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NASDA Comments on EPA's Proposed Registration Decision for Sulfoxaflor
The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) submits the following comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed registration decision for sulfoxaflor (docket number EPA-HQ-OPP-2010-0889).
About NASDA
NASDA represents the Commissioners, Secretaries, and Directors of the state departments of agriculture in all fifty states and four U.S. territories. State departments of agriculture are responsible for a wide range of programs including food safety, combating the spread of disease, and fostering the economic vitality of our rural communities. Conservation and environmental protection are also among our chief responsibilities.
In forty-three states, the state department of agriculture is a co-regulator with EPA and responsible for administering, implementing and enforcing the production, labeling, distribution, sale, use and disposal of pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
General Comments
As the pesticide regulatory partner with EPA in forty-three states and Puerto Rico, NASDA is intimately familiar with EPA's statutory obligations under FIFRA to conduct a scientifically-sound risk-benefit analysis for crop protection tools, including sulfoxaflor. Crop protection tools are an important component within many agricultural crop production systems. NASDA supports the development, scientific-review, and approval of new technologies necessary to combat the constant pest stressors weed-resistance challenges and enable growers to produce our nation's food, fiber, and fuel.
NASDA has several concerns with a number of elements under EPA's proposed registration, which does not comply with its obligations under FIFRA's risk-benefit analysis. NASDA notes EPA did not provide an appropriate benefits analysis for soybean, grain sorghum, cotton, strawberries, cucurbits, and citrus. NASDA requests EPA amend its proposed registration to include these uses as supported by the exposure data.
NASDA is concerned with provisions that would restrict tank mixing of different pesticides. Tank mixing is a critical tool used to inhibit the development of future resistance issues. Often times, multiple pest species occur simultaneously, and tank mixing affords growers the ability to mitigate the constant pest stressors without the need for multiple applications. Any restrictions on tank mixing will unnecessarily limit and compromise our growers' ability to implement scientifically-sound integrated pest management (IPM) practices.
In addition to allowing for the critical use of tank mixing, it is also necessary to remove any requirements for in-field buffer zones within the production area. Such buffers provide no enhanced regulatory protections, which are thoroughly addressed through training, industry collaboration, and responsible stewardship practices, but these buffers will provide unnecessary refuges for pest and weed stressors and enable reproduction of enhanced resistant weeds.
Growers face constant pressures ranging from weather conditions, pest stressors, resistance issues, and myriad other challenges. It is essential to American agriculture that EPA execute its authorities and responsibilities in a timely manner consistent with the Agency's robust science-based registration process to ensure farmers have access to a broad range of new technologies and modern crop protection tools to continue to produce our nation's food, fiber, and fuel.
NASDA appreciates the opportunity to comment on this important issue, and NASDA requests EPA amend its proposed registration decision for sulfoxaflor to include for soybean, grain sorghum, cotton, strawberries, cucurbits, and citrus consistent with the Agency's risk-benefit analysis requirements under FIFRA. NASDA further requests EPA allow for the appropriate use of tank mixing and remove the proposed in-field buffer zones.
As regulatory partners with EPA, NASDA stands ready to assist EPA in ensuring our growers have access to a broad range of technologies and crop protection tools, reviewed and approved in a scientifically-sound and transparent manner, needed to continue to produce our nation's food, fiber, and fuel.
Please contact Dudley Hoskins (email@example.com) if you have any questions or would like any additional information.
Nathan Bowen
Director, Public Policy


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Aliens among Us:
Exploring Identity and Identities in Young Adult Literature
Alien (noun) 1: a person of another family, race, or nation. 2: a foreign-born resident who has not been naturalized and is still a subject or citizen of a foreign country. (adj) a: belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing. b: relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government. c: differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility.
Growing up, I always knew I was different. I had no word for what I was, no story to which I could affix myself. So it's only natural that I considered myself an alien. I remember sitting at my bedroom window night after night, searching the starry sky for hours and hoping to catch a glimpse of some tiny speck, proof that my extraterrestrial tribe was on its way back to earth to get me.
Then at 15, I was invited to be an apprentice at a summer stock theater located on an island off the coast of New Jersey, and everything changed. Even before I knew what the job entailed, I jumped at the opportunity to escape my hometown. The lure of the something "other" was too great, and despite the objections of my parents, I took off.
The theater's schedule was grueling—14 musicals in 14 weeks—and as an apprentice, I was expected to do anything and everything in exchange for a bunk in a crowded room crammed with eight or nine other boys. Along with my fellow apprentices, I served meals, cleaned and maintained the theater, built and moved the scenery, hung and ran the lights, and eventually (to my great delight) was asked to grab a costume and step onto the stage. The job involved long hours, little sleep, no pay, and a slavish devotion to the legendary Joe Hayes, the man who had founded and managed the theater. What kept me in the game, what made me lose sleep and run myself ragged that whole summer, was the discovery of story.
At the time, I knew very little about the business of telling stories; I knew even less about the theater. I'd seen a few plays and had been involved in the odd school production featuring Pilgrims, but the business of people actually making a living by dressing up as someone else and telling stories on a well-lit stage in front of an eager audience was a revelation. Every night, I stood in the wings and watched as a leading actress transformed herself into a Sally Bowles or a Dolly Levi or a Mame; I studied Doug and Tom and Bob as they turned themselves into Tevye or Will Parker or Captain Von Trapp. I befriended these people during the day and then watched at night as they conjured a more fantastic persona, one designed for happy endings. I had discovered a nexus where two entirely separate realities were allowed to meet, where the story of Tevye lived inside the story of Doug. Might there be a more fantastic story rolled up inside of my everyday life, my own alternate persona waiting to be conjured? I was determined to find out.
Then one night about halfway through the summer, I found what I was looking for—I kissed a boy in the left mezzanine of the theater, and just like in those Greek myths that I'd been reading in school the year before, I was instantly transformed. Overnight, I was allowed to shed my alien status. I had found my tribe, my story.
Before that summer, homosexuality was something to be avoided, ignored, resisted, and love was meant for movie stars. Way back in the Twentieth Century, homosexuality was rarely mentioned; it was a time when being gay or lesbian was still considered a form of mental illness, a crime, or worse. But ever since I could remember, it also had been a part of me, an urge that by its very nature couldn't be separated from who I was, because it was my nature. And yet, it had to remain unspoken and unacknowledged, even to myself. Disowning it took so much work, and in jettisoning that essential part of myself, I naturally lost touch with other parts as well—like my ability to love and the confidence to be fully myself. The fact is, I was so busy policing myself into a kind of submission, forcing myself to be someone other than myself, I didn't need anyone pushing me around.
At 15, I was an expert at bullying myself. But if I ever slacked off, there was no shortage of those who were happy to step in and do it for me. And not just people—a book could do it nicely. My brother owned a precious and dog-eared copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex . I remember pouring over it, page by page, looking for some kind of validation or permission to feel the feelings that I thought were mine alone. Instead, I was shocked to discover that homosexuals were a class of men who had sex in bowling alley bathrooms and enjoyed activities such as putting light bulbs up their butts. Really? Homosexuality, I decided, was not for me. And so I kept quiet, fell below the radar, and made a decision to be less than myself. At a time when my peers were busy pressing themselves on top of girls in the back seat of cars, renting tuxedoes, and coming into their own, I was trying desperately to pass. In a world where emotional development depended on my ability to participate, I fell behind a bit. I took to my room, imagined that I understood the lyrics of popular singing divas, sulked, decoupaged my lunch box, made hand puppets with human hair, wore a dickie, read Jane Austen, and was cast in musicals.
Fortunately, that first kiss was more powerful than anything I'd yet encountered, and it managed to trump even my own desire to remain invisible. Love was no longer meant for other people, normal people, people in movies and books—it belonged to me as well. I was part of the human race, and no one would deny me that right ever again. Love provided me with a story that I could believe in.
We are all storytellers. Every one of us arranges, discards, upends, and transforms the flimsy details of our personal circumstances until our lives and the world all around us makes some kind of sense, until we recognize ourselves in the landscape. Creating stories about ourselves, our parents, our ancestors, our work, and place of worship is one of the main features of our species and sets us apart from all others. Story is how we locate ourselves in the world and how we identify ourselves to one another, but even more important, it's how we come to know ourselves.
But as adolescents, we don't yet have the ability to create a proper narrative of our lives; we don't have the perspective necessary to make sense of certain events and to place each episode in its proper context. What does this mean? Why did that happen? How will this affect that? And that is one of the reasons why storytelling is so important to us when we are young adults; we are in the early stages of learning how to construct a narrative of our lives, and we need all the help we can get.
As my summer of love was coming to a close, my boyfriend slipped me Mary Renault's novel The Last of the Wine . A parting gift. He told me to read it while we were separated and perhaps I might see a bit of our own love reflected in the story. Though the book had been published in 1956 and the story was set in Ancient Greece, I was thrilled to discover that the plot involved a relationship between two men. Here was evidence that someone (other than me) believed that such a love was not only possible, but also desirable. If only I lived in ancient Greece.
When I returned to the routine life of a high school junior, I tried to make up for the loss of excitement by submerging myself in books. I read the stories of T. H. White, Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carson McCullers, J. D. Salinger, Charlotte Brontë, and Kurt Vonnegut. To be honest, I also turned to books because I wanted to find some kind of validation of the life I dreamed for myself, a blueprint; and though I never did find exactly what I was looking for, the habit of reading took hold in me, and eventually I found my way to writers like Denton Welch, James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, and Djuna Barnes, writers who presented, if not exactly a homosexual slant, than certainly a queer one.
That same year, I was assigned to Mr. Shust's English class. Mr. Shust was a cranky and fastidious man of middle years who dressed in tweeds and flannel and insisted that his students keep a journal. He told us that the experience would enrich our lives (whatever that meant) and that we would be graded not on the quality of our writing, but on our willingness to participate. So every evening after my homework was finished, I dutifully made an entry into the black-and-white speckled composition book. I began by chronicling the minor and major moments of my life, the hurts, hopes and heartbreaks, and soon writing had become a habit as well. That first journal turned into many, and by the time I was in my early twenties, I had a shelf filled with the written record of my adolescent years. These books certainly came in handy years later when I began to write novels for young adults. My first book, Absolute Brightness (Harper Teen), is especially indebted to these journals for the many details of my summers on the Jersey coast. And my second novel, Virgin Territory (Egmont), also set in a seaside town during the summer months, explores issues of faith and love that I was struggling with and writing about in those early journals.
So, picture me a grown up, sitting at my desk and sipping morning coffee at the age of 35. Behind me, those composition books are lined up like witnesses never called upon to give their testimony. On the radio, a news report about teen suicide. According to the statistics, a young person who identifies as Gay or Lesbian is three to four times more likely to attempt suicide than his or her heterosexual peers, and of all teen suicides, 33% can be attributed to homosexuality. I am appalled by this fact, shocked that nothing is being done to prevent the loss of what I consider our greatest natural resource—our youth. Instinctively, I turn to my old journals and I begin to read. For the first time in years, I am reminded of just how confusing it was to be an adolescent, how painful and lonely. It is my story.
I then write the first few lines of a story about a 13-year-old boy who confides to his journal. I call him Trevor.
Dear Diary,
Tonight I walked into the living room while Mom and Dad were watching TV. Fell dead to the floor. No response from them. I think that television reruns have replaced their natural spontaneity. I mean, unless I'm on the eleven o'clock news, I don't think they'd care. And even then they might sleep through it.
And so the story began.
Eventually, Trevor discovers that he is different— different from his parents, different from his schoolmates, and different from his best friend. But when he realizes that he is gay and has no one in whom he can confide, he considers ending his life. Trevor is a poignant and surprisingly funny portrait of a boy in crisis, but it's about anyone who has ever felt as though they just can't get it right, that they don't fit in no matter how hard they try.
It wasn't that difficult to find the inspiration for Trevor. All of us have felt this way at one time or another, especially during our teenage years when we are just beginning to piece together a story of ourselves. Fortunately, my story was close to hand and my journals were stuffed with poems, rants, dreams, prayers, vows, ideas, and remembrances of what it meant to be 14, 15, 16 . . . . The irony is that just as I was beginning to discover myself, I was becoming a stranger to the people I loved the most—my family. They couldn't know me, not really, because if they knew who I was, they would most certainly reject me. I couldn't live with that—not even as a possibility. And so I kept myself a secret from them, removed myself further and further from them, and began to explore life and love without them.
I went on to perform Trevor on stage as part of my solo show, Word of Mouth , and eventually the show found its way to the HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen, and then to Off Broadway where, incredibly, I won the Drama Desk Award for best solo performance of that year. One night following a performance of Word of Mouth , I met Randy Stone and Peggy Rajski, and they asked me to consider writing the screenplay for a short film based on the story of Trevor .
This 18-minute film (produced by Randy Stone and directed and produced by Peggy Rajski) went on to win many awards, including an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. It was an exciting time as we watched our little film find an audience and spread the word that gay was okay—and at a time when LGBT issues were just beginning to find their way into the news. The times were changing, and Trevor was in some small way able to contribute to that change. In 1997 when we sold the film to HBO, we thought it might be a good idea to flash a telephone number at the end, just in case there happened to be a kid out there who could relate to the character of Trevor and needed someone to talk to. We wanted to let young people know that it was all right to reach out and ask for help. Someone would always be standing by to listen to their problems. But after doing some research, we found that there was no 24-hour crisis intervention and suicide prevention helpline for gay teens. And so we set about creating one.
Three months later, The Trevor Project was launched, and finally Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans-gender, and Questioning teens had someplace to turn. That first night, we received over 1500 calls, and we've been at it ever since. Every year, we receive approximately 30,000 calls from young people around the country. Of course, not every call requires a rescue, and not all of the young people identify as LGBT, but every call comes from someone who is struggling with issues of identity and is a person between the ages of 13 and 24 who is in need of someone who will listen. Thrown out of their homes, shunned by friends, often with no one to whom they can turn, these young people have found the help they need simply by calling 1-800-4-U-Trevor .
These days, YA novels are full of lesbians and gays. Twenty-first century authors like David Levi-than, Alex Sanchez, Jacqueline Woodson, Bill Konigsberg, and Mayra Lazara Dole write eloquently and often about the lives of LGBT teens. We don't have to travel to ancient Greece in order to find a reflection of our lives, because contemporary portraits closer to home abound. Perusing recent YA publishing lists of any major house, one might get the idea that it's not such a bad time to be a teen who is LGBT identified. But amazingly, alarmingly, the statistics today remain no better than they were over 20 years ago when I first sat down to write Trevor . LGBT youth are still killing themselves, and statistics indicate that they are in fact four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. Fortunately, a solution now exists, and The Trevor Project is providing every young person with needed encouragement to fully live his or her own story. For over 14 years, The Trevor Project has been there for youth, listening to their stories, encouraging them to be fully themselves and, most important, saving them from taking their lives.
Recently, Dan Savage's very successful IT GETS BETTER campaign created a viral revolution and allowed adults to send out a message loud and clear to youth that life would indeed be better, if only they could hang on a bit. It also helped The Trevor Project become the go-to organization for youth who were struggling with their sexuality and identity. As a result, our call volume has spiked. We've opened a third call center, which is located in Harvey Milk's old camera shop in San Francisco and is fittingly dedicated to his memory.
We've also taken a much more active role in communicating to youth that we are there for them 24/7. In addition to the Lifeline, we've designed outreach and educational programs. We launched TrevorSpace last year, a secure online destination where youth can connect with one another, offer one another peer-topeer support, and share information; in less than a year, close to 20,000 members have registered and are using the service. Another feature we offer is Ask Trevor ; young people can write in and ask questions that are not time sensitive, and our responses are then posted online. We have launched Trevor Chat , an online destination where teens can chat with a trained counselor and get some guidance before a crisis occurs, and we have also been instrumental in introducing anti-bullying legislation on the state and federal level. And finally, we have developed an in-school program where we train educators and students, meeting youth on their home turf and talking to them about the power of words and the value of listening.
And yet despite all our online services, we remain first and foremost a Lifeline, offering voice-to-voice communication, saving lives and working to normalize help-seeking behavior. In a world that is becoming increasingly de-personalized because of digital media, we remain dedicated to providing every young person, regardless of his or her identity, the opportunity to be heard—and they needn't wait until a crisis occurs to call on us. If I had understood at 14 that asking for help is an essential part of the human experience, I might have been able to get the help I needed sooner rather than later.
Of course, there is still much to do for youth everywhere. The passing of the Marriage Equality Act in New York State was a great win for youth who believe in the story of love; but the love of a teen in Texas is not yet equal to one living in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, or Washington D.C. And further afield, homosexuality is illegal in more than 30 African nations, and in some places is a crime punishable by death. In some Islamic countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen, homosexuality is a crime punishable by imprisonment, corporal punishment, or in some cases, execution. The globe has shrunk to the size of the worldwide Web, and every young person has access to it. They get the message, they hear the news, and we will have to work harder to change the story. Martin Luther King once said: "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," and his wisdom has perhaps never been better applied than to the struggle to make one person's love equal to everybody else's— regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation.
Changing the story of LGBTQ youth throughout the world and giving them the right to love is one way to ensure a better and more loving future for everyone. Young people, all of them, belong to our future, and without them we cannot hope to live into the world of tomorrow. Convincing even one kid that his or her life is worth living is to convince ourselves that the world itself is worth saving.
As I said, there is still so much work to be done. But Trevor stands as a major milestone and a miracle in my life. Next year, an updated version of Trevor will be published by Seven Stories Press, and hopefully a whole new generation of LGBTQ teens will be able to relate to the story. There may be aliens among us, but they are our aliens to love and to cherish and bring into the fold. I know because I was one of them, and it was story that saved me. All young people need to find a story that they can believe in, one that will bring them closer to understanding that they are a part of something bigger and better than themselves alone, something wonderful—and not just when they turn 25 or 35 or 45 years old—but right now.

subset: commoncrawl


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The main goal of the Advanced School is to provide young researchers (PhD and postdocs) with the state of the art of theoretical and experimental tools to study Biomolecular Interactions. In this context, classes focused on protein-protein, protein-membrane, protein-lipid, membranes and proteins and their partners as well as protein-DNA interactions will be addressed (details in the Scientific Program). The school will give students the opportunity to attend multi-disciplinary classes and to interact with renowned researchers on Structural and Spectroscopic techniques, such as Fluorescence, CD and SRCD, EPR, NMR, SAXS, Cryo-TEM, AFM and molecular dynamic simulations. Furthermore, the School will also offer plenary lectures with the aim to make a synergic liaison between different techniques applied to biologically relevant topics.
In this way, the students will meet prominent biophysicists in the field and other young scientists in an attractive and convivial environment, thus propitiating excellent conditions for networking.
The School
The Advanced School will be conducted in English. Applicants therefore must be proficient or have a sound understanding of the English language in order to comprehend, communicate, and participate actively in the School activities.
According to the Scientific Program students will actively participate in discussing their ongoing work during the school through:
- Case Studies: students pre-selected during the registration process (online registration) will present and discuss their results based on the lecturers (themes) given at each day.
- Lunch with teachers: students will be divided in small groups and have lunch with the teachers to exchange experiences and ideas.
- Hands-On: the students will be split in groups such that each group will attend a specific hands-on per afternoon at Institute of Physics and Institute of Chemistry from University of Sao Paulo. Each student must choose, at least, 3 hands-on (according to Scientific Program) during the Registration process.
- Poster Session: there will be two posters sections dedicated to the students presentation.
- Visit to CNPEM: the students will have the opportunity to visit the facilities of the Synchrotron Brazilian National Lab: LNLS (in special the SAXS and IR beam lines), LNBIO (NMR facility) and LNNano (Cryo-TEM and negative stain microscopy)
About 100 applicants, 50 from Brazil and 50 from other countries will be selected to participate in the Advanced School. The selection will be based on the merit of their application, the relevance of the academic work and studies related to the advanced school themes.
Thus, applicants must fill out the Application Form and submit a short CV (no more than 2 pages), a poster abstract, a motivation letter as well as a reference letter from a thesis advisor/postdoc supervisor indicating the expected benefits for the applicant's academic work and studies. All material should be submitted in English.
Abstract submission and registration deadline: June 18th 2017
The selection will be finished and announced by
June 30th 2017.
Due to the great number of applicants, the selection was announced on July 12 2017.
The list of selected applicants was notified by email.
Registration Fee
A registration fee of U$ 100,00 is required for all applicants to cover expenses (folders, meals) during the Advanced School.
Financial Support
A significant number of travel grants (75) are available for eligible participants from other countries and Brazilian states other than Sao Paulo. The travel grant covers the travel and hosting expenses (L'Opera Hotel, breakfast included) during the Advanced School. If you need a financial support, please, justify so in the required field of the Application Form. The selected students will be invited to attend the Annual Brazilian Biophysical Society Meeting which will be held from 27 to 29 October at Hotel Mendes Plaza (mendesplaza.com.br) in Santos town (90 km from Sao Paulo).
Sponsored by


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I'm not a big planner. I prefer to make spur-of-the-moment decisions, so when my husband had to work in Crystal River for a few days, I decided to take the kids and join him. I knew we would have fun lounging at the pool and hoped we would get to swim with the manatees. […]
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This place in Gujarat, which has very pleasant weather, and it is also known as the "Milk Capital" of India. He is famous in India, because the revolution with milk in this city first began. This city has no special attraction, but still it is known for its handmade artifacts and many other things. Vashikaran specialist is very well known here due to his skills of yours. It is not easy to become an expert in your country, to become an expert, to whom one must have deep knowledge and high concentration andexperience in your country. Vashikaran Specialist in goaThis is not every person can become an expert in yours. But a specialist in yours is very interested in this art, and that's why he has been practicing and gaining experience in your country for many years. He made your people popular among people, opening their eyes, eliminating all sorts of myths associated with Vashikaran.
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Six young footballers and the father of one of the boys have been found guilty of manslaughter in a Dutch court after knocking over a linesman and kicking him to death.
Judges sentenced the 50-year-old man to six years in jail for manslaughter for his part in the death of Richard Nieuwenhuizen, who was acting as a linesman during the youth game in December. Nieuwenhuizen was the father of a player in the opposing team.
Five of the teenagers were given two-year sentences in a youth detention facility by judges in Lelystad for their part in the tragedy.
A 6th boy was sentenced to a year in a youth detention facility, while a 7th player was sentenced to 30 days' detention for assault.
Richard Nieuwenhuizen was attacked after a match between junior Dutch teams SC Buitenboys and Nieuw Sloten in December. Although he was able to get to his feet after being attacked, he died in hospital the next day.
Mr Nieuwenhuizen's widow, Xandra, said after the verdict: "This verdict gives us some kind of closure".
A judge said when handing down his verdict: "The conclusion is that the violence the suspects committed is the reason for Nieuwenhuizen's death".
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The Westminster Kennel Club dog show is set to welcome three new breeds next year.
Rat terriers will compete next February in the terrier group, chinooks will join the working group and the Portuguese podengo pequeno will be with the hounds. A breed must be recognized by the American Kennel Club to be eligible for Westminster.
The additions will bring the total at Westminster to 190 breeds and varieties. That's 20 more than entered the nation's most prestigious dog show just five years ago.
There were over 2,700 dogs competing at the event last month.
The Portuguese podengo pequeno is relatively new to the United States, arriving in the mid-1990s. The chinook is a sled dog and rat terriers are affectionately called ratters by their owners.


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By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler held on suspicion of leaking documents alleging corruption in the Vatican, was driven by a desire to help the pope, his lawyer said on Saturday, adding that his ultimate aim may have been to clean up the Church.
The lawyer, Carlo Fusco, told a news conference that Gabriele had acted alone in the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal and was not part of any wider plot, saying he expected a Vatican magistrate to order a trial for him soon.
The 46-year-old butler's arrest on May 23 caused an international furor after police found confidential documents in his apartment inside the Vatican, a dramatic twist that threw the global media spotlight on an institution battling to defend its reputation from allegations of graft.
"The motivations that prompted him to do certain things are all of an interior nature. There were no external motives," Fusco said after assisting Gabriele in an interrogation that lasted seven hours.
Asked by a reporter if Gabriele's motive could have been to "help the pope clean up the Church", Fusco said: "That would be one way of interpreting it."
Fusco said Gabriele, who is being investigated for aggravated theft and faces up to six years in jail if found guilty, was "moved by the desire to do something that could be an act of help, an act of love, towards the pope".
"Obviously the way in which each person expresses (such desires) are subjective and are debatable," Fusco added.
Gabriele has been held in a small "safe room" inside the Vatican police station for the past two months, but on Saturday a decision was taken to allow him to return to his flat under house arrest.
Some Italian newspapers allege corruption in the Vatican's business dealings with Italian companies, involving the payment of inflated prices for work, while others highlight rivalries among cardinals and clashes over the management of the Vatican's bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).
Fusco said his client showed signs of remorse.
"He has been able to reflect long and hard these days and came to the conclusion that the method (of helping the pope) could have been different. He certainly regrets the method that was used."
Many commentators have said that Gabriele, who served the pope his meals and rode in the front seat of the popemobile at Pope Benedict's general audiences, could not have acted alone and was just a scapegoat for others. But the lawyer denied this.
"We can say with absolute certainty that there was no network, there were no plots, either in the Vatican or outside the Vatican, that Paolo was part of," Fusco said.
The butler's other lawyer, Cristiana Arru, said Gabriele had not been motivated by personal gain. "He received no money or personal benefits", she said.
Gabriele is widely expected to ask the pope, who is the sovereign of Vatican City, for a pardon. If is it not granted, he would serve his term in an Italian jail according to bilateral agreements between the Vatican and Italy.
"The Holy Father will make the decision he deems opportune," Fusco said, referring to a possible request for a pardon.
Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said a Vatican magistrate would decide by the start of August whether to order Gabriele to stand trial. Any trial would not start before September.
Gabriele, who has dual Vatican and Italian citizenship, is still the only person formally accused in the "VatiLeaks" scandal.
A commission of three cardinals that led a separate investigation, and who questioned many people in the Vatican, delivered their report directly to the pope last week. Its contents remain confidential.
(Editing by Andrew Osborn)


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The Hemmings Motor News New England Concours d'Elegance at Stratton Resort, Sunday, July 20-22, is shaping up to be the classic/collectible car event of the summer (if we do say ourselves).
If you haven't made plans to be with us in scenic Vermont next weekend, what are you waiting for? Check out the Web page and the FAQ page for all the details. See you soon!
(This post originally appeared in the July 12, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)


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Claire Danes watched countless videos recorded by sufferers of bipolar disorder to help with her role in hit TV show Homeland.
In the popular drama, the actress plays Carrie Mathison, an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who suffers from the condition, which is characterised by mood swings from manic highs to depressive lows.
Danes reveals she researched her part endlessly and spent hours on YouTube.com watching videos recorded by real sufferers.
She tells National Public Radio, "I had to do a lot of research for this role. I found great material on YouTube. There was a lot of footage of people who recorded themselves when they were in manic states. I think they were probably up in the middle of the night and lonely and, you know, needed to talk. So they talked to the camera.
"So I gorged on sort of manic confessionals on YouTube... ( I was) watching the expressions and mannerisms and cadences... They talk at a very fast clip. But, you know, it's not a strictly unpleasant phenomenon. A lot of people are reluctant to treat themselves because they're so protective of those manic highs."


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Our Open Evening will take place on Wednesday 26th September 2018. There will be a Principal's Address at 5.15pm and 6.15pm.
Welcome to the new Litherland High School website. It's a pleasure and a privilege to introduce you to the school. This website gives you an insight of what the school is about; it celebrates our students' achievements and allows you to see some of the opportunities available to students.
Litherland High School is a mixed 11-16 school where every student is valued and treated as an individual. Our motto is "Together in the Business of Learning" and we aim to create a positive climate for learning where expectations and standards are high and our students are supported to do their best and achieve their full potential.
The school was rebuilt in 2011 and we have state of the art facilities in all curriculum areas. We also have use of a local sports park with athletics facilities.
We look forward to welcoming you to our community.
Rob Rogers, Principal
Click on the links below to explore our Photo Galleries.


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Founded in 1990, Plan-Net has been transforming the IT of organisations, large and small, for twenty-seven years. Our solutions help our clients maintain high levels of service while still meeting demands for a reduction in IT spending. Acting as a trusted partner to the IT department, we help them to enhance performance, flexibility, security, cost-efficiency and ultimately, user productivity.
Our IT support services cover a number of proven engagement models from Managed Sourcing to Full Outsourcing. Every solution is different and tailored to each individual client we work with.
Our consulting services in areas of IT Strategy, Service Management, Information Security, Compliance and Infrastructure are delivered by our team of committed professionals who have in-depth experience in their specialist fields and breadth of practical application across a wide variety of industries.
Over the years we have worked hard to gain the qualifications, experience and capability to provide a valuable service to our clients. While we are technology independent, we maintain partnerships with some of the key vendors including Microsoft, Citrix & VMWare.
We are also ISO27001 certified in Information Security Management, IS09001 certified in Quality Management and IS014001 certified in Environmental Management.


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Track records of 50M+ Yen or US$500K+ may qualify depending on returns!
If you are interested in related Sales & Trading focused roles in Asia or Japan, click here
For more Buy-Side or Sell-Side roles in Asia-Pacific, contact our TMJ Partners Japan & Asia Finance team in Tokyo.
Mark Pink Shinichi Nagasawa
Tel + 81 3 3505 3891 Tel +81 3 3505 3891
Email firstname.lastname@example.com Email firstname.lastname@example.com


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• London Fletcher and Brian Orakpo dining at Del Frisco's Grille Monday night. Eight Redskins linebackers — including Lorenzo Alexander, Ryan Kerrigan, Rob Jackson, Perry Riley and Chris Wilson— ended the season with dinner at the downtown restaurant. One big table in the dining room; steaks and plates of food passed around family style. Tab? More than $7,000 (including pricey cognac) paid by rookie Keenan Robinson, who, by tradition, was stuck with the check.
More Reliable Source:; Miss Alabama; inaugural balls; Gerard Depardieu; Dan Snyder's box; Sam Donaldson


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$499 Up Front
0.79% When Sold!*
$0 Up Front
1.49% When Sold!*
|Click To See Some of the Marketing That's Included
At Don Anthony Realty, we help Charlotte and Triangle Region homeowners like you sell a home faster and for lower costs with our proven program. Our approach to selling a home combines the best of a Discount Realtor® and Full Service Real Estate Agent, with the freedom of a For Sale By Owner and Flat Fee MLS Listing.
Contact us to help you buy a home, and WE MAY PAY YOU UP TO $500* towards your closing costs! Because we sell a lot of homes each year, we see hundreds of contracts, making us very knowledgeable about how the seller negotiates, what they want, and how they structure their offers...giving us excellent insight on how to strategically negotiate for our buyers. This is a FREE service to our buyers, as the seller pays the buyer's agent! We may even pay you $500* for allowing us to represent you!
Here are a few Don Anthony Realty reviews from happy clients!
How do we sell so many homes and save our clients thousands?
Believe it or not, it's actually very simple! Many of our clients start out wanting to sell by owner in order to avoid paying high real estate fees and real estate commissions. This makes sense, as it is very important to be able to have enough money after all of your real estate fees and real estate commissions to be able to sell a home, whether you are trying to sell by owner or sell with a Realtor®. One of the problems with trying to sell by owner is that most buyers are working with other real estate agents (either high commission brokers, discount real estate brokers, or flat fee MLS listing agents) to help them find a home that is right for them. People trying for sale by owner may be able to advertise their home on for sale by owner websites like HomesByOwner.com, ForSaleByOwner.com, or Craigslist, but it starts to get very expensive if they want to advertise on the most popular websites like Realtor.com, Zillow.com, and Yahoo Real Estate (just to name a few); and it's less likely that a buyer will find the home on just a couple of sites rather than being advertised with an MLS Listing where a real estate agent will find homes for their buyer clients. Many discount real estate brokers, flat fee MLS listing Realtors®, and flat rate MLS listing Realtors® will put your home on the MLS, but some don't provide much service or advertising beyond that. We've solved all of these problems by combining the best features of a full service real estate agent, for sale by owner, discount real estate agent, flat fee MLS listing, and flat rate MLS listing! We give you superior advertising to find a buyer for your home while we just charge a low flat fee and a low real estate commission so you have more "wiggle room" during the contract negotiations. We provide excellent support throughout the process to make sure everything goes smoothly to bring your home from the MLS listing all the way through to closing.
Superior Advertising + Low Real Estate Commission = Home Sold! It's our successful formula that sells our clients' homes while saving them thousands!
Search Homes For Sale in Some of the Areas We Serve in the Charlotte NC Region...
Belmont NC, Bessemer City NC, Catawba NC, Charlotte NC, Cherryville NC, China Grove NC, Clover SC, Concord NC, Conover NC, Cornelius NC, Dallas NC, Davidson NC, Denver NC, Fort Mill SC, Gastonia NC, Harrisburg NC, Hickory NC, Huntersville NC, Indian Land SC, Indian Trail NC, Iron Station NC, Kannapolis NC, Lake Wylie SC, Lancaster SC, Lincolnton NC, Maiden NC, Marshville NC, Matthews NC, Midland NC, Mint Hill NC, Monroe NC, Mooresville NC, Mount Holly NC, Mount Pleasant NC, Newton NC, Pineville NC, Rock Hill SC, Rockwell NC, Salisbury NC, Sherrills Ford NC, Stallings NC, Stanley NC, Statesville NC, Tega Cay SC, Troutman NC, Waxhaw NC, Weddington NC, Wesley Chapel NC, Wingate NC, York SC, Alexander County NC, Cabarrus County NC, Catawba County NC, Chester County SC, Gaston County NC, Iredell County NC, Lancaster County SC, Lincoln County NC, Mecklenburg County NC, Rowan County NC, Stanly County NC, Union County NC, York County SC
Search Homes For Sale in Some of the Areas We Serve in the Triangle NC Region...
Angier NC, Apex NC, Bahama NC, Benson NC, Carrboro NC, Cary NC, Chapel Hill NC, Clayton NC, Dunn NC, Durham NC, Efland NC, Four Oaks NC, Franklinton NC, Fuquay Varina NC, Garner NC, Hillsborough NC, Holly Springs NC, Knightdale NC, Lillington NC, Louisburg NC, Morrisville NC, Pittsboro NC, Princeton NC, Raleigh NC, Rolesville NC, Rougemont NC, Selma NC, Smithfield NC, Wake Forest NC, Wendell NC, Willow Springs NC, Youngsville NC, Zebulon NC, Chatham County NC, Durham County NC, Franklin County NC, Harnett County NC, Johnston County NC, Lee County NC, Orange County NC, Wake County NC
*Obviously we can't guarantee to sell a home for $500,000 if it's really worth $250,000, so contact us for guarantee conditions.
*Minimum listing-side commissions: "A La Carte" - $790 and "Low Commission" - $1490.
*"Low Commission" program includes lockbox and pictures. Program only for owner-occupied or vacant homes over $100,000.
*Commission stated is for the listing side of the transaction only and does not include any commission paid for buyer with agent.
*Tenant-occupied homes are not eligible for the free Seller Warranty.
*Use us as your Buyer Agent, and we may contribute up to $500 towards your closing costs. Restrictions apply.


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Build Guide by Secret26
Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page.
Thank You!
Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Gragas Build
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
1. Easy First Blood
2. Noone can beat you in early game/lategame =)
3. Awesome cc !
4. I don�´t have more to say ^^
It�´s a great build, just make sure your drunken rage is up all the time.
That means you need the whole CDR = 40% ( i think :P )!
Your drunken rage should be on 18 seconds then!
You have to do your item order for yourself, cause always different enemys.
For heavy Mele dmg go for Thornmail instead of Banshess or else.
For heavy Magic dmg take force of nature instead of sunfire and take a warmogs instead of banshess veil.
You can also chose Smite instead of cleanse, cause you are able to do the Golem with level 1 if you chose the HP/AD potion! Just try it it works great =) after it you can do the Lizard one tooo and after all creeps in jungle you should be able to buy boots, and then join a lane to gank! =) its awesome killing enemy with that buffs and potion with 3 hits :D ENJOY!
pls don�´t comment negative without a Reason!
I am always yours for Questions, so don�´t be shy ^^


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- Trending Now: More Trending:
- hogwash probity sequacious inadmissible oligarch, pejorative
yokel was our Word of the Day on 05/13/2014. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Examples of yokel in a Sentence
a lame comedy about the misadventures of yokels in the big city
Recent Examples of yokel from the Web
How not to be a local yokel The parents of one of David Benglian's Penn classmates bought their son a Society Hill townhouse to live in during the school year.
Though comic buffoons and yokels are scattered through a number of Shakespeare's tragedies, Lear's universe is relentlessly bleak, and the Fool, despite his jingling, is neither oaf nor jester.
Everyone is too goddamn afraid of Trump and his band of yokels.
Though stereotypes cast the Tohoku residents as yokels, Parry finds them sophisticated, if slightly more rugged due to the rough terrain and harsh climate of the region.
Angry that they'll be replaced by technology like Google Home and Amazon Echo, a group of Confederate Flag-waving yokels took to the streets in riot gear, LARPing armor, and Halo helmets to protest.
Mere hours after the Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers to win their second NBA championship in three seasons, some yokel posted a tweet, citing no source, asserting that the Warriors had voted unanimously to boycott a visit to the White House.
Forced to share office space in a taxidermy shop, Josh discovers just about every yokel cliche there is – some of it funny, some of not even worth mentioning.
Trump justified his risky and indefensible action with an effort at misdirection worthy of the three-card monte dealers who still fleece yokels on the sidewalks of Manhattan.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'yokel.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
The origins of "yokel" are uncertain, but it might have come from the dialectal English word yokel, meaning "green woodpecker." Other words for supposedly naive country folk are "chawbacon" (from chaw, meaning "chew," and "bacon"), "hayseed" (which has obvious connections to country life), and "clodhopper" (indicating a clumsy, heavy-footed rustic). But city slickers don't always have the last word: rural folk have had their share of labels for city-dwellers too. One simple example from current use is the often disparaging use of the adjective "citified." A more colorful (albeit historical) example is "cockney," which literally means "cock's egg," or more broadly "misshapen egg." In the past, this word often designated a spoiled or foppish townsman - as opposed to the sturdy countryman, that is.
Origin and Etymology of yokel
First Known Use: circa 1819
in the meaning defined aboveSee Words from the same year
yokel Synonyms
bumpkin, churl, clodhopper, cornball, countryman, hayseed, hick, hillbilly, provincial, rube, rustic;
Near Antonyms
slicker, smoothy (or smoothie);
Related Words
boor, clod, clown, gawk, lout, oaf;
YOKEL Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of yokel for English Language Learners
—used as an insulting word for a person who lives in a small town or in the country far away from cities and is regarded as stupid
YOKEL Defined for Kids
Definition of yokel for Students
Learn More about yokel
See words that rhyme with yokel Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for yokel Spanish Central: Translation of yokel Nglish: Translation of yokel for Spanish speakers
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up yokel? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).


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Quite possibly they should have their own web site, but given how impossible it is to google any information about this, allow me to provide it all here in one place.
This was accurate as of a phone call today (21 Sept 2008) with Tom Draper, but may no longer be accurate.
Contact Person: Tom Draper
Tom's Phone Number: 020 8874 1575
Fircroft Primary School
Fircroft Road
Tooting, London
They play Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
18:00-19:30 - Children
19:30 - 22:30 - Adults
Cost is 3/session if you pay for a 12/year annual membership, or 4/session otherwise.
They have some changing rooms, but because it's a primary school, they don't have full locker room and shower facilities.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
York Gardens Table Tennis Club Information
Posted by Kirk Wylie at 08:21
Labels: Table Tennis
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Sometimes you just need to make a recipe laden with heavy cream and cheese. It's not often I do this, but I've been on a mission to clean out the deep freezer and I had a package of gnocchi in there. I also had made another recipe using 1/2 cup of heavy cream and had another half cup remaining. It seemed recipe fate was knocking on my door with that one.
Ham and Cheese Gnocchi Skillet
Source: Cheesecurd in Paradise
Servings: 4-6
Printer Friendly
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cups ham, diced
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 16 oz. package gnocchi
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup mozzarella, shredded
- 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
1. Heat the olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook for 4-6 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and slightly browned. Add the ham to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes more, just until the ham starts to get crispy.
2. Add the water, gnocchi, frozen peas and heavy cream, stirring after each addition. Allow to cook for 6-8 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
3. Sprinkle the mozzarella and sharp cheddar over the dish and place the skillet under the broiler for 2-3 minutes, rotating if needed, until cheese is golden brown and bubbly.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley and serve.


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Become a Volunteer today!
Thank you for your interest in serving your neighbors in New Hampshire and Vermont. The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteer and the generosity of donors. We invite you to explore the many volunteer opportunities available. A variety of opportunities are available for you to join us daily, weekly, monthly.
The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
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Study: Seismic Activity In New Mexico, Colorado Tied To Wastewater Injection
(Report available. Document #94-141014-026X.)
Raton Basin
A group of researchers investigated the ongoing seismicity in the Raton Basin, which straddles New Mexico and Colorado, and found that the deep injection of wastewater from the coal-bed methane field is responsible for inducing the majority of...
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Traction Bars are engineered to reduce axle wrap on lifted vehicles, without reducing valuable ground clearance or suspension articulation. Engineered to fit your specific vehicle for perfect fit and easy installation. The installation of this kit requires welding. For use with crawler system and spring-over axle systems.
Fabtech Performance produces quality lifted suspension systems, leveling kits and shock absorbers. The company is headquarted in Chino, California. The five-acre Fabtech campus houses the product development team and the hi-tech, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. The company manufacturers accessories for GMC, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ram, Hummer, Jeep, Nissan and Toyota off-road vehicles as well as for UTVs. Select FabTech suspension systems are FMVSS 126-certified and come with a 60,000 mile or five year Powertrain Warranty. The reason Fabtech can afford to give such a generous warranty is that they rigorously test their products on the vehicles of real customers. They install the suspension systems on the trucks, Jeeps and SUVs of random customers for free. The customers drive the vehicles like they normally would. And Fabtech regularly checks the customer's vehicle to moniter how the suspension components are performing and enduring. It is this real world testing that gives Fabtech products the quality edge. Shop Fabtech Now


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Katie Taylor gave her legion of fans and admirers much to cheer about when she defeated Swedish champion and 2012 Olympic Games hope, Helena Falk at the Royal Hotel in Bray on Thursday night.
The three times World Champion gained a unanimous decision over her Swedish opponent, who has fought most of the World's top women boxers including Russia's Sofya Ochigava , Britain's Amanda Coulson and Bulgarian Denica Eliseeva so a good performance from Taylor as she prepares for an elusive five in a row bid when she defends her European crown against all comers in Rotterdam later this year. Ochigava, Eliseeva, Britain's Natasha Jonas , Norwegian Ingrid Egner and Sweden's Falk are likely to prove to be Taylor's toughest opponents in Rotterdam..
Last night's Bray Boxing Club 14- contest card featured some of the top amateurs emerging from the local club – the crowd got tremendous value for their 15 euros entrance fee and Falk contributed in no small measure to what was undoubtedly the fight that most of the audience had come to see.
Taylor's father and coach, Peter Taylor, was delighted with the reception and the quality of boxing and paid tribute to the Swedish champion for her part in the proceedings.
"I would like to thank everyone for showing up for tonight's show", he said . "Katie gave a great performance and fair play to the Swedish girl, she took some good shots and was a worthy opponent"
It is hoped that Taylor's next fight could be as early as tomorrow night (( Saturday) at the Open Unseeded Elite Competition finals at the National Stadium in Dublin and Team Taylor are hoping to announce an opponent later today if their plans materialise.


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Subscribing to Fundingpoint
Fundingpoint is an online database of funding grants for the Irish community and voluntary sector. Well stocked and meticulously researched, Fundingpoint does the research work so you don't have to!
Subscription rates:
- Member of The Wheel, €125.00
- Other Community and Voluntary Organisations rate, €200.00 (incl. sports partnerships, etc).
- All Others (incl. private businesses, consultants)., €400.00
- Add Additional User to Your Subscription, €25.00
Fundingpoint for Councils
Fundingpoint can provide local councils with dedicated funding research in a format that is ideal for sharing and distributing directly to community and voluntary groups in your locale - learn more about the service here.
What is Fundingpoint? Why Subscribe?
An initiative of The Wheel, Fundingpoint is an online database of funding grants to which Irish community and voluntary groups may apply.
Funders... The funding grants listed in the Fundingpoint database come from a wide variety of sources, including central and local government / councils; statutory agencies; independent trusts; corporate foundations; and EU grants.
The majority of grants listed in the database come from Irish funders. However, there are a large number of funding grants that come from overseas funders. Regardless of their location, funders will only be listed in the Fundingpoint database so long as Irish organisations (which fit the funding criteria) are eligible to apply.
Deadlines... Another extremely useful and popular aspect of Fundingpoint is the Funding Diary. Essentially a calendar of deadlines for funding grants closing in the coming weeks and months (sometimes as much as dozens of deadlines in one particular month), this innovative tool allows fundraisers to stay on top of their funding schedule with the minimal amount of fuss.
Exclusive Newsletter Content... Subscribers to Fundingpoint also automatically receive the monthly Fundingpoint Subscribers Newsletter, packed with news and fundraising tips, this exclusive newsletter also lists all the funding grant deadlines for the coming month. This is yet another way Fundingpoint helps fundraisers to stay on top of dozens of funding grants in one easy-to-use resource.
Ongoing development... Fundingpoint is maintained on an ongoing basis by The Wheel. In addition to adding new funding grants to the database, deadlines are continually being updated and funding grant criteria and funder contact details are also refreshed regularly - all to ensure that Fundingpoint remains, by far, the biggest and most up-to-the-minute source of funding information in the Republic of Ireland.
History of Fundingpoint
Several years in the making, The Wheel launched Fundingpoint.ie (www.fundingpoint.ie) in July, 2008. The express purpose of the website was to provide the Irish community and voluntary sector with an up-to-date and dynamic source of funding information.
Fundingpoint does the research - so you don't have to!
Upon launching Fundingpoint.ie contained approximately 420 funding grants. This has now grown to over 800.
In May, 2010 Fundingpoint.ie was absorbed into the new Wheel.ie website. Other than a few cosmetic changes and improvements to the search engine and layout, the database remained essentially the same.
The website address changed from www.fundingpoint.ie to www.wheel.ie/funding (but the Fundingpoint name remains).
Fundingpoint Subscriptions
Fundingpoint is a subscription-based website. Subscribing to Fundingpoint gives you 1 year's unlimited access to over 840 funding grants and dozens of funding deadlines. Subscribers also receive the exclusive Fundingpoint Subscribers Newsletter, which brings funding information right to your inbox.
- Full Member of The Wheel, €125.00*
- Other Community and Voluntary Organisations rate, €200.00
- All Others (incl. private businesses, consultants)., €400.00
- Add Additional User to Your Subscription, €25.00**
* Membership of The Wheel starts at just €25 and, in addititon to the many benefits that being a member of The Wheel brings, membership also entitles you to subscribe to Fundingpoint for the significantly discounted cost of €125 per annum (as opposed to the non-members €200 rate). Find out more about membership here.
** Additional User Subscriptions for a colleague are valid for 3 months or for the duration of the main organisational subscription - whichever is longer.
"Fundingpoint has saved us time and resources and helped us focus on funding we can apply for. This is a fantastic service to have especially in the current climate where every penny and every working hour is so valuable. The website structure is clear and very easy to use." - C. McGuigan
"Easy access to a range of funding opportunities has proved invaluable to our organisation. We have obtained grants, funding and valuable information from Fundingpoint. I would highly recommend it to the voluntary sector." - C. Kelly
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PSC pals – A new student mentor program for 2017 – Featuring Josh Braidner
Starting in 2017, we have a new student peer-to-peer mentoring program called PSC pals. The program gives current second and third year students the ability to mentor and support students who are new to PSC.
Throughout the year in 2017, we will be bringing you updates from the PSC pals program, but until then we will be featuring one of the PSC pals student mentors here on our blog and on our social media channels per week until the start of semester one.
For our second week, we're glad to feature Josh Braidner (third year 2017).


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Arianna Huffington to Produce Political Comedy for ABC
Supposedly based on real-life D.C. pols.
Media maven and AOL/HuffPo queen Arianna Huffington has just sold a political comedy to ABC, which will be written by How I Met Your Mother's executive producer Greg Malins. The story will follow three co-habitating freshman members of Congress — two men, one woman, tea party affiliation unknown — and is purportedly based on several real-life D.C. politicians. "One is swept up in the movement of change and goes to D.C. to make a difference," Malins told the Hollywood Reporter, "one has been in politics for a long time, and one is a master of the media and sound bites." We can only imagine what manner of legislative and awkward-sexual-moment shenanigans these three will get up to.


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If your taxes are more complex than online tax software can handle, you need a tax preparation company that has the experience to tackle the job. With over 45 years of financial industry experience, Bookkeepers Consultants, Inc. is an obvious choice.
The experts at Bookkeepers Consultants in San Antonio, TX can collect all the information needed to prepare your personal income taxes. If you've allowed us to file your personal income taxes in the past, all you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and leave your information with us. We'll get your taxes prepared accurately and timely. Call us today at 210-736-4214 to schedule an appointment.
A number of life events and other situations can make your tax filing more complicated. Turn to our professionals if you:


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Android App
Budget ₹600-1500 INR
I need an Android app. I would like it designed and built.
8 freelance font une offre moyenne de ₹1288 pour ce travail
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Hey I am Sr. Mobile Developer and Full-Time Freelancer with 3+ years of experience and have completed lots of complex projects in objective c and Swift and Java. Relevant Skills and Experience Sound knowledge of Datab Plus


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Help Desk
Work Orders
A-Z Index
Academic Calendar
Event Calendar
ECU News Services
About Us
ECU Now Blog
Donor Naming of ECU Baseball stadium announced
GREENVILLE, NC (Jan. 14, 2005) — While the final phases of the construction of East Carolina University's new baseball stadium nears completion, the ECU Educational Foundation has officially identified and announced that the William H. Clark Family of Greenville has committed the lead gift of $1.5 million in support of the facility project.
In addition to its proclamation recognizing the campaign's lead donor, East Carolina has also announced that the naming process of the new stadium has been realized to honor both Clark's generosity and the accomplishments and contributions of former Pirates' head coach Keith LeClair, who guided ECU from 1997 to 2002 before beginning his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
LeClair played an integral role in the push for a new, state-of-the-art baseball stadium on the East Carolina campus, which began in earnest with a fund-raising campaign plan in 2001.
In honor of both contributors, financial and conceptually, East Carolina's new baseball stadium will eternally bear the name of "Clark-LeClair Stadium".
"My family and I are honored and overwhelmed to have our name next to Bill Clark's family on the new stadium," said LeClair. "They have been so generous to our family the past three years during this difficult time in our lives and we sincerely appreciate all that they have done.
"I truly hope that when people see the LeClair name on the stadium, that it represents all ECU coaches and players of the past and present and all the great tradition this baseball program was built on. I am truly honored and blessed for this opportunity and I want to thank all the supporters that made this dream of building a stadium a reality."
Clark-LeClair Stadium, which is scheduled to open March 4, 2005 when the Pirates open their season against Michigan in the opening contest of the Second Annual Keith LeClair Classic, has a price-tag in excess of $10 million of which the ECU Educational Foundation has already raised $9 million in private support.
Clark, a long-time supporter of East Carolina Athletics and the Pirate Club, is a real estate developer who owns Bill Clark Homes of Greenville and residential communities in Raleigh, Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. He and wife Gloria are the parents of sons Hunter, Lance and Heath, a former baseball player at ECU.
"One of the reasons why I wanted to support this project was to get Keith's name on the stadium as it should be," Clark said. "I'm not sure one person has done as much for one individual sport as Keith has for our baseball program. I wanted there to be a legacy for Keith at ECU, something which would qualify the character that he has.
"This (stadium) will be a giant step in realizing Keith's dream of the Pirates going to Omaha," Clark added. "It's a great advantage to host regionals and super regionals in your own park. Obviously, there's a much better chance to win those tournaments at home and be in a position to go on to Omaha."
East Carolina Head Baseball Coach Randy Mazey, who has posted an 85-40 record in two seasons guiding the Pirates' baseball fortunes and is coming off a school-record 51 victories and a No. 8 final national rank, concurred with Clark's objectives and was indebted for his support, commitment and gift.
"Our baseball program is very appreciative of the gift that Mr. Clark and his family has given us, as well as all of the people who have contributed, not just financially, but with their undying support of our baseball program," Mazey said. "Our baseball facility will now be one of the finest in the nation, and I think that the future of East Carolina Baseball is very bright. This new stadium will just bring us one step closer to achieving our goal of playing in the College World Series."
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JRPG fans have always known they could turn to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest to get their fill of experience grinding and loot collecting, not to mention saving the universe from unspeakable evil time and time again. Another franchise that is often overlooked but fills this same niche is Star Ocean, the sci-fi series that sees characters traveling through space while battling baddies with swords and spells. In spite of its second-tier status, this has always been a rather impressive franchise, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope - International continues to set the bar high. Unfortunately, a few big missteps prove that this series doesn't quite have what it takes to join the ranks of its more popular brethren.
The Last Hope tells the story of a desperate human population ravaged by World War III. Nuclear winter has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable, so mankind looks to the stars to find a new home. One of the ships sent out on the inaugural search features childhood chums Edge Maverick and Reimi Saionji, the main protagonists. What is meant to be a routine mission quickly becomes anything but, and suddenly Edge, Reimi and the cohort of companions they meet along the way face a much larger quest than finding a new home for humanity.
The Last Hope was released on the Xbox 360 last year as a timed exclusive, so the International Edition features a few new features exclusive to PS3 audiences. The main addition is the inclusion of a Japanese audio track, so players can hear the original voice cast rather than their English counterparts. Normally, this is something only the otaku care about, but for once, the ability to switch over to the native language settings is a near necessity. This is due to the fact that the English voice acting is awful, and every time someone opens his mouth to speak, it's an assault on your ears. Most characters are guilty of the classic over-emoting, while a couple are so stiff and wooden you'd think they just ran the lines through a computer to have them read aloud. The counter argument to this is that some of the characters aren't really supposed to experience emotional highs and lows, but that's a flimsy excuse, to say the least. The characters who do emote jump back and forth from ridiculously giddy to emo-kid somber so quickly that it's hard to take anything they say seriously. Normally, bad voice acting can be somewhat ignored, but in a game that features cut scenes that run over a half hour in length, you'd think some serious attention would be paid to both the actors and the script.
Aside from the audio upgrade, the International Edition plays essentially exactly like its 360 cousin. Battles are conducted in real time, and special attacks and skills are able to be triggered at almost any moment during a fight. The player controls one on-screen character while the others fight based on the behavioral parameters you set for them. Players can switch characters on the fly, though, and even swap party members in the heat of battle. This flowing combat has been a staple of the series for years now, and The Last Hope keeps the mechanic alive and even improves it with a few cool new tweaks.
The first big change is the Blindside system, which allows characters to quickly dodge behind enemies, bewildering foes and opening up time to land a few free shots. Blindsides are handled in a nice risk/reward setup, where players must stop their attacks and hold down the Circle button for a few seconds to set up for the attack. During this time, if a foe interrupts your charge, not only do you take damage, but you'll also likely open yourself up for a wicked combo. Successfully pull off the Blindside, though, and the enemy is temporarily at your mercy. The whole mechanic adds a nice layer of strategy to fights and fixes a traditional problem in the series wherein players would run in and hack away at foes until they died.
Complementing the Blindsides is a new Bonus Board feature that rewards battle prowess. If you finish off an enemy with a critical hit, then you'll earn a blue gem, which will in turn reward your party with an extra 10 percent experience boost at the end of battle. Other gems grant extra cash, bonus skill points or even a partial restoration of your characters' HP and MP. Even better, the rewards are stackable, so you can easily double your party's experience for every battle fought simply by focusing on one specific battle mechanic. The only catch is the board will break anytime your party leader takes a critical hit or becomes incapacitated in battle, so you have to make sure to play it smart around tougher enemies. The Bonus Board is a rather fun way to spice up battles and keep players interested in their fighting style, even during the simplest enemy encounters. The only real problem with the board is that it resets whenever you turn off the game, so all that time spent working to get the perfect combination of bonuses will be lost when you decide to take a break.
There are other great combat wrinkles, such as the BEAT and Rush systems, not to mention positioning your party to engage in preemptive strikes rather than being surprised by foes. Altogether, they create a highly enjoyable gameplay experience that manages to stand apart from most other RPGs. While the story line and characters may be pulled directly out of Game Design 101, the combat and exploration manage to feel fresh and exciting for the duration of the experience.
The game has one tremendously large flaw, though, and that's the way in which it handles save/restoration points. For whatever reason, The Last Hope brings back the antiquated save point system, wherein players can only record their progress at very specific locations. This wouldn't be so bad if these beacons of safety were close together, but they're spread apart by miles, and you can easily go for an hour or more without running into a single save opportunity. Not only is this murder on anyone who suddenly needs to run an errand, take care of a phone call or otherwise walk away from the game for a while, but it also means players are constantly at risk of being one bad outcome away from losing all the progress they had made for their entire gaming session. For a game that does so much right in other gameplay areas, this is a huge misstep and one that has lasting ramifications. The fact that you really have to commit to sitting down to play The Last Hope for extensive periods may lead some less patient gamers to simply avoid it altogether.
A final complaint is that, in spite of the power of the PS3, the game isn't all that visually impressive. Character models look quite nice and the scenery is at no point ugly, but rarely does it stand out and pop either. With the extra time devoted to developing this game for the PS3, I was hoping we'd see an extra layer of polish and maybe a little more effort to build up a "wow factor" around some of the dungeons, towns and enemies. That's simply not the case, though, and the game ends up looking more generic and boring than it really should.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope - International is a solid JRPG and the sort of game in which players could easily lose themselves for days or even weeks. The great combat and lengthy campaign provide plenty to do, and completionists will find over 60 hours worth of dungeons, side-quests and bonus goodies to keep them occupied. Furthermore, the game's trademark private actions and extra difficulty levels will constantly entice you to come back and replay the title again and again. In spite of all this, the game remains very good, but not great, due to some poor design choices. Bland visuals, awful English dialogue and one of the worst save systems ever devised all tarnish this otherwise impressive experience. This game won't go down as one of the classics, but for fans of the genre, it's definitely well worth your time.
Score: 8.0/10
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The late Phyllis Noreen donated a conservation easement on 100 acres in the Town of Rosendale in November 2001. This easement, which bears her name includes a among other habiitats, a healthy hemlock forest and a stream with associated wetlands. The easement specifically preserves open space and biodiversity. In 2013, Phyllis wished to add additional restrictions to the existing easement, and include the remainder of her property, creating the Noreen East Amendment of a total 133.8 protected acres in Rosendale.
Copyright © 2015 Wallkill Valley Land Trust, Inc.
OFFICE: 64 Huguenot Street MAILING: PO Box 208 New Paltz, NY 12561
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Technology is inherent in nearly every aspect of our lives these days. At Wrentham we make the most of the technology available to us to enhance the learning experience. The technology team is responsible for installing and maintaining all of the computers and associated hardware and software used by the schools.
Computer Labs
There are three computer labs in our school district. Two of the labs are used for formal instruction given by a technology teacher. Students attend technology class on a five day cycle for approximately fifty minutes. The skills taught are aligned with the Massachusetts Technology Frameworks and include, but are not limited to: Microsoft PowerPoint, Scratch Programming, and Google Drive. This instruction prepares students to work more independently within the regular classroom.
The other lab is our integration lab. This lab is utilized by classroom teachers to complete projects, do word processing, use curriculum software, etc. Classroom teachers sign up for the integration lab on an as-needed basis.
Grades 2,3, 4, 5 and 6 have been assigned Chromebook carts that are used to provide machines for the entire class while in the classroom. These Chromebooks are used to access internet-based curriculum software and to introduce Google Drive for project collaboration.
Delaney Computer Lab: Jen Moon
Roderick Computer Lab: Heather Fox
Technology Safety
Technology in the classrooms and offices must be reliable in order for it to be used effectively. Support for technology users is always and will remain a high priority. We attempt to help with technology issues as quickly as possible, usually in less than 30 minutes. Users at the school can sign in to our help desk, call, or send an e-mail when they encounter a problem. The task is then assigned to the appropriate technology staff member. The help desk software helps us track and analyze trends in our school. This is effective in preventing further problems and planning appropriate user support classes.
Technology Staff


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One of the more interesting aspects of a keyboard manufacturer that is being run by true enthusiasts is that they will often come out with a product that serves such a small niche that no one else would dare try it. Today's case in point is the KBParadise V60 Mini with Matias Quiet Click switches.
The V60 Mini is quite a unique product to begin with. There aren't many 60% size mechanical keyboards around, as most fit into the 100% size, or 80% "Tenkeyless". The main competitor in this spec range is the KBC Poker II which we have reviewed, but we actually prefer the KBP V60 Mini for a few reasons which you can read about in our review.
This new version takes things a step further, by using Matias "Quiet Click" switches instead of the far more common Cherry MX switches (and their clones) used by just about everyone else.
In fact, in every other way, the KBP V60 Mini is identical to the Cherry MX Red model we reviewed a while back. So for a full review, I'm going to recommend that you read that one instead. In this review, we're going to be focusing on the one thing that makes this model special – the Matias Quiet Click switches.
Matias Quiet Click Switches
There you have it – the Matias Quiet Click switch. If the switch looks familiar, like an old Japanese Alps switch, that's because it's a replica of the last Alps switch to be made – the SKBM series.
Alps switches in this style were used as early as 1983 (Alps had been making keyboard switches as far back as the 1960's), and were used by several PC OEMs such as Apple, Dell, Acer, and Silicon Graphics. If you were to encounter an Apple or Dell mechanical keyboard from the 80's, chances are that it used Alps switches manufactured by their long-time partner in Taiwan, Forward Electronics. Most OEMs gradually switched to cheap rubber domes for their keyboards, as we all know.
When the joint venture between Alps and Forward Electronics ended in 2000, Forward continued making them under their own name until 2012. At that time, their customers were left with the choice of discontinuing products using those switches, or change to another switch type. The Canadian keyboard manufacturer Matias decided to take matters into their own hands, producing two switch types based on the simplified Alps design. The results were the Matias Click, and Matias Quiet Click switches. They carry a wide range of keyboards using these switches now, including the Quiet Pro and Tactile Pro. They also make their switches available separately, either in batches of 200 for those who want to design their own keyboard (or refresh their ageing Alps keyboard) or in bulk. This is where KBParadise comes in. I believe they're the only 3rd party company making keyboards using Matias switches at a relatively large scale.
Matias Quiet Click – How Does it Feel?
Alps style clicking switches work in a different way from the likes of Cherry MX Blue and Green. Rather than have a two-piece plunger that slams a piece of plastic down after actuation, Alps style switches have a metal leaf (the dark green clip you see in the right-most image above) that lets the plunger (the teal green component you see in the middle) slam down when bottomed out. Subjectively speaking, this results in a more tactile feel, and sounds more mechanical and less "plasticky" than Cherry MX clicking switches.
The Matias Quiet Click version adds rubber dampeners to the plunger (the purple piece in the center image above) – this dampens the click, but maintains the tactile feel. In fact, this is the biggest advantage of the Matias Quiet Click switch. With Cherry MX switches, your choices are linear, tactile, or clicking with various actuation force levels and travel distances. If you've used all three switch types, you may have noticed that the tactile switches aren't very tactile at all. In fact, some have taken to referring to the MX Brown switch as "Dirty Red" since they feel pretty much like a linear MX Red switch with a barely noticeable bump before the actuation point. Even the Cherry MX Clear switch, used on the KUL ES-87 we reviewed a while back, have only a slight tactile bump, even though the actuation force is higher.
This means that the Matias Quiet Click doesn't really have a "Cherry MX Equivalent" which I suppose is the whole point. The closest I can think of is the MX Clear, since the force required for actuation – about 60 grams or so – is very close. The feel is quite different though – the Matias Quiet Click switches are much more tactile, and have a slightly shorter travel distance by about 0.5mm. It also feels like the tactile point is slightly 'higher' than Cherry MX tactile switches, which may make them even more suitable for gaming.
So if you're looking for something more tactile than Cherry MX Clear, but still quiet, the Matias Quiet Click might be just the switch you were looking for.
KBP V60 Mini Matias Quiet Click Keycaps
Despite the fact that Matias switches support LED backlighting, KBParadise opted not to offer it on the V60 Mini Matias Quiet Click. This normally presents an opportunity to use PBT keycaps, which feel better and are far more durable than ABS.
KBP opted for ABS keycaps for this model though, and they are quite thin – I measured them to be just under 1mm using a vernier caliper. Normally I would say that this is no big deal, since users could just buy their own thick PBT keycap set if they wish. However since this model uses Alps style keycaps, selection will be limited. I suppose you could 3D Print your own adapters, but that's a bit drastic.
The legend is laser-etched and filled, and feels slightly raised over the surface of the cap. If they wear out quickly in coming weeks, I'll update this review with updated information.
KBP V60 Mini Matias Quiet Click Typing Sound Test
Here's our standard keyboard sound test, to give you an idea of what the KBP V60 Mini with Matias Quiet Click switches sounds like:
And here is our playlist containing all the other keyboards we have tested. This includes just about every type of switch, from Cherry MX Red, Brown, Blue, Green, and Clear, as well as a Topre 55g switch.
Compared to all the Cherry MX based keyboards in the our list, you can see that the Matias switches give off a much quieter sound, with a dull 'thock' when bottoming out. It's not quite as sexy as Topre's thock, but it's better than any non-modded Cherry MX keyboard I've tried.. I have to say that they feel quite great, and I could see myself using them as my daily drivers.
Once again, be sure to check out our full KBP V60 Mini review for full details on its functionality. Just about everything mentioned there applies to this model as well. What this model does offer that just about every other keyboard doesn't, is an alternative mechanical keyboard switch that feels nothing like the common Cherry MX switches (and their clones) you see everywhere else. They are very quiet, but still tactile, and would actually be fantastic for gaming. This model sells for around the same price as other V60 models – around $119 at the usual retailers like mechanicalkeyboards.com. If you're considering a 60% keyboard (and know about the drawbacks, which I discuss in the review of the V60 Mini and Poker II), you can go one step further with a Matias switch version. There is also a full-volume Matias Click version, but I have no experience with that switch.


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LOS ANGELES – When "The Voice" returns on Feb. 23 for its eighth season, it will feature a brand-new group of contestants who are hoping to get a leg up on their singing careers by getting at least one of this season's mentors -- Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams -- to turn their chair around based solely on the sound of their voice.
The clamor to become a contender on "The Voice" has only grown as the series continues its successful run on NBC -- this despite the fact that the singing competition has yet to produce a breakout artist like "American Idol" did in its early years with Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
Does that even matter? Is "The Voice" as just a TV series enough? Or does it need a recording star to make it relevant?
"We want to have that happen," Levine, who coached two winners -- Season 1 champ Javier Colon and Season 5 champ Tessanne Chin, told FOX411 when asked about producing a breakout star. "It is hard to do that… Being successful is really, really difficult. A lot of things have to come together at the right moment for that to happen… It's going to happen. I genuinely believe that."
Both Aguilera, who won a Grammy on Feb. 8 for best pop performance for "Say Something" along with A Great Big World, and Levine said that while it may not be immediately evident, much has changed for several of the artists who have appeared on "The Voice." They may not be recording stars, but they have risen to another level of their career.
In fact, Aguilera points to her early days -- when she was a competitor on "Star Search" in 1990 and was eliminated in the semi-final rounds -- as proof that there is hope for all the contestants -- even the losers.
"Every big celebrity I know today that went on that show didn't win, you still get a second chance," she says. "After 'Star Search,' I wasn't handed a record deal… That took years after that show aired and I lost, to then make a career out of the rest of my life."
Williams, especially, takes exception to the question of whether or not it matters if "The Voice" ends up with a breakout star. He explains, "The show is not about someone signing a record deal. The show is about a bunch of people who really care about people that they encounter, and make sure that they're changed when they walk off… [The contestants] go home different people, because they've had tutors that they would never ever in a million years probably have met, let alone get singing lessons from Adam Levine, or learn how to control your vibrato from Christina Aguilera, or learn how to put more heart and soul into your performance, like Blake Shelton."
For the mentors, the success of the show is a result of the human element -- the guys and gals that comprise their teams, who are struggling through the process of trying to win over first the mentors, and then America, in order to make it through to the next week.
"We're not dealing with people who are breaking into the stratosphere and becoming huge artists," Levine says. "We're actually dealing with the opposite on the show. And that's an interesting thing to get a look at. I think that it's inspiring to see what people go through personally and then how they apply it musically."
"People like to see someone start from humble beginnings, which I think we all did," says Aguilera, referring to the other mentors. "[On 'The Voice'], you get to see [the contestants'] families. It's human. And it's real… The tears you see that are dried are real tears."
Season 8 of "The Voice" premieres on Monday, February 23 at 8 p.m. on NBC.