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Happy New Year! To quote a popular song, "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end", so before we officially look ahead to 2011, we look back on some of our favorite moments from 2010.
A Blog is Born: It's been a year since we launched the Clopay blog. At the time some folks thought, why a blog on garage doors? As you have seen over the last 12 months, it's about more than just garage doors – it allow us to take you behind the scenes of some of the most exciting showcase home projects from Jay Leno's personal primetime "Garage Mahal" makeover to the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" season finale, as well as offer tips, advice and inspiration on things that affect your home's value, curb appeal, sustainability and energy efficiency.
Look for expanded content this year as we add guest bloggers and a whole new topic category: entry doors.
Introducing Clopay Entry Doors: You read that right – Clopay now offers entry doors to complement our most popular garage door styles, giving you the ability to coordinate the appearance of the two most important entrances to your home: the front door and the garage.entry-door
Energy Tax Credit for Garage Doors: The addition of garage doors to the Energy Tax Credit stimulus legislation gave homeowners a new opportunity to save on energy efficient upgrades to their home by investing in an insulated garage door. It expired December 31, 2010, but the garage door industry trade association continues to lobby to have it reinstated. Those who took advantage of the potential $1,500 in savings will enjoy comfort and cost-cutting on their utility bills for years to come.green-energy
Clopay Avante Collection: Eco-Friendly Garage Doors Fit for a "Smart Home": Whether you're a green building enthusiast or just looking for ways to incorporate eco-friendly living into your daily home life, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit was a must-see in 2010. The fully-functioning modular and sustainable "green" home—built right in the Museum's backyard—highlighted the latest innovations in reusable resources; smart energy consumption; and healthy-living environments.http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2010/08/26/Clopay-Midwest-Living.aspx
Late Night Headliner – Clopay Doors: "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is known for being undeniably passionate about two things: comedy and cars. So we were thrilled when the king of late night talk selected Clopay Reserve Collection custom wood carriage house garage doors to help renovate his personal yet unruly six-car, three room space into unbelievable "his" and "hers" garages for the DIY Network Garage Mahal series season opener in April. Check out video vignettes at www.jaylenosgarage.com.
Extreme Home Makeover and Clopay Open up a Whole New Space for a Deserving Family: We've blogged previously about the growing trend of utilizing glass garage doors to seamlessly merge indoor and outdoor living spaces. That application is precisely what attracted ABC "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" designers to Clopay's Avante® Collection garage doors for the season finale makeover for a family struggling with their son's diagnosis of Spina bifida and the father's battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. One door was installed as a traditional garage door while the other two were incorporated into the architectural design as alternative patio doors to open up the family's great room and also a private therapy space for their son.http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2010/05/17/Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition.aspx
Clopay® Expands its Reach on National Radio with "At Home with Gary Sullivan":
As the exclusive sponsor in the entry and garage door categories, we're thrilled to be part of America's most listened to call-in home improvement radio program, which airs weekends on 150 stations and XM Satellite Radio. http://www.garysullivanonline.com/main.html
Media and TV Converge on "Blog Cabin": It's a sign of the social media times – a home remodeling project executed based on the online will of the people. That's the concept behind DIY Network's "Blog Cabin." During 2010, viewers cast their votes at diynetwork.com for products, elements and building features they wanted incorporated into a vacation dream cabin in upstate New York. The entire process was captured and aired in a five-part television special. Clopay presented two product options for the home, Reserve Collection and Coachman Collection carriage house doors. Wood garage doors won out with over 70,000 votes in 5 days.http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2010/09/01/DIY-Blog-Cabin-Garage-Doors.aspx
Buying a New Garage Door Goes Social: Clopay's new Door Imagination System Facebook app lets you try on a new garage door and then have your network of friends help decide on the best look for your home.http://www.facebook.com/ClopayGarageDoors?v=app_142808389089759&ref=ts
Clopay Commercial Launches Rolling Steel Product Line: In addition to commercial overhead sectional doors, Clopay now offers a complete line of rolling service doors, insulated and un-insulated fire doors, counter shutters, fire and smoke rated counter shutters, rolling grilles and side folding grilles and closures. Commercial-Door-Products
Garage Door and Entry Door Replacement Projects Deliver the Biggest "Bang for the Buck" at Resale: The latest findings in the annual Cost vs. Value Report issued by Remodeling magazine show that garage door and entry door replacement projects not only deliver instant gratification in terms of a appeal, the projects yield the biggest return-on-investment at resale. In fact, midrange entry door and garage door replacement top the list of home improvements, netting the No. 1 and number 2 spots respectively, in the national average. Visithttp://www.remodeling.hw.net/2010/costvsvalue/national.aspx
2010 Hampton's Designer Showcase Home: Speaking of curb appeal: HGTV's "Curb Appeal: The Block," series' carpenter Chip Wade took time out to tour the Hamptons Designer Showcase home and explain why Clopay Reserve Collection Limited Edition carriage house garage doors were the perfect choice to complement to the home's Shingle-style details, cross gabled roof and East Coast spirit. Watch the video athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFoEJtVEgIU&feature=player_embedded
or /reserve
Dealers Vote Clopay Residential Products #1 – For the second year in a row, garage door dealers have named Clopay residential garage doors the best in the industry in Professional Door Dealer magazine's annual dealer's choice poll. We thank you and look forward to continuing to serve you in 2011.
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Designed to help your customers thrive in the digital world.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Gemini Zodiac Tin Candle
Gemini Zodiac Tin Candle
The Gemini tin candle:
The Air candle from our Zodiac collection is inspired by the element. It's bright, breezy and fun with enchanting aromas of vanilla, beautiful peony and coconut. Deliciously hard to resist, it's sure to be quite the conversation starter – just like our Air signs.
We love the versatility of these scented candles and they're a gorgeous gift too. So relax, unwind and come into your element with your very own cosmic candle.
Top notes: Coconut, Melon
Heart notes: Lily of the Valley, Peony, Vanilla
Base notes: Ozonic, Marine, Watery
The Air element:
Quite the thinker?
Sometimes get lost in your own mind?
Our Air friends are those with Aquarius, Libra and Gemini signs. They're big thinkers, full of ideas and wonderful stories to share with the world.
Personality traits: versatile, communicative, social, indecisive
Fill weight: 70g
Burn time: Approx. 12 hours
Dimensions: H5cm x W6cm x D6cm
- Free delivery over £50
- Vegan candles
- 28 day return policy
- Secure payments


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July 10, 2013
For the third consecutive year, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has proclaimed the value of general aviation (GA) in the Centennial State, naming July 2013 as General Aviation Appreciation Month.
"General aviation and community airports play a critical role in the lives of our people, as well as in the operation of our businesses and farms," the governor said in his proclamation, which noted that the state has 76 public use airports, 17,819 pilots and 5,483 GA aircraft.
Review the proclamation. (PDF)
The 2013 proclamation noted that GA adds about $2.1 billion in economic benefit to the state annually, and that Colorado has a robust GA sector, including 40 charter flight services, 60 repair stations and 16 flight schools employing 212 skilled workers and offering 141 aircraft for rent.
"General aviation sustains 22,650 jobs and a payroll of nearly $750 million (in Colorado)," said Hickenlooper in his proclamation. "These figures increase substantially when factoring in general aviation jobs at commercial-service airports across the state."
He also pointed out that largely rural Colorado depends heavily on GA and community airports for the continued flow of commerce, tourists and visitors to the state.
"The western half of Colorado is mountainous and can be difficult and time consuming to reach," said Steve Hadley, NBAA director of regional programs and NBAA Southwest regional representative. "People in the many smaller cities and towns wouldn't have quick access to many goods and services of companies if it weren't for business aviation."
Nearly all U.S. states have officially recognized the value of GA, including business aviation, with all proclamations including at least some of the basic tenets of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which was launched in 2009 and is sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.


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The virtual reality (VR) market, which is estimated to reach up to $45 billion for gaming alone by 2025, shows early potential for mainstream use, but there are limitations to using the technology that need to be overcome in order for VR to reach mass adoption. We'll review these limitations, but first let's look at one VR product that is being rapidly adopted, and what the device's success says about the broader market for the technology.
Cardboard is where it's at
One big success in the VR space has been Alphabet's (GOOG -2.06%) (GOOGL -1.94%) Google Cardboard. Yes, it's a virtual reality device actually made out of cardboard, which means it's relatively cheap costing only $15. More advanced VR devices like Facebook's (META -0.62%) Oculus Rift and Sony's (SONY -2.37%) Playstation VR cost hundreds of dollars. Alphabet's Cardboard is cheap not only because its made out of cardboard but because its also designed to be good at simple things like viewing photos and videos. Recently, Alphabet announced it has shipped over 10 million Cardboard viewers since the product launched in 2014. There were as many Cardboards shipped in 2016 as the first two years, which shows accelerating adoption.
The success of Google Cardboard is proof that there is interest in VR. Cardboard users have downloaded 160 million Cardboard apps on Google Play, demonstrating that people enjoy using it for the simple tasks it was designed for.
Unfortunately for all it's doing to get people using VR technology, Cardboard also highlights what is wrong with higher end VR headsets.
Virtual reality is too expensive
More expensive, high-tech VR headsets from Facebook, HTC (HTCKF 75.68%), and Sony haven't been as successful, having shipped only hundreds of thousands of units in 2016. Samsung's (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) Gear VR shipped 4.5 million units in 2016, which stands out from the much lower totals of Sony's Playstation VR, Facebook's Oculus Rift, and the HTC Vive. But Samsung Gear VR retails for $130, a fraction of the cost of the other headsets.
Obviously, price is a key factor in people's decision to buy one of these devices. The cheap build and low price of Alphabet's Cardboard highlights another feature working in its favor -- simplicity. Cardboard is just a little rectangular box you hold up to your eyes. There are no wires, it's not a clunky thing you strap around your head. Cardboard is as simple to use as taking pictures with a smartphone.
Virtual reality is hyped for good reason
VR won't take off as a mainstream technology until more advanced VR headsets get cheaper and simpler in design. One of the other key differences between Cardboard and the more advanced VR systems is that Cardboard only requires a smartphone to use. Some advanced VR headsets for gaming and other graphically intense applications require a high-end gaming PC to operate properly, which adds to the expense of using VR.
VR headsets made for consoles, on the other hand, such as Sony's Playstation VR, may have an advantage over headsets made to work with PCs, since consoles are cheaper and are dedicated to gaming, not to mention that Playstation VR is already priced about 30% less than the $600 Oculus Rift.
The technology has been hyped for good reason. The hype reflects people's excitement for the technology to revolutionize areas not just in gaming, but in content and education as well. One example I find interesting of how VR is being used for educational purposes is through an app called Lithodomos VR, which allows the user to see what the ancient city of Jerusalem looked like 2000 years ago. This kind of application of VR technology, along with the medical treatment possibilities for things like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is what gives VR the potential to be a widely adopted, common appliance used by millions of people.
Virtual reality needs to be affordable and simple
Companies developing VR technology would do best not to rush anything, to be patient in getting a product to market, and take advantage of using cheaper versions of VR technology like Alphabet's Cardboard or Samsung's Gear VR as a way to introduce the masses to the new technology to ensure everyone who uses it has a good experience, and doesn't drain your bank account.


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Design Files
1 design file
nx3l1g53 IBIS model
The NX3L1G53 is a low-ohmic single-pole double-throw analog switch suitable for use as an analog or digital 2:1 multiplexer/demultiplexer. It has a digital select input (S), two independent inputs/outputs (Y0 and Y1), a common input/output (Z) and an active LOW enable input (E). When pin E is HIGH, the switch is turned off. Schmitt trigger action at the digital inputs makes the circuit tolerant to slower input rise and fall times.
The NX3L1G53 allows signals with amplitude up to VCC to be transmitted from Z to Y0 or Y1; or from Y0 or Y1 to Z. Its low ON resistance (0.5 Ω) and flatness (0.13 Ω) ensures minimal attenuation and distortion of transmitted signals.
Quick reference to our documentation types.
5 documents
1 design file


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Mar 8, 2007
Newlywed Hurley parties on in India
Mar 8, 2007
By Jonathan Allen
JODHPUR, India (Reuters) - Actress Elizabeth Hurley and her new husband flew into the historic city of Jodhpur on Wednesday, midway though a week of lavish parties that have already run into trouble with Indian authorities.
Hurley, 41, and Indian businessman Arun Nayar, 42, arrived with about 240 guests and truckloads of expensive Louis Vuitton luggage for three days of entertainment.
They are taking over the desert city's hill-top Umaid Bhavan Palace for traditional Indian celebrations after a civil marriage at an English castle and celebrations in Mumbai.
The visit was earlier immersed in controversy after Indian authorities tore down part of a venue built to host a wedding party in Mumbai because it infringed on a popular beach.
Hurley, wearing sunglasses and a pink dress, arrived at Jodhpur airport accompanied by Nayar and her young son Damian.
Journalists and cameramen besieged their Bentley, which drove off accompanied by at least three police vehicles and another car for the couple's private security team.
Guests include designer Tom Ford, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Evelyn Lauder, the daughter-in-law of cosmetics company founder Estee Lauder.
"They're not sleeping very much because there are so many parties," Lauder told reporters at the airport, referring to the newlyweds. "We don't go to bed till four-thirty in the morning."
The 347-room Umaid Bhavan Palace's decor has been described as "somewhere between Art Deco and non-ironic 1970s gangster chic" by the Lonely Planet guidebook. It was completed in 1943 and claims to be one of the largest residences in the world.
A slideshow in the palace museum shows black-walled rooms furnished with pink sofas and beds with large ceiling-height mirrors for headboards.
The couple have tried to keep details of their celebrations out of the media, but details have trickled out.
Indian designer Rohit Bal told Reuters on Tuesday that he had designed Hurley's outfit for Thursday's ceremony -- and all the clothes for Nayar.
"They will look absolutely fabulous, trust me," he said.
Hurley will wear a Bal-designed white and silver lehenga -- a flowing Indian skirt -- while Nayar will wear an orange kurta or collarless shirt, a source involved in the wedding told Reuters.
Hurley will also wear clothes by Versace, John Galliano and Valentino during the celebrations, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because staff have been banned from talking to the press.
Guests were expected to join Hurley later on Wednesday in a mehendi ceremony, where the women's hands and arms are decorated with intricate temporary henna tattoos.
A cricket match between the bride and groom's parties is also planned.
White horses, elephants and Rajasthani folk dancers will all play their part in the celebrations, according to media reports.
And on Friday, tourists will be turned away from the massive centuries-old Meherangarh Fort, where guests will wrap up the celebrations feasting high above the city.
(Additional reporting by Prithwish Ganguly in New Delhi and Reuters Television)
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


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Keeping my Memorial March theme going, I caught John Carter yesterday so I could review it today — for the sixty-second anniversary of the death of Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1950. Brilliant adaptation of the source material, fast-paced, funny (I'm amazed by the reviews that call it "humorless" — come on, maybe you're watching too many movies and are losing perspective, like poor, poor Pauline Kael when she lamented the tragic death of Indy's monkey in Raiders — how Spielberg's camera lingered coldly over the scene — Kael just lost it in the theatre, not understanding that it was a Nazi monkey, one of the coolest bits of all time). Anyway, I'll echo the review Bill Crider gave it and say don't trust the establishment critics, trust us genre fans and catch it on the big screen. If you like ERB, they nailed it.
Yeah, for whatever reason — the ad campaign, not calling it John Carter of Mars — the movie isn't performing up to expectations, and the worst fallout from that may be that they never make the next one, Gods of Mars, the most relentlessly paced novel I've ever read — like buckling yourself into a rocket sled and disengaging the brake. Fritz Leiber did a magnificent homage to that adventure in his Hugo-winning novel The Wanderer, which starts off slow — the first thirty or forty pages have you worried it'll never get going — then he slams on the gas in a wild tribute to ERB and John Carter.
If you need a quick thumbnail to judge my opinions by, I didn't think Cowboys and Aliens was that good (it was okay, but for me "okay" isn't a real plug). I think Aliens is one of the best action movies ever done (and I'm not the only one). I saw the first Star Wars films as they came out, felt they hit the peak with Empire, hated the Ewoks, and reluctantly went to Phantom Menace in the theatre — yeah, it had some okay scenes, but what a dog, I didn't go see the next two and only watched a few minutes of them on TV years later.
John Carter, great movie. Maybe it'll take some time for people to recognise it, but not me. I was on it.


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Review of Hassan Blasim's /Madman of Freedom Square/
Hassan Blasim's debut short story collection, The Madman of Freedom Square, directs the reader's gaze toward the violence of recent Iraqi experience: neighbors turning in neighbors, street cleaners collecting body parts, refugees in flight. But it also points toward itself, and the more violent and troubling aspects of its storytelling.
The book, which made The Independent's longlist for best foreign fiction, has yet to appear in Arabic. The stories were solicited by Comma Press, written in Arabic, and translated straightaway by Jonathan Wright. It is thus perhaps not surprising that Blasim's characters have fraught relationships with the stories they're telling—and the audience for whom they're telling them.
Read the rest of my review at The Quarterly Conversation.
Also, you can listen to a few stories from this collection online.


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03 Sep 2005 Hurricane Relief Suggestion Box
I've not blogged the Katrina aftermath much, partly because I'm so disgusted I don't trust myself around a keyboard when I'm thinking about it, and partly because I have been assuming that most decent, clear-thinking people are thinking pretty much the same thing.
I guess I was wrong on the second count, at least, because The Paragraph Farmer has posted a list of Katrina-related suggestions by people who are, as far as I know, decent and clear-thinking, and I disagree with a far amount of these suggestions. So, I'm going to have a post with my running thoughts about Katrina, and if/as I update it, I may bump this post to the top.
First, before I blather on, remember that private donations are important. Instapundit has a list; go here if you want your donation up to $100,000 automatically doubled and are willing to give to the third largest disaster relief charity in the U.S., after the Red Cross and Salvation Army.
Now for the more argumentative stuff.
I wouldn't call my post, as Patrick did, "The suggestion box for Uncle Sam." (Sorry, Patrick.) I'd name it The Suggestion Box for Individuals, Followed by Organizations (Whether Non-Profit or For-Profit), Followed by Local Government, Followed by State Government, Followed – as a Last Resort and Probably Not Even Then — by the National Government." (What's that? Patrick's theme is more concise? Well, maybe… but mine, if adopted, would save a lot of money.)
I wouldn't follow Hugh Hewitt's advice, as reported by The Paragraph Farmer, to "Establish a Center for the Study of Mass Casualty Events at Tulane University in New Orleans." If I have a long-term suggestion for Tulane University in New Orleans, it is this: Move. A "Center for the Study of Mass Casualty Events" based in a city that is a sitting duck for mass casualty events every 100-200 years (there could just as easily be another one next month as in 2017 or 2077 or 2111 or any year you pick out of a hat) is a perversity. One is either in favor of reducing mass casualty events or one is not. (If such a center were to be established, it could be entitled the "Center for the Encouragement of Mass Casualty Events.")
Hugh Hewitt's advice here however, makes 100 times more sense than Michael Savage's lunatic idea to "Impose price controls on gasoline for 90 days." Great idea, and I mean that with all the sarcasm my keyboard can muster. Let's ARTIFICALLY INFLATE THE DEMAND FOR GASOLINE as a way to deal with a gasoline supply disruption. REAL GOOD IDEA. Here's one only slightly dumber: Pray for rain in New Orleans.
Lew Rockwell's ideas, as related by the Paragraph Farmer in the post linked to above, make sense, except that the federal government, being soulless, cannot do penance.
Ed Shultz's idea for an "Adopt a Family of Hurricane Katrina Program" made sense, too – especially the fact that he appears to actually be working on making the idea a reality, instead of expecting George W. Bush to do it personally, and right now, besides.
I'll try to be nice to Patrick, since all this was his idea. I wonder, though, if his idea for a design contest for levees and pumps is needed. For all I know, Patrick has a degree in civil engineering (I sure don't), but don't we already know how to build these things? Isn't the real problem that we build in places that are dangerous while failing to ameliorate the dangers because doing so would cost money we'd rather spend on things that are not a matter of life and death?
"Relaxing the union rules" in the Gulf states makes sense, if it is necessary. (Strike that last: "Relaxing union rules" can never be unnecessary.)
Can't endorse another Civilian Conservation Corps. Federal employees don't rebuild the houses of every Tom, Dick and Harry who has a house fire… need I go on? Clearing roads of debris is an appropriate (local) government function.
Anything rebuilt in the especially dangerous hurricane zones (read: the "bowl" of New Orleans) should be built with private or local government money. If I seem harsh, remember this: Any federal money spent to rebuild New Orleans amounts to a tax-supported financial incentive to encourage people to live in a dangerous area. Such a program would be morally wrong. The French Quarter can exist without federal involvement and is small enough to be evacuated when necessary; anyone else who wants to live and work in the immediate "bowl" area can simply do it with his own resources, cognizant of the risks.
'Nuff criticism of other ideas. People making ideas are just trying to help and I should be nicer. Plus, my reactions assume a false reality; that is, one in which the federal government won't spend over $100 billion of our money on this. It will because it is expected, because it did this for the last hurricane and the one before that, so people start of expect the feds to swoop in take care of everything, the way Mommy did when we were two years old.
(Consider this: People who seem to hate George W. Bush also want him to be their Mommy. Are they twisted or what?)
Here are some ideas from me:
1) If you live in a ravaged area, and don't have financial resources (savings, employment, insurance covering losses), get a job somewhere else. Six months, a year or more elsewhere isn't the end of the world. Getting out of the devastated area for an appropriate length of time reduces demands for infrastructure there.
2) If you are elsewhere and run a business, hire a refugee (defined as "one who flees in search of refuge," yes, Americans can be refugees) if you can.
3) Those who can, which includes but is not limited to private employment services and job websites and charities, should help connect job-seekers with those who can offer employment. For example, Monster.com could let businesses browse the resumes of hurricane victims free of charge. (Yes, I realize few refugees, at this stage, have Internet access, but every bit helps.) Charities can play a big role here.
4) Plan for the worst next time and don't think it can't happen because we're Americans. I'm not just talking about government, but individuals. Plan to leave town when experts recommend it. Plan enough to have a place to go, and a way to get there. And, when the time comes, don't wait until the last minute.
5) If you still don't have the resources and ability to always be prepared to get out of town, move to an area with low storm/earthquake risk. Do this as a favor for your neighbors, who may later have to risk their lives to save yours.
6) If you have morals, brains, and good impulse control, buy a gun. If you lack any one of these, get rid of any guns you have and never get any more.
7) Local and state governments should get control of street crime during non-emergency times, because that's the only time it is possible. If it is necessary to use the National Guard, and to create tent cities to have enough prison space, do so. Civilized people don't always stay civilized in times of great stress and provocation, but uncivilized people can be counted on to be what they are. Law and order can create civilization in places where it is not flourishing.
8) Keep Lawrence Guyot off TV. (Sorry, I know he's a gnat and not worthy of a suggestion, but he's on Fox right now claiming that the Katrina response would have been "perfect" if New Orleans had been a predominately white city, and, according to Guyot, everyone in America knows it.)
9) Local and state governments should have very harsh penalties for looting.
10) Local and state governments should have enhanced penalties for violent crime during states of emergency. Very enhanced.
11) Local and state governments should eliminate the statue of limitations for all crimes conducted in an area under a state of emergency. A conviction 20 years from now is better than no conviction at all.
12) No plea bargains should be accepted for anyone who shot at rescue personnel or committed any crime whatsoever that had the affect of impeding rescue operations during a state of emergency. These crimes are very serious and the message must be sent that anyone who does anything like this can kiss his or her old lifestyle goodbye for quite a long time indeed.
13) Americans: Stop thinking bad stuff can't happen to you because you are Americans.
I have more but that's enough for now. Probably more than I should have written, actually.
Addendum: Coyote Blog has a picture that is worth a thousand words.
Addendum (9/6): The website www.disasterreliefideas.orghas forums for discussions of disaster relief ideas. Check it out.


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Always ready to take the party to the next level!
Joseph Pisano, the youngest of our crew, manages to throw his passion through the roof as he fulfills his role as your DJ or Emcee. Starting from the young age of 14, Joseph's dedication for business and music allowed his curious mind to take the next step into the entertainment industry. After years of admiration, specifically toward the PISP & Platinum Entertainment Family, the enthusiast learned the logistics of providing true entertainment and decided to put his skills to the test. Joseph and his business partner, Anthony Cardinale, along with Bryan Kuan (Event Producer/Designer) were the first to join in on the Partners in Sound Productions family by securing a franchise office in order to extend the party all the way to his hometown of New Jersey! Highly adept at both noticing and creating the the latest it trends, Joseph is always ready to jimp in to lend his modernized take on ramping up the entertainment for your event like no other.


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Two if by Sea
courtesy of leonshishman
This post is by Tom Bridge and WLDC Alum Dave Levy
Tom: We started We Love DC because we didn't see enough of ourselves in the writing that was happening in our city. There were some fine blogs, some fine news outlets, but none of them represented us. So we set out to start writing one of our own.
Dave: Learning what it is to have a voice – a unique voice – in a city that has so many opinions was one of my favorite experiences of living down in the DMV. The opportunity to first read the great perspective at We Love DC and then eventually be given a chance to contribute helped me love my DC experience. Over the last year and change since I moved away from the region back to my hometown in Boston, I've missed that for sure.
Tom: When Dave came to talk to me about starting something new in Boston, something like We Love DC, I jumped at the chance. The narrative opportunities in a city like Boston, rich in history, rich in culture, and steeped in local milieu, well, they're every writer's dream.
Dave: To be fair, Boston doesn't have the same local blog scene as DC, for reasons we won't get into here. There are plenty of cool voices, but we thought it was missing one: The "We Love" attitude of featuring the best parts about our city from the point of view of people who love it. Fellow WLDC alum Dan Rowinski and dueling pianist/returning Jeopardy! champion Jarret Izzo were keen on the idea, too, and we found a group of amazing writers who are ready to talk about what in Boston drives them.
Tom: We saw in Dan, Dave and Jarret a chance to do the same for another city that is underserved by its online writers, and we can't wait to see what they do. We've got a preview of what they're up to, and safe to say, it's up to our standards.
Dave: Thanks to the truly incredible support of the We Love DC team, we have something new to for you to love. Especially if you love Beantown.
Join us, won't you? We Love Beantown is open for business at the fancy new WeLoveBeantown.com, on Twitter at @WeLoveBeantown and with its own community photo group (that you are free to join!) on Flickr.


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Four Hundred Texts on Love (Third Century) 33Posted: April 19th, 2012 | Author: Scott | Filed under: St. Maximos the Confessor | Tags: body, desire, flesh, life, love, passions, sin, spirit, st. maximos | Comments Off on Four Hundred Texts on Love (Third Century) 33
72. God created both the invisible and the visible worlds, and so He obviously also made both the soul and the body. If the visible world is so beautiful, what must the invisible world be like? And if the invisible world is superior to the visible world, how much superior to both is God their Creator? If, then, the Creator of everything that is beautiful is superior to all His creation, on what grounds does the intellect abandon what is superior to all and engross itself in what is worst of all – I mean the passions of the flesh? Clearly this happens because the intellect has lived with these passions and grown accustomed to them since birth, whereas it has not yet had perfect experience of Him who is superior to all and beyond all things. Thus, if we gradually wean the intellect away from this relationship by long practice of controlling our indulgence in pleasure and by persistent meditation on divine realities, the intellect will gradually devote itself more and more to these realities, will recognize its own dignity, and finally transfer all its desire to the divine.
Asceticism, a word derived from one which originally described the physical training of an athlete, used to be part of the universal life of all Christians. We recognized, as St. Maximos outlines above, that we must train our nous and break the grip of the passions which enthrall us. Somehow that awareness and practice has been all but lost in modern Christianity. Is it any wonder, then, that we're spiritually flabby?


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If you are tired of men's faces in the hangar, it's time to change something. For example, you can download and install a mod – Women's Crew icons. Maud adapted to the latest version 0.9.15.1.1
Download archive and unpack
Folder "gui" Put in World_of_Tanks \ res_mods \ 0.9.15.1.1\
Women's Crew icons (4 Mb)


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Among the expenses approved was a payment of $6.50 to David Gibb for the making of a coffin. Liquor Bylaw No. 5 was finalized and sent to the Gazette for publication.
This transcript was made in 2012 by Transcribimus volunteer
Darrin Pezer/Proactive Building Maintenance
original handwritten minutes here
City of Vancouver Archives
Series 23-A Volume 1 pages 65-67
Vancouver Aug 3rd 1886
The Council met on Aug 3rd 1886 at 4 o'clock, p.m.
Present His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen Balfour, Dunn, Griffith, Humphries, E.P. Hamilton and L.A. Hamilton.
The Minutes of last meeting were read and adopted.
The following accounts were presented.
David Gibb, Making Coffin 6.50 B. of Finance
Grant and Arkell 16.50 P. Comr.
Telegraph service 5.80 B. of Finance
Royal City Planning Mills Com 9.00 B. of Finance
Report of Board of Works
The Board of Works met on Tuesday August 3rd @ 3.45, p.m.
The Chairman of the Board who was authorized to carry out the resolution of Council directing the digging of drains & water pits and the covering of rotten wood in the vicinity of Abbott and Cordova Streets presented a payroll for the work amounting to $234.20 the distribution of this amount shows as follows.
Portion payable on lots owned by C.P.R. $67.00
Portion payable on lots owned by others 31.00
Portion payable on lots owned by Streets etc. 136.00
Owing to the low state of the City's finances the R.R. has agreed to pay their proportion to the laborers (sic) direct thus reducing the liabilities of the City on the payroll to $167.20, 31.00 of which we hope to obtain from the private owners. Your Committee request that the Acting treasurer be authorized to pay the payroll as presented.
3rd Aug 1886 sgd L.A. Hamilton
Moved by Alderman Dunn seconded by Alderman Balfour that the Report of the Board of Works be adopted And that the City Clerk be instructed to Call upon the private property owners and request them to pay their share of the expense of clearing lots.
Alderman Dunn introduced the liquor By-law which was read a first time.
Moved by Alderman Humphries seconded by Alderman E.P. Hamilton that Liquor By-law be read a second time and that the reading of the title be taken as the reading of the whole bill. Carried.
The Council then went into Committee of the whole on motion of Ald. L.A. Hamilton with Alderman Dunn in the Chair. In Committee By-law No — was filled as By-law No 5 and each clause read over and passed after which the Committee rose to report the By-law as amended.
Moved by Alderman L.A. Hamilton seconded by Alderman Griffith that By-law No 5 be read a third time and that the reading of the title be considered as the reading of the whole bill.
Moved by Alderman Balfour seconded by Alderman Griffith that By-law No 5 be engrossed signed and sealed by the Mayor and Clerk and a Copy sent to the B.C. Gazette for publication. Carried
The Council then adjourned.
M.A. MacLean
Thos. F. McGuigan
City Clerk


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From The Dark Past, is the title of the current animation by Rafaël Rozendaal. There is a definite physical quality to the animation that almost tricks the eye into believing a camera is panning across a dimensional landscape. Be sure to click and play as well.
Via the amazingly curated and always interesting Today and Tomorrow.
written by Christopher | tags: 3D Graphics, Art, Code, From the Dark Past, Rafaël Rozendaal


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Welcome to the Dangerous Faggot Tour! My name is Milo Yiannopoulos, the supervillain of the internet and the future owner of 4chan.org.
Now before we get to my favorite subject, which is myself, we have to discuss someone even more fabulous than me.
Of course, I can only mean one man: Daddy. Didn't he do wonderfully at the debate yesterday? The only time Hillary was more upset was during the White House's annual round of intern hires.
Trump is now a changed, reformed man of course. But in his wilder days, he might describe what happened last night as a brutal schlonging.
I mean, it had everything. He said Hillary should be in jail, he brought Bill's victims into the audience, and he insulted the moderator. It was perfect. I love him so much.
As some of you may be aware, I was in New York City on Saturday to participate in a landmark art show, the first art show EVER specifically in favor of a republican candidate for president. We did a good job for Daddy, and I am incredibly pleased to have participated with my own avant garde performance art.
New York can be mighty queer!
In New York I was in a bathtub of pig's blood to protest the deaths of Americans at the hands of illegal aliens, Islamic terrorists, and lax policing.
It would be easy to dismiss my performance art as attention seeking. As if anyone could ever seriously accuse me of attention seeking! But it was a sincere work that points out the victims of leftist policies.
If you think illegal immigration is a problem only for the battlefields of Chicago and other big cities, or in the accounting offices trying to determine how to pay for the welfare benefits we stupidly give to illegals, you are wrong. This problem exists right here in Alabama too.
In a last act of my performance art, I would like to hold a moment of silence for 19 year old Tad Mattle and 16 year old Leigh Anna Jimmerson from Huntsville, Alabama, who were killed in 2009 by a drunk driving illegal alien who had previously been arrested and was still allowed to remain in the country.
Let's take a moment to remember these Alabamans, who never had the opportunity to attend The University of Alabama or any other college.
Thank you.
Of course, that's not the only moment of solemnity we have to have today. Because today marks the day of a great tragedy. Yes, it's Columbus Day.
Yes… Five hundred and twenty four years ago, Columbus came and discovered America. And as you can see, the results were disastrous!
[SLIDE: Teepee Next To New York Skyline]
Moving on, I am very pleased to be back in the south, where I have spent the last month on tour. You'll probably assume it's the southern charms of polite and friendly people, beautiful scenery, and incredibly wonderful food which I sneak into the tour bus when my personal trainer isn't looking, but it is actually just the men…. All the hot black men are in the south and no one told me!!!!
But tonight we're going to be talking about a black man I find less attractive: intellectually, politically, and … well you know…
It's President Obama, and how he's just turned the internet over to monsters.
What did Obama give away? What was transferred from US control to the control of….well…. No one is quite sure yet….. Is ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers.
ICANN makes hundreds of millions of dollars for controlling the naming on the Internet. In essence, they coordinate the names and numbered IP addresses of the entire Internet.
Now bear with me for a minute, because I know you're all shitposters. The extent of your knowledge and interest in how the Internet works is how to get to porn, memes, and my youtube page. And 4chan of course — don't worry, I'm working on saving it.
But tonight we have to discuss a less exciting, but possibly more important aspect of the internet.
If you've ever wondered why you can type in a web address, like Twitter.com, from anywhere in the world and reach the same page, it's because of ICANN.
Twitter may be a bad example actually. It's lost its most interesting and handsome user, fewer and fewer people use it, and the address might not exist much longer if they can't find a buyer…. But you get the point.
Let's compare the Internet to how people used to learn information, reading books. Does anyone here still read books? I guess some of you do — given that you're here at my talk, you are after all the students who still use your brains.
So authors write books and publishers publish them. What would ICANN do in this case? They wouldn't be bookstores or libraries, and they aren't trucks carrying books to the stores or delivering them. Rather, they'd ensure that anytime you picked up a book with a certain title by a certain author, you would get a copy of the correct book.
You could look up the book I am writing — which will be amazing, by the way — and the ICANN of books would ensure that whether it was on amazon, your local bookseller, or a library, anywhere in the world, it would be the right book. On the Internet that is called DNS, and ICANN controls it. They would also have oversight on what title you choose for your book, by the way.
I see some eyes glazing over, so I will wrap this section up with the important fact of how ICANN has operated. ICANN is a non-profit in California with a US government contract. They act as a monopoly, and have anti-trust exemption because of the US government's involvement.
I know you're all conservatives, but rest assured that this is one instance in which the government has actually done a good job!
Most crucially, because of U.S government involvement, ICANN must follow the first amendment — that pesky little law that authoritarians and the regressive left love to hate.
Or rather, they used to. Because, thanks to Obama, ICANN is no longer in this great country's hands.
Who did Obama give it to?
Obama is the sort of American that believes everything about his own country is bad. You know the type. You've probably met them in your gender studies department. He has worked to give away American control throughout his presidency, it started with bowing to world leaders all the time.
His giveaway of ICANN might not even be constitutional, but then again, that's never stopped Obama before, has it?
The short answer on who is taking over ICANN is that it is unclear. There are vague reports of a multinational organization. This is globalism in action ladies and gentlemen.
Power handed over to opaque, vaguely-defined organizations free from any accountability.
Tellingly, Google and all the usual Silicon Valley suspects are in favor of this change. They are the Soros types — the ones who are happy to use their power to impose their wacky progressive worldviews on everyone else.
The other candidate isn't a corporation, or a government, but something much worse — the United Nations.
Former US Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton recently said in an interview that within 10 years the Internet will be under UN control, and that the Internet as we know it will end.
Those in favor of UN control of the government will usually say the same thing [whiney tone] "Information wants to be free, man, and it's like…. TOTALLY wrong for the evil United States to monopolize it."
There is some truth there. Information and the Internet wants to be free – but only America has kept it free for so long. Only America with the first amendment has a true ideological and legal commitment to free speech. Countries around the world block portions of the internet and work to control what their citizens see, but the internet itself stayed free because ICANN was forced by the US government to keep it that way.
Now, that will no longer be the case. Heaven help you if you are someone the member states of UN are not particularly fond of say…. Oh…… a dangerous faggot.
These are countries known for their kebabs and murderous religious fanatics.
And the cancer is spreading.
In 2012 a UN treaty on Internet governance was signed by 89 countries. It wasn't signed by the US, because the US objected to language about international control of Internet governance.
The head of the delegation said "The US has consistently believed and continues to believe that the UN treaty should not extend to Internet governance or content."
It only took four years for Obama to realize that his administration had actually done something good for freedom, and reverse it.
In the words of one of my Breitbart colleagues, we are giving up control of the internet so that Turkey has as much say as America. We are doing that because Obama and friends thinks it is noble, that it is right to give all countries, no matter how despotic, a voice in managing the Internet.
We know this is wrong. These countries don't deserve a voice on controlling the internet, because their M.O is censorship, oppression, and shadowy globalism.
Let's take a look at the Rogue's gallery who will now control the Internet.
First, China.
The Chinese in America are quite successful. Asian men, for example, have the highest average annual salaries in the United States. So much for white privilege!
Some of the early pioneers of the Internet as we know it today were Chinese, like Jerry Yang who started Yahoo.
Yahoo, of course, was once a great company, long before one of my favorite terrible female CEOs, Marissa Meyer, took the helm.
But China's government is far more sinister and dangerous than its immigrants. After decades of murdering and starving their citizens, the Chinese turned their attention to controlling the internet.
We have all heard of the great firewall of China, the complex methods China uses to filter vast portions of the Internet and block their citizenry from accessing information we take for granted. But that is just the start!
In July, China banned online reporting. That would be "bye bye Breitbart". If you're in China, only news from the government can be seen on the web now.
You may think this is too far-fetched, but don't you think that Democratic administrations would love to shut down Breitbart? After all, Hillary Clinton talked about it in her alt-right speech, where she named my wonderful headlines as examples of wrongthink!
China isn't even waiting for the UN to take over the Internet to mess around with it. China approached the owners of the .XYZ domain, which is now the fourth largest domain behind .com,.org and .net, to censor 12,000 words. They wanted to make sure no .xyz domains with politically unwelcome names would ever exist.
For China, banned words include terms like "Democracy" and "Liberty". China and by extension the UN want an internet where a website cannot be called MiloForDemocracy.xyz and that is not the Internet you want to be on.
Chinese citizens also have to be very careful what they post on social media, or they will be silenced.
One quarter of the humans connected to the Internet live in China. Just imagine what that means. Except for the most clever and risk taking among them, one quarter of web users live a muzzled existence, cut off from the free flow of information and ideas.
And a monitored one, of course. The ultimate goal of China and the UN is straight out of 1984. You don't know you've violated the law until you've been charged by the authorities.
We should be challenging this country over its censorship, not giving it more power.
Next, Russia.
Russia will assist China in ruining the Internet with the heavy hand of censorship. Russian Internet censorship rose 900 percent in 2015 according to human rights groups.
One of the clever rules they've developed is that any blogger that has more than 3000 readers must register with the government using all of their personal information, including their addresses. It's a not-very-subtle way of telling potentially influential dissidents: "we know where you live."
The Russian and Chinese model, followed by a growing number of nations, is to shut down so-called "extremist" and "subversive" websites. The definition of extremist and subversive is completely up to the government.
Again, "bye bye Breitbart," and bye bye dissidents, and anything else on the internet that globalists and authoritarian regimes deem to be "subversive."
Why do we want corrupt officials and government cronies dictating what content is extremist and subversive?
And what about countries like Turkey? If a globalist behemoth like the U.N gets its claws on the internet, that will mean a backwards country like Turkey will have as much say as England. And Turkey's internet policies are as ugly as an overused goat's butthole.
Turkey loves silencing social media, like Facebook and Youtube. And not just during coups either!
Isn't it amazing that a country that has coups every second decade, that censors the internet, and has an Islamist President is a candidate for joining the European Union? These are supposed to be the "good Muslims." I'm not impressed.
Turkey has the sharia-compliant Twitter wrapped around their finger. They get whatever journalist they want booted off Twitter, and are the world leader for getting citizens banned from the platform.
They also made it illegal to insult the president, and some poor bastard was arrested for making a meme comparing Turkish President Erdogan to Gollum.
Most likely it is the first arrest in history for a meme. And it was an original one too! I mean, I know this will offend some of you, but after the 1 millionth Harambe joke I was in the mood for arresting people too.
Turkey, like many countries, believe they have a sovereign right to control what information their citizens reach on the Internet. This is the opposite of what the Internet represents: the free exchange of information. And now, it is incontrovertible that Turkey and countries like it will have a greater say on how the Internet works. THANKS OBAMA!
Last, Saudi Arabia. Look, I couldn't possibly put this together without including Saudi Arabia. They are Hillary and Huma's BFFs, after all.
Saudi Arabia follows the latest censorship tactics from the bad guys I've already mentioned.
In 2014 they had 400,000 websites blocked, I wonder what the total is now? I've found that block lists, whether they're from authoritarian regimes or triggered feminists only tend to get larger, not smaller. The lists always balloon, because censorship is both seductive and addicting.
Much of the blocking is requested by religious leaders, and Saudi Arabia says its censorship is defending Islamic values.
Presumably they aren't censoring the pedophile sites then!
So while the west is flooded with muslim refugees who seek benefits in exchange for rape and murder, you can expect the Internet of the future to be as Sharia-Compliant as Twitter is today.
I doubt they will find Tinder and Grindr to be very halal. In fact most porn is probably in danger, at least if the performers are over the age of nine.
Ironically they will probably be perfectly fine with sites featuring interspecies action.
Who on earth thinks letting Muslim nations have a say on how the Internet runs and what sort of sites should be allowed is a good idea? Your president, Barack Obama.
As I said earlier, control of the Internet will probably end up with the United Nations. There are lots of problems with that.
One of them is that the UN loves taking up kooky feminist causes. If you thought Mugabe addressing the United Nations was bad, check these dykes out:
If Anita Sarkeesian doesn't like being called an odious mendacious c**t, maybe she should stop being an odious mendacious c**t. It's not about her gender, it's about the bullshit that comes out of her mouth.
A feminist controlled Internet is very dangerous. They hate masculinity, they hate men, and they also hate a nebulous term they use, "Cyber-Violence."
Cyber-violence, like "online harassment" and other terms cooked up by loopy feminist activists, is defined as anything that hurts feminists' feelings. Imagine the UN censoring everything that makes women unhappy.
I mean, Chinese censorship is almost better! In their case at least you only have to worry about the Politburo's feelings, which are relatively stable. They don't go completely mental once a month.
In late 2015 the UN put out a completely insane report called "Cyber Violence Against Women And Girls: A Global Wake-up Call" which said:
"A cyber-touch is recognised as equally as harmful as a physical touch."
If only Father Michael had JUST cyber touched me when I was five — I wouldn't be such a fag.
In their press release, UN Women claim that "cyber violence … places a premium on emotional bandwidth."
The report was so poorly put together that many references were left blank, and one, in fact, linked to one of the researchers' local hard drives. These people want to censor the internet and they don't even know how it works!
Can you imagine what would happen if this organization got a hold of the internet? We'd have to hope that their incompetence is stronger than their will to censor.
That might just be the case. After all, the UN is notable for fucking up everything it sticks its nose into.
Control of the Internet is like virginity. Once you give it away, you will never ever EVER get it back. That's why I carefully picked a special, romantic occasion — an interracial fivesome with two drag queens.
America must control the Internet for the good of the entire world. Free speech is the essential component of freedom, and both in this country and around the world people must be able to speak out, learn, and participate in Internet culture.
We must be able to do so without the control of Russia, China, and the Muslim world. We should be fighting those nations for control of the internet, not giving in.
Thanks to the Obama administration, we must now add the Internet to the list of things that Donald Trump must save for America. I don't put much hope in congress stopping ICANN. After all, the Republican caucus still includes Paul Ryan.
It's up to daddy, and to all of us, to fix this. Vote for Trump, spread the word, and educate your fellow students so they don't wake up one day to find that their favorite porn sites and the Milo homepage, which should be the same thing, are banned from the Internet.
Follow Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Hear him every Friday on The Milo Yiannopoulos Show. Write to Milo at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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New Delhi: RBI Governor Urjit Patel on Thursday said the demonetisation exercise will have "far reaching changes" towards a transformative effect on the economy going forward, despite some short-term disruptions and "public hardship".
He also cautioned that there was "little room for complacency and it is important to guard against sporadic volatility in financial markets".
"The withdrawal of specified bank notes will impart far reaching changes going forward. It is expected to significantly transform the domestic economy," Patel said in his foreword to the half-yearly Financial Stability Report.
He said the increasing adoption of digital modes of payments will lead to greater intermediation, efficiency gains, accountability and transparency.
The RBI Governor acknowledged there have been short-term disruptions and hardship to the public because of the move to scrap the high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 announced on November 8 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Banks are accepting the scrapped notes till Friday.
In an interview to PTI on November 27, Patel had said that the central bank is committed to easing honest citizens' pain.
In the foreword, Patel said introduction of reform measures like the Goods and Services Tax on indirect taxation and the Bankruptcy Code for resolving asset quality stress will impart resilience to the economy.
On the domestic macroeconomic front, condition remain "stable" with a cool-down in inflation but Patel acknowledged that the growth momentum has "slackened" recently.
He said the country is adhering to international standards in banking without "losing sight of domestic compulsions".
Patel said the global financial crisis led banks to do stress test and match risk appetites with risk taking capacity, and added that last year's asset quality review and the subsequent corrective actions, which led to a spike in bad assets and shaving profits, are efforts in the same direction.
He said the stress shown by the domestic banking system is partly reflective of "legacy issues" but added that "enhanced transparency has helped to reinforce the stability of India's financial system".
The global uncertainties are on the rise and the hardening of interest rates in the US and rise in commodity prices, particularly crude oil, will only increase the risk of a spillover to emerging markets, he added.
"There is little room for complacency and it is important to guard against sporadic volatility in financial markets," Patel said.
Source: News18


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I couldn't really come up with a great title, and I could use some help here!
The idea is to have a show about figurative art, but I want artists to feel really free about how they approach it. So the lame title that I gave it… "Reverse Portraiture", doesn't truly convey what I want it to. I am hoping to get really inventive figurative work, whether it is realistic or abstract, an X-ray, a macro-view – the possibilities are just endless! But can you help give us a title that will make more sense than mine?
If we pick your title, you won't pay an entry fee for this show!
(Incentive? Bribery? !)
Please e-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.com with your suggestion! We need it this week, please!
Thanks –


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My favourite Christmas songs 8th of 10
Coming in at number 8 is The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl with their awesome Fairytale Of New York.
It was denied the 1987 Christmas No.1 spot in the UK by the Pet Shop Boys, who I also love. I found a Fairytale of New York it to be quirky, dramatic, funny and has me singing along every single time even if Shawn MacGowan good do with a good visit to the dentist!
Today's featured Anthology Author is
Caitlin Ricci with her story A Jaguar for Christmas
Info on Caitlin Ricci
Caitlin can be found on her blog here.
Did you like her story? Facebook her here to let her know.
Not read it yet? Download the anthology for FREE at Love Lane Books or All Romance eBooks
Mr RJ's Crap Joke Section
Today on Facebook dear RJ likened me to a Christmas Elf. So guess what...We have a
Until the next time. Adiós...
For the master post explaining prizes, etc, visit Competition and prizes for the twenty five days of Christmas
Don't forget every entry you make counts towards the grand prize on 25 December. So if you enter every day, you will have 24 chances for to win..
Today enter the competition to win a rather unique signed hand coloured RJ Scott doodle, your choice of ten signed postcards and a RJ Pen.


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There may be a way of predicting which teenagers at high risk for full-blown schizophrenia will go on to develop the disease.
Does swearing relieve pain?
Holy @//!#!, does it ever! Or so concludes a British study published recently in the journal NeuroReport.
Is there a link between heart disease and gum disease?
There is growing evidence that there is, indeed, such a link, and if you have either condition, you should pay extra attention to treating the other as well. That's the conclusion of a "consensus" statement written by leading gum disease specialists and cardiologists published online earlier this year in the American Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Periodontology.
Does vitamin D prevent the swine (H1N1) and seasonal flu, or the common cold?
It's not clear whether vitamin D specifically protects against H1N1, a novel virus, but there's growing evidence that it does protect against a number of respiratory infections – and that many Americans do not get enough of the vitamin.
Is there a link between migraines and breast cancer?
There seems to be, and the good news, such as it is, is that women who get migraines actually seem to be at lower than normal risk of breast cancer. Nobody can quite explain why.
Does it help to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen for colds?
Yes, they can reduce some cold symptoms. But don't expect miracles. And do take these medications – dubbed NSAIDS – judiciously, because they carry significant side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding.
Can Chinese herbal medicine combat endometriosis?
It may, according to a new review published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international nonprofit that analyzes health care information.
The review, which looked at results of two randomized studies of Chinese herbal medicine involving 158 women, suggested that Chinese herbs may provide better relief of pelvic pain and other symptoms than one of the prescription drugs normally used in the West, Danazol.
Does keeping one's balance get harder with age?
A. It certainly does, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University, and the inner ear problems that trigger balance problems are far more widespread than doctors thought.
Does it ease a child's anxiety to have a parent around before receiving general anesthesia?
Not necessarily, but "clown doctors" and video games do help, according to a review published recently online by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international nonprofit that provides up-to-date information on health care research.
Dr. Allan M. Cyna, an anesthesiologist at Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, and his team pooled data from 17 studies involving 1,796 children ages 10 months to 17 years, their parents, or both.
Do garlic supplements reduce the risk of the common cold?
Maybe. Australian researchers combed the literature and found only one study with good enough methodology to evaluate. The team, from the University of Western Australia, published its findings online in the July issue of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international nonprofit that analyzes health care information.


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Mary Somerville Room
Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HD
Date & Time
2pm, Saturday
12th October 2019
Jane Heal
Ruth Padel
Jane Heal & Ruth Padel were joined by an audience of 20 in Somerville College Senior Common Room, Oxford. They discussed the theme of The Self within Midgley's work.
Jane Heal reflects:
Ruth Padel read a beautiful new poem, composed in memory of Myles Burnyeat, 'Poem on the Self'. Myles (himself a distinguished philosopher) had died only recently, after suffering for several years from dementia. But, as the poem evoked, he remained his gentle, courteous, caring self to the last.
Ruth and myself, with many voices from the audience also contributing, reflected on what this shows about what we are like. Could what is important about us possibly be that we each contain a Cartesisan Ego, 'Descartes' diamond' as Mary labelled it, 'a hard, impenetrable but very precious isolated sentient substance'? What that conception gets right is that diamonds are of value. But (as Ruth brought out in another poem) diamonds, like other gems, admit the light and so are not really impenetrable. And we matter to each other not because we are hard and unchanging, but because we are interdependent, active, sometimes conflicted, growing.
Ruth's poem is now stowed safely in the tin. If you want to read it, you'll need to catch the tin at one of its future stops!
For more Biscuit Tin content follow us on Instagram:
Instagram @notesfromabiscuittin
Spread the word
The Self
Science and Poetry
Midgley, M. (2006)
London: Routledge, Chapter 7 (p.111-121)
Are You an Illusion?
Midgley, M. (2014)
Oxon: Routledge, Chapter 11 (p. 127-133)
Science and Poetry
Midgley, M. (2006)
London: Routledge, p.200-205


text: Hey, everybody. I'm looking to buy one of the small razor tape dispensers I used to use in the Army, but am having trouble finding them. These are handheld, carry a 50-foot roll of razor wire at a time, and twist the tape as it is strung, and we usually used it for rapid, temporary strings of razor tape around foxholes, etc. I was able to locate one on a German site (picture attached), but would prefer a source here in the US. Any ideas? Thanks for any help. J.


text: gcmprior 0 Report post Posted April 20, 2011 How do I get my landing page, a posts page, to appear on the site menu as a tab that says "Home?" The page exists - it is the site url - but I can't figure out how to make the tab appear. In the Admin menus section I have a "Home" in my menu, it's a "custom" page. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Collection Information
Size: 0.2 Linear feet
Summary: This small collection of sixty-three letters written by painter Mary Cassatt dates from 1882 to 1926. The bulk of these letters are to Cassatt's nephew, Robert Kelso Cassatt, and to his wife Minnie regarding family, mutual friends, and travel. The remaining letters are to friends regarding purchases of artwork, travel, and personal news. There is also one newsclipping of Cassett's obituary.


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Pay it Forward
"Pay it Forward" Program is an application process for individuals with specific needs and requires reciprocation with an in-kind gesture (not monetary) and is determined on an individual basis (the act of Paying it Forward). This is usually a request for money to fund a wide range of needs to better the life of their child or family. For example, summer camp, funding for therapy dog, specific medical needs and equipment.
Tis the Season to S.H.A.R.E."Tis the Season to S.H.A.R.E." is also an application completed by health and human service workers (teachers, principals, case managers, therapists, and other community providers) for holiday assistance. We provide toys and clothing to children under the age of 18. Application link and need link for adopting an angel. Will need quick add on front page for adopting an angel during certain times of the year.
"S.H.A.R.E. it Forward"
"S.H.A.R.E. it Forward" was the first program which S.H.A.R.E. started. We have specific requests from applicants and try to match them with community donations. Items include gently used clothing, toys, household goods, and furniture.


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The Shame of Ireland
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin has said "We want to hear from communities who feel marginalised and silenced – we want to hear your stories!" – so this would be a rare chance for survivors, friends and families to work together on a project that could have a big impact. The 5 chosen groups get a week of professional help on their project paid for by the Abbey and 5,000 euros to help develop it for the stage – but they don't need to finish everything in that week, it's more to help pull the ideas together. The application only needs short answers to three questions, just 500 words in total – but you can send more material like photos, links or written material with the application.
The deadline is December the 15th, so Rob Northall and Jack Colleton encouraged me to post this for all members to urgently consider… I'd like to suggest that people here could put together their ideas for the application starting on this post.
If anyone would like any help or advice on applying, I'd be very willing to help (I used to work in Community Theatre in Dublin, in Ballymun and Tallaght). I wanted to make a few suggestions that could help with the application… If this was put together as a Community Theatre project based on the stories and oral testimonies of survivors, it would be a very powerful and important piece of theatre for stage or radio. Having the voices of survivors as the core of it would bring all the issues to life and finally let their voices be heard.
I suggest that the stories of survivors could be recorded and gathered to be used as the basis for a play – these testimonies could be recorded on a high-quality digital recorder. This would also create a historical archive so that survivors' experiences could be remembered and preserved.
There would be six months or more before the week's work in the Abbey, so that would give time to involve as many survivors and others impacted as possible. It would just need one survivor or family member to act as a co-ordinator who would keep an eye on things and OK the final application and send it in. As many survivors as want to get involved could add their ideas in and add their names into the material with the application. They could also add their own stories, testimonies, photos and so on.
Those survivors who have written about their experiences would be included too –so that six months would give time to gather written stories from as many people as possible. As well as their own stories, survivors could tell the stories of those who didn't survive, or those deceased who never got the chance to tell their story. Some of these could maybe later be voiced by actors on stage, while any available photos and videos could be used as background material – projected onstage or on screens – with the true stories behind the photos being told… Their partners or family members could also have their testimonies recorded to give another perspective.
What would give extra weight to the application would be to emphasise that this isn't really about something that happened in the past – for the survivors and their loved ones, it's obviously happening right now. The effects of the abuse still go on, and the Church denials and official penny-pinching and neglect still continues (to put it very mildly!).
As they are looking for a "new idea", maybe that could be it – to show in a powerful way how it is really still happening, and how abuse and its effects continues in different forms.
So if the survivors were able to tell the story of how their whole lives have been affected right up to today, it would give the "relevance" that these applications tend to want. It would also give a fuller picture of what the effects of sexual abuse, neglect, starvation and official denial can do to a person even many decades later.
The second stage after the gathering would be to bring in a writer or director or "dramaturg" (a fancy name for a person who edits and shapes stories for the stage). They would then have the job of shaping the stories into a play and putting them on paper into a script – the applicant and survivors group would then have to give feedback and suggestions.
That is one way of doing it anyway…. Please post any other ideas or suggestions you may have – the important thing is that an application goes in, whoever does it or whatever shape it takes. Many thanks for reading this!
Wishing you success in the application, Mark Lynch
Views: 351
Hello, William - thanks for your help!
As time is short, I'll put my email here if people want to contact me or send anything...
Yes Jack has it in a nutshell it is not something that happened in the past how can it be we are living the consequences to this day
Yes Today ... Now And Being Forced To Fight For Basic Human Rights!
Good luck mark
Thank you to everyone for your support and encouragement! The deadline is 5 pm today. Unfortunately Facebook took down the supporters page and locked me out of Facebook because I tried to boost a post - there was an "issue" but they won't tell me what it is.
Anyway, we will give it a try today... Let's hope!
All the best,
Hello Mark. FB Seems Very Down On What It Perceives To Be "Activism". People Posting On FB About Missing Animals Had Their Posting "Rights" Affected Because FB Chose To View Their Posts As "Spam". They Are Faceless And Nameless And Not Human. They Never Play Fair. They Never Say What The "Issue" Is. Fb Was Set Up For Less Than Wholesome Reasons And Fb Hates Posts That Do Not Fit It's Anti Democracy Agenda.
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Danone to Combine Functions of Chairman, CEO
Danone SA (BN.FR) said Wednesday that its Chief Executive Office Emmanuel Faber will also serve as company chairman as of Dec. 1.
The company's board of directors unanimously voted to combine the functions, Danone said. As chairman, Mr. Faber succeeds Franck Riboud, who becomes honorary chairman.
Mr. Riboud said the change is a result of a planned leadership transition that he initiated three years ago.
"Combining the chairman and CEO roles will solidify this momentum, creating a direct bridge between the board and management that will enable the company to continue to execute on its strategy," he said.
Danone has announced structural changes to its executive committee, which will include three business and two functional leaders.
Write to Sarah Sloat at firstname.lastname@example.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 18, 2017 12:42 ET (16:42 GMT)


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Nelly Furtado Working With The Neptunes (Updated December 29th)
Nelly Furtado says making her new album has been 'rewarding, creative and personal'. The 33-year-old singer is currently laying down tracks for her new record T.S.I. [Part One], which is due out next summer. She's worked with a number of big names, including The Neptunes, Rodney Jerkins and producer Salaam Remi. Although she's grateful to everyone involved, it's Salaam who had a profound effect on Nelly. 'This album started in a really cool place. When I was working on my Spanish album [2009's Mi Plan] kind of near the end. I started working on my English album. That happened by working with Salaam Remi, we'd been working on a couple of Spanish tracks and at the end of our session we did an English song together and it was really fun. Salaam just, he kept making trips and I'd make trips down and we'd see each other and record.
It's been a really rewarding, creative and personal relationship,' she explained in a video posted on YouTube. Salaam has worked with many other famous singers, most notably Amy Winehouse. He helped put together the late singer's posthumous record Lioness: Hidden Treasures and his back catalogue continues to astound Nelly. 'He's an amazing guy, he's like a big teddy bear and we. I just find all the music he's done in general, from Amy Winehouse to Nas, it has a real classic sound to it, a sound that's really authentic, super soulful. His personality's like that too, so the two of us really clicked,' she explained.


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Icebreaker Activities That Aren't Boring
Icebreaker Activities That Aren't Boring
We all know the first week or two of class is devoted to establishing a class culture, procedures, and helping everyone get to know each other. For the latter, plenty of activities have been devised—some better than others.
Here are the better ones.
Venn Diagram Interview
First, print out a roll for the class sorted by birthdays. Then, pair off the students based on whose birthdays are closest to each other (if you have an odd number, the student closest to your birthday has you as a partner). Have them interview each other for about 15 minutes based on easy, non-personal facts like favorite foods, number of siblings, etc., organizing the answers with a Venn diagram. At the end of the time, each student introduces their partner to the rest of the class.
If you don't feel like organizing the students by birthday yourself, have them do it! Simply tell them to line up in birthday order. They'll obviously have to talk to each other to figure it out. Beware; it will be very noisy and active. Once they are all lined up correctly, have them sort themselves out by other categories like height or first letter of their name.
Parking Lots
You might be familiar with parking lots, large pieces of posted paper that students add to throughout the class, as a formative assessment strategy. It also works for sharing getting-to-know-you information. Simply make the question something interesting but non-personal, then post it up on the wall and ask students to stick their answers to it with Post-It notes. They will look forward to adding their two cents and checking out everyone else's.
The "Test"
It's also important for the students to get to know you during the first days. Announce that you're giving a pop quiz. They will absolutely freak out since you haven't covered any actual material yet. Then reveal the quiz, which is made up of questions all about you. They'll obviously have to guess. Then everyone shares their guesses, which tends to be very funny for all involved. Then, of course, share the right answers to the quiz.
Puzzle Time
In a similar vein, print out some personal pictures of yourself and your family (not that personal). Cut them up into random pieces and leave them in an envelope on each small group's table, then have them assemble the pieces as a team. When everyone finishes, give the backstory to each picture.
Looking for more strategies to build a positive classroom learning environment? Check out this blog for 5 Tips to Develop a Growth Mindset in Your Classroom! And don't forget to take a look at all our favorite (and free) classroom printables!
This post was originally published August 2014 and has been updated.


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There they go again…
Syria, Libya listed as 'rogue states'
The Bush administration named Syria and Libya yesterday as "rogue states" whose weapons of mass destruction must not just be controlled but must be eliminated by whatever means necessary.
Let's make the coming worldwide antiwar demonstrations massive. (The weekend of Sept 27)


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The Yankees are set to bring up second base prospect Jose Pirela, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News reports on Twitter. It remains to be seen how the playing time will be sorted in the middle infield, but the club has received scant production to date at both second base (Stephen Drew and Gregorio Petit) and shortstop (Didi Gregorius). With the Yankees otherwise looking good atop the AL East, it is fair to wonder whether Pirela and/or Rob Refsnyder will get extended early looks to help inform the club's decisionmaking over the summer.
Here's more from the competitive AL East:
- Meanwhile, things are headed in quite a different direction at the keystone for the Blue Jays, who have received stunning production from offseason acquisition Devon Travis. As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca explains, while Travis's incredible start is obviously not sustainable, he has exhibited a series of skills — hitting the ball long and hard, and showing quality strike zone control — that bode well for his future. While Toronto obviously hoped he could become a long-term answer when it dealt for him, the club now has good reason to believe that he will be installed at second for years to come.
- Another infielder off to a surprisingly hot start is Jimmy Paredes of the Orioles. As Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun writes, the 26-year-old has traveled a long road through five organizations to get to this point. Still a work in progress in the field, Paredes has shown real promise at the plate this year. With Jonathan Schoop still working back from injury and Manny Machado having missed significant time in each of the last two seasons, Paredes could be an important piece for Baltimore if the team hopes to stay in the playoff hunt.
- Things have gotten bad in a hurry for the Red Sox, writes Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. Bradford opines that losing Hanley Ramirez for any significant stretch would be a huge blow for Boston; while his injury does not appear to be as serious as it looked, any loss of production could be problematic in a tough division. Of course, the club has plenty of options in the outfield, and the bigger concern remains a rotation that has struggled badly. Though it is reasonable to hope that the results will begin to better match the underlying peripherals, Bradford says that the team does not have any obviously promising internal candidates to add quality innings in the near term.


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Immediate help for beginning teachers to improve their teaching practice was the focus of the first of six seminars scheduled for this year, starting on October 1.
Teachers from nine school districts sat at tables with colleagues in similar grade levels, taking turns with a partner to talk about hard-to-handle issues, like "My students act out–they have no interest in the lesson," "Transitions are a big problem," "There's a lot of sass back," and "I'm struggling with Common Core and implementing within an IEP."
They decided which of the four Danielson's Domains in the Framework for Teaching best described their particular issue, and put a Post-It note describing it on one of the four domains posters in the room.
Facilitators quickly assessed the types of situations and concerns people posted.
Each facilitator took a group to lead. As predicted, the most issues revolved around Domain 2, The Classroom Environment.
One beginning teacher in each group volunteered to work with the facilitator to demonstrate the kind of discussion to hold with a partner. Handouts included examples of coaching language–an important tool in mentoring and instructional coaching, and useful in teaching, as well.
People were encouraged to come up with strategies to deal with the issue identified as a challenging one.
For students acting out, showing no interest in the lesson? Assign each student a job. Transitions a problem? Share the goal of a student-run classroom. Sassy students? Earn a game with positive behavior. Struggling with Common Core? Remember curriculum is a guide, not a strict set of rules.
Evaluations were positive on how helpful the seminar had been—particularly the chance to talk at length with each other.
Other components of the evening included discussion of mindfulness, and translating modeled strategies of the evening to use in the classroom.


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The cross-sell and upselling tactics help businesses entice customers into purchasing more within a single transaction and boost sales margins. The retail giant Amazon claimed that cross-sells and upsells generated 35% of all revenue back in 2006. Try these time-proof techniques yourself and see how offering related products can benefit your own bottom line. In today's Training Thursday installment, we first brush up on some cross-selling and upselling essentials best practices and close up with a hands-on training session with a step-by-step guide on related product creation in OroCommerce.
What Cross-Sell and Upsell Products Are and Why Your Webstore Needs Them
Cross-selling is suggesting goods that are often bought together with a product a customer intends to buy. Through related product recommendations, sellers can better showcase their product range and pull customer attention to previously undiscovered yet value-added goods. For example, a cross-sale could be offering memory cards and then charging cables and cases to go with a camera that a customer is viewing. One of the greatest things about cross-selling is that it enables vendors to demonstrate the extensivity of their catalogs without interrupting the buying cycle. This simple trick bumps up the average order value (AOV) and the number of items purchased. But it also serves branding purposes, as the buyer feels safer to go with a vendor that offers a whole variety of accessories for the product they are intending to buy. So besides just bumping up your AOV, cross-sale items, you increase the probability of you actually selling the core item a buyer was initially looking for.
Image source: https://www.kissmetrics.com
Similar to related products, upsell items are displayed on a product destination page (or at the checkout) to ensure they are easy to spot. Through upsales, vendors encourage customers to spend more by opting for a higher-end product variation than the one they are viewing. Although upsell items are typically more expensive, offering them on product pages enables businesses to grow the customer awareness of their product lines while providing buyers a more holistic product experience.
The benefits merchants can realize when offering related products in their online shops are many. These include:
- Boosting revenue. While the initial sale brings only 5-30% of profit, related upsell and cross-sell products can bolster revenue up to 300%.
- Increasing conversions. Personalized product recommendations can grow conversion rates by 150%.
- Increasing order totals and AOV per customer. Related products can boost AOV by nearly 50%.
- Improved customer loyalty and satisfaction, which results in higher customer retention rates.
- Increased customer lifetime value (CLV), as a result of better customer retention.
Using both product bundling tactics seems to be a low-hanging fruit. But the tricky part is to think through the logic of how to connect and relate your products to both add value to your buyers and add extra profit to your bottomline. Below are a few practical tips that will help you make your cross-sell and upsell efforts more efficient.
Making Cross-Sells and Upsells Work
Consider the following steps to ensure your cross-sell and upsell pitch will bring value to both your customers and business.
- Logic-driven product relations. When building a selection of suggested products, make sure they logically or intuitively pair, or match certain criteria, as opposed to just being the next SKU in the database. For example, recommend a product of the same brand and within the same price range, or of competing brands within the same price range. Besides, consider mixing various related product rules, for example, make sure that for each product a few same-priced items are shown as related, but also weave in several higher-end, upsell products.
- Mind the price gap. Speaking of prices: Make sure there's no big price dispersion between the products and associated goods. Try and keep the percentage difference between the highest and lowest product price within 25%.
- Personalize product pitches. Set up rules to define how products are displayed to different customer groups to offer them more personalized product recommendations. For example, make an RFM analysis of the client base to identify your most engaged buyers. Let them view a few upselling items more than the less active buyers do (say, 3-4 instead of 2). At the same time, entice your first-time buyers into purchasing cheaper goods that complement the main product and recommend them the frequently-bought-together product bundles.
- Offer a reasonable number of associated products. Although adding cross-sell and upsells to a product page may be good for SEO, don't overload customers with choices. From our experience, it makes sense to keep the number of related items under 6. This way customers will remain focused on the product of their primary interest and quickly figure out whether any of the recommended goods are worth ordering. If you still need to display more than 6 related items, arrange them into intuitive subcategories buyers can skim through. These can be something similar to 'You may also like' product for upselling, and 'Frequently bought together' to cross-sell accessories or standard complimentary items.
Image source Adidas.com.
With these tactics in mind, let's now see how OroCommerce supports setting up related and upsell products.
Creating Related and Upsell Products in OroCommerce
According to a study by Forrester, displaying related products on the product detail page is the top rated feature B2B eCommerce companies will be investing in. In our B2B eCommerce platform, we've implemented this functionality just out of the box.
In OroCommerce, it's possible to configure related and upsell products globally for all organizations, individually for each organization or per website. Related and upsell products are enabled by default. Both can be easily configured in the backend:
Here sellers can fine-tune the settings for related and upsell products as needed. Specifically, they can:
- Set either one-way or bi-directional relationship between the original item and related products.
- Specify the number of related and upsell products to be added to a product.
- Define the number of related and upsell items displayed to customers on the product details page. If the actual number of products will happen to be less than the specified number, the related and/or upsell items for the main product will be hidden in the storefront.
- Let buyers instantly add related and upsell products to their shopping lists straight from the main item's product page.
Related products available in the OroCommerce storefront
In OroCommerce, it's possible to quickly add cross-sells and upsells when creating new products or updating the existing ones.
Adding upsell items to the existing product in the OroCommerce backend
You'd like to try setting cross-sells and upsells in your OroCommerce instance but need more guidance? Check out the How to Create Related and Upsell Products video tutorial that will instruct you step by step on how to:
- Configure related and upsell items in the application.
- Display and add related and upsell items to a specific product from its product details page.
Make sure to refer to our online Documentation in case you further clarifications on managing related products and upsell products in OroCommerce.
Stay tuned for the next Training Thursday as we've got plenty of other useful stuff to share!


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Harper Harris
Riverside Track & Field and Cross Country senior Harper Harris has been awarded the Sharonda Coleman-Singleton Scholarship by the South Carolina Track and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The Singleton Scholarship, named after a Goose Creek Track & Field Coach who was one of the nine victims of the Emmanuel Church shooting in Charleston, is awarded to two senior Track & Field and Cross Country athletes in South Carolina every year. The nominees fill out an application to show how they display the "Six Pillars of Character" — Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship.
Because of Harper's full appointment to the United States Coast Guard Academy, he has requested that the SCTCCCA pass the $600 scholarship to the next athlete in the voting process.
Harper follows last year's winner, Abigail Smith, also from Riverside High School. Riverside is the first school to receive this Scholarship more than one time.


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Get More Kingdom Bang For Your Fundraising Buck
By Rick Bundschuh • Kauai Christian Fellowship • Kauai, Hawaii
Let me assure you that taking students to third-world countries for exposure to missions is a very valuable idea on several levels. The trips get them fired up about missions in general and make them very appreciative (at least for a while) of all the things they take for granted at home. A mission project infuses the kids with a sense of responsibility for the poor that they will never shake and often brings a wonderful sense of purposefulness and comradeship.
There are lots and lots of great reasons for going on mission trips – which is why I take a group of kids to Tijuana every year.
But seldom – very, very, seldom – are mission trips truly effective in reaching those in far-off lands for Christ. Yes, by our presence and efforts we may be supporting a ministry that is active in evangelism, but let's get really honest with each other here; mission trips usually do far more good (in the short run) for our kids than they do for those in foreign countries we visit for a week or two.
Oh, I know that sometimes, after the skit or presentation (if you do that kind of thing), lots of hands go up or people come forward. But, most of the time we have no idea if the locals are just being nice to the Yankee kids, or if they have a culture that responds in this way to every invitation. (No, I am not denying that God can move, but as one who has lots of friends in foreign missions who host youth groups, let's just say I am aware that all is not always as it seems.)
And then, there is the money.
Usually, thousands of dollars per student are spent to go to a place – where the money spent by our youth group to get to this place could feed and fuel the economy of an entire village for a year. Most of us are aware of the huge discrepancy between wages in poor countries and the USA. Many of us have, sitting in the midst of poverty, felt acute embarrassment at our own over-the-top wealth and careless spending habits when just a few less luxuries at home could put the village kid we were playing soccer with through school.
Youth Leaders Only, in its 38th year, helps youthworkers in thousands of churches be aware of the music their students are listening to, use all forms of music in their ministries, and equip their students to make wise choices about the music & media they have in their earbuds 9 hours every day. A membership costs less than the price of a pizza each month! The theme of the current YLO is "Missions And Service: Crossing Boundaries To Make A Difference." Click here to get it!
So here is an idea: this year, don't go. Don't have a mission trip at all; have an Un-Mission Trip.
Do your fundraisers, get the bucks together, and make a goal that is exactly the same as if your crew was jumping on a plane or doing the road trip to Mexico on the bus. And then send all the money to the mission that you were going to work with. The money can be used to hire a local evangelist, feed a family, buy Bibles, pay bills, or send a hardworking local missionary couple on a surprise weekend trip to the big city and their first-ever stay in a hotel with some spending money in their pocket. Or, bring someone from the mission you visited last year to your town. Help them get their visitor visas, buy them Wal-Mart, or even Macy's gift cards, and let them go nuts. Give them the vacation of their lifetime. Let them try to minister to your church this year.
True, some kids will not be motivated by this idea. (You may have better luck with kids who have already had their eyes opened in prior mission trips) Some are only willing to work hard if they benefit from it. But it won't take much in the way of math or graphs to make the case that perhaps this year, unlike other years, the goal of your mission efforts is to get as much Kingdom bang for the buck; and that by staying home, working hard, and sending the cash (okay, okay, pick one kid who worked super hard and send him or her down with a staff person to present the gift), the good things that can be done are multiplied.
And we all can still have fun working toward that purpose.


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$12.95 – $145.95
Cascade is an aroma hop that was developed by the U.S.D.A. breeding program in Oregon and released in 1972. It has a medium strength aroma that provides a unique floral/spicy character with well balanced bittering potential. It is the most popular hop with the U.S. craft brewing industry that is not propietary.
Yield(lbs per acre) 1,600 – 2,000
Alpha Acids 4.5 – 7.0%
Beta Acids 4.8 – 7.0%
Cohumulone (% of alpha acids) 33 – 40%
Hop Quarantine restrictions: Cannot ship to WA, OR, or ID