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Send Bernie Home: A Letter by Essence
Essence Goldman, a singer-songwriter from San Francisco, started giving Bernie Dalton vocal lessons two years ago. Since then, Bernie has been diagnosed with the most aggressive form of ALS and likely only has months to live. Essence is helping Bernie fulfill his one dying wish: making an album as his legacy and gift to his daughter Nicole. The band, made up of Bernie, Essence, Roger Rocha, Daniel Berkman, David Simon-Baker, and Nicole, just released the music video for the song 'In Your Shoes.' The full album will be released February 9th. Read Essence's full letter on Bernie's story and watch the music video below. You can give money towards Bernie's home care on Go Fund Me by clicking the 'Donate' button.
My name is Essence Goldman and I am a singer-songwriter and vocal coach from San Francisco. I want to tell you about a project that has changed my life. The story is not mine. It's my student Bernie Dalton's story, and it is my privilege and honor to be part of it. Bernie was a surfer. He started each day by waking up at 4am and watching the sunrise on a surfboard in the Pacific. He was a competitive wrestler in high school. He was strong. He was healthy. He was down to earth. Bernie lived for the moment. He lived for his beautiful 14-year-old daughter Nicole. He was a single father and loved Nicole more than life itself. Bernie had always dreamed of playing guitar, writing songs and singing them. In January 2016 he decided to take his passion to the next level and began taking voice lessons with me. Two months later, at 46 years old, Bernie's voice mysteriously disappeared.
At first, there was little concern, but a set of more mysterious symptoms gradually presented themselves. Bernie was having trouble swallowing and moving his jaw. Bernie made his living cleaning swimming pools and thought these symptoms were due to his exposure to chlorine. After detox treatments with a naturopath physician, Bernie's symptoms only worsened. He was drooling uncontrollably and losing weight. In April 2017, Bernie was given a terminal diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease.)
To make things worse, he was diagnosed with the most aggressive form; Bulbar Onset ALS. The news was devastating. I asked Bernie how he wanted to spend his remaining days. I offered to help Bernie raise funds to take a once in a lifetime trip with his daughter Nicole, but he did not want that. He wanted to make an album with his songs. Now unable to use his vocal chords, Bernie asked me to be his voice. I sang the words he wrote and helped form the melody around his lyrics. His daughter sang the harmonies on the album. No one had ever asked anything like this of me before. I was in shock and I could not say no.
Bernie wrote lyrics that expressed his views of the world. He wanted to be remembered for his beliefs on love, honesty, and the enduring power of the human spirit against hardship. He also wrote lyrics for his future grandchildren who he will likely not live long enough to meet. We sat in my living room and the song spilled out in one sitting. This was the first song on what became the ten track album Connection. I launched a Go Fund Me campaign and with the generous contributions (both public and private) from friends, family, and community worldwide, we raised over $25,000. Those donations paid for the studio time over the past six months and made Bernie's record possible.
I called my close musician friends Roger Rocha, Daniel Berkman, and David Simon-Baker to help make this record. Bernie had a vision and everyone worked to bring it to life. Bernie directed the band by writing on a dry erase board. He couldn't talk. He couldn't sing. He couldn't play guitar. But he had a story to tell and gave us guidance. If Bernie liked something it was two thumbs up - and if he didn't like it - everyone knew. And let me tell you, two thumbs up from someone who can't speak means a lot. Bernie's eyes spoke volumes. Each recording session was a journey of laughter, tears, elation, and sorrow. We harnessed massive surges of creativity more powerful than anything any of us had experienced before.
The band would walk into the studio with no plan. All we had was Bernie's lyrics. Twice, the team listened to chord progressions that Bernie recorded on an iPhone before he got sick. Roger Rocha wrote the bass and guitar riffs. Daniel Berkman played drums and keys. I sang. Everyone took part in the writing process. Collaborating spontaneously, we started each day without a song. We would pick a page of Bernie's lyrics, compose the music and melody, then record the track before the night was over.
Throughout the entire process, Bernie maintained a positive attitude and was genuinely lost in the music. Despite his sickness, we shared many joyful moments. What started out as a seemingly impossible proposition, creating music with a person who could hardly move and could not speak, turned into a joyful, inspiring experience.
Bernie's story is one of courage, creativity, and perseverance. It is a testament to the power of music bringing people together to transcend hardship and physical deterioration. Bernie stands as a triumph of human spirit and an inspiration.
The album is now complete. Connection will be released under the name Bernie and The Believers featuring Essence. The album will be available on iTunes and all online platforms on February 9, 2018.
Now that the album is complete our goal has changed. We are raising money for Bernie's end of life care with a new Go Fund Me campaign called 'Send Bernie Home.' This campaign will help pay for Bernie's costly home care so he doesn't have to spend his remaining days in a nursing home not receiving the proper treatment. Each week of home care costs $12,500. He needs to be at home with the proper care and enjoy the time he has left surrounded by love and familiar faces. You can help send Bernie home by donating to the campaign below.
With love and gratitude,


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The House That Faber Built: How The Potential Collapse of Team Alpha Male Parallels A Once-Great Gym Of the 1990's
The fracture at Team Alpha Male began as most heated rivalries in the sport do: trash talk. The founder of the gym and one of the sport's biggest stars, Urijah Faber, was waging a war of words with the team's former coach, Duane Ludwig. What was once the greatest gym in the business was now nothing more than a hen house, drowned out by the clucking of its rooster with anyone who would listen.
The circumstances of Team Alpha Male's fall from grace are well documented. But they are also nothing new. A similar collapse happened a decade earlier. Take a drive south on the I-5 from Sacramento and in less than an hour, you'll find yourself in Lodi, California, home of the once-great Lion's Den.
It is here we can find the DNA for how an MMA gym collapses.
In the early days of MMA, there were two promotions that lorded over the rest: Pancrase and the UFC.
Pancrase was in Japan and headed up by legends Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki. While working in the UWF (a shoot promotion that featured pro wrestling predetermined matches but featured many very real grappling and striking exchanges), they came to train a tough, muscle-bound grappler named Ken Shamrock. They brought Shamrock with them into Pancrase.
Those who may have come to know Shamrock from his WWF days could be forgiven if they assumed Shamrock wasn't as dangerous as his gimmick. With goofy green tights and a mock psycho-face, Shamrock was a cartoon badass. However, he was every bit dangerous. Ken Shamrock was one of the baddest men on the planet.
During a period where the sport was working to grow in the USA, Shamrock was the man to know in American MMA. In the American market, his reputation was built on his fights under the Pancrase banner. Those same fights made Shamrock famous in Japan. There was no MMA fighter more popular in the two biggest markets.
Shamrock competed under Pancrase banner until an advertisement for the newly-formed UFC caught his eye. He signed up and became part of the birth of MMA in America. Shamrock would face off against a wiry Brazilian from a famous fighting family in the tournament final, Royce Gracie. Shamrock thought he could out-muscle the smaller man, but found himself caught by Gracie's graceful technique and tapped out.
Shamrock was pissed. He thought he was the better man. Driven by a narcissistic obsession, Shamrock was determined to to avenge his loss – but he would need new methods. More importantly, he would need a place to hone those methods.
Team Alpha Male was founded by Urijah Faber in 2004. Training out of his hometown, Sacramento, Faber had quickly developed into the star of the weight classes under 155 pounds. He ascended quickly and eventually won the World Extreme Cagefighting belt in 2006.
With the WEC Featherweight belt around his waist, Faber was the man. The MMA's top promotion, the UFC, didn't feature Faber's weight class or either of the two that bracketed it – featherweight (145) or flyweight (125). This made Faber a unique kind of star - the one who virtually represented four weight classes.
Six title defenses later and it was clear Faber was as valuable as anyone in the business. His knack for self-promotion came in handy. He knew how to leverage his brand as well as anyone. And as the founder of one of the sport's growing gyms, Faberhad even greater leverage in the MMA sphere (during their heyday between 2010 and 2014, TAM fighters would often appear on the same card when the UFC booked events out West, a sign they saw the promotional advantages of the TAM brand). One could assume Faber and his TAM stable were very much on minds of Zuffa (parent company to the UFC) when they purchased the WEC.
Faber ruled the roost. TAM was his baby and he was the man in charge, the Alpha Male among the Alpha Male's. His reputation rubbed credence on his gym and young, talented fighters began to flock to TAM. And Faber liked it that way just fine.
After his loss to Gracie, Shamorck needed to evolve. He founded the Lion's Den in his hometown of Lodi, California. There, Shamrock's fanatical devotion to toughness was passeddown to others. As a result, the Lion's Den became the most feared MMA gym in America.
If you walked through the doors of the Lion's Den, you were in Shamrock's world. His process for acceptance into the Lion's Den was sadistic and brutal, amounting to daily beatings until the weak left and the strong (or masochistic) stayed. This practice had a dual affect of positioning Shamrock as the guru - the only man - who could teach them.
The Lion's Den was also a solid business venture for Shamrock. He was the representative for the Pancrase promotion in the US, which meant he held all the keys and blocked all the doors for Americans looking to go overseas. This came in handy for Shamrock. He could get his guys in good with the promotion.
Everyone who joined the Lion's Den at some point had been Shamrock's bitch. His reputation carried a lot of weight. Shamrock was in charge and they knew it. But Shamrock wasn't a leader. In truth, Shamrock had founded the Lion's Den out of necessity. He needed training partners to maintain his standing amongst the Japanese and Brazilians dominating the game. Shamrock needed a place to train and people to train with. As a byproduct of his own success, the Lion's Den developed most of the US's top fighters from Guy Mezger to Maurice Smith and also Shamrock's adopted brother, Frank. They were kicking ass in Pancrase and the UFC. The Lion's Den was the place to be.
In 2008, Faber recruited Joseph Benavidez and Chad Mendes to join Team Alpha Male. Faber was looking to develop the next crop of great fighters – Californians like himself – to further establish TAM as the place to train.
They quickly ascended to the podium of greatness along with Faber. Shortly after joining TAM, Benavidez established himself as a force at bantamweight – which was a class above his natural weight - in the WEC, scoring a pair of title shots against Dominick Cruz (whose history seems to weave in and around TAM as much as any of their own fighters). Once into the UFC, Benavidez was similarly dominant in his unnatural weight class, posting 3-0 UFC record before earning his first shot at gold in the new flyweight division.
Mendes also ascended rapidly. A decorated collegiate wrestler, Mendes had a rare blend of athleticism with a thick, muscular build and fast-twitch reflexes. Shortly after joining TAM, Mendes got his shot in the WEC. He promptly ripped through five featherweights before transitioning into the UFC with his teammates. He earned his crack at gold after only two fights.
TAM had come a long way on Faber's shoulders and was being carried the distance on those of a new breed. Along with Danny Castillo, the TAM reputation was growing exponentially. If you wanted to be a force in any of the lightest weight classes, you traveled to Sacramento.
This drew a talented but heady collegiate wrestler to TAM. His name was TJ Dillashaw.
Ken Shamrock had formed the Lion's Den in large part to benefit himself. He needed to compete. But when his UFC ambitions began to take precedent over his Pancrase ambitions, the latter promotion's braintrust went behind his back looking for others to represent their brand in America. Shamrock was pissed so he quit. It not only cost him his Japanese gigs, but those of Lion's Den fighters Vernon White and his brother, Frank, as well.
Shamrock was the kind of leader who could lead by only one example: his own. He wasn't a good communicator nor was he particularly good teacher. When he left for the WWF, not much changed. Except when a figurehead leaves the kingdom, someone new must take up the mantle.
Ken's brother, Frank, stepped in as the gym's main instructor. He had been for some time already because of his capable communication skills and Ken's focus on doing his own thing. Pretty quickly, Frank began to question the training methods instituted under Ken's watch. Frank was a more cerebral fighter. He saw mixed martial arts differently than Ken. He broke down the different disciplines, seeking to learn the best practices from every one. Under Frank's tutelage, Maurice Smith would go on to change the sport forever.
In 1997, Mark Coleman was the man in mixed martial arts. A hulking Olympic wrestler, Coleman was discipline-specific like many fighters of that era but had developed a style that neutralized the vaunted ground grapplers of the day. He was capable of putting fighters on their back, where most liked to be, but smash them. He was the godfather of ground-and-pound.
Coleman had run roughshod over the UFC competition from the moment he stepped into the cage, winning the UFC 10 and UFC 11 tournament's before submitting Dan Severn to win the UFC Heavyweight belt. Heading into the UFC 14 tourney, he was unsurprisingly the favorite.
What followed would become the blueprint for the modern era of MMA. Smith was primarily a kickboxer by trade. Many expected Coleman to take him down and for Smith to be victimized on the mat. Many were wrong. Smith, training under Frank Shamrock's tutelage, had developed his skills on the mat and a strategy to meet Coleman at his strength. 24 seconds into the fight, Smith was on his back and Coleman was hammering away at him. But a funny thing happened: Smith fought back. He used classic BJJ technique, utilizing grips and hip movement while using offensive elbow strikes to force Coleman to work to keep him down. Then, with Coleman gassed (and resting his hands on his knees, no less), he was a sitting duck from Smith's striking game.
With the victory, Smith and Shamrock had changed the game. Following his own methods, Frank would go on to become the premier MMA fighter in the world following his own approach. There was a new voice in the Lion's Den.
In December of 2013, Faber hired a new head coach for TAM: Duane Ludwig.
As if overnight, many observers seemed to forget that TAM had been rolling the competition for years before Ludwig. You could be forgiven for it, considering that in the year-and-a-half since the stable had been competing in the UFC, their top dogs were coming off closely-placed title fight losses. Benavidez had dropped a flyweight shot to Demetrious Johnson in September the year before while Mendes had dropped his featherweight fight to Jose Aldo in January. Faber, too, was coming off a loss to Renan Barao at bantamweight.
On April 20, 2014, everything began to change at TAM. Five months after Ludwig had taken over, three of TAM fighters appeared on the same card in nearby San Jose, California. Mendes starched Darren Elkins, Benavidez TKO'ed Darren Uyenoyama, and Dillashaw waxed Hugo Viana.
Throughout the contest, commentator Joe Rogan sang the praises of Ludwig. Though it is his job, oftentimes it came across as if Rogan was Ludwig's personal spokesperson (in Rogan's defence, he had been covering Ludwig's career during the early UFC days and was clearly fond of 'Bang'). The implication was clear for fight fans: Ludwig was turning things around at TAM. Faber began to simmer but held his ego in check for a time.
It all came to a head a year later in 2014 when Dillashaw would be matched up against Barao, the man who had already defeated Faber once in 2012 and again in February of that year. Faber had openly lobbied for Dillashaw to get the shot. It appeared his word was taken seriously.
Employing a style reminiscent to the TAM nemesis Cruz, Dillashaw put on a spectacular performance, beating Barao pillar-to-post for five rounds en route to becoming the first TAM fighter to win UFC gold.
Ludwig would go on to win Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2014 (a distinction that has seemingly never been mentioned again) for his work, most especially in molding Dillashaw into a champion. It looked like TAM had risen to the mountaintop by its youngest and most often forgotten young protégé. Except with many peaks, it only takes a short step to slip off the edge.
Frank's ascension to the top of the pecking order at the Lion's Den was followed swiftly by his exit.
Shamrock was offered the shot at Kevin Jackson for the UFC Middleweight title. This was hugely disappointing to Lions' Den teammate, Jerry Bohlander, who thought he was going to get the shot. He felt betrayed. Furthermore, Frank asked the UFC to sent him the contract directly and not to go through his adopted father, Bob, thus avoiding the commission Bob was entitled to. When Bob told Ken, the older Shamrock son was furious. Frank left the team shortly after.
While Frank rose to greatness at his newly formed stable, The Alliance, the Lion's Den wilted. Ken's career had winded down to a crawl. Mezger, Bohlander, and Smith would fight on for a number of years to varying degrees of success. The Lion's Den had been divided.
Dillashaw said the decision to leave Team Alpha Male was about the money. You could be forgiven if you didn't believe him.
After winning the UFC Bantamweight belt, the schism between coach Ludwig and mentor Faber began to take its toll on Dillashaw. Publically, Ludwig was being praised for his work. Faber, curiously, took every opportunity to dampen that enthusiasm.
Suddenly, news broke that Ludwig was leaving TAM in mid-2014. The news came out of the blue. Why would the coach considered most responsible for the resurgence of TAM want to leave?
The drama that unfolded in the years since then has revealed just how deep of a fracture there was at TAM. Ludwig and Faber privately butted heads over everything from training to money to peanut butter. It left Dillashaw with little choice, the coach who turned him into a champion or the mentor who had guided him throughout his career. Dillishaw eventually chose his coach, moving himself to Colorado where Ludwig was stationed. He said it was because Team Elevation was paying him to train there.
Team Alpha Male then hit the skids. Joseph Benevidez's two losses to all-time great Demetrious Johnson relegated him to an afterthought (despite rattling off five consecutive dominant wins against the division's elite since the second defeat to Johnson). Chad Mendes was once in the same position as Benavidez. But his title rematch loss to Jose Aldo preceded consecutive losses to Conor McGregor and Frankie Edgar putting him in an unfortunate 1-3 hole in his last four bouts.
Word is that Benavidez has moved much of his training elsewhere, choosing to train in Colorado with Dillashaw and Ludwig (which, if you pay attention to the rhetoric coming out of TAM about those two figures, would leave one thinking Benavidez has to be considered in the same category). Mendes, too, spends much of his time elsewhere.
It's been more than a decade since the Lion's Den had a reputation for churning out the sport's elite. The end was the result of ego and infighting, where one voice so used to being the only one heard suddenly became the least listened to.
The same way the Den collapsed, Team Alpha Male is no longer what it used to be.
Last week, we saw the perhaps the last vestige preceding TAM's free-fall. Faber's once reliable promotional word hangs on as one of the fighters he has publically tabbed as a future champion, Cody Garbrandt, pasted the vaunted Thomas Almeida. While Garbrandt is primed for a run, he's the exception t the rule. His win followed the stupendous knockout of Andre Fili (another TAM fighter Faber tabbed to be on the ascent) last month.
TAM short-term fate balances most precariously this Saturday. Faber fights in what is likely his last chance at UFC gold against Cruz, a man who has come to lord over him both within the cage and within the media. The buildup for the fight has seen a Faber reaching with his comments at every opportunity (maximized by Cruz's ability to frame his words as such). He appears to be a man desperate to be believed, clinging to a limelight he once basked in. Should he lose, that light may never come back.
Like a once great house, the Lion's Den, the posturing in the limelight has gone far to undermine Team Alpha Male. Faber, like Shamrock, hasn't been able to remove his ego from the equation. The foundation of all great houses cannot withstand that kind of weight. Only an hour from each other along the I-5, separated by a decade's worth of MMA evolution, and yet two great gyms sealed their own fate by the very men who founded them.
Rhys Dowbiggin @Rdowb
Rhys has worked six years in the public relations industry rubbing shoulders with movie stars (who ignored him) to athletes (who tolerated him). He likes tiki-taka football, jelly beans, and arguing with Bruce about everything.

subset: commoncrawl


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Teeny Tiny Tightrope/
This is a picture yanked out of a magazine that I painted and played with. Sometimes following my biggest, boldest, wildest ideas feels like walking on a teeny tiny tightrope. The thing is, I'M OUT THERE! Out there on my tightrope. I could be still waiting on the side of that beautiful lake sipping a cold drink and admiring all the people out there on their own tightropes. Living their large dreams and putting themselves in peril. It's so easy, right? Dream but not do.
Except, I would be so antsy over there. Knowing there was a yearning in my heart. A sparkle inside of me that could no longer be contained. I simply had to take the first step, and then the second step, and then get right out in the deepest part of the lake on my tiny rope.
Now that I'm out there, I want to keep taking one step after another step. Feeling the breeze. Smelling the fresh outdoorsness. Fully electrified by this absolutely amazing journey that I'm on.
My hope is that others sitting on the side of the lake drinking their cold drinks will look over the tops of their sunglasses and decide to get up out of their folding lawn chairs. Pick up their dreams, their sparkles, their yearnings and take one step and then another step. That they will discover their own amazing journeys on teeny tiny tightropes.


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Accent your dining room or home beautifully with this elegant upholstered bench. Featuring long tapered legs, this piece carries a rich finish and the seat comes upholstered. Whether you place this bench in your dining room, entryway, or living room, you're sure to give your home decor a stunning style.
The Fulton Counter Height Bench with Upholstered Seat by Crown Mark at Wilcox Furniture in the Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Calallen, Texas area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.
The simplified modern style of the Fulton collection will bring a contemporary and elegant look to any dining room setting. Featuring elegant upholstery on the bench and chairs and clean, straight lined edges and long tapered legs on all the tables, this collection will display a simple glamorous style into your dining room.
The Fulton collection is a great option if you are looking for furniture in the Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Calallen, Texas area.
Browse other items in the Fulton collection from Wilcox Furniture in the Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Calallen, Texas area.
This item has been tagged as: Bench, Storage Bench, Benches, Bedroom Bench, Dining Room Bench, Living Room Bench, Storage Benches, Hall Bench, Window Bench, Vanity Bench, Kitchen Bench, Long Seat, Indoor Bench, Furniture, Settee, Entry Bench, Dining Bench, Bed Bench, Bench Seat, Bench Seating, Bed End Bench
Nothing on this page may be copied or reproduced without explicit permission.


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The creative director of Italian fashion house Gucci, Alessandro Michele, has long trained guests and fans to eccentric shows and unobvious locations. This time, for the premiere of the Resort 2019 collection, he invited everyone to a city in the south of France called Arles. The show started at nightfall and unfolded in an ancient cemetery, with the runway built between the sarcophagi of Roman rulers, accompanied by the sound of church bells and a musical phantasmagoria.
"Widows and kids playing rock stars, ladies who are not ladies," Michelecharacterized the mood of the new collection.
Successfully promoting the philosophy of a complete lack of gender differences, Alessandro has once again demonstrated a kaleidoscope of blending styles, textures and the color palette. Velvet dresses embellished with anatomical embroidery, leggings bearing the words "MEMENTO MORI", togas in various interpretations, pantsuits with a '70s vibe, rose and hydrangea prints, English tweed jackets, sweeping capes, fringe, fancy headpieces, geometric glasses — all has mixed up in an impeccable Guccified cocktail, intoxicating and luring into its bright net.


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I am proud to say that Class 300 illustrates the diversity and caliber of our students, states Ted Bravos, CEO of ITMI.
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) July 24, 2015
The International Tour Management Institute (ITMI), the premier school for professional tour directors and guides since 1976, is delighted to celebrate its 300th graduating class. After completing an intensive 15-day program that included city tours, an overnight motor coach trip, safety training, tour commentary exercises and countless other tricks of the trade, the tired but happy new tour directors and guides were delighted to receive their diplomas at the graduation ceremony held in San Francisco on June 14th.
People from around the world attend the ITMI program in San Francisco. Students from South Africa, Peru, Russia, Hawaii, Canada and various U.S. cities comprised Class 300.
"I am proud to say that Class 300 illustrates the diversity and caliber of our students," Ted Bravos, CEO of ITMI remarked. "This class included an accomplished professional actress, a retired US Army Warrant Officer, an ESL teacher, a former principal of an international school, a cruise director from Peru, and a parent ready to re-enter the workforce after raising her children. We have found that there is a common thread among the individuals who desire to become a tour director or guide: they possess a passion for travel and the desire to make a difference in the world."
"Travel opens hearts and minds and builds bridges of understanding. Travel broadens our perspective and offers insights about other cultures. I believe that travel is the greatest university in the world," Bravos added.
The students who are accepted into the ITMI program are carefully selected to ensure that they will be marketable upon graduation. They range in age from 20 to 70+ and come from a variety of backgrounds.
An effective tour guide is an entertaining performer and a congenial host. The tour guide is also a good storyteller. The tour guide is a source of information. The tour guide sets the mood for the tour, a good tour guide will make the trip successful even if there is bad weather, a bad hotel or a bus breakdown. And, most importantly, a tour guide is an ambassador of goodwill.
About ITMI:
Since 1976, ITMI has been America's premier training and certification program for professional tour directors and guides, with over 8,000 graduates leading tours around the world. For more information about ITMI contact Annemarie Osborne at (949) 237-2906, or Annemarie.Osborne(at)gmail(dot)com, or visit http://www.itmisf.com.
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"Arte de Marialva": one of the true treasures of Portugal
The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and philosophical movement, which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century. During this period, the book "Lightness in the Liberal and Noble Art of Cavalry" was cotified into text by Manuel Carlos Andrade for the Marquis von Marialva. This book has guided the Portuguese Equestrian School of Arts to this day.
Dom Pedro José de Alcântara de Menezes (1713-1799) who was better known as Marquis von Marialva was the chief Equestrian trainer of King José I of Portugal. Thus, he was in charge of the Royal Riding School in Belem and head of the Alter Real stud farm. Marialva was an extraordinary rider and trainer. Marialva's work and philosophy in riding are preserved in the book "Luz da Liberal e Nobre Arte de Cavallaria," written by his student Manuel Carlos Andrade. Marialva's objective in training was to achieve lightness. The riding and teaching at the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art derives upon Marialva's work and this book formalizes those objectives. This is why the art of horsemanship in Portugal is called "Arte de Marialva" and the great riders are called "Marialvas."
Queen Maria I of Portugal reinvents the Arte of the Bull fight
Marialva also established a set of written rules relating to bullfighting on horseback (Rejoneo). The rules prescribed by Marialva involve a code of conduct and honor given to the bull. These rules guide the bullfight in Portugal still.
The irony is that the art was almost lost because of a horrific accident involved Marialva's son. In the summer of 1762, King Joseph I was at his country palace near Salvaterra do Magos. A royal contest was scheduled where the young son of Marguis of Marialva, named the Count of Arcos would fight before the court for the first time.
On this day, Arcos was in the ring with a huge black bull that refused to charge. Arcos did all he could to get the bull to move. Finally, in desperation, the young count rode his mount too close to the bull. The bull then lunged forward, knocking over the horse and pinning the count underneath. The bull gored Arcos to death while the king, the crowd and Marialva watched in horror.
At this point, the Marquis of Marialva jumped into the arena and fought the bull on foot. He killed the bull before falling to his knees at the body of his lifeless son, which was still pinned under his mount. Bullfighting in Portugal was banned from that day forward.
After the famous death of the son of Master Marialva, at what is now called " The Last Bullfight in Salvaterra ", King Joseph's Counselor, the Marquis of Pombal, convinced the King to put an end to the royal bullfights. He immediately ordered the demolition of the Famous Arena called Campo Santanna in Lisbon. It was not until years later, with the Death of King Joseph, that his Daughter Dona Maria, upon becoming Queen Maria I of Portugal re-instituted the Royal Art of Bullfighting in the 1830s.
When bull fighting once again became legal, the Queen ordered new rules that the bull's horns were to be padded, and the life of the animal spared - in deference to the Count of Arcos. The fine silk jackets, three-cornered hats, and riding pants worn by Portuguese cavaliers today also honor the life of that young man who died in Salvaterra. This royal proclamation which spared the life of the bull, also created the "Portuguese Corrida de Touros," and is the genesis of Portuguese bullfight today. These rules also contributed to the foundation of the "Casa da Guarda" or the House of Guardians later called the Forcados or Bull Grabbers.
It is believed that it is through the training of the Lusitano for the bull fight, which is based on the Arte de Marialva that keeps the Lusitano honed as an athlete. The Arte de Marialva is passed down through the generations, pairing Lusitano and rider in perfect harmony at the Portuguese School of Equestrian Arts. It is by using the performance of the bull fight, combined with the equestrian arts that often drives key breeding decisions. These are the guiding principles in preserving the Lusitano through the ages.
To be a Marialva is to be like no other rider in the world. They are the treasures of Portugal and the world.


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Winter Skills - Advanced Driver Training 2018
When: Sun, 03-Nov-2019 08:30
Where: 18200 Ford Road, Pitt Meadows, BC
BMW Car Club of BC: Winter Skills - Advanced Driver Training Session
Sunday November 3, 2019 at British Columbia Driving Center at Pitt Meadows Airport
This is our Winter Skills specific Full Day of Advanced Driver Training for BMW Car Club of BC members and other car enthusiasts.
Work on your driving skills and attitudes with a specific Winter Skills school, a full day session packed with fun and excitement, suitable for all drivers. This special version of our first Car Control course brings together the fundamentals of confident, safe driving in an exciting session designed to allow you to explore the limits of vehicle control that apply to winter driving using the wet skid pad.
This is a special Winter Skills version of our Car Control program which is part of our graduated programs for drivers.
The Winter Skills day is packed with both opportunities to learn, and FUN while you are doing the learning. Instruction is provided for us by the skilled professionals at Driving Unlimited who also teach for BMW, Mercedes., Mazda and several other manufacturers.
There is no better way to explore skid control, over and under steer and slip and slide that can happen on wet slippery winter roads in a safe controlled way under the supervision of a skilled instructor.
How will your car react? How will you react when the road is slippery?
How does the stability control and ABS affect things. This course lets you find out on a large flat course in a safe environment.
Training provided by the skilled professionals at Driving Unlimited.
Session includes on site catered lunch for registered participants only. [price also includes taxes]
This is a full day session from 8:30 am until 4:00pm
Open to persons at least 16 years of age with a valid driver's license, learners license or novice drivers license. Parental consent form required for participants under 19 years of age.
Event Fees
Course fee is $240 CDN or $220 for valid club members.Our cancellation and refund policy applies to all Driver Training Events, Please see our Driver Training pages for more details www.bmwccbc.org/schools/index.html
Note: When registering, please be sure to provide an email account you check regularly, as we will be sending you your even confirmation and notices via email from both Karelo and Click here
Max. Participants: 25
Sign up before:
Sat, 02-Nov-2019 20:00
Email: Click here
18200 Ford Road, Pitt Meadows, BC
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The Gift I Didn't Want, The Gift that Changed My Life
I was wrought with anxiety. The kind that makes you feel like you are having a heart attack 24/7. It was debilitating and I couldn't function. My grades dropped, my productivity tanked, and my husband thought he had just married a crazy lady.
A little background for you—I got married over Christmas break my senior year of college. Just weeks after getting married I began my last semester of college, I started a new internship in a public accounting firm, and I began the time-consuming task of keeping up a home. Due to the stress, I sat down in prayer knowing I needed the Lord's strength. I wanted the Christian marriage every young girl dreams of and I wanted success in school and at my new job. That could only happen with God's help.
One problem, I was farther from God than I'd been in years. I don't have time to get into the details here, but long-story-short, I had made some choices that led me in the exact opposite direction from where God was leading me. I had just lived my life the way that I wanted it and I pushed God to the side. Majorly. And then all of a sudden I was married and overwhelmed and I wanted Him back, but the Enemy convinced me I was unworthy, unlovable, and unforgivable. And anxiety set in. It nearly destroyed me.
I couldn't think about anything other than my regret and my deep desire to have God back in my life. But I thought it was too late. I was miserable—if God couldn't love me then I didn't see a point in living. I ended up on medicine because I was getting really sick. In a matter of two and a half weeks I lost a substantial amount of weight and I felt ill at all times. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. And most of the time I felt like I could barely breathe. Nothing, no one, not even my pastor could convince me that God still loved me. I desperately needed a miracle.
Then, three months later, God used one little blue line to open my eyes to His love. The night before I took the pregnancy test, something inside my heart forced me to look at a picture hanging on my wall. Until then, I had been extremely bitter with that picture because it reminded me of the God that I believed had abandoned me. But something inside me softened this time when I looked at it. The picture says "Life, His Gift to Us" and the second I looked at it I just knew I was pregnant. I can't explain it in any other way other than it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me and softening my heart. I believe God said to my heart, "Sydney, you're going to get a positive pregnancy test. It is Me revealing my love for you."
I didn't tell Paul. What if I was wrong? What if the first time I felt God speak to me in months was just some made up emotional drama in my head? He knew I had bought the pregnancy test, but I just couldn't tell him that I already knew the result. I woke up early the next day at 5 AM and it took less than 5 seconds to appear. A STRONG positive. My heart raced. My mind raced. I texted my sister-in-law with a strict command not to tell anyone because I hadn't told Paul yet. I took three more tests; all positive.
Then I cried. I didn't think it was possible. Sure, I was using Natural Family Planning instead of birth control, but I really should not have been pregnant. I kept looking at my calendar thinking about my cycle and I didn't understand how I was pregnant. Jumping ahead a little—the ultrasound confirmed my due date and that I was correct on when I thought I ovulated, which made me even more certain this baby really should not have been here. The timing wasn't right. The chances were so, so small. Yet, he was conceived. I knew there was no other explanation other than God really wanted him here.
Ok, back to where I was in the story—crying in the bathroom. I didn't know how to tell Paul, so I did what any shocked emotional new mother would do—I marched into the bedroom with the test, threw it on his pillow and punched him in the arm. Groggy and frustrated he sat up and looked at me then the pregnancy test on his pillow. His exact words were "what is that?!" To which I responded "what does it look like?!" He threw his face in his pillow and yelled "How does this happen?" And I promptly went into the birds and the bees speech. Looking back, it's a kind of funny memory. But in the moment it felt traumatizing. I had completely forgotten about the picture on the wall and the voice of the Holy Spirit the night before.
I forgot only briefly though. I walked to the laundry room to grab something and on the floor were a bunch of leaves that had fallen perfectly in the shape of several little hearts. To some this may not be significant, but when I was a little girl at Bible camp, my counselor told me that every time I saw a heart in an unusual place, it was Jesus telling me He loved me. Those words she said years ago flashed back into my memory that instant when I saw those leaves on my floor. I assume they fell off Paul's clothes after work the previous day, but why had I not noticed them in the shape of hearts the night before? I knew it was God again.
Those heart-shaped leaves took me back to the previous night and the still small voice I heard while gazing at the picture on the wall. It was all coming together. I went back to stare at the picture and it hit me—I WAS PREGNANT. And I LOVED my baby. And I'd only known of its existence for a short 20 minutes. My mind spiraled with emotions, I thought about how I needed a healthier diet, I needed to get off my meds, I needed to buy vitamins, etc. I wanted to do anything and everything to take care of this baby even though he was still in my womb.
God is so good and so creative in how He teaches us. I should have had more anxiety. I'd only been married for three months, money was tight, I was still in school, and only a week prior I'd accepted a full time position at the public accounting firm I was doing my internship at. It was horrible timing for a baby. It certainly made my husband feel stressed. But, that very minute, looking at the picture that said life is His gift, my anxiety melted away. It was in that moment that I finally KNEW that God had not left me. If I, a flawed human-being could love my unborn child so sincerely without even having met him, then a perfect God must love his children, who He personally knit together, even MORE. I'd only known of my pregnancy for 20 minutes, but I was willing to sacrifice anything to protect and care for this child. It finally made sense why Jesus would be willing to lay down His life for me, why He would never turn his back on me.
I don't mean to stir up negative feelings for you if your parents did not show you that same love. That's a whole other topic in and of itself. And if that was your situation and you can't relate to this, I just want to encourage you by saying that our God is so much bigger and so much greater than any mistake our parents made. He is the ultimate Redeemer, Lover, Father, and Friend. Find comfort in that.
For me though, that realization was enough to end my heart-racing anxiety for the time and it has yet to come back. I was able to come off my medication and find peace in the Lord, that He had NOT left me, and that he DID still love me. The journey was still hard, as my wounds were deep and healing has been a process. But I praise Him for working in unexpected ways to save my life and free me from my debilitating anxiety.
We named our son Jesse, which means "a gift and oblation." If you aren't familiar with an "oblation," it is something that is offered to God. Jesse was my gift from God, born right before Christmas (what perfect timing!), and because God was so good to me, I wanted to offer him back to the Lord. I had him baptized and began to pray for his heart to be prepared for the Lord's work, for us to raise him in faith and teach him to love God.
We are far from perfect and teaching him about Jesus has been difficult as I am still healing from and processing some of the things I went through. But I know and trust that God has a plan for Jesse's life and for our family's life. And I believe that God will fill in the gaps where my husband and I are weak. Because God is good, faithful, and greater than anything that will ever come our way.


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Brooklyn Rail Contributor
Forrest Cardamenis
FORREST CARDAMENIS is a film critic and programmer. In addition to The Brooklyn Rail, his work has appeared in the Village Voice, Brooklyn Magazine, and Little White Lies, among others.
Before the End of the World: Strugatsky Brothers on Film at Anthology Film ArchivesBy Forrest Cardamenis
| Film
Russian Sci-fi authors Boris and Arkady Strugatsky owe much of their renown in the United States, to Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker (1979). Despite mixed reviews upon release, the film has cemented itself in the world cinema canon, and brought its source material, the brothers's Roadside Picnic, along with it.
Table of Contents
Before the End of the World: Strugatsky Brothers on Film at Anthology Film Archives– By Forrest Cardamenis


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So it's inevitably become the time to pivot. It was smooth sailing with my idea for too long, so something was bound to go wrong. I have to pivot my process in order to preserve my concept. As it turns out, the all-powerful OpenSecrets API gives no wiggle room for manipulating the data provided with their calls. Looking back, this makes a lot of sense as I look at all the precedence I have that have made mashup websites with OpenSecrets and I wondered why all of their data is in the same ugly, boring format. The API doesn't allow for that to change.
For this reason, I have decided not to use the API. This may seem like a rash decision, but the truth is I think that using it would completely go against my concept statement. My goal here is to create a website that presents the data in a better way than OpenSecrets does. In a way that creates actual traction for the upcoming elections with millennials. If I do use the API, I am just another one of the many mashups that already exist and don't make enough of an impact.
Instead, I will be manipulating the bulk data. The issue here is that OpenSecrets does not have up-to-date bulk data downloads for the 2016 candidates or ANY bulk data download option for all the organizations. Huge problem. Therefore, I have to manually grab that information from the website. I am cutting out an immense amount of the information currently shown in organization profile pages and only include the amount of money given to each political party plus the bills each company has lobbied for in 2014. I think some of those bills are incredibly fascinating to discover.
So, what does this mean? Clearly I can no longer have a full 200,000 organization search with beautiful and accurate profile pages for each. I have started including the data manually in the top 50 brands where Millennials spend the most money. What I've realized is that this is actually a gigantic undertaking that requires the years and years of work that OpenSecrets itself put into it's website, to basically create my own, more simplified version. I think for the purposes of this final and getting the website published soon, I can just finish the profiles for all the candidates and the top 50 brands, implement parse with the blacklisted button, and leave a note explaining to users that this project is a work in progress.
I will be keeping the google custom search at the bottom of every page which only searches OpenSecrets and LittleSis for those looking for other brands or more information.
What I still need to work on: finding a way to make my tables fit in better with my current web design, implementing Parse.
Here is my second prototype:


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Serge Mouille, Tuyaux Wall Lightss for Atelier Serge Mouille, c.1955. Painted aluminium, brass and painted steel. / Phillips is creative inspiration for us.
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DSM's new sun care formulations: a ray of light for social media-loving Millennials
While "sun-kissed and active" or "pale and mysterious" may be desirable looks for these photos, sunburn never is. Digitally-savvy Millennials are well-aware of the importance of sun protection.[3] This presents an excellent opportunity for cosmetics producers, so we surveyed more than 1,000 people from 8 countries in the 18-29 age bracket. Our aim? To learn about Millennials' expectations of sunscreen and transform this into holistic sun care concepts featuring sun care formulations specifically for them.
No beach, no sunscreen?
We found that a larger proportion of this generation use sunscreen compared to the overall population (83% vs. 74% respectively), but only 27% reapply it throughout the day. Our survey also revealed that most Millennials only associate sun protection with the beach. What's more, their reluctance to constantly carry bulky sun care products with them means they often go unprotected.
DSM believes that Millennials are not using sunscreen as regularly as they need to because at present there are no specific products on the market specifically targeting their needs. So what would sun care products have to deliver to encourage Millennials to change their habits?
Texture, convenience and easy application – a sun care trend
DSM has identified three main wishes: a non-greasy, non-oily texture; a convenient, easy-to-carry format; and a sun care formulation that can be applied easily without messing with beauty regimes.
In response to these findings, we have complemented our sunscreen formulations with three new hybrid products- delivering additional skin care benefits beside sun protection: High Glide Moisturizing Sun Essence SPF 30, a lightweight, non-greasy and non-oily high-glide formulation for no-stress application; Total Protection into the Blue SPF 50, a moisturizing product and blue light sun care formulation with a very high SPF factor; and No FOMO Sun Stick SPF 50+, which features an opaque stick to reach key regions of the face, including around the eyes, nose and mouth.
DSM's stress-free, new sun care formulations for Millennials aim to cover all bases and offer sun protection anywhere, all year round. And because our products are hybrid formulations, Millennials can stay moisturized, start to protect their skin against the first visible signs of ageing, screen out blue light or blur skin imperfections too!


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Following a series of accidents both on and off the track, Angus Green's racing career was put on hold in 2009 when he sadly broke his back.
A familiar name to anyone involved in the IG Classic Superbike series on the continent, Angus has spent much of his time building bikes for the competition, making a tentative return to the track at the same time.
However, last weekend Angus made his first appearance at a UK race meeting in 8 years, taking a win in the process.
North Yorkshire's Croft circuit was playing host to the opening round of the North East Motorcycle Racing Club season, and Angus entered his Kawasaki ZX-7R into the Unlimited Pre-Injection class.
Weather put pay to some of Saturday's racing as a deluge delayed proceedings for some time, but a dry Sunday gave Angus the opportunity to put his treaded ContiRaceAttack Comp tyres to the test.
The opening race saw Angus take a step on the podium with a 3rd placed finish, but things improved in the second contest of the day with Angus taking a hard fought win and giving him much reason to celebrate on his racing return.
Later this year Angus will be taking his VF1000R, also sporting Continental race rubber, to the IG Classic Superbike round at Spa in Belgium.
You can find out more about the Continental race tyre range here.


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Ever think about what it takes to be famous? Just a little famous. To have your level of skill and knowledge exaggerated and magnified an order of magnitude above reality?
The answer is – not much.
Maybe only one fish for a good twenty days of fishing.
Humm. One fish in twenty days of fishing? Maybe that should qualify for passionate, or obsessed. Whatever. Ask his wife.
Imagine a guy who wants to catch a spring Chinook on a fly. Not by dredging Teeny Nymphs among schools of fish kegged in a slot upriver. This guy wants to cast Clousers to cruising fish in tidewater, swing Chartreuse Leeches in the first few riffles above tide, and entice a grab from fish so chrome they make you squint.
Imagine that this guy is really intent on catching his spring Chinook. He has friends who've caught spring Kings more than once on flies, on more than one type of fly, in more than one place. Not just the rare fish that anyone could have stumbled into. He knows it can be done. He knows it takes patience. It could take a day, two days, two weeks, or who-knows-how-long. Imagine that this guy has a very patient wife.
So he puts in his time. He fishes and fishes. He sees fish. He casts to pressure waves. He casts to rolling fish, moving fish, leaping fish, and cavorting, teasing fish. He fishes alone. He fishes with friends. He tells stories about not catching springers. He fishes in sun, in rain, and on every imaginable tide. He fishes days before the fish arrive, the day after the fish move on, and days when they show but won't grab. He concentrates. He focuses. He visualizes. His hands tremble sometimes, and his heart aches when he casts to rolling fish. But no pulls come. Not one.
He persists. The goal is worth the time. The quest itself takes on life, a ritual of sorts. His imagination never falters. He ties new flies, buys new lines, conjures new strategies.
Then one morning, threading a cast between guide-boats trolling spinner and herring spreads, he gets the grab. It comes when he isn't even concentrating. It comes when he's trying to figure out if his flyline is going to get fouled in a guide-boat's prop. The salmon is just there, an eat-it-and-turn grab that leaves no time for thoughtful hook-setting. Forty feet of running line on the boat deck leap into the air, quivering, searching for a reel handle, a rod butt, a piece of net, a gear bag, a seat edge – anything – to throw a half-hitch around.
Imagine this guy in a state of rapture. A huge smile on his face. Imagine adrenaline. Imagine reel handle busting fingertips, flyline slicing across the current, throwing water into the air.
Then imagine people in several nearby boats on their cell phones.
"You won't believe it. Yeah, some guy just hooked one on a fly. On a fly! Yeah, here, right between the trollers. Yeah, he has it on right now. Yeah, there it goes. Zxycking amazing! Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Just trolled through there a minute before he hooked it."
There you have it.
The next morning, our fly-fisher is at it again. Casting to quiet water. Casting to rolling fish. No matter. No grabs. Same old, same old. One thing is different this day, though. Now the guy is just a little bit famous. As he casts, and casts, and casts, he can overhear the conversation as people troll by, pointing.
"Mumble, mumble, on a fly! Guy over there, mumble. Fly, mumble. Yesterday, mumble, right here! Damnedst thing I ever mumble. No, really, it mumble, mumble, actually bit the mumble."
So life imitates fiction, and fiction imitates life.
Or something like that.


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Okay guys, I got such a positive response the last time I presented this format here on the blog and since I couldn't get the hologram to work 🙂 I decided to go back to this format once again. Since this session would have gone on for ever, and I found out that YouTube doesn't […]Continue reading
Well there are some very clever people out there. I notice this morning there are still orders coming in for the ebook "Phase One of Excellence in Weave Pole Training", even though I said it would no longer be available after the new DVD was released. So I went to our website and I can […]Continue reading
Yep, today is the last day that you can order my Excellence in Weave Pole Training:Phase One. That means that tomorrow we will start taking orders on our website for phase 2, my new 2-disc dvd set "Susan Garrett's 2×2 Weave Pole Training (the product will be shipped starting Friday). 12 Poles in 12 Days. So for […]Continue reading
For the last five days we have had a keen group of campers in for Skills Camp. This camp is much like puppy camp but in more detail. We can not expect young puppies to work for 5 days like these olders ones, so puppy camp is only 3 days. Even for the older dog, […]Continue reading
Okay so the video clip below is not my best geek work, but it gives you the idea of what I want to show. The whole routine just cracks me up. I am sure you guys will get a kick out if too. So, here's the deal. When I go out to train I take […]Continue reading
Well that was a blast, we had an awesome group of people here for puppy camp. It makes our job as instructors that much easier when the people we are teaching are genuinely nice to be around, and boy did we have some fun puppies. Wicca the Westie was a crack up and she certainly […]Continue reading
Day one of puppy camp was great fun, as always. It is interesting to see the demographics of the puppies we get. This weekend of the 24 puppies that are here, only 3 are Border Collies. At another puppy camp this year, 19 of the 24 puppies were Border Collies. We have as many American […]Continue reading
I will start off today by clearing up a question of an email that was sent out this morning to some of you. The Say Yes Newsletter, it is legit. It is not spam! We have just resurrected a mailing list you must have signed up for at some point. Give it a read, it […]Continue reading
Since this is supposed to be a dog training blog, I thought I should occasionally write about dog training. My winter project is to go back in time, to how I used to train 10 or 15 years ago. I am sure that sounds kind of twlight zonish to you, especially since I pride myself […]Continue reading


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Ranked #2 of 7 for Best Night Club
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Even rarer is a bill that attracts the co-sponsorship of lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus, the Black Congressional Caucus, and the Progressive Caucus just a few months before an election. But the GAIIN Act is that kind of bill.Read More
Getting anything done legislatively during an election year is difficult. That's especially true in the current political environment, now compounded by the coming fight over filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Kennedy's retirement. Yet there remains opportunity for legislative victories, even bipartisan ones, as evidenced by a recent initiative offering to pay for infrastructure by selling certain government assets.Read More


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Our taxation services specialists are prepared to assist through every step in the process of successfully filing all tax-related documents, sparing you the stress of managing your taxes and ensuring you receive the best return possible.
From corporate taxation services to accounting and auditing, MAC LLP is prepared to help your business succeed financially. We also provide comprehensive business advisory services, assisting your company in successfully executing an effective business plan.
Since our inception in 1990, MAC LLP has remained committed to serving the non-profit sector. Our team has extensive experience with charitable organizations, both in financial support and personal involvement. Our focused expertise in the non-profit field allows us to help your organization succeed.
MAC LLP was founded in 1990 with one goal in mind: to build strong relationships with clients while servicing their accounting and financial needs.
With over 25 years of disciplined leadership in the industry, MAC LLP continues to provide exceptional accounting expertise and financial guidance through our team of highly capable and skilled professionals. With offices in Waterloo and Mississauga, we can effectively serve clients across Central and South-Western Ontario.
New to MAC Client Portal? Email email@example.com for a login.


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Meet with us in Las Vegas
Verimatrix will illustrate how we are leveraging our depth of experience in IP- and software-based security to help video service providers better compete and monetize their services in the changing pay-TV landscape. Taking advantage of new revenue enhancement opportunities through cloud-based services, analytics and even IoT, and let us help you redefine your security strategy.
Scroll down to schedule a meeting to discuss your connected future and see what we will be highlighting during NAB 2019. Get free access to the show floor by using Guest Pass code: LV6525
RightsConnex streamlines multi-tier video and security workflows through end-to-end encryption, policy definition and enforcement plus upstream analytics reporting.
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Secure cloud-based measurement solutions that provide Audience, Content, Consumption and Service intelligence to optimize customer experience, retention & acquisition
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VCAS cloud SaaS conditional access & multi-DRM content protection pre-integrated with AWS Media Services video workflows


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Button cup coral sample from North Rock Cave at 200 ft depth. Click image for larger view and image credit.
Samples Collected
The Iliffe dive team has returned a remarkable and unique collection of animals from Bermuda's deep reefs that will significantly expand the collection at the Bermuda Natural History Museum. At least two new cup corals were collected along with five rare specimens of the deep water antipatharians (or black corals) and deep water gorgonians. These are the more obvious larger marine organisms, in addition to a large orange and white holothurian (a sea cucumber), and a large Thorny Oyster, Spondylus ictericus, collected at the North Rock Cave site. The associated reef fishes seen in photographs or video have not been evaluated as yet.
The greatest diversity of marine life is found among the smaller encrusting organisms growing on or in the rock material retrieved. At least five sponges, four bryozoans, three bivalves, two hermit crabs and six species of fleshy algae and three species of crustose coralline algae have been distinguished so far. Finding fleshy algae at 448 feet at Challenger Bank sets a new Bermuda record! A previous NOAA project sampled the Bermuda Seamount and the top of Challenger Bank in 1983 and 1985.
The collected rock material is left in static water for 2 days and the declining oxygen content of the water evacuates all the animals who were hiding in the honey-comb interior of the these old and heavily eroded rocks. I am sure I have at least 30 species of polychaete worms, three types of sipunculids, three nemerteans and several crustaceans (shrimps, crabs, amphipods, tanaeids). In the current sample from the fossil reef at 200 feet on the South Shore, I found at least 3 tunicates, a class of animals I had not encountered yet!
I still have two more sample lots to process but I can foresee a solid year's work ahead of me, to identify and catalog the incredibly rich biological diversity that has inhabits Bermuda's extensive seamount.
Sign up for the Ocean Explorer E-mail Update List.


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Hilton Dresden Is A Literal Icon & We're Dead
This interview has been edited and condensed. Text and photographs Sean Santiago.
So I am actually a big fan.
I think you're kind of amazing.
That's so nice.
I feel like if I had had someone like you as a kid, my mind would've been blown. Your style is so good.
That's so nice of you, thank you.
But it's so true! Where did you move here from?
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Did you bring the clothes with you? Or did you start to amass once you got here?
Not really...I used to dress very badly. I showed up at college in Old Navy yellow shorts and a purple v-neck. Like, that level bad. And my hair was really short and I had acne. I was basically out because people assumed and I just didn't deny it, but over the course of college I started to make a shift and started to wear like, brooches. By the end of it I guess I was wearing things that were okay.
Did you go more Dandy-ish? Like a vintage, dandy-inspired thing?
Yeah, I guess junior into senior year of college. And then when I was in LA I started to get into ruffly shirts, and that seemed to be really working so I was like, I'm gonna keep doing this. And when I moved here, there's a vintage store right by where I live called Harold and Maude and I found some white ruffled shirts there that I really liked. And then I started buying cheap Victorian things from thrift stores and since then I've kinda figured it out more, how I want to dress.
Were you very conscious of trying to find a better way to be dressing, or the more you way of dressing? Or were you just like, I guess I'll go shopping now?
It didn't feel like I was expressing myself how I wanted to. I kept trying to dress how I thought would be fashionable and cool and it wasn't working. I had a friend who dressed in Victorian dandy stuff and I saw that and I was like, "Oh, that's interesting," and I started doing that and that felt so much more right. That's when I started wearing skirts and dresses and getting a lot more feminine. It just felt better, more comfortable, and strangers would see me for the first time how I wanted them to. And my conversations with strangers would be for the better. It's weird. So many times the first thing that someone says to you is, "Oh, I like your shirt" or whatever. It definitely felt more natural and I was meeting people I liked more because I was wearing things that I liked more.
Did you have any blockages like, I can't or won't and don't wear XYZ because it feels like there's some sort of restriction? Or was it more like, why didn't I think of this before?
I'm very into trying out anything, nothing is really off limits. I don't wear heels that often because they hurt so much. I could buy some Syros. I have some heels that I wear that look great, but I can't wear them for a long period of time because they hurt so bad. This one pair I wore out to a party a week ago and I had to take them off at this corporate party and walk barefoot because it hurt so badly. The toe was so narrow and my feet are wide.
You definitely have to take into account whether or not being hot is gonna kill you before the end of the night. During fashion week I wore these boots that really made my look, but after just a couple of hours I could barely stand, let alone walk.
You always think you can overcome it. I still haven't learned the lesson. I always buy pants that are too tight. I have so many pants that have ripped or the zipper has broken. I still haven't learned the lesson—don't buy something that doesn't fit!
Well with the outfits that are a part of 5 Things, what does that process of getting dressed for those look like?
It began with just my clothes. It was just me and my friend Talia writing these videos and she would shoot them with this camera I bought, with a microphone. It was just us. And it still is really just us. But as time went by I started to buy clothes to wear in the videos. Then, at a certain point, I was like—I can't keep buying clothes. I can't do this. And so I started forming relationships with different thrift and vintage stores and they would just style them. So now it's sometimes my own clothes and sometimes vintage stores. At the end of the day it's so simple, I'm just trying to have fun and not take anything seriously and dress how I want.
Your dress at the Out100 was a moment. I remember seeing that and being like "Oh, shit."
The OUT100 look was maybe the best I've ever felt in my life. I wish I had better photos cause I only have iPhone photos and it's sad. And I straightened my hair for that and my hair has been a big part of this whole style thing, too, because I basically haven't cut it for a year and I feel so much better the longer it gets. So, I don't know, that could have something to do with it. Who knows what it means.
It often feels like there's no one who's maybe more easily male-identified visibly articulating what it can be to be beyond just a "guy," or to be moving back and forth and really pushing gender expression. I try to do that, but it's new territory.
Well it makes people so much more uncomfortable than seeing you on one side of the spectrum or another, or if you're really in the middle. And who cares? Even an hour ago at the deli, this woman behind me was like, "Excuse me miss," or something, which was great with me—call me miss, call me anything. And she looked at me and was like, "Oh, I'm so sorry" and freaked out and it was just crazy.
I think about this a lot in stores where people approach me regardless of what I'm wearing, regardless of what I'm looking at, and they're like "Sir, can I help you?" or "Sir, here's our men's department," and I'm like, no.
Don't tell me where to go, and don't call me sir.
Don't call me sir!! Or like, buddy.
Oh god, buddy...whenever I'm called buddy I die a little.
Right? And I feel like the thing that's so weird about masculinity is that they see you and they think, "Oh, I don't want to offend you," because being a man and being offended is the worst thing. I guess?
That touchy masculinity, which is so not something that I feel anywhere near, but people will just put that on you. And I'm not even saying that I call myself a man cause I don't really. I don't really call myself anything so it's just....I don't really know where I'm going with that. It's just difficult. And for women to stick to what is in your department, that's so dumb.
I think shopping in gendered space makes you realize how many garments are made in spite of a person's body most of the time.
Women's clothing typically fits me really well, which is kinda crazy because I have the body of a praying mantis, you know? It's like, there's nothing anywhere, and I don't have any curves. I guess basically the main point is that everything is arbitrary and bullshit and you don't have to buy from anywhere, you're not obliged to.
How did you learn to internalize that? Was there a paradigm shift in how you thought about gender, or expressing gender, or talking about gender and how much that relates back to these externalized expressions of who you are? Or are they totally separate?
They're definitely related, how I dress and how I feel about my gender. But in that I don't really care. Or, obviously I care about how I look and I care about knowing who I am, but I don't feel the need to define anything or decide anything. And I also don't feel the need to get offended if anyone decides something for me. You can think whatever you want, you can think I'm a boy or a girl or trans or not or whatever, and I don't really know and I'm not really trying to find out. I'm happy with where I'm at with it, so that's kinda how I feel about gender. And that comes out in how I'm dressing because I'm comfortable wearing a dress. I wore a dress to family Christmas. And I'm comfortable wearing pants and a shirt.
It's still difficult to go out sometimes presenting super feminine because people, you know, the world isn't ready for it all. I guess I try not to take it seriously, I try not to take anything super seriously because at the end of the day everything is just bullshit. That's my main thesis.
I like the grayness. I feel like language fails us constantly, especially in the queer community where there's so much variation and the whole point is there's not the one thing or the catchall term, so obviously the English language is going to fail and there are all these moments where we run up against the limits of language.
And that's where clothing, and maybe this is just cheesy and a reach but, that's where clothing is better than language sometimes. Because visually it's more easy to communicate sometimes what you want to say about yourself than through words you know? I mean, maybe, it's hard to find the right outfit a lot of the times. Communication is hard. And that's really what you're doing when you're dressing, you're communicating who you are. I love the idea that you're a character. And that's not to say that when I get dressed I'm like, "Oooh, I'm a pilot today."
"I'm Little Bo Peep today."
Right! In an ideal world, I would be thinking of a character, but in reality I'm just usually pulling together whatever I can find. You know?
Well it's interesting too how in the queer community, in the subset of gayness and maleness specifically, how so much of dressing is coded for a sex thing. And to turn your back on that and to actually dress to repel all the men. I had a guy approach me at a club and say "You look like a lady," but I think he was coming on to me kinda?
It's so interesting with gay men because it's so much about sex. For the longest time I was trying to dress because I wanted male attention and it wasn't working at all. And as I said before, I looked bad for a long time—all through college—I really did not look good. And I would try and wear a tank top, the more skin you show it must help you, right? Just things to try to make myself look as male as I could. I don't know. Or skinny jeans, to try to be sexy. And it looked terrible. And now I've really embraced dressing a lot more feminine and not caring about that as much anymore and I actually feel way more desirable and sexy. And I think men, or just people who are dressing in androgynous or feminine ways are hotter than a tank top. Clothing is such a factor in attraction to someone. I think the way I'm dressing is hot. I think it's funny and stupid and....
Hot, yeah. Like, I feel hot when I'm wearing that hamburger skirt and it's funny and it's...fuck this. There always has to be an element of fuck this whole thing, I think. To have someone look at your outfit and be like, "Seriously? That's what you chose to wear?" Yes, yes it is.
That's so good, just feeling that power and being in yourself and not looking for someone else's approval.
It's way hotter! The second it looks like you're hungry for everyone to think you're hot, it's not hot, you know? I mean, unless you're just a super hot person and you're hot no matter what.


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Soup weather is here as is the season for potatoes. Potato soup - where I could see the ingredients - was what I craved today.
The ingredients are simple. One onion, two celery sticks, two carrots, butter, one russet potato, fresh thyme, two bay leaves, salt, water, heavy cream. Vegetables are diced into bite-sized pieces.
The soup came together in less than an hour. Sauté the onions, celery, and carrots in one tablespoon butter for 10 minutes. Add potatoes, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and 3/4 liter water. Cook until potatoes are tender. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup so that half of vegetables are left as pieces. Add cream - about 120 ml. Top with Urfa crushed red peppers, if desired.


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Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of How I Learned to Drive and Indecent, has called for a national Ubu Bake-Off to be held on Presidents Day.
What is a Bake-Off?
A bake-off is a quickly written exercise on an assigned theme with assigned elements or ingredients that folks do within a 48 hour period of time.
What is Ubu Roi?
Ubu Roi is "an inglorious slop-pail of a play" [see the review here: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/09/08/an-inglorious-slop-pail-of-a-play/]
by Alfred Jarry, which opened (and closed) on December 10, 1896. Read a copy of the play here: http://paulavogelplaywright.com/ubu-supplemental-materials
So then.... what is the Ubu Bake-Off?
Paula has started a national grassroots movement to respond to our global crisis with a bake-off inspired by this play on Presidents Day 2018 (February 19). People will be writing plays and coming together to share them all over the country.
On Monday, February 19th (President's Day) Victory Gardens Theatre is the Chicago host of the Ubu Bake-Off.
Participating playwrights include:
Marsha Estell
Ben Fisher
Tanuja Jagernauth
Samie Jo Johnson
Jasmine Henri Jordan
Nora Anne Leahy
Nancy Garcia Loza
Brian James Polak
Isaac Gomez
Tickets are FREE but an RSVP will make sure you get a seat: https://goo.gl/forms/Dxsi0UDQ2DMBvsPx2


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The Wooden Bathtub
When it comes to bathrooms I'm usually attracted to glamorous ones. You know, maybe they have some amazing marble, gold accents or some kind of fabulous modern lighting. But there was something about this simple and serene bathroom that I was very attracted to even in its rustic style. After a moment I realized that it was the spectacular wooden bathtub that really caught my attention. It makes quite the statement. In my renewed love and respect for bathing (instead of showering) I could not help but admire this sculptural piece designed by Nina Mair. The tub and basin are carved from a solid blog of aromatic walnut and then refined, polished and oiled by hand. I can envision the bathing experience being magical.
Beautiful, right? It's a work of art in my opinion and really reminds me that there is so much beauty in simplicity.
[ images via ]


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Alan Trounson
Alan Trounson
|16 February 1946
|Alma mater
|Known for
|4 (Kylie, Justin, Karl, Alex)
|Scientific career
|Embryology; Stem cell research
Alan Osborne Trounson (born 16 February 1946[5]) is an Australian embryologist with expertise in stem cell research. Trounson was the President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine between 2007 and 2014,[6][7] a former Professor of Stem Cell Sciences and the Director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University, and retains the title of Emeritus Professor.
Trounson's areas of interest include cloning, stem cells, biotechnology, cloning for agricultural industry, gene storage and in-vitro fertilisation.
Background and early career[edit]
Trounson graduated from the University of New South Wales in 1971 with a Master of Science in Wool and Pastoral Sciences. In 1974 he was awarded his PhD in animal embryology by the University of Sydney. Between 1971 and 1976 Trounson was the Dalgety Research Fellow at the Australian Research Council Institute of Animal Physiology and Biochemistry at Cambridge University. Returning to Australia in 1977, he was appointed Senior Research Fellow at Monash University.[2]
Trounson introduced two world-first procedures which greatly improved the success rate of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). They were the use of a fertility drug to induce multiple ova and the freezing of embryos for future use. These procedures enabled more than 300,000 women worldwide to conceive successfully.
Trounson made headlines in 1980 with the first IVF birth in Australia and afterwards set up the Monash team of Wood, Trounson, Leeton, Talbot and Kovacs.[8] He was appointed a Reader in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1984 and the following year the Director of the Centre for Early Human Development. In 1991 he was appointed a Personal Chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Paediatrics at Monash University and was awarded the Wellcome (Australia) Medal. Further awards followed in 1994 and 1994 when he received the Patrick Steptoe Memorial Medal from the British Fertility Society,[9] and the Benjamin Henry Sheares Medal from the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, Singapore.[2]
In 2000, he again made international headlines when he led the team which discovered that nerve stem cells could be derived from embryonic stem cells. This announcement led to a dramatic increase in interest in the potential of stem cells to cure a range of currently incurable diseases.[10] In 2002, Tounson apologised for misleading members of the Australian Parliament by attributing the recovery of a crippled rat to embryonic stem cells, when in fact the cells were germ cells from a fetal rat.[11][12][13][14]
In 2003 he was appointed a Personal Chair as Professor of Stem Cell Sciences at Monash University, was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by the Faculties of Medical Sciences and Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium,[15] and was named Australian Humanist of the Year.[16]
Trounson was the founder and executive vice-chairman of the National Biotechnology Centre of Excellence, Australian Stem Cell Centre, as well as Global Scientific Strategy Advisor.[17][18]
He serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Genetics Policy Institute and was a founder of the Australian Stem Cell Centre.[19]
In 2007 he was appointed President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine,[20] a position he held until his return to Australia in 2014.
In 2008 Trounson was inducted as an Honorary Member in the Monash University Golden Key Society.
- Trounson, Alan O.; Wood, Carl (1984). In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer. ISBN 978-0-443-02675-1.
- Trounson, Alan; Wood, Carl (1985). In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer. ISBN 978-0-443-02675-1.
- Sathananthan, A. Henry; Trounson, Alan O.; Wood, Carl (November 1985). Atlas of Fine Structure of Human Sperm Penetration, Eggs, and Embryos Cultured in Vitro. ISBN 978-0-03-000113-0.
- Wood, Carl; Trounson, Alan O., eds. (1988). Clinical in Vitro Fertilization. ISBN 978-3-540-19534-4.
- Wood, Carl (1989). Trounson, Alan (ed.). Clinical in Vitro Fertilization. ISBN 978-0-387-19534-6.
- Gianaroli, L.; Campana, A. (1994). Trounson, Alan O. (ed.). Implantation in Mammals. Serono Symposia Publications. Vol 91. Raven Press. ISBN 978-0-88167-905-2.
- Trounson, Alan O.; Gardner, David K., eds. (1999). Handbook of in vitro fertilisation (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-0-8493-4002-4.
- Trounson, Alan O.; Gosden, Roger G., eds. (25 August 2003). Biology and Pathology of the Oocyte: Its Role in Fertility and Reproductive Medicine. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79958-4.
- Verma, Paul J.; Trounson, Alan O. (2006). Nuclear Transfer Protocols: Cell Reprogramming and Transgenesis. Medical / Nursing. ISBN 978-1-58829-280-3.
- Trounson, Alan (15 May 2002). "Stem Cell research must be carefully directed and properly conducted". Online opinion.
- Trounson, Alan O., ed. (March 2007). "Cloning and Stem Cells". ISSN 1536-2302. Cite journal requires
- ^ Clohesy, Bernadette (16 May 2015). "Two of us". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
- ^ a b c Alafaci, Annette (27 September 2006). "Trounson, Alan Osborne". Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Sharkey, David. "Life Members of The Society for Reproductive Biology". Membership. The Society for Reproductive Biology. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
- ^ Pitt, Helen (26 August 2012). "Man on a mission". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
- ^ "State Finalist Senior Australian of the Year 2013". 6 November 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ^ Kaiser, Jocelyn (17 October 2013). "CIRM Director Steps Down". Science Now. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Servick, Kelly (30 April 2014). "California Stem Cell Institute Picks Industry Veteran as President". Science Now. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Wood, Carl; Riley, Robyn (1992). I.V.F. In Vitro Fertilisation. New Edition. ISBN 978-0-85572-212-8.
- ^ The British Fertility Society – About > Eponymous Winners Archived 17 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Australian Stem Cell Centre Archived 7 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Wroe, David; Gray, Darren; Douez, Sophie (30 August 2002). "Monash Uni gags Trounson as MPs ban cloning". The Age. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ "Uni denies gagging Trounson". The Age. AAP. 30 August 2002. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Knight, Ben (29 August 2002). "Professor Trounson defends himself". AM. Australia: ABC Local Radio. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Kelly, Fran (29 August 2002). "Has Trounson affected the future of stem cell research?". The 7.30 Report. Australia: ABC TV. Archived from the original (Transcript) on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Australia Day – Victoria – What's On – Ambassadors Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Australian Humanists Of The Year Archived 30 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "Cloning and Stem Cells". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
- ^ "ISSCR Officers". International Society for Stem Cell Research. Archived from the original on 25 June 2007.
- ^ Trounson, Alan (12 April 2007). "Alan Trounson talks with Robyn Williams". Talking Science (Interview: video/audio). Interviewed by Robyn Williams. Australia: ABC. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- ^ Weekes, Peter (16 September 2007). "Stem cell pioneer joins science exodus". The Age. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
External links[edit]
- Fleming, Katherine (11 December 2007). "Titan of the test tube". The Bulletin. ACP Magazines.[permanent dead link]
- Trounson, Alan (20 April 2008). "Dr Alan Trounson". Sunday Profile (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by Monica Attard. Australia: ABC Local Radio. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
- Trounson, Alan; Trounson, Kylie (11 May 2015). "IVF pioneer's daughter brings the controversy to the stage". The World Today (Interview: Transcript; streaming audio). Interviewed by Simon Lauder. Australia: ABC Local Radio. Retrieved 3 September 2016.


text: Looking to meet new girl friends Tallaght Clondalkin Lucan area 👍 Discussion Lyns 19/04/2017 at 11:43 pm #52610 Early thirties mum looking to meet a new circle of friends for lunch dates play dates and the occasional night out. Hard been a stay at home mum you feel like you have lost contact with the outside world 😂😂 Anyone interested in joining a gym I'm in 👌 Mail me [email protected] Ms876 01/05/2017 at 9:15 am #52697 Hi Lyns, I'm also a stay at home Mom, but have most weekends free. I'm not far from Tallaght. Always up for coffee, playdates, etc. You must be logged in to reply to this topic.


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You are here
Study Shows Association Between Sleep and Sperm Quality
April 29, 2013
New research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology says men who don't get enough sleep could also be at risk of decreased sperm count.
The study is a first of its kind to examine the association between sleep and sperm quality. Other studies have examined the association between sleep and men's health risks, or even sexual activity.
Danish researchers recruited 953 men participating in a fitness evaluation for military service in Copenhagen between January 2008 and June 2011. Each participant provided a semen sample, blood draw, and underwent a physical examination and health questionnaire about sleep disturbances.
Men with greater levels of sleep disturbance had 29% lower sperm concentration and 1.6% decreased morphology than men with better quality sleep.
This study further suggests the impact of sleep on fertility (we know women's fertility is compromised by poor sleep quality and duration). This data is just another reason for couples who are trying to conceive to get to bed!
For more information on sperm quality and quantity, check out this Semen Analysis Reference Guide on FertilityAuthority.com.


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I primarily shoot landscape and cityscape which requires me to take a long exposure and bracketed shots. Even though there is no hard-and-fast rule, there are few generally accepted practices among the photography communities for the camera controls and the settings, camera and the lens types and the list of accessories one should have to get better results. Usually, combining a full frame (FX-Format) camera with the wide angle lens gives you the best possible frame for the landscape or the cityscape shots. If you shoot with a higher resolution DSLR, you can crop the images, change the composition during the post-processing and still have enough pixels left in them to print in a larger size. If you are more interested in shooting buildings and architectures, you would get better results by using the tilt-shift lens which allows you to move (tilt and shift) the part of the lens in relation to the image sensor in a wide range of directions and gives you the better and more natural perspective of the structure.
Since I stepped into the photography world in 2009, Nikon D810 is my fourth DSLR but second full frame camera after D700. The decision to upgrade D700 to D810 was influenced by the need for a moderately higher resolution camera which was designed and marketed for landscape photography. Over the last 10 years, I have tried and shot in different camera settings and lighting environments. I have traveled to many places to get a good shot and also made countless mistakes repeatedly. I have learned the most from my own mistakes which gave me some invaluable lessons about what to do and what not to do during the shooting process. All these years of mistakes and countless teaching moments gave me my own set of camera controls and the settings to follow. Today, I want to share that information with you and get your feedback if you have any.Read More


text: Share: Comments Print February 8, 2012 at 1:16 PM Mariners might not be as young as we thought — at least not right away Posted by Larry Stone (Carlos Guillen, photo by Associated Press) For the Mariners, this is a season predicated on youth. It's the essence of "The Plan" that's going to lead the Mariners out of the darkness (they say). It's the reason that Jack Zduriencik pleads for patience while all this young talent coalesces. It's the central meme for 2012: the Mariners are going young, with all the pitfalls and all the payoff. Obviously, the shining hope for the future is the young core of players that broke in last year (Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, Casper Wells, Mike Carp et al, with new addition Jesus Montero), backed up by the wave of young pitchers knocking on the door (Danny Hultzen, James Paxton, Taijuan Walker). But a flurry of late signings makes it apparent that the M's aren't quite ready to turn this thing over to the kids, lock, stock and bat barrel. Kevin Millwood was signed on Jan. 24, and if I were a betting man, I'd wager that the old warhorse is going to be in the rotation if he doesn't completely self-destruct in spring training. Manager Eric Wedge said recently that he's never seen a veteran provide more leadership than Millwood did when he pitched for Wedge in Cleveland. It sure sounds to me like he wants Millwood, now 37, to win a job, and I expect him to do just that. Hasashi Iwakuma is going to almost certainly be in rotation as well, and even though he's a rookie by major-league standards, he's 30 years old and has several seasons in Japan under his belt. Throw in incumbents Felix Hernandez and Jason Vargas, and the Mariners have room for one kid in their rotation, with Hector Noesi, Blake Beavan and Charlie Furbush to fight it out. Moving to the bullpen, the Mariners earlier this week signed two veteran relievers, Hong-Chih Kuo (age 30) and Shawn Camp (age 36) to major-league contracts. That doesn't make them a lock to stick in the Mariners' bullpen, but it sure gives them a leg up. Two other veterans, Brandon League and George Sherrill, are already set. Assuming a seven-man pen, that leaves maybe three spots for the "kids" — unless 33-year-old Aaron Heilman, who is coming to camp on a minor-league contract, makes the team. Shawn Kelley, who is young but not exactly an untried rookie, is also strongly in the mix. Tom Wilhelmsen, who flashed great promise last year, has an excellent chance to make the staff as well. He's not young (age 28) because of the hiatus he took from baseball, but he's youthful in major-league experience. That leaves the likes of Chance Ruffin, Cesar Jimenez, Rule 5 selectee Lucas Luetge and perhaps Furbush (if he doesnt crack the rotation) to fight it out for the remaining bullpen berths. In the lineup, obviously the Mariners will have young, developing players at first base (Smoak), second base (Ackley), designated hitter (Montero, who will also catch, though how much is still unclear), and left field (Carp, Wells). But the signing of 36-year-old Carlos Guillen last week, along with the way Wedge has been talking up Chone Figgins (age 34), makes it possible that Kyle Seager will begin the season at Tacoma, as Geoff speculated recently. The M's are also going with veterans at catcher (Miguel Olivo, age 33), shortstop (Brendan Ryan, age 30), center field (Franklin Gutierrez, age 29), and, of course, right field (Ichiro, age 38). The bench could be rounded out by either 30-year-old Munenori Kawasaki, another technical rookie who is a veteran Japanese player, or 31-year-old Luis Rodriguez, along with catcher John Jaso, who will be in his third full year. It's impossible to predict exactly what will happen in spring training. Millwood and Guillen might show that they have nothing left and get cut, leaving rookies to take those roles. Figgins could get traded. Seager could seize the third-base job, or one of the youngsters currently ticketed for Tacoma might have such a great spring that the Mariners simply can't leave them off the roster. And it's important to realize that, just like last year, the Mariner team that starts the season isn't likely to resemble the one that ends it — or even the one they'll field in July. Hultzen, Paxton, Seager and others like Vinny Catricala could work their way onto the roster, and into prominent roles, as the season progresses. And who knows what kind of growth players like Trayvon Robinson, Carlos Peguero and Michael Saunders — all of whom seem to have played their way out of all but long-shot contention for an Opening Day roster spot — will display? The Mariners are undeniably skewing young, but with guys like Millwood, Guillen, Kuo, Camp and Sherrill brought in, they are hedging their bets a little, and providing Wedge with what they hope is some veteran stability and leadership. However, in a season in which contention is almost certainly not in the cards — and if it does, by some shocker, turn out to be the case, will surely be prompted by breakouts from young players, not revivals by faded veterans — it seems to me that they should live and die with the kids. I realize there's always the danger of damaging the confidence of a young player thrust into a role for which he's not ready (see Robinson, Trayvon). But if the Mariners are not going to bring in prime-time players, I'd rather look at Seager, or Alex Liddi, or Catricala, than Figgins trying one more time to find himself, or the last gasp of Guillen. I also realize that managers find great comfort in veterans like Millwood, and he could have value in imparting wisdom to the Beavans of the world. But if this season is about the youth, I hope they turn it over to the kids sooner rather than later. We've seen enough last-gasp veterans the last few years. Comments