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Welcome to our Quick Start Guide on using Streams Studio–the best way to develop streaming applications. One of the main ways that IBM Streams sets itself apart is its extensive tooling. Streams Studio is a great example of this. Studio is your hub for your SPL application development, test, debug, and launch. We are going to cover:
- Overview
- Installing Streams Studio
- Starting and Configuring Streams Studio
- Launching and monitoring your application from within Streams Studio
- Developing a simple application with both the SPL Editor and the SPL Graphical Editor
This section will outline the basic concepts and approaches for using the tooling to develop streams applications.  This section is linked with detailed instructions below so if you want to get started right away, you can jump to here to start building applications.
- GRAPHICAL TOOLING – Start developing streaming applications intuitively using the SPL Graphical Editor, without having to know the details of the SPL language.  Studio's graphical tooling supports all stages of development: from code development, to debug and trouble-shooting, to performance analysis and monitoring.
- SPL TEXT EDITOR – Use the SPL Editor to take advantage of syntax highlighting and warnings, code-complete, and in-line error messages.
- DUAL EDITING – Get the best of both worlds. Develop your application quickly and efficiently using the graphical and text editors side by side. Changes in the SPL application from one editor will be reflected in the other editor automatically.
- REFACTORING –Â Use the refactoring support to quickly rename or clone different elements of your Streams applications. Â All references of the renamed element will be updated automatically.
- AUTOMATIC BUILD – Catch errors as you work with automatic builds going on in the background every time you save your changes.
- APPLICATION LAUNCH – Launch your applications easily and quickly with a couple of clicks.
- APPLICATION MONITORING – Monitor your applications in real-time through live graphs, metrics views, and trace logs.
We are going to walk through building a basic application for the sake of demonstrating Studio features. To learn more about the Streams concepts and go through an introduction to SPL for the same application, take a look at the Streams Quick Start Guide. Â If you are left with unanswered questions after going through this guide, you're probably not the only one. Post your questions in the comments section or in our forum and we will get you an answer as soon as we can.
Installing Streams Studio
If you are using the VM, then Streams Studio is already installed and you can move to the next step. If you aren't using the VM, you can install Streams Studio by following these instructions: Streams Studio Installation Instructions.
Starting and Configuring Streams Studio
- From the VM, double click on the icon InfoSphere Streams Studio (Eclipse).
- Choose a workspace other than the default one. I chose /home/streamsadmin/myWorkspace. Next click OK in the Workspace Launcher window. When prompted by the Edit Install Location window, click OK.
When you are prompted by the Add Streams Domain connection window, click Find domain… .
In the Select ensembles window click OK.
Click OK.
- Click on the Streams Explorer tab in the upper left part of the screen. The Streams Explorer tab is Studio's dashboard for monitoring your domain, instance, and running applications (jobs).
- Expand the Streams Domain Connections and Streams Instances to see the status of the domain and instance that were already created and started for you.
If you are not already connected to a domain, right-click on Streams Domain Connections and select Add Connection… . Next, select Find domain…, choose your zookeeper ensemble, and then select your domain.
If you don't already have an instance ready and started, follow these instructions on creating one and these instructions on starting one.
- Click on the Project Explorer tab (next to the Streams Explorer tab). The Project Explorer tab is where you get to start the fun part–developing and deploying your microsecond latency Streams applications.
Launching and Monitoring An Application
Download Sample Files
1. Download and unzip the sample files. This zip file contains the StockTradesAppComplete and the StockTradesAppStarter projects. The StockTradesAppComplete project contains a full application that reads in stock data from trades.csv, filters it, aggregates it, summarizes it, then prints it out to tradesSummary.csv. The StockTradesAppStarter project contains a boilerplate application that reads in stock data from trades.csv, then directly prints out to tradesSummary.csv. We will modify this application to add in the filter, aggregate, and summary steps.
- Import the StockTradesAppComplete project. File -> Import. Expand InfoSphere Streams Studio in the Import window, then select SPL Application Project and click Next.
Browse to the location where you unzipped the sample projects and select StockTradesAppComplete. Check the box next to StockTradesAppComplete, then click Finish.
Expand the project in your Project Explorer tab. Your workspace should now look like this:
- Launch your application. In the Project Explorer view, right-click on TradesAppMain and select Launch… .
Leave all of the defaults in the Edit Configuration box. Click Apply, then click Continue.
Launching like this–directly to an instance–means that you are launching a Distributed build. Distributed builds are used in production environments and for running across multiple hosts. The other option is to do a Standalone build. A Standalone build allows you to run your application as a single binary executable. This is useful for the early stages of development. You can find out how to do a Standalone build here.
- Monitor your job. Click on the Streams Explorer tab to switch to that view.
Right-click on default:StreamsInstance@StreamsDomain and select Show Instance Graph. If you launch the application again, you can watch as the operators/PEs become healthy.
You can look at the metrics of each operator in a few different ways. The simplest way is to hover over the operator of interest within the instance graph.
Alternatively, you can get more detail by right-clicking on your instance in the Streams Explorer view and selecting Metrics -> Show Metrics. You can expand the operators you are interested in to get live metrics data.
- Check your results. To check your results, right-click on your data folder in the Project Explorer view and select refresh.
Then double-click to open "tradesSummary.csv." The first few lines should look something like this:
Developing Your Streams Application in Studio
We are going to walk through the steps of developing the StockTrades application that you launched and monitored above. We will start from a base application that reads from trades.csv and writes out to tradesSummary.csv.
- Import the StockTradesAppStarter project. File -> Import. Expand InfoSphere Streams Studio in the Import window, then select SPL Application Project and click Next.
Browse to the location where you unzipped the sample projects and select StockTradesAppStarter. Check the box next to StockTradesAppStarter, then click Finish.
- Open the SPL graphical editor by right-clicking on TradesAppMain, then selecting Open With -> SPL Graphical Editor.
- Add a filter operator between the file source and sink. Many times, data streams have far more information than we are interested in. The filter operator helps reduce the amount of unnecessary processing and keeps your solutions efficient.
Click in the Find box and type Filter. Click on "Filter – Filter" and drag it onto the stream between TradeQuoteSrc and CheckedTradeSummaryFile.
Click to clean up the view of the operator placement. Your application should now look like this (your filter name might be slightly different):
Double-click on the filter operator to open and modify its properties. Edit the filter parameter as shown below:
Save your work. The automatic build should complete successfully.
- Add an aggregate operator between the filter and sink. The aggregate operator allows you to compute user-specified aggregations over tuples gathered in a window. We often use this operator to calculate mean, medians, and sums.
Click in the Find box and type Aggregate. Click on "Aggregate – Aggregate" and drag it onto the stream between the filter operator and CheckedTradeSummaryFile.
Double-click on the filter operator to open and modify its properties. Navigate to the Window tab and click Edit… Fill out the form to configure a partitioned, tumbling window of tuples that evicts after a count of 5 tuples. A tumbling window means that the entire window is cleared every time it is filled up. Partitioned means that we will have multiple windows holding tuples of a certain key. In our case, we will partition by ticker symbol so that we can aggregate based on company.
Go to the Param tab and click Add… -> PartitionBy. Click OK. Fill in the partitionBy value with "ticker".
Rather than finish the rest within the graphical editor, let's demonstrate the SPL Editor and duel-editing mode. Right-click within the graphical editor and select Open with SPL Editor. Next, exit out of the Outline view. Click on the SPL Editor tab of TradesAppMain.spl and drag it to make it side-by-side with the SPL Graphical Editor.
One of my favorite features of this side-by-side development is being able to click on an operator in the SPL Graphical Editor, and having it get highlighted in the SPL Editor.
To demonstrate this, click on the aggregate operator in the graphical editor.
Within the text editor, modify the aggregate operator's output stream schema to be of type:Â stream<rstring ticker, float64 min, float64 max, float64 average>
Next, change the output section to this: Aggregate_4_out0 : average =Average(askprice), min = Min(askprice), max = Max(askprice) ;
The resulting operator should look like this (your operator names will probably have different numbers):
(stream<rstring ticker, float64 min, float64 max, float64 average>          Aggregate_4_out0) as Aggregate_4 = Aggregate(Filter_3_out0 as inputStream)       {          window             inputStream : tumbling, count(5), partitioned ;          param             partitionBy : ticker ;          output             Aggregate_4_out0 : average =Average(askprice), min = Min(askprice), max = Max(askprice) ;       }
Save your work, then click on the graphical editor. You will get prompted as to whether or not you would like to load the changes that you made in the text editor. Click Yes. You can now see the text editor updates that you made in the graphical editor.
Your project should automatically build without errors.
There are no set rules on when the graphical editor is best, or when the basic text editor is best for development. When applications get large and complicated, I find that the graphical editor provides a great way to think about and build my conceptual approach, while the text editor gives me full control to quickly make the changes I want. Here is an example of an application where the graphical editor is saving me a lot of struggle:
To finish your application, you can paste the following code below your aggregate operator (make sure it's still within the composite brackets). However, I recommend that instead of pasting this code, you try to match it using a mix of the SPL Graphical Editor and the code that you already have in the text editor.
(stream<rstring ticker, float64 min, float64 max, float64 average>          CheckedTradesSummary) as CustomProcess = Custom(Aggregate_4_out0 as          TradesSummary)       {          logic             onTuple TradesSummary :             {                if(average == 0.0l)                {                   printStringLn("ERROR: " + ticker) ;                }                else                {                   printStringLn("Submitting summary: " +(rstring) TradesSummary) ;                   submit(TradesSummary, CheckedTradesSummary) ;                }             }       }
After you add the code and save your work, your application should look like this:
You can now submit and monitor this job as you did with the completed version you imported.
For more detailed information on how this application works, as well as the SPL constructs behind it, check out Samantha Chan's great Streams Quick Start Guide.
A time-saving debug tip
When a Streams application is run in distributed mode, the application processes are run onto different hosts. Â It may not be too obvious how you can debug application in this distributed environment.
For example in the CustomProcess operator from the StockTrades app, we have this print statement:
printStringLn("Submitting summary: " + (rstring) TradesSummary);
If you're running your application in Standalone mode, that gets printed to the terminal and all is well. But what about if you're running in Distributed mode on 15 systems, or you have 30 operators printing at the same time? This is where Studio comes to the rescue.
In the Instance Graph view, right-click on the CustomProcess operator and select Show Log -> Show PE Console. You should see printed results just from that PE that look like this:
Submitting summary: {ticker="TWX",min=0,max=17.7,average=10.62} Submitting summary: {ticker="FSL",min=0,max=26.19,average=15.62} Submitting summary: {ticker="FSLb",min=0,max=26.29,average=20.928} Submitting summary: {ticker="BK",min=0,max=32.53,average=26.024}
Running a FileSink from every stream that you want to debug is also a popular approach, but I personally find the printing to be much more efficient.
I hope you found this helpful! Comment below if you have any questions, or if you have ideas on how we can make Studio work better for you.
Hi Alex, I thought I had updated my post but apparently not. Thanks for the update. Creating a new build, distributed or standalone is, as you mention, the fix to allow a launch.
Excellent article BTW!
Hi, Alex, is this application the same as the one on github [1]?
[1] https://github.com/IBMStreams/samples/tree/master/QuickStart/TradesApp
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Exposure of the skin to contaminated fluids (percutaneous injuries or PIs) and lacerations are hazards interns face while doing their training. This potentially could result in the transmission of blood-borne pathogens, including hepatitis and human immunodeficiency viruses, and have significant occupational health implications, according to researchers.
Najib T. Ayas, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues examined the contributing factors for PIs in interns and assessed their relationship to extended-duration work.
From a total of 17,003 monthly surveys, 498 PIs were reported. Of these, 294 were due to lacerations from a sharp instrument (such as a scalpel), and 204 were due to a needlestick. Rates of injuries varied significantly, depending on type of residency. Interns in surgery and obstetrics/gynecology residency programs had the greatest risk because they perform more invasive procedures than other specialties, according to the report.
Lack of Concentration a Common Factor
The most commonly reported contributing factor to injury was a lapse in concentration (63.8 percent of the incidents), followed by fatigue (31.0 percent of the incidents). Percutaneous injuries were more frequent during extended work compared with non-extended work.
Extended work injuries occurred after an average of 29.1 consecutive work hours; non-extended work injuries occurred after an average of 6.1 consecutive work hours. The rate of PI was twice as high during the evening than during the day.
"The association of these injuries with extended work duration is likely due to the adverse cognitive effects of the sleep deprivation associated with such extended work, consistent with experimental data," the authors wrote.
"Given the potentially serious consequences of such injuries, implementation of safety measures designed to reduce the risk of these occupational injuries should be undertaken. The impact of comprehensive fatigue management programs on the risk of these occupational exposures should be evaluated," the researchers concluded.
Non-Compliance with Work-Hour Limits
A related study reported in the same issue of JAMA demonstrates that more than 80 percent of medical interns surveyed in 2003 and 2004 indicated they were working hours in excess of what currently is mandated.
In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented work hour limits for all physicians-in-training (residents) in the United States. Each trainee is limited to a maximum of 30 consecutive work hours, a maximum of 80 weekly work hours, averaged over 4 weeks with 1 day in 7 (averaged over 4 weeks) free of all duties. These limits were developed in response to national concern with the long work hours of residents.
The study found that 67.4 percent of interns worked shifts greater than 30 consecutive hours. Averaged over 4 weeks, 43.0 percent reported working more than 80 hours weekly, and 43.7 percent reported not having 1 day in 7 off work duties.
Researchers of the study conclude that there could be several reasons why so many interns are not compliant with the mandated hours.
"First, the ACGME duty hour standards were unaccompanied by financial and technical support. Programs may not have the resources or expertise to redesign their schedules to the extent required. In addition, house officers are typically unwilling to depart precipitously at the scheduled change of shift when an emergent patient care situation demands their continued presence. Such situations are common in high intensity settings, yet most scheduling systems do not account for these commonplace emergencies," they write.

subset: commoncrawl


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Food & Beverage Vendors
CulturePOP will provide food from around the world, including special treats unique to areas of the United States. If you have something we've got to try click the link below to tell us about it. Space is limited so we will let you know if you have been accepted and a link will be provided at that time for payment.
Arts & Craft Vendors
All artists and craft exhibitors must be properly licensed with the City of Avondale. Please sign up today to reserve your spot! Visit the link below for more details on the cost to participate.
Commercial Exhibitors
To be accepted as a commercial exhibitor you must provide an interactive activity or educational program that incorporates the multi-cultural or arts related theme at your space. Provide a game specifically from a unique area of the world, provide themed giveaways, or dress in costume. There are a number of ways to have some fun and attract more people to your space. All exhibitors must be properly licensed with the City of Avondale. Please click the link below and share with us your creative ideas.
2019 entertainment booking is underway. Please contact firstname.lastname@example.com if you are interested in performing.
Please follow the link below to register as a volunteer for this event. There are multiple shifts available.


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Johnston County Genealogy Resources
Discover Johnston County and trace your family history and ancestry with this list of county-specific genealogy resources.Learn More
The Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1946 for migratory waterfowl in the Central Flyway. Visitors to this 16,464 acre refuge located just south of Tishomingo will find a variety of hiking, nature trails, hunting and fishing opportunities from dawn to dusk. The Cumberland Pool makes up a quarter of the refuge and is a great place for wildlife watching.


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The Dr. Pat Show: Talk Radio to Thrive By!: David Essel Will Help You Focus! And Slay Your Goals!
04/16/2018 10:00 am PDT
Focus!: Drop the Law of Attraction. Slay Your Goals. The PROVEN guide to huge success, a powerful attitude and profound love.
Episode giveaways:
- David is offering free 15-minute jumpstart phone counseling session, simply send his team an e-mail to: http://davidessel.com/contact-us/ and mention you heard David on The Dr. Pat Show, and we will set up the rest.
Dr. Pat Baccili
Dr. Pat Baccili helps individuals and organizations break through their limiting Crust so they can reach their unlimited potential. Her specialty is assisting people face t...Find out more »
David Essel M.s.
David Essel, M. S., Counselor, author, life coach, is a number one best-selling author, counselor, master life coach, and international speaker whose mission is to positivel...Find out more »


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By Barty II
October 23 2018
With a few bruising encounters under our belts in recent weeks, the timing of the first international break could be a blessing in disguise. Our surviving England contingent have had an early dose of a traditional Eddie Jones training session with thanks to the good people of Harlequins and Glasgow, and the rest of the squad that's featured heavily since the start of the season without an international call-up will have a chance to put their feet up for a bit.
In whatever form it's taken, the "other cup" has always generated a mixed bag of opinion ranging from it being a brilliant idea to utterly worthless and just an extension of the Storm fixtures. Have to say I'm generally in the former camp, it's a great way of keeping those a bit further down the pecking order match sharp, helping some return from injury, and exposing the senior academy players to a more competitive level of rugby.
I'm always reminded of a match a few years ago, where I had an irate gentleman behind me whinging for a full 80 minutes that he'd paid good money for his ticket and was expecting to see the top players, and not 'benchwarmers and kids'. He was obviously a bit new to the scene so I tried and failed to explain where all our superstars were, and what our approach to the Anglo-Welsh Cup (as it was) is all about. For what it's worth, I really like trying to get an idea of which of our academy products has the potential to go on to bigger and better things. This was the only point this chap understood, and he eventually conceded that "this big fella, 'Mario I-Todger' looks like he could be decent. Not sure what happened to him.
So, Mark McCall takes a back seat, and it falls to the likes of Adam Powell and Kelly Brown to balance a team of the underplayed members of the squad and the emerging youngsters among the ranks. Who knows, by the end of this run of fixtures I could be reporting on the next 'Big Todger'. Chuckle.
Leicester are our opponents for the first cup fixture, and while they might not be losing as many players to the International break as in past years, they are expected to take a similar approach to the cup as we are, with Brett Deacon leading the team as development coach. I'll admit my knowledge of Tigers' third choice and academy players is patchy at best, but a friend in the Midlands tells me David Denton and Will Spencer are on the way back from injury and there could still be a Ford at fly half in the form of George's older brother Joe. Jordan Olowofela is one of the brightest sparks in their academy, an England U-20 international, and has broken into their Premiership ranks this season. I won't be so bold as to predict their line-up myself, but the good people of the Tigers board are hoping for something along the lines of:
Gigena, Kerr, Heyes, Fitzgerald, Lewis, Lavin, F.Tuilagi, Evans; Ezcurra, Ford, Olowofela, Hardwick, Smith, Aspland-Robinson, Thompstone…. Plus a bench.
Despite a fairly consistent selection policy in the Storm side, no doubt I'll get the vast majority of the Sarries line-up wrong, but I'm going to have a go anyway! With a few props injured it's a good chance to ensure we have a solid back-up, with Hayden Thompson-Stringer and Christian Judge probably getting a chance after looking comfortable off the bench recently. Academy props Ralph Adams-Hale and Billy Walker might feature if fit, else Richard Barrington wouldn't mind some more minutes. At hooker, there's a straight choice between Joe Gray, Tom Woolstencroft and Tadgh McIlroy. There are plenty of injuries/recoveries among the back five, and if fit I'd expect to see the experienced Dom Day partnering potential Big Todger (I'll stop saying that now) Joel Kpoku in the second row, with brother Jon on the bench. Calum Clark and Sione Vailanu I believe are back from injury and could play, with Ben Earl captaining in a strong pack.
In the backs, I'm hoping to see a Vunipola. No not that one. Or that one. Cousin Manu has featured at fly half for the Storm team with Max Malins injured, and may get some time off the bench here. If Malins is still out, the half-back pair is likely to be Henry Taylor (also if fit!) and Tom Whiteley. At centre, time might be given to Marcelo Bosch on his injury return, with a host of candidates alongside him including Viliami Hakalo, Reuben Bird-Tulloch, and Morris brothers Dom and Oli. Rotimi Segun has also been injured of late, so pushing for a place in the back three are Matt Gallagher, Ali Crossdale and Elliot Obatoyinbo – wouldn't be surprised to see Lewington or even Strettle though.
So for what it's worth, my predicted line-up (and please congratulate me if I even get half of them right) is:
Thompson-Stringer, Gray, Judge, Day, Joel Kpoku, Clark, Earl, Vailanu; H Taylor, Whiteley, D Morris, Bosch, Hakalo, Crossdale, Gallagher
Bench: Woolstencroft, Adams-Hale, Walker, Jon Kpoku, Christie, Manu Vunipola, Bird-Tulloch, Obatoyinboj
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text: Uncle Gary Williams is a regular at BRWF. Gary Williams acting CEO of is Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Cultural Co-operative. He has recently been researching the Gumbaynggirr Collected Stories and advises on regional language projects. He took part in the 50th anniversary reenactment is of the Freedom Ride retracing his steps as one of the original group of 29 University of Sydney students.


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Here is my take on imperfect mimicry. I wonder if there are such a thing as imperfect mimicry.
If you take evolution into a count then the specie might just give the illusion that they are a closely related to the dangerous specie.
An example would be a bird coming to a different island where the wasps look a bit different in terms of size, shape or more. The wasps would probably keep some similarity which would not cost so much in terms of performance, like the color of a car.
So, perfect mimicry is not necessary. The specie just has to fool the predator that it is related.
I think it should be called kinship mimicry, not imperfect.
// Per Lindholm may 2014


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Anyway . . . back to the card for Father's Day! I made a couple of these cards that I CASEd from Sandi McIver. Of course, I didn't have all the stuff she did, so I made do with the goodies that I had on hand using her general idea.
What I used:
Stamp Set - Delightful Dozen;
Ink - Cajun Craze, Midnight Muse;
Punches: Extra-Large Oval, 1" Square and 3/4" Circle.
Card Stock - Cajun Craze, Midnight Muse, Naturals Ivory.
Big Shot, Lattice Embossing Folder, Paper Snips, Stampin' Sponges, Naturals Designer Buttons, Linen Thread. SNAIL adhesive, Mini Glue Dots.
Cute, huh? Lots of fun to make this whimsical Father's Day card. Hope you had lots of fun and whimsy on your Father's Day. Remember, if you like a card or project you see on my blog, feel free to change it up with what you have on hand. Use colors you have, stamps that you have. It doesn't have to be exact. These are just ideas to help you with your projects.
That being said, you can always shop for any Stampin Up! supply you need at my online store.
Signing up for my newsletter is free right here.As always, thanks for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!


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Sunquest Mitogen™ Genetics
Deliver clinically actionable genetic reports for precision medicine to clinicians in less time
Genetic variant analysis & reporting solution for clinical laboratories that perform next-generation sequencing (NGS)
Sunquest Mitogen™ Genetics helps laboratories start and grow next-generation sequencing (NGS) services by implementing scalable processes that allow labs to quickly produce concise, clinically actionable genetic reports in minutes, from next-gen sequencing data. Sunquest Mitogen simplifies the laboratory's task of variant annotation and interpretation.
Produce clinically actionable reports
Identify significant variants, diseases, clinical trials and therapeutics
Automate filtration & annotation
Manage variants for inherited diseases, cancer, pharmacogenetics
Expedite reporting
Generate 80% of each report automatically
Tap into content sources
Access global knowledge databases and curated content
Minimize IT overhead
Deploy quickly with a small, cloud-based footprint
Enable interoperability and data sharing
Connect with clinical LIS/LIMS, physician EMRs, and peer lab networks
Growing your genetic testing business requires scalable processes. Genetic analysis software, curated variant knowledge sources, and the option of real-time collaboration with peer labs allows you to quickly identify and report on clinically actionable information from a sea of variant data from next generation sequencing (NGS) instruments.
"Genetics can provide new insights about ourselves and new tools that personalize our healthcare decisions. To accomplish this most effectively will require the specialized resources and expertise of our partners at Sunquest."
– Dr. Jason Walker, MedComp Sciences
"Sunquest's health information technology (HIT) offerings targeted at molecular, clinical and anatomic pathology labs address the workflow, connectivity, and interoperability issues that have emerged because of the changing healthcare landscape that requires labs to embrace lean practices."
- Divyaa Ravishankar, Industry Principal, Frost & Sullivan
Genetic analysis software for precision medicine
Quickly find meaningful genetic variants and deliver concise, clinically actionable genetic reports in less time.
Manage complexity at scale
- Scale your genetic testing lab to achieve higher volume and faster turnaround time
- Use standardized processes for consistent variant interpretation and reporting
- Repurpose curated data from trusted sources
- Utilize powerful variant assessment tool to assay and classify variants with built-in ACMG guidelines
Increase report throughput
- Automatically generate about 80% of each customizable report
- Create, search, share, and repurpose variant filters, report templates, sections and content
- Edit reports using a visual editor, including charts, graphs and images
- Easily create compound variants, manage test panels with more than 5,000 genes, and add genes in bulk
Improve report quality
- Generate concise, patient-specific, clinically actionable, enhanced reports
- Integrate and develop your lab's own variant knowledgebase
- Use curated content from trusted sources such as ClinVar, dbSNP and COSMIC
- Use Monarch Initiative's ontology, connecting genes, diseases and phenotypes
- Use the cancer mutation knowledgebase from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute
- Tie somatic mutations to cancers, therapeutics and clinical trials
Implementation and support
- Dedicated implementation team focuses on your workflows and tests
- 24 x 7, 365 support
Maximize interoperability
- Connect with LIMS to import test results
- PDF, HL7, and FHIR compatible for integration with EMR and other healthcare systems
- Share de-identified data with other labs
- Leverage a feature-rich API to integrate with all your other systems
- Built-in integration with N-of-One


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Hi, I'm Blue. I'm bored again so I'm going to translate a novel with Coolizer. Nice to meet you readers. Here's the synopsis.
Edit: This is Cool. I'm busy and he's bored. A great combination! Enjoy 🙂
On his way back from work, our hero runs over a big doggo.
In that moment, he heard a sound coming from his head.
<< You have subjugated a monster. You gained experience points>>
The world had changed in the blink of an eye.
Into a game-like world where there were monsters, levels, skills and status.
This is a story of our world that has been changed into a modern fantasy, and our hero's epic to do his best and survive.
Author: Yosshaa!


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Avoiding Fatal Encounters: A Nationally Watched Police-Shooting Bill Moves Forward—but Many Legislators Think It Goes Too FarApril 11 2019
Even as a landmark California bill meant to prevent police shootings passed through its first committee on Tuesday, April 9, fault lines among Democrats began to emerge—suggesting the measure will likely change as it moves through the Legislature.
How much it will change, though, was not yet clear.
After emotional, standing-room-only testimony from Californians whose loved ones have been killed by police, and a sheriff's deputy who survived being shot by a gunman who killed her colleague, the Assembly Public Safety committee passed Assembly Bill 392 on a party-line vote. But three of the panel's six Democrats said they were dissatisfied with the bill in its current form. They asked civil-rights groups that support the bill and law-enforcement groups that oppose it to keep working toward common ground.
"It is incumbent upon each of us to look at the safety of the public, both law enforcement and the community members that are out on the streets every day," said Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat from Orinda.
"The pendulum has swung too far in one direction such that we aren't protecting and holding accountable those who are taking life from our community members. I do have serious concerns that the text of this (bill) swings the pendulum too far in the other direction, because the sanctity of the life of our law enforcement is equally as important."
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber said she would work to reach a compromise before the bill reaches the Assembly floor.
"We are committed to having a piece of legislation that makes a difference and that does provide a balance," said the San Diego Democrat whose bill would change the legal standard for justifying police use of deadly force.
Her bill—which is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and numerous civil-rights groups—was prompted by the death last year of Stephon Clark. He was not armed, and Sacramento police killed him after mistaking the cellphone he was holding for a gun. Last month, the Sacramento district attorney announced she would not press charges, because the officers acted legally.
Clark's case has re-ignited anger among many, with evidence that black and brown men are unfairly targeted by police—a message that was carried into the Capitol by scores of Californians who packed the hearing room and spilled out into the hallway, wearing T-shirts commemorating slain loved ones, or emblazoned with the hashtag #LetUsLive.
Weber's bill would make sweeping changes to the laws that determine when California police can use deadly force. It says police could shoot only when it's necessary to prevent death or serious injury, and would require they use other tactics in many situations.
That would go beyond the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which says police can use force when a reasonable officer in the same circumstance would do the same thing. Law-enforcement groups said that a law that deviates from the reasonable standard would subject officers to greater danger while performing an already dangerous job.
"I was fighting for my life and fighting to protect complete strangers when I chose to stand between the gunman and the employees and patrons. The thought of having to second-guess my actions in that moment is frightening," said Julie Robertson, a Sacramento deputy sheriff who watched her colleague get killed by a gunman when they responded to a disturbance at an auto-parts store last year.
"My only intention is to protect and save lives. How is it that I would be questioned and judged by the ones who live so distant from the dangers we inherently face each day?"
Though law-enforcement groups are largely opposed to Weber's bill, several said they would keep working with her to find common ground. Police groups have backed competing legislation, Senate Bill 230, that focuses on updating department policies on the use of force and increasing training for officers. It will likely get its first hearing later this month.
Follow this issue as it moves through the Legislature this year with CALmatters' podcast Force of Law. CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
The Weekly Independent Comics Page for Jan. 3, 2019!January 03 2019
On this week's first 2019 weekly Independent comics page: The K Chronicles teaches a lesson about systemic racism; This Modern World gets all regulatory; Jen Sorenson sighs at corporate waste; Red Meat ponders a gym membership; and Apoca Clips looks for a dictionary for Li'l Trumpy.
The Weekly Independent Comics Page for Aug. 23, 2018!August 23 2018
On this week's illegal-payoff-free weekly Independent comics page: The K Chronicles throws out the "few bad apples" argument; This Modern World talks abortion prevention; Jen Sorenson ponders climate-change dystopia; Apoca Clips chats with Kevin Spacey about his new film's actual, real opening-day haul; and Red Meat goes to pick up the kid from camp.
Getting Away With Murder? California Shields Police From Scrutiny More Than Most States—but a Proposed New Law Would Change ThatApril 13 2018
Cops have a lot of pull in the California Capitol, and over the decades, that's added up to this startling reality: The Golden State now goes further than many states in terms of protecting police from public scrutiny.
It's a stark contrast to the state's "left coast" image. On abortion rights, gun control and climate change, California has embraced some of the most liberal policies in the nation.
But even with a statehouse controlled entirely by Democrats, California laws are friendlier to law enforcement—and less transparent to the public—than those in Wisconsin and Florida, states with Republican governors and legislatures.
One explanation is that politicians from both parties seek police endorsements to help them sway voters. Polling from last year showed that two-thirds of Californians think their local police are doing a good job controlling crime.
Another is that labor unions representing officers donate generously to elect officials at every level of government. Three major statewide law enforcement groups—the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association—together poured $5.7 million into California political campaigns in the last election cycle, including giving $475,000 to the California Democratic Party and $168,500 to the California Republican Party. That doesn't include the money dozens of local police unions around the state give to politicians.
As cities across the nation were roiled by police killings in recent years, the Legislature quietly killed proposals to create more police accountability. Now, as California's capital city responds to the killing of Stephon Clark—the unarmed black man shot on March 18 by Sacramento police, who seemingly mistook the cellphone he held for a gun—some of those failed bills are being re-introduced.
California police shot 162 people dead last year, according to a tally by The Washington Post—which means the state has 16 percent of the nation's killings by police, but only 12 percent of its population. Activists with the Black Lives Matter movement say legislation now proposed in California is "many years behind" and that Democrats in the Legislature have not been responsive to black communities on police issues.
"What happens is that the police unions (and) the police lobbyists come out in full force and then legislators who are afraid of their campaign coffers being interrupted side with law enforcement," said Cat Brooks, founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project based in Oakland.
Police unions see it differently: Reactionary legislators propose unworkable bills, and then law enforcement helps them understand why the bills are bad ideas.
"We have been fortunate to have common sense prevail at the end, as opposed to the stuff that's proposed at the beginning," said Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a labor union.
When it comes to making campaign contributions, police are like most interest groups that work to influence public policy, said Brian Marvel, president of Peace Officers Research Association of California, an advocacy group.
"That's politics in America," he said.
Though the money helps, Marvel said, it is not the only reason police have influence in Sacramento: "Public safety resonates across both sides. People want to be safe in their home; people want to be safe to walk down the street; people respect law enforcement."
Here are three ways in which California law protects police more than some states do—and one proposed law that would give it the nation's toughest standard to justify police using deadly force.
California keeps police misconduct records secret
In most states, the public has at least some access to records that detail misconduct by police officers. Not so in California.
The Golden State is among 23 states that do not make discipline of police officers available through a public-records request—and one of just three states with laws specifically making police personnel records confidential, according to an investigation by New York public radio WNYC.
The secrecy—which dates back to a law Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 1978—makes it nearly impossible for Californians to know if the police who patrol their streets have ever been disciplined for excessive use of force.
"Law enforcement is the only public-employee group for which we have no access to the records. (With) every other employment category, you pretty much have full access under the Public Records Act," said state Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat. "Good policing requires community trust."
Her Senate Bill 1421 would make officers' records public in three situations: when they fire a gun or use force resulting in serious injury or death; when they've engaged in sexual assault on the job; or when they've been dishonest in investigating a crime, such as by filing false reports or concealing evidence.
Similar legislation failed in 2016, facing stiff opposition from law enforcement groups who argued that it amounted to an invasion of privacy. It's too soon to say if Skinner's bill will meet the same fate, but at least one police group says it's working to find common ground with her.
"We are trying to find how we can release some information once it's gone through its administrative process or the courts," said Marvel, a San Diego police officer who is president of the Peace Officers Research Association. "I think we can agree on a system of transparency that allows the community to have faith in their police department."
Other law enforcement groups say there's no need to open personnel records. Gary Ingemunson, an attorney for the LA police union, called Skinner's proposal "a can of worms." He said existing procedures—through the courts and citizen-review boards—provide sufficient accountability.
"Why are we opening it up? So the newspapers can have a field day?" Ingemunson said. "What's really important is that the people who need to know have a way to find out. … It's already as open as it needs to be, in our view."
California lets local law enforcement police themselves
When police kill, it's generally up to the local district attorney's office to determine if it's a crime. But sometimes they rely on investigations conducted by the cop's own department, and research has shown that prosecutors rarely file criminal charges against officers involved in on-the-job shootings.
Police say that's because the vast majority of their shootings are legally justified, done only when officers perceive an imminent threat. Critics say it's because cops and prosecutors, who work together closely and spend money to help each other win elections, are too cozy.
Four other states require that a state agency—instead of local prosecutors—conduct the investigation when police conduct results in death. Wisconsin passed such a law in 2014 after a man whose son was killed by police used a $1.75 million settlement to lobby for the change.
In California, lawmakers have rejected the idea twice. But Sacramento Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty—spurred on by the recent announcement that Sacramento police asked the state Attorney General to investigate the death of Stephon Clark—plans to re-introduce a bill requiring the state Justice Department to investigate deaths and serious injury caused by police.
"It raises a bigger question: why not for all the shootings?" McCarty said. "Having an independent third-party law enforcement agency come and do the investigation can bring about more transparency and more trust in the process."
McCarty points to a report by the Stanford Criminal Justice Center that describes the Wisconsin law as a model California should follow. But Tanya Faison, a leader of Black Lives Matter in Sacramento, said such a change is far short of a panacea.
"There need to be oversight boards that reflect our community that do the investigations when police officers kill people," Faison said. "This would move the needle in the right direction, but there is more work to do."
Police opposed McCarty's bill last year, saying people who mistrust local law enforcement are unlikely to have more confidence in state-level authorities. And they challenge the assumption that investigators can't set aside their personal relationships to conduct a fair inquiry.
"What McCarty is saying is that these officers are unprofessional and can't do their job," said Marvel. "I don't buy into that premise."
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra chimed in with support only after last year's bill was watered down to a study. Lawmakers then killed it in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where bills can die without a public vote.
Asked this month if he would support McCarty's effort this year, Becerra was noncommittal. "What you want to make sure is that you have an investigation that withstands the test of transparency, scrutiny and accountability. That can be accomplished in any number of ways," he said.
Establishing a unit in the state Department of Justice to investigate police shootings would cost between $8.5 million and $10 million a year, according to an analysis of prior legislation. McCarty said he's exploring whether his proposal can be inserted into this year's state budget.
California has no power to revoke a cop's certification
State law says that anyone convicted of a felony cannot serve in law enforcement. Beyond that, though, California's system for getting rid of bad cops is highly decentralized. The state has more than 600 law-enforcement agencies, and each one can decide if—short of a felony conviction—an officer's misconduct is a firing offense.
It's the opposite of how most of the country regulates police, according to research by Roger Goldman, a retired professor at the Saint Louis University School of Law. He said that 45 states have a centralized system for revoking an officer's professional certification—and most of them do it for less than a felony conviction.
"States like Georgia, Florida and North Carolina are decertifying cops hand over fist, and California is decertifying nobody, other than if convicted of a felony," Goldman said.
It wasn't always like this. California used to allow its law-enforcement regulatory agency—known as the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training—to yank a cop's certification. But in 2003, police unions lobbied the Legislature to take away that power, and Gov. Gray Davis signed the bill a month before he was recalled.
The other states with a decentralized system like California's are Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Goldman said. "What do they have in common? Very blue. Very strong police unions. The (California) Legislature is obviously scared to death of taking on the police unions."
Though Goldman contends that the lack of such a system makes it easier for bad cops in California to bounce from one department to another, state officials disagree. They argue that police departments here can do a background check on anyone they're considering hiring and find out if they've been fired for misconduct.
"Just because California doesn't have a process, per se, like other states (to) rescind or cancel a certificate or license, (that) doesn't mean California takes that lightly," said Dave Althausen, spokesman for the state regulatory agency.
It has a database that tracks every sworn officer in the state, he said, including when they were hired by a department and under what circumstances they left. If they are convicted of a felony, the law says the agency must note in their file that they are "ineligible to be a peace officer in California."
But, Althausen acknowledged, there's no requirement that agencies check the database when hiring a new officer.
And yet: California is now considering the nation's toughest standards for use of deadly force
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police use of force is justified whenever a "reasonable officer" in the same circumstance would do the same, setting the legal standard now used in every state. It's one reason so few cops are convicted of crimes when they kill—jurors must consider whether a reasonable officer perceiving the same threat would make the same split-second decision. If so, the killing is legally justified.
California lawmakers will consider a bill this year that would make California the only state in the nation to set a different standard—one supporters believe will make it easier to hold police accountable. Under AB 931, police could only use deadly force when "necessary" to prevent injury or death in the context of the officer's entire encounter with a suspect—not just the moment before firing his gun. Killing would only be legally justified if other tactics, such as warnings or de-escalation, were not possible instead.
"We're not saying that law enforcement officers can never use deadly force," said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a San Diego Democrat carrying the bill with McCarty. "Deadly force can be used, but only when it is completely necessary."
Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is backing the bill, say the Supreme Court standard sets a minimum level of protection for civilians confronted by police, and that states can choose to set a higher bar. But Ingemunson, the lawyer for the LA police union questioned that, saying the proposed standard may violate officers' rights under federal law.
"The theory would be that an officer also has rights, and one might be to be judged by the federal standard, not some state standard," he said.
Police are frustrated that the bill language has not yet been made public (as of this story's publication) and say it's hypocritical of the ACLU to criticize law enforcement for a lack of transparency while working with legislators behind the scenes to draft a bill that would impact their profession. They also warn that the "necessary" standard might discourage police from going into dangerous situations where their help is needed.
"It would be a colossal hindrance to law enforcement in this state," said Marvel. "It would take away our ability to react efficiently and effectively. Officers will be thinking, 'Should I really be doing this? Should I run away?'"
Though no other states have a standard like the one California is considering, some police departments have a standard higher than the one set by the Supreme Court in their internal policies. Seth Stoughton, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, researched use-of-force policies in the nation's 50 largest police departments for a paper published last year. He concluded that Los Angeles has nothing in its policy describing a continuum of the types of force that should be deployed, while Seattle has the most detailed policy, stating, in part, that officers must "use only the force necessary to perform their duties."
"The Supreme Court case law sets a (low) floor, but not a ceiling on how agencies handle use of force internally," Stoughton wrote.
Franklin Zimring, a professor at UC Berkeley's law school, said the California Legislature could best impact police behavior by increasing the amount of civil damages victims may seek in lawsuits over deadly force.
"The major force in controlling, or failing to control, police use of force is the police chief," Zimring said. "What state law can do is … make excessive use of deadly force expensive enough to motivate police chiefs."
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Democracy in Crisis: While the National Press Drools Over Trump Gossip, Local Battles Over Policing, Civil Rights Go Largely UnnoticedApril 11 2018
When reporter April Ryan asked Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about the failure of authorities in Louisiana to charge the officers who killed Alton Sterling for selling CDs—only days after the police-involved shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento—Sanders did the thing that white people have always done to justify killing black people: resort to "local control" or "states' rights."
"Certainly a terrible incident, this is something that is a local matter, and that's something that we feel should be left up to local authorities at this time," Sanders said.
Maybe another reporter—maybe even a white reporter, because, you know, white reporters can also ask about police killing black people—could have backed her up: "You mean local in the same way that Jefferson Davis did or that George Wallace did?"
But all of the heroes in the White House press corps remained silent. So Ryan asked again. "But how does he feel about that? He was strongly behind police. He supports police as much as America does, but wants to weed out bad policing. What does he say about weeding out bad policing when you continue to see these kinds of situations occurring over and over again?" she asked.
Sanders again invoked a states' rights argument. "Certainly we want to make sure that all law enforcement is carrying out the letter of the law. The president's very supportive of law enforcement, but at the same time in these specific cases, in these specific instances, those would be left up to local authorities and (are) not something for the federal government to weigh into," she said.
If you take that apart, you see that the president supports the cops. And at the same time that he supports them, he doesn't want to weigh in on anything bad they do. Which equals: He supports them. It is as unambiguous as a dog whistle can be. And, in fact, his Justice Department, run by Klan-loving weed-hater Jeff Sessions, declined to press charges against the officers who killed Sterling back in May.
But most of the national press didn't want to recognize the dog whistle, because to them, Sanders was right. For them, those were "local stories." And they aren't interested in local stories.
Neither are their white liberal audiences. There was a noted sigh of relief when the dominant "woke" hashtag shifted from #BlackLivesMatter, which forced us white people to question our privilege, to #Resistance, which means as long as you aren't as terrible as Trump, then you are OK.
Why, nationally, aren't we talking in the same way about the Movement for Black Lives and the disproportionate number of African Americans killed by police? In order to get a sense of this, I called up civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, who came to prominence for tweeting out the uprising in Ferguson after the killing of Mike Brown by Officer Darren Wilson.
"When I think about how I have changed in the last three or four years—like my lens towards analyzing what's going on is that I now understand better the concrete structures in place that exist to almost guarantee officers don't be held accountable," said Mckesson, who now hosts the popular podcast Pod Save the People.
Mckesson said that when he went to Ferguson or protested in Baltimore, he didn't understand those structures—which are largely local.
"When you look at things like Stephon Clark's killing … it is unlikely for the officers to be held accountable even if you get a good attorney general, you get a good prosecutor. The laws and the court precedents are not on our side. The laws in California are not on our side. The policies and the practices at the local level are not on our side," he said.
But, especially under the Trump DOJ, Mckesson believes that most change will also happen on that level. "There are 18,000 police departments, and most of the change is local. So we believe that if we get a fraction of the largest police departments to create structural change, that will actually ripple across the other ones," he said.
This ripple effect would work because of the "best practices" doctrine that allows a few endowed institutes or think tanks to design policy not only for policing, but for most industries.
"You change some of the big ones, it will hopefully lead to change in some of the other ones, but this is really local," Mckesson said, both echoing Sanders' deflection and turning it back on her.
Still, he recognizes that, in a situation like the Gun Trace Task Force trial in Baltimore, where eight cops were charged by the feds with widespread corruption, no one on a local level was equipped to deal with it. "It was surprising; it was like the layers and layers of people and city government that had to know about this and chose to do nothing," he said. "There was no mechanism at the city or state level that was there to do anything."
This is the paradox. The right has, for a long time, seen the fight as local. They have been taking over school boards and other minor positions. But now that Trump is attempting to destroy much of the federal government, the serious work of the left is going to have to turn largely local, while all of the #Resistance pats themselves on the back as they wait for Mueller to save them. Or Stormy Daniels.
Meanwhile, local newsrooms are gutted every day, and the national news is just not interested in the local fights. Because they are obsessed with Trump.
"Donald Trump handles these nitwit reporters with a new and most disgraceful form of bribery," the great reporter Jimmy Breslin, who died last year, wrote in 1990. He saw what was happening. "The scandal in journalism in our time is that ethics have disintegrated to the point where Donald Trump took over news reporters in this city with the art of the return phone call."
Trump no longer returns the calls. He doesn't have to. He has Twitter, and we have all become suckers, obsessing over a national soap opera, where the real change—for good and ill—is happening under our noses, in our own towns.
The Weekly Independent Comics Page for April 5, 2018!April 05 2018
On this week's fascinating weekly Independent comics page: This Modern World looks in on The Unbelievable Trump; Jen Sorenson examines the pro-gun potshots being taken at Parkland victims; The K Chronicles ponders the Alton Sterling mess; Red Meat wants some time off work; and Apoca Clips watches as Ted Nugent sits down for a trim.
Know Your Neighbors: Meet John Peters, Who Went From an Amish Upbringing to Multiple Degrees and a Career in EducationMarch 21 2018
Palm Desert resident John Peters, 66, came from a confused family background—which, in anyone else, might have led to dysfunction, insecurity and/or any number of psychologically traumatic results. But this ebullient man has not only prevailed—he has triumphed.
Peters was born the youngest of four children in Intercourse, Penn. (Yes, that's really the name.) His father died 6 months before he was born—and his mother remarried and moved, leaving behind the four kids. His two brothers were sent to an orphanage school; his sister was placed in a similar school.
"There were no social programs back then for a young mother like there are today," Peters says gently.
Peters was too young for a placement and was adopted and raised by his great-aunt and great-uncle in an Amish community.
"The (Amish) kids were all the same (as 'normal' kids), just wearing different clothes," he says. "Intercourse had a population of about 800. You couldn't get away with anything!"
Peters' awareness of how different his family situation was began to develop when he was around 6 years old. "I remember distinctly that a bunch of us were out playing, and this girl called me 'adopted baby.' I ran to tell my 'mom,' and she told me she wasn't my mom, but that my 'Aunt Ruth' was really my mother.
"I didn't trust anybody after that."
Peters found out who his natural father was through a half-sister, born during his father's previous marriage. (He didn't connect with her until he was 48 years old. He has also reconnected with his natural sister; they became friends as adults.)
Peters' interest in education developed when he almost flunked out of high school. "I was put in special-education classes," he says. "My adoptive parents never went very far in school and thought high school was the top of the line. I loved history and business, but I had never learned how to study. As a senior, I think I was taking about 12 periods of shop!"
He found an outlet in martial arts. "My adopted mom had such limited exposure; she didn't even want me to do sports," he recalls. He learned jujitsu from a Sunday-school teacher who had military and police-work experience. Peters went on to learn Kodokan, a specific form of judo in which the competition to take down an opponent is key.
Peters left Intercourse in 1969 to move to Washington, D.C., and went to work with the FBI as a clerical employee. He completed his undergraduate degree while at the FBI, and would then go on to earn a doctorate in applied management and decision sciences, a master's in career and technical education, an MBA in marketing and management, a master's in public relations, a bachelor's in criminal justice, and certificates including a teaching credential with the state of California.
Peters' final assignment with the FBI was at the training academy at Quantico. "I left because it just wasn't what I thought it would be," he says.
The constant moving was also an issue, as Peters was raising his two sons as a single parent. "Mothers didn't know what to do with me when I showed up at school functions," he laughs.
He left the FBI to do on-the-ground police work, later becoming an expert witness and trainer for police departments across the country regarding police and correctional-institution policies. He is currently president and chief learning officer of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, Inc. and has been the senior trainer and president of Defensive Tactics Institute, Inc. He also has his own consulting company. Finally, he has produced eight books and 35 videos.
Not bad for a kid raised by people who didn't believe in education.
Although Peters traveled most of his professional life, he settled full-time in Palm Desert last year.
"I came here on business in 1984," he says, "to edit a film about defensive tactics with flashlights for police training. I was so impressed with this area. It's the most beautiful place."
He bought a condo and commuted between here and Las Vegas, and then held on to it until the market rebounded. Today, he lives with his fiancée, Marilyn, in the house they purchased last year.
They met in a Cal State class. "After we met in class, I remembered her. She stood out in the crowd," Peters says. "The day we took our exams, we talked. Then I got an email from her months later. We met for coffee. She suggested we walk together, one of my favorite activities, and I assumed she lived near me, since she wanted to start at 6:30 a.m. I was floored when I realized she had driven over all the way from La Quinta. The rest is history."
As if he didn't have enough going on, Peters is the president of the Palm Springs Writers Guild and loves encouraging others to pursue their dreams.
Given the headlines about the difficulties faced by law enforcement, what does Peters think we should know?
"I look at my work with police through a lens of honesty," he says. "When 'rogue officers' get in trouble, whether by use of excess force or sexual misconduct, too often they are kept on the job. Some people make mistakes and need to be held accountable.
"Although cab drivers, firefighters and other professions have higher rates of death, police face 'excited delirium' behaviors that can be the result of a variety of causes, from dementia to drugs to mental illness. Yes, police need to police their own, but never forget that cops are targets by virtue of their uniform. With the police, the uniform itself means that their deaths are not industrial accidents—they're murders."
What's next for Peters? "Writing topics I want to write; getting involved in community organizations; and part-time teaching."
One of Peters' most enjoyable projects was researching how Intercourse got its name. It's a story I'll leave for him to tell.
Bills Die a Quiet Death: Legislators Kill Off Legislation—Some Popular, Some Controversial—Using the 'Suspense File'September 11 2017
Shortly after last year's presidential election, Democrats in the California Legislature drew headlines by introducing a flurry of bills attacking "fake news." They called for more resources to teach media literacy, so public school students could better discern facts from the kind of bogus stories that proliferated online during the campaign.
Yet in the months since, all three of those bills have quietly met their demise—victims of the Legislature's appropriations committees.
Officially, the committees—one in each house—are supposed to pull the Legislature's purse strings, weighing how much a proposal is expected to cost, and comparing bills against one another to establish priorities for state tax dollars. Unofficially, the Appropriations Committee is where bills go to die—especially the ones the ruling party wants to bury with little trace.
This month, the appropriations committees quietly killed the last of the fake-news bills, a pile of marijuana measures, a proposal to create a "pro-choice" license plate and another headline-grabbing bill that would have allowed cities to keep bars open until 4 a.m.—an issue few lawmakers outside of San Francisco seem to regard as a burning problem.
As befits a good murder plot, lawmakers target potential victims by placing the bills on what they call the "suspense file." Then, twice a year, the appropriations committees cull through all these bills, allowing some to proceed to a floor vote, but stopping many others in their tracks. In other committees, lawmakers publicly vote when they kill a bill, attaching their names and reputations to the decision. But there is no public vote when the appropriations committees snuff out bills on the suspense file.
"It's the closest thing that the Legislature has to a veto power," said former Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Los Angeles Democrat who chaired the Appropriations Committee from 2012 to 2014.
Sure, decisions are based on weighing the costs and benefits of the proposed policies, Gatto said. "But it's also a cost-benefit analysis politically: How much does the House want to put a bill like this on the floor?"
Euthanizing a bill in this way shields lawmakers from having to cast a difficult floor vote—often choosing between a popular idea and one that aggravates powerful interests at the state Capitol.
Here's a look at some of the dozens of bills that appropriations committees recently axed:
Making school spending more transparent: AB 1321 would have required every school to publish reports on how much money they spend per student. Civil rights groups said it would ensure that funds intended to help needy children are spent in their classrooms. But teachers' unions and school administrators—influential forces in the Capitol—spent most of the year opposing the bill by Democratic Assemblywoman Shirley Weber of San Diego.
Water under the Mojave Desert: Environmentalists backed AB 1000 as an attempt to block a controversial project that would pump groundwater out of the Mojave Desert and direct it to more populous communities near the coast. The bill also had the unusual support of Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. But labor and business groups opposed it, and the project developer, a company called Cadiz, is a big political donor. After killing the bill, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ricardo Lara released a statement saying the project had gone through extensive environmental review, and the Legislature shouldn't interfere. Cadiz stock then shot up 31 percent.
Protecting whistleblowers in their midst: State employees who report government wrongdoing are protected from being fired under the Whistleblower Protection Act—but not if they work for the Legislature. So for four years, Republican Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez of Lake Elsinore has introduced a bill to extend whistleblower protection to legislative employees. And for four years, the bill has been buried by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Blocking coastal oil drilling: After President Donald Trump signed an executive order that could expand oil and gas drilling into federal waters off the California coast, Democratic Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara introduced a bill intended to block it. Her SB 188 would have prohibited the state from approving new leases on pipelines or other infrastructure needed to support new oil and gas development. The bill would have cost the state millions of dollars in lost leases. Its demise in the Assembly Appropriations Committee marked a loss for environmentalists and a win for oil companies—as well as the Trump Administration.
Watchdogging the police: Prompted by a string of high-profile police shootings, Democrats introduced a handful of bills intended to create more public trust in police. AB 748 would have made public more footage from police body cameras. AB 284 would have required a public report on two years of police shootings in California. Law enforcement groups opposed both bills, but supported another that also was killed: AB 1428, which would have provided the public with more information about the status of complaints against police officers.
In a Legislature that processes thousands of bills each year, the two appropriations committees play a critical role in culling ideas—but many could have been rejected earlier if lawmakers were more willing to say no.
"There are pressures from lobbyists, pressures from leadership, pressures from constituents, and the path of least resistance is for members to rely on this end game that plays out very quickly on a Friday," said Steve Boilard, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento.
"It allows a critical mass of legislators to get the outcome they want without having to put their name on that hard choice of saying no."
That might explain why the Assembly Appropriations Committee quashed a bill that would have reduced the fine for rolling through a red light on a right turn from $100 to $35. Who would possibly want to vote against that?
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
The Weekly 'Independent' Comics Page for Aug. 3, 2017!August 03 2017
On this week's presidentially vetted weekly Independent comics page: Apoca Clips features a chat between Trumpy and Putin; Red Meat borrows money from Dad; Jen Sorenson tests various potential Democratic plans; The K Chronicles ponders a blonde-haired, blue-eyed victim of police violence; and This Modern World looks back on a perfectly normal week for the presidency.
On this week's shocking weekly Independent comics page: The K Chronicles looks at how lynchings have changed over the years; This Modern World ponders what would happen if Trump's cabinet were completely honest; Jen Sorenson considers shamings over free school lunches; Apoca Clips announces the appearance of the Antichrist's emissary; and Red Meat experiments with crawfish and explosives.


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Robert Redford announced a couple of days ago that he's retiring from acting at the age of 81. He'll appear in The Old Man & the Gun this fall, but that's it, he says. Probably.
"Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I'll] move towards retirement after this 'cause I've been doing it since I was 21," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I thought, Well, that's enough. And why not go out with something that's very upbeat and positive?"
For a good chunk of the 1960s and '70s, Redford was arguably Hollywood's most handsome leading man. And when people look back at Redford's six decades worth of work, they naturally turn back to Redford's heyday and can point to his classic, iconic performances in such movies as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby and so many others. Others might point to his mid-1980s resurgence in The Natural and Out of Africa.
But for me, Redford's greatest turn came much, much later. In 2013's All Is Lost.
The movie is all Redford: He's the only person on screen, in fact. Playing a character known only as "Our Man," Redford operates a small-but-tastefully-outfitted yacht, sailing the wide open ocean alone. We don't know much about him, really—where he's been, where he's going. We only know where he is: On the open sea, utterly alone. And when his boat springs a leak, that's some bad, bad news for Our Man.
In snippets of letters, we hear hints of his backstory: How he feels he failed his family in so many ways. That he'd not been as loving as he could've been.
We get the sense that, long before he boarded his boat, Our Man still lived and moved very much alone.
All Is Lost works as a tremendous, daring story of peril and adventure, but it's also a metaphor for how he, and so many of us, live lives alone. We pride ourselves on our self-reliance. We don't like asking for help. Sometimes, we shove away the people who care for us most in our own pride and self-security.
Sometimes, only when we're sinking, do we ever reach for help. And so Our Man finally does—the moment when all seems lost indeed.
In my review of the film, I wrote this for Plugged In:
All Is Lost is not a Christian movie, [but] there's something spiritually profound in the fact that, for all of Our Man's laudable efforts to save himself, in the end he needs help, someone else to save him—a hand from above, reaching out to pull him from his isolation and disaster.
As Christians, we believe that that saving hand is ultimately God's. But it can come from people around us too, as it does here. We can't live this life alone. We need community. We need help. We need friends and family to pick us up when we're down—sometimes very literally.
If you haven't seen All Is Lost—and gathering from the $6.2 million it made in theaters, that's a lot of you—it's worth a look. Redford is at his very best, and the story sticks. It's available to stream on Hulu or Amazon Prime for free right now. You won't be disappointed.


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Why and How SEO Web Design Can Contribute to Your Business Success
A few years ago, it didn't really matter which tools and strategies you used to create your website. As long as you included some information on your products, a few appealing pictures and your contact details, you didn't have to worry about anything else.
However, times have changed. At this point, search engines strive to guarantee an overall enjoyable web experience for all users and rank webpages based on their authority, popularity and relevancy. Of course, low-quality content and manipulative, black hat search engine optimization (SEO) techniques are considered a major no-no. So what does SEO web design actually involve?
Google is kind enough to shed some light on this matter. The giant company provides some interesting guidelines, enabling business owners to create SEO-friendly websites on their own or with help from a competent web developer. How does the perfect website look?
- It displays a clear, logical hierarchy and an ideal number of text links
- It provides a comprehensive site map allowing users to access different sections that might interest them the most
- It highlights an optimal number of keywords, strategically distributed within all pages to make the content flow naturally
- It has accurate, descriptive ALT attributes
- It reveals a great balance between its layout and its content
- All its web pages are content-rich, easy to scan and contain accurate descriptions of the products or services commercialized by the company
So how does SEO web design help your business?
A) By allowing you to rank higher in search engine results
B) By attracting more clients like a magnet (once you get on page 1 in search engine results you immediately start to witness a considerable increase in website traffic)
C) By helping you avoid major Google penalties that could impact your profitability.
D) By enabling you to surpass the efforts of your less Internet savvy competitors, who did not invest time and money in SEO-minded web design
Getting Started With SEO Web Design
Any expert in this line of work will tell you that SEO web design is part art, part science. It involves a high dosage of creativity, and also a clear understanding of the basic search engine optimization principles. In order to come up with satisfactory results, you have to complete six distinctive phases: planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing and regular maintenance.
- The design planning phase allows you to discover the needs and expectations of your targeted audience. You have to create the website with SEO practices in mind, while also focusing your attention on the necessities and demands of your readers.
- The site analysis enables you to find the most relevant keywords and research your main competitors.
- The design phase will make you think about several important aspects, like for instance, the kind of architecture that you'd be inclined to opt for, how to make your webpage W3C-compliant, how to create and distribute premium content, what design elements you should use to highlight the most important sections of your site and so on.
- Always invest time and energy in website testing. Ask outsiders to test and rate your website; their feedback will help you make informed decisions. Once you complete this phase, you can start implementing your SEO web design ideas.
- Remember that you will have to update and maintain your webpage periodically
If you don't know how to use SEO–minded website design to your advantage, ask an expert. At Cohlab, we understand and anticipate all your SEO web design needs. Our extensive knowledge is your most valuable benefit. For the best mobile websites and custom search engine marketing strategies, just give us a call.


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Alice Barton Scholarship
The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) is accepting applications for the Alice Barton Scholarship Program. The deadline to apply is Friday, May 12, 2017.
The program is awarding 20 scholarships of $1,000 to survivors of domestic violence in Iowa, which can be used for college courses, books, child care and housing needs. Applications are available in both English and Spanish.
To learn more and apply, CLICK HERE.


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Recipe_Red Velvet Moon Pies
Red Velvet Moon Pies
These red velvet heart shaped whoopie pies are perfect for your sweetie this Valentine's Day. Of course, you don't have to make them heart shaped, as they will be delicious in any shape! Moist red velvet cake like cookies with a sweet marshmallow cream filling. This is definitely one way to show someone you love them!
Bake Time: 7-9 minutes
Serving Size: 16-18 pieces, depending on size
Featured Bakeware:USA Pan Jelly Roll
2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted softened butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk (room temp)
1 oz red food coloring
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tablespoons) softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff
Recipe Instructions
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. After well mixed, add in the egg. Next, add in the vanilla extract. Next, alternate the dry ingredients and buttermilk on low speed until just incorporated. Stir in red food coloring. If a heart shaped cookie is desired, place batter in a piping bag or plastic storage bag and snip the end. Pipe the batter in heart shapes on your USA Pan sheet pan. Or, you can drop the batter by 2 Tablespoons onto your cookie sheet. Size and shape of your batter may affect bake time. Bake for 7-9 minutes, until batter is no longer wet looking and is dry to touch. Remove from oven to cooling rack for a few seconds. Once cooled a bit, remove to cooling rack. In a large bowl, cream the butter for the icing for a few minutes. Add in the confectioner's sugar. Once mixed well, add in the vanilla extract and marshmallow fluff. Once cookies have cooled, use a piping bag or spoon to fill them with the icing on the flat side. Place a second cookie, flat side down on top. ENJOY!!


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If you are a loan officer just learning your way around FHA financing you need to get up to speed quick. The FHA lending window of opportunity has been open for a little while now and it only seems like it will be around for quite some time to come. There are some differences between FHA loans and Conventional loans that you need to be aware of. For further details on these differences see the article on GetPreQualified.com called: Differences Between FHA Loans And Conventional Loans.
The following list of items spells out a few places where loan officers and the loan files get into trouble. Pay attention to these tips to keep loans in your pipeline moving forward. In my early days in the mortgage business, I was a processor and processed a lot of loan files. Here are some of the common sticky areas where the loan officers that I worked for got into some rough spots with their loans. This is not a complete list, but these are some of the highlights.
Common Sense Underwriting – Common Sense Explanations
Tell the borrower's story. A good letter of explanation goes a long way to getting an underwriter to approve a loan. Make sure that the story makes sense and that the problems that caused the credit problems if there were some have been resolved. Also, present the loan in a way that the underwriter doesn't have to dig for stuff. If the underwriter has to dig, they'll probably dig a hole too big to get your loan approved.
Check CAIVRS
This is highly important to do right off the bat. If you are not allowed to do it at your company have your processor do it. CAIVRS stands for Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System. This is a system used by FHA to track delinquent borrowers when it comes to federal loans, taxes etc. It happens all too often where a loan gets to final underwriting only to find out that the borrower is in the CAIVRS system and is disqualified from getting an FHA loan. Check this first before you put much time in to your loan.
Collect And Submit All Supporting Documents
This is a critical phase of the FHA loan process. Your processor should keep you out of trouble here, but as the Loan Officer it should be your responsibility to know exactly what you need for your borrower's situation.
For example, let's say that your borrower does not get an automated underwriting approval so you need to go to manual underwriting. When this is the case, you will most likely have to submit some type of proof of rent payments. In an automated approval scenario often you will not have to prove rent history unless it is specifically asked for. During the loan interview process have you asked about rental history? Have you asked how your borrower pays their rent? Make sure that you ask these questions up front.
Make Income Calculations and Review All Bank Statements
These two things are definitely deal killers. I don't know how many loans I processed where the loan officer turned in the pay stubs without reviewing them. There two major themes that I came across when I was processing loans: loan officers not calculating income and debt to income ratios properly and not reviewing bank statements.
Review Pay Stubs – Many times processors and underwriters catch more income than less. Often non taxable income was not grossed up by either 15 to 25%. However, more than one deal was killed because the Loan Officer failed to see different types of wage garnishments like child support, or 401K loan paybacks. As a loan officer, make sure that you review the pay stubs thoroughly and that they match closely to the W2's for the previous year.
Review Bank Statements – The worse case here is turning in bank statements with negative marks in them like NSF's – non sufficient funds. NSF's are a kiss of death for most deals as it brings into question that the borrower does not know how to manage their home. It also suggests that the borrower's credit is not worthy of having a mortgage. What bank wants to set themselves up for a borrower who will write back checks?
The other deal killer here is large deposits. As a Loan Officer, you must go through the bank statements and look for large and unusual deposits. This is especially true if you have to use assets to get a loan approved.
Now that you have some additional information about FHA Loans, get the 2008 FHA Origination Guide to help you sell more loans and help more borrowers get into their new homes. Good luck and happy originating.


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Design Week—
During Stockholm Design Week, Fiberspace is proud to be one of three venues worldwide where Deepa Panchamia's debut book "Deepa Panchamia: Textile Art and Sculptures" will be launched. Deepa makes textile sculptures, installations and wearable art. This book presents a selection of her work from 2004 to the present day, including notes and extracts from the artist's journal. This first edition is limited to 300 copies, each numbered and signed by the artist.
Textile historian, curator and author, Mary Schoeser writes:
"Deepa Panchamia's work is powerful, addressing as it does a fundamental and beguiling characteristic of all forms of life, namely those ever-present contradictions in nature, where the transparent yet strong, fluid and rigid, ostensibly random yet structured so often coalesce with such beautiful results".
Other items from the Fiberspace Collection will also be available. Opening hours during Design Week: Wednesday – Friday 12-18, Saturday 12-16. Finissage with Deepa present on Saturday 10/2.


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Last time, Moze aged into a child and it was confirmed that she is a face-one. She's my face-one though, so I love her.
Moze: "So...this is a bowl, right?"
Yes. You will use it to now cook muffins.
Moze: *noms*
Cookie: "Relax, it's just an energy drink."
Keely: "Right, right."
Moze: "Bye Daddy!"
You were going to clean the bug cage.
Moze: "Right!"
Moze: "My dad is a weirdo sometimes."
Hanging out isn't going to get your fun up before work!
Cookie: "But I look cool."
That's debatable. Swing!
This lady right here (my sister) was having a pet adoption. So I thought, what the hey, and sent Phil over.
Hayleigh: "Too many cats, waaaay too many hairballs. Just take it!"
Hayleigh: "See ya! I'm off to go clubbing!"
I actually like this outfit for formal wear. I didn't change it, either.
Here is our new cat! He's a boy and I named him Buster after the character from Arthur, one of my favorite shows as a kid. I've decided all my pets will be named after that show. :) Buster came with the destructive and friendly traits.
Phil: "Well, here's your new home, Buster."
Since all my Sims are colorful, I also made Buster a little more colorful. I didn't change any of his features, though.
Buster: "Hmm..."
Keely: "Look at that wittle kitty! Aww..."
Buster: "I am ferocious!"
Keely: "Buster! Stop that!"
Buster: "Meow. Meow. Meow! MEOW!"
Cookie: "Go away, cat! I'm busy."
You sure do look happy, Buster. *suspicious*
Phil: "Can I pet now?"
Phil: *gasp* "He bit me!"
As much as the destructive trait has shown, I haven't seen much of that friendly trait. -_-
Sometimes, between school and work, Cookie sleeps on a park bench.
He's so worn out, I always have energy and sorrow annihilators waiting for him.
Does. All the time! He just runs around. I don't really care what he does, though. As long as he doesn't scratch the couch. Or pee on the floor.
Mother-daughter talk time? Well make it quick, you're both insanely tired.
Keely: "Well I can surely help you with that, sweetie. I am pretty high in the writing skill, you know."
Aaaand done. Why are they standing so far apart? Oh well, wishes granted! *confetti* I feel like a genie. :D
That's a good kitty.
Buster: "I was thinking about the couch the whole time."
P.U.R.E. made by CK213. The Diffys met there after Cookie got off work.
Don't question it, just keep walking.
Moze: "Cookie and Jolene, sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S--"
Cookie: "Moze! Shut up! It's not like that at all!"
Keely ordered some food. This bartenders has skills. Interesting way to serve food.
Jolene: "I'm so glad you invited me out, Cookie! We should hang out more often, go to the movies or somethin'."
Cookie: "Yeah, you're like my best friend!"
How was the photo booth, Moze?
Phil: *freak out scream*
Moze: "UM."
Not you too. D:
Moze: "I'm going to hang out with Mom now."
Keely: "Dance with me, Moze!"
Moze: "Oh yeah!"
Phil was moonlighting even though he won't get paid. Good experience I guess.
Cookie: "Let's play shuffleboard, Jolene!"
Jolene: "So my mom is in business. She carries a briefcase, haha!"
Just look at her, Cookie.
She's so cute!
Phil: "Soooo cuuuuute!"
Seriously cute.
Cookie: "Seriously stop. We're just friends!"
Bartender: "Yeah dancing!"
Keely: "..."
Moze: "The three of us must be quite a picture!"
Keely: "I think it's time to leave."
Buster: *react neutrally* *react neutrally* *react neutrally*...
Oh yeah, Alexa was over. Buster had "react neutrally to Alexa" filling up his queue, with no apparent end. So I had Phil say goodbye to Alexa in the hopes that Buster would not be glitched.
Buster? Where are you going??
Buster: "Must. React. Neutrally."
Alexa: "Well I don't know what you are all doing on the lawn at two am, but I am going to bed."
Kellie: *is evil*
Daphne: O_O
Buster: "Must. React. Neutrally." *pees*
Buster: *reacts from a distance*
I guess he just needed to get it out of his system. Time to go home!
Next time: I don't even know! These pictures are up to the point where I am in game, so I don't know exactly what will happen next. Buster's birthday is only a day away, so that will happen! Finally got the crashes to be much less frequent after deleting caches, so I should be able to play a lot more. Yay me!


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If you are still unsure about booking a photobooth then have a look at some of our recent testimonials and see for yourself.
See some of these testimonials on our Facebook page and you will see our 5* ratings and how happy our guests have been with the service of Photo–Fever.
Was at a wedding in Coventry this is so much better than other booths we have been in has the wow factor loved the 3D pics and the green screen was amazing – Steve
Thank you so much guys. Had a whale of a time xxxx – Lissa Nicholls
Loved the Photo Booth lissa great fun, fab pics!! – Mandy McHale
Having seen the website I knew we were going to get a professional service, and we did. Happy to recommend you (feel free to quote my name etc). Many thanks, Tim Groom – Tim
Thank you so much you were amazing and everyone loved it! X – Lauren
Thank you for making my 18th Birthday very special! – Lily
Absolutely fantastic. Your booth made our wedding so much fun. Would not hesitate to recommend you to others and the two ladies running it were lovely. Thank you so much xx – Catherine
Saw this in action last night… brill! So much so it's booked for my wedding x – Emilie
Brilliant evening thank you so much and would highly recommend you to anyone – Ginny
Would highly recommend these guys. The photo-booth is so much fun – fab! x – Joanne
The service was amazing. The whole night was incredible and the photo quality is really good. The props were funny and everyone had a great night. I would highly recommended using photo-fever – Beckii
Thank you so much your photo booth was awesome with brill staff too – Tracy
Amazing! So much fun all our family and friends loved it and with the album and the USB we have got so many memories to look back on! – Gemma
Absolutely fantastic! Everyone said how brilliant the photo booth was! I will be recommending you to everyone! x – Michelle
Can i just say a massive thank you for Saturday night! The girls were great from start to finish, everyone loved it! We had an amazing wedding and the photobooth just added to it!! Thanks again. Regards. Debbie x – Debbie
Fantastic! All our guests had such great fun at our wedding reception! Thank you so much xx – Hannah
Thank you so much for making are wedding extra special to booth was full all night long, great memories made thanks again. – Lisa
Brilliant fun! Had this at our wedding reception on Saturday & it was really well used – everyone loved it!! Especially the kids!! Would recommend to anyone & use it again for a party!! Thank you – Helen
Keep reviewing this page for further testimonials and lovely comments that we receive.


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Traditional Swedish Massage
Swedish massage is the most commonly offered and best known type of massage. If it's your first time getting a massage, a Swedish massage is the perfect massage to sample. During a Swedish massage, massage oils or lotions are used to facilitate smooth, gliding strokes called effleurage. Other classic Swedish massage moves include kneading, friction, stretching and tapping. Swedish massage uses firm but gentle pressure to promote relaxation, ease muscle tension, decrease anxiety and depression. 30 minutes $35.00
60 minutes $65.00
90 minutes $95.00 Swedish Massage with Aromatherapy
During a Swedish/Aromatherapy treatment, essential massage oils or lotions are used to facilitate smooth, gliding strokes, kneading, friction, stretching and tapping. The botanical oil aromas increase the effectiveness of treatment to alter a person's physical, mood and cognitive function. 60 min $100
Sports Massage
Sports massage helps athletes prepare their bodies for optimal performance, recover after a big event, or function well during training. Sports massage emphasizes prevention and healing of injuries to the muscles and tendons.60 min $80
Deep Tissue Massage Treatment
Deep tissue massage is a type of massage aimed at the deeper tissue structures of the muscle and fascia, also called connective tissue. Deep tissue massage uses many of the same movements and techniques as Swedish massage, but the pressure will generally be more intense. It is also a more focused type of massage to release chronic muscle tension or knots (also known as adhesions). 30 minutes $40.00
60 minutes $80.00
90 minutes $120.00 Deep Tissue Treatment with Reflexology
This deep tissue treatment is designed to relieve severe tension in the deep muscle structures and the connective tissue/fascia combined with reflexology to stimulate reflex points in the feet, hands and ears that relate to specific organs and glands in the body. Stimulating those reflex points promotes health in that organ via the body's energetic pathways. 60 minutes $110.00 Heat Therapy Treatment
A combination of hot stones and/or hot towels, along with warm oil, help to speed the release of tense muscles. Swedish or Deep Tissue massage is then performed to flush out toxins within the muscles. Most commonly used for rehabilitation purposes, but it can be beneficial to those with arthritis, stiff muscles and injuries to the deep tissue of the skin. 30 minutes $60.00
60 minutes $120.00
90 minutes $150.00


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By Melany Hallam There's a new job search resource in town, and it's called the Powell River Public Library. We've had a library here for a long time, but the new location finally opened last month and it offers all kinds of possibilities for those looking for employment, starting a business or changing careers. High... Continue Reading →
Culinary Arts: This Fall at VIU
VIU WILL offer Culinary Arts this year Starts: Sept 12, 2017 Ends: Apr 6, 2018 They are still conducting interviews. There will be up to 10 (or more?) seats available for adults. Assessment is not needed IF person has documented Grade 12. Otherwise they need Assessment of Reading and Math VIU Advisors available for July:... Continue Reading →


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PMI North East
Project management - A journey through time
12th December 2018
Newcastle University Business School (NUBS). Partners Room, 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle, NE1 4SE
Main Speaker: David Bewick
Come along on a journey through project management time with David Bewick, PMI UK Operations Director and North East branch chair. See where it all began and how the profession developed through the 20th century and where some of today's techniques were born followed by the advent of the professional body and the professional project manager.
As we go forward into the future we'll explore where project management is heading, what are some of the challenges facing the profession and what skills does the modern project manager need.
David's talk will be illustrated with interactive exercises and will bring examples from other areas of the business world and Enactus teams throughout the UK.
- 17:30: Arrival, Registration and Networking with refreshments
- 18:00: PM Through History – David Bewick
- 18:50: Q & A – David Bewick
- 19:00: Networking
- 19:30: Formal Close
To register to attend please click here