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Great design, strategy + ongoing support so you can build memorable, strong brand increase conversions look professional grow your ecommerce website set the right expectations attract better clients get systems to grow your biz
An impressively delicate WordPress theme, ideal for beauty brands, beauty or makeup bloggers and any fashion brand.Bellezza is packed with Modern & Chic styling. The demo is a must-see to get the complete theme adventure.
requirements + the purchase includes
⟶ Proper Domain & Hosting – Self hosted (aka WordPress.org)
⟶ Theme Download
⟶ Demo XML – import demo content
⟶ Theme Templates – sets up your sidebars, headers, footer, blog, blog post, shop page, and single product detail to look exactly like the demo
⟶ Lifetime Theme Support
install add-on
Ideal for anyone that doesn't want the trouble of installing everything on their own. Perhaps you are new to WordPress and it's a little intimidating. Within 24-48 business hours, we will install…
⟶ Your New Theme
⟶ All Required Plugins
⟶ Demo Content
⟶ Once we are done your website will look & act just like the demo, ready for you to place your content
logo add-on
This Add on we will create the logo & submark just like the theme demo, however with your name and tagline. *Please note there is a lead time of 3 days once we receive your request.
• Logos & tagline do not come with the themes. Each theme is designed for you to install on your own website
• Demo images are not for personal use and contain the theme watermark – demo images are not included with the theme
• Custom Fonts are for use in the theme. If you would like to use it in your logo, or branding you would need to license the font & purchase it seperately
• We do NOT provide refunds on digital products, we provide lifetime support on all of our themes
general designer help that saves you time
⟶ adding, removing, modifying widget sections
⟶ designing a custom logo section ie: adding sticky nav, editing logo sections…
⟶ integrating custom fonts
⟶ adjusting broken layouts
⟶ troubleshooting
⟶ emergency assistance available after hours at additional cost
⟶ + more… if you need it, we can assist with it


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S Presents: "First Try!" – Bell Sauce!
Pure HTML5 fallback Legacy WordPress player.
Direct download of Bell Sauce:
Direct downloads are available to those who wish to save these sounds to your hard drive or wish to play them in your player of choice. The following formats listed are as follows:
OGG Download or Opus Download.
Song name: Bell Sauce Artist: S Description: Bell Sauce is the result of various experiments we were trying to an open-source program called VCV-Rack. When you're new to something like music or art you want to experiment with as many different styles as you possibly can. At first, this program was daunting but after a while of watching tutorial videos on how things worked. Like how voltage can change tone and how certain aspects of sound and electronics are tied together as one. We started to understand it a little. With a little knowledge, we can become dangerous enough to make our speakers almost blow up!
Originally, this was just a bunch of random but simple patches but as we were listening to each patch in this program called VCV-Rack it kinda felt like it all came together! So that's what we did here! VCV-Rack is really cool in respects that you can play with all of the modules and synths without having to blow tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on an expensive hardware Euro-Rack. Is it a replacement for the real hardware? Nope! Because hardware sound does have its own feel and aesthetic to it all. However, it's a great way to sound engineer some new variations and patches without spending money on the "Synth-of-the-Month" that has this special and unique sound to it. Also, we're hoping with the new VST plugins that we can take the soundscapes we make and control them a little better within a DAW environment. I was just manually playing with the knobs with the mixer and then I had Audacity running in the background recording off of my Creative "What you hear" channel. With basic amplification and fades. Song complete! Listen when you are ready!
Download this very VCV file!
Since it is all open-source and available on PC, MAC, and Linux. There's absolutely no reason why anyone reading this out there can't try it out. In fact, you can download this very VCV patch for this song so you can try it out too. When you first install VCV-Rack you'll also need to login to their site and download some plugins. Here are the plugins that we used for making this patch:
- Spring Reverb made by Befaco v 0.6.0
- SEQ-3, mixer, and LFO-1 from the Fundamental pack v0.6.1
- Modal Synthesizer, Texture Synthesizer, Multiples, Meta Modulator, and Resonator from AudibleInsturments pack v0.6.0
BPM: 60 Maybe??! Not sure?!? Genre: Ambient DAW: VCV-Rack

subset: commoncrawl


text: ARTICLE: Criticism towards Facebook's curation practices //= get_post_time('c', true); ?>//= get_the_date(); ?> //= __('By', 'sage'); ?>//= get_author_posts_url(get_the_author_meta('ID')); ?>//= get_the_author(); ?> Published: 28 Mar 2017By: JRNTags: journalistic norms, social media A technology-focused news website Gizmodo ran two stories on Facebook in early May of 2016. They revealed, most notably, how Facebook's Trending Topics stream was edited by a team of human curators, and how some of them, allegedly, censored politically conservative content. The stories caused a public outcry, which has now been researched by Matt Carlson, of Saint Louis University. Carlson used three different sampling methods to gather 178 articles relating to the controversy. Carlson's analysis discovered three overarching themes from the coverage. First, many of the texts focused on Facebook's business model, and how the logic of the "business of attention" was different from the "business of journalism". While Facebook was explicit in that it was not a journalistic organisation, many of the articles suggested that the organisation had in fact stepped on to the field of journalism without adopting its rules. Second, some of the coverage dealt with the issues inherent to algorithmic curation. Facebook itself emphasized the role of algorithms over human curators, in an attempt to highlight the method's alleged neutrality. Commentators disagreed, pointing that algorithms, too, can have bias built into them by their human creators. Lastly, some articles tied the controversy in to a much larger media critical discourse. For a long time American conservatives have been blaming media for a liberal bias, and now Facebook became part of this discussion. In the process the company became lumped in with prominent news organisations, further underscoring Facebook's emerging, journalistic role. The article "Facebook in the News" was published by the journal Digital Journalism. It is available online (abstract free). Picture: Untitled by Unsplash, licence CC0 1.0.


text: Costa Rica's distant offshore seamounts offer the world's most consistent fishing for Pacific blue marlin, with boats frequently raising more than a dozen in a single day. The Marlin team headed to the southern town of Golfito, fishing aboard Harry Glah's 60-foot Mikelson, Thumper, with Capt. Tommy Lynskey. The results were impressive.


text: uBreathe Home page/ Air quality / Air quality measurements / uBreathe uBreathe - the free app for iPhone, iPad & Android that gives you air pollution health advice - where and when you need it most. Colour-coded UK map Colour-coded UK map that locates where you are to give you instant access to current and forecast air pollution information wherever you are in the UK. Detects where you are Simple tips explain what you can do to reduce air pollution. Health advice Health advice and useful links help you reduce your exposure to air pollution and its harmful effects.


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CasterHQ Set Of 4 Heavy Duty Casters 6 inch x 2 inch Heavy Duty Caster Set 2
Contains 2 Swivel Casters with brakes, and 2 rigid casters without brakes. This series is made of 1/4 thick cold rolled steel; designed, formed, and welded for optimal mobility and made to withstand the rigors and abuse typically seen in Medium duty applications. Double Ball raceways and a 5/8 nut & king-pin are standard features. Popular applications may include; various carts, trucks, dollies, racks & equipment, for almost every industry including industrial, warehousing, hospitality, institutional, food service, food processing, retail display, and countless other medium duty applications.
Polyurethane tread is chemically bonded to the steel core allowing you a quiet ride with a very high weight capacity. Our 6" x 2" Toolbox Caster set is great for many projects and applications. The wheel comes with a zerk/grease fitting in the hub of the wheel to grease the bearing as well as a second grease fitting on the zerk axle and on the raceway of the swivel rig. Multiple grease fittings to maintain your casters and wheels for years to come.Shop Casters and Wheels from CasterHQ on Walmart to get the best deals possible. 6 toolbox Green Polyurethane Wheel Set. Zerk Fittings installed on Wheel Hub, Swivel Raceway, and Zerk Axle. Red Polyurethane on Cast Iron Wheel. 6" x 2" Green Polyurethane on Cast Wheel , Heavy Duty Caster Set , 6 Inch Caster Set , 2 Swivel Casters w/ Brakes + 2 Fixed Casters , Tool Box Caster Replacements , 1,200 lb Capacity Per Caster - 4,800 lbs Per set of 4 , Toolbox Casters , Set of 4 Heavy Duty Casters.
Listing and template services provided by inkFrog. The item "CasterHQ Set Of 4 Heavy Duty Casters 6 inch x 2 inch Heavy Duty Caster Set 2" is in sale since Thursday, June 13, 2019.This item is in the category "Business & Industrial\Material Handling\Casters & Wheels\Caster Accessories & Hardware". The seller is "casterhq" and is located in Arlington, Texas. This item can be shipped to United States.
- Brand: CasterHQ
- MPN: Does not apply


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Every summer, audiophiles descend on Golden Gate Park for Outside Lands, a weekend of stuffing your face full of churros, sipping whiskey on blankets, getting lightly trampled, having at least one crippling case of agoraphobia, and, oh yeah, listening to tons of live music. Last year, Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs rocked it out, but this year's roster is surprisingly even better (sorry, Sir Paul).
Kanye West will return to the city where he proposed to Kim (will Khloe attend?!), Tom Petty will return to the festival for seconds (his first appearance was in 2008), and Macklemore will revel in all the same love SF has to offer. And that just skims the surface. Also in attendance: less high profile, but equal caliber acts like Disclosure, CHVRCHES, Big Freedia, and Lykke Li. I could go on about how pumped you should be, but the power of music does it so much better, so here's a mix to get you ready for Outside Lands 2014! Tickets go on sale this Thursday, April 10 at 10am.


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Hoodia or hoodwinked?
Every month there is the latest gimmick or trick in weight loss products. Usually, a mystical and magical herb that has been long known by a selective few herbalists in a far off land where no one is ever fat and no one dies from a fat-related disease.
Millions die from famine and malnutrition there, admittedly, but at least no one is fat.
That last fact is usually omitted from the advertising copy, of course.
Then come in the celebrity endorsement. From the heavily liposuctioned, body augmented bimbett who has never eaten a potato chip in her life, whose every public picture is photoshopped and airbrushed to perfection, who attributes her waif-like stature to the mystical herbal brew and potion that she discovered last week from her celebrity friend.
Then the internet marketers jump on the bandwagon, all offering the purest form of the herb, the best quality at the cheapest price. Online auction sites go into meltdown, spammers have seizures in the frenzy to hit as many mailing lists as possible, and you order, ever hopeful that without the liposuction, 4 hours in the gym daily, the Botox and boob jobs, that you too will look just like that good looking girl with perfect abs in the gossip magazines.
And then one week later the magical package arrived. 30 days supply of the standard herbal gelatine capsules in a plastic bottle with a fancy label.
Don't exceed the recommended dose, it gravely warns you, to give you the impression that it is powerful stuff. And you take the pills, one pill with a glass of water three times a day.
And what happens? Well, you tell us. Please leave your comments in the comment section below and tell us what worked or didn't work for you.


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Alpha-Core's new amorphous core power inductors combine high inductance and current levels with low losses at frequencies in the 20 KHz range. High wattage switching mode power supplies benefit from the compact design and much reduced weight. Other applications include power factor correction and harmonics filtering in UPS systems, variable frequency inverters and on-grid solar and wind power systems.
Alpha-Core power inductors are box shaped and fully encapsulated in black epoxy resin. The insulation system is class F (155C). The two leads exit from the short end. Initially Alpha-Core offers inductance values ranging from 100 uH to 5,000 uH and RMS current ratings up to 60A.
Prices start at $25.00.
Visit www.alphacoredirect.com


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GOLF LESSONS | left arm bend- learn how to keep your left arm straight!
GOLF LESSONS | learn how to keep your left arm straight by turning your shoulders. | Danford Golf in Goodyear Arizona.
Politicians are always talking about growing the middle class. But what policies can actually accomplish that goal? Watch this short economics video to find out. Donate today to PragerU! http://l.prageru.com/2ylo1Yt This video is part of a collaborative business and economics project with Job Creators Network. To learn more about JCN, visit https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com. Have you taken the pledge for school choice? Click here! https://www.schoolchoicenow.com Get PragerU bonus content for free! https://www.prageru.com/bonus-content Download Pragerpedia on your iPhone or Android! Thousands of sources and facts at your fingertips. iPhone: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsnbG Android: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsS5e Join Prager United to get new swag every quarter, exclusive early access to our videos, and an annual TownHall phone call with Dennis Prager! http://l.prageru.com/2c9n6ys Join PragerU's text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. VISIT PragerU! https://www.prageru.com FOLLOW us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/ PragerU is on Snapchat! JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: http://l.prageru.com/29SgPaX JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2c8vsff Script: If Democrats and Republicans can agree on anything it's stagnating wages. Median family income dropped from $57,790 in 2000 to $56,516 in 2015. To address the problems, some have pushed to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. But only 1.7 percent of the 77 million hourly employees even earn the minimum wage, and just 395,000 are over the age of 25 and earning entry-level wages for entry-level work like cashiers and waiters. What activists don't tell you is that raising the entry-level wage increases labor costs for small business owners making it harder for them to keep employees, and hire new ones. This makes it harder for younger employees to gain the skills they need to climb the career ladder, and earn much higher incomes. Instead of concentrating on raising the floor for low-skilled jobs, we should be focusing on helping people get the skills to raise the ceiling of what people can make. The real fight should be for true middle-class jobs that earn $50,000 or more a year, what we call the Fight for 50. These jobs allow people to save more money, and better support their families. There are going to be 2.5 million of these middle-skill job openings next year. These career opportunities require more than a high school degree, but less than a four-year college degree, boasting an average salary of $50,000 per year. These jobs include automotive technicians, nurses, and plumbers. While entry-level employees don't have the necessary skills to succeed right away in higher-paying roles, they often learn them quickly. One of our most famous politicians started out by scooping ice cream at a Baskin Robbins, and made it all the way to the Oval Office in the White House. In other words, the entry-level wage should be thought of as a training wage, which employees with few skills can use to prepare for a $50,000 a year, or more, career. Let's raise wages by putting Americans back to work, and fighting for $50,000.
LicenseDefault YouTube License
GOLF LESSONS | learn how to keep your left arm straight by turning your shoulders. | Danford Golf in Goodyear Arizona.
You crave a cold beer but all the stores are closed. Then do it yourself. This video explains how. A production from the 2nd year of training for media designer for image and sound, class of 2019 Translation and dubbing: alugha
GOLF LESSONS - Discover the positions that great golfers have at the top of their backswings and where you might be going wrong. | Danford Golf in Goodyear Arizona


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Cyber Monday shopping guide
What's even better than Black Friday? Right: Cyber Monday! For those of you that are still in the shopping mood, Cyber Monday usually has better discounts than Black Friday. The perfect opportunity to get your hands on that designer bag you've been craving or get a perfect gift for the upcoming holiday season. Here are some of my favourite items,…View Post


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Have you looked at yourself in the mirror and found out that your hair simply refuses to obey you?
Gorenje Beauty Collection is a new collection of hair care appliances that affords quick and perfect hair styling in the morning, during the day or in the evening. Appliances in trendy colours are easy to use and bring plenty of joy to this daily routine.


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Send some warmth this fall season with our beautifully created mix of farm-fresh seasonal flowers. Our expression of fall arrangements features Lily's, sunflowers, green hydrangeas, fall fujis mums, and more. Arrives in a beautiful fall colored vase adorned with a sheer ribbon bow.
Approximately 18"Hx 15"W
Please Note
99% of the flower arrangements you see on our local site are Dottie B Florist originals that have been custom created by our in-house floral designers.
Flowers, containers and additional gift items may vary by season and availability. However, be rest assured that our team will make sure your flower arrangements and gift items are presented beautifully at the time of pick-up or delivery.
Delivery Area
We deliver throughout Northeast Florida from Fernandina to St. Augustine and everywhere in-between.
Outside of our local delivery area? We deliver nationwide through our trusted network of partnering florists across the country. Click here to shop for national products.


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The 10 Cruelest, Most Unfair Weddings In The History of Western Culture
Secret weddings in history are proof that not all proposals end with happily ever after. Throughout history, couples have had to marry either in secret or in a rush to avoid detection from those who would wish to keep them apart. So while it's true that not all secret or shotgun weddings in history were happy, it is true that many of them were at least interesting.
But the clandestine, spontaneous, or secret nature of these weddings does not mean that the marriages were successful or romantic. On the contrary, many secret marriages in history were dysfunctional and shocking, as they were sometimes connected to kidnapping, money, and murder.
The stakes were often high for secret weddings and elopements, since the couples married in the heat of the moment or to beat the odds. Other pairs even pretended to marry in order to gain respectability or hide a scandalous affair. With the stakes so high, it isn't surprising that unhappy events - estrangement, divorce, abuse, abdication, or even worse - would ultimately follow these relationships. And couples weren't the only ones at risk. Often, it was just as dangerous for accomplices and people who aided in the marriage.
These couples throughout history pursued their marriages against all odds. Some ended in happiness, others in tears. But they all had to face disaster in their quest for marital bliss.
- Photo: Jean Vignaud / Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Héloïse And Abelard Had A Romance That Ended In Castration
An especially tragic story from the Middle Ages is that of the doomed romance between Peter Abelard, a French scholar, and his brilliant student, Héloïse d'Argenteuil. Over time, their intellectual relationship developed into a physical relationship. Héloïse even became pregnant, and the couple secretly married in the early 13th century. News spread of the marriage, and their story turned bad: Héloïse's own uncle hired men to forcibly castrate Abelard in the middle of the night.
Humiliated, he committed both his wife and himself to celibacy in religious orders. Though the couple lived apart, they continued to write one another love letters.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Andrew Stoney Tricked Mary Bowes Into Marrying Him As His Last Wish - And Then Didn't Kick The Bucket
Andrew Robinson Stoney - the self-styled "Captain Stoney" - was a dashing Irish rake who landed a marriage with one of the wealthiest women in Great Britain. Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore, was a young widow with five children. Being a widow allowed her to take charge of her life - and to marry whomever she wanted.
After making the acquaintance of the Countess, Stoney staged a duel to defend her honor. In the course of the fake duel, he claimed that he had been mortally wounded. In what appeared to be his final wish, Stoney asked to see the Countess. She agreed to a hasty marriage to soothe someone she believed to be a dying man.
But Stoney quickly recovered from his supposed injuries, and the Countess was stuck with him. Things got even worse for the poor Countess. Stoney began burning through the Countess's money and routinely abusing her. He kept her virtually under house arrest, and even assaulted maids and fathered illegitimate children.
Aided by sympathetic maids, the Countess pulled off an escape from Stoney. But she didn't stop there: in an era when divorce was as rare as it was scandalous, the Countess sued Stoney for divorce in 1789 - and actually won. Britain was riveted and shocked with the all she suffered at the hands of her oppressor-husband.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domain
Secret marriages and elopements could also be disastrous for family members and accomplices, not just the couples. For proof, look no further than the case of James Coyle, an Irish-born priest who immigrated to Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1921, deep in the Jim Crow era-South, Father Coyle officiated a secret wedding between Ruth Stephenson, whose father was daughter of a Methodist minister and member of the Ku Klux Klan, and Pedro Gussman, a Puerto Rican. When news broke of their marriage, Stephenson's father raced to Coyle's house and shot the priest on his own porch. He then proceeded on to the court house and turned himself in. He was ultimately acquitted of the murder.
- Photo: Photoplay / Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Rita Hayworth's Much-Older Manager Married Her, Bilked Her Of Her Money, And Divorced Her
When 18-year-old Rita Cansino was trying to make it in Hollywood, Edward Judson, a slick businessman, became her mentor and manager - and a little bit more. In 1937, Judson talked the young woman into marriage, and so they eloped to Las Vegas. He helped transform Rita Cansino into "Rita Hayworth," the movie star.
Their marriage lasted five years, during which time he managed her career so that he was reaping all of the profits. When they divorced in 1942, Hayworth was virtually penniless.


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but I'm not the only one
Did you watch the crowd in St. Peter's Square last evening? The loving glow was religious faith at its best. There is no denying faith is a thing of beauty when you can read it in their eyes.
Still, I was disappointed. The unusual circumstance created by Benedict's resignation offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was lost to more of the same.
I wanted a Pope younger and more dynamic, in touch with the modern zeitgeist and courageous to set things right. I wanted his first speech to openly recognize that all of humanity regardless of religion or sexual orientation is to be as equal in the eyes of the Church itself, as we are in the eyes of God.
I wanted a Pope with the integrity to accept and acknowledge that a group of old, unmarried men have no business in the politics of an adult woman's body. I wanted a Pope to celebrate the healthy impulse of love in an adult-same-sex attraction as free of guilt and shame inside the Church hierarchy as it inevitably will be, out.
I wanted a Pope with the honesty and the good common sense to state plainly that one thousand year old dogma is a losing proposition in the 21st century. And I wanted that Pope to state with critical clarity that huge problems begin at home in the Priesthood, amongst the Bishops and the Cardinals and he who is without sin can only cast the first stone.
In short, I wanted a Pope to reach out into the hearts and minds of a rapt and global audience last night--me included--and wrench from the sordid headlines a moral clarity and an ethical vision of personal accountability that rang so universally true it thrilled the faithful, galvanized the rest of us and returned to the Vatican a virtuous authority it once embodied but has squandered through centuries of economic and sexual malfeasance, and the lying to cover it up.
Instead, we got Pope Francis.


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hey! Anthony here. This is my full interview with Lenny Rachitsky. Lenny spent 7 years as a PM and Product Lead at Airbnb before becoming a part-time writer, investor, and advisor in 2019. His newsletter, "Lenny's Newsletter" focuses on product and growth strategy. It's some of the best product content on the web.
We talked about a lot, including:
⚡ He broke down the specific details on how he led a team of 80+ people to increase Airbnb's instant bookings from 5% to 75%.
✏ The most important and interesting things he's learned about product since starting his newsletter.
🌱 His thoughts on growth and building a viral product.
🤕 Mistakes he's learned from at Airbnb.
🔥 And lots more!
Here's Lenny Rachitsky:
This week, instead of writing out snippets of the interview, I made them into short videos that you can watch below:
Clip #1
⚡ Lenny breaks down how he led a team of 80+ people at Airbnb to make Airbnb's booking completely instant.
Clip #2
🌱 Since starting his newsletter, Lenny's learned that "growth is not as mysterious as a lot of people think…"
Hear the rest:
Clip #3
💸 Lenny's also learned that "[paid] growth is becoming more expensive" and "building a great product is becoming more important…"
Hear the rest:
Clip #4
👀 Another thing Lenny learned is that "you shouldn't rely on one company's example of how they grew or what they did right…"
Hear the rest:
Clip #5
🔥 Lenny shares his thoughts how to combat the rising cost of paid growth: "Build something remarkable." Growth for today's products rely on going viral.
Hear the rest:
Clip #6
📍An important lesson Lenny learned from working at Airbnb is to "push back on projects that you're fairly confident are not going to work out…"
Hear the rest:
Clip #7
🔥 Lenny's hot take: "People think that the best PMs are the ones that write and tweet all day." The best PMs are the ones that don't have time for that because they're actually doing the work.
Hear the rest:
Clip #8
✏ How Lenny has been investing in the product of himself: "Writing."
Hear the rest:
Clip #9
🚀 Lenny explains why he's not starting a company anytime soon.
Hear the rest:
🎧 Listen to the full 26 minute interview using the player above.
You can find Lenny on Twitter.
Also, subscribe his product newsletter, Lenny's Newsletter.
Thanks for reading Issue #3 of PM News.
I'm Anthony —You can find me on Twitter • LinkedIn • My Blog
If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe here.


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contributed by Todd Wilson, Long Lake RC (MN)
ed. note: Rowing Hacks is a collaborative project, so we welcome suggestions and submissions, like this great little hack: The Swiss Nut Helmet. Spotted and brought to us by Todd Wilson, these doodads are ubiquitous in Swiss boathouses--and might just come in handy at your place, especially if you have any so-called Nutdraggers lurking about.
Nutdragger: noun pl:(s) the wingnut who scratches your hull with his/her pin's top nut when returning/removing their boat to/from the rack above yours.
Cure for NutDraggers in your boathouse? Easy: The Swiss Nut Helmet.
Instructions: Cut tennis ball in half by mounting hacksaw blade in vise. Poke two holes opposite each other just 2mm up from cut edge. Cut 10-15cm small shock-cord (found at any good mountaineering shop) and mount shock-cord to tennis ball, so you have a mini helmet.
Now comes the difficult part; you have to train the wingnuts, aka NutDraggers, to put the balls on the swivels before they put the boat back in the rack.
Often observed in the case of advanced Nutdraggerism: the braintrust-crew puts the boat back on the rack naked, and then the penny drops and the Nutdraggers quickly put the balls on the outside riggers, look around to make sure there were no witnesses, and dash for the showers.
Thanks to Todd for this great hack, and for supplying photographic evidence of a properly-deployed Swiss Nut Helmet.
Have a great rowing hack for future inclusion here? Send it to us!
|Log in to comment


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Cheyney University has been placed on five years probation by the NCAA for multiple infractions surrounding the institution's lack of control over its certification process.
In a decision rendered by the NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions, Cheyney was found to have allowed 109 student-athletes to practice, compete, receive travel expenses and athletically related financial before receiving their amateur certification from the NCAA beginning in 2007 through 2011.
A former university compliance director was also found to have not followed proper procedure in the certification of student-athlete's eligibility.
The probationary period is effective immediately and runs through August 20, 2019. Other penalties include relinquished NCAA voting privileges until Aug. 20, 2019; a self-imposed postseason ban for all sports during the 2013-14 academic year; and the vacating of all wins in which ineligible student-athletes competed during the 2007-08 through 2010-11 academic years.
Cheyney's probation will now include sanctions for eight of the 12 year period from 2007-2019.
Cheyney was placed on three years probation in 2007 when the Committee on infractions penalized the school for major violations in its athletic program. The violations included ineligible participation by football student-athletes, unethical conduct by the former head football coach, as well as a failure to monitor and lack of institutional control. Penalties for the violations included placing the university on three years of probation, a vacation of records, and a one-year show-cause penalty for the former football coach, among other sanctions.
The committee found the university failed to monitor the conduct of its coaches and the administration of its athletics programs during the summer of 2002 through September 2006, based on a lack of system for effectively monitoring various aspects of its athletics program.
In the 2007 report the Committee stated that it was "dismayed that this case continues the recent trend of Division II member institutions, either through inadvertence or ignorance, failing to devote the necessary resources to effectively operate a Division II athletics program.


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serialworks a space in which to cut the bean
serialworks as a project space was established almost by accident. It is the name under which I have practiced as a curator, researcher and editor since 2001. But happening upon a suitable physical space matched a certain ongoing frustration regarding how we consider the various registers of where art is made, displayed and discussed. The possibility of creating a modest alternative to gallery display – and the demands associated with that option – became viable.
In 'Cut The Bean' [1], founding editor of Cabinet magazine Sina Najafi describes Cabinet's research practices and resulting product as the amplification of one fundamental principle: curiosity. Setting the terms of his case, he describes a first encounter between André Breton, Robert Caillois and a Mexican jumping bean, on the evening on December 26, 1934. Both Breton and Caillois were equally awestruck by the bean, yet Breton was deeply offended by his companion's suggestion that they cut the bean to discover its secret. Breton's refusal to engage in this kind of research method prompted Caillois to resign from the Surrealist movement the next day, on the grounds that he could not comply with Breton's unwillingness to accept the possible compatibility of 'poetry' and 'research'.
Cutting the bean suggests that an empirical method will result in a rational explanation. For Breton, who prized the irrational and the imaginary as primary routes to insight, cutting the bean would have only brought an end to the numerous imaginative possibilities that one could project onto the bean as to how and why it jumps. For Caillois, the marvellous is not only invested in the mind, but is an intrinsic property of the world itself. Further investigation – cutting the bean – could only increase imaginative potential. His amazement is not the slack-jawed sort, but an active quest. In their respective commitment to inquisitiveness, they end up in a dialectical impasse.
What makes this analogy so apt to describe a position for serialworks is not only Breton and Caillois' contradictory attitudes towards what constitutes 'proper' investigative practices, but its association with Cabinet's wide-ranging, idiosyncratic and informative sensibility which I endorse at every opportunity. It speaks to that one criterion without which there would be no research of any sort, professional or dilettantish, creative or scholarly, whatsoever: curiosity.
With serialworks, I would like to redirect focus towards first encounters with art; that is, to encourage discussions around practice and studio research, and away (somewhat) from the stylistic conventions of display that tend to dominate our encounters with art in the various evocations of the 'white cube'.
serialworks hopes to nurture conversations with critically-engaged artists, curators, writers and performers about their respective practices, and introduce these practices to individuals committed to ideas, conversation and taking risks. Thoughtfulness is critical; a sense of humour imperative.
Kathryn Smith
Cape Town 2009
[1] Najafi, S. 'Cut the Bean' in Holly and Smith (eds) What is Research in the Visual Arts? Obsession, Archive, Encounter. Yale, 2009


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Anyone Everyone believes in diversity, union and above all inclusivity – our services are FREE for everyone, ensuring access to those who may not have ready access to the arts and therapeutic resources.
Anyone Everyone is an inclusive organisation with a mission to improve the emotional wellbeing of individuals and communities through creative workshops and positive meeting places. Our sessions are informed by our participants' input and needs and we work closely with other organisations who can provide support and care if participants should need or want other services or specialist care.
Best of all.. it's free, open to anyone, fun and judgement free
We are committed to being inclusive and accessible, making sure that everyone has a say in how we are run. That's why all our groups are facilitated with our participants' needs, creativity and aspirations at its core, supporting each and every person to gain self-confidence and helping them towards a physically, emotionally and socially healthy existence.
Anyone Everyone was born in 2014 with inclusive theatre groups for all aged seven and above. In 2016 we began a new venture to expand our age range to those not even born yet! Anyone EveryMum provides a necessary space for pregnant women and mums to explore the emotional and social transition to motherhood and beyond.
Josephine Tremelling – Artistic Director
To be alive is to be challenged, live in flux and change. Working with drama enhances my experience and helps me accept and develop myself and my strategies for living. It's communal aspect gives me confidence and perspective and the opportunity to be passive or active whilst exploring my role and empathising with the roles which surround and support mine.
I also work as a life model and cabaret artist. These practices inform my interests in body image and psychology.
Lisa Harmer – Artistic Director
There is so much negativity and judgement in the world but I believe we can change that by creating safe, supportive communities where anyone can feel welcome and nurtured.
Working creatively allows me to take risks and open up to the possibility of growth and change. Sharing this experience amplifies it and helps me integrate it into my life and help others to do the same.
I am a woman, wife, mother, creative being and an HCPC registered dramatherapist.


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How do you replace the white ribbon?
Today I got an error message that my blue ink cartridge was inserted incorrectly. I noticed that the white ribbon on the side of the cartridge compartment was twisted, so I tried to untangle it. In the process, I ended up pulling it out of wherever it came from on the back of the cartridge compartment, and now my printer thinks this is a paper jam. Is this fixable and if so, how do I fix it?
Update (03/08/2016)
I think this will post the photo
Is this a good question?
2 Comments
Post a couple of photos if you can.
Hi--here's a picture showing where the white ribbon is tangled (and it was wrapped behind, before I messed with it).[image|774623]


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Why did a Lion Air Boeing 737-800 crash on final approach to Bali in April? I have now been able to reconstruct the final minutes of flight 904 from a preliminary report by Indonesian crash investigators, and it reinforces concerns I have over the skill of the pilots you could be entrusting your life to in some parts of southeast Asia.
With four minutes to landing the 101 passengers were strapped into their seats, the weather was clear and paradise beckoned.
The 48-year-old Indonesian captain had handed over control to the copilot, a 24-year-old Indian. The landing, with a flight path over water, should have been routine, and with a minute to go to touchdown the copilot disengaged the autopilot and prepared to fly the Boeing 737-800 manually to the runway.
But there was a sudden squall over the water. The copilot told the captain he had lost sight of the runway and handed back control to the captain. The airplane was by then less than a 100 feet from the water. The captain attempted to abort the landing and make a go-around.
It was too late. The 737 hit the water, parts of a coral reef and a sea wall. It finally came to rest about 60 feet from the shore and 900 feet from the runway. Water was surging into the cabin from a gash on the left side.
The upside of this story is that nobody died. Four passengers were seriously injured, scores of others had lesser injuries. And the evacuation of the plane was exemplary: Local police, armed forces, rescue personnel and bystanders waded into the shallow water and helped passengers to reach shore—some passengers swam. Everyone was on dry land within 35 minutes.
The downside is that this is a classic case of a crash that should never have happened. Bali international airport has every modern navigation aid, and the Boeing 737-800 was a virtually new airplane with advanced cockpit instruments. The appearance of a sudden squall near an airport is common everywhere in the tropics—it should present no hazard to a competent pilot.
This accident should be a red flag to regulators—and for travelers. Low-cost carriers are multiplying in southeast Asia. Lion Air already has nearly half of Indonesia's domestic market, which is growing at the astounding rate of 15 percent a year. To satisfy demand, Lion Air recently ordered 230 more Boeing 737s and 234 Airbus A320s—an unprecedented windfall for both planemakers.
This growth is, however, clearly outstripping the supply of experienced pilots. The captain of flight 904 was a veteran, with 7,000 hours of experience on 737s; the copilot was a relative novice, with only 923 hours on 737s. With such a disparity the captain should not have left the landing to the copilot.
Most Indonesian carriers—including Lion Air—are banned from flying into both Europe and the U.S. by safety authorities. The country's regulatory regime is widely regarded as not rigorous enough to meet international standards for either pilot proficiency or maintenance checks.
It's simply not enough to have those shiny new airplanes painted with dazzling livery and staffed with a welcoming, gracious cabin crew. There is a new age of mass travel upon us, and it has to be underpinned by a dependable culture of safety—and that must include the regulators being given the power to limit the expansion of flights until they, and we, can be satisfied that pilot proficiency is equal to that of North America and Europe.


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Thursday, March 22, 2012
my creative space...
12 comments:
Aren't you clever?! Loving your new skirt, and how simple. Char made a few skirts like this (but shorter) and now she has five or six. I think they are addictive. I'm a big fan of skirts, and yes, they are a winner all year round!ReplyDelete
Hope you are having a great Thursday..enjoy the sunshine xo
Oh I love the grey linen with the raw edge!!!ReplyDelete
Fab idea - I've only made shorter skirts for
the girls so far. Love the idea of boots underneath
for cooler weather - gorgeous!XX
Wow, Mel! They look fantastic. Bravo you. Are you taking orders, by any chance?! J xReplyDelete
They look really great Mel. I've seen that second fabric in the shop and your idea of making it into a skirt is fab, its floral but a bit wintery too having the grey tones. Mmm, like I need another project right now!ReplyDelete
Loving the unfinished edge. There's something about leaving a little personal detail like that that makes it even more special to wear something handmade.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 22, 2012 at 7:49 PM
Nice job Mel..I love them both, the raw edge on teh linen one is rather striking :)ReplyDelete
Gorgeous once again Mel! I'm sure I have some of that second fabric - it's super pretty!ReplyDelete
Beautiful fabric on that second one! I love the simplicity of it all, right up my alley :)ReplyDelete
gorgeous :) I came across your blog through maxabella loves. Loving your creative space! xReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
I really like your skirt! I made 2 last summer and wore them all the time. I'm ready to make more! Linen with a raw edge! Great idea!!ReplyDelete


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How Our Law Firm Investigates Trucking Companies
An experienced accident lawyer will hold them accountable
Cases involving truck accidents, like all injury cases, are decided based on evidence. In the case of a truck accident, though, the victim usually faces an uphill battle to get that evidence, and by extension, to get fair compensation for his or her injuries.
Why? Because most of the vital evidence is the trucking company's property. Logs. Records. GPS data. The trucking company starts the legal process with control of most of the facts, and that means their attorneys can control the outcome of your claim.


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Ownership of Declaration Copy Disputed
The State of Maine and an Internet pioneer are arguing over ownership of a rare copy of the
Declaration of Independence. The argument escalated to the point where it went to the Maine's highest court last January.
A lawyer for Richard L. Adams Jr. told the Virginia Supreme Court there is no evidence the copy of the Declaration — one of about 250 printed in 1776 and distributed to towns throughout Massachusetts — was ever an official record kept by the town of Wiscasset, Maine. Therefore, he contends, his client is the rightful owner, having bought it from a London book dealer in 2001 for $475,000.
However, Maine's attorney argued that Wiscasset never relinquished ownership of the document. Fairfax County Circuit Judge R. Terrence Ney ruled in favor of Adams in 2008, the multimillionaire founder of UUNet Technologies Inc., the first commercial Internet service provider. Adams had filed suit to establish title to the document after learning that Maine officials were considering trying to get it back.
Adams' attorney, Robert K. Richardson, maintains Wiscasset's town clerk hand-copied the text of the Declaration of Independence into the town's record books on November 10, 1776. To Richardson and his client, the transcription—not the original document that was copied, is the official town record.
The original copy was retained by the town clerk, however, from as early as 1885 until 1929. It was discovered in 1994 by an estate auctioneer who was going through papers of a former town clerk.
If Maine wins the case, Adams can try to recoup his money from the London dealer. If the state loses, it has no real recourse because there are no federal issues in play that could be pursued to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It is likely the justices will issue their decision on February 27.


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Knowledge is power... and strength, speed, stamina and a whole range of other things that are useful to runners.
One of the goals of runbundle is to provide quality information to runners at all levels within the sport. With this in mind, all our running articles are thoroughly reviewed by a mix of running coaches before making it to press, so you can be confident that you're getting top-notch advice from all our running guides.


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I had so much fun with last week's Sizzler Sunday post I've decided to go back for seconds.
These Sunglasses from Firmoo. Firmoo is a relatively new brand to me. I tried out an order in April and so far have been LOVING the quality of the designs they produce. Plus, you can get your prescription placed in most of their glasses and sunnies. I'm working on a full review video of all my Firmoo frames (plus a pretty great surprise for you guys) so keep your eyes on my YouTube channel for more soon!
This Wild + Free Read. The subtitle of this book alone totally spoke to my heart. If you are someone who has ever felt like you're too much or not enough, PLEASE grab a copy of this book. Jess and Haley voice so clearly the truth of what it really means to be a woman!
This Smelly-Goodness. Flowerbomb by Victor and Rolf has long been on my want-to-own-it list, so imagine the happy dance I did when Influenster sent me this glorious surprise. This was the first time I've tried a fragrance oil and it is both delightful and lasts forever. It is a bit on the strong side so use caution if you're super sensitive to scent!! If I'm honest, the pretty packaging does as much for me as the fragrance – I never knew a pink glass grenade could give me heart eyes!
I'd love to know what things you've fallen for this week!!


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The Architectural Biennale 2018 is titled FREESPACE. The international exhibition explores the essential qualities of architecture, including materiality, modulation of the space, how it influences movement and emotions of its users, revelling the embodied power and beauty of architecture.
The Croatian pavilion, located in the Arsenale, is called Cloud Pergola – the architecture of hospitality. It is a collaborative site-specific installation crossing the boundaries of Architecture through collaborations in Art, Engineering, Robotic Fabrication, and Computational Models.
The exhibition is structured through an interplay of three interventions: Cloud Drawing by Alisa Andrašek in collaboration with Bruno Juričić, To Still the Eye by Vlatka Horvat, and Ephemeral Garden by Maja Kuzmanović.
Bruno Juričić, the curator, took the exhibition as an opportunity to express that we are at a new moment in architecture, when technology not only affects novel physical objects, but also new extensions and cross-collaborations. In recognising the active participation of nonhuman forces in events and understanding that the agency of space spawns beyond human, it propels the need to create a "space of hospitality" for new complicities, new complex ecologies of human and non-human assemblages, algorithms, data structures. In such "landspace" the role of boundaries, either physical or non-physical, is not any more to enclose space, but rather to form tissue for osmotic exchange. This enriching influence is broadening the range available to architecture of materials, formal values, artistic references and social engagements. As such, provides a new ground for addressing the notion of "design ecology" in the twenty first century.
The Cloud Drawing installation by architects Alisa Andrašek and Bruno Juričić uses computational models, robot fabrication and big data, as mediums to create a new kind of spatial structure—an n-dimensional microstructure that brings into dynamic relation natural forces and human intervention.
We had a pleasure to talk with Alisa Andrašek, creator of the Cloud Drawing installation. For the past two decades Alisa has been researching how we work with complex systems in the context of built environment, using new resources like big data. She believes this should change how we construct the environment we live in and has been looking into algorithms, artificial intelligence and robotic construction like carbo fibre structures and as in the case of Croatian pavilion, 3D printing. The following conversation is slightly edited for clarity.
"There was an article in The Economist (17th Aug 2017) stating the construction industry is the least efficient in the world. If we look at how the buildings are constructed today, while there are small improvements in some systems, the fundamentals have been here for over 100 years. Despite the evolving science, new understanding of the world, of matter, robotics, machines and technology, I don't really see very prominent kind of change – so this (the Croatian pavilion, note by the writer) was mainly to question how we build."
The bio-degradable plastic structure weighs around 280kg, which makes it the lightest structure built at this scale – 3.3m tall, covering an area of ~58m². It is light, yet strong, its three columns swirling in counter directions reinforcing its structure.
"In 3D printing, in theory, you can control every speck of dust – where you put matter, what kind of matter. We can design using computational physics, simulating not just compression and tension but also other physics in structures like friction, viscosity.
However, for this year's Croatian pavilion, we were very constrained with time and had to work with a certain maximum number of cells. Therefore, I decided to use a different algorithm which is coming from biology. This year's Croatian pavilion is taking an organisation of a swarm that you find in a school of fish or a flock birds. Observing how these organisms self-organise and swirl governed the arrangement of strands in the structure. "
To the question why she thinks change is very slow in construction industry Alisa replied:
"I think the construction industry is used to doing things in a certain way. I often talk about high resolution, how we connect micro resolution of material science to macro resolution of very large systems, whether they are buildings or large landscape or cityscape system. With big data we can now actually connect these different orders of scale directly – but I am unsure, how much the structural industry is currently using this. I believe more could be done if we bring more science into it."
She continued to expand on the topic of sustainability and our duty to the planet to build efficiently:
"Our planet is in a lot of trouble and we need to take it seriously. Imagine, if you could build very large spanning roof structures that are 10x lighter, yet equally strong – it is significant. Current buildings are at least 10-times heavier than they could have been if you look at the laws of physics. Certain natural systems we see are built with less matter but more information to give much higher performance."
However, Alisa said she is seeing a response, a gradual implementation of ideas – a progress since her research started. First to respond and understand her goals were artists and scientists.
"Architects were resistant, but young generation of architects is really on board."
Moving to Melbourne shifted her focus towards the industry to use the knowledge she has gathered and drive the progress through application.
The structural realisation of the pavilion was led by Arup, the globally renowned engineering consultancy. Henry Unterreiner and Peter Lenk worked closely with Bruno and Alisa in order to realise their vision. The main responsibility was to engineer the pavilion and guide the design process of it given the tight time constraints for design and 3D printing. In addition, Arup contributed by organising workshops, gathering all the different parties spread around the world and helped with the assembly of the fragile pieces on site in Venice.
According to Henry the most challenging part of the design was dealing with the large number of elements (~200,000) in the 3D structure, on top of current limitations of the material and printing process. In order to understand the load path through the lattice structure, the team developed/scripted their own tools. Peter Lenk added:
"Simple rules of thumb were derived following first principles, prototype testing and FE analysis undertaken and subsequently given to the architects to inform their geometry. We were able to create digital space based on mathematical principles and transform it from the virtual space to our material world with reduced human intervention."
Standing underneath the light structure gives a feeling of movement and flow, of a space that is not confined or suffocating. The perforated and swirly structure creates an experience through a game of shades and shape, making the space feel alive.
Words and Pictures by Eva Babič


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I remember back in high school, one of my classmates had this gigantic wrist watch that was also a universal remote. He had loads of fun using it whenever we watched a movie in class (Kramer vs. Kramer, Anna to the infinite power, a woman giving birth, etc). I think he's dead now. I'm kidding. He never graduated. Okay, I don't know what happened to him, but I do know that thanks to the $9 Micro Spy Remote, we can all exercise the exact same stupid, juvenile sense of humor.
Your friend is prepped for the AC Milan – Juventus match, wearing his del Piero boxers, hot popcorn and San Mig Super Dry at the ready. Just when the game kicks off, the TV shuts down! He turns it back on but it's suddenly muted! One second Nedved's lining up for a blaster, the next it's Eddie Murphy in Norbit!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruNXOPBgtsc
Or you pass by an appliance shop. You're at the pub. Or your little sister's watching Bob the Builder. You get the idea. Just don't mistake it for your car's remote lock, because that would be… that would be awesome. Also, MANNY! MANNY! MANNY!
[via Presurfer]


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Sailing French Polynesia's Society Islands
With 118 islands and atolls stretching over 1,200 miles of the South Pacific Ocean, French Polynesia has a long and intimate relationship with the sea. When my photographer, Michaela, and I finally found time to put this epic destination into our sailing calendar, it was both a pleasure and a privilege. Our focus was an island group called the Society Islands, the most famous of which is Bora Bora.
Aside from the incredible beauty of the cartoon-like magical blue-green lagoons, one of the biggest attractions of this region is the relaxed, friendly nature of the people. On the main island of Tahiti—which serves as the entry point for international arrivals by plane—we asked someone where to buy a SIM card. He not only drove us to the store and helped us buy one, but he also brought us back to the airport where we caught our flight to the Sunsail base on Raiatea.
We had chartered a beautifully appointed 38ft Leopard catamaran from Sunsail and planned to start our trip with an easy sail to neighboring Taha'a, which shares a lagoon with Raiatea. Our first destination on Taha'a was Champon Pearl Farm. Owned by a delightful, elegant French woman named Monique, the farm's main building is a classic old French colonial house that sits on a point of land looking out to the sea. Ducks and a couple of friendly boxers greeted us and followed us around, as Monique gave us a private tour of the property.
Later, she invited us inside her beautiful home to give us a tour of her pearl collection. She explained that the color of pearls is dependent on the color of the inside of the shell. The Tahitian variety of oyster has a dark-colored shell, which makes the pearls "Black." "Black" is actually a misnomer, as these pearls range in colors that include hints of silver, purple, green and blue. Not surprisingly, we didn't leave with empty hands.
Oysters are not French Polynesia's only beautiful natural product. It's also famous for vanilla. At our next stop, La Vallée de la Vanille, we had a relaxing stroll through a small demonstration vanilla garden. La Vallée de la Vanille is one of the few vanilla plantations in the Society Islands that produce their own vanilla products, so we purchased some essential vanilla oil and a few fresh vanilla beans fresh off the vine.
Tahaa is also home to one of the French Polynesia's few remaining traditional tattoo artists, Tavita—a man my photographer was especially interested in tracking down. After leaving the vanilla farm, we dropped anchor in the harbor in front of the main village of Patio and asked at the local grocery store if anyone knew the fellow. Once again, we were treated to this region's exceptional hospitality. Instead of just telling us where we could find him, the owner of the store drove us directly to Tavita's house.
When this famed tattoo artist stepped out through his front door to greet us, there was no mistaking that we had found our man. He is literally covered with tattoos from head to toe—even his lips and tongue are tattooed! Tavita doesn't use any mechanized equipment. Instead, he hand-carves his tools from pig bones and creates the ink from local nuts that turn dark blue-black when roasted. The thought crossed our minds to perhaps get a small commemorative tattoo, however, Tavita's schedule was full.
After thanking Tavita for his hospitality, we spent a night off the boat at Vahine Island Resort: a quaint boutique establishment on its own private motu, or island, that offers an eclectic selection of over-the-water and private beachfront bungalows. It's also home to some of the nicest staff, best food and best snorkeling we've ever encountered. If you're looking for a night off the boat, this should be on top of your list.
After that, we had our first "bluewater" passage to Bora Bora, which proved to be both a long sail and a long day, with big seas all the way around the island to the pass through the reef at Teavenui.
The pass itself can also be a bit hairy, especially with opposing wind and currents, with razor-sharp reef walls that can cut through fiberglass like butter. Needless to say, we dropped sails and turned on the engine, making it through safely, albeit with quite a lot of rocking and rolling.
Bora Bora, with its 36 idyllic motus, impossibly jagged volcanic mountains and lagoon with more shades of blue than are words in the dictionary, is surreal. I can only imagine what the young U.S. sailors thought when they first arrived at the base there during WWII—they must have imagined they'd been transferred to heaven.
We love diving and snorkeling and were keen to experience some of the "big fish" this region is famous for. We, therefore, opted to take a trip with an outfit called Topdive, which has centers on seven islands in the archipelago.
One of Jacques Cousteau's favorite dive spots, the deep blue waters here are teaming with larger aquatic predators, especially sharks. Truth be told, it took me a while to get used to seeing so many sharks swimming all around me. Fortunately, most of them were a relatively harmless reef, gray and lemon sharks, which helped ease my nerves.
Besides famous dive spots like Tapu (just outside the pass) and Toopua (known for eagle rays), Bora Bora also has such prime snorkel spots as "The Aquarium" at Point Paoaoa, which has nice coral and a huge density of colorful reef fish; and nearby "Breaker Reef."
In our case, we were most excited by the prospect of the manta ray "cleaning station" at Anau: a kind of a manta dental office where these majestic creatures come to have their mouths cleaned out by the much smaller fish that call the area home.
Unfortunately, while we'd planned to hit Anau on our second day in Bora Bora, our plan suffered a little setback when I put a huge hook through my thumb while rigging a lure. Before we could do any more diving, therefore, I had to pay a visit to the local doctor who pushed the hook the rest of the way through my thumb, cut the barb and then pulled the hook back out—not pleasant.
On a happier note, after my "surgery," we enjoyed a fantastic meal at the Maikai Yacht Club right next to the main dock in Vaitape. There's also a great anchorage here just in front of the restaurant, where you can even receive free Wi-Fi on your boat if you're close enough.
Finally, the following morning, my thumb carefully wrapped up, we went searching for mantas. As fate would have it for almost half an hour we saw nothing. Then, just as we were starting to get discouraged, five of these majestic creatures appeared out of the blue and sailed by us like space ships engaged in an underwater ballet. I had never snorkeled with these grand animals before, and even though they're harmless, it's hard not to be intimidated by their size.
After that, we stopped by another unique enterprise called The Farm at the Bora Bora Pearl Company, where you can actually dive for your own pearls. Be warned, though, that it's harder than you might expect, as the oysters are kept in groups on strings about 10 to 15ft below the surface. You also have to carefully untie the entire group underwater while holding our breath, which was not so easy as they are very heavy and the water is 90ft deep. If you dropped them, you'd probably have to pay for them all.
It's also impossible to tell what kind of pearl you might get just by looking at the shell: all part of the mystery! Depending on your luck, you could end up with something quite valuable, or a misshaped dud. Luckily, we came up with a fairly nice, shiny 11mm pearl that Michaela had polished and turned into a necklace.
After that, we decided to take another night off the boat in Bora Bora, as we'd heard of a unique small resort called Rohotu Fare Lodge. This magical oasis is tucked in the mountainside in a lush jungle of exotic plants and trees overlooking the lagoon. It was much more affordable than some of the larger more famous resorts in Bora Bora and much more intimate and special.
Once we were done exploring Bora Bora, we'd planned to sail to Maupiti—one of the most primitive and undeveloped of the Society Islands and high on our list. However, it's a long sail, the pass there is extremely narrow and treacherous (next to impossible if the wind, tide and swell are not just right) and we were told we'd need a guide boat to get us through.
We'd also heard that a charter group of Russians who did not follow the instructions for navigating the channel had recently sunk their sailboat while trying to get through. (We also heard they'd left their luggage and only salvaged the booze: not sure if this is true, but it makes for a good story!)
Bottom line: in the end, the conditions were not ideal, and we didn't want to end our trip like the Russians did, so we decided to head back to Taha'a in search of a traditional Polynesian family-based dance group that hosts dinners at a little outdoor restaurant called Le Ficus. We had a nice 20-knot wind at our back, which got us back to Tahaa in no time.
Once there, and after grabbing a mooring, we took the dinghy over to the Le Ficus dock just as the rains came. Alas, our timing was a few minutes off, so we entered the place, soaking wet. Nonetheless, the friendly welcome (and rum punch) we received soon had us warmed up again.
The main hall of the open-air restaurant is decorated with a number of handmade artisan mobiles hanging from a grass roof ceiling. In the center is a bar built around a living tree. Dinner was traditional Polynesian food cooked with hot lava rocks and banana leaves. We ate on long tables around a central dance floor where musicians and dancers entertained us and even encouraged us to join in, which was much harder than it looked.
After that, our next stop was Huahine. The island doesn't have a large number of motus or great snorkeling sites that we found in some of the other places we visited. However, Huahine is a gold mine when it comes to stone temples, or maraes, and other ancient historic sites.
The first marae we visited was Anini, on the southwestern most tip of Huahine Iti. We sailed across the lagoon until the water got too shallow and then anchored and headed off in the dinghy. This trip is not for the faint of heart, as there are a lot of shallow reefs and coral heads here that are only roughly marked with little sticks the local fishermen put there. However, Michaela put aside her camera and monitored the depths, and we managed to make it through without damaging the prop on our dinghy.
Anini is a rectangular plaza made of many small reef rocks spread out like natural tiles. Larger slabs of coral set on end in rows surround the arena. Like all maraes, it served as a place of worship and was used for religious practices, including human sacrifices and cannibalism. In Anini's case, it was dedicated to Oro (the god of war) and Hiro (the god of thieves and sailors). The island's most famous religious site—Marae de Maeva—is located inland on the shores of Lake Fa'una Nui. Our guide told us the last human sacrifice took place there as recently as 1906.
By now our two-week charter was reaching its end, so we headed back to Raiatea to be close to the base for our last few days afloat. While there, we also dove to French Polynesia's largest sunken wreck, the Nordby, with a small local dive operator called Hemisphere Sub. The Nordby is a 150ft wooden Danish schooner that was unloading goods in Raiatea on its way from Auckland to Liverpool when it sank on a stormy night in 1900.
On our last day before turning in our catamaran, we took a dinghy ride up a beautiful long river in Faaroa Bay. Amazing tropical wildflowers lined the banks, colorful birds fluttered from tree to tree and sacred blue-eyed eels swam under our bow as we forged our way upstream.
We knew that the following day we'd be managing the stress of airports and our long slog back home. So we killed the engine, let our dinghy lazily drift back down on the gentle current and soaked in our last few hours of that magic they call French Polynesia.
Eric Vohr and Michaela Urban have a travel website at travelintense.com
MHS Summer 2019