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Prestige Skyline Collection Double Roll Toilet Tissue Holder by Allied Brass
Price $165.55
No Sales Tax, Except CT
Product Reviews
This elegant wall mount double roll toilet tissue holder adds style and convenience to any bathroom décor. The tissue holder features two arms to keep a pair of toilet tissue rolls easily accessible. The tissue holder attaches securely to any wall or vanity and complements bathroom décor ranging from modern to traditional and all styles in between. Made from the finest high quality solid brass materials and finished with a lifetime designer finish, this beautiful toilet tissue holder is extremely attractive yet highly functional. The 2 roll toilet tissue holder comes with the 16 inch bar, two wall mounting brackets, and the hardware necessary to install the holder. Whether your bath décor features a traditional style or a more contemporary design, the Prestige Skyline Collection has bath accessories to meet your design and decorating needs. All of the Prestige Skyline Collection products come with a limited lifetime warranty.
(W = side to side) (D = front to back) (H = top to bottom)
14-7/8''W x 3-5/8''D x 2-11/16''H
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How Libraries Are Bypassing Big Publishers To Build Their E-Book Offerings
Romance is hot: It generated $1.36 billion in book sales in 2009, making up 13.2 percent of the consumer book market–the largest share of any genre. It is also the fastest-growing segment of the e-book market, comprising over 20 percent of all e-book purchases.
Several publishers have even launched "digital-first" romance imprints, which publish only e-book originals. Harlequin, the largest romance publisher in the world, started Carina Press in 2009, while HarperCollins announced "Avon Impulse" in March 2011.
But at libraries, romance ebooks are underrepresented relative to size of their popularity among readers–that is in part because the major publishers are still figuring out their e-book lending strategies.
A new partnership aims to help libraries build their romance e-book collections by giving greater exposure to more titles from smaller, ebook-only publishers. Starting today, Library Journal, which has long helped librarians decide which books to purchase, will begin reviewing romance e-book originals. The advance review copies will come through NetGalley, which provides digital galleys to "professional readers" (critics, bloggers, booksellers, librarians and teachers).
The expansion of e-book offerings is the most complicated issue libraries are dealing with now, says Heather McCormack, Book Review Editor of the 135-year-old Library Journal. Some 72 percent of libraries now offer e-books, but licensing them from publishers can be difficult. In general, publishers work with e-book vendor OverDrive to broker contracts with libraries; the end result tends to be that libraries have limited access to publishers' e-books, and restrictions on lending (an ebook can't be checked out simultaneously to more than one person, for instance). Currently, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS) do not make any of their ebook titles available to libraries. HarperCollins has generated controversy by allowing its e-books to be checked out only 26 times before they expire, forcing libraries to buy them again.
As a result of these restrictions by big publishers, McCormack says librarians are turning to smaller presses, which are generally less restrictive about offering access to their ebooks. Library Journal's arrangement with NetGalley will introduce librarians to new titles from many of these smaller e-book-only romance publishers. Angela James, Executive Editor of Harlequin's Carina Press, estimates that over half of digital-first content is in the romance genre.
James predicts that romance e-book originals will be a hit for libraries. "Romance readers are such voracious readers and they can't afford to buy all that content," she says. They also tend to be very loyal to specific authors, so checking out e-books in libraries gives them a chance to try out authors they're unfamiliar with, she says.
Although Library Journal is only accepting romance e-originals now, it plans to expand to other genres. "All signs are pointing to sci-fi and mystery," says McCormack–two other genres that are fast-growing segments of the e-book market. She says that shorter nonfiction works, such as those offered by Byliner and through the Kindle Singles program, are a prime target for libraries as well.

subset: commoncrawl


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State Rep. Fresolo makes an appearance
Posted By Walter Bird Jr.
State Rep. John Fresolo, who has neither confirmed nor denied he is the lawmaker being investigated by the House Ethics Committee (everyone else has), was spotted at Wednesday's unveiling of the new Box 4 Special Services canteen truck in back of fire headquarters on Grove Street.
He did not stay long and strode purposefully to his car after the speaking part of the ceremony - that's the car with the license plate "I4L." Political insiders, of course, long have said the abbreviation stands for "In For Life."
Fresolo certainly has been steadfast in saying he would not resign his position, even in the wake of an investigation informed sources say involves alleged misrepresentation of per diem payments as well as a picture of a certain, ahem, male body part that was allegedly sent to a Statehouse computer.
Fresolo initially was not answering his phone after the news broke and calls to his Statehouse office were not being returned. He has since answered his home phone once to a reporter's call, politely declining to comment. Wednesday's ceremony marked the first time Worcester Mag had spotted Fresolo at a public event since the controversy erupted.
In the meantime, a Statehouse source says the media needs to "be patient" concerning the investigation, although the source continued the Beacon Hill practice of not confirming who was being investigated.
Democratic state Rep. John Fresolo talks to Worcester activist Billy Breault at the unveiling of a new canteen truck for Worcester fire, police and EMS crews. No word on whether they were talking about the body of suspected terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev, which is being held at a Worcester funeral home. Breault has been raising money to ship the body back to Russia


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Getting A Great Hosting Company And Creating Your Website
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I am a Christian.
I believe in the creed.
I believe in Jesus.
But there is one thing I do not believe in.
Just weeks ago,
I discovered that some Christians firmly believe
That animals do not have souls.
"When they die,
They'll simply cease to exist",
My teacher says lightly,
As though it does not matter.
"And when you are in heaven,
You'll forget all about them."
I object.
Do animals not breathe, like us?
Do animals not feel, like us?
Do animals not love, like us?
Just give me an answer.
I look into my cat's eyes.
I see life.
I see love.
I see a soul.
Are you telling me that such a perfect creature
Is nothing?
The only way I have coped with all my cats deaths
Is the belief that when I die,
I'll see them again
In heaven.
So this is why
The belief that animals do not have souls
Is wrong.
I am sure that God meant for all his other
Wonderful creations
To join him in heaven, like us.
To deny me this one foothold from grief
Is wrong.
Are we not animals too?
Will the blind that reject the other animals
Ever see with truth?
I hope they will.
Because animals DO have souls.


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The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) are jointly organising a workshop, entitled: "Aquatic ecotoxicology – can we improve its influence on policies and riskmanagement?", in Copenhagen on 6-7 May, 2010.
– The first objective of the workshop is to, through retrospective analysis, discuss how we can optimize the science and decision basis in the ecotoxicology area in order to obtain improved protection of the ecosystems and the environment from chemicals and other types of pollution.
– The second objective is to analyse how research findings in the ecotoxicology area have found their way into policy and how they have been used in risk management and decision-making.
– The third objective is to highlight the importance of research projects for capacity building.
– The fourth objective is to identify research and development priorities for the future.
The results and conclusions of this workshop will feed into several on-going processes in Europe. EEA is currently preparing its State of Environment 2010 Report and is also beginning to prepare a scientifc report on chemicals in the aquatic environment. JRC is currenlty in a process defining its research strategy for the coming 10 years. The ambition is to work closer with the policy makers and develop JRC works into policy support and policy assessment. The outcome of this workshop will be concluded in a workshop report, which will be published in as a European Union (EU) report.
Thursday 6 May
09:00 Welcome, by Peter Pärt (JRC-IES)
09:20 EEA work on chemicals in the aquatic enviroment, by Robert Collins (EEA)
09:40 A retrospective view on developments in ecotoxicology, by Finn Bro-Rasmussen (Prof em)
10:00 ESTHER and follow ups, by Niklas Johansson (Swedish EPA)
10:30 Refreshments
11:00 NewS (MISTRA), by Christina Rudén (Royal Institute of Technology)
11:30 NoMiracle, by Hans Lökke (Prof em)
12:00 MODELKEY, by Michaela Hein /Helmut Segner (MODELKEY consotrium)
12:30 Lunch
14:00 International Panel on Chemical Pollution, by Ake Bergman (Stockholm University)
14:20 Ecotoxicology at community level, by Hans Blanck (Göteborg University)
14:40 Molecular and cellular approaches in environmental monitoring, by Nick Bury (Kings College)
15:00 Ecotoxicology capacity building in developing countries, by Leif Norrgren (Swedish Agricultural Univerisity)
15:20 Biomarker in environmental monitoring, by Lars Förlin (Göteborg University)
15:40 Refreshments
16:00 Are standard tools needed for reliable regulatory hazard and risk assessment?, by Magnus Breitholtz (Stockholm University)
16:20 A century from science to regulation: considering the toxicology and ecotoxicology of chemical mixtures in European regulation, by Tomas Backhaus (Göteborg University)
16:40 Protecting aquatic ecosystems from chemical impacts – putting science to work, by Tom Hutchinson (CEFAS, UK)
17:00 Research on metal ecotoxicology and endocrine disrupters: Any legislative implications?, by Poul Bjerregaard (University of South Western Denmark)
17:20 Ecotoxicology in international conventions, by Ketil Hylland (Oslo University)
17:40 Conclusions, by Ingvar Brandt (Uppsala University)
Friday 7 May
09:00 The view of industry, by Watze de Wolf (Dupont/Cefic Brussels)
09:30 REACH implementation – Risk Assessment, by Jose Tarazona (European Chemicals Agency)
10:00 Policy implementation on basis of research, by Ludo Holsbek (EEA Scientific Committee and Flemish Government)
10:30 Refreshments
11:00 Discussion – are we doing the right thing to optimally serve policy making?, by Ake Bergman (Stockholm University)
12:00 Lunch
14:00 New tools in ecotoxicology – promises or reality, by Teresa Lettieri (JRC-IES, Ispra)
14:20 Alternative methods in ecotoxicology – is it realistic?, by Helmut Segner (University of Bern)
14:40 Discussion – Are we doing the right thing – where should we go in the future? How can we optimise the methodology?, by Peter Pärt ((JRC-IES)


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Six month milestone sessions are so fun because you really begin to see their personality start to shine. This pretty little sweetheart just warmed my heart right along with her family. Her picturesque smile really stood out among the accented florals and adorable headbands 😉 Enjoy her precious smile as much as I did!
Specializing in newborn and first year photography. Located in Cedarburg WI, serving the greater Milwaukee area.


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Authority, Betray, Betrayal, Heaven, Jesus, Jesus Sayings, Jews, John 19, Kingdom, Kingdom of God, Pilate, Priest
Pontius Pilate was the fifth prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. He served under Emperor Tiberius. Essentially he was a Governor in the Roman empire. He is the highest political authority in Jerusalem at the time.
Jesus is standing before him. It is a life or death conversation. The Jewish high Priests want him crucified and out of the way. Pilate is trying to find a way out. He is hoping Jesus will help him out of this dilemma.
Pilate told them he couldn't find anything wrong with him. The Jews answered, "We have a law, and by that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God."
So there Jesus stood. Pilate seeks to interrogate him again. Jesus doesn't answer. Imaging that. No answer. Just stands there.
Jesus will not be interrogated. Is it then unusual that when I cry out "Why God" I hear birds chirping. Jesus is the Son of God. I need to understand that. If I am not getting an answer then maybe I need to focus on who is in charge. It isn't me! Who am I to question Jesus? I am to pray, May your will be done.
Pilate tries another approach. He now pulls out the "authority card".
How did that work?
Jesus lets Pilate know that Pilate has no authority over Jesus. None. Not a bit. The only authority Pilate has is given him by God. (Note: a lesson for our partisan politics).
When Pilate heard this, he became even more scared. He went back into the palace and said to Jesus, "Where did you come from?"
Jesus gave no answer.
Pilate said, "You won't talk? Don't you know that I have the authority to pardon you, and the authority to—crucify you?"
Jesus said, "You haven't a shred of authority over me except what has been given you from heaven. That's why the one who betrayed me to you has committed a far greater fault."
Source: John 19:8-11


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Browse by Subject
Group by: Creators | Item Type
Jump to: I
Number of items: 1.
Imad Ibrahim Ali Al-Sultan, and Erkihun Aklilu, and M.S. Muhammad, and M. M. Arshad, (2012) The penetrability of selected bacteria on the raw bovine meat. Journal of Advanced Medical Research, 2. pp. 12-17. ISSN 2231-8313


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By Keat Foong, Executive EditorHalf Moon Bay, Calif. — Fannie Mae is working on a number of enhancements to its multifamily financing offerings, including a combined construction-permanent financing product. The agency says it is cooperating with several DUS lenders who have construction lending expertise to combine construction financing with permanent debt. "The construction-to-permanent product will offer a seamless, lower cost execution and more certainty for the construction of new multifamily properties," Fannie Mae states.Currently, only HUD offers a multifamily construction-permanent loan, under its FHA mortgage insurance program. HUD's combined financing requires one underwriting and approval for both loans, with the construction loan rolling over to permanent loan. Despite major improvements over the years, customers still complain HUD's processing of the insured loan product can be cumbersome depending on the market. Fannie Mae also announced it is enabling lenders to lock the interest rate on Fannie Mae loans at any point during the underwriting process. The Streamlined Rate Lock will provide more delegation to lenders and offer borrowers certainty of execution, it says.Fannie Mae recently introduced the Refi PlusTM product, which is meant to make it easier for borrowers to refinance their existing DUS loan. Borrowers can lock the interest rate for their refinance loan up to 24 months in advance of the expiration of their prepayment period, and can use a Fannie Mae Supplemental Loan to immediately fund additional proceeds without having to wait for the existing DUS loan to mature.Fannie Mae announced that it has experienced its strongest first-half year ever for DUS, with an increase of 30 percent over production in the same period in 2007. Fannie Mae's investment in multifamily housing totaled $20 billion in the first half of 2008.Fannie Mae reported large increases in its Small Loans and Student Housing financing. Its investments in Small Loans "surged" to nearly $5 billion in the first half of 2008. (Small Loans are loans of up to $3 million, or $5 million in certain markets.) The company also invested over $1.5 billion in Seniors Housing, and $264 million in Student Housing, doubling its mid-year 2007 production of $132 million. Fannie Mae's investment in Manufactured Housing increased four fold, from $89 million through mid-year 2007 to $458 million through mid-year 2008.
Fannie Mae Announces Multifamily Financing Modifications, Record $2B in First Half Volume
2 min read


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An elegant & stylishly designed toilet frame to help make your every day living easier. Its simple form blends well with most bathroom styles.
Two shower stool designs provide options for different bathroom sizes. You can combine them with our grab rails for extra support.
A choice of four distinctive grab rails ensure safety & security in key areas of your bathroom including the shower.
We've designed our launch range of assisted living products for older & less able people in collaboration with the award winning Glasgow based product development company Filament PD.
Called 'Lintrathen' after one of our favourite East Perthshire haunts, this first range includes a Toilet Surround, two designs for Shower Stools & four designs for Grab Rails.
Products in the pipeline include three new designs for Chair Raisers & a second bathroom suite of Toilet Surround, Shower Stool & Grab Rail in another distinctive design called 'Balintore'.
"A new generation – millions of older people – have become accustomed to high design standards in the everyday products they take for granted – from their iPhones, to their cars. This prosperous demographic expects no less from the household equipment they purchase to retain their independence & wellbeing. By meeting these new, higher design expectations, the Ellihome range has the potential to be a game changer".
John Thackara
Senior Fellow, Royal College of Art & Design, Member, UK Parliament Standing Commission on Design
Elli (Assisted Living Technology) Ltd is a new Scottish company founded by sisters Olivia Robertson & Clare Cooper. Their vision is to increase the independence & wellbeing of older people by creating beautifully designed, high quality Assisted Living products.
Olivia is a registered Occupational Therapist with over 30 years' experience. Clare has spent her professional life specialising in the finance & management of the arts and creative industries.
Olivia and Clare are winners of the Scottish Women in Business Innovator Award and ellihome's sister company, The Home Straight won the Innovative Idea category at the 2019 Tay Cities Social Enterprise Awards.
"The idea for ellihome grew out of our personal experience of setting up The Home Straight, ellihome's sister company, which specialises in helping older people move, downsize & age in place.
With increasing numbers of our older clients choosing to stay safe & independent in their own home for as long as possible & decreasing State support to enable them to do so, we could see a consumer market for assisted living products primed for growth.
Combining this opportunity with the surprising absence in the market of well designed, high quality assisted living products crystallised our idea for ellihome."
ellihome's home base is in Eastern Perthshire - a little over half an hour away from Scotland's fourth largest city, Dundee, the UK's only UNESCO City of Design.
Published on 01 June 2018


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- Wednesday, March 23 – Saturday, March 26
- McAuley Aquatic Center – Atlanta, GA
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Texas (results)
- Championship Central
- Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday prelins & finals, Friday/Saturday prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Live results
In one of the most eye-popping swims you may ever see, Texas freshman Townley Haas crushed the NCAA, American, and U.S. Open record in the 200 yard freestyle with a final time of 1:30.46. Fresh off of teammate Joseph Schooling's 100 butterfly record, Haas came out on a mission, clocking 20.90 in the first 50 and flipping at 43.61 at the 100, nearly a full second under the previous record pace from Simon Burnett of Arizona. Haas slowed down a bit over the final 100 (closing in "only" a 46.85), but was enough below pace to crush Burnett's standard.
A comparison of the splits:
Simon Burnett (2006, Atlanta): 21.28, 44.44 [23.16], 1:07.53 [23.09], 1:31.20 [23.67]
Townley Haas (2016, Atlanta): 20.90, 43.61 [22.71], 1:06.92 [23.31], 1:30.46 [23.54]
Impressively, that swim was actually under Haas' record split from Wednesday night when he was completely fresh. Doubly impressive: Haas is just a freshman, and has three more years to dip under the 1:30 barrier.


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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has posted a notice relating to the availability of Sucraid (sacrosidase oral solution; QOL Medical). The product is currently in shortage because the process that has been used to manufacture the product does not meet the FDA's good manufacturing practices. While the company works to meet these pharmaceutical standards, a limited amount of unapproved product will be available to physicians and patients who consent to the use of this product.
Sucraid is indicated as oral replacement therapy of the genetically determined sucrase deficiency, which is part of congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency (CSID). CSID is a chronic, autosomal recessive, inherited phenotypically heterogeneous disease with very variable enzyme activity. In the absence of endogenous human sucrase, as in CSID, sucrose is not metabolized. Sucraid helps to improve the breakdown and absorption of sucrose from the intestine which can help relieve the gastrointestinal symptoms of CSID.
The unapproved lot of Sucraid contains 650 boxes (each box containing two bottles). The FDA is recommending that clinicians prioritize access to the drug for patients with severe CSID and for patients with evidence of malnutrition. As the product was manufactured at an unapproved facility, clinicians should be aware that the bottles from this lot may contain bacterial byproducts, which may be a safety concern, especially in patients with weakened immune systems. The risks of this product should be weighed against the benefits and discussed with patients.
The FDA is working closely with QOL Medical to alleviate the Sucraid shortage by providing assistance to the company to help resolve the manufacturing issues. In the meantime, the FDA has posted consent forms for both prescribers and patients to review and fill out. A separate Acknowledgement Form needs to be completed for each patient prescribed Sucraid. As of May 4, 2017, these forms must be filled out in order to receive a prescription for Sucraid. The completed forms should be faxed to SucraidASSIST at (800) 632-1944.
The consent forms can be found here.
For more information visit FDA.gov.


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Explore the Great Outdoors in Montgomery
Monday, June 25, 2018
MONTGOMERY, Ala., June 25, 2018 – Central Alabama offers a wealth of natural resources and beautiful scenery making it the perfect location to enjoy the great outdoors, and Montgomery is an ideal home base for those looking to experience an active vacation. Known for its Southern hospitality and its revitalized downtown, this riverfront capital city was the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and has established itself as a landmark Deep South destination with much to offer in the field of arts and culture. With everything from mountain biking trails and whitewater kayaking to first rate golf courses, Montgomery features all visitors need for an active vacation.
"We know that many guests come to Montgomery to experience our Civil Rights attractions, but with a wealth of outdoor activities in close proximity we hope visitors will plan to spend some of their vacation taking full advantage," shares Vice President of Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Dawn Hathcock. "With warm weather, many outdoor activities are available year-round."
Below is an overview of outdoor activities in close proximity to Montgomery:
Coosa River Adventures – located just north of Montgomery in Wetumpka, Coosa River Adventures is Alabama's whitewater canoe and kayak outfitter, offering rentals and sales of new or used Canoe, Sit-on-top kayak, Sit Inside Kayak or Stand up Paddleboard. Rentals include boat, paddle(s), transportation to the launch site, and life jackets (PFD's). Trips average 3 to 4 hours and scheduling is a must. The numerous class II rapids (wide open clear channels easily paddled by novices) make the Coosa River a great first time whitewater experience. http://www.coosariveradventures.com/
Swayback Bridge Trail – located 30 minutes north of Montgomery in Wetumpka, Swayback features a 4.6 mile loop trail suited for hiking, trail running, and mountain biking and is accessible year-round. Directional arrows and mile markers make the trail easy to navifate. For more information, go to https://alabama.travel/places-to-go/swayback-bridge-trail
Lagoon Park, located to the northeast of downtown Montgomery, Lagoon Park provides ballfields, a golf course and also the Lagoon Park Trail. This trail offers five miles of biking, hiking and running terrain from sunrise to sunset. For more information, go to http://www.funinmontgomery.com/parks-items/lagoon-park-trail
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, offering some of the most affordable public golf courses in the country, Montgomery is within an hour's drive of three Robert Trent Jones designed golf courses. Ranked highly by Golf Magazine and Golf Digest, these courses are accessible year-round due to Montgomery's warm climate. For more information, go to http://www.rtjgolf.com/capitolhill/
Jackson Lake Island, located just 15 minutes from downtown Montgomery this relaxing paradise has a public boat launch, sites for RV hook ups, primitive camping and access to fishing. It is also the site of the fictional town of Spectre, where the movie Big Fish was filmed. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/pg/JacksonLakeIsland
Alabama Black Belt Adventures, a non-profit organization committed to promoting outdoor recreation across Central Alabama, provides resources for visitors interested in hunting and fishing. The area around Montgomery is ripe with opportunity for sportsmen and this organization provides information on seasons, licensing requirements, and where to hunt and fish. For more information, go to http://alabamablackbeltadventures.org/
Paddleboard Rental, with rentals available on the Alabama River from the docks of Riverfront Park in downtown Montgomery, Lighting Line allows guests to take full advantage of visiting a riverfront city. Offering a unique vantage point of downtown, Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) excursions are for every skill level. For more info, go to http://www.lightninglinemgm.com/paddle-board-rentals-1/
For more information on Montgomery, go to http://visitingmontgomery.com/
About Montgomery
Situated on the banks of the Alabama River, Montgomery is the capital and the second largest city in the state of Alabama. Established in 1819, Montgomery has been the site of major historic events which have shaped the history of the United States. Emerging from its agricultural roots in the 19th century, Montgomery transformed from the Cradle of the Confederacy to the birth place of the Civil Rights Movement in less than a century. Today, this vibrant river town is experiencing a resurgence which has seen its downtown revitalized and has reestablished itself as a landmark Deep South destination. Montgomery Regional Airport (MGM) offers non-stop flights on Delta Airlines and American Airlines. For more information, call 334-261-1100 or visit the official website of the Montgomery Convention and Visitor Bureau at http://www.visitingmontgomery.com. Stay connected with Montgomery on Twitter (@MGMCapitalCool) and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MGMCapitalCool).


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Kensington Palace has released portions of video calls the Duchess has been taking part in.
In one video, Kate spoke with parents Rebecca Attwood and John Gill as their newborn baby, Max, was nearby.
Kate can be heard saying, "Hello! very nice to meet you! This is definitely a first, I think!"
More on how things transpired from Emily Nash's Hello! article:
From her Anmer Hall home in Norfolk, she watched as Sam Frewin, Lead Midwife Birth Centre & better Births, put on an apron and mask before taking the laptop in to introduce her to the new family. "I'm smiling, can you tell?" joked Sam. "With your eyes, I can," laughed Kate.
Below, Kate seeing baby Max, whom she described as "so sweet!"
The conventional reports that "when she was told the infant had been born the night before, the royal said: 'My goodness, you must be exhausted.'" Rebecca's reaction to all of the goings-on?
Rebecca also said, "Our experience was that all the midwives made it as normal as possible – apart from the masks, it was exactly the same as when we had our first son Rafe, in 2015. The midwives at Kingston were amazing on both occasions."
The Duchess did a call with midwives from Kingston hospital on April 22nd.
You may recall Kate spent two days at the Kingston Maternity hospital in November.
She also accompanied community midwives on home visits as part of her November training. Below, the Duchess with Kingston staff.
In her town and country piece, Victoria Murphy reports: "…since the lockdown began, she has been speaking with parents, midwives, and experts to hear about the unique challenges that pregnant women, new mothers, and their families are currently facing." more on this call from Simon Perry's people story:
Are you very aware of a difference, or a shift in a mother's emotional and mental wellbeing in comparison to before the pandemic?" she asked.
She was told there was "a lot more anxiety" because of the situation. "Do they know where to go to get the right support particularly for emotional and mental wellbeing?" Kate asked.
And she praised the staff for keeping working through the challenging weeks. "Babies come all the time so that fact that you're having to work in these difficult times, so well done."
Below, a screengrab of another call the Duchess did, this one a roundtable discussion with experts in the maternal mental health field.
The calls are in advance of the UK's Maternal mental health awareness Week starting tomorrow and running through the 10th, designed to create awareness of maternal mental health.
The awareness week is a project of the Perinatal mental health partnership and it is a grassroots effort run without any funding. From the organization's Facebook page:
…the week has grown from a little idea to something that is now celebrated annually in the UK and beyond.
We all remember what it was like to be unwell . To wonder if recovery is possible, to think about how to access help and support.
We truly hope you find the week to be a source of help and support and of comfort.
Let's support Mums during difficult Times.
2020 is also the international Year of the nurse and Midwife.
In the first video we saw, the Duchess wore a sweater by Tabitha Webb.
It was the brand's 'Jessie' Knit in Blue and White Chevron (£275, about $345 at today's exchange rates) with thanks to Laura (@Japanese_Ginger on Twitter) for her very speedy ID.
The sweater is a blend of 70% wool/30% cashmere and available for pre-order with up a four-week delivery window.
It looked like Kate was wearing the Daniella Draper hoops first seen in Ireland (minus the shamrock charms), as she did in March for the London Ambulance engagement.
For the roundtable discussion, Kate appeared to be wearing a Boden dress, the British brand's Aurora Midi wrap dress in heron blue.
The dress is made of a crinkly-textured viscose in a wrap-style design with three-quarter sleeves, gathers at the shoulders, a back yoke, self-belt that ties at the waist, a tiered skirt, and a length that hits mid-calf according to the product details. It is no longer available. thank you to The Royal Ladies for pointing out it was this dress. The dress was first noted in a photo used for one of last year's Christmas cards.
Kate's earrings on this call look like a new pair and they are UFO.
UPDATE MONDAY may 4: Nicki suggests in a comment the earrings are the Panther and rose Quartz Cabochon style ($2078 CAD, roughly $1475 at today's exchange rates) from new Wave Jewellery.
New Wave Jewellery is afamily-run business based in Ontario, Canada, started more than thirty years ago. It specializes in unique designs created using only 18k gold. I have contacted the firm to see if they can verify the earrings are the pair Kate is wearing.
UPDATE 2 MONDAY may 4: Martina suggests another possibility, the Patrick Mavros Smoky Quartz Earrings ($760).
This designer makes sense, as the Duchess has worn his designs before on multiple occasions. The only distinction I see is that the tops of her earrings almost look square or diamond-shaped in most photos I have been able to find. but this would certainly be a possibility so I will get an email off to the company shortly.
UPDATE 3 MONDAY may 4: Stephanie shared a photo on the WKW Facebook page in which the earring top appears more round than square, making the Patrick Mavros pair a much more likely candidate. I will update if/when I hear back from the company. here is the photo Stephanie posted.
UPDATE 4 TUESDAY may 5: After seeing the photo Stephanie shared on Facebook I contacted Patrick Mavros to ask if Kate might have been wearing their earrings. After seeing photos that I emailed they tell me the Duchess was wearing their ocean Tides Milky Quartz Earrings with 18ct Gold in Silver ($1014). Below, an updated graphic with more images I pulled from the video and Stephanie's enlargement.
Thank you again to Martina for her original comment and Stephanie for the photo enlargement. To me, they look like the Patrick Mavros design. Hopefully, we will see Kate wearing them again in the not-too-distant future!
Thank you to all posting such fab suggestions!
You can see all of the call content here.
The Perinatal mental health partnership Facebook page is here; the Maternal mental health alliance site is here and Twitter feed here
Victoria Murphy's town and country piece is here; Emily Nash's Hello! story about the calls is here; Simon Perry's people piece is here; The Standard's article is here; The daily Mail's coverage is here


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Blog, Human Resources
The Future of Recruiting Technology
Finding the ideal candidate to join your company is a challenging task, but it's gradually becoming easier thanks to advancing technology that not only speeds things up but helps with much of the minutiae of hiring. While many tried and true hiring tactics are still a must, like interviews and checking references, there's been enough progress to save HR from wasting time on the wrong candidate.
Targeted Ads
Have you ever had those moments when you're browsing the web, or just spending time on social media, when suddenly an advertisement appears for a product you've only thought or talked about? Imagine a potential candidate suddenly finding your job posting in the same manner. Although the reaction ranges somewhere between invasive and kismet, there's no denying the potential reach of targeted recruiting ads.
These ads are one of the most useful tools in your hiring arsenal. If a potential candidate is on a hiring website, chances are that they know the type of job to search for, and your goal is to get to the top of the list. The simplest way is through targeted ads. Include the industry, job type, requirements, job description, and keywords, then let the algorithms do the rest.
You have targeted ads to direct potential hires to your website, and that's great. However, according to a CareerXroads study, 98% of these visitors will leave your site almost immediately. Don't let this stat dissuade you. The issue isn't caused by a poorly written job description, it's that it's not the job that they're looking for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to solving this dilemma.
Your targeted ads are making the rounds, being seen by many eyes, just not the ones you need. Good SEO increases the visibility of your recruiting ads, and there are several ways to do this. First, make sure your website is mobile-optimized. Almost everyone who's looking for a job is doing so on mobile devices at least in part, so it would hinder your chances of finding good prospects by not ignoring mobile users.
An additional way to improve SEO is by making use of effective social media strategies. Post on Facebook and LinkedIn Recruiter, all the while building an audience through engagement. Post relevant articles and actively respond to comments. This strategy both builds your company's online presence and ensures that the right eyes are on the job ads you post.
Technological advancement in this field continues to increase at a surprising rate. Resume screening programs can help filter out the less qualified candidates while giving prominence to the stronger ones. The program does so by matching requirements and skills needed to each resume. In other words, it does the job of the recruiter.
Automated interviewing tools can also streamline the interview process, making it more efficient. They can analyze important data that factors into a good interview performance, such as facial expressions, speech patterns, and word choices. Once again, doing your very job for you.
Before you panic about a robot uprising, remember you're the one at the helm implementing these strategies to find the best recruit. Remember that these tools and strategies are always advancing, you just need to be the one strategizing their uses.
Alex Correa


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The activity was attended by executives and employees of SM City General Santos, representatives from the city-lgu and mall goers. There were also performances from the Holy Trinity College Marching Band and a choir group.
Meanwhile, children from the Maria Goretti Home for Girls received their early Christmas presents from SM City General Santos also during the program.
|At the back is the giant nautical-inspired Christmas Tree


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By Suresh Nair
DONALD Trump may well be giving the thumbs-up if he reads this: American graduate Raspreet Sandhu has become the first US-born lad to sign for four-times S-League champions Tampines Rovers.
The newly-elected US President has always advocated a foreign policy of "America first" and he will be pleased to know that this 23-year-old lad from Sonoma State University in California gets to be first to play for Tampines Rovers in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup.
It's been tough-going in the pre-season trials for Raspreet, whose father Kalwant also played for Tampines Rovers in the mid-1970s. But Raspreet is ball and brain as he's a Bachelor of Arts (BA) history graduate from the university, located about 40 miles north of San Francisco, and he played three years for the renowned Sea Wolves.
For the moment, he has yet to showcase his abilities in the 22-year-old S-League as he cannot be registered after the Stags (Tampines Rovers' nickname) maximised their league foreign quota with Japanese winger Ryutaro Megumi, Croatian forward Ivan Dzoni and 25-year-old South Korean Son Yong Chan.
The AFC Cup, on the other hand, allows up to four foreign players to be on the pitch at any one time and this will give new German coach Jurgen Raab more depth, as the AFC Cup and S.League kick-off on the same week.
Tampines' President Krishna Ramachandra says: "Raspreet has got the big break for the AFC Cup. That's a massive start for a 23-year-old. But we will hold on to him for the S-League season and (coach) Raab may use him if one of the three foreign professionals don't perform up to expectations.
"So it's a win-win situation for Raspreet, who has personally proven to me that he has the rip-roaring talent to be a value-add professional. I must also mention this. I admire and respect his dad (Kalwant Sandhu) because he's been very professional in his approach to me and the club and never ever pushed for Raspreet to be given any favoured treatment just because Kalwant was one of the Tampines' players in the mid-1970s."
News of Raspreet's Singapore signing may not have hit the roof at the White House but in California, his head coach at Sonoma State University, Marcus Ziemer, had glowing words: "Raspreet is an excellent player. Not only is he quick and agile, but his ball skills are outstanding. He is crafty on the dribble and also has excellent vision and can break teams down with his passing.
"He is tough to mark out of a game and is very competitive and hates to lose. Raspreet has an excellent shot with both feet and scored some big goals for us. Working very hard, he has always been one of the first on the training ground and the last to leave. Let me reiterate that all of his hard work has finally paid off".
Tampines Rovers General Manager Desmund Khusnin, adds: "Raspreet joining TRFC is a bit of a historic moment as Kal Sandhu, his father, used to play for Tampines Rovers and this is great for football in Singapore as it evidences the passion for football that runs through generations. Raspreet joins us on our AFC campaign. He has impressed us in trials and we hope he ends up having a long future with us".
Director of Football Excellence at Tampines Rovers, Jita Singh, forewarns of Raspreet's longer-term potential: "I will not pull any punches but I will go on record to say that Raspreet would be starting on the Singapore national team if he was a citizen. He has great attitude and disposition".
The award-winning Jita can spot true talent from hundreds of miles away as he was the first Sikh footballer to play for Singapore in the early 1970s, at 22 years, and donned Singapore colours during the first and only three-weeks overseas playing tour in England in 1972. He later went on to be the youngest Singapore coach to win the Malaysia Cup in 1981 and the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) decorated him with the 1983 'Coach of the Year' award.
"I hope Raspreet stays with Tampines because he has that rare fire in the belly to succeed," says Jita. "Academically, he's also strong as a BA degree graduate, so he's a smart formula to marry both football and studies to be a noteworthy role-model young football professional."
Raspreet is over the moon after he signed the professional-contract and promised to live up to expectations. "It's been real hard work to compete with so many young professionals," he says. "I expected or never asked for any favours just because my dad was a former Tampines player. I knew I had to start from ground zero and prove to everyone that I've the necessary qualities to realize my longer-term dreams to be a football professional."
Dad Kalwant and mum, Pam, were reduced to tears after the Tampines' announcement. Kalwant, who played with me in the 1974 hockey tour to India with Singapore Juniors, admitted confidentially to me that "my son is 1,000 times better than me, football-wise".
"Raspreet, the youngest of my three sons, can elegantly juggle tennis balls, non-stop, with both feet, until the American cows jumped over the moon!," he told me tongue-in-cheek. "Believe me Suresh, he has so much of footballing talent, ever since he was two years. Yes, two years! And when he hinted to me that he wants to be a football pro, after graduating with an university degree, I said, give it a shot at my Singapore club, Tampines Rovers, which ranks as one of Asean's oldest clubs."
Kalwant, 61, a well-known businessman in Mountain View, California, who even ran for the race to be a suburb mayor a few years ago, says the professional baptism at Tampines Rovers is a "blessing in disguise".
From 1977 to 1979, he turned out for Tampines Rovers in local top-flight football before he left for his studies. Among some of the more illustrious names he played with were former internationals Quah Kim Song, R. Suriamurthi and Edmund Wee.
He recalls training under the legendary "Uncle" Choo Seng Quee, who won the Malaysia Cup in 1977. Kalwant says: "He told me that I had a chance to play for the national team. I still regard him as one of my mentors. He might yell at you often, but that's because of his extraordinary enthusiasm."
Suriamurthi, one of the most talent-gifted midfielders in the late 1970s and 80s, also remembers Kalwant. He says: "He was probably the only Sikh playing football at that level at that time. He was a good player. We used to play in the same team."
Kalwant received his US citizenship in 2001 and the Sandhu family now resides in Santa Clara County called Mountain View, where he is also vice-chairman of the city's Human Relations Commission. He also holds a National Diploma from the National Soccer Coaches of America Association.
I watched Raspreet in his early days in January for the Tampines Rovers' trials, and I knew he had a mountain to climb with a legendary club. But, believe me, I sensed he could overturn the odds simply because he's got what it takes: A real heart of steel, a big head to succeed (without a turban!) and a steady pair of sure-footed football feet.
When he first arrived here, Raspreet told me: "Tampines Rovers is the biggest name club in Singapore and I want to prove my worth to be considered for selection. My father believes in me and I must have confidence in my playing skills to make it as a football professional.
"Yes, it's going to be hard with a vast talent of new players coming for trials. But hopefully with the support of family and friends and, most importantly God, I will make my dream come true."
Chairman Ramachandra believes that Donald Trump's philosophy of "America first" may well have inspired Raspreet to reach out the S-League record books as the first American professional teenager footballer.
He says: "It's good to see such a varied interest from young professionals-to-be far and wide to take part in our trials. Raspreet, being a Sikh, is a bonus as that community has produced some superb footballers over the years."
Even in Malaysia, Sikh-names like Santokh Singh and Shebby Singh have significantly hogged the football headlines from the 1970s. Both turbanless Sikhs went on to be skippers of the Harimaus (nickname of Malaysian national team) in their respective positions as rear-guard sweepers of Asian-class standards.
Now only time will tell if Raspreet, who started with the America Youth Soccer Organization League when he was five years, can rewrite the books and, in the process, make (dad) Kalwant really proud as the first American-Sikh to break new professional grounds in Singapore.
And somewhere along the hallmark corridors of the White House, President Donald Trump may well be blowing his trumpet again on another "America first" heroic.
• Suresh Nair is a Singapore-based journalist who was one of the founder-committee members of Tampines Rovers when the S-League was launched in 1996. Raspreet's father, Kalwant, was his hockey-playing mate in the mid-1970s when they played for Singapore.


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Peter Berg is stalking across a boxing ring—gloves up, head bobbing, sinews twitching—looking for an opening so he can unleash a flurry of punches into the torso of his opponent, a recently retired Navy SEAL. Dressed in Johnny Cash black, the 51-year-old director of the films Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor, drives the SEAL onto the ropes, where he lands a strong jab-cross combo, then vaults out of reach when his opponent strikes back. The SEAL pursues Berg into the middle of the ring, and the two men trade a series of loud, thwacking blows before embracing in a clinch. The bell rings and Berg flops down in his corner, drenched in sweat. He waves me over with his glove.
"Good way to wake up," he growls through his mouth guard.
It's 9 a.m. on a Tuesday at Wild Card West Boxing Club, the Santa Monica gym that Berg co-owns, and the director appears eerily calm, even serene, for someone engaged in hand-to-hand combat. But Peter Berg, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, is in his Zen place. "For me, this is kind of like yoga," he tells me later.
Well, yoga with a fury. Colby Parker Jr., Berg's longtime film editor, says that one of Berg's most fundamental beliefs is that every time "one man meets another man, the first thing that goes through his mind, whether or not he knows it, is: 'Can I take him in a fight?'" Taylor Kitsch, a frequent star in Berg's films and a sometime sparring partner, says boxing with the director often means finding yourself in "a street fight…he can get very offensive—put it that way." Or, in the words of Dwayne Johnson, another inveterate Berg collaborator: "In the ring and in training, Pete's an absolute fucking animal."
Dwayne Johnson Sounds Off on Peter Berg >>>
Even when he's not wearing boxing gloves, Berg can't help but throw punches. During the making of 2007's The Kingdom, Berg playfully socked his leading lady, Jennifer Garner, in the stomach, mistakenly believing she was wearing a protective flak jacket. (She wasn't, but was unhurt.) During a break from filming 2013's Lone Survivor, about Navy SEALs in Afghanistan, Berg got into a friendly midair brawl with his leading man, Mark Wahlberg, causing thousands of dollars of damage to the interior of the actor's private jet. "He punched me in the throat once and I couldn't talk for a week—that really made him happy," Parker remembers. "He was excited to know that he might have crushed my larynx. He gets this weird Cheshire cat smile if he draws blood from you."
Just a few years ago, such behavior might have gotten Berg mistaken for just another brash Hollywood ego run amok. After all, this was the guy who followed up a tepidly received Will Smith superhero movie, Hancock, with 2012's Battleship, a $220 million board-game-adaptation flop. But since Battleship, Berg has shunned comic book and Hasbro projects and pursued what he's described as a personal mission: making films and TV shows that depict the struggles of extremely capable, very physical, (usually) real-life men.
Following the success of Lone Survivor, he's now in the process of developing movies about wrongfully imprisoned boxer Dewey Bozella and Mexico's jailed Sinaloa cartel drug lord "El Chapo" Guzmán. He's currently directing Deepwater Horizon, a big-budget film chronicling the chaos of the 2010 BP oil spill, from the perspective of the roughnecks who worked on the rig.
"He really has this unique, interesting mix of strong human empathy and machismo," says Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the producer of the Transformers movies, who hired Berg to direct Deepwater Horizon. "Our movie is about honoring both the people who died and those who survived that day, so humanity is incredibly important; at the same time, the rig blowout itself was intense, it was heroic, it was literally a trial by fire. There are a lot of people who can shoot frenetic or dynamic action, but there's only a handful of directors capable of keeping you in the shoes of the characters while this traumatic thing is going on. If I need humanity, Pete's got it. If I need toughness, Pete's got it."
This month marks the premiere of another high-profile Berg project: HBO's Ballers, an Entourage-like dramedy about current and former football players in Miami and their harried retired-jock money manager, played by Dwayne Johnson. (Berg serves as executive producer, directed the pilot, and even makes an appearance as a coach). The show, he says, "looks at drugs and domestic violence and whatever disaster of the day hits the NFL, but it's also meant to be a fun experience."
At the same time, Berg has stepped far beyond the director's chair and into the spotlight himself as an outspoken critic on a range of issues, from sports to the male lifestyle. In 2013, he debuted his own HBO Sports documentary series, State of Play, where he leads round-table discussions on issues such as football head injuries, responsible Little League parenting, and pro-athlete domestic violence. He wrote about his decision to pull his son from tackle football for Time. And he routinely makes appearances on sports talk-radio shows, in school auditoriums, and on ideas-festival panels, where he promotes his own ideas of proper manhood. His "Bergisms" can be practical, such as advising someone to routinely wake up before dawn, but they tend to take on a cryptic and quasi-spiritual quality, too. "Smooth is fast in all aspects of life," Berg once told listeners on Colby Parker Jr.'s podcast, The Flavor Bin. "Whether it's combat, romance, academics, or finance—be smooth, be fast."
Take them or leave them, but these are the words Peter Berg lives by, and today at Wild Card West, I watch as he applies his teachings to combat: He quickly chases his sparring partners with a scowl, pushes them to the point of exhaustion, then hugs it out afterward. He tells me he's designed his gym to attract his kind of people and foster his brand of everyone-is-equal-in-the-ring values. Police, fire fighters, EMTs, and active and retired military train for free. Professional fighters—Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, Peter Quillin, Julio César Chávez Jr., and Ray Beltrán—take over Wild Card West some afternoons. On the weekends, Berg opens up the gym to L.A. youth, and attracts "some pretty tough kids from the rougher areas of the city and some really wealthy West Side kids whose parents drop them off and say, 'I want someone to punch my kid in the face.'" Movie types do drop by, but there's no industry talk—Berg has banned it.
"I'm not going to help anyone's career," he says. "No one is looking for anything, it's just a bunch of guys who love boxing. I'd much rather do this than go into Hollywood."
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A few minutes after Berg wraps up his sparring workout with 21 vigorously executed pullups, the director and I are sitting upstairs in Wild Card West's version of a man cave. Resting on a shelf are a framed poster for the James Earl Jones boxing film The Great White Hope, a painting of a child soldier wielding a Kalashnikov, and a portrait of a dark-haired nude. Behind me, on the opposite wall, hangs a giant painting of a handgun. (Only after our interview do I realize that Berg had been staring at it for nearly two hours.)
Berg grew up in the tony New York City suburb of Chappaqua, the son of an ex-Marine ad man. Early on, he was a self-described spaz, channeling his massive energy reserves toward sports, fighting, and, often, making everyone around him anxious and miserable. He started boxing at summer camp. "It was kind of a sadistic place," Berg says. "The counselors would take us into the woods, make a boxing ring with rope around the trees, pick kids to fight, then bet on us." You found out quickly what you were really made of, and there was no hiding. Berg loved it. "I guess I was always drawn to people of action, people who did something," he says. "I was always looking at the guys who were kind of running at [conflict]. I always thought there was a lot of fun in that culture."
When Berg arrived in Los Angeles in 1985, he was determined to make it as an actor. By the early 1990s, he had a formidable career. He'd co-starred in the ski-bum-classic Aspen Extreme, played a con's easy mark in the neo-noir The Last Seduction, and gotten picked for the role of the eponymous melanin-deprived boxer in the comedy The Great White Hype. Most famously, he starred as hockey-playing Dr. Billy Kronk on CBS's Chicago Hope, where he went mano-a-mano with George Clooney's ER doc in the hospital-drama ratings war.
But he also found himself slipping into what he called the "anti-working-man code." He and his actor buddies would take pride in sleeping late, going to movies in the middle of the day, and tearing up the L.A. scene at night. "There wasn't a club in Hollywood where I wasn't the last one out," Berg says. He was succeeding in his career, but he was restless. He was spending too many hours "just fucking sitting around being bored out of my mind."
On the set of Cop Land—a New York–area crime drama starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, and Harvey Keitel—Berg, then 32, decided he needed to make a change. "I was watching the director, James Mangold, and here's this kid my age arguing with Stallone and Harvey Weinstein, and I asked him, 'Dude, how did you get this?'"
Mangold told Berg he needed to write a script. So Berg buckled down, returning to his small room at New York's Essex House hotel every night and writing out scenes on note cards until they filled up the walls. Two years later, the note cards became Very Bad Things, a black comedy about a Las Vegas bachelor party that spirals terribly out of control.
"Look, I used to go to Vegas and party a lot," he says. "And I can remember being there with some friends, and everywhere I looked there were these groups of white preppy guys in khaki pants and button-down shirts and they'd just have this crazy look in their eyes. I remember thinking, 'These guys are looking for something—what happens if they find it?'"
As Berg's career grew, so did the lengths he'd go to prepare for his films. For 2003's action-comedy, The Rundown, starring Johnson, Berg and a small production crew went to Brazil to scout Amazonian locations, and were briefly detained by a group of gunmen. ("We were taken by three gentlemen at gunpoint and moved to the edge of a cliff and spent what felt like a very long period of time getting all our stuff taken," he says.) For 2004's Texas football epic Friday Night Lights, Berg spent a season with the varsity squad of Westlake High School in the suburbs of Austin, an experiment that informed the much-loved Friday Night Lights TV show he created in 2006. ("After that, people would ask me if I could bring a Friday Night Lights approach to a project," he says, "something that was visceral and deeply emotional.") For 2007's war-on-terror thriller The Kingdom, Berg visited Saudi Arabia and shadowed the local police force, then spent time with FBI agents in the bureau's international crime division. Even Battleship merited immersive research: The director spent 10 days aboard the USS Spruance.
But it was Berg's last movie, Lone Survivor, where the lines between his filmmaking and his life converged. For research, Berg embedded for a month with a SEAL unit in Iraq, accompanying them on raids. ("Did you ever see anyone killed?" he asked a New York Times Magazine writer in 2013. "I did.") When he got back home, he spent a year getting to know the SEAL community, "going out and drinking with them, meeting their wives,"—and, sometimes, going to their funerals. By the time the production rolled around, Berg felt he'd done the homework required to tell the tale of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and the 19 servicemen who died on a mission in Afghanistan. Now Berg frequently invites SEALs and their families to his house in Montana. "I have friends who are in Yemen fighting right now as we sit here," Berg says, "and some of them are going to die."
Berg's wildest adventures may still be ahead of him. To prepare for Deepwater Horizon, he's been spending "99% of my time with the survivors of the rig and members of the deepwater drilling community, trying to learn as much as I can about how that culture works." For his Bozella biopic, Berg asked the New York State Department of Corrections to let him enter the general population at Sing Sing prison for a few weeks so he could better understand the wrongly incarcerated boxer's plight, but he was denied. (In the end, Berg struck a compromise and spent several weeks shadowing the prison's guards instead.)
"To me, it's one of the great joys and perks of film-making," Berg says. "You get to move into these different cultures like an anthropologist. I've always been the guy who'd rather spend Christmas living with high school football players in Texas than at some beach hotel in Hawaii. I once spent my birthday in Iraq with Navy SEALs in the desert near Syria, and my goal recently was to be Prisoner No. 7853227 at Sing Sing prison for a month."
He pauses for a moment, then asks: "What, does that sound crazy?"
Berg isn't the first ultramacho Hollywood auteur, of course. But unlike John Ford, he doesn't clock his actors when they disagree with him (Berg's punches are only playful); unlike John Huston—who directed The African Queen so he could bag elephants on his days off—Berg doesn't hunt; and unlike John Milius—famous for writing Dirty Harry and Apocalypse Now—Berg isn't politically conservative. (He's called President Obama the "warrior-in-chief " and, in 2012, asked the Romney campaign to stop using the catchphrase "Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose." from the TV show Friday Night Lights.) Still, like his tough-guy forbears, Berg approaches film-making as the creative equivalent of a prizefight.
"I'm not a director who likes to sit around and small-talk," Berg tells me. "When I get there, it's on. I have an action component to a lot of my films. They're dangerous. I've had people killed on my sets." (Berg witnessed a prop assistant on The Kingdom fatally crash his ATV, and now gets irate when he perceives lapses in safety.) Berg doesn't allow junk food on his shoots, and has been known to slap cigarettes out of the hands of crew members. "If he sees someone eating potato chips, he says, 'That's the short game, buddy,'" Parker tells me. Pushup contests, trips to boxing gyms, and early-morning workouts are commonplace on a Berg set.
This may make Berg sound like a hard-ass disciplinarian, but, in truth, he's closer to a positive-thinking, healthy-living guru. He tells me he's all about "self empowerment," a claim Parker confirms: "He's actually a very generous and caring person. He'd pay people to work out. He just loves seeing people get in shape and better themselves, and he's incredible at rallying them. He'll be on set slapping the grip on the ass and screaming, 'This is the shot, let's go!'"
Berg's penchant for motivation extends well beyond the film set. There's rarely a situation in which he's not ready to dispense a kernel—or five—of sage advice.
When interns at Berg's principal production company, Film 44, tell him they want to start making movies, he advises them to first "go to Europe and fall in love and get your heart broken, or go get arrested in Thailand and get in some real trouble—go live a life."
When someone criticizes Berg for making films that are "too violent," he tells them they need to buck up and confront reality. "It's like people who want to eat a hamburger but are absolutely disgusted by the idea of going to a slaughter yard. If you're going to eat a fucking cow, you have a responsibility to understand where that cow came from." When I ask Berg his secret to productivity—after all, he's juggling a seemingly endless number of projects—he sounds like a Silicon Valley life hacker. "Wake up two hours earlier than you do right now, and see what happens," he says. On the subject of child athletes, he tells overbearing parents to take it easy. "Sports are meant to be fun—first and foremost," he says. "Sports are not meant to be a ticket into a D1 school, sports are not meant to be an exclusive experience that only elite athletes can have."
Improve Your Form by Changing Your Focus>>>
On the subject of relationships, Berg, who's divorced with a teenage son, tells younger men like Parker and Kitsch to "be prepared to lose a lot of battles and just try not to lose the war. Individual battles are generally irrelevant. I tell them to let the little things go."
And as for fitness, Berg touts an old-school approach. "I'll tell you what: Do 200 pushups, 35 pullups, 150 situps, spar a few rounds, hit the heavy bag, then get some sleep, and you'll be in plenty good shape," Berg says. "Boxers have been doing these exercises for 150 years. If you want fitness, go box. If you want to be a freak, go to the gym and do deep power squats."
As Berg slurps down a "Navy SEAL-approved" Randy's Powerhouse protein shake in the man cave at Wild Card West, he tells me there's a unifying theory to his Bergisms. Over the years, he's been conducting an informal study of high-functioning, successful men—whether it's warriors like Marcus Luttrell or his college friend, agent Ari Emanuel—and he's come to understand they share the same motivations.
"I'm a believer in flow theory," Berg says. "This crazy psychologist [Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi] wrote this wonderful book, [Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience], which talks about our ultimate human experiences, when we're really, really happy. Flow is the feeling you get when you really push yourself into an uncomfortable place, and then something clicks and time stands still. For Marcus Luttrell and the SEALs, flow is when it's three in the morning and you're with 12 of your guys, flying 200 feet over the ground in a helicopter about ready to go assault a village full of legitimate Taliban fighters. For Ari Emanuel, it's putting together these wild deals to buy and sell companies. What most people don't realize about men like Marcus Luttrell and Ari Emanuel is that it's not about the money, it's not about the ego, it's not about the glory—it's about the thrill of the moment. If it's the object you're chasing, it doesn't interest me as much as if it's the hunt."
Berg and I have been sitting upstairs at Wild Card West for a couple hours, and I ask him what he—the successful, satisfied, well-adjusted 51-year-old director—would say to someone like his rambunctious and restless 29-year-old self. After all these years and career transformations, what was the key to his success?
"It comes down to effort," Berg says, with a drill sergeant's intensity. "Figure out something you like doing, and you have to work—you just have to. And if you can't figure it out, you have to go figure it out. Laziness will destroy you. Apathy will destroy you."
"But what if I'm someone who just likes sleeping in and hanging out with my friends?" I ask, doing my best to goad him.
"Then you're going to end up frustrated, bored, and probably on a bad path," he says. Berg smells blood. A big Cheshire cat smile comes over his face.
"Wake the fuck up, make some sacrifices, and don't be a fucking pussy."
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FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT called the presidency of the New York Stock Exchange "the second toughest job in the world." The present big man at the Big Board takes a similarly large view: "My job is to move these people into the 21st century." Yet neither the personas nor the performance of Robert William Haack seemed grandioseuntil last week. Quiet spoken, looking younger than his 53 years, sometimes awed by the satraps of the Street, Haack had come across as more the manager and conciliator than the innovative leader. Unlike his predecessor, G. Keith Funston, who served the exchange as a supersalesman,...
Business: The Big Board's Stand-Up President
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text: Simple question. What are the best (top 3) brokers for S&P eminis? The whole futurewise group thing has me scared as hell. I was going to switch from my PMB account (which got bought out) to Futurewise. I haven't had too much luck w/ brokers. Anybody have any recommendations on quality brokers that won't go under or come under investigation from the CFTC? I really don't mind paying 10 or more a round turn as long as the service is decent. How is everybody doing w/ IB? Are you getting screwed on the fills as some people have said? Is this a problem w/ IB? Any info is appreciated.


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Most users do not know that it is the age of a website that is important. We're not talking about a domain or when it was purchased, but the actual time of the publication of the site until today. The longer the page is "on-line", and without any major problems in reaching this page, the better. Pages that are under the age of one year will have difficulties in reaching the first page on Google. There is evidence that the page must be "on-line" at least 6.months to 1. the year before they reach the first page of Google. The condition is, of course, a good search engine optimization.
The Google "Sandbox" has appeared in 2003. To prevent the best Google positions "SPAM" and "LINK FARMS", which tend to get the best positions for being optimized. Google officially never admitted the existence of their "Sandbox".
The page, which usually avoid "Sandbox" are educational or governmental domains and subdomains of existing page already known. You can also bypass "Sanbox" with the page that use keywords, which are not common and are tied to the geographical group. An example of such a phrase would be "SERVICE COVER". Such parties would have made it in the top 10 much earlier.


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The State Department issued a revised travel advisory for Sri Lanka on Sunday, warning that "terrorist groups continue plotting" possible attacks in the wake of the deadly Easter blasts that killed 290 people.
"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning," the updated travel warning reads. It adds that places of worship, tourist locations, transportation hubs, hotels, shopping malls, airports and other public areas may be be targeted. According to the State Department, the advisory level for Sri Lanka has been raised to a level 2.
Those traveling to Sri Lanka are advised to use "increased caution," to monitor local media for breaking events and to have a contingency plan for emergencies.
Sunday's deadly bombings, which also wounded more than 500 people, centered on churches and hotels in the capital Colombo and two other cities. While the majority of the victims were Sri Lankans, up to 35 foreigners, including Americans, are believed to have died in the deadliest spate of attacks to hit the South Asian nation since the end of a civil war a decade ago.
In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that "several" Americans had died and condemned the "terror attacks."
While no group has yet to come forward to claim responsibility, seven suicide bombers from a domestic militant group known as National Thowfeek Jamaath have been linked to the attacks, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said Monday, according to the Associated Press.
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