text: About Virgin Mobile UK Virgin Mobile are the nation's most flexible network, with a huge range tariffs and the latest and greatest mobiles to keep you ahead of the curve. With 99% coverage across the UK, Virgin Mobile has something to suit everyone, whether you're looking for a monthly SIM only contract or a Pay As You Go Handset. You can find amazing deals, as well as a host of added extras such as extra inclusive minutes, texts and data, priority tickets for V Festival, and free WiFi on the London Underground.


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Ackwired Rolls Out New Responsive Mobile Site
Ackwired.com launches a responsive website design to engage with their users across mobile and tablet devices.
by Dion Beetson Wednesday, February 06, 2013
New features include:
"After analyzing our website traffic, we identified that nearly 40% of all traffic each day comes from smartphones" said the founder of ackwired.com. They noticed that mobile phone usage peaked throughout the morning period, while tablet devices showed their volume in the later evenings. This provided Ackwired with the evidence they were looking for to prioritize and invest in their multi device build. By the end of 2013 Ackwired aims to be serving around 60% of all pages to mobile and tablet devices.
Research has shown that if you don't provide a mobile and tablet experience to your users, they are more likely to visit a competitors mobile website instead. With this in mind the software engineering team which is based in Sydney, Australia worked hard to ensure each device only renders content specific to its resolution - and that it loads content fast! Ackwired mentioned their users shouldn't have to go searching for the information they are looking for on mobile and tablet devices, it should be right in front of them.
One of the biggest advantages Ackwired told us about moving to a responsive design "means our web developers now have the flexibility of being able to adapt to new screen resolutions and new devices as they come onto the market".
Ackwired is very excited about the launch, and really look forward to hearing the feedback from their users.
The Ackwired Team
Founder of Ackwired.com
General |
0 submitted by Dion Beetson
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Let's meet our winners, shall we?
Our winner for CSC164 is Anja from Scrappietoo!!
Everything about this card, starting from the trend factor (ombre! feathers! vellum!) to the amazing layout, techniques and choice of colours, plus the sheer amount of work needed to hand-stitch the elements, is awe-inspiring. What a show stopper, thank you for sharing Anja!!
Our Top 3 winners are:
Wida @ Beachorado
Cathy @ The Empty Nest Crafter
Penny @ Penny Ward Ink
Congratulations, everyone! Winners, feel free to grab your badges from the menu link under the blog header.
Now, who's excited about tomorrow?? I can't wait to share who our next Muse is :) See you then!


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Sometimes, you can't make this $hi+ up.........
German lodges todger in 13 steel rings
Cue the traditional firemen bearing angle grinders
And FWIW, there is no way in bloody hell I am going to let any trained professional get near my family jewels with an angle grinder. They are not called 'death wheels' by folks in welding and machine shops for their 'gentle' nature of cutting.
German firemen use 'large' tools to fix this tool's tool
This is a good place to drop general and weird news, entertainment, and general show prep material that might be interesting to air talent or producers. Hot dog threads ALWAYS welcome.
Moderators: The People's DJ, David Paleg
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- cgarison
- Member
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- Location: The Encampment
German firemen use 'large' tools to fix this tool's tool
The first step in a successful revolution is to defeat all competing revolutionaries.
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$4,519.00 $5,025.00
While the CJ model is similar in width and depth to the traditional dreadnought, it has a distinctly different tone. Because of it's large size, this model has a somewhat percussive bottom end, ideal for acoustic blues or other styles that benefit from a more punchy bass response. This particular model Collings built for us with the optional 1.75" nut width.
From the starting point of the wood's density and rigidity, each acoustic guitar top is hand selected, evaluated, and carved to it's own unique thickness, maximizing the tonal potential of each top. Each Collings acoustic guitar, from their most affordable to the highest end, are built with the finest tonewoods available. Each wood is aquired, acclimated and hand selected by master luthiers here at our shop who pick each component with the whole tonality of the end instrument in mind. A combination of PLEK leveling and hand fret dressing insures consistently excellent playability and a silky fret feel. Premium Waverly open gear tuners offer exceptional tuning stability and smooth reliable operation.
White binding with the 3-style chevron backstrip compliments the warm hues of Indian rosewood back and sides. Paired with a Sitka spruce top, this creates a guitar with a crisp yet warm articulation and a beautiful tonal balance.


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by Teresa
(Cassleberry, FL )
The other evening we lost our blue and gold macaw to a predator animal, I have never locked him in his cage he was free to roam on top of his cage which is huge, and we recently moved and there is a conservation area in front of our home, and we put mel's cage under the banana tree for shade, and freedom to enjoy hisself. I woke up about 130am and just happen to hear him screaming in terror, you could tell by his screaming he was in danger.
I turned on the front porch light and then there was total silence, and when I went to check on him, he was gone, and it was pitch black, so in the morning, when the light came out I went to check his cage and there was a large puddle of blood on the top tray of his cage, obviously I was inconsolable as I have had him 15 years, and I never expected anything to harm him.
I now have to ask were there some behavior signs I missed that he was scared like running around the top of his cage, and being really quiet most of the time, which was not totally unusual, but I feel immense guilt and shame and heartbroken that I may have missed some signs that could have saved his life, as some animal was brave enough to come right on top of his cage kill him, and jump the fence and drag him into conservation area deep into the woods as we followed the trail of feathers that led to like a den of plants, we collected as many feathers as we could to make a memorial for him.
I am ashamed I put mel at risk, but I also am ashamed I did not see the signs that he may have been scared of something in the woods, and I could have locked his cage to protect him..what kind of animal would have done this? Does anyone know? This happened in casselberry, fl . Thanks for any information anyone could tell me.
Comments for Behaivor of Blue and Gold Macaw when it feels threatened by other wildlife
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Decided to keep a video record of my evening at the Emirates. Enjoy watching it steadily unravel.
Quick video post with some first thoughts on Arsenal's win over Burnley.
I rather enjoyed that. And I absolutely adore Alexis.
Shot this quick video with my immediate thoughts at full-time. More considered stuff to follow.
Disappointing day, all told.
Here's a quick video piece I did for Bleacher Report on Danny Welbeck's Arsenal career to date.
Despite limping off against Estonia during the international break, Welbeck is apparently fit and well and raring to face Hull this weekend.
As part of my role as Bleacher Report's Arsenal Correspondent, I spoke to Ryan Bailey about what Arsenal need to do to say in the top four for this video.
Even if you don't agree with my analysis, it's impossible not to be won over by the funky backing track.


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I understand Smartist Hindus don't actually accept converts to Hinduism. This is a bit saddening to me, since I was raised as an Anglican Christian, but now consider myself a Smartist Hindu. As a result I have a few questions-
1. Would a practicing Smartist Guru accept me as his disciple?
2. If I were to raise my kids as Smartist, would they be considered Hindus by the Smarta tradition even if I'm not?
3. Would I be aloud into a Smarta temple?
Thanks in advance


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Hamax Outback – Multi-Sport Child Bike Trailer – Stroller – Jogger*
$595.00 – $699.00
The Outback is a breeze to use with a host of safety and convenience features ideal for active families. Top of the line safety features, a durable aluminum frame, and a sleek, aerodynamic design make the Outback a standout in the multi-sport carrier category. The trailer is easy to fold and transport, versatile in use for all kinds of terrains, and is very easy to transform into a stroller or jogger.
Safety features include an adjustable 5-point harness and reflectors/reflective material on the front, rear, and sides for maximum visibility.
■ Bike Trailer ■ Stroller ■ Jogger*
**Please note that this version of the Outback does not recline. The new reclining version is currently undergoing testing standards for the US, and we hope to have it available next season.
Additional information
Grey/Red/Charcoal, Navy/White, Red/Grey/White, White/Grey/Orange
|Trailer Size
Single Seat, Two Seats
There are no reviews yet.
Multi-Sport Conversion
Easy 1-Click transition between Multi-Sport Kits
Bike Trailer
Hitch the Outback to your bike and explore the outdoors with your child (children for dual). The sturdy, roomy aluminum frame keeps them secure and comfortable, yet is lightweight enough to allow you to enjoy the ride!
Easily switch to the stroller wheel to transition the Outback for a relaxing walk or shopping trip. The height-adjustable handle and responsive wheel make navigating with this stroller a breeze.
- Easy Multi-Sport Conversion
Standard model includes stroller and biking kit. *Jogger wheel with hand brake sold separately. Double lock with green safety indicator for secure attachment.
- Quick-Fold Feature
Cabin and adjustable Push Bar collapse easily for convenient transport in a car.
- Quick-Release Rear Wheels
Disengage quickly for even flatter storage.
- Roomy and Open Cabin
Wide, UV-protected windows maximize visibility and comfort. Includes sunshade, bug screen, and rain cover. Generous XL- sized cargo space offers ample storage for supplies or interchangeable kits.
- Adjustable Shock Suspension
Ensures a smooth and comfortable ride for passenger and driver.
- Padded, Relaxed Seats
Contoured seats hold passengers in comfort with padded 5-point harness and ergonomic, adjustable Head Rests.
Scandinavian Safety
Safety is our number one priority
Hamax Outback Multi-Sport Child Carriers are EN & ASTM safety certified and phthalate-free.
- Winner of Red Dot Product Design Award
- Adjustable 5-point harness and reflectors
- Reflective material on the front, rear, and sides for maximum visibility.
- Certified EN 15918/EN 1888/ASTM 1975/ASTM 833.


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Th= e Future of C-Band
We are on the brink of the 21st Century, where every= technological dream will come true, even the "Hang-on- your-wall flat= TV" that I first saw in a GE commercial back about 1955. The flat TV= took much longer to get here than folks expected, and with a $5000 price= tag, it may be a while before most of us dish owners own one, but Phillips= says you will be able to buy their Plasma Display Flat TV some time this= year if you want to spend the money. The new screen looks wider than our TV= sets today. This is one of the futuristic changes on the way, as the old= analogue standard NTSC video system, which was developed in the early =9140= s finally, gets replaced. When Color came in the early 50=92s, many= competing companies came out with their own ideas of how it could be done. = CBS even dreamed up a Rube Goldberg system that used a mechanical spinning= wheel in front of a black and white 17-inch picture tube to produce a full= color image. The FCC rejected the CBS system because it was incompatible= with the existing way of doing things. Enter RCA with "Compatible= Color" and the full NTSC standard was born. Often called "Never= Twice the Same Color" because of the difficulties in the early system= in holding color tones (remember the purple and green faces), after ten= years of refinement, the round tube color TV=92s finally started selling. = The set you use today to watch your subscription satellite programming,= backhauls and wild feeds is evidence of refinement of an old standard. BUT= like it or not TV is going to change in a big way -- and soon.
See it on= C-Band
We as owners of the BIG C-Band dish will get some of the first= chances to witness the technical changes coming to the world of= television... Or we can be among the last to still have access to high= quality analogue video. That=92s the nice thing about C-Band. It=92s the= place where EVERYTHING HAPPENS.
Isn=92t that= old C-Band stuff just old junk?
Have you felt the pressure lately? For a few years now, certain factions= have been calling us Dinosaurs. Do friends and relatives call you= "the guy with the Big Ugly Dish" (BUD)? With so many of the= little 18-inch systems out there, a few C-Band owners have given in to the= simplicity and ease of operation afforded by mini dishes. Don=92t get me= wrong, the 18-inch wonder is fine for someone who just wants to watch cable= "Tee-Vee" type programming, and they produce a viewable picture. = BUD purists argue that the video seen on the Big Dish is far superior. And= we BUD guys will happily show you the one thing that the Big Dish will= always have, and that is something called "Bandwidth", which is= the total amount of information a given system can process. Simply put,= because we are not limited to one satellite, we will always have access to= more programming, more variety and more CHOICE. Whether you are a movie= fan, sports nut, or news junkie, your best bet will always be C-Band. So= don=92t go taking down that big dish yet, not =91til you have the FULL= story on what our crystal ball tells us about where C-Band is going.
One thing for sure. It is NOT going away. Every few months, ANOTHER= C-BAND satellite is launched. Does anyone think that major communications= giants would spend money to put up more C-Band satellites if this was a= dying technology? No indeed, the spectrum space used by C-Band is valuable= real estate. Any engineer will tell you that when it comes to reliability,= better performance in bad weather, and rock-solid video, C-Band is the= place. The broadcast networks won=92t give up C-Band. The cable companies= won=92t give up C-Band. Specialty programmers and many others know that= C-Band will never die.
But C-Band is changing. When it comes to technology nothing= stands still. The computer you bought last year is already a slug compared= to the new stuff. And the new whiz-bang will be obsolete before you figure= out the "operating system", which by then will change to a new= version. Some folks still have TRS-80=92s and Commodore 64=92s, and I know= some dish heads who still use Birdviews and Sky Eyes. But most of us want= the improved reception and ease of use of a modern system, and have= upgraded over the years.
Time Has= Come Today
Now=97today--is the time for you to decide how you are= going to enter the next century, and get the most of your C-Band system. = There are at least three million of us out there, and I personally believe= that if you factor in the die-hard dish heads, who don=92t get counted in= the list of program subscribers, that number is more like 5 million. Most= of the time when someone parts with a C-Band dish, they sell or give it= away to a hobby type user. And the dish lives on. You, dear reader, may= have inherited such a system because you wanted more than just cable from= the sky. You enjoy watching Newsfeeds, you like being able to time shift= by tuning into another time zone feed. And you like watching things on= your dish that cable folks and mini dish owners will never see. You live= with the fear that some day it is all going to go dark.
I have been hearing that since about 1984, and I will tell you that there= are more fun and free things in the sky NOW than there were THEN. No, you= won=92t find the latest PPV events free (well not usually) but there is= more to life than ultimate boxing and movies. Most dish owners have a VCII= box so they CAN get movies and sports. So long as the programmers continue= to make money, the analogue services will survive, so there is plenty of= life left in that old system.
But there is a whole new world out there! It is there now, and a growing= group of dish owners tune in nightly, often to be greeted by new channels,= with a wider variety programming than ever before. AND there are lots of= channels that are free, but you can=92t see them with your present system= until you make the move to digital technology.
The Future= is Digital
It=92s locked in stone and you can=92t change it. By= 2005 all TV is supposed to be digital. Realistically that is unlikely, but= that is the way things are moving, and if you want it all, you should be= making the move soon. Save those pennies, and start making budget plans to= upgrade your C-Band system. In the long run you will thank me, and= yourself for sticking with the reliable C-Band delivery system. Big Dish= owners will ALWAYS have the best selection. This is because we ride along= on top of the commercial distribution system. At first we were considered= unwanted pirates, but after conditional access was worked out) (scrambling)= dish owners and programmers came to a mutual peace. Now understand, C-Band= is where all the origination is, and it will continue to be this way. The= 18-inch guys get THEIR signals from a Big Dish. Wouldn=92t the original= signal always look better than a copy? With all the compression needed to= get a reasonable amount of channels out of one location in the sky, the= mini-dish will never have the quality of C-Band.
However, you will need a new receiver, and maybe a= better LNB to get all of the new stuff that is up there.
What system do I buy and how much will I pay?
There are basically two digital systems in use today,= and depending on what type of viewer you are, one or the other or both may= be what you want.
4DTV =96 Digicipher 2
The 4D, as many of us call it, is the system developed= by General Instruments (Briefly known as Next Level). GI. You know who= they are, the same folks that brought you Videocipher. They have developed= their system based upon the MPEG (Motion Picture Engineering Group)= Standard, but throwing in a few tricks of their own. Some of us own= Commercial Units like the 4200V, but I would recommend the consumer version= (4DTV) for most folks because it is so much easier to use. The 4DTV has= some real consumer advantages. Right on top is the fact that this receiver= "Gets it all" Analogue, Videocipher (if you add a module) and the= new Digicipher mode. It also gets analogue and digital audio channels. = Priced around $700, 4DTV will do it for most viewers. That is the price= that a top of the line analogue only receiver will run, and while it is not= as hot a performer on analogue as the Drake 1824 or a Monterrey 140, it= does a decent job on analogue. Plus you get these advantages: (1)= Digicipher Video, which will bring you many new channels and channel= variations. (2) An integrated program guide, which shows you what is on= and what will be on to help you prepare your TV viewing schedule. The= interactive program guide lets you scroll through a list of ALL the= available channels whether they are digital or analogue. Also, the guide= lists radio stations and audio services, analogue and digital. Unlike your= old receiver, when a new channel comes on, GI will update your receiver= automatically so you will know when the new signals come up. For the= consumer, the 4DTV is a well thought out and constantly improved system. = It is also claimed that when the new wide-screen HDTV comes out, the 4DTV= will provide access to the signals. Since C-Band owners ride above the= commercial stream, WE will have the first access to HDTV wide screen HBO,= as cable companies won=92t offer wide screen TV right away. 4DTV comes= highly recommended, as a good way to get into Digital C-Band, especially= for those whose favorite programming is cable type fare.
But wait, there=92s more up there.
MPEG2 World Standard Digital Video
Virtually unknown to the general public, and even a bit= of a mystery to most dish owners is the World Standard MPEG-2 system. This= is what is being used in Europe and Asia as THEIR digital TV system. What= is exciting is that there are so many of these channels available in the= USA. You will find specialty and foreign programming that you can=92t get= with your regular analogue C-Band system. For the true Dish Head, an= MPEG-2 receiver is a worthy consideration, especially because they are less= expensive than 4DTV and give you the most wide selection of free= programming. This receiver is especially valuable if you like foreign= language programming, either to brush up on your Spanish, Greek, French or= Portuguese. If you are new to the USA, the MPEG-2 will give you a touch of= home. And even if you don=92t speak a word of anything but English, some= of the variety and music shows are much more entertaining than anything on= an American screen.
To take full advantage of the MPEG-2 receiver we= recommend a Horizon to Horizon mount (so you can see satellites over the= ocean) and that you live in the eastern third or western third of the USA. = While there is some programming using the MPEG-2 standard in the US= Domestic Arc, the best stuff is out over the ponds. Receiver cost is= around $450, quite a bit less than 4DTV. You use your analogue receiver to= move the dish, and run the digital receiver through a splitter from your= LNB. There are several brands available. We have found the Hyundai= 100C/Pansat 100 to be the best value for performance and price. Noikia and= a few others are also available. Not all satellite dealers know about= these units, but they are readily available. If you search any of the= popular satellite sites on the Internet, you will find a lot of places that= sell MPEG-2 receivers. Since this receiver has the ability to bring in 200= more channels that you can=92t see on Analogue or 4DTV, it is a real value= to the specialist who wants more signals. These receivers DO require= programming each service in manually, and they are not as simple to run as= a 4DTV, but such things never bothered the high technology savvy dish= heads.
We predict that both standards will be around for a= while since each has it=92s firmly entrenched niche. Which is for you? = Depends on what you want to see on YOUR C-Band System. If you want USA= programming, cable style premium stuff, networks, and the new Digicipher= channels, then you want 4DTV. If you want the weird stuff, you want= MPEG-2. And if you want it all.... Get both. The only problem with that= is finding the time to enjoy the hundreds of channels available to you on= your "ready-for-the-future" C-Band System!
Mr. Bourgois may be reached on the Internet at:=flash@iceware
You may= also write him by postal mail at:
Gary Bourgois
429 Spring Street
Marquette, MI 49855
All Internet mail is answered. All postal mail is= answered if you write your question on the back of a Stamped self-addressed= Envelope.
Mr. Bourgois is also host of FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE heard on= the W0KIE Satellite Network on SBS-6/13U (KU-Band) audio 6.2 Friday Nights= from 9 to 10 Eastern Time.


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About Southwestern
To Survive and Excel
That's the name of the 627-page history of Southwestern University published by William Burwell Jones, Professor Emeritus of History, in 2006.
The book takes its name from a reading from the 1982 inauguration of President Roy B. Shilling, repeated for the inauguration of President Jake B. Schrum.
As the reading states, "We celebrate the heritage and the vision of Southwestern University, its determination to survive and excel."
- Download an electronic copy of "To Survive and Excel"


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I first visited the famed St. Joseph Church in Las Piñas on a field trip in college while studying various church architecture types. I sketched its interior, awed by the immense stone columns in this very small house of worship. I was totally unaware until later that it was the church that houses the world renowned Bamboo Organ of the Philippines.
Fast forward some years later and my appreciation for architecture grew even more after graduating in UST. I was then partly residing in Las Piñas and I usually visit this church every so often to attend mass. The place was especially magical during Christmas when lighted lanterns hover above on the huge trees surrounding its grounds.
Fast forward a few more years and I was finally able to attend a Bamboo Organ Festival and heard for the first time how the legendary instrument sounded. It was almost like a rock concert; with a longhaired crazy looking European fellow pounding the keyboards and heavy music coming out of the wooden pipes. The sanctity of the church was the only thing that kept the crowd from moshing I think.
Photography was the furthest thing on my mind back then, being too engrossed with music and architecture. I am quite sure that the first time I ever took a photograph of this beloved adobe church, even just a snapshot with friends or whatnot, was a few weeks ago after revisiting Las Piñas City.
St. Joseph parish was founded in 1795 under the guidance of Father Diego Cera, an Augustinian from Spain. The church was first built of light materials before it was reconstructed to a more permanent Adobe stones. It was finished in 1819.
Three years prior to the church's completion, work was started on the building of the Bamboo Organ. Father Diego Cera, also an organ builder, was again the director of the project. The bamboos used for both the church and the organ were first buried underground for a number of months for curing. This ensured that the material will last for centuries as is now evident with the Bamboo Organ and the church ceiling.
The church is made in Earthquake Baroque style, nevertheless, it still suffered through numerous shakings and other natural calamities. Work has been done to restore it to its glory days by celebrated architect Bobby Mañosa and Ludwig Alvarez during the 70's.
It was with strong nostalgia as I reentered Bamboo Organ, as the locals fondly refer to it. The church looked old, but well preserved "old". The walls are not crumbling, the interiors are clean, and everything looked good.
St. Joseph actually looked huge outside but once you enter its walls, you'd be surprised at the compactness of its interior. I'm guessing most of the mass was taken by the actual immensity of its adobe walls which looks more than two feet thick. Its inside feels more like a chapel than a church and there are only fifteen rows of wooden benches.
I feel that this is how churches everywhere should look, everything is made of natural materials and they're not hiding it under the gloss of colorful paint. The walls are made of rough adobe stones interspersed with red brick highlights, the seats, ceiling and the chandeliers are made of bamboo, the floors are unglossed bricks, and the altar is of unpainted concrete and natural bricks. If they could devise an electric fan made of wood, I think they would.
Another thing that I feel that this church got right is the light. Here, they don't over light the church with incandescent tubes like it's an arena. They keep light to minimum, with only the stained glass windows and a few of the altar lights turned on, they keep everything warm looking. The atmosphere is very solemn it's embarrassing to make even the slightest sound; and that in my honest opinion is how churches should be.
I can definitely say that St. Joseph can stand side by side with the most impressive churches in Metro Manila.
It may not boast of huge isles and soaring ceilings, but its intimate space is actually its strong point. Add its rich history and the National Cultural Treasure suspended above the choir loft, and I almost wonder why it's not declared as a World Heritage Site.
St. Joseph Church | The Bamboo Organ Church
St. Joseph Parish, P.Diego Cera Avenue,
Brgy. Daniel Fajardo, Las Piñas City
(02) 825-7190 | (02) 820-0795


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Glasgow 2014: Queen photo-bombs athlete's selfie
The Queen is getting well and truly into the Commonwealth Games spirit, even photo-bombing some Australian athletes' selfie.
She was in Glasgow to greet the hockey teams, and of course while she was about everyone had their phones out to snap HRM.
Jayde Taylor however got a selfie with her teammate next to the Queen and couldn't believe her luck when the Queen posed, smiling down the lens of the camera for the perfect photo opportunity.
Taylor tweeted: 'Ahh the Queen photo-bombed our selfie!!!'
At first glance it may seem like a fake and that the Queen has been super-imposed.
However, when looking at team-mate Anna Flanagan's photo taken just moments before, you can see the Queen and Prince Philip behind the netting to meet and greet the athletes.
The girls were delighted as they had just beaten Malaysia 4-0 in their preliminary hockey match.
It has to go down as one of the best selfies ever, and has already had 1,700 retweets in less than an hour.


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|The sun is shining night and day in the Antarctic right now, but the temperatures remain far below freezing. Photograph: British Antarctic Survey
Here's why it's important. Should life be found lurking in the depths, it will have evolved in isolation for at least 100,000 years, but probably much longer. I've seen millions mentioned. Scientists want to know whether life can endure such harsh environments. If it can, the next question is how. Any organisms that live here are cut off from the air above, and must contend with subzero conditions, few nutrients, complete darkness, and intense pressure.
The answers will further our understanding of life on Earth, and inform searches for life elsewhere in the solar system, such as in the ice-capped ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa.
Mike Bentley, a geologist, was quoted in yesterday's Guardian: "Extreme environments tell you what constraints there are on life. If we find a particular set of environments where life can't exist, that creates some bookends: it tells you about the limits of life."
Another buried Antarctic lake, Lake Vostok, is being probed by Russian scientists. It's even deeper and more challenging, and the project has been criticised due to concerns that the Russians may contaminate the lake with microbes from the surface that would nullify any discovery of life there. The British team will use a sterile hot water drill to bore down. According to Nature, this method would be impractical at Lake Vostok due to the thicker glacier.
New Scientist reported in October that no sign of life has been discovered in the first Lake Vostok samples but microbes may lurk deeper in the lake.
The more life is found in buried Antarctic lakes the better the prospects for life on Jupiter's icy moon Europa.
|Beneath Europa's icy shell, it is thought a liquid ocean exists, potentially supporting complex organisms
For more see this Guardian link: British Antarctic Survey in pictures
Isolated for millions of years
One thing puzzles me in all the commentary on these Antarctic lakes. That's the emphasis on their being isolated from all other life for perhaps millions of years. Even if this turns out to be so, millions of years doesn't strike me as long enough to be interesting. Some comments on this theme in a post I wrote about Lake Vostok in February 2011.


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☆☆☆☆☆[[=image http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/k/a/kaleajade.png?5]☆☆☆☆☆
One day after a very long battle with Dica Dellaciio, Lilium, Candy and Jessie; Garland, Marilth, the Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath, Kuja and Shuyin showed up to try and kill Kalea but when they finally realized that she could not die (they failed to cut off her head it seems) she handled them all with the White Cloud and was even about to cut off Garland's head [once a person loses their head due to a Chronicle Weapon being used they die unable to return ever] that is until Zemus and Barbariccia showed up from out of the sky and knocked her unconscious with a powerful wind spell, Seda, Toan, and Sailor Moon tried to fight the eight of them off but they were all bound down by the hold spell casted by Kuja and Zemus together. A few minutes later the Warrior of Light (Stan Hikari), Callen Geruda (the Red Mage), Bartz Klauser, Yuna, Garnet, and Rydia of Mist appeared just in time to save them all from the eight Warriors of Chaos by combining their powers together to bring them down face first into the ground, shortly after that Kalea, Seda, and Toan all woke up in Cosmos's Headquarters, where they now stay ever since becoming her Warriors in this ever long War. Kalea treats Lori, and Sharon like younger sisters sometimes, but when she doesn't it's because she is either not at the hideout or might be with Ace/her Guardians/at the Rose Manor.
She is now the Paladin of Platinum Alsatia: Silver Light, a female warrior of old ancient legends and leader of the Paladins.
Note: Kalea can't get pregnant due to a spell placed on herself for several reasons, but because she's been under it's effects for so long now that she can't undo it — ever.
Author: Silver Goddess
Name: Kalea Pearl Jade
Nicknames: The Silver Goddess of Alsatia, Silver Light, Kitten, and Midget
Age: 23
Race: Immortal, Alsatiaiin Lunarian
Origins: Platinum Alsatia, The White God Realms
Current Location: The Rose Manor Castle/Cosmos HQ
Hair Color: Pearl White
Eye Color: Pink, with Darker pink pupils
Skin: Pale Flesh, Kammiian skin tone
Height: 4'7"
Weight: 162 lbs.
Likes: Ace Cross, Sirah, Xiao, Fiore, Cats, Food, Water, Swimming, and Drawing
Dislikes: Chaos, Psycho Keia Blaze, JoCeno, Lilith Ceno, "HER" and "HIM"
Dreams: To always be there by Ace's side for all eternity, To see Theodore's and James's eternal happiness stay intact
Personality: Kalea is loveable, sweet, kind, loyal, caring, friendly, really pure hearted, and very cruel to her enemies
Items: The Super Chronicle Weapon # IV: White Cloud, the strongest sword in existence, The Clear Glass Crystal, her locket, a gift from Ace, himself, and her Pen
Powers: Elements of Light, Holy, and Wind, Healing abilities, seeing visions, super speed, and Teloportation
Appears In: Light is Eternity (Part 1 only), White Cloud, The Great Dissidia Wars, LBC'S Adventure, and Fantasy Theft Auto
Hunter Jade {father, King of Platinum Alsatia, pureblooded Lunarian, not happy about Ace's actions towards Kalea}
Ashley Jade {mother, Queen of Platinum Alsatia, formerly Mega Sailor Pure Love, pureblooded Lunarian, worries about Kalea daily}
Sikkia Jade {twin sister, deceased, destroyed Crystallized Statue, she loved puppies and cookies}
Ace Cross "Harvey" {Golden God of Alsatia, lover and fiancé of Kalea, most newest ally of Cosmos}
Anthony Cross {The White God of Alsatia, father of Ace, Winged Alsatiaiin Neko}
Cecilia Cross "Hansen" {daughter of Thomas Odin Harvey, The Rainbow Goddess of Alsatia, Paladin: Pure Rainbow, mother of Ace, Half Winged Alsatiaiin}
Cid of Lufaine {overseer of the Great War, husband of Cosmos, advisor of Anthony, friend of Thomas}
King Seda Raybrandt {ally of Cosmos in the war, a very big smart ass just like Theo here, and one of Kalea's Immortal Guardians, the strongest one}
Toan Pendragon {son of Aga and Renee, lover of Seda, ally in the war, and one of Kalea's Immortal Guardians, second strongest one}
Princess Monica Raybrandt {daughter of Jace and Naomi Raybrandt, Paladin: Angel, girlfriend to Max, likes sweets, one of Kalea's Immortal Guardians, third strongest one}
Xiao KiShia {Toan's pet cat turned neko, Paladin: Neko, adores Kalea and Monica, loves Toan, one of Kalea's Immortal Guardians, the crazy one}
Maximilian "Max" Oatsworth {resident of Palm Brinks, boyfriend to Monica, friend of Cedric, Donny, and Erik, one of Kalea's Immortal Guardians, inventor}
Simba {Fairy/Spirit King, The God of Magic, knows of Ace and his whole family, friends of Seda and Thomas, worries about Kalea a bit}
Bendora Vorwensor (King JimmLoia) {Was Prince Til's father, king of the Sun Kingdom, now mayor of Centra's Capital City, Vorwensor, Toan's uncle, Aga's older brother}
The Mayor (Rorin Harvey) {mayor of Norune Village, friend of Dran, younger brother of Thomas, the source of guidance for both Kalea and Toan}
Lady Reina TealLeea {mother, ex-wife of Duke, Ultra Sailor Red Death, Queen of all Vampires and Goddess of Flames, currently missing}
Duke Ken "Black Killer" Hansen {father, former Vampire King, God of True Darkness and completely brainwashed puppet of JoCeno}
Lord Trinity Cross {Best friend of Duke, Godfather of Theodore and prisoner of JoCeno and "HER", located in Duke's Mansion}
Connie Monroe {"cousin" of Theodore, Thunder Demon Princess and New Police Officer at Theo's station and she helps with Kalea's team, the Blue Light Warriors}
Lily (Queen Lucia NiiSae) Oatsworth {Cain's mother, Guardian of the village, and now former Queen from StarFire, Green Terra}
Sirah Jingukashi {dear friend, ally of Cosmos in the war and Theo's admiration for strength, faith, and kindness, they are like Oil and Water to each other}
Personal History: Our heroine of the main story line and leader of the Blue Light Warriors, Kalea has seen many things and has been through many battles with JoCeno and his legions of dark monsters. Long ago some time back in Alsatia, Kalea somehow ended up in The Teal Light Dimension: StarFire, under the alas of "Solera Moonlight" it was here that her battle with Jo began and still continues to this very day. Kalea had first met Ace Cross within her Temple, even though he shouldn't have been there to begin with as men weren't allowed inside of it, but eventually they fell in love. Kalea used to be quite powerful as a Sailor Soldier, but she does have one drawback; she is infected with JoCeno's "madness" yet it does make her much stronger and ever more dangerous, and she can no longer transform into Sailor Crystal, however a new even more powerful form is on the very verge of awakening deep inside of her. Kalea loves Ace very very much, but she doesn't know where he is or why Cecil Harvey, King of Baron, seems to resemble him some what.


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The arrest last week by East Hampton Town police of an Amagansett man on a charge of trespassing may wind up having far-reaching consequences for anyone who sets foot on Cartwright Shoal, a peninsula in Gardiner's Bay.
East Hampton Town police said Roderic R. Richardson, 57, of Amagansett was on private property and had removed two "no trespassing" signs from the sand spit, which police said is part of Gardiner's Island, which is owned by the Goelet family trust. The theft caused "substantial inconvenience in time and labor costs," the criminal complaint said.
Mr. Richardson was charged with third-degree criminal tampering, a misdemeanor, and trespass, a violation, on July 25 at about 11:40 a.m. He was released on his own recognizance with a notice to appear in East Hampton Town Justice Court next Thursday.
Mr. Richardson, however, said Cartwright Shoal was public property. He has done research, he said, that shows it is not a private island owned by the Goelet family trust. "I understand the whole island and foreshore to be owned by the people of New York, who have every right to visit and enjoy this local treasure," he said.
In a letter to the editor to be published in next week's Star, Mr. Richardson said his father used to take him picnicking on Cartwright Island as far back as the 1960s.
"Many East Hampton families have done the same, for centuries. Now, when boaters stop by the island, and their children play on the shore, one or two military-style patrol craft, with the word "SECURITY" prominently displayed, swing by to intimidate these families, threatening to call Marine Patrol," his letter says.
"These employees of the Goelet family trust tell these families they are trespassing to even anchor there, or walk on the shore, because 'the Gardiners have a royal grant that gives them ownership of all of Cartwright Island into the water, as far as an ox can walk without getting its belly wet.' That is exactly what happened Saturday, the last day of June, to several families that were anchored on the foreshore in four boats."
"The charges against me are without merit and contrary to the public's basic rights of access to the beaches. The Goelets insist on making this a public matter, despite the fact that I offered to resolve this privately, as reasonable folks should do. I reached out to them, via counsel, to say I would agree to never visit the island again, if they would simply show me clear proof of ownership, as claimed. They refused to do so."
In other arrests reported in the last week, police said Matthew August Maughan of Massapequa Park wrote graffiti on several areas around the Clam and Chowder House at Salivar's Dock in Montauk in June. Mr. Maughan, 27, caused $1,480 in damage by using a marker on several areas, including a urinal, an oak partition wall, a toilet-paper holder, roof shingles, a fish box, and a painted wall. The incident allegedly happened on June 10 at about 3:30 p.m. Mr. Maughan was arrested on July 25. East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky released him on $500 bail.
Antonio A. Cabrera of East Hampton was charged with drug possession on Sunday. Mr. Cabrera, 32, was arrested with a small amount of marijuana in his possession during a traffic stop on Cranberry Hole Road, near Napeague Meadow Road, at about 9:35 p.m. Police said they found a small plastic baggy with the marijuana under the passenger side floor mat of a 2007 Toyota he was a passenger in.
The arresting officer took him to police headquarters in Wainscott, and during a search reported that he found a small bag of cocaine hidden in his buttocks at about 10:45 p.m. Mr. Cabrera was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, a misdemeanor, and unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation. He was released on $200 bail with a notice to appear in court next Thursday.
A 62-year-old Springs woman was arrested Saturday after police said she stole an American Express credit card and charged over $2,000 on it.
Julie Cynthia Bradley allegedly took the Amex off the counter at the Golden Pear on Newtown Lane on May 17, Detective Sgt. Greg Brown said. He declined to release the name the credit card was in.
Ms. Bradley made purchases with the credit card at many different places throughout the village, as well as two places outside the village, over a three-week period, police said.
She was charged with two felonies on Saturday; fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fourth-degree grand larceny.
Ms. Bradley was released on $500 bail.


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Brie Cheesecake
An elegant dessert cheesecake made with brie—is a cheesecake with gourmet attitude. Recipe by Chef Franklin Becker.
Recipe Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 13 crackers)
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
10 ounces Wisconsin Brie or Les Freres cheese, rind removed and softened
1 cup granulated sugar
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
3 large eggs
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Cooking Directions:
- For Crust: Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Wrap foil around and under removable bottom of 10-inch springform pan. Replace outside ring, unwrap under foil and bring snuggly up around outside sides of pan.
- In small bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and butter; press evenly into bottom and up sides of pan. Set in baking pan; set aside.
- For Filling: Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl of electric mixer, cream together cream cheese, Brie, sugar and vanilla bean seeds. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until batter is smooth. Add cream on low speed; mix well. Pour batter over crust in pan.
- Place prepared pan in oven, and pour boiling water into outer baking pan, around cheesecake, to a depth of 1/2-inch.
- Bake 65 to 75 minutes or until cheesecake is golden on top.
- Remove cheesecake from water bath. Place on cooling rack; cool 1 hour.
- Cover loosely and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until thoroughly chilled.
- To serve, run knife around outside edge of cheesecake; remove outside ring.
Makes 8 servings.
Recipe and photograph provided courtesy of Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Inc.


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March 6, 2015 - Friday Webcast with Jeffrey Steinberg
MATTHEW OGDEN: Good evening, it's March 6, 2015. My name is Matthew Ogden, and I would like to welcome you to our weekly webcast from larouchepac.com. Tonight I'm joined in the studio by Jeffrey Steinberg from Executive Intelligence Review and by Megan Beets from the LaRouche PAC Basement Science Team. And the three of us had a chance to meet with both Lyndon and Helga LaRouche earlier this afternoon. So the remarks you hear tonight will directly reflect what both of their outlooks on the current situation is.
So I'm just going to begin with our institutional question for the evening, Jeff, and read it, and you can deliver what Mr. LaRouche's response was to this. It reads as follows: "Mr. LaRouche, with the actions of the Eurozone finance ministers and the European Central Bank, it is clear that a showdown is nearing over whether or not Greece will remain within the Economic and Monetary Union [emu]. Regardless of that outcome, Greece is facing an urgent need to rebuild the real economy, create meaningful jobs, particularly for the youth population with 50% unemployment, and set a future course of long-term development. What are your recommendations to the Greek government, and how can they meet these urgent challenges? Thank you."
JEFFREY STEINBERG: As Matt said, we had a very extensive discussion with both Lyndon and Helga LaRouche just a few hours ago, and Mr. LaRouche had a very, very precise response to this institutional question, and I took fairly copious notes, so what I'm going to read to you, are Mr. LaRouche's comments. These are not a transcript, these are not verbatim, but I think they capture the precise essence of what he had to say.
He said, the real bankruptcy is in the London-Wall Street trans-Atlantic system as a whole. The question being asked by Russia and many other nations today, is whether the Europeans and the United States under Obama can survive their own foolishness, or whether their actions will lead to world war, and a possibility of general extermination. Queen Elizabeth and her circles may appreciate the idea of general war, but I don't. Greece, fortunately, does have a place. They can join the other club. They can become a part of the BRICS process. A growing part of the world is breaking from the Anglo-American interests, and this is now including a majority of nations of South and Central America and the Caribbean. Of course, this also includes many nations of Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa.
So Mr. LaRouche continued. He said, to put it in blunt terms, the EMU is bluffing in the case of Greece. They're attempting to blackmail Greece. This is very foolish for Western Europe and the United States. Greece has a unique and close relationship with Russia, as well as with China, and this is their gateway into the BRICS alternative.
What we are seeing in the confrontation with Greece, as well as the confrontation with Russia, is a last, desperate effort to bluff. The danger is, that at the end of this bluff, is nuclear war. The challenge for most Americans, is that they cannot conceive of the insanity that is driving this policy of bluff and provocation. They cannot conceive, for the most part, that anyone is willing to risk the suicidal extermination of mankind. This is insanity beyond comprehension, yet this is what we are dealing with in the case of Obama, the British, and other desperate forces.
Now, Greece has a long history as a maritime power. It goes all the way back to the period after Zeus was killed. Greece has a maritime characteristic, and that is the basis for Greece becoming an integral part of the BRICS paradigm. China is already looking at Greece as a key Mediterranean terminus of the New Silk Road.
It looks like the Greeks are being force to leave the European system. I say, it is in Greece's interest to leave. The European system is hopelessly bankrupt. The European system is disintegrating. Greece can take the lead in breaking up a system that has been rotten and destructive from the outset. By leaving the Eurozone, Greece can expose the fraud. That's how you beat them: expose the fact that they are a bunch of bankrupt bluffers and fakers. Their system is disintegrating, and all they have left is the threat of war. Obama is the same thing, part of the same bankrupt system. Obama's fraud against Russia can lead to the destruction of the human species. Stick with Obama, and you get a free ticket to extermination.
Now, let me just add, that last year Executive Intelligence Review, working primarily through our European bureaus, produced a proposal, a Marshall Plan for the Mediterranean region, which covered Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the countries of the Maghreb region of Africa stretching all the way to Egypt, and up into the Eastern Mediterranean coastal region and beyond. And this is a critical piece of what is now becoming a potential integrated part of the Chinese-initiated New Silk Road/Maritime Silk Road, which does represent a viable future for mankind. So Greece for historical as well as current strategic reasons has unique opportunity to call the bluff of the European Central Bank and the Eurozone finance ministers, walk away from the euro, knowing that this will provide the opportunity for the other countries in the Mediterranean region, Italy, Spain, Portugal, stretching all the way up to Ireland.
This will bring about the end of a bankrupt system and force the issue in the right way, and will call the bluff on those people who are not only promoting a further looting genocide of Greece and the other Mediterranean countries, but are actually taking measures that could lead to a war of extermination.
OGDEN: Thank you, Jeff. Now, I think what you can tell from what Jeff just reviewed from Mr. LaRouche, what Mr. LaRouche emphasized during our discussion earlier this afternoon with him, was that his job, and our job generally, is to say what most people are too terrified to say, or even to think about. And in an environment which is completely dominated at this point by total wartime propaganda, you can really see very clearly the fact that the role that LaRouche PAC plays in this regard is absolutely crucial.
I think that the most clear example of that from this week was what Mr. LaRouche did in the aftermath of the murder of Boris Nemtsov. And what Mr. LaRouche said in denouncing the attempted frameup of President Vladimir Putin of Russia in regards to the murder of Boris Nemtsov, and asking the obvious question, which was, who stands to gain from the killing of Nemtsov? Whose benefit was this killing in? Clearly not Vladimir Putin's. And it's very clear, that this is being used to just continue to feed the absolute hysteria around what I think you could probably call the "Nuland narrative." Victoria Nuland herself was on Capitol Hill this past week, along with Mikheil Saakashvili, the former, disgraced President of Georgia, who's now an advisor to the Poroshenko government in Ukraine; Garry Kasparov; former Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, several other think-tankers, all of whom were testifying in front of the House and the Senate, beating the drums for nuclear war against Russia. And now you've got John Boehner, plus ten other leadership members of the House of Representatives, circulating a letter demanding the immediate provision of lethal arms to the Kiev, Ukrainian government forces.
Now, following Mr. LaRouche's denunciation of the attempted frameup of Putin, around the Nemtsov case, you've had a number of other very prominent people who have begun to echo his point in the past several days, pointing out that this operation has all the hallmarks of a set-up job, an attempt to try to precipitate a regime-change operation against Putin, against the Putin government, inside Russia.
And, I think, quite significantly, President Putin himself is on record warning about just such a provocation, already back in 2012, at which point he was running for President. And, speaking as a candidate at that time—this is in 2012—he was asked about the role of provocateurs in destabilizing the situation inside Russia, and he said the following. This is a quote:
"The people you mentioned really want some kind of clashes; they are pushing for that, and are even prepared to sacrifice somebody and blame the authorities. I know this method and these tactics. For a decade there have been attempts to use them, especially abroad. This is true, and I know about it. They are even looking for a so-called sacrificial lamb, somebody famous. They would off him — excuse me for the expression — and then blame the authorities. People over there are capable of anything. I'm not exaggerating. I hope that those who sincerely want to see improvements in the situation in the country and are exercising their right to criticize and demonstrate, will not fall for this, but everybody should be aware of it."
So, I think that's very clear, and extremely prescient, and obviously applies directly to the situation around the tragic murder of Mr. Nemtsov. And, President Putin reiterated this, in a speech he delivered, I think on Wednesday, the day before yesterday, to the Interior Ministry, where he said that the "audacious murder of Boris Nemtsov, right in the center of Moscow, was a politically motivated crime," and he warned about attempts to use what he called the "color revolution technology," the aim of which he said "is to provoke civil conflict and strike a blow at our country's constitutional foundations, and ultimately, even at our sovereignty."
So, Mr. LaRouche's point about this, earlier today, was that what we're seeing here, is the last-ditch desperate efforts of Obama and other representatives of a thoroughly bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system, who are reflecting what he called a degree of "Zeusian insanity," which goes beyond the comprehension of most of the average citizens of the United States. He said that this is being driven by the knowledge that their entire system is bankrupt, and they can't hold it together any longer. And, that this is the key factor that you have to take into account, both when it comes to what's happening with Russia, as well as the situation with Greece.
So, Jeff, I just wanted to ask, what more do we know about the specific circumstances surrounding this latest escalation against Russia? What are the other factors that have to be acknowledged that are occurring simultaneously? And, what are the necessary steps that we must take to prevent this escalation towards a third world war?
STEINBERG: Sometime back, President Putin said—I don't remember the precise venue, but I remember the point he was making—he said, if there wasn't the Ukraine crisis, which the West is blaming on Russia, they would have either invented one, or come up with another excuse, because the real target in this entire exercise, is Russia, and, secondarily, China.
Now, look at the situation on the ground in eastern Ukraine. By and large, the agreement worked out among the four Normandy heads of State—Putin, Poroshenko, Hollande, and Merkel—has been implemented, particularly on the part of the pro-Russian forces. The Luhansk and Donestsk Republics have pulled back most of their heavy equipment, as specified by the most recent Minsk agreement. In fact, if anybody is significantly lagging behind, it's the Ukrainian forces, because some of the battalions that have been must brutal in the east of Ukraine, are not part of the regular Ukrainian army, but are part of these Right Sector-dominated militias that are run by local oligarchs, and they've openly come out and said that they have no intention of abiding by the Minsk agreements.
So, in a certain very real sense, Ukraine itself is not the issue that it was, even several weeks ago, yet, the targetting of Russia, the targetting of Putin, is escalating dramatically, and it's no longer related to Ukraine; it's a direct, immediate, provocation, directed against Russia.
Yesterday, four NATO battle ships entered the Black Sea for extensive maneuvers that will involve a number a number of the NATO countries that are right in the Black Sea region: Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey. And, the Russians' response has been to say that Russia will conduct certain air maneuvers that are direct rehearsals for suppressing exactly the kind of NATO deployment that's being exercised right now. There are other Russian maneuvers going on, of several thousand troops in the Western District within a very close distance to the Ukraine border.
So, what we have here, is a situation, in which the direct tensions between the United States and NATO on the one side, and Russia on the other, are intensifying at a point when the level of actual trust and communication between the top leaders of the United States and Russia is at an all-time low. During some of the darkest moments of the Cold War, when people were frightened about the prospect of nuclear war; during the 13 days in 1962 of the Cuban Missile Crisis; during the period in the immediate aftermath of Russia rejecting, under [yuri] Andropov, President Reagan's proposal for collaboration on the Strategic Defense Initiative—these were periods where there was a grave fear that we were very close to the edge of thermonuclear war.
Those situations pale in comparison, with the danger that we face right at this moment. Number one, the relationship between President Obama and Putin is virtually nonexistent. The fact that President Obama, early in his Presidency, send Michael McFaul, a known agitator, whose career track record, whose academic credentials, centered around color-revolution regime change, was sent to Moscow, as the U.S. Ambassador, was a very clear message that President Obama intended to have no relationship whatsoever, no collaboration, no deliberation whatsoever, with President Putin of Russia.
And, the situation has gone from bad to worse. McFaul was named this week, explicitly, by one of the Greek strategic analysts [Ilias Iliopoulos], who wrote about the Nemtsov assassination. And he said, that Nemtsov was a perfect target for those in the West running the color revolution against Russia. And, among the reasons that Nemtsov was such a viable target, was number one, he posed absolutely no threat to Putin. Nemtsov had been part of the 1990s apparatus that looted Russia blind from the inside, in conjunction with the British. Nemtsov was associated with Yeltsin, with [boris] Berezovsky, with [anatoly] Chubais, and was considered to be somebody who was widely despised inside Russia. So, he posed absolutely no threat to President Putin, but, was in contact directly with Ambassador Mike McFaul, when he was still in Moscow. So he's a perfect target to be the fall-guy, for McFaul, Victoria Nuland, and the British apparatus that have been behind the scenes, a driving factor in pushing this war confrontation with Russia. The British House of Lords this week produced what's being billed as the most comprehensive study yet, of the events leading up to and following the Maidan Square coup in Ukraine. And needless to say, the House of Lords places 100% of the blame on Putin and on Russia.
So, the British are in the middle of attempting to escalate the provocations between Obama, who they've got in their hip pocket, and the Russians. It's very reminiscent of how the British played the Germany under Hitler game with the Soviet Union in the Second World War.
Now, the Russians are not about to succumb to the bluff and the threat. The chief of operations of the Russian strategic force, their triad of nuclear weapons capabilities, which they've modernized tremendously since 2008, gave a statement this past week, which was widely publicized in Russia, and picked up around the world. And he said very clearly: Any kind of action that is directed against Russia that aims at regime change, that is an attempt to force Russia to back down, will be responded to with a strategic strike.
He recognized and explicitly pointed out that there is a new, evolving NATO doctrine which is based on the idea that it is possible to carry out limited nuclear war, restricted to the immediate vicinity of the center of Eurasia, directed against Russia, perhaps at some point directed against China and India. But these ideas were circulating around in the early years of the Cold War: You had the RAND Corp., you had Herman Kahn, famously at the Hudson Institute, talking about 54 steps of escalation of nuclear conflict before you got to a full-scale thermonuclear war.
This madness was disproven at the time. The danger is that back then, it was a bunch of academic fantasy-life, on government payroll. But today, we're in a situation where the United States is going through a modernization of the 180 tactical nuclear weapons that are forward based in Europe, directed against Russia. They're being expanded in range, there are new guidance systems that are more accurate. The idea is that somehow or other, by reducing the payload to where it is a less extreme nuclear explosion, that somehow or other the Russians will respond in a limited fashion and you can have a contained notion of nuclear war.
Well, the Russians just blew that whole idea out of the water, with the statement by the operations chief of their strategic force who said no way! If there is any kind of limited strike against Russia, the Russian response will be an immediate, total strategic retaliation. Which means that the people who are pushing the provocations against Russia, who are willing to take a desperate bluff, are running the risk, whatever in their demented minds they think they're provoking, of triggering a general thermonuclear war of extermination. That's the danger.
And you have a desperation, that's drive by the fact that this entire London-centered, Wall Street-centered, trans-Atlantic financial system is hopelessly bankrupt. Greece has put a punctuation mark on that, and has greatly reduced the timeframe in which the showdown will take place.
And secondly, you have this insane notion being promoted, once again, that some kind of utopian fantasy of limited nuclear war, of population reduction that can be geographically circumscribed in the center of Eurasia and will not affect the United States, will not affect other peripheral areas, this idea, is the greatest danger in the current strategic situation, because the world, the real world doesn't operate on those kinds of insane utopian ideas. And if one side tries to actually put them to a test, when they're bluff is called, then the likelihood is that the Russian response will lead to the kind of war of extinction that very few people here in this country, or even around the world in other parts of the world, are capable of conceiving.
This is why you're getting an outpouring of certain senior diplomats, people like Jack Matlock, who have been repeatedly warning, echoing what Mr. LaRouche has been warning about for the last several years, that we're not facing some kind of limited conflict, but we're facing the imminent danger of a war of extinction.
So that's the situation. There are clearly leading people at the top of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who are aware of these dangers, who are concerned about them, who've maintained lines of communication with their Russia and Chinese counterparts as an effort to try to avoid the worst happening. But the problem is, that, when you have a President of the United States under the thumb of the British, and driven by this desperation, there are dangerous limitations even on what the Joint Chiefs of Staff are capable of preventing from happening.
So that's where we are right now, and the Nemtsov assassination was another indication that we're moving precariously close to this showdown moment.
OGDEN: Thank you, Jeff. Now, as I mentioned earlier, we're also joined tonight by Megan Beets, whom I'm sure most of you are familiar with. I don't want to say too much before handing the podium over to her, but I just want to emphasize again the point that Mr. LaRouche was making this afternoon and what Jeff just elaborated. That even though most Americans will tend to underestimate this factor, the key element which is driving this threat of thermonuclear war right now, is the fact that we're not dealing with so-called "rational" actors. A rational person would not think in this way. But the psychology of that oligarchical principle, which we're dealing with when it comes to the current representatives of this trans-Atlantic system, you're seeing an element of Zeusian insanity — that was the way Mr. LaRouche put it — in the face of the challenge, an existential challenge, that they see to their power, which is coming from the BRICS and allied nations at this time. It's an oligarchical psychology that will tend to lead towards the genocidal destruction of a large portion of the human race if it's not stopped.
And Mr. LaRouche emphasized that this is something that we've seen as a recurring factor throughout European history. You know, it's only through the recognition of the oligarchical principle of a real force of evil, and the commitment to not allow this to occur, that civilization has been saved before in the past, and that civilization can be saved again now. The example that Mr. LaRouche has been citing quite a bit recently, is the connection between Joan of Arc and Nicholas of Cusa. And he's been emphasizing that, despite the killing of Joan of Arc by her enemies, it was this event which contributed significantly to crystallizing what we now know as the European Renaissance, which was born out of the efforts of Nicholas of Cusa.
And what Mr. LaRouche emphasized today is that this is a history that very few people know anything about, but it's very significant, not only from the standpoint of allowing people to understand what the true creative forces are that move, and shape history, which is something that Benjamin Deniston elaborated quite extensively at the conclusion of last week's broadcast, but it's also, in order to answer the question, what is it going to take, to crystallize a Renaissance around what the BRICS and other nations represent today, this new, emerging system.
So I'm going to give Megan Beets a chance to address this subject.
MEGAN BEETS: Thanks, Matt. I want to start just by reading something Mr. LaRouche had to say on exactly this question, the fact that we are facing the total collapse of the Zeusian system and thereby the freedom for mankind to consider the more fundamental question, which is, what is the meaning of mankind? So he said:
"Mankind is located, his identity is located in what he or she contributes, to the future of mankind; not how long they live, but what they contribute to the future. And people who are serious, order their lives on the basis of realizing a necessary improvement to the existence and persistence of their lives, their own lives. It does not lie in any other simple explanation. All people die, all men and women die. They will eventually die, so what's the meaning of their life? The meaning of their life is what they contribute, to the future of mankind.... And it's the people who create something which contributes to mankind's future, is the meaning of mankind's existence."
In 1431, Joan of Arc is burned at the stake, at the age of 19, after a grossly corrupt one-year imprisonment, torture and trial at the hands of the rotten French lackeys of the proto-British Empire and their Venetian sponsors. These were the people who believed in the system of Zeus and that if they just carried out their lackey tasks, such as this corrupt trial and torture of Joan of Arc, that they might perhaps survive, themselves.
This empire was so terrified of this 19-year-old woman, that they burned her twice, in order to ensure that there was nothing left of her body. However, when the news of her case, of her trial and of her death, reached the ongoing Catholic Church council, the Council of Basel, which frankly many of her judges and murderers later began to attend, when the news of her death reached that Council of Basel, a process was set into motion by the spark which was the mission of her life, which ignited those as the circles of the great Nicholas of Cusa, to mobilize against the evil in society, which had killed her.
Now, during that council, Cusa wrote in a document that he produced for the Council in 1433, contrary to the Zeusian faction in attendance on the true nature of government, which is really a treatise on the true nature of mankind and natural law. So Cusa writes in his Concordantia Catholica,
""Therefore, since all are by nature free, every governance—whether it consists in a written law, or in living law in the person of a prince ... can only come from the agreement and consent of the subjects. For, if men are by nature equal in power and equally free, the true, properly ordered authority of one common ruler, who is their equal in power, can only be constituted by the election and consent of the others, and law is also established by consent."
So this is two years after the murder of Joan of Arc.
Now, let me back up a little bit and talk a little bit about Joan of Arc and what she did, and why the Zeusian system was so terrified of her. By the year 1420, this is 11 years before her death, France was on the verge of disintegration. In 1337, about 85 years earlier, the crown of France had been seized by Edward III, King of England. This unleashed over 100 years of warfare, of economic destruction and collapse, of mercenary armies roaming France, fighting the English and fighting each other. By 1347, between the years 1347 and 1351, four years later, a quarter of the population of Europe was wiped out by the plague. In 1418, the Queen of France turned and became a traitor to France, fully ceding France's sovereignty to the English, and she placed an English King on the throne of France, disinheriting her own son, the Dauphin [Charles VII].
So this is the Europe into which Joan of Arc is born in 1412 in a tiny village in the north of France. In 1429, when Joan is 17 years old, when the resistance within France who were still loyal to the Dauphin and to the idea of France as a nation was near collapse, Joan of Arc and her faction convinced the Dauphin, the rightful King of France, to give her, a young shepherdess, the weapons and the troops which would be necessary to raise the English siege of the city of Orléans, the last bastion of the French resistance to the English takeover. When Joan of Arc arrived at Orléans at the head of the French army, leading the hardened veterans of France's wars, who had failed time and again to relive France of the attacks from the English, Joan sent a letter to the English to warn them of what she intended for them; which I would like to read in full because it's her words, and I think it hopefully will give people a sense of the kind of passion involved in her mission. So this is the letter she sent to the English commanders:
"Jesus Maria.
"King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, you call yourself regent of the kingdom of France, you, William de la Pole, Sir John Talbot, and you, Sir Thomas Scales, who call yourself lieutenant of the aforesaid duke of Bedford, render your account to the King of Heaven. Surrender to the Maid, who is sent from God, the King of Heaven, the keys to all the good cities that you have taken and violated in France. She has come here from God to proclaim the blood royal. She is entirely ready to make peace, if you are willing to settle accounts with her, provided that you give up France and pay for having occupied her. And those among you, archers, companions-at-arms, gentlemen, and others who are before the city of Orléans, go back to your own countries, for God's sake. And if you do not do so, wait for the word of the Maid who will come visit you briefly, to your great damage. If you do not do so, I am commander of the armies, and in whatever place I shall meet your French allies, I shall make them leave it, whether they wish to or not; and if they will not obey, I shall have them all killed. I am sent from God, the King of Heaven, to chase you out of all France, body for body. And if they wish to obey, I shall have mercy on them. And have no other opinion, for you shall never hold the kingdom of France from God, the King of Heaven, the son of St. Mary; but King Charles, the true heir, will hold it; for God, the King of Heaven, wishes it so and has revealed through the Maid, and he will enter Paris with a goodly company. If you do not wish to believe this message from God through the Maid, then wherever we find you we will strike you there, and make a great uproar greater than any made in France for a thousand years, if you do not come to terms. And believe firmly that the King of Heaven will send the Maid more force than you will ever know how to achieve with all of your assaults on her and on her good men-at-arms; and in the exchange of blows we shall see who has better right from the King of Heaven. You, duke of Bedford, the Maid prays you and requests that you cause no more destruction. If you will settle your account, you can join her company, in which the French will achieve the finest feat in Christendom. And give answer, if you wish to make peace in the city of Orléans; and if you do not do so, be mindful soon of your great damages."
Now, Joan leads the armies on a three-day siege of what had been a month-long attack on Orléans, and what she did was the impossible: She forced the English to surrender. From Orléans, Joan led the armies of France, and her King to the historic cathedral at Reims and crowned him the King of France.
Now, she was later betrayed by that King, and she was captured in battle in May of 1430, and she was sold as a prisoner to the English. And she was burned alive by the English and their French lackeys who thought that they could eliminate her, by burning her body, to save their own skins. However, what Joan of Arc unleashed by her mission and by her victory against the evil which killed her, is something which is not locatable within the bounds of the actions that she took during her own mortal life. The process that was unleashed, which was led by Nicholas of Cusa, took what Joan of Arc represented as a mission and her passion for the freedom and the sovereignty of the people of France as a nation, and made this a mission to free all of mankind from the Zeusian empire, and to crush the evil in society which burned her alive.
So, in 1435, four years later, the Pope that Cusa worked with, helped to organize the Congress of Arras, which was attended by Cusa's collaborators, including the future Pope Pius II, and by September of that year had organized a reunification of the warring factions within France to unite against the English occupation. Two years later, Cusa left the Council of Basel as an emissary sent by the Pope to Constantinople, to Byzantium, and his mission was to bring back the representatives of Byzantium to what became the Council of Florence, the shadow of the Dome of Brunelleschi, for the reunification of the Eastern and Western Churches, which had been split since 1055. Cusa succeeded in this great mission and he brought back 700 representatives of Byzantium, including the Byzantine emperor, including the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and including especially, the complete works of Plato, which had never been seen by the West. And in 1440, just a couple of years later, Cosimo dei Medici was inspired to mobilize a complete translation project of the works of Plato and establishing the Platonic Academy in Florence.
So what was set into motion by Cusa, was what became a complete transformation of society. This led in 1461, into the establishment of the first commonwealth nation-state under King Louis XI of France who is the son of the King who was crowned by Joan of Arc. Now, just preceding that, between 1450 and 1456, you had a second trial of Joan of Arc, which was a trial of rehabilitation, exonerating her and condemning instead her judges, and exposing the evil of what had been done to Joan in the name of the Church.
Now, this Renaissance process, which was the beginnings of what eventually became the American republic, was also the foundation of the later work and passionate commitment of Johannes Kepler, to establish the human mind in its true and central position in the Solar System, in his discovery of the harmonic organization of the Solar System, and the capability of the mind of man, any man, as Cusa put it in his Concordantia Catholica, of the equality of all men on the principle of creativity.
So this comes back to what I opened with in quoting Mr. LaRouche on the issue of the meaning of mankind, the meaning of life, the mission of mankind, and the fact that the meaning of life, as opposed to what's imposed by the beliefs of this empire system that the world has been suffering under, since the assassination of President Kennedy in the United States and its aftermath, the meaning of life is in being truly human, in the creative process which, long after your death, establishes a continuing process of the further perfection and uplifting of the powers and capabilities of the human species, and changing, even after the death of one's mortal body, the meaning of mankind as a species.
So this fulfilling of the mission of Joan of Arc, which is not quite complete, was taken up by a very small handful of leaders in what became the Renaissance, led by Cusa. And the question before all of us today, is, will we respond to the horrors of the potential of nuclear war, and the horrors of the potential extermination of the human species — will we respond as the faction of Cusa responded to the horrors of what was done with Joan of Arc, and create something in mankind based on this spark of potential with the BRICS process, which has never been seen before?
OGDEN: Thank you very much, Megan. With that said, we're going to bring a conclusion to our broadcast here tonight. I want to thank everybody who tuned in tonight for watching our webcast. I want to thank Megan for joining us, and I want to thank Jeff Steinberg for being with us tonight.
Please, stay tuned to larouchepac.com. Good night.


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Monogamy: A Hot Affair Game
Average customer review 4.5 out of 5 stars262 reviews
Have a red-hot affair with your partner! Dim the lights, switch off the phone and get ready to play one of the hottest board games ever. Experience new, exciting and occasionally hilarious challenges with the throw of a dice.
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- $44.95
Or 4 payments of $11.24 with Learn more
Product Description
Have a red-hot affair with your partner! Dim the lights, switch off the phone and get ready to play one of the hottest board games ever. Experience new, exciting and occasionally hilarious challenges with the throw of a dice.
Perfect for a naughty night in or a boring Sunday afternoon, Monogamy is the game to spice things up between you and your partner, encouraging you to try new things together and reignite the passion you felt the first time you set eyes on each other.
With over 400 ideas at three levels of play, you can make this best-selling game as sweet or as sexy as you want.
Roll the dice and follow your way around the board, on every space you land on, pick a card and act out a particular action - it could be "intimate", "passionate" or "steamy" depending on how far you decide to go - or how long you can resist your partner!
The game climaxes with the winner choosing to make one of 50 breathtaking fantasies come true.
The fun continues long after the board's been packed away, thanks to a special 'treat feature' to keep the passion going all week, all month... or as long as you want!
It's the hottest affair you'll ever have - and all with your partner!
Key Features:
- Bestselling adult board game for couples
- Reignites sexual tension between you and your partner
- Features three levels of intensity for personalised play: intimate, passionate and steamy
- Encourages intimate conversation, naughty challenges and sexy fantasies
- Described by players as an "addictive" game "for the intelligent and adventurous mind"
Essential info
- Veggie suitable: Yes
Product Videos
Monogamy: A Hot Affair Game
Monogamy is one of the world's most popular sex games for adults. Lovehoney TV presenter Annabelle explains how it can take your sex life from slow to steamy with simple roll of the dice.
Buyer's Guide: Compare Nookii to Monogamy
Annabelle explains the differences between popular adult sex games Nookii and Monogamy, helping you to make the right choice to spice-up your love life. Read more: Monogamy and Nookii Compared.
Best sex ever
Reviewed: 14 April 2019 by Midnightblue, a Straight Married Female
I treated my hubby to a sexy little board game. Wow.
We both found it a bit strange to start as we are sex toy virgins but once we both relaxed, wow, it was not long before we were both hot and steamy.
I have to say, for something we have never tried before, it turned out to be the best sex ever. Now to try more sex toys and see what happens!
- Pros
- Massive turn-on.
- Cons
- Nothing.
- Bottom line
- Sexylicious.
- Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Reviewed: 12 January 2019 by Cl113, a Straight Going Steady Female
My partner bought this for me as a Christmas present and we absolutely loved it!
However, like others, we did not complete it and ended up with a mess of card all over the bed, along with other mess - would recommend to anyone!
By the first roll in the third round we couldn't keep our hands to ourselves and never finished... the game, that is!
Don't think twice about getting this!
- Pros
- Everything.
- Cons
- Nothing.
- Bottom line
- Amazing for everyone.
- 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes
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A definite hit
Reviewed: 6 January 2019 by Rhirhi3, a Straight Going Steady Female
I bought this for myself and my partner to spice things up a little.
We had so much fun playing the game. I was a little concerned when it said it takes around 90 minutes to play but the time flew by.
The fantasy cards definitely made us a lot more competitive as we were both desperate to try each other's out.
Would definitely recommend this game as you can play it however you want and it most definitely made for an exciting night.
- Pros
- Fun, easy to play.
- Cons
- Nothing.
- Bottom line
- A good way to try new things.
- 1 person found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes
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Looking after tomorrow is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. We want everyone at Queens to be accountable, by taking responsibility for the part they have to play in making our university more sustainable. Collectively when 3,500 staff and 24,000 students take action that results in a huge positive impact and builds a culture of environmental stewardship. Together we can do this.
We will be recruiting schools and directorates to stand up and be counted, through the accreditation scheme Green Impact which recognises and rewards those taking action to improve our environment. We will also be looking for people to join our network of environmental champions.
Green Impact
Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme with an awards element designed for university departments. University staff take part each academic year and, depending on the number of environmental actions they carry out, can achieve either: 'working towards accreditation', or a 'Bronze', 'Silver' or 'Gold' award for making their workplaces greener. The scheme is currently delivered and supported by the National Union of Students (NUS). Last year Queen's had 48 teams participating.
Environmental Champions
The Environmental Champion Network is made up of 150+ members of University staff, who are great advocates for sustainability and act as the local point of contact for environmental issues and pass information between staff / students and the environment team.
Click here for more information on Environmental Champions at Queen's
EVENT: Calling all environmental leaders
On Friday 10th of October 2014 from 12-2pm we will be hosting a Green Impact workshop for returning/existing Green Impact teams. It is open to everyone already registered with the programme who intends to be involved again this academic year.
The purpose of the workshop is to introduce the new Green Impact Workbook, share our calendar of environmental and Green Impact events for the year ahead, and discuss Green Impact in general. The workshop also aims to bring people together to share common environmental problems and potential solutions between the different operational units, in the hope that our champions feel supported and empowered to continue their good work.
This will be an opportunity for you to discuss any issues within your department and to share best practice. If you would like to attend, please email us at email@example.com. This workshop will take place in the Students Union Club Room 3.
Do you know a green hero at queens? Take a photo of them in action and tweet us @greenatqueens


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Thoughts From On-Air
Where's My Shoes
Life can be so crazy sometimes! As a mom of three very active boys, it's run here and run there. "Mom…where's my shoes?!" Well, I found one of them in an half hour! There is too much to do! With the craziness of my day, it is so nice to have the refuge of Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God." We can draw close and our worries of the day fade away when we place our concerns in the hands of our precious Savior!
"And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had be founded on the rock." (Matthew 7:25 ESV)
So peace reigns again in my heart, although I am STILL looking for that other shoe! 🙂
~Penny from Keep The Faith


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Fighting cancer of any type can be difficult to handle for everyone involved. So when one Austin woman found out her mother had breast cancer, she decided to not only support her -- but to create a thriving business in the process, all in honor of her mom.
Stephanie Hansen has been the entrepreneur-type for as long as she can remember.
"I graduated from Texas in 2009 with a degree in marketing and a minor in advertising."
Two years after graduation, however, as she was working full time, Stephanie got a phone call from her mom -- Susan Hansen -- as she told her daughter she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
"It was tough because you don't expect to have that news," Susan said. "Nobody thinks they are going to go for their mammogram and be called back two or three times."
"When your mom tells you she has breast cancer, it's a punch to the gut," Stephanie said. "You're trying to be brave on the phone, 'Oh, everything will be OK,' but then you get off the phone and you say, 'What do I do?'"
But that word -- brave -- it stuck with Stephanie.
"I was actually driving home one week after she told me of the diagnosis," Stephanie said. "I was driving home to Houston to see her and thought, 'Oh, Bravelets! That works!'"
Bravelets would be her company, as she planned to sell bracelets with "be brave" on them. Initially, she started working on Bravelets part-time while she continued with her full-time job at the time.
"I would get off work, I would get home, answer customer service emails and then on my way to work the next morning, I would dump them off in one of those blue bins."
When she started working on it part-time in 2012, Stephanie made bracelets out of 10 colors, supporting 10 causes.
"I was working full-time and then at night, I always say from 10:00 at night to 2:00 in the morning, I would do Bravelets," Stephanie said.
Early on, Stephanie said the non-profit organizations and charities didn't always know about her business.
"A charity would say, 'Hey, I just got this check in the mail, 'Who are you?'" Stephanie said.
After about six months of working on Bravelets, she decided to bring in some other parts, getting help with outsourcing and customer service.
Then in 2015, after Stephanie's mom had a successful mastectomy years back, she received more troubling news.
"It was kind of like Déjà vu," Susan said.
She had breast cancer again, on the other side. However, she continued to fight.
"She just takes everything with a smile on her face," Stephanie said. "I can see her on the hospital bed, going in, smiling and just laughing. She was cracking jokes with all the nurses. My mom is the most optimistic person I know."
So while Susan eventually became cancer free a second time, her daughter's business started to grow. Mallory Ashwander is the lead creative director at Bravelets, as Stephanie brought her onto the team in 2015. She said she couldn't have found a better cause to support.
"It's really fun getting to hear why people buy Bravelets and why they connect with it so much," Ashwander said. "I think that the "Be Brave" sentiment really resonates with a lot of people. We get to help people in a lot of different capacities, which I think is really special about our group."
This past August, Sauceda Industries entered the picture, a distributing service company that helps businesses grow by offering a place to store and ship items. Ross Epperly is the chief operating officer for Sauceda Industries and said it was an easy decision to support Bracelets.
"We provide economies of scale that sometimes small businesses can't really reach," Epperly said. "You can see the difference Bravelets has on people."
So a business that once backed 10 charities and nonprofits is now supporting more than 4000, both big and small. Bravelets has also sold close to 300,000 bracelets nationwide and raised about $2.6 million for all their charities.
"It's not just the numbers," Stephanie said. "It's the people and how many lives you've touched."
"I never gave up with my cancer and Stephanie's never given up with Bravelets," Susan said. "Whether you're an entrepreneur or surviving an illness or just figuring out your daily life, you just never give up because something good will come around the corner."
To learn more about Sauceda Industries, you can click here.
To learn more about Bravelets, you can click here.


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A Tamil tiger suicide bomber detonated an explosive laden suicide jacket targeting the escort of government minister Maithripala Sirisena. The minister has not received any injuries in the incident but one of the vehicles in the escort was damaged. 3 security forces personnel in the vehicle were injured in the blast and one civilian was killed.
The incident has occurred at 1.15PM, near Piriwena junction in Boralesgamuwa.


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"I couldn`t put it down from start to finish...Some of these stories are fascinating, some sad and some just downright funny. I thoroughly recommended it anyone whether interested in Human Resources or not!"
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The Finance Director is a key member of the senior management team and is responsible, for ensuring effective financial management and control of resources.
Ensuring effective business performance within the Portfolio by leading, on behalf of the Chief Executive, the planning and budgeting processes, helping to ensure that organisation`s overall financial position is in balance and its objectives achieved.
Ensuring an effective performance management framework is in place for measuring business performance, including the development, provision and ongoing monitoring of financial and other key performance indicators. This will cover the Portfolio`s element of the organisation`s Business Plan, the revenues it collects and the spend on its internal resources.
Maintaining an effective financial control framework, ensuring delegated authorities are in place and that the Portfolio complies with the relevant standards.
Acting as a focal point and source of expertise in financial analysis within the Portfolio, encouraging and providing constructive challenge to managers to deliver value-for-money and efficiencies both within the Portfolio and across organisation.
Acting as the voice of the CFO within the Portfolio, promoting a culture of financial responsibility and working with the central Finance team to build and develop financial capability across the business.
Working with central Finance to deliver transformational financial thinking, systems and processes that support the Portfolio and organisation`s change agendas.
Providing effective leadership, direction and development to the Portfolio finance team of c.115 people.
Job description Finance Director [cont]
The successful candidate will be an exceptional leader who is able to show that he/she has the necessary imagination, skills and track record for this demanding role. He/she will need to be able to demonstrate his/her ability in the following areas:
Essential Criteria, Skills and Experience: Job description Finance Director
The successful candidate will be a CCAB qualified accountant with significant experience of working in a senior financial management role within a complex and highly diverse customer centric environment.
Proven experience of developing and implementing an effective financial control environment within a significantly sized business/organisation.
Strong understanding and experience of risk management, investment appraisal, benefit realisation and how best to deliver value for money.
Ability to contribute as part of the senior management team, through effective business planning, analysis, planning, budget management and performance appraisal.
Demonstrable ability to drive forward efficiency savings across a large organisation, in line with key strategic objectives.
Experience of influencing management at board level as well as key stakeholders within a highly complex and politically sensitive environment.
Experience of leading and developing a geographically dispersed team of highly dedicated and experienced finance professionals.
Desirable Criteria, Skills and Experience: Job description Finance Director
Ideally, the successful candidate will have a working knowledge of debt management.
Key Competencies
Results Orientation: You demonstrate drive for improvement of organisational results. You intelligently transform a business for significantly improved results
Change Leadership: You drive for improvement through people, transforming and aligning an organisation in a new and challenging direction. You fully engage entire organisations in fundamental change.
Strategic Dexterity: You think beyond your own area. You demonstrate complex thinking abilities, incorporating both analytical and conceptual abilities. This competency encompasses the practical application of this higher level thinking to tangible problems and to find pragmatic solutions. You develop concepts that integrate complex information into new and simple essences and you create and communicate clearly a new, long-term vision for a complex organisation.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: Job description Finance Director You are able to communicate and work effectively with a wide range of peers, partners and others not in the line of command to create a positive impact on organisational performance. You build enduring partnerships and team work across the organisation, demonstrating strong, articulate communication and leadership
Job description Finance Director
Working with managers to provide accurate forecasts of the in-year and year-end positions, championing a `right first time` attitude. Communicating forecasts to central Finance in a timely and accurate way.
Working with the senior management team to deliver an effective risk management framework and process that anticipates, identifies and mitigates significant risks to delivery of the Portfolio business plan.
Managing the relationship with corporate services providers through the service management function: ensuring that `consumables` are properly controlled within budget and building and maintaining a set of performance measures to maximise value for money from internal service provision.