated so that he can be safe. - November 29, 2009 at 1:34 PM
- Emilianna said...
I just totally gave you an early christmas present and put you on the List of Notable People Living in Missoula, Montana on Wikipedia.
(It isn't illegal right?) - November 29, 2009 at 2:51 PM
- Rikki said...
Dude, you totally have a bear masquerading as "Amber" who says:
"Also, I'm really disappointed now because I had this great story about how there was a bear like thirty feet behind me once with no protection ..."
Why else would she need *birth control* unless she was a BEAR.
Freaky shit, man. - November 29, 2009 at 6:20 PM
- Allie said...
Emilianna- Holy shit. That is one of the single most awesome things anyone has ever done for me. I am going to use your selfless deed as an example of what it means to be committed to excellence.
Rikki - Oh my gosh! You're right! And I was going to go visit Amber the next time I was in Seattle. I will have to confront her about the possibility of her being bear before I even set foot in the State of Washington. Nice catch, Rikki.
Amber - Is there something you aren't telling me? Are you a BEAR?? Please respond. - November 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM
- Amber said...
- November 29, 2009 at 10:35 PM
- Amber said...
Whoops! I have no idea where that came from, seriously!
- November 29, 2009 at 10:35 PM
- Marvin said...
And the average bear is much more intelligent than Rosie. And easier to get along with. Ask Rosie's partner, who apparently moved out two YEARS ago but everything's fiiine between them she says. Mmmmhmmm. Sure.
- November 30, 2009 at 5:12 AM
- Sorcerer said...
your words, made my haarttt (read heart..but did that for effect)skip a beat .
Yeah I hope you still remember the deal on the White house and the speech!! - November 30, 2009 at 5:30 AM
- Rachel said...
Bear 'scat' is also good indicator if you have a bear around. You might need to add a test to tell women, bears and cardboard bears apart. Cardboard bears look REALLY real.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlxi6Ec92kw - November 30, 2009 at 12:45 PM
- JMH said...
I thought it was a Bloody Mary. Do we pronounce mantises "mantisses" or mantissees?"
- November 30, 2009 at 10:24 PM
- JMH said...
Missing left quotation mark there, I'm compulsive.
- November 30, 2009 at 10:25 PM


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Reminder: Make Your Week Two Pro Football Picks Now!
Thanks again for entering WNBF's pro football pick 'em! Week one is now officially behind us – it's time to gear up for week two!
This is just a friendly reminder to make your week two picks if you haven't already. Go here to make your week two picks and see how you did in week one against other WNBF listeners.
Each week of the regular season, we'll give away a local weekly prize of 10,000 Loyalty Points to the person who correctly predicts the most game-winners.
At the end of the regular season, one grand prize winner gets our Local Grand Prize [TBA] and will also get to predict the halftime and final scores of the Big Game on Feb. 2 with the opportunity to win some serious cash. If you predict either score correctly, you get $1,000, and if you predict both correctly you'll take home $10,000!
Thanks for playing!


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The Lyman H&I Bullet Sizing Die comes in various diameters, such as 0.224, 0.301, 0.313, 0.358, 0.378, 0.401, 0.429, and 0.501 inches, and others. With an improved design that includes 90-degree hole spacing, this particular sizing die is exceptional. In addition, the die features a hardened interior and tapered mouth that ensures proper alignment for outstanding cylindrical shape. Lyman is known for manufacturing incredible reloading and casting equipment, tools, and accessories, which is evident in this die. In addition to being competitively priced, this bullet sizing die made for Lyman products is also interchangeable with RCBS.
Condition | New in Box |
Manufacturer | Lyman |
Manufacturer Part Number | 2766514 |
Model | H&I |
Type | Dies |


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Article Text
Objective: To determine the efficacy, impact on quality of life (QOL) and safety of prucalopride, a selective, high-affinity 5-HT4 receptor agonist, in patients with chronic constipation.
Methods: In this multicentre, randomised, placebo controlled, parallel-group, phase III study, patients with chronic constipation (two or fewer spontaneous complete bowel movements (SCBM)/week) received 2 mg or 4 mg prucalopride or placebo, once daily, for 12 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients reaching three or more SCBM/week. The key secondary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients having an increase of one or more SCBM/week. The primary QOL endpoint was the patient assessment of constipation QOL satisfaction subscale score. Safety parameters included adverse events, laboratory values and cardiovascular events.
Results: Efficacy was evaluated over 713 patients. Averaged over 12 weeks, higher proportions of patients on prucalopride 2 mg (19.5%; p<0.01), 4 mg (23.6%; p<0.001) had three or more SCBM/week (or normalisation of bowel function) compared with placebo (9.6%). Similar results were seen in the subgroup (83%) of patients dissatisfied with previous laxative treatment. Both doses of prucalopride also significantly improved secondary efficacy and QOL endpoints, including the proportion of patients with an increase of one or more SCBM/week, evacuation completeness, perceived disease severity and treatment effectiveness and QOL. Prucalopride 4 mg significantly reduced the need for straining versus placebo (p<0.05). The most frequent treatment-related adverse events were headache and diarrhoea. Both doses of prucalopride were safe and well tolerated.
Conclusion: Prucalopride significantly and consistently improved bowel function, associated symptoms and satisfaction in chronically constipated patients.
Trial registration number: NCT00488137.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Funding: The study design and data collection were funded by Janssen Research Foundation, Beerse, Belgium. The analysis and interpretation of the data were funded by Movetis NV, Turnhout, Belgium.
Competing interests: JT has been a scientific advisor for Johnson & Johnson and Movetis. MvO has received consultancy fees from Movetis. GB, RK and LV are employees of Movetis NV, Turnhout, Belgium. Writing assistance was provided by Archimed Medical Communication Ag, Zofingen, Switzerland.
Ethics approval: The clinical trial protocol was reviewed and approved by the appropriate independent ethics committees.
Patient consent: Obtained.
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- Digest
- Miscellanea


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DigiCert Standard SSL
Add encryption and customer trust in just minutes
DigiCert Standard SSL certificates are premium Organization Validated digital certificates that secure a website's communication with powerful 256-bit symmetric encryption and a 2048-bit RSA Signature Key. But what sets the Standard SSL certificate apart from its contemporaries is the speed with which it can be issued. Nobody completes validation faster or more efficiently than DigiCert—that's why you can have this certificate in your inbox within minutes as opposed to the two or three DAYS you'd be waiting with other competitors.
Best of all, you'll be backed by DigiCert, one of the most trusted and respected names in the entire web security industry. DigiCert focuses primarily on Enterprise clientele; its product offerings have all been simplified and perfected for deployment on a large scale. When you go into business with DigiCert, you're finding out what dozens of Fortune 100 companies already know: that DigiCert is the best.
Whether it's DigiCert's world-class validation processes, its universally trusted PKI, or it's just the simple peace of mind that comes with knowing your website is secure, you can't go wrong with DigiCert.


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Marionette lines
Lines from mouth to chin
- 1 hr1 h
- 230 British pounds£230
- 168 Skylark Road
Cancellation Policy
TERMS & CONDITIONS Booking Policy: Consultations are complimentary with no obligation (excluding permanent makeup). Once you have decided to proceed with a treatment a non-refundable booking fee of £50-100 (depending on treatment) will be required within 24 hours to secure your appointment. The booking fee will be credited toward the procedure fee. IF THE BOOKING FEE IS NOT RECEIVED WITHIN 24HRS OF BOOKING, YOUR APPOINTMENT WILL BE CANCELLED WITHOUT NOTICE. Rescheduling/Late Policy: To avoid unfair delays to clients, if you are more than 15 minutes late to your appointment it will be necessary to reschedule.We understand that unforeseen circumstances may arise that could force you to postpone/reschedule your procedure however please understand that such changes affect not only your technician, but other clients as well. If you choose to reschedule your appointment, a minimum 48 hours notice is required. You can carry your booking fee over to the new appointment however this is a 1 time courtesy, if you reschedule more than the once, you will forfeit your booking fee and will be required to pay another to re-book. If you are rescheduling your top-up appointment then you must reschedule your appointment within 7-10 weeks of your last treatment. Top-ups booked outside this period will occur additional charges. Most clients only require one top-up appointment however if another appointment is needed to complete your treatment (due to various skin types) this must be taken within 7-10 weeks of the last treatment. You will be charged a small fee for this appointment however if you book an additional top-up outside this period then you will be charged the yearly top-up rate. Payment Policy: The Split Payment option is courtesy of LKJ Aesthetics. If you choose to split payment over your 2 initial appointments and do not attend your second appointment (7-10 week touch-up) then you will be invoiced for the outstanding amount. Payments are due prior to, or at the time of your appointment. Cancellation Policy: 48 hours notice is required to cancel an appointment. If you fail to cancel your appointment within 48 hours FULL PAYMENT FOR YOUR TREATMENT WILL BE CHARGED. An additional booking fee will be required to make a new appointment reservation. No Show Policy: Any client that does NOT show for a scheduled appointment, will forfeit their booking fee. NO EXCEPTIONS. Copyright: All photographs, illustrations and media are copyright of LKJ Aesthetics and PMU LTD.
Contact Details


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The following products were selected by Alex Bracetti, a lifestyle writer and grooming expert who likes to rock a smooth shave.
The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.
The following products were selected by Alex Bracetti, a lifestyle writer and grooming expert who likes to rock a smooth shave.
If double-edge razors weren't considered to be the upper echelon in the world of consumer shaving, the Bolin Webb R1 would wear the grooming crown. The fact that it's been featured in Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art store screams in loud volume. With an arched handle and matte finish reminiscent of a Lamborghini Roadster, this razor's industrial design brings inspiration to your morning shaving routine. Referring to it as "beautiful" would be an obvious understatement.
Shaving across the chin and mustache region is heavenly, as the razor makes both far more achievable thanks to a curved frame, granting relief when passing over nicks caused by another razor. The three-blade system it accepts — evenly sharp edges that dominate every form of body hair — could be its most overlooked contribution. We found this out when performing some minor manscaping in taboo areas. The R1 performed to task. Even the packaging is opulent, with a box case that radiates once opened thanks to a glossy handle finish. This is a work of grooming art!
BUY NOW $80.00 at Amazon.com
Underneath the quiet packaging lies a high-quality razor with enough shaving influence to replace your go-to blade. From design to operation, the Edge Feather revels in simplicity, combining the lightweight feel of a cartridge-based razor with the execution of a safety razor. It has quite the knack for dicing through moustache hair with finesse, and performs a steady job during wet shaves.
A ridged handle adds girth for better control and allowed us to navigate the tool nicely across sensitive areas. Blade replacement is classic, with a twist mechanism near the neck that opens up the butterfly head for simple insertion. In retrospect, this actually makes for the better blade replacement protocol, as replacing blades on some of the more-advanced models felt like assembling a science project at times. The Edge Feather is sold as a bundle with a shaving cream, though it works just as well with any other cream, gel or, surprisingly, hair conditioner (a nice little grooming hack to work with).
BUY NOW $167.77 at Amazon.com
EMJ took notice of the cartridge razor market and made the smart call of entering the game. The end result has been a stellar, premium cutter that puts your average Schick razor to shame. The Manual Razor is striking in appearance, with an aluminum frame and woodsy-inspired packaging that will surely appeal to lumbersexuals. It's hard not to fall for the arched neck design that benefits the shaving process by reaching hard places in grand fashion. The same can be said about the all-chrome dock that holds the razor in place, demonstrating how shave performance and elegance can coexist on your bathroom or sink countertop.
The rubberized corners of the handle ensure a secure grip and made us comfortable taking the blade to foreign body parts. Cartridge replacement is simple, with the release switch near the top of the neck quickly dispensing dull blades to allow for swift reloading. Plus, the fact it comes with four extra cartridges is enough to get a good two months of use from the entire bundle.
BUY NOW $19.95 at Amazon.com
An old-school razor with modern construction, Baxter's cutter is a hefty sucker that balances bulk with beauty through an indestructibly gorgeous design. The stainless steel build with a chrome finish captures your interest right out of the box and can withstand wear and tear for years on end. We put it through severe drop testing to test its durability, and no damage marks were inflicted.
The Safety Razor is targeted towards wet shavers and works amazingly well in the shower. Grip maintenance is pretty secure too, with a long-textured handle that affords security when moving the razor across slippery surfaces. The head might be its most underrated attribute, as the classic comb guard guides hair into the blade for shaving efficacy. Baxter has always been revered for its packaging, and the black gift-box setup is a basic yet classy move that's just as valuable as the instructional shaving card included for amateur shavers.
BUY NOW $65.00 at Birchbox.com
American-designed, German-engineered — not exactly the descriptions one would associate with a subscription-based razor. Nonetheless, Harry's signature cutter has all the right elements to transform the most skeptic shavers into believers. We won't hide the fact that The Truman's most advantageous feature remains its price tag, but its cutting precision should have the product valued higher. Handle control proved to be light yet adequate enough to manage difficult shaves, largely thanks to a zinc alloy handle.
The five-blade cartridge does an impressive job of mowing through hair in a single stroke. This could be attributed to the water-activated nourishing strip that creates nice glide action or the "gothic arch" angle that can be used for performing 30- to 45-degree shaves. Reaching under the nose and shaping sideburns was pretty simple in comparison to most other budget razors. Harry's color selection of blue, orange, white, and olive is also a nice touch that can add pop to a primitive shaving station.
BUY NOW $9.00 at Harrys.com
One can only find intrigue in Edwin Jagger's double-edge offering, which is considered a staple for international groomists. Amazon reviews alone will lead you to believe it's a prime time razor. After getting a true feel for it, why go against the grain? (No pun intended.) This all-chrome shaver is as smart and durable as promoted — a given when you consider its sleek, pure aluminum form. Still, the product comes together in the actual shave.
Similar to Baxter's popular razor, this one features a classic closed comb head that leads hair right into the blade for a consistent shave. The expertly engineered cap provides enough breathing room for the razor to shave around healing wounds or scabs. It's pretty comforting to know it can get around obstacles. More surprising is how the razor heats up nicely and retains warmth when placed against the skin. This actually helps stimulate hairs on the opposite side that might have lost all titillation produced by a shaving cream. The polished chrome neck makes it a standout on any razor stand too.
BUY NOW $32.32 at Amazon.com
This technologically advanced razor welcomes a high-tech approach to shaving with an electronic feature to generate micro-pulsations that seamlessly dice through facial fur. The vibrating effect is far from overwhelming and allowed us to transition effortlessly when pivoting across facial contours, a process the razor excels at magnificently thanks to Gillette's Flexball technology. The razor works great to reduce friction, while increasing effectiveness for close shaves. Stubble became an afterthought in less than a minute.The razor also snatches up stranded hair normally stuck in between the cleft.
Battery replacement is as simple as unscrewing the bottom of the handle and throwing one AAA battery in there. There's no way of determining battery life, though taking into account the quick execution of the razor, one can guestimate it to be anywhere from two to three months depending on your shaving habits. The Lexington Collection is up there in terms of price, but keep in mind you're paying for sustainability and modernity.
BUY NOW $125.00 at Nordstrom.com
The first-ever shaver designed to tackle coarse, curly hair is more than just a promise to reduce razor burn and grant gentlemen irritation-free skin. It's a notable introduction to shaving that's built on an ecosystem catered towards amateur groomists. Despite being sold as part of a six-piece subscription starter kit, the razor remains the star of the show and can be used with third-party products to achieve the same smooth results we experienced.
With a head designed for precision maneuvering, it's pleasing to see how the razor can deliver surface-level hair cutting without chafing the skin. No ingrown hairs or rough patches were spotted after re-examining our faces the following day, which is surprising considering that we shaved through minor pimples around the neck area. So it's worth nothing the razor can smoothen bumpy landscapes. It also comes properly weighted for ease in handling and control, so you won't have to apply much pressure on it when you're going with the grain.
BUY NOW $30.00/month at GetBevel.com


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GoBake Pearl Lustre Dust - Frozen Blue - 2gm
Pearl Lustre Dusts are a beautiful metallic powder than can be used to sprinkle, brush or paint onto fondant, icings, chocolate and more. To create an edible paint, simply mix together with some colourless alcohol.
Features and Benefits
Beautiful metallic powder for cake decorating!
Sprinkle, brush or paint onto icings and chocolate!


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Avertising Rates
Each year in swimming, running or cycling the event details are a constantly moving target and we are contacted daily by organisers informing us of fixture changes. To keep our readers up-to-date, we have a website to complement all our mobile guides. The Guide Book websites are updated regularly with race changes, cancellations, and new races.
Our focus – Races and race information in South Africa
Swimming – 100 races Cycling – 600 races Running – 950 races
Demographics Cycling – Women 40%, average age 38 years 3 months Running – Women 66%, average age 37 years 7 months Swimming – Women 57%, average age 36 years 7 months.
Interactions with readers
Swimming – 13% Cycling – 23% Running – 64%
Media Printed – 8% Web and newsletter – 37% Social media - 26% Devices – 28%
Estimated number of annual interactions with readers
Swimming – 1.7 m Cycling – 3.1 m Running – 8.5 m
Material Specs
Banners for website and newsletter Resolution: 96 pixels per inch Width: 900 pixels Height: 100 pixels
Logo for website and newsletter Resolution: 96 pixels per inch Max Width: 142 pixels Max Height: 142 pixels
Print Trim size: 210mm x 148mm Bleed size: 215mm x 153mm All artwork must be supplied in CMYK. The preferred format is a high-resolution print-ready PDF
Swimming Electronic Media Advertising Bundle - R8 100 excl. VAT Running and Cycling Electronic Media Advertising Bundle - R25 000 excl. VAT Includes a four-month product review on website, electronic media, logos and links. A full-page advertisement in a print publication. Upgrades to DPS or outside back cover by negotiation. Short-term campaigns can be negotiated to suit your requirements.
Contact Information
Publisher Tom Cottrell 011-646 9760 082-5769791 firstname.lastname@example.com
Sales Sharon Hempel 011-7683834 082-8984291 email@example.com
Guide Book Publications PO Box 1236 Parklands 2121


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Akashic Records
Frequently Asked Questions
The Akashic Records are an energetic imprint of every thought, action, emotion, and experience that has ever occurred in time and space. The Akashic Records can also be understood as the imprint of all experiences of all lifetime in all realities. They are an etheric, holographic repository of information for human consciousness for the past, present and potentials for the future. The energy that makes up the Akashic Records is the energy of Love! The knowledge contained in the Akashic Records is imprinted upon a subtle substance called the Akasha, which describes the energy of Love that permeates and creates everything in the Universe.
The Akasha is available everywhere, all the time. Everyone can access information from the Akashic Records at any time, and indeed we do! The flashes of intuition and knowing hunches that occur every day are glimpses into the divine wisdom contained in the Akashic Records. Every being in the Universe contributes to and accesses the Akashic Records. Because we are all created by and connected to the energy of Love, our divine birthright includes having access to the divine wisdom and knowledge contained in the Akashic Records.
The Akashic Records contain all past, present, and future possibilities through the vibrations of compassion and joy. They are like the DNA of the universe. They contain a collection of everything that has occurred in the past, and they hold a complete set of information regarding possibilities for the future. Every individual soul has its own, unique Akashic Record. The souls of groups, events, organizations, and locations also have a unique Akashic Record.
One way to understand the Akashic Records is to envision them as a book that contains the entire history of your soul, as well as every aspect of who you are now and all the potentials for your future. This metaphorical book is so vast that it could never exist physically. Instead, it is recorded energetically in the vibration of the Love that makes up everything in the Universe.
The clear truth contained in the Akashic Records allows us the freedom to choose grace in all things. When we know the truth, we can release any illusions we have created that cause us to believe we are separate from God, Spirit, or Source. The Akashic Records are one of the most powerful tools available on the planet today, to help us remember our Oneness with every being in the Universe, and to find our personal and collective power to create the realities we desire.
The concept of the Akashic Records has been referred to in every spiritual tradition on the planet. In the Bible, it is referred to as the Book of Life. The Akashic Records are also referred to as the Cosmic Mind or Universal Mind, as well as the Eye of God and the Word of God. References to the Akashic Records, or the eternal Book of Life, date back to antiquity. References in the Old Testament and beyond give us the sense that there is a collective storehouse of knowledge that is written on the fabric of reality.
The energy that contains the information in the Akashic Records is called Akasha, which is a Sanskrit term meaning "primary substance." This is the energy that makes up everything in the Universe. It is the energy of love. In Hindu mysticism Akasha is thought to be the primary principle of nature from which the other four natural principles of fire, air, earth, and water, are created. Every vibration that occurs in the Universe through our thoughts, words, and deeds creates an indelible imprint on the Akasha, leaving an energetic recording of every soul and every creation.
The word, Akasha, is derived from two ancient Tibetan or northern Indian words. "Aka" means space, storage place, or repository, and "Sa" means sky, hidden, or secret. A simple translation of "Akasha" is "an unseen space or storage place." The Akashic Records are, then, a hidden library of records imprinted on the subtle space of the Akasha. The Akashic Records are believed to have existed since the beginning of the time-space continuum of planet Earth.
Everyone! Just as we have various kinds of physical libraries, such as law libraries and medical libraries, there are various ethereal libraries in the Akashic Records. Every person, animal, group, organization, event, and location on Earth has a unique Akashic Record. By divine birthright, we have the ability to access our own personal Akashic Records, as well as the Records of any group of which we are a part.
Every being on the planet can access the areas of the Akashic Records of which their soul plays a part. Alternately, no one can access our personal Akashic Records without our express permission. The Akashic Records are protected by spiritual beings who are referred to as the Guides, the Keepers, or the Guardians of the Akashic Records. These Spirit Keepers help us access our Akashic Records, and they hold strong energetic protection for the information contained therein.
People access the Akashic Records often through intuition, prayer, meditation, and flashes of insight. Many of us experience these glimpses of the Akashic Records on a daily basis. For many people, intentionally opening ourselves to our intuition and inner guidance provides a powerful opening to the information in the Akashic Records.
We can learn to access the Akashic Records more specifically through learning techniques for opening the Akashic Records. These techniques can include the use of meditations, breathing techniques, and a sacred, spoken prayer of opening. While there is no institution that governs this work, there are many teachers who are skilled and reliable to help you.
In addition to opening the Records ourselves, we can find great clarity through an Akashic Records consultation. A Consultation, or Reading, consists of having someone who has experience and expertise in working with the Akashic Records open your Records so that you can receive information from them. An Akashic Record Consultation can be extremely valuable, because it offers specific information that arises directly from your personal soul journey. Every conceivable question regarding your life and your soul journey can be answered during an Akashic Records Consultation.
The Akashic Records contain every thought, emotion, action, and experience that has ever occurred in time and space. Your personal Akashic Records contain every piece of information regarding your soul's experience. In the Records, you can learn about your relationships, your health, your soul path, and every other conceivable topic regarding you! Because the information in the Akashic Records is held in the energy of love, the answers you receive to questions during an Akashic Reading offer helpfulness and hopefulness as well as profound empowerment through knowing the truth of your situation and the possibilities unfolding in your life.
Jen speaking on Soul Adventure TV
Watch a video of Jen on Soul Adventure TV, in which she talks about The Akashic Records, the process of channeling, and some of the most important messages from the Keepers of the Akashic Records!


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Successful or Faithful? - HomeWord - May 3, 2018
Successful or Faithful?
This devotional was written by Leslie Snyder
His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" —Matthew 25:21
Most people strive for success. Products promise instant success in everything from weight loss to financial freedom. Schools promise success in producing well-educated students who will succeed in college and the working world. In fact, there is a promise that if you are successful in work, business, education, sports, or the arts, you will have lived a successful life. Great! Sign me up!
Unfortunately, this idea of success has infiltrated the church in almost all aspects. A successful church is often measured by the number of members, Sunday morning attendees, the number of staff members, or by the number of people who prayed at the altar on a given Sunday. I would like to offer the idea that the church is not called to be "successful" in the way success is measured today. Instead, we are called to be faithful.
Jesus told a parable about three servants who have been given responsibility over differing amounts of money or "talents." Two of the servants used what they were given by the Master and made some profit; however, one servant, out of fear of the Master, buried his talent in the ground, returning only what he was given when the Master returned. The servants who invested their talents and brought a greater return were described as "good and faithful," while the one who hid his talent was described as "wicked and slothful."
Some would describe the first two as "successful." Jesus, however, described them as "faithful." Are the two completely separate? Not necessarily. Faithfulness sometimes brings earthly success, but more importantly, faithfulness brings eternal reward. Does that mean we should not strive to be successful in our ministries? Perhaps the better goal is to strive to be faithful. Jesus calls us to excellence and to invest whatever we have been given, as a church and personally, for His kingdom. When we are faithful, He can bring about whatever type of success He desires.
1. In your own life, how do you determine if you are successful? Do you consider yourself to be spiritually successful? Why or why not?
2. How can faithfulness –as opposed to success – be a better measurement of the state of your spiritual life?
For more information and resources please visit HomeWord.com.