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Failed Donald Trump tower thrust into GOP campaign for presidency
Days before Florida's primary, failed Trump tower project emerges as campaign issue
The buyers at Trump International Hotel & Tower said they thought they were getting a ticket to an exclusive club, a high-rise developed by Donald Trump offering a five-star restaurant, $3 million penthouses and sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.
What they actually got: a hulking, empty concrete shell that was built by someone else, and ran out of money long before it was completed.
The collapse of the celebrated project four years ago cost buyers millions in lost deposits, sparked more than a dozen lawsuits, and has now emerged as a campaign issue that threatens to follow the GOP front-runner through the presidential race.
"It was an outright lie," said J. Michael Goodson, a buyer and former Wall Street investment banker who has pending litigation against the real estate mogul. "I thought the last thing Donald Trump would do was walk away."
The project's massive downfall embodies both the power and the myth of the Trump brand, an aura of success and bravado that attracted condo buyers and now voters.
Just days before Florida's primary, the long-running legal dispute over the 24-story development has become a focus of public scrutiny, raising questions about Trump's character, business practices and his associates.
Last week, anti-Trump ads on television focused on his ties to Felix Sater, an executive on the Fort Lauderdale project who was once jailed for stabbing a man with a broken margarita glass in a barroom fight. In another case, Sater pleaded guilty to defrauding stock investors of $40 million with members of the Gambino crime family.
"Trump entrusted convicts to help him run his company," states the ad by American Future Fund. "Who would he entrust to run the country?"
For years, Trump has distanced himself from the project, stating in a deposition in 2013 he barely knew Sater and would not know what he looked like "if he was sitting in a room right now."
He said Sater might have introduced him to the Fort Lauderdale venture a decade ago, but that, ultimately, Sater "was not involved in this job very much."
Despite a host of sales brochures referring to Trump's "development," he said he was not the developer in the project, but he merely lent his name to the resort and approved design motifs.
"The word develop, it can be used in a lot of different contexts," Trump said in sworn testimony. "We work with the developer on trying to get a beautiful product built, but we were not the developers."
In a phone interview, Trump's attorney said the candidate won a jury verdict in one of the cases in Broward County, and that he had disclosed to buyers that he had only signed a licensing agreement to use his name.
"All you had to do was read" the purchase documents, said attorney Alan Garten. "The disclosures could not be any clearer."
Though most of the cases were settled by buyers in the project, the issue over the deal was pressed two weeks ago by GOP contender Ted Cruz. During an interview with ABC, Cruz said Trump's relationship with Sater, a 50-year-old Russian emigre who runs a development firm in New York, needed to be scrutinized.
"Republican primary voters deserve to know," he said. "In the general election, Hillary Clinton is going to shine a light on all of this."
Sater, a former executive with Bayrock Group, a developer of the project, said in an email to the Miami Herald that he has moved on from his convictions in the 1990s and that he had "repaid my debt many times over." He said any attempts to draw on his past to malign Trump were "pathetic and disgusting."
Sater, who once carried a business card showing he was a senior adviser to Trump — with a Trump Organization address and email printed on the card — declined to comment on questions about the candidate. The Trump Organization said he was never a company employee, but performed work as "an independent real estate broker." Sater is now a real estate consultant and developer.
Several buyers said they should have been told about Sater's involvement in the deal and his criminal past. "It certainly would have put me on alert," said Goodson, the buyer and former investment banker.
Goodson, a Duke University benefactor whose name is emblazoned on the school's law library, is appealing the Broward County court decision that ruled in Trump's favor in 2014.
The 75-year-old owner of Crest Group, Inc., said Trump misled scores of buyers into believing he was the man behind the project. In the end, Trump's name convinced Goodson to hand over a $345,000 down payment on a penthouse.
He said the brochures and sales materials clearly painted Trump as head of the 298-unit project that was supposed to turn Fort Lauderdale into an international destination. In a promotional, hard-bound book sent to Goodson, the first page reads: "A Signature Development by Donald J. Trump."
The origins of the Trump International Hotel & Tower date back to one of the most vibrant periods in Florida real estate, when property values were soaring and the idea of condo-hotel projects was spreading across the country.
Trump helped pioneer the business model, which allows owners to rent their units like hotel suites. And he was eager to bring his brand to Fort Lauderdale's fabled beachfront.
When the plan was unveiled, the Trump tower generated a host of publicity, glossy advertisements, and even a celebrity event featuring rapper Wyclef Jean in 2006 at a historic museum mansion in Fort Lauderdale.
Trump, who showed up in a black limousine, had just launched three similar projects in other cities in a media blitz that included Sater and Bayrock's CEO, Tevfik Arif.
"THERE IS LUXURY...AND THEN THERE IS THE TRUMP EXPERIENCE," boasted an ad for the Fort Lauderdale resort, which was designed in the shape of a 1920s ocean liner.
Because of the name, buyers paid a premium, spending an average 38 percent more per square foot for a Trump unit than the other condo-hotels on the beach, bank records state. Prices started at $500,000.
But over the next two years, the project would miss construction deadlines and, at a critical point, was strapped for loans from its top lender. Though the first wave of units sold briskly in 2006, by the following year, momentum had slowed.
The lead developer, Roy Stillman, who joined in a partnership with Bayrock, later said the downturn in the economy was having a devastating impact on the project. "The world ended in terms of the real estate economy," the New York developer testified.
The entire structure was supposed to be completed by December 2007, but it wasn't close. One buyer told the Herald that he drove by the site eight times to check on the progress, but finally gave up.
With the project stalled, the partners in Bayrock took a drastic step — cashing out much of their future profits while the building was still a shell.
In a transaction that would not become public until years later, the Bayrock team traded its interest in the Fort Lauderdale resort and three others projects to an Icelandic investment firm — receiving $50 million, according to a Delaware lawsuit against Bayrock by a former finance chief. The money was funneled through a Delaware shell company, the suit said.
A month after the deal, Sater purchased a 4,000-square-foot waterfront condo on Fisher Island for $4.8 million, records show.
By the following year, the Fort Lauderdale project was all but doomed: The real estate market had collapsed, and the project's lender, Corus Bank, was in financial trouble. Trump later testified the lead developer missed too many deadlines.
"We put a lot of pressure on him to get that building finished," Trump said of Stillman. "I told him to get on the ball."
After tense negotiations, Trump decided to pull his name from the project and end his agreement with the developers in what was the final blow. More than $140 million had already been spent on the construction. He also fired off a letter to Corus Bank to disclose the developer was in default.
Stillman later testified that Trump's decision was like shooting a "well-placed torpedo." In May 2009, buyers were informed that Trump had stripped his name off the tower, all but ending the deal.
By then, buyers had already hired attorneys and begun a barrage of lawsuits, accusing the developers and Trump of widespread fraud. Many said they were stunned Trump was not the developer, citing the reams of brochures bearing his name and signature.
One buyer, 51-year-old Naraine Seecharan of Coral Springs, was in the midst of recuperating from surgery to remove a brain tumor. Along with the "excruciating pain" of his recovery, Seecharan said he was distraught over his investment turning sour.
"This was equal pain, thinking what was going on," said Seecharan, who turned over $289,000 in a down payment. "It was very, very hard."
Seecharan was among the scores to receive confidential settlements from Trump and the developers, but said he has never fully recovered financially. "I would have been able to almost retire," Seecharan said.
All you had to do was read. The disclosures could not be any clearer.
Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization
Trump, Bayrock and others argued the real culprit was the downturn in the real estate market — one of the primary defenses in court. It didn't matter whether buyers mistakenly believed Trump was the developer, lawyers argued. If the buyers had completed their purchases, they would have lost even more money.
"On this one, they got very, very fortunate that they didn't put their money down, that they didn't buy the units and that would have been worth a fraction of what they were [worth] when they signed at the all-time high in the market," said Trump during a deposition.
Trump said the condo-hotel model was in serious trouble during the downturn — "the worst period since the 1920s," he said — and banks even stopped lending to people who wanted to buy units. "Horrible, horrible conditions," he testified.
However, Joseph Altschul, an attorney for scores of buyers, said several similar models survived in the same area and managed to keep their doors open, rattling off the names of three others that opened since 2004. "You had other condo-hotel deals that didn't fail," he said.
He said many of the buyers had invested to make money by renting out their units. Within three years of the project's end, the market had already started to rebound. By 2013, CFLB Partnership bought the unfinished tower for $115 million to open as a condo-hotel.
"You had people who wanted a second home. They wanted an income stream. They weren't looking to resell," said Altschul, whose more than 70 clients turned over about $8 million in deposits to secure units.
In addition, many investors agreed to buy units only because they believed Trump had a stake in the project.
The Pembroke Pines lawyer points to dozens of brochures, letters with Trump's signature and other promotional materials that gave his clients the impression the billionaire was in charge.
"Here," he said in a recent interview. "The letter says, 'It is with great pleasure that I present my latest development.' How were they supposed to know he wasn't the developer? He said this is 'my development.' I was representing them, and I even thought he was the developer."
Miami Herald staff writer Chabeli Herrera contributed to this report.


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Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the annual Online Information conference in London, filling for Richard Denison from BT who was otherwise engaged. I tried to stick roughly to the topic he had planned to cover, which was online social networking inside the enterprise
The slides of my session are available below, but the main points were so simple that I thought I should summarise them here for people who have experienced enough of my slide-based munitions this year
What I really like about the consumer Web 2.0 world is the fact that it has given us an amazing experimental laboratory for new tools and communication techniques. It has produced a Cambrian explosion of start ups, tools, features and buzzwords, each of which has evolved very quickly through exposure to rapid feedback at scale. Conversely, in the enterprise tools space, users are of secondary importance and therefore there are few evolutionary pressures that can improve the generally poor quality tools and systems that IT departments force on the business. This is starting to change as more and more senior people ask why their children have access to more effective tools on their home PCs than they have access to in the office. "Why can't it just be simple like Google?" is a commonly heard plea. This is producing pressure for change, and at some point this will feed into budgetary pressures to force change in enterprise IT
The history of the corporation shows us that old ideas can achieve incredible longevity when embedded in business processes. The imprint of the industrial revolution, and its model of machine-based production efficiency, is still present today. So too is the bureaucratic model described by Max Weber. By contrast, Frederick Taylor's 1911 theory of scientific management seems positively modern. But what all of these models neglect is the older, more pervasive tradition of social networking in business. From Arabian traders to modern lawyers and accountants, the wheels of business have been lubricated by social contact, social status, food, parties and networking. People buy from people, as salespeople often remark
The rise of enterprise computing took on many of the ideas and models of the C20th corporation, and proceeded to further centralise and de-personalise the way we work in pursuit of efficiency. But it turns out that completely process-driven specialisation and exchange models are not always terribly efficient, and they can be downright wasteful and dangerous, as we have seen in the banking crisis, and as we are also seeing in government provision of health and social care in the UK, for example
Far from replacing us with robots, technology is now all about augmenting human interaction and helping us scale up intimacy and collaboration. It is allowing us to do business as we have always done, and to leave behind the C20th mass industrialised models that gave us the First World War, Stalinism, ERP and BPM
Control and micromanagement, it turns out, is very expensive, and trusting people is a lot cheaper. In a recession, it will become harder and harder to argue that enterprise IT spending should continue along similar lines to those we have seen since the 1990's. If there are genuinely cheaper and more effective ways of running businesses, then only a fool would ignore them in favour of continuing with unloved and ineffective five-year-plan IT strategy
Whereas Knowledge and Information Management have been about capturing and managing content, storing it and then transporting it to where it is needed, enterprise social computing leverages human brain power to derive relevance and usefulness, and instead of managing content object by object, it seeks to help create healthy feeds and flows of information that people can use in their work. Enterprise social computing (aka Enterprise 2.0) places the individual at the centre and seeks to incentivise participation in return for individual benefit, not some theoretical collective sharing benefit.
If we start from the point of view that we are hiring the right people and they are broadly aligned towards shared goals, then we can use people power to organise information better through social bookmarking and emergent information architecture. We can also leverage peoples' own social networks as more appropriate delivery mechanisms for useful information and also to add value and relevance to information search and retrieval. Business social networks based on weak ties are arguably a vital element of an organisational immune system that can avoid catastrophic mistakes and maintain a healthy level of discussion and debate about the mission of the company
But when people talk about social networking, many people in business today think about Facebook, sheep-throwing, poking and embarrassing morning-after pictures on MySpace. It is a common misconception that this is what social networking is all about. In fact, there are probably four basic features of an internal social networking system
- Adaptive personal profiles that update based on your activity and interests as expressed through the content you produce
- The ability to manage contacts, form networks and groups and choose whose activity to 'follow'
- Status and presence updates that can be easily shared with your networks – where you are and what you are doing
- Social bookmarking and sharing of useful information, links or thoughts with your networks and groups
A good place to start might be some kind of internal directory or
personal profiles, perhaps integrating with corporate Active Directory or LDAP systems. As with all enterprise social tools, it also makes sense to think in terms of what this lightweight social layer can do to add value to existing enterprise tools and systems. For example, social bookmarking and tagging combine really well with old-style Content Management Systems or repositories
In my talk, I looked at four basic examples of potential uses for enterprise social networking, but there are many more
- Social reading and writing. A super simple but effective way to develop collective intelligence within a knowledge intensive firm is to get people sharing their reading and writing through Enterprise RSS, bookmarking and blogs. This is an order of magnitude cheaper than traditional internal information sharing, newsletters and research.
- Social search and expertise location. Social networks and activity streams are a great way to find know who as a well as know how rather than relying on formal, static statements of competency and skills. Social search is especially useful in large organisations where a general search produces too much irrelevant information. Narrowing the scope of information searches to your own social network is a great way of reducing noise.
- Social networking for collaboration. Staying in touch with the activities of people who you work with on projects need not be difficult, and this kind of ambient awareness can produce real benefits in terms of time saving and potentially useful serendipitous connections. Social networking features are a natural complement to wikis and other group collaboration tools.
- Social networking for key client relationships. Connecting up people in partner organisations who are working together is a useful way to overcome organisational boundaries on projects, and can help keep you in close touch with key clients, which helps build trust and loyalty.
- Unified messaging. There is a lot of interest right now in replicating the success of micro-messaging systems such as Twitter within the enterprise. This has all the benefits of Instant Messaging with the advantages of being embedded in your working groups and networks, but with less interruption cost.
- Harnessing attention metadata. A longer term benefit of business social networking is the rich data about how people invest their attention, which can be used to drive better recommendations and more personalised services in future. A good example of this is the way Newsgator produces recommendations of popular or relevant news feeds you might want to consume, based on what your colleagues are reading.
But most of all, focus on clear (and ideally measurable) business use cases where the simplicity of social networking can save time and money or avoid duplication of effort. It is better to build an adoption strategy that pays for itself every step of the way than to have to make speculative investment cases to sceptical managers. The kind of use cases that work best for enterprise social tools are what Michael Idinopulos called 'in the flow' rather than 'above the flow' use cases. If you can help people do their job better, you have a chance of engaging them; if you ask them to stop working to come and play with your shiny new tools, then you do not
And finally, another important change in the way we see IT provision is that the customer for these tools is the individual, not the IT department or the company as a whole. If it doesn't meet real needs for individual users, it will not work, regardless of whether it seems like a good idea or not
Internal social networking is undergoing fairly rapid adoption right now. I think we have moved away from the idea that we need to recreate Facebook inside the company (you can't; but done right it is possible to allow users to link their internal and external profiles if they wish), and we will now see some quite focused and businesslike use cases for internal social networking emerge. This is precisely the kind of low cost, simple, people-powered approach to sharing and managing information in businesses that we need as IT spending decreases and companies seek greater efficiencies of operation.

subset: commoncrawl


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Last year's Trial found me wanting – poor route choices, in particular, made it a very long slow day and so I was hoping for an improvement this year. Fewer poor route choices will help and the ground, in the North Western fell should be better than last year. The Newlands Adventure Centre was race HQ and there were adventurous bears in the grounds.
David Powell-Thompson wishing it was his place rather than his number
Joss and Mike Walford exchanging tips
Joss has competed in 49 or 50 Trials (there was a little confusion at the start) and won 10 while Mike Walford has done 44 consecutive Trials and was doing the Classic course today.
Albert Sunter (302) and another on their way
Joss ready to start and, probably, offering advice and wishing good luck to Mike Ferguson
The Derwent fells from below Catbells
Helvellyn in the distance with the Central fells in the mid-ground
Catbells, Derwent Water and the Northern fells beyond
Hindscarth with Robinson beyond
The sun burned off the morning mist to leave a haze that persisted throughout the day and which made for dull photographs during the rest of the day. I did a bit better than last year with only one poor route choice but most of the day was a struggle with the heat and some niggling injuries. The Mountain Trial is one of the classics in the fell running calendar and I'll be back next year to "enjoy" another.
The results are here and huge thanks are due to the organisers, marshals and all other helpers for the 2012 Lake District Mountain Trial.


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Some thoughts on the election, many of which you'll probably see elsewhere too.
- An impressive result, one which cements National as the center party. Key is not stupid, and he learned well from Helen Clark – something that cannot be said for Cunliffe.
- In hindsight, should have considered stepping back in Napier. But no real damage done, so no biggie.
- The "Dirty Politics" book was a tough time, but it was handled well and ended up helping a lot more than it hurt.
- Getting rid of Collins was the right thing to do. There was a perception beginning that nothing would see her go, actually firing her was actually quite refreshing.
- I really liked their closing statement. It was professional and didn't pretend to be something it wasn't.
- Cunilffe's best move would have been to resign, and in doing so unite the party under a new leader.
- Their closing statement was a professionally produced bad joke. No one believes those were members of the public asking questions. Tip: if you really want to go down this road, chose a few more people who don't look like they burned their bras in the 60's.
- 4 list MPs is a disaster, as is having Mallard winning Hutt South. [huge grin]
- Labour is seriously factionalised. It's possible that their long-standing nature may help them recover in the long term, but this isn't going to happen anytime soon. Those factions will continue to fight each other, driving away the center.
As an aside, let's not make the mistake that the center are people who believe in moderation between the left and the right. Really, the center are people who have no political leanings, and will simply vote on who looks like will make a better government, and can be trusted to hold power. Political boffins can find these people hard to understand, and the more political you are, the harder it is to understand these people.
- Labour have a lot of very political people in their activist base. While the leadership contest focused on what these people wanted, middle New Zealand was not impressed. If the party is to recover, they need to restructure their party so these people are kept in the background, if not driven away.
- Labour have serious issues in South Auckland. They lost the pacifica vote, and they will continue to lose more of it as long as their party pays lip service to that community. You cannot expect people to support you if you aggressively push policy which is the antithesis of what they believe. But again, that would involve pushing their activist base into the background, and it's hard to see how anyone can do that.
- The "Dirty Politics" book hurt Labour in two ways. First, it took eyes off them, and onto the National party. Second, they were running around smugly stating "we would never do anything like that", while the man on the street knows full well that all politcans are the same. Worse, the boffins knew full well that Labour is actually worse in that they have bloggers directly on the payroll. It seems the result was that they only fooled themselves.
- Let's face it, Cunliffe is crap. He just can't pull off being a serious and credible, yet likable, party leader. He may get one or two of those, but never all three. Key can, and does it as easily as breathing.
- While the party said they were running a positive campaign, they didn't. They can't. You can't take a bunch of people who honestly believe their opponents are the devil incarnate and run a positive campaign. That's not to say they didn't try, it's just that reasonable debate isn't in the DNA of the far left and it shows.
- I actually clicked on a Labour party link once this past week, on a whim. I was honestly expecting something I would like, but I didn't. They've been quite dishonest, particularly in their claims of costing their policies – you can't claim that you've costed policies when you specifically got rid of the guy who could have done a credible job of doing it.
I'm as shocked as anyone that Labour's lost vote didn't translate to the Greens. However…
- I realise in hindsight, that I was giving their billboards too much credit. I didn't see what they were trying to say, and it appears that no one else could too.
- It appears that a number of people who like their "help the poor" ethos were seriously put-off by their extreme abortion policy. Not something I would have expected, but that's what I'm hearing.
- The Greens have to decide whether they are an environmental party, or an extreme left party. At the moment, they're the latter and we already have Labour for that.
- They should also stop talking about a "green economy". It's been done, it didn't work.
- They're quite lucky that most New Zealanders have swallowed their line about rivers. Those sorts of big lies can really backfire badly. Stick to the truth.
- Finally, how many stories did we have uncritically showing a green leader introducing a policy? Seems that the public are not so fussed on media darlings.
- There are some principles you just shouldn't break. The Kiwi Party should not have joined up with Field, and Mana should have avoided Kim the German criminal.
- Good riddance, one of the big positives of this election!
- If there were any justice in this world Lilia Hare would be shamed out of public life in New Zealand. However, the far left are sufficiently unprincipled that she's unlikely to suffer any lasting harm.
- Perhaps it'd be a good time for Kim to just get on a plane and fly to the US. Go to the courts, put up your defense, and take your punishment (if any) like the man you allegedly are. By all accounts, he's a really talented guy and I'm quite sure he would do very well in life if he decided to own up to what he's done.
- Act needs a rebuild. They've started, but there is a lot of work to go. I suggests a 2:3 lose coalition with the conservatives – both could have gained had they done that this election (see my later comments however).
- Also, find someone who can produce professional videos. Seriously, what's wrong with you?
New Zealand First
- New Zealand first continues to be a joke party. However, the joke is on us as they gained several seats.
- So many times during the campaign, Winston was on the radio making one claim or the other, and when asked for details he'd abuse the interviewer. In other words, he was telling fibs, and really obvious ones.
- It will be interesting to see how long he can keep up the pace.
- Have done well with National, but their constituency can't shake that feeling that they should really be going with Labour. Well, I'm glad it's not my problem!
- Conservatives did well, and built their base.
- They looked a lot better later on in their campaign.
- They had some seriously impressive people on their list.
- They were clearly getting under Cunliffe's skin – his open abuse of them in the last debate was quite telling. (Vote positive anyone?)
- A little bird tells me that Colin's "take no s$$t" attitude is actually helping dampen what would otherwise be the open season that usually happens when a party smells llike it might be religious conservative.
- They didn't get in
- They grew during the campaign, but ran out of time. They really had to have a few poll results above 5% in order to not have people withdraw for fear of "wasting" their vote.
- Their policy platform left something to be desired. This needs tided up.
- The music in their closing statement was awful, and far too loud.
- Colin needs time to build a better image, with the media but also with the grassroots.
- The lawsuit with Norman, while well-founded will attract unwelcome attention whether it's followed through or dropped.
- I'm hoping that he'll take the next 3 years and return for the next election with a sharp, professional team, one that can be taken seriously and contribute seriously. They're not quite there yet but the potential is certainly showing.


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Thursday, June 18, 2009
I have peace in my heart knowing that the Lord who made me knows me and loves me and even when I leave this place I have faith in the knowledge that I will live with Him forever.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? Thank you to Pampering Beki for hosting this each week! Everyone is welcome to join. To see how to join, as well as find links to other Fingerprint Friday posts, visit Pampering Beki's blog.
10 comments:
So beautiful--I can't believe we miss out on that every night. Gorgeous!ReplyDelete
What beautiful, amazing sky colors! How reassuring to know the God who creates those colors loves us and creates even more beautiful colors within us! ♥ReplyDelete
What a gorgeous sunset!! It's so true, even a bad, hard day, I have to remind myself that tomorrow is a new day filled with new oppurtunities. Have faith and trust and God will get me through it!ReplyDelete
I hope you have a great fathers day weekend!
What a breathtaking sky!!!! And I love the trees silhouetted against the sky. How can ANYONE fail to see God's hand at work everyday when you consider the unbelievable skies and colors he gives us everyday! Thanks for this. :)ReplyDelete
Beautiful sunset! And it is certainly true that our tomorrows will be filled with hope as long as we believe!ReplyDelete
Wow it looks as thought the sky is on fire!ReplyDelete
i like how the trees seem to be silhouetted by the colour.
have a good week ; )
what a beautiful picture and encouraging word to think on!ReplyDelete
Beautiful, beautiful picture..Something about the sky (a favorite of mine) that give you hope.ReplyDelete
It is always changing its beauty and for some reason, it makes me realize how close God is.
Oh my goodness, that sky is magnificent! Thank you so so much for sharing it with us :DReplyDelete
I would say I see the Gods and Goddess's prints in everything beautiful and inspiring.
Absolutely gorgeous!!ReplyDelete
What a hope.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write your thoughts. I treasure each and every comment and look forward to reading what you have to say!


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ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. -- A shoplifter punched an Elmwood Park security guard several times in the face and knocked down a 58-year-old customer while fleeing, authorities told Daily Voice.
The guard at the Broadway store confronted the bandit just after 10 p.m. Tuesday and was struck with a closed fist, "causing swelling and a contusion on the left side of his face," Police Chief Michael Foligno said Wednesday morning.
The robber then fled towards the exit, knocking down a woman who sustained hip and leg injuries, before running towards Parkview Avenue, he said.
This turned a routine shoplifting into a robbery in which force was used, the chief noted.
Responding officers who got help establishing a perimeter from Fair Lawn and State Police found the robber's shirt, hat and cellphone in the parking lot, Foligno said.
Two Bergen County Sheriff's K-9 units also responded.
The robber was described as black, about 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10, and wearing a dark shirt and camouflage pants, Foligno said, adding that his detectives were reviewing surveillance video in an attempt to identify the robber.
Anyone with information that could help the investigation is asked to contact Elmwood Park Police at (201) 796-0700 . Callers can remain confidential, Foligno said.
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I'm New to Bend Church
Worship Times
Sunday 9am: Contemporary Service featuring contemporary, sing-along music with a Children's Message and Sunday School.
Sunday 11am: Traditional Service with music provided by the Chancel Choir.
Casual dress at all services. Child care provided in the nursery.
Watch a greeting from Pastor Dave here.
Our Location: Downtown Bend at 680 NW Bond St.
Contact Us: 541.382.1672
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 8am – 4pm


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iBean® & iTagua®, the World's first Cybotanic music players.
The world's first 'lossless' (CD quality) digital music players housed in sustainable and natural botanical casings from Amazonia
iBean® & iTagua®, the World's first Cybotanic music players.
The world's first 'lossless' (CD quality) digital music players housed in sustainable and natural botanical casings from Amazonia
iBean and iTagua, are the world's very first digital audio music players, designed using whole natural botanical casings, gathered sustainably from the Amazon Rainforest. Each 4GB player, is a meticulously crafted and engineered digital 'APE' or 'FLAC' audio device -delivering lossless, CD quality music in a naturally beautiful and truly original form. (Lossless compression reduces a file's size with no loss of quality. APE is a form of lossless compression- see below for more details)
Our journey began in Colombia, South America over a year ago. Whilst exploring Northern Colombia we discovered the largest beanpods in the world, 'Entada Gigas', growing on enormous tropical vines called lianas or monkey ladder vines. The pods were up to a staggering four feet in length.
When dried, the beans have a beautiful rich dark mahogany colour and a tremendously hard resilient shell. Further research into these natural marvels, revealed that their shell is harder than man-made polycarbonate! I even heard 'on the vine' that NASA have tested this material, finding it to have unprecedented natural strength! I couldn't resist carrying a bean on me for a while,- it just felt so natural to the touch! Eventually I had an exciting brainwave to create a perfectly beautiful combination of nature and acoustically superior digital audio technology! These natural marvels really do make ideal, fascinating and individually unique housings for the iBean!
In search of the giant beans in Colombia
Our quest for these special beans, first took us to the infamous Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Don Diego River, in Northern Colombia. Our first travels to the region where we discover the giant bean pods growing in their beautiful natural habitat. We researched the material extensively and realised that the vines were growing in great abundance and could be gathered without any harm to the vines or trees. This sustainability was a vital step and essential to our deciding to pursue the product range.
Own a naturally unique botanical marvel.
Each product has been designed by nature meaning no two are alike.
Cybotanics- our roots
The company name Cybotanics is a combination of 'Cyborg' (short for 'Cybernetic Organism' - a being with both organic and cybernetic parts), and 'Botanical' (referring to its plant origin.) Cybotanics combine cutting- edge electronics with naturally-grown whole botanical entities, such as giant tropical beans and nuts.
Many artificial plastics are synthesized to replicate the physical strengths and resilience of natural, plant based polymers. But the physical attributes of these synthetics are generally inferior to the original, natural versions. Before the industrial revolution, natural polymers such as 'Gutta-percha', Natural rubber and 'Tagua'(or 'vegetable ivory') were used prolifically...
Through a series of exciting new consumer electronic products, Cybotanics want to re-introduce these wonderfully functional and low impact(environmentally) natural materials, into the mainstream. By choosing to pledge this campaign, you are nurturing both our beautiful planet, and its indigenous and rural people, who gather the beans and nuts sustainably from the forest floor in Colombia through a co-operative type arrangement.
We believe we're the first company in the world to reverse engineer a range of consumer electronics using only whole botanical casings. Our first launched products have taken two years to develop and we hope you love them as much as we do.
Cybotanical Challenges
After we tested many electronic prototypes in China, our search for quality took us to a fantastic manufacturer in Seoul, Korea that could meet our demanding needs for sound quality and reliability of the electronic platform. We are proud to say we are delighted by the design, acoustic performance and functionality of the iBean and iTagua players.
The other big challenge was to develop techniques for fitting these high quality players into their beautiful and individually unique natural housings.
Our Colombian Partner 'La Tagueria' are highly-skilled craftsmen of 'Tagua', creating beautiful and colourful native jewellery for generations. We benefit from their artisan knowledge and ability to individually select the right 'beans' and 'taguas' for the demanding and careful machining process. We truly are fortunate to have teamed up with such skilled professionals, as this fusing process is the most demanding aspect of the construction.
The iBean
The Bean - ENTADA GIGAS Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae Mimosoldea) Known as 'Sea Beans' these gigantic seeds come from pods which grow up to four feet in length. The measure about 5cm across
These seed pods are transported naturally by river and can eventually be washed out to sea, landing on a foreign beach and still successfully germinating even a year after falling from the tree. The iBean has a shell that, when dry, is like a natural polycarbonate and is incredibly resilient.
Each bean is carefully hand-selected for its symmetry and natural beauty and is polished to a high shine using a special stone polishing tumbler before the inside kernel is carefully removed and swapped with the digital media player circuit board and battery which is then securely housed within. The iBean's unusual polycarbonate-like shell makes a natural and incredibly strong casing as an alternative to plastic or metal.
Each iBean is therefore totally unique with no two beans ever being the same.
Our beans are gathered from the beaches and riverbanks in Colombia and provide a new and alternative income to rural people living in the tropical north of the country.
The iTagua
The Nut- Tagua (Vegetable Ivory)
The Nut- PHYTELEPHAS Family: Arecaceae (Phytelephas Aequatorialis Macrocarpa) The Tagua is actually a kind of palm nut, it has become referred to as 'Vegetable Ivory' because of its colour and working properties which are almost identical to elephant ivory, from which its latin name derives.
The Tagua or Corozo is about the size of a small hens egg and grows on palms found under the forest canopy - it bears fruit up to three times a year. Before each nut has dried it is a jelly-like blob in a giant pod. Our nuts are dried for over a year to ensure that they develop their ivory-like properties and hardness.
Just like iBean, no two iTagua players are the same. This is the first ever use of tagua nuts in this way for the purposes of delivering a media player with more style and uniqueness than anything seen like it before, each iTagua is meticulously chosen for its form and size and then polished and dyed a variety of colours. The insides are then carefully machined in order to house our digital media player.
The tagua button caps used on iBean and iTagua are made in Panama and benefit over 600 families through a cooperative arrangement in the Darien Gap, a stretch of lowland swamp that divides Central and South America. Tagua is gathered from the forest floor in a totally non-invasive way.
Assembly of iBean & iTagua in Bogota, Colombia
We've teamed up with a great company in Colombia that is a leader in their field and had the right approach to the assembly of each product, understanding our raw materials implicitly. Because they work with jewellery, they brought much more of a craftsmenship approach that was essential to the assembly of iBean and iTagua. They are one of the country's largest processors of tagua nut, originally for button manufacture but now principally export tagua jewellery and homewares worldwide. Our manufacturing partner is based in the capital, Bogota and importantly, they have the capacity and attention to detail we need, with over 150 full time employees.
Each iTagua or iBean comes with 2GB of memory
Exceptional Sound Quality using 'APE' Monkey's Audio Compression
iBean® and iTagua® use a new form of music compression in lossless CD quality form (APE-Monkey's audio). The devices also play normal MP3 files you may have. http://www.monkeysaudio.com/ Unlike traditional methods such as MP3, OGG, or LGT that permanently discard quality to save space, Monkey's Audio represents bit-for-bit copies of music. That means it always sounds perfect – exactly the same as a CD. Even though the sound is perfect, it still saves a lot of space (think of it as a beefed-up Winzip™ for your music). The other great thing is that you can always decompress your Monkey's Audio files back to the exact, original files. That way, you'll never have to recopy your CD collection to switch formats, and you'll always be able to perfectly recreate the original music CD.
To charge or upload music tracks onto the iBean or iTagua, simply plug the mini USB cable provided into your PC or Mac. The earphone jack is multipurpose and fulfils both functions.
Instructions for using the player
(headphones not included)
Design of the user interface
We worked with a highly talented design engineer who has worked on product design for the likes of Nokia and Vertu. We wanted something that was not just visually appealing but had the right touch and feel and all important action that reflected the quality of manufacture. We've taken this detailed approach as the functionality and tactility of the objects is the number one priority.
Reward 01- The iBean Titanium Keychain £10.00
Reward 02 - The iTagua Titanium Keychain £10.00
Reward 03 The iBean Digital 'APE' Music player 4GB (choose colour combination after completion of campaign)
Reward 04 -The iTagua Digital 'APE' Music player 4GB £40.00 (choose colour combination after completion of campaign)
Reward 05 - Limited edition 'Batik' iTagua 4GB £60.00 (choose colour combination after completion of campaign)
We are offering 500 limited edition iTagua music players in amazing 'Batik' designs with a larger 4GB memory chip. You can choose from any one of the following 31 designs, with each iTagua hand dyed and then polished through a highly skilled and intricate process called 'batik' where different layers of dyes are applied whilst blocking out others. All buttons on these limited edition models will be white with a natural cream tagua nut button housing as can be seen below.
What's in the box?
All of the above players include an instructions booklet, mini USB cable for both battery charging and uploading tracks. Headphones are not included
Where are the Kickstarter funds going?
Cybotanics has already had investment from the private equity space of $60,000 USD thus far. This has been spent on developing both iBean and iTagua getting them to a market-ready prototype stage with real production parts now ready.
Cybotanics has made regular trips to South America and travelled twice to Asia to secure the right partners. We have already tooled the silicone button units, user interface and the tagua nut button housing has been designed by a former Nokia CAD engineer to ensure the aesthetics, usability and action are outstanding. Packaging, marketing & sales, distribution and logistics between Korea and Colombia are all integral to a perfect product delivery for shipping before Christmas.
Our digital media player has been custom-designed in Korea using the best quality components from the likes of Samsung to ensure excellent sound quality with 'lossless' APE quality sound. The PCB (printed circuit board) has been custom-built especially for Cybotanics for both products.
Our pledge is simple. Our Korean electronics manufacturer has a minimum order quantity of digital media players that we have to meet. On reaching our target goal, we will have enough to meet this demand and we can produce our first production run of both iBeans and iTaguas.
Working with the Natura Foundation, Colombia
Cybotanics is proud to be working with Colombia's foremost conservation charity. Profits from the sale of iBean benefit Natura.The Natura Foundation is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) created in 1984 with a mission to help conserve the biodiversity of Colombia and the search for alternative sustainable use of natural resources. http://www.natura.org.co/
Cybotanics' ethical approach to manufacture includes our packaging materials used. Each product comes in its own custom designed bamboo or 100% recycled kraft canister as seen below and innovative PLA dome, displaying the player perfectly.
Our protective internal packaging is made purely from natural coconut fibres and natural latex.
The fibre is collected from the coconut husk, a resource that is widely available. Coconut palms grow on 10 million of hectares of land throughout the tropics. Only a fraction of the huge quantities of nuts are collected for industrial use. The food industry is the main consumer, and it focuses on the coconut meat, jettisoning the fibres as a waste product. Cybotanics gives these valuable raw materials a new purpose in life.
Coconut fibre has a very high lignin content so it is very tough. Despite this toughness, it is also elastic. The fibre hardly deteriorates at all over time.
Estimated Timeline
We are delighted to be kickstarting these revolutionary hybrid natural/digital players, and expect them to be delivered to you before Christmas!
•August 2013: Kickstarter campaign underway
•September 2013 - First production run of PCBs in Korea
•October 2013 - Assembly of finished products in Bogota, Colombia
•November 2013 - Finished products packaged
•Early December 2013 - Delivery in time for Christmas
During this process, we will share the above with you every step of the way so you are kept fully informed of each completed stage. Since all testing of hardware and de-bugging of software has already been complete, we envisage no major hitches in the delivery process.
Thank you.
Risks and challenges
Cybotanics Ltd has already raised $60,000 USD which has gone towards extensive R&D work and prototyping, trademark protection, tooling of components and designing and engineering the printed circuit boards (PCB) in Korea. The process was not simple as we had to work to a wide level of tolerance and the electronics had to be designed in reverse from the outside in. After extensive trips to Asia, we now have market ready production models with all the de-bugging of software and assembly challenges having been ironed out. The product is complete and we simply require a 'minimum order quantity' on the component parts in Korea.
Each product and assembly procedure has been thoroughly tested, meeting functionality and a high level of quality control. All units pass a series of build quality tests prior to shipping.
As a start-up consumer electronics producer, we face all the usual challenges associated with manufacturing a physical product. Since we are working with contract manufacturers, we are at risk of dealing with production delays as well as quality control issues and unexpected costs. During the process, we have declined over five Chinese electronics manufacturers who did not meet our demanding standards. We've performed due diligence on our chosen partner to minimize these risks and we're 100% happy with the quality they produce - We've carefully analyzed component and materials costs, factoring a contingency budget into our goal.
We intend to run this campaign with total transparency and accountability. We've put in the graft early on and a significant investment has already gone into ensuring everything runs smoothly and honed down the assembly, making it it as streamlined as possible. We've done the hard work: we now simply need a critical mass of orders to make the first minimum order quantity (MOQ) production run.Learn about accountability on Kickstarter
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Funding period
- (36 days)


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The New York International Fringe Festival is now FringeNYC (in Manhattan) AND FringeBYOV (in the outer boroughs). ALL DATES BELOW ARE IN OCTOBER. Use the Slice-O-Matic or the alphabetical tabs below to view the shows, pick your performance, and purchase tickets.
* = FringeHIGH Talkback follows performance
Performances shown in grey are either past or sold out.


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My Account
Contact Us
Blood Pressure
: 17 Million U.S. Adults May Have Tough-to-Spot High Blood Pressure
Posted January 23, 2017
THURSDAY, Jan. 19, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- You get your blood pressure checked at your doctor's office, and it reads in the normal range. You're fine, right?
Well, maybe not. A new study suggests that 17 million American adults may have what doctors call "masked" hypertension -- blood pressure that tends to be higher outside of the medical clinic environment.
"It can manifest itself as a normal physician's office blood pressure and elevated home blood pressure," explained Dr. Kevin Marzo, a heart specialist who reviewed the findings.
The best way to spot masked hypertension is "either with self-monitoring or an ambulatory [wearable] blood pressure monitor that a physician has a patient wear for 24 hours," said Marzo. He's chief of cardiology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.
But how common is the condition? To find out, a team led by Dr. Joseph Schwartz of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., analyzed its own database as well as data from a national U.S. government survey on nutrition and health.
Based on the analysis, the researchers estimated that just over 12 percent of Americans over the age of 21 have masked hypertension. That translates into about one in every eight people -- or 17.1 million Americans, Schwartz's team said.
Masked hypertension was typically more common among males than females. Having diabetes raised the odds for the condition, and so did advancing age, the research showed.
Schwartz's team noted that masked hypertension can pose real dangers, raising a person's risk for heart disease, organ damage and early death.
Dr. Rajiv Jauhar is chief of cardiology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. He called the study "important," because it shows the extent of masked hypertension in the population.
In general, Jauhar said, "we are not adequately treating or educating these patients to the risks of hypertension. They are not being treated with the right drugs or taught about the importance of a low-salt diet."
The findings were published Jan. 18 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
-- E.J. Mundell
Copyright © 2017
. All rights reserved.
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As part of our crowd funding campaign, we invited several local and international artists to contribute their original work as part of the rewards. We reached our crowd funding goal in less than four days. Many thanks to our backers and artists!
Self-Portrait of our backer, Andrew Marshall by the talented Gillian Toh.
Our artists include Alfonsus Wong, Allan Alberado, Isaac Liang, Zhao Zimu, Aurial Lee and Vicky Chen.


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1st Manga Appearance:
1st Anime Appearance:
Kuroneko can be considered Nightow's mascot. He first shows up in another manga by nightow (sorry, I forgot the name). In that story he is one of many talking animals that the main character encounters. In both the trigun manga and anime kuroneko is a random occurence. he shows up when a little humor can be added to the story. He shows up a lot in the anime, but in the manga he isn't around much.


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COBWEB CORNERS: Colorado City's first park
By Mel McFarland
Way back a century ago the town had only one park. Do you know which one (since it still is a city park)? No, not Bancroft, because it was the location of the high school. Thorndale was the town's first park. Mr. and Mrs. George Thorne presented the property to Colorado City, which was then in the northeast part of town. It is officially Block 40 in East Colorado City.
When the city government was trying to decide if it wanted to get into the business of running a park, General Palmer stepped up and gave the city $2,100 to fix up the property and maintain it for a while. The park was named Thorndale in the Thornes' honor. The property had to be cleared of a number of piles of trash and logs, some of which had at one time been cabins. The next problem was laying water lines through it and planting grass and a few more trees.
The area was a bit controversial later, because it bordered the community of Ramona, which broke away from Colorado City in protest.
The El Paso Canal also bordered the property. The early irrigation channel ran from Fountain Creek - roughly behind where the Safeway is at Red Rocks - skirted the hills, then went up around Whittier School, north of Colorado City's downtown, along what is now Uintah Street between 24th and 19th, near Buena Vista school, around the hill behind Bristol school, and north almost all the way to Polk Street. There, it crossed Monument Creek and fed irrigation lines that bordered North Cascade and Nevada avenues before finally reaching its end point at Prospect Lake. The old canal has been filled in most places, but I remember as late as the 1950s a couple of houses north of Uintah, just east of the park, that had little bridges in their front yards over the remains of the canal.
Thorndale Park has been threatened with extinction several times since it was taken over by Colorado Springs Park and Recreation, but now (with recent new equipment) it seems to be living up to what the Thorne Family wanted us to have. It will be 100 years old in November 2005.


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Your message dated Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:01:33 +0200 with message-id <1159099293.3714.5.camel@localhost> and subject line [Fwd: Bug#368099 closed by Debian Archive Maintenance <email@example.com> (Bug#368099: fixed)] has caused the attached Bug report to be marked as done. This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with. If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith. (NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what I am talking about this indicates a serious mail system misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact me immediately.) Debian bug tracking system administrator (administrator, Debian Bugs database)
--- Begin Message ---
- To: Debian Bug Tracking System <email@example.com>
- Subject: websieve: package says priority is extra, override says optional
- From: Noèl Köthe <firstname.lastname@example.com>
- Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 23:28:08 +0200
- Message-id: <20060519212808.19782.51628.reportbug@localhost>Package: websieve Version: 0.62-2 Severity: normal Hello, please correct the priority: There are disparities between your recently accepted upload and the override file for the following file(s): websieve_0.62-2_all.deb: package says priority is extra, override says optional. Either the package or the override file is incorrect. If you think the override is correct and the package wrong please fix the package so that this disparity is fixed in the next upload. If you feel the override is incorrect then please reply to this mail and explain why. [NB: this is an automatically generated mail; if you replied to one like it before and have not received a response yet, please ignore this mail. Your reply needs to be processed by a human and will be in due course, but until then the installer will send these automated mails; sorry.] -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-1-686 Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
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- Subject: [Fwd: Bug#368099 closed by Debian Archive Maintenance <firstname.lastname@example.com> (Bug#368099: fixed)]
- From: Noèl Köthe <firstname.lastname@example.com>
- Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:01:33 +0200
- Message-id: <1159099293.3714.5.camel@localhost>Hello, closing bugs, because package is removed. > > We believe that the bug you reported is now fixed; the following > > package(s) have been removed from unstable: > > > > websieve | 0.62-2 | source, all > > > > Note that the package(s) have simply been removed from the tag > > database and may (or may not) still be in the pool; this is not a bug. > > The package(s) will be physically removed automatically when no suite > > references them (and in the case of source, when no binary references > > it). Please also remember that the changes have been done on the > > master archive (ftp-master.debian.org) and will not propagate to any > > mirrors (ftp.debian.org included) until the next cron.daily run at the > > earliest. > > > > Packages are never removed from testing by hand. Testing tracks > > unstable and will automatically remove packages which were removed > > from unstable when removing them from testing causes no dependency > > problems. > > > > Bugs which have been reported against this package are not automatically > > removed from the Bug Tracking System. Please check all open bugs and > > close them or re-assign them to another package if the removed package > > was superseded by another one. > > > > Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you > > have further comments please address them to firstname.lastname@example.com. > > > > This message was generated automatically; if you believe that there is > > a problem with it please contact the archive administrators by mailing > > email@example.com. > > > > Debian distribution maintenance software > > pp. > > Jeroen van Wolffelaar (the ftpmaster behind the curtain) -- Noèl Köthe <noel debian.org> Debian GNU/Linux, www.debian.org
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Having given Ships my album of the year in 2013 and loved the hell out of The Boombox Ballads two years ago, you can imagine my excitement to see a new Sweet Baboo album being announced. The first song Badminton is typical of the man, enchanting and captivating from the off and beautiful in its simplicity. Listen below:
You can pre-order the album here
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter


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About Me:
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
(Banging Head Against Wall)
4 comments:
It's funny that you shared the story about dog that would not stand up, because just yesterday I had an opposite problem. I groomed a 7-year old cocker spaniel who is going to have surgery on both her rear knees next Monday. So, owner was concerned that she will not be able to stand for her entire groom. I assured him, that she does not have to stand up the entire two hours, she can sit as much as she wants, I just need her to stand for a few minutes at a time when I wash, dry and shave her rear legs, back, etc. But since this girl has been groomed regularly all her life she knew she is supposed to stand up for groom. I was fighting with her (well, not fighting, really) during drying, telling her she can sit down and she would immediately pop back up. Finally, by the time we were done drying she decided it must be OK to sit and even lay down. So, we just have to marvel at those smart dogs and adjust! :)ReplyDelete
hello. :)ReplyDelete
I just came a across your blog about a week ago and I love it. I have been slowly making my way through all the entries. I am a new groomer and am soaking in every tip I can get.
I have a question. I noticed all of your dogs are so beautifully blown out!! I know you mention using the HV dryer on them. Then in one entry you mentioned about a brush attachment. Does that go on the end of the hose at the nozzle? Is that something that is universal for all HV dryers or just the specific model you have? Most of our dogs do not end up looking this good after a blow out so I am just curious as to your technique and equipment. :) We just have HV dryers with a cone concentrator nozzle and/or a flat diffuser nozzle.
Also, we have a LOT of, to put it nicely, "stinkers" who do not tolerate the HV dryer. Do you have an alternative dryer(s) or methods for these furry friends who will not let you HV dry them?
Thanks! :)
I do SO wish you lived near Branson, Mo. Where are you? YOU are the kind of person I would pay extra for my latest "laid back kinda guy" to visit. I have done a poor job clipping my assorted dogs for 20 years. I have encouraged them to relax and enjoy the scenery on the front porch while I give myself a backache. :-P. I do have them stand off/on so I can check length.ReplyDelete
I have used groomers in the past, but got out of the habit for multiple reasons, number one being stress on old dogs. Also, I invested in expensive clippers for horses and dogs, so might as well use them. (Those Andis clippers no longer doing well, just used scissors for the most part last year, considering my options for this year.) With the larger, young dog I have now, the thought of all the work already on my to do list...wish I knew someone close by who wouldn't feel offended if I said I am staying to observe, and I don't want my dog to have to stand for over 20 minutes straight. He's simply not used to it. I suspect I will simply continue to make a mess of his beautiful coat, and be glad he is cooler, healthier, and happy to get attention for any reason...even if it's to provide laughs.
- AnonymousAugust 10, 2015 at 6:28 PM
I have a suggestion about pricing. When I had a housekeeping business, I had standard *typical* rates. When I would bid a new client, the things that would vary the costs were quickly explained (such as a a unexpected mountain of dishes would cost extra). At times, the best tack involved the client being there through a session, if only to make sure we understood each other clearly regarding any variances that arise. Documentation is helpful. I keeped notes for each session. Maybe creating a few videos regarding the average, quick, and time consuming comb outs of similar sized dogs, narrating the issues as you go.ReplyDelete
Regarding the ever sitting pup, consider having the owner in during a grooming encouraging him to stand with you doing it, and flopped down when the owner is. I have a spinal cord injury and do everything a little different than most. My pup/service animal walks with me being in a wheelchair much differently than with my daughter. Same goes for grooming. He needs to stand for her, while he sits or lays down for me. My pup, barely a year old and likely to be pushing 100 pounds and 28+ " at the whithers is half poodle, and a quarter each golden retriever and black lab. No undercoat and mostly poodle curls with a Golden's waves at the top of the whithers, top of muzzle, his belly and his chest. His tail is a Frankenstein mess of the two, needing combing out a few times a day to keep the tangles under control. :)


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PROOF- when is the last time you have seen a woman driving slowing down a well-known prostitution street to pick up a guy and take him to a cheap motel room and have sex with them and then leave? My point exactly. Do they even have this kind of service? Not to my knowledge. How many male strip clubs do you know of that the place is packed with woman wanting dances and trying to buy a guy's affection for a relationship or to have sex? My point exactly. Prostitutes, bath houses, hand job massage parlors and strips clubs are designed for men because they usually only want sex. Woman on the other hand wants more than a quickie and wants to be wined and dined first. That is why woman only go to designed male strip clubs when there is a special occasion, i.e.; Bachelorette party, birthday party or a really good divorce party. The strip clubs for woman are much different than the ones designed for men. For instants, let's take the show "Thunder Down Under" in Vegas. It is classy, entertaining with good looking guys. The difference between men and woman. More than likely, you're not going to take a male dancer back to your hotel room just to have sex. The male strippers are not going to be hanging all over you acting like they just found Ms. Right and trying to get you to make their car payment.Why Men Cheat - From Our Perspective!
Why Men are Unfaithful and Cheat, Cheating Man...What Woman Have To Do?
Every situation is different but in most ways the same. After 19 years of hearing cheating stories from every walk of life, I can tell you that the main complaint and excuse from men on why they are cheating is because the woman they married or is in a relationship with has changed. My advice to woman. When you meet someone you are interested in, don't be fake. Be yourself with your own personality, looks and goals in life, don't just say what you think he wants to hear. It will NEVER work out. Men don't like changes and if they meet you and you try and become the person you think they are looking for, you will end up getting hurt in the end. When the meeting turns into a relationship and you can no longer pretend to be the person that he met and fell in love with, again, you will lose and your heart will be broken.I have two rules to follow. My number one main advice, is, don't get pregnant thinking a baby is going to keep the man you love, loving you. Now there are two hearts broken. The second advice is, don't be fake. If they don't like you for you, they never will and then they will cheat and leave you. After all of the time and energy you wasted on this one guy, you could be having the time of your life being yourself and eventually ending up with the guy who loves you just the way you are. To understand why men cheat is really simple. It's so easy to figure out if you pay attention to the simple things Men want a hot meal, sex, and attention, more like ego stroking. Give it to him or someone else will. Finding out that you have a cheating man is one of the most painful devastating things that you could go through in your life especially if you are deeply committed to this person and love him.Your female intuition tells you that you have a cheating man, but you ignore the signs or want so bad to believe him, you do. If you do ignore these signs and do nothing about it things will only get worse.If you don't catch the affair or potential affair in time, you may lose your opportunity to save the relationship if that is what you chose to do. You will also be in control of the situation at this point and can call the shots. If you want to try and save the relationship, go to counseling, or throw his butt out, now the ball is in your court because there is no more playing guessing games and the truth is out. The important thing is to know, why men cheat even though you do everything for him.Until you get the answers you are looking for the mere thought of your man cheating and having sex with another woman will eat you alive!
Even if you catch your man cheating red handed you will not know why he really did it. He will just tell you what he thinks you want to hear, "she pushed herself on me" Remember; don't take it out on the other woman. Like it or not, it is not her fault. The man that promised you that you would be his one and only in his life and the man that you cared for and sleep with, is the person that he should be with, instead of his mistress. The woman that he has an affair with, doesn't owe you anything and never told you that you were her one and only. You also have to keep in mind what your man told her. In 19 years of business, most mistresses have told me that the man that they feel in love with either told them that they were single or the most common one is that the man is getting a divorce from his wife. So the mistress thinks he is fair game. If you think about the logic and yourself, why would you want a guy who didn't want you? Instead of thinking about how he hurt you or the nerve of the other woman, think about how happy you are that you found out now that he didn't love you instead of finding out 10 or 20 more years from now and a few more children that you had together. Your man just gave you the opportunity to go out there and find Mr. Right who has been looking for Ms. Right, you, but you have been wasting your time on a relationship that would have ended anyways if not today, tomorrow or next month. How do you catch a cheating husband / boyfriend / or fiancé.
The number one clue. If things are not like they used to be and you have that gut wrenching feeling, more than likely, your right!
• The biggest bust but men are this careless is lipstick stains on his clothing
• The scent of a woman's perfumeor sex
• Weird phone calls where someone calls but does not say anything when you answer.
• If he says he is working late all the time see if his paycheck shows overtime to substantiate the lost time from home.
• If you can't reach him on his work phone or cell phone
• Don't forget, men get sloppy and sloppy means mistakes and mistakes means, knowledge.
Cheating Husbands always use the excuse Honey I Have to work late. Have an investigator covertly stake out his place of employment. He will never know but you willand you will get the peace of mind that you need.Another thing to look for is when cheating husbands make up so many different excuses as means to get out of the house. If he is cheating, the quickest method is hiring a private investigator or a detective. It can be hard to find a good one and it can be expensive but Mate Check has investigation services and products to fit anyone's budget. You pretty much have to get the goods on him if you are dealing with children, property and money. If you don't get enough of the right evidence it may not be enough to prevail in court so make sure in these type of cases you definitely us a professional expert private investigator that specializes in this area of private investigations like Mate Check Private investigations.


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[Editor's Note: This essay has been compiled by Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas from old documents, magazine cuttings, jubilee souvenirs, and myriad other sources. If you recognize an unacknowledged source, do let us know and we will rectify the lapse.]
A tradition, superstition or a custom is at home in a place, like a plant. It draws vitality and life from a certain fertile environment and will not grow or flourish anywhere else. And in Goa, including Saligao, with her brooding beauty and peaceful atmosphere, has been the responsive soil and setting for some very picturesque folklore. Probably the hard and lonely but contented life some of the peasants lead, worked on their imaginations and endowed the little-known and the remote with grand importance. The village folk were in every respect sons of the soil, with pliant and impressionable minds. With their hopes sown in the fields; their fears fanned by every passing wind, superstitions and legends formed an essential part of their everyday life. At least, this was the prevalent scene while I was a young lad growing up in Saligao in the early 1950s, before I decided to become a priest and joined the Seminary of Saligao towards the end of that decade, at the age of 17.
For the birds!
In the Middle Ages the owl may have provided many an ingredient for the witch's cauldron, but its eerie call is still considered an evil omen and the emissary of sickness or death by many people in Saligao. The cry of a natuk (female owl) in the form of "whank-whank" indicates that someone is bitten with jealousy for some other. It might also indicate that a girl-child has been born or is about to be born to an expectant mother in the neighbourhood. It could also spell a bad omen, presaging the death of somebody or imminent ill fortune coming upon someone in the neighbourhood.
The cry of the ghughum (male owl) in the form of 'hum…huum", a moaning sound or cry, forebodes the birth of a boy in the neighbourhood or death or evil to somebody. The usual reaction to such a cry, from the people of the Catholic faith who hear it in the village at night, is to say the "Apostles' Creed" or a short prayer in silence, and reverently and mournfully then pray to God at the oratory and throw salt into the fire, to avert the impending evil.
A crow coming near the house and cawing loudly is however supposed to bring good tidings, either a letter by the morning post or a guest for the day. The cheerful response of the housewife toiling in the kitchen or backyard is a short song:
Kaulea kiteach roddtai daran
Konnui marit tuka faran
Mhojea potichi khobor addleai re daran
Uddon voch rê borean
(Oh crow why do you caw near the door?
Anybody may fire at you
Did you bring the news at my door from my hubby
Good, now fly away safely)
If a crow or a bird happens to bless someone with droppings from above, on the body or particularly on the hand of the person, that person is considered to be lucky.
Animal harm
Neither the cry of a hyena nor the wail of a dog heard at dead of night is considered to be a welcome augury. If she hopes to be happy, no married daughter must take a cat or a broom from her father's house into her new home. You are virtually invoking calamity on a person, if when she is lying down, you cross over her, and on a house if you get in by the backdoor and then leave by the front. Either you must go out the way you entered or not go at all!
After the Angelus bell had tolled and the oil-lamp lit, no house would open its doors to lend or receive anything, especially money and salt. You could either call again at dawn or go away disappointed.
Too many daughters in a family are believed to be a curse, and if after the birth of three boys in succession a girl is born, she is supposed to bring misfortune both on her parents as well as on the man she marries. Hence a girl who is tiklem (girl born after three boys in succession) must have a substantial dowry if she hopes to win a husband, or else she remains an old maid for life. If such a girl has been happy at her parents' home, she is expected to bring misfortune to her family of procreation and vice versa. But if after three girls a boy is born, he is a boon and a blessing to all, and an incarnation of good luck.
A certain couple had eight girls in the family but no son. The ninth child was on the way and the elderly of the house were storming heaven and asking for a baby boy, but as luck would have it, a girl was born. At the baptism ceremony she was given the name Tolerancia, which means this girl is tolerated. The family wanted a boy by any means, but after two years another girl was born. She was named Basta, which in Portuguese means "that is enough."
Circle of life
The strange old custom of holding a wake (sotti) on the 6th day after the birth of a child on whom the Goddess of Destiny is said to bestow her gifts, is still a ceremonial vigil the nurse or midwife (oizin) and the members of the family observe with religious exactness and solemnity in certain homes. The child is not laid to sleep on a bed or in a cradle, but is rocked in the arms of an elderly person who hugs it closely and murmurs incantations to ward off all evil influences until the wake is over. Meanwhile the mother is placed in the darkest room in the house and far away from any noise that might frighten her in any way.
No one is allowed to enter the room except the oizin, who keeps a silent watch near the bedside. If the mother has the slightest of dreams, she has to tell the midwife all she fancies she heard and saw in the darkness, after which she is undressed and helped into a change of clothes; even the bedding and the pillow are shifted. Only when the wake is over is the mother removed from the dark room to one of light and her clothes are left behind, until they are washed by the oizin when they are said to be purified and fit for use again. Soon after the child is born, the village is informed of the event by the firing of crackers – three salvos if it is a boy and two for a girl. A metal vessel is also loudly struck near the new-born; this is done to chase away "evil spirits" and knock all fear out of the infant. Surprising as it may seem, this pandemonium does not startle the babe who sleeps through the cacophony unconcerned.
On the day of the sotti children of the age of two or below (with or without teeth) should not approach the sottiekar house, not even draw water from their well on that date. At the end of that day, the midwife is given a coconut, a podd (measure) of rice, which has been kept on the altar during the day. After the evening Angelus, she leaves the house with the coconut and rice. While on her way home nobody is expected to speak to her. It is believed that if they do so, they may come to some harm. Obviously these customs are rarely seen these days. There is however a saying in Konkani that states: "Sottin boroil'lem 'sotti?'" This is symbolic of the irrevocability of fate.
It was also customary for married daughters to be sent home to their parents for the first confinement; on the journey thither the expectant mother must not look back or like Lot's wife some misfortune would befall her. At the boundary of every new village she entered, her husband's relatives who accompanied her, would throw a sour lime, betel nut and some paan by the wayside. The same procedure is followed by every bride or groom when they leave home to be married. This custom, known as xiristo is done to appease any evil spirit lurking around with the sole aim of endangering the happiness and success of the people concerned.