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VXLAN Deep Dive, Part 2: Looking at the Options
Hey folks–this is the second of three posts looking a little more closely at VXLAN. If you missed the first post, you can find it here. In this installment we are going to look at the some of the other options out there. Two of the most common questions we see are "why do I need yet another protocol?" and "can I now get rid of X?" This should help you answer these questions.So, let's dig in…
3 Comparison with other technologies
3.1 Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)
If one were to look carefully at the encapsulation format of VXLAN one might notice that it is actually a subset of the IPv4 OTV encapsulation in draft-hasmit-ovt-03, except the Overlay ID field is not used (and made reserved) and the well-known destination UDP port is not yet allocated by IANA (but will be different).
If one were to look even closer, they would notice that OTV is actually a subset of the IPv4 LISP encapsulation, but carrying an Ethernet payload instead of an IP payload.
Using a common (overlapping) encapsulation for all these technologies simplifies the design of hardware forwarding devices and prevents reinvention for its own sake.
Given that the packet on the wire is very similar between VXLAN and OTV, what is different? OTV was designed to solve a different problem. OTV is meant to be deployed on aggregation devices (the ones at the top of an structured hierarchy of 802.1Q switches) to interconnect all (up to 4094) VLANs in one hierarchy with others either in the same or in another datacenter, creating a single stretched 4K VLAN domain. It is optimized to operate over the capital I Internet as a Data Center Interconnect. Cisco's latest version is able to interconnect datacenters without relying on IP multicast, which is not always available across the Internet. It prevents flooding of unknown destinations across the Internet by advertising MAC address reachability using routing protocol extensions (namely IS-IS). Each OTV device peers with each other using IS-IS. There is expected to be a limited number of these OTV devices peering with each other over IS-IS (because of where they are placed – at a layer 2 aggregation point). Within a given layer 2 domain below this aggregation point, there are still only 4K VLANs available, so OTV does not create more layer 2 network segments. Instead it extends the existing ones over the Internet.
Since VXLAN is designed to be run within a single administrative domain (e.g. a datacenter), and not across the Internet, it is free to use Any Source Multicast (ASM) (a.k.a. (*,G) forwarding) to flood unknown unicasts. Since a VXLAN VTEP may be running in every host in a datacenter, it must scale to numbers far beyond what IS-IS was designed to scale to.
Note that OTV can be complimentary to VXLANs as a Data Center Interconnect. This is helpful in two ways. For one, the entire world is not poised to replace VLANs with VXLANs any time soon. All physical networking equipment supports VLANs. The first implementations of VXLANs will be only in virtual access switches (the ones Virtual Machines connect to), so this means that only VMs can connect to VXLANs. If a VM wants to talk with a physical device such as a physical server, layer 3 switch, router, physical network appliance, or even a VM running on a hypervisor that does not support a VXLAN enabled access switch – then it must use a VLAN. So, if you have a VM that wants to talk with something out on the Internet…it must go through a router, and that router will communicate with the VM over a VLAN. Given that some VMs will still need to connect to VLANs, they will still exist and if layer 2 adjacency is desired across datacenters, then OTV works well to interconnect them. The layer 2 extension provided by OTV can be used, not just to interconnect VLANs with VMs and physical devices connected to them, but also by VTEPs as well. Since VTEPs require the use of ASM forwarding, and this may not be available across the Internet, OTV can be used to extend the transport VLAN(s) used by the VTEPs across the Internet between multiple datacenters.
3.2 MAC-in-GRE
Why did VXLANs use a MAC-in-UDP encapsulation instead of MAC-in-GRE? The easy answer is to say, for the same reasons OTV and LISP use UDP instead of GRE. The reality of the world is that the vast majority (if not all) switches and routers do not parse deeply into GRE packets for applying policies related to load distribution (Port Channel and ECMP load spreading) and security (ACLs).
Let's start with load distribution. Port Channels (or Cisco's Virtual Port Channels) are used to aggregate the bandwidth of multiple physical links into one logical link. This technology is used both at access ports and on inter-switch trunks. Switches using Cisco's FabricPath can get even greater cross-sectional bandwidth by combining Port Channels with ECMP forwarding – but only if the switches can identify flows (this is to prevent out-of-order delivery which can kill L4 performance). If one of today's switches were to try to distribute GRE flows between two VTEPs that used a GRE encapsulation, all the traffic would be polarized to use only one link within these Port Channels. Why? Because the physical switches only see two IP endpoints communicating, and cannot parse the GRE header to identify the individual flows from each VM. Fortunately, these same switches all support parsing of UDP all the way to the UDP source and destination port numbers. By configuring the switches to use the hash of source IP/dest IP/L4 protocol/source L4 port/dest L4 port (typically referred to as a 5-tuple), they can spread each UDP flow out to a different link of a Port Channel or ECMP route. While VXLAN does use a well-known destination UDP port, the source UDP port can be any value. A smart VTEP can spread the all the VMs 5-tuple flows over many source UDP ports. This allows the intermediate switches to spread the multiple flows (even between the same two VMs!) out over all the available links in the physical network. This is an important feature for data center network design. Note that this does not just apply to layer 2 switches, since VXLAN traffic is IP and can cross routers as well, it applies to ECMP IP routing in the core as well.
Note that MAC-in-GRE based schemes can perform a similar trick as mentioned above by creating flow-based entropy within a sub-portion of the GRE key (as opposed to the source UDP port), but it is a moot point unless all the switches and routers along the path can parse the GRE Key field and use it to generate a hash for Port Channel / ECMP load distribution
Next comes security. As soon as you start carrying your layer 2 traffic over IP routers, you open yourself up for packet injection on to a layer 2 segment from anywhere there is IP access…unless you use firewalls and/or ACLs to protect the VXLAN traffic. Similar to the load balancing issue above, if GRE is used, firewalls and layer 3 switches and routers with ACLs will typically not parse deeply into the GRE header enough to differentiate one type of tunneled traffic from another. This means all GRE would need to be blocked indiscriminately. Since VXLAN uses UDP with a well-known destination port, firewalls and switch/router ACLs can be tailored to block only VXLAN traffic.
Note that one downside to any encapsulation approach, whether it is based on UDP or GRE is that by having the hypervisor software add an encapsulation, today's NICs and/or NIC drivers do not have a mechanism to be informed about the presence of the encapsulation for performing NIC hardware offloads. It will be a performance benefit for either of these encapsulation methods for NIC vendors to update their NICs and/or NIC drivers and for hypervisor vendors to allow access to these capabilities. Given that NIC vendors (Intel, Broadcom and Emulex) have given public support to both VXLAN and GRE based encapsulations, I can only guess that support for both schemes will be forthcoming.
Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) is a technology that allows end systems to keep their IP address (ID) even as they move to a different subnet within the Internet (Location). It breaks the ID/Location dependency that exists in the Internet today by creating dynamic tunnels between routers (Ingress and Egress Tunnel Routers). Ingress Tunnel Routers (ITRs) tunnel packets to Egress Tunnel Routers (ETRs) by looking up the mapping of an end system's IP address (ID) to its adjacent ETR IP address (Locator) in the LISP mapping system.
LISP provides true end system mobility while maintaining shortest path routing of packets to the end system. With traditional IP routing, an end station's IP address must match the subnet it is connected to. While VXLAN can extend a layer 2 segment (and therefore the subnet it is congruent with), across hosts which are physically connected to different subnets, when a VM on a particular host needs to communicate out through a physical router via a VLAN, the VMs IP address must match the subnet of that VLAN – unless the router supports LISP.
If a VXLAN is extended across a router boundary, and the IP Gateway for the VXLAN's congruent subnet is a VM on the other side of the router, this means traffic will flow from the originating VMs server, across the IP network to the IP Gateway VM residing on another host, and then back up into the physical IP network via a VLAN. This phenomenon is sometime referred to as "traffic tromboning" (alluding to the curved shape of a trombone). Thus, while VXLANs support VMs moving across hosts connected to different layer 2 domains (and therefore subnets), it doesn't provide the direct path routing of traffic that LISP does.
3.4 MAC-in-MAC
VMware has an existing proprietary equivalent of VXLAN which is deployed today with vCloud Director, called vCloud Director Network Isolation (vCDNI). vCDNI uses a MAC-in-MAC encapsulation. Cisco and VMware, along with others in the hypervisor and networking industry have worked together on a common industry standard to replace vCDNI – namely VXLAN. VXLAN has been designed to overcome the shortcomings of the vCDNI MAC-in-MAC encapsulation – namely load distribution, and limited span of a layer 2 segment.
The first one is the same issue that GRE has with load distribution across layer 2 switch Port Channels (and ECMP for FabricPath). The second is that because the outer encapsulation is a layer 2 frame (not an IP packet), all network nodes (hypervisors in the case vCDNI), MUST be connected to the same VLAN. This limits the flexibility in placing VMs within your datacenter if you have any routers interconnecting your server pods unless you use a layer 2 extension technology such as OTV to do it.
So, a couple of points to wrap things up. Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of why VXLAN instead of some of the existing options. Beyond that, I hope it becomes clear that while VXLAN is immensely useful, it is not magical–it relies on a well-built, well-operating L2/L3 infrastructure so other technologies and protocols are going to come into play in the real world. As usual, post questions to either of these blog entires and we will get them answered as best we can.
[Updated 10 Nov 11]
Also be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 3 of this series.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.
4 Comments
Leonardo Rocha
This is really a GREAT post man, thanks a lot for sharing you knowledge!
aju verghese
Omar thanks it was worth knowing
Chris Klomp
Thank you for this useful post.
You clearly articulate the different options and their intended purpose. It quantifies your statement, that though there is overlap, each has it's purpose.
More tools in our toolbox, makes us more effective in solving our real world problems.
You have brought up a very wonderful points , regards for the post.


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Thank you for taking the time to post about your trip each year. I enjoy reading about and seeing these places that I may never get to go to in person. You certainly pack a lot of sites into each day. Do you ever wonder what you may have missed seeing while traveling after dark?
Again, thank you for sharing with us. I'm looking forward to seeing next year's post.

subset: commoncrawl


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McNeilus Steel Adds Fourth Stretcher-Leveling Line
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Thursday, May 1, 2014
The McNeilus Steel service center in Fond Du Lac, WI, has commissioned a ½-in.-capacity Red Bud Industries cut-to-length (CTL) line, the fourth Red Bud stretcher-leveling line that McNeilus has installed. The firm operates two Red Bud lines at its facility in Dodge Center, MN, and one line at its plant in Fargo, ND. Featured on the latest CTL line: the ability to run in start-stop and looping modes, and a heavy-gauge drop stacker mounted directly to a variable-rake shear.
See also: Red Bud Industries, Inc.
Related Enterprise Zones: Coil Handling, Materials/Coatings
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2 19-Year-Old Females Accused Of Groping & Spanking The Elderly In Minnesota!
AP reports "Allegations that two young assistants groped, spanked and spat on several nursing home residents suffering from dementia have shaken members of this southern Minnesota community, including the lead prosecutor in the case."
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Zac Efron celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday with a celebrity boys night out.
Weeks after reports surfaced suggesting the actor had completed a stint in rehab earlier this year, the Hairspray heartthrob was spotted celebrating in Los Angeles.
Efron enjoyed a low-key bash at Hollywood hotspot Chateau Marmont, and was joined by friends Robert Pattinson, Joe Jonas and Michael B. Jordan, his co-star in the upcoming film That Awkward Moment.
Prior to the party, Efron was spotted playing golf with his father in Carlsbad, California.
The actor took to Twitter.com to thank his fans for their birthday wishes and support, and wrote, "My birthday wish was for all of you to have health and happiness. Love you guys and thanks to everyone for all the birthday messages and videos! I've never felt more loved."
Zac Efron celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday with a celebrity boys night out.


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Children remain in the service for the first part but then leave for their own age-appropriate classes/activities.
Our young people ((Yr 10+) have a mixed programme which includes sometimes remaining in the service and sometimes grouping for their own activities.
A very warm welcome is extended to all.


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If you're a big fan of tangy chicken, give this vinegar-glazed chicken a try. I first made this Hunan dish about a year ago from Grace Young's Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge and found it positively addictive. I still come back to it again and again for its wonderful combination of smoky, tart, and spicy flavors.
There's a big bottle of Chinese black vinegar on my counter that I've had for well over a year, surviving at least two apartment moves. I use it every week, from making dumpling dipping sauces to stir-frying dishes like kung pao chicken, but in a year (through intensive recipe testing, no less) it's only about two-thirds done. Bottles of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and other pantry staples have been replaced, but somehow this bottle of black vinegar seems bottomless.
I realized the other day that I haven't talk too much on this blog about Chinese black vinegar and its uses. If you've never had the chance to try it, and live near a big Chinese supermarket, I highly recommend you go to the vinegar aisle and buy yourself a bottle. The one to look for is called Chinkiang Black Vinegar from the Gold Plum brand label, and it looks like this is what it looks like:
Unlike white rice vinegar, Chinese black vinegar from northern China is an aged vinegar made from black glutinous rice, wheat, millet, or sorghum.. (The Gold Plum version from the city of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, made with glutinous rice, is considered the premier brand.) The flavor resembles that of balsamic vinegar. It's slightly sweet with a barely detectable smokiness, which is why it's so great for dumpling dip. A bit of soy sauce, a bit of vinegar, a wee bit of sesame oil, and you have a classic simple sauce for all those store-bought or handmade dumplings.
As you may have seen on this blog, I frequently recommend in my recipes a good-quality balsamic vinegar as a substitute if you can't find Chinese black vinegar. But the same could be said opposite, that if you run out of balsamic vinegar you can use Chinese black vinegar. Just a couple weeks ago I made salad dressing with black vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a spritz of lemon. It was delicious.
In Grace Young's Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge, she has a good recipe for vinegar-glazed chicken, a Hunan dish that is also a quick and easy to stir-fry. A good two tablespoons of Chinese black vinegar is added at the end. I picked it primarily because I had all the ingredients on hand, including the chicken and scallions. To give you an idea of just how good it was, I had planned to stretch out the four servings to the next day, but ended up eating it all for lunch and dinner the same day. Try it out if you're looking for a quick meal that has a complex tasting sauce, with tanginess, smokiness, and a spicy kick.
Vinegar-Glazed Chicken
Serves 4
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
- 5 or 6 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths (optional: extra sliced scallion greens for garnish)
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar, or substitute good-quality balsamic vinegar
- Marinate the chicken: In a medium bowl, combine the chicken with the 1/2 tablespoon of the soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of the rice wine, the sugar, cornstarch, Sichuan pepper, and salt. Stir so the chicken becomes well-coated with the marinade and allow it to stand for 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl, stir together the sesame oil, the remaining 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of the rice wine. Set aside.
- Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until a bead of water evaporates on contact. Add the peanut oil. Add the scallions, ginger, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes and stir-fry until just aromatic, about 20 seconds. Push the aromatics to the side, then add the chicken to the middle. Stir-fry for 2 minutes until lightly golden on the outside but not yet cooked through. Add the soy sauce mixture and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until the chicken is well-coated with sauce. Drizzle in the vinegar and stir-fry for another 1 minute so the chicken is cooked through. Transfer to a plate and serve.
Recipe first posted Dec. 19, 2011. Updated December 17, 2012.


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HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J., Aug. 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (Nasdaq:NYMX) reported favorable results from the most recent Safety Monitoring Committee periodic review of safety data for the Company's NX02-0018 clinical trial, one of the two Phase 3 pivotal trials for NX-1207, Nymox's investigational drug for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The August 20, 2013 Safety Monitoring Committee meeting found no significant safety concerns to date. Both of the Company's pivotal Phase 3 trials have completed enrollment and treatment (a single intraprostatic injection of either drug or placebo) and patient evaluation is continuing at over 70 well-known urology investigative sites across the U.S. NX-1207 for the treatment of BPH is in Phase 3 development in the U.S. and in the EU under the sponsor of the Company's European licensing partner, Recordati S.p.A. NX-1207 is a first-in-class therapeutic that is administered directly into the prostate by a urologist in an office setting. The procedure does not require anaesthesia, sedation, or catheterization, takes only a few minutes and involves minimal discomfort to the patient. NX-1207 has thus far shown none of the adverse sexual side effects associated with approved medical and surgical treatments for BPH. Previous clinical trials found that a single administration of NX-1207 2.5 mg produced on average improvements in the standardized BPH symptom score (8-10 points at 90 days) that were approximately double that reported for currently approved BPH drugs (3-5 points) without the sexual, blood pressure, or other side effects associated with the approved drugs. Follow-up studies have shown durable clinically significant benefit for up to 7 ½ years after a single treatment. BPH is one of the most commonly diagnosed diseases in older men. The condition can have a significant negative impact on a man's health and quality of life and can lead to acute urinary retention, incontinence and other serious consequences. It is estimated that 50% of men in their 50s have pathological signs of prostatic hyperplasia and from 26 to 46% of men between the ages of 40 to 79 years suffer from moderate to severe urinary problems and symptoms associated with BPH.
More information about Nymox is available at www.nymox.com, email: email@example.com, or 800-936-9669.This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and the actual results and future events could differ materially from management's current expectations. Such factors are detailed from time to time in Nymox's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities.
CONTACT: For Further Information Contact: Brian Doyle Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation 1-800-93NYMOX www.nymox.com


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State of Graphic Design
Smartpress surveyed some of the best and most talented graphic designers and put the results into the State of Graphic Design infographic. They include tips like "How to learn the field" and "Top 5 states for graphic designer employment" that could be crucial for newbies to the field.
Welcome to the 2012 edition of the State of Graphic Design!
Smartpress.com conducted a survey to aggregate the opinion of dozens of the best and most-talented graphic designers in the industry. The results were turned into a success factors/guide document in form of an infographic. This year the survey included more than 40 industry experts that have 5+ years of experience.
Thanks to Harrison for sending in the link!


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Nov. 9, 2007 (Boston) -- A new inflammation-fighting drug may spell relief for people with severe gout who are unable to take other drugs for gout treatment because of underlying health problems.
Given by injection just underneath the skin, rilonacept (IL-1 Trap) blocks interleukin-1, a protein involved in inflammation. A new study of 10 people with severe gout shows that it substantially decreases both disease activity and pain.
The findings were presented at the American College of Rheumatology's Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston.
"Lots of gout patients can't take standard anti-inflammatory drugs such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), colchicine, or systemic steroids because they may have kidney problems, heart problems, or diabetes," explains researcher Robert Terkeltaub, MD.
Terkeltaub is section chief of rheumatology-allergy at the VA Medical Center in San Diego and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. "Now we can help break the inflammatory loop in these patients," he says.
"IL-1 is a lynch pin of gout inflammation, and if we can block the lynch pin, we can stop the inflammatory cascade," Terkeltaub tells WebMD.
Gout Symptoms
Gout is a condition characterized by "flares" of intense pain, redness, inflammation, and warmth in the affected joint. It is caused by an accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints, which can also build up in other areas of the body. As the disease progresses, these flares may become more frequent and patients may develop joint deformity and large deposits of crystals, which can become visible under the skin (called tophi). Patients with gout can also develop kidney stones and kidney damage.
Uric acid is found naturally in the body. In gout, there is generally a problem with either too much production of uric acid or problems in getting rid of the uric acid, or both. During an attack, gout is typically treated with drugs that cool inflammation. In addition, uric-acid-lowering drugs are sometimes prescribed.
Some uric-acid-lowering drugs actually cause flares, and it is possible the new drug may be used along with drugs to lower uric acid to help prevent such flares.
In the new study of 10 people (average age 62) with severe, chronic gout, participants received two weekly injections of a dummy drug followed by six weekly injections of rilonacept. In the second through eighth week of the study, 70% of participants had at least a 50% improvement in their pain; 60% of participants had at least a 75% improvement in their pain. By contrast, none of the participants showed improvement while they were receiving the dummy injections.
Levels of C-reactive protein in the blood, a marker of inflammation, decreased about 59% by the end of rilonacept therapy. Mild to moderate reactions at the drug injection sites were reported, but there were no deaths or serious adverse effects reported from this study.
"It's really gratifying to see patients that are considered the worst of the worst respond," Terkeltaub says. "If it works in the worst of the worst, we are hopeful it will work in the less than worst of the worst."
Michael Hershfield, MD, a professor of medicine and biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C., tells WebMD that "a drug like this or any other that blocks IL-1 could prevent flares that occur when we are having a dramatic effect in lowering uric acid levels. The two could work very well together." Hershfield developed a new uric-acid-lowering drug called pEG-Uricase, which is now in clinical trials.
All in all, the new drug "looks very promising," he says. "There is a lot more recognition of the problem of severe refractory gout and a lot of people working on different approaches at the anti-inflammatory and the uric-acid-lowering level," he says.


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Even if Greeks do not leave, EU must escape fiscal mire
OPINION:Paris and Berlin are at odds as a shaky edifice must somehow solidify its crumbling union
EUROPE'S LEADERS face momentous decisions in the coming days as they strive to shore up the battered single currency. At issue is whether they can settle a fundamentalist schism over their response to the expanding debt crisis. The very viability of the euro is at stake.
This is no overstatement. The Greek election tomorrow could lead the country back to the drachma. The week-old bailout of Spain's banks is teetering, threatening a long-delayed effort to contain the storm. Italy already feels the simmering heat of contagion.
This spells danger everywhere yet consensus is as elusive as ever. Even if Europe is slouching towards a "banking union" and a "fiscal union", conceptions differ radically as to what these notions actually mean in practice. It is in this arena, however, that the next phase of the battle may well be fought.
There cannot be a leader in Europe who would not agree that more needs to be done quickly, but they still cannot agree on what. Each of the big players thinks they have the right stuff and that the naysayers are plain wrong. Exhaustion and fear are in the air, frustration too that the rescue strategy is not working, and there is annoyance to be back again in the dreaded cul de sac of woe.
Some weary top-level figures thought a €1 billion European Central Bank cash injection into the financial system would provide fully three years of respite and calm. It lasted only months.
In previous moments of alarm, Europe just about managed at the very last minute to leap further into a novel world of sovereign bailouts and intrusive external supervision. None of this did the trick, however. As the situation worsens, the sense grows and grows that the ultimate moment of reckoning may soon be upon us. Spain might need a full-blown bailout, overstretching the rescue funds. The threat of anything similar for Italy could be fatal.
But the divisions are deepening. The struggle to salvage the common currency seems to have assumed a quasi-religious aspect, as if the resolution of a severe economic and financial conundrum boils down to matters of faith eventually. When debt mutualisation is dismissed in Berlin, the impression formed is that this is a position forged in both politics and morals.
There is support for such thinking in The Hague, Helsinki and Vienna. In Paris, Rome and other capitals, the argument goes that this is a blinkered outlook which utterly fails to grasp the true dimension of the problem.
Trust seems to be absent. Germans look askance at the reduction in the French pension age by newly installed president François Hollande. Old-style economic stimulus is simply regarded as a chimera. Spain's misguided reluctance to confront its banking losses is held in open contempt. National bank stress tests are now seen as an exercise in feeble-minded folly.
The basic German argument is this: other countries are happy to embrace "more Europe" but only insofar as it delivers common liabilities; reluctance inevitably sets in when attention turns to the transfer of sovereignty over fiscal matters to the European forum from the national one.
In German eyes, this is the precondition for any progress towards new crisis-fighting measures. This is the fiscal union part of the story, tougher fiscal discipline and central oversight which may yet go beyond the provisions of the fiscal treaty. The thinking goes that this is necessary to ensure the credibility of all countries, for Germany cannot prop up everyone else on its own.
Attention is already turning to yet another revision of the European treaties, complex legally and immensely difficult politically at a moment of acute financial crisis.
For Hollande, this is highly tricky. He remains wedded to national supremacy in the budget realm and he is deeply sceptical about the treaty, which he wants to amend with new measures to promote economic growth.
The new French leader and his allies still see the final answer to the crisis in new money-printing powers for the European Central Bank and jointly issued eurobonds. No, say the Germans. They say this is all wrong, not feasible legally and even more dangerous politically if the slowdown of the German economy continues. Don't expect any change on that front any time soon.
Still, there are grounds to detect the beginnings of tentative consensus on the banking front. That this has more to do with fear of bank runs than a meeting of minds on some of the knottiest questions facing Europe need not detain us here. This flows from the uncertain outlook for Greece, where banks have lost billions of euros in deposits, and major capital flight from Spain's financial system.
In question first is the extent of any pan-European deposit guarantee scheme and the scale and scope of any resolution fund.
Then there is the push on the French-led side of the argument for a centrally run scheme drawing from the European Stability Mechanism to directly recapitalise banks. The money would not go onto national debt and the ESM would be given a banking licence and powers to borrow from the ECB to ensure it had enough money to do the job effectively.
Much of this, however, is anathema to Germany. It was only seven days ago that it spurned Spain's campaign for direct bank aid.
The Spanish deal was a setback to Irish hopes. However, the failure to restore confidence in Spanish debt might yet force a rethink if a fully fledged rescue is to be averted. This assumes some flexibility on the part of Germany, which is not yet evident.
Berlin is willing to see European banks pay mandatory levies into national resolution funds but not to deploy those funds for cross- border rescues. There is vague talk of special rules for "systemically important banks" but no sign of any concession on the principle of bank debt mutualisation.
Moves are in train towards pan-European banking regulation, with the most important oversight functions moving away definitively from national regulators. The big question now is whether the new London-based European Banking Authority finds its powers intensified or whether it is subsumed into the ECB in Frankfurt. The hunch is that Germany would prefer the latter option. Britain would not.
Towering like a colossus over all of this is Greece. In the cabinet rooms of other countries, there are senior government ministers who would readily pull the plug on Athens. But other figures warn of the potential for chaos in the country – and beyond – if it jettisons the euro.
Whether Greece keeps the currency will probably depend on three questions. First, will anti-bailout parties be able to form a government? Second, will Europe cut off rescue loans if such a government repudiates the EU-International Monetary Fund deal? Third, is there any margin to negotiate a small measure of flexibility in the deal to give a new government something of a fresh start?
There may be little enthusiasm in Europe for the latter option, but that may be the only way of keeping Greece in the euro.
No one wants to contemplate the worst in the event of an outright rejection of the rescue deal, but it may yet come about.
Patience with the Greeks has run out. For their country and for Europe, the vote tomorrow could be seismic.


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Apple is demanding $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung for infringing on its patents, according to Apple's latest filing in the ongoing patent dispute between the two tech giants.
Most of that (about $2 billion worth) is based on Apple's demand for a share of Samsung's profits from products that infringed on Apple's design patents, according to Foss Patents, a patent news blog.
Apple cites its own research in the filing, which claims that Samsung's customers are willing to pay as much as $100 more than the base price for a Samsung smartphone or tablet that comes with certain patented Apple features.
According to Foss Patents, Apple even breaks down what some of its features are worth. For example, the company says its patented "tap to zoom and navigate" feature is worth $2.02 per device, while the "scrolling API" feature is worth $3.10.
Head over to Foss Patents for all the details from Apple's latest filing.


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These oil pastels are perfect for older or more advanced students. They are intense in color and particularly soft and pleasant to use, not just on paper and board but also on wood or earthenware.
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Naphthol Reds are not considered toxic. Naphthol Red AS-D may cause eye, skin, or respiratory irritation. Contact with dry pigment should be avoided.
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The quality of any golf swing can be measured by the ability to swing the club. This means without control or manipulation. Picturing a child in a playground swing should give you the right idea of this back and forth uninterrupted motion.
All correct swings have the center of rotation in the body. Pick up a club and swing it with your hands only, then add your arms and lastly with your body. The feeling is that your hands are moved by your arms and your arms by the body.
All swings should harness the natural help from centrifugal force and gravity and not overpower or avoid them. Swing correctly and as the saying goes "let the club do the work."


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DailyDirt: Promotional Space Food
from the urls-we-dig-up deptRed Bull made a huge advertising event out of Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking free-fall from the edge of space. But it's not the only food/drink maker to sponsor a space-related promotion. Maybe it's a bit disconcerting that food companies have enough dough in their advertising budgets to fund crazy stunts, or maybe it's awesome that advertising/marketing budgets are being used to fund incredibly cool projects.... Either way, here are a few other examples of sponsored space foods.
- Pizza Hut delivered the first pizza to the International Space Station in 2001, which Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachov ate as a $1 million promotional stunt. Salami instead of pepperoni was used as a topping, and extra salt and spices were added to adjust for the deadened taste buds of a long-term space inhabitant. [url]
- Commemorative M&Ms celebrated SpaceShipOne's successful sub-orbital flight and its Ansari X Prize win. M&Ms were also used on a test flight to demonstrate weightlessness to spectators watching a remote video stream. [url]
- M&Ms have been taken aboard numerous NASA missions for about 30 years. However, NASA has generally been coy about calling the space-worthy candies M&Ms. [url]
- Specially-designed cans of Coke and Pepsi have been on a space shuttle mission during the Cola Wars. The beverages weren't that refreshing for astronauts due to a lack of refrigeration and messiness. [url]
Filed Under: ads, food, m&ms, space, sponsorship
Companies: coca-cola, mars, pepsi, red bull


text: Trevor Michael Karney, or the make-believe Dietrich of Gizmondo fame, has just been sentenced to 30 days in prison plus 3 years probation for giving false information to the popos. Bo Stefan Eriksson, the other man in the car at the time of the 162mph Ferrari Enzo crash, is still serving his 3-year prison sentence—undoubtedly making shivs and other self- defense weaponry as opposed to lousy handheld consoles. [Boston]


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A step-by-step guide to curate your company's news
Convinced collecting content would boost your organization's PR, but don't know how to get started? We're here to help.
There's plenty of evidence that business is adopting content curation, but the practice hasn't been around long enough for organizations to innovate more targeted, results-focused uses.
Business takes many of its lessons from how everyone else makes use of social tools. To start applying content curation, communicators need to pay attention to how others are using the crop of curation tools that have found acceptance online. There are dozens of free tools, but Storify is the one that has demonstrated one of curation's emerging strengths:
Curating news that the media isn't covering can lead to media coverage. And, by extension, it can improve and expand on stories the media are covering.
Back in November, college junior Ben Doernberg assmembled a Storify story chronicling the New York Police Department's eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park. The story was made up of tweets, videos, photos and other content that was posted mostly by people on the scene. He also included tweets from journalists reporting the NYPD's suppression of their efforts to cover the story.
In reporting the impact of Doernberg's effort, ReadWriteWeb noted that The Washington Post ran the Storify story, made easy through Storify's embed feature, something missing from other free curation options. So the curated story served to inform media coverage and was itself viewed more than 23,000 times.
Most company opportunities to adopt Doerenberg's approach don't have the built-in interest of a police raid on a protest encampment, but that shouldn't stop companies from looking at collecting social content as a means of creating a resource for the press. After all, the effort would cost nothing more than time of the curator (or curation team).
The process would look something like this:
Identify opportunity
Any company news is a potential curated collection. Think about a product launch. Reaction to the introduction of a new product is likely to appear all over the web from a variety of sources. Customers will weigh in, as will industry experts and analysts. People attending launch events will tweet it, blog it and post videos and photos.
Financial events, like shareholder meetings, will also be broadly covered. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives also tend to provide fodder for discussion.
It's not unreasonable to think about curating bad-news stories. The press tends to cover the most lurid dimensions of a company crisis. A collection that provides a more balanced overview of the situation, could conceivably lead to some of the more positive aspects of the story finding their way into the public consciousness.
Select curators
The mechanics of curating aren't complicated; it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to acquire the skills necessary to produce a story. Since anybody can curate, the criteria for selecting curators should begin with their familiarity with the topic. The key to a solid curation effort is the selection of the best, most relevant and representative posts.
Monitor conversation
With the curator in place, it's time to develop key words and set up a monitoring plan. This can be as simple as establishing a few Google Alerts or as sophisticated as tapping into a monitoring service the organization is already using, like Radian 6.
Storify is designed to let you conduct your keyword searches from the control panel, but it's equally easy to add an item by simply entering its URL. Ideally, a curator would do both. Even with a substantial story, it shouldn't take an unreasonable amount of time.
Select and comment on the best content
The heart of curation is, of course, curating. Curators need to cull through the many items people have posted in order to find the right posts to create an accurate overview of the news.
In recounting his development of his Occupy Wall Street story, Doernberg said, "By the time I decided to make a Storify, I had already read probably 100 tweets on this issue, so I tried to figure out what the overarching themes or the story seemed to be to me, and I went back through my memory of who tweeted what at what time."
This college junior's intuition about how to curate can serve as a corporate blueprint.
Balance is even more vital for businesses than it is for individuals. A college student can be forgiven if he skews his coverage to match his point of view, but a company needs to be beyond reproach in its effort to be objective, lest the collection be shrugged off as little more than corporate flackery.
Look back to the resource Microsoft maintained when it faced federal and state antitrust lawsuits. The media tapped it as one of the most comprehensive archives of documents related to the suits. Companies curating news should keep that example in mind.
Adding context is one more curation chore. When appropriate, adding commentary improves the value of the collection. Doernberg, for example, punctuated the curation with brief labels, such as "Violence by the NYPD against journalists was widely reported," which is followed with tweets from a number of journalists.
Announce and promote the collection
Simply producing a collection isn't going to get it noticed, particularly if an organization is suspected of an ulterior, self-serving motive. Using the same techniques it would use to draw attention to anything else. Direct contact with reporters and influencers, a press release, a blog post and some tweets can all get people to give the collection a look.
The time to make the announcement is just after the collection gets rolling, populated with enough content to make it interesting but with still more to come.
Companies are increasingly focused on content marketing. Curating company news fits nicely into the content marketing bucket, where it can both fill a gap in mainstream media reporting and serve as an impetus to getting that coverage. It's only a matter of time before some organizations move beyond entry-level curation efforts and start curating their news.
Taking lessons from how people like Ben Doernberg are curating the news is a good place to start.
A version of this article first appeared on Holtz Communication & Technology.
(Image via)
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Love your space!


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Valentine's Day Presentation & Gifts Ideas
Create this Valentine's Day dessert with the American Shot Glasses and Slate-Effect Tray.
More ideas on the drinkstuff Blog
Swantex Red Napkins 40cm 2ply
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Pack of 125
Swantex Pink Napkins 33cm 2ply
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If you want to have a relaxed evening with some designer champagne glasses, or you want to spice things up with some Valentine's Day fancy dress costumes, just browse our gifts for couples and make sure everything runs smoothly.


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The Millikin football team end the 2012 season with a 55-13 win over Carthage College on Nov. 10 at Frank M. Lindsay Field in Decatur, Ill.
The Big Blue dominated the game racking up 588 yards in total offense (335 passing and 253 yards rushing) while holding Carthage to 190 yards including only 82 yards passing.
Playing in their last game, Millikin's seniors shined on offense. Quarterback Matt Holmes was 23-38-2 passing for 275 yards and five touchdowns. Holmes rushed for 87 yards and 15 carries. Holmes also caught a 60 yard touchdown pass from fellow senior Erik Tobey on a double reverse pass play. Holmes five touchdown passes tied a Millikin for most touchdown passes in a game.
Tobey tied his own school record for receptions in a game with 14 good for 143 yards and three touchdowns. Tobey was 1-1 passing with a touchdown.
Senior wide receiver Jake Palmer had four catches for 73 yards and one touchdown.
Senior running back Tyler Roush had 52 yards rushing on one carry.
Millikin's other offensive touchdowns went to sophomore Sean Dunning who opened the scoring on 15 yard touchdown run. Dunning had 73 yards rushing on 18 carries. Freshman Brady Cufaude scored his first career touchdown on a 28 yards pass from Holmes.
Millikin senior cornerback Darrell Mitchell also got in on the scoring returning an interception 20 yards for a touchdown. Mitchell had four tackles and a forced fumble.
Sophomore Andy Roth led the Big Blue with 10 tackles including 1.5 tackles for a loss.
Junior Jake Hazelton had nine stops, two quarterback hurries and one pass break-up and 1.5 tackles for a loss.
Senior Marquette Moore had eight tackles with one interception and senior defensive tackle Jake Weston had eight tackles and a fumble recovery. Sophomore Chris Wood also had an interception for Millikin.
Reggie Miller had 67 yards rushing to lead the Red Men attack. Quarterback A.J.
Simoncelli was 12-35-1 for 71 yards and one touchdown pass. Nick Grimley had Carthage's lone touchdown reception.
Brett Bukari had two field goals for Carthage including a Red Men record 53 yard field goal.
Brad Kaput had 11 tackles to top the Red Men defense.
Millikin finishes at 5-5, 2-5 while Carthage ends the season 3-7, 1-6.


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Margaret Cho's Newest Confidence Booster: Her Motorcycle
Margaret Cho is a comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, and now a Harley-Davidson rider.
The Drop Dead Diva star took her latest passion to New York City this month to share her riding experience with a group of women at a blogging conference in New York City hosted by Harley-Davidson.
"One of my proudest achievements was getting my motorcycle license," Cho says. "I think it's an inspiring thing."
Cho, 43, talked to Parade.com about motorcycle riding, her role on Drop Dead Diva, and her first-ever Emmy nomination for her portrayal of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock.
On her latest love: motorcycle riding.
"I've always wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle, but I never thought I'd actually do it. I don't know if it's the motion or the speed or the wind, but it's such an empowering thing. It gives me confidence. I felt like such a klutz before, but I've realized that I'm actually pretty coordinated! You can kind of escape all the stress of your life and just be on a bike. It's a tremendous feeling."
On the next item on her bucket list.
"I think the next step from motorcycling is definitely flying a plane. I'd love to get my pilot's license."
On her Emmy nod for her role as Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock.
"I'm excited! I'm the only one who played a man. I don't know if I should have been in the male category or not! I'm actually of North Korean decent, so I was the right choice for the role. Even though I'm not a man, I did look just like him!"
On her role on Drop Dead Diva.
"I love the show. We're having a really good time. I can't believe it's already been four seasons. It's really funny and it's also really heartfelt. It's a great show for women and a great show for women to watch with their daughters. It promotes beautiful images of different kinds of women and also this great heroine who really doesn't have to sell herself short in any way. She doesn't have to choose between being beautiful or being smart. She can be both and we can all be both."
On her biggest passion: stand-up comedy.
"I'm on tour right now. It's called 'Mother' and it's all about my mom, which is fun. I'm traveling lot and doing a lot of shows. Comedy is my main profession. It's the most rewarding for me and the most precious to me. It was what I started with and what I'll always do."


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At the Michael E. DeBakey Institute
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cardiovascular scientists, engineers, and clinicians from Texas
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© 2002-2012 All rights reserved, Texas A&M University Trademark - Website by CVM Communications.
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843"


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I am all for decluttering. I don't like a crowded kitchen, a crowded closet, or even a crowded desk. So why then would I want a crowded digital world? And because my laptop is both my office and my recreation, cleanliness is next to cyber-godliness.
It all made sense to me when my dear friend Naomi Seldin of the Simpler Living blog sent out a link on her Facebook. The link was from the New York Times and was an article called True Confessions of a Digital Hoarder by Jenna Wortham.
Her story begins,
"Walk into my apartment and you'd most likely be hard-pressed to find a book or dish towel out of place. This is, in part, because I live in a studio in New York but also the residual ripples of growing up the youngest of five girls, which ingrained in me an obsessive compulsive disdain for clutter.
My online life, however, tells a completely different story."
I stopped reading there. I had to control my knee-jerk reaction to grab my external hard drive and begin backing up immediately before deleting anything that I felt was lingering. Between work files, sub-contracting files, and personal files, I have no less than 4 email addresses, 13 social networking profiles, 3 external hard drives, a cloud backup system, and a shoebox of burned DVDs. This is what I could think of right off though. I am sure there are more. As I continued to read her article I began comparing myself to the situation Ms. Wortham found herself in and I didn't feel quite as bad.
I had only 2 unread emails at the time. Older readers may remember that I once suggested reading email only three times a day for a set period of time; just as you would another task like a smoke break or a trip to the coffee pot. Because I have adhered to this I have within my 4 email accounts some 38 folders (some of which has sub-folders), exclamation points for emails that are highly important or timely, highlighted titles for those that should never be deleted, and only 2 unanswered emails.
I read on.
"Twitter, Facebook and Formspring are clogged with a backlog of unanswered messages, at-replies and notes, all begging for a reply. At the current moment, the text-message inbox on my smartphone says I have 14 unread messages (and in my book, that's a good day)."
I toggled my browser over to Facebook stopping only for my Flickr account. Nope. No unread messages. No unreturned messages. No requests left hanging. And no Tweets left untweeted. My phone appeared to be working yet I had no voicemails, no text messages, and even the picture folder was cleared out. I was beginning to think that I was beyond organized; I was borderline neurotic.
Ms. Wortham began to get to her point though. She was not trying to bring light to a difficult issue just for the sake of it but rather to show that even digital clutter can begin to overwhelm you to the point of incapacitation and temporary paralysis; mentally and emotionally.
"…it's starting to ruin my life.
I've missed important e-mails about family health matters, queries from editors and pings from sources. Earlier this week, I just happened to be staring into the abyss of my bloated e-mail inbox when a note floated in about last-minute drinks with a good friend who happened to be in town for the night. Had I not been looking at Gmail at that exact moment, there's a good chance I never would have seen it."
I remember the days where I was as overwhelmed, exacerbated, and, well, disheveled as she. As the Internet has grown and our lives have expanded more and more toward the digital there have been moments when I felt the infinity of the world wide web and its capacity to hold all of my data was a plausible reason to just let it accumulate. Like chotchkies on a side table I had emails, pictures, text messages, requests, unfinished docs, and half watched movies just floating around my digital world. But I have overcome such and I want to offer you 5 steps to bringing simple living back to your digital life!
- Declutter and Streamline Your RSS Reader Feeds
- Clean Up Your Contacts
- Clean Out Your Hard Drive
- Free Up Space in Gmail
- Use Dropbox…A lot!
RSS feeds can begin innocently enough. You find a blog. You like it. You click on that bright orange button and you follow it. You may not always read the post but at least you know there is activity. Then you add another. Maybe you add a news site too just to stay on top of world events. Before you know it you have subject folders, dozens of feeds, and a growing number of unread posts. I recommend catching up with the How-To Geek and his method to streamline and declutter his reader inbox. It covers deleting, foldering, and filing.
Oh, autofill, how we love thee. NOT! Once your contact box gets a bit robust you will find that every time you compose an email and begin to type in the address people show up automatically. Where did they come from? Who are they exactly? Whether you are on a Mac or a Windows box the best way I have found to keep accurate contacts is to first delete the ones you can't remember in 3 -2 – 1. DELETE! Then I apologetically send out a mass email, an identical FB message, and sometimes a TXT message asking people to send their accurate contact information within 3 days so that I may update my lists. I then use those responses to make any changes, insertions, or deletions accordingly.
Please tell me why you still have the Limewire app on your computer's hard drive? Limewire died by supreme court months ago. Let it rest in peace. Remove it and all associated files. Dig your way through your hard drive. You will be surprised at how much clutter you have amassed without realizing it. For me the most surprising folder is the 'Mail Downloads' folder. It is almost overwhelming in and of itself. I suggest either cleaning and defragging your Windows box or using a free third-party app like Disk Space Fan. If you run a Mac you may want to use Mac Cleaner as it cleans your Mac with one click of the mouse. I have used it for a year now and am quite pleased.
Most of us – 93.4% according to Google – have gmail accounts. Whether we use them as primary email or not a lot of people use them for email redirection, account setup, etc. And like me I am sure that when you created that free account you never thought you'd use up all those free gigabytes. Well, perhaps you have or are coming awfully close. Gina at LifeHacker has a great seven-step-clean-out for Gmail. I walked through it yesterday and am feeling quite spiffy about my new 'G' look.
I just came across Dropbox thanks to a Twitter friend. Where has this cloud app been all my computing life? The file syncing service Dropbox does one thing very well, and that is give you access to a certain amount of file space (2 GB in free accounts) on any computer you use, as well as on smartphones. I use it to sync all my passwords, as extra storage, to share files with another computer user, and to….well, the list may very well be limitless.
But what about you? What are you doing to keep the clutter out? How do you defrag, declutter, and decompress? Is there an app you use or do you just have a stand-up method?


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Thursday, January 19, 2012
what I'm up to.
20 comments:
I love those pillows on your couch -- such fresh colors! Your home looks so bright and cheerful.ReplyDelete
I love your colors! Makes me ready for spring! I just purchased an orange and white bedspread for our bedroom. Now to get pillows made. :)ReplyDelete
Loved your pictures today. SO bright and cheery. It's gray and yucky here today and all the bright colors really lifted my spirits. Thanks for sharing. :)ReplyDelete
Your house looks lovely, nice art and so much cute stuff on your shelves! :) xReplyDelete
All of your projects look really great. I love the use of color all over your home. I'd love to see when those curtains are finished and up. :-)ReplyDelete
I'm always in awe of your paper dioramas. Absolutely beautiful. Also, did you embroider that lampshade?ReplyDelete
You guys are so sweet. I'm drawn to bright colors lately. I'm still sewing curtains like a madwoman. I'll show them when they are done.ReplyDelete
Xenia, no I didn't embroider that lampshade, it came from IKEA. I thought it was really cool too. So many good textiles there!
Beautiful! Isn't great to finish!ReplyDelete
Enjoy the fruits of your labors.
That's exactly how I used to make sure I got my house clean when I was feeling lazy. I'd invite people over and then go nuts with getting it done. Worked every time. :-)ReplyDelete
CitricSugar, yes, exactly. I still have to clean. Also I have to make some food. Also I have to prepare to teach a Bible class to them. LOL. I CAN DO IT.ReplyDelete
That last comment is so true. Every time I have someone coming to visit (stay) I feel like I need to finish all my unfinished projects laying around ;PReplyDelete
When I look at all the things we have that are the exact same it really makes me smile - same IKEA lampshade and shelves, same wall colors, clearly the same taste in fabric - great minds must think alike ;)ReplyDelete
Beautiful glimpse into your home! Would you mind sharing where you found that gorgeous fabric that you're making your curtains out of?ReplyDelete
joeandkris513, sure. It's Anna Maria Horner's LouLouThi collection. I think it's called summer totem. There are a bunch of variations, all gorgeous. You can find it at lots of major online fabric stores.ReplyDelete
Love the colours of your kitchen curtains they look great beside the grey fabric. You just gave me ideas. I have that lamp shade too.ReplyDelete
I mean, how hard would it really be to cut doubles the next time you make yourself a diorama? How about we talk about MY needs?ReplyDelete
(love the curtains, shelf, art, pillow cover, too)
Love that lamp! I was going to ask about, but someone beat me to the punch. :) Love your style.ReplyDelete
Robyn, does someone need a papercut for her living room? Send me a shot of your awesome art wall in your new Rio place and we'll brainstorm.ReplyDelete
Thanks, I love my curtains. I'll have to send pics. Thanks for all the fabric help.
I love those pictures you've rehung. Did you make them yourself?ReplyDelete
Hitch and Thread, thank you, I sure did! Those are papercuts mounted inside IKEA Ribba frames.ReplyDelete
Hello. Enough about me. Let's hear from you! If you post a question, I answer with a reply comment, so be sure to click the 'notify me' box as you post your question to receive the answer via email. Thanks!


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Time to make more soap. The question is, what kind should I make? What are people going to want to look at? What are they interested in? What will spark their interest?
In these increasingly tough economic times, these are important questions to ask. I don't want to waste my time making something no one wants or is willing to purchase. Despite the artistic value of my craft, I still have to look at the financial aspect of things. That is what makes good business sense.
That being said, I chose to make this soap that you see in the picture approximately 20 hours ago. It turned out the way I hoped it would, which is a good thing. Sometimes things turn out quite differently than what I hope for and then I have to decide if it is still marketable or a fun little giveaway....or do I just hide it away in my own shower and tell no one? I have a lot of those "tell no one" soaps, by the way. I just don't tell anyone...until now.
This soap is an interesting combination of three different soaping methods. The bottom portion is a method called "cold process" soap making. It is the method that has been used for generations. The ingredients might be a bit different than they were a hundred years ago, but the method is essentially the same. The top portion (whipped cream look) is a method where the soap is whipped with a beater until it becomes frothy and merengue-looking. The ingredients are a tad different than the lower portion so that it whips better and has that light, whipped coloring. The "lemon shavings" on top are a very simple method of soap making called Melt and Pour, where I've taken an opaque, pre-made soap, then colored and shaped it to whatever I prefer.
All three methods are a blast to make and I enjoy them all. Here is a soap that combines all of them to make a soap that looks like something I would want to serve for dessert. It smells like lemons also. Since lemon fragrance doesn't always hold well in cold process soapmaking, I've cheated a bit by adding other essential oils that tend to mimic the lemon-like fragrance, and I've added real lemon juice to the mix.
Just an FYI, my work area smells like a lemon grove right now...ahhhhhhhhh!
Since these types of soaps take 6-8 weeks to cure enough so that they are gentle and lucious for your skin, they will not show up on Silkfair until the end of July. If you are interested in reserving some now, let me know. I've already pre-sold a large percentage of this batch.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Lemon Chiffon...Soap?
Posted by Trish's Soapy Blessings at 5:50 PM 4 comments Links to this post
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Summer Joys and Woes
OK, I LIKE this picture, no crime in using it twice in a row.
Almost everyone looks forward to summer. There's a lot to look forward to; such as warm days, soaking in the sun, swimming, gardening, hiking, boating, camping and just generally getting out of doors. I love summer. Everyone and everything gets out and gets productive in one sense or another. Everything...including bugs.
Most of us don't consider bugs our favorite thing in the summer, yet they are a part of the summer season, like it or not. We have to put up with them.
Or, do we?
For those of you who aren't fond of the little creatures landing on your body and biting you, there are options, like bug repellent. Most of the commercial bug repellents out there are chemically enhanced to keep bugs away. Most of them work quite well, but there are some drawbacks...the spray-ons getting into your eyes and down your lungs, the less than attractive smells, and all the strange-sounding, unpronounceable chemical words that you're are slathering on your body, trusting they won't make you grow a third eye.
Or, will they?
OK,OK, I have a point here. There are more natural options (Drumroll, please).
There are NATURAL oils found in many plants that have repel buggy critters and they can be found in one of my soaps. I'm not the only soapmaker that has this, but I think mine is the prettiest and most fashionable looking. I also have a matching lotion stick available that goes hand in hand with the soap. During summer camping or general outdoor season, you use your Bug Be Gone soap and then enhance that with my lotion stick for natural bug repellent effect. I use only natural plant oils in this soap that are known to repel bugs, including catnip oil, so I guess you'll be real popular with the canine crowd while wearing this stuff too. Just an added benefit unless you're allergic to cats. Nevertheless, catnip oil is known to be one of the most effective natural ways to repel bugs. Cats aren't so dumb!
It certainly smells much nicer than any of those chemically enhanced bug repellent products out there and you are getting a natural product that doesn't make you grow a third eye either.
What a concept!
Posted by Trish's Soapy Blessings at 7:00 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Dasselmom Loves my Soap
My Bug Be Gone Soap was included in her blog site with a theme towards camping. Tis' the season after all. My soap was grouped with a variety of other green camping themed items and it is a lovely grouping. Check it out at
Bug Be Gone Soap has been a real big seller for the past few weeks along with Bug Be Gone Lotion Stick. A great camping item to keep clean and keep bugs away.
Posted by Trish's Soapy Blessings at 3:57 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Coconut Oil-Free Soap...Better Picture
Finally! A sunny day in Vancouver, WA. and I can take a better picture of my newest soap. By now it is cut up into individual bars and curing. Sometimes the colors change a bit from first adding the colors to after the soap has dried and I was hoping that none of colors would fade out or look nasty after drying...they didn't fade or turn colors. If anything, the colors became even brighter. The green in the picture is truly a VERY bright green, the orange stayed orange, the pale lavender swirl still seems more white than lavender, but it shows well against the darker lavender background.
Overall, I am satisfied.
Now, to the actual ingredients. I mentioned before that this soap was made using palm kernel oil instead of coconut oil. It is a formula that I have had laying around for quite awhile but have seldom used...only because coconut oil is such a versatile oil that I've stayed with it, a certain familiarity with how coconut oil responds has kept me using it and I've stayed in my "comfort zone".
Coconut oil contains a variety of fatty acids that give the properties that make it a good "soap oil" like large amounts of lauric acid which contribute to creating a hard bar of soap, great cleansing qualities and creates a wonderful lather. It also contains a fair amount of myristic acid, which have similar qualities to lauric acid. It then contains small amounts of palmitic acid, which stabilizes the lather, oleic acid (conditioning the skin), and stearic acid (lather stabilizer and contributes to hard bar).
Palm Kernel oil has many of the same qualities that coconut oil has, but in different quanities It contains lauric acid in almost the same amount as coconut oil, only about half the amount of stearic acid, almost the same amount of myristic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid. So, probably the biggest difference between the two oils is hardness of the bar and the lather may be a bit less stable.
But here's a good thing with this formula, I increased the amount of olive oil content, which is almost all conditioning. This bar will caress your skin like crazy.
I also added some bentonite clay (a type of kaolin clay) to give a "slipperiness" that makes it an ideal shaving soap. Sometimes, an overabundance of clay can cause your skin to feel a bit dry intially. Clays do have astringent and cleansing properties too, but too much can sometimes cause your skin to feel a little dry. With this smaller batch of soap I added about 2 tablespoons to the soap batch.
Since soap takes over a month to cure, it will not be listed on Silkfair or etsy until next month. If you are interested in advance ordering, please let me know. I would be happy to save one for you. I made a very small batch, only nine bars came from this formula, so these may not last long.
Posted by Trish's Soapy Blessings at 7:12 AM 0 comments Links to this post


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Panthers top NRL ladder by beating Titans
Penrith have hit the top of the NRL ladder at the midway point of the season following a 36-14 win over Gold Coast on Saturday.
The Panthers' fourth win in a row lifts them to the No.1 position on points differential after 13 matches.
Sparked by dynamic hooker James Segeyaro (five tackle busts, 51 tackles) and young back-rower Tyrone Peachey (221 metres, two line-breaks, two try assists), the Panthers made the most of an error-riddled Titans' display to claim the six-tries to two victory.
After going into halftime with a narrow 14-8 margin after the home team had two tries disallowed in dying minutes of the half, the Panthers ran riot in the second term.
Isaah Yeo, Peachey and Jamie Soward all capitalised on Titans' errors to score tries before fullback Matt Moylan wrapped up the win with the final score of the game.
Panthers' captain Peter Wallace said there was something building west of Sydney.
"I definitely think there's a bit of confidence within the team at the moment," Wallace said.
"Obviously you get that with a few wins ... we need to play well every week, you can't have one week on, one week off.
"You can feel the excitement around town. It's a very rugby league community and I think everyone's pretty excited about how we're going at the moment."
The Panthers night was spoiled somewhat by injury concerns to Sika Manu (eye) and David Simmons (knee).
Manu managed to return to action in the second-half despite suffering a scratched eyeball but Simmons could be struggling to be fit for next week's home clash against St George Illawarra after a medial ligament strain to his left knee.
The Titans, competition leaders earlier this year, remain outside the top eight after their fourth straight loss.
Coach John Cartwright said his team had been harshly punished for their errors.
"I really don't think that scoreboard tonight indicated a true reflection of where the game was," Cartwright said.
"It was pretty hard fought and we made some dumb errors. Often you don't get punished with points when you make some dumb errors but they punished us three times and come up with 18 points from them."
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Finally, bubbler tea with antioxidants will absolve your system, and accord you the best adorableness care. Herbal teas, abnormally blooming tea, is capital for this, and delicious.


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text:
Dreamy Kit and a freebie
12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD,
"Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
13 And rend your heart and not your garments."
Now return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent
And leave a blessing behind Him" Joel 2:12-14
This Dreamy Kit is a wealth of happy and unique goodies in a delicious palette - 106 pieces including a simply gorgeous alpha! Click on the image to enlarge. Click on the Buy It Now Button below the image to purchase from my PayPal store for $5.99. As always, there's a freebie for you at the bottom - enjoy!
Please support this blog by shopping my PayPal store. God bless you!Download here. Check out my TERMS OF USE here.The password is jesuschristislord.Digifree CraftCrave CraftCrave


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Melissa O'Dell (301) 734-0602
Karen Eggert (202) 690-4178
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2008--Marilyn Holland has been selected as the chief information officer (CIO) and director of the information technology division for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
"Marilyn brings a wealth of knowledge in the information technology arena," said APHIS administrator, Cindy Smith. "Her role as CIO is central to APHIS' commitment to operational excellence and I'm very excited to have her on board."
In her new role, Holland is responsible for providing leadership related to the agency's information technology planning, design, application development, systems administration, telecommunications, security and information management and customer support services.
Holland joined APHIS as its deputy CIO in 2006 and has served as acting CIO since February 2008. Prior to joining APHIS, Holland was the chief of the program planning and management division in USDA's office of the chief information officer (OCIO) where she was responsible for Clinger-Cohen Act initiatives including information technology (IT) capital planning and investment control, enterprise architecture, IT workforce planning and project management. While in OCIO, Holland also served on temporary management details as the associate CIO for IT management and the chief of the information management division. She served on a detail to the Office of Management and Budget in 2003 as a policy analyst responsible for the IT portfolios of the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services.
Holland has also worked in the area of IT management at USDA's Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (now Farm Service Agency) and in the area of budgeting and financial management at USDA's Farmers Home Administration (now Rural Development).
Holland obtained her bachelor of arts in history and her masters in business administration from Georgetown University and holds a project management certification from the Project Management Institute. She received a Federal Computer Week Fed 100 Award in 2001 for her work in information technology management.
Note to Reporters: USDA news releases, program announcements and media advisories are available on the Internet. Go to the APHIS news release page at /newsroom. Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to email@example.com and leave the subject blank. In the message, type
subscribe press_releases.


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Every Saturday and Sunday at The Bronx Public you can enjoy a brunch fit for royalty and 2 hours of bottomless drinks. $40 per person and it's worth every penny. Best thing to do is come with friends because the 2 hours worth of drinks, is really 1 huge pitcher. More friends, more pitchers, different flavors.
Because Brunch
Related upcoming events
09.23.2019 12:00 pm - 09.23.2019 4:00 pm
Who says you can't have brunch on the weekdays? Monday should definitely be a brunch day - some people work weekends and get Monday off and Monday is sometimes a holiday that gives us a 3-day weekend. It's only right that we treat Monday like the weekend Jr., and enjoy brunch as if it's Saturday. From 12pm-4pm at Lasagna Restaurant, $11 gets you bottomless brunch drinks. This Italian restaurant has a special brunch menu that will make you a lover of Mondays.
09.23.2019 5:00 pm - 09.24.2019 12:00 am
Each and every Monday, the good people at Woodland in Brooklyn make sure the women feel loved and appreciated. Ladies receive 2 for 1 drinks all night! Monday's are usually everyones least favorite day of the week, but at least a couple of lovely women get to enjoy themselves afterwork to make up for it. Fellas, if you've been looking for your Queen, this might be the Move for you. Happy Hour starts at 5pm.
09.23.2019 5:00 pm - 09.23.2019 9:00 pm
Monday's can be rough, so before you go home and manifest your frustrations in an unhealthy manner, you should stop by Taboga. Each and every Monday they have Play Night. You and fellow victims of Monday Blues can play some board games and unwind a little more before attacking the rest of the week. Grab a drink, a order some delicious food and find a game to play that will take your mind off of everything. From Uno, Jenga and Dominoes, to Darts, Pool and the basketball shoot out game. This place is definitely the place for big kids. Happy hour is from 5-9pm, but you're welcome to stay and hangout after 9.
09.23.2019 5:00 pm - 09.24.2019 2:00 am
MCM could also stand for Margarita Crush Mondays. The bar has $9 specialty margaritas all night including the sorrel and sugar cane flavor. Doors open at 5pm and stay open until 2am. Mondays don't have to be terrible.
09.23.2019 5:00 pm - 09.24.2019 12:00 am
Each and every Monday at Prive Lounge in Brooklyn is D'usse Monday. Monday's are rough and Prive is just trying to help make it better. Food and hookah are available and from 6-7 you get a complimentary D'usse drink, so get there early!
09.24.2019 3:00 pm - 09.25.2019 12:00 am
Each and Every Tuesday is Taco Tuesday at La Agenda. This Happy Hour last from 3pm-12am and everyone is greeted with a free shot of Tequila. $5 goes a long way in La Agenda on a Tuesday night. you can get 2 delicious tacos, guac and chips or a strong margarita, each for just $5. $20 gets you a pitcher of margaritas, so if you're going with friends, this is the best choice.
09.24.2019 5:00 pm - 09.25.2019 12:00 am
Let's face it, Mondays aren't for everyone and Tuesdays are sometimes just as rough. If your week is off to a slow start, I highly suggest you make your way to The Don in Brooklyn for some happy hour drink and pizza specials. Happy Hour Specials include $5 drinks and a free slice before 8pm. Go enjoy a drink and some delicious pizza and link up with good people.
09.24.2019 5:00 pm - 09.24.2019 11:00 pm
Fresh catch Tuesday is the perfect afterwork mix for the seafood lovers. Every Tuesday at Caribbean Social you can indulge in their seafood menu while enjoying one of their specialty drinks.
09.24.2019 5:00 pm - 09.25.2019 12:00 am
Tuesday's just got better with the launch of Woodland NYC's new Tuesday night feature. $1 Wings with a minimum of 5 wings per guest. Accompanied by great drink specials and a great DJ, you'll have a great night and good energy going into Wednesday. This special last from 5pm-12am, but I'd recommend you get there right afterwork!
09.24.2019 8:00 pm - 09.25.2019 2:00 am
Every Tuesday at Chloe's Bar in the LES you can come party wit DJ Woodly. Ladies are free all night! Drink and hookah special available.


text:
We've Moved!
We are now selling exclusively
under the name 2 Hounds Design!
Purchase the Freedom Harness as a retail customer
Freedom Harness Chewing Repair Warranty
Click here
to access the wholesale website
for the
Freedom No-Pull harness
and more.
Dear Customer,
You know us already as the exclusive licensed manufacturers of the
Freedom No Pull Harness
as well as the manufacturers of custom-made, creative and comfortable
designer dog collars
Now we have combined our products under the 2 Hounds Design name and are working under one single brand. All of the products we manufacture now proudly wear the 2 Hounds Design logo and you will find our website at
So what has changed? Just our name, website, and logo!
You will still speak to the same friendly voices when you call.
The same happy elves (ok, happy people!) are making and shipping your orders.
If you are registered as a wholesale member of our website,
your username and password will stay exactly the same
(you will just go to
to place your order!).
And most importantly, all of our products are still - proudly! - made in the USA with the same high quality materials and exquisite detail that our customers have come to expect from us.
Please contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to working with you!
New name, same products
Alisha Navarro
2 Hounds Design, Inc.
704-234-0228 •


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Show and Tell
I have to say, you Wreckies are an impressive bunch. Not only do you enjoy making some intentional Wreckage and/or beautiful Sweets in your off hours, but you also take the time to e-mail me cake stories - both hilarious and heart-warming - along with your photos. I had some particularly good e-mails this past week, and realized it'd been far too long since I shared any with the rest of the class. So, here ya go.
Remember that lovely Unicorn cake I featured a while back on Sunday Sweets - the one based on the tapestry? Well, Johanna's sister loved it. So for her birthday, Johanna decided to get her sister a cake that looked exactly like the Unicorn cake. And it does. See?
This could be the best use of a photo cake I've seen, Johanna. Excellent.
Patrick B. got a little more hands-on, and decided to recreate the horrific dolly-cake himself. I think his version might even be a bit better, though:
Patrick, this cake brings a particular childhood memory to mind...
[cue flashback harp music]
Yes, I remember it well: I was about 6 years old, and watching my mother put on her make-up in the bathroom mirror. I was so absorbed I didn't realize that the toilet seat was up until I sat down - with a splash. Ah, misty, water-colored memories...
And finally, I'm pleased as spiked punch to report that Cake Wrecks is officially The Blog of Champions. Check it out:
That, my friends, is Breanna K., the Best in Show winner of the AZ Cake and Sugar Art Show held last weekend. And yes, she is wearing a Cake Wrecks shirt. Woohoo!
Breanna, mad props for showing your Wrecky loyalty at a cake show, and for doing such an amazing job with your tutu cake. Can you believe she's not even a professional, guys? Wow, maybe there's hope for the rest of us, eh?
And to all the rest of you who have e-mailed me in the past: thank you! I may not be able to answer you all individually, but I really do enjoy and appreciate every single one of your e-mails!


text:
Note: This item is more than seven years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references.
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News Release
Media Contact: TPWD News, email@example.com, 512-389-8030
April 4, 2012
Public Input Sought on Proposed Devils River State Natural Area Public Use Plan
Five Meetings Set April 10-19
AUSTIN — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will hold the first of five public meetings on April 10 in Houston to receive feedback on the Public Use Plan portion of the proposed General Management Plan for Devils River State Natural Area in Val Verde County. The meeting will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Houston Zoo's Brown Education Hall.
The plan will establish principles of guidance for developing and managing public access and recreational use, as well as natural and cultural resource management and protection, for both the older North Unit and new South Unit.
The two units will be managed as a "complex" by Superintendent Joe Ranzau. Together, the state natural area conserves nearly 38,000 acres and 10.8 miles of Devils River and Lake Amistad frontage. The complex includes the newly acquired 18,000-acre southern unit and the existing 20,000-acre state natural area 13 miles upriver. In addition to the TPWD's "state natural area" classification, both Val Verde County units are further protected by conservation easements that limit the amount of development that may occur on the properties.
The Devils River complex is classified as a state natural area instead of a state park. This designation emphasizes the conservation of the properties' unique cultural and natural resources. Educational and recreational opportunities are being planned that will preserve these special attributes, while at the same time allowing limited, resources-compatible public access and use of these ecologically fragile properties.
The earliest opportunity for general public access to the southern unit is projected currently to be late spring 2013, depending on staffing and budget issues.
Dates of the other upcoming meetings are: April 11 (Arlington), April 12 (Austin), April 16 (Del Rio) and April 19 (San Antonio). For meeting details or to post a comment, visit: http://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/.
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Important Notices:
The Corporation Division has recently implemented a 'Business Activity Notification' email.This email will be sent to the business email on record to notify you that a corporate filing has been processed for your business (Business Formations, Amendments, Annual Reports, etc.) or notices from our office sent to your business (Annual Report Reminders, Administrative Dissolution Notices, etc.).You can view the documents posted to the business filing history by searching the business name on our website, firstname.lastname@example.com.
For assistance with NH QuickStart and your online business filing process, please call our Information Line at 603-271-3246, Mon-Fri 8:00am - 4:30pm.
If you are using an Apple product, please contact Apple Customer Service and give them this website's URL address for assistance: https://quickstart.sos.nh.gov/online/account.