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Its an oft repeated truism that each and every plan achievable has already been designed. Nevertheless needs and the same issues that led peoples lifestyles a large number of years probably will be in the future, and back are appropriate and still accurate today. Wish and struggle are at one's heart of the thriller story. What motivated burglar or the monster? What occurred to cause a usually peace loving individual to spend a heinous offense? How did it happen? These are all queries mystery followers need to know. For writers or brand new writers who are testing out the secret type, this short article will help acquire some suggestions flowing. These ten ideas might splinter down into countless other tips, just like an advanced piece of artwork that is fractal. Take the time to ponder each condition. Consider seriously about character motivations. After taking a look at a-plot concept, pose that piece by wondering "Whatif?" Imagine if this happened, or what if that happened? What is the worst that could occur? Fiction is driven by anxiety, and creating a condition worse can build suspense. Types of Secret Story Ideas Thriller tales are one of the most widely used styles for all from children to people. Especially common are closed place secrets, where there's no means for the suspects to flee the setting of the homicide or robbery. These mysteries are inclined to go deeper than detective thrillers into reason and figure research. Homicide about the Express by Dame Agatha Christie is one of many vintage as is her Ten Indians locked area mysteries. Thrillers concentrate more on the transgression and the typically cynical, hard-boiled character of the investigator. They could vary from amusing to frightening and completely soft. The writer becomes the style of the narrative, and so they lend themselves effectively to line. Psychological thrillers possess a protagonist who's being subjected to maneuverings that are psychological that are intensive. Silence of the Lambs by Psycho and Harris by Bloch are two of the best known myths in this style. Additionally, there are inviting mysteries of the Killing She Published mysteries that are foodie assortment, cat mysteries, and mysteries for a lot of niches that are additional. Creative Mystery Story Starters These creating plot ideas are just designed to get yourself a writer started. Applying imagination and changing details can flip them into an account that is unique. Contestants on a reality show begin turning up useless. When he finds he is the unsolved mystery of her parents killings and also the leading suspect.A girl earnings to her youth property no-one is more stunned than one-man. Her spouse turns not up alive, creating her, and although there, strange things start occurring a woman has attained success running a business through deceptive methods. Her employees are the first suspects when she arises dead. She a meal invitation is received by had.A girl is led to suspects of the many predators by the study. She attends the occasion, but she realizes the variety has no intention of ever making some of his friends go home.A physique that washes through to shore reaches first suspected to be a runaway teenager, shortly after it starts. The autopsy shows she carried delicate government information on a processor under her skin.Passengers on a private cruising cruise liner start shedding alive and its. Whats worse, the chief dies and none of the passengers know how to sail the ship to a protected port.Mysterious lights keep returning on during the night in an abandoned house. The sheriff and detectives will find nothing to describe the lights, which are currently creating anxiety inside the neighbors. they get more than they bargained individual of a community collection is slain in a small community, although the exploration is taken by the neighbors into their own fingers. The killing triggers departments involving the people of town if with who they feel, they area is right inside the case.An abundant old-man dies. Their youthful, beautiful wife who'd a partner could be the suspect. When she proves her innocence, the researchers must try to fix the killing, but at that time the scenario goes cold.A substantial stone vanishes in the vault of the jewelry-store. The owner of the store professionally put it inside the vault and established the timer. Three witnesses, an employee and two buyers, saw him go into the vault using the stone. The following morning it's removed. There was no solution to open the container that night, perhaps for that tips that are owner.These have already been created open-ended to ensure that they may be used by writers and change their particular experiences to be suit by them. Put in a love interest to some plot thought, plus it becomes a thriller that is romantic. Add a political inclination to generate it a thriller that is political. Even though a couple select the same prompt, the ensuing tales would not be completely same. To maintain every one of the reasons and characters straight in a puzzle history, produce a killing table. Listed here are ten more Creative Requests for Producing Fiction, if these twenty suggestions did not get the muse to stop by. Furthermore try reading Fiction Writing Ideas To Find Numerous Tips for Story-Writing. Visitors are not unwelcome to add more account prompts in their own within the remarks.
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Sara, Donna and Nakia create beautiful chalk murals at the front and the back entrances of Keswick Multi-Care. These murals are dedicated to all the Keswick Staff working right now. Our Keswick staff have been working hard and getting things done. Thank you so much for everything that you do!
🌟🌟🌟 And thank you Sara, Donna & Nakia for making our team feel special when they arrive and depart from our campus! Click Here to watch!

subset: commoncrawl


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What company will jump at the opportunity to be associated with obliterating a piece of Halifax history? We'll soon find out: A banner atop of what was once the Morse's Teas sign announces that a lucky tenant of the building can put its company name on the historic site.
Readers will recall that on the weekend of October 27 and 28, 2012, building owner Starfish Properties painted over the distinctive white-banded Morse's Teas sign, without first notifying anyone or asking for city permission. I happened to be passing by as the building was being painted, and wrote an article for The Coast about it. Immediately, social media was abuzz with anger at the paint job; that anger carried over into the week and beyond.
City staff, too, were outraged:
It is staff's position that their alteration constitutes a substantial alteration to the building. In accordance with Section 17 of the Nova Scotia Heritage Property Act, any substantial alteration to a municipal heritage building requires Regional Council to consider the application and approve or refuse the request.
As early as 2007, the city's Heritage Advisory Committee had specified that the sign be protected. The following year, city staff wrote a "statement of significance" for the sign, and in 2010 the provincial Heritage Protection Act was strengthened to give protection to "character-defining elements" of protected property, which city staff said they felt applied to the Morse's Teas building.
Starfish, however, has always maintained that the company had no obligation to maintain the sign. A January, 2013 staff report relates that:
Staff have discussed this with the building owner who does not share this opinion but, instead, believes that permission was not required prior to undertaking the painting of the signs. Additionally, the owner has indicated that he intends to take no further action at this time relative to the remaining white bands.
Starfish went back and forth with the city, and in December, 2013 filed for a permit to "substantially alter" the building, retroactively permitting the sign-painting. Since the damage was done, the city agreed.
A very minor side note to this involves Andy Filmore, the celebrated planner. The very day I posted my initial story about the sign, and with no further information at hand, Filmore commented on my Facebook page: "There's no story here. It being repainted exactly as it was, for future generations to enjoy." That comment has of course been proven exactly wrong. I like Filmore, and he brings good ideas to the table, but he does seem to have a default position to trust the major players in town. He demonstrated it, I think, during the lead up to siting the new convention centre. And, yes, certainly I will be faulted for having the opposite default position.
Just for nostalgia's sake, here's a picture of what the building used to look like:


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For those who aren't familiar with the cutdown deadline, I've compiled this handy guide to take you through the process.
What's the deadline? The deadline is 6 p.m. EST on Saturday, August 31st.
Can teams make cuts today? Sure can! You should expect some to trickle in over the next several hours. Usually, these are the guys the team was going to cut even before the fourth preseason game registered.
What are they cutting down to? 53 players. For most teams, that means somewhere between 20-22 cuts in addition to Tuesday's cutdowns. That's a lot of players.
What about the practice squad? Every player heading to the practice squad can be claimed by other teams, both before and after they make it there. The Falcons can carry eight players on the practice squad in total.
So just to recap, the Falcons need to cut down to 53 players by the cutdown deadline of 6 p.m. tomorrow. Got it? Good.
Discuss cuts here!
More from The Falcoholic:
- Falcons Roster Cuts: The 53 Man Cutdown Open Thread
- Falcons vs. Jaguars 2013: The Game That Determines the Falcons' Receiving Depth Chart
- Falcons vs. Jaguars Final Score: Falcons Lose Final Preseason Game 20-16
- What Falcons franchise records could be broken in 2013?
- Falcons "Hope" Roddy White Will Be Ready for Week One


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Critics Page
No footage? No problem! Eva Hesse: A Feature Documentary Crafted from Archives
We sat in the dusty Manhattan office of a well-known director of art documentaries, towering piles of DVDs threatening to topple over and bury us beneath decades of his work.
"Not possible," he said, with a discouraging shake of his head. "Can't be done. There's no footage of her, at least not enough for a feature."
"But you found some." I offered.
"A few minutes. Without sound."
With a wave of his hand he promised, if we were to take on this fool's errand, to let us use some of his interview with Sol LeWitt, a great friend of Eva Hesse, the artist we were determined to have at the center of a documentary about her life and work.
And so began a long, sometimes frustrating but often delightful romp through archives—public and private—in search of photos, journals, letters, and the all-illusive footage that would allow us to create the feature-length documentary Eva Hesse and tell the story of this important artist and ground-breaking woman who ran with the art world "big boys" in 1960s New York.
Eva Hesse was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1936 and passed away in Manhattan in 1970 at the age of 34. Because of this timeline, virtually all the known documentation related to her brief life is analog: paper photos, 35mm negatives, some 8mm film, and a single reel-to-reel tape of her one in-depth interview. But we were hopeful that with some digging and luck, additional material would emerge. It had to if we were to succeed.
When Hesse passed she was just gaining renown and the materials of her life scattered among her friends, family, and the few institutions who early on recognized the importance of her work. The Allen Memorial Art Museum, located at Oberlin College, had the foresight to be an early collector of Hesse's work and through the guidance of art historian Ellen Hulda Johnson and the support of Helen Hesse Charash, Eva's sister and head of her estate, the museum acquired a trove of the artist's drawings, journals, letters, and other ephemera. It was there, while on a research grant, pouring over the artist's 1,200 pages of writing, that I began to hear Hesse's voice. It was a voice that propelled me through subsequent years to haunt the shelves of numerous archives—public and private.
The Smithsonian's Archives of American Art yielded Lucy Lippard's notes on interviews she conducted in the early 1970s for her book Eva Hesse; the Getty's Research Institute's collection of materials from the 1960s group Experiments in Art and Technology held never-before-seen images of Hesse at a lecture about polymers. At the Leo Baeck Institute we found the repository for Hesse's father's extensive journals, and at the remarkable Film-Maker's Coop in Manhattan—in one of the highlights of this research treasure hunt—I found footage of Hesse dancing in a field, a scene from a rare copy of Bud Wirtshafter's 1963's What's Happening. Brava to the public archives for investing in the preservation of and access to these irreplaceable historical gems.
And yet, as much as the public collections offered, we were still missing the private Hesse, a view of her as seen by friends and family. Perhaps we cannot technically call these archives, the boxes stored under beds and in the backs of closets, the envelopes yellowed with age that hold 50-year-old snapshots, but they proved to be an extraordinary boon to crafting a film about a woman long gone who lived before the time of 4K video in most every pocket.
Each time we met with one of Hesse's contemporaries, the conversation would eventually turn to what they might have in their possession that would help us tell Eva's story. Her sister Helen immediately brought out the family albums that were rich in images from her early life in Germany and Washington Heights. But it was an offhand question—posed as I was walking out the door—about whether the family had owned a movie camera that brought out a forgotten box of 8mm home movies. That's where we found footage of Eva's father which we cut into a scene reflecting the deep relationship between daughter and father. The same question was posed at a later date by my producing partner, Karen Shapiro, to the children of Friedrich Arnhard Scheidt, the German collector who hosted Hesse and her husband Tom Doyle in the summer of 1965. This resulted in another fortuitous find when his children unearthed a cache of 16mm film that had been lying in their family's vault for decades. Once these finds were digitized, the amount of known footage of Hesse increased by over 25%. As you can imagine, the whole team, especially our industrious editor Azin Samari, was overjoyed.
And one of the most remarkable treasures that helped build the first act of the film were the "lost" photographic negatives of Barbara Brown, a street photographer active in NY in the 1960s who was a good friend of Hesse's and shot numerous images of the artist at work and at play. A few of the images had been reproduced through the years, but until we found Barbara—now living in Venice, CA—the entire breadth of her work had not been seen. Her generous offer for us to look through hundreds of negatives led to the discovery of images even the family had never seen.
So, is there a lesson in this synchronicity? Call out into the universe for what you need. Don't be discouraged if the material is not easily found. Librarians are your friends and so are folks close to your subject including those who have worked in the field (shout out to Elisabeth Sussman, Whitney curator and Hesse scholar who shared her box of material gathered in working on an unpublished biography of the artist). I will admit to being a library hound—the touch of old paper and the fragrance of dusty boxes will always thrill. In creating a documentary about times gone by, and the people who inhabited them, the internet is certainly the first place to start your search. But you may find that engaging in far-ranging conversations with sources and investing in a bit of travel to engage with the primary materials will yield unexpected and seriously marvelous finds.
Links to the film, which can be streamed from iTunes, Amazon, or Kanopy, more info about how it was created and some of the sources used in Eva Hesse found here:


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From 'Menace II Society' to 'Poetic Justice': Was 1993 the golden age of black movies?
ANALYSIS - Just twenty of year ago, the multiplexes gave a glimpse of a very different picture of black Hollywood...
Whether you love him or hate him, it seems as though Tyler Perry is the only game in town these days when to comes to movies targeted specifically at black audiences.
His melodrama Temptation is set to hit theaters this weekend and will surely do big business, but will its success be a tribute to Perry's popularity or largely a reflection of a minority movie-going audience that feels underrepresented and under-served?
Director Spike Lee, who once averaged about one film per year, has become far less prolific in lately. And his colleagues like John Singleton and the Hughes Brothers have transitioned from making epic urban films to helming big budget genre pictures with multiracial casts.
What is a "black film"?
Meanwhile the definition of a 'black film' has grown more fluid in the age of Obama.
It's now no longer groundbreaking for an African-American A-lister like Denzel Washington or Halle Berry to anchor a film by themselves. And while the smash hit Django Unchained touched on distinctly black themes with a bevy of African-American stars, its appeal was broader because it reflected the vision of its white director, Quentin Tarantino.
Just twenty years ago, the multiplexes presented a very different picture of black Hollywood.
There were a variety of choices for black film fans: There were star vehicles (Sister Act 2, Philadelphia, The Pelican Brief), biopics (What's Love Got to Do With It), comedies (CB4, Cool Runnings), action (Demolition Man) and hard-hitting dramas (Poetic Justice, Menace II Society).
In comparison, last year there was the romantic comedy Think Like a Man, the WWII drama Red Tails, and three different Tyler Perry vehicles. Perhaps it's no wonder that black audiences are frequently nostalgic for the 90s.


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(h/t: BlueSky)
Published on Jun 26, 2015 by Chuck Netzhammer
On 06/25/15 I attempted to get an Edible image cake printed with the confederate flag image on it at Walmart. It was denied. The next day I had them do the same for the ISIS battle flag image I brought to them. They cheerfully did it. and sold me my ISIS cake. WTF Walmart! ISIS is beheading Christians, selling little girls into slavery, and is currently a terrorist org at war with the United States……..but you can't buy the General Lee toy car at Walmart? It's a damn shame.
Mr. Netzhammer commented further:
Sent this to Walmart's ethics department. I'm a loyal customer who requested an edible printed cake with the image of an Confederate flag. It was refused, but I was able to to get the ISIS battle flag image printed on my cake at a different store.
I am highly offended, distraught, and in tears over the fact you pull American history off your shelves, but allow the offensive battle flag of terrorists, sex slavers, be-headers of Christians, burners of gays to be made in your store.
You also allow offensive Rap music which sings about cop killing, degrading women, drive-by murder, drug use, selling drugs, prostitution and repeatably uses the highly offensive word "nigger".
But you can't buy a beloved children's toy car with an Confederate flag on the roof?
Tags: Confederate Flag, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria


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OData Service Project vs Integration Project when to use what in Cloud Platform Integration
With the July 2017 release of Cloud Platform Integration the OData Service project which is in Beta is made generally available. See the blog on usage of OData Provisioning via OData Service project here.
In this blog I try to explain when to use an OData Service and when to use Integration project .
Scenario 1
You have a system that sends payload in OData ATOM/JSON format and you would like to transfer this to a receiver system in a different format other than that received example XML.
In this above case you may use an Integration project with OData Sender channel.
The OData Sender channel converts the incoming message in OData ATOM/JSON format to XML internally. The payload that is available to you in the Cloud Integration pipeline is XML.
Scenario 2
You have a system that sends payload in OData ATOM/JSON format and you would like to transfer this to a receiver system in ATOM/JSON format only.
In this above case, you may use an Integration project with an HTTP Sender channel. This way you may avoid conversion of ATOM/JSON to XML format in the Sender channel.
Scenario 3
You are building a frontend application and would like to create an OData Service based on a SOAP or REST or another OData service.
In this case you would like to create an OData Service with Several EntitySets and operations. With an OData Sender channel in an Integration project you would be able to expose only one EntitySet and Operation combination but with an OData Service project you would be able to use the Binding Editor and have several Integration flows each for every EntitySet and Operation. On deployment the entire project is deployed as one service.
Scenario 4
You would like to enrich an existing OData Service implementation that was created using the IW_BEP component on an SAP ERP backend
In this case you would create an OData Service and use the ODC (OData Channel) as Receiver channel to map the existing EntitySets and operations available in your backend to the new service you are developing in Cloud Integration.
For differences between SAP Cloud Platform OData Provisioning and OData Provisioning available in Cloud Platform Integration see here
Busting some myths
- If I use OData Service project I have to do no code
- Cloud Integration provides you a modelling environment that allows you to create an OData Service based on an existing Data Source. The modelling capability is limited to the pipeline features of Cloud Integration. Any complex OData service requirements like navigation or deep insert would have to be implemented via coding using the script step as simply there is no means of representing and expressing this relationship to the backend data source.
- I can only provision a service using OData or SOAP as backend
- In the OData Service project you will be able to create a service definition automatically based on a SOAP wsdl or an existing edmx. This does not restrict you in any way and you can still go ahead and enhance or create the edmx manually.
- There are primarily two activities in OData Service development. Service definition (creating and defining edmx) and Service implementation (connecting to the backend data source).
- The OData service project provides you with template implementations when connecting to SOAP, OData or REST backend. This does not mean you cannot connect to other data sources. This only indicates that you will have to use one of these available templates in the Binding Editor and then modify the Receiver channel and iflow in case you would like to use another data source.


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Show Summary
On this episode we talk with Billie Anne Grigg. Billie Anne Grigg is our brand new Profit First Professional colleague. She's joined home base just last week and shares her story of running her practice before Profit First Professional and now that she works as an employee, how she can also continue to run her practice.
Our Guest
Billie Anne Grigg has been a bookkeeper since before the turn of the century (yes, this one.) She is a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, LivePlan Expert Advisor, and a Mastery Level Certified Profit First Professional. Billie Anne started Pocket Protector Bookkeeping in 2012 to provide an excellent virtual bookkeeping and managerial accounting solution for small businesses that cannot yet justify employing a full-time, in-house bookkeeping staff.
When not keeping books, Billie Anne can usually be found with her nose stuck in one or at least reading something on her Kindle. She also crochets and knits, has recently rekindled her passion for writing, and enjoys spending her free time with her husband and three children on their farm in northeast Oklahoma.
Show Links
Websites: www.pocketprotectorbookkeeping.com
http://betweenwallandmain.com/category/main-street/pocket-change/ www.mistakesbookkeepersmake.com (coming soon!)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PocketProtectorBookkeeping/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PPBookkeeping
Corporate Partners
Receipt-Bank – Software and service to make the gathering, storage & processing of bills, receipts and invoices as easy and as cost effective as possible for businesses.
Nextiva – VOIP phone providers for small businesses.
Fundbox – the simplest and fastest way to fix your cash flow by advancing payments for your outstanding invoices.
Right Networks – for forward-thinking CPA firms, accounting professionals, and SMBs who want to move to the cloud
Podcast: Play in new window | Download


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Use our unique ColorPro™ Colorimetry Software to calculate color space coordinates from spectra
CRAIC Technologies™ has developed CRAIC Colorpro™ colorimetry software for use with CRAIC instruments. When added to a CRAIC microspectrometer, you are able to determine the colorimetric values of microscopic samples. Colorimetry calculations can be done on samples as small as 1x1 micron and on reflectance, transmission, and even fluorescence microspectra. The software is very easy to use and reports can be printed and saved. Colorimetry spaces calculated with CRAIC microspectrometer data include CIE XYZ, CIE LAB, tristimulus values and more.
The lit microscope base and the lit octagonal optical head are trademarks of CRAIC Technologies, Inc. CRAIC Technologies, 2030PV™, FLEX™, 508PV™, Apollo™, GeoImage™, rIQ™, Lambdafire™, Lightblades™ and "Perfect Vision for Science" are all trademarks of CRAIC Technologies, Inc. Instrument features offered depend upon instrument configuration. Features listed here may not be present in some configurations.
*Features and specifications depend upon instrument configuration. Specifications subject to change without notice.
UV-visible-NIR microscopes, UV-visible-NIR microspectrometers and Raman microspectrometers are general purpose laboratory instruments. They have not been cleared or approved by the European IVD Directive, the United States Food and Drug Administration or any other agency for diagnostic, clinical or other medical use.


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About Us
Karwan Al Madinah Tour Operators Ltd is one of the United Kingdoms leading tour and travel provider for Hajj and Umrah, providing integrated tour and travel services. With over 27 years of experience let Karwan Al Madinah be your gateway to Hajj and Umrah.
When it comes to booking and planning your journey of a life time you can rely on Karwan Al Madinah Tour Operators experience and expertise to make your journey truly memorable. Karwan Al Madinah was founded in 1987 with a vision of providing people with a best quality of travel arrangements at affordable prices. We are authorised by the ministry of Hajj to provide Hajj and Umrah packages.
We are a company based on honesty and integrity who always go that extra mile to make your journey truly memorable.
We uphold the highest ethical standards and believe in creating new benchmarks in the industry.
Karwan Al Madinah Tours Operator Ltd is well recognised for Umrah and Hajj Services. We offer a full range of Umrah Packages from Economy to 5 star Luxury.
Umrah visa services are also available with the packages. We organise Hajj pilgrimage at a reasonable price. The company offers peace of mind by providing prearranged accommodation and comfortable travel arrangements.
Moreover, our highly qualified professional staff ensures that all of your needs are attended to so that your religious experience remains hassle-free.


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Alibaba announced on Wednesday that A.I. Labs will partner with MediaTek, a Taiwan-based global semiconductor company, on the Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives including smart home protocols, customized IoT chips, and AI smart hardware.
"We are excited about partnering with MediaTek to explore collaboration in the IoT ecosystem. Our AI and cloud computing capabilities, along with MediaTek's cutting-edge technology in chip design, provide unique advantages to our connectivity solutions for smart homes, offering real benefits to consumers in China and paving the way to a more connected world through innovation." said Miffy Chan, Head of Alibaba A.I. Labs.
At this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 event, A.I. Labs and MediaTek inked their agreement and introduced their new Smartmesh solution that supports the latest many-to-many Bluetooth mesh networking technology—a critical connectivity technology designed for IoT applications.
The solution, which is based on the Labs' self-developed IoT protocol named IoTConnect and the new Bluetooth chips co-designed by Alibaba and MediaTek, will allow IoT home devices to automatically pair with Tmall Genie, Alibaba's Amazon Echo-like voice assistant.
As IoT technology advances, the smart home market is seeing tremendous growth. According to Zion Market Research, the global smart home markets size will reach $ 53.45 billion by 2022, growing at the rate of 14.5% a year. Chinese Internet giants including the BAT (Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba) are all scrambling to get a slice of the massive market pie.
The IoTConnect protocol aims to promote unified connectivity standards among smart devices. For consumers, this means they will be able to instantly connect to multiple devices all at once through a single portal, without the hassle of dealing with different apps and passwords. And for IoT companies and smart hardware manufactures, having a unified connectivity standard could help them lower the costs normally incurred in developing device connectivity. All in all, this will facilitate the development of a voice-controlled smart home ecosystem.
Last November during China's online shopping festival, Tmall Genie became the only smart speaker to sell over a million devices in China. The milestone, however, poses a challenge for the tech giant—to build a smart home ecosystem which entails streamlining hardware and software interconnectivity and usability.
"Bluetooth mesh technology has the advantages of being open, low-cost, high-efficiency…," Miffy Chan, head of A.I. Labs, explained. Having a unified connectivity standard will "largely cut down risks and costs for smart home manufacturers. At the same time, making the [Bluetooth] chip available to the market can introduce a single standard for different brands and smart assistants of different platforms and help them cut down research expenses and time spent in negotiations," Chan added.
The Smartmesh solution supports the latest Bluetooth mesh networking and Bluetooth 5 functionality set up by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the body that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards. The customized Bluetooth SoCs (system-on-chip), MT7581 and MT7583, for the solution are featured with Bluetooth smart mesh technology, automatic pairing, fast connection and low-power consumption. The two SoCs will be ready for the market in the second half of this year. This is critical for accelerating the deployment of the Tmall Genie smart home ecosystem in China.
Bringing together Alibaba's edge in AI and cloud computing—MediaTek's strength in connectivity and baseband, computing, and multimedia—the two tech leaders seem ready to break new grounds. "Through the agreement, Alibaba is set to become China's first company to introduce Bluetooth mesh technology to the commercial market at scale," the Alibaba said in a statement.


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As much as I dislike Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, I'm second guessing that opinion as I flip through my notes. So many quotes are lovely and the story sounds good when summarized . . .
Martin Dressler rises through the hospitality business in the late 1800s through a combination of work ethic and happy timing. The first 250 pages are rosy and predictable as potential obstacles are overcome by his natural virtues. The only question in Martin's life is which of two sisters he'll marry: Caroline, beautiful and lethargic, or Emmeline, his eventual business partner. He picks Caroline, even though she's too tired to open her eyes all the way. Drama ensues.
Sounds interesting, right? As a whole, the book functions as a fairytale, and this aspect is captured in the opening lines:
There once lived a man named Martin Dressler, a shopkeeper's son, who rose from modest beginnings to a height of dreamlike good fortune. This was toward the end of the nineteenth century, when on any streetcorner in America you might see some ordinary-looking citizen who was destined to invent a new kind of bottlecap or tin can, start a chain of five-cent stores, sell a faster and better elevator, or open a fabulous new department store with big display windows made possible by an improved process for manufacturing sheets of glass. Although Martin Dressler was a shopkeeper's son, he too dreamed his dream, and at last he was lucky enough to do what few people even dare to imagine: he satisfied his heart's desire. But this is a perilous privilege, which the gods watch jealously, waiting for the flaw, the little flaw, that brings everything to ruin in the end. (1-2)
Martin's early victories are satisfying as he demonstrates ample ability and hunger for more, but they're hollow for how easily they land at his feet. Even Martin knows things are uncommonly smooth:
As he threw himself into his new duties, which took him away from the life of the lobby but placed him close to the inner workings of the hotel, he sometimes had the sense that he was being led by friendly powers toward a destination they had marked out for him. (58-59)
The fact that his "destination" is determined sucks suspense from the story. Martin will succeed because he's Martin, and that's that. Even so, many many pages are devoted to his business ventures that involve increasingly higher risks, but there's nothing to worry about until the destination, right? Ideally, characters would be developed along the way, but they fall prey to the dreaminess that infects the rest of the book.
Martin is finally dislodged from his routine by Caroline and Emmeline. He's transfixed by Caroline's passive nature and inaccessibility, but descriptions of her demeanor are pretty unflattering:
It sometimes seemed that Caroline wanted nothing better than to sit through life—simply sit there, without lifting a finger on her own behalf, though with her beauty it would take little more than an ever so slightly lifted finger . . . Of course there was no reasoning with her. There was no talking to her. She did what she wanted to do and that was that. (99)
It was as if her perplexing, irritating coolness, her difficulty, were a sign of her high value. (145)
It's hard to see the appeal. Emmeline, on the other hand, is much more interesting. She almost has a personality and can speak to Martin on his level. Meanwhile, Martin can't understand why Emmeline might be irked when he runs a a very unsentimental proposal past her:
One day at lunch Martin said to Emmeline, "Do you think Caroline would like to marry me?"
Emmeline looked at him. "That's a strange question for you to ask me."
"But you're the only one I can ask."
"There's always Caroline, you know. Let's not forget Caroline."
"Oh, Caroline," he said impatiently.
The truth was that Caroline often irked him, even as she became fixed in his mind as a white bride. (134)
That their marriage is a disaster is only surprising to Martin, though the finale is more dramatic than expected.
The final act takes a hard swerve into the fairytale aspect with the construction of a bizarre hotel with thousands of rooms, and an increasingly complicated design. For the first time, the construction details are interesting because it's the first time that Martin has a chance at failure. At the close, Martin shows a twinge of introspection and it hit me that this is what had been missing from the book—there's very little sense that these characters have interior lives. It's not just that they're flat, rigid, or incapable of change—it's that they're empty.
This is arguably the point of the book—the emptiness of wealth and success when there's nothing underneath—so how can I say it's what I like least about it? This reviewing thing is trickier than it looks.
Overall: 2.8 (out of 5.0) Not much heart to it, though the writing is creative and positively lush at times. When I don't recommend a Pulitzer winner, I can't help feel that I'm overlooking something obvious.
Image credit: Goodreads


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Library Resources for Administrative History: Directories
Three national directories provide general information on the establishment, organization, functions, and personnel of Federal agencies. Two are issued currently and reach chronologically well back in our Federal history.
1935 to date
- National Archives and Records Administration. United States Government Manual. Washington: Government Printing Office; 1935-.
- REF AE 2. I0812:(year)/GS 4. 109:(year)
Current year: see also GPO FDsys.
Note: The Manual is published as a special edition of the Federal Register. Its focus is on programs and activities. Persons interested in detailed organizational structure, the regulatory documents of an agency, or Presidential documents should refer to the Federal Register or one of its other special editions. Published annually by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, since 1948. First issued in 1935 by the National Emergency Council, superseding its Daily Revised Manual of Emergency Recovery Agencies and Facilities Provided by the United States Government. Three editions, 1935, 1936, and 1937-39, were each in looseleaf form and revised by adding and substituting new pages.
As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The Manual also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, boards, committees, and commissions.
Appendix C lists Federal Executive Agencies Terminated, Transferred, or Changed in Name Subsequent to March 4, 1933.
Boyd, p. 110; Morehead, p. 160; Schmeckebier, p. 399-400.
1821 to date
- United States Congress. Joint Committee on Printing. Official Congressional Directory. Washington: Government Printing Office; 18?- to date.
For current directory, see also GPO FDsys and Senate and House of Representatives web sites.
The National Archives Library has directories from the 46th Congress to date and scattered ones from the 32d to the 43d Congress.
Note: The Congressional Directory has been the official handbook for the Congress since 1821 and is also widely used by Federal agency officials and the general public. Historically, the book has been one of the most comprehensive and detailed resources for identifying the components of the three branches of Federal Government.
The earliest manual of which the Superintendent of Documents has information is that of the 11th Congress (1809). Until 1847 the manual was compiled and printed as a private venture. Since 1848 it has been known as the "Official Congressional Directory". It is now published annually. The Directory contains biographies of current members of Congress, State delegations, alphabetical list of members with home session statistics, Capitol information, Executive departments' descriptions, Judiciary information, maps and press information.
- United States Congress. Joint Committee on Printing. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-1989: The Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States from the first through the one hundredth Congresses March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989, inclusive. Bicentennial ed. 100/2:S.doc.100-34 [Serial set 13849]. Washington, Government Printing Office; 1989. xi, 2104 p.
- REF JK1010.U5.1989/Serial set 13849
Note: Cited as the Biographical Directory. Members of the administrations of George Washington to Ronald W. Reagan and members of Congress from the Continental Congress (1774) to the 100th Congress (1988-1989) are listed by Administration or Congress. The broad sweep of the Biographical Directory makes it a valuable source for American social as well as political history.
The bicentennial edition of the Biographical Directory is part of a tradition dating back to Charles Lanman's Dictionary of Congress, first published in 1859. Various private editions appeared in the 19th century and congressional staff compiled six editions in this century. The new volume, however, is the first prepared by a straff of professional historians.
The new edition contains substantial revisions in form and content. All chairmen of standing committees and all major, formal leadership positions are noted. For the first time, entries include bibliographical citations. The most important changes result from a complete reexamination of all party labels. Earlier volumes failed to account for short-lived and regional parties from the 19th century and many party designations were anachronistic, claiming for today's Democratic and Republican parties Members who served long before thos parties were founded.
Boyd, p. 70; Morehead, p. 113; Schmeckebier, p. 184-185.
- Official Register of the United States: Persons Occupying Administrative and Supervisory Positions in the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches of the Federal Government, and in the District of Columbia Government. Washington: Government Printing Office; 1816-1959.
- Archives I, room G-30 REF CS 1.31: {all issues shelved with CS 1.31:}
The National Archives Library has a long set: 1819, 1829- 1831, 1835-1959.
Note: Titles vary. Popularly known as "The Blue Book" because they were bound in blue. Published by the State Department from 1816 through 1860 [S 1.11:]; by the Interior Department from 1861 to 1905 [I 1.25:]; by the Census Bureau from 1908 to 1932 [C 3.10:]; and by the Civil Service Commission form 1933-1959 [CS 1.31:].
Until 1913 the Official Register included a list of vessels owned by the United States and until the early part of the 20th century it contained a nearly complete list of United States employees. Since 1877 it has included a name index. The Official Register was published biennially until 1923.
Boyd, p. 453; 1909 Checklist, p. 908, 439-440, 321.


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Hey, remember Rachel Marie Smith, the woman who struck fear into the hearts of renters everywhere with her alleged apartment deposit scam?
Here's a reminder: back in July of last year, Smith was charged with eight counts each of grand theft and obtaining money under false pretenses after she posted ads on Craigslist saying a Richmond District apartment she claimed was hers was available for lease.
Upon receiving a deposit for the apartment, Smith would allegedly delay the move-in date, saying her mother had cancer. Subsequent phone calls were reportedly ignored, and the deposits were never returned.
At least eighteen potential renters had allegedly received such treatment at her hands, to the tune of at least $110,000.
Though a website set up by some of those victims has not been updated since last August, at least four of them have remained steadfast in their pursuit of justice. The Ex reports that Smith is expected to strike a plea deal Tuesday that includes restitution to four of those taken in her alleged scam.
Specific terms of the deal, says the Ex, have not been released.
Want more news, sent to your inbox every day? Then how about subscribing to our email newsletter? Here's why we think you should. Come on, give it a try.


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|Biometric Safes – (Biometric Fingerprint Safes) – are the latest trend in home and office security systems. Biometric Safes offer the same security and features of traditional PIN combination or key lock safes; however, with the quick and convenient access using fingerprint recognition technology. Simply touch your fingerprint on the finger reader and the the […]
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Even clowns have lobbyists, as do acrobats and animal tamers.
Feld Entertainment, the parent company of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, last year spent a record $335,000 on federal lobbying, according to federal records.
That's up from $280,000 in 2011 — and up from just $120,000 in 2007, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The entertainment company hired 10 lobbyists in 2012, including three in-house lobbyists. Lobbyists from the Alpine Group, the Livingston Group and Birch Horton Bittner and Cherot also performed work on Feld Entertainment's behalf.
Issues regarding animal welfare were the company's top concern, records show. The hot-button topic has been the focus of activity both on and off Capitol Hill.
With the backing of animal rights groups, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., has pushed legislation that would prohibit Asian elephants in traveling shows.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has also sued Feld Entertainment, alleging animal rights violations. A settlement was reached between ASPCA and the company in two federal lawsuits last December.
The Ringling Bros. and Barney & Bailey Circus is currently performing in Baltimore. It performed last month in Washington, D.C.
Help support this work
Public Integrity doesn't have paywalls and doesn't accept advertising so that our investigative reporting can have the widest possible impact on addressing inequality in the U.S. Our work is possible thanks to support from people like you.


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Harley-Davidson Hollywood Handlebar
The new Hollywood Handlebar (P/N 55800050, $109.95) from Harley-Davidson Genuine Motor Accessories combines the laid-back riding attitude of the 1940s with a shape and black finish that's perfect for today's new-school, stripped-down bobbers.
Introduced as Original Equipment on the 2012 Softail Slim model, this traditional, cross-bar equipped handlebar features limited rise, a narrow profile and gentle pull-back shape.
The Hollywood Handlebar fits 2010-later Forty-Eight, 2006-later Street Bob, 2010-later Wide Glide, 2000-later Heritage Softail Custom, Fat Boy and Fat Boy Lo, and 2008-later Softail Deluxe models.
Installation requires separate purchase of additional components. See an authorized Harley-Davidson dealer for fitment details. For additional information, log onto Harley-Davidson.com.


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Return main page
Greek Hotels
Rethymnon Town hotels - Crete island - Greece
IDEON HOTEL (Rethymnon
- Crete island)
The IDEON hotel is situated in an idealic setting: washed by the Cretan Sea and surrounded by
the old Turkish-Venetian town, with its magnificent monuments, majestic Fortress and its
Venetian Port. All of these within easy reach of the commercial and cosmopolitan centre of
the town, including its excellent, long sandy beach. Restaurant, Bar, Outdoor pool, Snack
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radio, direct dial phone. Suites with fridge & TV. Conference facilities for 50
Blt 1972, Ren 1995, Open Apr-Oct, Rooms 86.
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include Rhodes, Kos, Mytilini,
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Car Rental in Greece - Europe and World wide


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Do you need a translation into German or English or do you want me to proofread a text for you? Send me an e-mail or call me. I will send you my quote as soon as possible.
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Tel.: 0043 664 48 01 701
Also visit me on XING.
I am looking forward to your texts!


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Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Twins ROCK!
Today is the last day for the Hungry Hungry Hippos challenge on the Sandra Caldwell FB Group page and I couldn't resist doing a cute twins baby card using the new 1698 Pebbles Hippo and 1699 Bam Bam Hippo made especially for this challenge. They are currently on sale at the mo, but you need to hurry. You can see all the sale digis for this challenge HERE. (They go up tomorrow!) I was a huge fan of the Flintstones as a kid and thought the sentiment "Twins Rock" was appropriate with the images. The Alpha Beads sort of even looked like pebbles, don'tcha think? I modified the Outlawz Wednesday Sketch a bit by offsetting the Spellbinders Doily a bit and using a Martha Stewart punch for the center.
There were 2 sketches this time and I chose the first with a few modifications.
I'm also adding this to the DL.Art August Linky Challenge and Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #64 AG,
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text: SELECT * FROM uv_BookReviewRollup WHERE recordnum = 1102 Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik Book Review | SFReader.com Toggle navigation Information Story Contest Fiction Feature Get Reviewed Advertise on SFReader Sections Contest Winning Stories Fiction Features Movie Reviews TV Reviews Firebrand Fiction Suspended Animation Interviews Book Reviews All By Author By Editor By Reviewer By Genre By Rating By Year Toggle nav Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik Genre: Fantasy Publisher: Del Rey Published: 2006 Review Posted: 11/12/2007 Reviewer Rating: Reader Rating: 7 out of 10 Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik Book Review by Howard von Darkmoor Have you read this book? Throne of Jade, the second of the Temeraire books, is an interesting and enjoyable read. Just not as much of either as book one. What has remained just as strong, however, is Novik's talent for using simple sentences in extremely apropos moments to make poignant statements. This trait and her skill at writing from within the minds of both Laurence and Temeraire make these tales pleasurable entertainment. This book does begin with an occasional leap in facts, as if we the readers know what Novik the author knew when she knew it as she wrote it. Basically these are omissions of information that, while potentially minor and somewhat subtlety slipped in, only suddenly are realized. A 'Wait, what? Did I know that?' sensation that becomes mildly irritating the more it repeats itself. There is also the literal absence of pertinent information at times, such as the missing transitory paragraph/line/scene that should have existed between a perfectly fine day and a suddenly thunder-storming downpour of a day. Thus, the little things become larger the more they are noticed. That being said, I cannot exclaim enough over Temeraire the character. Despite/because of being a dragon, who can know? Temeraire is an extraordinary character that Novik so explicitly shares with us it is as if we interact directly with the dragon himself - speak with him, observe him, fly with him, touch him, understand him - on a first-person daily basis. I often feel as if I know Temeraire, as if I could turn from my book to find him about the place, just out of sight, moving about the garden or some such. It's rather amazing, if you think clearly about it for a moment: I'm telling you that Novik so vividly describes and lives this fictional character she's created that I can see myself interacting with him as if he were really there - and he's a dragon. Not even human. This novel keeps Laurence and Temeraire smack in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, yet sends them along their merry way to China - land of Temeraire's birth. Superlative naval adventure yet again surfaces throughout the book, but the real treat is partaking in Temeraire's discovery of and interaction with the Chinese ethnicities and proclivities. Temeraire's mind is so childlike and innocent in some moments, so savage and regal in others. This childlike innocence combined with his fierce demeanor often leads to quite humorous observations of either his own or Laurence's. Subterfuge, blackmail, jealousy, slavery; threats implied and real; warfare open, hidden, and disguised; cultural differences, clashes or opportunities to learn - these are the things this tale is made of. Who to believe, whose ulterior motives to bare, whose designs to trust? These are the questions of this book, and yet one other arises: Where exactly does a Chinese dragon given to the French but raised by the British belong? And who gets to determine the answer? While not as smoothly rendered a book as its predecessor, by both author and by editors, I do encourage you to read Temeraire's tale and learn firsthand the intricacies of a dragon's mind. I did find the resolution to the story's dilemma, while satisfactory, a bit of a mild end to a thoroughly enjoyable journey, both physically and culturally. The ending scenes do leave a somewhat sour taste for me personally, though, as they give the impression of setting up book three as a tale of class struggle by identifying Temeraire and company as malcontents trying to right a deplorable wrong - which is still only a cultural wrong, not a sadistic one worthy of novelization in my opinion. I must admit to being somewhat lacking in desire to pursue book three if such is the case. Yet interacting once again with Laurence and Temeraire is all the draw I require. Simply put, this is a good little novel minus the spectacular hook of book one: a 6-out-of-10. Click here to buy Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik on Amazon Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik on Amazon More Books You Might LikeRosa and the Veil of Gold, by Kim WilkinsMaledicte, by Lane RobinsThe Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, by Christopher MooreGalveston, by Sean Stewart Comment on Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik Your Name: Comment: Type (case sensitive) here: Comments on Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik There are no comments on this book. Search Author/Editor Book Title Follow @SFReaderDOTcom SFReader.com 5-Star Books The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury Contest Winning Stories Fiction Features Movie Reviews TV Reviews Firebrand Fiction Suspended Animation Interviews


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New, State-of-the-Art Center
Our new Neuropathic Therapy Center offers the latest technology for advanced, on-site diagnostic testing and evaluation. With separate, designated areas for patient treatment, research and provider collaboration, our new clinical space offers the best-in-class treatment environment designed to support you and your care team in every way.
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The Neuropathic Therapy Center is conveniently located on our extended medical campus in Loma Linda, giving you close access to rehabilitation resources and our full complement of industry leading specialists at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
In the heart of the Inland Empire, the center will be an easy drive from Los Angeles, Orange County and Palm Springs.


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Encourage relaxation and slumber in your bedroom through our "A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow" Wall Quote Decal.
Decal has a matte finish to reduce light reflections and look more natural.
Easily removable without any damage to the surface.
Designs are made of the highest quality interior safe wall vinyl.
All of our vinyl wall decals are produced in the U.S.A.
Easy to Install. Comes with detailed instructions, a free squeege and test decal.
Color Disclaimer
Colors in our previewer and example images are a computer rendition and may not be 100% accurate. We advise you to view our color chart to see an actual picture of the color for a better representation.


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Timekeeping has evolved drastically over the years. Pocket watches, wrist watches, and now fitness watches. While watches have always been used for both time management and as fashion statements, the quality has slowly declined over time. Watches have become simpler, cheaper, or made specifically for fitness purposes. And yet markets continuously release high end, luxury watches to our demanding market. This is because after all this time, individuals still value the look and possession of a luxury watch. As an accessory and a tool, owning a luxury watch says many things about you and your values in life.
You Have a Sense of Style
The fashion industry is constantly changing and evolving, however, accessories for the most part maintain timeless looks. Watches for example, while the materials and colors tend to change, they still keep the qualities we all know and love. Having a luxury watch says you are willing to keep up with the times and wear what's in style. Ending up with multiple watches only means there's more to choose from when the styles go in and out.
You Take Pride in Your Appearance
Despite having what's in vogue, investing in a luxury watch says you are keeping a clean appearance. There's a difference between having nothing on your wrists compared to having a watch. Those who wear watches tend to have a more put together look, like they respect their own time and others'. At the same time, the extra accessory adds something to your outfit.
You are a Forward Thinker
Wearing a luxury watch builds up your appearance, but it also helps to keep you thinking about the future. Having the time in front of you helps you put your day together and space it out to ensure you are locking in a schedule and achieving goals. It's healthy to think about the future in terms of productivity and time management.
Contact Luxemont Watches
Luxemont Watches has the luxury watch you need to be stylish and productive. Delicately crafted and personalized, these watches are built to perfection and are ready to wear for any occasion. Look your best, and look productive with a high end watch on your wrist. Confidence comes in many different forms, and with a luxury watch you can maintain your appearance while looking forward. Don't miss out on the opportunity to look your best.


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Dynamo Bliss 2013
Swedish trio looking for fun and a good pun go environmentally mental. Breathe the air, then.
Getting it together in the country has been art rock's creative refuge since the late '60s, and on their second album – first of the two the trio put out in 2013 – this band veer away from the perceived wisdom of the genre's complexity to convey simpler ways. Such an ingenious and indigenous move provided them with an opportunity to turn back the time to the decade of innocence and bake the sunshine harmonies from "Can You Hear The Sound" on to the fusion of "Running Out Of Mind" adding a thin psychedelic icing to the sweet cake where zither and banjo are as important ingredients as guitars. That's how the reversed evolution depicted in "Savage Minds" takes a turn to the twangy rhythm-and-blues and lets its electrically funky poise passing urgent catchiness to "Panic In Their Eyes" until the folk seriousness of "Been Ostracized" drive the naysayers away – into the loner's wild.
There, Mikael Sandstrom's pedal steel pour cosmic earthiness into the brew of "Over The Rolling Hills" with its rustic accordion anchor and orchestral expanse, while Stefan Olofsson's voice, both assertive and lulling, is a perfect vehicle for the warped serenity of "Blue Halos" to crystallize its Scandinavian gloss into a lollipop, yet not before progressive synthesizer runs wash around "And Forever" that's also sprinkled with stately piano and mellotron. They're back for the epic grand finale "In The Country" which lures all the gentle souls to the pastures and the woods and lifts the pastoral tune to the celestial heights with birds, and THE BYRDS, fluttering nearby. The result of it all is a heart-gripping airy tale or a cure for the modern times.


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UMAR Boxing, No Hooks Before Books
Located in the Druid Heights neighborhood is a small boxing gym located above a pawnshop. In that gym, Marvin McDowell is working to give children a positive place to go after school.
Marvin McDowell, executive director of the UMAR Boxing Program, Inc., founded the program for youth in 1996 and opened the first gym in 1998 on Fulton Avenue. In 2004, he moved to his current location on West North Avenue.
The word "umar" means life and lifetime, according to McDowell. He says the youth are going to get a "lifetime of experiences coming to the gym… something to help them along."
The former pro boxer, president of the South Atlantic Boxing Association and member of the Maryland Boxing Hall of Fame, says that boxing provides "structure, self esteem, discipline, camaraderie, commitment and respect."
McDowell stresses that academics are as important as the more physical aspects of his program. Children 13 years old and under are required to study prior to any workouts. The UMAR motto is "no hooks before books."


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The Blues aren't doing anything, no one in the league is doing anything and I'm tired of Kovalchuk. So today, I conclude animals on vehicals week with a video and present an open thread for you to chat until the day's postings. We got a real estate listing coming up at 9 a.m., and, of course, F-U Friday later on in the afternoon.
Here's your video:
OK fine, here's a bonus video from Mr. Particle.
And here's your discussion topic: Which Blues player really needs to have a career-year in 2010-11. I say Erik Johnson. Share yours in the comments.
Poor College Student has the weekend shift. Hit him up at gametimelinks(at)gmail.com.
Toodles, bitches.


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Ryan Gagajena
How to get motivated
What is motivation? It's defined as 'the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.' Those reasons aren't always positive. Anything that get's you moving forward is motivation even if it's negative. and that's ok.
Watch the video below to learn more about how to motivate yourself. Be sure to turn up the volume in the bottom right hand corner of the video
Want to get a deeper understanding of how to get motivated? Click here and join my 5 day challenge https://dara-fischetti.mykajabi.com/p/g…


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Had enough of hygge, copper accents and metallic pineapples? As we say goodbye to last season's biggest interior trends, it is time to take note of the new season's most wanted décor ready to revamp your home for the autumn/winter season.
We checked in with our favourite homeware bloggers, interior designers, and our specialist homeware buyers to unveil this season's key trends and easy tips on how to integrate them into your home this autumn.
Statement Lighting
Interior Designer: Sarah Latham, Etons of Bath
"Lighting plays a pivotal role when it comes to the finishing touches of an interiors scheme. Aside from being functional, it brings a space together and creates the desired atmosphere.
Statement lighting fixtures are really on trend right now, and are great way to showcase your own personal style.
Quirky statement pendants look great in a dining room, acting almost like a sculpture or a piece of art work especially when placed centrally above a dining table in the centre of a room, like the one seen in the dining room of this Georgian Townhouse designed by Etons of Bath."
Return to Natural
Product Designer Paddy Pike, @Paddy.designs
"As we delve deeper into the second half of 2017, the bright colours of the past few years will fade and the modified plastics will seem outdated. Through this, we will see a concentrated move towards natural materials, and especially the finishes that come with it.
This coffee table designed by the Baker Street Boys sustains the industrial, brutalist form, while showing off the unchanged raw material. By using materials like oak and steel in conjunction, the textures and tones accentuate each other, bringing out their respective characters."
Period Features
Lifestyle Blogger Louise Baltruschat Hollis, Whimsical Wonderland Weddings
"My favourite interior trend right now is period features with a twist. In our 1930s home, we installed an art deco feel fire place with a statement oval mirror but we painted the dark wood white for a fresh modern yet timeless feel. We also installed new large solid oak parquet flooring to add character but the larger tiles make for a slightly different look and feel."
Lifestyle Blogger Cassiefairy, @cassiefairy
"I think the interiors trend to watch out for this year is tie-dye. We've already seen this chilled-out style in our wardrobes over the summer and the next step is linens, cushions and art work. Rich inky colours help to take tie-dye out of the festival field and into our homes for autumn/winter.
The watercolour trend has been splashing its way into interior design for a couple of years now, but tie-dye takes this arty effect to a much stronger level. Patterns are big and bold. Rainbow tie-dye can stay in the spring; this season strong, single colours seep onto fresh white linens.
Tie-dye bedding and soft furnishings can be cosied up for autumn/winter with layers of blankets, velvet cushions and shag-pile rugs to create that homemade hygge feeling.
This is an easy look to DIY for yourself; all you need is white fabric, some elastic bands and a single pot of fabric dye to recreate the tie-dye effect at home. Why not try dying a piece of canvas and then stretching it over a frame to create a piece of tie-dyed artwork?"
Shades of Grey
Lifestyle blogger Wendy, Daisies & Pie
"When thinking interiors for AW17 you simply can't go wrong with a palette of greys. Grey is my favourite go-to neutral and something that will continue to be stylish throughout the season and beyond.
We'll see lots of big chunky knitted products, think about adding a pouffe, a chunky knit throw or cushions as a way of simply updating your space.
Another trend to keep a close eye on is the delicious midnight blue colour pop, a style you can easily mix with shades of grey. I think we'll see Nordic twists on the midnight blue pop. Think about using it in printed textiles and accessories, or a moody feature wall to easily lift a room and bring it bang on trend."


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Studio Drift is an art collective formed by Lonneke Gordijb, born in 1980 in Alkmaar, The Netherlands, and Ralph Nauto, born in 1978 in Swindon, United Kingdom. They live and work in Amsterdam. They are known internationally for the creation of interactive sculptures and installations that combine the world of nature and man, through the clever use of technology and craftsmanship, creating works with great visual impact.
Studio Drift
After they both graduated in Design in 2005, Studio Drift has been active since 2007, when Lonneke and Ralph opened a space in Amsterdam. Studio Drift is inspired, as a starting point, by elements that occur in nature and then reformulate the concepts from which they draw inspiration into the philosophical and artistic realms; to do this they integrate different technologies and cutting-edge techniques. Each work they realize is exciting for the viewer who, because of the personal interaction with the surroundings, can be read through different filters and multiple levels. Through a sustainable artistic and scientific research, these artists use the help of numerous experts, scientists and researchers. In 20 Steps (2015), for example, is a kinetic installation that consists of 20 glass wings in continuous movement; it is a tribute to the human desire to be able to fly, despite the force of gravity. Their works are present in important international institutions such as: Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Louis Vuitton collection; and The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Studio Drift has won numerous prizes, including International Design Prize 'Lights of the future', German Design Council (2006); Moet Hennessy – Pavilion of Art and Design London Prize (2010); The best piece of Arte Laguna (2014), Venice; and Dutch Design Awards (2015).


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Thursday, March 23, 2017
The dolls have something to say
That was as far as the project got, because of orders and various other things that got in the way.
But now I've finally gotten moving. I'm back in my friend's office three days a week, and one of the first things I did there was sell three dolls -- two that said "Resist" and one that said "Persist."
The dolls pictured here are the ones left over from that initial sewing frenzy:
Love, Peace, Dream, Wild, Feminist and Believe.
Etsy shop today, with the note that they are also available in other skin / hair / eye color combinations. I know this collection looks rather Caucasian, but that's only because I tend to batch sew, so that I don't have to change thread color. There are medium and dark bits stacked on the sewing table, waiting their turn to be attached to the appropriate dresses.
Resist and Persist will be returning with the next batch of girls.
Can you think of any other words that would work?
Posted by Karen at 1:25 PM 5 comments:
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Grove of Giants
I went there this morning after a trip to the post office, both because it was spring (again, for what, maybe the third time in three weeks?) and because I knew there had been some changes.
A few weeks ago on Facebook, the cemetery announced that the Grove of Giants, which was a group of enormous English elm trees toward the back of the cemetery (and the actual last standing grove of English elms in the U.S.) had become infected with Dutch Elm disease. They had attempted to treat the trees, but the infection had spread and the trees were becoming hazardous.
The remaining trunks have to be at least ten to fifteen feet high. If you don't look straight up, you can almost pretend the trees are still there, except that the shade is gone.
Posted by Karen at 1:58 PM No comments:
Labels: neighborhood, philadelphia
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Easter. Rising.
I've made them before, generally as part of the receiving-blanket-bear marathon, but this year I decided to pull a few out of my hat for Easter.
Because why not?
(That, and I had some appropriately colored cashmere sweaters to tear into).
This little guy here, high on life and Easter eggs, is ivory cashmere with gingham accents. I think he's pretty cute.
set, seen recently as photo props in my post about the Precious, are a combination of a lime green cashmere and a cotton/lycra sweater in Easter-y rainbow stripes. The ears and foot pads are bright pink jersey from my t-shirt scrap bag.
The colors look almost edible, don't they?
I'm dropping a few more bunnies off at one of the shops I deal with, but I'm leaving the ivory one and at least one of the green striped ones with me so I can put them in the Etsy shop.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Working. My Way.
Thankfully with maturity comes a speeding up of that process, where I go from "nah" to "maybe" to "well, this might actually be a good idea" in a much shorter time.
I was temping last week at one of the offices that I frequent, and one of the secretaries gave 3 weeks' notice. Everyone immediately started joking that I would be back in 3 weeks to cover for her, and I went cold. It's not that it isn't a nice enough firm; I've been in and out of there for 4 summers now, the people are fine and I can do the work, but (a) this girl's attorneys aren't among my favorites, (b) I really don't want to spend another solid summer there, working potentially 4-5 days a week because they're busy, and (c) they're just getting too used to me being their beck-and-call girl.
Cue the sound of rescue. My phone buzzed and it was a text from my friend Dianne, at whose firm I have also temped (and we even worked there together back in the late 80s). I've been back there several times on longterm assignments when her secretary was out on disability. (Her secretary left over a year ago, but the firm rearranged staff and they weren't looking to hire then). Well, her new secretary gave notice and did I want to work 3 days a week?
I texted back: "For how long?"
"Up to you," she responded.
I went in yesterday to spend a day with her current assistant just going over what things were new since my last visit (not many, other than an upgrade to the computer system). They let me spend a day at the desk just poking around the system, learning the upgrades and setting up the computer the way it suited me. I set up my voicemail and email messages, chose my desk location (the area with the most natural light) and got myself ready for next week, when I'll start doing M-W-F.
For how long?
Well, that's the issue. Part of me really, really doesn't want to commit to even permanent part-time work, because, well, it feels like I'm giving in. Going back to the grind.
But . . .
These people aren't a grind. The work isn't that hard, and it's the kind of work I can do while planning out my sewing to do list as I type. They buy my stuff. They're flexible -- I can work whatever 3 days suits me, so if I have a weekend show, I can work Thursday instead of Friday. I have sewing camps booked at my house this summer, and they're okay working around that. The money is the best of all my temp jobs.
And there is that, the money. The Etsy shops do okay (especially this past October-December with the crazy publicity from Babble and Scary Mommy). Craft shows are even better. But they're seasonal, they're uneven and often dependent on weather. It would be nice to have a steady income which would be supplemented by the handmade business, so I could go back to putting money toward retirement. I still have a good bit of savings, but I would like to feel a little more prepared. I would also like to be able to consider vacations without having to do mental math that involved Peter, Paul and taking from both of them.
I decided I would give it a few weeks and think about it. And then at lunch, I ran into one of the attorneys who works at my third temp job, the place that hires me every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and actually pays me to decorate their tree. Apparently they're closing down shop at the end of the year and won't be needing my services.
So, job 1 - demand for more hours with less pleasant people; job 2 - disappearing. Job 3 - pleasant people, good money, hours of my choice.
Not sure what there is left to decide, but I'm still thinking.
Posted by Karen at 6:23 PM 6 comments:
Labels: work
Thursday, March 2, 2017
The Precious
For those who don't sew, or (somehow) don't stash, the Precious is the fabric that is so breathtaking, so perfect, so . . . unusable that we buy it, we pet it frequently, and we never cut into it because no project that we can think of is ever good enough for the Precious.
Yeah, I have a lot of Precious left.
But not as much as I did.
I bought this candy pink embroidered velvet at PR Weekend in 2007, at Metro Textiles. I bought it, gods forgive me, to make jeans for myself.
Pink. Embroidered. Velvet. Jeans.
Even 10 years ago, I didn't have the ass for pink embroidered velvet jeans. This is not being down on my body, just realistic. (And even if I did have the correct ass for said jeans, in the intervening decade, my desire to make them or wear them has gone down exponentially).
So I turned the velvet into 4 toddler dresses to list in my Etsy shop for Easter. They don't have a lot of embellishment because this fabric doesn't actually need anything more done to it.
And that's 2.5 yards of Precious gone. I feel lighter.
Almost like I could fit into those jeans. Almost.
Posted by Karen at 3:12 PM 6 comments:
Labels: baby clothes, precious fabric
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Metrics to measure schools by
Posted on 22-01-2012
In my last post, I argued that we should publish as much information about schools as possible so parents can use it to create their own league tables of what they find valuable.
I also argued that measuring schools by one metric only was problematic because it's too easy to game one metric. Instead, the government should look at four or five metrics. If a school try too hard to focus on one, it will show up in the others. The aim would be to get four or five metrics which between them capture most of what we want a school to be doing. Thus, the problem with the 5 A-C measure is that it encourages schools to force pupils through vocational subjects that are worth 2-4 GCSEs, even if those subjects aren't best suited to that pupil. The problem with the 5 A-C measure and the E-Bacc measure is the C/D borderline problem. They both encourage schools to focus their resources on D-grade students. Moving a pupil from a B grade to an A grade or an E grade to a D-grade is given no weight on these measures.
@MrChas left a very interesting comment on this post suggesting that using four or five indicators could work. From his experience in the private sector, you can try and game one or two metrics, but when you have four or five, then it becomes very difficult. As he rather elegantly puts it:
Once you get to 4 or five measures, as the writer here says, you can 'cheat' on maybe one, but then as soon as you do it kicks the others way out of kilter. Like trying to squeeze into jeans a size too small. The fat has to go SOMEWHERE, it just pops up in a different place !
And now, it seems like Nick Gibb wants to do something similar. In The Telegraph, he admits some of the problems with the current league table system, says that he will be publishing more information on schools and comes up with some other metrics he would like to use.
So my question here is: if you had to pick FIVE measures to judge schools by, what would they be? I will start off with my picks to get the discussion going – I haven't thought these through in great detail but I do think each of them measures something valuable.
1. Percentage of pupils achieving E-Bacc.
2. Percentage of pupils who are functionally illiterate and innumerate (nationally this is 17% and 22% at 15). (This would require a separate test, which could be problematic.)
3.Percentage of pupils who are NEET five years after leaving school. (I recognise there are data collection issues with this one).
4. Percentage of entries achieving As and A*s at GCSE.
5. Of pupils who failed to get level 4s in English and Maths at primary school, percentage achieving C or above in English and Maths at GCSE.


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Amid the unprecedented disruption of 2020, a number of clear trends have cut through the turmoil.
"There's been a lot of talk about digital transformation in recent times, but this is the year that companies have been forced into actually doing it," says Pat Lucey of Aspira (pictured pre-pandemic on the left beside Peter Ryan), the Irish-owned technology consultancy.
"The pandemic has taken organisations out of their comfort zone," he says. "If you look at big pharma or medical device firms, a year ago their main challenges might have been in chemistry or bio-pharma. Now they are trying to deal with huge logistical and supply chain issues that are completely outside their domain area of knowledge."
To ensure they get it right, many organisations are turning to the experts. For technology project management specialist Aspira, the pandemic has triggered a three-fold increase in demand for digital transformation services as companies look to quickly improve their e-commerce capabilities and supply chain networks.
For a company that prides itself on forming close, collaborative partnerships to deliver projects and build capability, growing demand has seen Aspira open a new Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Malaysia while expanding the company's mainland European operation with a second office in the Netherlands.
"Initially [Covid-19] was about survival, but we've managed to thrive over the last six months by helping clients to take advantage of disruption in the marketplace," says Pat Lucey, Aspira's Group CEO and co-founder.
"We're up to date with all the latest trends including agile and entrepreneurial project management, so we can bring some of that new thinking and help our clients find ways of delivering more flexibly," he says. "That's been really useful over the past eight months because of the need for companies to be nimble and agile in the face of unexpected circumstances.
"But it's a balancing act, because we have a very strong customer service ethos," Lucey says. "A big part of our culture is regular face to face contact with clients, which is obviously much harder now that we can't jump on a flight whenever the need arises. We felt if we were going to really take advantage of the opportunities in Asia and Europe, we'd have to grow our physical presence."
This, though, is a company well accustomed to growth. Since its foundation in 2007, Aspira has on average doubled in size every three years, working with clients across multiple industry sectors to help them deliver large-scale technology projects. The company has been listed in the Financial Times 'Top 1000 Growth Companies in Europe' for the past two consecutive years.
Although Aspira offers a broad range of services, it is best known for its expertise in project management. The company's Managing Director (Europe), Peter Ryan, is also VP of the Project Management Institute of the Netherlands.
"Fundamentally, we're a consultancy," says Ryan. "That means we listen to our clients first and foremost, then we advise and help them to deliver their technology projects successfully end to end. We offer a broad host of services, including advisory, training, hands-on delivery services.
"What we want to do for clients is deliver their projects today and also build capability for them to improve tomorrow," he says. "A simple engagement would be a project manager going into a client and delivering a project, but we would also expect our consultants to give some added value, not just to deliver the project but to build in best practices that allow the client to continually improve.
"We operate across a number of verticals including energy and utilities, pharmaceutical and medical devices, fintech, healthcare, and e-commerce which has accelerated rapidly during Covid," says Ryan, who is based in the company's Amsterdam office. "The majority of our clients are enterprise clients including multinationals and large-scale organisations in the private sector."
The firm's client portfolio includes names such as Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Vattenfall, K3, CRH, BME, Citco, McAfee, as well as a host of blue-chip financial institutions, energy suppliers, plus a range of public sector, semi-state clients and Government departments.
This year, the company has been helping e-commerce software giant K3 to undergo a major digital transformation involving some of the biggest retailers on the planet.
"A client like [K3] would come to us for our end-to-end service," says Peter Ryan. "They come to us because we have a reputation for excellence in delivering projects, and because we can think through what a digital transformation looks like in an e-commerce world. So, we can co-design digital transformation from a retail perspective with them and help build their capability through creating the right mix of our advisory and training services."
Aspira's hectic schedule is unlikely to ease any time soon. The company expects 2020 growth to be slightly up on last year – some feat, considering the context – and is looking at setting up in North and South America in the next 18 to 24 months.
"Because we have that broad range of services, we've been able to withstand the challenges [of Covid]," says CEO Pat Lucey. "We've worked hard to develop a spread – geographical spread, client industry spread, currency spread – and that makes us relatively resilient. We've also been lucky.
"Then again, as they say, hard work puts you in a place where good luck can find you," he adds with a smile.
Find out more about our Project Management and digital transformation services.
Article from: https://irishadvantage.com/aspira-trademark-agility-key-markets/


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German Formula 3 driver Sophia Floersch, who fractured her spine in an aerial crash at the Macau Grand Prix on Sunday, reassured fans on Tuesday that she was recovering well and vowed to return to the sport.
Floersch sustained the injury at the street circuit when her car flew off the track and into a photographers' bunker at high speed. Her Van Amersfoort Racing team said on Monday that doctors had ruled out fear of paralysis.
"I'm going to come back," Floersch said on Facebook.
"I survived the operation which took 11 hours. Hope from now on it only gets better. I have to stay a few more days in Macau until I'm transportable.
"I want to thank all of my fans for every single get-well wishes, which I now start reading. This really motivates me and gives me courage."
Jean Todt, head of governing body International Automobile Federation (FIA), has promised a full investigation into the incident which also left Japanese driver Sho Tsuboi, two photographers and a track marshal injured. (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
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iTunes Connect will be closed for the Holidays As part of Apple's yearly holiday ritual, they will be closing iTunes Connect starting Saturday, December 21, to Friday, December 27. This means that we will be unable to submit any iOS apps or updates to apps during this time. Here is the official notice from Apple:…Read more
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Did you know... Our Cirrus™ Player comes fully-loaded with features that you can turn on or off anytime in your Radio Control Panel. Which feature is your favorite? Here are four of our widely used features. Are you using any of these? Top Menu Buttons and Content You can create up to 5 buttons that run…Read more
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With the end of the year just around the corner, advertisers are blasting the advertising world with end of the year and holiday specials. "The Unharnessed Revenue in Online Streaming" is our 11-page guide that summarizes the growth of online ad spending and how you should be utilizing your Cirrus™ player's ad space to maximize revenue potential.…Read more


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"Authentic Char Siew with my heirloom recipe – Yummy & Juicy Roasted Pork that whets your appetite."
'Char Siew', is actually Cantonese pronunciation. It means 'fork roasting'. Why is it being called as 'fork roasting'? It simply refers to its cooking method, long strips of marinated pork meat which are skewered with long forks, and roasted in a large covered oven using charcoal. This is a traditional way of making this dish. Char Siew is one of the famous "roasted flavours (烧味)" in Asia, especially Hong Kong. Char Siew (叉烧) is also well-known as Chinese roasted pork, barbecued pork and Cantonese-style honeyed pork.
The local flavour of Char Siew in Singapore usually appears in bright redish colour. Most Char Siew sellers mix red colouring to enhance redish appearance of this roasted pork. However, I opted out the colouring step as its original colour is even more alluring, to me.
Coming to the Char Siew sauce part, there are so many ready-made Char Siew sauce widely available in the market. The taste of such instant sauce is good, too. However, I did not use the ready-made version. I would like to share my recipe of making Char Siew sauce here because it's easy to make! My dad, who could cook very well (too bad, he has no time for it), handed down his recipe to me, in fact. I called this as one of the prescious heirloom recipes! It is indeed very tasty and juicy. This Char Siew has a sweet-aromatic aftertaste.
The ingredients for Char Siew recipe are simple and easily obtainable in grocery shop, wet market or supermarket. Most of the condiments used are already available at home, actually. I added Zedoary in my recipe.
Not sure if you have heard about Zedoary (沙姜), it is a kind of root herb. It is commonly ground into powder and to be used in Chinese cooking such as five spice braised pork meat, and baked chicken, or to be added into curry paste in Indian cuisine. This edible root of zedoary looks and tastes similar to ginger, but Zedoary has mild spice scent. It's flavour will not be overwhelming. Zedoary normally sold in powder form and small pieces. Both types are OK to be used in this Char Siew recipe. I'll use any form depends on its availablity at that point of time. We can easily get it from Chinese/ Eastern medical shops, and even Indian spice shop. I like to use Zedoary because it's mild, and to aid digestion, a relief for colic, and act as its blood purifying agent.
Anyway, do not get worried if you still can't figure it out, or might have difficulty for getting one. Use ginger juice instead, since it has similar taste to ginger. To make ginger juice, blend or finely chopped 1 small piece of ginger, and then squeeze juice out. Either of these makes delicious Char Siew dish!
For home-cooking, we do not use charcoal to roast it. We may either use a wok/ saucepan over stove or bake in an oven. Let's see:
500 gram of long strips pork shoulder cut (or 3-layered belly, if desired)
1 small cucumber, sliced (as side dish)
Seasoning:1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce (thick soy sauce)
1 tablespoon of honey
5 tablespoon of sugar (add more, if desired)
1 teaspoon of Hua Diao Rice Wine
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
½ teaspoon of Zedoary, grounded, or in 3 – 4 small pieces, lightly mashed (Chinese translation: 沙姜)
(Or, simply replace with 1 teaspoon of ginger juice.)
Use stove-cooking:
1) Cut pork into 2 long strips, if not yet. Place them in a large bowl.
2) Combine well with all seasoning ingredients. Dredge pork strips with the seasoning mixture, and marinate for 1 – 2 hours.
3) Preheat a large wok/ saucepan over medium fire, place strips into the hot wok. Keep remaining marinating sauce in the bowl for later.
4) Roast pork strips for 10 min each side, or until both side are caramelized (glazed) and well roasted. Remove from wok.
5) Put marinating sauce into the wok, add some water in order to yield more amount if sauce, and bring to a boil. Reserve it as Char Siew sauce for later.
6) Thinly slice pork strips when they are cooled, and serve with Char Siew sauce, and sliced cucumbers.
Use oven-baking:
1) Preheat oven to 200ºC.
2) Line baking dish with aluminum foil, and place pork strips on it. Do not discard the marinating sauce, but put it in a bake-proof ramekin.
3) Place baking dish in the center of preheated oven.
4) Bake one side for 10 minutes. Turn pork strips over and bake for another 10 min, or until caramelized. Place marinating sauce in ramekin into oven to cook for the same 10 minutes, after flipping over the meat.
5) Remove roasted pork and sauce from oven. Thinly slice when strips are cooled. Serve with Char Siew sauce, and cucumbers.
Use Air-Frying:
1) Marinate meat as usual, except for honey. Pre-heat air fryer at 180deg Celsius for 5 minutes. Place marinated meat onto the wire mesh basket and air fry for 10 minutes. Do not discard the marinating sauce, but put it in a baking-proof ramekin or any bowl that can stand heat. Seat aside for later.
2) When first 10 minutes air-frying is done, open air fryer, turn the meat over to air fry for another 8 minutes.
3) Then, increase temperature 200deg Celsius. Brush honey and continue to air fry for 5 minutes. When done, turn meat over, brush honey and air fry for another 5 minutes, or until meat is roasted with some char-burnt edges.
3) Remove roasted Char Siew meat from air fryer. Place the sauce in ramekin onto the same wire mesh basket to cook at 160deg Celsius for 10 minutes. When Char Siew is slightly cooled, slice and pour sauce to serve.
[Post Note on August 2014] Air-frying method was recently used. See how the roasted pork was nicely charred. It's tender, juicy and aromatic. Yes, with air-fryer. Most importantly, it was a hassle free job in the kitchen! Oh, exclude the washing part ya! :D
This dish takes about 20 min (exclude marinating time) to complete and serve. If you are preparing it for next day dinner, marinate pork the night before. Store it in the refrigerator. A delicious dinner of homemade Char Siew awaiting you and your family!
I never forgot to remind you on the calorie-count. It yields 250kcal for a decent portion of Char Siew meat. Shoulder cut pork meat loads you with lesser calorie as compared to belly pork. I like to use shoulder part for its tenderness, too. Of course, some like the fatty part most. The choice is yours.
Tips: Do not heat wok with oil. Place pork strips directly on the dry hot wok, for better caramelizing effect.
*Do not over-roast or bake the pork in order to retain maximum tenderness and juiciness of the meat.
*Dredge pork strips with the seasoning mixes during marination to intermingle meat and the sauce further.
* You may adopt the same honey-brushing method into stove cooking and oven baking as air-frying. This way is the best to prevent easy burning of the main part of the meat. Also to yield shinny appearance of the Char Siew.
* There might be some aromatic meat juice and oil emanated from the roasting and left in the pan/ baking tray/ air fryer, do not discard it. Pour it out to drizzle on the Char Siew.
* You may wish to line baking sheet or aluminum foil on the wire mesh basket to prevent sticking. However, the downwards facing part of the Char Siew might get a little bit wet from the juice retained in the foil. Hence, longer air-frying time might be needed. Extend a couple of minutes longer, then.