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How do I return an item?
We want you to be 100% satisified with your purchase. However, in the event that you are unhappy with your order you may return NEW items that are unworn, unwashed and in their original manufacturer packaging within 30 days of delivery. Please note that all items are thoroughly inspected before the return is processed. We must be able to sell your return as a brand new item.
For your safety, Chelsea Lane adheres to all Health Code Regulations. By law, certain items cannot be returned once they have been worn. We suggest you try on ALL items over your own underwear. Bras may be tried on as long as all tags are kept intact and they are free of any signs of wear.
Please make sure the item and its packaging is in the same condition as received (tags attached , folded neatly, clean, unworn, undamaged) Items that have manufacturer's packaging need to be in the original packaging and in the same condition as received. Item(s) must not be exposed to excessive odors; i.e. perfumes, smoke, pets, etc.
We will inspect each return item carefully and if there is any sign of use or wear, unfortunately, we will not be able to accept the return.
We will process your return/exchange within 7-10 business days (approx. two weeks) from the day the item is received at our warehouse. Your payment will be refunded via your original payment method.
Occasionally we will have final sales and these items cannot be returned (unless defective or the wrong item is shipped). But don't worry, we'll let you know if an item is Final Sale before you purchase it.
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If your item was shipped with free shipping we will deduct the actual postage from the refund. Clearance items may be returned for credit or exchange only, but not for a refund.
Please use an insured, trackable shipping method and mail your return to the following address:
Chelsea Lane - Returns
125 E Tahquitz Canyon Way
Suite 208
Palm Springs, Ca 92262
Please be sure to include the following with your return:
- Packing slip/Invoice
- Order Number
- Contact Information
- Reason for return
If you are requesting an exchange, please include the following with your return:
-Order Number
-Contact Information
-Reason for return
-A note that includes the style, size, and color for the item you would like us to send you
If you have any questions about our return policy, please feel free to contact us:
Email us: firstname.lastname@example.com
Call us: (760) 278-1278


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Interview with truck driver who is entering underground U.S. City and roadway system that stretches for thouslands of miles beneath the U.S. The driver says he dropped off from Ozarks base to the state of Maine about 1400-1500 miles. Puzzling there haven't been anonymous truck drivers or other whistleblowers on this. Confirmation of this will have to come from others. You'll have to scout it out for yourself - be sure to inform us with any hard evidence of confirmation. Are you a Teamster - check it out and let us know.

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Preservation Massachusetts honored Suffolk University's commitment to historic preservation by presenting the University with a Paul E. Tsongas Award in recognition of its restoration of the Modern Theatre in Boston's Historic Theater District.
The award for the University's preservation of the Modern Theatre was presented on May 4, 2011, when Preservation Massachusetts recognized higher educational institutions that have "embraced preservation into their educational identity."
Suffolk University's restoration of the historic theater brought a new performance space to the Washington Street Theater District while restoring the facade of the 1914 movie theater that introduced "talkies" to Boston. A new, 10-story residence hall set back from the theater accommodates nearly 200 students.
"The University recognized how important it was for Downtown Boston to revive its historic theater district, and we are honored that Preservation Massachusetts is recognizing our efforts on behalf of the urban environment," said John Nucci, vice president for External Affairs at Suffolk University. "Working with the City of Boston, we formulated a plan not only to meet campus housing needs, but to do so while restoring and rebuilding the Modern Theatre's facade and creating a new theater and gallery space on Washington Street."
The Modern Theatre project "serves as a model for other Massachusetts colleges and universities," wrote Preservation Massachusetts President James W. Igoe in a letter announcing the award.
The new Modern Theatre opened in November 2010. Its jewel-box interior theater space draws upon design elements that are a modernization of some of the original theater's most distinctive historic features. Inaugural programming for the state-of-the-art, 185-seat venue is focused on conversations, performances and film screenings.
The University collaborated with CBT Architects on the Modern Theatre project.


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About making applications under the Government Information (Public Access) Act
What sort of information can I ask for?
You can ask for any kind of personal or non-personal information. Personal information includes your academic records, health, welfare and superannuation records, and examination and training records. Non-personal information includes material about the University's functions and activities, management and administrative records. Information can be in the form of certificates, files, computer printouts, maps, films, photographs, tape recordings and video recordings.
The University makes a great deal of non-personal information public through its websites and other publications. Staff and students can access their routine staff or student file without a formal application. It is always wise to speak to the Right to Information Officers before making an application.
Making a formal request:
An application form is available here. It must be accompanied by the correct fee. (see below)
What will the University do when it receives my request?
We have a responsibility to deal with your request as soon as possible. Within 5 days the University will decide if your application is valid and you will be sent an acknowledgement of receipt. If the University decides it is not valid you will be notified.
Our acknowledgement of a valid application will tell you:
- the date by which the application will be decided (subject to any extension or suspension alowed by the Act);
- that the application will be deemed to have been refused if not decided by that date;
- a statement that information about your application may be made public in the University's disclosure log and that you may object to this (this statement is not required if the University considers it unlikely that information about the application will be included in the disclosure log);
- details of rights of review as directed by the NSW Information Commissioner.
The University must make a decision on your application within 20 working days. This time can be extended by 15 working days where consultation with a third party is necessary.
How will I receive the information that I have requested?
If the information you request is in hard copy format, we will either let you know when and where you can see the document or provide you with a copy, either hardcopy or electronic. If you have asked for access to information that is not in written form, such as video tapes, sound recordings or photographs, or computerised data, arrangements will be made for copies or for you to hear or view the material.
How much will it cost me to make a request for Information?
The application fee is fixed under the Act at $30. The application fee for personal affairs documents includes 20 hours processing time. Anything beyond this will be charged at $30 per hour if no reduction is applicable. The application fee for non-personal information includes two hours processing time, after that there is an hourly processing charge of $30, assuming no reduction in fees. Processing fees cover time for locating the information, decision-making, consultation where necessary and any copying. Reductions of 50% in the processing charges are available as set out in the application form.
How do I pay?
The preferred way is by EFT:
Bank Account Name: THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Bank Account Number: 509 448 377
Name of Bank: NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK
Address of Bank: Wentworth Building G01, 174 City Road Darlington NSW 2006
Please describe the payment as "GIPA fee" and let us know when you have made the transfer.
Cheques or money orders should be made out to the University of Sydney and sent to our postal address: Archives A14, University of Sydney, 2006.
Can the University refuse to give me the Information I request?
Under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act), the University must disclose or release information unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure. When deciding whether to release information, the University must apply the public interest test contained in the Act. This means, it must weigh the factors in favour of disclosure against the public interest factors against disclosure. Unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure, the University must provide the information.
There are some limited exceptions to this general rule, for example where dealing with an application would constitute a significant and unreasonable diversion of the University's resources.
If the University were to decide that there was an overriding public interest against disclosure it would tell you the reasons for its decision, findings on material questions of fact underlying the decision with references to sources for the finding and the general nature and format of the records held by the agency that contained the information.
What if I want to correct the University's records about me?
Applications to amend University records about you which you consider are incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading must be made under the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act. This will take you to the application form.


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C&P EDITORIAL: Bucshon gains our support in 8th District race
Retired Newburgh surgeon Larry Bucshon has come a long way in the past four years. First, in a big Republican year in 2010, he easily topped Trent VanHaaften, a Democratic state representative, and then two years ago he defeated Dave Crooks, another former Indiana lawmakers and the owner of radio stations in two states.
But now, in November, he will face a lesser known Democrat, Tom Spangler, a successful Jasper businessman making his first bid for office. Also in the race is Libertarian Party nominee Andy Horning. So now we find Bucshon no longer the unknown in Southern Indiana politics. He has developed a reputation as a practical conservative. He generally follows conservative ideas, but has shown a willingness to reach out and work with Democrats.
Bucshon convinced us of his value to the region during his first term when the newcomer to Washington took a leadership role on transportation issues. He helped defeat a measure introduced by two Democrats to penalize states that lease highways. Of course, this calls attention to Indiana's Major Moves highway initiative.
His successful opposition to this measure established Bucshon as a strong voice for highway projects such as Interstate 69.
In another such move during his first term, Bucshon introduced an amendment to prevent highway officials in communities such as Bloomington from blocking highway projects.
New congressmen and women rarely have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership, but on the highway initiatives, Bucshon had such an opportunity and he took advantage of it, to the benefit of I-69 motorists in the region.
Now, during his second term, Bucshon has spoken out in support of the Southwestern Indiana economy, which depends on coal for jobs. Indeed, he has taken on the Obama administration. He and others refer to the president waging "a war on coal." He has complained that the war on coal also represents a war on middle class families, who need the jobs coal can create.
Though outside the state, the Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which President Obama has refused to push forward on, has the support of Bucshon. That is to his credit.
Bucshon has merited the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, earning the business group's endorsement.
The organization said Bucshon has been a champion of free enterprise initiatives in Congress.
This newspaper endorsed Bucshon two years ago, and we see no reason to change. He has grown in the job and seems to understand the issues important to the 8th Congressional District.
Again, we offer him our endorsement.
This article was originally published on the Evansville Courier and Press website on 10/19/2014 and can be accessed here.


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The Office of Health Economics (OHE) has appointed Dr Jorge Mestre-Ferrandiz as the first director of OHE Consulting – the organisation's consultancy division.
Mestre-Ferrandiz will lead the division's efforts to provide research-led consultancy in the health and life sciences economics and policy as it attempts to win external funding as part of plans to expand its operations.
He is in the sixth year of his second spell with the OHE, having previously worked at the research firm from 2001 to 2005 before spending a year at Spanish pharmaceutical trade association Farmaindustria.
He moved back to UK-based OHE in 2006, however, rejoining as a senior economist. In his new role Mestre-Ferrandiz will be responsible for all aspects of the OHE's consultancy business, including marketing, business development and project management.
He will also continue to contribute to all other OHE activities, including advising the UK pharma body the ABPI, as well as conducting and publishing his own research.
Mestre-Ferrandiz said: "I am confident that our experienced and highly skilled team of health economists will be a great draw for those looking to further their understanding of the health and life-sciences landscape and I am pleased I will be still be contributing personally as an economist to on-going projects."
OHE Consultancy was set up in 2002 as an offshoot of the 50-year old OHE, which is funded by research grants and consultancy revenues from sources such as the ABPI, Department of Health, National Institute of Health Research and Medical Research Council.
WE ARE COUCH – a full service medical communications agency. We are a trusted partner; always striving to help make...


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"Chugging into 2013": The 2012 U.S. Housing Market Year in Review
Posted on: February 6, 2013
As we begin 2013, it is instructive to reflect on how significantly the U.S. housing market rebounded over the course of 2012. MSR Americas has assembled a range of media reports and expert studies that we monitored for our clients on the U.S. and Florida markets' recovery during 2012 to provide a clear perspective of the year in review, and to help clients understand where the market is moving for 2013.
January 2012 began with a bleak Globe and Mail article, "Looking for Hope in the U.S. Housing Market," that reported that "prices remain at deep recession levels." The article provided no consensus on the market for the rest of the year, noting that there was "enough mixed data to cheer both optimists and gloomsters."
After minor signs of recovery in late January through early February, Reuters noted in "Housing Market Recovery Hits Pothole in February" that the market had again sputtered, showing "a pause in the tentative housing market recovery in February and a weak start to the spring selling season."
Indeed, the spring of 2012 began dismally. A Brookings Institute study, "Addressing the Problems in the U.S. Housing Market," pointedly declared that the U.S. market had "seen almost no recovery in housing since the severe slump." But by April Bloomberg had pronounced the market's bottoming with "signs of stabilization as price declines ease[d] and home demand improve[d]."
By May, the American media had begun to echo MSR Americas' prognosis. TIME Magazine's "Housing Market Recovery Has Officially Begun" article reported on a study co-prepared by the Demand Institute, a think-tank jointly operated by the Conference Board and Nielsen. The report concluded that "the freefall is over" and that "the point has been reached where housing prices will start to climb, albeit at single-digit rates in most markets over the next five years."
The summer of 2012 demonstrated, for some, surprising momentum to the spring's early positive predictions as Forbes declared that the "Housing Market Turns Corner" and the World Property Channel remarked that the greater Orlando area, in particular, had shown "across-the-board price increases."
An August Business Insider article placed six Florida communities among its list of "the 15 best housing markets for the next five years," which firmly demonstrated Florida's continued market upswing, and the CBC was the first major Canadian media outlet to echo the American media by reporting that "Canadian buyers face more competition as U.S. housing recovers."
By September, Florida ranked 7th in the "10 States with the Strongest Housing Markets" report by 24/7 Wall Street, which commented that Florida demonstrated a "substantially improved longer term" forecast for investors. The Wall Street Journal also reported a "sales surge" in September. And by then the Globe and Mail had declared that "U.S. home prices jump[ed]."
In the later fall a Standard & Poor/Case-Shiller study, as reported by CNN's Money section and the New York Times, confirmed that the average price for American real-estate had climbed to the "same level it was nine years ago"—four to five years before the housing meltdown.
Just recently, the World Property Channel observed that Florida placed second in the top five states for the "highest number of completed foreclosures" in 2012, second only to California, and again second with the states with the "highest foreclosure inventory," making the state still a top buy for heavily discounted investment properties with strong capital appreciation potential.
Closing the loop on the year, the Wall Street Journal reported on January 3, 2013, in an article entitled "Home Prices Poised for Growth in 2013," that the "housing market is chugging into 2013 with a head of steam," while CNN reported the same day that "sales of existing homes rose 5.9 %" on a year-over-year basis.
As we look back on 2012, it is truly remarkable—even by our standards—to see how dramatic the shift in market conditions has been, making 2013, we anticipate, an extremely positive year for incremental housing market price gains in the state of Florida.
MSR Americas has long known the value of Florida rental investment properties and consequently targets established, liveable communities for our clients, who enjoy predictable net rental revenue of 8 to 10% returns on their investment and the potential for significant capital appreciation.
>> To receive advance property alerts, join the MSR Americas Investor Registry today.


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It's only the third day of campaigning in Egypt, and already 20 people are dead. But death tolls have a horrible habit of rising, as Egypt well knows after over a year of revolutionary and post-revolutionary turbulence.It's an ominous sign that, though Hosni Mubarak is gone, his tactics have not been forgotten. The revolution still has some way to go. By SIMON ALLISON.
The victims were all claimed by the same incident. Some were shot in the head, some were stabbed, and one had his throat slit.
In Egypt, such violence used to happen behind the closed doors of police stations and intelligence torture chambers. Now it happens in the street, in broad daylight, with the cameras rolling.
The victims were part of a group of demonstrators camped outside the defence ministry in a busy Cairo suburb. They'd been there for days, along with hundreds of others, engaging in Egypt's new favourite pastime: protesting. Their ire was directed towards Egypt's military government.
This, despite the euphoria that greeted Hosni Mubarak's toppling and the joyous cries of "The people and the military, one hand!" If the army played a pivotal role in his eventual resignation, the generals in charge have proved disappointingly unable to move with the democratic times, using all the old tricks from Mubarak's playbook to shape the political landscape in their favour.
One of those tricks was to simply prevent potentially dangerous candidates from running in Egypt's presidential elections – scheduled for later this month – on spurious technicalities. This is why the Muslim Brotherhood's preferred candidate, Khader El-Shater, isn't on the ballot. Nor is long-time opposition leader Ayman Nour or the ultra-religious favourite Hazem Salah Abu Ismail.
Abu Ismail's mother owns an American passport, which is apparently grounds enough to disqualify him from this particular democratic process. Not that the US will mind too much: the prospect of an Islamic fundamentalist in charge of Egypt is too terrifying to contemplate. But the crowd outside the defence ministry – comprising mostly Abu Ismail's supporters from the religious conservative Salafist movement – weren't buying this pretext for a second, and had gathered to make sure the generals knew they weren't happy.
By Wednesday, the Salafists had been joined by others eager to show their disappointment with the military government, including the Al Ahly Ultras – hardcore fans of Africa's biggest football club who are never afraid of a scrap and have no love for the military. A small protest was beginning to morph into something bigger.
That's when the thugs struck. Early Wednesday morning an unspecified number of unidentified men swept into the protest camp and wreaked havoc. Armed with guns and knives they launched into the protestors, who fought back as best they could, unafraid to dish out a few beatings of their own. This is the melee that claimed the 20 victims mentioned above. It also wounded nearly 200 people.
This is another of those Mubarak tricks. Before he resigned, Mubarak also sent in his thugs – policemen in plainclothes, prisoners he'd released and paid to participate, and perhaps even some genuine supporters – to deal with the tens of thousands of people calling for his downfall in Tahrir Square. The tactic failed, but for any government looking to quell unrest and maintain legitimacy it has one thing to recommend it: deniability.
So we don't know whether the "unidentified assailants" outside the defence ministry on Wednesday were sent by the military. All the surviving protestors have are their suspicions, heightened by reports that army units stood by, watching the fighting rather than intervene.
They aren't the only ones with suspicions. Former Nobel peace prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei attacked the military on Twitter: "Massacre in front of the Ministry of Defence and government unable to protect civilians or in cahoots with thugs. Egypt is going down the drain," he wrote. It is a sentiment shared by other Egyptian political figures – although not, naturally, by the military government.
In response to Wednesday's violence, two of the leading presidential candidates suspended their campaigns, which had only begun in earnest on Monday. The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi (the Brotherhood's second choice after Shater's dubious disqualification) won't be giving speeches or attending rallies for two days. Neither will Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, an independent Islamist candidate who is way ahead of other religious candidates in the polls.
However, his team didn't comment on when he might resume his campaign.
As yet, there's been no comment from the man ahead of everyone in the polls, former Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa. In a strange and uncomfortable irony, the charismatic Moussa had the strongest links with Mubarak's regime of all the presidential candidates, serving as his foreign minister for 10 years.
Mousa is often derided as a feluul, an insult for people with connections to the previous regime. Yet this hasn't hindered his popularity. In fact, it may even have contributed to it, as people hanker for the stability and relative prosperity of the Mubarak days. So much for the revolution.
Still, a lot can happen in three weeks of campaigning. This race is far from complete – neither, one suspects, is that death toll. DM
Read more:
Photo: Islamist protesters and their supporters help an injured protester during clashes with armed "thugs", after an attack on protesters late Tuesday night, in Cairo on 2 May 2012. Eleven people were confirmed dead after thugs attacked the protesters demanding an end to military rule after their candidate was barred from this month's presidential election. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih.
"Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me 'old' when I would never call him 'short and fat?' Oh well I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!" ~ Donald J Trump


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Lord Ashley of Stoke asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Cumberlege): My Lords, we continue to remind health authorities that they are required to meet the cost of cochlear implants in all cases where that is the appropriate treatment.
Lord Ashley of Stoke: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that reply. Does she agree that cochlear implants are medical miracles which are now safe and established procedures which rescue totally deaf people from the world of silence? But is she aware that the Government's efforts to encourage DHAs to fund these implants are being rejected by a minority of health authorities, such as East Sussex, which will agree to fund only two children and no adults; oreven worseWorcester, which refuses to fund any implants? Does she agree that that is unfortunate for the totally deaf people in those areas? Will she see what the Government can do to help?
Baroness Cumberlege: My Lords, perhaps I may say that I think that the noble Lord is a medical miracle, and also a man of tremendous courage who has shown us how one can overcome disabilities and still make a tremendous contribution to our society. The noble Lord will be aware that we have just had an evaluation of this operation carried out by the Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research. We are about to publish that report. The report shows that the treatment is safe and effective for all but a small minority of patients. I suspect that some of the reluctance of health authorities to undertake this treatment has been because they have been waiting for that research. Now that it is about to be published, we expect them to follow our advice and to ensure that all those who need the operation have it.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, why is not the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, which is the national hospital for work on ears, one of the centres authorised to carry out this treatment? How many centres have the facilities to offer this treatment?
Baroness Cumberlege: My Lords, with any new operation, it is important that we concentrate the expertise on particular areas where clinicians are anxious to do it and it is sufficiently well funded. In England, the following units carry out the operation: Birmingham; Cambridge; the Middlesex, London;
Lord Rea: My Lords, does the Minister agree with my noble friend that cochlear implants are a remarkable example of team work between electronic wizardry and microsurgery? Will she anticipate some of the findings that will be reported in the research document that is coming out shortly? Can she give us any idea of the number of profoundly deaf people who are likely to benefit from cochlear implants? Will she tell us what is the cost of each implant?
Baroness Cumberlege: My Lords, we suspect that there are over 3,000 people (adults and children) who are likely to benefit from the operation. The cost of the operation for adults for the first year is £21,000 and for subsequent years £1,000. For children, in the first year it is £24,000 and for subsequent years £2,000.
Lord Rochester asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Earl of Lindsay: My Lords, the Local Government Commission recommendedand we have agreedunitary status for many of the largest non-metropolitan towns and cities in England, including several former county boroughs. However, in other districts with apparently similar characteristics the commission recommended the status quo. We believe it is right to test the case for consistency by asking the commission to carry out further reviews of a small number of those districts, including Warrington. We have not yet decided whether to ask the commission also to carry out a further review of Halton.
Lord Rochester: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. Will he acknowledge that, when on 30th September 1993 the Secretary of State announced that the review of local government was to be speeded upsince when it seems to have slowed down quite a littlehe said:
Do the Government accept that in a series of polls thereafter the great majority of the people of both Warrington and Halton made it plain that they were opposed to changing the present two-tier structure? Can the noble Earl assure me and, more to the point, those directly involved that, rather than imposing a solution which the Government may want, the new guidance to be given to the reconstituted commission will ensure that the views of local people continue to be regarded as paramount?
The Earl of Lindsay: My Lords, I assure the noble Lord that the Government have not prejudged anything as regards Warrington, or Halton if that district is sent back for review. I can also assure him that the opinion of people who live in those areas will be important in respect of both the guidance which is to be issued, and which will be consulted on in May, and the commission itself. Another important issue must be the way in which a convenient and effective structure of local government is set up in those two places. All those issues can be balanced by the commission.
Lord Gilmour of Craigmillar: My Lords, is it not high time that we stopped fiddling round with local government boundaries and got on with the more important task of strengthening local government?
The Earl of Lindsay: My Lords, it is because we wish to get on with the task of strengthening local government that the Local Government Commission was created. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State has selected only a few districts for possible re-review on the basis of testing for consistency. He has not sought to refer any counties, because that would cause upheaval over wide areas.
Lord Rochester: My Lords, I wonder how many noble Lords know that the district of Halton comprises the towns of Runcorn and Widnes. Do the Government fully appreciate that for centuries the area has been divided physically and culturally? Rather than reinforcing those divisions under a unitary structure, would it not be much better to see them happily contained within the existing two-tier structure, thus averting further uncertainty, delay, disruption and expense?
The Earl of Lindsay: My Lords, it is because of specific issues, such as those outlined by the noble Lord, that the guidance which will be given to the commission in respect of the new review will concentrate on a new set of instructions. It is also as a result of specific issues, such as mentioned by the noble Lord, that the commission will re-address those areas. I stress again that there is no prejudgment on the part of the Government in seeking reconsideration of those districts.
Lord Elton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Inglewood: My Lords, the number of working days lost in labour disputes in the five-year periods ending 31st December 1979, 1984, 1989 and 1994 were 58 million, 52 million, 20 million and 4 million respectively.
Lord Elton: My Lords, does not that striking information result entirely from government policies? Is not the result of those policies to make United Kingdom industry increasingly competitive in the international market? Does it not explain why our level of
Lord Inglewood: My Lords, my noble friend's inferences are right. The unemployment rate in this country is below the EU average. Only ourselves, Ireland and Denmark have a level of unemployment lower than that of a year ago. It is for that kind of reason that 40 per cent. of Japanese and US direct investment in the European Community is in our country.
Lord Dean of Beswick: My Lords, will the Minister give the figures for the number of jobs lost in our manufacturing sector during the same period due to the Government's policies? Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost forever, which must have a bearing on the figures that he has quoted in respect of industrial disputes. Hundreds of thousands of people have not been in work and have had no opportunity to strike, even if they had wanted to.
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Pilgrimage to England 2018
Mthr Gwynne Wright ObJN will again be leading a pilgrimage in England in September 2018.
This trip will be quite different from the last pilgrimage and while some places have been visited before, Mthr Gwynne has made every effort to add some new adventures into this journey. Norwich will remain on the itinerary.
Pricing and details will be available in mid/late 2017. Only 25 spaces are available. If you are seriously interested, please download the pdf flyer and send Raptim Humanitarian Travel the holding fee of $200. It is asked that this be paid by check. It is refundable, less $10 administration cost, if you decide not to join the pilgrimage.
Feel free to be in touch if you have any questions.


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In commemoration of Yom Ha Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a staged reading of selected scenes from Marc P. Smith's play, Karski, was the focus of a remembrance event on April 15th, presented by the synagogues of Central Massachusetts and the Jewish Federation of Central Mass. An encouragingly large turnout, with all ages represented, provided a rapt and attentive audience for the powerful story of Jan Karski. This Polish underground hero is referred to as the man who tried to stop the Holocaust; his courage in bearing witness is a story worth re-telling, especially through the immediacy of live theatre.
Among many comments on this play:
"There are many ways to present the little-known story of incredible individual courage in perilous times. Film, biography, painting, lectures—but to this list should be added theater. Reading Marc Smith's play about Jan Karski is a powerful experience. I am confident that performers and audiences alike will be transformed by presenting and watching 'Karski' on stage. I encourage actors at schools and community theaters to tackle this powerful material." – Wanda Urbanska (former president, Jan Karski Educational Foundation)
"I was so moved by the staged reading of Karski. It served to remind me of the atrocities committed against fellow human beings that we must never be allowed to forget." -Pauline Gallant (R.N, Retired School Nurse)
"Karski's story is heart wrenching and inspiring; it seems unthinkable and beyond believing, even though we now know better. The story revealed in Karski is ancient history to today's school kids. So it's imperative to keep alive the truth of it. The past is easily forgotten. We need to be reminded—over and over—forever." – Martha M. Hesse (Retired Educator)
Jan Karski


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Wildlife Is Thriving In Chernobyl Disaster Area, According To New Study
The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 contaminated over 1,600 square miles in Ukraine, which led to the population of people and wildlife evacuating that area. Now it is a haven for animals that have come back to inhabit this land.
Many deer, bison, wolves, elk, and wild boar have come back to this exclusion area around the nuclear power plant and are thriving despite being contaminated with radioactive material. Scientists who have surveyed this region found no evidence that suggests that wildlife there has been affected by the ill effects of the Chernobyl explosion from 30 years ago.
In fact, they say that because there have not been any humans living in this zone for so many years may have very likely contributed to this flourishment of wildlife, as stated in a report by The Independent.
"It's very likely that wildlife numbers at Chernobyl are much higher than they were before the accident," explained Professor Jim Smith of Portsmouth University in England, who also co-authored this study. "This doesn't mean radiation is good for wildlife, just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming and forestry, are a lot worse,"
Wildlife is thriving around Chernobyl since the people left http://t.co/uHIDqNwPbe pic.twitter.com/LQoMTQhxdZ
— New Scientist (@newscientist) October 5, 2015
These findings were published on Monday in the journal Current Biology. After their surveys were completed, the researchers concluded that there is no evidence that suggests any mammals have been affected by the nuclear fallout from Chernobyl.
"These results demonstrate for the first time that, regardless of potential radiation effects on individual animals, the Chernobyl exclusion zone supports an abundant mammal community after nearly three decades of chronic radiation exposure,"
According to The Washington Post, another team is currently out there studying the same thing. They are using camera traps to keep tabs on the wildlife in the Chernobyl area as well. They are expected to be done by the end of the year.
Chernobyl, once the site of a nuclear meltdown, is now teeming with wildlife http://t.co/AqWZszvEG1 pic.twitter.com/RVMy8IPOhL
— Popular Science (@PopSci) October 5, 2015
Researchers say that wolves are seven times more populous in this region than in non-radiation areas. Where people once lived now stands abandoned houses with wild boar, as well as other animals, running free and living off the land.
Photo by Pixabay.
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Few issues are as crucial to the future of the human race as the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and few are as misunderstood in American politics. The reasons, naturally, are complex; so too, God knows, is the conflict itself. But much of the confusion arises from the combined ability of professional Jewish organizations, right-wing think tanks and media-based neoconservative pundits to misrepresent both the views and the influence of American Jews and to enforce their misrepresentations on the mainstream media via political intimidation.
To unravel the confusion, one first has to get a few facts straight. Self-identifying American Jews constitute just 1.7 percent of the voting population, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. This compares with 51.3 percent Protestant, 23.9 percent Roman Catholic and 16.1 percent "no religion." Of the tiny percentage of American voters who are Jewish, roughly 7 percent put Israel at the top of their list of political concerns. So, overall, 7 percent of 1.7 percent—or pretty close to 0 percent—say they vote on the basis of policies related to Israel. And of this minuscule percentage, many are hawkish, but many others are dovish, and still others are in between or change their minds depending on the situation. Jews, you may have heard, have been known on occasion to disagree with one another, and even with themselves. But more than 80 percent of Jews polled share the view that the United States should play "an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict"—roughly the same number who agree that a "two-state solution is necessary to strengthen Israeli security."
And yet it's nearly impossible to find a story in a mainstream media outlet that reflects this reality. Almost without exception, one reads of the danger to Obama of losing Jewish voters, with the reason being their alleged unhappiness with his (equally alleged) lack of sympathy for Israel. But Obama is not losing Jewish voters to Mitt Romney: they continue to support him, in every significant poll, at the rate of approximately 70 percent. And if they didn't, it wouldn't be because of Israel, and it wouldn't matter anyway. The numbers are just too tiny.
The reason these facts, while available to all, remain so difficult to discern in our political coverage is that while Jews remain liberal and dovish—even on Israel—many Jewish funders and neoconservative pundits do not. Although these people are deeply out of step with the vast majority of Jews, they wish to create a media narrative that suggests the opposite. They are aided in this task by the largely conservative leaders of "major" Jewish organizations, who work with these same funders (most famously right-wing casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, currently under investigation)—funders who also happen to pay their extremely generous salaries. Money, you may also have heard, has a way of talking when it comes to politics. The fact that the policies these organizations push and the politicians they support and nurture represent views antithetical to those of the very same people they profess to speak for might be a problem in, say, an Israeli kibbutz or a Park Slope food co-op. In the world of professional Jewish organizations, however, it barely rises to the level of an inconvenience.


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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The story of how Max G. Beauvoir came to practice the religion of his ancestors has been repeated widely since the report of his death earlier this week. Having returned to his native Haiti to apply his skills as a biochemist and to learn about the healing herbs used in that country, Beauvoir was called out by his dying grandfather as the one who would carry on the family tradition as a houngan. While Beauvoir was reportedly confused by the pronouncement, he took the directive quite seriously, using his polished manner to become an ambassador of Vodou to people both inside Haiti's borders and beyond.
Haitian Vodou initiate and blogger Lilith Dorsey never met Beauvoir, but was quite familiar with his work. The fact that he wasn't particularly interested in the religion growing up didn't come as a surprise to her. "In his generation, they were told that it was bad, and in order to be progressive, to get ahead, you had to put away the old backwoods ways," Dorsey said.
Vodou was not recognized as a religion in that country until 2003, and Beauvoir's advocacy had a lot to do with that. Dorsey described the Temple of Yehwe, which Beauvoir established in Washington, D.C., as "one of the few open and authentic temples in the U.S. You can call them up, go there, walk in."
Beauvoir attended college in France and the United States, and his scientific background made it easier for him to put a "nicey-nice face" on Vodou, Dorsey believes, because his Western education gave him credibility many practitioners do not have in mostly white societies. His establishment of a Vodou temple in the United States capital, however, was more an act of survival than ambassadorship. In 1986, Beauvoir fled Haiti after the ousting of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Duvalier's father had recruited houngans for his secret police, called Tontons Macoutes. When the family fell from power, there was backlash against the priests.
At the time, Beauvoir told the Orlando-Sentinel that more than 1,500 Vodou practitioners were killed. However, other sources put that number as low as one hundred. That period of unrest eventually eased, and Beauvoir returned to a home, which he then converted into a temple. He provided rituals for paying tourists, which was seen as controversial in some quarters, and made him the subject of a critical book by journalist Amy Wilentz.With his training in biochemistry, Beauvoir worked toward a scientific understanding of the various herbs and plants used by houngans in their practice. He argued that the priests, who vastly outnumber western-trained doctors in Haiti, should be formally relied upon as part of the country's health-care system. He also consulted with ethnographer Wade Davis, who wrote The Serpent and the Rainbow as a result of research into the process of making zombies in the Vodou tradition. Unfortunately, that nonfiction account was turned into a movie in 1988 by director Wes Craven, and is credited with reigniting the zombie craze in America. That may have been good for fans of flesh-eating undead, but it did nothing to improve how Vodou is portrayed in Hollywood.
Beauvoir was an outspoken critic of those kinds of misperceptions about Vodou, and his open practices were intended to shed light on a religion that is so often represented as a primitive combination of zombie-creation, animal sacrifice, and sticking pins into dolls. Even the spelling of the religion can be contentious: acceptable are "Vodoun" and "Vodou," while "voodoo" is generally viewed as derogatory. An obituary of Beauvoir at NBC places "voodoo" in quotes. The media outlet did this to call attention to the fact that this better-known spelling is incorrect, and then it used "Vodou" for the remainder of the piece. Clearly, someone was listening to what Beauvoir had to say.
Nevertheless, his legacy is mixed. While he worked to be an ambassador, Dorsey added, "It's hard not to associate him as someone who sold out." His links to the Duvaliers and support of their multi-generational regime also taint his work in the eyes of some Haitians, such as Michel Nau, who wrote this comment on the Huffington Post obituary:
It's not true when Beauvoir said: "Voodoo is the soul of the Haitian people and nothing can be done without that cultural basis." I am from Haiti, and I don't consider Voodoo as my soul, and part of my culture, and I have been doing a lot without it. Another voodoo propaganda when he said: "In 1987, many Voodoo practitioners who were killed by the Christians in the chaos that broke out after Dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier fled Haiti." This has nothing to do with Christianity, or being Christians. These voodooists who were killed were Tonton Macoutes and henchmen of the Duvalier regime.
"Just as a carnival band went by the house, grandfather, a voodoo priest turned to me and said, 'You will carry on the tradition,'" It was not the sort of thing you could refuse. Beauvoir told. Just like his father and grandfather served Papa Doc Duvalier, after returning home in the 1970s, Beauvoir became adviser to the Baby Doc Duvalier.
Even with those criticisms, it seems clear that Beauvoir was a consistent champion for his religion. Dorsey points to a letter he wrote to Senator Jesse Helms in 1999, after the firebrand politician dismissed aid programs to Haiti as "amounting to witchcraft." Vodou remains a minority religion that can be referred to in a derogatory fashion, such as in the phrase "voodoo economics," and it was that mindset that Beauvoir fought against.
When the largely independent houngans of Haiti decided to create a central structure in 2008, they selected Beauvoir as its Ati, or supreme leader. This was perhaps more thanks to his ability to counter such bias than his skill as a priest himself. By embracing two societies, Beauvoir was more able to counter bias toward a religion often dismissed as primitive."It's ghetto and dirty otherwise," said Dorsey. "He had a voice that was easily understandable," and he didn't "sound like a Haitian." This ability, for example, allowed Beauvoir to be heard when he was countering allegations that the 2010 cholera outbreak was caused by black magic; the disease was later determined to have been introduced by United Nations relief workers from Nepal. And, his unique voice allowed him to be heard when speaking out against the widespread belief in the 1980s that all Haitians had AIDS.
Not everything Beauvoir did was seen in a positive light, but his legacy is largely one of lifting up his religion and his country in a world that mostly dismisses both.


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Dear Client,
We value and count on your response to improve our offering and services. Are you willing to take a short survey?
* It won't take you more than 3 minutes, thanks.
App's overall ranking and index on 9Apps
MX Player Codec for ARMv7 NEON CPUs.
MX Player - The best way to enjoy your movies.
** IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is a software component for MX Player, therefore, MX Player has to be installed first. MX Player will test your device and show you the best matching Codec automatically if necessary. You do not need to install Codecs unless MX Player asks you to do so.
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Mobile phone situation distribution of apps' downloading
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/
Email: email@example.com


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AGRICULTURE is a significant part of Maryland's economy as
well as its landscape. The state assists agricultural businesses in various ways, including help in exporting farm products.
The place to start is the Maryland Department of Agriculture in Annapolis. The phone number is (301) 841-5881.
Agriculture is the state's largest employer, according to Robert L. Walker, the department's deputy secretary. The department estimates that for each additional farmer another seven jobs are generated. The state developed this number through a review of the number of people who handle food or other agricultural products. The jobs include food distributors, packing houses, tree growers, wholesalers/retailers of farm products and the jobs related to horse-breeding activities.
The state estimates that 16,000 Maryland farms generate about $1.4 billion in annual revenues. The average farm is 147 acres, and 2.3 million acres are in use. Maryland farms average $90,637 in gross revenues, a figure reflecting both large and part-time operations.


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Thatcher's Folly or the Bonus Canto
Published by Iron Press
First inspired when writing his contribution in the long poem A Modern Don Juan: Cantos For These Times by Divers Hands (Five Leaves Publications, 2014), which imagines the picaresque adventures of a modern DJ as Don Juan, George Jowett wrote this second canto. This is a wonderfully satirical and often scabrous account of an imagined liaison between Margaret Thatcher and the DJ, culminating in the Brighton Tory Party Conference bombing.
See more: Book


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Musicrow has launched a special summer sale: Analog Sound Collection for Arturia synthesizers is 40% off until July 4, 2014.
Analog Sound Collection is a collection of 1200 designer sounds for Arturia software synthesizers. The collection includes six soundbanks:
- Jupiter Trip: 200 sounds for Jupiter 8V.
- The Heavenly Prophecy: 200 sounds for Prophet V.
- Modular Dreams: 200 sounds for Modular V.
- The Arp Kingdom: 200 sounds for Arp 2600V.
- Classic Minitunes: 200 sounds for Mini V.
- CS Vibes: 200 sounds for CS80 V.


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This video from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly shows a reenactment of the event that most Hindus observe as the inspiration for Diwali: Lord Rama's return from exile. Diwali, the annual five-day Festival of Lights, welcomes what is hoped to be an auspicious new year. Hindus also make a "Grand Puja," or ritual prayer, towards the end of the Diwali celebration using the elements of both fire and water to communicate with God.
Learn more about the Religion & Ethics segment "Belief and Practice: Diwali."
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- Keywords -
- Category Hunting Stories
- Region -
- Prostaff Member Trout Whisperer
Most of nature is pretty pristine. Things get kinda murky in the verbiage department when what seems easy or obvious suddenly goes awry. I stop speaking clearly and use words that really don't add to the ethereal outdoor experience. Words that upon calmer reflection were used in oral haste.
Kinda makes ya wonder doesn't it, you scout for a month solid. Tracks as regular as my eight hour work day past my stand. The buck is gone one day before deer season. One day after deer season the neighbor comes over with the buck in a photo at his house four miles away swinging from his meat pole.
I request my vacation from said work schedule months in advance to catch the annual spring steelhead run. I get my time off and the bullet nosed trout run starts one day after Im back at the grind.
Four guys ice fishing in something close to seventeen below zero, and were sharing shacks, two guys per shack. The guy I team up with ate chili for lunch today. He apologizes about every four minutes and I have three hours to go in this aromatic ice palace.
Ever show up at the brookie stream and you remember setting the fresh bought crawlers on the bumper of your pickup truck forty five graveled miles behind you. I was just saying hi to a fellow bait box patron and forgot to tuck them away.
. Neighbor borrows boat on Wednesday afternoon, then the following Saturday morning I think to myself, who on Gods green earth untied my anchor line from the boat as the line sinks away into the depths.
When I hit mid life I had to have glasses to tie on fish hooks or read maps. Im in the river upright and dry. I put on my new one hundred forty dollar prescription spectacles and proceed to tie on a fly. Something crashes through the brush on the river bank, I jerk my head quickly to see what happened and my glasses fall into the river and wash down stream.
I can't find my camping headlamp flashlight. Im sure somebody borrowed it for a girl's sleepover at the home I reside in. I run into the superstore and grab a flashlight kit on the way out of town. (Flashlight, batteries, bulb, and lanyard). That first evening of a four day trip, get out of tent at midnight to answer natures call, and the brand new flashlight has brand new never been used dead batteries. Store clerk when I try to return it. Do you have your receiptâ?
Some of my less favorite outdoor sentences, heard by me.
Say, do you have another tent? No I don't, whyâ? I think the fire got too close to the tent when I set it upâ. Im not saying were lost, but do you have any idea where we areâ? This water is so clearâ, I can see your fillet knife all the way down on the lake bottomâ
That's your dog?â We watched it roll in that for almost fifteen minutesâ.
There is a correct way to end any sentence, especially if you count to ten, first, before responding. My daughter started charging me a quarter every time I cussed, so now I just end them all with son of a fishâ, it's cheaper.
Posted by Trout Whisperer under Hunting Stories on March 16, 09 07:58 AM | Permalink


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[North-Craft Server Network] Infinity/DW20 & More
Founded in 2012, the North-Craft community boasts dedicated staff members that runs an amazing tight-knit whitelisted community. Along with our Infinity & Direwolf servers, we run a Resonant Rise 3 server, and a vanilla minecraft server. All of our servers are whitelisted to ensure we get quality players, and we believe in quality over quantity.
Community and Gameplay
- 24/7
- No-Griefing and no PvP
- We generally run the latest version of Direwolf20/Infinity, which contains the latest additions and fixes
- Over 25 plugins, including grief-preventing ones
- Various commands such as /home, /tpa, /lock, and many more!
- Fair and reasonable donator ranks
- Regular full changelog postings on the website, so players know what's recently been changed
- We listen to player feedback
- The server is hosted in a great location (New York, USA) for connections all around the world
- A whitelisted community, meaning that players are mature, respectful, and will help you get started or answer questions that you may have about a specific mod
*These are only the main rules. If you'd like to read a full list of rules you can do /rules when your online.
- No griefing.
- Be respectful to staff and players.
- Don't harm the server in any way or abuse any glitches.
- Don't cause drama, and don't troll.
How to become whitelisted
If this server sounds like something you would enjoy, we ask that you take the time to apply on our server website in order to become whitelisted. You may read the steps to registering below.
- Head over to our Direwolf20 or Infinity whitelist application page. Click the link below.
Direwolf20 whitelist application page.
Infinity whitelist application page.
- You can register and apply for whitelist on that page. Fill in all of the fields and hit submit. Our website uses Enjin. If you already have an Enjin Account, go ahead and hit login on the top right hand corner of the page.
- Verify your e-mail.
- Wait anywhere from a few minutes up to 8 hours for your application to be reviewed by one of our staff members. Once reviewed, you will be notified by e-mail.
If you have any questions, please send the server owner a message here.
IP's and Links
Infinity Server IP: infinity.north-craft.com
Direwolf20 Server IP: dw20.north-craft.com
Resonant Rise 3 Server IP: resonantrise.north-craft.com
Vanilla Server IP: vanilla.north-craft.com
Server Website: http://www.north-craft.com
New Players Page (Server Network Description): http://www.north-craft.com/newplayers
Infinity Application: http://www.north-craft.com/infinitywhitelistapp
Direwolf20 Application: http://www.north-craft.com/dw20whitelistapp
Dedicated Server-Specifications
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1650(v3) 12 Threads @ 3.5GHz (Turbo to 3.8)
RAM: 128GB DDR4 2133MHz ECC
Storage Drives: 2X 480 GB SSDs
Port Speed: 500 Mbps Uplink
Location: New York, USA.
User ReviewsAdd Review
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The government of China considers October 1, 1949, as the date the country gained independence. This marks the date on which the People's Republic of China was established.Continue Reading
At the time the People's Republic of China was declared, the Japanese were driven out of parts of the country they occupied. Two other important dates are associated with Chinese independence, according to the CIA World Fact Book. The 221 B.C.E. era marks the year in which all of China was unified under the Qin Dynasty, and January 1, 1912, is the date on which the Qing Dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China.Learn more about Middle Ages


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Right About Sports: Episode #113 June 21st 2016
By Staff
Updated: June 21, 2016
Lebron and the Cavaliers with the win of their lifetime!!! What a finish to the NBA season. We called it, Dustin Johnson won the US Open to get the monkey off his back. The NHL and NBA Drafts are this week. Tune to find out what we think will happen that will surprise you!


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Charming ridgeline, highlighted by great oaks and hemlocks
Property Name: Seitz
Town: West Stockbridge
Activities: Hiking, snowshoeing
Special features: Tall, stately red oaks
Hiking difficulty: Intermediate — no marked trails; moderate terrain
GPS: 42.2711, -73.3679 (center of property)
The Seitz Reserve comprises two distinct habitats: old field and mature oak or pine forest. The field fronts Pixley Hill Road while the oaks run along the ridge edge that is the eastern boundary; pines are found somewhere between the field and the oaks.
This property has no parking and no improved trails. The property is best accessed from the frontage across the road from 74 Pixley Hill Road (West Stockbridge), near the intersection with Robin Road.


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The Minnesota Department of Education maintains an online database of interpreters and translators. The database includes the following information:
School districts that wish to employ an interpreter who is listed in this database should contact that individual directly to discuss what services are needed and to negotiate fees.
Need help hiring an interpreter?
Working with Interpreters offers guidelines and suggestions to help ensure that work done with the help of an interpreter or translator is successful. You can print or view this document using Acrobat by clicking the link above. When the document opens in Acrobat, select Print from the File menu.
After printing the document use the browser's Back button to return to this page.
Registering for the Database
Public schools have difficulty finding interpreters and translators for less common languages. MDE is particularly interested in registering speakers of less common languages.
Interpreters and translators can register online through this website by using the Online Registration link. If individuals are unable to register online, please print this registration form and return by mail to the address below. To print the form using Acrobat, click this link to open the form and then select Print from the File menu. After printing the form, use the browser's Back button to return to this page.
For further information, contact
Elizabeth Watkins
Other Agencies
The State of Minnesota Court System maintains a database of interpreters which can be accessed through this link. http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=304 The Minnesota Department of Health is establishing a database of medical interpreters which can be accessed through this link: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/pqc/hci/index.html


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This sauce is indispensable.It can be used for a variety of things,as toppings for cupcakes,doughnuts,ice cream, as glaze for cakes and mousses,as a flavouring,as a fruit dip,etc. The saltiness and sweetness is a wonderful marriage and the flavour is absolutely delicious. It's pretty easy to make but you have to pay really close attention because the caramel can go from perfect to burnt in a split second and you don't want that.
This recipe is for a good sized quantity,you might have to half it if you don't want too much
460 g Sugar
2 Tbsp Corn Syrup
1/2 cup water
1 cup Heavy Cream (heated until warm)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp or 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp Sea Salt (depending on how salty you want it to be)
A splash of vanilla
Use a pot that is way bigger that what you are making because when you pour the heavy cream in,it will bubble up.
Combine the sugar,corn syrup and water in the pot
Place on heat and stir until the sugar is melted
When it comes to a boil like this,cover for 30 secs – 1 minute so the sugar crystals on the side of the pot can be washed down with the steam,alternatively, you can use a wet brush to brush down the sides of the pot(this step is important to prevent crystallization)
Remove the cover and start watching your syrup
Take it off the heat and immediately,add your cream whilst stirring fast
Add the butter,salt and vanilla and stir
For some strange reason,my sauce separated into immiscible portions.If this happens to you,fear not! get your stick/hand blender and blend until you get a smooth consistency.If you are using the regular counter top blender,make sure to hold the lid in place so you don't end up having the syrup all over you and your kitchen.
let it cool and then pour it in a jar.Store refrigerated.
To serve,melt what you need for about 10 seconds or until you can pour or spoon over your dessert
Vanilla ice cream with Salted Caramel and Crushed Candied Peanuts
Doughnut with topped with Salted Caramel & Crushed Candied Peanut


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Products and PicturesText Only Catalog
Our Traditional Mr & Mrs Claus includes our Deluxe Traditional Santa Suit with Santa boots and Traditional Mrs Claus Outfit with extras at a discounted price.
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Our Medical Spas
You take good care of yourself in order to look your best, but inevitably the signs of age appear. Cosmetic surgery is an excellent option for some, but for others, it may not be the best choice due to age, budget, or lifestyle. There are many treatments available that can help you to look and feel your best without surgery. The Medical Spas at our Phoenix and Scottsdale plastic surgery practice, you get the benefit of the latest beauty products, procedures and technology, all under the supervision of our experienced plastic surgeons.
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Stupid stupid stupid excel.
It always looks like it imports data right. It tries really hard to guess at how to import data and convert it. And then it runs into data like this:
Which, for some stupid reason, despite the quotes, it interprets as a number. Which it isn't. It's a zip code. In Puerto Rico. Which if you then copy-paste into SQL Server via Access linked tables (yeah, in a minute) you end up with 920 in the zip field. And if you a do a BETWEEN operator with that, you'll end...
posted @ Tuesday, November 18, 2003 4:29 PM | Feedback (27) |
Server: Msg 17, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
SQL Server does not exist or access denied.
OK, let's analyze this on a few levels.
At an existential level, if SQL Server doesn't exist, then what is it that I do again? I thought I was a SQL Server DBA, but if SQL Server doesn't exist, then I'm having a bit of an existential quandry. Seriously, could you come up with a less clear way to word that? What, specifically, doesn't exist? Does the software product not exist, as the error message states? Does the particular server...
posted @ Thursday, November 13, 2003 1:40 PM | Feedback (5) |
One of these days, someone will explain to me why when Terminal Server can't configure a printer, it shows up in the Windows Event Log as an error, but SCSI Parity errors on the system disk are just warnings.
posted @ Tuesday, November 11, 2003 2:35 PM | Feedback (1) |
OK, anybody have any idea why I can't say that certain users are only allowed to log into my server from specific workstations? I'd really love to say that my web login (the logn my web site logs in with) can only log in from my web servers, and if any of my developers tried to use it they'd either get an error message or be electrocuted (preferably at random). I mean, come on, even a hosts.allow or hosts.deny set of files would be an easy to manage cheap to implement security layer. Otherwise, I've got...
posted @ Tuesday, November 04, 2003 2:10 PM | Feedback (3) |
Let's talk about hardware for a few minutes.
My previous employer exclusively used Compaq, now HP, server hardware. It was great. It was exceptionally reliable, easy to know what you needed when you want to buy new stuff, the dealers we worked with were knowledgeable and helpful, and really consulted with us to purchase hardware, and had the goods to give us great pricing (we bought a LOT of hardware). Their leasing folks were top-notch. Their warranty service was completely spot-on, perfect. When we had a string of problems (3 failures in 3 months) with...
posted @ Monday, November 03, 2003 10:10 PM | Feedback (2) |
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Copyright © Chris Miller


text:
December 13, 2016
Full Chapter Excerpt from "The Tunnels"
In recent weeks on this site I have offered excerpts from The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill (Crown), but they were all quite brief. Now, for the first time, here is an entire chapter.
It happens to be chapter two in the book, finding us in late-winter and early spring 1962, when the era of tunnel digging under the Wall has just begun. We meet the three creators of the main tunnel explored in the book (in photo above, see Gigi, Mimmo and Wolf); the NBC correspondent at the center of their, and my, story; along with the greatest threat to the project–a certain young Stasi informer. More on the book, early reviews and to order, here.
News of Harry Seidel's tunnel project rocked the insular fluchthelfer community, provoking both fear and hope. The shooting death of Heinz Jercha was chilling, to be sure, but it had come after several nights of incident-free escapes, with dozens rescued. Since the Wall had risen there had only been two wholly successful tunnels, each with a risky entrance or exit above ground. The Heidelberger Strasse tunnel showed it could be done basement to basement.
Among those taking heart were two students from Italy rooming together in a dorm at the Technical University, or TU, a hotbed of escape activities located near the Berlin Zoo. They were Luigi "Gigi" Spina and Domenico "Mimmo" Sesta. Physically they made an unlikely pair—Spina tall and dark with a bit of a belly; Sesta short and fair, with muscles built for labor. The two had known each other since high school in Gorizia, not far from Venice, and shared wide-ranging interests: philosophy, literature, politics, economics. Gigi, after completing military service in Italy, had enrolled in an arts college, Hochshule der Kunste, in West Berlin and urged Mimmo to try the engineering program at TU next door.
Re-united in Berlin, they made friends with a 24-year-old arts student named Peter Schmidt, who had grown up partly in Italy and spoke Italian. He lived in the East with his wife, Eveline, and new baby. When the border was sealed on August 13, 1961, Peter could no longer commute to the West. One week later, Gigi and Mimmo visited Peter (entering the East courtesy of their Italian passports) and urged him to consider fleeing with his family while the new barrier was still fairly porous. Peter declined. He thought the Wall would never last—East Berliners were so against it.
Of the two Italians, Mimmo Sesta was closer to Peter Schmidt. Both were orphans. Schmidt's father, from Spain, had competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where he met and later married a German woman. Her family never recognized the match and was scandalized when she bore a child. They forced her to give up the baby, Peter, for adoption. Sesta's father had died in the Spanish Civil War, his mother only a few years later. The two young men developed a profound, familial bond. In the months after the Wall rose, Mimmo often visited Peter at his modest country home on the outskirts of Berlin, talking up the need for an escape plan. Mimmo would play with the baby while Peter strummed his guitar.
Until the morning the Wall went up, it seemed to Peter and Eveline that they would be able to build a comfortable enough life for themselves in East Berlin, in spite of the scarcities and hardship. Peter was a freelance graphic artist. Eveline liked her job in the library at Humboldt University. Once a year she bought a new pair of shoes in West Berlin from money she had saved. Their small wooden cottage had an outdoor toilet, but the two felt fortunate to have a house at all, as well as jobs involving little political pressure, as they waited for inevitable dismantling of the Wall. But as the barbed wire tangle morphed into a concrete barrier in more and more places in the autumn of 1961, the sense of imprisonment grew oppressive. At Christmas that year, Peter said, "I can't take it anymore!" The search for a way out began in earnest.
After discussing various methods in the following weeks, including stealing a helicopter, Spina and Sesta decided that only a tunnel would suffice. A strong young man might squeeze under barbed wire, jump from a train, even scale the Wall—he might find an open sewer pipe, swim the Spree or hide under the back seat of a car—but what about a woman and child? Peter's adoptive mother also wanted to escape. Unlike Harry Seidel, Peter had no desire to flee to the West ahead of his family. They would exit together or not at all. Adding to the urgency: Schmidt was scheduled to enlist in the East German army before the end of the year.
Despite its thin track record, tunneling was coming into vogue. Mimmo and Gigi were inspired that winter by a nervy project that hadn't achieved even partial success. A group of West Berlin students had started a tunnel under a remote section of the Wollank S-Bahn station, more sophisticated than earlier efforts in its use of tons of wood and iron for supports. Unfortunately, passing trains loosened the earth. A small depression in a platform was spotted by police, who exposed the tunnel, producing wide media coverage on both sides of the Wall. But the students' steady progress to that point—nearly 100 feet of burrowing—and knack for fundraising suggested that success elsewhere was plausible.
Now, in March, and united in purpose, Sesta and Spina set out to find a site to launch their own tunnel. They would follow the Harry Seidel model at Heidelberger—basement to basement. Looking ahead, they knew they would need additional help. Neither was fluent in German and they expected that negotiations with local police, city officials and maybe intelligence operatives would arise. Also, Sesta was far from ready to handle the engineering duties.
A neighbor in the dorm, a twenty-one-year-old advanced engineering student from Wittenberg named Wolfhardt "Wolf" Schrodter, seemed a perfect fit. They felt Schrodter could be trusted. He had fled East Germany for political reasons four years earlier—something always deserving respect in escape circles. Schrodter was also friendly with an organizer of the now-defunct fake passport scheme. Dozens of students in the West who had risked their freedom in that endeavor were now looking for other ways to extract friends and families from the East. They might be ready to roll up their sleeves and wield a shovel.
Even before the Heidelberger tunnel drama, Piers Anderton had issued a call for tips on any digging under the Wall. Anderton, NBC's Berlin correspondent, had covered all the escape methods favored in the first months after August 13, 1961—cutting wires, wading through sewage, swimming across rivers, using fake IDs–and knew that each method was becoming ever more difficult to pull off. He needed to stay on top of the latest escape options.
Encouraging Anderton was his boss back at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, Reuven Frank. He had helped create, and now produced, the Huntley-Brinkley Report (the top-rated evening newscast). Frank had come up with one of the most famous tag lines in the history of the medium, a sign-off for Chet Huntley, who was based in New York, and David Brinkley, in Washington, D.C., for their nightly report: "Good night, Chet…And good night, David." He had also picked their much-admired theme music, an excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Born in Montreal to Eastern European parents, Frank had attended college in Toronto, arriving at NBC in 1950 after a stint with a Newark newspaper. Within a decade he helped create a model for political convention and election night coverage, marked by quick shifts between an anchorman and correspondents. He was among the new breed of television producers who, having never worked in radio, placed a higher priority on moving images than on the simple act of reading or reporting the news on camera. One of his pet quips: "That's why they call it tele-vision."
Frank happened to be in Berlin with Brinkley on August 13, 1961. A few days later he instructed Anderton to follow the public mood in East Berlin closely, knowing that this could be the story of the decade. "Give us anything you find on refugees trying to get out under this new repression," he told Anderton. "Don't worry about getting permission. Go ahead and do it. I'll pay the bill." It was more a demand than a request—Anderton would liken it to an ukase.
Piers Anderton embraced the challenge. He was, in an era of less-than-photogenic TV correspondents, one of the most unusual looking. His black hair, swept back, was turning grey in broad strokes and only in front. He had unusually sad eyes and thick lips, and was one of the rare network faces with a moustache (a bit curled at the ends) and beard. He looked like an aging beatnik, minus the poetry, the pot and the bongos.
A native of San Francisco, Anderton was, at forty-three, a year older than Reuven Frank. His middle name, Barron, reflecting his lineage back to Edward Barron, who had made a fortune in California's legendary Comstock Lode silver mine in the 19th century, and other investments. After graduating from Princeton, Anderton had served in the Navy during World War II, then worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and Collier's magazine and attended Harvard as a Nieman Fellow. At NBC he drew Reuven Frank's notice while writing scripts for Chet Huntley specials, then became a foreign correspondent. Frank felt he displayed an unusual combination of versatility and competence. He was also aware of Anderton's temper, which had once (briefly) caused him to resign over network meddling in one of his reports from Spain.
Anderton didn't suffer fools gladly. He had even challenged President Kennedy at the White House back in January when, as part of a delegation of NBC reporters, he was granted an off-the-record meeting with the President. When Kennedy criticized some of Anderton's reporting, the correspondent defended his work. Then he took the President to task for his first-strike nuclear policy in Europe. "Would you really start a nuclear war over Berlin?" he asked, impertinently. Kennedy said he would, if necessary.
His work in Berlin was more than competent, though he had not yet won any awards. There were maybe a dozen full-time English-speaking journalists in Berlin, but NBC boasted that it had the only fully staffed bureau. For one Frank-produced program, The S-Bahn Stops at Freedom, Anderton covered the flight of East Berlin professionals to the West via the elevated train line. For another he narrated a report from inside a sewage tunnel through which East Germans had escaped, evoking the ending of the classic film The Third Man.
On at least one occasion, Anderton had directly aided an escape plot himself.
Two fluchthelfer had shown up at the NBC office and asked Anderton to lend them a pair of Japanese-made walkie-talkies. Anderton obliged, but insisted on accompanying them on their mission. This would be quite a scoop. One foggy evening, Anderton was driven to an out-of-the-way border zone divided only by barbed wire. Across the barren "death strip," refugees were supposedly waiting in bombed-out buildings. An escape helper would cut a path (or "river," as he called it) through the wires, creep to the building, and lead the refugees to the West. Anderton watched as one of the men, named Klaus, grasped a walkie-talkie and wire clippers and crawled out to the border. Klaus disappeared into the darkness but sent back scratchy updates via the NBC radio: "I'm through the wire….Going down the slope…Hut on the left…Lying in a trench until the patrol passes." Then: nothing. The other man whispered into his device: "Klaus, speak…Klaus, come in…We cannot hear…KLAUS SPEAK." For half an hour they waited for a response but, except for periodic static, silence endured. Anderton never did learn the fate of "Klaus."
By the spring of 1962, Anderton and other Berlin correspondents had heard that tunneling—the only escape method that kept both helpers and refugees out of sight—was gaining favor, but as yet no journalist had gotten in on the (muddy) ground floor. Anderton knew that Reuven Frank would love to sink budget resources into one. Now, in March, he asked a part-time NBC staffer named Abraham "Abe" Ashkenasi to see if any of his student friends knew anything about a tunnel, or plans for one.
When the final March edition of Der Spiegel hit the newsstands it was clear the shadowy fluchthelfer community of West Berlin would never be the same. The cover line read Flucht Durch Die Mauer ("Escape Through the Wall") against a black-and-white image of a stern VoPo studying the West through strands of barbed wire. The article opened:
In adventurous ways, partly above and partly under ground, since August 13 have fled around 5,000 East German citizens past Ulbricht's wall border to West Berlin. One in eight made it into freedom only by means of a West Berlin student group that selflessly devoted itself to this. Der Spiegel reveals first details on the escape routes and the functioning of the western smugglers who dug tunnels after August 13, opened sewers, and forged passports in order to perforate the wall.
Students from almost every country in the West had taken part, with 146 arrested so far, including two Americans.
The architect of all this was West Berlin's leading escape organization, known as the Girrmann Group or Unternehmen Reisebüro ("Business Travel Agency') in Spiegel's wry christening. The Girrmann Group revolved around three activists/administrators at the Free University (FU), a West Berlin institution founded in 1948 by GDR defectors. Two were law students, Detlef Girrmann and Dieter Thieme, and one a theology student, Bodo Kohler. All were in their early thirties and each had escaped the East as a political fugitive years before. Aided by, among others, two American students from Stanford, they focused on FU students trapped in the East before broadening their scope.
The group had operated mainly out of sight since its founding just days after the Wall went up. And no wonder. It was hard enough to carry off hundreds of escapes via checkpoints and sewers, in rafts or by way of Scandinavia, without the press blowing your cover. Until now most in the media recognized this and held back what they knew about the Girrmann operations, encouraged by city officials who demanded discretion.
After six months of secrecy, however, the organizers decided to go public. One reason: They had less to hide, since their early initiatives were now defunct, blocked by East German counter-measures. More urgent, however, was that after months of rescue operations they had run up huge debts. Der Spiegel was happy to pay Girrmann, Thieme and Kohler for information leading to the first inside story on escape work. The trio had expected a fee of 10,000 Deutsche Mark (at the time four DM = one U.S. dollar) but received only 6000 DM because the editors found their cooperation less than complete. That payment would at least keep the group going for awhile.
In a front-page story, The New York Times covered the Spiegel bombshell under the headline, "Foreign Students Aided Escape of 600 East Berliners to West." It referred to "Scarlet Pimpernel raids" and a kind of "underground railroad." No names were revealed in either Der Spiegel or the Times, but it seemed that everyone in West Berlin knew how and where to contact the organizers. Their headquarters, a villa in Berlin's Zehlendorf district that looked like a miniature castle, even had a catchy name: Haus der Zukunft ("House of the Future"). Besides providing office space, it served as hostel for students from abroad, many of whom were then recruited as escape helpers. Admiration for these fluchthelfer was strong following the Spiegel piece, but not universal. On March 31, the rector at the Free University dismissed Detlef Girrmann as a director of the Student Union, charging that his escape work put the school in a sensitive political position. Even in the West.
One of those newly interested in chatting with Girrmann organizers was a young West German who had left the East four years earlier. His name: Siegfried Uhse. Barely twenty-one, he was a hairdresser by trade. He had a thin face and build, light-colored hair, and he dressed neatly. Slick from head to toe.
Uhse first visited the House of the Future just as the Der Spiegel piece appeared and managed to speak with the man in charge there, Bodo Kohler. He told Kohler that he wanted to get his mother and girlfriend out of East Berlin, a common request. The next day Uhse described the visit to an associate in detail: "I noticed that I was speaking to the right person. The manager told me they were not working at the moment because their last business blew off in February. Kohler wanted to know if I was West German and I said yes. We had a small chat about escape routes and I offered him my help if he needed it. He wrote down my name and address, as well as a description of my girlfriend and her address. He said he would contact me if there was anything new, but he also wanted me to tell him when I would get a new passport." Kohler, he added, "looks like the eternal student. He wears glasses with black rims. His hair is dark blond."
In the same conversation Uhse remarked that he had spotted a help wanted ad for a hairdresser in the PX barbershop at McNair, a major U.S. Army base in Berlin. "I will try and get a job there," he added.
The person he told about all this? His handler at the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in East Berlin. And that story about his mother and girlfriend? A lie.
Uhse had served as a paid informer for the Stasi since the previous fall after he was arrested trying to smuggle 112 cigarettes to the West at the Friedrich Strasse checkpoint. An official report claimed that Uhse planned to deliver them for a weekly "homosexual and lesbian orgy." The Stasi had been tailing him, probably aware that he had been arrested and sentenced to probation across the border in Baden-Baden on suspicion of being homosexual, which was against the law even in West Germany. They also discovered that he had plied an East Berlin woman with cigarettes and wine from the West so that she would let him spend evenings in a room she rented to one of his male lovers. (Black market cigarettes from the West were practically hard currency at the time.)
The young man, who had once hoped to work as a librarian, was not much interested in politics. Uhse had left East Berlin for Baden-Baden in 1958 to join his widowed mother, who worked as a kitchen aide at a sanitorium, before moving to West Berlin in 1960. He now lived in a well-furnished apartment and spent nights at lounges and jazz clubs with names like the Dandy Club, Eden Saloon (favored by American tourists) and Big Apple, where he drank liberally and cultivated friends from a higher social class. He spent money beyond his means, often offering to pick up the check to impress others.
Detained by the Stasi, Uhse was a prime candidate for undercover work on several levels. He probably still resented the West Germans for his arrest in Baden- Baden, while fearing further exposure by the MfS. Temporarily unemployed, he remained attached to a costly lifestyle. Now he faced a smuggling charge in the East. The Stasi felt that, in recounting his adventures, Uhse showed promise as a spinner of false tales. After two days of detention, a tasty breakfast, and the promise of a regular stipend, he agreed to work as a low-level informer based in the West.
Like other Stasi recruits, Uhse had to submit a "letter of commitment" for the files. On September 30, 1961, the day after his arrest, he wrote by hand:
I, Siegfried Uhse, voluntarily consent to actively support the security forces of the GDR in their righteous fight. Furthermore, I pledge to maintain absolute silence to everyone about my cooperation with the forces of the Ministry of State Security and all related problems. I was informed that if I break this commitment I can be punished according to the current laws of the GDR. For my cooperation with the MfS, I choose the code name: "Fred."
Uhse, listed in Stasi records as "blonde" and 1.69 meters tall (or a little over 5'6"), immediately started monitoring the West Berlin homosexual scene, but he was slow to crack fluchthelfer circles. It was true that a Stasi informer had wrecked Harry Seidel's tunnel, but that had been pure luck—he just happened to live above its entrance. Uhse would have to go hunting for trouble. His big break came one night at a club when he chatted with a man who told him that a student hangout called Berliner Wingolf was a center for human smuggling. Uhse visited that club, where he was referred to the House of the Future, inspiring that fateful first meeting with Bodo Kohler.
Now, after Uhse's latest debriefing in March, his Stasi handler ordered him to grab that job at the U.S. base, adding in his report: "Uhse is sure that the manager of Haus der Zukunft is working with a bigger group in trying to get GDR citizens out of the country. The manager would be interested in Uhse because he has a West German passport."
They didn't yet have funding or supplies, but the three students—Spina, Sesta and Schrodter—were anxious to break ground. First they had to settle on a site for their tunnel to begin in the West and a target point across the border. The crucial considerations: Would the entrance and exit be well hidden? How distant were these two points? Was the soil loose and sandy (easier to shovel but requiring ceiling support) or hard clay? How deep was the water table?
Proceeding carefully in their dorm, the three plotters pored over the detailed Berlin maps obtained from sympathetic city workers, with each building numbered and underground pipes outlined. They checked out the area around the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag—the Stasi might not believe anyone would dare dig near the busiest tourist spots—and three other sites. Each had advantages and drawbacks relating to distance and security. There would have to be enough room in a basement to store tons of extracted soil, or well-concealed courtyard in case they had to dump it outside or load it in trucks. From another municipal office they secured maps showing the varying water table in Berlin and learned that the area around Bernauer Strasse offered more room for error. But under which building to open a tunnel?
To their surprise, the trio pinpointed a breakthrough site in the East before they found a home in the West.
It happened by pure chance. One of Spina's friends knew someone who knew an engineer from Bulgaria now living on Rheinsberger Strasse. This was the second street just across the Wall in the East, parallel to Bernauer. The two Italians visited the Bulgarian to say hello and managed to wrangle an invitation to his birthday party a couple of weeks later. On that day, while Spina distracted the host, Sesta lifted off a hook a key to the basement. Exploring the cellar, he found it suited their purposes. Mimmo recalled American crime movies where keys were stolen and impressions made in soap or modeling clay. He found a store nearby that sold plasticine, pressed this key in the sample, and returned to the apartment. The ploy worked. A locksmith in the West soon produced a working key.
With the target chosen, the options for an entry site in the West were narrowed to the stretch of Bernauer directly across the border. One site jumped out: a hulking five-story factory at Wolgaster Strasse, half of which had been bombed in World War II and neither restored nor leveled since. Behind it was a courtyard out of sight of both Western passersby and the VoPos.
Entering the factory, Schrodter and Spina discovered that a small section upstairs was still being utilized to make swizzle sticks, the thin, plastic cocktail straws. They located the owner, a heavy-set, middle-aged man named Muller. Schrodter did all the talking because Spina's German was limited. Could they use the first floor and basement as rehearsal space for their jazz band? "Do not tell me such stories," Muller scoffed, before granting them permission to use his building for their tunnel so long as they cleaned up afterward. "I come from Dresden," Muller told them, by way of explanation. "My small family porcelain business was seized by Communists. What you see here in the factory I had to start from scratch." He would not charge rent, and they could tap into the structure's electrical grid for free.
As Schrodter and Spina explored the space they got even more excited. There were rooms where they could sleep, hang up dirty clothes, or drink a beer, and large corners of the basement where dirt could be dumped.
There was just one problem. The factory was set back from Bernauer and the Wall, requiring the longest dig of any they had considered. They would need to excavate at least 100 feet under the factory grounds and Bernauer—which was closer to a busy boulevard than a mere strasse—before they even reached the boarded-up apartment buildings at the border. Then they would have to toil under the block-wide "death strip" before finally, they hoped, breaking into that basement on Rheinsberger. The students calculated this would require digging over 400 feet—four times longer than any previous escape tunnel. And about three-quarters of it would be in the East. They figured it would take at least two months, during which they would have to curtail or quit their university studies.
While they recognized the added risk of water leaks and cave-ins at that length, they rarely talked about that. They were young and blessed with the corresponding bravado and sense of indestructibility. A tunnel seemed the only way to retrieve entire families such as the Schmidts. Avoiding VoPos and soldiers by burrowing under them like moles felt safer than trying to trick them at a checkpoint or hiding in a truck, or cutting through wire with armed guards and attack dogs nearby.
Now all they needed were a few more devil-may-care diggers to join them. Ample supplies, including a large amount of lumber. A van to transport them. And a healthy chunk of funding (they only had 1500 DM, or about $375, among them). Plus, a few firearms. Because: You never know.