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Another chance...
I am sorry but today I am not going to write about photography. It plays very important part in my life, but there is something else... somebody else who makes my days. Have a look at this boy. Can you imagine him having a congenital heart defect. When I heard about it for the first time - I couldn't!
But it was the truth. I had to accept it. 3 weeks ago we came back from the hospital. Now his heart is in one perfect piece. But there was a moment when I really got scared. My little boy was lying on a surgery table laughing to everybody around... one of doctor's gave him injection (anaesthetic) and suddenly his pupils were gone! I felt that I lost him forever.
Now I am the most happiest mother in the world! Just wanted to let you know.
Tagschild experience heart life
13 Comments
Your article must be written in EnglishPublish
An old post, but neverthless happy for you.
(read it today)
Sliczny ten Twoj synek! Wszystkiego najlepszego dla Was!
That must have been so worrisome; I am glad all is well now. Your boy is adorable. Merry Christmas!
Thanks for sharing. Hope is what keeps all suffering in place. Happy holidays.
Thank you for such a fantastic response! Indeed I have got the best Christmas present I could. Merry Christmas and all the best in coming year for all of you!
God bless you and your kid and every human on this planet. Your kid is too cute, ummmmmmmhaaa
forgot to mention in my earlier post, that your little boy is simply adorable.
Good to hear that your son is doing fine now. It's the best Christmas present for any parent that one's kid is healthy and happy. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
No one knows why things like this happen. May he have a long and happy life.
Seems you have gotten your Christmas Miracle. God Bless him and keep him safe.
Great to hear hi is fine now. Your cute baby has very charming smile!
Thanks a lot for your warm words, Dave. I agree - CARPE DIEM!
I am very happy things turned out good for you and your son. We are all but a blink away from death. Life is so fragile it can't be thought of too heavily. But love everyone and everything close to you like there's no tomorrow because some day there won't be.
All about color
- Prepare yourself for fireworks
- Zooming In: A Photography Trick That Most People Take For Granted
- When "Happily" isn't "Forever After"
- Food Photography: A Recipe For Success! (Part 2)
- Tip of the week: Understanding camera's exposure compensation feature.
- Philippine Serendipity: The Beautiful Among the Common
- All about color - new blog contest
- Pet Adoption Photography: Wally


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ISPM-15 Implementation Date: September 16, 2005
Additions to ISPM-15:
Canada has adopted the April 2006 modification by the IPPC (International Plant Protection Convention) of the technical requirements for methyl bromide treatment. This amendment does not affect the movement of WPM from the United States into Canada. Posted: October 30, 2006
Notes: The United States, Canada, and Mexico, under the auspices of the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO), have agreed to implement a Phased Compliance process for Wood Packaging Material (WPM), beginning September 16, 2005 and continuing through July 5, 2006. The NAPPO strategy for enhanced enforcement will be conducted in three (3) Phases, as outlined below. This description of Phased Compliance is based on the most current set of written documentation available through APHIS and CBP (Customs and Border Protection).
Phase 1
On September 16, 2005, an informed compliance period will begin and will extend through January 31, 2006. During this period no stoppage of shipments for non-ISPM 15 compliant WPM will occur. The Informed Compliance will occur via account managers and through written notices posted in connection with cargo containing non-compliant WPM.
Phase 2
During the period, February 1, 2006 through July 4, 2006, informed compliance will continue on all regulated WPM, except pallets and crates. Full enforcement of the ban on non-compliant pallets and crates will be implemented, and will result in re-exportation from North America.
Phase 3
Beginning July 5, 2006, full enforcement on all articles of regulated WPM entering the US, Canada, and Mexico will begin. All informed compliance activities will be discontinued at this point.
WPM comprised entirely of Canadian origin wood or US origin wood is exempt from the treatment and marking requirements in trade between the two countries. Such shipments remain subject to inspection and must be accompanied by an importer document stating that they are derived totally from trees harvested in Canada or the United States. However, if the WPM contains a live pest infestation, the current policies, in each country, take precedence in eradicating the live pests.
The US, through Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has decided that the country of origin of the commodity is the country of origin of the WPM on all shipments coming from Canada, absent an indication to the contrary. For instance, Chinese-made goods coming from Canada will be considered Chinese and must be treated and marked according to ISPM 15 requirements.
References: World Trade Organization, G/SPS/N/CAN/163; March 18, 2003.
World Trade Organization, G/SPS/N/CAN/163/Add1; May 20, 2003.
World Trade Organization, G/SPS/N/CAN/163/Rev1; June 21, 2004.
Updated: October 30, 2006

subset: commoncrawl


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PADDY HANNA - Bad Boys
Dublin-based songwriter Paddy Hanna returns today with 'Bad Boys', a baroque cut of shimmering, intelligent pop. Following 2015's double-whammy of 'Austria' and 'Underprotected', new single 'Bad Boys' finds Paddy on his most effortlessly charming form to date, the tale of those titular bad boys sitting atop a swirling, orchestral backing. "We all have one of those in our life," Paddy jokes of the 'Bad Boys' the track takes its title from.
Paddy will take part in this year's Hard Working Class Heroes Festival before touring with Michah P. Hinson in October.
2018 will see the release of Hanna's sophomore album via Strange Brew Records, produced by his new collaborator Daniel Fox. Following on from the Scott Walker-esc pomp of Austria and Underprotected, Fox has added a whole new orchestral element to his music, along with contributions from members of Girl Band, Saint Sister, Tandem Felix, Cian Nugent and the Cosmos and the Trinity Orchestra.
Hanna will be on tour of Ireland from October through December accompioned by a live band featuring Adam Faulkner and Daniel Fox (Girl Band), along with guitarist Paddy Ormond (Jetsetter/Postcard Versions).
"Blessed with a sharply defined, neatly uplifting chorus and some biting, Elvis Costello style lyrics it's a neat introduction to a curious talent" – Clash
'Bad Boys' solidify Paddy Hanna's position as one of modern pop's premier songwriters, pitching him right up alongside everyone from Meilyr Jones, to Arab Strap, to Richard Hawley.
Tour Dates
Sep 29th Hard Working Class Heroes – The Workman's Club (Full band show)
Oct 6th Roisin Dubh, Galway /W Micah P. Hinson
Oct 7th Cyprus Avanue, Cork /W Micah P.Hinson
Oct 8th Whelans, Dublin /W Micah P. Hinson
Oct 12th Roisin Dubh, Galway (Full band show)


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ENFORCE comes in the wake of the company JOÃO NUNO SERRA, LDA, established in 2001, based in Covilhã - Portugal, and its main purpose is to cater to ENERGY needs.
Drawing on the experience of junior engineering managers from the region, ENFORCE operates in Portugal as well as internationally, namely in Spain, Romania and Angola.
Our company has strategic partnerships with other national and international companies, enabling the sustainable development of our activity.
We are designers, experts in electrical, telecommunications and HVAC infrastructures.
We are responsible, certified by the Directorate-General of Geology and Energy, for the running of power stations, namely Substations, Private Transformation Stations and facilities for the production of electrical energy.
We are Energy Auditors certified by the Directorate-General of Geology and Energy.
We are Qualified Experts in the framework of the National System of Energy Certification and Indoor Air Quality of Buildings (RCCTE, RSECE-E and RSECE-QAI).
We are committed to Research, Development and Innovation in order to provide the best energy technologies, namely SOLAR ENERGY.
Most of our developments, creation of solutions and new products, as well as improvements to existing products are protected by national and international patents.


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Feel comfortable moving in your body
Learn to listen to the signals that your body gives, letting you know the best way for you to move on any given day
Each day is different, each body is different
Move in the best way for you with all the support, variations, options and smiles that you need
Small classes providing individual attention in a group setting
Council Subsidised Classes
If you live in the Moreton Bay Regional Council area
Sunset Yoga 4:30pm Fridays
Sign up here for FREE Friday Sunset Yoga for 10 weeks from August 2nd
Yoga is traditionally an individual practice. We strive to keep this individual element to your practice so you can keep yourself safe and comfortable through each class.
All classes are at a gentle pace with the focus on feeling where you are in the pose and adapting it for yourself.
Our joints are all built differently and have different ranges of motion. Your yoga is a personal practice so we offer different options for you, because you are an individual.
Yoga is non-competitive so there is no need to compare yourself to others, or even yourself on different days.
Never move into pain or discomfort. It is important to keep yourself safe and pain-free by adjusting your practice for your bone structure, joint construction, muscle tension and the way you feel each day.
See the timetable for class types, times and pricing.
Sunset yoga is in Endeavour Park Newport.
Accompanied dogs, and children under 12 are welcome at sunset classes for free.
Studio address provided with booking confirmation for indoor classes.
5% of Sunset Yoga fees go to Peninsula Animal Aid - the local non-kill animal shelter at Clontarf.
We have a variety of yoga & pilates classes available both in the Park and in the studio on Longland Street, Redcliffe.
Sunset Yoga Redcliffe
Accompanied pets and children are welcome to come along to Sunset classes in Endeavour Park for free. Teenagers and concession card holders just $10 and $14 for others.
If it is not raining we are in the park. If it is really awful I can accommodate a number of people at my home so you can still complete your practice relaxing to the sound of the rain on the tin roof. See our Facebook page for updates
Yoga is excellent for avoiding injury by strengthening and improving flexibility - few of us could touch our toes when we started, but now can.
Classes focus on bringing you out of your mind into your body. To leave your mind alone to relax and reset getting you ready for the everyday again.
Paying it forward
5% of Sunset Yoga class fees go to Peninsula Animal Aid to help the animals that the awesome volunteers are caring for here on the Peninsula.
Studio Classes
Contact us for the address
Small classes, personal attention
Bookings required for flexipass and casual
No refund for passes
If no space is available in class for flexipass users, extensions may be offered.


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I've always had a knack for coloring my footage, so I've now taken that skill and translated it to photos! I've developed 10 all original Adobe Lightroom Photo presets and combined them into a bundle called BuffNerd Shooters Vol. 1
Check it out all below!
Link To Buy: http://jakobowensproductions.bigcartel.com/product/buffnerd-shooters-adobe-lightroom-presets
L.I.V.E. - Learn, Invest, Visualize, Execute


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Chicken & Spinach Pasta Bake
I made for the first time a week before I went into the hospital, and it will be on the docket for when I have to start making dinners again (thank goodness for family helping out right now!!), because it is SO easy to put together, and is tastes amazing! I was stealing bites before it even went into the oven! I served it with a side salad, but it would also be good with roasted veggies!
This would also make a great freezer meal!
- 8 ounces uncooked Banza pasta
- 3 Tbsp dried minced onion flakes
- 10 oz spinach, chopped
- 3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
- 1 (14.5-oz) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (8-oz) Daiya chive-and-onion cream cheese
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, separated
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Highly spray a 9x9-inch pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine cooked pasta, spinach, cooked chicken, onion flakes, tomatoes, cream cheese, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.
- Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with remaining shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Bake uncovered for 35 to 45 minutes.
**Original recipe from HERE.


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Zoltan Bathory - Driver
Knucklehead Monster's driver is Zoltan Bathory, a Golden Gods Award Wining Guitarist and founder of the multi million record selling hard rock band "Five Finger Death Punch". The group is an international Juggernaut selling out arenas all over the world, and one of the decade's most influential artists at mainstream rock radio with a record setting 14 consecutive top 10 hits under their belts. While Five Finger Death Punch is enjoying their international rock-stardom, off-stage Zoltan's over the top lifestyle has been drawing a fan base of its own.
One day you'd find him learning moves from Kung Fu Grand Masters on the top of some remote mountain, the next day he'd be training hand to hand combat with special operators on a military base. A week later he is on the other side of the planet on a tactical shooting range, or competing and collecting medals at Jiu-Jitsu World Championships. Zoltan's philosophy is that "the most valuable thing on Earth is time well spent". Between the band, the martial arts, and running various companies, every moment is jam packed with non stop action… like strapping himself into fighter jets, drag racers, monstertrucks, and all things upward of 1500 horsepower.
Most people who follow his larger than life social media stream would expect him to be an adrenaline fueled daredevil, but they are often surprised to meet an educated, down to Earth, spiritual man who finds the most joy in giving back, spearheading campaigns to help military vets suffering from PTSD or helping and guiding his Martial Arts proteges. Zoltan is one of the last believers of the "American Dream", often giving interviews about overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles or sharing his insight on how to live life to its fullest. If anyone, he is more than qualified to speak about it since he has built one from ground zero. His humble beginnings of coming to the USA with nothing but a dream and a guitar on his back, not knowing a word of English - is truly inspiring.
Follow his story… it's unfolding in real-time


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four copper verdigris napkin rings
four copper verdigris napkin rings
Copper verdigris napkin rings from Tracery 157's studio brings a bit of art to the table. Using a proprietary process which converges science, art and design to patina and etch copper using leaves, Richmond artist and product designer Cathy Vaughn combines imaginative repurposing of industrial grade copper with an elegant and artful table decor.
Attractively packaged four to a set in a clear box, these make great holiday, housewarming or wedding gifts.
Care and feeding: The napkin rings are sealed with a copper varnish. Wipe clean with a soft cloth and household wax. Please, do not put in the dishwasher!
Add To Cart


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The Feeldoe is a revolutionary 'strapless strap-on' vibrating dildo that was designed for women, by a woman (but can certainly be used by a man, too). The idea behind the Feeldoe is quite simple and ends up being pleasurable for both the wearer and the receiver. A large bulb at one end is held in the vagina or anus by the wearer, where the PC or anal muscles hold it in place. This allows the shaft to protrude at a natural angle, so it can be used to penetrate your partner hands-free. Some ridged detailing under the bulb stimulates the wearer as well as whoever is on the receiving end, and an included micro stimulator bullet vibe can be slipped inside for extra stimulation. You can also use your own multi-speed bullet, or any small vibe that will fit inside. The original Feeldoe is classically sized, and at 13 oz, or .81 of a pound, should work for all skill levels. If you're a beginner, you might need a little practice, keep in mind that you can increase support by using a traditional harness or strap-on system. Medical grade platinum silicone material is extremely hygienic; you can boil or bleach your vibe for total sterilization, and it's completely odor free and tasteless. Always use a water-based lubricant, a silicone lube will break down the material over time and leave your toy permanently tacky. The included bullet vibe takes 3 watch batteries, which are included. Explore the science of sensation with Tantus.
- Length: 8.5"
- Insertable Length: 7.5"
- Girth: 4.5" at largest point
- Width: 1.25" at largest point
- Materials: Silicone
- Battery: 3 x LR44 Batteries
- Special Features: Temperature Sensitive, Hypoallergenic, Phthalate Free
- Color: Purple
Forbidden Apple leading the way in sex toys in Canada


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LOS ANGELES, CA - 01/08/2019 (PRDistribution.com)
Press Release distribution industry is the part of digital marketing that connects businesses and organizations to the audience by sharing valuable information, where the sharer of the news is the business or organization. There are many companies in the industry that claim to have thousands of journalists/media outlets within their reach, however, without any reliable information and implementation of the service that they claim to provide. The fact that matters most to a customer is where their press releases are appearing and on how many media outlets.
Cision founded PRWeb in 1997 and they are providing PR(press release) distribution services ever since. For single distribution services, they charge $99 - $389 each, depending on which one of the four distribution plans the customer chooses. Customers have the option to request PRWeb for an urgent press release by paying an extra $99.
The most values Premium PRWeb distribution promises to make a press release "Go Viral", but they don't reveal any information on where the PR is going to be distributed. It's for sure a hard task to make a news viral, and it would have been quite helpful for their customers. However, in reality, apart from PRWeb website placement, customers can see only a few websites that published the PRs. They feel rather disappointed when they search for their PR on Google. Here are some screenshots of Google searched that were conducted using PRWeb's recently distributed press releases that will clear out the confusion:
They offer single press release distribution services from pricing as low as $69 and the $299 Premium Concierge PR distribution plan, being their most valuable plan for creating a massive outreach. PRDistribution.com guarantees distribution to over 400 media outlets including top-tier newswires such as CBS, ABC, FOX, Bloomberg, AP etc. All of their customers do not only get a placement on the PRDistribution.com news section, but they also get Google, Yahoo and Bing inclusion to their press releases.
In terms of both reliability and cost-effectiveness, PRDistribution.com is providing the best PR distribution services in 2019, PRWeb has a long road ahead to reach the quality of the service that they provide.
|Full Name:
|Phone Number:
|(888) 388-5387
|Email: Send Email


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The Ecomedia of Polar Exploration - Hester Blum
Location: Room 201 (Hagstrum Room), University Hall (Map it)
Facing climate extremity, polar expedition members in the long 19th century experimented with media forms, or "polar ecomedia," to represent their position both out of place (at the ends of the earth) and out of time (in sunless polar winters). These forms include ship newspapers, notes in bottles, letters, cairn messages, and rescue notices printed on colored silk. In this talk, Blum shows how such evanescent textual records offer unexpected devices for comprehending climatic extremity, and potential ways of imagining resilience in our contemporary Anthropocenic moment of accelerating Arctic and Antarctic polar ice sheet collapse.
Hester Blum is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Penn State University. Her first book, The View from the Mast-Head: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives (UNC Press, 2008), received the John Gardner Maritime Research Award.
This event is presented by the Environmental Humanities Research Workshop and made possible by generous support from the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, the Department of English, and the Indigenous Studies Research Initiative.
To join the Environmental Humanities listserv, please contact email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com


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This Is What Benedict Cumberbatch Looks Like As A Cute Shark — VIDEO
Imagine swimming in the ocean. Dun nuh. And little do you know, a giant shark is slowly approaching you from behind. Dun nuh. Right when you turn around… dunnuh dunnuh dunnuh… it leaps toward you and… it's Benedict Cumberbatch! I can see all the WTFs going on in your head right now, so before you say this girl be cray and go off to watch all the shark movies ever, take a moment to watch this absolutely hilarious video of Cumberbatch photobombing U2 at the 2014 Oscars to the theme music from Jaws .
And you thought the Cumberbatch memes and Cumberbatch coloring books were great? Okay, they are still fabulous, but this short clip created by YouTube member Max Clendaniel, will make you wish that you actually were swimming around, on the hunt for cute little (or big, I guess?) Cumberbatch sharks.
The video shows Cumberbatch spotting U2, his photobomb prey, politely weaving his way through the crowd as any shark would do at the Oscars, before jumping up behind them with all the grandeur and terrifying feels of a Great White about to eat you. But in all honesty, if Cumberbatch sharks or just sharks that like to photobomb as a side gig existed, then I would definitely swim out further than 10 feet whenever I'm at the beach.


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Identifying the Formula 1 fan : a netnographic exploration of their communication, interests and brand sentiments
MetadataShow full item record
The following study examines the characteristics and attitudes of those likely to be fans of Formula 1 racing as the sport takes a renewed position within the United States. Formula 1 racing is a global past-time of many, but here in the U.S., the sport's footprint is not as prominent as it is abroad. However, since F1 racing will soon (Fall, 2012) be in Austin, Texas, it is of special interest to the City, to The University of Texas at Austin and to the fans of the sport. Thus, this author believes that the work described here is timely and may serve to increase our understanding of the impact of the Formula 1 event and of its fans -- as well as its detractors; what are their attitudes and behaviors of Formula 1 fans with regard to lifestyle preference and social interests? This study provides a somewhat deeper look at these issues and serves as well to suggest some future research areas.


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Set in present day Philadelphia, A GREATER MESS tells the story of two very different sisters, forced to reconnect after years apart. When Zoey, an eccentric performance artist turned receptionist, loses her apartment, she is left with nowhere else to turn. Her straight-laced older sister and flower shop owner Sofia jumps to the occasion and offers her a place to stay, hoping another's presence in the house will help repair her failing marriage. While Sofia hatches a plan to become pregnant – whether her husband likes it or not – Zoey fosters a romantic relationship with the CEO of her company. As Zoey and her new boyfriend work to keep their relationship secret from the company, she learns just how different they are from each other.
When her husband discovers Sofia's attempts at getting pregnant, their marriage begins to fall apart like a poorly tied bouquet. Meanwhile Zoey is fired from her job for inadvertently revealing her relationship with the CEO through an art project she displayed in his office. Amidst their personal drama, Sofia and Zoey drift further apart.
With their relationships careening out of control, the sisters realize their only hope of rescue is each other – if only they can swallow their pride long enough to ask for help.


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Oslo Woman is Back to Work After Blast
A woman working in Oslo's Justice Department when last week's bomb exploded is back at work, just five days after escaping the building — with, unbeknownst to her at the time, a foot-long piece of debris lodged in her head.
Line Nersnaes, a 50-year-old legal adviser, was in her office on the 11th floor when a car bomb ripped through central Oslo, killing 8 people. The force of the blast shattered a nearby wooden window, sending a 12-inch splinter through her chin and up through her skull.
"I was at my desk when I heard this violent blast," Nersnaes told The Daily Mail. "The glass in the window is laminated so it did not shatter, but the whole window frame splintered and came towards me."
The bombing was part of twin terror attacks by self-confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik, an anti-Islam zealot, that killed 76 people last Friday. After the blast, Breivik shot 68 people at a summer camp for youths of the ruling Labor Party on the island of Utoya, off of Oslo.
Nersnaes was knocked out of her desk chair and pinned against the wall when the bomb detonated, she said.
Ole-Martin Grav / Scanpix Norway via Press Association Images
Line Nersnaes, wearing a bandage, recovers from her head injury.
"I have to admit, I didn't even know that this wooden spike had drilled into my head, through my chin," Nersnaes told The Daily Telegraph. "Everybody who survived understood immediately that we had to get out of the building as fast as possible."
Nersnaes said shards of glass were everywhere, but she managed to find the stairs to get out. Colleagues and blast survivors were staring at her in bewilderment, she said.
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"I met my boss Knut Fosli in the hallway," Nersnaes told the Telegraph. During the difficult journey down the stairs, "I told him that I had this terrible headache. He looked at me and said, 'You've got something sticking out of your head.'"
Outside, Nersnaes put her hand to her head, and could tell she was bleeding a lot.
"It felt like my head had been torn apart," she told The Daily Mail. "I got so terrified when I realized that I had something in my head."
She was rushed to the hospital with other blast victims. Shortly after, hospital staff started shouting that many more victims were arriving, this time from the Utoya island shooting.
[Continue Reading]
Re: Oslo Woman is Back to Work After Blast
The unicorn myth is...BUSTED!
"I don't know you so don't freak on me!"
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Re: Oslo Woman is Back to Work After Blast
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." - Isaac Asimov


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First of all, thank you for being here. Your readership is the only reason this blog exists and I strive to make every post worth your while. To that end, before I get into today's post, I'd ask my regular visitors to indulge me for a few minutes as I give you a bit of context … which may help you get more out of my posts in the future. If you're just trying to get through this post and would rather skip the next three paragraphs, by all means go ahead. I will never know!
I have to confess, I have a love/hate relationship with writing. I love articulating and documenting my ideas and creating models, etc., and that's why I am always writing about something, be it articles, blog posts, or content for training. I also hate writing because it is so impersonal. It's one sided. There is no interaction and immediate feedback loop. When I'm speaking, it doesn't matter if it is to a group of 8 or 800 people, I get immediate feedback on whether they thought my joke was funny or not, whether a statement made them self-reflect for a second, if they are distracted or engaged, and so on. I always interact with the audience even if I can only see a small sample of them in the first few rows. I love that! I am clear that as a public speaker, it would be far more devastating to me to lose my sight or hearing, than my voice. I would be able to speak through a speech synthesizer, but I'd never be able to sense the audience's state through a third party and manage the message in a way that resonates with them.
This was the greatest challenge I faced in writing my book, The Transformative Leader, and it remains a challenge as I write these weekly blog posts. As someone who enjoys connecting with the audience, I am challenged to present my points in a way that is more inspirational than instructional to a mixed audience of different backgrounds and preferences. Those of you who have attended my talks know that I like to keep the audience laughing, I don't give cookie cutter instructions but rather share points to consider, I get in your face a little and give what I call Spicy Coaching, and I try to do all of this in a compelling, not condemning, fashion. My greatest fear is that my blog posts will turn into a bunch of instructions that do not resonate with you as something practical and real that you can apply in your life!
I hereby declare my intention to make sure that my posts sound like me, not some guy who claims he's got it all figured out and is sharing his formula. The request I make of you is to read and digest my content as if the two of us were having a chat in person, and if you like something or object to something or would like to know how to actually apply it in your life, let me know and let's get into a dialogue. Remember, I love two-way dialogue. We can do it in open forums on my website, or LinkedIn, or Facebook, or we can take it offline. Either way is fine and I would very much appreciate it. Also, if you care enough to direct me to topics you'd like to hear more about, let me know and I will do my best to create value for you. And with that out of the way, let me get to today's post, find it below.
I am a frequent traveler and I have come to value the massive amount of time I spend in airports and on airplanes as my time, to relax, listen to music, read and respond to emails, or watch a movie on my iPad. To that end, I have developed a habit of putting on my "I don't really want to talk to you" face, and my noise cancelling headphones in case my neighbor on the plane is not great at reading my face. I share this at the risk of being judged as anti-social, or two-faced because I claim to love to coach and talk to people, and at the same time I don't want to be bothered with people sitting next to me on the plane. But, as I have no insecurities about my willingness to spend countless hours coaching people and giving them my undivided attention, I can tell the truth. That's how I have been acting while traveling.
A few weeks ago, I was walking to my gate at 6 am, in my usual stealth mode, and all of a sudden, the duality of my approach to people became too apparent for me to ignore. How could it be, I thought, that I claim my mission and purpose is to put people in touch with their greatness so that they fulfill their unique purpose in life while I shield myself from the very conversations that would make the opportunity available for me to fulfill my purpose?! It also occurred to me that my experience of myself as an unapproachable person was vastly different than my normal self when I am in a conversation of transformation with an individual or a group. I decided to run an experiment and just drop the airport façade and have a more welcoming and pleasant demeanor. The results were instant and amazing. It wasn't like all of a sudden people started flocking to me, but I almost instantly felt a shift in my own mood from one of "I don't want to be here" to one of " I am going to be present and make the most of what I am doing." My face wasn't tight anymore and I had a smile that seemed to be contagious. I eventually had a couple of short chats with other willing (I think anyway) partners and overall, it made for a much more pleasant experience.
Whether you have been acting like me on your travels or not is really not the point. Everybody makes the choice that's right for them and nobody is obligated to interact with total strangers everywhere they go. The tragedy is that we act like that in our smaller circles of people that we know and work with everyday. We determine, often subconsciously, who can do something for us and who is in the way, who we are going to be nice to and who we are going to ignore, and we are not aware of the opportunities that are lost when those connections are not made.
Can you name a few people throughout your life who were always great at acknowledging your presence, or listening to you, or taking the time to talk to you? Can you think of those authority figures who instilled confidence in you through the most subtle gestures of acknowledgement? How about a teacher or a mentor? How about a stranger who committed a random act of kindness? Those are the people who have shaped that part of your personality that you feel good about. They are the ones who helped you write the part of your story that you can always look back on and smile.
Have you considered that you can be that person to multitudes of people throughout your life? Have you thought about the marks you leave behind with your words and actions every minute of everyday? Can you imagine the enormity of the good that can come from that in this world if we were all a bit more open to turning our "transactionships" into real relationships? What would be possible if we all decided that we would treat every conversation like it mattered?
Imagine what it would be like if I gave you a checkbook for an account that had an unlimited supply of money in it and told you that you could write checks to anyone (other than yourself) that you would like to help financially. I'm sure you could think of your favorite charity, or relatives, or causes you care about. Let's say you spent a few days, making sure that all of those people in your immediate circle got the money that they needed and you still had billions of dollars left in the bank to give away. Could you find ways to get rid of that money? Can you see yourself disbursing it generously simply because you know it would cost you nothing to do so? Wouldn't that be fun?
I hate to tell you but that scenario is unlikely to happen. However, I want to remind you that you have an unlimited supply of treasure that is often times more precious than any amount of money you can give away. That treasure can be dispensed in the form of words of affirmation, acts of service and kindness, and many other forms of acknowledgment. It doesn't cost you anything. On the contrary, giving these treasures away makes you experience them like you never would if you were hoarding them. Why do you think all the super rich people wind up becoming philanthropists? It's because there is a pleasure in giving that you can never experience in getting and accumulating. The philanthropists are willing to part with their money because the satisfaction they get in return is far more precious. We can all be philanthropists with our words and deeds right now and watch it create magic in our relationships and our own experience of life.
My passion and my life's work is to coach people on leadership effectiveness and culture transformation, and I cannot think of a more profound shift in a culture than one that results from team members choosing to generously and abundantly speak words of encouragement and gratitude. I have had the pleasure of being on a team that experienced this shift almost overnight and the impact on the results and morale were indescribable. This may conjure up the image of an organization where everybody is nice and nothing gets done. It's actually quite the opposite. In every case where I have experienced this, people in the organization found themselves speaking the truth with courage, and dealing with the tough issues that hindered their progress, simply because they had plenty of chips in the bank and weren't worried about being perceived as not caring about their teammates. This is precisely why organizations that have established a foundation of trust and camaraderie and positive engagement always deliver superior results.
This can happen on any team, in any company, and in any family. It can happen in an instant. The reason it does not happen most of the time is that we are all waiting for someone else to go first. What if you chose to be a pioneer, regardless of whether others follow or not? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. At the very least, you begin to experience yourself as a giver and a force for positive change, and at best, you may inspire others to do the same and create a culture where extraordinary results and fulfillment are an everyday thing.
This week, I encourage you to examine the auto-pilot mode you are in most of the time and make a conscious choice to be present and attentive in your interfaces within your circles. Take the time to listen and get into the other person's world. Don't assume that people know that you appreciate them. Look them in the eye and tell them, and be specific about it. If you don't feel like making a wholesale change, start small but be intentional, and let me know how it goes for you.
Before I sign off this week, I wanted to share some news of an exciting milestone. My book, The Transformative Leader, was shipped to its 11th country last week! Never did I think that my book would reach such a wide audience, and I am humbled by its reception by the global community. Publishing my book has been a tremendously rewarding journey, and I just wanted to share my news with you all and say thank you to all of you who have supported me in getting here as the majority of our sales have come from word of mouth referrals. So, thank you, merci beaucoup, danke schoen, veel dank, gracias, khob khun khrup, kheli mamnoon, and dekuji for your support!
Have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary! As always, I would love to hear about your victories and/or challenges. Please leave your comments below or send me an email at email@example.com.
Copyright © 2016 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.


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More videos to come soon!
In this channel you will find videos compiled from the various JEP events around the year. Come see you, your friends and those you could get to know at one of JEP's events! Do not miss our upcoming events!
Copyright © 2012 by JEP. All rights reserved.


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Tiling Trends and Design in 2016.
The tile industry is at an exciting crossroads. New production technologies are blending artisan technique with ink jet printing technology to provide looks never before achieved.
Tiling trends in 2015 were dominated by hexagonal shapes and textures. Those trends continue into 2016.
Using ceramic and cement tile, thin formats and ink jet printer techniques, we now have wood-look, stone-look, and cement tile designs infused on porcelain tile. The look of wood, stone, metal, and pattern are being subtly blended onto tile to create sophisticated designs. The major supplies of these new products are the state-of-the-art factories of Spain and Italy.
The rest of the world's tile manufacturers are scrambling to catch the trend and get a piece of the action.
Italian companies are able to create ceramic tiles with three dimensional folds, raised geometry and asymmetrical profiles. Fitting these tiles together creates a three dimensional wall with a seamless sculpted surface that draws the eye.
Tiling Trends in Shapes.
There is a strong trend to add interest to classic geometric shapes with texture and relief. The popular hexagon shape is getting reinterpreted with concave reliefs; Concave drops create the look of leather and add richness with relief texture; Gold hexagons create a luxury look with a classic shape. Hexagons tile formats are hot – as small mosaics, in elongated forms, bold colors, and in relief formats.
Tiling Trends in Textures.
Textile influences are also growing with the emphasis of textured surfaces. Pins and Needles is a line completely inspired by fabrics, lace, and textile. The cast cement line is available in almost any color. I love this line in its classic look on white.
Quality Work is My Hallmark.
(772) 828-8909.
Mobile: (772) 828-8909.
Skype: (772) 828-8909.
If you are looking for the highest quality workmanship at a competitive price, call for a FREE job estimate.
My tiling service areas include Port St. Lucie (PSL), Fort Pierce, Stuart and Vero Beach FL.
In St. Lucie County Boyer Tile LLC. services Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie West, Tradition, Torino, Tesoro, Lake Charles, Lake Forest, Magnolia Lakes, PGA Village, The Vineyards, St James Golf Club, The Cascades, and Fort Pierce, FL.
In Indian River County Boyer Tile LLC. services Vero Beach, Indian River Shores and Sebastian, FL.


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Land Rover layout supervisor and chief creative officer Gerry McGovern found that Range Rover designs, Land Rover Discovery and also Defender are the top models of the brand as well as its main emphasis. A lot more flexible that the Range Rover versions, 2016 Land Rover Discovery will offer seats for seven, with 5 +2 configuration. Follower of these cars won't be called with either of these two names, but it will certainly be 2016 Land Rover Discovery. 2016 Land Rover Discovery
The design concept this time around will certainly give the automobile a lot more advanced and bolder looks. This brand-new version is expected to unload all the typical looks recognized with Land Rover. There is nevertheless are afraid that those who love the typical look might not totally love this new concept. The bumpers will be upgraded as well as the grill will certainly be given makeovers. The platform called Dubbed LR-MS as well as Ford's aged EUCD style will certainly be utilized, yet with upgraded versions. A lot of job is in advance mechanicals, so we have to await sales begin to view all readily available options for 2016 Land Rover Discovery. Also based on these platforms, it is rumored that 70 percent of it will certainly be changed or changed. The brand-new mesh grille is flanked by HID headlamps with fascinating LED running lamps that are setup in a circle with unique factors in them. Land Rover says the style is implied to develop the feeling of a compass with the breaks in the LEDs standing for the 4 primary instructions. For boosted space and also comfort, the second-row seats slide and recline for best seating position, there are several cup owners and storage space bins for every single seats position and also the back seat air vents have been moved to the pillars to more effectively supply sufficient airflow. Undoubtedly, the upcoming Discovery will certainly be created using very light products to improve on its rate, its gas economy, its engine performance and also its maneuverability. It will certainly be much lighter than the previous and also it is anticipated to experience much better market acceptance compared to the previous one. 2016 Land Rover Discovery
The conventional looks could be disposed in 2016 Land Rover Discovery, but the capability and integrity will never be wanting; in fact will improve in its dependability over the previous model. Powering the Discovery Sport will certainly be the very same turbocharged, 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that is under the hood of the Evoque. Latest versions of the Discovery has brand-new off-roading system established by the firm called Terrain Response. 2016 Land Rover Discovery
Release and competitors
The base price of the 2016 Land Rover Discovery is anticipated to be $37,995. 4 trim levels are anticipated as well as they are HSE Lux, HSE, SE Tech and also SE. Release of the latest Discovery is anticipated throughout the very first one-half of 2015, while its base price should not videotape considerable rise. You could anticipate its base model to begin with $40,000, roughly. Similar to all automobiles, that price will quickly rise with greater trim versions or the addition of choices. Presently, we have not validated pricing on the more lavish models, package deals or extra extras. Leading 5 rivals of the 2016 Land Rover Discovery are Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7, BMW X5, Acura MDX and Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class. As visible, Land Rover Discovery has only one non-European enemy– Acura. 2016 Land Rover Discovery
2016 Land Rover Discovery sport, release date


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Advanced Dance: 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Potluck: Dinner potluck begins at 6:15. With all this dancing, we'll have hearty appetites--so please bring a megaginormous dish to share!
Workshop: Beginner's Workshop at 7:30 p.m.
Evening dance: 8:00-11:00 p.m.
MAIVISH is a collaboration between American fiddler Jaige Trudel, British-born guitarist Adam Broome, and Matthew Olwell on flutes, bodhrán, and percussive dance.
Jaige and Adam have been performing together since 2001 for dances, festivals and concerts throughout North America and abroad, predominantly with the band Crowfoot. Matthew has been performing and teaching as a dancer and percussionist at festivals and theatres across North America and Europe since 1996. These three musicians have joined together to explore and cultivate traditional and original music for dancing and the concert stage. Their sound has been described as mercurial, powerful, uplifting, and eminently danceable.


text: Last weekend. I attended a High School Fair with my cousin, who's staying with me from the Caribbean. It's a big change for him and myself as well. From him exploring different options to does the high school have full access for me to attend events or parent/teacher conferences? A parent/guardian shouldn't have to put their needs before a child but in this case a balance is needed to be able to stay involved for future endeavors. Continue reading "Wheel Access to a Child's Future"


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6 Cardinal Colors: Purple
Larry Clinton, Deep Purple.
Art Tatum, Deep Purple.
The Clientele, The Violet Hour.
Sebadoh, Violet Execution.
The Kooks, Indigo Lights.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Lilac Fairy.
Prince, Purple Rain.
Stina Nordenstam, Purple Rain.
Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze.
Scott Joplin, Heliotrope Bouquet.
Eva Taylor, Jeannine I Dream of Lilac Time.
Jeff Buckley, Lilac Wine (live).
The Kinks, Lavender Hill.
The Real Tuesday Weld, On Lavender Hill.
Duke Ellington, Lady in the Lavender Mist.
Scrugg, Lavender Popcorn.
Dexter Gordon, The Girl With the Purple Eyes.
They Might Be Giants, Purple Toupee.
Duke Ellington, Mood Indigo.
Frank Sinatra, Mood Indigo.
Nina Simone, Mood Indigo.
Duke Ellington, Mood Indigo.
Perhaps, if winter could penetrate
Through all its purples to the final slate...
Wallace Stevens, The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad.
Purple is the color of waning--of old age ("When I am an old woman/I shall wear purple", begins Jenny Joseph's Warning), dusk ("when purple-colored curtains mark the end of the day," the Platters' "Twilight Time"), finality, evensong, the East, grace, solemnity, death ("none can avoid this purple," Emily Dickinson said of the last).
It is the weakest color--the color with the shortest visible wavelength--yet it is traditionally worn by the mightiest: archangels, Roman emperors, Church cardinals, Greek gods. "Purple is the magisterium," wrote Alexander Theroux. "O purple Sovereignty, Holiness, Reverence," says Carlyle in The French Revolution. And mountains, the earth's most ambitious works, are often depicted as purple, in "America the Beautiful" and by Dickinson:
The Mountains--grow unnoticed--
Their Purple figures rise
Without attempt--Exhaustion--
Assistance--or Applause--
Purple is a cold color, steeped in mystery; it is always at one remove from us. Its parentage is of the highest royalty--mysterious, regal blue, and titanic red--yet it is not entirely linked with the ruling class, as it is a color long embraced by eccentrics and the avant garde, by Oscar Wilde and Prince. It is a color of rituals: the Incas would perform an annual dance in long purple robes, "called Capac Raymi, a ceremony of the royal or great lords," wrote Pedro Sarmiento De Gamboa.
It is sometime associated with braggarts and egoists (both Shelley and Shakespeare refer to "purple pride"), and with stubbornness and resistance (the maid Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights shows a "decided purple witness" and stands up to her mistress Catherine, for which Nelly earns a slap in the face).
In music, purple has a rarefied presence, although Scriabin found both the keys of D-flat and A-flat to be purple. A few select instruments are said to be purple in tone--Kandinsky heard purple in the English horn, Goethe in the French horn, Theroux in the tympani, such as the one at the beginning of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Some woodwinds, especially the oboe and bassoon, seem purple to me. And purple songs, for whatever reason, are often sung quietly, with breathy, barely-there vocals (see, in this list, Stina Nordenstam, The Clientele, The Real Tuesday Weld, etc.)
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
Alice Walker, The Color Purple.
The ultimate purple song is, naturally, Peter DeRose's "Deep Purple," a solemn, slightly ponderous number, first performed by Paul Whiteman and which, after receiving a set of lyrics from Mitchell Parish, became a huge hit for Larry Clinton in 1938. Of all of Clinton's "color" songs (most of which have been featured in this series), this was the most enduring, a reverie for a world about to convulse into bloody war.
Clinton's version, with vocals by Bea Wain, can be found on Studies in Clinton.
And the following year the master Art Tatum took the song and performed his usual prestidigitation. Tatum's version of "Deep Purple" is quite minimal by Tatum's standards—-no wild runs down the keyboard, little ornamentation, no constant harmonic movement. Rather, it's a fairly linear performance, with Tatum's left hand providing the rhythm and developing chords, while his right hand dances out with the melody. It's a precursor to the sort of clean, modern style practiced in the '40s by Nat King Cole and Billy Kyle. Find on I Got Rhythm Vol. 3, used here or via download here.
The formless color
And o'er the sameness of the purple sky
Heaven paints, with hurried hand, wild hues of every dye.
John Clare, November.
What exactly do we mean when we say "purple", anyway? No other color goes by so many different names (mauve, heliotrope, lavender, puce, etc.) nor has so many different identities. Sometimes purple disappears entirely, as there are the two colors which take its place in the "ROYGBIV" mnemonic: indigo and violet.
The sad fate of Violet Beauregarde
So who rules the realm? Indigo is, according to my stalwart resource, the unabridged Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, a "deep violet-blue" and violet is, in turn, "a bluish purple color". So this creates a solid line of succession--indigo is a blend of violet, violet is a blend of purple, and thus violet and indigo are vassals to purple. But Isaac Newton elevated indigo and violet beyond their station when he placed them in his list of the seven primary colors, and so generations of schoolkids have learned to accept them as usurpers.
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea...
Eliot, The Waste Land.
The Clientele's "The Violet Hour," a track whose sound could serve as a musical definition of crepuscular, is from their 2003 record of the same name. Clientele tour dates; Myspace page.
"Violet Execution" is off Sebadoh III, from 1991. A record that was required listening, whether you liked it or not (see also, Loveless, Slanted & Enchanted), if you were in an arty college during those years.
Crockett Johnson, A Construction for the Heptagon (Neusis II), c. 1970.
And "Indigo Lights" was the leadoff track on a 1999 record called Too Much Is Not Enough by The Kooks, a Swedish band from whom little has been heard since their last record in 2002. Just to confuse things, there is a new UK band of the same name which has just released its debut CD and will be touring the US this fall. So likely tons of kids on the Hype Machine will stumble into this site in fruitless search of them.
Purple fantasias
Edward Burne-Jones, The Sleeping Beauty, c. 1880.
Down yonder glade two lovers steal, to shun the fairy-queen,
Who frowns upon their plighted vows, and jealous is of me,
To seek the purple flow'r, whose juice from all her spells can free
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho.
Purple is often the color of dreamscapes, fantasies, netherworlds. You may remember that The Sleeping Beauty begins with a host of fairies attending the wedding of Princess Aurora, each bestowing gifts of grace and loveliness, until the evil fairy Carabosse appears. Infuriated that she had been snubbed from the wedding, Carabosse places a curse on Aurora--that she will prick her finger and die. But luckily, the Lilac Fairy had yet to bestow her gift. Unable to reverse the curse, the Fairy instead alters it, so that when the princess pricks her finger, she will instead sleep for 100 years.
The gorgeous "Dance of the Lilac Fairy" is from the orchestral suite of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet of the Sleeping Beauty (op. 66), which premiered in 1890. Find here.
"Purple Rain": I remember an article in which Prince's bodyguard, "Big Chick" Huntsberry, was shooting the breeze during the Purple Rain sessions, and was in awe of attending the taping of the title track. "It was like Willie Nelson last night," he recalled. One of Prince's most iconic tracks, ending with one of his finest guitar solos on record. On 1984's Purple Rain.
And Stina Nordenstam's grave assai cover version is on 1998's People are Strange.
Tomorrow or just the end of time?
"I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs," Jimi Hendrix once said. "I wrote one called The Purple Haze which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea." Hendrix, a huge science fiction fan, also remembered a story he had recently read in Fantasy and Science Fiction, an excerpt from Philip José Farmer's Night of Light, which contains the line "the sky was clear but the stars seemed far away, blobs straining to pierce the purplish haze."
Chas Chandler recalled that Hendrix began writing the song on the afternoon of Boxing Day, 1966, killing time at the Upper Cut Club. "He started playing the riff, and I said 'write the rest of that!', so he did." At one point, "Purple Haze" had a dozen or more verses, which included a vast SF mythology, like "the history of the wars on Neptune," Hendrix said.
The amazing fuzz-toned guitar sound was achieved when Hendrix was approached by Roger Mayer, an inventor who worked for the Royal Navy Scientific Service. Mayer showed up at the "Purple Haze" sessions with a fuzz box he had designed called the Octavia, which Hendrix used to overdub his solo. The Octavia, Mayer said later, was designed to create an "infinite mirror image" of a guitar's sound. And when "Purple Haze" was released in March 1967, it would vault Hendrix into the stratosphere. Find on Are You Experienced.
Lilac Time
What is the essence of purple? Some works of art seem especially associated with the color. Virginia Woolf's The Waves, for instance, the most staggeringly beautiful book Woolf ever wrote, is a purple empire, filled with lines like:
This is our world, lit with crescents and stars of light; and great petals half-transparent block the openings like purple windows.
Or perhaps they saw the splendour of the flowers making a light of flowing purple over the beds, through which dark tunnels of purple shade were driven between the stalks.
and again,
I shall be sullen, storm-tinted and all one purple. I shall be debased and hide-bound by the bestial and beautiful passion of maternity. I shall push the fortunes of my children unscrupulously. I shall hate those who see their faults.
Some purpuraceous music:
Scott Joplin's "Heliotrope Bouquet", a "slow drag two-step for piano" from 1907, is a collaboration with Louis Chauvin, who wrote the first two of the piece's four sections (the "A" section's complex tango rhythms and intricate melodies are fairly unusual for ragtime)--they are the only pieces of music to survive from Chauvin, a talented pianist who lived chaotically and died at 24 of syphilis and multiple sclerosis. Find on Elite Syncopations.
"Jeannine I Dream of Lilac Time" is on the out-of-print Eva Taylor Vol. 3 (and on iTunes). Eva Taylor is perhaps best-known for being married to the bandleader Clarence Williams, but she had a fine, if not incredibly memorable voice, and could have had a career as a sort of minor Ethel Waters. But after 1932, she stopped recording. Among her better tracks is "Jeannine," which she recorded under her real name Irene Gibbons, with the great guitarist Eddie Lang. King Oliver is on trumpet, Williams on piano.
"Lilac Wine," first put on the map by Nina Simone, was a constant source of intrigue for Jeff Buckley. About a year before drowning in the Mississippi River, Buckley performed this version on stage in Melbourne. On Mystery White Boy.
The rarest
Porphyry head, 4th C.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes.
Christina Georgina Rossetti, A Birthday.
Purple was once the most precious color of all.
It begins, like many things, with the Phoenicians, seafarers and dyers, who discovered that a vibrant dye could be extracted from two types of Mediterranean shellfish, buccinum and purpura. In both mollusks, the color is found near the head, in a gland that came to be known as the "flower." Either you squeezed the mollusks in a press or you cracked them open by hand--in either case, it was a laborious process. Once the fluid was removed, it turned from white to purple in the sunlight.
The problem was that the shellfish had literally a drop of the stuff in them apiece. It is estimated it took 250,000 shellfish to produce one ounce of purple dye. Thus it was astonishingly expensive. A well-paid Roman baker, for example, would have to spend three year's salary to afford a pound of purple-dyed wool. Tyrian purple, as it became to be called (after the Phoenician city of Tyre), was soon coveted by the rising power in the Mediterranean--the Romans.
[Purple], that precious color which gleams with the hue of a dark rose...This is the purple for which the fasces and axes clear a way. It is the badge of notable youth; it distinguishes the senator from the knight; it is called in to appease the gods. It brightens every garment and shares with gold the glory of the triumph.
Pliny, Natural History, IX, XXXVI.
At first, most leading members of the Roman Republic could wear purple--generals would wear purple cloaks on the field, senators were allowed to wear togas with purple bands on the hems. But as the Republic began to founder, the ambitious men who came to rule it found that purple best suited them alone...
There Lythe a Knygt
The Tetrarchs, St Mark's Basilica, Venice, c. 300 AD.
Purple is the traditional mantle of power, worn, for example, by the Archangel Michael, as described in Paradise Lost:
Over his lucid arms
A military vest of purple flowed,
Livelier than Meliboean, or the grain
Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old
In time of truce; Iris had dipt the woof.
Such an association likely began with Julius Caesar, the first Roman emperor. (Caesar got the idea to don the purple from his lover Cleopatra, who was a master at using purple as a visual shorthand for power.) When he was stabbed to death in the Senate, Caesar drew his purple toga over his face as he died. And after winning the subsequent battle for power, Marc Antony came upon the body of Brutus, Caesar's most notable assassin, which he covered with a purple robe.
By the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, the chronicler of the waning days of the Empire, aspiring emperors were as common as seed corn, and all would-be tyrants grabbed the purple as the first act of their insurrection. It became a crime under Valentinian I for anyone but the emperor to wear purple, and Ammianus is full of sad stories of men being executed for stumbling and grabbing a purple tapestry, for example.
There was a sort of purple dark ages: in the 7th Century, Tyre was overrun by the Arabs and the great purple dye works destroyed. Around the same time, the secret of tekhelet, the Hebrew method of deriving an indigo dye from rock snails, was lost. And when Constantinople fell in 1453, the method of making purple was lost, apparently forever.
All that remained was the memory of imperial, Tyrian purple--a color of power at a scale that, during the Middle Ages, seemed inconceivable. It was natural that purple became a favored color for Christian works, such as the utterly haunting 15th Century hymn The Knight of the Grail, also known as the Corpus Christi Carol:
He bare hym up, he bare hym down,
He bare hym into an orchard brown
In that orchard ther was an hall
That was hangid with purpill and pall.
Purple Democracy
Suddenly, around 1850, the Western world rediscovered purple. A Frenchman named Felix Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers noticed a Mediterranean fisherman wipe his shirt with a mollusk, leaving a stain that the sun dried into a vivid purple. There was a growing mania to discover the source of classical purple--Napoleon III soon sent out an archaelogical expedition to uncover the location of ancient Tyre, and, hopefully, unearth the secret of purple dyeing as well. (Of course, all Napoleon III had to do was send someone to Central America, where dyers had been making purple from shellfish for centuries...)
Yet such efforts proved pointless, as at the same time the secret of mass-producing purple was discovered. In 1856, William Henry Perkin, an 18-year-old chemistry student, took over the top floor of his parents' home in the East End of London as a laboratory. He was looking to find an alternative to quinine, the malarial remedy, and was experimenting with adding hydrogen and oxygen to coal tar. One night, as he was about to throw out another failed solution, he noticed it had "a strangely beautiful color," as he told a journalist years later. (from Victoria Finlay's Color).
mauve-dyed dress, c. 1862
Perkin first called his discovery "Tyrian Purple", perhaps recalling the Latin histories he had learned in school, but soon changed his mind. The color, he decided, would be named after a French flower: mauve. (The French, naturally, would call the hue "Perkin's Purple".) Perkin opened a dye factory to produce the color, which was soon embraced by textile makers. By his 21st birthday, Perkin was rich and the stage was set for what would be called "The Mauve Decade", a rather fluid period (and not really a decade) which encompassed roughly 1860 to 1900, during which the color became the height of fashion.
Arthur Hughes, April Love, 1856.
The Impressionists, for one, went mad for synthetic mauve, indigo and violet. Monet, in particular, indulged in what some wags called "violettomania." "I have finally discovered the true color of the atmosphere," Monet said. "It's violet. Fresh air is violet. Three years from now everyone will work in violet."
And no color has fallen so much in esteem since the advent of synthetic dyes and paints. Purple's status as an aristocratic color began to wane as soon as it could be mass-marketed.
By 1877, Charles de Coster, "a militant Fleming, a revolutionary and a Freemason", as described by Herman Pleij, went on a tour of the Low Countries and was astonished at the colors he encountered. In Amsterdam, de Coster noted that lilac appeared to be the favorite color of Dutch domestic servants, and that dozens of purple variations appeared in the bargain shops. It was the end--democratization had seized purple and cast it downward, to today, when, as Pleij writes:
"A sign of the times...[is] the sight of whole families strolling around holiday resorts and shopping malls in jogging suits of glowing purple. This was the very color that signaled distinction in the Middle Ages and was the rightful property of the aristocracy."
A host of eccentrics
Matisse, Purple Robe and Anemones, 1937.
Yet despite purple's decline in status among the upper class, its relations with the eccentric, the mad, the extravagant and ridiculous remains as strong as ever.
Ronald Firbank wrote in purple ink. Des Esseintes, the aesthete in Huysmans' A Rebours, adorns his shirt with Parma violets, as did Proust's Odette, and Dorian Gray, whose portrait is shrouded in a purple-gold coverlet. One of Sherlock Holmes' dressing gowns is purple. Joyce's Mr Bloom wears purple elastic stock suspenders. And Mary, a character in Aldous Huxley's Crome Yellow, wears " purple pyjamas [that] clothed her with an ampleness that hid the lines of her body; she looked like some large, comfortable, unjointed toy, a sort of Teddy-bear."
And Keith Moon owned the only purple Rolls Royce ever made, though, according to Wikipedia, "this was disputed by Rolls Royce, who claimed Moon had it repainted. The car is now owned by Middlebrook Garages, Middlebrook Lane, Bagthorpe, Nottinghamshire, England."
Oscar Wilde in particular seems insperable from purple. Copies of his play Salome (in which he insisted all actors playing Romans should wear purple) were bound in purple. In Wilde's final letters, he seems consumed with the color--in a 1900 letter to Robert Ross, Wilde writes, "And yet what purple hours one can snatch from that grey slowly-moving thing we call time." And during his time in prison, Wilde fantasized about his day of release: "On the day of my leaving both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens. I shall see the wind...make [the lilac] toss the pale purple of its plumes, so that all the air shall be Arabia for me."
The Kinks' "Lavender Hill" was recorded in 1967, an outtake from the Something Else sessions. It was officially released on a 1973 LP called The Great Lost Kinks Album, which lived up to its name by never getting released on CD. "Lavender Hill" did turn up on CD at last, buried on the third disc of a mega-re-release CD of Village Green Preservation Society, which is likely to go out of print soon, given this song's unlucky history.
"On Lavender Hill" is by The Real Tuesday Weld. First heard this one on Moistworks last year. On 2005's The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid.
Picasso, The Absinthe Drinker, 1901.
"Lady of the Lavender Mist," one of the many purple Ellington compositions, was recorded in August 1947, during Ellington's first session for Columbia. Lawrence Brown provides the trombone solo. On Masterpieces.
Scrugg's "Lavender Popcorn," a nice bit of bubblegum psychedelia, was one of the band's three singles, released by Pye in 1968. Scrugg was led by the South African guitarist/songwriter John Kongos, who went on to have some solo hits in the UK. Find here.
Purple decadence
But what an attenuation was this cold pride of the dream of her youth, in which she had pictured herself walking in state towards the altar, flushed by the purple light and bloom of her own passion..
Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders.
Purple also has its sensual side. Harriet Quimby (above), bombshell and flying ace (she was the first woman to fly over the English Channel) always wore a shining purple satin flying costume. The rake Robert Lovelace, fantasizing about his potential conquest of Clarissa Harlowe in Richardson's Clarissa, imagines she will kiss him with a "purple mouth" ("Her coral lips will be purple then, Jack!"). And then there is the mysterious woman described in Swinburne's Laus Veneris, who seems to have met a vampire:
Asleep or waking is it? for her neck,
Kissed over close, wears yet a purple speck
Wherein the pained blood falters and goes out;
Soft, and stung softly--fairer for a fleck.
There are those with purple eyes, as as Claggart in Melville's Billy Budd, who has "orbs which in repose were of a color nearest approaching a deeper violet, the softest of shades." Elizabeth Taylor, according to legend, had violet eyes (Doonesbury, spoofing her sixth husband John Warner's senatorial campaign, had Warner offering bumper stickers with the slogan "A Tad Overweight, But Violet Eyes to Die For").
"The Girl With the Purple Eyes", recorded in Copenhagen in March 1975 by Dexter Gordon with the Palle Mikkelborg Tentet, comes from the end of Gordon's European exile. The fantastically-named Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen provides the groove on bass. Find on More Than You Know.
Purple hair is another sign of distinction--it was a popular wig tint during the Napoleonic era. Colette had "mauve-tinted hair", as did Warhol superstar Ultra Violet, while the king of Megara, Nisus, had purple locks that were shorn by his daughter Scylla to win the love of Minos.
"Purple Toupee" is a funny bit of revenge on the Baby Boomers (as perhaps can only be appreciated by the generations that have lived in their wake), in which the addled Boomer narrator recalls the Very Important Events of the 1960s as a mythical pop-cultural slush, in which protesters chanted "Free the Expo 67!". On They Might Be Giants' 1988 Lincoln; find on Then: The Earlier Years.
Francis Bacon, Figure With Meat, 1954.
Yet purple sensuality, while appealing in person, can be murder in literature. Purple writing--gassy prose stuffed with elongated metaphors, classical references, alliteration and other crimes--has plagued us for centuries. (Hopefully not too much of it in this blog, but likely so.) Lawrence Durell admitted his "prose was touched with plum pudding." And in V for Vendetta, the lecherous clergyman Bishop Lilliman notes that the sermon he was told to read by the computer Fate was "a trifle purple." (The Bishop soon meets his well-deserved fate, and over his corpse the anarchist V places a violet carson, a breed of flower unknown in fascist Britain.)
"Ruskin's style -- a thing of shreds and purple patches," said Lawson. "Besides, damn the Great Victorians. Whenever I open a paper and see Death of a Great Victorian, I thank Heaven there's one more of them gone. Their only talent was longevity, and no artist should be allowed to live after he's forty; by then a man has done his best work, all he does after that is repetition."
W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage.
Final rites
As I lay awake at night-time
In an ancient country barrack known to ancient cannoneers,
And recalled the hopes that heralded each seeming brave and bright time
Of my primal purple years
Hardy, The Revisitation.
Today, black is the accepted color of mourning (except in some Asian countries, where white is appropriate), but purple, for much of human history, has also served this purpose. Because purple is the end of the spectrum, the color that bleeds off into ultraviolet and invisibility, it seems fitting and proper for it to denote the end of our little lives.
Purple as mourning color was especially prominent in England. Samuel Pepys, in 1660, wrote in his diary that he had gone to White Hall Garden, "where I saw the King in purple mourning for his brother." The Victorians were clad in Perkin's mauve in funeral processions throughout the late 19C, and in 1952, when George VI died, West End haberdashers placed black and mauve knickers in their windows.
Constance, in Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives Tale, watches a funeral procession pass, playing Handel's Funeral March: "The boom of the drum, desolating the grief; and the dirge seemed to be weaving a purple pall that covered every meanness." Or take the lines from Gregory Corso's Italian Extravaganza:
Mrs. Lombardi's month-old son is dead
I saw it in Rizzo's funeral parlor
A small purplish wrinkled head.
And Graham Greene, towards the end of his life, recalled a dream in which he wrote a verse on his own death, for a competition in a magazine called Time and Tide, a dream-poem that began:
My breath is folded up
like sheets in lavender
The end for me
Arrives like nursery tea...
An indigo quartet
Now the shadow has fallen and the purple light slants downwards. The figure that was robed in beauty is now clothed in ruin.
Woolf, The Waves.
So we've reached the end of the spectrum: the colors are draining away, summertime and light are hastening off, and darkness will soon be all that's left. So here is a last quartet to help enjoy the final embers.
"Mood Indigo" is one of Duke Ellington's most sublime pieces, a melody which, the first time you hear it (perhaps today, o lucky you), seems already familiar, as though you can half-remember it from a dream; it's a dance for somnambulists.
Who actually wrote it remains a bit of a controversy—-Ellington claimed he dashed it out one evening, in fifteen minutes, waiting for his mother to finish cooking dinner, then handed it to Irving Mills, who wrote the lyrics. Yet Barney Bigard, Ellington's clarinet player, claimed he wrote the lion's share of it, with Ellington only providing the beginning, adding that Mills basically gave him $25 to pay him off. (By the 1960s, Bigard's name was included in the list of composers.) And further, Mitchell Parish has claimed that he wrote most of Mills' lyrics.
The inaugural version of "Mood Indigo," recorded in October 1930, features the haunting theme statement provided by Bigard, Arthur Whetsol (t) and Joe Nanton (tb), followed by Bigard's ethereal solo and a pair of dazzlers from Whetsol and Ellington. On Masterpieces.
Sinatra placed it prominently in his 1955 masterpiece In the Wee Small Hours. And a decade later, Nina Simone turns it into a soulful jaunt, with her piano leading the charge. On Nina.
In 1950, Ellington had begun exploiting the new long-playing 33rpm discs, opening up compositions that he had originally structured as tightly-coiled three-minute dramas. Now there was room to breathe, for his players to roll out. So in this version, "Mood Indigo" dreams along for a quarter of an hour. It begins with a brief curtain-raiser by Duke (or maybe Billy Strayhorn) on piano, and then the winds, purpureal and solemn, lead you onward. Seemingly the entire orchestra gets a solo—-some of the most notable are Tyree Glenn, who provides the "wah-wah" trumpet, Russell Procope (clarinet), Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Ray Nance (trumpet). And the vocal is by Ellington's then-recent addition Yvonne Lanauze.
Ted Gioia: "This was the closest Ellington ever came to creating an African-American equivalent of Bach's Goldberg Variations." One of the best recordings Duke ever made, it's found on the justly-named Masterpieces by Ellington. Unfortunately, due to its length, the track had to get compressed terribly to get on the server--the sound is likely pretty poor. Please check out the CD if you like it.
Cover star: the Hon. Condoleeza Rice.
Next and last, a (BRIEF!) coda:
If she be black, and thereto have a wit,
She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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Big Business, liberal organizations, and reactionary U. S. domestic and foreign policy all came in for a verbal barrage last night in Emerson D when Stanley Gates, legislative chairman and National Veterans' Director of the Communist Party, U. S. A., elaborated on his party's positions before the John Reed Society.
On the question of the Communist's position in today's liberal movements, he issued a call for all progressive groups to work together. "A group like AVC can never be worthwhile as long as it is a debating ground on Communism," he added later. "It does not hurt Communists but does harm the progressive movement."
Terming American Big Business "the real menace to peace in the world today," Gates characterized the foreign politics of the United States today as "reactionary attempts to keep it in supremacy."
In a question period after his talk Gates affirmed that the Communist policies in different countries generally coincide but explained this by saying that Communism is a scientific theory and a scientific approach will give the same answers to everyone who applies it.
Read more in NewsNational Sports
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Communist Party Leader Looks for Unity of LiberalsBig Business, liberal organizations, and reactionary U. S. domestic and foreign policy all came in for a verbal barrage last


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CMC investigation continuing following raids — 01.02.2010
On Sunday morning, officers from the CMC and the Ethical Standards Command of the Queensland Police Service executed search warrants on premises in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Certain police stations were also entered, and relevant documents were seized.
'The activities undertaken on Sunday were part of an investigation that is likely to be continued for some time,' Mr Pearce said.
'The evidence gathered yesterday will be assessed as part of an ongoing police misconduct investigation that, until yesterday, was being progressed by the CMC in a covert manner.'
'A police officer has been suspended on the basis of evidence discovered on Sunday morning, but no consideration has yet been given to bringing any criminal charges,' he said.
For further information contact:
Ph: 07 3360 6000


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How to Find a guitar teacher: Rely on teachers, not friends who play guitar
Friends aren't paid to be your teacher. They are friends!
Friends aren't paid to teach you guitar. Teachers are. It is this simple fact that allows me to say with the utmost confidence that asking a friend to teach you how to play guitar will not work out the way you'd like it to.
When you pay a teacher, you get access to opinions that are (hopefully) well-formed, a curriculum that has been tested empirically by students before you, and a guide that holds the space for you as you learn and struggle with guitar. When you ask a friend to teach you, commitment is not really in their mindset. Honestly, why should it be? What are they getting out of the bargain?
My feeling is that your friend will be more willing to play music with you than teach you how to play guitar at all. That's frustrating when you need an opinion to rely on. This is why teachers are the better bet for learning guitar from scratch.
Teachers have ways to show you how to play guitar
Teachers have ways to show you how to learn guitar. This way of learning is often called a curriculum. Curriculums are a system of habits, materials, and skills that guitar teachers have to give to their students. It takes years of empirical testing, updating, and improving a curriculum for it to work for a variety of students. Unless a person has a vested interest in creating a curriculum for students in the first place, he or she wouldn't do it. It takes an enormous amount of energy to create one.
Does your friend have a curriculum?
Teachers hold the space for you
There's a lot of truth to the idea that learning is also consciously coming to terms with struggling. Guitar is no different: Learning guitar requires trying something new, failing, but ultimately succeeding at the same task. It's a special space, that learning space. In my opinion, it is one of the most important and awe-inspiring spaces anyone can sit in. Teachers can help to hold the space for you, encourage you when you're down, and spur you forward. They can hold the hope that you have to learn guitar, even when the chips are down.
Holding the space is likely the most important part of a guitar teacher's job. For me, it's about being present enough to help a student through the difficulties currently being experienced. It's about being there, in the lesson, with no distractions, and being ready to help. It's about giving just the most correct suggestion at the most appropriate time.
Can your friend who plays guitar do this for you? Will they do this for you?
Teachers for learning, friends for merriment
I am firmly of the opinion that it is too much to ask friends to teach you guitar. It will stress them out, it will strain the relationship you both have, and it won't get you any closer to learning guitar. Friends are good for passing the time, enjoying each other's company, and (of course) playing music together. They can challenge you to get stronger at guitar in the long run. Guitar teachers, and the more highly-paid ones, are going to be your best bet to learning.
These guys are really great... by L.A. Shively, Public Domain


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When it comes to the law of casino games and playing cards it seems that the rituals of Las Vegas have not 'left the table'. The blackjack game and when looking at the tables does raise a number of question in terms of chance.
- Seating position strategy
- How many seats at blackjack table?
- Blackjack Table strategy
- Learn where to sit
- Choose where to sit
Making a start when it comes to playing blackjack inside the online casinos and how it's uniquely different
Here we will look at the finer details of the blackjack table, see if there is any blackjack seating strategy to help you when venturing for a blackjack win. We will also touch upon how to play black jack so that this article helps those gambling for the first time at the blackjack tables.
So let us take a look and help assess for those that are and are not custom to winning at blackjack and see if the seat has an effect on the house edge with the cards that come out of the deck, and they say betting is easy!
There are many strategies that allow players to maximize their chances of winning at blackjack. Unfortunately, these strategies are often extremely complicated to master and require countless hours of practice. According to some players, the overall strategy is not based solely on the art of card counting with many claiming that your seating position at the blackjack table top can hugely influence your chances of beating the dealer. Let's examine the possibilities and see if there is actually an advantage to choosing a certain seat at the table or whether it's just another one of blackjacks numerous myths and legends.
Superstition or tactical advantage?
So how many seats at a blackjack table? Will your superstition really pay off depending where you sit?
Blackjack is played on a table with 7 seats. Some players avoid the position just before the dealer, the seat to the far left of the table known as "third base". Believe it or not, some players think that this seat is responsible for the cards drawn by the dealer and therefore influences the chance of winning for the entire table. Starting to sound a little over superstitious?
Learning the areas of blackjack table strategy and seeing whether or not there are any seating benefits
So is there a blackjack strategy table method that works? Many players recommended the seat directly in the middle of the blackjack table. Now at this seat there can be an advantage because players are able to abuse the front loading method, a tactic of slouching at the table in order to catch a glimpse of the dealer's down card when it's placed under the open card. Other players meanwhile advocate the use of first or third base, the seats to the far right and far left of the dealer when attempting to use the front loading tactic as they believe you can achieve the same result albeit from different angles of view with less risk of anyone noticing what you are doing.
Examining the black jack table and learning a bit more about the overall strategies to take on board
Examining the first tactic where players avoid third base in more detail we can see the reasoning behind this tactic is not based on any tangible strategy or hard evidence but purely on superstition. Obviously a player is not responsible for any cards drawn by the dealer and definitely as a result cannot influence whether the entire table wins or loses. Cards are drawn from a shoe after being shuffled so the order of the draw therefore is based entirely upon chance.
There is an element of truth attached to the second seating tactic which enables players to use the front loading method. The position in front or on either side of the dealer can help you see the dealer's hole card and increase your chances of winning if the dealer makes a mistake when handling his card, but believe us when we say that this is an extremely rare occurrence and not something that can be used consistently as a sound strategy. That should now clear up the best seat at blackjack table logic.
Make a start and begin winning blackjack with some practice on our free games before you play real money ones
Hopefully from this you can come to the same conclusion as us, that the best location on a blackjack table is a myth based on either superstitious theories or totally inconsistent strategies and that there is no real advantage to be gained from seating position at a blackjack table. Whatever you do, do not wait for that supposed best place or sweet spot to come up in order to start playing at a blackjack table, our best advice is to have a simple and sound strategy, pray that a little bit of luck is on your side and go for it!
Remember we have casino blackjack free to play, get familiar with the layout and try for yourself which seating rules are good for you. See how they affect your hands and see if they make your wager get returns. Try two or three games then you should be ready to bet with real money.
The best guide to seat at the blackjack table is brought to you by Casinobonusesindex.com


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Western lowland gorillas are smaller and lighter than the other gorilla subspecies, with short hair, a wider skull and a more pronounced brow ridge. The ears also appear small in relation to the head. There is also a more pronounced difference between the sexes, with females being almost half the size of silverbacks.
Colour: Brownish-grey coat with a red or auburn crest. Adult males have a patch of whitish hair that extends onto the thighs, grading into the black body colour.
Western lowland adult male gorillas are about 1.7 m in body length and weigh about 136 to 181 kg Adult females are about 1.5 m in body length and weigh about 72 to 98 kg.
(Info taken from Pictorial Guide to the living Primates, N. Rowe,1996 and library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/gorilla/gorilla. downloaded 7.1.15
Habitat and Distribution
Found primarily in lowland tropical forest, particularly where there is dense ground-level herbaceous growth, and in swamp forests. Staple foods are pith, leaves and shoots. Fruit component of the diet is generally high but varies with seasonal availability (Rogers et al. 2004). Gorillas live in groups averaging 10 and occasionally over 20 individuals, composed of at least one adult male, several adult females and their offspring. Each group's home range may be as large as 20 km² and group ranges overlap extensively. Patterns of male and female emigration appear to be similar, but large groups (>20) containing more than one adult male are relatively uncommon in Gorilla g. gorilla (Robbins et al. 2004).
Previous assessments have focused on habitat availability as the major predictor of gorilla abundance. Thus, the commonly cited figure of 95,000 western gorillas (Harcourt 1996) is based on an assumption that all intact habitat in Western Equatorial Africa contains gorillas at densities that were typical of Gabon in the early 1980s. However, habitat loss is not the major driver of ape decline in this region. Rather, recent surveys suggest that since the early 1980s, commercial hunting and outbreaks of the Ebola virus have virtually extirpated gorillas from a great deal of otherwise intact forest. Technical problems with the conversion of ape nest density to estimates of gorilla density preclude a rigorous estimate of range-wide gorilla abundance.
Information taken from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 06 January 2015.
Conservation Status
There are two primary drivers of rapid western lowland gorilla decline: commercial hunting and the Ebola virus. Until the early 1980s, the interior of western lowland gorilla range included a series of vast, road-less blocks of forest where hunting access was extremely difficult and gorilla densities were high. Since then improvements in transportation infrastructure, devaluation of the regional currency, declining oil stocks, and timber depletion in other tropical regions have led to an explosion in mechanized logging. Regional timber production nearly doubled between 1991 and 2000 (Minnemeyer et al. 2002). Vast tracts of previously inaccessible forest have recently been penetrated by logging roads, which provide commercial hunters ready access to remote areas with high ape densities, and to markets. Logging vehicles are also used to transport bushmeat, and logging employees eat more bushmeat than do local villagers.
The gorillas' very low reproductive rates (3% maximum observed rate of population increase, Steklis and Gerald-Steklis 2001) mean that even low levels of hunting are enough to cause population decline. Consequently, the logging boom has caused a rapid crash in gorilla numbers. For example, Gabon experienced an estimated 56% decline in ape abundance from 1983 to 2000, most of which was attributed to hunting (Walsh et al. 2005). Given that Gabon is the least heavily human populated country in the region, hunting impact is likely as high or higher in other range states. The threat posed by logging promises to continue and even intensify in the foreseeable future. Rates of timber production in the region are increasing (Minnemeyer et al. 2002), in the case of Gabon exponentially (Figure 1). Profits in the industry are derived largely through exploitation of previously unlogged areas rather than sustainable harvesting in older concessions. The current trajectory predicts that the last remaining tracts of inaccessible forest will be opened to logging in the next 10 to 20 years.
The second major driver of rapid gorilla decline is disease, specifically the Ebola virus. Since the early 1990s, Ebola has caused a series of massive gorilla and chimpanzee die-offs in remote forest blocks at the heart of their range. Outbreaks were first noted in 1994 in the Minkébé forest block of northern Gabon (Huijbregts et al. 2003). Before Ebola's arrival, what is now Minkébé National Park held what was probably the second largest protected gorilla and chimpanzee population in the world. In 1996 Ebola emerged in the Lopé Reserve (now National Park) in central Gabon, in 2001 in the Mwagné forest block of eastern Gabon, in 2002 to 2003 in the adjoining Lossi forest block of north-west Congo, and in 2003 to 2005 in the Odzala National Park in north-west Congo (Figure 2). The Ivindo forest block of central Gabon was not monitored during the outbreak period, but it lies directly adjacent to the 1996 human outbreak zone around Booué and recent observations suggest an ape die-off there too.
Finally, there are hints that climate change may pose a serious future threat. Most of the western gorilla range receives rainfall only slightly higher than the amount necessary to maintain closed canopy forest. The last few decades have seen a decline in mean rainfall and a lengthening of dry seasons (Giannini et al. 2003), which increase the risk of forest fires. If this drying trend continues, there is a risk that large scale forest fires will cause dramatic forest loss, as seen recently in Southeast Asia and South America (Cochrane 2003). This risk will be magnified if regional climate trends are reinforced by local scale forest clearance for agriculture and timber (Baidya Roy et al. 2005).
Information taken from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 06 January 2015.
This subspecies consumes parts of at least 97 plant species. About 67% of their diet is fruit, 17% is leaves, seeds and stems and 3% is termites and caterpillars. Gorillas are thus mainly herbivorous; their staple foods are pith, shoots and leaves. Fruits are also an important component of western lowland gorillas' diet and are consumed according to their seasonal availability. Over 100 fruit species have been recorded in their diet.
In drier months, when fruits are scarce, gorillas supplement their diet with leaves, bark and rotten wood. They have also been known to eat termites and weaver ants.
Information taken from wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/great_apes/gorillas/western_lowland_gorilla/ Downloaded 6.1.2015
Breeding and Lifecycle
Sexual Maturity: Age at first reproduction not yet measured at any Western site. Following data based on Mountain gorillas and captive gorillas.
- Male: Complete copulation by age 9-10 years but few mating opportunities until Silverback status ~ 12-15
- Female: Perineal tumescence observed in the field ~5.7-7.1 years
After 2 years of adolescent sterility, first birth – 8.5-10 years.
Oestrus cycle: oestrus period = 1-2 days, 22-38 day cycle.
Life Stages
(Info taken from Pictorial Guide to the living Primates, N. Rowe,1996 and library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/gorilla/gorilla. downloaded 7.1.15
Additional Information
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org /details/9406/0>.
|The Zoo and Aquarium Association acknowledges Taronga Conservation Society Australia for providing the factsheet information above.


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Many people suffer from lower back pain everyday, but did you know that this pain may actually stem from problems in your feet? Some of the pain felt in your lumbar region may not be a result of back problems, rather it may indicate a podiatric issue.
Our feet have to deal with excessive wear and tear everyday. Walking alone causes a force of five times our body weight to be exerted on each foot, and that doesn't even include other activities such as running or dancing. Problems arise when this force is not absorbed or redistributed correctly. There are a variety of elements that can contribute to this.
Among these are various biomechanical errors such as structural asymmetries, tissue weaknesses, and excessive external loads. Any type of structural asymmetry indicates that the force will be exerted unevenly, which could cause stress in areas where the force is more concentrated. This may also cause changes in the gait to avoid excess pain. These changes in gait can affect the back in a negative way. Tissue weakness, like those associated with flat feet, causes the feet to improperly align with the ankle joint, causing misalignment with the knee joint, affecting your hips and your gait, which directly impacts your lower back.
Other problems can arise based off of the way you walk. When you walk, a process called pronation occurs. Pronation is the inward motion of the foot that collapses the arches with each step. While mild pronation is essential for proper movement and function, problems occur when there is hyper-pronation. If there is too much inward motion, then the leg begins to turn inward also, which will affect the knees, hips, and lower back position. Hyper-pronation also causes extra strain on the foot muscles since the extra motion requires more muscle power.
Another problem that can arise is hyper-supination, which results from high arches that cause the feet to roll outward instead of inward. Much like hyper-pronation, hyper-supination causes alignment issues based upon the gait. However, instead of the legs moving inward, they now move outward and put more strain on the outer leg muscles, knees, hips, and lower back.
Luckily, there are things you can do to help alleviate some of these issues. First, you'll want to make sure that you have the proper footwear. Well-fitting shoes with good cushioning and arch support are ideal. You also want to make sure you have the proper fit. Shoes that are too large can negatively influence your gait and shoes that are too small can cause excess foot pain. Women should also avoid heels that are over two inches because these are nightmares for your feet.
Finally, you may want to consider podiatric treatment. This can be done by using insoles that provide additional support or by visiting a specialist. Visiting a specialist would be beneficial since they would be able to tell you exactly what is causing your pain and what you can do to fix it.
Dr. Foss is a passionate chiropractor whose practice focuses on the non-invasive and non-surgical treatment of spine, joint and neuropathy disorders. Dr. Foss graduated from the National College of Chiropractic in Chicago in 1992. He brings years of experience treating patients who suffer from musculoskeletal conditions, autoimmune diseases, neurological and nutritional conditions.Dr. Foss worked in several clinics throughout the country prior to owning Cherry Creek Spine & Pain. As a result, he's been exposed to a variety of issues and has seen first hand how Chiropractic care can change lives. He enjoys meeting new patients from all walks of life and is committed to bringing holistic care to his community.