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Ever look at a piece of clothing that's labeled "eco-friendly" and wonder just how recycled its materials really are? I recently had a chance to visit one of the greenest textile factories in the world, and literally got to see how a Diet Coke bottle becomes a pair of jeans! Check out the totally fascinating process every step of the way...
Colombia is known for its textiles, so during my visit the ProExport team set up a visit to a couple of factories here in Medellin that are using some cutting-edge technologies to produce eco-friendly fabrics. I got to trace the process from soda bottle to Wrangler jeans at Enka de Colombia and Fabricato, and here's how it works:
The Enka factory specializes in post-consumer recycling, and they see a million bottles a day go through a process of grinding, cleaning, melting, and spinning to become Pet fiber, a kind of polyester that's made entirely of recycled plastic bottles (but that's nothing--the technology they're rolling out in 2014 will allow for three million bottles a day to be processed). They're also incredibly focused on keeping things green in their factory--they recycle their own waste and buy waste from other companies to process it for energy.
After the bottles have been collected, they are sorted...
...ground up...
...and cleaned and separated to remove their labels and undergo a thorough sterilization.
Next the little plastic bits get heated up until they melt, and are extruded as a kind of plastic paste, which is sterilized once again and then stretched out to become more fibrous. Eventually it becomes a raw material that resembles cotton, and then it's shipped to factories that make stuffing for pillows and furniture, and sold to textile companies who make fabrics out of it, like Fabricato.
They take bales of Pet fiber and Colombian and American-grown cotton and spin them into yarn, stretching and working until the fibers become parallel, working them thinner and thinner until they're a weavable yarn.
That yarn then gets dyed (the colors vary depending on the denim) and makes its way to enormous computerized looms, where it's woven into huge rolls of denim that probably look a lot more familiar than anything else you've seen here (I know it did to me!).
And finally, that denim is sent to factories where it is cut and sewn into something every American on the planet would recognize--jeans! Kinda cool to know these Wranglers were once a soda bottle, isn't it!? Don't you think this technology is pretty interesting? Wouldn't you love to see more factories adopt such an environmentally conscious way of working? Are you a fan of clothes made from eco-friendly fabrics? Discuss!
PLUS...more from my trip to Colombia!


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Kershaw, Puig, Greinke, Dee named All-Stars
DENVER -- Led by defending National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and starting outfielder Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers had four players named to the NL All-Star team on Sunday.
View Full Game Coverage
DENVER -- Led by defending National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and starting outfielder Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers had four players named to the NL All-Star team on Sunday.
View Full Game Coverage
Puig was voted onto the starting lineup by the fans as one of three outfielders. Starting pitcher Zack Greinke was a manager's selection, while rotation-mate Kershaw and second baseman Dee Gordon were picked by the players.
It will be Kershaw's fourth consecutive All-Star appearance, Greinke's second honor since 2009 and the first All-Star appearances for Puig and Gordon.
The last time the Dodgers had two starting pitchers on the same All-Star team was 1991 (Ramon Martinez and Mike Morgan). They last had as many as four All-Stars in 2010 (Andre Ethier, Jonathan Broxton, Rafael Furcal and Hong-Chih Kuo). The last time they had five All-Stars was 1995 (Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo, Jose Offerman, Mike Piazza and Todd Worrell).
Puig is the first Cuban-born outfielder voted into the NL starting lineup. He joins Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Tony Oliva, Minnie Minoso and Yoenis Cespedes as Cuban outfielder All-Stars.
Gordon -- displaced at shortstop by Hanley Ramirez two years ago only to resurrect his career at second base after a trial in the outfield -- becomes the first home-grown Dodgers infield All-Star since Offerman in 1995 and the first homegrown All-Star second baseman since Steve Sax in 1986.
"I almost cried when Donnie [Mattingly] told me," said Gordon, son of former All-Star pitcher Tom Gordon. "My dad took me to three All-Star Games. Now I can take him to one."
Puig, who lost the final vote election last year after spending barely a month in the Major Leagues, finished ahead of fourth-place Giancarlo Stanton, despite a homerless June.
"I'm happy, obviously, and I appreciate all the support from my teammates and the fans that voted for me," said Puig. "I thank the coaches and my teammates. I'm happy with the way I played the first half of the season."
"Both guys took different roads," Mattingly said of Gordon and Puig. "Dee went back and forth, he battled, changed positions, fought his way back. And Yasiel, his story [a harrowing journey out of Cuba and into a $42 million contract] is incredible."
Kershaw, who has won two NL Cy Young Awards but never started an All-Star Game, said he would be honored to start this one if selected by NL manager Mike Matheny, who can also choose from his ace, Adam Wainwright.
"Yeah, sure, I'd love to do it," said Kershaw, who has a streak of 36 consecutive scoreless innings. "There's a ton of great candidates. I'll be fine either way."
Clearly, Kershaw has not become jaded even though he's a perennial All-Star pick.
"It's a huge honor," he said. "I'm always really excited to get to do it. Going with four Dodgers is pretty cool. I love it. It's not a goal, but to play with the game's best, to associate with those guys, I hope I never take it for granted. It's pretty awesome."
Immediately following the announcement of the American League and National League All-Star rosters on July 6, fans began voting to select the final player for each League's 34-man roster via the 2014 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by Experian. Fans can cast their votes from a list of five players from each League until the winners will be announced after the voting concludes on Thursday, July 10.
And the voting doesn't end. The final phase of All-Star Game voting will again have fans participating in the voting for the Ted Williams All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award presented by Chevrolet. During the Midsummer Classic, fans will vote exclusively online at MLB.com and via Twitter in the 2014 All-Star Game MLB.com MVP Vote Sponsored by Pepsi, and their collective voice will represent 20 percent of the overall vote that determines the recipient of the Arch Ward Trophy.
MLB.TV Premium subscribers, for the first time, will be able to live stream the All-Star Game via MLB.TV through FOX's participating video providers. Access will be available across more than 400 support MLB.TV platforms, including the award-winning MLB.com At Bat app. MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage of the All-Star Week festivities.
The 85th All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS, and worldwide by partners in more than 200 countries via MLB International's independent feed. ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB Network and SiriusXM will also provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information, please visit allstargame.com.
Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Houston Rockets are finally ready for their Dwight Howard pitch.
In a move that gives the Rockets the necessary salary cap space to offer the free agent big man a maximum salary contract in their meeting that is expected to take place Sunday night, they agreed to send forward Thomas Robinson to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for two second-round draft picks and the rights to Kostas Papanikolau and Marko Todorovic, two people with knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced.
DWIGHT: What center wants in free agency
ROCKETS: Waive two guards for cap space
DECISIONS: 10 toughest calls of offseason
It has long been expected the Rockets would trade Robinson as a necessary part of their plan, but they also had to waive point guards Carlos Delfino and Aaron Brooks earlier in the day in order to free up enough funds for the four-year, $88 million offer that Howard would receive. The meeting with Howard will take place in Los Angeles, with the Lakers center expected to meet with officials from the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks on Monday and the Dallas Mavericks and the Lakers on Tuesday. Free agents can't sign new contracts until July 10, but Howard's situation is expected to be resolved before then.
Robinson was the fifth overall pick out of Kansas a year ago, but has now been traded twice before his second season after he was dealt from the Sacramento Kings to Houston in February. He has three seasons and a combined $11.8 million left on his deal (the final two seasons are team options).
PHOTOS: Top 20 free agents of the offseason


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|Britney Spear
Britney hosting Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj to Make a remix of 'Till The World Ends'
|The Original Album Cover of Till The World Ends
Britney Spears has suddenly become a player in the remix of 'Till The World Ends'. With her there are two other star-Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj. She here hosting both Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj on this reworked version of "Till The World Ends."
|Kesha and Minaz
Spears premiered the song at her own site and tweeted the single's cover art. It's as though Minaj is rapping on a different song that you have to get through in order to get to the real song and this will certainly give Spears and Minaj an excuse to be onstage together when the two go on tour this summer. Though all the remixes we will stick together to the original and reap the real taste.


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Hagel takes fire from Hill
Senate Democrats and Republicans are far from sold on President Barack Obama's expected nomination of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense.
In fact, Obama's decision to tap the Vietnam veteran and outspoken former Republican senator is likely to spark another nasty fight with Congress right on the heels of the fiscal cliff showdown and just before another likely battle royal over the debt ceiling.
Story Continued Below
( Also on POLITICO: The shortlist for Obama's top jobs)
Republicans on Sunday unleashed a fresh barrage of attacks amid reports Obama would nominate Hagel on Monday for the top job at the Pentagon.
The new Senate minority whip, Texas Republican John Cornyn, said he's firmly against Hagel's nomination. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an Air Force reservist who serves on the Armed Services Committee that will consider the nod, said Hagel would hold the "most antagonistic" views toward Israel of any defense secretary in U.S. history.
( PHOTOS: Chuck Hagel's career)
And despite heaping praise on Hagel when he retired from the Senate after the 2008 elections, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday failed to extend an olive branch to the Nebraska Republican, instead suggesting there would be "tough questions" ahead.
Even Senate Democrats are privately signaling they're not yet on board with the Hagel pick, and that the White House has a lot of work to do to get him across the finish line.
The nomination comes at a tricky time for the administration — just as the fights over raising the debt ceiling and government appropriations are set to begin. And it could put a number of at-risk or pro-Israel Democrats in tough political spots — especially if the nomination fight grows even more contentious.
( Also on POLITICO: Graham calls Hagel an 'in-your-face' pick)
Democrats are also scratching their heads over why Obama appears willing to go to the mat for Hagel, while abandoning his push for a close friend and member of his inner circle, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, to become secretary of state. Rice, an unabashed Democrat, abandoned her bid after withering GOP criticism over the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.
Though different in substance, the controversy over Rice's remarks is not unlike the current pushback over Hagel's past foreign policy positions and controversial remarks. But Hagel lacks a natural constituency in the Senate, given that he's grown alienated from the GOP, yet Democrats are suspicious of his record.
"It is a strange signal for the White House to send that they are willing to fight for Hagel but not Rice," one Senate Democratic aide said Sunday. "Democrats are not currently unified behind Hagel, and it will take some real work by the administration to get them there, if it's even possible."
Senior Republicans agreed, noting that after Hagel infuriated Republicans and Democrats alike over the years, there isn't a natural base for him.
"I can't imagine why [Obama] would choose to burn his political capital on this nomination. For what? There is no constituency for Chuck Hagel," one senior GOP aide said. "Obama will expend every ounce of political capital he has to get him across the finish line. Dems will hate this."


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Members of the local chapter of the Modern Woodmen of America recently helped beautify downtown Vandalia by planting flowers and spreading mulch in the flower beds around the Little Red Caboose in the municipal parking lot at the intersection of Fifth and Johnson streets.
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Kelly Jacobsma has been appointed director of libraries at Hope College.
She succeeds David Jensen, who is retiring at the end of the school year after serving in the position since 1984. A member of the Hope library faculty herself since 1988, Jacobsma was chosen following a competitive national search during which her experience and vision made her the best choice for the position, according to the college's provost, Dr. James Boelkins, who chaired the search committee.
"Through the search process, Kelly demonstrated her understanding of the current and future challenges facing the 21st century library, a strong desire to increase the engagement of the academic program and the library, a vision for ways to strengthen the library, and a strong commitment to Van Wylen Library and the college's mission," Boelkins said. "I am confident that Kelly will provide strong leadership for Van Wylen Library and help take it to the next level of excellence."
Jacobsma, who will assume her new responsibilities on July 1, is currently serving as librarian with the rank of associate professor and as head of public services at the library. Her responsibilities have included coordinating all aspects of public services, including teaching, reference, media services, the technology laboratory, circulation, interlibrary loan and library policy, in addition to collaborating with campus curriculum committees to implement course-integrated library instruction, and implementing new technologies in support of the library program.
Jacobsma joined the library staff in 1988 as a reference librarian, and was promoted to head of public services in 1990 and associate professor in 1995. She served as the library's acting director from January to August of 1994 while Jensen was on a sabbatical leave. Among other grant projects, she was co-director during 2001-02 of a joint initiative with the department of English focused on information and literacy writing funded through an SBC Ameritech Partnership Award for Independent Colleges.
Her ongoing professional activities have included serving on committees and in elected positions with the Michigan Library Association and the American Library Association, and as a MeL (Michigan Electronic Library) trainer on behalf of the Michigan Library Consortium. She is a member of the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries.
Prior to coming to Hope, Jacobsma was with CentralMichiganUniversity for six years, first as a regional librarian and then as manager of off-campus library services. She holds her bachelor's degree from Northern Michigan University, and an MILS degree from the University of Michigan.
The Hope library has 21 full- and part-time staff, who during the school year are assisted by approximately 100 part-time student employees. The five-story Van Wylen Library building, which opened in 1988, is named for the college's ninth president and his wife, Dr. Gordon J. and Dr. Margaret D. Van Wylen. The library provides 24/7 access to thousands of digital scholarly resources including electronic journals, books, reference works, images, music and databases in addition to housing more than 370,000 volumes at the Van Wylen Library and the Nykerk Hall of Music library.
In 2004, the Van Wylen Library was named the national winner in the college category of the "Excellence in Academic Libraries Award" presented by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).


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Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Cost of Following Jesus: Helping Andy and Angela
In Andy's case, his first wife had been unfaithful and they eventually divorced over the adultery. Andy and his first wife were professing Christians. In Angela's case, she had been unfaithful to her husband, leading to a divorce. At the time, neither Angela nor her husband were believers.
Andy's first wife has gone on to remarry and now lives with her second husband and four children across town. Angela's first husband has not remarried.
These are individuals who will find that following Jesus requires counting the costs, denying themselves and bearing their cross. I think we sometimes forget the weightiness of this for people looking to follow the Savior.
The Costs
Most people would say that Andy is free to remarry since he was not the one who broke the marriage covenant with his first wife. I think that's the majority interpretation of passages like Matthew 5 and 19. But there are some who argue that remarriage isn't appropriate even for Andy. See here for one example.
But what is certain is that Andy cannot continue a relationship with Angela. The cost of following Jesus will be ending a one-year romantic interest on the verge of marriage. And that won't be easy. I think most people in this situation would make an appeal to forgiveness or grace or freedom, and leave off any personal application of the divorce and remarriage passages. They'll miss the import of Titus 2:11-12; grace teaches us to obey Christ. Grace never makes it okay to disobey. The challenge for Andy will be deciding that marriage to Angela is not a "right" to be jealously grasped. Rather, he must embrace the freedom that comes from obedience and choose what appears an inconvenient and perhaps foolish course.
Angela will have the same cost to pay: she cannot marry Andy. Moreover, as I understand the Scripture, she cannot ever remarry. To remarry would be adultery.
Consider the cost of following Jesus for Angela. There is terminating the relationship with Andy. There is the foreclosure of any romantic relationship for the remainder of her life. There is the preclusion of ever having children naturally. Having known the joys marital intimacy, there is now a life of celibacy ahead.
For most people, that's a staggering list of costs. In my short experience, most would rather disobey the Lord and pursue these desires than obey Him in love. When presented with these issues, many walk away from the faith and the church, unwilling to pay the costs once counted.
Helping Andy and Angela
It's the church's call to help this brother and sister walk worthy of the callings they have received in Christ. What does that look like?
1. Helping Andy and Angela think in biblical terms about grace. There's much that could be said here, but at least two aspects are critical. First, as Titus 2:11-2 points out, saving grace actually teaches us to say "no" to ungodliness and to live sober, godly lives in this evil age. One dark, domineering thought they each will have is: I can't do this. This is too much. I don't want to say 'no' to this desire. How will we make it? The answer from the Scripture is God will teach you with His grace.
Second, this means that in whatever situation God calls us, His grace will be sufficient for us. People in this situation imagine the happy, harp-playing glories of love and marriage. They daydream about a life of joy and bliss on one side of the ledger. And they compare that to an imagined life of unrelenting suffering, loneliness, and so on. Their imagination is rigged, biased in favor of their desires and against God's calling. They are sympathetic with their own sinful impulses and resistant to God's path and wisdom. In that sense, they're loving darkness rather than the light. What they need help to see is that a life of fruitful, joyful singleness is not only possible but real for many. Moreover, the same grace that meets them in their sin provides for them in all God's callings and commands. His commands are not burdensome. His yoke is easy. He will not quench the smoking flax. Grace calls us to imagine that the best possible future lies in the path God chooses instead of the path of our desires.
2. Help Andy and Angela understand the necessity of the local church family. Rather than leave the church, Andy and Angela should be helped to plug even more deeply in their local fellowships. They'll need the support and counsel of godly family in the household of God. They'll likely want to go places where no one is "butting into their business," or someplace where people tell them what they want to hear. They'll likely begin pulling away from the family. But this is when the family needs to be most aware of their struggles and most caring. Whether through a small group of fellow saints or with concentrated one-on-one discipleship, Andy and Angela need to be tethered tightly to the church so that they're helped to think in biblical ways, process their feelings, and walk out their callings.
3. In time, help Andy and Angela with finding ways of expressing their desires. This may mean helping Andy to remarry as the Lord provides a woman free to marry. This might mean helping Angela consider adoption if she wants to parent. The difficult part of this situation is that Andy and Angela can't have the lives they desire with each other. But that doesn't mean they can't have elements of their desired lives at all. Careful counseling, pastoral leadership, and support from the church family should work to encourage each of them to fully embrace the range of life opportunities the Lord provides within the good boundaries of His word and will. There will be a million opportunities for glorifying Jesus with their lives, even if they aren't the traditional ways of doing some of them.
Well, that's my sense of things. No easy answers. Or perhaps there are some easy answers, but the implementation is emotionally taxing and messy.
Your Turn
I would love to hear what you think. How would you counsel a couple in a situation like this? Do you know any situations like this and how have you helped/failed to help in the past? What can we learn from each other?
6 comments:
- Shawn Abigail said...
I'm not sure I have great advice in these situations, but I have a couple of observations:
(1) the time to teach Biblical truth to a church is before someone comes with this type of situation.
(2) if the cost of Christian obedience is high, the rewards of church fellowship should be considerable. If we are a group of people who show up on Sunday and have no fellowship during the week, then we have already failed.
(3) there is a lot of unbiblical teaching on divorce and remarriage. I understand that not everyone would take as strong a stand as myself, but there are two important points that we should remember in trying to exegete passages like Matt 19:
(a) the "grace covers all" view is not true to the Biblical teaching. Whatever Jesus meant by "immorality" in Matt 19, he envisioned that there would be some people who would be denied the chance to remarry. Maybe it is a lot of people, or maybe it is just some people, but if you have a theology that allows all to be remarried, then your theology is insufficient.
(b) whatever Jesus meant by "immorality" in Matt 19, it shocked the disciples. They would have been aware of the two camps in Israel, one which allowed divorce for any reason and one that allowed divorce for adultery. Whatever Jesus meant, he would not have been agreeing with one of the two camps because it shocked the disciples to the point where they thought it better to not marry.
- David Kjos said...
My question, which I suppose goes beyond this post, is what you do when Andy and Angela go get married somewhere else, and then come back and want to join your church. This is no hypothetical. I've seen it happen.
- Anonymous said...
What about 1 Cor 7:13&15? ("And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him... But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.")
How does that apply to Angela in this example?
- FellowElder said...
Hi Anonymous,
Good question. If the Angela's spouse is willing to be reconciled, she should be reconciled to her husband. At bottom, Angela already has a husband and should be living with him in love. 1 Cor. 7 removes any ability for Angela to leave her husband. Matthew 5 and 19 make any subsequent marriage adultery.
Hope that helps.
- FellowElder said...
Thanks for the great comment and question. In truth, it deserves another post. But in brief, I think I'd suggest a couple of things in that case:
1. Do not take Angela into membership.
2. Having counseled Andy against the marriage on the grounds of adultery, begin the process of restoring the brother in corrective love.
3. Encourage repentance; which I think looks like annulmnet since we would not recognize the relationship as a marriage to begin with. Failing the annulment, I think the church works its way to Matt. 18:17.
This is a sticky, sticky situation. A lot of teaching is necessary before a church can respond to a situation like this effectively. And in this scenario, a pastor and his leadership would be wise to also work through the entire process with Angela's pastors and church.
- Joseph Louthan said...
My situation is exactly like Angela's except that my ex-wife has knows the gospel of God and the Scriptures better than 90% of Christians (not an exaggeration) and she has outright rejected the gospel of God.
Her words:
"I am not seeking redemption from God. I am running away from God. I believe that I can do enough good to make myself right-standing with God despite what the Bible says."
She is not a believer. I have been saved since then.
What can I do in this case?
For me, it comes down to the doctrine of election. I don't know if she will be saved. Yet, God does. Because my God is wonderfully sovereign, He is the only one who can save my ex-wife.
Honestly, there is not else to discuss about my relationship with my ex-wife until she is reconciled to God.
What do I get to do?
1. Pray because my God is sovereign
2. Proclaim the gospel every miniscule chance that I get i.e. a chance equats talking to her 5 minutes
As far as remarrying, I leave that on God. I know what I have been commissioned to do. It has been prophesied to me that I will be remarried (I take stock in this because the other prophecies made at that time have been confirmed). Now does that mean I get remarried now or when I 90? What God wants. Whatever brings Him glory.


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It is currently 22 May 2019, 19:46
FR having a go!Thrifty tips, ideas, news & experiences on anything around the home to shopping to re-cycling etc.
14 posts • Page 1 of 1
FR having a go!
I was very inspired by Spudley, and by Ilona. I don't want to be quite so dedicated to the cause, but I have been wondering why I never seem to feel any more financially secure. Time to do something about it.
I've also recently taken over managing my Mum's financial affairs, and there's something about it being somebody else's that's made me very conscientious with it. I've realised we have space for improvement on things which I haven't been bothered to spend the time on.
So - power. Mum's been mixed up with this charity/tariff thing, so she's been paying through the nose for ages. OH booked us up with a company because they gave us £50 of free wine, thinking they are all much the same as each other, but they're not. We can all three save shed-loads.
We are getting a free load of wood for our central heating furnace in return for our failed-its-MOT-expensively 4x4, and have temporarily ditched our green credentials to burn coal instead of wood indoors. Feel bad. but it's so cheap by comparison.
TV - Mum's been paying for a licence which should have been free for nearly 5 years. Got a refund for this year, but chasing the previous years' as well. And from Virgin. Such hard work.
Insurance - we're probably over-insured, and I think we can save a couple of hundred here as well.
On to Bank Interest. If anyone hasn't heard of them, try looking at www.SavingsChampion.co.uk (or.com - can't remember). Two of the high street banks have current accounts at 5% up to certain amounts, and linked regular savers that have max amounts too but also 5% interest. Another bank is offering 4% and another 3% but with an upper limit of £20k. All instant access. You can move the same amount from account to account and back again to satisfy the conditions. If you can be bothered with the faff, this is money for old rope - FREE. This is worth 100s of ££s. Warning - this is a LOT of faff, and will try your patience.
I realised that we should be doing the same with our money too, so have switched our joint account to a 5% rate, and will be setting up more accounts for me. We have also tripled our free overdraft (which we can keep running and put the 'overdraft' in a savings account. I've realised that, being self-employed, this changes the best way to pay myself re. tax and interest, so there's a (not huge but) significant improvement.
Today I paid my VAT bill on time (fine avoided) and booked myself in as a trainee day hairdressing model - cut and blow dry for £10 instead of the usual £30. OH broke the zip on his last pair of trousers, so picked up two good condition pairs for £2.99 in an Oxfam shop, which will do until he diets into ones in the cupboard.
I'm going demented with all of the paperwork etc, and getting very fed up with the big companies, but I think that's not a bad start to Feb.
Re: FR having a go!
Well done.
I assume that you or your Mum have savings that you need to earn interest on.
It is a right faff juggling all the current accounts - yes you can do the Standing order thing but beware. Nationwide BS moves money on a Saturday, and if you are moving money from a bank to a Nationwide Current account and then on into a saver you'll find you may have an overdraft with charges (and then again next month if you don't notice the charges on the statement). Some need regular direct debits going out (2 each month, mostly).
And the 3% on £20,000 one has just put it's monthly fee up to £5. It gives cashback on the direct debits on my bills but won't cover that - it did this month as I've just had a gas delivery, won't otherwise.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
Re: FR having a go!
Thanks for the tip-off on the Saturday transactions.
Yes, we are talking about Mum's savings mostly. It's not a huge sum, but the interest really adds up over a year. You do have to put a certain amount in, but you can take it out again and cycle money from one account to another and back - that lets you spread savings across accounts and then meet the conditions with one single amount. I quite agree about the faff. Huge, HUGE faff. But I have an obligation to Mum to do the best I can for her. I'm not close enough to look after her, but I can do this.
Maybe these accounts aren't the right ones for everyone - they were for Mum. I'm not a financial advisor - just trying to share helpful experience. There are many more different types of accounts and information on SavingsChampion (and other places), and the big money-management sites often refer there for information.
For wages and pensions, they may as well be earning 5% as none at all, and anyone who's on income support could get that. I think everybody could benefit from at least considering what's available. RBS has a 1-2-3 account which gives discount off utility bills. There's a lot of competition in banking at the moment, so there's something to be gained for just the faff. Most of us have more time than money.....
Re: FR having a go!
My goodness Freeranger, you have really been doing your homework! Good for you
Helen xx
3 children, 3 grandchildren, 3 chooks, 3 fish, a shrimp that thinks its a prawn and a dappy dog.
Re: FR having a go!
Finally managed to get an answer from the demon power company, and because they've been working on estimated readings for such a long time, the refund due on my Mum's bill is in the order of several hundreds, rather than tens . Result.
Ran and had a look at our meters , but unfortunately ours is about right. No refund for us . Suggest this might be worth checking.
Went for a coffee with a friend who got held up at work and couldn't get away at the cost of c. 1 gallon of petrol wasted (£5) and a coffee at £1.50 (it was cold and I needed an excuse to use the loo!).
Got an unexpected but very nice invitation to the Rural WI yesterday, so 1/2 gallon of petrol and some raffle tickets (£2). Free coffee and biscuit, though! And an invitation to coffee.
Also very cold, so have had a fire indoors, but noticed that even Ilona had the heating on so don't feel too extravagant.
All the progress seems to be for Mum not us!
Have got £75 coming for scrapping our Freelander, that has spectacularly failed its MOT - that's sort of good, right? I suppose it means savings on insurance, tax etc....Sorry to see her go, as she got us through some difficult times here. I think I know where our frugal savings are going.
Re: FR having a go!
It's MS Expert website NOT supermarket.
Re: FR having a go!
I finally extracted the refund from Mum's power company. Can't believe they kept £1008 of an old lady's money.
The DD had been set too high for ages, and that's how much they'd over-collected without even thinking of re-setting the amount.
We decided to merge our phone and internet accounts to get a better deal, and the company managed to cancel both and declare our phone line non-existent. We've had to go to town to get wifi for receiving emails and chasing them up. It's 25 mins each way. Hopefully, they're paying us back for this.
Why is it all such a bureaucratic nightmare?
Re: FR having a go!
It sounds like you are having a tough time Freeranger
I read on Moneysavingexpert that some energy companies can hang onto your money, even if you switch providers. They have a policy (almost) of not giving refunds unless asked, which I think is a disgrace. How is that not theft? Sadly many companies nowadays seem to care more about profit and not so much about customers.
Hope you get things sorted
Proud human carer to: Dorian Grey, Pokey, Mango and Willow
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut and Tiddly
Re: FR having a go!
It's theft in ,my book, too, Karen. Thanks for your kind wishes.
I had my cheap haircut today - very professional result but 45 min drive each way and 3 hours for the cut.
Everything has a price, I suppose, but still cheaper than the normal place.
Re: FR having a go!
Accepted an offer of £50 from the dreaded energy company as recompense for their failings. Not really enough, but I don't want to waste my life taking it to the ombudsman - I don't feel I have the energy.
Re: FR having a go!
I had a similar problem with my gas - the amount they wanted per month exceeded the gas used in a year and they had the audacity to increase the monthly payments. When I telephoned the company to complain, luckily the guy on the other end of the phone was quick to give me a refund (£500) and changed the monthly payments to something more sensible.
What I found with the direct debits is that there is a yo yo effect - they underestimate how much gas or electricity you might use (my usage has over the years has gradually fallen especially when it is a mild winter but also I think those little changes such as insulation, changing to low wattage bulbs or changing habits), and then the end of year summary shows a large amount owing so they increase the payments over and above what you need to pay back plus the following year's estimate and then end up with a plus (to be fair has been gratefully received when refunded) Have to confess that the system has got better and now you can even alter your own monthly payments online if you think you might be under or over paying so you are in better control.
Re: FR having a go!
I had a problem a few years back and stopped the Direct Debit.
They went through all the pay it now process's and I refused asking for someone to come round.
Some Chappie did come round, I showed him the set up here and he felt I was paying quite a bit as well and felt that somehow I'd been overcharged.
Got a refund, settled on a new monthly payment then see what it results out as the year went on.
Even that was over estimated and my payments were reduced the following year.
Wishing you well with it.
Re: FR having a go!
I know it's not February, but I got my seed tatties yesterday and red onion sets - it was at a potato day & green fair that I help organise. The tatties were free as a reward for my efforts, so hopefully will get free spuds for the year and it might spur me on to do more with the rest. Got an offer of free rotted compost as well and lots of tips on improving my home-made stuff, and general gardening advice from some real experts. All free. It's sunny outside and I want to run and get started now!
Re: FR having a go!
Am now on cheap holiday, house-sitting for friends and their menagerie.
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Dear Fallout fans,
It has been some time since you last heard from us. Rest assured that we have been working hard on the project and have made significant headway. If you followed the progress bars, you'll notice that they have been updated today, increasing by at least 8 percentage points in each category (with the tiny exception of mapping). To showcase some of this progress and to reward you for your patient wait on this mod, we will be offering you a Christmas gift:
The new demo will showcase the town of Elko, i.e. the first location of the game. You might ask why we would release the same stuff we released over 4 years ago. The main reason is that Mutants Rising has evolved greatly since then and the only "stuff" that remained from the original Elko are the general lines of the story. We could say that Elko 2007 was a draft, while Elko 2011 is the fully implemented, frozen location of the final product, with cutscenes, fully voiced and animated talking heads as well as blackjack and hookers (in fact, forget the blackjack and the hookers).
The demo also presents an opportunity to reveal some of the new game features we have implemented. First and foremost, we completely overhauled First Aid and Doctor skills. Each time your character receives a critical hit, you suffer a bleeding wound. For each such wound, you lose 1 Hit Point every 10 seconds. In order to heal these wounds, you can either use drugs, or apply your First Aid skill. Using First Aid also increases your Healing Rate. It does NOT restore your lost Hit Points though. The Doctor skill on the other hand, is still used as a means to heal crippling injuries, but it also enables you to restore Hit Points. The effects of both skills depend on your skill level - the higher the skill, the greater the bonuses. Moreover, the HP bonus from using Doctor is increased by your Healing Rate, so it's convenient to apply First Aid before using the Doctor skill. This was our attempt at making both abilities more useful, and preliminary tests showed that it does add a challenge and forces you to boost these skills or spend a fortune on drugs. Another prominent modification was done to the character traits. We have replaced many useless traits from the original with new ones, and modified or tweaked the remaining ones, increasing the number of valid choices. There are also many other tweaks such as decreased ammo counts, decreased Carry Weight, etc.
The demo will be available on 25th December this year. Stay tuned!
Mutants Rising 2011 Demo Teaser
Any comments on recent press releases?
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The bleeding system, just like poison and radiation, only affects the player character. It would be very difficult to apply the bleeding system to all the characters in the game.Each time your character receives a critical hit, you suffer a bleeding wound. For each such wound, you lose 1 Hit Point every 10 seconds
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Chef Michael Chiarello steps back into his clogs at Bottega Restaurant in Yountville, California, in the heart of the Napa Valley. Bottega, "artist's workshop," will serve as Chiarello's own craftsman's kitchen, from which he celebrates deep culinary roots.
Chef Chiarello is acclaimed chef, Emmy-winning host of Food Network's Easy Entertaining, tastemaker behind NapaStyle, and proprietor ofChiarello Family Vineyards, as well as a longtime Napa Valley resident.
Bottega showcases Chiarello's signature bold Italian flavors with a refined twist. Bottega's menu highlights the bounty of artisanal and house made ingredients, as well as local produce. Bottega is part of the historic Vintage Estates, located in one of the oldest wineries in the Napa Valley, and is open for lunch, dinner, and after dinner.
Michael Chiarello's Bottega cookbook receives both IACP and James Beard Award nominations.
Akin to receiving an Oscar nomination within the food community, both organizations recognize outstanding cookbooks, journalism and professionals in the food world. "I am beyond flattered and proud," says Chef Michael Chiarello. "Our talented and committed team, who helped create this cookbook to be enjoyed by so many, is well worthy of this recognition. Out of the hundreds of books written each year, it's a huge acknowledgement."
Chef Michael Chiarello's Bottega Restaurant in Napa Valley has been named Best Newcomer by Zagat, Top 10 by Forbes, Top 20 by Esquire, and Top 100 Bay Area by Michael Bauer. In his new Bottega Cookbook, Michael stirs up 100 amazing recipes for Southern Italian specialties for the home cook and entertainer to enjoy, cooking as well as eating. It's rich with more than 120 photographs that convey the Bottega experience in 224 pages of soulful Southern Italian-style flavor – Chef Chiarello at his best! Michael Chiarello's fans have watched him on Top Chef Masters, the Food Network's Easy Entertaining, Fine Living, and PBS. He's an Emmy Award winner and
award-winning author. Click here to get your copy today!
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Belize Airports, 2008
- Author(s)
- International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM)
- Description
- Belize Airports is a point theme representing airports and airfields in Belize. This layer is a component of the Global Map, a 1:1,000,000 scale framework dataset of the world. It consists of vector and raster layers of transport, administrative boundaries, drainage, elevation, vegetation, land use and land cover data. The data were prepared from information provided by national mapping and other organizations worldwide.
- Place(s)
- Belize
- Subject(s)
- transportation
- Year
- 2008
- Held by
- Columbia
|Click on map to inspect values


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Wabash Mourns Professor Robert Cooley• December 22, 2010 Share:
Wabash College mourns the loss of long-time mathematics professor Robert "Bob" Cooley, who taught at the College from 1962 through 1999. He was 83 years old, and passed away peacefully in his home on December 17.
Cooley led a remarkable life — as a military veteran, scholar, attorney, and community leader.
After graduating from high school in 1944, he served in the United States Navy. He attended the University of Alabama after his discharge from the service, and earned his bachelor's degree in biology. Cooley then earned a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School and enlisted in the Navy, serving as a commissioned legal officer and pilot during the Korean War. He served in California, Japan, and Alaska.
Upon his return to civilian life in 1956, he enrolled in Purdue University, from which he earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in mathematics.
Dr. Cooley joined the Wabash College faculty in 1962, received tenure in 1967, was named chairman of the mathematics department in 1979, and was promoted to full professor in 1980.
Along the way, he received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in 1972 and received a Lilly Faculty Open Fellowship in 1977. He served as a visiting professor at Hollins College and Purdue University. Shortly after attending the 25th reunion of his University of Virginia Law School class, Cooley passed the bar in the state of Indiana, and served Wabash students as head of the Pre-Law Society.
Professor Cooley and his wife of 58 years, Mary Angela, had four children, and together they served as foster parents for more than a decade.
A long-time advocate for children and children's rights, Dr. Cooley served greater Montgomery County as chairman of the Tri-County Association for Retarded Citizens, the Child Protection Service Board, and as a member and senior warden of Saint John's Episcopal Church. His memberships included the Crawfordsville Rotary Club, the Mathematical Association of American, the Crawfordsville Community Chorus, the Bach Choral Singers, and the Lafayette Chamber Singers.
A memorial service celebrating Professor Cooley's life will be held at 1 p.m. on New Year's Day (January 1) at Saint John's Episcopal Church in Crawfordsville.


text:
Click here to print the obituary below
Burt Reynolds(1936 - 2018)
Burt Reynolds (1936 – 2018) was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1970s and 1980s. The magnetic
was known for his roles in "The Longest Yard," "Deliverance," and the "Smokey and the Bandit"
. He was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in "Boogie Nights." On
, he starred on the CBS sitcom "Evening Shade" in the 1990s.
Read full obituary
Watch Burt Reynolds in action in our Video Gallery
We invite you to share condolences for Burt Reynolds in his Guest Book.


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BenQ MW883UST/MX882UST Lead the Class in Education Projection BenQ is schooling the competition with the release of a best-in-class ultra short-throw projector aimed at K-12 and above education institutions.
BenQ is proud to stand with ESL to create a better e-sports evironment for all gamers. BenQ is the premier gaming monitor brand


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Sixx: A.M. Confirm October 2014 New Album Release
It's on! Sixx: A.M. will be back with their third studio album on Oct. 7 this fall. The group confirmed the street date in a new tweet, though a few other key details are still a mystery.
The group has yet to reveal the title of their new album, though they hinted in late June that they knew the official release date for their upcoming single. The band has also completed photo sessions for the album and did their first music video.
Back in mid-June, the group posted that they thought the lead single would be a track called 'Gotta Get It Right' and suggested it might arrive by July, but with just a couple of days left in the month, that timeline now seems unlikely. Other song titles that have been mentioned as possibilities for the disc include 'Stars,' 'Let It Haunt You,' 'Hyperventilate' and 'Relief.'
Speaking with Nikki Sixx at the beginning of the creative process for the new album, the bassist revealed that the band would not be following the "book companion" format that their first two albums did. He stated, "This time we really want to fly on our own. We started out the songwriting process by having conversations about how far we can push ourselves musically … Our conversations were, 'Let's go as far to the left as we can, musically' and once we finish up [we'll have] a handful of songs that are pretty out there … I don't even want to use any kind of references because it'll throw people and they won't really understand what I'm talking about. But we're just taking a lot of chances musically and at this point nothing sounds at all like Sixx: A.M. that you would know, because we're taking such huge leaps of faith that we're going to land on our feet."
Sixx has also confirmed that the trio, who doesn't have a full-time drummer, was able to utilize Foo Fighters skins master Taylor Hawkins for contributions to the upcoming disc. Stay tuned for more Sixx: A.M. album details as they arrive.
See the Yearbook Photos of Nikki Sixx + Other Rockers


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Robert Walker's an old friend, and earlier this year I helped him get his backlist of 30+ out of print novels onto Kindle.
Now he's got a new ebook out: Titanic 2012 – Curse of RMS Titanic. In the spirit of that, here's a fanciful interview and an excerpt from his latest...
It was no easy task locating author Rob Walker. It required my chartering a helicopter to go out over the North Atlantic to be set down on the Scorpio – Rob's amazing science fiction NOW salvage ship which set out to pillage the wreck of Titanic in 2012, a hundred years after she sank…to pillage her of any remaining treasures found inside.
The principal characters have the technology to safely descend to amazing depths and actually dive the wreck thanks to liquid air they breathe and their space-age suits.
I found Rob in the control room aboard Scorpio, and while glad to see me, the man was busy with mapping out the dive, determining last minute decisions for the dive team. I could not imagine the weight on Rob's shoulders and couldn't help but notice the deep creases in his features since last I saw him at a bar in Chicago some years before. He'd aged of course, but this was more than normal aging; this was the stress of pulling off the impossible, to in a sense 'raise the Titanic' in terms of raising awareness of what really happened that night in 1912 aboard the ill-fated ship he nowadays refers to as his "mystery ship".
Somewhat annoyed at my suddenly showing up, despite the fact we had an appointed time, Walker reluctantly turned over duties to Captain Juris Forbes, and he led me to a specific area back of the ship where he insisted we sit at a table outdoors a mile and a half above the wreckage of Titanic. It was here that the impossible happened, and I was completely taken by surprise, as we had stepped into a force field activated by nature itself, one that placed us onto the deck of the Titanic in 1912.
Walker slyly winked at me and said, "My novel is Dr. Who meets Conan Doyle and Michael Crichton on the steampunk ship Titanic."
And so, despite be shaken up in realizing I had gone back in time, being the pro that I am, I started in on my interview of Rob Walker while stewards aboard Titanic came and went with tea, coffee, sweets, and politeness. We were at the stern at an outdoor café aboard, just above the ship's powerful wake, the sound of which created a beat to our discussion.
JA: Rob, after all that has been written about this ship we're somehow on, topped by Cameron's film, why did you wish to tackle what your publisher told you was a 'tired subject, done to death'?
Rob: Where did you hear that? Man, try to keep things quiet in this business. OK, yeah, my traditional publisher who did my Alastair Ransom City Series was not interested when I suggested that Alastair needs be placed on board the Titanic now that the Chicago World's Fair titles had ended in a trilogy.
My editor, understandably doubtful, was not interested. In fact the idea had been floated the year that Cameron's film came out minus Alastair and was turned down by agents and editors alike as not a good time to deal with the ship. A bad time to be in love with Titanic. But honestly, there is and always will be a huge audience of readers fascinated with every aspect of the Titanic story.
JA: So you took it to Kindle and published it yourself, right? How has that worked out for you?
Rob: I found this so serendipitous that a story chockfull of technology and science fiction is being self-pubbed. In fact, my last five booklength works, one a how-to, have been Kindle original titles.
I say serendipitous because my dream as a writer had always been to publish as I produce – no nine month gestation period, no year and a half wait for print, but pubbed the day after completion, hot off the brain. Technology in the real world has caught up to my dreams, and in the novel, technology has caught up to the dreams of my shape-changing creature who is among the divers going down to Titanic, a hundred years after surviving the sinking of the 'unsinkable' ship. How coincidental is that?
Walker paused to sip at his coffee, then pulled out a flask and topped it off with Jack Daniels, offering me a tweak, which under the circumstances and still reeling from our time travel, I gladly took. It improved the 1912 coffee to no end.
JA: But your answer does not cut to the real issue—who are you, Robert Walker, to take on the Titanic? You are known for your serial killer and police procedural and medical examiner novels and forays into the horror category.
Rob: I brought all the categories I have ever written in on this novel: mystery, history, autopsy, horror, science fiction, coming of age, suspense, generational, thriller, steampunk, romance—
JA: Sounds meaty.
Rob: The novel is meant to cut across time, space, and genres or pigeon holds and traditional publishing holes. The novel has more layers than an onion, and as they are peeled away it falls into place like a puzzle in two time zones—past and future. Drink up. You'll need it, Joe.
I felt the entire ship groan and we both looked up to see a wall of black ice in the night sky and it began to rain down chunks of ice.
JA: What's happening?
Rob: This is the scene where the orders from Captain Edward Smith are being carried out—to run the ship into an iceberg, but apparently they've botched it. It was supposed to be a dead on hit. Now we can stay here or go into the Ballroom and raid the bar. Either way, Titanic is going down.
JA: Are you kidding? I know the ship must go down but you're telling me it was intentional?
Rob: Just as intentional as Inspector Alastair Ransom getting drunk, sitting in on a card game in an attempt to win a new pair of shoes to die in, and managing to get into a fight as Titanic is going down, yes.
JA: But why would Smith wish to destroy Titanic? His own ship?
Rob: That is what the novel's pivotal question is all about, and I refuse to give it away. This interview is over!
JA: Hold on! You can trust me. I can handle the truth.
Walker was heading for the bar by now, and I following.
Rob (turning on me): But can readers handle the truth? I am toppling a lot of pedestals in this novel, raising questions about the questions that have plagued us for a hundred years.
JA: Tell me.
Rob: Smith sunk the Titanic...to kill something onboard.
Walker's words sank into me, and then the deck beneath my feet lurched, groaning terribly.
JA: Any chance, Rob, we can get off this ship and get back to the more stable deck of Scorpio? Feels like the ship is coming apart.
Rob: Frankly, I'd be happy just to have us go to Chapter 30 – not aboard Scorpio but INSIDE Titanic.
…David helplessly watched in the same instant as his dive partner imploded, his suit fragmented from the force of the implosion. Compressed pieces of his flesh rained around David like blood-red flakes of fish food.
The autos and the ghosts within them, a fatherly figure at the wheel, wife beside him, children in the rear, were by now filling screens topside, fueling the imaginations of some, the greed of others. Books and films were inevitable deals in the works, for sure, thought David. Scorpio's monitors would create the first glimpse mankind would have of these buried treasures—thanks to Mendenhall's rash action when in fact their orders had been to locate Kelly and Swigart, and to reunite with them. But the allure of seeing up close and personal Dr. William O'Laughlin's Renault touring car had taken a sudden deadly turn.
The impact of the implosion spawned a shock wave that hurtled David end over end, and as David righted himself, he saw a number of eerily preserved bodies tumbling in ragdoll fashion across the floor, tossed out of the shadows. A normal-appearing dead man in the water was enough to shock a man, even black-water divers working for police departments, but these hundred-year-old perfectly preserved mannequins in the dead zone, flesh turned to a kind of Jell-O, their clothes like sheets—moving with the eddies, these ghosts of Titanic proved even more disturbing as parts of them stretched out to David as if drawn to the only living being in the water now.
These were bodies that had lain hidden behind cars and in the shadowy reaches of the cargo hold. Some of these grim figures still sported hair and nails. One in particular cascaded into him as a drunk might stumble from a bar—this one without shoes.
It was as if the dead wanted both of them to join them here for eternity.
Almost perfect in their preserved bodies, the disturbed dead now seemed everywhere. Bodies preserved due to the pressures and containment within the once sealed cargo hold sported intact exaggerated features, their mouths open like so many banshees. Men, women, and children staring out of glassy eyes that made them appear as grisly wax figures. Their equally preserved period clothing only added to the surreal nature of this place.
David pushed away the growing number of bodies that came at him, or rather the exit behind him—each one more surreal than the one before it, and all of them like so many mannequins in appearance. He thought of what he, Jacob, and Scorpio had just accomplished, for no one had visited or seen these people for a hundred years. These were first class passengers aboard Titanic who sought refuge not in drink or music or prayer but in their latest acquisition. Those who, in a last ditch hope to die rich, David imagined, wanted to cross over with their most valued possessions firmly in hand—their motorcars.
JA: Eerie scene, Rob.
Rob: Now I'd best get you back to Scorpio and your chopper, Joe. I know how very busy you are and time is money as the say!
With that, I found myself back at the table at the stern on Scorpio as if we'd never left. Coffee still warm and Rob pouring a shot of whiskey into my cup. I didn't ask after the fantastic technology that made the previous events occur, but rather shook Rob's hand, and Rob pulled me into him for a 'man hug' and a slap on the back to send me off.
As the chopper blades drowned him out, I saw Rob mouth the words, "I love ya' man!" to which I saluted and shouted back the same as the chopper lifted off. As we rose, I looked down at Scorpio only to see that it had again turned into the Titanic, and I saw a dark and sinister hound of hell lurking about the top deck which made me wonder about Robert W. Walker's fantastic tale of a creature that made of Titanic a plague ship…a mystery called Titanic 2012 – Curse of RMS Titanic...
Friday, December 17, 2010
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Reaching Out to Business Innovators, Duquesne University Helps to Drive Change
As new federal initiatives more deeply involve universities in facilitating business growth, Duquesne University continues working to help entrepreneurs and small business owners to commercialize innovations that spring from technology research.
Duquesne is the only western Pennsylvania institution to be part of two U.S. Economic Development Administration awards in September intended to promote job growth in energy and innovation. The University received a $500,000 award from the University Center Economic Development Program Competition to support researchers and scientists in turning their discoveries into marketable goods, and to provide training for green building, environmental management and renewable energy industries. Duquesne also is a partner in a consortium that secured a $1.95 million Jobs & Innovation Accelerator Challenge award through an effort led by the Pittsburgh Central Keystone Innovation Zone (PCKIZ), an economic development generator co-founded by Duquesne that has caught the attention of the White House with its model program of business generation in the Hill District and other underserved communities.
"The value of Duquesne is helping to create businesses, working with our Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the PCKIZ, to benefit the Pittsburgh region and particularly underserved communities," said Dr. Alan W. Seadler, associate vice president for research at Duquesne. "Technology has been a major force driving Pittsburgh into its future economies in energy, health care and information technology.
"But the benefits of this technology-driven economy have skipped over some of our neighborhoods," Seadler continued. "Part of Duquesne's role is to develop collaborations that can bring the economic benefits of Pittsburgh's technology to our neighbors and the broader underserved communities in our region. This is an essential part of our University mission."
Duquesne already is engaged in guiding innovators through technology commercialization, through its SBDC; involvement in the TechBelt Steering Committee, an organization focusing on innovation-based jobs in the Pittsburgh-Cleveland corridor, encompassing southwestern Pennsylvania, parts of West Virginia and northeastern Ohio; as well as a participating in the Energy U Business Plan Competition for college students.
Two upcoming events focusing on innovation technology and entrepreneurism are planned for Thursday, Oct. 13, and Friday, Oct. 14.
On Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Duquesne will host its first TCOMM Event on developing and commercializing new technologies. This conference, geared toward small businesses and innovators, will be held at Oakland's Holiday Inn@University Center, 100 Lytton Ave. It will feature sessions on early-stage funding for energy-related startups, managing intellectual properties, strategies for beta testing, developing corporate partnering, regional alternative financing and exporting technology.
"We are helping about 15 to 20 of the nearly 40 technology and innovation businesses in the PCKIZ, as well as ancillary businesses in the Hill District, so we have a clear understanding of what startup companies face in the Pittsburgh area," said Dr. Mary McKinney, SBDC director. "Through our conferences, these new entrepreneurs have opportunities to interact with Pittsburgh's foremost company founders and learn strategies to grow their companies. We are proud to lead the group of established businesses in stimulating more growth in the region."
At the TCOMM Event, the keynote speaker will be Dr. Lalit Chordia, president and founder of Thar Technologies Inc., which specializes in commercial geothermal technologies. Chordia will detail his path to success, from the creation of new ideas to being named Small Business Administration Exporter of the Year.
"A lot of people, when they start companies, don't have the experience or knowledge on aspects of doing business, such as international business and building relationships with big companies," said Chordia, who has benefited from Duquesne SBDC services. "What this type of session allows is the ability to network with people who can speak from that experience."
But that, Chordia said, is not the prime challenge for many innovators. "The main point is the ability to market your concept. The issue is making sure somebody else understands why your idea is good. We tend to be very technical in this area and good at developing things, but we are not the best at explaining the benefits to the customers–not the technical benefits, but how does this make their life simpler? How does it make their life easier?"
On Oct. 14, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., nationally known speaker John Davis, who has assisted more than 100 businesses win government-provided Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant awards, will discuss how to secure some of more than $1 billion a year available in governmental research and development awards.
Also hosted by the SBDC, this session will be in Duquesne's Rockwell Hall, 600 Forbes Ave. Davis serves as the general manager and CEO of The SBIR Resource Center, a leading commercial provider of business development resources and software tools for transferring technology to the marketplace. With more than 30 years of experiences as an executive, research engineer and proposal writer, he is a popular speaker nationwide.
Davis will discuss intellectual property issues, how to best target agencies that provide funding, hints for proposal writing, estimating costs and developing budget proposals, and increasing your odds of winning grant money.
For more information on these sessions and other training, visit www.duq.edu/sbdc.
Duquesne University
Founded in 1878, Duquesne is consistently ranked among the nation's top Catholic universities for its award-winning faculty and tradition of academic excellence. Duquesne, a campus of nearly 9,500 graduate and undergraduate students, has been nationally recognized for its academic programs, community service and commitment to sustainability. Follow Duquesne University on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.


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Antica Cherry Sambuca
The steam distillation of star anise fruits together with an infusion of sweet orange, coriander, iris, Turkish rose and many other herbs form the basis of Antica Sambuca. Antica Flavours range available in variety of flavours to suit all tastes.
- Type: Italian Liqueurs
- Country: Italy
- Brand name: Antica
- Bottle size: 70cl
- Code: 21614
- Abv: 38%