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Joan McKechnie
BSc Hons Audiology & Speech Pathology
My name is Joan, your audiologist here at HearingDirect.com. The following is a guide to hearing that covers many of the questions I receive on a regular basis about all things hearing. I am constantly adding to the information featured here based on your feedback and questions. If you would like to see more information on a particular subject or have a subject you would like to see introduced; I would be delighted to hear from you - contact us to submit a question/subject or feel free to give me a call on 0800 0321301.
Subjects at a glance:
"Hearing is a precious gift which helps us make sense of the world around us. Scientists tell us that our ears pick up air waves and translate them into sounds in our brain but hearing is so much more than that; chatting with friends, listening to our children, talking through problems or relaxing to music. Sounds provide information and evoke thoughts and feelings that give meaning to our lives."
Put simply, "Sound" is waves or vibrations of air. A healthy ear is able to pick up vibrations that are measured in a basic unit of frequency known as Hertz or Hz. The ear converts vibrations into electrical signals sent to the brain, where they are translated into meaningful information such as speech and music.
Our brain works out what type of sound it is according to the volume and the pitch of the vibrations. The volume of sound is measured in decibels or dB SPL. The greater the volume the further the sound travels and the louder it sounds.
The rate at which a sound vibrates is called its frequency and the higher the frequency the higher-pitched the sound, such as a piccolo or birdsong. Low-pitched sounds could be the rumble of distant thunder. Frequency is physical measurement and pitch is a measure of how we perceive frequency.
Loudness varies from person to person and as such it would help to mention here how loudness is described: inaudible, very soft, soft, moderate, loud, very loud or too loud. For the same volume of sound, people might rate them differently. For example, one might rate rock music as loud and another might rate it as too loud.
The characteristics of different sounds vary widely. Simple sounds such as pure tones contain only one frequency. However, most everyday sounds are complex sounds consisting of many frequencies. Speech, for example, consists of vibrations at different volumes and numerous frequencies and most are between 250 and 8000Hz.
Sound travels in waves of pressure through water, gases (like air) and other matter. It is the means of auditory communication but how do we make sense of what we hear? The human ear is designed to be a receiver of sounds but also plays a major role in balance and body position.
Our ears are divided into three parts – the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Sound waves travel through each part of the ear to the brain where they are analysed and interpreted into meaning. The best way to describe how our ears work is to describe the pathway sound takes through each part:
1) The outer ear
The outer ear includes the pinna (also called the auricle), the ear canal and the eardrum (also called the tympanic membrane). The pinna is the external part of the ear made of cartilage, tissue and skin. It collects and directs sounds into the ear canal and protects the ear canal. The ear canal is a tube that directs sounds onto the eardrum.
2) The middle ear
The middle ear is an air-filled chamber connected to the nasal and throat passages by the Eustachian tube which equalises air pressure on both sides of the ear drum. Usually closed, the Eustachian tube opens naturally when you swallow or yawn. Sound reaching the eardrum causes it to vibrate, transmitting that sound to the three smallest bones in the body. These bones or 'ossicles' are commonly referred to as the hammer (or Malleus), the anvil (or Incus) and the stirrup (or Stapes) that connect the eardrum to the inner ear. These tiny ossicles amplify the vibrations and direct the waves of sound into the inner ear.
3) The inner ear
The inner ear is filled with a fluid and consists of the spiral shaped Cochlea, named from the ancient word for the shell of a snail. The passageways of the cochlea are lined with over 15,000 microscopic haircells (called inner and outer hair cells) that convert sound vibrations from the ossicles into nerve pulses which are then sent to the brain. The auditory nerve contains thousands of nerve fibres that help our brains interpret these pulses into meaning. The inner ear also contains our 'vestibular system' which is critical for maintaining balance and body position.
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Types and causes of hearing loss
Whilst there are many reasons for hearing loss, the condition itself falls into two main categories: Conductive and Sensorineural. Hearing loss can also be attributed to a combination of both types – a mixed hearing loss.
Conductive hearing loss is caused by any obstruction that prevents sound waves from reaching the inner ear. Some of the causes of conductive hearing loss can include:
Sensorineural hearing loss refers to problems in the cochlea or the auditory nerve.
Most are due to deterioration of the tiny inner or outer hair cells. This accounts for 90% of permanent hearing losses and although it may be a natural part of aging other causes can include:
Traumatic exposure to noise
It is quite possible for a conductive hearing loss to occur together with a sensorineural hearing loss. When this occurs, the hearing loss is referred to as a mixed hearing loss.
Noise-induced hearing loss
A common cause of hearing loss is caused through prolonged exposure to harmful sound (noise) or a sudden brief but intense noise like an explosion to the ear. The nature of noise-induced hearing loss is sensorineural, and at present, can only be helped and not cured. Most people with hearing loss caused by noise exposure could have avoided it happening. Excessive noise exposure can happen unknowingly at home in the form of music on an MP3 player, for example, or as a by-product of the workplace environment. The human ear collects sound at frequencies of between 20Hz and 20000Hz. Our ears are most sensitive at the 2000-5000Hz range which is important for speech and where continuous exposure to noise causes the most damage.
One way we can prevent hearing loss is by staying in environments with safe sound limits. Many of us can routinely be exposed to the harmful effects of sound every day. Our ears can put up with very high levels of noise for very short periods of time but the louder the noise, the less time we can spend listening to it before damage is done. Most of us can sustain noises of 90 decibels for up to eight hours without permanent damage, for example, but at 100 decibels the maximum time is only two hours. The figure below shows some typical values for noise sources:
These are the guidelines as to the thresholds that must not be exceeded in the working environment published by the Health and Safety Executive:
Daily or weekly exposure - 87dB
Peak sound pressure - 140dB
Earplugs are a very effective way of protecting hearing. They are available in a variety of materials including foam, wax, rubber and silicone. Musicians, for example, wear custom-fitted earplugs that do not distort music or impact performance. Foam earplugs are the cheapest and can reduce sounds entering the inner ear by up to 35dB.
Occupations particularly at risk of hearing loss due to exposure to noise include fire fighters, police officers, factory workers, farmers, construction workers, military personnel, heavy industry workers, musicians, and entertainment industry professionals. It is important to wear hearing protection properly and all the time when involved in noisy work or located in hearing protection areas.
Hearing tests are quick and relatively simple for the person being tested. Results are instant, and you will know immediately if you do have a hearing problem and what steps to take. To many the results of a test, whatever they are, come as a huge relief. Once they have sought that initial help they find the subsequent process straightforward and altogether life changing.
Your hearing healthcare professional will usually begin by asking you questions about the health of your ears and general health and your lifestyle. By asking these questions they can determine the possible damage that may have been caused to your ears from such things as illness, age, your job, your hobbies etc.
Ear examination
A physical examination of your ears is performed to eliminate any medical problems such as infections or blockages such as wax. Otoscopy is an examination that involves looking into the ear canal with the cone of an otoscope. Inspection of the eardrum can also provide information about what is happening within the middle ear.
What happens during a hearing test?
Amongst all the tests that can be performed on your hearing, pure tone audiometry is the most common. This evaluates the sensitivity of your sense of hearing at different frequencies. A set of headphones is worn over the ears or foam earphones placed in the ear canal; and you may be required to sit in a sound-proof test room. The headphones are then connected to the audiometer.
This piece of specialised equipment produces tones at specific frequencies and levels to each ear independently. The patient will communicate that they have heard the tone by either raising their hand or pressing a button. As the test progresses, the hearing professional will plot results on an audiogram where the frequency is on the horizontal axis and the loudness is on the vertical axis. Once each frequency has been tested and plotted, the points are joined by a line so that you can easily see your results and compare them to what is considered to be within normal limits. These results are your 'thresholds'. Normal hearing at any frequency is a threshold of 20dB or quieter, and with worsening hearing that number increases.
At the end of a hearing test you may be told that you have normal hearing or a mild, moderate, severe or profound loss of hearing. The image below shows an example of an audiogram.
Hearing loss is measured in decibels hearing level (dB HL). If you can hear sounds across a range of frequencies at 0-20dB you are considered as having normal hearing. The thresholds for the different types of hearing loss are as follows:
Mild 20-39dB HL
Moderate 40-69dB HL
Severe 70-90dB HL
Profound 90dB+ HL
You're not alone
The impact on our lives and those around us from hearing loss can be far-reaching. It becomes harder to distinguish between speech and noise. You can feel lonely or frustrated. You may fall behind at work, limit your social life, and just 'miss out'. But you are not alone - although aging causes our ears to deteriorate, 20% of all 40 to 60 year olds also have some form of hearing loss. However, a lack of knowledge and social stigma prevent many from being helped by simple, effective solutions.
How people classify themselves relative to hearing loss is a very personal decision and reflects much more than just their ability to hear. It can be difficult too because hearing loss is often not constant. Hearing impaired people with partial loss of hearing may find that the quality of their hearing varies from day to day, or from one situation to another or not at all.
There are many effects of untreated hearing losses which can get worse over time. Many feel anxiety or a lack of confidence. This could cause depression or cause people to withdraw from group or social situations due to a sense of lack of control and intimacy with friends and family. There can also be a negative effect on people's perceptions of you, which often manifests itself as the idea that you may be somehow less intelligent. Well, that's the bad news! The good news is that if you are worried about a hearing loss, solutions that will enable improvements are now available.
Quick Checklist.
You may have a hearing loss:
If you have ever had:
If you:
At a basic level a hearing instrument or hearing aid is an electronic, battery-operated device that amplifies sound. In a digital device, sound is received through a microphone and then converted into electrical signals. A tiny amplifier increases the loudness of the signals, transmitting them back to sound through a speaker into the ear canal. Other signal modifications can also be done within the digital chip to improve the sound quality, particularly of speech sounds.
Types/styles of hearing instruments
In recent years hearing professionals have seen large changes, not just in what hearing devices can do, but how they are worn. These changes can be attributed to a reduction in the size of components, increased durability and cosmetic concerns on the part of the wearer. Four main styles exist and suitability to each type will depend on factors such as degree of hearing loss and physical dexterity.
Behind-the-ear (BTE)
This device is housed in a small, usually curved case behind the ear and the sound is delivered into the ear canal via a custom-made earmould or tubing system. Thin tubings are a relatively recent design change; and are referred to within the industry as 'open fits' as they tend to fill less of the outer ear and ear canal than a custom made earmould. The thin tubes usually end is in a soft silicon dome, of varying size. BTE designs have become smaller and smaller over the years, and the introduction of so-called receiver-in-the-canal products have contributed to this development. Receiver-in-the-canal means that the receiver or loudspeaker component sits within the ear canal, and is connected via a thin wiring (usually enclosed in plastic) to the rest of the circuitry which sits in casing behind the ear.
In-the-ear (ITE)
ITEs are completely contained in a casing that fits into the pinna. They are easy to handle, give reasonable easy access to controls and they are sometimes visible when standing face to face with someone.
In-the-canal (ITC)
ITC aids are smaller, filling only the bottom half of the external ear and this makes them more appealing in a cosmetic sense; you cannot usually see very much of this hearing aid when you are face to face with someone.
Completely-in-the-canal (CIC)
Along with ITCs and ITEs, CICs are considered to be more modern and cosmetically appealing CICs fit so deep in the ear canal that they are practically invisible. The ear canals of some individuals might be too small to fit the device into.
Tinnitus is most commonly referred to as 'ringing in the ears', but there are many different types of tinnitus. Tinnitus can vary in terms of the way it sounds (chirping/clicking/pulsing), its severity, as well as its annoyance. Individuals can report intermittent episodes that are not very bothersome, to a constant tinnitus that can negatively influence daily life. It can occur a few times a month or many times in one day; it can occur for a few moments or hours; it can even be constant without relief while sleeping.
Tinnitus is actually heard by most people at some point in their lives, even those with normal hearing. It can be a by product of loud noise exposure, such as after a rock concert. It can also happen spontaneously without any reason, and then disappear as strangely as it began. Many individuals believe this is just a function of the normal hearing system. It is when tinnitus starts to negatively affect one's life that further consultation may be necessary.
Tinnitus is very real, as it is a 'sound' that is heard by the person experiencing it, regardless if someone else can hear it. As tinnitus can be a sign of certain medical complications, it should never be dismissed or underestimated. You should see you're your GP or hearing healthcare professional as soon as possible should you have persistent tinnitus, or if your tinnitus is accompanied with any dizziness and/or balance problems.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration further delayed its decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project on Friday, with no conclusion now likely until after the U.S. mid-term elections in November.
President Barack Obama has said he will have the final say on whether to allow the pipeline connecting Canada's oil sands region to Texas refiners, and several government agencies had been given until May to weigh in. This had raised expectations of a final decision by mid-year.
But the State Department said on Friday it was extending that agency comment period, citing a need to wait until the Nebraska Supreme Court settles a dispute over what path the $5.4 billion TransCanada Corp project should take.
"That pipeline route is central to the environmental analysis for the project and if there are changes to the route it could have implications," a senior State Department official told reporters.
The legal process will likely continue past November and might stretch into next year, meaning more delays for the politically-charged issue that has been on the drawing board for more than five years.
By linking Canadian fields to refiners in the Gulf Coast, the 1,200-mile (1,900-km) pipeline would lift an energy patch where heavy oil is abundant but that is reached only by burning vast amounts of fossil fuels.
The oil industry agues projects like Keystone can reduce the United States' reliance on Middle East oil while partnering with one of the country's closest political allies, Canada.
Delaying Keystone means "the United States will continue to rely on suspect and aggressive foreign leaders for the eight to nine million barrels of oil that is imported every day," TransCanada Corp chief executive Russ Girling said.
But Keystone opponents - among them environmentalists who make up a part of Obama's political base - say consuming carbon fuel to wrench oil sands crude from the ground will worsen climate change and the pipeline meant to carry up to 830,000 barrels a day will only spur more production.
They expect Obama to reject the project and so fulfill a commitment to battling climate change.
Stakes in the dispute have increased as Obama leads his party into the mid-term elections. Republicans, seeking to bolster their hold over the House of Representatives and take control of Congress by winning a majority in the Senate, have portrayed Obama as depriving Americans of thousands of jobs by delaying the decision.
"Clearly he wants to get this past the mid-terms," said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican of North Dakota, of the fresh delays. "I'm not convinced that's a good strategy. Because people are going to see it for the political decision that it is."
Environmentalists were heartened by Friday's move, which they said left more time to mobilize public opposition.
"Millions of Americans have taken a stand against Keystone, and my hope is that's making the Obama administration think twice," said Bill Snape of the Center for Biological Diversity which helped organize a share of the 2.5 million comment letters received by the State Department.
Several lawmakers, though, said they would waste no time pushing for a Keystone approval through Congress.
"I plan to use my power as chair of the Senate Energy Committee to take decisive action to get this pipeline permit approved," said Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, who faces reelection in her energy-producing state of Louisiana.
Friday's move will upset some others in Obama's own party. Just a week ago, 11 Democratic senators, many facing tough November races, urged him to make to make a decision by May 31.
The move is likely to infuriate Canadian politicians who have grown increasingly irate over delays.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office was "disappointed that politics continue to delay a decision," his spokesman said.
In the near-term, delaying Keystone XL is likely to rattle the Canadian oil sector.
Oil sands producers already sell their crude at a discount due in part to a transportation shortage that has hit producers such as Suncor Energy Inc and Cenovus Energy Inc. But more pipeline delays could aid oil-by-rail developers like Gibson Energy and Canexus Corp that are racing to fill a gap left by a lack of export pipeline capacity.
The Nebraska dispute is rooted in a state law that would have fast-tracked approval of the route and muffled landowner objections. That law has been challenged in state court.
(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington, Scott Haggett in Calgary and Randall Palmer in Ottawa; Editing by Sandra Maler and Frances Kerry)

subset: commoncrawl


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The OCF contains three other "Parts," as we read in the last paragraph of the General Introduction. Remember that all of our posts so far have covered this General Introduction, which is to the Funeral Rites what the GIRM is to the Mass.
49. Part III, "Texts of Sacred Scripture," includes the Scripture readings and psalms for the celebration of the funeral rites. Part IV, "Office for the Dead," includes "Morning Prayer," "Evening Prayer," and "Additional Hymns." Part V, "Additional Texts," contains "Prayers and Texts in Particular Circumstances" and "Holy Communion outside Mass." The texts that appear in the various rites in Parts I, II, and IV may be replaced by corresponding readings and psalms given in Part III and by corresponding prayers and texts given in Part V.
In other words, there are a lot of options to use. I'll reiterate what I've said many times before: options are included in the rites not for the personal preferences of the minister ("Oh, it's going to be a long day; I think I'll use the shorter forms of these readings and skip this prayer.") Options are given for the edification of the faithful. What will console mourners? What will spark their religious imagination to return to church? What will honor the deceased? What suits the culture of the worshipping assembly?
Just to give you the landscape of these parts, III covers readings for adult funerals, and for children baptized and unbaptized. It also has a large selection of psalms with antiphons. It's a huge chunk of the middle of the OCF book, but only five numbered sections 343-347.
Regarding the Office for the Dead, OCF gives an ample introductory section (348-372) followed by Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and a small section of hymns. That will get us to OCF 396.
OCF 397-410 makes up Part V.
Next up, the introduction to Part I (OCF 50) and then we'll examine the Vigil and related rites (51-127). That should take about two months, I figure. Still with me on all this?


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Feds Hunt for Anonymous Hackers Who Crashed Toilet Paper Website
The evil, teaparty-funding Koch Brothers do not appreciate their websites being bombarded by hackers. The FBI is targeting people possibly connected to a February Anonymous attack on Koch Industries websites, including a brutal assault on their powerful bathroom tissue manufacturing arm.
According to an affidavit obtained by the Smoking Gun, the FBI have identified 12 "targets" possibly linked to an Anonymous attack on, among other Koch Industries-owned websites, Quiltednorthern.com. The attack was part of "Operation Wisconsin," meant to protest the Kochs' effort to push Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting bill, as befits evil Republican corporate overlords.
Gotta feel for the Anonymous partisans who could end up booked for taking down a toilet paper company. At least crashing the CIA sounds sexy.


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And not just any details. An effective story includes details that are:
- Visual: Jacqueline Novogratz opens her speech on global humanitarian aid with a story about a funny-looking sweater she wore at age 12. She describes it in detail: The blue sweater "had fuzzy zebras walking across the stomach, and Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru were kind of right across the chest, that were also fuzzy. And I wore it whenever I could, thinking it was the most fabulous thing I owned." That's the picture you have in mind when she recounts seeing the sweater more than a decade later on a child in Rwanda. Go here to watch Novogratz tell the story.
- Symbolic: Rockefeller University president and geneticist Paul Nurse, in "Discussing Family Trees in School Can Be Dangerous," shares a secret from his own family genetics--a story in which he shares how he found out who his real mother was. Go here to listen to the audio of Nurse telling this story and wait for the description of the family photos his sister always kept on her bedside table. The photos put the family secret in plain sight for decades, and allowed her to acknowledge something she couldn't say publicly. Nurse doesn't have to tell you those two things about the photos; he lets you connect the dots yourself. I think of those photos whenever I think of this talk.
- Surprising: Penn State president President Graham Spanier just gave a speech called "What I Can Learn From Sleeping in the Residence Halls." That may sound surprising enough, but wait--there's more. In this interview, he recounts one story about how he wound up in the women's showers in a dorm--and what he learned:
The first time I ever stayed in the residence halls was the first year I was president in 1995. I had lunch with eight women. I asked them, 'If you were president of Penn State what is one thing you would change?' One woman said, "Shower hooks. There are no shower hooks in the showers. When we bring our robes we have to put them on the floor.' I said, 'Show me.' We looked and, sure enough, there were no hooks. Within two weeks they all had them. It was a little thing, but it showed you can learn a lot by listening to students.A funny sweater. Photos on a bedside table. Shower hooks. Because they're visual, symbolic and surprising, all of these details stick with the audience. What will your story details be?
Related posts: Paul Nurse: Tell a story on yourself
Jacqueline Novogratz on speaking up for a cause
Learn storytelling online: 3 ways
A speechwriter's secrets to storytelling
Need to give an impromptu speech? Tell a familiar (to you) story
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I recently posted something on Reddit. I rarely do this, largely because I feel that Reddit is the kind of place where people go to a) look at cute cat videos, and b) send dick pics to whoever posted the cute cat videos.
But they have a cars section, and it's fairly active, so I went there to post photos of my cross-country CTS-V Wagon roadtrip. I figured they'd love it, and I was right, as demonstrated by this sampling of private messages I received just after posting:
"Awesome wagon man! Is it a stick?!"
"Dude! I have a friend with a manual one of those and he loves it! Too bad about yours!"
"I'm eight inches. Here's proof."
Anyway: while I was browsing through the other posts in the cars section, I noticed that some enterprising Reddit user had started a petition to end the ban on importing cars under 25 years old. It was one of those WhiteHouse.gov petitions – you know, the kind where you get 100,000 signatures, it reaches President Obama's desk, and he holds a press conference to announce that if he had a son, it would look a lot like a 25-year-old foreign car.
I've decided to devote today's column to this petition. But before I do that, let's talk about the law itself.
For those of you who don't know, the United States has a ban on importing all vehicles under 25 years old. I know what you're thinking: Does this mean America would prefer that I own a high-powered assault rifle than a Fiat Multipla? And the answer is: Yes. But not for the reason you think.
You see, the ban didn't come from crash safety advocates, and it didn't come from the EPA. (This may shock anyone who has ever studied our government, as the EPA's next round of bans will reportedly target children, music, and sunshine.) In fact, the ban came from the automakers themselves – or, more specifically, from their lobby in Washington, DC, which is so powerful that it recently broke that hook from the Volvo Trucks commercial.
If you're confused, allow me to explain. Let's say you're Mercedes and you're trying to distribute cars in the United States. The last thing you want is some jackass American travelling to Europe, buying a Mercedes at a discounted price, and shipping it back home. So you get the US government to ban that practice, meaning consumers have to buy from you. Of course, this law was clearly enacted before the exchange rates shifted, since an American buying an Audi A5 now pays roughly the same as a German buying waterproof patio furniture.
So that's the law. Now back to the petition, which has received only 730 signatures out of 100,000 needed by mid-September in order to reach President Obama's desk. In other words: it's not going to make it.
You might be saddened by this. You might wish the petition would succeed, Congress would change the law, and soon we could drive to the assault weapons dealer in a Fiat Multipla. (Presumably, to destroy it.) But I've recently realized, after considerable thought, that the lack of signatures on this petition is actually a good thing.
Now, at this point, I know you're confused. You're thinking: DeMuro, you idiot! Don't you want to spend thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to import some cool stuff and write about it on Jalopnik?! And the answer, once again, is yes. But a bunch of signatures isn't going to get us there.
Here's my thinking. If we, as car enthusiasts, band together and tell Congress that we want to import a lot of cars, the automaker lobby will once again rise up and quash our cause. The fact that the petition has very few signatures is actually a good thing, because it means lifting the ban would probably have absolutely no impact on the auto industry.
For proof, I turn to Canada, which slots right behind Eritrea as undoubtedly the second-coolest country with a leaf on its flag. In Canada, you can import cars up to 15 years old, meaning that any crazy Canadian could be driving around today in a BMW Z1, making Jeep Wrangler owners jealous by putting the doors up and down with the push of a button.
And guess what? It turns out the people who actually go the trouble of importing cars are the kind of people who would never consider buying a new car in the first place. As a result, the Canadian auto industry hasn't collapsed. In fact, it's just like the American auto industry, except with way more Mazda 2s.
In other words: it's a virtual certainty that we could change our rule from 25 years to 15 years without any problems. Life would go on. Car companies would be fine. The only effect would be that a handful of crazy people may import bizarre vehicles from the early 1990s.
In case you're wondering, I'm one of those crazy people. Pictured at the top of this story is an Audi RS2, which was recently voted the greatest car ever in a poll that involved me and my stuffed animals. Even if I have to wait until it's 25 years old, I'll be importing an RS2. That wagon will be a stick, which means I can post it on Reddit and receive only unbridled praise. Praise, and dick pics.
@DougDeMuro is the author of Plays With Cars. He operates PlaysWithCars.com and writes for The Truth About Cars. He owned an E63 AMG wagon and once tried to evade police at the Tail of the Dragon using a pontoon boat. (It didn't work.) He worked as a manager for Porsche Cars North America before quitting to become a writer, largely because it meant he no longer had to wear pants. Also, he wrote this entire bio himself in the third person.


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Aru wins tough 15th Giro stage; Uran retains lead
MONTECAMPIONE, Italy (AP) Fabio Aru of Italy claimed a solo victory on the tough uphill finish to Montecampione in the 15th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday for his first Grand Tour victory.
Aru made his move with 2.5 kilometers (1.55 miles) remaining and finished 21 seconds ahead of Fabio Duarte. Nairo Quintana edged out Pierre Rolland for third place, 22 seconds behind.
''I'm very happy,'' a tearful Aru said after crossing the line. ''It's thanks to my teammates, who have been amazing not only today but all race. This win is for them.
''It's really pleasing but I still have a lot to learn and to grow. I still can't believe it.''
The 23-year-old Aru also cut into Rigoberto Uran's overall lead and is now fourth - 2 minutes, 24 seconds behind the Colombian.
Uran extended his advantage over his closest challengers and is 1:03 ahead of Cadel Evans and 1:50 ahead of Rafal Majka.
''It was a long day and the teams were very strong today,'' Uran said. ''I'm happy, now there's a rest day and then the Giro continues.''
It was another stage dedicated to the late Marco Pantani, who had a memorable victory up to Montecampione on his way to winning the 1998 Giro.
Pantani also went on to win the Tour de France that year. He was found dead in a hotel room on Valentine's Day in 2004, and a coroner ruled he died from cocaine poisoning.
The previous two times a Giro stage has finished up Montecampione, the winner has gone on to claim the race.
The stage was mainly flat along the 225-kilometer (140-mile) route from Valdengo before the final long and steep climb.
The break of the day was formed of 12 riders and it had a 10-minute lead with 78 kilometers (48.5 miles) remaining, before the peloton - driven by Nero Sottoli - started to reel them in.
The escapees had an advantage of 2:24 at the base of the climb, where Australian Adam Hansen was the first to make a move.
He was joined first by Andre Cardoso and then Fabio Felline and Rodolfo Torres, as Julian Arredondo attacked from the peloton. They had less than a minute's lead with 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) remaining.
Arredondo took over the lead with Cardoso but the duo were caught and immediately passed by Philip Deignan, who had a 20-second advantage with 5 kilometers (3 miles) left.
Rolland attacked and caught up with Deignan and the pair had an advantage of 36 seconds before Aru made his move, bringing Uran with him.
Quintana and Duarte also attacked and the quartet caught the leading duo.
Aru then attacked again, chased by Duarte, Quintana and Rolland as Uran dropped off, after deciding he couldn't keep up with the pace.
Monday sees the third and final rest day of this year's Giro before arguably its toughest stage, with the iconic climbs up the Stelvio and Gabbia - weather permitting.


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Use of partially hydrolysed infant formula reduces risk of atopic dermatitis in infants
It appears that early short-term nutritional intervention with 100-percent whey-based partially hydrolysed formula (PHF-W) instead of standard cow's milk formula (CMF) lowers the incidence of atopic dermatitis (AD) and costs for healthy, high-risk, nonexclusively breastfed infants in Singapore, reports a study.
"In healthy Singapore infants with a family history of allergy who are not exclusively breastfed, the strategy of using PHF-W as a short-term initial infant formula instead of CMF is expected, on average, to reduce AD burden, improve quality of life (QoL) and result in net cost savings," researchers said.
From birth to month 30, the incidence and clinical/economic burden of AD in high-risk, nonexclusively breastfed infants with PHF-W or CMF for up to 4 months were simulated using modelling techniques. Epidemiologic and clinical data were obtained from a local comparative trial. AD treatment patterns and outcomes were informed by expert opinion.
Measure outcomes were as follows: AD risk reduction, time spent with AD, days without AD flare, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and direct/indirect costs. Model parameter uncertainty was evaluated using multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analysis.
Use of PHF-W vs CMF over 30 months resulted in a 16.0-percent decrease (28.3 percent vs 44.3 percent) in the proportion of children who developed AD and 6.4 months lesser time spent with AD. Furthermore, time without AD flare and QALYs improved by 14.9 days and 0.021 QALYs per patient, respectively. [Singapore Med J 2018;59:439-448]
This finding supports that of a 2002 study conducted by Chan and colleagues. [J Paediatr Child Health 2002;38:84-88]
Estimated AD-related discounted costs per child were also lower with PHF-W than with CMF (SGD 771 vs SGD 1,309; net savings, SGD 538). Compared with CMF, PHF-W was less expensive and more effective for 73 percent, and cost less than SGD 50,000 per QALY for 87 percent of all multivariate simulations.
The primary drivers of such savings were reductions in costs associated with pharmacotherapy, physician visits and indirect costs.
"Exclusive breastfeeding is the absolute gold standard for feeding infants. However, not all infants are able to receive exclusive breastfeeding in practice. When this is the case, formula feeding may be the second choice," according to researchers. [Evid Based Med 2016;21:157]
In such circumstances, a short-term early nutritional intervention with PHF-W instead of CMF is recommended for infants with a family history of atopy, they noted.
"Given the results of our study and considering the controversy over the evidence on this topic, healthcare practitioners in Singapore should look beyond those at high risk due to having at least one first-degree family member with atopy," researchers said.
"Other noneconomic factors that may impact the risk of allergic conditions, such as preterm birth and high infant weight gain, should be taken into consideration when determining, on an individual basis, the most appropriate choice of infant formula for use with high-risk infants who are not exclusively breastfed," they added. [J Allergy Clin Immunol 2014;133:1317-1329]


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The Grotesque Bat Woman Costume Photo 5 of 5
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This homemade costume for women entered our 2012 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Natalie, the 'The Grotesque Bat Woman' costume creator:
I, Natalie, am wearing the costume. I created the whole thing myself from recycled clothing and raw fabrics. I made the jacket with pieces from a thrift dress and thrift jacket. The high shoulders were... Read more »


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It was a surprise to me the number of family firms in Canada, but this not unusual.
Family firms dominate economic activity in most countries, and are significantly different from other companies in their behavior, structural characteristics, and performance. But what explains the significant variation in the prevalence and value of family firms around the world?
The two leading explanations are
- legal investor protection and
- institutional development.
Cross-country studies are unable to rule out the alternative explanation that cultural norms are what account for these differences. In contrast, China provides an excellent laboratory for addressing this question because it offers great variation in institutional efficiency across regions, yet the country as a whole shares cultural and social norms together with a common legal and regulatory framework. In this paper, HBS professor Belén Villalonga and coauthors study ownership data from a sample of nearly 1,500 publicly listed firms on the Chinese stock market. They conclude that institutional development plays a critical role in the prevalence and value of family firms, and that the differences observed across regions are not attributable to cultural factors. Key concepts include:
- Family firms do not inhibit growth and development, as is sometimes argued. This seems clear due to the relatively higher prevalence of family firms even in regions with high institutional efficiency.
- The effects of family, ownership, control, and management in China are remarkable similar to those found by professor Villalonga in her earlier research based on U.S. data. Namely, family ownership is positively related to value, family control in excess of ownership is negatively related to value, and family management, when exercised by the firm's founders as is primarily the case in China, is positively related to value. However, in China these effects are largely driven by the low institutional efficiency regions. In the high efficiency regions, none of these effects are significant.
- These findings are particularly relevant for China as it continues its transition from a central planning system to a market economy.
- On average, family firms are significantly smaller, younger, and less capital-intensive than non-family firms. Yet they exhibit significantly lower systematic risk, and they are not significantly different from non-family firms in their growth and leverage.
Every Family's Business: 12 Common Sense Questions to Protect Your Wealth


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If you're looking for income in the current low-interest rate environment, "the sources are very limited," says Rob Hordon, portfolio manager at First Eagle's Global Income Builder Fund. If you add to that mandate a value bias as a follower of Benjamin Graham, who's always looking for "intrinsic value" with a "margin of safety," it would seem your options are even more limited.
That's why Hordon and his co-PMs search worldwide for equities and fixed income products that meet those requirements. Launched May 1, 2012, FEBAX adds a current income mandate to the caital appreciation mandate of First Eagle's Global Fund (SGENX), which has returned 10.34% annualized for the past 10 years, though its value mandate leads it to underperform in bull markets, like 2013, in which it has delivered 12.25%, lagging both the MSCI World and the S&P 500 indexes.
Back to the Global Income Builder Fund. "We go anywhere the value is, but always with a margin of safety," Hordon said at a press gathering on Nov. 5. Though the fund has faced an environment of very low real yields since its launch, the success of FEBAX since its launch "was as much in what we didn't own as in what we did."
In stocks, the managers look to "avoid bond-like equities" due to their interest rate risk, while they favor "buying companies on the cheap that generate an income stream." On the fixed income side of the portfolio, Hordon says "we prefer selective credit risk to interest rate risk; our portfolio duration is about 3.5 years."
There's a third part of the portfolio: "we have 7% in cash, and 3% in gold," which the managers use "for deferred purchasing power," Hordon says.
Why the gold? Partly it's because of First Eagle's tradition, as most famously espoused by Jean-Marie Eveillard, who remains a senior advisor to First Eagle Investment Management, but it also serves as a hedge "against extreme outcomes," says Hordon. "We own some bullion and some mining stocks," he says. The cash portion of the portfolio will vary, he says, and a portion of that cash is now in commercial paper, but "in times of extreme duress, it will get put to work."
Eveillard famously foresaw the 2008-2009 credit crunch and went to high levels of cash in the Global fund, which served investors well. When presented with advisors' typical concerns that an active manager stay fully invested, Hordon nodded, but then said, "As a fiduciary, if you can't find opportunities to invest, you go to cash."
Holdings are spread around the world, and some companies that you might not think of as "value" are included. Microsoft (MSFT) is a big holding, said Hordon, because its "dividend's grown fourfold since it started paying dividends 10 years ago."
While "we like their dominance of the business market," Hordon said there's another theme with Microsoft: "people are catching on to the fact that Microsoft has a major retail" presence with its mobile products and Surface tablet. But the portfolio holdings also include the No. 3 wireless carrier in France — Bouygues — and Hopewell Holdings, a property investing company in Hong Kong. While Hordon said "we're concerned about the bidding up of U.S. REITs," they like this Asian property firm, which yields 4% and whose stock declined sharply after a failed IPO: We saw Hopewell "as a buying opportunity," Hordon said. On the fixed income end of the portfolio, Edward Meigs, who co-manages First Eagle's High Yield and Global Income Builder funds, said a portion of the portfolio's 34% share in fixed income is in high-yield bonds. "A great benefit of high yield is as a cushion for rising [interest] rates," Meigs said. While "we'll play in CCCs, we're more focused on single Bs," and 20% of the fixed income portfolio is in floating-rate paper.
Giorgio Caputo summed up the fund's attraction to an advisor and clients. "This is a core income fund, but with the flexibility to migrate the asset mix as the opportunity set changes." However, "equities won't go below 40% or above 65%," Caputo says.
The fund's "biggest weight" overseas is in Europe, in which he believes "there's still value," partly represented by the fund's high-yield holdings in Europe, where the portfolio managers say high-yield issuance has quadrupled over the past five years. And while Europe may be "bottoming," he thinks the revival on the Continent may well be "bumpy," especially in a country like France.
Check out Ignorance Is Not Bliss in Client Portfolios: Motley Fool on ThinkAdvisor.


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Browse by CV
|Up a level
HOLLAND, Mike, EVANS, Angela and HAWKSLEY, Fiona (2011). International perspectives on the theory - practice divide in secondary initial teacher education. In: Association of Teacher Educators in Europe, Latvia, August 2011. (Unpublished)
PRICE, I., CLARK, E., HOLLAND, M. R., EMERTON, C. and WOLSTENHOLME, C. (2009). Condition matters: pupil voices on the design and condition of secondary schools. Project Report. Reading, CfBT Education Trust.
EVANS, A., HOLLAND, M. R., HAWKSLEY, F. and DAWSON, D. (2009). Secondary teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of their pre-service education and strategies to improve pre-service education for teachers: A school based training route in England. In: ATEE Conference 2009, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Mallorca, August 29th to September 2nd 2009. 1-34.
EVANS, A., HAWKSLEY, F., HOLLAND, M. R. and CAILLAU, I. (2008). Improving subject knowledge and subject pedagogic knowledge in employment based secondary initial teacher training in England. In: Annual Conference of the Association of Teacher Education in Europe, Brussels, 23-27 August 2008.
HOLLAND, M. R., COLDWELL, M. R., TRICKEY, S. and MORGAN, B. (2007). The development of the secondary vocational curriculum in a northern local authority in England. In: European Conference on Educational Research, University of Ghent, Belgium, 19-22 September 2007.
EVANS, A., HAWKSLEY, F., HOLLAND, M. R., WOLSTENHOLME, C. E. and WILLIS, B. (2007). The role of the initial teacher training co-ordinator: secondary headteachers' and ITT co-ordinators' perspectives. In: Annual Meeting of the Association of Teacher Education in Europe, University of Wolverhampton, August 25-29 2007.
COLDWELL, M. R., GORNALL, L., HOLLAND, M. R., TRICKEY, D. S., WILLIS, B. and WOLSTENHOLME, C. E. (2006). Developing enterprise culture in a northern educational authority in the UK: involving trainee teachers in learning-orientated evaluation. In: European Conference on Educational Research, Geneva, 2006.
EVANS, A., HOLLAND, M. R., WOLSTENHOLME, C. E., WILLIS, B. and HAWKSLEY, F. (2006). The role of the Initial Teacher Training Coordinator in the school based element of partnership: to what extent does the Co-ordinator undertake supervision of aspects of quality assurance? In: Co-operative Partnerships in Teacher Education: proceedings of the 31st Annual ATEE Conference, Portorož, Slovenia, 21-25 October 2006. Ljubljana, National School for Leadership in Education.
COLDWELL, M. R., TRICKEY, S., HOLLAND, M. R. and SMITH, P. (2005). Bridging the gap? The role of transition advisers in the move from compulsory education. In: British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, 14 -17 September 2005.
TRICKEY, S., COLDWELL, Michael, HOLLAND, Mike, CLOSE, Paul and RYBINSKI, D. (2005). Evaluation of valued youth: a national peer-tutoring programme to increase self confidence and motivation. In: European Conference on Educational Research, University College Dublin, September 7-10 2005.
HOLLAND, M. R., CHATTERTON, J., FINLAYSON, H. and CAILLAU, I. (2005). Implementation of a major e-learning strategy in secondary schools in South Yorkshire. In: Annual Meeting of the European Educational Research Association, University College, Dublin, September 2005.
HOLLAND, M. R., BOYLAN, M. and LOWE, G. (2005). The development of the professional values and practice standard in the secondary graduate initial teacher training route in England. In: Teachers and Their Educators: Standards and Development: 30th Annual Conference of the Association of Teacher Educators in Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22-26 October.
TRICKEY, S., HOLLAND, M. R., COLDWELL, M. R. and RYBINSKI, D. (2004). Evaluating teachers' and trainers' development in a large scale curriculum development project in South Yorkshire. In: Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association, UMIST, Manchester, 16-18 September 2004.
HOLLAND, M. R., COLDWELL, M. R., TRICKEY, S. and RYBINSKI, D. (2003). New Pathways: evaluating the implementation of a major work- related programme in Northern England. In: Annual meeting of American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, 21 - 25 April 2003.
HOLLAND, M. R., COLDWELL, M. R., TRICKEY, S., RYBINKSI, D., JONES, H., MORGAN, B. and BYFORD, H. (2003). Pathways to "opportunity and excellence": collaborative curriculum innovation in South Yorkshire. In: British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 2003.
HOLLAND, M. R., COLDWELL, M. R. and CLOSE, P. (2002). Transitions and progress: teachers' views of progress in attainment of pupils age 5-10. In: Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 1-5 April 2002.
COLDWELL, M. R. and HOLLAND, M. R. (2001). Pupil, Teacher and Parent views on secondary education in an economically deprived former coal mining town in the UK. In: American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Seattle, April 10-14, 2001.
HOLLAND, M. R. and STEPHENSON, K. J. (2000). Does the keeping of a professional development profile lead to an enhanced self awareness in newly qualified secondary teachers? A study conducted in a large UK University. In: American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, April 24-28, 2000.


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We are pleased to offer you these free, downloadable patterns.
If it is an ORIGINAL Fabric Buffet pattern, copying and sharing of these patterns is permitted
as long as Fabric Buffet's logo and website remain on the pattern.
Click on the picture and then on the underlined name of the pattern. A pdf file will open and then you can print the pattern.
If you can not download the pattern, you will have to first download a free copy of Adobe Reader by clicking HERE.
We would love to see pictures of projects you made using these patterns.


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Howdy All
After hiking the JMT in 2011 and 2013 and passing on the Half Dome option (included with JMT permit), I finally went up Half Dome with a group of wonderful folks (including Miracle Marilyn) last Sunday. At first Marilyn and I weren't sure we could find lodging but our friend Krai (permit holder) let us know about cancellations in the nick of time. We were also concerned about smoke caused by the Detwiler fire in Mariposa. Although it was a bit smoky in Yosemite when we arrived on Saturday afternoon, the smoke had cleared by Sunday.
We stayed in Half Dome Camp (formerly Camp Curry -- don't even get me started on the stupid name changes ) both nights. We met Krai and other folks on his permit at the pizza patio Saturday evening and started hiking about 5 AM Saturday. I haven't been on the Mist Falls trail since 1980 -- spectacular!
After passing Vernal Falls, we headed up towards Nevada Falls and Little Yosemite Valley.
We stayed on the JMT until the Half Dome junction, then made our way up toward Half Dome.
Approaching the cables.
Heading up. I was blessed to have my friend David Deeter shepherd me up and down the cables on my maiden voyage.
Our friends Krai and Brenda -- Krai proposed to Brenda on top on Half Dome! What an honor to be part of that wonderful experience.
Our group on top of Half Dome. My Cable Angel David is in the orange shirt.
Looking northeast at the bottom of the cables on our descent.
Rest stop at Nevada falls on our descent.
Heading down from Nevada Falls.
EPIC day with great friends.
My heartfelt thanks to Ken Murray the Mountain MD and Christopher Lee MD for enabling me to return to the mountains after my horrific shoulder fracture in late December 2015.
Miles of smiles,


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Cumbria Autism Family Support Project
Autism Family Support Workers are available in Furness & South Lakes. Family Support Workers will work with families of children under the age of 18 who have a diagnosis of autism and the aims of the service are: to support families to get the best out of existing services and identify gaps in provision to inform future service developments and to provide support, information and advice relating to: understanding autism, support groups and drop-ins, childcare and short break options, play and leisure services and activities, benefits and access to financial support, sibling support, Advocacy and support in meetings.
Furness/Millom - Nicola Brockbank: Tel 07909 231 866 or email email@example.com
South Lakes/Ulverston - Shirley Gilpin: Tel 07795 346 632 or email email@example.com
We are a team of volunteers, all parents of children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and we give our time to support other families affected by Autism in the Furness and surrounding areas. We provide regular local support groups, coffee mornings, meetings with guest speakers, training and leisure opportunities and we have a library of resources for parents and carers to borrow. Members of the Branch also represent us on a number of local committees and steering groups to ensure that the voice of the young people and their families is heard and awareness is raised of the issues affecting them. We also attend a variety of local activities to help raise awareness in the wider community and hold regular fundraising events to raise money for the Branch.
Contact Information
We have a drop in session each Tuesday during term time from 10am-12pm at the Hindpool Community Centre. Please feel free to come along for a coffee and chat.
We also hold regular monthly parent support meetings at The Annexe on Bath Street on the 2nd Friday of each month. The next meeting has been brought forward to the 5th February.
For more information or for a branch membership form please contact our Branch Officer, Jackie Bell.
Telephone: 07825 995 173
Email: email@example.com
Find us on Twitter: @FurnessNAS
Find us on Facebook: National Autistic Society - Furness Branch
© Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
A: 123 Example Street, London, BX0 000


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It's Memorial Day this weekend believe it or not. Doesn't feel like it's almost June, but it is certainly time to grill some hot dogs and hamburgers. I hate using store-bought rolls since I know I can make ones myself that are far superior.
My wife insists that the only rolls worthy of using for hamburgers and hot dogs must be light white bread rolls. I have been real busy at work so it's been difficult to find time to bake as much as I would like so a quick yeasted roll recipe would have to do. With that in mind I adapted a recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and added a few twists.
I decided to add some parmesan cheese powder and some dried chives just to make it a little interesting.
I used the overnight retardation method which helps build some extra flavor.
I must say that overall these came out nice and flavorful and were perfect for our hamburger and hot dog dinner the other day.
Mix flours with yeast to combine. Next add remainder of the ingredients keeping about 30 grams of milk back. Mix on low-speed or by hand for 1 minute and let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes to absorb the flour.
Add the balance of the water if needed and mix for another 4 minutes. The dough should come together and be scraping the side of the mixing bowl and be nice and fairly smooth but still tacky.
Remove the dough to your work surface and knead by hand for 1 minute. Do about 3-4 stretch and folds and put in a well oiled bowl or container with a cover. Put it in your refrigerator immediately.
You can keep it in your refrigerator for about 24 to 36 hours. I ended up baking it in the morning so it was only in my refrigerator for around 14 -15 hours. The dough should double while in the refrigerator.
When ready to bake the rolls or bread, take it out of the refrigerator and immediately weigh out your pieces or loaves and shape as desired. I made simple round rolls and some hot dog buns. I think it is time for me to buy a hot dog pan since I can't seem to get the size right and ended up with gigantic size hot dog rolls. Next, let them rise for 1 hour on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
After 45 minutes turn your oven up to 350 degrees F. and prepare your rolls as desired. I beat 1 whole egg mixed with a little water and put an egg wash on each roll. At the 1 hour or so mark pop them in the oven with steam and turn once after about 15 minutes. These should take about 25 minutes to cook thoroughly.
Let them cool on wire rack for at least half an hour before digging in if you can wait that long.
This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/.


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As Jennifer Lawrence accepted her SAG award for best female actor, she told the story of how she became a SAG member.
"I want to thank MTV. I'll explain that. I earned my SAG card when I was 14, I did an MTV promo for My Super Sweet 16. And I remember getting it in the mail and it being the best day in my entire life, because it officially made me a professional actor," she said.
And this being the Internet, the commercial is pretty easy to find. Watch it below.


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A fatal helicopter crash near a Manhattan heliport in 2011 was likely due to overloading and the pilot's failure to recover from an unexpected flight motion, federal safety authorities said in a report released Friday.
Three people suffered fatal injuries when the helicopter plunged into the East River moments after taking off from a helipad.
The victims included Sonia Marra, a British woman living in Sydney, Australia, who was in New York to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Also killed were Marra's mother, Harriet Nicholson, who was also British but lived in Portugal, and domestic partner, Helen Tamaki, who was a citizen of New Zealand but lived in Sydney.
The pilot was a family friend who managed an airport in Linden, N.J. He survived.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in its final report on the crash that the helicopter was between 28 pounds and 261 pounds overweight when it took off.
Investigators say the weight, wind factors, an ineffective pilot maneuver in response to an onboard alarm and a subsequent surprise yaw caused the aircraft to spin out of control.
The NTSB report released Friday finalizes preliminary conclusions described in another report released in December.


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STANFORD, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes took the LA Galaxy's best punch on Saturday – and responded with a knockout of their own.
Down 3-1 just before halftime after conceding three goals in 10 minutes, the Quakes stormed back with their own trifecta of goals – the clincher a mindbending side-foot job by MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski – to deliver a pulsating 4-3 victory over the Galaxy in front of a packed house at Stanford Stadium.
San Jose (11-3-3) extended their winning streak to three straight matches in MLS play and improved their hold on the Supporters' Shield lead, moving three points clear of D.C. United, who took over second place from Real Salt Lake.
Through 41 minutes, the Galaxy (6-9-2) looked like they would walk off with their fourth consecutive victory thanks to goals from David Beckham and Landon Donovan sandwiched around an own-goal by Quakes defender Jason Hernandez.
But Víctor Bernárdez scored his first MLS goal in the 44th minute to give San Jose hope, and Sam Cronin provided an equalizer just two minutes after halftime.
That set the stage for Wondolowski, who broke away from his marker, LA defender A.J. DeLaGarza, and deftly redirected Ramiro Corrales' flick on from a Marvin Chávez corner kick in the 61st minute.
However, the sellout crowd couldn't celebrate until San Jose withstood a final push from the Galaxy.
Second-year goalkeeper David Bingham, called upon at the half after starter Jon Busch suffered a swollen left eye in an early collision with Bernárdez, came up with a huge parry in the 74th minute after Beckham burst alone into the Quakes' penalty area.
San Jose left back Justin Morrow walled off Chad Barrett and smothered a rebound attempt by David Júnior Lopes in the 85th to snuff out the Galaxy's last best chance.
Lenhart had put the Quakes up in the seventh minute, tapping home a Chávez drive that Saunders could only parry with his right hand, but after early pressure from the Quakes, LA responded magnificently.
Beckham, playing his first match since being omitted from the British Olympic team, ginned up a world-class response to that snub in the 31st minute after Magee was pulled down by Chávez 21 yards from the Quakes goal. A flat-footed Busch could only watch Beckham's masterfully struck free kick sail into the upper corner at the near post.
Not long after, Hernandez tried to clear Hector Jimenez's dangerous cross in the 36th minute, but instead knocked it past the helpless Busch to hand the Galaxy the lead.
Donovan then put the Galaxy in the driver's seat with his 41st-minute score, a clinical finish to make San Jose pay for a bad defensive gaffe.
OPTA Chalkboard: Galaxy, Earthquakes combine for offensive explosion
With the Quakes put under pressure by a probing Beckham delivery, Hernandez sent a back pass to Busch -- only to see it intercepted by Mike Magee inside San Jose's six-yard box. With his back to the goal, Magee fed a square pass to Jimenez, who found Donovan wide-open for his sixth goal this season, and fourth in the last three matches.
Bernárdez pulled the Quakes back from a 3-1 hole with a critical goal just before the half, making a near-post run to meet Chávez's corner kick with a good dose of malice, beating Saunders to the far side.
Cronin pulled San Jose even after a wild first half, outracing LA goalkeeper Josh Saunders to a nearly 50-yard pass from Steven Beitashour that skipped through the Galaxy defense. Cronin's sliding touch from 15 yards was enough to beat the onrushing Saunders.
LA went unchanged from the lineup that pasted Vancouver 3-0 a week earlier, featuring the dangerous Designated Player pairing of Donovan and Keane up top.
San Jose, having to do without injured Simon Dawkins, once again moved up captain Ramiro Corrales to left midfield. Rafael Baca, who rested last weekend in order to start against Seattle in a US Open Cup quarterfinal this past Tuesday, returned as the Quakes' center-of-the-park maestro.
San Jose will return to action on June 3 when they travel to Portland, while LA host the Philadelphia Union on July 4.
MLSsoccer.com Men of the Match
|What We Saw
|Marvin Chávez
|"Son of the wind" indeed. The speedy winger caused havoc all came long and his delivery from corners proved clutch in San Jose's comeback.
|Steven Lenhart
|Big striker put LA defense on alert all of the 68 minutes he was on the field, poking home the first and getting a hand in Cronin's equalizer with a smart dummy.
|Mike Magee
|One of LA's most consistently active players, made great pass to Jimenez in lead-up to own goal, assisted on Donovan's goal as well.


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Does anyone have past knowledge on this (generating random 2D terrain using an algorithm)?
This is probably a stupid post, but, I'm desperate now. I've been trying to write (relatively simple) code to generate (and draw) random fractal terrain in a window sized 800 x 600- But I have failed at all attempts.
I've looked all over the web for the general idea and I found this: Generating Random Fractal Terrain.
My first problem is that I don't have a great idea on how to create "line segments". I've tried making an array with a start (x) position and an end (x) position... But that isn't working very well. If you want to see my code, I will post it (but it is kind of long, not to mention embarrassing).
I'm not necessarily looking for the whole code to be written out- I just need a push in the right direction (mainly on how to get the "line segments" going).
Any and all help would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance.


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They see how they changed Alex's life - and gave an amazing gift to his entire family.
Marcie's yard is full of people she doesn't even know. Most of them are hockey players like her son, Alex – well, maybe a few years older … just old enough to know how to use hammers and to volunteer their time.
They responded to a call from Make-A-Wish® to grant Alex's wish to have a backyard hockey rink with artificial ice. Local businesses also offered discounts on materials, and Betty Crocker® sponsored the wish as part of its national Stirring Up Wishes 12 Wishes in 12 Weeks campaign.
Alex's treatment changed nearly everything about him. Before his diagnosis, his upbeat chatter never stopped. He joked incessantly. He rolled out a steady stream of play-by-play commentary at the rink. Then his spirits plummeted along with his energy.
But the old Alex is back as the volunteers finish his 24-by-48-foot rink. He glides onto the ice on sharpened skates, takes a few strides and lofts a puck into the net. As he skates, the volunteers who granted his wish see what was possible with a few hours of their time. They see how they changed Alex's life - and gave an amazing gift to his entire family.
It feels like a miracle. Alex is getting a second chance at life … and we get a second chance to be with him.
Share this quote
Alex's mom
This story makes me feel
Donate treasures.
I wish to have a baseball field in my backyard
Wilms tumor
I wish to have a pink playhouse
Ewing sarcoma
I wish to spend a day with the Stanley Cup®
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We are a very friendly league that caters for all table tennis abilities. New players are always welcome - whether your a veteran looking to join a league team or someone new to the sport
Stamford and Rutland Table Tennis League is a table tennis league affiliated to Table Tennis England.
This website is powered by Table Tennis 365.
Nick McDowall (Match Secretary ,TT365 Webmaster)
07921916248 (m)


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Leicester, UK – As much of our world is run by portable power, the demand for various types of batteries is profound. With a need for an extensive supplier of all types of batteries and battery packs, there is only one place to find all you need.
Euro Energy is a battery pack manufacturer in the UK that can provide a plethora of different types of battery packs, designed to meet each customer's requirement for their own device. There is no doubt that a Euro Energy customer will find the battery pack they need within their extensive supply or have one built to suit their application. Euro Energy is proudly serving as one of UK's leading designer and manufacturer of custom battery packs.
Euro Energy, available at http://www.euroenergy.co.uk has a long history of supplying battery packs, specialty batteries, battery chargers, custom batteries, and battery test equipment to a large selection of industries for more than 35 years. These industries include Government (local, regional and national), medical organisations, and also sports and community groups. Holding a comprehensive inventory, Euro Energy delivers products only from leading battery manufacturers. With their expertise, they are able to produce and manufacture battery packs and charging stations for bespoke applications to the armed forces, private security, government, and medical companies.
Euro Energy will work with your design team to provide a solution that will meet the application's power demands and provide reliability for the lifetime of the product that are cost effective. Their approach to custom battery back design is project managed to ensure the correct terminal layout and chemistry to suit the requirements of the application, taking into account the working environment, charging requirements and other factors.
As one of the only battery suppliers that provide generic to high performancebatteries and custom battery packs in a wide range of chemistries, Euro Energy is a company in high demand. They are indeed one of the only battery companies that supply an extensive list of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, sealed lead acid batteries, Ni-MH batteries, Ni-Cd batteries, UPS compatible batteries, and lithium ion battery packs. Other than providing the highest quality batteries, their expert team has enabled theircompany to provide in-depth, quality, helpful advice on battery designs – from the design phase right through to build, shipping and aftersales. Individuals or companies can find all their battery needs with Euro Energy by visiting their website, http://www.euroenergy.co.uk/custom-battery-packs-c-3.html
Media Contact
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Contact Person: Media Relations
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Long Treatment Window for Alzheimer's: Can It Help?
A new study finds that Alzheimer's brain plaques take 15 years or longer to build up, which suggests there's a longer period for treatment that could slow it down. But given the current state of Alzheimer's treatment, here's what the new finding probably means for now.
THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 2013 — Scientists have learned that Alzheimer's may take as long as 15 years to develop in the brain, suggesting a wider window for possibly halting or reversing the disease than previously thought.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found that beta amyloids, plaques in the brain linked to declines in memory and thinking, build up over 15 years before reaching a plateau. They used PET imaging, a type of scan that produces 3-D images, on 260 participants in Mayo Clinic studies on aging and Alzheimer's and a mathematical model to estimate annual accumulation. The results of their research, reported in the March 5 issue of the journal Neurology, suggest plenty of room for prevention of full-blown Alzheimer's.
Information like this is essential to validating the idea that, as with cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease moves along a continuum, says Heather M. Snyder, PhD, the director of Medical & Scientific Operations at the Alzheimer's Association.
In 2011 the Alzheimer's Association, in conjunction with the National Institute on Aging, published revised guidelines on how Alzheimer's is diagnosed, putting focus on a progression that's 10, 15, and possibly 20, 25, or 30 years in the making.
"With cardiovascular disease, if you go to a physician and have high cholesterol in your twenties or thirties, there are things you can do to intervene at that point to reduce risk of later in life having a heart attack or stroke," says Dr. Snyder, who was not involved in this latest research. "This is potentially looking at what are those earliest changes [in Alzheimer's], so when there is that therapy — whether it's a drug or lifestyle changes — when we understand more about what those are, we can identify those people that will benefit."
Hope for Future Alzheimer's Prevention Therapies
There is no cure for Alzheimer's, so the very few treatments that exist work to slow its progression. So far the FDA has approved five drugs that can temporarily slow worsening of Alzheimer's symptoms, according to the Alzheimer's Association, but they work for only about half the people who take them.
At the moment, screening and intervening early are not necessarily going to change the average person's life or experience as it relates to Alzheimer's, says Snyder. Alzheimer's expert P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, agrees. Dr. Doraiswamy is a psychiatry professor in the School of Medicine at Duke University who did not work on the study but has led previous research on amyloid plaques.
"It's a bit of a Pandora's box," says Doraiswamy. "There are some 150 million elderly people worldwide who probably have silent brain amyloid plaque buildup but don't know that they have it. We don't have a magic bullet to prevent Alzheimer's. That's why at this point I don't recommend these technologies be used as a screening tool."
"A negative scan has a strong negative predictive value," he adds, "but we still don't fully understand what a positive scan means in asymptomatic people."
At this point, Snyder says, it's too early for this to be a viable screening method. But the study is a good sign that the field as a whole is moving in the right direction.
Doraiswamy expresses a similar sentiment. "The main reason the existence of a possible window is important is that it allows us to test experimental strategies such as anti-amyloid therapies or lifestyle modification, for example, exercise and brain training," he says, and several studies on these strategies are ongoing or planned. "These studies will also tell us whether amyloid plaques are the cause of Alzheimer's or not, which is something we still don't know for sure."
The Mayo study also suggests that treatment after amyloid plaques reach a plateau might be less effective, which supports the current belief among researchers that treatment earlier in the course of Alzheimer's progression will work better than later.
For that reason, much of current Alzheimer's research is focused on looking for biological changes in the brains of people who are not experiencing the cognitive changes or thinking and memory problems we associate we Alzheimer's.
Catching Alzheimer's Early
If you're concerned about your risk for Alzheimer's disease, Doraiswamy recommends staying mentally and physically active, watching your numbers — weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar — and avoiding risky activities that might lead to a head injury. Snyder recommends watching for the 10 earliest signs of Alzheimer's, which include:
- Memory loss that disrupts daily life
- Challenges in planning or solving problems
- Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home or at work
- Confusion with time or place
- Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships
- New problems with words in speaking or writing
- Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps
- Decreased or poor judgment
- Withdrawal from work or social activities
- Changes in mood and personality


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Photo by Lazar Simeonov.
Israeli authorities recently approved extensive measures that will expand illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, part of the occupied Palestinian territory. These actions come in the midst of the latest round of peace talks, and have drawn disapproval from the European Union and the US State Department.
At the end of January, the Jerusalem Municipal Committee for Planning and Building approved permits for private contractors to build 558 new housing units in three Jewish Settlements in the municipality of Jerusalem. A total of 386 units were approved in Har Homa, 136 in Neve Yaakov and 36 in Pasgat Ze'ev. All three settlements are located in East Jerusalem, but outside the Green Line boundaries of Israel, and are considered illegal by the international community.
A week later the organization also approved the construction of 350 units in the settlement of East Talpiot, located in East Jerusalem.
Incentivizing Settlement
New criteria have recently been approved that will add 35 settlements to the "national priorities" list. This list was originally established in 2009, and provides locations on the list with extra government support. These new criteria, drafted by Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid, enable the government to provide increased services to settlement communities that are considered to be in hostile areas with high security risk.
"The purpose of this support is to raise the standard of living of these citizens and to encourage migration to the West Bank," said Israeli human rights group B'Tselem in a report publsihed in January. Incentive services, including income tax breaks and huge infrastructural subsidies, will begin in 2015.
Such measures breach agreements between the US and Israel made before the peace talks began, which prohibit Israel from incentivizing settlement expansion. According to B'Tselem, there are an estimated 531,000 settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
Settlements expand as peace talks continue
These developments come in the midst of the latest round of peace talks, with US Secretary of State John Kerry working with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to establish a non-binding agreement regarding future borders and security measures. These peace talks have been going on since the summer of 2013, and are the first in three years.
The previous talks were put on hold after Israeli refused to comply with the PA's demand that all settlement expansion activities be put on hold. The Obama administration similarly called for Israel to discontinue settlements, but with Israel's unconditional denial of these terms, the PA agreed to resume peace talks in July of 2013 following the release of 106 long-term Palestinian prisoners.
Peace Now recently released a report stating that there was a 123% increase in settlement expansion in 2013. These developments were a point of contention even before Israel authorities published tenders for 1,400 new housing units shortly after John Kerry's visit in December, accompanying the release of the most recent group of prisoners.
In response to these recent developments, PLO spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi issued a statement saying, "Israel is engaging in the deliberate provocation of the Palestinians to drive them to leave the negotiations in protest of Israeli violations."
Issa Amro, spokesperson for the organization Youth Against Settlements, spoke with the Palestine Monitor. He believes that the continued expansion of settlements is "proof that the Israeli Government is not serious about peace talks."
Netanyahu demands Palestinians accept Jewish State
In the Prime Minister's recent speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he called for the Palestinian authority to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, making it a condition for the peace talks, saying: "In recognizing the Jewish state, you would finally making clear that you are truly prepared to end the conflict. So recognize the Jewish state."
He also implied that Palestinians accept Israel's borders and give up the right of return, stressing that "Palestinians to abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees, or amputating parts of the Negev and the Galilee."
Further, in an interview aired Sunday, Netanyahu spoke to Israel Radio about the possibility of freezing settlement expansion. He pointed out that a freeze was agreed upon during talks in 2010, but that a peace agreement was not reached. "Did it deliver anything? I don't see the point." He said, "I haven't agreed or committed to pass a decision on a freeze… I don't think it serves a purpose."
Issa Amro spoke for Youth Against Settlements, had quite a different opinion on the effect Israel's settlements have on the peace process. "[They are] displacing the Palestinians from their cities and towns, killing the two state solution completely."
Settler attacks in the West Bank
According to a recnt report published by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Negotiations Affairs Department, since the start of peace talks in July there have been 497 incidents of settler attacks against Palestinians.
Two recent attacks occurred on Thursday 6 March. Just outside Murayer, a village in the West Bank, two Palestinian men were attacked by settlers. The men were assaulted by settlers who threw stones and them and beat them with branches. Both men needed to be hospitalized.
Then, a man from the settlement of Elli, also in the West Bank, was caught on camera in the Palestinian village of Talfit attempting to cut down Palestinian olive trees with a chain saw. The villagers rely on the trees for their primary source of economic income.
International reaction
The subject of settlements is has been generally avoided by Secretary Kerry, however several international powers have expressed concern with these recent developments.
"The EU and the international community have repeatedly warned that any unilateral action, prejudging the final status of Jerusalem threatens the current peace negotiations and, as a consequence, the two-state solution. Any such developments must be avoided at all costs," said EU High Representative Catherine Ashton in an announcement.
The US State Department has also released a statement expressing disapproval of the current situation: "Our position on Jerusalem is clear, we oppose any unilateral actions by either party that attempt to prejudge final status issues, including the status of Jerusalem."
The current set of negotiations are only meant to be nine months long, and President Obama and John Kerry are pushing the parties to reach and agreement before talks conclude in April.
Issa Amro noted that Israel is potentially damaging international relationships saying, "Israel even not respecting their international supporters and friends."
Ultimately, he remains optimistic, saying that for his organization and others, the continued expansion of settlements, is "motivation to the Palestinian popular resistance to go on with their resistance project against the settlements and the Israeli occupation."
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If the Hunger Games were, say, a competition for baking hearty-and-delicious, gut-stuffing pastries -- and we really wish they were -- Taylor Swift would be a killer.
They're not, though. (Sorry, fat kids.) They're a brutal, fight-to-the death tournament of bloodsport. As such, our money's still on Katniss. Sorry, Swifty.
Still, we're happy to hear Swift providing some musical accompaniment to all the Hunger Games' post-apocalyptic ultra-violence, and the double Grammy-winner debuted her video for "Safe & Sound" Monday night on MTV -- the lead video from the Hunger Games soundtrack (expected March 20), and a tune featuring back-up from her fellow Grammy-winners, country duo the Civil Wars.
Curiously, the clip doesn't feature any footage from the anticipated fantasy flick -- though Swift does discover a Mockingjay pin at one point in the video, a token worn by Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). She also comes across an adorable deer in a woodland glen (which she doesn't bother hunting for food -- a fatal moment of indecision for someone clearly playing a starving waif from District 12).
But really, when it comes to action in this music video, Swift's not seeing much of it. Wanly singing her Hunger Games lullaby, the country star wanders barefoot through a bleak wood, risking little more than pneumonia and maybe a tetanus shot.
"It was so cold. It was freezing. I was shaking the whole time and trying not to be shaking when the cameras were rolling," Swift told MTV of the video shoot, which took place on a muddy, 4 degrees Celsius day in Nashville. "It had just rained," she continued. "I'm wearing this 1920s vintage nightgown that didn't provide much warmth. I didn't get sick. I thought I was going to get sick. That was the upside."
Swift's video for "Safe & Sound" is posted below, but the Philip Andelman-directed piece is just one item in a veritable cornucopia of Hunger Games soundtrack intel being released. Grammy nominees The Decemberists recently shared their contribution to the compilation, "One Engine," (also posted below), and the record's complete tracklisting was also announced -- revealing a roster of artists including Neko Case, Miranda Lambert, Kid Cudi, Birdy, The Swell Season's Glen Hansard and -- in a slightly revelatory development -- the Arcade Fire.
There had already been reports that the Montreal band's Win Butler and Regine Chassagne would somehow contribute to the soundtrack. As Pitchfork noted earlier this year, the duo was expected to provide an orchestral piece called "Horn of Plenty."
Instead, we'll be hearing from the full band on a song called "Abraham's Daughter" -- which, Exclaim notes, was recorded just last week. Listen for it during the movie's final credits. As for "Horn of Plenty," Exclaim reports it'll still be heard -- albeit in a second Hunger Games soundtrack.
Full tracklisting for The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond posted below:
1. Taylor Swift (Feat. The Civil Wars) – "Safe & Sound"
2. Taylor Swift – "Eyes Wide Open"
3. Arcade Fire – "Abraham's Daughter"
4. Kid Cudi – "The Ruler & The Killer"
5. Miranda Lambert (Feat. Pistol Annies) – "Run Daddy Run"
6. The Civil Wars – "Kingdom Come"
7. The Decemberists – "One Engine"
8. Glen Hansard – "Take the Heartland"
9. The Low Anthem – "Lover is Childlike"
10. Punch Brothers – "Dark Days"
11. Secret Sisters – "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder"
12. Birdy – "Just a Game"
13. Ella Mae Bowen – "Oh Come & Sing"
14. Jayme Dee – "Rules"
15. Carolina Chocolate Drops – "Reaping Day"
16. Neko Case – "Give Me Something I'll Remember"
Watch Taylor Swift's video for "Safe & Sound":
Listen to The Decemberists' "One Engine":One Engine by The Decemberists by mar-in-kinsey
What's On Tonight for


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Homer puts Encarnacion in good company
PHOENIX -- When Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion homered in the ninth inning Monday at Chase Field, he not only provided his club a couple of insurance runs in a tight game, but he also entered rarified air alongside an elite group of sluggers in Toronto franchise history. The long ball, his 35th, helped Encarnacion join Carlos Delgado, Jose Bautista, Fred McGriff and Shawn Green as the only Blue Jays to hit as many as 35 home runs in consecutive seasons.
"It means a lot; I've been working hard always for a good thing like this," Encarnacion said. "As I've said before, when you retire, you want to be remembered in the game."
Across the Majors, Encarnacion and Detroit's Miguel Cabrera are the only two players to hit 35 homers in each of the last two years. With a little less than a month left in the regular season, only Texas' Adrian Beltre has a chance to join that brief list, but he needs seven more long balls to reach 35 in 2013.
"He's definitely one of the better ones in the league," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of Encarnacion. "Eddie is not just a slugger, though; he goes up there with a plan. He's really a student of hitting. He spends a lot of time in the video room studying pitchers. He doesn't say a lot of things -- he stays to himself -- but he's really a student of hitting."


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NYPD Declares Martial Law in Brooklyn
Before It's News
Thursday, March 14, 2013 20:11
On the heels of three nights of protests over the police slaying of 16 year old Kimani Gray, the NYPD has turned the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn into a State of Exception, claiming emergency powers to suspend the constitutional guarantees of the citizenry.
The people regularly targeted by police harassment and violence, overwhelmingly the city's poor and minority populations, have taken to the streets to speak out against the NYPD's draconian tactics. The police have in turn responded with even further harsh measures by suppressing the right of the people to voice dissatisfaction with that very same police force.
Cops kettled protesters at Wednesday night's candlelight vigil, resulting in 46 arrests. Police even arrested Kimani Gray's distraught sister, Mahnefeh.
The NYPD euphemistically calls the public spaces in which the Constitutional rights of the people are suspended "frozen zones."
Allison Kilkenny wrote about the NYPD's so-called "frozen zones" in December 2011:
"The 'frozen zone' is an arbitrary, official police business-sounding title that has absolutely zero legal merit. It's something the NYPD made up, just as the 'First Amendment zone' is something [Los Angeles Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa made up to suppress media coverage of the Occupy raids."
According to FIERCE, the "frozen zone" in East Flatbush is being used to prevent media from covering the protests and arrests. Meanwhile, people inside the "frozen zone" can be subjected to arrest merely by exercising their constitutional rights.
"It basically means the area is under temporary martial law," writes FIERCE. "The last times the NYPD declared a Frozen Zone was on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and during the beginning of OWS."
An arbitrary dictate that arrests protest and free speech, set forth by the institution that is itself the target of the protests, creates a potentially dangerous precedent of placing the NYPD beyond reproach.
Occupy Austin reposted this poignant summary of events by Jen Roesch as they were unfolding in Brooklyn last night:
"East Flatbush, Brooklyn is under martial law as the NYPD declares it a 'frozen zone'. Media are being monitored and kept from moving and reporting freely. Dozens of arrests and much brutality. Kimani was shot in the back seven times; a witness is sure he was unarmed; multiple reports are coming out that the police had been waging a campaign of harassment against the young man (including taunting him about a friend who had died in a car accident and threatening to shoot him when he tried to leave). This is just blocks from where Shantel Davis was shot, dragged from her car and left to bleed to death in the street last summer. After that shooting, police went to all the surrounding delis and confiscated their surveillance videos. Residents in the neighborhood live in a state of terror. Heartbreaking, enraging, the stuff that riots are made of. This city is at a breaking point."
Kimani Gray's parents are scheduled to hold a press conference this evening to address the March 9 police slaying of their young son.


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50s and 60s it was always Charlie the coalman.
Now long gone no doubt !
That was our coal man
This site is for articles and images that feed my nostalgia for a childhood in Hoxton N1…. an area in the London Borough of Shoreditch ( now Hackney )……..
I lived in one of the prefabs that were built after WW2 to replace the terraces of houses that were destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the blitz.
The images that I have posted take me back to an older time when our pleasures were much simpler……..
If you hanker after a web-site or blog like this………… Please contact me. It will cost far less than you think.


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The Winners have been selected! After a long and grueling process of elimination, I have finally come to a conclusion. So...without further ado, here they are!
1st Place:
Medieval Hooligan Brawl by forseti
2nd Place:
Defending the Village by DNL
3rd Place:
Defense of the Iron Oak by SuvieD
Best Vignette:
Sir Wunstud jumped by Orcs built by TooMuchCaffeine
Congratulations to the winners! Please send me your addresses via PM and I will get your prizes out as soon as possible. I am leaving on vacation for more than a week, so I won't be mailing anything until after then.
Thanks to everyone who entered. There were a lot of good entries in there!
Breaking News!
Prizes have been updated. Check out the pics at the bottom of this post. Many thanks to BrickArms for their generosity!
There will be a new category this year. There will be a special prize for the best vignette-sized (or smaller) battle scene. That means that all the battles with a footprint of 8x8 or smaller will be eligible for this special prize. The prize has been contributed by a very generous donor. Once I have the prize in hand (in a day or two), I will take pics and unveil it. Until then, you'll have to live with this teaser.
Hey All!
I apologize for the long delay, but its finally time for the 4th edition of the Battles Contest!
Here are the rules:
1. Build an medieval battle scene (all figs involved must be of castle persuasion. Ninja is allowed).
2. Custom pieces of any kind are more than welcome, but not clone bricks.
3. There is no minimum or maximum number of figs and no minimum or maximum size.
4. You may use beasts and/or mythical creatures.
5. The battle scene must be a never-before-published Battle Scene.
6. No progressive pictures. Don't show me how it turned out. Just one scene frozen in time.
7. Admins are allowed to enter.
8. Don't argue with me.
Enter as often as you wish!
Entries will be judged on the action of the figs and realism of the scenery. I want to see believable and active figs. If a fig is just standing there, he better have a really good reason! Size of horde doesn't matter, its all about posing those figs. Lastly, I am the one and only judge, there is no appeal from my court.
Contest Deadline:
The contest will end on June 5 at midnight PST. That gives all of you over a month to plan, build, and post. If you don't have all the pieces you need to make the ultimate battle, try anyway. You might surprise yourself. The deadline will not be extended for any reason at all.
Contest pics:
Please keep your pics fairly small, 800x600 pixels or less. I don't like waiting for huge pics to load.
You may post as many pics as you like but no WIP pics. Just the battle, please.
No Photo Shop pics, please. Touch up or crop if you want, but no added elements.
Please submit your entries in the entries thread.
1st and 2nd prizes are complete, used sets. I have built them to verify completeness, but they are used. The 3rd place prize is new and sealed in its original polybag. The vignette prize is complete, used set.
1st Place-
2nd Place-
3rd Place-
Best Vignette-
(Thanks to Ben and Jojo for their awesome set pictures)
Let the wars begin!


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Star Nail Art
Be the Star You Are This July 4th With Star Nail Art
Be the Star You Are This July 4th With Star Nail Art
You've probably seen lots of intricate nail art plastered all over the Internet, but if the notion of working with special polishing tools to create the impressive looks has you daunted, fear not. This Fourth of July, you can simply apply Big Ruby Tattoos' stick-on star designs ($12). The pack includes 10 star images, with 42 tats for the fingers and 44 additional ones for the pinkies and big toes. It's the perfect way to look cool and festive, all while impressing your friends; nobody will have to know you didn't paint them on yourself.


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President Hiram Chodosh is quoted in today's Los Angeles Times, in a piece recapping yesterday's White House summit on college opportunity. Chodosh attended the summit alongside leaders from over 100 other colleges and universities––all of them committing to better college accessibility and affordability for disadvantaged students.
"We have been working on this problem for a long time, but there are still many challenges," President Chodosh tells Los Angeles Times writer Jason Song.
Read the full story, "Obama encourages economic diversity in higher education."
Portions of yesterday's White House summit, which were live-streamed, can be seen on Youtube, here:
President Obama Speaks on Expanding College Opportunity
First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks on Expanding College Opportunity
President Chodosh's participation in the D.C. event also marked the announcement of the College's new initiative, the Student Imperative, which seeks to raise $100 million for CMC's endowment, for financial aid resources.
Read more about The Student Imperative.