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A Diamond in the Rough
Briggs, Stefanie. "A Diamond in the Rough." Dickinson Press, 22 July 2007.
|The Hutmacher Complex northwest of Manning is a farmstead built in the late 1920s in the Russian-Ukraine stone slab method. It is now being restored by efforts through Preservation North Dakota and the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Looking around this past Tuesday inside their childhood stomping grounds, the Hutmacher farm, the sisters saw what was left and remember some of it looking bigger.
"Some things I remember differently, but this was always home," Eleanor said. "We always hoped to keep the place around for as long as it could get fixed up. Growing up, we worked on the house with our parents in the summer putting up new plaster and straw."
The Hutmacher sisters, married to first cousins Frank and John Urlacher, came to visit their familys farmstead. Although most of the complex is still standing, it has been beaten and weathered by time and the North Dakota prairie. The deterioration has only spurred new efforts by volunteers to restore this historical diamond in the rough.
Dale Bentley of Preservation North Dakota first saw the Hutmacher complex in 2002 and was floored by the discovery. PND is the states private, non-profit, grassroots coalition for historic preservation.
"I was flabbergasted when I got to this site," Bentley said. "We haven't been able to identify a farm site that is this intact and this style of architecture anywhere in the nation. Its significance is absolutely incredible."
The buildings are made with a stone slab method that was brought over from the Black Sea region of Russia and Ukraine to North Dakota by Frank Hutmachers family. They put the method to use when building a home for his family with wife Veronica (Nuss) Hutmacher.
The principle building of the farm complex is the house, but the ruins of a barn, summer kitchen, butchering house, poultry barn, garage and stable are still visible.
Rooms were aligned along a single east-west axis with protruding entry vestibules. Materials used for the buildings included Badlands cedar rafters, cottonwood ridge beam supports with a roof of small branches and straw sealed with clay. Ashlar sandstone slabs and clay mortar covered with plaster made of clay and chopped straw form the exterior walls.
Later roofing repairs used cardboard, but because nailing into the ceiling was tricky, old jar tops were attached to keep things in place. The jar tops are scattered around the complex covered in rust and debris, but many continue to be nailed to some of the rugged wood beams. The site was in many ways ahead of its time, in terms of conservation, green-architecture and eco-friendly construction techniques.
One can still walk around the house today and see chipped paint on the walls that reflect the different trends during past decades. Green specks and pink scrapings still hang in loose chunks, while in the kitchen old curtains tattered and torn wave in the wind.
The floorboards creak like any old house does, but at the Hutmacher's some also are broken or almost totally unusable. The ceiling and roof have fissures open to the bright blue sky and have let in the weather during the past decades, wearing down the interior.
A unique place
For Frank and Veronica Hutmacher and their six children it was a simple home. Veronica died in 1969, while Frank died in 1973 before major efforts began to form to save their place. Two of the Hutmacher children are deceased, while four others still live in the southwestern region of the state. The Hutmachers used the principle residence from 1928-1963.
Emma and Eleanor live in Dickinson, their sister Catherine lives in Richardton and the youngest, Alex, also lives in Dickinson. Alex was the last owner of the family farm, which he sold to the Steve Burian family in 1980.
Burian donated and deeded it to the Dunn County Historical Society in an effort to see it restored and maintained. Unfortunately, the elderly group at the time was unable to do any work on the farm and deeded the land back to the Burians.
Burian's son Arnold of Bismarck recently was able to deed the land to the PND for the new restoration effort.
"In 1928, when you consider how other folks were living with running water, flushed toilets, automobiles and telephones, compared to what this family had and then having the last person live there until 1979, just makes it a one-of-a-kind place," Bentley said.
Eleanor and Emma have clear memories of their time on the small farmstead. Being there Tuesday recreated images of the family huddled together sleeping in one room between the kitchen and living area. A dent in the wall can still be seen where the table in the kitchen once stood for meals.
The two sisters also remember having different gardens, cows, pigs and chickens around to feed the family and bringing friends over from nearby farms.
"Friends would say they liked our place better than their own," Eleanor said. "But we didnt know any better. It was always our home."
The sisters remember three rooms being built onto the complex during their time there. Eleanor also remembers the front entry being added after she was married in 1953.
Laborious work
As of Tuesday, a team of volunteers from across the state and country have worked on three of the five rooms in the house. This includes shoveling as much as 3 feet of earth out of the rooms and uncovered the floor to be able to walk across it.
"We're hauling debris away like rotten lumber and junk which goes into landfills," Bentley said Tuesday. "We've reconstructed the clothesline which had been lying on the ground with rotted clothes and reinstalled original materials and dug out doors so they swing again."
The group also will catalog the artifacts left in the buildings. State Historical Society of North Dakota staff will document whats left in the structure and update the files with the current structural assessment, he added.
"That information will be forwarded onto the National Park Service when they are done, and with that a review of some old photographs will be done," Bentley said. "We also had the grass mowed and brought in an electrical line to provide facilities for our volunteers. Basically, we are here to clean up the site and get ready for the stabilization and restoration the house needs."
The work is to happen in stages, he added. At least two more sessions are slated for early and late August with a full summer of sessions taking place next year.
"We're hoping to get most of the straw and clay off of the roof and leave the rafters and ridgepoles in place," Bentley said of this year's work. "We may tarp it this winter, but the roof will be replaced next summer."
Finding support
The new restoration efforts emerged through work by the PND and the Historical Society. This renewed hope for the Hutmacher sisters.
During the years, there have been several efforts to rebuild or restore the farm, but they all fell short due to funding and the women wanted to see it to believe it was really happening.
The Hutmacher complex was first listed as one of the PNDs three most endangered places in the state in 2000, after which Bentley pushed for it to be listed again in 2002.
"We list three properties annually. Weve started referring to it as our opportunity list because the properties are of great significance and need to be saved," Bentley said. "We are listing them in a positive way and are not saying we are going to lose the place, but we need to save it."
The farmstead also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bentley found he was not alone in seeing what a treasure the Hutmacher Complex is. After showing other organizations more information to obtain support for the project, the preservationist group Heritage Conservation Network of Boulder, Colo., joined in on the restoration.
The HCN participates in unique ethnic and historic projects around the world by bringing people to the sites, Bentley said.
"It's similar to volun-tourism by bringing volunteers in who pay to fly over, stay in a region, eat in a region and work on projects like this," Bentley said. "They get to go out and experience all the local sites and culture, which is how we hope to continue this project."
"Initial funding of $98,000 for the restoration project comes from a Save America's Treasures grant administered by the NPS," he added.
"You think thats a lot of money, but when you start figuring in a 1,000-mile round trip for me from the other office and add in consultant fees it goes away pretty quickly," Bentley said. "Also, we have to match what we can use with donated materials, volunteer labor and cash."
"Everyone who works on the site is documenting their time, mileage, lodging expenses, etc.," he added.
"Not only are they contributing to the buildings, but they are also contributing to our match then," Bentley said. "One of the ways to generate some match is by the volunteers here. All of this work is done by unskilled people. It is hard labor shoveling earth, throwing around clay, harvesting trees and all that. We are trying to utilize local materials while the material costs are almost non-existence. Its the people and labor force who do the work."
Bentley said the PND still needs to find additional funding to continue the restoration which includes the house and stabilizing the other structures.
|Volunteers work on cleaning up debris
around the Hutmacher Complex northwest of Manning, which is
on the National Register of Historic Places. People are
coming from across the nation and state to help out with the restoration project.
|Eleanor Hutmacher points out where
the kitchen table stood in the building being restored.
|A rusted jar lid now
sits as part of the debris on the Hutmacher Complex
northwest of Manning.
Reprinted with permission of the Dickinson Press.


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Resources for a Welcoming Entryway
The entryway is your – and your guests' – first impression of your home. And you know what they say - you only get one chance to make a first impression. We've rounded up hooks, racks, landing strips and other essentials to help turn your entry into a space that is welcoming and, just as importantly, convenient.
• Entryway Essential: Landing Strip Hooks Unlock the door, walk into your home, hang the keys on a hook. Then, you'll always know where your keys are when you need them.
• Best Umbrella Stands A vessel in the entryway gives you a place to stash that drippy umbrella on your way in and keeps it close by when you're leaving home on a rainy day.
• Winter Ready: 10 Boot Trays A place for your snowy or muddy shoes and boots will help keep your entryway — and the rest of your home — tidy.
• Best Wall Mount Hooks & Coat Racks For entryways that are too small for a coat tree, a wall mounted coat rack will give you a place to hang your coat and bag when you enter your home.
• 5 Orange Accessories For the Entry Bring a little color to the entryway with one of these orange options.
• Best Shoe Racks, Cabinets & Stands If your entryway lacks a closet, one of the shoe cabinets from this post will give you a place to stash your kicks. If you're lucky enough to have a closet, one of the racks might be more ideal.
• Front Doorsteps with Flair: 10 New Doormats for the New Year There's no rule that doormats have to go outside your door!
• Best Coat Racks & Coat Trees If you have the room for one, a coat tree will give you space to hang multiple coats and bags.
• Small Space Solution: Wall Mounted Landing Strips We're all about the landing strip here at Apartment Therapy. If you don't have space for a full table, one of these wall mounted options may be just the ticket.
• High vs. Low: Mudroom & Entry Essentials From storage lockers to benches, this post will help you outfit an entry no matter your budget.
• Tips for Dealing with a No-Entryway Entryway
• Best Foot Forward: Make a Good Entry
• Inspiration: Entry Ways, Foyers & Landing Strips
• How To: Make A Colorful And Organized Entry Way


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Prime Time is a big fan of Johnny Football.
Former NFL cornerback Deion Sanders spoke out in favor of Browns rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel, saying that the NFL should welcome him as a breath of fresh air.
"The quarterback mold was created by Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady," Sanders on 105.3 The Fan. "When we don't see [partying] from those guys, we kind of think it's wrong because we don't see it. That does not mean that Johnny Manziel has done one thing wrong. We just haven't seen something of his kind. I like it. I love change."
Sanders said people have overreacted to Manziel going out and having a good time. As Sanders sees it, Manziel isn't hurting anyone.
"The kid hasn't done anything. They're putting him out there like he's Justin Bieber — like he's egging folks on and doing wild and rich folks stuff. He's not doing stuff like that. He's a good kid," Sanders said.
Like Manziel, Sanders was brash and flashy and drew plenty of attention to himself even before he ever stepped on the field in the NFL. Sanders ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH'-zee-oh) has welcomed the Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot to City Hall.
Maria Alekhina (ahl-EHK'-ee-nuh) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (nah-DYEHZH'-dah tal-ah-KOH'-nyih-koh-vah) are on a tour of New York and visited City Hall late Friday afternoon.
De Blasio, his wife Chirlane McCray and the musicians visited for about 30 minutes. A spokeswoman says the mayor commended them for "their bravery and courage."
The two were released in December after nearly two years in jail. They were convicted of hooliganism after they staged a protest in a Russian church.
The women have also appeared on the talk show "The Colbert Report" and at an Amnesty International concert in Brooklyn. While on tour, they have been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and political conditions in their homeland.
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At Companion Pet Clinic our doctors and veterinary support staff are committed to bringing better animal health care to clients and pets through advanced veterinary medicine. We take pride in being part of the Gold Canyon community and strive to provide the best care. We are looking to add a veterinarian, with at least one year of experience, to our growing practice. This position would be part time, two to three days a week.
We are a full-service animal hospital offering a wide range of veterinary services. Companion Pet Clinic offers state of the art medical, surgical, and dental care. Our facility includes in-house labs, dental radiographs, ultrasound and digital x-rays.
Gold Canyon Arizona is located about 45 minutes east of the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Gold Canyon is adjacent to the Superstition Mountain Wilderness and at the foothills of Superstition Mountain, which offer thousands of square miles of public land for hiking, bike riding, photography, camping and other outdoor sports. There are five 18-hole championship length golf courses within Gold Canyon and dozens more within a 30 minute drive. The area has a multitude of shopping and dining options, as well as excellent medical care. The amazing views, along with evening sunsets, makes Gold Canyon one of the most picturesque areas in all of Arizona. It is a great place to call home.
We offer a full range of benefits, including medical insurance, 401k, CE, pet discounts, and uniform allowance. For immediate consideration, email your resume to Dr. Meredith Robbins email@example.com.


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Joe sez: This is from Barry Eisler's blog. My comments to follow.
Barry sez: In case you missed it, today Amazon issued an update on its stalled negotiations with Hachette. It's a great read: short, clear, and devastating to the meme that Hachette is in any way the good guy in this fight. But if you want just the executive summary, it's this:
Amazon wants most ebooks to be priced at below ten dollars; Hachette wants ebooks to be priced higher.
So far, so simple. But what's critical to understand is that lower ebook prices create more revenue — a lower price for the customer, and more income for the retailer, publisher, and author. In other words, a win for everyone:
Doug, how about you actually get in contact with your damn publisher and wield the power of Authors United, "power to face down one of the world's largest corporations", and tell those morons that they need to accept Amazon's proposal, which will make all authors more money?
Preston: We just want to be able to write our books, and have them sold fairly at the largest bookseller in the world and not have those sales blocked or impeded. If Amazon were a small bookseller, it wouldn't be so concerning. But they have 41 percent of the entire book market and, like, 55 percent of the entire ebook market. Amazon sells probably half the books I sell. So it's very concerning to me.
Joe sez: Then you shouldn't have signed away your rights to a corporation bent on exploiting you. Because if you want them sold "fairly" it should't be at the $14.99 that Hachette wants.
Hire a lawyer. Get out of your contract. Then you can deal directly with Amazon, and they'll give you 70% instead of 17.5%
But the problem, of course, is that Amazon pubbed and self-pubbed books are boycotted by B&N and most indie bookstores.
So far, so simple. But what's critical to understand is that lower ebook prices create more revenue — a lower price for the customer, and more income for the retailer, publisher, and author. In other words, a win for everyone:
We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000.
The important thing to note here is that at the lower price, total revenue increases 16%.
This is what Hachette opposes. This is what the "Authors Guild" and "Authors United" are fighting to prevent. More money for authors. And not just that:
This is good for all the parties involved:
* The customer is paying 33% less.
* The author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that's 74% larger. And that 74% increase in copies sold makes it much more likely that the title will make it onto the national bestseller lists. (Any author who's trying to get on one of the national bestseller lists should insist to their publisher that their e-book be priced at $9.99 or lower.)
* Likewise, the higher total revenue generated at $9.99 is also good for the publisher and the retailer. At $9.99, even though the customer is paying less, the total pie is bigger and there is more to share amongst the parties.
For anyone who follows Joe Konrath's blog, none of this is news — Joe wrote a post over two years ago laying out why The Agency Model Sucks. Legacy publishers know — they have long known — that the sweet-spot price for most ebooks (the point at which per-unit price multiplied by volume maximizes revenues) is lower than what they insist on charging.
So why do legacy publishers insist on high prices for ebooks?
As I started pointing out about three years ago, "The current business imperative of legacy publishing is to preserve the position of paper and retard the growth of digital." Why? Because although the legacy industry offers various value-added services (at least in theory), the only critical service they've ever offered — the only one an author couldn't get any other way — has always been paper distribution. Paper distribution is the foundation on which the legacy industry built its agglomerated business model. That is: "You want distribution? Then you'll have to take all the services you could have outsourced for a flat fee elsewhere (editing, jacket design, etc) along with it, and you'll have to pay 85% of earnings for the agglomerated package."
But in a digital world, authors don't need distribution services from publishers. In digital, individual authors have exactly the same distribution reach as any corporate publishing partner, and for the same flat rate of 30%. Digital is changing the role of publishers from something authors needed to something authors might, for reasons separate from distribution, merely want.
Having the nature of your business go from "I'm a business necessity and the only game in town" to "If I can prove my value, authors might still want me" represents a cataclysmic change for legacy players. Remove the criticality of distribution from the equation, and the entire nature of the publishing business model dramatically changes, with services that once upon a time could only be had as part of a mandated and expensive prix fixe meal now available as low-price a la carte items authors can order from the menu however and from whomever they like.
If any of this sounds familiar, it's because it is. Forcing someone to buy an unessential item as the price of being able to buy the essential one is called tying and it is frequently illegal, especially in the context of intellectual property. Or, for another example of tying, recall the pre-digital-distribution era way the music industry allowed you to buy the one song you wanted: by forcing you to buy the entire CD along with it. There are many other examples. What they all have in common is that in whatever context it develops, tying can only exist in the presence of disproportionate market power.
There's much more to be said on the origins and nature of the legacy publishing business model; if you're interested, here are some thoughts I offered in a Pike's Peak Writers Conference keynote a little over a year ago and in a follow-up piece I wrote for The Guardian. And here's some terrific analysis from Porter Anderson at Writing on the Ether.
But even if you don't want to dive that deeply into this topic, the main thing to understand is this. When legacy publishers choose the price of your digital book, they are not doing it primarily to maximize your revenue (in fact, they're doing it with the full knowledge that their price will shrink your revenue). Instead, they are choosing that price primarily in the service of their strategy to preserve the primacy of paper.
To put it another way:
The legacy imperative of using high ebook prices in an attempt to maintain the primacy of paper costs legacy-published authors money.
Otherwise known, in legacy-speak, as "nurturing authors."
Now, the biggest bestsellers in the industry — say, James Patterson, or Doug Preston, or Richard Russo, or Scott Turow — sell the majority of their books in paper. After all, they've won the distribution lottery and their books are available in every airport kiosk, Wal-Mart, drugstore, and supermarket across the land. So their interest in retarding the growth of digital — where the same distribution is available to everyone — and in preserving the position of paper is identical to that of their publishers. It stands to reason they would fight to maintain the system that has made them so rich. But if you're a legacy-published author whose sales are increasingly digital, you need to understand that the legacy strategy of pricing ebooks high is costing you money. Is that really something you want to help perpetuate? Yes, it works for James Patterson, but what is it costing you?
Also, for the "Books Are Special Snowflakes" crowd:
Keep in mind that books don't just compete against books. Books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.
My favorite part of the update was this:
So, at $9.99, the total pie is bigger - how does Amazon propose to share that revenue pie? We believe 35% should go to the author, 35% to the publisher and 30% to Amazon. Is 30% reasonable? Yes. In fact, the 30% share of total revenue is what Hachette forced us to take in 2010 when they illegally colluded with their competitors to raise e-book prices. We had no problem with the 30% -- we did have a big problem with the price increases… While we believe 35% should go to the author and 35% to Hachette, the way this would actually work is that we would send 70% of the total revenue to Hachette, and they would decide how much to share with the author. We believe Hachette is sharing too small a portion with the author today, but ultimately that is not our call.
It's going to be fascinating to see how the "Authors Guild" and "Authors United" try to spin this. Fascinating in no small part because Amazon is taking the very position on digital royalties you would expect — indeed, you would insist on — from any organization worthy of inclusion of the word "Authors" in its marquee. Instead we have Amazon championing authors, and "Authors" championing publishers!
Imagine what the "Authors Guild" and "Authors United" could accomplish if they caught the pass Amazon just threw them and drove toward the end zone. Instead, expect them to run in the opposite direction, as confused and frightened as creationists fleeing from carbon-dated dinosaur bones.
Look, I'm not saying anyone here lacks self-interest. Of course businesses are self-interested and that's not the point. The point is, there's enlightened self-interest… and selfish self-interest. A guy who steals a car and a guy who buys one aren't the same because, hey, each just wanted a car. And in publishing, we have one camp that seeks to profit by keeping consumer prices high and author incomes low, and another camp that seeks to profit from lower prices and higher incomes.
Which side is deserving of your support?
Over to you, Authors Guilded and United...
Joe sez: For the TL;DR crowd:
If you signed Douglas Preston's letter, you picked the wrong side.
Even if you're a millionaire bestselling author, driven by greedy self-interest, you're still screwing yourself in the longrun by siding with Hachette.
Elsewhere on the Internets, Preston continues to be the absolutely worst spokesperson in the history of publishing.
Preston: Unfortunately, Amazon's actions are hurting, most of all, the debut and midlist authors who haven't yet built up a loyal audience. I'm okay, and the bestselling authors, we have an audience and they're going to find our books one way or another.
Joe sez: Wrong, Doug. It's Hachette's actions that are hurting all authors, including you.
Amazon is trying to sell more of your books and make you more money by stopping your publisher from making ebook prices too high.
Preston: But we're not against Amazon. And we're not for Hachette at all. We're really trying not to take sides. We're just asking Amazon to resolve its issues with Hachette without affecting authors, without dragging us into it.
Joe sez: I'm not judging you, Doug, but you're a complete pinhead.
See what I did there? I said I wasn't judging you, but I went ahead and judged you.
Exactly like you keep saying you aren't taking sides, but you keep asking Amazon to resolve its issues with Hachette.
If you weren't taking sides, you pinhead, you'd be asking Hachette the same thing.
Preston: But we're not fighting anyone's battle for them. I'm not even in contact with Hachette. They have nothing to do with it. We're just fighting our own battle.
Joe sez: Preston's complete lack of self-awareness astounds me.
Joe sez: Preston's complete lack of self-awareness astounds me.
Doug, how about you actually get in contact with your damn publisher and wield the power of Authors United, "power to face down one of the world's largest corporations", and tell those morons that they need to accept Amazon's proposal, which will make all authors more money?
Preston: We just want to be able to write our books, and have them sold fairly at the largest bookseller in the world and not have those sales blocked or impeded. If Amazon were a small bookseller, it wouldn't be so concerning. But they have 41 percent of the entire book market and, like, 55 percent of the entire ebook market. Amazon sells probably half the books I sell. So it's very concerning to me.
Joe sez: Then you shouldn't have signed away your rights to a corporation bent on exploiting you. Because if you want them sold "fairly" it should't be at the $14.99 that Hachette wants.
Hire a lawyer. Get out of your contract. Then you can deal directly with Amazon, and they'll give you 70% instead of 17.5%
But the problem, of course, is that Amazon pubbed and self-pubbed books are boycotted by B&N and most indie bookstores.
Hey! Here's an idea! Maybe the surging, unstoppable powerhouse that is Authors United can do something proactive about that! How about... hmm, what could you do to make a huge impact?... I got it, how about a $70,000 NYT full page ad! That'll show 'em!
Preston: Books are different from toasters and wide-screen TV sets.
Joe sez: Ah, the appeal to emotion fallacy.
This is what millionaire authors trot out when they can't say the truth:
We make a shit-ton of money selling paper books. That's what this is really all about.
Preston: "It was when the evidence emerged, that Amazon had been holding certain books hostage and delaying delivery of other books as a negotiating tactic in a dispute with Hachette. I felt that was unfair. We [authors] had not done anything to Amazon and aren't party to the dispute. And I felt it was unfair of Amazon to target authors as a means of leverage. That's what gave me the idea that we should try to address the situation, to try to change Jeff Bezos' mind.
Joe sez: And who moved my cheese!?
Doug, I'm actually begging you now, please open your mind a teensy weensy bit and see that Hachette has been delaying negotiations because they want ebook prices to be higher.
Amazon has no obligation at all to sell any Hachette books whatsoever. They don't even have a current contract in place with Hachette. The fact that Amazon is still selling any Hachette books at all is a supreme act of generosity, which they are probably doing because they don't want to screw authors by completely removing all Hachette books from their store, which is entirely within Amazon's right to do.
How about you force Hachette to accept Amazon's offer? And maybe, at the same time, force them to double author royalties to 35%?
Oh, wait. I forgot. You aren't in contact with Hachette.
Well, at least you keep insisting that you aren't taking sides.
Preston: I think most of us think that Amazon is a good company. We're grateful to it for selling our books. We've been a partner to it, we've been supporting Amazon from the very beginning, from the time it was a start-up. And we've felt a little bit betrayed by this. I'm speaking to you now, not as an official spokesman for anybody. That's how I felt personally, and it's turned out a lot of other authors felt the same way.
Joe sez: Ah, the harsh sting of betrayal. Because you've supported Amazon for so long. How selfless of you to do so, when Amazon has 41% of the book market and 55% of the ebook market.
Maybe you should reconsider your contract with Amazon since you feel so betrayed.
Oh... wait. You DON'T HAVE A CONTRACT WITH AMAZON.
You actually have a contract with.... Hachette! They are the ones preventing you from having pre-order buttons on Amazon, because they are the ones failing to make a deal with Amazon to do so.
If you're going to feel betrayed, pick the right betrayer.
Preston: Is this going to be Amazon's MO [mode of operation] from now on? -- to hurt authors and inconvenience their own customers every time they run into a rough patch negotiating with a publisher? I guess our feeling is that that's not acceptable.
Joe sez: Is this going to be legacy publishing's MO from now on? -- to use their authors as pawns to sacrifice in order to control ebook pricing, which hurts authors and customers?
Is this going to be rich, entitled, self-interested millionaire NYT bestsellers' MO from now on? -- to use their celebrity in order to secure media attention so they can protect their positions as rich, entitled, self-interested millionaire NYT bestsellers?
Unlike you, I don't need to guess what my feelings are. That's NOT acceptable.
Preston: You can't outsource Lee Child to China. They should not be treated as if they're boxes of cereal occupying grocery store shelves.
Joe sez: How about we please let Lee Child do the talking from now on?
I disagree with Lee about a lot of things, but at least he can ably defend his position. Lee wouldn't say something stupid like "you can't outsource me to China". Books are not special snowflakes, and Lee doesn't need to be outsourced to China because he is no doubt already selling truckloads of books there.
Comparing books to cereal boxes shows that you don't even seem to know what outsourcing is. And stop clinging to the belief that books are special. It is such self-interested BS.
We are entertainers. We aren't curing cancer. We aren't feeding the poor. We're incredibly lucky that we can make a few bucks doing something we love, which is a luxury most people don't have. But we don't deserve special treatment. Amazon removing pre-order buttons isn't equivalent to Alexandra burning.
If you truly believe reading books is as essential as eating or breathing, take the money you've raised for the NYT ad and give it to www.firstbook.org.
Preston: These are books and authors and writers whose livelihoods are affected by this.
Joe sez: Then force your publisher to negotiate.
Oops... I keep forgetting, you aren't taking sides, and you aren't in touch with Hachette. My bad.
Preston: (Amazon's previous offers to authors are) a lopsided proposal which would severely impact the publisher financially but wouldn't impact Amazon financially very much at all. It's almost like an attempt to ask authors to load Amazon's guns for them. And I don't think it's a serious attempt to bridge a gap, I think it's simply an attempt to divide authors from their publishers."
Joe sez: Why do I feel like I need to spoonfeed you common sense, Doug?
If neither Hachette or Amazon were making money off of Hachette titles, and instead the money went to authors, or charity, it would compel both companies to resolve this issue sooner.
As Amazon has said, Kindle books are only 1 percent of Lagardère Group's sales. Both companies can weather this storm, but something could be done to bring a faster resolution. Amazon has repeatedly tried to do that.
WTF has Hachette done in order to speed this process along? Why haven't you mentioned that?
Preston: There's a lot of stuff going around the Web, and views being imputed to us, views being imposed on us that are not accurate. People saying [for example] that we're for higher ebook prices. Well that's absurd. We haven't made any comments about ebook prices. I think if you looked at our list of signers, you'd probably find that most of us were in favor of lower ebook prices and discounted books.
Joe sez: Doug, you can't say you want the state to execute a convicted murder, and then say you are against capital punishment. That's some serious cognitive dissonance.
The position you and Authors United are taking will result in higher ebook prices. Period.
Preston: And then they say we're calling for a boycott of Amazon. Absolutely not. We're not calling for a boycott. I'm an Amazon Prime member and I'm still using the company. I guess I'd put it this way: you can be against a war and still be a patriotic citizen. I'm an Amazon customer, I'm just taking exception to this one thing they're doing.
Joe sez: Doug, you're the one that said Amazon is boycotting authors. Which they aren't, by any definition of the term.
Our letter asked readers not to boycott Amazon, because Amazon isn't at fault here. Authors United, and Stephen Colbert, are unjustly painting Amazon as a bad guy.
When you start whining in public about being treated unfairly, what do you think will happen? Could a consequence of your actions possibly be that some readers will agree with you, and subsequently not shop at Amazon anymore? Do you think, maybe, that might happen?
For example, I don't have an iota of the untold power that Authors United has (I haven't sold billions of books, and I'm under no delusion that I'm one of the finest writers in the English language). But I can guess, as a consequence of this blog post showing my readers how absolutely wrong you are about this issue, some of those readers won't buy your books anymore.
I'm not calling for a boycott of Douglas Preston books. But in fisking you, I know that a certain percentage of people are going to think you're ridiculous, and they are going to voice their opinion with their wallets. As a direct consequence of me whining in public.
You most certainly can be against a war and still be a patriot. I can love my country without loving my government. But your analogy is poor.
By continuing to sell your books on Amazon, by continuing to shop at Amazon, while stating publicly how harmful Amazon is toward authors, it shows you are a hypocrite.
A patriot against a war will refuse to fight in that war.
Preston: But I'll say this: there certainly should be room for both indie publishers and traditional publishers, for indie authors and traditional authors. I think we're all in the same leaky boat, and we should be bailing together. I think we should be friends.
Joe sez: I'll be your friend, Doug. And as your friend, I'll give you some heartfelt advice: Stop doing interviews about this topic.
Indie authors are not in the same leaky boat that Hachette authors are, because we control our IP. We're not subject to the boneheaded negotiating tactics of our publishers. And your pandering to indies is, well, kinda creepy and kinda elitist in a "let's make friends with the backwards savages" kinda way.
But maybe I'm just reading you wrong. I know how interviews can sometimes fail to convey tone and intent.
Preston: Most of the world doesn't give a damn about books and reading, frankly. Ninety percent of the world not only doesn't give a damn about books, they're actually hostile to books. So traditional authors and indie authors have a lot in common and should be friends. Let's not fight. We're not against independent publishing at all.
Joe sez: The world doesn't give a damn? But, but, but books are special! They aren't like toasters or boxes of cereal!
Doug, allow me to let you in on something: indie authors aren't against legacy publishing. Indie authors are pro choice, and some indies will take legacy deals.
But what all authors seem to be against is getting screwed. In fact, that's why you wrote your letter to Bezos. You incorrectly believe Amazon is treating authors unfairly.
In fact, it's the legacy system that has treated authors unfairly for decades. And it continues to treat authors unfairly. You don't seem able to grasp that, because you won the legacy lottery. You're rich. You have widespread distribution. You were plucked from the masses and given the star treatment.
The rest of us don't get that kind of treatment. But Amazon has allowed us, for the first time ever, to make some money and captain our own ships.
I'm not anti-legacy. I'm not pro-Amazon. I'm pro-author, and in this particular case, the interests of Amazon and of authors are aligned.
The only ones who can't see that are the entitled millionaires and those suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Preston: I want you and everyone else to understand how much we are in favor of self-publishing and indie publishing. I personally am and other authors [in his group are]. So I say let's extend hands, let's shake hands, let's be friends, and not view ourselves in opposition to each other, because I don't think we should be.
Joe sez: Then stop going to the media and saying Amazon needs to stop hurting authors. Stop saying that Amazon is boycotting authors. Don't take out a full page ad that will paint Amazon as the enemy. Stop rejecting Amazon's offers to help the very authors you claim to be trying to help.
Stop the stupid.
Preston: "Hugh is a nice person. And Hugh feels that Hachette forced Amazon to take these steps, that in order to get Hachette's attention, it had to do what it did."
In speaking with Amazon's Grandinetti -- "he's called me a couple of times" -- Preston says he's heard the same thing from him, as well, an assertion that Amazon, in Preston's take on Grandinetti's words, "had to do this to show Hachette that we were serious."
"But my response to that would be, 'Nobody forced you to do it. I mean, how old are we?' Look, we all have choices. And Amazon is a very powerful company...No one made it do anything."
Joe sez: This is exactly the type of stupid I'm talking about.
Hugh is right that Hachette forced Amazon to take these steps. Hachette refused to negotiate, even after their contract with Amazon ended. What was Amazon supposed to do? Would you allow Hachette to keep publishing your books if you no longer had a contract with them?
But you don't address that, Doug.
Russ has called you a couple of times. Has Hachette called you? Why don't you mention that?
Your response is "how old are we?"
I dunno, Doug. Are we a bunch of petulant, whiny two-year olds who aren't getting our way so we take out a $70k ad in the NYT?
You keep defending Hachette while admitting you haven't even been in touch with them. You like Hugh but don't respond to his well-reasoned points, just simply disagree without defending your position or countering his. You blame Amazon, reject their offers, and apparently absolve all the shitty things your publisher does.
And you do this publicly. You're trying to get people on your side.
And you want to be friends? Really?
Preston: There's really a great diversity of opinion among the letter signers about such things as the right price of an ebook, how should publishing look at the future...what kinds of royalties authors should get...but the one united thing we all share is asking Amazon, as simple as this: just settle your differences with Hachette without hurting authors. That's all.
Joe sez: Amazon has made three offers to avoid hurting authors.
You don't care about authors being hurt, Doug. You care about Hachette. Every offer Amazon has made, you reject because you feel it will hurt Hachette.
You can't keep saying Amazon is hurting authors. It's 100% wrong.
By dismissing Amazon's offers, Hachette is the one hurting authors. And so are you.
Preston: If Amazon were to say, 'Okay, we'll put the [pre-order] buttons back, we'll go ahead and sell the books the way we did before -- and we're not going to do this again' -- I think we'd close up shop" on the Authors United effort.
Joe sez: Why stop there? Why not also ask Amazon for a pony, and a blow job?
But whatever you do, don't ask Hachette for anything at all. Just think what would happen if you did. I mean, you might actually be able to force them to accept Amazon's proposal of 35% royalties for authors, 35% to publishers, 30% to Amazon.
And if that happened, it would hasten the end of paper's dominance. And then you would lose all the perks you currently have.
This isn't about helping authors, Doug. It's about helping yourself.
The inimitable David Gaughran has some questions for Doug at the end of the FutureBook interview:
1. Your comments focus a lot on the loss of pre-orders on certain Hachette titles. Are you aware that self-published authors and many small presses don't have a pre-order facility on Amazon?
2. Do you have an escalator/bonus in your contract with Hachette which kicks in if you hit the New York Times bestseller list (or similar lists)? Is this the real reason you are so upset about Amazon removing the pre-order facility?
3. Your letter described Amazon's actions as a "boycott" when it is no such thing. Here's what a real boycott looks like. Since October last year self-publishers have been banned, en masse, from the e-bookstore of the UK chain WH Smith. The company has given zero indication when this ban will be overturned. How come you guys have never written an open letter condemning this actual boycott?
4. Why is this the issue you decided to organize a protest about? If you really cared about the plight of the average author, why have you never campaigned to raise royalty rates, or remove toothless reversion clauses, or awful non-compete clauses? Why have you been silent about the exploitation at (Penguin Random House-owned) Author Solutions?
5. You say you aren't in favor of higher prices. I find this incredibly disingenuous. It's clear that Hachette's aim in these negotiations is to take back control of retail pricing and/or restrict Amazon's ability to discount e-books. In other words, if Hachette prevails, e-book prices will increase. That's what you are campaigning for.
6. Your letter also complains that Hachette books are no longer being discounted to the same levels as before. Are you aware that Hachette is seeking to take discounting power away from Amazon? In other words, Hachette books will be discounted *even less* if Amazon listens to you and caves to Hachette's demands. Do you see the cognitive dissonance here?
7. You make reference to two of Amazon's offers to compensate affected Hachette authors, depicting them as either disingenuous or unfair. However, you fail to reference Amazon's first offer. That offer was to estimate lost book sales and pay out the respective author royalties from a pool, the cost of which would be borne equally by Hachette and Amazon. (Note: this was exactly what was agreed between Amazon and Macmillan in 2010). Hachette also rejected this offer. I'd love to hear how this first offer was either unfair or disingenuous. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on the complete lack of counter-offers from Hachette to compensate affected authors. It seems to me like Hachette wants to keep its authors in the firing line to keep the pressure on Amazon.
Joe sez: I'll add a few questions of my own.
8. You said our petition caught you by surprise. Did you even read it? Have you read any contrary point of view? Why haven't you responded to any of your critics?
9. Do you understand that if Hachette accepts Amazon's offer, Hachette can still control wholesale price? In the pre-Agency model days, authors and publishers made more money per ebook sale.
10. Have you ever negotiated with anyone? If Amazon shouldn't have removed pre-order buttons, what do you suggest it should have done when Hachette refused to respond to Amazon's attempts to negotiate, even after Hachette's contract with Amazon ended?
11. Why the hell haven't you contacted Hachette? You've done nothing but defend them, even when admitting you don't know what the negotiation is about. They're your publisher. Your lost sales are a direct consequence of their decisions.
11. Why the hell haven't you contacted Hachette? You've done nothing but defend them, even when admitting you don't know what the negotiation is about. They're your publisher. Your lost sales are a direct consequence of their decisions.
Now, I predict Doug isn't going to answer any of these questions. Maybe, if he gets publicly shamed enough, he won't run the NYT ad. But even if he doesn't, his mind is already made up on this issue, and no amount of common sense or facts will open his mind.
What Preston needs to do to help his cause is stop all activism. Every time he flaps his jaws, it empowers Hachette to stall negotiations longer. Also, because his position is so indefensible, and the comments he makes so damn stupid, he's become a better pro-Amazon spokesperson than an indie author could ever be. The more he yaps, the more public opinion turns Amazon's way. Amazon couldn't pick a better poster boy.
Stop it, Doug. Really. I'm trying to do you a solid here. Stop the petition. Stop doing interviews. Stop the NYT ad. Stop it all.
For your own good, and for the good of all authors.
Barry sez: It would be encouraging if Preston would respond to David Gaughran's excellent questions above. And if he would respond to the questions I asked in this post:
After all, isn't Preston concerned that his failure to meaningfully engage his critics is what's allowing "the most vociferous voices take over the online discussion"?
At a bare minimum, it would be a really terrific development if Preston and "Authors United" could offer even a single proposal for how Amazon and Hachette might resolve their impasse that doesn't involve Amazon simply capitulating to all Hachette's demands. Have another look at the last paragraph of Porter's post and you'll see this is exactly -- and only -- what Preston claims would be satisfactory.
Which, of course, is the ultimate laugh-line in response to Preston's persistent eye-lash batting demurral that he and "Authors United" aren't taking sides in this dispute. "We're not taking sides; we just want Amazon to stock Hachette's books on whatever terms Hachette wants!"
It's been my experience that the most partisan people believe they have no politics, that the most biased journalists believe they're entirely objective, and that the most destructive personality types truly believe they're good people with good intentions who will produce only good results. What makes people like Preston so pernicious is precisely this: even as they fight someone else's battle, they're absolutely convinced they're as neutral as Switzerland. In other contexts, it might be funny, or it might be sad. In this one, unchecked, Preston's myopia is apt to cause a lot of harm, which is why I'm glad to be one of the people who's working to expose "Authors United" for all the qualities Preston is too blinkered to see.
Barry sez: It would be encouraging if Preston would respond to David Gaughran's excellent questions above. And if he would respond to the questions I asked in this post:
After all, isn't Preston concerned that his failure to meaningfully engage his critics is what's allowing "the most vociferous voices take over the online discussion"?
At a bare minimum, it would be a really terrific development if Preston and "Authors United" could offer even a single proposal for how Amazon and Hachette might resolve their impasse that doesn't involve Amazon simply capitulating to all Hachette's demands. Have another look at the last paragraph of Porter's post and you'll see this is exactly -- and only -- what Preston claims would be satisfactory.
Which, of course, is the ultimate laugh-line in response to Preston's persistent eye-lash batting demurral that he and "Authors United" aren't taking sides in this dispute. "We're not taking sides; we just want Amazon to stock Hachette's books on whatever terms Hachette wants!"
It's been my experience that the most partisan people believe they have no politics, that the most biased journalists believe they're entirely objective, and that the most destructive personality types truly believe they're good people with good intentions who will produce only good results. What makes people like Preston so pernicious is precisely this: even as they fight someone else's battle, they're absolutely convinced they're as neutral as Switzerland. In other contexts, it might be funny, or it might be sad. In this one, unchecked, Preston's myopia is apt to cause a lot of harm, which is why I'm glad to be one of the people who's working to expose "Authors United" for all the qualities Preston is too blinkered to see.


text:
Jawn necesitaba un nuevo diseño de botón o icono y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 40 diseños de 12 diseñadores freelance.
My community needs these two buttons to be made in flash with a intresting animation, like the icon spinning or something.
none yet
You can view the attached psd files for the two icons.
These are icons which i have placed on the header of my community.
What i want is that these icons do something (animation) (maybe pling sound) when that user recieves a message of some kind.
As the icons are now is when there's no new messages of some kind, they are just static images (jpg files)
You could do it in GIF format if its good but could also do it in flash.
Your allowed to put in a sound with the icon animation.
The lens above the icon needs to stay the way it is.
The icons can spin/change color/ twinkle etc its up to you.
Image width/height needs to remain as it is, this doest mean that the image within the icon can change size, but the lens needs to stay in the same size.
These are the icons
Good luck guys!
- Simple noticeable (sound) and animation.
- If your using flash, you could make the animation stop when hovering the mouse curser or something.
- Annoying sounds
- Way to aggressive twinkle of some kind


text:
Name: Sinderotica
Country: United States
Language: English
Duration: 82 min
Director: Alex DeRenzy
Year: 1985
Actress: Lili Marlene,Little Oral Annie,Heather Wayne,Patti Petite,D.J. Cone,Lynn Franciss,Tammy Hart,Kathryn Reed
Actors: Ron Jeremy,Mike Horner,Buddy Love,Chris Chase
Categories: Little Oral Annie porn videos, 1985, United States, English, Alex DeRenzy, Lili Marlene, Little Oral Annie, Heather Wayne, Patti Petite, D.J. Cone, Lynn Franciss, Tammy Hart, Kathryn Reed, Ron Jeremy, Mike Horner, Buddy Love, Chris Chase, Facial
Fantasy movie, within a fabled kingdom comes an announcement of a royal ball to procure a female sexual match for the prince. Our heroine Sinderella, now works overtime to fight off her rivels to win her "Prince Charming", at midnight anything and everything happens. So an adult version of "Cinderella", this works and has humour added for good measure. "An erotic version of a timeless fable", quotes the papers and rightly so.


text:
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text:
CHANHASSEN, MN -- Life Time Fitness CEO Bahram Akradi admitted during his company's third quarter earnings call in October that the lengthy lagging economy has driven his will to succeed.
"In a sick way, I almost liked this tough economy that exists out there because it is allowing us to sharpen our skills and get much tougher," Akradi told analysts.
Sick or not, Akradi and Life Time have continued to get healthy from an earnings perspective this year. Life Time's third quarter 2010 revenue grew 11.2 percent to $238.3 million compared to $214.3 million in the same period last year. Total revenue for the first nine months of 2010 grew 8.8 percent to $689.2 million from $633.3 million in the first nine months of 2009.
Net income for the quarter was $23.4 million compared to $20.6 million in third quarter 2009 and $63.1 million for the first nine months of 2010 compared to $54 million in the same period last year.
Life Time also increased its memberships by 5.4 percent, from 590,716 on Sept. 30, 2009, to 622,698 on Sept. 30, 2010.
Attrition levels are decreasing at Life Time, too. The Chanhassen, MN-based company's trailing 12-month attrition rate for the quarter was 37.1 percent, down from 40.6 percent at the same time last year.
"We can continue to improve on that 37.1 percent here in the fourth quarter, albeit, it will be a small improvement," Akradi said. "We are not done with ideas that we are still baking and trying to implement to improve our attrition. We really want to hit that [goal of] 36 percent bad, and we continue to work on that."
Life Time updated its forward-looking statements for the year. It expects 2010 revenue to be $900 million to $910 million (up from $890 million to $905 million) and net income to be $81 million to $83.5 million (up from $79.0 million to $81.0 million).
The total number of open Life Time clubs on Sept. 30, 2010, was 89 compared with 84 on Sept. 30, 2009. The company was scheduled to open its third and final club of 2010 this month in Centennial, CO.
"While I am not bullish on the consumer environment, I have never felt better about the company and our management team," Akradi said. "Since the economic downturn, we have executed on almost every aspect of our plan."
Akradi indicated that Life Time will see more growth next year if there is a drop in unemployment.
"2010 has been, as we have mentioned numerous times, a very, very challenging year," Akradi told analysts. "We feel that we can continue to perform as well as we have performed in 2010 in 2011. I do not expect to be radically different one way or the other unless we see robust change in unemployment going from [about] 9.5 percent to 7.5 percent. Then, we will get some wings on our back."


text:
Two science histories dissect the transfer of knowledge between the Greco–Islamic and European civilizations, and put right the impression that the flow was one way, explains Yasmin Khan in a recently published article (Nature, vol 458, 12 March 2009).
Yasmin Khan*
Note of the editor
This article is based on Yasmin Khan "Shining light upon light" published in Nature, vol. 458, 12 March 2009, pp. 149-150; doi:10.1038/458149a. See the article online at the website of Nature: Full Text and PDF version. The article is a review of Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World by John Freely (Alfred Knopf, 2009) and Science and Islam: A History by Ehsan Masood (Icon Books, 2009). We publish an extract from the original article (as allowed by Nature graciously), with slight editorial changes, and add further materials and resources. We thank Yasmin Khan and the editorial board of Nature for allowing partial republishing.
It has been widely accepted that the Islamic civilization had merely a bridging role in preserving the wealth of inherited ancient Greek knowledge ready for future consumption by the West. This pervasive belief, now known to be a damaging distortion of history, is explored in two new books. In Aladdin's Lamp, John Freely writes a captivating account of the transfer of scientific ideas between these civilizations.
Figure 2: Ottoman astronomers at work around Taqī al-Dīn at the Istanbul Observatory. Source: Istanbul University Library, F 1404, fol. 57a.
Interlacing historical events with finesse, his story has a nostalgic quality that makes for escapism but falls short of convincing. At first glance, we assume that Freely will offer us an exposé of the central part the Islamic world played in the pursuit of science, and the key contributions it made. Instead, it quickly transpires that Freely's handling of Islamic discoveries could be construed as damning with faint praise in comparison with his treatment of Greek knowledge.
Freely introduces his book by declaring that "Modern Science traces its origins back to ancient Greece", arousing suspicion that his motive is to venerate the ancient Greeks as the progenitors of scientific ideas, and to suggest that later civilizations should be viewed as being in their shadow. By the end of the book it becomes apparent that this suspicion is founded. Yet Freely's thesis raises the question of whether the emergence of modern science, as practised today, really was spearheaded by the ancient Greeks.
Figure 3: Nasir al-Din al-Tusi pictured at his writing desk at Maragha observatory that he founded in 1259. © The British Library (Source).
Figure 4: Ottoman astronomers studying the moon and the stars in a miniature dating from the 17th century held in a manuscript owned by Istanbul University Library. (Source).
Old-school historians were adamant that the scientific revolution emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the original sources of classical Greek thinking were 'rediscovered' by Europe. Others, such as Ehsan Masood, beg to differ.
In Science and Islam — the accompanying book to a BBC television and radio series that focuses on science in the Muslim world — he shows that the information flowed in two directions. Through a translation movement that began in the early 9th century, the Islamic world built extensively on Greek ideas, as well as on knowledge from other civilizations, to develop new theories. A golden age for the Islamic civilization, this prolific period spanned more than 800 years. Scientific, technological and engineering endeavour was cultivated to such an extent that it attracted interest in Europe, which was supposedly languishing in the Dark Ages.
Figure 5: 3D Construction of the Third Water Raising Device.
Both books are opportune and contribute to the long-overdue popularization of the multicultural history of science. No doubt a flurry of similar books will shortly appear, especially given the current political climate coupled with the underpinning role that science has in modern society and the possibilities for development it offers in reviving the Middle East. Yet what is still needed is an updated popular historiography that can span the full breadth of world history and position the outputs of Islamic science into a wider context. That is worth waiting for.
Figure 6: Diagram of the famous Tusi couple as depicted in the 13th-century Arabic MS 319 (folio 28v) held at the Vatican Library; click here for an animation. The Tusi couple, as it was called by Edward Kennedy in 1966, is a device created by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274) based on a theorem that converts uniform circular motion into linear motion. It was a key ingredient in several models that eliminated the eccentric and/or the equant introduced by Ptolemy. It is one of several late Islamic astronomical devices bearing a striking similarity to models in Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543). Historians suspect that Copernicus had access to an Islamic astronomical text. See George Saliba, "Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe?" for a thorough discussion of Al-Tusi's model and the interactions of Arabic and Latin astronomers, and Eric W. Weisstein on Tusi Couple.
Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World by John Freely. Random House, Inc./Knopf Publishing Group, 2009. Hardcover, 320 pp. ISBN: 9780307271327.
About the Author
John Freely was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up there and in Ireland before joining the U.S. Navy at seventeen for the last two years of World War II. Since 1960 he has taught physics and the history of science at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, with intervals in New York, Boston, London, Athens, and Venice. He is the author of more than forty books. He lives with his wife in Istanbul.
Table of contents
List of Illustrations – ix
Introduction - 3
1. Ionia: The First Physicists - 5
2. Classical Athens: The School of Hellas - 23
3. Hellenistic Alexandria: The Museum and the Library - 38
4. From Athens to Rome, Constantinople, and Jundishapur - 61
5. Baghdad's House of Wisdom: Greek into Arabic - 72
6. The Islamic Renaissance - 83
7. Cairo and Damascus - 95
8. Al-Andalus, Moorish Spain - 106
9. From Toledo to Palermo: Arabic into Latin - 120
10. Paris and Oxford I: Reinterpreting Aristotle - 137
11. Paris and Oxford II: The Emergence of European Science - 149
12. From Byzantium to Italy: Greek into Latin - 164
13. The Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres - 178
14. The Debate over the Two World Systems - 191
15. The Scientific Revolution - 211
16. Samarkand to Istanbul: The Long Twilight of Islamic Science - 226
17. Science Lost and Found - 237
18. Harran: The Road to Baghdad - 249
Acknowledgments - 257
Illustration Credits - 259
Notes - 261
Bibliography - 275
Science and Islam: A History by Ehsan Masood. Icon Books: 2009. Hardcover: 256 pp. ages. ISBN-10: 1848310404. Read a sample chapter and see the book's blog site here.
About the author
Ehsan Masood is Acting Chief Commissioning Editor at Nature and teaches international science policy at Imperial College London. He also writes for Prospect and OpenDemocracy.net and is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Home Planet.
Table of contents
List of illustrations – vii
A note on language – x
Prologue - iii
1 The Dark Age Myth - 1
Part I: The Islamic Quest 15
2. The Coming of the Prophet – 17
3. Building Islam - 29
4. Baghdad's Splendour - 39
5. The Caliph of Science - 55
6. The Flowering of Andalusia - 65
7. Beyond the Abbasids - 81
Part II: Branches of Learning 93
8. The Best Gift From God – 95
9. Astronomy: The Structured Heaven - 117
10. Number: The Living Universe of Islam - 139
11. At Home in the Elements - 153
12. Ingenious Devices - 161
Part III: Second Thoughts 167
13. An Endless Frontier – 169
14. One Chapter Closes, Another Begins - 187
15. Science and Islam: Lessons From History - 207
Timeline - 217
Acknowledgements - 223
Bibliography - 227
Index - 233
Other articles by Yasmin Khan
- Khan, Yasmin, "Shining light upon light", Nature, vol. 458, 12 March 2009, pp. 149-150; doi:10.1038/458149a. Two online version are displayed at the website of Nature: Full Text and PDF version.
- Khan, Yasmin Khan, "Islamic Science in the Science Museum: A Case Study in the Representation and Interpretation of the History of Science". Lecture presented to the international conference Representing Islam: Comparative Perspectives organised jointly by the Universities of Manchester and Surrey, Manchester, 5-6 September 2008. See the abstract in Representing Islam and Muslims in the Media: An Academic Debate.
- Khan, Yasmin, Sacred: Discover What We Share At The British Library (published 06.07.2007). See the original version in Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo), Issue No. 854, 19 - 25 July 2007: The magic quill.
- Khan, Yasmin, Medical History Without Frontiers, Nature, vol. 448, 23 August 2007.
- Khan, Yasmin, 1000 years of missing science (published 20.12. 2006).
- Khan, Yasmin, Beyond the bogeymen, The Guardian (UK), 7 July 2006. Published also as: 1000 years of missing science (published 20.12. 2006).
Resources and further reading
- 1001 Inventions: a groundbreaking global educational initiative exploring the Muslim contributions to building the foundations of modern civilisation. It is a unique UK based educational project that reveals the rich heritage that the Muslim community share with other communities in the UK, Europe and across the World. 1001 Inventions is a non-religious and non-political project seeking to allow the positive aspects of progress in science and technology to act as a bridge in understanding the interdependence of communities throughout human history. The global initiative consists of a UK and world wide travelling exhibition, a colourful easy to read book, a dedicated website and a themed collection of educational posters complementing a secondary school teachers' pack and a curriculum enrichment programme. The comprehensiveness of the initiative is revealed in seven conveniently organised zones: home, school, market, hospital, town, world and universe. Other components include: 1001 Inventions Book, Touring Exhibition, Poster Sets, Teachers' Pack, Online Shop, City 1250, Press Coverage, Latest News, Video.
- Multimedia selected online resources on 1001 Inventions Global Initiative:
1. BBC - Yasmin Khan Interview on "1001 Inventions" (RealPlayer) 09/03/2006. Click here to see the interview on the website of 1001 Inventions.
2. Broadcast about the 1001 Inventions exhibition presented by Vincent Doud, BBC World Service (08/03/2006).
- MuslimHeritage.com: (since 2002): visit FSTC academic web portal to learn about the scientific, technological, historical and cultural aspects of Muslim Heritage. Browse through Topics to read all articles on this website.
- Muslim Heritage Newsletter. A Quarterly Publication issued by the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), Manchester, UK. Issue 1: November 2007; Issue 2: March 2008 ; Issue 3: July 2008; 4th Issue: online on www.MuslimHeritage.com.
- Al-Hassani, Salim, chief editor, 1001 inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World. Manchester: FSTC, 2006, Hardcover: 372 pages. ISBN-10: 0955242606 - ISBN-13: 978-0955242601.
- Brought to Life: This website draws on the Science Museum's medical history collections, including the great Wellcome collection, to portray the history of medicine, primarily for school students and undergraduates but potentially for all those interested in history of medicine. The site has just launched in March 2009 with 2,500 new images, and this will grow over the next year to 4000. Each is linked to an interpretative framework as well as having its own specially written caption. Interactives and teacher tools help the site provide not just individual records but also an integrated learning resource. Click here to see a time line of some Islamic discoveries (select: 'Islamic Empire').
- FSTC Conference: Science and Islam: Past, Present and Future (part of the BA Festival of Science, University of Salford 8-12 September, 2003). Organised by Yasmin Khan on behalf of FSTC.
- Ball, Philip, Science & Islam: A History by Ehsan Masood plus The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilisation by Jonathan Lyons [The Sunday Times review]. The Sunday Times, February 1, 2009.
- Lyons, Jonathan, The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009. Hardcover, 272 pp.
- Marchant, Jo, Time to acknowledge science's debt to Islam?, New Scientist, 25 February 2009, Magazine issue 2696.
Ground breaking achievements in Islamic technology: Al-Jazari and Taqi al-Din
1. A Special section on Al-Jazari: 800 Years Later: In Memory of Al-Jazari, A Genius Mechanical Engineer
- Al-Jazari's Third Water-Raising Device: Analysis of its Mathematical and Mechanical Principles
- Al-Jazari's Castle Water Clock: Analysis of its Components and Functioning
- Al-Jazari - the Mechanical Genius
- Overview on al-Jazari and his Mechanical Devices
- A 800 Years Old Ancestor: Today's Science of Robotics and al-Jazari
- The Machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi Al-Din
- Automation and Robotics in Muslim Heritage: The Cultural Roots of al-Jazari's Mechanical Systems
- Attempts of Flight, Automatic Machines, Submarines and Rocket Technology in Turkish History
- A Review of Early Muslim Control Engineering
- Pioneers of Automatic Control Systems
2. A Special Section on Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf:
- The Machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi al-Din
- A Bio-Bibliographical Essay
- Bibliography on Taqi al-Din
- Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf: Survey on his Works and Scientific Method
- The Astronomical Clock of Taqi al-Din: Virtual Reconstruction
- The Six-Cylinder Water Pump of Taqi al-Din: Its Mathematics, Operation and Virtual Design.
- Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf 's Work on Extracting the Cord 2° and Sin 1°
- Taqi al-Din ibn Ma'ruf and the Science of Optics: The Nature of Light and the Mechanism of Vision
- The Instruments of Istanbul Observatory
*Yasmin Khan is Curator Team Manager at the Science Museum, London SW7 2DD, UK, part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. She is also a key associate of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) and member of its consulting body Muslim Heritage Awareness Group. Yasmin Khan was previously the project manager for the 1001 Inventions exhibition until its inaugural launch in 2006.


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Hundreds of millions of PCs now run Java 7, as well as Java 6, and in the face of active attacks against bugs in the software, Oracle this week issued emergency security updates for both. Yet half of all Java users are still running Java 6, which Oracle officially retired last month. That highlights the fact that that consumers as well as businesses don't understand the "patch-or-perish" imperative surrounding Java use, and thus their systems remain at risk of being exploited by attackers.
Here are nine related security concerns, as well as solutions:
1. Regular Java Attacks Will Continue
In the wake of active attacks against zero-day vulnerabilities in Java that were being exploited to install McRAT malware, Oracle this week released Java 7 update 17 (it skipped issuing an update 16) and Java 6 update 43 (skipping update 42). Both updates patch two critical bugs, one of which attackers were exploiting to fully compromise vulnerable PCs. Needless to say, Oracle and security experts at large have recommended that Java users upgrade as soon as possible.
Attacks against Java are increasing. Chaouki Bekrar, CEO and head of research for French vulnerability seller Vupen Security told Kaspersky's Lab's Threatpost that the increased number of Java exploits is being driven by their relative ease and low cost of development. "We see that criminals are moving from Flash to Java. We don't see many Flash exploits in the wild these days," he said.
Furthermore, security experts are now counting the time between new Java zero-day attacks being discovered not in months or weeks, but days. As of Friday, for example, only one day had elapsed since the latest discovery of a new zero-day exploit that was targeting Java users. Notably, veteran Java bug hunter Adam Gowdiak, head of research firm Security Explorations in Poland, earlier this week spotted five new vulnerabilities in Java 7, which he's reported to Oracle.
2. Oracle Vulnerability Patching Response Speed Improving
A string of zero-day vulnerabilities in recent months have left Java users exposed to active attacks, with no mitigation recourse except to disable the software, pending an update from Oracle. At the same time, Oracle took flak for failing to publicly address the ongoing vulnerabilities or deal with them in a timely manner.
To its credit, Oracle in late January promised to change its ways, and in fact switched to a much more aggressive updating regimen, as evidenced by the company having already issued three Java updates this year.
3. Recommendation: Disable Java Plug-in Whenever Possible
No matter how recently Java has been patched, most security experts recommend disabling the Java browser plug-in whenever possible. "For enterprises, IT security departments should disable it and have the ability to do so," said Rob Rachwald, senior director of research at FireEye, via email. "If an enterprise security team hasn't thought about Java disablement, that would not be a good thing."
For people who must use the Java browser plug-in, security experts recommend installing it on a secondary browser, and then only using that browser with trusted website. That approach won't block all types of attacks -- such as watering-hole attacks that compromised a popular iOS development website and used it to infect mobile developers' Mac OS X systems and compromise Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter -- but it might help.
4. Oracle Has Retired Java 6
This week's release of Java 6 update 43 served as an unusual coda for Java 6, which Oracle officially retired last month, saying that Java 6 update 41 would be the last. But Oracle wisely reconsidered -- in the wake of an active attack campaign being launched against Java 6 -- and issued an update for Java 7 as well as Java 6.
How long will the Java 6 updates continue? Good question, because the first time Oracle fails to patch a Java 6 bug that's being actively exploited by attackers, hundreds of millions of PC users will be at risk.
5. Java 6 Use Remains Widespread, Also At Work
That's because altogether, Java 6 and Java 7 are now installed on over a billion PCs. Furthermore, according to Java browser plug-in market share statistics gathered by StatOwl.com, which analyzes the system configuration of numerous website visitors -- predominantly to U.S sites -- at least 47% of Java users are running Java 6, and 15% have Java 7 installed. But StatOwl said it wasn't able to detect the Java version in 33% of cases, which may be the result of the Java 7 update 10 security enhancements that mask whether Java is installed.


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a simple solution to world hunger
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Media Observers on ABC's Jonathan Karl Benghazi Talking Points Story: "Sloppy" And "Inaccurate"
Blog ››› ››› JOE STRUPP
ABC's Jonathan Karl is drawing criticism from journalism veterans and media ethicists who say his recent reporting on talking points related to the September attacks on diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya has been "sloppy" and "highly problematic ethically."
The conservative media and Republican politicians have claimed for months that the Obama administration had for political purposes edited references to terrorism out of a set of talking points used shortly after the attacks.
On May 10, Karl gave those claims new life with an "exclusive" online report that found, based on what appeared to be direct quotes from the emails of White House and State Department aides, that "the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department."
Karl's muddled account reported both that "White House emails reviewed by ABC News" and that "summaries of White House and State Department emails" led to that conclusion. He also repeatedly produced quotes from what he described as "emails," suggesting that he had personally reviewed the original documents. In on-air reports, Karl and his colleagues subsequently claimed he had "obtained" the emails.
But after CNN produced the full text of one of the emails Karl had cited and reported that the version in Karl's article had made it "appear that the White House was more interested in the State Department's desire to remove mentions of specific terrorist groups and warnings about these groups so as to not bring criticism to the State Department" than was actually the case, Karl acknowledged that he had actually been "quoting verbatim" an unnamed source "who reviewed the original documents and shared detailed notes," and had not seen the emails himself. Observers have suggested that Karl had been burned by his source, given the discrepancies between what Karl reported about the email and what it actually said in full.
The slippery language Karl and ABC News adopted in describing the emails has drawn fire from media ethicists and veteran journalists.
"At best, it's extremely sloppy. At worst, it's a deliberate attempt to conceal the secondhand -- and possibly distorted -- nature of the information ABC was relying on so as to put its shoulder to the wheel of a highly prejudicial reading of the affair," said Edward Wasserman, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Miami Herald columnist. "Whether best or worst is true, it's highly problematic ethically, and the failure to acknowledge and correct is even worse."
Tim McGuire, journalism professor at Arizona State University and former president of the American Society of News Editors, criticized Karl for failing to adhere to basic standards of ethics.
"If the ethical journalist is dedicated to transparency Mr. Karl seems to have failed that standard," he said in an email. "The Benghazi story raises such trust issues anyway it seems to me all the details of what Mr. Karl saw are crucial to both sides."
Tom Fiedler, dean of the Boston University College of Communication and former Miami Herald executive editor, said Karl's report "cries out for a correction."
"Karl was sloppy - or being deliberately ambiguous - about these e-mails to enhance the 'exclusive' he claimed to have," Fiedler said. "Most important here is whether the 'summaries' of the e-mails cast a different light on the event than the e-mails themselves."
Fiedler said that Karl's reporting has suffered from its inconsistent and at times false descriptions of what he had reviewed.
"At minimum, Karl should have acknowledged on the air and in his on-line postings that he had only seen (or had read to him) summaries, and that he couldn't say whether those summaries were in context of the original e-mails," he added. "This caveat is no small thing as Karl could well have left himself vulnerable to being used for political purposes."
Kevin Smith, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists' ethics committee, called it "inaccurate reporting."
"I don't understand how you can claim to have the emails but then backtrack and say you were quoting from summaries," he said. "What was the fact when you initially reported - had the emails or summaries? Were you trumping up the story? Did you know the difference and if you did, why did you misrepresent? In the end I'd say there is a serious credibility issue with ABC's reporting on this issue."
Alicia Shepard, a former NPR ombudsman, called out ABC News, saying they were "wrong to mischaracterize information as a direct quote from an email when it was a summary."
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Bonjour...juniorDimitri M wrote: Any way, time to go and milk a cow for my wife's coffee so I can go kiting.
I do agree that "we both like to milk the low end" of the wind spectrum
But from looking at photo...it seems that you have roped a "bull"....so it does suit that topic perfectly
....................... ..........................................................................................
P.S. ( i do realize that dairy cows can have horns )


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Rickl be clear of where that came from, look past all the insultes and I wanna hear your response to the points he made.
He is gone, you didn't win, you where winning until you posted that.
WTF where you thinking......
You made the desicion to post his rant, you gotta stick a knife in his ribs now if you don't want to look like a fool.
One post finish him, he can't respond hit him hard enough and you'll get a lot of us back on your side.
Don't get me wrong I liked you both you and Fo, your both done now. Kiteforum will now heading to just pimps trying to get newbs to ride their brand.


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Welcome to www.njstars.net — your information source for the New Jersey Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship (NJ STARS). Please direct all questions to the NJ Higher Education Student Assistance Authority at (609) 584-4480.
"NJ STARS gave me the opportunity to take control of my own future and improve myself through higher education. This scholarship helped me to achieve goals that would have otherwise been much more difficult to obtain … Read more
"While in high school, amidst the usual uncertainty and anxiety that came with one's senior year, I remember being more preoccupied with the thought of how to pay for my higher education rather than from which institution I would receive it … Read more
"The NJ STARS program was instrumental in providing me with tremendous advantages as I began my college career. It gave me an opportunity to pursue a great education … Read more


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Let's talk content strategy. Is your content supporting your business goals? Are your messages clear and consistent? Is your content structured in the best way so it can be easily found, filtered and used by your customers? Is it written in the language and personality of your business? Do you have a clear strategy to tie all your content efforts together?
No? Well, I can help.
Snappy Sentences is a content strategy business run by me – Sally Bagshaw – that offers services to help improve your content. This could be your digital content, your offline marketing and communication material, or even your customer service content like call centre scripts and knowledge bases.
Based in Brisbane (Australia), I specialise in content strategy for large, messy websites (I love a challenge!) which includes stakeholder workshops, content audits, messaging, content modelling, taxonomies, content governance and training. Whether you need help during a website redevelopment, training for your staff, or someone who can help bridge the gap between marketing and IT – make sure you contact Snappy Sentences for your next content project. In the mean time enjoy the blog, follow Snappy Sentences on Twitter, or read my thoughts on content strategy.


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Wanted: One Harris CS7000 consolette unit. Radio NOT required, just the console. Will consider console WITH OR WITHOUT radio.
It's OK if the console's power supply has failed. I have substitutes.
Not looking for one of the older Orion/M7100 consoles. Just the current generation CS7000 for the M5300/M7300 radios.
PM me if you have one available. Give asking price.


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Offset Pipe Wrench - 729703
Heavy duty drop-forged steel with knurled thumbwheel adjustment. Corrosion-resistant, rippled powder coating. Hardened, ground and polished jaws. For use on pipework and fittings in awkward positions.
Dispatch Time is normally 2 days, this is the duration in working days that your order will take to leave us, so don't forget to add on the transport time. For Example, If you place an order on Monday morning, we will try to pack and dispatch your order within 2 days. Then your order may take a further 2 - 3 days to get you which will be either Friday or Saturday, But we do ask you allow 14 days for item to reach you, please see delivery below. So please bear this in mind when ordering. If you need it quick just call us with the Stock Code or Ref Number and we will quote you a delivery charge.
We have introduced a tiered pricing method for our delivery charges for UK Mainland only. This we hope will offer you value for money. Our rate are as follows:-
Deliveries outside UK Mainland to Ireland & N. Ireland carry a standard cost of £9.75 no matter how large or small your order.
We do ship our products worldwide but you will have to cantact us for a shipping quote.
|A few more products from Wrenches


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Next PlaylistIdentity Theft
- What is Identity Theft?
- How can identity theft occur?
- What do thieves do with a stolen identity?
- How can I find out if my identity has been stolen?
- What can I do to prevent identity theft?
- If someone has committed a fraud against me, what should I do?
- What if information in my credit report is wrong. Can I fix it?


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ETA: A clarification: This is an essay about emotional abuse. It is an exploration of one seemingly innocuous phrase, used repeatedly, over years, as part of a pattern of abuse, and how it affected my thought processes, self-esteem, and emotional state. If you want to be an ass and tell me I'm a horrible, insecure person (because that is so very helpful) or that I hate myself, or can't take a compliment, or any of the rest of the idiotic comments I've gotten, feel free. You will be dismissed.
Look, I know it's not true. I know that you're just trying to tell me that you think I'm beautiful all the time, no matter what, but I know I look better with make-up on. I can see the way you look at me when I wear it versus when I don't. I can see the way that others respond to me when I wear it versus when I don't. And I can see myself in the mirror. I can see the dark circles under my eyes that make-up hides. I can see how pale and sickly I look without make-up. I can see the pimples on my chin and the dry spots on my cheeks. I can see those things. Those things make me feel ugly.
Make-up helps to brighten up my eyes and make me look more alert. It gives me more color and helps me look healthier. It evens out the dry spots and covers up the pimples. And I end up looking more like me. Not like a porcelain doll or a clown, as you have been known to say. Like ME. Like the me I picture in my head, not the one I see in the mirror. And no, I don't do it for you. I do it for me. So that the image I see in the mirror is closer to the image in my head. And when my eyes look brighter and my face looks healthier, I FEEL brighter and healthier.
And I can tell that people smile at me more when I wear make-up. Is it because I look better or because I'm more likely to smile at them? Hard to say.
Does it gall me that make-up is expected of me a a professional woman? Yes. Absolutely. It pisses me off that I know for damn certain that I am judged by my appearance and make-up is part of that. Make-up is an expected part of my professional uniform. It's not a part of every professional woman's uniform, but for my profession, and at my level, it has to be. I can no more go out without make-up than I can go out in business dress and tennis shoes. And, really, I look and feel more professional with it on. So I'm wearing it.
And yes, I'm know that you think I'm always beautiful. I'm sure that, to you, I am. But you know me. You love me. You have had years to get used to the lines of my face. For you, my personality is printed on my face, and because you think my personality is beautiful, you think my face is beautiful. And that's wonderful. That's amazing. But even you can see that I look better with brighter eyes and less sallow, more even tone and more confidence. I know you can. Your eyes and your expression betray you. I've had years to study your face, too.
So, please. Don't tell me that I look prettier without make-up. You may be trying to make me feel beautiful, but you're not. You make me feel that make-up doesn't actually help. That the face that's more ME is no more attractive than the pale exhausted one.
And over the years I start to wonder: do I ever look pretty? Ever? Is there any point in trying to dress nicely if I'm just going to look drawn and pale and ugly no matter what? And since I'm so ugly no matter what I do, I really should be grateful to have you in my life. I'll certainly never find another man who will think I'm attractive. So, yes, you're right. I need to make sure you're satisfied. The fact that I feel ugly and fat and gross doesn't matter. I can use my body to make you feel good because you're the only one who will ever find this body attractive again.
And was that your end-game all along? If it was, I know you'll never admit it. You'll never admit to any of your manipulations. Did you ever really think I was beautiful? Or just that I was vulnerable? Was it ever the truth? Was anything that came out of your mouth ever the truth?
And now, people tell me I look beautiful. And I don't believe them. How can I look beautiful? I'm wearing make-up. And you always told me that I was so much prettier without it. That I looked like I had two black eyes when I wore eye shadow. That I looked like a clown, or a doll, or a mask.
And I know you were lying then.
But I still can't believe them now.


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Summer time memories are some of the strongest. For me, the summer of 2012 will always be known as the summer I discovered TATCHA skincare. I've been in a pretty committed relationship with the Japanese skincare regimen inspired by ancient rituals passed down from one generation of geisha to the next. TATCHA launched the skincare line last year after rediscovering a 200 year-old manuscript filled with rituals and ingredients from traditional Eastern beauty regimes. In this modern version, TATCHA formulated the line with precious green teas, Okinawa red algae and rice bran. Living like a geisha feels and looks good on the skin, let me make that point very clear!
TATCHA's regime, available in several varieties based on skin type, includes:
Step one: TATCHA PURE Camellia One Step Cleansing Oil ($48) is hands down the best cleansing oil I've ever used. It's unique in the sense that you truly don't need to "double cleanse." Two pumps of the cleansing oil, which does its magic with rice brain oil, camellia japonica seed oil, algae extract and green tea leaf extract, removes everything and leaves no residue behind. The texture is perfection.
Step two: TATCHA POLISHED Classic Rice Enzyme Powder ($65) is a fabulous cleanser that doubles as a gentle exfoliator. It's ideal for clean, makeup-less faces. You start with a wet face and wet hands and a few shakes of the powder and and it turns into this silky formulation. The active enzymes include rice bran and papaya and hydrolyzed pearl. Skin is immediately gleamy and baby-soft. I LOVE this stuff.
Step three: TATCHA RADIANT Deep Brightening Serum ($150) is a hydrating serum that brings geisha-like luminosity to skin. TATCHA formulated this with time-tested Asian botanicals, making this truly unique. It feels like liquid silk and skin drinks it up instantly.
Step four: TATCHA SUPPLE Moisture Rich Silk Cream ($150) pampered my skin on all of those hot summer nights. I'm convinced this moisturizer, which is as silky and creamy as the name would indicate, helped restore balance to my skin with its weightless power combo of liquid silk, squalane and royal jelly.
One thing is for sure: this is a summer romance that will continue into the next season.


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SAU Tech will host a Construction Career Day on September 29. High school students are invited to attend during the 9:00 am – 1:00 pm session. Jefferson Graham runs down highlights from 10 years and 1,000 episodes of the USA TODAY #TalkingTech video series, including his pick for most innovative technology of the last decade. According to a new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practices in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, technology may be the key to identifying high-risk behaviors among adolescents. Of course, in order for the advances in technology to be effectively used, people will need to equip themselves with the right tools and accessories. For instance, the introduction of blue tooth and wireless technology allows most people to abandon the use of wires.
The Yellow Jackets play their home games in Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field, in the heart of the Tech campus. Because it is easy for a tech to abuse their position, they are held to high standards. According to the BLS, the mean annual surgical tech salary in May 2007 was $38,800, with the top 10{c7aaa0283a52a78816caad9b64ca6689da174b784761d3b3f22e24d5f25c0200} making more than $52,500 and the bottom 10{c7aaa0283a52a78816caad9b64ca6689da174b784761d3b3f22e24d5f25c0200} making less than $26,650 per year. Many of the top bag designers have come out with their own version of this tech friendly bag.
The states with the highest surgical tech salary are Alaska ($50,000), Connecticut ($47,620), Hawaii ($46,720), California ($45,400), and Nevada ($45,020). In the world of the business, the use of technology has been even more dramatic. According to PayScale the median annual starting salary for someone with less than one year of experience is $31,824 and the median annual salary for a surgical tech with 20 years or more experience is $50,000.
When looking at the surgical technology income for a certain location you need to be sure to take into account the cost of living in that area as well since sometimes the salary is particularly high because the cost of living is high in that area as well.
Having said this, it's time to recognize that the Virginia Tech incident was much more than just a case of random school violence inflicted by a depraved individual. The stadium is named for Georgia Tech coaching legend Bobby Dodd, the head coach for 22 years, from 1945-66. Click on the button below to subscribe and wait for a new Facebook message from the TC Messenger news bot. Visit us and sign in to update your profile, receive the latest news and keep up to date with mobile alerts.