text:
DIAMANDA GALÁS (Buy CDs by this artist)
The Litanies of Satan (Y) 1982 (Mute/Restless) 1988
Diamanda Galás (Metalanguage) 1984
Saint of the Pit (UK Mute) 1986 (Mute/Restless) 1989
The Divine Punishment (UK Mute) 1986 (Mute/Restless) 1989
The Divine Punishment & Saint of the Pit (Mute/Restless) 1988
You Must Be Certain of the Devil (Mute/Restless) 1988
Masque of the Red Death Trilogy (Mute/Restless) 1989 (Mute) 1993
Plague Mass (Mute) 1991
The Singer (Mute) 1992
Vena Cava (Mute) 1993
Schrei X Live (Mute) 1996
Malediction and Prayer (Asphodel) 1998
The Sporting Life (Mute) 1994
Radical Southern California avant-garde diva Galás, the caterwauling post-opera vocalist, keyboardist, composer and political activist capable of the most unnerving vocal terror this side of grindcore movies, first unleashed herself on The Litanies of Satan, not a heavy-metal prayer but rather a vocal adaptation of a poem by Charles Baudelaire. Using many electronic modifications (many learned during her working with such exemplary contemporary composers as Iannis Xenakis), Galás created a disturbing and provocative piece that was almost topped by the composition on the album's second side, the amusingly titled but harrowing "Wild Women With Steak-Knives (The Homicidal Love Song for Solo Scream)" an endurance-defying unaccompanied demonstration of hideous vocal noises.
Besides showcasing her astonishing voice and real knowledge of electronic manipulation, the two pieces on Diamanda Galás display her social conscience: "Panoptikon" is based on Jeremy Bentham's 1843 proposal for a prison where the inmates could be kept under constant observation by unseen captors, while "Tragouthia Apo to Aima Exoun Fonos" translates from the Greek as "Song From the Blood of Those Murdered."
Desperate times lead to desperate actions. The Divine Punishment, Saint of the Pit and You Must Be Certain of the Devil comprise Masque of the Red Death, "the plague mass," Galás' strident but striking response to AIDS, sparked by her brother's 1986 death.
The Divine Punishment is a collection of somehow appropriate Old Testament quotes delivered in everything from a glass-breaking soprano to an urgent whisper to a depraved shriek to a wicked multi-voiced regurgo rumble over droning synthesizer music with jarring sonic effects. The more operatic Saint of the Pit sets French decadent poetry (by Baudelaire, Nerval and Corbière) into wild vocal excursions, accompanied by keyboards that vary from subtle atmospherics to melodramatic horror-movie organ. Galás' astonishingly varied singing styles and the hypnotic effect of the record's three claustrophobic, obsessive pieces makes Saint of the Pit a powerful document of suffering.
Completing the trilogy on a conceptual high note, Galás fills You Must Be Certain of the Devil with lyrically specific (mostly) original songs, played with backing musicians. The record gets off to a bracing start with a unique a cappella interpretation of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and continues in an unassuming electro-rock vein as Galás warbles, sometimes singing counterpoint with herself in multi-track arrangements, using voice as both a percussion and melodic instrument. The audio intimacy here exaggerates emotional intensity beyond legal limits.
After completing her Masque of the Red Death trilogy, Galás saw to the collective repackaging of all three harrowing albums of shriek. The Divine Punishment and Saint of the Pit are contained on one CD; the limited edition two-CD Masque of the Red Death Trilogy is a complete set of all three albums. She then recorded a sepulchral, breathtakingly dramatic and, in the best possible sense, appalling live album, Plague Mass, at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine and began laying the groundwork for a new creative phase in the '90s.
The Singer finds Galás, a Greek-American born in San Diego, injecting herself into the rootsy fringes of popular music via some of the same spirituals ("Let My People Go," "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?") she incorporated into the trilogy. Following the traditional pathway of gospel into the blues, she reworks classic material of long-forgotten authorship ("See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," which gets a fairly straightforward reading over skittish churchlike organ) as well as more recent creations by Willie Dixon ("Insane Asylum"), Mike Bloomfield ("Reap What You Sow") and, in a provocative creative leap, Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Accompanying herself on skilled stride piano, she attacks "I Put a Spell on You" like a jazzwoman possessed, tearing it apart, reassembling pieces to her own ear-curdling specifications and generally casting off demons in furious flights of vocal invention. Launching her high-wire act from once-familiar terrain makes Galás' work more accessible; the singer is still a highly challenging prospect (we're not talking some Ella Fitzgerald wanna-be on a creative bender here), but The Singer occasionally brings her into a less eccentric orbit.
Don't take the admonition to play Vena Cava "at maximum volume only" seriously the a cappella undertaking can be plenty stressful at minimal sound pressures. Speaking, singing spirituals (a nervously vibrating but lovely "Amazing Grace"), seasonals ("Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") and even the polka classic "In Heaven There Is No Beer," rambling, reciting, trying on Southern accents, choking, preaching and occasionally (especially in one piece's room-clearing opener) launching aerial missiles of unredeemed screeching, Galás makes Courtney Love's worst excesses on Live Through This sound like a tender lullaby. There's fine art at the heart of this album (like the trilogy, largely inspired by the life and death of her brother, Philip-Dimitri Galás) but getting to it through the razor-tipped underbrush can be too daunting a challenge.
Fortunately for pretentious wimps desperate to find a Diamanda Galás album they could honestly claim to have made it all the way through, she made it easy (well, easier) with The Sporting Life. In a shockingly productive collaboration with ex-Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones (who, for a smidge of out-there shooting practice, produced a Butthole Surfers album the previous year), she sets her wildwoman voices, throat-grabbing lyrics and some sublime organ playing in the context of a rock-solid rhythm section (Pete Thomas of the Attractions does drum duties). The bottom-heavy setting renders Galás' birdcage squalling more palatable and gives her safe passage for a unique approach to street-level considerations. Whether reining herself in for the dramatic "Do You Take This Man?" and the barrelhouse balladry of "Baby's Insane," spewing sinuous melodies in "Tony," finding a potent reformulation for Dan Penn's back-door soul classic "Dark End of the Street" or making a riotous B-movie out of threatened girl-gang violence ("The Sporting Life"), Galás who is a mighty, if bizarre, blues singer when she set her gears to it balances unfettered expression with the intrinsically rowdy power of swinging electric music to produce her most stimulating and broadly appealing work yet.[Glenn Kenny/Ira Robbins]
All contents copyright 2007 Trouser Press LLC


text:
As opposed to repeating this ad nauseum in the comments section, I thought I would clear up this here and now.
Some commenters have pointed out that the defence quotes mentioned in my Assange myths post were the defence outlining the accusations against Assange.
This completely misses the point of what I was writing.
The issue is clear. Assange's supporters are reading the accusations made against him, and arguing that what he allegedly did is legal under English law. That it's 'sex by surprise' and not really rape. However, the accusations made against him are clearly and definitely rape and sexual assault under UK law.
My issue with this, and the issue we should all have with this, is that by repeatedly denying that the alleged offence was not rape, they're silencing and invalidating the experiences of thousands, millions of women across the world. This is not acceptable. What's more, it is hugely revealing about what people are prepared to believe about consent.
It is incredibly troubling that people across the political spectrum are happy to argue that rape isn't rape. The impact this has on how we talk about and define consent is huge.
I don't know if Assange is guilty. Neither do you. What I do know is that he is accused of rape. Not sex by surprise, not 'having sex without a condom', it's rape. And we need to respect that this is how rape is defined in English law, and respect the experiences and voices of survivors.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome to 8th Grade Pre-Algebra!
Welcome to the Swift Algebra web site. On this site, you will find links to the powerpoint presentations used to present lessons in class as well as the blank noteguides you can print out to takes notes on while viewing the presentations. You can also find links to all of the daily HoffmaSheets (homework worksheets).
It is my intention to make this site a major form of communication between school and home. I hope it is an improvement to "phone tag" that we frequently have because you, the parents, are working too.
Email works best, my address is: email@example.com
If you are having difficulty playing the PowerPoint presentations, a viewer is available free from Microsoft at this Website. Click the link below and follow the directions on the site to install.
NOTE: clicking this link will take you off the Solanco Moodle Web Site
Many students ask, "why do we have to study this stuff?" People use algebra everyday! A quick read of this web page may help explain how and why.


text:
SMI is a Bishop based company offering mountaineering guiding and instruction (in the Sierra Nevada) throughout the year for beginning through advanced level mountaineers. Offerings include peak ascents such as Mt. Whitney, other Sierra 14ers, and all peaks in this great mountain range. Also offered are instructional programs and guided trips in mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing, back-country skiing, backpacking, avalanche courses, wilderness navigation, and custom offerings.
Participants on SMI trips get to experience first hand the unique environment of the Sierra Nevada. Guides are experts in the history, geology, flora, and fauna of this great range. The Sierra is accessible year round and each season brings its own unique environment to discover and explore.
SMI guides are based locally and have spent many decades exploring and guiding in this great mountain range. Come experience the Sierra through the eyes of guides who are intimately familiar with this special mountain range that they call their back yard!


text:
French, German leaders visit site of Berlin attack
French President Francois Hollande meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, before visiting the site of last year's Christmas market attack. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)
ROUGH CUT. NO REPORTER NARRATION French President Francois Hollande joined his German counterpart Angela Merkel on Friday (January 27) to pay their respects at the site of last year's Berlin Christmas market attack. It's been just over a month since a Tunisian national who had sworn allegiance to Islamic State drove a truck into the crowded outdoor festivities, killing 12 people. Laying flowers at the quiet memorial, the leaders avoided making any public statements. But earlier that day told reporters the continent needed to remain united in the face of rising threats from outside and within, what they called populism and extremism. They also acknowledged growing economic and political challenges from Britain's decision to leave the European Union and the new U.S. President, Donald Trump.


text:
Each year at the annual Gathering of Nations pow wow in Albequerque, New Mexico, the Red Thunder Rolling motorcycle ride benefits a worthy cause and brings attention to a grass-roots endeavors that promote family and community. Veterans are also a frequent beneficiary, including last year, when Red Thunder raised funds to help the Navajo Code Talker museum project.
This year's ride benefits the Chichiltah Veterans Park, a memorial park dedicated to all veterans resting in peace. This park is the creation of Patrick Arthur and his family whose hard work and determination has provided a place of healing for veterans and their families; it is located in Vanderwagen, New Mexico, south of Gallup.
Here is the agenda for this year's ride ("We Gather…We Share…We Ride Again!"), which happens Saturday, April 27.
8:30 a.m. Registration at Firerock Navajo Casino in Gallup, New Mexico
($25.00 registration fee; includes cost of a long sleeve T-shirt and lunch)
10:00 a.m. Introduction and Safety Meeting
11:00 a.m. Kick Stands Up
1:00 p.m. Gas Stop at Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque.
2:00 p.m. Arrival at GATHERING OF NATIONS in Albuquerque
For more information, contact Paul Bemore by phone at 505-379-6921 or by e-mail: email@example.com.


text:
50% OFF Special Offer
✔ This Offer is for New Buyers Only
✔ We will provide 50% Discount
✔ Please contact me to get this bonus
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Skype: yogeshpadsala
Facebook Profile, Facebook Group
Select The Package
That Makes Sense To You. . .
Note: Pls contact me after your payment
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Skype: yogeshpadsala
Facebook Profile, Facebook Group
Terms & Conditions
We guarantee that you will receive ALL your ordered clicks. We also guarantee that ALL those clicks are genuine and originated from our OWN responsive email lists.
We can not predict the performance of your sales funnel, and so we can NOT guarantee the sales and opt-ins.
We may reject your order and refund your money if your offer is not suitable to our list.
Since the solo ads are non-tangible goods and are not covered with REFUND option. If you want to cancel the order and the solo ad has not been sent out, then we may be able to cancel that and issue refund. However, if the solo has been sent, then we can not refund your money.
If you do not agree or you have any doubts regarding this service, then please do NOT place an order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Will I get all the clicks I ordered?
Answer: Not only you will get all your clicks, but you will also get 10% to 50% over delivery.
Question: How many Opt-in and Sales I will get?
Answer: Well, we do not guarantee Sales and/or opt-ins. Because it depends on how good your sales funnel converts. And also if there would be any technical problem in your sales funnel, then it also would affect your conversions.
Question: What is your niche?
Answer: Our list is based on Make Money Online niche.
Question: What if I did not get results, can I get refund?
Answer: If the traffic has been delivered, then there is NO REFUND available in any circumstances. As said earlier, your results depends on many factors including your sales funnel, etc.
Question: How can I track my clicks?
Answer: We have our in-house tracking system and we will provide you full report about your clicks. You also can use your own tracking if you wish.
Question: How long time will it take to deliver my order?
Answer: Your clicks will start within 72 hours usually. Some one from our team will contact you once your order has been completed, and give you the exact schedule when your order will be fulfilled.


text:
I completed my fourth trade with Doug of Sportscards From The Dollar Store fame. You can review our first deal here, second trade here, and third transaction here. Doug, like me, loves him some hockey, and he's a mensch in always keeping an eye out for Anaheim Ducks' related cardboard to send my way. Our fourth deal, like our previous three, was no different in meeting that required hockey standard.
Before I get to the loads of hockey, Doug sent a fantastic Matt Kemp in the bubbler. It features four relics, three of which are distinct. Numbered 08/99, a bat slice and a blue patch piece from the Dodgers or Los Angeles across the front of a Bison uniform are joined by a pair of home jersey pieces. My newest Kemp goes well with the similar Museum Kemp I already owned.
Bobby! I know he's not pictured as a Senator but I'd imagine there was a small part of Doug that considered keeping this, what with Bobby being in Ottawa and all. I still collect Bobby as a Duck, so this a much appreciated addition to the collection. The inscribed number 9 is an added bonus.
Dougie has basically become my Emerson Etem pusher as he's responsible for a large portion of my Etem PC. The latest Emerson he bestowed upon me is this sweet Phenoms on-manufactured fabric John Hancock out of 2013-2014 Panini National Treasures. Etem is great about including his number when he signs.
My first Rickard Rakell auto! Rakell has really improved his game as this season has progressed and in doing so has solidified his role as the team's third center.
A gorgeous Scott Niedermayer patch! I recall Doug pulling this and not knowing what part of the sweater it came from. He asked me at the time and I was unsure; I still am, but hot damn if it isn't awesome all the same. Mysteries are fun, you know. Especially if Mike Tyson is trying to solve them.
And finally, a Mat Clark auto with four swatches (#'d /249) thrown in for good measure. Clark is no longer in the Anaheim organization.
Doug sent along a ton of other great cards which I just don't have the time to scan in, but I appreciate them all, of course. He also knocked off 17 of my 2014 Allen & Ginter needs, of which I still have far, far too many.
Thanks as always Doug! I'm working on accumulating a bunch of stuff to send your way in the hopefully not too distant future!
Monday, March 23, 2015
Trade With Sportscards From The Dollar Store: Matt Kemp and a Flock of Ducks.
Posted By Greg Zakwin @ 9:50 AM
2 comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
During the forum, make sure to stop by Booth #103 in the Ballroom Foyer to:
-speak directly with Enablon experts about how companies have implemented a variety of tools to advance their data management systems and track compliance metrics.
-enter our raffle for the chance to win an iPad! Click Here to view the Giveaway Rules. Also, stop by to enjoy a complimentary massage! After your relaxing massage, treat yourself to some delicious desserts!
-get in touch with our Enablon team in advance to set up a one-on-one software demonstration during the conference. Send an email to Daria Arthur– firstname.lastname@example.com to get a confirmation.
About the Conference
Since 2001, NAEM's EHS and Sustainability Software and Data Management Conference has been the premier software event designed to meet the needs of corporate EHS and sustainability leaders. NAEM's conference is the best opportunity to meet with the leading solution providers in one place and to hear from fellow users who utilize these systems on a daily basis.
The 2016 agenda will feature live demonstration sessions that go beyond just navigating through screens shots to discuss the data management challenges they faced, and how they overcame them. Additionally, there will be topical problem-solving discussion groups, and an update on NAEM's ongoing research on MIS trends.
Join us for:
- Leading data management strategies
- Practical analysis and application of data and metrics
- Software selection and implementation
- A wide array of leading software and solutions providers
For more about the agenda, click here.
About NAEM
NAEM is a professional association that empowers corporate leaders to advance environmental stewardship, create safe and healthy workplaces, and promote global sustainability. As the largest network for Environmental, Health and Safety, and Sustainability decision-makers, NAEM provides peer-led educational conferences and an active community for sharing solutions to today's corporate EHS and Sustainability management challenges.
To learn more about the NAEM, click here.


text:
Diesel generators have been utilized for a long time. For more than a hundred years, diesel generators have been in use in commercial industries. Its principal function is to take out the chemical energy in diesel and change it to kinetic energy. Given that various forms of energy can be transformed or converted between themselves, it is simple to turn diesel energy into electric power through the principle of mutual induction. The following are the principal benefits of using diesel generators for commercial reasons.
Because diesel is relatively cheap when compared to regular gas, it's appropriate for use in various industrial applications.
Between all the fossil energy sources, the most readily available around the globe is diesel. It is found almost all over the world. A generator is mainly useful if you have field offices in isolated regions. A diesel generator can quickly restore your energy requirements anyplace you are situated. Buying a diesel generator is an excellent decision if you want to achieve an inexpensive energy solution but generator hire companies NSW can save you a lot of money on purchasing a new generator or even used generator, so you really need to think about your options carefully
The most important benefit of diesel generators is that they have a high market worth. They are well-liked hence are easy to put up for sale. One can purchase a new or second-hand diesel generator for your industrial use and sell it later with slight to no decline in value.
Diesel generators demonstrate high durability and performance. The primary reason for confidence is that diesel engines are regularly commercial status machines that can survive extreme weathering and also display high production for extended periods. They also are highly errored tolerant thus being preferred by an industry specialist
Generators are not only used for power production but also for several other functions too. Various manufacturing applications can use electrical or mechanical power produced by generators to carry out their tasks. A generator can also be used in power production in regions where other sources of energy are unavailable.
Several industries' primary concern is to keep overheads costs low. Through generators rentals, a company can enjoy a lot of benefits than it experiences when it buys a generator.
Renting a generator can regularly be more cost-effective than having your own. Since having a generator requires a significant expense that will stay on your balance sheet for an extended period even after your need of the generator ends. Once you prefer to rent a one, a monthly figure is paid as an alternative, thus saving your capital for other functions.
Flexibility and Generator Maintenance
Hiring a generator presents a higher flexibilty. In case your company is required to move assets your generator can effortlessly shift with you too. Also, if your business grows, one can discuss the terms of your hire to accommodate a smaller or a more massive capacity machine. Within an unstable economic environment, it is regularly a particular benefit of generator hire for businesses in susceptible sectors.
Business Disaster Recovery
Although your company owns a generator, ensuring that a trustworthy generator hire is incorporated as part of your disaster revival arrangement is a good option. Disaster recovery arrangement issues a strategy that will be employed should your business suffer from a fire, flooding, theft, security infringement or another unforeseen occurrence that causes business interruption. Making sure that you have a generator hire company as a choice shows that you will be capable of getting your company to operate faster, thus minimizing losses and downtime.
Visit https://www.ausgen.net.au/


text:
As expansion teams go, the Jaguars have been pretty good.
Perhaps they've slightly been slightly less successful than the Panthers overall, but much better than the Browns and Texans.
With success comes close calls. And that means pain.
We present the worst moments in Jaguars history, as determined by a panel of experts. Or Florio.This video is no longer available. Click here to watch more NBC Sports videos!


text:
Intensifying The Heavy Bag
By Ross Enamait - Published in 2004
The video below includes two conditioning drills intended to teach the athlete to fight through fatigue. Skill should never be intentionally abandoned, but during periods of extreme fatigue, the athlete must be prepared to continue fighting despite skill deprivation (which can occur when all three energy systems are drained). By training to fight through extreme levels of fatigue, you will be more prepared (physically and mentally) to deal with such feelings during live situations. This article and video are NOT skill based however (strictly conditioning based).
The heavy bag is one of the oldest, most recognizable pieces of training equipment. Unfortunately, due to its commonality, the bag is often overlooked when searching for speed, power, and endurance. Fitness manufacturers continually develop and market new products catered towards todays combat athlete. As new products are developed, old training tools such as the heavy bag are often forgotten.
Not A Replacement, An Addition
These drills should not replace traditional heavy bag work. The heavy bag is ideal for drilling and reinforcing new combinations. Skill training and conditioning are not the same. You can however supplement a traditional heavy bag routine with a brief punch-out sequence.
Sample Workout
This routine will begin with four traditional rounds of bag work. Your focus should be on skill development. Throw combinations, moving left to right, and right to left. Integrate head movement, feints, and combination punching. Rest one-minute between rounds.
I recommend variety when performing punch-out drills. In the preceding example, the routine called for 30-second intervals. You can also perform a punch-out sequence with shorter, more intense intervals. For example, perform 10 x 15-second punch out drills. Allow 45 seconds of rest between drills. This brief 10-minute sequence is much more challenging than it appears. By reducing the length of the drill, you are able to maintain a true max effort from start to finish. These drills are excellent when training to improve speed, power, and anaerobic capacity.
Power Boxing
Another option to traditional heavy bag work involves brief full-speed, power boxing rounds. Each round will last 60 to 90 seconds. You will throw combinations with an emphasis on maximum power. This is no time to be practicing your jab. You will work solely on power punching. Each round should involve a max effort. Each punch will be thrown with bad intentions.
Sample Workout
This routine will begin with three traditional rounds of bag work. Your focus should be on skill development. Throw multiple combinations, moving left to right, and right to left. Integrate head movement, feints, and combination punching. Rest one-minute between rounds.
Another Sample
Once again, you can incorporate variety into a power boxing routine. This workout will equate to 10-minutes of max-effort punching. These workouts provide obvious benefits when training to increase power and anaerobic endurance. You will train the body to throw power punches round after round. Increased punching power plus increased punch output is a dangerous combination.
These sample routines will greatly intensify a heavy bag workout. Do not limit yourself to traditional heavy bag training. You can achieve numerous benefits with short, intense drills on the bag.
Home - About Us - Forum - RossTraining.com


text:
Subscribe to Our Mailing List
Endophyte Information
Endophyte is a naturally occurring fungus that lives inside grasses such as ryegrass, tall fescue and meadow fescue. The relationship between the plant and the fungus is called a 'symbiotic relationship' which entails the endophyte giving the plant protection against certain damaging insects, and in return the plant provides a 'home' for the endophyte to complete its lifecycle. An endophyte provides the plant with protection. This includes protection against insect pests and in some cases also protection from the grazing animal.
There are different endophyte options in both ryegrass and tall fescue including the AgResearch developed AR37, AR1 and MaxP (tall fescue) endophyte. Each endophyte has slightly different protective properties, with differing effects on insect pest protection.
At Agricom, we market the AgResearch novel endohytes AR1 and AR37 in most of our ryegrass cultivars, as well as providing low endophyte (LE) options. AgResearch novel endophytes are thoroughly developed and tested with world-renowned science, with emphasis placed on testing effects on animals, insects, pasture production and persistence.


text:
BMW Z3 News
BMW exports over one million vehicles from South Carolina factory
American automakers have long struggled to export U.S. made vehicles to overseas markets. BMW, on the other hand, has apparently had no such problem. After 15 years of building cars and SUVs in Spartanburg, South Carolina the company has now shipped over one million cars to overseas markets. That's nearly two-thirds of all of the production from the plant.
RR of the Day: 2001 BMW M Coup�
Everyone has a list of vehicles that they want to drive before they die, for me, today's RR of the Day is a vehicle that I've vowed to own. The first time I saw an M coupé in person at a strip mall in my hometown, I waited 20 minutes for the owner to come out, interrogated him for a half an hour and then talked him in to giving me a ride. Unlike today's example, his black 2000 model housed a 240 HP, S52 engine that provided ample motivation for the three-door oddity. CT57's, however, is e
Cross-Dresser: Miata fronts as Z3 on eBay
When does a 1995 Mazda Miata cease being a Miata? We're not sure it ever truly does, but the owner of this particular example put in a Herculean effort to try and make it happen. No folks, your eyes do not deceive you: despite all the Bimmer-look trickery, the car you see here is a '95 Miata with 85,000 miles on the odometer, and if you want it, it's just a click away at eBay.
Wll the next roadster from BMW be a Z6?
With rumors and speculation swirling, the folks at Hidden Image took the info they had and created a couple of images of just what a Z6 roadster might look like. How about a Z6 with a 500 BHP V10 and a proper 6-speed manual transmission? Hold on to your toupee!


text:
Aston Martin Rapide – Glass Roof SPY SHOTS
Posted by Joshua McRaeApril 17, 2008 at 8:40 am
FOLLOW Instagram + Facebook + Twitter
The long awaited four-door Aston Martin Rapide has been spotted, almost completely undisguised, doing laps of the Nurburgring. The car was last spotted on the frozen lakes of Sweden for winter testing, and somewhere in between its journey from Sweden to Germany the Rapide was given a full-length glass roof starting at the top of its windshield and going all the way to the boot. While the rear lights in the spy shots are similar to the plain red ones found on the DB9, it is uncertain whether the production version will share the same clear taillights of the original concept version from 2006's Detroit Auto Show.
Other than this, the testing model remains faithful to the stunning concept and it looks like it's shaping up to be one of the best looking four-doors on the planet. Porsches Panamera and the Mercedes-Benz CLS will have a tough time competing with the new Aston, which is expected to sport a 6.0L V12 in top-spec models putting out around 500hp.
Unfortunately for purists, the Rapide will not be built at Aston's traditional Gaydon plant in England – production of the four-door has been contracted to Magna Steyr who will build the vehicle at its Austrian plant.
Production is expected to start in 2009 for the Rapide, giving it ample time to get into the market against the upcoming Porsche Panamera, although rivals like the CLS and Maserati Quattroporte already have a big head start over the new four-door Porsche and Aston.
[Source : MotorAuthority.com]
FOLLOW www.MadWhips.com: Facebook + Twitter + Instagram


text:
WHM3035AE integrates WanTcom proprietary low noise amplifier technologies, high frequency micro electronic assembly techniques, and high reliability designs to realize optimum low noise figure, wideband, and high performances together. With single +5.0V DC operation, the amplifier has optimal input and output matching in the specified frequency range at 50-Ohm impedance system. The amplifier has standard 0.30" x 0.30" x 0.065" surface mount package.
The amplifier is designed to meet the rugged standard of MIL-STD-883.


text:
A bibliographic description contains these nine areas:
0. Content form and media type area
1. Title and statement of responsibility area
2. Edition area
3. Material or type of resource specific area
4. Publication, production, distribution, etc., area
5. Material description area
6. Series and multipart monographic resource area
7. Note area
8. Resource identifier and terms of availability area
For each area a hierarchical list of mandatory and optional elements are defined.
|Field name
|Bibliographic description
|The meaning of the data object; relevant characteristics, refer to business objects if needed
|Business Rules
|Descriptive data should be based on an internationally agreed standard
|Application components
|The application components that are accessing the data object
|Non-functional requirements
|Compliance with International Standard Bibliographic Description (IFLA)
|Project Issues
The availability of an enterprise architecture - preferably as part of an enterprise repository - will impact the amount of work that must be invested in describing the business objects that matter to service solutions.
In an enterprise architecture described in accordance with the ArchiMate framework data objects are included in the passive structure aspect of the application layer.
About the template: Data object template
This page is part of the requirements for a #2030Library - A global library for Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (and fighting the emergence of #AltFacts in public policy).
Other sub-sections under #lib07 - Livelihood and library data
Questions, answers and comments
To be completed.


text:
PixelSkin02April 23rd, 2006 | Filed under: Architecture, Mechanical Tech, Programming | No Comments »
PixelSkin02 is a responsive architectural surface made of shape memory alloy (SMA) to actuate each of the four panels that make a 'pixel'.
PixelSkin02 is a responsive architectural surface made of shape memory alloy (SMA) to actuate each of the four panels that make a 'pixel'.
MCP Group's MCP Realizer takes 3D printing / rapid prototyping into the world of metals. MCP uses a technique called SLM (Selective Laser Melting) which uses ordinary metal powders (bronze, zinc, stainless steel, tool steel, titanium, cobalt-chrome alloys) and a laser to melt thin layers of geometry repeatedly to produce finished parts. more>
Researchers at Singapore-based Nanyang Technological University (NTU) demostrated a jacket that conducts touch heat, pressure, and vibrations on a live chicken. The system synchronizes tactile movements using a live video feed to transmit 'cybertouches'. [article (pdf)]
via vnunet
The The Falkirk Wheel is a giant rotating boat lift and elevated canal developed by British Waterways to reconnect the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal, re-establishing east to west coast access for boats.
Thanks, Bryan.
Michael Dickinson and his colleagues filmed hovering bees at 6000 frames per second, and plotted the unusual pattern of wing beats. The wing sweeps back in a 90˚ arc, then flips over as it returns – an incredible 230 times a second. The team made a robot to scale to measure the forces involved. [high speed video (5MB)] [robotic bee video (72MB)]
via NS
Chuck Hoberman's new venture, Hoberman Transformable Design, seeks to extend his innovations into consumer products and architectural applications. Hoberman Associates' work is centered on the fundamental idea that a designed object can transform the way a natural organism does.
W. Daniel Hillis of Applied Minds, Inc. is designing a perfectly synchronized 10,000 year clock / sculpture / statement with the Long Now Foundation. Everything about this clock is deeply unusual. For example, while nearly every mechanical clock made in the last millennium consists of a series of propelled gears, this one uses a stack of mechanical binary computers capable of singling out one moment in 3.65 million days. . . Unlike any other clock, this one is being constructed to keep track of leap centuries, the orbits of the six innermost planets in our solar system, even the ultraslow wobbles of Earth's axis. . ."The ultimate design criterion is that people have to care about it," says Hillis. "If they don't, it won't last."
via Discover
Arthur Ganson's kinetic sculptures are extraordinarily intricate playful mechanisms, choreographed to move in a delightfully life-like manner while remaining incredibly precise. [video] [move videos]
Inspired by the replication process of DNA in living cells, Joseph Jacobson (Molecular Machines) and his team at MIT have created miniature robots that self-assemble and self-correct into a specified sequence from scattered parts. [msnbc article]
The Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library is a collection of mechanical models and related resources for teaching the principles of kinematics–the geometry of pure motion. Browse through the enormouse collection of images + text, videos, 3D models (Solidworks, .stl or .VRML ready for printing), and interactive simulations. [launch the KMODDL tour]


text:
Doctors at Union Memorial Hospital would never implant unneeded coronary-artery stents the way Dr. Mark Midei is alleged to have done at nearby St. Joseph Medical Center, a spokeswoman says.
"I can tell you confidently that what happened over there couldn't happen over here," says Union Memorial's Debra Schindler. "Every one of our doctors gets checked — his records, his cases reviewed. Even our chief of the cath lab gets his records checked." (Catheterization labs are where patients have stents installed.)
Let's hope she's right. Then let's make sure by pushing state health officials to scrutinize the record at Union Memorial and every other hospital that implants the tiny mesh tubes intended to prop open clogged heart vessels.
Perhaps what St. Joseph officials delicately describe as "stent procedures that may have been medically unnecessary" were confined to that hospital. But I doubt it. On Sunday, The Baltimore Sun reported that state officials have identified potentially questionable stent-implant rates by other, unidentified doctors. Even at St. Joseph, the internal inquiry is curiously narrow.
It is the duty of the state not to take any hospital at its word. The biggest shock in this scandal isn't that one doctor is alleged to have subjected hundreds of patients to unnecessary medical jeopardy and pocketed thousands of dollars in unwarranted fees. The biggest shocks have been the lack of safeguards against unneeded stents at St. Joseph, the possibility that similar vacuums exist at other hospitals and the apparent inability of the medical-industrial complex to police against unnecessary procedures.
Dr. Robert Wachter, an expert on health care quality, says on his blog that he was "thrown back on my heels" when I asked him recently why standard safeguards hadn't flagged irregularities at St. Joseph.
Apparently he and other experts in patient safety haven't thought much about the hazard of "successful" but unnecessary procedures.
"Cases like Midei's don't trip any alarms" even as they generate outsized fees for the hospital and the doctor, writes Wachter, medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco and chief of medicine at UCSF Medical Center.
Doctors who scan arteries are generally the same ones who implant stents — so there are no extra eyes at the time of diagnosis. At St. Joseph, doctors reviewed each other's work afterward, but Midei, as head of the department, got to pick the cases, according to a state investigation. In any event, reviews at most hospitals are focused on complications and mortality — not on whether procedures were needed. (St. Joseph says it has fixed its system, and Midei has said he expects to be exonerated.)
The emergence of alleged earlier cases at St. Joseph makes a comprehensive state review even more imperative. St. Joseph has confined its investigation of Midei to cases going back two years, saying complications from older, unnecessary stents would have appeared by now.
But patients and their lawyers are requesting expert reviews of older cases handled by Midei — and finding what they say are unneeded implants. It's surprising that St. Joseph isn't doing its own analysis of the earlier cases and contacting patients directly.
"If the hospitals don't give them the information, lawyers will," says Briggs Bedigian, a lawyer handling malpractice cases against Midei and St. Joseph. "We're in the position of being the police force for the medical profession, and that's a shame."
The real medical police should be the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Officials there appear to be on the job after a slow start. Del. Peter A. Hammen, a Baltimore Democrat who is chairman of the House health committee and appears to be the only elected official who cares about this, asked the department in February whether other hospitals were implanting unneeded stents.
Now the department is working with the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission to see whether other doctors have been installing suspiciously high numbers of the devices, says Hammen.
Until 2009, Midei held privileges to practice at Union Memorial, said Schindler, the spokeswoman. Doctors from MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates, from which Midei had a bitter split a few years ago, work there now. The federal agency that investigates Medicare fraud has subpoenaed Union Memorial, MidAtlantic and St. Joseph for documents on unspecified business practices. (A MidAtlantic spokeswoman declined to comment.)
For years, Union Memorial has reviewed the medical necessity of its stents and randomly sent cases for review to its sister institution, Franklin Square Hospital Center, Schindler said.
The multimillion-dollar motive to install unneeded stents is indisputable. The opportunity seems to be ample. And as the cost of all medically "necessary" procedures threatens to break the health care system, policymakers should spare no resources to identify and stop the unnecessary ones.


text:
The White RoseeBook - 2015
Related Resources
From the critics
Community Activity
CommentAdd a Comment
This is the second book of the series, after The Jewel. The books are about girls who are trained to be surrogates and are auctioned off. That is what happened to Violet, the main character. The story revolves around her and what she experiences. I really enjoyed the first book and so I had to obviously read the second. But this book is probably for mature readers. This had many good messages throughout. The genre is Fantasy fiction. In the book, we got to meet so many good characters and there was also a lot of world-building, which in my opinion made the book even better. I would totally recommend this book to maybe a little older kids (ages: 15-19). I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
- @terrificbooklover of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library
This novel made me feel like my own freedom and what I think is right is important and worth fighting for.
Check out my review of "The White Rose" on my blog at:
Second book in The Jewel series. I enjoyed this book as much as the first novel. Violet and her friends have now escaped from The Jewel and are plotting the downfall of the ruling Royals. This series is very popular with the students at my secondary school.
The White Rose is a pleasant sequel to The Jewel. My only concern with this book was its slow-pace during the first half, but the author still managed to squeeze some adventurous elements within this space. Nonetheless, important developments occur during this time period that shape the opinions the characters have of each other. The second half of the book is when the story picks up its pace. Meaningful insight is given on each of the characters and their back stories are revealed, which allows you to have a better understanding of their personalities. Also, a lot of new characters are added to the narrative and one thing is for sure: all of them are about to contribute to a revolutionary change. Now that Violet is free, she along with other girls who were in the same situation as her have discovered they have more power than they ever knew of. But what happens when one of her own is about to be sacrificed? That is the question I was left with as I flipped over the last page! Star Rating: 3/5 stars
- @moonlite of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library
So I loved The Jewel, I loved how it was different and I loved Violet especially. Oh my, the cliffhanger at the end nearly broke me so I just had to get the second book of the series. The White Rose is okay, meager to say the least. I really liked the beginning because it was fast paced, but almost as soon as they arrive at The White Rose it was harder for me to keep reading. I like how Ewing touched on the life of all the levels, the Farm, the Smoke. I loved Ash, Raven and Violet's journey to the White Rose. But after all this excitement and greatness we are met with just Violet, trying to understand her powers and her strength. I'm sorry to say it didn't really interest me enough! Slowly Violet is starting to become very powerful and Lucien's next plan is to collect surrogates from the North, South, East and West Gates to create a powerful army of magical surrogates. I definitely do think this should be read, but the first book was much better than the second. Rating 3/5
- @jewelreader of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library
The White Rose is the sequel to the jewel. I think that this book is an interesting read because of the characters. The main character is one of many surrogates for the Royalty. She herself is nervous to be surrogate but she doesn't exactly hate the system. But many others do, and still others are in love with the idea and the life style. I think this shows that not everyone is opposed to a clearly flawed system and might even live it. This might imply some things about our world today. In the end, everyone is needed to start a revolution. Other than that, the book includes a male companion, and describes his life and how he got to be there. His story deals with self-harm, drug addiction, suicide and the stigma against sex workers. I love this character because for one it deals with these issues and the character isn't female, breaking a stereotype. Although I love this book, it is definitely not one for a younger audience. It is not the best book I've ever read, but it is a very interesting concept.
- @Grimm of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library
Twists, turns, murder and escaping the clutches of the evil Duchess. Awesome book well worth a read
Surprisingly much better than the first book.
I only read this because I read the first one and I was really surprised at how much better it was. I tore through it in one day. I really enjoyed the minimal recap of the first book. There were a few noticeable flaws, like the weak romantic sections, but no book is perfect. Looking forward to the last book.
I really enjoyed this sequel to the Jewel. I did find several flaws in it, but I did find the plot to be amazing. The one thing that bothered me the most, was that the characters felt emotionless. Two of the characters admitted to love each other, but there was almost nothing in the book to prove it. It felt like a very empty love, which I really didn't like. I also felt like the story was cut short. The Jewel was like an introduction to the world that Violet lives in, and this book was like the preparations and the build up to everything that is going to happen in the last book in this series, which I can't wait to read. I just kind of wish that we got to see a bit more of the rebellion in this book, instead of it all being in the third book.
Age SuitabilityAdd Age Suitability
blue_dog_8329 thinks this title is suitable for 12 years and over
QuotesAdd a Quote
SummaryAdd a Summary
NoticesAdd Notices
There are no notices for this title yet.


text:
Vice Chancellor of Uva Wellassa University Dr. Jayantha Lal Ratnasekera says that the Uva Wellassa University has been closed due to a risk of chickenpox spreading among students.
The University will be closed from today (13) until further notice, the official announced.
The Vice Chancellor said 27 students residing in the university hostels were found to have contracted chickenpox in three days. In additions 8 students in outside hostels also have contracted the viral disease.


text:
TAG | church-state separation
Church and State, God and God Gene
Comments off · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State, history, Religion
Whether or not God exists there cannot be much doubt about the existence of (to use a crude shorthand) a 'God gene', the innate propensity of most people to believe in gods and/or the supernatural and, at least to a degree, to base their behavior on those beliefs.
The fight of the Dawkins brigade against 'sky fairies' is thus, in most cases, a waste of time. What matters is not God, but the particular god that people worship. Whatever the sentimental, empty-headed or (hullo, Karen Armstrong) propagandists might claim all religions are not simply varying routes to the same 'truth'. The difference between religions matters, and it matters a great deal. Some are benign, some are not, some leave the rest of us alone, some do not.
In that connection, it was interesting to read this in the course of an interview by Spiked Review with writer Anthony Gottlieb, the author of The Dream of Enlightenment, an account, as Spiked puts it, of "that '150-year burst' of intellectual energy that begins in Northern Europe after the Thirty Years War, and stretches up to the eve of the French Revolution":
Several of the thinkers in The Dream… are quite rightly seen as pioneers or antecedents of forms of secularism, of the idea that church and state should be kept separate. Nowadays, when we think of the separation of church and state, we tend to think of it in terms of the First Amendment, where Americans hold that there should be no state religion.
But for the pioneers of secularism, church and state are not so easily parsed. Take Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), for example. They've both been characterised as being in favour of the separation of church and state, of getting rid of a state religion. Yet, in fact, both believed that it was important to have a state religion. And that's because they, like many of their intellectual brothers in arms, were concerned not with getting rid of state religion but with weakening the power of the priests, the power of institutional religion. They wanted to take away the church's power and give it instead to the state.
That's because, as they saw it, the best way of ensuring that religion didn't lead to all sorts of trouble was both to police it, and to make sure that the state religion was peaceful, non-disruptive, and not run by these mad priests. So Hobbes and Spinoza ended up advocating state religion, rather than opposing it….
There's something to that, especially if that state religion is mild, unassuming, tolerant– light on superstition and with a proper sense of its place: At its best the Church of England comes to mind.
Baruch Spinoza · Church of England · church-state separation · Enlightenment · Thomas Hobbes
The Devil Rides Out
3 Comments · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Could some Satanic kitsch be about to descend upon Oklahoma City?
The Daily News reports:
A satanic group unveiled designs Monday for a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan it wants to put at the Oklahoma state Capitol, where a Ten Commandments monument was placed in 2012.
The New York-based Satanic Temple formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds, including an artist's rendering that depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard that's often used as a symbol of the occult. In the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.
"The monument has been designed to reflect the views of Satanists in Oklahoma City and beyond," temple spokesman Lucien Greaves said in a statement. "The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation."
The Satanic Temple maintains that the Oklahoma Legislature's decision to authorize a privately funded Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol opened the door for its statue. The Ten Commandments monument was placed on the north steps of the building in 2012, and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to have it removed…
And (as the Daily News had revealed earlier) Satan might not be the only new arrival:
Days after a Satanist group expressed a desire to construct a monument on the grounds of Oklahoma's state capitol, a Hindu organization announced that they would also like a slice of that religious freedom pie.
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, announced plans to erect a statue of the revered Hindu god Hanuman, the monkey king, outside the capitol.
Hanuman is an important deity in the Hindu pantheon. He is revered for his life of service and his devotion to the powerful god Rama.
And there are other candidates to stand alongside the Ten Commandments too.
Somehow, I don't think that the Oklahoma State Legislature had this quite in mind. In an age of multiculturalism, a strict view of the separation of church and state may be about to win some unexpected converts.
Man plans, God laughs.
church-state separation · First Amendment · Multiculturalism · Oklahoma · Satanism
Having Eyes, See Ye Not?
Comments off · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Cardinal Dolan, absurd:
"The threats to our "first and most cherished freedom" are abundant, but let me list just two. One comes from those called secularists, who will tolerate religion as long as it's just considered some eccentric private hobby for superstitious, unenlightened folks, limited to an hour on the Sabbath, with no claim to any voice in the public square."
Notwithstanding the efforts of fanatics like that sad bunch of atheists opposed to the 9/11 cross, this is nonsense. America's "public square" is filled with religious voices. That's fine. That's good. And to claim that it is under threat is ludicrous.
The rest of Dolan's speech is worth a serious look. This passage caught my attention:
"Government has no business interfering in the internal life of the soul, conscience, or church."
Putting to one side the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has been active in trying to persuade government to adopt positions that give profound offense to the beliefs of quite a few (restrictions on assisted suicide might be one example, the church's support for the 'right' to universal healthcare another), the idea that the church is somehow immune from laws that applies to everyone else can, if taken beyond a reasonable understanding of the First Amendment, be a proposition somewhat difficult to reconcile with e pluribus unum,
There is a fine line between defending religious freedom and supporting the creation of religious privilege. I wonder if Cardinal Dolan recognizes that it exists.
Cardinal Dolan · church-state separation · Religious Freedom · Religious Privilege
"Religious Freedom"
6 Comments · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Via The New York Post:
Two children are dead, more are injured — yet a group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis say they plan to defy a health order in the name of religious freedom.
Less than a year after a Brooklyn tot died following an ancient circumcision ritual, the rabbis say they will ignore a proposed law that would mandate parental-consent forms before performing the dangerous procedure.
Over the past decade, at least one other newborn died after contracting herpes from the rite, in which the rabbi draws blood from the penis with his mouth.
But ultra-Orthodox leaders are lashing out at the city's "evil plans" ahead of the Board of Health's vote next week.
About 200 rabbis signed a proclamation claiming the Health Department "printed and spread lies . . . in order to justify their evil decree."
"It is clear to us, that there is not even an iota of blame or danger in this ancient and holy custom," the letter states.
Most modern mohels — men trained to perform religious circumcisions, who are usually rabbis or doctors — remove blood from the baby's wound using a sterile pipette.
But some Orthodox Jewish parents insist on an ancient "suction by mouth" ritual called metzitzah b'peh.
The city's law would require mohels to distribute consent waivers, detailing the herpes risk, before the ritual.
Rabbi David Niederman, executive director of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg, said no one will comply with the law, even if it's passed.
"For the government to force a rabbi who's practicing a religious act to tell his congregants it's dangerous is totally unacceptable," Niederman told The Post…
"Conscience" · church-state separation · Conscientous Objection · Religious Freedom · Ultra-Orthodoxy
Don't Confuse the Children!
1 Comment · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Commenter Kevin S. kindly responded to my earlier posting on Bobby Jindal's voucher program with a link to this Reuters story. It's worth paying some attention.
An extract:
Louisiana's plan is by far the broadest. This month, eligible families, including those with incomes nearing $60,000 a year, are submitting applications for vouchers to state-approved private schools.
That list includes some of the most prestigious schools in the state, which offer a rich menu of advanced placement courses, college-style seminars and lush grounds. The top schools, however, have just a handful of slots open. The Dunham School in Baton Rouge, for instance, has said it will accept just four voucher students, all kindergartners. As elsewhere, they will be picked in a lottery.
Far more openings are available at smaller, less prestigious religious schools, including some that are just a few years old and others that have struggled to attract tuition-paying students.
The school willing to accept the most voucher students — 314 — is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition.
At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has room for just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains "what God made" on each of the six days of creation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.
"We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children," Carrier said.
Allowing vouchers to be used for religious schools doesn't bother me overmuch, but here's a part of what I wrote before:
The key is regulation. To secure eligibility for voucher-status, religious schools, and what they teach (not too much mumbo jumbo, please, admission for both sexes, and members of all faiths and of none, and so on), would have to go through a tough vetting both to begin with and, say, annually. And, if the experience in the UK is anything to go by, you'd probably need to vet the vetters too.
I'm not sure that there's a lot of that going on here:
In Louisiana, Superintendent of Education John White said state officials have at one time or another visited all 120 schools in the voucher program and approved their curricula, including specific texts. He said the state plans more "due diligence" over the summer, including additional site visits to assess capacity.
In general, White said he will leave it to principals to be sure their curriculum covers all subjects kids need and leave it to parents to judge the quality of each private school on the list.
Yes, hmmm.
With the US public education in such expensively bad shape, vouchers are a terrific idea. It would be a shame if Jindal's (dare I say it) "fundamentalist" belief in the sorting powers of the market were to bring a much-needed tool for educational reform into disrepute.
church-state separation · education · First Amendment · Louisiana · vouchers
6 Comments · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Former exorcist and current Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has (to quote the Friendly Atheist) "pushed for a voucher program that would allow state funds to be used to pay for religious schools." The Friendly Atheist is not so keen on the idea (he believes it to be unconstitutional), but I'm inclined to be more relaxed. A little mumbo jumbo is a cheap price to pay for a good education. Religious schools in this country (and elsewhere) have a long record of delivering an education that can be of lower cost and higher quality than that provided for in the state system. And they also have a long and shameful record, not least in corners of the Islamic world, as perpetrators of ignorance and division.
The key is regulation. To secure eligibility for voucher-status, religious schools, and what they teach (not too much mumbo jumbo, please, admission for both sexes, and members of all faiths and of none, and so on), would have to go through a tough vetting both to begin with and, say, annually. And, if the experience in the UK is anything to go by, you'd probably need to vet the vetters too. I don't know whether Gov. Jindal's legislation provides for all this or not, but, in any event, it would be unlikely to be enough for one Louisiana (Republican) lawmaker. Valarie Hodges.
Livingston Parish News takes up the story:
WATSON — Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Watson, says she had no idea that Gov. Bobby Jindal's overhaul of the state's educational system might mean taxpayer support of Muslim schools.
"I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America's Founding Fathers' religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools," the District 64 Representative said Monday.
"I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school," Hodges said…HB976, now signed into law as Act 2, proposed, among other things, a voucher program allowing state educational funds to be used to send students to schools run by religious groups…Hodges, who represents District 64 on the northwest side of the parish, and another freshman lawmaker in the local delegation, Clay Schexnayder from Dist. 81 in the southwest, voted with the House majority in favor of HB976.
The school funding mechanism, however, did not come up for a vote until the end of the session. By then, a Muslim-based school had applied for support through the new voucher system.
During debate over the MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) funding formula, Hodges learned more about the consequences of the educational changes. She voted against the new MFP funding formula; Schexnayder voted for it.
"Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders' religion," Hodges said.
Oh dear. I'm not necessarily opposed to (mild, constructive, gently patriotic, and minimally superstitious) state religions, but I suspect—well over two centuries into the First Amendment—that the time for that in the US may have passed.
church-state separation · education · First Amendment · Louisiana · vouchers
Balkanization Watch
1 Comment · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Via the Washington Post:
The Hutterites are Protestants similar to the Amish and Mennonites who live a life centered on their religion, but unlike the others, Hutterites live in German-speaking communes scattered across northern U.S. states and Canada. They don't pay wages, don't vote and don't enlist in the military. They make their own clothes, produce their own food and construct their own buildings.
"Their core belief is that they have no property. All the property and labor they have, they contribute to the colony," Ron Nelson, an attorney for the Big Sky Colony, told the Montana Supreme Court.
The state's high court on Wednesday heard arguments by the colony and the state on whether Montana's requirement that employers carry workers' compensation insurance can be expanded to religious organizations. A state judge has already ruled the 2009 law expanding the workers' compensation law to force the Hutterites to pay for the insurance violated their right to freely exercise their religion.
The state is asking the high court to reverse that decision, arguing the new law deals only with commercial activities and stays out of the Hutterites religious affairs.
The Hutterites' argument that everything they do is tied to their religion cannot exempt them from regulation when they voluntarily enter into an outside commercial activity, assistant Attorney General Stuart Segrest said.
"They're not allowed to become a law unto themselves," Segrest said
Hatch, Back?
Comments off · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
As Orrin Hatch is forced to face a primary challenge, here's a little reminder from 2009 about the (very) long-serving senator's attitude towards taxpayers' money:
WASHINGTON — Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.
The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist.
The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments — which substitute for or supplement medical treatments — on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual healthcare."
It would have a minor effect on the overall cost of the bill — Christian Science is a small church, and the prayer treatments can cost as little as $20 a day. But it has nevertheless stirred an intense controversy over the constitutional separation of church and state, and the possibility that other churches might seek reimbursements for so-called spiritual healing.
As I wrote back at the time, in this context I could not care less about the separation of church and state, but I do care a great deal about the separation of the taxpayer from his money. Senator Hatch clearly did not.
In the event, the proposed change did not get through, but that Hatch even tried this stunt is a reminder that, when it comes to protecting the taxpayer, Hatch is not a man who can be trusted.
Christian Science · church-state separation · Obamacare · Orrin Hatch · taxes
The Favored Pew
4 Comments · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
Via the Wall Street Journal:
As Congress scrutinizes every nook and cranny of the budget for possible revenue, a surprising court decision is allowing clergy members to buy or live in multiple homes tax-free. The U.S. Tax Court ruled that Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who went to prison for tax evasion, didn't owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry to buy a second home on a lake near Cleveland, Tenn.
Under a provision of the tax code known as the parsonage allowance, first passed in 1921, an ordained clergy member may live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization or receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home if the congregation approves. The Tax Court ruling, made final in March, extends the parsonage allowance to an unlimited number of homes, which may be owned either by the religious organization or the clergy member.
In a 7-6 ruling, a panel of Tax Court judges sided with Mr. Driscoll's argument that the word "home" is equivalent to "homes," just as "child" is interpreted to mean "children" elsewhere in the tax code. The Internal Revenue Service declined to comment on the decision. In May, the agency appealed it to a federal appeals court in Atlanta. Experts say the parsonage allowance was originally included as a way to minimize taxes on clergy members, whose compensation was often meager. It still is widely used for that purpose, church officials said, although the IRS doesn't track usage of the benefit.
"For most of them the housing allowance is modest because their compensation is modest," says Daniel Gary, an attorney with the United Methodist Church in Nashville.
Similarly, D. August Boto, general counsel of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, says for leaders of the organization's 46,000 churches "the housing allowance is critically important for making ends meet—it is not a luxury."
However, some experts are concerned that the new ruling opens the door for the allowance to be applied to multiple homes used by leaders of wealthier ministries…
You don't say.
Your Tax Dollars at Work
1 Comment · Posted by Andrew Stuttaford in Church & State
In the Hasidic enclave of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, there are many things that women can't or just don't do: Be counted as one of the 10 people needed to make up a minyan, or prayer quorum. Walk around in pants. But vote?
According to the bylaws of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, a social service agency and community pillar that has received millions of dollars in government grants over the years, only those who meet the following requirements can vote for its leadership:
Jewish and religiously observant residents of Crown Heights
Married, previously married or at least 30 years old
Now Eliyahu Federman, a Crown Heights resident and recent law school graduate, is challenging that last requirement, saying he believes it to be unconstitutional.
In Crown Heights, religion and life are inextricably interwoven. But the council itself is not a religious organization, Mr. Federman argues. And in 2008, according to the most recent tax filings available, the council received $1.9 million in government grants. "Women, especially widows and divorcees, are gravely impacted by decisions regarding the distribution of food stamps, housing subsidies and other vital social services" that the council handles, Mr. Federman, 26, wrote in an April 7 letter to the council and the local rabbinical court. "It should hurt us to see religion being misapplied to wrongfully subjugate women in a context that has no basis under Jewish law and is probably unconstitutional."
Since Mr. Federman first raised the issue, in 2009, he has heard several explanations for the policy: that voting is immodest, that this is how it's always been done — and that allotting women votes could sow discord among married couples, working against the ideal of "Shalom Bayit," or marital tranquility.


text:
So my birthday is tomorrow. And that is the official launch my newly updated digs on cocostudio.com.
cocostudio is an old space that I revisit from time to time, and now is one of those times.
If you've enjoyed my writings over here, please go subscribe to my blog over there.
Although I have a few categories featured (love, sexual violence, education and a few others), I plan to write the same sorts of things over there as I did over here. In other words, a little of everything.
With the exception of the most recent post or two (coming soon), everything else is already there waiting on you!
See you on the other side!


text:
If you're interested in Cyber Security and/or IT Governance, then take advantage of our toolkit demos that are available to download for FREE exclusively from IT Governance.
What is a toolkit? A toolkit is a product made up of pre-written documents and templates that contain policies, procedures and work instructions to cut costs, reduce implementation time, and to generally make your life easier!
- For those tackling Cyber Security, download the Standalone ISO27001 ISMS Documentation Toolkitdemo, which provides all the documents you need to put an Information Security Management System in place, in line with ISO27001.
- For IT Governance professionals, download the IT Governance Framework Toolkit demo which contains all the documents to provide you with a single integrated framework.
Download the Cyber Security and IT Governance toolkit demos today >>
By downloading a demo, you will be able to see and preview a selection of documents from the full toolkit.
Go on, try it today! What have you got to lose?


text:
Creating beautiful skincare products, fragrances and candles sourced almost wholly from her family farm, Claire from Shibora shares with Focus her love of the Coffs Coast and her brand …
Hi Claire. What's your connection to the Coffs Coast?
My whole family lives and runs a business in Coffs Harbour. I come from a business orientated family; some are organic farmers, some own shops or an earth moving business, produce organic compost and keep native bees. The Coffs Coast means the world to me and my family; it's the most beautiful place to live, with stunning coastlines and bush. The climate here is perfect, not too hot or cold. The perfect place to live and work.
Introduce us to Shibora; what is its meaning and what's the mission behind the brand?
I love to produce pure organic products that are beneficial for you. I think every woman is entitled to pure luxuries for their skin.
Shibora is a boutique brand with all the products hand made in small batches on our farm. I use high quality locally grown and sourced organic ingredients; every ingredient I use is organic, apart from some of the scents I use, which are phthalate and paraben free.
Where/how do you source ingredients?
Most of the ingredients I use are grown on our farm or sourced from local farms in the area. Some of the ingredients I source from as far as Western Australia and right up to the cane fields in Far North Queensland.
Where are Shibora products processed?
All the Shibora products are made right here in beautiful Coffs Harbour on our organic blueberry farm. Each and every product is lovingly handcrafted on our farm in small batches, made weekly to ensure they are fresh.
Even right down to the candle lids are made on our farm. All the labels and some of the packaging is made on the farm too. I really believe in making a quality product that is produced locally and keeps the local economy growing.
Tell us about your signature product …
The organic bee cream "fountain of youth" is particularly special to me. I use propolis from our own hives and honey and beeswax to make this amazing face cream. Its pure and natural and works so well, especially around the delicate eye area. The propolis and honey and beeswax come from the native Australian stingless bees, which have been foraging on our blueberry plants.
Being natural skincare, what are some of the healing/medicinal qualities?
Natural skincare is a great way to get your skin feeling and looking radiant.
A lot of the organic ingredients I use have healing/medicinal qualities, like aloe vera, which has natural healing qualities that soothe irritated skin.
The honey I use in my products has amazing antibacterial qualities; it's moisturising and soothing.
What does it mean to you personally to be able to offer these beautiful products?
It means the world to me; it's my passion. I grew up on an organic farm, and it's a privilege to have access to all the organic herbs, flowers and plants and be able to produce natural products that all women deserve.
Aspirations or goals for the future?
I have a few big plans which I will reveal soon, so keep an eye on my FB page.
How can our readers get their hands on Shibora?
You can purchase my products straight from my website, which is shibora.com.au, from Sublime & Blossom in Port Macquarie and you can also find me at Bellingen Markets on the third Saturday of the every month.
Thanks Claire.


text:
Have you ever been in a situation where you have lots of mysql tables in your database that you want to empty. Probably because you want to test your application with a clean database.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make an application that allows you to empty multiple mysql tables in one go.
- Wampserver
- Jquery core
- Text-editor
As usual, prepare all the requirements. And place them all in one folder. I'm using a framework used for connecting and manipulating the database. It's called EzSql. You can either follow along using your own method of connecting to mysql. Or you can go ahead and have a little crash course on EzSql, and come back here once you think you can already follow along.
After having all the requirements prepared. Create a new php file, and name it info_schema.php or whichever name you like to name it. What this file does is just to connect to the built-in mysql database called information_schema. When I say built-in, it means that it is already there after you installed mysql. The main-purpose of this database is to store the information about the other database that you create, and that includes information on the tables and its fields. For more information about information_schema, visit this link.
<?php include('ez_sql/shared/ez_sql_core.php'); include('ez_sql/mysql/ez_sql_mysql.php'); $db = new ezSQL_mysql('root', '', 'information_schema', 'localhost'); ?>
Next, create another php file and name it empty_tables.php. Include the info_schema.php that we created earlier and also the jquery core file:
<?php require_once('info_schema.php'); ?>
Also create a function that would check all the checkboxes. This allows you to check multiple checkboxes at once by just checking the main checkbox with the id of mc. The code is pretty much self-explanatory. We just select all of the checkbox by using the selector input[type=checkbox]. Then we just change the attribute checked to true or false, if the main checkbox is checked all of the input elements with the type of checkbox will also get checked. If the main checkbox is unchecked, all the other checkboxes will also get unchecked.

Next, we check if the the variable database has been set in the url. If it does, we use mysql_real_escape_string() function to strip the string with all the characters which can be harmful to the database. This can help us avoid mysql injection.
<?php if(!empty($_GET['database'])){ $database = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['database']);
<?php } ?>
Inside the empty check is the form that will be used to to select all the tables that needs to be truncated/emptied. Inside the form is a table, which has 2 columns, the table name, and then the checkbox that will be used to truncate the table. Then we performed an sql query to select the following fields: table_schema, table_name. If you carefully examine the information_schema database, you will notice that the table_name field stores all of the names of the tables that you have in each of the database that you have created. And the table_schema field contains the name of the database where that specific table is located. Yup, my explanation is really confusing so just go ahead and explore what's in the information_schema database.
We then loop through all of those by selecting only the tables in the database that we have specified in the url. The string that is stored by the $database variable.
And then setting the name of the checkbox to be the actual name of the table.
<form name="x" action="empty_tables.act.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="db" value="<?php echo $database; ?>">

 Table	 Truncate<input type="checkbox" id="mc"/>
 <?php $tables = $db->get_results("SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME FROM TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = '$database'"); ?> <?php foreach($tables as $t){ ?>
 <?php echo $t->TABLE_NAME; ?>	 <input name="<?php echo $t->TABLE_NAME; ?>" type="checkbox"/>
 <?php } ?>
 <input type="submit" value="truncate selected tables"/> </form>
Finally, create a file called empty_tables.act.php. This is where all the data from the empty_tables.php will be submitted and process.
<?php require_once('db_config.php'); $database = $_POST['db']; $db = new ezSQL_mysql("root", "", "$database", "localhost"); $tables = array(); foreach($_POST as $k=>$p){ $tables[$k] = $k; $db->query("TRUNCATE TABLE $k"); } echo 'successfully emptied the following tables:
'; foreach($tables as $t){ echo '

'. $t . '

'; } ?>
What this does is just to loop through all the post variable. This includes the name of the database that we are using, that's why mysql will return a warning every time you execute this script. But it does its job well, since the tables that you checked still gets truncated.
I just showed you how to create a simple php application that can be used to simultaneously empty mysql tables. The script that I have written is not in any way perfect. You might want to improve it.


text:
Living in Nebraska, I have developed an appreciation for the landscape, the geography, the history and the people who have devoted their energy and lives to make this a great state.
The Nebraska Stories February episode will be one Nebraskans should watch. It airs on Sunday, February 9th at 9 pm (central time) on NET 1. It will be repeated on Friday, February 14th at 7 pm (central time); Saturday, February 15th at 9:30 pm (central time); Friday, February 21st at 7:30 pm (central time) and Sunday, February 23rd at 6 pm and 10:30 pm (central time).
This will be a very interesting episode that you won't want to miss. Two of the featured stories are the Wildcat Hills and The Forgotten War.
The Wildcat Hills are an interesting formation eight miles south of Gering in the Nebraska Panhandle. A rangeland ecologist will take us on a walk through the hills which loom up from prairie land to form crags and rocks along with trees and other plants.
The Forgotten War will be interesting to anyone whose relatives served in the Korean War. This episode follows a group of Nebraska Korean War veterans on their visit to the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC. This is a great opportunity to experience the war through the eyes and words of those who saw action there.
There are other segments within the episode also including a talk with young Jack Hoffman who made the famous Husker touchdown run in 2013. There is also a segment of a piano "experiment" conducted in Omaha.
You can watch a preview of the episode on the Nebraska Stories web site for NET. Make this a night of learning and enjoyment with NET 1.


text:
in other words...
Wasting our lives and glorifying God
Wasting our lives and glorifying God
Notice God's unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world. God plants His saints in the most useless places. We say - God intends me to be here because I am so useful. Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use. God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judges at all of where that is. ~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, August 10
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas....
....Eleven Pipers Piping!!!
The eleven faithful apostles Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
One more day left and then we party on Epiphany! Got your dancin' shoes on?
Posted by
Gombojav Tribe
Email This
Share to Twitter
Share to Facebook
Share to Pinterest
12 Days of Christmas
No comments:
Post a Comment
Newer Post
Older Post
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)


text:
via press release:
"World News with Diane Sawyer" Draws Second Most Watched Week in Nearly a Year
ABC Narrows Demo Gap with NBC by 6% Year-to-Year
For the week of January 03, 2010, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 8.42 million Total Viewers and a 1.8 rating/7 share/2.30 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. Retaining 96% of the previous week's season-high audience, "World News" drew its 2nd largest weekly audience of the season. In fact, it was the ABC program's 2nd most-watched week in nearly 1 year – since w/o 02/08/10.
"World News" shrank the margin of "NBC Nightly News" versus the same week last year by 6% in Adults 25-54. In fact, ABC narrowed the gap with NBC in the key adult news demo in 5 of the last 6 weeks.
"World News" outperformed "CBS Evening News" by 2.09 million viewers and by 380,000 Adults 25-54.
Last week on "World News," Diane Sawyer sat down with ten freshman Republican lawmakers to discuss their vision for the country and how they plan to follow through on the promises that brought them to Washington. Sawyer anchored the broadcast from Washington on Tuesday.
Jon Banner is the executive producer of "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer."
EVENING NEWS (Week of January 3, 2011)
|Total Viewers
|Adults 25-54
|1.8/7; 2,300,000
|2.3/8; 2,910,000
|1.5/5; 1,920,000
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 01/03/11, 12/27/10 & 01/04/10


text:
I just want to preface this ENTIRE article with the bold, and I'm sure controversial, statement that I think murder is wrong. I in no way endorse the murder of a human being no matter how incredibly awesome the story around it may or may not be. Murder=Bad Now with that out of the way, let's lower the level of discourse on The Magical Buffet as I discuss sexy murderous scenarios, okay?
At the beginning of August I stumbled across an article from The Daily Mail titled "Death by stiletto: Woman 'kills her boyfriend with spiked heel to the head'". This conjured up all kinds of sexy scenarios. For those of you unfamiliar, this is what a pair of stiletto heels looks like:
Come on, it's right out of some sort of suspense thriller. I could see it all in my mind. The woman, wearing her strapless formal dress, gets into a fight with her lover after some event. In her rage she throws off her jewelry and kicks off her shoes. When her tuxedo clad lover ups the ante, she picks up one of those stiletto heels and attacks him with it. To her shock and satisfaction, it kills him.
I wasn't too far off. The article states, " A woman allegedly beat her boyfriend to death with the spiked heel of a stiletto shoe. Thelma Carter, 46, struck her live-in boyfriend Robert Higdon, 58, with the shoe at their trailer park home in Augusta, Georgia, police said. Authorities are unsure how many times Mr. Higdon was hit with the shoe before he died." But wait, trailer park home? And the sexy killer who allegedly bludgeoned her boyfriend looks like this:
This my friends, struck me as an outrage.
My mind immediately went back to a news story that was my guilty pleasure to follow. "1968 Playboy Playmate of the Year Angela Dorian has been charged with attempted murder — after she allegedly shot her boyfriend from close range in their Hollywood apartment Saturday night … TMZ has learned."
Now this allegedly murderous woman's story kicks ass, and here's why.
First, I don't know what she looks like now, but she has got to have the stiletto killer beat in the looks department. The TMZ article referenced above points out that she's 5'5″ and 110 pounds and nothing else. But let's face it, she was a Playmate of the Year. She was so hot a nude photo of her, along with some other Playmates, was scanned and inserted into Apollo12 Extra-vehicular activity astronaut cuff checklists by pranksters at NASA.
Next reason this story kicks ass is the gun. The gun allegedly used was a Walther PPK .380. That's right, just like James Bond. But wait! It gets better. It wasn't just a Walther PPK .380, aka, the gun of choice for James Bond. It was a Walther PPK .380, aka, the gun of choice for James Bond, that was given to her 40 years ago by the film director Roman Polanski! I can't make this stuff up! Check it out!
However the final thing about this story is the way she allegedly killed. The CBS Los Angeles website states, "'Quickly she just aimed and fired at me,' Bruce Rathgeb said, telling the judge that he felt burning and stinging on the left side of his body and smelled gunpowder.
He said that his wife then put a small plastic bag in his mouth, which he spit out, and that she walked back to their apartment."
That's right. She shot him and turned around and walked off. Damn right, I'm a bleepbleeped motherbleeping Playmate of the bleepin' year and I WILL shoot you and I WILL leave your ass to bleed out in the hallway. At least that's what I like to imagine went through her mind as she walked back into their apartment. I hate to think about her being sad, or in shock or panic. I'm going to Hell, aren't I?
UPDATE: On September 7, 2011 TMZ reported, "1968 Playboy playmate of the year Angela Dorian has just been sentenced to 9 years behind bars for shooting her husband in the back in 2010."


text:
All New, original stories edited by Katherine Kurtz, author of the Deryni series.
What mystic forces did they conqueor in the Holy Lands? How did their fleet vanish -- and where did it go? What treasures did the fugitive priests bear into the Unknown? And are the Templars part of the past -- or are they still among us, shadowy magicians working their will on the world?
The truth of the Templars will never be known; but the
legends will never die.
|Read "Selling the Devil," a short story by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald from On Crusade, on your favorite e-book reader.


text:
For the past few years, I have been a season ticket holder at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Until about a year ago I lived in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia, and this meant it was a relatively easy day trip up to New York. I would take the train up, meet my fellow opera-loving friend who lives there for lunch and an opera matinee, and get back in time for a late dinner.
Then I moved to central Pennsylvania, almost the exact middle of the state, and this has complicated my New York City-going habits. Because of the longer travel time, I'm now going for overnight weekend trips, and ideally for three day weekends. I used to live in New York, and it is still one of my favorite places to visit, so I always find plenty to do. Since my visits are usually built around opera performances, I started planning my next year's visits to New York when the Met's 2016-17 season was announced a few weeks ago.
This year I had six New York City trips planned, four of which have already happened. We saw Turandot and Tannhauser in October, Die Fledermaus in December, right before we left for New Orleans, and Manon Lescaut a few weeks ago.* In mid-March, we have tickets for Nozze di Figaro (I also have tickets to Hamilton for that trip, which I am very excited about), and in May for Elektra.
This has all made for a lot of back-and-forth short trips to NYC, though, and I learned that going up to NYC on a Saturday and back on a Sunday was not ideal. It felt like I arrived in New York with just enough time for dinner, the opera, brunch the next morning, and then it was time to go. I think for next year I'll be able to combine at least two performances into one weekend. So the plan is to go for four three-day weekend trips to see five operas, which will give me some more time in the city.
The ones we are planning to get tickets for next season are Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, Salome, Rusalka, and Der Rosenkavalier, so I'm planning four trips for October, December, February, and April. I usually choose the operas based mostly on the cast, but this also worked out well since the only one of these five I have seen before is Don Giovanni, and I have wanted to see both Tristan and Salome for a long time.
*Mini-reviews of the Met performances so far:
Turandot: This is the first time I've seen a production of Turandot, and I learned that outside of the show-stopping arias, I do not much like Turandot. When we saw it, Goerke was not in good voice, but Alvarez and Gerzmava were great. For some reason Gerzmava (or the conductor) took Signore Ascolta at a quick tempo, which I object to. I think this is the one where the old man next to fell asleep and SNORED, while also periodically leaning on my shoulder. I am not kidding.
Tannhauser: Also kind of a dud for me, although the cast was fine. I am not a huge Wagner fan.
Die Fledermaus: I have seen Fledermaus before and I'm pretty sure after this time I don't need to see it again. The cast was great, the production was fine, the music was pretty, but even with all that, there was not enough there to make it worthwhile for me. I need to remember that in the future.
Manon Lescaut: We saw Massanet's Manon last season, and had a compare-and-contrast discussion during the intermissions. We agreed that Massanet's Manon is more sympathetic, but Puccini's has the better music. Jonas Kaufmann was supposed to sing Des Grieux, but he cancelled, so we saw Roberto Alagna instead. I was a little disappointed, but I thought Alagna did a great job. This is the first time I had heard Kristine Opolais, and I liked her a lot. She has the perfect voice for these mid-weight Puccini roles. However, I greatly disliked the staging in the last half of the third act, which made me worry about the singers' safety instead of concentrating on the music.


text: 25/06/2016 11am – 4pm This year's Leeds Armed Forces Day is set to be another spectacular event; with a host of events and activities on Victoria Gardens (outside the Art Gallery and Town Hall) and Cookridge Street. Join the celebrations as Leeds honours its service men and women, past and present. This year's is set to be another spectacular day ...Read More »


text:
Ennismore Sterling Fabric
During my college days, my creative passion was ignited by the process of printmaking. Ennismore draws crosshatch etching elements from a French textile document and combines them with whimsical garden life in the form of birds and butterflies. This all over etching floral draws inspiration from the past, yet looks bold and fresh when paired with a striking stripe such as Granby and contemporary geometrics such as Yorkville and Highpoint.
Technical information:
- Contents: 100% Linen
- Pattern: Ennismore-11
- Colour: Sterling
- Width: 54.5" (138cm)
- Vertical Repeat: 27" (69cm)
- Horizontal Repeat: 54" (137cm)
- Durability: n/a
- Cleaning Code: S
- Origin: United States
Need a sample? Please use the Contact Us form and send us your name, shipping address and phone number along with your fabric selection. Maximum 4 free samples per customer.
Please note, fabric and wallpaper are not eligible for shipping outside Canada and the United States.
Price per yard


text:
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Bock Beer Fest - Pictures
Well, Bock Beer Fest was lots of fun again this year. Of course there was plenty of beer, but there was some great food as well. Besides the usual Bock Wurst & Bratwurst, if you were lucky you could get Russ' attention and get a Landjaeger wurst from him on his fancy wurst pole that he carries proudly every year.
Just as our friend Pete promised, the Klements racing sausages made an appearance. Or perhaps I should say the dancing sausages. The people crowded around them to get a quick photo or just a fun time with them dancing around the dance floor. However, I did not see them having a beer, although I am sure they were very thirsty after all that dancing. I think I even saw some of the DCS dancers giving the sausages a spin.
For several years now, the Danube Cultural Society (DCS) has entertained the crowd with their ethnic dancing. It might be a peppy polka or a beautiful waltz. With the geat popularity of Dancing with the Stars the last few years, dancing has gotten a lot of attention at these gatherings. The DCS were happy to see so many appreciative viewers and hope to get some help with their fund raising efforts to go to dance in Disney World later this year.
As it is custom every year, there were the beer drinking contests during the evening. Somehow they never had a lack of contestants. Well, of course the fact that the beer was free might have something to do with it. However, the Milwaukee Spielmannszug does a great job promoting that people drink responsibly and offer a designated driver program for those folks like me that do not drink (beer). I simply drank soda that evening and it was a enjoyable evening for me as well.
If you missed it this year, I am sure it will be held again next year. This event seems to be growing every year.
Posted by Swobet at 8:01 PM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Korres Japanese rose showergel250ml
You have 0 of this in your trolley
0 in trolley
Quantity of Korres Japanese rose showergel in trolley 0
0 in trolley.
Aqua/Water/Eau, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Coco-Glucoside, Glyceryl Oleate, Parfum/Fragrance, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Althea Officinalis Root Extract, Arginine, Benzyl Alcohol, Castoryl Maleate, Citronellol, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluten, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Lactic Acid, Limonene, Phenoxyethanol, Polyquaternium-7, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Sodium Gluconate, Tocopherol
|Typical values
Product Details
Origin Information
- Greece
- Made in Greece
- Suitable for Vegans
- Suitable for Vegetarians
Allergy advice
- May Contain Nuts
- May Contain Wheat
- May contain traces of Wheat and Nuts
Please note that while we take every care to make sure the product information displayed on our website is correct, product recipes are regularly changed. This may affect nutrition and allergen information therefore you should always check product labels and not rely solely on the information presented here.
If you require specific advice on any Waitrose branded product, please contact our Customer Care Team. For all other products, please contact the manufacturer.
This information is supplied for personal use only. It may not be reproduced in any way whatsoever without the prior consent of Waitrose Limited nor without due acknowledgement.