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From Charred Marble
Muad'Dib stood on the balcony of the residence he had been given as Vice-Speaker of the Serpent Council. Resting his hands on the balustrade, he looked out at the city around him. It was very early morning, and the sun had not even risen fully yet. But from here he could see so much of the city, hundreds upon hundreds of buildings. And yet the sights of the city still paled in comparison to the magnificance of the desert, at least to the eyes of a Fremen. He would have turned away from the large balcony then, and returned to begin whatever work was required of him today, but a voice convinced him to continue looking at the slowly rising sun in the distance "It looks so beautiful the way the light dances across the surface of the buildings."
Muad'Dib replied "Yes, it does Liana. I'm glad you are here to see this." Muad'Dib thought about it and he truly was. He had managed to convince his wife to come to Verdonsk with their children. He had said that they should see the city at least once, although that was not his only reason for wanting them here. A darkness was coming, and here he would be sure his family would be safe. No enemy had ever breached the walls of Verdonsk. He had even brought a bodyguard of thirty-two Fedaykin with him.
The rest of the Fremen tribe had been warned, as had other neighboring tribes, that war may come to Ahm-Shere. They would get the children, the women that did not fight and the old into hiding while the bulk of the Fremen warriors did what they do best, fight.
Valek, General of Ahm-Shere and the ranking member of the Ahm-Sheran royal family, was nervous. He had received no contact from his older brother Erkenbrand III for weeks; something unusual for the Lord-General, who alwasy sought to keep in touch with his family.
However, Valek and Erkenbrand had had a broken relationship for years. Ever since Gilint, their older brother was murdered in his sleep, Erkenbrand had been suspicious of Valek ever since. Ever since Valek had spoken to him days before their brother had been killed in his sleep; like a snake.
"Imagine the power… imagine the glory… Erkenbrand III of Ahm-Shere; the greatest Lord-General this land has ever seen…"
"That power is one too great for me to burden upon myself, brother," Erkenbrand replied. The chamber was dimly-lit and cold, adding to the feeling on tension that enveloped the entire room.
"It would be easy… we could rule together," Valek had replied. "One thrust of a knife, and all of this could be your's, or our's if thou prefers!"
"You would ask me to slay my own brother? What kind of sick bastard are you?"
Valek paused, thinking gravely. "If you will not assume what if rightly your's, I will take that power from you. I will… kill… Gilint, and be crowned… Lord-General…" he trailed off, his voice sickingly twisted by the prospect of power.
"Bastard!" cried Erkenbrand shrilly, throwing a punch with his right hand. Valek was immediately on the floor, as if attracted by some mystical entity. Slowly but surely, a red liquid began to trickle down his nostrils and drips from his lip. Valek looked in Erkenbrand's eyes, and he saw fear.
"Coward," jeered his brother. "One ill turn deserves another. Both you and I know that crown is rightfully your's!"
Two days later, Gilint was found dead and Valek had fled the country, only to return a month later.
Morning had arrived fully now, and Muad'Dib would need to begin his daily duties. As he finished putting on his belt, along with the scabbard and sheath which contained his scimitar and Crysknife, he turned towards the door. Liana sat on the edge of the bed, watching him prepare to leave. Muad'Dib was about to leave when he said "Where is Jora?"
Liana replied "She is looking around the city."
Muad'Dib said with a look of worry on his face "What?"
Liana walked calmly over to him and placed a hand gently on his shoulder "Do not worry, two of the Fedaykin are with her, she is safe."
Muad'Dib relaxed a little "Well, as long as the Fedaykin are with her. I do wish she would not be so inquisitive though."
Liana smiled, kissing him on the cheek and walking away to check on their younger child Baru "She's far too much like her father Muad'Dib. You might as well ask that the sun does not rise or the sands not to shift."
Muad'Dib nodded with a smile as he watched his wife leave the room. Liana was wiser than him, of that Muad'Dib had no doubt.
A day had passed uneventfully in the grand city of Verdonsk. Still no word had reached them of what was happening in the White Realm. Still no word from Lord-General Erkenbrand. Muad'Dib wondered what was going on in that far away country, even though part of it did border Ahm-Shere it seemed so far removed. He had never seen the White Realm, or in fact any other land, other than Ónk and the Empire of Maga Khan; both causes of many of Ahm-Shere's darker times.
As he walked out of the large hallway of his residence, across the white marble floor and passed the rounded columns that formed part of the doorway into the small courtyard beyond, he felt his neck and rubbed idly at the red mark hidden beneath his cloak. It was an ever present reminder of the Desert Fever, the mark would never fade.
As he walked through the courtyard he saw his wife Liana, and their two children Jora and Baru sitting in the shaded area. Several of the Fedaykin stood on guard in the courtyard, ensuring the safety of his family. Rather than join his family, Muad'Dib had to leave, there was much to do. He opened the iron-wrought gate in the wall, stepping through into the street on the other side. He was about to close the gate when he noticed Garven'Tor quickly and silently join him. He waited for his friend and comrade to walk through and then closed the gate. Together they walked off in the direction of the royal palace. Muad'Dib would check and see if the royal family had received news of Erkenbrand before he did anything else today. Silently the two Fremen walked through the streets.
Valek stood silently upon the battlements of Verdonsk. He regularly asked guards to report to the city wall to ask for messengers, but none such had been delivered.
Muad'Dib and Garven'Tor arrived at the royal palace and approached the nearest guards. Muad'Dib nodded to them and said "I must speak with one of the royal family, take us to them."
Knowing Muad'Dib by both sight and reputation, the guards saluted and one of them led the two Fremen inside the palace to find one of the royal family.
An hour had passed since Valek had stood as a solitary figure atop the city battlements. Now he was within the confines of his home; the Royal Palace of the Lord General. With Erkenbrand's departure to the White Realm, Valek was by default put at charge of the royal line, although Maud'Dib was in total command of the city itself.
It was then when that same man entered Valek's chambers.
Muad'Dib nodded in greeting to Valek. He then turned to the guard and Garven'Tor motioning for them to wait outside. The two men, one clad in the armour of the city, the other in the cloak, chainmail and bamboo of the Fremen, closed the doors and waited outside on guard.
Muad'Dib turned back to Valek and said "Has there been any word from your brother Valek?"
"Not a single word," informed Valek, sighing. "Kirus the messenger bird has not been seen on our borders for a month."
Muad'Dib said gravely "I find that I am worried by this silence. We need to know what is happening in the White Realm, what Lord-General Erkenbrand has found there." Then, almost to himself, but still clear enough to be heard, he muttered "I fear the meaning of my dream may hold great peril, not just for the White Realm, but all lands, Ahm-Shere included."
"Ahm-Shere shall not fall whilst brave men like yourself and my brother defend her beauty," Valek replied, trying to contain his anger. Though not an aggressive person, Valek was easily offended and had a great love for his kin and country. For someone to question the future of his lands was regarded to the Lord-Commander as blasphemous.
He smiled in apology. "I am sorry for my tone, Muad'Dib. Times are troubling me and I am growing old. I have done some evil things in my youth and now my age has caught up with me. But I can assure you," he insisted, his tone muted but clear; "my spirit remains undeterred!"
Muad'Dib nodded slowly, wondering for a moment what Valek truly meant. He then replied "It is good to hear your spirit is still strong. Our spirit and will is what makes us truly strong, that more than a strong swordarm is why Ahm-Sherans not only survive here, but flourish. When this threat arrives, I think that both shall be tested though, but as always we will outlast our foes."
He looked at Valek and said "A great man once said, never forget where you came from, or you will stumble on the road to where you are going."
"Ahm-Shere may have its foundations torn in two, but the fortress cities of Verdonsk and Remmus must now become sanctuaries to all in the country," Valek said. "Order for all to move to the fortress cities immediately; war is around the corner."
Muad'Dib shook his head "No, not all. I have already sent word to many tribes. They will go into hiding when the threat comes, but they will not go to the cities. They find no sanctuary there, and have places far more cunning to wait. But the word will be sent to those that need the safety of these walls." He turned slightly, looking around the room for a moment. Then the Fremen chieftain continued "The warriors of the Fremen and other tribes will bide their time in the desert, as they have always done, and strike down all those who would seek to invade these lands, all those who would seek to defile them."
"When the time comes, I shall marshall all of Ahm-Shere and march on any threat to my country. But, that decision is done to you, Muad'Dib," Valek.
"What would a Lord have me do?"
Muad'Dib replied sharply "I am no Lord! I hold no claim on land or wealth. Such things mean nothing to the desert and nothing to the Fremen."
Taking a deep breath he said "Have the armies stand to alert. When they are needed, they must answer the call. Empty the towns and villages; they will require the cities as refuge. I will finish sending word to the tribes of Ahm-Shere. Some may seek the cities, but most prefer the space to fight their own way. Beyond that, there is nothing we can do until we get word from Lord-General Erkenbrand."
"It is with a heavy heart that I feel the Lord General will send no message," Valek replied.
Muad'Dib nodded and said "Perhaps he will not. Perhaps there will be no need for a message and this threat, whatever it is, will pass over Ahm-Shere or be so focussed on other lands as to be blind to us. But if Erkenbrand learns of anything which could threaten Ahm-Shere he will send word. We do not know what is happening in the White Realm, or why their allies would go to war with them."
Muad'Dib thought for a moment and then spoke "Regardless of what threat could be approaching, or what is happening in other lands, Ahm-Shere must not appear weak. The armies should be on their guard at all times. We must be vigilent for this threat, or threats better known to us. If Ahm-Shere is attacked, it could stir the Lizards of Onk or the forces of Maga Khan to join in."
Muad'Dib looked at Valek for a few seconds, then he nodded in salute and said "I will go to the city gates and continue spreading the word to the tribes. Good day Valek." With that he turned and made his way out of the room, Garven'Tor falling into step beside him as he left the palace and headed to the city gates.
Valek watched as the Fremen walked out of his quarters. Valek had no liking or trust of the man, but that was not something he held against people. Valek had learned the hard way not to trust anyone, especially yourself. He still had the scars on his right arm to prove that point.
Valek thought. It was all he had time for. A busy man, Valek often troubled himself by biting off more than he could. Whilst more of a devious business man than a noble lord of a large, wealthy realm, Valek was a dependable man who often put work before other commitments. As one of the Governors of Ahm-Shere, he often participated in the politics of the country. Despite his anti-social impression to the casual eye, Valek, much like his brother (and the rest of his family for that matter) was an easy-going and popular person. He had a great deal of respect and love for those he considered to be friends, and it times of war the number of men who fell under either category had decreased dramatically.
Valek stared into the oblivion that he often referred to as his mind. Thoughts ricocheted about his brain as his face lost all expression. His vacant look was contributed to by the dim morning light; even for summer in Ahm-Shere, the morn was unusually dark. The moon was still visible in the sky which was ice-cold.
Something was wrong with the world.
Muad'Dib tried to forget talking with Valek. As soon as he had met Erkenbrand's brother he had taken an instant dislike for the man. Muad'Dib had always been a good judge of character, something which had led to his widespread reputation amongst many others in Ahm-Shere, both of the tribal leaders and those of the towns and cities as a wise chieftain. He considered Valek untrustworthy, shifty, underhanded, and not honourable.
He arrived at the city gates, seeing the busy atmosphere. Garven'Tor and Muad'Dib gathered several messengers and began to give them their instructions. They would need to make haste across much of Ahm-Shere to the various tribes and pass on Muad'Dib's message. All the tribes south of the fort of Gelsiner had already been warned, but only some tribes north of the fort had so far been told.
Valek, the thirty-ninth Lord Commander of Ahm-Shere sat silently on an armchair when his servant approached him. He was caryring a silver tray. Sat at the centre of the platter was a single golden goblet, which was encrusted with precious stones from across the known world. Inside was a tick red liquid. Valek took the wine and drank heartily. He drained the goblet immediately and placed it back on the tray. The servent was about to leave before Valek spoke.
"Wait," he commanded. "What is your name, slave?"
The servant was confused; never before had Valek, a man of such power ever spoke to him. "Jalal, sir," he said. His brow was frowning.
"Jalal, I have no need for slaves. I do, however, have need of a messenger. You are to visit Grathnjir of Remmus. You are to bring him to my quarters. That is my frist missions to you."
Vermen Kabal finally arrived at the city-gates of Verdonsk. He arrived his powerful warhorse slowly through the crowd, watching the busy people walking in either direction. He pulled his thick desert cloak higher up to cover himself from a wind blowing a thick sky of sand through the crowd.
He eyed the people of Ahm-Shere carefullty below the shadows of the thick, dark scarf covering his head. He had to talk to someone who could tell him the laws of his city, he though as he slowly removed his hand from the spear hanging across his saddle as he felt the eyes of some of the guards of the gate upon him.
Muad'Dib noticed the stranger arriving through the gates. Nothing unusual about that, he thought. Travellers arrived in Verdonsk all the time but still, there was something about this man which caught the Fremen's attention. And he noticed that some of the guards were eyeing the outsider cautiously. Muad'Dib walked over to the guards, and said "Keep to your posts, I'll handle the newcomer."
He walked over to the man on the horse, Garven'Tor keeping a respectful distance, but had his hand resting on the hilt of his scimitar beneath his cloak. Muad'Dib said to the man "Welcome to Verdonsk traveller."
Vermen halted his horse with small movement with his legs before removing his scarf. He felt it would be wise to maybe show this man some honor, he seemed important. And where Vermen Kabal hailed from it was an act of utter dishonor hiding your face meeting a man for the first time.
Removing his scarf revealed a deep tan in his skin. His hair was short, thick and curly, though his cheek was shaved and showed no sign of facial hair. He nodded to the man slowly. "Thank you, my friend," speaking in a dialect of the common tongue hailing from the south of the realm of Ahm-Shere.
Muad'Dib followed suit and pulled the hood of his cloak down to reveal his own face. His black hair was straight and short, and he had a full but short beard. Muad'Dib spoke again "My name is Muad'Dib. I am chieftain of the Fremen tribe of Ahm-Shere, as well as Vice-Speaker of the Serpent Council."
"The Fremen tribe," Vermen Kabal spoke, more to himself than to the stranger. "My name is Kabela Achman. Nothing but a lone wanderer from the south, seeking to offer others my services. In a city such as this I hope that they might be of use to someone."
Muad'Dib nodded and replied "And what services do you offer, lone wanderer from the south?"
The lips of Vermen Kandar curved into a smile as he patted the spear hanging across his saddle, and gestured towards the quiver of arrows and short throwing spears he also carried with him.
"A mercenary?" Muad'Dib asked with a slight smile, "Unless you just sell weapons."
"These tools are not for sale," Verman laughed as he let his fingers run across the shaft of the spear. "I value my own craft far too highly to put them in hands that wants to misuse them. No, my friend, these are my weapons and my tools. A mercenary you might call me, but I myself, I call myself a weapon master."
Muad'Dib said "A weapon master. I'm sure you will find someone seeking your services here then. There are many taverns and Inns within the city if you are looking for somewhere to stay and stable your horse. I would recommend the Yawning Lion Inn."
"Thank you my lord," Vermen nodded to Muad'Dib, and covered himself with the scarf before continuing to ride into the city.
Muad'Dib watched the man ride off, further into the large city. He pulled his hood back up to cover his face from the sun and said to Garven'Tor "Why does everyone keep calling me a lord? Do I look like some pampered merchant who has never lifted a sword?"
Garven'Tor, his closest friend since childhood replied with a wide grin "Perhaps you've spent too long in this city getting soft, my lord."
Muad'Dib laughed and responded "Thank you for that old friend. I'm sure you can think on that while you are scrubbing the wall clean tonight." He started to walk back towards his residence to see what parchments and messages awaited his attention.
Garven'Tor scowled slightly and then walked after his friend saying "Which wall, the outer wall or the residence wall?"
"No, no, Garv. The city walls." Muad'Dib said over his shoulder with a laugh.
Vermen rode far into the city and found the inn Muad'Dib had talked about, the Yawning Lion Inn. He stood outside of it for a long time before turning , looking around and slowly carrying on into the city.
This he did until he found another suitable inn, a little north of the grand palace. There he entered and presented himself with the same name he had used when speaking to Muad'Dib, Kabela Achman.
Soon he sat on his room, looking from his window. He had a good view towards the palace of the city.
Valek stood opposite his tutor; his sword raised to a high guard. He took one step forward; the man opposite took one back. The syncronised movement of the pair was down to years of martial training. Soon, one would strike.
Valek lunged with his blade, biting at the flesh of the tutor. In reply, the black-skinned man swung wildly, forcing the Lord-Commander back. Neatly, Valek swung his blade in an arc before bring his blade down with such for his tutor was knocked to the ground. Preparing for the kill, Valek hesitated. With sufficient time, the tutor kicked Valek's knee, giving himself allowance to reach his weapon. Rolling across the ground, he leapt to his feet as Valek tightly held his injured knee; blood escaping from the cut.
In a fit of anger, Valek leapt forward. The tutor stood back and planted a kick into the man's midriff, flooring him instantly.
"Your anger needs to be controlled!" he declared defiantly. "Eight years of practise, and yet you cannot contain your emotion. There is no place on the battlefield for you, Valek, save behind your own bodygua…"
The tutor's voice fell quiet as his head tumbled from his shoulders and onto the floor. Moments later, the body fell to one side as Valek wiped the blood on his sweaty garments.
Vermen had cleaned himself up, and rearranged his room so he was more prepared for what could come. From the innkeeper he had learned news. Most interesting was the fact that Lord General Erkenbrand the third had left for the White Realm a long time. That meant Lord Commander Valek, his brother, was in charge of the city. Knowing that, Vermen left the inn and made his way through the busy and dusty streets of Verdonsk, towards the palace.


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Getting Here
Edinburgh has a busy airport with over 25 airlines offering direct and connecting flights to and from more than 100 UK, European and international destinations. For those on budget, both Ryanair and Easyjet offer cheap fares from London and several other western and central european capitals.
For a list of destinations and airlines operating from Edinburgh Airport click here.
Edinburgh airport is located 8 miles (12 km) west of the capital and there are a range of transport options for travelling to and from the city centre. The Airlink 100 express bus service operates a 24-hour shuttle service between Edinburgh Airport and Waverley Station, departing every 10 minutes at peak times with a journey time of about 25 minutes. You can also use the new tram line which runs between Edinburgh Airport and the city centre. Tickets can be purchased from vending machines and you can also pay by card.
Edinburgh is connected to an excellent train network and the Waverley Station is situated right in the heart of the city centre. For best value buy your ticket online well in advance.
East Coast – for routes from London via the East Coast main line.
Virgin Trains – for routes from Birmingham via the Lake District, Carlisle and Lockerbie.
First TransPennine Express – for routes from Manchester and Manchester Airport, via the Lake District, Carlisle and Lockerbie.
Cross Country Trains – for routes from south west England via Birmingham and Newcastle.
First Scotrail – for all routes from around Scotland.
Bus / car
Megabus – cheap fares from all across the UK
National Express – national bus network
Scottish Citylink – for routes from Scotland
Stagecoach – for routes from Scotland
If you are planning on coming with your own transport, Edinburgh has easy access to the Scottish motorway network.
Use the route planner for further instructions.

subset: commoncrawl


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Some of these herbs, like basil, are suckers for the sunlight and need to go on the windowsill or a sunny area, but the rest of these plants can be grown in shadier conditions. Plants produce chlorophyll from the sun, so try to let all these herbs get a bit of sun.
Growing StrongAfter reading this article you won't need to spend your money on store-bought herbs that add to your meals. These herbs have medicinal properties like antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, these herbs fight different diseases from halitosis all the way to Alzheimer's.
What are the herbs you'll be planting? Let's take a look:
Basil – antibacterial, anti-stress, fights colds and infections, relieves throat and mucus
Cilantro – antioxidants, antibacterial, antifungal, detox, heart-health, blood-sugar control
Parsley – anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, aids digestion, prevents bladder infection
Lemon balm – anti-anxiety, sleep and digestive aid, antibacterial, fights colds and fevers
Chives – reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, the benefits of onions without the tears
Ginger – anti-inflammatory, cold and flu prevention, digestion aid, cardiovascular support
Mint – weight loss and digestion aid, detox, cancer preventative, antibacterial, and whitens teeth
They've got different sunlight needs, but all need a proper planter. Make sure you've got something that holds water but drains properly, because it will be inside. Once you've got a planter you're ready to get gardening.
BasilBasil is a forgiving plant that grows fairly easily. This plant needs a planet with good drainage and lots of sunlight. It's a windowsill plant, as long as your windowsill gets lots of light, otherwise scope out the sunniest place inside and grow there.
Slow-release fertilizers are important as well, and the same is true about pruning, keeping insects away, and watering (especially in hot weather). The easiest way to get basil to grow is by starting with a starter plant, but if you grow from seeds the plant should still thrive. You'll just have to wait a little longer to cultivate.
CilantroCilantro likes a bit of a cooler temperature than most herbs. Find an east or west-facing window and cilantro will be happy. An annual that grows best in free-draining potting soil, all you've really got to do is water this herb and it will grow.
A thorough watering is more important than frequent watering, so make sure that water drains out the drainage holes each time you water. The plant should only be watered when the soil is dry to the tough, which happens more in summer months. Cilantro doesn't like being transplanted, so if you start inside–stay inside.
ParsleyA great source of vitamin C and fiber, parsley likes the sun. Find a south-facing window where the herb can get 6-8 hours of sunlight a day. Turn the pot every few days so the plant doesn't lean toward the sun.
Although forgiving, parsley can wilt if overwatered – but that rarely happens in a sunny spot. What's more likely is your pot doesn't have proper drainage. If you notice the plant's leaves are becoming dry, put the planter on some pebbles ensuring water drains onto them. The pebbles hold heat well and, with water, will create humidity – parsley's friend.
Planting parsley in the kitchen gives it the benefits of steam and humidity created from cooking.
Lemon BalmThis plant isn't too picky about sunlight, but try to place it somewhere it will get up to 5 hours of direct sunlight. If not, no big deal – your plant should do well in low-light situations. They also want free-draining potting soil and need to be watered regularly, but not daily. Up to three times a week will satisfy lemon balm. Lemon balm recovers from wilting quickly, so it's better to air on the side of dry.
Once it is time to harvest, never remove more than 25 percent of the leaves at once. If the leaves start to brown it could mean the plant is in a spot that's too draft and cool, too sunny, or it isn't getting enough water.
ChivesGiven the right conditions you can get your chives to grow all year long. Starting from seed can be aggravating, especially if you're new to gardening, because the sprouts are so tiny and can take a long time to grow into a cultivable plant.
Chives like the sun and should only be watered when dry to the touch. Any sunny window will do. Fill a 6-inch clay pot with pre-moistened well-draining potting soil. Spread the seeds and cover with a ¼ inch of the pre-moistened soil. Place in a sunny spot.
You can moisten the seeds until the germinate with a mist of water, weak plant food, or weak compost tea. Chives appreciate a misting every now-and-then.
GingerA little spicier than the rest, ginger hates frost, direct sun, and strong winds – so it's perfect to plant indoors. This root typically grows under the shady canopies of tropical trees, but inside can work nearly anywhere – as long as it's not hot and sunny.
Plant the rhizome (or root) a few inches deep in a mix of compost and potting soil, and keep it aways from chilly drafts, like open doors or windows. Indirect light and about 70 degrees is what ginger really wants. Mist the plant to keep humidity up.
The best time to harvest is when the leaves have died down. This takes up to 10 months, but is totally worth it when you've cultivated your first plant.
MintThey say there's almost no scenario in which this herb can't grow. It likes potting soil and regular water, but you could plant mint in cement and it would probably still grow. Most varieties of mint grow wildly with only a bit of sun, so put this plant anywhere in the house that you want a little greenery and a refreshing taste when you walk by.
Although, you'll need to pinch the plant back every few weeks or it will take over your entire house.


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Thursday, January 7, 2016
Augusta.... Wow
Posted by Peg - Happy In Quilting at 9:25 AM
10 comments:
- AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 10:15 AM
Lovely pics of lovely times Peg,Thankyou for sharing xxReplyDelete
Lovely spot. You sure are clocking up the Ks... Bet you are finding some yummy eating places too.ReplyDelete
How beautiful. Loved your quokka encounter last post too xxReplyDelete
Awesome lighthouse!ReplyDelete
It looks a tad windy there. What a lovely spot. You are bringing back memories of our trip over there about 20 year ago.ReplyDelete
Awesone day....awesone tines!ReplyDelete
how lovely - such blue blue oceanReplyDelete
Great photos...wonderful by the ocean.ReplyDelete
Stunning views.ReplyDelete
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment, I do enjoy reading them all...take care, keep safe, happy quilting .. Peg
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The Quilts of Barbara Ann Weber Leak Opening Reception
Glen Ellyn | Website
This event occurred in the past.
Map | Find Parking
The Glen Ellyn Historical Society presents a special exhibit showcasing the extraordinary handmade quilts by the late Barbara Leak, a Glen Ellyn resident. Come view this outstanding collection of traditional quilts and enjoy this wine and cheese reception. The exhibit continues on display every Wednesday and Saturday from 1:30-4 p.m. through June 4.


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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
My home state
Whereas I am a native New Yorker and have lived many different places, I've called New Jersey my home for more than two decades. Both New York and New Jersey are known for their classic diners, so Outlawz' challenge was the perfect excuse to use this wonderful Diner (SKU:83-18) stamp by Rubbernecker.
The diner was stamped and colored with Copic markers. Spica Glitter pen was used to highlight the image. I used my craft knife to cut out the windows.
I then stamped image onto white cardstock and then stamped just the window area onto red gingham cardstock. I colored the white cardstock windows with B000 Copic marker and clear Spica Glitter pen to make 'em sparkly. I fussy cut the gingham curtains and adhered 'em to the colored windows. I adhered a strip of ink jet transparency over the curtained windows, then adhered the diner over that piece. The entire diner was masked and a cloudy sky and a grassy lawn were airbrushed with the Copic Airbrush system.
My husband gave me a New Jersey map for the cause. I love using old maps for my crafting, so I swipe 'em whenever I can. (big grin).
The funky 50's-ish sign is a chipboard piece from the now defunct Deluxe Cuts company. I painted it with Picket Fence paint dabber, used Doodlebug rub-ons for "from" and used QuicKutz Khaki dies for the the lettering. A ring was used to circle my town and mini Khaki and Khaki shadow dies were used to cut the gingham paper.
The gingham cardstock may or may not be from AMuse. I got it from my now defunct LSS, which I miss.
Thanks for visiting today!
I shall be entering this card in the following challenges.
• "Where in the World" challenge
• Moxie Fab World's Gingham challenge
9 comments:
Aw, Kathi, what a neat idea to use the map for your background! The diner is darling, with so many little details. (That would have driven me up the wall!) I love the gingham you used throughout. Great card! :^)ReplyDelete
Awesome card! I love the map background, diner stamp, and the greetings from sign. This card is totally Jersey. Gorgeous work!ReplyDelete
Awesome card. Love the map paper. Did you use a die for the New Jersey?ReplyDelete
Fantastic card, Kathi! Love the map and the cute diner! Great details! Thanks for playing along with the Copic/Promarker Party Challenge!ReplyDelete
Fab card Kathi, so glad you joined in with the challenges. I love your map and that diner stamp is great!ReplyDelete
Your image is terrific. And I have seen a number of those diners up and down the mid Atlantic area. Love the little curtains. Thanks for joining the party at The OutlawzReplyDelete
Fab New Jersey card, Kathi! Love the diner with the gingham curtains and your map background! Not sure I'll be able to play in this Outlawz celebration :(ReplyDelete
Very cool and totally spot on NJ card!! Love it and love the diners around this state too :)ReplyDelete
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- Research
- Open Access
Absolute joint moments: a novel image similarity measure
- Hrvoje Kalinić1Email author,
- Sven Lončarić1 and
- Bart Bijnens2
© Kalinić et al.; licensee Springer. 2013
- Received: 22 November 2012
- Accepted: 3 April 2013
- Published: 26 April 2013
In this paper, we propose a novel approach for estimating image similarity. This measure is of importance in assessing image correspondence or image alignment and plays an important role in image registration. Currently, this problem is approached rather one-dimensionally since most registration methods consider the problem as either mono- or multi-modal. This perspective leads to the selection of some form of either the correlation coefficient (CC) or mutual information (MI) as image similarity measure (ISM). We propose a more generic framework for ISM construction, based on absolute joint moments, which can be considered as a generalization of CC. Within this framework, we propose a specific ISM that provides a different trade-off between MI and CC in terms of performance and computational cost for general registration problems. To illustrate this, we compared CC and MI with the proposed ISM and performed extensive experiments with regard to accuracy, robustness and speed. The evaluation demonstrated that the proposed absolute joint moments is a good combination of properties of CC and MI, with respect to speed and performance.
- Probability Density Function
- Mutual Information
- Image Registration
- Geometric Transformation
- Average Absolute Error
1 Introduction
Image registration is an optimization process that utilizes a similarity measure to find the optimal alignment of two images. The registration accuracy depends on the selection of the optimization algorithm and geometric transformation as well as on the definition of the similarity measure. Therefore, it is essential to use a suitable similarity measure for a given problem. The selection of an image similarity measure, especially in the case of medical image registration, is usually reduced down to the question whether a multi- or mono-modal registration is required. This black-and-white perspective leads to well-known answers and results in the selection of correlation coefficient (CC) for mono-modal registration and mutual information (MI) for multi-modal registration.
However, the problem of registration can be approached from several perspectives, and often, the registration of the same two images can be performed using different methodological approaches. For example, Zitova et al. in [1] distinguish not only a multi-modal approach but also a multi-view or multi-temporal approach. Similarly, Maintz et al. in [2], classify registration not only from a intra-/inter-modality perspective but also from a intra-/inter-subject perspective. Perhaps for this reason, many other image similarity measure (ISM) emerged over time (see Section 2).
In the following sections, we propose a wider framework for the construction of image similarity measures. Within this framework, we propose a specific ISM to show that, when constructed in this way, it combines beneficial properties of the two most used ones: CC and MI.
Whatever similarity measure is used for image registration, it has to satisfy one basic condition - at the exact location of the correct alignment of two images, the similarity (measure) has to be maximal. To find the maximum, the image registration incorporates an optimization algorithm, which iteratively calculates a similarity measure. The number of calculations may thus easily reach a number of a few thousands, especially if the geometric transformation is non-linear. Therefore, the complexity of the similarity measure also plays an important role in registration methods. For this reason, in our experiments, we measure the performance of the similarity measure in terms of accuracy, robustness and speed.
2 Background
The purpose of an ISM is to quantify the similarity between two images, usually referred to as source and target images. In this section, we will briefly discuss the properties of the two most prominent ISMs in order to compare them to the newly proposed one.
To set the notation, let us denote source and target images as S(x) and T(x), where stands for the pixel coordinate vector. Further, the average value is denoted with a line above the function (e.g. ), and p is used to denote the (joint) probability density function (e.g. p T S (x,y)).
is an optimal choice if the pixel values between the images S(x) and T(x) are related by an affine function, even in the presence of a reasonable amount of noise. Since most mono-modal image registration problems assume this type of functional relationship between images, CC was considered a dedicated approach for this type of problems and thus is often the first choice.
is established as the appropriate ISM for multi-modal registration [5, 6].
All good properties, as well as the shortcomings, of MI and CC come directly from their definition. For example, CC is fast since it uses only summary statistics. The calculation of mean and standard deviation only, which are sufficient to describe an affine functional relationship between pixel values, makes CC a good and fast measure for registration of images with affine relationship between their pixel values. Many image registration problems violate the assumption of an affine relationship between image pixel values, thus making CC a suboptimal choice for images with more complex functional relationship between pixel values [3, 7]. On the other hand, the definition of MI includes much more statistical information about the relationship of the images S(x) and T(x). This property comes directly from the joint probability density function p T S =p(T,S), which fully characterizes the relationship between images T and S, without any assumptions on a type of functional relationship or any noise that may exist in the image acquisition process. Many of the disadvantages of the MI come from the very same things that boost its good properties - the joint probability density function (PDF). For example, since the joint PDF needs to be estimated/approximated, various problems can emerge, like sensitivity to sample size, number of histogram bins or interpolation [7, 8].
In this perspective, we can say that the main difference between CC and MI is whether the ISM incorporates (few) summary statistic values or all the statistical information in the form of a PDF. From this perspective, we can thus see that many measures, proposed earlier in the literature, are derivates of these two most prominent ones. Roughly, we can classify them as either CC-based (e.g. [7, 9–16]), or MI-based (e.g. [17–23]), which are sometimes also referred as information theory-based similarity measures (see [24–27]).
For this reason, we will primarily focus on CC and MI, investigate their properties and compare them to the ISM that we propose. In the following section, we will give some motivating examples to show that there is room for improvement besides the exiting ISMs. Next, we aim to propose a framework for ISM construction which will utilize a chosen amount of statistical values instead of only a few (such as standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis). In this way, we aim to present a framework which will bridge a gap between CC and MI and select a measure from this framework to show that it incorporates the good sides of both of them. In a way, this paper can be seen as an extension of the idea presented in the paper by Kalinic et al. [28].
3 Motivation
As will be shown in further sections, the performance of the MI may vary, depending on the number of bins selected to approximate the PDF. To distinguish one MI implementation from another, the number of bins is used as index (e.g. MI8 and MI256). The three examples shown in Figure 1 are given for each ISM implementation: CC, MI8 and MI256. The comparison between the images is done while applying three different geometric transformations: scaling, rotation and translation. The images which are to be aligned are constructed from the same template image selected from the test set (see Section 5.1) by simple noise addition, with A n / A s =0.5 (for details about noise degradation model, see Section 5.2). Since both images are constructed from the same template, the correct alignment is already known, i.e. the ISM should have a maximal value for unity scaling, zero rotation and zero translation.
In the first example, the image is consecutively translated by 1 pixel in the range of −30 to 30. In the second example, the image is consecutively rotated by 1° in the range of −30° to 30°. In the third example, the image is scaled by s=0.9+0.01·n where . Figure 1 shows the values for MI8, MI256 and CC calculated for the examples.
Notice that MI256 does not perform well in the first example, and neither of the ISMs has the maximum at the correct location for both rotation and scaling. Therefore, an ISM defined in a different way might be able to produce a better result in these examples, but then, it obviously remains to be seen if its better performance would be related only to this particular image. Both questions will be addressed further on (see Section 7).
4 Absolute joint moments
In this section, we define source and target images as random variables and denote them as S and T instead of S(x) and T(x). The following notation is used: if μ S =E[S], then E[(S−μ S ) n ] stands for the n th central moment of the random variable S, or more generally, E[(S−μ S ) n (T−μ T ) m ] stands for the joint central moment of the order (m,n) of the random variables S and T.
4.1 Framework for constructing image similarity measures
where σ T and σ S denote standard deviations.
We refer to the absolute joint moment (AJM) framework for ISM construction. Notice that if we take only the first element of the sum and select ω n =ω m =1, this reduces down to the absolute covariance (numerator of CC from Equation 3).
4.2 Proposed image similarity measure
For the proposed image similarity, we use a specific selection of weights ω n and ω m , which are computationally efficient and guarantee the convergence of the sum. Since this is just one of many possible selection of weights, we will denote ISM as AJM i to indicate that is just one instance.
where N denotes the number of pixel pairs in D X . In further sections, the will be the only used and tested ISM from this framework, so we will denote it simply as AJM.
We will show that this ISM selected from the proposed framework, compared to MI and CC, will have a different trade-off between speed and performance as will result directly from the definition of AJM. In order to show this, in further sections, we will investigate the properties of AJM and compare them to MI and CC with regard to robustness, accuracy and speed.
5 Experimental data
5.1 Data set
Images from publicly available databases were used to test the properties of the registration implemented using AJM as similarity measure. The test set was constructed so as to have as much diversity as possible. First, we used all 44 miscellaneous images from the SIPI database [29]. Since this database does not have medical images, all 19 medical images from the VIS database [30] were added to the set as well as 3 mammography images from the MIAS database [31]. From the MIAS set, only three images were selected since the variability of the images from this set is low. Finally, 34 images of different objects from the ALOI database [32] were added to the set which made the total number of images in the testing set 100. The set constructed in this way contained images with different context, from natural to artificially constructed images. Both colour and greyscale images were represented in this set, but all images were converted to greyscale before the registration. All the images were coded with either 7 or 8 bits per pixel and the resolution of images ranged from 128 × 128 to 1,024 × 1,024. For the purpose of the paper, all images were converted to double-precision floating-point format and scaled to interval [0,1].
5.2 Image degradation model
To evaluate the performance of the ISMs, we will need a pair of each image. Therefore, we introduced several degradation models that will be applied on each image in order to simulate different effects that may happen during the image acquisition process such as excessive noise, contrast changes or non-linear intensity distortion. The image degradation models are described in the following subsection and, as can be noticed, are inspired by the paper of Maes et al. [33].
5.2.1 Contrast inhomogeneity
with (x c ,y c ) being the coordinates of the point around which the curve is positioned and k 1 is the distortion parameter.
5.2.2 Noise
To assure that noise does not randomly affect the contrast, we selected a distribution with finite support. Thus, the uniform distribution seemed a natural choice as a noise degradation model. Notice that this simple degradation model becomes more complex when the sequential image degradation model is applied since that degradation affects the noise distribution as well. Additive uniform noise from the interval [0, k 2 A s ] is superimposed on the original image. Here, A s stands for the amplitude of the signal and k 2 stands for the amplitude ratios between noise and signal (A n / A s ).
5.2.3 Non-linear intensity distortion
where I x y stands for the intensity level (at position (x,y)) and are roots of the polynomial that simulates the intensity distortion. After each distortion, the image is normalized to keep the original range of pixel values.
6 Experiments and results
In the first two experiments (Sections 6.1 and 6.2), the image pairs, between which the correct alignment is to be determined, are the original and the degraded image. Therefore, the gold standard is well known since the correct alignment is for unity scaling, and zero translation and rotation. To evaluate the performance of the ISM, an exhaustive search for the global maximum was done in order to assure that the suitability of the ISM, rather than the search strategy, is evaluated. Each ISM between image pairs is calculated for a progressive shift of 1 pixel in the interval [−100,100], for stepwise rotation of 1° in the interval [−180,179] and for scaling in steps of 0.01 to increase or decrease the scaling factor in the interval [0.5,2].
6.1 Robustness test
Parameter range for the robustness test
(x c ,y c )
Image center
k 1
[0.0001, 0.0004]
k 2
[0.1, 1]
i 1
[0.1, 0.5]
i 2
i 3
[0.5, 0.9]
i 1+i 3
As anticipated, this experiment showed that MI256 is not robust to noise and that CC is not robust to non-linear intensity distortions. For AJM, one can observe that it is affected by high non-linear intensity distortion. However, for a moderate distortion, it still performs satisfactorily. Therefore, AJM seems robust to noise and to moderate amounts of non-linear intensity distortion. AJM is also fairly robust to contrast inhomogeneity since the performance of AJM is comparable to those of other ISMs. All of these conclusions hold for translation, rotation and scaling.
The results of the previous experiment could vary if a different error threshold ξ is selected. To estimate how this results would change for different ξ selected, we performed the following test. Again, all three degradation models were applied and the images were aligned after three different transformations. However, the fixed parameters in this case are k 1, k 2 and i 1. The parameters are set to represent the largest degradation. The results are presented in Figure 5, where, in each line of the table, a graph of the ISMs for different distortion is plotted, and where, in each column, a different transformation is used to achieve the correct image alignment. The graphs show how many images are aligned with an error lower than a certain amount and therefore give insight in the distribution of the ISM error for the image data set.
Figure 5 shows that the order of the ISMs for their relative performance would remain approximately the same no matter what error threshold (ξ) is selected. For all experiments (with the exception of the combination of rotation and contrast inhomogeneities), AJM is between CC and MI with regard to the overall number of correct alignments and sometimes even between the two different implementations of MI. This was, as might be assumed, from its theoretical properties.
As expected, the experiments showed that no ISM could compete with the performance of MI for large non-linear intensity distortions. However, the use of higher order moments was helpful since AJM performs better than CC for non-linear intensity distortion. From the graphs, it is also clear that in a noiseless environment, MI256 performs better than MI8, but in a noisy environment, MI256 is not such a good choice.
6.2 Accuracy test
Parameter range for the accuracy test
(x c ,y c )
Within image
k 1
[0.00005, 0.0005]
k 2
[0, 1]
[0, 1]
As can be noticed in Table 2, the range of parameters is a bit larger in this test than in the previous one. Thus, higher contrast inhomogeneity is allowed as well as lower noise; similarly, non-linear image distortion is implemented as an n th order polynomial, where n can range from 2 to 6. Notice that, according to the robustness test, the increase of the range of these values will not go in favour of AJM.
The average absolute error for translation, scaling and rotation
where D i is the scaling factor (deformation amount) for which the maximal ISM value is achieved. Index i stands for the measurement (image) number, and N denotes the total number of measurements (images). This is done so that the scaling error is symmetrical, i.e. it gives the same error for squeezing and stretching the image by the same factor. Also, it gives no error if the images are scaled by the same factor.
6.3 Speed test
Since CC, MI and AJM are implemented as defined in Equations 1, 2 and 6, respectively, we can notice that the computational complexity of all three measures is . However, it is expected that CC will work faster than AJM since it has to calculate only a product and a ratio instead of a product of exponential functions. Similarly, we can expect that AJM is faster than MI since it does not requires the histogram formation. To evaluate this, we measured the execution time of all three algorithms. For this purpose, the Matlab profiler was used.
Execution time measurements
20.772 ms
24.609 ms
50.010 ms
78.627 ms
7 Overall comparison
The total number of aligned image pairs for which AJM outperforms other ISMs
8 Conclusions
The experiments show that AJM is robust to noise, fairly robust to contrast inhomogeneities, more robust than CC and less robust than MI for non-linear intensity distortion. The robustness test also showed that MI256 in not very robust to noise. Overall, we can say that AJM is positioned between CC and MI in terms of robustness.
The accuracy test shows that AJM is less accurate than MI8 and overall better than MI256. This difference between different MI implementations also emphasizes how MI is affected by the number of bins of the histogram and the interpolation techniques, while AJM is not. Both MI and AJM outperform CC significantly, primarily due to the fact that CC cannot cope with non-linear intensity distortion. An additional strength of AJM is that it does not require a statistically significant number of pixels for the calculation of entropy, so it can be calculated for a smaller region compared to MI.
Performance of similarity measures
Contrast inhomogeneity
Non-linear intensity distortion
Insensitive to number of bins
Insensitive to interpolation
As a general conclusion, we can say that the experiments have shown that the proposed ISM is able to determine the correspondence among images with complex relationships between the pixel values and is computationally more efficient and does not have some of the inherent disadvantages of MI. Therefore AJM i , from the AJM framework for ISM construction, is complementary to CC and histogram-based approximation of MI, and the specific application will guide the optimal ISM choice.
Authors' information
HK received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. He is a research and teaching assistant at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and participates in national and international research projects as a member of the Image Processing Group at the Department of Electronic Systems and Information Processing. His main field of interest is digital image processing and analysis. He is the author of five abstracts, seven conference papers and four journal papers. He is a program committee member or reviewer of four scientific conferences and one international journal.
SL received his BSc and MSc degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia in 1985 and 1989, respectively, and his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH in 1994. From 1990 to 1994, he was a Fulbright Fellow and a Research Assistant with the University of Cincinnati. He was an assistant professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark from 2001 to 2003. He has been a full professor at the University of Zagreb since 2006, where he was an assistant professor from 1996 to 2001 and an associate professor from 2001 to 2006. He was the Chair of the Department of Electronic Systems and Information Processing, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb. He is a coauthor of more than 180 refereed journal and conference publications. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Computing and Information Technology. SL served as the IEEE Croatia section Chair from 2005 to 2008. He currently serves as the chapter's Chair for IEEE Signal Processing Society.
BB is an ICREA research professor at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. While he graduated with a master's degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering Sciences, he obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences on advanced echocardiographic data acquisition and analysis for addressing clinical and pathophysiological questions. He became an associate professor at the Medical Faculty of the KU Leuven where he established a Cardiac Imaging Research Group. He extended his experience in a mixed research/hospital management position in St. George's Hospital in London (UK) and initiated a new interdisciplinary Cardiology-Engineering research group in Zagreb (Croatia). Currently, he is performing multidisciplinary research in cardiovascular pathophysiology and image analysis/modelling, in collaboration with the major hospitals in Barcelona. His research interests are translational cardiovascular pathophysiology, focussing on assessing cardiac function and understanding and recognising the changes induced by disease and how treatment strategies can be used to modulate this remodelling. BB is the author of more than 130 peer-reviewed papers in international journals (both in medicine and engineering), more than 70 full proceedings papers in international conferences (mainly in biomedical engineering), over 360 abstracts at international conferences (mainly Medical) and more than 130 invited lectures.
This study was supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia under grant 036-0362214-1989 any partially by the Subprograma de Proyectos de Investigacin en Salud, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain (FIS - PI11/01709).
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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|By Admin1 (admin) (adsl-70-240-136-52.dsl.okcyok.swbell.net - 220.127.116.11) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 2:37 pm: Edit Post
Sam Farr endorses Chris Dodd
"I endorsed Chris Dodd. I endorsed Chris Dodd because he's a friend. He was a Peace Corps volunteer when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. And I said, "Chris, I'll endorse you because you're not going to win and as long as you keep talking about the Peace Corps," because I'm trying to get a lot more money to increase the size of the Peace Corps."
Sam Farr endorses Chris Dodd
Congressman Farr Talks Medicare and More
By Anthony Ha
Hollister - Democrat Sam Farr, San Benito County's longtime congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, stopped by Hollister on Wednesday in the middle of a tour of his district, which also includes Monterey County and parts of Santa Cruz County.
The Free Lance spoke to Farr about health care, the War in Iraq and the upcoming presidential race.
Farr has been taking flak from some local doctors for a recently passed medical bill that could leave San Benito County with lower Medicare payments than surrounding counties. But Farr said that without his legislation, local Medicare payments actually fall. And he added that his efforts to pressure the federal government to incorporate new data into its Medicare calculations could actually boost San Benito's reimbursements.
The Free Lance: One of the issues that we've written about is the Medicare bill that you were involved with.
Sam Farr: My language is San Benito's best hope not to have slippage.
FL: I think the concern here, though, is outside the numbers and everything -
Farr: The concern here, and rightfully so, is not that Medicare payments aren't as high as they want them to be; it's that Blue Cross screwed this county and they have no other option. You can't go to another insurer. Blue Cross owns San Benito County.
The bottom line here is, all we're trying to do is get the federal government to live up to their own rules. And if they live up to their own rules under the data they have, this old data, as a fallout it will help Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. If they live by their own rules and use this new data that's been collected, it will help San Benito County. It will help all three.
FL: And by help, are you saying best-case scenario, we would stay the same?
Farr: Best-case scenario, you'll go up.
FL: Regardless of a formula or regardless population numbers, you just see the raw fact that reimbursement rates could go up around us while ours stay flat, so the natural reaction is, we're screwed.
Farr: Both sides are right. But there's no way to fix it. It's sort of like health care costs. The health care stuff is a mess. I think that this is all part and parcel of a huge picture that America needs to get engaged in politically is, how do you have a universal health care system?
We've delegated all of the management of health care to insurance companies. We've not dealt with the cost of that, and it's huge. It's going to bankrupt this country. So the only way you can have universal health care is to cut this escalating cost and provide broader coverage. Broader coverage alone, which everybody wants, is going to cost too much. What we have to do is go in and cut out the middle man. The middle man is the insurance companies.
FL: What has to happen for universal health care to become a reality?
Farr: The anti-single payer and government role in this is to call it socialized medicine. That sticks with people. Hillary Clinton tried to bring all parties in play and come up with all the different options. She got shot down by everybody.
But, I think, almost universally, the medical providers have come around and moved to the Democratic message. I think they're beginning to see that conservative politics is lined up with insurance and big business, not the providers.
FL: It's almost like a swear word in the Republican party, when you talk about universal health care.
Farr: That is it. How do you spin this?
I think this is going to be the battle for the president of the United States and I think how we as an individual, as a voter, decide on that will be whether you elect a Democrat or a Republican.
FL: Focusing over to the presidential race, are there any candidates that you're going to be endorsing?
Farr: I endorsed Chris Dodd. I endorsed Chris Dodd because he's a friend. He was a Peace Corps volunteer when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. And I said, "Chris, I'll endorse you because you're not going to win and as long as you keep talking about the Peace Corps," because I'm trying to get a lot more money to increase the size of the Peace Corps.
Anna Eshoo has endorsed Chris Dodd. It's like politics and family, you help your friends.
FL: Moving to another big issue, I know you're for withdrawal from Iraq, but given the current political reality, what do you see happening?
Farr: My instinct says troops will start coming home in December. We did not put any money for the Iraq War or Afghan War in the defense budget. The president's got to come back and ask for more money just for that. In the meantime, we write conditionalities into it, because we have to give him money.
I think the administration will start pulling out troops. Because they're going to get the Petraeus report. It's not going to be good. You don't even have to read between the lines.
FL: So our staying there is just making it worse?
Farr: I think our staying there isn't motivating anybody to do anything.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: August, 2007; RPCV Chris Dodd (Dominican Republic); RPCV Sam Farr (Colombia); Figures; Peace Corps Dominican Republic; Directory of Dominican Republic RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Dominican Republic RPCVs; Politics; Congress; Congress; Connecticut
When this story was posted in August 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
Senator Dodd's Peace Corps Hearings
Read PCOL's executive summary of Senator Chris Dodd's hearings on July 25 on the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act and why Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter does not believe the bill would contribute to an improved Peace Corps while four other RPCV witnesses do. Highlights of the hearings included Dodd's questioning of Tschetter on political meetings at Peace Corps Headquarters and the Inspector General's testimony on the re-opening of the Walter Poirier III investigation.
Paul Theroux: Peace Corps Writer
Paul Theroux began by writing about the life he knew in Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His first first three novels are set in Africa and two of his later novels recast his Peace Corps tour as fiction. Read about how Theroux involved himself with rebel politicians, was expelled from Malawi, and how the Peace Corps tried to ruin him financially in John Coyne's analysis and appreciation of one of the greatest American writers of his generation (who also happens to be an RPCV).
August 4, 2007: This Month's Top Stories
Peace Corps reopens Guinea Program 19 Jul
China beating US in public diplomacy 4 Aug
Shalala continues fight for wounded soldiers 4 Aug
Sue Hilderbrand's goal is stopping funding for Iraq war 3 Aug
Matthew Barison went from Uzbekistan to Romania 2 Aug
Peter Chilson writes "Disturbance-Loving Species" 31 Jul
An RPCV remembers Texas Tower Tragedy 29 Jul
Daniel Balluff films documentaries on Niger 28 Jul
Renewing the Bond of Trust with PCVs 27 Jul
Carol Bellamy to chair Fair Labor Foundation 25 Jul
Delay in Julia Campbell trial 24 Jul
PCV Brian writes: Secondary Projects - First Priority 23 Jul
Dodd says no easy election for Democrats in 2008 22 Jul
John Smart writes: Bush's palace in Iraq 20 Jul
Bill Moyers eulogizes Lady Bird Johnson 15 Jul
Social Justice ranks high on Dan Weinberg�s agenda 15 Jul
PCV Tait writes: Good-bye to my village 14 Jul
Amy Smith organizes Development Design Summit 13 Jul
Cameron Quinn to head PC Third Goal Office 11 Jul
Josh Yardley brought Red Sox to Burkina Faso 11 Jul
James Rupert writes: Islamabad's Red Mosque 11 Jul
Sarah Chayes writes: NATO didn't lose Afghanistan 10 Jul
Dodd issues call for National Service
Standing on the steps of the Nashua City Hall where JFK kicked off his campaign in 1960, Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd issued a call for National Service. "Like thousands of others, I heard President Kennedy's words and a short time later joined the Peace Corps." Dodd said his goal is to see 40 million people volunteering in some form or another by 2020. "We have an appetite for service. We like to be asked to roll up our sleeves and make a contribution," he said. "We haven't been asked in a long time."
July 9, 2007: This Month's Top Stories
O'Hanlon says "soft partition" occurring in Iraq 9 Jul
Eric R. Green writes on coming oil crisis 8 Jul
Why Dodd joined the Peace Corps 5 Jul
Jim Doyle positioned for third term 5 Jul
Michael Adlerstein to direct UN Master Plan 3 Jul
Shalala says Veterans report will be solution driven 1 Jul
Blackwill says: No process will make up for stupidity 30 Jun
Allan Reed creates a Diaspora Skills Transfer Program 29 Jun
State Dept apology ends hold on Green nomination 28 Jun
Call for stories to celebrate PC 50th Anniversary 25 Jun
Michael Shereikis is singer and guitarist for Chopteeth 25 Jun
Christopher R. Hill Visits North Korea 22 Jun
Tschetter at JFK Bust Unveiling Ceremony 21 Jun
Kiribati too risky for PCVs 17 Jun
James Rupert writes: US calls for free Pakistani elections 17 Jun
Colin Cowherd says PCVs are losers 7 Jun
Tony Hall Warns of Food Shortages in North Korea 7 Jun
Youth Theatre performs Spencer Smith's "Voices from Chernobyl" 7 Jun
Ifugao names forest park after Julia Campbell 6 Jun
Anissa Paulsen assembles "The Many Colors of Islam" 5 Jun
Obituary for Nepal RPCV Loret Miller Ruppe 2 Jun
Forty PCVS to arrive in Ethiopia 2 Jun
Public diplomacy rests on sound public policy
When President Kennedy spoke of "a long twilight struggle," and challenged the country to "ask not," he signaled that the Cold War was the challenge and framework defining US foreign policy. The current challenge is not a struggle against a totalitarian foe. It is not a battle against an enemy called "Islamofascism." From these false assumptions flow false choices, including the false choice between law enforcement and war. Instead, law enforcement and military force both must be essential instruments, along with diplomacy, including public diplomacy. But public diplomacy rests on policy, and to begin with, the policy must be sound. Read more.
Ambassador revokes clearance for PC Director
A post made on PCOL from volunteers in Tanzania alleges that Ambassador Retzer has acted improperly in revoking the country clearance of Country Director Christine Djondo. A statement from Peace Corps' Press Office says that the Peace Corps strongly disagrees with the ambassador�s decision. On June 8 the White House announced that Retzer is being replaced as Ambassador. Latest: Senator Dodd has placed a hold on Mark Green's nomination to be Ambassador to Tanzania.
June 1, 2007: This Month's Top Stories
Returned Volunteers and Staff honor Warren Wiggins 15 May
Tom Seligman curates "Art of Being Tuareg" 26 May
PCV Marilyn Foss dies in China 25 May
Poet Susan Rich writes: The Women of Kismayo 22 May
Christopher Hill considers visit to North Korea 18 May
Peter Hessler talks about time in Fuling as PCV 18 May
Murder charges filed in death of PCV Julia Campbell 17 May
David Pitts claims JFK offered PC to Lem Billings 16 May
Niki Tsongas announces candidacy for Congress 16 May
James Rupert writes: Pakistanis talk of Musharraf's departure 16 May
Chris Matthews writes: Jerry Falwell's Political Legacy 15 May
Ron Tschetter visits volunteers in Botswana 14 May
Which assignment to take? Africa, Europe, or Central Asia 14 May
Willy Volk writes: New way to keep mosquitoes at bay 14 May
Jim Walsh takes special interest in Nepal 13 May
NPCA offers podcasts of social entrepreneurs 10 May
Gaddi Vasquez showcases food aid work in Central America 10 May
Donna Tabor dreamed up Cafe Chavalos 8 May
Tom Bissell writing book about Jesus' 13 Apostles 8 May
Jody Olsen praises PCV blogging 7 May
PC responds to missing volunteers in 2001 and 2007 2 May
Peace Corps Funnies
A PCV writing home? Our editor hard at work? Take a look at our Peace Corps Funnies and Peace Corps Cartoons and see why Peace Corps Volunteers say that sometimes a touch of levity can be one of the best ways of dealing with frustrations in the field. Read what RPCVs say about the lighter side of life in the Peace Corps and see why irreverent observations can often contain more than a grain of truth. We'll supply the photos. You supply the captions.
PCOL serves half million
PCOL's readership for April exceeded 525,000 visitors - a 50% increase over last year. This year also saw the advent of a new web site: Peace Corps News that together with the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps serve 17,000 RPCVs, Staff, and Friends of the Peace Corps every day. Thanks for making PCOL your source of news for the Peace Corps community. Read more.
Suspect confesses in murder of PCV
Search parties in the Philippines discovered the body of Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell near Barangay Batad, Banaue town on April 17. Director Tschetter expressed his sorrow at learning the news. �Julia was a proud member of the Peace Corps family, and she contributed greatly to the lives of Filipino citizens in Donsol, Sorsogon, where she served,� he said. Latest: Suspect Juan Duntugan admits to killing Campbell. Leave your thoughts and condolences .
Warren Wiggins: Architect of the Peace Corps
Warren Wiggins, who died at 84 on April 13, became one of the architects of the Peace Corps in 1961 when his paper, "A Towering Task," landed in the lap of Sargent Shriver, just as Shriver was trying to figure out how to turn the Peace Corps into a working federal department. Shriver was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. Read Mr. Wiggins' obituary and biography, take an opportunity to read the original document that shaped the Peace Corps' mission, and read John Coyne's special issue commemorating "A Towering Task."
The Peace Corps Library
The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory or leave a message on our Bulletin Board. New: Sign up to receive our free Monthly Magazine by email, research the History of the Peace Corps, or sign up for a daily news summary of Peace Corps stories. FAQ: Visit our FAQ for more information about PCOL.
He served with honor
One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor.


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She did wind up as a medical professional, working in clinical labs, and in a busy bone marrow transplant unit at a Denver hospital. She married and had one little girl, and during those years, she happened upon an article about a local romance writer, Maggie Osborne, who wrote for Harlequin under the pseudonym of Margaret St. George, and caught the bug herself.
She wrote for four years, learning the craft, reading romances by the dozens, and then began the story that would become her first published romance. She called it Tangled Woods and Brambles — a reference to the obstacles the Prince had to cut through to save Sleeping Beauty. The hero was stuck in a coma, but the heroine, his doctor, could hear his thoughts.
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Twenty yards on, and his voice is still audible in the background, already addressing his next audience. "Watch out for the puddles. They're growing, you know … "
If you think your work is monotonous, spare a thought for this guy. His job appears to consist solely of repeating the same slab of doggerel in the same jolly voice, over and over again until the words start cloying in his throat and he begins to mouth them in his sleep. It must be like being the voice of the speaking clock, or at the very least Peter Kay.
As Wimbledon gears up for another day of meteorological uncertainty, a day of craning necks and outstretched palms, it is the voices of authority to which a hesitant public is drawn. When you're unsure whether your £17 ground admission pass is going to be valid for a full day's play or an intermittent day's play or simply a day spent sitting on a hill hunched under an umbrella watching classic Wimbledon highlights on a very large television, what is needed is someone to tell you that ultimately, somehow, everything is going to be all right. This is where John Parry comes in.
It is Parry's voice that oozes over the public announcement system at the day's start and end, and a good deal more often than that when the weather is inclement, which means he has been busier than he would have liked over the last few days.
"The main thing is to keep people informed," he says. "I always say: you can only under-communicate. I like to keep optimistic. I often say that there is a 'reasonable' chance of play. That's a good Met Office word."
From his observation post above Court 14, he can survey the grounds and, more importantly, the overhead conditions. Alongside him sits a Met Office meteorologist, monitoring the weather feeds. Together they crunch the data before Parry puts it in layman's terms over the Tannoy system. "I'm just the messenger," he chuckles.
He is, of course, far more than that. Now 73, Parry has something of a keen eye for weather forecasting himself, sharpened through almost two decades as a squadron leader in the RAF, training parachutists for the special forces.
"If you've got a wind blowing at 30 or 40 knots," he explains, "they could end up scraping along the ground when they land, and do themselves a serious injury."
What has made this week's prospects of play so difficult to forecast is that the rain has been fine and light; the sort that does not show up on radar. And so Parry can often be seen scampering up the stairs to the roof to scan the skies, or telephoning contacts in Dorking or Portsmouth to inquire about the conditions there.
"My daughter lives in Cardiff, so I often call her and ask her what the weather's doing. If you know what direction the cloud base is coming from, and speed it's moving at, you know what's coming," he says.
Little of this attention to detail is evident when Parry lends his sober strains to the public address system. Born in north Wales and brought up in Chester, his north-western vowels have softened a little over the years, but are still a marked contrast to the plummy tones of former chief executive Chris Gorringe ("There's a chance of light shahs later on this afternoon "), who retired in 2005.
We could chat to Parry a little longer, ask him about his two junior Wimbledon titles, his 30 years as a chair umpire, the eight finals he oversaw, his many run-ins with John McEnroe. But instead, out into the grounds we stroll, where a sky tinged fifty shades of grey has miraculously broken out into a thousand splendid suns. Punters emerge from the champagne bar and blink into the light. Slowly, the umbrellas disappear from Henman Hill, like flowers shrinking back into their buds.
Back out on to Church Road, where our cheerful steward friend is nowhere to be seen. But on the bit of pavement where he was standing this morning, the puddles are definitely beginning to recede.


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MA in Communication in Business Program
duration2 years (4 semesters)
ECTS points120
descriptionCommunication in Business Program includes subjects such as: general management theory, marketing, communication, interpersonal relations, and influencing skills. Additionally, during workshops, students gain practical competencies in the following areas: presentation skills, public speaking, team work, and business writing. Some of the classes are conducted by business experts and managers actively working in various firms and corporations. During the course of studies, students have an opportunity to visit several companies and organizations, meet business professionals and previous graduates of Communication in Business specialization.
Thanks to their English proficiency, communications skills, business acumen and multicultural awareness, graduates of the Communication in Business Specialization build successful careers in areas, such as: public relations, marketing, corporate management, and business administration in Poland and abroad.
tuition(for EU nationals) 7600 PLN
(for non-EU nationals) 2500 EUR
deadlineContact the Unit
contactMgr Paweł Pyrka
Institute of English Studies
ul. Chodakowska 19/31
03-815 Warsaw, Poland
institutionUniversity of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS)
education requirementsDetailed instructions are available on the website http://www.studia.swps.pl/warsaw-en/ma-programs/english-studies.html#zapis
other requirementsContact the Unit
Study programmes
- BA in Design (at two faculties: 1) Product design 2) Visual communication design
- BA in English Studies
- BA in International Business Management ((Management and Leadership)
- BA in Psychology
- MA Clinical Psychology
- MA in Communication in Business Program
- MA in Creative Writing
- MA in English Studies
- MA in Psychology
- MA in Teaching English as a Foreign
- MA in Translation Studies