text:
It is that time of the year again when I have to start a new reading list before I forget which books I have read over the summer break. I really enjoy keeping a record of which books I read so that I can reflect upon my choices at different points in time and I will link this post into the 'I'm reading this...' blog button in my sidebar in case anyone else wants to check in here and there with a suggestion or just to see how I am going. I am off to a good start to the year but suspect that my reading run will slow from here on in as I get busier.
If I think it is a book that I would happily read again at some point I will list it in italics.
1. Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
2- The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory
3. The White Queen - Philippa Gregory
4. Legend - David Gemmell
5. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade - Diana Gabaldon
6. Little Red Riding Hood and Other Classic French Fairytales - Jack Zipes
7. The Crucible - Arthur Miller
8. Red Dog - Louis De Bernieres
9. Cloudbusting - Malorie Blackman
10. Genesis - Bernard Becket
The 2012 List (12 books read)
The 2011 List (7 books read)
The 2010 List (18 books read)
The 2009 List (57 books read)


text:
Flags around Southern California will fly at half-staff at all public buildings through sunset Sunday after President Trump Thursday issued a proclamation to honor the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Our nation mourns for every life lost to the coronavirus pandemic, and we share in the suffering of all those who endured pain and illness from the outbreak,'' reads the proclamation issued by Trump Thursday.
"Through our grief, America stands steadfast and united against the invisible enemy. May God be with the victims of this pandemic and bring aid and comfort to their families and friends.''
All American flags on public grounds, military posts, naval stations, U.S. Navy Ships, American Embassies, legations, consular offices and other U.S. facilities will fly at half-mast through sunset Sunday.
Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Trump urging him to order "flags to be flown at half-staff on all public buildings in our country on the sad day of reckoning when we reach 100,000 deaths. It would serve as a national expression of grief so needed by everyone in our country.''
Former Vice President Joe Biden also urged the president to lower flags to half-staff at a virtual fundraiser held on April 29.
"I've suggested the president should lower the flag to half-mast, honoring all those people -- particularly those first responders, those doctors, those nurses -- those folks who went in without the PPP, the protective equipment, and still did their job," said Biden. "And some of them lost their lives. They're heroes. They should be honored as such.''
Photo: Getty Images

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The U.S Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey is seeking to pause the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) civil action against Blockchain Terminal founder Boaz Manor while it conducts its own criminal case against Manor's alleged $30 million ICO fraud.
Assistant U.S. attorneys said in a Wednesday memorandum their prosecutions of Manor and associate Edith Pardo "substantially overlap" with the SEC case. They have asked the judge in the SEC case, Stanley R. Chesler, to issue a stay to "preserve the integrity" of their criminal case. The SEC "does not oppose" the motion, according to the filing.
Both are prosecuting Manor and Pardo's allegedly fraudulent BCT token offering, said by the SEC to have raised $30 million for the development of digital securities hedge fund technology in 2017 and 2018. The SEC also alleged Manor never disclosed to investors his criminal background, real identity or his ties to a failed Canadian hedge fund.
Manor was convicted of breach of trust in 2011 in connection to the Portus hedge fund, which, before shuttering in 2005, had misappropriated over $100 million in investor funds. Manor served one year of his four-year sentence. He eventually headed to the U.S. for a new venture called Blockchain Terminal.
As documented in a December 2018 investigation by The Block, a "Shaun MacDonald" leading the startup's race to build a "Bloomberg Terminal' for the initial coin offering space was actually Manor in disguise. Blockchain Terminal's employees were unaware of Manor's backstory, and neither were the 275 U.S. investors in the BCT ICO.
A grand jury indicted Manor and Pardo with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud prior to the SEC complaint, according to the memorandum. Civil and criminal charges were unveiled on Jan. 17.
The attorney's office now wants to temporarily freeze the SEC action. Letting that case move forward would give the defendants room to delay and degrade the criminal procedure, they said.
Pardo pleaded not guilty on Jan. 22, according to the memorandum. Manor remains at large.
Read the full memo below:
Disclosure Read More
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.


text:
First Look: Liam Neeson Points Guns and Snaps Necks in 'Taken 2'
by Ethan Anderton
May 17, 2012
Source: EW
Audiences are definitely eager to see Liam Neeson kick more asses in the anticipated sequel Taken 2, which is hitting theaters this fall, and while we're still waiting for a trailer to see the man himself in action, some first look photos from the film will have to suffice for now. Needless to say, they show Neeson looking like a badass again with his very particular set of skills being put to good use. The sequel sees the father of one of the men Neeson's character killed in the first film seeking revenge, and he says, "They kidnap him to humiliate him, torture him, and ultimately bring him back to the village in Albania." See the photos below!
Here are the first look photos from Olivier Megaton's Taken 2 from EW:
Taken 2 is the sequel to the surprise 2008 hit starring Liam Neeson. In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) and his wife (Famke Janssen) are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter (Maggie Grace) in the first film. Olivier Megaton (Colombiana, Transporter 3) directs the film from a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (who both wrote the original film and The Fifth Element together). Fox sends the film to theaters on October 5th. Excited?
21 Comments
Famke Janssen? Sweeet
El_MUERkO on May 17, 2012
Nielsen700 on May 17, 2012
Brandon on May 17, 2012
Please have a good supporting cast.
J.X. Grewal on May 17, 2012
No Maggie Grace?
Nathan on May 17, 2012
There was really only a few good parts of Taken...mostly Neeson kicking ass and when he finally saves his daughter. Hopefully this one will be better.
Xerxexx on May 17, 2012
I would have to disagree, but I won't argue because it's more of a guilty pleasure rather than a solid stand out action film.
Isildur_of_Numenor on May 17, 2012
Yeah, Xerx, I have to agree. In retrospect, it was really the novelty of seeing an old man kill and kick some ass. G-d...his American accent is bad.
DAVIDPD on May 17, 2012
ok, ok -but neeson kicking ass is worth the price of admission, don't you think? i do agree there have been much better films that neeson has done: "rob roy" is amazing....neeson, roth, hurt, lange were great in that!......"michael collins" was a fantastic film too....and of course, "schindlers list". i liked "the other man" too - but that was more of an indie flick and never did get much buzz.
beevis on May 17, 2012
poor director choice - lets hope it works out.
dom on May 17, 2012
Neeson was badass! Can't wait for this!
grimjob on May 17, 2012
Im usually one to suspend my disbelief in trade for action, but the "I could tell how many bullets you had in your gun from how fast you raised it" part made me groooooooan. Otherwise I'm sure this will be fun, seeing Neeson getitng away with sparking international incidents, but I'm more revved about Neesons return in Wolfpuncher 2
Voice of Reason on May 17, 2012
Ah great, some more racial stereotypes to kill. Can't wait.
Crapola on May 17, 2012
I've been hoping this movie would happen about 30 minutes into the first one. I can't wait.
McWetty on May 17, 2012
Yeah Taken was good so i'm looking forward to this.
Jimmy Love on May 17, 2012
Transporter 3? ... Hmmm......
lewinston on May 17, 2012
Taken...an older Jason Bourne with a daughter who got kidnapped.
Xtheory on May 17, 2012
Don't understand why people are downgrading the original so much. It was a solid action film with plenty of damn good scenes (although I'll admit the family ending was a bit weak and rushed).
Max Renn on May 17, 2012
I keep expecting the title to be expanded on. "Taken 2 THE GRAVE," maybe "Taken 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND." Or just "Taken 2 A PLACE RESERVED FOR THOSE WHO F*** WITH LIAM NEESON."
Ty on May 17, 2012
Soooooooooooooo Cooooooooooool Taken - Liam neeson = 0
Ehsan Davodi on May 17, 2012
I hope Olivier Megaton does what Pierre Morel did with the first one, but with Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen penning it again I'm sure they wont allow Megaton to make a complete bore out of it like Colombiana was
Jan-Lourens van der Merwe on May 18, 2012
New comments are no longer allowed on this post.
Follow Alex's main account on :
Add our updates to your Feedly - click here
Get the latest posts sent in Telegram


text:
Gholivand, Khodayar, Kahnouji, Mohammad, Roe, S Mark, Gholami, Akram and Fadaei, Farzaneh T (2017) Palladium(II) complexes of aminothiazole-based phosphines: Synthesis, structural characterization, density functional theory calculations and catalytic application in heck reaction. Applied Organometallic Chemistry, 31 (11). e3793. ISSN 0268-2605
- Published Version
Restricted to SRO admin only
Download (2MB)
Three Pd(II) complexes of some hemilabile ligands, aminothiazole‐based phosphines, were synthesized to investigate the catalytic activity of them in Heck cross‐coupling reactions. The crystal structures of complexes PdCl2[(Ph2P) HN(C3H2NS)] (C1) and PdCl2[(Ph2P)HN(C7H4NS)] (C3) were determined using X‐ray crystallography, which reveals that the ligand coordinates in a chelating mode through P and N (endocyclic) atoms in square planar geometry. Experimental and theoretical studies (atoms in molecules and natural bond orbital analyses) show that the Pd(II) interacts more strongly with the P atom than the N atom in the chelated ligand, N^P. This trait can promote catalytic activity of the complexes in comparison with our previous work in which chelated ligands with two phosphorus atoms, P^P, were used. The influence of non‐covalent intermolecular interactions on the assembly of the solid‐state structures is also discussed in terms of geometrical analysis. The prepared complexes turn out to be useful pre‐catalysts in Heck cross‐coupling reactions owing to the coordinative flexibility of the hemilabile ligands. The protocol affords the corresponding products in greater yield than the same reactions with bis(phosphino)amine Pd(II) complexes, as the catalysts in our previous work.
|Item Type:
|Schools and Departments:
|School of Life Sciences > Biochemistry
|Q Science > QD Chemistry
|Depositing User:
|Mark Roe
|Date Deposited:
|15 Nov 2017 13:55
|Last Modified:
|15 Nov 2017 14:00
View download statistics for this item📧 Request an update


text:
The Fox Says.....
Indie games are all the rage right now and here's one that pays homage to the classic era of the Super Nintendo. Fox N Forests looks, feels, and sounds like a classic Super Nintendo game and has a mechanic out of the Super Nintendo era where you play as a Fox named Rick who can change the seasons at the drop of a hat. You will need to master the seasonal change mechanic to make it through each stage and collect all the seeds hidden so you can discover everything.
You also have magical spells at your disposal as well and you will have to play stages over again because when you first play them, you probably won't have the right magic. For example, you can shoot different magical arrows to unlock entryways in each stage but like I said, during the initial playthrough of the stage, you probably won't have the right magical spell to do anything. The magical spells use the same power as the season changes so you will have to watch when you attack and use the change.
The meter does recharge over time during gameplay but that could be the different between you finding that special item. There are checkpoints during the levels but if you don't have the money to pay for them, you won't be able to activate them. They aren't expensive that shouldn't be an issue but if you keep dying, then you might have an issue on your hands.
You'll be able to check out the forest plaza to upgrade your Fox with different abilities and spells, not for free of course. You can spend your hard earned money on attacks and items from your smart mouthed bird friend, Patty, while in the forest plaza. You can also upgrade your health as well so make sure you collect all the money/coins as you can during gameplay. The music sounds just a Super Nintendo game and it would fit in perfectly in any Super Nintendo fan's collection.
Fox N Forests has a perfect amount of action music and cool tones that could be played during ice levels and it just so happens that the game does just that. The songs are catchy as well! The writing during the game is funny and well thought out as well. You have a Fox and bird thrown together to basically save the world and they both can't stand each other but they work it out. They have their banter, back and forth, and their relationship changes over the course of the adventure and you can see that through the story and the writing.
Innovative boss fights were another thing that stood out during gameplay and you needed to use the seasonal change to perfection. One battle had you fight a frog but you had to figure out how to use the seasonal change to hit him and in the Pax East demo, you fought a Bee and had to do the same thing with the seasonal change. It's games that go this extra mile that make show that the developers but time into their product. However, It felt like there was way too much to collect as well as the feel of repetition snuck into the game way too early into the adventure.
If you get the feel that you will need to replay levels during the first level and it's a hassle, then "replay" is going to be annoying when you have to do it later on in the game. The controls weren't as sharp/tight as they needed to be as simple jumps were tough and basic enemies were getting in the way. It's these reasons that I'm giving Fox N Forests for the Nintendo Switch a 7/10. I would like to thanks Eurovideo for the review code.


text:
Last April I blogged about my experience taking two three-hour workshops in stage combat. If you'll remember, at the end of that blogpost I wrote:
"Our weekend of stage combat was a blast, which is a good thing since Jonathan and I will be hitting NYC this coming July to do a stage combat intensive with Art of Combat. We just got our scripts today and I am SOOOOO beyond excited. And a little scared. But hey, if I can handle a sword, I can handle anything."
So guess what I did last week? That's right; last week Jonathan and I attended the Art of Combat NYC Stage Combat Intensive. And from day one I knew I would be facing my last comment head-on: "I can handle anything."
In case you didn't figure this out on your own, the stage combat intensive is what you would call "intense." (huh) What do I mean by "intense?" I mean that instead of spending two days doing six hours (total) of stage combat, I spent six days doing over 70 hours (total) of stage combat. That's right; SEVENTY HOURS. Monday through Saturday we arrived in the morning (sometimes as early as 9 a.m.) to have meetings or go over choreography from the day before. From there, we had classes throughout the day from combat theory to anatomy and physiology to practical and historical application of knife, longsword, rapier, tomahawk, unarmed combat and more. And in the late afternoons through the evenings (usually until 11 p.m. or midnight) we learned and practiced choreography that was implemented for two performances of an off-off-Broadway show at the end of the week.
And OH MY GOODNESS…it was AWESOME.
My stage combat experience up to this point was obviously minimal; here I was, with six hours under my belt, working alongside individuals who've been fighting for six YEARS. OR MORE. Our instructors have decades of fight instruction among them and have choreographed for both stage and screen. It was NUTS…and I was terrified! I had no idea how I could (or would) keep up. But here's a secret; you hit the floor RUNNING…and there's no time to wonder if you can do it or not; you just DO. And I DID. And it was AMAZING.
So what does all this have to do with playwriting? (No, I didn't forget what my blog is about!) Well…that depends on the person. As a playwright myself (in addition to being a theatre artist), I find great value in new experiences that improve my skill sets (in fact, this is something they promote highly at AoC). Something I've noticed through both of my stage combat experiences is the emphasis placed on story – the fight should communicate something new about the characters involved or further the overall plot in some way. It's not about gratuitous violence or "fun" (though fight scenes certainly can be fun!!) it's asking yourself what you want to communicate through this scene and what the playwright was trying to communicate by including a fight, just as you would with any other scene in a play.
As a playwright, then, and as a writer in general, I am seeing the potential that fight scenes can have in my storyline. Story is all about conflict and sometimes physical conflict can enhance emotional conflict. More specifically, I spent the last week learning about how quickly someone dies of a knife wound to the descending aorta (for example) or what types of poisons were used in the 16th century and their symptoms. Who knew the wealth of resources you could get from studying stage combat? And a lot of that has to do with AoC's dedication to historical accuracy in their fights. The instructors have spent years not just studying rapier, but the difference between Italian rapier and Spanish rapier, and the way those styles have changed over the last several centuries. In the novel I'm working on I intend to apply much of what I've learned about handling a knife. And I'm already looking back at my most recent production of Romeo & Juliet thinking, I wish I'd had that toxicology chart two months ago…
As playwrights, and heck, as PEOPLE, the more information we can gain, the better, especially if it adds to our writing resources. Jonathan and I are now New York Chapter members of Art of Combat and as such we need to be involved in four "events" per quarter – which for us means we're going to sign up for a weekly martial arts course to give us a better foundation. I can only imagine how this might inform my writing further (not to mention, help keep me in better physical shape).
My bottom line is, don't limit your "writer experience" to merely intellectual pursuits; you'd be surprised how much you can learn in a more physical environment and how that might change the way you want to tell stories. I love that stage combat is becoming a consistent part of my life now. Keep an eye out for fight scenes in my upcoming work. 😉


text:
Our next meeting is coming soon – more details should be available soon… Anyway, I hope you can come for our last meeting of the year.
Our April meeting featured Adam Meddaugh, from Daikin Applied, talking on air cooled chillers. The following people were in attendance: Matt Wingerak (Daniels Wingerak Engineering Ltd.), Christine Rogers (Cypress Sales), Matt Rohachuk (Nu-Trend Industries), Arron Andrusiak (HVAC Sales), Ryan MacGillivray (Daniels Wingerak Engineering Ltd.), Trevor Bemis (Victaulic), Corey Dandurand (Victaulic), Pooya Navid (U of S Student), Amin Jahanpanah (U of S Student) , Sajith Mallikarachchi (City of Winnipeg), Alistair Siewert (Arrow Engineering), Devan Kincart (Daniels Wingerak Engineering Ltd.), Howard Hemingson (Sask Poly), Reg Hofmann (Air Tech Management), Chris Kehrig (Nu-Trend Industries), Blake Erb (HVAC Sales), Maury Wawryk (HVAC Sales), Ohdner Ong (Arrow Engineering),
Ahmed Abdel-Salam (Nortek Air Solutions).
New this month from ASHRAE is the new ASHRAE 365 App, available from the Apple Store, or on Google Play. This features information on ASHRAE, as well as a full annual meeting conference scheduler. Check it out and let me know what you think, or if it is missing any important features!
I would like to welcome the following people who have joined ASHRAE Saskatoon since July:
If you know these new members, please invite them to come out to our meetings, and introduce them to everyone else. If you meet them, please make them feel welcome at our meetings.
If you have the equivalent of 12 years of ASHRAE related experience, including schooling and jobs, you are probably eligible for a membership upgrade. If you think you qualify, let me know and we can look into it.
Copies of the ASHRAE Saskatoon are still available for pick-up at our meeting. Thanks go to Air-Tech Management, Cypress Sales Partnership, Daniels-Wingerak Engineering Ltd., and Engineered Air for supporting the roster this year.
Please let me know of additional benefits you may be looking for from ASHRAE or ASHRAE Saskatoon. We are here to serve you, the member. Thanks and I hope to see you soon.
Ryan MacGillivray, P. Eng. Member ASHRAE
Membership Promotion Chair


text:
AI and machine learning (ML) are industry buzz words that are used by marketers to grab attention, but we believe AI and ML are key to engaging the new workforce with millennials driving the workplace of tomorrow. Organizations are always looking to drive more from their workforce and technologies like AI and machine learning, and these technologies are going to be key to helping drive productivity, innovation, and engagement. So, the question remains how to leverage these new technologies to solve business problems and challenges while ensuring that the intelligence surfaced and generated is secure.
Millennials have changed the mindset in the organization–the need for better tools to improve the workday, eliminate boring, mundane tasks that take time away from innovation, the desire for more information in relevant and meaningful ways and delivered in real-time and the right time.
The Synplicity by Axway and Backflipt partnership brings together AI and machine learning-based technology and Content Collaboration to enhance enterprise productivity and drive insightful engagement in the way a secure environment with the right policies for data protection should.
Let's take a look at some real-world use cases.
Crowdsourcing the Intelligence
Consider the sales organization as it is trying to move an opportunity forward–sifting through portals, file shares, and emails for the right asset. The time-consuming activity to find the right resource is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Or a seller trying to find information that could help him with an opportunity (i.e. sharing the recent Gartner's Magic Quadrant report could influence the customer decision or appropriate use of a new client testimonial that can help close the deal). How about inside sales engaging with the most effective content while pursuing new leads or sharing a relevant white paper that can build an advisory relationship with the customer?
Garnishing the intelligence by analyzing document performance reports or in conversations with other sellers and quarterly reviews does not fit into the modern workforce's work style. They would like to see thetTrending information delivered to them in real-time.
Consider a newly recruited service engineer looking to find resources to resolve a ticket. Somewhere else a similar pesky turbine issue was addressed by another engineer using an obscure app-note from Boeing – so how do you bring this intelligence to the newly recruited service engineer? Having access to the right information can significantly cut down the downtime for the aircraft.
The traditional workplace has largely been centered around content silos and unstructured content living in multiple places (repositories). This paradigm is old, where IT was driving much of the workforce productivity tools, and were responsible for rolling out business applications or business processes. With the new workforce, the workers expect to have relevant information at their fingertips and have no patience for mundane tasks. Enterprises want the workforce to be well informed and enhance their customers' experience. The reality is that users have to work with a multitude of applications and content repositories just to find what they are looking for.
With Syncplicity integration with Backflipt to bring together AI and machine learning's crowdsourcing and Syncplicity's repository services and security governance, productivity can significantly improve as well as employee effectiveness–driving better customer experience with a positive impact on the bottom line.
Syncplicity and Backflipt–benefits in a snapshot
- Increase productivity with Machine Learning: Surfacing the content of Interest: Automatically crowdsource the knowledge from an enterprise and present the content directly in users' workflow
- Staying secure–"One Click" sharing with corporate governance; A single point to establish content governance for collaboration: In addition to productivity gains, using Backflipt with Syncplicity enterprises can automatically extend Corporate Governance to content residing in SharePoint and OneDrive repositories used for collaboration.
- Single point access to enterprise content intelligently: Virtualize the content layer across the enterprise and cloud repositories. No more enterprise "Dark Matter, "intelligently surface content from 30+ enterprise repositories, file systems, industry-leading cloud repositories like Syncplicity, SharePoint, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and others.
- Contextual suggestions into the user's application workflow -Surface the relevant content in context, in Office 365 applications and Google office, emails and applications like Salesforce, Dynamics 365, SOHO, NOW, Slack and Microsoft Teams. Empower the users to be productive in the Digital Workspace.
- Ranked searches -Showing the search results based on the enterprise social and community behavior and not merely on the keywords.
Learn more about how Syncplicity by Axway and Backflipt work together in this on-demand webinar.


text:
Hover to Zoom
Derma-E Deep Wrinkle Reverse Eye Creme
3.9(20)View All Reviews
0.5 ozUPC: 0003098500775
Purchase Options
Product Details
This double-action, peptide-infused eye cream with patented Matrixyl® synthe'6® and Argireline® may help to smooth the look of laughter lines to even the deepest wrinkles.
Powerful anti-aging peptides with benefits:
- Matrixyl® synthe'6®: May help support collagen for healthy-looking tone and texture.
- Argireline®: Helps to smooth the appearance of fine lines, leaving skin feeling soft.
Enriched with plant extract Pycnogenol®, antioxidants Green Tea, Vitamins A, C and E, this advanced youth-preserving formula may help soothe and reduce the visual signs of aging to promote more youthful, brighter and radiant-looking eyes.
- This Double-Action Eye Cream Visibly Smooths the Look of Even the Deepest Wrinkles and Crow's Feet for More Youthful Eyes
- Skin Restore
- Eco-Ethical > 100% Vegan • GMO-Free •Cruelty-Free
Product Reviews
City Market is not responsible for the content provided in customer ratings and reviews. For more information, visit our Terms and Conditions.


text:
Ben White
Middle East Eye / September 20, 2020
With the world distracted by Covid-19 and 'peace deals,' Israel is seeking an irreversible displacement in the occupied West Bank.
A new report in the Israeli publication Haaretz has shed fresh light on Israel's intensifying demolition campaign in Palestinian communities, leading to a stark conclusion: Israel is conducting a war against the very existence of Palestinians in Area C, 60 percent of the occupied West Bank.
Meetings were held by the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in late July and mid-August, and the subject was "the Palestinian takeover of Area C".
Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C, with major Palestinian population centres in Areas A and B. Area C territory surrounds and fragments these enclaves, and includes smaller Palestinian communities and almost all Israeli settlements.
Language of a 'takeover'
Taking the accords at face value, Area C was territory that would be "gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction". Israeli authorities and settler activist groups, however, have treated Area C as being under permanent direct Israeli control, on both strategic and ideological grounds.
This is where the language of a "takeover" comes in – a world view that sees Palestinian territory under Israeli military occupation as belonging to Israel forever by "right". From this perspective, the Palestinian farmer, not the settler, is the "invader".
The Knesset meetings held over the summer, attended by senior political and military figures, saw officials proudly testify to the committee concerning the efforts taken to target and destroy Palestinian agriculture and construction in Area C.
According to the head of the so-called Civil Administration, Israeli forces have uprooted 42,000 trees planted by Palestinians over the past 20 years, including 7,500 in 2019. That same year, Israeli forces confiscated 700 excavators and other equipment from Palestinians, a "very significant deterrence".
Remember that the justification for these demolitions and confiscations is "illegal" construction. Then also recall that, according to official data, Israel approved just 21 of 1,485 Palestinian applications for construction permits in the West Bank from 2016-2018 – a 99 percent rejection rate.
'They have enough territory'
The goal is clear: to remove Palestinians from large areas of the West Bank. Senior Israeli officials "drew up regional priorities for demolishing Palestinian structures," Haaretz noted, which "at this stage" include "the area surrounding Jerusalem," the South Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley.
According to Knesset committee member and senior Likud MK Nir Barkat, Israel's priority is settling two million Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and "thwarting… Palestinians' attempt to change the situation". He added: "They have enough territory in A and B."
Israel is proceeding full throttle in defining the size of the Palestinian bantustan – or bantustans, since there is no territorial contiguity – at around 40 percent of the West Bank. Crucially, this is being achieved not just by expanding settlements, but also by removing Palestinians.
Palestinians were described in the Knesset committee meetings with strikingly dehumanising language: Palestinian homes, agriculture and the basic infrastructure of life were called a "virus," "territorial terror" and a "cancer".
Present during the proceedings was a staffer with Regavim, a settler group that campaigns to see Palestinian structures demolished. One state official at the meetings "said the coordination between various groups that report immediately on Palestinian construction has improved greatly".
Racist dehumanisation
Regavim's materials are full of racist dehumanisation, describing Palestinian communities as "spreading tentacles throughout Israel," and warning that "the Jewish People is being robbed of the Land of Israel".
The organisation, invited to London last year by UK Lawyers for Israel, has also been central to attacks on Palestinian NGOs, such as the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), which plays a critical role in promoting Palestinian farmers and community resilience in Area C.
Regavim had its sights set on UAWC back in 2014, and in 2018 affirmed it was a priority target as "the main organisation involved in agricultural projects in Area C".
The report on these Knesset meetings was published, coincidentally, a few days after a top UN human rights official slammed a spike in Israeli destruction of Palestinian property over recent months. In Israel's war on Palestinian communities in Area C, there is no ceasefire for Covid-19.
In the statement released by Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick, UN data showed "the demolition or confiscation of 389 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank" during the period of March through August. As a monthly average, it constitutes the highest destruction rate in four years.
These demolitions, the UN added, left 442 Palestinians homeless. In August alone, more than 200 were displaced, "more than in any other single month since January 2017".
Note that in addition to homes, Israeli forces have been targeting for destruction or confiscation "water, hygiene or sanitation assets, and structures used for agriculture," including dozens of structures "given to Palestinians as humanitarian aid".
International complicity
The story on the ground is only going to get worse. A UN update published last month highlighted the pernicious role of Military Order 1797, which came into effect in July 2019 and "allows for the expedited removal of unlicensed structures deemed as 'new,' within 96 hours of the issuance of the 'removal order'".
Still seen by Israel as a "pilot," this order has resulted in the demolition of at least 66 structures in the year since it was first deployed.
Meanwhile, 20 million shekels ($5.8m) has just been allocated by the Israeli government "to survey and map out unauthorised Palestinian construction" in Area C, a development reported by Haaretz as the "first time that funds have been specifically allocated for such a survey as part of the state budget".
Everything mentioned in this piece is public information. The number of demolished Palestinian structures is meticulously counted and reported on by local and international NGOs and agencies. Israeli politicians and military officials are open about their intentions.
Yet, there is still no serious action from key international actors, such as the European Union or governments that profess support for international law and human rights. Indeed, the Knesset noted how "the number of internationally (mainly European) financed Palestinian projects [in Area C] shrank to 12 in 2019 from 75 in 2015".
Israel has zero incentive not to pursue its goals in the West Bank and Area C in particular. With the (temporary) removal of formal annexation from the agenda, and the UAE-Israel normalisation deal, even the mere threat of serious international consequences has dissipated.
With attention diverted by the coronavirus pandemic and the regional "peace deals," Israel is aggressively pursuing attacks on Palestinian communities intended to create an irreversible displacement, and to achieve the benefits of formal annexation in Area C – without any of the potential costs.
Ben White is a writer, journalist, and analyst specialising in Palestine/Israel; he is the author of four books, the latest of which, Cracks in the Wall: Beyond Apartheid in Palestine/Israel (Pluto Press), was published in 2018


text:
SHAREit – Download SHAREit App for Android, PC and iOS
SHAREit SHAREit is the quickest cross-platform program available for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. You can transfer video, music, data, and programs from one device to another using SHAREit. More than 500 million people have downloaded SHAREit, which has revolutionized the way we transfer files. SHAREit was first released in 2013, and it has since … Read more


text:
Copyright help guide provided by CopyrightUser.Org. This is a useful guide for any person looking at re-using copyright material in different formats to see whether it is covered by UK law.
This guide is aimed at helping staff and students to stay within the law when using copyright material. Copyright is a legal protection for an author or creator which restricts the copying of an original work they have created.
Copyright Licensing Agency HE Licence – Amendment to Extent Limits The Copyright Licensing Agency licence has been amended until 31st July 2021 to help the HE sector deal with difficulties due to COVID-19. This means that the extent limits of 10% or ONE chapter has been extended to 20% or TWO chapters, whichever is greater.
Most publishers have signed up to the extension and to date there are 157 publishers. All other conditions as set out in the original licence continue to apply. These conditions are:
Academic colleagues are asked to continue to request scans from print books from their resource lists under the above conditions. However, it is important that you are aware that additional scans will be removed on the 31st July 2021.
Further information on the CLA HE Licence and the amendment to the licence is on the Copyright Licensing Agency website, with the list of participating publishers.
Images are protected by copyright law just like written text. They include photographs, illustrations and diagrams whether they are from electronic or print sources.
Use caution when searching for images on the internet as not all that is available is free to use. Click here for detailed information on where you can search for either copyright free images or those that are released under licence (but free to use in your teaching).
JISC has produced a copyright training guide for university academic and support staff to provide guidance on how to legally use other people's materials in teaching and learning. This is an interactive guide that covers a range of areas with a quiz at the end to test your knowledge. Please click on the link below to take you through to the guide.
The information contained in these pages provides an interpretation of current copyright issues. It is not intended and should not be construed as legal advice.
There is some material on these pages that may link to third party sites that are licensed differently. De Montfort University does not endorse these third party sites, and they cannot accept responsibility for their content or ongoing availability. Any logos or trademarks in the resource are exclusive property of their owners and their appearance is not an endorsement by De Montfort University.


text:
Get Inspired by Rebecca Levenberg: "There's Nothing I Can't Do"
Old City resident Rebecca Levenberg lost her leg in a bike accident. But since learning to rollerblade, rock climb and, yes, bicycle in a prosthesis, she hasn't looked back. This is Rebecca's story, in her own words.
I'd been a bike commuter for about five years when, in November 2010, a garbage truck hit me. I was riding my bike to work, in the bike lane.
I always knew there were risks. But you hear about cyclists getting hit by a door or breaking their wrist—not losing their legs.
The truck crushed my left leg completely. I sustained severe internal injuries, broken ribs and a fractured pelvis. I was wearing a helmet, and I didn't have head injuries. The doctors at Jefferson had to amputate my leg to save my life. In total, I've had 15 surgeries since the accident.
I remember the accident vividly. I had a lot of mental and emotional trauma afterward; I would picture it over and over. A psychologist at Magee Rehab worked with me to help me overcome my fears so I could live my life again.
I started prosthetic training as an above-the-knee amputee, and took my first steps in February 2011. But I needed a goal I could measure. So I decided to walk a thousand miles, which I finally accomplished in March 2013. Now I'm at nearly 2,000.
My prosthetists have been fearless. I think one of the most important factors in my recovery has been that no one ever told me there's something I can't do. "Can't" wasn't in anyone's vocabulary.
I had more than a year of outpatient care. My PTs taught me how to walk, of course, but they went beyond that: They taught me to ride my bike again, to rollerblade again, and they came and cheered me on when I decided to start rock climbing. I now have an in-line skating setting for my leg, and a swim leg, which is waterproof. I climbed trails on the Shawangunk Mountains in New York with other adaptive climbers. I like rock climbing because I can meet the same challenges as someone with two legs.
For each anniversary of my accident, I try to do something special. It makes me feel lucky for every healthy day that I have. For the first, I walked a mile around Jefferson Hospital's campus.
On the second, we took 500 kids from the school where I taught, plus chaperones, on a walk to the Art Museum. At the start of the school year, I spoke to students about wearing a helmet. One of the first-graders said afterward, "It's important because you can get a robot leg, but you can't get a robot brain."
On the third anniversary, I hiked Ricketts Glen State Park.
It was a steep climb, and I wanted to give up. My friend said, "Imagine where you were three years ago." "Okay," I said, "I'll keep going."
This article first appeared in the 2014 Be Well Philly print magazine.
Like what you're reading? Stay in touch with Be Well Philly—here's how:
- Like Be Well Philly on Facebook
- Follow Be Well Philly on Twitter
- Follow Be Well Philly on Pinterest
- Get the Be Well Philly Newsletter


text: About Over the last decade, the EU has faced numerous threats that quickly increased in their magnitude. The sources of these threats have been heterogeneous. Moreover, the lines between physical and cyber worlds are increasingly blurred as nearly everything is connected to the internet. If it is not the case, physical intrusion might rub out of barriers. Threats cannot be analysed solely as physical or cyber, and therefore it is critical to develop an integrated approach in order to fight against such combination of threats. Health services are among the most critical infrastructures and the most vulnerable ones.The aim of SAFECARE is to provide solutions that will improve physical and cyber security in a seamless and cost-effective way. Thereby, it promotes new technologies and novel approaches to enhance threat prevention, threat detection, incident response and mitigation of impacts. Over the course of 36 months, SAFECARE will design, test, validate and demonstrate 13 innovative elements optimizing the protection of critical infrastructure under operational conditions. Because living in a safe and secure society is a fundamental human need. Objective Bringing together the most advanced technologies from the physical and cyber security spheres, SAFECARE aims to deliver high-quality, innovative and cost-effective solutions in system security. These solutions focus on mitigating cyber-physical threats and incidents and their interconnections and potential cascading effects.Focusing on health services infrastructure, SAFECARE will work towards creating a global protection system, which will cover threat prevention, detection, response and mitigation of impacts across infrastructures, populations and environments. Key Elements 1: Sharing best practices between security and health actors, industrialists and university scientists.2: Analysis and learning: by focusing on health services infrastructure, Safecare works towards creating a protection system, which covers threat prevention, response and mitigation of impacts across infrastructures.3: Decision Support: Since threats cannot be analysed solely as physical or cyber, we need to develop an integrated approach to fight such combination of threats. Safecare will deliver high quality & innovative solutions in system security to support healthcare stakeholders take decisions.4: To collect information on the heterogeneous sources of new threats. Our consortium will design, test, validate and demonstrate 13 innovative elements, optimizing the protection of CI under operational conditions.5: By raising awareness we aim to create a protection system which covers threat detection and mitigation of impacts across infrastructures and populations.6: Disseminate the results and best practices throughout the health user communities to enhance awareness on how to handle multi-faced threats.


text:
The U.S. military is already investing tens of billions of dollars to make its jet fighters less visible to radars and infrared sensors. Now the Pentagon wants the defense industry to come up with a system that can cloak fighters from another telltale type of radiation: ultraviolet energy from the sun.
The Navy's latest solicitation to research proposals asks for a "UV obscurant device" that can be "dispersed from an aircraft." The system should be compatible with the Navy's existing counter-measures dispensers, which are currently tailored for releasing infrared flares and radar-foiling chaff to help warplanes dodge enemy missiles.
A UV cloak would complement the Navy's other stealth initiatives. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the product of history's most expensive weapons program, is designed to scatter and absorb radar waves while also sinking its engine heat into its fuel load in order to make the plane less visible to infrared sensors. The Navy plans to purchase hundreds of carrier-compatible F-35s at more than $100 million a pop.
But the F-35's design apparently does not protect against ultraviolet sensors -- that we know of. The Navy's older Hornet fighters are probably equally vulnerable. The UV cloak seems to be a response to a particular type of "dual-band" missile seeker that zeroes in on infrared radiation at first, then switches to a UV sensor in the final moments before striking the target. The UV sensor works by looking for non-reflective shadows against the bright UV glare of the sky -- like silhouettes against a lightboard.
An obscurant could blot out a plane's UV silhouette in a shapelesss mass of ultraviolet shadow. "One concept might include a device that very rapidly generates an extended, dense cloud of material that absorbs in the UV region," the Navy solicitation reads. The solicitation also lists "quantum dots" (tiny radiation-emitting crystals) and man-made "metamaterials" as obscurant options.
The obscurant would probably work on helicopters, too.
The solicitation does not specify a delivery timeframe or a cost cap. But if other forms of sensor-evasion are any indication, UV stealth won't be quick, easy or cheap to develop.


text:
In 2011 — as part of its application process to open in town — Terrain agreed to preserve the small house at the corner of Crescent Road.
The Historic District Commission and Planning and Zoning Commission liked what they heard. The small, gray 1900-era building — one of the last examples of a single-family house on the Post Road — stood proudly across from the fire station.
But parking is tight. So in 2013, Terrain tried to gain 8 spaces by knocking down the house. They put in requests to the Planning & Zoning Commission and Historic District Commission (which was involved because the structure was more than 50 years old).
Matthew Mandell was not pleased. The RTM District 1 representative made a video. In it he explained the back story of Terrain's dealings with the town.
Also in the video, the HDC's Randy Henkels noted their early support of Terrain, based on promises the store made. Town planning director Larry Bradley described his department's role.
And RTM member Cathy Talmadge suggested a boycott of Terrain, if they pressed ahead with demolition plans.
They did not. The next day, the company withdrew its request. "0688o" reported, "Terrain is believed to be working with the Planning and Zoning Commission on a parking plan that would preserve the century-old structure."
It still stands. But — as many Westporters have noticed — it's looking a bit grotty.
The P&Z is among those paying attention.
Part of the previous deal was that Terrain would not use the house for storage — that way, it would not count toward the number of parking spots needed.
Another part of the deal was that Terrain would maintain it in good condition.
Well, it is being used for storage. In fact, the interior has been torn out to allow more space.
And it is most definitely not being maintained.
On Wednesday, the P&Z promised enforcement action.
Will it come in time to save the rapidly deteriorating, yet still somewhat handsome, building?
As "06880" promised in 2013: stay tuned.


text:
Microsoft on VP8 for HTML5: Never Say Never
Microsoft's IE blog has published a follow-up to Friday's post about Internet Explorer exclusively supporting H.264 for HTML5 video, answering many questions raised by commenters and debunking some misconceptions. Here's the gist: Microsoft will continue to support Flash (s ADBE), as well as Silverlight, for video playback.
The company ruled out supporting open-source codecs like Ogg Theora for the time being, but Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch left open the possibility that it will change this position, saying that Microsoft "(will) be open to considering other codecs" once there is enough industry support for an H.264 alternative and any related legal uncertainties have been resolved.
That's a clear message to Google (s GOOG), which will open-source its VP8 video codec later this month, as well as Apple (s AAPL), which has been publicly throwing its support behind H.264 in recent days while at the same time threatening Ogg Theora and VP8 with lawsuits. Essentially, Microsoft is saying: You guys duke this one out, and we'll go with the winner.
Hachamovitch's post spends a lot of time clarifying the company's position regarding H.264 licensing. Some commenters had suggested that Microsoft has a vital interest in supporting H.264 because it's part of the MPEG LA's licensing pool, but according to Hachamovitch, Redmond is paying twice as much in fees as it's receiving in royalties, largely due to the fact that it has to license H.264 for playback in Windows. He also said that Microsoft will encourage MPEG LA to extend its royalty-free license for H.264 web video playback beyond 2016.
As for open source alternatives, he said that Microsoft remains wary about so-called submarine patents, which could force companies to pay licensing fees or even be targeted by lawsuits despite adopting supposedly patent-free technology. One example mentioned is a 2005 lawsuit aimed at Micosoft's use of the JPEG file format. A fact that Hachamovitch isn't mentioning is that the patent the lawsuit was based on was eventually found invalid.
Microsoft announced its support for H.264 and HTML5 web video at its Mix10 developers conference in Las Vegas in March. Google is going open source its VP8 video codec at its Google I/O developer conference later this month, and it's expected that the codec will be supported by both Firefox and Chrome.
Apple's Steve Jobs wrote in an email last week that "(a) patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other 'open source' codecs" — a clear warning shot against Google, and apparently enough reason for Microsoft to stay on the sidelines for the time being.
Related content on GigaOM Pro:
What Does the Future Hold For Browsers? (subscription required)


text: the market will open down to an extent equivalent to foreign markets, or about 5% to 8%. That would put the Dow Jones Industrials Average ($INDU) at somewhere between 8,836 and 9,124 -- around the level of the April lows -- and the Nasdaq ($COMPX) between 1,476 and 1,559. this will not be true panic selling, however, because the emotional component of surprise is missing. Rather it will be a pragmatic reaction to the real, fundamental losses and prospective losses to property any rally that materializes off the initial low will fail because there are so many sellers overhead. There will be margin calls and mutual fund redemptions that will cause institutions to sell whenever possible market âspecialistsâ will buy them initially because itâs their job to maintain stability, but they will be happy to sell them up a buck or two pros trying to capture a short-term market inefficiency and will sell them back out for small gains. Pros will wait for the first swing off the opening price to âfadeâ the next move â making what is known as a âcounter-trendâ trade.


text:
The Radeon HD 4850 & 4870: AMD Wins at $199 and $299by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on June 25, 2008 12:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
...and then disaster struck.
Or at least that's how it felt. The past few weeks have been incredibly tumultuous, sleepless, and beyond interesting. It is as if AMD and NVIDIA just started pulling out hardware and throwing it at eachother while we stood in the middle getting pegged with graphics cards. And we weren't just hit with new architectures and unexpected die shrinks, but new drivers left and right.
First up was GT200, which appeared in the form of the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260. Of course, both of those can be paired or tri-ed (if you will), but with two cards requiring at least a 1200W PSU we're a bit worried of trying three. Then came the randomness that was the accidental launch of the Radeon HD 4850 (albeit with no architectural information) and only a couple hours later we first heard about the 9800 GTX+ which is a die shrunk higher clocked 9800 GTX that is now publicly announced and will be available in July.
And now we have the other thing we've been working on since we finished GT200: RV770 in all it's glory. This includes the 4850 whose performance we have already seen and the Radeon HD 4870: the teraflop card that falls further short of hitting its theoretical performance than NVIDIA did with GT200. But theoretical performance isn't reality, and nothing can be done if every instruction is a multiply-add or combination of a multiply-add and a multiply, so while marketing loves to trot out big numbers we quite prefer real-world testing with games people will actually play on this hardware.
But before we get to performance, and as usual, we will want to take as deep a look into this architecture as possible. We won't be able to go as deep with RV770 as we could with GT200, as we had access to a lot of information both from NVIDIA and from outside NVIDIA that allowed us to learn more about their architecture. At the same time, we still know barely anything about the real design of either NVIDIA or AMD's hardware as they prefer to hold their cards very close.
This won't work long term, however. As we push toward moving compute intensive applications to the GPU, developers will not just want -- they will need low level architectural information. It is impossible to properly optimize code for an architecture when you don't know exact details about timing, latency, cache sizes, register files, resource sharing, and the like. While, this generation, we have decidedly more information from NVIDIA on how to properly program their architecture, we still need more from both AMD and NVIDIA.
And Now, the Rest of the Story
Last week was a weird teaser - we gave you the goods, without explaining what they were.
By now you know that the Radeon HD 4850 is the best buy at $199, but today we're able to tell you much about its inner workings as well as introduce its faster, more expensive sibling: the Radeon HD 4870.
|ATI Radeon HD 4870
|ATI Radeon HD 4850
|ATI Radeon HD 3870
|Stream Processors
|Texture Units
|Core Clock
|Memory Clock
|900MHz (3600MHz data rate) GDDR5
|993MHz (1986MHz data rate) GDDR3
|1125MHz (2250MHz data rate) GDDR4
|Memory Bus Width
|Frame Buffer
|Transistor Count
|Manufacturing Process
|TSMC 55nm
|TSMC 55nm
|TSMC 55nm
|Price Point
Priced at $299 the Radeon HD 4870 is clocked 20% higher and has 81% more memory bandwidth than the Radeon HD 4850. The GPU clock speed improvement is simply due to better cooling as the 4870 ships with a two-slot cooler. The memory bandwidth improvement is due to the Radeon HD 4870 using GDDR5 memory instead of GDDR3 used on the 4850 (and GDDR4 for 3870); the result is a data rate equal to 4x the memory clock speed or 3.6Gbps. The Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 both use a 256-bit memory bus like the 3870 before it (as well as NVIDIA's competing GeForce 9800 GTX), but total memory bandwidth on the 4870 ends up being 115.2GB/s thanks to the use of GDDR5. Note that this is more memory bandwidth than the GeForce GTX 260 which has a much wider 448-bit memory bus, but uses GDDR3 devices.
|NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
|NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
|NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
|ATI Radeon HD 4870
|ATI Radeon HD 4850
|ATI Radeon HD 3870
|Memory Size
|Memory Technology
|Memory Bus Width
|Memory Clock
|Memory Data Rate
|Memory Bandwidth
The use of GDDR5 enabled AMD to deliver GeForce GTX 260 class memory bandwidth, but without the pin-count and expense of a 448-bit memory interface. GDDR5 actually implements a number of Rambus-like routing and signaling technologies while still remaining a parallel based memory technology, the result is something that appears to deliver tremendous bandwidth per pin in a reliable, high volume solution.
AMD most likely took a risk on bringing GDDR5 to market this early and we do expect NVIDIA to follow suit, AMD is simply enjoying the benefits of jumping on the GDDR5 bandwagon early and getting it right, at least it seems that way. It wouldn't be too far fetched to imagine a 55nm GT200 die shrink with a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface, it should allow NVIDIA to drop the price down to the $300 level (at least for the GTX 260).
As we mentioned in our Radeon HD 4850 Preview, both the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 now support 8-channel LPCM audio output over HDMI. AMD just sent over 8-channel LPCM drivers for the Radeon HD 4870 so we'll be testing this functionality shortly. As we mentioned in our 4850 preview:
"All of AMD's Radeon HD graphics cards have shipped with their own audio codec, but the Radeon HD 4800 series of cards finally adds support for 8-channel LPCM output over HDMI. This is a huge deal for HTPC enthusiasts because now you can output 8-channel audio over HDMI in a motherboard agnostic solution. We still don't have support for bitstreaming TrueHD/DTS-HD MA and most likely won't anytime this year from a GPU alone, but there are some other solutions in the works for 2008."
The Radeon HD 4870 is scheduled for widespread availability in early July, although AMD tells us that some cards are already in the channel. Given that the 4870 relies on a new memory technology, we aren't sure how confident we can be that it will be as widely available as the Radeon HD 4850 has been thus far. Keep an eye out but so far the 4850 has been shipping without any issues at $199 or below, so as long as AMD can get cards in retailers' hands we expect the 4870 to hit its $299 price point.
215 Comments
View All Comments
Final Destination II - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkhttp://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4...">http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4...
Look! Compare the Powercolor vs. the MSI.
Somehow MSI seems to have done a better job with 4dB less.
Final Destination II - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkTry ASUS, 7°C cooler.
Justin Case - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkI thought it was only Johan, and it was sort of understandable since he's not a native English speaker, but it seems most Anandtech writers don't know the difference between "its" and "it's".
"It's" means "it is" or "it has" (just as "he's" or "she's"). When you're talking about something that belongs to something else, you use "its" (or "his" / "her").
In a sentence such as "RV770 in all it's [sic] glory.", you're clearly not saying "in all it is glory" or "in all it has glory"; you sare saying "in all the glory that belongs to it". So you should use "its", not "it's".
Even if you can't understand the difference (which seems pretty straightforward, but for some reason confuses some people), modern grammar checkers will pick this up 9 times out of 10.
CyberHawk - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - linkI am not a native English speaker, but I am well aware of the difference. I am also sure that reviewers are also ... it's just that - with all this text, we can forgive them, can't we?
I have a bachelor of computer science, studying for higher degree, but: I look at the technical side of the article, so I don't even notice the errors :D (although I can tell the difference I simply don't see it while reading)
CyberHawk - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - linkOh, I forgot: maybe I'm just being too enthusiastic ;)
JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkMore likely is that with a 10000 word article and four lengthy GPU reviews in two weeks, errors slipped into the text. I know at one point I noticed Derek says "their" instead of "there" as well, and I can assure you that he knows the difference. I know I use Word's grammar checker, but I'm not sure Derek even uses Word sometimes. :)
araczynski - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkof the 4850's, slickdeals has posted a sale, between rebate and coupon off...$150 each. can't beat that bang/$ by anything from nvidia.
first ati cards that will ever be in my computers since i've started with the voodoo/riva tnt :)
Denithor - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkPage 15: first reference to "GTX 280" should be "GTX 260" instead.
Page 19: I think you meant "type" not "time" in this paragraph.
natty1 - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkThis review is flawed. It shows greater than 100% scaling for Crossfire 4870 in Call of Duty 4. Why don't they just give us the raw numbers for both single and dual cards in the same scenario? Why use a method that will artificially inflate the Crossfire results?
Denithor - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - linkIf you read the comments before yours, you'd see the answer.
Experimental error and/or improved scaling for each card versus a single card. Read the earlier comment for more details.


text:
When you finally decide to redecorate your house do not panic, for interior decoration does not necessarily mean spending a fortune. You can redecorate your home interior on a good budget and really change the interior decoration.
The first step to take is to know where to look. There are certain areas of our home that when changed can give a new look to the general internal environment.
Check out those niches that are usually left hidden and brighten them up or render them cozier with a good looking object.
Objects of art are not necessarily expensive if you know where to unearth them. Do not head for the up-scale antique shops but look through yard sales, you will be surprised at the good bargains you can find there.
Here again you can get an even better price if, when you do find the object you are interested in you hang on before bargaining. Wait for the end of the morning sale and then approach the vendor.
If you prefer choosing new items then you can always go to the department stores during sales. Do not buy out of sales period as most objects in shops are overpriced. You can get three or four attractive object for the price of one.
Once you have chosen your art pieces, then the next step is to change the color scheme of some of your rooms. You do not need to paint the whole house, just one or two rooms.
Col our scheme is essential to the overall atmosphere of a home. A house can change dramatically with the right paint color. You will have to choose the color you want to paint the walls according to the light and exposure of the room.
Remember that warm colors such as yellow, orange, and ocres can be very cozy but may also reduce the size effect of the room. If you are not sure stick to white, you can always add a relief or a Trompe oil to brighten the whites and add some color.
Blues and greens will also absorb light and will give your room a fresh look. These colors also have a great calming effect, so could be ideal in rooms where you go for reading or relaxing.
If you choose the right color scheme it will do wonders for the light effects of the interior decoration and will enhance those objects you have purchased and your home furniture too.
Finally place your lamps and spotlights strategically, in order to reflect the light off walls and furniture. Prefer soft lights or spotlights that enhance the surfaces and add atmosphere and coziness to your rooms.
A new coat of the right colors and a few refined objects will do wonders and your home will look very different with little effort and money.


text:
luxury vinyl plank
Luxury Vinyl Planks in Colorado Springs, CO, for Your Home
The elegant appeal of hardwood can be yours when you choose luxury vinyl planks in Colorado Springs, CO, for your home. At Absolute Flooring America, we offer a varied selection of LVP flooring for our customers. This floor covering provides you with the realistic appeal of wood and all the benefits of vinyl. Come into our flooring showroom to see our vinyl plank for yourself.
When you visit our well-organized showroom filled with flooring of all types, be sure to ask our sales and design professionals for help. They have a wealth of knowledge they're willing to share with you. From product knowledge to design ideas, our experts are ready to answer all of your questions and help you choose the vinyl plank that meets your needs.
What LVP Offers You
Luxury vinyl plank is a wise choice for those who love the look of hardwood but would prefer a high-performance flooring option. Our LVP meets all of your design preferences and lifestyle requirements. Today's technology gives our luxury vinyl plank the realistic beauty of wood with the functionality of vinyl.
In addition to a handsome appearance, our brand-name LVP offers these advantages:
- Water Resistance — Vinyl is made to resist water. This means you don't have to worry about spills. Just wipe up the moisture and follow with a mild cleaning solution and you're done. Because it resists water, luxury vinyl works well in any room of the house. From the kitchen to the bathroom and the basement, LVP is well-suited to any room of your house.
- Installation Versatility — It's not necessary to tear out the old flooring to install luxury vinyl plank. We can send a team of installation technicians to your home to install vinyl plank over most other types of flooring. This makes it especially convenient to use our luxury vinyl in your kitchen because it installs over the other flooring with no adjustments necessary for existing cabinets.
- Insulating Properties — Maybe you know how well vinyl works as insulation on the exterior of your house. Luxury vinyl planks on your floors work in a similar way to disperse moderate hot and cold temperatures. In addition, vinyl flooring softens sound for a quieter household.
- Cleaning & Maintenance — One of our favorite benefits of luxury vinyl is how easy it is to clean. All you have to do is sweep up dust and follow with a damp mop. Apply a little vinyl cleaning solution while you mop to have a floor that is gleaming with cleanliness. That's all you have to do.
Contact us today to request a free, in-home pre-measure for your new vinyl plank flooring. We proudly serve customers from Colorado Springs, Monument, Black Forest, and Manitou Springs, Colorado, as well as the surrounding areas.


text:
Gnosticism and the Archons
In 1945 a cache of ancient texts was discovered in a cave near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These 52 documents are widely assumed to be original Gnostic writings almost 2000 years old. These texts are rare evidence for a mystical tradition that has a very unique creation myth. The texts refer to an off-world species called the Archons which act as overlords and deceivers of humanity at the same time. A fascinating subject with explosive ties to psychology and religion.
Holographic universe theory
There are various different models available which explain some of the unusual properties of reality as we experience it. The Holographic Model was initially put forward by physicist David Bohm who worked closely with Albert Einstein at Princeton University. Bohm started out working in the field of quantum mechanics and relativity theory.
This article gives a short introduction to the principle ideas behind this theory
Brain research and neurobiology
This article is a summary of insights from the last 20 years of brain research. The most important insight is the lifelong plasticity of the brain shaped by daily experience. Unfortunately this insight has not made it yet into many areas of society but it is of such importance that it is discussed in detail here. The better you understand the way your brain works, the better you will get at using it and the way you use your brain is shaping its physical structure.
The role of the brain in perceiving reality
The structure of our brain has a profound impact on how we perceive reality. Since Western culture is very left-brain centered, we seem to have lost contact with most of the creative and intuitive abilities of the right brain. Rediscovering these losts skills might play an important role in solving the current global crisis.
Scientific Evidence of Intuition
The Institute of Heartmath is a nonprofit research organzation that conducted experiments to measure human intuitive capabilities. Their experiments have shown that the human heart can predict events 4.5 seconds in advance under laboratory conditions.
Quantum physics and the double slit experiment
This is a short introduction into scientific discoveries that were originally made about 100 years ago. The implications of the "double slit experiment" are still not fully integrated into the scientific body of knowledge today. After reading through this introduction you will at least have understood the topic and the nature of the problem
Practical application of spiritual wisdom
This article is providing a general overview of spiritual wisdom. It is not based on any particular spiritual tradition or belief system but is rather a summary of wisdom found in many of them. You will learn about unconscious habits and patterns playing out in your mind and how you can understand the connection between your thoughts, your actions and your life experience. Finally it will provide you with a set of tools which can improve your life by becoming more conscious and more aware.
UFO crash in Roswell - Fact or fiction ?
The mass media generally portrays the Roswell incident from July 1947 as a modern myth. During the last decades several eye witnesses including military personnel, civilians as well as close relatives of eye witnesses have made interesting statements on camera regarding their own experiences in July 1947. This article assigns the given statements to a total of 4 incidents in the area of Roswell and it also takes a look at the credibility of the eye witnesses accounts.
Military and government witnesses of ET intelligence
The "Disclosure Project" was started by Dr. Steven Greer in 1993 in an attempt to get in contact with first-hand military and government witnesses to UFO events and projects, in order to prepare evidence to be used in a public disclosure of this subject. By the year 2001 Dr. Greer was in possession of over 120 hours of video testimony by over 100 witnesses which originated either from government, military or the intelligence community.
During a press conference helt on May 9th 2001 at the National Press Club in Washington Dr. Greer presented over 20 government witnesses in person who repeated their testimony of extraordinary experiences during their time of service. Unfortunately this press conference was not reported on by mainstream media and thus the event only reached people who were already aware of it in advance.
This article summarizes several eye witness accounts reported during this press conference
Quantum levitation of a superconductor
This demonstration of quantum levitation by a superconductor is from the ASTC conference in Baltimore (October 2011). Info on the science behind quantum levitation is available here
Documentary preview : Money & Life
A 9 minute long preview of the documentary "Money & Life". This preview is really worth watching, the movie itself was released on May 1st 2013 and it is available at full length in the Resource section.
Birth pains of a new paradigm
A 12 minute excerpt from a talk by Charles Eisenstein about the key issues behind the current crisis and the emergence of a new paradigm :
Education for young girls in Uganda
Achieng Beatrice Nas grew up in Uganda. A woman from America that visited Uganda chose Beatrice to support her and finance her school and university education. Now Beatrice wants to pay forward his unique opportunity : She has set up a mentorship program for 35 underpreviliged girls from her neighborhood to enable a different future for them through making it possible for them to receive an education.
This article contains information on the mentorship program and a short podcast with Beatrice.


text: What a night. In advance of the 2010 General Election I ran a campaign called "Save General Election Night" to counter the efforts of a number of returning officers who were seeking to move election counts to the Friday morning: the campaign was successful as Parliament enshrined overnight counting in law for all but a handful of seats – and over the last few hours we have been seen one of the most dramatic election nights that anyone can remember. Having set out to secure a mandate and majority of her own, Theresa May finds herself this morning as the leader of the party with the largest number of MPs but a handful of seats short of having an overall majority. At a constituency level, we've seen some extraordinary results. In a few areas where there was a big Leave vote at the EU referendum, the Tories made some incredible gains, like Derbyshire North East, Walsall North, Stoke-on-Trent South and Mansfield – several of which they had never won in history. But of course they lost more seats than they gained. A few of those losses came in areas where a strong Remain feeling may be deemed an explanation for the result, such as the defeats in Battersea or Twickenham. But then Labour's Kate Hoey – facing that onslaught over her pro-Brexit stance from the Lib Dems – held the Remain territory of Vauxhall with an increased voteshare and bigger majority, while Zac Goldsmith avenged his by-election defeat with a victory over the Lib Dems in Remain-backing Richmond Park (albeit by a mere 45 votes). There were also some dedicated Brexiteers who backed the Vote Leave campaign – mainly representing Leave-voting areas – who succumbed nonetheless to the national swing towards Labour. I pay particular tribute here to Caroline Ansell, Andrew Bingham, Sir Julian Brazier, David Burrowes, James Davies, Richard Fuller, Stewart Jackson, Charlotte Leslie, Jason McCartney, Karl McCartney, David Nuttall and James Wharton who will not be returning to Parliament next week. But what about the Liberal Democrats, who set so much stall on purporting to represent the anti-Brexit movement? They held four of their eight seats but lost four – including the scalp of former Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, who lost his Sheffield seat to Labour. They gained eight others, leaving them with a tally of 12, on a share of the vote that looks like being even lower than what they attained in 2015. That strikes me as pretty clear signal that the electorate were not especially taken by their brand of democracy denial as far as Brexit is concerned. Two-party politics looks very much to be the order of the day across England, with UKIP's support evaporating – the party looks set to end the night on less than 2% of the national vote. Scotland, of course, is a different story. While the SNP still have the most seats, the party lost more than 20 constituencies, including those of former First Minister, Alex Salmond, and their Westminster leader, Angus Robertson. The Tories now have 13 seats north of the border to Labour's seven and the Lib Dems' four. Northern Ireland has also provided its share of drama: the SDLP and UUP have been wiped out, with the Brexit-backing DUP now sending ten MPs to Westminster, while Sinn Fein won seven of the province's seats. Given that they have reiterated again overnight that they will not take those seats, it means a government will only need 322 rather than 326 votes to get its business through the Commons. Crucially, the Conservative and DUP parliamentary contingents combined could achieve those numbers – just. With her party having won the most seats and the most votes, I would expect Theresa May to seek to form a government. Clearly there are going to be questions asked about how long she might intend remaining Prime Minister, although the indications this morning are that she does not intend causing instability by quitting in the immediate future. But those questions are not really for me to consider. On Brexit, last year's referendum result still stands. And there is a consensus between the Conservative and Labour parties to accept that result – the fact that Jeremy Corbyn did so and appeared to accept an end to free movement, for example, will have given many Leave-inclined voters the confidence to vote for his party yesterday. And in any case, as I said above, there are the numbers in the House of Commons when factoring in the ten Brexit-supporting DUP MPs, for backing Brexit as defined by Theresa May in advance of the election. Yes, the numbers are extremely tight, but also factoring in the handful of pro-Brexit Labour MPs, it means that there is no excuse for any delay in pursuing the all-important Brexit negotiations.


text: Map and Directions Hernandez Smiles is conveniently located in Houston, Texas. We are off Interstate 45 at Northline Commons Shopping Center. For customized driving directions, please use the interactive map below. Simply click the red indicator at our office location, click on "directions", and enter a starting address. To switch between Map View and Satellite View, please select the corresponding button at the top-right corner of the map. You can also zoom in and out using the sliding bar or the "+/–" buttons on the left.


text:
DMG is a full-service agency specialising in news media
Our clients are profiled in the news media trusted by their investors, customers and partners.
End to End Media Management
Our role is to manage all media engagement, from story concept to final publication including co-ordinating well-briefed spokespeople and following up on all media requests to support the news feature.
Our creative media approach means reporters respond well to our pitches and our professional management means reporters get the story elements they need inside their deadlines.
Media Contact Us
Opinion-leading reporters regularly contact us for news and we always deliver.
Extending reach and influence of news features
DMG manages or recommends ways to leverage news media coverage to extend reach and influence including social media enhancement, EDMS, investor presentations and website content – all in a measurable format.
Data informs all our work
Being measurable is key to success, which is why we offer an online MediaDataBoard so you as a client can see real-time the impact of our news media work.
The MediaDataBoard pulls information from all sources connected to the news feature including website, social, EDMs, and landing pages to accurately gauge the response to a news article.
This shows the value we deliver as well as informs us about how to shape the next company news feature.


text:
Trouble at Target: 3 questions for CEO Gregg Steinhafel
The U.S. retailer faces a cloud of uncertainty as it deals with the fallout of its credit card data breach.
FORTUNE — Let's cut right to the chase. For a whole host of reasons, (not least of which is the continuing fallout from the credit card data breach disaster) I think Target's stock will continue to face significant headwinds. And if I were able to sit down, face-to-face, with CEO Gregg Steinhafel for five minutes, I would want answers to three key critical uncertainties that exist in the minds of investors right now.
Here are the three questions I'd ask:
Who exactly are you guiding?
In other words, who are you addressing with your company guidance—Wall Street or Main Street? In the two decades I've been doing this, I've never once had to ask this question before to a CEO. But the reality is that you're saying that you are going to generate positive same-store sales this year and gross margins will be up in the US and in Canada. And all of this will happen while you are lowering prices to win back customers who left after the data breach? Good luck. It all seems like a Mission Impossible combination.
That leads us back to the original question – are you giving guidance to Wall Street or consumers?
MORE: How to fail in business while really, really trying
What's going on right now with Target reminds me of what cruise companies do during their peak booking season – they generally issue positive comments because they're talking to travel agents, not to Wall Street. If they say that bookings are weak, then agents will discount price more heavily. So, is Target sending out this perplexing message to keep consumer opinion high, even if it means opening up the possibility of lowering Wall Street expectations later in the year?
What about share losses?
Who do you think is gaining the most business from customers who headed for the exits following the data breach debacle? For argument's sake, let's assume that it's Wal-Mart. Do you think that WMT is prepared to let that business to come-and-go so easily? Will you match Wal-Mart (WMT) if it comes down to price?
In reality, the shoppers that left Target (TGT) did not leave because of price. They left because of trust. You might be able to buy back trust, but you'll have to undercut Wal-Mart on price rather significantly.
If that's true, please refer to question #1.
What does Target want to be when it grows up?
That may sound like a ridiculous question at face value. But the reality is that it used to be "Wal-Mart vs. Target" – in share of market, share of mind, and share of investment dollars. But as bad as Wal-Mart's rap sometimes can be, the fact remains that it has over 10,000 stores under 71 banners in 27 countries. It has several formats – from Supercenters, to warehouse clubs, to neighborhood markets, and it is even beta-testing C-stores/gas stations. At least it's trying to evolve.
MORE: Can GM afford compensating victims for its malfunctioning cars?
Meanwhile, Target just has one primary format in North America, with a token operation in India.
The point here is that as far as perception is concerned, Target used to be right there with WMT – but now it seems to be somewhere between WMT and Kohl's. When you look out five to 10 years, what will Target look like?
Bonus Question (if he hung around an extra 2 minutes). Do you think you fired your customers?
JC Penney (JCP) fired its customer. Former CEO Ron Johnson said at the time that he did not. Lululemon Athletica (LULU) fired its customer. CEO Chip Wilson said at the time that he did not. The reality is that both of those retailers fired their customers. It will likely take them 2 to 3 years to get an acceptable portion of their customers back.
So, do you think that you fired your customer? Your current lofty guidance suggests that the answer is No.
(Note: I'd give Target's CEO all the credit in the world if he said Yes. Why? Because it would suggest that he's actually doing something about it).
Brian McGough is managing director and retail sector head at Hedgeye Risk Management. You can follow him on Twitter at @HedgeyeRetail


text:
Orthodontic treatments can straighten crooked teeth, but traditional metal braces are bulky and uncomfortable.
Invisalign® treatment is a virtually invisible alternative to braces that is comfortable, discreet, and simplified.
Learn how the Michael Bixby Center for Advanced Dentistry in Red Bank, NJ, can straighten your smile with Invisalign...
The Advantages of Invisalign
A Discreet Option
Invisalign is an effective orthodontic solution that uses a series of removable clear aligner trays - rather than unsightly metal hardware - to gradually shift teeth into their proper positions.
Greater Comfort
The aligner trays are custom-crafted from smooth BPA-free plastic to fit your smile. This offers patients a more comfortable alternative to metal braces, which frequently irritate the soft tissues of the mouth.
Easy Daily Care & No Food Restrictions
Since the aligner trays are removable, patients who choose this solution can brush and floss normally, and no foods are off-limits.
Why Choose Michael Bixby?
Invisalign is widely available, but your choice of provider makes a difference in the success of your treatment. Michael Bixby, DMD, is an experienced cosmetic and general dentist who has helped many patients achieve their best possible smile. He is considered a leader in the field of neuromuscular dentistry, and is a member of prestigious professional associations:
- American Dental Association
- Academy of General Dentistry
- New Jersey Dental Association
- Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation
Dr. Bixby can help you experience the maximum benefits of Invisalign at his Red Bank, NJ, practice serving all of Monmouth County. His neuromuscular approach to dentistry can allow you to achieve a smile that is not only properly aligned and attractive, but also helps you avoid conditions such as headaches and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder due to improperly aligned jaws.
"Dr. Bixby Is the Best Dentist!"
This wonderful man made me feel very comfortable about neglecting my teeth. He is a very kind gentle man and I Trusted him thoroughly.View On Google
Dr. Bixby is the best dentist!View On Google
Book an Invisalign Consultation
If misaligned teeth have caused you discomfort or embarrassment, the Center for Advanced Dentistry in Red Bank, NJ, serving Monmouth County can help. For the right candidates, Invisalign clear aligners offer a number of valuable benefits compared to braces. There has never been a better time than now to achieve the straight, healthy smile you have always wanted. Dr. Bixby can determine if this popular and effective orthodontic treatment is the right way to help you achieve your best smile.
To schedule a visit to our Red Bank, NJ, dentist office and learn if you are a good candidate for this solution, contact us online or call:
(732) 224-1160
Invisalign Express and Invisalign Teen
There are some exciting variations on this treatment that can make it an excellent fit for patients with very minor misalignment, as well as for younger patients who can benefit from helpful reminders about compliance.
If you want to correct slight imperfections in the alignment of your most visible teeth, you may be eligible for Invisalign Express. If you are getting ready for a big event such as a wedding or graduation, this option can be a great way to achieve a very real and very powerful upgrade in your appearance in just 10 to 20 weeks.
Another specialized option is Invisalign Teen, which is designed specifically for adolescents. Each aligner tray has a blue dot that gradually fades, indicating whether the patient is wearing the aligner for the prescribed amount of time each day. The treatment also includes replacement mouthpieces in case some become lost over the course of treatment.
The Treatment Timeline
How Much Does Invisalign Cost?
For a comprehensive case, you can expect treatment to cost approximately $5,000 at our practice. Longer treatments are going to cost more, as they require more trays and more check-ups with our Red Bank, NJ, dentist serving Monmouth County.
Our practice is a preferred provider with Delta Dental and Aetna, and we work with many insurance plans. We also accept CareCredit® and Chase Health Advance financing options to help patients afford the Invisalign system.
Straighten Your Teeth with Invisalign
"Excellent Experience."
I have been a patient of Dr. Bixby's for 8+ years. He and his staff are always friendly, knowledgeable and caring. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a quality dentist in the Red Bank / Middletown area.
Staff is alway pleasant and very efficient. Greeted with a smile and a nice word. Hygienist was gentle and quick. Dr. Bixby is very personable. Efficient and no pain.. he spends time with each patient and answers any questions. Would recommend him (and we have) to anyone looking for a really good experience in their dental needs. Thank you
Achieve a Straight Smile
Dr. Bixby has dedicated himself to neuromuscular dentistry and remained focused on how all aspects of your smile work together to achieve health and an attractive appearance. While orthodontic treatment is most widely known for its cosmetic benefits, properly spaced and aligned teeth are beneficial for a number of reasons, especially when a dentist like Dr. Bixby coordinates your treatment.
A properly aligned smile makes brushing and flossing easier, which reduces the risk of cavities and gum disease. Meanwhile, optimizing the alignment of your bite can also help you avoid developing TMJ disorder.
The good news is that bulky metal braces are no longer your only choice when it comes to achieving a smile that is not only more attractive, but also easier to maintain. To find out whether you are a candidate for Invisalign treatment, schedule a consultation at our Red Bank, NJ, practice today by contacting us online, or by calling:
(732) 224-1160
Your Role in Achieving Your Goals
For treatment to be successful, it is necessary to follow the guidelines provided by your dentist. Wearing the clear aligners for 20 to 22 hours a day allows the treatment system to achieve the necessary tooth movements. By committing to these requirements, you can be sure that your treatment timeline will proceed as planned.
Once you have completed treatment using your custom series of aligners, it is recommended that you wear your final set overnight each night to maintain the improved positions of your teeth. You can also choose to have a custom retainer made.
"Professional and Friendly Environment."
Dr. Michael Bixby is a first rate dentist. Very capable of solving all difficult and easy problems. He and his team work efficiently and comfortably. I would absolutely recommend their office.View On RateABiz
Always on time, professional and friendly environment. Cleanings are quality and quick! Always willing to accommodate. I highly recommend Dr. Bixby for anyone looking for a dentist in the Red Bank/Monmouth county area.View On RateABiz


text:
We often ask how we can help change the world, but true change begins in our own homes and hearts. True change begins with raising a generation to love wholeheartedly, run to Jesus first, and aim to be less judgmental and more forgiving.
At the heart and soul of a healthy family does not mean a care-free upbringing or a mistake-free lifestyle.
All families face heartache, changes, trials, and times in their lives when they question everything. A healthy family is one that unites during difficult times and tries to make good out of difficult and even life-shattering situations. It is not about chasing perfection, it's about implementing authenticity.
At the heart of an unhealthy family can be hidden sin, pride, shame, anger, negativity, hostility, unresolved and lingering pain from the past and a lack of coming together and uniting as one. Unhealthy is keeping secrets and trying to keep one's emotions and struggles bottled up.
A healthy family is one that pulls their hope, joy, strength, and direction from God and His Word. They are honest, open, and free to admit when they are wrong or make mistakes. It's creating a safe place. Healthy families are not perfect families, but persons uniting as one body and aiming to be on one accord. The family is the foundation of one's future emotional, spiritual, and social development. The family is where a child begins to form their opinions, beliefs, and values. It is the foundation for the future.
Unhealthy families and a negative, stress-filled home can leave adolescents with problems that carry on into adulthood. Physical/emotional abuse, history and abuse of drugs/alcohol, unhealthy values, low self-esteem, are just a few of the many issues that can arise from an unhealthy family.
Many families today are lacking a father figure, a set of parents who care for and authentically love one another or don't exhibit a desire to improve the health of their family. It is important to realize that God is the constant we so desperately need to do so.
Here are a few things to consider:
1. We are imperfect people. It's ok if we admit that to our children. We can say "I'm sorry" for losing our temper and admit to our spouse that we overreacted. We will make mistakes in parenting, marriage, and sometimes face plant in our own personal struggles. I struggle with wanting to have it all together. But I don't. Not even remotely close. Some days end in tears and muttered apologies to my husband or son for falling short, yet again.
We can't chase perfection, we should aim to create a home of authenticity.
2. Make your home a safe place. A place where your children can come to you about things they are battling. A place that holds them accountable yet loves them when they make mistakes. A place where you can ask for help. Or fall on your knees, begging for help.
Home is not the color of your walls or the sturdiness of the structure that you reside in . . . it is a place where love surrounds and abounds. Love needs to surround you, your marriage, and your parenting style. Love needs to surround your actions and reactions. Love is an action, a reaction, and the way that you carry out your promises—even when you selfishly want to throw the towel in.
3. Make memories. Laugh, laugh, laugh. It was once said that "Laughter is medicine for the soul." Learn to laugh at yourself. Learn to be silly. Release your inner child. Laugh at your child's corny knock-knock jokes. And don't make it an obvious or condescending pity laugh. Make your spouse giggle. Reminisce on good memories you've made together.
Laughter and memory-making are at the core of creating a happy, loving home. Tell your spouse weird jokes. Play dress up with your daughter. Pull out the lightsabers with your son. Have a Nerf war.
Let's make home a place of utter authenticity. A place where you can admit your struggles, apologize when you've made mistakes, hold one another accountable, and get to know one another on a deeper level. One that knows who your spouse and children really are underneath the surface. One that knows more than their favorite foods or tv shows, but one that lets them spew out their fears, hopes, and dreams, like a soda can that was violently shaken before opening.
Now, let's go change the world—starting right in our living room with a family movie night and in the baby's nursery by rocking the wee one to sleep.


text:
|Gone Fishing!
- As I said yesterday, we weren't sure about soccer but around 6:30 Robby woke and saw an email saying that indeed the games were cancelled. The continued rain throughout the night just didn't give the fields time to recover so no soccer for the Dennies. Robby got out of bed to send a text to some of his soccer parents and he made sure that he moved all of the jerseys out of our room so no one could dress out before we stopped them.
- Everyone was pretty bummed about soccer so Robby felt like Shipleys for breakfast might help a bit. He loaded Keaton, Campbell, Anderson and Graham in the car and they were off. Whitman was still snoozing and Reagan was, of course, sound asleep. In the back of my mind, I was a bit worried that Reagan would come down the stairs and find a completely silent and empty house and think that she had been left. So I made sure that I left a light on in whatever room that I was in. I told her about that later and she nonchalantly said "My game would have been later in the day so ya'll would have come back for me."
- The doughnuts did cheer everyone up and after breakfast was put away, all of the boys (except Whitman) were given haircuts. Actually, I take that back-Whitman did have a little trim. He saw the boys taking turns sitting on the stool on the patio so when the stool was empty he climbed on it. Robby turned on the clippers and gave him a tiny trim on one section of his hair and then Whitman quickly climbed off the stool!
- Of course, haircutting led to showers for most everyone. Then Robby and I started going through our huge tv cabinet in our bedroom. This activity lasted a very, very long time but that was fine because it was a pretty big job. (We still have a few more things to put away though.)
- Lunch and then we all headed outside. The kids played for a while and then we all went on a walk around the neighborhood. We only had a few minutes when we came home so we played a short game of soccer despite our own muddy field. Reagan and I let the boys beat us today but we will be on our game next time!
- Before 5, I left with Reagan, Anderson and Graham to take them to church for the evening. Then we came back home to pick up Robby and Whitman and drove down the road to the Atwoods for supper.
- My little people were in a heaven-swings, a slide, a pond, a waterfall, a flying squirrel search and even some fishing. Keaton got to reel in a fish so Campbell is determined that she wants to go back. She did become fairly decent at casting (decent-was able to get it into the water) Whitman loved watching the water and looking for "fishy"-of course this love of the water drew him to the water over and over and over again. He would take off running to the water and would stop just at the edge-now, we never knew if he was really going to stop or not so we would have to go running after him.
- Robby had to leave and get the big kids from church. By the time they came back, it was dark and they could really only enjoy a cookie and drink which they greatly did. Once we made it home, we did give the kids some peanut butter pie-doesn't everyone give their kids pie at bedtime?


text:
This is the recognized web site for the Kingdom of Ealdormere of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. and is maintained by Baroness Laura Battista. This site may contain electronic versions of the group's governing documents. Any discrepancies between the electronic version of any information on this site and the printed version that is available from the originating office will be decided in favor of the printed version.
For information on using photographs, articles, or artwork from this web site, please contact the Web Minister at firstname.lastname@example.com. He or she will assist you in contacting the original creator of the piece. Please respect the legal rights of our contributors.
All external links are not part of the Kingdom of Ealdormere web site. Inclusion of a page or site here is neither implicit nor explicit endorsement of the site. Further, SCA, Inc. is not responsible for content outside of ealdormere.ca
Copyright © 2022 The Kingdom of Ealdormere. The original contributors retain the copyright of certain portions of this site.