text:
I would like to tell you how I became so 'damaged' as many might call it. Maybe by some chance I can gain your empathy, but most likely it will just disturb and possibly disgust you. Regardless, in the current moment I am in, my present, I am staring at something which I can not seem to comprehend as it seems like an impossibility. It has lead me to a much deeper understanding of myself and my past, which I feel a need to express in writing and to any who read this, forgive me for I am weak.
I was nine when two of my friends from school and I were enjoying our freedom of summer vacation by riding around on our bikes and seeking out hidden backwoods trails. It was the middle of the afternoon with the oppressive Florida humidity bearing down on us as we rode our bikes through the thickly forested area behind our neighborhood.
We were dodging trees and weaving amongst the brush when one of my friends skid to a stop and almost caused me to collide with his back tire. I swerved and swore because it was 'cool' to talk like an adult. I demanded an explanation from him as my other friend looped around a tree before joining my side.
My friend, the one who had skid to a halt, pointed and said, "What is that?"
We reluctantly rode to his vantage point and stared at what his finger shakingly pointed out. We saw it, but we all decided to ride closer to make sure we were not witnessing a collaborative hallucination brought on by the heat.
It was a body floating face up on the glassy water amongst reeds.
She couldn't have been older than eighteen years of age and must have died fairly recently, but I can only derive that now because of my current medical knowledge. She wore a light night gown that was completely soaked and remained completely motionless.
Birds could be heard chirping in the trees, but not a sound came from us.
The still area weighed heavily on us as we gawked at the body of this young woman. We, a hive mind, climbed off our bikes and walked to the water's edge. She was only a few feet from us now and we could see her better.
She was fair of skin, freckles adorning her face, with blonde hair atop her head. The hair, long and wavy, spread out around her head like beams of light from the sun. Her gown clung tight to her frail form with one shoulder strap having fallen down her left arm.
It was the first time I had ever seen a bare breast before. Her left breast, the side that the strap had fallen from, was exposed to the mid summer sun.
"Is she dead?" I thought aloud, breaking the silence.
No one responded as we all were completely transfixed by what we were bearing witness to.
"I dare you to touch her." One of my friends said in jest.
I don't remember which of my friends said it, or it could have been me and my memory is failing me, but we were young and stupid. I don't think we wanted to believe she was dead and hoped poking her would awaken her. Someone gave me a push, so I took action, not wanting to be called names or laughed at for being scared.
I removed my shoes and socks and rolled up my shorts as high as I could before stepping into the soft, if not gooey, earth that rested beneath the black water. Each step churned the water as my feet landed on hidden branches while plant life wrapped around my feet and ankles.
When I was but inches from her, I noticed her skin was so fair that it was greying, with blue veins showing under her skin. Her lips had lost color and took on the unnatural color of blue. They still looked plump though. Her eyes were open, but they were also in an unnatural state. One lid was slightly more closed than the other and they seemed completely unfocused on anything.
I was scared. My heart began racing, my adrenaline flowing through me at a rapid pace, causing my hands to begin to shake and my breathing to deepen.
My eyes fixated on her small exposed breast with erect nipple that had fading in color to match the rest of her body.
I cannot justify my next action, but I had never seen a naked woman before and felt an urge to touch her breast. I reached out and cupped her breast in my hand, giving it a soft squeeze.
It was soft, very soft, but it was cold. It felt so unnatural for someone to be this close to ice. It made me realize just how warm people actually are.
There was no reaction from the young woman. Her body pushed down into the water a little as I applied a minute amount of pressure to her naked chest. She remained motionless as her head sunk back into the water. Water poured into her nostrils and a pool of water formed over each glassy eye.
Something about her not involuntarily reacting, like coughing or blinking, triggered a warning shot of adrenaline as my fight or flight reaction kicked in. She WAS dead and this WAS a dead body I was touching.
I turned and fled as fast as I could through the thigh high water. My friends must have seen the fear in my eyes and followed my lead. They shouted and yelped while rearing up their bikes to turn quickly, then took off in separate directions.
I fell upon the shore, shaking and now soaked from the waist down and ran to my bike, leaving my socks and shoes behind.
That night I had to explain to my parents why I had lost my shoes. I told them that my shoes were at the bottom of a pond after a bully had wrestled me down, took them off me and tossed them in the water. Later that night I tried to retrieve them, but I could not find them and ruined my socks in turn.
My parents did not question it, as I was commonly picked on for how small and scraggly I was. We bought new shoes the next day, but I was not mentally cognisant. I was lost in a daze because I had barely slept that night. All I dreamed of was the girl floating in the water, her eyes staring off into nothingness and the chill of her soft skin.
The next time my friends and I met, we swore to never speak a word about the body. For some reason we were scared that we would be blamed. It seems stupid now as an adult looking back, but it made sense to us at the time. We thought we would be tried as adults and sent to jail forever. But if we had told someone… maybe the girl's family would have gotten some form of relief in knowing what had happened to her. Maybe we would have been able to help her find peace. Maybe, if it was a murder, she was the key to finding out who did it. Maybe if I had said something, my nightmares would not have continued.
Every night I would wake from a nightmare shaking, adrenaline pumping and mind racing. The dreams were always different but they always led to a familiar end. I would be dreaming of something, the story would unfold, and at some point I would start feeling a sense of dread. I would start seeing her around corners, behind a tree or hovering above the person I was speaking too. No one ever saw her but me and in the end, no matter how far I ran or how well I hid, she would find me and embrace me.
At a certain point, this began feeling normal. I expected it to happen every night and in every dream so I just accepted it. I began waking up normally and no longer in a cold sweat.
After a while, I was beginning to experiment and would embrace her in return. When I did this, she arched her back to create a spaces between our bodies so she could take my hand and rest it on her naked breast. Her expression remained unchanged and her eyes maintained their unfocused gaze.
She was as cold as I remembered and just as soft. I was not sure what to do so I just held her and stared into her eyes until I woke up.
I am sure that was my sexual awakening. It is the first time I can remember having a wet dream and like every young boy experiencing their first wet dream, I thought I had peed in my bed. I must have been 11 at the time, but even then I could tell something was different.
I had never thought of women being different than me physically. It was the day that I found the young woman's body, her immaculate form, ever so slightly exposed that I realized I knew nothing of the female body. I had never had 'the talk' with my parents and they always seemed very against speaking of the matter, so I had never even considered how different a woman's body was from a man's. I had had so much time up till that point to figure out my own body, but even that began changing.
As a growing teenager, I started to notice I would get random erections no matter where I went, what I was doing or who I was around. I had no control over this and had no idea why it was happening. I was shocked and mortified. It felt like I had a bomb attached to me counting down with a timer I could never see.
After much frustration and feeling an absolute inability to control my erections, I tried to find ways to deal with the matter. At first I tried pressing it down, lightly hitting it, or even bending it to try to make the erection just go away. It hurt me and never really seemed to be a solution. But almost by accident, I stroked it at some point.
This was my 'Eureka' moment. I could not believe the pleasure it brought me. I had my first orgasm this way and when it happened all I could think of was the woman in my dreams who held my hand to her chest.
Almost nightly I found time to sate my hormone-driven urges. At the time I could not figure out why the women in the underwear section of magazines did not do anything to excite me, but every time I thought of my alabaster mermaid, I would reach my peak. I was not really conscious of how this was wrong or perverse of me because I was still young. I did not know why I found her to be sexually arousing in comparison to anything else. I did not understand that my views of sex had been distorted and disturbed.
Despite all this and despite what you might think, I was a fairly normal kid. I did my school work, had some close friends and even dated a few girls. That's right, in highschool I had two girlfriends across the four years. None of them were very serious as I did not know what I wanted in a possible partner at the time, but this did lead to me experimenting physically with another person for the first time.
When I was sixteen, my then girlfriend and I had found ourselves alone and, driven by teenage hormones, we started to kiss each other rather aggressively. We were breathing heavily, our bodies pressing together and she pulled away to ask me to, 'Take my dick out.' I nervously did as she asked and pulled my erection from my unzipped pants. She smiled and started playing with it with her hands, seeming very amused by the action. Nothing against her, but it was clear it was her first time touching a penis since she seemed to cause more pain to me than pleasure.
She stopped at some point and lifted her shirt off, then sat waiting in anticipation of… something to happen. She rolled her eyes and told me to take her bra off. I struggled, having never touched a bra before, to figure out how this contraption was even attached to her or how to get it off. I think I might have even suggested she slip it over her head. She finally helped me, decoupling the back two hooks and then told me I could touch her.
My girlfriend definitely was not the woman I dreamed of nightly, and I was nervous as I reached out toward her and groped her left breast.
Something was wrong and I almost immediately lost my erection. She did not feel right. She was so warm and her heart beat so rapidly in her chest just below where I held her.
She noticed I had gone flaccid and scoffed. She asked if they were not big enough. I didn't know how to respond and said that I didn't know what had happened. She was embarrassed and frustrated and our night ended there.
Not long after, we broke up, but she never spread any rumors or spoke badly of me. She just began avoiding me when she could. I think she was as embarrassed as me by the whole ordeal and just wanted to pretend it never happened.
Nothing very eventful occurred between then and my adult years. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and was being offered a scholarship to a rather nice university. This was when things began to feel more positive or at least I started feeling more normal.
In college, while studying medical science, I met a special woman. She was tall, slender, almost never smiled, and on occasion my gaze would meet with her piercing black eyes that hid just under the straight cut of her black bangs. She was like me in many ways: timid, sat by herself and seemed very enveloped in her own work. She was different in many ways too, but the things that stood out to me were that she was not very loud, but very outspoken and she was EXCEEDINGLY intelligent. I was intimidated and smitten for the first time.
At one point we needed lab partners for a project and I saw it as an opportunity to speak to her. We worked well together and when I asked her out for drinks, she agreed. Work and our education was all we seemed to speak about, but I enjoyed that and she seemed to be content with it as well. When I took her back to her dorm, she thanked me for the wonderful evening and hoped we could do it again. As selfish as it might seem I hoped for a kiss, I felt I deserved that much, but instead she turned and entered her dorm room.
It was a wonderful night and I was feeling a flutter in my chest. I had only felt this way once before about a woman, but she only existed in my dreams, while this one was tangible.
We had a few more dates but never once did she kiss me or even hold my hand. She was very, VERY proper and old fashioned, which I genuinely enjoyed about her. I liked that, despite societal pressures, she felt no need to show affection in a public or physical manner. That was until after our fifth date when she caught me off guard by inviting me into her room.
She led me in and closed the door behind me before turning her cold and hard gaze upon me. Her stare was like that of a lion upon its prey as it stalks it in the tall grass. She did not smile or even seem to get excited as she pushed the thin straps of her long black dress from her shoulders and let me watch as it fell from her thin form and crumpled on the floor.
I could barely breath.
She was pale as a ghost and her form was naked except for the lacy red underpants she wore. She walked to me with her matching red high heels, each step meaningful and laden with intent. She touched my chest and leaned into me, bringing her lips to my ear.
"I hope you can handle what it is that I need." She whispered.
She stepped away from me, walking backwards and never losing eye contact, before sitting back on her bed. She kicked off her high heels, pushed herself further back on the bed and suddenly went limp. She collapsed on the bed and remained almost completely still, aside from the slight wavering of her rising and falling chest.
I remained still for some time as I stared, both aroused and confused by what had just happened. I reluctantly climbed onto the bed, on hands and knees, and stared at her. She stared off with an unfocused gaze, mouth slightly agape and hair fallen in all directions.
I understood then what she wanted and it both terrified and excited me to no end.
I unbuckled my pants and slide them off removing my shirt as well. I hovered over her and took time to bask in her dedication. She never flinched, never twitched and I don't recall her blinking, but she must have at some point.
I reached out and touched her left breast, cupping it in my hand as I gave it a soft squeeze. She was warm and I could feel her heart lightly thumping in her rib cage. She did not react to my touch.
I touched her all over, exploring her body from head to toe. Never once did she correct her positioning or move herself, she just remained dead weight in my arms. Her warm flesh was weird to me, foreign even, but she was so close to what I needed as well…
I made love to her that evening and as hard as I tried, I could never elicit a reaction from her till I had climaxed inside her. It was my first time cumming inside a woman and it was more intense than anything I had ever experienced with my hands.
She seemed to blink back to life as I lay on her, huffing and puffing like a wild beast, and she smiled at me for the first time. Her eyes made contact with mine as I lifted my head from her shoulder; sweat beading my brow and her hand running through my tousled hair.
She told me I did well.
We dated for about five years and during that time we moved in together, I graduated with a bachelor's in Mortuary Science, and she continued on toward her doctorate. She was to be a neurosurgeon, which made sense for how skilled she was with remaining level-headed and steady of hand. Her precision was simply unmatched.
Our love grew and we remained completely loyal to each other. We had an odd understanding of each other, especially when it came to our more carnal needs. She didn't even bat an eye the time I asked her to take an ice bath before sex. It was my birthday and she wanted it to be special for me.
Sadly, we were not to be. Our careers pushed us in separate directions, as I wished to start my own funeral home and she wanted to create her own practice when she graduated. At some point we both agreed it was best for us to split up.
Now you might be wondering about what happened to my thoughts and dreams of the young lady I stumbled upon all those years ago. Well, they had all but dissipated by this point in time. My dreams stopped and my thoughts of her were almost non-existent. But as soon as I had moved out and no longer slept in the same bed as the woman I once loved, the dreams returned in the same manner as when I was a child.
Like the dreams before, they started with her staying distant and hiding until the end of the dream when she would confront me. She hovered there with her unfocused gaze and her arms reaching out. At first I was terrified of her as I thought she would have been enraged by my betrayal and infidelity, but instead she came closer to me with her hand brushing my cheek with her cold fingertips. I embraced her and wept. It was in that moment that I knew she had never left me and she forgave me for falling astray.
It had taken many years but I had moved on with my life with a strong focus on my career. I did casually keep in contact with my ex and watched as her career skyrocketed to heights I could only imagine. I remember the day that I received a magazine in the mail depicting my raven haired former love front and center of the cover with bold lettering proclaiming, "How This Woman Has Changed Neurosurgery." I chuckled as even in the picture she maintained her cold stare I had once loved her for.
I had started my own funeral home, hired a few employees and this too was rather successful. It is odd to think though that my business was in death and with that no one was ever truly happy to see me. I would often meet the deceased before I would ever see a family member. A beloved spouse, a cherished grandparent or a child that passed at too young an age, their still bodies telling me their stories before any teary eyed family member could. I carry a burden that weighs down my heart but this helps me ease the aching.
Despite the grim nature of my career, I was happy with my job as I brought closure to the lives of the living and the dead. While the people I met with were in the process of mourning, I was a part of the last step in letting them say good bye and move their beloved deceased onto something better.
But while others let go, I held on. I held onto the woman I have loved all of my life despite never knowing her name. She was always there when I closed my eyes each night, watching over me as I lived out the fantasies my subconscious. She was my companion in life and hopefully in my death.
Then, last night, she was gone. I immediately could feel her absence in the void of my once peaceful dreams. She was divorced of me and I felt lost without my companion as I stumbled through my dreamscapes calling to her and praying for her immediate return.
The morning felt hollow; absent of something I could not place my finger on. I followed my daily routine but found it harder then usual as my mind could not focus on the next task. Adding to my concerns was the fact that I was being absurdly absent minded in forgetting an assortment of duties in opening my business for the day. The day only trudged on as I found myself passing off my obligations to my apprentice and assistant so I might have time alone in my office to stare into my coffee mug.
I was only brought annoyance for my apprentice's disregard for small rules. I had gone outside to get some fresh air when I noticed the back doors, the doors which the deceased are deliver to, were left ajar. Begrudgingly, I shut them behind me before joining my apprentice inside.
I had no intentions to scold him for being absent minded as that would have been hypocritical on my behalf. I only wanted to know how we had gotten another client without my knowledge.
"Poor thing," My apprentice told me as he handed me a clipboard, "She is so young and beautiful."
I retrieved the clipboard and as I read it over, knowing I might need to make corrections and file the rest of the paperwork correctly, I froze.
The woman was eighteen years of age, Caucasian, 5'6" and had blonde hair...
My hands began shaking violently for reasons I did not understand. This had not been the first blonde-haired young woman I had embalmed and readied for burial. Her height was average for a woman and the fact that she was blonde meant nothing as well.
It was as though something clicked in my head, a signal telling me something that I did not know for sure yet. If I read further I would know if this ancient instinctual trigger was either truth or fiction. There was only one part of information I needed to confirm these suspicions and my eyes drifted to it, neglecting anything else written on the sheet.
My heart raced as I read the cause of death.
She had drowned.
My apprentice must have noticed my loss of composure and asked if I was okay. I dismissed him from his work, instructing him to go home for the evening, before retreating to my office. When he asked if I was alright I told him I was feeling ill and needed to rest a moment. He did as I asked and once he had left I locked all the doors and secluded myself within the cold room with the black body bag.
I took some time to stare at the body bag with the mysterious form lying beneath with a great deal of turmoil as I wrestled with my thoughts. There was no way it could be her, could it? My logical side, which had never allowed me to stray far from the facts, began wishing and praying that it might be her. That by some miracle it could somehow be her...
I reached out with a quivering hand and grabbed the zipper between my fingers. I slowly pulled on it, the teeth parting, and blonde wavy hair began spilling out. Tears built up in the corner of my eyes as I continued unzipping the body bag and revealed the young woman's radiant and unfocused eyes, then her freckle kissed nose and lastly her soft blue lips.
It was her.
I broke down and cried out in anguish. I threw myself from the table, hitting the wall before collapsed to the floor sobbing like a small child. I was scared that I had finally gone completely mad but elated that my suspicions were found to be true.
My sweet, pale lotus petal had returned to me. I kept checking and double checking to assure myself that my mind was not playing tricks on me and that she did not merely resemble the girl I had found floating face up in those boggy waters over twenty years ago.
This leads to now, the present I spoke of in the beginning of my story. It has been a few hours and I have collected myself and am of sound mind once again. From my desk I can see the face of the young woman in the body bag and she is undoubtedly the woman I fell in love with as a child, minus the nightgown.
She was always there for me, always. She followed me almost all my life, accepting me for my faults and never passing a single judgement upon me even when I was weak. She must have found a way to return to me because she wanted me and I wanted her. For some unfathomable cosmic reason, I am reunited with my one true love. The universe is rewarding my dedication. She is my only love and I am not going to leave her side ever again.
Once I am done writing this, I will join her upon that cold table she rests upon. I will join her in mind and body as we both journey to a place I could never fathom in my wildest dreams and no longer will I be disturbed by morning's light. No longer will I need to return to this world with a feeling of lost purpose and loneliness.
I only wish to warm her heart the way she chills mine...


text:
My Favorite Flirts is a feature that lets you reach your favorite Flirts easily from My Account or on 1-800-TO-FLIRT.Manage My Favorites
You Are My Cuckold
$0.69 per volley.
(217 Reviews)
In the fetish cuckolding subculture, the female is typically sexually dominant, while the man takes on a submissive role, only becoming involved with her or her lover when she permits it—sometimes remaining altogether celibate.
The wife who enjoys cuckolding her husband is sometimes referred to as a hotwife or cuckoldress.
Are you a cuckold or just dreaming of being a cuckold?
I am a no frills cuckoldress. I will tell you all about how I cuckold my husband, and you can tell me all about how you are a cuckold.
Tell Me all About Your Cuckold Fantasy or is it a REALITY!
Maybe you have never been a cuckold, but get turned by the idea of your wife or girlfriend getting fucked by another man and, either watching her, or, having her come home and tell you all about it.
Maybe you have no idea what a cuckold is and just want to find out more.
Not all of my calls involve anyone having an orgasm, but I will admit, that I get off a lot when I hear the tales of how you were turned into a cuckold.
**Ratings with Feedback are appreciated.**

subset: commoncrawl


text:
HSBC bid goodbye to the "exciting and unpredictable" Year of the Dragon on Tuesday, celebrating the start of a new lunar year not a moment too soon.
The British bank's U.S. unit spent most of last year — supposedly the luckiest on the Chinese zodiac calendar — buffeted by a money-laundering scandal. In December, it agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion regulatory penalty over lax compliance with anti-laundering rules. So HSBC may have needed an excuse to celebrate by Tuesday, when it threw its annual Chinese New Year party in New York.
While executives at the party didn't dwell on recent news events, they seemed relieved to be entering a new cycle of the zodiac calendar. The Year of the Snake is "said to be reflective of steady progress and will bring a greater attention to detail," HSBC USA Chief Executive Irene Dorner told the crowd gathered in a ballroom of Manhattan's Mandarin Oriental hotel.
HSBC, which has a large presence in Asia, welcomed in the Chinese New Year with its usual ice sculptures, lion dances, speeches and buffet tables full of dim sum and carved suckling pig. (Our favorites were the grapefruit-sized fortune cookies, dipped in dark chocolate, complete with paper fortunes that read, "HSBC wishes you great fortune and success in the Year of the Snake.")
Recently promoted and tan from vacation, Dorner ceded the floor to a performance by New York Philharmonic principal oboist (and HSBC customer) Liang Wang. She spent the rest of the evening mingling with the bank's customers and other guests, including Mark Thompson, the former BBC director and new CEO of The New York Times. (And after a somewhat rocky start in his new job, we suspect that he might also welcome a year of steady progress.)


text:
NPR brings live streaming news to iTunes Radio
Live Streaming services have proven to be a smart business model lately, with companies like Pandora and Spotify succeeding in gaining members. The biggest problem with these services is that they haven't solved the needs of every customer since a lot of people just like to listen to the news on the go, aside from their music selection. Apple's iTunes Radio is currently on a rise in many countries, and a new launch today proves that it's just getting better.
NPR will launch on iTunes Radio today, and its offering 24 hours of streamed content to your iOS device. NPR affiliates are also ready to join the service, and we should expect these to launch on iTunes Radio this spring. According to NPR, this is just one of the many strategies it has to offer an expanded digital licensed experience.
We do know that Apple entered into a significant deal with record labels in order to make iTunes Radio possible. It's hard to know exactly what arrangement was made with NPR, but what's important is that you'll now have more alternatives as to what to stream, without having to leave the app.
Source: NPR
Via: Apple Insider
Discuss This Post


text:
Review: Dragon Ranch Moonshine & BBQ, 441 N. Clark St. 312-955-1900.
Rating: 3.5 (out of four) Heating up
What do barbecued ribs, Asian spices, Mason jar moonshine cocktails and Billy Dec have in common?
They're all in the mix at the latest hangout from Rockit Ranch, the group that opened Rockit Bar & Grill eight years ago in River North and followed it up with subterranean club The Underground and Asian restaurant Sunda in the same neighborhood. Can they make it all work? I enlisted a few barbecue-loving friends and dined during its opening week to find out.


text:
Know why all those Canadian flags were waving you into opening night at Parker Playhouse last week, and all those beefeaters in red-and-gold velvet doublets and knickers were waving their pikes in welcome at the cast party that followed? Ask John (a.k.a. Mr. Canada) and Marj Buckle, who arranged the whole thing. It was because the play was King Lear, Zev Bufman`s first Shakespearean presentation at Parker. (``I should have done it 10 or 15 years ago,`` said the producer.) And it was the first major Shakespearean tour by the 32-year-old Stratford Festival Canada from Stratford, Ontario.
Paul McNeil, who heads Fort Lauderdale`s English Speaking Union; City Commissioner John Rodstrom; Don Hazelton, Florida`s deputy secretary of state; Ted Blowes, mayor of Stratford, and Douglas Sirrs, Canadian consul general from Atlanta, all found themselves up on the stage, making pre-curtain speeches. ``I`m not trying out for anything,`` Rodstrom assured the audience. ``I`m representing the mayor because he became ill right after the city commissioner`s meeting.`` (Guffaws from the assemblage.)
King Lear drew all the Shakespeare buffs -- A.J. White and her brother Jack; Jay Spechler and Elaine Lutchen; Lucille Montone, John Murphy, Donna Casto, Bud Chapman, Barbara Van Voast and her actor-brother Steven Davis among them. Van Voast is just back from Turkey which she calls, ``the undiscovered tourism spot of the world. The history is there, and the scenery -- the mountains and temples -- and the shopping is fantastic!`` (Where do we sign up?)
June Fitzgerald turned out in a sexy, black evening sweater with net-and-lace openwork which could be worn in front or back. Fitzgerald prudently wore it in the back. (No point in causing a raid.)
After the show, the Riverside Hotel on Las Olas popped for a midnight, caviar-cum-champagne cast party. (The hotel also put up the visiting VIPs.) It was another crush of Shakespeare fans -- David and Darlene Vlazny, John Mercede, Barbara Jonson, Lois Baumoel, Margaret Lehman, Thomas and Agnes Egan, Seana McKenna, Steve Wright and Dorothy Sterling Sands, who came all the way from Coconut Grove.


text:
|Principles of Disaster Mitigation in Health Facilities (PAHO-OPS, 2000, 127 p.)
This book presents key principles of disaster mitigation that can be of value to health facilities throughout the Americas. By compiling this information the Pan American Health Organization, the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) hopes to reach national and local authorities, hospital administrators, officials and staff, and other human resources connected in significant ways to health facilities. The book is aimed at health professionals, personnel responsible for health facility operations and maintenance, educators, architects and engineers, and members of the construction industry.
During its first meeting, held in July 1997, the PAHO/WHO International Hospital Mitigation Advisory Committee recommended that publications dealing with hospital mitigation have a multidisciplinary approach and include experiences and case studies from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Based on this recommendation, the PAHO Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Coordination Program decided to produce a new and extensively revised edition of Disaster Mitigation in Health Facilities, originally comprised of four volumes: General Issues, Administrative Issues, Architectural Issues, and Engineering Issues. As the titles imply, each volume examined a different facet of disaster mitigation in hospitals, and had a different target audience.
Since the Advisory Group recommended a multidisciplinary approach, the four volumes have been condensed into one. Some of the chapters and sections have been simplified and rewritten for a more general audience, and other graphical elements have been introduced to illustrate key concepts, particularly the factors that increase hospital vulnerability to natural disasters. Case studies from countries in the region describe the methodology employed in various mitigation projects and processes, as well as the results of such initiatives, showing that hospital mitigation is indeed practical and feasible.
One of the most relevant success stories in Latin America and the Caribbean has been the inclusion of disaster mitigation issues in the sectoral reforms underway in a majority of countries, thanks to awareness - raising efforts at the political level. Sectoral authorities can therefore proudly point to the positive results, in terms of cost effectiveness, of incorporating mitigation measures into any process aimed at upgrading health facilities, and health care in general.
This book examines the potential problems that can arise when disasters strike health facilities, and offers specific mitigation measures, emphasizing the key components that have to be in place for health establishments to continue providing vital services during and in the immediate aftermath of a major emergency.
Health facilities can be affected by natural phenomena such as earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and floods. They can also be damaged by anthropic (i.e., man-made) events such as fires, gas leaks or explosions. However, the emphasis here will be on seismic events, for two reasons. The first is that no other natural disaster affects health facilities as severely as earthquakes do. The second is that in reducing both the direct and indirect effects of seismic events, practically all other hazards are reduced.


text:
Summary (from the back cover):
In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend's attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years.
A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page.
I hadn't read a book so well-written and gripping for such a long time. While The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox isn't perfect, it is indeed amazing.
Maggie O'Farrell writes in the vein of many of my favorite writers, and she masters a subtle prose that kept reminding me of Muriel Spark. It feels refreshing not to be told everything that happens, not to be held by the hand and guided carefully through the story, but to witness the plot unravel by itself. Actually, scratch that. To witness the different plot lines unravel and become one and the same, to be unable to stop the train-wreck, which you know from early on is going to finally happen. It was really difficult to make myself stop reading.
Maggie O'Farrell doesn't shy away from thorny issues and weaves a compelling story (thriller? mystery? what is this exactly?) around them. She questions sanity and madness, specially regarding the different views on 'women madness' over time. She also questions love and jealousy and family bonds. And keeps from offering easy answers.
So go read this book now. It is that good.
Verdict: 5/5 - loved it


text:
Title Proliferation Is Fine—as Long as One Chief Is Accountable
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER: Big companies are notorious for title proliferation. I once worked with a bank with about eight layers of kinds of VPs—assistant, deputy, senior, executive, just for starters. When it seems like practically everyone who breathes in management jobs can be a Vice President, it helps to sort out who is ultimately accountable for integrating many dispersed parts and pulling together teams on themes across the company.
For smaller companies, let people call themselves what they wish; Silicon Valley abounds with Wizards of Technology and Gurus of Marketing, plus Chief Technology Officers who are usually founders needing to maintain a role as the company grows. For big companies plagued with complexity, with multiple businesses, multiple divisions, and multiple functions mixed together in one big matrix, having a Chief that reaches across silos can help realize the goal of acting as One Company.
A single Chief informed about and responsible for a company's performance on an issue provides focus and reduces the likelihood of something falling through the cracks. One of Lou Gerstner's first moves to lead a turnaround as new CEO of IBM in the 1990s was to name one Chief Information Officer for the company as a whole—instead of the 127 people throughout IBM also called CIOs for one or another unit. That was a big step in helping the company enter the 21st Century with an enhanced ability to act as One IBM.
Whatever the proliferation of Chief This and Chief That titles does for decision-making, it's certainly good for the egos of those involved. To go from a lowly manager of the janitorial contracts to Chief Sanitation Officer would enhance anyone's career.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (@RosabethKanter) holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation and leadership for change.
Read the latest Leadership Report.


text:
Congressional Democrats, sensing a political opportunity in an otherwise dry season, have launched a furious assault on Republican lawmakers and the Bush administration over a provision in the just-passed tax cut package that deprives millions of low-income families of a tax break for children.The truth, of course, is that the package does not "deprive millions of low-income families of a tax break for children". These familys pay no taxes, so are not entitled to any "tax break". This is a tax bill, not a welfare bill. No matter, the Democrats and some Rinos think they have a chance to go on TV helping "the children".
T he sympathy expressed by some people in a North Carolina town for accused terrorist Eric Rudolph exposes a perverse strain of American intolerance.The Oregonian in all their PC wisdom is shocked to find that there are people that have sympathy for Eric Rudolph. I don't know why. There is also sympathy in this country for the Palestinian bombers, Fidel Castro, and any communist or "socialist" dictator. There are people in America that are sympathetic to Iran and Syria, China and North Korea. Why is it so shocking that some people would support Rudolph?
Lewis & Clark College President Michael Mooney on Wednesday acknowledged he violated university policy in lending $10.5 million in university money to an Idaho energy company that later went bankrupt.Apparently Mr. Mooney, for all his education and renown throughout the faculty parties, failed at common sense. The investment didn't pass the "too good to be true" test and violated the college rules on investments. What's more is that the university trustees are taking no action.
"Mr. Mooney has done an outstanding job for this college other than this one decision," Fields said.What the hell is this? People everywhere are up in arms about business executives mismanaging funds, the government is trying to figure out new incantations to put in their spell...er law books to keep them from fiddling the books. Business executives are threatened with jail if they don't personally certify figures that they have no way of knowing are completely honest. And we have a college president that made a little $10 million dollar mistake. The trustees don't want to be too hard on him. He admits that he screwed up, but busting him would disrupt the harmony of college life and be too harsh for a academic professional.
"The man made a mistake," said Greg Goodman, a board member and president of City Center Parking, "but he never tried to hide anything."
Many of Oregon's top high school graduates are settling for second-choice colleges next fall because of soaring tuition, shrinking financial aid and a sluggish economy.-------- TITLE:
A MASS grave containing the remains of 200 Kurdish children has been discovered in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, the Kurdish newspaper Taakhi reported today.Probably not if you are one of the "peace" crowd. According to them, the war was not justified unless WMD are found, and for some, not even then.
"Citizens discovered on May 30 a communal grave close to Debs, in Kirkuk. But this is different from other mass graves discovered since the fall of Saddam Hussein's terrorist regime because it contains the remains of 200 child victims of the repression of the Kurdish uprising" in 1991, the paper said.
"Even dolls were buried with the children," it said.
Dozens of mass graves have been uncovered all over Iraq since Saddam's ouster by invading US-led forces on April 9.
Three successive tax cuts pushed by President Bush will leave middle-income taxpayers paying a greater share of all federal taxes by the end of the decade, according to new analyses of the Bush administration's tax policies.This is news...why? These two groups have never found a tax they didn't like or a program they didn't think should be run by the government and funded by taxes. Do you think the studies of the conservative, pro-tax cut think tanks are going to get the same treatment in the WaPo? To coin a phrase...I don't think so. -------- TITLE:
The two studies focused on separate issues. Citizens for Tax Justice examined the percentage changes in total federal taxes that would be paid by different income groups through 2010. The Tax Policy Center, jointly run by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, looked at the share of federal taxes that would remain for the various groups once those changes are fully phased in. But the studies reached similar conclusions.
"Everybody likes us," Spec. Stephen Harris, a 21-year-old from Lafayette, La., said as the patrol moved through streets drenched in sun. He thinks the people want the U.S. troops to stay. "Oh, yeah," he said, taking a slug from his canteen. His assessment of the neighborhood: "I'd say 95 percent friendly."Notice that the WaPo reporter doesn't delve into Mohammed's background. What is it? Former Ba'athist? Maybe one of the Saddam Fedayeen that "melted away"? The reporter either doesn't know or doesn't want to say.
To Mohammed Abdullah, standing on the sidewalk as the 10-man patrol passed his gated house, their presence is, as he terms it, "despicable."
Haumschild's evaluation: "Maybe 10 percent are hostile. About 50 percent friendly. About 40 percent are indifferent."Again the reporter is taking "residents" word for the break down while disparaging the soldiers opinion.
Residents gave different numbers -- at best, 50-50, and at worst, a significant majority holding hostile views. Sentiments often broke down along the religious cleavages that mark Iraq.
There were no children around on 4th Street in Yarmuk, where sentiments were distinctly uneasy. Abdullah, standing with his neighbors, insisted he would fight the Americans. "They said they came to liberate us. Liberate us from what? They came and said they would free us. Free us from what?" he asked. "We have traditions, morals and customs. We are Arabs. We're different from the West."Now We're back with Mohammed again. He didn't see anything wrong with Iraq under Saddam and is saying that he will fight the Americans. Kind of tells you where he is coming from doesn't it? He appears to be a major part of the story though. What is the story? That Iraqis that supported Saddam are unhappy about the invasion and overthrow of their beloved leader? The average person's reaction would be "duh", but not our intrepid WaPo reporters.
'They Love Us'Ah yes, the obligatory "see how stupid these American soldiers are? They actually think they Iraqis like them" paragraph.
At 12:40, the patrol turned a corner a block from their temporary home. "I love it," Harris said of Army life. "Something different every day."
The men passed the two green Bradleys and stepped through the base's concertina wire. A soldier greeted them with cold cans of strawberry and cola soda. They stripped off their helmets, flak jackets and the uniform jackets called "blouses" and set down their weapons. Some eagerly quizzed the reporters about what Iraqis along the route had said about them.
The lieutenant announced that after two hours, they would go back on patrol.
"They love us," concluded Ratledge, the medic.
Israel Television Channel Two News correspondent Ehud Yaari showed a tape this evening of the meeting Yasser Arafat held in Ramallah with children to mark International Children's Day.I'm sure this is just a trick by the Israelis. Obviously they digitally remastered the tape to make it appear the Arafat was encouraging the children to become martyrs. He was probably telling them how he achieved his world renowned good looks and some interesting new uses for baby wipes. Yeah, that's it, baby wipes. -------- TITLE:
Arafat devoted his remarks to encouraging the children to be "shahid" (die for the cause), noting that one shahid who dies for the sake of Jerusalem has the power equal to 40 of the enemy dying.
Yaari noted that Arafat said nothing in his remarks about peace or reconciliation.
Hunting is morally equivalent to rape, child abuse and torture, according to one of Britain's leading Christian experts, who is closely connected to Labour's religious establishment....I guess they were wrong, huh.
Supporters of Linzey said he could not be dismissed as a crank.
Ranger training has never been easy. Darby set the standard in 1942 while forging the first U.S. Ranger battalion....About half of Darby's highly motivated initial volunteers didn't make it. In the years since, this 50-percent attrition mark has continued to be the norm.Groan...Gimme a break! I thought the PC stuff would be gone with Clinton. This just sucks. -------- TITLE:
While the rest of the U.S. Army has lowered its standards to the point where seasoned war vets find today's combat training a joke and the crusty salts who fought at Anzio, Osan and Dak To refer to what passes for most training as "an invitation to get killed," Rangers have fought lowering the training bar and have consistently turned out hardened studs whom commanders in the field would fight to get.
That is until Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, the guy who runs Fort Benning today, was told by a few recent Ranger graduates that they were turned off by Ranger School because some of their RIs were meanies and actually yelled and cursed at them and even made them do pushups when they goofed up. Others complained in writing that they'd been sleep-deprived and that the training was too difficult.
MURPHY, N.C. - Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park bombing suspect who became almost a mythic figure during his years on the run in the Appalachian wilderness, was arrested early Saturday as he scavenged for food behind a grocery store.I am probably one of the most unsympathetic people there is when it comes too bombers. I was very nearly the victim of one on July 26 1970 at Camp (now Fort) McCoy, Wisconsin. I am really not enamored of them.
Over the past four years, Congo's war has claimed more lives than any other. The International Rescue Committee, an American aid agency, says that by the middle of last year, 2.5m people had died because of the war in eastern Congo alone. Some were shot or hacked to death; many more succumbed to starvation or disease as nine national armies and a shifting throng of rebel groups pillaged their country. By now, the death toll is probably over 3m, although this is the roughest of estimates. As one UN worker puts it: "Congo is so green, you don't even see the graves."Link from Andrew Sullivan -------- TITLE:
In Afghanistan, we paid off warlords whom we should have dropped bombs upon.Waddayanknow, the internationally known statesman, Ted Rall, who only a short time ago was telling all that would listen (both of them) of the suffering of the Afghan people, now wants to carpet bomb the country.
President Bush today accused Europeans of perpetuating starvation in Africa by subsidizing agricultural exports and by objecting to the use of bioengineered crops, raising another grievance with Europe at a time of already tense transatlantic relations.President Bush is just telling it like it is. The Europeans, for there own selfish reasons, tell Africa that if they accept GM food from the US that they will not trade with them anymore. The African governments knuckle under and Africans starve. It sounds like the WaPo disapproves of telling Europeans the truth. If dead Africans upset the delicacies of the Euro-weenies, So What? -------- TITLE:
In a post-election meeting Wednesday morning between legislative leaders and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Senate President Peter Courtney took the floor and stated: "We will have new revenue. Is everybody on board?"There it is. There will be nothing done to encourage private business, create jobs, revive the economy; there will be no talk of making Oregon a place where you can do business; nothing suggested that would bring in employment for those citizens without a college degree or a high school diploma; nothing even that will encourage a business to hire the ones that do have higher skills.
United Nations officials looked the other way as Saddam Hussein's regime skimmed $2 billion to $3 billion in bribes and kickbacks from the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program, said U.N. officials who told ABCNEWS they were powerless to stop the massive graft.The only thing the UN has improved is the methodology of corruption. -------- TITLE:
A GRIM AND FAMILIAR series of events has played out in the Middle East during the past several weeks. An attempt to restart the Arab-Israeli peace process began with encouraging rhetoric and the tabling of a new plan, only to quickly bog down through the inaction of a weak Palestinian leadership, foot-dragging by a hawkish Israeli government and ineffective diplomacy by the United States.What the hell are you talking about? What was particularly "ineffective" about the diplomacy that brought about the fact that there IS a Palestinian Prime Minister instead of that tired old terrorist hack Arafat?
On cue, the extremists jumped in: Just as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas met for the first time, the Islamic movement Hamas launched a wave of suicide bombings. By late yesterday there had been five attacks in less than 48 hours, killing at least 12 Israelis and wounding scores.Exactly how is this the fault of anyone other than the Palestinians? There are certain conditions to meet on this "roadmap". Israel has expressed it's intention to make these concessions AFTER the Palestinians show that they are going to actually do something this time. I'm not sure how this bombing and the deaths of 12 Israelis constitutes "footdragging" by the Israeli government or "ineffective" diplomacy by Bush.
Mr. Sharon indefinitely postponed a much-anticipated trip to Washington, and Israeli-Palestinian dialogue dissolved into mutual recrimination. If the past two years are a guide, the diplomatic process will stop there. Israelis and Palestinians will renew the low-grade war that has consumed the past 31 months, and the Bush administration will direct its attention elsewhere.Maybe so. What was the purpose of Sharon's trip to the U.S? Maybe there was going to be a discussion of where to go from here? All that is moot now. The Palestinians kicked over the negotiating table as they have every time in the past. Isn't it time to lay the blame where it belongs? -------- TITLE:
Iraqis have begun tracking down and killing former members of the ruling Baath Party, doubtful that the United States intends to adequately punish the mid-level government functionaries who they say tormented them for three decades.My God. So much crap in the WaPo today. This story I want to beleive. They probably think that the U.S. should stop them from doing this.
U.S. gun laws can easily be exploited by international terrorist operatives, who can obtain assault-style firearms or explosives by taking advantage of delays and loopholes in the federal gun control system, according to a Congressional Research Service report to be released today.Of course there's a problem. We can't just have anyone running around buying guns just because they're not criminals can we? This is part of an campaign orchestrated by the "gun control" lobby and certain politicians that they own.
The Bush administration sought to broaden support in the United Nations' Security Council for a resolution lifting sanctions on Iraq, offering concessions today that would ensure the immediate financial survival of the U.N.'s arms inspection agency and extend the U.N.'s authority to honor billions of dollars in contracts for products approved under Saddam Hussein's regime.I am terribly disappointed in this. (If indeed the reporting is true.) As I read the story (which, again, is the WaPo with their history of slanting their reporting to meet a predetermined conclusion.) is that the sweetheart contracts that Saddam "negotiated" with France and Russia will be honored and give Kofi Annan the chance to enlarge the already outrageous $2 billion dollars that the UN has already stolen from the Iraqi people. In return for....what?
Armed federal agents slipped silently into place around Byron Calvert Cecchini's Leesburg home. They pounded on the door, rousing the self-described white supremacist from bed. For several hours, the agents scoured the house, loading his computer, Rolodex and files into a Ryder truck.Obviously these people are being targeted for what they beleive and what they say. Where are Martin Sheen, Jane Garofalo and the Dixie Chicks? I'm sure they would be there if they knew that these folks do not like George W. Bush either. -------- TITLE:
Agents found no weapons, but they found something they were looking for -- T-shirts with a Nike swoosh logo that substitutes the word "Nazi" for Nike. Cecchini is facing possible charges of trademark violations, said law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named.
"You prosecute what you can prosecute," one law enforcement source said.
Cecchini, a former National Alliance member who broke with the group and created Tightrope, acknowledged that his views are offensive to many. He said, however, that he is not a danger to anyone and is "absolutely not involved in anything illegal."
"I don't mind being called a racist or a Nazi," Cecchini said in an interview. "I'm not offended if people don't like what I think."
A month before the war began in Iraq, senior Bush administration officials said their plan for winning the peace was built upon the swift provision of basic services that would "immediately" make the Iraqi people feel they were better off than they had been under the government of Saddam Hussein.I'm having problems with this. The problems isn't with the Bush administration though, it's with the reporting. All through the preliminaries, the actual war and, to tell you the truth, the aftermath, we have bee hearing from the reporters of the "main-stream" press that it is, or is going to be a disaster. We had the "diplomatic blunders" in the UN, the stalling and "quagmire during the push to Baghdad, the looting of the Museums and the wide-spread demonstrations against the "American invaders".
Five weeks after the war ended, the administration is still struggling to accomplish that goal. It has failed to establish law and order on the streets and has achieved only mixed results in restoring electricity, water, sanitation and other essential needs.
After learning that I was to be the Tribune's only female embedded journalist, I promised myself never to write the woman-on-the-front-lines story.-------- TITLE:
It just wouldn't be an issue. I would find a way to blend in. I wouldn't be treated differently because I wouldn't let anyone treat me differently.
It was pitch black and we were taking constant mortar fire at a checkpoint just outside Najaf, the holy Shiite city in central Iraq. I had my rucksack, which weighed well over 70 pounds, my computer and satellite phone, my gas mask container, several bottles of water and some food.
I had been bumming rides with military vehicles for a little over a day to get up to the embattled city, and both my computer and phone were out of power, so I had added to my load a battery taken from a blown-out car, hoping that, with some alligator clips and a power inverter, I could charge my equipment.
The soldiers I had met up with said I could accompany them into the city--a 4-mile hike. I didn't know whether I could hike 4 feet with all that gear, let alone 4 miles, but we set out. At about mile 2 1/2, I was about to give out. I was contemplating saying something needlessly melodramatic like, "Go ahead, save yourselves," when a soldier asked, "Ma'am, can I carry that battery for you?"
I had run a marathon not long before the war and worked out almost every day. I grew up on an Iowa farm where manual labor was part of the bargain. But I had been bested by a car battery, and when I handed my load to that soldier, I admitted that I never could have cut it in the infantry.
Garofalo: There's been such ...democracy here, and the mainstream media is complicit in it. We are living in ...democratic times. ...Millions of people around the world were marching for ...war .... This was historically unprecedented. ...The President has openly said that he doesn't make policy by focus group. ...I ...never care about things anymore. ...I'm frequently depressed, just have a general malaise.....I never realized what an American hero she is. -------- TITLE:
The Justice Department is investigating allegations of improper campaign finance practices involving prominent Mississippi trial lawyers, a major source of support for the state's Democratic Party, according to lawyers involved in the case.Interesting. During the Clinton years, a lot of conservative groups were audited by the IRS. When it was pointed out that it seemed that only groups that opposed Democratic policies were audited, the administration denied any organized plan to target them saying that it was just coincidence. Well, this is probably the same kind of coincidence. Guess the Democrats can dish it out, but they can't take it. -------- TITLE:
David Baria, president of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association, would not criticize the U.S. attorney's office. But he contended that a host of groups, including some businesses and the Republican Party, are attacking trial lawyers and creating an atmosphere that is "consistent with this prosecution."
"Everyone thinks the Bush diplomacy on Iraq is a wreck. It isn't. It's a success ..."and this surprising one on religion
"These tablets are a noble guide for living... [E]xhibiting the Ten Commandments has... to do with teaching the meaning or the truth or the value of them. "And everyone thought she was against these things. It just shows what can happen when you read the paper the Maureen Dowd does
"Although my opinion is...valuable or relevant ...I am an actor, that fact does ... render it unimportant,"-------- TITLE:
Thaksin told reporters on Friday with a rye smile on his face.-------- TITLE:
The Senate passed a bill Wednesday that unhooks Oregon from future changes in the federal tax code, enabling the state to avoid losing $90 million to $140 million during the next two years because of pending federal tax cuts.I like that, "losing millions", as if that money was theirs by right and the people were trying to take it away. Well, it's not theirs, it's ours, and by taking the money from us they are taking it from the private economy. This is agreeable with some politicians (mostly Democrat) because they think that they know how to spend your money better than you do.
Proponents say House Bill 2186 is necessary to keep money for state services when slumping tax collections have left legislators with about $2 billion less to craft a two-year budget than they had available in 2001.
Every death at police hands demands an open, exhaustive public inquiry. The death of an unarmed mother of two is bound to spark more question marks than do most such deaths -- it certainly dramatizes why such an inquiry is needed -- and James has friends and family who will vigorously pursue answers. An inquiry and full airing of a case are just as essential, however, when victims lack any advocates.This is nothing more than a call for a witch-hunt of the Portland Police Bureau. The "activists" more properly termed Race Hustlers come out when ever there is an incident involving the police and a "person of color". It is no no mystery why they don't appear when the case involves a person of white color. The truth is they are looking for any way to solidify their control in the community as people who MUST be listened too. This makes them feel good and makes it appear that they hold real power. The truth is, all they can do is turn out enough people to make a good crowd scene when properly photographed (which the news media will gladly hep with) and a short, snappy slogan. They're pretty good at writing one line slogans too, but anything beyond that and they fizzle quickly. If you interview the "crowd" that they have provided for the TV cameras, what few coherent answers you get will consist largely of these easily memorized slogans. Try to delve deeper and you will come up dry.
A Multnomah County grand jury is hearing testimony in this case this week, and the grand jurors will be asked to determine whether the officer's conduct was criminal. Here, as elsewhere across the country, that is excruciatingly difficult to prove, and it is therefore rare for a grand jury to indict an officer. But the point is that the grand jury hearing, enveloped in secrecy as it is, and focused narrowly on criminal conduct, is no substitute for a full public inquiry.
An officer's conduct can fall short of being criminal and still be completely unacceptable. In addition to finding out whether an officer acted recklessly or with malice, the public needs to know whether the officer followed departmental policy and his own training. And is there a need to change either one? Could this death have been avoided?
The Republican-controlled House will not renew the federal ban on Uzis and other semiautomatic weapons, a key leader said yesterday, dealing a significant blow to the campaign to clamp down on gun sales nationwide.I'm sure there will be pious posturing and predictions of the end of civilization, but what would response be if instead of an "assault" weapons ban it was a speech ban? Not a ban on what most people say, but just a ban on certain types of "dangerous" speech.
Moving with exceptional stealth and tactical coordination, more than 50 Democratic state lawmakers in Texas packed their bags and quietly slipped out of the state under cover of darkness late Sunday and early todayFrom the tone of the story I would guess that this is now an accepted practice. I think that if the Democrats ever get control of either house again, that this tactic be used whenever there is a proposal for a tax increase. -------- TITLE:
The White House is leading a party-wide effort today to brand Democrats as obstructionists, on the second anniversary of his initial slate of judicial nominees. Three of the 11, including Estrada and Owen, are still awaiting votes.Let's see...11 nominees...two years....no vote. I'd say it shouldn't take too much effort. -------- TITLE:
One of the smartest things I've heard anyone say recently was when my friend (the atheist) Sarah Welstead said "As soon as someone starts talking about the Nazis, you know they've run out of things to say."-------- TITLE:
So true. Today "Nazi," like "Fascist," has been gutted of any real meaning. "Nazi" no longer carries any definable reference to the National Socialism movement founded in 1919 and brought to power under Adolf Hitler in 1933 in Germany, and "Fascist" has been divorced of its reference to the authoritarian political movement founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, both now are simply used to designate "anyone who criticizes something I like." "McCarthyism," "anti-American," "witch hunt," many others have been abused beyond recognition and today mean nothing more important or insightful than "You jerk!"
Both words are nothing more than Meaningless All-Purpose Slanderous Insults today, two of the dozens of MAPSIs littering today's discourse in lieu of thoughtful analysis.
Waxman said Fleischer had provided conflicting accounts of the reasons for the president's trip by jet, initially indicating that the carrier would be hundreds of miles offshore, too far from land to be reached by helicopter.Why in the world would anyone believe Waxman, the Smoke Nazi and why would anyone pay attention to Kleagle Byrd. These guys are caricatures of themselves. -------- TITLE:
Also, kids will be encouraged to plan their recess activities.So what happens when these kids meet regular kids who just beat the crap out of them and take their stuff? -------- TITLE:
"Kids with nothing in mind before recess tend to get in trouble if they don't schedule their recess," (violence prevention coordinator Marcy) Spigler said
Last interesting observation about Ferrioli: though raised in Portland, he's a born-again logger. Big time.-------- TITLE:
The question, then, is not just whether Nike's ads are political or commercial speech, but whether corporate speech is ever political or always commercial. The Bill of Rights was created to protect natural persons, not artificial ones. Giving corporations -- with their wealth, perpetual life and limited liability -- political speech protections defeats the purpose of the First Amendment -- debate among citizens.But the Oregonian forgets that for every silver lining, there is a cloud. At least I hope so. I would think that if only individual speech receives full protection of the First Amendment, then it should apply only to individual speech.
Doesn't this leave corporations defenseless? Hardly. Corporations can still speak, but on condition that they be accountable for their well-amplified speech. Moreover, corporate owners can come out from behind the veil and speak for their interests personally, with full political speech protections. With 10 percent of Americans owning 90 percent of all stock, owners have no shortage of resources with which to speak; they do not need the corporate shield or the advantage of deducting the costs of speech as a business expense.
[T]he nation's refiners face daunting challenges - and criticism from all sides. They find themselves blamed for shortages, and for air pollution.All this has no effect on the public of course, everyone will still be sure that the gas station operators and oil companies are ripping them off. I'm sure there will be politicians promising investigations. These are both continuing signs of summer, despite the enduring lack of proof. -------- TITLE:
They are accused of price-gouging, while they themselves claim they can't make enough money to build new plants. Meanwhile, summer is also smog season, and as metro areas struggle to meet clean-air laws, refiners must find ways to get 50 gas blends through a maze of pipelines to the right storage tanks without making a mistake that might cause motorists to see red.
The vast majority of antiquities feared stolen or broken have been found inside the National Museum in Baghdad, according to American investigators who compiled an inventory over the weekend of the ransacked galleries.Why? It's ovious. The news reporters had to find something to use to smear the Americans. Allowing the looting of cultural artifacts was perfect. That it wasn't true was no problem. It has been so reported and now there will be a few one time stories about it not being true, which will be forgotten. The myth of the Americans allowing thousands of precious museum objects to be stolen has been established. Damn Americans. -------- TITLE:
A total of 38 pieces, not tens of thousands, are now believed to be missing. Among them is a display of Babylonian cuneiform tablets that accounts for nine missing items.
The most valuable missing piece is the Vase of Warka, a white limestone bowl dating from 3000 B.C.
The inventory, compiled by a military and civilian team headed by Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos, rejects reports that Iraq's renowned treasures of civilization--up to 170,000 artifacts--had been lost during the U.S.-led war against Iraq. It also raises questions about why any of the artifacts were reported missing.
PRESIDENT BUSH used the latest unemployment figures to pitch his tax cut in California last week, but the grim new numbers must have caused palpitations back at the White House. The unemployment rate ticked up two-tenths of a percentage point, to 6 percent.I find it interesting that the WaPo is touting the current average 6 percent unemployment rate as "grim" when the same 6 percent rate was greeted with cheers and enthusiasm in 1996. At that time it was a The Natural Rate of Unemployment
The best a nation can do is settle for the lowest level of unemployment that will not begin accelerating inflation. [Milton] Friedman called this point the "natural rate of unemployment".Evidently this is no longer considered true. Another thing that evidently has fallen by the wayside in the belief that private businesses are the engine of our economy. President Bush is still operating under the assumption that private businesses must be encouraged to grow and create jobs. He does not believe that jobs are created by hiring more bureaucrats or creating more entitlements.
Some controversy exists over what the natural rate is, because it depends partly on what markets expect inflation will be. But in the U.S. today, economists estimate it to be slightly less than 6 percent.
May 1, 2003 — The plaintiff in a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a suspect's right to a lawyer has been convicted in a 20-year-old murder case.After all, if this bozo would have been convicted of murder in 1964, he would have received the death penalty and it would have been carried out thus saving Ki Hwan Kim in 1983. Who says the death penalty doesn't prevent murder? It seems like every time you turn around someone is getting sued for something similar, why not Illinois or SCOTUS? -------- TITLE:
A Cook County jury on Wednesday deliberated for about an hour before finding Daniel Escobedo guilty of killing shopkeeper Ki Hwan Kim with an ice pick in 1983. The 65-year-old Escobedo now faces a possible sentence of natural life in prison.
Escobedo was arrested in connection with Kim's murder in Mexico after his nephew told authorities about the crime.
During the three-day trial, Mitsuru Morales testified about how Escobedo recruited him to help rob and murder Kim, a fur and leather dealer. Morales, who was only 16 at the time, has since pleaded guilty to armed robbery.
Escobedo was the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Escobedo v. Illinois, in which the high court threw out Escobedo's conviction in the slaying of his brother-in-law, finding that Chicago police had violated his constitutional rights by denying his repeated requests for a lawyer.
The ruling was later expanded in the case Miranda vs. Arizona, giving rise to the Miranda warning in which police advise those under arrest of their rights, including the right to remain silent.
In the years following the ruling, Escobedo was arrested roughly 25 times for offenses ranging from attempted murder and indecent liberties with a minor to felony possession of firearms. He was released from prison in 1978 after serving 22 years on a drug conviction.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle - who bitterly accused President Bush of failing "miserably" on Iraq just before the war - has done a total flip-flop and now says Bush deserves "great credit" as war leader.-------- TITLE:
"In 21 days, we eliminated somebody [Saddam Hussein] who for 20 years has repressed and tortured his own people and posed a serious security risk," Daschle added in a conference call with reporters in his home state of South Dakota.
Sources tell The Post Daschle consultants recently conducted focus groups of rural South Dakota voters and tested their reaction to a video clip of Daschle attacking Bush on the eve of the war and all but blaming him for any deaths.
In that clip, Daschle fumes: "I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country."
Polls consistently show that Bush is more popular than Daschle in South Dakota, a tiny state that, Daschle has noted, has a very high percentage of people with military service.
Lee's crime was that she was hungry. After years of meager rations in North Korea, the 22-year-old woman with curly hair left her peasant family's home and slipped across the border into China in 1997, hoping to find something to eat. She was caught and sent back, handcuffed, to a North Korean prison camp -- a world of cruelty.Wow, that's going to be effective. Next year they plant to urge them again. Maybe they will escalate to harsh looks next year and from there the ultimate weapon. Kim Jong Il will be invited to Paris. Hey, if it works on Mugabe, who knows? -------- TITLE:
She was worked to exhaustion, forced to run in her bare feet as she carried heavy bricks at a construction site. Her food was a bowl of watery soup every day with cabbage and a few rotten corn kernels.
There was no escape. "I didn't feel anything," said Lee, now 28 and safe after an escape that brought her to Seoul four months ago. Beaten, starved and assaulted by horrors, "you just don't think about anything. You really have no fear of death. At that point, you're just a machine with no emotion."
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights condemned North Korea's human rights record for the first time last month, answering years of demands by activists that the world confront the abuses.
The commission expressed "deep concern" about conditions in the country, including torture, public executions, political executions, use of political prison camps and selective provision of food.
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which meets annually, focuses international attention on human rights violators. The commission can send monitors and investigators, but at its meeting in Geneva it noted that North Korea has not cooperated with U.N. investigators dealing with torture, religious intolerance, arbitrary detention, involuntary disappearances and the right to food. It urged the North Korean government to do so. It also elected to put North Korea on its agenda again next year.
However, Urenda worries he won't be able to afford the cost of a four-year university, a necessity before medical school. As an undocumented resident, Urenda isn't eligible for resident tuition, although he's lived in Oregon for five years. He says the obstacle is unfair.Evidently there is enough money in the higher education system to provide resident tuition to illegal aliens. This is good to know. Mr. Urenda may think the obstacle is unfair, but so was his families failure to go through the immigration process and jump ahead of people who were following the law. If he wants to be treated equitably, he should go back to Mexico and apply for immigration. Otherwise his presence here is illegal and he should gain no better treatment under the law than any other criminal. -------- TITLE:
The decision to make the cafeterias into "no pay zones" spread through the 40-acre complex like wildfire. Soon, the hungry patrons came running. "It was chaos, wild, something out of a war scene," said one Aramark executive who was present. "They took everything, even the silverware," she said. Another witness from U.N. security said the cafeteria was "stripped bare." And another told TIME that the cafeteria raid was "unbelievable, crowds of people just taking everything in sight; they stripped the place bare." And yet another astonished witness said that "chickens, turkeys, souffles, casseroles all went out the door (unpaid)."-------- TITLE:
(Reuters) - More than 160 foreign artists and intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, have come out in defense of Cuba even as many of their peers condemn recent repression on the Communist-run island, one of the campaigners said on Thursday.Funny, I have seen stories in many newspapers regarding this latest genuflection by so-called "intellectuals" to the Cuban dictator, but I have not been able to find the text of the declaration itself. I'm sure it will show up soon. Also I have seemed to miss the news of all these celebrities turning their worldly possessions over to Castro and moving into a Havana barrio along with the normal Cuban citizens. I know, they are Americans and don't necessarily want to move to Cuba. They would like to see the U.S. to reform itself and become as progressive as Cuba.
Latin American Nobel laureates Garcia Marquez, Rigoberta Menchu, Aldolfo Perez Esquivel and South African writer Nadine Gordimer, also a Nobel prize winner, have signed a declaration of support, Mexican sociologist Pablo Gonzalez said.
U.S. singer Harry Belafonte and U.S. actor Danny Glover are also among the personalities who have signed the two-paragraph declaration "To the Conscience of the World" so far, Gonzalez announced to a May Day rally in Havana.
"A single power is inflicting grave damage to the norms of understanding, debate and mediation among countries," the declaration says, referring to the United States and the war in Iraq.
"At this very moment, a strong campaign of destabilization against a Latin American nation has been unleashed. The harassment against Cuba could serve as a pretext for an invasion," it continues.
President Fidel Castro's government has come under unprecedented international criticism from friends and foes after sentencing 75 dissidents to long prison terms last month, and executing three men who hijacked a ferry in a failed bid to reach the United States.
Havana has said the crackdown is in response to a U.S. plot to topple the Castro government after more than four decades of failed efforts to do so.
Fierce criticism of Cuba's moves has come not only from Western government's such as the United States, but also from disillusioned foreign writers and artists, apparently sparking the pro-Cuba drive.
Portuguese Nobel Prize winning novelist Jose Saramago, a longtime supporter of Castro, wrote last month that, "from now on, Cuba can follow its own course, and leave me out," saying Cuba had cheated his illusions.
At the Thursday rally Castro told critics, particularly on the left, that their words could be used to justify a U.S. invasion.
The intellectuals who signed the declaration defending Cuba apparently agree, though they did not specifically express support for Castro's policies.
The declaration concludes with a call to governments and others to "uphold the universal principles of national sovereignty, respect for territorial integrity and self-determination, essential to just and peaceful co-existence among nations."
Gonzalez did not say who originated the declaration but said it would continue to be circulated among cultural figures around the world.


text:
Women in Law and Mrs. Lisa Wilcox are hosting a Welcome Social for all 1Ls and Women in Law members. The Social will be held at Dean Wilcox's Home (2810 Wheat Street) on Thursday, August 20th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Please join us for an evening of hors d'oeuvres, refreshments, and socializing!
RSVP to email@example.com Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 5:00pm.
See the Evite at http://www.punchbowl.com/
We hope to see you there!


text: Ass licking, otherwise known as rimming or giving a rim job, is an acquired taste (no pun intended) but those who love it can't seem to get enough of it. You can discover if it's the thing for you by watching these beautiful women orgasm from the sensation. It's hard to pin down when exactly rimming entered the mainstream, but it slowly became popular in the porn industry in the mid 1970's. By the 80's and 90's it was still a very niche fetish. It wasn't until the turn of the 21st century that a significant number of performers started indulging in the practice. See for yourself what all the hype is about.


text:
During this monthly event we will be discussing different philosophies and approaches to dealing with daily life situations or challenges with like-minded individuals.
We will start the discussion by presenting you with a theme and then open the discussion to find out:
- The approach.
- How was it dealt with?
- What was the experience/lesson?
Learn from one another.
Discover the Universe's approach and messages in regards to it all as well as:
- Meet people with different philosophies
- Exchange
- Learn
- Have fun
- Get new tools to apply at home
This is our open house for those interested in joining the conversation.
For those of you who are interested to learn more about Let's Talk Coaches, the ThetaHealing® practice, programs and training opportunities are welcome to stay after the group discussion to discuss further. We'll be happy to answer your questions.
Saturday, November 18, 2017 (11am - 12pm)
Please note that we have cancelled our French group and have designated this as our Bilingual group.
Please contact us for more information: email@example.com
Mark Your Calendars For Our Next
LTC Get Together!
Saturday, December 16, 2017 (11am - 12pm)
Let's Talk and continue discovering new tools.
Twitter hashtag: #LetsTalkCoaches
Knowledge is Truth!


text:
Empera Teen hoot Russian girl pornstar private mugurporn
Super Dark Black Girl fucks White Boy
futanari girl fucking hot blonde girl
Submissive young girl having sex with old guy !
Best Girlfriend
Futanari 3D - Schoolgirl loves to be fucked by futanari girl
18 years old gypsy fuck to anal
3D-teen Imoni X-Rey Deep Fuck
3D Sexy girlfriend
Ian Scott fuck so good 2 great Asses
Fresh Clean Thai Girl With Jiggly Titties
Cristi Ann in I Want to be a Good Girl Daddy - Anal Virgin (HD.mp4)
college girl fucks like a champ! -- visit kazaacams.com for more!
Woman fuck in public toilet
Piss in mouth for anal addicted czech girl
Moaning Cam Girl Fucks Her Wet Pussy
Luna Star and Yhivi lesbian massage - All Girl Massage
Amazing anal and cunt fuck between a young stud and a hot teen slut
Durell and his girl playing while she's sleeping
Amia Miley Fuck Party with all her Friends
DDF Network - 2 Bros fuck a couple of super sexy Hoes
Beautiful Moroccan girl sodomized
egypt after fuck film 2
Fuck me baby .my pussy need ur cock
lobna with abelhameed egypt good fuck
JDT35: Beurette Girl
moraco good fuck
Arab mature suck and fuck
Arab amateur couple homevideo suck and fuck
Hot egy fuck in car
egypt film after fuck
fuck my hot pussy baby
Nerdy busty girl has fun in aeroplane stall - Sound Fixed
Big Boob Girl Masturbating at 30,000 Feet
Airplane girlfriend masturbation
hot girl fingers herself in bathroom on airplane -
hot skype girl in airplane's toilet


text:
Titleist Scotty Cameron Select Roundback Putter
Add to Cart
to See Price
The Scotty Cameron Select Roundback Putter is a mid mallet and features vertical and horizontal sight lines on the back flange located directly between your eyes for improved alignment. It provides both vertical and horizontal visual reference to help and has a clean appearance from the stepless, single bend shaft. square the face. Design, craftsmanship and performance from decades of work with the world's best players define the Select line of Scotty Cameron putters. Each Select is a precision milled, elegantly refined shape with Tour validated balance and stability, accented by a Silver Mist finish and red-dot cosmetics.
- Precisely engineered surfaces and edges with over thirty shape and blend improvements. Elegant, framed, double milled red-dot graphics. Framed, double bevel weights.
- CNC milled 303 stainless steel for great feel. Sleek neck, topline, face and toe profiles, refined flange and pocket.
- Deep Face Mill Provides a soft, Tour-preferred feel and sound.
- Heel-toe weighting perfectly matched to the shaft length, or the player's feel preference.
- Elegant cosmetics with Silver Mist finish, framed and double milled red-dot graphics and double beveled weights.


text:
No hidden fees, equipment rentals, or installation appointments.
Mac & PC
iPhone & iPad
Phones & tablets
Select models
Fire TV & Fire TV Stick
Apple TV
4th Generation
Xbox One & Xbox 360
Select TV models
Select TV models
Nintendo Switch
Location data required to access content on mobile devices for any Live TV subscription.
Switch plans or cancel anytime.
Enhanced Cloud DVR
Unlimited Screens
Not quite what you're looking for? Sign up for Hulu without Live TV starting at only $7.99.
We're here to help! Visit our Help Center to learn more.
Hulu with Live TV features local sports in many cities. To view which regional sports networks are available in your area, please click on the "View channels in your area" link in the page above.
Yes, with your subscription to Hulu with Live TV you can use your username and password to log into our partner apps, such as WatchESPN, Fox Sports Go, or NBC Sports.
Your subscription allows you to watch on up to two screens at a time. If you want to enjoy sports simultaneously on more than two supported devices, you can always add the Unlimited Screens option, so everyone in your household gets to watch at home whenever they want. With the add-on, you can also watch on three screens when you're on the go.
To start watching, you'll need a subscription, a supported device, and a high-speed internet connection. Hulu with Live TV is currently available on these supported devices:
- Apple iPhone and iPad (running iOS 10 or newer)
- Android phones and tablets (running 5.0 or newer)
- Roku
- Fire TV & Fire Stick
- Apple TV (4th generation)
- Chromecast
- Xbox One & Xbox 360
- Samsung (select TV models)
- LG (select TV models)
- Nintendo Switch
- More devices coming soon
Regardless of which device you use, you'll want to make sure that your internet connection meets our system requirements.
With our new live TV service, our goal is to provide an easy and enjoyable experience watching your favorite TV shows and movies, discovering new content, and sharing events with your friends and family. While we are truly proud of Hulu's live TV offering, we know that introducing any new service can come with "hiccups" from time to time, so we are first opening it up as a "Beta" to be transparent with our viewers.
Yes! We offer Hulu without Live TV starting at only $7.99/month. We also offer a Live TV Only plan for $38.99/month.
Free trials for Live TV and Add-Ons valid for new and eligible existing subscribers only. For personal and non-commercial use only. Live TV is available in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia only. Compatible device and high-speed, broadband Internet connection required. Multiple concurrent streams and HD content may require higher bandwidth. Streaming content may count against your data usage. Location data required to access content on mobile devices for any Live TV subscription. Live TV may vary by subscription and location. Click Here to check channel availability in your area. Programming subject to regional availability, blackouts, and device restrictions. Number of permitted concurrent streams will vary based on the terms of your subscription. Cloud DVR storage space is limited. Pricing, channels, features, content, and compatible devices subject to change. Please review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Channels in your area
Enter your home ZIP code for channels available in your area.
Live TV is available for those live local, regional, and national channels available in your area. Select channels may offer only on demand content. Certain channels or content may not be available in all locations or on all devices.


text:
|22 Jan 2014
Images padlocked in Desktop theme
Hi all, I'm a lover of desktop images, and overjoyed with Windows 7 slideshow. I routinely point it to a folder full of images, but recently discovered for some reason that a number of the images suddenly have a padlock against them. I notice this is showing in Windows Explorer too, but on checking the properties of affected images, there's nothing to show why i.e. they're not Read Only, Hidden or have any other unexpected attributes, and the security settings are appropriate to allow access by Administrators etc.
No idea what provoked this, although I've a vague suspicion it may have occured at a time when I was (vainly!) trying to get my Win8 laptop to connect to the home network, but never succeeded so unsure whether that could have had any effect?
Anyone come across this before or have any suggestions on how to fix?
|My System Specs
|26 Jan 2014
Try this:
Right click on the images folder and click on Properties> Security tab> Click on the Advanced button at the bottom> Click on Change Permission> Select your user account and check the option Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent> Apply and OK your way out> See if the padlock is gone
A Guy
|My System Specs
|27 Jan 2014
Awesome - thanks SO much for your patience in replying :). I had reviewed the security options but couldn't see anything really wrong, however, there was a new Admin entry listed that I just deleted as it wouldn't let me change it much, & that seemed to sort things out. As I said, minor issue but nice to know where it was stemming from. Thanks again.
|My System Specs
|27 Jan 2014
Glad you got it sorted If you are satisfied your problem is done, you can mark the thread solved. A Guy
|My System Specs
|Thread Tools
|Similar help and support threads
Why some images on the web are invisible with High Contrast #1 theme?
When one of the standard themes, specifically High Contrast #1 theme is chosen, some images on the web become invisible. For example YouTube logo is absent from their website when this theme is set. How to make all images visible and use this theme at the same time? Thanks.
|Themes and Styles
Desktop Theme Images Don't Advance
This is something that just started recently and I can't figure it out - The desktop background themes that have multiple images won't change / advance to the next image. They look normal - theme selected, time interval selected, all images selected, etc. I can advance to the next image...
Can I make my theme's images go faster?
I downloaded the Wolves theme from here, Windows 7 themes - Microsoft Windows. I really enjoy theme but my only problem is that the theme stays on the same image for 10mins. Is there any way I can change this so it will go every 45 seconds or something?
|Themes and Styles
Desktop Slideshow Theme stopped switching images
That basically says it all. When I installed Win7 Home Premium 32 bit I installed some desktop themes with images that switched. Cool. After a while I downloaded some picktures and created my own. I have them set to switch every 15 minutes. THe past few weeks, I noticed that they were no longer...
Path to Aero Theme jpg images
I'm using the México Aero theme in my Windows 7 install, and would like to use some of the .jpg wallpapers/images in that slideshow for other purposes. But I can't find the .jpgs. Can someone tell me the directory path to the .jpg wallpapers/images in that theme? Thx, Gus
|Themes and Styles
|Our Sites
|Site Links
|About Us
|Find Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:00.


text:
Quick Reference
Literally 'phalanxism', a right-wing Spanish movement that developed in the early 1930s under the leadership of José Primo de Rivera, and sought to reproduce German and Italian fascism in Spain. Opposed to the Republican regime, it supported Franco's Nationalist coup of 1936, but became only a minor element in his regime.
From: falangism in A Dictionary of Sociology »
Subjects: Sociology.
Related content in Oxford Index
Reference entries
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content. Please, subscribe or login to access all content.


text:
- Calories 300
- Fat 10g
- Sat fat 3g
- Cholesterol 45mg
- Sodium 797mg
- Protein 24g
- Carbohydrate 28g
- Sugar 13g
- Fiber 7g
- Iron 4mg
- Calcium 57mg
Beef and Bean Chili
Hans Gissinger
How to Make It
Step 1
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
Step 2
Add the beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no longer pink, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chili powder, and cumin and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Step 3
Add the tomatoes (with their juices), beans, chocolate, ½ cup water, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 20 to 25 minutes. Add the vinegar and stir to combine.
Step 4
Serve with the avocado and additional onion, if desired.


text:
You wake up at five in the morning, even though you set your alarm for six, feeling fully refreshed. Your body has decided to gift you an extra hour in your day, and the universe wrapped that gift with a big ol' bow in the shape of a sunrise. You look out your window, holding a stiff cup o' joe and think, damn, this is as good as mornings get. Sometimes the universe bequeaths you a hug, and there's little you can do but hug back.
Valerie Halla's Portside Stories is a lot like that cosmic hug. Everything about it breathes warmth. The plot, centering around best friends Alex and Nat and their adventures in gender fluidity, takes place on the intimate scale. Transitioning between genders is as much of an internal conflict—and initially, a literal dissonance—as an external one, and Portside Stories's inaugural chapter concerns itself with the former, a struggle with the ambivalence lurking within. There are secrets revealed, hearts broken, and bras panickedly removed during Nat and Alex's respective, four-years-separated comings out (coming outs?).


text:
For the best experience on the Abcam website please upgrade to a modern browser such as Google Chrome
Our Abpromise guarantee covers the use of ab125491 in the following tested applications.
The application notes include recommended starting dilutions; optimal dilutions/concentrations should be determined by the end user.
Shipped at 4°C. Store at -20°C. Store under desiccating conditions.
pH: 7.50
Constituents: 0.61% Tris, 10% Glycerol, 1.75% Sodium chloride
ab125491 has not yet been referenced specifically in any publications.
Please note: All products are "FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY AND ARE NOT INTENDED FOR DIAGNOSTIC OR THERAPEUTIC USE"