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I'm Jennifer Pastiloff and this series is designed to introduce the world to someone I find incredible. Someone who is manifesting their dreams on a daily basis. Someone like best-selling author Dani Shapiro.
When I read Dani's book Devotion, my life changed. Just like that, I was on a plane to Bali to lead a retreat there, and if you told me that the plane had changed courses, I would have believed you. Dani's latest book Still Writing, which releases on Tuesday, October 1st, is no different. I had the distinct honor to read an advanced copy, which I carried around like a dog-eared Bible of sorts.
Dani Shapiro crystallizes more than 20 years' worth of lessons learned from teaching and writing into the instructive and inspiring Still Writing ~ Vanity Fair
You know when you find a writer and you think "They are talking to me. They wrote this book for me. They are, in fact, a little piece of me." That's Dani.
Perhaps my favorite quote by Dani, "Everything I know about life, I learned from the daily practice of sitting down to write." I remind myself of that quote every time the resistance comes up to sit down or to be present. It's the daily practice. It'e the putting one foot in front of the other, or, one letter after the other. It's the sitting down to do it.
Writers need hope. Writers need help. Thank you, Dani Shapiro. ~Michael Cunningham
It's a huge honor to have her featured on this series. I have taken a break from it and what better way to make a re-entry than with Dani Shapiro? Please, whatever you do, pick up a book by her and hold it close to your heart. Read it. You won't ever put it down. It will stay inscribed there on your heart forever. Isn't that what good writing does?
Lastly, and this just makes me giddy to write, Dani will be on SuperSoul Sunday with Oprah on Sunday October 20th. Talk about manifesting! Without further ado, here is my beloved friend, Dani Shapiro…
Jennifer Pastiloff: I've taken a bit of a hiatus from this series but I'd like to start with the question I always start with. What are you most proud to have manifested in your life?
Dani Shapiro: I have two immediate and powerful responses to that question. The first is that I've manifested a happy family. I've been genuinely, deeply, happily married for sixteen years. I have a fourteen-year-old son who I'm very close to. Both of these could so easily––as the poet Jane Kenyon once wrote so beautifully––could have been otherwise. I was married twice before. Once when I was still a teenager (!) and once in my twenties. I made epically lousy choices in my romantic life until I met my husband. And I was terrified to become a mother. I had a very difficult relationship with my own mother, and I didn't see the attraction. Some women spend their whole lives wanting to become mothers. This wasn't me. I experienced a single, stark moment of absolute grace when I thought I could become a mother––and I did.
The second response is my life as a writer. I was such a fuck-up. You never would have looked at me, when I was in my early twenties, and thought: oh, yeah, that girl – she's going to become a bestselling novelist and memoirist and is going to teach in universities. Oh yeah, that girl is going to sit down with Oprah. No… I don't think so. But I climbed my way out of the dark place I had burrowed myself into, and in a beautiful piece of symmetry, becoming a writer saved my life, a word, a sentence at a time.
Jennifer Pastiloff: How did Devotion come to be? I read the book on a flight to Bali and it was one of those life-changing moments for me, where I bolted up out of my seat and started writing. My copy is now dog-eared and I assign it often to my students at workshops and retreats. Tell us, if you would, how that book was born?
Dani Shapiro: God, I love hearing that so much! Thank you. I was in the middle of my yoga practice when Devotion came to me. I had been in a trough between novels, waiting for the next work of fiction to materialize, and on this particular day I was in tree pose, and suddenly the word "devotion" flashed before my eyes. Nothing like this had ever happened to me. I've never had a title before I've had a book. I've written whole books before I've come upon the right title. But as soon as I saw that word –– devotion –– I knew that it was a book, a memoir, an exploration of the spiritual and existential crisis I had found myself in. I had been grappling with questions that I finally wanted to address directly, deeply, and as a writer the only way I know how to address anything is on the page. I discover what I believe through the writing. But this wasn't particularly welcome news, I must say. I hadn't planned to write another memoir. Certainly not a spiritual memoir. But when a feeling of rightness accompanies an idea for a writer, you turn away from it at your own peril.
Jennifer Pastiloff: As you know, one of my great dreams has been to be on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah. You, my friend, have had this dream become a reality. We've had a couple conversations where you have shared some gorgeous insight about this experience. I know you are planning on writing about it but would you tell my readers just a little about what that was like for you? The process of non-attachment, the letting go and having it return?
Dani Shapiro: I've learned so many things about myself, and about life, since I got the call inviting me to be a guest on "Super Soul Sunday" with Oprah. The first revelation is about the nature of shock. I had known for a long time that bad news could be shocking. I've been on the receiving end of shocking bad news. But what I hadn't known is that good news can be shocking. I had no idea that I was being considered for Super Soul. I didn't have a new book out when I got the call. In fact, when Devotion came out in 2010, of course I had some faint hope that maybe the Oprah folks would come knocking, but who ever really thinks that will happen? I don't know why this is, but I really believe that things don't happen when we're trying to will them into being. They don't happen when we're waiting for the phone to ring, or the email to pop up in our in box. They don't happen when we're gripping too tightly. They happen –– if they happen at all –– when we've fully let go of the results. And, perhaps, when we're ready. I was much more ready for that phone call than I would have been in 2010. I'd spent three years deepening my practice, thinking about spiritual matters, and living them. I was more grounded and centered. And that was my goal –– when I sat down with Oprah. My goal was to be centered and present. Not to miss the experience. Not to be all self-absorbed and self-conscious and up in my head. I didn't want to miss the moment. I wanted to truly rise to the occasion.
Jennifer Pastiloff: When will your Super Soul Sunday episode air?
Dani Shapiro: The air date is Sunday, October 20.
Jennifer Pastiloff: Expect to be delighted. I found this in a book years ago and I use it as one of the steps to manifesting in my workshops. Thoughts on this one?
Dani Shapiro: Well, I love that. Too often we expect the worst. I spent a lot of my life being one of those "waiting for the other shoe to drop" people. It doesn't protect against the other shoe dropping, and all it really does is cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety. But to anticipate delight is, perhaps, to cultivate delight! What a wonderful way to live. And why not? I mean, we're not in control. We don't know what will happen next. Why not assume the very, very best?
Jennifer Pastiloff: What is the greatest lesson (or one of them) you have learned from being a mom?
Dani Shapiro: Being a mom has forced me to be more present, because I became aware, when my son was very small, that I didn't want to look back on what really is a brief window in the span of a lifetime –– of early childhood, of his growing up, of his adolescence –– and feel like I had been elsewhere and missed it. It's easy to wish the time away. Some of motherhood is boring, though most of us won't admit it. For instance, I do not like to play games. I'm not a game-playing mom. Not board games, not outdoor games. And so I would find myself wishing those hours away, but I made myself stop living in the past or the future, and come to the awareness, instead, that this time of young motherhood would eventually become something I would feel nostalgia for. I would miss it some day. And so I wanted to be present for the very thing that I would some day miss.
Jennifer Pastiloff: I know your husband is a filmmaker. Can you tell us a bit about what a day in the life of the Shapiro/Maren household is like?
Dani Shapiro: Every day is different! When I'm working on a book, I'm home in my office in my yoga clothes, in a silent house, with just my dogs for company. My husband has an office in a town near our house, and he heads there early in the morning, and that's where he gets his work done. But we both do a lot of traveling –– he directed his first feature film this year, "A Short History of Decay" and was in North Carolina for two months shooting. That's by far the longest we've been apart. When I have a book out –– as I'm about to –– I'll be on and off airplanes nearly every week for months at a time. We live in rural Connecticut, which is very good for both of us, I think. It's a wonderful place to be based, and for our son to be growing up.
Jennifer Pastiloff: Still Writing? I absolutely loved your blog piece about this and how people often ask that question. Still writing? In fact, your latest book is titled Still Writing. Can you tell us a little about the new book? When can we read it?
Dani Shapiro: Still Writing will be in bookstores October 1. I began a blog a number of years ago about writing –– not so much about craft, but rather, what it takes to sit down day after day in solitude and with some sort of blind faith. I was interested in exploring all the things that come up: resistance, fortitude, patience, frustration, the ability to withstand rejection –– all the struggles and challenges, as well as the incredible gifts and privileges, of spending life as a writer. And the blog really caught on. It took me by surprise. I began receiving notes from all sorts of people telling me that they were reading it and getting something they needed out of it. I never even considered writing a book based on the blog, but everyone kept asking –– and eventually it just seemed like something I should do. I never once looked back at the blog, though, as I was writing Still Writing. I wanted it to be a real book – part memoir, part meditation on the creative process. I think of it as my love letter to creative people everywhere. Writing saved my life –– in the book, I say that everything I know about how to live I have learned from the daily practice of struggling with the page. And so I think the book is about those lessons, too.
Jennifer Pastiloff: Yoga. Tell us about how yoga has affected your life, as well as your writing? So many of my readers are a hybrid of yogis and writers and I find the crossover fascinating. One of the reasons I have them all read Devotion.
Dani Shapiro: I love that you have your yoga students read Devotion. That means so much to me! My yoga practice is so woven into my life as a writer that I can't imagine one without the other. In fact, the reason I work at home, rather than have an office outside of the house (which is sometimes very appealing!) is because I like the freedom of being able to unroll my mat in the middle of the day. When I'm starting to feel stuck, or when my head gets too noisy, the one and only thing I have found that helps me come home to myself, and quiet my mind, is my yoga practice. And while I love nothing more than a great yoga class (and am jealous of my friends who live near great studios all over the country) when I moved to Connecticut there weren't any studios near my home, and so I built my own home practice, which I now love. I unroll my mat in my bedroom, light a fire in my fireplace unless it's the middle of summer, and I have these seven chakra sprays that Aveda makes lined up on my fireplace mantle, and a few crystals a healer once gave me –– this is my sanctuary.
Jennifer Pastiloff: On being a Jew. Although you were raised with more structure around religion than I was, I felt I had found my soulmate when I read Devotion. You helped me arrive at the place of accepting that I absolutely did NOT have to put myself in a box or label myself as one thing or the other.
How does being "complicated with Jewishness" fit into your life now? It seems to be that a lot of the great spiritual leaders are Jews and that there is something inherent in Judaism that lends itself to spirituality as a whole. Tell us about being a writer, a yogi, a Jew and a spiritual seeker and a mom. I love this idea of I do not have to be just one thing. Watch me.
Dani Shapiro: Just yesterday, a writer friend who had just read an early copy of Still Writing paid me the ultimate compliment. He told me that Still Writing felt to him like a prayer book. That it felt Rabbinical in some way. He felt the influence, he said, of all those Saturday mornings I spent sitting in synagogue with my father. I tried not to deflect the compliment and really take it in. These last years, since embarking on the journey that led to writing Devotion, have been a continuation of a path that I hope to wander for the rest of my life. I am indeed complicated by my Judaism, in the way I think so many of us are "complicated" by our experiences of childhood religion. Being Jewish is incredibly important to me, but I'm not observant. At the same time, I cared deeply that my son know himself as Jewish –– not just culturally, but be steeped in the traditions and rituals. His Bar Mitzvah last year –– which was completely homegrown, eclectic, held in a church, led by a female Rabbi with whom we've become close, with readings from Coleridge and Hannah Senesh, as well as the whole congregation singing Leonard Cohen's "Broken Hallelujah" –– with my son playing his ukulele and me on the piano –– was one of the highlights of my life. I looked around that church at all of our family and friends gathered and there was such love in that room, such a feeling of being part of something meaningful and real –– and I had built it –– we even made our own prayer books –– by necessity, and by choice, and out of a tremendous amount of focus on finding a way to do something that would truly resonate.
It has been one of the biggest shifts in my life over these past few years, this feeling that I can be this and that. Be Jewish and a great reader of eastern philosophy. A messed up girl who grew up into a thoughtful and (hopefully not too messed up) woman. A yogi who likes a good steak along with a bottle of Barolo. An urbanite living in rural Connecticut. All these things. So what? Why not? I've been shrugging off definitions that have limited me. The only person who can place these limiting definitions on us is ourselves.
Jennifer Pastiloff: What would you say to yourself at 25 years old in terms of your career?
Dani Shapiro: Oh, dear girl, be patient. Know that there is no well-lit path. Know that your dreams for yourself at this moment are small and that you have no idea what life has in store for you. Some of your disappointments and setbacks will turn out to be your greatest lessons. More than anything, be in competition only with yourself. You have the opportunity to spend your whole life getting better and better at what you do.
What would you say to yourself 5 years ago?
I would say that worry is a waste of time. That anxiety doesn't change anything, it doesn't protect us from anything. All it does is sap us of our creative energy and impede our flow. The things I've tended to worry about do not come to pass. The difficulties I've had in my life are not ones I've anticipated. So why not at least try to let go?
JP: When was the last time you laughed at yourself?
DS: Yesterday. A photographer was at my house, photographing me for a piece for The New York Times. I was all dolled up, makeup, good hair, the whole deal – and they decided they wanted to take a picture of me on my yoga mat. So I changed into my yoga clothes and sat in lotus position "meditating" while he took my picture. Imagine the noise in my head! Absurdity always makes me laugh. All I could think was: "it's come to this!"
JP: Victor Frankl was able to mentally survive living in a concentration camp by finding beauty in a fish head floating in his soup. In a fish head. Learning this is what inspired me to start the 5mostbeautifulthings Project. What if we walked around looking for beauty instead of looking for things to be stressed about or offended by? What if we trained our eyes and our hearts to tune into that which makes us cock our head to one side and close our eyes gently in an effort to memorize what we were looking at. What if it is all we got? What if all we have is our 5 beautiful things? What's your fish head? What are your 5 most beautiful things right now, Dani?
DS: Literally right at this moment:
My son's face.
My two dogs lying curled up in a patch of sunlight.
The changing leaves outside my window. Autumn in New England.
My husband across the kitchen table me, both on our laptops. A team.
The quiet and beauty of our lives. Hard won. Ephemeral. Taking it in.
JP: Tell us about Sirenland. I just visited Positano after my Tuscany retreat and per your recommendation I went to Le Sireneuse, hugged the owners and had pink champagne with them. Le Sireneuse is where you hold Sirenland each March. I can safely say that it took my breath away. It's a dream come true that you do this. What is Sirenland? How did it come to be? Who is teaching with you this year? Why Positano?
DS: Sirenland was born at a dinner party in Connecticut. I had absolutely no dream of starting a writing conference. My husband and I were at dinner at our friend Nancy Novogrod's home –– she is the editor in chief of Travel+Leisure –– and she had invited, as she told me, her favorite hotel owners in the world. These would be Antonio and Carla Sersale, owners of Le Sirenuse. We had an incredibly fun evening together, and then a week later, I received an email from Antonio asking if I'd like to bring some writers to Italy. This was eight years ago. Sirenland has grown into one of the best writing conferences in the world. We have thirty students come to Italy for a life-altering week. (By the way, applications are now open at www.sirenland.net) My son has gotten to grow up going each year to this miraculous place. And we've made so many incredible friends. I always teach one of the three workshops, and the other faculty rotates. We've had Jim Shepard teach for a number of years. Last year, Karen Russell (who just became the youngest person ever to win a MacArthur "genius" Award), this year the wonderful writers Meg Wolitzer and Andre Dubus III will be joining us.
JP: I often ask "what are your rules to live by?" because I think it's a fun way to hold ourselves accountable. Some of mine are: Don't take yourself too seriously, sing out loud, write poems (even if only in your head), don't worry, everyone on Facebook seems like they have happier lives (they don't.) I ask people of all ages to do this, including children, and to see what people write is a joy. What are some of your rules to live by?
DS: Always tell the truth.
Practice discernment.
To have a friend you have to be a friend.
Use the Internet –– don't allow the Internet to use you.
Try to live in the moment.
Love, love, love. Spend it all. Every little bit.
Hold nothing back.
JP: Kripalu. I love that you lead workshops there, as I do. It is one of my favorite places to teach. The beloved Berkshires. Tell us about Kripalu. When will you be there next?
DS: I love Kripalu, and love teaching there too. I'll be there to teach my first workshop based on Still Writing from November 1-3. And as a special treat, my dear friend, the great yogi, scholar and writer Stephen Cope will be joining me on that Saturday night for an honest, open, deep conversation about writing, creativity, doing and living the work. I'm so excited to be doing an event with Stephen. And next June –– the 6th through the 8th – Stephen and I will co-teach a weekend writing and yoga retreat.
JP: I know you talk about it in Devotion but can you share with us how you met Stephen and how that relationship came to be? Sylvia Boorstein?
DS: That story is such a life-lesson in putting one foot in front of the other. In saying yes, instead of no. I first met Stephen on the page. I was reading his gorgeous book, That story is such a life-lesson in putting one foot in front of the other. In saying yes, instead of no. I first met Stephen on the page. I was reading his gorgeous book, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. It was, for me, one of those life-changing books. I carried it around with me, underlining, doodling exclamation points in the margins. And one summer afternoon I found myself at a library fundraiser –– I had promised ages before to attend –– and I was grumbling to myself the whole way there. Didn't want to go. It was hot, humid, a bad hair day, and I was annoyed at myself for having agreed. It was one of those events where authors sit behind piles of their books, in a sweltering tent, and people in linen jackets and madras shorts walk by carrying plastic cups of white wine. Sound fun? Anyway, I was shown to my table and sat grumpily down. Then the author next to me leaned over to introduce himself. "Hi," he said. "Steve Cope."
He and I became immediate, fast friends. I had his book with me in my bag! I just couldn't believe it. Shortly thereafter, I signed up for a retreat he was teaching at Kripalu –– which was a place I had wanted to visit, but had always felt intimidated and resistant. But now I had a pal there, so I pushed myself to go. That weekend, he was teaching with a Buddhist named Sylvia Boorstein, who I hadn't known, not being of that world. Attending that retreat at Kripalu changed my life. I made two of my dearest friends, teachers, fellow travelers, guides. And now –– only four or five years later –– I am a part of the Kripalu family as well, and love leading my retreats there. I'm going to be on the West Coast for my Still Writing book tour, and Sylvia and I are doing an event together at Book Passage in Marin County. It will be one of the highlights of my book tour. All because I showed up at a library event in Connecticut. We never know what life has in store for us.
JP: Who have been your greatest teachers?
DS: I had a great high school English teacher, Peter Cowen, who is still in my life. Ditto for my 19th Century Literary Professor at Sarah Lawrence, Ilja Wachs, who taught me the art of close reading. Grace Paley and Jerome Badanes were my teachers when I was in graduate school and I owe a tremendous debt to them both. In recent years, Sylvia Boorstein and Stephen Cope. My friend the great Rabbi Burton Visotzky, who gave me a new lens with which to read the Torah. Then there are the teachers I've never met: Virginia Woolf. Thomas Merton.
JP: Advice to new writers reading this?
DS: Read my book! Seriously –– I wrote it for you! And if you don't read my book, the one piece of advice I have is to read something worthwhile every day –– the poet Jane Kenyon describes this as "keeping good sentences in your ears." Reading is your best teacher. Also, get used to rejection. Get used to discomfort. Who said it should be easy? Writing well is hard, hard work. Develop the ability to endure. To stay in the chair.
JP: I couldn't be more excited that you are now writing for Positively Positive, along with Emily Rapp and myself. Writing for this site has definitely changed my life. I am humbled to be in your company there. What is up next for Dani Shapiro?
DS: I love writing for Positively Positive as well! As for what's next, I will be traveling to teach and give readings from Still Writing for the next bunch of months. I can't write and travel at the same time –– I need to sink in deeply –– so I will wait for the shimmer. I will try to be patient and keep good sentences in my ears. I will try to take care of myself and my loved ones, body and soul, and endure, so that I can sit down come spring and be…still writing!
JP: G-d willing. We should live and be well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
DS: Thanks, Jen! You're a beautiful force for good in the world. I'm proud to know you.


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Strength in the AUD$, NZD$ and GBP – Currency Strength and Weakness for Wednesday 18th May 2016
Hi Forex Trader,
I make my suggestions every day based on where I see the market heading over the next 24 hours. Use my analysis below to aid your trading and to help you keep on the right side of the market.
My suggestions are posted by 6pm EST each day.
Overall there is minor strength in the AUD, GBP and NZD.
Overall there is minor weakness in the CHF, EUR and CAD.
Trading Directions I am favouring for the next 24 hours
Buy Trades – GBP/USD, GBP/CAD, GBP/CHF, AUD/CAD, AUD/CHF, NZD/CHF, NZD/CAD
Sell Trades – EUR/GBP, EUR/AUD, CHF/JPY
VERY IMPORTANT: These are not specific trades. Do not blindly place trades in the directions given above. Use your own trading strategy and look at taking setups that occur in the same direction as my daily analysis. If you don't have your own trading strategy then email me here for some suggestions
FREE FOREX WEBINARS THIS WEEK FOR NEW FOREX TRADERS – Click here
There are 2 webinar times this week.
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– Andrew Mitchem
The Forex Tradi

subset: commoncrawl


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Mathcad Express, including the full capabilities of mathematical software Mathcad Prime 2.0, is free for a 30-day trial. After the trial period ends, users may continue to use the limited features of Mathcad Express. The free software contains messages with information on features, training, tips and tricks, as well as watermarks on worksheets.
PTC, 140 Kendrick St., Needham, MA 02494, (781) 370-5000, www.ptc.com


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Updated at 3:40 p.m. ET
Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, has been indicted on federal charges that range from conspiracy against the United States to conspiracy to launder money. He was taken into federal custody Monday morning, along with his longtime deputy.
In a court hearing around midday, both Manafort and his co-defendant, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty.
They were released after their hearing, with a $10 million unsecured bond for Manafort and a $5 million unsecured bond for Gates, NPR's Barbara Sprunt reports. A hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 2; meanwhile, the two men, who surrendered their passports to the FBI, must report to the court every day.
Responding to news that Manafort was under indictment because of his financial dealings and work on behalf of Ukraine's government, President Trump said via Twitter, "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign."
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
In what has become a familiar theme, the president added, "But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????"
Kevin Downing, Manafort's attorney, told reporters that his client's work with Ukraine was "seeking to further democracy" and called financial allegations in the indictment "ridiculous."
Shortly after news of Manafort's indictment arrived Monday, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller said that a third figure in its investigation of Russia's involvement in U.S. politics, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents and acknowledged trying to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
Papadopoulos, 30, of Chicago, had been a foreign policy adviser to President Trump's campaign. The Department of Justice says he lied "about the timing, extent, and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials."
Manafort, 68, surrendered himself to federal law enforcement authorities on Monday morning, a Justice Department source tells NPR's Ryan Lucas, representing a new phase of the investigations into figures from Trump's inner circle.
Both Manafort and Gates, 45, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday, according to a news release from Mueller's office.
From a Justice Department statement:
"The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts."
The grand jury's indictment was unsealed on Monday morning, shortly after Manafort was seen entering an FBI field office.
Manafort was taken into federal custody days after news emerged that a federal grand jury assembled by Mueller had voted to indict a figure in Mueller's investigation into possible coordination between Russia and people close to the Trump campaign in last year's presidential election.
In addition to the main focus on Russia's efforts to tamper with the U.S. democratic process, Mueller's mandate also allows his team to probe any other criminal matters that arise during the course of its investigation.
FBI agents raided Manafort's home in Alexandria, Va., over the summer; weeks earlier, he and Gates had registered with the U.S. government as foreign agents.
Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign after revelations that he made more than $17 million in two years while working for the pro-Russia political party that once controlled Ukraine's government.
If you need a recap of recent developments in the Russia investigations, NPR's Philip Ewing covers them here, discussing claims and counterclaims — such as word that the "Trump campaign data firm's guru tried to link up with WikiLeaks and that [Hillary] Clinton, DNC helped pay for infamous dossier on Trump."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Bangladesh: Matrilineal Marriage - 'My mother and I are married to the same man':
When her widowed mother remarried, Parvin Rema, then 13, was part of the deal – one of several such arrangements in Bangladesh.
As a child in rural Bangladesh, Orola Dalbot, 30, enjoyed growing up around her stepfather, Noten. Her father died when she was small, and her mother remarried soon after. Noten was handsome and energetic, with curly dark hair and a broad smile. "I thought my mother was lucky," Orola says when we meet in the dusty, sun-baked courtyard of her family home in the central forest region of Modhupur. "I hoped I'd find a husband like him one day." When she reached puberty, however, Orola learned the truth she least expected: she was already Noten's wife.
Her wedding had taken place when she was three years old in a joint ceremony with her mother. Following tradition in the matrilineal Mandi tribe, an ethnic group of about two million people spread across hill regions of Bangladesh and India, mother and daughter had married the same man. "I wanted to escape when I found out," says Orola. "I was shaking with disbelief."
Disbelief was more or less my reaction a few days earlier when, by chance, I'd first heard about this marriage custom. I was visiting the remote Modhupur region to report a story about Mandi women fighting deforestation. My travelling companion was an eminent Bangladeshi environmentalist called Philip Gain, who had been studying the area for more than 20 years. As we drove through the khaki- coloured hills, we talked generally about how Mandi women were the property-owning heads of their households. Gain, 50, a professorial man in a suit jacket and tie who runs the Dhaka-based activist organisation Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), told me how they shared power with men and had far more independence than women in the majority Bengali population.
Then Gain mentioned the mother-daughter joint marriages. He explained that among the Mandi, widows who wish to remarry must choose a man from the same clan as their dead husband to preserve the clan alliance. The only available single men, however, are often much younger men in their late teens. So the custom evolved: a widow would offer one of her daughters as a second bride to take over her marital duties – including sex and child-bearing – when the girl came of age. "It's not common these days," said Gain. "But it still exists among a few Mandi families."
Bangladesh is a deltaic country where most of the 160 million people are Bengali Muslims. It is better known for its flood plains and typhoon-lashed coasts, but its southeastern and central hills are home to ethnic minorities who mainly practised animism until Catholic missionaries arrived in the late 19th century. The Mandi, who number 25,000 in the Modhupur region, live a six-hour drive and a world away from the frenetic capital Dhaka.
Orola is cooking rice and lentils for breakfast on an open fire when we arrive at her hamlet, a cluster of mud houses flanked by scrubby fields. Her family members are all there: her 51-year-old mother Mittamoni, her stepfather and husband Noten, 42, her maternal grandmother and an assortment of children ranging from babies to teenagers, fathered by Noten with both his wives. Everyone is doing household chores in the weak morning sunlight.
The family's marital arrangement is an open secret in this small Modhupur community, but nobody, Orola says, ever mentions it. "For years I wanted to talk to someone about it because I was lonely. But people think it's un-Christian, so they ignore it." Missionaries have converted the majority of the tribe's local population. Traditional rituals, such as sacrificing goats to restore a sick person's health, are frowned on by the clergy and have waned. "Bridegroom kidnapping", another rare custom in which Mandi women abducted potential suitors and held them hostage until their wedding day, has also died out. A handful of mother-daughter joint marriages have most likely survived because, like most unions worldwide involving multiple spouses, they serve an economic purpose.
"My mother couldn't manage her land and household by herself when my father died of fever," explains Orola. "She was still in her mid-20s, so she was entitled to claim a new husband as a replacement from my father's clan." The clan offered their only available bachelor at the time, Noten, who was then aged 17, on the condition he marry Orola, too. Since Mandi marriages represent the consolidation of wealth between two clans, the second, younger wife is a trade to ensure the birth of more children to add to the family's overall wealth and power.
"I was too young to remember the wedding. I didn't know it had taken place," Orola tells me while she stirs her pots. Although such an arrangement is not considered incest or even child abuse in Mandi culture, where early marriage is the norm, she was distraught to discover she was forced to share her mother's husband. "The last thing I wanted was to be married to Noten. I wanted a husband of my own."
The situation was doubly unjust for her, she says, because ethnic Mandi women traditionally choose their own partners. It is women who make the first romantic move, and also propose marriage. Property is passed down the female line, and men live in their wife's household when they marry. She watched her female friends embark merrily on their love lives and felt so isolated that she considered suicide. "I felt trapped, like an animal."
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(written from a Production point of view)
James B. Sikking (born 5 March 1934; age 90) is the actor who played Lawrence H. Styles in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. He was a good friend of the film's director and co-star, Leonard Nimoy, with whom he worked a number of times.
A favorite of producer Steven Bochco, Sikking is best known for his Emmy-nominated role as Lieutenant Howard Hunter on Hill Street Blues. Star Trek: The Original Series guest actress Barbara Babcock was also a cast member on that show, as were Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest stars Barbara Bosson, Tony Plana, and Jonathan Banks. Sikking later became known for his role on Doogie Howser, M.D. as the title character's father. Also a part of that show's cast was Star Trek guest actor Lawrence Pressman and Star Trek: The Next Generation guest performer Lucy Boryer. Sikking's son Andrew had a recurring role as a uniformed officer on NYPD Blue, working over the years with Gordon Clapp, Sharon Lawrence, and Michael Buchman Silver.
Sikking had previously been a regular on General Hospital. In 1992, he and late Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan actress Bibi Besch played a married couple in the made-for-TV special Doing Time on Maple Drive. Sikking also has numerous television guest appearances to his credit, including The Fugitive, My Favorite Martian (starring Ray Walston), Bonanza, thrice on Hogan's Heroes (shot of the Desilu/Paramount Studios lot, appearing alongside Marj Dusay, Willard Sage and John Crawford, as well as being the only known series crossover performer to make his Star Trek appearance afterwards), Mission: Impossible (a Desilu production, also featuring a plethora of former Original Series performers, including Nimoy, with whom he co-starred in the first of his two appearances), The Streets of San Francisco, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, Starsky and Hutch, and Hunter, among many others. One of his earliest TV appearances, however, was an episode of The Outer Limits alongside his Star Trek III co-star William Shatner (as well as Original Series actors Lawrence Montaigne and Malachi Throne).
Besides Star Trek III, his notable film credits also include Ordinary People (1980), Up the Creek (1984, with Robert Costanzo and Frank Welker), Sikking played the stingy Bill Watson in Soul Man (1987, with Star Trek: Voyager guest star Wallace Langham, Narrow Margin (1990, with Harris Yulin), and The Pelican Brief (1993, with Casey Biggs). He also appeared in Scorpio (1973, featuring Original Series/Deep Space Nine guest actor John Colicos). He also appeared in Fever Pitch (2005), as did Deep Space Nine guest actor Jack Kehler.
Sikking and Star Trek III producer Harve Bennett had been acquaintances for quite some time prior to their collaboration on Search for Spock. Bennett produced two 1972 ABC Movies of the Week which featured Sikking and his fellow Star Trek III co-star Paul Kent: The Astronaut (also starring Robert Lansing and Monte Markham) and Family Flight (also with Ed Begley, Jr. and Bill Zuckert). The following year, Bennett produced the unsold series pilot for The Alpha Caper, which also featured Sikking and Kent as well as their fellow Star Trek III actor Paul Sorensen, Original Series guest actor Victor Tayback, Deep Space Nine guest actor Kenneth Tobey, and Leonard Nimoy. And in 1984, the same year in which Star Trek III was released, Bennett worked with Sikking again on The Jesse Owens Story, which also starred Vic Tayback and future Next Generation actors Ben Vereen, Ronny Cox, and LeVar Burton.
Sikking also lent his voice to two episodes of the animated series Batman Beyond, appearing with Brian George, Kate Jackson, Victor Rivers, and Brian Tochi.
Sikking later collaborated with Bennett on Invasion America, to which Sikking, Nimoy, Bennett, Ronny Cox, and Tony Jay lent their voices.
Other Trek connections[]
Additional projects in which Sikking worked with other Star Trek alumni include:
- Coffee, Tea or Me? (1973, with Kenneth Tobey and Marcy Lafferty)
- Whisper of the Heart (1995, 2006 English version, with Judi Durand and Bradley Pierce)
- The Outer Limits episode "Cold, Hands, Warm Heart" (1964, with William Shatner)


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The pop star fell sick with a nasty cold this week but she refused to let her ill health halt her concert commitments, and took to the stage at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland to perform for troops as planned.
Perry, 27, dressed in a sailor's uniform for the show and she pulled one gig-goer out of the crowd to join her on stage.
She asked the man, who called himself Officer Beasley, about his age and when he replied, "20", the star teased him: "Is this legal? Well I'm a little bit older than you, but that's alright - I can be your Mrs Robinson."
Perry then warned him about her cold, adding, "Now Beasley, listen.. I have to warn you, if I told you I had a cold, if I told you I flew here with a 101.8 degree temperature, would you still be alright with (kissing me)?"
She then suggested they create the "iconic pose" seen in a famous 1945 photograph of a sailor kissing a girl on V-J Day in New York City's Times Square, before he tipped her backwards and kissed her on the lips to deafening applause from the audience.
Perry subsequently posted a picture of the gig on her Twitter.com page with the caption, "Played for some Navy guys & gals tonight. I think my fever broke on stage from all the sea-men..."


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Woman Waters Plant for 2 Years – Realizes It's Fake
Meanwhile in California, a woman has just shared a somewhat embarrassing fact. She's just learned that she's been watering a fake plant for the past 2 years.
News 10 just shared the tender story of Caelie Wilkes. She just revealed on her Facebook page that the plant she thought was so pretty is really plastic.
Story time.
I've had this beautiful succulent for about 2 years now. I was so proud of this plant. It was full, beautiful coloring, just an over all perfect plant. I had it up in my kitchen window. I had a watering plan for it, if someone else tried to water my succulent I would get so defensive because I just wanted to keep good care of it. I absolutely loved my succulent. Today I decided it was time to transplant, I found the cutest vase, that suited it perfectly. I go to pull it from the original plastic container it was purchased with to learn this plant was FAKE. I put so much love into this plant! I washed it's leaves. Tried my hardest to keep it looking it's best, and it's completely plastic! How did I not know this. I pull it from the container it's sitting on Styrofoam with sand glued to the top! I feel like these last two years have been a lie.
The comments on her Facebook page to this news have been legendary.
- "Laughed so hard at the story. Well done! That's the healthiest looking fake plant I've ever seen."
- "Don't let anybody take away your joy. 👍"
- "Do you want to get married? You clearly qualify".
We have to give credit to this sweet California lady. It takes a big person to be willing to own up to the watering of a plastic plant for 730 days.


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Thursday, December 15, 2011
Panetta formally shuts down US war in Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead and 100,000 Iraqi dead, U.S. officials formally shut down the war in Iraq — a conflict that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said was worth the American sacrifice, because it set Iraq on a path to democracy.
Panetta stepped off his military plane in Baghdad Thursday as the leader of America's war in Iraq, but will leave as one of many top U.S. and global officials who hope to work with the struggling nation as it tries to find its new place in the Middle East and the broader world.
Bombings and gun battles are still common. And experts are concerned about the Iraqi security force's ability to defend the nation against foreign threats.
In addition to the dead, the war left 32,000 Americans wounded and cost the U.S. more than $800 billion. Still, Panetta said earlier this week, it "has not been in vain."
Panetta and several other U.S. diplomatic, military and defense leaders participated Thursday in a symbolic ceremony during which the flag of U.S. Forces-Iraq was officially retired, or "cased," according to Army tradition. The U.S. Forces-Iraq flag was furled — or wrapped — around a flagpole and covered in camouflage. It will be brought back to the United States.
"You will leave with great pride — lasting pride," Panetta told the troops. "Secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to begin a new chapter in history."
During a stop in Afghanistan this week, Panetta described the mission as "making that country sovereign and independent and able to govern and secure itself."
That, he said, is "a tribute to everybody — everybody who fought in that war, everybody who spilled blood in that war, everybody who was dedicated to making sure we could achieve that mission."
Iraqi citizens offered a more pessimistic assessment. "The Americans are leaving behind them a destroyed country," said Mariam Khazim of Sadr City. "The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans." The Iraq Body Count website says more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
A member of the political coalition loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr saw another message in the U.S. withdrawal. "The American ceremony represents the failure of the U.S. occupation of Iraq due to the great resistance of the Iraqi people," said Sadrist lawmaker Amir al-Kinani.
Panetta echoed President Barack Obama's promise that the U.S. plans to keep a robust diplomatic presence in Iraq, foster a deep and lasting relationship with the nation and maintain a strong military force in the region.
As of Thursday, there were two U.S. bases and about 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq — a dramatic drop from the roughly 500 military installations and as many as 170,000 troops during the surge ordered by President George W. Bush in 2007, when violence and raging sectarianism gripped the country. All U.S. troops are slated to be out of Iraq by the end of the year, but officials are likely to meet that goal a bit before then.
The total U.S. departure is a bit earlier than initially planned, and military leaders worry that it is a bit premature for the still maturing Iraqi security forces, who face continuing struggles to develop the logistics, air operations, surveillance and intelligence sharing capabilities they will need in what has long been a difficult neighborhood. U.S. officials were unable to reach an agreement with the Iraqis on legal issues and troop immunity that would have allowed a small training and counterterrorism force to remain. U.S. defense officials said they expect there will be no movement on that issue until sometime next year.
Still, despite Obama's earlier contention that all American troops would be home for Christmas, at least 4,000 forces will remain in Kuwait for some months. The troops will be able to help finalize the move out of Iraq, but could also be used as a quick reaction force if needed.
Obama met in Washington with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki earlier this week, vowing to remain committed to Iraq as the two countries struggle to define their new relationship. Ending the war was an early goal of the Obama administration, and Thursday's ceremony will allow the president to fulfill a crucial campaign promise during a politically opportune time. The 2012 presidential race is roiling and Republicans are in a ferocious battle to determine who will face off against Obama in the election.
Panetta acknowledged the difficulties for Iraq in the coming years, as the country tries to find its footing.
"They're going face challenges in the future," Panetta said Wednesday during a visit with troops in Afghanistan. "They'll face challenges from terrorism, they'll face challenges from those that would want to divide their country. They'll face challenges from just the test of democracy, a new democracy and trying to make it work. But the fact is, we have given them the opportunity to be able to succeed." The ceremony at Baghdad International Airport also featured remarks from Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Austin is leading the massive logistical challenge of shuttering hundreds of bases and combat outposts, and methodically moving more than 50,000 U.S. troops and their equipment out of Iraq over the last year — while still conducting training, security assistance and counterterrorism battles.
The war "tested our military's strength and our ability to adapt and evolve," he said, noting the development of the new counterinsurgency doctrine. Over the coming days, the final few thousand U.S. troops will leave Iraq in orderly caravans and tightly scheduled flights — a marked contrast to the shock and awe that rocked the country on March 20, 2003, as the U.S. invasion began.
Saddam Hussein has been ousted, the reports of weapons of mass destruction largely laid to rest. And the future of a nascent democracy awaits.
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Carrier Announces Newest AquaSnap Chiller, the 30RB with Greenspeed Intelligence
Carrier has added a new dimension to its AquaSnap line of chillers by introducing the 30RB with Greenspeed intelligence, which enables higher efficiency and optimized performance. Carrier, the world's leader in high-technology heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions, is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
The new 30RB with Greenspeed intelligence features enhanced scroll compressors that are designed for better full-load efficiency at the operating point of an air-cooled chiller. In addition, the 30RB with Greenspeed intelligence uses high-efficiency variable-speed condenser fans, providing ideal fan operating sequence for optimal airflow across the condenser, which supports higher efficiency when running at part-load conditions. As such, the 30RB is the first air-cooled scroll chiller in the market to cross the 17.0-Integrated Part Load Value (IPLV) barrier.
Furthermore, the 30RB with Greenspeed intelligence has new software designed to optimize usage of the compressors, fans and circuits. The new software constantly calculates the most efficient head pressure from the load and ambient conditions, and controls precisely to this pressure through infinite feedback steps and adjustment.
"The 30RB with Greenspeed intelligence is a fantastic addition to the AquaSnap line," said Greg Alcorn, vice president, commercial sales and marketing, Carrier. "We've integrated several new technologies that allow the unit to run more intelligently and efficiently. In addition, the new unit is built in line with existing products so service teams are already familiar with this platform."
To learn more about the 30RB with Greenspeed intelligence, visit www.commercial.carrier.com. Follow Carrier on Twitter: @CarrierGreen.
Founded by the inventor of modern air conditioning, Carrier is the world's leader in high-technology heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions. Carrier experts provide sustainable solutions, integrating energy-efficient products, building controls and energy services for residential, commercial, retail, transport and food service customers. Carrier is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., a leading provider to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide. For more information, visit www.carrier.com or follow @CarrierGreen on Twitter.


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Shopify Masters is a podcast where Shopify merchants share their stories, mistakes, and learning experiences on their journey from startup to success.
Twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, our host Felix Thea interviews a different entrepreneur to tap into their knowledge so that you—the listener—can walk away with actionable insights to apply to your own ecommerce store.
From the co-founder of JM&Sons who earned PR mentions by turning a shipping container into a furniture showroom, to the entrepreneur who bought Potato Parcel and now makes $20K a month selling "potato-grams", Shopify Masters explores the stories of a diverse mix of entrepreneurs to:
- Analyze their winning strategies.
- Share their recommended apps and resources.
- Discuss the hurdles and challenges that many entrepreneurs face.
With over 100 episodes to date, there are a lot of hidden gems that deserve to be highlighted.
So we've rounded up the best of the best this past year to bring you the top 10 most-listened-to episodes of 2016.
Subscribe to Shopify Masters on Google Play and iTunes!
30 Days To Market: How This $800K Coconut Oil Business Bootstrapped In The First Months
Guest: Matt Geddie, Skinny Coconut Oil
Some entrepreneurs are self-described "opportunity addicts" who start a series of businesses trying to validate an idea by bringing a product to market as fast as they can.
For Matt Geddie of Skinny Coconut Oil, speed is the name of the game when you're riding the wave of a trend like coconut oil.
After validating his idea with keyword research and thinking up a way to differentiate his product, he introduced it to the market via an online store by spending as little as he could.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to work with and incentivize bloggers to review your products
- How to retain an existing customer rather than expensively getting a new customer
- How to test if your product, brand, or store can be a viable business
Starting an ecommerce store is one of the most inexpensive-but-effective ways to bring a product to market.
How Wee Squeak Captured Over 600 Emails Using Only $90 in Facebook Ads
Guest: Susan Bradley, Wee Squeak
If you're going to spend money on advertising, it pays to have a plan for getting the biggest bang for your buck even if you don't make sales from your ads.
That's why it's beneficial for many business owners to make an effort to capture emails from their paid traffic.
For Wee Squeak, collecting emails is one of their biggest focuses in order to reach customers when they're actually ready to buy.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to capture email subscribers by running events on Facebook (and not the "events" you're thinking of).
- How to earn a subscriber AND a sale at the same time.
- How to partner with other brands to co-promote giveaways that grow your email list.
If you don't put a [lead generation system] in place to capture those people, you're going to have to pay again every time you want to reach them.
How zeroUV Made $9 Million Last Year Selling On Online Marketplaces
Guest: Brian Fujita, ZeroUV
As a store owner, you will inevitably have to compete with online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay for customers.
But instead of competing, you can sell there as well, as zeroUV did with their sunglasses. For Brian Fujita, one of the keys to success is to list your products in all the marketplaces where your customers shop.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to differentiate yourself on a 3rd party marketplace like Ebay with so many other sellers
- What kind of businesses do well on eBay
- How much work it takes to become a featured brand on Amazon and how it doubled their daily revenue
The way we looked at it was, 'Let's open up as many locations on the ecommerce highway as we could in order to capture as many customers as possible.
1,000 True Fans: Tapping into Facebook Groups to Generate Sales
Guest: Karen Kawallek, Lake Providence Lodge Scented Wax Melts
Facebook Groups are where people collect and come together around a shared interest.
Niche businesses can likely find hundreds of potential customers in these groups. But for Karen Kawallek who managed to create, moderate and grow her own Facebook Group, she found it gave her access to hundreds of hyper-loyal, super-enthusiastic fans who weren't just repeat customers but advocates too.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why you should start with selling just 1 or 2 products instead of hundreds.
- How to run small $10 giveaways on other Facebook groups to grow your own Facebook group.
- The "1,000 True Fans" model and what it means for your financial freedom.
I have [customers] that have done their own videos—none of them have been paid or supplied product. They're just a highly engaged community of people who enjoy scented wax.
How Cold Emailing Helped Craft Street Design Go From Side Hustle to Full Time Business
Guest: Pratima Aravabhoomi, Craft Street Design
Just because a marketing tactic doesn't scale, doesn't mean it can't be effective and cost-efficient.
Cold emailing is one approach that some argue doesn't work as well as it used to. But Pratima of Craft Street Design has proven that if you take the time to do prospect research, truly personalize your emails and make each one count, it can be a good—if limited—way of generating sales early on.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to test the market before going all in.
- How cold emailing landed Pratima big accounts that gave her the cash flow to go full time.
- How to use a street team to promote your product, how to hire them, and how much they cost.
I don't send hundreds of emails. I only send 3-5 a week. About 2-3 reply... about 50% lead to a sale.
How Persistence Got Natural Force to $1 Million in Sales
Guest: Justin Quinn, Natural Force
The nutrition and supplement space might be crowded, but the rising and falling tide of trends within the industry create gaps you can fill as an entrepreneur if you spot them early enough.
Natural Force saw an opportunity to become an all-natural alternative to traditional supplements and, through persistence, they were able to create a quality product to fill that gap.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Where to start when thinking about raising capital from friends and family.
- How to ensure you're not missing those "make or break" opportunities in fast changing markets.
- How to choose an idea to focus on when you're juggling multiple businesses (HINT: It's not always the one you're most passionate about).
I think if you're going to outsource something, you need to have done it first.
How HDX Hydration Mix Sells Someone a Drink Before They Know What It Tastes Like
Guest: Vipe Desai, HDX Hydration Mix
Strategic partnerships let you share resources and audiences with other brands.
Depending on your product, you can get very creative with how you position a co-marketing opportunity.
That's what HDX Hydration did by distributing free samples of their drink mix by shipping it with their partner's product.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to convince customers to buy a product online that requires the sense of taste.
- Why you should not build a customer base from scratch and how to partner with complementary companies instead.
- How to get free samples to potential customers for pennies on the dollar
- And why you shouldn't focus on volume, but instead on margin—this company has 80% margins.
With partnerships, what you have to do is find like-minded brands that fit with your product, that are complementary to each other, but also how you can reciprocate to them.
How One Entrepreneur Generates $1 Million a Year Selling Marijuana Accessories
Guest: Ben Kovacs, Myster & Lifted View
The marijuana industry presents many big opportunities for entrepreneurs as society develops a more lenient attitude towards the herb.
Ben Kovacs is a Sales Executive at Twitter with two side hustles in the growing market of cannabis culture. In a still-stigmatized space, he decided to focus on the long underserved professional class of marijuana users by selling high-end accessories and supplements.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why you'll get better customers by offering 100% satisfaction guaranteed refunds rather than giving away free samples.
- Why not having to rely on immediate revenue can help you focus on building a product-first business.
- What it's like working a demanding sales job and running 2 Shopify businesses at the same.
There's a big difference between having a product that people love and enjoy, and having a business.
How Solé Bicycles Sells 15,000 Bikes A Year Using Content Marketing
Guest: Ben Petraglia, Sole Bicycles
Building a lifestyle brand is one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors, and that's because it's not an easy thing to do.
Content marketing has proven to be one of the best ways to establish a lifestyle brand. But whereas many might think of writing articles first, Solé Bicycles chose mixtapes and art because that's the content their audience consumes.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to beat your competitors by not marketing your product and instead marketing an aspirational lifestyle tied to your product.
- How they bootstrapped a inventory-heavy business without any significant outside investments.
- What a "Sourcing Agent" is and how hiring one helped them scale their business smoothly.
Anyone can create the same run-of-the-mill infographic, but what are you going to create that represents your brand, that's going to set you apart from someone selling a similar product?
Stay Tuned For More Shopify Masters
Shopify Masters gives you access to invaluable conversations with successful store owners that all store owners can benefit from.
This podcast lets you hear it all straight from the entrepreneur's mouth while you commute, work out, or grow your own business (one of the benefits of the audio format).
You can catch Shopify Masters every Tuesday and Thursday right here on our blog.
Whether you're starting out or scaling up, there's something in this show for you.
If you're already a regular listener, leave us a review on iTunes and tell us what you think!


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The ultimate source for nitrous oxide cream cartridges and siphons
Creamright is the international leader in the distribution of nitrous oxide whipped cream cartridges, CO2 soda chargers, whipped cream dispensers, soda siphons, and other specialty kitchen and bar tools. Every day, our products are trusted by thousands of coffee shops, restaurants, bars, catering companies, and private individuals to make fresh, high quality whipped cream.
Since opening our doors in 2001 in our Florida location, we have worked had to offer our customers the highest quality products and and expand our customer service. Currently, you can find our whip cream cartridges in the United Kingdom, North America and South America. Until recently, our neighbors in Canada have relied on USA based vendors. Although published prices appear good, we have learned that it becomes and expensive hassle for our Canada customers as the couriers (UPS, Federal Express, DHL) charge expensive entry fees and GST-HST taxes will be collected before delivery. Our Creamright Canada site offers your faster delivery with all costs being disclosed clearly during the online purchase.
Whether you are purchasing a single iSi™ or Mosa™ whipping cream dispenser for home use; if you are a chef or barista requiring commercial products and replacement parts; or if you are a re-seller or wholesale distributor, we are here to service your needs. We are direct importer of the finest quality kitchen and bar tools, specializing in nitrous oxide whipped cream chargers and siphons. With our Ontario based distribution center, we can provide a superior customer experience with reliable delivery. Applicable HST-GST taxes and delivery fees are computed on the web store during the checkout process, which is something you will not get from a USA based site and warehouse
We sell only the finest quality cartridges for making whipped cream, all of our brands are made in the European Union using state of the art equipment and employing the strictest hygiene standards. The production of Nitrous Oxide for food preparation is a complex process, and our Austrian based factories provide the extreme purity and high levels of filtration required for a superior product. Our nitrous oxide whipped cream chargers are manufactured by Austrian manufacturers that offer highest quality, most reliable the best quality available on the market. Our brands include Ultra-Purewhip™, SFG™, iSi™, and EZ Whip™ nitrous chargers.
Regarding the whip cream dispensers, we have learned that purchasing a reliable product for dispensing whipped cream propellant under pressure is extremely important. Since 2009, less expensive Chinese whipped cream makers have flooded the EU and USA markets. We would urge you to buy from either a Taiwan or European based manufacturer. Whether you are buying our less expensive TW brand of consumer whipped cream makers, a Mosa aluminum or stainless steel whipped cream dispenser, or a top of the line iSi whipped cream dispenser; Creamright offers superior quality and warranty support.
Creamright of Canada: We promise to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your buying experience is easy and hassle free. From the minute you place your order until the day your package arrives. That is our promise.


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News and discussions
- Ganesh Sittampalam uploaded the second beta of darcs 2.8:
- Zooko O'Whielacronx called for a new maintainer for darcsver:
- Eric Kow summed up the recent issues of Darcs with regards to SSH:
Issues resolved in the last week (2)
- issue845 Eric Kow
- pass ssh stderr through.
- http://bugs.darcs.net/issue845
- issue2090 Eric Kow
- correctly detect existing transfer-mode connection.
- http://bugs.darcs.net/issue2090


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Kouign Amann [Daring Kitchen]
These delicious pastries from Brittany – pronounced "quee(n) a-MAHN" – are similar to croissants, except they have sugar in them. And somehow even more butter. They are absolutely delicious, especially if you, like me, like almost-burnt dark caramel and flaky pastry. These were not difficult to make, although they are a bit time consuming, since you have to roll out and stack up the dough and butter to create the many flaky layers, and each step of the process involves returning the dough-and-butter stack to the refrigerator at the end to firm up. Otherwise, it's too easy for softened butter to squirt out of the sides of the dough as you roll it out.
One pic below. Read more to see a couple more.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry


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text:
Fascination Logisitcs: The central logistics centre from Liebherr
Concentrated service power
The spare parts supply for the Earthmoving and Components divisions is housed at the Oberopfingen logistics centre. From here, Liebherr supplies customers all over the world.
Small-parts logistics writ large
The automated small-parts warehouse operates around the clock. This plays a crucial role in enabling Liebherr to dispatch up to 2,000 individual orders a day from Oberopfingen to countries across Europe.
In good hands
Despite all the automation, we could never operate without human input. At our picking stations, each order is checked and prepared for the next steps in the dispatch process. Orders can be tracked at any time using the warehouse management system.
Top location
Just off the A7 autobahn, the Oberopfingen logistics centre is ideally located for accessing the transport infrastructure and Liebherr's production sites – and there is still plenty of room for expansion.


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There are two ways to write this post.
There's the way where I paint myself a victim of circumstance—someone who got totally screwed and didn't deserve it.
And there's the honest way.
I am a chronic procrastinator and am grossly irresponsible for a 36-year-old father.
It's the reason my retirement account isn't as large as it should be. It's the reason I don't have any books published. It's the reason I don't have a 28-inch waist. It's the reason my house isn't as clean as it should be. It's the reason my ex-wife gets pissed at me when I overlook or don't pay attention to some detail related to our son's school schedule. It's the reason I let my auto insurance lapse last year.
And it's the reason I don't have natural gas service to my house as I sit here typing this.
"What'd you do, Matt? Not pay your bills!?"
No, dick.
I actually have a credit on my account because I pay more every month than I need to, thank you very much.
But what did happen is the gas company kept visiting my house to inspect my gas meter when I wasn't home. Not the entire company, I don't think. Probably just one guy. They need to inspect meters (mine's indoors) to ensure they are gauging gas usage accurately and to regularly check for natural gas leaks.
So, instead of just breaking in or maybe letting my uncle's ghost show them around, they left a little card on my door knob informing me I needed to schedule an appointment to have my meter inspected.
It seemed important, so I put it in my Jeep to remind me to call on my morning commute instead of calling immediately. I called one time a couple days later, but the offices were closed, and I just sort of never tried again.
I just kept on living because if I just don't worry about it, it will magically go away!!!
Because I live in Ohio, the temperature can swing 30 degrees in one day. And it did. We had a little cold spell recently, where it was in the 30s and 40s (Fahrenheit) at night, and in the 50s during the day.
Wednesday, I noticed the temperature reading in my house was 59 degrees. Unacceptable. I turned on the furnace and went to bed.
When my alarm clock woke me yesterday, my sinuses were totally clogged and my bedroom was about 55 degrees, as if a little magic ice troll was camped out in my air duct shooting pneumonia sprinkles and fuck-you dust at me all night.
I assumed my furnace was broken since that was the most expensive explanation. Whatever. I'll fix it later!
I put a space heater in my room last night because I figured possibly setting my house on fire is better than being a tiny bit cold and also because screw that little ice troll.
Everything seemed fine until the part where I got in the shower and screamed obscenities. Because that was hell.
That's what hell is, folks. An endless cold shower where all the women you find attractive take photos of your shriveled penis and post them to Instagram and Facebook and then tag your grandmother.
"Hahaha! See how funny it looks with the Lo-Fi filter!?"
Like. Like. Share. Like. Share. Like. Like.
No hot water combined with my furnace blowing only cold air told me all I needed to know: Those bastards shut off my gas.
Is that a little harsh? Shutting off gas to a customer who is a couple months AHEAD on his bill paying? Maybe another warning stuck to my door? Might that have been a better way to handle it?
I think so.
If it was winter and they shut off my gas, my reaction would be infinitely less measured. The gas company would have a real problem on their hands. And by that I mean, I would have complained to four or five people who don't procrastinate all the time, and then do exactly what I'm already doing, which is meeting a gas company person at my house whenever they call me.
(Insert magic time-travel sound effect here)
I have a minor gas leak in my house! Gas company man just left. He was cool.
Now I'm waiting for the plumber to come, install new fittings, then I'll have to call the gas company back so they can restart service.
I think this is one of those times it's important to look on the bright side.
Is it fun waiting for a plumbing company to call you back, and then overcharge you for the work they're going to do?
But is it kind of awesome that I will greatly reduce the risk of dying in a fiery explosion in my own house?
I feel like it probably is.
Maybe you guys would hear about it someday. "News at 11. Procrastinating blogger's home explodes, killing him, but also saving him from having to power wash his exterior walls and mop the basement floor, so don't feel too bad."
Or maybe you wouldn't hear.
Either way, I'd probably end up in that forever-cold shower, shriveled penis exposed, and going viral on Facebook – Eternal Damnation Edition™.
Like. Like. Share. Like. Share. Like. Like.
But, hell. Since I'm still alive?
I guess I've got some things to do.


text:
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Paperback / softback 416 pages
Winner of the Jhalak Prize
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Afropean seizes the blur of contradictions that have obscured Europe's relationship with blackness and paints it into something new, confident and lyrical' Afua Hirsch
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Afropean. Here was a space where blackness was taking part in shaping European identity ... A continent of Algerian flea markets, Surinamese shamanism, German Reggae and Moorish castles.Yes, all this was part of Europe too ... With my brown skin and my British passport - still a ticket into mainland Europe at the time of writing - I set out in search of the Afropeans, on a cold October morning.'Afropean is an on-the-ground documentary of areas where Europeans of African descent are juggling their multiple allegiances and forging new identities. Here is an alternative map of the continent, taking the reader to places like Cova Da Moura, the Cape Verdean shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon with its own underground economy, and Rinkeby, the area of Stockholm that is eighty per cent Muslim.Johny Pitts visits the former Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where West African students are still making the most of Cold War ties with the USSR, and Clichy Sous Bois in Paris, which gave birth to the 2005 riots, all the while presenting Afropeans as lead actors in their own story.
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text: I taught Microsoft Publisher the other day and a student, who uses a Mac at home, asked if there was a version out there he could use. It also had to be free he said. I guess I should take a second and mention what Publisher is for. It is a program that allows you to design and printout all sorts of paper goods like business cards, flyers, signs, brochure, etc. I did a lot of research on this topic and I did find one replacement called Scribus. But there are issues. First it seems slower than dirt. Second it is missing a lot of the templates that I go to Publisher for. It does have a few but mainly you are on your own. But what about the intricate brochures you designed in publisher a while back? Sorry, from what I read even Publisher has issues opening older documents made in an older version of Publisher. Also I read a lot of printer companies complaining about people who use Publisher because it has problems when trying to print professionally. So what are your choices? Unfortunately it looks like you will have to buy something like Adobe Indesign or QuarkXPress. But before you run out the door to buy you should know they are not cheap, upwards of $200 to $600. I had no luck with my usual places, Amazon and eBay. The only thing I can say is if you really need them you will have to pay a hefty price or have print shop take care of the project. I wish I had better news, sorry.


text:
More than a century of design and innovation helped inspire the creation of the luxurious architectural 1901 range, for when only the best will do.1901 is both contemporary and classic, with a focus on premium fittings, a high-quality performance and easy integration into control systems. Perfect for luxury residential and hospitality projects, 1901 showcases an aesthetically simple, low-glare luminaire design, with market-leading technical performance. The detailed fittings come in a variety of stylish options including a choice of bezels, adjustability, colour temperatures, beam angles, dimming methods, and IP ratings to perfectly complete the look of any interior design project. Simply configure your product to find the relevant product code. The range is engineered to be as easy to use as possible and can fit seamlessly into the installation and commissioning stages of a lighting project.
Available in IP65 for various applications
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The 1901 family consists of a pendant, spot light and downlight all with a consistent design language
Use our product selector to choose from 1,800 different combinations
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IP Rating | IP20 |
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text: In an SSIS package you have the option to choose from a wide range of source from Flat Files to writing queries using OLEDB sources such as SQL Server. Often times, such as writing queries against SQL Server, the metadata will come from the table and you won't need to worry about truncation in the source. Flat files are scanned and metadata is chosen based on the file so those are usually good to go as well. Excel however tends to just use the default length on all columns of 255 characters. This isn't problematic until you get text that exceeds that limit at which point truncation errors occur such this: [Admin Comments [78]] Error: There was an error with output column "Admin Comments" (92) on output "Excel Source Output" (86). The column status returned was: "Text was truncated or one or more characters had no match in the target code page." The size of the column needs to be increased for the data to be able to be passed into the data flow. A data conversion transform will not be useful in this situation as the package will fail before it gets there. Take a look below for the problem and the solution. Situation: We have an Excel worksheet with a column called Admin Comments and in this case I have one entry in the sheet with the following text: "This is a text box that has more characters in it than the size of the column in SSIS. The default for the column width is 255 characters. This text exceeds that limit. Therefore when the SSIS package picks up this file it will fail if you do not change the column width." This exceeds the 255 character default and will cause my SSIS package to fail as seen below. I will set up my package with a data flow that is just the Excel Source and a dummy destination. When I run the package the first time I am disappointed because of the following situation. Errors!!!! The error messages in that nifty screenshot above that may or may not be too small to read are the following in order of appearance. Because SSIS can't just give me one useful error message. It has to give two somewhat useful and one useless in this case, it's a feature called "Keeping you busy troubleshooting so you can stay employed" Error Message 1: [Admin Comments [78]] Error: There was an error with output column "Admin Comments" (92) on output "Excel Source Output" (86). The column status returned was: "Text was truncated or one or more characters had no match in the target code page.". Error Message 2: [Admin Comments [78]] Error: The "output column "Admin Comments" (92)" failed because truncation occurred, and the truncation row disposition on "output column "Admin Comments" (92)" specifies failure on truncation. A truncation error occurred on the specified object of the specified component. Error Message 3: [SSIS.Pipeline] Error: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PRIMEOUTPUTFAILED. The PrimeOutput method on component "Admin Comments" (78) returned error code 0xC020902A. The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput(). The meaning of the failure code is defined by the component, but the error is fatal and the pipeline stopped executing. There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure. Why This Happens: Part of showing the fix for this is also showing you why this error occurred. As I mentioned my text was above the 255 characters that the default generally is set to, it has somewhere around 278 characters. Right click on the Excel Source in the Data Flow and select Show Advanced Editor. Under the Input and Output Properties tab you will notice a section for Excel Source Output. Expand that then expand Output Columns. Here a list of columns in your excel worksheet will be displayed. Select the column in question, in this case the Admin Comments column, and notice the Data Type Properties section in the pane on the right side. You will notice that the Length is set to the default of 255 and a Unicode string. Just above that is a property called TruncationRowDisposition and is set to RD_FailComponent. This means that if the text exceeds the 255 characters allowed it will fail the component. Now to talk about solutions. Solution 1 (The Recommended Solution): There are two solutions for the particular situation that we will discuss. The first is to simply change the Length in the Advance Properties to a value that allows all the text in the field to be brought back. Since my widest column is 278 characters I will set mine to 300 because I know that is the maximum in my source system so the field can't have more data than that. Simply change the value to 300 as shown below. Now when you refresh the metadata for the other components in the package and run it everything works wonderfully. Easy fix! Just change the column length in Advanced Editor for the Excel Source and you are good to go! Solution 2 (Not so recommended): The other option is to change the TruncationRowDisposition property from RD_FailComponent to RD_IgnoreFailure. In this case if the row exceeds the length setting the data will still be brought in, but only up to the length. So if the setting is at 255 and there are 300 characters only the first 255 are passed in. This is not recommended for obvious reasons since you loose data, but sometime that is acceptable.


text:
While working on something to make for Blog Party #30 I really wanted to move past that whole strawberry and balsamic vinegar combination and decided to try a different companion for these berries - fresh basil.
Taking inspiration from tomato and basil and how well those two work together, my idea eventually involved into making a "sweet pesto" - leaving out the savoury elements, I made a simple paste of basil leaves, pine-nuts and icing sugar. One taste of this sweet pesto and I knew I was on the right track.
icing sugar
basil leaves
pinenuts (or slivered almonds)
icing sugar
Prepare the strawberries:
Once you've cut all the strawberries into a fine dice, sprinkle over with a little icing sugar, stir well and then cover and allow to macerate. The fruit will become glossy and a lovely red liquid will form at the bottom of the bowl.
Make the Sweet Pesto:
I've left the quantities vague as you should make this is suit your own palette.
Place the basil leaves, pinenuts (or slivered almonds) and icing sugar into the bowl of a small mixer and pulse until a rough paste forms. The consistency will be a little like moist clay and will form damp clumps. The end paste should still have some texture, don't blend it until smooth, you want to be able to feel a nutty grit in your mouth.
Place a little sweet pesto at the bottom of your serving dishes and then top with the diced strawberries, spoon over the released juice - the juice will help loosen the sweet pesto and it's flavour will infuse the liquid.
Garnish with tiny basil leaves.
You could mix the sweet pesto through the strawberries but it won't look as nice - the strawberries lose their glossy appearance. I think it's a nicer experience to get that basil flavour building as you eat the dish.
Sweet Food


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Happy New Year 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017posted by Bruce 1:14 PM
Hi all: Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year 2017……!!! I was extremely lucky to photograph a tiger cub (No: 2 born in the wild) from the first female tiger (T-1) reintroduce a couple years ago……it was absolutely some of my best tiger encounters in India during early 2016. I will be returning to India in late Feb-early March for one more trip after some particular shots to close out my next book project…hope that all of you will have a great year..!!


text:
The White House President George W. Bush |
Print this document |
For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
July 12, 2004
Mrs. Bush's Remarks at George Nethercutt for Senate Reception
The Hay Adams
One Lafayette Square
MRS. BUSH: Thank you all very, very much. Thank you, Congressman Nethercutt for that introduction. I'm so happy to be here tonight, I'm so happy to be here to support your candidacy for United States Senate from Washington State. And I'm so glad that Congresswoman Dunn and Congressman Hastings joined us here tonight.
Thank all of you, everyone out here for coming, and special thanks to everyone who came all the way from Washington State, who's working on the campaign for Congressman Nethercutt for Senate. And a lot of you, I know, are also working on my husband's campaign, and I want to thank you very much for that.
I'm so happy to see Mary Beth. Mary Beth and I have a lot in common. We're both committed to finding a cure for breast cancer, we campaigned with our husbands for Congress, and we both know what it's like to raise teenagers. (Laughter.) You've done a really great job with Meredith and Elliott, and I'm so glad that they are here with us tonight.
My husband's first campaign was a race for Congress in West Texas in 1978. Newly married, we spent most of our time in the car, driving up and down the panhandle of West Texas. The race didn't turn out quite as we hoped, but we had a great time. And, believe me, you learn a lot about your husband when you spend that much time in a car with him. (Laughter.)
President Bush sends his very best regards to all of you, and he also thanks you for supporting Congressman George Nethercutt for the United States Senate. He wants you to know how vitally important it is to have a strong team in Washington State led by Senator George Nethercutt. (Applause.)
All of you know Congressman Nethercutt is a devoted father, a hardworking public servant, and an experienced leader. He'll always listen to a question or a concern and you can count on George Nethercutt to speak his mind. That's what Mary Beth told me. (Laughter.)
Here in D.C., we know Congressman Nethercutt as a principled, skilled legislator, who is not afraid to reach across the aisle to get things done. He's respected by his colleagues in both parties. From supporting tax relief to increasing funding for diabetes research, Congressman Nethercutt has spent a lifetime working on issues that matter to the people in his home state. He understands the priorities of Washington State and he'll continue to make sure that your voice is heard in Congress. And that's why it's so important to elect George Nethercutt to the United States Senate.
President Bush and Congressman Nethercutt are working hard to keep America strong and safe. Over the last three years, our country has faced some of the toughest challenges in our history. I've watched as President Bush has led our country with compassion and conviction. President Bush has been a steady and determined leader as he has made the most difficult decision any President can make, and that's to send young Americans to war to protect our national security and to defend the cause of freedom. And President Bush is grateful to have leaders like George Nethercutt to stand by his side during these very difficult times.
Congressman Nethercutt knows that we must defend our homeland and the peace of free people around the world. George has been to Iraq and he understands the challenges facing our country and the military. As a leader on the Defense Appropriations Committee, he increased defense spending by 40 percent, reversing the devastating cuts from a decade ago. He supported greater pay for training for our troops and he secured millions of dollars to modernize Fairchild Air Force Base. And he's working with Secretary Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen Washington's ports from terrorist attacks.
September 11th was a defining moment for all of us. We'll never forget the bravery of our fellow Americans or the spirit of unity that spread across our country. And since that fateful day, I've watched as President Bush's leadership has made not only the world safer but also people's lives better. (Applause.)
Thanks to my husband's decisions and America's actions, 50 million people are free from tyranny and oppression. Consider the women and girls of Afghanistan. During the long years of the Taliban regime, they were virtual prisoners in their homes, unable to leave without male supervision. And if they didn't have a male relative -- and many didn't because they were widowed from long years of wars -- they were forced to beg because they were forbidden to go to school or to work.
Now the people of Afghanistan have new leaders, new freedoms, and a constitution guaranteeing the rights of women. And millions of girls are in school in Afghanistan, many for the first time in their lives.
And thanks to America's actions, the people of Iraq are free from the tyranny and torture of Saddam Hussein. We're now seeing great progress in Iraq's transition to democracy. The new Iraqi Interim Government assumed the responsibility for the citizens of Iraq. They're now making decisions about the economy, security and other issues important to their fellow citizens. And Saddam Hussein will be put on trial to face justice for his atrocities.
Thanks to a unanimous vote in the United Nations Security Council, the new Iraqi government has the full support of the international community. We pledge to stand with the Iraqi people at this historic and hopeful time for their nation.
We still face many challenges every day. But we know that there's no safe alternative to resolute action. The defeat of violence and terror in Iraq is vital to the defeat of violence and terror around the world.
A strong economy is also essential to our security. And President Bush needs Congressman Nethercutt's leadership in the Senate to help make tax relief permanent. George Nethercutt was recently named "Hero of the Taxpayer" for defending tax cuts for Washington's families and businesses. George's strong support for this economic stimulus plan is enabling millions of families to keep more of their own money.
For many families, tax relief means money to pay the monthly bills, to start a college savings plan for their children, or to save for their own retirement. For small business owners, tax relief means expanding the operations of their business and the ability to hire more employees.
These millions of individual decisions that people are making with their own money are lifting our economy and improving the lives of people around the country.
And the economy just keeps getting better. We're experiencing the fastest economic growth in 20 years. The home ownership rate is at its highest level ever. Minority home ownership is particularly strong, and I'm proud that we've set a new record in the first quarter of this year. Now more than half of all minority families own their own homes. And since August, more than 1.5 million new jobs have been created around our country.
To keep our economy strong, George Nethercutt knows that we must expand trade opportunities around the world for America's goods. He led the effort to open up $7 billion in new export opportunities for Washington products.
President Bush believes that American workers are the best in the world and that, when given a level playing field, we can compete against workers anywhere. The President has negotiated trade agreements that reduce foreign tariffs and trade barriers and he is providing more resources to educate and equip American workers with the skills to meet the demands of an ever-changing work force.
President Bush also knows how vitally important it is that every child in America receives an excellent education. Congressman Nethercutt knows that this is the single most important responsibility we have. He supports the No Child Left Behind Act which provides more federal money for schools than ever before, and higher standards for our children and teachers. George Nethercutt also increased grant funding and job training to help more Washington students go to college.
Congressman Nethercutt has always been a great advocate for children. As a family attorney, he helped hundreds of parents adopt children. And as a father of a child with diabetes, he has increased funding for research and treatment of this disease for millions of Americans. He even started the Diabetes Caucus on the Hill in honor of his daughter, Meredith.
Like President Bush, Congressman Nethercutt knows that reliable health care is fundamental to our economic security. No one can feel confident about the future if they feel that the next illness they have might wipe out their savings or drive them into debt. That's why President Bush is taking action to make health care more affordable and more accessible to millions of Americans. He worked with Congressman Nethercutt in Congress to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare to help seniors afford their medicines. He is expanding health insurance options for Americans and promoting new ideas like health savings accounts.
And Congressman Nethercutt supports the President's plan to reform the medical liability system to reduce junk lawsuits. (Applause.) These junk lawsuits drive up the cost of medicine and they drive good doctors out of their practice.
I know that you're here today because, like Congressman Nethercutt, you believe that every child deserves to grow up healthy and safe. And you believe that every American deserves an excellent education. And you believe that we can help secure peace and freedom in the world. And you believe that through acts of faith and love, we can build a more compassionate America.
President Bush and Congressman Nethercutt share your beliefs and they will continue to make them their priorities as they strive to build a stronger America. Congressman Nethercutt will work with President Bush to keep our children and families safe, so that we can live in a world free from terror. And he will work with the President to make our country a more compassionate nation, where neighbors help neighbors in need. I know that's the Washington State way.
When you leave here today, redouble your efforts to elect George Nethercutt to the United States Senate. I urge you to work in the months ahead, talk to your friends and make sure your neighbors vote. Remember that every single vote matters, and every vote for Congressman Nethercutt is a vote for a better and stronger America. (Applause.)
The people of Washington State are electing someone who will represent their hopes and dreams in our nation's capital, someone who will uphold the strong character of the people of Washington State. Congressman Nethercutt serves the people of Washington State with integrity and conviction, and these are values we need in the United States Senate.
Please join President Bush and me in supporting Congressman Nethercutt for the United States Senate. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)