text:
A swarm of locusts that began in Egypt and has crossed the border into Israel is inviting comparison to one of the Biblical plagues of Exodus.
The New York Times says the swarms are "like a vivid enactment of the eighth plague visited upon the obdurate Pharaoh. Others with a more modern sensibility said it felt more like Hitchcock."
"Locust clouds were darkening skies on Wednesday, three weeks before the Jewish Passover holiday that recalls 10 Biblical plagues, one of them locusts, that struck Egypt during the exodus of Israelite slaves," The Guardian said.
According to Egypt's Al-Ahram, at least 20 swarms of locusts, each comprising up to 80 million insects, have invaded Egypt over the past three months, and there are more believed to be waiting in the wings, so to speak, along the country's southern border with Sudan.
"One swarm of locusts can gobble up 100,000 tons of crops, an amount sufficient to feed 500,000 people for a whole year," Nader Noureddin, an agricultural expert, tells Al-Ahram.
The Guardian quoted officials as saying, "the insects covered nearly 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of desert overnight [Tuesday]."
Israel was put on "locust alert" on Monday, with the Ministry of Agriculture setting up a hotline to report swarms. By Tuesday "grasshoppers the size of small birds were reported on balconies and in gardens in central and northern Israel. But the largest concentration, an ominous black cloud of millions, settled for the night near the tiny rural village of Kmehin in Israel's southern Negev desert, not far from the border with Egypt," The Times reports.
In case you've ever wondered, green grasshoppers and brown locusts are not the same, but are close cousins, says LiveScience:
"But while grasshoppers hop like mad and can be abundant and pesky, locusts can fly. More significant, locusts have the unusual ability to be total loners or to enter what scientists euphemistically call 'a gregarious state' — this is the flying and swarming stage, the stuff of Biblical proportions."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
As per USA Today ,A sharply divided Congress isn't likely to jump at President Barack
Obama's challenge for quick passage of a mortgage refinancing bill that
supporters say could help millions of homeowners save big each year and
boost the economy.
Obama praised the legislation in his State of
the Union speech last week, saying the proposal would help more
homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac take
advantage of low interest rates and refinance their loans.
"That's holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it," the president said. "Right now, there's a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today's rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before."
HOUSING: States' foreclosure pace affects home Prices
The economy's slow recovery from the recession gives the idea urgency, Obama said. "Send me that bill," he told members of Congress listening to his speech in the House chamber.
The proposal is part of a push by Democrats and the White House to help homeowners take advantage of low interest rates as a way to help the housing market recover and to give the economy a shot in the arm.
While the bill could gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it faces a rough road in the GOP-run House, where many Republicans favor scaling back the government's role in the housing market as a way of aiding the economy. Similar versions of the measure died in the House and Senate's lame duck sessions last year.
"At the moment, it's an uphill battle," said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who plans to file the House version of the bill.
JOBS: Housing holds key to full job growth rebound
Welch said he will reach out to Republicans this year in hopes of building more support, but the bill's association with the government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal housing agencies partly blamed for the collapse of the housing market, hurts its support base among GOP lawmakers.
"The American taxpayers have already sunk $190 billion dollars into the operations of Fannie and Freddie," said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Tex., a member of the House Financial Services Committee. "It's time that we wind their operations down instead of using them as a piggy bank for failed programs that further delay the housing recovery.
"In the Senate, Democrats Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Barbara Boxer of California have legislation to aid borrowers who are current on their loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but who are not able to refinance because their home values have declined too much.
Nearly 12 million homeowners have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and stand to benefit refinancing, the two senators said. Many can't refinance at a lower rate because of red tape and high fees. The red tape has reduced competition among banks, so borrowers pay higher interest rates than they would if they were able to shop around more, according to the senators.
The bill also would reduce up-front fees that borrowers pay on refinances and eliminate appraisal costs for all borrowers. The measure seeks to expand the Obama administration's Home Affordable Refinancing Program, which saves an average homeowner about $2,500 per year, they said.
"Homeowners will have more money in their pockets, Fannie and Freddie will see fewer foreclosures, and the housing market and economy will continue building momentum," Boxer said.
Among the bill's supporters are the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders.
"It is another tool that can be out there to help stabilize the housing market and kick start the economy if consumers can, in fact, put another $100 bucks in their pockets every month," said John Hudson, government affairs chairman of the Association of Mortgage Professionals.
Similar proposals by Boxer and Menendez last year got bogged down in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Republican attempts to add amendments on other housing issues beyond refinancing led to a stalemate.
Twenty Senate Democrats are co-sponsors of this year's bill, but no Republicans have signed on."I support finding ways to smartly streamline the refinance process, but I'm not sure that eliminating all documentation requirements makes sense," said GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, a committee member. "I also think we need to quickly move beyond short-term stimulus and start focusing on the structural issues in our housing finance system."Sen. Mike Crapo, the committee's top Republican, declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the bill.Welch's House bill also died during the last Congress. Welch accused Republicans of not wanting to give Obama an election-year boost by passing the mortgage refinance measure.
"Last year was even tougher because it was an election year," said Welch. "The Republican leadership wanted Obama to fail."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
DETROIT (AP) -- Subaru of America is recalling more than 47,000 cars and SUVs with remote starters because the engines can start on their own.
The recall affects some Legacy and Outback cars from the 2010 to 2013 model years. Also covered are the Impreza from 2012 and 2013 and the XV Crosstrek from 2013.
Subaru says that if the key fob is dropped, it can malfunction and start the engine. The motor will run for up to 15 minutes, but could continue to start and stop until the car runs out of gas or the fob battery dies. If the cars are parked in a garage, there's a risk of carbon monoxide buildup.
The cars all have automatic or continuously variable transmissions. Subaru dealers will replace the fobs free of charge.
There was no mention of injuries related to the recall. Calls to Subaru early Thursday were not immediately returned.


text:
At Cumulus Beds we will always try our utmost to make your shopping experience as simple and hassle free as we can, and we will try to help wherever possible.
Please take a few minutes to read these terms and conditions before you order any goods or services from this website. Should you have any questions or wish to clarify the meaning of any of these terms and conditions, please contact Cumulus Beds.
Most Beds are delivered within 3 to 4 weeks (except during busy periods like Christmas, sales or promotional events, where there may be further delays). We will send you an email on the day of dispatch, your goods will be sent on a UK courier service and should arrive between 9am and 5pm on a working day (excludes weekends and bank holidays unless specified). If you are not in, the courier will leave you a card with their contact details so you can arrange a suitable delivery date. Please note that we cannot deliver to a PO box address.
Upon receipt of your goods, you must check everything has arrived correctly, in good condition and notify us within 3 working days if there are any shortages or discrepancies with your delivery.
Please note that we can only deliver beds & headboards to ground floor level.
We operate a no quibble refunds policy and if you return an item within 1 month of receipt, we'll give you back the amount you paid for the item or offer an exchange, whichever you prefer, no questions asked. We will refund or replace any goods that may have arrived at the destination in an unusable or faulty condition, or indeed different from those ordered.
We will always accept any return of goods within 1 month of purchase date.
Try your bed for 30 days and if you do not like it we will collect it for free and give a full refund.
We are so confident that you will love your new bed that we give you 100% money back guarantee
Images of products on this website are for illustrative purposes only. Your goods may vary slightly from the image shown on the website and will not include any of the pictured accessories, unless stated in the specification of the goods. We have made every effort to display as accurately as possible the colours of our products that appear on this website. However, we cannot guarantee that your monitor's display of any colour will accurately reflect the colour of the actual goods. Whilst we try to be as accurate as possible, all information provided is approximate and is provided in good faith.
Please note that due to the nature of cotton, colours can vary slightly from one batch to the next, we do our best to match these, but as cotton is a natural fibre, the dye tends to vary the final colour shade. This is standard within the industry and cannot be standardised due to the nature of the products.
All information provided by you when you place an order with us is referred to in these Terms and Conditions as "User Information". When you provide any User Information you are representing and warranting that all of the information provided is true and correct and you agree to indemnify Cumulus Beds for any losses, costs, expenses or damages that Cumulus Beds may suffer if any of this information is not correct.
You should also review the Cumulus Beds Privacy Statement on this website for further information concerning our collection and usage of User Information. By sending us your User Information, you agree to grant Cumulus Beds the right to disclose aspects of your User Information as expressed in the Cumulus Beds Privacy Statement. If any User Information provided by you is incomplete or inaccurate or you attempt to transmit any material of any kind to this website which contains a virus, malicious computer code or another harmful component or you otherwise attempt to alter any of the content of this website, or you are otherwise in breach of these Terms and Conditions, Cumulus Beds retains the right to terminate your rights to purchase goods or services from this website and to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.
You acknowledge and consent to the disclosure by Cumulus Beds to any law enforcement agency in any jurisdiction that is investigating any breach or suspected breach of any law in any jurisdiction of your identity or other information provided by you to this website, upon being requested to do so by that law enforcement agency.
The goods offered for sale by Cumulus Beds are only available to individuals who can make legally binding contracts. The goods are not available to persons under the age of 18 years old and any other persons who are legally prohibited from entering into binding contracts.
Any party engaging in illegal activities involving the use of this website will be subject to civil and criminal prosecution. Cumulus Beds cannot guarantee that it will notice or be able to prevent any illegal or inappropriate use of this website, nor can Cumulus Beds guarantee that it will give notice of any illegal or inappropriate use of this website.
Any order placed by you in the manner described in this website is an offer by you to purchase a particular goods for the price (including the delivery and other charges specified on this website) at the time you placed your order. Cumulus Beds reserves the right to accept or reject your offer for any reason, including without limitation, the unavailability of any goods, an error in the price of the goods description posted on this website, or an error in your order. There may be reasons why Cumulus Beds cannot fulfil your order. Therefore, your contract with Cumulus Beds only comes into existence when Cumulus Beds advises you by email that it has accepted your order and receipt of your payment has been confirmed. Once you place your order and full payment is made, you agree that you are not entitled to withdraw or modify your commitment made for the purchase of any goods from this website for any reason, including without limitation, due to any delay in delivery.
When items are out of stock you will be given the option of an email reminder or you will be able to place a back-order with full payment, your order will then be automatically part-dispatched and the balance will follow on the displayed due date. If you would like your order to be held until full dispatch is available, please contact us.
All unpaid or incomplete orders are automatically deleted from our system in 28 days. Any orders that cannot be completed due to address queries, out of stock items or otherwise will be refunded and cancelled if we do not receive a response from the customer within 28 days of us informing them of any issues.
Prices of all Cumulus Beds goods, delivery and other charges displayed on this website are in British Pounds and are current at the time of issue, but may change at any time and are subject to availability. The availability of goods may change from time to time.
You are responsible for any taxes, duties or other liabilities imposed by any government or agency, including without limitation, any customs duty, goods and services taxes or any value added tax imposed on any goods acquired or ordered by you from this website. The amount, if applicable to you, of the Value Added Tax (VAT) to be imposed on any particular item is clearly displayed with the price of the goods on the website. Please note that only one offer or discount code can be used per transaction.
This Web Site is owned and operated by Nexcrown Associates Ltd t/as Cumulus Beds (Reg. in England No: 4381761, VAT Reg. No: GB 798 8648 32).
By accessing, browsing or using this website, you agree to these terms, conditions and disclaimers as amended from time to time ("Terms and Conditions") and acknowledge that you have read and understood these Terms and Conditions. By purchasing any goods from this website [and/or by completing the registration form to become a Registered Customer], you expressly agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. Cumulus Beds reserves the right to amend the Terms and Conditions at any time. Any amendment will be effective immediately. Your continued use of this website after any amendment constitutes an agreement by you to comply with and be bound by the amended Terms and Conditions.
CUMULUS BEDS, Unit 1 Canada Rd, Byfleet, Surrey KT14 7JX.
Tel: 020 8332 7999 Email:email@example.com


text:
Exploring sarcodes: a very hurried man
As classical homeopaths, we know about sarcode remedies and most of us prescribe them. Still, we have very little information about sarcodes as group. I would like to present my understanding of sarcodes from my own cases and from what I have learned from my teachers, Rajan Sankaran and his team.
The illustrating case is taken and analyzed using Sankaran's method of levels and sensation.
GK: Ghanshyam Kalathia; P: = patient; HG = hand gesture; my comments are in (brackets).
First consultation 4th, June 2007
A 35 year old businessman came to my clinic for treatment of allergic bronchitis; his verbatim report is as follows.
GK: Tell me all about your problem?
P: I have a problem of asthma; during asthmatic attacks there is a wheezing sound. This problem is my routine problem and I have become used to it. (Observation: He blinked his eyelids very fast and forcefully.)
GK: Tell me more about your asthma.
P: One and half years beforehand, I had severe acidity. At that time, I wasn't even able to take any food, so I took some herbal preparations and I recovered completely from acidity. After that, my health was fine, but suddenly one night, I woke up due to difficulty breathing; I became scared from the wheezing sound of my respiration and my family members also got scared to see me in that situation, so they took me to the hospital immediately. After half an hour, I became totally normal but since then, I get these attacks every ten to fifteen days. I take so many therapies but nothing is very effective, so I came to you. (This is the level of names and facts.)
GK: What did you feel during the first attack? (shifting his level from fact to feeling.)
P: At that time, I got really scared, with much perspiration, but now, I have nothing to get scared of because I know that this wheezing happens due to a narrowing of my respiration tube. Almost all asthma patients have the same problems. Asthma is the enemy of sleep: during deep sleep, I suddenly had breathing problems (HG – he makes a fist with great speed.) and that arouses me because air is not able to come out of my lungs. I think my lungs get blocked and then they give orders to my brain and immediately brain awakens me. (His speech is very fast.)
GK: I understand, please go on.
P: During these attacks, I feel some heaviness in my chest as if my system is not ready to remove gases, so my breath neither comes in nor goes out; if at that time I take an asthalin (etophylin) inhaler then my system becomes normal. Since this asthma, I also have complaints of weakness – I feel that my legs start to get weaker.
GK: Please tell me about weakness?
P: I am really scared to become paralyzed. I feel as if the functioning of my whole system is going to stop. I believe that the cells of my brain are dying. Doctors tell me that it is nothing serious, but if I have nothing wrong, why would I get all these complaints?
GK: What do you feel in your legs?
P: Suddenly my legs become loose (HG – he hangs his palm downward and oscillates it) as if there is not any power in them. It is as though my legs are sluggish, with no movement. (HG –hanging). I think that the activity and the blood supply of my brain become sluggish.
(His talking pattern is in the form of 'as if': that means these all are his perceptions, but they are still at a local level. With the next question, I try to make them generalized.)
GK: Forget about your body; please tell me what is 'sluggish'? ('Sluggish' has been mentioned more than twice).
P: Sluggish means there is not any power in you. Anything becoming totally loose (HG – hanging) is sluggish. An altered blood supply in your brain makes you sluggish. Blood makes you powerful, otherwise you become totally loose (HG – hanging) as if you are a plastic bag filled up with water.
(He shifted from 'I' to 'You,' that means he's now generalizing.)
GK: Tell me more about 'sluggish' and 'loose'?
P: Sluggish means it is not paralysis, but you have little or no movement. Your power is completely drained out. The experience of sluggishness is the same as when you have severe dehydration: in dehydration your body becomes totally loose (HG –hanging).
(He talk about 'Experience,' that means he is now at sensation level. He hangs his palm downward and makes very slow oscillatory movement when he describes sluggish repetitively, so I ask the next questions about HG.)
GK: When you talk about sluggishness you make some hand gestures, what is your experience of this? (I make the same HG).
P: Sluggish means you have very low blood pressure and it is not possible to move (HG – hanging) anything in your body. Your movement is because of your tone. Your blood has all kinds of bio-chemicals that keep your tone up. (HG – he makes a tight fist). If there is any alteration in your bio-chemicals then your body loses its tone very soon.
GK: Bio-chemicals? (New word)
P: I mean the contents of blood. In the blood, we have different kind of contents like cells, minerals, hormones, proteins, vitamins, etc. But if the blood's ingredients are altered, then suddenly, your blood pressure goes down and from low BP and you feel weakness (HG –hanging). The body maintains all the contents of blood automatically and many processes are involved in it. So, finally, blood gives power (HG – he makes a tight fist) to the whole system.
(Here, HG of 'hanging palm' and 'tight fist' describe his energy pattern and 'sluggish', 'loose' and 'tone' are sensations, but to which kingdom do these sensations belong? His description "many processes are involved in maintaining the BP with the help of certain bio-chemicals" makes me think of sarcodes because 'blood', 'processes' and 'bio-chemicals' are words from physiology; my experience from other cases is that any sensation relating to physiology is a sarcode sensation.)
GK: Now, tell me about your nature? (I want confirmation of sensations in other areas of his life.)
P: I'm a jittery kind of person, I want everything fast and I can't bear waiting. Sometimes, I start fighting when something doesn't happen my way. If I don't find a solution then, I become restless because I want to solve everything very fast. When I chase any problem, I always go to the roots and I correct them very quickly.
GK: Tell me more about 'I want all solutions'?
P: If you don't find a solution then you are gone. If you drop down when fighting, then your opponent can overpower you. If you don't have any power (HG – tight fist) then what is the difference between you and a water-filled bag? You are nothing. (HG – hanging)
GK: Please describe 'water-filled bag'?
P: A water-filled bag is completely loose (HG – hanging). It has no tone and no capacity to do anything. It's dropped whatever way you want to drop it, it's moved whatever way you want to move it. It has no capacity to stand tight (HG – tight fist).
(Same story of 'loose', 'tight' and 'tone')
GK: Please tell me about your dreams?
P: I never remember any dreams.
GK: Your interests and hobbies?
P: I am very fond of driving the car at speeds of 120-140 km/h. I never get tired of driving continuously for 400 to 500 km.
Prescription: Histamine 1MK
His description of physiological words 'blood', 'processes', 'bio-chemicals' makes me think of sarcodes, but I don't know the sensations of 'sluggish', 'loose', 'tight', 'tone'. I look up all the sarcodes and from the materia medica come beautiful references.
A. Murphy's materia medica (Important words are written in bold)
Histamine is a capillary vessel dilator, an arterial vessel constrictor, a hypertensive in carnivores and herbivores; it constricts the bronchi and arouses the smooth tissues of the intestine, the uterus and the gastric and pancreatic salivary secretions and is normally used in the form of Histamine bi-chlorhydrate, which serves as stock for homeopathic preparations.Histamine has general asthenia as after physical exertion. Dryness of the mucous membranes. Feeling of constriction in different parts of the heart. Quivering and cramping contracture of the muscles. Irritable, susceptible, impatient with the need to walk up and down. Sensitive to the slightest trifles. Impatient, restless, with the need to move from place to place aimlessly. Quarrelsome, melancholic, sad, prostration which disappears by forceful walking. Waiting makes him particularly nervous, needs to walk up and down. Pain and gastric constriction when receiving news or remembering a painful experience. Contracture and muscular twitching of the eyelids and around the eyes. Spasmodic closing of the eyelids.Allergic and psoric constitutions. Asthma or chronic bronchitis with lack of air, feeling of oppression or constriction in the chest. Coughing fits which almost choke him.
B. Synoptic materia medica
"It is a powerful stimulant of gastric secretion, a constrictor of bronchial smooth muscle and a vasodilator [capillaries and arterioles] that causes a fall in blood pressure." [Stedman's][See: Jayesh Shah, Hurried and quarrelsome - Two cases of histamine, Homoeopathic Links, 3/97]
Constriction and Dilatation are the basic potentials of Histamine which are expressed as 'tight' and 'loose' in this case, so finally everything makes sense.
Follow-up after one month
GK: How are you?
P: I'm fine. Since taking your medicine, I had two wheezing attacks, but this time they did not last too long. I took an inhaler and I recovered immediately.
GK: What about other complaints?
P: No other complaints except this asthma. The weakness in my legs is gone now.
GK: Any dreams?
P: I remember one… I had an examination and the bus did not come on time; I can't tolerate waiting, so when the bus finally came, I fought (verbally) with the driver.
Plan: There are not many changes in his emotional state, but he starts improving at a local level, so wait and watch.
Follow up after six months
His wife calls me one morning to say that her husband has severe acidity. He is on a liquid diet because he can't bear simple food. He has eructations and sometimes he vomits. I advise her to repeat the dose: he recovers quickly from the acidity.
Follow up after ten months
GK: How are you?
P: I'm fine. Thank you. During the last six months, I have not had a single attack of asthma. Unbelievable! One dose can cure acidity? In the past, I took 3kg of herbal powders to treat the acidity, but you cured me with only one dose!
GK: This is true; if your medicine is perfectly matched with your state then sometimes we get miraculous results. Tell me what differences do you notice between the past and now?
P: I used to be a very jittery kind of person, but now I think first before making any decision. In the past, I couldn't wait for anything; I wanted everything straight away, but now, I first take a look at the situation and then I act accordingly. These changes make me business-wise also. In short, now I feel young.
(My observation: he speak slowly now and he has very little spasmodic blinking.)
Until today, he has not had any complaints; he required four doses of histamine 1MK in total.
Information on sarcodes
You can find further information about sarcodes in my article "The Language of sarcodes" in 'Homeopathic Links 1/10'. These are some selected paragraphs from the article.
A sarcode is prepared from healthy tissue and that tissue has a useful and healthy function. Why would anybody require a remedy made from useful and healthy tissues? When the whole being responds as if it were that one part, this can be considered as disease and that person requires a corresponding sarcode (See The Sensation in Homoeopathy, page: 681).A sarcode is prepared from healthy tissue, so it has a direct relation to physiology. The physiological process, phenomenon or function is the sensation of a sarcode.Sarcode patient's language is often confused with the language of minerals because they sometimes speak about functions, but a mineral's function is related to structure. The mineral sensation is expressed as… "I'm missing something" or "I'm losing something," while sarcode function is expressed as…"I must function properly, perfectly, appropriately and as required, neither more nor less."
The sarcodes are prepared from healthy tissue or secretion, so they have the potential of that particular tissue. If we understand that potentiality of tissue then we can easily prescribe sarcodes.
Let's look at the Histamine case with regard to potentiality. First, you ask the question: why does the body require histamine? What is role of histamine in the body? Histamine is meant for capillary dilatation and arterial constriction, or dilatation and constriction of smooth muscles, so dilatation and constriction is the potentiality of histamine. If somebody's whole being responds as if he is histamine, then we prescribe histamine and it makes him more 'human'.
Photo: Philippe Pierson
Keywords: asthma, sluggish, impatience, speed, sarcodes, histamine
Remedies: Histaminum
Write a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.
Posts: 24
Reply #22 on : Fri May 09, 2014, 16:50:13
Posts: 24
Reply #21 on : Sat January 25, 2014, 22:42:29
Posts: 24
Reply #20 on : Thu March 14, 2013, 13:17:31
Posts: 24
Reply #19 on : Fri March 08, 2013, 15:23:31
Posts: 24
Reply #18 on : Thu May 10, 2012, 18:18:44
Posts: 24
Reply #17 on : Sun April 15, 2012, 08:42:55
Posts: 24
Reply #16 on : Sun April 15, 2012, 07:52:08
Posts: 24
Reply #15 on : Tue April 10, 2012, 16:10:57
Posts: 24
Reply #14 on : Tue April 10, 2012, 14:20:23
Posts: 24
Reply #13 on : Mon April 09, 2012, 17:56:25


text:
When I began homeschooling, I began looking for resources for Latino parents who are educating their kids at home. I couldn't find many. While there were a few blogs here and there written by Latina moms who were homeschooling, they were mostly about their family's daily routine. I love these blogs. But I want(ed) more.
So I began looking for sites in general that promoted parental involvement in Latino education. Again, I hit a blank wall. I desperately wanted to find some sort of support system, a community, of other Latinas who were in my position. I wanted to find ideas for developing our cultural identity in the classroom. But it wasn't there.
I found a lot of English-only homeschooling blogs that have been super. But rarely do they post about raising bilingual/bicultural children.
So finally, at the urging of mis amigas, I decided that someone had to share all the resources that I was digging up. And I knew there had to be other moms like me out there, feeling the exact same way.
And so last year, on June 1st, I started Mommy Maestra.
Estoy emocionada escribiendo este artículo. Because what a ride it has been! It has been such a pleasure to discover all of you dear readers. And what a surprise it was to discover that while some of you are homeschooling mamis, so many of you are parents with children in a traditional school setting who want to be more involved and help support your child's education. In addition, there are a large number of bilingual ed teachers following, too. I am thrilled.
I have learned so much and found so many resources. Some of them I can use, and some I can't, but I try to pass them all on to you so that each one of you will maybe find something useful to enrich your student's/child's education.
So this week I'm celebrating. And as a giant GRACIAS to all of you, I have a week of educational giveaways planned. I hope that I have a little something that will appeal to everyone.
We are loyal PBS fans in this casa. And when my children were younger, they loved Caillou. (Actually, the youngest one still does.) So this is a popular item in my house. Even though my son has learned these subjects in preschool, I will use these workbooks as a review before we begin Kindergarten.
One lucky reader will win all three sets.
To enter, simply leave a comment below.
The deadline to enter is 11:59 EST, Sunday, June5th. The winner will be chosen using Random.org. and contacted via email - so be sure to leave a valid email address in your comment!
And to increase your chances of winning, you can:
1.) Blog about this giveaway and include the link to your post,
2.) Tweet the following: Enter to win 3 Caillou preschool learning sets http://bit.ly/kpMAPQ #giveaway
3.) Follow us on Facebook,
4.) Fill out the MommyMaestra survey.
Don't forget to let me know by posting a separate comment for each entry!
¡Buena suerte!
Comments are now closed.


text:
Towns in Missouri, central Illinois and at least four other Midwestern states are under a flood warning, as heavy spring rains swell the Mississippi and other rivers to dangerously high crests. In some areas, rivers have already hit record flood levels.
In places where residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, the American Red Cross has set up shelters at schools and other facilities.
From St. Louis, KMOV TV reports that several bridges over the Mississippi River were closed Sunday after more than 100 barges broke loose south of the city the night before.
Missouri Department of Transportation officials told KMOV their main concern was that the barges might severely damage the bridges. That danger seems to have passed, however, and most of the barges have been secured. The Coast Guard has closed some 15 miles of the river to traffic.
The areas in most immediate danger include the Quad Cities, just north of St. Louis, though areas farther south may soon be vulnerable. Rivers in at least six states are swollen after torrential rains drenched the region over the past few days.
The Associated Press reports that volunteers, National Guard members and prison inmates have all been working to try to keep floodwaters from devastating towns along the waterways
North of St. Louis, the Quad City Times reported that both the Mississippi and Rock rivers were expected to crest in the area along the Illinois-Iowa border Sunday. And National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Ervin was telling people to expect the water to stick around.
"The Mississippi River is going to stay above major flood stage, 18 feet, through Thursday," he said. "The Rock at Moline [Illinois] will stay above 14 feet through Thursday afternoon."
In a flood warning issued Sunday, the National Weather Service said additional rain is likely late Monday and Tuesday, which will slow the water's descent. On its website, the service has posted a U.S. map with real-time data from sensors in rivers and streams.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Numerous transportation projects moved forward over the past year, intending to keep pace with the evolution of Hudson County. With Super Bowl 2014 on the way and many new residents moving to the county, the bridges, trains, and bike lanes are being expanded and reinforced for the future.
The Skyway's new lease on life
The Pulaski Skyway begins at Raymond Boulevard in Newark, crosses portions of Kearny, and connects to Route 1 & 9 in Jersey City, serving motorists between Newark and Jersey City and connecting to the Holland Tunnel. A $1 billion project to rehabilitate the 80-year-old elevated highway, which carries 67,000 vehicles daily, was announced in January, to be funded by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority.
In 2014, the 3.5 mile deck will be replaced, necessitating closure of the two northbound lanes for as long as two years. According to a Port Authority press release, the two southbound lanes will remain open during the duration of the project.
To avoid traffic congestion, the skyway's northbound lanes will not close for repairs until after the February 2014 Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
Hoboken and Jersey City are adding more bike lanes.
Although the lane closures will be an inconvenience for many, the Port Authority says that closing them rather than just doing the work on nights and weekends will cut four years off construction and save more than $210 million.
For further information visit www.nj.gov/transportation, scroll to "In the Works" then to "Our Projects & the Environment" and click on "Pulaski Skyway."
The Bayonne Bridge, and preserving jobs
The Bayonne Bridge project began in December of 2010 to raise the bridge from 151 to 215 feet. The bridge, owned and operated by the Port Authority, connects Bayonne with Staten Island over the Kill Van Kull, the waterway provides access to container ports in the lower Newark Bay. Raising the bridge will allow the new larger class of Panamax container ships to travel through after the Panama Canal is upgraded in 2014.
A 2009 Bayonne Bridge Air Draft Analysis made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicated that raising the bridge would produce an estimated $3.3 billion national benefit and that 12 percent of all U.S. international container ships will pass through it.
The estimated cost for raising the bridge is $1.3 billion, and the work will allow vehicular traffic to continue throughout construction.
The Port Authority estimates that if all goes according to plan, the new larger ships will be able to access the port in the fall of 2015.
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail expansions planned
The extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail has been in the works since May of 2011 when it was approved by the NJ Transit Board of Directors. The project will expand farther west into Jersey City towards the Newark Bay waterfront with the hopes of also easing traffic congestion along the Route 440 corridor.
According to a press release, the project includes a .7 mile, two-track extension from the West Side Avenue Station across Route 440 to the northern end of a redevelopment zone along the Hackensack River.
In order for the project to be eligible for federal funding it was included in the NJ Transportation Planning Authority's Long Range Plan.
The project is still in the planning stage, with the transit agency doing an environmental assessment.
The light rail – which currently runs from Bayonne to North Bergen and West New York – may also expand further north. Transit officials have proposed the Northern Branch Corridor project to extend the light rail through North Bergen to Fairview, Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia, Englewood and Tenafly in Bergen County.
The project, like the Route 440 one, is in the early, environmental assessment stage.
"There is no set completion date for both the Northern Branch Corridor and 440 extension as both are in the environmental review/assessment process," said spokesperson for NJ Transit Nancy Snyder.
For further information, visit www.northernbranchcorridor.com.
Improved mass transit to the Meadowlands
Meadowlands Phase II, a further extension of commuter rail service from NJ Transit's Bergen County and Main Lines to the Sports Complex Station on Route 3, would include a new station to serve the Meadowlands area. NJ Transit has proposed to build the station and provide rail service for major events such as Super Bowl 2014 and daily service to the "American Dream" retail and entertainment complex. Currently the lower levels of Secaucus Junction can hold eight-car trains and that will be expanded to ten.
Since 2009, riders have responded positively to the occasional rail service from Hoboken Terminal and Secaucus Junction to the Meadowlands Sports Complex for major events at MetLife Stadium. Routinely 10,000 people use the service for football games while 22,000 use it for concerts.
The rail service was also a contributing factor to the National Football League (NFL) deciding to host the Super Bowl 2014 at MetLife Stadium.
Park n' ride expansions
NJ Transit has also begun providing free parking at light rail stations in Bayonne, Jersey City, and North Bergen. As of Feb. 16, NJ Transit has offered free weekend parking on Saturdays from 12:01 a.m. until the end of service on Sundays at all five park/ride locations along the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system. It is a one-year pilot program which is aimed at encouraging the use of the light rail system and increasing weekend ridership.
The locations taking advantage of free parking on the two days listed above are the 22nd Street and 34th Street in Bayonne; West Side Avenue and Liberty State Park in Jersey City; and Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen.
The light rail provides more than 40,000 weekday trips between all 24 stations in Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City and North Bergen, according to an NJ Transit press release.
For Hudson-Bergen Light Rail schedules, fares or information visit www.njtranist.com or call (973) 275-5555.
Bike lanes
During his State of the City Address in February 2013, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy announced a plan started last year to install 35.2 miles of striped lanes, and an additional 19.5 miles of shared lanes, for a total of 54.7 miles of bike lanes in his city.
Last year an ordinance was unanimously approved by the Hoboken City Council for 10 miles of new bike lanes. Currently Hoboken has nearly two and a half miles of bike lanes. The city hopes to redesign Observer Highway, a federally funded project that will add .34 miles of a two-way protected bike lane known as a cycle track. During her State of the City Address in February, Mayor Dawn Zimmer mentioned redesigning Observer Highway into Observer Boulevard.
"It will transform an important gateway to Hoboken from a dangerous speedway into a complete street with a protected cycle track, walking path, and new signals to better manage traffic and provided safe crossings for pedestrians," said Zimmer. "This year, Hoboken was recognized as a bicycle-friendly city by the League of American Bicyclists."
River Road, a major artery in north Hudson, was transformed into a bicyclist's haven in July 2012 when former Legislative Action Officer of the Bicycle Touring Club of North Jersey Ted Semegran began his quest of procuring bike lanes. In 2006 the bike lanes received approval from the county freeholders. Cyclists can ride for half a mile starting from Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen toward Bulls Ferry Road in Weehawken. River Road also has .33-miles of bike lanes southbound in Guttenberg and West New York.
A more ambitious project benefiting bicyclists is called the Harbor Ring, a 50-mile Transportation Alternatives Project that will encircle New York Harbor and pass through several towns in Hudson County. Most of the route already exists, with a missing link at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Ultimately, the 50-mile route will connect Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bayonne, Jersey City, and Hoboken.
"The Harbor Ring will not only benefit Hudson County health enthusiasts, but the local economy as well," said Meredith Sladek of Transportation Alternatives, New York City's leading transportation advocacy organization.
Vanessa Cruz can be reached at email@example.com


text:
At weddings, guests tweet real-time photos of the festivities to friends far away. At sporting events, fans follow scores of games in other cities. In classrooms, students text with friends in other classes and parents out in the world. At funerals, mourners send out selfies to pals in other places.
Everyone, it seems, is interacting more with people who are elsewhere — and less with the people around them. As technology seeps through society, dampening every dry aspect of our lives, something is happening to: the idea of being present; the desire to be in the moment; the notion of living right here and right now.
Whenever we go anywhere, we are — and we want to be — somewhere else simultaneously.
David M. Levy, a professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, has been concerned for quite a while about the accelerated pace and overload of life today and how that tampers with our well-being.
In an interview, David says he doesn't believe that smartphones and tablets and other devices are the "root cause" of acceleration and overload, but rather "expressions of our more-faster-better philosophy of life and our economic system, which privileges abundant and efficient production and consumption over human relations and more contemplative — reflective, intimate, connected — ways of being."
The Severed Self
For years now, folks have been mulling over the side effects of the fragmented self — and raising questions, such as: How can we ever feel comfortable with others when we don't even feel comfortable with ourselves?
The 1960s comedy troupe Firesign Theatre put it this way 55 years ago in the title of its recording: How Can You Be Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?
Philosopher novelist Walker Percy noted the contemporary conundrum in his 1983 book: Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. Percy lamented "the loneliness of self, stranded as it is as an unspeakable consciousness in a world from which it perceives itself as somehow estranged, stranded even within its own body, with which it sees no clear connection."
Kenneth J. Gergen, a professor at Swarthmore College, has written of the idea of the "absent presence." In his 2002 essay "Cell Phone Technology and the Challenge of Absent Presence," he observed people who were sitting in groups, yet were engaged in individual pursuits. And how such a situation affects our feelings. "We are present but simultaneously rendered absent," he writes. "We have been erased by an absent presence."
And in a recent New York Times essay about our incessant need to document our lives, Sherry Turkle, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the 2011 book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, wrote: "These days, when people are alone, or feel a moment of boredom, they tend to reach for a device. In a movie theater, at a stop sign, at the checkout line at a supermarket and, yes, at a memorial service, reaching for a device becomes so natural that we start to forget that there is a reason, a good reason, to sit still with our thoughts: It does honor to what we are thinking about. It does honor to ourselves."
Sherry may as well be talking about focusing on who and what is around us at a given moment.
If the people you are with or the event you are attending are not important enough to command your attention, then: Why. Are. You. There?
True Connectivity
It's more complicated than that, of course. Students are forced to sit through classes. Businesspeople are required to show up at certain meetings. We all wind up at times in involuntary situations.
And, after all, being in touch with people we care about is a deep-down desire of the human species — which explains the phenomenal success of connective technology.
But there is an increasing sense that many people — regardless of surroundings — do not really want to be where they are. They want to be connected to someone else who is somewhere else doing something else.
The superglue is out of the tube. We will never go back to a pre-Firesign Theatre existence. But David Levy says there may be another way to deal with this societal upheaval.
He believes that our dazzling new digital tools can be used in more thoughtful and contemplative ways.
In his course Information and Contemplation, David teaches students the virtues of old-fashioned focus and discipline — and even meditation — in the midst of all our newfangled devices.
As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Levy's students play back videos of themselves multitasking and they work to develop new ways to act and interact more effectively and efficiently. They do one task — such as email maintenance — at a time and resist all distractions.
"A good deal of my focus in recent years has been on exploring how to use our digital tools differently," he says, "to connect us to one another and to sources of information in deeper and healthier ways."
And that, in the end, may be the Next Great Frontier. Perhaps the great minds and moguls and motivators will invent newer, shinier tools to propel us away from apathy and alienation and toward true connectedness and community and more meaningful co-existence.
The Protojournalist is an experiment in reporting. Abstract. Concrete. @NPRtpj
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
The remaining winner of the $587.5 million Powerball jackpot has come forward to claim their share of the prize, according to lottery officials in Arizona, where the winning ticket was sold, according to ABC 15 TV in Phoenix.
The Nov. 28 drawing produced two winning tickets: one in Arizona, and one in Missouri, where Cindy and Mark Hill have already claimed their share of the prize.
Arizona Lottery officials tell the AP that the ticket is held by a family, and that the winners will be identified sometime next week. Officials say the holders of the winning ticket will not appear at a news conference this afternoon.
As the Hill family did at the end of November, the anonymous Arizona winners have elected to receive their winnings in a one-time cash payout of $192 million — or $136.5 million after taxes, as NBC reports.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Website and Toolbar Icons
Clean and accurate toolbar icons in professionally crafted collections. Download toolbar and website icons, search individual icons by the name or get entire sets of ready-made web icons for toolbars, taskbars, menus, ribbon bars, buttons, banners, ads design, etc.
Perfect Flat Icons
Perfect Toolbar Icons
Perfect Business Icons
Perfect Office Icons
Perfect Automation Icons
Perfect Logistic Icons
Perfect CMS Icons
Perfect Website Icons
Perfect Web Icons
Perfect Web 2.0 Icons
Perfect Time Icons
Perfect User Icons
Perfect Computer Icons
Perfect Hardware Icons
Perfect Database Icons
Perfect Download Icons
Perfect City Icons
Perfect Mobile Icons
Perfect Doctor Icons
Perfect Medical Icons
Perfect Network Icons
Perfect Bank Icons
Perfect Security Icons
Perfect Telecom Icons
Perfect Blog Icons
Perfect People Icons
Perfect Warehouse Icons
Perfect Multimedia Icons
Perfect Science Icons
Perfect File Icons
Perfect Internet Icons
Perfect Design Icons
Perfect Transport Icons
Perfect Table Icons
Perfect Black Icons
Perfect Phone Icons
You can purchase
All Perfect Icons Bundle
for $399.
Perfect Icons for Web 2.0 Applications
Design perfect Web 2.0 applications! All Perfect Icons bring a professional set of Web 2.0 icons you can rely upon. The collection of 3,200 unique designs helps you building Web 2.0 apps easier.
Designing a Web 2.0 application? If you're doing a lot of those, you'll need a professional set of graphics to rely upon. Aha-Soft offers you a perfect solution: a collection of All Perfect Icons designed to make building Web 2.0 apps easier.
All Perfect Icons
offer you more than 5,000 unique Web 2.0 icons in 3,200 designs. With numerous variations including the different sizes, color depths, file formats and active states, the total number of images comes to a whopping 79,800. The price? The entire set will set you back $399. That's only 8 cents per unique image, a deal you won't find with anyone else.
All images from the All Perfect Icons collection are completely royalty-free. If you're a busy professional, outsourcer, or work for a software giant, you'll never have to pay again once you purchase this collection. All Perfect Icons are usable and re-usable in as many products, Web sites and mobile apps as you need. The Web 2.0 images are also freely redistributable if used in your applications, online projects or mobile apps.
All Perfect Icons is a collection of collections. The set is comprised of 29 Web 2.0 icon sets, enabling you to develop Web apps of any kind. Perfect CMS Icons, Toolbar Web 2.0 Icons, Business and Database Web 2.0 Icons, Bank, Network, Security and Telecom Web 2.0 Icons are provided among the rest. Office, Document, Time, Hardware, Computer, Internet, Mobile, Transport, User, People, Blog, File, Download, Scientific, Medical, Web and Design Web 2.0 icons are also provided. Each sub-set is packed with unique images grouped together and covering a certain topic. Some sets have as little as 60 images, while some others come with 200, 300, or even 400 Web 2.0 icons depending on how narrow or how broad the topic is.
Technically, you will receive a huge bunch of images that are grouped by the set. You'll get Web 2.0 icons in sizes of 16x16, 20x20, 24x24, 32x32 and 48x48 pixels. All images come in 32-bit True Color with full alpha-channel, or in 256 colors drawn on a transparent background. Windows ICO, GIF, PNG, and BMP formats are provided for every image. Normal, disabled and highlighted versions are available for each icon.
As each Web 2.0 image is supplied in all possible sizes, color resolutions, file formats and active states, the total number of Web 2.0 icons grows exponentially. That's how 5,000 unique images turn into 79,800 files.
The images are available for immediate purchase. A free instant preview is available online. Visit
to check out the preview or to place your order!
Icon Articles
Website Icons
Icon Design
Icons for Website
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Refund Policy
Copyright © 2000-2022 Aha-Soft. All rights reserved.
All Perfect Icons Bundle
- 29 icon sets
- 5000 icons
- GIF, PNG, BMP, ICO file formats
- 16x16, 20x20, 24x24, 32x32 and 48x48 icon sizes
- normal, disabled and highlighted states
- price: $399
IconLover allows you to design and edit all kinds of graphics required in the software development cycle, including icons, static and animated cursors and interface elements - all these kinds of graphics can now be designed in a single application.
Individual Icon Images
You can buy individual icon images to suit your needs. Each icon is $1 when purchased individually.
Perfect-Icons.com contains a lot of website icons. We made product basket for orders. You can view the product basket on the right side of icon collection pages. Click on icons to purchase them. These icons will be added into the basket. Also you can remove icons from the basket. Then you need to click on
Proceed to checkout
link and pay with credit card or with other payment method (PayPal etc.). After order completed you will receive download links through the e-mail.
Get your icons immediately after placing an order
Save on ordering custom images
Get graphics on time, guaranteed!
Pay once, use anywhere. All stock icons we offer are royalty-free
Stock Icon FAQ
Icon Usage Agreement
Perfect Toolbar Icons
is a collection of ready-made icons for use in commercial and personal programs and websites. The icons have a bright color palette, smooth and well-rounded edges. A variety of formats and sizes is provided.
More info
Enhance your accounting or business-oriented software with readily available professional
Business Toolbar Icons
. Over two hundred of professionally designed and carefully crafted icons representing various financial objects and symbols are included.
More info
Perfect Hardware Icons
is a collection of hardware related icons, distributed in BMP, PNG, GIF and ICO formats and 16x16, 24x24 and 32x32 sizes. The collection features contains both 32-bit and 256-color icons.
More info
Perfect Database Icons
brings you lots of stylish and colorful icons for database software development. The images are provided in all the common icon sizes and file formats include GIF, BMP, PNG and ICO.
More info


text:
I was first introduced to the field of UX in the summer of 2005. After leaving my job as a Java Programmer in Hartford, I moved to San Antonio, where I randomly fell into a UX job—talk about lucky. It's an understatement to say that I had no idea what I was doing, and I scraped along for a while trying to figure it all out.
Back in those days, my role was not described as "UX designer" or "interaction designer;" in fact, the term "UX" didn't even exist in my world! Instead, those of us who weren't visual designers were called "information architects," and that was exactly what we did. It was our job to architect, organize, and make sense of the information within a website or application. After we mapped that out (either in an IA document or some sort of concept mapping), we worked with a visual designer to put our mapping into an interface.
The first thing I did on the job, which may be surprising to many of us now, had nothing to do with learning how to wireframe. In fact, I didn't create my first wireframe until almost three years later. Instead, the first thing I was instructed to do was visit Jesse James Garrett's site. I was tasked with understanding what the "visual vocabulary for describing information and interaction design" was from a conceptual standpoint, and to then map out information flows for my projects.
There are several reasons why this was my first step. Learning and applying the visual vocabulary meant that my IA outputs forced the project team to focus on and discuss how information should be interrelated and prioritized within a website or application before we started to design the interface solution. If we didn't first determine and get business stakeholders' input into how information and content should be interrelated and prioritized, our design team would be guessing at the design of the interface. Learning and applying the visual vocabulary allowed our IA team to define the information structure and then force a stakeholder discussion around it to get useful direction and avert confusion and frustration during future design phases.
The second reason that learning and applying the visual vocabulary was my first step was that my design team didn't want to show an interface to our non-design partners and stakeholders as our first deliverable (which is what showing a wireframe would have been). We knew that what we really needed from them wasn't feedback on the visual solution, but rather feedback on the content and context that related to the system. That information would help us to better define the interface in the coming phases, as well as decrease opinion-based discussions and feedback.
It's been seven years since I took that first step into IA, and, sadly, it seems that the practice of understanding and prioritizing information before designing the interface has been abandoned. And because of that, we are facing a huge problem in the world of UX, which is, simply put, that we are devolving.
The definition of de-evolution is "to degenerate through a gradual change or evolution." It seems to me that by removing the information architecture step—where one takes the time to understand and prioritize information—from our day-to-day process, we're on our way down the path of de-evolution. I'm not saying that there needs to be a structured phase that everyone needs to follow, but I am saying that IA (which includes first understanding and mapping out how information should be structured) needs to be done and signed off on by stakeholders before a project can move into interface design (including wireframes).
There are several problems that arise from skipping the IA phase. First, the team (UXers, visual designers, project team members, other stakeholders, etc.) won't be in agreement on what type of information is needed and what information is most important to the design, which will cause disagreement in later phases. Second, by showing wireframes without agreeing on the IA, we are focusing stakeholders and other partners on the interface and not on the real thing we are designing for: content and context. Third, we are, in essence, beginning to lie to ourselves, supposing our designs aren't just about form, but about function as well. If they were about function, we would have spent time on the IA phase before we went right into talking about form in the wireframe phase.
To make matters worse, we as an industry have been trying to validate the discomfort that many of us feel subconsciously with skipping the IA step, by turning to sketching as our ultimate solution. Sketching is an important and helpful technique, but we need to be aware of its limitations, and when sketching is and isn't appropriate in the product design process. Many UXers seem to think that since sketching doesn't involve putting wireframes into an electronic format, it doesn't really count as skipping straight to wireframing. But sketching the interface without first sketching the structure of the information means you are skipping the one step that will make your designs truly successful. That step is where you think about the content, context, and users, and force your stakeholders to do the same, without thinking about the interface—in other words, that step is the IA step.
So how do we stop this process of devolution and backwards movement? We bring back IA! I'm not saying that we should all learn Jesse James Garrett's visual vocabulary (though it wouldn't hurt) or that we need to institute a structured process that we follow the exact same way every time. But we need to slow down, put down our sketching pens, close OmniGraffle, and just think. Think about and draw out the application content, context, and users, and use this to gain buy-in. And do so without a wireframe or a sketch of a wireframe. Pick up the Polar Bear book, ignore the wireframe chapter, and learn IA. Then go out and put IA into effective practice in your organizations and teams.
By bringing the IA phase back and by concentrating first on the information, several things will happen. First, your sketching and interface design will become much, much better because you have prioritization and buy-in of the content, context, and users you are designing for. This allows your wireframe/prototyping phase to truly be about the interface, not what content should go in the interface and why. Second, you are showing stakeholders that UX design isn't just about form, but really is also about function. This moves the focus away from the interface and towards a real solution of which the interface is only a part, and brings us back to the roots of IA. Third, we can finally stop pretending that the best UX solutions are the coolest and most aesthetically appealing. The best solutions are those that take content, context, and users into consideration while creating an aesthetically appropriate interface. Most importantly, we stop UX's slide down the evolution scale back towards the time of design for the interface and not the experience, and instead continue our climb towards being true UX experts.


text:
For years, online-only retailers have enjoyed a significant competitive advantage over their local competitors: they don't have to collect state sales taxes. This means online retailers can create the illusion of having lower prices than traditional retailers because those online retailers do not, in most instances, collect the same sales taxes that our local brick-and-mortar stores do. And because they do not collect those taxes, they automatically enjoy a 9.75 percent advantage over local businesses.
This is not only unfair; it's bad for local businesses, communities, and families. It is money that is not available for use in supporting our schools, paving our roads, building our playgrounds, or hiring police officers and firefighters.
The Marketplace Fairness Act would set things right.
Today, online retailers are able to forgo collecting sales tax because of an outdated legal loophole that predates the Internet. It's time to bring our laws into the 21st century. The Marketplace Fairness Act is a common-sense piece of legislation that levels the competitive retail playing field. It is not a federal sales tax. It is not a tax on the Internet. It is not a new state tax, and it doesn't increase the sales tax rate. In fact, the law stipulates explicitly that states cannot use it to start taxing goods and services that aren't already taxed.
All the Marketplace Fairness Act does is give states like Tennessee the ability to enforce our own laws by requiring online retailers to collect and remit the same sales taxes that local retailers are required to collect and remit. If passed into law, it will ensure that all retailers play by the same rules.
This will have a positive impact on local small businesses, as well as the communities—like Oak Ridge—where they do business. These brick-and-mortar stores are the retail backbones of our communities, generating the sales tax that pays for so many public services. They create jobs and generate economic activity, pay taxes, engage in and financially support civic works of every kind.
Right now, these businesses—many of them very small businesses—are struggling in the face of a sluggish economy and their automatic 9.75 percent competitive price disadvantage against online retailers. And to add insult to injury, your local retailers are often victims of "showroomersâ€â€"consumers who visit local stores to get their hands on a product, ask questions from knowledgeable sales staff, and then go online and purchase the product to avoid sales tax that your local retailer must add to the price of the same product.
The result? Local businesses shrink, lay off their workforce, and even close in the face of online competition. However, given a chance to compete in a fair marketplace, these same stores can win back customers and once again provide the jobs, growth, revenues, and civic leadership on which our communities depend.
Some critics of the Marketplace Fairness Act claim that it will be burdensome on small businesses. That's not true. These sales taxes are not new or increasing; customers are supposed to be paying them whether the online seller collects them or not. Moreover, the Marketplace Fairness Act includes a number of small business protections, encouraging entrepreneurship, and streamlining tax collection from multiple jurisdictions. It is legislation that spreads the tax burden over everyone who should be paying it.
Our local stores have waited long enough for a fair marketplace. Attracting more retailers to Oak Ridge has been a goal the city and the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce have actively pursued—from the Westcott Center (Kroger Marketplace) under construction to revamping and bringing to new life to the Oak Ridge Mall site. Congress needs to make it easier for businesses that choose to locate and invest here, not more difficult. Fair competition is a good thing; unfair competition is not.
The Senate has already passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, and months ago the Oak Ridge Chamber adopted legislative policies that are consistent with it. Contact your congressman and urge passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act. It's important for our local businesses, for our schools, and for our city.
Parker Hardy is president and chief executive officer of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.


text:
Marlies Dekkers Dame de Paris Balcony Bra Red
This red padded balcony bra works for every type of breast.
The stunning play of lines adorning the top of the cups refer to the glorious Notre-Dame Cathedral, resulting in a similar gracious and elegant décolleté.
Padding gives you extra support.
Wires enclosing all of the breasts create a modest cleavage.
Choose this shape to get yourself a pair of stylish breasts and comfort.


text:
EUMETNET is a grouping of 33 European National Meteorological Services that provides a framework to organise co-operative programmes between its Members in the various fields of basic meteorological activities. These activities include observing systems, data processing, basic forecasting products, research and development and training. EUMETNET's mission statement is:
"To help its Members to develop and share their individual and joint capabilities through cooperation programmes that enable enhanced networking, interoperability, optimisation and integration within Europe; and also to enable collective representation with European bodies in order that these capabilities can be exploited effectively."
To find out more about EUMETNET's activities, our 2019 brochure can be found here.


text:
From http://www.ruthdoanmacdougall.It is odd, Mrs R. And although just sentences ago I promised a 'they call it this/we call it that' post, I can't hono(u)r my own promise, because Americans don't call it anything.com/more/doan-sisters.html
"She had once stayed in a rented cottage in Surrey, and she remembered the odd term the British use for this arrangement: self-catering."
Is it odd? And what do Americans say?
Why? Because Americans don't expect their holiday/vacation abodes (and their prices) to include any meals. The British notion of 'bed and breakfast' is regarded as a quaint one that was only imported in earnest (as tourist accommodation) to America a couple of decades ago (or so). In fact, I recently had a conversation with an Englishwoman who had come over to the US for our second wedding reception and was still talking (two years later) about how incredibly wonderful the B&B in my hometown was. While that B&B is especially nice (elaborate, different breakfasts every morning, warm cookies every evening, all antique furniture, scented bath potions, and so forth), I think it especially impressed my English friend because B&B accommodation in the UK can be somewhat dire (it can also be very, very nice). In fact, B&Bs often serve the roles in the UK that (AmE) motels do in the US (except that there are far fewer films involving murders in B&Bs than in motels!). For evidence, see this article that recalls a B&B's role in housing homeless families.
I'm finding that increasingly one can get a room in a hotel without breakfast in the UK (for a lower price), just as in the US provision of included-in-the-price breakfast (or at least doughnuts and coffee) has increased.
But back to self-catering. This is generally used by BrE speakers to refer to (BrE) holiday/(AmE) vacation accommodation such as cottages, cabins, and (BrE) flats/(AmE) apartments,where there is no restaurant or service staff to provide meals, but cooking facilities are available. In the US, we'd just say we were renting a cottage somewhere, and that would be that--no need to mention the eating arrangements. One often hears BrE speakers saying things like "We want to go self-catering this year", to mean that they want a reduced-cost, back-to-basics holiday/vacation.
One often sees (BrE) package holidays advertised as 'self-catering' (as opposed to 'bed and breakfast' or 'all inclusive'). Here's another contrast: Americans rarely take package holidays unless (a) they've got a deal to go to Disneyworld, or (b) they're in their 'golden years'. This is probably because (a) Americans are wary of anything that might 'tie them down' too much, (b) [and therefore] they often just get in the car and drive, and (c) they get almost no holiday/vacation time (usually two weeks' paid vacation for Americans versus the six weeks or so that Europeans usually get)--and therefore often use what they've got to do things that need to be done, like visiting family or undertaking big projects, rather than going on treks to new and different places.
We've discussed a couple of other differences in tourist accommodation in past posts--so click back if you'd like to read/discuss (BrE) flannels/(AmE) washcloths in hotel bathrooms or (BrE) en-suite accommodation.


text:
Reliable High Density Storage Arrays Turbocharged for High Performance
The Nexsan E18 V is an ultra-reliable, high-density, high performance, efficient storage array that enables lower storage costs, maximum storage uptime, and data storage ROI boosts for your organization. E-Series V systems consume less than one-third of the power in one-third of the rack space of typical arrays, with up to 324TB (with 6TB NL-SAS drives) of capacity in just 6U (each array is a mere 2U, supporting 18 drives) and now offers 400% more memory and 50% increased CPU speed over the E-SeriesTM.
E-Series V Key Benefits
- Reliability – features Anti-Vibration Design and Cool Drive TechnologyTM.
- Availability – uses Active Drawer TechnologyTM and redundant hot swappable active components.
- High Performance – utilizes Imation's latest multi RAID engine controller technology.
- Energy Efficient – delivers up to 87% reduction in power while lowering your cooling needs through the use of AutoMAID®.
- Flexible Connectivity – connects via SAS, Fibre Channel or iSCSI (10GbE and 1GbE)
- Easy to Manage – remotely manage one or many systems within a single, intuitive GUI.
Nexsan E18 V – Dual Controller option(s) supports up bo 108TB in a single chassis, Nexsan E18 X – expand E18 V with 2 additional shelves for a max of 324TB in 6U
Optimize Your Capacity Needs Now & Expand in the Future
The E-Series V storage arrays and expansion units offer mid-size organizations affordable enterprise-level Fibre Channel, SAS and/or iSCSI SAN storage used for a variety of capacity-optimized and performance-driven applications.
For larger organizations, E-Series V is a versatile SAN or DAS solution to stay ahead of the enormous data growth, demanding workloads, and high resiliency requirements in media & entertainment, government, healthcare, HPC, financial, surveillance and service provider sectors.
Turbocharge Your Performance for Ultra-Fast Write Speed
E-Series V features an advanced active/active controller design, including use of a dedicated hardware engine, or "turbocharger", which accelerates RAID parity generation and doubles the sequential write performance over the prior version of E-Series. The turbocharged E-Series V is ideal for back-up and recovery applications and continuous data streaming bulk storage applications.
Achieve More Efficiency in Higher Density Than Typical Arrays
Organizations deploying E-Series V san storage arrays can mix and match capacity-optimized HDDs and performance-optimized HDDs and SSDs to meet performance and capacity needs. E-Series V arrays consume less than one-third of the power in one-third of the rack space of typical arrays.
With E-Series V systems, you can engage Nexsan AutoMAID® disk management capabilities to reduce power consumption by up to 87%, lowering operating expenses and extending the overall life of the system.
Ensure Your Data Is Protected with Qualified, Reliable Design
The E-Series V storage array exceeds the most stringent reliability demands, leveraging an innovative hardware design including Cool Drive TechnologyTM and anti-vibration design that significantly reduces heat and vibration while improving system reliability and performance. The reliability of E-Series V is qualified through extensive stress testing before shipment. Array-based snaps and asynchronous replication extend E-Series V data protection capabilities. For more information, download the Snapshot & Replication data sheet.
Access Your Data Continuously
The E-Series V features multipathing support and dual redundant, hot-swappable active components. As an administrator, you will receive SNMP alerts or email notifications of component failures. Upon drive failure, a spare drive is automatically rebuilt into the RAID set for complete business continuity.
With up to 16GB of battery-backed and flash-protected cache per controller, the E-Series V solution mirrors cache between controllers in a dual controller configuration. Active Drawer TechnologyTM overcomes the challenges of competitive arrays by allowing a technician to service a drawer of drives easily while keeping your data available.
For more information on Imation's Nexsan storage contact sales at Sunstar Companyor call 800.663.5523


text:
Money is the least of our problems. It's time to pay attention to the real deficits that are killing us.
by David Korten
The political debate in the United States and Europe has focused attention on public financial deficits and how best to resolve them. Tragically, the debate largely ignores the deficits that most endanger our future.
In the United States, as Republican deficit hawks tell the story, "America is broke. We must cut government spending on social programs we cannot afford. And we must lower taxes on Wall Street job creators so they can invest to get the economy growing, create new jobs, increase total tax revenues, and eliminate the deficit."
We can only borrow money from each other. The idea that we borrow money from the future is an illusion.
Democrats respond, "Yes, we're pretty broke, but the answer is to raise taxes on Wall Street looters to pay for government spending that primes the economic pump by putting people to work building critical infrastructure and performing essential public services. This puts money in people's pockets to spend on private sector goods and services and is our best hope to grow the economy."
Democrats have the better side of the argument, but both sides have it wrong on two key points.
First, both focus on growing GDP, ignoring the reality that under the regime of Wall Street rule, the benefits of GDP growth over the past several decades have gone almost exclusively to the 1 percent—with dire consequences for democracy and the health of the social and natural capital on which true prosperity depends.
Second, both focus on financial deficits, which can be resolved with relative ease if we are truly serious about it; and ignore far more dangerous and difficult-to-resolve social and environmental deficits. I call it a case of deficit attention disorder.
To achieve the ideal of a world that secures health and prosperity for all people for generations to come, we must reframe the public debate about the choices we face as a nation and as a species. We must measure economic performance against the outcomes we really want, give life priority over money, and recognize that money is a means, not an end.
What We Borrow from Each Other
To realistically address the nature of the public financial deficits at the center of the current political debate, it is crucial to understand the nature of money and debt. Money is just a number, a system of accounting useful in facilitating economic exchange. A deficit occurs when expenditures exceed income. If, as a result, financial liabilities come to exceed financial assets, we go into debt. It is all basic accounting.
The key point, which the deficit debates rarely address, is that one person or entity's financial debt is another person or entity's financial asset. We can only borrow money from each other. The idea that we borrow money from the future is an illusion.
The deficit-hawks recoil in horror and assure us that we can reduce government debt while leaving the financial assets of the rich untouched. From a societal perspective, total debts and assets are always in balance.
Consequently, if we say that one person or entity has excessive financial debt, we in effect say that another has excessive financial assets. Reducing the aggregate financial debt of debtors necessarily requires reducing the aggregate financial assets of the creditors.
In theory, we could instantly wipe away all financial debts through a universal forgiveness, a modern equivalent of the ancient institution of the Jubilee. The ancients recognized the significance of such action to restore the balance essential to the healthy function of the human community.
The deficit-hawks recoil in horror and assure us that we can reduce government debt while leaving the financial assets of the rich untouched. It makes perfect sense in the fantasy world of pure finance in which profits and the financial assets of the rich grow perpetually even as growing inequality and wasteful material consumption deplete the social capital of community and the natural capital of Earth's biosphere.
A viable human future, however, must be based on living world realities rather than financial world fantasies.
What We Steal from Future Generations
Real capital assets have productive value in their own right and cannot be created with a computer key stroke.
Any normally intelligent 12-year-old is fully capable of understanding the distinction between a living forest or fishery and a system of financial accounts that exists only as electronic traces on a computer hard drive.
Unfortunately, this simple distinction seems to be beyond the comprehension of the economists, pundits, and politicians who frame the public debate on economic policy. By referring to financial assets as "capital" and treating them as if they had some intrinsic worth beyond their value as a token of exchange, they sustain the deception that Wall Street is creating wealth rather than manipulating the financial system to accumulate accounting claims against wealth it had no part in creating.
Real capital assets have productive value in their own right and cannot be created with a computer key stroke. The most essential forms of real capital are social capital (the bonds of trust and caring essential to healthy community function) and biosystem capital (the living systems essential to Earth's capacity to support life). We are depleting both with reckless abandon.
Social capital is the foundation of our human capacity to innovate, produce, engage in cooperative problem solving, manage Earth's available natural wealth to meet the needs of all, and live together in peace and shared prosperity. Social capital is depleted as individualistic greed becomes the prevailing moral standard and the governing institutions of society deprive all but a privileged minority of access to a secure and dignified means of living. Once it is depleted, social capital can take generations to restore.
Biosystem capital provides a continuing supply of breathable air, drinkable water, soils to grow our food, forests to produce our timber, oceans teeming with fish, grassland that feed our livestock, sun, wind, and geothermal to provide our energy, climate stability, and much else essential to human survival, health, and happiness. It is depleted when soils are degraded, oceans are overfished, rivers and lakes are polluted, forests cut down, aquifers contaminated and depleted, and climate stabilization systems disrupted. These natural systems can take thousands, even millions of years to restore. Species extinction is forever.
When we deplete Earth's bio-capacity … we are not borrowing from the future; we are stealing from the future.
According to the World Wildlife Federation's 2012 Living Planet Report, at the current rate of consumption, "it is taking 1.5 years for the Earth to fully regenerate the renewable resources that people are using in a single year. Instead of living off the interest, we are eating into our natural capital." This is a path to never-never land. Unlike with financial deficits, simple debt forgiveness is not an option.
When we deplete Earth's bio-capacity—its capacity to support life in its many varied forms—we are not borrowing from the future; we are stealing from the future. Even though it is the most serious of all human-caused deficits, it rarely receives mention in current political debates.
When we assess economic performance by growth in GDP and stock price indices, we in effect manage the economy to make the most money for people who have the most money. This leads us to the fanciful belief that as a society we are getting richer. In fact, we are impoverishing both current and future generations by creating an unconscionable concentration of economic power, depriving billions of people of a secure and dignified means of living, and destroying the social and biosystem capital on which our real well-being depends.
With proper care and respect, biosystem capital can provide essential services in perpetuity. The reckless devastation of productive lands and waters for a quick profit, a few temporary jobs, and a one-time energy fix from Earth's non-renewable fossil energy resources represent truly stupid and morally reprehensible deficit spending. Evident current examples include tar sand oil extraction, deep sea oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, and mountaintop removal coal mining The fact that we thereby deepen human dependence on finite nonrenewable fossil energy reserves and accelerate climate disruption make such actions all the more stupid and immoral.
Financial system logic, which rests on the illusion that money is wealth, tells us we are making intelligent choices. Living systems logic tells us our current choices are insane and a crime against future human generations and creation itself.
From Built-to-Loot to Built-to-Serve
The economy of a just and sustainable society needs a proper system of money creation and allocation that:
Supports the health and productive function of social and biosystem capital and allocates the sustainable generative output of both to optimize the long-term health and well-being of all; and
Rewards individuals with financial credits in proportion to their actual productive contribution to living system health and prosperity.
The current U.S. money system does exactly the opposite. It celebrates and rewards the destruction of living capital to grow the financial assets of Wall Street looters at the expense of Main Street producers—thus concentrating economic and political power in the hands of those most likely to abuse it for a purely individualist short-term gain.
Wall Street operates as a criminal syndicate devoted to the theft of that to which it has no rightful claim. It then bribes politicians to shield the looters from taxes on their ill-gotten gains and to eliminate social programs that cushion the blow to those they have deprived of a secure and meaningful means of livelihood. This brings us back to the real source and consequence of excess financial debt.
Masters and Debt Slaves
In the big picture, the Wall Street 1 percent has divided society into a looter class that controls access to money and a producer class forced into perpetual debt slavery—an ancient institution that for millennia has allowed the few to rule the many [See inset: "Wall Street and the Ultimate Tyranny"] .The immense burden imposed on the 99 percent by public debt, consumer debt, mortgage debt, and student debt is an outcome of a Wall Street assault on justice and democracy.
The resulting desperation and loss of social trust account for the many current symptoms of social disintegration and decline in ethical standards. These include growth in family breakdown, suicide, forced migration, physical violence, crime, drug use, and prison populations.
Equality as a Crucial Variable
I grew up in America during a time when we took pride in being a middle-class society without extremes of wealth and poverty. In part, we were living an illusion. Large concentrations of private wealth were intact and systemic discrimination excluded large segments of the population—particularly people of color—from participation in the general prosperity. The underlying concept that the good society is an equitable society, however, was and still is valid. And from the 1950s to the 1970s the middle class expanded.
Complete equality is neither possible nor desirable. Modest inequality creates essential incentives for productive contribution to the well-being of the community. Extreme inequality, as exemplified by current U.S. society, is both a source and an indicator of serious institutional failure and social pathology.
British epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson has compiled an impressive body of research that demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt that economic and social inequality is detrimental to human physical and mental health and happiness—even for the very rich. Relatively equal societies are healthier on virtually every indicator of individual and social health and well-being.
In highly unequal societies, the very rich are prone to seek affirmation of their personal worth through extravagant displays of excess.
In highly unequal societies, the very rich are prone to seek affirmation of their personal worth through extravagant displays of excess. They easily lose sight of the true sources of human happiness, sacrifice authentic relationships, and deny their responsibility to the larger society—at the expense of their essential humanity. At the other extreme, the desperate are prone to manipulation by political demagogues who offer simplistic analyses and self-serving solutions that in the end further deepen their misery. Governing institutions lose legitimacy. Democracy becomes a charade. Moral standards decline. Civic responsibility gives way to extreme individualism and disregard for the rights and well-being of others.
To achieve true prosperity, we must create economies grounded in a living systems logic that recognizes three fundamental truths:
The economy's only valid purpose is to serve life.
Equality is foundational to healthy human communities and a healthy human relationship to Earth's biosphere.
Money is a means, not an end.
A New Political Narrative and Agenda
So long as money frames the debate, money is the winner and life is the loser.
Runaway public deficits are but one symptom of a profound system failure. They can easily be resolved by taxing the unearned spoils of the Wall Street looters, eliminating corporate subsidies and tax havens, and cutting military expenditures on pointless wars that undermine our security.
Joblessness can easily be eliminated by putting the unemployed and underemployed to work meeting a vast range of unmet human needs from rebuilding and greening our physical infrastructure to providing essential human services, eliminating dependence on fossil fuels, and converting to systems of local organic food production. If the primary constraint is money, the Federal Reserve can be directed to create it and channel it to priority projects through a national infrastructure bank—a move that avoids enriching the bankers and does not create more debt. In addition, we must:
Break up concentrations of unaccountable power.
Shift the economic priority from making money to serving life by replacing financial indicators with living wealth indicators as the basis for evaluating economic performance.
Eliminate extremes of wealth and poverty to create a true middle-class society.
Build a culture of mutual trust and caring.
Create a system of economic incentives that reward those who do productive work and penalize predatory financial speculation.
Restructure the global economy into a planetary system of networked bioregional economies that share information and technology and organize to live within their respective environmental means.
Within a political debate defined by the logic of living systems, such measures are simple common sense. Within a political debate defined by conventional financial logic, however, they are easily dismissed as dangerous and illogical threats to progress and prosperity.
The Rio+20 debate highlights a foundational and inherent conflict between the rights of nature, human rights, property rights, and corporate rights. So long as money frames the debate, money is the winner and life is the loser. To score a political victory for life, the debate must be reframed around a narrative based on an understanding of the true sources of human well-being and happiness and a shift from money to life as the defining value.
A promising new frame is emerging from controversies surrounding the recent United Nation's Rio+20 environmental conference. Wall Street interests argued that the best way to save Earth's biosystems is to put a price on them and sell them to wealthy global investors to manage for a private return. Rather than concede the underlying frame to Wall Street and debate the price and terms of the sale, indigenous leaders and environmental groups drew on the ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples to challenge the underlying frame. They declared that as the source of life, Earth's living systems are sacred and beyond price. They issued a global call to recognize the rights of nature.
Thus framed, the Rio+20 debate highlights a foundational and inherent conflict between the rights of nature, human rights, property rights, and corporate rights.
In current practice, based on the same financial logic that leads us to treat financial deficits as more important than social and environmental deficits, we give corporate rights precedence over the property rights of individuals. We give property rights precedence over the human rights of those without property. And we give human rights precedence over the rights of nature. We will continue to pay a terrible price for so long as we allow the deeply flawed logic of pure finance to define our values and frame the political debate.
There is no magic bullet quick fix. We must reframe the debate by bringing life values and living systems logic to the fore and turning the prevailing rights hierarchy on its head. The rights of nature must come first, because without nature, humans do not exist. As living beings, our rights are derivative of and ultimately subordinate to the rights of Earth's living systems.
Human rights come, in turn, before property rights, because property rights are a human creation. They have no existence without humans and no purpose other than to serve the human and natural interest. Corporations are a form of property and any rights we may choose to grant to them are derivative of individual property rights and therefore properly subordinate to them.
The step to a prosperous human future requires that we acknowledge life, not money, as our defining value, accept our responsibilities to and for one another and nature, and bring to the fore of the debate the social and bio-system deficits that are the true threat to the human future.
Replacing cultures and institutions that value money more than life with cultures and institutions that value life more than money is a daunting challenge. Fortunately, it is also an invigorating and hopeful challenge because it reconnects us with our true nature as living beings and offers a win-win alternative to the no-win status quo.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
Dr. David Korten (livingeconomiesforum.org) is the author of Agenda for a New Economy, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When Corporations Rule the World. He is board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, president of the Living Economies Forum, and a member of the Club of Rome. He holds MBA and PhD degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School.
See online: America's Deficit Attention Disorder


text:
If you're looking for a very good quality Cheap HDMI Cables then this HDMI cable does exactly what it says on the box. If your on a budget and looking for a top quality HDMI Cable that's excellent value for money then the Premium Black High Speed HDMI Cable range is the perfect choice.
This HDMI Cable is the perfect choice if you require a High Speed HDMI Cable for all general applications, it comes with a one year warranty and affordability that represents excellent value for money. It has a data transfer rate of 10.GBP's bandwidth supporting all HDMI 1.3 features.
The Premium Black High Speed HDMI Cable is suitable to connect to any of today's most demanding High Definition ( HD ) equipment ,PS3, XBOX 360, Blu-ray Players, Digital Receivers, LCD TV's, LED TV's, Laptops, PC's, AV Receivers, AV Amplifiers HDMI Splitters, HDMI Switches.


text:
Popn T-Shirts
Search Results
Get 15% OFF when you buy 5+ t-shirts!
*Cannot be combined with additional sales/discounts.
T-Shirt FAQ
What material is this item made of?
100% combed ringspun cotton. The perfect fabric for a graphic tee and the softest in the business. (Due to product availability, cotton type may vary for 2XL and 3XL sizes)
What USA ship methods are available?
UPS MI Domestic (6-8 Business Days)
FedEx 2-Day (4-6 Business Days)
Estimates include printing and processing time.More Shipping Info
What is the Return/Exchange policy?
We want you to love your order! If for any reason you don't, let us know and we'll make things right.Learn More


text:
"It is in difficult times that you really know the character and quality of people. The same applies to business and companies.
There we were. Living in Australia and wanting to send a gift basket to our uncle in the US, celebrating his amazing 100th birthday. We did it through Gift Basket Overseas and were happy with the user friendly site. Simple process. Short and efficient. To our surprise, the basket didn't arrive at the date promised. We began an investigation, compounded by an 18 hour time difference between Sydney, Australia and Scottsdale, AZ. From day one, every single customer representative we corresponded with only had one thing in mind: to resolve the problem. Through many iterations we found out I had a typo on the street name and although the zip code was correct, the courier delivered to an address that was not our uncle's. GBO sent a replacement basket at their cost and still that didn't make it to him. After a lot of investigations and the personal involvement of their customer service director, we finally had the gifts arrive at their destination.
A very big thank you and we can assure you that you now have a customer for life and I will be recommending you to my friends. You showed us what customer service is all about.
Andre T. (Australia)"
Check our complete gifts to USA catalog at www.giftbasketsoverseas.com


text:
Skyliner Summit -- Bend Oregon Real Estate
Included below are homes for sale in the Skyliner Summit at Broken Top neighborhood, a community in the NW area of Bend, OR. These Skyliner Summit Homes and real estate listings are updated daily from the Central Oregon MLS.
If you would like more information on any of these Skyliner Summit homes for sale, just click the "Request More Information" button when viewing the details of that property. We can provide you with disclosures, past sales history, dates and prices of homes and real estate recently sold in Bend, Oregon.
And, if you haven't already, be sure to register for a free account so that you can receive email alerts whenever new real estate listings and homes for sale in Skyliner Summit at Broken Top neighborhood come on the market in Bend, OR.


text:
Roger? Actually I reckon Davydenko could beat anyone at the moment. In the 1st set of his match against Federer yesterday (which he won 6-4 6-4) his 1st serve %age was 100%!! Ok first serve % isn't everything but its an indication of how well he's playing right now. He also gave himself 7 chances to break Fed in the first set alone!
I reckon he's possibly favorite for the Aus open provided there aren't any surprises.