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Making remote connections to servers for management and administration is a core requirement for every systems administrator. As long as Windows remains a predominately GUI-focused interface, we remain reliant on remote control software that provides access to the entire Windows interface. During the past few years, Remote Desktop Connection has become the de facto standard for remotely managing Windows computers for three primary reasons: performance is good, multiple people can connect to the same computer at the same time, and it's free and included by default with every version of Windows since Windows 2000.
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0, the latest version of Microsoft's free RDP client, is included with Windows Vista and can be downloaded for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Microsoft did a good job maintaining backward compatibility, so you can upgrade to the new client and still connect to Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Win2K computers. Microsoft added many new features in anticipation of Windows Vista and Longhorn, but you can take advantage of other new features now. Some new features enhance Remote Desktop Connection's security and performance.
You can download Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 for XP and Windows 2003 from the Microsoft Download Center. (For more information about what downloading entails, see the Microsoft article "Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 client update is available for download in the Microsoft Download Center," (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925876 ). This is the client only, meaning that you install it on the computer you want to use to connect to and manage other computers. You don't need to install anything on the computers you want to manage. After you've installed the program, you can run it quickly by clicking Start, Run and typing mstsc. (Alternatively you can click Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, Remote Desktop Connection.)
If you run the program from the command line, you can take advantage of some useful options. For example, typing
mstsc /console /span
instructs Remote Desktop Connection to connect to the console (which gives you the same logon session used by the interactive session at the keyboard instead of starting a new Terminal Services session) and to span the client display across two monitors. The /span parameter is new to Remote Desktop Connection 6.0, and it's one of my favorite new features. Now when I remote into my servers, I can really take advantage of the screen real estate attached to my workstation.
Server Authentication
From the new RDP client dialog box, click on the Advanced tab to configure the new Server Authentication feature, which adds a layer of security to the connection setup process. When connecting to a Vista or Longhorn computer, Remote Desktop Connection will attempt to validate that the server you wish to connect to is really that server. Until you upgrade all your systems to Vista or Longhorn, I recommend the Warn the user if the connection cannot be authenticated setting, which results in the warning that Figure 1 shows. After you've fully deployed Vista and Longhorn, you can enable the Do not connect if the server cannot be authenticated option.
The server authentication used here is different from the Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate–based server authentication used by Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Remote Desktop Connection 5.2. You don't need a public key infrastructure (PKI) environment to utilize Remote Desktop Connection 6.0–based server authentication, but you do need to connect to a computer running either Vista or Longhorn.
Network Level Authentication
The Remote Desktop Connection client supports a new authentication mechanism called Network Level Authentication (NLA), which asks for your credentials before you connect and attempts to complete the authentication process before establishing the remote session. Figure 2 shows the message you see when authentication isn't successful. In contrast, when making a new connection using earlier versions of the RDP client and when not connecting to Vista or Longhorn computers, the client establishes a full RDP session first, then users enter their credentials at a typical Windows GUI logon screen.
By authenticating a client before establishing the RDP session, NLA saves resources and bandwidth and reduces the chance for an attacker to repeatedly enter passwords at a logon prompt. This is because only the authentication network information is exchanged instead of a full RDP session, at which point the computer is already possibly vulnerable to a potential attack. Both the client and server must be NLA aware, so this feature is supported only when connecting from the new client to computers running Vista or Longhorn. Due to the new authentication procedures the Remote Desktop Connection client performs, you'll likely encounter additional prompts throughout the connection process. Most of these prompts are essential to maintain backward compatibility yet still support new features.
No More Saved Passwords in RDP Files
Aside from NLA, the RDP client changes a bit where you enter your credentials and how it stores them. When entering your credentials into the RDP client, you no longer type a username, password, and domain on the General tab of the RDP client. Instead, when you first try to connect to a remote machine, a separate Windows security dialog box asks for your credentials then offers to remember those credentials.
The new client doesn't store the credentials in a saved RDP profile (a text file), as do previous versions; instead, it stores credentials in the new Credential Manager. This lack of portable, saved credentials increases the security of your system but could affect how you manage your servers. For example, with the new client you can't create an RDP session with saved credentials and email it to a colleague to execute and connect as another user specified in the RDP file. However, you can still save and distribute RDP files, such as the name of the server and specific connection settings, but not the credentials of the user. Users will be required to authenticate the first time (at which time, they can direct Remote Desktop Connection to remember their credentials).
Multiple Confirmation Dialog Boxes
Some of the additional prompts encountered throughout the connection process can be managed through client or server settings or through Group Policy. For example, Always prompt client for password upon connection is a popular Group Policy Object (GPO) setting. If this policy is set, you'll need to enter your credentials twice: once for NLA and again at the RDP screen. Of course, after Longhorn and Vista are deployed everywhere, you can require just NLA and it will log you on and you won't see the second, traditional RDP authentication logon prompt. In the meantime, if your company requires that users always be prompted, users can simply click OK in the NLA credential dialog box, then enter their credentials when they're asked a second time after the RDP session is established.
Redirecting Resources
The Remote Desktop Connection client supports mapping local resources to redirect sound, keyboard, and local devices from the host to the client computer. For example, if you've enabled audio redirection and the host computer at work gets an email message while your client computer at home is remotely connected, then your home computer's mail client will actually ding if the mail client you're using supports that audible notice.
The XP Remote Desktop Connection client limits you to redirecting disk drives, printers, and serial ports; however, with the Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 client running on Vista or Longhorn, you can also redirect the host computer's clipboard and specify individual hard drives you wish to make available. Plus, you can redirect plug-and-play devices and Smart Cards. For example, I plugged my digital camera into my home computer running Vista and accessed photos from the camera directly from my work computer, which was also running Vista. I was accessing the camera directly, not as a result of some sort of an auto-mounted and mapped drive.
The mapping of local drives to the remote computer has security implications. For example, if you've enabled drive redirection from a remote computer to your work computer and you navigate to My Computer on your work computer in an RDP session, then you'll see not only your work computer's hard drives but also links to your home computer's local hard drives. This visual makes it easy to copy files between the two computers. If your company's security policy prohibits copying work data to and from non-company computers, you can prohibit this mapping by using a GPO.
Improved Visuals
Remote Desktop Connection lets you tweak the appearance of the remote session depending on the available bandwidth so that you can disable features if you have limited bandwidth. For example, to maximize performance, you can disable the desktop background, hide the contents of a window while dragging, disable menu and window animations and themes, and enable bitmap caching.
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 includes these options, plus it lets you do font smoothing (coloring the edges of letters varying shades of gray so that characters appear less jagged) and desktop composition. The font smoothing looks pretty good—it resembles the ClearType option introduced in XP. But it's the desktop composition feature that really makes a difference. Desktop composition enables not only visually cool features such as Vista's Aero translucent UI but also dramatically improves the performance when moving a window around on the screen. On a 100Mbps network, I enabled everything—including 32-bit color and the full "experience"—and it was remarkable: This is the best-looking Remote Desktop Connection client interface to date. Even with a video playing, I could move the window around and the video continued to play without a lot of stuttering and lag.
Preparing for the Future
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0's Connect from anywhere option anticipates the Longhorn feature TS Gateway, which provides RDP over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). RDP uses TCP port 3389 and requires firewalls to pass that protocol to an internal server if a remote Internet-based connection is allowed. TS Gateway uses industry standard SSL (which uses TCP port 443) to encapsulate (and encrypt) the entire RDP session. (For more information about providing RDP over SSL with today's RDP releases, see "Use SSH for Secure RDP Connections," InstantDoc ID 94669.) Also, you can put TS Gateway on your perimeter and allow external access only to it. Remote clients connect to the gateway, and it in turn, connects to internal computers. For this reason and many more, Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 is a worthwhile upgrade as part of an eventual migration to Vista and Longhorn.


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This offer expires August 10th, 2017
There are many paths of Yoga, each unique and enlightening. We believe there is a practice for everyone and that through the exploration of the diverse yoga practices you will find your true path. Our intention in the Yoga Teacher Training is to create a diverse experience to explore your own practice and discover the potential in you or to teach others to find the benefits of yoga. Our comprehensive training, mentoring and study will lead you through a system of training to build your confidence in your practice and ultimately find the teacher within you. This course is for yoga teachers, aspiring yoga teachers and students that wish to deepen their practice.
Course Dates
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Fridays 4:30 – 8:30pm, Saturdays 8am – 5pm, Sundays 8am – 2pm
Course Fee
Before August 10th, 2017 = $2950 + GST
After August 10th, 2017 = $3250 + GST
Host Facility
Heavens Elevated Fitness, Calgary
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subset: commoncrawl


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A trip to a US hospital can produce bills that would make the Pentagon blanch. Take the case of a Hudson, Fla., man who last year was admitted for emergency medical treatment: "I can't quite imagine how his care could possibly have amounted to $12,553.70 for 27 hours," says his wife in a letter to their congressman.
A Columbia, Md., woman fared better: Her two-week stay cost $6,600. But doctors, to take her temperature, used an electronic machine with digital readout.
"It cost $1.92 each test," she grouses. "I checked at the supermarket. An old-fashioned glass thermometer is a dollar."
Insurance picks up most people's health-care tabs -- but the cost of this coverage is racing ahead, too. "A $120 increase last year, and a $120 increase this year," a retiree writes. "How can a person make ends meet?"
The price of medical care in the United States is exploding. Since 1965, the last year of the pre-medicare era, spending on health, after adjusting for inflation, has doubled to $350 billion a year.
Is that too much? Is our medical-care system the equivalent of a gas-guzzling sedan -- lush, but wasteful?
"Health care is them social issue of the remainder of this century," says Dr. Henry Aaron, a Brookings Institution economist. "The costs involved are enormous, and they're going to keep going up. The only question is how fast."
To the vast majority of citizens who equate the availability of medical care with their own ability to stay healthy, this is a uniquely sensitive problem. Health care is a different sort of economic service -- expense is not the porimary worry on most people's minds when they enter the hospital. Changes in the US health-care system might involve difficult ethical questions, such as one raised by Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm: Can medicare continue to spend one quarter of its funds on patients who die within a year of their treatment?
"Few issues are at once so delicate and so pressing," admits Dr. Carolyne Davis, head of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which oversees medicare.
It was in the years following World War II that the US health-care system began its sharp cost climb. In 1950, medical goods and services accounted for 4 .4 percent of the US gross national product (GNP) -- the value of all goods and services produced in the economy. Today health care accounts for about 10 percent of GNP. One of every $10 spent in the US goes for doctor fees, hospital bills, eye care, etc.
Economists have file drawers full of statistics that show where this money is coming from, and where it's going. Health care is now the fourth-largest item in the federal budget. US corporate spending on health care has almost doubled since 1978, the $77 billion. Over the last decade private health-insurance premiums have increased an average of 25 percent annually.
Part of its stems from the fact that health professionals -- particularly doctors -- are well organized, and able to protect their incomes. Harvard sociologist Paul Starr, in a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on US medicine, asserts that physicians in this country have parlayed their professional authority into "social privilege, economic power, and political influence."
Much of the increase in health costs, however, has come about simply because more US citizens have easy access to health care, and because that care has become more advanced technologically.
In the 1950s, there was no medicare or medicaid. Less than half the US population had adequate private health insurance. There were no CT X-ray scanners, artificial hearts, or electronic thermometers.
"We Americans want extra-sophisticated health care," says Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics at Princeton University.
But some portion of the steep jump in medical costs, experts say, undoubtedly is caused by the design of the medical system itself. In that system, consumers are for the most part insulated from the cost of their health-care decisions by programs such as medicare or Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
In the past, doctors and hospitals have had no economic reason to question the necessity of certain procedures because they were simply paid for each service performed. In general, few people have had to make hard choices about the costs and benefits of US medical care.
"The economic incentives have been perverse," says Jack Christy, health policy specialist for the American Association of Retired Persons.
Is that really harmful to the economy? After all, real spending on computers has also doubled in the last 20 years. The $350 billion we spend on health can also be viewed as $350 billion in income received by US citizens. Why are rising health-care costs a bad thing?
To begin with, they are playing havoc with one of the largest and most popular of US government programs: medicare. When medicare was enacted, Congress figured it would cost about $9 billion in 1990. But spending reached that level 17 years early, in 1973.
In years to come the number of US retirees will grow, and medicare will become even more hard-pressed. The 1984 report of the Medicare Board of Trustees estimates the program will go bankrupt by 1995, at the latest, if it isn't altered.
IN addition, many business executives, economists, and politicians say that health costs have gotten out of hand. As one state official says, health care has become "the 'Pac Man' of [my] budget," chomping up an ever-greater share of resources. In Washington, the primary health-policy question is no longer "how can we expand coverage," but "how do we contain costs?"
If costs keep climbing at the same rate, noted HCFA chief Davis in a speech earlier this year, health care will in a few years account for 20 to 30 percent of the GNP. "Reason compels one to conclude that for a nation to remain vigorous and competitive in world markets, that's too much GNP to devote to health care," she said.
If that's the case, what can be done about it? What, in fact, is being done about it?
In the last 18 months, note experts, there have been more changes in the US health-care system than in the previous 18 years. And the action may be having some effect: In the first five months of this year, medical cost inflation declined significantly, to 6.3 percent.
The most far-reaching of these changes have affected that behemoth of the US health-care system, medicare. In each of the last three years Congress has tinkered with medicare in order to save money. This summer, legislators passed cuts in the program predicted to save $7.3 billion through 1987. About a third of the savings will come from a 15-month freeze on physicians' fees; another big chunk of cash will be saved by increasing some beneficiary co-payments.
But the most drastic change in medicare occurred last year, when the Reagan administration persuaded Congress to overhaul the way the program pays its hospital bills. In the past, medicare simply reimbursed hospitals for all costs incurred, plus a little something extra for profit. Under the new system called "prospective payment," medicare decides in advance what it will pay for patients with certain diagnoses, and then reimburses hospitals accordingly.
Some economists feel prospective payment, in the long run, is too complex and arbitrary to work. But US Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler claims prospective payment will save $100 billion by 1995, by making hospitals more cost-conscious. Indeed, something already seems to be happening in the hospitals, the largest sector of US health care. In the first three months of 1984, hospital admissions declined, the average stay became shorter, and hospital employment shrank.
"Hospital cost containment is already here," caimed Michael Bromberg, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, in a speech early this summer.
States are also in the forefront of change. Pressed by rising bills for their share of the medicaid program and state employee health insurance, 10 states have passed their own prospective payment legislation. Some of these bills are far tougher than Uncle Sam's version.
But it is perhaps US business that most keenly feels the hot breath of rising health-care costs on the back of its neck. Last year, business spending on health was equal to one-half of corporate profits, and many firms are concerned that government cutbacks will shift more health costs to the private sector.
So businesses are fighting back. Zenith Corporation, for instance, has created a medical advisory program. A company specialist advises employees on which area hospitals are least expensive, and provides other cost-savings suggestions.
Ameritrust Bank in Cleveland now offers employees a choice between a traditional health insurance plan and a preferred provider organization. PPOs allow enrollees less leeway in choosing physicians or hospitals, but offer lower premiums in return.
Dexter Corporation, a Connecticut chemical company, has increased its employees' share of their health care bills by raising deductibles and premiums. It also offers a health maintenance organization (HMO), which offers enrollees broader coverage for less money, but requires them to use the HMO's own health-care facilities.
After years of double-digit increases, Dexter's health-care costs shrank during the first six months of this year, says Worth Loomis, company president. "We had viewed [health care] as a benefit that had been settled long ago -- kind of sacred," he says.
In general, price pressures are also helping the growth of alternative health care providers such as HMOs, PPOs, plus for-profit health care "boutiques" such as surgicenters and birth centers. There also are other approaches to health care, but cost is not the primary reason for exploring them.
PRICE pressures also are encouraging more Americans to live in a manner considered by the medical profession to be more healthy, so they can stay away from medical treatment as much as possible. Preventive medicine programs, that stress exercise, proper diet, moderation in alcohol and drug use, etc., are now offered by numerous hospitals and businesses.
A recent survey by Hewitt Associates, a management consulting firm, found 31 percent of responding companies now have smoking cessation programs, for instance. Forty percent offered counseling for alcohol and drug abuse; 29 percent provide their employees nutrition education.
But these actions, both government and private, are only the opening of what promises to be a long campaign.
Medicare is still in financial trouble, despite the cuts made in the system. In coming years more and more baby boomers will retire and begin drawing benefits, while the number of workers paying into the system is predicted to decrease. Medicare's board of trustees estimates that the program's hospital insurance fund will go broke in 1995 at the latest.
Last spring, a federal advisory council weighed in with a list of suggestions for keeping medicare solvent. Among its ideas: borrow tax revenue from social security; tax part of employer contributions to employee health plans, and channel the money to medicare; and raise the program's age of eligibility from 65 to 67.
"Medicare needs to be dealt with sooner or later," says a congressional staff aide involved in the issue. "1985? There certainly will be a lot of talk."
Veterans Administration hospitals are also facing a cost crunch, as increasing numbers of veterans are projected to need health care in coming years.
In fact, as the population of the country becomes more elderly in the years ahead, more demands will be made of the whole US health-care system. The US Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2030 the number of citizens over 65 will double.
"We just have more people growing older," says Dr. Joseph Boyle, president of the American Medical Association.
This demographic switch, say just about all health care experts, means the slice of the GNP that the US spends on health care isn't going to get smaller. At best, economists and others say, we should aim for controlling the rate of increase in health-care costs.
The need for economy, add experts, has stilled debate on whether the US should adopt national health insurance.
The most sweeping health measure currently before Congress, backed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D) of Missouri , would mandate stringent cost ceilings applicable to all patients, not just medicare beneficiaries.
Will these cost-control efforts affect the quality of US health care? For almost all who are involved with health care, this is a sensitive question. It makes them clear their throats and start fidgeting with pencils.
Some feel there is enough waste in the US medical system to allow substantial cuts without hitting necessary care. They point to statistical quirks as evidence -- such as the fact that Easterners are far more likely to be hospitalized than people who live in the Western US.
Colorado's Governor Lamm has estimated that as much as 20 percent of health-care spending may be medically unnecessary.
Others, such as Dr. Boyle of the AMA, say that cost cutting threatens development of new methods -- such as artificial organs -- that make the US a world leader in medical technology. Cuts, warns Boyle, could curtail people's freedom to choose among physicians. Zealous economizing "may [deny] real people care," he says.
Defining "medically unnecessary," after all, is not an easy task.What an outside observer terms unneeded might seem quite necessary to the patient. Who decides which tests, operations, new products are not worth the money?
"The dilemma that the United States and many other rich nations face," concludes Dr. Aaron of Brookings, "is how to encourage patients and providers to weigh in a humane fashion the benefits and costs of medical care."
Next: Jobs and the jobless in a changing workplace -- Sept. 21. The Domestic Policy Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that encourages discussion of public issues, explores alternatives for solving problems, and aims to identify common ground. Those wishing to participate in this year's forums should write to Dr. Jon Rye Kinghorn, Domestic Policy Association, 5335 Far Hills Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45429, or call (513) 434-7300 for information. Key programs for financing medical care in the US
MEDICATE -- health insurance provided Americans 65 or older by the US government. Funded by a payroll tax. Pays for a large portio of hospital expenses nad skilled nursing care.
For a small extra fee, medicare beneficiaries receive supplemental insurance that covers part of the cost of physician fees. The program covers 30 million US citizens -- 11 percent of the population.
MEDICAID -- a welfare program. Pays for doctor and hospital bills of the elderly poor, the disabled, and needy families with dependent children. Funded jointly by federal and state governments.
COMMERCIAL INSURERS -- private firms, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, that sell health insurance. Commercial insurance has become widespread in the US since the Great Depression, when the American Hospital Aassociation endorsed the idea.
HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATINOS (HMOs) -- institutions that offer prepaid medical care. For a set fee, participants receive all the health care they need from HMOs' own facilities and physicians. Fees are usually less than premiums for Blue Cross and other traditional insurers, but participants have little freedom to choose where they'll be treated, and who will do the treating.
PREFERRED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS (PPOs) -- group insurance, ofte offered by corporations to employees, that features discount premiums. The price of coverage is kept down because the insurer is guaranteed a set number of patients , and prompt payment.


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|Exhibition catalogues
Exhibition catalogs
|Named Person:
|Georgia O'Keeffe; Alfred Stieglitz; Georgia O'Keeffe; Alfred Stieglitz
|Material Type:
|Internet resource
|Document Type:
|Book, Internet Resource
|All Authors / Contributors:
Georgia O'Keeffe; Alfred Stieglitz; Belinda Rathbone; Roger Shattuck; Elizabeth Hutton Turner; Alexandra Arrowsmith; Thomas West; Phillips Collection.
|0060168951 9780060168957 0943044170 9780943044170
|OCLC Number:
|Exhibition held at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 1992-April 4, 1993 and at three other museums.
|143 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm
|The great American thing / Roger Shattuck --
Like nature itself / Belinda Rathbone --
"I can't sing so I paint" / Elizabeth Hutton Turner.
|essays by Belinda Rathbone, Roger Shattuck, and Elizabeth Hutton Turner ; edited by Alexandra Arrowsmith and Thomas West.
"Photography historian Belinda Rathbone, the author of a forthcoming biography of the American photographer Walker Evans, looks at the couple's life together from the perspective of Stieglitz who, at the age of fifty-two, was thoroughly rejuvenated when Georgia entered his life. Art historian Elizabeth Hutton Turner examines the relationship from O'Keeffe's point of view. She portrays how a gifted but inexperienced artist came into Stieglitz's world at the age of twenty-nine and in a short space of time evolved from apprentice to collaborator and finally to a leading artist in her own right. As Associate Curator at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Dr. Turner organized the traveling exhibition that accompanies this book." "Two Lives reproduces the work of both artists with the stunning quality and fidelity for which Callaway books are known. Together, the reproductions and the three essays form a unique account of two lives and two artists."--Jacket.


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The Compost Site is open late March to mid December, based upon the weather.
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The compost site is open to the general public during times listed above.
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Compost and Wood Mulch:
Screened compost and wood mulch is available to residents at no cost. Compost staff is available Tuesday - Saturday to load compost and mulch for residents. Please call in advance for compost.
Get ready for winter firewood season by coming to the Compost Site and get your firewood. All residents must sign a waiver at the Transfer Station before cutting or taking wood.
Questions regarding the Compost Site call Muscatine Recycling Center and Transfer Station at 563-263-9689.
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Mel Karmazin is sending signals CBS may replicate last year's strategy of selling only 65% of its upfront inventory if buyers aren't willing to pay his price. Usually, broadcasters sell some 75% to 80%, but Karmazin gambled the economy would pick up and held back time. Viacom could play that card again, he told analysts-and with cable and syndication, too. "We have oceanfront property and you can't buy oceanfront property cheap," he said.
Has reality TV's ability to make average Joes and Janes stars changed the search process? E! is holding open casting in U.S. cities and abroad for the next female host of its "Wild On" series. Budweiser and SoBe are sponsors of the quest.
AOL Time Warner's Richard Parsons showed candor with his mea culpa for the company's stock-price dive since the merger. "We're probably getting justifiably punished for being a little too exuberant," he said.


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Hello hello!
Lana gifted us a beautiful record last night, and I am dying to talk about it. We've had less than 24 hours with it, so these are just some preliminary thoughts & findings that I wanted to share. This is not a review; just a reaction.
This album is her most honest, political, and modern yet. Her recurring romanticism of sadness is replaced with a raw confession of not always being okay or stable, and the record ends with a commitment to move on "from black to blue." The vocals throughout the entire album, but especially in "13 Beaches," are the least affected we've ever heard her voice. After she shared in her Pitchfork interview this month that she has and will continue to eliminate her American flag imagery as a response to the Trump administration, it's no surprise that songs like "God Bless America – And All The Beautiful Women In It," "When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing," and "Coachella – Woodstock In My Mind" are a direct response to the tumultuous-at-best political climate of 2017 (with a- dare I say- feminist undertone?). Lyrics like "lean into the youth…we just want the fucking truth" are unusually current for Lana, who has thrived on nostalgia and picturesque old-American ideals. It feels almost spooky to hear her sing about today. She also carries very 2017 language into her grand, cinematic tracks, which is gorgeously bizarre. Also, it's worth noting that this album is not what I expected. She tricked me again with the tracks she released in advance, just like "Ultraviolence" (her first single was "West Coast," a song that differs greatly from the rest of the album). I was worried it would all sound like the title track, which features The Weeknd, and despite how much I wanted to love it, I think it's the weakest song on the album by quite a bit. Which is strange, seeing as her title tracks are usually utterly iconic ("Born To Die," "Ultraviolence," etc.).
Is it the end of an era?
Is it the end of America?
No, it's only the beginning
If we hold on to hope, we'll have a happy ending
When the world was at war before
We just kept dancing
-"When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing"
From the cover art alone we can see that Lana is in a better place than her previous albums. She looks so genuinely happy, and chose a softer, kinder, smilier photo rather than the intense, colder portraits she usually uses. The "Honeymoon" cover gave us bright colors, and this gives us a similar color scheme with a much more genuine photo. She seems approachable, which is consistent with the increase in audience interaction we've seen from her in the past few months.
The third track, "13 Beaches," is where my primary theory and biggest takeaway from the album begins. She sings that "it took 13 beaches to find one empty…but finally I'm fine." There are 13 tracks after this one, and I think that's where the connection to The Odyssey begins. The rest of the album is a journey, her journey, with highs and lows, clear chapters, and a solid conclusion. Her travels from beach to beach mirrors Odysseus's travels from island to island. Including her empty one for just her, Lana searches 14 beaches total, the same amount of islands in The Odyssey. This, to me, also explained the five features on this album (The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Stevie Nicks, and Sean Ono Lennon), after never including collaborations on previous albums. I see them as her guides and mentors from the various legs of her journey. The more I listen to it with this in mind, I can hear more allusions to it in the recurrent ocean, war, and blood imagery as well as the overall storytelling feel of the record. Lana has carried literary references into her songs before (Lolita being her favorite), and we know how intelligent she is; I by no means see it as a stretch for her to have themed an album around The Odyssey.
As it stands, my favorite tracks are "In My Feelings," "Cherry," "Love," and "Summer Bummer." That is more than subject to change.
That wraps up my thoughts thus far! I definitely have more where that came from, and I may do a track-by-track review soon once I've had some more time to sit with it and let it all sink in.


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- Description
- Stone Chart (click here)
- Product Reviews
Product Information
This gorgeous Classic Navajo Style Five Stone Stamped Row Cuff Bracelet is made with sterling silver. The bracelet features a row of five oval stones with a flush bezel setting. Surrounding the bezel setting is twisted wire adding to the contrast of the piece. The bracelet sits on top of a split shank frame with stamped spacers in between the stone settings. There are two stamped shiners on the cuff tips and four stamped shiners on top of the stamped spacers. The bracelet is heavily oxidized and comes in a satin/high shine finish. The stamped hallmark of the bracelet is stamped "J. Cowboy & Sterling".Please Note: If you'd like the stone as pictured, please choose the appropriate stone or stone combination from the provided chart
- Sterling silver
- Your choice of stone
- Cuff measures 5 1/2 inches
- Weighs 56.8 grams and wears well
- Semi -precious cabochon measure 10mm x 14mm
- Jerry Cowboy
- "Sterling"
- "J.Cowboy"
- Navajo Brand ©
Solid Single Stones
Stone 1- Black Jade
Stone 2- Lapis Lazuli
Stone 3- Malachite
Stone 4- Mohave Turquoise
Stone 5- Orange Spiny Oyster
Stone 6- Red Allanite
Stone 7- Tiger Eye
Stone 8- White Mother Of Pearl
Stone 9- Wild Horse
Stone 10- Red Spiny Oyster
Stone 11- White Opal
Stone 12- Denim Lapis
Stone 13- Yellow Mother Of Pearl
Stone 14- Black Lap Opal
Stone 15- Blue/Green Lap Opal
Stone 16- Pink Mother of Pearl
Stone 17- Grey Slate Agate
Stone 18- Green Turquoise
Stone 19- Stabilized Blue Turquoise
Stone 20- Turquoise With Matrix


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This past week we took a family trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine where we tasted some of Orange County's freshest produce. We came for the watermelon tour, but were pleasantly surprised to be able to try a variety of different fruits and vegetables on the You Pick Tour (I love surprises).
You Pick Tour
Baby D was loving the fact that we got to take a tour of Tanaka Farms in a tractor-pulled wagon. We got to see each crop and our tour guide filled us in on fun healthy produce facts. The best part of the your was tasting all the fresh produce. For each crop area we visited, we stopped to sample all the freshly picked fruits and vegetables. Come hungry, the word "sample" is an understatement. We left the farm with enough produce to make a healthy, nutritious dinner. We tasted organic green beans, cilantro, strawberry tomatoes & carrots. The staff at Tanaka Farms cut up fresh zucchini, cucumber, cantaloupe and watermelon for everyone to taste. Even though August is towards the end of watermelon season, the watermelon was still surprisingly sweet and refreshing.
Wagon Rides for Canned Food Drive
If you're looking for a fun and healthy family activity, head to Tanaka Farms on August 28 & 29 (Thursday and Friday) at 1pm. They are holding a special Wagon Rides for Canned Food Drive. They're teaming up with Ahtky Insurance Agency to help collect canned goods for the LA Food Bank, Families Forward, and South County Outreach. All you have to do is bring two canned goods per person (or $5 each) and you will receive a wagon ride around the farm.
CSA Boxes
Also, have you heard of CSA Boxes? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it's basically a box of fresh produce delivered to your home weekly. It's so great to know exactly where your food is coming from. It's a bonus to be able to support a local Orange County family farm. Our weekly grocery shopping list consist of 75% produce so I think the CSA Box idea is a great way for families to eat healthy and eat seasonal.
The freshness of farm picked fruits and vegetables compared to produce found at the grocery store is incomparable. Everything we tasted at Tanaka Farms was crisp and tasty. Take a visit to Tanaka Farms in Orange County for a fun, educational and healthy family trip. We can't wait to do another visit to the farm for pumpkin season in October!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Compensation or comp tickets were gifted for this post. Opinions expressed here are entirely my own.


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The fire extinguisher...
It's not the first tool that comes to mind when you're trying to build a successful ecommerce business, unless you're Farah Barghi.
"Our hosting facility literally caught on fire," Barghi says. "I used to wake up in cold sweats at 3 A.M. wondering if our site was down."
Barghi, the brand manager at All Pro Science, says the fire that knocked the all-natural sports supplements maker offline recently is just one of many disasters that prevented the company from growing as rapidly as it could have.
"The old site was awful, it was patched together and created a lot of anxiety," Barghi says. "I'd call developers and wake them up early in the morning for help."
It wouldn't get better anytime soon.
Turns out the fire would be the least of Barghi's concerns.
The Future President
"We're the quiet kid in the corner who is going to grow up and be president one day," Barghi says of her ambition to one day sit atop the supplements industry. "We're a little brand not making much noise now, but we have big goals."
But those goals, at least for a time, seemed all but impossible to accomplish. The supplements industry, which at times makes headlines for its bad actors, is highly competitive and regularly scrutinized by regulators.
All Pro Science, which largely relies on word of mouth marketing from delighted customers, wants to stand out by being transparent.
"We have nothing to hide and will tell customers exactly where our supplements are made," Barghi says. "We're not selling supplements out of our garage. We all take the products we sell. We believe in the products, and each other as a team."
The problem was that the team didn't believe in their ecommerce platform.
Please Don't Link to Us
"Our site was so ugly we didn't want anyone linking to it," Barghi says. "It really hurt us in terms of educating customers about our all natural supplements and how they're different."
The platform, according to Chasen Seymore, the company's lead visual designer, required a lot of heavy coding, development and integration.
But All Pro Science lacked a full-time developer who could tackle the work quickly. "I'm an artist not a coder. So it was really a headache trying to make the old platform work," Seymore says. "We were just so limited in what we could do."
The site, according to Barghi, was often down and caused traffic to fall. "We consider ourselves the Rolls Royce of the supplements industry and really rely on our customers telling others about us," she says. "If our site doesn't work, visitors aren't going to come back."
Combine this with a customer retention rate that declined by approximately 30 percent and a customer loyalty application that didn't function as it should, and Barghi estimates the company was losing thousands of dollars in sales each month.
"There was an 18-month period where growth really stunted," she says. "We definitely saw a dip."
The Replatforming Fear
"I've seen relaunches really tank from an analytics standpoint," Seymore says. "We had a lot of fears about relaunching."
- Will traffic plummet?
- Will there be SEO penalties?
- Will sales fall off a cliff?
The concerns over replatforming, especially when the majority of your revenue comes from online sales, can cause even the most courageous of marketers to drag their feet. Despite the problems Barghi and Seymore had with their old site, it took them months to actually pull the trigger and make the switch.
"There was a lot of fear," Barghi admits. "I really wish we had moved sooner in retrospect because it was nearly seamless."
A Spike in Sales
"It has paid for itself in peace of mind," Seymore says of the company's decision to replatform with Shopify Plus, an enterprise ecommerce solution for high volume merchants. "It's so easy to use, I can modify the code and it's actually enjoyable. It's just really easy to do what you want to do."
Remember the fears the team had about replatforming? Turns out they were wildly overblown as customers flocked to the new site, praised its revamped look and rewarded it with their trust and money. "A beautiful site leads to legitimacy and inspires confidence in consumers," Barghi says.
With mobile users now accounting for approximately 40% of sales, the site easily translated into an application that All Pro Science says converted at a rate between 4-7%.
Besides a spike in mobile sales, the company also says replatforming to Shopify Plus lured back customers who hadn't purchased in years.
"We know many of our customers by name and we started seeing names that hadn't purchased in several years come back and it felt really good," Barghi says. "I've been with the company so long I think of it as my child. So, seeing customers return was really special."
Site visitors, which Seymore says spent 2-3 minutes on the old site, were now spending 12-minutes on the new one. Not only was there no drop-off in traffic, but the improved site map that makes the site more searchable further improved the customer experience and caught the eye of an influential page ranker.
"It's a little nerdy but yeah, I've been receiving a nice little 'thank you' from Google [in the form of increased organic search traffic]," Seymore says with a grin.
It all culminated with 30% year-over-year increases in January 2016 sales. "We had one of our strongest days ever," Seymore says.
But it's what was now missing from All Pro Science that's really turning heads.
Dramatic Cost Cuts
"It's one less thing to stress out about," Seymore says of the new platform. "Shopify takes that off your plate, you're not going to grow gray hair with Shopify."
With sales growing, the company can now focus its resources on creating new products. "Your main source of revenue is safe with Shopify," Barghi boasts. "We can focus on marketing and product development, instead of spending our entire day chasing developers."
Fortunately, the team now has a lot more resources to focus on product innovation, due to the cost savings associated with replatforming.
"We are saving so much money," Barghi says with a smile. "I'm no longer calling developers at 3 A.M. in a panic."
Here's a rough breakdown of the company's monthly costs before and after switching to Shopify Plus:
|Cost Before Shopify
|Cost After Shopify
Our operating costs have probably been halved. Shopify Plus is worth every penny.
A Bright Future
The flexibility Shopify Plus provides already has the team at All Pro Science thinking about custom coding a BOGO offer to complement the new customer loyalty application that appears to be stimulating sales.
"I really like the app and our customers love it," Barghi says. "We just like how easy it is to do exactly what we want."
Even more important, Barghi says she's an example for others who lack programming experience but still have a strong desire to succeed online.
"We had an idea and just wanted to get it out there without spending hours coding," Barghi says. "Shopify let's us do that and focus on making great new products."
But there is one thing Barghi has lost.
The need for a fire extinguisher.
"We have peace of mind now," she laughs. "No more fires!"
About The Author
Nick Winkler is a contributor to the Shopify Plus blog. He helps individuals & organizations generate new leads, make more money, and ignite growth with story. Get more from Nick here.
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EXETER — Students of Exeter High School and Phillips Exeter Academy are joining forces to raise awareness about homelessness in the community and the world.
EXETER — Students of Exeter High School and Phillips Exeter Academy are joining forces to raise awareness about homelessness in the community and the world.
Exeter's 19th annual Vigil for the Homeless and the public kickoff for Tents of Hope is Wednesday, Jan. 30 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The vigil, which benefits local nonprofits such as the Cross Roads House, began as a way to join the efforts of students at PEA and EHS to raise awareness about homelessness on the Seacoast.
Cross Roads House is a transitional shelter in Portsmouth that serves the greater Seacoast, providing a home for up to 107 people on any given night. Last year, 39 families with 61 children stayed at the shelter; 30 were headed by single mothers. Chris Sterndale, executive director of Cross Roads House, said the shelter is housing 12 families with 18 children, and most people living in the shelters are from the immediate Seacoast.
"It's a little bit busier in the winter and early spring, but we are pretty close to full all-year round," he said.
People in the community can help the shelter by donating, volunteering and advocating for more affordable housing in their hometowns. The shelter also needs help rebuilding and with 17,000 meals served last year, it can always use a hand in the kitchen.
"We depend on a lot of support from the community to keep the place open every year," Sterndale said. "If we had enough housing that people could afford, we wouldn't need so many shelters."
The shelter provided housing for 3 percent more people last year than in 2006 and on an average night 81 people found warmth at Cross Roads. Through its transitional program, 83 percent of families who were in the shelter found permanent homes.
Along with helping people locally, the vigil aims to create awareness on a larger scale. The Tents of Hope Project is a national effort to educate U.S. citizens about the genocide in Darfur and its 2.5 million refugees. The tents represent a symbol of loss for a survivor or family who no longer has a home and offers a message of hope for a new life.
PEA students and many community and school groups will paint tent panels with images of remembrance and hope, for a message of unity with the people of Darfur.
Laurie Loosigian, PEA community service coordinator, said people all over the United States will decorate and paint their own tents, all of which will be sent to Washington, D.C., and displayed in October.
"We are really excited about it," she said. "The theme is to think globally and act locally. So we are acting locally with the vigil here and thinking globally about homelessness with the Tents project."
The Tents of Project is a group effort of the Congregational Church of Exeter, PEA, EHS STAND Chapter (Student Anti-Genocide Coalition) and NH Citizens for Divestment.
Loosigian said anyone who wants to participate can meet on Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the New Outlook Teen Center. The walking route will take participants by St. Michael's and Phillips churches to Exeter Town Hall, where community members will meet for music, songs and words. Citizens can join at any point.
"We want to paint a hopeful panel," Loosigian said.
Proceeds from the sale of vigil candles will go to Cross Roads House, Seacoast Interfaith Hospitality Network, Rockingham Community Action and New Generation Shelter, all of which support individuals and families dealing with homelessness.


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Pakistan cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq has held a meeting with the national team's recently-appointed foreign coach Dav Whatmore to plan for future training camps and introduction of new players.
A well-placed source in the Pakistan Cricket Board said Misbah and Whatmore had held a meeting in which they discussed plans for a month long conditioning and training camp and the introduction of new and upcoming players in the camp.
"Basically Whatmore has prepared a short list of around 30 probables to attend the camp after watching the national super eights Twenty20 championship in Rawalpindi and he wanted to discuss them with Misbah," the source said.
"The two apparently have consensus on most of the players shortlisted for the proposed camp in Lahore," the source added.
The PCB has not ruled out the possibility of having specialist squads in future for all three formats of the sport and the source said Misbah and Whatmore were also looking into this possibility.
"Both Misbah and Whatmore are in agreement that the camp will give them an opportunity to look at the new players and those discarded from the team and prepare well in time for the coming assignments," the source said.
Chief selector Iqbal Qasim told PTI that he would also be travelling to Lahore today to meet Misbah, Whatmore and PCB officials to discuss the proposed camp.
"We need to sit down and discuss different proposals. If they are interested in having a camp,we will try to support them as much as we can," Qasim said.
"Some of the younger players are exciting prospects and it will be good if the coaches can work with them ahead of our next international assignment against Sri Lanka," he added.
Pakistan had emerged winner in the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup after defeating Sri Lanka by eight wickets.
Misbah and Whatmore discuss Pak cricket
Pakistan cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq has held a meeting with the national team's recently-appointed foreign coach Dav Whatmore to plan for future training camps and introduction of new players.


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"It's all about the money" Officials defend DNR budget cuts
By Pam Reinig
Register Editor
More than 150 people packed the Edgewood Events Center last Monday night to hear from two DNR officials responsible for recent unpopular budget cuts.
DNR Director Chuck Gipp and Deputy Director Bruce Trautman fielded tough questions about their decision to meet a $1.2 million budget shortfall by dissolving the forestry department and eliminating key positions, including the state forester's job held by Paul Tauke. The group also raised questions about the transparency of the decision-making process. Many wondered why stakeholders had no input.
"It's all about money," Gipp said. "We don't have the dollars we once did. We were able to save the state nursery and the district foresters by eliminating positions. It was a tough call but it's what we had to do."
"We thought long and hard about this," Trautman added. "What I know about forestry I learned from Paul Tauke. One of the hardest days of my life was looking him in the eye and telling him we were making these changes."
Neither Gipp nor Trautman addressed the question of transparency to the group's satisfaction other than to say that personnel matters couldn't be discussed with the public. When pressed about specific budget cuts to meet the shortfall, Trautman mentioned that seven other positions were eliminated, 80 open positions were on hold, the number of part-time workers has been reduced by 50 percent, and the department's magazine has been cut from five issues per year to three. A partnership with AmeriCorp, which is a federal program that encourages volunteerism, was also cut.
Gary Beyer, a district forester for more than 30 years who is now a forest consultant, countered several of Gipp and Trautman's arguments. He expressed confidence in Tauke's ability to find other ways to save money, if he'd been alerted to the terminations.
"Paul presented a budget for FY18 that was in the black," Beyer said. "The morning he was fired he was going to work on $3 million in grants. From 2010-2017, the forestry budget was cut by $1 million but Paul still managed to keep everyone working. Now you take a $1 million hit for the whole DNR and you have to cut jobs? That doesn't make sense to me."
Iowa is now the only state in the U.S. without a designated forestry department. Beyer and others are concerned that that will greatly impact Iowa's ability to compete on federal grants.
"We compete for grants with 20 other 'big timber' states, and the last seven years we've out-competed them," Beyer said. "Have you thought about the impact this will have on that?"
Trautman addressed Beyer's concern by saying that the department would do its best to compete, even though he wasn't certain how the grant-awarding process would be impacted.
Sharon Ramsey of Trees Forever drew applause when she suggested that the word "forestry" should be incorporated into the overall title of the department. "We're the only state without that designation and that will hurt us for years to come," she said.
When cuts were announced by the DNR, the department issued a statement that the changes wouldn't impact service levels. Gipp backed away from that claim, noting that it "gives the idea that those positions weren't necessary."
"Yes, it's going to cause a reduction in services," he added. "Things will be slower."
One of the most telling comments was made at the end of the evening by former state representative Roger Thomas of Elkader. "Right now, I don't think there's any Iowa legislator who cares about forestry," he said, adding that residents need to put pressure on elected officials to give the DNR sufficient funds in the future."


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Tony Murphy, a tennis coach from Northern Ireland, made his mark at the Commonwealth Games badminton tournament with a thrilling victory on Wednesday morning.
The 24-year-old from Lisburn, who has swapped one racquet for another to compete in Glasgow, reached the men's singles third round with an energy-sapping 2-1 win over Pakistan's Muhammad Bhatti.
Murphy made a slow start against his little-known opponent but came from behind to secure one of the best victories of his career, 11-21 22-20 21-18, in 48 minutes.
Murphy, who also played in the team event and is featuring in the men's and mixed doubles at the Emirates Arena, said: "Normally I am really good at checking out my opponents but I had nothing on this guy.
"It's up there with one of the better wins and with this venue and the crowd, people that don't know you supporting you, shouting your name, it is a really good feeling.
"This is by far the biggest and best venue I have played in.
"I've lost a lot of matches like that this year so it's nice to actually pull one off when it matters the most."
Murphy has a day job coaching children at the Tennis Fundamentals grassroots club in his home town.
He normally works full-time but was allowed to switch to part-time this year in order to train twice a day or play in tournaments leading up to Glasgow.
He said: "Mixing the two has been difficult but I have managed it this year.
"But as soon as I get off the boat going home, I'll be back coaching full-time again and trying to fit my training around that."
Murphy finds it easy to switch between the two sports and feels they complement each other well.
He said: "When I was younger I played a wee bit of tennis myself to take a break from badminton during the summer, but there has been no tennis for me this year.
"But no, it doesn't interfere. You can take something from every sport you do and put it into your own game."
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Following Argentine Central Bank's Communication 5318 which suspended the ability of residents and legal persons to purchase foreign currency since 2012, foreign companies have been unable to offer employee stock purchase plans ("ESPPs") in Argentina and employees or other individuals have been unable to remit funds out of Argentina for the purchase of shares under other equity plans.
On December 17, 2015, the Central Bank issued Communication "A" 5850 which lifts several exchange control restrictions and allows Argentinian residents (both individuals and local entities, other than entities in the financial sector) to purchase foreign currency and transfer funds abroad for investment purposes (including for investment in foreign securities), subject to certain restrictions and requirements (further described below).
Practically speaking, this means companies can resume offering ESPPs or similar purchase plans and lift any cashless exercise restrictions imposed on stock options. Similarly, local entities should be able to make reimbursement payments for shares issued to its employees to the foreign parent company.
Any outward remittances are subject to a monthly limit of US$2 million per individual/local entity, and in order to effect the foreign fund transfer from Argentina, certain steps must be taken. In particular, various documents must be completed and executed, such as a currency exchange slip provided by the bank assisting with the transfer, a sworn statement indicating the origin of the funds used to purchase the foreign currency/ assets and a sworn affidavit declaring that the individual/entity has not exceeded the US$2 million monthly limit. The bank assisting with the transfer may ask for other administrative forms to be completed and executed. Any funds must be transferred to a foreign account opened in the name of the individual/local entity which acquired the foreign currency.
It is not clear yet whether intercompany transfers (i.e., the remittance of funds by way of offsetting book entries between the local entity and the foreign parent company) will be permitted.
It is expected that the requirements for the remittance of funds out of Argentina will be further clarified in the coming months.
We would like to thank our colleagues in Buenos Aires, Martin Quintanar and Gabriel Gomez-Giglio, for their advice and contributions to this alert.


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There's a notion that if a jazz musician records for a decent record company and makes a reputation for himself, he'll receive, along with a contract, some health insurance, a retirement fund, keys to a new car and a happy prosperous life. Not so, and it wasn't so in 1960 and 1961, when the pianist and composer Freddie Redd recorded three albums for Blue Note Records - two of which are hard-bop classics - and then vanished into the same obscurity, partly self-made, he came from.
The three records have just been rescued from the amnesia of jazz history by ''The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd'' (Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, Conn. 06904; CD and LP only), a development which makes it clear that the jazz life has produced many more worthy artists than the clubs and record companies can possibly support - and that the jazz life exists beyond recordings and appearances in major cities.
The recordings also show Mr. Redd to be the composer of pungent, often blues-laden melodies and a masterful small-group arranger. As a pianist, he's both a dutiful soloist and an excitable accompanist who made musicians play up to their best.
Born in New York in 1928, Mr. Redd hung out at jam sessions in the 1950's and played with many of the major figures, Sonny Rollins to Art Blakey, and worked regularly with Charles Mingus. When things got tough, he just moved on, living in Guadalajara, Mexico, and in Paris and London.
But it was after settling in Greenwich Village in the late 50's that he got the break that elevated him, at least momentarily, above the ranks of the average, talented jazz musician. Asked to do the music for a 1959 Off Broadway production of Jack Gelber's play ''The Connection,'' he wrote an original score and recorded it for Blue Note Records. That album is often considered one of the best records in the Blue Note catalogue.Continue reading the main story
''The Connection,'' which features Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, Michael Mattos on bass and Larry Ritchie on drums, is a simple quartet date filled with the sort of careful writing that Mr. Redd developed more fully on the next album he did for Blue Note, ''Shades of Redd.'' In one respect ''The Connection'' is a blowing date set up for Mr. McLean, who plays wonderfully on all three albums, but like many Blue Note records of the period, it's perfectly arranged, with each harmonic movement accented and intensified by changes of texture or rhythm. On ''Who Killed Cock Robin,'' each harmonic change is rapped out by the drums, the bridge of the tune makes melodic references to the first theme, and Mr. McLean plays a typically mesmerizing solo, part nasty and bitter and part joyously optimistic. It is hard-bop at its best.
''Shades of Redd'' is well composed and arranged, but a bit of an anachronism - Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and others were opening the doors for abstraction in jazz at the same time. But the album is so accomplished and satisfying that it proves that a genre - in this case hard-bop - can still be fertile long after its historical moment has passed. Mr. McLean and the tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, who complements him perfectly by adding some felt to his strident tone, both play brilliantly.
''The Thespian,'' an unusually arranged piece for the time, has Mr. Redd harmonizing the two saxophones and playing a long, mournful melody over a bowed bass. Suddenly the tune erupts, and a figured bass line - Mr. Redd wrote bass parts full of sleek movement - breaks away, the horns charge up the same melody, and Mr. McLean is off on a new solo.
Behind him is Mr. Redd, and it's as an accompanist that he is the most successful. A busy chorder, he will start rattling away behind a soloist, prompting him and prodding hard. Chords jar and fragment. New rhythmic and harmonic ideas pop up regularly, and a lesser soloist would easily get flustered. Not Mr. McLean, one of the toughest saxophonists Harlem produced in the 1940's. And the contrast between Mr. Redd, who sometimes sounds like a naturally nervous person pumped full of coffee, and the rhythmically acute, steady declarations of Mr. McLean help make the record.
Five months later, Mr. Redd, along with Mr. Brooks, Mr. McLean, Benny Bailey on trumpet, Paul Chambers on bass and Sir John Godfrey on drums, went into the studio for Mr. Redd's last session for Blue Note. Alfred Lion, Blue Note's owner, wanted the musicians to have rehearsed their material before arriving at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and, as Mr. Redd says in the liner notes, the music hadn't been rehearsed adequately. Mr. Lion and Mr. Redd had a fight that ended their relationship. Mr. Redd went on to record four times for other labels over the last 28 years.
Mr. Redd's last session for Blue Note was never issued, a tribute to the scrupulous standards of Mr. Lion. Other labels at the time might have been happy to release the date, but for a Blue Note session it is inferior, with Mr. Redd's even more ambitious arrangments - again a step up in complexity and intelligence from his previous recording - stumping the band and making them sound tentative. Mr. Godfrey isn't the smoothest drummer; Mr. McLean and Mr. Brooks, typically, are perfect.
In the liner notes, Mr. Redd professes not to be too worried about his relationship to the limited star-making machinery of jazz, concentrating instead on preserving his integrity - though fame and quality aren't as antithetical as they are often claimed to be. Each of his albums for Blue Note showed progress, a genuinely distinct melodic sense and a real mastery of small-group arrangements. Had he and record companies come to better terms, he might have produced more and better work. In the liner notes, Jackie McLean says, ''You never know what town you'll see [ Freddie ] in. He's always been itinerant. Freddie just appears from time to time, like some wonderful spirit.'' That he avoids attention, and that there isn't more room in the club, concert and record company system for him, is our loss.Continue reading the main story


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Wildflower Tourist
2012 Spring Trip Map Overview (can be scrolled and zoomed)
Here is an overview of our trip:
Wildflower Tourist 2012 Spring Trip Map and Location List
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Our 2012 Spring Trip
We are back from our visit to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the surrounding National Forests and other natural areas in North Carolina and Tennessee.
We take nature's beauty as a witness of God's love for us, and are happy to share that beauty with you in our photographs and descriptions of what we saw.
Please checking back as we fill in missing entries.
National Parks, Forests and Natural Areas
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USA summer trip destinations
USA summer trip destinations
1. Summer in the City
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, when residents head for the beach, most big cities empty out, enabling you to score tables at top-notch restaurants, snag choice theater tickets, and take advantage of free cultural offerings. Many hotel rooms are also deeply discounted through the end of August. Plan now, while deals are still available.
Destination: New York, New York
Get Cultured
- City Web sites have become surprisingly comprehensive resources. New York's(nycvisit.com), for example, has inside tips from famous locals, maps, and schedules for open-air movies, concerts in the park, and theatrical performances. (A list of sites for other cities can be found at usa.gov, in the Travel and Recreation section.)
Find a Room
- Take advantage of lower weekend hotel rates. A room at the Benjamin in midtown starts at $503 on June 10 (a Tuesday) but goes down to $386 on June 14 (a Saturday). On Farecast.com, you can use the hotel search function to get advice on whether the quoted rate is a good deal for more than 5,000 properties in 30 U.S. cities. The site bases its recommendations on historic pricing data.
Land a Coveted Table
- Reserve now for summer: business manager Veda Nishikawa of New York's sushi temple Masa (Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle; 212/823-9800; dinner for two $800) recommends calling at least one month in advance. Check nycvisit.com for the dates of this summer's Restaurant Week, when top restaurants offer affordable prix fixe menus.
Follow the Leader
- Looking for the perfect guide?The excellent magazine usa.com (actually, the English-language offshoot of a company that publishes German-language guides to America) covers 11 cities in the United States and will lead you to reputable operators in New York. At Big Onion Walking Tours (212/439-1090;bigonion.com; $15 for adults), for example, doctoral candidates will show you often overlooked treasures, from the artisanal markets of the Lower East Side to the clubs of historic Harlem.
—Bree Sposato
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Fountain Valley Tire & Auto
has been your neighborhood tire store, always ready to go the extra mile for you since its founding in 1981. Owner Paul Dickerson purchased Fountain Valley Tire & Auto in January of 2007 and is committed to providing customers with the same service that he would provide his own family. At Fountain Valley Tire & Auto, we will always provide you with an honest evaluation of your car's tires
and overall health, as well as guide you to the best available options for whatever products and services your vehicle may need. Contact us online or come into our convenient shop, located at 18302 Ward Street, Fountain Valley, CA.
Our stellar reputation for tire sales and service in the communities of Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Westminster, and Garden Grove, CA, is even better now with our online tire finder. Simply input your vehicle's make, model and year to browse a list of appropriate tires from MICHELIN®, BFGoodrich®, and Uniroyal® before you even come into our store. Once you buy a set of tires, we will service them too, providing you with regular and low profile installation, computer spin balancing, road force balancing, flat
repairs, and rotations.
The TIA certified technicians at Fountain Valley Tire & Auto are also well qualified to complete a full range of mechanical repairs to keep your car in top condition. We specialize in providing unparalleled service in axle/CV joint/driveshaft repair, belts and hoses, brake work, cooling system, radiator and, electrical system diagnosis and repair, starting/charging batteries, engine diagnostics, exhaust systems, four wheel drive
systems, glass repair, heating and air conditioning problems, lube and oil change, nitrogen inflation, preventive maintenance, state inspection, steering and suspension, TPMS, transmission, and wheel alignment. Stop in today or call us at 714-963-1897. We're open 8 AM to 5:30 PM, Monday through Friday, and 8 AM to 2 PM on Saturday.


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|Introduction to Robotics
|Date: 2014/11/11 Browse: 863
Speaker: Dr. S?ren Schwertfeger
Time: Nov.11 3:15-4:45 pm
Location: Room 220, Building 8
Robots are conquering the world! They are becoming more and more common, not only in Industry, but also in our everyday life. They are beginning to appear in the form of cleaning robots, service (delivery) robots in hospitals and industry, as toys for children and grown-ups and in the military. In the foreseeable future we will have (semi-) autonomous cars and autonomous delivery drones (quad copters) and we will be working "hand-in-hand" with them in the factories.
This seminar talk gives an introduction to robotics, describing the main challenges and some approaches to overcome those problems – from a Computer Scientists point of view!
Dr. S?ren Schwertfeger is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Science and Technology (SIST) at ShanghaiTech University. He received his Diploma (German equivalent of the Master) in Computer Science in 2005 from the University of Bremen in Germany. In 2012 he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. Between 2012 and 2014 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Robotics Group of Prof. Andreas Birk at the Jacobs University Bremen. In 2010 Dr. Schwertfeger was a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, where he did research on robot performance evaluation and map quality assessment.
His research interest is in robotics, especially in intelligent functions for mobile robots. Besides his work on map evaluation, Dr. Schwertfeger also worked and published on mapping, object detection and robot autonomy. He successfully participated in many robot competitions, both as team member and as judge and organizer. Dr. Schwertfeger was the chair of the 2014 German Open RoboCup Rescue competition. In 2012 he won the best paper award at the International Workshop on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR). He is the reviewer for many top journals and conferences in the area of robotics.
SIST-Seminar 14038


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Michael Sheen's Passion event marked in Port Talbot
One year after 1,000 people staged a reenactment in Port Talbot of Jesus's journey to the cross, negative attitudes to the town have changed, says the town's canon.
Canon Nigel Cahill said the Passion production, which starred Michael Sheen, was talked about every week.
Sheen played the Christ-like character in a 72-hour production at multiple locations around his home town.
He will attend a multi media exhibition about the production this Easter.
Held at Aberafan Shopping Centre, photos and films taken by people at last year's show at Port Talbot will go on display.
Canon Cahill said the impact of the National Theatre Wales production last year was still being felt in the town.
"Everyone has stopped being negative," he said.
"And that's one of the lasting features.
"It is as if they have been allowed to vent their negativity.
"Every week someone talks about Passion."
The Passion, written by Welsh poet and novelist Owen Sheers who is also attending the exhibition which is held on Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday, mirrors the story of Jesus's journey to the cross.
BBC Wales is showing programmeslooking back at the event.
This year, similar enactments are being in other communities around Wales, including Barry and Wrexham.
The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, will lead a two-mile (3.2km) "walk of witness" through the streets of Barry on Good Friday.
And members of Wrexham Churches Together (Cytun Wrecsam) network will hold enactments outside town centre landmarks, including Wrexham Museum, the former Marks and Spencer building, the Wynnstay Arms Hotel and Eagles Meadow Shopping precinct.
Sheen, who is returning to his home town for the second event, said: "I started to think about how we could do something together a year on.
"To mark it in some way, for those who wanted to.
"To remember what we shared.
"And to celebrate something that was in many ways, unforgettable."
More than 1,000 local residents also took part in the National Theatre Wales production.
It began at 0530 BST on Good Friday 2011 with a seafront scene, inspired by John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus, which was watched by hundreds who had heard about it by word of mouth.
By the time the first main part of the play was performed on Aberavon Beach at 1500 BST, organisers estimated up to 6,000 people had gathered to watch.
Sheen said: "As the original story of The Passion had many different versions, many different depictions of the same events, all the various gospels, so too did the events in Port Talbot last Easter.
"The mobile phone cameras were everywhere. Each one recording its own gospel.
"There's a book about it, documentaries, a feature film, sound recordings, paintings and interviews.
"We want to bring it all together for an exhibition this Easter, one year on."
Canon Cahill said while there had not been a big change in the numbers of people visiting church since the event, he felt in a wider sense that people were more willing to talk openly about faith.
Sheen, known for his screen portrayals of figures such as Tony Blair, David Frost and Brian Clough, has said he was inspired by the community spirit of the Passion plays he watched at nearby Margam Park as a youngster.
A film premier, The Gospel of Us, takes place at Apollo Cinema, Port Talbot, on Sunday at 20:00 BST.


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Todd Moss and Ross Thuotte at CGD made the case a few weeks ago for investing in Africa (literally).
The question for how best to do this popped into my head a few weeks ago at a conference on business in Africa. So what can you do? I have some very meagre savings, and interest rates are so low right now in the UK they may as well be stuffed under my mattress. Surely there is a way of tapping into the high growth in developing countries?
@davidcshipley: There's plenty of options which will get you way more than 2% - EMD, AR strasts etc. (Not investment advice). for Africa specifically there are some frontier funds which directly focus there, plus EM Eqs which have some allocation
@Scott_Gilmore: Try http://myc4.com
@StyledByAfrica: Check out @Homestrings about investing in Africa
@tylercowen: Some contemporary African art is fairly liquid, it has a high bid-ask spread but one way to start...
@RealClearAfrica: http://investinginafrica.net/#cat-1Anyone have any experience with any of this or any other tips?


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PLUM firstname.lastname@example.com_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-30 published
PLUM, Gerald E., Ph.D.
Dr. Gerald PLUM, psychologist, died in the early hours of Boxing Day, 2003. His daughter Terra and partner Penny LOUBE were with him. Gerry was born in Detroit in 1934 and raised in Farmington, Michigan. He was a man of many gifts, both intellectual and physical. He was the quarterback of his high school football team and a running back at Wayne State University. He was also a pitcher of considerable ability, scouted in his teens by the New York Giants. A scholar, he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, where he studied with D.O. Hebb, Carl Rogers and Bruno Bettelheim. In 1965, he moved with his young family to British Columbia and taught psychology for a number of years at the University of British Columbia. Later, he taught at King's College in London until his retirement seven years ago. At King's, he served as head of the Social Work Program and Chairman of the psychology department. He also conducted a private practice for many years, and was a consultant to Search, a community mental health project in Strathroy. Gerry was a member of the College of Psychologists of Ontario and British Columbia. He was a member of the Michigan Bioenergetics Society and studied at The Gestalt Institute of Toronto. Following his retirement, Gerry pursued in earnest his life-long interest in drama. He acted in several plays in London, including Shakespeare and musical comedies. For his performance in his final role, he was presented with an adjudicator's special award. In his spare time, Gerry renovated a farmhouse near Mt. Brydges, canoed the Nahanni River, and bicycled from Vancouver to Michigan for his 30th high school reunion. In addition to Penny and Terra, Gerry is survived by his sons Dan and Judd, his brother Tom, his father Irving, and nieces and nephews. His mother Opal died earlier this year, and he lost his beloved son Randy in 1985. Gerry will be sorely missed by many close Friends, associates, and those he served over his long, productive career. Visitation was held Monday, December 29 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at Denning Brothers Fuenral Home, 32 Metcalfe Street West, Strathroy. Funeral service at that location on December 30 at 11 a.m., Reverend Clarence CROSSMAN officiating.
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PLUMMER email@example.com_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-16 published
Father figure to the Canadian stage
British-trained Stratford character actor never craved starring roles
By Allison LAWLOR, Special to The Globe and Mail, Thursday, October 16, 2003 - Page R11
For Mervyn " Butch" BLAKE, entering a theatre was a magical experience, something he never tired of during an acting career that spanned close to three-quarters of a century. Mr. BLAKE, one of the most loved members of the Stratford Festival Company, died on October 9 at a Toronto nursing home after a long illness. He was 95.
"Theatre seems to give me life," Mr. BLAKE said in 1994. "I just feel marvellous when I enter the theatre... it's one of the things which keeps me going."
Over his long stage life that included 42 consecutive seasons with the Stratford Festival of Canada, Mr. BLAKE "had the distinction of playing in every single play of Shakespeare's," said Richard MONETTE, Stratford's artistic director.
"He had a great life in the theatre," Mr. MONETTE said.
Adored by both audiences and fellow actors, the veteran actor was known across Canada for his enormous talent and generosity of spirit. When he wasn't working at Stratford, he acted on the country's major stages and in television and film.
For seven seasons, he toured with the Canadian Players, bringing professional theatre to smaller towns. And in 1987, he won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for best performance in a featured role in a production of Saturday, Sunday, Monday at what was then called CentreStage (now CanStage).
"Everyone loved Butch without exception," said John NEVILLE, a former Stratford's artistic director.
Mervyn BLAKE was born on November 30, 1907, in Dehra Dun, India, where his father was a railway executive.
His father wanted him to become an engineer but after falling in love with the theatre, Mr. BLAKE was able to persuade his father to allow him to study at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1932, he graduated and soon made his professional stage debut at the Embassy Theatre in London
During the Second World War, he served in the British Army as a driver. It was during the war years that he is said to have got his nickname Butch. A witness to the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Mr. BLAKE was present at the liberation of the camp by British troops. It was an experience that haunted him for the rest of his life.
At the war's end, he returned to England and to the stage. He married actress Christine BENNETT and spent the years between 1952 and 1955 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. There he worked with many of the great British actors such as Sir Laurence OLIVIER, Sir Michael REDGRAVE and Dame Peggy ASHCROFT.
Despite his success on the British stage, he decided to join the Stratford Festival of Canada, then in its fifth season. With his family in tow, Mr. BLAKE moved to Canada and in 1957 appeared in a production of Hamlet with Christopher PLUMMER in the title role.
"He wasn't a leading actor," said actor and director Douglas CAMPBELL. "He was a supporting player. As a supporting player you couldn't get better."
Mr. BLAKE always saw himself as a character actor who never cared that much about starring roles, said Audrey ASHLEY, a former Ottawa Citizen theatre critic and author of Mr. BLAKE's 1999 biography With Love from Butch.
"He was one of those actors you never had to worry about," Ms. ASHLEY said. "You knew Butch was always going to do a good job."
Known for his unfailing good nature and even temper, he enjoyed re-telling gaffes he had made on stage. Mr. MONETTE remembers one performance where Mr. BLAKE appeared on stage as the Sea Captain in Twelfth Night. The character Viola asks him, "What country, Friends, is this?" And instead of responding "This is Illyria, lady." Out of his mouth popped, "This is Orillia."
To the younger actors at Stratford, Mr. BLAKE was a father figure. "He was very fond of the young actors and would take them under his wing," Ms. ASHLEY said.
Stephen RUSSELL remembers arriving at Stratford for his first season in the mid-1970s. He was placed in the same dressing room as Mr. BLAKE, an experience he still holds close to his heart.
"He was one of the most generous human beings," Mr. RUSSELL said.
One of the areas Mr. BLAKE was most helpful in was teaching fellow actors how to apply stage makeup. He loved makeup and on his dressing-room table he had an old rabbit's foot that he would use to apply his face powder, Mr. RUSSELL said.
Aging didn't stop him from applying his own elaborate makeup. Playing the role of old Adam in As You Like It required him to go through the same makeup ritual when he was 70 years old as it did when he performed the role years earlier as a much younger man.
Aside from the stage, one of Mr. BLAKE's passions was cricket. During his first season in Stratford, he played on the festival's team and was responsible for starting a friendly, annual cricket match against the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Each season, members of the two acting companies would come together for a civilized afternoon of cricket and tea. The Stratford team still goes by the name of Blake's Blokes.
In honour of his talent and dedication to the theatre, Mr. BLAKE was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in May, 1995.
"When he entered, the stage just lit up," Mr. RUSSELL said.
Mr. BLAKE leaves his wife Christine BENNETT; children Andrew and Bridget; and stepson Tim DAVISSON.
Details of a memorial service to be held in Stratford, Ontario, have yet to be announced.
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EDUCATION is an important asset for any country. It is for this reason that the former Barisan Nasional government allocated financial aid amounting to RM61.6 billion for the education sector in the 2018 Budget.
We are entering the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), which is expected to transform the way we live, work and play.
Experts visualise an environment where an Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technology will connect us through smart devices, aimed at reducing human frailties and risks.
These experts see machines making our lives easier. And, as we spend most of our time at work, it is in the office that we will come up with such challenges the most.
Experts expect robots to replace humans. Such changes will not only be faced by those who work in the manufacturing sector, but also other economic and social sectors.
What all this means is that we have to be armed for such a revolutionary change.
We not only have to upskill ourselves, but we must also learn new skills. Some of the skills have to be learnt as we go along.
The answer to all these challenges lies in knowledge. It is for this reason that education needs to be supported by the government. Without education, people will be left out of the modernisation equation.
It is not possible to envisage all that will happen in the future, but wise Malaysians will seize all opportunities to arm themselves for such a future.
Business leaders talk of acceleration of innovation and disruption, but this continues to surprise many in and outside the work of the environment. Agility and speed will define IR 4.0.
The bottom line is that we must, through education, understand the challenges brought about by IR 4.0 and learn to cope with the changes.
IR 4.0's success depends on education.
Deputy director of research, Industrial Linkages and Alumni, UiTM Johor