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A charity which works to break the cycles of crime and addiction has launched a new campaign to help tackle stigma towards ex-offenders and people in recovery from addiction.
More Than My Past aims to raise awareness of the potential for ex-offenders and former addicts to turn their lives around, including through employment.
Barriers and stigmas exist that prevent people with difficult pasts from reaching their full potential, particularly in relation to finding work. More Than My Past aims to challenge this and demonstrate to employers that such individuals are a worthy investment, if given the opportunity to prove themselves.
According to The Forward Trust, the charity behind the campaign, ex-offenders and people in recovery are the two groups that organisations are least likely to employ. Research conducted by the charity in 2017 found that one in four people in recovery have been turned down for jobs three times or more by disclosing their past.
Three quarters of prisoners have no job on release even though employment is the single biggest factor in reducing re-offending; 15 per cent of prisoners have never worked legally and almost half of prisoners (47 per cent) have no qualifications. Those in recovery from addiction who are employed are 22 per cent more likely to be abstinent than those who are not. Having a job more than doubles the length of abstinence.
With Brexit looming on the horizon, The Forward Trust is urging employers to consider expanding their recruitment pools to include ex-offenders in order to meet their requirements. According to the CIPD, 70 per cent of employers with vacancies said that at least some of those were proving hard-to-fill in Autumn 2018, compared to 51 per cent in Spring 2017.
Employers already backing the campaign include food retailer Cook, retail service provider Timpson and transport social enterprise HCT Group.
James Timpson, Chief Executive at Timpson said:
Timpson is a family run business whose colleagues are the heart and soul of our company. We really are an equal opportunities employer, which includes sourcing great colleagues who may be ex-offenders or from other marginalised groups.
We don't discriminate based on people's background and instead recruit exclusively on personality. We firmly believe that people's past should not hold them back and recognise that some of our best employees have had to challenge stigmas and prejudice to get to where they are today.
Dai Powell, Chief Executive of social enterprise HCT Group added:
HCT Group believes that someone's history shouldn't define them. We're proud to support the 'More Than My Past' campaign as we believe in the potential of people whose past may not have been perfect. So many individuals still face too many barriers to employment due to a criminal past. But if they are given a chance they can – and do – turn their lives around to become valuable members of society.
Mike Trace, CEO of The Forward Trust, said:
Forward has been supporting people with criminal backgrounds or drug and alcohol problems to turn their lives around for over 25 years. We know that, if we show a belief in their ability to make a positive change, and give them the opportunity to prove themselves, they can do amazing things. We back up this belief, as Forward lives its mission by aiming to have a high proportion of all our staff, apprentices and volunteers having 'lived experience' – either a history of drug/alcohol problems, or of offending.
Currently, a third of The Forward Trust's 400 salaried staff and 80 per cent of 150 volunteers, report that they are either ex-offenders or people in recovery from drug/alcohol dependence.
Trace concluded:
We want the general public and employers to share our belief in this untapped potential and do something to support people to be more than their past.
Photo: Julie Muir, former heroin addict and young offender, now Head of Recovery and Resettlement at Forward Trust


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Where do you ship ?
The shipment could be done all over the world.
What is the delivery time
The delivery times includes production (0-2 weeks, depending on stocks) and shipping (3 to 15 days depending on your location and shipping option).
Which shipping option do you propose ?
We propose standard delivery and express delivery.
For example, shipping to US :
The delivery is expected around 10 working days in standard shipping and 4 working days in express shipping.
Where do you ship from ?
All products are produced and shipped from France.
What is the shipping costs ?
The shipping cost depend on the weight of the product.
About custom duties ?
Depending on your location, custom duties may be applied by local authorities. It's unfortunately beyond our control.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Indiana residents trust Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance to provide them with the highest quality insurance products and services, and as your local Greene County agent, I value that trust and connection with my clients. I live in Linton with my wife, Miranda, and our three children: Dax, Anna and Ella. We attend Harvest Community Church in Bloomfield. An active member of our community, I am vice president on the Board of Directors at Greene County General Hospital and serve on the Board of Directors for Greene County Health Clinics. Outside the office, I enjoy hobby farming with 4-H animals, fishing and IU sports. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in public health with a minor in human resources and marketing from Indiana University. I also earned an associate's degree in horticulture from Vincennes University. It's important for me to get to know you and your insurance needs, so don't hesitate to reach out!


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As I write this, I'm at Tacky's Tavern polishing off my third Long Island iced tea. (Nope, don't adjust your volume—you heard me right!) Now, normally, I believe the best highs come from life itself. But today, your old pal Jean requires a drinky-poo the size of an aqualung! (Actually, I prefer Brandy Alexanders to Long Islands, but Tacky's doesn't make them.)
So, guess who's back on the unemployment line? Here's a hint: It's a certain North Pole elf with a hubby who says "told ya so" so often he should have it tattooed on his forehead! Yep, you guessed it—none other than yours truly.
If you've followed the past few columns, you know my dad and I started a business called Off-Season Santa, in which lucky visitors got to sit on Santa's (aka Dad's) lap all year 'round. It was a pretty "way out" idea, I'll admit, but we were confident it would catch on. After all, who doesn't love Santa?
Apparently, nearly everyone. It's a crying shame. Can't people think outside the box for once? We all need whimsy in our lives. People are so used to going to stores for essentials like food, but they never think to feed their spirits. Well, don't worry: Soon you'll see me back behind a cash register, checking out your groceries or clothing or toilet paper—and most likely wearing a misspelled name tag, too. (I swear, how hard is it to spell "Jean"? It's not "Jeanne" or "Gene" or "Jene"—never has been, never will!)
The sad thing was, business had been picking up. Our brand new "Christmas in July" banner was attracting the right people, we were logging quite a few sales of discounted greeting cards and knickknacks, and there was even a girl making a documentary about us for her college film class. On the day before the fire, four mothers with children stopped by, and they were paying customers, too.
Yeah, okay, the fire. There was a fire last week. I'm pretty weary from talking and thinking about it, but I suppose I have no choice but to mention it again. It burned down nearly the entire strip mall, including the comic-book store, four vacant spaces, and Off-Season Santa. (For some reason, only the H&R Block was left untouched. Perhaps the wind shifted.)
Thank God no one was hurt. The fire happened late Wednesday night. The scariest part was that, on the very night of the fire, Dad stayed at work late after closing to play Texas Hold 'Em with Doug, the guy who managed the comic-book store, and Armand, the property manager. If Dad and those guys had stayed around the store a half-hour longer, they might've gambled away a lot more than a few bucks!
I'm still not really sure how the fire started. I've heard stories flying around about paint cans, defective sprinkler systems, and a stash of fireworks in the back room of the comic-book store. I don't know—I haven't paid much attention. It was painful enough seeing our devastated shop. Whatever wasn't burned to a charred crisp suffered water damage from the fire hoses. I had to spend a whole day hauling garbage bags of charred Christmas decorations and yards and yards of dirty, damp polyurethane "snow" to the Dumpster. (Talk about being down in the dumps!) Not even Dad's cutout sleigh placards, which he used to hide his Rascal scooter from the children, were spared. The documentary girl was there too, filming me. I wished she wouldn't, but I didn't have the heart to ask her to go.
Fire investigators interviewed Dad a couple times at our apartment. Watching them stirred up an old memory of mine, of another business of my dad's that burned down. My dad was running a roofing company and some warehouse on his property burned one night. I was in high school at the time, and I remember insurance people coming to our house, and Dad even going to the police station to make sworn statements or something. Shortly afterwards, he closed down the business and moved away with the woman who would become his second wife.
So, this was not Dad's first encounter with fire. Oddly enough, rather than being upset, he seemed calm, almost relieved. He never insured Off-Season Santa, but he's convinced we and the other businesses will get fat payouts from the building owner's liability insurance.
"We'll get some money, and I'll be able to pay my debts," Dad said. "The fire didn't start in our space, so they can't finger us for negligence."
I asked Dad if we could use the money to open a new store, this time in a better space and with insurance, but Dad shook his head.
"Off-Season Santa was ahead of its time," he said. "Someday, people will finally come around to the notion of a year-round Santa, but not now."
I awoke at about 10 this morning to find that Dad had loaded his Rascal scooter and his few belongings into his Lincoln Town Car and left. (I guess Dad still enjoys his hasty exits.) Hubby Rick was already at work, so I called him to ask if he saw Dad take off.
"You mean he bailed?!" he cried. Then he started raging about how Dad owed him so much rent and food money and back wages for me, and how he couldn't believe he let Dad sponge off us for so long. I tried to tell him about the insurance money, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise. So I hung up, grabbed my notebook, and drove to Tacky's.
Sorry, Jeanketeers. I'm a little blotto, and I shouldn't be taking my troubles out on you. I just find it sad—I feel like I finally had a chance to spread my wings and fly, and I got sucked into a jet engine. Now that I've had a brief taste of being my own boss, I don't know how I can ever face dull work and bossy supervisors 15 years my junior. Right now, I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow I'll open the paper to a classified ad reading: "WANTED: 39-year-old woman to test-market our line of Long Island iced teas. Good pay, flexible hours. Ownership of Christmas elf suit a must."


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Justin Davis was enamored with the idea of a match when deciding what to name the country duo he had formed with fellow Belmont University student Sarah Zimmermann. They were, indeed, a matched set. From the first time they performed together, as freshmen music students picked at random for an impromptu performance, playing one-on-one became more than just two guitarists making music together. They named their group Striking Matches.
"There was something about being with Sarah and us singing together that really created something that otherwise wasn't there," Davis said. They'd sung with others before, but it was nothing like what happened when their voices joined in harmony. They'd written with others, as well, but there was something unique about penning songs with one another. Though both are lead guitarists and practiced singers, they've found a way to share ax duties in a balanced way and sing not duets, but full harmonies made with two voices.
They are a striking match, Davis admits, though he shies away from the "cheesy" double entendre.
"I liked the sound of striking matches," Davis said. "It's expressive and sounds exciting."
Still, like a match dragged across the right surface the right way, a transformation takes place when Zimmermann and Davis perform together. And if it's fire they're making, then the flame is spreading thanks to a recently released EP and the promise of big exposure on a hit TV show.
Striking Matches released its self-titled EP, produced by Grammy winner Luke Wooten, early last month. It's the first recording the unsigned band has put out, and already they've noticed their fan base stretch beyond listeners who came to know the band through its live performances.
"People that weren't coming to shows – because that was the only way that we could get fans, was if they saw us live – now they're just showing up out of the blue saying they found us on iTunes," Davis said. "That's well beyond our reach originally and that's really, really cool."
That reach may well expand in the coming weeks, as ABC's "Nashville" has picked up two tracks from the four-track Striking Matches EP. Later this season, the tender love song "When the Right One Comes Along" will be given a nationwide audience on the new drama about musical stardom in the country music capital.
It's been about three years since their chance first performance as students. Since then, they've traded the classroom for the stage, playing shows both in Nashville and on the road.
"I'm sure at some point we'll finish," Zimmermann said when asked about the band's not-quite-student status, "but the iron was hot and we're doing what we came to town to do."
Tonight, they'll be opening with an acoustic set for John Hiatt and The Combo at The Birchmere; part two of the back-to-back engagement kicks off tomorrow evening.
Though the recent buzz that surrounds Striking Matches is cause for celebration for Zimmermann and Davis, they're looking ahead to what this young project can accomplish next: recording a full album, playing more shows, and just sharing their music with listeners.
"Your latest song is your best song, always," Davis said. "You want to keep going and move on to the next project and say 'yes, I'm proud of the EP, but what's next?'"
• For more information about Striking Matches, visit strikingmatches.com.


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So there I was,having a great Sunday morning sleep... dreaming. Dreaming about Space. Not closet space or how to use space in designing a room. I'm talking about Space: The Final Frontier.
It shouldn't surprise you to know that I think about space a lot. I have spent (misspent) my youth reading about space travel, talking about space travel, and watching anything space-related on television (which probably explains my Star Trek fixation). I have even dreamed about space travel before... but nothing, thankfully, like this.
In this dream, I had a sort of God's-eye-view of a space shuttle launch. It wasn't just any space shuttle launch, though. In my dream, I knew that the crew of this particular mission was made up of women. The commander, pilot, and mission specialists were all women.
The launch happened as launches usually do, with lots of noise, flame, and smoke, and progressed to the point where the launch vehicle lifted smoothly from the pad and began to gain speed and altitude rapidly. Here is where it gets weird.
As the shuttle gained altitude, my view remained the same, as if I was above the shuttle at the distance of perhaps half a mile. From my vantage point, the shuttle was getting into the upper atmosphere, and the dawn light (or perhaps early twilight) made for a beautiful scene as the Florida peninsula fully resolved itself. As all of thiswas happening, the shuttle pitched over backwards, and executed a perfect inside loop! Pulling out of the loop and climbing once again, I thought: "wow, I've never seen THAT before!" No sooner than that thought had formed, the shuttle did another loop. When this happened I thought: "This is bad" The shuttle did a third and final loop, but was unable to exit the loop and regain altitude, and was headed, with the main engines still at full throttle, for the earth's surface.
This time, as it was for the lunch, I had a look-down view of the shuttle, and I was following it at the same distance as I had watched the launch from. The shuttle was hurtling down, gaining speed with every second (it takes a long time to fall from the edge of space, you know). As the shuttle got closer to the ground, I watched seven figures exit the spacecraft and begin to fall until parachutes emerged from several of the figures.
When the shuttle it the ground, it exploded, as you can imagine, in a huge ball of fire. I watched two of the crew members fall to the ground at full-speed, and the other five float to the ground with their parachutes. For some reason, I knew that there were a total of crew members, which meant that three members, probably the Commander, Pilot, and Flight Engineer (do shuttle crews have flight engineers?), perished in the crash.
I woke up to a dreary Sunday morning, without fires, explosions, rockets, or parachuting astronauts.
I have no idea what that was supposed to mean.
Anyone have any ideas?


text: Succeed in the course with BIOCHEMISTRY. The authors' innovative conceptual and organizing "Essential Questions" framework guides you through course concepts in a way that reveals the beauty and usefulness of biochemistry in the everyday world. Offering a balanced and streamlined presentation, this edition has been updated throughout with new material and revised presentations. This book is integrated with OWLv2, a powerful online learning system for chemistry with book-specific end-of-chapter material that will help you improve your grades and master course concepts.


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Andorran typical townhouse in urbanization with fireplace, garden and terrace with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
Equipped with everything you need, linens, towels, dishwasher, microwave, coffee dolce gusto ...
Parking and wifi included in the price
Andorra is considered as one of the most important tourist centers in Europe. Gets a lot of visitors are primarily interested in shopping, because of the great prices and products in the country; as well as in the practice of winter sports and mountain excursions and hiking or to discover the country altogether.
The Pyrenean country gives you a wide range of activities to enjoy with family or friends. Discover the most special corners of this small country and live the experience before and after skiing.
Andorra has a large number of natural parks where you can make many nature-related throughout the year such as ecotourism routes ferrata, fishing, climbing or mountain biking routes (cycling) activities.
You can also enjoy the hot springs at Caldea, the largest spa center in the mountains of Europe. Surrounded by a unique and spectacular setting in the midst of the Pyrenees, try it and experience all the benefits you offer hot springs.
Vallnord has three sectors to enjoy winter sports, Pal, Arinsal and Arcalis. Currently, Pal and Arinsal are communicated through a sixteen-seater gondola lift, which you can enjoy 63km of slopes. Vallnord has a continuous bus service, completely free, which links the three sectors, thus making it easier travel.
Andorran typical rustic house built in stone and wood, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms


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Thousands of KELOLAND students will walk across the graduation stage this month, but two of those students say they are especially proud of their diplomas. The President's Academy in Sioux Falls breaks down barriers for young men and women and their families who have recently moved to the United States.
That includes 19-year-old Innocent Mukunzi. Through courses he has taken at the Academy and CTE in Sioux Falls, he says he has learned to build things. He says the foundation for his love of making things with his hands comes from his education.
"I'm so proud to be here!" Mukunzi said.
He moved here from the Republic of Congo a year and half ago.
"First time when I came here, it was hard to understand because my English was not good the first time. Now I understand everything," Mukunzi said.
Sharpening English skills is just one focus here. The five-year-old academy helps students who are 17 or older who are behind on high school credits. Many of them and their families immigrated to the United States.
"Their families brought them to our country for a better future in order for them to have a better future; education is part of that," Tom Hooker, Director of President's Academy, said.
Both Mukunzi and Lydia Adiang are getting their high school diplomas. For Adiang, who was born here to a family from South Sudan, the biggest help is a flexible class schedule and course load.
"It's just better, because after I leave here, I go straight to work and before I couldn't work on the weekdays when I went to Lincoln, only the weekends," Adiang said.
Hooker says many of the students are helping support their families. As for the teachers, they give their students more than just words and numbers.
"The most important thing is to meet them where they are emotionally. They have to feel like they belong, and they're a part of what we're doing here and that you care about how they're doing," Perry Killion, math instructor, said.
Students get to walk with their high school class at graduation. Hooker says even though the academy allows students to work at their own pace, it helps them earn their high school credits faster than they would at a mainstream high school.
Mukunzi, whose love for building is inspiring him to eventually study engineering when he goes to college, says the President's Academy helped create a blueprint for a bright future.


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The Czech Women's Lobby (CWL) is an umbrella organization that defends the rights of women in the Czech Republic.
Our mission is to take on real problems women face and raise them to a political level as well as to improve the situation of women in society. We are part of the European Women's Lobby, an organization that unites women and gender associations in Europe and cooperate with European institutions.
The Czech Women's Lobby promotes the rights of all women, regardless of their race, ethnicity, abilities, sexual orientation, age, religion or faith.
Our achievements


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Breast Augmentation – Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, Tampa
Implants: Saline or Silicone?
How do you choose between saline and silicone implants? In my practice since the FDA approval of silicone implants in November, 2006 approximately 70% of women undergoing breast augmentation or breast augmentation and mastopexy (breast lift) choose silicone implants over saline implants Aufblasbare Spiele.
One of the most important factors that I look at in helping a woman choose between saline or silicone implants is her anatomy. In my opinion, silicone implants tend to have better overall aesthetics than saline implants. They tend to feel more natural (more like the consistency of breast tissue) and tend to have less rippling visibility (rippling is a wavy appearance of the skin of the breast). A woman that is very lean with small breasts will have less soft tissue covering the implant, so the implant characteristics are more visible and palpable. She may benefit more from the aesthetic qualities of a silicone implant Module Art Panels. A woman with more subcutaneous fat and larger breasts can "hide" the implant better so that the implant characteristics are not as critical
Saline and silicone implants each have particular benefits that can influence your breast augmentation results. When the augmentation is performed properly they both create beautiful breast aesthetics. I have outlined saline and silicone implant characteristics and trade-offs in the table below. Learn More about Breast Augmentation
|Saline Implants
|Silicone Implants
|Less expensive
|More expensive
|More rippling
|Less rippling
|Less natural
|More natural
|MRI follow-up
|Not necessary
|Every 2 years per FDA
|Rupture Rate1
|3% (3 year rate)
|0.5% (3 year rate)
|Incision Size
|Yes (in OR)
|9% (3 year rate)
|8% (3 year rate)
1. Statistics from Mentor Corporation for primary breast augmentation.
During your consultation I will evaluate your tissue characteristics with you so that swamp coolers for sale you can make the best implant choice for you. You will get to handle some sample saline and silicone implants so that you can see exactly what they feel like. Do not hesitate to call or email my staff for any questions or for a consultation.
Warmest Regards,
Christopher Adamson, MD


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by JimLa Joie
(Poway, Californie)
July 6th - San Diego -
8am to 9am - cooked a batch of gluten free brownies.
9:30 am - I put on a large acorn squash, then off to the hardware store.
11 am - returned to find the squash completely and tenderly cooked.
Noon - Melted cheese sandwich with sliced apple chicken sausage on potato bread. Took about 30 minutes.
I still had plenty of sun - but nothing else to cook. Made beans, rice, chicken, roast earlier in the week and just did not need any more food.
Everything was excellent. The brownies, the squash, the sandwich was toasty, hot, delicious.
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Share your Solar Cooking Experiences, Event or Photos!.
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text:
We want to maximize the impact of our work, right? Help all the teams, not just ours. Widely applied processes, reusable code.
Watch out: imposing reuse invites regret and resentment.
Reuse is coupling
In code: this one time, the lead devs at my small company made a utility library, full of little array and string manipulation functions. They encouraged everyone to include that library and use the functions.
Using the library was not great, because we didn't know it, and it was harder to look through than google. Upgrading it was a nightmare.
Every team used the functions in different ways. To get one updated function, we had to accept all the updates, and hope they didn't break us. I resented it.
Whenever the lead devs learned something and changed a function, the impacts were unpredictable. Regret!
Consistency is coupling
The other day, my team made a little internal web site. Three adjacent teams liked it. "Maybe we should all have one," they said.
One level up, this led to ideas like: there should be One Place where everyone can go. With consistent design. Let's design something and then put everyone's content under that.
No! We are four teams in one department, but our internal audiences (customers) are different. And we are different, and our content is different. This is not a place for a framework. That framework restrains us, as we each try to fulfill different purposes. Regret!
Waiting for any decision that affects four teams, before we can do something in our one team, is a dependency and a handoff. I resent that.
Leverage goes both ways
When a small change has a wider impact, that's leverage. A big push from a small push.
In these cases, the leverage didn't make the big push easier — it made the small push harder!
If tweaking my site means changing four sites, it's not free to tweak it. If improving a utility function might break other teams, it is not safe to improve it.
Instead of widening the use of our learning, we've constricted learning.
Legibility is only for you
There is one sneaky benefit that makes this pain hard to see.
Spreading that library around the company made the code clearer to the lead devs (because they wrote it).
Condensing four teams into a consistent web site design makes it prettier for the leadership of our department (because they're the only audience for the collective teams).
This is legibility: they can look from the top and survey their domain and understand it.
Don't be that person, that architect who values consistency from their perspective. Don't put your aesthetics above the effectiveness of the people doing the work and the value to customers. Don't mistake legibility for leverage.


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Emboldened by support from across the country, Oklahoma teachers swarmed the state Capitol for a second week in their unrelenting quest for more school funding.
And by some accounts, Monday's crowd was the biggest yet.
Hundreds of schools closed Monday as teachers demanded $150 million more to replace dilapidated, decades-old textbooks and fund elective courses. They also want higher raises for support staff and themselves.
Some teachers walked 15 miles Monday to get to Oklahoma City.
They bring the support and advice of West Virginia teachers, whose nine-day strike last month led to a 5% pay raise.
"When talking to West Virginia teachers, they told me the most important day of the walkout was the 2nd Monday," posted Alberto Morejon, the organizer of the "Oklahoma Teacher Walkout - The Time is Now!" Facebook group.
Millions of dollars granted, millions more wanted
The teachers' massive protest has already yielded some action by legislators.
Shortly before the April 2 walkout, Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill that provided $50 million in funding for schools, increased teachers' salaries and gave pay raises to support staff. But the package wasn't nearly as much as educators demanded, so major school districts shuttered and the walkout ensued.
Now, two pieces of legislation could soon become law, getting a few steps closer to what teachers say they need:
1. The state Senate approved a bill amendment Friday that would require third-party retailers selling through outlets such as Amazon to collect sales tax from customers or inform them how much they owe in sales taxes. (The House approved the measure earlier in the week.) That bill could bring in about $20 million annually in education funding, but teachers say schools need a total of $200 million over three years.
What Oklahoma teachers want vs. what they've gotten
The Oklahoma teachers' union wants:
2. The Senate on Friday approved a "ball and dice" tax for gambling. While Senate leaders said it will not add any income to this year's education funding, the Oklahoma Education Association said it would help in the long run.
But the OEA was livid about another Senate move: the repeal of a hotel and motel tax that it said would be paid by mostly nonresidents and would add millions in revenue.
The Senate followed the House's lead and repealed the tax as part of Bill 1010XX, thereby chopping $43 million from the education funding bill. Senators say they can make up that shortage through other revenue in the bill.
What will it take for this to end?
While thousands of students remain out of school indefinitely, OEA President Alicia Priest made clear what she thinks lawmakers must do to end the teacher walkout.
She said Fallin must veto the Legislature's repeal of the hotel-motel tax, and the Legislature must pass a bill ending the state's capital gains tax deduction.
Until then, don't expect teachers to end the walkout.
"I think it will continue … until they see the fully funded education bills that need to be passed," said Kingsgate Elementary Principal Karie Hill, one of many administrators who joined teachers at the Capitol.
Kentucky teachers are furious, too
The Oklahoma protesters join teachers from Kentucky, Arizona and other states who have been fighting for more pay, better education funding and improved working conditions.
In Kentucky, teachers also protested the passage of a pension bill, which they called a "bait-and-switch" move.
That bill, which would affect new teachers, is at Gov. Matt Bevin's desk. Supporters of the bill said the changes are necessary to save the state's pension systems.
CNNMoney: How states are changing teacher pension plans
While Kentucky teachers were protesting the pension overhaul last week, the state Legislature passed changes to the tax system called House Bill 366.
An analysis of that bill by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found it would bring a huge tax cut for the richest 1% of residents, while the biggest tax increase would affect those making less than $21,000 a year. A fellow with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy described it as "a tax cut for Kentucky's richest people paired with a tax increase for the middle class and the poor."
Bevin has until legislators return to session April 13 to sign the bill.
Until then, the Kentucky Educators Association has urged its members to return to their classrooms.
"Our students need us to show up for them in classrooms and schools," the group posted on Facebook over the weekend. "We urge educators statewide not to allow our united efforts to be compromised by continued calls for action that deprive students, parents and communities of the educational services we provide."
CNN's Isabella Gomez Madison Park contributed to this report.


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Revamp your business stationery designs into something to behold and get your vision across in a better way.
Often considered unimportant and waste of investment, custom stationery designs can help in brushing up your corporate image and establishing a powerful brand presence to differentiate you from the competitors.
A customer is interested in availing the services of your brand. You had spent a considerable amount of time explaining your vision and why your services are the best. The customer asks you for your business card, so the partnership can spearhead further. Excitedly, you quickly hand over a card. But it's flimsy, shabby, and extremely conventional. Where the customer appreciated your vision, the look of the card puts question upon your integrity and reliability. Sounds like something you don't want? Neither do we! And this is why Logo Designer strives to provide outstanding stationery design services, so you can seal the deal in the right manner.
We craft unmatched designs to keep you ahead of the game in just four simple steps.
We ask you to fill a thorough design brief, so we can comprehend your ambitions and expectations in a seamless way.
Once we have finished enough research and brainstorming, we turn our talks into walks to mold your ideas in unique designs.
As soon as we are done, we ask us for your suggestions, so we can make any changes you require in your desired design.
After making all the required changes, we deliver your customized design, ready to generate exemplary results for you.
Professionally designed and crafted stationery not only makes the right impression on the clients, but it is also a reflection of your company's commitment, quality, and ingenuity. Creative and aesthetic designs can urge your potential customers and partners to remember you. In other words, stylish stationery designs have the power to make an impact. At Logo Designer, we can help you elevate the designs of your stationery items. Be it business cards, labels, letterheads, compliment slips, envelopes, calendars or writing essentials, we know how to integrate your vision, goals, and unique factors in your stationery items.
Whether you want a striking design that lures all the attention, something touching to connect with the audience or a dash of humor to get some laughs, our stationery designers know how to wow the recipients. We employ sleek and attention-grabbing design ideas with the right combination of colors, typography, and layout. In doing so, we focus on your company's unique selling points, incorporating them in every aspect of the stationery. This ensures that your stationery can speak volumes of your vision, message, and ambitions. We have a keen understanding of the designs that sell and transform, giving our stationery designing agency the ability to convey what you want to say.
You might have seen many stationery designs in your interaction with other businesses or when searching for them online. But there is a reason why you should trust a stationery designing company to take care of your essential items. The best perk of choosing the stationery designing services of a recognized company, like ours, is the ability to customize and personalize the designs in the way you want. We listen to your needs, ask you questions regarding your preferences, and take time to understand the dynamics of your industry, so your design can align with your company's vision.
Our team comprises of some of the best stationery designing professionals in the UAE. Advertising and marketing may be a constructive way of getting your word out but we ensure that your corporate stationery can also be a powerful way to get yourself noticed. We conduct sufficient research of your industry, competitors, work environment, and latest trends. In this way, you can stay ahead of the race and not only get designs but something that will spree your sales. Whether you are just launching your business or revamping an already existing one, you can get professional and creative business stationery designs, within your budget. Dare to be different?


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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences managed not to embarrass itself this year
They're not happening until April 25 this year — thanks, COVID-19 — but the Academy Awards have returned to some measure of homeostasis. They're back to snubbing Spike Lee, but they're not embarrassing themselves the way they did in the alabaster cringefest era of #OscarsSoWhite.
While industry paean Mank led the nominations with 10, Judas and the Black Messiah (6) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (5) also received well-deserved plaudits, including a best actor nod for the late Chadwick Boseman, a best actress nomination for Viola Davis and supporting actor nominations for LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya. Judas also scored nods for best picture and best original screenplay, though, in a puzzling turn, its director, Shaka King, did not get a nomination for directing. Nomadland director Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color in the 93-year history of the Oscars to receive a nomination for best director.
Other bright spots: Leslie Odom Jr., the beating heart of One Night in Miami, was recognized for his work playing Sam Cooke. Garrett Bradley, director of Time and the first woman to win the U.S. documentary prize at Sundance, earned a nomination for her deep dive into one family's yearslong experiences with mass incarceration. Playwright and screenwriter Kemp Powers scored a nomination for One Night in Miami, which was adapted from his play of the same name.
There was at least one major disappointment. Delroy Lindo's magnificent performance as a tortured, MAGA hat-sporting Vietnam veteran losing himself and his grip on reality went unrecognized, as did most of the work that made Da 5 Bloods great. At least Terence Blanchard, Lee's longtime collaborator, notched a nomination for his score for the film.
Netflix's domination this year (the studio behind Mank, Ma Rainey and The Trial of the Chicago 7 racked up 35 nominations) still leaves something to be desired. Da 5 Bloods, which aired on Netflix, is one of Lee's best films in a prolific career, yet neither he nor the film seemed to receive the level of studio support given to his contemporary and friend, Martin Scorsese and The Irishman. Last year, The Irishman racked up 10 Oscar nominations, including for best picture and best director. It was the streamer's costliest film production ($175 million). Meanwhile, Lee got a fraction of that budget ($45 million) to make Da 5 Bloods, which sits alongside Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X as Lee's best work. Nevertheless, Lee made magic — the recreated stone My Son temples where the film's big gunfight takes place were constructed from wood and Styrofoam. And without the budget for de-aging technology that was afforded to Scorsese, Lee relied on changing aspect ratios and a corps of experienced actors to delineate between war-era and modern-day Saigon.
The result was an improvement over the distracting and gimmicky effects work of The Irishman, a way of merging the strengths of film and theater. (And while it does not fall into the category of traditional Oscar bait, I would have liked to see some appreciation for the romance, rigor and beauty of Radha Blank's The Forty-Year-Old Version, another Netflix film about the frustrations and triumphs of the creative process.)
Here are the 2021 Oscar nominations:
Best Picture
The Father: Producers – David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne
Judas and the Black Messiah: Producers – Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler
Mank: Producers– Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski
Minari: Producer – Christina Oh
Nomadland: Producers – Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao
Promising Young Woman: Producers – Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara
Sound of Metal: Producers – Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche
The Trial of the Chicago 7: Producers – Marc Platt and Stuart Besser
Actor in a Leading Role
Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins in The Father
Gary Oldman in Mank
Steven Yeun in Minari
Actor in a Supporting Role
Sacha Baron Cohen in The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom Jr. in One Night in Miami
Paul Raci in Sound of Metal
LaKeith Stanfield in Judas and the Black Messiah
Actress in a Leading Role
Viola Davis in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand in Nomadland
Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman
Actress in a Supporting Role
Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close in Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman in The Father
Amanda Seyfried in Mank
Youn Yuh-jung in Minari
Animated Feature Film
Onward: Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae
Over the Moon: Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon: Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley
Soul: Pete Docter and Dana Murray
Wolfwalkers: Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants
Judas and the Black Messiah: Sean Bobbitt
Mank: Erik Messerschmidt
News of the World: Dariusz Wolski
Nomadland: Joshua James Richards
The Trial of the Chicago 7: Phedon Papamichael
Costume Design
Emma: Alexandra Byrne
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: Ann Roth
Mank: Trish Summerville
Mulan: Bina Daigeler
Pinocchio: Massimo Cantini Parrini
Another Round: Thomas Vinterberg
Mank: David Fincher
Minari: Lee Isaac Chung
Nomadland: Chloé Zhao
Promising Young Woman: Emerald Fennell
Documentary (Feature)
Collective: Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana
Crip Camp: Nicole Newnham, James LeBrecht and Sara Bolder
The Mole Agent: Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez
My Octopus Teacher: Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster
Time: Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn
Documentary (Short Subject)
Colette: Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard
A Concerto Is a Conversation: Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
Do Not Split: Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook
Hunger Ward: Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman
A Love Song For Latasha: Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan
Film Editing
The Father: Yorgos Lamprinos
Nomadland: Chloé Zhao
Promising Young Woman: Frédéric Thoraval
Sound of Metal: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
The Trial of the Chicago 7: Alan Baumgarten
International Feature Film
Another Round: Denmark
Better Days: Hong Kong
Collective: Romania
The Man Who Sold His Skin: Tunisia
Quo Vadis, Aida?: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Makeup and Hairstyling
Emma: Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze
Hillbilly Elegy: Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson
Mank: Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff
Pinocchio: Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti
Music (Original Score)
Da 5 Bloods: Terence Blanchard
Mank: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Minari: Emile Mosseri
News of the World: James Newton Howard
Soul: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste
Music (Original Song)
"Fight For You" from Judas and the Black Messiah
Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas
"Hear My Voice" from The Trial of the Chicago 7
Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite
"Husavik" from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson
"Io Sì (Seen)" from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti A Se)
Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini
"Speak Now" from One Night In Miami
Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom Jr. and Sam Ashworth
Production Design
The Father: Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara and Diana Stoughton
Mank: Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale
News of the World: Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan
Tenet: Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas
Short Film (Animated)
Burrow: Madeline Sharafian and Michael Capbarat
Genius Loci: Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise
IF Anything Happens I Love You: Will McCormack and Michael Govier
Opera: Erick Oh
Yes-People: Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson
Short Film (Live Action)
Feeling Through: Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski
The Letter Room: Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan
The Present: Farah Nabulsi
Two Distant Strangers: Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe
White Eye: Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman
Greyhound: Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman
Mank: Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin
News of the World: Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett
Soul: Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker
Sound of Metal: Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés Navarrete and Phillip Bladh
Visual Effects
Love and Monsters: Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox
The Midnight Sky: Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins
Mulan: Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram
The One and Only Ivan: Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo
Tenet: Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer and Nina Pedrad
The Father: Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller
Nomadland: Written for the screen by Chloé Zhao
One Night In Miami: Screenplay by Kemp Powers
The White Tiger: Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Judas and the Black Messiah: Screenplay by Will Berson and Shaka King; Story by Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenny and Keith Lucas
Minari: Written by Lee Isaac Chung
Promising Young Woman: Written by Emerald Fennell
Sound of Metal: Screenplay by Darius and Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder and Derek Cianfrance
The Trial of the Chicago 7: Written by Aaron Sorkin


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In infinite games there are no winners or losers; there is only ahead and behind. The goal is not to beat the competition, but perpetuate the game. You want to stay playing for as long as possible.
So, if there are no winners or losers, should you focus on anyone? If so, who is your competition?
In Simon Sinek's most recent book The Infinite Game, he terms suggests that you should focus on the individual(s) who help you improve. This person (or organization) then becomes a worthy rival, not competitor.
Worthy Rival
In infinite games, we are our own best competition. The goal is to be better next year than we are this year; to have better products, to create a better culture, to grow better leaders, the list goes on. Worthy Rivals are the other players in the game worthy of comparison. Studying them reveals to us our opportunities to improve so we can remain players in the game and better advance our Just Cause.
Choose someone you respect that is better at certain things than you are. This should be someone who helps you work on your weaknesses and encourages you to improve yourself.
Remember, the infinite mindset is a growth mindset focused on constant improvement.
Daily Directive
Use worthy rivals to reveal your weaknesses as well as to keep you on the straight and narrow moving forward.
Shift your mindset to studying your worthy rivals, rather than trying to beat your competition.
This weekend, identify one worthy rival and write down which weakness they highlight about yourself. Then make a goal to improve that weakness by studying what they do to be better at it.
Other articles in this series:
Mindset: Adopting an Infinite One
Mindset:Advancing a Just Cause
Mindset: Trusting Teams
Mindset: Existential Flexibility
Mindset: Courage to Lead


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One would expect that those fortunate enough to attain one of the world's most lucrative careers would have the capacity to know how to spend and allot money correctly. But the response to that expectation is a striking and blatant no. Sports Illustrated reports that by the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce. Similarly, approximately 60 percent of NBA players have gone broke after five years of retirement.
But how could players with so much agility on the court subsequently not exercise good decision making off of it? Joe Flood, a sports reporter for National Public Radio, offers a possible answer to the question, the paradox of ability is their reason for failure. What makes them amazing on the court makes them terrible at business: confidence. These players are risky, over-praised and over-publicized. The result? They end up cocky, overly confident in their skills and risky when it comes to translating their skills on and off the court or field.
Ruby Henry writes in his discussion paper series about the "Financial Demise of NBA Stars." In this study he reports that three pointers have the riskiest and lowest success rates at 22.4% (followed by two pointers at 43.9% and then free throws with a success rate of 69.7%). He calculates that two point throws have little correlation to the potentiality of bankruptcy, but in contrast for every three point throw made per 36 minutes of court time increased the chances of bankruptcy by a factor of three. Thus, for every time a player exercises a bold move on the court they are three times more likely to replicate a risky mood in their financial and/or business lives after retirement.
Pablo Torre from Sports Illustrated offers another possible to answer to why NFL and NBA athletes go broke: materialism. After pursuing successful careers that revolved around very concrete and physical tasks, their "lure to the tangible" is greater than average. The average retired athlete goes for entrepreneurship and open a store, they want to design products, or start a line of popular consumer goods. If they deposit their money, most of it ends up in riskier investments like private equity (statistically about one in every 30 private equities works out) and real estate, and much less ends up in the safer funding options like the stock market, hedge funds, etc. As Torre put it, securities are often unintelligible and boring, business is interesting and tangible.
Regardless of whether the cause to the common professional athlete's bankruptcy is due to their own tendency to take bold risks in the court and off it, their lure to the tangible rather than security, or the all-to-common-and-unfortunate-tale that they were scammed for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, by corporations or individuals that they never heard from again, or a combination of any of the above, all these factors call for a change. Financial literacy is on the rise, but we also continue to face a recession held barely at bay and a rising generation concerned even more than the last with immediate gratification. Only time will tell if the confidence paradox will be solved or made worse by the increase of financial literacy, a recession, and increased concern with immediate gratification.
Photo Credit:
Adam Glanzman original posted on Flickr


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Custom Fields
Notes: This one probably appears a bit surreal. I was tempted to do it as a poem but I thought it would work nicely as a '55. I doubt it will appeal to many people but I like the concept. It is based on my experiences over many years of IRC and probably sums it
Recent comments
The Narrator| show fullshow summary
A little strange, but interesting all the same.
Posted by Jennifer (guest) on Wed 16 Nov 2011 19:53:32 GMT
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Yes, there is small number of Docklands EU8 citizens leaving as they have had the dilemma on whether they should stay or go, and some families, using the wealth that they have built up whilst working in the Country have returned to their home country or other EU member states.
Decisions like that are not easily made and often tainted with dejection and disappointment – yet again, looking at the numbers, this is very much the minority. As an agent, we are seeing European people (not just EU8 countries) come and European people go, and it was like that before 2016 and to answer the question ... we believe we have a case of 'bad news' selling newspapers yet again.
Of course if one of your star tenants leaves your Docklands rental property and then you read an article about mass migration in one the red top newspapers or Daily Mail, it is going to worry you (like it did my Docklands landlord friend), yet with the information we shared with him – it has put his mind at rest (and the best part – we were able to find him a new tenant within the week – who ironically also came from Europe to live and work in the UK!).
How Much Is Your Docklands Property Worth? Find Out For FREE
Free Valuation - lmlondon.com/value-my-property
Blog – www.docklandspropertyblog.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/LandmarkEstates


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Bruce Springsteen cancelled his upcoming show in Greensboro, N.C. on Friday, citing "solidarity" in opposition to the state's new law requiring transgender people to use the bathrooms that correspond with their physical sex at birth.
Springsteen announced that he was canceling his April 10 show in a statement on his website, calling the law "an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress."
He apologized to fans who had bought tickets, but said he felt it was his duty to cancel the concert in order to stand with the "freedom fighters" opposing the measure. "Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them," he wrote. "It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards."
All tickets will be refunded.
The North Carolina law, which prohibits transgender people from choosing which bathrooms to use and prevents cities from passing anti-discrimination laws, has been met with widespread opposition from LGBT rights groups and businesses. The Obama Administration is considering whether the law makes North Carolina ineligible for federal funding.
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- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time


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Why Choose SuperCRM?
The software has become an integral part of each and every activity where human or non-human interventions are found. Professional programmers or software developers are processing every requirement in the frame of an application that will mold an easy and speedy performance platform for every task assigned to them.
Software development in UAE is a widened discipline, where loads of software companies are daily introducing innovative products. Software development companies in Dubai offer comprehensive applications to meet the specified needs of the clients.
CRM Software- The Revolution in Modern Business!
CRM software in Dubai will ease the process of customer management with advanced options. The perfectly executed CRM system will deliver exactly what a customer expects from them, which ultimately generates a big pool of happy customers and thereby successful organization.
Benefits of CRM Softwares
- Streamline customer profiling
- Improves sales opportunities
- Leverage data-driven decisions
- Sale forecast
- Market alignments and sales
- Enhanced Data collection
Super CRM
Super CRM is excellent software used to explore the business world with perfectly molded customer relationship management for any type of organizations. Super CRM software has proven its efficiency by improving sales and business with a soft and enhanced relationship with customers. Features and facilities provided in our super CRM service will enable you to enjoy the best CRM software in Dubai.
Features of Super CRM
- Contact management
- Lead management
- Invoices
- Renewals
- Sales Analysis
- Reports and dashboards
Why choose Super CRM?
Customers are the real asset of any organization. Retaining customers or earning potential customers will be the heaviest task an organization will be facing in the market. Customer relationship management is a managerial attempt to interact with customer force of an organization. In order to improve the business growth, every organization follows an effective and purposeful interaction with every customer data they possess. Super CRM allows you to perform the organizational functions at the utmost comfort.
Specialties of Super CRM
Super CRM gives numerous advantages to enterprises. It supports the overall management by facilitating all the interactions smooth and easier and create the best experience to everyone who gets into the organization for any activity.
Enquiry Management
Super CRM is highly popular for the fantastic enquiry management system integrated with it. This software enables the establishment to keep exact track of business. It helps to fix all sort of dilemmas that may arise in between the organizational performance. This feature will support to set up an enquiry system that will handle the needs of the employees, customers, status, proceedings, and even formulating sales analysis, etc.
Customer Management
Super CRM's another attractive feature is its impressive customer management option that helps in the process of identifying the active clients. As the software system is highly adaptive to similar operations, managing with frequent or loyal customers become super easy. Customer management will be hassle less, as the system records everything about clients who are active and inactive. The track record of invoices and payment details will be easily available on every time, and in turn, the business will perform well.
Sales and Management
Super CRM is the best tool to earn maximum sales experience. As it provides a unique platform to handle everything about sales including inquiries, conversion rates, sales activities, etc. By extending quality performance, that will generate more satisfaction to the clients, Super CRM provides the best business experience to the establishment.
Renewals and Payments
Super CRM has got an exciting feature to handle and manage with all sort of payments, payment reminders, and renewals. It performs on updated follow-up, renewals and other related payments of the establishment. This unique ERP software facilitates the payment related activities and updated invoices of the firm through its best-incorporated features.
Cheque Management
Super CRM offers a comprehensive feature to manage with cheque related payments in and out of the organization. This software follows up on the status of each cheque for cancellation, holding, bouncing and everything related to it. Creating easy invoices with Super CRM! A best friend for small, medium and large scale businesses for automatic invoice generation and updating! We help you make your job easy!
Preparation of sales reports and progress reviews are no more a tedious task when super CRM is on track. This software helps in creating reports based on regular sales and business reports on weekly or monthly data.
Reminders/ Notification
With the sophisticated work nature of the organization, having someone to remind or to send notification will do great. Super CRM is the best platform to work on where you will get reminders and notifications in prior. Timely reminders on various things to do in the organization will improve operational efficiency too. With super CRM you will never miss meetings, financial commitments or any business dealings ahead.
Looking for a Super CRM software?
Alwafaa Group is one of the finest among software development companies in Dubai to offer you the most comprehensive Super CRM software for your firm!!
Our expertise and efficiency to incorporate modern technologies to any business kind have made our top among the best software development companies in Dubai. Unlike various software companies in Dubai, we follow our passion for technology and your dream on excellent CRM software and contribute our best in professional software development strategies.
Our team on software development Dubai designs Super CRM with the best architecture and implement it after testing for errors and document bugs. Owning a Super CRM through us ensures maintenance and upgrading ahead from the professional hands.


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Unless you have superhuman powers, the only way to "visit" Mars is by looking at online images captured by the Curiosity rover. Google and NASA have created Access Mars, which allows you to explore the Red Planet's surface with using a 3D model right from your web browser.
With just your mouse, you can move around the Martian landscape and check out some points of interest, which are highlighted by white icons. These can provide information about Curiosity's mission, the rover itself, and some of its major findings. For instance, visiting the Pahrump Hills area reveals that one of JPL's main objectives with Curiosity was to reach a specific rock formation called Mount Sharp.
For more details go to https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8283/take-a-walk-on-mars-in-your-own-living-room/


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Behaviour.js was my library for doing unobtrusive javascript using a combination of a CSS Selector library and some simple javascript. This functionality has now been adopted and improved upon by all the major javascript libraries.
I personally use Jquery, which through the .live() method, let's you do all of the functionality of Behaviour.js, but including automatically applying rules when new elements are added to the dom.
To paraphrase Zombieland:"Jquery is like behaviour that has been sent back from the future by a secret fucking government lab"


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Before I started painting, I think I just assumed that all "real" artists painted on canvas. It wasn't until I started exploring painting for myself
Ah, I am back to painting faces again. I love working on a series of paintings at the same time…and it was no exception with
…virtually speaking, that is. Thanks to The Virtual Paintout Blog, I am able to join with many other artists around the globe, to paint from Google
It's been a busy month already! And it feels like summer is here, though officially the calendar says otherwise. The days when the temperature rises,


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News | Sep 2015
Biodiversity, which incorporates the diversity of ecosystems, species and genes, plays an essential role in supporting human well-being through maintaining functioning ecosystems that in turn deliver essential services such as food and the regulation of our climate, as well as other benefits such as aesthetic enjoyment of natural landscapes.
However, accounting for the variable components of biodiversity is complex and is less advanced than water or carbon accounting. To address the gap in accounting knowledge, UNEP-WCMC has developed technical guidance on experimental biodiversity accounting in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB).
The technical guidance on experimental biodiversity accounting is an output of a project to advance the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA). The SEEA-EEA provides a framework to measure and link ecosystem service flows supported by biodiversity and other ecosystem characteristics, such as soil type and altitude, with the economy and other human livelihood activities, such as growing food or gathering water for consumption.
The Biodiversity Account is one of a number of accounts in the SEEA-EEA framework. The technical guidance document on experimental biodiversity accounting has been developed for practitioners who wish to collect and organize data about the status and trends of ecosystems and species diversity, and incorporate this into the SEEA-EEA framework for national accounting. The benefit of this approach is that it organizes information on biodiversity in a spatial format consistent with other national statistical frameworks. As such, the accounting framework allows comparison and integration of data on biodiversity and ecosystem services with other economic and social data, for example, data on sector performance or from census surveys. Using the account, practitioners will be able to understand the relationship between biodiversity, economic development and planning activity.
The technical guidance document uses case studies from around the world to show countries examples of how they can implement biodiversity accounting, depending on the amount of data available. The experimental Biodiversity Accounts are not necessarily prescriptive of a recommended course of action, instead they now require testing, refining and validation in different contexts and levels of data availability in order to determine their suitability for integration into national accounting systems and informing decision-making.
Publication information
UNEP-WCMC (2015) Experimental Biodiversity Accounting as a component of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA). Supporting document to the Advancing the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting project. United Nations.
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Wheel Shape
Wheel burs are used by dentists, dental lab workers, jewelers, and hobbyists. These burs have a square edge, similar to cylinder burs, but have a lower profile. Also included in a wheel shape are knife edge burs, knife edge cutters, rounded edge or donut wheel burs, and riveting wheels. Wheel burs may be single or crosscut with teeth both on the top and the side, and they are available in a wide range of diameters. These burs are made from various materials, including steel, carbide, and high-speed steel, as well as diamonds and sintered diamonds. Wheel shaped abrasives are available in materials such as silicon carbide and high-grade corundum. Silicone polishers are also produced in wheel shapes.
The selection of the bur is based on the task to be accomplished and what material is being worked with, whether it is natural enamel, acrylic, or metals such as gold and silver. Wheel burs are generally used for removing materials and are also useful for undercutting detailed areas when woodcarving.
Wheel shape carbide cutters are available as regular cut, double cut, fine cut, double fine cut, or double extra fine cut burs. Riveting wheels are also used for acrylic applications.
Following are links to different types of wheel shaped burs:
▶ Wheel Shaped Busch Abrasives
▶ Wheel Shaped Busch Steel Burs
▶ Wheel Shaped Busch Carbide Burs
▶ Wheel Shaped Horico Diamonds Rotary Instruments
▶ Wheel Shaped Horico Sintered Diamonds
▶ Wheel Shaped Edenta Silicone Polishers


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Pg 37 - My Life
It seems life is full of hills (good times) and valleys (bad times) as Jimmy puts it. He says if you don't have
the valleys you really can't appreciate the hills or the good times of your life. We were starting this year 2004 in a valley. Jimmy had lost his job; he was very depressed and hard to get along with. It is hard enough to lose your job when you are young and your whole world is ahead of you, but at the age of fifty is tough. At this age we are branded and put out to pasture. It seems that society thinks we are no longer capable of being useful. The big problem now was what we were going to do. Jimmy was not able to
look for a job in a different state. No one was calling him here in Arizona. We just bought this house and we couldn't afford to lose it. We also had dad to worry about and how hard it would be trying to move him again.
I noticed a big change in Jimmy. The man who was always trying to be one step ahead, always micro managing his bakery, always providing for us, now had an I don't care attitude. He didn't want to get out of bed. He would watch TV all day long and eat. He did send out résumés but sometimes I wonder if he really tried to get a job like when he was younger. He didn't seem to be on top of the game while he let this depression swallow him up. I would find us arguing a lot and just plain getting agitated with each other. My head would shout, not again, or why is this happening. I tried to help him but I felt like a failure because I couldn't seem to do anything to cheer him up and sometimes, shameful to say, I would feel like giving up on him. Sometimes I wonder if this was harder to deal with than when he was having an affair. Marriage is so sacred but also one of the hardest jobs you will ever have. The give and take part is sometimes not evened out and it seems to me that I was always giving out a lot more.
Life doesn't stop, I still had to go to work, take care of dad, and try to keep things as normal as possible for Regina and Adias. I was working midnights at the ambulance company, and would take a short nap in the morning while dad and Jimmy had their coffee and than a couple hour nap before I went back to work.
Jenny was still in the Phoenix but not allowed to leave her unit. This was hard to know that the year to be away from family didn't start until she was deployed making her time away from her daughter even longer. This was especially hard on Adias not to be able to see her mother. So I did my mother thing and would have the girls in the neighborhood come over for dress up and play. I would take Adias to school and tuck her in at night, just like I did when her mother was gone other times.
Jimmy decided that he wanted to change careers. So as he watched the TV and an ad came on for Chef School, he enrolled. At age fifty-one my husband was going to culinary school. When we first were married Jimmy enrolled in a culinary school, but once they got to the baking part of it he quit and went to baking school instead. Many times over the years he would tell me that he made a mistake and wished
that he kept with culinary school and how he would have made a great chef. Jimmy is a fantastic cook, and I gladly give him my kitchen when he wants it. But I also remember when we were first married and he had a job at a restaurant he hated the hours and that was one of the reasons he decided to go to explore the baking part. Little did he know that bakers have terrible hours also.
When January 20 rolled around Jessica, Regina, Adias, and I celebrated both Jimmy and my father in laws birthday. Yea, their birthday is on the same day. My father in law was now turning more of a shell of a person than a person now. My heart would not stop breaking with each day as dad got worse. I am only human and yes I would get aggravated with him sometimes like when he would repeat sayings from the TV over and over again like a child, but I would also reflect to the man he use to be. This man taught us about what love and kindness was really about. To this day I am not sure I gave back to him, all the kindness he gave to me, but I know I was trying.
Jessica was on this long distant relationship. She was engaged with Zack who would call her every night. They are a funny team, to listen to them talk on the phone you would think they don't really get along. Yet on her twentieth birthday a dozen purple tulips and a dozen pink tulips turned up at the house with a lovely card from her fiancé.
February that year, Jennifer surprised us with a short visit. They had not left yet and so she kind of snuck
home for a few days. We decided to have a little birthday party for Adias at that time so she could spend her birthday with her mother. We still had a birthday party for her with her friends on her birthday but this one was special, her mom was in town. Cake, presents, and bowling was in order. Also that is what we met Jose, the new love of Jenny's life and her now husband.
Well I think I have to stop. It is really a busy day on the ambulance today, but I hope I am showing a
picture of love and that it takes commitment to still be in love.
Leave a Reply.
February 2022
I am the Author
a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and still believe in the power of love &
February 2022


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Slate Digital ML-2 mic no longer require an iLok dongle and can be activated using the iLok Cloud service!
The Slate Digital ML-2 is a phantom-powered ultra flat, wide-bandwidth, small-diaphragm condenser mic designed to provide a "blank canvas" response and comes with Slate Digital's Classic Instrument Module software
The Slate Digital ML-2 is a small-diaphragm condenser microphone that's capable of recreating the tone of an entire mic locker of instrument mics. Its ultra flat and linear response behaves like a "clean slate" if you will, that enables it to provide authentic sounds of dynamic mics, such as the Shure SM57* and Sennheiser MD-421*, ribbon mics, including the Royer R-121,* and famous small diaphragm mics, such as the AKG C 451* and Schoeps M 222* tube mic. Not just limited to the famous small-diaphragm mics, the ML-2 can also emulate the sound of large-diaphragm mics, such as the renowned AKG C 414* and Neumann U67* tube condenser. A member of the Slate Virtual Microphone System, the ML-2 can be purchased as a standalone mic and comes with Slate Digital's Classic Instruments Module software, featuring meticulously modeled microphones from the mic locker of world-class, NRG Studios.
Slate Digital VMS ML-2 - Just the Facts:
- Ultra flat and linear small-diaphragm condenser mic
- Dynamic mode repolarizes the capsule to record high-SPL sources while remaining clean and unsaturated
- Comes with Classic Instruments Module with 18 models of dynamic, ribbon, and small- large-condenser mics
- The software adds no latency, for near-zero-latency tracking**
- An excellent mic in its own right for true-to-source recordings
**Requires low-latency interface
Slate Digital VMS ML-2 - Behind the Grille
Like its big brother the ML-1, the ML-2 was designed to have an ultra-linear response with no distortion, so that it can serve as a blank canvas for Slate's modeling software. If you recall the first attempt to model microphones, it was by a company whose name rhymes with, "Aunt Fairies." The claim was that the software could make any mic sound like a vintage condenser. As it turned out, all that it did was offer more of an EQ-ed veneer rather than an actual emulation. The secret of the Slate Virtual Microphone System is that it's a perfect fusion of hardware and software modeling, beginning with the ML-2 is the all-important first link of your signal chain.
The ML-2 is designed to accurately reproduce the response of pencil condensers, precisely replicating the classic cardioid polar pickup pattern of vintage mics. In essence, it captures a sound source as accurately as possible while still maintaining the capsule response of the actual mics it's meant to model. This, in turn, enables the software models to accurately reproduce the sound of the mics in not just timbre, but in physical behavior as well.
High SPL-handling
If you have even a tyro's grasp of microphone technology, you're probably wondering how a small-diaphragm condenser can handle the high SPLs and response of the heavier moving-coil diaphragm of a dynamic mic. The answer came to Slate Digital as the result of extensive testing during the development of the ML-2. Slate engineers found that even the most expensive small-diaphragm microphone designs saturate when miking very loud and transient-rich sources, such as close-miked drums. To duplicate that effect, Slate created a proprietary switchable circuit that attenuates the mic's output and repolarizes the capsule, which allows the ML-2 to be used in extremely high-SPL situations without overloading or saturating. As a result, it can be used just like a dynamic mic on drums, guitar cabinets, and more.
ML2 Applications:
Steven Slate didn't choose these mic models by accident. As the creator of the industry's premier drum sample libraries, Slate is intimately familiar with the most ubiquitous mics used for drum recording, and more importantly, how they should sound. For example, the SM57 is the go-to mic for snare drum, and lately, combining it with the R-121 has become extremely popular for not just snare, but also electric guitar cabinets. Like the 57 is synonymous with snare recording, for high-hat, it's the AKG C 451. Moving around the kit, the MD-421 remains the mic of choice for toms (due to its natural compression characteristics). For kick drum, the Slate ML-2 gives you the sound of the famed AKG D12* or Neumann U47*. And, when you consider the price of the ML-2 against a collection of the aforementioned vintage mics (if you can find good ones), plus the modern mics, it's a mere fraction. Plus, there's no dealing with the vagaries and pitfalls of eBay or waiting for availability.
The Classic Instruments Module
When purchased separately, the ML-2 comes with the Classic Instruments Module, with is a collection of 18 microphone models, including dynamic mics, ribbon mics, small-diaphragm condensers, and large-diaphragm condensers include a fabulous model of the Neumann U67 vocal mic for added versatility.
To get the most out of the ML-2 you can pair it with the Slate Digital VRS8 interface, which includes eight VMS Ultra Linear mic preamps. Additionally, the ML-2 is available in standalone and can work with any preamp. However, depending on the preamp you choose, Slate can't guarantee that the software emulations will be accurate. You'll need a very clean, transparent preamp. Such units can be quite expensive. However, the perfect cost-effective solution is the Slate Digital VMS One preamp, designed specifically for the Virtual Microphone System.
Classic Instruments Module includes:
S-57 Vintage - The model is a recreation of an early 80's dynamic 57, perhaps one of the most famous dynamic microphones in audio history. It's known for its punchy midrange and smooth top end, which is why it is a top choice on guitar and snare drum.
S-57 Modern - A brand new dynamic 57, this mic sounds very similar to the vintage model but with slightly smoother mids and more sizzly highs.
S-7 - This is a dynamic mic that became famous as a broadcasting microphone, but its present mids make it ideal for all sorts of instruments such as kick, toms, snares, guitars, bass, and more.
S-421 - Another classic dynamic mic, this model is perfect on toms, kick, guitar cab, bass cab, and horns. It has thick low mids and punchy lows.
S-E20 - This is a model of a dynamic microphone that became popular in the seventies. It has a very even frequency response while remaining fat-sounding, so it can be useful on all sort of different sources - from vocals and electric guitar to kick drum.
S-112 - This is a model of a famous modern kick drum microphone. It has a classic "bouncy" midrange and fat low end.
S-112B - This is a model of a famous kick drum microphone in a different position. Due to the major physical differences in the moving coil design of this microphone versus the static condenser of the ML-1, it was easier to capture specific positional sounds. For the "B", this position is in front of the sound hole of the kick.
S-12 - This is a model of a vintage kick drum microphone. It has a crisp top, fat low mid, and warm bottom end.
S-451 - This is a model of a famous small diaphragm condenser that is smooth and clear, with a beautiful high end. It's great on snare, overheads, hi-hat, toms, and guitar cabs if paired with one of the dynamic models.
S-222 - This is a model of a famous small diaphragm tube mic. It's bright but not harsh, with a smooth midrange and flat low end. It's ideal for drum overheads, acoustic guitars, and string instruments.
S-121 Normal - This is a cardioid model of the classic ribbon mic, and like the real thing, it has fat lows and slightly dark highs, making it perfect on horns strings, room mics, guitar cabs, and overheads.
S-121 Dynamic - This emulation is the same source microphone as the S-121 Normal, only it has been optimized for use with the ML-2 when it's in Dynamic mode. Use this model and ML-2's Dynamic mode when miking very loud sources.
S-67 - This is actually a model of a large diaphragm tube mic! It has smooth and slightly dark highs, thick mids, and big lows. Great on room mics, overheads, toms, snares, guitars, basses, and everything else!
S-47F - This famous German FET microphone model is known for round highs, fat mids, and huge low end. It's a standard on kick drum and bass cab, but also sounds great on toms.
S-414 Normal - This is a model of one of the most famous FET large diaphragm mics. It has clear punchy mids, slightly extended highs, and a very fat low end. It's perfect on overheads, guitar cabs, bass cabs, toms, and horns.
S-414 Dynamic - This emulation is the same as the S-414 Normal, only it has been optimized for use with the ML-2 when it's Dynamic mode. Use this model and the ML-2's Dynamic mode when miking very loud sources.
S-Custom Kick - This is a modified version of the S-12 that adds more attack and punch, with less low mids and more defined lows.
S-Custom Snare - This is a modified version of the S-57, with added curves from famous EQ's to enhance the sound producing the ultimate polished snare sound.
S-Custom Tom - This is a modified version of the S-421 that adds more highs and lows, and has less low mid, creating the ultimate tom sound for both rack and floor.
*All models mentioned are registered trademarks of their manufacturers
Slate Digital VMS ML-2 includes:
- 1 mic +Single license for VMC Classic Instruments (First time registration only)
Slate Digital VMS ML-2 has opened doors that otherwise would have remained forever closed to all but a lucky few. Order yours today. For more information, call or chat online with your PAD Studio Specialist today.
Minimum system requirements:
- Quad Core i5 processor
- 4GB of RAM
- Mac OS X 10.7 or later
- Windows 7 and above
Recommended system requirements:
- Quad Core i7 processor
- 8GB of RAM
- Mac OS X 10.9 or later
- Windows 7 and above
Supported plug-in formats:
- Intel Mac 32-bit: VST2, VST3, AU, AAX
- Intel Mac 64-bit: VST2, VST3, AU, AAX
- Windows 32-bit: VST2, VST3, AAX
- Windows 64-bit: VST2, VST3, AAX


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This Equinox is inspiring a season of new Hope, empowering everyone to live as if Life Truly Matters, and recognizing that each of you has a purpose in this world.
On this New Moon day, a seed of Hope is being planted in your hearts and onto the Earth; a new vibration that can resonate through the collective heart of all humanity. It is a reassuring seed of Hope recognizing that all your needs can be met with Grace and Ease.
Hope is a seed that honors all life, all creatures great and small, and all of Nature – especially the trees that support life on the Earth. It is a seed of Balance providing water where it is most needed, and with equanimity, perfect amounts for those areas that are receiving too much.
Today is a 0 point field of New Beginnings and you are the harbingers of new life. When a seed is planted within you, it is there to draw upon in those times when the veils are dense and you cannot see clearly the step in front of you. Hope becomes your heart's resonance allowing you to live in a new rhythm that is in harmony with your true purpose in life.
Every desire of your heart is there from your soul's knowing what calls you forward into new life. In this final season, you are integrating all the lessons you mastered this year. You are now ready to begin anew in a more expanded place of readiness to follow the call echoing from your soul. It may mean that you are being moved into different spaces than you have known before. This is true within you as well as out, for indeed there are many being called to move into very new territory from where they have lived.
Do not cling to the old, dear ones. These calls from your soul are the fulfillment of sacred contracts. Wherever you are inspired to be will provide you with the nourishment that is required for the next phase of your life.
If you are feeling too airborne, perhaps the roots of your energy body tree may need to be placed into an etheric sacred container until they can be grounded in a new area that will serve you in the future. All of these soul's callings carry your frequency where it is most needed. You will fulfill your highest reality by allowing yourself to be moved gracefully knowing freedom is at hand. The divinity you are now embodying will give you the freedom of true creative expression you have always desired.
There are also those who have already been called to new destinations and find themselves wondering why. These new seeds that vibrate in the multi-dimensional realms of Hope and Wellbeing can now provide you with the answers. Although you may not receive the whole picture, set your compass dial to Inner Knowing with your intentions, and so it will be.
The essence of this seed of Hope being planted within you is your access to the pure living Divine Force of All Creation. Let yourself be inspired and follow the call.
It's time to claim a new life. Let your altar reflect your prayers. You are not at the affect of the energies of the world, you are the one setting the energy into motion.
Choose well and often. Take the proverbial road less traveled and never doubt that you are loved beyond your capacity to understand at this time. Know that you are guided in every moment. Hope is your compass and life is born anew. Let it be so, and so it is.
» Source » Channel: Shanta Gabriel


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Baby, I Got You
Mark your newborn's first milestone with a party he won't forget. Throw him the
Mark your newborn's first milestone with a party he won't forget. Throw him the best baby shower ever!
Set The Theme
Babies just wanna have fun so make sure the theme reflects just that. Carnivals are magical, limited only by your own imagination. Every kid (and parent) in the house will easily have a great time
You Are Invited!
Get the theme going right from the look and feel of the invites. Let guests know what they'll be in for to have them looking forward. Be explicitly clear with vital information such as venue, date and time.
It's A Setup
You could paint the town with over-the-top decorations or mimic the theme with simple props, depending on the budget. Hard pressed for time? Try a coloured theme that's gender specific. Works like a charm.
Extra, Extra
Ran out of chairs for the guests? Put throw cushions and ottomans to good use. Make like a cosy setup and fill them in between the gaps. Now everyone gets a seat.
Call In Favours
Personalised party treats are a crowd pleaser. DIY yours – from drinking straws to napkins to matchboxes. All you really need are block letter stamps and some magic pens and viola!
Candy Empire
No baby shower is complete without candies. Colour code them for maximum impact.
In The Middle
Missing a centerpiece? Pile every single gift in the middle of the room and you'll have a spectacular one. Let the guests pitch in, leaving them to decide where an how to place their gift.
Eat, Drink, Love
Options are a must when it comes to shower delights since guests may have dietary restrictions. Keep each treat small and nifty for easy consumption. Beverages should come spiked (read: alcohol) and non-spiked.
Let The Games Begin
The successful party has the best games. Keep games easy to play so everyone can join in. Don't be afraid to rehash games, as long as everyone has a barrel of laughs.


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A GQ profile reveals a disciplined but self-important side to the Texas senator who has built his brand as a humble street-fighting Tea Party conservative.
A new profile in GQ Magazine entitled "Ted Cruz: The Distinguished Wacko Bird from Texas" reveals a disciplined but self-important side to the Texas senator who has built his brand as a humble street-fighting Tea Party conservative.
GQ's Jason Zengerle, who wrote the profile, says "[Cruz] has come to the reluctant but unavoidable conclusion that he is simply more intelligent, more principled, more right–in both senses of the word–than pretty much everyone else in our nation's capital."
The profile also paints a portrait of a brazen right winger, with a surprisingly tight grip on his party and loathed by many of his Republican Senate colleagues. He is a man in the driver's seat, but is the seat big enough for his ego?
Zengerle, who spent time with Cruz reporting for his piece told Hardball's Chris Matthews of Cruz, "He's very practiced and that was the thing that was most interesting…He doesn't really speak in conversation, he speaks in speeches. He's very careful. He doesn't make a lot of unforced errors."
And his constituents back home in the Lone Star State seem to approve of his tactics, just a few months in to his freshman year, in the U.S. Senate.
"He's selling himself," Zengerle said. "As the principled conservative voice, the guy who is going to stand up to the sell-out establishment Republicans in Washington and be a voice for true conservatism. Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, that's the lineage he is trying to follow in."
But Cruz isn't just selling himself to Texas anymore. In his first trip to Iowa in July, Cruz made his first impression on the white, evangelical, born-again Christians who make up almost 60% of caucus-goers.
"They loved him," said Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News who traveled with Cruz on his trip to the first in the nation caucus state. "He dazzled them."
Cruz's goal is to be the one candidate in 2016 who can coalesce the right-wing around him. Many candidates tried in 2012 but were unable to corral conservatives into one camp. If Cruz can rally the social conservatives and libertarian wing of tea party activists then he can become a formidable challenger to the Jeb Bush or Chris Christie wing of the Republican Party.
"He understands that you avoid nuisance," said Slater. "It's not that he's incapable of understanding complexities, but he avoids speaking in them and a lot of people in Texas and Iowa really like this guy."
And as Cruz rambles on with his marathon speech on the Senate floor, protesting but not technically filibustering funding the government without defunding the Affordable Care Act, he is once again showboating for those true conservatives outside the echo chamber of the beltway. Cruz is playing a different game, for a different audience. He's showing those true conservatives in Iowa that he's the last man standing and fighting for them even if it's with little to no effect.
"It's important to remember that he's not running for Majority Leader," said Jeremy Peters of The New York Times on Morning Joe. "He's running for president."


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If excursions are booked seperatly without transportation and/or hotels, this offer is not covered by the STO Garant guarantee. You can find the conditions for this guarantee scheme on STO Garant's website (www.sto-garant.nl/de/downloads).
Trincomalee (Trinco) sits on one the world's finest natural harbours. This historic city is old almost beyond reckoning: it's possibly the site of historic Gokana in the Mahavamsa, and its Shiva temple the site of Trikuta Hill in the Hindu text Vayu Purana. Trincomalee's superb deep water port has made it the target for all manner of attacks over the centuries: by the British takeover in 1795, the city had changed colonial hands seven times. It's easy to spend a day or more exploring the ins and outs of the myriad waterfronts and the fort and its famous temple.
Passikudah Beach
These spectacular back-to-back beaches, 34km north of Batticaloa, present as stark and confusing a juxtaposition as you could imagine. At the northern tip of the peninsula on a tightly enclosed bay, the breathtaking white sands of sickle-shaped Passekudah beach are being developed as a kind of mini-Cancun, a government driven 'Special Economic Zone' with oodles of luxury hotels planned to ring the bay.
Pigeon Island National Park
Floating in the great blue 1km offshore, Pigeon Island, with its powdery white sands and glittering coral gardens, tantalises with possibilities. A nesting area for rock pigeons, the island is beautiful enough, with rock pools and paths running through thickets, but it's the underwater landscape that's the real star. The reef here is shallow, making snorkelling almost as satisfying as diving, and it's home to dozens of corals, hundreds of reef fish (including blacktip reef sharks) and turtles.


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Carrot Cake
By Doves Farm
3 Eggs
100 g/4oz Brown Sugar
100 g/4oz Sunflower Oil
1 Orange (Rind & Juice)
200 g/7oz Self Raising Wholemeal Flour
200 g/7oz Finely Grated Carrots
25 g/1oz Chopped Walnuts
125 g/4oz Butter
250 g/8oz Icing Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
- Beat together the eggs, sugar, oil and orange rind. (Reserve the juice)
- Mix in flour, followed by the grated carrots and walnuts.
- Pour into an oiled and greaseproof lined 20cm/8" cake tin.
- Bake in a pre heated oven for 45/50 minutes.
- Cool the cake in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
- To make the topping mix together the butter, icing sugar, cinnamon and just enough orange juice to make a spreading consistency.
- Spread the topping over the top and sides when the cake is cold.


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Pakistan today released 30 Indian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. The prisoners, including 27 fishermen, were handed over to Indian officials at Wagah border. Pakistan's Foreign Office said in a statement that the decision to release the prisoners was a humanitarian gesture to mark its Independence day tomorrow.
According to a government report submitted before the country's Supreme Court last month, over 470 Indians, including 418 fishermen, are in Pakistani jails. Yesterday, it was reported that the fishermen had been arrested by the authorities for allegedly trespassing into Pakistan's territorial waters.