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Tynan Muddle at Aussie-Gamer.com writes: "While it would make a sensational tabloid story, the next generation consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are unlikely to sell better than Nintendo's Wii U console.
Since the day Nintendo announced a release date for the Wii U, the American media has done its part to stir the pot by declaring the console "dead in the water". The justification here is usually chalked up to "poor sales" and a "lack of games".
It's surprising, then, that the other new consoles aren't being treated with the same level of intense scrutiny (Xbox One DRM issues aside). In fact, media are already declaring the PlayStation 4 as the winner of all things.
The reality is far less entertaining: neither of the consoles from Sony or Microsoft will do any better than Wii U. And here's why."
Between the PS3, 360, and Wii, over 250 million consoles have sold. Taking into account RRoD and people who own multiple consoles, it would be safe to say there were at least 200 million console owners last gen.
And now they're just going to...vanish? I don't think so. The Wii-U is selling poorly for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons are economic. Other reasons are because of the Wii-U's design.
What a joke. I'm sure both the PS4 and the new Xbox will sell more in preorders than what the WiiU will sell by that time
I wonder why Nintendo hasnt hired this genius yet. only guy who knows wii u is exponentially more successful than ps360
people were worried over nothin
well now you know. Thanks author.
Amazon still have PS4 consoles in stock. It looks like most people went with the cheaper version with no game being that's the only sku that's sold out.
Amazon still have PS4 consoles in stock. It seems that most went for the cheaper sku with no game cause that's the only one that's sold out. Every other sku is available for preorder.
which reflect on its sales performance.
1. old multiplat ports which are not significantly better than 360/PS3 version means not worthy of a purchase
2. Nintendo's own lack of software and we all know people buy the Wii and Wii U expecting for Nintendo's own games but with the slow rate of Nintendo releasing them - not really their fault because there has never been a console manufacturer having to rely on their own software to sell hardware before, and with 3rd parties skipping the Wii U altogether left and right most notably GTA V??...the Wii U is not looking too attractive to gamers
3. lack emphasize on online portion. Nintendo should just stick out their heads out of their own asses and start acknowledging that online is pretty important to A LOT of gamers out there! the Wii U is more than capable for online MP but even Nintendo's own games are not online-enable thus making Nintendo as a game company look outdated and more importantly out of touch as far as gaming is concerned!
3. bad 3rd parties relation. this is just sad! never have you seen since Sega DC that huge publisher blatantly announcing their lack of interest in a game console and Wii U is not attracting as much interest from big publishers! EA and Activision have both being vocal about their disappointment over the Wii U and even Ubisoft is feeling cranky now! that's 3 BIGGEST publisher in the world right now and Nintendo need to act fast to gain their trust! Rayman Legends is already a lost cause for the Wii U and it's not even out yet but things are currently not looking good!
4. Marketing...they need more of this ASAP! Sony and Microsoft is increasing their marketing assault as of late and it's like the Wii U doesn't even exist! the Wii/Wii U is already stamped as the "complimentary" console as oppose to the "go to" console unlike it's handheld brother the 3DS which is clearly the "go to" handheld at the moment and Nintendo must act aggressively NOW to show that the Wii U can compete with the other 2 upcoming next gen competitor because as of right now, the Wii U is not even taking away sales from PS3/360!
my point is, the Wii U is not showcasing the lack of interest in gaming as a whole, but more of an individual problem of the Wii U itself! I don't know about the Xbone but the PS4 is ticking all the right boxes now and it's hard to think that PS4 will be anything like the Wii U sales-wise!
Keep at it, you'll get it right one of these days! Trolling that is! Because at this point everything else is wrong.
But on a different note, just on what the PS4 & Xbox1 have to offer, that in itself will insure that they will outsell the WII U in preorders as well as actual sell through, then again maybe not so much the Xbox 1, unless of course they are able to right the wrongs they tried to perpetrate on the gaming public.
1) Nobody has any PS4s or Xbones "in stock."
2) PS4 is currently sold out of its launch day allotment. They are still taking orders for future stock/allotments after release.
3) Xbone launch day allotment (the only available model to preorder) is still currently available for pre-order.
The person who wrote this article doesn't believe what he/she was typing out of their a$$.
you're still trolling by saying the same crap.
Read ShwankyShpanky's post and maybe you'll stop. Highly doubt it though.
I thought the main reason the Wii-U was selling so poorly was because of lack of 3rd party support and lack of marketing. People have the Wii, why buy an upgraded version of that.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Since the Wii U flopped, the Wii U supporters have their fingers crossed that the Xbone and PS4 will sell just as badly so that they can justify their console's poor sales. Just like they were hoping that the Xbone and PS4 will be underpowered too just like the Wii U. They were so wrong that time (both consoles are much more powerful than Wii U especially PS4 which is a beast) and they will be wrong this time as well.
I guess you missed where Sony told retailers they could now take orders for whatever they can sell. the initial allotments sold out in a few days at most retailers, and by all accounts the initial allotment was substantially higher than those for the Xbox One.
Since they have removed the caps it looks like PS4 production must be getting good yields and pre-orders have been high enough that Sony is confident enough in demand to commit to increased output.
One would think so BUT ALL CONSOLES SALE POORLY IN THEIR FIRST YEAR....
Holy cow he's not joking. jejejeje The PS4 sold out in a matter of min on Amazon the first day and the demand was so great Sony needed to increased the first round of pre-orders to meet the unexpected demand.
While the Xbone took days to sell off their Day One version and it only took off once MS did their infamous 180 policy change.
If you look at their best sellers list for 2013 you'll see that the Xbone never managed to reach the #1 spot and the PS4 is still ahead of the Xbone by a huge margin.
In the UK it's even more dramatic, the Xbone isn't even in the top 20..it's currently #48. lol
Gamers play games. So far drive club and killzone are the big titles on the ps4. A lot of the third party games will continue to be on the ps3,xbox360.
Bops ghost
Will both be on last gen. Unfortunately that hurts the ps4 and of course the the poor poor Xbox.
This effect happens every gen it seems.
The wiiu out performed the launch of the ps3 and 360 off the strength of Nintendo land and Mario. No wii sports or wii fit? Guess what those games are coming. I can understand that the ps4 seems to be your flavor. Yet that may not change the fact that 3rd parties are staying last gen simply because none of the console makers have a FF7 type game coming out. It is expected for the ps4 starts slow due to release dates. HD games take a while to make even if you can only play them once and then trade them in.
I will get a ps4. When god of war comes out for it. Yet how many years is that? I'll be fine not buying an he console to play cod. I'll be waiting for rival fps controls to the pc designs.
We are 6 years into the hd twins trying to make a game to rival the underpowered wii game sales. From Sonys camp we get another movie game with no replay value. From ms we get drm and drm online milking.
Yet who knows it could be a ps2 effect but if you didn't witness that time then you don't understand the real reason why Sony sells. Every wanted a DVD player, then blu ray player but now what is Sony offering extra to make up for the lack of game play? This gen will be a pr benchmark for them or the gen they marry game play to this story gaming focus.
Ms has a Zune or ms surface on their hands. Their only hope is to dig deep and make a very addictive game that doesn't use online as a crutch.
This gen will be a wiiu/ ps4 gen it seems. Since they are both trying offer some thing different. Nintendo's flaw is not praticing hd production values 3 years into the wii sales. If you have ever tried to do hd level graphics knows it takes time to learn all the tricks and then it takes goobs of ram lol.
The beginning may be a strong burst in the beginning but many gamers may wait it out simply because we are being ignored or over looked due to certain agendas. But in the end we know Nintendo has the ip to finish strong now and hd content being mastered is only going to add to the collection. We know Sony will end up strong also because they can pump out great HD stories and if they stay devoted they will get the game play right. Mean while ms will just throw money into a huge fire like they always do. Or just start selling cable boxes. If you've ever work with ms you know how hard they can suck.
In summary Nintendo is learning HD. Sony is learning gameplay. Ms is learning pr. This gen will be fine after about two years in.
This article sounds like it's coming from a desperate Nintendo fanboy to be honest.
"Unlikely to Sell Better than Wii U" - make a title like this at a time when Wii U is on its deathbed to everyones' eyes?!
what the hell are you even saying? that rant made no sense
"In other news, rain is dry. Back to you, Kent!"
"Xbox 360 only managed to sell 940,000 units in its first four weeks, with PlayStation 3 performing much worse at 540,000. Wii, for the sake of having all the figures here, broke records at 2.02 million sold in its first four weeks on sale."
They make it sound like these consoles weren't in demand at the time. I was only able to pick up my 60gb PS3 by mid-December because I was lucky enough to show up at a gamestop that had received maybe 6 consoles in a small shipment. Even my buddy couldn't get a 360 for a few weeks after it released. These consoles had pretty big shortages especially in comparison to the Wii.
i believe the ps3 also had supply issues, it was sold out. But, the Wii was a sensation, Xbox did not have the hype of the wii when it was released.
Yes it did, because of diode shortages, but we have to be honest and and recognise that price must have been a factor. Neither of those problems exist with the PS4. There's a very simple thing that this article overlooks: People didn't buy a Wiiu because they were waiting to see what a next gen machine 'should' look like.
I remember working at Gamestop when those all came out. The PS3 had its initial shipment, and Maybe 10 more systems came in before the end of the year. They had Major shortages.
Wii U don't sell well only because we all waiting for X1 and PS4 and as always more expensive things sell slower. Don't think PS4 will have a problem this gen as it will be preferred by all the parents this Christmas because its cheeper.
Cheeper price was a way to success for x360 last gen and looks like sony learn the lesson.
A. RROD replacements were free, don't spew bull crap.
B. Poor Wii-U sales are from the lack of software, and I'd imagine 3rd party support in the coming future, not it's design.
C. You can tell by console sales over time that clearly not everyone jumps on the bandwagon for new consoles right away. Software sales on the PS3/360 will overshadow the PS4/X1 for a few years.
All that being said I don't think the Wii-U will outsell them, people want value and the Wii-U hasn't shown that yet. The X1/PS4 have with the software they've shown, and the future proofing they've established.
"RROD replacements were free, don't spew bull crap"
Uhh, while under warranty. Xbox 360s aren't under warranty for eternity.
They don't send you an Xbox360 S when your out of warranty 360 dies. At LEAST 20 million 360s were the old, defective models.
yes RROD was free, but most of my friends got tired of sending it the second or third time it broke. so they bought a new one.
me, sent it to microsoft twice, broke 3 times, third time brang it to a dude in my city who repaired it and it never ever again failed after this.
This. Not every 360 that RRoD'd was replaced under warranty, regardless of whether it was covered (many ultimately were not).
Under warranty? Tell that to Microsoft for my Elite they wouldn't replace.
"RROD replacements were free, don't spew bull crap."
Whether they were free or not, gamers with plenty of disposable income didn't necessarily wait for a replacement. All my real life gaming friends bought 360s and most of them bought multiple replacements before they got sick of them breaking down and switched to PS3s.
I do expect a pricedrop near the holidays for Wii U and an increase in sales, but I it will pale in comparison to the PS4/Xbox One.
Why? Preorder numbers, features, online functionality and network/account policy, guaranteed third party support, expected media options, power that in turn will lead to longevity/support, a focus on triple A and indie(more so on Sony), advertising, etc... In my eyes an associate would have no problem in a store making the case to curious consumers this holiday season about Xbox One and PS4 vs the WiiU. WiiU to me just seems like a hard sell to the general consumer unlike the wii with the motion gimmick.
I really think Nintendo drop the ball on their year lead. I love their software, but I think pride and old thinking is really holding them back in certain areas in regards to home consoles.
i love nentendo growing up wii was crap cept for few game you could count on your hands been good
ill get the wii U maybe 2 years from now when it cheaper an they have Zelda an few other exclusive hits
i mit even wait longer an see what they plan long term too stand against X box an ps4
jimmy... you should have paid attention in school and not to "nentendo"... maybe your half-assed ebonics would be more clear to read...
oh... "AN" one more thing.. no.. nevermind
How many times WiiU is not underpowered,what tech is ps4 ect using thats state of the art the only expensive state of the art tech is the tons of edram cache and edram on the MCM for wiiu,please tell me whats so expensive and cutting edge in ps4 or xbox1 ???? because a gpgpu with tons of edram is more powerful than one without around the same power or abit more.
The embedded RAM in Wii U is there to make up for the pitifully slow cell phone RAM that Nintendo stuffed in. The GPU isn't anything special and the CPU has ties to the GameCube. So yeah, that's why people are willing to spend an extra fifty dollars on the PS4, which destroys the Wii U as far as specs are concerned.
You cant seem to be able to formulate a coherent thought. Off the internet with you.
Isn't nvidia reaching 1 terabyte bandwidth with edram in their future video cards? Gddr will not even be used from what I'm hearing. I wonder what AMD is going to do about that? Suddenly the ps4 future proofing is a moot point.
Why are there so many people on here who can't actually form a fucking sentence?
i asked my sister the other day if see would get her kids a wii u for christmas this year she had never heard of the wii u nor had she ever seen one this is the tipy of person that made the wii explode in popularty more than anything this time wii u has failed to pull in a focus market
So as soon as wii fit hits and this person knows about the wiiu we are looking at wii numbers say you lol. Hmmmm the force is strong in your troll ability. How is this not registering? Nintendo is holding back. 2014 may be a slaughter. Once the news media sees this they are going to pounce. Wii fit is coming be scared fanboys lol. Please don't play the sales game. We know Nintendo has the guns to deliver.
LOL at the title....
Even though the wii u could sell very well, we all know that it will NEVER sell more that xbox one or EVEN PS4...
I'm not putting the wii u down.. the tittle is just ridiculous... it's absurd..
I think the PS4 & Xbox One will do way better than Wii u. I think the Wii-u needs a price drop and Im sorry but the graphics are getting old you get nothing innovated that you didn't already get on the Wii. Most people are getting tired of the same old stuff. Nintendo needs to reinvent themselves with the whole family gaming and really bring to the table what gamers REALLY want.
pig pen im going to down load all my games. so no bundle for me
Funny how these fanboys like to mention the RRoD but always forget the YLoD. I for one never had a RRoD but suffered 2 YLoD and had to deal with Sony's horrific customer service trying to charge me $150 to fix it. At least MS fixed your RRoD for free, so stop with the nonsense. Every company has their good and bad. You look like children with your biased comments
Whats the rate of the RRoD vs the YLoD?? The number of getting the RRoD was really really high the point of failure is so high that Microsoft came out and admitted the problem and were forced to establish the replacement warranty. YLoD rate of failure was very low and considered within range for hardware faiure. But i agree, the $150 to fix is very steep. But hey its cheaper then buyiing a brand new system right?
Kayoss, it doesn't matter what the rate was it still happened. That's just as ignorant as associating black people with welfare when there's more white people on welfare because of the W/B ratio. The fact is PS3 also had a high failure rate and there's going to be one higher than the other.
That analogy is flawed African Americans make up 13% of the USA whereas European Americans make up 72% of the general population.
The 360 never had 7 times the install base of the PS3 for the most part the two consoles have been neck to neck yet the 360 still had a higher overall failure rate.
RROD was a travesty on biblical proportions and the 360 will always be remembered for it, so stop trying to sugar coat it, sit down and accept it.
that's bullshit, I'm pretty sure ps4 will sell better than both xbone and wii u.
Unless all these new games that have been announced will be released on the WIIU then I don't see it standing much of a chance of keeping up, not to mention outselling the PS4 or Xbox.
Plus most people want next gen hardware, not hardware that is somewhere in between. I will say that Nintendo was smart when they released the WIIU early, probably because they figured they would be overshadowed. But for me its all about the games and whoever has those games that's where I'll be.
I know, it's like when the ps2 had over 100 million sales and ALL of those people bought the ps3 DAY ONE and it got 100 million sales at launch right? It's not like they "vanished"? right? /s
I own a Wii U. Im using it now to type this comment. It is the best cosole I have ever owned (I have a PS3 and 360). I still play games on all these consoles. Do I think the Wii U will sell more than Xbox1 or PS4? In my opinion no. But I dont really care. I just like video games.
I agree. Now I have a ps4 pre ordered and can't wait. But I picked up a wii u just recently, and it's severely underrated. It does need some more standout games, but it has some really great titles, and just the system itself is really fun to use.
It'll outsell Xbox 1 most definitely. But I don't know about PS4 though. Personally I have a Wii U and I'm loving it. I will be pre-ordering a PS4 soon with my personal favorite series in Infamous Second Son.
I pre ordered my PS4 and picking up a Wii U along with my PS4 on the same day. Never tried buying multiple systems at once, it might be double the fun.
I think WiiU and PS4 will be the ones doing battle, with Microsoft picking up the scraps. WiiU is a great system, and people will eventually start buying it after the Wii gets phased out
Best console you've ever owned? I don't believe that. I have a Wii U, too, but it one of the worst consoles I've ever owned. Why do you say it's the best? It's lacking major features that the other two last generation consoles have. AND it's lacking games. That statement is complete BS.
Hey man or woman its just my opinion. For me the gamepad, with off tv screen play, is why its my favorite console. I mean I have a tiny apartment (dont judge l'm a recent college grad with not much money)and the signal reaches to my bed and my bathroom. I use miiverse to nerd out with other Nintendo fans and post my drawings on miiverse. Its my opion. Its the best console I have ever had. No Bull. chill man or woman
also if you have a Wii U check out my drawings on Miiverse.
My name on miiverse is The Dude
I have one last thing to say. If you have not gotten a Wii U yet, don't buy it! Wait untill more games come out or maybe a price drop. But do buy a Wii U if you love Nintendo, if you are an artist, or like playing a console game in your hands... in bed... or on a toilet.
I'll add you. I'm JacobIsHollywood on there.
I don't get it though. If you want to do all that stuff, why don't you just get a laptop? More games. Portable gaming. The Vita does the social drawing thing, too. And the 3DS. You don't need to buy a Wii U for that.
alright man i sent you a friend request so wipe off that dust ha. And hey I like the consle. Its my favorite console. You can say that is bull or doesn't make sense but thats just my opinion man. Lets all just be friends and game together.
"Do I think the Wii U will sell more than Xbox1 or PS4? In my opinion no. But I dont really care. I just like video games."
lol yeah thats what these idiots fail to see, and Complaining about specs = no life at all.
Well I think it's okay to like one console over another and be excited about specs and exclusives and stuff because they are fans. It's like storts fans. A Indianapolis Colts fan can say "My team is the best!" And they can cheer and yell all they want because they love the Colts so much. Loyalty to a team is like loyalty to a console in today's gaming community. Its unusual to me because I like all platforms and I love gaming. And that's strange for a gamer to say nowadays. To translate that to sports, that's like a guy saying "I don't have a favorite team I just love football!" And not many people say that. Everybody has a favorite team...and that's okay.
"When Nintendo consoles start on the downward trend, they need only unleash games like Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda which stay in the top ten charts for years, something no other game publisher has ever managed to achieve."
Well they aren't as arrogant as they used to be. But they do try to monopolize the market, which is why those who don't have the luxury to have more than 1 or two shy away from the "family oriented" console.
That's why there's such a rebellion against Nintendo.


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Such a Pretty, Pretty Girl
Abridged Audiobook
Written By: Winston Groom
Narrated By: Dylan Baker
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: July 2000
Duration: 4 hours 0 minutes
Delia Jamison is a gorgeous woman of a certain age and at the pinnacle of her career as anchor of a network news show in Los Angeles. But she is being blackmailed by someone she is certain is one of her former lovers. Terrified to go to the police for fear the story will leak and cause a scandal, Delia's at her wit's end when she accidentally runs into none other than one of those former lovers, Johnny Lightfoot, whom she hasn't seen in nearly twenty years. Johnny is now an Academy Award-winning screenwriter living in New York and L.A. who feels the old emotional attraction for Delia rising again. Even though she's recently married, Delia mysteriously seems to encourage Johnny's interest.
Since she won't go to the police, Johnny agrees to help her find the culprit, which means she has to produce a list of the suspects. And what a list it is: moguls on the New York Stock Exchange, fancy lawyers, a stellar Ivy League professor--even a United States senator. As Johnny's investigation delves deeper into Delia's past, it exposes more than he ever wanted to know; meanwhile, the blackmailer rachets up his dangerous game. As the story moves to its frightening climax, Johnny Lightfoot finds himself entangled in a web of deceit and savage sexual violence that makes him wonder if he ever really knew Delia at all.
From the Hardcover edition.


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LG Watch Urbane | The Premium Android Wear
LG Watch Urbane Android wear just started off recently and is not quite yet in everyone's wrist. However, LG made another move on its smart watch series and introduced the LG Watch Urbane. LG believes that this particular smart watch would not only target the tech enthusiasts by making it ...Read More


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NAVTEQ is now HERE
30 years of providing industry-leading mapping, navigation and location services
If you are looking for NAVTEQ, you've come to the right place. Although we have been known as HERE since 2012, we were originally founded as NAVTEQ almost 30 years ago. Since then we have become the world's leading location cloud, and continue to provide some of the most reliable and accurate mapping and navigation services for a variety of business and consumer applications.
HERE for Business
Experience our industry-leading location services that make sense of the real world on here.com


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"It's almost like an exquisite corpse," sculptor Ruby Neri says of a figure in her current show at David Kordansky Gallery, referring to the art and writing exercise of creating one part of a work and then passing it on to someone else to add to it, and again and again.
The figure is a girl, about as tall as a real girl would be, with scrawny plaster legs, a tiny little plaster butt and a thrown ceramic torso. Her breasts are painted on, not sculpted; they're imperfect orange circles with black dots for nipples. Her arms, which look like handles on a ceramic vase, bend behind her neck, and bangs and shoulder-length hair frame a wonkily realistic face that, in Neri's words, looks like it was made by "some community college student." Splatters and bursts of acrylic paint and washes of lime green, orange and purple spray paint interrupt the white and flesh-colored clay. "I wanted it to have a street edge, like some kid broke in with a spray can," says Neri, "or like I'm defacing these sculptures. It's just fun."
Neri's show, simply called "Sculpture" and up through Aug. 18, consists of just figures, about 15 of them. There's also a room of the Hammer's "Made in L.A." show right now, where a posse of Neri's busts and figures stand in a line. Each one is a little different, but each is a kind of "exquisite corpse," often with a plaster bottom that transitions to a thrown ceramic middle -- "It's really awkward," Neri says of the transition -- and then to a hand-sculpted face. The face might be only loosely representational, like the one that's plate-shaped with holes for eyes, or it might be passably realistic. You can see Neri's fingerprints on the figures' necks, backs or foreheads. "It leaves the immediacy," she says.
This is probably the most "immediate" work Neri has done since she moved down from the Bay Area in the mid-'90s, studied at UCLA and began exhibiting in this city. It's more immediate than the anatomically convincing Fiberglas lioness she finished in 1999, and more so than the brightly colored, primitively geometric figures and paintings she showed at Kordansky's space three years ago. But before any of that, she worked in one of the most immediate modes there is.
If you Google Neri, the first thing you'll discover is that she used to be a tagger known as REM, short for Reminisce. She was an original member of the Mission School in San Francisco, a group of San Francisco Art Institute undergrads who started tagging streets and painting "lowbrow" cartoonish murals. Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen also were part of the group, which acquired the name "Mission School" retroactively, when writer Glen Helfand used the term in a 2002 article. Neri, or REM, became known for the monochromatic, running horses she illicitly painted.
Next, you likely will discover that Neri is the daughter of Manuel Neri, who studied with artists from the Bay Area Figurative School and combined a classical approach to figure sculpture with an expressive, painterly sensibility. In a way, his daughter does that, too. In trying to describe Ruby Neri's work, with its ties to lowbrow, highbrow and history, reviewers always dance around the word "tradition": Does she buck it? Does she embrace it?
"I don't find my relationship to tradition to be a battle in any way," says Neri. She recalls trying to define what she does now in relation to what she did in San Francisco. "How the hell could I ever bridge that?" But there are continuities. "The romantic idea of being taken away is still there in my work," she says, and "if anything, it's the immediacy of the materials that's always been important."
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Then, like now, she could work right away without prepping, take spray paint to the street or start shaping clay.
"It's about the art," she says, meaning this in the "getting down and dirty," hands-on way, not the heady "art about art" way.
"Defies categorization" is something curators and critics like to say when art is presumably so avant-garde it's hard to talk about. But "unconcerned with categorization" seems like a good descriptor for Neri's art. Certainly, you could look at that great, blobby bust in the Kordansky show, the one that has Neri's name written across its neck, and think of archaic Greek heads and vessels, about Oceanic art or turn-of-the-century Primitivists like Gaugin and Paul Klee. Or you could think of graffiti. Or you could just enjoy how funny and free it looks, and you wouldn't be missing a thing.
Follow @cgwagley and @LAWeeklyArts on Twitter, and also like us on Facebook.


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Emmanuel- D'lllusions of GrandeurJanuary 7th, 2006
An album by a producer with such an impressive CV of material was always going to be a classy affair, and that this is, with guest appearances from impressive names such as KRS One, Braintax, Terri Walker, Mystro and many more. The sixteen tracks here, provide a healthy variety of approaches to beat making and atmosphere painting.
The opening track 'My Thing!!' by living legend KRS One is a really chilled hiphop affair, whilst 'Pretend' by Nate James offers some very lush soul vibes. 'Getaway' featuring vocals by Celetia Martin and 'Bubblebath' sung by Daniel Debourg and Dyanna Fearon showcase polished and mature romance orientated R'n'B whilst 'Let's Go Away' continues the love focused subject matter with another slow and chilled experience rapped over by UK hiphop top dog Braintax.
'Quicksand' and 'Morning Blues' share a lot of similarities in production which doen't provide for great playback value, however 'Heat' rapped by Mystro, fully makes up for that with a lot more harder sounds and energetic vocals than earlier moments of the album. 'Flirtin' sung by the great voice of Terri Walker is more than enough persuasion for those not familiar with the singer, to seek out her material, and 'Right Here' by Belle builds up really gradually to create a simple but beautiful four minutes of straight forward soul.
The album ends with 'Proof' by Sandra Escoffery and the instrumental 'Still Working'. 'Proof' is a very slow tempo number with a hint of jazz about the vocals. It's perfect baby making music with some spot on choices of drums for its loop. The instrumental is a touching finish to the album, combining various sound bites and bits of music across two minutes which suitably provide a sense of closure to the release as a whole.
Many people will be familiar with Emmanuel's preview work, often under his alias C-Swing. He's worked a lot with successful names ranging from the UK's Jamelia to the US's Mary J Blidge, D'Angelo and Wyclef to name just a few. Some heads may therefore be expecting a quite commercial collection of tracks here, along the same lines as 'Do It' and 'Feel Me' which the producer provided for UK rapper Doc Brown, but that isn't the case. This is a very musical and mature outing which provides windows into many flavours and moods that Emmanuel is very capable of cooking. This is a perfect album to put on to unwind to, with several more energetic numbers to get up on your feet for.


text: Opto Power Corp. has developed the OPC-ORU-C2M, a CCD-based optical reimaging unit that focuses light from the company's fiber-coupled diode lasers and OEM laser modules into smaller or larger spot sizes. The unit is equipped with a small color CCD camera that provides on-axis, real-time views of laser spots as they are focused onto target areas. It is available with working distances up to 42 mm and is powered by a 12-V battery or AC adapter. Applications include soldering, marking, heat treating, sintering and welding.


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Yesterday I was explaining my trend for blogging to an ex-colleague and he felt that to make any kind of impact in the tech space blogging sphere I would need to blog a thousand words a day! I don't think I will ever come close to that, however I will try to blog at least one technical article a week until the end of the year. That's achievable right? That is only 5 weeks away, I am sure I have 5 blog posts in me.
Back to the original point of this post, I was at the London Java Community Open Conference where I met many ex-colleagues including my friend who thinks a thousand words is a realistic target. The conference is a yearly collection of presentations loosely linked to the daily life of a java developer. It was held at IBM's offices on the Southbank which allowed for some great views of the Thames as we sat and listened to the eclectic mix of presenters.
I woke up late with a slightly sore head and was only able to catch the second half of the keynote speech by Ben Evans and Martijn Verburg on their insights and predictions of the Java Ecosystem and community. They interestingly made the comment that Swing was dead and Oracle was moving it into maintenance mode to be replaced by JavaFX. They didn't give a timeline on this but I think, like 'roaches, it will be hard to kill Swing off. It's interesting as I always didn't any credence to JavaFX, I had heard it was a competitor to Flash-Flex and immediately had dismissed its importance. But the guys were saying that Oracle have dropped the scripting concept and have refocused the team. (ahh that will be a blog post, a frustrated web developer's trials and tribulations of JavaFX development)
I also learned the London Java Community had a place on the JCP. This is an amazing testament to the strength of the community in London. I remember when I first moved to London and did a quick search of technical user groups and only found the Java Special Interest Group which didn't seem extremely active. Now there are so many well supported and exciting developer groups throughout the city and throughout the different programming languages and frameworks. Read more about their amazing election win at http://londonjavacommunity.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/the-ljc-and-the-wider-java-community-the-jcp-election-win/
As part of the JCP process LJC get to vote on ever JSR, I can only contemplate the sheer volume of paper work this produces, to encourage wider community participation they have introduced "Adopt a JSR" programme. I think the title speaks for itself, pick a JSR and get involved. I think we all these things it requires a considerable amount of effort and dedication. A quick look on the LJC website and at present they seem to be looking for help with the following JSRs
- JSR 310 – Date and Time
- JSR 343 – Java Message Service 2.0
- JSR 349 – Bean Validation 1.1
- JSR 350 – Session State Management
These are key JSRs for both the JSE and JEE standards and it a great way to get involved in shaping the future of both specs. If you want to find out more go to http://londonjavacommunity.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/adopt-a-jsr/
"The really frakkin simple guide to clojure" by John Stevenson
Next up on the conference schedule was a quick introduction to Clojure by John Stevenson who happens to be the Atlassian Ambassador for the UK.
I go through a functional programming phase every 3-4 months, I pick the functional language of the day, buy a book, hack around, give up complaining that real people don't need this and go back to procedural programming object oriented programming. I had heard of Clojure but never mustered enough interest to check it out. I am still trying to improve at Scala and really do not have the capacity to learn two pseudo-functional languages at the same time.
Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, interestingly Lisp was the second programming language I learned when I was a kid. The reason is that one of the applications that I had access to was AutoCad which had a dialect of Lisp called AutoLisp. I am not sure if the AutoLisp is around anymore but it was perfect for extending AutoCad's primitive functions.
Back to the presentation, it was a real fly through the language and its constructs. John gave a good feel for the language and highlights the strengths of the language in a mutli-core world. Well highlighted the strength of functional languages. Enough of an introduction to bait my interest but not enough to ditch Scala right now as my "language to master"
Haskell – Emily Green
If I knew little about Clojure I knew even less about Haskell! Emily Green works for a company called Scrive who build their serverside applications in Haskell. She was a java developer in a previous life but now has been programming Haskell for the last nine months. An engaging presenter, one of the best I saw at the conference. The interesting thing is that for the majority of this talk she gave no really insight into the language itself. I was hoping for a 40mins introduction to Haskell and to live with some idea about the language. However it wasn't until the very end before there was even the slightest hint of code.
Nonetheless the talk was very interesting and was centred on her life with Haskell. She gave a very brief tour of her likes and dislikes with the language and the community. I will not do the talk and justice by trying to list out all the points but the two that stuck in my mind were make the complier work more. Her example was that instead of writing unit tests to ensure that all code is tested, write the logic into the code and get the complier to ensure correctness at compile time. Emily noted that when working with Haskell that the complier will refuse to compile if the code is not just syntactically correct but functionally too. The other point I remember from yesterday is that she mentioned that most of the content produced around Haskell are academic papers as the language is rooted in research. Also she mentioned something about monads 😉
The Future of Java – Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott from Oracle present on the future of Java. Starting with going through some of the hilightls of the recently released version Java 7 he moved on to focus on version 8 & 9. Java 8 is expected sometime in the Summer of 2013 and will introduce some ground breaking changes. Language-level support for lambda expressions is due for this version and is hotly debated throughout the Java community. Recently a build of Java 8 with the first true preview of lambda expressions was released and syntax will be (copied and pasted from Brian Gotez's email to the lambda dev mailing list on the final decision http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/lambda-dev/2011-September/003936.html)
x => x + 1
(x) => x + 1
(int x) => x + 1
(int x, int y) => x + y
(x, y) => x + y
(x, y) => { System.out.printf("%d + %d = %d%n", x, y, x+y); }
() => { System.out.println("I am a Runnable"); }
I need to spend some quality time with the latest complier but this is pretty much the C# syntax so for .net developers or scala developers for that matter it should be relatively straightforward to pick up.
Another key core component predicted to be released in 8 is project jigsaw or more commonly know as java modularization. Steve reiterated that this was not just adding Ivy or Osgi to the top of java but go the root core of the platform and add modularization to the java platform itself. Java has evolved over the years and the component entanglement is major problem. The task of unpicking the component and stitching them back together is currently underway.
Steve referenced Mark Reinhold's requirement documents on the java module system as a good place to start to understand the true mammoth of the task. You can check it out at http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jigsaw/doc/draft-java-module-system-requirements-12#_1
2 thoughts on "London Java Community Open Conference 2011"
1000 words a day. Rullocks. Do you think anyone wants to read 365,000 of your words a year, that's about 3 books. Tell the ex-colleague that is crazy (do I know that person?).
I'd much prefer to read 50 well thought out, interesting posts. I'd probably stop reading a blog by someone who posted something so long every day.
Well thought out, interesting post. Didn't realise you were a recruiter for JSRs. 🙂


text:
Forklift Inspection Checklist
Earn 100 Points for each approved tag you make.
Customer Reviews
- Excellent Review by karen jones
easy to find what we required, good service and quality and we received them with in a couple of days.
- Delivered to Billing Account in error Review by John Gilsenan
Goods delivered to billing account in error. Resolved and credited.
Goods as described


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Strong's Hebrew5437. sabab -- to turn about, go around, surround
... 1), bring back (1), bring...over (1), brought (2), brought around (2), brought about
(1), change (1), changed (5), circle around (2), circled (2), circled ...
/hebrew/5437.htm - 7k
The City of Gold
The Monk of Thagaste
How Three Sunday School Children Met their Fate
Lii. "Come, Ye Blessed!"
The Third Beatitude
The Passing and the Permanent
To Master Raimondo of Capua of the Order of the Preachers
How Three Sunday School Children Met their Fate.
The Two Worlds
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary1. (imp. & p. p.) of Circle.
2. (a.) Having the form of a circle; round.
ThesaurusCircled (12 Occurrences)
... 2. (a.) Having the form of a circle; round. Multi-Version Concordance Circled (12
Occurrences). Acts 28:13 From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. ...
/c/circled.htm - 10k
Apples (11 Occurrences)
Circle (32 Occurrences)
Rhegium (1 Occurrence)
Effected (19 Occurrences)
Bases (80 Occurrences)
Circles (2 Occurrences)
Sprang (23 Occurrences)
Puteoli (1 Occurrence)
Sailed (28 Occurrences)
Bible ConcordanceCircled (12 Occurrences)
Acts 28:13 From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli,
Hebrews 11:30 By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days.
Hebrews 12:1 For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us,
2 Peter 3:5 But in taking this view they put out of their minds the memory that in the old days there was a heaven, and an earth lifted out of the water and circled by water, by the word of God;
Exodus 36:38 And five pillars for the curtain, with their hooks; the heads of the pillars were of gold and they were circled with bands of gold; and their five bases were of brass.
Deuteronomy 2:1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days.
Deuteronomy 2:3 "You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward.
Joshua 6:15 It happened on the seventh day, that they rose early at the dawning of the day, and marched around the city in the same way seven times. Only on this day they marched around the city seven times.
Joshua 19:14 The border turned around it on the north to Hannathon; and it ended at the valley of Iphtah El;
2 Kings 25:17 One of the pillars was eighteen cubits high, with a crown of brass on it; the crown was three cubits high, circled with a network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the same.
Jeremiah 52:22 And there was a crown of brass on it: the crown was five cubits high, circled with a network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the same.
Habakkuk 1:4 For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted.
Related Terms
LinksBible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus


text: Local Offer (SEND) The law states that every local authority must talk with children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and their families to find out what sort of support and services they need. A Local Offer gives children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and their families information about what support services are available locally in the Bradford area. Our Local Offer Details of our local offer can be found by clicking here The role of SENCO SENCos consult and liaise with staff, parents and carers, external agencies and appropriate professionals and voluntary bodies. They try to ensure that support is co-ordinated and targeted appropriately, and that all are informed and updated about children on the SEN register and understand how best to help. They rely on parents' help and support too: if you are aware that your child has any kind of difficulty, inform the staff at the earliest opportunity (preferably before the child starts at the school) and hand over all relevant documentation. This will give staff time to put plans in place to ensure a smooth integration into the new school environment. If you wish to discuss your child's educational needs or have any concerns regarding SEN, please do not hesitate to contact us to arrange an appointment with Mrs B Hutchinson, SENCO.


text:
QuadTech Debut at Drupa
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Press release from the issuing companyQuadTech is introducing an exciting group of new and enhanced products at DRUPA, print media's largest trade fair While DRUPA 2004 takes place May 6 through May 19 in Düsseldorf, Germany, QuadTech will be there to introduce an exciting group of new and enhanced products, including: • QuadTech Data Central, a modular data management tool that answers the need for improved workflow through JDF-enabled systems and controls • QuadTech Color Control System on ICON, which provides real-time information for peerless color control and accuracy • QuadTech Register Guidance System with Vector, a high-speed, color-to-color register control designed to greatly reduce press speed changes and reel splices to save makeready time • QuadTech Autotron Commercial 2400 Register Guidance System, which provides complete automatic control over every key registration parameter for hands-free waste minimization • QuadTech Autotron Packaging 2600 Register Guidance System, which adds the additional benefits of modularity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness to the superior accuracy of PressTech's register system for packaging applications • QuadTech Heliostat 300 Electronic Ink Assist, which is designed to reduce waste and improve quality and consistency by eliminating dot and speckle • QuadTech Ribbon Control System with MultiCam, a revolutionary multifunction closed-loop area imaging camera that's flexible, affordable and virtually maintenance free to streamline setup and produce outstanding quality • QuadTech Register Guidance System with MultiCam, a groundbreaking closed-loop area imaging camera which provides breakthrough color-to-color registration and quality DRUPA — or the "Olympic games of the print and media industry" — is considered the premier showcase for new products serving the commercial, newspaper, publications and packaging print markets. DRUPA 2008 already is scheduled to take place in Düsseldorf from May 29 to June 11, 2008.
Industry News
Copyright © 2018 WhatTheyThink. All Rights Reserved


text:
Ten Thousand Saints
A Novel
Eleanor Henderson
Ecco: 400 pp., $26.99
"Ten Thousand Saints" is a whirling dervish of a first novel — a planet, a universe, a trip. As wild as that may sound, wonder of wonders, the book is also carefully and lovingly created, taking the reader far into the lives and souls of its characters and bringing them back out again, blinking in the bright light.
It helps if you know the territory — New York's East Village and small-town Vermont, 1987 to 2006, but anyone can recognize the disorientation of the generation raised by hippies. Not the baby-boomer hippies who slid into the mainstream but the hippies who took to the woods, smoked a little too much Gertrude and remained on the margins, dragging their children through the dregs of their dreams.


text:
Typically, my breakfast consist of a large cup of coffee and two soft-boiled eggs covered in Sriracha. Sometimes, I'll change it up and have two baked eggs with ham and Sriracha. To spice things up, I'll add a piece of fruit to make it a well balanced breakfast {Sriracha is considered a vegetable, right?}. Huck is a little different. He usually eats leftovers or a salad for breakfast. He's not a big fan of breakfast foods. On the weekend, we make breakfast together or go to The Nook, and he orders off the lunch menu every time, too. Occasionally, I do like to have something sweet for breakfast. We like to make waffles with our waffle iron, or I'll throw together a batch of muffins with some leftover fruit.
Friday, I found a few bananas in the pantry and decided to make a batch of banana scones. I placed the bananas on the counter, to help myself remember to use them… bad idea! Huck walked into the kitchen a few minutes later to discover Ginny eating my perfectly ripened bananas, peel and all!
The dog will literally eat anything. He ate a lemon yesterday, and a few weeks ago, he consumed two WHOLE pomegranates. The pomegranates came from my papa's garden and tasted amazing! I guess we can blame his eating obsession on his Cushing's Disease or the fact he's a fatty that doesn't listen. We call him Hungry Hungry Hippo because on our walks, all he does is look for food. The poor squirrels in our neighborhood are starving because he eats all the nuts. He also eats leaves, sticks, and random Jawbreakers he finds on our walks! Nothing is off limits to this dog. Nothing, but Rachael Ray Dog Treats! It's the only food he spit out and stuck his nose up to. He literally walked away!
As bad as Ginny wants one of these Scones, he isn't getting one. Mainly because they'll probably kill him with all the chocolate, but I'm probably not even sharing anymore with Huck. Just kidding baby!
A few months ago, I made a Milk Stout for the first time. It's like having liquid dessert on tap at all times. It was the perfect beer to use in this recipe. I drizzled a little homemade Chocolate Ganache for a little something extra. You can never go wrong with a little extra chocolate.
Other Beers to Try:
- Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout- Odell Brewing Co.
- Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout- Terrapin Beer Co.
- Coffee Milk Stout- Stone
- Roast Cocoa Stout- Due Stout
- 1¾ Cup All-Purpose Flour {Plus extra for dusting}
- ¼ Cup Brown Sugar
- 1¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 6 Tablespoons Cold Butter
- ⅓ Cup Beer {Stout, Sweet/Milk Stout}
- ¼ Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 Ripe Banana
- ¼ Cup Chocolate Chips
- ½ Cup Toasted Almonds
- 1 Tablespoon Melted Butter
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combined Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Cocoa, Cinnamon, Baking Soda, and Salt. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add to flour mixture {You can using a fork, pastry blender, or your hands} until butter is fully combined until the flour. It should resembles a course meal.
- In another bowl, combine the beer, yogurt, vanilla, and banana. Add the wet ingredients into the flour bowl and fully combined. Add the chocolate chips and almonds and stir to fully combined.
- Lightly coat a clean surface and your hands with flour. Place the dough on the floured surface and knead several times. The dough will be sticky- add more flour if needed.
- Form the dough into a flat circle and place on a lined cookie sheet. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into 8 even pieces.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Before the scones are fully cooked, brush the tops with melted butter and return to the oven.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before drizzling with the Chocolate Ganache.


text:
Sledge stroller Nika Children 7-2: reviews, description
Probably, every adult remembers the time when he cut through the snow in the sled. This vehicle is liked by all children without exception. But what about those little boys who are still very young? After all, an ordinary stroller (even with very large wheels) will not pass through snow-covered pavements and roads. To fix this, the sled-carriage "Nika to children 7-2" was invented. Reviews about them are positive. Parents appreciated the advantages of this product. We'll talk about it in the article.
Why do you need this vehicle?
Many parents buy winter strollers for the cold season. But is it worth it? After all, even the most powerful wheels are not able to drive through snowdrifts. As a result, it turns out that the purchase does not justify the funds that were invested in it.
Recently, on the shelves of shops you can meet a new invention for kids. The "Nika for children 7-2", a sledge stroller, about which positive reviews, interested many parents. And this is not surprising, because such a vehicle has a lot of advantages. Sleds are suitable for transportation of both kids and older children. They are suitable for those parents who like to walk with the child in the fresh air in any weather. Now you do not need to ask passers-by to move your stroller through a snowdrift, such problems will not arise with such sledges.
What to look for when buying
Sledge-carriage "Nika", reviews about which only positive, are very popular. But, when acquiring them, it is worth considering the following points:
For what purposes will the sledge be used. On this depends which model is best to choose. If short walks with the baby are supposed, it is recommended to look for more simple models, they are not very expensive. For long trips, complex models are suitable, in which there are many additional functions.
Reviews of parents who have already purchased a sled.
Be sure to put the baby in the vehicle before buying, most importantly, that he was comfortable and comfortable.
Model "Nika for children 7-2"
With the onset of winter, many parents have a question, how to walk with a child on the street? For these purposes, a sledge-carriage "Nika to children 7-2" will approach. Reviews about them are extremely positive. This vehicle is produced in Russia. The price fully corresponds to the quality. The material is environmentally friendly, artificial fur does not cause allergic reactions, while it warms the baby well.
Sledges are equipped with runners that are able to drive through any snowdrifts and special retractable wheels. They are designed for those sections of the route where snow has already been removed. 4 wheels have rubber tires with spikes. They do not slip. In addition, there are 2 more mini wheels that provide additional cushioning. The design is quite convenient to manage. It is enough to press the foot lever - and the sled will turn into a stroller.
Safety is ensured by the belt. Thanks to him, the child will be securely fixed and can not independently get out of the sled.
Difference from other models
The sledge-carriage "Nika to children 7" with a wheel is quite popular with parents. Manage them simply and easily. At the same time, one can be sure that the child is comfortable and, most importantly, warm.
Recently, the stores appeared models "Nick 7-2". Their cost is slightly higher. They are slightly different from the previous model:
The width of the sled is increased by 2 cm.
The hood can be locked in the position that you need. Thus, they are very comfortable in windy weather and blizzard, completely protect the baby.
For parents, special gloves are designed. They will keep your hands warm.
A fur mattress was added.
All these additional elements make the vehicle more convenient and comfortable.
Choosing a decor
Children's sleds "Nika 7-2" have an interesting design. Each parent will be able to pick up the picture that his baby likes. Bright applications are available on the leg cover. It can be fairy-tale heroes, animals, abstraction. The visor is decorated with artificial white fur and funny ears.
Also, manufacturers are concerned about safety. On the cover there are inserts that glow in the dark. They will help any driver to notice such a vehicle in the dark.
Advantages of Buggies
The advantages of this vehicle are obvious:
The models are quite compact, easily placed in the elevator and public transport. If you fold them correctly, you can transport them in the trunk of the car. Summer and autumn can be stored in the pantry or on the balcony - they will not occupy much space.
Easy to manage. It is quite easy to use a sled. It is enough to put the baby in them, fasten the seat belts, put on a protective cover, so that the legs are warm. After that, the tool is ready to move. If you notice a section of the road where there is no snow, the foot lever will pull out the wheels in one second.
Ease of movement. With the help of runners, you can pass any snowdrifts and snowdrifts.
Convenience for the baby. We all know what ordinary sleds are. First of all, it is a wooden frame with a metal back. Sleds have a soft fur mattress, protective visor, a boot for the legs. Thus the baby is warm and does not freeze.
Comfort for mom. There are special fur mittens that are attached to the handle of the stroller. Be sure that your hands are protected from wind and cold.
Optional accessories. Pockets and a capacious bag allow mom to add their purchases there.
Bright design. All kinds of appliqués add a festive look to the sledges.
Parents' comments
The sledge-carriage "Nika to children 7-2", reviews about which only positive, for a long time use huge demand. This can be evidenced by numerous discussions at the forums. Among the advantages can be identified the following points:
Thanks to the visor, which can be lowered and secured, there is protection from wind, rain, blizzard.
The backrest is fixed in 3 positions.
The safety belt securely fixes the baby.
Good glide through the snow.
Interesting, bright design.


text:
I know what I want and I want it to be God's will. Is it? Only God knows.
What do I want?
I want healing for my 35 year old cousin who is a daughter, sister, wife and mother of 3 young girls.
Stomach cancer. Spread significantly.
Words that we all dread.
A young woman.
A born again Christian.
What can one say? How should one pray?
I believe that nothing is impossible with God, nothing is impossible for God. — "Behold, I AM the Lord…is anything too difficult for me?" – Jeremiah 32:27
I know and believe that God CAN heal her – God can do anything.
I am praying for her, for her family, her husband, children, mother and father and siblings. Her support system. Her loved ones.
I am praying that God will give them all strength to face whatever lies ahead in the coming days and weeks.
I really don't know what to pray.
I can confidently rely on the Spirit of God in prayer.
"Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." – Romans 8:26, 27
I pray that they will feel His presence with them as they walk through this difficult time together as a family. I believe that God is able.
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." — 1 John 5:14, 15


text:
Get your local
school involved
Registration will soon close for the Freshwater Invasives Networking for Strategy (FINS) Conference.
This important internation confernce is being hoted by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), the CAISIE LIFE+ Project, together with the European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission (EIFAAC) in Galway from the 8th to 11th April 2013. The Freshwater Invasives – Networking for Strategy (FINS) conference will address key topics relating to freshwater invasive species and harmful aquatic pathogens.
The primary objective of the conference is to provide a forum where international scientists, policy makers and stakeholders will address designated themes with a view to informing management and policy development in this increasingly important area. The themes that will provide the focus for deliberations during the conference will be, Policy, Biosecurity, Management & Risk Assessment & Economics.
Asian clams – a problematic invasive in Irish water bodies (Image: Ruairí Ó Conchúir)
Invited experts from around the globe will address the above themes. Workshop sessions led by the keynote speakers and other experts, as required, will provide the main focus of the conference and will be arranged to facilitate involvement of all delegates in groups.
The conference registration fee is €250 and should be paid before 28th February, 2013. Full details of conference is available on the conference website here: FINS Conference Website


text:
Marica Hase looks pretty innocent. She also looks like she couldn't possibly fit all ten inches of Jack Hammer's big, black cock inside of her. Well, looks can be deceiving, because inside that innocent exterior is a raging slut just waiting to bust loose. Ironically the easiest way to set her free is to lock her down. A little bit of bondage and this petite beauty is ready to fuck....
Read More
18 U.S.C. 2257 Compliance Statement


text:
name: Maureene Larrazabal Vera Cruz
height: 5'7.5"
weight: 110lbs.
bday: september 23
zodiac: libra
course: St. Paul Q.C. - AB Comm Arts, Interior Design
Probably one of the funniest girl on FHM, Maureen Larrazabal is definitely crazy sexy cool! Catch her tickle your bones on friday nights at Bubble Gang on GMA7.
Maureene Larrazabal's first break was on TV in Mikee Forever as Carrie, the Weather Girl. She has gone on to star in Sana'y Ikaw Na Nga, GMA 7 (Primetime soap series), Kirara, GMA 7 (Weekly morning series), Kool Ka Lang, GMA 7 (Weekly comedy sitcom), Eat Bulaga, GMA 7 (Daily variety show), Gags Must Be Crazy, Viva TV 13 (Weekly comedy sitcom), Home Along Da Riles, ABS-CBN 2 (Weekly sitcom starring Dolphy and Nova Villa), L, GMA 7 (A drama series on GMA 7 with Ruffa Gutierrez, Sunshine Cruz and Gary Estrada), Iskul Bukol, VTV 13 (A comedy series on VTV 13 starring Joey de Leon and Ruby Rodriguez) and Mikee Forever, GMA 7 (A comedy series).
Commercial appearances include Clown, A tv ad for Condura Refrigirators and Skin Reborn, A tv ad for Hirudoid. Her first big screen role was in Viva Films' Strict ang Payrents Ko starring Amanda Page and Gary Estrada. However she had to go abroad and never finished filming the project.
She's now a Kapuso star and has appeared on a lot of GMA's tv series. Her latest is the Regine Velasquez-starrer 'Kim Sam Soon'.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Maureen Larrazabal: Crazy Sexy Cool
More about: Maureen Larrazabal
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Fan Photo
|This photo with Gwen Garci was taken during the promotion of Viva Hot Babes Gone Wild with Mo Twister DVD at MetroBar in West Ave.
|JC with the Popstar Sarah Geronimo at ABS-CBN.
- Anne Curtis: A Queen
- Anne Curtis: Beautiful Like A Beauty Queen
- Anne Curtis: Dyosa
- Anne Curtis: In Bed
- Anne Curtis: So Hot!
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- Diana Zubiri: Danaya of Encantadia
- Diana Zubiri: Danaya of Etheria
- Diana Zubiri: Goddess
- Diana Zubiri: Hottest
- Diana Zubiri: In Four
- Diana Zubiri: In Her Sexiest
- Diana Zubiri: In Red
- Diana Zubiri: In The Water
- Diana Zubiri: People March 2008
- Diana Zubiri: the Actress
- Katrina Halili: A Celebration
- Katrina Halili: An Authograph
- Katrina Halili: Authograph Signing
- Katrina Halili: Fashionista
- Katrina Halili: FHM Sexiest Woman Twice!
- Katrina Halili: I Am the Queen
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- Katrina Halili: Sexy Calendar
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- Katrina Halili: Sexy Photo Shoot
- Katrina Halili: Sexy Pocket Calendar
- KitKat: UNO Magazine's Sexiest Women
- Marian Rivera: Dyesebel
- Nancy Castiliogne: UNO Magazine's Sexiest Women
- Ogags: Funniest Hosts on Local TV!
- Ornussa Cadness: UNO Magazine's Sexiest Women
- Room 213: Enter the Chamber of Desire


text:
We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas.
Hooray, this means the government is going to give subsidized broadband access to everyone who cannot afford it, and also set net neutrality in stone. Right?Posted by Cloud at December 7, 2010 11:13 AM
Assange's lawyer just a few days ago on the quality of the charges.
The reinstatement of a once-dropped, bogus charge isn't an intelligence operation. It's a diplomatic operation.Posted by Nell at December 7, 2010 11:28 AM
Dang: here's the lawyer link.Posted by Nell at December 7, 2010 11:32 AM
Clearly, more coffee needed, if not bourbon. This is the link to the comments of Assange's lawyer.Posted by Nell at December 7, 2010 11:35 AM
From the WikiLeaks archive:
"Reporters are constantly in search of information that public officials or powerful businessmen want to keep secret. If they manage to obtain the information, and it is explosive enough, they may find themselves showered with awards and accolades."
It's the lede paragraph of New York Times news a story on the curious case of a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter's criminal prosecution and a "negotiated" multimillion dollar financial settlement between the Enquirer/Gannett Corp. and Chiquita Brands International.
Possibly the presence of the Chiquita directory of articles in the Wikileaks archive indicates that the whistleblowers understand that they are more likely to be charged --as the Enquirer reporter was-- under theft of information charges than they are to be chrged with espionage, or "electronic terrorism."
Some background here:
and here:
Wikileaks archive here:
Wikileaks has been cut off by PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard. Wire transfer to this account is the fastest and surest of the still-possible ways to support WL:
Skulagötu 19, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Landsbanki Islands Account number 0111-26-611010
We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas.
Well yeah, as long as none of it is dangerous to the ruling class.Posted by Happy Jack at December 7, 2010 01:15 PM
Nell, I was convinced by a cursory look at this that it's at least possible that it originated as an intelligence operation. In any case, I certainly agree that if it didn't, it has since been a diplomacy operation.Posted by Jonathan Schwarz at December 7, 2010 02:25 PM
Not that the two are easily meaningfully distinct, anymore.Posted by Nell at December 7, 2010 02:49 PM
Leftie blogger farts in Obama's general direction
Jonathan, while you were away at your Fortress of Solitude you may not have seen a fairly recent posting by Ian Welsh (the Toronto-based blogger, not the Scottish politician), which are related to your quotes from Obama, in which our President says all the right things. Welsh asserts that, when it comes to action, Obama does not DO the right thing.
He always wanted tax cuts. He gave away the public option in private negotiations near the beginning of the health care reform fight, not the end. He never even proposed an adequate stimulus bill. He bent arms, hard, to get TARP through.
Welsh uses intemperate language, and claims to know what Obama's real sentiments are:
He's a Reaganite. It's what he believes in, genuinely. Moreover he despises left wingers, likes kicking gays and women whenever he gets a chance and believes deeply and truly in the security state (you did notice that Obama administration told everyone to take their objections to backscatter scanners and groping and shove them where the sun don't shine, then told you they're thinking of extending TSA police state activities to other public transit?)
Not satisfied with these crass vulgarities, Welsh becomes even more extreme [emphasis added]:
Let me put it even more baldly. Obama is, actually, a bad man. He didn't do the right thing when he had a majority, and now that he has the excuse of a Republican House he's going to let them do bad thing after bad thing. This isn't about "compromise", this is about doing what he wants to do anyway, like slashing social security. The Senate, you remember, voted down the catfood comission. Obama reinstituted it by executive fiat.
Finally, Welsh gives some advice to Americans from his Canadian home:
If the left doesn't stand against Obama and doesn't primary him, it stands for nothing and for nobody.Posted by mistah charley, ph.d. at December 7, 2010 03:46 PM
Good to see you Nell.
I'd guess it's 50/50 odds of Assange being guilty vs. framed if I had to. If Assange is one of those guys who can't accept "no" for an answer, he should go to jail. But I hope wikileaks continues in any event.
It's a little depressing to see some liberals at Obsidian Wings (my chief hangout at the moment) are opposed to wikileaks. To be fair, maybe more are for him, including one or two of the front page posters. But I was genuinely surprised to see the number of "liberals" who have such concerns for the privacy rights of government (??) and who harp on the possible damage to our diplomatic efforts by this breech in security. Listing all the stuff that depresses me about anti-wikileaks arguments would just depress me further.Posted by Donald Johnson at December 7, 2010 04:59 PM
GITMO BOUND.Posted by Mike Meyer at December 7, 2010 05:11 PM
I'm guessing those charges will disappear as soon as Assaunge hits Swedish airspace. And SO will Assaunge.Posted by Mike Meyer at December 7, 2010 05:19 PM
Watch how fast the Brits sell out THEIR principles against torture.Posted by Mike Meyer at December 7, 2010 05:22 PM
WE'VE got the world by the nuts with mortgage backed securities. Ain't LOVE GRAND???Posted by Mike Meyer at December 7, 2010 05:25 PM
Jon and Nell and Donald Johnson and all:
I don't even really believe there is much of a difference between an intelligence and a diplomatic operation, but I suppose the difference is whether Assange was framed by somebody like Jason Bourne. I think it hardly matters. Give Assange credit for guts, because he had to know this was coming.
To the historically interested, one of the first non-military intelligence agencies in the US was the State Department's Bureau of Secret Intelligence, which Secretary of State Robert Lansing, uncle of Alan and John Foster Dulles, had established in 1916 before Woodrow Wilson lost all trust in him. Robert Lansing was quite the anti-Bolshevik, just like his nephews. Surprise, Lansing went to work for oil interests after he left State. Back then Mexico and Russia were were the big sources of foreign oil, so having a reactionary former Secretary of State on the payroll was handy. Everything is so different now.
Our National Security bureaucracy seems fairly united these days, and it certainly spans both the intelligence and diplomatic corps. The divisions between the Cheney hardliners and the let's-just-make-money crowd could resurface at any time and eventually certainly will, but usually all those chummy opportunists play well together. Julian Assange has made himself a real pain in the ass to them all by telling the ordinary citizens of the Empire all this gossip that a few million bureaucratic insiders apparently already know--it's not like this stuff was President's Eyes Only--so Assange's problems arrived right on schedule. I read somewhere that most of this Wikileaks material was on pretty accessible State Department servers, though I was busy and didn't pay close enough attention. The real problem is obviously that The Truth needs to be kept out of sight or mobs start forming.
So, as usual, you're all probably right.Posted by N E at December 7, 2010 05:46 PM
" don't even really believe there is much of a difference between an intelligence and a diplomatic operation"
Much as I disagree with you on some issues, I think your 5:46 post is pretty much dead right from start to finish. Unfortunately.
Posted by Donald Johnson at December 7, 2010 05:59 PM
Roman Polanski, tried and convicted of truly gruesome sexual assaults, what countries did he visit when he was on the lam? Was an Interpol warrant ever issued for him?Posted by Butch in Waukegan at December 7, 2010 07:05 PM
In an interview a day or so ago (damned if I can find it now) Assange's London lawyer said that the Swedish had been saying they just wanted to get information from Assange and his lawyers had been continually offering to arrange for that to happen but didn't see why he had to be in Sweden to do it.
(Technically not connected): Oz activists and luminaries suggest our government should grow a spine.
And JA hisself has an op-ed in Murdoch's local broadsheet, The Australian. Yes, that's funny for all sorts of reasons. They by-line him as "Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief" which I imagine sparked some angry muttering in the pundits' stable.Posted by weaver at December 7, 2010 07:45 PM
*sigh* "Swedish prosecutor". I probably shoulda stuck with "Swedes".Posted by weaver at December 7, 2010 07:51 PM
Hillary isn't as good a bullshitter. Maybe it's because she knows who pays her. Maybe it's because she's not as brainwashed as Barack.Posted by LT at December 7, 2010 10:16 PM
I've been calling bullshit on the "sex by surprise" charges against JA since they first surfaced. Good to see some evidence to help confirm it:
http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtmlPosted by Coldtype at December 7, 2010 10:51 PM
HEY, think ole Julian gets ANY sleep these dayz in lockup? I wonder if he gets cuffed to the bars quite a lot of if the heat gets turned on since its winter? I wonder how OSAMA BIN LADEN doing these dayz? I wonder if George W. "Ole wanted dead or alive" Bush could go after OSAMA BIN LADEN and NOT get his ass arrested on war crimes charges after leaving the Good Ole USA?Posted by Mike Meyer at December 8, 2010 12:22 AM
Donald Johnson--that's probably because i have become jaded and cynical and lost all my faith in great Presidential leadership. Unfortunately.Posted by N E at December 8, 2010 06:25 AM
My, my. EVERYBODY'S gettin' chippy about the prospects for Hope and Change now that the velvet glove is getting threadbare and the metal fist that it previously concealed is becoming more visible.
My, my.Posted by JerseyJeffersonian at December 8, 2010 02:29 PM
Re: Donald Johnson depression over "liberal" criticism of WikiLeaks.
I'm not surprised to see opposition to WikiLeaks. Then again, I'm stuck in the past.
Remember MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail? At the time of its writing, there were plenty of middle-class (and richer) white folks who considered themselves moderates -- that's a variant of rightwinger, but I'll get to that in a second -- who objected to the "pace" of the civil rights movement. As a matter of fact, they objected to the movement in the first place, but were being disengenous (as MLK pointed out with an elegance I typically never attempt to even approach).
Here's my point: those people didn't cease to exist after the civil rights movement ended. This being the site that it is, we all know that the segregationists didn't evaporate as soon as de jure segregation was made illegal -- alas, life is not a video game and the villain's henchmen do not explode, nor does his castle crumble, as soon as he is slain. (Such a phenomenon would totally be worth the ubiquitous, pointless, fluid-filled deathtraps that would fill the landscape if video games became our reality.) This is something our mainstream media likes to pretend happened, however. There is a mysterious and completely unaddressable break between the "bad old days" and now, where the actors of that era evaporated or transformed into their modern counterparts.
More sinsterly, the "moderate" did not die a screaming death as the movement that troubled it so died a quiet one. The moderate does not stand equidistant between liberals and rightwingers; such a notion is absurd. He takes the rightwing values of selfishness and self-aggrandizement and, instead of wedding them with absolutist lies, combines them with a liberalism that only applies to himself and people he likes. So thinking of him as a "failed liberal" or a "poor liberal" is wrong. Better to think of him as a selfish person or an authoritarian with too much dignity to wallow in the blanket absurdity practiced by rightwingers.
So it doesn't surprise me to find people criticizing WikiLeaks. It also doesn't surprise me that these calls for a more, ah, "moderate" way of leaking are tantamount to ending useful leaking altogether. (Illegal leaking encouraged by the state is kosher, of course. Fuck you, Plame.) The same anti-liberal assumptions and lies apply:
• The state has our best interest at heart, and leaks prevent the state from creating policies that benefit us all (through some undisclosed mechanism).
• The state was improving things until big, bad WikiLeaks (or whoever the agitator-of-the-week is) came along and "ruined things" -- again, through an undisclosed mechanism.
• The wretched actions of WikiLeaks has murdered countless people in our government, none of whom the critic can actually name.
• WikiLeaks is responsible for each and every action the government takes in response to the leak, in a scope that can be arbitrarially extended by the critic at any time without any cause given. Did the government execute an innocent person in retaliation for the leak that it executes innocent persons? WikiLeak's fault. Again, this works for any agitator. ("Those activists were asking to get lynched by coming down here and not allowing us to break the law.")
• The truly beautiful lie is the biggest one: the government is not responsible for any wrongdoing resulting from a wrong policy during a period of time where that policy's existence is leaked to the public. For one, brief, shining moment, stretching through the media cycle, the U.S. is off the hook for deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan: it's WikiLeaks doing the killing now. This lie is implicit from the above lie; since WikiLeaks takes on all of the responsibility from the government's actions for the murderous policy itself, the government suddenly finds itself above-board on anything having to do with it. No media challenge required; nothing to see here.
You can see these lies in action if you go visit Greenwald's page on Salon. If it seems insulting, it is. It's the same insult you feel if you're black and told by whites who benefit from your suffering that you should "wait" until it's convenient for them to seek equal rights. It's the insult women were given when seeking the vote. Poor people get this slur when seeking -- well, um, anything.
What it comes down to is this: a moderate position has, at bottom, a complete disbelief in the personhood of the aggrieved party as compared to the aristocracy. The moderate may find rightwingers distasteful, hateful, racist, and factually challenged, but his own "liberalism" will be little antidote because he or she doesn't really think the persons hurt most by the state count for shit. WikiLeaks will never, under any circumstances be justified for leaking in a moderate worldview because WikiLeaks addresses the harms to humans who are not people. "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."
A rightwinger claims you have no personal sovereingty and claims the right to cut off your arm. Aghast, the moderate holds that doing so is uncouth, but complaining about it would be moreso, and settles the issue by authorizing the dismemberment of your fingers.
So remember: the King is the state, your husband represents you in the polity, employees can vote with their pocketbook just like a corporation, and blacks should settle down and stop aggravating the already overblown "negro problem." And WikiLeaks is a bunch of criminal rabble-rousers that are doing nothing useful -- unlike the useful support for Obama we are advocating. Same shit, different day.
It makes sense once you realize that you're not real people -- at least, not when compared to your betters.Posted by No One of Consequence at December 8, 2010 04:34 PM
Phil Ochs captured this fundamental hypocrisy in his song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal". The lyrics have been subsequently updated as the years have rolled by by others such as Jello Biafra and Kevin Devine.Posted by JerseyJeffersonian at December 8, 2010 07:01 PM
OK, folks, here's a nice, fat review of the whole Swedish Affair. Not including the fun conspiracy theories, I know, but what the hell.Posted by Steve Jones at December 8, 2010 07:03 PM
Thank you very much for that. That was freakn' awesome.
I love the Malcolm X line as well. As un-innocent as I am, when I heard a white person speak of Malcolm X with scorn, as a safe black target, I was actually taken aback for a moment. That sort of nastiness takes serious work.Posted by No One of Consequence at December 8, 2010 08:12 PM
Wikileaks really didn't LEAK anything. They didn't download those cables from a government computer; they only published what was leaked to them.
Daniel Ellsberg was charged and tried for espionage for leaking the Pentagon Papers, not Katharine Graham of the Washington Post for publishing them. Furthermore, I don't remember National Review William F. Buckley ever calling for the murder of Katharine Graham as National Review Jonah Goldberg is now calling for the murder of Julian Assange.Posted by Paul Avery at December 9, 2010 02:05 AM
Rightwingers called for the bombing of the New York TImes during the Bush Admin. as well, do recall. The difference is, wikileaks isn't part of the establishment and death threats to them from the government are serious. The mainstream media doesn't perceive the threat this represents to themselves, most likely because they are convinced their servitude protects them. So long as that servitude continues to increase, they're probably right.
And yes, wikileaks didn't leak anything. That's why charging them with a crime is such a bother. It is remarkable that the people whose crimes were described in the information released by wikileaks aren't even considered for investigation. There isn't even lip service paid on the notion.Posted by No One of Consequence at December 9, 2010 07:29 AM
Steve Jones
That article is very interesting. I had no idea that in Sweden there is an offense called "Rape, less serious crime" punishable by no more than four years in prison, a "crime" which apparently consists of having sex without a condom and refusing to be tested for STDs. That sounds to me more or less like "murder, less killing someone" or "bank robbery, less robbing a bank." If that article is right, I doubt anyone needed to get Jason Bourne involved to get Assange to have sex without a condom and not return a call from some woman he hardly knew. You don't need to run Wikileaks to have a reason not to return that call.
Remember, use protection people!Posted by N E at December 9, 2010 08:53 AM
Jon, can you comment on the rumors that you were forced into prostitution and drug-dealing in a desperate attempt to keep up with your skyrocketing Five Dollar Friday debts, which surely must have reached the millions since your reckless promise to double the amount for every Friday you forget to post?Posted by . at December 9, 2010 09:39 AM
Those who admire or are curious about Malcolm X, a remarkable person, can go read this long but fascinating article from The Realist written back in 1967:
If they want a shorter, more recent look, not quite as good but on a great site, they can look at:
http://www.mikegerber.com/2010/03/01/what-malcolm-x-knew-that-we-need-to-learn/Posted by N E at December 9, 2010 04:07 PM
People all over the world are protesting Assange's arrest. I wonder how much protests WE will see here in the land of The 1ST Amendment? I'm gonna guess zero.Posted by Mike Meyer at December 10, 2010 03:18 AM
Spy indictement is on its way.Posted by Mike Meyer at December 11, 2010 04:32 PM
Seeing as the Reuters overview has been mentioned, here's a timeline, that differs from the Reuters piece in some respects, from Crikey!'s European correspondent, Guy Rundle.Posted by weaver at December 13, 2010 06:40 AM


text: The loss of Britain's American colonies is often blamed on George III, and he has been much reviled through the years. But was he really a brutish hypocrite - or just a little dull? Professor John Cannon describes how historians are now taking a more rounded view of this maligned monarch.


text:
Right: Jiminy Cricket's Moonlit Rendezvous by Douglas Littlejohn. In 1943 the Lysanders of 161 Squadron were commanded by Squadron Leader Hugh Verity, who flew many of the operations in his Lysander V9673, nicknamed Jiminy Cricket. Prints available from Tangmere Aviation Museum Shop. Picture courtesy Dr J. Tanner.
During World War Two, Tangmere was an important base for fighter squadrons involved in the Battle of Britain as well as a forward base for 161 Squadron flying hundreds of Lysander missions into occupied France.
Amidst the numerous exhibits, recreations and hangers of aircraft, visitors to the Museum can view a permanent exhibition that tells the base's history of involvement with wartime SOE and SIS missions.
The HQ and nerve centre for the secret pick up operations was at Tangmere Cottage. Incoming SIS agents went to nearby Bignor Manor. Here agents would report before being transferred to London for debriefing. Photographs and archives at the museum deal with the story of this forward SOE HQ and visitors can also track the course of wartime missions by studying a large map illustrating some of the locations used for collecting and delivering agents.
Left: apart from the impressive hangars of historic military aircraft Tangmere Aviation Museum is a treasure trove of artefacts illustrating the long and colourful history of the former RAF base. Picture courtesy Tangmere Military Aviation Museum.
The exhibition also features working models, dioramas and recreations as well as parachutes, escape maps and a range of specialist communication apparatus used on perilous wartime assignments.
A recent series of exciting new acquisitions means Tangmere has been able to expand its SOE section. Featured exhibits now include the Luger pistol taken by another famous SOE heroine, Odette Churchill from the Kommandant of Ravensbruck concentration camp after her dramatic liberation from there in 1945.
Another important museum for learning about covert operations during World War Two is the Carpetbagger Aviation Museum in Harrington, Northamptonshire. Based on the original site of the aerodrome the museum tells the story of the American 801st/492nd Carpetbagger Group.
Right: the Carpetbagger Museum is an important holding of unique artefacts relating to the base's role during World War Two. Many of the rare items have been donated by veterans.
The so-called Carpetbagger Missions were responsible for thousands of covert operations to deliver agents and supplies to resistance groups in occupied Europe.
This highly secret base flew out 29,000 containers, 10,000 packages and 995 agents (including Violette Szabo's last ill-fated mission in June 1944) during World War Two. The missions resulted in the loss of seventy aircraft with most crews being killed.
The museum is housed in the original operations building at the airfield's administration site and illustrates the story through documents, photographs, relics, recreations and uniforms.
Left: as it was: during the war the base was responsible for thousands of covert missions into Nazi occupied Europe.
Other exhibits and displays illustrate the secret work of SOE from their RAF base at Tempsford and the cold war roles of the airfield at Harrington where the intermediate range ballistic missile system or Thor rockets were based.
The museum also retains the paymaster's Nissen hut, now converted into housing for the Northants Aviation Society Museum. Here visitors can examine the remains of recovered World War II aircraft and other fascinating items of equipment and memorabilia.
Right:a permanent memorial to the agents, soldiers and airmen of Harrington who lost their lives during World War Two, the site draws veterans and their families from all over the world. Picture courtesy the Carpetbagger Aviation Museum.
Offering a unique insight into covert wartime operations, the Museum serves as a memorial and place of pilgrimage for the men and women who served there during World War Two.
Return to the trail: SOE against the Third Reich


text:
Sometimes you just want chocolate.
After dinner, Emma got a craving for chocolate chip cookies. She found a recipe, sweet-talked her brother into taking her to the grocery store for chocolate chips, and set to work.
Before long, the cookies were out of the oven, and the kids were making them disappear--fast. Meanwhile, I was trying to come up with a low fat treat that I could make without another run to the store. These are very sweet, but at least they have no added fat. And they taste great with a mug of cold soy milk.
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
8 oz lite firm silken tofu
1/4 cup vanilla soy yogurt
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup maple syrup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and whisk together. Combine wet ingredients, including tofu, in a separate bowl, and blend with immersion blender (or blend in regular blender). Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir to combine. Spread batter in a nonstick 9" X 13" cake pan. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool in pan briefly, then cut into bars.


text:
Timothy Brunker, of Pikesville, Md., assistant professor of Chemistry, has been selected as the third recipient of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in Biological and Physical Sciences. His three-year appointment began on August 17.
As holder of a Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair, Brunker will receive a monetary award of $15,000 for each of three years that may be used for, but is not limited to, a summer faculty stipend, professional travel, research equipment and supplies, and undergraduate student research support.
Brunker holds both the Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Chemistry from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Before arriving at Towson University in August 2008, Brunker served as lecturer in chemistry at Boston University, as a visiting assistant professor of chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Mass.) and as a postdoctoral research scholar at Dartmouth College.
Brunker's research focuses on the synthesis of novel chiral metal complexes and their potential applications as chiroptical molecular switches. Chiral molecules are those that can exist in both left-handed and right-handed forms — they behave identically in almost every way, except they can display different chemical properties if they interact with other chiral molecules. This behavior allows the design and synthesis of chiral molecules that can be switched back and forth, making them potentially useful for the storage of digital information.
As one of the Fisher Endowed Chairs, Brunker intends to use the money to support two projects on novel chiral metal complexes he initiated since arriving at Towson. He also plans to use the money to provide undergraduate student stipends for summer research, and to purchase equipment which will expand the type of experiments and measurements that he, his students and colleagues are able to perform.
The Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences was established in June 2005 as part of a $10.2 million gift to the College of Science and Mathematics from the Robert M. Fisher Foundation. Its purpose is to honor the memory of the Fisher family by incorporating research opportunities into the undergraduate learning experience through the support of the scholarly growth of highly promising faculty researchers in the physical and biological sciences who are in the early stages of their careers at Towson.


text:
Let's start with some of the basics!
1. Who can become Foster Parents?
- Adults (In Alabama, it's 19 years old and up)
- Married Couples
- Singles
2. What is required to become a Foster Parent?
- Background Checks
- Child Abuse and Neglect Forms
- Home Study and Home Visit by the Social Worker
- Classes (In AL you are required to complete a 10-week, 30 hour class)
- Your home meets the state standards for eligibility to foster
3. What are the types of Foster Parents?
- Respite Parents - Provide short-term care for foster children. Respite trained foster parents can take emergency placements for a few days, weekend, or a week. When full-time foster parents need a break, have an emergency, or need to leave the state and are unable to take the foster children, Respite Parents provide care for their foster children.
- Full-time Foster Parents - Licensed to provide care for foster children in their home. The number of children allowed in the home is dependent on the size of the home and number of bedrooms.
4. Why are children placed in Foster Care?
- Neglect - When Social Services investigates a family for neglect allegations and the children are not in imminent danger, then they will often try to put services in place to allow the biological family to continue raising the children. If those services are not successful and there is no immediate or extended family available to care for them, then the children are removed from the home and put into foster care.
- Abuse - Physical and sexual. Allegations of abuse that have been confirmed result in the child being removed from the home.
- Drug or Alcohol Abuse - If the child is born to a mother addicted to drugs and tests positive for the drug, they are taken immediately from the mother and put into foster care.
- If a biological parent has all of their children currently in foster care and they become pregnant again, the child will immediately be placed into foster care upon their birth. (In the state of Alabama).
Foster Care Q&A Part 2 coming soon!
If you are a foster parent in another state and want to add or clarify anything, please email me at leslieharris77 (at) gmail (dot) com. Would love to have your input.
Have more questions after reading this? Leave them in the comments below or send me an email!