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One of my quests whilst in Cape Town over the last month was a few days in the Afrigator headquarters with Justin, Stii and Lester. After a good catch up and a few beers it was straight into the work with the main priority being some tweaks to the Afrigator user interface. Tweaks is probably a fairly loose and understated term for the amount of work that went into today's launch.
The main priority was to make the changes feel very minor and not too confusing for our users with functionality being moved around the site.
First things first – the grid structure
For a while now I wanted to clean up the Afrigator grid structure and make it more flexible for future updates. Previously we had quite a rigid two column grid structure, a wide left column with a narrower right column, divisible by two allowing for two sub columns.
The new grid structure is a 6 x 150 pixel wide, with a gutter margin of 10 pixels. (FYI: Check out http://www.29digital.net/grid/ for a neat grid structure calculator)
As can be seen above the home page uses only 3 columns, but is now flexible enough to divide any of those 3 columns by 2, allowing for us to add some 125 x 125 ads if required, more category listings, ranking charts, tag clouds, etc, etc.
Search made easy
Search has received a major overhaul with load times drastically reduced thanks to Stii's new love Sphinx. With super fast search results we obviously wanted to make its presence far more prominent, so we removed the header banner advert and replaced it with a fat search box that is very hard to miss.
Simplifying copy
Afrigator to a new visitor probably looks quite foreign and geeky, we want to change this and give off a good, simple first impression about what we do. We still have quite a bit to do before that is the case, but we are taking some steps in the right direction. We've introduced a 3 step graphic to the registration and login pages explaining what you can do on Afrigator and plan to make something similar for new visitors to the website.
We also plan to re-word some sections of the site in layman's terms.
Other new functionality
Best I not repeat what has already been said, just visit the Afrigator blog to find out more about the localised home page, the new images page, and the improved MyGator.
Just a quick note on the improved MyGator. I wanted it to be more visually intriguing. Truth be told there are not a huge amount of MyGator users, in comparison to the amount of registered blogs we have, and I find this quite perplexing as I love using it every day to stay up to date with my favourite African blogs. It's a very simplfied feed reader with none of the unnecessary bells and whistles. With its new icon of our Afrigator's eye situated in the navigation menu it hopefully will be more sticky and encourage more people to find out more about it. It's quite interesting to see how many users think MyGator is supposed to be used to follow your own blog and no one elses.
Stii has also managed to display the blogs you are following on MyGator on your public profile page. Check out the blogs I'm following in my Afrigator sidebar. Neat.
Wrapping up
So as you can see it was actually much more than a lick of paint that we hope will add real value to our Afrigator users. Lots of really exciting things planned for the coming months. Next challenge some AdGator design "tweaks".


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We've received so many recent requests for youth/teenage ACL volunteers that we thought it might make sense to have a quick meeting to brainstorm about youth volunteerism at the library. We invite interested youth to join us for a meeting this coming Saturday (9/24) at 10 am to discuss the following:
- how youth can drop in and lend a hand volunteering at any time at the ACL
- tasks that need to be done at the library on a weekly basis
- special interests that YOUTH have–like, would they like to read stories to kids? run crafts? start a young adult book review & blog?
Our first order of business will be to make some new volunteer nametags for the ACL–we're running low. It'll be fun n' crafty.
Please pass the word along to youth. If they cannot make our meeting, but are still interested in helping out, please let Dana know at email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hidden in Google's "Press" section is Google Zeitgeist. Described as "Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google," this page tells you the most popular results on Google.
Top Searches on Google
by patrick | Jul 31, 2005 | Uncategorized | 0 comments
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Få råd til flere LEGO klodser!
Build to survive with The Snow Hideout!
Build The Snow Hideout! You've ventured out on an icy mining expedition, but the sun is heading for the horizon and hostile mobs will soon be roaming this snow-covered landscape. Lay down your wooden pickaxe, store your newly mined coal and build to survive! Use your wooden shovel and the crafting tables to craft snow blocks from the drift, then take your bucket and scoop water from the lake to make ice-block windows. Craft a door and build a netherrack fireplace and chimney. Finally, build a Snow Golem to ward off the exploding Creeper™ that roams after nightfall and you're ready for action! Rebuild the set for more LEGO® Minecraft™ creations! Includes a Steve minifigure with assorted accessories, plus a Creeper™ and a Snow Golem.


text: Therefore, while definitely part of the system, we are at the same time often deeply critical of it. The following analysis focusing on parts of this criticism presents a view constructed cumulatively over years of our own involvement and reflection.Three Systems of Jewish Education Jerusalem, like the whole of Israel, operates three systems of Jewish education. The majority of Israeli students, about 71.4 percent,1 currently attend what is perceived by Israel's secular Jewish majority as a secular, civic school system. A second system, attended by about 20 percent of Israel's students, are the schools operated by religious Zionist groups, which are often (though not always) affiliated with the National Religious Party. Such schools are overtly religious, dedicating daily blocks of hours to religious studies, alongside subjects such as mathematics or history, which are considered secular. A third school system, titled the Independent Stream, comprises a broad range of ultra-Orthodox schools, each affiliated with a specific religious school of thought, or political party. About 8.3 percent of all Israeli students attend Independent Stream schools. The percentage of students attending the religious streams is much higher in Jerusalem than in most of Israel, giving the religious streams added weight in the dynamic that forms this binational city. For instance, among some 58,700 students attending primary schools in Jerusalem in 1994-95, about 29 percent (less than a third)2 were attending secular schools, as opposed to 68.3 percent of secular primary school students nationwide.3 About 47 percent of Jerusalem primary school students - almost half - were studying in the independent ultra-Orthodox stream, compared to a nationwide percentage of 10.3 percent of primary school students. Moreover, a comparison of average class sizes in the primary schools may give some indication of the allocation of resources in the Jerusalem educational system. The most crowded Jerusalem classes were in the secular primary schools, averaging 29.5 students per class; the Zionist religious classes averaged 26.5 students per class, and the schools of the Independent Stream averaged 24.7 students per class, despite servicing the largest portion of the student population.4 The present discussion broaches the question of how the other people, the Palestinians populating the other part of the city of Jerusalem, are reflected and depicted by secular Jewish education in the city. The overview it offers will cover the secular school system but not the religious Zionist stream, which is also highly nationalistic, or the independent ultra-Orthodox stream. Research conducted among students of 27 countries, by a team based at Hamburg University, has found the students of religious Zionist schools in Israel to be the most nationalistic and most racist group of all those studied by the project.5 Our assumption is also that attitudes to, and perceptions of, the Other in the independent, Orthodox school system are fundamentally similar to those of the religious Zionist system, with the difference that they tend to be even less tolerant and more blatantly expressed.Secular Jewish Education in Jerusalem and the 'Other' The perception of the Other instilled through secular education in Israel is a product of the mainstream culture, which is Jewish-Zionist, Ashkenazi, male-centered and militaristic. This educational system includes almost no manifestations of any of the non-dominant cultures of Israeli society: Palestinian culture, Sephardi/Oriental Jewish culture, woman-centered or feminist thinking, etc. For the most part, such schools of thought are simply absent from the curricula, embodied in the world of the Sabra-accented, Ashkenazi-descended, male Israeli Jew. The Other is accordingly anyone who differs from the "us," either in nationality (such as Palestinians), language/accent (such as new immigrants), skin color (such as Ethiopian Jews), appearance (such as victims of cerebral palsy), ethnicity, gender (such as non-military and thus second-class women citizens). The educational system works, although often implicitly, and to a large extent probably unknowingly, to channel children into the mainstream. The products of its success are those who have adopted the prevalent views of this stream, that is, of the ruling culture. Meanwhile, although this may often be inadvertent, the Other is depicted as either inferior or as the enemy in a broad range of forceful messages conveyed through Israeli secular education. And indeed, such a depiction of the Other is one of the major bases of the militarized education required and practiced in a society that raises its children to comply with mandatory military service. Dehumanization and brutalization, viewing the Other as a non-person or an inferior creature, are components of the mindset that allows one, as a soldier, to take another life.Festivals and Their Significance In pre-school and in the first six grades, children spend large blocks of time studying Jewish holidays. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, for example, commemorates the revolt of the Jews against Greek rule in 167 BC. The uprising broke out after decades of Greek control, in response to the coercion of Jews into the Hellenic religion. Pre-school and elementary school children are taught that the Greeks persecuted us, only to be defeated by the heroic Jewish Maccabees. Constructing a clear dichotomy of good guys vs. bad guys, the emphasis is on strong identification with the brave fighters of the Maccabees who defeated the evil Greeks. Rather than a universal message of freedom of religion, what is stressed is the importance of Jewish freedom and nationalism, of power, of the strength of the Maccabees. The cumulative message of this seemingly "innocent" celebration and study of festivals is twofold, then. On the one hand, it implies that "the whole world is against us, one enemy after another have set out to destroy us." On the other hand, it states "we're alive to tell it, we've persevered," focusing on heroism, strength, combat as the major means of survival. The lore, rituals and traditions of religious and national holidays studied and observed every year, from pre-school to sixth grade in Israeli schools, thus convey the emotional and cognitive message that Israeli Jews must be strong and united so as to face mortal danger. It is a message of the victimized, rooted in the history of anti-Semitism and, particularly, in the residual trauma of the Holocaust. This message is introduced to children at an early age, prior to the development of independently critical faculties. This sharply decreases the likelihood of subsequent doubts, questions or re-examinations of the assumptions, whether conscious or unconscious, underpinning these holidays. Another holiday - Jerusalem Day - specifically honors Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and homeland. Pre-school children spend hours cutting out and pasting up images of the Old City and the temple, invariably using gold and silver paper on black backgrounds, to depict the gold and silver domes of the al-Aqsa and Omar mosques alongside the temple. These images iron out the complex historical-political realities, representing the city as an ahistoric, timeless entity not unlike the imaginary, gold-and-silver castles of fairy tales: an idealized, romanticized perception of the city, detached from concrete reality, conceived through an exclusive prism of Jewishness vs. non-Jewishness. Within such a sovereign Jewish entity, the city is said to be "united" or "reunited" as Israel's "eternal capital."Oppressor and Oppressed The Old Testament is studied consistently in Israeli secular schools, over eleven years of school, from second grade on, for three to four hours a week. These Bible studies provide an occasion to focus on the persecution of the Jews, for instance by Pharaohs, and the exodus from Egypt. The implied analogy to the Jews' flight from Europe and the Holocaust, and their conquest of the ancient homeland of Palestine from its native inhabitants, is obvious. In addition, the very antiquity of the biblical source and its worldwide recognition as a revered, authoritative text, are taken to demonstrate that "we" were "really" here first, that the Jewish people has a rightful claim to Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel, and particularly to its capital, "united" Jerusalem. In the higher grades, history, too, has traditionally been taught from a mainly Israeli-Jewish, Zionist perspective. From this viewpoint, anti-Semitism is the major axis along which the Jewish people relates to other nations. History, by and large, has been perceived as two millennia of anti-Semitism, during which various oppressors plotted against the Jews. Thus history studies have added rational "facts" to the emotional sense, derived at a younger age, of a continuum of plots against Jews in different countries, occurring in contexts as disparate as medieval Spain (the Spanish Inquisition and the 1492 expulsion of Spanish Jews), and the 17th-century Ukraine (the Chmielnicki peasant revolt and pogroms). The resulting view has been simplistic, black and white, posing a choice between just and unjust, right and wrong.Less Demonization Until very recently, modern history in the curricula of the higher grades usually presented the historiography of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict as a military history, battle by battle. For the most part, it omitted the cultural, economic, or social contexts in which both these battles and other events were taking place. Here too, the actual Palestinian Arabs, whose homes and lands were at stake in the history of Israel's foundation and growth, were effectively erased from the picture, obscured behind the vague and inclusive term "Arabs." The central motif was clear and straightforward: Jews defending their lives against their Arab aggressors. In the past few years, a serious attempt has been made to provide a broader and more varied account of national Jewish history. The Ministry of Education changed the entire structure of history studies, canceling the former rigid divide between world and national history. As a result, several new textbooks for high school and the upper grade of junior high were published. In bringing up to date the history both of the twentieth century and of the Israeli-Arab conflict, they placed the establishment of the State of Israel in the broader context of other national struggles, such as India's independence and partition from Pakistan, or the wars in Vietnam. In addition, Israeli history was no longer related as a history of wars, but now devoted substantial space, rather than merely paying lip service, to issues such as immigration or economic development. In these textbooks, modern history was brought up to date to include the Israeli-Egyptian peace accords, the Oslo agreement and the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty. As a result, the term and conceptual framework of "peace" entered the discourse as a feasible reality, and the Other became somewhat more visible and human. Palestinians are identified in such books as Palestinians, rather than lumped together and erased under the category of "Arabs." The narrative became more complex, describing controversy and divisive issues in Israel. Some books, for instance, wrote of the Palestinian national catastrophe of 1948, introducing the Palestinian term "Nakba" and clearly connecting this event to the national success achieved by Zionism in founding the State of Israel. Regional and world conditions were included. Arab countries were portrayed as responding to, and acting within, a variety of global forces and trends: economic, political, social, religious. This has decreased the demonization implied through earlier textbooks and concepts of history, supporting perceptions of Arabs and Arab countries as explicable, rational, and, therefore, potential partners for peace negotiations and treaties. These new works are not presented incontestably as "the truth" and don't conceal the author's views.'Insufficiently Zionist' The actual substance and views presented by these books, and their authors' relatively explicit positioning, have fed considerable controversy. All of these textbooks (which only number about 3-4) were compiled and developed according to the guidelines prescribed by the Ministry of Education core curriculum. In no way can they be suspected of non-Zionist or anti-Zionist perspectives, or even of truly multiple narratives. The outlook they convey is a firmly Zionist, though liberal, one. However, heated public debate aroused by this school of curricula engulfed Israel's Knesset and media, which saw the controversy in political rather than educational terms. The current situation includes the disqualification of one of the more controversial textbooks, by the new minister of education, Limor Livnat, a Likud right-winger. The grounds cited for disqualifying it for study in schools were its failure to incorporate sufficiently Zionist views. Very recently, another local peace education curriculum developed by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, dealing with tolerance and Jewish-Arab coexistence, was disqualified by an appointed committee within the Ministry of Education. The last few years in Israel have witnessed some honest educational work aiming to provide more complex pictures of reality, presenting divergent views of the Jewish-Arab conflict, and of the Arab Other. They have seen the beginnings of the Arabs' portrayal as understandable, equal human beings. However, this approach still constitutes the center of an ideological and political power struggle being waged between right-wing and left-wing circles in Israel, the outcome of which still remains to be seen.The Holocaust and Its Lesson Finally, the Holocaust has naturally been the linchpin of this multi-channeled portrayal of Jews as victims throughout all of history. It represents the epitome of the Jewish sense of powerlessness, manifested in the myth whereby Jews went "like sheep to the slaughter." While children study the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto and the activities of Jewish partisans, the central messages carried by schools, the media, commemorative institutions and rituals, emphasize the victimization of the Jews, with which the children are called upon to identify. During the Holocaust they/we were helpless and vanquished. It could occur and be imposed upon them/us because they/we had no independent means of protection, no state or, in other words, no army and no sovereign territory to escape to. This, it is stated, can never be allowed to happen again. The account usually provides no options outside the victim vs. perpetrator pattern, no alternative strategies for self-protection (such as peace, for example). The internal world-picture conveyed is that of the persecuted, an internal reality characterized by aggressiveness, vulnerability, anger and guilt. As absolute victims, they/we cannot wrong, only be wronged. All evil is projected onto the Other, our enemy, who understands nothing but the language of force. And force or strength is the only option that will ensure our physical survival. The strongest survive; the weak are in danger of extinction. The only choice is to be strong and ready for war. The victim psychology provides justification for wars into which we are forced, wars of which we are - again and always - the victims, as they/we were in the Holocaust. It provides full justification for the demonization of the enemy. The highly publicized Eichmann trial in Jerusalem (1961), gave expression to the central role of the Holocaust in the education of new generations of Israelis and Jews. A three-year study of students in high schools and teachers' colleges, conducted by Nili Keren, Gila Zelikovitz and Yair Oron, has found that many of the students - now three or four generations after the Holocaust, did not view it as history, but rather as pertaining to their own existence.6 Keren has found that, due to the way in which the topic is handled and taught, many students tend toward the paranoid attitude that the entire world is against us. While they demonstrate considerable knowledge of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, they show very little knowledge about subjects such as Christianity, Islam, the Jewish-Arab conflict, and they understand the concept of racism to pertain mainly to Jews. Jewish secular education in Israel and Jerusalem thus gradually and consistently, if not always consciously or intentionally, has been constructing a message which is particularistic rather than universal, portraying the Jews in the constant face of an enemy. This interpretation hardly needs the history of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict to augment it. As the State of Israel is the only answer to the Holocaust, the Arabs have been equated with the worst and most nightmarish of the successive forces out to destroy the Jews. It remains to be seen whether the recent indications of the changing, more peace-oriented attitude towards our neighbors will be able to exert a real influence on the educational system. Interestingly, the secular school system constructs this portrayal implicitly and largely through omission rather than the overt representation of Arabs or Palestinians. During most of the early years of secular education, Arabs as such are not explicitly present. Students at non-religious schools repeatedly report that they have hardly ever discussed Palestinians in class, as a study topic. In studying Jerusalem and its significance, what is stressed is its importance to the three main monotheistic religions, unrelated to the actual neighbors, the physical, living Palestinians who share the city with the students. It is put into highly abstract, generalized terms - Christianity, Islam, Judaism - obscuring the human embodiment of these terms in communities and ethnic groups. The image is thus idealized, presenting a fiction of coexistence, pluralistic, tolerant, visible in the churches and mosques and holy Jewish sites side by side. The focus is on the buildings, the stone shells, or, at most, on the usually peaceful flow of tourists/pilgrims of all religions from all over the world. But the congregations, the people who populate these buildings regularly, and do not coexist peacefully, have been "whited out." When Jewish students in Jerusalem study the environs of their schools, they tend to concentrate on the segregation between Jews from different Diaspora communities and its reflection in various Jerusalem neighborhoods. Little mention is made of eastern Jerusalem and its Palestinian population. This entire part of what politicians, the media, national and school ceremonies often term the "reunited city" stays shrouded in silence, fully in keeping with the fact, physically known and obvious to most secular Jewish Jerusalemites, that the other half of the city is dangerous, out of bounds, never visited. Similarly silenced is the evidence of a previous Palestinian presence in parts of West Jerusalem. N. described a field day they had conducted a year before he/she was interviewed, when students explored several neighborhoods surrounding the school. One group went to the old part of Malha. "I looked at the old architecture of the neighborhood. Houses built by Arabs who lived there and I think in the Six-Day War they were evacuated. How it's a different kind of building, structured in a different way. I don't think there was any discussion of the fact that they were evacuated." Here too the people and the complexity of relations with them, whether present or absent, are erased, and the buildings are isolated as a safe study subject.Jewish Self-Perception When some of the students were asked about what they learned under the heading of "Tolerance," a nationwide study topic in civic studies, it was the secular-Orthodox chasm that occurred to them in answer. The present reality of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict was a non-topic, even though some of these students had participated in an extended series of meetings with Palestinian contemporaries from nearby Israeli Arab towns. Such programs were described by several children as "nothing much," or "not serious," N. said. It is not surprising, of course, that these children couldn't speak each other's language. However, while a majority of Arab children growing up in Israel usually end up learning a great deal of Hebrew, which they need in order to function in the Hebrew-speaking state, most Jewish children get a maximum of an hour or two a week of Arabic, for one to two years during primary school. Many study no Arabic at all, and those who do, often tend to forget the basics due to disuse. This fact goes hand in hand with what we view as an erasure of the existence, the history and even the presence of Palestinian Arabs in both the country and the city of Jerusalem. We believe that this erasure is one of the means of maintaining two levels of awareness, vital to the liberal Jewish consciousness embodied in the secular school system. It is an aspect of the split of this consciousness into two detached and non-communicating realms, a split that keeps at bay the duality, clash and dissonance between these realms. On one level is the perception of the Other that we have described above. On another, partitioned from the first by a barrier of silence, is secular Jewish self-perception. On the first level, the Other has been largely stereotyped, dehumanized, perceived in black and white, providing full justification for his/her brutalization. Meanwhile, on the separate second level, a liberal self-image is carefully preserved through the avoidance of any overt statement of hatred. The liberal, secular consciousness cannot afford to see itself as intolerant, hating, dehumanizing, xenophobic. So the image of the Other almost automatically mapped onto the Arab has been constructed, whether intentionally or not, through hidden means built into the secular educational system. The bearers and receivers of this secular liberal education can accordingly retain an image of themselves as tolerant, open-minded, humane and, consequently, right. And the silencing mechanism is established as a central tool, a message in its own right for managing the dissonance between their attitudes towards Palestinian Arabs and their liberal self-image.Some Concluding Remarks Since October 2000, we have witnessed a spiraling rise in violence in Israel-Palestine. A large percentage of the Jewish-Israeli public have concluded that the Palestinians "betrayed us," that they supposedly chose armed struggle over a very generous peace offer, that therefore they are no longer serious partners for peace negotiations. Many of the people expressing such views would formerly have classified themselves as liberal or left-wing. In our view, the speed with which such people have reverted to earlier characterizations of the Palestinians as a one-dimensional enemy is actually strong evidence of how effective Jewish education has been in entrenching a demonized, superficial and intolerant image of the Other. The sense of "betrayal" is explained by many as resulting from the Palestinians' alleged irrationality and unpredictability: "We offered them more than ever before and they preferred violence…." This, too, demonstrates how easily the Israeli-Jewish public, all products of the state education system, regress to viewing the Other in stereotypical, dehumanized black-and-white terms. Questions such as: What were the Palestinians' reasons? What arguments were they offering? How did they reach their conclusions and choose their actions? These all stay unasked: the automatic assumption, in the best tradition of the Orientalism described by Edward Said, is that the Palestinians, in fact, have no good reasons, that they act on irrational emotions, vindictively, impulsively, even when such action is against their own best interests. This reaction not only follows from, but also feeds or re-feeds into, educational concepts and practices. It is part of the vicious circle re-arousing and reinforcing a stereotypical and fearful image of the Other. Disqualification of the new textbooks on history and coexistence is a tangible part of this circle. While these steps originated with the new rightist minister of education, the disqualification has not aroused any real resistance or debate among most educators. This itself reveals how deep-set the prevalent images are and how readily educators have reverted to them under the present circumstances. While today's circumstances may seem increasingly hopeless, it is our belief that, in the end, the only viable alternative will be a peace agreement and cooperation between the two peoples of Israel and Palestine. However, if there is to be peace, it can only exist - in the long run and especially in Jerusalem - if it becomes a peace between people, not merely between peoples. As far as Israel is concerned, it is unclear how many Israelis can grow up to create such a peace, while the education of Jewish children in all of Israel, as well as Jerusalem, includes - in its very structure - the mindset of barring and overpowering the Other. As demonstrated by the international Hamburg University study - conducted after the Oslo agreement and very soon after the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty - Israeli students (both secular and religious) ascribe relatively little importance to peace.7 Throughout the years of peace negotiations conducted with the Palestinians and with various Arab states, there has never been an education committee among the many bodies appointed to the business of peace-making. At no point did anyone seem to be seriously asking what fundamental changes are needed in the way Israeli and Palestinian children are schooled, in the material they are taught, if they are to become adults who live with each other in peace. Achieving peace is viewed as one more military operation. This is a forceful example of the militaristic thinking that has guided peace processes in our region, and of the lack of investment in deconstructing the enmity, of truly building alternative ways of thinking and acting. Peace is perceived in Israel, and in Israeli education, as merely the lack of war. 1. These and the following nationwide statistics were reported by Chinuch Acher, October 8, 1996, and pertain to the school year of 1994-95. 2. These and the following figures for Jerusalem are based on The Israel Statistical Annals 1995, Central Bureau of Statistics, pp. 267-268. 3. These and the following nationwide figures were reported by Chinuch Acher, op. cit. 4. Ibid. 5. Reported on by Arieh Caspi, Ha'aretz, Nov. 11, 1996. 6. Reported on by Joseph Algazi, Ha'aretz, Aug. 15, 1996. 7. Arieh Caspi, Ha'aretz, op. cit.


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British widow wins battle for husband's frozen sperm 07 марта 2014, 15:54
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Beth Warren. Photo courtesy of itv.com
A British woman won a High Court battle to preserve her late husband's sperm for at least another decade so that she can bear his children, AFP reports.
Beth Warren, 28, had challenged a ruling by fertility regulators that the sperm stored by her husband Warren Brewer before his death in 2012 should be destroyed next year.
Judge Mary Hogg said in a written ruling: "I am satisfied it was his wish that Mrs Warren should have the opportunity to have the use of his sperm after his death in order to have his child or children if she so wanted."
Brewer, a ski instructor who was 32 when he died, had frozen his sperm in April 2005 before receiving radiotherapy for a brain tumour, a treatment which risked making him infertile.
He named Warren as his partner and made clear he wanted her to use his sperm after he died, the judge said.
But he failed to give legal consent for it to be preserved beyond the statutory ten years, meaning Warren must use it before April 2015 or see it destroyed.
Still grieving and trying to rebuild her life, Warren argued at the High Court that she was not ready to start a family.
She asked for the sperm to be stored for the maximum 55 years allowed under the law -- until April 2060 -- so she could choose to have his children later.
The judge approved her request, extending the storage period to at least April 2023 and then until April 2060 pending regular procedural reviews.
Warren, who took her husband's first name as her surname, said she was "elated" at the ruling.
She said her husband "was my life. I know we didn't get that life we wanted. So we made this plan".
"Now I feel I can just move on in my life. With what I want to do. With this chance Warren left me."
However, the judge later granted the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) the right to appeal, a decision which Warren's lawyer said left her "downhearted".
The HFEA licences fertility clinics carrying out assisted conception procedures such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) as well as human embryo research.
In a statement, it said it had hoped to find a way for Warren to store the sperm for longer without creating a precedent.
"However, because the judgment acknowledges that written consent to store the sperm beyond April 2015 is not in place, the judgment may have implications for other cases in which the sperm provider's wishes are less clear," it said.


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Oakland, California
Written by Warren Crandall
Someone one said about Oakland, California: Theres no there, there. Well obviously this person needs some correction because right in the middle of Oakland California, concealed by trees on the shores of Lake Merritt lies what is considered by those who know, is the most influential amusement park in America. This is quite some claim as most people might say that Disneyland is the most influential amusement park in the country. Well, to prove my point we must travel back in time to 1950. Walt Disney and his employees were touring the country examining parks across the country getting ideas for what would eventually be Disneyland. They liked various aspects of different parks across the country but Disney always felt that something was missing in the amusement parks they examined.
One of those parks, San Franciscos Playland at the Beach, was owned by my mothers uncles. Playlands owners, George and Leo Whitney were hired by Disney as advisors and Disney made a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area to inspect Playland. When he was here George suggested that they cross the bay and go to Oakland to see Fairyland. They notified Fairyland that Walt Disney was on his way over there and Fairyland, aware of the publicity potential, called the local news media. The news reel photographers were there and captured Disneys visit to Fairyland. An astounding thing happened when Disney was there and the moment was caught on film:
Disney turned to a family member
of his who was there and stated just loud enough for the microphone to pick up:
This is it!
But what was the it that attracted Walt Disneys
Fairyland was the first themed amusement park!
. . . . Let's explore and Find out !


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Chris Foss was our host- a man of British-French origin, a microbiologist who fell in love with the wine-making process at a young age and spent many years in France (particularly Bordeaux, the home of his mother) training, before moving to England some 25 years ago to work at the Plumpton College in East Sussex in the south-east of England and to take on the role Chairman of the South East Vineyards Association (the largest group of vine growers in the south-east).
Aside from two Brits (myself included) who had never before tasted the wine of their native England, Mr Foss' guests included Chris Schlueter, the Head of BP in Georgia and his wife; Giorgi Tevzadze, Adviser to the Chairman of the National Wine Agency and an active participant in the wine sector since 1986; Meko Kipiani of the family producing Kvanchara; a representative of Deloitte who, with funding from USAID, has recently been arranging wine tasting courses for certification; a local winemaker; a lecturing sommelier; and other wine experts and wine lovers.
Before we even touched our lips to the rim of the first glass (or, in the case of those more professional at this tasting lark, stuck our noses in), Chris clarified the difference between 'British wine' and 'English wine'. Britain (he told us) has had the right to import grapes and grape concentrate from almost anywhere around the world, ferment it in Britain and call it British wine. It is cheap and not very tasty (he said). English wine, however, is produced exclusively from vines grown in English soil. It is rare, worthy of prizes and not so abundant that the average Joe can often afford a bottle.
The UK (for here we can also include Wales and even Scotland in the wine-making process) has a cool climate for grape-growing; the conditions are more challenging, and this undoubtedly affects the style of the wines produced. "In wine terms, we are the 'New World' of Europe," Chris said with a smile as he swirled the first sample around his glass. "They did grow vines in the England of Roman times but the tradition was not kept and so now we are trying to develop our own new styles."
Our first sample was the Chapel Down 2013 Bacchus Reserve, made from a variety of Germanic origin grown on vineyards in Essex, Kent and East Sussex, and annual winner, so we are told, of many medals. The producers (the winemaker and vineyard manager being graduates from Plumpton College) manage 45 hectares of vines, but add to their own production by buying grapes from all over the south-east of England. I personally found the flavor reminiscent of my grandmother's home-made mint sauce- an aromatic and fresh flavor, which the experts, with me in the cosy Vinotel wine cellar, said might be difficult to match with food. In local retailers it would cost 15 to 20 GBP, in restaurants close to 60 GBP.
We got to try the Bolney Estate 2013 Pinot Noir next- the most popular variety grapes in England, though usually destined for sparkling wine. In this case it had been used to create a still red, rather light in colour. The Bolney Estate winery, founded in 1972 (and so the sixth oldest vineyard in the south-east), is run by three women. The vineyard soil itself, we were told, is of the greensand variety, a clay surface on a porous sandstone base, which is very good for Pinot noir vines. Greensand is one of three major soil types in the south-east of England, the others being chalk (of the same geological type as that in the Champagne region) and clay. The grapes from the wine that we were now tasting had been cold-soaked for 48 hours, crushed, and fermented at a low 23 degrees Celcius (in order, Chris informed us, to bring out more of the fruit flavor and less of the tannin). Not many such wines are produced in the UK, so we were told. The Bolney Estate is one of the best and, in a shop, would set you back at least 30 GBP.
An interesting fact got thrown in as Chris poured our third taster of the evening: almost all grape harvests in the UK are handpicked, with only one vineyard equipped with a picking machine. With exports heating up (English wine is now increasingly desired in Scandinavia, Japan, the US and Hong Kong, and is successfully exposited at trade fairs such as ProWein), Chris explained that the number of vines recently planted will exceed demand on the home market, meaning a lot of extra hands will be needed for all that picking!
Our third wine- the Ridgeview 2011 Grosvenor has won Top Sparking Wine in the World, twice. The vineyard is run by ex-Plumpton students and produces half a million bottles per year, though recent expansion will soon put that number up to a million. It is a pure blanc-de-blanc Chardonnay made following strict Champagne procedures, using Champagne technology. Chris described the 2011 year as problematic due to the summer rains but positive in terms of the September yield of small ripe berries which gave the wine the flavor of "…cream, brioche, apple crumble, sherbet…with a lengthy finish and good potential for some years in the bottle," according to Jancis Robinson OBE, world-renowned wine judge and TV presenter (and wine-cellar adviser to the Queen herself!)
"The first sample of sparkling wine was aromatic but the overwhelming fruit characteristics I expected were lacking," Giorgi Tevzadze told me later. "It was an interesting vintage…four years old, but a little oxidized; not my style."
Chris explained that this is as close to original Champagne as you can get: "…elegant, light, a bit of complexity, a creaminess ready from the second fermentation." He pointed out that, what with climate change warming up the French Champagne region, in his opinion the flavor of their grapes is getting a little too strong in terms of fruitiness and honey. Which leads me to think that the original French flavour could soon become the sole property of the British…
"I found the second sparkling wine fresher," Tevzadze said (good for Chris as it is one of his own!) "…expressing a citrus character and the typical strawberry tones of a Pinot noir."
This was Plumpton Estate's 2010 The Dean Blush, grown on one third of ten hectares of beautiful south-facing slopes, tended by college students and made up of 54 percent Pinot noir, 33 percent Chardonnay and 13 percent Pinot Meunier. Of a beautiful golden pink colour, it spent a lengthy 40 months in bottle fermentation and costs 25 GBP when bought at Waitrose supermarkets.
Overall, the guests (myself included) were left with the sense that they had tasted something rare and special; perhaps not suited to every palate, but nonetheless to be treasured and respected, especially when it has been brought 2,500 miles to the cradle of wine itself.
Plumpton College provides a wide range of land-based courses, both in further and higher education, and is England's centre of excellence in training, education and research in wine business and production.
The BGCC has signed a partnership with Plumpton, the Georgian National Wine Agency and the Georgian Ministry of Agriculture, in order to run short executive training courses for Georgians on the themes of marketing, branding and trading wine. "It is very important to know how to sell our wine, how to write the labels to EU standards, and more," said Mako Abashidze, founder and director of the BGCC. "Plumpton is an amazing site, offering all the international standards. We look forward to working with them."


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There are lots of activities happening to you this week. You are still affected deeply by the intense Scorpio Full Moon energies. However, the week starts off with Mercury going home, to Gemini which helps you with clear thinking and communication. Saturn goes into retrograde as well in Aquarius which means old projects will need to be the focus and this on a global scale will influence the lifting of restrictions even more. It may seem still too soon to you but there are other energies that may influence a fewer number of COVID-19 cases in the nearer future.
Mars enters Pisces where the energies on the 14th. You may find there is a decrease in motivation when that happens. Jupiter goes into retrograde in Capricorn on the same day which may help with COVID-19 calming but it can also mean you won't be looking into ways to expand yourself until it goes direct in September. Let's see how you are going to do this week based on your sign.
Aries – You will be put into atypical situations this week. However, you'll find a way to adapt or move past it because of your determination to be naturally strong.
Taurus – Jupiter in retrograde is not going to have too much of an effect on you. There is a good chance you will either get some type of promotion or some type of financial reward. Either way, take advantage of it.
Gemini – Your relationships in work and in life will become more intimate so take the opportunity to bond.
Cancer – You have some confidence that is newfound. Just be careful not to get too feisty as you may end up losing some of those who you were close to. Use this power for something that will properly serve you!
Leo – You may be overworking yourself too much and be careful not to get sick as this can have an effect on your immune system. Don't forget to take that vitamin C.
Virgo – It is a great idea to take up some extra physical activity. You may be doing that as it is since you are naturally health-conscious. However, you'll feel even better trying out new exercises.
Libra – Be prepared to be inspired this week by someone or something that has a great influence on you. This will help you get some creative juices going for something you will do down the road.
Scorpio – Be careful not to get too confrontational as you may be coming across someone who is in your life that is less than honest. This week there is a higher chance of experiencing some conflicts so do what you can to preserve your energy.
Sagittarius – You are feeling quite optimistic now that you see that the economy is slowly opening up again. However, hang tight. Even though you are ready to carry out your plans, what you want to do will still need to wait as it is a slow process. But keep the eye on the prize as you will be able to do those things when the time is right.
Capricorn – You will be urged to do a revamp for your home as you will be spending some time re-arranging furniture in your home in including your home office.
Aquarius – You may be finding that if you have not been living the healthiest lifestyle, you will start feeling some ill-effects from it. For instance, instead of having the urge to sit in front of the TV, go for a bike ride instead.
Pisces – This is a great week to practice your communication skills as you may soon be given some type of leadership role. Stay tuned for that.
This is how the stars are affecting you this week. Make the best of it!


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Help Young People to Care About Birds!
Wyncote Audubon volunteers work with elementary and middle school students as part of our educational outreach to teach about birds and bird protection. We receive requests from local schools on a regular basis.
The students we serve participate in nature-related clubs that:
- Meet before or after school, or during lunch.
- Conduct their club activities in a 45 -60 minute time period.
- Are supervised by teacher(s) and/or parent(s) club sponsors.
- All logistics for the club meetings are arranged by the sponsors.
Wyncote volunteers provide:
- Up to four to six "lessons" during the course of the school year on the topics of fall migration, winter feeder birds, and spring migration
- Bird walks on the school grounds
- Arrange support for those schools creating a bird habitat
- Provide opportunities to visit the Militia Hill Hawk Watch in
September, Great Backyard Bird Count in February, and International Migratory Bird Day in May.
Volunteers receive:
- Materials, training and support for the lessons and bird walks.
- Typically we have more than one volunteer assigned to a "lesson."
- Schedules are created around the availability of the volunteers.
Audubon Adventures
Wyncote sponsors the Audubon Adventures educational programs in a range of elementary public, private, and parochial schools in our chapter territory. These range from the Olney Christian School in Philadelphia to the Blue Bell Elementary School in the Wissahickon School District. We provide club sponsors and their students with a subscription to the Audubon Adventures "newspaper" that is devoted to various conservation themes. Wyncote Audubon volunteers augment these with special presentations and activities. Bird Walks on the school property are a featured. We welcome volunteers to help us with these activities.


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Mr. Barclay's practice focuses primarily on civil matters, with a concentration in business litigation and trial work. Mr. Barclay handles both business-related and personal matters for his clients.
Mr. Barclay has represented businesses of all sizes, from large corporations to smaller, community-based businesses. He handles a wide range of matters, including, but not limited to: commercial litigation, construction litigation, real estate litigation, Proposition 65 litigation, probate litigation, premises liability, employment litigation, elder abuse, and catastrophic personal injury.
Whether the client is a business entity or an individual, Mr. Barclay prides himself on providing individually tailored strategies for achieving his clients' goals. This is accomplished by engaging in a thorough initial assessment of a client's goals and expectations. Just as important as the initial assessment, is regular re-assessment. This ensures that the legal strategy being employed is still appropriate given the fluid nature of our legal system and the dynamic approaches required to overcome all obstacles standing in a client's way.
Mr. Barclay grew up in Downey, California. He is an alumnus of Loyola High School, the University of California, Irvine, and Loyola Law School. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Barclay worked for a civil trial boutique in Los Angeles.
Downey Business Litigation Attorney |
Contact Us |
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The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.
Address: 8141 2nd Street, Suite 501, Downey, CA 90241
Phone: (562) 774-1235


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Prairie View Trail is a popular spring/fall conditioner due to its proximity to Calgary and snow-free conditions early/late in hiking season. Hike up the old forestry road to McConnell Ridge for beautiful views of Barrier Lake, Mount Baldy and beyond. From here, you can scramble up a rock outcrop to a higher viewpoint or continue on to Yates Mountain/Barrier Lake Fire Lookout where you can look out over the Bow Valley. Afterwards, stop at Chief Chiniki Village for a treat!
Prairie View Trail Trip Report
The wind was howling, as it often does at Barrier Lake, but the girls couldn't resist throwing rocks in the turquoise water. They asked, "Do you remember our beach day?" and made us promise to bring them back on a warmer day to play in the sand. With rosy cheeks and numb fingers, we said farewell to the lake and followed the beaten path up to the lookout.
Trembling aspens gave way to conifers as we wound our way ever upwards. We looked for lichens, mosses, and faces on the many trees we met and listened to the wind. At times it sounded like the ocean!
Right before the ridge, the trail gets quite steep, but the girls were motivated to reach the ridge and have a treat. As the trees cleared, we could see the lake below and all the surrounding peaks! Whiskeyjacks rode the thermals in the golden glow and dive bombed for crumbs (left by other hikers – please don't feed them and make them more aggressive!).
We were losing daylight, so we decided to clamber up to the viewpoint for a quick look and save the Fire Lookout for another day. The short detour was well worth the extra couple minutes!
After more snacks (chocolate for the win!), the girls fairly flew down the mountain. It was a great half-day outing with gorgeous views from the top!
Prairie View Trail at a Glance
- Distance: 13.2 km return (Add on 0.7 km one way to the Fire Lookout).
- Elevation Gain: 421 m elevation gain to McConnell Ridge (Add 100 m to the Fire Lookout)
- Washrooms? Outhouses at parking lot
- Stroller Friendly? No
- Directions from Calgary: Head west on Highway 1. Take the Highway 40S/Kananaskis Trail exit. At the top of the ramp, turn left at the stop sign. Continue for 12 km. AFTER Barrier Lake Information Centre, turn right at Barrier Dam Day Use.
- Parking: Barrier Dam Day Use Area
- Trailhead: The trailhead is at the northwest corner of the parking lot.
Know Before You Go
- Ice cleats or microspikes are recommended from late fall to late spring.
- The trail is for hiking and mountain biking. Please share the trail.
- As this trail is in a provincial park, dogs must be on leash at all times.
- For a longer hike and chance to see a small waterfall, you can make a loop with Jewell Creek/Falls.
- There are garbage cans at the trailhead only. Please pack out all trash.
Related Posts
- The Best Shoulder Season Hikes in Kananaskis
- Top 5 Spring Things to Do in Kananaskis With Your Family
- The Best Short Hikes in Kananaskis
- 4 Shoulder Season Hikes in Banff


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Weeks of reported negotiations between the National Rifle Association and Sen. Joe Manchin over legislation to expand background checks hit a roadblock Wednesday after the West Virginia Democrat unveiled his bill amid confusion over whether or not the powerful gun lobby would support the measure.
The compromise brokered this week by Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey to require checks on all commercial gun sales is a rare bipartisan deal that could very well become law. But whatever progress Manchin might have made in recent weeks to get the NRA on board was undermined by bungled messaging that publicly pitted the two parties against one another.
In advance of a press conference to unveil the legislation, a spokesperson in Manchin's office told BuzzFeed that the NRA remained "neutral" on the bill.
"The NRA has not said either way," said Katie Longo, Manchin's press secretary. "The senators have been talking to the NRA, but they're still neutral."
When the news first hit Twitter, it was widely interpreted as a positive sign for the legislation. Without opposition from the NRA, pro-gun Republicans would be given cover to vote for the popular measure.
Later Wednesday morning, Manchin appeared to confirm the NRA's tacit cooperation in his and Toomey's scheduled press conference, saying he was in "constant dialogue" with the group, but added, "I cannot tell you what their position is."
But just minutes after Manchin took his last question, the lobbying group released a statement — headline: "Statement from the National Rifle Association Regarding Toomey-Manchin Background Check Proposal" — that disavowed background checks broadly, but did not make a clear ruling either way on the bill itself.
"Expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting," it read. Still, the NRA tacitly praised Manchin and Toomey for excluding personal gun transfers from the bill, calling the rejection of the "'universal' background check agenda" a "positive development."
Although the statement did not appear to directly contradict the claim from Manchin's office, it made clear enough to reporters that, despite prolonged dialogue over the background check measure, Manchin and the NRA were not in lock-step on the day of the legislation's reveal.
Asked to clarify their stance on the measure, NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told BuzzFeed, "We are opposed to Toomey/Manchin. Period." But Arulanandam did not respond to repeated requests, from this news outlet and others, as to whether the organization had plans to "score" the bill on its annual scorecard. (A negative rating from the group would do more than any statement to damage to the legislation's prospects with lawmakers who want to keep in good standing with the NRA.)
After it became clear that the NRA opposed the bill, another Manchin spokesperson told BuzzFeed that Longo's use of the word, "neutral," may have been misleading.
"She should not have said that," said Jonathan Kott, Manchin's communications director. "I guess technically it was correct at the time. They hadn't given a statement at that time, so I guess they were neutral."
But Kott added that Manchin plans to continue his talks with the NRA, despite their statement today against the bill. "He always talks to the NRA and has a great relationship with them, especially back in his state. Those lines of communication will always be open," he said.
Asked if the NRA had been open about their opposition to the measure during conversations with Manchin, Kott said only, "I wasn't involved in the talks." He added that he also had not heard whether the group plans to score the background checks bill.
Manchin, an A-rated member of the NRA from a right-leaning state, has been at the center of the push for new gun control legislation since well near the beginning: Three days after the shooting last December in Newtown, Connecticut, the longtime Second Amendment advocate went on MSNBC to say he planned to call his "friends" at the NRA to bring them to "the table."
After his colleagues in the Senate pushed left-leaning measures that couldn't garner Republican support — a ban on assault weapons was dropped in March after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he couldn't get more than 40 votes behind it — a Manchin plan for expanded background checks emerged as what is widely considered to be President Obama's last shot at significant gun control legislation.
The confusion Wednesday over the current state of negotiations may jeopardize Manchin's long effort to woo support from the NRA. But if he and Toomey are able to pass the bill in the face of the group's opposition, it will be a sign that the pro-gun giant's influence has faded in the face of the mass shootings in Newtown.
Manchin, said Kott, is optimistic the bill can succeed with or without the NRA.
"I think he feels that the NRA is an influential group and also a well informed group," said Kott. "Having their support would help [the bill], but he doesn't think that if he doesn't have their support it can't pass."
Update: In a letter released Wednesday evening, NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said the organization is "unequivocally opposed" to the Manchin-Toomey bill, which he called a "misguided 'compromise.'"
"As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools," said Cox. "Given the importance of these issues, votes on all anti-gun amendments or proposals will be considered in NRA's future candidate evaluations."
If the legislation's current provisions are not modified, Cox added, the group will break with precedent and score a cloture vote on the bill to oppose it from proceeding on the Senate floor to final passage. (4/10/13, 9:45 p.m. EST)


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It has taken several years and a lot of experimentation, (not to mention a lot of wasted film), but we finally have the answer for processing large, large format without a darkroom. The SP-8×10+ is a daylight safe tray system and doesn't require any complicated frames or film holders and needs only 500ml of chemistry (even less, as reported by some of our beta testers!)
The highlights
Simplicity: Just take off the lid, drop in the film and put the lid back on. No messing with holders, frames or tubes. To be honest, handling 4×5 is pretty simple. But 8×10? That's a whole new ballgame and we wanted to keep it simple.
Flexibility: Simple dividers keep smaller sheets separate. The production version will handle anything between 4×5 and 8×10: 5×7, 4×10, 4×5. Yeah, 9×12 will work too. You should be able to adapt it for those odd-ball sizes that no one else has heard off.
Proven: tray processing has been around since, well, forever. We've gotten the best results by just lifting the tray (with two hands) and "swirling" the liquid like a gold panner. You'll also find that it's a lot easier to load 8×10 film into a horizontal tray than a vertical tank.
We've launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the production effort, and mainly, to validate the market. The funding campaign ends on March 4th. If all goes well, we should be in production in June 2019.
The SP-8×10+ is so radically different than anything we've attempted before that it may be hard to believe that it's a close relative of the SP-445. So how did we get here?
Product development
Our first attempt at a large, large format design was to just super-size the SP-445. We tried both a 5×7 and an 8×10 version. While test results where encouraging, the prototypes were awkward to handle, especially the SP-2810. The 1.5 liters of chemistry turned the agitation cycle into a workout but one of the biggest issues were the film holders.
We tried numerous designs and didn't like any of them. It's one thing to hold a sheet of film in a camera; it's an entirely different battle trying to grip it underwater while being inverted. Besides, each size of film would require a special film holder which required a special mold. This complicated inventory issues and drove up costs.
Ergonomics aside, the production costs where skyrocketing. The mold for just the tank of the SP-2810 was going to weigh in at around 3000 lbs! Our next attempt was a modification to the "taco method". While we build at least five different prototypes, our best results came with our adapter to that would hold two sheets of 5×7 in our SP-445 tank and an airfoil-shaped tube that held one sheet of 8×10. Both were easy to handle and not too tricky to load.
However, while the first results where encouraging, we started to see uneven development along the two edges where the "taco" almost touched. The anti-halation coating wasn't getting completely washed off either. But the biggest issue was the limited functionality. The SP-257A could only do 5×7 and the SP-1810 could only process 8×10. We felt that the market demand a solution for both 5×7 and 8×10 and the combined tooling cost was just too high. Plus, there was the issue of customers having to buy a system for every size of film they wanted to use.
This might be a good time to address some of our marketing assumptions. The following comments are based on our limited surveys and research but we haven't found anyone that has anything better.
- Very few people jump right into 8×10. Almost everyone starts large format with 4×5 (or maybe 9×12).
- Everyone (well at least 95%) of people shooting 8×10 also shoot some 4×5.
- The majority of 4×5 shooters using the SP-445 do not have a real darkroom. The majority of 8×10 users have a complete, rather fancy, darkroom.
- Our best guess is that the market for 8×10 is about half the size of 4×5; the market for 5×7 is about a quarter of it. Of course, there is overlap.
Given the above information, we decided to focus on a system that could handle anything 8×10 or smaller. We wanted to focus on making it easy to handle, chemistry efficient and flexible. And it would be nice if it could handle two sheets of 8×10 at once.
So we tossed out everything we had tried and started fresh. It seemed that the freshest place to start was at the beginning: tray processing.
Well, we tossed out just about everything: it seemed obvious that we'd need a film holder of some sort to keep the film in place. Sometimes, the best lesson you can learn is that you're wrong. We didn't need a film holder.
Note to self: film is heavier than water
Our measurements give a rough mass of 1.5 grams/cm3. Water, by definition, has a density of 1.0 grams/cm3. Thus film sinks (once you get past the surface tension of the water). Now before you argue that your film is always floating up and out of the wash tray: it's not. It's being moved around by the currents in the tray; in still water, it will sink.
Surface tension is our friend. Well, it is once you get under the liquid. The big trick is getting the film under the developer quickly and evenly. Since this is a daylight safe tray, you can't just push it under like Ansel did.
You might be interested in...
Here's where surface tension comes in: just pre-soak the film. Once the film is wet, it flattens out and sinks; as you drain the water, surface tension between the back of the film and the bottom of the tray will hold it down as you refill the tray.
Once the film is submerged again, the surface tension is gone and liquid is allowed under the film to wash away any anti-halation coating. The film is also free to slide around in the solution, which helps ensure even development and removal of the dreaded anti-halation coating.
This has worked extremely well with 8×10; pretty well with 5×7; not so well with 4×5. The 4×5 is so small and light that it tends to float. Once it's under the solution it's fine. So we've experimenting with different "hold down fingers" or "tabs" to keep the film from rising up during the pre-soak step. This isn't a big deal since we need some sort of dividers to keep the sheets separate anyway.
Some things are easier to do horizontally than vertically; handling 8×10 film is one of them.
All the tanks we tried required loading vertically. This required a really large darkbox (or a real darkroom). By switching to the tray architecture, we can get by with a much smaller (shorter) darkbox.
We just lay the film holder next to the SP-8×10+; slide the film out of the film holder; slide it into the tray and put on the lid. Must less likely to scratch the film than when you have flip things ninety degrees or rotate it around.
What about two sheets of 8×10?
Okay, we knew you were going to ask. We tried. We really, really tried. It sounds simple: just stack one sheet on top of the other. However, after to many different designs and over fifty sheets of 8×10 (and we're not even counting the 5×7 and 4×5 sheets), we decided it wasn't going to happen.
With some film/chemistry combinations, we got decent results, but with other film/chemistry combos, we got uneven development. In some cases, you could even see a "shadow" of the film holder on the lower negative. Unfortunately, even the good results were highly dependent on the agitation technique used.
It took a lot of liquid, over 1200 ml. That's two to three times the minimum required for a single sheet. In fact, we've successfully processed a single sheet in only 400 ml.
Not everyone was that enthused about a two sheet solution. Our marketing data shows that only 15% required a two sheet system.
In fact, another 15% said they'd never process two sheets at once. Some of these are the serious shooters that are exposing for n-1, n+2 etc and want to process each sheet separately. Others just don't shoot that much 8×10 or don't want to risk two sheets in the soup at the same time.
The rest said it was a neat feature but not essential. We'll just have to wait and see how accurate our data was.
So, in order to keep things simple and affordable, we dropped the two sheet design goal.
What's left?
The biggest unknowns are the hold down tabs. The current design works well but we foresee some production issues. There's also the need to accommodate all the legacy sizes of film that are still in use. So we'll be reviewing that part of the design. Certainly not a show-stopper.
The current prototypes are 45mm tall. We choose that height with the intend of processing two sheets at once. Since that is no longer a design requirement, we might lower it. This would also make it easier to attach the hold down tabs to the lid. We're still experimenting.
So far the test results and the preliminary sales results are encouraging. Questions and comments are always welcome. Please spread the word to your large format friends and check it out here.
~ Tim
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|Seriously, I am dead tired. Can't you see it in my eyes?
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wordless Wednesday:
Dead Tired
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Posted by Unknown at 11/02/2011 11:55:00 PM
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Siew-Wai Kok was the IEA's first Schein Joseph Endowment International Artist in Residence. Siew-Wai is an artist and curator from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was an important residency for the IEA as Siew-Wai shared with the local community and the School of Art & Design, (NYSCC Alfred University) many of the different facets of her practice.
Siew-Wai first had a day of studio visits with Electronic Integrated Arts MFA students and Expanded Media BFA students. As a co-founder and director of the KLEX independent, grassroots international festival of experimental film, video art and music, her feedback enlivened students as they headed into end of academic year projects. Siew-Wai then gave an artist talk plus screening "Gazing Into Infinity: Selections from The Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX)" in Holmes Auditorium which was open to the public. A second public event was "Siew-Wai Kok in performance: Sound-image collaboration with Alfred community". The event was held in the lobby of Holmes Auditorium and featured undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and IEA staff. It was a great event that brought together the Expanded Media program for a memorable audio video extravaganza. The evenings performers were Paloma Kopp, Siew-Wai Kok, Rebekkah Palov, Carrier Band (Andrew Deutsch, Peer Bode, Rebekkah Palov), Carly Moldow, Emma Hildebrandt, Joyce Miyake, Sam Schultheis and Leslie Rollins. Also during her residency Siew-Wai did audio field recordings and studio recordings for upcoming projects, and produced an intro bumper for a KLEX program to be screened at the Festival Accès Asie in Montreal.
From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, KOK Siew-Wai started out as a video artist, and now an improvised vocalist and artist-organizer. She received her B.A. in Media Study at University at Buffalo, and M.F.A. in Electronic Integrated Arts at Alfred University (USA). She has shown her works, curatorial video programs and performed in Asia, Europe, Canada and USA, including allEars Improvised Music Festival (Norway), CTM Festival (Germany), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands), Les Rencontres Internationales (France), Singapore International Film Festival and many more. Siew-Wai has a deep passion for the experimental and improvisational arts. She is the co-founder and director of the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX) since 2010.
Siew-Wai Kok performing, with Emma Hildebrandt (dance), Rebekkah Palov (electronics)
Siew-Wai Kok performing, Carly Moldow and Emma Hildebrandt (dance)
Emma Hildebrandt and Carly Moldow (dance), Rebekkah Palov (electronics) performing with Siew-Wai Kok
Siew-Wai Kok with Joyce Miyake after studio visit
Peer Bode introducing Siew-Wai Kok for "Gazing Into Infinity: Selections from The Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX)" artist talk and screening
Siew-Wai Kok consulting with Andrew Deutsch before the show, with Peer Bode and Paloma Kopp


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
START Bus or START is the public transportation system that serves the residents and visitors of Teton County,
Linx is connecting people and places in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Join savvy Jackson Hole travelers in taking advantage of the new Ride2Fly airport shuttle service. Avoid the hassle of airport parking, and instead be picked up in a comfortable, warm shuttle and dropped off curbside at the airport.


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20 Jan Does Your Home Help You Heal?
In an age where we can turn the lights on and off and control the temperature of our home from basically anywhere in the world, we have come to expect efficiency and convenience in our spaces. But I'll argue that we've been so focused on hard working homes that we've lost some of the basic aspects that make a home a safe space to recharge and heal.
As our lives become more and more fast-paced and as we expect immediate results (same day Amazon Prime, anyone?), we are more in need of elements that bring us back to the present moment and get us to stop and just "be" more than ever.
The beauty of interior design wakes us up to the present moment
We've gotten rid of bathtubs in favor of larger and more efficient showers. We have replaced dining rooms with larger kitchens equipped with islands that encourage perching and standing rather than settling in for a longer and more leisurely meal. Because who has the time for that? We've got to get the kids to gymnastics and swim lessons and then it's time for homework while said kids scarf down a reheated dinner at 8pm. I'm not judging at a distance. I know. I've been there and am there most days too, living my life as a full-time mom to a toddler, part-time career woman. But I have experienced glimpses of what it's like to think of my home as a healing space rather than just a place to plug in my phone charger in between running from one commitment to the next.
Don't you just want to sit here and stay a while? Design: Margaret Winter Interiors
In the dead of winter here in Michigan, healing has meant having my own bathtub to soak away the muscle tension from holding a clingy toddler basically all day. It has also facilitated my inner healing: the simple act of exfoliating and taking care with my body has provided the opportunity for me to love my postpartum self. It took being sick for a month to get me back in the bathtub for the first time in probably three years. And I surprised myself to realize how much I had been living in a state of self-hate and judgment of my own body. It was only until I took the time to care for myself in an unhurried and meditative way that I could give myself permission to love my body again. I have never been so grateful for my (by no means fancy or high-end) bathtub. My bathroom won't be featured in a design magazine anytime soon, but it has provided me with the space to heal.
Do I wish I could upgrade my bathroom? Sure! But for now, I'm content with its purpose.
And I also crave those unhurried meals. I want to get out my wedding china (why did I opt for hand-wash only?!), cook up a complicated meal, and sit around the dining table with loved ones – talking and laughing and lingering. (Check out my previous journal entries on creating fabulous table settings here and here, or even some DIY ideas here).
Good interior design isn't mutually exclusive with fancy home integration technology, open concept floor plans, and white kitchens. Good interior design doesn't only exist in between the pages of glossy home magazines. Be unapologetically passionate about how your home helps you heal and recharge. Good interior design should be support what is best for a fulfilled and healthy life.


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Lately, I have been getting a lot of requests for the Cheap Phone Sex Package. I want to clear up a few things. First, my phone sex prices are not specials. $12 for 15-minutes is the regular everyday price. Haha …everyday prices! I am starting to feel like Walmart only sexier with more interesting services. Frequent callers get special perks in the form of free minutes and of course package holders get even more fringe benefits. Second, the phone sex package is very simple. You purchase a package of calls at a discount: 4 calls for $40, 7 calls for $70 and 10 calls for $100.
Why do people typically purchase a package of phone sex calls? Well, I am addictive and the price is tantalizing but there is another reason. Phone sex admirers enjoy purchasing their calls in "packages" so that the hit on the credit card reflects a one-time purchase as opposed to many small purchases denoting the frequency of the caller's contact with the phone sex service. It's another way to ensure privacy from would-be prying eyes. Needless to say, married guys, guys with live-in girlfriends and men with snooping assistants love package deals. Make sense? I hope it does and look forward to your call.
It's ONLY $12 BUCKS for 15-minutes. Each additional minute is 80 cents.


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KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Unidentified vandals damaged a monument erected in southern Ukraine in honor of the late Lubavitcher rebbe.
The attack occurred overnight Wednesday in Nikolayev, the birthplace of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe, who died in 1994.
Jewish officials said the vandals damaged the monument — a black granite open book — likely using a hammer, and pasted two provocative xenophobic leaflets on the memorial.
Law enforcement agencies are investigating but no arrests have been reported.
"We are not sure who did it," Rabbi Shlomo Gottlib, chief rabbi of Nikolayev and the surrounding region, told JTA. "Probably this crisis is a result of the anti-Semitic atmosphere in the city. We are working closely with local authorities who are loyal to us. Meanwhile, probably some forces directed those vandals against ethnic minorities. We believe that local law enforcement agencies will investigate the case and punish the guilty parties."
The monument was erected last August on the corner of Moskovskaya and Dunayeva streets, not far from where Schneerson was born. It was built on the initiative of the Nikolayev Jewish community with a donation from the Shaul family of Los Angeles and support of the local mayor.
Nikolayev, with a population of 500,000, is home to an estimated 7,000 Jews.


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Epidemics in a Modern World
New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. 6 1/4 X 9 1/2 Inches. 172 PP. First printing with complete number line to the "1" on the copyright page. Interesting look at modern epidemics and their influences on culture and literature. The book not only brings to light..... More


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EP171: James Oswald – From Self-Published To Six Figure Deals
We haven't had many authors who have Sheep Shit Sampler on their resumé, but James Oswald is a farmer who has gone from self-publishing fantasy fiction to six-figure deals with Penguin and Wildfire. His story is inspirational and extraordinary.
To support the show, check out bestsellerexperiment.com/support
Our novel Back To Reality is out now bestsellerexperiment.com/backtoreality
In This Episode You Will Discover
- Why you need to park your ego while editing
- Why you should strive to be nearly-perfect
- How crowd sourcing can help you get published
- And why writers should try yoga or kickboxing…
Here are some of the links we talked about in the show…
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- Here's the launch day cake bit with Jenni Desvaux: https://youtu.be/ea9K1cpB4uM?t=1770
- Richard Brewster's public declaration (and beard removal): https://batjutsu.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/beard-public-declaration/
How to gift a Kindle book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201964280
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We talk about our personal goals for 2019 and reveal our new insane challenge for 2019… and once again we're inviting our listeners to beat us to it.


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The aim of the Vaccines & Immunization 2020 is to promote quality research and real-world impact in an atmosphere of true international cooperation between scientists and engineers by bringing together again the world-class researchers, International Communities and Industrial heads to discuss the latest developments and innovations in the fields of Vaccines.
The event will have Keynote speakers, Plenary speakers, Invited speakers and fresh contributed speakers. In addition, a variety of poster presentations along with workshops and special sessions would be interested in listeners.
Key Topics Discussed:
• Vaccines and Vaccination
• Immunology and Its Allied Fields
• Pathology and Its Allied Fields
• Microbiology and Its Allied Fields
• Oncology or Cancer research & treatments
• Internal Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Virology and Toxicology
• Emergency Medicine
• Veterinary Medicine and Its Allied Fields
• Paediatrics
• Allergy & Asthma
• Inflammation and Engineering Therapeutics
• Stem Cell Immunotherapy
• Public Health
• Nano-Vaccine Technology
• Bio-Informatics
We are looking forward to seeing you at Vaccines & Immunization 2020 in London, UK.
Best Regards
Alex Jones | Program Manager
Vaccines Congress 2020
WhatsApp: +44-1328-410003
Email: [email protected]
Park Inn by Radisson, Bath Road, Heathrow, London, UB7 0DU United Kingdom
Bath Road, Heathrow
London , England UB7 0DU
London, UK
July 15, 2020
July 16, 2020
09:00am - 06:00pm
$599 - $999Register


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Handouts & Notes Templates
A one-page printable checklist for patients and providers to use to prepare for a healthy pregnancy with Lupus. Learn more
A one-page printable guide to birth control methods including recommendations for women at high risk for blood clots. Learn more
A one-page printable guide to aid women with Lupus in understanding breastfeeding and medication compatibility. Learn more
Printable handouts for patients and OB-GYN/MFM providers about pregnancy planning and management and contraception . Learn more
A two-page printable checklist en español for patients and providers preparing for a healthy pregnancy with Lupus or choosing the best contraceptive. Learn more
Notes templates on medication use in pregnancy and breastfeeding and on contraception for medical records (all). Learn more


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Hundreds line up to have Florida chiropractor sign mask opt-out forms for schoolchildren
VENICE, Fla. (WWSB/Gray News) – More than 100 people waited in line Monday to be seen by a chiropractor signing medical exemption forms so kids can opt out of wearing a mask in school.
"The people that I will sign exemptions for are the people that qualify for conditions within my scope of practice," Dr. Dan Busch, a chiropractor with Twin Palms, told WWSB.
Having a medical exemption form signed is the only way students can opt out of wearing a mask under the current mandate in the Sarasota County School District.
"The parent and child come in, we evaluate what their conditions are, see if they have a valid legitimate condition that would warrant a mask exemption," Busch said. "If they do not, they have to go on their way."
Parents who are against the masks in schools feel their children should have a choice.
"Parents have every right to look at their child and say, 'I don't want that mask on my child, I know what it does to him or her,'" said parent Chad Dion.
Officials with the school district told WWSB they are accepting these medical exemptions but are looking into their legitimacy.
"When there's suspicion behind them, we do have to do our due diligence in the end," said Craig Maniglia, director of communications for the Sarasota County School District.
The school district understands there could be valid medical conditions preventing some students from wearing a mask but wants to be as proactive as possible in stopping the spread of the virus.
Copyright 2021 WWSB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Rasputin, Grigori
[ (ras-pyooht-n) ]
A Russian monk of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Before and during World War I, Rasputin gained great influence over both Nicholas II, the czar of Russia, and his German-born wife, who considered him a miraculous healer. The czar's only son suffered from hemophilia, a blood disorder, and Rasputin seemed to be the only person who could alleviate the disease. When Rasputin told Nicholas how Russia should be ruled and whom Nicholas should choose as government officials, the czar followed his advice carefully. Jealous Russian noblemen murdered Rasputin in 1916, but his direction of the czar's policies was to prove disastrous after his death: Czar Nicholas was overthrown in 1917 and executed in 1918.
Words Nearby Rasputin, Grigori
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.


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Guillaume took part in work shops covering "Access to Justice" and "Quality of Justice" at the Court of Justice of the European Communities (CJCE).
According to the actual press release from the CJCE The Grand Duke was also present with Guillaume at the close of the events which were to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities.
From my understanding of the press release the work shops and the presence of The Grand Duke and Guillaume at the 20th anniversary celebrations were on the same day. However, you will notice that Guillaume is sporting not only a different tie but a totally different suit at each of the events.
I really hope some other pictures of this event surface later today or later in the week. Guillaume looked great!


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TAMPA — The presiding judge in courtroom 510 in the George Edgecomb Courthouse retired eight years ago.
Yet on a recent Wednesday morning, the Honorable Sandra Taylor — a black robe draping her shoulders — was busy working her $350-a-day part-time job.
Unlike most of the other judges in the 13th Judicial Circuit, Taylor was never elected to the bench in Hillsborough County, nor was she appointed by the governor. In fact, she doesn't even live here.
Taylor, 67, is a senior judge. Retired judges like her are called in to hear cases in the absence of a regular judge. In essence, they are the substitute teachers of the state court system.
Senior judges are nothing new. But in recent years, courts have relied on them more and more, especially in dealing with the massive backlog of foreclosure cases resulting from the 2008 housing crisis.
That has raised some eyebrows, especially among foreclosure defense lawyers.
One of them, Matt Weidner of St. Petersburg, recently challenged the practice before the state Supreme Court.
"This is a constitutional question," Weidner said. "This transcends foreclosures."
• • •
Florida has 209 senior judges. In the last year, 15 of them worked in Hillsborough. The chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court grants their senior status following an application process.
Among the requirements: They must not have been defeated for re-election or failed to win a merit retention vote in their last judicial office before retirement. Once approved, the Supreme Court allows them to serve as judges anywhere in the state.
Florida's constitution permits the assignment of retired judges as they are needed. But it specifies that such assignments are supposed to be temporary.
That is part of what irks Weid-ner, who has made the senior judge issue something of a personal crusade. Weidner argued that their assignments in foreclosure divisions are not temporary.
In April, he filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court.
"Surely this court must recognize," he wrote, "that the Florida Constitution does not contemplate, and in fact it expressly forbids, the permanent maintenance of a corps of 'super' senior judges, who sit entirely immune from the constitutional restrictions that every other judge in this state complies with."
Weidner noted, among other things, the constitutional requirement that judges live "in the territorial jurisdiction of the court" and the prohibition of judges continuing to serve beyond age 70.
A state committee that reviewed senior judge practices in 2002 justified both of these practices. They wrote that since senior judges are accountable to the Supreme Court's chief justice, they should be able to serve statewide. They also recommended periodic reviews of senior judges to ensure they are still fit to serve.
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Eight weeks after Weidner's petition, the court dismissed it. But he hasn't given up the cause. He sees the frequent use of senior judges as a symptom of the greater problem of an underfunded judiciary.
"I think there is a significant group of people that think at least some of the senior judges are problematic," said Tom Hall, a former clerk of the Florida Supreme Court. "My own opinion is the use of senior judges is necessary. The Legislature has, despite numerous requests to fund new courts, kept turning that down."
In a 2003 opinion, the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the senior judge system. The justices noted the cost effectiveness and efficiency senior judges provide.
But in a partial dissent, Justice R. Fred Lewis noted that some circuits had essentially created permanent senior judge divisions.
"In reaching its decision, the majority must engage in a 'judicial wink' as it considers the true definition of 'temporary,' " he wrote.
• • •
Taylor, 67, had a long legal career in Monroe County. She was the chief judge for the 16th Judicial Circuit, which covers the Florida Keys, when she retired in 2008. Shortly thereafter came the foreclosure crisis.
Taylor's husband, a real estate agent, was caught in the middle of the turmoil. She said it became important for her to find new work.
She found it in, among other places, St. Augustine (where she now lives), Daytona Beach, Sarasota and Tampa.
Taylor grew up in Tampa. She is a graduate of Chamberlain High School. Through her judicial colleagues, she obtained a semi-regular schedule in Hillsborough's foreclosure division.
"Tampa has historically made it very easy for me to do it," she said.
Unlike other out-of-county judges, Taylor does not request reimbursement for travel expenses. About once a month, she makes the trek from St. Augustine. She stays in her RV, which she keeps in east Tampa. Downtown, she has a small judicial chamber, with personal pictures on the walls and a small window near the ceiling.
"Considering the type of work we're assigned, the people that work here are so helpful," she said. "They make me feel welcome."
• • •
Senior judges make $350 a day. On an annual basis, that adds up to significantly less than the $146,079 that circuit judges make or the $138,019 that county judges make.
In Hillsborough, they are called in to work in various civil and criminal divisions. Some work more than others. But no one works quite as much as Taylor and Senior Judge Perry Little, who retired from Hillsborough in 2006.
Both share the older foreclosure cases. According to court administrative records, from September 2015 to August 2016, Taylor worked 108 days; Little worked 118.
Judges retired from other nearby counties also fill vacancies from time to time.
Judge Robert Beach, 86, who retired in 1993 from the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit, logged 11 days in Hillsborough between September 2015 and August 2016.
J. Rogers Padgett, who retired from Hillsborough in 2008, worked 64 days in criminal and civil divisions between September 2015 and August 2016.
Padgett, 78, said senior judging is a way of keeping a hand in the local legal community.
"If you are a good judge and you're called to handle someone's division, then you'll do it the way you always did it and nobody will complain about it," Padgett said.
"I've never heard anybody else complain except Mr. Weidner in St. Pete," he said. "It's really much ado about nothing."
Whether that's true is something that Weidner is sure to keep debating. Mark Stopa, a Tampa foreclosure defense lawyer, noted that the Legislature recently stopped allocating money for senior judges to handle foreclosures now that the backlog has been reduced.
In Hillsborough, which is disbanding its main foreclosure division, senior judges will still handle the older cases, said Chief Judge Ronald Ficarrotta. He noted that the last time the Legislature approved new trial court judges was in 2006. Senior judges help carry the burgeoning case load, he said.
"(They) are a valuable resource," Ficarrotta said. "Quite frankly, we would be very hard-pressed without putting them to work."
Contact Dan Sullivan at firstname.lastname@example.com or (813) 226-3386. Follow @TimesDan.