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WHEN asked recently whether he would describe his latest work as a play, Chris Thorpe replied: "I don't care." He's not a traditional playwright and Victory Condition is not a traditional, or easily understood, play.
In it Man (Jonjo O'Neill) and Woman (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) have just returned from a holiday in Greece, not that you'd be able to tell from their largely morbid overlapping monologues, whose subject matter wafts from dreams where "angels were aliens" to "a man in a Moscow hotel room bleeding secrets," all reeled off at a ferocious pace.
If you try hard enough to stitch a plot together you can just about decipher that Man is a sniper with his high-velocity rifle trained on a protester he is falling for, while Woman is a graphic designer for a monolithic multinational who cannot escape the lucid horror of the imagery on the daily news.
There's more than a nod to Caryl Churchill but the text lacks the haunting undercurrent of her work and certainly has little of its wicked humour. The blurb claims that Thorpe is attempting "to get to grips with the fact that everything happens at once" but this feels like a work where the writer has so much to say that he manages to gain little grip on anything.
Maybe that's the point but matters aren't helped by the overwhelmingly apocalyptic tone: "We both know the system is fucked. I know the alternative to a fucked system is chaos. You know the alternative is something fairer. We both know the number of possible endings to this is decreasing," being one example.
There's little let-up and, although O'Neill and Duncan-Brewster turn in steady performances, Vicky Featherstone's colourless direction allows for minimal intrigue.
The ending offers a glimmer of hope and it seems that there will be a different conclusion every night, so this is a show that may spark increasing discussion as it runs rather than the sighs breathed by many of those around me on press night.
Runs until October 21, box office: royalcourttheatre.com
You can't buy a revolution, but you can help the only daily paper in Britain that's fighting for one by joining the 501 club.
Just £5 a month gives you the opportunity to win one of 17 prizes, from £25 to the £501 jackpot.
By becoming a 501 Club member you are helping the Morning Star cover its printing, distribution and staff costs — help keep our paper thriving by joining!
You can't buy a revolution, but you can help the only daily paper in Britain that's fighting for one by become a member of the People's Printing Press Society.
The Morning Star is a readers' co-operative, which means you can become an owner of the paper too by buying shares in the society.
Shares are £1 each — though unlike capitalist firms, each shareholder has an equal say. Money from shares contributes directly to keep our paper thriving.
Some union branches have taken out shares of over £500 and individuals over £100.
You can't buy a revolution, but you can help the only daily paper in Britain that's fighting for one by donating to the Fighting Fund.
The Morning Star is unique, as a lone socialist voice in a sea of corporate media. We offer a platform for those who would otherwise never be listened to, coverage of stories that would otherwise be buried.
The rich don't like us, and they don't advertise with us, so we rely on you, our readers and friends. With a regular donation to our monthly Fighting Fund, we can continue to thumb our noses at the fat cats and tell truth to power.
Donate today and make a regular contribution.


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What do you do when you partner and you don't want sex at the same time?
3 Ways You Can Be Chivalrous Today
Chivalry is NOT dead, it's merely evolving. Nate Bagley and the BIC Flex5 razor help you #SmoothUp your moves.
3 Things You've Probably Never Done To Create Epic Love
Nate Bagley has insider info on how to create mind-blowing love.
This is Why Millennials Are Afraid of Marriage
Is fear paralyzing our ability to commit… or are we being given a bad rap?
5 Tips to Help You Move Past Your Break-Up
Nate Bagley knows breakups suck… so he sought out the best advice he could find on how to heal and move on.
Wes & Tera: A Love Worth Waiting For
Nate Bagley continues is beautiful podcast series about what makes true love with an interview with Wes and Tara who are truly gleeful about their marriage.
The Couple That Plays Together Stays Together
Shockingly, it helps a relationship if you begin as friends. Who knew?
This is Your Problem: You'd Rather Be Comfortable Than In Love
What you already know could change your life… but it probably won't, because you like being comfortable too much.
Why You Don't Have The Love You've Always Dreamed Of
You can get the love you've always wanted. You just have to be committed to creating a better love in your life.
What You Can Do When Life (and Love) Go Against Your Plan
Six months ago, Nate Bagley was engaged. Now he's single and sitting in his basement. But he thinks he's figuring it all out.
31 Powerful Lessons on Love, in 31 Years
Nate Bagley's birthday gift to himself is a list of 31 tough lessons he's learned about love and relationships.
The Role of God in a Spiritual Couple's Marriage
For this week's podcast, Nate Bagley sat down with Natalie and Steve, a couple who have broken up and gotten back together, to talk about the role of God in a relationship.
Loveumentary: Falling In Love With a Friend
Nate Bagley sits down with a couple who were friends for 30 years before they got married to learn about how to be happily single and then transition into a happy marriage.
Love Will Find You: Jason and Mindy
In this Loveumentary podcast, Nate Bagley sits down with a couple to talk love at first sight and what makes a real, happy marriage work.
You Have "Love Cancer" And You Don't Even Know It
Nate Bagley explains how one insidious little germ has crept into your relationship, and what you can do about it.

subset: commoncrawl


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Agency Announcements
Public School State Snapshot Most Popular Download
Our latest top 10 free resources feature a range of topics designed to help all learners succeed.
Check out the most recent list of top 10 downloads from WestEd.
The most popular download?
Public School State Snapshot: Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah
Visit our top 10 downloads page to access the above and other free popular resources to help all learners succeed.
Posted on September 12, 2017


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We're all pretty good at thinking about Christmas when planning ahead for our Etsy shops, right? What about the other key dates and special occasions during the year? Valentine's Day has just passed, but there's still plenty of other occasions you can be planning for. You may think of Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter... but what about all the other key dates?
Make sure you investigate events that could be important to your target market. Is your ideal customer a mum with school-age kids? Make sure you think about teacher's gifts at the end of the school year, or back-to-school items in September. If your customers are festival-lovers don't forget about Glastonbury.
Think of seasonal activities - summer is Wedding Season so people will be searching for favours, decorations, gifts, and more. In the autumn customers will start shopping for more cosy, homely items, and you can target Halloween if it suits your shop.
Take a moment to sit down and work out what dates you should be targeting in 2017. You can check this World First key dates for business list here: https://www.worldfirst.com/…/i…/32-key-retail-dates-of-2017/ and for some more wacky ideas check out this Time & Date list of funny dates: https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/
'Chocolate and Mint Day' or 'World Juggling Day', anyone?
Decide whether you need to design new products for your key dates, or whether you just need to tweak your tags and re-arrange your shop in advance of the event. Work out how far in advance you need to do those things (a couple of months at least) and mark them on your calendar now!


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Biotab Nutraceuticals attests that ExtenZe is a unique formula of natural herbs. They claim that it assists men in achieving a stiffer erection; improves the frequency; and intensifies sensation.
They declare that these actions are caused by the fantastic nitric oxide boost the supplement provides. They further attest that it enhances circulation in the penis; amplifies its size; and dives partners insane.
Wild yams are a widely used source of DHEA extracts which are commonly blended with supplement formulas. Scientific research has proven that supplementation with is can significantly reduce erectile dysfunction. Those with hypertension found it was especially beneficial.
Pepper plants such as piper longum provide Bioperine which is blended into many men's health supplements. It has been shown to assist in cellular energy and improve the bioavailability of most all nutrients. Bioperine also improves circulation, especially in the penile region, which can enhance erection size and quality.
Korean Ginseng is said to elevate nitric oxide levels which offers a wide variety of health benefits. This acts as a vasodilator to amplify nutrient delivery; increase circulation; and fosters arterial health. This component also magnifies testosterone; regulates levels; and promotes its production.
The extract of Damiana leaf has been scientifically confirmed as a valuable answer to various types of sexual dysfunction. Clinicians further revealed that it diminishes the time required for men between sexual sessions and can magnify the ability to achieve an orgasm in both sexes.
Horny Goat Weed, or Barrenwort, is a medically proven, effective vasodilator that supports healthy body circulation. It is said to incite the libido; strengthen sexual performance; and amplify endurance. This herb may be found implemented into the ingredients of male enhancement supplements across the globe.
The label tells users to take one capsule per day.
A 60-day reimbursement policy is provided by the company.
A multi-purchase discount is offered by the manufacturer.
A free gift is given to customers who order more than a single bottle.
The distributor claims that the product has been doctor endorsed.
Clinical tests have been performed on the individual ingredients.
Only unopened bottles are honored for returns.
Shipping charges are not included in the refund policy.
The approving physician's credentials are not provided.
This company has had legal issues.
There is no clinical confirmation for the post market supplement.
The 30-day supply of this supplement can be ordered on the company page for $60. The 60-day supply will cost $110; a 90-day supply will run $160; the 180-day supply will be $310.
This is an unadvisable purchase decision as the approving doctor does not seem to exist and the refund policy does not honor opened bottles.


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Lecrae's "Church Clothes 2" mixtape is due out in November.
Lecrae made history earlier this year, when he became the first rapper to win a Grammy for best gospel album. Now he's announced a brand new mixtape, which will be a sequel to 2012's Church Clothes.
Church Clothes 2 will be hosted by DJ Don Cannon, and will feature guest appearances from B.o.B, Paul Wall, Novel, Kevin Ross, Crystal Nicole, King Mez, Derek Minor, and Tedashii. Production for the project will include work by Boi-1da, David Banner, ThaInnaCircle, Dirty Rice, Thyshane and more.
"I'm so excited to share Church Clothes 2 with the people as we have gotten more creative and the music is amazing," said Lecrae in a statement. "The mixtape has definitely gone to another level, I have grown as an artist with all my experiences and I wanted to share that with my fans."
Look out for the tape on November 7th.


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Price: $400
Located in Melbourne, VIC
2 year old Siberian Husky female.
Belle is a beautiful girl that is playful and friendly, affectionate and loves hugs.
Belle now needs a patient and arctic breed experienced owner who will continue her ongoing training and socialisation to help boost her confidence in her new home.
Being an energetic girl she will need daily exercise and 6 ft fencing that is suitable for her breed.
Belle would benefit from a doggie companion with the same energy level to keep her company. No cats, rabbits, chooks and other pocket pets please.
Belle is vaccinated, wormed, microchipped and desexed.
If you are interested in Belle please complete our adoption form online: http://amraa.org.au/adoption-form


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Photos taken by
Roman Bershadsky
Well hi there! Thanks for stopping by. The point of this page is to outline the work I've done in the past so that you might consider me for work you have available in the future.
Currently, I reside in the Toronto area of Ontario, Canada (specifically Newmarket) and would prefer work in and around that area. But technology is a wonderful thing and if you live elsewhere, I'm sure arrangements can be made.
You may already know me as the creator and maintainer of The Muse's Muse but this particular page will serve to introduce me to you as a musician - a musician with the ability to improvise on the spot, work quickly, efficiently and happily within tight deadlines, and who loves working in a studio environment. Do you have a project that needs an extra voice to spruce things up? Are you a songwriter looking for a "voice" to bring out the best in your song? Are you working on a cartoon, commercial, documentary, dramatic novel on tape, etc. that you need a voice for? I feel confident that I can help you.
I do this because I love to do it but as with anything we love to do, it would be wonderful to be able to eek out a reasonable existence doing it. ;)
If you are a studio or individual with upcoming vocal work that you feel I might be able to help you with, by all means, feel free to e-mail me or leave a message at (905) 836-5444. I'd love to hear from you. I can make myself available just about whenever you might need my services. Contact me and we can talk about it.
As explained below, my fees are entirely negotiable and depending on the perks having to do with the project, may actually be nothing at all.
Let's talk.
As owner of Quatro Sound Productions, I have had the opportunity to work with Jodi Krangle on a variety of recordings. I found Jodi to be a gifted musician, specifically "a great singer with a good ear" and very professional in her approach.
At Quatro Sound Productions we continuously produce new work ranging from children's television to contemporary rock projects for which Jodi is ideally suited.
I do not hesitate to recommend Jodi for professional studio work of a similar nature.


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Talk: Kilimanjaro in 48 hours
A talk by Robert Bridgeman: Kilimanjaro in 48 hours. 26 heroes established a world record by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 48 hours, dressed in shorts and without outerwear. Their leader: the famous Iceman, Wim Hof. At the summit it was –20˚C with only 50% the oxygen at sea level. How did they survive? This is a story about human potential. It shows how ordinary people are capable of much more than may be assumed. This story needs to be shared with the world! Watch the video below to get an idea of the expedition and the talk.


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I've found this product in a particular blog that claims to be a really good one in keeping your skin moisturized and hydrated, so I purchased it together with the nose pack, but only in sachets, just to be safe.
iWhite is a plant-based whitening skin care line that uses Bio-Nanotechnology to extract the core nutrients of Mulberry Extract and Panax Ginseng. A non-soap based formula that deeply cleanses and eliminates all skin impurities, and removes excess oil.
It contains Mulberry extract to whiten skin (antioxidants in mulberries can clear dark spots from the face and brighten the skin)
and Panax Ginseng to revitalize and improve skin conditions. This product not only cleanses, but it also claims to whiten, revitalize, and moisturize your face.
It has a pearl-like texture that makes me want to look at it, just like my Palmolive shampoo *shimmer shimmer*. :) Whenever I use it, I feel like my face is really clean and brightened. Yes, it has brightening properties that I must say is really visible with just one use. It also removes makeup remnants unlike other soaps that I use for my face.
- cleanses deeply but will not leave skin taut and dry
- moisturizes and makes your skin hydrated
- mild and non-comedogenic
- has brightening properties
- affordable and it also comes in sachets (retails at Php18/sachet and Php139/tube
- the brightening properties may not last long.
Nevertheless, this product is a great one. Try it and share me your thoughts. :)


text: I don't even want to give Modernistic one star but I can't post without giving at least one star. Totally dissatisfied. They did not do the entire condo, though we paid for the full unit to be cleaned, left spots that they said could not be removed (but a real carpet cleaning company removed them easily). I would never use Modernistic again and I recommend no one even consider them. Their motto should be revised to "Simple and Quick, and Totally Ineffective."


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Some may feel that the Internet is akin to a large, confusing maze. One can easily get fooled when trying to increase their ranking. Patience and a careful eye can help you get to the end of the maze. The following article offers some of the best SEO tips.
In order to use search engine optimization to increase your visibility, your website must be well coded. Search engines are not humans and their spiders will not make exceptions for inadequate code. If you have Flash content without coding, they will not index it at all.
Make sure that your code is clean and concise to maximize your search rankings. If your site uses primarily JavaScript for content, for example, and the code is messy, the search engine spiders will be unable to index it. Using Flash without textual descriptions makes it impossible to index your site.
To get better rankings with the search engines, populate your "metatag" area with a variety of keywords. Even better, include misspellings of your keywords. Search engines will "read" these metatags and help you appear in a wider variety of searches. For example, if the website is about rabbits, you could use rabbit, rabit, rabbits and rabbitt.
There are many different techniques you can use to improve your search engine rankings. Tweaking the search capabilities of your site returns faster, more relevant results. The optimized performance will make your readers happier as well.
Prove to your audience that you are an expert in your niche. This is an excellent strategy for maximizing profits. Build a site that is designed with your buyers' needs in mind, then implement SEO strategies so that they can locate what you have to offer. Remember to think of your customers' needs first, and your needs second.
Your domain name should contain a keyword related to your content. The website needs to be easily located by anyone who is searching for it. Keep in mind that not everyone visiting your site will have followed an ad. Many will arrive because they were searching for products your site contains.
When you use properly descriptive title tags, you are ensuring that the search engines understand what content is on your website. You should not have it over 60 characters, most search engines do not show anything after that. Additionally, they give words appearing after the 60 character limit less weight.
If you want to have your site showing higher, you need to help the web spiders who determine the rankings. Search engines are constantly crawling your site, going through all of your content looking for related terms that tell them what your site is about, and you can make it easier for them to do so. A site map is an essential tool that will help spiders understand what content is important.
On top of link exchanges, try out article exchanges as well for better rankings with the search engines. Article exchange involves posting a full article done by the owner of another site, giving them a link and getting the same in return. This type of SEO has more success than traditional link exchanges do.
Anchor Text
To make certain pages more easier to find for search engines, use keyword in the URL of the page. When the URL includes things people are not searching for, like numbers and symbols, your page is harder to find. Using essential keywords that are related to your site's content can greatly boost a page's traffic.
Anchor text is essential when you put links on your webpage. "Click here" is not a good anchor text term, and will have a negative impact on the results in a search engine. Search engine bots will look for keywords in anchor text and boost your rankings when they see them.
Learn all you can about social media and how it can benefit your SEO planning. Social media sites go far beyond just Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. There are a lot of specialized social media sites that cater to folks interested in things like photography or dog breeding. Participate on those that are directly relevant with your business.
Use header tags. Sometimes a header can be really large, but CSS can be used to reduce the size. Search engines use the headers to rank websites. Use different tags – like H1 or H2 – to emphasize your products and services.
Some believe that bringing keywords into their comment tags will increase their SEO visibility. Spend your time making sure the main content of your site is tagged appropriately.
It's important to make your domain name memorable and relevant. This information will help YouTube users access your site.
Proofread content moves products, but many webmasters forget this critical step. Ensure that your website is clearly legible to both your readers and the search engines. If your website or keywords have bad grammatical or spelling errors, then search engines may rank your site lower than you'd like.
Find a certain niche and make yourself a guru. This is a great Internet tool. Make a website for your particular niche, and make sure to search engine optimize it to target customers interested in that niche. Remember to think of your customers' needs first, and your needs second.
A site map which has your keywords included should be created. A site map allows visitors to easily navigate around your web site. Search engines use them in order to put websites in a higher position on the search lists, because the ease of access is an important facet in their ratings.
Site Map
Never place the same content on your site more than once, or search engines may consider your website spam. Duplicate content can occur without you even realizing it. Repeating the same thing over and over may be easier for you, but to SEO crawlers, it looks like spamming.
Search engines are known to be attracted by a site map. Devising a site map may help SEO, and also help visitors find their way around your site once they arrive. A site map is a great tool to help people locate pages within your website. Visitors will utilize the links you have created and this will effectively increase traffic to your site.
A top optimization idea is to put captions on your site. Use articles, photos and other content to add keywords to. This will bring you more traffic.
Captions are a great strategy for search engine optimization. Captions with rich keyword descriptions for these articles and images is going to help you increase your site visibility.
"Alt" tags are crucial when adding image links to your site. You replace images with these tags if the visitor wants to disable image displays. You want to make sure the search engines read as well as index alt tags, this will improve your page ranking.
No site is perfect. You need to be aware of this if you want to fix the problems that lie within your own website. Keep working on and improving your website and business to get more visitors.
Joining local groups such as the Chamber of Commerce can not only give your business more credibility, but it can also boost your rankings in the search engines. When you join the BBB, they will link to you online, and that will increase your rankings in local searches. You will get people to trust you more readily if you register with the BBB.
Business Bureau
When performing search engine optimization, you must write your contents for humans to begin with. Machines cannot purchase anything, so make sure that your items are readable. You need to make your site accessible for humans too. You will fail if it isn't.
Try joining Better Business Bureau, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, to improve your search rankings. This can increase your relevance with searches that are local because these organizations automatically link to your website. You also get people to trust your webpage when you have a great rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Depending on the resources available to you, it is possible that your site will only be able to be fully optimized for the top search engines. Optimal keywords always help, but each search engine, such as Google or Yahoo!, , Ask. This means diversifying your approach is an excellent idea.
When creating your site's interlinks, ensure you are using the right anchor text. There are some words that you should never use because they will not help you with your SEO endeavors. Try to get advice from an SEO expert on anchor text.
A great way to get links for your website is to leave comments on blogs with relevant topics. If you leave a good comment, some blog creators will let you keep the link. Try to place your link only on blogs that are relevant to your business or product, and make sure that your comments provide the blog site with valuable information. It's easy to leave comments (and links) on blogs if you know what you're talking about.
Put more content on pages than only links. You should do all you can to make your links an integral part of your website's content. Search engines do not highly rank link pages and readers are unlikely to view them. Keeping your content in line with your text provides context to the engines and creates more professional looking content.
Don't hop from niche to niche, but be sure to provide plenty of content spanning many different topics. For a blog about food, cover everything from exotic new foods to cooking methods to recommended restaurants or shows. By providing a wide array of articles centered around specific subjects, you increase the likelihood that your site will appear near the top of search results.
One great thing you should do for your website is to tie current events in a relevant way to your products or services. This allows you to bring in people who aren't necessarily searching for your site. These related topics will also create additional value for your repeat customers.
As you build your website, establish links among its pages to help drive up traffic and ranking. Link keywords to other pages that compliment your pages to increase your rank. You never want to get generic when planning out your keyword phrases. Try using some unique ones.
When you are working on SEO, it is essential that you create content for the human reader. While keyword phrases for bots are important, they are not the ones making the purchases, so you can optimize the content afterwards. You will want your site to be readable at all times. Without readability, you will not succeed.
Have your title focused on one of your major keywords. Link all of the pages on your site together by putting the same title tag on every page. You need to place your company name at the end of the link to keep them together. People are not likely to search for your company's name.
Search Engine
If you have a site dedicated to business ask the CEO to do a blog or make an appearance. People want to hear what the owner has to say, because he or she is the main voice in the company.
Use SEO to gain more visitors to your website. Your site will get the best search engine results if you make it spider friendly. You need to tag all images on your webpage, a search engine only looks for text. Make sure the description you give is keyword rich.
It is extremely important to keep your content fresh and update it consistently. People have no use for old information, and your visitors will probably not return if they see that your content is stale and out of date.
Do not attempt to manipulate your site in a fraudulent way in an effort to garner top return rankings or else you will find the search engines suppressing your pages. Some engines, such as Google and Yahoo, will ban companies from appearing in the results because of fraudulent behavior. With that advice, use an ethical guideline as you develop the search engine optimization for your website!
A sitemap is a great tool to add to your site; be sure a link is on each page. For many websites, a good place to place the link to the sitemap is at the footer. Sitemaps help search engine bots effectively crawl and index websites.
If you upgrade your website often, you will get more attention from search engine spiders. Not only that, if your articles are really good, other people will publish your links. Once your content is share, you can expect additional visitors to your site.
Your website should include relevant Really Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS feeds regularly update themselves, and are considered new content by search engine spiders. You can create your own feed where you post information about related topics, if you cannot find a good feed to add to your website. Make sure you motivate people to follow your RSS feed as well.
You have to keep an eye on your standings with the search engines, if you want to do the best search engine optimization you can. Keeping an eye on your ranking to see if search engine optimization techniques are working. Use Alexa or the Google toolbar to monitor your page rank.
Although your articles and webpages center around the same general topic, each of these should have a unique and eye-catching title. Make sure to keep your titles short and sweet. Each word you add makes the following words less important to the reader. The title is the first impression of an article, therefore making it very important to the reader.
Be sure to put some time aside to really put these tips to use. Stay patient, and the outcomes you desire will come.


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Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Pediatric Hospital Medicine is the premier educational conference for pediatric hospitalists and other clinicians who care for hospitalized patients. Tri-sponsored by the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Academic Pediatric Association (APA), PHM 2018 offered an all-inclusive arrangement of educational and networking opportunities planned specifically for the pediatric hospital medicine professional. PHM 2019 will be held July 25 – 28, 2019 in Seattle, Washington at the Hyatt Regency Seattle.


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Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Kneading to Die by Liz Mugavero
This was a fun book! The mystery was a little confusing, but overall it was a good story. Stan was a great main character. I especially loved how she talked to the dogs and cats in the story as though they were people. (That's what I do, too.) I liked reading about the animals, too, especially Nutty, Scuffy and Duncan.
Having said that, there were a number of things that I didn't like or quite get. I found the story a bit muddled, especially near the end. Also, Stan's theme song references were lost on me. A few of them were familiar to me, but many weren't. I don't think they added much to the story.
I thought Stan's relationship with Richard was a bit cool and was so absent from her life that I forgot who he was a number of times. It didn't seem like they had much of a relationship and didn't seem like a good fit. It was all a bit weird.
Another thing that troubled me was Stan's total reliance on homeopathy and organic measures to treat her animals. I don't want to expand too much on that, other than I think it can coexist alongside conventional medicine; not totally replace it. Therefore, alienating the local vet soon after she moved there probably wasn't Stan's best option. Granted the vet was antagonistic, but one day Stan might have needed her services or advice.
While this advanced copy doesn't include any recipes, apparently the finished published one does. Those might be fun to try out for those who have pets.
Recommended for cozy mystery and pet lovers. While I mostly enjoyed the book, I don't think liked it enough to read any other books in the series. It does appear to be quite popular with other readers, though. As I'm writing this, there are three other books in the series.
For more information about this book, please visit the Kensington Books website.
For more information about the author and her other books, please visit Liz Mugavero's website.
Thanks to those nice people from Kensington Books for this review copy.
Kneading to Die by Liz Mugavero, Kensington Books, ©2013. ISBN 9780758284785(Mass Market), 331p.
Labels: #50BookPledge, 2015, cozy, kensington, mystery
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Prostitution in a broad aspect, is a relatively indiscriminate sexual exchange made for material gain. Individuals prostitute themselves when they grant sexual access for money, gifts, or other payment and in so doing uses their body in commodity. In legal terms the word prostitute refers only to those who "engage frequently and overly in such sexual-economic exchanges" (Britannica Encyclopedia Online). Prostitution differed in pre-industrial societies compared to industrial societies. In each period of time attitudes and control towards prostitution differ.
The majority of prostitutes throughout history have been women. This reflects both the traditional socioeconomic dependence of women, and the tendency to objectify female sexuality. Although prostitution has often been characterized as "the worlds oldest (female) profession"(Bricanica), the concept of women as property, which prevailed in most cultures until the end of the 19th century, meant that the profits of the profession most often accrued to men who controlled it. Men have been traditionally characterized as the procurers and customers of prostitutes.
Prostitution in various forms have existed from earliest times. It is reflected on the economic, social, and sexual values of society. It has been secular or under the guise of religion. In some societies prostitution was believed to assure the preservation of marriage and the family. Women have usually entered prostitution through coercion or under psychological and economic stress. In most societies prostitutes generally have had low social status and a restricted future because their sexual service was disapproved and considered self-destructive.
Prostitution was wide spread in pre-industrial societies. The renting or exchange of wives by their husbands was a practice among many primitive communities. The ancient Middle East and India temples maintained large numbers of male and female prostitutes. Sexual intercourse with them was believed to facilitate communion with the temple gods. In ancient Greece prostitution flourished on all levels of society. Prostitutes of the lowest levels worked in licensed brothels and were required to wear distinctive clothing as a badge of their vocation. Prostitutes of the next higher level usually were skilled dancers and singers. Those of the highest level, "the hetaerae"(Symposium and Hetarae), kept salons where politicians met, and they often attained power and influence.
In ancient Rome prostitution was common despite severe legal restrictions. Women slaves, captured abroad by the Roman legions, were impressed into urban brothels or exploited by owners in the households they served. The Roman authorities attempted to limit the spread of slave prostitution and often resorted to harsh measures. Brothel inmates were forced to register with the government for life, to wear garish blond wigs and other distinctive raiment, to forfeit all civil rights, and to pay a heavy tax. In the Middle Ages the Christian Church, which valued chasity, attempted to convert or rehabilitate individual prostitutes but refrained from campaigning against the institution itself. The church followed the teachings of Saint Augustine, who held that the elimination of prostitution would breed even worse forms of immorality and perversion because men would continue to seek sexual out side of marriage. By the late Middle Ages, prostitution had reached a high point in Western history. Licensed brothels flourished throughout Europe, yielding enormous revenues to government officials and corrupt churchmen. In Asia, where women were held in low esteem and there was no religious deterrent, prostitution was accepted as natural.
During the 16th century prostitution declined sharply in Europe, largely as the result of stern reprisals by Protestants and Catholics. They condemned immorality of brothels and their inmates, but they were also motivated by the perception of a connection between prostitution and an outbreak of Syphilis, a previously unknown venereal disease. Brothels in many cities were closed by authorities. Once again, women were bound into the private sphere. Women who were out of place of this sphere were believed to be acting outside of their traditional roles and this symbolized the general disorder of society. Under a typical ordinance, enacted in Paris in 1635, prostitutes were "flogged, shaved bald, and exiled for life without formal trial"(Britannica).
These harsh strictures did not, however, eradicate prostitution and venereal disease. Gradually it became obvious that these ills were increasing, especially in the large, crowded cities that accompanied the industrialization of the West. Syphilis is one of the most serious venereal diseases afflicting men. It is known for its tissue destruction and inflation of almost any organ of the body. Most authorities believe that Syphilis was introduced into Europe by infected seamen returning from the first expedition to America of Cristopher Columbus. Religious organizations developed a nationwide campaign against both the immorality of prostitution and its relationship to disease.
Women could not find lasting equality in the churches. This was a result of the Protestant and Catholic reformations. Hugh Latimer, the 16th century English Protestant, reasserted this traditional view:
"A women is frail, and proclive unto all evils: a woman is a very weak vessel, and many soon deceive a man and bring him into evil."
(A History Of Their Own 254)
In the 17th century, the male leaders of the Christian sects centralized their beliefs and institutionalized their relationships with their followers. This reflected the earlier patterns restraining women by the use of consolidation and regulations.
Women out of control were seen as a danger to men. For if a women was out of place, acting apart from her established position, it symbolized disorderliness. In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas had argued that:
"For good order would have been wanting in the human family if were not governed by others wiser then themselves. So by such a kind of subjection woman is naturally subject to man, because naturally in man that discretion of reason predominates"
(A History of Their Own 254).
Men received more privileges and were taken more seriously then women.. Woman were believed to be passive, unreasonable and socially a material possession. Luther explains this in his lectures on Genesis:
"It is evident therefore that woman is a different animal to man, not only having different members, but also being weaker in intellect. But although Eve was a noble creation…she was none the less a woman. For as the sun is more splendid then the moon… so also a woman, although the most beautiful handiwork of God, does not equal the dignity and glory of the male"
(A History Of Their Own 254).
Prostitution has evolved through history of mankind in many forms and practices. The most constant variable through this history is the opinion that females were weaker, and lower then men. This misconception was also attributed to the male practice of objectifying women. These values reflected on the persecution of prostitutes. Attitudes toward prostitution were based on the "Christian" view of "immorality", rather than any basic knowledge of the operation or origin of the profession.
Work cited
"Prostitution". http://www.eb.com/limited_search.html Accessed November 11, 1999
Katz, Marilyn. "Symposium and Hetaerae" http://condor.wesleyan.edu/HyperNews/get/spring98/cciv243/18.html Accessed November 11, 1999
Anderson S. Bonnie & Zinsser P. Judith. A History Of Their Own, Women in Europe. New York: Harper & Roe Publishers, 1988
Work Consulted
Gies, Frances & Gies, Joseph. Women In The Middle Ages. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1978
Brock R. Deborah. Making Work, Making Trouble. Toronto: Unniversity Of Toronto Press, 1998
Included with essay
Word Count: 1198


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So I need to write about the Clinique Take The Day Off Balm before I explode.
I'm simply in awe… I have no words! (Well I do otherwise this post would be impossible but just roll with me here)
I don't have photos UNFORTUNATELY but once I come to use this product again, I will do a full photo post.
Let's jump into this.
So I was in town after college and had some time to kill, so I wandered around Debenhams for a while and ended up at the Clinique counter. I have never used Clinique products before having seen some beauty influencers use this one balm, I wanted to see it in person.
The lady at the counter (she was lovely and so helpful) comes over and asks if I need help and instead of claiming to be 'just looking' (we all do it, don't lie) as I did at the Benefit counter, I ask her if they have this particular balm.
The Take The Day Off Balm.
She did and we were discussing it and she asks if I want a sample. I of course say yes and she takes out quite a generous pot and fills it completely with the product and takes a few details for the system so I could see the products I'd liked when I returned to other stores. I also picked up a foundation sample which I will be wearing to a job interview tomorrow and testing out to review.
I get home, have tea and go for my shower, armed with my pot. I pin up my hair and take a tiny bit of this product on my fingers.
Now, I am apprehensive because my skin has been so irritated of late and I was petrified I'd have an adverse reaction and go to a job interview all patchy and disgusting.
And I start to wipe at my eyebrow and forehead.
I had to do a double take.
My eyebrow, foundation, powder, bronzer, highlighter AND setting spray was gone.
Not even smeared across my face. There was no trace of it ever being there either. Just a slightly oily bit of skin.
Encouraged and excited, I call my mum to watch the magic and continue to wipe off my eye makeup. Only a very faint black residue was smeared on my face and fingers. Other than that, there was no trace. Pink eyeshadow, concealer, colour corrector, black eyeliner, setting powder, foundation and mascara (which, by the way, I am very liberal with. I don't scrimp out on my lashes. Go hard or go home.) ALL. GONE.
I finish up literally smearing this tiny amount of balm all over my face, then wipe off the stuff with water as I was instructed to.
My face was spotless. Not a mascara smudge or foundation line in sight.
My skin wasn't irritated at all and it felt so soft and moisturised. I felt my face to be so, so much cleaner than using face wipes, then cleansers etc.
I showered up and knew I had to review it.
The foundation I was wearing was thick, full coverage and believe me when I say it takes some elbow grease to scrub off. It came off so effortlessly! I couldn't believe it.
My only drawback I have is the price. It's £23 in Debenhams for a tub and for someone who is on a budget, that is really quite a stretch. But I'm going to make an allowance THIS ONCE. I will buy it when I can because a little goes a long, long way and this tub is fairly big.
I think I'm going to end up going back to the counter tomorrow and thank this girl for turning my life around. Gone are the days of harsh chemicals stinging and irritating my skin. Hello beautiful, soft skin!
Buy at Debenhams: http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10701_10001_123070801799_-1
Lots of Love,
Melanie-Jessica x


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An ode to Booster Gold
It's funny how everyone has a guilty pleasure - a band, movie or book that we love but was hardly a critical or commercial success. Comic book fans are no different. They always have at least a couple of characters that they hold dear to their heart.
I know that I've got a few. There's one name that's always at top of mind for me though: Booster Gold.
Never heard of him? That's cool, most people haven't. Indeed, it's a running joke on an episode of Justice League Unlimited that everyone thinks that he's Green Lantern and they're disappointed when they find out that it's Booster Gold.
Booster Gold is Michael Jon Carter, a collegiate football star from the far-flung future of the 25th century. He started placing bets on his own games and then threw them for profit. Disgraced, he became a night watchman at a museum that housed artefacts from the so-called Age of Heroes – our modern heroes like Superman and Batman.
With the help of a floating security robot named Skeets, Booster stole equipment and weapons from the displays, and used Rip Hunter's time machine to travel to the 20th century. When he arrived in the 1980s he used his limited knowledge of historical events to position himself in the right place at the right time and become a superhero brand that would save lives as well as turn a healthy profit.
With Skeets acting as a roving encyclopedia, Booster blunders from heroic episode to heroic episode, often doing more harm than good while trying to create a public image that he can gain from financially. Recently (and somewhat improbably) he's become the guardian of the time stream, trying to maintain order and balance in the universe.
There are two things that appeal to me about Booster: his origin and how well he reflects the zeitgeist of the 1980s.
I think that the best fictional characters, superheroes and otherwise, have origins that explain their motivation for the rest of their existence. Sticking to comic books, some Batman, Spider-Man and the Punisher are popular because they are driven by a combination of guilt and anger over the death of their beloved family members.
All three of those creation stories make sense. To an extent, the reader can understand why these guys are dressing in spandex and putting their lives in danger. Their behaviour is clearly motivated by the tragedy in their origins.
Booster Gold's driving force is simple: he's greedy. He covers his uniform with corporate logos, puts money on the stock exchange before big bumps and is generally a glory hog. Or that time he married a sexagenarian for her money. It's not an altruistic reason for becoming a superhero, but it has an inherent logic. You can get what he's about.
Just as Captain America was ideally suited to the surge of patriotism in the lead up to World War 2 or Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Nick Fury fit the Cold War era, Booster Gold's 1986 debut was perfectly timed. He was just right for the greed is good, egotistical 80s. He developed as a character into the 1990s, just as corporate monopolies disguised as "synergy" and mass sponsorship became the norm in North America.
Booster Gold is often under-utilized but instantly appealing to anyone who grew up in the 1980s. He's greedy, funny, a little bit cynical and surprisingly heroic. More than just about any other big name comic book character he fits into our contemporary worldview and, most importantly, he's believable. The reader can understand why he does the things he does. He's as real as a man from the future can be, and although he's a guilty pleasure of mine, I rarely regret it.
Graphic Novel Review: The Best of the Spirit by Will Eisner
Amongst comic book fans, Will Eisner's the Spirit is legendary. It's the foundation on which modern sequential art has been built. Indeed, on the cover of the Best of the Spirit, USA Today praised it as "The Citizen Kane of Comics."
This, of course, made me pretty sceptical. After all, one of my favourite pet theories is Citizen Kane Syndrome, which states that influential classics lose their lustre because what made them shine is now cliché. I shouldn't have been concerned though – the Spirit easily lives up to all the hype.
The Spirit was a widely syndicated adventure comic that appeared as an insert in Sunday newspapers across the United States starting with the aptly named "Origin of the Spirit" published on June 2, 1940. The Spirit was originally Denny Colt, a criminologist killed while on a case. Reincarnated as the apparently immortal Spirit, he sought justice around the world. The original run lasted 12 years, and changed the way comic book writers and artists worked.
Eisner is often cited as an artistic genius who revolutionized pacing and layout. All of that skill is brought to life on the pages of the Best of the Spirit. His characters are cartoonish, but remain incredibly emotive. Characters that appear for only a panel or two are instantly sympathetic. And if you want to see just how groundbreaking his design is, please check out the picture on the right.
I've often heard it said that Eisner was not afraid to spill ink all over the page and make his work incredibly dark. This is true, he's not afraid of filling negative space with ink. However, it's his colouring that was striking. It is incredibly bright and vibrant – bright yellows, oranges and greens pop in comparison to the black ink.
Also, when the scene calls for it, Eisner will leave more than half a page blank with some lettering and one or two characters. His reputation for dark, moody work belied a surprisingly diverse and colourful style.
What really impressed me though, was the quality of his writing.
The stories are short – seven pages each – but cram in an entire tale that manages to include character development, action and resolution in one neat package. This is a far cry from today's decompressed epics where it takes nearly 100 pages for anything of substance to happen.
I would love to see a monthly Batman or Spider-Man book where there are two or three of these quick stories. They could be one-and-dones where the hero handles a case in the span of one night. I think it'd be a great contrast to the longer, more involved plotlines being used today. It would also make a great jumping on point for new fans.
There are some small drawbacks to the Spirit, of course. The inadvertent racism of the Spirit strips can make the reader uncomfortable. Aside from a few brief glimpses, the highly offensive Ebony White wasn't included in this collection. But there is still a brief appearance of an Italian landlady, Mrs. Pizza, who says things like "No sorr... She'sa keep d'apart-ement joosa like dis..." Yikes. Eisner had to create characters in shorthand to save space, and too often that means stereotypes.
What's most impressive about this book is how well it holds up. These stories were originally published between 1940 and 1950, but they're still quick and fun. I'm definitely going to try and pick up more editions of the Spirit to add to my collection.
The Best of the Spirit was a pleasant surprise that confounded my expectations and is definitely worth checking out if you're not familiar with Will Eisner's work.
Super-Hero Originality Game
When I worked at the World's Biggest Bookstore we used to come up with little games to help us kill time. The Movie Game, the Hand-Loop Game, The Game, and, in a horrifying combination of nerdiness and creativity: the Super-Hero Originality game.
The premise is simple; name a Marvel Comics or DC Comics character that you believe can carry their own monthly title. Providing evidence is crucial – if they have had their own series, or currently have a monthly title, then your case is made. Otherwise, you have to come up with a pitch of your own to convince your peers that this protagonist can carry a monthly book.
As an added challenge there are a few guidelines to guarantee that the character is truly original:
- The character must be from the mainstream DC or Marvel Universe. Sorry, no Ultimates or New Universe or 2099 or Wildstorm or anything like that. Core Universe!
- Their first appearance has a cover date of January 1980 or later. That doesn't sound tough, but there really aren't that many characters under 30 years old.
- They can't be a mutant. Not to hate on the X-Men, but in the late 80s and early 90s "(s)he is a mutant with a murky past!" became the de facto Marvel Comics origin, and it doesn't strike me as a particularly creative background for a character. It doesn't provide motivation or any kind of character depth.
- No legacy characters. I love Jamie Reyes, but, again, he's a character who is the latest in a long line of similarly named and costumed heroes. That is, by definition, not original.
- No derivatives. Sorry She-Hulk, Red Hulk and Blue Hulk. Don't waste our time, Conner Kent. Like legacy characters, the idea is to avoid protagonists clearly based on well-established characters.
One slow Sunday at the store my co-worker Jared and I put together a short list that met all these criteria, while remaining viable choices for ongoing series. Please, comment and see if you can add to it:
- Booster Gold
- The Sentry
- Wild Dog
- Speedball
- Elektra
- Venom (Eddie Brock or Angelo Fortunato but not Mac Gargan)
- Amanda Waller
- Terror Inc.
- Deathstroke
- Deadpool*
Can anyone add to this list? There must be more characters that can fill it out. If your hero has not had a monthly series before (or currently) please make sure to explain why you think they can carry their own book.
*Deadpool is a pretty contentious choice. He's not a mutant, but he is definitely a part of the X-Men mythos. Also his powers are literally a derivative of Wolverine's healing factor. Still, he's not an obvious rip-off of Wolverine. He's definitely a borderline choice.
Graphic Novel Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier vol. 1 & 2
One of my New Year's resolutions was to read more comic books and graphic novels. Hardly a self-improvement project, I know, but I want to get down with my nerd self.
My first graphic novel of 2010 is Captain America: Winter Soldier vol. 2, allowing me to complete the first story arc of Ed Brubaker's popular run on one of Marvel Comics' most recognizable characters.
I've never been much of a Captain America fan. I prefer grittier characters like Batman or the Punisher, so his squeaky clean image never appealed to me. And since I'm Canadian, all the patriotic beats were lost on me.
But Brubaker's Winter Soldier storyline sucked me in. I'd heard that the new Captain America series was going to be bringing back Bucky, a character who had been dead since the end of World War II, and it hooked me.
This was a Big Deal to comic fans. Bucky had been Cap's 16-year-old sidekick during the war, but was tragically killed when a missile he was trying to disarm exploded in mid-flight. The same incident dropped Cap into the frigid North Sea, freezing him until the 1960s.
The death of Bucky had always been cited as the reason why Marvel's superheroes don't have teenaged sidekicks - unlike their DC counterparts - and it added a sense of realism to the company's mythos.
For Brubaker to be retconning a fundamental element of Marvel Comics seemed like heresy, albeit an intriguing act of rebellion.
Captain America: Winter Soldier Book One and Two brings together issues 1-14 of the fifth monthly series to star Steve Rogers. They revolve around a terrorist attack that was apparently perpetrated by a mythical Cold Warrior known as the Winter Soldier who may actually be Cap's former partner Bucky.
Resurrection storylines have become commonplace in comics, a constant recycling of characters who had been killed for dramatic effect, only to return. It's a trend that is holding back a medium that I love. But Brubaker handles the return of the long-dead hero with a deft hand that provides not just a plausible explanation for his survival, but an engrossing story.
Interspersed with action, character moments and plot developments, Winter Soldier begins with Captain America becoming angry and frustrated with the inability of the United States government to attack countries that sponsor terrorism. The detonation of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Philadelphia leaves a trail that leads to former Soviet general Aleksander Lukin, and his shadowy operative the Winter Soldier.
Even the name Winter Soldier is clever work by Brubaker. It's a reference to the loyal American revolutionaries who stuck with George Washington over the harrowing winter in Valley Forge, but also to the Winter Soldier Investigation, a Viet Nam era examination of atrocities and war crimes committed by the United States Armed Forces.
Brubaker seamlessly connects the Second World War, the Cold War, modern terrorism and Captain America's complex continuity. It's not just that he brings in plot points from every era of Cap's 70 years of existence, but the pacing and style of the book draws heavily on these aspects of the character's history.
To me, a classic Captain America story has him and a partner rushing off into danger to stop a catastrophe from befalling the United States or the world. Winter Soldier is no different, with Cap rushing to stop Kronas Corporation with the Falcon riding shotgun.
Steve Epting's art work in this series is fantastic. I can't think of a current comics creator who makes better use of inking and colouring techniques. His characters are expressive and natural in conversation, and dynamic and fun during action scenes.
In particular, the way he draws the acrobatic Captain America jumping, rolling and bouncing in fight scenes is thrilling.
Winter Soldier breaks an old comic fan saying: "No one stays dead, except Bucky and Uncle Ben." The phrase refers to the fact that Peter Parker's uncle and Captain America's sidekick must stay dead because their loss is what, in part, forms the hero we know today.
I never thought I'd see the day where that axiom was successfully reversed, but the Winter Soldier saga does it.
The return of James "Bucky" Buchanan Barnes was enough to catch my interest and buy the first volume of Captain America: Winter Soldier, and the gripping story has lead me to the rest of the series. Brubaker's writing isn't some gimmick. It's some of the best mainstream superhero comic work I've ever read.
Citizen Kane Syndrome
According to the American Film Institute, Citizen Kane is the greatest movie ever made, but when was the last time you saw it on TV? Only high-brow movie channels like Turner Classic Movies or maybe Bravo! will show it, and likely not very often. You'll never see it as a Fox Saturday matinee or as part of Peachtree's weekend movie marathon.
Why is that? It's indisputably great, having influenced just about every film made after it and changing the way people saw cinema. But plunk your average movie-goer down in front of Orson Welles' opus, they'll likely fall asleep or try switching the channel.
This is what I like to call Citizen Kane Syndrome.
CKS afflicts many movies, but Citizen Kane has all the symptoms: an older, influential work that has become a fixture in culture. It lost its lustre because of its cultural significance.
Contemporary viewers don't enjoy it because they're already familiar with many of the artistic touches that made the film brilliant.
Most people don't realize it but Citizen Kane was the first film to show the ceiling in a room. It's true. Cameras had never been canted to such a degree that the roof was visible – until 1941 when Citizen Kane came out. It was the first movie to use deep focus throughout. It was pioneered special effects make-up. And on and on.
At the time, these were exciting new narrative techniques. Today? Mehn.
There are countless other aspects of the film that, at the time, were revolutionary, but today are taken for granted.
And, really, how thrilling can a plot twist be when Rosebud's identity is revealed in a spoof on Tiny Toons?
It happens in every corner of pop culture too.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's incredible run on Fantastic Four launched the Marvel Age. But some of its magic has been lost as the medium and craft have built upon that foundation.
The Beatles were once bigger than Jesus, but now fans of rock music expect faster beats, more complex chords and higher production values.
In Cold Blood remains a chilling look at two murderers, but its impact as creative non-fiction is not what it once was, since the New Journalists (and the New New Journalists, for that matter) have followed Truman Capote's lead.
CKS forces media consumers into the tricky position of having to consider the historical context of the art not just politically or economically, but creatively as well. This can be a taxing requirement, and it only takes away from the viewing experience.
At the same time, there are some films, books and bands which remain timeless. Shakespeare is the easy example, but the Wizard of Oz (the movie, not the novel) also comes to mind.


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Slyib's Joke Vault
Animal Jokes
Animals are amazing creatures. Some can be domesticated, and have served us for centuries. Others, to this day, remain wild and powerful and can be observed only in zoos or in the wild. Some, like dogs, are man's best friends. Others, such as cats, accept us only on their terms. And then there are the mythical creatures, such as the unicorn, that are possessed of great power and beauty. Let's face it: animals make us feel good about ourselves.
And what could be better than if these very animals that we've come to know and love can provide added enjoyment by being the subject of a great joke -- or two -- or several?
- Slyib
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Understanding Online Message Dissemination (First Monday, April 20th)
This academic-style paper presents an analysis of the effectiveness of "Send-this-message-to-your-friend" (aka tell-a-friend) promotional methodology.
Domain Dispute Drags On (BBC News, April 20th)
ICANN remains the firing target of a large chunk of the internet community after keeping VeriSign in control of the lucrative .com domain name until 2007, and beyond (a lightyear in internet time). In return, VeriSign has turned over the rights to the .org domain and will give up .net oncve its contract expires in 2003. Worse still, the future of the .org domain, and the rights of its present domain holders is under debate.
Study Finds Consumers Want Basics (MSNBC, April 20th)
In a study whose results will please B2C e-commerce players who are presently considering cost-cutting strategies, market research firm Information Resources Inc. found that consumers are not interested in the bells and whistles offered by many e-commerce sites, but instead want simple sites that offer discounts, personalization and direct contact.
Baseball Site Almost Too Popular for Its Own Good (Salon.com, April 20th)
When the webmaster of Baseball-Reference.com received a write-up in Sports Illustrated, he saw his traffic increase to a level at which it was shut down (without notice) by host CommuniTech.net. The site is presently being transferred to a dedicated server, in a move that it being funded by the site's loyal visitors who have made donations to keep the site alive. This article makes for an interesting light read.
Serving Your Customers With Instant Messages (internet.com, April 18th)
With the popularity of instant messaging technologies on the rise, and companies increasing their focus on providing customer service online, many players are supporting the trend towards support departments offering their services in real-time through IM systems.
WSJ and Clickability Announce Online Partnership (Net-Ads, April 18th)
The Wall Street Journal's subscription-based online counterpart has employed the technology provided by Clickability to assist in virally marketing their web presence.
Be a Freelance Web Builder (CNET, April 17th)
Once upon a time, it seemed as though everyone with a tad of HTML knowledge could quit their day job to become a full-time web develop, and rake in the dough. Now that dotcom budgets have shrunken, and skilled tech workers are a dime a dozen, making it on your own takes planning, marketing and deep specialised knowledge. This guide from CNET outlines some tactics to follow, and some pitfalls to avoid, in your pursuit of dotcom dominance.
7 Lessons Learned From the Dot-Com Fallout (internet.com, April 17th)
They say that the best lessons are learned through failure. As unfortunate as it is, we in the internet biz do therefore have hundreds of valuable case studies of failure from which to learn. This article reveals a few key lessons derived from the decline of many former high-flyers during the past year.
WIPO Files Interim Report on Domain-Naming Policies (Newsbytes, April 16th)
In response to an ever-evolving intellectual property climate online, WIPO has released a 200-page interim report, the "Second World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet Domain Name Process," that notes recommendations for how best to govern domain name disputes and registrations.
Coalition hopes to Get Net Sites Rated (JS Online, April 16th)
This article describes the past, present and future efforts in place that attempt to establish a standard system for rating web content according to various criteria, in much the same way that movies and games are rated.
Web Shoppers Like to be in Charge, Study Suggests (The Star, April 16th)
While some has praised the advances in technology that attempt to deduce visitor interests based on their prior activity at a particular site, a recent study by Accenture has suggested that users still prefer those sites whose customization options are manually selected by the user.
VeriSign to Acquire CyberCash for $20 Million (Newsbytes, April 16th)
When a major facilitator of online credit card processing filed for Chapter 11 last month, the nerves of its clients were put to the test. Following a round of bidding for the assets, though, internet giant VeriSign Inc has come out on top, ensuring the security of the company for the time being.
Digital Publishing Waste Costs $750 Billion Annually (Newsbytes, April 16th)
In the transition from a print-based publishing world to one in which digital distribution is key, companies have reportedly wasted hundreds of billions of dollars through operational inefficiencies. In order to smooth this and further transitions, the author of this article proposes that "all participants in the network publishing value chain - content, service and software providers, and device manufacturers - [unite] to facilitate the rapid development of a network publishing ecosystem."
It's Not Just a Website Anymore (ClickZ, April 14th)
In the early days of the web, few execs had a set vision for what their site was to acheive. This article explains the horror stories associated with those who hired flashy, expensive designers without first consulting with marketing folk. Websites vary from print ads, in that they aren't just visual hooks, but interactive fora designed to entice, inform and sell to one's target audience.
Safeguards and SSL: Keeping Your Financial Transactions Secure (Application Planet, April 12th)
This article presents a simple set of guidelines and information regarding different encryption and other data protection methods, as well as how best to apply these in order to protect your customers' personal details.
No Bots Allowed! (ZDNet, April 12th)
This article outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the Robots Exclusion Standard.
Mid-Sized ECommerce Websites Largely Profitable (eMarketer, April 12th)
ActivMedia Research has produced some very interesting fiures regarding the proportional relationships between website revenues and profitability. It found that of all groups, those sites that generated between $100,000 and $999,000 had the greatest success overall, with 61% of those properties already profitable. Smaller sites followed close behind, and led the survey in expectations to break even near-term.
Hefner Outlines Playboy's Print-to-Web Strategy (CNET News.com, April 11th)
Playboy CEO Christie Hefner has outlined the wisdom gained through her firm's transition from print to various other mediums in the past, while noting how print publishers can best take advantage of the web's strengths, without falling prey to its weaknesses - including an over-dependence on advertising to support original content.
iSyndicate.com Fires 50% Staff (Newsbytes, April 10th)
The company funded by such high-profile contributors as NBC and Microsoft, whose service linked content providers with content-hungry publishers has announced a significant round of layoffs, which it blames on the slow economy and the withdrawal of a second round of funding from one of their largest investors.
Is Google Ogling Yahoo's Crown? (CNET News.com, April 10th)
During the past 18 months, Google has grown from a tiny provider of search technology to an industry giant, delivering several million search results daily from its own website, while licensing its technology to some 130 other online portals (including leader Yahoo!). Now, the service whose main claim to fame is their bare-bones search approach, has slowly unveiled several portal-like features that suggest Google may be considering making the transition from search service to a destination that offers a suite of services that compete with the more established portals.
Fists Fly Between Web Hosting Firms (MSNBC, April 10th)
Following on from the announcement that the client database of hosting firm ADDR had been compromised by a computer criminal, with credit card details, usernames and passwords being stolen, a competing firm with a shady background began spamming ADDR customers in an attempt to solicit their business. The unethical firm in question, ExpertHosting, has responded to ADDR's criticisms of this practice by threatening legal action.
Net Name Chaos Grows (BBC News, April 10th)
The ICANN DNS saga continues...Having expressed recently that they will avoid acknowledging top level domains that are presently administered by a third-party, ICANN's governing power faces being undermined. The problem with working outside the control of this single body (regardless of how unresponsive and secretive it is) is that conflicts are bound to arise. Just one example of this, as mentioned within this article, is the case of .xxx, which is an extension presently offered by no less than three competing firms. Ever wish someone made a cartoon that sums up the whole messy ICANN TLD debate? See it here!
ICANN's Name Game (Boston Globe Online, April 9th)
The non-profit organization assigned with the task of controlling and regulating the domain name market has come under rapid fire during the past six months following its controversial negotiations with VeriSign and its cryptic handling of the new TLDs. This article outlines many of the criticisms faced by the organization, while suggesting actions that the US government and others are considering in order to support a more democratic approach to the market.
MyComputer.com Ends Free Services (internet.com, April 6th)
Popular ASP, whose services included the SuperStats tracking system and iClicks banner ad network have shut down their free services in an attempt to raise revenues from members converting to their premium commercial versions.
Will There Be Any Web Developers Left in 5 Years? (australia.internet.com, April 6th)
This article suggests that the increasingly complex demands of large-scale clients, and the many DIY template design tools available will remove most small developers from the web landscape, while paving the way for giant development firms and specialist teams who unite around larger projects.
Hasta La Vista to AltaVista? (TheStandard, April 6th)
AltaVista has been a hot-potato of the internet world, having changed hands and had IPOs postponed on several occasions. Now, the promising search technology pioneer is thirsting for a cash injection or acquisition in order to fund its survival.
ICANN Pressed to Reform Outdated Whois Policy (internet.com, April 5th)
In an effort to restrict abuse of the contact details found in the public Whois database, Tucows and others are spearheading a movement to have registrant's details made public only oin those cases where the registrant has agreed to such.
Forrester Research Predicts Affiliate Programs Will Thrive (Refer-It, April 5th)
A recent report produced by Forrester Research suggests that while the life span of shopping intermediaries, product review sites and also-ran portals is nearing an end, the market for consumer goods will increasingly offer support to ecommerce brokers, major portals and result-based affiliate programs.
New Firms Try New Ways to Collect Data on Web Surfers (MSNBC, April 5th)
Aiming to compete with Nielsen/NetRatings and Jupiter Media Metrix, two new net measurement firms have launched services that take into account a larger sample group in an effort to provide more accurate figures than those presented by the market leaders.
Judge Seizes Teen's Web Biz (Wired News, April 4th)
Citing false charges for excessive bandwidth use, several former clients of shady hosting firms Page Creators and Trinity Host (both owned and operated by 18-year-old Bryan Kruchten), have succeeded in having the teen's business shut down and their money returned.
eFront Sites Given Two Days to Relocate (CNET News.com, April 4th)
Just weeks after coming under fire when CEO Sam Jain's ICQ logs were made public, eFront has found itself in deep water once again by failing to meet the financial requirements of its outsourced website hosting deal. As a result, eFront network sites have been given just two days to pack up and move to another server.
ICANN Warns About Preregistering Domain Names (CNN.com, April 3rd)
ICANN officials and the Federal Trade Commission have warned comsumers against the practice of preregistering domain names under the new extensions to be launched later this year.
How to Add Value to Your Corporate Website (ZDNet, April 2nd)
This feature presents a great step-by-step guide to planning the implementation of a value-packed corporate website.
Out of Service (BW Online, April 2nd)
This article presents a couple of nightmare scenarios in which web providers pulled the plug on their clients. It also notes some survival tactics.
Misys Stops the Meta Tag Madness (The Register, April 2nd)
While the central focus of this article is the anti-competitive behaviour exhibited by Misys in the development of their meta tags, the second portion of the article regarding the (in)effectiveness of meta tags in determining search engine rankings should be of interest to web developers and marketers.


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In all likelihood, you've thought about starting a business at some point or another. Perhaps you've had a great ideal, but haven't been able to bring it to fruition? Unfortunately, the process of starting a business is far more complex than you could ever imagine. There is a lot of paper work that will need to be filled out and you'll also need to take steps to ensure you do not tread on another company's patents and trademarks. Below, you will be able to better familiarize yourself with the process of starting a business.
The Idea
First and foremost, you will need to come up with the idea. All businesses start with a big, bold idea. What can you offer to the public that they need? Is this something that is already sold or is it completely original? Your business idea can truly be anything you can conjure. Just remember that it is often best to delve into a field that you're passionate about. This will keep you moving forward and striving for betterment, even when you're hit a few roadblocks. Also, make sure you're away of the competition. Don't try to pick a fight with the biggest corporations, unless you're truly capable of succeeding.
Your Business Plan
After you've got an idea, it is time to select a name and construct a business plan. Your business plan will prove to be immensely important in the near future and it could actually make or break your business. Your plan should be comprehensive, yet straight to the point. Remember that your business plan will generally be required when you attempt to obtain insurance and a loan for your business. If you're residing in the United States, you will need to register your new business name. You can do this through your local state government. You will also need to obtain a tax identification number, which will be used solely for your business.
The Paperwork
As mentioned above, it is nearly impossible to legally start a business without submitting some type of paperwork. The specific documents you need will depend on the type of structure you with to use for your business. For instance, an LLC will require different paperwork than a partnership and vice versa. Make sure you obtain the documents needed to start a business and get them filled out completely and correctly. Depending on the complexity of your business, you may need to work with a lawyer to ensure you've got everything right.
Registering For Taxes And Obtain A License
Unfortunately, businesses will be required to pay taxes. This is true, even if you classify yourself as self-employed. With this in mind, you'll need to register your business with the state, so you can obtain your tax ID, unemployment insurance and disability insurance. This may not be a necessity for all businesses. You may also need to obtain a license, but this will depend on your specific line of work. Once you've worked through the hassle, it will finally be time to get down to what matters the most, making money!


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Virgin Media has questioned the idea of basing speed claims in broadband advertising on peak time speeds.
Providers are currently allowed to advertise broadband speeds if they are available to ten per cent of their customers.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is concerned that this could potentially mislead people, with the majority of customers possibly not getting the speeds they expected.
The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) is therefore seeking views on how broadband speed advertising can be improved and made more reflective of the service that consumers are likely to receive.
Among the options being considered is basing speed claims on a peak-time median download speed or using peak-time download speeds available to the 20th to 80th percentile of users.
Virgin Media has raised concerns with this approach as it believes speeds between 8pm and 10pm are not representative, which means a "more general measure of performance" is required.
Brigitte Trafford, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Virgin Media, commented: "Consumers are telling us that if the ASA is serious about making broadband advertising clearer, the new rules should be based on average speeds measured across a full day, rather than just taking a two-hour sample."
Research commissioned by Virgin Media has also found that many consumers do not know the exact times that are classed as peak time, Marketing Week reports.
Indeed, the study by ICM found that only five per cent of respondents knew it was between 8pm and 10pm.
Jan Jesenovec, associate director at ICM, said: "Our research shows that there is a lack of understanding about the peak time for broadband usage, and using it in advertising could lead to confusion for consumers."


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200 pages
Although there is a vast literature on aggression, comparatively little has been written on the issue of violence and even fewer clinical discussions have been published on the violent patient.
This pioneering book presents a collection of case studies on the intensive psychoanalytic treatment of patients who have committed serious acts of violence against themselves or others. Each detailed clinical account demonstrates the effectiveness of the psychoanalytic treatment and furthers our understanding of the nature of violence.
The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide also contains a comprehensive review of the existing literature on aggression and violence from America, England and France, presenting major themes contained in this literature which will be of interest to all those working with violent and suicidal patients.
"Perelberg has produced a book of the greatest topical importance to anyone involved in psychoanalysis. The review of the literature is by far the best on the subject. The various chapters of this most skillfully edited book are beautifully written, and lay the foundations for a psychoanalytic theory of violence and suicide. They also make an important contribution to a theory of technique that understands symptoms as solutions to conflicts. It should be a standard reading for many years to come." - Joseph Sandler, Late Professor Emeritus in Psychoanalysis, University College London, UK
"The clinical material is detailed, vivid, and convincing; The theoretical discussion is wide and the result is a book of great interest to anyone involved in psychoanalysis." - Ronald Britton
"…this book constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of those patients that engage in violent acts. I felt the need for further elucidation on the difference between an actual suicidal act and a violent attack against another. … As a bonus, most of the patients described in this book are young adults and in the clinical descriptions one can perceive those specific developmental aspects of the transition from adolescence to adulthood that bear an influence on this kind of psychopathology." - Carlos Fishman, Psychoanalyst, Portman Clinic, London, UK
Shengold, Foreword. Britton, Preface. Jozef Perelberg, Introduction. Jozef Perelberg, Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide: A Review of the Literature and Some New Formulations. Fonagy, Target, Towards Understanding Violence: The Use of the Body and the Role of the Father. Campbell, The Role of the Father in a Pre-suicide State. Jozef Perelberg, A Core Phantasy in Violence. Bateman, Narcissism and its Relation to Violence and Suicide. Davies, Technique in the Interpretation of the Manifest Attack on the Analyst. Schachter, The Paradox of Suicide: Issues of Identity and Separateness. Fonagy, Final Remarks.
The New Library of Psychoanalysis is published by Routledge Mental Health in association with the Institute of Psychoanalysis, London.
Its purpose is to facilitate a greater and more widespread appreciation of psychoanalysis and to provide a forum for increasing mutual understanding between psychoanalysts and those in other disciplines. The series also aims to make some of the work of continental and other non-English speaking analysts more readily available to English-speaking readers, and to increase the interchange of ideas between British and American analysts.
The New Library of Psychoanalysis published its first book in 1987 under the editorship of David Tuckett, later followed by Elizabeth Bott Spillius, Susan Budd and Dana Birksted-Breen. A considerable number of Associate Editors and readers have assisted the editors.
Under the guidance of Foreign Rights Editors, a considerable number of the New Library books have been published abroad, particularly in Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, Peru, Spain and Japan.
The aim of the New Library of Psychoanalysis is to maintain the high level of scholarship of the previous series, to provide a forum for increasing understanding between psychoanalysis and other disciplines and to increase the interest of the general book-reading public in psychoanalysis.
The New Library of Psychoanalysis also aims to help the various schools of psychoanalysis to better understand each other. It has published books representing all three schools of thought in British psychoanalysis, including a particularly important work edited by Pearl King and Riccardo Steiner, expounding the intellectual and organisational controversies that developed in the British psychoanalytical Society between Kleinian, Viennese and 'middle group' analysts during the Second World War.
The New Library of Psychoanalysis has also translated and published several books by Continental psychoanalysts, and it plans in the future to continue the policy of publishing books that express as clearly as possible a variety of psychoanalytic points of view.


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2700 Pacific Ave., Virginia Beach, VA 23451
717 General Booth Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA 23451Virginia Beach, VA 23451Visit Website
Virginia Aquarium is a must see when you are visiting Virginia Beach. Check out their website to see all that you can see and do.
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Oceans 2700 Hotel © 2013, Virginia Beach VA Hotel
Hotel Website Design by Hotelliant


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Well Being Trust is a new national foundation dedicated to advancing the mental, social and spiritual health of the nation.
Created to catalyze innovative solutions that measurably improve outcomes on the most critical mental health and wellness challenges facing America, Well Being Trust serves as a platform for engaging organizations across sectors and perspectives in both collective action and distributed leadership. By applying a social movement approach, Well Being Trust will invest in clinical and community transformation initiatives, advocate for healthy public policy at all levels, drive compelling communications and social engagement campaigns, and grow the evidence base for what works to improve human and community wellbeing.
Well Being Trust serves to:
- Ease access to care and to the determinants of well-being
- Build resilience in children, teens and families
- Reduce suffering from depression, anxiety and social isolation
- Decrease addiction and substance use, while promoting recovery
- Create hope for people and families living with serious and persistent mental illness
- Eliminate stigma everywhere, and grow a culture of well-being in healthy, equitable, resilient communities
When Providence Health & Services and St. Joseph Health came together to form Providence St. Joseph Health in July 2016, the combined new organization made a commitment to mental health and wellness, funding Well Being Trust (initially known as the Institute for Mental Health and Wellness) as a 501(c)(3) public charity with an initial seed endowment of $100 million, and an additional $30 million to be invested in California over 2017-2019.


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Thanksgiving is only a day away, but we all know that it's not just your aunt's awesome stuffing that you're looking forward to. Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is the BIGGEST shopping day of the year. Deals, doorbusters, and slashed prices draw crowds in the thousands during early morning hours. But how can we score those top deals without getting mobbed by the crowd or fighting over the last $3 toaster (à la Rebecca Bloomwood of Confessions of a Shopaholic)? BFF has your Black Friday guide to surviving on top!
1. Do your research beforehand
Sift through ads and visit deal-oriented websites, like GottaDeal. Know what the deals are and which retailers carry the ones you want to score. Picking out which deals you want ahead of time keeps you from making a bad split-second impulse buy.
2. Be a savvy shopper
Check Consumer Reports and reviews online before you commit to buying anything. No matter how discounted it is, a bad product is still a bad product.
3. Pick a good shopping buddy
Waiting in long lines and running into angry bargain-hunters can be a pain. But if you have a good teammate who can get in the spirit of Black Friday, shopping on such a stressful day will be less frustrating.
4. Bring props
Make a list of all your deals and stores to hit so that you don't get confused in all the commotion. Bring the ads you found so that if there is any dispute, you have your source with you! Finally, pack portable snacks and drinks so that you're not feeling faint during the shopping extravaganza!
4. Logistics, logistics, logistics
Now that you have your deals, stores, and Black Friday partner(s)-in-crime ready, it's all about execution. Overboard? I think not. Deciding on a time will help keep you moving. Planning out your route helps you navigate efficiently and saves time so that you can get in and out without pushing through crowds for too long.
5. Dress comfortably
I cannot stress this one enough. Make sure you bring a warm jacket – waiting outside in long seemingly never-ending lines can be harsh so be sure to stay warm. Keep in mind that shopping on Black Friday is a physical effort. That means no heels! Wear comfortable clothes that you can move around in.
6. Make friends with the people in line
This could prove handy if you have to run bathroom, and there are new friends who can save your spot in line.
7. Keep in mind that you can also shop online
Many retailers are having the same, if not better, deals online so don't feel like you have to brave the early morning crowds.
Happy shopping Biffles! 😉