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IYHA September 2004 Meeting Minutes
From the President
It is hard to believe that summer is over already. I don't feel that summer really was here. It must have been here at some time because you players are all heading back to or are already in school. Start the year off right, work as hard in the classroom as you do on the ice. Hockey (sports) is fun, but at some point most of us end playing sports after high school. Your education will always be a part that will need for whatever you pursue in your life.
Minnesota Hockey is having there big HEP (Hockey Education Program) kick-off on September 25 at the Excel Center. Minnesota Hockey is requiring or strongly recommending that all involved in association hockey go to this event, Administrator, Coaches, Officials, and Parents. Coaches that go will get there highest level of coaching renewed. Administrators and Coaches will go from 9:00-3:30 and parents will go from 1:00-3:30. There are 3 components of the HEP Program. They are Skill Development, Coaching Excellence and Fair Play. You should pre-register on line
The HEP Program was developed collaboratively with the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center. This is a great step from a state that is looked at as a leader in hockey in the U.S.
Dry land opportunity
I would like to thank all of the players, parents and coaches who have been part of the August dry land. The average number of participants was 12-14 players a night. Players have been working hard, having fun and enjoying and meeting new players, and looking forward to another hockey season. With warm-ups starting soon, I am going to continue to do dry land throughout the month of September. The days and times will change slightly starting 9/13. I will do Mondays and Thursdays starting the week of 9/13 until the end of the month, and I will start at 6:00 instead of 6:30.
We are having an extra Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, September 9th at 6:30 p.m. (Location will be determined—contact Niki Gjere if you need the location.) We have not had a quorum during the summer, which has prevented action on several items. The purpose of the meeting will be:
1. Initiation coordinator: volunteer has stepped forward, will discuss and vote.
2. Bantam: tryouts.
3. ACE Coordinator: discussion and vote regarding reimbursement.
Registration information from Pat O'Connor, Registration Coordinator:
Registration is on September 18, 2004 from 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Freedom Park. Go to the website to download the forms. www.iyhaleague.org Please make every effort to go to this event. The girls traveling program has ice starting after 5:00 that evening.
This year we have added a $5.00 Lake Region Membership fee. Because of our relationship with Lake Region Hockey Association (which includes their generous financial support of our Association), we must formally have membership to Lake Region.
From Tom Welty, TC District Representative
TC District Notes:
HEP Kick-Off September 25
Parents, please mark Saturday September 25th on your calendar. You are invited and strongly encouraged to attend Minnesota Hockey's HEP kick-off program at the Xcel Energy Center.
What is HEP? In a nutshell, HEP is a program designed by Minnesota Hockey and the Mayo Sports Medicine Center to improve the game of hockey for players, coaches and parents. The goal of HEP is to promote fun and skill development (more practices, fewer games), educate coaches, parents and officials in a consistent manner so players learn values, to promote sportsmanship of players, coaches, parents and officials, and to decrease attrition of players, coaches and officials from a great game.
The Minnesota Wild feels strongly enough about this program that they have donated the use of the Xcel Energy Center for the kick-off event on September 25th.
For more information and to register for the event, visit the Minnesota Hockey website at http://www.minnesotahockey.org.
Coaches: Minnesota Hockey will offer CEP certification classes in conjunction with this event. This is a great opportunity to obtain your Level 1, 2. or 3 certification, or to renew your certification of your current cards if you sticker reads 01/02 or later. Visit the above referenced website to register for these classes.
All parents, coaches and administrators, please go to the website and register for the HEP kick-off. Let's have a strong Irondale presence at the X!!
TC District Needs Volunteers
This year we (TC District) are hosting two end-of-the-year tournaments: A PeeWee B regional tournament February 23-27 and the U12A state tournament March 11-13. As part of TC District, we are required to provide volunteers to help run these tournaments. Please keep these dates in mind as you make plans for your hockey year. Volunteering at these tournaments is a great way to serve YOUR association and also a great way to watch some awesome hockey. Contact Tom Welty for more information and to specify which tournament you would like to work at. (Due to the anticipated high volume of calls, your patience is requested.)
TC Names New Director
The TC District board named Steve Swanson as the new district director. Steve replaces Gene King who has served as district director for many years. The TC District is also in need of a new President and new Initiation Coordinator. Randy Reetz, who has served in both capacities, has moved to Wisconsin and resigned from the board. Anyone interested in these positions contact Tom Welty or visit http://www.tcdistrict.org
Mite practices: TENTATIVE Ice times for players in the Initiation Program (check website to confirm):
Ice Times at Fogerty Arena: All are on the South rink unless indicated differently:
Oct 02: Mini-mites 3:20pm; Pony's 4:50pm (North); Mites 1&2 6:00pm (North)
Oct 03: Pony's 8:00am; Mites 1&2 9:10am; Mini-mites 10:20am
Oct 09: Mini-mites 10:20am; Mites 1&2 11:30am; Pony's 12:40pm
Oct 10: Mites 1&2 9:10am; Pony's 10:20am; Mini-mites 11:30am
Parent meeting for Initiation Parents:
Mon. September 20th at 6:45pm for Mini-mites; 7:30 p.m. for Mites 1 & 2; and 8:15 p.m. for the Pony's. Tentative meeting location is Freedom Park. (Please check the website for confirmation.)
John Donovan
From Dan Marcouiller, Boys Program Coordinator
IYHA tryouts are conducted under the direction of the Boy's Coordinator with assistance from the ACE Coordinator. Independent evaluators (who have no players currently trying out at any Boy's Traveling level) are selected to observe and evaluate all skaters at the Traveling levels. The on-ice tryout coach has no bearing on team selection or evaluation.
Team selection is based on performance in two areas: drills and scrimmage. Drills are provided by the on-ice tryout coach and are designed to measure and exhibit speed and quickness, balance, stickhandling, passing, and shooting skills as well as hustle. Scrimmages will be comprised of 3 on 3, 4 on 4, and 5 on 5 situations. Scrimmage evaluations are subjective and will take into consideration all of the above skills as well as game sense, ice vision, defensive skills, aggressiveness, team play ability, and playmaking.
Goalies will be evaluated ongoing by the selected evaluators in areas of quickness, agility, positioning, hustle, proper technical movements, and reaction.
Attendance at all sessions is required. In extenuating circumstances a tryout may be missed. The impact of that will be subject to review by the Traveling Coordinator, ACE Coordinator, and evaluators.
The number of players on each team will be based on the overall registration numbers for that particular level. Our goal is a minimum of 12 skaters per team and a maximum of 15.
Once the tryouts are completed, results will be compiled and initial team placement will take place. This will consist of approximately 80% of the team placed solely on raw rankings. The remainder of the roster will be determined based on input/discussion between the head coach, evaluators, tryout coordinator, and ACE coordinator. For example for a team of 14 skaters 80% represents 11 players. Eleven players will be placed and discussion will revolve around the remaining 3 to be named. This discussion will consist of specific team needs and who best can fill those needs. This last step is to avoid a team having a glut of any one position and a dearth in others as well as an overabundance of certain skill sets and a deficiency in others. The eligible players to be added in this manner will only be twice as many as spots to fill. For example if three spots need to be filled then only the next six in player rankings will be considered. The head coach will not be involved in discussions unless their child has been placed.
Upon completion of these steps players will be notified of team placement. This season players will be notified Wednesday, October 20th,
Check the website for the dates and times of warm ups and tryouts.
The Board of the Lake Region Hockey Association meets on the third Tuesday of every month at various locations. If you are interested in attending the next meeting, please call Niki Gjere and she will connect you with Lake Region.
Thank you to Linda DeKanick!
The website is being updated frequently! Please check the site for updates and confirmations for the Initiation Program, Boys Program and Girls Program! Our website address is www.iyhaleague.org
Many thanks to Linda DeKanick, our Webmaster for continuously improving our site!
Minutes from JULY 2004 meeting: July 21, 2004
Called to order @7:05 by BD
Can't vote, no quorum of 7.
Present: Brad DeKanick, Brian Johnson, Jeanne Falconer Pat O'Connor, Becky Ewing and Randy Bortot
Guests: John Dalnes and John Baily (Beau's Dad).
RB has an issue about the minutes for June regarding the price of purchasing painted pucks. $50 set up fee, $0.85 per puck, not to exceed $500.00. Will discuss and vote next month and wait to approve minutes until then.
4 met on the ACE Coordinator position: Some wording has been changed because the original was written for John Bazzachini, who is no longer with the IYHA. These things were added – maintain, record and correct CEP levels. Administer and record HEP program. Info. goes to Mayo and MN Hockey. Working on an ACE Coordinator position and proposal. The committee is made up of Brad, Dan M., Chris and Brian.
Parades: St. Anthony is Aug. 6, line up at 6:30. Stockyard Days Parade is Sun. 8/12. Mounds View Festival in the Park is 8/22. More info. to follow. Discussion on the skaters handing out little info. slips to families of young children along the parade routes.
There was a good bit of discussion about charging $50 up front for volunteer time and refunding it at season's end if volunteer time was met. One person wants it crystal clear what the expectation of volunteers is. The discussion included adding the volunteer time into the ice bills. Additional volunteer time might possibly be if TC has End of Year tournaments. Another way to collect volunteer money is to figure it into monthly payments. Hopefully, some volunteer hours can be signed up for at registration.
New Business:
Initiation Coordinator – 2 people have stepped forward, should come to the next meeting and should get a position description. Discussion as to 2 people can work together as IC, but only 1 can hold the position and be a board member. IC can get as many assistants as needed. I don't think you want her name and such here, if you do, let me know.
Dog Loahr has talked about being the apparel coordinator – would post info. right on the IYHA web site.
Discussed selling chocolate pucks at the tournaments to add to the fund raiser.
Reminder that there will be a $5.00 fee at registration to Lake Region this year and henceforth. It is refunded in that we receive money from Lake Region and use this money to lessen the cost of ice to IYHA families.
Willard Fund – cap of $400 or so per family. There might be a stipulation on how many times a family can get it. In the past there had not been a cap on the # of families receiving Willard Funds, but due to budget constraints, there may be in the future. Applications must be in BY the 31st of Dec. Lake Region cannot cut checks to individuals anymore. New people in the following positions: Mark Casci is pres., John Eide is V.P., Sue Senteri is treasurer and Randy Bortot is secretary.
Newsletter deadline Aug.1 (and look at me, it's the 4th).
Sat. Sept. 18 from 9 – 1, will be late registration (mostly for new people)
Idea of drawing for free IYHA apparel/blankets if sign up for volunteering at registration.
A reminder – it is only the 1st game of the tournament that a volunteer is somewhat guaranteed to see his/her skater's game. There have been rink crew switches to make it possible to see your own skater's game for the 2nd and 3rd games.
Ice Commissioner: needs to know which weekend in January is the tournament as she is entering teams in tournaments. Getting SR ice in Sept. Ice hours will be mailed out the end of July. Will get some hours at Fogarty. Our time at the SR will be reduced because in the past Coon Rapids has not wanted their ice, now they want their entire allotment. It's sounding like the ice is going to be mostly at the beginning and end of the season, and not so much in the middle. Some key people who are in charge of ice at SR and MV have resigned and this will mess things up this year. Also, in the case of a conflict, which happens once in awhile, where there's a practice and a game scheduled at the same time, the game takes precedent.
There was discussion about having outside evaluators for try outs. It sounds like some people from Tartan would be willing to evaluate our try outs. Sometimes associations trade and do each others' try outs. There was discussion on how try outs are run – possible changes to make starting this season. Also discussed was the importance of keeping all spectators out of the rink during tryouts.
Question still remains, are we going to have teams formed and practicing by the 1st or 2nd week of Oct.
Treasurer: Received $210 from MN Wild. Was given an Initiation budget by John Donovan and turned it over to Brad.
Minutes submitted by Jeanne Falconer, Treasurer in the absence of Niki Gjere.
IYHA Board of Directors Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Minutes
Present: Brad DeKanick, Brian Johnson, Niki Gjere, Dan Marcouiller, Pat O'Connor, Randy Bortot, Tom Welty, Becky Ewing.
Absent: Jeanne Falconer, Chris Tahti.
Guest: Sue Sentieri, John Dalnes.
Meeting called to order by President Brad DeKanick at 7:02 p.m. Agenda reviewed.
July minutes: clarification. The motion for the customized (logo) puck was a total of $200 over and above the cost of regular pucks. Motion to approve a change to not to exceed $225 for the additional printing on the logo puck (TW) (RB). (The cost of the pucks is separate.) Discussion. Motion carried.
Sue Sentieri, Lake Region Hockey Association.
1. Willard Fund: Working on an application which should be available October 1st. There will be a hard and fast deadline of December 31st. Who should do the approvals? Prefer to forward applications to Lake Region. Can forward any Irondale applications directly to Sue. Goal is to get back to the original mission of the Willard Fund as a one time emergency fund. Maximum of $300 per family. 612-619-0846 Sue Sentieri for questions. Will have handouts available for registration tomorrow.
2. Registration fee for Lake Region Hockey Association: The state is requiring Lake Region to have membership and charge a fee. Another change is that Lake Region needs to do fundraising. Think about making the Mounds View / Irondale Super Rink Spectacular the Lake Region Super Rink Spectacular. This is state mandated. Working to stay in compliance. Up to 15 Board members now. Invited both Association Treasurers, also have 3 members from each Association, have some ex-IYHA/Mounds View Board members. Actively pursuing several other sites for pull-tabs.
3. Niki just received the Lake Region minutes. Will forward them electronically.
4. Revised the by-laws for Lake Region. The last time they were done were 25 years ago. Maple Grove profits—due to the contract with the city, 50% of the profits must go back to Maple Grove. Youth oriented hockey, youth oriented sports, youth oriented non-sports, community.
Try out hours have been set. They will be available for Saturday, October 9th and ending Sunday, October 17th. MEA is the following Thursday and Friday. Will have the teams picked and available on Monday, October 18th. Pat thinks the deadlines will be okay.
TC schedules the games: each coach or manager gets together with the various teams at a table with their available ice. Becky will be there.
Format of tryouts. In the past, would separate out the kids up down, up down, until the bubble. This was difficult. Will have independent team evaluators. Will set the first 10 kids, then leave some latitude for the coach and evaluators to place on teams—2-4 kids. The kids still need to have ranked within the top group.
Edison inquiry. For Bantams—have a B Bantam team. Will have 2-4 kids that might be interested in an A Bantam team. Will need to look at our numbers that register. Based on those numbers, will discuss issues about tryouts for these kids (at the September meeting).
Meetings regarding ACE Coordinator. Reviewed documents from Minnesota Hockey (ACE Coordinator information) and a draft resolution. Do we set a salary? Discussion. John already has the ACE Coordinator position. Looking to change it to a salary position. Draft resolution reviewed. Brad will connect with other associations to determine what they do. Confirmed that John Donovan is the ACE coordinator, Board still needs to revise the resolution that outlines the duties and responsibilities of the ACE Coordinator.
§ Goalie training for our coaches in October. Will put in the newsletter.
§ Culver's is a corporate sponsor of Minnesota Hockey. We will contact them for participation in fundraising.
§ Met with somebody about apparel, he has agreed to take over the apparel. Will be at Registration tomorrow night to talk with people.
Vice President: Brian Johnson.
§ The St. Anthony parade went well! Fliers were printed for registration information, hundreds were distributed.
§ Festival in the park Sunday, August 22nd. Will have an email sent out with time and unit number.
Did call Dean from Mounds View about the Tournament. Will call again.
Treasurer: Jeanne Falconer (absent).
Secretary: Niki Gjere. Newsletter deadline is September 1st.
Registration Coordinator: Pat O'Connor.
Twin Cities district meeting is done. Has been receiving phone calls and emails about registration. Verify—flyer about Willard Fund, Thanksgiving Tournament, apparel for rummage sale, tryout flyers for both boys and girls. Volunteers for traveling teams. Will be able to make the deadline for Registration for TC District.
Ice Commissioner: Becky Ewing.
§ What should we do with the remaining hours we are not using (leftover from tryout hours).
§ We need to let our coaches know that if there is a conflict with ice, games have a higher priority than practice, even if it is Mounds View.
Initiation Coordinator: Open.
Girls Coordinator: Chris Tahti. (absent—is at meeting at TC District for Girls programs).
Equipment Manager: Randy Bortot.
Jerseys are ordered. Socks are ordered. Still tracking down Initiation goalie pads.
Blue pucks—they are in stock at Dave's and Lettermen's. Randy has a lot of blue pucks already. Not sure if we have to use the blue pucks this year.
Motion to adjourn (TW) (RB), carried. Meeting adjourned 9:30 p.m.
New Privacy Policy


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Small Goat Skin Rug
Lovely mixture of natural brown, cappuccino and cream colours. Measures approximately 87 x 56 cm. Photographed individually - this is the exact goat hide you will receive.
These cute short haired Goatskin Rugs are soft under foot and look incredible. They are rare and exotic and will add a touch of contemporary glamour to your home or workplace.
Our Goatskins originate from Australia. They are farmed in their natural habitat and used as a vital source of milk and meat for the local community.
These Hides are unique so we make sure each one is photographed so that you can see exactly what you are purchasing.
Note: Due to the fact Goatskins are a natural product you may find wrinkles, small cuts or abrasions and they do not lay totally flat. All of these are normal characteristics of this type of product. If you are unhappy with our Goatskin Rugs. Simply return to us for a full refund.
Shipping & Returns Policy
All our products are shipped by a tracked courier service (currently DPD)
The shipping rates are calculated at checkout by shipping destination:
Returns Policy
Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 you have a right to cancel your purchase. However, to exercise this right you must notify us in writing, (email or letter) within 14 working days from the day after you receive your goods. Any coloured Sheepskin Rugs larger than Single are deemed to be Made to Order and excluded from our No Quibble 14 Days Return's Policy unless faulty, this does not effect your statutory rights.
The cost of returning these goods is at your expense and we would always recommend the use of a tracked postage service such as Royal Mail's Signed For service.
No right of cancellation, refund or return exists under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 once you have used your product, unless the product is defective and you are returning it for this reason.
Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, you may be entitled to a refund, replacement, repair and/or compensation where goods are faulty or not as described. If you believe any of these to be the case please email, telephone or write to us as soon as possible.

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Summary: Proprietary DNA delivery technology enables sustained Interferon-beta production from muscle cells – reduces atherosclerosis progression in mouse model of heart disease
Research conducted at Cleveland Clinic and presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 58th Annual Scientific Session showed that a single administration of DNA encoding the anti-inflammatory protein interferon-beta (IFN-ß) using Ichor Medical System's TriGrid Delivery System (TriGrid) reduced the development of plaque formation in a mouse model of atherosclerosis.
"The sustained production of this protein reduced the atherosclerotic lesion size and tissue-damaging inflammation that characterize the blood vessels of these mice with atherosclerosis," said Marc S. Penn, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator from Cleveland Clinic.
While preliminary, these results broaden the support for the use of the electroporation-based TriGrid as an enabling platform technology to provide continuous endogenous production of therapeutic proteins from a patient's own muscle. Previous studies done in collaboration with Dr. Vince Tuohy's lab at Cleveland Clinic demonstrated that one-time delivery of the IFN-ß gene intramuscularly with the TriGrid in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), resulted in sustained production of IFN-ß and a similar reduction in the severity of clinical disease as compared to a separate group of mice dosed every other day with recombinant IFN-ß (Molecular Therapy 14(3): 416-422 (2006)). This study suggests that in vivo gene transfer of the IFN-ß gene may provide a convenient and viable alternative to constant life-long dosing of the recombinant form of IFN-ß for patients with MS.
Together, these data demonstrate both the potential therapeutic and economic value of Ichor's technology.
"The TriGrid platform makes treatments like interferon-ß more reasonable because a single administration of the gene using the TriGrid results in consistent production of the therapeutic protein in muscle for extended periods of time resulting in a vastly reduced cost," said Ichor CEO Bob Bernard.
The TriGrid is also being used to enable endogenous protein production for DNA-based treatments of HIV, Hepatitis B and C, malaria, avian flu and various forms of cancer in pre-clinical and clinical trials worldwide.
About Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation's best hospitals in its annual "America's Best Hospitals" survey. Approximately 1,800 full-time salaried physicians and researchers at Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2005, there were 2.9 million outpatient visits to Cleveland Clinic. Patients came for treatment from every state and from more than 80 countries. There were nearly 54,000 hospital admissions to Cleveland Clinic in 2005. Cleveland Clinic's Web site address is www.clevelandclinic.org.
About Ichor Medical Systems
Ichor Medical Systems, a privately-held biotech company, is developing products based on the in vivo application of electroporation to enhance intracellular delivery of DNA drugs encoding therapeutic proteins or antigens for vaccines. Ichor's proprietary TriGrid™ Delivery System (TriGrid) is the first and only integrated and fully automated system for electroporation-mediated DNA administration. This system allows the site of DNA injection, placement of electrodes, rate of DNA administration and timing of electrical pulse application to be consistent among different operators and patients. As a result, Ichor's TriGrid enables safe, effective and reproducible clinical application of electroporation in a manner capable of supporting development and commercialization of DNA-based products. The Ichor system is currently being used on three continents in a wide range of pre-clinical and clinical studies for potential treatments of melanoma, HIV, Hepatitis B, Avian Flu and Multiple Sclerosis.


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Celebrity Gossip
Bad Black Now Engaged, Ready for Wedding
When you play on Fortebet, you win big money.Play here.
By Staff Writer
Bad Black aka Snail Baby got engaged last night after her mzungu lover officially proposed to her.
Bad Black's boyfriend aka brother was around to capture every moment with wild cheers.
The mzungu lover has also planned to use the last one weeek to buy Bad Black some chunks of land and has asked her to write a business proposal so he invests.
Congratulations Bad Black; ekyakuzaala kikugagawaza
Celebrity Gossip
Meet Beckie Johnz, a talent to reckon with
When you play on Fortebet, you win big money.Play here.
By Reporter
Talented, Beautiful, Modest, these three words describe singer/songwriter Beckie Johnz perfectly. Born in Ethiopia and mostly grew up in Kenya and came to Australia in 2005 when she was 15 years old. In her early teens, Beckie grew up in a Christian family, whereby she went to church and was involved in a choir. Beckie looked up to her choir masters and even though she was shy as a child, this gave her the confidence to want to use her God given talent to pursue a career in the music industry. Beckie started singing at a very young age even though her family members weren't supportive of her.
Up until when she arrived to Australia, Beckie always kept in the back of her mind that if she were to be presented the opportunity to pursue her passion that she would always take that chance.Growing up, Beckie has always been inspired by music legends such as Nyankol Mathiang Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, usher Raymond, Alicia Keys and Toni Braxton, Keysha cole as well as the Destiny childs. She says that "at a young age i used to sing while playing with my friends but as soon as I reached home I would stop because my cousins would make fun of me saying "you're a girl you shouldn't sing". At the age of 13 Beckie started taking singing more serious, although she was a very shy child. Over the years she started to come out of her shell more by letting the music guide her. Johnz speaks alot on her insecurities as she grew up.
She experienced bullying from distant family members who put her down, furthermore affecting her self esteem. This experience is what eventually inspired Johnz to turn to music. Music became my therapy" states Johnz. It lifted me up and guided me through my painful and dark days, so this was my way of expressing myself". Beckie studied music in high school without the knowledge of her mother,and over the years Beckie strengthened her vocal skills and paid her way through vocal coaching. Through her performances Beckie met with an artist and producer Marvelous under the label BMC that would work with her to present an awesome demo and help take her career to the next level. Through those musical relationships,Beckie was connected with the duo Mavelous B producer and recorded a mix tapes of "that could be us" by Maino and" nothin on you" by B.O.B ft Bruno Mars.
Beckie Johnz took a long break (5 years) from music due to personal issues that she was embarking on, however Beckie remembered how music made her feel and why she should continue to use her God given talent. She moved with her family to Melbourne, Australia in 2016 where the music is very versatile and undeniablely wide. She knew best to continue to do what lifted her soul up from the beginning " I want to pave way for my young south Sudanese female up coming artists, who are afraid to rise up,simply because of the lack of support. I knew best to be a role model in the male dominant industry within our community. Beckie Johnz has released her first ever EP (Just the Beginning) and first music video now available on all music platforms. She is working on her first album date to be announced soon. Stay Tune!
Celebrity Gossip
Fatboy returns to the airwaves
When you play on Fortebet, you win big money.Play here.
By BigEyeUg Team
Former employee of 88.2 Sanyu FM, James Onen aka Fatboy is set to return on radio after almost two months of unemployment.
Fatboy was fired in June this year after reportedly masterminding a sit-down strike at the Kampala based 'urban music station'.
This sent the radio management despairing for Fatboy's quick replacement in the Sanyu FM Breakfast Club show and it's perfect choice landed on comedian Patrick Salvado Idringi and RadioCity's Miss Deedan.
The good news for Fatboy's fans is that he has now new commitments with Reckless Radio.
His services will be in 'The Fat Boy' show airing from Monday to Friday, 6AM-10AM.
"The Fatboy Show" is a top quality 4-hour daily entertainment radio show hosted by James 'Fatboy' Onen, veteran radio presenter who for over two decades has been a dominant voice on morning prime time FM radio.
Joining him is Olive, a soft-spoken intellectual with a background in news, and the attitude of a soldier.
Reckless Radio is a Uganda-based digital radio station created by James 'Fatboy' Onen that aims to serve the needs of a growing class of media consumers who are looking for high quality radio content.
Congratulations FatBoy!
Celebrity Gossip
Zahara Totto opens up on why her relationship with 'Big Papa' failed
When you play on Fortebet, you win big money.Play here.
By BigEyeUg Team
Next Media, Zahara Totto is still mending a broken heart after breaking-up with Nigerian money bag, Don Solomon Ugwu aka Big Papa (Oga).
The 'Uncut' TV show host's one-year affair with Don Solomon was confirmed done and dusted on Monday, 10th August after a bitter fight between the two lovers.
However, Zahara has since taken it to her Snap chat account spilling all the unbearable circumstances that sparked their misunderstandings.
The motor-mouthed TV presenter, narrates that all went wrong in her relationship when she found-out that boyfriend, Big Papa was sleeping around with other women.
She reveals that her efforts in resolving the issues together with hubby all ended in vain after he refuted all claims of cheating.
He instead continued sharing their bed with all kinds of city girls.
The mother-of-four also says Big Papa is disrespectful, non-developmental, adds no value to no one, among others, and that's why she never regrets breaking-up with him.
Zahara further says she can't take his behaviors anymore or stand him because he is disgusting.
Here is her statement in full;
Allow me tell you a short story. I have been busy working the anus decided to sleep with every slut who cares to open their legs to him thinking they will get rich from him! Such low thinking brains!
Am a one-man woman, and when I found out that's the case I tried to talk to him so we solve things where it had gone wrong as I didn't want the relationship to end! But the anus used that to his advantage to continue with his Ashawo behavior of sleeping with more sluts.
I was in Love cos we have been together for a year now! Didn't want it to lose /
my man! But all in vain. The anus is disrespectful, non-developmental, adds no value to no one, etc.
He is threatening me right now for exposing is bleached jik pussy selling bitch who has worked so had to see that me and the anus separate. I can nolonger take it in anymore! I can't stand him anymore! He disgusts me.
We will keep you posted.
Audio: Crysto Panda drops new banger 'Bino'
When you play on Fortebet, you win big money.Play here.
By BigEyeUg Team
Multitalented personality, Kityamuwesi Herbert famously known as Crysto Panda is not stopping anytime soon when it comes to his music career. Although many had said that he landed a hit by chance, the Dance Party TV star has proved them wrong with another song.
Before we could digest his massive banger, 'Kyoyina Omanya' Panda has already added a new song 'Bino' to our menu.
'Bino' is roots from 'Bino ebiluma abayaye', one of the trending Luganda slangs to mean 'what hurts people'.
In 'Bino', Crysto maintains his renown dancehall fusion style.
The song consists of pleasantly dazzling drums produced by Artin Pro (Axtra Nation studios).
This website has also learned from the artiste's close friends that a high-budget video is underway within this month.
Listen to Bino by Crysto Panda here;
We will keep you posted.
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Inmate's Starvation Death Sparks Lawmakers' Review< < Back to
A Kentucky lawmaker is pledging to hold hearings on prison medical issues after an inmate at a maximum-security facility starved to death on a hunger strike.
State Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said Thursday he will ask during committee hearings later this year for an explanation of the handling of 57-year-old James Kenneth Embry. Yonts also said he would look into prison funding, staffing and the hiring of medical personnel.
An Associated Press story this week revealed Embry's hunger strike and death in January at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Administrators fired the prison's lead doctor, barred a contract nurse from working there and put two other medical staffers on leave while the state moves to dismiss them.
Authorities also began considering a criminal investigation after the AP asked about Embry's death.


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Carlo Allegri / Reuters
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie still has his backers in early primary states, despite the bridge scandal.
The Republican establishment in early presidential nominating states is standing by Chris Christie -- so far.
Many of those closest to the action allow that the New Jersey governor could end up disqualified as a potential 2016 presidential candidate if it turns out that he wasn't telling the truth about the politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge during his marathon press conference on Thursday. Christie said he wasn't aware of or involved with a top staffer's plan to snarl traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., and announced he was firing two top aides.
Yet interviews with numerous early-state operatives, establishment figures and party chairs show that even though there's skittishness in private, there's readiness to publicly rally behind Christie. His handling of the crisis so far, they say, could wear well over the next two years, eventually casting him as a decisive leader willing to take responsibility and fire top aides for their mistakes.
What do Republicans outside of New Jersey, especially in early primary and caucus states, have to say about this "bridgegate" story? NBC's Kasie Hunt talks about whether it could impact Gov. Chris Christie's reputation as a "reformer."
"At the end of the day, he's going to be just fine," said David Kochel, who led 2012 nominee Mitt Romney's efforts in Iowa.
"He showed leadership. He held people accountable," said Jennifer Horn, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.
"It's refreshing to see a leader step up and take responsibility," said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina GOP.
The across-the-board defense reflects a combination of a fractured Republican Party's hopes and fears for the looming 2016 presidential nomination fight that will kick off two years from now in Iowa. Each early state is defensive of its position in the process and wants every candidate to compete aggressively there. It's still early, and it's clear influential players are wary of crossing someone who is still viewed as a frontrunner, a more-than-plausible nominee and a potential president.
And most of all, it's reflective of a GOP still bruised by a drawn-out 2012 nomination process that was defined by warring factions, forced its candidates to stake out right-wing positions to woo conservative activists and eventually produced a weak nominee who lost decisively to Democratic President Barack Obama in the general election.
Christie's enemies - Democrats and Republicans - ready to pounce
The GOP establishment in early presidential nominating states is standing by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as he battles "Bridgegate." But there are concerns about how it could impact Christie -- and the party overall -- in 2016. NBC's Kasie Hunt reports.
"The thing I think unites our party across the spectrum is to defeat Hillary Clinton. And everyone knows that's going to be a very difficult task," said David Carney, a New Hampshire-based operative who served as Texas Gov. Rick Perry's top strategist during his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Christie hasn't spent too much time in early primary states yet. But he made a number of visits on Romney's behalf in 2012, and it's clear he's interested -- he made sure to send family Christmas cards to Republicans in Iowa, for example. Early polls have put him atop the potential GOP field, and his success winning over Hispanic, independent and even Democratic voters in New Jersey have cast him as someone with the potential clout and widespread appeal to take on a Democrat like Clinton.
To be sure, it's clear that there's plenty of private criticism and hand-wringing among early-state Republicans about the implications the scandal could have for Christie in the 2016 nominating process. Some acknowledge the episode could exacerbate his reputation as a bully, an image that might be damaging in always-nice Iowa or in the genteel South.
"South Carolinians like people who are strong leaders, but they also like people who are courteous and polite," said David Wilkins, a GOP fundraiser and former ambassador under President George W. Bush who supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign.
There's also frustration over the fact that the scandal could incite a new round of the still-raging war between conservative activists and the party establishment. While the GOP has a history of falling in line behind the establishment's preferred presidential nominee, the recent discontent of the GOP base battered Romney during the last election and left party elders wondering how to change the process to protect future nominees.
That's where this scandal could damage Christie in early states, several GOP sources said privately. Potential GOP candidates are legion, and include Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio; former presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Rick Perry; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan; and others. Conservative critics are already skeptical of Christie's positions on social issues and embrace of President Obama after Hurricane Sandy in the final days of the 2012 general election.
Democrat on bridge probe: Impeachment risk for Christie
Right-wing figures have been quick to add the scandal to their list of grievances against Christie. Iowa conservative activist Steve Deace, who's championed Cruz as a potential 2016 contender, slammed Christie and the GOP establishment on his Friday podcast.
"The Republicans would like to replace [President Obama] with somebody who shuts down the busiest bridge on planet Earth -- endangering how many lives? -- simply to grind a political axe," Deace fumed.
And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul -- who operatives in all three states said is by far the most active possible presidential candidate at this stage -- took a swipe at Christie.
"I don't know who emailed who and who works for whom. I have been in traffic before though and I know how angry I am when I'm in traffic and I've always wondered, 'who did this to me?'," Paul said Thursday.
Still, the criticism isn't universal. Steve King, a Western Iowa congressman with a reputation as a conservative firebrand, held back.
"I think that [Christie] manned up to it," said King, who carefully guards his own role in the Iowa caucus process and goes out of his way to court presidential hopefuls. "And now the investigation is coming along, it should be a vehicle that can scrub any questions clean and certify the statements he made."
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was elected in 2010 with a wave of Tea Party support, has also defended Christie, writing in a Facebook post that Christie "did the right thing in taking responsibility in a tough situation.
Haley, of course, is relying on Christie's fundraising support as she faces reelection this year. Several Republicans with establishment ties said that as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Christie's next big political test is getting GOP gubernatorial candidates elected.
"What Republicans are looking to him for is to be a strong, successful RGA chairman. And they have high expectations for him," said Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor and RGA chairman. "And I expect to see him directing his political energy and focus to running the RGA, not to running for president."


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A wee bit of kerfuffle in the HIV blogosphere in the past few days, sparked by a rather arcane presentation at the International Workshop on HIV & Hepatitis Virus Drug Resistance and Curative Strategies.
Steven Yukl, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, spoke (in the last presentation of the meeting) on "Challenges inherent in detecting HIV persistence during potentially curative interventions." That sounds a bit bland, I agree, especially since it has sparked a debate about whether the only HIV "cure" so far reported is actually real.
Yukl was reporting on a series of investigations by several labs, undertaken with the cooperation of the so-called Berlin Patient. You'll recall that Timothy Brown was HIV-positive when he developed leukemia while living in Berlin. His doctors there decided to give him a bone marrow transplant, but with a twist -- they selected a donor whose CD4-positive T cells did not have a key entry point used by HIV.
Technically, the donor was homozygous for the delta-32 mutation in the gene for the CCR5 receptor.
To make the story short, Brown was eventually cured of leukemia by the treatment. And -- the central point -- his new immune system bars the door to HIV.
Put another way, he no longer takes antiretroviral drugs and has no clinical signs of HIV infection.
But is he "cured?"
That depends on what you mean by "cure," and that is what Yukl and colleagues were trying to figure out.
Five years after the transplant, with Brown's cooperation, several labs looked at his plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and samples from the gut and cerebrospinal fluid to see just what, if any, signs of HIV they could find.
Bottom line: they found some scraps of HIV in some samples.
- Two labs looked for HIV that could replicate. Neither was successful, suggesting that if there is any replication-competent HIV in Brown's body, it is vanishingly rare -- less than one infected cell per 1.4 billion CD4+ T cells.
- Some labs sometimes detected very low levels of HIV RNA in plasma, but their genetic sequences were different from each other and different from those present before the transplant.
- Tests for HIV DNA in plasma ruled out its presence at more than one copy per two million CD4 cells.
- Very low levels of HIV DNA but not RNA were found in cells from a rectal biopsy, but there was not enough to generate genetic sequences.
- Antibodies to HIV were low and declined over about 18 months.
Taken together, Yukl concluded, the data make it "impossible to conclude that the subject remains HIV-infected" -- largely because the testing is pushing the limits of the current technology.
That didn't stop Alain Lafeuillade, MD, PhD, of General Hospital in Toulon, France, from issuing a press release and suggesting online that a) Brown had never really been cured or b) he had been reinfected.
Yukl himself told Science magazine's Jon Cohen that "there are some signals of the virus."
But he added that "we don't know if they are real or contamination, and, at this point, we can't say for sure whether there's been complete eradication of HIV."
The idea of the presentation was to help define what is meant by an HIV cure, he said, and to emphasize that using such sensitive tests opens the door to artifacts of the process. "At this level of detection, how do we know the signal is real?"
But the blogosphere, by and large, appears to agree that the question is moot. Whether HIV is still present or not, it's not active. To all intents and purposes Brown is cured -- he is not on medications and there are no signs of HIV infection, either clinically or in terms of replication-competent virus.
'Nuff said.


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« School of Hard Knocks for Chicago Teachers | Main | Virtual Field Trips: Where Should You 'Go'? »
Poll: Teacher Engagement Starts Low, Worsens With Time
K-12 teachers in the U.S. tend to become less engaged at work after their first year, according to a just-released Gallup poll. For educators with between six months and a year of teaching, professional engagement is at 35.1 percent. But that figure goes down to 30.9 percent for teachers who have been on the job for one to three years, and it continues to drop for teachers in their third to fifth year. At more than 10 years, there's a slight bump back upwards, bringing engagement to 31.8 percent.
The Gallup poll categorizes people in three ways: engaged, not engaged, or actively disengaged. Gallup defines engaged workers as those who are "deeply involved in and enthusiastic about their work and actively contributing to their organization" and not engaged workers as "satisfied with their workplaces, but ... not emotionally connected to them."
The results (below) are based on phone interviews conducted with a random sample of 151,284 adults, including 7,265 K-12 teachers, between January and December 2012.
A decline in teacher engagement over time is, well, not really news. As University of Pennsylvania's Richard Ingersoll, a renowned voice on teacher-workforce trends, has noted, nearly half of all teachers leave within their first five years on the job. Plus, it stands to reason that people would begin a new career with enthusiasmand that that would wane as reality sets in. The Gallup research indicates that this pattern is similar with other occupationsbut it's notable that "the measurable decline in engagement by years of experience is smaller for those in other types of jobs [than for teachers]."
What's also worth noting is that, while Gallup says teachers start with a higher level of engagement than workers in non-teaching jobs, only about one-third of teachers are engaged six months into their first year. So yes, they're doing well in relative terms. But according to Gallup, two out of three first-year teachers are not engaged.
In other comparisons, the research indicates teachers are doing well, too. Only managers/executives, physicians, and nurses are more engaged overall than teachers (though not by muchonly about a third of your medical providers are engaged, too). The results are similar to those from Gallup's research on well-being within careers, which found that teachers top all other professionals except for physicians in overall well-being.
That said, according to a previous Gallup release, teachers are less engaged than their students.
So what's the upshot? Gallup points to a need for better principals in schools, saying the organization's research "has consistently shown the critical role of managers in engaging their team members." Sure, great principals would helpand states are now beginning to look at ways to measure principal effectiveness, an area on which there's been limited research up until lately. But schools are very different than other workplaces. So perhaps there's more going on here.
Teachers, what are your thoughts? Why does engagement decline faster in teaching than in other professions? Are the majority of new teachers really not engaged, or is there a problem with Gallup's definition of "engagement"? Could teacher-preparation programsperhaps even the student-teaching pieceplay a role in boosting new teacher engagement? Is there a chance these programs are contributing to new teachers' disengagement?


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Posted by Editoress on 01/27/12
Bartali rescued Jews during the war: Tribute to the Italian champion on Holocaust Memorial Day
One of the greatest champions in the history of cycling, Gino Bartali, could be made one of the "Righteous" in Israel. Almost 70 years after the events, and twelve years after his death, evidence is finally coming to light of his hitherto unknown actions during the Second World War, which helped to save the lives of 800 Jews.
In 1943 Bartali, who had already won the Tour de France once and the Giro d'Italia twice, was assigned to the traffic police by the fascist regime, before leaving the job on 8 September. That was when he went underground, choosing to help persecuted Jews by smuggling identity photos to a convent that produced counterfeit papers. As far as the soldiers who guarded the road between Florence and San Quirico, near Assisi, were concerned, Bartali was merely on a 380-km training run. In fact, valuable documents were hidden inside the frame and saddle of his bicycle.
Photo courtesy Bartali Foundation
Details about Bartali's actions began to emerge just two or three years ago, thanks to a university research project that collected testimony from a nun, Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Andrea Bartali, his son, has continued this research with the support of the Jewish community in Tuscany and the journalist Laura Guerra . In Israel, the Yad Vashem Memorial is currently studying the evidence with a view to granting Bartali the posthumous distinction of "Righteous Among the Nations", awarded to those who placed their lives in danger to save Jews.
Right up to his death, Bartali rarely spoke about these acts of bravery, keeping them secret even from his wife. One day he said, simply: "Good is something you do, not something you talk about. Some medals are pinned to your soul, not to your jacket."
Towards the end of 1943 he was thrown into prison for 45 days, officially because of his support for the Vatican, which opposed the fascist regime. By chance he was never required to appear before the special war tribunal and was set free without trial.
On his release he resumed his career and won a third Giro d'Italia and a second Tour de France, while the tifosi couldn't get enough of his legendary rivalry with Fausto Coppi.
Today the Fondazione Bartali honours his memory and reiterates one of the great champion's sayings: "If sport is not a school of life and brotherhood, it is worthless."
The Fondazione Bartali has launched an appeal for testimony about Bartali's actions to help Jews.
Written by Pierre Carrey, UCI
|Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top


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Solidarity can be the currency of an alternative economy agreed Caritas representatives at a panel event during Rio+20 Summit, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in the Brazilian capital.
Caritas Brazil, France, Peru and Costa Rica and other staff of the Catholic confederation of aid agencies reflected on how to democratize economics so that it works for all humanity and for a greener planet.
Humberto Ortiz from the Church in Peru presented an overview on the impact extractives industries such as logging and mining were having on the Amazon basin. He urged for an economic model for Latin America that promotes solidarity and a green economy through dialogue between the public, private and civil society sectors and that policies must work on all levels.
Ademar Bertucci of Caritas Brazil also participated at the event. He said the 'solidarity economics' concept must work for the majority of the labour force with a country and be created though appropriate national legislation. He stressed the importance of diversity within 'solidarity economics' and that the creation of sustainable development cannot be created through a one-size fits all model.
Jacqueline Hocquet, responsible for Latin America in Caritas France, shared the perspective of Europe and its contributions to job creation. Wendy Fields, a partner of Caritas Costa Rica, presented the case of Coopetarrazú, a group of farmers in San Jose in Costa Rica. The initiative began 50 years ago with a cooperative for coffee production supported by Caritas. It now has 3000 employees.
The next day, Caritas staff members joined representatives of its sister network CIDSE, the Holy See, Franciscans International and other faith based organisations at a side event on "Sustainable Agriculture and Society: food security, land and solidarity."
Participating at the event were Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo and the representative of the Holy See at Rio+20, Archbishop Paul Yembuado Ouédraogo of Bobo-Dioulasso and representative of Caritas Internationalis, Gisele Henriques of CIDSE, Fr. Luis Scozzina, of the Franciscan Centre for Studies and Regional Development and Maria Cristina dos Anjos of Caritas Brazil.
Cardinal Odilo Scherer said, "We continue to see the consequences for human development when the human person is not placed at the centre of political, environmental or social development but is rather placed at its mercy. Read the rest of his remarks here.
James Stella writes
On Tuesday, June 19, the Holy See and its co-sponsors Caritas Internationalis, Franciscans International and CIDSE outlined their position on how to achieve sustainable development at the Rio+20 Conference. The side event was entitled, Agriculture and Sustainable Societies: Food Security, Land and Solidarity.
As promoted in Pope Benedict's Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, mapped out their solutions for promoting integral human development. The event focused on safeguarding the rights of the human person and underscored that human development requires above all the human person is front and centre.
Cardinal Scherer expressed deep concerns over the international community's widely embraced position for achieving sustainable development. He said that authentic sustainable development is not achieved by economic and environment gains alone but rather its ability to protect the dignity of the human person.
He challenged today's leaders by pointing out that authentic global solidarity must motivate political figures to promote human dignity and solidarity and a world where the wealthy consumes all resources is scandalous.
He said stewardship recognises the contribution of technological science in addressing food security but warned that advances must always be prudent to serve all of humanity. What is foremost are greater investments in the family to promote a long-term agriculture future.
CIDSE representative Gisele Henriques shifted the attention of the event to the issue of land grabbing. She called for immediate action by governments to end land grabbing because investing in large pieces of land contributes to poverty and violates the human rights of the poor. Mostly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America she cited the scope of land grabbing in just the last 2 ½ years alone as the equivalent to 1/3 the size of Europe.
Next on the panel to present was Maria Cristina Dos Anjos, Secretary General of Caritas Brasil. She spoke about food and nutrition security in Brasil and highlighted the achievements of a program in which more than 18,000 people in 380 communities are served.
Fr. Luis Scozzina of the Franciscan Center for Studies concluded the side event by directing the attention on BioEnergy and Food Security in Argentina. The goal of their mission is to promote a new cultural paradigm for ecological conversion and integral human development, thereby answering the call of John Paul II.


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trip part III
Finally I've got some photos from out trip together for you. Only took a few weeks!
I'm just going to start at the beginning and work my way through so this will be broken up into 3 or 4 parts.
We arrived in Stockholm later in the evening. My husband and I encountered several obstacles, the biggest of them being that our iPhones stopped working once we left the US. No more Internet, texting or calling. All we could do was take pictures and pick up the occasional free wifi in cafes & such. That really slowed us down because we had to use a paper map to navigate. It felt like we had gone back in time 10 years! So we spent our first evening looking for our hotel and finding dinner so I don't have a lot of great photos from the first couple days, mostly a bit of the clean parts of our room from the next morning. If you followed me on Instagram, some of this may look familiar.
The Story Hotel is where we decided to book our first night. It was in a great central location close to so much and we had several recommendations for this place from friends & fellow bloggers, including my contributor Deborah. Story has a really great restaurant and bar downstairs as well so we ended up ordering from their menu and eating dinner in our room, a cheeseburger and the fish & chips. All was really delicious and fast and since we were so tired from 17+ hrs of traveling, it was so nice to eat, relax and watch tv.
The next morning we had to head right back to the airport to fly to Copenhagen so we had (free) breakfast there at the hotel (a very good one at that!) and walked back to the station. On our way however we passed so many great stores including COS, which is one of my all time favorite places. This store in particular was right on the corner so you could see quite a bit from the outside, two levels of beautifully simple things. There's something so calming about shopping here, it's not overwhelming and yet every little corner, table and shelf held something really special. I could have spent all morning just here, looking at jewelry and shoes and little leather bags.
I've been very sick for the past week but thankfully today it seems I'm getting better, soooo I should have the rest of our trip photos edited and posted in not too long.
Have a great week everyone!
Other Stories
11 comments:
I absolutely love the composition of these photos!ReplyDelete
these are lovely. get well soon!ReplyDelete
Hi sweetie,ReplyDelete
so fun to see photos from Stockholm. I have never been there, even though is so close. In 14 days me and my mum are visiting CPH, and I can't wait :)
Have a nice day, 10:12AM here now and some house cleaning is on the schedule.. Bah!
Xo, Jorid
I loved the first part of your trip and the idea of spending the very first night at the Story Hotel is brilliant! I cannot wait for the second round. I'm also happy to know you are getting better. :)ReplyDelete
Elena x
PS. We are "renovating2 our hallway and kitchen so the pictures with Ylva's calendar are taking a bit more to arrive but I'll send you a preview: thanks so much again for it. I love it!
Get well soon, Jennifer! Your images make me want to go back!ReplyDelete
Thanks for sharing!!! Hope you get better soon! When i travel to Europe, i unblock my iphone. The cost is around 40$ and then 1 can use the service offers there but at low cost!!!! For your next travel:-)))))ReplyDelete
Amazing pics ! :)ReplyDelete
These are so beautiful and amazingly composed pictures. Loved them all.ReplyDelete
Seriously gorgeous photos! I'm a huge fan of black and white, and that room you stayed in makes me giddy. I cannot wait to travel anywhere in Europe someday.ReplyDelete
Love your photos, especially the composition and colors.ReplyDelete
I'll be sure to take note of the Story Hotel. Stockholm is on my travel bucket list.
beautiful photos and i LOVE COS.ReplyDelete
Thank you for your comments, I love hearing from you!
Questions, comments or sponsorship inquires, please contact me via the 'contact' link.


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The Japanese Konjac Sponge Review & Giveaway!
Ah, the konjac sponge… I was introduced to these bad boys earlier this year and now I'm totally obsessed with them! For those of you who are new to the concept of konjac sponges, lemme give you the lowdown.
Konjac sponges are all-natural face and body sponges made from vegetable fibers of the Konjac root (potato-like plant). Konjac sponges are super gentle (perfect for babies and those with sensitive skin), all-natural, antibacterial, and 100% biodegradable.
Because I'm absolutely gaga over these cleansing wonders, VBR had teamed up with The Japanese Konjac Sponge peeps to give three of them away! Their sponges are exclusively handmade in Japan, they come in a fun variety of colors and ingredients and are packaged dry without any preservatives (just add water and let them get squishy).
Japanese Konjac Sponge options include:
- Green Tea Konjac Puff: Konjac root powder, Green Clay, Green Tea Extract Powder
- Black Bamboo Charcoal Konjac Puff: Konjac root powder, Bamboo Charcoal Extract Powder
- Yellow Citrus Fruit Konjac Puff: Konjac root powder, Yellow Clay, Citron Extract Powder
- Pink Cherry Blossom Konjac Puff/Sponge: Konjac root powder, Pink Clay, Sakura Leaves Extract Powder
- Blue Wild Mint Konjac Puff: Konjac root powder, Blue Clay, Blue Mica, Peppermint Extract Powder
- White Konjac Puff/Sponge: Konjac root powder only
Now it's time to win some spongy love! Three lucky VBR winners are going to each win a Japanese Konjac Sponge of their choice. Good luck, Cuties! xx
About Sunny (Sunny's Profile)Longtime vegan, hardcore compassionate beauty junkie, serious cake aficionado, and lover of all things floofy and sparkly! If there's something in particular you'd like me to review, drop me a line at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Google +.
Filed in: giveaway • vegan personal items
Comments (23)
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Black Bamboo Charcoal Konjac Puff
My e-mail: blackasphodel(at)yahoo(dot)com
I would love to try the Pink Cherry Blossom Konjac if given the chance! Thanks for the opportunity!
i would like to try the Bamboo Charcoal Konjac Puff
i subscribed to emails
I want to try the Citrus Fruit Sponge
Thanks for the giveaway. I subscribed
I like to try the black bamboo, well actually all of them 😀
Green Tea Konjac Puff: Konjac root powder, Green Clay, Green Tea Extract Powder
I'd love to try the white original and the green tea one!
I'd love to try the Black Bamboo Charcoal Konjac Puff 🙂
Yellow citrus.
Have been reading about these! Would love to try on my 53 year old sensitive skin!
I would love to try the Blue Wild Mint Konjac Puff: Konjac root powder, Blue Clay, Blue Mica, Peppermint Extract!
The White Konjac! It looks great for my super sensitive skin : )
They all sound so good, but I think I'd have to go with the Blue Wild Mint!
Oooohh the black bamboo or the pink cherrry blossom looks interesting…
Definitely the Green Tea Sponge. I'm pretty much obsessed with Green Tea and love the way it smells!
I'd like to try them all, but if I had to pick one, I'd probably start with the green tea one!
I would like to try the Green Tea Konjac Puff.
the Yellow Citrus Fruit Konjac Puff sounds so intriguing!
Pink Cherry Blossom Konjac Puff
Ooh they all look so interesting, but I looove green tea so I'd have to pick that one. :0)


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April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company, raised its full-year earnings forecast and posted fiscal second-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as U.S. farmers bought more genetically modified corn seed.
Net income rose to $1.48 billion, or $2.74 a share, in the three months through February, from $1.21 billion, or $2.24, a year earlier, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in a statement. Earnings excluding one-time items were a record $2.73 a share, topping the $2.57 average of 20 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue rose to $5.47 billion from $4.75 billion a year earlier.
Monsanto said it will earn $4.40 to $4.50 a share in the 12 months through August excluding one-time costs, up from a January forecast of $4.30 to $4.40. The average of 22 estimates was $4.57.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant is selling more corn seed engineered to kill bugs and tolerate Roundup weedkiller as U.S. farmers prepare to plant the biggest crop in 77 years. Roundup sales rose as competitors increased prices for the generic form of the weed killer, said Chris Shaw, a New York-based analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co.
"The upside is being driven by sustained elevated prices in Roundup and a strong U.S. seed season," Shaw, who recommends buying the shares, said in an April 1 note.
U.S. Farmers may plant 97.3 million acres of corn this year, the most since 1936, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week. Corn prices reached a record last year after the worst drought since the 1930s cut production by 13 percent.
Monsanto fell 1.7 percent to $104 yesterday in New York. The shares have gained 9.9 percent this year.
--Editors: Steven Frank, Charles Siler
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in Houston at [email protected]


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VIA Technologies has announced the new VIA EPIA-M830 Mini-ITX board. Designed specifically to meet the needs of next generation kiosk, POI and POS applications, the VIA EPIA-M830 places the latest 64-bit VIA Nano E-series processor in an application specific Mini-ITX form factor board.
The VIA EPIA-M830 is available in both active and passive cooling configurations. A fanless 1GHz VIA Nano E-series or performance oriented 1.3GHz VIA Nano E-series processor is joined by the VIA VX800 media system processor providing DirectX 9 integrated graphics, HD audio and Gigabit networking. The VIA VX800 supports up to 2GB of DDR2 system memory and offers video acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9 and VC-1 video formats, plus a VMR capable HD video processor.
Rear panel I/O includes a VGA port, an RS-232 connector (selectable to 5V/12V), four USB 2.0 ports and both line-in and line-out jacks. On board connectors provide options including a PCI Express x4 slot, a Mini-PCI Express socket, an LVDS connector (optional 240-bit dual-channel panel support), two additional voltage selectable RS-232 pin headers, front audio pin-headers, PS/2, LPC and SMBUS headers and digital I/O including GPI and GPO options.
VIA EPIA-M830 Mini-ITX board
Photo: Company


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- Income Investing
UBS Sees Value in IGI High-Grade Corporate CEF
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There's not much these days to recommend investment-grade corporate bonds, which have been likened to higher-yielding Treasuries offering incrementally better income but similarly elevated interest-rate risk. Against this backdrop, UBS is out with a report looking at Western Asset Investment Grade Defined Opportunity Trust, (IGI) a non-leveraged investment grade fund that UBS analyst Sangeeta Marfatia calls "an attractive way to play the investment grade corporate bond market," bestowing IGI with a a buy rating.
The fund - which has 80% of its portfolio invested in investment-grade bonds, with 11% in high yield bonds and 6% in emerging markets - currently offers a 5.5% dividend yield, which UBS notes is 274 basis points above the Bank of America Merrill Lynch investment-grade index and 179 bps above the iShares iBoxx $ InvesTop Investment Grade Corp. Bond Fund (LQD) investment-grade ETF.
UBS points out that IGI currently trades at a discount of 2.2% to its net asset value, cheaper than the 52-week average premium of 3%. "We believe this is an attractive entry point to add positions," Marfatia writes.
More from UBS:
The fund has a defined term through 2 December 2024 when investors will receive net asset value as of that date. The fund has duration of 6.8 years, which is in line with the IG index. The average coupon on the fund is 6.6%, made possible by the fund's inception in June 2009 when bond yields were higher. YTD the fund is down 4.5% in terms of market price while NAV is flat. This has resulted in fund discount and thus appears attractive. Occasionally, the monthly dividend could include some capital gains.
Looking broadly at the corporate bond sector, UBS says its global chief investment officer keeps an overweight in IG corporate bonds over government bonds, says financials in the US are in a better position than their European peers, and recommends bonds from the lower IG rating segments (BBB and A) over higher-rated issuers. UBS CIO also believes US HY bonds offer attractive return outlook and they expect US default rates to remain below average levels for longer.


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Home > Home, Garden & Office > Pet Supplies > Apparel > 4pcs Pet Doggie Dog Shoes Puppy Boots Skyblue Size 5
Product Details
Perfect dog shoes with hook and loop fasteners closure to keep your pets' paws safe and in style. These dog shoes feature with casual style PU leather exterior, anti-skid rubber sole of these dog shoes for safe walking.
- Fashion accessory for your pets to step out in trendy style
- With adjustable hook and loop fasteners strap for a snug and secure fit
- Rubber sole ensures a non-slip walking
- Keep your dog's paws clean, comfortable and well protected
- Size: 5
- Shoe Size (L x W): Approx. 2.3 x 1.6 inch
- Main Color: Skyblue, silvery
- Material: Rubber, PU leather
- Sold by 4pcs / set
Package Includes:
- 4 x Dog Shoes
Note: Please be reminded that due to lighting effects and monitor's brightness / contrast settings etc, the color tone in the pictures and the actual item could be slightly different.


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Thread: Rol Call, 7/11 - Hobby edition
Rol Call, 7/11 - Hobby edition
Earthquakes! Flooding! Extreme Heat! Which one(s) have you experienced lately? I hope all of our far flung members are safe.
Let's talk hobbies this week, either yours or a family hobby. This an be collecting things, hiking, re-enacting, sewing, crafts, etc. I'm sure I'm missing some really interesting ones. What is done in your (so-called) free time?
Personally, I like to garden, which means I'm pretty bored during the winter. I'm stupidly amazed every spring with the perennials sprout and trees blossom and leaf out. I'm also amused at how much produce can come from a patch of dirt and some effort.
I used to collect stamps as a kid, and still have them all. I should go back to it. I like to think about the old ones, about the letters that may have been in the envelope it was on. I also like looking at foreign stamps, figuring out what that country thinks is important. (Usually, the current ruler.....)
So what do YOU like to do? Why do you like it?Carol
Homeschooled two kids for 11 years, now trying to pay it forward
Daughter -- a University of Iowa graduate: BA in English with Creative Writing, BA in Journalism, and a minor in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
Son -- a Purdue University graduate: BS in Computer Science, minor in math, geology, anthropology, and history
We have not had any extremes lately. Actually a pretty mild winter. About halfway through a 2-week break from school.
– Gardening: particularly edibles and natives. Just bought an orange today to add to my collection. One of my more established blueberries in a pot got broken by the wind today. It must have got twisted round somehow and snapped off with just a small part of its roots. Have pruned it back and put some rooting hormone on it and replanted it. Hopefully it will revive. Otherwise it will be the second one I have lost recently (one got trampled on by kids in the garden), and I have another two that are looking a bit iffy (struggling with some sort of disease on the stems). So that will leave me with six if I lose all those, and I will probably buy some more.
– Horses: private lesson once a week (would love to ride more but that is all I can afford $ and time wise), trail rides/treks when on holiday, and volunteering at therapy riding.
– Knitting: just picked it up again after 10 years off. In the past month, I have finished off some legwarmers for DD11 (her birthday was a couple of days ago!) to wear to ballet, a hat for myself, a top that languished unfinished for my 10-year knitting break. About 1/3 to 1/2 way through three projects: a scarf, a shawl, and a throw blanket for cold days sitting round editing. I get bored easily, so need more than one project to work on at once.
– Sewing: used to be more of a hobby in my early 20s when I would sew the likes of tailored jackets and dresses for myself. Now its mainly basic knit fabric things for the kids, or the part I detest, mending! Because I can sew, I get delegated the piles of leggings with holes in knees etc. to repair.
– Trying to live a sustainable, minimalist lifestyle: I consider this a hobby because I enjoy it and it takes up a lot of my time. Making things rather than buying them to reduce packaging. Like making food from scratch, and making all our toiletry products such as conditioner and moisturizer (so much cheaper and my PhD in Chemistry has to be put to use somehow right?). We have got to almost plastic free for our groceries by only buying things in bulk, cans, or glass. Just have to eliminate the tetrapaks that our milk comes in, but we prefer soy milk and soy beans are currently unavailable to purchase in NZ (and cannot import them because of strict regulations), which means we cannot make our own milk.
– Keeping fit/healthy: again I consider this a hobby because I enjoy it and put a lot of time and research into it. DH has some family health issues that he could inherit (high blood pressure and heart disease), and I and the kids are dairy intolerant, so for about 15 years we have been slowly working on our diet. I also enjoy doing different forms of exercise. Currently, hiking, light weights (e.g., barre), heavy weights for my legs, pilates, and yoga. My current obsession is trying to find out what I get aching hips at night (current conclusion = weakness in some muscles around the hips/glutes) and I have found a great Youtube channel (Upright Health) that is helping.
– Learning new things: I used to take a lot of classes before kids. Spanish, singing, life drawing, pottery, cast jewellery making, stand up paddleboarding etc. Hoping to get back into this more now that DD11 is getting older and I could perhaps take her with me.
I also collected stamps for a while as a kid. Remembering that made me feel a little guilty. We went through a big minimalism/culling phase and I gave away all my stamp collection and my grandfather's to a local stamp collecting group a few years ago. What if my kids are interested in such things at some stage? Ergh. Oh well, not much I can do about it now.
Edited to add: I forgot the why do I like it part. Most of mine comes down to enjoying keeping myself and the world healthy.
Last edited by NZ_Mama; 07-12-2019 at 03:50 AM.NZ homeschoolers (school year runs start Feb to mid Dec).
DD 12 (year 7) and DD 7 (year 2).
Fourth year homeschooling.
Part-time freelance science copyeditor.
Ooooh ooooh I felt the earthquake! (Barely.) I was sitting in bed, reading, when I could feel it a little in my legs. It was sort of like a housecat was walking on the bed. I remember thinking, hmmmm, is this a quake, maybe. Well its lasting a while. Yes, its a quake. Still going. What if it gets bigger? LA had a big one yesterday.... its still going. If it gets bigger, should we move somewhere safer in the house? Boys! Were having an earhquake! What, Mom? Oh good, it stopped. DS13 came up the stairs. What, Mom? We just had a long earthquake. Oh. Okay. I didnt feel it. DH was out taking a walk, I texted him Did you just feel the earthquake? Nope. Then I just had to wait til it showed up on DidYouFeelIt? from the USGS site, so I could duly record my response. It turns out I felt it four minutes (8:23) after it hit. The LA news studio had it at 8:21, and it hit at 8:19. Just a week or two prior, there had been a test of an earthquake alarm text message, so I think it is feasible that with a fast response, people could have a minute or decent heads up before one hits. (There is no need for a warning at the intensity I felt, or even for ones that rattle the houses with a little more intensity. Even the pool splashing, car dancing ones dont do any structural damage. https://youtu.be/BJmK4LFbNNQ is pretty typical, the quake happens 1:30ish into the easter egg hunt, you can notice the camerawoman is aware of the quake first, the kids and parents are oblivious because eggs! Then theres no problem standing, but parents panic and hold their kids, nobody really knows what theyre supposed to do (and theyre in no real danger.) Those people were pretty close to the epicenter of the 7.1 easter quake, the effects get noticeably smaller rapidly. (I love that quake for the amount of easter egg hunt videos posted.) For that quake, we were stopped on a freeway overpass, and didnt realise it was a quake, but thought maybe something was wrong with the car engine, because it seemed to be rattling. Hahaha.
Earthquakes seem most dangerous to overstocked, cheaply made shelves in liquor and 99cent stores. Im not sure if a few seconds warning would be a good thing, or just lead to increased panic. (And bad decisions being made - I can imagine drivers suddenly panicking and trying to get to the side of the freeways, when itd likely be unnoticed if they carried on.
Thats my earthquake spiel.
Is it a thing where homeschoolers like gardening? Does it correlate to a spirit of independence? For me, what I grow is more of a novelty thing, it doesnt really replace the grocery store. We are also successful at blueberries (I think!), but Im not sure when theyre ripe. Because Im a noob.
And our kiwiberry vines appear alive, although not growing along the fence like I had envisioned. Or fruiting much. And as Inmom promised, the descendants of the Great Tomato Hedge of 2018 have emerged, growing up behind the previous planters. Im letting them grow, because theyre not costing extra money for watering, and I hate wantonly killing things.
Homeschooling is a hobby, isnt it?
Im also really enjoying PokemonGo still. Both because Im a gamer, and it gives me warm fuzzy bonding time with DS13. (My daily walks are usually at parks, where there are plenty of pokestops to keep me busy while moving.) And it is a way that Im meeting people who arent homeschoolers. Its a perfect social game for introverts! DS13 has a few surrogate uncles and aunties now too.
And quilting! Ill go back and forth between doing that and not. Right now In trying to get my stash under control, so Im between projects. Maybe as summer kicks in and Im less interested in being outside, I will focus more on that.
I like hearing what the rest of us do, too!Homeschooling DS13, DS6.
My spelling was fine, then my brain left me.
Currently my hobby is moving children around, especially to/from swim practice one goes from 5:30-7:30 am, one 8-10 am (same team, different pools) and then one goes back from 2-4 pm. In between my hobby is yelling at everyone to 1. do math and 2. pick stuff up. BUT, in 3 weeks we go back to the school year swim schedule - which is less intense - hooray!
Get ready for some woo guys. . .
I love being outside. I don't care if it is a neighborhood park, my garden, or back country wilderness - outside is necessary for my sanity. It grounds me, connects me to the larger world, banishes any anger, sadness, or stress, enables me to easily experience a profound sense of gratitude, stops my constant brain chatter, helps me to notice the little things, and makes me feel small / humble in a good way. So, being outside is a hobby - walks, hikes, camping, sitting - whatever as long as there are trees, critters and fresh air.
Community. I love the local Jewish community - I enjoy working with the asylum seekers, working for the program to shelter homeless families, and working with people passionate about social change. I enjoy the classes I take through local temples and the JCC - the knowledge of the Rabbis, the variety and acceptance of all opinions. My community of friends - I have a few really good friends, who are so supportive and spending time with them restores me (even as an introvert). Roll call! I always look forward to Roll Call - gotta hang out with some other homeschoolers who 'get it'!
Domestic goddess-ing (??? ) - gardening (though not this year, it's a burnout year), preserving food, baking (especially pies and bread - anything dough that I work with my hands), making herbal remedies from my garden. I think I enjoy these activities because it makes me feel connected to my ancestors and all women of the past, feeds my desire to connect what goes in my body to the earth, and enables me to nurture my people, which centers me and brings me joy.
Ok woo woo over . . .
Another hobby that I love is weight training. Serious weight training is not part of my life right now, just because it requires a time commitment that would add stress, not reduce it (if that makes sense). Similar to being outside, I also find it meditative. If I'm not entirely focused on what I'm doing (and only that) I might hurt myself (so, stopping the brain chatter). I also enjoy the sense of community I get from a small gym. Plus, when you can squat your own body weight or more, you feel pretty cool . I'll get back to it once I'm out of the homeschool trenches.
Watching a well written / executed TV series or movie - I'm in awe the of talent it must take to make a well done show beyond the script. The ability to see it in your head and make it come to life. All the little details - I just think it is so interesting.
Last edited by RTB; 07-12-2019 at 03:57 PM. Reason: spellingRebecca
Year 9
We need a "I LOVE this post" choice. These are great.
Rebecca, I also NEED outside time, even in the winter, which can be brutal here. Maybe that explains why my inside to-do list gets ignored during the warm weather months as I'm catching up or stocking up on time in nature.
Alexsmom, I've only felt one earthquake, and it was here, from the New Madrid Fault. It rattled the doors a bit; dh asked what the heck I was doing!?! And I think you're correct about homeschooling implying gardening. There is something about the do-it-yourself aspect I think.
My current obsession is trying to find out what I get aching hips at night (current conclusion = weakness in some muscles around the hips/glutes) and I have found a great Youtube channel (Upright Health) that is helping.
Ok, the rest of you. How do you decompress?Carol
Homeschooled two kids for 11 years, now trying to pay it forward
Daughter -- a University of Iowa graduate: BA in English with Creative Writing, BA in Journalism, and a minor in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
Son -- a Purdue University graduate: BS in Computer Science, minor in math, geology, anthropology, and history
But, kind of glad we no longer live in our apartment in Del Mar. It made me so anxious because it was a concrete 70s building of a structural type that was known to be pancake in earthquakes. I would freak out every night about it. Go to sleep and then have a panic attack in my sleep and wake up suddenly and jump out of bed because I thought the building was falling down.NZ homeschoolers (school year runs start Feb to mid Dec).
DD 12 (year 7) and DD 7 (year 2).
Fourth year homeschooling.
Part-time freelance science copyeditor.
hips hurt side sleeping, hamstring stretch for hip popping, pinch in front of hip, and side lying fire hydrant.
There is so much stuff on there though, and all for free. The guy explains things really clearly and it seems logical what he is saying. I am thinking of buying one of their diy programs called Healthy Hips 2, which is a weight training workout focused on muscle strength for health hips. Its only $40 and its all online so you get videos showing the exercises and lifetime access and updates.NZ homeschoolers (school year runs start Feb to mid Dec).
DD 12 (year 7) and DD 7 (year 2).
Fourth year homeschooling.
Part-time freelance science copyeditor.
I also love outside time! I spent my early years on a small farm and was outdoors all the time, and then have always felt best when in nature as an adult. I ran a nature walks group for families for about 4 years after we moved back here from the US. We went to a similar one in the US but there was nothing here. It fizzled out though because people here don't seem to be very into getting outdoors with other people who like getting outdoors. So we just focus on our own family doing things now. Lots of hiking, camping, beach time, gardening etc. My youngest is the same, she always complains about being in the car or inside and says "ah, fresh air!" when she gets outside. My oldest is the opposite. She is happy to sit inside ALL day. I have to force her to go outside, and she has a huge tantrum about it. Once she is out there, she is happy, but I just can't seem to get her to click that outdoors makes her feel good and that she should choose to do it.NZ homeschoolers (school year runs start Feb to mid Dec).
DD 12 (year 7) and DD 7 (year 2).
Fourth year homeschooling.
Part-time freelance science copyeditor.
- Join Date
- Apr 2018
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What a fun question, inmom!
1. Like you guys, above all, I love gardening and being outside. I love the sense of peace, listening to all the sounds of nature, and seeing the beauty in things growing.
2. Another hobby of mine is finding neglected dolls at thrift shops and swap meets and cleaning and restoring them. This often involves sewing and crocheting, which I am learning.
3. I enjoy a good debate and sparring, particularly about politics and religion, though I have hard time finding people I can do this with. I like the exchange of ideas, without animosity involved.
4. Hiking before the rest of the day begins. That just puts me in a great mood!
5. Investing. I enjoy reading about what companies are up to and hearing about new innovations.
6. Eating, cooking for others, and coffee.
7. We also raise fish. Our two most interesting pets are a tilapia and orange crayfish. The tilapia will darken its skin color when it is hungry and then lighten it when it sees you are about to feed it. The crayfish is new; we just saw it molt and then drag its shell around the tank and eat it.
Last edited by vicsmom; 07-14-2019 at 04:16 PM.Homeschooling an only, DS10
Trains move quickly
To their journey's end
Are where we begin again
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
- Location
- Posts
- 10
We felt the earthquakes here in Los Angeles. We recently moved so we're up on the 4th floor and it was a bit different feeling then being at ground level. The aquarium was splashing and the dining room light fixture was swinging. The funniest part was the pets with all of the aftershocks. We have a parrot and he would get quiet before and then squawk at the earthquake and the guinea pigs would squeak. My girl with the bed that abuts their cage has complained about the racket they make at night.
For hobbies, I knit and bake. I used to sew but have fallen out of it though I think I want to make myself a nice hiking skirt. We are working on building up for a backpacking trip and I've found myself enjoying the shorter hikes. I enjoy going to re-enactments and watch loads of videos about historical sewing and cooking but I don't see myself ever doing it. Unless one of the girls gets into it but right now they are happy with cosplaying.
When my girls were little I used to say that I needed one to be "into" knitting, one cooking and one sewing so that I could spend time with each of them and a hobby I enjoy. It hasn't worked out that way but its still fine.


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We are using Oracle Secure Global desktop to provide remote access to the Solaris desktop. It sets the
DISPLAY variable to
It seems to be working as if the
DISPLAY was set to
localhost:10.0. What does "unix" mean here?
Is it a common usage or something specific to SGD? As far as I know, usually
DISPLAY is set in the form
[hostname or IP]:[screen].


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Syrian refugees describe mass graves
Published: 07th April 2012 10:50 AM | Last Updated: 16th May 2012 07:22 PM | A+A A-
REYHANLI, TURKEY: After days of relentless shelling and sniper attacks, thousands of Syrian refugees are streaming across the border into Turkey with horrific accounts of mass graves, massacres and burned-out homes.
The latest reports of escalating violence fueled accusations that President Bashar Assad is rushing to stamp out as much of the year-old uprising as he can before a U.N.-brokered cease-fire next week.
The trigger for the new waves of refugees was an offensive in Idlib province, which borders Turkey and has become increasingly rebellious against the Assad regime.
Activists reported about 100 dead in the villages of Taftanaz and Killi in recent days. A photograph provided to The Associated Press by a Syrian activist showed at least a dozen corpses wrapped in blankets in what appeared to be a mass grave in Taftanaz. The AP could not verify the authenticity of the photograph, but witnesses also described a mass grave.
"They destroyed the whole village," a refugee who asked to be identified by only one name, Anas, told the AP on Friday after fleeing Killi. "If he has to kill, Bashar would even kill 1 million people. He doesn't care."
Hikmet Saban, another Syrian refugee who reached Turkey, described the devastation in Taftanaz, located several miles outside the city of Idlib.
"Helicopters and tanks are bombarding continuously," he told Turkey's state-run Anadolu agency. "Taftanaz has been burnt to the ground for three days." Activists posted video they said showed a helicopter gunship firing a missile at Taftanaz and a mosque hit by shelling.
The escalating violence has dimmed hopes that the fighting, which the U.N. says has killed more than 9,000 people, will end anytime soon. The country appears to be spiraling toward civil war — a fearsome development that could bring a regional conflagration.
A vital geopolitical linchpin, Syria borders five other nations and has close ties to Iran and powerful militant groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Assad last week accepted a cease-fire deadline brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, which calls for his forces to pull out of towns and cities by Tuesday and for everyone to lay down their arms by 6 a.m. local time Thursday.
Western leaders have cast doubt on Assad's intentions, suggesting he is playing for time and is not serious about the plan, which aims to pave the way for talks between the regime and the opposition on a political solution.
Syria denies that the revolt is a popular uprising at all, saying instead that it is facing a foreign conspiracy by armed gangs and terrorists who want to destroy the country.
The revolt began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests, but the violent government crackdown has led many to take up weapons. A fighting force called the Free Syrian Army, made up largely of army defectors, is determined to bring down the regime by force of arms.
On Friday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he spoke by phone for half an hour with Assad, who told him the security situation in his country is improving and he hopes the violence will ease soon.
"He told me there have been more than 2,000 soldier martyrs and a larger number of innocent people who have died as a result of the terrorist plan to remove him from power," Chavez said in a phone call broadcast live on Venezuela's state television.
Also Friday, Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, appeared to acknowledge the recent spike in violence, but again blamed terrorism.
Syria sent letters to the United Nations and U.N. Security Council that said "acts committed by terrorists groups escalated especially after the agreement over Kofi Annan's plan was reached," SANA reported.
But witnesses who streamed in Turkey said regime forces were driving the bloodshed.
Ahmad, a refugee from Taftanaz who, like other witnesses, asked only to be identified by his first name, said families were forced to bury the dead in a "collective grave."
He said the shelling stopped only when the soldiers needed more ammunition.
"The humanitarian truce promised by the Annan plan? If they grant us a two-hour truce, it would be to let us leave our houses, and then they would shoot again," he said.
Fadi al-Yassin, an activist in Idlib province, said Syrian troops took control of Taftanaz on Thursday after three days of intense shelling and attacks.
He said 95 people were killed in the attack, including 37 who were burned beyond recognition. He also said the dead were buried in mass graves.
"The situation is catastrophic in Taftanaz," he said. "The grand mosque was destroyed and about 200 homes heavily damaged."
He added that troops have now left the village, taking up positions around it.
The stream of Syrians fleeing to Turkey has picked up considerably, with about one-third of the total of 24,000 refugees arriving in the past two weeks. Some 2,500 crossed the border on Thursday alone, said Ankara's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, adding that the daily flow has doubled since Syria promised last week to abide by the truce.
Davutoglu told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday his country would seek U.N. assistance if the influx continues. Turkey has in the past floated the idea of creating a small buffer zone inside Syria if refugee flows become overwhelming.
"We are doing our best to shelter them in camps, temporary housing units. No one is left out," Davutoglu said. "But everyone should realize that there is a problem here. We will ask for humanitarian assistance when needed."
Turkey's state TV showed dozens of refugees, including a young man on crutches and a defector from the Syrian army in military camouflage, huddled behind razor wire on the Syria-Turkey border Friday, waiting to cross into Turkey. Turkish soldiers registered their names before letting them in.
Violence also was reported Friday in Syria's central city of Homs, where thick black smoke billowed from a residential area amid the sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions. "Intense shelling by Assad's gangs," a man could be heard saying while filming what appeared to be a house on fire. "May God help us."
Regime forces also struck the town of Rastan, just north of Homs, with heavy machine guns and mortars, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Ground troops later tried to push their way into Rastan, clashing with opposition fighters, the group said.
The government has been laying siege to Rastan since rebels took control of it in late January. However, they don't control the strategic Rastan bridge, which is the main link to northern Syria. In the past year, the rebels have tried repeatedly to overrun the bridge and break the siege.
Government forces also broadened an offensive in the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Saqba, Arbeen and Dumair, exchanging fire with rebels, activists said. The Observatory said four members of the military were killed.
Tanks fired at buildings while snipers took up positions atop a 12-story medical building in the sprawling Douma district, about 8 miles (12 kilometers) outside the capital of Damascus, said activist Mohammed Saeed. He said two people were killed by tank fire.
Troops had entered Douma on Thursday in what activists described as one of the most violent raids near Damascus since the uprising began.
Plumes of smoke rose in Saqba, and activists said regime forces torched at least one house. In Dumair, the Observatory reported intense fighting and said an armored vehicle was destroyed.
The Observatory said 23 civilians, nine government soldiers and four opposition fighters were killed Friday.