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Recommend a title for bookclub
Click on a title to read other users' comments or to post your own comment:
A Good Place To Start
|Me Talk Pretty One Day
|Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
A Bad Place To Start
|Holidays On Ice
Categorization is odious. There is tremendous overlap among genres. These pigeonholes are offered only as a convenience.
David Sedaris
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Please consider recommending where to begin reading this author, or where not to. A few words about your experiences reading this author and why you make the recommendations you do will be helpful to other users. If you are the author or have studied this author extensively, please say so.
wijmlet August 26th, 2008 01:40 PM PST
ENGULFED is not as good as his other books: too many rambling anecdotes instead of unified essays/stories.
Please consider entering an additional brief biography here. You can Google this author by clicking here.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sedaris
David Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is an American essayist and radio contributor.
Sedaris was born in Johnson City, New York, and was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He first achieved prominence in 1992 with the radio essay The SantaLand Diaries on National Public Radio?s Morning Edition. It was also broadcast in the UK on Radio 4 in 1996.
Several compilations of his essays have been published in books such as Naked, Barrel Fever, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. He can occasionally be heard reading essays on radio programs such as This American Life, or read in Esquire and The New Yorker. Much of his humor is autobiographical, concerning his family life, jobs, education, and relationships.
David Sedaris lives mostly in France with his partner, Hugh Hamrick. More recently he has purchased an apartment in London. His sister, Amy Sedaris, is a writer, cupcake chef, and actress. She starred in the short-lived but cult-classic comedy series Strangers With Candy. His brother, Paul Sedaris (AKA "The Rooster" and "Silly P"), runs Sedaris Hardwood Floors in Raleigh, North Carolina. Paul is married and recently became a father.
In 2001, he was named "Humorist of the Year" by Time magazine and received the Thurber Prize for American Humor. His newest book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, released in June 2004, hit the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List for Nonfiction.
He also is a much noted playwright, having authored along with his sister, actress Amy Sedaris, several plays under the name "The Talent Family." These include: Stump the Host (1993), Stitches (1994), One Woman Shoe (1995)and The Little Frieda Mysteries (1997) which where all produced and presented by Meryl Vladimer, when she was the artistic director of "the CLUB" at La MaMa E.T.C. He also co-authored Incident at Kobblers Knob which was presented and produced by David Rockwell at the Lincoln Center Festival.
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NPR Humorist and Best-selling Author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
David Sedaris may well be the closest thing the literary world has these days to a rock starhis speaking engagements are now consistently standing-room-only, a far cry from his early days as a housecleaner in New York City. Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his strange-but-true experiences of his job as a Macys elf clad in green tights, reading his SantaLand Diaries on National Public Radios Morning Edition. His sardonic wit and incisive social critique have since made him one of Americas pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which Sedaris slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
David Sedaris is the author of the bestsellers Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day, both of which became immediate bestsellers. Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name The Talent Family and have written several plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center, and The Drama Department in New York City. These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, Incident at Cobblers Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was published in book form by Dramatists Play Service. His essays appear regularly in Esquire and The New Yorker.
Sedaris original radio pieces can often be heard on This American Life, distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ in Chicago. In 2001, David Sedaris became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He was named by Time magazine as Humorist of the Year in 2001. His book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim was published in June 2004, and an anthology of stories, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories, edited by David Sedaris, was published in April 2005. In 2005, David Sedaris was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album ("Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim") and Best Comedy Album ("David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall").
From http://www.barclayagency.com/sedaris.html


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Rather than close down Rosenbush Café I am making fundamental menu modifications coinciding with obdurate circumstances beyond my control.
The Saturday Midnight Movie series has been cancelled due to indifference from readers and personal impassiveness anticipated because of current business outside the realm of the ether and Rosenbush Café. The previous films will remain in the archives under El Cine: Entertainment Section.
I may revive the series, if there is interest; however, with increasingly difficult times ahead I need to focus my consciousness on circumstances requiring all my concentration since it is a solitary effort.
Our Main Course will eternally feature Kalliope Amorphous and I am resolute in promoting all of her successes: exhibits, featured works in publications, on the ether and in the corporeal world, and each of her professional sites. Kalliope is the most significant artistic influence today in the world of self-portrait photography, poetry and writing. Her inspiration has encouraged me to continue my activities even in the face of personal disenchantment.
All menu links will remain and there will be new ones added when essential to my pursuit of artistic, imaginative and inspirational meditation.
Hypnagogique will remain on Mondays; however, since I am not a skillful poet I will revive older material rather than devote time to an area of expertise outside my purview. The conclusion of the two-part reminiscence of my journey to Maine will be featured Monday.
Wednesday Ladies' Night will be truncated and essentially offer beloved music, from my discography, with brief illuminations concerning the performers and continue published under Obsessive Collector.
There will be weekly eXisTenTiaLNihLisT treatises; two more for May: "Encounters with Mental Renovations of Soul's Property Condemnation" will explore sinister regions of the psyche and the accepted obliteration of personal freedoms, and "Hatching Inspiration from the Misery Egg" investigates mythological archetypes, as an enduring alternative to ordinary existence on this planet.
Occasional feline essays will appear and later this summer I propose to take all of the CSP (Cool Side of the Pillow) stories concerning my experiences with Alzheimer's disease and my mothers' death and merge them into a multivariate series. I will delete a number of insignificant past entries from 2007-08 or, when applicable, repost them with revisions.
I neither consider my actions frivolous nor my accomplishments meaningless; I will not vacillate in continuous publication of this blog; however, it is imperative I conclude my mission to liberate my spirit and I have the chutzpah to succeed.
Thanks to everyone for their support of this free enterprise and your ongoing patience is appreciated beyond simple words from my humble heart.
Henry B. Rosenbush
Rosenbush Cafe Midnight Movies
Saturday's Midnight Movie: Quatermass and the Pit
Earthlings, pay close attention to this weekend's Midnight Movie which when released in 1967 was controversial due to its subject matter that the human race owed its survival to Martians. The Catholic Church issued warnings to its flock that the film was a sacrilegious attack on organized religion! Only the most blinkered viewer will find this film heretical or contentious while all others will enjoy the "What if" leitmotif of human life manipulated by otherworldly intelligence.
One of my all time favorites is the Hammer Films release of Quatermass and the Pit; third in the four film series by Nigel Kneale and part of this writer's brilliant 1950s BBC televised programs. QP is profound and played straight and with great performances by a host of excellent British actors. Combining science fiction's "What if?" leitmotif, world mythology pertaining to gargoyles and the Devil, telekinesis and religion, QP is somber and is the kind of film where naught is wasted on superfluous subplots or ineffectual special effects.
A signature quote from the film, once an earthman realizes his genuine ancestry; I knew I was one will chill your blood to frosty temperatures once seen through the perspective of the comprehensive film.
There will also be a retrospective of the other Q films; The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2 and Quatermass Conclusion and a look at the BBC programs that introduced Professor Bernard Quatermass into the science fiction film character lexicon.
Don't be fooled by the trailer; this is a serious and exceptional film guaranteed to make one think about the true origins of human life on earth and the consequences of ignorance.
Lumières Provided Light; Buñuel's L'Âge d'Or Banned
Lumière translates, in English, as light, and brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas (1862-1954) and Louis Jean (1864-1848), born in Besançon, France, would light up early cinema with a significant impact.
Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), operated a photographic firm, where the brothers worked, and after his retirement began making films. They were responsible for several historic patents, including film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud), allowing film to move through projectors; Louis took the dry-plate process, for still photography, and made major improvements leading towards moving images.
The license for the their film camera known as the cinematograph, was originally attibuted to its creator French inventor Léon Bouly in February 12, 1892, but was purchased by the brothers after Bouly was unable to pay for the patent for the Cinématographe Léon Bouly and lost it to Auguste and Louis.
The Lumière's first film was Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon (1894). In this collection of ten short films, the subject matter ranges from employees exiting the Lumière factories in Lyon to a train arriving at La Ciotat, a baby eating and a bit of slapstick humor involving a sprinkler. These selections, like last weeks' from Edison, came from the 1994 Blackhawk Films DVD, "Landmarks of Early Film" (1886-1913) which is still available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble and a must for any collector of serious cinema.
While watching my copy again, in preparation for this series on early cinema, I was constantly in awe by the simple silent beauty of early movies and how genius from the human mind, of these pioneers, took still photographic images and, through the creation of new technologies transported us into a new dimension. Everything we enjoy about today's movie experience was made possible by these innovative and, unfortunately, often under-appreciated or forgotten, inventors.
The next time you are sitting in a darkened theater, awaiting the feature presentation, take a moment to pay homage to these pioneers and how thay took brief glimpses of reality and merged it with imagination to create an entirely new art form.
Lumière's films, like Edison's, looked at everyday life and ordinary experiences. Today's jaded audiences would probably be bored at the simple joys of early cinema and that is naturally a shame because it is easy to fantasize about the pioneering days when each new image was something never seen before as captured on moving film. Many take for granted, in contemporary cinema, that in the beginning the images of people walking, eating, pulling pranks on one another and enjoying themselves were profound experiences when viewed on film for the very first time.
Another early classic of the silent era is Luis Buñuel's 1930 L'Âge d'Or (Age of Gold) and his second film following 1929's Un Chien Andalou.
L'Âge d'Or (1930), attacks organized religion and society and like, many future films by the celebrated Spanish director, was banned in most parts of the world. At the original screening, it so enraged audience members that some of them went through the lobby and destroyed Dadaist art works, on display by Salvador Dalí (who scripted d'Or with the director), Joan Miró, Man Ray and Yves Tanguy.
The 62-minute silent subtitled collection of interlinked vignettes offered everything from a documentary on desert scorpions to the sight of the hero throwing, from an upstairs window, a donkey, plow, feather pillow and archbishop!
The film opens with a scene of two lovers writhing in mud during a ceremony to commemorate the founding of the Eternal City of Rome. The film is an eye-opening experience containing just about every surrealist symbol possible and among the cast are fellow Dadaist artists Max Ernst and Paul Eluard.
Not for everyone but for lovers of the Dadaist art movement it will be more enjoyable, especially seeing the many surreal tropes that will become reoccurring leitmotifs throughout Buñuel's filmography, including: religious iconography subverted, lavish dinner parties where nothing goes as planned and the fetishistic desires of men.
Café News Bulletin
Edited on 12.22.12 11p
Left this post up out of respect but there is no longer the same menu as when this went up March 22, 2010. Many projects were dropped due to diminishing interest.
"We Never Close" is an abstruse existential expression meaning that even while most of you are sleeping the café continues, equipped with delights to feed hungry souls by satiating appetites and quenching thirsts, with desirable cocktails of diversions that will embrace isolation from spiritual loneliness.
Monday is for poetry (Laughing Ricochet); Wednesday, Ladies Night; and Saturday Midnight Movies (El Cine) presents retrospectives of Avant-Garde, Surreal, Dadaist, Foreign, Documentary and Esoteric Cinema.
The arduous procedure of locating non-operational links, disconnected movie excerpts, trailers and music videos, missing photographs and editing of past blog posts for syntactic errors and wide-ranging erroneousness continues daily.
Older posts that are pertinent to contemporary stories are being re-edited, updated, and in many cases, removed from their original publish dates and reissued for new readers to enjoy. eXisTenTiaLNihLisT, femme fatale felines and the MIFW-B and Obsessive Collector columns will continue when the menu permits.
Kalliope Amorphous is "Our Main Course" and her extraordinary talent as poetess, photographer and humanitarian is a highly recommended banquet. Reservations are never needed and there are plenty of literary, visual and musical treats available on her sites.
Still thirsty? We'll pour you a glass of literary sustenance at LK Thayer's Juice Bar
Early Cinema: From Sneeze to Train Robbery
Rosenbush Café Midnight Movie series continues with a retrospective of landmarks of early cinema with Edison Kinetoscope Films (1894-96), and "The Great Train Robbery" (1903). Next weekend will conclude with the Lumière Films (1895-97) and a preview of April's films.
I contacted the American Film Institute for their view on early films and received this reply from their catalog staff:
"Although the AFI does not endorse particular theories about which film was the earliest, we can tell you that many film historians name Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, which was released in early 1894, as the first exhibited film."
Fred Ott, an Edison employee
An early bit of surreal slapstick comedy; later essential Monty Python's Flying Circus restaurant parody leitmotifs:
Edison's early films depicted everyday events like the simple act of kissing, more daring in the 19th Century, and what may be considered mundane rituals by today's jaded theater goers, that nonetheless fascinated audiences in the 1890s: a woman feeding birds, boxing match, serpentine dances, men in a barber shop and the cute "Seminary Girls" with pillow fighters in nightgowns, again daring for its time, but tame by even Saturday morning television cartoon standards today.
In addition to everyday life the earliest films included nude women in poses with the esthetics of animated French Postcards. These shots are far more risqué than Edison's or Lumière films and the scantily clad ladies were displayed walking, sitting and generally exposed in a manner that in today's cinema would probably result in a PG rating!
Tonight's cartoon comes from Max (Popeye) Fleischer and is called Bimbo's Initiation (1931). Plenty of the usual toon surrealism with the living candle flames a personal favorite. A story of "membership" for a secret organization (Knights, Masons or whatever) with the gallows humorous Fleischer style; M.C. Escher inspired moving staircases, faux exits, nifty score and cameo by Betty Boop!
Tonight's feature presentation is the silent western, "The Great Train Robbery" by former Edison Studio cameraman Edwin S. Porter, who directed and photographed the "on-location" story (many early films were shot on sets) and employed many clever techniques including: double exposures, cross cutting, simple editing and camera movements to the mostly linear narrative story. Some prints had hand colored scenes (watch closely at the 7 minute 14 second mark when the daughter of the bound telegraph operator arrives). The final frame is the famous iconic image of a robber shooting at the audience! Could qualify as the first 3-D effect, sans glasses.
This scene has inspired many filmmakers, most notably Alfred Hitchcock, who used it in "Spellbound" (1945), when Leo G. Carroll turned a pistol towards himself, and the audience, to commit suicide. Hitch used one color frame, in the otherwise black and white psychological thriller, as the gun fires towards us and Carroll's head! Spellbound was famous for artist Salvador Dali's dream sequence (really more like a nightmare considering the Surrealist's unnerving imagery) that provides psychiatrist Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) with information to unlock the troubled mind of colleague Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck).
If you are interested in this era, the AFI suggests:
"American Silent Films" by William K. Everson.
the Library of Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division LOC
The Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscars
The final examination of the landmarks of early cinema concludes Saturday, March 27th with Lumière Films and my reposting (from October 15, 2008) of Luis Buñuel's L'Âge d'Or.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Please do not reply directly to this email. All additional comments should be made in the comments box of this bug report. Summary: Review Request: scrub https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=181803 ------- Additional Comments From woodard redhat com 2006-02-17 12:51 EST ------- Here is a new version of the spec file and the srpm which fixes the missing rm -rf in the install section. http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/diskscrub/scrub.spec http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/diskscrub/scrub-1.7-3.src.rpm -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are the QA contact for the bug, or are watching the QA contact.


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Mark Rotstein is the creator of Equilibrium Partners, Inc. He loves his work with the firm and believes firmly that he is able to do great things for the families he connects with in this capacity. However, he sees himself, first, as a family man.
He is married to Melanie Rotstein and they have three children together. They are both active in their children's co-curricular activities and give generously to the schools their children attend.
Mark attended University of Toronto from 1985 – 1989 where he earned a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Neuroscience and Psychology. He then went on to attend Schulich School of Business where he earned his Master of Business Administration Degree in Finance.
Today he has put his education to good use in the industry of helping others. His primary interests lie in the role of Family Office. It is in this role that Mark is able to build strong relationships with his clients and become a trusted, and essential part of their lives. He sees himself as someone who plays the role of "family quarterback" for families that need a little help managing their assets in a way that satisfies their desires for philanthropy and need for growth.
It's a delicate balance that Mark's temperament and experience are ideally suited for. Because he is so devoted to building strong relationships with the families he serves – and to maintaining a balance with his own family – Mark keeps his client list short.
This allows him to provide an appropriate amount of access to his families, while still being a supportive presence in the lives of his own family members.
Mark believes it is important to stay grounded with his own family even while building strong connections with other families. From volunteering to work with his children in their own co-curricular pursuits to fun family vacations, family is important to Mark Rotstein. This is something he has in common with the clients he serves as family office.
While all of his clients aren't necessarily large families, many of them are, and it is important for them to make sure that the needs of all family members are met without risking their charitable endowments and the bulk of the family assets. That is where Mark comes into the picture for them.
He helps manage the day to day aspects of their holdings so they can focus on the things that are most important to them rather than managing the minutia of money matters. Because he takes on the burden of these enormous responsibilities on behalf of the family, they are able to enjoy the privileges that go along with their enormous responsibilities.
Mark Rotstein is a man who believes in working hard, when the time comes. He provides extraordinary access to his clients so he can serve their needs best. But, he also manages to make time for his own family without sacrificing service or involvement in the lives of his clients. Isn't it time you take a look at what Mark Rotstein can do for your personal needs and those of your family?


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Sturdy, yet affordable scissor jack for lifting motorcycles for service or cleaning.
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Heat treated hex drive turns robust worm gear for precise height adjustment.
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The ACCC has decided to allow large companies 24 hours to remove offensive or misleading comments from their Facebook pages, whereas SMEs might not be treated so strictly.
ACCC and Facebook: SMEs to Receive Leeway
Last week, the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) ruled that Facebook pages would be considered as the advertising brand's own marketing material. As such, any user-generated post has to comply with advertising standards or the company behind the page will be liable.
Since then, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has told large companies with Facebook pages that misleading or inappropriate comments must be removed within a 24 hour timeframe.
This has caused some concern among small online retail operations that often gain plenty of traction in social media, but might not have the resources to police their pages as frequently as this ruling requires.
Fortunately, ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court told SmartCompany that some allowances would be made for SMEs.
"It seems to me that if you're a big corporate player like a bank, Coles, Woolies or the airlines, if their are using Facebook one presumes they have fairly sophisticated systems and they are going to become aware of anything misleading pretty promptly," Court said.
"If you are a mum and dad company with a Facebook page and there is a false representation up there, and they genuinely have not looked at it for a week or so, the ACCC may not be impressed. But I can't see that we would take action."
Ivan Lim, Founder of bespoke pureplay menswear store Vinspi, says that this development only serves to reinforce the basic tenets of social media use, and that many businesses won't need to worry about being affected.
"Ultimately, it has always been up to retailers or brands behind those Facebook pages to moderate the content that appears. Things posted on their page get associated with the brand, so it's in their best interest to stay on top of the content and most businesses are really good at it already," Lim says. "That's the nature of social media; it's not a one-way communications tool. It's about engaging with your audience and being proactive with the resulting dialogue."
Lim believes that there are some other techniques retailers should consider employing to ensure quality and authenticity of user-generated content on their Facebook pages.
"Stay on top of your social media no matter what platform," he says. "I believe every brand should clearly communicate a set of House Rules for their page, so that every user is aware of the boundaries and that certain things, like discriminatory comments for example, will be removed."


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From "Creating Good Work—The World's Leading Social Entrepreneurs Show How to Build A Healthy Economy," by Ron Schultz:
If social entrepreneurs are in the business of creating deliberate disruptive design to solve pressing social issues, it is imperative to understand why the changes they seek to bring about succeed and why so many fail.
About a decade ago, my colleague and mentor, Howard Sherman, had introduced what was in essence "a theory of business action" that described how change takes place. It was amazingly concise and we had written about it in a book we had produced together. It was known as "principles, models, rules, and behaviors."
The concept was simple: principles were ideas that because of their nature rarely if ever changed. Models were what we built to emulate principles. Rules were those things we put in place to maintain the model and guide behaviours; and behaviours were what we did to live the principles, based the on the models we built and the rules that governed them.
It remains that if we cling to outdated principles—no matter how clever our models—we change nothing. If we change our principles and our models, but still cling to old rules, our behaviors don't change, and we change nothing. If we change our principles, models, and rules, but keep our old behaviors in place, as had been the case during prohibition, things not only change according to the new design, they can get much worse.
✦ ✦ ✦
Esha Chhabra (@esh2440), writer and "Change in the Making" contributor, caught up with Schultz to get his take on social entrepreneurship.
Q: Why a compilation? You've been involved in this space for a long time now. Why not write it in your voice, threading all these stories together?
A: Each of them has their own expertise, their own knowledge and their wisdom. When you combine that together, there is a tremendous ability to make things work. These people know what they're doing and I want it to be about the industry, something that would inform the industry. It's not about me. I don't have all the answers. It's about them—their wisdom.
Many of these individuals were friends, people that I've known for a long time since I've been a part of this community. Some of them were people that I admired—Dorothy Stoneman of YouthBuild USA, for example. I think she's brilliant. Billy Shore, who runs Share Our Strength, is another. Eighty percent of the people that I asked said yes immediately. I didn't really have to fish for it.
So, the book goes from theory to application to practice. For me it was more about organizing all this.
Q: What are some common threads that emerged?
A: One of them would certainly be the idea of "think bigger or go home." Another is that this is not something that happens overnight and takes a lot of work and dedication. Thirdly, it requires someone who is a true believer, who puts their heart and soul into it, aside from just the hard work. And lastly, it's about relationships, relationships, relationships.
Collaboration is key to making this work. I recently wrote a piece on "Rugged Collaborationism." We've got to move on from the rugged individualist that John Locke championed. It's brought down so much of society. The era of Davey Crockett-ism has to end. We have to see ourselves as rugged collaborationists.
Q: What does the social enterprise ecosystem still lack?
A: Well for one, it's still lacking awareness, given that only a small portion know about it. It's also disparate—it doesn't have a singular identity. I don't know if it needs to have one necessarily.
Also, this perspective of scalability has not really worked in the best interest of social entrepreneurship. Scalability is a real industrial age term. It doesn't really capture the complexity of the relationships involved in these enterprises.
We should look at replicating models. And they have to be applied according to the environment, the culture, the surroundings. It's not just about scaling up but replicating with the local system in mind.
Q: So, the "one size doesn't fit all" idea, right?
A: Right. We have systems that can accommodate change but we have to be willing to change. Right now, we have systems that have artificial barriers. We need to open up those boundaries.
Q: An example would be . . .
A: The economic meltdown is a great example of where there wasn't any resilience in the system. It was too rigid and so it burst through those boundaries. We need to start realizing that you have to change the systems as well, that they ought to be evolving.
So, the key to replication is to accommodate the changes and redefine the boundaries.


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Ok so here is my full opinion.
If anything sounds a little harsh it's not meant to at all, I think your game is great.
Particularly I like the animation and all of the layers in the graphics and the idea.
Graphically I feel like some of the effects clash a bit with the style. Mainly the fire power and the waterfall effect. They jump out in a way that makes them feel a bit corny. I'm not sure how I would get them to mesh better, but for example the cloud effect on the mountains in the background is an example of an effect that meshes well. I think if it works well you barely notice it's there.
I'm running the game on a laptop with an intel i5 processor at 2.3 ghz and with 8 gb of ram. I played the lowest setting and didn't notice too many performance issues, there was a spot where 2 spiders were on the screen and one of the elks and it got a bit choppy, and seemed to stay that way for a while after. Not consistently choppy though, just sporadic jerks here and there.
Control wise, I don't have any problem with using WASD, but I feel like I would use the arrow keys for movements, and WASD for the magic powers instead. For most people I think their right hand is their dominant hand, so it would probably make more sense to have that one in control of the movement.
I might speed the wolf up a little bit, but leave the jumps a little slower like they are, just to give it a good flow.
I found the branches a bit frustrating. I feel like I would change it so the branches on the same tree that are parallel you can run straight across, but you can't stop in the middle. That would make it feel a bit more fluid and more fun to jump around from place to place.
I think the spiders work alright as an enemy but would figure out something for them to do instead of just waiting for you at the edge of their platform.
All in all I find this pretty inspiring, I'm glad to get to play an early version of it, and want to encourage you to keep working on it!


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Thanks for checking back in. This week it's time for a new RETRO REVIEW, featuring a Marvel Comics book. Drum roll please ... From 1979, it's Rom # 1, or if you prefer, Rom Spaceknight # 1, cover dated December 1979. Before I get to the actual comic itself, maybe I should share a little backstory about Rom. Rom … [Read more...]
You are here: Home Archives for Richard C. Levy
RETRO REVIEW: Rom # 1
March 27, 2015 by Greg Turner 3 Comments
Filed Under: Action Figures, Comic Books, Featured Tagged With: Bill Mantlo, Bryan L. McCoy, comic book toys, comic books, Fabulous Finds, Frank Miller, Joe Rubinstein, John Buscema, Marvel Comics, Parker Brothers, Retro Review, Richard C. Levy, Rom # 1, Rom Spaceknight # 1, Sal Buscema, Scott Dankman


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Garnet Brocade Sedum
Garnet Brocade Sedum
This is my favorite of all Sedums I have grown.
As sedums are succulents they hold water in their leaves, makes for them to be somewhat drought tolerant.
This new cultivar (Garnet Brocade Sedum) is similar to the old standby 'Matrona', but has more of a purplish cast to the foliage and a better habit. The purplish cast is better known if you give it the adequate sun it needs to turn the leaves to this beautiful color.
'Garnet Brocade' has a more compact hybrid stonecrop that typically grows in an upright mound to 14" tall and 18" wide.
It is noted for having succulent burgundy bronze foliage and garnet red flowers. Flowers bloom in flattened cymes from late summer to fall. Flowers are attractive to butterflies and bees. U. S. Plant Patent Applied For (PPAF).
In late fall burgundy flowerbuds open to garnet red sprays of flowers that butterflies flock to in droves. Yes butterflies love the flower of all sedums.. It is such a joy to watch them flock to the sedums when in full bloom.. Great food source!
Full sun. Hardy to zone 4.
Happy Gardening
Diane Mumm
1 Opinion
Jacki said:
Love the combination of the Sedum 'Garnet Brocade' and the yellow coneflower behind it, and the pale lemon flower in front. I'll have to remember that…


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OK, the Democratic president who insisted, "Si, Se Puede" hasn't kept his promise to make immigration reform a top priority. Furthermore, he has deported more Latinos than anybody in history, despite the fact that there are fewer undocumented people to arrest.
So getting the Hispanic vote should be easy for the GOP, which continues to insist that Latinos are Republican but don't know it. In essence, conservatives say Latinos are voting against their own interests, which is ironic considering that Republicans depend on their rural white base to do exactly that.
There's just one problem.
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text: > ffberry wrote: > > > > I want to know whether there is any web site which provides the > > service of protein motif search. Baylor College of Medicine has a pretty nice server, too: http://dot.imgen.bcm.tmc.edu:9331/seq-search/protein-search.htmlRon Tate Cheers, AJW --------------------------------------------------------------------- John Watson Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. watson_j at bms.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." ---------------------------------------------------------------------


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text: Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'( This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats! Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice. Lets have some fun, post some piccies of your favourite 80's and 90's legends. I will start with the A-Team. Stop giving me your jibber jabber fool!


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How To Maximize Your Enjoyment of Netflix Instant
So my grand return to posting regularly hit a snag when I realized I am tired as hell and still a lazy person, but I will try to add a modicum of value with a short post. I recently detailed what a huge pain in the ass it is to decide on a movie at Chillyville these days (Editor's note: technically it's SOville, but that doesn't have the same ring to it). As part of my continuing contribution to the non-advancement of the species, I will make this selection process easier for you.
For one thing, you can basically just skip the movies entirely, unless you have a hankering to retry The Long Kiss Goodnight (held up about as well as Geena Davis' breasts) or an underappreciated horror classic like Trespassers (full disclosure: I'm in this movie, so may be biased). Don't get suckered in by the fact that they list 75 movies in each mini-category ("Foreign comedies starring ex-athletes") – you only need to go through those once – they add like one movie per 7-8 months on there, and it will be listed first. So if you invest some time to glance through the detritus once, you don't need to do it again. Invariably they will have something that's pretty new once every five weeks that fits in like nineteen categories, but most likely you will have already seen it (The Fighter). Stick with TV shows and documentaries and just opportunistically pick off movies on Netflix as they fall in your lap.
(What the hell is wrong with Netflix marketing? So they split out the streaming and the mail services, and decided to call the mail service Qwikster??? Shouldn't that be what you call the streaming service? Oh, that's right, you need to preserve the brand, and streaming is ultimately gonna be the whole business. Dumbasses – should've just called it Mailster.)
Sh*t I Told You To Watch 500 Times and You Never F*cking Listened To Me – Now They're Gone and I Hate You
Friday Night Lights – On a scale of 1 to The Wire, I rate this show about 90% Wire. (Or if you prefer more conventional scoring, it's like The Wire without Sargeant Jay, the large-but-not-quite-jovial fellow.)
Party Down – There is literally a zero percent chance you will not love this show. It's pretty close to perfect – great characters/writing, great acting, creative liberties allowed cable shows (aka, boobs). I have watched it three times, it's hilariouser every time. Seems cynical, turns out to be sweet – sort of like a cinematic Blow Pop (okay, that analogy doesn't really work perfectly because both parts of a Blow Pop are sweet, but it is surprising. Maybe it's more like a Tootsie Pop).
British Shows You Probably Could've Watched at Least Some of on BBC America, but Who Has Time To Flip Through All 1031 Channels?
The IT Crowd – I'm not a huge fan of traditional British humor like Monty Python and Mr. Bean (the latter is a joke, I hope), but I do enjoy quite a few British sitcoms. They either push the Standards & Practices further than in the US, or British people just don't really give a sh*t about sexual, um, innuendo isn't the right word…maybe frankness? Actually, The IT Crowd isn't all that dirty, I'm more thinking of Coupling – also a Netflix Instant show, but it's a bit older and has already even had a failed US version – but it is borderline stupid. (One of SO's British friends on hearing we watch this show: "It's rubbish." Also, it had a U.S. version starring Joel McHale, but the pilot never even made it to air. Good thing, he is about as wrong as possible for the role of Roy – perfectly played here by the cop in Bridesmaids.)
The show is basically what the title says, it's about a couple of IT nerds and their boss, who isn't quite a nerd but she isn't quite as cool as she'd like to be either (and she knows nothing about computers). There are goth vampire dudes, lawsuits stemming from bottom kissing, and transgendered misunderstandings. The creator, Graham Linehan, should be given credit for the fact that even Bin Laden loved The IT Crowd.
Pulling – Almost like a UK version of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia – largely despicable characters doing generally despicable things. That might be a little harsh, despicable's probably too much. But they are not great people (unlike me – I'm at home down south and haven't had any alcohol for a week. It's like f*cking Leave It To Beaver up in here). It's about a chick who dumps her fiance and then struggles to find happiness (I realize it doesn't sound like a Chilly show, but there is a lot of boozing and debauchery in here). The best part of the show is no doubt her ex-fiance, Karl, who manages to elevate the role beyond funny sad sack. Typical UK show, 12 total episodes, not a huge time investment. Worth it.
Beloved US TV Shows That Both Had Dave Foley or That One Red-Haired Chick (Note: May Be Inaccurate)
Arrested Development – Given all the recent fanfare about the AD movie and new episodes, I would be remiss not to include it here. Probably all the comedy dorks will have already seen it, but worth revisiting before its triumphant (and I'm sure low-rated and poor-box-officed return). A nutty family does nutty things. (Okay, I am shocked that Dave Foley was never on this – he's had at least a guest stint on every sitcom for the last 15 years.)
NewsRadio – An incredible cast of talented actors does nutty things. Important note: Netflix Instant only has the first three seasons, so it's all Phil Hartman. No one wants to see the Lovitz ones – there's a bunch of ominous stuff in here though that is sad in light of what happened to Hartman. Also a bizarre reference to former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell in one sequence where Lisa is a VJ for a day, who was also murdered – on-f*cking-stage – at a concert in Ohio in 2004. If you can get past the Hartman tragedy (and the fact that many people think Andy Dick got his wife back on drugs) you will find that these shows really hold up. Great for watching on the iPad before bed.
Documentaries About Vicious Animals That You Should Not Watch Just After Eating
Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom – I learned that wolverines are not yellow and blue, that they can survive off just animal bones for a winter, that their back feet land further ahead than their front feet while running, and that they are adorable. Cool show.
Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas – I learned that hyenas are f*cking disgusting – siblings kill one another just to prove who mom should like best (they may even eat the loser, I blocked several parts of this from my memory – also, both sexes have penis-like protuberances), that male lions can do some serious damage when pissed off and not to get attached to any character in this show because they all die. Hey, a cute lion cub. Is that a huge f*cking scorpion over there??? Is that f*cking scorpion eating that baby lion?!?!? This is more unsettling than Human Centipede (First Sequence), but somehow pretty entertaining/depressing. You will be glad you're not a f*cking male hyena after watching, though. So there's that.


text: > > I'd like to have voice detection so that it records only when I > talk. I'm sure there is some existing software that does this so > writing new is not necessary. > It will be harder to do than this because : * even if the soft exists, I have no knowledge to use it (my coding skill are very thin, I don't know how to make librairies, signals and all this type of things communicate * the environment of the freerunner is ofter noisy * the process must stay awake in "wait" mode, so it uses CPU. * the freerunner can receive a phone call So, my simple voicenote soft will really focus on taking one note at a time, with the simplest code possible. Could you please tell me in wich context you will need voice detection ? Kimaidou -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/attachments/20090220/f091b705/attachment.htm


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Ten years at the top
Australian paddle-boarder, Jamie Mitchell, has dominated one of the world's most challenging ocean races - the Molokai Challenge.
Source: 7.30 | Duration: 6min 1sec
Topics: surfing, surf-life-saving, hawaii, coffs-harbour-2450
BEN KNIGHT, PRESENTER: Australians have had a great year in the surf in 2012, clinching both the men's and women's world titles. But there was another lesser-known ocean triumph. Australian Jamie Mitchell took out the world's toughest paddle board race, the Molokai Challenge, for a record 10th consecutive year. There was a film crew on hand to document the last year of Jamie Mitchell's decade of dominance. Conor Duffy reports.
JAMIE MITCHELL, PADDLE BOARD CHAMPION: Basically, the Molokai race is the most prestigious paddle board race in the world. It starts on the west side of Molokai island and goes to the east side of Oahu. You are basically paddling from one island to another in one of the most dangerous, treacherous channels in the world many
CONOR DUFFY: Coffs Harbour-born Jamie Mitchell spent the year honing his body and mind for the rigours of the world championship of paddle boarding. When he reached Hawaii he had to again face one of the most dangerous waterways in the world - a 55km long paddle through an area known to locals as the "Channel of Bones".
JAMES MITCHELL: There's definitely been deaths out there, you know, lots of boats have gone missing, and the famous Hawaiian life guard Eddy Aikau went missing out there, trying to save the crew of his boat that he was on. So yeah, there's been lives lost. I won't say that any paddle boarders have lost their lives out there, and hopefully not any time soon, but it's definitely a dangerous channel.
CONOR DUFFY: As other paddlers from around the world arrived, Jamie Mitchell had an extra challenge: clinching a 10th consecutive world title. A first in professional water sports. The race is little known in Australia, but its competitors receive respect and admiration from some of surfing's biggest stars.
KELLY SLATER, 11 TIMES SURFING WORLD CHAMPION: I can't imagine standing on Molokai looking across to Oahu, thinking, I want to paddle there. You know, so intimidating! I don't know why you'd do it.
JAMIE MITCHELL: A race like Molokai, you're exhausted, you are spending anywhere from five to six hours in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the heat, battling dehydration. You finish and you have skin off your feet, off your knees, you are rashed everywhere. It's not for the faint of heart.
CONOR DUFFY: To complete the event, Jamie Mitchell needs a support boat and a strategy.
JAMIE MITCHELL: I want them to have to chase, to feel like they are under pressure.
CONOR DUFFY: He said during the difficult moments the team keep him going.
JAMIE MITCHELL: I've had sharks follow me throughout the race. The biggest thing is when you start to hit the wall, in athletes's terms, you hit the wall, and you don't think you can go any more, and you have to try to find a way to get through that.
CONOR DUFFY: Even though this race is fiercely contested, there is a camaraderie that comes from sharing the dangers of the Channel of Bones. Before the race, the competitors, some even in wheelchairs, form a circle, in respect of what they say are sacred waters.
JAMIE MITCHELL: There's always a winner in every sport, you know, but in this sport, the guy who comes across in last place gets more cheers than the guy who comes across first place. Just purely the fact we all started from A and got to B, and no matter if you're first or last, everyone gets the same sort of stoke about getting across there. So we are a real tight-knit community.
CONOR DUFFY: Once it's under way, it's five hours of pain in the race to Oahu.
JAMIE MITCHELL: You have sharks and jellyfish and flying fish. Just really demanding heat, dehydration, and getting all that... having that all in one, and then you have to try and just actually finish the race. It's just a really challenging, tough race.
CONOR DUFFY: From early on, Jamie Mitchell sets the pace.
SUPPORTER: Come on, Jamie. Four hours, four hours, you can break it!
CONOR DUFFY: In an effort that earned the respect and envy of paddlers all over the world, Jamie Mitchell took out his 10th straight title. Latching onto a solid wave he cruised into Oahu for his big win.
ANNOUNCER: Jamie Mitchell, world champion! Molokai, to Oahu, Jamie Mitchell, 10 times world champion!
CONOR DUFFY: As he celebrated, he learnt he'd even set a new record. Jamie Mitchell is too humble to brag, but perhaps the greatest surfer of all time will do it for him.
KELLY SLATER: For what he does, he's really second to none. It's hard to compare anyone to what Jamie has done. He doesn't try to stick out or boast about what he does; he's a humble guy and just a nice person, he's always smiling.
CONOR DUFFY: Jamie Mitchell still doesn't know if he'll aim for an 11th title, but he will certainly be paddling the Channel of Bones again next year, even if it's just for fun.
JAMIE MITCHELL: I'm not sure what's in store next year. I'm pretty busy right now and I've got a lot of opportunities. So I'm not sure if I'll be going solo or doing in a team or something else. It's always something I want to keep doing for the rest of my life, until I can't do it any more. It's just such a challenge.


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It's not just a name, it's a description that says it all. Drop-proof, plunge-proof, and a pretty good swimmer, this LED lantern is rechargeable and lasts up to 40 hours." Most LED lanterns rarely last more than a season. That's why we built the Rugged Lantern. When stuff happens it not only survives, it shines.
Zippo Rugged Lantern SpecsHeight: 12.0″ (30.5cm)Width: 5.8″ (14.7cm)Depth: 5.8″ (14.7cm)Weight: 5.5lbs (2.5 Kg)
© 2018 - Zippo Manufacturing Company - All rights reserved


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Is That Wrong?I cried once when my b/f went out early on the morning of my birthday while I was asleep and bought me flowers, balloons, cake and a few presents. When he came home he told me to stay in the bedroom while he was busy setting everything up. When I came into the room, I started to cry. It was the most beautiful birthday I ever had. I cried for 20 minutes and he asked if I was ok, I said yes and that this was the most anyone had ever done for me. Then I kissed him.
Romance should never die! Guys should not be afraid to show that side to their woman.
deleted 26-30 3 Responses 3 Sep 8, 2010
If we only had a kind of replay button for guys. They do the one or two thoughtful things and then we hit the replay button when we need them to do it again.

Don't worry LL63....most guys are like that! At least we know the thought is in there SOMEWHERE!!!

Now where's that remote? I need to hit the replay on my hubby!
Hold on to him tight!!!!

There are surely not many like him around.
wow... im happy for u.. wish i could exp. that too... ;-)


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5 CT CZ Engagement Ring
£ 103.47
- Vedete's Fake Engagement Ring - 5 CT CZ Diamond is made to resemble designer-inspired vintage style rings.
- This CZ engagement ring features a striking 5-carat princess cut center stone.
- The CZ center is bordered with pave set stones that continue partially down each side of the band.
- The sterling silver, electroplated design gives a luxury look of platinum.


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EIGHTY tattoo artists have signed up to support a brave dad's fundraising event in memory of his wife and daughter.
Ian Richardson, 40, from Billingham, has announced details for the North East Tattoo Expo from Saturday, June 14 to Sunday, June 15.
It will be held at The Arc in Dovecot Street in Stockton, and will include 80 artists over five storeys of the building, entertainment and an auction to raise money for the Jo and Mya Memorial Fund.
The fund was set up in memory of Ian's wife Joanne, 40, and daughter Mya, six, who died in August 2010 in a car accident.
The event has special significance for Ian, as Mya had written him a special note not long before the accident.
It told how she loved her daddy "more than anything".
Ian, who works in Hartlepool, said: "I had my first tattoo immediately after the accident with the message from Mya."
This is the third tattoo convention for the fund and he said: "We are building it up.
"They have been fantastic for the charity before and the feedback from the artists is that they have loved it."
The expo will run from 11am each day. For more details, visit the memorial fund's Facebook page.


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Welcome, friends, to our corner of the web! On this Leap Day, we're hosting our second {digital} dinner party as a way to take a pause and enjoy an exchange with fellow travelers we've met through Twitter. For the backstory, see #RTWdinnerparty: Friends, foods, and table talk from travels around the world.
Pull a chair to the table and enjoy! When you're done here, head on over progressive-dinner-style to our friends' #RTWdinnerparty dishes and stories. Link roundup at the bottom of the post.
{Meet and Mingle} Bethany and Ted, here. Welcome to our dinner party. We're just eight weeks into our journey around the globe; this hot on the heels (ha!) of eight years of dreams and schemes and plans.
As landscape architect and social worker, we're taking time during travel to experience and share observations about the world through the lens of compassionate care for the planet and its people. At each destination, Ted puts new friends at ease, investing in conversations and teasing out details; Bethany heads up writing and photography to wrestle with tensions, catalog milestones, and share with readers an honest look at life across cultures.
Beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina is temporarily home base.
We arrived on Valentine's Day, via a harrowing airplane ride from southern Patagonia (see Daily Travel Journal Day #41). We've paused for a bit and set up house in a cozy little apartment, complete with seafoam green glass shower tiles, cement kitchen countertops, and a solitary steak knife. (Details forthcoming on the cutlery.)
{Dinner Specialty} Summer Salads
We could <insert salad photo> right here and be through, but, well, you've seen Portlandia, right? It's not all a joke. You're going to hear the story of the food before it's served.
We bid farewell to the season's corn and tomatoes and peaches about six months ago, in Oregon, but sweet resurrection of flavor is now upon us in the southern hemisphere!
In the Pacific Northwest, it's grey skies and drizzle about now. In Buenos Aires, it's harvest time!
At home in Portland, we were often up to our ears in fresh fruits and vegetables, sourced from excellent farms around the Willamette Valley. Ted's and my celebrated pastime is cooking together and hosting friends for long-planned and last-minute meals. Almost as soon as we dropped our bags at the flat, we were off and running to find a source for local, sustainably sourced ingredients to feather our new culinary nest. (Birds. Fruit. Mixed metaphors. You get the gist.)
Our first destination: El Galpón Organic Market in Chacarita near Lacroze Station.
Sponsored by the Asociación Mutual Sentimiento, El Galpón emerged as a space for farmers and social organizations (Centro Comunal de Abasteciemiento) to provide consumers with natural products, without pesticides, in order to promote the importance of environmental responsibility, protection of worker's rights, and fairly priced organic and sustainable food purchases. The organic craze has yet to hit the city, but with the help of the CCA and the MAPO (Movimiento Argentino para la Producción Orgánica), slowly but surely they are working hard to encourage awareness of the benefits of organic production and consumption. -Pick Up the Fork
Feeling giddy as though we'd found a SE Portland time/space warp, we claimed armfuls of favorites and packed them home through Subte transfers and a sea of funny stares.
Golden ears of corn
Brown speckled eggs
Raw milk in recycled bottles
Blue cheese and cheddar in thick, delicious slabs
Fresh loaves of wheat bread
Sweet heads of garlic and paper-skinned onions
Perky radish bunches and shiny purple eggplants
Mushrooms and chorizo
Small batch jars of jam and dulce de leche
Potatoes and pickles and pears and plums
And, of course, an aromatic bunch of basil to truly make the kitchen feel like home…
Perfection until we returned to the apartment to prepare a feast and discovered one tiny problem:
A quick scour of our "well-appointed" center of domestic living revealed: no kitchen towels and no kitchen knives. Towels, we could live without. One scrubby sponge pinch hits for most chores. A kitchen knife, on the other hand? We'd been using our charming Opinel on the trail, but it was still buried in the backpack.
Queue the silverware drawer's solitary steak knife, in all its serrated glory!
We made this little baby work hard for its home: slicing plums, dicing onions, chopping peppers, cubing potatoes, and teasing out crumbles of cheese…
Buenos Aires' sweltering February heat and humidity meant boiled corn and potatoes and a quick sauté of onions went straight to the fridge and returned once cool to mix with tomatoes, mushrooms, and basil for a bright veggie salad.
A quick combination of plums, apples, and fresh raw milk cheese in bowl number two, and voilà!
Two blissful summer salad to brighten our table and christen our kitchen.
On the road, beat-the-heat vegetarian flavors, courtesy of an Argentinian steak knife.
{Table Talk} Updates on our recent travel escapades:
The past two months of meals brimmed with adventure, conversation, listening and learning as the riches of other cultures infused our lives with fresh appreciation and deeper curiosities…
Sweet mangoes and kindness in the slums of Lima.
Fresh fried trout in backcountry tents on the Inca Trail.
Rainy season BBQ in Jupapina.
Indigenous Andean grains at the nursery in Mallasa.
Unsalted tomatoes and beef on the Salar de Uyuni.
Thirtieth-birthday wine and chocolate in Torres del Paine.
Craft beers and the future of Chile in Puerto Natales.
Sweet little salads in our own home-sweet-home-away-from-home in Buenos Aires…
Foreign flavors, new-found friends at the table, richness and zest for life, somehow all still characteristic of that very same elemental truth we experience whether home or abroad: broken bread, shared with dear ones, bringing life.
To our digital friends participating in the #RTWdinnerparty, thanks for being a part of our online community, for sharing your stories and experiences and photos and thoughts, for being honest and lovely and bringing beauty to the world.
To our friends at home reading along, thank you for the kind notes and updates, thank you for the memories of meals and conversations and the promises of future reunions to enjoy more of the same. We love you all so much, and this experience of the world is made richer for knowing home is a place of deep roots and dear people.
We're contentedly settled in one spot until the 14th of March, when we again pull the house apart, stuff our lives into bags, and carry on toward the next series of discoveries. Come the 21st of March, we set sail across the Atlantic Ocean, spending 16 days making our way along the coast of Brazil, visiting ports at the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and Casablanca, and stepping into the next chapter beginning in Barcelona, Spain.
Sail along with us here on the blog, keep in touch, and enjoy the meals between now and when we see you again!
Bethany & Ted
February 2012 Leap Day #RTWdinnerparty link-up:
(We'll continue adding links as #RTWdinnerparty posts are published)
@twoOregonians – (Salad) Summer Salads in Buenos Aires
@BeersAndBeans – (Appetizer) Bloomin' Onion Bread
@InspirngTrvlrs– (Drinks) New Zealand, Chilean, and Belgian Beer
@RTWsomanyplaces – (Drinks) Oregon Microbrews!
@backpackforever – (Main Dish) Guatemalan Chicken with Jalapenos & Onions
@idelishtravel – (Meat) Genghis Khan Style Grilled Mutton
@NewYorktoNomad – (Dessert) OnoPops in Honolulu
Interested in participating in the next link-up? Invitations are issued by @twoOregonians.
Head to the #RTWdinnerparty page for details and watch @RTWdinnerparty for updates.


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On September 19-21, 2014, in San Antonio, Texas, top experts from Casey Research—as well as many well-regarded guest speakers—gathered to discuss the most important issues facing our economy today and presented on how to position yourself to thrive … [Read more...]
The Asian Age of Transformation
Stocks in Cyprus Are Down 98%—Time to Start Edging In?
Doug Casey in Cyprus: Crisis Investing in Action By Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor, International Man Readers who have been with us for a while know that I've been hinting at the project Doug Casey and I have been working on in Cyprus for a while … [Read more...]
Will Africa Finally Shed its "Dark Continent" Image?
For centuries now, Africa has been a wild and unknown place full of impenetrable jungles and steeped in mystery earning it the name the "Dark Continent". Several countries in Africa including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, and Rwanda are embarking on … [Read more...]
Is This the Time to Buy Real Estate in Portugal?
The time to buy is when everyone else is selling. That holds true not only for stocks but also for commodities like Gold and Real Estate. Another truism is to buy when you least feel like buying. Right now an extremely out of favor asset is real … [Read more...]
Monetary Mayhem From Myanmar
Editor's Note: Several years ago, I was in Thailand and decided to visit Myanmar (formerly Burma) from the Thai border town of Mae Sai just to get another stamp in my passport... I've visited a lot of third world countries and seen some pretty … [Read more...]
Spotting New Trends: Knowing When to Go Against the Grain
Spotting New Trends- It is said that hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to think, "If I had just bought apartments in Paris in the 80s, or tech stocks before the bubble, or gold in 2000 or 2001, I'd be sitting on a fortune right now." The thing is, … [Read more...]
Doug Casey: A Eurocrash Is Baked in the Cake
Euro-Crash In an interview with Louis James, world traveler and legendary speculator Doug Casey makes a compelling case for becoming a "permanent tourist" to be best able to survive the coming economic crash. Louis James: So Doug, you're off to … [Read more...]
Trends: Which Way Will Japanese Economy Go?
Japanese Economy Japan has been the number 2 economy in the world for 40 years but in 2010 it fell to 3rd place as the economy of China has continued to grow while Japan has stagnated for the last decade. Japan has an aging population and a mature … [Read more...]
Japan's Debt
Cashing In On Japan's Debt Conundrum? By Robert Ross, Casey Research On the heels of Fitch's sovereign credit downgrade to A plus (the fifth-highest investment grade), Japan's government debt continues to swell. With its debt at over 200% of … [Read more...]
Is the United States Headed Down Europe's Financial Road?
Europe's economy is contracting The recent Greek debt deal produced a big collective sigh of relief, plus some cheers for that massive liquidity injection into Europe's banking system. It was time to grab a glass and offer a toast to the coming … [Read more...]


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This movement touches something in me much too profound to ever describe with words. I was always the type to watch uprisings and protests on tv or reading about them online. Finding stories in books and articles, stripping them from the plots of favorite movies. Always passionate and inspired by the truth but never driven enough to take part. As the years progressed I found myself paying more and more attention to the decay, the lies seeping through a fragile psyche. I pushed inside of myself for a reason as to why things felt so wrong. I couldnt fathom the thought of a failed system. The system was all I knew for so long. Institutionalized completely. Blinded by heavy doses of medications and propaganda. Eventually I was able to peek beneath the haze and hear things I had never listened to before. In the midst of learning myself I found Occupy. Or, rather, it found me. In a time when things seemed bleaker than they had ever been. In a time when I no longer had the haze to shield me from reality. A movement was rising and shifting to tilt the axis. There were others who had felt displaced. Who had been shafted. Who had fallen through the cracks of a depressingly fallible system. Left behind or ignored, others voices had been stifled. And they found me. Listlessly channel flipping. Following the politics and the rhetoric with a growing sense of disillusionment. A revolution was beckoning the long since hushed voice within. It heard the call and found its way to my heart. It spoke and said Rise Up. Shake loose those chains and the bindings you've grown so accustomed to. Feel the beating heart of generations coming together as one for the greater good. My heart was occupied before I knew what Occupy really was. And I will never be the same. And neither will this nation. Thats more than worth it.
When They Ask Me Why, I Say...
BY Jalyssa Elliott


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The Commission responds to state and federal mandates at the direction of the local jurisdictions. Currently MPPDC has no active projects responding to mandates. For a list of previous projects please click here
MPPDC Living Shoreline Financing
Loans & Grants for Living Shoreline Installations
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The Hong Kong Financial System: A New Age (Economics & Finance)
This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description of the financial system of Hong Kong, a system which has undergone immense changes in recent years. The book, written by scholars and professionals on the finance sector, covers all aspects of the financial system-commercial banking and non-depository institutions, the major financial markets, and information technology.
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Atletico Madrid sports director Jesus Garcia Pitarch has taken responsibility for not signing Villarreal midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme.
Pitarch explained: "We had the possibility to take Riquelme on loan for very favorable financial conditions, but after speaking with (coach Javier) Aguirre, we decided his arrival would have changed our playing system.
"It was too risky to change everything at the last minute, even if Riquelme is a great player. I assume the responsibilities for this decision."


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It's been a while since I posted a Friday's Find. I'm a sucker for tortilla chips. Most of them are naturally gluten-free, so it's not a big "Wow!" when I find a gluten-free tortilla chip that I like. But when a company strays from the essential ingredients of corn, oil, and salt, gluten can sneak into the additions. So I usually stick with the three-ingredient tortilla chips.
But every once in a while the taste buds ask for something a little different. I was glad to stumble upon these RW Garcia Tortilla Chips that were clearly labeled "Gluten Free" when I needed that different taste.
I sampled three varieties of RW Garcia Tortilla Chips. But all I really needed was to taste a single chip to know that these chips are now my new favorite.
The Veggie Chip bag contains three types of tortilla chips: Spinach & Garlic, Red Beet & Onion, and Tomato & Sesame. I LOVE these chips! While I adore a spicy salsa, I just couldn't dip these chips into another flavor. They are so delicious on their own that salsa wouldn't have been right. And I love that they are made from organic, non GMO corn. And look at the ingredients! Nothing but wholesomeness and natural flavors (meaning real natural flavors and not "natural flavors"…whatever that means).
Ingredients: organic stone ground white corn, sunflower oil or corn oil, sesame seeds, tomato powder, garlic powder, onion powder, carrot powder, spinach powder, red beet powder, salt, water, and trace of lime
The Flaxseed Tortilla Chips were also delicious on their own with a subtle nutty taste, but they were much more scoopable. I'm already a huge flaxseed fan because of their Omega-3s, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. I toss them in everything to boost nutritional value, so why not enjoy flaxseeds in a chip?
Organic corn chips dotted with flaxseeds make for pretty chips. (I know, that's what you look for in a chip, right?) But they're sturdy, crispy, and delicious as well.
Ingredients: organic stone ground yellow corn, organic soy grits, sunflower oil or corn oil, organic brown flaxseed, sea salt, and trace of lime
The Mixt Bag is exactly that, a mixed bag. It combines two of their all natural tortilla chips into one bag. I chose to sample the Red & Yellow Tortilla Chips, and I couldn't have been more pleased. Enjoy the Veggie Chips on their own at home. Dip the Flax Chips in hummus. But this is the party chip! Bring on the salsa and dip to your heart's content!
Ingredients: stone ground white corn, stone ground yellow corn, sunflower oil or corn oil, red beet powder, sea salt, water, and trace of lime
Yellow and red tortilla chips will make any snack table look festive.
Mixt Bag also comes in Yellow & White Corn Tortilla Chips and Yellow & Blue. But I just can't get over the beauty of the Red & Yellow.
I've been looking for a new favorite tortilla chip since Garden of Eatin' has disappointed me with too many bags of burned chips, and since I discovered that Food Should Taste Good Blue Chips contains evaporated cane juice. (Why does anyone think that a chip needs sugar?)
RW Garcia, thanks for keeping it natural, wholesome, and completely delicious.
Other gluten-free chips made by RW Garcia:
- Classic Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips
- Classic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips
- Blue Corn with Flaxseed Tortilla Chips
- Spiced Flaxseed Tortilla Chips
- Organic Blue & Yellow Mixt Bag Tortilla Chips
- Organic White & Yellow Mixt Bag Tortilla Chips
- Thai Sweet Tortilla Chips


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Category Archives: Afghanistan Forum
The Capstone Conference on "Countering Violent Extremism – Lessons Learned and Ways Forward" is rounding up the last two years of CPAU's CVE efforts in Afghanistan
Over the course of the last two years CPAU was actively taking action for countering violent extremism in Afghanistan primarily through the second phase of our main CVE project to encourage and facilitate the knowledge sharing and information exchange between international Islamic scholars and Afghan religious scholars, leaders, and civil society on the issues affecting Afghan lives including CVE, conflict resolution, peace building, and women and youth empowerment. The program is based on the promotion of intellectual discourse and academic debate through diverse perspectives and aims at promoting and increasing support for religious and cultural tolerance and for embedding pluralism and women's rights throughout Afghanistan.
All our conferences intend to give participants the tools and opportunities to become leaders and advocates in the promotion of positive social change and to take on a more active role in proactively shaping Afghanistan's future while also promoting gender equality and a moderate religious perspective in countering violent extremism.
The Capstone Conference was held on June 4-5, 2016 at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and gathered many high-level speakers, including Members of Parliament and Government officials as well as leading Islamic scholars and civil society representatives. CPAU was especially pleased to welcome Professor Hashim Kamali, author of the book "The Middle Path of Moderation in Islam. The Qur'anic Principle of Wasatiyyah",founding CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), Malaysia and leading Islamic law expert originating from Afghanistan as keynote speaker of the conference.
The aim of the Capstone Conference was to reevaluate our CVE efforts and lessons learned so far as well as to think and discuss about innovative and effective strategies, approaches and ways forward in order to tackle the threat violent extremism is posing for Afghanistan and the region.
Increasing community policing and strengthening common efforts for CVE – CPAU brought together community members and police forces for two days of discussions, talks and group work in Kabul city
Security forces play a central role in protecting civilians and their human rights. When the need of civilians for protection, justice and dignity is not met by state security forces, they will start looking for the satisfaction of their basic needs elsewhere, potentially turning toward extremist and terrorist groups offering such services. Consequently, it has to be understood that a lack of rule of law, corruption within the security sector and the associated violation of basic human rights by the state forces presents a main driver of radicalization and the recruitment by violent extremists. Therefore, community-oriented policing and the building of strong relations between police forces and communities can prevent the spread of violent extremism.
On this topic, CPAU organized a two day event, including informative speeches, discussions and productive group work, in Kabul City on May 18-19, 2016 as part of a series of conferences with different topics relevant to countering violent extremism.
During the workshops, participants developed some recommendations for the improvement of community-police relations such as capacity building within the police forces based on improved training, better equipment and higher levels of education. Furthermore, the level of community policing should be increased by building trust through a number of measures like identifying community needs and organizing meetings between the people and police forces to enhance their accessibility. As weak points have been identified a lack of a national mission and coordination as well as the absence of satisfactory knowledge on and awareness of the rule of law.
All participants thanked CPAU for organizing such event to bring the public and security forces together to discuss the issues that are hampering the development of their good relations.
The role of media and of religious scholars was also highlighted for increasing awareness and the commitment was made to support security forces in countering violent extremism.
Countering Violent Extremism: CPAU conducted a two-day conference in Kunduz Province on the role of women and youth in CVE efforts
Young people tend to be adventurous and in search of purpose, meaning and status in their lives while going through the different stages of personal development. When the government and society fail to offer possibilities for youth to translate this energy and striving for purpose and meaning into positive actions, young people start looking for other sources of purpose. Violent extremist groups often fill the void and offer a disillusioned, frustrated, and disenfranchised youth guidance and purpose and moreover a sense of belonging. In this context, it has become clear that youth radicalization and recruitment is often based on social bonding rather than ideology as well as it is fueled by a feeling of injustice rather than poverty. The disregard of young people's need for identity can lead to a sense of alienation within their homes, communities or countries and consequently can prompt them to turn to violent extremist groups to find recognition, fellowship, and identity.
Especially in Afghanistan – with one of the world's youngest populations – youth are the primary target group for violent extremist recruiters. This means that young men and women need to build resilience against radicalization tendencies and therefore play an important role in CVE.
Moreover, CPAU acknowledges that women not only are victims but play a crucial role in identifying early warnings of radicalization tendencies within their homes and families. Most importantly, however, they are to be considered agents of change and therefore have to be seen as equal partners in the fight against violent extremism and terrorism.
In light of this initial situation, CPAU organized and conducted a two-day conference on the role of women and youth in preventing and countering violent extremism in Kunduz province held on May 9-10, 2016.
As part of its wider CVE efforts, CPAU organized a conference in Takhar Province on Preventing Radicalization in Prisons and Rehabilitating and Reintegrating Violent Extremists
In the face of violent extremism, prisons may provide a 'safe haven' and breeding ground for terrorists to network and to recruit and radicalize fellow inmates. This is further enhanced by a lack of suitable prison cells and a corrupt prison and justice system which are causing great damage for society and overall security.
However, prisons – when controlled and well-managed – can also constitute an environment that can be used to foster positive change and to disengage terrorists from their extremist ideologies and to rehabilitate them.
Therefore, it is important to have an efficient, just, and transparent prison management as well as appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration programs in place in order to prevent recidivism and to counter further radicalization and recruitment of violent extremist fighters.
As part of our CVE work in Afghanistan, CPAU organized a two-day conference and workshop in Takhar province on May 7-8, 2016 on the above introduced topic.
The event was aimed at facilitating intellectual and informative speeches and discussions in order to promote cultural and religious tolerance and pluralism among civil society members, traditional and religious leaders and government officials who attended the conference.
Some of the key points identified were that the present state of violence in Afghan prisons fuels into the spread of extremism. Therefore, it is essential to eliminate torture and every form of discrimination within prisons. Furthermore, it has been suggested to provide education and training opportunities for prisoners in order to present them with an alternative to violence and extremism and also to increase their awareness of Afghan laws. Finally, it has been proposed to establish rehabilitation centers for ex-prisoners in order to reintegrate them in communities and the society and to counter the spread of violent extremist ideologies.
CPAU organized a Workshop in Kandahar Province for Identifying Political and Economic Opportunities for Communities Vulnerable to Radicalization
As an important aspect of its Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) efforts in Afghanistan, CPAU organized and implemented a two-day conference and workshop to identify appropriate political and economic opportunities for vulnerable communities in order to prevent radicalization processes.
The event took place in Kandahar Province on April 21 and 23, 2016.
It has to be noted that political and economic factors can leave certain communities or individuals susceptible to radicalization and recruitment by violent extremists based on social marginalization, poor governance or denied basic services. Oftentimes, radical and extremist groups use these grievances to their advantage and fill the void by providing the communities concerned with basic civil services, including a form of governance, a political voice and a sense of cohesiveness and identity. In order to prevent the almost automatically ensuing recruitment process and the further alienation of the public from the GIRoA, it is of utmost importance for the central government – with the support of external actors such as international donors and aid agencies – to provide vulnerable communities with appropriate political and economic opportunities.
To identify local peculiarities in this context, CPAU gathered civil society members, government officials and other key stakeholders with different backgrounds in Kandahar to discuss current shortcomings and to jointly develop recommendations and solutions for the future. It has been realized that violence and extremism have a negative effect on a country's economic development as it scares away investments, hampers general development and national and international trade. Moreover, violent extremism also destroys places of public gatherings and thereby alienates communities and prevents people from engaging socially.Addressing these challenges, it has been suggested to support families who lost their primary breadwinners due to insurgency attacks, to increase equal job opportunities free from corruption, gender or ethnic discrimination or nepotism, to enhance the possibilities for political participation and the freedom of expression. Finally, tackling the vast migration movement, it was recommended that educated Afghans should not leave their country but stay and support the development and progress of Afghanistan.
CPAU engaged Jawzjan'sLocal Community and Youth in a Two-Day Conference and Workshop on the Role of Women and Youth in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism
The conference organized by CPAU in Jawzjan Province on April 12-13, 2016on "The Role of Women and Youth in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism" was part of CPAU's wider CVE efforts and has been perceived as a great success for extending the participant's knowledge and for raising overall awareness on the topic. It has also been acknowledged for being effective and beneficial for eliminating prejudices and ethnic, religious or gender discrimination.
Especially in Afghanistan – with one of the world's youngest populations – youth are the primary target group for violent extremist recruiters. This means that young men and women need to build resilience against radicalization tendencies and therefore play an important role in CVE.
The main results gathered from the speeches and the group works include the responsibility of the government and society to offer possibilities for the youth to translate their energy and striving for purpose and meaning into positive actions. Perceived injustice based on a lack of opportunities, nepotism and corruption has been identified as a main driver for youth radicalization. In this context, the important role of the family to thwart frustration which might lead to extremism has become evident. Especially women as community builders and primary sources for education for their children have a vital role for building resilience within their families and for identifying early warnings. Therefore, it became evident that women need to be educated and respected as equal members of society. During the workshops, it has been furthermore highlighted to respect the family as starting point for countering radicalization and that the youth as motor for societal development need to be provided with a voice and platform. Regular youth gatherings, support by media outlets, and guidance by religious scholars and teachers have been mentioned as tools in the fight against violent extremism. It has also been highlighted that the gap between the government and the people has to be bridged and injustice needs to be eliminated.
In this sense, the conference succeeded in giving participants the tools and opportunities to become leaders and advocates in the promotion of positive social change and to take on a more active role in proactively shaping Afghanistan's future while also promoting gender equality and a moderate religious perspective in countering violent extremism.
In their efforts for CVE, CPAU organized a two-day event on promoting local research and information sharing on the drivers of violent extremism held in Balkh Province
In the context of countering violent extremism, it is crucial to understand the drivers of radicalization and violent extremism in specific, localized contexts. Therefore, more and extensive research is necessary to fully grasp and identify contextual factors causing vulnerabilities and consequently to design tailored intervention efforts to these factors. The role of governments as well as of the international community in this is to encourage deeper local research in order to facilitate the identification of most vulnerable communities and the drivers of violent extremism within as well as to evaluate the potential impact of possible responses to the problematic. To achieve this, it is also necessary to better connect the existing knowledge and best practices and to share newly gathered information with relevant individuals and communities.
Addressing this timely and pressing topic, CPAU organized a two-day speaker seminar session and workshops in Balkh Province, held on April 6-7, 2016 on the above introduced subject of 'Promoting Local Research and Information Sharing on the Drivers of Violent Extremism'.
In summarizing the key outcomes of the Balkh Conference, it has been agreed that many people are not fully aware of the correct meaning and extent of extremism and that it will be important to define a clear definition of the phenomenon. It was also highlighted that the causes and reasons -including political and economic aspects – leading to violent extremism have to be identified. This will lead to greater knowledge and finally awareness of extremism. The speakers emphasized that a knowledge exchange and an intellectual debates and dialogue especially among young people can be useful for preventing the emergence and spread of violent extremism. As potential approach to solving the problem of extremism, it has been suggested to increase the cooperation inside and between Islamic countries, to promote education, training, and awareness raising and to bridge the gap between the government and the people through engaging civil society in finding solutions for preventing violent extremism.
The conference was characterized by a thriving and active knowledge exchange by high-level speakers like local officials, national and international scholars, civil society activists as well as central government members and an active participation from the audience. The event furthermore hosted very interactive workshops with a high representation of women and youths where men and women left gender issues and traditional roles aside and together engaged in an intellectual debate focussing only on the topic at hand.
CPAU invited national and international scholars to a two-day conference on 'Development Assistance And Stabilization Efforts to Prevent And Counter Violent Extremism', held in Khost Province on March 23-24, 2016
Appropriate development assistance is vital in supporting international peace and security, especially in countries where political and economic factors leave certain communities susceptible to radicalization and extremism. In this context, a growing overlap between conflict-affected countries and their vulnerability to violent extremism has been realized. While many national and international agencies and donors provide development assistance directed at the sectors most relevant to preventing and countering violent extremism to those affected countries, many programs lack direct focus on mitigating the specific drivers of extremism or miss to focus on specific populations and communities who are most vulnerable.
With this in mind, CPAU organized a two-day speaker seminar session and workshops in Khost Province, held on March 23 -24, 2016, offering a platform for knowledge exchange and the identification of best practices on the above introduced topic.
The conference has been a major success, identifying root causes of violent extremism in society and discussing approaches how to tackle them. Especially the topic of women's empowerment and development programs for women has been highlighted during the conference, also offering many female speakers the opportunity to voice their insights and opinions on the very important topic.
Countering violent extremism through strengthening community-police and community-security force relations: CPAU facilitated an inspiring speaker session on the subject in Farah Province
As part of its initiative for countering violent extremism, CPAU organized a major conference in Farah Province on the topic of 'Strengthening Community-Police and Community-Security Force Relations for CVE' held on March 23-24, 2016. Speakers with various personal and professional backgrounds, such as national and overseas scholars, government officials, local police forces and civil society activists, contributed to the event and allowed for fruitful discussions and knowledge exchange.
Strengthening community-police and community-security force relations are based on community-oriented policing and the building of local capacities and resilience in countering violent extremism (CVE) for preventing the spread of violent extremist ideologies. Therefore, an effective local law enforcement system needs to be in place which can eliminate discrimination and maintain social justice.
During the event it has been agreed on that the police and security forces of Afghanistan have the responsibility to fight against extremists. However, some obstacles have been identified i.e. problems within police institutions such as drug abuse, bias, and a lack of education and training. Only an educated, well-trained and honest police force can effectively counter violent extremism which also implies that the recruitment process is free of all kinds of ethnic, language and sectarian racism. Many speakers have emphasized that there is currently a gap between the government, including police and security forces, and the people, due to a lack of trust and confidence in police forces.As a result, it has become clear that the community and the police have to work together to create good relationships and to establish trust. Only by collaborating and by supporting each other can the police forces bring security to all areas. An important outcome of the event was also the understanding that the number of female police forces should be increased which will be beneficial to create community support and trust.
CPAU organized a two-day event in Ghor Province on: Promoting Educational Approaches to Build Resilience to Violent Extremism
Educators exert considerable influence by shaping the views and skills of the next generation as well as helping to set society's broader norms. Hence promotion of educational approaches is one of the most important tools to build resilience to violent extremism. It is important to recognize that the anxieties and uncertainties surrounding the transition in adulthood in a diverse society can leave young people vulnerable and at risk to being influenced by those who seek to promote extremist view points, including encouraging the use of violence for political ends. There is a need to ensure that as they mature, young people have a full understanding of Afghanistan's democratic values such as mutual tolerance and respect for the law and are equipped with the skills and capabilities to resist extremist arguments that run counter to these values.
Following up on previous events on this important topic, CPAU organized a two-day seminar session and workshops in Ghor Province held on March 10-12, 2016, offering a platform for knowledge exchange and the identification of best practices on the above introduced topic.
In the course of the conference, it has become clear that the right kind of education -such as civic education, critical thinking, and life skills – is vital in countering violent extremism. It also includes familiarizing and teaching not only the youth but also every citizen of Afghanistan the country's true values.
The Ghor Conference was characterized by a thriving and active knowledge exchange by high-level speakers like local officials, national and international scholars, civil society activists as well as central government officials. All speakers' valuable contributions kept the participants engaged and triggered questions and an active participation from the audience. The event was highly appreciated by all participants as being very helpful for raising awareness and promoting knowledge on the topic of countering violent extremism in Afghanistan and worldwide.